Grammar SOS

The tune is catchy.  I found myself grooving around my room as I got ready for work.  The radio announced a new tune from Rihanna.”S-O-S…. Somebody help me, Y-O-U-R making this hard…..”

I stopped. And waited for it to come around again.  Sure enough, the next chorus, she spells out SOS, and then YOUR.

Your. Possessive.  As in, “That’s your book”.
You’re. Contraction. You are.  “You’re crazy”. “You’re making this hard”

There was nothing for me to do but laugh.  

Although, imagine the song if they had corrected it.  “Y-O-U- Apostrophe-R-E making this hard.”  It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.  

Hot and Steamy

I noticed the sign from about a block away.  Then I noticed the people with trademark black clothing and a green apron.  They were unpacking boxes.

The familiarity of the green and white sign was enough to make my heart pitter patter – as if I had consumed several espressos, lattes, coffees, and sugar-laden desserts.

I’ve been waiting a long time for this.  And funny enough, the thought of yesterday was “I would practically give my left arm for a Starbucks Coffee.”    And today, on a bright and sunny Friday afternoon, I saw them adding a Starbucks to the edge of downtown.  Ten minutes from home , 5 minutes from work.  What more could a girl want?

Anti-aging devices

“I really like you with straight hair.  It makes you look so much younger.”

I squinted an eyebrow and laughed.  

“Thanks”, said with a little uncertainty and hesitation.

I couldn’t help but wonder what she meant by that.  Normally, I take comments at face value.  Today, I couldn’t help but wondering if I look older than I’m supposed to.  Kind of funny really, I’ve never really worried about it before.  

I know, just over a week ago, I had one more candle on my cake. I’m loving this stage in my life.  Older but wiser.  Too old to care, but too young to count.  But is life really downhill at 26?  I didn’t think so. But today, I’m starting to give it a little more thought.

Pseudo-Nurse

I answered the phone for about the 50th time since my shift started about 2 hours ago.

A parent launched into a story about a two and a half year old.  She proceeded to tell me about her baby’s symptoms.

With as much sympathy as I could muster, I explained to her that I was prohibited from giving any medical advice over the phone.  I  explained that she could phone her family doctor or bring the child in.

As per usual, the parent argued with me.  “You mean I have to pack my child up and haul them in on a day like today for you to tell me there is nothing wrong with them?” (said with a tone of disgust and condescension.)

“If you’re worried, you’re more than welcome to bring your child in.”

“But you can’t tell me what is wrong over the phone?” (slightly more agitated)

“No, I’m sorry, I can’t.”

“You’re useless. You should go back to nursing school.”  Her voice was yelling at me now.

“I’m not a nurse! I’ve never been to nursing school!” I snapped back without missing a beat.

SLAM.  The unmistakable clunk of someone hanging up on me.  

I returned the phone to it’s cradle and laughed to myself.

Sure enough, a few hours later, they arrived in the department.  And to add insult to injury, I had to take them over for an x-ray.  Not a word about the incident was spoken.  But it sure is a good thing that looks can’t kill. Because if they could I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale.  

Soup Nazi

I was a little less than impressed with the day’s selections.  But nonetheless, I wanted soup for lunch.  Of the four selections, only one was vegetarian.  It was a no brainer – Tomato Basil soup it would be.

Now, the last time I ordered Tomato Basil, I was pleasantly surprised.  Originally, it would not have been my first choice for a soup.  But it was the best of the options.  It turned out to be one of the most delicious soups I had eaten from the Pete’s To Go-go lunch counter.

Again, it wouldn’t have been my first choice for soup, but it was the only vegetarian option.  It was a cold and rainy day and soup was what I really wanted for lunch.  So, a bowl of tomato basil soup I ordered.

The first bite wasn’t good.  Actually, it was awful.  All I could taste was salt – no tomato, no basil – just salt.  I stirred my soup thinking that would help, but it didn’t.  
I’m not usually one to complain or send food back, but this time, I knew it had to be done.

I approached the counter with my defective soup in hand.  As I explained the predicament to the cashier, she looked at me with a puzzled look.  

“Do you have your receipt?”
“Umm… nope. You didn’t give me one.”
“Well, I would have tried very hard too.”
“Oh, well, I don’t have it.”

