More Weather Venting and A Bus Caused Power Outage

I made it through the wilderness. Somehow I made it through. Didn't know how lost I was....because the damn snow/ice pellets were in my eyes. It was definitely a brutal day. Those bloody little ice pellets really hurt when they're coming down. The wind whipping them around didn't help. The funny part is that the ice pellets actually were providing some traction on the sidewalk. There'd been some freezing rain earlier. Thankfully that had stopped before I left for work. It's zero and raining right now. Our "Winter Storm" warning ended at 10:18, so about a 20 minutes ago. We still might see some freezing drizzle overnight and possibly some more tomorrow morning but it sounds like we're in for just normal rain and above zero temps tomorrow. My apartment is still damn cold though. It's kind of like being at my parent's house. My poor nose has been cold since I got home from work. Looks like we have a rainy week ahead of us too.

Work was good today. I was kept busy doing research on requests and getting some late finance things done. It was relatively quiet in the office as a lot of people had taken the day off and even more didn't make it in today due to the weather. We had an office "coffee break" which involved getting coffee and doughnuts for the staff. I think everyone liked that. We even managed to get some for the evening shift and they were happy. Unlike parts back home, we lucked out and didn't lose power at all today. The storm caused power outages back in Southern Ontario. Only one part of Ottawa lost power and that was thanks to a city transit bus. It slide off the road and took out some power poles in the process. Our buses are talented like that. And it's the second time one of those particular style of bus has slide off the road this winter. I think the City of Ottawa needs to "Winter Road Test" any new style/type of bus that they're thinking of purchasing. That was they'll know that they can survive our winter weather.

I'm in for a quiet weekend. First up on the agenda is a frequent item: sleeping in. Once that is accomplished, I really have to get my ass in gear and finish getting this place cleaned up. I need to re-organize the clutter and then sweep/swiffer/wash the floors. I also need to wash the towels and bedding. Lots of fun, right? Curling up with my book or a good movie might be in the cards too. I think some Chinese food might be as well. I'll have to see what I feel like tomorrow. Here's hoping that the productivity fairy comes to visit and I can get a lot accomplished. My bedroom is pretty much a lost cause (always is) so I'm not going to worry about that right now. Besides, no one but me sees it!!

Since my eyes seem to be closing on their own, I think it's time to log off and go burrow down under my blankets and see if I can get warm. Which will probably backfire and I'll wake up at 3am, hot and sweaty. LOL.

Good Night!

Sarah

Snow be gone!!

More Ranting About The Weather and Random Thoughts.

For a long week, it's gone by surprisingly quick. It's been a very busy and stressful week too. Plus I've got PMS. I'm kind of impressed that I haven't snapped and tore someone's head off. But tomorrow is going to be a tricky one. We're in for a very nasty storm, full of snow and ice pellets and maybe even my favourite thing of all: Freezing rain. Stupid weather.

I was in bed a little after 9 last night. I curled up and decided to read for a bit but I'd put my book away and was asleep before 10. I haven't made it to bed that early in quite awhile. I sure made a difference on my day today. French class was good. We had a quiz and I made it through the quiz in one piece so that was good. In fact, the class seemed to fly by today.

I just keep telling myself that I only have to make it through tomorrow. Then it will be the weekend. I've stocked up on food so I don't have to go out (but I still might as I think I'm going to make mussels again this weekend). I'm going to focus on cleaning all weekend and get my apartment in tip-top shape again. It might not look/feel like spring but my spring cleaning is in full swing. I still need to find something for my friend to sleep on while she's here. I'm pretty sure I saw some air beds on sale in the Canadian Tire flyer for this upcoming week.

My winter boots are ready to go for tomorrow but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that the storm misses us all together (yeah, I'm delusional) or at least doesn't hit as bad as it's supposed to or maybe just brings us a little snow and no ice. Or just rain (normal rain). Sigh. I'm so ready for spring to be here.

Time to hit the hay and dream of sunshine. Oh, and my little blog here now has over 8000 page views. That's  crazy awesome. And still incredibly unbelievable.

Good Night!

Sarah

Sarah + PMS = this photo :)

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.

