No Work For Me

Well, I’m not making it in to work tomorrow. I still have a very scratchy voice, I’m still coughing, and I’m still not sleeping through the night. For those wondering why I don’t go see a doctor, it’s because I’d have to pay my co-pay, and I already have a pre-natal appointment for Tuesday. So I’m trying to hold out for that.

Now for some more bad news. Geoff thinks he may be getting sick again. This is not good. It took him forever to get over whatever he got in Vegas, and a house with 2 sickies can never be a good thing. It’s a frightful thought to think of Honey taking care of us. Also, Geoff just can’t afford to take any more time off work.

I really really hope to be well enough to work on Saturday. I hate feeling like I’m letting the store down (even though Caroline said it’s been really quiet). I know Jen understands, but I still feel bad. If only I could do work there out of the public eye. Then it would be alright.

Since I’ve been feeling like death warmed over, I’ll close with a quote from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Ferris: You’re not dying, you just can’t think of anything good to do.

Home

We’re home. I’m trying to get on the mend. Jen was awesome enough to not schedule me in until Friday, so I have 2 days to recoup. But she did tell Geoff if I wasn’t well enough Friday to call her. Geoff is at work today, I’m taking it easy at home. Was able to dig out my approved medications list and was thrilled to see Robitussin on the list. So Geoff went out this morning before work to get me some as well as a few boxes of Kleenex. I have the best husband ever!

I’ll try to post about more about Victoria tomorrow, I need to kick back today.

I’m going to close with a quote from one of my Christmas movies, Swing Kids. I hope to watch it today or tomorrow.

Arvid: You think that just because you’re not doing it yourself, you’re not a part of it? Well, I’m sick and tired of doing my part.

Homeward Bound

We are leaving Victoria today to head back to Denver. I am still sick, but I think I may be getting better, though it certainly doesn’t feel that way. I will likely call my boss tonight and ask to take tomorrow off as a sick day. I’m still coughing far too much to be able to be in public. I’m sure I will be very miserable for the flights.

I can’t believe we were able to fit everything into our suitcases! It’s a very tight squeeze, and I tried to pack light on the way here. Most Christmas visits require us to mail home a package, so I guess we’re ahead of the game.

It feels weird to think that next week will be the new year. I know 2005 is going to hold so much, and hopefully less travel than this year did. If I’m lucky enough, I’d like there to be only 2 trips in 2005, one to Edmonton, and one to California. But time & money will tell.

Well, I have to go hack up a lung. I’ll write again tomorrow. Pray for safe travel, and better health for me.

2nd Christmas and Yes I’m Still Sick

We celebrated Christmas (again) and a good time was had by all. What a haul we all got. I got a tons of books and DVD’s. Easy to pack up and bring home.

WARNING! The next paragraph may be too graphic for some readers.

I am still sick. Food is mostly staying down, I’m mostly coughing up phlegm. I was able to get a bit more sleep last night, but I coughed enough to make food come up at 3am. I sound awful, but when I’m in between coughing fits, I feel more like myself.

I do hope to be even 20% better for tomorrow since I will be seeing my Auntie Laurie, and the family has plans to visit Butchart Gardens and enjoy a fancy dinner there. Auntie Laurie is not really my aunt, she’s a friend the family has known forever. She went to high school with my dad. I haven’t seen her in close to 15 years. That would also be the last time I saw Butchart Gardens. We’ve gone a few times as a family, but this will be Geoff’s first time. It will be great to share this with him.

I’d love to post some pics from the trip thus far, but I am unable to. You’ll have to wait until Wednesday.

I’m going to close with a quote from one of the movies I got for Christmas, While You Were Sleeping.

Priest: Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to…

Lucy: I object.

Saul: Oh, geez.

Priest: I didn’t get to that part yet.

Jack: I would have to object too.

Priest: What about you?

Peter: I’m thinking!

Merry Christmas!



“Glory to God in the highest,

      and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

Being Sick Sucks

I’m sick. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but my throat closed over last night, I had a headache, and a pain in my ear. When I woke this morning, I just felt hot and achy all over. I had a Five Alive, and that came up about an hour later. I don’t want to eat anything, so I’m sticking to fluids for now. I hope I feel better by this evening, since we have dinner plans.

Gotta go get some more rest, but I did want to post there is talk that Uma Thurman will replace Nicole Kidman in The Producers. This idea sucks. They should just get one of the actresses who played the role of Ulla on Broadway or in he L.A. production. Why does it have to be a big name actress?

Please keep me in your prayers as I hope to recover from whatever this is quickly.

Victoria



I just wanted to post that we made it here alright, no problems with planes. The connection was tight in Vancouver, but at least there was a Tim Horton’s right beside our gate. Canada has redeemed itself. 🙂

Today we’ll get out and see stuff, yesterday we mostly drove by stuff, had dinner and then kicked back. Driving by some of the buildings reminded us of Glasgow. The picture above is of their Legislative building, and that’s pretty much how it looked when we drove by it last night. Very nice.

I’ll close with a quote from That 70’s Show.

Fez: I just wish that there was someplace in the world where prejudice didn’t exist.

Michael Kelso: Well, that’s Canada… Yup, good ol’ Canada. They don’t make generalizations about people because they’re too busy playin’ hockey or gettin’ drunk or puttin’ maple syrup on their ham.

Oh Christmas Tree



This is our Christmas tree, as it looked Christmas morning (which was today). Since this is my only day off until Victoria, we woke up and celebrated by opening presents and stockings. As you can see, we had a few gifts that were here early enough to make it fun. Next Saturday, we’ll do it all again, but with the family in Victoria.

