Members / ALIVE AND WELL...PARTS ONE TO FIVE / jnyoyo's Page
Blog Entry
ALIVE AND WELL...PARTS ONE TO FIVE
01/02/09
Hi everyone. Happy New Year! I can’t believe it’s been four months since Asti wrote and even longer than that since I wrote! Where have the months gone???!!!
This blog is very long so I am going to forego the usual pictures and graphics and post the text bit by bit so that no one is overwhelmed by the length of it. So please come back for each installment until you're all caught up!
PART ONE OF...FIVE???
On the weekend of August 24, I went to the Falls for what would have been my parents’ 60th anniversary. It was a very solemn weekend because none of us could say Happy Anniversary or anything like that. We were all so conscious of my father’s absence and not sure what to say to my mother. We went to church on the 24th, which just so happened to be a Sunday, and my father’s name was mentioned during the part where they pray for parishioners who have passed away. My mother actually had to pay the church to have my father’s name mentioned. What a rip off!!! After church we went to the grave site, which still didn’t have my father’s headstone so we were not impressed with that.
The month of September is pretty much a blur but I went to a meeting on September 30 about becoming a Continuing Education Ambassador for Conestoga College. The meeting went well and the woman who ran the meeting told us what kinds of things are involved in being an ambassador and asked us what parts of it we might like to do. I said I'd be interested in doing guest-speaking stints so she's going to keep me in mind for that. It might be a good way to meet new people and have new experiences.
Since I just finished an HR course in July, I didn’t feel like starting a new one in September, so I decided to take a break from courses and just "chill." I’m glad I did, because I’ve been very busy anyway!
In late August, I contacted the City of Kitchener’s volunteer department to ask if they have any need for computer tutors. I had looked at their website and it mentioned that they need computer tutors now and then. But when I contacted the coordinator, she said that the City doesn’t use computer tutors but that the community centres, which are governed by the City, do use computer tutors. She said the community centres have their own volunteer coordinators so she said she would contact each of them and forward my information to them. The individual community centres would contact me directly if they had anything available.
I didn’t really expect to hear anything but not long after the volunteer coordinator at the City of Kitchener e-mailed the community centres about me, someone responded and said he’d like to meet with me to discuss my possibly teaching a computer class for seniors. Well, I’m sure you know how happy I was about that!!!
We set up a time to meet one day at Tim Horton’s (coffee shop, for those of you who have never heard of it). I was really excited about the possibility of teaching but my excitement didn’t last long when this guy, Andy, volunteer coordinator of the Forest Heights Community Centre, told me that, after the registration process that went on during the previous weekend, only 3 people had signed up for computer lessons and that wasn’t enough people to run a class. So he apologized for having me meet him for nothing. I was rather ticked off that he didn’t just tell me that over the phone and save me a trip to the coffee shop for nothing. But we continued to talk and I could tell he liked me. (Don’t get any ideas...the guy is retirement age and looks it too! lol) I asked if it would be useful to send him my resume in case there’s an opportunity for me to teach in the future and he said sure, so I sent it to him later that week.
A few days later, he e-mailed me to say that there might be hope yet, in terms of my teaching a class. We met again and he told me that they suddenly received a bunch of registrations, and there were now too many people for one class. So Andy asked if I’d be willing to take the overflow of students and of course I said yes.
I was hoping that the class would be on Saturdays so that I could have Sundays and Mondays to relax and get other things done. But the class had to be scheduled for Monday instead, from 10 a.m. to 12:00. So I started teaching in about mid-September, and fell in love with teaching all over again. Unfortunately, there was no curriculum for the course, so I had to make it up as I went along, which took a lot of time.
My students were doing quite well but during the last half of the course I was told that the girl who was teaching the basic class on Tuesdays had quit. So they decided to split her class up and send half of the students to me and half to the person teaching the advanced class. So I had four new students to deal with the following week and it was very chaotic. The new people were not set up with a Windows Live e-mail account, which my original group had just learned the week before. And the new people weren’t really grasping how to go about setting up a new account. So while I was trying to help them, my own group was being neglected and I felt bad for them. I know it couldn’t be helped, but I still felt bad.
