I have a new entry coming soon, I promise. I saw Psychic Pat again on Saturday and have a lot to talk about regarding that!!
Anyway, a couple links I wanted to pass on to music lovers everywhere:
One of my favourite female voices, Emma-Lee, has the “Single of the Week” on iTunes this week, which means you can download it for FREE!! Get it now!
My good friend Rob Szabo’s new CD “Life & Limb” is finished and you can listen to it RIGHT HERE!! My friend Kerri from the Good Lovelies makes an appearance on Track 4.
I needed to post something happy to push Ms. WhineyPants further down the page.
My friend Sheldon made this video for me because he’s SO AWESOME. If you’re on Facebook you should be able to view the original here, but the only way I could post it for everyone was to play it on my monitor and film that. So it’s rather crappy quality, but it gets the point across. And that is: Sheldon is awesome, and my friends love me, and for that I am hugely grateful. The opening that was cut off said “this is a song for Donna, for all the Flight of the Conchords stuff she’s been giving me” (I gave him my DVDs months ago when I realized he’d never heard of them, because I knew him and Jason would LOVE them, and be a little jealous that they haven’t been given the opportunity to have their own show which would be even better, and have emailed him a few songs from their hilarious CDs). I recently purchased another DVD set of the series because I don’t expect I’ll ever get those ones back!!
p.s. I realized after posting this that I have another previous entry already titled “THIS Makes Me Happy”, and wouldn’t you know it, it features Jason and Sheldon. Those boys are truly happy medicine!
I am fresh off a weekend in Carstairs, Alberta for the Mountainview Music Festival, and I’m in dire need of sleep. I wish I could say I’m so tired because I attended all the late night activities and parties with my friends, but the truth is I just haven’t been able to sleep. Sitting in a wheelchair all day is actually very tiring and I would be back at my hotel room and in bed by 10:00 pm, but sleep would not come. Even with the assistance of medication.
The festival was amazing, I just really wish I was in better health, energy and mobility so I could have enjoyed everything! I am, however, so very grateful to my friends and family that made it possible for me to be there at all!
Instead of uploading my photos into an album, I made a little video. “The Office” fans will get how this was inspired by Michael Scott.
Thanks to the amazing help of great family and friends, I will be attending (and volunteering) at the madness that is the Mountainview Music Festival all weekend, so I won’t be able to post from there. I will be, assuming I can find my camera battery charger today, taking LOADS of happy pictures to show off upon my return, however.
Until then, enjoy my super cute kitties as they play about the house today, and also check out my photo album from when the Good Lovelies were here. I never did write about that, did I! They played at the Ironwood here on July 20, and the following afternoon came to my place to spend the night. We went for coffee and a bit of a mall walk (me on my scooter, of course), then across to Safeway so they could buy groceries to make the best stir-fry I’ve ever eaten. We drank wine, hung out, I forced them to watch Walk Hard, and generally had a nice, relaxing evening. They are the sweetest gals and super fun. All three of them found room to sleep, although I’m not sure if Kerri ever actually left the computer. On Tuesday afternoon, they left to spend a couple days in Banff, while I held all their instruments and gear captive to lighten their load (and leave them no choice but to swing by again on their way to their show in Nanton on Thursday). I got my CD signed and downloaded a couple “sneak peak” tunes from their next CD. Sooooo awesome! Kerri also sings a duet with Rob Szabo on his next album (coming this fall! He’ll be in Calgary November 7!!!) which is amazing. (Rob sent me the mp3. *dies*).
Have a great weekend, but not as good as mine unless you’re at the festival, and see you Monday!!
If I was as clever as Robyn, I would write a story to go along with those pictures. But I’m not.
ETA: I am taking a cue from Jodi who is posting photos for a “home comforts” project this month. Starting Saturday and for the rest of the month I am going to post at least one photo every day, that I took that day, of something that made me happy. That day. I need to go looking for things that make me happy every day because THIS WEEK SUCKED. Especially today. But that’s it, it’s over, let’s move on.
