A time for A-Rowsell

I wanted to give you all an update about what has happened to me since July 23rd 2008, but just have not had the writer’s bug take me yet.   I found tonight a topic that sparked my writing talent. 

 Sheila and Mikey know how important they are to my life, but they also can understand why this sentiment is about neither of them. 

I sat down this evening with Amanda and we watched a movie.  It was entitled Marley and Me.  I don’t know how many other people have seen it, but it is a wonderfully touching movie that has a lot of good meaning, but also beought back a lot of memories. 

I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but in the end Marley passes away, and his Jon is right there with him as the vet places the anesthetic in the IV and Marley goes to sleep forever.  They have a little burial for him as well…..

Misty was with me, by my side for many years.  We got her when I was 10 in 1990 in Edmonton.  Dad had said he would never have a dog.  One day him and mom went away on an Officer’s retreat.  They came back to us (me and my sister) with a little puppy.  It was one of the happiest moments in my life.  Dad’s comments were that he didn’t want the dog and was our responsibility to take care of it.  And it turned out (as it often does) that Misty was his dog.  She took to him and he was clearly her master. 

She was however, my friend.  I have always had problems making friends.  Oh sure I can talk the ear off of anyone I meet, but I have real difficulty forming friendships and this period in my life was no exception.  I had no friends and was desperately alone.   Misty was bought to be my friend, and that she was, through thick and thin all through the years. 

She was there to comfort me when I was sad, to play with me when Iw as lonely, to be a constant companion and bring joy to all our lives. 

I remember the day I moved home from Calgary and poor Misty was beside herself.  She had her family all back together.  But Misty was now an older puppy.  Her legs were bad, she had fractured one of them at some point.  Her tail had been broken at some point.  Her hair never really grew properly.  Her teeth were all squished and most had fallen out.  She had cataracts in both eyes and was going deaf.  But she was still my lifelong friend, and I did everything to make her life easier.  I massaged her legs when they gave out from under her,  would carry her on walks.  Anything to make her life more enjoyable. 

We got one last good year after I moved home.  She passed away January 15th 2005.  She had growths all throughout her body and one was growing on her throat.  It was cutting off her airway and the vet said she wouldn’t survive the surgery. 

Seeing the scene in Marley and Me where Clive Owens is holding Marley as the vet injects the anisthetic only brings back to me the scene in the vets office with Misty lying there on the table, happy as can be, not stressed at all and seeming to have any issues breathing now today…..  And still remember her head droop right down to the table as the anisthetic was injected, and me knowing that my best friend was gone.  

We tore ourselves up about the decision for a long time afterwards, yet I know it was the right choice.  She had a long good life and didn’t deserve to suffer any longer.  I sit here as I did during the movie with tears streaming down my face and think how much I truly miss my best friend. 

She will always be with me,  In my heard and on my arm (Tattoo’d her there April 9th, Mom’s Birthday) and it is the only Name I will ever have on my body.  She was and always will be my Best friend, the one who I could always count on and who returned my Love with unconditional Love of her own.

I miss you Misty.  So very much.

Well, only a month and 12 days this time.  I am getting better in my updates LOL.

 So let’s start in.  As we all know my Sister came home from Australia in may, and has been home ever since.  She managed to find an apartment for herself and get herself a job, with a new one coming up at the end of August Go SIS. 

It is nice having her home.  We have gone out for movies and dinner, and just hung out and it has been a blast.

Hrmmm health wise… well lets see.  I ended up in hospital just after writing the last blog post.  June 17th I had a work commitment, so Manna took me out to do said work, picked me up at home at say 11ish, and drove across to Etobicoke.  I took her around to where I used to live, and where I used to go to school, etc.  During this time I started to really feel sick, with severe stomach pains… Not good… So we stopped in where we needed to for work, got what we needed, and all this time Manna was asking, “do you need to go to the hospital? I will drive you there if you need me, etc”  So at this point I caved and asked her to drive me there.  I called into work and had them re-schedule Manna’s shift to someone else.  She took me to NYG and stayed with me the whole time.  Even though I am sure I was high on morphine (Manna can fill you in on the hallucination I had about different coloured crayons rolling in a line across a rainbow road) I know that I fell in love with her all over again that night.  To stick with me, not just drop me off, but stay with me and make sure I was alright, and then drive me home afterwards.  I don’t even remember what time they released me.  But I know that I had a lower abdomenal x-ray and was advised to see my family doc… Ya 15mg of Morphine, and 150mg of Gravol will keep you out of the loop for a few days.  So I was out until thursday evening.  Man I was out of it.

Hrmm had a few other health blips, but nothing requiring more than a day or two of rest.

The next health blip though wasn’t mine.  Manna had been taking care of her Mommy, after her Mommy got out of hospital, and finally everything, the job, the late hours, and everything caught up with her.  Manna got herself a kidney infection.  Well this thing held on for weeks and weeks..  and finally on the 8th of July both Manna and I had doc appts.  Me for my follow up from the hospital with my doc, and Manna for an ultrasound to figure out what had happened with the kidney.. I guess that makes it… basically right around the time I went into hosptial that she got the thing.. poor Manna.  So Manna has her Ultrasound, and you have to realize that the pain from this infection had continued un-abated…  Well the ultrasound royally pisses off the kidney.  So Manna doesn’t make it into work for tuesday, but does go in on Wed.  And she tells me she isn’t doing well.  Well at this point, I had taken Wed the 9th off from work, I wasn’t feeling great, but was feeling better by the afternoon.  So Manna starts to fade after only an hour or so.  So I ask her if she wants me to come in.  She hmms and haws, but does make some mention towards it, so I get up, get ready and go in to help.  Well the shift finished and we headed right to the hospital.  Manna drove us there.  We arrived about 1am and the waiting began.  By about 4am Manna was really feeling the pain and sat on the floor, well at that point I got up to ask for a blanket for her, but the nurses decide to give her a stretcher in a room instead.  Ok that’s great.  So now comes the exam, etc.  Well anyways they decide to give her anti-inflamatories, a gravol derivitive, morphine, and a massive dose of anti-biotics all through an IV.  Well Manna is allergic to adhesives, so the IV isn’t put in by the time it is time for one of the tests that is very painful (they told her it wouldn’t hurt… I can only imagine the pain level had they told her it might hurt….)… Poor Manna… No painkillers… I thought for sure she might kill the Nurse….  Finally they got an IV in her hand and semi-taped it down.  She then got painkillers through that for a while.  etc.  Well about 7am they decided to move her out of her room, and Manna also had to use the bathroom, so up she got and I got her there and back, and somewhere along the way the iv came out of the vein and started putting fluid into the tissue of her hand.  She was in pain and none of the nurses would listen.  They just kept threatening to move her from the room.  I insisted she was not going anywhere until they look at her IV.  They did and discovered her hand was swollen with fluid.  They removed it, and later put it back in the bend of her elbow on the other arm and taped it down good this time.  Well poor Manna was in so much pain.  They put her on another dose of morphine after that.  (it took days for the swelling to come down, and the bruising has just now gone away…) Well they wanted her out of the room and were going to make her go to the waiting room.  I said absolutely not.  They have her on morphine, and an anti-inflamatory.  She needs to stay prone, besides the fact that while prone the pain is lessened.  So they wheeled her stretcher into the hall and got another one for the room.  YAY at least I managed to get something done right for her.  So anyway around about 8am Manna asked if I wanted to go get some food, so I decided a trip to McDonalds was in order to get breakfast.  It is about a 7 min walk away.  I had no sooner got there and placed my order than my phone rings.  They have called out for Manna’s car to be moved (they were doing construction on the parking lot and her car was right in the way)  So I had to come back to move it says Manna.  So I ask for my stuff to go, pay, and rush back.  I get back and the car is already moved… So in I go and Manna isn’t there… She apparently went for Ultrasound and one of the Security guards moved the car.  So the nurses gave me the keys.  I went and checked on the car (locked it, as they had left it unlocked) and ate fast.  Then went searching for Manna.  Found her just as she was going in for her Ultrasound (yes another one.  they didn’t have the results from the last one)  So 45 mins later she is out and we are back to waiting.  Around 10:30/11am the doc comes and gives the results that it looks like swelling and she should take these morphine derivative pain killers, and these anti-inflammatories for 4 or more days and it should subside, but for now she is released.  Well… How are we getting home….  I know, I will drive.  So in the car we get.  And I drive up Leslie to Steeles, then across Steels to something… North on that till I hit Clark, then along Clark to her street, and into her parking spot.  The longest time I have ever driven, and on like no sleep.  And my first time going 60km/h.  And I apparently did it perfectly.  YAY.  so 4 or 5 hours of sleep later (I got to crash on Manna’s bed, as she wanted the couch) And Manna’s mom drove me home. 

What an adventure huh?

Ok so now still on the topic of Manna, lets jump back a bit.   remember my plans for the weekend of June 21st and 22nd?  Well they still ended up happening, just not quite the way they were originally planned. 

