It's for you...

Weirdest experiences happen in the most normal of places sometimes.

Last weekend a friend and I were in Safeway at the checkout when the phone rang, not mine but the one behind the till. The cashier got kinda quiet, said "umm...." into the receiver and then "okay..." which wasn't odd in the least; but then she turned and looked at me with a slightly disturbed look on her face, held the phone out to me and said, "It's for you."

what?

My friend and looked at each other and all I could think was "what did I do? I must have done something wrong."

The cashier told me to come around to her side of the till and take the phone, which I did with some hesitation. Was this a prank? What the hell was going on?

"Hello?"

"Hi Maggie," the phone said.

"Hello?" I replied totally freaked out.

"Look to your left," the voice commanded but in a cheerful way.

I obeyed the phone but didn't know what I was looking for, I mean, who was this and why were they calling me on a Safeway cashier phone in a town that only a handful of people (mostly my family) knew I was in?

"It's [well, let's call her...] Elizabeth. How are you?"

I'm scanning the sea of people to my left and see an arm waving frantically but still I'm not sure who this is even with the name. I know about five people with that same name but the voice totally escapes me. I'm still feeling totally freaked out by the situation and who wouldn't be? So I try to figure it out in a polite but more effective manner.

"Elizabeth?"

"Ya! Elizabeth Huang!" she says totally excited which was really kinda strange.

I still can't see you very clearly," I say, "Wave again." She does. "Oh! I see you now, I'll come over and say hi once I'm done here."

I eventually figure out why I know this person and it's all good. My friend was as freaked out as I was at the initial "It's for you" because that doesn't happen! We went over and exchanged the normal information that happens when you haven't seen someone in almost a decade. Still, it totally was a weird of encounters in a normal location.

Rejuvenation Achieved

Without even knowing it was going to happen, I took a trip down memory lane this weekend. I travelled back to my undergrad and grad days, my first standard transmission experience, and the good/bad/ugly high school times. It was wonderful.

I went to a saxophone concert with someone I'd met hours before as they were learning to drive a standard transmission on a rented car. Odd but interesting experience that will never happen again. I got in some pro networking after the concert so that was (or could be) a really good thing for the future.

Out for beer later with a friend from high school in a grad memory filled pub and we reminisced and solved all our problems in under 3 hours because we're that brilliant. Just ask us... we'll tell you how brilliant we are.

Shopping therapy proved to be more fruitful than initially anticipated. My new favourite colour is apparently purple though I would have bought a shirt in emerald green if they'd only had it in the right size. Serves me right for finding the only one in the whole store and falling in love with it, trying it on, then wondering why it's really snug and THEN looking at the size. But now I know I can squeeeeeeze into a 6... that will never happen again!

Twas an excellent escape. I slept so soundly last night that I was refreshed by 8 a.m.! That's never going to happen again this week either.

I do hope the rejuvenation happens again at some point but hopefully I won't need it for a while.

Pssst! Have you heard.....?

Rumors. BAH! I'm tired of them. Tired I say!

I was at workshop today and all the buzz in the down time was rumors about how things are changing next year and who's going where and blah blah blah blah blah...

I removed myself from that corner of the room and sat at a table, but that table was spinning the same tales so I moved to another table that was also heavily engaged in pointless speculation. grrrrrr...

I thought for sure I'd be safe at the gym. Nope. After the usual cardio routine (which is getting too easy so I think I need to change it up a bit), I tried out an All-Abs-for-30-minutes-Class-of-Torture (really quite good and thoroughly enjoyable.. once it ended) but the discussion before the class was the same! ACK! You'd think that there would be more to talk about and do with your time than gossip. And you'd think that maybe every waking hour is maybe enough even if gossip is your cup of tea.

Well, I'm not part of it. I mean, of course I can't totally remove myself from the situation but I'm not going to be a perpetrator of the gossip. Everyone is already tense 24/7 and this rumor mill is only making it worse. For my own mental health, if no one else's, I'm going to disengage from the conversations. End of story.

Bonding with the Boys

Gotta love how stupid things from years ago come in handy at the strangest times.

The boys were... well, themselves today in class and this one kid was particularly goofy. That's his thing, that's what he does but today was funny because he just started saying "TROGDOR!" under his breath thinking I'd flip and not have a clue what he was saying. I just calmly requested that he talk about Trogdor, Strongbad, and Homestar Runner at some other time since "The Use of Child Labour during the Industrial Revolution" was our present topic, not S shaped dragons.

He was totally shocked but then thought it was super cool when I relayed the story of a friend of mine who had "TROGDOR!" theme music as his cell phone ring tone.

Kid was good for the rest of class.
:)

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Centennial Post

I have a confession... it doesn't take much for me to get addicted to something and that new something is the gym. This has happened before so I suppose I'm more of a binge addict - go hard for a while then stop. I'm hoping that this is an addiction I can keep.

I didn't go today and it felt weird. I did, however, go out on the dragon boat which I haven't done in over a year so at least there was a tiny bit of exercise today. We were only out for a while because the waves were really choppy and the wind was getting stronger by the minute. There are parts I miss and then there are the parts I really could do without.

