Two very tired people

Ian arrived home early this morning and I'm really happy to see him. I've been very tired all week and I was worried that I would be too tired to enjoy Ian's company. Lucky for me, Ian is as tired as I am so we enjoyed each other's company by napping together.

I don't know if it's just that I wasn't sleeping well or I was staying up too late or what, but I definitely need more sleep. Ian took the red-eye home so he at least has an excuse for being tired. We had a lovely nap while watching this afternoon's Brier game. Curling can be exciting to watch but there's a rhythm to it that can lull a sleepy person to sleep.

We were awake to watch the last few ends so that we saw that Ontario's Howard beat Alberta's Martin. Martin has a very talented team and they just didn't play as well this year. The team wasn't able to adjust to the ice conditions as easily as other teams. It's been warm and humid and that makes the ice less predictable. Martin has made no secret of the fact that he prefers "perfect" ice but that kind of perfection isn't always easy to come by and part of the game of curling is reading and adjusting to ice conditions.

This evening our plan is to watch more curling and get to sleep early. The plan is for us to be more awake tomorrow and we'll see how that goes.

My plans for sleeping in until all hours today were foiled by Ian's team winning last night. I had to get up early to drive Ian to work because of the way tonight's driving arrangements worked out.

They won tonight, too, so they play again tomorrow afternoon. Ian will be curling eight days in a row when he plays in his regular league on Sunday - I'm impressed! Ian will need a lot of rest after this week.

I was able to have a bit of a nap this evening; in fact I got up just as Ian was coming home so I'm still a bit groggy and dream-filled. I think I'm still tired enough to get to sleep tonight. I hope so - the last thing I need is to be awake all hours.

The last curling night

Tonight was the last regular Thursday curling night and I thought I would go and say hi - or goodbye - and pick up my curling gear. I hadn't been back in the club since I fell that night and had to start using the cane.

It was a little weird to be in there and not curling. Everything looked the same and smelled the same but it all felt different to me. I guess the fact that I was there but I can't curl there makes me see things differently.

Unfortunately there weren't too many people there tonight... and even more unfortunately, the people I used to talk to most often weren't there :( I suppose I'll see those people again next season or later, if I go some evening and they're curling.

It would be nice to be able to curl again someday. Then again, I don't really want the Femara to stop working - too many of the women I know are in the middle of treatment failures and I don't want to be one of them. Having stable cancer means more to me than curling.

This, that, and the other thing

Project Runway Canada is back! They're in Ottawa this time and I'm quite curious about where they'll buy fabric there. I'd been looking for an awesome PRC-caliber fabric store when I was there but I didn't really find one. Next time I'm there I'll have to go to the store they pick.

I also watched a bit of this show called Blush, a reality series looking for the next makeup artist. It's the only show I've seen where the guys apply makeup to themselves as carefully as girls do. There's a guy there who is even more flamboyant than Austin Scarlett. Yes. He is. At judging, he had a wig on or had curled his hair into tight 18th-century curls and was wearing a black skirt, flip-flops, and a top with a black lace jabot. His makeup was also interesting (and of course well-done!). Even more notable, he fanned himself with a black lace fan. I think I'll be wanting to watch more of this series :)

I traced out and graded a new pattern - a basic sheath, 50's style - and sewed up a trial, and I'm thrilled with it! It needs some adjustment, of course, mainly because I mis-measured the waist (silly me!), but it fits well. I could tell that I liked it, because after I'd finished making all the adjustments to the trial, I posed in front of the mirror for a while. Even though it's just a trial and so is basically a throw-away garment, I loved the way I looked and felt in the dress. I can't wait until I make up the dress in "real" fabric. I'm also hoping to turn this dress into something that I can use as a block to adjust into other styles.

