Boy I write more when I have more time

How's that for a grammatically incorrect statement? Not to bad huh?? It's true though, I've been spewing out tonnes of crap here over the past few days.

I have been on the road since 9:50 a.m. this morning. Me?! Lay around the house and not shower until 2 p.m. cuz on my holidays dammit. Last week, I was supposed to get together with my lovely friend Kristin. Unfortunately, my head was full of snot and I felt like crap that day so I didn't get to see her. When I realized that I may not get to see her at all while she was home (her folks live here but she's at school in Alberta these days) I was pretty bummed. It was okay though because she was going to be in town until New Years Eve and I had a second chance to see her. We went for coffee this morning and had a great visit. While we were in mid-coffee (well, I was in mid-coffee, she was in mid-chai-latte with a big ass piece of wonderful smelling cinnamon), a mutual friend of ours, Leslie, arrived. Leslie's here in town but, for many reasons, I'd actually seen Kristin more recently than I'd seen Leslie (I saw Kristin last when she was home last Christmas -- sad but true!). It was great to see her. She had her two small children with her. I'd not seen them in a good long time and couldn't believe how much they had grown. I mean, I know that kids grow and stuff but when you don't see them very often it's a big deal. They're really nice, well behaved kids. We had a really nice visit, it was good to get caught up on stuff.

By the time I left I figured that I'd have a ticket on my car. I'd parked on a side street and had actually put money into the meter but I was an hour past when I should have been gone...When I walked toward the car I could see a ticket under the wiper blade. It wasn't a ticket though, it was a 10 minute "grace period" card from the parking Nazi girls. I couldn't believe that they didn't give me a ticket. They must have been filled with holiday spirit (yeah right) or something. Whatever it was, I was just so happy that a) I hadn't run out to feed the meter and b) I didn't get a ticket. That's totally a first in downtown Kingston. The meter people are just total pigs about downtown parking (and they wonder why the downtown core is dying and folks prefer to shop at box stores in the township --- it's the free parking baby!).

Happily ticket-free, I sped out to the west end, land of box stores and free parking (although you do have to pay a deposit on your grocery cart there...What's up with that?). I had to pick up some stuff for us and for Joe. I had already loaded the car with Christmas gifts for some west-end friends and decided to call them to see if they were home. I'm sitting in my car, in the parking lot of the grocery store. I can see across Highway 33 from where I sit and am looking at their house (it backs onto Highway 33 -- you can see the grocery store from their back yard) and my phone will not work. It starts to connect and then drops. So very weird. I head into the store, get my shopping and, whilst walking back to my car, try to call them again. Again, I can see their house...This time it connects but I get that weird, fast busy signal thing. The groceries get thrown in the car, I start the car, try to call again...again, no connection. Too weird. As I'm going by their house anyway, I pop in and fortunately, my friend was home. Everyone else in the family was out so she and I had a great visit over a couple of cups of tea. It was actually kind of nice to be just her and I for a while. We don't usually get to visit without a lot of other people around. She told me that her phone never works when she tries to call home from the store either. I figure it must be something to do with the railroad tracks that run between her house and the highway...Or they live in some kind of Bermuda triangle of cell phones zone.

After that, I had some more errands to do and traffic was crap...I was so glad to get home. Being sociable and friendly is way more difficult than sitting around the house and not showering.