Seismic Twitch

Dad’s memorial mass was today at 11 am. It was, as masses go, a good one. I carried the cremains to the front of the church at the beginning of services. My niece, Dad’s oldest grandchild, did one of the readings. My cousin, Julie, did the other reading. Someone I don’t know, my older brother’s boss, did the intercessions. Boy was greatly distressed several times. Bran and I comforted him as best we could.

There was the usual tea after the services where I got to meet people I’d not seen in a long time (cousins I’d not seen since Mom’s funeral – I don’t remember seeing them there but they say they were and I believe them), and others I don’t remember from Adam. Of course, there were those who I’d never met before as they became part of Dad’s life after Mom died.

Other than the funeral home arrangement, there were 4 floral arrangements from family and friends. Bran too photos of them and a photo will be sent to each person along with the thank you cards.

The house was cleaned up yesterday. I vacuumed. I wish the machine was better. The suction didn’t really exist so I ended up having to go over areas I could feel stuff on, but the machine didn’t pick up the first four or five times I passed over it. I also had to pick up bits and pieces of paper (we took outdated books apart for recycling) that were in the carpet. This increase in work load wore out my back. Despite that I did get the dusting done (I don’t think the house had been dusted since before Dad went into hospital). I also cleared off the coffee and end tables of the stuff they had on them, washed up the ceramics (Mom collected Blue Mountain stuff) and put them back out.

My brother, sister and niece worked on getting the food together for the family coming by after the tea and did the other necessary cleaning. Boy and Bran did the powder room off the master bedroom. This was used as a back-up bathroom.

I’m quite looking forward to getting back home. I’m thoroughly peopled out (though my niece, Bran and Boy don’t count in that). My sister, her husband and my brother all smoke, so both my and Boy’s allergies are playing up. That doesn’t even get into the smell.

I may not like my brother-in-law much, but he has done a lot of work in a short period of time to do some of the cosmetic stuff that needs to be done to the house. He got the bathtub area done up so it doesn’t leak, he fixed the powder room toilet so it fills properly, replaced the kitchen faucet and did spot painting that needed to be done on the exterior trim (the rest of the exterior is brick and stucco). He also replaced the locks and some of the worn out light switches. All that since Friday. He’s a person who can’t just sit, so it worked out for him.

Tomorrow my niece goes back to her husband and daughter and we head back to ‘Toon Town. I have a few things that I chose to take back. One is a needle point that Mom did. It used to hang over the living room couch. I’m also taking Mom and Dad’s wedding photo, a small knick-knack stand, Mom’s family ring and a few other small bits and bobs. Boy has inherited a sweater, afghan and letter opener that was made from one of the original rail spikes used on the trans-Canada railway (at least I think that’s what it is). We’ll also be going home with a pile of food. There is a lot left over from the tea and then there was the food that was prepared here.

This isn’t home any more. It hasn’t been for a very long time. I realized it when I was laying on the back lawn with my niece and we were talking. With Dad’s death, the spirit that made this place home departed. It’s time to become someone else’s home. What we kids don’t choose to take will be sold or donated. The house will be sold and the estate distributed according to Dad’s will. The estate will probably go into probate since there is property involved. I don’t know how long that will take, but at the end of it I hope to be able to put a down payment on a house of our own.

Needless to say, going through Dad’s bedroom was like opening a time capsule. Dad moved a lot of his stuff into Mom’s old dresser, but the memorabilia she collected was still there. There were old newspaper articles about awards my siblings won, letters and cards from friends and relatives – some long dead. We found the book that Dad’s mom (Granny) used to keep track of the money that her sons sent her each month to help support her. This was before the days of government pensions for widows. We also found a couple of post cards she had written to Dad in French. Our niece translated them (the handwriting was somewhat unclear). They were both mundane and very special. My sister found a picture of Granny’s brother, Xenon. I’d never seen it before.

Bran volunteered to be family archivist. He’ll scan all the photos in the albums Dad made over the years and then he’ll can the slides. This project will consist of several years of work on his part. But for him it’s a labour of love. It also means that there will be an archive of photos available to all of us instead of only one person getting all the photos, or breaking up the collection.

