Day 30

Five For Friday - Good Things

 1. NICOLE. Nicole gets me - also we are so similar in some ways (I wish also in the bendy and athletic ways, but alas...). I was a little apprehensive about the three-appointment day, but I was comforted by the fact that there was ample time between each appointment for delays, they were all close together, and in a pinch I could always cancel the vaxx appointments yet again - it's been so hard to find a time, and I did really want to get them done, but I've had important stuff every weekend and I usually feel really crappy after vaccinations, so I needed a Thursday and not a Friday. I crashed hard last night and when I was putting on body lotion last night I pressed on the flu shot site without thinking and almost passed out, but I don't feel too bad today. I did, however, completely forget that I was supposed to go to book club last night. I may not have felt up to going, but I would have sent an email. 

2. Eve is looking into doing a Biology Master's next year. She was feeling overwhelmed at all the work she was going to have to do in addition to her already demanding courseload and rehearsal schedule. She also had post traumatic stress from how wretched the process was trying to find a thesis prof - the bio department handled the whole thing so badly, they held an information night and told them they should have started applying a month before the information night. It worked out miraculously well, but it was massively stressful. This year she has sent out three contact emails to three female profs, and all have responded within two days sounding very interested in taking her on. One paid for her to go out for dinner with the lab group so she could talk to them and see if it felt like a good fit. She is practically being courted, and she is baffled and amused. She also got an email from her thesis prof saying how impressed he and the grad students have been with how well she works independently and how effectively she interprets the data. She's also really enjoying the work and finding it interesting. 

3. Nicole again! YES, I have the tree that toggles between warm white and coloured lights, and I keep poking my head around the corner to see it or walking over and flipping the lights back and forth and beaming like an idiot. ALSO, we got a Costco membership to buy the tree after about five years of not having one, so now I can go and get kalettes without having to beg Jody to take me - although let's be clear, there is no one I would rather try on stupid hats, buy over-priced peppermint bark and judge the Costco cheese tourists with.  Did I have leftover kalettes for breakfast? Yes I did.

4. Lucy came in from outside with like six snowflakes on her.

5. Nicole rounding it out! YES my massage therapist is named Ruth, I thought I had mentioned that, and the fact that I hadn't clearly means my brilliant witticism fell flat, sigh. 

Bonus: Apparently orcas have started wearing dead salmon as hats again, after 'ditching the trend' for 37 years, As Collette says, 'it's the bell bottom jeans of the marine world." I guess my Halloween costume for next year is sewn up.

Hat Trick Thursday

 I had three medical or medical-adjacent appointments today. Usually I wouldn't set it up that way, but I've had a few issues scheduling my flu and covid shots. The first time I wrote the day and time in my calendar but forgot to write the location. The second time I realized that I had made the appointment on a Tuesday after two previous Tuesdays having unpleasant appointments on them and I didn't want to feel crappy for my long work day on Wednesday. THEN I made the appointment for the third time and accidentally made it for a location that was way farther away from my home than it needed to be.

Finally I made the appointment for 1:30 today, and then got a call from my doctor's office to make an appointment for a medication review which I made for 11:30. And then my massage therapist asked if I could come in today at 3:30, and she's amazing and books up really fast so I said yes.

THEN I got a confirmation email from my doctor's office saying my appointment was actually for 1:30. I called and confirmed that this was right (I am CERTAIN the receptionist on the phone said 11:30, but whatever). I ranted and railed in one of my group chats and my friends were appropriately consoling, and then I went online and easily changed the shots appointment to 11:30, so it was completely fine.

I went to the Independent Grocery Store about ten minutes away for my shots. There was a woman who had walked in filling out forms when I got there, and sometimes they're not the greatest at keeping appointment times at this place, which is not a huge deal, but I was grateful when they took me right away. The gentleman who did my injections was very cheerful and kind, and I was all ready to say that I was going to shop for groceries for the fifteen minutes I was supposed to wait after my shots but he didn't even ask me, DO YOU NOT CARE ABOUT MY HEALTH AND SAFETY AT ALL CHARUBAN?

I had initially thought I might go home between my shots and my doctor's appointment, but realized that would make Lucy lose her mind, so I packed a lunch and got some groceries and then went to Indigo to pick up the rest of a store pick-up order I had placed of Christmas presents - pretty much everyone is getting books or whatever else I can get at Indigo this year. Then I drove the fifteen minutes to my doctor's office, got a couple more things at the grocery store there and was just in time for my appointment.

