Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Random Musings

One
It's getting cold. This morning I had to warm up my car before getting in. But that might have something to do with the fact that I am a big baby and hate being cold. Must look into the Lease Busters thing and see about getting out of my lease and into a brand new G6.

Two
I've been thinking about something for about a week now. And this something has something to do with one part of my life that I will not point to. However, I have solicited advice from too many people and thought way too much about this. Suffice to say that I will no longer think about it and move on.

Three
I sit here typing while I'm dying my hair. One thing on the list of things to do is find a good hair colourist and stylist. The one I had here was not all that great and she didn't listen to me. Hence me sitting here dying my hair.

Four
Family may be difficult, and in my case--a little crazy, but sometimes, it's nice to talk to them and hear what's going on. Last night I had a nice conversation with my mom and also another one with my brother. It's good to connect.

Five
I have been collecting goodies for my sister's birthday next month and one of those goodies is set to arrive in the mail soon. I can't wait to see it, because I also shamefully ordered one for myself as well and I can't wait to play. Can't wait to see the look on her face when she realizes I have spoiled her rotten.

Six
I'm going to a Halloween party this weekend and have just about nailed down the entire costume. I used to be really good at this, however, the decisions were not so forthcoming this year. So I will be a punk. Got the wig and all.

Seven
Life is pretty quiet, which a good thing, I like these moments. Because it gives me time to do my bajillion loads of laundry, clean my room, clean my bathroom, and just sit and create. I have so many ideas lately, and that makes me happy.

Eight
Nothing could be cuter than this.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Geeked

My sister came down this weekend to visit with the kids and I just have to say, we had some serious fun.

I decided that we needed to go to Great Lakes Crossing outlet mall. My aunt came with us. And while I normally like to shop and try on clothes with my nieces and buy stuff...I can safely say that the shopping is out of my system for a while. We were in that mall for about 9 hours. NINE HOURS PEOPLE. I was ready for a tantrum by the time we were done. In fact, I think I actually had one while I was pushing the stroller with two kids in it, searching for the bracelet my niece had dropped. I believe I may have actually stomped my feet and teared up a little. I blame Marshall's though. Stupid sales that entice people in there for hours at a time.

My nieces were hilarious though. We took them to the Rainforest Cafe and my youngest niece was so enthralled with it all. She came back from the ladies room and said to her big sister (please use your imagination with the expressive hand gestures during this conversation) "did I. MISS. THE. THUNDERSTORMS?" Too cute. And every time they came out of the kitchen with one of those volcano desserts (three brownies, ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and the best part--the sparkler at the top) her eyes got as big as saucers. So we had to get one of course. I thought she was going to burst out of her skin she was so excited.

I love it when they talk to each other though. It's pure comedy. The two of them. Priceless. Or when my youngest niece invokes the supermodel clause while trying on clothes. She struts so well she could put Heidi Klum to shame.

I'm still trying to decide who misses who more. The dog missing them, or them missing the dog. Guess I'm second fiddle AGAIN! Sheesh. I thought we solved this problem when the cat stopped living here. "What was your favourite part about your visit to Windsor?" "Seeing Benny". "What about shopping, and your treats your aunt bought you, and your gifts, and eating at the Rainforest Cafe?" "Ya, that was ok, but Benny was the best part".

Believe it or not, the Energizer Bunny herself was going strong in KMart until well after ten. Stubbornly telling me she had been there before and was fully capable of standing outside in the store alone while I was in the ladies room. Uh no, not going to happen dearest. At one point, I looked at her and her eyes were so red I thought she had been sprayed with mace or something. I think shopping until all hours of the night might be a form of child abuse. But she wasn't complaining. She actually slept for about a half hour in the car and THEN WOKE UP AT HOME AND WAS RIP ROARING TO PLAY AGAIN. Sigh...to have that kind of energy...

One of the stops we missed was the scrapbook store. I wanted my sister to see this place. It's called The Scrapbook Zone and it's awesome. I'm totally geeked out when I go there. I am actually overwhelmed. Which is surprising. And very telling. I ended up going over on my own on Sunday after they left because I needed to pick up my 7 Gypsies stamps--which I'm totally in love with by the way, for the scrapping crew. My sister and I had gone to work on Friday night making cards. It was so much fun. I put a few samples together for my aunt to take in to work. I'm not normally a big fan of my own work, thinking it's only good enough for me, but she thinks people might want to buy them, so I have to do a few more samples so she can take them in for buyers. Which would be pretty cool. I also finished this cute little album that I'm making for her. I love the way it has turned out. No worries, pictures to come.