I had a secret.  I had gone out and taken the 2500.00 from the car thing remember?  and decided I was going to use it to buy an Engagement ring.  I had decided ohhh on like the 12th of June that I was ready and wanted to propose.  So in I go to talk to my Jeweler.  And I had a beautiful ring designed.  Let’s just say given it’s actual value, I have been told I will be killed LOL.  So during the next week Manna manages to find out enough information through Frenny and through me, to know that I am going to do something on the weekend that surrounded commitment.  (I had gone to Frenny and talked it out with her, and with Mikey, and Rob, and. and and… LOL  So anyways…. lets backtrack for a second.  after I decided I called my sister and we went out the next day and chose out and bought the ring, and I told my folks, etc, etc…) So now me and Manna have a talk about what I wanted to ask, and she says that while she is sure the answer will be yes, that she wants a chance to live together first just to be sure.  I can respect that, it is a good thing to find out, if we can live together first.  So anyways we decide on doing a promise sort of thing.  So this is now like the 19th (our actual anniversary) or the 20th… So not a lot of time before the ring is ready anyway (already paid for) So I go in on the morning of the 22nd (I can’t remember what we did on the 21st… oh yes.  I had slept in, and Manna was going out to clothes shop (I think… this may be a different day and we did something else. I can’t remember) But even though Manna said that there wasn’t much point now, I came on anyways.  I realized I had goofed, but I showed up and things got better.  I think it was the right decision in the long run. (Manna had needed to buy a whole new wardrobe)  I met her and Shosh at Center point mall.  We finished shopping, did a whole bunch of other chores, and went to the Asian mall, where I bought like 140.00 worth of illegal DVD’s LOL including the entire 4 seasons of house (which I gave to Manna,  She liked it YAY) and then we came back to Manna’s place.  We hung out the rest of the day, watching movies, and finally heading out later like 11pm with Shosh taking me home.  (the more I think of it the more this seems like a different day… but I am not sure)  Anyways back to the real story the 22nd I wake up and go out to the Jewelers.  I pick up the ring, but tell him I also need a promise ring.  So I look and it is a toss up between a marquis cut and a heart shaped cut diamond.  These are both engagement quality and value, but the heart shaped one was perfect. So I picked it up, then called Manna who was on her way down.  She got to my place about a half hour after I did, and we had a nice quiet day.  We played video games for like 4 hours.  We played Super Smash Brothers, and Mario Kart, and Mario Party 8.  She Loved that one.  and YAY she played video games with me YAY.  So then we decided to head out to dinner.  So we went to Red Lobster and I treated her to lobster and shrimp.  A very wonderful meal it was to.  And after dinner I reached my hands across the table and held hers in mine.  I then said something along the following (I had meant to say more but I got very emotional) “Amanda, you are the love of my Life, my World, my Everything.  You make me happier than I have ever been in my Life.  I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I also know that we are not ready for marriage yet.  So I want to make you this promise,” At this, I take the ring box out of my pocket.  “With this ring I make you a promise to be with you from now till forever, it is my promise that another ring will follow and you will have me forever more.  I promise to support you and be with you always”  That is what I remember, but really only a small portion of what I wanted to say.  I then placed the ring on her finger.  We both were very nearly in tears.  (The Ring FIT!!!! YAY)

We then went back to my place, with me telling her all the way what the promise meant to me and what else I promised.  We spent the rest of the night just cuddling and relaxing with the TV, and she went home.  I remember her later on asking if she had told me her promise, and she repeated it again, that she promised herself to me, to be with me and support me forever.  It was a very wonderful evening.

She also that night put her Claddagh on her left hand turned out to signify her heart was promised. 

Since then she wears the ring on a chain around her neck most days (so she doesn’t lose it) and she gave me her claddagh to wear on a chain around my neck (I was really quite happy at wearing her ring)

Ok so lets see…  That brings you up to speed there… Other than that things between Manna and me are fantastic, both emotionally and physically.  She is my Soul Mate and I am so glad I waited for her.

So now what other events have happend in my life.  Well Manna and Frenny had a weekend of Sloth and invited me to come along on the Sunday with them.  It was wonderful, we went to a movie, and then on a tour of Manna and Frenny’s old neighbourhood, and I got to see all the places Manna remembered from her Childhood.  I was very touched.  (a Freaky thing happened.  We were talking about childhood memories, and I thought of the last place I had forts, and played in the woods, etc.  and it was with David Ledrew in Sherwood Park Alberta, from back when I Lived in Edmonton.  Well Manna had taken me down to a street she used to live on and showed me a park she used to play in… It was “Sherwood Park”  And it happened to be located on “Alberta St”  Freaky coincidence huh? I am pretty sure this was all on Sunday the 13th of July.  So anyways.  We went Mini-golfing… In a GLOW Mini-Golf place… Awesome… Then went to Dave and Busters for supper… I have never been before… It was AMAZING.  The food was good, and then the GAMES…..  I eneded up spending like 70.00 in games… But between us both me and Manna have a significant number of tickets racked up (I gave all my points over to her)  Something like 7000+ points with the stuff she had from before.  We spent hours there.  (The tickets can be redeemed for prizes, some of the bigger stuff is like TV’s or Xbox 360’s or a Gameboy DS….)  So that was a wonderful evening, and I got invited to the next weekend’s events which was a saturday trip to Canada’s Wonderland YAY.

ok so a brief interlude here to talk about work.  For the last little while there has been significant upheaval.  Staff have left or quit, and with me going on vacation and having been sick there was concern about who would fill the team lead spot.  So anyways they finally provided someone.  So I sent him in to learn from the staff… He sat there and did nothing….  Anyways so not only did that happen, but he started to write me letters demanding I be at work from this time to this time, etc…. So anyways I had a meeting coming up on the 17th of July to discuss the future of the project, etc… And at this meeting at 9am they demanded all my stuff back, phone/laptop/etc.. and told me they no longer required my services..

I was shocked, but oh well, it is better for me anyway, less stress. 

So anyways back to the story of other events.  This last weekend came, and I went and picked up Manna on Friday after work, and we stopped in and bought things, and Manna came over and cooked supper for me.  We had a wonderful night full of Romance and Passion.  Let me tell you she is a WONDERFUL cook.  And ot was wonderful having her there when I went to bed, and there when I woke up in the morning.  So 6am we woke up, got some food, got ready and went out to Canada’s Wonderland.  Got there by say 9ish and waited around for Frenny.  Went into the Park and waited in line for a part of the park to open (opens at 10am)  So we make a line straight for Behemoth.  An hour or so later and we were getting on the ride… Apparently I do not fit in the restraint system… So I did not get to go… I had to get off the ride after all the waiting and now sitting in a chair where it locked fine from my perspective…  Anyway I was bummed but I waited for Manna and Frenny to finish the ride.  Manna didn’t enjoy it so I don’t think I missed much.  Anyways we then went on a number of other rides.  What was the Italian Job (I giggled the whole time)  (oh while in line for Behemoth, Frenny held our places and me and Manna went on the orbiter.  let me tell you if you are going with your significant other you can’t go wrong, you sit in and the other person sits between your legs.. It is one big cuddle fest) Anyways we they hit up the merry Go Round and the giant swing thing.  And then it was time for food.  We hit up the 50’s diner.  It was ok food, but I decided that I needed to drop my full LARGE sprite all over my foot upon leaving… (a guy behind me bumped me trying to get to our booth and caused me to lose my grip… grrr)  So we then went to the action theatre (3D-movie, with moving seats) And spongebob was playing.  We watched it.  the A/C was good.  We then walked around the kidsville part, and got slushies.  We ended up seeing Scooby Doo - I will post pic’s later - and going into the shop… Then went to line up for the scooby-doo haunted mansion ride (or something like that)  Frenny wasn’t feeling well so she opted out.  And during the wait I started feeling bad and so did Manna.  I think it was a combo of Sun Stroke/heat Stroke.   So Manna popped out of line and got me a gravol (she had hers in halves earlier in the day at 2 points) and we went on the ride.  It was fun, but we decided then at 4pm that it was time we left the park.  So we walked out, getting another slushie refill for me, and some ice-cream type stuff for Manna/Frenny.  I was very out of it, and Manna was afraid I was going to pass out on her.   So we finally got to the G0-Bus and got on (standing room only) and 30 mins later were at york-mills station (we had decided to all come back to my place as I have working A/C and watch movies.  Well we all got back, took showers, and I loaned out comfy clothing. We ordered food, (Manna bought us Swiss Chalet, and Sis came over to join us) Then we sat around and watched a movie.  I ordered Sweeny Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street on Rogers on Demand. it was fun.  We then sat around until like 10pm when Frenny decided she wasn’t going to stay but was going to take a cab home, actually it was closer to 11.  Manna stayed over again (YAY) and we had a nice quiet night.  Waking up to her the next morning was wonderful, so wonderful.  We had a relaxing morning and I left with her at 1pm took her all the way up to Finch Station so she could go meet Frenny for a movie, and  I went out for other chores (pick up of meds and groceries)

Lets see, Monday I went into my old work, and then to a doc appt (will get to that later) And then after I went to meet Manna at Yonge and Eglinton.  We walked around for a bit (visited the pet store, visited Mary Maxim, and then Toys R Us) and then went to a movie (We saw Wall E.  I had seen it before with my Sister, but it was cute and I wanted to see it with Manna)  We enjoyed that, then went and sat in a Tim Horton’s till 10:30 and then I went home.  Grabbed a cab from the 7 11 (had to get a Slurpee) and finally arrived home like 11:20ish.  I went and did an Intervening job today.  First one since April.  Boy it felt good, and tonight met up with Manna at Finch Subway at about 4:45 and went to Crappy Tire, got me my fishing license so I can fish during the algonquin camping trip.. YAY, and then back here to her place, where we chilled out and chatted, and watched tv, got dinner, and she showed me her memory box,  let me look at pictures, let me read old letters… It was really touching, and connecting.  I Love her so much.

So then about 10:30 her mom comes in and says I think Ryan should stay the night.  There is a really bad Thunder and Lightning storm outside and it is raining badly, and so here I sit on her couch, writting for what has now been over 2 hours, catching up on life.

So ya, I mentioned about the doc.  Back a while back my doc approached me with the idea of Psycho-therapy to get at maybe a psychological cause for all my sickness.  So while I was a bit skeptical, I thought ok. lets try it, it can’t hurt.  Let me tell you the sessions are amazing.  I have felt a definite drop in my stress level and I think we may be making progress.  I cannot wait for my next one when I get back from Vacation.

Oh ya lets talk about vacation.  I was supposed to go on the 15th of July to Newfoundland.  Well we all know I decided I wasn’t going to do that, so now I am going on the 30th to Calgary.  I am super excited.  Mikey got me the buddy fare tickets WOOT.  211.00 with tax for there and return.  not too shabby.

I will Miss Amanda like crazy though… There is a large part of me that doesn’t want to go because I will be away from her that long.  

My plans over the next few days… I will have evening plans whenever Manna has the time.  And this friday and weekend I believe will be another wonderful time spent with Manna at my house for the weekend.  Then over monday night.  And tuesday will be packing, and tuesday night a visit with Manna, then off on Wed on a plane.

I will keep you updated as I can, and will hopefully post pictures soon.  I know I am missing so much, yet at least this much is written down. 

until next time, Adieu.. (yes the hat is back MWAHAHA) Read the rest of this entry »

Where to even begin….

OK when you saw me last, I had just been to the YarnHarlot’s book launch, and what a day it was.  That however is more than 2 months in the past.  Obviously things have been a little crazy, so let’s fill you in on what has happened.

April 3rd I started working for a company doing some admin activities, getting a decent wage at whatever timeframe I could spare.  I started putting in significant hours, but school was still foremost on my mind.  Speaking of school I started having meetings with my teachers as I had gottensome letters expressing concern for my academic standing.  I discussed and ultimately came to a decision regarding 3 courses, Comm2 (deafblind studies for the congenitally deafblind), Activity and Program Planning, and My Placement with placement class.  Those three courses we all decided would take a miracle for me to pass and given my health I should seriously consider focusing my attention on courses I knew I could pass.  That’s what I did, and it’s amazing just how much stres that decision relieved. 