I can do without the clammy feeling you get after paddling in the wet and cold. I could also do without the constant questions about work since I'm trying to avoid all talk about work except while there. Sure, they could have been asking me about work because they haven't seen me in a while but it really wouldn't have mattered if I'd been there the week before or I'd seen them 24hours before - the questions would still be there and that I can most certainly do without. Sure, they mean well blah, blah, blah but I'd forgotten how frustrating it is to answer the "How's everything at work?" question without lying, without telling, and without being downright rude in shutting down the topic completely.

I miss conversing with people who have different jobs, being on the water, and the repetitiveness of the stroke, stroke, stroke.. it's oddly soothing in a 'my muscles are burning' kinda way.

Not much of a 100th post but there she be. Maybe it won't take me 2 years to get another 100.

If it's true that...

being healthy is 20% exercise and 80% nutrition, then I must be a giant licorice nib on a treadmill.

Idiot!

I'm not kidding! I am an idiot. I did thee stupidest thing tonight. I went to the gym as per normal then came home and ate half a bag of nibs, all the while thinking "stop eating these, you know you don't really want to eat them, they're just there and so you want to eat them. Go get some water, you're really just thirsty. Stop eating them you idiot." Periodically, I'd put them away only to go and get them again because, let's face it - any licorice type object is not safe in my presence as I noted on Likalia's page today.

Tomorrow is our first "Biggest Loser" weigh in and I will now be adding to my poundage about a pound of nibs! GROSS! Well... maybe not a pound but half a pound. Ugh. It's disgusting, truly. Here I was, feeling all good about the fact that I've been sooooo good about going to gym everyday and working out harder and longer and then WHAM! I eat a tonne of nibs.

It's done now. We'll see what the damage is tomorrow. On the plus side - I'll have an excuse to stay longer at the gym which is totally excellent! Yay!

Staff Room Happenings

Back to work today. We had our usual joyous Monday morning meeting with the news of things to come in the week and general announcements about big picture things. Then there was the list of people who would be away for good portions of the month or the entire month - 2 operations, 1 illness, and 1 with a deceased parent. I suppose there is no 'good' way to announce these things to the staff but it was yet another slap in the face to make you realize that yes indeed, you are back and you are working here. I know a lot of other teachers and our staff has had an extraordinary amount of bad karma this year. Are we all bad people or does it just seem that the forces of nature are against us more than others? Focusing on negatives isn't positive (how's that for a statement!) but since the 'good news' items are so rare at work this year it, it's easier to recall the one of the many not so good ones.

But it's not all disheartening, there were some good things that happened or were discussed in that room today.

The hockey pool is still going and it's trading time! Last year I won $150-200 (can't remember exactly). This year I started at the bottom of the pack and am making my way up to the top - but I doubt that's going to happen. There is apparently a prize for the loser this year so maybe I should go that way. I know nothing about hockey so I'm not sure if I'll make some trades or just keep the same draft as I started with in the beginning. That was my strategy last year; mind you, I was already winning by a considerable lead at this point last year... mmm. Big decision - I know.

I actually got to have lunch in the staff room today and it was good! Usually it's the old boys club which we girls usually infiltrate but today I got to sit with 3 other women and talk about - what else but men! Two married women and two single women discussing the fine and finer points about men in general and men we know. A good and/or therapeutic time was had by all. :D

A colleague suggested that we have a staff "Biggest Loser" contest. LOL! I love it! There are about 8 of us in the game and we each pay $5.00. We weigh in each Friday and the one who looses the most weight by the end of 6 weeks gets the cash. It should be interesting. I think we're doing a weigh in tomorrow to set our starting point *groan*. At least now I'm accountable to someone other than myself in this get fit plan... plus - there's a cash prize! Yee haa! I'll keep you posted on my at work gambling habits.

Visions of Cockroaches Dance in My Head

I'm thinking that I must have eaten something really weird yesterday when I wasn't paying attention because I had the most screwed up dream.

Likalia and I were staying in a city visiting friends though I don't know who they were or in which city this took place. Our arranged sleeping quarters were in someone else's 'apartment' and I use that term loosely because it was just a largish room with a three beds, a table, sink, counter, old fridge and a lot of dusk and darkness.

Likalia decided that she could NOT, under any circumstances, stay in this place because a) we didn't know whose place it was even though our friends said it was okay, and b) the bed she was going to sleep on was too hard. So get this: instead of sleeping on the 'too hard' bed, she sleeps on the floor in our friends 'apartment' (again - I use the term loosely as it too was nothing but a room only it didn't have a lot of beds but a lot of floor space where they all slept instead - go figure). I was going to sleep in the mystery tenants room on the bed that I figured was the least likely to be the owner's.

This bed had a little platform like dealy under the mattress - it was more like a really large table with a shelf under the mattress. I chose this bed simple because it was the least disgusting of the choices (including the one belonging to the tenant) and even though the entire shelf was covered in cockroaches. I know! But at least they were dead right? Apparently they were sleeping too and as I got onto the bed they started to move. So, as I lay there paralyzed with fear that I was soon to become a cockroach playground, all I could think about was that Likalia and the others were sleeping on the floor in the next room and how stupid they were for doing that when I had a comfortable bed.

Time to get all psycho babble - what is this saying? Even if your circumstances are comfortable, there is always something lurking below the surface? The proverbially monster under the bed in cockroach form?

Oh - the tenant came home later that evening and didn't bat an eye that I was in her apartment. It was someone from high school that was about 3 years ahead of me and I never hung out with - ever. The mind digs up some odd stuff.