Camping, My Old House, Starting All Over Again

The camping trip was interesting, that’s for sure.  Steve came to pick me up on Monday morning and I was a bit unsure how we would get along, after all, he was my ex.  And we haven’t seen each other since we broke up, so I wasn’t really sure how we would get along.  We get along fine when we talk to each other online, so I was hoping that we’d be okay in person as well. I woke up really, really early that morning, I think I got up at 6 am and couldn’t go back to sleep for a couple more hours because my head was just continually spinning with what would happen, how we would get along, and I hadn’t been out camping in ages, so I was a bit unsure how it would be. The week before we were supposed to be camping but because of the weather we changed it to the next week and we booked it for that week instead.

So I got ready, finished up with my packing, and waited for Steve to get to my place so that we could pack up his car with my stuff, and go grocery shopping for food for the next four days, and so when he got here, we kind of didn’t say too much to each other, except on what to do in packing up his car with my items, bags and stuff that we needed for camping.  He started to pack it all up, and thought it’d be fine…so we got settled and headed off to Walmart and then shopped around there for items we needed for groceries and food for the week.  We gathered up all the items we needed, and then went to pay for it.

Then we were on our way.  It was a nice Monday afternoon when we left to go on our way to Sharbot Lake…very nice.  The roads to the campgrounds were a bit rough, but that was to be expected, and once we got to our campground, I was amazed to see that the trail leading to our campsite was quite…steep?  I was like, I’m not going down there! *laughs*  I could see myself falling down it…it was steep and had very little steps to go down.  Wow.  So Steve loaded me up with bags and items, and I took my time trying to get down the huge hill, and near the bottom I actually fell and started sliding down the hill.  Ouch!!  I stopped and realized that I had scraped up my arm and hand going down the hill.  That really did hurt. :S  It was just so steep and because I hadn’t been down the hill before I didn’t know where to put my feet down on, and I just ended up stumbling and then sliding down. *laughs*  Owwww.  After my fall, Steve made me stay down at the campsite and he’d get the rest of the stuff. *laughs*  I slowly began to learn how to maneuver the hill after that fall, and started to be more cautious and careful when I went down the hill…going up wasn’t too bad, it was the going down that I had some trouble with. *laughs*  And the craziest thing was, there were two hills I had to worry about…the one from the car and outhouse to the campsite, and the second one to the lake.  I was like, really?  There’s hills both ways?  Grrr. *laughs*

So when we arrived, we were hearing that it was supposed to rain sometime in the afternoon/ evening so Steve worked on setting up the tent so to have it ready for when it rained and so on, and then when it was done, we then started putting stuff away and since the weather was cooperating, we decided to check out the area, the water and the such like…I checked out the water and it felt quite nice actually. *laughs*  So after a bit, Steve was like, okay, I’m getting hungry so we started putting supper on, we had steaks and started BBQing on the firepit, so that was interesting.  He brought his BBQ as he wasn’t sure if there was a grill over the firepit of any kind so…he has camped there a few times but couldn’t remember if there was anywhere where we could BBQ food over.  But there was a removable grill that you could move over the fire when you wanted to make food, and remove it when you wanted the pit for just the fire.  We had the steaks and some pasta salad that I had made up for the week, and then mellowed out.  It was good, though very, very filling.

After supper we were talking and checking out more of the area, him showing me different areas of the campsites around our campsite. *smile*  He normally doesn’t drink since I have known him and when we were shopping for food and stuff he said he wanted to pick up some booze for himself and I was surprised that he did, as I didn’t know he drank at all. *laughs*  I told him to go ahead and do that…so okay then. *smile*  He opened up one bottle of booze to have in front of the fire and was all relaxed…it was funny to see actually.  He just had one bottle that night.  I then decided to put a dare on him, as I had been told by a lot of people online that I should go skinny dipping when I camped and I was like, pfft, that’s not even happening as I had figured it was a public campground…and I decided to just dare him to try it.  The campsite we were at was pretty private anyway, and it was late then and pretty dark out, and no one, if there was anybody, would be able to see him, so he said he would go for it just for the hell of it and he did…it was hilarious actually.  I wasn’t sure if he would, but he did, and it was hilarious, it was also really cold in the water and out of it too, so it was like, eek! I hadn’t really gone swimming yet in that lake, so I wasn’t sure what the water was like. *laughs*  It was really interesting with the temperatures of the water and the night air, the water was almost warm and cold at the same time so it was kind of cool. *smile* We crashed pretty early that night, as it was so dark to even do anything or see each other to talk.  I’m deaf so I need light to be able to talk, and see the other person talk. :/  So that wasn’t much fun…we were sitting around the firepit a bit beforehand so it was good, with him just keeping warm with the fire after the dip in the water.

The next day we both got up, did some swimming and Steve was doing some chasing of little frogs that were hopping around on the shore of our beach, and kept capturing them and showing them to me.  He seemed like a little kid chasing after them and capturing them…it was definitely strange. *laughs*  I had breakfast, relaxed, and then went for a bit of a swim, and Steve got his inflatable canoe set up so we then went for a canoe ride…but the strangest thing with the ride – we kept going in circles!!!! *laughs*  Steve and I had brought our cameras and his camcorder, and I sat up in front because then that meant I didn’t have to steer…and Steve was doing no steering so we kept going in circles, which was ridiculous… *L* So we were just fooling around with the cameras and things like that, and I later told him after we came back that normally the person who paddled in the back of the canoe was the one who steered the canoe, and he was like, oh, really?  When I heard that I knew it was all his fault. *laughs*  Hilarious though…we were just floating around the lake and checking out the scenery and just enjoying the sun.  Though the fact that the canoe kept going in circles was kind of making me feel a bit seasick. *laughs*

We also noticed that there were chipmunks always coming around saying hi to us when we were sitting around the campsite and all that, they would just come up and stand up, see if we had anything on us and we would be breaking bread and giving them scraps of bread and they started coming back and forth hoarding all the bread that we gave them…they were adorable! *laughs*  I have never seen chipmunks be that friendly before… *laughs*

Whenever we would swim, there was this one higher up rock on one area of the lake, and if one of us sat around there, we could see all those little fishes follow our feet and hang out around us… it was so weird. The water was so clear that we could see the fishes swimming near us. Heh...it was pretty funny too. *smile*

Later that afternoon Steve wanted to take me to a hiking trail by Sharbot Lake that he knew about and used to go to a lot when he was younger, and wanted to take me there to check it out…the lake we were on was called Black Lake, not necessarily Sharbot Lake, it was on the other side of the land we were on. Heh…so we went driving to the hiking trail, and then went for a walk there.  It was an interesting trail… very hilly, but lots to look at, take pictures, and things to check out, so it was pretty fun.  It was hard work going up and down the hills though, I was getting tired by the end of the two hour hike through the trails. Steve said it was hard work for him as well, and he’s more active than I am!  *laughs*  Good thing I didn’t get to bump into a lot of people there, because I would probably have slowed them right down. haha…Funny though.  There were a lot of nature to check out, a lot of oddities out there and it was fun to check out… *smile*  Everything was just gorgeous where we went walking so it was pretty refreshing.  There was a lot of stopping and going, a lot of photos taken so it was a lot of fun.  I know I definitely did want to sit down a few times in the hike, because it was exhausting. *laughs*  It was hilarious.

