Welcome to 2020 and Social Distancing (days 1 and 2)

Hi there.

It's been a while. Almost two years in fact. Thought I'd pop in here, dust things off and get some thughts out of brain.

Given the current state of affairs and the new normal of social distancing, I've decided to resurrect my blog and use it as a means of self care during these uncertain times.

To bring eveyrone up to speed, I'm still in Ottawa. Still gainfully employed. Still single and have been limping since September. I tore my meniscus disk in my right knee on September 14th. Yes, it hurt, yes it still hurts, just not as badly. I was supposed to be having surgery in three days to fix it, but my surgery was cancelled (postponed really) until things with the Covid 19 are cleared up and it's safe to resume non-emergency surgery. Yes, I'm bummbed. I was looking forward to getting back to normal. But what really hurts is that I don't get to see my parents. They were coming up to help me but aren't now that my surgery is cancelled. It's safer for them to stay at home too.

So yesterday was the first real day of the ramped up social distancing thing. We received an email late Sunday night saying that we are to work from home where ever possible. My team and I still went into the office Monday morning, just to get a few things sorted out and to check things out with our Director. I stayed until the early afternoon and then headed home, stopping for some last minute supplies along the way, before logging back into my work accround from home. So yesterday was an alright day. Public Transit was deserted and that seemed really weird as was my office building. Other than that, nothing strange.

I tried to sleep in this morning but my internal clock had me up around my usual time. I guess that will take some getting used to. Logged into work and spent the day working remotely. Again, nothing too out of the ordinary, I've worked from home before.

My parents called this morning to say hi. I got a song played on a local radio stations "Old School Lunch" and I danced around my living room like an idiot. It was great. It was the break I needed at that moment.

(Click here to see what I was dancing to)

I've been deliberately limited my access to the news. It helps keep my anxiety at bay and doesn't overhwhelm me. I'm fortunate too that I have work to focus on and keep me going. LIke i said, today seemed pretty normal.

The surreal part of all of this didn't hitmy until about an hour ago. I was sitting on my couch, watching tv and it dawned on me that I didn't need to go to work tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next day.....I turned on the national news. They were showing video from countries around the world, showing just how empty popular tourist spots are. The shot of Trafalgar Square in London hit me as I've been there somewhat recently and I remember how packed it was with people and just life in general.

I still can't quite wrap my head around it all. I'm old enough to remember the SARS outbreak and the H1N1 flu and neither were anything like this. Granted, social media wasn't as prolific during SARS so the information wasn't spearding quite as much, but this time around, it's very different.

I sit here wondering how many days it's going to take before the gravity of the situation finally sets in. How many days before this becomes my "normal"?  How long is this going to last? Will the virus spread stop? Will the disease drop off? Will they have a vaccine for us soon?

I really don't know.

All I can do is sit here and hope. Keep the belief that the Universe will look after us. That maybe this is what the world needs to make us start focusing on the really important things again.

Until then, I'm going to read my book(s), spend time on my balcony and dance arond my living room like an idiot several times a day.

Two days down.....

Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's Day! "May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live".

Back to Work and Day 2 & 3 Without Sugar

Despite still being sick, I made it back to work today. Even survived the day while remaining vertical, keeping my lungs in my chest and only mildly grossing out my nearest neighbours with my nose blowing. One of my managers referred to it as "trumpeting". Anyhow...

It was a long and busy day. Played catch up almost all day and not just my own work either. I'm half assed covering for a co-worker too. I managed to make it through the day without any cold meds either. Just lots of tea and water. And a mid-day nasal rinse.

Day 2 of the no sugar went well. Again, since I was home sick it was easier to avoid temptation. I did venture into Walmart in search of honey but managed to avoid all the bad stuff.

Today, I had a slight bit of sugar this evening. I had a quick swig of chocolate milk as I'd eaten something spicy and needed a quick milk blast to stop my tongue from burning. So all in all, not to bad at all. I did have a wicked craving for coffee yesterday and again this evening so I think I may need to track down a small box of Splenda tomorrow just so I can have coffee from time to time. While I'm quite happy to have honey in my tea, I can't say the same thing about coffee. Coffee and honey don't seem to go so well together. I don't want to go overboard on the sweeteners either so I need to limit my intake of them as well.

