Somebody Who Tries

Growing up as the middle child in a large family, my birthday was the one day a year that was mine. I have always loved my birthday, and my first tattoo was designed to represent it.

I won’t pretend to be humble about it. I have always loved the attention celebrating a birthday has given me. I love feeling important, and having everyone I know message me for the day. As somebody who has always struggled with her self-worth, it works as a reminder to me that I matter to people, and that they care about me. It feels good.

Since getting together with my boyfriend over two years ago, we have never celebrated my birthday together on the actual day. It hasn’t lined up for us work wise. This year was meant to be the same.

I had the day off already, however he was meant to be working. It was honestly meant to be a really long and exhausting day for him, and I had doubted we would be getting up to anything at all. The day before, however, he found out that things at work weren’t lining up and he would be pushed back until the next week. Not an uncommon occurrence in his line of work, but incredibly well timed for us.

So we made a birthday plan.

Step One: The Forks

Every winter I intend to go to The Forks and go skating, and every winter I always get either too busy or too lazy to go. I had originally planned to go alone, but no more!

We packed up our dull skates and headed out. The Forks skate rental shop will sharpen your skates for you for only $8, and considering my boyfriend’s skates had never been sharpened before, it was a much needed service.

The sharpening only took around 15 minutes, however there were not a lot of people there, so bare in mind it could take longer if you go.

Thankfully, there is no need to go grab your skates as soon as they are done. You can drop them off and get yourself a bite to eat or a drink while you wait, or even go off and do some shopping. While we waited, the two of us got drinks at the bar. My boyfriend ordered a flight of beer that came on the cutest Manitoba-shaped tray. I ordered a cider, and we hung out and drank our drinks.

With our drinks finished and our skates sharps, we laced up and made our way to the ice.

At The Forks, there are two paths you can choose when skating. If you go up the stairs, you will find a tunnel of lights that is especially beautiful at night time. After the lights you’ll skate your way down to path until you get to an open area to free skate. This is called the Upper Trails, and they lead you to the “Rink at CN Stage.”

This is also where you will find the classic Winnipeg sign, which glows when it’s dark. This area and the path that leads to it is much more fun at nights, when everything is lit up.

With that in mind, my boyfriend and I made our way back the way we had came, through the lights, and headed towards to other path.

The second path takes you along the Assiniboine/Red River. This is called the Nestaweya River Trail. Every year, the length of this trail depends on the weather. The colder it gets, the more the rivers freeze, and the bigger a trail is cleared and smoothed for people to skate on. As of today, all sections of the trail are open to skate and walk on.

Close to where you step onto long the river trails, there are warming huts to stop in, sheltering from the wind. As you get further from the original launching point, there are no longer any huts, but there are benches available to rest on and catch your breathe.

Taking a left as we stepped on the ice, my boyfriend and I made our way up the Assiniboine section of the Nestaweya River Trail, passing under a train as it went by. Despite the cold, we made a fair trek up the river. The wind was in our faces, and we had misjudged how many layers we were needing to wear for the day.

After 15 minutes, we stopped at one of the benches, resting, before turning and heading back, content with our efforts. Though it may not have been exactly what I had hoped for, I was more than happy to have been able to spend the time with my boyfriend.

Before leaving The Forks, we took a detour to the upstairs level to grab ourselves a box of macarons from the Jenna Rae Cakes booth. We treated ourselves to one of their large boxes, which contained one of every flavor! We don’t get these almost ever, so we never know which ones to pick, so this is the simplest choice!

Box of macarons in one hand and our skates in the other, we headed off for our second stop.

Step Two: Sushi

When it comes to sushi in Winnipeg, there are more options than one can count. My boyfriend and I both love sushi, so our only requirement was that it be close so we could hurry up and eat already. This time around, we settled on Ocean Bites (I’m obsessed with their logo).

Walking into the restaurant, the environment is simple yet classy. The entire venue was renovated last year in preparation for their opening, which officially happened only 3 weeks ago.

Despite some mild skepticism when we first arrived, we did not end up disappointed. For a new restaurant, they had a good selection of food. With many different options for sushi, we were having a hard time choosing what to get. We ended up settling on one of their sets, which could not have been a better choice.

The sets come with a variety of different sushi and at least 40 pieces. We went with the raw fish set, consisting of different tuna and salmon rolls., as well as some nigiri.

I don’t think I have every been more happy with my sushi. Almost all of the rolls had cream cheese, which is both mine and my boyfriend’s favorite, and the variety in styles made it so easy to pick to whole plate until it was gone.

We didn’t stay for dessert, our belly’s full and a whole load of macarons in the car, but if you go and have the space for it, they have many different mochi flavors available as well! And more than just sushi for you main as well!

I cannot wait to go back to Ocean Bites again, hopefully sometime soon. Despite my raving on Ocean Bites, this is post is not sponsored in any way. I am just thrilled with the experience that we had, and hope that they can get some traction in the time to come.

As we left the restaurant, full of sushi and feeling lazy, we set off for our final adventure of the night.

Step Three: The Odeon

Like most things in the city, going to see a movie isn’t something my boyfriend and I do often. We live a fair drive away, and the two of us are more than content to watch a movie in bed, but as we were in the city already, we figured we would give it a go!

My boyfriend was the one who picked out the movie. I had honestly never even heard of the movie he wanted to see, but as someone who seems to enjoy most every movie she’s seen, I wasn’t concerned. We choose a new one called “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.”

We bought our tickets, grabbed our (way too expensive) popcorn and drinks, and headed in to enjoy the film.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is an action comedy starring Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, and Haley Lu Richardson. Directed by Gore Verbinski, the film follows “the man from the future” (Sam Rockwell), as he takes a restaurant hostage in order to recruit some of it’s patrons to help him stop the creation of the future he is from.

The two of us thoroughly enjoyed the film, it was a mind trip from the very beginning, and you can sense from the man from the future how important it is to stop the current future from happening. It’s funny, anti-AI (a huge plus from me for that), and a little sad. Well worth the watch!

It was also the perfect conclusion to my birthday, spending a few hours just sitting beside one another, being close. I don’t think I have had a better birthday. Just being able to spend the whole day with my boyfriend, doing things I enjoy together with him.

I’m officially 24 now, which is both weird to think about, but also so normal already. I suppose I’m not at the age yet where I hate seeing the number climb. Maybe that’s what your mid-twenties are for, just being.

I have so much planned for myself for the next year, from a trip to Australia in May, Ottawa in July, and maybe even Hawaii later on in the year. I’m gonna go camping, snowboarding, hiking; I’m going to learn how to make bread, do some crafts, and hopefully buy a house with my boyfriend. The year is so full of potential for me, and for you.

I cannot wait to bring you along with everything I get up to between now and 25. It won’t be perfect, and there are things that are going to go horribly wrong, but that’s life. The potential to fail doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. That’s my goal for 24, being somebody who tries.

Thank you so much for reading, and I’ll be back next week with something new I’ve tried!