We got through the hike and the last bit took a lot out of me, when we first came to the hiking trail, it was downhill so it was easy enough…then when we had to return to the car, it was very steep uphill that we had to climb up and it was like the last grunt up there…wow.  We both were exhausted by the time we got to the car…and just went, whew!!!  *laughs*  Funny though.  There was just too much hills everywhere in that area, which was crazy!  Haha…we then returned to our campsite, and we then had supper, mellowed out and relaxed…it was nice. There were the chipmunks again running around looking for food, and we were playing around with the cameras for fun, and then Steve went to sleep a bit because he was so tired and he wasn’t feeling so great after all day out and active…I think it was like 9 pm when he went to sleep. *laughs*  We talked, and I went to sleep close to around the same time as he did too, because I can’t really sit up in the dark by myself and do nothing…I couldn’t even see or anything like that, so it was a little freaky…though at one point I had to go to the bathroom to the outhouse at like 1 or 2 in the morning…and oh my God, that was so hard to do… *laughs*  It was pitch black everywhere and I did bring a flashlight, but that famous hill I had to get up, while really needing to go to the bathroom was so hard, and finally I got to the outhouse and used it, and then I had to come back, but I was still half asleep so I sort of flew down the hill and crashing into that white tree in the bottom of the hill…that stunned me awake and I regained my balance and got to the tent okay…it was insane!  Thankfully I was able to go to sleep…I just had sore hands from using it to catch the white tree to keep my balance with me so that I didn’t fall face first down the hill. *laughs*  It certainly got me awake…once I got into my sleeping bag again, I finally relaxed into a slumber and fell right to sleep.  Thank God, I didn’t think I would be able to after all that adrenaline going down that hill that I hated so much. Heh…

The next day was a relaxing day actually so it was a good day. *smile*  I ended up waking up, wondering where Steve was as he was not at the campsite then found him down at the water shore just sitting out and enjoying the view of the water.  So I decided to get changed into my bathing suit and get washed up down there in the lake, just getting my hair and everything else cleaned up, and then I ended up just staying in the water and going for swims and the such like… *laughs*  It was a hot day again, and all I wanted to do was just stay in the water. *L*  We ate at the campsite, some breakfast, and went back to the lake and enjoyed the water and just chatted it up, as Steve was feeling better that day and he was all mellow out.  I was just enthusiastic to go swimming so I just swam and swam…But the funny thing about that day was, we had been hanging out by the shore all day that we actually, dumb us, forgot to put on some sunscreen and we got nicely burnt that day…we didn’t think of it until we noticed the other person getting badly burnt. *laughs*  Ouch…we both started hurting bad from the burn. *laughs*  The other days we’ve been fine, we’ve put on some sunscreen but that day we both just forgot.  We hadn’t really been planning on staying out there all day and we ended up doing just that…it was relaxing and it was beautiful out there, so oh well…haha…Hilarious.  I even took a long swim so it was pretty good… Steve did the same so it was pretty fun.  While we were swimming, a canoe came towards our campsite shore, and they were people that was using the same shore as we were, only they were using a different campsite…so Steve was talking to the couple a bit, telling them about the campgrounds and what they can do around there, as they were kind of new in the Sharbot Lake campgrounds, so he was giving them ideas of what they could do. *smile*  They were pretty nice, and they had a German Shepard that was jumping all around the water so it was a little funny to see.  I was just keeping busy swimming out in the water while Steve was talking to the guy there and so on.  He had to let them know that I was deaf, so oops.  They did try to talk to me while they were canoeing in to shore, but I couldn’t hear or understand them, so that was a little funny. Heh…

Finally later, we had to think of supper so we trudged back up to the firepit and made some hot dogs and the such like and started eating them and relaxing, and it was another relaxing night, just talking and being silly and doing stuff at the campsite.  Another night at the firepit… we later said that we should have brought some marshmallows with us, as we had actually forgotten to get some… I always have marshmallows with me whenever I camp or go someplace where there is a fire. hehe…Funny though.  Oh well, no such luck. haha…

We were doing a bit of talking about us, I was trying to get him to talk about us, but he didn’t want to talk about us, and things that were heavy, because it was his holiday and that we could talk about it after we came back…I thought it was a little weird, but had to accept that and just treat it like a holiday and not talk about us at all.  So we just had fun and enjoyed the whole camping trip instead so it was quite different…I hadn’t camped in years so this was a great refresher for me, and I really enjoyed myself.  Heh…

We started packing up some items that evening and when we got up in the morning we tried to get up a bit earlier so we could enjoy the campsite a bit more and just have fun just hanging out and checking out the view, it was nice there so it was pretty relaxing.  We started putting things away, cleaning up that morning and just sitting around, eating, cleaning and packing up, and talking…. so it was pretty nice. *smile*  By that morning we both were badly burnt so we really didn’t want to be half naked in our bathing suits again to go swimming…haha…we were talking a bit and I was telling him I wanted to go by my old place where I grew up at, as it was on the way back to Kingston, and he was like, sure, why not…I told him I really was from the country and he was like, yeah, I get that….okay.  *laughs*  So when we left, we took a detour to go by my old house from Harrowsmith, and then drove by my old house.  I was shocked at how different the house itself looked like, and was pointing out different areas where I used to go in, hang out, play around in, the little woods across the road from my old house and so on, so on… it’s in the middle of nowhere pretty much.  I was shocked to see how different my property looked. *laughs*  It looked a lot better than the last time I went by there, and it was really cleaned up but it just looked so different now than it did before so it was hilarious.  It’s really nice now, more of a country type of house with bigger sheds or farm houses I guess, beside the house, and the house now shared the property with the next door’s house for the horses, so that was cool. *smile*  It just looked so different…I just remember my place having a huge field out back that I used to go running out in when I was a kid, and the woods out in front that I used to go with my brother and my pet dogs. *L* The woods are still there, but the field was a different layout this time around. *L*  It was a different sight…the house was really cleaned up and looked so different. *L*  I then went driving down the road I used to know a bunch of families live in and I was shocked at how many houses had changed and had cleaned up, so it was cool…only one was falling apart, but the rest was like, wow. *smile*  A definite change.  So it was fun telling Steve about different places, and different people I used to know on the street and telling him stories…I could detect some jealousy there. *laughs*  When I was a kid, it was just home where I did a lot of playing around in.  I do prefer being out in the country than the city…even though people tell me I’m more of a city girl and not a country girl…so okay, if that’s what they think, fine then. *smile*  But it was fun to check it all out. Heh.

When I got home I was like, oh my God…home…all the luxuries of home, electricity, lights!!! Baths…. *laughs*  When I got home I had a nice long bath while Steve was driving back home to Brockville, and it was holy crap, heaven. *laughs*  I was like, oh my God…I feel so clean again. *laughs*  Then I mellowed out with my cat, who was angry that I was gone for four days… *laughs* Watched some TV, relaxed and just felt really good after a few days of camping…it was a lot of fun. 

And then one day on Saturday night soon after we got back from camping, I think, after a few days of me and Steve talking to each other online and all that about us…we kind of started thinking of seeing each other again.  Steve still has around two months left of getting his life back together, and his financial status back to being out of debt, instead of always being in the black.  But we did get along very well at the camping trip, and we did click very well, and it was easy for us to talk to each other and the chemistry was still there, so…we decided to try again and he came to visit again after he went to his friend’s karaoke thing in Smiths Falls and he stopped by on Friday or Saturday night, and we started talking, and it seems like we are trying again now. We do get along really well so oh well.  What can I do?  *laughs*  So we’re taking it all very slow and trying again.  Just have to see how it turns out this time around.

The past week I’ve been working on the camping photos, and I have gotten a lot of it up in the pictures page here, and Steve even got a video done and set up from the camping trip, so it’s pretty cool.  It’s in this link: 


Sharbot Lake Camping 2011 (HD) from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

I think I look a little weird in some shots, but it’s pretty fun it seems. *smile*

I had to take some photos of my brother and his fiancee, as they were due soon with their baby, so I had to take photos of them pregnant, so…they came down last Saturday and it was gorgeous that day, though so humid…I’m so tired of the humidity.  Yikes!!  *laughs*  Oh well…so we went out to the waterfront to take photos and I wasn’t sure how or what they wanted me to have them to do, what poses they wanted to do, so it was interesting trying out different ones, and I was surprised at how many turned out to be…a lot of them turned out well…so it was interesting…I still have to see what Jase and Kelly did pick out to use for themselves and to post online for themselves.  So it was interesting. *smile* I was really tired by the end of the two hour photo shoot. Heh…I ended up taking like 70 photos and I gave them 40 to look at and appreciate…a lot of the photos turned out really well, surprisingly enough. *laughs*  They seemed to like it but I’ll find out what they like and don’t like eventually.  I just sent them the photos this afternoon so oh well. *smile*

After the photo shoot we all went down to my mom’s place for dinner, so it was nice…we all were exhausted from being out in the sun all afternoon so just sitting around and relaxing and eating supper down there was pretty good. *smile*  I didn’t have to do anything so it was good. Haha…Funny.  It was nice, and Kelly was talking about how people at her work and her family were saying that she was likely to give birth soon, because of how her stomach has dropped considerably and my mom was surprised at how much it had dropped and said she was going to be due very soon, with how much her stomach has dropped. *laughs*  It’ll be interesting to see when she has her baby.  She’s supposed to be due in the end of September, but I have no idea when she will actually have the baby, so it’ll be interesting to see, for sure. *smile*  All wait and see.  Hehe…

The Baby Shower and the Upcoming Camping Trip

It’s been interesting lately, that’s for sure. *smile*  After the potluck party in Ottawa, I kept busy during the week doing stuff around the house and I also was surprised a while back talking to my ex Steve, he was worrying about money for a cross-country trip he wanted to take and I asked him where he was going, and I would help him out if he was going out west so that I could meet a friend out there…just to see.

