The Tuesday Special

I needed a new ( temporary) title this week. Tuesday Confession is alive and well, just shelved for the Holidays. This week I offer a festive alternative...Tuesday stories from The Dominican Republic. I really need the visual aids aka nice pictures but I've never been patient . Instead of Tuesday stories, I have my own title. Really fucking great moments. Yeahh, thats good! Voila...

1. Our second full day in Punta Cana we went on a day long excursion by Jeep. We drove through villages and farms, plantations, orchards and roadside markets of every kind. The girls saw how coffee beans are grown and cocoa beans are roasted. They visited a real elementary school house, ate a local Dominican lunch, rode horses. I was privy to a wonderful scene. My girl, standing on the stoop in a small village store, handing out mini boxes of smarties to the local children. One group shook the boxes collectively but didn't know how or if they should open the box. Jade proceeded to show them how you can jam an entire mini box of smarties in your mouth and store em in your cheeks. You go girl!

2. The horse back ride was scenic, but uneventful. Walking back to the barn, I saw the opening to a fruit orchard. It was beautiful. There were grapefruit trees, banana trees, all nestled in rich green grass. Our guide, a young Dominican boy noticed my gaze and asked if I liked the ride. I grinned, pointed to the orchard and told him I wanted to run a horse through there. He nodded a moment and then said.. well we can if you like. YES! When everyone else was back, set up with the guide discussing the roasting process for coffee, I snuck back to the barn and found the boy.
I wanted one of their horses for starters, not a horse they set up for the tourists. He gave me a little badass that loved to run...one soft heel nudge and I found myself gripping the reins and pressing my cheek against the side of his face to avoid being pistol whipped by tree branches coming at me 100/kms per hour . The ride was fucking incredible. The salty, ocean breeze in my hair , the scent of ripe fruit , the steady gallop. I was so thankful for the experience. I slipped the boy $20 American which is about 3 days pay for him. In Canada , its the cost of a Grande bold , nut muffin with fruit for breakfast. Besides, I loved his smile. It was absolutely infectious.

A Peek

THIS is why I had to ditch everyone in my extended family and run off to Punta Cana! Look at me...pale..and OLD looking. I needed some beachtime.

and this is how the rest of us looked. Very very pale -laughs- Keep in mind, this is immediately upon landing in the Dominican, awake since 2 am.

I have, altogether..3 underwater cameras, about 75 digital images and 90 minutes edited of video. I'd like to make a movie.

I have some great stories, but some needs pics. I'd like to share.. I just need to extract and upload pictures. Soon. Very.

Hola!

I'm baccccck. Lots of stories, lots of pictures but I arrived back into Canada just in time for The Canadian Bell Cup hockey tournament which Drew is in. I promise I'll update everything when the tourament is over Wednesday.

Cheers!

Some last words...

My apologies for missing Tuesday Confession Day. Truth is I've been making myself crazy getting ready for this trip. I promise to resume the dark, seedy ( and thus far illegal) Tuesday Confessions after the Holidays.

I've been unusually emotional lately. This trip has me experiencing all kinds of feelings simultaneously. The biggest emotions by far are joy and pride. Wednesday was the girls
Christmas Production at school. Drew was the lead character in the story; a snowman with a big heart. She was fantastic . She made the audience laugh right on cue and I learned that my daughter can be quite the performer . She was loving the attention and I was so proud of her. Jaden was one of the choir characters and remembered all her lines! I was very proud of her too. They looked so happy up there. They have both been so excited about this trip. We've been counting sleeps religiously and every morning for the past week I've been waking them up with the daily weather report... in Punta Cana. My heart swells when I hear them giggle or see their faces light up with smiles. My faithful readers are all parents so you can all understand what I'm articulating here. My children are experiencing life in a way I never did. They feel safe and loved and valued. They climb personal heights everyday and can bask in victory because both are so talented in their own way. Now that they are older, we are travelling more. From the time they were babies Scott and I always agreed we wanted our children to be aware of the world around them. We wanted them to travel and understand other cultures. We strongly encourage them in sport. I think it's so important for girls to be in sports. Not only does it strengthen their bodies and their minds but it also teaches them they are capable of anything. Watching them play hockey blows my mind ( yes, even at 6 am on a -40 February morning)

I get enormous pleasure from my career, Scott, my friends, my sports but there is no pleasure greater than what I get from having those 3 girls in my life. I am blessed to have been chosen for them.

