The first surprise was that I woke up just after 5 AM and I was wide awake so I got up and made a coffee and sat in my chair thinking I would fall asleep again, but no, so I was at the office before eight and got a great deal done before it was time to go pick up gala auction items from Dave at Canadian Tire and get to the Rotary lunch. Dave is so generous and surprised me by giving me a ticket to join him in his box at the arena for the first playoff games next week.
After the lunch, I stopped at Key City to pick up their Gala gift and pick up my ticket to the show this evening. That was surprise number two. In the morning I got an invite via messenger from Sarah Hagen to be her guest tonight. I confess not being well-versed on Johann Sebastian Bach nor the Goldberg variations, which she would be playing, but it was such a beautiful invitation that I was very happy to accept.
The seat that was chosen for me was in the second row on the aisle with a perfect angle of being able to watch her hands and the charts. I was mesmerized. And perhaps that was the third surprise, I loved it. I don’t think it was my imagination that at moments her hands were a blur. They were moving so fast, the fingers across the keys, creating a story and emotion without any words.
In the lobby before the show, she had a display of a print for each variation art that she had created to express that variation. I found them interesting and chaotic and colourful and confusing and then I saw variation 30 the last of them and felt joy to the world. I purchased it immediately with a red dot so that people could experience it. After the show, Sarah graciously signed my CD and initialled beside her signature on the print which was funny because she seemed hesitant and then commented that it was beautiful done in the gold sharpie.
I did manage to surprise her by wearing my 2019 MusicFest T-shirt, which had the artistic grand piano on the front and her name amongst the artists on the back.
Went home I framed and hung her piece immediately so that it wouldn’t get damaged. I’m glad I keep extra frames around for when I am moved by art. 
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day work wise was being able to keep my boundaries and not react to some of the issues that are still coming up from the organization that I am getting ready to ghost lol.
My bulbs are starting to grow. My mind has had enough of bullying and bullshit. It is spring baby and I am done with things that hold me back. See me Bloom.
The worst part of my day was getting to the point of exasperation and replying to an email that I quit. When people are foolish enough to not want to be trained because they think they know everything and then proceed to mess things up and expect me to be able to deal with it… As a volunteer… I reserve the right to say I am done.
The best part of my day was going to celebrate my friend Galen’s 50th birthday, which began with drinks and dinner with friends at the Heid-out followed by the first outdoor fire of 2025 at their home.
In between feelings were based on the fact that I had my last postop appointment with my surgeon at 8:30 this morning with x-rays to find out that my ankle is healing well and she feels strongly that it is moving in the right direction. I may have pain for up to a year, but likely the pain I am feeling right now is due to overuse and I should take it easy. I think I can do that. I celebrated with a Canadiano and a puffed wheat square from Max’s.
Sawyer is just such a good little human. He cares very much about other people more than even about himself when I mentioned I was going in my big trip. He said that he was going to save money and get his mom to come and drop it off in my mailbox so I didn’t even have to be home to get it. He also was very worried that he should sleep on the floor not in my bed because he helicopters when he sleeps and he didn’t want to disturb me, I did convince him that I would wake him up and put him on the floor if he really did bother me. Of course he didn’t. He stayed to his side. He slept well and he got up and sat on his phone for half an hour before my alarm went off. He’s just such a good little lad. I will have to have them over again to play Little Big planet as this visit was just Lego and I know he also really want to play. We had such a good time while I was staying at their house recuperating playing our games and I don’t wanna lose that momentum while he’s this young.
OK, so in case you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m mostly voice to text these days so please don’t try to learn English grammar and passing of sentences from me as you can see by the sentence above it even heard wanna instead of want to. But you know what it allows me to free flow what I’m thinking and just be in the moment and that means more to me than perfect English.
I was very nosedown getting payroll and things done today when a peripheral client reached out struggling and I end up at 3:30 going to their business until 630 or so and then coming back to the office to finish pay payroll and do my billing for the month. I was a little cranky I admit, but as I laughed and told her about my trip upcoming and put things into perspective, I do what I do so that I can do that.
This is the day that should’ve been my dearest cousin Kelly’s 63rd birthday. She was taken too soon, but her memory lives on. Her sister and I especially carry her memory as a dragonfly hence today being dragonfly day rest in peace, my sweet cousin sister.
