The other day Mark spent some time with his friend who told him of his dream to move to Killaloe, near Algonquin Park, with his wife to live among the hippies and run a second-hand store of sorts. This got us talking about dreams and while Mark's are pretty vague yet lofty, mine are very specific and perfectly achievable. I keep them specific and achievable so that I can be assured of continually being appreciative and satisfied with the work I put into achieving them.

For example, I recently came upon an a journal I had forgotten I started where I wrote of two dreams: to have a sofa comfortable enough to take a nap on and to live somewhere with a nice view of a body of water. Now, if you'd spent as many years in your 20s being a student as I had, you'd understand the unattainability of having a nice sofa. While Salvation Army has many many affordable sofas, I can assure you, those that I've bought have been far from the kind I'd want to spend a couple of hours on on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Now, though, I have a lovely sofa that I spend many hours on reading, listening to music, watching movies and napping. This sofa that I thought was so far out of my reach is finally in my living room! Dream attained!

It was timely that Mark was just talking about dreams to his friend, because a blog I find so interesting for many reasons I might get into another time, mentioned Randy Pausch and two of his lectures, one about achieving childhood dreams and another about time management. If you shed a couple of tears watching this, you'll almost definitely shed a few watching the lecture about childhood dreams. It's not that it's a tear-jerker, but Randy had cancer and died just months later. The lecture is not about his death or cancer though, and I think it's an important lecture to listen to and watch if only to light a fire under your own dreams. Each lecture is over an hour long, but worth watching because as he says, if you're not spending time reaching your dreams, what are you spending your time doing?

Today is November 23rd and it's also Saint-Catherine's Day! I don't know about children who grew up in Quebec, but growing up in Northern Ontario (at least those in French and French Immersion schools) meant November 23rd was dedicated to making "tire" and wrapping up little pieces of it wax paper to take home, forget on the "rad" and then scrape off the next day. Sure, it's delicious, but what kid doesn't leave sticky sugary on hot surfaces because naturally they already ate a ton of it at school?


The maple stuff we dip a popsicle stick in and roll through the snow at a cabane a sucre is called "tire" in French and the stuff we made out of sugar and molasses on Saint-Catherine's day was also called "tire" even though it's referred to as "toffee" in English. It's not really toffee at all - it's really molasses and sugar. We were told that Catherine was a teacher who made the "tire" in order to lure little First Nations kids into her school so she could teach them.


Maison Saint-Gabriel, which happens to be just around the corner from my house, is the farmhouse/cottage where some of the first young single women from France lived and learned to housekeep, take care of animals and grow vegetables under the guidance of Sainte Marguerite Bourgeoys.


While Maison Saint-Gabriel's website mentions "tire", it doesn't say how it's connected to Catherine, rather it explains how she is the patron saint of young girls and unmarried young women. The Maison Saint-Gabriel is inviting all Catherinettes (women over 25 who are not yet married) to take part in the Sainte-Catherine day festivities today - sounds like personal invitation to me!




edit: St Catherine's Day is not on November 23rd, it's on November 25th! Thanks to Anonymous.