Can You Hear Me Now?

It’s happening. It’s that time of the year. Tax time! I am starting to get bombarded with work. I have to figure out a schedule and stick to it. Something that allows me all the rest time I need, fits in home care, exercises, chi machine, eating, etc. and still allows me to work a couple hours a day so I can get everything done. I hope I survive. I’m going to have to let some clients know I won’t be able to do their 2009 stuff and to start looking for a new bookkeeper. I already told one awhile back that she would have to find someone else to do her 2008 because I know how much work hers is and that I wouldn’t be able to handle it this year! This is rough. I could be rolling in dough if I was in good health! Good bookkeepers are always needed, no matter what the economy. By this time next year, I hope to have no more than a few good friends as clients, and be looking for a publisher for the book I will have completed by then! No more bookkeeping in 2011; just writing and house hunting in New Zealand.

My Frogpad keyboard arrived today but I haven’t even unwrapped it. I’ve had about 4 people come by today to see/talk to me (including my friend Shawna, who brought me my belated Christmas present!) and I’ve been getting work done in my office. So I haven’t had a chance. Plus, change scares me more than one fingered typing on a MacBook.

Pita escaped today behind the delivery guy and he closed the door. It didn’t take me long to realize she was missing, and I’m hoping the amount of time she was stuck out there HOWLING while I slowly (as fast as my legs would take me) made my way to the door to let her in taught her a lesson. In.My.Dreams.

Did I ever mention that I actually did have to get rid of Anna, one of my home care workers, because of how Pita acted towards her? I felt bad because Anna really was good to me. She even sent me a Christmas card. Her supervisors had to investigate to make sure I don’t have an “aggressive” cat (as Anna told them Pita is violent and dangerous, but what she doesn’t seem to get is that it was ONLY around her!) so they called every home care worker, nurse, social worker, P/T, O/T etc. that has ever been here and only heard glowing reviews abut what a sweet, friendly, funny cat Pita is. So I’m not blacklisted, which is good. I do wonder what it was, though, about Anna. She has her own pets and is always sent to homes where there are animals because she is so good with them. So I have no clue what Pita saw that no other animals do. I have to guess it has to do with me; maybe she sensed an accident would happen while Anna was here, I don’t know… super weird.

I made my first step towards stem cell treatment in China by filling out the inquiry form. I’ve been reading the blogs of former MS patients, and it seems like results are rather mixed. They do say it will take time, because you are just being injected with new cells, without removing your old ones, so you need to give them time to grow and replicate. I’m going to look at it as if I’m meant to go, as I take the steps to go forward with it, things will fall into place rather easily. Between now and then, I’m going to up my colloidal silver intake (for my immune system) and take lots of Ambrotose (which works from the cellular level). I also think that upon return from China anyone with new stem cells would benefit from Ambrotose even more, and I will live off the stuff at that point!

I’ve been calling around to wheelchair accessible apartments today. They are few and far between. The ones with automatic doors have no vacancies (”disabled tenants have been here 10-15 years”) or they are managed by Calgary Housing and I can’t get in unless I quit the rent subsidy program I’m in now and go on Calgary Housing’s waiting list, which could mean a year or two without any rent subsidy. Which I REALLY can’t do or I’d be homeless. It’s stupid. I’m in a Calgary Housing rent subsidy program, but instead of my apartment being subsidized, I am subsidized directly as an individual based on my income and rent. Yet Calgary Housing won’t help me get into one of their apartments because the programs are separate and you can’t be in one while waiting to get into the other. Sigh…. I think I’m stuck here, so I sure as hell better improve and not get worse. Gimme your healthy stem cells!!

Tomorrow is Wednesday, and if you’re on Facebook you know that you are to wear PINK to take a stand against bullying. I’m going to be home all day so it’s not like anyone will see my pink, or even ask me about it because I wear pink a lot anyway. But I will wear pink for that reason, and should I need to leave the house for any reason, I will put on pink socks AND pink Crocs.

