Can You Hear Me Now?

I started this post on Oct. 18 and when I went to finish it, my blog was down. Then I had a super busy weekend and wasn’t able to get on here. Then I went to finish it, and my blog was (still?) down. Fingers crossed that it stays up long enough for me to finish it THIS time.

Started October 18 ~

We interrupt our vacation postings for a general ramblings post because it’s been a LONG TIME and I know you’re all wondering what’s going on in my life right now.

At this moment, I am trying to avoid obsessively refreshing my eBay selling page to see if anyone is bidding higher. There are a few hours left on couple things I’m selling, and I keep checking back. So I decided to come here to keep my mind off of it.

Yesterday I worked at Troy’s, and one of those Access drivers that has a crush on me picked me up. He’s the sweetest man. When I say “crush” with him I don’t seriously think he has a romantic crush on me… I think he just wishes I was his daughter or something. Although, he always offers to come over and scoop the cat litter and do housework AND make me coffee, so you never know. Yesterday he stopped at Mac’s for me and got me a large Seattle’s Best coffee. Some of these wonderful drivers really make up for the bad Access experiences I have! Oh, that reminds me, I should call Access and give him a compliment. They like to get positive feedback, they receive so little!

Okay, done. ****Refresh eBay page**** YAY!! All my stuff has bids so will sell for sure.

So what else… oh, Rob Szabo and Peter Katz are here this weekend!!! That’s right!! Saturday night at the Ironwood, anyone reading in the Calgary area had better be there!!! They’re touring Western Canada together again like they did last year. Remember, last year I got them their gig at Original Joe’s (ignore anything I say about that new food plan that lasted 2 months in that entry). This year, Rob made his mark at the Ironwood in April, and will never have to worry about scrambling to get a gig in this city again!

Oh, and speaking of Access drivers, I have hardly talked to AH lately! He did babysit my kitties while I was away, keeping them fed and actually scooped the litter this time (I gave him a lecture about that, and supplied dust masks). Then it was Ramadan, and since he doesn’t allow himself to even look at another woman during that time, (I asked him how that is possible, and he told me if he catches himself looking, he remembers it’s Ramadan and looks away immediately and thinks only pure thoughts. Whatever…) so he certainly isn’t going to talk to one on the phone. But I do intend to take him out for dinner (Olive Garden if we can get in, he still has never been there) to thank him for looking after my cats, I’m just not holding my breath for when it will actually happen.

The Polyjesters are almost finished their new CD!!! How excited am I? I can’t even put it into words. Jason has sent me the (possible) CD cover artwork, and it’s awesome. So I released the song titles to their Facebook group. Then, because of some help I gave him last week, he sent me two of the newly recorded songs. OMG. I also have 6 other very rough mixes of new songs on the CD and one that didn’t make the cut. Are you jealous? Yes, you are. OMG. I am soooo excited!!! It’s going to be so, so, so, so, so, so good!! Jason said Emma and I will get special seating and attention at their CD release. I think they should fly Emma out, no? And I requested my special chair be of the La-Z-Boy electronic lift variety.

***then my blog was down***

Continued October 24 ~

Obviously, it’s too late for y’all to see Rob, that was this past Saturday. And I’ve since sold another lot of items on eBay, will be shipping today or tomorrow. I’ve currently got a bunch of CDs up for sale… I’m cleaning stuff out!

I am anxiously awaiting The Office Season Three DVDs I ordered. I have spent the past month watching every episode, deleted scenes, bloopers, commentary episodes, etc. on my Season Two DVDs. I can’t get enough of that show. My Dunder Mifflin T-shirt is in the mail, as are some Dwight and Jim office supplies memorabilia. ADDICTED.

So, cheers to Facebook… the amount of people I am back in touch with after many, many years is astounding!! I went for coffee a couple weeks ago with my friend Carolyn and we were joined by Nancy, a woman I haven’t seen since high school! There are quite a few other school friends I’m planning to meet up with sometime soon. And I’m back in touch with my old friend Cheryl, who used to live with my former roommate Pete. I haven’t seen her since they broke up many years ago (except for a quick run-into-eachother at a Crafts fair in 2002). She came out on Saturday to see Rob and Peter! So we are going to hang out more, for sure. And then, there is Vlado…. ahhhh, Vlado…. I used to work at YTV in Toronto about 20 years ago. He was a sound engineer there, and an incorrigible flirt. It’s so cool to be back in touch with him… he is very successful in his field and has a wall of Oscars and Emmys to prove it!