I also had to get some leg warmers for my Halloween Costume. I'm hitting this party my friend is throwing this weekend and I wanted to get a costume. I picked up a punk wig and some fishnets and black nail polish at KMart while I was there. I wanted to get some leg warmers but couldn't find anything. I gave up thinking they don't carry them anymore and lo and behold, there they were in the Target flyer. Too bad I couldn't remember how to get to Target from where I was on Sunday. Guess I'll just have to make due with what I think a punk looks like.

Best part of the weekend though? Driving past Comerica Park and seeing the lights of the game. I bet it was even more exciting for my uncle and my cousin who were actually there!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Mr. Right Now

I have a new man in my life. And while he is not technically "my" man, he is a man, and he is in my life.



My aunt adopted him while she was away last week and he's now "ours". And it's actually kind of fun. I want to get a dog eventually (actually today there was a Westie advertised in the paper but I passed) so this is good training. I'm learning how to walk him, how to feed him, how to train him...god I sound 12.

Hey, I even cleaned up poop. That's progress.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Moments

I don't consider myself an excellent photographer, but there are moments where I happen to capture something special, something magical, and something that makes me wonder how it is that something so simple can express something so wonderful.


Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Blah blah blah

I'm sick. And it? Sucks hard core. I hate being sick. Well, actually, I like being sick when I can be sick and stay in my pyjamas all day and sleep until noon and crash on the couch and watch soap operas and drink orange juice and get hopped up on Nyquil and just be sick. But I can't do that. Because I'm trying to prove a point. So I have been dragging my ass out of bed every day and it's not fun at all. Added to that, this is one of those weird colds that sort of sits where it wants to sit at various times of the day. Like in the morning, when it sits somewhere behind my eyes. And hurts. Like a bitch. And in the afternoon, where it sits somewhere in my throat and makes it hurt and makes me want to cough at the same time. Which makes it hard to talk, on the phone, to guys at the car dealership who call me repeatedly during the day. Or in my mouth where I feel like I have been licking a dirty seat on the subway or something. Blah.

I had to take my car in this morning for an oil change and it makes me laugh because I go in there and the guy I get every time is all "well this is what we have to do and this is why we have to do it" and then proceeds to launch into a big discussion about why my thruster needs to be flushed or whatever it is that involves a whole lot of little holes in a pipe that gets corroded or whatever (and no that is not a euphemism for anything, I really needed a flush of some thing in my car). I'm looking at him with this blank stare all "ya whatever, just put it on my bill". The funniest part though was that I wanted the clean car package. As in, clean out my car because it's dirty inside. And I was just thinking they would clean the windows and wipe the dash down, which is really sucking since I drive at night and I can't see out of the dirty on the inside but you can't see it until someone is flashing their lights at you windows. But for the whopping low price of $29.95 they vacuumed my car. And that? Was a little embarassing. Because they cleaned EVERYTHING. I forgot to check the trunk to see if they vacuumed around the clothes I have in there for the dry cleaner and tailor or not. Sigh. Always drama and embarassment in my life.

Finally, I have a confession to make. I am horribly in love with my nieces. Because they are too damn cute. No really. My niece tells me all about her cross country run and how she came in 64th of 67 runners because she was being a good friend for stopping to walk with a kid who got a cramp from drinking a can of pop (soda) and eating a bag of chips. I railed at her a bit about how she doesn't win if she stops to help people who made the mistake of eating before the big race and yada yada yada stage mommy extrordinaire bitch out continues. She listens patiently and then tells me that being a good PERSON is more important than being a winner. Too bad the being a winner makes you a good person lesson was lost on her. Shit man, why is my sister raising such good wholesome people? They need to be evil! Which also reminds me. The evil child. She gets on the phone with me and says "(siiiiiighhhh) why you want to talk to me anyway? I'n bizzy!"

Monday, October 09, 2006

Thankful

First off, to all my Canuck readers...Happy Thanksgiving. Hopefully there wasn't too much turkey and goodies this weekend. I'm dreading getting back on the highway tonight. Hopefully all the holiday travellers will have dispersed by the time I get there...

