Once There Was This Kid Who
Thanksgiving was a blast! I went to the big gay Thanksgiving that Simon invited me to, and we had a great time. There were so many people there, and we just had a fun time the whole evening, totally relaxed and fun. There was so much food! The highlights for me were the yams (which usually I can't stand, but were made delicious this time with the addition of bacon into the mix) and the pumpkin pie. I am not one of those people who absolutely loves everything pumpkin flavored--for example, I don't feel the constant need to gorge myself on pumpkin squares or order pumpkin lattes like mad just because it's in season. But I do enjoy a good piece of pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and there was that aplenty. It's too bad Joel was busy at the mine, and his boyfriend was busy with family, because it would have been nice to have them there.
The next day I was supposed to hang out with Kyle and Byrd, except both of them were super sick and so we decided not to meet up, since I'm pretty paranoid about exposing myself to illness these days. I just have this premonition that something's going to come up and prevent me from going to Mexico, something like swine flu or even worse. For example, today I was talking to Mom on the phone and I asked how Oma was doing, and Mom said that she "wasn't doing well" and how Saturday she was doing pretty terribly and Mom was pretty sure that that was it. I know I am a selfish horrible person, but part of me just wants my Oma to hold off on dying until at least I get back from Mexico so I can go and enjoy my vacation. That... sounds awful, right? I do love her, I do, she was one of the most important people in my life growing up, but in recent years, she has deteriorated so much that she doesn't seem like the same person at all anymore. On her best days, she can mumble out a few words, and recognize most people; on her worst days, she just lays in her bed in the nursing home, staring ahead, focusing on nothing, recognizing no one (not even Opa), just waiting to die. She has told Mom that several times, she has dreamed that she passed away and was in heaven with God and all her deceased family members, and she was so happy, only to wake up and still be here. She is really depressed, and I really do think that perhaps... perhaps her time has come? It's not like I'm wishing death on my Oma, but right now, her quality of life is barely greater than death and is in some ways worse. So, if she were to die, I wouldn't necessarily find it a bad thing. I'd be sad, of course. I just... I just don't want it to happen right before I go to Mexico, because I've been looking forward to this trip for over a year, I have been counting down the days (17 to go!), I just really really want to go, and I know that there's no way I could go if she were to pass on and have her funeral scheduled for the first week of November. Family trumps trips. But I just know that if I were to have to go back to snowy cold Alberta for my Oma's funeral while my friends got to continue on to sunny warm all-inclusive Platinum Room Mexico... I would be resentful. And that's not the best way to celebrate the life of an amazing woman. (A similar but even more petty situation happened to me three years ago, when Dad passed away. For seven months I'd been looking forward to little else more than the season premiere of Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica. And then my dad passed on, and his funeral was scheduled for the day of the return, and I had to miss the premiere. Of course the funeral for my own father took priority, and I got to see the episode like, three or four days later when I downloaded it. But... I am just praying something similar doesn't happen now.)
Having written that previous paragraph, I am pretty convinced I am a horrible, horrible, self-centered and selfish human being. Why any of you are still my friends, I don't know.
So anyway, I went out to Surrey to have Thanksgiving with the Christians, and it was just as Christiany as I was expecting. They had to announce every five minutes during the entire meal just what they'd grown in their garden, and what strain it was, and why it was perfect for the meal. At first it was like, OK, cool, they grew these carrots. Nice. But by the time it got to "And we grew the sage, rosemary, and thyme that's in the stuffing!" I had pretty much grown tired of it. And I had to listen to essentially a twenty minute sermon by Louisa as she recited line-by-line a five-stanza hymn, explaining exactly how that hymn represented all in life she had to be thankful for. Apparently they have stopped seeing regular doctors for natureopaths now, and they aren't going to immunize their kid against measles, mumps, or rubella because they have heard rumors that the MMR vaccine might possibly cause autism. Sigh. But the meal was delicious, and for the most part the evening was all right. We played the card game Phases, which I always love. And Neil was there, too, so I had an ally in the "How the hell did our former adolescent best friends end up becoming so weird?" situation.
