Hotel des Arts

We had a considerable shock when we entered our hotel today. The original room we were given looked as though Charles Manson had just visited and left red everywhere. We asked to be changed so we are now in an upgraded suite which is slightly better but has the slogan "Big Brother is Watching You" smeared all over the walls, along with multiple faces of Richard Nixon and someone with a machine gun with flowers popping out of it. Colourful is a mild description of the room.
Returning from our trip to Macy's we passed the Grand Hyatt and Barbara asked "should we inquire here?" I said "why not". So in we went and for $29 more we are going to get a room with 2 beds, a private bath - and one hopes, white walls!
Stay tuned = it's nearly midnight and we just returned from supper at Le Central, a charming French restaurant where I had a superb filet mignon (though I ordered rack of lamb, an honest mistake as we all know Canadians speak with an accent).

TakingFlight--- again

Taking Flight

Early morning and I am just wondering what I should write about. Anticipation? Have you had enough of that with all my other trips and interesting events? No? Oh good, because here we go again.

Last night I had a lovely evening with Barbara who cooked a fabulous dinner of soup and casserole finished off by a Swedish flancake (bought at Ikea – I don’t want to make her TOO fabulous!) How many of us working ladies get to put our baking talents to good use anymore? I for one am so tired when I get my weekends that I just want to deal with the immediate housekeeping concerns and then enjoy the weekend with family and friends. So when I see some of my girlfriends bearing homemade goodies to our meetings I wonder “how do you find the time?” with admiration and despair for myself.

But back to the main story. After dinner we drove back to work to pick up my suitcase. Barbara parked behind the French Maid (my carpool buddy will love that) while I went by security using my super duper secret code. I felt like a spy. I was moving fast. Zip zip and I was rolling that suitcase back onto the sidewalk and we were off. It was about 8 p.m. and Barbara said she must stop at the Safeway. Just the little event of shopping for a few items in the evening is a big deal for me. When I get home from work the shops are generally closed so I cannot do the normal things other people have time to do in the city. You probably take for granted that you can run to the grocery store or Walmart for something you might need at work next day. I cannot even book a massage, nail care or hair appointment. I can get my hair done on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the other small town north of me. But only if I get there at 6 so when the bus is late, forget it.

We got back to the apartment and had some more tea and talked until 10:30. What luxury to be up late talking to a friend! We watched excitement across the street where there were a half dozen fire trucks and smoke coming out of the Staples store. Oddly, no sirens were going but eventually the smoke disappeared though we never saw the hoses out. It was fun to watch the city from a penthouse apartment (from a huge balcony) but it was still too cool to sit there for long.

This morning I am counting the house to Macy’s. That will be our first visit and will likely take up the whole afternoon and evening. Visa, be prepared for action!

California Dreamin'

The bags are packed and the arrangements have all been made. I can hardly believe that I am going to California which is a place I’ve wanted to go to since I saw my first surfing movie. Yes, I wanted to be a surfer girl before I got frightened of water. I don’t know what happened to me, one year I could swim like a fish under water and the next year I had a terror of having my head under the water and I’ve never been able to overcome that fear. I used to be able to dive into the water like a normal person and then suddenly I couldn’t.

I’ve noticed over the last few years that I’ve developed some other fears such as vertigo. I will never forget my first and last trip on a gondola up in the mountains at Banff. That thing rocked so much that my knuckles were white over my mittens! I’d never been afraid before in high places but now I find myself getting fluttery just at the thought. Can you imagine my own astonishment when I crossed that canyon in Ecuador on that skimpy little vehicle which I stood on? I have no idea what got in to me that day but for those few hours I was fearless.

The closest I will come to water in San Francisco though will be when we have dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf tomorrow night. I don’t have any plans to surf (and yes, I do know that surfing isn’t something that you do in the San Francisco Bay) but yesterday I realized that I was going to CALIFORNIA. I think everyone growing up in the ‘60’s dreamed of California - the land of surf and sun and gorgeous boys. James Darren, Troy Donahue, Frankie Avalon and me. That’s where all the romance happened.

