Too-late-for-Musical-Monday Tuesday- Love, Love, Love

Guess who I'm going to see tomorrow???!!! I am so excited. Like pathetically excited. But whatever. Expect crappy too dark pictures the moment I get home tomorrow night.



So James? You, me, Oilers dressing room? You can pretend I am skinny and I will pretend you have a sexy Glasgow accent instead of that posh English one.

Tis the Season *EDITED*

Do you realize it is November 14 (birthday of Andrew Cox, who I had a huge crush on in junior high, he looked just like Gordie from Stand By Me!) and that I have yet to start making my Christmas cards. I better get on the ball hey? So I need to know if you would like a card from me, because I would certainly like to send you one. I send bloggers homemade cards, my family gets the Hallmark ones. Priorities and all that. So leave me a comment, send me an email (emmamcdonnellATshawDOTca or emmamcdonATgmailDOTcom) and I will add you to my list.

Now I am off to stalk Andrew Cox on facebook.

UPDATE: Do you know how many AC's there are on facebook? Over 500! Luckily, we have a mutual friend and so he popped up at the top. I messaged her to make sure it was him and it was. So I sent a message. And he returned it. And I could see his profile. And he still looks like Gordie! ACK! I totally felt like I was in in Grade 8 again. And I wished him happy birthday. I bet he think's I'm a freak.


Christmas cards 2006.

Thursday 13- 13 reasons why I am not doing Thursday 13 today

I had a Thursday 13 post all sorted out in my head. I "borrowed" the idea from Crunchie Mummy, who did it quite a long time ago. It was to be 13 children's books we love in our house. But! I didn't get it done. Surprise, surprise. Here's why...

1) It requires effort. As in looking for pictures of said books online.

2) I was going to do it last night but at 1 am my internet, cable and phone all went down. My provider had called earler in the day to say that they would be doing repairs at some point, but really? 1 AM? What are we night owls meant to do with no TV or internet? I already know the answer. That's not what I did.

3) I couldn't do it today because...

4) it goes against my self imposed rule of not ignoring my children to blog. (Technically, yes, I could be currently considered to be ignoring my children...one is dressing herself in winter gear WHILE NAKED and the other is watching Retro Teletoon. I don't think they will mind me ignoring them for 10 minutes.)

5) I need to wash the dishes.

6) I need to vaccum the livingroom.

7) And the stairs and upstairs hallway.

8) I need to do laundry.

9) I will need to make lunch and dinner at 2 different points throughout the day.

10) I need to put away laundry.

11) I need to watch over my 2 oldest children as they clean their rooms today.

12) I need to make birthday invitations for Saoirse's party, which is next Saturday. I need 11 (10 to give out, one to scrapbook.) I have made one.

13) I am going out to dinner with my Grade 8 girlfriends. Not my girlfriends from Grade 8, but friends who all have children in Grade 8.

And that, my friends, is why there is no Thuraday 13 today!

Remembrance Day...Lest We Forget

In honour of our soldiers past and present...




And to my Remembrance Day baby...happy fourth birthday, Saoirse!

Musical Monday- Catch My Disease

This song by Ben Lee is a few years old, but it is one of my favourites. It is my most played songs on the old iPod. Well, it was before my daughter synced her itunes to my ipod. And now I have nothing unless I want to listen to Hedley and the Jonas Brothers. While I will admit to having one Hedley song on my playlist, I don't fancy listening to 20 or so.

Embedding was disabled on the video versions (shame, I love the video) so this is a live version.

You can just slap a great big "Nablopomo failure" sticker on my forehead.

So much for 30 posts in the 30 days! I made it to 6, actually I had day 7 almost completed when I walked away from an almost finished post and then got distracted. And then I got sick. I went to bed at 10.30 and at about 11 I thought "Oh no, my post! Ack, fuck it!" and then I lay back and watched 20/20.