It’s been a stressful time for all of us. My sister’s dog, Bailey, helped break the atmosphere. Besides grief, there’s also anger and dislike. My sister has been walking a fine line between all of us and had done it with relative grace, though she does tend to micromanage some. That’s ok. She’s executor of the estate and wants to do a good job. Dad trusted her and she wants to live up to that trust.

That’s about it. I’m going to go hunt down a sandwich (there are a gabillion of them in the fridge).

Well, I’ve done some processing of my visit to see Dad this past weekend. I don’t like processing. It implies feelings and I don’t do them very well.

What it all boils down to is that Dad’s mental condition is such that he’s not going to go home again. His needs far outstrip my brother’s capability of caring for him. Dad needs 24/7 care. My brother would have to have someone come in and, in essence, babysit Dad just so that grocery shopping and the like could be done.

I think the most painful thing for me was to see Dad, in his moments of clarity (and there were few of them) didn’t realize the state he was in. It’s better for him, I know. I mean, it would break him to know the state he’s in. But it brought home to me just how bad he is if even in times of relative clarity, he can’t recognize things. The weirdest thing was he remembered Bran’s name. I’m not sure he remembered it more than a hand full of times since we’ve been married in 1986.

Dad’s short term memory is shot. If you leave the room and come back he’ll greet you like he’s not seen you for an age. His cognitive abilities are damaged. He can’t keep track of conversations. He regresses in his memory, thinking that the entire family is at home or remembering my sister or oldest brother as living in Saskatoon.

Physically he’s very feeble. This man, who used to walk upwards of 10 miles a day doing errands can’t walk 10 feet without losing balance. His strides are about 1 foot.

He’s totally preoccupied with his watch and time. When he first arrived at the hospital the nurses took it from him (as they do with all jewelry in ER) and it distressed him enough that they gave it back to him. He told them that he was a navigator in the war and precise time was very important to him.

The practicalities are taken care of thanks to him creating a power of attorney for my sister and I. He thought that was what was needed in case of his death. It’s a good thing he had it drawn up because now we don’t have to go to the work of a competency hearing and such. The down side is that neither my sister nor I live in Dad’s city. We’ll be doing things as a team. That’s how the power of attorney works. Anything that needs to be signed needs both our signatures.

Interestingly, a power of attorney ends at death, so it would have done no good then. The business of the decedent is handed over to the executors (again my sister and myself) to dissolve, pay taxes and distribute the estate. However, it’s a damn good thing it was made up to take care of things now.

So that’s how things are right now. My sister is mailing up some paperwork for me to take care of when I get back from Edmonton at the end of the week.

Speaking of Edmonton…I have to be at the office at 6:30 am. (0630 – for those on the 24 hour clock). I’ve got most of my stuff gathered together but not packed up. I’ll be doing my showering in the evening before we go anywhere (if we do) tomorrow evening and Thursday) I imagine the other 2 women will want to shower in the morning. This saves some congestion at the bathroom.

That’s about it.

Ta-Ra

Today was the funeral of my friend’s husband. It was a lovely service. I was watching his kids while the service was ongoing. One is two years old. She won’t remember more than a few vague things about her dad. The other is six. He’ll remember more but still, the memories won’t be his own. They’ll be augmented by what he hears other people say about his dad.

It was rather ironic that the two paganish people there are placed in the front row of one of the sections of the church. I asked Bran to do up one more button on his shirt as his pentacle tattoo might have been showing. Of course I cried through nearly the whole service. Well, not so much cried as leaked a lot. And blew my nose a fair number of times. I didn’t know the man, but I know his wife and I know they loved each other a lot. I cried for her and the kids and some for my own fear of Bran dying.

They totally ruined Amazing Grace by sticking new lyrics in there. It was a perfectly beautiful song before. Why go and add that religious stuff in? It was a song about redemption and was made sappy. Sad. I did get to hear The Old Rugged Cross sung in real life. It’s not a common hymn sung in Catholic churches.

In stark contrast the the casket containing the body of my friend’s husband were the two wee infants near the back of the church. Neither of them were more than a couple of weeks old. Life does go on in its cycles.

Despite his dying so young (he was 35) he probably knew he wouldn’t live to an old age because of his heart defect. Maybe that’s part of why my friend appears to be coping so well right now. Or perhaps she’s just putting one foot in front of the other, coping from minute to minute.

