Sick

I am sick. I hate being sick. I have a stuffy nose....the nose people have invaded. They congregate in one nostril and stay there. I blow and blow and they don't move. Then I stand up, and they shift, allowing me a brief moment of relief, then as soon as I sit or lie down again, they congregate and stand firm. Then, just when you think you've conquered them and they've vacated one nostril, they show up in the other nostril. Why is that? I would rather have the stomach flu than a stuffy nose. I am also achy and have a headache.

Not only am I sick, I am missing work. Not that I love my job and want to be there, but I do feel guilty being sick. I especially resent how they call. I call in sick, and leave a contact number as requested, and then within a few hours my supervisor calls back. Now my supervisor is a nice enough person, but I resent having my nap disturbed or having to groggily reach for the phone just to have them say "so you're sick? what's wrong? hope you are feeling better". What is calling me accompishing? It stresses me out. I worry I'll be fired when I get back, or that they are making notes about any sounds in the background "oooo she's watching tv....can't be THAT sick". I ran out of Sudafed and had to go to the drug store. Wouldn't you know that's when they decide to call. I always feel like a kid skipping school trying to come up with a believable excuse for missing class. I overexplain. I'm just sick! It happens. Sometimes taking a few days off and really recovering makes you more productive than "working through it" at the office and doing a lousy job.

So I'm sick, and stressed. And of course tired. And you, the blog world, get to listen to me whine. For that I apologize. My wonderful hubby is taking good care of me. I'm going back to bed.

Tag I'm It

Four jobs I've had:
1. Photo Lab Tech @ Zellers
2. Archival Assistant @ George Scott Railton Heritage Centre
3. Private Vocal Instructor
4. Bell Canada E-Sales Rep

Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Almost any Musical
3. Father of the Bride 1&2
4. 50 First Dates

Four places I've lived:
1. Toronto, ON
2. Trail, BC
3. Nanaimo, BC
4. Niagara Falls, ON

Four TV shows I love:
1. Friends
2. Desperate Housewives
3. American Idol (not Canadian Idol though)
4. Little House on the Prairie

Four places I've vacationed:
1. Walt Disney World
2. Nassau & Coco Quay, Bahamas
3. Horn Lake, BC
4. Kingston, ON

Four of my favourite dishes:
1. Pasta
2. Ice Cream
3. Baked Chicken Penne from Montanas with a Banana Strawberry Milkshake
4. Same as Melissa - Breakfast foods at any time of the day

Four sites I visit daily (meaning "often"):
1. Freeway Cohort
2. Blogs of the FRWY community
3. workopolis.ca
4. www.doteasy.com

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. At my parents place
2. Disneyworld
3. On a beach with my sweetie and a good book
4. Anywhere with people who make me laugh

Four Bloggers I am tagging
1. I have lost track of who and who hasn't been tagged, so I am going to tag everyone who hasn't been tagged that reads my blog that wants to be tagged! Let me know you did it so I can read up on ya!

Mom was right

Why is it people don't have, or have never had a uterus are incapable of finding anything? Mom used to say it all the time when we were kids and I never really noticed. Wow do I ever notice now. Just now, Rich is puttering in the kitchen and asked where the juice jug was. I let him know where it was, and he can't find it. So mumbling the same thing I used to hear ("If I come in there and find it where I told you it was you're grounded"), and lo and behold, it's there. If it doesn't lunge out at him and scream "pick me!!!" it's actually not there. It must magically appear when I get there.

The jug of course, was excatly where I said it would be. I try to teach him - I didn't get it, I left it for him to get. I don't think he'll remember where the juice jug goes in 2 days. Not sure why I bother? Mom....I feel your pain now!

Corporate Toilet Paper

I work in Burlington in a large building with a bunch of floors - I'm not even sure how many - most are "forbidden" to us. I know on floors 2 and 3 there are a lot more "corporate" type people - people who definitely make more money than me, and can take a 20 minute break if they need to instead of my regulated 14 minutes and 59 seconds. Now I realize some of these people do hard jobs - sit at new computers (computers that don't flicker when someone uses an electric pencil sharpener behind you), have comfier chairs than we do, and don't have to actually speak to customers like we do. I'm sort of ok with these people getting more money than I do, they've clawed their way up to floor 3.