Super Woman and Snow

I don't even know where to start with today. It's been all over the map and despite a rocky ending, I'm kind of laughing about it. But that might just be because I'm really sleepy right now.

So, I took the day off. I had 2 holiday days left at work and they're "use them or lose them" ones so I decided to use one. I arranged a shopping date with one of my very best friends(NB) and her adorable child (Baby F).  I got to sleep in this morning, which was awesome. Sadly, sleep did not come so easily to NB and Baby F, but he went down for a nap early so things were looking up. Mother Nature was cooperating at the time but soon decided that throwing ice pellets at us would be fun. I took the bus out to Kanata to meet up with them, which was quick and painless. Walking through the mall parking lot while being pelted with little ice chunks was the hard part. Once inside, we got our shop on. Baby F got to pick out a new toy and seemed very happy with all the new things to look out. He even helped me pick out a bottle of hair dye (he had some help from his mom). We then ventured onto Chapters which involved a caffeine stop at Starbucks for NB and I. I got a new book and we headed out to find lunch.

By now the ice had stopped but the snow was picking up and the roads were getting messy. We opted for a drive through and eating lunch at home. Apparently shopping tired out Baby F and he passed out about 5 minutes from home. As a result, NB and I had a peaceful lunch. Once the baby was up, it was time for a changing and a feeding. Both were a little rocky as someone was cranky after their nap. NB got through it all in fine form and with minimal swearing. I doubt she'll ever know just how impressed by her I am. After lunch Baby F seemed quite happy and crawled all over the room playing with all the toys, leaving time for the grown ups to chat and catch up - which was my favourite part of the day.

After a couple of hours, I went out to shovel snow out of the way so the garage door would close properly and so that the car would get out and then it was time to go and pick up Mr. NB. The four of us then headed out for dinner. By now, the roads were a mess, traffic was a mess. the buses were all fucked up, broken down, delayed or jack knifed so we figured that waiting until after rush our would see a smoother trek home.

Dinner was nice. Baby F inhaled it. It was incredible to see. LOL. And our server just kept screwing up. The irony was that he was training someone new!! Towards the end though, Baby F started to get cranky and it was time to jet. I got dropped off at the park and ride and they headed home. When I got into the bus shelter, there was a good number of people there so I was taking that as a good sign - I hadn't missed the bus. Turns out I didn't have to worry about missing the bus simply because there hadn't been one yet......and one wouldn't appear for another hour and 26 minutes!!! We kept seeing "out of service buses" coming into the west end and letting people off but nothing was heading back east. I saw 5 local routes too. It was very frustrating. I could have stayed the night out there but I figured I could last a little while longer and it paid off. The ride home was relatively quick and only slightly nerve racking. It did end was my less than graceful exit off the bus and through a snowbank rather than over it, but nothing was bruised other than my ego so I"m fine. I managed to successfully make it over the next 2 snowbanks I had to traverse on my trek home.

Once home, I got out of my wet clothes and checked my email and then went and had a nice, long soak in a hot bath with some Lavender Epsom Salts. I finished reading my book while I was in there and had a chance to reflect on  the day.

With the weather aside, it was a great day. I didn't have to work and I got to spend several hours just relaxing and hanging out with a very dear and awesome friend who I don't see nearly enough. She's such a wonderful and amazing person, even more so now that she's a mom.Just getting to hang out and chat made the day a great one. Despite being very tired thanks to yet another sleepless night, she just kept going, making sure Baby F was taken care of. I couldn't do it. Watching Baby F play and crawl around was great. He's adorable and highly entertaining but I don't know how she does it. She's Wonder Woman. I honestly don't think I'd have the patience and capability to be so selfless that's required when you're a mom. And she certainly has it in spades. I'm in complete awe of her (and her husband). They're amazing people and kick-ass parents :) And I can't wait to see them all again. But next time, the weather had better be much, much better!

Good Night!

Sarah

This is the only place I like seeing snow!

It's Called Winter In Canada People!!

Welcome to winter ladies and gentlemen.