************************************************
I haven’t updated because I can’t sit in this chair long enough. I am in desperate need of a decent desk chair that I can sit in for more than 5 minutes, and we are looking fiercely. It is not as easy as you’d think.
I’m also incredibly stressed and pissed off about inept Landlords, Delivery people, lying customer service, people who JUST DON’T GET IT and can’t comprehend what they’ve heard and read over and over, the death of a former client, and the fact that I can’t dress myself and shower in a normal tub means I’m missing out on what could be the time of my life next weekend.
It’s not a good day… back soon.
To end on a happier note, here is a lovely video of the Good Lovelies performing a Beatle’s song when they were here. THAT was an amazingly fun time, more on that later, too.
I went ahead and purchased a Chi machine. The Canadian website for the Sun Ancon machine never responded to my repeated requests over the past month for more information and price, so they lost my business. I ordered through Chi Now, where they have this lovely video that explains some of the benefits:
Was an opthamologist the best they could do? Seriously, what does that have to do with it?? And I hate the “lose weight” comment, it makes it look like a gimmick. Although, I’ve never seen a fat goldfish hehe.
I’m done shopping now, for a good long while.
My friends The Good Lovelies are in town tonight!! I managed to talk Shawna into going with me. Bless her… she’s not a live music fan, but she is, indeed, a great friend. It’s hard to get people out on a Sunday night!! It’s Caroline’s birthday today too, and since she’s spending it performing tonight, the ladies want to stay an extra day and hang out in Calgary tomorrow to celebrate Caro’s birthday. Then they will all be crashing at my place… I’m not quite sure where I will fit 3 ladies, but I do know it’s been YEARS since I’ve had a slumber party, and it’s going to be fun and giggly. I’m going to need more wine.
I finally got rid of my old computer. It was taking up space on the kitchen table that is going to my brother, and it’s been sitting there for a loooong time. I guess I finally felt safe enough in knowing there is no old data in it somewhere that I will still need. I hopefully deleted every last bit of information on it (I even remembered to delete the Outlook Express folders and address book) and donated it to a non-profit organization that helps get kids off the street by providing them with computers and training so they can get jobs.
So, Green Beaver deodorant doesn’t work, either. I don’t know what to do! Does it take awhile for your body to get used to natural deodorants?? And who wants to go around smelling horrible while you wait for your body chemistry to change?? I dunno. I’m going to try taking 50mg of Zinc every day, because I remember reading if you take that, you shouldn’t need deodorant. Maybe a combination of those things will work. In the meantime, I am wearing my good ‘ol Dove deodorant out tonight!! I am LOVING my JASON body wash, by the way.
Anyway, Shawna is going to be here soon to help me get ready (like I said, very good friend… I don’t get home care on Sundays and since I’m going out, I need help getting into something besides pajamas! Shawna, Kim, Emma, Jason’s mom and my mom have all played this role before. Hell, even Rob once with his eyes closed! hehe. I swear, I have the best friends on earth and I wish I could buy them all Respite vacations!)
In case you haven’t noticed, my last catch-up post was to the end of last month. I keep popping in here and starting a post, but get distracted, and frustrated at how long it takes me to type out what I want to say, and then it gets left for a couple more days. So, I’m not going to do any detailed catch-up posts, because they are too long and I don’t have the patience or typing power for it. So this is what you get:
May 1 - 4 - I celebrated my 40th birthday with amazing friends and family, and it was an awesome good time. You can see photos here.
May 8 - I went back to the Casino to hang out with Jason and Sheldon (The Polyjesters are on the air Friday mornings from 6:00 - 10:00 a.m. on Q107 broadcasting live from the casino, so Thursday nights Jason and Sheldon are staying at the hotel there so they don’t have to drive into Calgary in the wee morning hours). They managed to get me into the over-sold out concert that night, which I was sooooooo excited about - Jeremy Fisher (whom I’ve already established in the past here that I LOVE) and The Proclaimers! OMG “Sunshine on Leith” is one of my favourite CDs of all time, and 20 years later I finally see the band live, and get to meet them and get my CD signed. YAY!!! That was a super exciting night. Oh yeah, and for the 2nd time since I turned 40 I was kissed by a strange random drunk guy.