She thought and continued to look at me blankly.
“I don’t think I can return your soup without a receipt.”
My turn to look puzzled.
“Well, I guess I could. But next time hang on to your receipt.”
She handed me $4.59.  
“Sure, next time I will”.  My turn to give her a funny look.

In the background I heard someone order a Tomato Basil soup.  All I wanted to do was stop them.  Or at least remind them to hold onto their receipt.  

May the Circle be Unbroken

It’s hard not to think ahead. It’s also hard not to think behind.

But that’s the beauty of the situation.  Older sometimes translates to wiser, and wiser comes with the territory of lessons learned the hard way.  Lessons learned the hard way will often age you, or take a few years off your life.  That’s the real circle of life.

Franticity

Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been one heck of a day.  And I’ve been awake for less than 12 hours.  Here’s how it all began.

9:05 – I’m awake. I have 55 minutes to shower, dress, pack a lunch worthy of a 12 hour day, and walk to work.

9:11 – Okay, I’m really going to get out of bed now.

9:43 – I’m leaving for work.  I’m not contented with spending 12 hours in the clothes I have on. On the plus side, I have clothes on.  I decide to come home between job 1 and job 2.

Work is going well, a little busy.  I return some phonecalls, reply to some emails and decide to tackle an Excel spreadsheet.  Ten minutes later, Excel is not co-operating with me.  No worries, it’s a beautiful day, and I’ve been meaning to go order some new books, so I decide to walk to the bookstore.

The bookstore doesn’t have everything I wanted in stock , so I place some special orders and carry along my way.  On my way back to the office, I run into a fitness trainer from the old gym I used to go to.  She is so excited to see me that she gives me a hug.  We chat and do some catching up.  Then, I run into Marti.  So Marti joins me for the walk most of the way back to work.

I get back to work about 5 minutes before I’m supposed to be done for the day.  Problem is I have some stuff to do before the end of the day.  So I finish up and leave work about 20 minutes behind schedule.  This means that I’ve only got 40 minutes before starting my shift in Emerg.

Granted that it takes 15 minutes to walk home , I’ve decided that I’ve got just enough time to go home, change my clothes, put my contacts in and return to work.  That’s exactly what I do.  

I arrive at work at 3:01.  My legs are burning from walking so fast. I’m hungry but have a bag of carrots in my purse. (in the midst of all this chaos I haven’t had much to eat all day).  When I arrive at work, the day shifter looks at me, and then at the other ward clerk and says, uh-oh.  I ask for the schedule.  Turns out, I don’t work until tomorrow afternoon.  Big oops. And to add insult to injury, I rescheduled some appointments from Tuesday (because I forgot I was busy), to Thursday when I thought I was unbusy.  Now I’ll have to unscheduled again.
So I walk home (at a more relaxed pace) and call the hair people to reschedule.  Turns out if I can make it there in 20 minutes, they have time for me.  I put my shoes back on, grab an apple, and run out the door.  

Now I’m there, getting my hair done, and I decide I want a new colour.  Its been driving me nuts for a while, and I’m already in the chair… so she cuts, then she colours.  In the midst of all this, my aesthetician comes in.  She’s not due to start at that salon until Tuesday, but she’s in the process of setting up.  And since she’s doing that, and I had an appointment with her for Tuesday (then Thursday, then Tuesday again), she offers to fix me up while I’m there.  So she does.

I’m home now.  I have a new haircut, a new hair colour and freshly waxed brows.  So despite the helter-skelterness of my day, I feel great.  Now it kind of sucks because I have to work an evening shift tomorrow.  But I’ll worry about that tomorrow.  And right now, I have some take-out Chinese Food waiting for me. After that, I’m going to go do some beading and unwind a little.  

Dancing Queens

She dances while her father plays guitar.  She’s suddenly beautiful, and we all want something beautiful.

Belly dancing – Week two.

No one played guitar, and certainly not anyone’s father.  But there were dancers.  And there were scarves.  And quite frankly, that was good enough for us.

Now, the funny thing is that us girls that possess poor skills of co-ordination had a little difficulty today.  While everyone else draped their scarves eloquently with a single and fluid hand motion, my spastic hand motion blinded me, and almost suffocated me on more than one occasion.  