I can sleep in tomorrow so that should help knock this could out a little more. I need to take my night time medication and slather my chest with Vicks. I giggle and think of The Big Bang Theory every time I do it. The episode where Amy gets sick is priceless. I did like my mom's best friend's suggestion. She said to find a firefighter to do it. I'm down with that.

Good Night!

Sarah

Pretty much how I spent the last 2 days...

Day 1: Sugar = No. Sinus Cold = Yes.

So today is Ash Wednesday, for those who follow the Western Christian calendar. For those unfamiliar with the concept, Ash Wednesday is the kick off to Lent and it occurs 46 days before Easter. The story goes that Matthew, Mark, Luke and Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights fasting in the desert while being tempted by Satan (I guess he had nothing better to do). The purpose of Lent has changed over the millennia and basically it boils down to giving up some sort of luxury or benefit in your life as a way of paying penitence for your sins. Now if you've been paying attention, you'll notice that we're missing 6 days in the math. The extra 6 days account for the Sundays between now and Easter and those are kind of like a day off. Fast for 6 days and feast on the 7th. Anyhow, back to my point. Since I am neither overly religious (much more spiritual really) nor do I believe that I commit many sins, I use Lent as a time of motivation. A period to make positive changes in my life and use it as a motivating factor. And with a little hope that God, the Goddess and the Universe all help me out a little and give me some extra strength and will power.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I'm giving up sugar for Lent. To clarify, I'm giving up any foods with "added" sugar in them, as well as high fructose corn syrup and other bad sugars. Anything that has naturally occurring sugars like fruit and milk are ok.

It just so happens that the World Health Organization published an announcement today asking people to consume no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar a day. They go on to say that no more than 10% of your daily calories should come from sugar but would prefer it if people could make that 5% instead.

Sugar is everywhere. It's in things that you'd never think of it being in. One tablespoon of ketchup has almost 1 full teaspoon of sugar in it. Even one serving of the Sour Cream and Onion Crispy Minis that I have has 1 gram of sugar in it. A lot of processed foods have sugar in them. A lot of "diet" or "low fat" foods have added sugar to help with the taste. It's very overwhelming when you stop to think about it.

I'm kicking the habit so I'm going to do what I can to avoid sugar for the next 40 days. I dawned on my today that my dad's 60th birthday falls during this 40 day period so that's going to be a tough one. But my aim isn't to be perfect, just much more aware.

Day 1 went well. Mostly due to the fact that I'm rather sick with a nasty sinus cold right now. I remember to buy sugar free cough/throat drops and I used honey in my tea this morning. Once I'm feeling better, I'm going to have to hit up the grocery store for a new cereal as my favourite one here has added sugar in it. I'm also trying to find some recipes online for no-sugar granola and breakfast bars. I'm sure I'll be a little more motivated when I'm finally feeling better.

My night time cold medication is kicking in so I'd better log off before I fall asleep at my computer and get snot/drool all over the keyboard (that's a pretty image eh?).

Good Night!

Sarah

Literally Sick of the Humidity

I spent the day at home, sick. Sometime a little after 3am, I was awoken in a great pain and spent the better part of the night from there on in with a bad tummy ache. As luck would have it, I feel back to sleep about a half hour before my alarm went off. I hauled out my work phone, emailed in sick and proceeded to sleep for another 2.5 hours. Still didn't stop me from feeling like a zombie though. I've been fighting the urge to nap all day, knowing that if I did, I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.

Just before 11am, I did make a made dash across the street to Walmart to get some drugs. I nearly melted on the way back. The humidity today was insane! At one point this afternoon, I stepped out onto my balcony and it was like walking into a sauna. There's water dripping out of my AC unit like crazy. I don't recall ever seeing that much condensation come out of it. Crazy. I'm thinking that the humidity is what upset my tummy in the first place. I don't gauge temperatures well and as a result, when it gets hot, I don't drink enough water and it makes me sick. I've drank an insane amount of Powerade and water today. I didn't actually start feeling better until 4pm. A head ache had joined my tummy ache but they both took leave around 4 and I think that's when my bladder kicked back in too. With all that liquid going in, I knew it had to go back out eventually.