May 11 - Mother’s Day - my mom, Bob and brother came over. We ordered in food and I gave my mom a couple presents, Barbara Walter’s book and a crockpot. Wheee!
May 14 - my mom’s 65th birthday!!! I sent her a beautiful Azalea and a balloon to her office. Yes, office… she won’t be retiring any time soon. She tried that a few years ago with early retirement and was bored to tears. She works full-time as the office manager at a real estate law firm, and if things keep going the way they are, she may end up being the oldest person trained to be a Paralegal in Canada hahaha
In May - I watched a few good movies… PS I Love You (Sobfest), Eagle Vs. Shark (I love me some Jemaine Clement and anything related to New Zealand), and Once. I watched Once 3 times in a row on a Saturday and 2 times on Sunday, then raced out to buy the soundtrack. LOVE.
May 25 - Lilac Festival! You know what that means? Just like last year and the year before, an entire afternoon with The Polyjesters. It was raining, so they played indoors this year. Picture this: sitting in a cozy pub all day watching and listening to the Polyjesters do one of their best shows ever, and 4 full sets of it. NOTHING better than that! My friend Kim came out from Red Deer again and stayed over the night before. Oh yeah, the night before (Saturday) I dragged her waaaaaay down south to a divey bar to watch a hard rock band my friend plays drums in. Kim’s such a trooper. We got in late then dragged our asses out of bed early to be at the Lilac Festival before noon. After that great day, Jason, Sheldon, Joelle, Kim and myself went for awesome Vietnamese food. I was home by about 8:00 and pretty much crashed. What a GREAT DAY.
So there, I think that pretty much catches you up on the major stuff. Sorry for falling so far behind. I’ve been insanely busy again. I also sold a bunch of stuff on eBay and the whole packaging-up-and-shipping process is hard for me!! I made a deal with one of my favourite sellers on there that I would box up and send her a bunch of stuff for her to sell for me. That is a lot easier. She is in California, and a reputable seller, so she will sell more than I could as shipping is cheaper from there and she has a lot of regular buyers. We’ll just split the profits. I sent her a big box yesterday, and will send her another one in the next few days. I’ve got way too many clothes…
And finally, I bought myself a new espresso machine as a birthday present to myself. I can’t seem to buy a replacement carafe for my other one that broke, so I decided to get a new machine that makes both regular coffee and espresso. My coffee maker has been living way back in my cupboard because I didn’t want a ton of appliances on my counter, and when I wanted regular coffee I would use my kettle and a one-cup filter thingy. Now I’ll have one thing on the counter that does both, so I’m a happy girl!
After that busy Rob and Peter week, I had to get back to doing taxes on Monday. I had quite a lot to finish up before the 30th! I don’t think I did anything exciting that week of Monday to Friday, I just worked and stuff. (”And stuff” means my usual daily routines of home care, lattes, quick trips to the mall, Facebook, Ellen/Oprah/Dr. Phil on and off, eBay, all mixed around work). On Friday, my home care worker, who is about the sweetest lady on earth, came by a second time around 1:00 and brought me samosas and pakoras. She’s from India and knows how much I love Indian food, so she decided to bring me some. Seriously? How nice is she??
On Saturday, I made plans with Jason. We had been talking all week about going for that Indian food buffet that Peter and I had gone to at the Samosa Grill, so on Saturday we confirmed it. Jason also had a cousin playing in a band downtown later that night, so he asked me to be his “date” for that. It actually was very much a real date, with Jason paying and everything, but I can’t REALLY date Jason. I mean… I love him too much, I think! We’re family. Anyway, I took my wheelchair because I thought it would be easier to get me around. Which it was, but still a hassle. The Samosa Grill is upstairs, so we had to take their freight elevator, and wait for a staff member to be free to take us to that loccked area. She took us the long way around, which involved going through storage areas and knocking over bins of empty bottles and such. Getting me in anywhere can be quite the production. Finally settled, Jason was my server for the evening, since it was a buffet. He took good care of me. Leaving was a little easier, because the staff member who took us knew the shortcut that I had taken with Peter last time. A lot less stuff to knock over.
