well, i made it home safely late saturday night and have just been chillin' at home mostly (well, i say mostly, but it has only been one day afterall). Amy was over for dinner last night which was nice. Today i am going out to spend a few days with my grandparents to catch up with them.

its weird coming home to stay with my parents in PEI this time. usually when i come back (from wherever) my room looks the same as it always has: bed, books, photos,  etc. But this time it has been radically transformed. Since i moved to Toronto i took pretty much everything with me: bed, books, photos, etc. So, "my room" is now "my Mom's office". yes, that day has finally come - i am a guest in my parents home. i'm not complaining though. change is change is change. and it is usually for the best. now, if they change the locks when i try to come home next time, then i might be complaining.

so, i must go throw a few things in a bag to take to Montague. and there is a lady out there who gives great massages, pedicures, and manicures, so i might look into that too while i'm there. a pedicure for sure. ahhhh.

There is a circular that goes around work on a monthly basis called City Views. I rarely read it. But today, since i forgot to pick up the Metro on the way to work (to do the crossword) i found City Views while cleaning off my desk. And surprise surprise - i learned something new!

It told me what the different color stripes on the rainbow/pride flag represent. wanna know? huh? do ya?

ok. ok.

• red = life
• orange = healing
• yellow = sun
• green = serenity with nature
• blue = harmony
• purple = spirit

Another work week gone and followed by a fun weekend spent with Ffoeg in town. His birthday is on Halloween and since that's just around the corner the weekend started with presents. Who wouldn't love that?

The one guarantee when G is in town is eating breakfast out. Daniel joined us at 5 Alarm on saturday morning and sunday morning found us at Fran's. I think Fran's actually gives G the last-day-in-town feeling. If i by accident took him there on a saturday it would probably ruin the whole weekend.

We spent most of saturday at the Ski & Snowboard show. We took the chance to meet up with some cousins there too. I managed to not purchase anything - altho a Burton toque (sp?) attempted to woo me.

It was nice to just hang out with G this time. It was more sitting around and catching up and making dinner instead of going out. A nice change from heading to movie or game or something-for-the-sake-of-doing-something. I like that. I'm definitely the type of person who would rather spend time with someone over dinner then going out to a party or club.

Anyhow, I'm back to work because its Monday. But not a bad Monday. I am working late this week so i get to sleep in a bit. Sleeping in makes Melda a very happy camper. Plus I know that in 5 more sleeps i'm heading home for a few days. It'll be good. I miss Amy.

i can't believe that its been so long since i've written here. and all the same it doesn't seem like much has happened which is worth recording. i'm still not up to my old tricks just yet, but about 78% there. just tired by times.

i worked some overtime today. starting at 10am means just enough time to sleep in, have cereal, and get to Daniel's to take care of the turtle before i headed to work. a 6pm finish means enough time to eat and sit down to watch a DVD before bed. a friend had lent me The Man in the Iron Mask. I only got about 45 minutes into it before i had to turm it off. CSI: Miami was half over and way more interesting. even on a fuzzy tv channel. kudos to geoff for not letting me see it in the theatres while in Edmonton.

i finished reading my profile book about Jack Kerouac. all the way through i just kept thinking that he was kind of a jerk. he was fairly disturbed and in turn his life story was by times quite disturbing. i have no interest now in reading his books (not that i did before). i still have another profile book written by Barry Miles about William Burroughs, but i think i will hold off on that. instead i've switched things up and finally got around to reading The Favorite Game by Leonard Cohen.

Cohen's first novel was a semi-interesting read (i especially enjoyed the section where Lawrence goes to work at the camp and encounters Martin Stark) but even that does not redeem the novel entirely. it was a book that required a lot of focus to follow and not in a way that i found intriguing. it took me longer to get through the 239 pages than i thought it would. i would be interested in reading his second novel (and final novel, unless you count Death of a Lady's Man a novel) Beautiful Losers and see if his style changed as he matured.

i will take on the challenge, starting tomorrow, of reading TheBeauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. It was meant to be a doctorate thesis and i have heard that it is not an easy read. But it has been recommended many times over the years. Better late than never i figure. <---That should be my mantra.

Thank you ever-positive Mandy (and even Nick) for your kind words. And things are actually beginning to look up - my blood tests for mono and anemia came back negative.

Even better, since i have had no appetite to speak of, i had a craving for President's Choice Decadent Chocolate Chip cookies. which can only be positive, right?!

And Mandy i have a tip for you! since you have unfortunately fell to illness as well of late. my Dr told me that its a myth that drinking a lot of oj will help get you better sooner. there are no studies that prove that vitamin C actually helps fight a cold, and oj apparently has way more sugar than we should be taking in. he suggested Powerade or Gatorade as an alternative since it contains salt and electrolytes that our bodies need when we are sick.

Hope it helps.

Turns out that being sick for two weeks with fever, sore throat, loss of appetite, serious congestion, shallow breathing, and zero energy levels means (in my case) that you have pneumonia. booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

I am still going to work though, since it is a milder bronchial case. And because I am not going into work until 11am each day I am fairly rested by the time I get up. It does pretty much mean that I am ready for bed again right after work though. The medications they gave me tend to make me drowsy, so I am sleeping better - which is much preferred over waking myself up in a coughing fit.

Jeannie is coming up for the weekend again too, which should be fun. I hope that I feel a positive health difference by Saturday at least. We are for sure going to go eat at green mango and I’d liked to be able to appreciate it. Also, thinking about going to see Garden State again, since I really liked it and Jeannie hasn’t seen it yet (side note: for an interesting read here is Zach Braff's blog), and maybe a walk down at the beaches or the Island. We’ll see. Nothing too serious.

And does anyone know why the Mary Tyler Moore theme song is permanently on repeat in my head?

I don't think that there is anything i dislike more than being sick. except for maybe Canadian Idol, oh, and i don't like to be being kept waiting.

i actually took the day off work today (something i feel marginally guilty about), to sleep and try to recouperate. i've drank about 6 litres of orange juice this week and every second meal includes soup. good thing i like soup. i also have been taking echinacea and ibuprofen and vitamin C. i'd take just about anything if i thought it would stop the sneezing, fever, sore throat (the worst of them all) and cough. but nothing works incredibly well.

basically, i have decided that i will feel infinitely better starting tomorrow.