It got Bran and I thinking about our final arrangements. Of course, he’s been banned from dying first. I laid down that law ages ago. Anyway, the most significant thing is that we don’t have to try and find a guardian for Boy. That’s an enormous relief considering our religious/spiritual (or lack thereof) leanings. What we have to figure out is what kind of service we want, if any. Then we have to figure out the practicalities of being poor and having to pay for a very expensive service. Even simple funerals cost and arm and a leg. When Bran’s mom died in 2001 (Jan. 1) the funeral cost over $5000. That was for a cremation, flowers, ride to the funeral, their help with getting government notifications done (like to Canada Pension and such) and their organizational skills. Oh, and a small urn with some of her ashes in for Boy. The rest of the ashes are in a sealed plastic container to be distributed at the old homestead sometime in the future.

I was thinking of one of the cardboard caskets for me since I’m going to be cremated. Or none at all. Either way, I want to be scattered amongst rose bushes since I love the flowers but being allergic to them that would be the only time I could be around them and not get a headache.

I don’t know what music I’d like, maybe some Cat Stevens, Etheridge…I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to give that thought.

Funerals do that. Make us think.

After the funeral I was a little late for work. Traffic was stupid. There are road repairs galore (not that that was really influential as Bran knew where that was happening) and then we encountered a train. I still had to get home and change for work and get my stuff packed up. I managed that and wasn’t late per se – just later than I like to be.

Work was very normal. Busy, but normal. I got the weekly reports completed but wasn’t able to have much down time until after 10 pm. That was after a lot of the curfews were up and people were in for the night. Before that it was a stream of people going out and coming back and going out and coming back. Sometimes I’d just get sat down to type and someone else would want back in. It was like dealing with a large number of indecisive cats.

I guess I should consider going to bed. I wanted to be up a while longer as I have the living room windows all open to let in the cooler night air. It’s been wicked hot here (32C) the past couple of days and having the windows open in the coolness is definitely a good thing. Interesting. Environment Canada says that we’re getting some light rain. I don’t smell rain.

Ra-Ra

I’ve done my last graveyard shift this weekend. I have one or two more day shifts on weekends and then I start working full time in early September. While I don’t mind graveyard shifts, I don’t like having to work on weekends. That won’t happen again until they need someone to fill in for a sick weekend worker once in a while, if I want to.

I got some beads on Thursday. They’re lovely rich, dark green and sparkly yellow. I’m going to get some deep blue ones next week.

Thanks to the beading that I’ve been doing the past weeks my fingernails are really long. Well, all but one are long. I had to trim the one when it cracked and split. I’ll be clipping and filing in order to get them to a more manageable length. The pinkies are catching the beading thread.

At work I decided to have the bird at front with me rather than in the bathroom where he stays quiet. That’s what resident do when he gets squawky at them. He loves people, loves company. When he is ignored he makes lots of noise. Bodie is a Sun Conure. He’s a lovely bird and still a child. I’d have him in my home if I could afford the $2000 for him and his cage and toys. That’s what my co-worker is selling Bodie for. Actually, Bodie might be a Sheila. The only way to tell is with DNA testing. Anyway, I had him at front with me tonight, on my shoulder (I had my bib that I adapted to a shoulder rag in case of poops), and held him on my finger as I talked to him in order to give him some social time. Poor thing. He was nice and quiet and happy when I put him in his cage at 11:30.

Now I don’t work again until Thursday. Yay! Tomorrow night we’re going to a bbq at a friend’s house. We’ll take along some burgers (meat and mushroom) and the lovely oriental cole slaw (cole slaw mix, ramen noodles broken up, sweet onion or green onion, toasted almond slices and pumpkin seeds dressing: ramen packet flavour, salt and pepper, sweetener, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar and oil) as our pot luck contribution. It’s really yummy though it does take a lot of chewing.

This morning I noticed that the days are getting shorter. It’s hard to notice that in the evening, but in the morning, when the sun isn’t risen at 5 am but instead is struggling above the horizon at 7, it’s noticeable. It’s a kind of sad making thing even if it does bode the return of cooler temperatures in a month or so. I’ve also noticed that some of the hedge leaves are turned yellow already. Some of the vine leaves have also begun to change to the burgundy red of fall. Time surely does fly.

That’s about it.

