God bless Gawker. Hilarious photo-blogging on the Oprah show.

The best bit is the comment under the photo fo Nan Talese..

Guess who got a job?!?!

So I signed up for bowling. Initially I was hoping it would be for Mondays but unfortunately it filled up fast, and since I signed up late, I got stuck on Wednesdays. I do know some people playing though so that's good. The sucky part is it sort of conflicts with C's Brownies night, but SO said he'd pick her up if I dropped her off, so it's all good.

Hammer was nice enough to drop C off last night, since her daughter Z is also in Brownies and SO wasn't feeling so well. He seriously needs sleep and he isn't feeling well so it's bringing on some insomnia. Poor boy.

I was a total slacker last night for supper too and just made some re-heated schnitzel & rice but the kids didn't care so it was all good. And SO is just glad to be fed most of the time he doesn't complain, haha.

Tonight it will be chicken balls, egg rolls, and pineapple rice.

Now to fold laundry. One of my top 5 of hated household chores.

Huh. Well, there you have it. A new party in charge in over a decade. I felt like calling Hell to see if it had frozen over yet... and look at that voter turnout! Twice the reason to call!

(Screen capture from Elections Canada website... http://www.elections.ca)

I have a job interview Monday... eeeeeeeeee I'm nervous! It's at the bank where my mom works, she gave them my resume and they were all "if she has even half the work ethic you do she's hired" and hooray! Because I totally do (which is clear if you've kept up with my journal over the years or if you've known me long, but may be news to some of you newlings).

It's working the mortgage help desk, which is fine because I worked there as a student lo years ago when the bank was under a different name. The lady called me last night to set it up... unfortunately I didn't get the message until this morning, but she wanted me to call her first thing Monday to set it up...

The hours are PERFECT too, 10 am to 3 pm so I can drop the kids off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon! Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy

hopehopehopehopehope

There are days where nothing pleases me more than good conversation with an old friend. Today was one of those days, and I was blessed.

Not that there was anything wrong with the previous site design; I wanted to change things around a bit. I feel better when I am creating something which explains why I have so many dang projects on the go. That's me in the background picture. Yup. I'm so vain. And the song probably is about me. (haw haw)

C is sick; she has a pretty nasty cough and a bit of a fever but that didn't stop her from pestering the kitten most of the afternoon. K is just getting over something so it figures. My throat feels scratchy but is also sore from the tooth extraction.

Today my little corner of the world was covered in ice. It was beautiful but also a pain in the arse as I had errands to run and clearly didn't get around to half of them. It took me ages to scrape all the ice off the car because we need a new scraper. Put that on the list of things.

I feel zonked but it's probably from broken sleep due to caring for the kids. Hopefully I'll get some real rest soon.

Criminals sure are getting sloppy...

So the tooth? Extracted just this morning. The dentist abashed agreed that it was probably his doing that it had to be removed in the first place. A messed up filling killed the nerve. *sigh*

It's a molar and you can't even tell when I smile that it's gone, so that's good but now... owies. The freezing didn't hurt, the pulling was very weird but nothing I wasn't used to, having had 4 impacted wisdom teeth extracted in a similar manner (I had them done 4 weeks in a row, 1 per week instead of going under and having it done all at once).

Thank goodness for Motrin.

I spent an hour with C tonight holding her while she cried. She is terribly lonely and upset and says she spends more recess time by herself than playing with anyone. Most of the girls in her grade are paired off with someone. Adding insult to injury is the fact that most of the girls in her class are ones she's had little exposure to; the ones she knows better are all in the straight grade 2 class. For whatever messed up reason, the classes seem to segregate even on the outside and while sometimes she does play with her friends from last year, they more or less have their own agendas. The one girl K that she was starting to spend more time with was apparently whisked away by the ("really bossy mom, I mean I know I can be bossy but I've been so good but this girl is MEAN") girl Em and I don't know. ("Mommy, why doesn't anybody like me? Why?") What do I know? How do I repair a seven year old's self esteem?

She kept saying over and over that "All I really want is just one really good friend, mom, I don't need an army, just one. Just one." And she cried oh she cried and I cried too between trying to encourage her to just "ask others to play" ("But I do that mom, and they just ignore me! They just walk away and ignore me!") I don' t know if I'm getting the whole of it but I don't think she'd lie about the fact that she's spending her recess time alone.I have tried to teach her to be more assertive but I know her and if she says she's tried, she has tried so now what?

