Can You Hear Me Now?

Hi. I’ve been busy. And on Facebook.

Oh, speaking of, I started an MS With Attitude group over at Facebook. If you’re on FB, please join it. Even if you don’t have MS. Maybe you know someone who does, or someone who is in your friends list knows somebody who does, and when they see you join the group, they will too, and so on, and so on!! Oh, by the way, my Fan Club is gone. It was a cute idea for fun at first, but after awhile it’s like… why, exactly? Heh. So I asked Emma to delete it. So, if you missed out on being one of my 50 FANS over there, you now have your chance at MS With Attitude. Thanks!!

Is anybody not on Facebook? I’m having coffee with three friends from high school again on Monday. I’m loving this! Today, out of the blue, after 22 years, I received a phone call from an old friend. She actually found me on Classmates, but I talked her into joining Facebook too, as she is going through that “whatever happened to…” phase we all go through, and she’ll find a ton of old friends there. She lives in Edmonton now, married 11 years, 2 kids… ahhh, her and I were Duranies and we wrote a movie screenplay starring us and the members of Duran Duran. Lisa Dalbello’s album “Whomanforsays” was our soundtrack. Yes. We RULED. Judy had pink & purple hair and got me into Toyah’s music, as well. (Oh my God! Toyah is still out there making new music! Cool!)

I’ve been for two visits now to my new psychologist at the Clinic for Mind/Body medicine. I LOVE her. After only two hours I can already tell she is much better (for me) than the psychotherapist I saw several times earlier this year and quit. I guess it’s true, what they say, you need to shop around to find the right therapist! So, I’m sticking with Jennifer for awhile, and will be going weekly. On Monday she gave me two meditations on CD and a copy of a story about self-judgment from “Kitchen Table Wisdom“. It was so awesome… she already knows me so well! I’m looking forward to where this goes.

THE FIRST SEASON OF FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS IS OUT ON DVD YOU’RE WELCOME.

So… how ’bout our dollar, huh? Being an eBay addict, I am quite loving it!!! I think I’ve finished my Christmas shopping already. It is so cool to buy something in US dollars and end up paying LESS!! Loving it. I wonder how long it will last? It better last at least until the end of the week, because I’m buying an electronic lift chair. It’s an early Christmas present from my mom and Bob, and myself. We’re all pitching in because I really need one. It’s harder and harder to get out of my recliner all the time. The lift chair I’m getting is $1,175 US including delivery… to buy it locally would cost closer to $2,000 CDN. I’m getting this one in the green. YAY!!

Hey, do you think I will ever finish the entries about my trip in September? Don’t answer that.

My friend Shawna from Winnipeg is here. She’s in town for a work conference the rest of this week, but I get to see her on Saturday. Ikea, dinner, movie, that kind of thing. Should be fun! I can’t wait to see her.

Someone asked me the other day if I take anything for my ADD. WHAT is she talking about?? Heh.

I worked at my client Gerry’s place last week. I normally do his stuff at home, but he has hired a woman who works in his home studio/office to do administrative work, so I went in to set up a Simply Accounting template for her and work with her a bit on entering data. Basically, I’ll be training myself out of a job But Gerry’s a busy man (jazz musician, and he does very well!) and needs someone who can be around, looking after the day-to-day cheque printing and stuff. He’s much too far away for me to visit regularly. I’ll have to go back a couple more times, and then I think I’ll just receive the back-up files every few months to check them over. His assistant is a smart girl, I think she’ll catch on quick! She’s also a musician, a cellist, and teaches Gerry’s kids piano. So… I guess I just have to hope she doesn’t leave for greener pastures or a major tour right after she’s trained! Gerry lives across the street from my friend/client Ken (which is how I met Gerry) so Ken took me out for dinner afterwards. AND drove me home, from waaaay up in the N.W., which saved me at least an hour with Access. They had me scheduled for a 6:00 pick-up, “estimated drop off time, 7:30″. When Ken heard that, he told me to cancel and he’d drive me home. Thank God!

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,

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.

It’s amazing, the things you can find when you go through everything and completely re-organize your office. Things like, CDs you’d given up on ever finding since you were in the hospital the year before… your brand new, unwrapped Madonna and Johnny Cash CDs and your favourite Paul Anka CD, for instance. Has that ever happened to you? Truly wonderful.

I’m still working on my office, but I found those CDs when I was looking for all my software to load onto my new computer. My brand new, unwrapped Mika CD was in there too!! And I found a tax receipt I have to fax to the government for a client. ‘Whew.

My mom was here this past weekend. We weren’t as productive as we were the time before, when we cleaned out my closets. But we did manage to get some shopping in. My mom recently found the Cotton Ginny gift card I gave her for Mother’s Day in 2006 that she thought she may have accidently thrown out (wonder where I get it from?) and bought some nice tops. I bought a skirt… because I NEED MORE CLOTHES OH MY GOD.