So the weather was a wee bit on the crazy side today. About 25-35cms of cold, white, blowing sideways crazy. But I still prefer this to the freezing rain. I lucked out with my buses today and didn't have to wait long going to work or coming home from work. They buses were running so late that they were almost on time. Just the drivers were different :) Ottawa is still under a snowfall warning. We'll probably see another 3 or so hours of it before it tapers off and the skies clear. We're in for one beautiful weekend though. The sunshine after the storm.

I don't understand the whole brouhaha about this storm. While it's being billed as the biggest one in 4 years, this is Canada. It's winter. This is what happens. It shouldn't come as a great surprise to anyone. It happens every year. And yeah, it's been snowing for 24 hours straight and yes, it was damn windy. It still isn't anything unexpected. It's not like a level 5 hurricane blew through or anything. And it's no where near as destructive as the ice storm was so many moons ago. I made sure I had on my warm winter boots, my warm coat, mittens, a scarf and my warm fleece hood. I walked slowly and watched where I was going. It's how we deal. It's a snow storm people, not the end of the world. The east coast is going to get it much worse than we did.

And a special thanks goes out to my buddy Cam for calling me and telling me how warm and sunny it is in Calgary today. I'll return the favour in May when the mountain throw a snow storm at you guys and we're +12 and sunny :) Hope you found Jen!

Other than having to go out in the storm 4 times today, it was a good day at work. The day flew by and I'm very tired. My friggin' sinuses are pissing me off and it's getting very annoying. If things aren't better by Monday, I think I'm going to have to go and see my doctor. This morning I couldn't wear my glasses because they were pressing on my right sinus, which was causing pressure, which lead to pain and then it lead to my nose dripping like a tap. And my eye watering. I haven't worn eye make up in a week!!

I am very much looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. I have a whole mess of house work to catch up on. Sounds like a thrilling Saturday for me.

I think it's time for bed. I know, I'm such a party animal!!

Good Night!

Sarah

This was 5 years ago but you get the idea.

Solid Foods and Turkey Farts

Well this is a new one. Usually your parents tell you get to bed. My mother told me that I'm not allowed to go to bed until I've blogged, so that she has something to read in the morning. Easy for her to say. She's the one that had the 2+ hour nap this afternoon.

Yes, that means that we're both feeling better and by some bizarre miracle, my dad didn't catch the flu. I guess that's a good thing seeing as he's a big baby when he's sick. I guess most men are really.

Today was a better day. I've eaten solids today and even some gummy candies so I'm doing much better. I also disinfected the bathroom and scrubbed the toilet while mom and dad shovelled. We got 13cms of snow overnight so it actually looks like winter now. I was too sore to shovel so I opted to scrub the toilet instead, seeing as I helped in it's violation. It was the least I could do. I'm still on the sore side. It really hurts to sneeze, blow my nose or laugh though. Seeing as I'm allergic to half this house, it's been a painful day. My parents keep laughing at me when I sneeze.

Oh dear. My dad has turkey farts. My mom is in for a smelly night. LOL. Better her than me! And thank god dad's in another room right now.

Mom and I watched the movie "Brave" tonight. It's a very cute movie. I quite liked it, except when I laughed, which just plain hurt, and that made my mom laugh so she deserves to be stuck in a bed with a man who has turkey farts. I suppose that's the one upside to having had the flu - no turkey farts.

I think I'm actually going to attempt getting up and going outside tomorrow. It's grocery shopping day for my parents and I know my mom hates doing it. I don't mind it so I'll gladly tag along and help her out. I'm sure the fresh air will do me good as well.

Oh! And my brother is even more shit. Not only did he give us the flu, but he stole my mom's lighter on the way out of the house on boxing day. He's pretty high on mom's shit list right now. LOL.

Alright, I think it's time to log off. I didn't have a nap today so I'm on the tired side. Here's hoping tomorrow is less painful than today.

Good Night,

Sarah

Dad making things go "Boom"

Home!

I know, I know, I didn't blog last night. By the time I even thought of my blog, I was already in bed, all cocooned up in my blankets and there was no way that I was getting back out of that warmth again until I absolutely had to.