California here I come!

Didn't everyone want to be Sandra Dee?

Patience is a Virtue

I’ve never been told that patience is a virtue but I’ve read the proverb in many a book. In Danish they say ‘det haster ikke mere dan de hjove’ (spelling questionable), translated it says ‘it doesn’t hasten more than it pushes’ (or shoves). Essentially it means that to rush about the highways just to get to the Tim Horten’s lineup is imbecilic. My mother would use that slogan whenever we did something silly like tear through our sewing and wreck our project, or burn something because we were rushing around doing too many things at once. In other words, I’ve heard it all my life.

In this age of “high speed internet” and microwave ovens we have forgotten the virtue of patience. Everything has become instant gratification and I don’t think it is a good thing. It’s nice to slow down and smell the roses once in a while. That’s why I take the Cayley “highway” on Saturdays when I go to High River rather than the highway. Since I drive 110 km during the work week I like the pace of 80 km on a Saturday. I don’t feel as though I am rushing about like a madwoman. I look at the farmsteads and currently at the fields swimming in water and I feel tranquil in my mind. When I first started driving to Calgary about 11 years ago I was the only vehicle on the road. The economy was still dead and no one was commuting. In the past 7 years the highway at 5 a.m. is quite busy and it still amazes me to see these nut cases speeding at 130 or 140 km just to get to work. Really, you need to be at work that early. No they aren`t rushing to work, they are rushing to the Tim Horton lineup.

Another thing I`ve noticed at work is how people like to change their minds. In the past when we had to use our typewriters to prepare a document the lawyers were a little more cautious in preparing the document so the typing wouldn`t have to be done again. Today they slap something together and change it a half a dozen (or more) times because there is now a computer with the capability of saving portions of the document. Yet my observation has been that the final document is still not a good piece of writing because it was not originally thought out properly. When I read our newspaper I literally cringe at some of the writing. One expects decent grammar in a newspaper but that doesn`t seem to happen any longer. And the jargon is appalling.

Patience is indeed a virtue. So when you say “I can`t wait” give yourself a little shake and ask yourself if that is really true. Savour the moments. When I say San Francisco here I come, I am just savouring the anticipation. It`s fun. And yes I can wait because being impatient doesn`t make the time go any faster. J

Jessie Wilcox Smith, I see me like that in a few years time.

Another Manic Monday

How to balance everything I want to do in one hour? Eat breakfast, write a blog, do a 20 minute jog on the treadmill, get showered, dress and be out the door to fill up with gas before heading off to work? I’ve managed it for 2 weeks now but I am getting burned out and yet I know I must continue the pace if I am to achieve my weight loss goals as well as better health. I can only imagine how mothers feel when they have to deal with a husband and children and it is no wonder that they neglect themselves. If they manage to include their own health in the process I can only say, well done. It’s all this juggling that has me feeling desperate for retirement.

I wonder if retirement has all the answers I need for what I see as my problems. Like being disorganized at home. At work I find myself organized and well balanced but at home it’s as though I let myself go. Clothes lying on my chair instead of being hung up or put away, dishes remaining on the counter for two days and dustballs everywhere. When I look around I feel this sense of disconnection with myself and it makes me irritable. Where is the neat and tidy person that I used to be?

Never mind, retirement will fix it all. That’s what I keep telling myself. As well, I think that what does it matter if the dishes take two days to wash up instead of immediately? Whose going to see it and will anyone die because of the neglect? Sometimes when I go on my cleaning binges I tell myself “leave the kitchen until last because the dishes will always get done” so you can see that I really must be sane if I can say that. But on a regular day when I see the dishes I feel like screaming. I want things to be clean and tidy. I can understand why women hire illegal Mexicans for their housekeepers because they are desperate to have a clean house and can probably not afford to pay the wages that ought to be paid.

Yes, it’s just another manic Monday, wish it were Sunday.