Yesterday I worked at the Pub. That is getting harder and harder to do… not just the stairs, although I’m not a fan of those stairs and they’re REALLY not appreciated when I have to pee, but the entire place isn’t exactly accessible for me. Walking from the inside of the pub through the edge of the kitchen out the back door to the bottom of the stairs outside… is an obstacle course of small, cluttered spaces and uneven ground. I had a fall in the kitchen yesterday. Didn’t hurt myself at all, it’s just annoying, and not a safe place for me. The back door is also close to the gas stove - can’t you just see the day I land on THAT. Reach my hand out as an auto-reaction to break my fall and place it right on the fire. Uhhhh huh. I’ve been trying to do most of their work from home, but I DO need to show up there once in awhile. I only stay for a short time, organize stuff and file, eat my free lunch then bring work home. The Pub is for sale and it looks like it may be sold pretty quick here… at which point I won’t do the books anymore. It will be hard to let go of it after 7 years, but I don’t even want to think about trekking back there in the winter. Plus, I do twice as much work for that place for half the money of any other client. That’s because a) I love that place; b) I love restaurant accounting; c) they treat me well and give me free coffee, food, and a promo account for drinks and stuff; d) I see their cash flow and it’s not great so I feel guilty taking more, and e) I’ve known both sets of the owners I’ve worked for a VERY long time, and it’s always been “in the family” so to speak. The new owners (should this deal go through) are not a part of that “family”, so it’s time to say goodbye. And replace them with a client that will pay me twice as much!

A couple weeks ago my DVD player jammed. I put in a DVD and it took forever to load, and then it said “wrong disc”. I couldn’t even get the DVD out, after many tries and restarting the player, etc. etc. Eventually the tray opened (after… like… a week) and I tried a couple other discs, even a DVD cleaner disc, but the “wrong disc” error message keeps popping up and then the DVD is jammed. Has anyone had this problem? Is my DVD player toast? My mom and Bob have lent me their extra cheapie one they never use for the time being. I will finally be able to watch In Cold Blood since I finished the book a couple weeks ago. One of these days I’ll get a new DVD player. Visa raised my limit another $2,500 but I am NOT taking that as a license to spend. I do, however, marvel at the good timing as I’m off to Toronto and Montreal in a few weeks!

I’ve kind of been slack with my 101 list lately. The new computer one got crossed off, as luck would have it, with no work required from me! I am currently taking all of my vitamins and supplements daily and plan to do that until I go away, which will cross of #11. One thing I’m happy about, is #91, where I wrote a letter to a newspaper in response to this article back in June. I just noticed the other day that they published my letter (and I know they received hundreds, so I’m pleased!) It’s the last letter on this page.

See, I need to get my body acceptance/fat politics blog off the ground to talk about stuff like that. Yes. One of these days.

Self-portrait with Pepper

Pita is so gorgeous in this picture!

Pepper is the Shelf Cat.

I awoke quite startled the other day. I heard what sounded like a train going through my apartment, and shot up in bed, wondering what the hell it was. Well. You know those really crinkly plastic bags, that make a LOT of noise when you smash them between your hands and stuff? Not that you do that, but cats love those bags. And one of mine decided to crawl inside one (I sometimes leave the odd one on the floor for them to play with) and run up the hall and under my bed, chased by the other one. All I saw was a plastic bag racing under my bed followed by another cat, too fast to tell which one. Seriously, have you ever seen a plastic bag run?? It’s the funniest thing ever. And loud. Then I heard a thump, and all was quiet. I was worried she had hit her head or something? Oh my God, what happened?? I looked over the side of my bed, and there was the bag, but no cats to be seen. Later when I got up and went into the living room, I saw Pepper crouched in beside the sofa, looking like she was about to pounce on something/someone. I called Pita, and she slowwwly crept up the hall towards the living room, taking careful tip-toe steps, watching Pepper the whole time. So I settled into my chair, because obviously they were both okay, and playing some sort of game that didn’t involve me. So they tear assed up the hall again and chased each other around for awhile. Never a dull moment around here, with those two!

On Wednesday afternoon I had my free monthly shiteous housekeeping. Well, okay, it’s better than nothing, but really, if you see something like my coat on the floor, could you maybe pick it up instead of just vacuuming around it?? They sent me two girls this time, one that had been here before and a new one that I guess is being trained. The thing is, when I buzz someone into my building and then it takes 20 minutes for them to get to my door, I know I’m dealing with idiots. This goes for delivery people as well; some are deducted $1 from their tip. I realize there are no arrows pointing to which apartment numbers are which way, but if you go up one hall and don’t see mine, wouldn’t you just try the other hall? Instead of going upstairs to every other floor, wandering around aimlessly, before coming back to the main door and buzzing me again to ask where I am? And listening when I say “go to your right”? Instead of wandering around aimlessly until someone directs you up my hallway? And then, when I open the door, (after 20 minutes, I emphasize), I realize that one of you has BEEN HERE BEFORE? Not that long ago? Do you know what I’m getting at? Because I have no idea, I just keep asking questions??

