Wished I would have remembered 18 years ago

On Saturday, I was trying to figure out something I could kneel on while cleaning the shower floor. I (not so) suddenly remembered that I lent my volleyball knee pads to a girl in grade 8 and she never returned them. Why did I not remember this in 1992?

Simplification

For weeks, it has been bothering me how much stuff I have and have no place to put it. I'm partially frustrated because I have so few days where I feel good enough to do anything about it. The rest of the frustration comes from not knowing where to start. I know things could be much worse but I want everything I keep to have a place. I came across this article tonight that I think will be useful:

Deciding what to get rid of is hard, but it must be done.
Our teacher told us the story of a man she had helped on a big cleaning project. He was hanging on to things like a plastic bag from a bookstore in Paris that he felt reminded him of his college travels. The bag, he said, had a special place in his memory.
Fine, she said. Let's get a nice frame for it and hang it on the wall. The man looked at her like she was nuts. You don't frame and hang a plastic bag.
No? Well, let's take a picture of it, then frame that picture. Again, the man stared at her like she had lost it. It finally dawned on him that the bag wasn't the source of his memories, but merely a souvenir, and a junky one at that. Toss it, he said.
Our teacher recommended that we use this rule for each item that we hem and haw over:
1. Would you want to frame and display it?
• Yes = Keep.
• No = See step 2.
2. Would you want to take a picture of it?
• Yes = Take picture, get rid of item.
• No = Get rid of item.
If you can take a picture of something that you want to remember, but can't use, do so. Put it in an album with a label. But let it go if it's taking up too much space.

Are Our Children Learning Enough About Whales?

I was an adorable baby

Trouble from the start

I uploaded some old-timey family pictures to my Flickr account.

When A Shirt Is More Than Just A Shirt

Back in the day, my sister wore grandpa clothes. She would call it retro, I call it grandpa clothes. She even had a pair of pants that once belong to my deceased great-grandfather that Krissie referred to as Ommie* pants. Sorry, I'm getting a little off track here. Once at Value Village with Maryanne, I happened to see a Levi's work shirt at the end of the rack in the men's section. It was an extra-small men's, still had the tags on it, fit me perfectly and was only $5. Mary and the girl at the till were jealous of my awesome find.


Cutest sisters ever! and the famous shirt

At the time when I bought the shirt, I was really skinny due to my food allergies. Everything I ate made me sick so it was difficult to even maintain my weight let alone put on weight. Eventually I started feeling better and was able to gain weight. It was bittersweet when the work shirt was too small for me to wear: I was so thankful to be feeling well enough to put on weight but sad since this kind of shirt wasn't made anymore. From the original store tags, it was from the late 70s or early 80s when work shirts were supa tight. Since then I ever never found a button-up shirt that fits me so well.


Inspired by the article When A Coat Is More Than Just A Coat: How Certain Articles Of Clothing Take On A Special Meaning - Jezebel. I want to read your stories of your favourite article of clothing. Post the story (or the link to the story) in the comments. If you write a story on your own blog, I'd appreciate if you linked back to me!

* Great-grandfather's name was Omund. At least it wasn't Ommie gotch which another member of our family "inherited". Note to Krissie: Dodged that bullet, eh?

"Caution: Contents are Hot"

Sorry, embedding didn't work:
Jimmy and Ladysmith Snack Mambazo Sing About Their Love for Hot Pockets

Nike Football: "Write the Future"

Less than 3 weeks...

Mr T on procrastination

This one is going out to Ky who has her qualifying exams soon...

Error of her ways

By no means do I condone adultery but I do see the merit in this woman's lawsuit:

In documents filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Ms. Nagy seeks $600,000 for alleged invasion of privacy and breach of contract...Ms. Nagy's bill was being sent in her name until her husband signed up for Rogers Internet and home phone. Those services, along with Ms. Nagy's cellphone, were bundled into one bill, and that new invoice was addressed to her husband, the suit alleges. The invoice mailed to her then-husband contained details of her outgoing cellphone calls, the suit, filed in January, 2009, says. Ms. Nagy's husband figured out from the phone bill that she was having an affair. He left her and the children in August, 2007.
Woman sues Rogers over cellphone bill, says it ruined her marriage - The Globe & Mail

Ms Nagy fully admits that she had an extra-marital affair that lead to the termination of her marriage. Rogers had no right to bundle her cell phone plan with the other Rogers services and change the billing name without her permission. It could have been a business phone and that needed to be in her name, Rogers just doesn't know these things. The fact is that despite what the customer did, Rogers did break privacy laws.
I actually had to deal with a similar situation years ago that I blogged about:

I spent most of today calling customers to let them know when they can upgrade their cell phone. From as much as I remember, this is a VERY revealing conversation I had today. The names and places have been changed to protect the innocent (and not so innocent).