Since I was feeling better, I was also hungry. I decided to use some some pasta and turkey sausage that I had in the freezer and I made a soup that I'd found on Pinterest. Of course, I added my own spin to it but man, was it awesome. Really nailed that one and I loved it. I'll have to make it again sometime. I don't mind the hot weather, in fact, I like it. It's just this humidity that's killing me. I get all bloated and gross feeling and then I don't feel like eating and I can't sleep right, even with the AC on. Blah.

OH! I found my mystery moth. It was dead, on the floor, near my computer, in the living room. I have no idea at all how it got there (unless I had 2 moths and didn't know it). It's possible that it followed the heater but I really don't know. Kind of bizarre. But it's nice to know that it's gone and isn't lurking about in my bedroom.

And the glass from yesterday is still sitting here. I still don't know if it's half empty or half full but I'm in no real hurry to find out. But for now, I'm grabbing my book and heading to bed.

Good Night!

Sarah

Sure wish I'd been there today!

And I'm Back...Sort Of

I haven't blogged the last couple of nights because I've been sick and am battling a sinus something or other. I was winning until this evening. My right sinus, having grown jealous of the left one causing issues all week, decided it was its turn to cause problems. Which it did on my bus ride home. And most of this evening. Pain. Then dripping. Then more pain. I haven't taken any medication for it today but I foresee some being taken before bed tonight.

I've been a trooper and made it to work every day. I thought about calling in sick today but I was actually feeling pretty good this morning. It wasn't until late afternoon that my sinuses re-grouped and attacked. Stupid sinuses.

Today is the 5th of February and I just realized that two of the 3 calendars that I have in my apartment are still on January. Oops.  I should do something about that. I think I'm hiding from the month. February is insane for me. It's a short month but there are 9 birthdays in February and only 2 of them fall on the same day. This includes the bdays of my step niece and nephew, my brother, my grandma and most importantly of all, my mom. WTF? Inane I tell ya. And so far I've only bought a gift for my niece. And I'm late sending a bday card to my great uncle. His bday was Jan 30th. I'm pretty sure there's something called "St. Valentine's Day" somewhere in that mix as well. Fun times.

Today's catch phrase at work was "Read The Email". It was used by 2 separate people to address questions from two other people in separate incidents. I love it when someone takes the time to send out an email and then no one bothers to read it (or doesn't read it all the way through) and then wastes someone else's time asking questions that have already been answered in the email.  The result is usually several co-workers silently dying of laughter while listening to the exasperated email sending trying to tell the question asker to go and read the *&^%$#@ email.

My lungs are attempting a revolt so I think it's time to go and get ready for bed and kill the revolt with a little cough syrup and sinus meds before hitting the hay.

Good Night!

Sarah

I can't wait for Spring!!

Sick :(

Call my mom, I'm sick :( That doesn't usually work as she's usually the one who's sick, I look after her, go home and then come down with whatever she had. At Christmas, we both got sick at the same time and then we had to look after my dad when he got sick. Amy Farrah Fowler even had Sheldon to look after her and rub vapo rub on her chest. It's not fair I tell ya.

This really sucks as it's the 2nd time I've been since in the last 6 weeks. Same issue too: Sinus cold. Or at least a cold that starts in my sinuses. I went for well over a year without getting sick and now it's happened twice in 6 weeks. That's not good.

I did manage to make it out shopping with Steph today. I was ok in the morning but by early afternoon, I was a zombie. On several occasions Steph has to ask if I was still with her. After she dropped me off, I promptly put all my grocery type items in the fridge/freezer, changed into some jammies and crawled into bed where I had a lovely 3 hour nap. Napping is a tell tale sign that I'm not feeling well. I do not nap. I'm not capable of napping. If I lay down and fall asleep, I'm out for hours. None of this 20-30 minute nonsense.

I used my nasal rinse, I've had a nice hot soak in the tub with some lavender epsom salts and I'm about to make myself a cup of Sleepy Time tea with some honey in it. Then I'll pop a couple of the night-time cold meds and head to bed. Hopefully that will knock me out for a full 8 hours or more. I really don't foresee myself doing much of anything tomorrow, which sucks. I have a large pile of laundry and a nice collection of dishes that require my attention. I supposed getting better is more important than house work.