Family photo my dad emailed me today, taken at my Aunt’s wedding. Year TBA. It’s too late to call anyone and ask.

I’m going STIR CRAZY!! It is so freezing outside, I haven’t been able to leave my apartment in over a week. It’s way too cold, windy, icy and snowy to take my scooter out and go to the mall. (Think riding at a snail’s pace on a motorcycle in -30° weather with the windchill, you wouldn’t want to be out there I don’t care how many scarves you own. Plus it’s just not safe, scooters don’t have winter tires and there is too much snow/ice). I can’t walk enough to go up the hall and out of my apartment to get into a car. My only way out is if someone comes to get me and comes inside, helps me with my wheelchair, wheels me to their car, helps me in, puts my wheelchair in the trunk… and face it, no one wants to be doing any of that in this weather. Most people don’t even want to drive at all in this! I’m lucky I’ve had home care and family come by, and today a friend is coming over to watch movies and make coffee and order in food and stuff like that, which is great, but I want to go OUT!!! Damn weather. I feel like I’m serving a house arrest prison sentence. My plans with people to go places and do stuff keeps getting postponed “until the weather gets better”. Andrea and I wanted to get to the Saskatoon Farm before Christmas, but it doesn’t look like that will happen.

I’m just glad I finished my Christmas shopping earlier and went out with friends last Friday, minutes before the frigid temperatures and snow storm hit, to finish up my shopping and get my gifts wrapped.

Week One on my 5-HTP went well. I heard a little snippet on TV of Jim Carrey saying something about taking hydroxytryptophan, and we all know how much I love Jim Carrey, so I Googled that and woah, I guess he opened up a whole can of worms by bringing it up on Larry King. Well I say, good for you, Jim. He said the same things I’ve said right here in this very blog. That anti-depressants like Paxil and Prozac are great and often necessary but NOT FOR LONG TERM USE. You just have to keep increasing the dosage to feel better (I started at 10 mg/day, and eventually went up to 40 mg/day, as doctors increased it every time I cried). And of course he gets ragged on for not being a doctor, and neither am I, but hopefully people like Jim and his girlfriend Jenny McCarthy will help open people’s eyes to how things like diet and supplements can make a huge difference. (Without making people think they are crazy like Tom Cruise). I think by now everyone knows Jenny healed her son of Autism by removing dairy and gluten from his diet and giving him certain supplements. I’m really glad I finally heard of 5-HTP and look forward to how much better I feel in another week (it should kick in fully after two weeks). I haven’t taken any other meds besides my LDN this past week and hope to keep it that way.

Pita hissing at my home care worker Anna, and scaring the shit out of both of us, is getting worse and worse. She’s like a rabid animal. I don’t doubt for a minute that Anna has some negative energy, but she is helping me and I need her. This morning I managed to lock Pita in my office using the “let’s chase the laser light!” ploy before Anna got here. I’m going to have to do that every time Anna comes. That is, until Pita catches on and stops chasing the little red dot into my office because she knows what’s coming. My next step would be to call home care and ask that they replace Anna, which I don’t want to do, but I seriously fear for her safety and if something happened to Anna, I would be held responsible and, I dunno, would Pita be put down? Since she is the friendliest, cutest, most playful and affectionate cat on earth with every other human being that comes through my door, not to mention how I feel about her myself, there is no way in hell I’m going to let that happen.

Face of an angel, or devil in cute clothing?’

Pepper simply hides when Anna is here, so no worries about her.

Okay, I am starting to feel a lot better! I personally think getting back into daily Chi Machine use is helping a lot. I also started on a new supplement, 5-HTP, which is extracted from Griffonia seeds and is a natural way to boost seratonin levels. It is recommended in Dr. Amen’s book for depression (which I received today, but have yet to read), and it also apparently helps suppress carb cravings and improve sleep, so if that is all true, I’m off to the races!! I’ve only been taking it for two days though, so I can’t give it credit yet. But I’ll keep you posted. I’d rather take this than Paxil again, any day! After how hard it was to get off that stuff, I want to stay away from it forever. So I hope 5-HTP helps. And sleep, oh, I hope it helps me sleep, too.