Then I got an idea to have Sawyer over night as he has asked several times to be able to stay and then go to school from here. Before I went to pick him up I got a text from Tracey to come over for a beer. I can’t believe we haven’t even had an over the fence visit since I came back home. We had a good catchup and she said she will look after Missy while I am on my trip.
Sawyer desired OPA so we got some takeout which was too salty for me but tasty, on the way home we went through the carwash and both of us got excited by the ‘unicorn’ foam as he calls it
Once home, we ate and began working on my BB-8 There was a messy moment when he spilled his Sprite across the table but fortunately Lego washes well. We got a lot done in a couple hours and it was fun
After he settled into bed I finished my Deadpool Diamond Art and watched the Juno Awards
Once I was up and had coffee and a shower, it was time for the ABC Zoom. Not as many were available this time, but it was nice to catch up.
I cooked up three of my four HelloFresh meals that have been piling up so that they wouldn’t go to waste. Fortunately, they are all easy to have over the next few days. Did some chores diamond dotted watch some shows, gave my foot a rest.
I also found out that I have enough air miles to cover everything but the fees that you just have to pay for my flights both ways for the trip I did book Cranbrook Calgary to Rome, leaving on 16 October. It’s an overnight flight, which works very well for me as I can sleep on planes. Just taking care of that one detail has made it very, very real well doing that. I also had to call Visa to find out why my card wasn’t working to find that my new one hadn’t arrived yet but was activated. Fortunately I have got so much security on my account. There were no fraudulent charges, but I have to wait for the new card to come. 
Today was interesting as it was kind of the culmination of an entire week of either really shitty things or really great things and not a lot that was just in between. The great thing is I feel good mentally. I do know that I have a big decision to be addressed. I do know that I set some boundaries today and feel good about them. I do know that I am getting super excited about going on my trip in the fall.
I showed up for a Rotary on the rocks at the Cranbrook, indoor golf and had a really lovely time playing dart golf with Judy and then jordan who joined us. I kicked her butt the first game, but for the second game my ankle started to bother me and I had to be more careful and decided to just let Jordan play it out. We had pizza and some drinks and some great conversations and I feel very supported by the people who have been involved with me in the organization that I am walking away from.
After golf, I was invited up to Errol and Lallah’s where fun times were shared with Robin and Steve, Nadine & Marvin. After a couple lovely beverages and some snacks I headed down to Encore where a comedy show was to start at 9:30. I was stunned to get out of my car and start walking to the door and see a guy looking me in the eye as he pissed against the fence to the right of the door. Keep it classy, Cranbrook. Rae had saved me a seat at the bar. I sat and had a couple of nonalcoholic beverages and enjoyed the three sets. Nash was the opener/MC and he was really good actually the best that I’ve seen in a very long time. I did let him know that. Terrible me as forgotten the name of the next comedian she was good just maybe not a good fit for Cranbrook for her whole set but overall enjoyable. Bo, the headliner was from Seattle. Part of his Schtick is his calm and laid-back voice being the son of two massage therapists. He really was lovely to listen to and I so much enjoyed his clever comedy that didn’t have to be raunchy to amuse. I had a nice chat with each of them before I left. I was glad that I went out after all even if it has been a very busy social week 
All day at the office after tossing and turning too much last night, I earned half an hour and the rest of the day I spent completing what I feel where my obligations to Fisher Peak Performing Artists Society. I completed the last two T2 returns so that 2014 to 2024 or packaged up with a letter to be mailed to CRA in PEI. I also filed for GST return rebates in order to get over $1700 back for them.
It is time for me to write my full letter of resignation, even as their bookkeeper and website person. I feel that the level of disrespect has gone above and beyond anything that a volunteer should need to deal with. It is time for me to step away and hope that they find someone who can do what I do so they don’t fail.
I admit that I was chuffed when I got a message from my fellow fam friend in the UK that there was going to be another season of Ted Lasso. It is filmed in his teams stadium.
