Can You Hear Me Now?

It doesn’t SEEM like it has been several days since I last posted.

What have I done? Seriously, I’m asking you, because I don’t remember. Oh, I know. On Friday I…. hmm…. I bet I went to the mall. Oh! Right! I did. I went to Dollarama and bought construction paper and stickers and sparkly gel pens so I can make the best Vision Board ever. Vision Board? Yeah, you know, remember when you were in school and you made one, you tore pictures out of magazines and made a collage of all these things you wanted. Didn’t you? I think I did. Or maybe I just read in Seventeen magazine that I was supposed to. Anyway, I’m making one now. It’s my Secret assignment. Not Secret as in it’s a secret, but Secret as in The Secret. You know. It will have pictures of happy, fit and active people and lovers and dollar signs and Oprah (’cause I’ll be on her show one day!) and an ion cleanse machine. I can find tons of pictures of cars, but I haven’t been able to find one with a car and a driver. I don’t just want the car, you know, I want someone to drive me around in it! Maybe I’ll just paste up a picture of a car I love and draw a stick figure behind the wheel.

On Saturday, my friend/client Ken came by and took me for lunch, again, to My Favourite Vietnamese Restaurant, again. He gave me a copy of The Secret DVD and book, so now I have an extra DVD to lend out. My mom has it right now, AH is next. Get in line! I’m reading the book right now, it goes along with the DVD but says a bit more. More author content and more quotes from the professionals. Plus a section on weight loss, which I don’t think the DVD covered…? Basically, I have to stop wanting to lose weight, because then I am focusing on wanting to lose weight, so that’s what I’ll get. The “want” to lose weight, and there will always be extra weight there, to ensure I keep wanting to lose it. I need to see myself at my goal weight already, and feel that I am there and what that would be like. I need to love my body now. OUCH. I’ve heard that one a lot. So much easier said than done. But I’ll throw it out there, because it can’t hurt!

On Sunday, my friend Pam picked me up and we went to the Crossroads Farmer’s Market. I brought my walker, and managed to walk around it okay. It would be nice if my vision didn’t go blurry when I walk, because seeing things properly without having to stop and squint would be good! There was a lady with an Avon sales area, so I picked up some Tranquil Moments fragrance mist for $10. Good deal. That left me with another $10 in cash, and when I saw/touched the softest most amazing blanket/throw ever in the history of the world, that just happened to be the burnt orange colour I want in my bedroom, it was $14 and they only took cash. Ack! Pam ran back and got it for me after we passed an ATM machine and I got more cash. ‘Whew. I have to go back and get another one, so I can give it to someone who sews and say “make me a sweater!!” Then we ate. Lots of ethnic-y type places to choose from! We went Turkish and I ate some feta cheese in a grilled pita something-or-other and got some baklava. We were seated by the coffee shop, so naturally we needed a latte to go with our baklava.

We were only out for a couple hours, but it felt like a lot longer than that by the time I got home. I was tiiired. Pam handed me a Starfruit as I exited her car! (They have great deals on produce in that place, I must return often!) I’d never had starfruit before. It was really good! I Googled it because I didn’t even know how you’re supposed to eat it. But it’s a simple wash-and-eat thing. Quite apple-y tasting, very fresh.

Sunday night I spent emailing media to promote Rob’s tour out West in April. I also watched “Walk the Line”. You know, I never realized it was the story of Johnny and June and how they met and ended up together. I mean, I knew that would be in there as a big part of it, but I always thought it was the Story of Johnny Cash’s life, you know, like “Ray” was the life story of Ray Charles. I didn’t realize it ended shortly after he proposed to her, and the next 30 some odd years weren’t portrayed! I also didn’t realize Johnny Cash was married with two kids when they met. Obviously, they were meant to be together, it’s just unfortunate that so many people were hurt in the process. Ahhh, the difficulties some people have to go through to be together.

What do you mean, you haven’t seen it yet and I just ruined it for you??? Everyone has seen that, I was the only one who hadn’t.

Yesterday I worked at the Pub. Dez and I had a loooong talk about the Secret and stuff. She said she has always used that… like when there was a Football pool at the Pub, she won the big cash prize. She had visualized the square where her name was to be the winner. Stuff like that. I hope she is visualizing a good life for her and her new baby! She’s almost done working, I hope. I thought she was leaving at the end of February, but she is sticking it out and plans to go down to one night a week. Until what… she serves up a baby with a side of fries?? She is due at the end of April.

When I got home I had tons of Rob-related emails to deal with and CDs to package up and mail out. Then a once-a-year client called and will be bringing me her year of books this morning. She’s a big one, many hours… “I pity you, I had a very busy year…” she was also audited for 2003 and 2004, and learned the hard way a) the importance of proper receipts, and b) the importance of a good bookkeeper. I did her books in 2002, and then she asked someone else for 2003. Probably because she was cheaper, and didn’t spend all the time I did on matching receipts to statements. Then she came back to me for 2004, but asked that I not bother matching her receipts, and just go by her credit card statements. I didn’t listen to her, because I do things the way I do them for a reason. So, the Government wasn’t happy with how her 2003 was done, and disqualified $30,000 worth of her expenses. For 2004 they only rejected a few thousand dollars worth of expenses, and they were rejected because she didn’t have all the receipts! (I recorded all expenses on her business credit card, but she was missing a lot of receipts). They said without the receipt as back up, it won’t fly… “so, you bought something from Staples… (an office supplies store!) How do we know it was for your office? How do we know you didn’t buy candy and eat it?”) There is a reason why I spend all those hours matching up receipts to bank and credit card statements for my clients. There are reasons why my system works Let this be a lesson to all of you that are self employed or run a business: SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS!

Anyway, she should be here any minute so I better go watch for her. This afternoon I have my Living Well exercise class, then it is my Quiet Night of Solitude™ Tomorrow I work at Troy’s, then the rest of the week is work, work, work, and Rob Promo. Which is still work, but it’s music-related so it doesn’t feel like work. Oh! Vision Board idea!