Ouch. Ouch. Ouch....

I. AM. IN. PAIN. Seriously. Everything hurts. Even sitting upright hurts because you engage your abs to do so and those fuckers hurt the most. Standing waiting for the bus hurt. Walking from my bus stop to my house hurt. I don't think we ever fully appreciate how we use our muscles until we've done something to make them hurt. It was a hard workout today so that's why I'm in pain tonight.

My first weigh in was on Monday. It went well. I'm down 4.25lbs. Thank god. It was a rough week. Trying to completely overhaul your way of life is exhausting. And expensive. Healthy food really does seem to cost more and I need to buy new runners soon. Sigh. It's all worth it though, right?

Things at work have been going well. It's been busy but not crazy. I've been given a new set of responsibilities thanks to even more changes at the office but I'm cautiously optimistic about them. Change is a fact of life. I need to make peace with that sooner or later. And sooner is most likely the best option. I'm also working with one of our newer employees on planning our office holiday party. It's been fun and is a nice distraction from the regular routine of the office.

I'm back to the gym on Friday and I can't say I'm looking forward to it. LOL. Hopefully some of the sore muscles calm down a bit before then. Especially since I'm meeting up with someone for coffee after the gym on Friday. I need to be in one piece and functioning! Keep your fingers crossed.

Ok, I'm limping away from the computer now. I can hear my bed calling me from the other room. Sometimes I wish I could stay there all day. But I guess that's what the weekend's for!!

Good Night!

Sarah

I bet a few of those would make the pain go away....LOL!

Clean-Sweep of a Weekend :)

It was a pretty quiet weekend here. I didn't actually really leave my apartment, except for the trips I made to take the garbage and recycling downstairs. The weather wasn't the greatest so I didn't mind being indoors. When the sun made an appearance late this afternoon, I did go and stand on my balcony. I stood in the sun, closed my eyes, and soaked in the warmth and happiness for a little while. While I was out there, two chickadees came along and were eating the seeds and nuts that I put out for them. They didn't seem to mind that I was there.

I spent all weekend cleaning and re-organizing. Or trying to at least. It would appear that my idea of re-oganization is moving a pile of stuff from one spot to another. I quite literally got down on my hands and knees and was scrubbing the grout on my kitchen floor this afternoon. It paid off too. Literally. I found a toonie wedged under the baseboard by my kitchen door. I pried it out and now have $2 more than I had this morning.

When I booked the trip to Montreal, it seemed so far away. And now it's almost here. 4 more sleeps :) I'm sure I'll be a little more excited about it once I'm finished with my apartment and I've made it through work this week. I'm really looking forward to just relaxing and spending time with a good friend and a change of scenery. Maybe getting a difference perspective on things. And on the bright side, I'll have finished my spring cleaning so I can go out and play on the weekends again!! I really do need to over-haul my bedroom though - but it can wait a bit long.

Good Night!

Sarah

Blog trivia - this is the photo that I used on my very first blog.

Sleepy Thursday

After all of my excitement yesterday, you think I would have passed right out. But no. Firstly, my hot, soothing bath backfired. I was too hot afterwards and couldn't get comfortable in bed. Then I tossed and turned for what felt like hours. I kept waking up too. I think the sound of the plows going down the road might have been the culprit there.

This is what I woke up to this morning:

I am truly not impressed. Even more so since it's STILL FUCKING SNOWING!!!!!! We're supposed to get another 2 cm tonight and 2cm tomorrow and 2cm Friday night and then a 60% chance of flurries on Saturday and a 40% chance on Sunday. Give me a break! We're already pushing 30cms over the last 24 hours. The damn snowbanks are as tall as I am. Crossing the street has become an extreme sport because you either have to climb over said banks or risk traffic going around them. Stupid weather. This is the most snow Ottawa has seen in 4 years. I guess we were due. Thankfully, the buses were running better this morning and this evening. Hopefully they keep it up for tomorrow. I hope the snow crews come by soon and remove our snowbanks too. I'll have to take a photo of the ones out front tomorrow. It looks like the front of the building is being eaten by giant snow monsters.

Trying to wrap my head around some travel plans for mid to late spring. I'm going to Montreal in April, I just need to pick a weekend and then I'm thinking of going home in May for my bday and my Great Aunt's bday. Mine is a semi-milestone and hers is a major milestone. I haven't seen the family since Christmas (and still haven't forgiven my rat fink brother for giving me the stomach flu at Christmas) so it would be very awesome to see everyone again.

