Sharkboy

I got out of bed a tad earlier than usual this morning, I was full of energy. I stretched and laid on the floor to do 75 push ups and 200 sit ups, I’ve capped it at that level all this week, I’m satisfied with those daily numbers. I weighed myself, same as yesterday, didn’t win, didn’t lose. I jumped in the shower and the long version of Don McLean’s American Pie started to play on BOOM FM and I ended up singing the whole thing out loud while scrubbing my skin with a luffa and a thick coating of Nivea liquid soap.

I decided to wear my brand new black and white Addidas zippered jacket with a stormtrooper on it with a black t-shirt and black jeans. I put on my Dr. Martins, and went to my computer to load some fun new playlists on my iPhone. This morning I opted for my favourite Quebec group: Beau Dommage, they would be perfect for a very cold sunny 30 minute walk to work.

When I got out the front door, there was no one around, I walked to the corner, the light was red. There was no traffic at all and no one else waiting to cross with me when the light finally turned green. With “Tous Les Palmiers” blaring in my ears, I stepped off the sidewalk and started the walk to work. Alone. With my music. Singing. Happy.

2 blocks down, the light at the corner of Ontario St. turned red and although I could see that no cars would run me over if I was to walk against the light, I still turned my head to the left to make sure that I was correct. That’s when I saw the shadow of another person right behind me. I knew exactly who it was too: The dreaded Behinder. WHERE THE FUCK DID SHE COME FROM??? WASN’T I ALL ALONE ONE SECOND AGO??? In that instant I saw her, I knew she was only centimeters behind me, the hood of her jacket pulled tightly around her face, somewhat blocking her view, saving her energy in my wake… I immediately just stopped dead in my tracks. BAM!!! She ran into me, she was that close. I turned around and went Tarantino on her ass:

What the fuck man? You fucking always do that. I’m fucking sick of this. It happens every fucking time we’re on this sidewalk together. Stop following people up their asses, no one likes that!!!

Then I saw her face breaking down and I felt really bad, I thought she was about to start crying… and then I remembered that I’ve had words with her about this before so I stopped feeling sorry. I extended my arm in a gesture giving her the right of way and said: “Just go! Go!”.

I watched her while another Beau Dommage song started playing and I started to laugh. She was now following another woman who couldn’t walk in a straight line, and The Behinder wanting to pass her, kept going left and right unsuccessfully until the next corner when there was a wide enough space for her to get by that new obstacle.

And getting lost in my loud music, happiness returned.

Just in case you’re curious, here’s that song from Beau Dommage from 1975:

Every once in a while I treat myself to a great lunch with my good friend Curious J.
We work for the same office but at different locations so we don’t get to see each other everyday. It’s always a great time when we do though. She gets me. She gets my frustrations with certain people. That’s gold.

I forgot to take a picture while IN the restaurant, so I quickly took one outside… that’s the result… boooo.

Today we dined on Grilled Cheese with tomato on rye bread… and fries.

The president of Local 416 was sitting right next to us and I was too shy to interrupt his lunch to shake his hand, he totally won my admiration in the LONG summer of 2009 when we were all on strike. I’m a goof.

A lot of my evenings this month have been filled with this gem:

FREAKIN’ LOVE IT!!!

This is the place I can be found on every Tuesdays at lunch time… I love “New Release Tuesdays” at HMV, they always have the best deals for the downtown area.

I didn’t buy anything today… booooooo

I rarely say negative things about Starbucks because they don’t give me any reasons to. The service is usually excellent and very courteous.
4 years ago I started visiting a particular location every morning on my way to work, I loved the team there. A great manager who had gathered a great group of employees who obviously looked up to him. I don’t care if they know my name, or remember my drink, those things are not important to me, I much preferred their politeness and smiles. I was always happy to get there. One day, the manager announced that he was leaving to open a new location outside of that area and it didn’t take long for his team to follow him. The new team didn’t really wow me as much and I found a new location to get my morning hot drink on the way to the office.

Today, I decided to go read and relax with a nice cup of Earl Grey tea and I went to that location I used to visit regularly in the past, just to see how things were. I was 3rd in line when a shrilly voice went:

Girl: I can help you here
Me: (I looked and noticed that someone was already standing in front of her, so I didn’t move)
Girl: Sir, I can help you here
Me: You already have a customer, I’ll wait my turn
Girl: It’s ok, he’s just waiting for his coffee, I can help you.
Me: I’ll wait until someone is really freed up, this is not Tim Horton’s

The gentleman at her counter picked up his coffee and left, so I walked over.

Girl: What can I serve you?
Me: I’ll have a grande Earl Grey, room for milk and…
Girl: (loudly to the man who had just left) Sir! You forgot your cookie!!!
Me: … a cappuccino brownie bar
Girl: Sir!! Your cookie!!
Me: (Another heavy sigh)
Girl: Is that all, would you like something to eat with your tea?
Me: Huh? Other than the brownie?
Girl: Oh yeah, you want a cappuccino brownie. (Turning to a coworker) Can you run after that man, he forgot his cookie?
Coworker: What man?
Girl: That man over there (pointing to him), he forgot his cookie.
Me: (Heavy sigh)
Girl: That will be $4.92 please
Me: Is it my turn again? Does your manager hear you with customers?
Girl: I’m sorry?
Me: Just want to make sure I’m not at Tim Horton’s

She handed me my change, I picked up my tea and brownie and walked away just in time to hear: “Sir! Your cookie is here!”. I looked at the guy and said: “I hope you enjoyed that cookie, she’s losing her voice over it”.

