Can You Hear Me Now?

I’ve seen so many of these “day in the life” entries with pictures and I always wanted to do one too, when I got myself a digital camera. So it could be “today” and not “a couple weeks ago, I hope I can remember…”.

So here it goes. LOTS of photos and videos to follow!!

I woke up just before 9:00 a.m. to my phone ringing.

Imagine that phone ringing.

It was AH. “Were you asleep?” “Yes. What’s up?” “Oh… I’m trying to paint my car (he got a little scratch on it the other day). I can’t remember the paint ratio. I thought there might be something on the internet…”

Okay, here’s the thing. AH and I have a balanced relationship in that he helps me out by driving me places, taking me to the bank, dropping movies off for me to watch, and stuff like that, and I help him out with anything that has to do with being good at English. I even make the odd phone call on his behalf, because “you always know what to say”.

I told him to give me a minute and hung up. To be honest, my alarm was set to go off in two minutes anyway because I needed to get up and give myself plenty of time to get ready for a baby shower I was going to. So his wake-up call wasn’t too much of an inconvenience.

I then spent the next 20 minutes on the internet and on the phone with him trying to find the information he wanted.

Help me Google , help help me Google!

I didn’t have much luck, but hopefully he’ll have a flashback and remember that he painted his entire car himself in the first place and should know. “The shop isn’t open today so I can’t ask them.” Yes, I know. Not EVERYONE works 7 days a week.

After that I crawled back into bed for a few minutes, because my body was resisting the rush to “get up and go” I had just forced upon it. So I went back to bed to do the slooowly getting up and stretching routine I usually do. (Yes, I will go back to bed just to get up again properly. Do not judge). While in bed, my kitties joined me to hang out as usual, and I was lucky enough to catch this:

This is the sort of cuteness you can capture when your camera never leaves your hand! (please ignore me and my bedhead in the mirror).

I finally got up and made my way to the kitchen to make a latte.

And I don’t know what went wrong! I had opened a new container of Rice Dream, maybe that was the problem. Bad batch or something? Because I got NO FOAM and the first container I had been using this past week foamed up like mad, it was beautiful. Anyway, I ended up with this:

Which tasted fine, but… you know. Foam. When I was trying to foam the milk, my machine sounded like a cow dying. Maybe I have already broken the machine?

So I had to try again. Cleaned everything, and started over.

Much better.

I sipped my latte while surfing the net and catching up on a few blogs

This is how I know everything that needs to be known by mankind. Who needs “How Stuff Works” or Google News when you’ve got Perez to dish out the real important stuff?

Next up I showered and dressed and got ready to go out for a few hours. The only part of that you get to see is my skin care routine:

Pretty simple stuff.

I can’t forget the gifts:

The bottle of wine is for the Hostess, not the mom-to-be!

Or the food:

At 12:30 I had my coat and shoes on and started waiting for my Access ride. I kept an eye out for the car at my patio windows,

This snow is why Access is so late these days

While Pita kept an eye out for him through my bedroom window:

At 12:49ish I was on my way. The Access driver wouldn’t let me take a picture of him or his van, the party pooper. So I took some out my window.

Wow, a clear road… from traffic wearing it down, or a snow plough? You decide.

Welcome to Alberta!

We stopped to pick up a woman from Church first, then I was dropped off.

How many baby showers have you been to at a bar? Hehe.

Christine (who owns the Pub with her hubby) was going to host it at her house, but decided at the last minute to switch it to the Pub because it’s bigger. And closed on Sundays, so it would be private. Dez, a long-time waitress at the Pub, is the one having the baby.

NOT your typical Mother.

I had to get a picture of Dez’s boots. Again, not your typical Mother.

How many baby showers have you been to with live music? The Pub’s main bartender, Jen, on the right, sings some tunes. I don’t know the guys she was playing with.

Christine signs the card on my behalf, after I attempted my left-handed signature.

Present opening time!

The main gift that we all pitched in for was a bassinet. No picture because she was too close to me to get a good one.

The shower went until 4:00, and of course my ride was late picking me up, but by 4:30 I was on my way home. I was in the back seat this time.

Friday’s paper was still in the back. If I was Anna Nicole, I’d be mighty upset to see my name anywhere near a picture of Karla Homolka.

When I got home, I adjusted my camera back to a normal setting after having it on a non-conspicuous “available light” setting in the cab. As I passed the “self-portrait” setting, I wondered, how does this work?