My doctor initially said that she knew it was annoying to have to come in, but she wanted to make sure we were considering any drug interactions and keeping on top of any issues. We talked about the fibromyalgia possibility and what kind of painkillers are okay for me to take (my dad has idiopathic kidney failure), and the fact that I keep getting taken down hard by viruses. She laid out two pyramid plans (I take Gabapentin at night for restless legs, she's adding lower doses for the morning and afternoon for pain, then suggested Tylenol as a base before Advil; then using my steroid inhaler morning and night during virus season to calm the inflammation and maybe make catching a virus less severe). I actually got a bit emotional at the fact that this stuff was being looked at more carefully and cohesively than usual and said I really appreciated the proactive level of care, which made her a little emotional, and it was all slightly weird and also awesome. 

I came home and walked Lucy and then went for my massage. Collette (HI COLLETTE) recommended this amazing massage therapist named Ruth, who has been more helpful than anyone I've seen up until now for my stubborn neck pain. We had a great conversation about camping and bears and raccoons and film making and I could mostly ignore that she was digging her strong strong fingers into my extremely tight muscles.

So now my arms hurt from vaccines and my muscles hurt from Ruthlessness (Ruthness?) and my head hurts because I didn't end up eating my packed lunch until two o'clock, but Matt and I went to Costco to get the tree after work yesterday, and on our way home we drove through the lit-up town center, and tonight he put the tree together in about fifteen seconds, and every time I walk out into the living room I feel blissfully happy.

I'm Just Rambling at This Point

I forgot to post yesterday! One day last week I had gone upstairs and then almost went back down to my computer but forced myself not to just to prove that I am less obsessive these days and could skip a day and not go nuts over it. That is DIFFERENT from just forgetting, which annoys me. My Lucy post earlier today was to make up for it. 

I felt amazing yesterday. It was my day off and I woke up at eight and got up and started doing stuff, which never happens. I had still read until two a.m.I put on comfy clothes and running shoes and went to move shit in the basement, hoping the shoes would save my back, which they did to an extent. I sorted laundry and put the baskets on top of the washer and dryer so I had room to bring out Christmas boxes, then looked through the boxes and put the ones I would want sooner out at the bottom of the stairs for Matt to bring up before he leaves on Monday. Then I bagged up some stuff for donation and also moved some stuff from the main basement area into the storage closet or back storage area for when Angus comes home, and because the chaos was stressing me out - I've taken pictures, but I can't bear to show them to you until I have improved 'after' versions, assuming I ever do. I've been okay with moving stuff from bedrooms or the main floor downstairs, because the living areas are much less cluttered and that makes me very happy, but at some point the elephant (and the rhinoceros, several giraffes and multiple feral hogs) in the room has to be addressed.  

Then I took Lucy for a walk and did yoga, then took a shower and read for a bit until Matt came home. Did some work on the computer while he had a nap because of his 14-hour day on Monday, had dinner and packed my lunch and then we went to bar night (every Tuesday night with friends - ten people if everyone shows, yesterday was 9). Home by 9:30 and I went to bed and did Wordle and Connections and Jeopardy and read until 11:30.  

I've been dreading Wednesdays a bit because my back is always on fire by the end of the day, but I've found that if I do yoga on Tuesday and take one Tylenol with codeine Wednesday morning it gets me through much better - my lower back is a bit achy but I don't get the hot-wire nerve pain between my shoulder blades, which is really miserable and can't really be stretched out. 

In one of my Wednesday classes I have a boy named Adam West-Other Last Name. And I asked him if his parents had ever told him the Adam West/Batman connection AND THEY HAD NOT. I showed him a picture of Adam West dressed like Batman on the computer and he was very amused.  

If you haven't been in a Canadian elementary school for a while, what happens (in mine anyway) is that at some point in the morning there are announcements and then they play Oh Canada. If there are students in the class it's obvious what to do - I stand there, maybe sing if I feel like it. Monday school plays an upbeat bouncy version that I quite enjoy. One of my Wednesday schools plays various versions, and once it was the slowest, draggiest version imaginable, and I felt like we had all aged years by the end. If there's no class in the library, I'm never quite sure what to do. I feel weird just standing there by myself, but odd just continuing working. Once there was one other teacher working at a table and she called over "I'll just keep sitting if you do". 

I generally allow myself to buy one new Christmas decor item a year since we have a lot. Like, a LOT. This year I'm up to three already and I haven't even gone shopping with Zarah yet (HI ZARAH DON'T LET ME BUY ANY MORE SNOW GLOBES).

But come on, look at this.

Truthfully I'd already forgotten about the tree candle holder, which I bought with Jody at the One World Bazaar, which means I'm actually up to four things. Look, it's been a rough year, okay?