And we got talking, and he was going out east, not west, and we were talking about it…I had not been out east before and was intrigued by the idea of going there. *smile*  And well, we started talking…he then decided not to go out east and stay here in Ontario and camp here instead, as he was really low on money and didn’t want to take all of my money…*laughs*  So I was fine with that.

Since we were talking a while, I figured that we could take a bit and talk things out between us in person.  So we decided on going to Sharbot Lake and camp there for a few days and enjoy the nature and talk stuff out, and just enjoy ourselves, platonically, and so on.

There has been so much stuff going on…my brother and Kelly had a baby shower last weekend at one of my brother’s old friend’s parents house, and it was pretty nice, though really hot with all the sun glaring on us.  Wow.  When I first got there, I met up with Brenda and Ken and their son Brandon…I hadn’t seen them in a really long time so I started talking with them.  Brenda and Ken were a couple that I knew from high school and was best friends with my brother.  Ken was a grade above me and Brenda was a grade under me, so I know them quite well. *smile*  I also got introduced to Brandon, who I had last seen as a little baby, so he was a lot bigger than I had last seen him.  It was pretty cool actually.  Then more and more people started arriving, some family members, some of their friends, and Jase had to go out and pick up of his buddies who didn’t have a car…*laughs*  He even went out and picked up one of his old friends from London, Zofie, from Toronto, which was crazy.  Haha…she and her boyfriend were there and just talking to everybody.  I talked a bit with the owners of the house, they were exactly the same as always, I remember meeting them quite a bit when my brother used to go over to visit his best friend Matt, who was unable to make the shower because of work.  His parents, Lynda and Pat did a bit of talking, and I even got to see Matt’s son, TJ, who was pretty cute.  The mother of TJ, Karen, was there as well.  I used to know her from school as well. *laughs*  It was a bit of a small world there.  Kelly’s friend Eve was there as well, and she was the one who threw the shower with the help of Kelly’s mom.  There were a few different people around so it was good talking to them and catching up and getting to know them.

I even went for a swim at one point because it was so hot, and swam a bit with Brenda and her son Brandon…more and more people started joining us, and I was cooled off enough and got out.  Kelly actually went swimming for the first time.  She was still a bit self-conscious about how she looked with her being pregnant, but she looked just fine. *laughs*  Everyone had to tell her that!  Haha…Crazy.  We did some swimming, and then when everyone got out, and everyone made Kelly sit down and open up gifts with Jason.

They then went through all the gifts, and ate supper from the BBQ, and talked, so it was good, then when it was over, everyone started leaving.  The shower was for 2 to 5, and I think most people finally started leaving after 7 which was a little crazy. Haha…I imagine the hosts of the party were exhausted…the shower was good in the way I was able to catch up with old friends and see what was new, so it was pretty nice. *smile*  I was really tired after the shower though, after being in the sun all afternoon so it was crazy. *laughs*

After the shower, that night, I met up with a guy that I had been talking to a little while, Shawn, and we just sat around and hung out and talked a bit…it was interesting, actually.  He was a nice guy.  Then the next day I continued with all the packing and getting ready for the cottage that I was leaving for on Tuesday morning…I was just so exhausted. Haha… Got everything I needed packed up and then Tuesday morning I got up and made sure with Steve that everything was all set, and realized in the emails that he wanted to postpone it because of the weather and I was a bit dumbfounded, as it was okay back here, it wasn’t raining yet or anything…then a couple of hours later it started pouring. *laughs*  It rained, and rained, and rained…I was glad that we did decide to postpone it because of that day…I can’t imagine having to get there, and dealing with the rain and setting up the tents. Haha…So we postponed the trip to next Monday for the week.  So I’m staying in town for the next week and trying to relax. *smile*  The same day I was supposed to leave for Sharbot Lake, my mom asked if I wanted to go out to the store to pick up things, food and the such like.  So I went out for a couple of hours to Canadian Tire to get items I needed (such as an air mattress) and things my mom needed, so it was a good outing.  By the end of the day I was so tired…and now I get to relax the rest of the week, so I’m looking forward to that.  Heh…then going to go camping next week.  I am kind of eager to see how that turns out…it’s been a while since I have last camped.  I would think that the last time I actually slept in a tent was probably when I used to go to my best friend’s family island and we used to sleep in tents then…it was a lot of fun though. *smile*  Hehe… but that was in high school.  Wow.  Since then I have enjoyed the outdoors in cottages and the such like, so I haven’t actually done the whole camping part in ages, so it’ll be interesting. *smile*  I’ll get my memory refreshed.  Hehe….

Hm, I think that’s all. *smile*

Insane Relatives, a Potluck BBQ, and Friends

It has been a stupendously busy little while lately!!  Holy crap.  At least for the previous weekend…that was a great, great weekend though, and a good change from my usual routine.  And I have had some crazy and surprising things come up, which has been not so great, but I think I have to put those not so great things out here later on, on my blog as they have been related to this blog.

I have been relaxing and having a really slow little while since I returned from the cottage.  I got to see my friend Liz last weekend, before she left to go to the US for a couple of weeks, and it was nice.  I haven’t talked to her in a bit, and we just sat around and talked and caught up, so it was kind of nice. We just mellowed out at my place and just talked, then she had to go back home to finish up with her packing and help her mom with some stuff.  It was good seeing her, and the funny thing, Violet had no problems with Liz…at first Liz wasn’t sure, and I wasn’t too positive because of how Violet was around Steve, and told Liz about her personality and she was a little unsure, and then Violet was all glued on her and rolled around near her asking to be petted…So I guess she just has an aversion to males, not females.  Probably a cause of my ex-husband.  She loves females for some funny reason.  Heh.  I was relieved, I really didn’t want to deal with her hissing fits if she ever got that bad…but she was her own sweet self around Liz so that was nice.  Just too bad that my cat has a weird aversion to males, hopefully I will be able to find some more male friends that have a big thing for cats and are around a bit and know how to deal with getting my normally sweet cat to warm up to them.

The past weekend though, has been extremely busy.  I’ve been helping out with the cleaning out of the garage back here, and it’s so much better now.  My mom rented a moving truck to toss out all the garbage that was in the garage, and it actually got filled to the brim.  It was that much garbage that was in there…all the broken drywall, insulation, and bags of garbage from when my ex ripped down all the damaged drywall and stuff from the raccoons, but he never got around to tossing them to the dump, so we did that…and then sorted through the garage and organized everything: seasonal things that were in bins (Christmas stuff, old stuff, and things like that), things that we were going to sell, things that were going to be picked up by odd people, and tools all in one group.  We can now walk in freely and get the things we need…the things we ended up throwing out, was a lot actually.  Wow.  But it really, really, really looks a lot better in the garage so it’s terrific.  It used to be packed right to the seams so having a place to actually walk around and store necessary stuff and get them out and back in is a lot better now.

The previous weekend was crazy.  Friday night I decided to meet up with a guy, Josh, that I had been talking to pretty regularly online for a while and he was a lot of fun to talk to, and we got along really well, so we decided to have a friendly meeting. Just to get to know each other in person, and we met at the Confederation Park and sat down and chatted it up.  I have a tendency to chat it up with new people online without a problem but I find that sometimes when I meet them in person they aren’t as chatty or they have a hard time dealing with my deafness and so on…with Josh I had absolutely no problem.  He was very friendly and was easy to get along with, so it was pretty fun.  We then got up after two hours of chatting at the water foundation and then went walking around downtown and just talking and talking and then went back to the docks and checked out the water and just talked.  We got along really well and I did enjoy myself…it was really nice to be around someone who could make me so comfortable to be with. *smile*  And that day, he was suffering floods in his place…that morning there was a horrible downpour that pretty much flooded a lot of downtown Kingston, the city was submerged under a inch of water up to knee high water, hip high water in some areas of Kingston which was absolutely insane…My house was lucky, and it had no flood in the basement so it was good…but I do remember it raining so hard that it was awful.  I had been talking to Josh online earlier that day and he had been stuck cleaning his apartment as he lives in a basement apartment and his place had been flooded, so it was awful really.  I felt bad for him.  Yikes!!  Oh well…but we were talking and I asked if he wanted to get out of his place, with it being so wet, and to meet up and just talk and get out of the house.  He agreed and we then met up and talked…it was a good night.  I then headed back home as I had to be up early as I needed to go shopping with my mom for baby items and do groceries…oh joy.

