I stopped at Hyundai again before work and was assured a cheque for my deductible will be dropped at Signal Collision. Hopefully soon after I will hear it i time to pick it up. The day was extremely full but I knocked off quite a few files. I came home to relax and work on the larva project. Rae-Anne sent me a picture she found in one of her mother-in-law, Judy’s scrapbooks. It was the review of a Fringe show I was in in 2000 that was written by my friend. Once we took it to Fringe I was graced with a lovely mention by the CBC reviewer. Good times, I have been blessed with many of them over the years on stage. I love that Judy kept the article all these years.
I had a good chat with Mom. She really likes where she is living, loves the food and even goes to the exercise classes and went out on her own to the bank and drug store today. This is a huge deal! And a relief that she isn’t upset I talked her into the move.
Work, lunch, work, train Natalia, work, make food, snack instead, watch shows, crochet. Nothing to see here, folks.
Oh, there was the parcel I had to pay over 29 dollars to pick up. I ordered items from Quip, which I have done for a few years now, and this time I had to pay the taxes and a handling fee. That’s the end of that. Sigh.
Today I ran payroll and union remittances and then skipped out of the office to see grandson Gene and bonus grandson Jonas play their first game in a rugby tournament at school. I am so glad I went! It was hard to find them on the field as I didn’t even know what uniforms they were in. Suddenly I realized the young man ring tackled in front of me, nearly making it over the line was Gene! They won 31-6 or some such. The games don’t last long but it was exciting and the conversations of the teen girls sitting behind me were entertaining. They reminded me of my passion for the sport (the guys in rugby shorts) when I was their age.
The afternoon was spent on one file for the most part as Natalia worked across from me. Her English is mightily improving and we have good moments together. She told me that her brother, his wife and kids had to flee their upper floor apartment into the forest in fear of the missiles. Her husband is a driver of a vehicle transporter and they don’t know if he will have a job when it is all over. She hopes he will come here as well.
I didn’t get home especially early but had a quick visit with Tracey before I settled on the couch to crochet.. but I didn’t, I played games and watched shows and just tuned out. I am missing my friend Jay’s celebration of life tonight in Vancouver. I found out in the last few days about two people I care about having Cancer and another who has lost a substantial part of her livelihood. Life is not feeling fair right now. No one promised it would be but I sure did like the hugs I got from Gene and from my friend who popped in to the office. It is good to be loved, and to love. Without risking loving, there is no pain in loss.
The morning was gorgeous and I even got on the treadmill again for the first time in a while. I have gotten to bed too late recently and need to adjust that going forward. My tree is quite stunning and inflatables make me smile. I didn’t even notice until I got in the car that there was ice on the windshield.
Unfortunately I managed to scratch my burn in my sleep and it really hurts today. Three days later, it should be healing, sigh. It is in an annoying spot for work and play. I don’t want to cover it up though.
I am ever so happy to have solved the music for Ryon’s memorial on Saturday. It was really causing stress to Roger and to me, wanting to take that burden from him. Seems he had already had several performers fall through and I am very grateful for Jamie’s suggestion to ask Madison Prinn. I called her Dad, my friend Dave, and in no time he got back to me that he would play for her as she has a bad shoulder and that she knows the old time hymns asked for. Such a day to be thankful as things are coming together.
Once I got to a good stopping point at work, I came home and made dinner. I didn’t feel like eating but packaged the portions up for lunches this week. I was happy to see the tractor that I put out for free did find a home and now I hope the table and chairs also go to a home that wants them.
I spent the evening watching The Voice and continuing on crocheting Emmy’s Larva to go with her Teen Titans costume. The main body is now done, tomorrow will be the feet, antenna, eyes, etc.
I heard from Signal Collision today that my car is all apart and they will likely need it another week. She said everyone in the place is drooling over my ride. This makes my heart happy and after driving this perfectly nice courtesy car, I can’t wait to have mine back. I have zero buyer’s remorse.
I did set an alarm so I could get things done. I did some chores and the headed to the office to run a payroll that takes more concentration than most. From there I met the family and friends at the Firehall Kitchen and Tap where they put on their annual free Thanksgiving dinner. It was so delicious and the coconut chocolate porter by Bomber Brewing left me sad their license doesn’t allow growlers. It was so good! Had fun kissing up the two youngest grandsons, lol. Roger was the Boss in the dish pit to assist on all our behalves for the great meal.