Anyway, they were not the smartest cookies. I remembered the training session I had to put the one girl through with my cordless phone the last time she was here, but I guess it didn’t take (”hit Line 1. There is no Line 2. Just hit the Line 1 button and dial out. Then hit it again to hang up”) because I heard both of them hitting all sorts of buttons on that phone, beep beep beepity beep, talking to each other in their language, and finally giving up and coming to ask me if I had a phone they could use. I said “yes, you were just holding it”, and got up to show them where the phone was they had just put down. I pressed Line 1 to get the dialtone and handed it to her.

So, yes, although I am grateful to have free housekeeping for a couple hours/month, I just, you know, AAARRRGGGHHH!

I had a really great night out on Thursday. I met friends at the Ironwood for a special C-Jazz event, where Matt Masters was taking his first shot at singing old jazz standards in front of a live audience, and my friends the Polyjesters were playing with Terra Hazelton. It was such a great show… Terra has such an amazing and unique voice; as my friend Heather said, “she sounds like every Christmas carol you’ve ever heard”. So happy and joyous. But she also has her sexy, sassy and sultry side. She’s awesome. And the PJ’s were great playing with her. I see many more regular gigs with them all together in the future, because Terra is moving back to Alberta in the Spring (she lives in Toronto now, where she sings with Jeff Healey’s Jazz Wizards) and taking a break from Big City Living. We had dinner at the club earlier, and I had the same thing I had last time I was there - because I resist change and love Brie - the veggie burger with brie cheese. Heather ordered these glazed chicken strips that looked DELICIOUS, so both Michelle and I have decided we are getting those next time we go (which just happens to be this Thursday, to see Emm Gryner).

On Friday I went for my 8th Quantum Release session. We are back onto the emotional thing. Between this session and my last one, Kevin ran me through his biofeedback machine and did a brain scan and checked out my nervous system and everything, and didn’t find much coming up on the physical side. He switched to emotional and WHOOSH, there it was. I said “but last time you told me what Pat said about my emotional health being responsible for my physical health was a load of crap…” and he said that she was right, after all. (I KNEW IT!) I have way, way, way more going on in there emotionally than he realized, we just broke through the surface. “But I feel good, emotionally,” I insisted. “I thought we were done that part?” Nope, we’re not. I grumbled and started to whine “how bloody much more is there?!?” and Kevin looked at me sternly and said “do you want to get better, or not?” “Well, yeah,… but, can I wait a couple weeks before coming again, because I won’t have the money until then.” He said he really didn’t want to stop now. “I will comp the session next week. And I want you to know, I don’t comp anybody. I told you at the beginning this wasn’t about the money. Do you believe me now?” Yeah, $540 in free treatments, I do believe him. Plus, after this session he asked me questions about certain times in my life and what was going on, because he felt certain things and wanted to be sure we were on par. And we were. Then he got me talking about my Dad, and my anger there, and low and behold, I talked and talked and talked… so I guess it’s not “all gone”. He then suggested I write it all out, do the “unsent letter” thing. I pouted that I sort of hoped I could just come to these sessions, lay back, and get it all out of me without having to dredge it all up again. He said although that is possible, it would take a lot longer. So, in order to move the process along, I need to do the journaling exercise that my friend/client/Coach Ken has been bugging me to do for years as well. OKAY FINE. I’ll write the damn letter!

I received a call the other day from a woman who recently had triplets, and doesn’t want to go back to work, but thinks doing bookkeeping from home like I do would be a good way to make a few bucks without leaving the babies. She has a similar work background to what I did before this, mostly working in the one-girl-office environment and doing everything, including some accounting, but never full-cycle bookkeeping. Unlike me, though, she has never worked directly for another accountant that she can call with questions when starting out, nor taken any accounting courses (I did enter the CGA program, I just didn’t get very far before I had to quit, but I did get straight A’s in Financial Accounting I, II, Business Law, Marketing, and Simply Accounting. Ahem). Anyway, she is coming over on Thursday morning and I’m going to show her “what I do” and how I set stuff up. To be honest, it would be nice to sort of train someone on how I do things, (THE RIGHT WAY), and have someone to refer people that are referred to me to (got that?) As much as I’d like to take on the World’s books and make sure they are done properly and everything is neatly reconciled, it’s just is not possible. I am but one mere human.

I guess I’m accident prone. Lots of people are using their Facebook Notes section to fill out those little surveys that go around, and many of them have questions like “Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? Have you ever had stitches? Have you ever had surgery?” And most people are all, “no, no, no”. WHAT?? Is that possible? I’m all “oh, hell yeah, I can’t count how many times!!” Geez. I actually do consider myself a lucky person overall, but those of you that have never needed an ambulance or surgery and have never had a broken bone or anything, you are some lucky people.