I decided to take a different route on Friday night. With 20 kilometres of construction (it's probably more) on the way out of Windsor, I hate getting stuck and end up wishing I had taken a different route. Added to that, there's almost always a log jam in there somewhere holding things up. I'm completely impatient and like to get going. So I took a different route and ended up taking Highway 3 along the north shore of Lake Erie. It was a beautiful drive. The water comes into view sometime around the 20 minute mark and it stays that way for a while. The sun hitting the cliffs was almost poetic. And at one point, somewhere along the point of Rondeau Park, the land dropped down and there was this wooded area all ablaze in the colours of fall. The moon was rising above it and it was picturesque. If I wasn't such an impatient person (and if I didn't need to stop for gas) I just might have pulled over and taken a photo.

We've been busy here this weekend. Saturday was gymnastics and my niece and I decided to try the scrapbook store in Hyde Park. It was useless, they carry a lot of stuff but it's mostly stuff I don't use. So I had to make due with some paper and embellishments for my niece who wanted to do a page on her 1st communion. Picked up a few magazines and am completely in the creative mode for some cards. I love this feeling. Creativity makes me happy.

My sister and I decided to do a crazy run to Ikea on Saturday night Her: "come on, we'll only be gone a few hours". I had to break it to her that there is nothing she could say that wouldn't make me WANT to go to Ikea. I love it! I ended up picking up a new duvet cover and a new "duvet". It's fake fill so it's not really a duvet. I can't wait to see how it looks. She managed to score six Stefan chairs for her new kitchen table. So you know what I ended up doing on Saturday night...

Yesterday we hit the apple orchard. It was so beautiful out! Yesterday was the perfect Indian Summer day. Hot, sunny, still with a bit of crispness in the air. Like a tease really. Hey it's fall but we're going to heat things up again and make you wish it was summer. The bees and mosquitos were awful though which cut things a little short when we decided to take a walk after dinner. It's sunny and beautiful again today but we're probably going to scratch the trip to the conservation area for fall colour photos. The bugs are just too bad and my younger niece and I managed to pick up a cold along the way and we're both feeling like crap.

It's interesting, this weekend, though. I've been thinking a lot about last year and what I was doing. This past Friday was the one year anniversary of my job interview for this position. I remembered the feelings I had and how much I wanted this job etc. And in addition, this weekend last year my fridge broke. So I ended up going through that mess. Sigh...not wishing to go back in time with that one!

So hopefully everyone else had a good weekend. The weather has been incredible! I'll upload some photos later when I get home, my sister's computer is not so conducive to the hook up. I wish she had a memory card slot! But good things come to those who wait right???

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Kindness

You know, I have these weeks where I can just get really crabby. I guess it's a hazard of being a Crab myself but it happens to the best of us from time to time and all you can do is get through it. And when things swirling around in the drain of life start to build up, it tends to make it worse. Then there are bright shining moments that just make you want to smile and think that the world is being set right again and nothing can bring you down again.

Case in point, this week. Last week was so busy. And I think to a point, myself and people around me tend to be taken for granted. But it happens and you deal with it (being an adult dictates it) and you move on. Then this week started out really dark and rainy and just depressing outside. So you can imagine how easy it was to just slip into that mood where you just want to sting anyone who comes along.

And then the sun.

I was in line in Tim Hortons the other day getting a tea when a car pulled up from the opposite side of the drive through line. I waved her in. Figured it was the least I could do since the line up was huge and she was coming in from the wrong angle. Well, she decided to do something nice for me and paid for my tea. Which made the dreary morning a little better.

Then today, I am going through my junk mail and there's an email from a former co-worker of mine that I had just been thinking about today. Like literally right before I opened my inbox. She thought she'd drop me a line to see how I'm doing and asked me to get together with her for lunch next time I'm in town. It was really nice and made me feel better.

And this weekend I'm heading to London to spend the holiday with my sister and the kids (and my brother in law too, can't leave him out) and we've planned to go apple picking (didn't get there last weekend what with all the rain causing huge mud puddles outside) and somewhere with some fall colours to take some photos.