I went to Walmart to get materials to make the special part of Emmy’s Halloween costume. I haven’t crocheted in a while but I committed to it. Grabbed my Halloween candy while I was there. Next stop was back at the office where I took care of a file that the client stalled into my busy time so I wanted to get it off my plate. As I was leaving to come home, Steph pulled up and we had a great visit on the sidewalk. Once I got home I settled myself and started the Pink Larva for Emmy. got pretty far as i watched my shows and gathered energy for the week ahead.
I keep checking in with myself today as my rage and frustration is barely under the surface. I suspect it is just the take-away from all the turmoil in the last month. To be honest, I don’t think I am generally an angry person but the anger seems to come too easily these days. I talked myself down first thing this morning and then I went off on Jake and later on Lukas. Neither thing was undeserving but I was over the top, I picked up groceries and then Jake, Lukas and Emmy to help me winterize the yard. We put away everything, folded up the tent trailer and the leaves were raked and bagged. I dropped them off and raced home to make Red lobster biscuits, Caesar salad and cheesy cauliflower. I was done in time to take a quick shower and race to pick up Mom and bring her for dinner. It was delicious and there were 15 of us so a bit chaotic. I wish we still played games and enjoyed each other’s company more. Jake was here for the weekend and we barely had a full conversation. I invited Ashlée to a play with me and she says she probably doesn’t have the time off. Rae-Anne is mostly distracted by work. I love my family but can’t seem to find my place in it that isn’t peripheral. That is okay, I just need to accept and take the moments when they come. I think the anger is part of that becoming accustomed.
I do want to be happy but I am well rutted in my life and need to let go of the things, even in my stuff, that I need to get rid of.
I woke after 8 hours and started doing chores. The main one was to cook my last Hello Fresh from the prior week. It was a risotto and chicken which as I was taking it out of the oven managed to burn my arm. I ran it under cold water but it is pretty gnarly. The food smells good and there are now two full containers ready for lunches this week.
After showering and dressing, I dropped off Tracey’s hockey ticket for Ash as Jake is going to use mine and had a quick visit before heading to Mom’s. I took a quick pic of Sawyer’s school shot.
Once at Mom’s we went through some of her treasure boxes and jewelry box. There are now a couple of zip locks full of costume jewels for the thrift store, a few things sent home with me, small boxes for others as we went and her faves in the jewelry box on her dresser where she can enjoy them. I was thrilled that she gave me a few things including the heavy duty necklace I loved seeing back in the ‘70s.
We had a good laugh over the weird bottle of teeth and agreed to get it gone. The only one we kept (for now) was the one wrapped with the note, MB first tooth. It was also stunning to find she still has the cookie from when I was 15 wrapped in it’s recipe. Yes, that’s right a petrified cookie which came that way out of the oven. I had forgotten the butter. Sigh.
Among the other cute things were a Heinz pickle pin, a Woodward’s Santa button and a note from a birthday gift along the way. My fave was the tooth fairy note.
We joined a bunch of family at Mr. Mike’s for dinner to celebrate Barry and Jeanne’s 50th anniversary. It was also Donna and Hogie’s 48th last week so it was nice to sit with them for dinner. We had a delicious meal and good conversation. Danny picked up the tab which was a big surprise!
A bonus for the day was seeing myself 34 pounds down which is the lowest I have been since Sept 2015. Getting closer to my pre-Bella Bella weight which is where I am aiming for.
Up and at it, off to trade cars at Signal Collision and get my courtesy car, an RVR. It is so weird to have to use a key again and I admit to being very used to all the bells and whistles in my Tucson. I can’t wait to get my baby back. They said they will polish out the parking lot scratch in my passenger door while they are at it.
From there I stopped at the office to answer email before heading to pick up Jake at the airport. It was so great to see my son again, it has been far too long. We stopped to see his granny and he took out her garbage for her and we made a plan to see her soon. I forgot my phone and when I went back, Uncle Lawrence was there and he’d brought me maple syrup from Ontario!
