Busy, Busy, Busy (meh)

So, I've had one of those weeks. First, we took a trip up to Calgary. I took a day off to go wedding dress shopping and, frankly, it wasn't all that fun. The first shop we went to, Yak and I were not really acknowledged. They were inundated with prom-goers and pretty dismissive of me and didn't even realize Yak was there. Not cool. The second shop kind of scared me. This shop ACKNOWLEDGED. They had a whole separate floor of bridal gowns, you had your own personal dress consultant, and they helped you put everything on. I'm not that girly, so it was a shock. They put me in this dress that was pretty spectacular...cap sleeves, full skirt, and mile long train. I seriously considered it to the point of almost purchasing it. It's hard to avoid the magnetism of a dress like that. It screams "bride" and you have people crying about how beautiful it is. However, the price tag was a reality check. In retrospect, it was good that I didn't get it. I mean, it was pretty beautiful, but it wasn't really me. It was a princess dress and, well, I'm just not a princess. The dress was wearing me, I was not wearing the dress. Also, after showing pics to my Mom, Jake's Mom, and the fabulous Miss Kendra, and yeah, I even gave in and got the groom's opinion (gasp)...not one of them really liked it. So, the search continues for the perfect dress. Bleah. I did buy my shoes though! (Yak, I will show you on the next trip up...probably in early March...sorry for chickening out on the big dress, but I really felt nervous about it, so it couldn't have been the right one).

Next up, the joy of work. I was supposed to work two days this week and ended up working four, one of which was a twelve-hour shift due to a board meeting. We had two people resign and everyone is pitching in to cover shifts. Kind of hellish, but productive. I also got to observe employee annual reviews and learned payroll and bill payments. Yup, I'm an administrator. It's been stressful, but I think it's going to be good.

Finally, today I had dinner with one of my closest friends from high school. She still lives here, but we hadn't really spoken in over five years. We'd pretty much lost touch mid-way through our undergrad degrees. It was a little surreal, but we managed to avoid re-hashing high school stories, so I think it went well.

After all that, it feels like I haven't really been home this week. My laundry corroborates this feeling...I have tons to do. I'm way behind in the book club reading too. Tomorrow is definitely a homebody day...and I'm going to call about joining the curling club. How kitschy is that?

February...cinematography by T. Burton, script by N. Gaiman

Yes, it's winter. Yes, it's bloody freezing. It is -26 degrees Celcius right now and it is after 10am. That's just not right. The landscape looks like the set from Corpse Bride complete with hoarfrost laden trees. I unfortunately have already been outside in it this morning. I think winter is so much prettier when there is a window between you and the biting cold.

The reason for my winter excursion was to take Lil to the hospital. Miss Mab has really been under the weather this week, but I hadn't been able to get her into the doctor. I thought she seemed better yesterday, but then she screamed all last night and was running a temperature. She only stopped screaming when I held her and fed her. Daddy was not a satisfactory substitute. (Needless to say, I haven't slept yet and feel pretty slammed).

So, this morning, I bundled her up and took her in. My doctor was actually on rounds this morning. He was pretty annoyed to hear that the receptionists at his office wouldn't give me an appointment and said he'd say something about it. He's a very nice doctor. The upshot of the visit was that Mab has a bit of a virus. I had been feeding her baby Tylenol and making sure she gets lots of fluids and plenty of rest. According to the doctor, I should do more of the same. Hurrah! My Mommy Radar got it right! For Lily's take on the situation, click here.

Hopefully, this bug won't derail our planned trip to Calgary this weekend. I'm signing off now, Lilith has crashed and I'm going to do the same!

Boots!

Boots! 

I went a bit crazy and spoiled myself yesterday. This is really uncharacteristic of me. I am usually pretty frugal and tend to talk myself out of treats...especially recently what with saving for the wedding. But, I could not resist these boots! Bright yellow and covered in spunky monkeys! I have always wanted a pair of funky rainboots. I suppose I could always wear them with the wedding dress...November is supposed to be a rainy month, right?

I've Been Tagged!