I made it home, safe and sound, with no thanks to Mother Nature. When I woke up yesterday, Ottawa resembled the inside of a snow globe. Steph made it to my house and while I was taking out the garbage and watering my plants, she was shovelling out the end of my street where the plow had made a nice pile from plowing the main road. When we were ready to go, Steph had me stand on the corner, in the snow and watch for traffic on the main road. It's 5am and we're in the middle of a snow storm, there's no traffic! But I did as I was told and I gave her the all clear and she gunned it out of my street, through the snow pile and onto the main road. YAY! I then had to run around the snow bank and get into the car.

Partway there, we saw police lights in the distance. As we creeped closer, we saw that both of our lanes were blocked by an accident. Thankfully, being insanely early and a snow storm, we were able to drive in the other lane and go around it all. It was a van vs tow truck crash. Steph said "I wonder who was the cause of that" and her husband and I both said "Tow Truck" at the same time. But judging by where the van was, I think it might have been the van.

We got to the train station at a good time. In fact, we beat the attendant to the station. Most people were huddled around the front door but it was in the wind. I stood by the back door, where it's protected and I could watch the snow fall. I also lucked out since this was the door the Via guy used and I was the first person to be let into the warmth of the train station.

Via Rail has come a long way in the last 10 years. They've introduced seat assignment and are fixing up their cars. But when it comes to holiday travel, Via sucks. The seat assignment goes out the window. They just tell everyone to "sit where ever" This really sucks if you're travelling in pair because it means that you might not get seats together. Anyhow, the boarding announcement said to get on at car 3. So we hustled there. An elderly lady and I had been hiding under a covered area until the train was ready for boarding, so we were one of the last ones to get to the car. Once there, another lady said to go down to where the man was sweeping, car 5. So we trudged through the storm to that car. I was the 2nd to last to get one. First problem - no more room for luggage. Despite Via advertising the hell out of their new baggage policy, people ignored it. So I told the Via guy that there was no more room for luggage. He said not to worry about it and to leave it on the floor and he'd take care of it. This is code for "I'm going to hide it somewhere and you're going to spend 30 minutes in Toronto searching the train for it". Sigh. Next problem, there was only 1 seat left on the train. It was in a 4-seater, with 3 young University guys. Oh hell no. I got back to the Via guy (who was looking increasing frazzled) and said "There are no more open seats on this car" and I put my hand on my hip for good measure. So he said "I can let you onto car 4, there are seats there". So I followed him into the oasis that was car 4.

Those of you who read this regularly know that I never get the new cars on the train. Call it a Christmas miracle, but Car 4 was one of the new refurbished cars. And it only had about 12 people in there. Ahhh. I ended up having 2 seats to myself until Coburg. It was great. I did got back to the other car and grabbed my suitcase and brought it onto my car, which had lots of luggage room still. I sat back and enjoyed the ride. I also gave the Via guy a tip when he came around selling food and drinks later.

Of course, when I changed trains in Toronto, I was back to crappy old cars but I didn't care anymore at this point. The ride was a smooth one and we got into Kitchener only about 4 minutes late. When I got off the train, I looked around and couldn't see my mom. So I waited a bit thinking she was having a smoke somewhere or was late getting to the train. I started to walk down the platform towards the parking lot and I finally see her pop out from the train station. I make my way over to her and give her a kiss and a big hug and then someone comes out the train station behind her - it was my dad! What an awesome surprise!

I haven't seen my family since August. I've gone longer without seeing them but any length of time seems long. So for weeks, all I keep thinking of is that one perfect moment when I get off the train and I get to see my mom and see her smile and I get to give her a kiss and wrap my arms around her. Whenever I was having a bad day or work was really stressing me out, that's what I'd think about. No matter how old I get or how independent I am, the second I get to rush up to my mom at the train station and hug her, everything feels right with the world again. The stress and anxiety of the trip just melt away. Tears of happiness spring to my eyes, my heart soars and my soul sings because I'm just so happy! And yesterday I got to do that twice!!
My mom was worried that the weather here would be bad so my dad took the day off to driver her to the train station, but she didn't tell me. I'm pretty sure that will be my favourite Christmas gift this year :)

After picking me up, we headed to Arby's for lunch and then stopped at a surplus store where mom bought me a meat thermometer and then we headed home. After a short rest, dad and I headed back out to do a little shopping. I got to check out the new Shopper's Drug Mart that was built in town and we ran into my grandparents along the way. I got to make my grandmother's day since she didn't know I was back in town yet. So that was nice.