Here's hoping that this is short lived and doesn't move to my chest and I'm all better soon. Next week at work is going to be a busy one, so I have 1 week to be back to 100%.

Time to sleep!

Good Night!

Sarah

Happy New Year: Resolutions for 2013

So I didn't blog last night, mainly because it was New Year's Eve and by the time we'd finished watching the movies, I was way too tired to blog. I thought about blogging this morning but couldn't really get motivated. That and I had too much of an audience. And trust me, my mom has been pouting all day because she didn't have anything to read. I'm pretty sure my brother was too hungover to notice the lack of blog so I'm good on that front.

Looking back, 2012 was a pretty good year. It got off to a kind of sucky start in the fact that I ended up spending New Year's Eve home alone (plans got cancelled on me). But it actually wasn't that bad. I still had fun. 2012 ended in a kind of sucky fashion too seeing as I had a stomach virus at Christmas and just as I started to feel better, I came down with a sinus cold. I'm blaming the cigarette smoke at my parents' place for that. But everything in between was pretty good. I managed to find my way more often than I have in years. I was home for my mom's 65th bday, my niece's Christening and summer holidays. Getting to see family more often was a definite plus. I got a 1 year contract in 2012 (which I'm really hoping to at least repeat that this year) and am doing a job that I actually enjoy doing. I went to Montreal for a weekend all by myself and in doing so proved to myself that sitting around and just hoping for something to happen never works and that I'm a lot braver than I give myself credit for.

I also started blogging in 2012. It's been almost 6 months since I started. Some days I can't believe that I've been able to keep it up this long. Other days I wonder how I ever got by without blogging.

2013 got off to a slightly interesting start with involved watching my parents snake out the sewer clean-out this morning. My mother owns an 18 foot long, professional, sewer snake, designed to go into a sewer clean out and remove any blockages. Seriously? Who else's mom has that (who isn't married to a plumber!)?? Apparently our toilet didn't like the toilet paper currently being used. It wasn't breaking down fast enough I guess. Fun times. I assisted by bringing more newspaper and paper towels. That's a fantastic way to start off the new year. After that was all cleaned up and I got to have my shower, we hit the road and once again visited my favourite 100 year old, Mr. B. I helped him by throwing out some dead plants that were in his house. I'm pretty sure they died of heat stroke. When I picked the one up, he actually asked me to water it. I told him I was pretty sure it was beyond hope. So now he gets to buy new ones. LOL.

This evening, my parents and I went to dinner with my great Aunt and Uncle and my Grandparents. It was really nice. The restaurant wasn't very crowded so we could talk and actually be heard at the other end of the table. After dinner I said my good byes since I'm heading back to Ottawa on Thursday. The tail end of my visits are always a little sad since I have to say goodbye to everyone and 90% of the time, I don't know when I'll see them again.

Since 2013 is here, it's time for some resolutions. I stopped making them several years ago because I never kept them so why bother? But I started making them again a couple of years ago. I just started to get smarter about them and make them less specific. So here are my resolutions for 2013:

1. Be Happy. Seems simple enough right? Not quite. I do have depression issues, which are mostly seasonal in nature but even when I'm happy, I don't let myself actually "be" happy. I start to worry that something bad is going to come along and change everything. Or that my depression will come back at full force. I have to stop that. When I'm happy, I need to embrace it and enjoy it. Not ruin it with "what ifs".

2. Stress less, Worry less, Laugh more. I'm a worrier. I worry, a lot and often. I worry about big things and little things. This leads to stress. I'm almost 600kms away from my office right now, yet I'm already stressing about what's waiting for me when I get back and what work has to be done and in such a short time frame too. ENOUGH! I've had to tell myself several times over the last few days to knock it off and stop worrying about work. I'm only one person. No one else really seems to notice is some of the smaller things don't get done. So long as my boss is happy with my work and I'm happy with my work, then we're good. I have to stop letting it bug me. I need to find more things that I love doing, that make me laugh and smile and focus on those. Leave the worries behind and re-focus my energy.

3. Have faith. This one isn't as religious as you'd think. It's more along the lines of me needing to have faith in myself, in others as well as in God and the Universe. I need to have faith in myself that I will be able to figure everything own in my own sweet time. I need to have faith in others and believe that they won't let me down, won't abandon me if I ask for help or reveal that I don't have it as much together as I lead most people to believe. And I need to have more faith in the fact that God/the Universe isn't going to drop me on my ass. I might be tested, but they won't let me fail. I'm a good person and deserve to be happy.

