Leap Day Memories 2020

Tomorrow is February 29th. Leap Day!

Do you have memories on this day? I don't remember anything specific from my past leap days. I remember that a friend of a friend has her birthday on that day. I have watched the movie Leap Year but can't remember if I did on Leap Day.

I look forward to opening my TimeHop app tomorrow to see what photos I took and tweets or Facebook messages I posted on this day.

Special days give us the opportunity to make memories.

By chance I am flying to Hawaii on the 29th this year. Leap Days will have special meaning to me in the future, but only if I make a conscious choice to remember the date that I flew to Hawaii. I don't remember the date that I flew to many other destinations. It's not something that we remember if it's just another date.

To make a date memorable, we need to celebrate it. To mark it as a special day. We want to involve all our senses so I hope that it's true that the smells in Hawaii are unforgettable. I will hopefully have a Mai Tai (or other special cocktail) upon arrival rather than my regular glass of wine. I will see if I can download Leap Year to watch on the plane on the way there.

I will add an event in my calendar for the next Leap Year to have a Mai Tai, put on a flowery dress and celebrate the day we went to Hawaii for the first time.

Before I knew that I was going to Hawaii, I had planned to try to make February 29th memorable. As part of my Revive55 Project, I want to re-create past memories and create new ones. We don't have to go on holiday to create special memories.

If you have past Leap Day memories, are they worth repeating or re-creating?

If you don't have past Leap Day memories, create something new and special. Is there a place in your city or town where you are that you've always wanted to go but haven't? Make it a Leap Day tradition.

Is there a restaurant or activity you love but it's too extravagant to do every year? Do it every 4 years!

Is there a tourist attraction that going every year is too often for you? Because it's there and you could go anytime, maybe time passes and you don't go? I'm thinking of the CN Tower as an example. The majority of people in Toronto probably haven't been up the CN Tower in the last decade. It's a great idea as a Leap Year experience and since it's not very often, splurge by having a drink or meal. Order something different so that it's even more memorable.

If you'd rather enjoy the day at home, try a new recipe, use your good china and crystal, watch Leap Year if you like romantic comedies or do something else memorable.

According to an Irish legend, St. Brigid struck a deal with St. Patrick to allow women to propose to men on Leap Day. This is believed to have been to balance the traditional roles of men and women like how leap day balances the calendar.

As a new tradition, you could find a new Irish recipe or find an Irish pub to celebrate.

Whether you choose to celebrate Leap Day or not, I hope you enjoyed the second month of 2020.

2020 Memories of the 2010 Olympics

To help keep our memories alive, it helps to relive them by looking at photos and videos or retelling the stories of those times. Experiencing the moments again is another way to keep them alive.

At the end of the year when I was looking back at 2019 and the 2010's, I looked back at the end of 2009. What was my life like then? Could I have imagined everything that happened in the 2010's? This reminded me that in December 2009, I was about to have my experience of a lifetime attending the Opening Ceremony and Men's Moguls for the 2010 Olympics.

That experience was so magical that I enjoyed thinking back to the person who didn't know how great it was going to be.

That's when I had an aha moment. In two months, it would be the 10th anniversary of the Vancouver Games. I have been saying since then that I want to go to Whistler who co-hosted the Games. How has ten years passed already?

Before we had kids, my husband and I used to go skiing in Whistler every year. I loved it so much there. The skiing was incredible and the village was amazing. I would have loved to go to Whistler during the Olympics but it was not meant to be.

Since then, I have had many friends post on social media or send me photos of Olympic rings when they went to Whistler. I loved the photos and hoped that some day I would go back to Whistler, ski my favourite runs, enjoy the village and see the Olympic rings!!

That aha moment I had was to use the 10th anniversary of the Games and combine a Vancouver reminiscing stopover with a Whistler ski trip.

We booked our trip to arrive on the eve of the Opening Ceremony anniversary day. There have been times that the Olympic cauldron has been lit for special occasions in the last decade. I hoped they would light it for the 10th anniversary but was doubtful that they would on a Wednesday. With family day weekend a few days later, I thought they may do it then.

It didn't matter though. I wanted to go celebrate my personal 10th anniversary experience. I wanted to see the cauldron even without the flame. I had not seen it without the flame although friends had sent me photos of it when they visited it. I wanted to see the hotel where I stayed even if we decided to stay elsewhere. I wanted to go to Cypress Mountain where the moguls event had taken place.

A month before our trip, I saw news that they were having anniversary celebrations the weekend after family day weekend. I was initially a little disappointed but realized that even if I had known that before booking my trip, I wanted to be there the day of the Opening Ceremony on February 12th, not ten days later. It wouldn't have changed my plans.

A couple of days before our departure, I saw the news that they would light the cauldron the morning that we would be there. I screamed in that moment, running to my husband to tell him the news. I couldn't believe it. On a Wednesday morning, for two hours, the cauldron would be lit!!

We had a late night flight arriving at 10pm, so I was just hoping that there wouldn't be any delays and there weren't. Lucky us!!

The next morning, I was happy to just grab a quick bite, but my husband wanted a nicer breakfast. He googled places between our hotel and the cauldron and found one that he liked. As we walked closer, I see a sign for the hotel I stayed in after the men's moguls. What a view with the harbour in the background! I had not been to this side of the hotel so I didn't initially recognize it as my 2010 hotel.

My husband didn't realize it at the time, but he chose a restaurant that was inside that hotel. Afterwards, we walked through the lobby to the front desk where I pretended I was checking in like I did 10 years ago.

Walking through the hotel brought back such amazing memories.