I think I’m pretty much finished my Christmas shopping. Amazon has been my friend this year. I also made a trip to the mall yesterday with my brother, and tomorrow I am going again with a couple friends from elementary school days. We reconnected on Facebook and have met for coffee a couple of times, and they offered to help me out if I ever need anything, so I took them up on it! We’re going to the mall and for lunch, then they will come over here and wrap presents for me! Remind me I need tape and wrapping stuff. I haven’t giftwrapped for ages, I’ve gift-bagged!

Speaking of Amazon, one of my orders never arrived, but the tracking number and Canada Post say it was delivered December 5th. I never got it. I personally think the postal carrier left it leaning against my door, as she has before, and it was stolen. Because I live in ‘da Hood and these things happen. I once had a large container of groceries stolen from outside my door (why he left them, I’ll never know, since I was home and a knock would have been nice, but I guess delivery people consider this a secure building with the locked front doors and that neighbours are neighbourly. HA! People will even take down your UPS notices and post office notices taped to your mailbox, just to be assholes). Anyway, I thought I was going to have to go through a big claims process with Canada Post and re-order everything again and hope for a future refund. Nope, when I called Amazon they said they would put the trace on it and in the meantime send me a new order with upgraded shipping at no cost to me, so I’ll have it early next week. How awesome is that? I heart Amazon.

Speaking of Christmas shopping, I’ve been so busy being sick and feeling like crap I never got around to a Pay It Forward project this year. I did buy some toys yesterday for the Toy Mountain and I urge all of you, dear readers, to do what you can to help others in need this Christmas!! Did you watch Secret Millionaire the other night? That would be so cool to be in the position to do that.

One of my home care workers is going through the worst time right now. With her own personal life, with her son’s affair and marriage break-up, and the loss of 3 home care clients in the past week - one to death and the other two to hospitalizations they are not expected to return home from (one is only 29 and brain dead…). Her own stress and negative energy is freaking the hell out of Pita, who hisses at her every time she walks in the door. She used to even follow Anna around and hiss and growl, now she just hisses once and then hides until Anna leaves. It’s weird. If it was me feeling that way (and it has been), Pita would not leave my side (as she never did when I was at my worst… she did NOT leave my side for even a second, and if I left a room she was in without her noticing, when she awoke she would cry and whine until she saw me again). Cats are so intuitive. Pepper, on the other hand, has never shown her face to Anna, I don’t think Anna even knows I have two cats. It took many months before Pepper hung out when Janice, my other home care worker, was here. Now both cats are always around. I hope Pita comes around with Anna soon. Anna is not a bad person at all and Pita used to love her like she loves everyone. This change just came on quite suddenly. Anna scared her one day when she dropped her big bag right where Pita was sleeping, and ever since then she behaves in ways I’ve never seen Pita, lover of all people, behave. Today I gave Anna treats to give Pita. Hopefully that will eventually work.

Anyway, it’s time for me to get settled in for The Office. Ciao!

So I promised and update, but didn’t commit to any particular time frame, because that’s just how I roll.

As mentioned, I saw that psychic Pat again a couple weeks ago. I don’t really like calling her a “Psychic”, I think “Intuitive” suits her better. She is an amazingly intuitive person. Here’s a few notes about our visit:

I’m in really bad shape compared to the last time I saw her. She obviously noticed this and wondered what the hell was going on with me. I spent the first part of the session in tears.

These are Pat’s words, mine are in brackets.

