Happy Birthday from a Grateful Mind

What a wonderful day it's been!

My morning started off with my mom calling to wish me a happy birthday and telling me all about a humming bird she saw in the backyard. It's pretty early for humming birds, so this really was something special. Mom said that it was a sign of good luck for me since it appeared on my birthday.

At work, a lot of my co-workers wished me a happy birthday and Xtina gave me a lovely candle from Bath and Body Works. One of our newer staff, MA, make strawberry shortcake for my birthday, which we ate out of red solo cups, which was awesome. In the afternoon, my co-worker and I had our last French class for this session. We both passed :) So we celebrated with some cupcakes that I baked. After class, the pair of us had coffee with our teacher and thanked her for making class fun.

After work, I met up with NB and we went out for dinner. We caught up and decided that we're far too young to be this old so there must have been a mistake somewhere along the way!! We split a free dessert which was served with a sparkler in it. That's as close as I've come to blowing out a candle today.

Right now, I'm doing the dishes and trying to think if I forgot to pack anything. I'm heading home for the long weekend and for a party for my great aunt, who turns 80 tomorrow. That certainly puts turning 35 into perspective. I'm really looking forward to getting home to see my family. I haven't seen them since Christmas. Plus I get to do some celebrating, which is great. I usually miss all the family parties.

LOL. I just discovered that the Google Doodle for today is Google wishing me a happy birthday! That's pretty freakin' cool. Guess it helps when you have a Google profile. Awesome.

Since I still have a sink full of dishes and I should have been in bed 11 minutes ago, I'm going to borrow someone else's wise words tonight:

"Pleas'd look forward, pleas'd to look behind,
And count each birthday with a grateful mind."
~ Alexander Pope

Good Night!

Sarah

Saying Goodbye to 34.

In just over a few hours, I will hit the mid-point of the current decade of my age. Technically it's more like 14 hours since I was born in the evening, but you get the drift.

5 years ago, I was miserable. Even though I go to go home and see my family for my birthday, I was very unhappy. Almost nothing in my life had turned out like I planned. And that made me very, very sad. But here I am, just 5 short years later and almost everything seems so different. I'm happy. I'm once again heading home to see my family and I'm excited about it. I'm really looking forward to it. A lot of those same plans I had 5 years ago still haven't worked out, but it doesn't bother me anymore. You know the old joke "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans"? Yeah, I've kind of learnt to live by that one. Just roll with it. Stop worrying so much.Have faith that the Universe isn't going to drop me on my ass. Let go of the past and the negativity that goes with it. Smile more. Smile for no reason. Love. Just love everyone you can, as often as you can. And stop beating yourself up when you think you've failed. Not every failure is an end or a failure at all.

I've grown so much over the last 5 years that I can hardly believe it. Here's hoping for many, many, many more years of wisdom and happiness. Goodbye 34, you've been awesome!

Good Night!

Sarah

This photo should be a clear indicator to which decade I was born in!

Laundry and an Overwhelmed Bladder

After a pretty stellar week weather wise, Mother Nature returned spring to us today. It was cool and rainy. But I'm not complaining. We really needed the rain (ok, maybe not the areas that are flooded but the tulips needed rain) and it was the perfect day for doing house work.

I managed to get 5 loads of laundry done. Yes, I said 5. And those loads didn't include any bedding or towels. They can wait until next laundry day. You see, I cleaned my bedroom about 2 weeks ago. This entailed discovering all kinds of odds and ends of clothing, creatively hidden. Some were on the floor of my closet or stuffed under the bed etc... Still didn't find mates for all my un-matched socks though. Anyhow, my apartment is now littered with clothing. I did two loads of "delicates" which simply means "can not go in dryer". I bunch are hanging in the bathroom, the "lay flat to dry and reshape while wet" are in the living room and I have several tank tops hanging off door knobs. You know, I never really understood the "reshape while wet" thing. It's a t-shirt. It came out of the washer looking like a t-shirt. How do you reshape it? Am I supposed to make it looking like a nightie or something? Weird.

I also did up all the rogue dishes. I have a terrible habit of only doing dishes every 2-3 days. I really need to learn to do them every day. But then I feel silly using the same plate/bowl over and over again since it's being washed and put back in the cupboard every day. I'm afraid that the other dishes will get jealous and revolt if I don't use them. Don't think dishes can come to life? Well then you've never seen Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I just wish mine would make the food themselves and then wash themselves afterwards like they do in the movie. That would be pretty sweet.