Next stop was Arby’s where both his sisters were working. We had lunch and then I dropped him to meet Danika dropping off Emmy. She has grown so much even since she was here last. It was so sweet to see her excitement at seeing her Daddy. Danika brought me Emmy’s pre-school grad pic and I took a picture of it and put it on Mom’s fridge.
I can see the woman she will be.
Back to the office to fulfill an afternoon of filing remittances and then it was home to change and get ready to go to the Bucks vs Warriors hockey game. Tracey and I picked up Jake and Emmy and off we went. The game was good and we won in OT which was pretty exciting.
The evening finished off with Tracey and I deciding we should try the Mushroom gummies that we had bought months ago. We tried half of one as that is the recommendation for newbies and watched Hocus Pocus. I had never seen it and now see why everyone liked it so much back in 1993. We decided we weren’t feeling anything so had some more gummy. We then watched HP2 which honestly didn’t live up to the first. It was entertaining though, no doubt. The gummies did start to kick in but really no different than THC ones. I am mellow and tired. It was nice to hang out and watch together.
Work, train Natalia, and more work. I was very sad for Natalia as a missile went over her parent’s house in the Ukraine and although they were not hurt, it is very scary. There was also horrible news from Thailand where 37 people were murdered by an ex-cop at a Daycare facility. Over 20 youngsters are gone. What is wrong with this world!! Both of the above scenarios sure put my little grumbles in perspective.
I was at Key City for the all candidates forum early and met a lovely lady, Kathy. We had very interesting conversations and I am impressed with her perspective on things. She has lived here for 16 years, from Alaska and just last March got her Canadian citizenship so this is her first vote in Canada. I am excited for her and impressed with her research. We sat together for the forum and pretty much had the same take away. Not much changed in my decision as to whom I will vote for but some interesting comments were made. I was unimpressed with our current Mayor who kept iterating that there should be housing for those who ‘truly deserve it’. EVERYONE deserves a safe space, full stop. The hot button topics were crime, addiction, and homelessness as well as what to do with the old campground and the deer problem.
They called today to ask me to bring my car in to get fixed and that they will have it for 2-3 weeks. I will make the swap to a courtesy car tomorrow morning before picking up Jake at the airport at 10:30
Before work I made bacon cauliflower chowder and took a container to mom for lunch when I dropped off her food and other items that I had picked up last night. I encouraged her to go for a walk about and join the others for dinner. She seems happy but is still pretty tired out from the whole move.
My nails did not last as they usually do and were terribly chipped so I called to see about getting them fixed. I was offered an appointment tomorrow at day’s end but got a call just after 3 asking if I could come right away. It actually worked best for me so off I went. Had a great funny conversation with Minh as he redid them and bless his heart, no charge. I went and got him a lottery ticket and dropped it off.
Went back to the office and finished a few more things before coming home to get Tracey who had invited me to join her at a concert at Key City tonight, Whitehorse with opener Jesse Northey.
The concert was fabulous! Jesse is a great singer-songwriter from Fernie and Whitehorse is a married couple, with a drummer, from Toronto. Each of them were successful as recording artists before they married 16 years ago and them formed the band and are on tour with their 8 year old Jimmy who was adorable. I wore my Loop ear plugs as the music was loud and I was thrilled at how good they sounded. She has a bloody unbelievable voice, his was also great but their harmonies were mind blowing. I bought their Modern Love CD and one of Jesse and the Dandelions as well. I look forward to uploading them to my playlist. Tracey bought two other ones and we will share.
What a great night!
I checked my mail when I got home earlier and there was a parcel from the UK! I got a present on Linda’s birthday lol. They know me so well.
Got up and skipped the treadmill to make a meal I could have for lunch and dinner (or and lunch the next day). Had another crazy full day. At noon, Natalia, the Ukrainian lady showed up and I set her up on my laptop to work on a file as ‘school’ as she called it. It amazes me how well she is progressing with her English and along with that new knowledge we used the translator app on her phone and my google. She was an accountant in her home of Kiev where her husband stayed due to the borders closing to men leaving. He sent her and her 17 year old daughter to Canada for safety. I am honoured to be part of her journey here. It was a lot to take on right now but she worked away and I answered questions as I got other things done. I didn’t put time down for the file she is working on and reduced the time on the one I was busy with. Some things are more important than the $$$ and I hope they have much success and that their family gets to reunite soon. I spoke with Mom a couple times and mad a list of things to pick up for her. After work I went to Walmart and got the things she wanted and a few more that I knew she would appreciate. i will drop them off on the way to work in the morning.