I finally got my copy of Essential Dykes to Watch Out For from Amazon. Everyone needs to read this. Ok, so maybe not everyone thinks so, but I do. Alison Bechdel rules!

I decided to skip my first class today. First off, the theoretical subjects we were covering held no interest to me. The theorists are Bellah and someone else I can’t place the finger of my memory on right now. Anyway, they’re moralists who think that the United States is in a moral crisis (of course by their standards – Judeo-Christian, middle-class, white, male) and that we should all turn back the clock (ok, so not that literal) and go back to the 1950s when Mom stayed in at home in the kitchen and raised the kids and didn’t get any days off or help with the housework, and Dad would go out to work. They want the time when the country wasn’t ruled by an elite few who hobnobbed with each other and decided what was going to be the rules. Yeah, like that didn’t happen back then.

Anyway, as you can probably tell I wasn’t at all interested and the fact that I had the edges of a headache (I could feel the edges of it around my sinuses) and had reading and note writing for my other class today.

I also called in sick. I didn’t want to go in. This is my first time of doing that…I’ve only had one other sick day and it was a partial day. Instead I went shopping for dress clothes.

Why did I go shopping for dress clothes, you ask? Well you might do so. It turns out that tomorrow I’m going to a kind of “open house” thing at a hotel to do with Parole and other things. I needed something that was (to quote my supervisor) “more than casual”. So I did. I got two pairs of black pants, one more formal than the other, two bras (yeah, bras & me, weird, huh?), three midi-shirts (they’re gorgeous and were on very, very, very steep sale) and a midi-sweater (to go with the midi-shirt that I’m going to wear with my new pants tomorrow. Oh, I also got a pair of pantyhose because I can’t go barefoot in my shoes.

This all means that I should look right nice tomorrow. I was going to study tomorrow but the shift I’m working (1 to 9) precludes anything productive other than showering and making sure that I’m reasonably tidy.

The class I did go to was interesting. There are some things that are going on internally that I’m finding somewhat discomfiting. While I read the chapters and the peer reviewed articles I’m finding that I’m becoming less colonialized. My attitudes about how things are, or should be, have shifted enormously. In reading one of the chapters about land, being a band member (of a reserve, not a musical combo) and having a link to a place and ancestry, I’m losing that for myself.

I don’t have a “land” to call my own. I don’t have an ancestry that links to a place that has meaning to me. I can’t say its France since my family has been away from there for over 300 years. I can’t say it’s the coast of Quebec since I know, and have known, little of that area and family as well. The same is true for my mother’s side of the family with her mother’s coming from Russia, but being German, not Russian. Even they’re displaced and not belonging to an area. As to her father’s side, who knows? All I know is that he came from the USA. Otherwise I know nothing of his family. I have no place of “land” belonging. Bran does. He has a place in Scotland that shares his surname. It’s his ancestral lands, the home of his clan. Thanks to Bran, Boy has that as well.

It’s an interesting process, but it is very difficult at the same time. I don’t think of myself or the world in the same way. I don’t have the link to the ancestral lands because that was severed long ago by the forgetfulness of those who came before me. I don’t even have an ethnic heritage to cling to because there were no ethnic traditions passed down to me. Anything I might try to lay claim to would feel odd, foreign and fit like a too-tight pair of pants. Right now I don’t belong anywhere. Being un-rooted is very odd and kind of painful.

So that’s what I was thinking and discussing today. Heavy shit.

Ok, there was no acute apnea, but the cost of my text books were nearly enough to create that.  For three classes (with 3 more texts to get for one of them) it cost over $500.  Yeah.  Most of them were for one class alone, the theory class.  That one had several texts regarding several different types of theory including feminist theory.  It looks like that class is going to be very interesting.  My practices class is statistics.  Why they didn’t just call it that is beyond me.  All I needed for that was a text (which cost over $100) and a workbook of some sort. I’ve not had the intestinal fortitude to open them at all.

I was wrong about when I return to school. I thought it was this Thursday, but it turns out that I don’t until next Thursday. However, Boy does go back to school this Wednesday. He’s got all of his supplies, such as they are. Two binders, pens, pencils and loose leaf paper. That’s one thing I like about high school. There’s not much in the way of supplies that are required like they are for elementary school.