So I ended up with 7 people who are at the same level and 4 who are at another level. I really wanted the four new people to sign up for a Windows Live e-mail account but I didn’t know how to help them do that and keep the other seven people busy at the same time. Such are the challenges of a teacher, but I love it!!! Fortunately for me, three of the "new" students didn’t come for the last few weeks so the group was smaller and I was able to help everyone more easily.
I ran my first Laughter Yoga session with ILC's Youth Group at the beginning of October. It was a bit rough around the edges as it was my first time doing it since I took the training in April, but overall it went well. Al wants me to run a session as a team-building exercise for the attendants at some point so that should be fun too.
PART TWO OF...FIVE???
I went home for Thanksgiving, which is held here in Canada on the second Monday of October. I called Coach Canada the day before I wanted to head to Niagara Falls, which is what I’ve always done. Well, this time they told me they had no wheelchair accessible buses available to take me to the Falls on Saturday. I couldn’t believe it!!! I have been using that bus line to go to and from Niagara Falls for several years and have never come across this problem. They said they could take me on Sunday so I booked a ride for Sunday. I asked Angela if I could take the Tuesday and Wednesday off so that I’d still have two full days in the Falls. My plan was to come back to Kitchener on the Tuesday and have the Wednesday to recuperate and relax before going back to work on Thursday. Angela said that was fine.
It was just as well that I didn’t go home on the Saturday after all. I was so exhausted that I was glad to be able to sleep in that morning. I woke up at about 10:15 and, a week or two before, I woke up at 10:45 on Saturday! Yes, I'm getting old!!! lol
My older sister and her husband went to their cottage for Thanksgiving but the rest of the usual crowd was there for supper on Sunday night. I arrived just in time for supper so that worked out well. I must confess that the details of that weekend are rather fuzzy now but I do remember that on the Monday and Tuesday, my mother had various family members dropping in, so that was nice.
I also remember that when I arrived at the Niagara Falls bus terminal on the Tuesday to return to Kitchener, I didn’t see a wheelchair accessible bus. I was not impressed!!! I went into the terminal and asked about it. The guy at the ticket counter made a phone call and, after a while, he told me that there was a mix-up and that a wheelchair accessible bus would arrive in about a half hour. That meant, of course, that we would all be leaving Niagara Falls behind schedule. However, the driver was able to make up some time along the way so we were only about 15 minutes late arriving in Kitchener. Unfortunately, the wheelchair accessible door would not open so the driver had to make phone calls and hum and haw, and try to get me out. He finally got some help from the security staff inside the terminal but, in total, it took 40 minutes to get me out!!! By then, of course I had missed my city bus to take me back to my apartment and the next bus wouldn’t be there for another 45 minutes so I decided to call a cab. I usually get home just after 10 p.m. but it was about 11 p.m. that night so I was not happy about that. However, I was glad that I had the next day off so I could sleep in and have a relaxing day.
My father's birthday was November 30 (yes, just like Clay’s!) so my mother wanted us all to go to church with her that day. She arranged to have my father’s name mentioned during the Mass, like she did for their anniversary in August. I told my mother in advance that I had to go home on Sunday night so that I could be back to teach on Monday. So she decided to have a Sunday brunch that day instead of a supper. The Mass was at 9:30 so there was no time to have breakfast before the Mass anyway.
Since taking the bus to the Falls would have meant arriving there at 6 p.m. on Saturday (leaving Kitchener any earlier than 1:30 p.m. would just cause me more stress so I never do that anymore), I decided to splurge and take a cab all the way to Niagara Falls on Friday night after supper. It was expensive but well worth the convenience and speed with which I got there. The bus trip is 3.5 hours whereas the cab ride was about 2 hours.