I am NOT ok however with what I discovered today: on floor 3, where there are none of us lowly customer service reps, they have....you won't believe this....THREE PLY TOILET PAPER!!! Do you know what we have? One ply!! I couldn't believe it. I still can't. What is so different about my bum that I don't deserve 3 ply? Maybe one day I will ask. Maybe in my exit interview when I can finally quit, and they ask what they can improve. I don't think I'm asking much. Even 2 ply. Why not spread out the plys? Two ply upstairs AND downstairs, instead of 3 up and 1 down.

Maybe I will bring up the battle of the ply's sooner. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not. Maybe for now I'll just keep that little piece of ply info in my back pocket, to whip out when I need it. We'll see.

Hot Stone Massages and feeling lousy....

Yesterday I discovered my new favorite thing. Hot Stone Massages. If you have ever had a regular massage, this is so much better. It's a regular massage but with hot stones (hence the name) and once they use the stones in the massage the stones are left on pressure points. The only place I didn't like the stone was between my toes. It wasn't that it was bad/painful, but my toes were exposed and cold! I left feeling very relaxed and sleepy. Unfortunately that sleepiness turned to feeling lousy later that day. I'm not sure if it was the massage, but a friend told me that her massage therapist said it draws out colds. Not sure if that's true but I feel icky. And I'm at work. I could use one of those massages now!
Must work tomorrow as well so no church for me which sucks. I look forward to seeing everyone on Sundays. I'll have to catch up with you all next Sunday - hope everyone is doing well.

Poll....what do you think?

K everyone I have a poll to do to for a friend. It's a 65th birthday party (surprise party). Included at the party will be:
- Sit down dinner Roast beef, with all the sides.
- Veggie trays and fruit trays and desert.
- Possible wine served at each table.
- Bar (cash but cheap prices) available as well

If you were invited to this party, would you feel it was tacky if you were asked for $15-20 /couple in lieu of gifts? You have to be honest! Would you rather buy a gift even if you'd spend more than $15-20/couple? Let me know - leave a comment - it will help out a friend in the planning stages of the party!

Thanks!

American Idol

Can I first start by saying I love Simon. I know he's mean and has no tact, but I love him. I wish he'd leave people and their appearance alone, but usually I don't mind when he knocks someone's singing if it's truly horrible (and I don't think I've ever heard him knock someone who wasn't). For the most part, I find it refreshing, someone telling a potential singer the honest to goodness truth. I love those people who yell at him "Simon you wait, I'll make it on my own!". No, see the thing is, you really won't. If you were good enough to make money, why would Simon not want you making money for him?

I have identified the problem though. It's not the kids auditioning for the most part. It's the parents. Now encouragement is one thing, but giving false hope is just mean. Growing up I remember singing - and not that long ago, at a Christmas service, knowing I'd done pretty lousy, sitting back down beside my Dad and when I said "how did I do?" (knowing full well the answer) he said "Yup not so great". Dad rocks. He gave me a hug, and that was it. I know when I've sucked. I appreciate all those times growing up when my parents would tell me what was good about the song, but wouldn't tell me it was phenomenal if it wasn't. And I'm glad. Music is a super competitive field. Even school was competitive. You had to fight for your place in classes, audition and sing like you've never sung before, and keep your fingers crossed it was enough. If it wasn't, you worked harder, and tried again. Constructive criticism is important. You know what sucks even more than hearing a "you were absolutely dreadful and have the personality of a hippo"? Singing your brains out and getting a B. Or a C. Or really anything but an A. Spending hours and hours and hours on a composition and hearing "it's ok".

So I appreciate Simon. I appreciate someone giving people a dose of reality. Not everyone is musical. That's ok. If one of those girls wearing the itty bitty skirts who couldn't carry a tune if her life depended on it had a parent who honestly said "you are fun to listen to kiddo, but here, why don't you try the piano?" maybe they'd be another Beethoven, instead of another Keith. And all you American Idol fans out there, you know who Keith is. (If you need a good laugh try and download his video audition from Season 2.)

