Owie

Know what hurts? Lemon juice in the eye. I was making blue cheese dip for friends to take to a party and when I opened the bottle of lemon juice it spurted right into my eye. My friend came *very quickly* into the kitchen when they heard me saying *very emphatically* "Ow. Ow ow. Ow ow ow. Ow ow ow ow." No real harm done though. Just kept splashing the cold water in until the pain subsided. Word to the wise: don't get lemon juice in your eye!

Santa/friends

Santa was good to me this year (ie I have amazing friends). Christmas morning I was getting ready to go to my parents house, and took a bag of stuff downstairs - - there was a box for me from "Santa" at the door. *Sigh* God has given me such fabulous friends.

It contained all sorts of things: chocolate & candy, slipper socks, microfiber cloth, ornament, lip balm.... and a 1GB MP3 player. How exciting is that?! I actually turned the box over in my hands two or three times before realizing what it was. I've already started putting music on it - mostly Jack Johnson.

When downloading the software for it last night, I learned you can buy a palm-sized speaker attachment. I'm thinking that could be really convenient at births - load up some super-calm birthy music, and then I wouldn't have to go scrambling to find a CD player that works in the hospitals. The MP3 player will do 10 hours of continuous music before needing a re-charge. (The speakers run for 20 hours on 2 AAA batteries.) Ooh what exciting possibilities.

Gift to Myself

Merry Christmas! I hope your day is filled with love - the people you love and the things you love.

My gift to myself today? I slept in until noon! And didn't feel guilty either. But my brother & SIL are picking me up to go to our parents in an hour.... and I'm not even dressed yet so I better get moving.

Christmas blessings! Peace be unto you.

Too much

My plate just seems FULL these days. Lots to do and never enough time. There probably isn't really that much to be done. But my life is upside-down so even the little things feel big. I can't focus. I get halfway through one job, then remember another thing I need to do so get half way through that, then remember the next thing and move on yet again. This continues until someone who needed me to accomplish task A says "Where are you at with "A"?" and I say "Oh crap. I forgot. Sorry! I'll go do that right now."

Oh I know you Mommies out there do this all the time - you are skilled jugglers. But me? Not so much. I keep guzzling the coffee and hoping that my focus will return soon.

The earliest the chaos might subside is in March, after I've returned from Africa. March is a long way off. I can make it right? Just put one foot in front of the other....

Pack & Purge

My room-mate and I are really working hard to not move unneccessary stuff, so our goal is to 'purge' a box of stuff for every box we pack. Whether it works out in a 1:1 ration doesn't matter so much as the intention to clear out things we don't need.

I started last night with my clothes. I'm not really fashion-conscious but I am bad at keeping things I don't wear, in the hope that one day they will fit me again. As I put item after item into a bag to give away, I had to fight back the tears.... giving the items away felt like admitting I would never be that size again. *Sigh*

When I had to get dressed to go out last night though I opened up my drawer and realized that everything in it FIT me, so I don't have to wade through my old "skinny clothes" every day. That's a bonus.

Now that the closet has been purged, I have moved on to my bookshelves (and book boxes). If I haven't looked at it in more than a couple years I probably don't need it right? And if I do need a tidbit of information, I can probably find it on the internet. "....but what if the internest crashes Sarah? Then what?!" whispers my inner pack-rat. "That's what libraries are for" my rational brain responds.

And now, back to packing I go.

Notice

We gave notice to our landlords today - taped a letter to their door. Eek. Now I'm skulking around the apartment because I'm afraid if I make too much noise she'll hear me and then her rampage could begin. I even turned off the headlights on my car before turning in the driveway tonight, to try and 'hide'. Bah! I know I'll have to talk to her sometime but I'm not looking forward to it. It will be worth it in the end though.

Pride vs Health

As I've been thinking about going to school for midwifery, I've been trying to figure out how to save/make enough money for that to be a reality. My parents offered to let me move in with them, for as long as I needed to. When I contemplated moving into my parents house, the question I asked was "Is my pride worth $_00/month?". (ie is it worth what I'd save in rent & utilities?) The answer was no, so I was leaning very strongly towards moving there in the Spring. In many ways, I felt like I didn't have a choice - like I was trapped by my circumstances and only one step away from the couch-surfing form of homelessness (yep, it was a miserable pity party for one...)

A handful of friends kept encouraging me to look at other options though, as they were concerned that moving back with my parents may not be worth the money savings.

Today both my parents stopped by my workplace to see me - Mom arrived, visited, left, then about 10 minutes later Dad did the same. And by the time I was done both conversations I said to myself, "You know Sarah, your pride might not be worth $_00/mo, but your mental health sure is!" I love my parents. But living with them again just wouldn't be good for me - we're too different. Thank you, butt-kicking friends.....you know who you are. :P

We're outta here....!

...but just realized we need to find an exception to a rule in order to make it happen on the timeline our new agreement requires.