4. Stop being afraid. Fear is stupid reason for not doing something. And I have to stop letting it be my excuse for not doing things that I want to do. Like Montreal. I got over my fear and had an awesome time. I need to do more of that.

5. Stop being complacent. If I want things to change, I can't just wish the change to happen. I need to get off my ass and make it happen. I have to be the change that I want to be. I have a crappy little apartment. I complain about it all the time. Fine. I need to either move or make changes to make the sucker less crappy. I need to stop accepting mediocre. I don't have a fairy godmother so I need to take whatever steps are necessary to take my dreams and make them real. My 2013 horoscope said " If you can dream it, you can have it. Don't settle for less". Sounds like damn good advice to me.

So that's the list. 5 resolutions for 2013. This year will be a happy and healthy one. And I hope it's full of good luck, good laughter and great people too. And lots and lots of love.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Sarah

More Adventure Shopping and Why My Parents Aren't Allowed To Pick Movies Anymore

I've had a very harrowing day.

This morning, my mother, who hates to shop and hates crowds says to me "I guess we'd better go to Costco". What? Are you serious? It's the Sunday before New Year's and it's almost noon. And you voluntarily want to go to Costco? Turns out my dad needed his pills, which happen to be at the Costco pharmacy. I get it.

Since I'm almost always up for an adventure, off we go. The parking lot was a zoo. Several people took it upon themselves to "invent" parking spots, despite the fact that there were lots of available parking spaces at the far end of the lot. I guess lazy wins out over legal and safe. Inside the store wasn't much better. People were going every which way and there were little mobs of people all over the store wherever there was a free sample stand. But we were on a mission. I was looking for a very specific desk calendar and we needed dad's pills. And we pulled it off. Not only did we manage to get out alive and without any issues of cart rage, I also passed up a poutine and hot dog and we were home in an hour. We also got my calendar, dad's pills, some sinus medication for me, a case of Bush's beans for my parents and a bag of Cashew Clusters. After our adventure, I made lunch for my parents and myself. My dad took two bites of his egg, ran upstairs and threw up again. He then thanked me for the egg, because he felt monumentally better. Wish I could say the same thing for the bath mats. They got washed this afternoon :) You know the saying "It's not over until the fat lady sings"? In this house it's "The flu's not over until the bath mats get puked on". Good going dad.

Mom and I baked a ham for dinner and I made cheesy crescent rolls to go along with it. My dad managed to eat something that resembled dinner and kept it down, so that's a good sign.

My parents then decided to torture me as only they can. It started out innocently enough. Mom said "Let's watch a movie". Dad said "sure". So mom starts reading off the movie titles that they own (which is about 15 movies in total). I keep saying "no". I passed on one called "Superhero Movie". You guesses it. It's a spoof on Super Hero movies. Next thing I know, my dad's asking to read the back of it. Crap. Mom decided it would be good because it has Leslie Neilson and Pamela Anderson in it. I tried to explain to her that that wasn't a good sign but she didn't listen. So they decide to watch it. Those are 75 minutes that I'm never getting back. It spoofed Spiderman, Batman, X-Men, Fantastic Four....etc. It was brutal. Which means that my parents loved it. During one scene, which involved the two main characters, trying to have a romantic love scene, during which a lot of farting is coming from the main character's aunt, I thought my mom was literally going to fall out of her chair, she was laughing that hard. I think I had more fun watching my parents than I did watching the movie. I think I'm going to have to walk my ass to the store tomorrow and pick out some movies for the evening. If I leave it up to the other two, more brains cells might be killed needlessly. I'm also pretty sure that the end of the movie stole a scene from the movie Airplane too. Anything that references Airplane isn't good. And it had horrible, horrible sexual references through out the entire thing as well. And seeing as I was watching it with my parents, it was just that much worse. I think I'm scarred for life.

On that note, it's time to pop some sinus medication and head to bed. The damn snow plow woke me up at 2 something this morning after it decided to go down our street 5 times. Seriously! It's a small street. WTF??

Good Night!