So that's all pretty good news. My back is still quite painful, which isn't so good. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but when my back hurts, so does my left leg. I guess that whatever causes the pain is pinching a nerve in the leg. I've also been noticing that some of the muscles in that leg feel weak when I move them in certain ways. I guess the pain is sort of like sciatica, except that it doesn't go to my toes (it stops at my mid-hamstring) and it hurts and is weak on the outer part of the leg. I did mention this to the physiotherapist a couple of weeks ago and she said that I should try to strengthen the leg.

Anyways, my back was in agony this afternoon so I took some painkillers so I could go went to curling tonight. I fell while delivering a couple of rocks because of my left leg, and while sweeping a rock my left leg just gave way and I fell. All of a sudden my leg just wouldn't bear my weight.

I tell you, having my leg just crumple like that freaked me out. Ian saw it happen and it freaked him out, too. I don't really know how or why this would have happened. At least I see my oncologist on Tuesday and I expect to be seeing my family doctor soon - hopefully they can tell me what's going on. I want the pain to go away and for my legs to work properly.

Clearly I won't be curling tomorrow... or possibly for a while. We'll see.

Almost too much shopping

We spent almost all day shopping and shopping and shopping in a (mostly) big circle. We started off at one big plaza by getting me a cushy microfiber fleece electric blanket for when I'm cold because, well, I'm tired of being cold and lots of baths aren't really a good option. It works so well, too - I gave it a try tonight and I love it! It heats up quickly and is cushy and warm and snuggly.

Anyways, after that we bought me a short-sleeved cotton argyle sweater. Yes! I found a sweater! I'd tried it on the other day but I wanted to be sure that it was ok, which it is, and we bought it. It looks really nice and will go with tons of stuff.

Moving on, we went to a sports store and I got some good-quality inner layers (like long johns but made for activities) to wear when curling. I'm sure it won't surprise you to know that I'm really, really cold when I'm curling, considering that the sport is played in an arena aka a refrigerator. So I got a top and some legging things both made with a textured polypropylene interior, which wicks sweat away, and a merino wool exterior, to catch the sweat and stay warm. I think they'll make a huuuuge difference in my ability to stay warm while in the curling refrigerator twice a week.

Normally, that would be plenty of shopping, but we weren't done yet. We went over to Best Buy and picked up some horror DVDs (only $9.99 - the cheapest we'll see all year) and Rock Band 2 . We looked for a DVD set of horror movies that had been released but it turns out that they only have some of the individual movies. The collection is available, though, so I expect we might buy that instead of buying each movie individually. I hope the movies are good; they *look* good and scary, and it's a Sam Raimi's production company, so how could they be bad? (I'd like to think that Sam Raimi won't put his name on total crap)

We continued on by going to more different stores in order to scope out and buy parts for Ian's Halloween costume. I won't tell you what it is or where we went, but we did end up going to four stores to get what we needed (and we visited one of those stores twice).

At this point, we were basically done with the shopping adventure so we got some lunch and picked up some Halloween candy over at Shopper's. They have a promotion where you get 20 times the points if you buy $20 or more of Halloween item. We need the candy (for the kids, of course!) anyways and getting the extra points is good.

Then, exhausted, we came home and I crashed into a big nap.

One of the movies we bought today was The Evil Dead. We'd heard that people said it was so bad it was funny, but it's actually a pretty good movie. Some of the effects are a little much, but the story and the things that happen are sort of creepy. And of course there are parts that aren't well-done, like some of the acting and whatnot. But that's ok. The basic story is that a bunch of people go up to a cabin where the manage to awaken some kind of demon which kills and takes over their bodies. If the story were done today in a slightly more technical way without a bunch of big-name stars, I think it would be even better. As it was, it was creepy and intense. Not bad for a 25-year-old movie. :)

Hold the presses! It looks like Sam Raimi (the original Evil Dead director) might be directing a remake of the movie! Wouldn't it be awesome if the movie makes it to the theatres?

Still alive but sleepy

Last night I meant to write here and then I went and fell asleep. Not that I have much to say these days - all I've done in the last couple of days is sleep. It was very nice today but I ended up sleeping most of the day away. I've been getting up early for the last couple of days and after doing that for a while, I need to catch up on my sleep.