A Beautiful Day in the Countryside

It’s 6 in the morning and already the sun is shining and there is such a fresh smell in the air it feels almost like summer. Yes, there is still a chill in the air but what can you expect at this time of the day? There’s a lot of grass to cut today so I will be out there as soon as it’s legal for me to do so.

I do miss my riding lawn mower because I cannot get out to the perimeter paths that I have created over the last 4 years. I hope to have the mower repaired soon but meanwhile I can compensate by using the walking lawn mower as my workout. Believe me it is a real workout. I don’t know if the blades are dulled or I am just getting weaker but I really have to PUSH. If we get another week of sunshine I may actually be able to get out into the garden and do some real work though I must say I was very disappointed in the garden centre I was at on Friday afternoon. Not a petunia to be had and the annuals that were there were small, pathetic and expensive. I think not. I will have to do some prowling around to find some good stuff or I will end up having a very sad looking front yard this year. I like to have annuals out there so there is a steady show of colour as the perennials make there short appearance. With the cold weather the petunias, delphiniums and roses are taking their time coming out and even the tulips and irises have been slow. The only thing that is prospering is dandelions. I’ve never seen so many in my yard before and as for the back garden, it’s one bed of dandelions. How did that happen? I’m appalled at the damage and how to deal with that I don’t know.

Oh dear, I think a bird has crashed into my window. Damage control!

Not a bird, just Cherie going down the basement window. The joys of country living. At least I think it was Cherie. If I start to smell skunk I will realize my mistake. Yes, there is a family of skunks under the shed again. We can smell it when we go to retrieve our tools and I notice my 2 boys are sitting around there in fascination. Yesterday I said to Erik that maybe Thumper is doing a reverse Pepe le Peu and has fallen for Miss Skunk as we have both seen him “calling at the front door” so to speak. Oh dear, I do not want him coming home smelling like that!

As I began, it’s a beautiful day in the country side!

Blustery Day in June?

That does not sound like a proper heading for June, does it? March or September but not summer. I’ve just finished preparing the potato salad for a Beach party that I am attending this afternoon. The only relation to a true beach party is that there will be water, a.k.a., RAIN. However, with the right spirit we can all make it work.

Mental attitude is a powerful weapon against the trials and tribulations of life. If a person starts out the day with a good positive attitude and decides not to bend to the whims of fate then she can have a very good day. If, on the other hand, she is weak and succumbs to the poison of other people then the day can quickly spin out of control. I read The Four Agreements several years ago and I find myself going back to it again and again. It is so easy to fall in the trap of gossip, bad moods or the disappoints of others as well as yourself and then it is good to remind myself that most of that is other people’s problems, their poison as Don Miguel Luis tells us. After that reminding I feel better about myself.

Another part of having a good mental attitude is to know “this too shall pass”. That whatever the turmoil of the hour happens to be it will pass and more than likely in five years time it will not even be remembered or if it is you will ask yourself “what was the big deal?” A friend once said to me “did anyone die?” and when the answer was no then “well, don’t worry about it, in five years it won’t matter.” It was a real light bulb moment for me to hear that sound advice.

So when I see a chilly day ahead of me I proceed with the plans and hope for the best. Once I am there I know I will have a good time and then all the dread is forgotten.

Besides, only five more sleeps to San Francisco!

Friday with Sunshine

It’s a day off Friday, the best kind of Friday and despite errands and doctor’s appointments I will be having a fun day shopping with my fashionista stylist. Six more sleeps and I am off to San Francisco for the REAL shopping but Kelli will be showing me what sort of things I should be looking out for so I won’t get carried away and buy something that is all wrong for my shape. She really is awesome and I only wish she could go in my suitcase.