Sarah

My mom took this very pretty photo today - it's her Christmas cactus and icicles in our front window.

Shopping Queen

Not much to report in my universe tonight. It was an ok day. All 3 of us had a rough night's sleep, with various things waking us up through out the night/early morning. As a result, it was a slow start to the day. I got out first and started to shovel since the white stuff just keep coming (not as bad as what Ottawa/Montreal got though). Afterwards, I pouted enough to get the 'rents to take me shopping. My poor dad still isn't feeling well. I figure mom should be good to go tomorrow and dad will be another 2 days. This is the first day that I've felt normal all day so I'm thrilled about that.

I did get to hit up one store and I got my shop on. I did very well too. 5 new pieces of clothing: 2 dresses, 2 tops, 1 skirt and a 2 pack of slipper socks for $100. I think that was pretty well done. I'm a fan of the words "50% off the lowest marked price". Seriously. I got a dress (work style) for $14.99. How awesome is that?

I'm currently contemplating going to church in the morning with my grandparents and my great aunt and uncle. While it would be great to see them and spend time with them, it still involves going to church and sitting through a sermon. It's not that I have issues with God, it's more like I have issues with religion in general and I really don't like being preached at. We'll see how I feel in the morning. I'm having some sinus problems at the moment and I don't want to be blowing my noise all through a church service.

It's kind of ironic about the church thing. When my brother and I were little, my parents dragged us to church every Sunday. I even have Sunday School Perfect Attendance Awards to prove it. Yet my grandparents never went. Fast forward to now and it's my grandparents that go and not us. And trust me, they try the guilt thing to get us to go too. I think that's a little hypocritical.

It's too late at night to really get into that one though, so I'll end it here. I should get to bed soon. I'm hoping my sinus thing isn't going to turn into a sinus cold. Knowing me, it probably will and that will royally suck.

Good Night!

Sarah

Thankfully, it's not quite this snowy here.

3 for 3!

Karma made an appearance in our household a little after 6 this morning. That's when I was woken up to the sound of my father throwing up. Yes indeed. Mr. "I feel fine" caught the stomach flu that my mom and I had earlier in the week. By all accounts, he's had the most mild case. He was like "I wonder why I didn't get it sooner?". I know why. Because he's a man. His immune system was just waiting for mom and I to be feeling better so that we could take care of him when he got sick. Figures. Men are such babies when they're sick.

Take this evening for instance. Our neighbours keep bees, and as a result, always have lots and lots of yummy honey on hand. Mom ran out of honey. One of my favourite things to eat when I'm sick is toast with honey. When I was sick, no one would walk down the block and get honey for me, but when dad is sick....he pouted at me until I got my boots on and stomped down the street to get the damn honey.

I'm feeling much better today. I was a little on the queasy side this morning and didn't feel the best while out grocery shopping with mom, but by the time we got home, I was starting to perk up. I cooked a decent dinner for myself (mom and dad both had toast with honey for dinner) and I've eaten 3 of the Truffles that my buddy Cam sent me, so that's a good sign. I still have some queasy moments, but I think that's mostly just gas. LOL.

We were fortunate here this evening. The skies cleared and I was able to see the beautiful full moon. The last full moon of 2012 to be exact. As 2012 draws to a close, I do find myself thinking back upon the year and looking at what I have and have not accomplished. I'm trying to decide what resolutions to make for the new year as well. I've got a couple more days to think about it and reflect before I need to make any decisions.

I'm hoping everyone, myself included, are feeling back to normal tomorrow. I really would like to get out and about for a while and do a little shopping.

But for now, it's bedtime.

Good Night!

Sarah

Christmas Day and Why My Brother Is In Big Trouble

Merry Christmas everyone! As you may have noticed, this blog is a day late. That's because I was too busy throwing up last night to blog. But more on that later.

I had a very wonderful Christmas with my family. After we opened our stockings,  my dad made us cinnamon buns, which really, really sucked but Mom and I ate them anyways. They were frozen ones that you bake yourself. Not good. So much so that dad threw out the 2nd package of them. LOL.