One school tradition isn’t happening this year. Staples used to offer up a deal where you could buy a kit for elementary school kids who didn’t have supplies. It was made up of 5 notebooks, a packet of pencils, some crayons, ruler and eraser. It wasn’t much but for a kid whose parents drank/gambled, paid bills or had the audacity to buy groceries from their meagre welfare cheque, it meant that they’d have a few of the supplies needed for learning. Despite spending many of Boy’s elementary school years on welfare ourselves, we always bought a kit because there was always someone who was worse off than we were. Then when I was working we did because, well, education is very important to Bran and myself. This is the first year since Boy began kindergarten that we’ve not purchased a package. It makes me kind of sad. I’m trying to think what we could do now to contribute to schools.

I picked up the transcript to the interviews my former supervisor conducted for her PhD research. She left them in her mailbox for me to pick up. Being the curious person that I am I immediately opened the envelope and began reading. I remember most of the conversation subjects but the details weren’t held onto. I discovered that I can be an interesting person. I’d never thought of that before. I mean, I know I’m funny. I crack me up frequently (even if no one else finds me funny). Interesting is another matter altogether. Here are a few excerpts (not necessarily funny):

I know that some of you might not get the humour in some of those statements, but some who’ve walked a path similar to mine probably will. It’s a kind of tongue in cheek, wry sort of humour.

My Firefox is upgraded to the new version so I’ve lost some of the extensions I liked a lot. They’ll update eventually, but for now I have to deal with limitations on what I like. One advantage seems to be quicker loading of sites. Reading comics seemed so much faster today. We’ll see if it works on some of the slower loading blogs. The one loss that I had to remedy immediately was losing my “close tabs” button. I had it located so that all I had to do was click it and the tab would close when I was done with it. It saved me from having to do a lot of mouse work. I’m the ultimate in lazy.

I’m still rocked by how much my text books cost. At least I got a lot of them. Behind the sociology section in the book store is the beginning of the law section. Now those are some expensive books! I’m sure that most of the books can be sold back to the book store. I mean, it’s not like law changes that much, after all, so much of it is based on presidents, but really! Ugly expensive! It all makes me glad that I decided that being a lawyer would be a big mistake.

Boy and I have a pile of bus fares. Boy has a bus pass, but getting one for me is pretty pointless since only have classes twice a week. In order for a bus pass to pay it has to be used at least once a day, seven days a week. Unless I start hanging out doing research and such in the sociology grad studies office, it’s not likely that I’m going to be there everyday…at east in the first term. In fact, knowing me, I have all the bus fare I’ll need in the first term already.

I haven’t tested my Sham-WOW towels yet. I’m going to start soaking dishes after I finish this entry. I’ll let you know how it works. According to them, I should be able to use it under my dish rack. I’ll be very unhappy if it’s not true.

The weather has changed. Yesterday it was in the low 90s. Today it’s below 70 somewhere. To add to my joy is the fact that it’s pouring rain. I’m not being ironic. Y’all should know by now that heat is not my friend. I prefer cooler days when I need to wear a sweater and put on socks and shoes…ok, not so much on the socks and shoes, but I do prefer coolness and rain to heat and sunburn. In fact, it’s not just raining, it’s been pouring since about 1:30. On the way home from the university (after being scalped for my texts) the DJ on the radio was bitching and moaning about the rapid change in temperatures and moisture levels. What is wrong with these people?

Other than me being up before 12 today, there being murder and mayhem on television and Bran going out to coffee with a couple of friends, there’s not really anything I can say.

Ta-Ra

These twelve hour shifts are killers. It’s not so much that I have to cook two meals (ok, I just either set out or heat up and set out, but still) or that I’m actually there for 12 hours. It’s the 8 trips up and down the stairs to do the building and room checks. Holy Toledo! On the last building check my back was very much unhappy. I was very relieved to see the end of the shift come along.

Bran picked me up and we headed out to McNally Robinson to check out books. I found two. The first is called Tarot Made Easy. I got it for only $7. The second is The Book of Stones. I got that one to help me pair up stones for the crystal lovers of the world. There are those who believe in the healing properties of stones and crystals and that’s the market I’m aiming for because that’s the market segment that tend to have money. However, that doesn’t mean my jewelry isn’t pretty, it is, quite. The tarot book is because I find that the tarot instruction books I have are somewhat too complicated for my peanut sized brain.

