so i take it all back

maybe it was just the morning and needing a massive caffiene infusion, but yesterday's rant couldn't have been farther from the truth as the day progressed.

yesterday was one of the best sundays i've had in a long time. i didn't think about or do any work for work.

but we accomplished so much -- the office looks amazing with the new paint colour, "found" art work on the walls, new furniture arrangement. it's ready to be reorganized and made more efficient. we gardened the common areas which was hard work but lots of fun. we found a new duvet for much less than we expected. we did tons of laundry that had piled up. we thought out our photo gallery wall for the basement. i worked on our back yard a little bit, deadheading. we ate dinner outside.

i feel much better about it all. and i'm ready to do more tonight and this amazing long weekend.

is change good?

the ironic part of that comment is that i really honestly believe it is. at work, it's the only constant -- people change, accounts change, technology changes, etc. but at home, i'll admit that i'm a glutton for constant.

it's a bad thing.

the husband loves change at home. he likes nothing better than to make improvements, change paint colours, etc. whereas i may or may not agree depending upon how busy i am at work and what i'd rather be doing with my "free" time.

maybe it's just being lazy. but i'd rather have things well organized, tidy and clean than chase the ellusive perfect paint colour, structural change, furniture rearrangement, or whatever alteration seems to make it closer to perfect.

don't get me wrong, i am very appreciative of the changes and i don't even mind participating in the process, i just find myself wishing i could curl up and read or do something else instead.

so far we've changed the paint colours in the basement and the office. we will be changing the colours in our bedroom -- at least on the ceiling and a couple of walls. i'll admit that all the change is good. and i haven't had to do very much other than keep the bulldog occupied, fetch tools and drinks, move drop cloths, tape and that sort of thing.

but it's summer and there's so little summer here. maybe that's why i'm so resistant. the way i figure we've got all the time when we can't be outside to do this kind of stuff.

next weekend is our august civic holiday long weekend. yeah! i am taking an extra day off because i have been constantly thinking about calling in sick. it's a sign i need to take some time off.

i've actually felt pretty good lately. we're trying to be back at the gym more often. last week we went twice, which with our schedules seemed to work out nicely. i'm eating more healthy stuff again, which for a while wasn't happening, and eating at more regular times.

the only legit "sickness" is coming from my crazy headache ridden skull. my summer weather change headaches have been brutal lately. i've been finding that they are coming more often because the weather has been so unpredictable. still, they are not bad enough to merit a trip to the doctor to find out what i already know -- they are related to the weather. i don't want to take anything stronger than OTC so there's not much of a point.

well, i'm being a homebody this morning. sitting in my jammies, drinking coffee and doing the laundry. i'm trying to decide what i want to do next -- to wake the bulldog or not wake the bulldog, that is the question. but i hear snorts so i think she's decided to get up on her own. better put her breakfast down for her.

i think the bottom line is i need to be taking more time for myself like this. i've been grabbing it back in bits and pieces for the past week. work's been good, steady but not too crazy, so i've been able to. if i keep working at it and i will probably be less likely to be resistant to change.

let's try again

well, i had the best intentions. on the plus side, i have been working out more and that's a very good thing. i've also been reading more, another good thing. but yeah, it's been a while since i actually wrote anything here despite having recommitted to checking in every once in a while.

i could make a million excuses. but i won't, other than to say, it's still been busy at work.

last night after work i did something crazy that was very uplifting. three coworkers and i drove 9 1/2 hours to windsor, a city near the US border, in order to attend another coworker's father's visitation. her father had terminal cancer and had been sick for several years. we left at 3:30 in the afternoon and ran into brutal traffic, horrible weather conditions and made it to the viewing with less than a 1/2 hour left in the viewing. the look on her face -- and her mother's face -- was worth the long drive. we all could tell immediately how much showing up meant to the family during such a difficult time.

that was just part of the wonders of yesterday. i got to spend time with 3 other people that i didn't know well. in their kind efforts to keep me awake and alert, they told stories about themselves and i learned so much more about all of them than i would have learned in months, maybe years.

and i had a wonderful lunch with two mothers. one, a very pregnant, soon-to-be new mom, and the other, a just 40 mother of two, shared stories about their experiences and passed on valuable birth information -- the mother of two, a very earthy-crunchy woman, set the soon to be mom's mind at rest by vigorously advocating the use of epidurals and every other thing that might be offered by the attending physician.

clearly it's the week of lunch. today i'm lunching with one of my best friends, a woman who has been challenged this year by bravely facing breast cancer. although we work together and see each other every day, we are constantly struggling to find time to get together and enjoy some down time.

it's been a real week of sharing. on tuesday, i was a speaker for a university undergrad business class. the students never cease to amaze me with their questions -- and their gall. some are so fixated on money that's it's completely unbelievable that they will ever get any. others are so ill-equipped for the real world that they ask questions that are utter nonsense. then there are the gems -- the students that you can't wait to see their success.

well, it's another day, and as a teacher once said, another chance to excel. and go to work. tgif!