So I failed. But not really. Because you know what? I really enjoyed posting this week. Sure it was trivial stuff (though I did love the Thursday 13 post on my kids names) but I had fun. There was no pressure, I wasn't out for comments. I did receive some comments from new people and so had an opportunity to discover some new blogs, adding to my ever growing list of "I really like you! But I have no time to read you!" blogs.

And I am okay with this too. I am going to update my sadly neglected blogroll and google reader and just go through the list, with the goal to get to every blog at least once a week by doing a Monday A-E, Tuesday F-K sort of thing. I'll see if it works. Oh, and commenting on at least one post. I need to start commenting!

I better start searching for the NaBloPoMo failure widget. I'm quite proud of myself.

Thursday 13- Names

My four children have 13 names between them, 4 first (obviously), 7 middle and 2 last names. Today I will share with you how those names came about. And my regrets. Oh, I have regrets!

1. TAYLOR. This is my mother's maiden name. My grandparents had no sons and I thought this was a nice way to honour them and allow their name to carry on through one more generation. When I was 8 months pregnant they released the top names of 1994 and wouldn't you know it- Taylor was in the top 10. This stressed me out as I was not a fan of popular names. It was too late to change it though, my nan and granddad were thrilled. Plus I was still sure she was a boy and would be called Liam. Other choices for a girl were Aidan and Carson. I still love Aidan, but I am glad I didn't use Carson.

2. ELIZABETH. I gave her father the choice between Emily and Elizabeth (after Laura Ingalls Wilder's middle name) and he chose this one because it was his grandmother's name. I foolishly did not make the Elizabeth Taylor connection until after her birth. Oddly, enough I found a year later that my father's grandmother was called Elizabeth Taylor. I was unaware that there were Taylors on both side of my family tree.

3. JUDE. My paternal grandmother, a very devout Catholic, was ecstatic that I had named my daughter after St. Jude. I let her think that, but it was really the middle name of River Phoenix, my teenage crush. Sorry Granny.

4. LIAM. I picked this out when I was 14 and just going through my obsession with all things Irish. It too had a huge burst in popularity in the mid 1990s but I knew I would not change it. I still shake my fist at Liam Neeson and that damn Vanity Fair cover that said "The Liam King." Liam means 'strong protector' and as the only boy with 3 sisters it is definitely a name that suits my Liam.

5. SEAMUS. My brother's middle name is James and this is the Irish version.

6. FORREST. Chosen by Liam's dad as this was a family name. If I had my way it would have been Padraig.

7. W....F...D. Oh, how I hate this last name. My ex and I almost split up before the wedding because I was so resistant to taking it on as my own. Part of my issue is that he was never adopted by his stepfather, although he took on his last name. I much preferred his birth name of Kerr.

8. SAOIRSE. William disliked it, calling it a Fenian name. The only way I got to use it was if I agreed not to have her baptised as a Catholic. I agreed, had an awful labour and emergency section, and he said "You can have her baptised if you want!" It's almost like I planned it. Saoirse means "freedom" and even though it esentially an Irish Republican name, I do think it suits her birthdate of November 11th very well. My most asked question is of the pronunciation and for those of you who are not in the know we pronounce it as "Soar-sha" (which is how my Irish speaking father says it), not the more common "Seer-sha". I've also heard it as "Sayr-sha." Those Irish, they are a confusing bunch.

9. MAEVE. Another Irish name, meaning "the cause of great joy" or "she who intoxicates." I love that! It is so Saoirse. She is the only one of my children with one middle name, I just thought Saoirse Maeve was a very powerful name and didn't want to take away from it by adding to it, if that makes any sense at all.

