You Know That Joke...

...the one where the restaurant patron tells the waiter, "there's a fly in my soup!" Well, I had a similar situation yesterday. But it wasn't in a bowl of soup,the fly was in my glass of water, and I nearly took a big gulp out of it when I noticed the fly. Just in time for Halloween.

Oh, and he wasn't doing the backstroke...

The October Blahs?

The last few days I've been feeling, well, blah. I don't know if it's the time of year - the weather's been nice, but I haven't been outside much; I don't know if I'm having a hard time coping with not being busy. When I get bored I tend to hit a bit of a funk.

I'm not saying I have nothing do, but I feel like I've hit a bit of a wall. I think I was just too busy this weekend, and didn't have a huge amount of fun - which I really need right now.

Actually, what I really need is a vacation. I have two weeks until mid-term break, and a four-day weekend and 7 weeks until Christmas vacation.

I think the important thing is to keep myself busy and fight the urge to sit around and do nothing. When I'm busy I feel energized. When I do nothing, it draws me into a deeper funk, and just exacerbates the problem.

Round 2

No sooner than wrapping up the Federal election, people living in Metro Vancouver are heading back to the polls on November 15 for civic elections. And yesterday there were some areas of BC that headed to the polls to vote in Provincial by-elections. And this whole time many Canadians have had their eyes and ears glued to the US election. Myself included.

So a week ago I had to decide who I wanted to be Prime Minister. In three weeks time I have to decide who I want to be mayor of Vancouver. Actually I've made that decision: Peter Ladner. If Sam Sullivan was still NPA party leader I would have a difficult decision ahead of me. Many NPA supporters are not fond of Sullivan... doesn't that sound familiar.

Gregor Robinson has a lot of good points too, but voting for Vision Vancouver is much like me voting for the NDP... The area I really have to focus on is who is running for the Parks Board, School Board etc.

And when I'm done with that election, that isn't the end of it. British Columbians will be going back to the polls in May for provincial elections. Then I think it's time for a rest. But with another ($300,000,000) minority government in charge federally, I could be back to the polls sooner than I know or care to know... and this coming from someone who loves politics and election time...

Back to Square One

Nobody really wanted an election. The lowest voter turnout in Canadian history made that apparent. For the most part people were happy with the status quo of the last minority government. Everyone except the PM and his Conservative party. He called an election because the polls showed he could win a majority, and stop the back and forth bickering associated with a minority government.

The Conservatives were re-elected. With a minority government. All that time and tax dollars to maintain the status quo. But the Conservatives did gain some seats; a slight victory. And the Liberals lost some key seats, the biggest shock being the riding of Richmond.

And there could be another shocking Liberal loss. South Vancouver, my riding, is doing a re-count. On election night Dosanjh won by 700 or so votes. Elections Canada re-counts on races separated by less than 1,000 votes. The re-count showed Dosanjh won by 30! So they have to re-count again. What was once a Liberal stronghold could still end up on the Conservative side... but it still wouldn't give Harper his majority. And we would still be right back where we started five weeks ago.

An Election Story

The deed is done. I have voted.

My plan after work was to go vote and go to Curves (or vice versa), but since this was my first day back at work in a week, I felt exhausted by the end of the day, so I exercised my right to vote, but not my body. Actually that's not entirely true, since I walked to the polling station.

As I was walking to my polling station I was thinking about the first time I went voting; not the first time I voted, (1996). It was back in 1982 and I was four, so obviously I couldn't cast a vote, but my parents could, and took me along with them to the polling station (on the Musqueam reserve).

For weeks my parents had been telling that on this day we were going voting. Except I didn't know what voting meant, but I knew what boating meant, so I thought we were going boating. I was very excited since I enjoyed the water, and had been on a boat before. And I knew our polling station was on the banks of the Fraser River, so even more reason for me to believe we going boating.

Well, you can imagine my disappointment. Needless to say I was totally unimpressed with this whole voting business, and cried the whole way home because I didn't get to go boating!

On the Mend

I am still recovering from my cold, but I do feel better than I did a few days ago. I went to work on Friday, but only for a couple of hours, and was home by 10:00 am. It was all my body could muster - just a couple of hours to check phone and email messages and do a few administrative things.

Saturday was the first day I felt like eating, and therefore actually had some energy. We had some errands to run, which in the end were tiring, but it felt good to get out of the house, and get some fresh air and movement.

I returned some library books, and picked up my newest book club selection: The Stupidest Angel by Terry Moore. It's hilarious. I recommend it, especially if you are in need of a good laugh. Next we went to the vets for the cats' annual check-up, and to make sure Wellington's "pipes" are still problem free. It's always an adventure taking the cats to to the vets. Welly was pretty freaked the whole time, while Tiki was fairly calm. That is until we tried to leave. Colin went to pay, leaving me in charge of putting Tiki back in the carrying case. Well that was interesting. Tiki did not want to go back in the carrying case. She made this known by talking her claws and grabbing both sides of my head, and scratching me. Since she has never done anything like this before, I was caught off guard, and resounding "Fuck, Tiki" was heard throughout the vets. At this point Colin came in to see what was up. He had better luck putting her back in her carrying case.