Today is my mom's birthday :) By the sounds of it, she had a pretty decent day, except for the part where my brother broke in and ate all the chips - LOL. Thankfully mom came home and stopped him before he moved onto the cabbage rolls and chocolate cake. This is mom celebrating her bday last year:

It's safer for everyone if you don't ask me to explain that photo. All I'm going to say is that it was my Uncle David's fault. End of story.

I'm very excited by the fact that tomorrow is Friday. I've only worked 2.5 days this week (had French this afternoon) but it still seems like an insanely long week. I did a lot of cooking this week, so maybe that's why it seems longer. I dunno. I made some very amazing Monte Cristo Chicken Cutlets for dinner and a pineapple angel food cake for dessert (1 box angel food cake mix, 1 20oz can of crushed pineapple: just mix the 2 and nothing else. Bake for 25-30 mins and enjoy. So flippin' good!). Guess I was feeling domestic this evening :)

I really need to get some shit together this weekend. I need to mail away 2 bday cards and I have to mail home bday gifts for my mom, brother, nephew and niece. And I might get around to mailing a crazy belated bday and Christmas gift to someone else I know too. Canada Post is going to love me.

Ok. It's sleep time. I keep pausing to think of what to write next and I almost nod off. Oops.

Good Night!

Sarah

More snow from this morning.

Packed and Read to Roll!

This is a late blog tonight. I really should be in bed, especially since I have to be up at 4am. But here I am, typing away. This always happens. The night before I travel, I run around trying to get so much done that I end up staying up half the night. The fact that I didn't get home from work until 7:15 didn't help matters much.

I think I'm all packed. I just have my toiletries left to pack and I'm good to go. My iPod and cell phone are both charging. I located the case for my camera. I printed off my boarding passes (you can do that for the train now) so I think I'm set.

And of course, it has started to snow. In fact, we have a snow storm warning in place. Fantastic. Thankfully, my friend Steph and her hubby are coming to get me at 5am and are driving me to the train station. This way I don't have to worry about a cab. Steph is very good at winter driving as she often works at schools in the middle of nowhere :) I'm hoping that knowing that she's coming to get me will ease my anxiety in the morning. It hasn't been too bad today (knock on wood).

Work was a blur. The party went off without a hitch and the food was really good. Everyone enjoyed it. My secret Santa gave me a new cookbook, so that's awesome. I also got a set of The Big Bang Theory bobble heads for my desk from another co-worker. They're kick ass! I thought that I'd gotten everything done at work but I remembered something while I was in the shower. D'oh. I may email a co-worker tomorrow and ask her to do it or I might just decide to leave it until I'm back. Either way, I refuse to stress over it.

I should get to bed since I have to be up in 4.5 hours. I plan on sleeping on the train :)

Just 1 more sleep!

Good Night,

Sarah

Where's The Pause Button?

So much to do, so little time to do it in.

Why is it that the closer you get to the start of your holidays, the busier everything seems? Shouldn't it be going in slow motion? Dragging on and on as you count the minutes until your vacation starts? I kind of wish that was true.

I have 2 days of work left and they're jam packed. There's a holiday office party and secret Santa gift exchange somewhere in there as well. Plus I really need to clean my apartment and get some more laundry done.

My attempt to get into work early this morning was thwarted by the local transit peeps. The roads this morning were actually worse than they were yesterday. And the bus was uber late. And then it kept getting stuck in the snow. I had the same problem tonight when trying to get to a doctor's appointment and then to the pharmacy afterwards. Crazy. I hope the roads are better tomorrow and the buses are running better so that I can get into the office at a decent hour.

I also still need to pack and figure out how I'm getting it all packed. Plus what clothes to take home. It's always cold in my parents' house but packing my warm sweaters take up so much room in my suitcase. It's very annoying. I'm sure I'll figure it out. I always do. I might just have to get a little creative.

My eyes are closing by themselves so it's time to log off and sleep.

2 more sleeps :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Bah, Humbug.

It was a "meh" day but a good evening. The Big Bang Theory was pretty darn funny, my football team is winning at the half and Glee didn't butcher Grease so that was awesome. And I managed to make dinner and do the dishes in there somewhere too. I just need to get through work tomorrow and OT on Saturday and I'm good!