Librarychik has tagged me. So, here goes:

Four Jobs I've Had in My Life

1. Front Counter at McDonald's
2. Special Needs Aide
3. Interpreter (Historical not Linguistic)
4. Librarian

Four Places I've Lived

1. Caroline, Alberta
2. Rocky Mountain House, Alberta
3. Calgary, Alberta
4. Edmonton, Alberta (yeah, I've never lived outside of Alberta...)

Four Websites I Visit Daily

1. Yahoo Mail
2. Blogger
3. The Internet Movie Database
4. Sur La Lune

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation

1. Great Britain and Ireland (my one true vacation!)
2. Banff, Alberta (hot springs...)
3. Vancouver, BC (class trip)
4. Crimson Lake, AB (camping every summer when I was little)

I just realized that I have had only one real vacation in my life. How sad it that?

Four of My Favorite Foods

1. Potatoes
2. Mom's Homemade Stew
3. Pumpkin Bread
4. Raspberry Smoothies

Four Places I'd Rather Be:

1. Calgary (80% of my close friends live there)
2. Travelling the Slea Head Drive in Ireland (most beautiful place on earth)
3. Tibet (I need inner peace)
4. New York City (I also need to shop...plus tons of museums and libraries!)

Four Albums/Artists I Can't Be Without

1. Great Big Sea - pretty much anything they've done
2. The Crow soundtrack
3. Loreena McKennitt. The Book of Secrets
4. Cheesy Compilation of 80s pop music

I also love Tea Party's Tangents, but I couldn't fit it in. :)

Four Vehicles I've Owned

1. A 1968 Volkswagen Convertible Bug (very cool, but a pain to drive)
2. Plymouth Sundance
3. Plymouth Sundance (oddly, after the first one was totalled in a bad accident, I somehow ended up with another one...same make, model, year, and color!)
4. Pontiac Sunfire

Four People I'm Tagging

This will probably be ignored, but it's just for fun! :)

1. Frances
2. Sleeves
3. Jenifer...I still check Thrall every week hoping for more stories!
4. LilyMab

I know lots of people, but very few of them blog.

Things to Do When You're Sick

I am sick. My body finally caved in to the dread virus that has sucked in my whole family. Everybody has had this thing, even LilyMab who is still soldiering through it (seriously gross diapers), but I managed to avoid it myself until a couple days ago. I was hoping that this was a cool new side effect of having a baby, that maybe I'd inherited that "Moms never get sick" vibe, but sadly this was not the case. Bleah. The worst part of getting sick was having to call in and say I wasn't coming to work. Don't know about the rest of you, but I get that guilty knot in the pit of my stomach when I call in sick. However, since I got so nauseated and dizzy that I fell back into bed when the alarm went off this morning, a sick day seemed imminent. I'm feeling slightly better after sleeping all day. So, here are my tips for surviving a sick day:

1) Just call in sick to work. No one likes it when you drag your infected ass in and get everybody else sick too.

2) Call the babysitter if you have kids. I kept LilyMab because she is sick too and slept all day like me, but nobody can sleep when a four year old is determined to play SpiderMan. It does not happen. Side Note: my Mom took the boy for me when she got off work today. She is no longer Catholic, which is too bad because she should really be nominated for sainthood.

3) Sleep. Mmmmm....sleep. And Jake brought me bottled water and a giant cup of honey nut cheerios so I wouldn't have to get up to find food. I love him.

4) Eat breakfast foods. I just can't scarf pizza when I feel like crap...but eggs and toast are heaven. Highly recommended.

5) Read something fluffy that does not require you to concentrate much. I have an entire box of Star Trek novels for this purpose. I've read them so many times that I can just flip through them without having to actually think. Unfortunately, my Star Trek novels were in the basement and I was too wasted to make the trip this morning. So, I read Holly Black's Valiant instead. This was a serious error because it was a damn good book and I was forced to keep reading it when I should have been sleeping. Note: avoid reading if you have a headache.

6) Shower or take a long hot bath. You may want to keep wearing your crunchy jammies and lay there as long as possible, but you will feel seriously better just by getting clean. Note: do not shower or bathe if you are at all faint or dizzy, especially if you are the only one home.

7) Blog. Reading everyone else's blogs cheers me up. And this way I can share my boring sick life with all of you...fun for the whole blogging community! ;)