Then I grabbed a bottle of water from my stash

I prefer room temperature water these days

and headed into my office to check messages and emails. I wish I could play you the message that was in my voice mail, but since it involves full names and a phone number I cannot. Anyway, it was that Brenda lady, calling me because “my phone has been cut off, my utilities, everything… I’m just using this phone I have use of on the weekends… I need the phone number for AISH, I can’t find it anywhere. When you get home can you call me with it? This number is 543… no, 435-6759*… no, 435-6597… no, wait a minute… oh, it’s 543-6597… no, wait, 9767? Oh wait, hang on… okay, it’s 543-6759. Yes, 453-uh, 543-6749. 59. 543-6759. Thanks”.

*All numbers have been changed!

I am a mean and horrible person, because I didn’t call her back right away. I decided to work on transferring pictures and uploading video and writing this entry for awhile. It’s not like she can call AISH on a Sunday, anyway. Then I forgot, because I received a phone call from a woman who has a mobile pet grooming business, and yakked with her forever. I helped this woman with her business plan 7 years ago. She’s doing great, but she doesn’t do anything with cats. I need someone to come over and help me clip their claws… I just can’t do it on my own with only one strong hand, and I’m getting a little tired of this:

Leave them at home alone as kittens for 9 weeks while you are in the hospital, and any chance of training them NOT to do this is shot. And no, I will not get them de-clawed, never ever ever ever.

She said she’d call around and see if she can find someone who works with cats, and she also might hire me to do her bookkeeping from now on.

I also want to get soft paws, but I’ll need help putting those on as well. So having someone I can call that is good with the whole pet-grooming thing would be good.

I worked on this here entry until almost 7:00. Then I decided I needed to eat something. It was going to be pretty simple, because that’s how I roll most of the time. Lucky for me, mom came by yesterday and left this in my fridge:

Beef, vegetables and mashed potatoes… yum!

I heated up my Shepherd’s pie and watched Love Monkey. I love that show. When that was over, I came back in here and finished this up.

Which is where I am at now. This took me forever!! At 10:00 I’ll be watching Desperate Housewives, and then I’ll be heading here:

Thanks for hanging out with me today. Good night!

I saw my doctor yesterday. Just before leaving, my friend Jason called me and told me there would be two tickets waiting for me at the box office at the Jack Singer Concert Hall where his band was playing that night, opening for the Arrogant Worms. So much for a quiet evening at home… although I wasn’t 100% sure I would go, it would depend on how I felt and whether I could find someone to go with me on such short notice.

The first person I thought of was my friend Michelle, but then I thought… maybe my *new* cab driver friend? Why not take a chance! I typed up a quick note to him about it and went up the hall to his apartment. There was no answer when I knocked, which I expected, so I slid the note under his door and left for my doctor’s appointment. My note said I probably wouldn’t be home until after 6:00 (I was already expecting Access to be late) so to leave me a message in my voice mail.

Then began my crappy Access afternoon, because the snow out there is insane and this city doesn’t seem to understand the need for snow plows at times like this (as the Arrogant Worms pointed out several times during their show). The roads and traffic were awful. My first driver picked me up on time, at 2:00, but then he had to pick up another guy. I was then supposed to be dropped at my doctor’s office, and then the other guy dropped at home. But this driver decided to disregard Access’ instructions, because to him it made more sense to drop the other guy off first. I explained that my drop off is a time sensitive medical appointment, whereas the other guy is just going home, so that is why he is supposed to drop me first. He said, “oh, I can drop him first and still get you there on time. Access doesn’t know what they’re doing.” Well, as much as I agree with that sentiment most of the time, this time Access was right. With roads and traffic the way they are, he ended up dropping me late. Big surprise.

I had given myself plenty of time for my appointment because I was told they are usually behind and I’d be waiting. I got in to see my doctor around 3:45. We talked about my sleeping issues, and he said that insomnia is not an actual diagnosis of a disease, it is something caused by lifestyle. “Do we know what? No. Diet? Maybe. Exercise? Most likely. Stress? Probably.” In my case, I figure diet, exercise and stress/mind working overtime when I lie down. He didn’t think my coffee consumption was anything to worry about, but exercising more and setting up a regular bedtime routine would help. We talked about the fact that I don’t want to rely on sleeping pills forever, and he really doesn’t want that, because the long term consequences are not good. He gave me another 3 months of my prescription, and left it up to me to work on the other areas over that time and we’ll check in again in 3 months.

