bugs and beds and piercings

Have a bit of a bug; I think I caught it at my sister's on the weekend. Had to cancel biking with David yesterday, but we're hoping to go Friday morning.

Jeff and I went mattress shopping last night. I know, sounds way too exciting. :-) Brainwashed by all those Sleep Country tv and radio commercials (I can hear the jingle in my head even as I type..."Why buy a mattress anywhere else?"), we were inexorably drawn to the Sleep Country at Yonge and King. The store is basically one huge room full of beds with bare mattresses, manned by Chris The Bed Guy. He looked like an ordinary guy (medium build, slightly greying beard, in his late 40s or early 50s), but Chris The Bed Guy was no ordinary salesperson. He knew more about beds and bedding than any human being I've ever met. He told us about coils and support and sleep facts and how to properly fluff one's pillows. He showed us how to test a mattress (he said new couples tend to giggle a lot during that stage). He was utterly convincing as he led us from one mattress to another, encouraging us to bounce around and test everything out, sprinkling his "science of a good mattress" patter with jokes and entertaining facts. I even forgave him for calling me "Madam". :-) After a short while, the mattresses started to blur together for me. And we weren't merely shopping for a mattress, we were hanging out with our new pal, Chris The Bed Guy!

Of course we bought a new mattress...how could anyone resist, under those conditions? (Debbie pauses to listen to the Sleep Country jingle go through her head again) As we left the store, I could hear Chris turn his Bed Guy Magic onto the next customer.

Our mattress is supposed to be delivered next Thursday. I hope it fits the bedframe!

Since my old scanner isn't working right now, I'm recycling old pics I have lying around my hard disk.

Jodi and Allison are taking me to get my ears pierced tomorrow night! I never had any inclination to get them done when I was a teenager (as most girls do)...the thought of stabbing a hole in any part of my anatomy for the sake of vanity just didn't appeal to me. Now, however, I find myself mournfully eyeing the racks of cool-looking earrings; I sometimes wear clip-ons on special occasions (like my wedding), but they hurt like the dickens after ten minutes or so. Also, there are far more cool-looking regular earrings than clip-on earrings. So I'm getting my ears pierced at Centerpoint Mall tomorrow night!
And you'll all get a full report, whether you like it or not. :-)

ear stabbings

Went cycling with David. It was cooooooold! We sat on the sunny rocks by the lake past Humber Bike Bridge and watched the waves (big!) break on the shore. I told David the story of when Jeff and I went to Hawaii and Jeff went body surfing and how it was so easy to pick him out because he was so pale compared to everyone else, and how I almost drowned when I tried body surfing myself. I offered David a quarter to go body surfing in Lake Ontario, but he said no.

Got my ears pierced last night! After dinner at the Pickle Barrel (Urban Tapestry's hangout these days) at Centerpoint Mall, Jodi and Allison took me to beauty salon in the mall. Free ear piercing with the purchase of studs. I chose my earrings, settled into the chair. Across from me, a father was getting his ear double-pierced...his sons were paying for one earring each as a birthday present. I would have been more amused if I hadn't been so nervous. Then it was my turn.

The Ear Piercing Woman used a felt tip marker to mark the spots on my earlobes, gave me a mirror to approve. Then she called the other Ear Piercing Woman (who had just finished with the father) to help with me.

"It's easier if you get both ears done at once, trust me," she told me. One positioned herself on each side of me, and then each of them took the Ear Staple Gun (I'm sure there's a proper name for this instrument, but it sure did look like a staple gun to me!) and held it up to one of my ears. I felt like I was trapped! I looked at Allison and Jodi for reassurance, but they were laughing at me!! What loyal music partners they are!! Allison wished she had brought her camera.

Ear Piercing Woman #1 said, "Okay, ready? One...two...three..." A loud CLACK and a brief pinching sensation in my left ear. What happened with the other one?

"Sorry," said Ear Piercing Woman #2. "You moved." Then she did my other ear. And that was it. EPW#1 turned the chair so I could see my newly-studded ears in the mirror. I checked closely...no spurting blood, no ear cartilage dangling. Hey, that wasn't nearly as bad as I thought.

So I have to keep these "trainer ear studs" in my ears for the next six weeks. Turn them twice a day, dab both sides with alcohol. After that, I'm allowed to change my earrings ("But do it right away or your ears will close up on you!"), but have to make sure I have earrings on at all times for a year...
all for the sake of vanity.

I find the whole ear piercing ritual fascinating, a sort of rite of passage for most women and some men, a secret club in which the membership fee is a moment of pain and the desire to attach foreign objects to one's anatomy (of course, there are all those other piercing clubs, but I'm not ready to go there :)). Part of me feels as if I've caved to the norm, but the other part can't wait to go shopping for cool earrings!