I didn’t love my alarm again but had to get my butt to the office as all the payroll ended up on this day. I also had no idea what time Mom would get here and we needed to get her there before 5 so she could get her life alarm and find out what table she would be at for dinner. Technically there is also no visitors outside of 9-5. I met her there at quarter to 5 and had to talk her into having dinner. They kindly offered to send her meal up on a tray. It was Turkey Schnitzel, Mashed potatoes, a soup and bun and a blueberry cobbler for dessert. The thing that made her squee was the side was beets. She loves them. She was so happy with how I set up and settled her apartment, loved where everything was in the kitchen and bathroom and I could tell right away how happy she was when she sat in her chair and saw the view. Also, I hooked up her router to find her internet was transferred as I had instructed her to arrange so she can use her iPad. I will have to make sure her Roku TV is connected to Netflix etc when I next go over. We had a bottle of my wine while I questioned her on a few more things that ended up in the to go bin. I am proud of her. We are going to go through all her cats as well and keep the ones she loves the most as she has over 100 of them as figurines, and even more as mugs, etc. I actually loved watching her walk around and see things, exclaiming in joy as she saw things she forgot she had. The next plan will be to hang all her pictures and collector plates. I asked her to make a list of things she needs and I will go pick up, like a broom, for example. There is housekeeping but she needs to keep it tidy. I may just pick her up a stick vacuum like I have that doubles as a dust buster. It was a very tiring day but I am so glad she is happy and I know she will sleep well. As will I 🙂
I awoke to a phone call from Uncle Bryan that Mom is too tired and will come tomorrow. I made myself get up and get some chores, including some of Mom’s laundry, done, made myself a good meal with leftovers for lunch tomorrow and then headed to the new apartment. I spent a few hours getting the rest of the boxes emptied that I could, finished the bathroom and bedroom and then decided I could do the rest with her. I will meet her tomorrow and show her where things are, get her lifeline, etc. I feel really proud of it all and hope she will be happy there. I do plan to Marie Kondo her cat collection as it really is out of hand and there is no point keeping them in boxes in storage. I suspect I can put a batch together and sell it for her which will help with the extra costs.
Sigh
I raced home at 6 to shower and change, and pick up Rae-Anne, Will and Sawyer to go to a show at Key City.
I had set an alarm but wished I’d added a couple hours. I dragged my sorry butt to Joseph Creek where I screened in and got the dolly and took it up to the apartment. I then realized there was no toilet paper so popped home managing to arrived back at the same time that Greg arrived with the UHaul. Shortly after that the two Mormon missionary guys, Ethan and Joseph arrived in their black pants, white shirts and ties. I felt sorry for them as they were between sessions with the living Profit who is here in Cranbrook for the weekend. They were very helpful and very friendly young men. I know we couldn’t have done it without them. Bill dropped off Eugene, the youngest of the home stay students and he worked his tail off, hanging clothes, opening and sorting, and then flattening all the cardboard afterwards. I stayed upstairs, unpacking and staging everything. I decided there are no ‘storage items and even unpacked the silver tea set although it needs polishing. Rae came by for a short visit with Greg and helped me put the bedskirt on that was one of Mom’s hearts desires. I brought the rest of her bedding home to wash and will go back to unpack the bathroom and hang pictures tomorrow. The whole place is so much brighter and with the large closets and store room in suite, it’s a big step up from her other place. Just need to find a guest chair and all will be well.
I raced home and changed my clothes before grabbing Tracey and picking up Greg to head to the Hockey Game. It was the first official game of the season and we had a shut out. I think it is going to be a good season. Had a good visit with Greg. We three tried to go to The Blind Pig and The Fenwick & Baker but they were both closed kitchens and one even had a closed till already so we couldn’t even get drinks. Pretty lame for just before 10 on a Saturday. Instead we drove through A&W and I dropped Greg at his hotel before coming back to the hood. Bill is going to pick him up for breakfast and take him to the airport in the morning. It was a short but lovely visit.
triumphgal 