I was going to the gym with Al more frequently in recent months but with Christmas holidays and festivities, I haven’t gone since at least December 1. But for someone who never sat on any kind of bike in her life until February of 2008, I was doing very well. I managed to bike 2.6 kilometres several weeks ago. I think that’s somewhere between 1.25 and 1.5 miles.
I am still watching what I eat too, although I’m not as vigilant about it as I should be. But even when I eat something I shouldn’t, I try to eat less than I would have in the past, so at least I’m being more conscious of the whole thing. I’m drinking as much water as I can too. I know I have lost some weight but since I can’t get on a scale, I have no idea how much.
On Tuesday, October 7, I went to Ingersoll, about an hour from Kitchener, for a work retreat. I was hoping to bond with the other staff members who went but it didn't work out that way. I felt left out because most of the conversation centred around people's significant others and their kids. Since I don't have either, I had nothing to say, and it just depressed me to be reminded that I don't have that but wish I could have that with Al. At one point, Angela asked me a question about this Continuing Education Ambassador thing but she didn’t even wait for the answer and continued talking about something else.
The place we stayed at was very nice but the rooms were not wheelchair accessible so that bothered me too. I was concerned about not being able to get in or out of the bathtub since there were no grab bars or anything. When I mentioned it, Andrena said that if I could get in the tub, I would most likely be able to get out too. My sister-in-law Jean, when I told the story at supper on Thanksgiving weekend, immediately said "Not necessarily." She used to be an RNA so she has dealt with people of all sorts of abilities, etc., so she understood the whole situation. So of course it really disappointed me that Andrena, who used to be an attendant, didn't get that concept. So I felt a real lack of sensitivity about the whole thing during the retreat and I came back feeling really depressed and wishing I hadn't gone. But if I hadn't gone, I would have always wondered if I missed out on a chance to bond with everyone else. Angela mentioned during the retreat that we should do a Bingo night as an ILC thing and I like that idea. They did it once during the first half of last year but I was going home that weekend so I couldn't go with them. I would imagine that playing bingo would require paying attention to your cards and the numbers so that there won't be a lot of chit-chat about spouses and kids....I hope!
I ran into Al the day after I got back, as I was leaving my building for work, and he asked about the retreat. I told him about how I felt and he asked if I might be a bit hyper-sensitive about the relationship stuff. Why would I be hyper-sensitive about it??? Just because I'm madly in love with Al and he doesn't feel the same way and it's the fourth time I've gone through this, and I've only been on a date with one of the four guys and that was 21 years ago, etc., etc.???!!! Of course I'm hyper-sensitive about it so I said so but I kept the stuff about being in love with him to myself! lol I'm sure he knows though. When I went for my workout a few weeks ago, I told him that I really appreciate his help with the workouts and he sweetly responded "Well, you know what? It's my pleasure. Really." And he flashed that beautiful smile of his and of course I turned to mush. But I hid it well. lol
PART THREE OF...FIVE???
My mother and my Aunt Cathy went to Florida for two weeks after Thanksgiving. My mother enjoyed it more than she thought she would. My older sister took her and my younger sister back to Florida on Sunday because my older sister and her husband just bought a mobile home in Sarasota. Must be nice!!! They were supposed to get back sometime on Saturday.
My mother and I had a bit of a heart-to-heart chat when I was home for Thanksgiving. We talked about my father and of course my mother started to cry. She pulled herself together because she said she didn't want to cry. She said that most people say that, with time, you get over these things but she said she doesn't think she'll ever get over it. I told her I don't think so either. She is 85 and I know that the older you get, the harder it is to deal with these things. But she also said she wouldn't mind having a companion to go out to dinner with or just talk to once in a while. I told her I understand that because I feel the same way and I told her how I felt at the retreat. We don't usually talk to each other so openly so it was nice.
