If you were thinking of not getting the H1N1 vaccine, PLEASE reconsider!!!!

I got swine flu and at 6 weeks, I am only now feeling like myself again. I missed 3 weeks of work. I probably should have taken more off than that, but between guilt, worry and cabin fever, I went back to work before I was ready. I have never, ever, ever, ever been so sick in my life. If this was 100 years ago, I probably would have died... no scrap that, I would have died. This thing knocks the shit out of you! Be wary (not scared), be very wary.

Don't take a chance on this. If at all possible get vaccinated. I (and the 3 other staff at my school who also had it) wouldn't wish this on anyone. It is really evil.





Let it also be said, that I am incredibly grateful to be living 2 blocks from a hospital now. Somehow, I think if I had still been living in Berens, I might have died anyway from all my complications. This is nasty shit folks.

Google Maps is a peice of shit when trying to find things in Saskatchewan.







That is all.

So, I'm getting my life in order.

I've officially moved away from the soul sucking vortex that I called home for the past 3 years. I am living in a healthy community with a great bunch of neighbours. My neighbour across the street have basically adopted me as an extra grandchild. Though I am basically alone here in Saskatchewan, I know if I need help, they will do their best. It's a good feeling.

My job is better. It isn't amazing or easy or perfect, but I am satisfied. It is a place I could be happy for some years to come. I'm also getting scads of professional development out of them. It's really a much better place to be. The staff are all competant and reliable. The community does have problems, but it is much healthier in all senses than Berens was.

I have also started running. *pause for hysterical laughter* One of my training sessions was Perceptual Control Theory, and it was really powerful for self evaluation and goal setting in addition to dealing with behaviour issues. I am in week one of running for the very very beginner. One minute walk : one minute run for 15 minutes. I am going to blog about this every week. I need to do this every week. I want to get in shape and I think I'm ready to commit to it. I'm greening my life and it's time to get my ass in gear as well.

So there it is. My life is on a new course. I am positive. Good changes are happening. I will not allow myself to slip back into behaviours I didn't like about myself before. Onwards and upwards!

Given that internet time on this cruise is ridiculously expensive, I'm going to respond to everyone at once.

Thanks so much for all your advice. Some of it we've started working on and there have been some changes made for St Petersburg. My friend and I are going to do one day together and she's going to go with grandma on a more doable excursion the other while I go off on my own. All in all, it's a pretty good solution, though I really don't envy my friend the guilt trip she endured this morning to make this compromise. On the plus side, she's even signed on for a bus tour of Estonia, so there can be no complaining of being stuck on board the whole day with nothing to do. I hope this solves most of it, even though I know realistically there will be other conflicts before we're done.

On the even pluser side, at an info session on shopping in St Petersburg this morning, I won a $200 gift certificate for Alexandrite jewelery! Very cool! It changes colour from moss green to raspberry red in different lighting conditions.... sort of like my nail polish. I found some very neat nail polish that is UV sensative and turns from pearlescent white to bright pink in sunlight. It really doesn't take much to amuse me, does it?

Also went to a wine tasting this afternoon... and I'm pleasantly pickled. So far, a good day. Tonight we are seeing a magician. Fun.

Looking back on this post, I can tell I'm a bit tipsy. Yikes.

Thanks again for all the advice. Addresses have been taken down and I'll send along something with pretty pictures soon.

Incidentally, if you left a message but not an address, go back to the last post and leave one. I love writing postcards!

Hello all! The cruise is steaming along and I’m having a pretty good time. The first day at sea was a little rough, but a combination of a long sleep, motion sickness pills and a smoother sea in the afternoon put me straight. I’ve meandered all over the ship and checked out all the bars, restaurants, specialty rooms and whatnot. I’m pretty impressed at how much there is to do on a cruise ship.

Yesterday I was in Copenhagen and met up with Kabul who showed my friend, her grandmother and I around the city. It’s such a beautiful city with so much to see, it’s a pity we only had one day. There wasn’t much time to hang out either, but it was great meeting a fandom friend. I think I’ll need to do it more often.

Today, we docked in Warnemunde, Germany and took off for the day, just my friend and I. We took the train down to Rostock and went to the zoo. Fabulous! Comparing anything to a zoo like Toronto Metro is a bit unfair, but I really enjoyed the zoo. It was very clean and had beautiful landscaping with lots of shade. I was also impressed by how many animal exhibits you could go into without any staff supervision on hand. If we had a bird exhibit with no staff on hand (or even with staff on hand) in a place like Toronto Metro, all the birds would be severely traumatized, injured or made a break for it within two weeks. Really. They don’t trust us with stuff like this for a reason. Parents wouldn’t reign in their kids, teens would go to torment the animals, and well meaning people would just get too curious and try to hold the birds. At the very least, there would be a lawsuit after the first day. This is why I was so impressed.