We had a nice dinner, which mom made. I was just happy not to have to cook for myself for once! And then the 3 of us watched a "Duck Dynasty" mini marathon. OMG. That show is funny and those guys are insane. At 9 mom switched to Ghost Hunters and I almost didn't make it to the end of the show. I'd been running on just 4 hours of sleep. So I made my way to the even colder upstairs and got ready for bed. My parents' house is cold. I've mentioned this before. But the upstairs is down right chilly. It was crazy windy last night (still is this morning) yet the window in my bedroom is open a crack. Mom likes having fresh air. Being way too tired to fight with the window, I left it as is. But damn, it was chilly in there. I nearly froze to death getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The toilet seat is so cold that you don't really want to sit, you're more inclined to just hover. And by the time I got back into bed and tried to get the covers on my again, I couldn't feel my fingers. Oh yeah, no hot water in the bathroom. You have to run the sink for a good 2 minutes before you get hot water. Brrrr.

I was the first one up this morning though and here I am, blogging. Or hogging the computer as my mother muttered and wandered off.

So I should wrap this up and go get some breakfast. Not sure what we're doing today other than braving the mall and Walmart for a few final items. This should be fun :)

Good Morning!

Sarah

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

Winter Weather Woes

I'm sitting here, watching Home Alone and I'm hiding behind my hands like I'm watching a horror movie. It was the tarantula scene - the one where Kevin grabs it off the stairs and throws it at the bad guy. *Shudder* I fucking hate spiders and that was one big ass spider.

Despite the fact that I've watched 4 Christmas movies in the last 24 hours, I'm still not feeling the spirit. I put out the cards that I've received so far this year, finally got around to putting my wreath on the door and I hung up my snowman "Welcome" sign, but that's about it. Nothing overly Christmasy at my place.

I spent the day cleaning and killing way too much time on Farmville 2 and Pinterest. LOL. I did managed to get the dishes done, my laundry folded and put away and got most of the living room clean, including clearing all the clutter off my coffee table so I can once again see it. I also got more Christmas cards written. But now I'm out of stamps.

I really should have got more done, but my stomach wasn't a very happy camper this morning. I think I drank too much coffee or the coffee was too strong or maybe I'm fighting off something but my tummy has been hurting and making odd sounds all day. It's one of those "I'm really glad I live alone" days. I sure hope that it doesn't keep me up tonight and I hope it's feeling better in the morning. The weather is supposed to be supremely crappy tomorrow so having to skate to work with a stomach ache doesn't sound like fun.

Ok. My upstairs neighbour just moved something so big/heavy that I swore he was coming through the ceiling and the entire building shook. What the fuck? It's almost 10pm on Sunday. Who does that? Inconsiderate damn neighbours. I really need to find a better building.

Back to the weather. According to Environment Canada, "A more prolonged period of freezing rain extending well into Monday is then possible, especially for regions near the Ottawa Valley." Well dammit. This is after the 5-10cms of snow that is supposed to fall overnight. Snow I can handle. Rain I can handle. But I can not deal with freezing rain. Ice and I do not get along well at all. I am so not looking forward to tomorrow.

Good Night!

Sarah

Funny Looking Rain

Nothing special to report about today. I worked some overtime and ended up working longer than I planned. I ended up helping one of our teams, since they needed assistance and helping them would be more productive for the office as a whole, so I jumped in and learnt a hand. And now I have a new "skill" to add to my resume :)

Environment Canada really screwed up out forecast today, which did not impress me. They said that it would be +4 with rain. So I dressed for rain. Around 9:30, the rain turned to big, wet snow clumps. Not snow flakes, clumps. And it did that off and on all flipping day. Even at 3pm, after almost a solid 2 hours of snow, Environment Canada still said "Rain occasionally mixed with wet snow". WTF? So I got to slip and slide my way home since I was in runners. That was super fun.

