Big Spins, Tough Maps, and the Canadian Art of Notarizing
This week Victoria reminded me that asking strangers for feedback requires a thick skin, lottery dreams can shrink to ten dollars in a hurry, and notarizing a document on Vancouver Island is a far more dignified affair than it ever was in California. Along the way I was reminded that perspective is everything — especially when life has already handed you the biggest win of all. Some weeks Victoria teaches you something profound.
Other weeks it teaches you that a $10 lottery win can feel like both triumph and humiliation at the same time. This week contained a bit of both
Lesson One: Don’t Be Thin-Skinned When Asking the Internet for Feedback
Earlier this week I posted a draft description of a local community for the Two Norths site.
To keep costs down, I included a stylized AI-generated map of the area. It looked nice. Clean. Friendly. Maybe a little optimistic about geography.
The community feedback came quickly.
Some readers were kind enough to say they liked the writing style.
Others pointed out navigation problems on the site.
A few suspected I might secretly be an undercover real estate agent attempting to lure unsuspecting Canadians into a housing bubble.
But the strongest feedback — by far — focused on that map.
Apparently my map was:
Too interpretive
Too artsy
Possibly insulting to municipal planning traditions
And clearly created by someone who had never been entrusted with a zoning document
In other words… the map had problems.
The surprising thing was how useful the criticism turned out to be.
In a former life I worked as a corporate instructional designer, which meant I regularly had to interview highly technical experts about subjects I knew nothing about. When you first walk into those conversations, you are very clearly viewed as an outsider.
Fortunately, another chapter of my career trained me well for that moment: advertising sales. That job taught me the art of listening carefully to what people say — but even more importantly, to what they don’t say.
So instead of getting defensive, I leaned into the feedback. And sure enough, after incorporating several suggestions, the community page improved quite a bit.
The map is back out for investigation.
Lesson Two: Winning the Lottery Is a Very Emotional Process
I almost never buy lottery tickets.
But this week had brought a few rounds of good news, and I decided to tempt fate with a scratcher called The Big Spin. The rules were simple: scratch off the numbers and see if yours matches one of the prize spaces.
When I scratched my card and saw that my number matched the one labeled BIG SPIN, I nearly fell out of my chair. According to the instructions, the Big Spin could award anywhere from $250,000 to $500,00.
Naturally, I reread the instructions several times to confirm this life-altering event.
In addition to a chance to actually spin the big prize wheel, there were also smaller prizes possible, from $10 up to $10,000. But at that point my brain had already moved into financial planning mode.
The instructions said I could either take the ticket to a lottery retailer or scan it using the official lottery app.
I briefly considered taking it to the store.
But then I imagined the scene:
The clerk scans the ticket.
Their eyes widen.
Someone shouts.
A crowd gathers.
Local news arrives.
I barely escape the store alive.
So I decided to use the app instead.
The next morning.
After sleeping on it.
You don’t rush into these things.
That night my mind wandered through several practical questions:
What would we do with $250,000?
Or even $500,000?
Then I discovered something astonishing.
Lottery winnings in Canada are not taxed.
Not taxed.
I could barely sleep.
I began mentally allocating funds to various good causes, a couple of friends who deserved help, and perhaps a comfortable down payment somewhere along the coast.
Morning finally arrived.
I opened the lottery app.
Scanned the barcode.
And there it was.
The spinning wheel of destiny.
Around and around it went…
Until it stopped.
My winnings were $10.
Lesson Three: Perspective Is Everything
I will admit to a brief moment of disappointment. Ten dollars was… not exactly the life-changing outcome I had envisioned. But the feeling passed quickly.
Because the truth is, I’ve already won a much bigger lottery. I have an extraordinary family. I live in a place we worked hard to reach. And I share life with someone who nearly didn’t survive long enough to see this chapter.
My husband waited eighteen years for an organ transplant. The final seven years of that wait were especially hard. When the transplant finally came, it felt like the entire world had quietly opened again. Not long afterward, a friend from our transplant support group came to visit.
One evening she and I went to a local Bingo hall for entertainment. I remember watching her grow increasingly frustrated because she kept missing prizes by just one number. She became genuinely upset.
Which struck me as remarkable. Because this same woman had already received the same transpant three separate times, due to a new failure. Her life had been saved three different times by strangers. Yet there she was — angry about missing a $50 Bingo prize.
Perspective can slip away from any of us. It needs occasional reminders. Even the $10 kind.
Lesson Four: Canadian Notaries Are Not the Same as American Notaries
This week we also learned something new about notarizing documents in Canada. In the United States, becoming a notary can be… fairly straightforward. In my case it involved a short course, a test, and a very official looking seal.
Suddenly I was authorized to verify signatures on documents. Here in Canada, the system is quite different. Notaries are actually legal professionals. As such, they can provide legal advice.
And apparently they do not simply sit behind counters waiting for walk-ins. We attempted to book appointments with four different offices before finding one willing to notarize our document.
The complication? They had not written the agreement themselves, and they wanted it clearly noted that they were not providing legal advice. Eventually we found a highly recommended notary who solved the problem with calm efficiency. (She will almost certainly appear soon on our Favorite Local Businesses list.)
Lesson Five: Daylight Savings Time Is Settled
British Columbia has long discussed adopting permanent daylight saving time. British Columbia just enacted permanent daylight savings time. A dream! It means one important thing. The clock in our car will be correct all year. Progress often comes in small victories.
Closing Thought
This week Victoria reminded me of something simple. Winning the lottery is exciting. But being here, after everything it took to arrive — that’s the real jackpot. Even if the scratch ticket says otherwise.