Even in joy, there is saddness. This is the first Christmas of my life without my Grandmother.
The sight and smells of Christmas remind me of her and I find myself in tears at least once a day lately. I miss her so very much. I've packed her tree ornament and it will be placed on our 8 inch Christmas tree in Punta Cana, front and center.


Before I leave for the next 8 days, I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and offer some wise words. If you're in my life life and in my heart, trust me; you've earned your place. My love, my trust and my friendship doesn't come easily. Please enjoy the holidays. Spend it with family and friends and love alot. For me, its' the beginning of the end of a very transitory year in my life. I've had alot of pain in 2008 but with pain comes growth and wisdom and the ability to be joyful once more. I am thankful for the roads I've chosen, lessons learned, people who have held out their hand to me along the journey. It's highly likely you're one of those people. I'll be thinking of you over the Holidays

Pure Pride...

In Anticipation..

There are absolutes

Death
Taxes
Debt
Nagging wives
Sick Children
Dead Pets
Broken Cars
Husbands who get drunk at Christmas parties and come home thinking they are Romeo

Which one will occur tonight?

Countdown to Sunshine, Surfing and Hairy Men in Speedos

Countdown To Punta Cana

Gross Factor

The dogs were out today and when I called, they all came in except Maggie, my black lab, I called and called for over 2 hours. No Maggie. Finally, she comes home and I'm very relieved as I had a moment of fear thinking she maybe fell through the ice. I'm baking some sugar cookies for the hockey team and I hear this awful gurgling sound right beside me in the kitchen. Its Maggie. She's looks like she's being taken over by aliens. Her stomach is constricting and she's trying to bring something up. From there it switches to slow motion... she brings up an entire half eaten rabbit complete with skin and fat right there on the kitchen floor. I scream and run for the phone. If you didn't know, I'm horrified by vomit. I can't look at it, clean it, smell it, hear it or else I'm right in there throwing up too. When the kids have a stomach bug Scott has always been in charge of clean up. I can do colds, I can do blood, anything but vomit. I call Scott freaking out and he laughs. Tells me to put a box over top of it and he'll deal with it when he gets home. I'm baking fucking COOKIES! I can't just step over the enormous pile of bile and dead rabbit flesh while decorating my gingerbread men. I have a small predicament Scott says. Gee, ya think????

Drew is in the background giggling, watching how this all plays out. I turn to her with pleading eyes. I tell her; You know Mommy can't clean this. Daddy says to wait but I need to bake these cookies for YOUR team....She starts laughing and tells me to get lost while she cleans it. She cleaned it up in 10 seconds and didn't bat an eye. Mommy loves you the mostest today baby girl!

Is it Tuesday Already?

Funny thing about these Tuesday Confessions; none of you are surprised by anything I write.
There is no shock and awe . What can I conclude from that? A; I'm seriously boring B; I talk about myself way too much and you've heard all my stories or C; I'm crazy and capable of anything so nothing is shocking anymore

Which is it?

Ok, this weeks confessions... something old and something new.

