I'm Ba-ack

Well I suppose it's time that I updated this thing, lol. It's been a while since I've updated here and honestly, I really haven't felt like updating. I'm just not feeling up to blogging lately. Maybe that will change once we start to get rid of the ton of frigging snow we have here. Apparantly I picked a good week to be away, with Fredericton getting two bad storms while I was gone.

So I left for Carrie's place on Friday, February 8th. I had no problems getting there, despite the amazingly boring three hour wait in Montreal for my connecting flight. The first weekend we didn't do a whole lot because the weather was so windy that you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face, with the blowing snow. They don't have a lot of snow up that way, just a light dusting, which really surprised me.

The first of the week I accompanied Carrie to her doctor's appointment and took care of Brayden while she was in the doctor's office. We went out for lunch, went to the candle factory and the peanut factory - yum! We also went to Brantford to do a little shopping at Walmart and for lunch.

I spent Valentine's Day with my sweet little nephew Brayden. Carrie and Chris went to the spa to get pedicures together for Valentine's Day and I watched Brayden for them. It was their first outing alone, just the two of them since they became parents, so it was even more romantic that it happened on Valentine's Day. I was missing Ryan quite a bit on Valentine's Day, not that I hadn't any other time that week, but just extra missing him on Valentine's Day. We talked on the phone for a bit that night, but it wasn't the same as being with him. I booked my trip up to Carrie's before Christmas and failed to realize that I booked it over Valentine's Day until after the fact.

On Saturday I got up early to head to the airport. After a teary farewell, I headed for security to board my first flight for Montreal. When they issued my two boarding passes originally, the one they gave me for the Montreal to Fredericton flight didn't have a seat number on it and had the initals CDX on it. They agent in Hamilton who took my luggage told me that I'd have to stop at customer service when I got to Montreal to get a seat number. I asked her why and she said she didn't know. I had a suspicion that they had bumped me off that flight as I knew it was full, having checked it the day before I left.

I head through security and they took my lip balm out of my purse on me. I've flown a fair number of times and this is the first time I've ever had an issue with lip balm. Whatever. Anyway, I made it through the metal dectector (obviously). My jacket and purse come through after being screened and I see my carry-on bag start to come out of the machine. I then see it getting backed up and going back in the machine for screening. Then the woman operating the machine instructed another officer to do a "swab" on that bag. I was all "Huh, what's going on"? The officer took my boarding pass, asked permission to go through my bag, which of course I gave. (Anyone who knows me well is laughing right now because you know how cautious I am about things, so anything that I could get away with in my carry-on, but have hesitation about, I put in my checked luggage).

The officer has this black plastic wand thing that he puts a piece of tissue paper in and runs it all through my bag. He then puts the "swabbed" tissue in a machine and processes it. It's fine and he gives me my boarding pass and bag back and doesn't say a word to me. I said "Excuse me, may I ask what that was all about"? He said "What"? I said "You doing that to my bag". He said "It checks for chemicals". I bit my tongue from saying anything further, for fear that I wouldn't get on the flight, lol.

So I arrive in Montreal with an hour to spare before the connecting flight to Fredericton. Good thing I knew where I was going from landing previously in Montreal. I found the customer service desk and they said they couldn't give me a seat number because the flight was over sold and that I would have to go down to the gate and they would call my name if a seat became available. I was so pi$$ed off at this point. I've heard of getting bumped on a flight, but never getting bumped mid connection. I could understand if they bumped me originally in Hamilton and I had to stay an extra day or something, but bumping someone mid connection is ridiculous. I was angry too because I had a boarding pass in my hand that was useless.

I went down to the gate area and talked to an airline agent by my gate and asked her if she could give me a seat number. She said no, not until they took the flight off sale. I said "Off sale? That flight is sold out - that's why I'm talking to you right now. I have a reservation on that flight, a boarding pass in my hand and you won't give me a seat. You're telling me you're still selling that flight?!?" The woman looked at me as if she's never been told this before. I tell you, it's flipping ridiculous what the airlines do. So I go and sit down at the gate as instructed and wait to see if my name will get called. I'm thinking in my head "This is wonderful, I have no cellphone to call and tell Ryan to not come to the airport, I'll have to foot the bill for a hotel room and cabs two and from the airport....".