10. SOPHIE. My poor Sophie. I wanted to call her something Irish- Niamh, Aisling, Caoimhe were my top 3. All shot down by William. He said he would agree to Siobhan, I said no as it is quite common here. My mother and Taylor pushed for Sophie, a name they had both pushed for with Saoirse. For most of my last months of pregnancy she was going to be Sophie Niamh Lily, but that all fell apart 2 days before her birth. After she was born William was holding her and he said "How about Sarah?" Now I think Sarah is a beautiful name, but I just couldn't use it. And my grandfather refuses to call my children by their Irish names so to him Liam is Billy and Saoirse is Sarah. So I said let's just call her Sophie. Biggest regret? Using another S name. I confuse those 2 girls all the time and have been known to say "Soarsh-ophie". Second biggest regret? Not insisting on Aisling, which means "a vision, a dream." Though Sophie does mean wisdom, and the girl is super smart.

11. VICTORIA. Chosen by William. He wanted to use either Samantha, after his step daughter, or Victoria, after his niece. I'm not a fan of Samantha so I agreed to Victoria. What happened to Niamh??? I don't know! I was on a lot of drugs!

12. LILIAN. LILY. I've just drawn a blank on if we spell her name with one l or 2. Crap. How shitty a mother am I? Um...really shitty since it is actually Lily! And I know that, I do, I swear, I am just really tired. Or something. I may as well as take this moment to admit I often forget her time of birth. Was it 11.19 or 11.29? 11.29. Thank God for that pregnancy blog! So...her name was going to be Sophie Niamh Lilian, and ended up as Sophie Victoria Lily. Now, I do remember how Lilian changed to Lily. Lilian was my Nanny's middle name and she had passed away when I was only a few weeks pregnant. I called my mother 2 days before the birth to confirm that there was only on l in the name. She calls my aunt Jacki in England and calls me back to say that Jacki had looked at Nanny's birth certificate and her name was actually Irene Lily. Seriously? Everyone thought that it was Lilian. So Lily it became. It's very English her name, and the Irish part of me despises it. However, my very English mother? She was thrilled.

13. S......N. The girls' last name. Irish. Should we ever get married I'm still keeping my name, though I'd be willing to hyphenate.

I do realize that I could have just deleted all that Lily/Lilian confusion. But why not just share with you all what a complete eejit I am.

Wordless Wednesday- Like Father, Like Daughter

I think the title says it all.

Tuesday This'n'That - I apologize for the politics! But there's no *nastiness here.

*I express my dislike of Sarah Palin with the words 'God' and 'forbid'.

Note: I started this post at about 7 pm. As I finish it is going on 11 pm. I watched election coverage throughout most of the night, occasionally blogging while messing about on the computer. What else to talk about but the election? It's a long post is what I'm saying.

Just like I borrowed Musical Monday off of Suburban Mum, for this month I am borrowing Tuesday This'n'That off of Julie, host of the fantastic Christmas Ornament Swap. So here we go...random things that I have done, random thoughts that have crossed my mind, random is as random does...

* I have been following the US election with a lot more interest in which I followed the recent Canadian election. I am, as I am pretty sure most of you can guess, a supporter of Barack Obama. And yet, I do not think a Democratic presidency is the best thing for Canada. Democrats tend to be protectionist, and with the slide in the economy I exoect they will be even more so. I did not like Joe Biden saying some time ago that they would renegotiate the Free Trade Act, when really he needs both Canada and Mexico to do so.

* I am watching John McCain's concession speech and, my goodness, he is a class act. I can't wait to see Obama's though! I do note he has not yet mentioned Sarah Palin. And right as I said that did. I bet we'll see her in 4 years, God forbid.

* On facebook today you could donate your status to getting out the vote, or getting out the vote for the candidates. I used mine to "get out the vote" because what right do I, as a Canadian, have to tell you, the American reader, who to vote for? I don't care if you voted for McCain, Obama, Nader, Baldwin or anyone else. Do I think American politics affect Canada and the rest of the world? Most definitely. But it's not our right to say how Americans should vote. Now saying go and vote? In a democracy I do not think it just a right, but a responsibility. I have voted in every municipal, provincial, and federal election (and there have been 3 of those in just over 4 years!) since I became a Canadian citizen. I have also voted in one British election. I believe it is our responsibility to get informed and to go out and vote. And I am all for fines for those who don't vote, just like in Australia. Not that William, who has never voted, have ever been fined.