Then I had time to spare while waiting for my ride home, expected at 4:30, so I headed into the Starbucks in the mall’s Safeway and got myself, you guessed it, a latte; finally using the coupon my friend/client Ken gave me last summer! My ride was over an hour late, and I didn’t get home until after 6:00. No message from the guy up the hall (I’m pretty sure he said his name was Cam). I hopped on my scooter and raced to the mall to fill my prescription because I was completely out. When I came home, I’m pretty sure I saw Cam going into his apartment door as I came in the main doors. Whether or not he got my note, it was probably too late for him to want to go. I went inside, got myself ready, and then decided to check and see what Michelle was doing.

“Hello?”
“What are you doing RIGHT NOW!”
“Uh… reading a book…”
“Do you want to go see the Polyjesters and the Arrogant Worms at Jack Singer? I’ve got two free tickets.”
“What time is the show?”
“8:00″ (Which would mean we needed to leave right away)
“Um… OKAY!”

Gotta love spontaneous people. Michelle picked me up a few minutes later and we were on our way through the treacherous snow and traffic through downtown Calgary. 7:30 at night and it was as bad as any rush hour. By the time we parked, walked to the theatre, got our tickets and made it to our seats, the lights had gone down and the show was just starting. Perfect timing!

The PJ’s played and after their (MUCH TOO SHORT) set (I had forgotten how much I love those guys, how much they cheer me up, how much I smile every time they play…) there was no break and the Worms went right into their first set. At the break, we waded through the hoards of people and I found the PJ’s merchandise table and all the guys (and Angela, Jason’s girlfriend!) I ended up hanging out with Jason and Angie during the Worms second set. They are one of those bands I can’t handle in large doses. When I saw them last June, I laughed my ass off, but this time I wasn’t into it. Michelle went back in for part of it, but came out just before it ended after they played “my favourite song of theirs”. We gave everyone hugs and kisses goodnight and headed home, as it was almost 11:00 and past our bedtime!!

It is now Friday afternoon. So far today I have showered, and procrastinated every other thing I wanted to do today. I will get my butt over to the mall because I need cat food. Then I need to tidy up the kitchen and take out garbage, for sure for sure!! Maybe tomorrow I’ll work on organizing my office. My office is like Emma’s bedroom, every day I say I need to tidy it up, and even if I do, within two days it is messy again.

Although, it’s kind of hard to do anything in my office with these two around.

ETA: Perhaps I was a little harsh, considering what happened Thursday. Unfortunately, I can’t say I’m surprised. RIP Marilyn Anna.

Today I worked at the Pub, and the driver that picked me up is the same man that walked by me in my building on Monday night and said “hello, beautiful lady”. Number one, SMALL FREAKIN’ WORLD. Number two, it figures he’s a cab driver, doesn’t it?? When does any other breed of male tell me I’m beautiful?? He is not a full-time Access driver, but a regular cab driver who was dispatched for my trip because they’re behind (lots of snow out there!) Therefore he is not prohibited from making a move on me. He made sure to tell me which apartment in my building he lives in, offered to help me any time I need it, and “maybe we can watch a movie together or something”. His nationality? Pakistani. I told you I’m going to marry a Muslim cab driver. (Okay, so, there is a 3% chance he’s not Muslim. But a 97% chance that he is).

I have made some drastic changes to my week due to the fact that I still feel like craaaap. Yesterday I didn’t go to Living Well… in fact I didn’t even get dressed, I just showered and put a nightie on and lazed around all day. Then I called the man who runs the Charity I was supposed to volunteer with on Thursday and apologized that I wouldn’t be able to make it, (thankfully he has someone to cover me, and agrees that a smoky casino is the last place I need to be when feeling like this). Then I called Troy to cancel working there Friday, and told him I’d walk him through payroll over the phone and be in next week instead. I couldn’t cancel the Pub so I went there today, but knowing I’m off the rest of the week helps the stress level. I made an appointment to see my doctor tomorrow, because I am sure part of the problem is that I am trying to wean myself off sleeping medication, and therefore not sleeping well at all. I think I need to give up on weaning off and maybe try a new medication and get myself some decent sleep again. I hate relying on sleeping pills, but I need to sleep one way or the other!! Melatonin isn’t working and I think I’m overdosing on it and the side effects are making me tired 24/7, yet unable to sleep.

Oh POO. I just looked up a caffeine guide thingy on the internet and it says that caffeine consumption stays with you all day and can affect your sleeping at night. Judging by the amount I drink (1-2 cups when I get up, maybe a latte anywhere between 1-3:00 pm, although usually decaf if I remember to ask for that). I could have about 75mg of caffeine left in my body when I go to bed. Well. That’s just too bad.