Thus endeth my rant on unrealistic parents, and my continuing music crush on Simon, who although silly in his "baby tees" has given America a good dose of reality. If only he'd do the same for Canada.

What do grownups do?

I have discovered I have no idea as a grown up what to do. I do grown up things - I am married, have a home, family, friends, a job I don't like, and yet when I come home from work I don't know what to do. I cook dinner and try to clean up after it, trying to become more "wifely", and then what? I have no homework anymore. I have no wedding to plan. I have no honeymoon to plan. No Christmas presents to wrap. We power cleaned this weekend before Jason and Laura and the kids came over for dinner. Many nights I plop down with a crafty thing like my cross stitch and find something mildly entertaining on tv to watch, but now what? Is there something I am missing? I feel like there is some big secret that someday someone will reveal....like for the last 10 years you should have been working on this big assignment and it'll be due next week. Will that happen?

I know most people are running around after kids all day, but what do the rest of you do?

New Addition

So a few people have asked me how we got our dog and how long we've had her and so on, so rather than explaining again, I thought I'd blog!

My uncle in Mississauga has a purebred shepherd that had puppies in August. She had 3 puppies and they already had 2 dogs, so 5 dogs running around was a lot. They sold one puppy, and were going to keep the other 4, but with so many the pack mentality kicks in and the females were not going to get along as the puppies got older.

Jan 7th I was at work and took a break to check my email. There was an email from my Uncle Steve and he said they needed to remove one of the females to try and solve the problem. He asked if we wanted Jojo, one of the puppies. After discussing with Rich (and doing a little bit of begging) we decided that with everything they were doing to help us with the start up costs of the puppy we would take her. We've wanted a dog for a while but after the wedding/honeymoon/Christmas, finances weren't such we could get one, but this arrangement worked perfectly. It was an answer to prayer for them too!

Sunday, Jan 8th we got Jojo, and on Monday the 9th she was officially renamed to Chewbacca or Chewie. She's almost 6 months old and she's huge - 54 lbs when the vet measured her today. Her tail is dragging on the ground and her ears ars as big as the rest of her head so she's going to be a big girl! She's the new addition to the family and we love her to pieces - and I have to agree with Jason she's the best puppy in the world (although I'm a bit biased!) So that's our puppy story. We're now doing obediance school and trying to get her trained but she's great. Come visit her anytime we all love visitors!

I am a Blogger!

So I am officially a blogger! I decided I needed my own blog space instead of stealing some of Rich's. It's probably for the best - my hubby has some well thought out ideas, where I mostly want to rant.

Tonight was Freeway and Rich and I boldly went where many crazy people have gone before....the nursery. We were told by more than one person what a great form of birth control that is! Completely right. A puppy is good birth control too. After one sleepless night with a puppy and one stint in the nursery our "lets have kids by this year" plan is out the window! Overall the nursery was a fun, positive experience and we're looking forward to doing it again.

You know what else we are looking forward to? Sarah's awesome idea of Freeway Biggest Loser! And since it hasn't started yet, I'm off to have some chocolate and watch Desperate Housewives!

Houdini

She's over 50 lbs with big floppy ears and a huge tail. Rich put her in her crate one day before he went out and she escaped! We hadn't figured out the lock on the crate. Then, a week later, she gets out again....still no idea how. Today, thinking I was clever, I put her in her crate, locked it, AND put an office chair in front of the door. The chair couldn't roll forward if she pushed it - there was a table in the way. She also had one of those dorky looking cones on her head so she can't pull out her stitches she has in. I get home from work, and I'm greeted at the back door by a 50 lb, cone wearing, single floppy earred dog. Not only, did she escape from her crate, she managed to do it without getting the lock off, without opening the door, AND without moving the chair. The room she was in had a closed door. She got that open too.

Either my house is haunted, she's a super genious dog, or she's
Houdini.

So early....

Why is it that companies feel they must be accessible 24/7? What happened to having regular business hours? I understand being open a few hours before and after regular business hours for the rest of the world, but really, do you need to order cable or buy lipstick at midnight? No, that can wait till 8am.

Off to work.....