So I had more time for work and gladly took it, as money = less stress.  So it came down to April 18th and last day of classes.  All of a sudden the realization I wasn’t graduating hit upon me, an while it was dissapointing not to be graduating with my class I felt it was better all around for me.  I finished classes and went to work, expecting to be done by 5 and then head to the farewell party my classmates were holding.  I also had purchased a ticket to the ORAD presentation of movies that night, presented in sign as a date with Shosh. 

Well as you can probably forsee nothing ever goes as planned and ork went on untill 7:45…..  I got dropped over to the party and had 30 mins max to enjoy myself.  I was getting ready to leave to go neet Shosh when my fellow classmates made the plea that we may never see each other again, and couldn’t I stay?  So I cleared it with Shosh and stayed.  There were downsides either way I made that decision, however a once in a lifetime event won out, no matter the personal consequences later. 

I stayed then till almost 11pm, had stuff to eat, drank, smoked and generally had a good bonding experience.  Said goodbye to some good friends, farewell to some acquaintances, and buried the hatchet with some I had been on not so great terms with.

All-in-all a wonderful night, and oe I wish I could have over again. 

That does bring me to the consequence of my choice however, the first death throes of my relationship with Shosh…. I was very saddened by the conversation had on the 20th, an the road it led me down, but some things are just not meant to be.  but I will get there in time. 

We now move on to the job… Well now I threw myself into it, in earnest.  I did another Intervening gig, and realized I cannot do them anymore ue to time constraints *tear* but it did lead me into an interesting situation.  A possibility of a different Job…  The position of team lead for the project I was doing contract work for became available, due to unforseen circumstances.  And my current boss recommended me for the position, and my resume also impressed the hiring company (even though I had only applied for grunt work), although there were a few restrictions…. 1. lose the earrings….. these mean a lot to me, as each is the overcomming of a major life event.  Some obstacle or depressive moment is represented there…..  Ok so what’s the next thing….. My hair…. You want me to cut my hair?  evn though I am growing it for cancer victims????  You are joking……. Ok let me think about it….. Oh and also if I screw up you will cut my balls off…. uh-huh…. interesting interview…..

Ok let’s take a break from work for a moment and go to more important matters.  Manna.  Oh you will hear a lot about Manna, believe me.  So things had been going swimmingly with Manna.  We have had long walks through downtown doing nothing than spending time in each other’s company, holding hands, gazing into each other’s eyes, going for dinner, movies, spending time with one another.  Really getting to know each other both emotionally and physically.  The most important realization to come out of that was how much I truly and deeply love her.  I don’t just mean casual love, or how you love a friend.  I don’t just mean how you love that cute girl in class but cannot get the courage to approach, or how you love a girlfriend as you casually date.  I am talking about deep down, gut wrenching, heart bursting Love that not only re-defines the word itself, but also the world.  I am talking a Love that lets you know you want to spend the rest of your life with someone.  A Love that is your guiding light in the world.  Bryan Adam’s says it best, “When you can see your unborn children in her eyes, you know you really, Love a woman”  Amen Bryan, Amen.  So things between me and Manna take off like wildfire, I know each and every day how truly lucky I am to have her in my life. 

So a change in topic again quickly to bring up the knitter’s frolic where I spent close on to 120.00 YAY knitting…. hehe  Where I got to walk around intoxicated by wool fumes with people I genuinely care about.  What a day.  I ended up with sock yarn (I don’t even knit socks) new circular needles, Bamboo yarn… I don’t know what I am going to knit with it, I think I may just sit here and hold it…. As well as some other finds, made the event a wonderous thing. 

Going back to April 6, Manna’s Bday.  I was chatting over with Shosh about gifts and a great combination was hatched.  One of us would go for a swift and the other for a ball winder, and so between us both Manna would have a wonderful resource for winding wool… Well of course being the handy guy I am, I chose the swift and went out and bought the wood.  Life however has been crazy and threw me a sick week which encompassed Manna’s Bday :(  And to date the materials for making said swift are still sitting in the back porch waiting my time to assemble them.  Happy Birthday Love, you might get your swift before your next one…. hehe

So lets see, oh yes new job.  So I finally accept the position of Team Lead and begin with training, and getting all the problems sorted out…. Let’s just say that it is now over a month later, and 60-70hr work weeks are still not enough to get all the work done, and problems still exist.  Have to love management. 

One big plus is I got the ability to hire staff, so approached Manna in the week of May 4-10 and asked if she would like a full time position until the end of august.  Good Pay and such but stressful but I believed she could do it.  Well everything came together that next week after CPIC clearances, and she started in, training with me until friday of that week, then training for the next 2 weeks with other staff.  Let me just say that having her on staff makes my life so much easier, not only because I Love her and having her close at hand is amazing, but also because her work ethic and abilities fit the job perfectly.  I am very lucky to have her on staff.

So lets see where does that bring us.  Oh ya lets go back to me and Shosh to give you the update.  So things between us continued to bounce down a rocky path.  We saw each other a few times, but each time was strained.  And finally it boiled down to e-mails to attempt to sort through everything.  It did get the job done, and truth was heard from both sides.  I cannot rember the exact date, but either thursday or friday of the week of may 18th to 24th there was an e-mail from me that laid it all on the line.  told how I felt about the relationship how it wasn’t working etc, etc… and the next day we sat down to an MSN conversation.  Well I can say now that the relationship is done, without a hope of rekindling, but the friendship may have a hope of rekindling, only time will tell.

Work still remains to be insane.  I am still working 60+hour weeks.  Still having staffing issues, and still running into problems.  But alas it is a nice bit of money and it allows me to do the things I need, like pay off bills.  I think I may see the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak.

My original plans included heading home for the family reunion in July, around the 15th and coming back either the 31st or not until August 20th (as Rob’s wedding is on the 18th)  This has meant a lot of turmoil at work.  But now plans have changed.  I realized that a trip home at this time is not a great idea and my time is better served here. so now Vacation will commence July 31 and end Aug 20th and I will only be going to Calgary.   Yay for a Brother/Best friend Mikey who works for the airline

I also today had to go for dental work…. yay….. not…. LOL and decided to help Mom and Dad out with the purchase of a car.  I am looking at it as a plan that Dad originally had wherein I buyout the remaining balance on the van later on and then I own it.  Well since I am not going to Newfoundland now, I will make an extra 2500.00 so I took that out of the bank and gave it to them to help with the purchase of a second car now, and serve as my buyout later.  Hey it gets me a 2001 dodge caravan with 136000km on it works for me.

Oh I also in all this craziness got to me the Frenny.  Manna’s best friend.  She rocks, and apparently I get her approval YAY.  I look forward to many more meetings, and gaming time huh Frenny?  

There is also camping planned with me Manna, Scooter, and Frenny the last weekend in August I am so excited YAYAY

Ok so now an update on recent events.  This weekend.  Manna’s mommy just got out of the hospital so Manna needed to stay close to home this weekend.  So I went over to visit, and ended up invited by the mommy for the weekend.  I helped with chores, including cooking, cleaning, shopping, looking after doggies, etc.  It was a great weekend :)  I got to spend time with Manna, and apparently am accepted by the mommy too… sounds like a good weekend to me

Ok now for a secret, come in close… shhh not so loud… ok don’t let Manna hear.  I Love her very much and I plan to spend the rest of my life with her.  She makes me very very happy and I Love her with everything that I am.  I also know that the 19th is our 6 month anniversary.  Wow has it really been that long?  And at the same time that short a period of time?  *SMILES*  The weekend of the 21st, 22nd of June I plan on spoling her rotten and treating her like the center of my life that she is, but shhhh don’t tell her :)  I want it to be a surprise

Ok that is it from my corner of the world for now.  I am sure I am leaving many important things out of this, such as my Sister coming home from Australia on the 19th of May YAY Welcome home Sis *HUG* Love ya.  And other things too I am sure, but it is 3am and time for me to go to sleep.

I will keep you all updated as time goes on.

Well let’s start with the most exciting and recent stuff.

Yesterday was a blast with the YarnHarlot’s Book Tour Kickoff.  Not only was She super funny, but the activities leading up to the event were a joy.

(I am going to use the magic of copy and paste here to bring the story from the YarnHarlot’s comments to here I know I am Lazy)

Well now, Where to begin. Yesterday was absolutely amazing. And on request from Stephanie Here is the skinny on the socks visit the CN Tower and the socks go to center island.So the day started at 9:30 for me, 7:30 for Mandysdemons and around 12:30 for shosh15 (placement thou art cruel) And our aspirations were great. We planned for 70 points, but let me tell you it was no easy feat to achieve the 52 we did manage. My hat’s off to those who managed more. So we went into the CN Tower and asked the lovely staff there to star in a picture against the “this way to the top” wall. Well needless to say the poor girl was nervous, but so kind. She did it and then we chatted about the whole hunt and mentioned the glass floor part we didn’t think we could do. Well she hmmm’d and hawww’d about it, not thinking she could leave her post, but leave it she did. Took us through, up to security, where she bumped us to the front of the line (yes knitters are VIP you know) and then down to the glass elevator where she accosted the elevator operator to take my camera and the sock up to another employee up top. Then said employee took over a dozen shots, finally figuring out the flash component, and got some amazing shots for us. The gentleman brought it back down to us and asked if all the shots were ok, or if not they would go back up and take more. By this time me and mandy were completely dumbfounded. We checked the pics and were astounded and thanked them profusely. So went back to the front desk, thanking the girls there profusely, finding out the one who took us up lives in scarborough and was excited I did too LOL. So we decided they needed something for helping us, so down to the gift store we went and bought some maple candies and tied them in sock yarn, and went back and tried to give them to them… But alas they cnnot accept gifts but they thought us very sweet. AWWWWSo total cost for the socks to travel to the glass floor without their knitters. $4.20 the cost of the maple candies.

WOW what a highlight.

Next major one was Mandy and Shosh giving me the instruction to head to center island for that photo. Oh I did let me tell you, and got some weird looks to boot for taking Boo (my unfinished black bamboo glove) out and taking pics with him and cue cards. So finally along comes the ferry. (The first to Hanlan island as it re-opens in April…) And me and one other person (a custodian for the school over there) get on. We chat for a while and I convince him to take a shot with Me and Boo. It does contain city in the background however not the CN Tower. By the time that was in good photo range the muggle was clearly weirded out.