Speaking of being lucky, how about that couple in Ontario who won $32 million in the lottery, and while they were driving to Winnipeg to pick up their winnings, they bought a scratch and win ticket, and won another $10 million? I kid you not. It was on the morning news yesterday, but you think I can find a link?? No. You just have to believe me. How do I get me some of THAT lucky energy??

Speaking of accident prone, I fell the other day and landed smack on my tailbone. Many of you probably know how much that hurts, and since I cracked my tailbone when I was 14, it has always been a sensitive area. Anyway, my chiropractor has been away, so I’ve just had to wait it out. In the meantime, not getting treatment for that I believe led to pulling a muscle somehere around my ribs on my right side yesterday (while doing nothing strange - just drying myself off after my shower - it’s like it was just sitting there, waiting for me to turn that way or something) and now I am in SO MUCH PAIN, every move is agony. I will finally get to see my chiropractor tomorrow and he will fix me up, but until then I’m living on Tylenol while hunched over grabbing my ribs or lying down with a heating pad. I am soooore.

Robyn tagged the hundreds and thousands of people who read her journal, so since that includes me, I have been tagged! I’m going to try to think of things you don’t already know about me if you’ve been reading a long time, so this may be “Seven Things about my Past and Juicy Gossip”.

1. The oldest single I own was autographed by two of the members who wrote/played on it, almost 20 years later! Here’s the story. My first ever ‘45 single was “Boogie Oogie Oogie” by Taste of Honey (1978). Many years ago, I was working at a local talent agency and re-organizing their band files. I came across one for a “Don Johnson” whom I had met years before that, when he was playing drums at a gig with Steve Pineo. I read his file, and it turned out he had been the drummer for Taste of Honey. I thought that was cool, that he lived here now. In the mid-90’s, when I was doing accounting for a pub called the Unicorn, Don Johnson was coming in to sing with his new band. I came down that night and brought my single to get it autographed. He signed it and then told me “Perry Kibble is here, too” (another former Taste of Honey member and co-writer of the song). So I met Perry, and he also signed the single. I think that is so cool. Full circle moment. NB: Perry Kibble died a couple years later in 1999 of heart failure at the age of 49.
2. I used to work for the (Famous One Or Two Hit-Wonder Band That Shall Not Be Named). They used to own a chain of pubs across Canada and I worked at the Head Office, doing payroll and all kinds of stuff. After they fired the Best Accountant Ever who then Sued Them and Won, I took over most of her job as well, and worked there for as long as I could until I ethically could no longer take it. After I returned from a business trip to Toronto where I really saw Mr. CEO’s true colours and what my “options” were if I wanted to move up in the company, I quit. (Not the FOOTHWBTSNBN’s fault - they were nice guys, but not being involved in the day-to-day business, they weren’t aware what an asshole the CEO they hired was, and everyone was afraid to say anything because the Best Accountant Ever was fired after 35 years of service when SHE tried to say something). After I left, the Truth came out, (because… WHY would Donna leave?? There must be something going on…) and that CEO was fired. I then received calls at home from FOOTHWBTSNBN, begging my return (lalalalala! I rock!) but I was still unhappy with the people they chose to continue running the business and didn’t return, except to come in on Saturdays to help out the one person I DID like in the company (the new accountant) and she paid me big bucks to do so. But after a few months she had seen enough as well and was going to leave, and so I never returned, and shortly after that the main pub they owned in Calgary mysteriously shut down and the company went into receivership. NB: The FOOTHWBTSNBN are still milking the one or two hits they had in the 60’s and 70’s for all they are worth and keep releasing “Best Of” compilations and touring.
3. I once walked out on a job I stayed at for 6 weeks, which was the most pathetic working environment since FOOTHWBTSNBN, by going in at 8:00 in the morning, leaving an “I quit this bullshit” note on my boss’s chair, and going home before she even came in.
4. I used to work with a Freak Side Show. I really just sold tickets and worked the concession stand and helped with promo, but occasionally during rehearsals I would try different things, and I’ve done fire eating and tongue transfers with fire. When the show had to close its Calgary location, all the props (such as the 2 headed calf, creepy things in jars, the haunted Dummy) and carnival-like decor were stored in the basement of the house I lived in.
5. One of the stars of that Freak Side Show, the Impaler (he stuck long needles through various parts of his body and hung fish hooks from his chest, and he really did it… it wasn’t a trick… the guy was into being “tortured” and liked pain… his hero was Fakir Musafar) (do not click that if you have a weak stomach) was my room mate for awhile. He was 19 at the time. He pierced his own penis in our basement one evening. We had visitors, and were like… “don’t go downstairs!” When he was finished, he came upstairs as if nothing was any different, just another day. A few weeks later he took the piercing out when he was sleeping on a hide-a-bed at his parent’s place, and the ring at the end of his penis sort of slipped over a piece of metal at the side of the bed and hooked itself there, and he rolled over….