I later found out that several other people I knew had problems with the heavy downpour as well, there were a lot that suffered damages to their places so it was bad…wow.  Oh well.  I got lucky so it’s a relief actually.

Saturday I ended up going shopping with my mom, looking around for different baby stuff for my brother’s baby…it was interesting what was out there… *L*  Lots of funny and weird stuff in the stores, but some were pretty cute…lots of stuff to pick out and choose.  That took a few hours to do, and then I headed out and did some groceries.  It was a nice day out in town doing things I needed to do.

That night, my brother decided to email me and ask me to not mention anything about anything relating with family and too much information about family and stuff…I was like, what are you talking about?  The only thing I remember saying anything about the outside family was over a year ago when there was all the commotion going on with my uncle Mark when he stayed at my mom’s place because he split up with his ex-girlfriend after he cheated on her, and all the stuff that was told to me by my uncle or other family, and I was of course surprised but it was just their thing.  And that was over a year ago.  I barely said much about them just my opinions on what was going on…I didn’t like my uncle’s affair to start with, so when I was stuck hearing all about the stuff that was happening starting from the affair, I started noticing bad stuff come up everywhere, about the wrong people, and of course I was stressed out and dealing with them, but most things I talked about were minor, such as my uncle had an affair and he had two kids and so on, and stuff like that, and everything…Jase was telling me that certain people were questioning him about things that I was letting off my chest, and I told him they weren’t entirely mad, at least one aunt I know for sure, because mom hung out with her for a while after the break up and she knew about what I said in my blog and asked about it, then she was fine with it all.  We had all realized that my uncle was doing a lot of lying when he was telling us about what happened, so she was a bit mad but once we all talked it out, and it turned out to be fine.  We just found out that my uncle Mark was lying about everything in sight.  Heh…but it’s all good now anyway.  It also was the rest of the family, mostly the males that had problems with what I said.  If they don’t like me stating my opinions: how I don’t support family members having affairs or cheating or lying, I will mention it, and if they don’t like it, they can talk directly to me.  Several have and it’s been worked out just fine.  Heh…this is just definitely not something I want from people, or a friend myself, nor from my family.  As long as my family members know how to behave and keep themselves together, they then won’t become fodder for my words online. Heh…

My brother is just simply trying to get close, or at least neutral to a lot of his outside family for his upcoming kid’s sake, and I totally get that.  One good thing I haven’t even seen a couple of them for over a year so it helps.  Heh.  If they stay in a good place, or in a neutral place, in my life, and I don’t know what is going on in the choices they make, I will be good, and won’t say anything. Hehe…I guess my brother was just trying to make peace, but I told him that it was not likely that there would be peace between two sides of the family (my mom’s side and the other uncles side), but if he wants to get along with them, he can…no one would stop him.  He can go ahead and get chummy with them.  It doesn’t bother us, or anyone else either.

I just wish that the people who have problems with my blog would contact me directly.  They can in the emails that I have listed in Facebook and anywhere else and so on. *laughs* That would make it easier than just putting my brother in the middle…he has nothing to do with my blog, he’s all hands off on all that. *smile*  I’m the author, not my brother.  But it’s been a long time since I have talked about family, so oh well.  Things are nice and quiet now so it’s all nice and peaceful for me. Heh…I do know that if people who don’t like anything I mention in my blog, they can contact me directly and ask me to remove anything or edit something, they are welcome to.  No one does very much, they are generally good with it, but if they think they need to, they are allowed to, and welcome to.  I do get people asking me to omit some information and it works out fine, and if they are flexible I know.  So it’s all good, so you all don’t need to worry.  If they don’t like it and don’t contact me, that’s their own fault. :)  But I haven’t talked about family in a long, long time now.  It doesn’t bother me if anyone wants something edited or omitted, just not to the point where the edit is a lie though.  Heh…If I have to change my opinions, I’ll just omit the whole story if necessary. Haha…

All right, what else?  Oh, I had forgotten about the invitation that my friend Christine had given me a while back for a housewarming party of her new house and she was having a potluck BBQ at her place and a bunch of people were invited.  I was invited a while back but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get a ride, I didn’t really want to get a train in and back, so…so I wasn’t sure and didn’t hear from anybody else who was also invited, so I figured I wouldn’t be able to make it, then my brother surprised me by calling me on Sunday morning the day of the BBQ; which I thought was a junk call and didn’t answer.  It was at like 9:30 in the morning when he called, and that’s early for a Sunday morning, and when my mom realized that Jase and Kelly had called my mom woke me around 11 am saying that they were going to Christine’s potluck party and they were going to be here very soon, and I was like, holy…I need to wake up first. haha…so I tried to get ready fast and then they arrived.  I finished getting cleaned up and then 30 minutes after they arrived I finally was able to get out and get in the car and ready to go… It was a bit hard to do actually. *smile* I had headed off to bed quite late the night before so that really didn’t help.

On the way to Ottawa, I was just talking to Jase and Kelly about things that were going on and the such like…then we stopped at a store in Ottawa to pick up some food for the potluck and then we got to Christine’s place and just got introduced to everybody there, and saw Kat and Derek there, they both looked tired as heck though, as they had just come back from camping over the weekend and Kat wanted to say hey… she was only going to be there for a short bit, and then head back home and crash.  We talked a bit but Christine kept asking me to join her and talk to the whole group. Haha…normal! Kat was talking quite a bit with Jase and Kelly.  But at least I got some new news and new things that were going on in her life, so that was good, but it definitely was a brief visit with her. She was tired from camping so oh well.  Funny though.  I will have to see her sometime again in the summer, in a different time.

Kat and Derek left after a hour or so, and then I was just sitting around talking to everybody who was at the party…interpreters, people that Christine were friends with and so on, so it was good.  Just chatting it up and catching up, and getting to know different people.  It was nice.  Slowly people started to leave and I was still staying around and talking to who was left.  There were some people that were familiar to me, one guy I had worked with as a camp counselor was there, and when I worked as a counselor there he was still a high school student.  Now he’s in his second year of college, so it was a little funny.  He was always a really nice guy anyway, so all good.  There were a lot of females and guys at the party, so there was a lot of introductions made and so on, and talking about our lives and so on, work, love lives, mostly work, and being deaf and acquiring work and so on… *smile*

I finally ate at around 6 after most people had left, I wasn’t hungry at the time I arrived for the potluck around 2 so I didn’t eat anything, and was just talking to everybody, Cris and Christine mostly…Cris was definitely in a silly mood all day so it was an entertaining day watching all the people talk.  Christine even mentioned that I had seemed to have lost a lot of weight, and I was like, yeah, I have.  The last time I saw her was at Kat’s wedding so that was a long time ago, and I was a bit bigger then, though I did gain a lot more after the wedding…and all of that, I lost.  So it was interesting to hear her say that.  She even reminded me that I went with her when Christine met Cris for the first time, and I couldn’t remember that. *laughs*  So it was kind of funny hearing her talk about that, and how she still has one picture from that day and would try to dig it up while unpacking for her new home and send a copy to me.  Hmm, interesting, that’s for sure.  They have been together for 11 years now, so that’s…wow, amazing.  It was a good day actually just talking and seeing their whole house (their place was definitely really nice!). I think we finally left around 8:30 in the night…the three of us (Jase, Kelly and I) were so tired by then, so the drive home was quiet, except for one thing. Haha…Jase got the surprise of his life when a cop started flashing his lights at him and wanted him to pull over and Jase was like, I was only going 110? So both Jase and Kelly were freaking out, then the cop came to the window and said that he wanted to let them know that their back lights weren’t on or broken. It was getting dark by then and they needed to turn it on. Kelly did think the cop was pretty hot so it was a little funny actually. Heh…Just a little funny, Jase did get scared. I know he loves to drive, but I can’t imagine being pulled over would be something he’d love, so I was actually mocking him afterwards, doesn’t it make you love driving now? Heh…It was entertaining for such a quiet drive back home.