At the end of October I attended the Festival of Neighbourhoods Finale. The Festival promotes the idea of people living in the same area getting to know one another. So a person or group in various neighbourhoods holds events to encourage getting acquainted. There are various awards that a neighbourhood event can qualify for and my office sponsors the Inclusion Award, which is given to the event that best promotes inclusion of all types of people, including people with disabilities as well as people of various cultures, backgrounds, ages, etc. I am the ILC representative for the Festival so I not only choose the recipient of the award, but I get to present it too. So that was fun.
In November, I went out for supper with Debbie and Petula, the two attendants whom I affectionately call my "sistahs." We’ve been doing this about once a month and I really enjoy it. Debbie and Petula are really nice, caring people and I’m really glad we have gone beyond a strictly consumer-attendant relationship. Debbie is now on sick leave because she had surgery in November but she said she still wanted to do our "sistah" get together in December so we got together on December 22 at our usual place for a pre-Christmas meal and chat. It was great.
At the beginning of December, the guys from my building, plus Al and myself, went to "the Legion" where Jay and Steve are members. They have karaoke every Tuesday and you can also buy a meal there for $6.00. So we all met there for some food and Al and I both sang solos as well as a duet. We sang "Endless Love," the same song we sang in August of 2007 at the consumer picnic. I thought we did a pretty good job this time and I reveled in the whole experience. I couldn’t look at Al though because I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was looking directly at me singing those words and to look right at him with the way I feel would have been a bit too much to handle. Still, I can't think of anything better than singing a love song with the guy I'm madly in love with!
We arranged to go again on December 23 but before the day arrived, everyone had cancelled out except Al and me. I figured Al wouldn’t want to go with only me so I was not surprised when he called me that morning to say he thought it was a no-go. He said he didn’t think the two of us could go without a member but I told him I had already talked to Jay about that and Jay said we could get in without a member. When Al heard that, he said "Oh, really?!" in a tone that said he might actually be interested in going after all. Then he confirmed it by saying he’d come for a bit. He said he’d meet me at the Legion at 6:00 and stay till about 8:00. Karaoke starts at 7:00 so that would give us an hour to sing. Even though it wasn’t going to be for too long, you have no idea how thrilled I was that Al and I were actually going to be out in public together...just the two of us.
Unfortunately, the whole thing was a bust because it started snowing that afternoon. I got to the Legion late and waited around for Al. I decided to call my home phone for messages and, sure enough, there was one from Al saying he was half way to the Legion when he decided to turn back because the roads were "treacherous." I couldn’t blame him for that. It was disappointing but I had a feeling the whole thing was too good to be true anyway. I called to find out if I could get my ride earlier than the 9:00 I was originally scheduled for. The person on the other end said they’d call a cab but she told me the cab probably wouldn’t be able to get there for a while because of the weather. So I decided to have supper while I was at the Legion and I even sang one song before my ride showed up to take me home at about 8:00. I got to meet a few new people and got several compliments on my singing so I think I’m going to go there again, even if I have to go alone. It’s nice to get positive feedback like that. And it’s nice to be around other people who love to sing.
I had asked Al to stop by my apartment on the morning of Christmas Eve, before I left for the Falls, because I had a gift for him. Of course I didn’t tell him I had a gift for him but I’m sure he suspected. That turned out to be a bust too because of the snowstorm we got. As it turned out, Al got snowed in at home and spent the morning digging himself out so he forgot about his "appointment" with me. I only found that out after phoning him. He asked when I’d be coming back to Kitchener and I told him I’d be back on Sunday. So he suggested that I call him on Sunday and maybe he’d stop by. As it turned out, just as I was about to call him that day, he called me. He said he was in his office to do something or other and he could stop by my place on his way out. So he came up here and I gave him his gift. He didn’t have too much time for a chat but it was nice to see him, give him his gift, and wish him a Happy New Year.
