Blair’s Move Back to Winnipeg, “Life Week” & a Road Trip Across Canada | 089

So it was just like the post-perfect first weekend back in

Winnipeg, and it's the right decision. I feel completely at peace

and grounded. I'm still moving through a lot of big feelings, and I think that's

gonna be normal for a while. It's a part of grief, but like, I feel

really, really good, especially because my cavity is now filled.

Yeah. And, and because like

something I've noticed with Blair is Blair is

very social. However, she's also a homebody,

and since being home, she

has been toodling about,

as our friend Kara would say, or ticking about. But she's been all over

the city and seeing all of her friends and family, and it gets—

makes me so happy every time she has a plan, um, because she

has so many loved ones. Welcome back to another

episode of Resilient AF with Blair and Alana.

And yes, we're sitting on the same couch and yeah, we look a

little disheveled because we have been up to some mega things. First

of all, shout out to Dr. Maddie Reichus in Winnipeg at Crest

Dental who just filled my cavity. And so my mouth

is frozen, so I sound weird and my face looks weird, but that's okay.

Um, so Where do we begin? I moved to Winnipeg.

I am a— I'm a Manitoba resident, which I'm very

excited about, um, which means I have a roommate for

a good time. Maybe not a long time, but a

good time for sure. And so we, as

in Blair and I, now have—

What do we have? The ability to live together for the

first time in 19 years. And it's not gonna last forever.

Alana wants me to be here forever, but— Well— We're

sharing a mic also. We need to figure this out. It's not that I

don't, I do wanna live with you forever. I wouldn't be opposed to it.

Shh, shh, shh. I also respect your

space and boundaries. So anyways, I'm sorting out my situation

at my house that I own in BC. And once that's sorted, I'll

have a better idea. But the goal for me right now is I'm living in

Alana's basement and I haven't lived in a basement since I was like

19, 20. And, um,

and, uh, but it's great because it's finished. I have my own space. Alan and

I get along very, very good.

And, um, my goal is before the new year, probably like

fall/winter, is to find a place of my own. But while I'm here this

summer, we have a lot of travel, um, happening, uh, for

work that I'm just gonna enjoy living

Alana's basement. So like, what have we been up to? Do you want to give

kind of a recap? Sure thing. Well,

so last time we spoke was before our

annual Life Week, which means, um,

oh, and it's thundering behind us. Blair and I went to

a music festival called Bass Coast in Merritt,

British Columbia for the second year in a row. And we

dubbed it Life Week, which as you know, uh, we have

Grief Week and this This is the opposite of that where we just

get to be free, be our inner child, live

life, reunite with family and friends and have a

ball. And so it was such an amazing time.

Wait, talk about the tent number. Oh yes. So our

tent number was 36 and I believe our tent last year was 18.

And if you are Jewish, um, you would know that

18 signifies chai. Which means life, um,

because each of the letters equal 18. So

we had— Each of the Hebrew letters. Yes. So we

had 36, which is double chai, which is very apt that it was our

second year there and having a double chai. And our tent was

beside a river and it was wonderful. Um,

lots of people don't sleep at music festivals, but I do,

and, and Blair does too. Um, so I actually had really good sleeps there.

And we had a really fun setup and it was such a fun time and

it was such a good kickoff to Life Week, which then led

to— Well, so this weekend was my last

official weekend in British Columbia. And so this festival is called Bass Coast.

It's an electronic and art music festival. And when I moved

went to the very first Bass Coast and I've been to not all of them,

but almost all of them ever since. And so for this to be my

last weekend. I can't talk. It hurts. For this to be my last

weekend in BC was amazing. And to do it with some of my most

favorite people. Um, and we left a day early so we

could pack my car in Kamloops and drive. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Alana, back to you. Yes. I'm gonna save her from her

sore mouth. Is it sore? Is it just— It's not, it's not sore. Oh,

okay. It's frozen. It's frozen. So then we

headed on our journey. Our first stop was in

Radium Hot Springs. I have never been in a hot springs before. That

was very cool. It was a very beautiful drive.

We listened to a lot of music that first day.

And, um, yeah, we stopped, we popped into

the pools, saw some of those animals. What are they?