The past couple of days have been quiet, with some crazy stuff going on with all the garage items that we had that we wanted to get rid of; some steel items (old fridge, dehumidifier, push lawnmower, very old window frames and etcetera), some broken items; some old furniture in the garage that John had gotten from his brother and was going to sell.  There were a lot of items and the past little while John has been busy talking to various people who were interested in the items.  It was unbelievable how many people wanted crappy stuff for free, really.  It was all items that we didn’t need or want anymore, and the old furniture John is trying to sell and it’s a little tougher.  Oh well.  But it’s been interesting what kind of people have been around. Haha.

The Week at the Cottage and Miscellaneous

It’s been interesting so far. *smile*  I met up with a friend who had just moved to Kingston from Winnipeg, and it was interesting talking to him.  He was new here in Kingston and wanted to check out different areas of the city, so I decided to meet him the night before I left for the cottage.  We met up at the Confederation Park and then went to the Brew Pub to just sit down and talk it up…he was very nice and was talking about how he wanted to learn sign language so that was funny.  It was one of the 30 things he wanted to do before he turned 30, which is pretty soon. *smile*  He was very friendly and had no problems talking to everybody out there, so it was pretty hilarious… *smile*  Then we just headed back home and I finished up with my packing for the cottage.

July 10th:

I’ve been at the cottage for a couple of days now, and it’s been interesting here.  For one thing, when I and my mom and her boyfriend got here, the woman who rented us out the cottage was supposed to meet us and give us the keys to the cottage, and tell us about parts of it and what to do.  She didn’t even show up and John was trying to reach her and she wasn’t answering her phone.  He then tried all the doors in the cottage and found one to be open and we all went in with our stuff.  Hopefully she’ll return John’s calls sometime. *smile*

We got in and unpacked our stuff and mellowed out, checked out the entire cottage and the property around it, and sat outside for a bit as it was a really nice day that day.  I even tried to go swimming but found it was a bit problematic – there were water weeds everywhere and they kept grabbing me as I was swimming so it was a little odd. :S  The temperature of the water was just really warm so it was nice, but I just cannot stand the water weeds. *laughs*  I can’t even wade in as the weeds are all over the place.  So that isn’t much fun.  Even the deep end had really tall weeds that reached the top of the water, so I have no idea how to swim in that. *smile*  I wanted to be swimming all this time but…just bad water to be swimming in. *laughs*

I’ve just been lying around and enjoying the sun and so on.  My brother came by around supper time the first day we arrived there, and was just staying for one night and going back home the next day.  He ended up stuck in traffic – as there was an accident on the 401, and he had to take highway 2 on the way here, and then took a wrong turn in Gananoque and went the opposite way of where he was supposed to go to. *laughs*  Mom did the same thing when she first came here to pay the woman for the cottage.  *smile*

So they finally got here like a hour after the time they had estimated they would be here at.  When he got here, everyone all started talking and catching up.  Jason started talking about what he was going to do with the house, the baby’s room and the such like, and what they still needed for the baby…they are having her baby shower in August so… *smile*  All wait and see, of course.  Kelly seems to be okay with her size and the such like…she’s now 7 months pregnant and doesn’t seem too big, just big enough. *smile*  She’s still figuring out what she wants to do and so on.  They did a lot of hanging out and talking, checking out the lake and having supper, then we all watched the movie, “The A-Team” the first night.  Not too bad.

The next day everyone was so mellow and tired, God knows I was!!  Haha…all I wanted to do was sleep.  Wow.  Jase and Kelly were doing a lot of hanging out at the water, and so on.  I was just mellowing out mostly and just resting, enjoying the fresh air, though I actually got sleepy really quickly the first couple of days.  Kelly at one point asked me if I was excited about becoming an aunt…it’s just something I’m gonna be, and that’s no big deal. *smile*  We also played some bocci ball out front in the large front yard, so that was fun.  It was way too hot out there though. *smile*

They headed back home around 2 to 3ish, and then I actually relaxed and fell asleep on the couch for an hour or so before supper, and I felt a bit better after.  That day my brother left, it kept looking like it was going to storm anytime… it was a little silly. *smile*

July 14:

Now, it’s been a few days now, since I came here…it’s been a really busy little while for sure! *smile*  The first few days were nice…Jordy, John’s youngest came soon after Jase and Kelly left, and has been here all this time since then.  He’s not much of a cottage boy, or a camping guy, that’s for sure, but he has been having fun fishing here and there, even though he has a leeriness about touching the fishes that he has caught…he has had to call his dad for help on getting the fish off the hooks, and John is not much better in handling fish either. *L*  It’s been a funny sight actually with them both going, eww, eww, on handling the fish.  For a while there, they were dealing with the fishes with paper towels in their hands and so on.  Heh…it’s funny actually.  I don’t fish anyway, so I rather not touch them either, I just stayed away from it all. *smile*  Jordy has been here most of the week, with the exception of Tuesday night when he had to go back for a game and he left on Friday afternoon.

Josh, John’s oldest has been here since Tuesday or so…he seems to be comfortable and relaxed here.  He doesn’t seem to do much, other than watch everyone do their thing, play some games with his youngest brother and the such like.  He went back home after one day, and then came back later in the week.  John’s brother, Boris came along with his girlfriend, Carol on Wednesday, and John’s other sister, Ellen, came with her family on Tuesday.  They are a lot of fun…Ellen I remember from other parties that John has had before,  Ellen and Jeff, along with their two kids, Kenny and Lily.  Lily has been talking quite a bit with me and my mom, she’s a nice girl. *smile*  The first night Ellen got here, though, everyone got really drunk that they didn’t remember anything…it was crazy!!! *smile*  I do remember it, but they don’t.  Wow…the next day they had to go back because Jeff had to work the next day.  Boris and Carol, loved being here as Boris fishes constantly and does the whole fishing thing that no one else liked doing.  I’ve been playing games (bocci ball and badminton), some board games such as Yahtzee outside, suntanning whenever possible, swimming and mellowing out. *smile*

There has been some days where there were possibilities of rain, thunderstorms but we didn’t get much of that, except on Wednesday when everyone came over.  There were high winds, torrential rains but it lasted for such a short time so it wasn’t too bad. *smile*  The weather the past week in Kingston has been ridiculously hot, but back here in the cottage by the lakes, it’s been really nice.  Lucky me, eh?   Hehe…so it has been pretty good.  Lots and lots of sun back here except for that day with all the rain.  Which has been pretty good. *smile*

July 16:

It was crazy, John had bought a case of beer for himself to drink up in the week that he was here in the cottage, and when Boris and Carol were over, Boris actually drank a whole 24 pack of beer in one day…then John had to go out on Thursday, to get another case of beer for the next couple of days, and of course, as of 10pm on Friday night, everyone realized that the 24 pack was all gone plus John’s few beer that he bought for himself. *laughs*  Wow…Boris really has very little control when it comes to drinking, the eating part he didn’t do much of which surprised me, but he was just drinking himself mindlessly, so he didn’t really think of eating.  *laughs*  Oops…it’s not been much fun.

John’s middle son, Brett, came along with his girlfriend, Katie, on Thursday, and they came for BBQed hamburgers and food for supper.  They just came to see the cottage and talk to everybody and say hey…Katie was doing a lot of talking, that’s for sure.  Haha…it was interesting, and they left around 10 on Thursday night. *smile*  When there was a lot of people at the cottage I just ended up hanging out away from everybody and just reading, watching some DVDs on my mom’s laptop, and talking to my mom here and there.  There were too many people over at once and I just wanted to relax…sometimes it got to be a bit too much, especially in the evenings, and I just wanted to get away and do my own thing. *laughs*  During the day it’s fine being around so many people, but after the day ends I just want to get away from everybody and mellow out. *smile*

It took a bit for me to get over the water weeds, and John even helped me out in finding good areas to swim in the lake, where the weeds weren’t so high, up to the top of the lake, that I would get tangled up in them. *laughs*  One of the beads in the ties of my swimsuit got ripped off by one of the water weeds when I went out swimming for the first time…so yay. *smile*  Oh well, so John wanted to go swimming (the water was unbelievably warm, really!) so he kind of found good places to float around and swim in.  It was not bad at all. *smile*  On Friday I actually went all the way to the centre of the lake, so that was pretty weird.  My mom was surprised that John and I went out that far, but it wasn’t too bad…some areas were really full of weeds, but it was weird, how deep the lake was and there were so many extremely tall weeds all through the lake and I had to kind of go around to get past them.  It wasn’t a lot of fun, but oh well…been interesting for sure. *smile*  I’ve been the only one who has actually gone swimming in the lake, along with John… Jordy tried it once but it didn’t last for him, and no one else has actually gone swimming which was a little weird for me…I can so why can’t anyone else?  Oh well…the water was really, really warm so, yeah…haha.  Yes, the weeds were pretty icky, but you just have to swim a little differently to get past them.  I swam with water noodles so that helped a lot, kept me level and to the surface of the water so my feet didn’t have to get so tangled up with the lower growing weeds down below me. *smile*