I'm typing this while enveloped in the smell of the brugmansia flower. We brought our plants in because we had frost here. Since then, the one plant has blossomed twice and the other one (the transplanted one that we thought was dead) has grown new leaves. The smell is quite pretty, if a bit heavy, and it's something that we don't get to smell often.

I started curling today and my new shoes are awesome!!! I can slide so much further on them than I could with my old ones, and they were lighter than my old ones, too. I had an easy time delivering my rocks and sliding forward - it felt sooo much better to be on these shoes! The left foot was slipping a bit on the heel and so I have a blister on that heel. I should have worn both pairs of socks tonight.

In case you thought I wasn't doing anything with my days, I'm still working on sewing things. I traced out a skirt and have made all of its alterations so I can cut it out tomorrow. I've still got the other dress I'm working on - it's on hold while I find the right trim colour between the regular and bias portions. I want to insert something like piping just to make the dress look a little more finished.

Sadly, with the dropping dollar, I don't want to (well, I shouldn't) buy much more in the way of patterns or fabric so I'll have to work with what I have (which is admittedly quite a lot). The only thing I want to buy right now is some gorgeous fabric. The fabric is out of print so it's hard to find but I love it! The thing is, I just can't decide which colourway to buy: the blue or the red. I think I'm leaning to the red (although I do love both!) but buying both isn't/shouldn't really an option. Thoughts?

Adventures in curling shoe shopping

I got new curling shoes today. I'd meant to replace my shoes last year but never got around to it. The shoes had metal eyelets that had shifted and that left scratches on the curling ice, and I'd worn through the heel cup. I wavered between two pairs: the Goldline Regal and the Asham Slam (second from the top). I very much liked the fit of the Slam but the disks on the bottom were weird. As well, the outer part isn't leather and I was worried that they wouldn't last as long as a leather toe. The Regal is leather and it's a shoe that should last a long time - part of the point of buying a good-quality curling shoe is to get something that will last a long time.

I ended up with the Regal but I have to say that the buying process was quite an adventure. The first pair I tried on was my normal size (36.5, or a 5 1/2 in their sizing) but I couldn't get my foot in because the tongue is stitched down to the top at a higher point than most shoes (most likely for stability when delivering). If I can't put the shoes on, I can't curl in them, so that pair didn't work.

Next, I tried on the half-size up and the right foot was fine but the bottom of the tongue dug in strangely on my left foot. I kept saying "ow" and Ian finally told me that it sounded like something was wrong. And that if it hurt now it wouldn't stop hurting later. So that pair didn't work, either.

The sales guy then said that the shoe I was trying on was the *new* version of the Regal and that there was an older version still available in the back. He went back, searched around for a bit, and brought me out a pair to try on. It fit just fine on my right foot but it was a bit loose in the heel on my left. This isn't unusual - my left foot is about a half-size smaller than my right foot - but I don't want to buy a shoe that didn't fit. So that pair didn't work too well, either.

After that I went back and forth, trying on first the Regal and then the Slam and then the Regal and then the Slam, trying to figure out which pair to buy. Another sales guy came by and said that sometimes different pairs of shoes in the same brand and size can fit differently. He also said that as long as I bought a right and a left shoe in the same size and version, he'd be fine if I got the two shoes from two different pairs. So he went in back, searched around for a bit, and found another pair of the same size in the old Regal version. He brought them out to me and the left shoe fit perfectly! The pair I got was a combination of the first right shoe I tried on and the last left shoe I tried. Crazy, huh?

This whole process took quite a bit of time and the help of two different salespeople. I am very pleased with the result and I'm grateful for all of the help I got. I'm also grateful for Ian's patience - he was there the whole time and encouraged me to be absolutely sure that I was happy with the shoes. Hopefully we won't have to go through this process again for a while.

Curling already?