And when you incorporate the hip movements that are supposed to occur if I remember to bend my right knee at the right angle then transfer the weight to the right part of the left foot, it all gets a little complicated.  Just a little.

But we twirled, and scarves twirled with us.  And we danced, and the scarves danced with us.  We laughed, and I swear those scarves laughed too.

Lot full

They say goldfish have no memory and that their life is a lot like mine.  The little plastic castle is a surprise every time.

When I finished my degree last summer, I was afraid my brain was going to turn to mush.  I embarked on many courses of self-directed learning (mostly in the form of reading non fiction books about subjects that interest me) – all so my brain would not forget how to learn.  

I also took some courses for general interest.  Things I’ve always wanted to try – jewelry making (Sterling silver) and glass bead making, then eventually the second level of jewelry.  I also started guitar lessons.

Last week, I had my first Belly Dancing Class.  Yesterday, my first lesson driving a standard car.

And do you know what the lesson of today is?  My brain is full to capacity.  It told me so.  Smack in the middle of my guitar lesson.  My teacher would show me something, I would repeat it without much difficulty, and then the next time I went to play it, I couldn’t.  I couldn’t even remember a little bit.

I’m hoping if I get some sleep that my brain will empty out a bit.  Or maybe all the info will settle down and make room for some new stuff.  Because right now, I think it’s too full to even think… and people who like to over-think things need a brain that can handle that.

All this is too bad really.  I had big plans for my future.  Huge, actually.  I guess the old brain really is getting old.  I think it just needs a vacation.

clutch

Clutch.  

Laughter.  She was laughing at the look on my face.  The car lurched several times then came to a very abrupt halt.

“Oops, That wasn’t what I wanted to happen at all”.

Marti relaxed in the passenger’s seat while I took the wheel.  I’ve wanted to learn to drive a standard car for quite a while now.  And Marti, being the brave soul that she is, offered to teach me.

I wasn’t the only person having a Sunday afternoon driving lesson in Bayer’s Lake.  The parking lots were empty of the usual shopping traffic. They were however scantily clad with nervous drivers.  

It brought back memories of the first time I learned to drive a car.  It was also a Sunday afternoon and a rather empty parking lot.  I was nervous as the car rolled forward.  Today, I was nervous as the car rolled backwards.

We stopped and started.  Sometimes, more stopping than starting, especially while trying to start.   The one hill ( a minor slope) wasn’t too bad.  I found that things worked the first few times I tried them.  Then I got forgetful.  Clutch, break, gear, wait- which gear, reverse ?!? There is a lot to remember while driving a standard. But I know once I get the hang of it, I’m really going to like it.   A few more lessons though, and I’ll be ready to take the road.
Clutch.   You forgot the clutch.  You can’t shift without the clutch.  You’re going to stall…. Use the clutch.  

And to think, the only kind of clutch I really took into much consideration before today is a clutch bag.  It’s also a good thing I had my seatbelt bag with me.  Because while I’m learning, a few extra seatbelts can’t hurt.  Especially in Race Car Red.  

The ring

We had perfected the plot over the course of the week.

It was so perfect, in fact, that I couldn’t even remind her that April Fools Day was near – I didn’t want her to think I was up to something. Naturally, I was.

For the better part of the week I have been giggling to myself about what has be one of the best jokes I’ve ever played on a person – I was plotting my engagement. Yesterday, I went to the store to purchase myself a fake, but reputable looking, engagement ring.

Megan was expected home at about 0700. She worked a night shift. I set my alarm for 0630 so I would be sure to wake up on time to fool her. As I came bounding out of my room, she apologized for waking me up. I told her I was up because I was waiting for her – I had news. It was then; I presented my sparkly ring on the ring finger of the left hand.

The look on her face was priceless – it was a mix of shock and disbelief. I kept going with the details of the romantic evening (dinner and a long walk on the waterfront), a long conversation about how we just know we’re meant for each other. I talked openly and freely, making up stories and details about the wedding plan – destination. No, we weren’t going to get married anytime soon – but why wait to get engaged. I had her convinced.

We talked, we laughed, we hugged, she went to bed. I on the other hand collapsed into my bed in a fit of giggles.

At about 2pm my cell phone rang: “Tracy Lowe, are you really engaged, or is this just an April Fools Day joke?”.

I laughed, she laughed. I got her, I got her good.