While on my cleaning spree today, I decided to spice up my water a bit. I bought some strawberries yesterday so I sliced up a couple of them and put them in my water glass. I've done this with lemons before too. It makes a very nice glass of lightly flavoured water (natural too). Well I liked it a lot, so I drank a lot of water today, which is very good. Just try telling that to my bladder. I think I've had to pee every 20-30 minutes for the last 8 hours. It's highly annoying. My bladder's like "WTF Lady? You trying to drowned me??" Maybe I am. I have a "sensitive" bladder to start with so I guess it didn't appreciate all the extra water. I've been told that it's possible to train your bladder to hold more liquid without feeling the need to pee but I kind of think it's just bs. Maybe I'll try it again tomorrow and see what happens.

I made my favourite pasta and lentil soup for dinner tonight (a very domestic day for me!). It was my best batch yet. I added in some marinaded tofu that I browned up first and it went really well with the soup. I also added in some smoked paprika and some Old Bay seasoning this time. It really made the broth yummy. I also cut back on the amount of lentils and pasta that went into it, so I had a more broth like soup. I find that it tends to thicken up quite a bit when you use the full amount that the recipe calls for. I have leftover soup for lunch tomorrow as well as some to go into the freezer for dinner another night. I think I might make muffins or something tomorrow. We'll see.

But now I think it's time to go and crawl into bed with my book...after I clear what's left of the clean laundry off my bed! I was good and put most of the dry stuff away already. I guess the rest are on my "to do" list for tomorrow.

Good Night!

Sarah

More tulips which were probably very happy about today's rain!

Tulips and Playoff Hockey (How Canadian Eh!)

Ok, this is going to be a very quick one since it's past my bedtime and I've had a lot of fresh air and excitement today/tonight.

Work was, well, it's usual interesting self. A near miss of a cluster-fuck this morning but some quick thinking and good timing made everything ok and we carried on like we knew what the hell we were doing. Thankfully the afternoon ran much smoother and involved cake.

After work, a cluster-fuck did occur. There was a "suspicious" package found near the headquarters of National Defense so they closed one of the bridges...the one the buses run on. So....all the buses had to do a little detour which backed everything up. I was supposed to race home and get changed and meet Steph since we were going to go and see the tulips tonight. After 45 minutes of waiting, Steph told me to get on any bus heading to Tunny's (one of the major stops) and she'd rescue me. So that's what I did and that's what she did and I got a freezie for my efforts.

So we flew to my place, I changed and we headed back out to go to see the tulips. They were well worth the effort. The tulips were stunning (as usual) and I think the slowly setting sun made them even more beautiful than usual. Almost every bed was out in full bloom, which is amazing since a week ago they were all still in tight buds or weren't up yet. The weather was perfect and the park wasn't too crowded. We ran into a co-worker and his wife out for a stroll too. Everyone we saw was smiling and happy. It was just so pretty, peaceful and calming. Mother Nature really knocked one out of the park with this.

My good mood was slightly spoiled when Steph and I returned to the car, turned on the sports radio station and discovered the Montreal was winning 2-0 at the midway point of the 2nd period. Hmmm. Not good news but not the end of the world. I opted to watch a re-run of Big Bang while I had my dinner and then flipped to the hockey game to see the Ottawa had scored, making it 2-1. This is good. Ottawa kept fighting...and with 22.6 seconds left to play, they performed a hail mary and scored!!!!!!! Tie Game!!!! We're going to Overtime. Now that is playoff hockey. It would appear that Montreal's goalie hurt himself on his last save so it was their backup on the ice for the first OT period. And then, 2 minutes and 36 seconds into Overtime, Ottawa scored and we won the game!!!!!!!! Thank God/Goddess/Universe etc... I don't think my fingernails were going to last the night. Insane. But now I'm really happy and really sleepy.

Good Night!

Sarah

Oh, What A Night

Yes, I have a Billy Joel song stuck in my head (and yes, I know that it's a cover of the 4 Seasons)

I think I spent a wee too much time in the sun yesterday. I could hardly keep my eyes open by bed time. I almost didn't make it all the way through the hockey game (which Ottawa won 6-1). Actually, it was more of a boxing match than a hockey game. Both teams were running out of players. I haven't seen anything quite like it before.

Work today was....frustrating. It's a case of "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" or maybe a "too many cooks in the kitchen". Either way, it leads to frustration because you can't really move ahead until everyone is moving in the same direction. And it's not just me who's frustrated. I can see it on the faces and in the eyes of some of the people I work directly with. It's hard. Something I'd love to offer up my thoughts and suggestions but I don't feel that it's my place to do so. Instead, I support where I can and just keep at it, knowing that things will all work out in their own time.

Our weather was fantastic again today. 27 and sunny. A little too warm for May in my opinion but I'll take it. It does look like spring will return for us on the weekend though.