After that, we moved on the gifts. My parents did something very mean to me. Last Christmas I asked my dad for an Ottawa Senator's Heritage hockey jersey. He being a Leaf's fan told me where to shove that idea.  Needless to say, I didn't get one for Christmas. So I asked for it again for my birthday. Same response, no jersey. So around Thanksgiving, I started to harass my dad for the damn jersey again. This time I got somewhere as he asked me what size and what the Heritage one looked like. I'd pretty much forgotten about it after than. So on Christmas morning, my parents gave me a beautifully wrapped box that clearly contained clothing. I opened the lid and the contents were lovingly wrapped up in pink tissue paper. As the excitement mounted, I slowly pulled back the tissue paper to reveal....a fucking Toronto Maple Leaf's jersey. Apparently the look on my face was priceless. Mom and dad were killing themselves laughing. My exact words where "This isn't even remotely funny". They got me to hold up the jersey and took a picture. My father then handed me a gift bag. Inside, in a plastic bag, was my Ottawa Senator's Hockey jersey. I was much happier to see that :) The Leaf's jersey was my dad's. They thought it would be funny to wrap it up and give it to me. I am not amused. Well, actually I am. That was pretty damn sneaky of those two. I did get some revenge though. My dad had put his jersey on their bed. When he wasn't around, I threw it in their garbage can....twice.

I also got a beautiful pair of sterling silver hoop earrings that I've been looking for for over a year. Mom did a great job on finding those. Mom was the one who got the bling this Christmas. It's a very lovely sterling silver and blue diamond pendant on a silver chain. I helped dad out with that one and he came through with flying colours, which was awesome.

We spent part of the afternoon at my Grandparents' house where we visited with them as well as both sets of  aunts and uncles and I got to see 2 cousins that I haven't seen since last Christmas. After than we came home. Mom and dad visited the neighbours while I prepped the potatoes and broccoli for dinner. We then sat down and relaxed. My tummy was starting to feel a bit "off" at that point. I thought it might have just been left over anxiety from being at my grandparents and all the noise and hoopla that went on their. It was a wonderful dinner and it tasted great. I was pretty full after dinner but didn't feel too bad. We called my Aunt in New Brunswick at 8pm and talked to her for awhile. I was feeling ok then.

At 9 I went upstairs to change into my jammies and shortly there after, I started to feel not so good. My tummy was rolling. It felt like I wanted to burp, but couldn't. Around 10pm the pain started. I knew I was in trouble.

You see, my brother and family were here on Christmas Eve. My brother was sick. He had a stomach virus that had been through everyone in his family and now him. Instead of staying home, he came here and violated our bathroom and slept in my parent's bed.

I fought it for as long as I could last night. I kept willing myself: "You're not going to throw up." But I lost the battle around 10:45. Sadly, it did not make me feel better. In fact, I felt worse. I texted my brother and told him that he's dead meat. He laughed and told me to "walk it off". Jerk. By the time I threw up the second time, I had to find a bucket because I now had stuff coming out both ends. I have to admit that I've got pretty good aim. Puking in a bucket while sitting on the can takes talent. Problem was, I was so incredibly tired and so friggin' cold! All in all, by 1:30am I had thrown up 5 times. The last time was mostly dry heaves which are the worst! I finally fell asleep and slept until 4:30am when I had to use the bathroom again. I was able to get back to sleep and slept until 8am when jerkface called and woke us up. He was calling because he was supposed to bring my nephew over to open his gifts (he was at his dad's place on Christmas Eve).  Dad told them to come over at 10. It was at this point that I learnt that my mom had been up at 6:30am, throwing up as well. I went back to bed and didn't wake up again until 9:30 when typhoid Mary (aka my brother) came into my room to see me. I had some choice words for him. Turns out, he'd also given the flu to his in-laws. His mother in law was sick yesterday (like me) and his father in law got sick overnight.

I know that my parents taught us to share, but this is a bit insane. My brother and sister-in-law left all 3 kids here and went off Boxing Day shopping. Thankfully, my dad hasn't caught it (yet) and he was able to mostly manage all 3 kids. Mom gave up and went back to bed around 11. I stayed up until everyone left at 12:30 and then I left my dad to his own devices and went back to bed. Mom and I finally got up at 4:30.  I've had a good deal of water and some flat diet ginger ale. At 5:30 I ate 8 un-salted soda crackers. I'm happy to report that they've stayed down and nothing new has come out. Mom seems to be doing better too. My brother is still in major shit with us, especially if my dad comes down with it.