Lucy downward dogging into my yoga session

Very Loud Librarian, plus a couple of financial planners and a legal assistant

 My husband did come up to check on my last night, mostly because he was surprised I hadn't asked for a Diet Pepsi. I have one in the afternoon, but I hadn't had one yesterday and I said I might ask him to bring one up when I headed upstairs. When he came up it was pretty late already - not for sleeping, lol, but for having a Diet Pepsi and then hoping to fall asleep at some point. I thought I might wake up with a headache but I did not. I FaceTimed with Eve and read and didn't end up falling asleep until about 11:30, which is still early for me, but I had a really good sleep. I had not had dinner, but when I got home Matt was making hamburger soup with short rib instead of hamburger, so I had a late lunch. I also did not wake up hungry. Things just worked out. I guess sometimes you just need to take to your bed at 6:30.

The games we played at the cottage: Very Loud Librarians. Quiddler, and Heads Up, and maybe one I'm forgetting? Oh yes, it was Asshole - the card game, to be clear. Very Loud Librarians was a fun concept but we found it annoying in practice - you play in teams and the game pieces are a kind of train of four little plastic circles, one with a librarian figure in it and three that are clear. The pieces go around a board of letters. You get a category and have to name something in the category beginning with the letter in one of the clear circles. It's harder than it sounds, which is the point, but the game pieces don't move around the board well - they keep bunching up and going crooked - and there's only one circle of letters so you have to keep switching between each team's game pieces, which is really confusing. 

Quiddler was fun - it's kind of like Scrabble only you have cards with letters instead of wooden tiles, and there's no board so no adding onto other people's words. You have to spell words and then discard one card, and any cards you have left at the end you have to subtract from your total. Janet creamed us all. Collette's funny moment was when she played "SAND", discarded one card and had a solitary "Y" that she was going to subtract from her total. Until we all stared at her for a long, uncomfortable moment and she asked why the hell we were staring at her and then said Fuck me and put the Y at the end of the SAND.

I love Heads Up, even though I'm quite bad at it. We did Movies, Pop culture, Actors, the 80s, things you were supposed to act out instead of speaking the clues (the normally sedate and proper Margot fake-licking tequila off my neck and attempting a pole dance mime with a dining room chair is something no one will forget soon), and Current Events (that were not, very). Susanne had Dr. Zhivago on her forehead and the rest of us were yelling Russian winter and Lara's theme and Collette said "riding on a nuclear bomb!" which made us all stop and look very confused, and then she said "oh no wait, that's Dr. Strangelove", which made us all laugh until we had a coughing fit (okay the coughing fit was mostly me). 

I usually take more pictures, but November has been busy and we were all tired. Which is fine - I like that the details of it change but the bones stay the same, and it is always a really good time. 

When I got home Matt had put up the garland on the stair rail and then lights on the shelf above the tv. I haven't put up any decorations yet, so he just draped the lights over what is already on the shelf, which is kind of enjoyable.

Deck the halls with Woolf and Austen, fa lalalala la la la la

Bonus dog!

Day 24

Yesterday was a lot of fun, and today I came home and did some stuff and talked over some things with my husband and came upstairs and had a bath and folded four baskets of laundry, then glanced at my phone and thought, well 8:30 is early but I'm going to read for a while anyway. Then I looked again and realized it was actually SIX-thirty. Then I got in bed anyway. 

Day 23

Stirred

 Tomorrow we're going to Collette's dad's cottage for our yearly Christmas-shopping, hanging-out-playing-board-games overnight thing. Yesterday before I went out to the craft show I made lemon pepper chicken in the instant pot and used the bones to make chicken stock so I could make soup for the cottage today. Then I had a massage this afternoon that was helpful but really painful, came home and sat on the couch for an hour and almost decided to go up to bed before Matt even got home and realized I still needed to make the soup.

It's this soup. I make it at least a couple of times a year, but I usually don't make the pesto because it's good enough without it. One time I used the full amount of red curry paste and it was a little harsh, and every time since I've thought I could have put in a little more red curry paste. I sometimes think it's a little too sweet, and then everyone else insists that it's perfect and I should not screw with it. Matt chopped the sweet potatoes for me last night so I didn't have to cripple my hands. He came home while it was simmering and we watched a couple of episodes of Shrinking, with a Facetime with Eve in the middle. Then I got up to puree the soup with my immersion blender, which started making a noise like a dying cat every time I pressed the stop button. Matt said I might need a new one, but then said his mom had given me this one so I had to keep it forever in her memory (because we typically use really shitty humour to deal with our grief). I reassured him that this was actually my second one, and the first one had actually died before she did.

