riotheclown

Went to the baby shower and brought some of the food including another cake as per request of daughter. I made the same for her birthday in August. I took pics with my phone but it seems the lens was covered in icing and none turned out! Hopefully someone will send me some.

I did not finish the quilt in time. But I will be able to do a nice job by the time the baby comes. A BOY, they finally told me and everybody else!

G.D. was lovely! She was tired, as was I and we took a cab home. We had soft boiled eggs for dinner. After all that sugar it was enough.

I am so exhausted today. Hopefully we can just take it easy. The weather has turned cool. The furnace came on last night! Just last week had to turn on the AC! Crazy!

I worked many shifts this week asking people how they got to the Para Pan Am Games at the university location, was supplied with an Ipad, vest and name tag. It was commissioned by the Ministry of Transportation. I told them I could not do more than four hours a day and they were kind to keep it to that. As it turned two of the afternoons were rained out anyway and so they saved having to pay me for showing up to be sent home. I consistently get more interviews than any of my co-workers and fewer refusals. I guess I look harmless. Also, doing only four hours a day meant I didn't have to pace myself. People who lived downtown could go home and sleep between shifts however.

I had an oddly good time despite the exhaustion. It does seem that if I have a script I can really get out and engage people. Yesterday the supervisor was Cecilia who has her masters in Fine Arts and is from Nigeria! I showed her a picture on my phone of my quilt that has fabric from Nigeria in it and she got me an update on "King Sunny Ade" who put out a bunch of albums I loved back in the 80's. He is still alive but now plays gospel music. :( We exchanged emails.

I wrote a bunch of stuff about my health and went to put it behind a cut and found it was gone. Just as well as I was sliding into a black hole of despair talking about it.

Son-in-law decided to have a BBQ and invite a million people to celebrate daughter's 30th b'day. (30?!!! How did that happen???) I had told him I would make the cake before I knew how many were coming. It is a small cake, not enough to feed so many people, plus it looks like rain all day today.

Honestly, I love them but I hate their parties. I have to down two tequilas just bare it. They are all young, intelligent, successful people who seem to have the concerns of 50 year olds, until they get drinking and then they seem to be all thirteen year old boys; for the most part I do not relate at all. Even the ones that have kids seem to talk a different language and express concerns that I don't get. One party I found myself in a quiet corner with a lovely looking young woman who was very drunk and sad because she really wanted to have a baby but was yet unable to have a good relationship that would lead to marriage. I told her to just plan to have a baby without a man, sit down and figure out how to manage it and first to stop drinking. She confided that she was concerned about what people thought of her. And that too, I told her was not helped by drinking, in her imagination nor in reality. I did go too far when I suggest my oldest son would make a great sperm donor. (He is very nice looking!) The woman hugged me several times and cried a lot. Daughter supposedly came to one of our rescues and gave me a LOOK. Hey, don't even like parties!

I will go over early to help with the set up, though I doubt the rain will mean it can't be outside. Their little house will be bursting. I read the announcement he put on Facebook and apparently they are going bowling at some point. I really dislike bowling but no doubt I will not be expected to go. I had thought that her birthday would just be a lunch out at a restaurant with family. I have a gift that I really don't want to give her in front of a bunch of people. Perhaps I will do the set up, and greet a few guests and then do a runner.

I think too much.

If you go to the post you can see an awesome photo of them taken on Toronto's Algonquin Island.


or not, I mean, I'm the mom of the snotty kid who grew up is all.

(she and I made the dress!)

Went to lunch on the Danforth, then on to the Roger's Center for the customer appreciation day. It was surreal being able to run around the bases. Things look very different from the field. We were given free t-shirts, hot dogs and popcorn and one signature which S.I.L. got on his hat. Son in law is a huge Blue Jay Fan and was really excited to get ? 's autograph.

I was already exhausted from Hell Week with g.d. and I'm more exhausted today but I'm a sort of exhausted happy. I wish I could just spend a day in bed but Lovely Rachel and Y.S. are coming for games.

I think Rachel is hoping for a roast dinner but I never got a ride to the free range chicken butcher and the wheels sort of fell off my emotional wagon and instead I might manage Sheppard's pie.

Lovely ladies Chaase, Meagan, and little dog, Wednesday, granny sat G.D. all day. I paid them. It was well worth it.


( more pictures from my awesome day )

One of the great things about raising kids in Ottawa (and even small town Ontario) is that even if you are poor you have access to books. We had a television but to get more than one channel someone had to stand on the back of the couch holding up a metal clothes hanger attached to a wire attached to the back of the set. 
We read a lot.  I am happy to say that all three of my adult children read constantly.  I don't even think going to school is as important as learning to read and then to navigate a library index. This is something I have to thank my parents for too. I grew up seeing people reading. My father went to the library every Saturday and always picked out several novels. I liked picture books. Dr. Seuss was my favourite. I struggled to learn the rules and no other rule breaker could make me laugh the way he could.

I was a quiet kid but learned to love words. And my love of words started in the community library's children's section.

Wow.

This is my kid.  Her mom, a single parent (me) never finished high school, never owned a house.  She finished University in the top ten and now has a great career and just bought a house.

Wow.

Proud?  Yeah!