Speaking of Saturday, the Ottawa Santa Claus Parade is Saturday. For some reason, that seems really friggin' early to me. Why do so many people feel the need to rush the season?? CTS is already advertising that they're the Christmas station and will be showing Christmas movies starting this weekend. Almost every mall in the city had their Christmas decorations up last week, if not sooner (except Carlingwood Mall and kudos to them for waiting until after Remembrance Day to do it!) and stores are already playing Christmas music. Christmas is still more than a month away. It's insane.

I quite like Christmas. It's my favourite holiday. But I don't like how rushed it is. I don't see why it has to be ushered in so soon. For the love of pete, let November un-fold on its own. Don't try to morph it into the Christmas season too. That's what December is for. Even my damn Christmas cactus is blooming already.

And if one more person tells me that they just want a "gift card" or "nothing really" for Christmas, I think I just might snap and take them out. I like giving gifts. I don't care if it's a $2 novelty toy I found at a discount store or a $200 necklace that I've been saving up to buy, I like giving thoughtful gifts that make people smile and feel appreciated. Picking up a piece of plastic and loading money onto it is not creative. I don't have much money, so when I actually venture out to spend my savings on gifts, I want to be special. A child's eyes do not light up when they open a card and a gift card falls out. We live in such a consumer driven society that most of us go out and buy the crap we want for ourselves right away, so there's nothing left to ask for for Christmas.  On the flip side, people keep harassing me for my Christmas list and then end buying me a bunch of stuff that isn't on the damn list and that I didn't want/can't use in the first place. Yes dad, I'm talking to you. Where's my jersey!!!!!!!!??????????? With the NHL being locked out this year, you should be able to find it on sale.
I have too much crap to begin with. If I ask for something, it's either something I really need or something that I want but have not been able to justify buying it for myself.

And there's part of the rub too. I don't live in the same city as my family. So when I got home, I take the train. I don't have the luggage space to bring very much back with me, so I do end up asking for gift cards because they're easy to transport. I also try to ask for other small gifts that are easy to pack, like perfume or an Ottawa Senators Heritage Hockey Jersey. I'd love to get a new tv or a Blu Ray player for Christmas - but guess what? They don't fit in my luggage. I can't even buy one on Boxing Day - same problem.

I know, I know. Christmas is not about gifts. And all in all, it's supposed to be the thought that counts. Which is why I'm pretty damn sure I'm going to be giving a lot of "Charity" gifts this year. If people tell me that they don't need/want anything, well there are millions of people around the world who do. And I think I have an idea how to help.

Yes, I know this rant/blog is all over the place tonight but I'm kind of cheesed off at the moment at some people are frustrating the hell out of me so this is my chance to vent before bed. This way I don't lie awake all night thinking about it.

Please people - don't rush the damn season and try to put some damn thought into gifts. It's not about buying just any gift, it's supposed to be about the person you're buying the gift for.

Bah, humbug.

Good Night.

Sarah

One more sleep!

Despite the fact that is after 10pm, I'm not all that sleepy. Why? Because I'm too excited to sleep. Why? Because I'm on vacation!! Woohoo! I'm catching a train tomorrow and I'm off. 10 whole days at home and I can't wait. Oh yeah, I need to finish packing too :)
I can't wait to get on the train. I have a 24 minute stop over in Toronto and that's it! I have a good book with me and my iPod is full of tunes and a couple episodes of Downton Abbey and I'm good to go. I really do enjoy taking the train. It might be slower than flying, but it is very relaxing. I love being able to sit back and listen to my favourite songs and watch the cities, towns and countryside go by.

I can't wait to see my mom and dad again. Since my dad is on holidays too, we get to spend the whole week together and both my parents will be picking me up at the train station. That moment when I get off the train and look up to see the faces of my loved ones is on my most favourite things in the world. I'm always so excited and seeing that excitement reflected back at me is amazing. The train ride in from Toronto is just shy of an hour and a half and I can barely sit still. By the time we've got to Guelph, I can hardly sit still in my seat!!

I'm really looking forward to being able to visit with family and to kick back and relax. I'm also really looking forward to our trip to the Stratford Festival to see "Much Ado About Nothing". I can't believe that my dad agreed to that one. I think we have a trip to the beach (Long Point on Lake Erie) planned as well.

It might not be as glamorous as Paris or as spicy as Vegas but home can be a very good place to go for a vacation. And it's much easier on the bank account too. I will do my best to continue blogging from my parent's house but I guess it all depends on if we're actually at home or not or if we're off, wandering Southern Ontario and getting up to all kinds of Shenanigans :)

Good Night!

Sarah