I was a little productive when I got home. I managed to get 2 loads of laundry done and I've written up a bunch of my Christmas cards. I think I'm going to need more stamps. Maybe I'll be able to get the rest done tomorrow. I need to have a very productive day tomorrow. There's lots to get done and I'm running of days before Christmas to do them.

I can hear my bed calling so it's time to log off.

Good Night!

Sarah

Unsuspecting Life Lessons

So I had an interesting day today. It got off to a rough start when the nice people on the radio said that it had snowed overnight. Well crap. I was seriously tempted to just turn off the alarm clock, crawl back under the covers and just hibernate until April. But I figured that wouldn't go over very well in the long run, so I got up. I will admit that the first thing I did was look out the window to see if the radio people had lied to me. Sadly, they hadn't.  This resulted in me digging furiously through my closet for my boots about 2 minutes before I needed to be out the door. I found them! Which meant that I made it to work with warm, dry feet and I didn't fall on my ass in the process. So that was good.

I managed to finish a project at work that I've been working on for almost the whole month. That was super awesome, especially since I've got a new, bigger one to work on now. D'oh! I guess that's just the way it works. They've very different projects too, so I guess my brain will appreciate the change of pace.

Some other crap happened along the way but it dawned on me that it's not worth getting into. In the greater scheme of things, it doesn't matter. Once I was home from work. Facebook provided me with a little shinning beacon in the dark. That happens from time to time. Kind of like when my brother suddenly says something profound. You don't see it coming, but when it happens, it stops you dead in your tracks. LOL. Anyhow...a friend posted a quote from actor and musician Will Smith. It said:

"Don't chase people. Be yourself, do your own thing and work hard. The right people - the ones who really belong in your life - will come to you. And stay"

That's so incredibly true. And perhaps why I've been a little "meh" lately. I haven't been doing my own thing. I've been letting myself get way to caught up in other stuff and other people. And the worst part is that none of it matters one fucking bit. I need to focus on me and just ignore the rest. I have some truly wonderful people in my life. They belong and they've stayed with me for a very long time. They're the ones that are important. They're the ones who matter. I need to focus on that.

And I need to finish my book! It's gotten really, really good. It's been hard to put it down. In fact, I read through dinner. I had to keep putting my book down so I could cut my meat. LOL. I think I'm going to get ready for bed and go curl up with my book and finish the sucker. No worries, I have the next one in the series so I can keep going. I may have to pick up the 3rd one (or 4th) before I head home for Christmas ;)

LOL!  Good Night!

Sarah

Stepping stones - Century Gardens, Calgary AB.

I Came. I Saw. I Shopped. It Snowed. I Whined.

I came. I saw. I shopped. And am happy to report that I have a good 75% of my Christmas shopping done and there's still a month to go before Christmas.

And I even braved the snow to do it. We kept getting flurries on and off today. I kept asking Steph to make them stop but she just kept patiently explaining to me that she didn't have that kind of power. Dammit. LOL. We did almost get blown away while scurrying between Chapters and Michaels though. It wouldn't have been so bad out if it wasn't for the wind. God bless Steph for putting up with my whining about the damn snow!

For the record, I don't think I've bought so many baby clothes in my life. I bought stuff for 3 different babies today, one of whom isn't even born yet (but will be in early 2013). Some of the sales were just too good to pass up. I nearly bought myself a new Sens shirt since it was 50% off but I was good and refrained from doing so. I have to admit, I had a bit of a good baby buzz going after looking at all the cute baby clothes today. But then there was a baby on my bus who cried the entire time. Killed the buzz. They're cute. Their clothes are cute. But they still scare the crap out of me.

Steph and I tried to solve a mystery in Walmart today. The area between the front doors at the entrance of the location we were in reeked of rotting garbage. And then, once you got inside the store, the entry area smelt like fish. Apparently, the fish smell is quite common. There's a McDonald's to the left of the entrance but we couldn't fathom the filet-o-fish being popular enough to be the cause. The bakery area of the Walmart is to the right. No fish there. And Walmart does not have a fresh fish counter so we're a little stumped on that one. Maybe they spray the area to keep people from loitering? It was rather bizarre. Our next Walmart adventure was to find the present my nephew had asked for. After 15 minutes of searching, I actually had to call my brother and ask which department the damn things were in. Thankfully, we found them and all was good. I still can't even being to explaining what the hell they are, but I hope the kid likes them. And we still don't know what the smell is. It was still there on the way out too.