Luckily the crazy lady who I was talking to (the one who was still selling the flight) called my name. I go up to the counter and she's all polite to me now and asks if I would like a window or an aisle seat. In my head I think to myself "Why should there be a choice, obviously someone didn't show up who they gave a seat assignment to, so I should be getting their seat, unless they just like to cause undue stress to people and tell them they may or may not get back home". I said"window" disgruntled and took my new "official" boarding pass as she tore my first one up in front of me.

I finally arrive in Fredericton after all that rigamarole and Ryan is there to greet me. We go home and relax for a bit and then go out to dinner, since we missed Valentine's Day together. We went to the new Jungle Jim's. It was really good, but very slow - which is to be expected with a new restaurant.

It's good to be home (although it was hard to come back to work yesterday after being off) but I miss Carrie, Chris and Brayden already. Luckily, Carrie is coming home with Brayden for Easter in a couple of weeks.

Two More Days!!!

Nothing much exciting has been going on and I haven't really felt like blogging, hence the lack of updates.

Last Sunday was my dad's birthday. We took him out for supper and then came back for cake and presents. My throat starting feeling scratchy after supper that night, so I started pumping myself full of echinacea, vitamins and tea in hopes of fighting off an illness right before I go to Carrie's. It seems to have work somewhat. My throat is a little scratchy still, but nothing too severe and I'm sure I'll be cleared up by Friday.

Friday - ah, I can't wait for you to come fast enough. I leave Fredericton in the morning, transfer in Montreal and then arrive at Carrie's just around supper time. I'm so excited and I'm so done with working this week, lol....head wise I'm done, physically I have to stay here until Thursday at 4:15, lol.

Ah, that's better!

It's 0 degrees right now. Never before had I thought I'd be happy to report that it's 0 degrees outside, but today I am. After the bitter cold we've been experiencing, I'm estatic to have 0 degrees today!

Not much new in these here parts. Ryan and I went to Shane and Val's on the weekend and I cleaned the house the rest of the weekend. Woohoo, exciting! LOL

10 days until I leave for Carrie's!

Weather and Blood

Holy Fudge. Minus thirty today. This is ridiculous! I am so finished with winter...not that I was ever wanting it to be here to begin with. I hate winter with a passion. The bitter cold, the shovelling, the blinding snowbanks that cause you to almost get "clipped" daily, the extremely high power bills trying to keep the home above "shiver" level. It's crazy. I honestly can't remember a winter this bad...ever. I know we've had them, but I just can't remember exactly when, so I'm assuming the last time was when I was a child/adolescent. When I had better things to do than to b*tch about the weather, lol.

That's how I know I'm "aging", lol. I don't want to say "getting old" as my *cough* 30th birthday is this year, which I don't really consider to be "getting old", however I am starting to climb up the "aging" latter. Anyway, I know I'm "aging" because I now watch the weather channel religiously. Before I could care less what the weather was like out there. Not the case anymore. I plan my day/week around the weather now. I was excited for today to be here for example, because they 14 day forecast came up until the 8th of February today. That's the day I leave to fly to Carrie's, so I was happy to see that a "sun" is predicted for the 8th. Although I must say I'm getting disappointed with the weather network and finding it less reliable. For example, the temperature this morning said -27 degrees on the weather channel. There's a billboard I drive by on my way to work and the billboard said -30 this morning. Also when we're expecting big snow storms, the weather network passes it off until shortly before the snow storm gets here (we're talking like an hour before) and then posts the warning. They also post the predicted snow amount at about 50% less than what we do get and what Environment Canada says.

