Bellini-induced Brain Freeze

My grandma had her 96th birthday this past Monday. 96th! And there was nothing we could do to celebrate it alongside her. Luckily I was able to arrange a FaceTime with her recreation staff -- I have not been able to FaceTime with her since the 2nd, more than 3 weeks ago. it's tough because the staff are only able to coordinate FaceTime with the residents during weekdays 9 to 5...and guess when my shifts are?! (Thankfully a new schedule season is starting up soon and I have arranged for compressed workweeks so I should be able to see her at least every other week.) I told her it's her birthday, but I don't think she really registered that that's a thing, or maybe she just figured we'll celebrate it together when we have a free moment. Embarrassingly she had to tell me not to cry; I don't want her to worry but I miss seeing her in person and I always fear she'll think she has been abandoned. She coughed a couple of times which of course caused a bit of c...

This weekend has been a lot of late nights just like old times, but only because we keep on watching stuff on TV until we're too tired to watch anymore. Woke up fairly late and so we made brunch late...which made me show up late for the twins' birthday on zoom. But it was great to see everyone's faces. Mom and baby sis did not make it into the chat. Later, S posted some video and photos of their birthday...there was even a community parade of strangers who decorated their cars and drove around to wish all the neighboring kids a happy birthday. Great timing! Since it was Easter I could finally have Starbucks so I ordered for drive thru and dropped off some decaf mochas for mom and baby sis in exchange for some pulled pork. :P Later on Weird Kid and his girlfriend (let's call her T, now) popped by my house with a Pizza Hut pizza and brownies for Easter. I'm glad I was able to see most of my family in person today, even if for just a minute. The only one missi...

Today I went to Superstore and picked up some groceries for Butch and I as well as for mom and baby sis. The store was not as regimented as it was when I went there last, which was actually kind of disappointing. A lot more people were not respecting the social distancing concept. So strange that they would be more lax when last week Wal-Mart was ramping up their social distancing measures. I wish they would all enforce the same protocols at the same time. I tried calling the credit card company again to dispute that odd charge on my account. While I sat on hold getting drowsy Butch pulled up a way to dispute the charge online, but through the normal website and not on the app. Phew, so much better than sitting on hold. Here's hoping they can shed some light on the mystery. Tomorrow is Easter and it's going to be so weird to attend Easter Mass online and be apart from the family. Mom was making some pulled pork for tomorrow and she offered some if I wanted to come pic...

Another fun night zooming with my friends. Not without technical difficulties, though. :( We thought we'd try Google Hangouts and then Google Meet because of the security concerns with Zoom. But sadly I kept freezing or lagging with the Google apps. I still kind of froze at times with Zoom tonight for some reason. But the big annoyance with me about keeping on meeting through Zoom was the 40 minute limit. So they got me; I subscribed tonight because I figured 20 dollars a month is a small price to pay to be able to stay connected all night without having to add a new meeting code every 40 minutes. We also played more Cards Against Humanity together. I was on a roll! Also was super happy when Golf Girl and R messaged me asking if we were still chatting tonight. They were looking forward to it! Turns out they didn't get the Google Hangout invite somehow. I learned that R enjoys The Circle so we had a great chat about that. We also talked a little bit about Love Is B...

So today was my last day at work for the week but they just put out an offer for more overtime next week. I offered another 3 hours a day for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I don't want to miss my Friday Zoom with my friends. I noticed a strange charge on my Visa the other night, but when I tried to call the card company to dispute it they were closed for the evening. Hopefully they're open tomorrow even though it's Good Friday. Or I can try on Saturday. I've never had a weird charge on a credit card before! Butch's office is closed for another two weeks so I have my office mate for a little while longer :P Although we don't get to have a long lunch together or anything. It's just nice to have someone else in the house with me. Other than that nothing much to report today. Oh boy, this self-isolation stuff makes for pretty blah days.