*And I venture away from politics finally! For ages I have blogged about how I need to get my birth certificate because I need my passport, my Canadian citizenship card and, ahem, my drivers license. Yes, I suck and don't drive. And with all those kids going here, there and everywhere I need to drive. So anyway! Yesterday I got the kick in the ass I needed to get the ball rolling on getting said birth certificate. My friend Shelley called and said that instead of going on the craft weekend next fall, the plan is to go to Washington on a shopping trip. Plus, should the Canadian government ever get their act together and grant William his residency the hope is to get ourselves over the border and to Disneyland. So today I go onto the internet to order my birth certificate from the British registry office. It's about $8 cheaper to order it if your have a GRO index number and other than my year of birth I have no idea what the other numbers needed are. So I call my mum, who I have not told about the missing birth certificate becuase I fear her wrath. I ask her about this number and after a lecture about my irresponsibility she says that she thinks she has my long birth certificate. She tells me I only had the short form and really? I think the woman is losing her mind because I KNOW I had the long form. I think I gave it back to her knowing that I am likely to lose it. Well, that's my theory. So anyway, I have my birth certificate and now I have no excuse to get my license. Which sort of scares me to be honest.

* I am in tears watching Barack Obama talk about his family. I am glad his supporters did not boo McCain like McCain's booed Obama. But I suppose they have more reasons to feel generous.

* I think to be a black person in America tonight must be an amazing feeling. To think 150 years ago there was slavery, that 45 years ago there was segregation, and that in just under 3 months the president of the United States, the leader of the largest super power in the world, will be a black man. Absolutely amazing and fantastic. I think no matter what your political views are you have to be in awe of that fact.

* My brother posted a note on facebook last night asking if Obama can live up to the hype surrounding him and fulfill his campaign promises. Note that I don't necessarily agree with everything he says! He is currently working in San Francisco, so has been in the midst of this election, inasmuch as visitor can be.

Excuse me whilst I wax pessimistic. But I am afraid Obama, the great half-white hope, will prove the greatest of weather vanes. What is it that he believes, what does his heart and his conscience tell him? I know not. I wish to believe that in his heart his aim will to be the best of men, the best of leaders. But I am afraid that of all the competing factions that will seek his attention it will be the moneyed interests that have his ear. Indeed, that will pull his ear to do their bidding.

Change? A cosmetic change of the status quo, perhaps, but I would bet for little else.

There will be fire in America.

Can he meet all these expectations that have been raised? I don't think he can do it in this first four years, I hope that he is given a chance to do it in his final four.

And then, today, Thom posted another note entitled "Okay, maybe I was wrong". The number 8 is very important to my brother. His tour around the world is meant to la 888 days. His birth date adds, subtracts and divides into 8. 8 is the number of abundance and prosperity.

For those of you who know me and love me you will know that I am somewhat of mathematician. Though I do not have, as of yet the proof, I have a theory that everything either adds, subtracts, multiplies or divides into eight.

Let us take today's date, for instance, November 4, 2008, adds to eight. Here the proof:

The day, the fourth, times by the month, the eleventh, is forty-four. Four plus four is eight. Now, the year, two thousand and eight adds to ten. Now ten plus eight equals eighteen and one and eight is... eight.

Wow, the darkness, of last nights political prediction, put forward before I did my mathematical equation and realized that today was the election on a day that adds so beautifully to eight.

Perhaps there is hope for humanity.

I so had so much more to say but people! The election! History being made!

I wonder what George Bush thinks.

Musical Monday - I love the whole world

Wth four Mondays ahead of me, and 28 more posts to think up I asked Suburban Mum if I could borrow Musical Monday off of her. Turns out it wasn't her brilliant idea. Who knew? She was the first blogger I knew of who used it. So to me, Musical Monday will always belong to Suburban Mum.