I left the office and headed to shoppers drug Mart to mail off the package of returns and pick up things that I needed personally before heading to Encore to meet up with Laura and Charlie for a nice visit before the team that I fully recruited showed up for trivia. I had started to read my book, but only got as far as the dedication which reminded me that it probably wasn’t a book that I want to read in public, but sit curled up at home and read instead.
Layla and her friend Nadine Brett and I were the thirsty beavers and we came in second but it was really fun and the team that beat us was Roger and Rae’s.
Rae got me to make an announcement and walk around with a jug collecting money towards our host Sharaya’s family problems. Her father who is retired military has oesophageal cancer and I was pleased to see so many people kicking in towards their expenses. She and I were both overwhelmed by the whole experience.
Our team made a plan to come back with Brett’s wife, Jill and the girls next Friday as it is library theme night! I look forward to it our little Ground Floor team.
Why is it that the only time my ankle doesn’t hurt if I is if I am standing straight on it bearing weight? I don’t see my doctor until April 1 to be able to ask that question but for now I just need to tell you that it’s super sucks. I am losing sleep, constantly annoyed at work and even just hanging out in the evening in my La-Z-Boy having it raised is not helping. Sigh
Today was another cycle of pushing fingers into my eyelids and whispering fuck fuck fuck Fuckery fuck. I know everyone doesn’t see it about me, but I’m a person who wants to see the best outcome in spite of the assholes that are making things go sideways. If I know I can fix it then I need to stay with it. But today I learned from a conversation that I am completely disrespected. By the time I bill next week I will have put in over $1000 this month for an organization who won’t even acknowledge the $750 of that that will be written down because I made an agreement to work for $250 a month for them. They will not even post my logo as a sponsor on their event website and yet tonight have reached out for me to post other sponsors on their website for them. I will finish what I committed to, and then they will get a very long letter to describe the disrespect and misogyny, and basically cutting off their own noses to spite their faces. the hard part will be walking away after over five years of volunteering for that organization and helping it to be the success that it is.
A cool thing today happened when I went to download the data and delete my 23andMe account. It turns out that my brother‘s daughter, Maya had her results on there and enabled me to take screenshots of our background to see clearly what part of my DNA is from my mother versus my father. This was the main reason that I wanted to sign up in the first place. So basically all the 0% on Maya side is what comes from my mother. There may be some overlap on the other percentages with my father, but the important stuff is what specifically comes from my mom.
The good part of today was meeting Deb and Dave at Encore to watch Ryan McMahon play and just having a very good time. We talked about our upcoming cruise and making plans and laughed and joked back-and-forth with Ryan who I realize tonight I met 16 years ago so I have known him 16 years out of his 25 years celebration. We had a good chat stage to floor about it and I super appreciate him. It was a fun night which was something I really needed.
Oh and in spite of all the stress, I am 3 months smoke free! Yay me
Today was a lot I pretty much tried to quit doing work for Fisher Peak and was asked if I could hang out through till June anyway. I did tell the president that the number one reason I would quit is that I have put in so many hours for a particular event that is going on and the producers of the event did not except me being a sponsor and being able to put my logo up on the website. That is beyond insulting. It is just downright rude and it will be the end of my relationship with the organization. I am just more worried that the president will have another heart attack and so I am going to stick it out for a little bit to get him past these three next events and then I will have to say I am done. 
At the end of a very long day of filing personal taxes and corporate work I realize that I had tried hard but not found anyone to go to fire hall musical bingo, which was Canadian artist night, and I really wanted to go. Unfortunately, when I got there, there were no seats left at the bar and as I was by myself, I didn’t want to take up a four top or booth so they put me off in the bank room until I see that the bar could become available. The service was not exactly great. I was there for nearly half an hour and it had been brought one drink, but not had an order taken and by then I was feeling pretty sorry for myself and whiny and felt like I should just go home when Rayann suggested Lukas should come down and join me Just as I agreed to that I found out I could be moved to the bar and there were two seats available. Luke showed up dressed very sharp and we shared some food and Bev’s and played bingo and chatted about future and plans and hopes and dreams and it really was a lovely date night with grandson number two.
We talked about the possibility of him living in my home when he is done grade 12 in 2027, as that might be the perfect time for me to go off and live somewhere else for a year or two while he is living in my furnished home, looking after it and going to college locally. His dream trip is also to go on a safari, so I told him to start saving his money because I could pay part of the way for his graduation if he was willing to travel with me as it is on my list too. At the moment, it seemed a very good plan to him.
