Day 10 - Jujubes and the first robin of spring

Ten days down. No one knows how many to go or if someone does, they sure aren't saying.

Work was pretty quiet today though I did have a small research project to do this morning and managed to get it done. m

The weather cooperated and warmed up today and we even saw the sun for a bit. Kristina stopped by over the lunch hour so I had a walking buddy today. We saw a male cardinal and heard a couple cardinals signing away. On the way back, we saw a cat on one of the pathways. At first we thought the man in front of the cat was walking it but no, the cat was just following him. It eventaully lost interest and came back up onto the same path we were on. When we got to the end of the path, there was a very vocal and pissed off squirrel in one of the trees. I suspect that the cat was the reason for its displeasure. That's also where I saw my first robin of the spring! I've heard them a coupel of different evenings over the last week or so but haven't been able to see one. Until today. I'm rather pleased abot that. It was in a bush when I first saw it and then it hopped down and was flipping leaves over, looking for worms and bugs. It was funny to watch. It was nice to get out and stretch my legs, get fresh air into my lungs and speak to a human in person!

My eagle eyes spotted him hopping in the bushes!

Before all that, I attempted to use the video call feature on Facebook to chat with my mom. Took three tries but we got it!!! Apparently the call kept ringing on my dad's tablet and my mom was going to throw it out the window to make it stop. LOL. It was nice seeing them though my mom was mean and showed me the big bag of jujubes that she's been holding onto for me. I'll hopefully see them both in person soon and can finally collect my jujubes.

I spent a lot of my free time today reading. I was really getting close to the end of my book and I wanted to finish it. I'm reading the Outlander series. I had started by watching the TV show but once I was told that the books were better, I switched to the books. Halfway through the second book, I caught up to where I left off with the TV show. Now I can finish watching the second season of the show! I also have to start reading the third book to see when and where Claire and Jamie reunite!!!!

All in all, today was a much better day. Last night's blog was cathartic I think and getting some of my thoughts out of my head made me feel lighter. I slept a little better too. Tomorrow is my Friday as I had one "use it or lose it" leave day left so I decided to use it. No friggin' clue what I'm going to do with my day since I can't really do much. Perhaps I'll go on a grocery run. The weather's supposed to be nice so a walk is definately in order. Maybe I'll bake something. Who knows. I'll figure something out.

“I will find you," he whispered in my ear. "I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you - then that is my punishment, which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, and killed, and stolen; betrayed and broken trust. But there is the one thing that shall lie in the balance. When I shall stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest."

His voice dropped, nearly to a whisper, and his arms tightened around me.

Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.” ― Diana Gabaldon, Dragonfly in Amber

Day 5 - Wild Weather, Dogs and Seafood

This day went so differently than I thought it would have gone a week ago. I was supposed to have checked into the hospital at 8 this morning. Somewhere around 9:35am, I should have been leaving surgery, with my knee fixed. I should have spent a groggy afternoon worring about what my parents were doing to my apartment while I was incapasitated. Instead of eating alone while watching the news, I should have been having dinner with my Mom and Dad. Clearly the Universe had different plans. I am sad. I am disappointed. But I have no control over the situation or circumsances that lead to the change in plans. So I have to just let it go and roll with it. My surgery will be rescheduled at some point and I'll get to see my parents again soon. Trust me, if this social distancing thing goes on longer than a few weeks, I'm out of here. I'm running away and am going home!!

Over all, I think today was the best day of the week. Partly because I'm starting to adapt to my new norm and partly because it's normal to feel happy that it's Friday. While my plans for the weekend really aren't all that different than my plans for the week, the major difference is that I don't have to work :)

Given that things were a wee  bit slow on the work front, I decided to make muffins, so that I'd had something yummy for my morning snack. I ended up making Oatmeal-Orange muffins with dried canberries. I gotta say, they're one of the best muffins I've made. I swapped out the sugar and used Splenda instead and they were still awesome. I ate three of them today (not all at the same time!).