I love this Discovery Channel commerical. Except for the part with the giant spider. I always close my eyes at the part. My kids love this too. You will often her a very loud chorus of "Boom De Ya" coming from the livingroom.

Penis Envy

I had the following conversation with the 2 little ones at the dinner table the other day.

We are talking about something, can't remember what, and I refer to Sophie as a girl.

Sophie: I'm not a girl! I'm a boy!

Me: Of course you're a girl.

Sophie: No! I'm a boy!

Me: You're a girl. You know how I know that? You have a vagina and boys have penises.

Saoirse: I wish I was a boy.

Me: Why???

Saoirse: Because then I would get to have a penis.

And to think not too long ago she told me she didn't like penises!
Sometimes? I can totally see why families eat in front of the TV.

Hallowe'en

Ah, November...the first day of NaBloPoMo. Luckily, the month starts out after one of the biggest days of the year...Hallowe'en!


I was supposed to make witches' broomsticks for my treat bags for Saoirse's class but they didn't work out. As in, I cut about 5 bags, couldn't get them to look right and gave up. Plastic treat bags it was...


...but, hey, I made the tags. I even embossed. And I NEVER emboss. Becuase I tend to burn the paper. Shutup.


For playschool, Saoirse was Snow White. She was determined to be Ariel again but my friend Shelley picked her up the shoes at a garage sale this summer (they were in perfect condition, I don't think they had ever been worn and definitely not outside) and then Saoirse just had to be Snow White.


Sophie was going to wear a monkey costume to watch the playschool parade/concert but then I thought about this beautiful fairy dress my aunt had brought over from England for Saoirse. I added a pair of wings and tada...well, she's still Sophie with that grin. No sweet little fairy for me!


Some of Saoirse's classmates singing songs...


After a massive temper tantrum from Sophie over not wearing clothes under her costume we finally got out of the house. Here is my monkey with a stuffed pumpkin.


And here is my elephant taking a break.


I loved this yard! This coffin had some banging going on, and I was under the assumption that it was some battery operated thing.


My friend Tanya (dressed here as a hockey grandma complete with blue hair) was told she could try opening the coffin...


...and out popped an actual person. Tanya and I both screamed. We are such girls. (This picture was taken after his third pop up, I was laughing to hard to get a good photo. You know, after I was done screaming.)


I hestiate to wonder what this skeleton was meant to be doing when it died.


Some gravestones in the same yard.


Sophie, my neighbour Lachlan (Darth Vader), Saoirse, Tanya's girls Stephanie (Little Bear) and Samantha (Hannah Montana) and her son Tyler (as a Storm Trooper.) After we dropped Sophie at home Saoirse, Lachlan and I took a walk down to my friend Michelle's for her full size chocolate bars, stopping at houses along the way.


All in all, it was a great Halloween. Oh, and my other 2 children? The ones I seem to only mention in anger? They had fun too- Taylor and four of her friends went to a Farm of Fear just outside the city and Liam handed out candy at a friends. They are both on sleepovers tonight. No pics of them of course, I didn't even see Liam leave for school this morning and he went straight to his friend's after school. Taylor went as Bella from Twilight, other than some foundation to make herself pale and some glitter to "sparkle in the sunlight" she had no costume. She chose to be Bella over the others specifically so she wouldn't have to dress up. I so wouldn't have given her candy had she come to my house. Unless she sang for me of course.

The first haircut

At 2 years, 2 months and 2 weeks, Sophie finally had her first haircut! We had tried going last weekend and the girl said "If she's going to cry I can't do it." I thought "What? Don't most kids cry?" But whatever. Saoirse had her hair cut, Sophie didn't. On Friday we dropped Saoirse off at playschool and I said to Sophie "Would you like to go get your hair cut and then Mummy will buy you a bag of chips?"