So the big news of the morning was that 23andme, a DNA testing site that myself and my son and others in the family are signed up on, is going bankrupt. It has been recommended to take our information off the site before it ends up getting bought by someone with a nefarious plan. I did do some screenshots just so I remember and I’ll have to go on and see about downloading my reports, etc. and deleting it tomorrow when I’m in the office again as I was too busy today.
I don’t really understand why it would be of any value to anyone to have the details of my DNA although I suppose there are a great number of suppressed races in my past and should big ugly genocide things happen again this could be a pointer to me.
Good thing I have chosen not to live my life in fear, but I also don’t wanna be stupid so I will research it more tomorrow and find out what I should do.
I have a long day at the office, but it was very productive and when I got home, I made a nice meal and it was 20 to 9 by the time I sat down with my food and my cup of tea. I forgot how much I love tea, and reading. It’s strange how easy it is to fall out of the habit of both.
I woke up fairly early so I allowed myself to have a little nap at one point in between doing some chores puttering got the laundry done the garbage out watched It Ends With Us, the rest of the second season of Severance, and I’m catching up on Shrinking
I made a good meal with leftovers for lunch tomorrow and worked on my diamond art while I was watching the shows
Now I’m having popcorn and tea before heading off to bed
The best part of the entire day though was getting a call from my kid brother Greg. it doesn’t happen very often anymore that I hear from him, but we had a great conversation. Talked about my trip about mom‘s health. You know all the things it just really was lovely to chat And it not be a call about who’s died or dying for a change. 
How is it possible that I have been blogging now for five years? It is hard to understand that the pandemic was that long ago, that I have been sharing my thoughts and feels ever since and sometimes it is just a grocery list of what I have done in a day and others are my feelings about what has occurred. I think I was better at the beginning And I apologize if you have been a faithful reader for these past five years if I have become more of a pedantic displayer of my daily moments. The truth is sometimes that’s all I can pull out of the vault. I have a hard time balancing what is the truth in my life and what is Something that will bite me if I share it due to protecting other people’s stuff and it makes my truth complicated.
Today was kind of lovely. I headed off to the Groundfloor to spray paint the last umbrella for Rotary so that I could add fleur-de-lis and bring them to the decor meeting at three.
They were well received, and I am grateful and I contributed to more of the centrepieces and had great visits at a different deeper level with the Rotary women.
From there, I went to the hockey game to bring Lallah her phone as she had forgotten it at the crafting centre. I enjoyed a meal with her and Errol and then went and hung out with Deanne. It was really nice to joke about us being sister wives, which is a little bit cruel I admit as it is very exciting that her and Bill are having a 35th anniversary this year. I was happy to finally have the conversation with her that I thought it was the ballsiest thing I had ever experienced that her and Bill planned their wedding the day after he and my divorce was to come through. There were so many things I could have done that would have messed that up, including me not agreeing to sign, but that was not part of my Heart journey and it came through in time. It was just really nice to talk to her about that and acknowledge that we respected each other.
I left the game after the second intermission to go to 1926 social House to see Trena perform. She and her band have definitely gotten tighter since the last time that I saw them and I was grateful to be there. It was lovely to connect with some people that were there that I knew and meet new people. The place seemed to have a positive vibe and I hope to return.
I am thrilled to have met with people and pulled information from emails, etc. to have filed four personal tax returns today. That was the beginning of my season and it went well.
I did other things obviously to accomplish a full day of work, but when I was done, it seemed that my car auto pilot to Fenwick & Baker. I did stop at the prestige on the way to pick up their donation to Rotary and I was very thrilled to find my grandson there to be part of that.
