Head. Killing. Me.

I woke up with this fecking headache and haven’t been able to shake it all day. It’s an all over thing and it feels good to apply pressure behind my ears and base of my neck. But I can’t keep doing that all day or I won’t get any work done.

I wonder what brought it on. I’m caffeinated. I’ve taken the Aleve. I’ve eaten. Maybe it’s psychological. Or stress. Who knows. Xmas has been stressful but only because Shan’s been hard to shop for this year. Today is the anniversay of the day my dad died. No matter how I try to forget about it, I can’t help but think about him today as I do every year. It was a scary day. Maybe that’s why my head hurts.

Meh who knows. I should get on with some work although even that’s difficult to do today. Everyone’s in a festive mood and there’s food everywhere so there’s a general atmosphere of frivolity and easygoing-ness around. It’s really nice. I love working here.

This weekend the kidlet and I will spend Christmas eve with the Gs and I’ll be making mom’s yam recipe. Apparently I have her touch with them according to everyone who ate them at Thanksgiving. So this will be the second time I’ve ever cooked yams 🙂 Then Shannon and I will head home and futz around the house until it’s time to send her to bed and I can lay out the Santa stuff. Yes she’s 14 but we still do the whole Santa thing. When she was younger though we’d always read ‘Twas the Night before Christmas’ together after setting out cookies and milk. She wouldn’t go until we’d done that. I kind of miss that.

But blink and they grow up. Those of you folk who read this and have wee ones remember to cherish every single moment you can with them because soon they’ll be older and going to high school or college, driving cars and generally doing the growing up thing. Take lots of pictures, and record them a lot too – video and audio. I have some lovely tapes of Shannon and my mom reading stories together when she was a toddler that I just adore.

Anyway, then in the morning I’ll be cooking up a batch of my special french toast and maybe some bacon. Shannon’s going to whip up the hot chocolate and we’ll settle in and open pressies. It’s going to be lovely 🙂

I think I’m running low on my scrap metal content. Yesterday and today I’ve had to fight to keep my eyes open. So it’s either low iron rearing up or it’s too fecking hot in this building and the urge to be cozy and sleep is rampant. Either way I’ll be stocking up on the spinach and steak. Nothing says Merry Xmas like bloody meat and slimy vegetables 🙂

Had a bit of a row with the kid this morning when she storms out of her room at 20 past 6am because she’s panicked that she’s missing her orchestra breakfast. She was supposed to be there at 6am.

WTF is the orchestra teacher trying to do to me? I’m just waking up at 6am. And Shan is definitely not a morning person to begin with so my question is, is she trying to kill us? Because frankly I can’t tell you how much I look forward to being even more of a zombie at work because I had to get up at stupid o’clock to get the kid to a cheap restaurant. Unfortunately I had to break it to her that she just wasn’t going to make it. There was just no way on earth both of us could get ready for the day in 15 minutes.

She was a little miffed at me, but I thought it was a good lesson for her in making sure she’s prepared for these kinds of things instead of leaving them til the last minute and then forgetting to suss out the important details until I’m stumbling out of bed and she has to leave in 15 minutes.

Unfortunately upon arriving at work and reviewing the article in the paper regarding the event I found out that the damn thing wasn’t this morning anyway. It’s on Thursday. *sigh*

I’m kind of digging on Gael Garcia Bernal. Man… He’s amazing. And hot. And amazing. And did I say hot? Tonight I watched him in “Bad Education” which is an Almovodar film. Really excellent movie. After I was looking up user comments on the IMDb for the film and for Gael and found a link to this short film he did called “The Last Post.”

Check it out sometime if you’ve got 16 minutes to spare. It’s pretty moving.

Man I am so loving Netflix. All of these Gael movies I want to see and very few of them at the local vid shop 🙂

So yes, I’m digging on Gael but I’m not entirely sure whether it’s because he’s amazing or hot. The mood I’m in it could very well be that the man is just beautiful eye candy. But then again he’s done some interesting films that I’ve enjoyed and he’s impressed me in each role. There’s an intensity in him I like. Or maybe it’s the eyes. Or the lips.