I have done more jewelry. Several more pairs of earrings and two small bracelets. I think I’m going to have to redo one though. It doesn’t seem to want to hold together properly. We’ll see. I have to get some kind of container to store my work in. Right now it’s here on my table, but that can’t last. It’ll fall off and possibly scatter. That isn’t something I want to have happen. I hate crawling around on the floor looking for things.

Anyway, work was ok. I found out today that one of the people I was sure wouldn’t run, who had worked so hard to stay out and follow his program and stay sober and all that, went UAL (unlawfully at large) the night before last. That just sucks. However, as with all things, the life of a halfway house is fluid and there was a new resident today to fill that space.

Christine, you asked about Esty. I haven’t gotten a page there. While I’m sure it’s possible, I’m unsure as to how to set it up (though it’s probably fairly user friendly). There isn’t a Canadian version that I can find, just the .com one. Anyway, I have to build up a bit of an inventory first. I’ll certainly announce when I’ve got something ready and how to get it and all that when I manage to get that far.

I’m now sleepy tired and have to be up again at 6:30 to shower and get ready for work.

Ta-Ra

Click on the photos to make them larger

Boy was kind enough to accompany me while Bran walked behind and took some photos. He’s a funny kid and I love him very much. I’m glad he was willing to take a day off school (and he likes school) to be bored (happy and excited for about 2 minutes) then bored again.

I’m walking along with the rest of the people in my row, to line up at the side aisle.

Don’t I look patient? By this time my back was in agony.

Cheers for the woman in front of me. She had a contingent of her children and grandchildren in the balcony. They were very happy for her.

In this one I’m waiting while the host gets ready and then reads my name and degree before I have to go and get hooded and shake hands with the university Chancellor.

I’ve got my hood! I’ve officially become official. Doesn’t the woman in the background look happy for me? She’s the Chancellor and seemed to smile bigger with the older people getting their degrees.

Walking across the stage, in front of all the university department heads and college deans to shake hands with the university president.

I just couldn’t get that guy to let go. I mean, you don’t hold on when shaking hands! I tell you, he’s a very fit handshaker. His grip is phenomenal.

It’s not over ’til the fat lady sings. I didn’t break out into song but it was tempting.

Having no neck is a pain in the ass. My double chin is my neck and that ribbon of satin was choking me when it sat as high as it had on stage.

So those are the grad photos. There are some more, but they don’t add anything to the tale already told.

Today was a very busy day for a day off. First thing this morning I phoned the dentist office and booked a “look-see” appointment to make sure that my tooth that is currently bothering me is actually abscessed and needs a root canal. I found out after I made the appointment that Bran tried to download through Torrent The Thin Man and Shadow of the Thin Man (two of my favourite movies. They’re old black and white movies from the 1930s with Myrna Loy and some guy. I’m sure he’s famous, but he’s not anywhere near as attractive as Myrna. Bran recorded them onto CDs and though the CD was supposed to play on our DVD player, it didn’t. Hmm…I wonder if it’ll play in the multi-disc DVD player.

Then Boy, Bran and I went to the bank and took care of his bonds. We haven’t decided totally on moving our accounts. Anyway, after that we took the bus to a car dealership near home and bought a 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Because it was a consignment sale we didn’t have to pay any sales tax. This also included the repair of a cracked wind shield. It’s in very good shape and we needed something. It just wasn’t working taking the bus to get groceries. I’ve driven it. It’s going to take me a little while to get used to using the side mirrors more and to get used to the width of the beast. That took about an hour, hour and a half.

Then we drove to Boston Pizza across town because we were all very hungry (only Bran had a little bit of breakfast) and it was near the glasses place Bran wanted to take me to. When they come back I’ll get Bran to take some photos of me wearing them. I’m getting a pair of reading glasses and a pair of bifocals. They have progressive bifocals and transition lenses. They’ll have UV coating as well as anti-glare and anti-reflectant. Well, the reading glasses will only have the anti-reflectant because I won’t be using them while I’m driving.

After that we headed over to Preston Crossing to go to Canadian Tire and Michael’s. We wanted a steering wheel cover so that we can drive it without either freezing our hands to the wheel or getting burn blisters in summer. Bran was also looking for inserts into the cup holders that adapt to hold larger drink bottles/cups. They didn’t find the cup holder and Bran bought a plain black wheel cover.