Oatmeal Orange Muffins with dried cranberries

Our weather was a strange one. Started the morning off at +2, hit+14 this afternoon and we're currently sitting at -2 (feels like -9 with the windchill), on our way down to -10.  We had rain earlier and now we may see flurries. Welcome to spring in Canada. If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.

I got out for a walk during the warm but windy part and made it home before it rained. I saw a lot more people today. Probably close to a dozen people plus five dogs and three people on bikes. I watched one guy on a bike almost wipe out on some ice on a pathway. People smiled and said hi. Some even stopped for a moment and chatted, all while keeping a respectable distance.

This evening, I supported a local food truck. They've set up shop in another local business' parking lot and for the first time, are offering delivery! So I got my seafood fix tonight with some tender calamari and flakey battered fish. It was nice. I think I've met my deep fried quota for the week though. LOL.

Fish with veggie chips and calamari fritti

I also only watched the news once today. I watched it for a bit this morning. Other than hearing the top of the hour news update on the radio, that was all I exposed myself to today.

I did a lot of reading this afternoon/evening/night. I'm hooked on the Outlander series. I started with the tv show and then several people told me how awesome the books are so I stopped the show and started in on the books, which are 900-1000 pages long. Anyhow, I'm on book two, Drangonfly in Amber and I finally reached the point in the book where I passed where I stopped watching the tv show. Up to now, I had an idea of what was going to happen. Now I don't, so I got much more engrossed in the book. It's a lovely way to kill time.

Tomorrow should be interesting. I have to leave my nest (aka, my apartment) and I have to go to the bank and to a grocery store. I'd better make a good list, I don't want to have to go out again mid-week. Should be an interesting time.

"Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won't have a title until much later." - Bob Goff

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

Eyes Open, Wide Awake.

I'm beginning to thing that having a Starbucks grande Caramel Brulee latte this evening was a bad idea. It's 10:40pm and I'm pretty much still wide awake. Actually, I've had a crazy productive day and it feels awesome. And I didn't take my iPod with me when I was out today. Usually I turn it on and tune out the world. I love being able to escape into the music but today I decided I needed a break from my own head and choose to explore without my tunes. It made for an interesting day.

I got 3 loads of laundry done, a whole mess of dishes done, rotated my mattress and changed the bedding, put the laundry away, took the recycling out, did some minimal Christmas shopping and ran a bunch of errands at 2 different malls (by bus no less), made dinner and I'm pretty sure I had a shower somewhere in the middle of all of that. I hope that this productivity runs over into tomorrow. I really want to get my apartment re-organized soon. I don't think the clutter is helping my mood much.

I'd also like to get some baking done :)

Being wide awake today, I noticed/had a few odd things happen. First off is the strange guy who keeps trying to get into our apartment building. One evening last week, he buzzed everyone in the building until some idiot let him in. He then started knocking on random doors asking people if they "knew where the lady with no teeth lived". I was smart and didn't answer my door door when he knocked. So today, someone starts buzzing everyone again. I decided to go downstairs to see who it was as one of my neighbours has been known to accidentally lock herself out while letting her dog out. I get down the stairs and it's the strange guy again. I stopped halfway down the stairs and asked him what he wanted. He said that he lives in 106. Yeah. I don't think so. I've seen the new people from 106 and I'm pretty sure it's a white couple and this is a black dude. So I told him that I didn't know him and I wasn't letting him in and I went back upstairs. I talked to one of me neighbours about him and she mentioned that she'd seen him on a different day too, doing the same thing. I think it's time to talk to building management again and get them to remind the tenants about "stranger danger".

On my way out to the 2nd mall of the day, I passed one of my neighbours on the stairs. He was wearing fuzzy pj bottoms with penguins and was just in sock feet. This isn't too odd but he'd just come in from the garbage room like that. Ewwww. I'd never venture out of my apartment without shoes on and definitely wouldn't go to the garbage room without foot ware.