Or maybe I’d better go take a cold shower.

Here is the Straight Dude’s Guide to Brokeback Mountain (thanks Mike) which I found amusing.

Thank Elvis I don’t have to worry about dragging some insecure “better half” to see it. Being single rawks. No, my only problem wil be finding a theatre in this red state where it’s playing.

In other news today, it’s snowing. Again. Well, not at the moment but it was on the drive to work. I think it’s going to be a rough winter. Also, Josh Fosbrink is leaving GMN. Today was his last day as weatherman. Maybe they’ll quit doing those annoying bus honks during the weather report now. Now if they could get Stacey Skrysak to stop enunciating every single syllable I’d be a happy camper.

Mmmmmm Earl Grey tea is da bomb.

Anyway better get back to it.

There’s nothing like Fanatical Christians to take the joy out of the season. Without getting into my own religious preferences, I just want to say that if I have to read one more comment, hear one more news story, come across one more holy-roller who tells me how I should wish seasons greetings this year I might just scream and celebrate it in July instead.

When this whole idiotic “War on Christmas” story came out a couple of weeks ago, I just sort of rolled my eyes and dismissed it from my mind. But apparently, dedicated Christians have glommed onto this nonsense issue in a big way and now everywhere I turn I have them dictating to me where I should and shouldn’t shop, how I should articulate my well wishes for my fellow man and dropping I’m-better-than-you comments on blogs I love to visit.

It’s pissing me off. And the thing that pisses me off the most is that the most vocal are the sheep who haven’t bothered to do their research. There’s no evil meaning in typing “Xmas” over “Christmas.” There’s no malicious, subversive intent when a shopkeeper says, “Happy holidays.” I don’t understand why this suddenly became an issue. Stores have been saying “holidays” for years. It’s a holiday season for crying out loud – Thanksgiving, XMAS, and the New Year. They’re just trying to cover their bases.

So basically I just wanted to rant about this freaking idiotic “war” and say, “get over yourselves morons.”

Happy holidays 🙂

Well this week ended well. That’s good. Now that we’re past the “incident” or whatever you want to call it, it seems like everything’s just… better. Last night we got to see “Serenity” on the Superscreen and it rocked. Such a great movie that nobody saw.

Today we drove to Lincs to hang out with Aunty Jo and family 🙂 We did some xmas shopping which is good because I haven’t really bought a thing yet for anyone. And lovely lovely Hannah gets fabulous discounts at the cool little shops so I saved some dosh which rocked much. We started out at a place called “Eyes of the World” and if my sister ever read this blog she’d smile and nod knowing what a cool place it is. Well sis, your xmas present came from there so ner 🙂

Then it was over to Avant Card which is a fun card shop downtown where they have quirky cards and fun little tchotchkes. I found some more pressies there for Kelly and part of a gift for Gary. Our last stop was Ruby Begonia’s which is a vintage clothing store where I found something for Kelly’s bf.

It’s been a great day so far. Next up is a White Elephant party tonight where i had to dig up a couple of closet gifts 🙂 You know, stuff you get as a present that goes right in the closet. The idea at a white elephant party is you bring something from the closet, and then you leave with someone else’s closet item. Sounds fun. Jo says it’s the one party they make it a point to go to every year.

Anyway I should probably tidy up a little. Laters.

The past 24 hours have been an absolute nightmare. Traumatic, scary, emotionally draining – you name it. And if it was that way for me, it must have been twice all of that for my daughter. She is definitely getting any damn thing she wants for the next few days.

I’m not going into detail here. Those of you who know me IRL probably already know what happened. But it’s over now and it worked out to our immense relief and many tears.

Now we’re both completely shattered. Tonight we’re going to enjoy our Netflix movies, some hot chocolate, and then our warm toasty beds. Tomorrow everything will be better.