Unbeknownst to me they went into Future Shop and picked up an FM adaptor for my Sansa music player. Oh, did I forget to say? I have a 16 gig Sansa MP3 player. The adaptor connects the player to the lighter plug so the player is always charged and with the radio tuned to the FM channel it’s sending to, we can listen to music that we like. Well, that Bran and I like. Boy would rather have his own playing. Bran also got me a really excellent pair of ear buds for me to rock out with my player and not disturb people.

I went to Old Navy to try and find some shorts, capris or pants that would fit me. The store was totally messy and I couldn’t find a darned thing to fit my fat self. To make matters even more difficult for me, no sales attendants decided that I was worth the bother. I doubt they would have had anything for me anyway. Most of the pants/shorts/capris were those low riser things (now there’s an oxymoron). I have a belly that I don’t want hanging over any pair of pants. So I walked out and went too Michael’s.

There I got a new holding case, a pair of pliers that open split rings and more beads. I was actually a whole lot more circumspect than I wanted to be. After I’m finished this entry and read all the other people’s live, I’m going to make my bracelet smaller. It’ too large.

Then we went to Giant Tiger and I got a pair of jeans and a pair of black t-shirt cotton pants. I couldn’t find any capri pants that would fit. I’m going to have to go to a fat woman store to find something suitable that makes me happy.

We had KFC for supper and then it was off to Shopper’s Drug Mart to get some Alexandria’s sugar waxing stuff, bandaids and an orthopaedic seat back for me to use in the car. That thing is a little slice of heaven.

Then we went and got some groceries and came home. We now have actual food in the house. If I want a snack I can have some Shredded Wheat and soy milk.

So that’s today. It’s been rockin’ busy. The next thing is to make an appointment for Boy at the dentist and then the orthodontist for him to get braces. We also have to get him more clothes. We got him some shorts and a bunnyhug. Now he needs new sweats and jeans as well as some shirts (and so do I since many of mine are worn out and not suitable for work, even work as casual as mine is).

That’s it from here. I’m sure I missed something, but that’s life.

Ta-Ra

That’s been my two days. Oy! These 12 hour shifts are certainly long even though today I was fairly busy. In these two days I’ve scaled more stairs than I have in the past several years. I’m already less winded when I get to the second floor when I go straight from main to second floor while doing a building check. When I lived in Calgary with my sister we lived on the top floor of a 4 floor apartment building (the first floor was the basement level). Each week I would troop up and down the stairs to the laundry room with loads of either dirty or clean clothes, depending upon the direction of travel. I was actually quite fit for a smoker.

Today started really slowly. When I served lunch there were only 5 men down to eat. The rest (save two who were out) were upstairs sleeping. Most of them were still in bed after lunch was over and put away. Supper was a different story. Chicken fingers are extremely popular there and there’s nearly never enough to go around. Worse yet, there were two guests sharing the meal. Everyone got some, but no one got as many as they would like. In order to do that I’d have needed two full packages of chicken instead of one and a bit. I put out salad dressings as dip and then I found the real dips (garlic and honey, honey mustard and plum sauce). As usual, the vegetables were nearly all left alone. At least there were enough fries even if there wasn’t enough gravy left over from last night.

I managed to cook both lunch and supper for both days. Yesterday it was beanie wienies for lunch and roast pork with mashed potatoes and peas for supper. Today it was soup and sandwiches for lunch and chicken strips, fries and “vegetable medley” (frozen broccoli, cauliflower and carrots) for supper. Of course, I actually didn’t do much in the way of cooking. I mean, there isn’t a whole lot to boiling potatoes and vegetables, heating soup and putting frozen food into an oven to cook. All I had to do was turn on the right burner (and the right dial under the grill which was the oven and not the grill), and the oven early enough to the right temperature. I just followed directions given by the cook.

I also opened the front door periodically through the day to let out the hot air and allow in cooler air from outside to blow in. So long as I was able to be at the front desk I had the door open. I have no idea if that’s ok, but I did it anyway. I mean, locking the door keeps the drunk and stoned out and also keeps track of which residents are coming and going. Since I never had the door open while I was away from the desk, regardless of how short a time that might have been, no resident could have sneaked past me. It made the place more bearable. Sadly that’s not going to last much longer as summer progresses and the outside becomes as unbearable as the inside is. Sucks.