Then my day picked up again as I went on reading about the fantastical life of Bex and her daughter Minnie… I honestly love the Shopoholic series, best laugh-out-loud moments in reading, right there with David Sedaris when he’s funny.

At home, in my snuggie, reading on the couch, Earl Grey in hand… Aaaaaahhhh.

Caught in the act:

Weekend tradition calls for at least one meal out. I really needed that special comfort food today and I opted for a Club House at Golden Diner. This is the place that makes them the closest to the way my mom used to… and they actually put the mayo IN the sandwich instead of on the side… MMMmmmm. Club House…

ALL EYES LASER CHARGED

This morning was GeorgeHamilton and BillyDeeWilliams yearly visit at the vet. Very expensive yearly visit.
GeorgeHamilton is fine, except a tad fat and we need to brush his teeth more regularly…

BillyDeeWilliams on the other hand is still not well, we’ve had him for 1.5 yrs now and although he has improved tremendously, he still suffer from constipation and is uncomfortable. The solution a year ago was this $900 x-rays and enemas, which got me really mad because Humane Society had promised us the cat was not sick when we took him home from the shelter as a companion to GH. We opted to try stool softener instead and that seemed to work well enough, and catnip seemed to keep him more regular… At today’s visit, the vet felt that the cat was still constipated and uncomfortable and wanted to reach in our wallet for treatments more than ever, this time with threats of possibly taking the cat away.

We really don’t have that much money to spend on a cat we saved from a shelter, a cat that was said to be healthy…

We have the weekend to decide what we want to do, either fork up $$$ or give him back up to Humane Society…

I feel like a very bad parent with a very bad decision to make.

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P.S.: 24 hours later… I knew sleeping on it would help…

Thank you for everyone’s comments and personal emails. I can honestly say that in the last 1.5 year of having BDW in our home, we have tried many different solutions, from medicinal to natural laxatives of all kinds, to high fiber diet, to wet and dry food and lots of water, which is what they only drink anyway. We’ve scoured the internet for solutions to help him be better, and he has shown tremendous improvements. He is very playful and loving and we both return the affection. So this Sophie’s Choice situation hasn’t been fun in the least.

We have decided on a plan of attack since our conversation with the nazi vet yesterday and we will confer with Humane Society and see what they have to offer at this point. They have had an amazing turn-around in their offices since the huge scandal 3 months after adopting BDW. Let me be clear that returning the cat to a life of cages is the VERY last solution we want, that would have been done the same week we took him home when we realized how poorly he was. We also will confer with the vet in charge of the clinic we went too, a second opinion can only help. We have decided to allocate a fairly large amount of money to pay for x-rays and enemas, although the ones from 1.5 yr ago did not show any blockage and surgery wasn’t needed. We will exhaust all options before making a final decision.

I want Humane Society to acknowledge that they have given us a sick cat. We were told we were the 4th family to adopt this kitty and when we asked what was wrong with him, they said in the past he had had digestive problems but he was all good and the cat might have been too needy for the families before. They seemed very happy with the fact that we already had another cat and that was probably what BDW needed, the company of another feline friend… Atrocious lies it turned out.

I want the vet, or the clinic on his behalf, to apologize for his conduct. It’s very hard for me to forgive a professional alluding to the price of DR’s winter jacket after I said that I didn’t really have that much money to pay for x-rays and enema treatments. He then lectured us on how our vet services were very similar to the health care in the USA and said we should have bought insurance for the cats, but we have looked into it and x-rays and enemas are not covered under petcare insurance. For the second time, he said he would write a prescription for BDW and after sending us out in the waiting room upset, so we could pay the bill, but forgot to write it and we remembered only when we got home. One thing for sure is since he only works on Saturdays at this clinic, we will now make our appointments during the week like we used to, it’s less convenient but in the 5 years of using this location, we’ve only been annoyed and upset on the 2 visits we had with this socially inept guy. Also, guilting me into paying for yet another stool sample test for parasites for our indoor cats by telling me that if I walked into shit on the sidewalks, came home and the cats happened to lick my shoes isn’t what I consider best professional behaviour. If I walked into shit, I’d wash my shoes, I’m not one to have traces of dog shit all over my hardwood floors.

I think I’m still mad.. hehe.

Tonight, we went to see Alien and Aliens at Scotiabank Theatre.
Awesome night out with the boys Sean and Josh (and DR and PostBear not on the pic).

Alien still holds very well after 30 years. It was great to see it again on the big screen, I can’t believe I was only 15 yrs old when I first saw it in a theatre, holding on to the armrests like my life depended on it, it was that intense then, nothing like this had ever been done that I had seen.

Every once in awhile, we go through a cluster-fuck of a day at the office. Today was that day.

I knew right at 08:29 am when I heard two co-workers discussing the events in Egypt and one of them said: “It’s written in the Revelations, this is the beginning of the end. Read the Revelations, you’ll see”. I just took my pile of work and walked away, I couldn’t bear listening to more of that bull.

The whole morning and afternoon was just cluster-fuck, cluster-fuck & more cluster-fuck.

And then at the end of the day, when yet another person left the office in tears, I knew I just wanted to come home and relax for the night, have dinner, play some Little Big Planet 2, cuddle with my man and enjoy what I have…

Oh, and I have new glasses:

Snowmaggedon!
Snowtorious B.I.G.!
Snothing!

The media scared us into thinking that the biggest snow storm in years was heading our way, but I think Chicago was the city to be hit the worst. This morning there was about 10 cm of snow on the ground on my way to work. It did beautify the city at first, then the slush took over, and 12 hours later, it just looked dirty again. But this morning it looked like this:

At least all the school had a nice snow day and all the parks were full of children playing… I was jealous, I must admit.