After that fun adventure we took the cats home and went grocery shopping. We had a big shop to do - the cupboards and fridge were bare - so we went to the Superstore. God I hate that place, especially on a Saturday before something like Thanksgiving. The parking lot was packed to the gills - always a bad sign. But it wasn't to torturous inside. If it weren't for the amazing deals we'd avoid it all together, but the money you save makes the torture somewhat worth it. After that we went to Kins to purchase our produce. We only buy our produce here now, unless we have a couple of items we need to pick up quickly. You can buy a tonne of stuff for very little; it tastes better, and a lot of the inventory is locally grown.

We stayed in Saturday evening and enjoyed a home cooked meal and another good showing by the Canucks. After the game we walked to the video store and rented Promotion. It was a good laugh, but not the best comedy ever.

Yesterday I went to my dance class, and began working on new dances. This was the first exercise I've had in a week, and since being sick. I felt okay during class, but felt very tired by the time I got home. I had a quiet afternoon and evening. Around 9:00 pm last night I had the urge to return to my de-cluttering and reorganizing. A made a good dent, but there is still a ways to go in the den. But once that room is done, the worst is over.

Happy Turkey Day!

Sick

A few weeks ago I started waking up in the mornings with a small tickle in my throat, but once I was up and ready to start my day it disappeared. On Tuesday I woke up with a more intense tickle, that turned into a very painful sore throat.

Other than a killer sore throat I felt okay. But as the day wore on, I realized I was getting really sick. My nose started running, but I still didn't feel too bad; at least not bad enough to go home. During my lunch break my body started aching, and by the time I got home from work, I had full-blown fever. So I spent yesterday at home. I feel a little better today, but thought it best to stay home again, as I sit here with my mound of tissues, my ears constantly plugging and unplugging, my nose running like a tap, and the inability to breathe properly.

I'm just glad I didn't get sick last week, with the show coming up. And with my first big event of the school year just two weeks away I will hopefully be over this by next week.

Unless I am deathly ill tomorrow, I will be going to work. It's the Friday before the long weekend and I have some things I need to do before that time off. And hopefully I will no longer be contagious, so I won't get everyone in the office sick. But when you work in a school, it is always just a matter of time before someone gets sick. Especially at this time of year.

Moving Onwards

Now that the show is over, it's time to move on to other projects. Some are already underway and some are waiting in the wings.

The biggest project I am currently undertaking is a complete de-cluttering and re-organization of our home. I used to be a tidy, organized person, but something happened, and now are our home is complete chaos. I decided I needed some 'professional' help with this task, so it was off to chapters.ca to find book recommendations on home organization, and then off to the VPL website to request said books. In total I got six books - only one of them was what I was looking for, but it is definitely the perfect book for helping with home organization. It's simple, straightforward and has lots of great tips.

The best thing about it, is keeping me on track. When I start tidying up I will start with one area, but then my mind (and body) wanders to another area. And then I get bored, tired, and just give up. Now I am sticking to one room, and one area in the room. For example, my desk: I start with one drawer and do nothing else until I have finished with that drawer. It sounds tedious, but it works so well, and is quite quick. I've only just begun, and have started with the worst room, the den. It's amazing how much crap I've been storing away, and how things that have been missing forever are suddenly found. And if you just do 15 minutes a day, well that's all you do.

I 'm hoping to use the long weekend to make a dent in this project. Considering the enormity of it however, it will be more of a scratch. I also plan to work on my Halloween costume this weekend. I have a few ideas, but I need to hit Value Village and Bazaar & Novelty to see what I can put together. It seems the older I get, the more serious I become with this quest.

South Pacific Stress

When one thinks of Hawaii, the last thing you tend to be is stressed. But for me, right now, the thought of Hawaii, Tahiti, and all Polynesian islands in between had me awake at 5 am this morning - stressing.

Aloha Polynesia is this Sunday, but it's not the actual show itself I'm worried about. We had a great practice last night. I feel confident in my dancing, and as an entire group, everything meshed together. It's all the little, and big things I need for the show that are all of a sudden stressing me.

I thought I would be bringing my dress home to hem last night. It's not ready so I have to drive back out to Burnaby tonight and pick it up and find time to hem it somewhere between tonight and tomorrow night. Then I found out I had to make two of my leis. I was working on my plumeria lei last night in between dances, and sometime between today and tomorrow in addition to hemming a dress, I have to put to together my yaka leaves. I know I'm still missing a third lei so I'm anticipating having to find time to deal with that too.

I can't complain too much because my teacher is amazing and makes all our costumes, and puts on an entire show. I just wish I had a little more than 24 hours to get all this done.

At least it's Friday! And next weekend is a long weekend!