Eyes

I went to the optometrist as I needed a new prescription to get some new contacts.  I broke mine (eeek!).  They're hard contacts and they were just smashed into pieces.  Did I want to spend hundreds of dollars today?  Not exactly.  But I'm thankful that the contact didn't break in my eyes!  

My optometrist has a lot of tests and machines she uses when doing my eye checks.  It does take a while, but I find them interesting.  If anything, she's thorough.  But at this one machine, I had to open my eyes wide.  "Open wider please"  Ummmm.  I'm opening them as wide as I can.  She made me try 4 times to open my eyes wider.  

She stopped and told me the bad news.  She was going to have to tape my eyes open.  What the...?!!!  Are my eyes THAT small that tape is needed to open my eyes?  

Sure enough, the tape kept my eyes wide enough so that the right pictures were taken.  Yeah, I was pretty special looking today at the optometrist's office.  

The good part is that there is nothing wrong with my eye per se.  Just a change in prescription.  

I'll never look at tape the same way again.  

Meeting

Been out of commission there for a bit.  Work was a bit busy leading up to a meeting for one of our business lines.  To me, it was a mini conference.  

I asked someone for some feedback today about something at the conference.  This person is honest but is great at giving feedback (good or bad).  I really respect that.   Even when I've received criticism from this person, I've never taken it personally as the information and advice was given for my benefit.  And every single time I've listened, it has served me well.  

Having said that, this person said something to me that made me know that they understood my role very well.   And that is why I continue to go to them for advice.  They said that my role was a difficult one as I'm only given so much in resources (let's say $0 folks...call it what it is) and when things are going well, no one notices.  But when things go bad, everybody will know my name.   And in this case, no one noticed me. 

I haven't read the evaluation sheets.  I was too tired to care today.  Tomorrow is a new day and I can read them over with fresh eyes.  Some things I'm just not going to be able to do anything about.  Some are totally out of control, i.e. it's against policy or if I have no resources, I can't get certain speakers.  It just is.  

Until the next one.  Oh wait, that's in a couple of weeks.  .....

Personalities

Sometimes, personalities just clash.  There's no rhyme or reason, but they just do.   And honestly, it just sucks.  It's just way more fun when all of us can get along.  

Every Wednesday, my kids have their activities.  At this one activity, this one instructor I have had encounters in the past.  She's very knowledgeable in her field but I also find that she can put people down because they don't know as much.  Or there is a sense of, "you don't volunteer and do as much as us" so I don't really count.   Or maybe I've done something and I've just totally offended her.  And really, sometimes I just feel like she thinks I'm trash.   

Ok, that's fine that she doesn't like me.  I'm cordial to her.  I say good evening to her everytime she opens the door and I'm there.   That's all I'm going to do.   Can't do much more.  

Can I say I like her?  I can't say she's on the top of my list.  I can respect the work she does with the kids.  I can respect her experience.  And I can respect that she is also a busy person with many things to do and I think she does them well.  

So we agree to just be "cordial."  There are days that I think that's even a stretch.  But I can't help it if someone doesn't like me.  And I can't help it if I don't feel strongly about them.  

It just is.  

Party

I had a birthday party for my youngest this past weekend.  In some ways, I dread the party as it's so close to Christmas and New Year's.  It's hard for people to come to this party as they're recovering from all the festivities and getting back to regular life.  

But my friends are awesome and they always show up.  We chill, we eat, we laugh.  Always a good time.  

Every year, I try to do a different cake for the kids.  At this time, they still enjoy my cakes.  In a couple of years, they're going to want other types of kids that doesn't have mom's touch plastered all over it.  So I'll savour it.  

By no means am I a cake master.  I just have fun playing around.  My cakes are not "clean" in execution as there always seems to be rough edges, etc.  But it doesn't matter...I try and the kids still like it.  I didn't make the figurines.  Dang.  If I did, I'd call myself a master of cakes!  

Just like all the parties I have, always great company and a great time.  My kid had a lovely time nerf sword fighting with her buddies, running around like a mad kid, and playing plants versus zombies.  Goodness knows what else she was doing...but there were no tears.  

Thank you to my lovely friends who came out!  

Harrison

There is something to be said about awesome friends and people.  This weekend, I was up at Harrison celebrating the 40th birthday of two friends.  Granted, they are my friends through association, i.e. my hubby.  But his friends have become my friends.  And they have been very supportive of me and accepting of me.   We crashed at one of the girl's parents houses for this party because it is such a huge mansion.  They are some of the coolest parents I know and we totally partied with them.  

It was a "small" group considering how big this could have really got.  There was about 40 people there and it was an absolute blast.  40 people all there to celebrate two special people. After the surprise was out of the bag, then it was just time to party and socialize with everybody there.  We all made the rounds to catch up with whatever was happening in our lives.  

I think what was extra fun was that the majority of folks at this party have known each other for over 25 years.  I've known many of these for 14 years now.  So everybody just chilled.  So many laughs....

I wore my Save Your Drama for your Llama shirt as I knew everybody there would get it.  There is no drama between these people.  I love them because it's that easy with them.  And they all wanted one so that they could wear it in situations where there was stupid drama.  