• “You were doing better six months ago. I saw you when you were seeing Kevin (for Quantum Release Therapy) and you were doing better. What happened? Did you have an emotional setback? I know you’re angry.” (::sob::) (My dad came back into my life about 6 months ago, that’s the only thing I can think of that changed in my life).
• “Things are starting to turn around for you now. You have to want to live” (::sob:: I don’t want to right now ::sob::)
• “You think if you killed yourself no one would care except your two cats. Do you have two cats?” (::sob:: YES ::sob::) “LOTS of people would care if you died” (I do know this, but it’s seriously been my cats that have stopped me from doing it in my absolute most darkest moments because I don’t know who could possibly love them more than I do. I didn’t say that out loud because I was crying too hard, but that’s what I think).
• “I want you to do affirmations. I want you to say ‘I deserve to be loved’ because you don’t think you do. Say it a hundred times a day. Start manifesting your ’soul mate’. I know you don’t think you’ll ever meet anyone, but he is out there, and I want you to start manifesting him. You will meet him when you’ve healed all this stuff. He IS out there.”
• “You’ve stopped going out because it is so hard for you. You’re even pissed off about being here today because it was so much trouble to get here.” (::sob:: Nodding ::sob::).
• “You are not going to get worse than you are now. This is going ‘through’ you now. You are pushing through all the ‘crap’ and it’s surfacing now. MS has been in your body since you were 14 and now it’s rising to the surface. The Quantum Release Therapy helped you, but you don’t need more. Kevin is done. He helped you get half way there. The rest is up to you.”
• “You need to release all your anger and forgive. You are SO pissed off. You have to tell people/write letters to your dad and people that have hurt you. YOU HAVE TO FORGIVE AND LET GO.”
• “What happened at age 9? I sense you’ve been unhappy since age 9″ (That’s when our family was uprooted to Calgary, and I won’t get into details here of the problems that started occurring in my family from that age, but Pat sensed it right).
• “Kids had been cruel to you as a child, too” (I mentioned being picked on because of my weight) “Let it go. You think ‘no one will want me’. Blockages from the past are getting in the way. It’s hard for you to trust; you went through hard times.”
• “God gave you a big challenge but you will get through. You will be getting stronger. Exercise and emotional work will help. I see things a lot better by February.”

It’s really hard to get into all the details of what was said. Basically, she wants me to keep reading the books/watching the DVDs/listening to the CDs I have been and stay in a “healing mindset”. She wants me to actually sit down with my dad and list off all the things that have pissed me off so much over the years. Personally, I don’t see how that would help, it would only serve to hurt and upset my dad for my own selfish needs. Louise Hay (and my client/friend Coach K has been telling me this for years) suggests writing letters, getting it all out, and then burning them and letting it go. Forgiveness is for me and I don’t need to involve the other people.

Apparently, and obviously, I am a super-sensitive person who hangs on to everything and I don’t know why it’s so hard for me to let stuff go, like most people do. It must be subconscious, because I think I’ve let stuff go, consciously I know the past is the past and needs to be left there, but then it comes out in other ways that tell me, oh, obviously I did not let that go. Pat made a comment that I hold onto everything that has ever happened to me, as well as everyone else I know, and the world - 9/11, the state of the U.S. economy, all of it. It makes me laugh, but it’s so true. I subconsciously worry about everyone and everything and it eats away at me, and that’s why my body is sick.

Anyway, since that visit with Pat, (wherein I also showed her photos of some friends, and she said some very accurate things about them; and then asked me why so many people in my life are in music, and that I should be singing and writing music. She mentioned music therapy again, which she suggested I look into last time I saw her), I have continued with my daily therapy of lots of affirmations, thinking more positive thoughts, using my Chi Machine and stretching, meditation… it’s starting to work. I actually have days go by where I don’t cry at all!

Anyway.