   Okay, I know, all you guys are hugging your privates right now, feeling his pain. Sorry. Some of these have very little do with things about ME, but I’m having fun reminiscing! Hehe But this is taking too long so the last two will be short and simple.

6. My biggest pet peeve is gum chewing or the sound of someone’s saliva smacking in their mouth. If you are anywhere near my ears and chewing gum or eating (and are a saliva smacker when you do it), then I am going to FREAK out and will try my best to do that politely and leave the room if I am able. But nothing makes me shiver with disgust more than that. Sometimes I’ll be beside a cab driver who is chewing gum, and I want to scream!!!
7. I always get excited about receiving, opening and reading my fortune cookie after a Chinese food meal, even though I don’t believe a single word of those at ALL.

If you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged as well, to write Seven Things about Yourself. You’re then supposed to tag seven people, but do whatever you want!

I’ve had a really busy week and haven’t updated so get yourselves comfy for a long one!

Sunday was Mother’s Day. My mom and Bob came into town, and I can finally mention WHY that box from Shaklee waiting for me at the post office was so damn heavy: because I bought my mom one of the Get Clean Healthy Home kits as well. I mean, that’s what moms do, right? Clean? Hehe Anyway, I knew she would appreciate it and she did.

We wanted to go to Olive Garden and hoped it wouldn’t be too much of a wait at 2:30… but of course, we were wrong. Over an hour wait, so we went next door to Red Lobster instead. I don’t like seafood, but they have a yummy chicken and spinach alfredo pasta dish just for me. And their bottomless baskets of biscuits… yum! We won’t even discuss the desserts… let’s just say, we all left overstuffed and feeling like we were going to be sick from eating so much. Yeah. Not smart.

On Monday, between working at home, I went for my second biofeedback session. During the session, Kevin mentioned that due to how deep-seeded my emotional blocks are, biofeedback could only do so much for me. I may want to consider Quantum Release Therapy instead, as it goes much deeper. I read the pamphlet explaining quantum release, and it’s like it was written for me personally:

Quantum Physics has shown us that everything in this world is energy. When events happen in our lives - whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, our energy patterns are affected. These shifts can affect us in many different ways and on many different levels. Some individuals experience this in their relationships, continually attracting people of a lower vibration into their lives. Others feel a sense of overwhelm or develop destructive subconscious beliefs and behaviours. In some cases, energy shifts can lead to acute or chronic physical conditions that negatively impact their quality of life.

While other forms of energy healing focus on the Chakras, Quantum Release Therapy goes much deeper, working at the basic energenic or quantum level. Using a combination of gentle touch and non-touch techniques, this non-invasive process realigns your body’s biorhythms, raises your vibrations and brings the body back to its natural state of balance.

Kevin stopped the biofeedback a few minutes early and gave me a little 20 minute quantum release freebie to give me an idea of what it’s like. I know it may sound crazy to some of you, but I have always believed that my health problems are deeply connected to my emotional crap from as far back as I can remember. And I’ve been through a lot. I know I have hung on to it and pushed it down deeper and deeper and used food to mask my pain and all that. To me, this quantum stuff makes perfect sense and I think it’s the answer I have been looking for all these years. So I’m going for it.

On Tuesday, my friend Lisa came over and before we left for lunch, she helped me clean up some broken glass from a vase of flowers I broke the day before (oops) and I showed her the transcript my mom typed up for me from the notes she took when I saw that psychic, Pat, on May 4th. She agreed that Pat is the REAL deal (she’s the one that told me about her) and was also amazed at my reading. Then we went for lunch at My Favourite Vietnamese Restaurant, where the service rarely comes with a smile, but the food is good. It was so good to see Lisa, we don’t get together nearly enough. She even brought treats and toys for Pita and Pepper (and some pastries for me, too. She figures, since she doesn’t eat chocolate anymore and is on a real health kick, she can’t eat all these treats she goes ga-ga over, so she buys them for other people to enjoy! So when, I wonder, is she going to visit Buttercream Bake Shoppe?)

On Wednesday, I worked at Troy’s. Melanie was there again, filling in for Crystal who was moving that day. Since Troy and a few of the techs were around at lunch time, Troy decided to take us all for lunch. Hooter’s was the place to be! Ladies’ Wednesday, so Mel and I got 20% off, and it was a gorgeous day so we sat on the patio. I drank a daiquiri because it was definitely the sort of day where you want to sit on the patio and have a slushy “girl drink”… but since this is Hooter’s, it comes in a big plastic cup with no little umbrellas or fruit or anything, so it sort of takes away from the whole mood I was looking for. It’s like… drinking your latte out of a beer mug. It just doesn’t feel right.