Good friendships shouldn't be difficult or trying.  It just is.  There may be highs and lows with folks as life happens.  But if it's a great friendship, it'll survive anything.  

So I thank my husband to introducing me to some majorly skookum friends.  

Work Party

I like going to my husband's work parties.  There is always something fun to do and the people that are there do seem genuinely nice.  I know some of them and they are always so sweet to add me to their conversations.  

This year, it was at a hall in town.  I was happy to go as the kids were being taken care of and I didn't have to cook dinner.   Beautifully decorated and great food.  Can I just say that the butter chicken was absolutely divine?  I don't think I ate much else as I kept having this.   Like unbelievably good.  Chai tea?  Probably the best I've ever tasted! 

One of the fun things that they do is to always incorporate activities for people to do at these events.  This year was dancing and a photo booth.  It was great as teams that worked together took their team photos.  Spouses took their pictures.  People went in just because.  Props?  Sure!  Why not.  I opted to do pictures with my hubby.  Four shots in total.  One was of us just smiling together, one of me kissing him on the cheek, one of him kissing me on the cheek and then one of us just doing the peace sign thing.  Cheesy?  Yep.  But I loved it.  

Dancing was pretty good except a lot of people left after dinner!  Oh well.  More floor for me to dance on.  Though bhangra dancing next to people who actually know how to do it and do it well is just embarassing for me.  But I just enjoy dancing so I didn't care too much.  

I'm glad they've never incorporated karaoke as I'm sure people would rather see me dance than hear me sing.  That's saying a lot.  

School Supplies

It seems like every week, my kids come home with a notice.  And the notice has to do with fundraising of some type for some school supplies that the school needs.  

Ok, I get it.  Education isn't funded as well here as in other places.  But it's like I might as well give my pay cheque to the schools for all the supplies and money that they ask for.  

Again, this is a first world problem.  But honestly, my wallet is only so big too.  Things from a whiteboard stand, to supplies for the computer lab, to everything else in the middle. 

I should start a new bank account just to put money in for school supplies.  

Souvenirs

My husband gets to go on some skookum business trips. Yeah, me, not so much.   But every time he goes, he actually brings home cool souvenirs from his conference/work site.   They always have a variety and useful things.  

And sometimes it's really the souvenirs you remember, maybe not so much the conference.  LOL!  My favourite conference souvenir was a coin that I got.  It was a big coin and on one side, showed the word Yes, and the other side, it showed the word No.  It was a challenge or dare to use the coin to make decisions to whatever Yes/No question you had.  

Hmmm.... what is a challenge coin worth?  I don't know...maybe not a lot in terms of monetary funds.  But I used that coin a lot.  And it stuck around.  So in terms of worth, it actually meant quite a bit.  Helped me make some good decisions.  

Well, let's see what hubby brings home next! 

Million Dollar Homes

In previous posts, I talked about me watching this insane show called Million Dollar Homes.   It really is a new form of craziness.  I can't imagine spending that many millions on a house.  And really, when is it "enough?"  

But I do pick up some neat ideas.  And even some new ones.  There was an episode that showed posguys.com for wireless pos system. Neato. Or the house with a full spa in it...amazing. Ooooo. There was one that was the ultimate tree fort. Wait, the one on some tropical island was probably the best. The hut over the tropical waters...built in water slides, glass floor to see all the fish and could withstand hurricanes.  

Really, the amount of money people spent on these houses could run small countries.  Wish the world was more fair and that riches were distributed among the people.  

Oh well.  

Freaky Guy

The other night, I was coming home from the gym.  It was a little later than I usually go.  But I was just happy that I went.  

As I was driving towards my house, I noticed someone standing by the pathway from my street to the outside street.  At first glance, I thought it was my husband.  About the same build and short hair and even body frame.  

But as I was getting closer, I noticed that it wasn't.  Didn't think much of it...maybe he was waiting for a friend or something.  But he started to approach my car and wanted to talk to me. 

I'm sorry, but the guy freaked the crap out of me.  I just waved him away and drove to the house. I was then worried that he would follow me into the garage.  Eeeek!  But I watched him and waited to come out of the car until the garage door was closed.  

I ran upstairs to look out the window to see if he had left.  He wasn't there...but I kept watching.  Sure enough he was back to the same spot.  He waited until another car showed up and that car stopped.  I opened the window to see if I could hear what they were saying.  Couldn't.  But afterward, the guy left.  

I have really mixed feelings about this.  He may have legitimately needed help and I waved him away because I was weirded out.   I'd feel terrible about this!  But seriously...it's dark, you're a guy, waiting on some cul de sac and waving down a woman to ask her something.   I don't know if you're holding a gun or something!  That's freaky!!!   Why wouldn't you wait at the bus stop (around the corner), ask for help when a bus stopped for you?  Or if you needed a phone or something, go to the gas station (again, right by my house) and ask to use the phone?  There are many options around my area to ask for help.  Not some quiet cul de sac.  

So, I hope he's ok and he doesn't come hunt me down.  Weird right?