The Bear Necessities

There are so many ways in which Younger Nicole would not recognize Current Nicole, and one of those ways has to do with animal care; specifically, I am now a person who brushes her dog’s teeth. Fourteen years with Barkley and it would have never occurred to me to have a tiny toothbrush and a […]

Nicole’s Favourite Things: The New House Edition

First of all, thank you to everyone who has reached out to me about the fires. It means so much to have so many people thinking of me and my family. We are all safe and the situation has improved vastly. Tuesday morning I was walking Rex and I realized that I could smell air, […]

Acclimatizing

Are You Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot! Since I got here, it has been one beautiful day after another; summer here is absolutely gorgeous. If I had even one day like this in Calgary – warm and sunny, windless and without storms – I would be frantically spending every possible second outside, carpe diem, not wanting […]

Gnome Sweet Gnome

In the last six weeks or so, I have listened to approximately one million podcasts, as I have been packing and cleaning and unpacking and DRIVING. It’s gotten to the point where I am wondering if I am in an unhealthy parasocial relationship with the hosts of my favourite ones, because I am relating to […]

Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Goodbye, Calgary Edition

Anyone who lived in Calgary in the 1980s will remember, probably with no little nostalgia, the Hello Calgary promotional video on Channel 2&7, back when there were only about thirteen channels. To this day I could sing the lyrics at any given time: Makes no difference where I go, you’re the best hometown I know. […]

Social Butterfly and Boxes, Boxes, Boxes

Nothing motivates a person so much as having a firm deadline, am I right? The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of cleaning and decluttering, donating and packing, and squeezing in as many social visits as I possibly can. And speaking of motivation, nothing lights a fire with regards to actually scheduling social […]

Back In The Day

Interprovincial Woman of Mystery I did not realize how mysterious and secretive I have been with regards to my new city, and it certainly isn’t a mystery or a secret: this Calgary Girl is going to morph into an Okanagan Girl. We are moving to Kelowna, BC, which is in the heart of Western Canada’s […]