Daisy sent me a gif today wishing me a happy Rex Manning Day. I totally did not realize it was an actual date on the calendar. That movie is still a good one to rewatch over and over. I always seem to start my lunch later than scheduled. Today Butch surprised me with some Burger King he ordered -- the crispy chicken sandwich meal was on special. Never had BK chicken before but it was definitely crispy as advertised. Good flavor, too. New show to binge on Netflix: The Circle. The premise looked kind of cheesy and it just seemed like a Big Brother knockoff from what I saw in the trailer. But after getting hooked on Love is Blind I figured I'd give The Circle a shot. Well as it turns out it is my kind of show. :P All about chatting and social media messaging (although kind of emoji heavy) and games you can play with others in an online setting! It has Leah written all over it. The people do seem kind of overly stereotypical at times. I mean, like Joey, he is a straight ...

Tuesday morning I woke up realizing I had not finished off some accounting on a clients' destination wedding; but with me working overtime with the other job when in the world was I going to make it to the travel office to get it done! Especially with us (temporarily) closing the doors after Wednesday. As I ate my breakfast to prepare to start my shift I decided I would boot it to the travel office and get it done during my lunch break. Mission accomplished. I did not have much time to eat -- thank goodness for leftover pizza -- but I was relieved I was able to finish the ONE thing I could not do from home. Phew. The other job was still more of the same. Lots of helping, lots of thankful callers, everyone doing their part to take care of one another. Baby sis messaged me and told me that her and our mom wandered to the Italian Centre to grab some food and go for a walk. I understand they are going a little stir-crazy but I was kind of annoyed that mom would wander out and ...

On Monday I prepared myself for what I expected would be a crazy hectic day for us and for fellow Canadians as we worked hard to make sure we helped as many people as possible get the assistance they needed to get through the next 4 weeks. Despite long waits people were still quite pleasant and appreciative that we were on the job helping them out. I really do love how helpful this position makes me feel; it is so satisfying. It was also my first day working overtime. I chose to just tack on an additional 3 hours at the end of my shift -- they said they would be ok/could approve me working an additional 6 rather than 3, but I still wanted to be able to enjoy a (late) dinner with Butch and have some time to wind down and relax before heading to bed to rest for the next day. It went pretty well considering. And since I have to work late Butch has been preparing our dinners. Monday night we had pizza because he had a craving. He decided to try Fast Lane Pizza which is pretty close...

The world is adapting as best it can. Life has become absolutely bizarre. Today is Palm Sunday for us Catholics...and instead of worshiping together in our churches we have to watch YouTube videos or live streams of the mass. We cannot receive communion but instead say a prayer of spiritual communion. My church offered blessed palms for anyone who wanted to come by and pick it up, but maximum 2 palms per car. Drive around the back, drop what you wish into the collection basket they would bring to your window, continue on and someone else would place the palms in your passenger seat. I got lucky and received 4 palms but honestly I think they were just getting too cold to stand outside for much longer so they were doing their best to finish their supply. Everyone was wearing a mask. 2020 church procedures, everyone. Then mom wanted some fish and iceberg lettuce. Weird Kid had already gone grocery shopping and I agreed he should not have to go out again (a bit of lecturing from ...

Yesterday was my last day at the travel office for who knows how long. I did my best to make sure the consultants looking after my files will know what is left to do for my clients or what my clients are looking for moving forward. I then filed my folders away and locked it all up securely. I sent out emails telling my clients what was happening and then a letter to my mailing list letting them know as well. Then I set up my "out of office" and that was that. Well, not quite. I still had not edited my office's "see you soon" video but it was something I could do from home so that's what I opted to do instead of staying at the office even later. I was already 2 hours past closing. Phones are such powerful little computers now. I was able to put together the video, upload to our YouTube channel and then schedule it to post to our social media accounts at closing time when we shutter the door. Not even a full day away from the job and I could not he...

