Room to Breathe

My physio therapist gave me a perscription for an ankle brace. I called the clinic he referred me to to get a price range. $65 to $129, and the Aircast Sport that I was looking at is $82.50. Crap! I should send the bill to the guy who landed on me while we were double blocking! This injury is costing hundred$! Physio @ $40 per session, and the ocassional taxi ride. Plus the costs I have incurred for my family who is nice enough to pick me up and drive me to work in the morning. It’ll be 8 weeks on Thursday since the “accident”.

Sitting here @ the physio therapists, it seems my progress is improving. They still laugh @ me when I say I’m going to play in a tournament this weekend. But I try. Atleast the swelling has gone down enough that they will now fit me for a brace. 5 days walking now. I even rode the bike tonight! But they say with me walking, I should really be wearing something more supportive than a tensor bandage. So….to the Wishbone Athletic store I go this weekend, to get “fitted”.

I have small ankles he tells me; but what he didn’t say was big calves. This has always been my downfall with rollarblades and ski boots. Damn my dad’s genes. Big thighs, big calves and little ankles. And my legs are short. Doesn’t sound very attractive for a woman, but boy can I kick!

English as my first language is a blessing, and I can’t deny that. And in school I excelled in French. That being the only other language taught, until highschool when German was an option. I should have taken that option, but didn’t. I focused on French and had intended on going to university in France, until my parents divorced, I moved to a different school/city and my dreams were shattered. The French curriculum was horrible, and I was no longer encouraged. The new school offered Italian, but there wasn’t enough demand to run the course (mostly because 2/3 of the school WAS Italian!).

So I continued on this nowhere path kicking myself each day.

But now I want to get back into languages, realizing the importance. My brother is fluent in Spanish, and speaks French and Italian. He can write himself into any job!

I just want to be able to communicate with others, and I want the challenge. But I checked into some courses, and they are $200 each (requiring atleast 3). I can’t afford that, and I really can’t afford to travel. I guess I’ll keep practising the tutorials I downloaded .

My brother. 4 years ago he took a year off university to go teach English in Galapagos. There he met a girl. One of his students actually . She lives on the mainland with her grandma, and her parents live on the island. He has been back and forth many times since to see her (lost count long ago), and the last time he went (October) he asked her to marry him. Of course she said yes! But my family has never met her, because she can’t get a visa. She has applied so many times, but they view her as a flight risk because she has never travelled. Even though she is enrolled in university there, and her family is all there, she can’t get a visa.

So now my brother has started a new job. Works 60 hours a week in management, and can’t take a vacation for the first year. Which is why he went in October before he started. However, he is going for 3 days @ Christmas to see her. Nice. A weekend trip to Ecuador! He is fluent in Spanish now, and last year at this time he went to Italy because he “wanted to learn Italian”.

Three years ago he bought a house, but was in Ecuador at the time. He flew home to sign some papers, and then flew back for another week before flying home again a week later to start the September semester @ university.

He had taken so much time off for travel, that a 4 year degree took him 7 years to complete. But in that time he got a degree, learned to speak Spanish and Italian fluently, bought a house and travelled all over the world including India.

Perhaps it was my current state of mind, but I watched Corner Gas for the first time tonight, and couldn’t stop laughing!

In tonight’s episode (Season II Episode 7 - Hero Sandwich) this small deserted town is putting in a traffic light, due to the dramatic increase in traffic. 2 locals sit and count the tractors and combines going down the street @ 2km/h, and wonder what traffic they are talking about. “Perhaps they said “large” traffic” they remark. The 2 police in the town begin some safety blitz, and try to target J-walkers. The officer crosses the street to give a ticket for J-walking> Then, as it is pointed out by the citizen, that the cop J-walked to give him the ticket. She agreed and wrote herself one! The cops eventually run out of tickets, and end up giving “I-owe-yous” out.

Alright, so it is entirely stupid silly, but just watch it. I didn’t realize this was the second season. Why hasn’t someone mentioned this to me sooner?

Clever comedy, and Canadian to boot!

The problem with this statement is that woman really DO fart! Just not like men. Nope. Instead they hold it until they leave the room. Meaning that all their poop cures in their lower colon until they go and release. So…walking into a women’s public bathroom, especially after a big meal at a rally, is enough to put a hole in the ozone the size of Australia! Grab your breathe before entering and make it quick,
’cause inhalation of that much methane gas can’t be good for anyone!

I’m at a Tops Rally today. I am the youngest in my chapter, and among the youngest at the rally today. Which means my grandma, for whom I joined for, is in her element. If seniors discounts were given today on the meal, the catering company would go bankrupt!

But I did win an award. I was not expecting it and was shocked. Getting up through the crowd to accept my award on crutches was fun. The award was for “Quiet Volunteer Award”, which was probably only because they want to keep me for the rest of my life as a memeber, and think if they include me I will feel important. Besides, everyone else from my chapter is on the Executive’s? So that leaves me. I was nominated last year to be book-keeper, but that seemed to be ignored and all exec’s were re-elected into their position. Weird group. Meh. I wouldn’t mind doing the book-keeping. Easy job, and it keeps me involved.

I had dinner @ grandma’s last night. First time in 3 weeks we could enjoy our usual Wednesday night get-togethers. She’s been pretty sick, and with me on crutches things just didn’t work out.

But we ate some chili she had in the freezer, and talked for awhile before she brought up the fact that she needed to make her Christmas cake, and wasn’t really feeling up to baking yet. Last year she mentioned it, and brought up, “I don’t know who will continue to make it after I am gone. ‘You’re mom certainly won’t. Maybe a granddaughter?” she said with an obvious hint. She showed me the receipe, and I thought about it. Never realizing how much of a tradition it really is. Nor how many family traditions we actually have. It’s strange how we take things for granted.

So this year I’m gonna do it. I have the “secret” receipe that her aunt used to make, and her’s before her. She showed me her “cake logs” which says what date she made it, and how much the receipe yeilded. She told me some tricks, and gave some other suggestions.

Then we put the receipes away, and she refreshed my memory about how to knit.

Grandma’s really are wonderful, and I should be lucky to still have mine .

My poor fish. I never clean them, I just keep topping up their water, and clean the filter now and then. But somehow they survive. In fact, my Platy’s even had a baby! Something I never thought was possible (then again, I never tried).

But now all my fish have died. They have gotten old, and I think it was a sudden spike in temperature this summer that did it. 1 by 1 they all floated to the top (and then to the bottom). And now all I have left is their orphan, and the huge pleco that would only die if I took him out of water. Nothing can kill them it seems.

Three days ago I noticed the water flow in the filter was very slow. Meaning that I need to clean it . Nice how I wait until the I have to do things before doing them.

Well, I guess I cleaned it too well, because about an hour after doing so, I looked in to see how things were going. I couldn’t find the wee-one, and I thought I saw something in the intake. So I unplugged the filter, and out fly’s the little guy; with no fins.

So I did the only decent thing I could do…I fed him his last meal. I doubt he’ll make it, and I feel rotten inside.