So I had a scary experience at work on Wednesday. They were having a blood clinic here for a few hours to determine your blood type. I think they're trying to drum up people to donate blood. I ate lunch and then thought what the heck, I don't know what my blood type is and maybe I should start donating, so I went to the clinic. They took my blood, told me my type and I went on my merry way. I started back up to work after my lunch break, took 1 call and I started to feel all weird. I fainted once before, last January out at Ryan's parent's house and I started feeling exactly how I felt right before I fainted the last time. This time too my hearing was getting echoed and fading in and out and I was also literally seeing stars - meaning bursts of light would stream by when I blinked. I went to a supervisor and they said "You look terrible, are you alright"? I said "No, I just went to that blood thing and I don't feel well at all", then I started to keel over, lol, but I didn't lose contiousness completely though this time. I had some chocolate and orange juice and layed down in the first aid room for a bit and was alright after about an hour. My arms were jello-y for the rest of that day, but I'm fine now. I just can't donate blood ever, lol. It was very strange because they only took two little vials of blood from me, so it wasn't like I lost a lot of blood. I've cut myself before and lost more blood than this. I'm also not a squemish person and needles don't bother me, therefore I wasn't freaked out about the whole taking my blood thing at all. So, the experience on Wednesday wasn't psychological either. It's very strange.

C-C-C-C-C-COLD!!!

Holy Hannah it's cold out! The deep freeze is definately on in these here parts! So much for the warm weather we *very temporarily* experienced a couple of weeks ago. It was nice while it lasted.

Another Monday, back to the grindstone. The weekends are just never long enough. My plan of sleeping in on the weekend was foiled. I woke up early on both days. I know it has something to do with me getting up at 6:15 a.m. everyday for work. That'll all change in a month though when I start my new shits, I mean shifts. Yes, I'm still bitter about those, lol.

So we got a new TV this past weekend. The new one I had gotten for Christmas from my parents was giving us a little grief. The color on the bottom left corner of the TV was going all wonky, turning pink, florescent green, blue, etc. At first it was one of those little things that you could live with, but then it kept getting bigger and more annoying, to the point where we had to return the TV.

Ryan was working on Saturday until 1 p.m., so when he got off work we packed up the TV (I saved the box from it) and literally crammed it into the car. We barely got it in there. We returned the TV and they had no suitable replacement, so off we went on the hunt for a new TV. We looked at 4 different places and finally found a suitable one at the Superstore downtown. We paid a little more and got a nice upgrade from what we had.

We figured we might have a little problem trying to get it into the car since the old one just barely fit, so I called my parents to see if my Dad could meet us there with his truck. They weren't home. My parents are always home, but of course the time you do want them to be home, they aren't. We then thought that if we couldn't get it in the car, we could get it in if we took it out of the box. We bought the TV, pulled up to the doors we were instructed to go to and well, you guessed it, it wouldn't fit. Even with taking it out of the box, there was no way it was going to fit.

We debated on calling my brother to give us a hand, thinking it may fit into his huge Crown Victoria, but then thought, no it probably isn't going to work in that either. There was a taxi (a minivan) pulled up at the Superstore, so I went over and asked him if he was waiting for anyone specific or if I could have him. He said he was open for fares and asked me where I was going. I told him and he said how much it would be. I told him I had a TV I wanted to throw in the back of the van and he said it would be atleast another $10 for the TV. I was all "What? What difference does it make, the van is going to the same place as the passenger". Nope, no negotiating. If I wanted to put my TV in the van, it was going to cost me extra. This pi$$ed us off so much because it's not like he'd charge a passenger who got in with grocery bags, extra for those grocery bags. We basically told the cabby where he could go and tried calling my parents again. Luckily they were home now and my Dad came to save the day. I was frozen from standing outside with that TV for what seemed like hours (it was more like 30 to 45 minutes we were out there), trying to get it loaded into a vehicle.

Now that the TV is home and set up, I love it. I'm happy we paid the extra and got the upgrade, although it came at a bad time when money is very tight (then again, when isn't it). I just paid my year's worth of insurance, now this TV, I have my trip to Carrie's in a little over two weeks, income tax will be coming soon (I always end up owing each year because work doesn't take enough out of me) and I'm trying to save up for my Arizona trip. Oh well, that's why God invented Visa right?