When I got to mall # 2, I'm walking through the one covered parking area and a guy comes out of the mall, with his iPod on, signing at the top of his voice. LOL. It was quite amusing. He seems oblivious to everyone around him and seemed rather happy. Good on him :)

I also should point that I did not kill the girl on the bus who was using it as her own personal jungle gym. She was swinging from the handles that you use to hang onto when you can't reach a pole. And I didn't bitch slap her mother who was letting her do it either. At one point, she almost fell out the door when she swung too close to the open door. Frankly, I think it would have served her right. All her mom said was "watch out for the door". WTF?? And it was an older kid/mom too. I'd say the mom was in her early 40s and the kid was 10-12. I would have never been allowed to act like that on a public bus when I was a kid, nor would I have tried. I was raised better than that.

I picked up a new book today too. I'm switching from Vampires to Werewolves for a change of pace. And this one is written for grown-ups too. I was reading the first book in the "Game of Thrones" series but I'm finding it really hard to get into and I've been watching the first season on DVD so I already know what happens in the book. I read the first chapter of this book over lunch and it seems pretty good so I'll give it a chance.

It's pretty cool what you see and notice when you really focus on and pay attention to the world around you.

I probably should go and finish making my bed and then maybe I'll curl up and read more of my new book and see if that counter-acts the latte. LOL.

Good Night!

Sarah

Afternoon Delight

It was a rather quiet day today. Originally we were going to go to the beach but thanks to the weather not being what was originally forecast and my stomach deciding to pitch a fit, we ended up staying close to home and just ran some errands. I did end up with $25 worth of K-Cups in a whole variety of flavours and 3 bags of the Asparagus flower pasta that I love. So that was good. The rest of the day was spent reading.

I love to read. I love to be able to just sit, relax and let my imagination brings the words to life. Books can take you anywhere. They can make you believe in anything. They can invoke the whole gamete of emotions. Some say movies do the same, but not to the extent that books do. When you watch a movie, you see someone else's ideas of what the characters look like. You see someone else's idea of what a place looks like. With books, you get the description of the people and places from the author, but it's up to you to make them come to life in your head. It's one of the reason why I'm not a huge fan of movies that come from books. You get an idea in your head about what things look like and often the actors/actresses don't match what you have in your head.

This happened to me with "One for the Money". I adore Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. The books are funny and make for a very entertaining read. I was actually excited to hear that the first book was being made into a movie. Unfortunately, only 3 actors lived up to my mental image of the characters. I think when a book is being made into a movie, the fans should get to vote and select the actors rather than a casting agent.

In case you really want to know, I'm currently reading "Shadow of Night" by Deborah Harkness. It's the 2nd book in a 3 book series. The first book is "A Discovery of Witches". Both books are very well written and are intelligent and full of all kinds of interesting facts and ideas. Yes, it does involve Witches and Vampires (sorry, no werewolves but there are Demons....but they're not what you think) but this isn't anything remotely close to Twilight. It kind of makes me want to study science :)
I'm fortunate to come from a family of readers. My mom always has a book on the go and so did my grandmother. She was actually a volunteer who would take library books to shut-ins. So reading runs in my family and is important. Books provide entertainment and knowledge. You can learn something new or escape to a far away place, fall in love or get scared to death.

One day I will write a book and send it out into the world for others to enjoy.

I'm off to Stratford tomorrow to see a play at the Festival Theatre. We're seeing "Much Ado About Nothing" written by one of my all time favourite authors, William Shakespeare. I'm rather excited. But more on that tomorrow.

One more thing before I end the blog tonight. Today is the 100th birthday of Julia Child. She was an incredible woman, full of great character, full of life and possibly full of butter. She was first introduced to me by my high school home ec. teacher and I've loved her ever since. I hope to one day be able to cook like she did: with reckless abandon and no fear at all. She died in 2004 at the age of 91, so maybe there's something to the butter thing after all. And the wine. Bon Appétit Julia!

Good Night All.

Sarah