When I was 8, I set our backyard on fire. My 3 best friends were boys and our favourite game was Fireman. My stepfather smoked cigarettes so I would steal his matches before sneaking out to play . Me and my friends would set a small fire with sticks, pass around the toy red fire helmet and whoever wore it had to drop their pants and pee on the fire. We'd done it so many times before we never once thought of it possibly being dangerous until the day I couldn't pee. Yep, thats right. The flame is growing and growing and there I am squating, trying to pee and I can't. The boys see the flames grow so they try and pee. By then, they are so scared they can't pee either. We panic. We almost run until one of the boys reminds us that the whole backyard is gonna go up if we don't put this fire out. We start stomping like crazy and finally, it goes out but not before leaving a 6x6 foot burn circle. I tried to cover it up with leaves and branches but no cigar. Years later I can appreciate the irony of getting spanked with one of the sticks I was going to set fire to at a later date.


I take a bath every night. It's how I wind down. I take a bath and smoke a joint. I'm habitual
with both. One thing you may not know...The last thing I do before I get out of the tub is pee.
It's my little secret rebellion.

The Christmas Party Dress...Like the Shirley Temple Curls?

My Backyard this morning.. simply gorgeous

Thats Maggie; my black lab, by the water..

Just call me hippy...

For The Boys in my Heart...

http://mithuro.com/presscuefiles/january/beer_goggle.swf



Drink responsibly this holiday boys. I like you

The days little jabs left a hole

It was nothing major...just a series of mishaps and sanditypical paranoia. Of course now I'm having a full blown anxiety attack. Don't all act shocked or anything.

I've been a little overwhelmed at work but it's virtually impossible for me to ask for help. I have to do it alone to feel accomplished. Its always been that way. I've been exhausted this week so I broke down this morning and went to HR to request some admin support one day a week. No problem they claim. In fact they have someone perfect in mind already and coincidently I'd be doing THEM a favor, offering some work/mentoring. A student who has a decline in weekly hours until March. My one day a week would bring him back up to a fulltime work week. Its a win/win situation. I think thats what the note on the end of the dangling carrot read. I spent 2 hours giving him a brief introduction to my contract and then proceeded to show him what I needed done. I left him with a very basic project for about 2 hours while I caught up on something else and scheduled my meetings for next week. As I'm leaving for the day, I stop by to see his progress on this particular project as it is due by day end tomorrow. I asked him to prep and code 30 expense reports. I knew it would take longer than 2 hours but I was hoping for at least half done . Well. No.

He completed ONE! Just ONE! Even worse.. he was all fucking proud of his accomplishment.
So, I lost 3 hours of time today just so that I can tack it on to my day tomorrow to finish this project. Thats very helpful, thank you.

I had to go to the mall tonight. I need pantyhose for my office Christmas party Saturday. I figured in and out. No fuss. Well. No.

They don't have my size. Either too big or too small. I see a saleslady, grab one of each size
and go over to her, askng her which is the safest bet. She looks me over, then to my complete shock says " Well, you're kind of hippy so I'd go with the larger size." What the FUCK does that mean? I know she doesn't mean Bohemian. She means I have huge birthing hips that need to be contained. I came home , stripped naked and proceeded to stare at my hippiness in utter distain. Somehow in the last 20 minutes during the drive home, I grew enormously. Thankyouverymuch lady for the mind fuck, because I haven't been obsessive enough lately about my body.

On the way home my blackberry goes off. An e-mail from my client . Here is what it says;

"I'll be in Ottawa next week and would like to meet ( insert name of office manager) and discuss the state of affairs with both of you"

Someone PLEASE decode that because in my twisted, paranoid brain that says; I think we're dropping the firm and taking our contract elsewhere.


So, I'm overwhelmed with work, my assistant blows which might just be completely irrelevant because my contract may get yanked and if it couldn't get worse, I apparently have huge hips.

Shoot me now.

Please

Tuesday Confession

Sometimes, I have this very uncomfortable thought...

What if the dead CAN come back and observe your life. What if there is some universal law that prohibits the deceased from freaking you out and appearing in your chicken soup . They can
watch you, follow you etc.. but they can't make themselves known.

I leave you with a question. What would/ wouldn't you change about your day to day life if you knew they were watching?