My friend Susan was talking for ages about getting off her butt and doing something with her life. The more I talked about our receptionist, Kristen, who was getting paid for being off on some sort of leave, and who wasn't doing her job properly before she went on leave (and who finally resigned in September), the more Susan talked about possibly volunteering at reception at ILC. Well, one day not too long ago she talked to Jessica, the receptionist's supervisor, about volunteering. Susan went to the office for some training and was volunteering on Monday mornings for a few weeks. I was thrilled that she was finally doing something constructive. She said that when she got home that first day, she felt happy. She has not really used that word very often over the past several years, so I was ecstatic. I was hoping this experience would work out for her but she’s been complaining for a while about her wheelchair hurting her hips and/or legs. So she decided to cancel her volunteering until she could get her wheelchair issues sorted out. She claimed that she was so uncomfortable that she couldn’t concentrate on her work. In my opinion, there was no need for her to cancel, since she’d be just as uncomfortable at home, but that’s just the way she is. So I think she’s gone back to her old ways again. I invited her here for New Year’s Eve but she gave me the same excuse about her wheelchair hurting her. She now has a loaner wheelchair which she claims does not hurt her but she still didn’t come over for New Year’s Eve. I’m disappointed that she doesn’t have the drive and determination to change her situation. One night recently, we were talking on the phone, and the only thing she could talk about were the TV shows she had watched that week. Some of those shows were things I had watched too, so there wasn’t anything for her to fill me in on and I was bored by the whole conversation. At least if she was volunteering she’d have other things to talk about.
PART FOUR OF...FIVE???
A while back I filled out a maintenance request form because my fridge, which was repaired more than once, was freezing my food once again. My stove had one burner that wasn’t working at all and one that worked intermittently. One day I got home from work and I could tell that someone had been looking at my stove because the burner that didn’t work at all was taken out. A week later, when I got home from work, I noticed that my kitchen garbage pail was in the wrong place and it didn’t take me long to figure out that the repair guy had come back. I noticed I had three new burners on my stove and I was thrilled. It took me several more minutes to realize that I even had a brand spankin’ new fridge!!! I spent the entire weekend admiring it because, although it looked rather ordinary on the outside, it looked beautiful on the inside, with lots of compartments for all kinds of things, and shelves and crispers of tempered glass.
Well, all week I was thinking that the fridge wasn’t cold enough but I kept telling myself that I was just imagining it because I was so used to a fridge that was too cold. At the end of that week I poured milk into my bowl of cereal and the milk came out lumpy! The milk had gone bad, as had every other perishable thing in my fridge and freezer. So Petula told the building manager about it and I immediately got an old fridge as a temporary fix while the building manager ordered me a new one. I was so disappointed to have to give up my brand new, gorgeous fridge! I wrote on my Facebook page that I can’t even fall in love with a new fridge without having my heart broken! lol Well, I did get a new fridge about a week later but, alas, although it works well, it is not nearly as beautiful as my previous new one...no tempered glass and no removable compartments.
I don’t know whether it’s age, my schedule, or the hibernation season, but lately I have been so tired that I’ve been going to bed earlier and earlier every night. Sometimes I get on the computer after 10 p.m. and fall asleep right there within minutes. One night I fell asleep at my desk while playing trivia, which I have been playing every night before bed for several years. When I woke up, I explained to the other people in the trivia room that I had fallen asleep and that now that I was awake, I would have to get to bed. lol I was even late for work one Friday because I was so tired the night before that I went to bed fairly early for me, forgot to set my alarm, and didn’t wake up till 8:06 a.m.
Asti is doing well, although she is scratching her ears like crazy and refuses to get into her carrier so that I can take her to the vet. So I don’t know what to do about that. But she is eating well and behaving pretty normally so I’m not too worried right now.
I was talking to an attendant recently about cats and Asti and her getting older, etc. I told the attendant that I’m trying to prepare myself for the day that I lose Asti, although I know darn well you can’t prepare for that sort of thing. The attendant said that, if I want, she will dig a hole in her backyard to bury Asti in when the time comes. She said one of her cats is buried there too and she said she’d take a picture of the area when the time comes so that I have a sense of where Asti is buried. I thought that was so incredibly sweet!!! I’ve always wondered what I would do with Asti when the time comes. But she might live for a while yet so I won’t worry about it right now. Knock on wood...as of December 20 she is 17 2/3 years old!!!