I’ve been meaning to talk about that healthy chocolate I’ve been eating. I bought a one week supply from a lady that sells it, and noticed in that one week that my puffy right foot went down to normal size, and that I was sleeping better without pills. So I went ahead and bought some. Then I researched more about it, and watched a ton of videos on You Tube, and decided to sign myself up as a distributor so I could get the discount for myself, and maybe even earn a few $$ because if it helped me, I’d tell everyone about it! So I started eating it regularly, and over a 2 to 3 week period I noticed all kinds of little improvements… my bladder worked better, my vision was improving, my skin looked amazing, regular bowel movements, etc. etc. Then I woke up one day with a bad cold and terrible numbness/tingling down my left side. I assumed the cold was a detox symptom, because I haven’t had a cold in ages, and any time I have started taking a healthy supplement like that I get sick for awhile - the Herx reaction, as they call it (that video refers to Lyme Disease, but I think it bodes well for MS and other disorders as well). But the numbness and tingling scared me, I thought it might be a reaction to the sugar in the chocolate (”raw cane juice crystals” is still sugar). The last time I had experienced that numbness and tingling there was when I overdosed on Krispy Kreme doughnuts when a friend bought me a box for my birthday years ago (KK has since closed in Calgary, thank goodness). That was a reaction to the sugar, so I thought this was as well. So I stopped it.

A week went by, during which I did not sleep or poop. (Oh, should I have warned in advance about poop talk? Sorry). The numbness and the cold both went away. I looked a little more into the sugar content of the chocolate, and I was only getting between 7 to 9 grams/day from it. One KK doughnut has at least 11g and during my “OD” period I ate several in one day. A can of pop has about 40g of sugar, and it’s not like I’ve never drank one. And watching that Herx reaction video, and re-reading Pat’s words, reminds me that you do, indeed, often need to get worse before you get better.

So I re-activated my Xocai account and am back on it. After only 3 days I am sleeping again without the aid of sleeping pills, and poops are back on schedule. ‘Whew. I’m going to stay on it now and ride out whatever weird symptoms might pop up. I love this chocolate, because it is CHOCOLATE, and I need 3/day. I may forget to take all my vitamins and other supplements, but I never forget to eat my chocolate. Funny how that works. Take a look for yourself if you’re interested, there is a lot of good research out there about this stuff. It’s pricey, but worth it for me, so far.

In other news:

• My Home Care is now split between two ladies, Janice and Anna. They are wonderful. And they both speak English! I’m so thrilled to have daily help I can actually communicate with.
• I love my Chi Machine. I’m now up to 20 minutes/day. I think it’s going to help me a lot!
• To get me out of the house, my entire family took me to the Olive Garden for lunch last week. Mom, Dad, Stepdad, and brother. All at the same table!
• Thanksgiving dinner was actually Saturday, my mom and Bob came over and brought the food. They left me the rest of the pumpkin pie
• You absolutely must go to this website, where you can create a yearbook photo of yourself from any year. Here is my 1978 result:

• Rob Szabo is back on November 7!

The other day, Pepper was sitting on the desk beside me, and Pita jumped up and started licking her head. It was sooooo cute, I had to grab my camera. I just can’t get enough of the kitties grooming each other… it is so sweet, and so relaxing to watch! So I felt the need to put it to some relaxing music by the Polyjesters.

I got my hair cut and coloured today. I wasn’t going to get it coloured, but when I told my hairdresser that I was just going to buy a box and do it myself because I can’t afford it right now, she gave me a deal I couldn’t pass up. “If you colour it yourself you’ll just mess up”. Thanks for the vote of confidence!! I’ve coloured my own hair a million times before, thankyouverymuch!! Yes, it’s harder with just one hand, but that’s what mothers and girlfriends are for. She told me my roots are a lot darker than when she first met me; a sign that my natural hair colour is, indeed, a lot darker than I want to admit. A part of me wanted to get it coloured a dark blonde and then just let the natural colour grow in so I can see what it is, but I changed my mind when she said she saw grey. I have never seen a grey hair on my head before, and I’d like to keep it that way for awhile.