When I got home, my friend Anna-Marie from Toronto called. I haven’t talked to her in ages! I only had her work email address, so I’m glad she finally called because it turns out she was laid off several months ago. She’s pretty happy about it… she was there for many years and was feeling a lot of stress. She’s recently divorced and dealing with all that too, so now she has some time off to get her life sorted and maybe travel a bit (possibly to visit me this summer!) before looking for another job.

Then I went to the mall to go purse shopping. I realized I haven’t worn my pink Crocs yet, because my bag is orange, and I just can’t do that. Melanie has this great bag that is reversable… one side is pink and white, the other denim. I thought I would look for something like that, but I couldn’t find anything. I did, however, find the Perfect Neutral Purse at Bentley’s for only $19.97:

Velcro closures! No more fighting with snaps and zippers to close side pockets! And one side pocket is perfect for my cell phone, the other for keys, and the front for pens, lip stuff, etc. so no more losing those items to the deepest depths of my purse! Perfection!

And since they had piles of purses on sale, I snatched up a pink bag for $10 that has a long enough strap to wear like a messenger bag (that’s easiest for me!) and will go with my pink Crocs and another pair of pink sandals I have.

Okay, so they’re not the EXACT same colour of pink, but close enough.

So my designer bag with the material-that-always-gets-caught-in-the-zipper-and-drives-me-crazy will be retiring for awhile and I’m back to my good ‘ol cheap purses.

On Thursday, I worked at the Pub. It was a long day because I’ve got lots to do there, so I was earlier than usual, and wouldn’t you know it, my ride home was super late. After waiting half an hour I called Access to ask about it, and it turned out they hadn’t even dispatched a vehicle for me yet, they were still looking for a driver to take the trip. Which pisses me off, because I had scheduled the trip a week before! Because my schedule isn’t predictable, and I book my rides week by week, my trips are all considered “casual” so I’m not on any “regular” runs. If I worked at the same place on the same days and same hours every week, I would be on a regular subscription run and this wouldn’t happen to me so much. Well I’m SORRY my life doesn’t fit into your BOX.

The season finale of The Office was on Thursday night and it was great! I freakin’ love that show.

(Stolen from my cousin Carrie’s Facebook page):

Dwight Schrute: “Diwali is a celebration of the coronation of the God-king Rama, after his epic battle with Ravina, the demon-king of Lanka. It symbolizes the battle between good and evil.”

Michael Scott: “All right, all right. This isn’t Lord of the Rings.”

Friday (yesterday) I went for my first full-length quantum release session. After we finished, Kevin told me I have so many layers to get rid of… I am like this little person inside a box inside a box inside a box inside a box… about 14 times over. This is nothing new to me, I know it’s all in there pretty deep! He said it’s going to take awhile to get to the root of it all, bring it to the surface and release it. We’re just stirring it up a bit right now. He had told me before that he wants his clients to commit to 6 sessions before they start, which I agreed to, because nothing happens overnight. So I hope 6 sessions is enough, but I will do more if I need to. He also told me if I experience anger or sadness this week for no apparent reason, to just let it happen and not try to figure out what’s going on. I’m still a little worried that if things start “coming to the surface” I may just subconsciously push them down again, like I always have, but he assured me that won’t happen. I’m really hoping this is my answer.

Friday night I fell into the trap and joined Crackbook Facebook. I’ve got so many friends over there and I’d been hearing it’s better than MySpace and blah blah blah, so even after saying I’d never do it because I don’t NEED another place on the internet to be addicted to, I did it. It’s been 24 hours and I’m already addicted. Damn you, Facebook, damn you.

Today I worked and worked, then went to the mall, and tonight I’m catching up on my movie watching. Tomorrow I’m off to a BBQ at my friend Christine’s, which will be a BLAST. It’s her annual “girl’s only” BBQ and if it’s anything like last year, it will be a hoot!

Okay, this entry is long enough, it’s time to watch movies and cuddle with these two.

I looooooooooove my new duvet. Love, love, love it! Of course, it’s been hot in my bedroom at night lately, so I’ve mostly been kicking it off of me, but when I grab it back it’s luscious. Pepper, however, who used to spend a lot of time curled up on top of my bed, has moved to the runner on my dresser. I guess the duvet is too poofy for her taste. It’s very strange to walk into my bedroom and find her on top of my dresser. But she still sleeps on my pillow at night, so that’s all that matters.

Today I worked at my client Troy’s. Melanie, who has been on maternity leave, is working this week to help out because TROY IS OFF IN MEXICO GETTING MARRIED (!!). I’ve really missed her! She had a baby boy in February. Crystal ended up not coming in today for family reasons, so it was just Mel and I like old times. We went out for lunch and made sure to charge it to the company because Troy never got us anything for Secretary’s Week. Or Administrative Assistant’s Week or whatever the politically correct term is. Not that either of us are secretaries, but support staff that work in the office should be treated to lunch that week! And since he missed it, we took ourselves. Heh. Everyone hopes that Mel will come back to work before her mat. leave is up… personally, I think even if she came in for a few hours/week starting in the fall when it gets really busy, it will help immensely. She can even bring in the baby! We don’t care. We just want our Mel!!