Every single person I have spoken with that has been to San Francisco loves it and most say it is their favourite city so I am really hoping that I will not have built my expectations so high that I will be disappointed. In my mind San Francisco is one of those quiet towns that are glamorous in an unpretentious sort of way. It’s not big and bold like New York or Los Angeles and yet it is world famous and filled with things to do and see. One of my favourite western TV shows was “The Big Valley” starring Barbara Stanwyck and the “big city” in that show was San Francisco. I think maybe Palladin from “Have Gun Will Travel” was also based in San Francisco but I didn’t really watch that show until I was older (in reruns, of course). When I was 14 I read a book called “Milestone Summer” and the character ends up taking a trip to San Francisco and I pictured her shopping along the streets looking for furniture. That’s my early exposure to this city. You’ll have to stay tuned to my impressions in a week or 10 days.

So how is it that at 58 I am only seeing the USA now especially given that I’ve had a lot of exposure to various cities and have longed to see New Orleans (yes Richard Simmons, I wanted to go there before I knew it was your home town). Frank Yerby’s early books were staged in New Orleans and I read every single Yerby book before I turned 20. Have I mentioned my parents’ were very liberal in allowing us to read whatever was in the house? I read “Pride’s Castle” when I was 14, “The Saracen Blade” at 16 and when I discovered more books in the library it was a free for all until I was done. He did write a few more after I was 20 and I have read those as well but they were not nearly as good. And by the third book Silvia and I had already figured out his formula. Tormented man becomes more tormented by loving two women who are complete opposites. Occasionally there was a third or fourth and despite being ugly (sometimes) he was too irresistible not to be loved by these gorgeous women.

Anyway back to American cities. Another city I have always wanted to see is Williamsburg, Virginia again because of several novels. In fact one really old mystery is set during a southern garden tour and that really appealed to me. Garden tours? Do they still do that? Apparently yes. Into the bucket list for that one!

Speaking of which, I just read an article about a Longview resident who adds a new item to his list of 100 whenever he completes one so that he is always motivated and excited about something. I think that is a great idea so if I ever get around to making an actual list I will have to keep it going. More short list for today, while short, is demanding so signing off for now . . .

Mellow Yellow

It’s actually Wednesday evening and I have mowed the lawn for an hour and then taken a nice bath so I feel tired but relaxed. I had rather an interesting day today and I can only say, the longer I live the more people both surprise and disappoint me. The saying “it takes all kinds of people to make the world go round” may be true but why?

When people think that aliens may be superior to us (presumably because they managed to find their way to Earth) they are operating under the misconception that people change and evolve into superior beings from generation to generation. I am not at all sure that this is a correct theory. I think the ratio of intelligent people on the planet is probably fairly similar to what it was in caveman days. I think the only reason we have evolved to the state we are in now is because we build on what is discovered from time to time.

Why, you may wonder, do I think thus at this particular time? Because there are certain types of people who seem to crop up in every generation. Greedy people, lazy people, intelligent people, generous people, philosophical, narrow minded and so on and so forth. I’ve said it before, Mankind disappoints me with its failure to appreciate the idea of generosity to one’s fellow creatures. Sadly the greedy and power hungry ones seem to have a way of manuevering themselves to become “the masters” because the rest of us are too nice and gullible and wham, we become their slaves before you know it.

Think about what you can do to change my hypothesis and prove me wrong. Can “pay it forward” be more than an impossible dream?

Wednesday's Child

I always found the poem disturbing when I got to the Child of Woe thinking it was terrible to give a child that burden. But Wednesday is actually a nice day because it’s the middle of the week and when we have a short week, even that much closer to the weekend.

Are you feeling depressed because of this pathetic spring we are having? I am noticing a very similar trend to last year in my emotions and while I am trying to overcome them I don’t believe I am succeeding as much as I could be. Last year I didn’t recognize my depression but this year I very definitely see my symptoms and I am rather dismayed to discover that I am not able to “snap out of it” the way I want to. I am pretty sure that this is not clinical depression or even very severe depression and yet I am having difficulty in not crawling into bed after supper. I have been forcing myself to go outside and cut grass almost every night for 2 weeks now and I find myself resentful that I have to wear a jacket because it is so chilly. It’s June for heaven’s sake, I should be in bare sleeves and weeding my garden. These angry thoughts go through my head as I push the mower up and down, up and down until the sweat drips from my brow (and hair).