Let me tell you Boo almost turned blue… Yes it might have been rainy and +12 in the AM, but by 3:30 it was cloudy and below freezing, or felt like it on the lake with winds above 90kph…

Ya I would like to point out this soooo should have been worth more than 3 pts LOL (especially given my lack of knowledge of anything downtown and my asking I don’t know how many people, “how do I get to the ferry?” LOL)

The last bit of exciting hapenings were meeting other knitbloggers, who were ravelrers and on the hunt too. We posed for a group photo.

Then to finally be able to sit down, listen to the great music and laugh my own arse off to Stephanie’s musings all while knitting, was quite amazing.

You were is fine form my dear

To then be able to recount the CN tower story in brief to Stephanie and get my book personalized at the pub after just topped the Cake

Viva La Knitters

Ryan
A.k.a. Scoobert on Ravelry

P.S. There will be our entry into freestyle put together by Shosh soon, but I will let her announce it and put it out there.

So That gives you a taste of the day

Let’s fill you in on the contest entry, since it has already been made public.  http://www.rowsell.org/shosh That’s it.  Man we took a lot of photos. 

The Socumentary itself was prepped by Shosh, Ain’t she wonderful

Well let me tell you about the prep for this day…. Bottles of water, medication, ensure, apples, rice cakes, $30.00, and both knees with braces on them, one that was also wrapped to help. 

Walking almost non-stop from 9:30am-5:15pm is not a good plan in case anyone was thinking of it.  My legs are howling tonight LOL

Let me tell you that the day was definitely inexplicable.  I honestly don’t know how we made it through the day, and to see 500 knitters jammed into a lecture hall… It was an amazing sight.  Then to see us descend on that poor pub afterwards lol.

Ok so now to post what has happened since March 3rd…  Wow what a list… Ok So Memorable stuff.  March 15th was Shosh’s birthday.  We all went to Montana’s and had ribs, ribs, and more ribs…. I have pictures of That, and some I can show, but the rest I was made to promise to keep private so there they will stay

Oh My did we Stuff ourselves….  I believe that I conquered the ribs though…  They will never get the best of me MWAHAHAHA  *groan*

The Strawberry Dacquiri was refreshing, however probably not the best choice to accompany that many ribs….

A Fulllll Rack….. Yes I know I am crazy….

Well then it was back to Shosh’s where Her and Manna ate some cake, and I got to eat these like merengue cookies that were soooo sweet….  lol I only ate like 5…..  So on the very Hyper car ride home I swear I was not bouncing off the door and roof…..

Ok let’s see What’s next… Oh yes I have been told I have magic hands when it come to giving massages :)  And that’s all the info you get on that one

 Hrmmm What else… Oh yeah I finished the Scarf I was knitting for my cousin.   It is now with Mom, getting the ends sewn in.   Or whatever you do with ends.  I finished it on Easter Sunday. 

Easter this year was very different without my Sister at home.  We still usually do the Easter Egg hunt… Yes I know we are old enough to know better, but we enjoy it :)  The Kiddoes enjoyed it tho.  (cousin’s)

The night before I went out to Shosh’s place after work.  And went out again to Montana’s… That’s twice in 2 weeks for those of you counting…. And Dave paid for me :)  It was very nice, Made me feel included, like I was part of the family

We then watched some strange inexplicable movie cannot recall the name, but I know it was a mind trip…. LOL

Ok so I think that’s it for the good stuff… Oh other than the Snoezelen training I went to, which was awesome….. I might even explain about it at some point lol

There was also last thursday where Me, Manna, Laura, Heidi?, And later Shosh showed up too, all went out after school to the pub across the street.  Much cavorting and laughing, and snuggling, and drawing of weird things on bar napkins took place.  Then people started to leave and it boiled down to me, Manna, and Laura (who had called in sick to work to hang out with us YAY)

We all decided to hit a movie.  So we went to the Cheap theatre (Rainbow Cinema) and saw “the other boelyn girl” I believe was the name of it.  I give it a “royal” beheding.  good as a docudrama, and possibly something to fall asleep to, but not something to see in a theatre LOL.  Still a good evening though

So now onto the medical side if things….

Went to the doc and got some disturbing news….  My Vitamin D Levels are at 16… Should be above 80.   My B12 is at 136, should be 350….  My HCL (good cholesterol) is 0.68 should be above 2…. and last but not least, my “sugar test” showed that while my blood sugar levels remained normal, My insulin levels were off the chart….

Let’s give you an example..  A fasting insulin level should be 20-40…  And 1-2 hours after eating it should be about 120….   Mine was around 150ish fasting and after 2 hours, above 1400….

So What does this mean, I am on the verge of Possible pancreatic failure…. yep wonderous.  And now have to take Glumetza, along with VitD and VitB12.  More money I don’t have LOL

So needless to say mentally I have not been here lately, which is why yesterday was so needed and welcomed

Ok that should bring you up to speed, enjoy

Bonjour Mes Ami. 

I have had ze busy week yes?  First I come along for ze ride to ze microsoft convention…  As you saw earlier I drastically improved ze looks of my host yes?  I was not how you say it, thrilled with the seating arrangements however. 

Interesting position, but ah well I guess I cannot complain too much, I got to meet ze interesting people non?  you do not believe me?  I will show you.

As you can see I monopolized zis event, and everyone was how you say, attracted to me, as it should be.

Ze next day I met a beautiful woman.  From ze moment I laid brim on her, I knew she would show off my features beautifully.   I just had to try myself on for size zere, and I think my magic, it work better on her. 

I followed her around for ze rest of ze day, and finally she invited me back to her place.  Oh I tell you my magic is defintely stronger on her yes.

She then proceeded to pose to show me off better.  I think it worked, what do you think?

As you can see She is definitely good for my image.  much more photogenic zan my host.

She even introduced me to a handsome fellow named Jack.  I show you to him now as we are cute together.

But time flies, as time will, and you see it was time for us to go.  Ze beautiul Lady, she did blow a kiss goodbye and we were off.

My next foray into ze wild blue yonder, was ze next day when my host took me out to work.   I at first quite enjoyed myself, but ze snow…. I have decided I hate ze snow.  I show you now how I look with ze snow and ice all on me.  I did not enjoy it, so I go home and sleep for ze weekend. 

I wil have more adventure soon mes ami, do not worry.

Wow, like dood, what happened?   I was writing at least every 2-3 days, but it has been 5 days now…. what is going on, seriously… Oh ya, I got freaking busy…

So lets go back to the last you heard of me.  The Hat.. Yes the almight Hat…. It was purchased and proceeded to having a life pretty much of its own.  I had also had a root canal, and a wonderful time out with Manna which resulted in A new Ambrosia and Hat addiction…..

So now onto day 3 of last week’s excitement.  This was an early day.  You know how they say you should never get up before 10, or at least sleep in 2 or 3 extra hours past your usual timeframe, when you are on vacation?  Ya it isn’t going to happen… Nope,  Nuh-uh,  Forget it…..

Wednesday blossomed with me getting out of bed at 6:30am…. What ungodly person came up with a 6:30 in the morning……   It shouldn’t exist.  If the Sun isn’t up, then I shouldn’t be up.  Anyways, 8:30am saw me being dropped off at the RICOH Centre in the Exhibition grounds downtown (Thank’s Dad).  Apparently I had registered for a Microsoft conference or some such….  Now why would I do that….. Hrmm I could have slept in… I could have avoided crowds… I could have done something more exciting than listen to people techie speak all day… Oh ya…. Free Software.  Yes that is the reason I registered :) 

So me and the Hat went to the conference… Don’t believe me? 

Handsome devil I am eh? See?  I told you. 

Anyway, The event was massive, with something like 17000 people registered.  We had only 1/4 of the registrants in the hall I was in. 

Presentation was nice.  There was a lot of techie information there let me tell you.  Such as the new Virtualization technology. 

Anyway, there was also a different exhibition hall set up to serve us food, and give us vendor displays.  It was quite amazing really, if crowded…

Interestingly enough, I also had my very own pass… I felt like a member of the press with my hat and badge.

Trudging through the crowds, listening to the speakers go on and on and on about things I really didn’t even fully comprehend, these were my activities of the day, and at the end, ducked out an hour early, grabbed my free software and ran

Ah software, how I enjoy thee.  Managed to score myself Server 2008, SQL 2008, and Visual Studio 2008.  Very nice.

So let’s see…. Where does that bring us… Oh yes to Thursday

So Thursday dawn’s to me again getting up at the crack of dawn o be at my endocrinologist’s for 8am.  To basically have her say, you are doing things right, but lets test both your sugar level and insulin level doing a glucose test.   Now for those of you who have not had this done, please let me tell you it is not pleasant.  It isn’t too bad, but definitely not pleasant.  You have to have been fasting (I generally fast for all specialist appointments, it just makes it easier… LOL)  And then they take some blood from you as a fasting level.  Then make you drink 350ml of a glucose solution.  Think C-Plus but with 10 extra heaping tablespoons of sugar added in.  Then you have to wait there for an hour.  Get more blood drawn.  Then wait another hour for yet more blood to be drawn… My arm looked like I was a heroin addict…  The bright spot to the day, was that Megan came to visit me YAY.  So we waited the last hour for my bloodwork, then went to the Eaton Centre.  Had some serious McDonald’s to fill my hunger, then just putzed around the mall for a few hours.  We went into this one store with all these cutesy little Japanese type critters in it, like a pig pillow…..  and Megan found something interesting. 

Definitely kissable there Ami-Chan

We also did something I have never done before.  You know those photo-booths.  The ones you pay 4.00 for and you get crummy looking photos in 3-4 minutes?  Ya we did one of those and what a bunch of fun we had.

Possibly we could have adjusted ourselves better so we were completely in the shot, but I think this gives it more character

Our adventures led us then to my audiological appointment where said audiologist insisted that my hearing is fine (except for a mild loss at 4000Hz in the left ear) So therefore I must have an Auditory Processing disorder in the brain, possibly even ADD.. And wants me to have a CAPS test… Don’t ask, ’cause I don’t know either.   We had to make an emergency pit stop along the way however as McDonald’s didn’t sit right for some reason LOL.  Hrmmm ya needless to say I didn’t know it was necessary to decorate your bathroom with custom tilework..