Update on the AH situation - we actually went to the Olive Garden for dinner last night! Imagine that. It was fun. I drank red wine. I could barely walk afterwards; my right foot didn’t want to go flat. It liked twisting on its side. Thank goodness AH understands and was very helpful walking me inside. TWO glasses is all I had! And with a full meal! I am such a cheap date.

AH is back to being his helpful self for me… today he’s popping in to a computer supply store to pick up an adapter cord I need. I finally have my new computer set up (thanks to Rob, who did it while he was here over the weekend) but since it only has USB ports, my old printer can’t be hooked up. And I’m not getting a new one… this one was $2,300 back in its day and it’s a laser printer/fax/copier/scanner and it has served me VERY well!!

Hey, remember awhile back I was complaining about the waiting times to see specialists your doctor refers you too? And that one place told me “June, 2008″ and another told me they couldn’t even estimate, it was so far off? Well, I went to the first place today and am going to the second one tomorrow. I’m quite pleased. I’m not 100% sure either of these places will be of great help to me, but I’m giving them a shot. It’s FREE under our health care, unlike the other stuff I’ve done, like Quantum Release Therapy. Which, by the way, I went to one last time (?) a couple weeks ago, after not having been in over two months. Kevin told me he really didn’t think he could do much more, and that my physical damage is so far gone (11+ years since diagnosis, never mind all the years before that the disease activity was going on) that he can’t predict how long it would take (whereas usually he can tell his clients “3 more visits” or something). We did make great progress on the emotional side of things. And I do feel better since I last saw him… but that could be due to any number of things. Anyway, it could quite possibly end up costing me thousands and thousands of dollars and many, many visits, which I’m not able to do right now, and he doesn’t want me to. So… I have a couple other options I’m working towards in regards to improving my health, and I may toss in the odd Quantum session here and there.

Today I went to the Clinic for Mind/Body medicine, and I am hopeful. My goal here is to decrease or completely wean off my anti-depressants and sleeping pills, and improve my health overall. I will be seeing a psychologist there regularly, who I met today, and she is awesome. She’s on the same page as me with regards to pharmaceutical companies and the “over-prescribed, overpriced” MS meds, and she didn’t even balk at my mention of my quantum release therapy and how it helped me… she was very interested! The clinic works with the belief that our bodies can heal themselves (what a concept!! And this is actually funded by the Calgary Health Region, and they don’t PUSH PHARMACEUTICALS!) and the process is done through meditation, lifestyle changes, positive thinking, etc. Of course, I believe that too, and have all the tools I need to put it all into practice… my problem is with being consistent in keeping up the with the small changes. I’m hoping regular meetings with this psychologist and being held accountable (reporting in with my progress regularly) will help me stick with my program. I’m seeing her again on the 5th. She really liked me, too, so that helps.

Remember when I was in Toronto and I bought those ginger-encrusted roasted pecans at the Queen of Tarts and how much they helped my PMS and I was wishing I had brought a supply back with me? Well, guess who has 6 bags in her cupboard now? Yes, they were willing to send them to me, I emailed and begged and a nice owner let me pay with my credit card over the phone and mailed them. Awesome. ONE bag a month, at the appropriate time, is all I am allowed.

One of my cats or both of them just chewed the speaker cord off one of my brand new computer speakers.

So, yes, I had an awesome weekend. My friend Kim came out from Red Deer on Friday, and we went out for dinner to My Favourite Vietnamese Restaurant, and then she got me hooked on what Starbuck’s calls a Misto, and Second Cup calls a London Fog. (Earl Grey tea, steamed milk, vanilla syrup). I’m making those at home now too, but with whatever tea I have around (currently, vanilla… yum!) and they are $1 cheaper than lattes! But I have not given up lattes, oh no, don’t worry.