Global warming is an oxymoron in this neck of the woods. Last year we had about 3 weeks of warm weather and this year bodes ill. And as I recall the year before last was not much better. If we are in a 7 year cycle I want to, hmmm, what do I want? Scream? Stick a fork through my ear? (no) Find some place to hide out? Retire and run to Europe where they are having a trend of heat waves? (yes, yes, yes). If you notice a rise in the lottery sales that would be me hoping for my retirement fund to come in (just kidding folks, just kidding). However, I can understand when people start to feel desperate because if David Spence actually said that on the weather forecast I really don’t know what I would do.

We are victims of the weather and this morning I can truly appreciate why the ancient civilizations worshipped the sun. The sun is a very positive image and I almost feel like crying when I don’t see a sunrise at this time of the morning. I should be seeing the first red streaks in the east but instead the clouds are obscuring it. Scream, scream, scream.

Yes, I feel slightly frustrated this morning but I am going back on the treadmill to run that off. See, I am forcing myself to get out of this depression. J

Underdogs

Are you one of those people who roots for the underdog? I was for the underdogs even before I knew what that was. Some folks would maybe call it a lame duck. I just can’t help myself, my heart bleeds for those less fortunate and I just want to give a helping hand. Oprah Winfrey, Tom Selleck, Carrie Fisher and I are INFJ and we have a strong humanitarian bent. One profile termed it the Messiah complex, which made me roar with laughter.

But just because we want to see the world as a fairer and more just place doesn’t mean we don’t have common sense nor does it mean that we can’t be realistic about problems. I dislike the term “bleeding heart liberal” since it portrays the person as an idiot. I don’t understand why people feel compelled to belittle persons who have some compassion for their fellow man. Yet these are the same people who are first in line to dole out money to charity that later turn out to be fraudulent. So who’s the dummy?

I understand that not everyone can go down the same garden path but it doesn’t mean I can’t try to convince people what is good for them. My girlfriends found a plaque that they thought would be perfect for me. It said “I’m not bossy, I just have better ideas”. I guess they were trying to tell me something?

Dreams & Hollywood

Do you ever wonder where dreams come from? And where do the people in the dreams come from? I’ve just woken up from a dream that had some work colleagues in it and then suddenly there were these strange persons with unknown faces pulling at my hair and then the alarm woke me up. I still feel queer and upset.

I’ve wondered if we make up composites of different faces, or if we notice people unconsciously on the street and then they appear in the dreams. Sometimes I think I recognize a person in my dream from a bit player in a movie or TV show.

Many years ago I saw a television show, I think it was The Mike Douglas Show, where there was a woman psychologist guest who spoke about the dreams of some tribe on Somalia. They would speak about their dreams every morning and the family and friends would help to analyze the dream. Apparently they were the most balanced and good natured people the psychologist had ever encountered. I think it was another article that told about laying perfectly still upon waking so that you could recollect your dreams immediately because once you start moving about the dreams dissipated from your memory. I used to do that but since waking up at 4 a.m. and having to dash about writing blogs, doing exercises and eating breakfast before heading off to work I find no time to do everything, especially lay in bed to think and read! I am therefore not as balanced as I used to be. J

There goes the second alarm and I haven’t composed the rest of the story. Just as a side bar, how many of you remember the Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin talk shows? Do you remember how the first guest would come out and sit beside Mike or Merv and then when the next one came out they’d progress down the row of chairs so the next one would sit beside Mike? I remember Merv often had Eva Gabor on the show and I could tell how much he adored her just by the way he looked at her. He even confessed in one of the last shows I saw him on that he was crazy about her. Years later I saw Marlo Thomas on the Phil Donahue show and we all know how they ended up getting married. It’s nice to see love blossom from the beginning and then last. Remember Petticoat Junction and how Betty Jo stole Mike from Billie Jo because in real life the actress fell in love with Mike and they ended up getting married? So I checked on Google – they split within a few years of the marriage. Bummer.

Okay that is a sour note to end the blog on today but there’s always tomorrow.