Needless to say I think this is a little over the top… Or at least if you are going to do it, continue the burgandy tiles with yellow stripe completely around the perimeter…. There is no excuse for being lazy a a company….

At this point we realized that a Trip to Megan’s place was in order and so it was done.  It unfortunately got cut a bit short however when Megan’s sister decided to put on perfume….. I now have another perfume to add to my allergy list.  A few minutes later I was in her mom’s car and on my way to the subway and home.  But all in all still a bodacious day with loads of fun had.

So this now brings us to Friday… Dear Lord this week has a lot in it.  So Friday starts with a phone call at some ungodly hour like 10:30am… from work.  I am thinking, ‘what did the client cancel?’ but no they want me to come in early… So hop out of bed shower and nearly collapse out the front door… That’ll teach me for not wearing the CPAP. 

So I get to work 15 minutes late, but that’s ok I made it up later.  But anyways the client is ready to go, so off we go… And as we are going the snow starts in… It is not very nice…. Not very nice at all….  But we trudge along to one of the client’s stops,  then double back to the coffee store.  By the time we all left the coffee store/grocery store, it was howling outside.  But we trudge back through the snow and wind and finally arrive at the residence, where we spend the remaining hour playing a game, WOOT, relaxation.

By this time outside is horrid…. And I am thinking my original client is going to be a cancellation, but no, bless him, he wants to go out even though the conditions have been explained to him.  So out we go into the blizzard through drifts approaching a foot high to his first destination.  Then to a second destination for coffee and food, and some groceries, and finally back to the residence.  It must have been 10km in total I walked…. in rediculous weather… Let me tell you, my puppies were barkin then LOL

So finally make it home and am now excited,  the next day I get to spend time with Shosh YAY.

So Saturday comes and we leave the house by 2pm, hit up the buck store and go get my glasses (were in for warranty work/repair) And end up driving 40ish km to my final destination of Shosh’s place, with a stop at Factory direct along the way

And it’s exciting, I learned how to do basketweave stitch.  Don’t believe me?  well you should….

See?  I got good at it really quick

So Shosh and I knit till say 7ish then drove to pick up Manna and meet Maria at the Sushi place on Highway 7…..  It was a blast of fun let me tell you.   We all ate so much we were sick.  By the second time we ordered (all you can eat, but any leftovers are charged at 10% extra)  We were full but I stil had some room.  Well some choices were made not knowing what things looked like, and by the end we had a full green dragon roll left and some type of sushi salad thing (it was all mayo type…)

So we had 100.00 worth of Sushi between the 4 of us, and we ate so much we made ourselves silly. The ride home in the car was a riot.  If someone tumultuous on my stomach.  Me being the one who ate most of the rest of the sushi on the table.  oh you want to know about the salad stuff and the dragon roll?  Well we perfeced the art of spreading it around on a plate to make it look like we had eaten it, and there were a number of bathroom runs made with sushi put in napkins then carried to the garbage in the washroom so we wouldn’t have to pay extra. 

Let me tell you, A. they use too much mayo….. there were a number of things I couldn’t eat because of that, and B. we all ate WAYYYYYY too much, but it was definitely fun LOL.

Poor Shosh felt like a short-bus driver, dropping us all off at our doors.  Thankies Shosh Love ya

So now we come to Sunday.  Well now this was a bit of a different day. Go into work, just to sit down, eat a free breakfast, and socialize for 2 hours.  Oh sure I did some work, and intervened a bit for a couple of clients, but it sure didn’t feel like work LOL.  Then spent over 2 hours getting home, only to go on out to the west end again to see my Uncle in hospital (He was getting a skid of salt put in the back of his work truck and he was up in the back, and the forklift driver ended up comming up fast with his forks tilted down and ended up having the skid slip off the forks and pin my uncle’s leg against the truck, breaking it)  After that, it was back home to finally relax.  However I had discovered something at work.  The pinkish scarf I was knitting for a client, was not needed, the client had a scarf already, so I decided that I would keep it for my cousin’s birthday.  But then I got to thinking… Hrmm when is her birthday, so I asked Mom… It is in August… But her Brother’s is on the 5th of March… EEEEK….  Ok so I go and transfer the pink off my needles and start on a black scarf for him, which by now (monday) looks like this. 

YAY go me,  I might finish by sometime next week, if I am lucky… LOL

So that brings us to today.  and the MRI……

Yes you read that right, the dreaded MRI…  actually it wasn’t all that bad,  only took out one of the six earrings (the one not surgical steel).  The worst part was that the sleeves of the gown cut off circulation in my left arm when it was raised over my head and I was in pain the whole proceedure… oh well LOL.   It was a pain, and I can understand people having claustrophobia….  yeesh….  But I digress. 

Overall it wasn’t too bad.  I don’t know the results yet, but the test itself was easy, albeit VERY noisy.

Ok I think that brings us back up to speed.  Happy Hunting until I update again.

(to be read in a very bad Jacques Cousteau french accent)

Allo mes ami.  I must now tell you of my story.  I do not remember much of my former life until I ended up in zis strange place, filled with other garments and accessories… Ze scottish golf hat next to me, he explained that zis was a place where second hand clothing and items get new life.  I do not remember my old life, but I knew I was not second class.  I was a first class Hat and I was getting out of ‘ere.

Weeks I sat there watching ze unsuspecting public walk by, never paying me attention.  I had though that my freedom was secure a few days ago when zis older man he put me on and showed his wife.  She howe’er was not amused and I was quickly put back on ze rack. 

I thought to myself I must get out of ‘ere, and so a plan was hatched.  One of ze books for sale was voodoo for dummies.  I read it and knew I could take over Ze mind of ze next person to put me on.  I lay in wait and finally I see him.  I know I can get his attention and lo’ and behold he comes over to me and picks me up places me upon his head and strikes a mime like pose.  I liked him from ze beginning.  I set to work making him mine.  And yes I get put in ze cart.  I even make him pick up ze orange blazer zat had befriended me a number of weeks ago.  But alas my powers were not strong enough and ze blazer went back to ze rack. 

I kept working my magic for him  but he kept saying “I do not know if I want to buy zis hat” I was not amused and continued my work on him, and by ze time they were looking at ze books I knew I had won ze battle.  I had convinced him to purchase me for any price. 

He took me then to zis coffee store and ordered me a small hot chocolate with ze whipped cream.  Ze lady behind ze counter did not believe it was for me, and so I ended up with zis man sitting down waiting for ze beautiful lady friend to get her order.  Finally when she said “I wonder when ze lady will realize zat hot chocolate is for ze hat and not me” And zen ze lady she took her order and looke over at us strangely.  Zis is what she saw.

I did enjoy ze hot chocolate as you can see. 

I was only able to finish a small amount but ze gentleman who purchased me he finished it for me.

Ze beautiful lady she did also join us for ze drinks.  She howe’er got coffee.

I thought I would try my magic on her as well but while she look very stylish with me on, she appear to be immune to my magic. 

All was not lost for you see I made ze gentleman look very debonair, no?

We had a small discussion then about my plans for travelling and meeting new people.  He was quite interested and we had a good conversation, as you can plainly see.

Ze gentleman and his lady friend zen decided to sit on ze couch and talk.  I was brought up many times, and some good ideas were brought forth, such as having a travel journal for me so zat people who I meet can sign zat zey have met me, and so zat I can record where I have been. 

Ze night was almost done, so I had ze gentleman introduce me to ze lady working behind ze counter.  She said she would pose with me for ze picture.  I include it now to show you ze wondeful person I met and ze place where it happend.

Lastly on ze trip was our ride home.  We took zis thing called a subway.  It was my first time on such a conveyance and I had ze gentleman take a picture of me for posterity.

I do believe zat zis is now ze start of a beautiful friendship and I will have many adventures.

Zis is Ze Hat Signing off.

Well where to begin…  I guess at the beginning.  Although that is often a boring place to begin.

Me and Manna (yes I am quite aware it is supposed to be Manna and I, but then there is no double M) decided to meet at Finch Station at 1:30, as today was a shopping date day.  I now get told that I am being brought to Ambrosia… And yes just like the name entails it is a dish for the gods…  This place is special diet heaven.  We walk in and let me tell you that there is no such thing as just one type of thing here…. To give an example there isn’t just one type of digestive enzyme… There isnt even just one SHELF of Digestive Enzymes…. There are more supplements than you can shake a stick at.  

I managed to find gluten free pasta… PASTA…. do you know how long it has been since I have had PASTA???? Anyways….  I also found gluten free Waffles… MMMM Waffles….  And tice cakes are only 1.11 for 10…. insane….

So 20.00 later I was good to go, especially since I hadn’t planned to buy anything….

Then we had a stop of at the Fire Station to drop off a food donation and a trip back to Manna’s place for her to grab her forgotten Debit card.

Next up. Value Village.  Pronounced for those who do not see the sophistication there as Va-Loo Vil Lodge.  Well this was an utter disaster.  Me and Manna should not be let loose in a Value Village… No Value Village is safe….  I think between us we had 12 pairs of jeans, risk, battle tech (both of these are board games), and a knitting Calendar kit. 

So we go to try on said jeans, to which we get the following reactions to said jeans, “NO”, “VERY NO”, “NOT EVER”, “IN MY WILDEST DREAMS”, “NOT A CHANCE IN HELL”, and of course my favourite “Ryan Hood, Man in Tights”  Yes the fits of giggling from these pants were uproarious…  I wish I had a picture to show you, but believe me the picture is better left unposted.  Just let me say that I was unaware that tights came in Denim…..  My voice went up a whole octave when I put those on.  And getting them off.. I didn’t think I could.  The guy waiting for his girlfriend in the changing room next to mine said “We can get you some scissors”  I almost needed them. 

After peeling myself out of said pants we managed to get precisely 0 jeans… however we did get the games and the knitting calendar… LOL 

As we can tell we were very productive at Value Village.  We thought since we were so productive we would go to Zellers and try our luck there.  Ya… Let me tell you about Zellers…  So we go over to the jeans, and after many an attempt, found 3 jeans for me to try on and 7 for Manna to try on.  So I take my 44X32 regular, 42X32 relaxed, and 42X32 Regular and go to the male fitting rooms….. Ya, no one there.  So I ring the bell for service… No one came.   I rang it again and again, almost continually and still no one came.  Manna was getting a big kick out of my attempts to get someone to help me.  So I finally say “What does it take to get service around here”  Needless to say me and Manna were then in fits of giggles….  I threw a mock hissy fit and we went down the hall and finally found an employee OMG…not an employee….  Zellers has those? She said she would page someome.  So we hear her page someone and we wait and wait.  And I go back to my game of “press the service button as many times as I can until someone comes”  So finally the same lady comes by again.  She says “Are you still waiting for someone?”  To which Manna mumbles under her breath “Of course not, we are just standing here waiting for no reason…..” Or something like that.  So the Lady pages again, and finally brings someone over to open the fitting room door.  20 minutes of just waiting to try on the jeans…. I promised myself that if none of the jeans fit I was going to throw a fit right in the middle of the store….

