Etc. Time!

I’ve been in the depths of self pity lately - the very dregs of depths. I haven’t felt good since I got back from San Francisco and I’m not used to being sick for this long. I’ve always taken good health for granted and it’s not until one is sick for an extended length of time, one really appreciates when they feel good. So while I’ve tried to hold it in, self pity has raised it’s ugly head on more than one occasion in the past ten days or so.

But in spite of how rotten I’ve felt, there have been rays of sunshine making their way through the gloom.

The boys took me out for dinner on Sunday night as Brent would be working afternoons the day of my birthday. I found the dinner quite amusing as the restaurant we went to is famous for it’s gorgeous hostesses and waitresses. Don’t’ get me wrong, it’s a nice upscale restaurant and the staff are finely dressed – they are just beautiful. I laughed to myself as my heretofore self-confident sons jaws practically dropped when they saw our waitress. At one point Brent admitted that he wished she would stop coming by and asking how our dinner went because – and I quote “I can’t be held responsible for what I’ll do if she doesn’t stop it. I’m a lion and I’ll bring her down like a gazelle.”

What can I say – he’s a dawg (as well as a self-professed lion).

And Ryan – well Ryan cleaned his plate better than he ever did for his Mama’s cooking and beamed when the waitress commented on it. My rather cynical yet cool hipster, rugby playing accountant son beamed. 'Tis a moment I'll remember.

I can not tell you how tempting it was to pull the waitress aside and whisper that my sons had a severe case of the hawts for her, they had it real bad and I was finding it very funny – but that is the kind of thing they wouldn’t have forgiven their Mama for.

There was the previously mentioned 'good mail that I could open' package from the ‘boys.’ I’ve still yet to watch it though. I need to feel better to truly appreciate Richard in all his tormented Guyness.

Then there was the dinner that Lisa and I went out for on my birthday. I had the day off and didn’t do a whole lot of anything except sniffle, cough, sleep and drink cough medicine, sleep, cough, sniffle and feel miserable but I did roust myself long enough for dinner. We went to my favourite restaurant in the city and I had my favourite meal – Prime Rib – medium rare. And even though she thinks I'm totally whacked for my collection of books, she understands me enough to know that even though I had two boxes full of books sent back from SF as well as the ones that filled my suitcase, she knows I will be returning to Chapters again. So she gave me a gift certificate. I told her it wouldn't be until September, but she didn't believe me. Only time will tell who was right!

There have been down times too. On Tuesday night I was talked into going to the show, even though I was still feeling like crap. Now if the movie had been good, it might not have been so bad seeing as I took another turn for the worse later that night and missed work again the next day, but it was a bad movie. Real bad. My advice is to stay far, far away from The Mummy – Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

But there were two stand out moment in the past 10 days of miserable sickness from hell that totally pulled me out for a while. The first one when I went to work Tuesday morning and there was a card and a present from a work friend sitting on my desk. This is the friend, Alison, that I will be deserting the blog for a week with. We’ve rented a cottage up North.

When I opened the card, something about it tickled my funny bone and I laughed and laughed and laughed so hard, people came up to me the rest of the day and said they had heard me laughing in the morning. I just have to share this card. I think I laughed a good 15 minutes over it. And then coughed ‘cause I was laughing so hard, and then laughed, and then coughed ‘cause I was laughing so hard.

I don't know if you can read what it says at the bottom - so here it is

Cindi felt that spelling her name in a unique way would help people to remember her.)

And not only did Alison give me a card that contributed to my already sore and tired stomach muscles, she also painted me a couple of flower pictures. And she thought I might not like them - HAH!

The other stand out moment came yesterday when I got home from work. There was a package from someone in a land far far away from me. It was from a reader of this blog who shares the love of North and South, a reader who also understands the lusting of Guy of Gisborne!! A reader who also scorns Robin as being nothing more than a boy. What had she sent me you ask??

Well, I will show you, ‘cause I scanned the front and the back. While I didn’t have Richard come and give me a soul deep Birthday Kiss that would turn me to total and complete mush, nor did he come and sooth my fevered brow (yes – a fever is what I’ve had to deal with too) I am now the Very Proud Owner of something almost as good!!!

A Guy of Gisborne Super Poseable Action Figure!! And not just that - it includes a sword and scabbard.

Even typing this is making me laugh, and cough because I’m laughing so hard, and laughing some more! It's going front and centre on my bookshelf where people will see it when the come into the living room, shake their heads and think 'she's an odd duck, that one'.