I need to log off and do some laundry. My aim might not have been 100% off the get go and I think my sleep pants bore the ill effects of that. Oh well.

I hope everyone had a less eventful night than we did.

Good Evening,

Sarah

A photo of my brother *grin*

Christmas Eve Crazy!

There's a reason why "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation" is my favourite movie. I have had several Christmases that resemble that movie. Tonight kind of took a page from that book.

My brother and his family arrived here at 12:45pm. Shortly there after, my brother made a run for the bathroom, citing a "code brown". He was up there quite some time. He eventually re-joined us. We all visited for a bit and then started to hand out gifts. My brother disappeared again. This pattern kept going and my brother was fading fast. Turns out the whole family has had a stomach bug over the last week or so and it appears that it was my brother's turn. He ended up crawling into my parents' bed and napping for a bit. My niece was asleep in the playpen in one room and my brother was sound asleep in the next room. LOL.

Once they both woke up, my brother tried taking some medication to make him feel better. It kind of worked. He threw up, which made him feel better. He decided that he was feeling well enough to go out to dinner.

It's tradition in our family to go out for Chinese Food on Christmas Eve and then drive around town looking at all the pretty Christmas lights.

So off we all go to the restaurant, with our neighbours joining us along the way. The place we go to is always busy on Christmas Eve, so there's a little bit of a wait for food. My brother and his crew had beat us to the restaurant so they already had a table for us. My brother had apparently already made a trip or two to the bathroom. After getting drinks, he asked me if there were any spare napkins around as there wasn't any toilet paper in the men's room and he'd been wiping his ass with paper towels and "it's starting to hurt". Sigh. I did the good big sister thing and went into the women's washroom and stole him some tp from there. The poor kid really wasn't looking good. So they decided to leave as the food wasn't going to be ready for a bit. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, my grandparents and great Aunt and Uncle arrived. They always stop for Chinese Food too before heading to church.

To add to all the chaos already happening, a woman with a 6 month old baby approached our table and asked if anyone could give her husband a boost as their battery had died. My dad and one of our neighbours jumped up and hurried off to help the guy out. My mother then went over to where the lady and baby were to talk to the lady and help keep their baby calm. While all of that was going on, our food arrived. This left my neighbour and I alone at the table with 5 plates of food. I looked at her and said "Well this has been an interesting evening". She laughed and we dug in. Everyone else returned shortly and the 5 of us had a very nice dinner. After I was done, I moved over to the table where my grandparents and aunt and uncle were and I visited with them for a bit. Then something else happened that really made me smile. The man who my dad and neighbour helped had driven his wife and child home once the car was running again.  He came back to the restaurant to pick up their order. At the same time, he brought my dad and the neighbour each a ziplock bag with home made shortbread cookies in them as a thank you for their help. How sweet is that?

After dinner, mom, dad and I piled into the car, cranked the heat and drove around town looking at the lights. We oohed and ahhed and laughed and pointed out things that were the same as last year and the things that had changed. When we got home, I made a nice cup of hot chocolate and we sat down to watch a Duck Dynasty mini-marathon. LOL. Not exactly a typical Christmas Eve show but it was highly entertaining and they did show a Christmas episode.

As I sit here and write this, waiting for Santa to come, I can't help but chuckle at the afternoon/evening we've had. It makes me smile. I've learnt that there really is no such thing as a perfect Christmas. Something is always going to go wrong. But just because things don't go as planned doesn't mean that things can't be awesome. Because they still were. I got to spend time with both of my nieces. And a nice couple with a baby got to see how kind strangers can be. I got to spend an evening laughing and smiling with family and friends and got reminded of what awesome people they all are. And I got a pretty good fortune in my cookie too.

I really hope my poor brother is feeling better tomorrow and I really, really, REALLY hope that mom, dad and I don't catch it!!

One last thing before I sign off: Before I started writing tonight's blog, I checked my stats. I have published 155 blogs and now have over 5000 page views. Wow. That still blows my mind. Thank you very much for reading.

I need to get to bed now or else Santa won't bring me anything.

Whoever you are and where ever you are, I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas!

Good Night,

Sarah