Then I forced Kim to watch several episodes of The Office. Oh, oh, oh, AND, she bought me the greatest present ever… one of those little things you see in a store and immediately think of someone and start laughing, so you must buy it for them? Yeah. It’s a cell phone holder that is a tiny pink Croc shoe!!! I love it!! Hee

On Saturday, she helped me out by going to Wal-Mart and pushing a cart home with a case of water, cat litter, and cat food. (”I must really like you… I am going to Wal-Mart on a SATURDAY!” she said). We also ate in the food court, because that Smitty’s (the only restaurant in the mall) service and food sucks balls. So instead, we had food court Chinese food, which kinda sucks balls, too.

Ohhhhh, but then it was evening. We headed to the Ironwood for 6:00, and at 6:15 on the nose (as Rob had estimated they would be there around that time) the boys arrived. They set up, we had dinner, moved tables about 4 times, etc. etc. Around 9:30 Peter Katz hit the stage and proceeded to amaze the audience… it was the best show of his I have ever seen, I was blown away.

Just as Peter started playing, my friend Cheryl arrived, which was awesome… and so did Jay and his brother Marc. Add our new friend Spencer (a friend of Rob’s) and his girlfriend Sam, we had a very full and active table. Actually, the Ironwood was packed, and so many people were singing along with Rob’s songs that it was awesome… he has so many fans here now!! Yay! Both guys sold lots of CDs and made a lot of new friends and fans.

Rob played a fabulous set as well,

I know I already posted a video of him singing this song when he was here in April, but this one is better, and you can never get too much Rob Szabo.

For the encore, BOTH Rob and Peter took the stage and sang a couple songs and it was amazing:

The video cut off early because my camera was being wonky, but if you look at my other You Tube videos, I have the end up there too

I had to post this photo because it’s not very often you see me standing beside such a hot, young, strapping, hot, young man. This is Rob’s friend Graham, who sings in a rock band, and I met him at Rob’s gig in April. We talked a lot. He actually does have a brain and a personality, but seriously, do we care?

(I’m kidding… Graham is a sweetie and he has a gorgeous girlfriend - duh - but since he is 14 years younger than me I am allowed to tease him like he’s a toy. I think). After the show, Kim took off to meet other friends, and everyone else went home, so I sat at a table and waited for the guys to load up their gear and talk with their new fans. Rob kept me supplied with coffee and Bailey’s. Around 2:00 a.m. me, Rob and Peter headed to a 24 hour restaurant for some food… it was LOUD in there, all those late night partiers. Oh, so rarely am I one of them! It was almost 3:30 a.m. when Peter dropped Rob and I off at my place (Peter has other friends here he stays with). It was pretty much straight to bed for us. (Me = bed, Rob = couch! Geez).

The next day, Sunday, we slept in and took our time getting dressed. Around 2:00 we went to the mall for food, and actually considered Smitty’s for a moment, but Rob’s memories are not fond of it from the last time he was in town, and no one was seating us anyway. So off to the food court we went. I’m such a faaaaabulous hostess to my overnight guests. (It’s not MY fault Rob doesn’t drink coffee and lattes!). I grabbed a London Fog on the way back. Then, Rob brought my new computer into my office and my old one out, and hooked everything up, and now I am flying on here. (Not my typing, just the other computer things that involve speed). Yay!

Dinner plans, after much discussion and phone calls, ended up with meeting Peter, Spencer and Sam at the Tandoori Hut for some Indian food. It was so so so so so good! Great food, wine, and people. Good times.

You can see all the pictures I took from the weekend in my Facebook public album.

So, that was my weekend. Peter picked Rob up around 3:00 Monday afternoon and then they were off to continue the rest of their Lanky Wimps Tour.

On Tuesday, I cropped and uploaded photos and video and fiddled with my new computer and didn’t get any work done. Today, is almost over and I didn’t get any work done. Here’s to tomorrow!

“I am living in a box, I am living in a cardboard box…”

“I am living in a box, I am living in a cardboard box…”

Oh…My…God. I love my cats.