An acquaintance of mine told me several months ago about the guy who lives above or below her apartment. She said he comes to help her do various things, since she has a disability. I thought he sounded like a really nice guy so I said something jokingly that sounded like I might be interested in meeting this guy. Well, after a few attempts at setting us up and having the guy cancel, my acquaintance said her opinion of this guy was changing and that she was thinking I might be too good for him. She said he has issues that he might never work through, so who needs that anyway?!
The computer session I was teaching at the Forest Heights Community Centre ended on December 8 so I was wondering if someone was going to contact me about the next session. Sure enough, the chair of the community centre called me. She asked if I'd be interested in staying on, which I said I was. Then she asked if I'd be interested in teaching two classes on Monday instead of one. She also mentioned that I had a choice of receiving an honorarium or an hourly rate. Now really, who would accept an honorarium when they could get an hourly rate??!!! I didn't understand that but she then said she didn't know what my current honorarium is so she didn't know if it was more or less than the hourly rate. But isn't an honorarium, by its very definition, just a token amount??? The honorarium I'm supposed to get for the session that ended a few weeks ago (I thought I would have gotten the money by now) is just enough money to cover transportation costs to and from the centre. The best thing about our conversation, though, was when she said "Your students love you." I have never met this woman and I don't know how she heard that my students love me, but it certainly warmed the cockles of my heart!!! lol
Anyway, the whole thing gave me a lot to think about because, even though I love teaching more than anything, I had to think about whether I could physically handle two jobs, plus everything else that I have to do. So I talked to Al (he told me I could call him at home about it so I did, and we had a great conversation) about the possibility of my having more help at home so that I can save my energy for my two jobs. He said he didn't see any problem with that. Then I mentioned that, if I'm working at the community centre on Mondays, from 10 till 2:30 or so, there won't be an opportunity for him to workout with me since he has to pick up his son after school every day at 3:00. I was afraid that meant no more fitness with him, and I was worried about having to sacrifice one thing (my workouts and quality time with Al) for another (the teaching job). But he said all I have to do is let him know when I'm available and he will rearrange his schedule. Can you believe that??!!! What a guy!!! He said he likes doing it and his goal would be to do it once a week but he said he might only be able to do it once every two weeks. Still, I'm just bowled over that he wants to continue doing it. So when he said all that, I called the woman from the community centre and officially accepted the job. Now, I have my job at ILC where I am always being challenged to learn new things, my teaching job where I am constantly reminded how special teaching is and how special my students are, my "sistahs" Debbie and Petula, and I have Al and my workouts on the side! lol I feel like I have it all right now (well...almost!), and that's a great feeling. I'm basking in it while I can.
There is now a new grocery service in Kitchener that I have been using lately. A girl comes to your door, picks up your grocery list, goes to the grocery store of your choice, and buys your groceries for you, for a fee, of course. But for me, the fee is worth the convenience of not having to go out in the snowy weather to get groceries and wait for rides, etc. So that service will help lighten my load when I'm busy with my new schedule in the New Year. I really need to be able to spend my weekends not doing chores so that I can have down time to re-energize myself for the next week. If I don't get down time, I won't be able to keep up my new schedule.
PART FIVE OF...FIVE
My friend Sue and I went to see Mamma Mia at Centre in the Square a few weeks ago. We both saw it (but not together) in Toronto several years ago and we both said we liked this version better for some reason.