(And maybe, just maybe, I feel for her because I remember being little and lonely too. And that never goes away does it? It took me years to learn to be strong and to say "to hell with it" when nobody wanted me around, and I learned that my own company often was better than that of anyone else, but I will be damned if I just stand by and let her feel that way, so what do I do? Here is a girl who is cutting my heart out with her words and I don't know how to make it better. Here is a girl trusting me to somehow make it better, and I feel completely and utterly useless.)

OH MY! I WANT!

There are way too many to choose from, but I love the devil ducks best I think.

Oprah: "I'm watching James... Everyone's been asking me to release a statement... We support the book... hundreds of thousands of people have been helped by this book... I am disappointed by this controversy... because I rely on the publishers to define the category the book falls within... Although some of the facts have been questioned... the underlying message of redemption... still resonates with me... Whether or not the car rolled up on the sidewalk... is irrelevant to me... What is relevant is that he was a drug addict... and out of that...stepped out of that history... to allow other people to save themselves... What I think is this is going to open up the discussion for publishers... The bigger question is what does this mean for the larger publishing world and this new memoir category? This discussion will be furthered by the so-called controversy... Much ado about nothing... So much of the story ...is inside the clinic..."


Huh. Well, there you have it.

I think I might bookmark these predictions and see if any come true, hahha!

I think one of the best, funniest ones is:

Suicide will increase amongst Dentists.

Here are some more crazy predictions from last year!

While it saddens me a little to see it blared all over the net about James Frey's discrepancies in his "100% true" memoir, it doesn't really surprise me. Half the fun of writing is embellisment and the other half is gripping your audience with bone-crunching, blood-gushing, vomit-forming (etc) stories.

I'm dying to see if Oprah recants her decision or at the very least, asks him to return to the show so she can grill him like a shrimp-kebab. While I'm not a huge Oprah fan, I would definitely watch that one.

Regardless of all the bru-ha-ha about this, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I recommended it to many people. I stand by that recommendation. It really is a good book. It truly does take the reader along for the ride. Would my enjoyment of said book be any less? Not really. But then, I don't tend to group books like most, with labels such as "fiction", "non-fiction", "science fiction", whatever. When I initially started to read it, did I know it was a memoir? I will be honest with you, I did not. Am I surprised that the criminal aspect of his book is mostly exaggerated? Not really. Do I believe he fabricated his addiction as well? No. Being in a family with addicts, having dated an addict, having been in situations where I'm surrounded by them, there is too much ringing true for that to be in dispute. Do I believe that he probably embellished memories of his time there? More than likely. Especially the beginning of the detoxification, I mean how can you remember all that in such detail when your life is glazed over by it?

Nowhere in the Smoking Gun article is there anything disputing the addiction as well. Mind you I also tend to rate the Smoking Gun with an online version of The National Enquirer: a really good read, mostly pulp, and feeding on negative publicity. Is some of it true? More than likely. Is all of it true? Cautionary words: It's the internet. So probably not.

To recap: Frey's book? Very good. All lies? Possibly, but not likely. Do I care? Nope.

Recap for my own notes:

Resumes posted to: 2 small businesses, 3 locally owned stores, 1 chain store

Interviews: 3

Job offers: 0, thus far

Aye carumba. I forgot how much it sucks to be doing this sort of thing.

See here's the thing. I can't think about the Epiphany without thinking about my grandfather (on my father's side), and my heart makes this little lurch down to my knees, and I feel the wind knocked out of me. That's what it does. Every time.

Last night was the first evening before the Epiphany in literally 7 years that I did not dream about him.

Instead I had a dream about someone I haven't seen or spoken to in years, and we had a sincere conversation which is something we have never, ever done. And I woke up exhausted and broken and really, really sad.

And just now, I remembered, oh yes, it's that time again and I felt a queer little quiver in the space where my heart should be and then I stopped and waited for the lurch and the wind and nothing. Nothing happened.

So maybe I'm learning, little by little, to let go of the grief. But I'm still not sure about that dream. It was too vivid to dismiss.

I don't know I don't know I don't know.

YESSSS!

This should be an interesting Oscars night!

Too tired to say much except that the kids and I had a lovely day at a friend's house, I made it home in time to have dinner already ready for SO, and I had a power nap. Dinner was chicken and tortellini and peas. Mmmm.

And now I feel that it should be announced, today is the day for The Taking of the Long Bath. Possibly followed by the Usage of the Manicure Kit, and possibly Watching Girlie Movies in Leopard Print PJs. With or without a facial mask? I'll toss a coin.

Awww.

Hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve. I know I did, but I'm paying for it a little.

Ok sleep time.