Distant shores

It seems I am doomed to be half a country away from people who are extremely important to me.

A few years back I was living in the maritimes, where I'm from, but in the city of Moncton, where I'm NOT from... and by a few quirks of fate, I grew to have amazing friendships with a large group of prairie folk. In some ways it is a story fit for a great book, or at least a television movie of the week, but in many other ways it is a familiar story... I travelled and came across some people I really liked, then I went home - not really expecting to see them again. But then, they travelled to where I was and through much of this cross country travelling, we all became friends. Long distance friends. Email friends. Must spend lots of money on airplane tickets to go visit friends. Friends who, when I couldn't be with them, I missed desperately.

Then a whole lotta crazy happened and eventually, when I grew tired of Moncton, and was looking for a new start, I looked here, to Alberta, not only because they were here ... but partly. There was something reassuring about going somewhere that I already knew, a new home where I already had "a crowd", where everybody knew my name! And thus I became a land-locked mermaid, stranded in the vast ocean of prairie. But, other than the lack of salt air and the natural pangs for friends and family "back East", the stranded mermaid is a much, much happier girl.

Ironically though, upon settling in here I came across another group of people, living here but from Newfoundland! And we had some great times! But, as any Newfoundlander or persons who've known Newfoundlanders know, they have a homing beacon... and if they're able, they will eventually return to their rock and their ocean. And mine did. So now I'm here in Alberta, missing people back East again.

And I do miss them. Often and alot.

But my world is bigger for them. And sometimes, when I talk to them on the phone, I can almost hear the ocean...