Can You Hear Me Now?

Hug Someone? Yes, many people!

Get Into a Fight? I’m a lover, not a fighter.

Cry? Yes

Smoke? No, not for 10 years exactly!

Drink Alcohol? Socially, with people of bad influence. All of you.

Kiss Someone on the Cheek? Yes

Reunite With an Old Friend? Hmmm I will count bumping into Pete when I was in Montreal… any time I see him, which is so rare, is reuniting with an old friend.

Get Suspended? No! Not even from Access Calgary, and no warning letter this year either. Heh

Let Something Go? I’m always working on that.

Learn an Important Lesson? Again, something I’m always doing (the hard way!)

Get a Kiss on the Cheek? Yes Read the rest of this entry »

Emma (xoxoxo) got a webcam for Christmas.

And a bongo.

Now, on that note, if I go into hiding for awhile, don’t worry about me. I’ve got some shit to sort through and this is too public a place to do it. I’ll be making a lot of calls and appointments this week (if anyone is around!), and let’s just see if I can’t get my poop in a group by early ‘06. I’m really tired of this downhill slide and the crying is drying me up. This too, shall pass, but I’m not going to get any better physically or emotionally by sitting on my ass feeling sorry for myself. 1-2-3-4-5-6 Switch!

After my mixer died on Tuesday, I made another pan of fudge instead. I figured out a way to anchor the pot and scoop the hot fudge into the pan with my one good hand and not make too much of a goopy mess, and realized that with a little patience, almost anything is possible. Then I wrapped the rest of my presents and got that out of the way. Wednesday morning my mom came by to drop off my brother’s presents (he won’t be joining us for Christmas but I was seeing him Thursday) and leant me her mixer. Woot! I took my partially mixed shortbread batter out of the fridge and let it soften while I went to the Olive Garden (I just don’t go there nearly enough) for lunch with my friends Paul and Connie and their adorable 4 year old daughter Kaylee.

That night I finished up baking my shortbread cookies. I only made a couple batches (as opposed to my usual 5 to 10, give or take) but I do have more butter should I decide to make more later. I won’t see my chiropractor until the week of January 9, so I can make his for then!

On Thursday I continued the baking mess in the kitchen and made one pan of shortbread squares, similar to the cookies, but thicker, topped with chocolate chips and baked in a cake pan. I let them cool and figured I’d leave them for my brother to cut into squares later, because that part is a little hard for me. So I made another pan of fudge in the meantime.

Knowing this would probably be the last chance to see my brother before his birthday as well (December 29), I ventured out to Wal-Mart ONE LAST TIME to buy him some DVDs and a card. I made it out alive, came home, and crashed. I was finished.

Darren showed up around 6:30 or 7:00 and I immediately led him into the kitchen to cut up the shortbread squares. They didn’t cut very well, and I ended up with a cereal bowl full of shortbread chunks and chocolate chips which Darren happily ate with a spoon and suggested I add milk and call Kellogg’s.

I went to unload my dishwasher and NONE of my dishes had come clean. The day before I blamed it on the gel tabs I was using, so I bought different stuff and ran it again. It was the same thing, the soap didn’t dissolve and none of my dishes were clean. Time to call maintenance. Between a dishwasher full of dirty dishes and all my bowls, pots, pans, spoons and measuring cups from baking (not to mention flour all over everything), my kitchen was a mess. Darren took care of it all…. He washed ALL the dishes and cleaned my kitchen. What a Godsend. There was no way I would have been able to do it before next week!

He was rewarded with pizza and a screening of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. I think that’s fair.

I had to get up early for work so I was in bed by 10:30. Darren slept on the couch and was up before me on his day off! My client’s office manager Melanie picked me up shortly after 8:00 a.m. and after a quick stop at Tim Horton’s for coffee and muffins, we went to work. This client usually gives me a gift certificate or something for Christmas, but this week he was so busy running his ass off (training a new guy, among other stuff) that he just handed me an envelope with $50 in it. I’ll take it! He said he stopped at Olive Garden earlier to get me a certificate, but they weren’t open yet. Heh.

Tonight I am relaxing and separating my baking into tins for giving away to the privileged few who get it this year (AH just stopped by to get his), brewing some colloidal silver for Lisa, recharging my toothbrush and watching Clerks. (It’s been years!)

Tomorrow I head to Lisa’s for the Big Italian Family Christmas once again. I can’t wait!! Then it’s off to my mom and Stepdad’s Christmas morning for a much quieter day and evening, just us and a friend of my mom’s. I’ll spend the night and be home sometime Monday, 20 pounds heavier.

So with that, I wish everyone reading the happiest Christmas possible! If you don’t celebrate Christmas, enjoy the weekend in whatever way you may do so. Have fun, be safe, and spread the love!

