Helenka, Queen of Outer Space

Feeling much better than I would have anticipated. The only thing that wasn't ideal was that I had less sleep, going to bed at 2 and waking up around 7:30. I immediately got onto editing my raw material so I could send the jokes out. Only after I did was I able to relax and have my brekkie. [Yes, I take my volunteering seriously.]

My jokes seem to be going over swimmingly. I've gotten some terrific reactions from the sister of our Pres. She said she actually snorted coffee out her nose after my Doggone story! Hee - I. Have. The. Power!

The only downer on the day is that I phoned my sis RS at 1 PM as pre-arranged. No answer, so I left a message and then retired to a well-deserved rest in bed. I dozed off for a wee bit. But, still, no communication. Other than that, I watched a bit of TV and was speed-reading through another in the series of books that has enthralled me.

It's been a full day and I don't feel sorry for myself. I even read most of an article on masks and a hospital in Mass. from The New Yorker. I'm glad I'm signing up for a free mask courtesy of one of our members. Tomorrow, I think I'll lay off the jokes and send out a reflective poem.

Night-night, all. I've kept most of the pain at bay for most of the day. And I'm ending with lovely vision (making reading much easier). I'd call that a win-win!

Sorry, not an offset. I managed to go to bed at midnight and woke up exactly at 5 a.m. Yes, my muscles were spasming. So, I got out of bed and started searching for online sources of Year of the Farce. There wasn't anything (but I couldn't see the screen clearly) on the CBC site, but I found a very helpful person had recorded and uploaded to YouTube two days ago. As I couldn't be sure whether it would be taken down, I watched it right then and there. Considering it was the last episode ever (after more than 40 years including the original radio series), it sorta kinda fizzled. Usually, there would be a big thing made of the chicken cannon and target of the year (including loading disgustingly goopy ammo by someone portraying a Private), I believe it was a picture of the usual culprits (all of the leaders of the insane world). And that was it.

Once I'd had brekkie and my pills, I felt a bit better. Tried to catch a couple hours of sleep in the afternoon but pain was getting ready to attack = again. But I cheered up when I managed to log in to the library system. Hmm. I guess my computer just needed a little rest. But it's wonderful being connected and I'm reading one of my go-to comfort reads, aka a Jessica Fletcher mystery. Nearly finished.

I still haven't sent out New Year's greetings to a few friends. Siiiiiiiiigh. Just not feeling it. Well, not in between the spasms! But hope is always alive for … tomorrow.

Well, not now now, but it felt weird to look out the window when it was early evening and find the light reflected off the (stupid) snow. Amazingly enough, I also saw something else. You know the slipper I thought was under the bed. Well, somehow it had skidded (or been tossed by a poltergeist) under the fridge … which isn't even near. Oy. ::rolls eyes::

I'd had a decent sleep, waking up at a null equation of 7:34. I relaxed for most of the day until my sight improved (BTW, it's fabulous now) so that I could tackle setting up an auto-reply and auto-forward for the vision loss group. Well, I finally got the auto-reply done after much aggravation, but the auto-forward refuses to reveal the required popup. ::growls in frustration:: Well, I'll try again tomorrow. So what's the hurry? Oh, just our executive conference call in the evening.

The day seemed to stretch on forever. My only TV was my judge and game shows. I'm holding off beginning our book selection for April, because it's another war book set in France. Sigh. Anyway, I think it's high time for bed and resting my eyes for tomorrow.

I'm loving every bit of it as I read our book club selection for ... August! Tucked into every other nook and cranny of my day was the monthly meeting at the national blind institute where our special guest speaker was a professional audio describer. His training was in a theatre school but, after graduation, he decided to move into a field that helps people. And you can't get a better outcome than making movies, TV shows, sports events, art galleries, and even the Pride Parade accessible to people with limited or no vision. Speaking of Pride, I wish I could be there just to hear his descriptions. Apparently, there are a whole lot of different ways of describing really, really short shorts! And, incidentally, speaking of Pride, there are 10 people currently planning the first Pride event at McMurdo base in Antarctica. Ooh, let's have Rodney and John crash it ... and of course any gay penguin daddies! Back to our guest ... one of the most intimate describer functions is at outdoor fireworks where he works on a ont-to-one basis. As he describes colours, etc., he traces the patterns on a person's back. Wow! That's a terrific way to convey the beauty!

I was five minutes late because of vehicle woes, so found myself sitting between my new friend Janet and the book club leader Peter. They both tried to nominate me for the executive elections ... but I declined firmly but graciously. OTOH, who knows whether I might take on the challenge in 2021. The highlight of our break was having Alicia's famous cold pasta and shrimp salad along with the usual cheese, crackers, grapes, muffin, large cookie, and a drink. Always too much, so I bring the sweet stuff home for later.