So 3 pairs of jeans get tried on and lo’ and behold one of them fits… it’s a miracle.  42X30… Yes another pant size dropped… WOOT. 

So we go over to the female changerooms and Manna tries on her 7 pairs of jeans and WOOT 2 fit. So we go back and check the price and Manna decides on one pair of them to buy.  So now we are a pair of jeans each up on our jeans buying foray.

We then proceeded to go pick up ground beef for Manna’s Mommy, and drop that back off at the house, and away we go again. 

Now comes our dinner escapade… Let me explain this to you.   Dinner consisted of chinese food ordered at a food court in an asian grocery store.  I managed to find something, somewhat edible  A terayaki bento box.  Poor Mana though had a horrible time with her failed cold Korean pre-packaged sushi.  And then with her red bean paste in a doughnut, and hotdog in a doughnut attempts at food.  I do believe that Manna quite turned herself off from food at this point. 

Next was Gas, and off to another Value Village we go.  This one however resulted in No jeans for either of us, but a skein of sport weight Black acrylic wool.  and a HAT for me.   Oh yes now you get to see the reason for a Tale of Ryan Hat Man in Tights.  It is all becoming clear. 

I try on a number of hats.  A Scottish golf hat, and finally this mid 20’s gentleman’s hat.  We joke around that I look like a Mime. And so a Mime Skit was born. 

Yes you can see the wonderfulness that is Value Village

But this was not all that the Hat had in store for me.  Oh no. Value Village decided to provide the Hat with a means to embarass me all the more.  It is dubbed the Sleazy Car Salesman Orange Coat.

Yes I am insane I have clearly reached that point.

So We wandered the store for a while longer and the Hat stayed in my cart, with me saying “I really should put this back, but I don’t think I want to.”  And by the time Manna was picking up her 12 Harlequin romances (2 for 99cents) I had decided to buy the 25.00 hat.  I didn’t know then that it was 25.00 but I didn’t care I was buying this hat.

So following this we decided to hit a Second Cup and relax.  The Hat got a small hot chocolate with whipped cream and I got a medium without.   The Hat also got to meet and be photographed with the servers there at Second Cup.  And so was born the Journeys of Ryan and The Hat. 

I would tell you more, but that is the Hat’s Story to tell.

I will however give you an update as to Monday.

So this morning (monday) already starts off bad, as I have to go to the dentist to have a root canal… Ya not fun.  But to make matters worse I lost an earring.. I don’t know if it was during the conference or it was last night, but it was definitely not there when I woke up and I can’t find it anywhere. 

I managed to find an old earring and put it in temporarily, but that will teach me to use earrings that have screw on ends… they will eventually just fall out…. grr.

So I go to the endodontist and 15 minutes is all it takes him.  A shot of numbing in the jaw and one right near the tooth and away he goes.  My tooth gets a little rubber jacket and he goes to work.  Takes him no time at all to finish, and can you believe that this proceedure is costing 945.00  Yeesh.  Well at least the pain is now diminishing (or did once the freezing wore off) I have to see him again on the 10th of march at 12:15 to make sure it all went as planned. 

I know I probably got some strange looks, as I am sure I was drooling from all the numbing. 

I ended up going downtown to my tattoo and piercing parlour and bought myself an earring for 30.00 and paid the 5 plus tax on all to have her put it in for me.  I now have a seamless earring, basically a solid loop all the way around.  Very cool. 

Ended up going over to Dad’s office and getting a ride home, and eventually getting Tylenol #3’s for the pain.  Not a very fun day, but hey at least I know Tuesday was definitely better LOL.

Well what a time. 

Let me tell you it was worth every second, even with being in so much pain, and being so medicated.

Thursday was A great info session for me on Ushers Syndrome.  It was amazingly detailed, getting into RP, the gene’s that cause Usher’s and how they are looking at possible ways to cure it.  I was flabberghasted at all the information he had, and how technical he got.  It meant he lost a number of his audience, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. 

We had a great afternoon speaker as well.  Malcolm from Sense in the UK.  He spoke on how Sense is organized and how they go about approaching the public and so on.  It was amazing because he touched on a lot of unique ways to get the message across without running into the barriers we so often run into.

The evening for me was very much blase.  I got dropped back at the hotel and relaxed for the evening and fell asleep by 10pm.  Stacey went dog sledding and then back to the resort for socializing, etc.  Finally got back around midnight although I didn’t hear her.

Finally this morning I started to feel a little better.  Our speaker this morning was from Seattle’s Lighthouse.  And she went into the roles of SSP’s (Support Service Provider) and deafblind Interpreters.  It is  very interesting as SSP’s are like the environmental information aspect of intervention, whereas Interps are more the communication role of Intervention. 

It is an intruiging model

My morning session was on Seniors with the double impact of deafblindness.  There were a few good points on how to approach things, and on some new diseases that are linked to Macular degeneration, but really it was a very blase presentation for me.

Lunch however.  I got to sit at the table with Malcolm from Sense,  Andrea Radcliffe and 2 ladies from CNIB Ottawa, as well as Louisa and Christina.  The conversation we had was about Seniors Services related to Deafblindness.  And we addresed a lot of problems regarding getting seniors to admit they have the disability, where we went back to malcolms presentation about the checklist.  and Andrea mentioned case studies.   But we also had a great conversation regarding putting out there the word deafblindness and how it turns people off.  But if we change our approach and get people interested and show them the services offered, and show them they fit the criteria and THEN label them… it might work better.  touching on the issue with being labelled was great.

The afternoon session was amazing on CHARGE Syndrome.  I don’t know where to begin with how to explain it, so I won’t  I will just say it was an amazing information session and I brought a lot out of it.

I stayed at the resort for the first time in all 3 days between 4 and 7.  Stacey went back to the hotel to relax/sleep, but I ended up going to Sonia’s room and it turned into a party.  We had 7 people including me in there. and we just had a relaxing time had some wine (not me) and chatted.  it was great.

At 7 we went to the dinner and had an amazing time.  The meal was great, and getting up to perform a song (choosing our band name and picking a song to lip sync to) It was amazing.  Everyone did a great job,  and with 22 performing groups there was a lot of entertainment to be had,  and fun had by all.  and to think it only took 3 shots of liquid courage for me to do my Alice cooper impression while we sang School’s out for Summer

A great evening :)  I am almost sad that tomorrow everything is over.  Ok well will update you more tomorrow. 

Well, Tuesday morning came and up I got.  Got ready and went into school, getting a ride with dad (means I arrived between 8:00 and 8:30am) Why am I in school on a day off you ask?  Oh no reason, just a test that was supposed to be on friday that I will miss due to being at the IV conference.  So I pretend to study until 10am then actually study until 11 and then the bright part of my day, Lunch with Manna. 

Backing up a bit, I had been having some nasty pain in my tooth over the last few days so I decided to call the dentist on the off chance that he had an appt that day.  Turns out he did, lucky me.

So I write my test, takes me no more than 25 mins and then proceed to tell the teacher what worked and what didn’t work with the test, and so teacher is going to re-write what didn’t work and give that plus 5 more questions to the rest of the class on friday…. ok sure…

So anyways go to the doc then.  and wait… My knitting gives an elderly lady a chance to strike up a conversation, which was fun.  And then have my appt where I find out all blood tests were negative YAY. 

Now for the fun part… the Dentist appt.  So I go in and sit down and tell him of the pain.  He does a tap test (where he takes the back of a probe and taps all the teeth near the pain spot) and when he hit the tooth I mentioned I almost fell out of the chair in pain.  So he takes an xray…. Ya not what I wanted to hear…..

Oh I didn’t specify what I didn’t want to hear?  It is an abcessed tooth…. Apparently a really large abcess, and it is sufficient that the only option is a 1200.00 root canal…. YAY……

So doc gave me prescription for anti-biotics and percoset…. So I get those and come home and take them and am completely wiped out…. Barely manage to get my clothes packed.

Wed morning comes and I over sleep….  So here I am rushing around trying to get my toiletries, cpap and fun stuff all packed… finally get it all done just in time to hear Stacey’s knock at the door.

We had a fun 2 1/2 hour trip up here.  With me severely medicated I was not really talkative, but I did manage to carry on at least a half-way decent conversation.  I also brought my gps which meant that all the difficult navigating was taken care of.

A beautiful drive too, no snow, bright and sunny, and only a tad bit of wet on the roads.

The hotel is beautiful, and the resort is quite decadent (hotel and resort are not in the same place. as our hotel is half the cost of the resort)

The afternoon session was enjoyable to an extent, although with all the medication in me and with the speaker’s (a husband and wife combo) incessant story telling it lost all interest as of about 4pm.  But you had better believe me that it stretched to past 5pm….

Had a networking kinda meet and greet thing with finger foods and a free drink ticket (I gave mine away to Danielle) and then Stacey drove me back here to the Hotel (well ok to the KFC across the street so I could pick up food, and then I walked back here to the hotel)

Now here I sit, having seen the eclipse of the moon, and thinking it is a great idea to pop some more medication and get some sleep….

Will give an update on tomorrow, which hopefully will let me be somewhat pain free, or at least less of a drug zombie.

Well, as seems to be the norm, I have again gone through a weekend without blogging at all, and left the task till the very end of the weekend.  It is I guess going to be a habit.  Ok where to begin, I guess at the beginning… lol. 