Today was the first night of curling for us. We went to a workshop tonight on improving our delivery in preparation for the actual season which starts next week. The first thing we had to do was deliver without a rock. If you're balanced correctly, it should be possible to go through the entire delivery without actually holding a rock. I think my body forgot how to deliver a rock because I fell while trying to deliver. :) Things got better by the end of the night.

This season Ian is curling three nights per week and I'm curling twice a week. That's all assuming that the Friday night curling goes forward; at the moment, there aren't really enough people to carry a league through the entire season. We'll see. It wouldn't be all that fun if hardly anyone shows up.

Oncology appointment today

We got to see my oncologist today. She had seen in the report from my surgeon that my dad had died and was very tender and nice, offering her condolences and stuff. I was touched by her compassion and humanity.

The funniest part of the visit was getting the results of my tumour markers. When I had my Pamidronate infusion changed for the port, the nurse I talked to said that the tumour marker blood draw (which was to be done later that week) would be included in the blood done on Pamidronate day. On that day, the nurse had no orders for the tumour markers, went back to check, and came back and said that we were doing some. So they did do a tumour marker test that day; the trouble is, it was the wrong test. I was tested for CA125 (an ovarian cancer test) instead of CA15-3 (my test). At least the CA125 came back normal, meaning I have no ovarian problems. That's good, because I have no ovaries :)

So, umm, we're going to re-do the tumour marker test this next week. I hope that we end up getting the right test done this time. :) I can call and ask for the results a week after the test; if they're ok, then the nurse will call me back with them and otherwise I'll hear from my oncologist herself.

In other news, the FISH test from the last biopsy came back negative meaning that my cancer is Her2neu negative. This is actually good news, because if the FISH test showed that I was Her2 positive then the cancer would be more aggressive.

The doctor found the thickening in the latest lumpectomy scar and said she hadn't had enough experience with that scar to know whether or not that there was a real thickening. She called my surgeon and they've decided that he's going to do a follow-up biopsy. My oncologist left a message on my answering machine saying that my surgeon's office would call and set up a different kind of biopsy - I assume that this means that I'll get a core biopsy instead of the fine needle one that he did before that gave no meaningful results.

I asked her what would happen if there was a recurrence in the breast and she said that the whole treatment would change. We could do a mastectomy - some recommend it, and some don't. I think that she also implied that I'd be off of the Femara and onto something else. Hopefully we won't have to make that kind of decision.

My oncologist is scheduling a CT scan of my entire chest, abdomen, and pelvic areas as well as a bone scan. We hope to have these done before I see my oncologist again in two months. We'll also re-do my tumour markers in a month.

Oh - one final thing..... I asked about the bruising over the catheter from the port-a-cath after curling. She said that I'm not to be doing any kind of really vigorous activity because that catheter can move. So if I want to curl in bonspiels, I need to skip (call) the games - something I've tried very hard not to do. And it means that I definitely can't paddle regularly on a dragonboat team. I think I'm ok to continue bellydancing and stuff as well as most of my other activities.

Overall it was a very productive 20 minutes. I really do like my oncologist and I'm so glad that I have her as my primary oncologist.

Curling all day

We curled all day in a bonspiel; we ended up coming in second in our draw which was awesome! We all curled pretty well and the last game was so close that it could have gone either way. Needless to say, we're very tired. We did win 1L of maple syrup each plus another random prize so we came away ok. Hopefully I will be well-rested enough for my bellydance recital tomorrow.

Anti-depressants have made a HUGE difference in my life and I wish I'd found them earlier. I'll write more about that tomorrow, though, as I need sleep.

Feeling better

I went to my Spirituality and Healing group today and I'm very glad that I did. The person who'd been taking notes during sharing wasn't there and I was very comfortable in the group. I felt fully supported and embraced by everyone, which was a nice feeling. I'll be going more regularly now, I think. I've missed this group.