Last night AND the night before, Shawna and I went out for dinner to a 100% gluten free restaurant called A Tasty Menu, that also has vegan/dairy free versions of their breads and some meals. On Wednesday I had a grilled veggie sandwich with sweet potato fries (YUM), and last night I had PIZZA!! Green peppers and pineapple on a super thin GF/DF crust with soy cheese… it was soooo good! It’s pretty exciting for Shawna to know she can go to this restaurant and order anything off the menu and not get sick, and I’m thrilled to be able to eat out during this cleanse. I’m going to drag my dad there this weekend, methinks.

So I actually clicked on an ad in Facebook the other day. It was for a local pet grooming business. I emailed the manager, Amanda, and asked her if she does or knows anyone who provides mobile pet grooming, and could come by and trim my cat’s claws. She wrote back that she’s not a mobile service, but she does live close to me, and could swing by after work one day and do it. So she came by today. It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it might, considering my kitties don’t like to be man-handled a lot. But she’s a pro. Pepper took it like a big girl, curled up in her arms and it only took a few seconds to do all 4 paws, she didn’t flinch once! Pita, on the other hand, squirmed and whined and made noises I’d never heard her make before. The second it was over, she raced off, then came right back and jumped up on Amanda’s lap to be pet and cuddled. No fear, there. She also ran into my bedroom to watch as Amanda did Pepper (who was asleep in my room as usual) because she always has to be where the people are and the action is. After Amanda left, both kitties took turns hanging out on my lap, and it was absolute heaven for me when they did their usual kneading on me, to not get poked by sharp claws. Ahhhh!

Since I started this cleanse a week ago, I haven’t been to the mall for a latte or food of any kind, nor have I ordered anything in. So I guess that makes up for the extra money I am spending on organic food. SPUD now carries organic cat food too, so I’m slowly weaning my cats onto it. I hope they like it. So far, their litter boxes have been a lot easier to clean because they don’t go as much! Oh, and for myself, I discovered these spritzers that are sweetened with fruit juice only, no sugar-sugar or artificial sweeteners, so that is a nice break from water water water.

Over the past week, to keep my spirits up and make me laugh, I have been watching my seasons two and three DVDs of The Office. I even downloaded the Dunder Mifflin desktop wallpaper I kept seeing on their computers. And, although I laughed my ass off (and I’ve seen all the episodes several times before), as predicted, I cried after the last scene of the last episode of season 3 (#8 in that Top 10). Gets me every time. Damn you, Jim and Pam!

Other than that, and a few other little outbursts, the crying is starting to subside. I think I have almost successfully completed my withdrawal from Paxil. What great fun this has been! I’m still not sure what my new *normal* is, that may take awhile yet. But the worst is definitely over.

I haven’t taken any photos in ages, so I leave this entry photo-less until another day. Ciao!

You must, must, must see August Rush.

It’s been an emotional few days. First, my friends Lisa and Russ got engaged. We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later, it was just a matter of making it official with the ring and stuff! So that was done on Thursday. Then, the worst thing that could ever happen, Lisa’s dad died suddenly on Friday. He had a heart attack while fishing alone out at his cabin. I like to think he made sure his daughter was going to be safe and happy in her life by getting engaged to a great guy, and then he went off to his favourite place to go fishing, and died peacefully and quickly doing what he loved, knowing his kids were going to be fine (Lisa’s brother is getting married in a few weeks). I just can’t believe it happened, so close to Father’s Day, and he was only 62. I LOVED Lisa’s dad. I talked about him in this entry a few years ago, the first time I spent Christmas Eve with Lisa’s family. I’m heartbroken, and can’t even begin to imagine what Lisa, her mom, and her family are going through. It looks like, after the first funeral I ever attended was for Lisa’s uncle, that my second will be her father’s. It’s so very sad.