So Thursday as we all know had been a wonderful day, and now we were onto Friday.  The morning was quite interesting as we got to do a scavenger hunt under simulation.  There is nothing quite like trying to find objects while completely blind and pretending to be deaf and needing to work through an IV.  A big thank you out to Rachelle and BJ for helping us be the first team to complete the challenge without cheating *giggles* just teasing Laurie :)  Laurie and Daniella actually won, but we came second

We also got to try our hand at interpreting.  Let me tell you, I am in no way shape or form ready to interpret…. My props out to Shosh, because I wouldn’t be able to do it.   Our teacher had her son come in (P.D. Day) And let me give you a bit of background on her son. He is gifted and goes to a special school and even there has skipped grades, so his english vocab = university level.  So most of our class was lost (also having no frame of reference for his story) and the interpreting went very badly, luckily for me however, his Mom (our teacher) likes my sign name (which is 2 r’s doing the hand motion for baseball) and remembers it because her son plays sports.  Anyways his mom decides to redirect him to talk about sports because of my sign name…. So I get to interpret all about football and baseball which was fine since, although I hate sports, I do know about them, although I would have rathered the computer games interpreting from later.

So all of this happened after my hour-long blogging about thursday which I did from 8:10-9:10 in the library lol.  It’s amazing what I use the school’s study facilities for.

Ok afternoon class was its usual self, with my slightly crazy teacher going on and on about mitochondrial energy processes in skeletal muscle tissue…. and me agreeing to do our test on tusday instead of friday, due to me going to the Intervenor conference (more to come on that in a later blog)

Finally class was over YAYAY

So now it was Shosh time :)  definitely a big plus to my day :)  So we sat around by the dean’s office for a while (our usual friday evening activities, that or sitting outside my classroom) We chatted with a classmate of Shosh’s for a while (I can never remember her name, but I do enjoy the chats :)  Then decided we had the energy, or rather we didn’t want to wait until we no longer had the energy, to move, and pack up and head for Shosh’s.  I had brought my DVD collection so we could have a movie night. 

Uneventful trip to Shosh’s dad’s other than the awkwardness of carrying the DVD wallet.  But it was with Shosh, so of course the trip was wonderful *SMILES*.  We get to the house, and it is pretty much dinner time.  Shosh starts making dinner for us, while her dad, sister, brother, and grandma all sit down to eat what her grandma made (unfortunately my dietary restrictions would not have tolerated it, although it sure looked tasty)  And I started to feel awkward standing around while everyone else besides shosh was sitting down eating.  It is a tall person thing… When people sit down it makes you feel ginormous, and makes you think you are looming….  So I headed into the den (Shosh’s dad handed me the remote) and I started watching TV.  I got invited back into the kitchen very quickly by Shosh though :)  and made myself useful doing things like chopping onions, and cutting chicken. 

Let me tell you the meal was amazing.  Miso soup and a chicken, mushroom, and corn, rice dish MMMMMMMMMM.  Let me just say now that home made Miso soup = very much better than restaurant soup. 

Finally got around to watching (or trying to watch) Polar express.  I must confess I was a little bit tired, and am sure I missed a significant portion of said movie.  I know I ended up cuddling into and promptly falling asleep on Shosh after the movie was over.  It was all in all a very enjoyable day :)  And I got to help Shosh get un-stuck from the bottom of our driveway *flexes muscles*

The rest of the weekend was rather mundane, Saturday was bowling with a client.  Which was fun I have to say, the client is a hoot to work with.  But the drain of going an hour and a half from home to come back to within 5 minutes of home to bowl, then go back to the residence and an hour and a half home… it gets to ya.  I did buy some roses for mom, and she greatly enjoyed them :)  I ended up drained and crashed early, falling asleep right next to my computer.  I think I drifed in and out from about 7 through till midnight, when I messaged Manna, then promptly fell right to sleep again, not waking up until 4, and then finally waking up at 7:30 to get ready for work.

Sunday was work… had to get Dad to drive me to the station (busses didn’t even start running until 9:08am) and let me tell you work was insane.  taking a total-total (that means totally blind, totally deaf, or at least functionally blind and deaf) client out to get coffee, breakfast, and pick up a few groceries.   Now normally this would be a fairly standard and easy shift.  The issue, came from the fact that the freezing rain was starting just before I arrived, and it was really slippery outside.  We managed to make it to the dominion/Tim Hortons, and stayed there for about an hour and a half.  During that time while we were drinking coffee, and eating cookies and breakfast sandwiches (or at least while he was) and picking up groceries, the rain had started in earnest, and was now comming down fast and furious.  We got outside only to find another client and IV calling a cab due to the extreme icy conditions. 

Now the IV asked the other client if he would share a cab with us, and the client was prepared to do so, if my client would foot half the bill.  Well my client was not willing to, in retrospect I should have just paid the half cab fare, but the client wanted to go for more of a walk. 

So here we go me and my client, my spiked cane not giving much purchase, and my sneakers slip-sliding across the now SLICK ICE of the sidewalks.  All the snow had been melted into glass slippery ice.  We encountered our first olympic sized swimming pool at the first corner and turned a different way.  Well let me tell you we had more slips and almost falls going that one block than I can conveniently remember.  We finally got to the next street up and while trying to traverse a very dangerous snow bank to cross the street, a kind samaratin (a 70ish year old man, on his way home from church) offered us a ride.  We took it gladly, although I am sure the client had no idea what was going on, since I didn’t have time to explain it to him.  We get back to the residence and go inside and put everything down and away.  And spend the next hour playing Jenga.  Let me tell you my client plays better than most hearing sighted people.  And my suspicions that he hadn’t understood earlier were confirmed as he asked “who drove us”  So I had to explain it to him, and it took a while, but I think he finally got the message.  Sometimes I wonder though if the message received is the message sent.

I waited around for a while, and Andy, a buddy of mine from school (in my same program) was just finishing off work, the afternoon client was cancelled due to the weather, so then began the amazing trek of Andy and Ryan.  You honestly would have expected better language from a bunch of sailors.  The darned Muddy Funster of a sidewalk and those Stupid dog owners who let their dogs poop on the Muddy Funstering Slippery sidewalk… So on and so forth.  And so the trek continued, over slippery passages, through ponds big enough to swallow a Volkswagon Rabbit.  Up snow banks to avoid said ponds….  Many phone calls to Andy’s wife to assure her we were still alive LOL.

Finally we arrive at Empress Walk.  And go shopping in through staples and then Loblaws.  Let me tell you me and Andy should not be allowed to shop for food together.  We are horrible,  I am sure the poor people of that store will never be the same again.  The conversations we had, and the language used were more appropriate to…. well not a grocery store LOL.   Back and forth across the store as more requests came in via the cell phone for different items, and finally a combined total between us of 130 dollars later, we had enough groceries LOL.  I packed most of mine in my backpack and we parted ways, him to take a taxi home and me to trudge through the wilderness that is TTC. 

I am thinking all the way to Eglinton station, “ok I will get off at Eglinton, take the 34C across and get dad to pick me up at bermondsey and go home”  but alas such was not the case,  I get a text msg while still in the station (walking to the busses) that mom and dad have gone with my aunt and uncle to visit my cousin in law who is at women’s college hospital, on constant watch until her baby arrives.

So back on the subway I get, and another 15ish dollars later have flowers and a card for my cousin in law, and a visit at the hospital (where I shocked the family, given that I am not usually so social with my extended family) and we were on our way home.  I believe I stayed up until 4am playing video games, and finally crashed and slept till oh 3:40pm this afternoon LOL.  Oh what a wonderful day.

As to what happened to the rest of Family day, I managed to upset my mom, by not repeating what I had said and instead saying that it wasn’t really worth repeating.  Mom has a hearing loss and felt that I was rude.  I can see it from her point of view and I did appologize.  It wasn’t how I meant it at all.  

Rest of the evening was pretty uneventful,  watched some TV, got caught up on my forums and blogs, and managed to work out that the current extra curricular activity schedule still works with Manna and Shosh, and managed to get my Blog updated WOOT.

So now the rest of the evening I believe is going to be ZZZZZ in preparation of going into school early tomorrow morning to write my exam for bodyworks…. Yay…….. LOL

Until next time.

Well, first and foremost let me get the most pressing matter down.  My Aunt has woken up.  She is moving her head,  moving her arms and her leg a tiny bit, and while she still can’t talk, at least now it is only due to her being intubated.  She is able to recognize people, and knows who they are.  She seems to have at least some spatial awareness.  I so want to find the doctor who said brain death and throttle him/her….  We still don’t know the reason for her coma, nor do we know if there is any, or how much brain damage came from the severe lack of oxygen when she was first found.

Ok, on to other news, Knitting…… Yes Knitting YAY….  ok so I managed to prove to myself and others that I can actually do ribbing Yay for me, and do it fairly well, with consistency in both row spacing and tension.  This gave me the confidence booster to start my knitting mitts again.  I had done a horrid short row, instead of a knit a-round…. ya I had to take the whole thing out on tuesday night… I wonder why I was distracted….,  Anyways, I started on it again, and made a startling discovery… I am addicted….

You may ask how I am addicted, wellllllll let me see if I can answer said question.  First and foremost I looked up and said to Manna, Hey you know what?  when I finish these I am going to put them on, look down at my hands and say, DAMN I Knit these… I Made these… I said it with force and gusto.  I am sure I scared people…. (not the first time.  Wednesday night I said a similar thing when me and Manna were walking on King street… I was all of a sudden, very loudly “I CAN KNIT… MWAHAHAHA YES I CAN KNIT”  I am sure I scared the poor lady walking the other way)

If that was all I had done however, I am not sure I would have said I was addicted.  However, on our way to King subway station from the restaurant, I asked Manna and Shosh to check my back to make sure I had zipped it up.  My reasoning for this check was, “I don’t care about the pills, but I don’t want to lose my Bamboo yarn”  Yep I think that constitutes an addiction… Let’s say maybe 25.00 worth of Yarn…. and say 120.00 worth of medication….. Hrmmmmm LOL

Ok let’s see… oh yes let’s do my day first before we get into Valentine’s :)  So the morning consisted of me going to a diabetes clinic where I got a consultaton from a dietician, and bloodwork done.  The dietician sat me down and we talked about my eating habits, what a typical day looked like, what I do and don’t eat, what I can and can’t eat… It was an interesting conversation, beause besides recommending I have some sort of veggies with my eggs, the only recommendations he could make were to take vitamin D, Calcium, and vitamin C….. His exact words were, “You are doing everything right, you have an amazing weight loss (Apparently I had been over 400lbs when I started, and at a 46 waist.  I am now somewhere between a 42 and a 44 waist and the only thing keeping my pants up is my belt.  I have almost no gut anymore, and most excitingly I now weigh 328lbs.  That is a loss of around 100lbs from where we guestimated I started at), Your diet is perfect, and I can’t make any suggestions given your dietary restrictions.  I wish all my patients ate the way you do, and did your amount of exercise.”  Yes that’s right Good ol’ Lardbutt me got an A+ for my dietary habits and exercise regime…. WOW…. LOL  I can only imagine other people’s eating and exercise habits…  I also had bloodwork done and the technician deserves a freaking medal.  I didn’t even feel the needle.  The guy was good… (and let me tell you the needle he used was the same gauge as an epi-pen… WoW)

So from there I went and picked up the roses I had ordered last week.  2, half dozen roses.  I still don’t know if they look pretty as I got them nicely wrapped, but I have been told they were very nice, and very too much :)  Just the answer I was looking for.  I did find out however, that even with books in my locker I can still fit a dozen roses in it with no problems whatsoever.  I got into the school and had some time in the Library and found that Manna was here already studying in the Library.  We went to Lunch together and that was very nice :)  I got an “Awwww what a sweet card” so obviously I did good :) 

Class was then exciting LOL the topic of conversation for the afternoon was how some concepts for activities are easy to teach no matter the cognitive level of the individual.  Activities like masturbation.  Oh yes… you heard right, masturbation.  Of course now this had the teacher who was telling us about this wonderful story she had, and the entire class, (ranging in age from barely 20 all the way up to almost 60) in absolute fits of giggles.  The class wasn’t serious again until after the assignment got handed out….