Hung out at the bar with Michelle and Teanna being served by Robbie. What a fun evening with Chicken and Waggles recommendation from chef Michelle
It really was a very good day and I can’t even believe that it’s only 930 and I am ready for bed because I’ve had a complete and kind of perfect day 
Seriously, today was a very good day. I had Rotary lunch with interesting presentation by the wife of one of my previous clients who I’ve never met before and then it was meet with two different clients over the afternoon who are powerful women that I enjoy the energy from before heading to Encore For trivia night. On the way, I stopped at fire hall to pick up the swag that was donated to Rotary to find out that my entire trivia team was there for the top takeover. I stayed long enough to have three samplers with paired beer that were delicious from Nelson brewing Company, and then I had it off to Encore to find a team for trivia to join as I had cleared my schedule to do that tonight. It turns out that my friend Sean and his daughter Zoe were here from Vancouver Island and we’re having dinner with Brett and Jill and their two girls Morgan and Riley. I asked her if they would like to form a team and they were into it and I’m not gonna lie. We had so much fun. We tied for a first place with the usual team and Sean went up as our person for the music tiebreaker. My heart was broken when the other guy answered first on the U2 song to win.!
I had a really great connection with Zoe and I’m thankful for that opportunity. I also super connected with Morgan and Riley who have traditionally been shy with me because we don’t spend enough time together, but I felt like I was the Nana to them tonight and we had fun. I hope I get to hang out with them more.
I slept so well last night after realizing that I had an enhanced beverage in my fridge. Time to restock!
This evening I was the MC for the third winter ale evening hosting father Jason and daughter Grace from the Cleland family band followed by Dani Strong who was joined by her daughter Dotty for a song. It really was just a lovely evening. Sad to know there’s only one more to go this season, which may end my career of introduction now that I am no longer on the board.
I found out from Mark that his surgery is May 7 in Vancouver and I am going to drive him down for it and stay and bring him back home again. It may work out nice if Jake is in town and I get to spend Mother’s Day with him that weekend Also, I hope the banksy show is still on
More plans to make, it is slowly setting in about the big trip that I am taking this Fall
I didn’t sleep well and felt rough when I got up. It was a tough morning and I even missed the Chamber Lunch at Ella’s as I wasn’t sure if I was sick sick.
I worked on the umbrellas for the gala. I think the first one turned out nice in spite of my poor spray painting ability. I just have to add a bit of the colourful ribbon around the top.
After getting my work done, I called Dave & Deb’s Expedia Cruise agent and worked through a deal to get the least expensive solo room and then added the perks to include high speed internet so I can work, tips and beverages. She saved me a couple grand. I decided to put a deposit down. So, yeah, I am going to fly to Rome and go on a 26 day Mediterranean Grand Adventure on the Sun Princess, the newest in the fleet, ending with an 8 day transatlantic cruise to Ft Lauderdale.
I met Rae for a shared burger at the Modern Olive. It was delicious and I discovered I love fries dipped in Tsatsiki. We tried to find another one to share that we hadn’t already tried, but settled on cones at Marble Slab followed by my free beer at Encore. I do like Dad Rock.
It was nice to visit and be able to explain my extreme YOLO feels. Now I am home finishing Adolescence which is an incredible show. I don’t really know how to explain it, it is an experience.
OK, so the schedule part of the day was that I worked my tush off and then I went to Encore to celebrate Dee Crozier’s birthday, which is also St. Patrick’s Day and Lennon Delaney was playing and he’s fire. I got home to the delicious smell of my husband‘s (crock pot) cooking.
The extraordinary part of my day is that I agreed to join Dave and Deb on a 26 day cruise Mediterranean and transAtlantic it is not going to be cheap, but there is this part of me that has always wanted to do a Mediterranean cruise and wants a period of time where there are no excursions, no demands on my time, just relaxing to Read books, visit and enjoy. I feel this would be the best combination of those things. I just have to find the best deal because Cruise plus flights could be 10 to 15,000. Now, I have been known to spend 5 to 7000 on a two week adventure so I have to consider that and this is everything in: meals drinks, entertainment etc. and Dave and Deb have told me just book the cheapest room possible and come hang out with them in their Expensive one. Part of me knows it would be cheaper to find a travel companion because travelling solo is what is so expensive however an entire month would be hard to find someone who is available and harder to find someone that I would want to spend a month travelling with. I could probably do fine with Mark, but he doesn’t have the finances and I’m not sure he would love a cruise. This is the part of not having a partner that makes the world more expensive for me. I’d love if one of my besties could spare that kind of time and money but again it’s a big ask.
triumphgal 