My poor little phone was getting quite the work out today. I was having 3 separate text conversations at the same time. Steph took to playing the guessing game everytime my phone chimed to let me know that I had a new text message. I even managed to get a wrong number call (happened while we were scurrying in the snow so I didn't hear it ring). It was a little kid calling to tell her grandma that she hoped she had a good day. It was a adorable. And clearly a message not meant for me!! LOL.

The best deal of the day was the 1.2kg box of Catilli Smart Pasta - Rigatoni at SuperStore: $0.94. Really. 94 cents. I couldn't believe it. I bought 3, two of which I donated to the food bank. 1.2kg will go a long way for a family, so that's awesome. And it's the high fibre kind too. I'm sure my box will last me a few months.

I've also decided that some teenagers are truly insane. While I was waiting for the bus home (I wasn't done shopping so Steph left me at the mall when she went to pick up her hubby), two teenaged girls walked by. One was wearing a dress that was so short it barely covered her ass. She had to keep tugging it down every 10 steps or so. No leggings or tights or anything and it was -10 with the windchill. Insane. And I'm not the only one who thought so. Another teenaged girl and her boyfriend were beside me and the girl commented to the guy something about short dress girl being nuts and I think she mentioned trashy too. Or slutty. LOL.

Tomorrow will be a much quieter day. I have to find a place to store all the presents I bought and I need to clean and organize so that I can decorate :) I'm glad that Steph decided that shopping with me would be more fun than watching hamburger thaw. LOL.

I'm not quite sure but maybe, just maybe, the Christmas spirit might be creeping into me. But for now, it's time for bed.

Good Night!

Sarah

Christmas tree that I had in Calgary

An Early Piece of Christmas Magic

So it was an epic fail with the French homework tonight. It's not that I'm not motivated to do it, it's that the instructions are terrible. They don't really explain well what we're to do. Not only that but there's no guidelines or explanation about how the questions come together - eg. The pro-noun comes before the noun or crap like that. Basically it's memory work. Which isn't really learning. It's memorizing the order things go in but I sure as shit can't explain back to you why they go in that order. Sigh. Here's hoping there's no math in the class tomorrow. And I only have 4 classes left :)

We had a fire drill at work today. At the same time, we got a little snow flurry. Thanks Mother Nature. We sure appreciated that one.

I got something a little magical in my email this evening. I got a video from Santa. Now I know what you're thinking. I'm too old to believe in Santa, right? WRONG! You're never too old to believe in Santa or magic (or the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, The Great Pumpkin or Zombies). It's what keeps our inner child young and in turn keeps us young at heart. Other than I'm slightly worried that Santa got my favourite colour wrong. Hmmm. LOL. And I really don't know why Santa is concerned with the speed at which I put on my make up.

Maybe if you watch the video, it will all make sense:  http://magicsanta.ca/gateway.html?code=STXCUT

I think it's pretty cool. We certainly never had anything like that when I was a kid. I do remember phoning Santa at the North Pole one year though. That one stuck with me. I was so impressed! As much as I claim to not be a fan of children, I have to admit that I love seeing the magic come alive in their eyes and smiles at Christmas. There's something very special about that.

I also got a gift this weekend, or rather tonight. I got some piece of mind. For the first time in a long time, I feel hopeful. I feel like maybe, just maybe I've got things under control. That I've got this. That I'm not quite as messed up as I thought I was. That maybe, just maybe, I have a handle on this being a responsible adult thing and that there really is a light at the end of the tunnel. And no, that light isn't a freight train. A couple of angels helped me to find the piece of mind. Not sure how I'll ever be able to thank them enough - thank them for trusting me and having faith in me.

I think there really is a little hint of magic in the air .

Good Night!

Sarah

Heritage Park in Calgary