After the zoo, we wandered around the down town, checked out a fabulous old church with an astronomical clock (very cool!) and climbed the tower of one of the medieval city gates. After catching the train back to Warnemunde, we walked down to the beach to dabble our toes in the sea (very cold and fishy) then got back on the ship.

( This is the desperate plea for advice part )

I'm so far behind my flist, I can't go back and catch up. It's too much. Sorry. I've been a rotten friend this spring. I haven't been keeping up with anyone's happenings. I never meant for it to happen, but RL has just been too much. I've got excuses out the wazoo, but ultimately, LJ has been on the back burner for a few months.

I'm going to have to drop out of the Hermione Big Bang. I'm really sad about this. I've always wanted to get art to go with some of my writing, and I'm happy with my premise, but I know realistically, there is no way I'm going to write 15k in the next four days. Ain't happening. I feel really bummed about this, but I just haven't been able to sit down and write for ages. I will finish this fic someday, but not for Big Bang. If there's anyone out there who'd be interested in doing art for my previous work... It would make my year.

In RL, everything with the house seems like it's a go. Due to my cruise during July, getting some of the paperwork taken care of is going to be difficult, but I'm happy with the house and the inspector's report came up with nothing significant. I'll be meeting the bank to finalize the morgage arrangements next week. My mother has even agreed to come out to help me move. I'm surprised, since she didn't seem that keen on the idea of my buying initially. I'm getting to like the idea of owning my own home more and more. I really like knowing that my living accomodations won't be tied to my employer. Even if I change jobs, I won't have to change homes. It's a very comforting feeling.

I'm also really jazzed about my trip. I'm going to meet kabul in Copenhagan, which is thrilling. I got a new dSLR for my bday, so I'll be able to take snazzy pictures. (I'm still having trouble getting stuff to upload so I don't have pics of the house up yet) I will do my best to keep a good record of my trip.

To all my flist, I hope life has been treating you well. If I've missed something really important, my appologies. Please let me know about it. My flist has always offered such wonderful words of support to me, especially when things in Berens got rough. You really are a special group of people.





Incidentally... I leave Berens for the last time in 4 days!

Today, I'm the statue.

This morning started with a brisk dash across the teacherage in my pjs to beat 3 large feral strays off of a cat. There wasn't any blood, but I think they broke her ribs and it punctured her lung. When I brought her into the house, her tongue and mouth were ashy grey. I wrapped her up in a towel and put her by the heater in the cold porch. When I came back after a shower, she was gone. Poor kitty-fwend. I guess I'm glad she died in the house and not ripped to peices across the teacherage.

I'm going to snuggle Hekuba now. Sometimes I feel bad for keeping her in the house, but today, I feel no guilt. I know my girl is safe, even if she's grumpy about it sometimes.

Snagged from brandi1498

A - Age: 27

B - Bed Size: Double

C - Chore You Hate? Dishes! They never end!

D - Dogs Name? Koonesag and Floe

E - Essential Daily Items? Comfy shoes, chocolate, water that works

F - Favorite Color? Yellow

G - Gold Or Silver? Silver

H - Height? 5' 7"

I - Instruments You Play? Viola and violin quite well, flute, erhu, fife and tin whistle adequately and guitar, clarinet, trumpet, piano, bodhran, djembe and various others to a limited extent. Ultimately I can pick most intruments and not make them sound like dying animals.

J - Job Title? Elementary Teacher

K - Kids? For 6 hours a day I have a dozen plus that belong to other people. Don't need my own.

L - Living Arrangements? Currently, teacherage... soon to be homeless.

M - Mom's Name? Linda

N - Nicknames? Sam-I-am, Periwinkle, Jessirams

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth? I'm not sure if I was in overnight when I got stitches on my forehead... I was 2, so my memories are a little vague.

P - Pet Peeves? Cattiness when living in a fishbowl, unreliable people

Q - Quote From A Movie? "Yeay I'm a lama again! ... Wait." from The Emperor's New Groove

R - Right Or Left Handed? Right handed

S - Siblings? None

T - Time You Wake Up? 5:40 am... because I am a bit masochistic that way

U - Underwear? fun!

V - Vegetable You Dislike? Depends on my mood on any given day or the way they are prepared. I love asparagus, but dislike what it does to my body. Does that count?

W - Ways You Run Late? Over sleep

X - X-Rays You've Had? Chest (for pneumonia last year)

Y - Yummy Food You Make? Jiao zi

Z - Zoo Favorites? Giraffes, red pandas, tropical birds