I’ve been doing things more healthfully. Thus far today I’ve drunk over 3 litres of water. I’ve even had to go to the bathroom. That’s an improvement on other shifts when I didn’t drink enough water to need to go to the bathroom. I sweated it out instead.

I wrote up my month end report today. The boss-lady left a floppy disc for me to save it on, but the computer at front didn’t have a floppy drive. There appeared to be a slot for some other type of media and a couple of USB ports for flash drives. So I saved it on the desktop and let the boss-lady know that it was there and that there were edits that needed to be made.

I repaired my bracelet last night. Bran picked up my super glue while he and Boy were out so I took it apart, replaced some of the beads with other beads making the bracelet nearly all green beads (malachite, green glass, light aventurine and small green seed beads along with the large closer bead. I made it too big though. I need to take it apart again and remove a few of the beads to make a bit of a tighter fit. Right now it sits nearly 1/2 way down my hand. That’s a bit too loose for my taste.

I tried to post the grad photos that Bran took last night. I couldn’t. Well, technically I could have, but they were really small after they were converted from RAW or “dng” (digital negative) which for some reason my version of GIMP doesn’t like and my PaintShop Pro is too old to support. So until we figure how to do this, you’ll have to wait. Sorry.

It appears that we’ll be buying some kind of automobile. Bran looked at one lot near us. They have a minivan and a extended cab truck within the price range we’re able to pay. I think that before we decide to go with them, we need to look at the other place that’s close to us. We decided to do this because doing things, like getting groceries, is much more difficult here. This is especially true since some of the neighbourhood kids wrecked the bike cart shortly after we moved in. Having a vehicle will make that much easier. We’ll also be looking at other places to see what they can offer us for what we can afford to pay. If we manage to settle on something and buy it early enough, it’ll make clothes shopping much easier.

I also have to make a dentist appointment for myself to get the root canals. Oddly enough, I’m looking forward to that. How many people can say that and not say it with irony? Then I have to book an appointment for Boy for a check up and cleaning at his dentist and then get a referral to an orthodontist for braces.

That’s about it. I can’t think of anything more right now. I wish that the computer hadn’t locked up last night or that I was smart enough to save the copy of the entry I made with WordPress was acting stupid. It was a really good entry with lots of stuff but for the life of me, aside from telling y’all about the stairs and living in Calgary, I can’t think of anything that was in it.

Oh well. It’s time for me to end this and read about other people’s lives.

Ta-Ra

I’ve finished the Harry Potter series. I finished it last night while we were watching Chamber of Secrets. It made me very sad that all of Harry’s personal mentors (except Hagrid) were killed in the final battle. It was very sneaky how Rowling managed to get around the whole Harry-has-to-die thing. I finally went to bed about 2 or 2:30 after the Prisoner of Azkaban. Bran stayed up and watched the remaining movies. Tonight I’ll be watching more, after I record any First 48 or Crime 360 reruns I might not have.

Oh, right, I’m working tonight. Never mind.

I’ve just showered (well, not just but within the last 1/2 hour) and am waiting for Bran to shower. We’ll be heading to the university to pick up my gown and band (bachelor degrees don’t get hoods here) and the tickets for him and Boy to the ceremony. I’m actually getting rather excited about the whole deal. Just think, in three days I will have my diploma in my hand and I’ll be officially “Dykewife B.A.”

Boy turned 16 years old yesterday. I’m very proud of the person he’s become though I still really miss the tiny (in comparison) squalling bundle he was long ago. It was only yesterday. Really. It was.

I’m thinking of taking my embroidery to work tonight. I have to practise more before I actually work on a pattern. It’s been a very long time since high school when I learnt how to embroider. I should probably find a tutorial on the net to relearn some of the things. I’ve got the daisy chain, line and need to practise the velvet stitch, but the little knot thing has me at a loss.

That’s about all of the exciting news from the Great White North (which is getting nicely green). It’s going to be somewhat cool today. It’s been that way for a few days. Not that it breaks my heart any, mind you. I like that it’s a bit chilly. It keeps me from becoming a frizzy puddle.

Ta-Ra