Of course Tuesday was back to work and it was the same as every other workday. I didn't really do much of note Tuesday as it was really busy (since we had two days' worth to catch up on, thanks to the holiday Monday). But I did contact the Travel Clinic and book myself to get Hep A, Hep B, and Traveler's Diarrhea medication, because everyone suggested it and I figure, "Why the hell not?"
Though it was an ordeal to book them, geez. So I call there, ask for an appointment for Thursday evening, the lady takes my information, what I want (at that point only Hep A and the TD stuff, since I wasn't sure if I had the Hep B vaccine already or not), and tells me that I have an appointment for 6:10 Thursday evening. I ask her for the address and she tells me an address in Vancouver, off West Broadway. Very good, right? Well, that's what you'd think. But last night I was researching the Hep B vaccine and it seems that I'm right at the age where they started giving it regularly... but only sporadically. So I may or may not have it already. Fortunately, you can get it twice with no ill side effects, so I figured, might as well, right? So today I call the clinic back, tell them I have an appointment for 6:10, and what I was going to get. Except apparently, they don't have any appointment made for 6:10 that they can find. The lady gets all confused and looks up my name--it's in the system, but no appointment. So she goes to make me an appointment and then suddenly I'm there in her system. Odd. So she confirms the appointment for 6:10, adds in the Hep B vaccine, and I'm all good. Right? Wrong! Because a few hours later I get another call from them on my answering machine, just checkin in with me that my appointment is in the Richmond office? Well.. no. No, thanks! I am not going all the way out to Richmond just for vaccinations! So I tell the lady I need a Vancouver office appointment when I call her back, that I need a Vancouver appointment. The only one free that is available is at 7:10. I confirm that with her. Then, a few hours later, I got a phone call from them, reminding me that I have my appointment tomorow. What??? I already talked to you three times in the past one and a half days, you'd think they could remember that! But tomorrow is the day. Then I will have much less of a chance of catching anything there I'll regret.
Tomorrow I also plan on buying a pair of black Converse shoes. I need a new pair of casual shoes, and I like Converse shoes, but I've never actually worn any. They go well with pretty much anything. And black will go especially with anything. So there's that.
That's pretty much all. Tonight I went over to Earl and his boyfriend's place with Dara and we had a Glee night with everyone. Earl had made a big Glee tribute wall that was pretty awesome, and we played Quelf, and fun was had by all. Glee is just such a fun show, and we're gonna try to make those Glee nights a regular occurrence.
I'm off now. I need sleep. Gotta be rested for my needles tomorrow!
The next day I was supposed to hang out with Kyle and Byrd, except both of them were super sick and so we decided not to meet up, since I'm pretty paranoid about exposing myself to illness these days. I just have this premonition that something's going to come up and prevent me from going to Mexico, something like swine flu or even worse. For example, today I was talking to Mom on the phone and I asked how Oma was doing, and Mom said that she "wasn't doing well" and how Saturday she was doing pretty terribly and Mom was pretty sure that that was it. I know I am a selfish horrible person, but part of me just wants my Oma to hold off on dying until at least I get back from Mexico so I can go and enjoy my vacation. That... sounds awful, right? I do love her, I do, she was one of the most important people in my life growing up, but in recent years, she has deteriorated so much that she doesn't seem like the same person at all anymore. On her best days, she can mumble out a few words, and recognize most people; on her worst days, she just lays in her bed in the nursing home, staring ahead, focusing on nothing, recognizing no one (not even Opa), just waiting to die. She has told Mom that several times, she has dreamed that she passed away and was in heaven with God and all her deceased family members, and she was so happy, only to wake up and still be here. She is really depressed, and I really do think that perhaps... perhaps her time has come? It's not like I'm wishing death on my Oma, but right now, her quality of life is barely greater than death and is in some ways worse. So, if she were to die, I wouldn't necessarily find it a bad thing. I'd be sad, of course. I just... I just don't want it to happen right before I go to Mexico, because I've been looking forward to this trip for over a year, I have been counting down the days (17 to go!), I just really really want to go, and I know that there's no way I could go if she were to pass on and have her funeral scheduled for the first week of November. Family trumps trips. But I just know that if I were to have to go back to snowy cold Alberta for my Oma's funeral while my friends got to continue on to sunny warm all-inclusive Platinum Room Mexico... I would be resentful. And that's not the best way to celebrate the life of an amazing woman. (A similar but even more petty situation happened to me three years ago, when Dad passed away. For seven months I'd been looking forward to little else more than the season premiere of Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica. And then my dad passed on, and his funeral was scheduled for the day of the return, and I had to miss the premiere. Of course the funeral for my own father took priority, and I got to see the episode like, three or four days later when I downloaded it. But... I am just praying something similar doesn't happen now.)
