Earl Grey. Hot.

Something is happening and I kind of like it.

I have never liked coffee. Coffee Crisp chocolate bars were the closest I ever came to enjoying the flavour of coffee, but I discovered this summer that I enjoyed an occasion Iced Cappucino from Tim Horton's. Still, I don't like coffee.

I have also never truly enjoyed tea though I have tolerated it on many occasions over the years, usually while holding back a grimace and adding lots of sugar. Since I started working at Tim Horton's last year, I have been subjected to plenty of tea smells as I pour hot water over tea bags on a daily basis. The smells have been enticing and delicious to my nose even though the thought of drinking tea was not appealing.

Chai tea has been the one tea that I have come to tolerate when I want something hot and don't feel like hot chocolate. At work, we just recently added chai tea to our selection so I ordered one on our way to Sam's hockey game a few days ago. I loved it. While celebrating a friend's birthday the other night, I had a cup of chamomile tea and really enjoyed it. Yesterday, I had, not one, but two cups of Earl Grey tea, because it tasted so good. This morning, I just finished a cup of Earl Grey and my tastebuds want more.

What is happening to me? And why?

I do not have a clue, but it is a better alternative than the diet coke I am addicted to. This might be the time when I actually can break that habit. I did enter and exit a grocery store yesterday without even considering buy some diet coke. Impressive.

Three Days

Isn't it lovely? I had yesterday as well as today and tomorrow off work. While I didn't request three continuous days off, I am more than glad to have them. With all the people quitting work recently, I'm thinking that my schedule will only become fuller as the weeks go by. Still, the timing for this stretch is perfect; just when I needed more of a break than one day can provide. I did ask for tomorrow off as my dad is going in for his knee surgery and needs someone to drive him to and from. Abby was chosen as one of four students in her class to bring snacks for their class party tomorrow, so I actually have time to bake!

I do have a few errands to do around town, but they will wait until tomorrow after I drop dad off for surgery. Today, I need to bake, go to the chiropractor, catch up on laundry, clean the bathroom, carve a pumpkin, and get as much "work" done as possible. I'd really like to be able to relax and enjoy as much of my day off tomorrow as I can. It is frustrating to have a day off work eaten up with housework, appointments, and running around town. I want time to just sit and scrapbook or read or do a puzzle or something, but I doubt that this is what will happen tomorrow. I already know that I will need to go to the library and to Wal-mart and quite likely the chiropractor again. Then, there's hockey practice and picking up my dad and picking up my mom from work and being ready for trick-or-treaters.

Okay, I've had enough typing. My wrist had been doing so well...a week or so without pain until I went to work on Saturday. I thought I'd try working without wearing the support. Yeah, I lasted maybe 2 hours before the pain started up again and it hasn't exactly gone away again yet. Guess I'll keep wearing that brace at work for a while yet...

Sound of Silence

Last night, for 15-20 minutes, I sat in my van outside my friend's house. It was dark and still and the cold stole the warmth from inside my van and I sat and I talked to myself. Out loud.

Call me crazy. I don't care.

Loose Ends

I had a long post typed up the other day, went to publish, and it disappeared. How frustrating!

Sam is back home from his weekend at junior high youth conference in Chilliwack. He had a great time.

Casey had an extreme meltdown Friday afternoon after I picked him up from his sleepover. That was the Reader's Digest Condensed version. How do you deal with a 10 year old who says that killing himself would be a better alternative than living and not being able to do what he wants to do? All over a costume for Halloween...

And the kicker...last night, he was going on and on about what he's going to dress up as and it is much more benign than what he was fighting for! Aaargh!

I lost the big diamond in my engagement ring sometime on Saturday. I worked until 3pm. Kane picked me up, we came home, I changed, and we were out the door by 3:40. It wasn't until then that I noticed the gaping hole in my ring. I'd like to think that I would have noticed it missing had it been gone much earlier in the day, but I don't really know. This is the second time that I have lost a diamond from that ring. Obviously not the exact same diamond but it was the same diamond. Does that make sense? :o) So, I'm not wearing my rings as they are soldered together and I don't need four tiny prongs to scratch and catch on everything. Even today, my finger still bears the indent from my rings, and it feels as if I am wearing them.

I coloured my hair Friday night. It is now darker than it has ever been with a few highlights thrown in. The colour is called Truffle. I think I like it. Kane thinks it looks lighter, but there's no way.