Fly Away

This week my hair has been driving me nuts! It's been super "fly away". You know, when you get out of your car, your hair sticks all up. You take off your jacket, your hair sticks up. You pull on (or off) a shirt over your head and your hair sticks up. You brush/comb your hair and your hair sticks up. You walk past something, anything, the fridge for example, and your hair sticks up. Is it just me, or is anyone else "flying away" too, lol?

So I did my shit bid, I mean shift bid on Tuesday. I did better than I thought I was going to end up with, however the outcome was still not great. I didn't get weekends off, as expected, and have to work Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. I have Sunday and Monday off, start Tuesdays at 2 p.m. and the rest of the week I start around noon. I was expecting start times of around 4 p.m. during the week. I'm still debating on the whole applying to customer service things because of the better hours. The closing date to apply is Tuesday, so I've still got some time to think about it. I just don't know if I can afford the change, a hundred dollars a month missing is a huge loss to me on my miniscule income.

My little nephew Brayden turned three weeks old yesterday. Hard to believe that he's been here that long. Three weeks from today I will get to meet him and I'm super excited. I keep telling Carrie when I talk to her "I can't wait to get there and see him....I don't care about you and Chris anymore", LOL. Of course I'm joking. I talk to Carrie on a regular basis and both her and Brayden are doing wonderfully. Max the cat is having a hard time adjusting to this new little creature invading his space, but other than that everything is fantastic.

The weather network said this morning to expect 10-15 cm's of snow this morning (enough already!) and then it's supposed to rain all afternoon. I predict one of two things will happen. We'll get so much rain this afternoon that it will wash away all the snow that we get this morning, giving us a break from shovelling or the rain will saturate the snow that fell in the morning, making it a brutal chore to remove it all from the driveway. I hope the first scenario happens!

Stay Away Snow!

So it looks like we're in for another fackin winter storm. Enough already! My Gawd! I can't remember a winter like this in well, I can't remember. It's been nuts. Absolutely nuts. The snow banks get so high you can't see around them, making the driving trecherous. We finally get a warm spell to melt those banks and now we're told to expect between 15-25 cm's of the white crap between this evening and tomorrow morning. I hate snow! Hate Hate Hate it! Enough already, lol!

This weekend turned out to be fantastic, which is just what I needed. It's no secret that I've haven't been feeling the best this past week, so the great weekend brought me up a knotch. Tomorrow is "D" day for me at work, the day I bid for my next round of shits, I mean shifts, which will start on March 1. Until I bid, I'll still won't be feeling too fabulous. I probably won't be feeling too fabulous after I bid either, if I get the shifts that I'm told to expect :(. We'll have to wait and see. I just hate that after 8 years with the company, I mean nothing to them. I'm just a number. I've thought a lot about possibly switching to the customer service department to get some decent hours, but my inital estimated loss of income of $50 a month is more like $100 a month, so I don't know if I can swing it. I'm broke all the time now, so I just don't know. Anyway, enough work crap.

Friday night Ryan and I went to Shane and Val's. Mike was there too. It was Valerie's birthday earlier in the week and Shane got her a guitar for her birthday. She's been wanting to learn how to play for a while, so he got her what she needed to start :). Mike and I played her guitar for a while and we sang a couple of songs. In the later part of the evening, once the beverages started kicking in a bit, we got to playing the really cheesy 80's music that I love. Shane shares my love of 80's music, but nobody else does, lol. So later in the night when the beer is doing it's work, THEN we get to listen to the 80's music, lol.

Saturday Ryan and I both slept and hate a late breakfast. We then spent the majority of the afternoon setting up new components to our entertainment center. We now have a great sound system for watching movies and playing cd's. It's all older, used stuff, but it all works good and sounds good :). Saturday evening we got a couple of subs from Greco for supper and a few movies from Jumbo and spent a quiet evening home. I love nights like that.

Sunday I made french toast for breakfast and then went up to my parent's place to spend the day with them, do laundry and then have Sunday supper with them. I went home and put my laundry away and then went out to Ryan's parent's place for the night. They're away down south now, so we're retreating to their house again at times this winter.