One thing about John’s family, they are really sort of city dwellers, so it was a little funny seeing some of John’s family freak out by random stuff…especially his youngest son.  Wow. *smile*  I’ve been at a cottage before, I know how to adjust in that sort of place, even though I get told I can be a bit of a city person as well, but I have no problems adjusting to the country at all…the woods and stuff like that. *smile*  I also grew up in the country when I was a kid.  But John’s family, especially his sons, seem to have a harder time dealing with that sort of thing, which is amazing really. Heh…I was surprised, but now am used to it…I would see Jordy freak out by the water (and oh, yes, Boris would also freak out by incidents he had heard about on the news about people drowning in the lake, and he refuses to swim in the lake thinking it’s at fault for making people drown…*laughs*  A little cheesy, I know.) and everyone would…just be silly really.  There’s also the aspect with the toilets in the cottage, you have to use toilets differently in a cottage than you would at a normal house, and a lot of people that come visiting seem to have a problem with that.  They like to flush the toilets constantly and dispose of the toilet paper in the toilets.  It’s pretty silly.  Oh, well.  It’s a cottage!!!   Haha…but otherwise, I was trying to relax…

On Thursday I even took a tour of Gananoque, and that was very interesting. *laughs*  Just stopped at a couple of stores and walked down the main street and checked out places there.  It was interesting actually. *smile*  John had needed to pick up more beer there, so that’s why we all went down there for the other people who were visiting the cottage.  I just went with my mom and John so to catch a glimpse of the town – I don’t think I have actually checked out Gananoque before, so it was kind of cool. *smile*

Most of the people left in the afternoon on Friday, so it was just me, my mom and John by then, so it was good being able to relax that afternoon/night and the next day…the last couple of days we were cleaning up, packing up, and mellowing out in the sun and relaxing… just not worrying about anything else but just doing our thing. *smile*

There was also a water snake on the deck on Friday, and everyone thought that was so icky…*laughs*  But water snakes leave you alone normally, so oh well.  I’m used to them from when I was at the other cottage, my ex’s family cottage used to have water snakes all hidden in the deck right over the water.  When you walked by the decks, you’d see water snakes shoot out of the crevices into the water one by one…it was always disgusting…so when the people at the cottage we were at found one, I was like, oh, that’s all? *smile*  I’ve seen much more…they are gross, but they generally leave you alone anyway, they are more scared of humans than humans are of them. ;)

As soon as I got back home on Saturday I was actually sooo tired it was ridiculous… *laughs*  I just pretty much mellowed out and unpacked and just gave some attention to my cat who I have left alone for an entire week… she was all glad I was back. *laughs*  Funny…that night she was on my lap the entire night just purring.  Heh.  It was funny, but the cottage was really nice overall, got to see a lot of different things… *smile*  All good…

Canada Day, The Patio, and Meeting New People

Wow, what do I say here?

It’s not been that long since my last journal entry, but there has been so much happening that it’s like, wow…*laughs* Oh well. My mom has been taking me out to rent movies here and there, so it’s been good. The first time around I rented the movies, “Just Go With It“, “How Do You Know” and bought two other movies, “The Romantics” and “Morning Glory“… they all were good, though I watched How Do You Know, and it wasn’t all that great, but I think I was distracted watching it so I couldn’t get into it really. :/ But the rest of the movies were good anyway.

My mom also rented the movie “Biutiful“, an Indian movie, with English subtitles. That was a very good movie, but had a really sad ending. :( Oh well. And “The Resident” was a creepy movie, but very good…just saw it the other day and it was creepy. But it was just really good. Haha…

The Canada Day weekend turned out to be really busy for me. *smile* My mom had eye surgery on the day before Canada Day, to get out a lump that she had on her eyelid. She had some sort of bump that was growing in her eyelid, and it had started to interfere with her vision so her eye doctor had to request that she go through surgery to have the bump removed… my mom was telling me about the surgery, and how lovely it was… it sounded gross. haha… She had to have her eyelid opened wide, and flipped inside out, and then an incision was made in the inside of the lid to get out the bump, and she said that all she could hear was, oh my God! It was leaking all this stuff out, and then a hard bit came out and she’s having that checked. Then they closed it up and put her eyelid back down and she has to let it heal. It was a little gross hearing about it all. Hehe…then she came to see me with a lovely eye patch on…bandaged eye. It was quite funny. ;)

That same night a guy I was talking to a bit, who I got along with really well, decided to ask me to meet up with him to Tim Horton’s for some drinks and to talk and so on… He met me at the intersection near my place, and then we walked over to Tim Hortons’ and then grabbed some drinks, relaxed and chatted it up a bit…we got along really well, and he actually tried to learn sign language…so that was interesting. He knows a lot of other languages so picking up on sign wasn’t too hard for him. It was actually pretty fun. *smile* I enjoyed myself with him so it was good…then on the way back to my place he unexpectedly kissed me. I was thrown, because we had met on the agreement that it was to be platonic, friends only, and the kiss was a surprise. He then got himself back together and walked me to the intersection and then I headed back home, a bit stunned I guess… He was a very nice guy and he wanted to be friends for sure, because he was going to be moving back to Europe after he finished his courses in Queens, so…I guess it was a surprise for me. Oh well. We have talked here and there after, and it seems like I may not hang out with him again because I don’t want to get involved with him and so on…I’m just looking for friends to start and so was he! *laughs* But oh well…he just thinks he cannot do it, because he’s too attracted to me. So, it’s like, oh great. I haven’t had that happen before so this is very strange for me.

The next day was Canada Day and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do…so I talked to another guy I had been talking to a bit and he offered to meet up with me so that we could go and see the fireworks at the waterfront. He was a bit older than me and was looking for friends locally, like myself…he picked me up and then headed out to The Sleepless Goat. He actually forgot his wallet at one point on the drive there, and said he had to turn around to get it. I was a bit unsure and uncomfortable about going to his place while he picked up the wallet, so I decided to get out of the car and wait for him while he got his wallet, and I walked on to downtown Kingston…I think he dropped me off on Montreal St, so that was a little freaky… it’s not the best street at all. haha… Oh well. Then he came back quickly and we headed to The Sleepless Goat. We talked and I saw a guy who was in my classes for graphic design so it was weird. He didn’t recognize me, thankfully, but it was good…it was okay at that place and we just talked, then headed out to the waterfront to watch the fireworks. The fireworks was pretty good this year, and it was unbelievable how many people were at the waterfront. haha…Wow! *smile* I usually sit in a different area, like in the Confederation Park, and I was on the pier this time around so it was a different place to be standing in, but I got a very clear view of the fireworks so that was different. Heh. It was good, and then I was all, I’m going home now…good fireworks, and he asked me if I wanted to go to Fort Henry to check out stuff there, and I opted out, because that was out of the way and wasn’t up to going there with a new person just yet. So he took me home and I then relaxed for the rest of the night. *smile*

I also put in ads for my engagement and wedding rings to sell them, so that was interesting on the number of responses I got for them. Haven’t gotten anyone to actually buy any of them, but I’ll get there. *smile*  And the funny thing is no one actually put in a response for the ruby engagement ring, and it was the one that was raved about, so I assumed that that one would be sold fast, but it hasn’t even had one offer come in for that ring.  Haha… Funny.

It’s funny I watched The Romantics on one Saturday night and I realized that I resembled the character that Katie Holmes was playing, so I began to realize I was a hopeless romantic…which was…um, weird. Haha…I really didn’t expect that at all.

The past week or so I have been watching my mom’s boyfriend work on the back patio… he had his one son help him out on it, so it was interesting. They had to take up the old stones, which looked to be cement blocks…and then even out the ground underneath, and then put down the new stones. It looks pretty good now, much better than it did before. *smile* It looks a lot cleaner and simple, and is even bigger so it’s pretty nice. Heh…You can see the before and after, so it’s pretty cool. John still has to pick up two more stones for two empty spaces, but otherwise it’s all done.