Having written that previous paragraph, I am pretty convinced I am a horrible, horrible, self-centered and selfish human being. Why any of you are still my friends, I don't know.
So anyway, I went out to Surrey to have Thanksgiving with the Christians, and it was just as Christiany as I was expecting. They had to announce every five minutes during the entire meal just what they'd grown in their garden, and what strain it was, and why it was perfect for the meal. At first it was like, OK, cool, they grew these carrots. Nice. But by the time it got to "And we grew the sage, rosemary, and thyme that's in the stuffing!" I had pretty much grown tired of it. And I had to listen to essentially a twenty minute sermon by Louisa as she recited line-by-line a five-stanza hymn, explaining exactly how that hymn represented all in life she had to be thankful for. Apparently they have stopped seeing regular doctors for natureopaths now, and they aren't going to immunize their kid against measles, mumps, or rubella because they have heard rumors that the MMR vaccine might possibly cause autism. Sigh. But the meal was delicious, and for the most part the evening was all right. We played the card game Phases, which I always love. And Neil was there, too, so I had an ally in the "How the hell did our former adolescent best friends end up becoming so weird?" situation.
Of course Tuesday was back to work and it was the same as every other workday. I didn't really do much of note Tuesday as it was really busy (since we had two days' worth to catch up on, thanks to the holiday Monday). But I did contact the Travel Clinic and book myself to get Hep A, Hep B, and Traveler's Diarrhea medication, because everyone suggested it and I figure, "Why the hell not?"
Though it was an ordeal to book them, geez. So I call there, ask for an appointment for Thursday evening, the lady takes my information, what I want (at that point only Hep A and the TD stuff, since I wasn't sure if I had the Hep B vaccine already or not), and tells me that I have an appointment for 6:10 Thursday evening. I ask her for the address and she tells me an address in Vancouver, off West Broadway. Very good, right? Well, that's what you'd think. But last night I was researching the Hep B vaccine and it seems that I'm right at the age where they started giving it regularly... but only sporadically. So I may or may not have it already. Fortunately, you can get it twice with no ill side effects, so I figured, might as well, right? So today I call the clinic back, tell them I have an appointment for 6:10, and what I was going to get. Except apparently, they don't have any appointment made for 6:10 that they can find. The lady gets all confused and looks up my name--it's in the system, but no appointment. So she goes to make me an appointment and then suddenly I'm there in her system. Odd. So she confirms the appointment for 6:10, adds in the Hep B vaccine, and I'm all good. Right? Wrong! Because a few hours later I get another call from them on my answering machine, just checkin in with me that my appointment is in the Richmond office? Well.. no. No, thanks! I am not going all the way out to Richmond just for vaccinations! So I tell the lady I need a Vancouver office appointment when I call her back, that I need a Vancouver appointment. The only one free that is available is at 7:10. I confirm that with her. Then, a few hours later, I got a phone call from them, reminding me that I have my appointment tomorow. What??? I already talked to you three times in the past one and a half days, you'd think they could remember that! But tomorrow is the day. Then I will have much less of a chance of catching anything there I'll regret.
Tomorrow I also plan on buying a pair of black Converse shoes. I need a new pair of casual shoes, and I like Converse shoes, but I've never actually worn any. They go well with pretty much anything. And black will go especially with anything. So there's that.
That's pretty much all. Tonight I went over to Earl and his boyfriend's place with Dara and we had a Glee night with everyone. Earl had made a big Glee tribute wall that was pretty awesome, and we played Quelf, and fun was had by all. Glee is just such a fun show, and we're gonna try to make those Glee nights a regular occurrence.
I'm off now. I need sleep. Gotta be rested for my needles tomorrow!