We had another zoom get together with five of us; myself, Daisy, M, Rainbow Girl, and VW Golf Girl. Again, multiple zoom sessions as we always got timed out. This time we tried playing Cards Against Humanity at the same time using http://playingcards.io Butch suggested Google Hangouts because there is no 40 minute time limit and lately zoom has been getting some bad press regarding privacy breaches. We couldn't be bothered to figure it out at the last minute so we just kept getting a new zoom meeting session. But I think we'll be ready for next week. I Googled how to set up a Hangout meeting and I have already scheduled it (I think) and invited all the girls that were at my surprise zoom party plus Bizkette all the way in BC. Also, I hope with the Hangout that it will give everyone the freedom to drop in and walk out as they need. It's so strange all these new "normals" we are having to get accustomed now...and how quickly it seems to have all come to pass...

Thanks to the kind young lady in charge of recreation at my grandma's nursing home I was able to FaceTime with grandma after I finished work. Unfortunately my shift usually prevents me from being available to FaceTime with her but since I had a doctor's appointment today -- which turned into a phone consult -- I got to see my grandma and chat with her for 15 minutes. She looked to be in better spirits and she wasn't in bed so I think (hope) she wasn't woken from her afternoon nap to talk to me, and I think when she was told she had a FaceTime date she got excited. She did tear up a bit still but I held it together for the most part until the end when we had to say "bye." She asked how dad is doing twice during our short conversation -- we had somehow managed to avoid that last time. I hope everyone at the facility is still helping us keep up the ruse I can't bear to think of her dealing with the news all alone. Plus after visiting dad and seeing the...

The house is a little more furnished right now as we have inherited some stuff from Butch's brother. We now have some super sturdy bar stools, two leather recliners, and a foosball table so that his nieces did not have to say "goodbye" to it forever. The tv room is looking a tad more full and a LOT more "Joey and Chandler's apartment." I'm so tempted to put a Magnadoodle on the wall (since the room does not have a door) It's pretty cozy but my puzzle still has its spot on the coffee table until I complete it. Definitely no room to do any WiiFit or Fitness Marshall videos so excuses are stronger than ever. :P I do have to get back on the wagon at some point, though. We have been ordering in a lot of dinners and I just had my phone consult with the doctor observing my liver. While he said that the levels (of what, I'm not sure...I'm terrible at asking questions) were coming down to normal levels I still have to work on losing weight. Bu...

The other day I watched a video put together by many of our sales representatives in the travel industry wishing us travel consultants well and sharing encouraging words and thanks for hanging in there. It gave me the idea for a video of my colleagues and I thanking our clients for trusting us and essentially a "this is not a good bye, it is a 'see you soon'" to share with our clients the day we have to close up (temporarily.) So I sent an email to my coworkers and they thought it was a good idea. So we'll be getting together after close on Friday to get it all filmed and I will work on it on Saturday to be ready to post on the 9th. Thank goodness I figured out Hootsuite on my phone. It will help me keep up our office's online presence while we are away. I may only get to spend very few hours in our physical office but I still enjoy posting social media content for us. Posie mentioned that she is taking on a new role at her workplace where she is going ...

But whoever is running the game, could you please stop? The infected numbers and the deaths from COVID-19 keep climbing...the latest at the Mckenzie Towne Continuing Care Facility is 65 confirmed cases with 4 deaths. I have been following this particular case closely because I am so worried about my grandma's facility getting infected and suffering a similar scenario. I showed my mom a graphic of how deep the swab for a COVID test actually goes. I asked my brother's girlfriend if it seemed accurate (she had to get tested) and she said it sure felt like they were swabbing her brain. Call it kind of a scare tactic, I guess. Tough love? Not really, I suppose. I know I'm going to go visit mom and baby sis...but I should put my foot down on taking them to any stores. I will have to insist on a shopping list and I will go pick it up for them. If they need to go out then we'll go for a walk or something.