Home Care has increased my help to 3 mornings/week now. It’s great! I don’t have the same lady I had back in August who was driving me crazy, thank God. I have one woman on Monday and Wednesday and someone different on Friday. (I’m not sure who yet, as there are two women who think they both come here tomorrow morning, so hopefully the office sorts that out). It’s so nice to have that bit of help… I get dressed so much faster, the bed gets made, and then if the garbage needs to be taken out or the floors swept, it’s done. It’s also nice, as a single woman with only one working hand, to have someone to properly wash my back in the shower and rub lotion on the places I can’t reach!!

I finally have my Shaklee eco-friendly cleaning products. They arrived at the post office a couple weeks ago, and when I went to pick up the parcel, it was WAY too big and heavy for me to take on my scooter. So, I was hoping my brother would be by at some point and we could grab it with a grocery cart during one of our mall treks. He’s been doing a lot of late nights at work though, so no visits. And the post office hours don’t agree with the schedules most of my friends with cars are on. Enter AH. Today after work he met me outside the mall so we could go in and pick it up, and he carried it to his car like a MAN. That is one heavy box, I tell ya (another reason I didn’t want to ask anyone else!) I rode my scooter back home and met him at my patio doors to let him in. He was already late for dinner (ohhhh, I want a wife!) otherwise I would have asked him to take me to the bank, as I have a nice cheque to deposit. A cheque that will allow me to go for two more biofeedback treatments this month and try out Sleepees, an herbal sleep aid. If it works, I’m going off those sleeping pills I take, even though they are free for me! I’d rather take something non-pharmaceutical if I can. So far nothing “natural” has worked, but I’m willing to try, and my biofeedback guy swears by these. (I didn’t know it was for weight loss too, but since I don’t believe in any magic weight loss pill, I’m not counting on that part!)

I’m still getting caught up on work. The lovely people at Living Well with a Chronic Illness have offered me a spot in their program starting June 5, since I missed so many classes because of my work load in March and April. That is SO great of them, and I will definitely have all this extra work done by then. Hopefully these clients can then be put on a regular schedule so I’m not scrambling in the Spring months to get them done. One has a year end of August 31, so once he’s caught up (I’ve got a couple years of stuff here) his books won’t be an issue at tax season. One of my regular clients that I have been doing (his books!!) for years, his business and his wife’s, hasn’t even called me since I told him how busy I was in February (that included what was supposed to be two days/week at Living Well, as well as working at the Pub and Troy’s, and tax season coming up). Normally I would call them asking about it, but I’m so busy now it doesn’t bother me in the least if they found someone else. He wanted me to start coming to their house one day/week anyway… and there is no way I can do that. So hopefully they found someone with more time to keep them organized.

Today one of my favourite websites, Big Fat Deal, posted about Positive Songs for Girls who Rock Their Curves. I commented and led people to Lynne Jordan’s website, where if you forward her player to the second song, “It Takes a Great Big Woman”, you will rock your curves. So I’ll leave you with that.

I had a really busy week, it was great. On Wednesday, I was visited by my Home Care OT and a sales rep from the medical supply store I deal with, and he installed my stripper pole in the front window. Now I can safely step out and in from my patio doors with something to hold onto. He will be returning soon with another pole for beside my bed, and another grab bar for my shower. He also left me with information on elecronic lift chairs and how to go about getting funding for one. I swear, the recliner I have now is going to break soon, I push and pull on it SO HARD every time I struggle to get up from it. Plus, the cats have clawed it to death so I’d kind of like it replaced with something they don’t recognize so I can train them to NOT claw at it. ‘Cause I CAN train them, you know.

Show times are daily at 3:00, 5:00 and 7:00 pm and involve lots of… um… kitty action.

Pita practices her moves.

On Thursday, I worked at the Pub, although I barely got anything done. I really only had time to organize all the work I’ll be doing when I go back next week. I haven’t been there in awhile, so there was a lot of paper to sort through.

Christine made me a stir fry for lunch, most of which ended up on my white shirt, and my Tide to Go pen didn’t help much. Needless to say, I didn’t feel classy enough to be going to the salon we went to afterwards. Kevin drove Christine and I to Scentorini for our pedicures. It is one of those beautiful, tranquil spas where before your treatment you sit in this comfortable lounge with those BIG armed chairs and sofas and are served coffee or tea while you wait. Because it was my first time there, I had to fill out a bunch of forms about my health, and because filling out forms isn’t something I do anymore without a computer, Christine did the writing for me. She actually wrote “too many to list” when they asked if I’d ever had any accidents or surgeries. We just sat there and laughed as we went over everything that has happened to me over the years. What else can you do?? Christine remembers cooking meals for me and bringing them over after a surgery I had about 12 years ago, and then she did it again this past August, and she has pretty much been around for everything in between.