Horned something? Sheep. Bighorn sheep. Bighorn sheep.

Um, and then we went to bed. And then we woke up very early. And

had a very long day. Very, very long day. So We had a very

lofty goal of getting from Radium Hot Springs to Moose Jaw,

Saskatchewan. And in the middle of it, we stopped in Calgary to

see one of my dear friends and her littles and, um,

see one of our newer friends, Hannah, who

we've met online and we're connected with.

Instagram account is @thatgrlhannah. Yeah.

That GRL Hannah. Um, and it was very

lovely to meet with her and we had a lovely brunch with

her and spent time with her, and then she lent us her office

for a meeting, and then we

continued en route. And something I think is really

impressive of us is we did not stop at Tim Hortons or

Starbucks once on this whole journey. Not— and not— and not on purpose.

Until the end. I was trying to be purposeful near the end when I realized,

because it was kind of a game and I love gamifying things. And

so We stopped at all these really cute small coffee shops in

different places like Bassano, Alberta,

and Moose Jaw, which was our second stop. So we ended up

making it there. We stayed at the spa there that everyone has talked about, or

at least I've heard about it once or twice. Oh, Temple

Gardens. And it was so lovely. And Moose Jaw

is a very— if you haven't been to Moose Jaw, highly recommend. Very,

very cute. Yeah. Best latte I had on the whole road trip there.

Um, but yeah, it was fun and we got along the whole road trip.

Before Blair takes the mic back, I just want to say

I didn't listen to Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, so we didn't fight.

And because I was driving, I was in control. But we, we like, so how

did we survive? So I just want to like back up on a little side

quest here. So before Base Coast, I actually drove to Idaho.

And, um, I was speaking at, at my friend Hazen's, um, event, which

was a Sawtooth Primitive Gathering. And it was like really cool

multi-day, like family camping workshops. I was speaking, I led a

workshop on resilience. Duh. But, um, I did

it by myself. That was the longest, um, I've ever driven by myself. On the

way down, I broke it into 2 days. On the way back, I broke it

into 3 days and I listened to a lot of books and it went

by really fast. And Alana and I, Alana knows my taste in books. And so

Alana did really good at choosing what we listened to. So we listened to books.

And we listened to different playlists and podcasts. So we listened

to Giggly Squad, we listened to Good Hang with Amy Poehler. That'd

be like a dream podcast for us to be on. That'd be so fun. We

also listened to Las Culturistas, and it was Blair's very first time listening to Las

Culturistas. And then what was the name of the book? Magic Isn't

Real by— it's

Hannah Murray, I wanna say. Um, she was an actor. She's now

a retired actor. It was, uh, so good. Yeah, so it was—

yeah, it was really great sister bonding. So like the original plan was for us

to go to Base Coast and then go out to my lake spot

at Seymour Arm in BC, but my life changed. And so instead

I said we were gonna like maybe go get a hotel at Sun Peaks or

at like Lac Le Jeune. And then I said, you know what, what

if we just make a road trip of it, pack my car up with

as much as we can, which actually isn't very much.

My God. But I now have my paddleboard and my computer with me, my like

desktop. And we made our way across Canada for Life Week and we just

made it a thing. And we've decided next year for this festival, we're gonna drive

to and from and we're gonna do the same thing. We're like, we're gonna really

make the most of like week and a half, Life Week and a half. Yeah.

Yeah. So, um, that's kind of what's going on now. And you know, now I

get to, it's my first summer in 19 years of being in Winnipeg

and oh, I'm just gonna step away quickly. Yeah, so,

um, it's pouring rain and Alana's gonna go, I don't know, maybe get the

cats or close the windows or something. So anyways, um, it was— it's my

first summer and I just, I just got through my first weekend of being a

Manitoba resident again and it was just so lovely. I, you know,

my neighbors from our childhood home, um, childhood

home, which is on a street called Waterloo, one of the neighbors threw

a barbecue, a welcome back barbecue, which was so nice.

And it was just lovely to catch up with like some of the neighbors that

are our age and the moms. And that felt really

welcoming. You know, there's that piece missing because my parents are gone, our parents are

gone, and you know, my mom isn't here. But these are like adopted parents.