It's moments like these that make me feel better about being so grouchy when the rain comes down.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Mundayne

Remember when I said that I shouldn't speak too soon since I still had to get on the highway? Ya, definitely shouldn't have done that. Because I managed to get myself to the rest stop in Tilbury and was faced with a LINE UP of trucks at the stop. Which should have tweeked me but it didn't. Turns out, there was some sort of back up on the highway up ahead in the construction (as always, since some idiots don't know how to drive in one lane) and I ended up having to drive up the on-ramp (illegal, don't try it) and down Highway 77 and County Road 46 in order to get in to town. No idea what caused the back up though.

Funny story. Yesterday my sister and I settled in to watch Castaway on Bravo while the kids were playing outside. They came in part way through and were fascinated with the volleyball in this movie. You all recall "wilson"? Well my youngest niece was too cute. When she's tired she gets a little dramatic and was so shaken up by the fact that the fake friend in the form of a volleyball in a movie that isn't real floated away from Tom Hank's character that she ended up crying over Wilson for about a half hour after the movie ended. My sister emailed me this morning to tell me that she continued crying after her bath and dinner and had to be rocked to sleep.

I took a bunch of photos at their birthday party on Saturday and one really cute video of them waiting to blow out their candles. I love how my youngest niece sits and watches her big sister to decide what it is that she's going to do. I would totally upload the video but I'm a techno-idiot and have no idea the first thing about how to do it.

I am completely over people who refuse to drive in the right lane on the highway. What is with that? Is it really that hard to drive in the proper lane even with cruise control on?

I hate doing laundry. However, I love to clean out my closet. Which I did last night. And since I just went out and spent a great deal of money on some new clothes, it was necessary to clean out the old and hang up the new. So pretty.

I'm in love with the idea of buying a pair of red shoes. I even have this cute grey suit picked out at Reitmans that I am in love with. And I'm also in love with the new line of red fashions at Cleo. I hate that I'm totally in love with buying a new wardrobe. My credit company however loves this side of me back. Maybe that's what all those dreams were about...

Finally, my sister visited that psychic I went to see months ago. And while I am still on the fence about a lot of what she said (hello, it's the apple season, where is my Mr. Right???), she was able to help my sister find something she has been looking for for weeks. Namely a bag of scrapbook supplies that has been missing since May. No really, she said that it was in a place she doesn't normally look, behind a wicker basket, with a piece of black furniture leaning up against it. It was in the basement, against a wall, behind a basket, with a piece of a black table leaning up against it. I can't make this shit up.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Happiness

I've had a good weekend, and it may be premature of me to post this before I drive home, I'm going to post it anyway. It's been a very good weekend and I can safely say that it was a very happy weekend as well.

My oldest neice asked my sister yesterday if I was going to gymnastics to see them. My sister explained to her that I had an appointment with the esthetician and would go after I was finished. My neice asked what an esthetician was and my sister said it's someone who makes you beautiful. Without missing a beat, my neice says "but she's already beautiful, why does she need to go there?" Which is one of the things I love about kids, they always say exactly what's on their mind, nothing more, nothing less.

Added to this, my neices are back in this mood of getting as much love from me as possible. And they do it in ways that make me happy. For instance, they will just come walking up to me when I'm sitting down doing something and climb in my lap and just snuggle. Or come stumbling in the guest room in the middle of the night and curl up in bed with me. I should also mention the happy "purring" sounds that they make when they do this that makes it so much better. (As if it couldn't get any better than that).

Also this weekend? Liberal Super Weekend. I popped out to the voting location in London to see some of my old buddies and to see my brother who is volunteering. It brings back fun memories for me. My brother and I were big volunteers in the party years ago and we had a great time doing it. It's like old times. We were meeting people who are new in the party or people who have come from other places and it was nice to hear "you should meet Lesley's brother" or "this is David's sister" etc. He's getting involved in the city council race to help out and I'm reconnecting with some other people who are working on projects in my city. Networking is always fun.

I've also pointed out that they can call on me to volunteer for the campaign in December should my brother get elected as a delegate. That way we can get back in with all our old buddies and still be a part of the action at the leadership convention.

Now we're off to the apple orchard. Something I love about fall. It sounds really corny but happiness can be found on an apple tree, in the orchard, in the store, in a freshly baked pie, in the laughter and the fun we have....sigh...love fall.

Happiness...