Oh, and I should also mention that Jason has a Monster Truck van that I have a very hard time getting into, it is so high. Lots of help and butt boosting required from Jason. We get into some questionable positions, and if either of us were famous, the paparazzi would have a GREAT time taking pictures. Anyway, we were finally headed downtown to the Palomino, which it turns out has no elevator to get to the live music downstairs (it’s a very old building). Jason was mainly interested in seeing his cousin and saying “hi”, than he was in actually seeing the band, so our plan was to just stay in the upstairs bar for a drink or two if the stairs were going to be a hassle. Parking downtown is, of course, hard to come by, but after driving around for awhile we found a spot a couple blocks away. As Jason wheeled me to the club, I was saying “I’ve gotta pee the second we get in there!” (I’m such a classy date). We got inside the main doors no problem and asked a waitress where the washrooms were. “Our upstairs bathrooms are out of order. You have to go downstairs”.
Ah, wonderful. It was only about 8:30, and the doors for the show downstairs didn’t even open until 9:30 (although you could use the washrooms, of course). We decided to just brave the stairs and hopefully they would let us stay down there. Jason walked down the stairs with me, slow and steady, then ran back up to get my chair. I used the facilities, then we got settled at a table in the empty bar. They let us stay there and wait for the doors to “officially” open. Jason ran back upstairs and bought us drinks. At some point I apologized for being so high maintenance, needing all this help from him! He said “this, to me, is not maintenance. This is nothing. Emotional High Maintenance is a lot more work!” (Referring to relationships - have we not all had to deal with emotionally high maintenance people at some point?) That made me feel good. Physically, I’m pretty demanding because I need help with stuff, and you’ve got to be in good enough shape to lug a wheelchair or walker when hanging out with me! But I’m not going to drain you emotionally, so I guess it’s whatever is easier for you. I need to learn to stop apologizing all the time, because I know I would rather help someone down the stairs and push them in a wheelchair, than deal with bitching, whining, complaining, and walking on eggshells with someone you don’t know how to talk to or are afraid will explode if you say the *wrong* thing. Yeah.
So, we stayed down there for a couple of hours, listening to live surf rock music, before we were both ready to call it a night. Going up the stairs we had many staff offering to help - “can we do anything to help?” to which Jason responded, “all we need is time!”. Good answer. Jason walked with me up the stairs and a bartender carried my wheelchair. He said they had hosted big parties for oil and gas companies and stuff, and one night there were 3 wheelchairs, and the men were paraplegics and unable to stand at all. Times like that they really wish they had an elevator, but renovating a building that old would cost a fortune. I’m just really glad I am able to stand/walk, because no one would be able to carry me up or down stairs. Ahhhh, to be a lithe 115 pounds.
Jason dropped me at home and wheeled me inside, making sure all was okay and no cats ran out before he left. It was a great night! I heart my Jason.
Sunday, I rested and Facebooked and eBayed. I replenished my shower gel/body lotion supply with Avon products that cost a total of 6 cents, and with shipping it only came to $18.05… when I received the box, she had paid $22.50 for the shipping. Sometimes, the deals on eBay freak me out. I don’t understand how someone can sell sets of shower gel and body lotion for one penny, spend more on shipping than they charge, and continue being a seller. Maybe she promised her husband she would give him all her eBay profits and then found out he was having an affair.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were the end of tax season. Naturally, the CRA’s website decided to conk out and I wasn’t able to file the last two I had. It was frustrating as HELL!! Luckily, the CRA became aware of their server issues and let everyone know they had an extra week to file online. I wish I had known that before I spent all day Tuesday fighting with their website! Anyway, alls well that ends well. Everything got done and my clients are happy. Now the late ones are starting to call me! I’ll be busy for another month…
Next up, my 40th birthday extravaganza! Wheee! Until then, here is a really cute video of Pita and Pepper (mostly Pita) chasing their new laser:
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