I also managed to curl today - yay! I was worried that my new port would give me problems but aside from having to sweep on one side only, I felt fine. The port area is healing up nicely, too :)

My doctor's office has called my oncologist to see if she can set up a biopsy of the thickened scar tissue quickly. Since my surgeon is out of town it sort of makes sense to try and do this through the cancer center. I don't know how quickly they'll get around to scheduling it but that's ok. I see my oncologist in three weeks anyways so if nothing is scheduled beforehand I can talk to her then.

What will I do in January? And how will I get rid of this pain?

Ian and I were talking today about my activities. This fall, I was bellydancing twice a week, curling twice a week, going to Well-fit twice a week, and swimming once a week. That was a lot! I ended up not able to do that much and stopped swimming early on. I missed quite a lot of Well-fit, bellydancing, and curling this fall as well. With the pain up and me feeling overwhelmed, I need to cut my activities even more from January - April.

I am going to quit Well-fit and Monday will be my last. This is partly because of the time it takes, but also because I really like to be pushed at the gym and when I get pushed I end up exhausted or with sternal pain. It's also $150+parking for three months which I could put to better use.

If I take any bellydancing, it'll just be one choreography or one drum class and no more. There's no way that I can do two classes.

I'm going to try and go to curling twice a week since I've paid for the two leagues until April. But if the pain gets to be too much I'll cut one of the nights out. It's tough to figure out which night I'd give up. I love the people and we have a lot of close relationships on Fridays, but the curling is better - and I'll get better - on Thursdays.

I saw my family doctor today as a followup to the new pain meds. They weren't working well so he's started me on the next dose of the fentanyl patch. If that takes care of the pain, then I can start playing with the dosages to try and reduce the amount of oxycontin I'm taking. Hopefully this will work.

Ian's birthday

Ian's birthday is today and after curling we went to AM Africa for dinner with 7 other people. The food took quite a while to come out but it was delicious once it arrived. We ordered an all-meat platter and an all-vegetable platter and quite frankly, I prefer the vegetable platter. The meat tasted like gamey meat (with bones) and the different meat types didn't really taste different from each other. The vegetable dishes were definitely different - they had some interesting flavours and textures.

It was nice to spend time with everyone. We had quite a bit of time to talk before the food came out and that wasn't so bad :)

Busy and overwhelmed

On the days that I'm not sleeping all day, I feel like I'm crazy busy. I feel like I'm rushing from place to place with barely any time to just stop and breathe and I think that's starting to get to me.

Take today, for example. I got up, sorted some laundry, went for lunch with a friend, bought a mirror for the sewing room, worked on the belt thingy for bellydance, sorted more laundry, went to bellydance, and then curled. I didn't watch any tv or surf the internet or do email or anything that I would normally do for downtime, because there was none.

I can tell that I'm getting stressed, too. I lost my car key at bellydance; thank goodness the building manager brought it to class. I forgot to take my street (non-bellydance) clothes to change into after curling. I lost one of my favourite pairs of non-curling socks at curling - I know I put them in my locker but I couldn't find them. I think that maybe the kids who have their stuff spread out all over the floor in front of my locker covered up my socks. Sigh. I'm just not doing a good job of keeping it together, you know? And that's a sign that I'm overwhelmed and need a break.

When I got home from curling I had (am having?) a big meltdown because I'm just feeling so overwhelmed and rushed and pressured and stressed.

Please don't get me wrong; I love doing every single thing I do, on its own (and I really do need to spend more time with my friends), but I feel like I'm doing WAY too much. I don't know where to cut back right now, but I think that I will be missing one or more physical activities next week.

It turns out, by the way, that the group wanted changes to the belt thing - I was going to make a different style completely based on discussions with the group, but we've decided to order crocheted sequin scarves instead. Sigh.

Fun after curling

We went curling tonight for the first Friday night of the season. We like Friday night curling because it's very relaxed; most people are newish or beginner curlers so there's not a lot of pressure to curl really well. This means that we can try things we might not normally try and we can practice our technique.

