Foggy Ontario Days in the Smokey West

When I woke up this morning, I could barely see the mountains out the window. I was surprised, it isn't the season for controlled burns, and with the wet weather we have been having the last few weeks a forest fire from natural causes seems strange. I know now that it is smoke, from a distant forest fire, but it still reminds me more of humid Eastern Ontario summer haze. Since this morning it has gotten smokier and smokier, until the mountains were completely obscured, and even the hills on the far side of the main valley were looking pretty pale. Its now spitting rain lightly, and after finishing up some mowing as the rain started, I am back inside.

This sort of day reminds me of the humid hazy weather of my younger years, and it makes me miss Ontario. I'm sure the fact that my best friend (who still lives in Ontario) got engaged (YAY!) last weekend has nothing to do with it, nor does the fact that my parents are coming to visit next week. :)

While I was mowing I thought about how things ended up like this - me so far away. When I moved out west, I had no intentions of being out in BC for much longer than to get my master's degree. I even had a PhD project all lined up back in Ontario when I was close to finishing my MSc. But right after I finished school, I met my now husband. Shortly into dating him I backed out of the PhD, just a couple months before I was supposed to move back to Ontario and start it.

Instead I moved down to the US, and within a few months was pregnant, married, and we closed on our first house. With my best friend getting engaged last weekend, and doing a home inspection on their first place this weekend, we're finally both settling/settled down. But I never expected it would be so far away from each other. I think we always imagined having homes close to each other, with woods out the back, and spending lots of time together. Obviously we would each have our own families, including kids or not (they still aren't decided on whether they want kids, obviously we do! :D). But we would be around each other constantly.

I obviously have good friends down here, and my husband and I love where we live, and I am very happy with him, with the life we have set up for ourselves here, and she feels the same there, but times like this, when important things are going on in her life, or in my life, I wish we lived way closer! However, even with the distance, I am still SO VERY HAPPY for her and her (now) fiance, and can't wait until their wedding!! In the meantime, I'll enjoy pretending it isn't smokey out and instead is summer humidity :)