So apparently at that time (on break) I found out that the card Manna had gotten Shosh was the same as the card I had gotten Shosh LOL  Oh well at least we have good taste hehe.

After that, I had 3 hours to sit and talk, and knit with Manna, and wait for Shosh.  Me and Manna went to get some Hot Chocolate (good stuff MMMM) for all of us, because apparently the GOOD Hot Chocolate was the Bribe requiredfor Shosh to untangle Manna’s Alpaca :).  Shosh got there around 6 and we did out gift exchange.  Me giving the roses, Manna getting yarn and a memory card for her phone from Shosh, and Shosh getting…. Oh a card and a promise that the gift is arriving soon :)  We then sat and talked/knit for a while, during which Shosh untangled the absolute mess that was Manna’s Alpaca wool….  Poor Manna.

Oh my gift?  No I didn’t forget, I wanted to build up the suspense :)  I got a wonderful card :)  It was an AWWW card :)  And inside?  Oh wonderful coupons, redeemable for time spent with Manna and Shosh, and Manna/Shosh seperately.  Doing what you ask? Oh things like going to Kensington Market, or other places in town.  As well as one Day trip.  Something like Niagara Falls or whatnot. And also, 1 coupon each for 1 wish to be negotiated with the giver for.   Hrmmmm a wish… *evil grins* :)  What an awesome gift :)  I Love gift certificates and these specifically rocked seriously hardcore.

As the second part to my gift, I got treated to dinner :)  We all went out to a Sushi restaurant and had all sorts of sushi, some sashimi (Crab… MMMMM….) and soups/salads, etc.   It was a most wonderful meal, although let me tell you the lady serving us had us waiting almost 45 minutes in total to get our bill, and accept the payment.   I think maybe she was a little distracted

A short Subway ride, an interesting conversation, and 2 short but wonderful kisses later I was alone again but very happy :)  What a wonderful day.

So Wednesday night was Mine and Manna’s date night :)  It was very much wonderful.  We spent a bit of time in the school, chatting, deciding what we were going to do, and making sure I knew what the group “the Wet Spots” were all about.  It also involved some definite cuddles, as I was still pretty shaken up about my Aunt.  We decided that I needed my mind distracted, so a movie was the choice of activities, that and dinner. 

So to the movies we went.  There is a rainbow cinema just near School,  located over on Front Street.  So we went there, and Manna treated me to a movie :)  I got some popcorn and we were all set.  Let me tell you however, that while I thoroughly enjoyed my time, due to much Manna Cuddling, The movie itself….. More than 2 thumbs down.  So much so that it took mine and Manna’s thumbs in order to show our rating of the movie.   We saw Cloverfield…. Let’s just say that A. You will get motion sick.  B. Believe me the stupidity of some people….. You really wanted to tell the people on the screen.. Urmm you are going to die.. Yep see told you.  Oh come on, you know you are REALLY going to die now… Yep…. and C. after a while the constant screaming and crying out of the monster becomes grating on the nerves LOL

It is definitely one of those movies you want to buy for a dollar and then spend all night ripping it to shreds… hehe

It was however a wonderful time :)  MMM Manna Cuddles

We then decided that the Spring Rolls restaurant across the street was a good idea.  It was, and thankfully my visa worked hehe.  I treated Manna to a very tasty supper :)  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  It wasn’t a long time together, from 3-7ish in grand total, but worth every second

A very short subway ride, with a kiss at the end, let me tell you the ride seems sooo short, and the kiss oh so sweet

The ride home, however, ya lets not go there.  Apparently an electrical fire at yonge station and a track issue at Runnymede, meant that there were no trains going in either direction…. (I seem to recall posting about runymede before… Man there are a lot of issues there.)  And it was finally almost the last bus of the evening I ended up catching.  what is normally a 45 minute trip took me 2 hours and 30 mins… Ya…

But a Great evening nonetheless

Well I finally got home tonight at 7:15 and heard Dad on the phone.  As I listened I just got more and more upset….

Ok let’s fill you in first of all with the back story.  My Aunt Louise has severe Diabetes.  She lost her leg to it 3 or 4 years ago now.  I remember it well because until that point her and I were not that close (My Dad has 21 brothers and sisters so there are relatives I barely know) however that summer I was home and went into St. John’s by myself  to visit friends (parents were still visiting grandparents in central NFLD) And I remember I went to see her in hospital 2 or 3 times, sitting for hours on end talking with her, hugging her (she was in isolation due to the bad infection from her leg) At this point she still had her leg.  It was really sad then because none of the family had been in to see her.  None of her children.. and she was there for months before this.  So we became really close. 

She lost her leg soon after I had come home from vacation, but I went back home to NFLD the next year and saw her at home.  She looked good, better than she had in hospital the year before.  I had my picture taken with her and it is one of most treasured photos even if it is a bit blurry. 

The last few days she has been on life support, sometimes breathing on her own, sometimes not.

Ok now back from the history.  I heard from Dad’s conversation that my Aunt had been in to see her today, and apparently they had given her a CAT scan and then subjected her to all sorts of stimuli (mainly pain) but the brainwaves didn’t change.  They said to the family, that as she lies there right now she looks heavily sedated, but there is no sedation.  And she has no reaction to Stimuli.  They are going to wait a few days for the Neurosurgeon to have a look at the results, but for all intents and purposes she is already brain dead.

I am devastated….  I don’t do well with death at the best of times and for it to be someone I was close to…  This summer was supposed to be a family reunion so all the family could be together again and I was so looking forward to seeing her again….

I don’t know what to do, I am just beside myself.  I have no idea how I am going to concentrate at school….. And I know I cannot afford to take the time (nor do I have the money) to go home for the funeral….

……….

I promised myself I would get this down on my blog tonight…  As much as I am no longer happy this evening, I still promised myself to get it down, so here goes

Today was an interesting experience.  I met Manna at King subway station and then proceeded to follow her out to just west of Queen and Bathurst (using streetcar of course - believe me the weather conditions were not conducive to being outside) We were going to Romni Wool.  Now I have been in craft stores before, and even wool stores, but nothing prepared me for what was in store for me.

We were coming here because; I had said I wanted to try fingerless knitters gloves.  Manna found me a nice pattern for ones sized for men. http://www.knitlist.com/00gift/mens-fingerless-gloves.htm

We walked into this little door and my senses were assaulted by more wool than I had ever seen before in any one location.  They had skeins, balls, every manner of method of presentation and then some.  I was overwhelmed.  Manna took me over to the weight of yarn I needed and we finally picked out a wonderful shade of dark purple that I really liked, and more importantly liked the feel of.  I picked up the two balls of it and we proceeded to walk around the store some more. 

I had an idea right around then.  ‘Hrmm I wonder, what would these gloves feel like in bamboo.’ - On an aside here, We need to go back a few weeks to when Shoshana took me into Mary Maxim for the first time.  We had gone into the mall at yonge and eglinton and were killing some time till a movie started.  Shosh went in for sock wool and I spent most of my time fondling different wools.  Well I came upon bamboo… It was very expensive there, but it felt softer than silk.  I instantly fell in love with that wool.  We left without me buying anything and went to eat.  By the time we were done the movie was already started so we were looking for something to do, so I said, why don’t I learn knitting.  We went back to the store and I bought the most awful 2 skeins of red heart wool (cheapest in the store) in Puke Yellow, and Neon Pink….. Ya… and some size 9 needles 5.5mm.  Anyways back to the main story.

So we ask the lady at Romni where the bamboo was.  It was a mistake…. I ended up buying 2 balls of black and a separate ball of grey (the grey has 191yds and is bio bamboo… mmmm) They weren’t too bad in price  6.95 ea for the 2 blacks  and the 2 purples from before were 6.99.  The grey was 11.95.  Manna… you created a monster… I haven’t even started my first project and already I have a stash…..

So we walk around, with Manna looking for some Misty Alpaca Wool And finally with the assistance of one of the ladies, find it.  (Yes there really is that mch yarn there)

Then it was basement time… oh yes you heard me thy have a basement with all the giant spools of wool and all the discontinued wool.  Nothing tickled my fancy at that point (silk was 22.75 for 90yds… ya) So we went back upstairs.  Let me tell you the area by the stairs = Pattern heaven…  Anyways, we got me a pack of 5 US size 5 3.75mm double pointed Needles and cashed out (they didn’t have the cable knit needle Manna was looking for)  They give Student discount YAY, but it was still 44.90 for everything….. Yeesh….

We then packed up and went 2 doors down to second cup where We sat and knit for a while.  Manna bought herself tea and me Hot Chocolate MMMM.  I started my gloves (knit the first row… doh  oh well, but so long as I do it the same way on the other mitt I am golden.  I think I am getting the knit 2, purl 2 thing… YAY.  Although Manna did have to show me how to cast on again… *shakes his head*

So the trip home was eventful.  A westbound issue at runnymede station and an eastbound electrical fire at yonge station itself had me waiting a long time for a subway.  People pushed me nearly over when I did finally get on one and I had to swear at them to get them to stop and let me get to a safe spot.  The busses were also delayed (stop and go traffic the whole way) So a 45 min ride home took me 2hrs 15 mins… Yeesh

Anyways My first trip was definitely eventful that’s for sure