This has been the strangest week for me. It started off as a continuation of the wretched one I had last week, and then just climbed steadily out of the darkness and up from there. I’m in such a good place now, and very much hoping that life will be somewhat boring for the foreseeable future. Drama is highly overrated, my friends.

An extra-fab hug from J-B on Tuesday evening started the climb, and it’s been getting better ever since. Thank you, J-B, for being there for me. Always.

When times are tough, you find out in short order who your real friends are. They are people who reach out and let you know they support you, even if they don’t do anything else. Often they can’t do anything else, but knowing they’re there is quite enough. Sometimes people you don’t expect that support from are the most surprising! What I’ve come to learn from all of this is that I am extremely lucky to have the people that I do have in my life. It’s impossible to feel all alone in the world when you’re getting the stuffing hugged out of you. Tuesday was remarkable in that way, being surrounded by truly good people.

On Wednesday afternoon I ventured out into a winter storm and made my way into Toronto (a 45 minute drive that instead took a precarious 2 hours!) to meet my friend and blog-buddy Jade. About half way into the city I realized that I’d left my camera at home, so what few pictures I took are from my iPhone, and we already know how bad those can be in low light, don’t we!

Meeting someone in person after knowing them for a while online is surreal, isn’t it? We knew each other on sight, and hugged like old friends.

It took no time at all to fall into an easy conversation, and we wandered the amazing exhibits at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum in comfort as the snow and rain made a soggy mess of city streets outside. My ears aren’t what they used to be, so for a while I had some trouble with her Scottish accent, but not too bad – and I quickly realized that she was as remarkable as I had thought she would be. A truly lovely young woman, leading an amazing adventure-filled life.

We giggled over the same things – for example, what in the world is that rear bone supposed to support?

The ROM has some truly amazing specimens, which really had me kicking my own tail for forgetting my camera! Jade brought her small one, so maybe we’ll get to see some better shots from her. Here are a few that are less sucky than the other ones… (they’re so bad I didn’t even bother watermarking them)

Imagine looking into the jaws of this guy in his day…

And what world class museum would be without these?

Are you my... oh nevermind.

At 5:30 we were kicked to the curb as the museum closed, and we dashed through the rain (she had the good sense to bring a hat, where I ended up looking like a drowned rat. No pictures of that, fortunately!!) to a nearby sushi restaurant for a bite to eat. No surprise that we both love the same thing…

What a fabulous world we live in when we can connect to other bloggers around the globe, and if we’re lucky, sometimes meet face to face.

Yesterday and today were largely uneventful with the exception of the devastating earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunamis that spread across the Pacific Ocean. From all accounts everyone I know and love who were in the path of those are safe and sound. My thoughts and hopes go out to those who were affected, and who lost loved ones in the tragedy.

So how was your week?