We watched Napoleon Dynamite last night because Casey has been begging and begging to see it. He claims to have loved it, but the rest of us sat through it like prisoners subjected to torture. I did not find it funny. Sure, there was a plot, but it was rather thin and weak, in my opinion. I'm no movie critic; I enjoy a lot of bad movies, but this was boring. Honestly, I can't understand the hype.

My wrist has been feeling much better the past week. There has been the odd painful episodes, but they've been few and far between. Whether this is due to my chiropractic visit last week, the wrist support I've been wearing at night, or simply the natural cycle of things I do not know. The day before I went to the chiropractor my wrist felt good, and he didn't do any actual adjustments. Whatever the reason, I'm glad. Still, it's back to the chiropractor today and continue in wearing the support.

My house is a mess. I've not done very much in the way of housework during the past few weeks of pain. The kids have done some general tidying and vacuuming, but that requires my nagging. The mess is driving me crazy though, and I have this strong need to purge clutter and junk. I started on the boys' room yesterday. So much junk. Why do they keep it? We aren't big consumers so where does it all keep coming from?

Time to get ready for work.

Life's Little Adventures

I had yesterday off work, but I was a prisoner in my own home until 2:10pm. I had things that I could have done out and about except that I was waiting for a phone call from one of Sam's teachers. She had called me at work on Monday to talk, not realizing that I don't have a job that allows me time to chat on the phone, so she said she would call me yesterday. I waited and waited, did laundry, waited, watched Star Trek re-runs while doing a puzzle, and waited. Finally, I had to leave for my chiropractic appointment and I didn't stop running around until shortly after 8pm. She never called. That is so frustrating!! I could have gone out and bought a filter for the furnace and turned it on...finally. I was COLD!

The chiropractic appointment went well. It was an initial session, so no adjustments just a couple of scans and such. Some things look reasonably good, but there are some indicators that my carpal tunnel might not be carpal tunnel. It could be related to the spine. Hopefully. So, I guess I get to make regular appointments now to get everything properly aligned. Oh joy. Funny how now my neck is sore...

Yesterday morning was kind of weird. Because I didn't have to work, I was in no hurry to change from my warm jammies into real clothes, so I sent the kids off to school at 8am with the intention of taking the morning slowly. I then realized that it was Tuesday, garbage day, and I didn't think that Kane had taken the garbage out before he went to work. Rats. Quickly throwing on some clothes, I took out the garbage, although I did entertain the thought of doing so in my pjs. Perhaps if we didn't live on a major road...

After taking out the trash, I decided to start on the laundry. Gathered it all up, took it downstairs, sorted and started the first load. Then, I came upstairs and started tidying the living room. What did I see lying on the carpet? Abby's math textbook and notebook!! I checked her class calender. Yup, she had math that day. I looked at the clock. It was 8:20. The bell would ring at 8:25. I had a dilemna: take the books to her or let her live with the consequences. I hemmed and hawed before decided to take the books to her. After all, there are plenty of times when I am not available to help in class or drop off forgotten items. I didn't have socks on and didn't have the time to find some and put on running shoes, so I slipped on my sandals and took off. We live close enough to the school that I had time to run in the few minutes left until the bell rang, but I did have to actually run which is difficult to do in sandals. I must have looked a sight to all the rush hour drivers. Once I got to the school, I opted to run across the field rather than take the long way around on the sidewalk. Of course, the grass was wet and cold. My poor toes got wet and cold. Very cold. I huffed and puffed up to Abby as she waited in line outside her classroom then walked home on numb toes. It showed me how out of shape I am; my legs are stiff today.

I could write more about today's adventures, but Sam is looking over my shoulder, reading every word I type out loud, and nagging me to get off the computer so he can play some silly games. Plus, my neck is sore. Yes Sam, I did already say that. I put it in for effect and maybe a touch of humour. You know? Oh and Sam, I love you and am very proud of you for how well you did in your cross-country races this year. You improved on all your times! Way to go!!

Falling Apart at the Seams

I must be getting old; my body is falling apart or fighting back. Kane will be happy that I finally booked an appointment with a chiropractor. I've been putting it off and he's been nagging, especially since my carpal tunnel diagnosis. We ran into his chiropractor at hockey last night and Kane had him join in on the nagging. So, I just called and made an appointment for tomorrow. It's been a long time since I've been to one of those...probably 7 years or so. To be honest, I went regularly for at least two years and never noticed a difference, but I'll go.