My evening was pretty good. I had every intention of doing the dishes but I never got there. I watched a new episode of Castle and then starting to putter about. Without going into details, because some of my life I still wish to keep private, I took a leap of faith and started to put into action some things to help me live a happier life. A few baby steps on the way to living the life I want to live. It was a moving experience and my soul feels happy tonight. That's the only way I can explain it. I really think that God/The Universe/The Goddess....whoever, whatever may have given me something that I've been asking for. Something I've been requesting for some time now. It's possible that I had earlier and was just too closed off to see it or maybe I just got it. I'm looking forward to seeing where this new path leads.

Don't worry if I sound like I'm not making sense. I assure you, I'm not off my rocker. Well, no more than usual. It makes sense in my head and that's all that matters at the moment. Perhaps I'll work on some clarity next.

Good Night!

Sarah

The Little Things In Life

Since my eyes seem to be staying open for the time being, I decided to blog since I haven't done it in what feels like forever. It's actually been about a week but you get my point.

It was a very odd week. I was very tired all week. My inconsiderate neighbours helped me out Wednesday and Thursday night with the no sleeping thing. On Wednesday, there were a bunch of people out back from 3 different cars. In addition to the car doors slamming, the inconsiderate bunch were standing around smoking and talking....at midnight. WTF? Middle of the week. Don't people have jobs?? The next night, my new downstairs neighbour had some people over and they woke me up at 10:18pm, 11:25pm, Midnight and 12:25pm - they kept going out on the balcony to have a smoke and kept talking/laughing. Not to mention the fact that the dude keeps slamming the screen door shut. The guy who lives across the hall from me broke his ankle and has to go up and down the stairs on crutches (and he's a big dude too, I think about 6'3"). His hopping/operating of the crutches up and down the stairs is quieter than some of the jackasses in my building.

Besides my lack of sleep, things at the office were "off" this week. We're coming up to a big transition period where most of our casuals are leaving and we're getting a new crop in and I think that has a lot of people on edge. There seems to be a lot of stress and tension in the office. It wasn't an overly positive environment this week. And there seemed to be a good deal of "personal drama" that spilled into the office too. Maybe everyone has spring fever. Who knows. I'm just happy that the weekend's here and I can relax.

I had an absolutely fantastic day today. It started off with me getting to sleep in. I got to pull my summer clothes out of the closet and re-discover things I forgot I owned. I headed out with Stephanee today. I haven't been out with her in quite a while. It was nice to hang out again. Even though I'd been upset with her, I still missed spending time with her. I've spent a lot of time alone over the last 2 months, mostly by choice. I needed the solitude. I spent a good deal of time thinking and reflecting on life and myself and my goals and dreams. I needed to do it. And am happier now as a result. Just like we spring clean our homes, it's nice to do a spring cleaning of our minds too.

Steph picked me up around 11:15 am and we headed out to Dollarama where we nearly froze to death. Their AC works quite well apparently. We then decided to grab lunch and head for the river. We found a nice picnic table and ate lunch before heading down one of the pathways along the Ottawa River. It was beautiful. The rapids were crazy, the Canadian geese were everywhere, the birds were signing, we saw a wood pecker and a hawk and the temperature was perfect. It looked like spring but felt like summer.

After the path on the Ottawa side of the river, we headed into Quebec and took a walking path along the river on the Gatineau side. We were able to get quite close to some rapids there. We then decided that we needed to cool down (partly due to the weather, partly the scenery...) so we headed to DQ for some treats, which we then went and ate at Britannia Beach/Park. After the treats we walked some more and ventured out onto the rock bluff at the beach. We walked most of it until we encountered a large group of spiders so we turned around and headed back. It was actually quite funny. I said to Steph "We might want to head back. I can count 5 spiders on the rock ahead of us". I turned around and Steph was already half way back down the bluff!!!! LOL. We saw a turtle sunning itself on a log too.

After that we decided we needed a cooler destination so we opted for Chapters. I needed a new book anyhow, so it was a good choice. After getting said book, we headed into Starbucks for their half price Frappachinos. I managed to score us a free one too, which one of Steph's husband's co-workers ended up enjoying. Once home, I ventured onto the balcony where I sat and read and drank my Starbucks for the better part of an hour and a half. I decided I should make dinner then. I had a lovely t-bone steak with some corn and a nice salad and a can of Pear Cider. A perfect Saturday dinner. After dinner, I had a very relaxing, very refreshing and very welcome shower. My feet were nearly black from wearing my flip flops all day.

And now I'm sitting at the computer, blogging and thinking about uploading the photos from my day. After this, I'm going to curl up and read for a bit more before heading to bed. I wish I had a light on my balcony so I could read out there. That might be bad though. I might never go to bed.

If you're out in the sunshine this weekend, remember your sunscreen (I did!) and enjoy.

Good Night!

Sarah