They take care of us. Usually the person— Cheryl, shout out Cheryl— who,

um, hosted, usually she's the first person to

acknowledge like our mother's birthday or Mother's Day or anything like that. And

then the next day I woke up and I Drove out to the beach and

spent the day at Winnipeg Beach. And I like had lunch in

Matlock and spent the, you know, afternoon at the beach with my friends and their

kids. And I ran into Mrs., well, she used to be Mrs.

Bronstein, Miriam Cohen, and she was my grade 6

music teacher. Yeah, she's my elementary music teacher. But in grade 6,

we were in a choir and had to learn all the Beatles songs. But I

use one of her vocal warmups before I speak.

Okay, I'll try. She's frozen though. She's gonna come

back. The tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips, the tip of the tongue,

the teeth, the lips, the tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips. I usually

do that a few times before I like speak on stage. Um,

but anyways, yeah, it was really nice to run into people. And then, yeah, I

made my way home and then Sunday woke up and met one of my best

friends for brunch in Asiniboine Park, which is like a staple of my life. We

live close to it. And then I spent the afternoon with family.

We spent the afternoon with family at, um, our little cousin Sloan's.

second birthday party by the pool. So it was just like the post-perfect first

weekend back in Winnipeg, and it's the right decision.

I feel completely at peace and grounded. I'm still moving through a lot of big

feelings, and I think it's going to be normal for a while. It's a part

of grief. But like, I feel really, really good,

um, especially because my cavity is now filled.

Yeah, and because like

something I've noticed with Blair is Blair is very

social. Um, however, she's also a

homebody, and since being home,

she has been toodling about,

as our friend Kara would say, or ticking about. But she's been all

over the city and seeing all of her friends and family, and it gets— it

makes me so happy every time she has a plan, um, because she

has so many loved ones. Sorry, it is like we're at a car

wash. I was just gonna say that, like, it's like someone's

pouring water on the windows right now. But I bet you Blair

missed the prairie storms. I missed my friends and family.

The prairie storms are nice, um, because I used to live in the desert and

it didn't really— there was no precipitation. But, um, other than that,

like, you know, summer's here, there's lots of cool things to do. Like, I saw

like Folklorama, there's other music festivals, there's concerts,

you know, all sorts of things. Um, you know, being moving from somewhere with

like under 100,000 people to just like under a million people. There's just a lot

more things to do here, and I'm really excited about it. I'm gonna get as

much time in as I can at the beach and in the forest. This morning

I walked along Wellington Crescent, which is this beautiful area,

you know, through the trees to yoga. And my aunt, my Auntie Susan,

leads a yoga class, so I took that class, and it's like my new Monday

routine, and I loved it. And I ran into a friend and some other people

I haven't seen in a while there, so I feel really good, and I'm happy

to be back in Winnipeg. And Coming up, we

have— well, we'll do a season finale next week. So this is episode

89. Next week, Alan and I are going to be back for the season finale,

and then we're going to take some time off over the summer and record some

new episodes, and we'll be back in the fall. But is there anything else you

want to add? I'm just really excited for Blair

to reacquaint herself with Winnipeg and everything Winnipeg has to offer,

and maybe it'll be like a little side quest series that we talk about.

Yeah, we also have Under the Griefluence, which we'll probably post on over the summer,

um, which is our Substack. But we'll get to that all next week. Um,

you know, since we've been back, which was Tuesday, and recording this, you know, this

is now Monday, so it's almost— it's a week. I've only had one egg. Oh

no, maybe I have two. I've had two cheese and egg nips.

Secret sneaky sneaky nips because I didn't know she had any.

Yeah, anyways, I pulled the mic away, but I think that's it for today. So

that's a little update. Life week, things are good. We're living life. I'm getting

grounded and It feels really good for me to be home. It's a

homecoming. I, you know, something I wanted 5 years ago and

it's finally happened. It's taken half a decade, but, um, I'm back. And so

without further ado, thank you for tuning into this episode of

Resilient AF with Blair and Alana. It's okay to not be okay. It's okay

to record a podcast right after the dentist. You're gonna get through those hard

times. You're not alone. And just remember, you are

resilient AF.