The attendant staff plus Al hosted a lunch on December 15 for us "poor, pitiful" consumers, as my friend Sue and I like to jokingly call ourselves. When I got the memo about a lunch on Dec. 15 at 12:30, I figured I wouldn't be able to go because I'd be at work. Then I realized that Dec. 15 is a Monday and, although I teach, I'm home at 12:30. I couldn't help thinking that it was more than just a coincidence that the lunch is at the exact time that I get home from teaching. Al knows what time I get home because when we go for a workout it's always at 12:30 on Monday, to accommodate my teaching. So I asked him if it was just a coincidence about the day and time of the lunch and he said it was. That was a bit of a letdown for me but when I told Susan about that, she said he probably wouldn't admit it if he had something to do with making sure that the lunch was held when I could attend. Either way, I was glad it was on a day when I could attend. Unfortunately, it was a big letdown. I thought the "potluck" lunch was going to be an actual meal of some sort but it was just finger foods. I didn’t have breakfast so I could save my appetite and the calories for lunch but it was all a big disappointment. I thought several attendants were going to be there but there were only two in the office and neither one was someone I have an established rapport with so even that part of it was disappointing. Oh well, such is life. Al was there, which was great, but he was helping to feed two people so we didn’t really have a chance to chat.
On the morning of Monday, December 22, the day my "sistahs" and I were to meet at Swiss Chalet after work, I wanted to wear a particular pair of black slacks. I have several pairs of black slacks and the ones I wanted to wear were not new but they were comfortable and in good shape. I knew I wouldn’t need them for my trip to the Falls and I wanted to wear things on Monday and Tuesday that I wouldn’t need in the Falls so that I wouldn’t have to do laundry again before I left. After all, it wouldn’t have been worth it to load a washer and dryer, and pay $3.25 just for a few items.
Well, I looked in the usual spot in my bedroom closet and that particular pair of slacks wasn’t there. I looked on every hanger in the closet but the slacks were nowhere to be found. How on earth does a person lose a pair of slacks???!!! It’s not like I’m in the habit of taking them off when I’m out and about and can’t remember where I left them!!!
As if that wasn’t bad enough, by the end of that day I also discovered that my keys were missing. I thought I might have left them at Swiss Chalet so I called them but the line was supposedly busy. It was fairly late by then so I think they were closed and for whatever reason, their phone line was registering as busy. So I gave up on that and resolved to call again when the restaurant opened the next day.
The next morning I went down to the laundry room in hopes that my missing pair of slacks might be there. I usually check the washer and dryer after I empty the machines just to make sure I haven’t left anything in them but I thought maybe my slacks had fallen out of my basket on the way to or from the laundry room and maybe someone found them and left them in the laundry room. No such luck! To this day those slacks are still missing, so if you see a stray pair of black slacks anywhere, they’re mine!!!
As for my keys, it occurred to me that I might have dropped them in the parking lot when the cab brought me home after supper at Swiss Chalet. The driver insisted on waiting till I got out of the vehicle before he gave me change for the $10 bill I gave him. It was dark and cold so I would have much preferred to deal with the money before getting out of the cab. I usually have my keys in my hand before I reach my building so if I was hanging on to them while putting my change in my wallet, I might have dropped the keys without realizing it. So I phoned the rental office of my building while I was at work and they said they did, indeed, find a set of keys. They said there was a Kitchener Public Library tag on the key ring, which I had, but when I asked if there was a square Celine Dion thing (when it was new it played Celine’s song, "My Heart Will Go On") at the end of the key chain, they said no. I couldn’t be sure the keys were mine so I called the attendants’ office here to ask if they could go into my apartment, find my library card, give me the number, and then I could call the rental office to give them my library card number so they could verify if the keys were mine. When I called the attendants’ office, Al happened to answer. I guess the attendants were all busy so Al offered to do it himself. He called me back a few minutes later with my library card number. I called the rental office back and, lo and behold, they confirmed that my library card number matched the number on the key chain. They said they were closing the office at noon that day and wouldn’t reopen till the Saturday after Christmas and I said that was fine. I was so relieved to know where my keys were. I didn’t need the key to the building or to my apartment since I have a remote control for both doors, so the only key I really cared about was my mail key. But my mail would just have to wait till I got back from the Falls that weekend. With Canada Post not delivering mail on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, I knew I wouldn’t have much mail that week anyway. Of course I went to the rental office last Sunday to reclaim my keys, minus the Celine Dion thing at the end of the key chain. So if you say that lying around somewhere, it’s mine too!!!
