June 4, 2009

  • My mom just phoned to say she's home from her 6-day trip to Gananoque. She was on a seniors' tour where they stayed in a hotel on one of the 1000 Islands. I hadn't heard from her all week, as when she got off the bus at the other end, she left her cell phone behind. That night I got a phone call from her cell, from one of the Greyhound staff that found her phone when the bus returned to Toronto.

    When Mom called just now, I answered the phone and she just said "Hi, where do I need to get my phone?"

    I asked her about her trip, and she said the service was great and the people she travelled with were really nice. She kept repeating those two things, as if she was making a list.

    I asked what she did there, and she mentioned the was cards and entertainment. I asked what kind of entertainment. She responded by telling me she had two days of diarrhea and cramps.


    She went on this long story about poops and cramps, and that she skipped out on a day trip and had the bus driver take her to a pharmacy, where she was told that the drug she was on for her bladder infection was giving her the runs. When I pointed out that I'd asked about entertainment and she talked about diarrhea, she laughed.
    She told me about a comedian they saw one night, he had puppets and was telling off-colour jokes and doing impressions of stars from the 60s. She said he was great.

    She also enjoyed the food. One night, she threw asparagus on the plate of a man sitting next to her. She said he went "I don't want that!"  I told her that was a pretty rude thing to do, and she said they'd been joking around and it was funny. Something tells me the man and their dinner companions would say otherwise.

    Anyway, she had a good time, and she didn't talk about shopping so I'm guessing she didn't do that much of it.

    As for me, well, I've been taking an entrepreneurship course at Lutherwood. I was gung-ho about it two months ago, and halfway through had to switch business ideas as my first one was simply too expensive for me to start right now. At that point I lost my steam. My mind has begun racing in the past few weeks, which hasn't happened in quite a long time. My thinking is cluttered, and while many of the thoughts are good and exciting, they are overwhelming when combined with worries about money and housing and health and car troubles and fears of Teffy being unwell.

    A couple of weeks ago Teffy developed a very bad limp, so I took her to the vet for x-rays and found out she has arthritis. She figured Teffy had been fighting with Waffles or jumped the wrong way and aggreavated her little kitty elbows. Fortunately, one day of sedation followed by a day of pain medication let her rest long enough that her joints healed and she got back to normal. She's been very, very affectionate since then, even with me. She's 14 years old (that's what, 90 in cat years?), and for the first time is starting to show her age. So now I'm having twinges of panic over the thought of her getting sick or being in pain and dying. Part of my PTSD, I suppose.

    Then there's Ellen and Brian moving away any day now. Last I saw them they told me they'd be leaving July 1 or 15. Tonight we're going to meet them in Woodbridge to go to Yuk Yuk's. Gilly, Al, and I are going, and will be coming home after the show. I have a friend coming from Kingston tomorrow, which should be fun. He's the older brother of a student that made a video about our narcolepsy group last year. This guy is my age and also had narcolepsy. We've been chatting online for a few months, and he seems like quite the character.

    Saturday I'll be driving to Newmarket, again with Gilly and Al, because Sunday afternoon is the World's Longest Street Sale in Aurora. I got a booth for my sleep disorders group, and I'm hoping the 1000 bumper stickers I ordered will arrive in time for me to sell some. I'm trying to get us booth space at Toronto Pride later this month, and also seeking a flatbed truck so we can have a float in the Aurora Canada Day parade. So all these ideas are going, but so many are maybes, and that's stressing me out, too.

    Last night I didn't sleep much. I got up at 5:30AM and had some warm milk and a bowl of oatmeal. When I returned to bed, Waffles laid on my chest and purred. When he got tired of that, he left and then Teffy came up for some pettin's. I finally got to sleep sometime after 7AM, and next thing I knew my alarm was going off to say I had to go to Lutherwood for my appointment. Blargh.

    I'm wearing my workout clothes as I had planned to meet Michelle at the gym at 1PM to work out. However, I'm not in the mood for it today, and instead scrubbed the bathroom floor in preparation for my guest. You know you really don't want to do something when your preferred activity is cleaning bathroom floor tiles! Yurgh.

    Why am I still writing? I have no idea. I'm exhausted. Need nap. Need nap now. Off to bed. Over and out.