After the meeting, I came home to heat and more heat. Sapped of strength and with a hole boring through my blind eye, I needed to sleep, but had a lousy time ... so I finally got up and returned to reading the Swedish book. And that's what I think I'll do now, right after I finish my tropical tonic water. After sending Brian an email asking for advice, he mentioned a store other than Ikea; I checked it out and now wonder how I'm going to get the "perfect" bathroom shelving from a store in the suburbs. Might I entice church-John ... or should I try courier delivery? To his place? Or mine? Ack, too many decisions. So off to bed and reading for me.

Well, now that spring is finally in the air (and the air is in the house with the front and back doors open), I can feel like being sociable and, more importantly, presentable again.

I had a decent night, waking up at 7:17 which gave me a reasonable 7 hours of sleep. Finally called both my hair stylist and my nail tech. Yes, they'll be very pleased to see me a week from Thursday. I'm hoping for a leisurely day of making myself feel better (just as my right foot is screaming at me).

I'm hoping against hope that there isn't another mouse in the house. So, what happened to the first mouse? He-he-he. Ce-Ce happened to it. So, should any other one be so foolish as to intrude (I'm still hoping against hope, but my keen ears did hear a wee bit of scrabbling around in the morning), I'm going to keep inviting Ce-Ce over more.

Had some pleasing reactions to yesterday's music post, mostly about our fabulous church choir. ::pouts:: One of them was from a friend currently in - sigh - Copenhagen.

Was relieved that Saturday's SNL was recorded and snickered through the hilarious opening featuring Stormy Daniels, also Melania in another bit where she was asking legal advice "for a friend" whether a wife could volunteer to testify against her husband. She was very pleased ... on behalf of her friend. ::snickers:: Also watched tonight's epi of MasterChef Canada which just made me hungry as they had to prepare a perfect omelette, a butter-basted steak, and a creme caramel.

Anyway, I think I have to go to bed now as I'm setting the alarm for 6 (yuck) in order to book rides for next week. ::counts on the sleep fairy to do her usual mojo on me:: Yes, of course I iz silly.

Wow. Compared to how some of my friends are doing, I'm absolutely fine ... even if I don't feel it. Why not, blondie? Because I'm having a stupid headache centred over my blind eye. Haven't had one of those for absolute years. Sigh. But, still, I slept fairly well. Watched SNL and loved the musical skit set in a diner with a human lobster in the tank singing "One Day More" from Les Miz! Brilliant.

Had a nap from 12:30 till 4:00 and then got ready to do laundry. Watched the news and my usual game shows. I'm tickled pink that I got the Final right on Jeopardy! Under Mythology, I had no idea that Achilles was the son of Thetis (huh???), but I still jumped to his name in a split second! You know, the brain, she is very strange.

Got tired of having no new books available, so I borrowed three ballet books: one's a Peppa Pig epi, so that doesn't count. The second is a picture book by former champ Kristi Yamaguchi; and the third is a Nancy Drew mystery. I'm going to go to bed, all wrapped up in my cosy clean capelet and read it.

Keeping my fingers crossed for the stupid weather to disappear and that I'll be able to get to my book club meeting on Wednesday.

So, more excellent sleep last night, culminating in waking up at ... 8:42. Yes, my body teases me with its alignment with clocks. OTOH, I woke up in the middle of a dream of Brian and me on vacay that involved hotel rooms. I don't remember anything else, but the rooms figured prominently.

S. informed me that she's off to visit her parents tomorrow for the rest of the weeks. Ooooh. I hope the cats like really LOUD movies, 'cuz I have a bunch I want to play so the sound consumes me, starting with "Lawrence of Arabia". Can't wait.

Did my due diligence regarding my volunteering by sending an email to the new worship volunteer boss (she's really sweet). Watched a mostly incomprehensible SNL. I guess it doesn't help when I don't watch loads of current TV shows, so the only thing I (you know enjoy is so the wrong word) understand is the political ::coughs:: humour. I also watched the season ender of Murdoch Mysteries which was sad and tragic, but had a hopeful ending. Thank goodness all shows don't need to end on a cliffie.

Helllllllp. Get me out of here!

Okay, okay. I'm out ... but it took a few hours. Today was Family Day in my neck of the woods. Not all provinces celebrate it the same Monday in February, so one or two had it last Monday. I believe our * to the rule is "second Monday in February but must be on/or after Valentine's Day".

I'd set the alarm for 8:45, so of course I woke up at 5:34. Got up and made my rides booking to the dentist for next Monday. Then I relaxed for most of the morning, reading last month's book club selection. No, I don't make sense.