I will talk to my doctor about wanting to wean off sleeping pills, and if he has any suggestions for me besides “stop drinking coffee”.

Is anybody else really bored of Anna Nicole?? Your sweet, innocent, “oh, poor me” act is getting tired. We remember who you are, you know. Just get that baby a DNA test and be done with it, you media whore.

I was trying to get a picture of Pepper’s big, beautiful eyes…

But the flashes from digital cameras are a bit much.

Last night I didn’t sleep well at all. I remember waking up around midnight, and then again at 2:00 a.m., when I didn’t fall back asleep until 6:00. My alarm went off at 7:00, so I hit snooze for an hour, and then I was rushing around like a mad woman trying to shower and dress before my Access ride showed up to take me to OPTIMUS. I was half asleep during my ride and my entire visit with the occupational therapist.

I got fitted for a very ugly splint to wear on my right hand. The purpose of it is to keep my fingers straight and stretch out my hand, hopefully improving movement and strength over time, and decreasing the fluxion (I think that’s the right word). I am supposed to wear it 1-2 hours/day for the next week, and slowly work up to wearing it all night. It is big, awkward and ugly, but if it works, so be it.

My ride home from the hospital was my other favourite Access driver, AH’s friend, and he finally gave me a container of his homemade hummus!! He said when he saw my name on his list, he raced home to get some from the batch he made on Saturday. Yay! It only took close to two years, but he kept his word. He is a good man, who happens to make delicious hummus! I do believe it is almost as good as Aida’s.

When I got home, I immediately crawled into bed where I stayed until about 4:00. I think I slept a couple hours, anyway. Then I decided to head outside, because I figured some fresh air might wake me up. It didn’t work. I came home, flaked out in my recliner, watched TV and wore my splint for a couple hours. I can’t do anything else when I wear it - it takes over my entire hand and I can’t use my walker or anything, so I’m kind of stuck.

Pretty, isn’t it?

I did, at some point, take out the garbage because it was time to dispose of the cat poop. I was walking back from the garbage room, leaning over my walker like an 80 year old woman, moving very slow, my vision all blurry and feeling like crap… and as I walked up the hall towards my apartment door, two men were walking up the hall. As they passed me, one of them said “hello, beautiful lady”. Woah! I just wanted to hug him!!

I went back to bed at 9:00 and prayed that I would sleep, and that tomorrow would be a better day for me. I got up at 10:30, finished this entry, and now I’m going to try again. Good night!!

I just drank a latte. One I made myself, here at home. Yay! I was out yesterday with my mom and Bob and asked if they would mind stopping at a London Drugs… then I could get the same espresso machine my friend Pam has. There it was, under $40, and it works great! I’m happy to say that cold rice milk foams up better than soy, so I can use what I already buy. I just need to buy a lot more Vanilla Rice Dream now! It used to be that I couldn’t get through one container before it spoiled (I only used it on cereal). Now one container will probably last me about three days!

Now I need: proper Latte mugs, a few demitasse cups, an empty kitchen cupboard to keep them in, various flavoured syrups, a tin pitcher to froth the milk in, a thermometer, a “Barista” apron and a Starbucks sign, and I’m ready to roll. Then I can start “saving money”.

Another website has published my MS story. I’m the “Story of the Month” over at Women’s Health Matters (thanks, Gail!) In French, too! I really need to update that story… I wrote it years ago for publication on the MSRC’s website, then Susan Jeffers wanted it on her site for a story of the month. Back then it was accurate, but things have changed quite a bit. I asked Gail to update a couple things for this one, but there wasn’t time to re-write and add things. I mean… that was written before broken ankles and wrists and lengthy hospital stays and all the crap I’ve been through the past 5 years that contributed to setbacks. It’s been almost 11 years since my diagnosis. 11 years! Wow. I guess overall my attitude hasn’t changed much, but some days I really feel like I’m losing the battle. Days like today, or the past few days, when I’ve been feeling like crap and just want to stay in bed. Since Wednesday I have been in a funk. Tuesday was such a great day, I got so much done, walked, worked, etc. and felt great. Since then, yuck. Starting tomorrow I am busy every day for a week; physio appointments, exercise class, work, volunteering at the Casino, work, baby shower… I hope I can keep up with myself, because I really just feel like crawling under my covers and staying there!