Today, I have a doctor's appointment for something unrelated to the carpal tunnel. Just a check-up, routine thing but necessary just the same. I'm not keen on going to the doctor very often either and I've put this off long enough, too. Although, if my arm is still giving me trouble in a few weeks then I'll be making another appointment for that.

And, I ignored the voice mail message a few months ago reminding me that it was time for my eye exam. Yes, I have been putting it off, even though I really think that I might need a new prescription for my glasses. I've been having difficulty with my vision for a while now.

Despite all that, you know what concerns me the most? Sometimes my left arm (wrist and elbow) hurts very much like my right arm does, and I wonder if it's just in my head or if I'm worse off than I thought.

Season Opener

Sam's team won their first game of the season 8-5. I was only able to see the first period and maybe half of the second. When I left the score was 5-4 in our favour. Actually, I think the score was 5-4 at the end of the first period; definitely lots of action in bantam!

I admit to a little bit of 'mommy fear' while watching the game. There are some big kids and my Sam is still just a little kid. It is more than a little disturbing to me to see short kids playing such a physical sport with, or against, kids that are the size of adults. Seriously, there is at least one bantam player who is 6'4" without his skates on! Do you know how tall that is with skates on?! In house hockey, which is what Sam plays, there is no body checking. In theory anyway. In yesterday's game, there were more than a dozen penalties, many of which were for body checking or roughing or cross-checking. It might not be tolerated, but a penalty after the fact does little to protect a smaller player from being plastered by someone twice his size. And you'd better believe that I am quick to notice which players tend to take more liberties with the body than I would like. In previous years, there has been a 3 strikes rule in hockey. Any player who had three penalties in one game was ejected from the game. I don't know whether the rule is non-existent or just different in bantam, but there were two players (one from our team and one from the other) who had at least 5 or 6 penalties each.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed being back in an arena watching hockey. My name is Angela and I am a rink rat. Yes, I am. It is quite possible that I have been in every hockey rink in southeast Saskatchewan as my dad played a fair bit of hockey when I was younger. Given a choice, I think I would always choose hockey to watch over any other sport with the only real competition being Canadian football. My dad played a lot of football, too. Okay, he played a lot of fastball, softball and slo-pitch as well. I remember well playing under the bleachers at the ball diamonds with my sister, finding beer bottle caps back in the days before screw caps, and chasing foul balls to return for a piece of Dubble Bubble. There's just something about hockey that I love. It doesn't matter if it is the NHL, the WHL, the world juniors, the Olympics, or just my 13 year old son in bantam house.

Sam has a game this afternoon. It should be exciting...

Expecting the Unexpected

So I am sitting at work, eating my soup and enjoying my break, when my boss comes and sits down. Uh oh! Instantly I am worried that he's going to ask me to work on one of my days off, but instead he says that they are giving me a raise on my next paycheck because I am a valuable employee. (translation: they are desperate to keep me) Wow! I must say that I am a little surprised having just received a raise within the past two months, but I won't turn it down.

Also, he asked if I was interested in becoming a trainer which is one step up from your basic peon. To the best of my knowledge, a trainer is someone who trains new employees (obviously) and there might even be more to it than that. I don't really know for sure. They would like an answer by the weekend. Being a trainer is something that has crossed my mind, although I would never have chased after it on my own accord. It is somethign that Kane and I have discussed several times, but I have always said that I would wait until I was asked to even think about it. I do believe that I am capable, but I don't have the availability that I always assumed they would want for someone with more authority. Maybe I was wrong. Or maybe they're just desperate. Maybe both answers are correct.

Of course, I will discuss it with Kane first,but I do believe that I will accept the offer so long as they don't expect my hours to change. I'm ready. It isn't that I chafe under someone else's authority, but I do like having authority of my own.

Ho-hum!

That's how I feel. I had the day off yesterday with thoughts of doing several things. In the end, I did very little and accomplished even less. Well, I did get the laundry finished but that's hardly exciting. I had the entire day to do as I pleased and I did next to nothing. I felt too blah and unmotivated.

Today's day off turned into a day off with a two and a half hour work shift thrown into my morning. Now I am back home with a lot of free time ahead of me and my list of things to do is the same size as yesterday, but I am once again mellowing into a puddle of motionless tissue. Actually, I really don't have as much time today as I would need to do all that I want to do. It is Wednesday, our crazy day of the week. But I can't even come up with inspiration for supper. How pathetic is that.