#1: Have you ever tried to lift a heavy pot full of melted fudge and dump it into a pan, trying to scrape the fudge out of the pot and into the pan, with only one hand? No? Yeah.

#2: Three minutes into mixing my shortbread (which I need to beat to death for exactly 10 minutes with that electric mixer, or else it’s not MY infamous shortbread™) my mixer dies. It just… dies. Stops. Kaput.

*Sigh*

I decided I AM going to do a bit of baking this week, use of right hand or no. I am a woman, I believe it is my birthright to change my mind. If I take it slow and just do a bit, I should be able to show up at Lisa’s on Christmas Eve with a tin and make my Chiropractor and Christine at the pub very, very happy. Oh, did my chiropractor ever give me a guilt trip on Saturday when I showed up without shortbread cookies! I ruined his Christmas. There will be no Christmas. I don’t care about him. Blah blah blah. And he of all people knows my situation! Bugger.

I made this decision on Sunday and decided to head over to Wal-Mart to pick up the necessary ingredients. Wal-Mart a week before Christmas is a JOY to behold, but my shopping options are limited. I slowwwwly scootered around the grocery area, and it took me three trips up and down the baking aisle and a consultation with a store clerk to realize they were seriously sold out of icing sugar, regular sugar, and miniature marshmallows (I’m making fudge too). The dairy aisle only had about 5 sticks of butter left. Insane! Have no fear though, Michelle took me to Safeway while we were out today so I could get the rest of what I needed. It’s all out on the kitchen table ready to go, no excuses!

N.B. Michelle and I met up today so we could visit before she leaves town for the holidays. She gave me a beautiful calendar she had made with pictures from her trips to Africa and Croatia. The little world traveler, she just wants to rub it in!!

Speaking of photos, my other reason for making a trip to the mall on Sunday was to get some film developed. One of the men behind the counter bumped into the man helping me, and hit his arm hard. He said, “it’s okay, it’s just my arm, I have two”. Then he stated that science is almost at the point where he could just grow another one anyway. He looked at his co-worker and said “could you imagine if I had a third arm, how much more work I could get done around here?” I looked at him funny. “You just grew a third arm. And all you can think about is how much more work you could do?!”

“Uhhh… I could drink a bottle of beer, eat pizza, and flip the remote, all at the same time!”

“Now you’re talkin’!”

I was, in fact, thinking of other uses for that third hand, but that’s just me. *insert angel emoticon here*

Speaking of remotes, I was flipping channels the other night and came across some Christmas movie with Neil Patrick Harris. One must always pause the remote when Doogie is in view. I watched a scene where NPH was talking to this young boy raking leaves. He was saying that his mom left him and his dad when he was really young; NPH said he lost his mom as well, when he was around the same age. The boy stopped raking the leaves and said, sadly, “I hate not having a mom”. I started to cry and immediately changed the channel. The mere thought of not having my mom around can wreck me instantly, and we don’t need that.

Alrighty it’s past my bedtime, I must be up bright and early to put on my baking gear and get to work!

Two entries in one day. I KNOW! Too much!

Last night I went to see the Polyjesters. I called AH early on to see if he would be able to give me a ride there and back, since he would be out working anyway, and getting a cab on a Saturday night this time of year would be impossible. He picked me up and looked and smelled soooooo darn good. Argh. He handed me a big cookie wrapped in saran wrap, “here, some of my mom’s baking”. I reciprocated by giving him one of those cheap boxes of chocolate covered almonds you buy for charity, I bought the last few boxes at my doctor’s that morning. You picked a fine year not to bake your infamous shortbread, Donna.

About half way there I noticed his meter wasn’t on and pointed it out. “Oh, darn” he said, like he cared. I told him I was going to pay him, I was not looking for a free ride (at least not in his cab! Bwahahaha!) He said we’d work it out when we got there. Of course, he never mentioned it and I was inside before I remembered I never paid him.

I arrived just in time to catch the last few songs of the Tyler Hornby Quartet and get my hugs from the boys before they went on. I finally gave Matthew the Lindy CD I picked up for him in Toronto and gave Jason a copy of Scott Cooper’s Popfizz, so it was music all around. My friend Jay and his wife were there and Jay immediately picked up a copy of Tyler Hornby’s CD. I would love to see that man’s CD collection. Every time I am out with him he buys everything at the merchandise table. Granted, I usually do too, or it’s stuff I already have, but he makes more money than I do so I know he has more. Hee.

The show was fabulous as usual.

L-R: Aaron, Jason, Sheldon, Matt

Barry (PolyDad) does his Louis Armstrong impression during “What a Wonderful World”

Me with the PolyParents, Carol and Barry, and Sheldon ruining the moment down front.