Here’s the before picture, after the old cement blocks were taken out:

The before picture for the patio, all the old cement blocks removed

Now here’s the new patio stones in, still missing a couple in the front corner where all the bags of soil is resting on.  They need to wait for the stones to get in the store so to get it… the other two stones they had before were chipped and broken.

The Upcoming Cottage Vacation, and Other Stuff

I’ve just been busy lately on trying to improve myself that I haven’t really had the chance to really think about things.  Which is really good! *smile*  And when I do relax, my head starts spinning again so it becomes annoying.  That’s not so great.  I am still exercising, but not as much as I was before…I was doing exercises in the mornings, walking nights and everything so I was almost on a high…now I am trying to settle myself down, now that I’m getting exhausted, and very sore, and especially now that I have gotten some graphic design work to do, and need to sit down and focus on the work.  I had been talking to new people and a lot of them, once they find out what I do workwise, they ask me to do something for them.  Which has been…odd.  I was on a dating site, so I don’t know why I’m getting work, but I have no complaints.  I’m not looking for relationships anyway.  Heh…

Oh, I also have been keeping busy eating elsewhere…I bought all this food for when my ex was supposed to come by in his holidays and my mom keeps asking me over for dinner so that I wouldn’t eat alone…so my fridge and freezer are still full.  It’s so crazy. *laughs*  I ended up throwing out a bunch of stuff the other day, so it’s improving. *smile* A while back, I had a BBQed steak, and that was very good…then the next day my mom’s boyfriend’s brother, Boris and Carol both invited them and me over for dinner, and it was steak again.  *shakes head*  I was so stuffed after eating, and so sick of steak by then with having it two days in a row…I eat a lot less than I used to, so it’s good. I barely ate my entire plate, at Boris and Carol’s, it was just so filling. *smile*  Oh well.  I even went for a swim at their apartment’s pool and it was interesting…all day it was humid and hot, and once we finally got down there, around 5, it had cooled down considerably, so by the time I got in the pool the water had become cool. *laughs* I still got in and took a bit of a swim.  I’m still achy all over from the crazy push-push I did when I first started the exercises with bodyrock.tv…so when I exercise now, it’s a lot less, but still, not entirely painful anymore so it’s good…I’m just trying to push myself less. *smile*  I really need my energy to get back to where it never was for a long time so I’m good with that. Haha…and the exercises are really working for that.

Well, I had a swim and dinner at Boris and Carol’s place, and afterwards, Boris surprised me by giving me a homemade stuffed rabbit, made out entirely of men’s wool socks that he had bought.  I was thrown. *L* I have no idea why they did that, but it was interesting. *L* They know what I’ve been through so they were just trying to cheer me up and being silly.  They tend to say that they really love having me around and over, and talking with them.  It was good, I was not in such a bad shape the night I went over…it varies every day actually so it’s a little weird. *smile* I usually do much better when I’m with people and talking with family. Hehe…I think too much, I think. I get told that quite often. ;)

My mom finally found and booked a cottage, in Gananoque, for the week of July 9th to 16th… it took her a long time and a lot of jumping around on different cottages, wow!  But she already got this one and it’s a four bedroom cottage which is crazy. *smile* It was affordable so that’s why they got it, but they love it…they actually got to see it a bit when they went down to pay the woman the fee for the cottage. *smile*  They really liked it.  So it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out to be…I know John, me and Mom are going for sure, and Boris and Carol may go for a few days or the full week, I have no idea… Maybe John’s sons will go.  Funny.  All wait and see of course.  I’m looking forward to going there…gonna be doing a bit of swimming, if the water is going to be warm enough and just being outside a bit…They keep telling me that if I want to bring anyone I can, but I have no idea who else that I know wants to go, especially at that date.  So not much I can do about it…Everyone I’m talking to lately are still too new to even consider inviting them so it’s okay…Oh well. *smile*

Hmm, what else?  I’ve been trying to figure out how to add a RSS feed onto my website, so that I don’t have to always have to copy and paste all the journal entries from WordPress on to my website.  Since I couldn’t figure it out on my website control panel I asked the people there, and they were telling me I had to have it in a completely different kind of hosting service.  So I switched it over, and when it’s up, hopefully there’ll be something that will get the WordPress entries to just load automatically.  It’d be so nice…I like to be able to write in a journal and not worry about adding it on to my website…I rather have it just automatically be added.  So I think I’m getting closer to that step. *smile*  I’ve just been focusing pretty much on dumb things right now, but at least it’s distracting. Haha…

It’s funny, the other day I was actually thinking of getting a dog.  Just for company…my cat is nice company but she’s not always around, so it’s all right.  She’s always hiding somewhere or running off somewhere.  ;)  She’s often outside hiding in the garage, it makes it so hard to find her sometimes. :/  She would get locked in and we wouldn’t even know. *laughs*  I would be wondering where she would be, and then we’d check the garage and she’d be lying on the floor there, or on the items that are stored there.  Hehe…she’s crazy.  Violet knows I’m in a better shape than I was before…for a while there she was always by my side and kissing up to me, and making sure I gave her my attention.  It was weird actually, never seen a cat do that, but that’s what Violet has been doing…she’s been leaving me alone again because I’ve been doing better so it’s not bad right now.  *smile*  I was just thinking it’d be nice to get a dog, for company, and something to walk with and do things with…but I’m just not sure yet. I think I’m just thinking too much, and dogs are expensive too. *laughs*

Oh yeah, I went to meet someone I had been talking to for a very short time in my cell phone…he doesn’t use the internet, and told me he would think about getting me to work at where he works at, Smallworld Media…he knows I’m a graphic designer and said he would try something like that…I told him to go ahead, I did apply there a long time ago and they never responded back so nothing I can do about that.  Anyway, I met him the other day over the weekend, and it was a little strange…he was talking about his separation, and how recent it was…and then went on to say that he’d be interested in sleeping with me and that sort of thing, I had to back off.  I told him I was actually just looking for friends, people to talk to, that’s it…so if he wanted more, I couldn’t be the person to give it to him.  For one he’s recently separated, as in two months now, and I barely know him at the moment so uh-huh…not someone I can be interested in.  I had to tell him that.  I hate that part…but hopefully he’s okay with it, he still talks to me after all…not in depth talks but just light surface talks, it never seemed to improve after we met.  So it’s a little odd. *smile*  I went to the waterfront with him, and we sat down for like 5-15 minutes and then I told him that since he was not ready to be able to talk to people normally and still was having trouble with the fact that he was separated, that I should go back home. *smile* So I did…so it was a very interesting evening that’s for sure. *L*  He kept looking over his shoulder thinking he was going to see his ex-wife walking around…so that was just odd for me, I thought.  I’m just there to be friends.  But he was expecting more, and I don’t do that. :/  Just all wait and see what happens really.

Oh yes, my ex-husband Eric finally got all of his stuff out of the garage, so he’s now out of my life for good, at least until the divorce…all of his items are now gone from the garage…so I’m so glad about that!  hehe…I even went out with my mom to talk to Jack, my ex’s mom’s boyfriend, my mom wanted to know how he was, as she knew that he had cancer before, and wanted to see how he was…he seemed to be doing a lot better, and all that, so he was all joking around and being silly, while Eric and Ben brought in all the big stuff from the garage.  So that was a good thing to hear.  Once they were done, they left, so it was interesting, it was all a huge relief for me. ;)   Just have one more thing to do, file for divorce, which would be nice. *smile* But I’m not really in a big rush anyway, after all I’m still single so it’s all right. *smile*  And my mom was telling me to try eHarmony for dating, as I was complaining about POF being full of weird people, though it has improved the past few days, and when I tried to register for eHarmony, they banned me from going any further, because I was actually separated.  They said that once I had my divorce finalized, I could reapply again.  Wow, what craziness. *L* I didn’t even know that eHarmony did that, but I guess they do.  Haha…Funny though.  So I am continuing on with POF and kind of hoping that the people that I talk to improve.  It seems to be slowly improving… I’m getting less people who are obsessed with sex, and more people who want to talk, so it’s good…just have to see how it turns out. *smile*  It’s hard, as I am only looking for friendship, and there’s a lot of people who seem to think that means more. *rolls eyes*

I’ve also been talking to old exes, and that has been funny.  We broke up for a reason, but we still get along later on. ;)   It’s just funny talking to them nowadays actually.  I also added a Google Adwords thing for my portfolio website, so just seeing if it will work…it hasn’t seemed to, but I need to email my old friend from Ottawa, Eric and ask him about that, he was the one who told me about it…so it’ll be interesting. *smile*  Oh well.