My arm hurts. My fingers feel swollen and numb. My elbow and wrist hurt. The brace helps but it isn't a miracle worker. At least when I thought it was tendonitis, I had the expectation that this pain was only temporary. Now I'm not so confident that the pain will end, although I am not overly concerned about the long term prognosis as of yet. So, I guess I could blame my blah feelings on my dysfunctional arm, but I know that it is not that simple.

Life is never as simple as I'd like it to be. In general, life is good and I am blessed and happy. However, there are also questions, doubts, fears, concerns, and mixed feelings that weigh heavily on my shoulders. Most of the time I can stand strong and steady beneath the burden, but times do arise when I'm a little weary of standing and I don't feel nearly strong enough. I make every effort to cast these cares upon my heavenly Father's shoulders, but even doing that does not break the ties wrapped around my heart.

If that sounds rather cryptic, so be it. I'm fine, really. Just rather blah, you know.

In other news, I think Sam will have a good year in hockey this season. There are a couple of familiar faces on his team and the parents all seem to be good people. The head coach has laid out his philosphy and goals for the season and they look great. One of the assistant coaches is a former NHL player, so the boys will have lots of opportunity to learn from someone who has won a Stanley Cup. It's kind of exciting actually. And, our practice nights are on Tuesdays from 5:30-6:30. We couldn't have picked a better night for our family!

I'm not going to spell check this, so I will apologize now for any errors in this post or any future ones. A handful of numb fingers do not always push the correct keys or in the correct order. I've caught as many as I could at the time, but I don't want to spend mroe time than needed at the computer.

Giving Thanks

Things I am thankful for, in no particular order:

*God's grace and mercy
*Kane, my bestest friend and the one who completes me
*Sam, Casey and Abby-they bring me much joy and potentially grey hairs but I love them dearly
*turkey dinners with all the fixings
*autumn colours
*best friends and familiar faces
*flannel sheets, well-worn sweaters, cozy blankets, a mug of hot chocolate...anything warm and cozy
*good bosses
*bedtime
*ibuprofen
*diet coke vanilla black cherry
*holidays and the end of holidays
*ice packs and heat packs
*pumpkin pie...made by me
*hot bubble baths
*music
*fall colours and smells
*television season's premiers (no more re-runs!)
*good books
*days off
*hockey season has begun
*leftover turkey
*aches and pains
*God's Word

Diagnosis

It's been a while since I have updated my blog. My arm has been too sore to do a lot of typing, a lot of anything really. It was really bad yesterday, so I stopped at the doctor's clinic after dropping my boys off at church last night. The waiting area was empty, so I was in and out quick enough. The diagnosis is not what I expected though. I had assumed that this was tendonitis as the pain is somewhat similar to the tendonitis I have had diagnosed in my other wrist before. Instead, the doctor believes that I have carpal tunnel syndrome.

I suppose it is good to have a diagnosis, even one that I am not very happy about, as it gives me direction for appropriate treatment and preventative measures. I know that surgery is an option at one end of the CTS spectrum, but I don't think I'm anywhere close to that end yet. The doctor did recommend wearing a wrist support especially at night when I sleep. A stop at London Drugs and $40 later, I was the proud new owner of an ugly but sturdy wrist support. There was a difference this morning after wearing it all night. It wasn't a dramatic difference. My arm wasn't miraculously painfree, but the numbness and tingling in my fingers had lessened. Of course, after a day of working, the pain, numbness and tingling are right back in action. I wore the support while at work otherwise I would have only exacerbated the problems with all the bending of my wrist. With the support, my wrist was immobile, but it sure made ordinary actions a little more difficult. Pouring coffee required much more motion from my entire arm. I'm not sure if my difficulties in grabbing change out of the till was from the support or if it was merely a side effect of my digital numbness. I dunno.

So, I have my support. If there's no improvement then eventually I will need more testing. I guess.

The bright side is that this has given me a great out at work. It has been keeping me off of the sandwich bar station, and I am so glad. For one thing, the slicing motion is brutal on my arm, and secondly, the sandwich bar is just a crazy place to be these days.

Here's a quote from my daytimer which puts a smile on my face:

"Experience is the comb life gives you after you lose your hair." -Judith Stern