Teacherlady: Hi, is [Bob] there?
Wife: No, he's at work. Can I take a message?
TL: [Company preamble] Can you let [Bob] know that the cell phone he purchased from us about two years ago is eligible for an upgrade [later this month]?
W: You must have the wrong [Bob], we don't have a cell phone.
TL: Is this the [Bob Smith**] residence?
W: Yes, what address do you have?
TL: [Cherrytree Lane]
W: That's our house. When was the phone purchased?
TL: Two years ago.
W: Hmmm, When was the last call made?
TL: Sorry, I don't have access to that information. Only if [Bob] called directly could he find that out. If there has been some sort of mistake, tell [Bob] to call us directly so we can get this fixed.
W: Umm, [long pause] well thank you for telling me. [long pause]
TL: Well, [awkward pause] thank you for your time and hope you have a good day.

A couple minutes later I was on the phone when a co-worker told me there was a very angry woman on the phone who would talk to no one but me. By the time he tried transferring the call, she had hung up.

I explained to my co-workers and supervisor what had happened. Then I told them what I wanted to say the customer if he called in mad. "Number one: It's not my fault that you two have trust issues. Number two: It is not my fault that you are dumb enough to use your house number as your customer contact number for your secret cell phone."

** The real name is actually uncommon so it was no mistaking that I had the right house.

Ain't that the truth

Janny gets no satisfaction:

Dry mouth is the mother of invention

Last week, I was prescribed medication to reduce the frequency of my migraines. The pharmacist told me I could avoid the expected side effects of dry mouth and drowsiness by taking it right before bed. She told me that it could even help me sleep better.

Problem 1: Doesn't make me drowsy.

Problem 2: The dry mouth is so bad it wakes me up multiple times a night. A little sip of water won't do -- it feels more like dry mouth and dry esophagus. I've been drinking about a litre of water a night and it never seems to satisfy. It is like that episode of Angel where those parasite thingies* were sucking the moisture out of Fred.

Tonight it was so bad I can not get to sleep. Internet articles yielded no useful solutions for the middle of the night. I got the bright idea for a honey-lime concoction since I had heard that honey helps with sore throats. I figured the sourness of the lime juice and the sweetness of the honey should get the salvia going. I am not a fan of honey but I was willing to try anything. It works so much better than anything I have tried before (day or night). I'm seriously going to start drinking this all the time. It's a good thing I'm heading up north this weekend because I'm going to need more honey.

Sorry, this post is a little boring. Still not sleepy and trying to past the time.


* technical term

Please excuse my nerdiness

Changing Blogger Width

I finally found a useful article to change the width of my blog posts at Blogbulk.com. It annoyed me that Youtube videos were cut off at one side.

I pity the fool that doesn't treat their mother right

Happy Mother's Day!
Love Janny

Brontë Sisters Power Dolls

Now comes With barrier-breaking feminist vision!

Consensus: Janny is Broken

Two days ago I had appointments with my family doctor, massage therapist and chiropractor. The gist? Janny is broken. The allergies cause migraines which causes neck pain. The neck pain causes more headaches and tightness throughout the whole back. Tightness in the back causes the hips and spine to go out of alignment. Hips and spine out of alignment causes more tightness throughout the whole back. You can see the cyclic nature of my pain.

As it has been well documented on this blog, I haven't slept well in weeks. It has been determined that my strange sleeping* has aggravated an old shoulder injury. The general consensus is I need to start seeing a physiotherapist for my neck and my shoulders.

I just want to feel better.

*for lack of a better term

Why I watch TV

I enjoy watching TV more than watching movies. There is no TV show or movie that I'd rather watch than spend time with friends. Can you guess why I watch so much TV? It is hard to admit but it is because I'm bored and lonely. With school being done until September and not having a job (yet) just magnifies the loneliness. For a brief time, TV lets me forget these things.

I have friends that I rarely see. My friends tend to socialize with other couples or families with children or friends from work. I don't have much socializing time during the school year but I certainly have more time than I'm using. Everyone seems to think that I'm spending my time with another group of friends.

I have been accused of complaining too much on this blog but I don't really care. I'm going to write how I feel and I'm just trying to be truthful about what I'm going through.

Setting myself up for a fall

Growing up, one of my best friends moved to the other side of the city. Big deal for a child who can't drive. For the first little while we saw each as often as we could but eventually drifted apart.

Over seven years later, on my first day of university, I was happy to discover that she was in one of my classes. Immediately we picked up where we left off.

Three years later, she started acting strangely. First it would take her several days to return my calls or emails. Gradually it would take her several weeks then she stopped returning them all together. I ran into her mom while shopping and I was informed that my friend had moved away from home. Her mom was very surprised that I didn't know this. She gave me the new number and I tried calling again. We hung out once then she never returned my calls again.

A year later I ran into her at the mall. In a couple weeks she was going to be moving overseas to teach. She promised she'd get in touch with me. We emailed for awhile but then she stopped responding. Another year later, I found out from some friends of hers from high school I wasn't the only one this was happening to. How could such a used to be great friend just shut down all communication with her friends? What had happened to her?

A couple years ago, she emailed me out of the blue wanting to know how I was. My response went unanswered.

A couple days ago, she emailed me to say she's moved back to the city and would love to see me. At first I was really excited. I sent her my contact information but haven't heard from her. I'd love to be optimistic but I have a feeling I'm not going to hear from her. I've gone through this too many times. I'd been praying since I moved back to Regina for some Christian friends and I thought this was the answer. It is hard to stay positive when past evidence is considered.