True confession time: I went out with just powder on my face; didn't put on any fresh eye makeup. I slummed, considering I was going to be with my chosen sisters. I was the first to arrive at the chicken place (before 12:30) and ordered a pot of Earl Grey tea. It was a miserable grey, foggy, threatening-rain day. Jan was the next to arrive close to 1:00, and RS moments later. We all had pots of tea and ordered lots and lots of food. I treated them to spring roll appetizers. It was so dark in the restaurant that I had a really hard time seeing things on my plate. Sigh. We all ordered desserts. Mine was beignets with a scoop of ice cream. I ate the ice cream and a couple of the miniature donuts and brought the rest home. It would be ... hours before I'd even look at them.

We had lots of fun catching up. Even though Jan's at church every Sunday, we only see each other for a short while before the service starts, and I'm gone right after. Jan and I got RS caught up on all the info on our new senior pastor. We managed to extend all the laughter and talking until nearly 4. It was so nice not to be rushed and we had a really genial and gracious server. We went outside for a breath of fresh air and there was my minivan to bring me home. Aww, time for quick hugs before I was gone.

When I got home, I vegged. I managed to stay awake during the news hours but my game shows are just hazy delusions (like the fog outside). When I got out of bed, I had the donuts followed by sparkling water. I'll probably read a bit more as I need to wake up earlier again for more rides bookings. Nighty-night.

So, what's with the pretty? Well, first things first. I got to sleep in this morning - all the way to 6:00 a.m. Shocking, eh? It was all because my pickup was 25 minutes later than usual. Today was our church's annual Emergency Services Personnel appreciation Sunday. Yeah, lots of uniforms around, and church-John and I were displaced from our regular pews. As if the blinde olde ladye didn't have enough problems.

Still, it was a fabulous service and I was inspired when I wrote my summary. I was more than pleasantly surprised to receive a PM from the special photographer who'd taken several shots of me a couple weeks ago, following my wishes to be shot almost in profile with my blind eye getting less prominence. I was delightfully surprised to see how many of the shots were fabulous, even though all I was doing was staring off into space and not relating to her. She chose one; I chose a different one. It'll be lovely to see my picture hanging in Social Hall along with other 25+ year members of the church so our new senior pastor can get acquainted with what we look like. Lucky for me, he already knows who I am - even if I don't look as glamorous IRL as I did in the still-natural photo. ::raises an eyebrow:: Hey, how'd that happen? Especially as all the curls (now chopped off) looked FABULOUS (just not whenever I looked in the mirror - sigh).

My writing had been interrupted by a couple of seconds of power loss. Luckily, I'd only lost a sentence and was able to recreate it. We were lucky, because there were lots of areas in the province that suffered significant damage during the storm, from heavy winds toppling trees down onto cars, etc. Anyway, I didn't finish writing (and posting) until after 5. Then I got to rest and actually eat something. I ended up watching the news, then watched last night's Saturday Night Live. I've also recorded Discovery which I'll watch tomorrow when I'm feeling alive again. Because I really, really, really need to crawl into bed now. Nighty-night.

... better than NO holiday celebration at all. But, first, the rest of my silly day.

Went to bed at 2:22 (slightly naughty) and woke up at 10:02. Hey, nearly 8 hours. Yay. Didn't have brekkie until around 11:30. Then continued reading (and finished) "Murden on the QE2", another pretend Jessica Fletcher mystery while I had my fireplace (lights only) on for ambiance. Then I dozed off which meant I was late feeding the cats their lunches. But, first, I had to find the little monsters. Well, not Diva. Grumpy was on the back deck and came in. But Ce-Ce was missing. After I fed the two, I took a chance and opened the front door. Oh, look who's meowing, wanting to come in. So I fed her. While I was supervising the chaos, SuM came home unexpectedly early and we finalized our dinner plans.

We finally got together close to 7. She baked my whiskey-mustard chicken wings and got wine glasses for my bottle of rosé. She'd cooked up some broccoli, snow peas, and scallions with lemongrass paste, ginger, and garlic. And then we dug in. We polished off the wine and I have a few chicken wings as leftovers. Then we took a break in the living room, watching the cold open of the last SNL featuring Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"> OMG, so well done. I'd already watched the rest of the epi, considering it forgettable, but SuM wants to watch it 'cuz she likes the musical guest Katy Perry. Other than that, we listened to a modified light-classical channel she found. When I'd sat down on the couch, I'd moved a book she was reading: Neil Gaiman's "Norse Mythology". She mentioned some of his other books and I was interested in "Neverwhere" (so I've put a hold on it).

I suggested we could watch my Special Anniversary Edition of the "Stargate" movie ('cuz it has a dreamy young James Spader in it) for our next movie night. And then we finally had the dessert she prepared: vanilla ice cream, mouth-watering raspberries and supposedly ridiculously-priced blueberries, with tons of Bailey's on top. Mmmmmmmmm.

Right now, I've finished my mint iced tea and am heading off to bed, totally cat free (I believe, lol). I'm going to start another mystery book.