Under the former tenant/landlord/rental laws in Ontario, if you were on a month-by-month rental agreement, you only needed to give 30 days notice that you were leaving. But we found out today that it's actually 60 days notice required now. However, a friend suggested we talk to Community Legal Aid about it, because the apartment is not being maintained at the minimum heat requirement, and there are outstanding repairs so we might be able to get away with only 30 days notice. And a landlord is allowed to kick a tenant out with only 10 days notice if the tenant is interfering with the landlords reasonable enjoyment of the property. You'd think that would be reciprocal.... I'll have to keep digging. And place a phone call or two tomorrow.

One way or another though....there is a move on the horizon!

Maybe??

There is a strong possibility that my room-mate and I won't have to deal with our landlady much longer. A few details have to get worked out first, but we may be moving into a whole house, where we'll have more (outdoor) space than we have now, for less money in rent and utilities. Three bedrooms (one with mini-ensuite), new kitchen, living room, 3-season sunporch/mudroom, 1 reg. bathroom, washer & dryer, basement, backyard, sideyard, deck, enough parking space..... hopefully we'll hear by tonight. I'm a little nervous just because it all came about quite quickly. But at the same time I'm trusting that the RIGHT thing will work out somehow. Now I need to stop babbling into the computer and go get some baking and cleaning done!

c-c-c-old

My landlady is - well, let's just use the word "eccentric" shall we? My room-mate and I rent the top half of a beautiful old century-home. We don't have any control over the heat, as the thermostat is in the landlord's half (mainfloor and basement) of the house. We never actually see the heating bill; she just calls upstairs and says "pay me "$XX" for heat by "this date". " (but I don't really trust her so I'm not sure why we allow this)

Last week my landlady asked me if it was warm enough up here for my room-mate and I, because she wants us to be comfortable. I told her that it could be a bit chilly but we were making do with extra blankets on the sofa in the evening and we'd keep her posted. (She also complained that our kitchen chairs make too much noise and we'd have to buy pads for the bottom - - we almost never use our kitchen chairs. And she wanted us to instruct any visitors not to talk when in certain areas of our apartment because it disturbed them downstairs. Of course, my favorite was when we first looked at moving in and we were told that they didn't ever want to hear 'sex noises' because it was uncomfortable)

Now that the temperature outdoors is dipping, I'm realizing just how cold it actually is. 16 degrees when I got home from work this afternoon. It 'peaked' at 17.5 degrees early evening and is now on its way down again. When the landlord left for the day on Saturday, it was only 14 degrees in our apartment. The law here in the fine province of Ontario requires that the temperature be maintained at 20 degrees, and the by-law in our fine little town requires a minimum temperature of 21 degrees.

I left a message for my landlady today, telling her that it really was too cold (gave the numbers above), and that we even had guests leave early because it was too cold up here for them. I suggested they purchase a programmable thermostat in order to increase the house temperature without having to always have it cranked up high, thus saving both money and energy.

She called back later in the afternoon (VERY SNIPPY!!) saying that according to the rent review act, since we pay half the heat bill we'll have to pay for half the thermostat if we want it to be warmer up here than it is currently.

Whatever lady - I'm not stupid, and I'm not a pushover. I'll be digging around in the 2006 Residential Tenancies Act tomorrow. At this rate, it might not be long till it's time to find a new place to live.

Supply Teaching

A friend of mine suggested the other day that I am qualified to teach in the private system here in Ontario. I just called the administrator at our closest school (who also happens to be a long-time volunteer with the non-profit I work for, so she knows me well). Turns out they really need supply teachers. And it pays $125/day. Of course, I remember how awful students can be to supply teachers. But the great thing is (If I am hired onto the list), if it turns out I HATE supply teaching and figure it isn't worth the money, I can simply remove my name from the list. And if they call me when I'm on-call for a client, I can turn it down. I'll put my resume together and see where it goes.

Looking on the bright side.

I had a lovely (unofficial) long weekend. Celebrated 2 friends' birthdays. Helped some friends (who hate shopping) with their shopping for those birthdays. Church was really good (tied together some thoughts and experiences I'd had over the last week). Was asked to submit my resume for a 9-12 hr/wk secretarial position. Had a brain wave about being qualified to supply teach in the private school system here in Ontario and so started thinking about putting my name on a couple lists. Went to a Christmas poker party and hung out with some friends I hadn't seen in a long time. Watched Rudolph and a Hallmark movie. Made some great food for the birthday parties (homemade blue cheese dip anyone? Or a chocolate hazelnut meringue 'cake'? mmmm.) Finished a great book. Completed a couple of Christmas sewing projects. Generally just felt really loved and cared for by my friends.

AND THEN..... an ice storm arrived. After I'd safely chipped my car out from a 1/2 inch of ice, I started to work on the back windshield which had a good 3/4 inch of ice on it. I had barely started when the whole thing just let go. I was left with a completely shattered rear window and a big hole. FORTUNATELY I am not on call right now so it isn't too big a deal that I am without a car for a couple days. And, in my attempt to look on the bright side, the auto glass place is half way between my apartment and my work, and both are in walking distance. I worked valiantly to NOT cry and let forth a flurry of four-letter words. (I didn't want the teen who had been helping me on my car to feel bad).

Now I'm at work, and trying to figure out what to do first. My head just isn't in this space. I think I'll go do the mindless job of folding Christmas letters. Everything else can wait till tomorrow.