Whatever works, people, whatever works. I am not above bribery.

As soon as we walked into the hairdresser's she freaked. "I'm not getting my hair cut! No hair cut!" I managed to placate her with some broken crayons and Happy meal toys (this is my salon- definitely not catering to toddlers!) while she gave a quick trim to some man. When he was done it was our turn.

Sophie wouldn't sit on the big cushion so I had to hld her in my lap. There went my plans for first haircut pictures.

She screamed, she cried, she yelled "NO!!!" at the stylist. She moved every which way even though I was holding her as well as I could. The end result is a little uneven, but at least she can see again.

Sophie in September:




Sophie yesterday:



Like I said, it's a bit uneven, but I think it makes her look sort of sweet, even if she was still mad at me in this picture and is giving me dirty looks.

To NaBlPoMo or to not NaBlPoMo

It's almost November. Can you believe it? I know, neither can I. Barely 2 months until Christmas. Yikes. I am the furthest behind in Christmas shopping that I have ever been. It's a bit frightening really. And I haven't even started making my Christmas cards! Good God, there will be some late nights ahead. The good news is that I have 3 new Christmas stamp sets. I know, I know. You are beyond thrilled. As you bloody well should be because if I have your address I am sending you a card. And if I don't have your address send it to me okay?

So have you noticed that my posts have been a tad sporadic? Once upon a time (or two or three times) I said that blogging reminds me of high school (so does plurk, twitter and facebook) and when I start feeling like I am reliving those days I have the need to do a runner. I was not a popular high school student and I am not a popular blogger. This is okay, mostly. But sometimes I feel like I am on the outskirts of the popular group just trying to be let in.

And then I realize that because I don't have the talent to be an A (or B, or even C) list blogger I would have to work to get there. And frankly? I couldn't be fucked. I don't have the time to comment on every blog, or even regularly read blogs. I don;t have the time, the energy, or the skill to blog everyday. I think it's great that people can do it, I assume they are either super organized or on speed or something. But I can not do it. When I was trying to do it I was sacrificing the things that are truly important to me- spending time with my girls, reading a good book, having sex, cleaning the house. Um, not that cleaning the house is important to me. But it certainly keeps the peace around here when it's clean.

I think I also forgot that I was blogging for ME. I began to want comments. I found myself competing with other bloggers to see who got more comments. Not only in regards to my own blog, but with others. Why does Blog A get so many more comments than Blog B when Blog B is so obviously the superior blog? Why have only a handful of people dicovered the sheer comedic genius that is Squishy Tushy? Why does Random Mommy not get 40 or 50 comments on her thought provoking posts? There are so many other bloggers I could name who are absolutely fantastic who do not get the credit they deserve. It took me some to relaize that they are not searching for it.

And I should not be searching for it either. Over the last year or so my writing has changed. It has become less honest, less me. Sometimes I hide things that I never used to hide. It has taken me some time to remember who the most important person reading this blog is- me.

So I am challenging myself to post every day in November. I may post a whole lot of crap. I may not. You can be guaranteed that shortly after midnight on November 1st, I will be posting Halloween photos. Whew. One post down, 29 to go. If I find that I am not posting for myself, if I am worrying about the lack of comments, about the fact that I am feeling guilty for not getting to blogs I enjoy then I am seriously going to have to reassess whether or not I should even be blogging. I many just have to open a document called A Question of Sanity and write it all out there.

See you in November. Or earlier probably. But only when my girls are in bed. And not on nights I would rather have sex. And not when I am reading a good book.

Lessons learned at work this weekend

It was Thanksgiving this weekend, so a three day work week for me. Normally, I am not a fan of stats, even with the extra pay, because it means I am missing out on a day at home with my lovely children (!) as well as a fancy meal prepared by my mother. Well, my mother is currently in England so no fancy meal and some of my children are slightly less than lovely these days so I didn't mind working this weekend. And sometimes? Work makes for okay blog fodder.