There were two cauldrons in 2010. One inside the Opening Ceremony venue and one near the harbour where it is today. Wayne Gretzky left the ceremony and rode in a truck to get to the outdoor cauldron to light it. After the ceremony, I rushed to catch a bus to get to the midnight ferry to Victoria. I didn't see the outdoor cauldron until I saw it broadcast on the ferry.

When I returned to Vancouver a couple of days later for the Men's Moguls, I was ecstatic to see the cauldron lit even if we couldn't get close to it because of the fence that surrounded it.

I was still able to take amazing photos of it through the fence, just not with me in them.

Another memory from 10 years ago was my friend lending me his Olympic torch for the night. He had run in the relay a few days before and knowing how much I love the Olympics, lent it to me.

Someone said that I look like a kid in a candy store in this photo. At this moment in time, this is as close to my Olympic dream that I think I'm going to get. I didn't have Olympic tickets yet and no plans to go.

I'm sharing both photos to show the difference ten years makes. Back in Vancouver on the 10th anniversary, there were torch relay runners and volunteers who attended the lighting ceremony. One of the runners lent me his torch for a photo. I'm a lot closer to the cauldron this time. We could feel the heat from the flames as we stood nearby.

I had tears in my eyes as the song "I Believe" from 2010 played on the loud speakers before O Canada when they lit the cauldron. I am so happy that I went back and got to re-create past memories and create new ones with my husband who wasn't there in 2010.

Our reminiscing tour continued to Cypress Mountain where Alexandre Bilodeau won the first gold medal for Canada on home soil. And I was there!! I still have to pinch myself to believe my experience.

The moguls run looked quite different in 2020. The base of the run is a parking lot. The moguls, aerial jump, stands and lights are gone. 

I was still happy to see it and create new memories by posing by the first Olympic rings I would see on my trip and having a great lunch in the chalet that was reserved for athletes, coaches and entourage in 2010 and now display mementos from the Games.

If you want to read more about my 2010 Olympic experience, you can read my blog posts by clicking:

• here for Men's Moguls
• here for Opening Ceremony
• here for pre-Opening Ceremony

Thank you for reading.

Chasing dreams...capturing memories.

Passport Stamps Journal

I found this great travel journal that has passport stamps on the cover.

It gave me the idea to scan my old passports, cut out the stamps and tape them into the journal. I also want to write some details and memorable moments from our trips.

For years I had said that I had set foot in all Canadian provinces (not territories) but lately I had been doubting my story that we landed in Newfoundland when I was questioned once. Why would we land in Newfoundland? Where was I coming back from?

While looking at my passports, I got my answer. On our way back from England in 1995, we went through customs in St. John's, Newfoundland. I didn't dream it.

I love how some customs agents are meticulous in matching the outbound stamp with the inbound stamp like they did on the right side of this page, while others stamp over previous stamps.

What amazing memories to go back through the passports, even if it is just to look at them. I also like the idea of writing memories in the passport itself once they've expired.

I do have a few pages that are disorganized though so I'm happier with mine to separate the entries and scan a page twice when stamps overlap and are from different years.

Looking through, I'm also noticing that there are trips without stamps. I figured it was worth adding mention of them so that the travel journal was complete. I will hopefully find a little memento of the trip to include.

I am reflecting on the finished product before taping the scans in. Should I organize them chronologically or geographically or by type of trip (family, couple, business)? I have placed them chronologically to see how full it becomes. Even with skipping pages for missed stamps and leaving space for writing, the journal is less than half full. Continuing chronologically with future trips would be easy to add new stamps.

If I choose to organize them geographically, it would mean leaving pages blank for future trips after each geographic region. I'm not sure how I feel about empty pages between filled pages.

I like the geographic-themed journal if I had enough stamps to fill the journal but maybe I'll decide to go chronologically. If you have an idea or opinion, I'd love to hear it.

I bought the journal at The Papery at Yonge and St. Clair. It used to be my favourite store when I lived in the neighbourhood. We recently went back to this neighbourhood to reminisce and create new memories.

Keep Up THEN Catch Up

Do you have photo organizing resolutions for 2020 or the 2020's?

I resolved to keep up to date with my photos. When I moved to digital photography over a decade ago, I fell behind keeping them organized and into albums. The more I fell behind, the more I procrastinated to catch up. It becomes overwhelming to see the number of photos grow and grow.

Like the saying goes, it's easier to keep up than to catch up. Many people use this saying when referring to housework, tasks or emails but it's also perfect for photo organization.

It's what I used to teach in my scrapbooking classes in the 2000's:

Keep up with the current photos 

and THEN catch up with older ones.

Although I am not up to date with my photos from the 2010's, I'm starting fresh in the 2020's. I'm focusing on keeping up and then I'll catch up.

Here are some tips for keeping up:

• Rate or rank the best photos (eg. on iPhone click the heart icon)
• Separate very top photos from the rest by creating a folder or album (top 1%)
• Delete blurry, unflattering and duplicate photos
• Choose a time and/or place (and add it to your calendar or to do list):
• daily, weekly or monthly (as often as possible is best)
• at your computer, on your phone
• while travelling, waiting in line or for an appointment
• with morning coffee or evening drink
• replace a meaningless task with photo organizing. For example if you check social media or the news more often than you would like, open your photos application instead.
• If your program allows, add keywords or tags (like Family, Friends, Mexico, Birthday, etc.)
• Crop and/or edit your best photos if needed
• Share on social media or photo sharing site like Flickr, Picasa, Google, Amazon
• Print photos you want to enlarge and frame or include in photo albums
• Import photos into photobook

I'll be going into more detail on keeping up and catching up tips and workflow ideas in the future.

Bookmark the landing page on Revive55 Project for Keep Up Then Catch Up to check back for updates.