The Moonwalk, 11 hour days, and God doesn't make mistakes!

Without further ado... an actual blog from yours truly!!

Wow! Seems like forever since my last real blog! Life has been going full speed ahead for the past two weeks, and as much as I'd like to be lying in bed with my cats reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I'm sitting at the computer writing a blog for you fine folks! (Note to self for future reference: this is another situation where a laptop would be more convenient than a desktop) I'm going to do my best to update chronologically since my last "real" post.

I took a road trip about a week and a half ago to go visit my best friend. She's been a HUGE Terri Clark fan for as long as I can remember, and Terri was playing in her city. Thankfully I was smart enough to leave at 3:00... there was a ton of blowing snow on the road and zero visibility for most of the drive. The weather wasn't too bad when I left and McDonald's was doing a free coffee promotion--any size. Me being the lover of free things that I am, I got a large. If you've ever seen a McDonald's large coffee, you'll know that they're like twice the size of a Tim Horton's large. They're massive!! I don't know if McD's sells extra large coffees, but if they do I suspect they're the size of those mini 'Bubba' beer kegs. Anyway this was smart in the sense that I needed to be awake for the drive... but dumb in the sense that after an hour of driving I was seriously contemplating pulling over on a side road to go pee... in a blizzard. I liked the idea... I mean really, how much more Canadian can you get?! But the scary part would be trying to get back onto the highway with zero visibility... so I painfully held it for another half hour or so. I have to admit, this wasn't the worst blizzard I've ever driven in. The worst was when we went to visit my ex's parents one Christmas... Even though I was in the passenger's seat I was SOOOOO stressed when we finally got there! It took us about an hour longer than usual.

The concert was totally worth the drive! Terri is a great performer... and really hot too! ;) Even the opening act was pretty good. Terri lied to us and said she would be signing autographs in the foyer after the show... we waited around for about half an hour and finally the security guard said she wouldn't be coming out after all. Oh well. Still a great show. And my best friend totally spoiled me with Christmas gifts. She and her partner were recently in Disneyworld and bought me a ton of Tigger stuff! :D

The following night was my staff Christmas party. I was lucky enough that my cab showed up... I talked to at least five people whose cabs didn't show up--even though they booked them a day or two in advance. The food was good and it was a fun night. The entertainment was a Jeopardy-style game show. It was fun but went on too long (about 2.5 hours). By the time it was over half the room had cleared out. Anyway we played in teams where the table you were sitting at was your team. There was a big podium up front with 4 mics and buzzers, and each team sent 4 people up at a time. The idea was that after every question you rotated between your 4 people. May I also point out that the 16 of us were crammed in a small corner of the stage. Now that you've got yourself a nice mental image, picture me horsing around with one of the production supervisors. Picture me losing my footing, falling off the stage, and knocking over a large tripod pole which was holding up the backdrop and a set of lights. The supervisor and I both looked at each other as if to say "oh shit!!" The whole thing seemed to be happening in slow motion. I managed to catch the light stand/tripod before it hit the ground. Thankfully the backdrop was attached to another pole further down so that slowed down its fall. The crowd cheered "have another beer!". Did I mention the beer was free?

At the end of that round, my team and another team were in the negative. We had the opportunity to earn enough points to compete in 'final Jeopardy' if our team did some sort of dance (to music) at center stage. One team had to do the chicken dance and another did the Macarena. My team all bailed on me as soon as they saw we were in the negative. All four members of the other team were ready to dance, and the host asked "where's the other team?" "I'm here!" I said. He said he'd make me a deal... if I could get at least one other person from my table up there before the music stopped, he'd give us the points. The music started, and it was Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". I was 6 years old when the 80's came to an end... but I dug deep in my intoxicated memory bank and tried to remember some MJ moves. I made my best attempt at moonwalking off the stage and towards my table. After a couple of minutes of doing whatever dance moves came to mind, one of the wives finally came up and joined me. We moonwalked back up on stage and got the points for our team. At the end of the game when it came time to pick prizes, our team was too far down the list and there weren't any left. But then one of the girls from marketing came walking over with a folding camping chair and said "This is the only prize left, and I think you should get it for that awesome dance you did!" At least my efforts didn't go unnoticed :)

Time to interrupt myself... my fat lazy cat just sauntered into the room doing her "victory meow". Translation: her mouth was stuffed with an orange toy mousie and she can't meow properly. I believe she was trying to say "look what I brought you, mom!" because she dropped it about a foot away from my chair then sat there looking up at me. My writing is now being interrupted with the occasional "What's that Taya?! Get the mousie!!" while I toss the mouse across the room and she eventually brings it back to me. God I love that cat lol.

Anyway... where was I? Ahh yes... I've noticed something interesting about my new medication dosage. I'm finding it easier to get along with people who used to irritate the hell out of me. This is coming in particularly handy at work. Don't get me wrong, stupid people still irritate me, but I'm finding it easier to deal with day-to-day stupidity. Can't complain about that!

I've been super busy at work, including a couple of 11 hour days last week. "Special projects" are creeping up left, right, and center, and I have a ton of things to do before I get my eye surgery on the 17th. Not to mention before Christmas and the year-end audit on the 29th. Sigh. Oh well, at least the days have been flying by because I'm so busy. I've survived my first two smaller paycheques (smaller thanks to going from getting paid 24 times a year to 26). I have to admit I'm getting kind of tired of searching the internet for samples and coupons, and scouring the flyers every Friday to figure out what is on sale and where. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do. The good news is that I'm cooking at home more, and I've discovered that I'm not really a bad cook. I just need to be more patient with it, and that's the problem. I always wait until I'm hungry to start cooking... and then I want to eat RIGHT NOW!! If I give it the time it deserves, things have the potential to turn out pretty good!

I also had a great conversation with my mom recently. We talked about my brother and how his health problems are stressing her out now more than they used to. If I wasn't already before, I have certainly become her rock. My step-dad doesn't deal well with... well anything really lol... so mom is stressed out from dealing with him, my brother, and the doctors. I've been trying to be the support and active listener that she needs, and so far I think I'm doing a pretty good job. Over the past month or two, this, along with other 'life situations' have made me see what a truly strong and remarkable person I am. I don't think I give myself nearly enough credit sometimes. A lot of the time, actually.

I found out last week that someone I know has cancer. He found out six months ago but has been keeping it under wraps. It really came as a shock, and made me realize that as long as I am happy and healthy... nothing else matters. The other piece of inspiration that has kept me going comes from Ricky Martin. Yes, "Livin' La Vida Loca" Ricky Martin. He was on Ellen a week or two ago, and he said something that really hit me... "God doesn't make mistakes". I know he was talking about his homosexuality, but I think it's a good bit of inspiration in general. I wrote it down on the notepad by my bed and now I see it every night before I turn off the light. "God doesn't make mistakes" There is a reason I am where I am in life, and there's a reason for everything that happens to me and every situation I am faced with. It gives me hope.

I think that pretty much sums up the last two weeks. If not... I'll write another blog later. I'm tired and it's back at 'er full force tomorrow morning.


"There are places I'll remember all my life, though some have changed,
Some forever not for better, some have gone and some remain.
All these places had their moments, with lovers and friends I still can recall,
Some are dead and some are living, in my life I've loved them all..."