*********************************

I wrote that earlier today. Around 2:30 I finally put some clothes on and headed over to the mall to look for a few latte accessories as mentioned above. All I saw were expensive meat thermometers! No pitchers to be found. I guess I’ll have to continue foaming my Rice Dream in a regular cup until I can find one. I picked up a couple tall latte mugs at Dollarama, because, you know, Everything is a Dollar.

Tomorrow I am going back up to the MS Clinic’s OPTIMUS centre to see their occupational therapist again. The OT at Living Well asked me if I had a splint to wear on my right hand at night, to keep my fingers from curling up into a fist. I told her it had been mentioned to me several times, but nothing was ever actually taken further than talking about it. She contacted OPTIMUS, kicked some ass talked to them, and now I’ll be getting fitted for one tomorrow. I’m not sure if it will help me or not, as I’m pretty relaxed in bed and my fingers tend to straighten and lay flat. But who knows what I do while I sleep. I’ll give it a try, I hope it’s not too uncomfortable to sleep in.

Well, I’m off to unload my shopping bag and figure out supper. No Desperate Housewives tonight, so it’s early to bed for me!

The cats will need to entertain themselves. (One of these days I’m going to get a REALLY GOOD one of them playing on this thing and you will laugh until you pee).

Sunday afternoon I tried to walk over to the mall to get my latte… and I couldn’t make it. It’s so frustrating when you can do something one day, and then not the next! I made it as far as my first rest stop but knew I had to turn around and go back home. On the bright side, at least I tried, and I got some walking in. Monday, I didn’t even attempt it. There was no way. Tuesday, I did it. No problem. And I didn’t even need to sit at my rest stop on the way back.

Crazy.

On Monday I received an email from the Area Franchise Developer for Cora’s in Calgary, and they are definitely opening 9 locations in Calgary!! Chez Cora was, if you recall, where I ate those great breakfasts when I was in Montreal. I will now have yet another favourite restaurant, even though I can no longer eat the zucchini breakfast cake french toast with fruit dipped in Nutella. Sigh.

Tuesday morning, I woke up early and rather than just lie there and hope to fall back asleep, I actually got up. I had showered, dressed, and put in several hours of work before 10:00 a.m. That’s a record, me thinks! I went for my walk around 11:30, and the girl at Second Cup said “I’m not used to seeing you here so early!” Hehe. I worked straight through until 5:00 and sent a nice, big, fat invoice to my client. I wish I had the energy to be that productive every day, I would be out of debt in no time!

Then my brother came over, and we made our trek to the mall for water and dinner. The espresso/latte machine I want still isn’t in stock, and of course Wal-Mart isn’t staffed well enough to actually have someone that can answer the “do you know when they will be coming in?” question. Sears has 10 million* coffee makers, but I never saw an espresso machine, and there is no floor staff in the area to ask, and the cashiers are too busy… customer service in this city is really sucking these days. Some stores and restaurants even have to close during regular business hours because they don’t have enough staff.

After that very long and busy day, I crawled into bed around 9:30 (but didn’t fall asleep for a few hours… I’m trying to wean off needing sleeping meds!) and got out of bed around 11:30 the next morning. I dragged my ass most of the day. Every day is different!

Today has been another not-so-good day. I’ve been feeling rather wonky, but managed to make it over to my class at Living Well. We went over first-class paperwork and forms, and did some gentle exercises. My balance was way off today. The verdict? I haven’t been drinking enough water and eating regular (healthy) meals. When I do that, it all comes together better. I didn’t make my 4 litres of water/day for two weeks, so I’m going to keep trying… I need a good, solid 2 weeks in a row of that. I did, however, keep track of my money all of January, and stayed within my budget pretty closely. I had not made room for little things I’d need to buy here and there, a gift for someone or postage to send a package and stuff like that. But at least I’ll know where my money is going every month if I keep this up, and in a few months I can look back and say “now, cut THAT out…”

Because I had a rough morning and exercise class, I stopped at the mall for a latte on the way home. The girl working undercharged me by $1.00 and said “shhhh” when I gave her a funny look. Heh.

I also stopped in at Dollarama and bought this cat toy to hang off a door knob, which Pita promptly chewed up and broke within 3 minutes. Did you know, when you turn your camera sideways to film something, it will film it sideways? Oops. Just tilt your head to the left, to the left… (sorry for the mind worm… God I hate that song… shut UP Beyonce!)

What a waste of a DOLLAR!! Why do I bother. Hehe

* I reserve the right to exaggerate.