Sami’s Days of Her Life – Part 2

Last episode of Sami’s Days of Her Life, our heroine, me, suffered Broken Heartitis and fled to Canada. The story continues.

Note: this is an M rated post. You might want to check out my disclaimers, particularly the first one.

The Middle Continued…

Banff, Canada was where I chose to settle (or rather it chose me – I came in on a tour bus and basically didn’t leave) and undergo the majority of my recovery from Broken Heartitis. Recovery Phase 1: lived in a hostel, partied, got drunk, pretended I was 18 again, cried, learnt how to avoid frost bite, worked cash jobs to survive while waiting for the infuriatingly bureaucratic juggernaut that is the Canadian Government to process my visa.

Life Lessons;

• Sometimes you just need to get drunk!
• I learnt that some rules are meant to be broken and that sometimes you have to break them to survive.
• I learnt that if things are supposed to be, hang in there, it will work out.
• I also learnt about the concept of earth angels (ie people who give you a break and help you out in more ways than they will ever know).
• You really can survive on very little and you really don’t need as many material items as you may think.

Recovery Phase 2: managed to get a job without my visa (kinda fibbed to get the interview then outed myself during the interview after I’d convinced them I was far too great a catch to let a small inconvenience like a piece of paper get in the way), after a large inconvenience I finally received my visa and started the job with a tour company as their Schmoozer (basically a sales and marketing role and yes, that was my actual title), learnt to live as a single without getting drunk, cried, got angry, settled into a new life, moved out of the hostel in to a basement apartment with fellow Discover Banff Tour employees, Robyn and Tiff (who became great friends, which is lucky considering we were living in a tiny space with bugger all furniture), and, little did I realise at the time, met my future partner, Chris.

Life Lessons;

• I learnt that if you want something be tenacious (I really wanted that job so I could stay in Banff. I didn’t let up. They didn’t stand a chance).
• I learnt that anger has its advantages. It’s a great help to pull you out of the doldrums and get you fired up and back into life.
• I truly thought that Mr X was my one and only great love of my life and that it would be impossible to even come close to what we’d had. With that in mind, I got to a point where I felt I could survive and thrive on my own…then I met Chris.

Recovery Phase 3: got to know the Schmoozer role back to front, skied, went dog sledding, skied,hiked, kayaked, skied, climbed mountains, skied, went zip lining, went heli skiing, went snowmobiling, skied, went ice fishing, spent time with friends, did some anger management, skied, went on road trips, Chris and I started dating via skiing (and boarding for Chris – he is an inhabitant of the dark side. Just so you know, skiing is the new black).

Life Lessons:

• I learnt that the best revenge really is to live well.
• I learnt there was a lot to be grateful for and even got to the point where I was grateful for the time I had had with Mr X and for the D word.
• I learnt that there comes a point when the anger has to stop (occasionally I still forget this lesson).
• I learnt that it is possible to cure Broken Heartitis and trust again and to not assume that history will necessarily repeat.
• I learnt that skiing is a very mental sport in both a mind over matter way and a sanity way.

Whilst I’ve outlined the recovery phase in quite a simplistic way, obviously a lot more went into it including life coaching, marriage counselling, reading, journaling, talking about it, etc, etc, etc, and truthfully, I’m still on the back end of that journey even now. I have, however, come a very long way and am a much better person for it (even if I do say so myself).

Life Lessons:

• Pre D word I used to think that if you didn’t see a relationship separation or breakdown coming then you weren’t paying enough attention – big judgement that I no longer have!! I was paying attention and I still didn’t see it coming.
• Pre D word I used to also think that people who go through the D word should just get over it and that it can’t be that bad. It’s not like anyone died or anything – massive judgement that I most certainly no longer have!! The D word has the same impact as being told someone close to you HAS died (particularly if you were a blind mouse on Valium who thought all was just peaches and cheese). The D word is a death of many things.

After driving out of Banff, seeing the mountains disappear into the distance and blubbering half way to Lake Louise (the next town 45 minutes away), we travelled across to the east coast of Canada and then on to Peru, South America.

Here we achieved a monumental, long sort after and very cool dream of hiking in to the lost city of the Incas, Machu Picchu, an amazing place. Walking in the gates at dawn was a momentous occasion of which we captured on a camera that, an hour later had a corrupted memory card. At least we had a second camera and the memories of THE LAST 5 DAYS WORTH OF HIKING THAT HAD BEEN ON THE FUCKING MEMORY CARD!! Damn you SanDisk. I’m not bitter.

Life Lessons;

• Imodium isn’t good enough for diarrhea. Get antibiotics.
• SanDisk memory cards are poo.
• Hiking into Machu Picchu is a mission.
• Really amazing stuff can come out of a bad life situation if you want it to.

October 2008 we land back on Aussie soil and make a bee line for the Sunshine Coast to temporarily mooch off my olds. Home sweet home.

Tune in to the final episode of Sami’s Days of Her Life where she finds Bo Brady in bed with her postman and Hope looking on, a mysterious stranger leaves a mysterious letter containing nothing very mysterious and her partner Chris is caught washing up [insert gasp] [also insert panning camera to a tight shot of heroine's face showing surprised goldfish type look and big hair].

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