This made me a little sad, but also happy, because I remembered when she was visiting and I made butternut squash soup and she watched me pouring it from the pot to the blender and back again to puree it, and the next day she went out and bought me an immersion blender so she never had to see that horrifying scene again. She had a knack for giving me the exact thing I needed when I needed it. 

To Henceforth Be Explained More Fully (Possibly)

Bath bombs

Penis Sticker

Eel trap

Citrus-smoked salmon bellies

Buckthorn

Day 20

 I had downloaded a couple of movies before we left for the cabin on the weekend. Once we got there we discovered that there was a projector that could play media on the pine wall of the cabin. We had access to Netflix, but we decided we didn't really feel like watching anything dense, partly because occasionally there was a lamp in the middle of somebody's face. We decided on raunchy comedy specials instead.

I had recently watched Ali Wong: Single Lady at home. She is so cute and so very filthy, and I sounded like a loon giggling at home alone. My friend Suzie lent me her book Dear Girls, which was also very funny, so I suggested to Matt that we watch one of her earlier specials. We watched Baby Cobra, which she did seven months pregnant. It was good but I didn't find it quite as funny as Single Lady, partly because a lot of the jokes were the same ones I had just read in the book.

After that we watched Gad Elmaleh in New York. He's Moroccan and French and a Moroccan friend really likes him. It was funny, a little gentler than Ali Wong. One of his jokes is about how French men find it weird that American men go on 'date night' with their wives - like, what, if it goes well you're going to marry her again?

When we were walking in the forest on Saturday we found where they do tiny weddings at the Chalets, and we took a pic under the arch, I guess as an "in your face" to a comedian who doesn't know us or care? Whatever, we amused ourselves.

Saturday night we watched Taylor Tomlinson Have It All. I had not heard of her at all until a trivia night last year when her picture was a question and one of the guys at our table knew her. For some reason I thought she was going to be clean cut and wholesome. I was very, very wrong and oh my goodness, I was actually wheezing and blind at one point. 

I don't often watch comedy specials of my own volition, but it's November and, well, *gestures broadly at everything*, so a little laughter medicine seems well advised.

Addenda

 1. I have sat with the idea of the postal strike for a few days. It still sucks. I'm sad about the Christmas cards, particularly because I got my pictures printed early this year and would have been uncharacteristically ahead of the game. BUT it might still be resolved, and there's no point in dwelling on it either way. I do feel really bad for the small business owners - some of them are losing thousands of dollars a day, and if this drags on it will have a terrible impact.

I am also very sympathetic to the postal workers. We've always been friendly with ours, and they have definitely been treated really badly on occasion, and obviously when we're talking big corporations and employees, I'm going to come down on the side of the employees. I just don't know how realistic their demands are - they might be, but it's a different world for shipping, and Canada Post has definitely been losing money. Regardless, it's definitely an effective time for them to strike. The government is saying they won't legislate them back to work, but a special mediator has been sent in. 

2. I am not bad at canoeing! For some reason I feel the need to clarify this. I have been on canoe trips. Matt and I canoe well together. We were in Mexico with the kids and a bunch of friends a few years ago. We went on an excursion, and there was a bit of confusion which ended up with us having breakfast at seven a.m., going ziplining and hiking and rappelling down into an underground cave lake and not having lunch until almost four. At 3:45, the guide led us down to a dock and told us we had to canoe across the lake to the restaurant. Most of the rest of our group paddled around in circles and meandered, and all the Canadians jumped in the canoes and beelined across the lake in perfect formation. But Matt, without thinking, grabbed a small canoe this time, and it was much tippier than the size we're usually in. 

3. There were no ladder incidents. It was very sturdy, and the handles were well placed. The bed fit perfectly into the nook, which was adorable, but meant that there was really no clearance on the sides so you kind of had to dive in like a five-year-old. But damn, it was comfortable.

And the view in the morning was excellent.

In an A-plus A frame

Two people, one tiny cabin, some wine and a ladder up to bed. What could go wrong?

My friend Jody (HI JODY) found these adorable glamping cabins in Quebec and I shamelessly stole her idea (SORRY JODY) for the one weekend my husband is home this fall. 

The weather has been the perfect mix of what he likes (sunny) and what I like (cold). 

This small canoe felt extremely tippy, but the water was gorgeous. Matt suggested I could just post the pictures without telling everyone what a whiny coward I was, but that's just not me. 

So pretty. So tippy. 

I read on the deck until my fingers wouldn't move anymore. 

Hot tub and fire pit on deck. 

Lucy living her best life with Sonia and Avani.