I learned a few things at work that I thought I would share with you.
I wrote the first one on plurk but in my ever so intelligent way I thought "Why share it with the 50 or so people who my come across it on plurk, when I could share it with my remaining half dozen readers?" Smart, that's me.

Lesson #1: Old men are pervs. Example number 1: I pick up a fellow who is the tender age of 80. His son is visiting and he is very tall. Not freakishly tall, but easily the tallest person I have seen who doesn't wear an NBA uniform. The patient himself is quite tall, and he tells me that his 3 sons are all taller than his 6'1", being 6'5", 6'6" and 6'10" (that would be the visiting son.) I say to him, "Your wife must have been quite tall also." And he says, "I put it all down to good titties."

Um, ewwwww?

Example number 2: I am walking into the ER and what do I see down the hall but a man sitting in a brod.a chair (a chair with wide padded belts that fasten up between the legs) having a wee wank! At first I thought he was just pulling at the blanket between his legs but when I walked by him about 5 minutes later he was actually playing with himself.

Again...ewwww.

Lesson #2: 20 year old girls can talk on the work phone, text on their cell AND study all at the same time. I worked with one girl for 2 of my 3 shifts who literally spent the entire time either on the phone or on her cell. How many times did I hear the story about her sorority sister buying her some amzing gifts? About 6 times, which was 6 times too many. What else did I learn about her? That she is voting only because her friend told her she should, that she missed a concert because she needed to study but that instead she talked with her friend until 4 am, that "dude, that is so dumb!" and that "dude, it was so great!", that she partied to hard but still would e went to an interview and that she thought the game the Oilers won, their first game of the season, was a Stanley Cup game.

Tonight I worked with another girl, who is also 20. These 2 girls are worlds apart. This one can carry on a conversation that does not take place on a phone and doesn't only involve talking about sororities, drinking and calling everyone dude. This one actually talks with me, and even though I rarely see her, I realized tonight that she knows the names of my kids, I don't think the other one even knows, or cares, that I have children. I always enjoy talking with her, even though our lives are completely different (she's a med student, off to work in Africa next year) we have a lot to say to one another. Shifts are never boring with her around.

Lesson #3: I am aging, and looking it. I think I have generally always looked younger than my age, but working amongst all these young ones has made me realize how very old I am. Today we were talking about schools it turns out that the guy I was working with went to the same junior high that my daughter goes to, that I also went to many years ago. For some reason this made one of the others ask how old I was and when I said my age she said "So you are older than my kids." Now it used to be that when I said my age, or how old my kids were, people would say "You don't look it!" or "You don't seem old enough to have a child of that age." Apparently I am that old. And I am old enough to have a child who is 13. What I am not? Is tall enough to have a daughter who towers over me a grand total of 4 inches. Okay, 5. Whatever. Can I not have that extra inch I have lied about for so long I actually forgot I was not that height until we measured me to see exactly how much taller Taylor was than I?

The point of this tale? People no longer tell me I look younger than my age. And when I look in the mirror even I think I look older. Blah.

Lesson #4: Nurses make a lot of freaking money. Whereas I was paid time and a half today, the nurses made double time. If they worked overtime today? They made double that. Imagine..$120- $160 an hour. Funny to think there is a nursing shortage in the province, where nurses are the highest paid in Canada, and amongst the highest paid in North America.

Lesson #5: Making out with your boyfriend when he is disgustingly dirty, reeking of drink, sick as a dog, lying in a stretcher in an ER hallway with EMTs around him and oxygen tubing coming out of his nose? Is not pretty. It is not pretty at all. I have seen some freaky ass things in that ER, but you, with your unlit cigarette hanging out of your mouth and your disgusting PDAs win the prize for freakiest of all freak asses.


And that in a nutshell was my Thanksgiving weekend.

I'm off to vote later today, as it is Election Day in Canada. Who to vote for? I am very torn. But that's a whole other post.