More importantly, we have a lot of friends who curl on Friday nights. There are three other couples that we like to spend time with outside of curling, and they all curl on Fridays with us. This makes the games and overall atmosphere upbeat and fun. After curling, we usually go for dinner with some or all of these couples.

Tonight we'd thought we wouldn't go out for dinner as we have a lot to do tonight and tomorrow, but we ended up going to The Keg with them anyways. We haven't been out with these people in a long time and I've missed them. We all had a great time talking and eating yummy food :)

My curling is so much better

I went to the curling workshop tonight. It's the first time I've been on the ice since April; as I'm sure you can imagine, getting used to the ice takes some time :) Interestingly, since last April I've been able to improve my balance quite a lot with bellydancing and working out. At Well-fit, where I work out, I do some exercises on one leg or else while standing on those half-dome thingies while doing arm work. For example, I do ball wall squats, where I lean against an exercise ball against a wall and squat on one leg so that that knee is at 90 degrees. Yes, that's as difficult as it sounds.

Anyways, having better balance has definitely paid off as far as curling goes. I'm much more secure on the ice. For the first time ever, I'm able to slide out of the hack without holding on to any rocks! That's a huuuuuge accomplishment for me. This isn't to say that my rock delivery is perfect; I do have a lot of areas that need attention, as I found out tonight. They videotaped me and others and then later critiqued the delivery. It was very useful.

When we got home, there was a call from the person who organizes the Christmas in Ancaster show. I tried calling back but no one was home. I'd sent in my application way late (they were still accepting them) and I was put on a waiting list because there were already some jewelry people. I'm hoping that since the organizer called I might be in the show. Cross your fingers for me! It's not a cheap show - $165 for me - but I'm hoping that means that it would be a success for me. Here's hoping.....

One of those days

I've definitely overdone it over the last few days, and I'm paying for it now. We had to get up really early for our annual doctor's appointments in Mississauga. My doctor finished the disability forms; in the spot where it said "return to work plan" he put "n/a" and he listed my condition as "guarded" everywhere. Which I think means "not stable", which we already knew I was. Still, to see it in writing was hard.

Then the two of us were tired and that, coupled with the fact that the juggling festival starts tomorrow, means that we were both cranky. Ian got a big nap in the afternoon, but my nap was much smaller. It wasn't long enough, I'm afraid.

The Femara makes me clumsy, and when I'm tired I can be very clumsy. Well, I'm tired and so I fell at curling. I didn't hurt myself, but I did fall again. Sigh. I almost fell a second time, too, but managed to stay on my feet.

We were supposed to go for dinner and to watch the Brier on tv, but Ian's mom called us and asked if we could come to Mississauga again. So here we are. I guess I felt rushed or something when we were getting ready and I forgot tons of stuff - my pills, my undergarments (I realized this on the way out of town and we stopped at Sears), and the makeup I'd bought earlier today. I felt so stupid; I can't even pack to go away for a couple of days without forgetting crucial items.

So I've had a meltdown and now I'm looking forward to going to bed. I'm very excited about the bead show tomorrow; I'm still going and my friend is still coming with me. It just takes some additional planning, but it'll be fun.

An unexpected day

I had planned to sleep in today because we were up late yesterday, and we expected to be up late today. However, the roof people were there and were trying to get the ice dams broken. We've had a lot of snow fall lately and there were some ginormous icicles out there! Anyways, they showed up stomping around at about 9am which woke me up. There was no sleeping through that noise!

I sent out some earrings that someone had bought (thanks!) and posted some more earrings on my etsy store. I also reviewed and approved the proof for my business cards; they will be printed by Friday. Yay! I talked to a few people about the problems with the young women's group as well. The issue will be discussed at a meeting tomorrow. I hope there's some resolution there.