Before moving into my current apartment, I gave bags of clothes away to charity as I went through my closets and drawers. I have lived here for almost three years and during that time I have never done a Spring cleaning of my closets. And it is no secret that I like to shop. Not to mention the friends I have accepted clothes from as they went through their own closets, and found perfectly nice things that they simply don’t wear anymore. They ended up in my closet, because who can say “no” to free clothes?

So picture my overstuffed bedroom and office closets, two large overstuffed chest of drawers, and the two large shelves at the top of my closet, all bursting with shirts and skirts and jeans and sweaters and more shirts. It was time to get busy.

Enter Mom. She was here when I got home from work on Friday. We had intentions of possibly doing some baking while she was here, but we both knew the closets were my priority. By the end of the night we had filled four big green garbage bags with clothes (some shirts I don’t even remember buying. I had so much in my closet I didn’t even know what was in there. Plus, how many basic t-shirts does one person NEED?) We separated my clothes into summer stuff and things-I-hope-to-fit-into-one-day-soon (some still have tags. Heh) and put those in my office closet. In my bedroom closet are the clothes I wear now; casual on one side, dressy on the other, lingerie at the back with the least often worn stuff haha. I am missing a pair of grey pin-striped dress pants though. Seriously. How do you lose a pair of pants?? Who’s in my pants?

The next morning after getting home from our chiropractor we tackled the rest of it. We pulled everything down off the shelves and everything out of the drawers and folded and organized. I ended up with a 5th bag of clothes and my mom has a pile of casual shirts to take home. One big drawer is dedicated to “band” T-shirts and my closet shelves are dedicated to bulky sweaters and hoodies. I have a nice lingerie drawer and I got rid of a ton of old bras and socks-without-partners. I now even have on empty drawer!

That feels SO good.

At first the plan was for mom and Bob to take all the bags and drop them at the women’s shelter or something, but I have decided to keep them here for awhile. The hardest part is over, and now I can go through the bags again and pull out the really good stuff that is ready-to-wear and get it to a consignment store (one day?) There are a few really nice sweaters, dresses and blouses that are only going because they are too big. I’ll still end up with 4 bags for charity, but if I can make a few bucks, that would be good for me too!

The process to de-clutter for the new year is underway. Next stop: my Office. AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I finally typed up my letter to the College of Physicians and Surgeons yesterday to tell them about my experience a couple weeks ago in hopes that the proper wrists get slapped. I really just want to know who gave the order to send me home like that and without a catheter, so I can personally call him/her an idiot and be done with it. I don’t expect much else. Now, because I am cheap environmentally conscious, almost every fax I receive or document I print and don’t use gets placed back in the printer so I can print on the other side. That includes the letter I wrote and faxed to the same place for Brenda about a month ago. How funny, I thought, as I printed my own letter and it came out on the back of the one I wrote for her. CAN you guess what comes next?? Page one of her letter went with page two of mine. Luckily, I pulled it out of the fax machine before page two ended and they could see my name. Heh. I’m just waiting a couple days for the receptionist to forget, and then I’ll send my own.

What was Russ saying the other day about the movie of my life? Is it a comedy or a tragedy?

This is the week I am dropping gifts off to my clients that I see regularly. I ordered a couple things from Avon for the owners of the Pub, and wouldn’t you know it, those are the two things from my order that weren’t in stock. I’ll still get them, but not before Friday when I need them. By the time I get them to the Pub it will be after Christmas and since they are Christmas-y items, it kinda sucks. I bought them a gift basket today with chocolates and coffee and stuff. That will have to do, although it’s not as personal as I wanted. The cook gets the best gift because he is so damn good to me and has been for five years now!

Today I was going to a client’s prepared to bring them the gift basket of chocolate covered nuts and raisins etc. I bought last week (since I’m not baking this year, everyone who used to get baking is getting store bought stuff like that!) However, yesterday I received a prescription delivery. The lady who delivers my prescriptions is soooo nice and we always chat a little bit when she comes every month. I totally forgot about gifts for regular delivery people and the apartment management and all that… I usually have so many little Christmas tins and bags of shortbread that I hand out to practically every person that comes to my door, I wasn’t prepared this year! So when she was standing at my door yesterday, I looked at my client’s basket sitting on the counter and said “oh, this is for you!” and handed it to her. That left me with nothing to bring to my client’s, so when Mel and I went for lunch today I had her stop at London Drugs so I could buy a couple more baskets and boxes of chocolate. Sigh. I am so broke. Baking is a lot cheaper!

I would give away the baking Shawna gave me if I hadn’t eaten it all.