The Cup, Friends & Being Active

Wow, this is really dumb. I’m referring to the Stanley Cup; Vancouver lost last night, so okay then…that’s too bad, but congratulations to Boston for winning the Cup…I don’t have a preference, a Canadian team would have been nice, but oh, well. But I have been hearing about all the riots that happened after the game in Vancouver…it kind of disgusts me how they all flipped out there that Vancouver lost…wow. Yeah, they lost, what can you do about that, it just happens. *rolls eyes* See the article here: Vancouver Riots Have Canadians Blushing. Craziness.

In my last entry, about the break up, it’s pretty much done, and I’m just trying to see if he would still be friends, but he seems weird about that part. Still does a lot of pushing away so it’s tough. Oh well…he has said, well, it seems like the break up was for the best then, so it’s fine…it wasn’t, but I guess for him it was. All up to him, it was something he wanted. I guess he’s still all messed up as it is right now, so he’s not really making sense these days. I do want to be friends but that would be until he has his mind in order again, it’ll be okay. We used to talk a lot before we started dating, we used to email each other a lot and just talked about a lot…I’m hoping to get back to that at least. *smile* But if he really wants to push me away permanently, he may succeed in that. I’m hoping not for that. That would suck. Haha…

I tried going on those dating sites after the break up happened, it was really hard, and all I was looking for was friends. It’s really hard to achieve definitely, because they are actually dating sites, though they did have the option of looking for friends; everyone seems to want something different…if I say I want friends, they hope that I will go for one night stands. I often have to turn them down because that’s not something I do or are looking for. Yikes…it’s bad. One married guy talked to me and I was like, okay…you can talk to me, but he also started sounding strange, and I had to tell him to stop being weird, because I am not into married guys that way either, ever, along with single guys at the moment. Friendships are what I need at the moment, as I lack friends here in Kingston…most of my friends are far away from me so it’s frustrating…*chuckles* I talked to Kat though, she said for me to come up to Kanata to visit her this summer so that should be good, still have to figure out her schedule with work and times she spends with Derek. Heh… Oh well. But it’d be good…I’m just tired of thinking too much which drives me insane. I have kind of started backing out of the dating sites, and only talk to one guy from there who I talked to before I started seeing Steve, we were friendly before so it’s good. He’s the only one so far who hasn’t asked or implied for sex, so that’s why I talk to him. Haha…

Anyway, yesterday I went on a walk early in the afternoon because I was feeling so restless and crazy from all the nutty people I was getting on POF the night before, I just wanted to have someone to actually talk to, not someone to argue with and keep away from me. So I decided to just go for a walk early in the afternoon so to release my tension and frustration, and it was pretty good, got back home and was tired out enough to stop thinking too much; and then just did odd stuff at home, mellowed out, cleaned up the place, and then my mom asked me to go for a walk with her later in the evening, so I went to wear out more tension. I actually got tired enough, and was able to think positively and happier, and I talked to my friend Kelly and he told me about this site that he knows about and uses himself, it’s an exercise site, that I can use when I feel the need to exercise. I normally don’t exercise, but he recommended it because, well, I was having the need to release all the stress from me, so it’d be a good way of doing it, instead of trying to find people to talk to, yell at people and obsess about things that I can’t fix, and focus on myself, and bettering myself first. It’s called bodyrock.tv… I had never heard of it, but I checked it out and it’s pretty good…you can do as much as you want, and as little as you want, and you can pick out what exercises you want to use…it looked pretty good…so I decided to give it a try this morning when I got up…

Wow, that was something. It really made me sweat so that was good, really hard and quick exercises so that was good…I like quick, I don’t like exercising for hours and hours…especially now that I’m so out of shape. Haha…So that was pretty good. I will be using it more often, as I have so much more energy now. I’m also not sleeping all the time…last night I went to bed at one in the morning…got up at 7:30. I just couldn’t sleep longer…which is amazing. I usually have to sleep 12 hours or more, so that is pretty awesome. I feel very alert, full of energy and have lots of willingness to do stuff. It was strange, I have not felt this way in a long time…but I also had to wait for my thyroid meds to work, and it was slowly improving but not a lot, only because I was not very active, being down the past month or so, being confused and disappointed with the break up and my ex’s choice, so it was weird…now that I’m forcing myself be active, I can see a difference in me. I have more muscle, lost more weight, and even my skin has gotten better – that aspect probably has more to do with my thyroid than exercise anyway, my face and any other areas had dry areas on it, are gone…they are actually healing up so I’m really happy about that. Heh… So I will have to keep the exercise up and see if I can get where I want to be. *smile* For one thing, when I see the dating sites, everyone that is looking, are athletic. Ugh. I’m not normally, so it’s tough. Heh… So I have to really, for myself, so to make myself feel better, and have the feel of not needing to be with somebody all the time. I’m actually feeling better, when I’m bored and alone, to exercise instead of thinking too much or going online too much, I just need to get out of needing to find people to talk to and chat with. That’s the tricky part, I like to talk, and got used to talking to my ex and now I have no one to chat with so it’s a little tough. I still have some friends and all that, but I don’t like taking up too much of their time, ’cause, well, they have their own lives. *smile*

I’ve been watching movies lately, I bought some movies a while back, Blue Valentine — that was a very odd movie…it was good, but at the same time just sad. Oh well. I understood and got the movie though, so that was a little funny, still it was too sad, don’t think I would watch it again. Last night I watched No Strings Attached…that was a funny movie…I liked that movie. I actually could understand the girl there, played by Natalie Portman, she reminds me a lot of me, but at the same time not. So it was kinda cool.

Hopefully I’ll find more people to do things with, which would be good… Eventually.

I’ve been talking to my mom a bit lately, as she and John have been considering renting a cottage for a week, so that everyone could go to and get a break and just relax and unwind. She was supposed to have John’s brother come by for the week as he was the one who wanted to rent a cottage and get out of Kingston for a little bit…but he ended up changing his mind so it may just be my mom, John and me…gotta shell out cash for it. Haha…Anyway, my mom had suggested a cottage so that I and Steve could go to, as well, so that he could relax and have his mind taken off from all the commotion of his life, but soon after my mom suggested it, everything went awry with Steve and him pushing me away and being concerned about his lack of money and stuff like that, and that I would be happier apart from him. It kind of threw me off, too, but oh well…so it’ll likely be me, my mom and John now…not sure who else may go…maybe one of John’s sons, but not sure just yet. *smile* Oh well…at first they were looking at this really pretty cottage in Muskoka Lake, and was talking to this woman who was renting it out, and John was working on deciding, asking people if they could go or not, and things kept going weird, and someone else was interested in the cottage, and when John and Mom just decided to just take it anyway, then the woman decided to give John attitude, saying that she had to wait for the other couple to get back to her before she could decide, like John was the last option…even though he was the first one who called in his interest for the cottage. She was very, very nasty and very bitchy to John that it pissed him off enough to not want to speak to her anymore, and started looking for another cottage to stay at. *laughs*

So my mom found another cottage over at Perth, another nice place right over the water, so that one sounds more likely than the other one. Still waiting, but I think we’ll end up getting that one for August…so it’ll be good. *smile* They don’t know if anyone else is interested, but I think it’s just the two of them. It’s been a pain trying to get a cottage for sure! Wow. But I need the opportunity to get out of town and unwind and not worry about my own life… heh.

I have also been talking to Eric, who I used to know from Ottawa, he owns his own businesses, and I was talking to him about starting my own freelance business…I have had it for a while, but it’s the whole attracting customers and new clients part that I am having trouble with. When I do find customers, sometimes they run because I’m deaf, because they figure I can’t do the job for them, so thats why I tend to get customers that I know already in person or are friends with, so it’s a little silly. Oh, well, what can you do? He gave me tips on what to do, to make myself more searchable…I think I need to talk to him a little more about how to set it up in a better way, more appropriate and etcetera. It’s gonna cost money, but I’ll live. haha… If I can get clients, it’d be good. It’s something I need to pay for so to get customers and clients. So it’s all wait and see if it’ll work. Hmm, I think that’s all so far. Just been an interesting little while, for sure!