Saturday morning is when I learned of Sam’s death, as it happened late the night before. The news came in an email from Lisa, which I read just as my Home Care worker walked in the door. So I burst into tears as she was asking me how I was, and me and crying are kinda ugly. I’m one of those criers who can’t talk or breathe when I’m crying. So it’s rather useless to try to get anything out of me. Poor Harpal, she had no idea what was going on. I managed to calm down while in the shower and was able to tell her what had happened when I got out, but that just made me start blubbering even harder all over again. You know how it is… anyway, I managed to pull myself together by the time my mom and Bob arrived to take me to the chiropractor, but there was no point in putting on make-up, lemme tell ya. I even remembered to bring my chiropractor the sonic mole repellers I got for him off eBay. He’s been wanting some for awhile and wasn’t able to find them/order any himself from anywhere. So in comes me, eBay expert extraordinaire! He was very pleased.

My mom stayed over on Saturday, and you would not recognize my office!! She re-organized everything. Well, I helped a little, but she totally outdid herself. My air conditioner (did I mention I got an A/C for my birthday? Wheee!) was being installed on Sunday, so I needed some help with my filing and getting stuff out of the way to make room for moving the filing cabinet to the other wall and re-arranging things a bit. My mom has a tendency to overdo it and would not stop until she was happy. Gee, I wonder where I get it from? Anyway, she worked her arse off until I made her sit down and watch a movie with me. August Rush. We cried and cried and cried, so the second it ended I sobbed “okay, now you have to watch PS I Love You!” (The whole cute Irish musician theme was going on with me… I WANT ONE). I really love Video on Demand, especially since I received my last bill and none of the movies I had rented in May were on it. So on Sunday, we watched Dan in Real Life, because I love Steve Carell and it was time for another dose of him. I cannot WAIT for Get Smart.

I had a dream about Steve Carell last night. I drempt that he was just like his character on The Office in real life, and I was the only one who truly understood him and loved him (SO not true, I would smack Michael Scott quite hard at times if I knew him, but in my dream he was the love of my life) and it broke my heart to watch him try so hard with other women who just didnt get him and dumped him harshly. I was his best friend who was always there to pick up the pieces, and he had no idea how I felt, and I just couldn’t tell him. I was so angry at these women who treated him like shit and didn’t realize what they had, and wished so hard he would just SEE ME. I do believe I have played that scenario out in real life on a couple occasions with male friends in my past. It never ended happily; no Vanessa Williams song here. Oh, and I was doing some sort of treasure hunt thing with all the cast of The Office on my team, Jim being the leader, Michael being at home crying over his last girlfriend, and me running over there whenever I had a break from the treasure hunt to tell him it would all be okay.

Aaaanyway, my A/C was hooked up on Sunday thanks to handyman Ian, a friend of my mom and Bob’s. He brought his puppy Rosie over, and while Pepper ran and hid in my bedroom, Pita stayed in the living room by the coffee table and just stared. Rosie ran around my apartment sniffing everything and chewing cat toys, and then she spotted Pita. She wanted to play, she meant no harm, she wandered over in Pita’s direction. Pita hissed and hissed at Rosie and eventually Rosie went away. But then she came back, and when she got too close, Pita hissed and SMACKED Rosie across the face, claws first. Rosie whimpered as only a puppy can, and ran away. Poor little Rosie. Mean little Pita. She does NOT like dogs, and I don’t know why, because she’s been an indoor cat since the day she was born, so it’s not like she’s ever had a bad run in with one. Two other dogs have been around her in the past, all perfectly sweet and harmless (and very small), but Pita would have none of it and Pepper always hid. I guess we know who’s boss around here.

Today, I got up and sat in my clean and organized office and turned on the A/C just because I could. Actually, it’s warming up this week, so it was good timing getting it installed yesterday. Not that it’s HOT out, but the sun beats in here pretty strongly and heats up my apartment… I tend to need a fan on me when it wouldn’t be necessary if my windows faced another direction. But today was a gorgeous day!! My friend Joelle picked me up and we went to My Favourite Vietnamese restaurant (next time we'’ll go to hers) and chowed down. Then we went to her place, stopping for a Slurpee on the way. I haven’t had a Slurpee in YEARS! We sat in her yard for hours and I talked so much my speech was slurring really badly. It actually started slurring in the restaurant, which is how I know I’ve talked too much. Also the fact that Joelle was way ahead of me in the eating department. So I told her she needed to do the talking at her place, to give my mouth a rest so I could talk normally again. That didn’t last long, though. I was talking really funny, but Joelle said she could understand me. Tonight, I will NOT be making any phone calls. That’s one of those MS symptoms that only pops up once in a blue moon, but when it does, I need to take a night off from talking. Oh, the horror!