Did some babysitting yesterday. I took Sara to a coffeeshop after the playground and we had hot chocolate and cookies. She carries Dolly Kajolly everywhere with her. If I haven't mentioned her before, Dolly Kajolly is a battered-looking doll that Sara has had for about three years. VERY battered-looking. She looks as though she has a very deep (and slightly grey) tan, but the tan is really dirt. Her hair used to be blonde and in two neat braids. Now it's matted and grimy, and her bangs stick up like little horns, sculpted into place by dirt. She is much loved. Excerpt from my conversation with Sara yesterday:

ME: Annie loves you a lot.

SARA: I know! (nods head in agreement)

ME: Do you love Annie?

SARA (fervently): I love Annie very, very much.

ME: That's nice.

SARA: But MOST of all, I love my Dolly! (hugs Dolly)

I sense disaster approaching when Dolly inevitably falls apart (looks like she's close to that now)...loses an arm, a leg, an eye, whatever; the eyelashes of one have already fallen off. Or is (horror of horrors) lost. Ruth and Kaarel bought a replacement Dolly identical to the original years ago, but of course she looks so unlike Sara's current Dolly that Sara would see through the deception immediately. We'll see what happens.

To all those going to OVFF this weekend: hope you all have fun! Hug Diana for me!! And please do post a report on how it went.

Thanks to Beckett and Gary, who sent me some pics to post on my blatherings since my scanner doesn't work! I'll be posting those over the next while (the one today is from Beckett, taken just outside the CN tower... from left to right: Taunya, me, Alisa).

To all you Canadians: HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EH? Have a great weekend, everyone!

turkey

Hope all you Canajuns had a good Thanksgiving weekend! Jeff and I went to the family cottage this past weekend. The whole clan was up, including our two nieces Brittany (2 1/2 yrs) and Olivia (4 months). Brittany and I did major bonding on the weekend. It's quite an egoboo to get up in the morning and be greeted by an enthusiastic toddler jumping up and down, clapping her hands and yelling excitedly, "DOBBIE! DOBBIE!" Favourite game of the weekend: Brittany would sit on my lap and wait. I'd warn her that an earthquake was coming and start shaking my legs very lightly. She'd giggle and keep waiting. Soon, of course, the earthquake would be on us full force and Brittany would be bouncing up and down, flung back and forth by a tremor that was surely an 11 on the Richter scale. And at the peak of the earthquake, I'd grab her around the waist, yelling "LOOK OOOOOOUT!!!!!" and throw her through the air, aiming her at a pile of pillows on the couch. And of course she'd scramble back into my lap, yelling "MORE! MORE!" I lost count of how many times I did this in a row.

Another highlight: on Saturday morning, the Ridpath women (Jeff's mom, his sister, his brother's wife, and me) booked an appointment to meet in the sauna, sans kids and animals. The sauna is a closet-sized wooden shack with a small heater thingy in the corner. We sat for a while gabbing (about things which our men will never know, of course), and then jumped in the lake. And WOW was the water cold, the sort of cold that knocks the breath out of you for a second or two after you hit it. And by the time you get your breath back, you're yelling and scrambling to get out of the water and back into the sauna. :-) Lots of fun; we did this twice.

Sunday was the day of the annual Cottagers' Turkey Bowl, a football game in which cottagers from the north end of the lake battle it out against the south end. Jeff played for a bit but ended up spending most of it on the sidelines chatting with Willi Powell (you may recall I'm in love with Willi's young son Spencer). Where are the women during the game? On the sidelines huddled under blankets and muffled in sweaters, drinking beer and hot chocolate and gossiping, of course. :-) From time to time a woman will play in the game, but it's a Rare Thing. After the game (I think our side won), everyone goes back to their cottages to eat way too much Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie.

Officemusic: WOMEN IN SONG (various artists).

aunt test

So today I'm babysitting my nieces Sara and Annie all day while Ruth does an author presentation thingy in Hamilton. In theory, I have to bundle Annie up and take her to pick up Sara from junior kindergarten, take them back home and make lunch, take them to Sara's gymnastics class in the afternoon. In theory, Annie will fall asleep in the stroller on the way to the gym class and stay asleep until we get home again. Ruth asked me if I could handle all this and I said SURE, of course I can handle it...I'm their aunt, after all. It's the first time I'll be babysitting them all day by myself, but could this really be much different from my other visits? What could possibly go wrong? (as Debbie pauses to listen to the faint echo: "wrong...wrong...wrong..."). Full report tomorrow.

Had lunch with David yesterday. He brought back my mike stand (I had forgotten it there way back when we were recording Myths and Urban Legends) and also some HOMEMADE PUMPKIN PIE. We ate at Shopsy's and then had our pumpkin pie in Metro Square in the sun. Very yummy; that guy sure can bake. :-)

egoblather

Very brief egoblather today: Inkspot was mentioned in Writer's Digest magazine again (this makes two months in a row, woohoo!), Feb/98 issue, p43. Working all weekend.