I am well pleased with the gifts I got, Geoff completely had me snowed on what I was getting. I thought for certain it was one thing, but it was something else all together. I got a foot spa (which I really love) and I bought him a nice cutting board and a silpat (it’s used for baking). Santa brought us the entire Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events books. I’ve read them all and Geoff is on the 11th book, but I am looking forward to rereading them. 🙂 Honey got a bag of new treats, and even Elijah got a gift from Colin, Dawn, and Dylan.

After opening gifts, we took a walk up to the mall which wasn’t so frightful inside as the parking lots were. We were thankful we walked. Geoff wanted to pick up some mineral oil for his cutting board, and some new toys from the Apple store and Radio Shack. We picked up some fixins for dinner tonight, we’ll be having stew. Then we did some laundry.

Caroline from work is going to come take care of Honey for us while we’re gone. It doesn’t feel to me like I’ll be traveling in a few days. But I have already started to think about what I want to pack. One of the things I like about traveling to a home rather than a hotel is laundry facilities. I know I can pack very little, because I’ll have access to wash my clothes. Which will be good since I’m sure we’ll be bringing home a lot of stuff. One thing I like about staying at a hotel is having access to a pool. But Diane says there is a pool near their place, so I still may bring my suit with me just in case.

I meant to post a while ago a link to our Christmas letter which is on my website. I actually thought I had posted it. If you somehow didn’t get one, you can view it here.

I’ll close with my favorite quote from A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Charlie Brown: (shouting in desperation) Isn’t there anyone out there who can tell me what Christmas is all about?

Linus Van Pelt: Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you. Lights, please. (A spotlight shines on Linus.) “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the lord shone round about them, and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men'”. That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

I’m Not The Only One

Apparently, I am not alone in my disappointment in the Legend Of Earthsea miniseries put out by the Sci Fi Channel. Ursula K. Le Guin (the author) isn’t a big fan either.

I couldn’t get into it, it just wasn’t true enough to the characters or books for me.

Work was much better today, for those who wanted to know. 🙂

Sigh

It’s only Wednesday, and I wonder how I will see it through to the weekend. I was in a great mood once I got work. Even after getting there and finding out we would be having someone help out our staff from another store, someone who was there yesterday and apparently didn’t think much of the staff at our store, I was still in a good mood. I was determined to be the one to keep the morale up. Even angry customers calling on the phone and hanging up vehemently on me could not break my spirit. You see where this going? One lucky old lady got to be the one to break me. To put me in such a negative place, I couldn’t climb out of it. First off, it’s fine she wanted to take 30 minutes to figure out what she wanted to buy. I can sorta deal with that. I could deal with her getting mad at me for not being able to read her mind and figure out what she wanted. What I could not deal with was her hitting me. That’s right, she smacked me. It was quite a shock. Like a small child reaching for the oven knobs, she smacked my hand hard. What did I do to deserve this? I touched her coupon. Even our regional manager (who stopped in today) was in shock. He came out to size her up, as I passed him and mentioned what had happened. I was just so relieved once she was done deciding what she wanted, paid and left. I just couldn’t bring myself to smile the rest of the day. I just felt numb to it all. I did not feel like myself. As I left for the day, my boss was very upset because she had heard her mom just got admitted to a hospital and has to have heart surgery tomorrow. So the air at work was just awful.

Waiting to take the bus home, my mind started to wander, and I started thinking about my dad. I wanted to start crying, but not in public. So I just kept it in. The other day at work, I had the same thing happen, sort of. I saw a lady who was coughing, and it reminded me of the days before my dad died. At that moment I was praying for any customer to come and take my mind off of it, because if I started to cry at work, my face would be all red and blotchy for hours. Christmas is just hard. I miss him so much.

On the walk home from the bus stop, my iPod played a song that made me smile, and made me fell like this bad mood could be lifted. The Real Sin Savior by The ApologetiX. Now that I’m home, I’m in my jammies, listening to the ApologetiX, and I can curl up with my kitty cat and put today behind. Who knows what tomorrow is going to bring, but I’m determined to go into work tomorrow with a good attitude. Grumpy customers beware! 🙂

We saw a preview for House Of Flying Daggers when we went to see Ocean’s 12. Geoff is so stoked, and I’m lukewarm to the idea. True I liked Crouching Tiger, but not to the same degree Geoff did. He always wants to watch it. I think I’m going to have to see House Of Flying Daggers, since he was nice enough to take me to Ocean’s 12.

Brag Moment: Kelly had an article published in the Washington Times. Check it out!

I’m going to close with a quote from Office Space.

Joanna: So, where do you work, Peter?

Peter Gibbons: Initech.

Joanna: In… yeah, what do you do there?

Peter Gibbons: I sit in a cubicle and I update bank software for the 2000 switch.

Joanna: What’s that?

Peter Gibbons: Well see, they wrote all this bank software, and, uh, to save space, they used two digits instead of four. So, like, 98 instead of 1998? Uh, so I go through these thousands of lines of code and, uh… it doesn’t really matter. I uh, I don’t like my job, and, uh, I don’t think I’m gonna go anymore.

Joanna: You’re just not gonna go?

Peter Gibbons: Yeah.

Joanna: Won’t you get fired?

Peter Gibbons: I don’t know, but I really don’t like it, and, uh, I’m not gonna go.

Joanna: So you’re gonna quit?

Peter Gibbons: Nuh-uh. Not really. Uh… I’m just gonna stop going.

Joanna: When did you decide all that?

Peter Gibbons: About an hour ago.

Joanna: An hour ago… so you’re gonna get another job?

Peter Gibbons: I don’t think I’d like another job.

Joanna: Well, what are you going to do about money and bills and…

Peter Gibbons: You know, I’ve never really liked paying bills. I don’t think I’m gonna do that, either.