*Sung to the tune of “I’m Sorry” by Brenda Lee.

I have sooooo much to talk about since my last entry. Like, 5 entries worth! But of course I have no time. It’s my 40th birthday and I’ve got lots of plans the next few days!

So, for the time being, here are some cat pictures to tide you over.

Pita caught at the end of a yawn.

Snugglemuffin.

Invisible Teddy Bear

Please vote (5 cheezburgers!) for Pepper’s LOL pic at I Can Has Cheezburger to get her on the main page!! Thanks!!

Mandatory daily stretching exercises

I got myself some hot pink streaks for my birthday. I am 40, after all! Heh

I decided to do an update because Maggs tagged me with the above award, so I needed to put it up here, and figured I may as well update while I’m at it.

The rules for the “You Make My Day” award are to re-present it to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness, inspiration and make you feel happy about blog land. Let them know through e-mail or by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times, and if you do, consider yourself really, really loved. So to pass it on and keep the love going ~ here are 10 of the 100’s of blogs that keep me inspired and bring a smile to my face. Please check them out when you have a few minutes…perhaps there are some new friends to be made!

So that’s how it works, and here are 10 blogs that make me smile and/or inspire me regularly:

Maggie
Kerri
Scott
Sylvie
Shauna
PostSecret
Big Fat Deal
Robyn
Sandee
I Can Has Cheezburger (Seriously cannot go 10 minutes without a peek over there haha)

I’m not going to let them know I bestowed this honour upon them, but if they happen to check their referral links and end up here, they are free to recognize it if they want

Lots has happened since my last update, and wouldn’t you know it, I don’t have much time here. For starters, I saw my dad for the first time in almost 6 years. One thing I have realized, is that he may never change, but I certainly have. Hopefully that will be enough for us to have a relationship of sorts. It has never been a question of love; it’s more about how to have a relationship with him without him trying to take over my life. I am an independent person, and he wants to take over and do everything and have all the answers, and in the past this has caused me more stress than you can begin to imagine. (There’s other stuff, too, but I won’t get into it). Anyway, hopefully we can set boundaries that will keep us both happy. I know after spending a few hours with him yesterday evening, that I’m much better at handling his personality than I used to be. Rather than get stressed out, I let it slide and just shrugged it off as *just the way he is*. I have learned, if nothing else over the past 6 years, to allow people to be the way they are and live their life the way they want and not let it get to me. Their problems/behaviours/choices etc. are not mine to worry about, unless they are hurting me (or my family, or children, or animals, or…). I am a mere observer. Wow, I think I’m growing up!

On a whim today, I decided to get my legs waxed. OUCH!! Facking OUCH!!

Last weekend was supposed to be a lot of fun. CD release parties galore, including the Calgary one for The Polyjesters. So what do I go and do?? Fall and twist my ankle, of course. I stayed in with my foot up, icing it. My mom was here, and without a show to go to, that gave her the time to clean out and re-organize my cupboards. Gotta love moms!

I’m switching my TV from our regular Shaw Cable (I just have the basic cable) to Telus TV. I’m excited! I didn’t realize everyone has to be digital by 2009, and I’ve got a pretty old TV here. So I’m getting a free digital box, one year of basic cable for free (which is $10/month cheaper than Shaw anyway! Wheee!) and extra channels I’d like (to get those great HBO shows and A&E, the Learning Channel, etc.) for only $6.00/month. I’m really pleased! My neighbour has it, and loves it. It’s great that Shaw finally has some cable competition.

Anyway, I’m crazy busy with work, and outta time. Catch ya later!