As for Christmas, my mother announced that she wasn’t buying anything other than small, inexpensive, little things for everyone. She said she wouldn't know what to get my brothers and my brothers are always saying they don't want or need anything so that doesn't help. Her financial situation is different now that my father’s gone so she has to watch her pennies. I think my brothers and my older sister are okay with that because they don’t want or need much anyway and when they do want something, they can go out and buy it themselves. And now that I'm going to have two jobs, I can afford to buy my own gifts. lol That’s why I splurged on that cab all the way from Kitchener to the Falls in November.
My mother had a rough day on Christmas Day, and got really sad. She either drank too much or didn’t eat enough to compensate for what she did drink because she was stumbling around when we got home that night, and when she sat down on her bed, she said the room was spinning. My sister looked in on her and I thought she was just going to settle her in and say good night but they started talking. I figured it sounded like a mother-daughter moment so I joined them. My mother was crying and saying how much she misses my father. Then she mentioned how much she loves her kids and she kissed my older sister and me and said "I love you" to each of us. It’s only the second time she has ever said that to me so it was a great moment for me. I just hope my mother remembers doing it.
Even with everyone saying they weren’t going to do much in terms of Christmas shopping, I got a lot of nice gifts. The one major disappointment I experienced this Christmas was that my mother’s one-year subscription for high speed Internet which we gave her last Christmas, was disconnected. She technically still had a few days left on her subscription but when my sister called them in advance to say she wanted it cancelled on Dec. 29, they said she’d have to call back on the 29th. She said she and my mother would be on vacation then so she was calling early to cancel. They said they couldn’t do that (I can’t for the life of me figure out why that was impossible for them to do!!!) so my sister had to tell them to cancel it right then and there. I was really ticked off that there was no Internet at all because that’s what I do to occupy myself in the Falls when there’s a lull in the activity, like on Boxing Day.
For the past several years my brothers and sisters have had what my younger sister likes to call Family Fun Day on Boxing Day, where whomever is available gets together to do something that I can’t do...like this year’s ski day. I knew in advance that my mother and I would be on our own on Boxing Day so I was counting on being able to play on the Internet that day. With no access to "my" piano (surely I’ve told you that story???), my mother’s portable CD player not working, and no Internet, there was really nothing to do. Fortunately my brothers, who didn’t go skiing, and my Aunt Cathy, all dropped in at various times that day so that gave me a diversion. I was glad to come back to Kitchener on Saturday.
In one of my conversations with Al at fitness a few weeks ago, he told me that his son is taking piano lessons. That led to my talking about how I took piano lessons for two years but have no access to a piano and, although we have one in the family, I would have no room for it in my current apartment. Then I mentioned that I have a guitar and that led to my immediately taking my guitar out of the closet when I got home from fitness. I’ve been playing it a bit almost every day ever since but I can only do so much because I’m a beginner and have very little music for it that’s easy enough to play. I enjoy it though.
Then there's my Caribbean cruise. It's coming up in a matter of days...Jan 10 to 17. That should be quite the adventure, although I really haven't gotten excited about it yet. The actual travelling to get to the ship will be stressful (we leave Kitchener at 1:30 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m. flight!!!) but, after that, I hope everything goes smoothly. The guy who's organizing our trip has booked a tour for us in St. Thomas and in Barbados, so that should be interesting. I’m just hoping and praying I don’t lose my luggage, don’t get seasick...or any other kind of sick...and don’t get sunburned. I’m hoping that I do have a great time, learn to find my way around the ship, and meet lots of interesting men!!! lol
You are now up to date on the goings-on in my life. Since I know I'm going to be very busy this year, I can't guarantee that I'll be on here more frequently but I'll do my best. I am hoping to take some notes while I'm on my trip so that I can blog about it when I get back.
I hope that you all have a wonderful year this year and that we all get to see Clay in concert!!!