Anyway, we had our pedicures and it was lovely. Paraffin wax and everything. I also found out, via the girl doing my pedicure who lives near me, that there is a new Nail place in my mall I didn’t know about. It’s tucked away in an area I never go to, and last time I checked it was a hair salon that didn’t do nails. So, YAY, I now have a place next door again where I can get cheap pedicures. ‘Whew.

It was POURING rain, so we had time-called a taxi to pick us up at 4:30 (and it took forever to get through). We sat in their reception area and our cab never showed up. We kept calling, but we couldn’t get through. We ended up having to wait for Kevin to finish up at the Pub so he could pick us up. I was finally home by 6:00.

Shortly after that my mom and Bob arrived, bringing McDonald’s with them because we had all had long days and they just wanted to grab something quick on the way here. I said “get me something, too!” because I was too tired to do anything food-prep wise. Bob returned to Strathmore to face life on his own for two days while I kept my mom. You know, he really doesn’t know what to do without her. It’s kind of sweet, but it’s also kind of annoying for me when the phone rings constantly and it’s him. At one point I yelled “you’ve had her all week! Give me two days!” Heh.

We watched TV (Yay for the Office!) and then went to bed.

The next morning we did a few things around here, and my new duvet arrived, before we headed out for the afternoon. I’m not going to go into great details about what we did, because it involved seeing a psychic/medium/medical intuitive/energy healer type woman, and I know lots of people don’t believe in that stuff and I don’t want to go into it too much here. However, she was amazing, right on about so many things and so many people, and had a lot of interesting things to say about my health. Basically, she confirmed a lot of things that I already knew and believed, but it was nice to hear it from someone else who has never even met me before. Then I went for a biofeedback treatment, and I’m going to go back a couple more times. My health problems, I believe and she confirmed, are mostly caused by my emotional health and things from my past and issues with my Father. (I haven’t spoken to my father in almost 4 years). Although I have disconnected from him physically, I still have a lot of work to do to disconnect from him emotionally. So that is my goal this year, and she said this is MY YEAR. That I will be in much better health once I accomplish that, and I’m 50% there.

Oh there I go, already saying more than I wanted to! Anyway, she was the real deal. She said so many things about me and people in my life that was right on the mark (even AH, she talked about him having been estranged from his son, [and how did she even know he has a son, never mind that he was separated from him?], and that I can trust him as a friend. She said he is trying to be a better person now and needs to be forgiven for his mistakes from the past. Which is so true. And that he has “managing issues” (whether she meant time-management or control-management I don’t know, but she would be right on both accounts!)

This woman put any other psychic-type person I have ever seen to shame. But I still say, even a meeting with a not-so-good psychic is worth more than paying a therapist. You just get so much more out of one visit, they are such intuitive people. You walk out feeling very hopeful about your future and how to make it better. My mom was with me during everything (she was my note-taker, Pat doesn’t record sessions) and gets why I think that now.

I’ll be going for another biofeedback session soon. I want to give it a good three tries before I make up my mind about its benefits.

After all that, mom and I went for a bite to eat at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant and tried to get through to a cab company. It took awhile (it was pouring rain again), but we finally got one and made it home. Flaked out, watched Thank You for Smoking, and went to bed.

Saturday (a beautiful day), we went to our chiropractor and for a quick lunch, then came back here, hopped on our scooters, and headed to the mall. My mom has a mobility scooter too, and it was finally removed from the back of their van so she could use it while visiting me. It’s not possible to talk while shopping when you’re both on scooters, so it’s really more about getting from A to B without hitting people and making sure not to lose the other person. We went to Cotton Ginny (I bought a top, mom bought pants), Wal-Mart, and I showed her the wonderfulness that is Dollarama. She spent $10 and came out with loads of great stuff. All hail Dollarama!

Bob picked her up around 6:00 and they went back to Strathmore. I stayed home and tried to watch Clerks 2, but I couldn’t do it. Sorry Clerks fans, I just couldn’t make it past the first half hour. Yes, Joi, it was worse than the Trailer Park Boys movie. I was in bed by 10:00.

Today, my friend Pam came by to take me for dessert and coffee at Olive Garden. We ended up starting off with a pizza to share before going into the lattes and dessert, because it’s really hard to go to Olive Garden and not eat breadsticks (which come with everything). It was lovely. Afterwards, Pam came back here and put my new duvet into my new duvet cover, so my bedroom is FINALLY complete! We even went to the mall and bought new pillows to fill the shams that came with the duvet cover. My old shams were smaller and the thin pillows I had were fine, but the new shams are a lot bigger and needed bigger pillows! So, the bedroom re-decorating project is now complete:

I can’t wait to sleep there tonight!