After my Well-fit, we had planned to go to the Brier. Unfortunately, Ian's dad isn't feeling well and so Ian's mom asked if we would come to Mississauga, which we did. This means that we weren't able to go to the Brier tonight, which is unfortunate. Oh well - I got to go last night, anyways, and we can watch it on tv. I might be able to go ather year.

I don't think we've got any big plans tomorrow; I have to do some cleaning as we've got a couple of people staying with us over the weekend.

OH!!!! This weekend is the UW juggling festival. The show will be on Saturday night at Hagey Hall at 7pm. Tickets are $5 at the door. Apparently the show is supposed to be really good this year :)

Second long day

I started off today with my Spirituality and Healing group. We are going to be looking at The Secret, which is really just the spiritual law of attraction (if you want something to happen, visualize it happening and it will come to you). It isn't an awful idea, because it makes people more positive, but I do have some reservations about it. If I draw positive things, then I also draw negative things to me; so did I draw the cancer? How about the recurrence? Or the metastasis? Hmmmmm. Still, I do have a belief that since you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, so I'm more likely to get what I want if I'm positive. So I'll stay positive and hope that things go my way.

BTW, we watched the first part of The Secret DVD in the group. It's very dramatic and hyped. Clearly, they are not marketing to me. The whole thing is not marketing to me, because, well, I don't like the idea that it's been covered up for ages and all of that. Also, they focus on material things (money! houses! great jobs!) and that just seems so crass. If you're going to look into this, I'd recommend that you read the book instead.

I also talked to our facilitator about the problems with the young women's group. She took me to talk to the executive director and will be discussing the problem at a meeting on Thursday. I'm very glad that she's on my side; I have a great deal of respect for her, and I'm glad that this is in her capable hands. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

Later on, we went to the Brier. It's in Hamilton this year, which is about an hour's drive from our place. To get to Copps Coliseum (the arena), we went through this cool mall. We walked through one part that had clearly had stores in it before, but which was completely boarded up with community-made murals. That reminded me of downtown malls in Edmonton; there's something I like about a mall like that. There's so much old promise and hope there. I wonder what used to be there, and what things used to be like when the stores were open. I got a glimpse of a store name - Marvela - and I wondered what it was. Had Ian not been with me, I would have taken a long, long time to walk that hallway, because I would have stopped to imagine all sorts of histories for it.

There is something very powerful about being at a sporting event that is one of the best in its class featuring the best in the country (or the world). I imagine people feel like that at the Olympics, too. Being in the same area as athletes, and close enough to see them clearly, is exhilarating. Once I got over that, I enjoyed the games. None of them were very close, but they were good.

We will be going back to see tomorrow night's draw. They have a souvenir shop; if any of you are interested in getting a vest, down jacket, windbreaker, golf shirt, or fleece hoodie (all branded with the Brier logo, of course), please let me know. Each are maybe $15-20 more than you might pay in a reasonably good sports store. The women's vest was $60; the women's down jacket was $150. I don't really remember the colours. There are also small souvenirs like glasses and stuff. If you want something small, please let me know.

A long day

It's been a long day to start off a long week. I met with some other people who go to the young women's support group as well. There's something missing in the group these days; it isn't the same as it used to be, and we did some brainstorming about what could be done to solve this problem. I'll talk to someone tomorrow about who we need to present these ideas to.

Then I took my business cards in to be printed (I should have them by Friday), had well-fit, which is getting to be a harder workout, and I had bellydancing. I also managed to tidy up the house a bit and make a few pairs of earrings that I'll post tomorrow. Now I'm up waiting for Ian to come home; he's at the Brier with a friend. I didn't go because I didn't want to miss bellydancing class.

I may have also purchased a dress today. I'm not supposed to be buying anything, and so I won't commit to having bought a dress. If I had bought a dress, it would have been black jersey with ivory curved lines on it (in a random pattern), with a deep V neckline, 3/4 length sleeves, ruching around the mid-section, and an a-line skirt to the knee. It would have looked fabulous on me, although it would have needed some hemming.