Tuesday, November 27, 2018

The First Christmassy Weekend of the Season (And other weekend stuff.)

This past weekend was my first Christmas party of the season, so I finally had permission to let my holiday freak flag fly!  And it felt GREAT!!

Curling started up again for the season last Thursday, and that always ends up feeling like the start of the weekend (even though I'm still working Fridays until Christmas).  It took me a few ends to get comfortable playing again, but by the second half of the game I made some decent shots and felt like it was coming back to me a bit.  I like my team and I think we'll have a great year!  It was bitterly cold that night and I had picked up groceries before the game, so I didn't stick around long after in case things were freezing in my car.  I was home early enough, but I'm always wound up after curling and didn't fall asleep til after midnight.

It has become ever-apparent to me that I don't handle it well when I don't get my full night's sleep.  I literally feel hungover the next day.  And that's how I felt on Friday.  I had one drink at curling, so it wasn't a real hang-over, but man did it feel like one.  I was tired and achey and just wanted to lie down.  I plugged through the day, though, and got home a bit early, as usual on Fridays.  I did a few little things around the house before I couldn't take it anymore; I HAD to lie down.  I napped for two hours, and woke up feeling groggier than ever.  Naps hardly ever help me, I always wake up more tired and cranky than before.  But I had stuff that needed to get done, so I soldiered on.  I made my snacks for the Christmas party the next day before returning to the couch.  I watched the movie Hidden Figures on Netflix.  I'd been wanting to read the book first but hadn't got around to it yet, and the movie is leaving Netflix in December so I squeezed it in.  It was so good! Such an inspiring story.  I recommend it if you haven't seen it already.  Catch it before it's gone!

Saturday morning, I was up early and enjoyed my coffee while watching Jimmy Fallon, as per my usual Saturday morning ritual.  But I didn't laze about for long.  I got busy tidying up the house and getting things ready for the party later in the day.  Once all my work was done, I showered and got ready, did some crocheting while listening to more of the "Someone Knows Something" podcast, went for a drive with my mom to find evergreen boughs for her Christmas planter, and did some last minute prep before the girls arrived.  By late afternoon, I had poured myself a drink and was ready for the festivities to begin!

This gang of girlfriends and I have been having a Christmas potluck party for as long as I can remember, and it's one of my favourite holiday parties.  The ladies started arriving around 4, and everyone brought a snack of some sort to share.  The food table would have made you drool.  Everything was sooooo good.  After visiting and eating for a while, we moved into the living room to do our gift exchange.  I came up with a Christmas version of "Never Have I Ever" to play, and in the end, we each had a new Christmas decoration or ornament of some sort to add to our holiday decor.  We hung out well into the evening, with Stacy giving massages and Sharon doing hair. LOL  It was definitely a multi-faceted party!! I had a great time chatting and laughing with the ladies and felt very much in the Christmas spirit. :) 

Sunday morning, I was up for church and then we went to a baby shower for a family friend who is expecting her first child in December.  But remember that tired, hungover feeling I talked about earlier?  Well, it was back again.  Another night up past midnight means another day of feeling yucky.  *sigh*  At least this time I did have more than one drink to cause the feeling, but I really don't think that's why I felt crappy.  Regardless, I sucked it up.  We had some snacks, visited, and watched the mommy-to-be open her gifts before I headed home to my couch again.  I passed out right away and slept for a couple of hours.  I had a supper of leftover snacks from the night before and watched the Grey Cup game.  I had high hopes for our hometown Ottawa Redblacks, but it just wasn't their year as they lost 27-16 to the Calgary Stampeders.  No Grey Cup party this year, just little ol' me, but I just wasn't in the mood for it.

What was I in in the mood for?  Well... lying under the Christmas tree, actually.  See, in an early season of Grey's Anatomy, there's an episode where Meredith, George and Izzy all lie under the Christmas tree and I always thought it looked so magical.  Well, guess what.  It's not.  I couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous I must have looked and the tree looks much more magical from my couch than from underneath it.  So much for that experiment! LOL!!

Yesterday was back to work, but as the winter work season is now in full swing, it was a peaceful, quiet day in the office.  This should be the norm for the next couple of months, and I'm so grateful for these quiet days.  The busy season will be upon us again in no time, and I daydream about these days during that time!

My evening, though?  Not so peaceful. ughhh.... My friend Lindsay was gone to visit family for the weekend with the baby, leaving her hubby Ryan and Sam at home.  With snow in the forecast, Ryan had to go in to work last night and asked if I'd come stay with Sam.  No problem, I said!  I got home and was rushing to get laundry done before I had to go for my sleepover.  All of a sudden, something REALLY weird happened in my house.  It was like half the house had a power surge.  Some lights flickered, some dimmed, some went out completely, but some were fine. Some appliances went off, others were fine.  (Thankfully, my washer and dryer were not effected!)  It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen.  I called my cousin who is an electrician, but by then the lights were all coming back up and appliances were working again.  He told me he didn't think it was anything to worry much about, but that if it happened again, I'd probably have to call Hydro.  It was definitely one of those moments when I wished I had a man so he could deal with it, because I had no clue what the hell was going on!!

Thankfully, my mom always comes to my rescue.  I don't know what I'd do without her.  When the same thing happened again 10 minutes later, I was feeling very flustered and upset.  I ran over to the church (she was there for our church's weekly Spirit Cafe) and asked for her help.  She called one of my landlords for me, explained the situation, and he told her he'd figure something out.  Meanwhile, she and I loaded up everything in my fridge and freezer to take over to the church fridge, since my fridge wasn't working.  Shortly after, my landlord called me back to say he was on his way with an electrician.  I had to leave, but he assured me he'd let me know what they discovered.

Needless to say, I was rattled.  It was a little disconcerting leaving my home when I didn't know what the heck was going on with the electricity, and I was worried.  I was convinced I wouldn't sleep a wink last night.  But thankfully, my landlord called again about an hour later to tell me they had solved the problem (he explained it, but I don't really understand that stuff. LOL!  Something about two big fuses and one had blown. Which is why only half the house was having problems.  Once they replaced it, everything was fine again.)  Phewf!!!  I was able to sleep well after that!!

So today is a new day, and I'm leaving all of that mess behind me.  I got big early-morning hugs from Sammy, and that was a great way to start the day. Snow is gently falling, and the office is once again nice and peaceful.  Hallelujah!! This week I hope to get a start on my Christmas baking, and I'm gearing up for our company Christmas party on Friday, as well as the Christmas House Tour next Monday. Another busy but fun week in store!!

Happy Tuesday friends!! :)

1 comment:

Nicole said...

So they say for naps that you should only take 15-20 minute naps to feel better. Here's another interesting thing I learned once... if you wake up in the middle of a REM cycle (which are usually 90 minutes long) you will wake up more tired than if you wake up at the end of one before you start the next. I've also been told that between REM cycles you actually wake up but immediately go right back to sleep so you don't notice it usually. Interesting factoids I've learned.

One time at work we did a study amongst ourselves trying out the sleep cycle thing. We did notice we all felt better when we woke up at the end of that cycle. We'd set our alarms based off as close to that as we could.