The past couple of days have been a mix of slogging through the quicksand-like mire of work / school / retirement party / vehicular madness combined with happier events such as celebrating Kevin's birthday today. Allison baked him a birthday pie, but had worked herself into a tizzy because it was only the fourth pie she'd ever made (she counted, even)... she says her husband John is the baker in the family, and she even had to phone him in Vancouver to coach her through it!On Monday night I studied all the way to 6:30am Tuesday morning before imminent collapse, which did me no favours at all for the rest of Tuesday. Why do I do this to myself??? I am my own worst enemy. The bad news for Tuesday was that the mechanic reported a possible leak coming from the gasket area, because coolant was getting into the engine somehow. That meant they had to take apart the engine, which meant major labour time. The pressure was on for getting an appointment with CAN, the Cooperative Auto Network, because if the car is too expensive to fix, I have no viable means of getting to the office. It would involve hours on top of the four it already takes to get there and back. I made the appointment for the earliest possible time, which is Friday at 5pm.
I did manage to have a fairly productive day yesterday without giving into any temptation to nap, amazingly enough. Phoned Kevin, who was on the highway back to Sechelt from his parents' in the Interior, and decided to catch a lift to the Sunshine Coast with him. I threw my stuff into a bag and ran downstairs to meet him, but also, I wanted him to come with me to have a look around the Renaissance, which is where the retirement party will be held. Kevin wasn't familiar with the layout, and I needed his opinion on layout. Thankfully the hotel is enroute to the ferry, because we had to hoof it over there to make the 7:25 sailing, and by that time I was feeling seriously on the brink of a major cold/flu. All the symptoms were there -- sore, inflamed throat and a nagging achy feeling. I really should start taking vitamins...
At least we had a chance to chat. There are many challenges ahead for the company transition, and if I started to outline them here, I'd be typing until dawn. Kevin and I don't have many opportunities to have a conversation, much less a discussion about anything as serious as our work futures. Plus, contemplating the rough transition road ahead over a BC Ferries dinner (unappetizing, I can assure you) probably didn't help the way I was feeling. I was completely shocked to hear how Kevin's mum was doing... she is so ill she may not make it to Christmas. I can only imagine what Kevin has to deal with at the moment. My stress seems relatively manageable compared to his. When Kevin and I passed the office on the way to his house around 9pm, we saw Ross working away in his office and we wondered out loud about how on earth this so-called "retirement" was ever going to fly...
By the time we got to Kevin's house, I knew there was no way I would be able to read any more textbooks. For the first time in recent memory, I just went straight to bed... do not pass go, do not collect $200... by 10pm, I was in deep REM state.
Until the alarm clock went off at midnight. Midnight! What a shock to the system! Apparently they'd had a power outage and somehow the alarm clock in my room had set itself to go off at 12:00am. It was pitch dark, and suddenly this crazy electronic shriek pierced into my brain, which was in complete shut down mode. If I was over 60, that probably would've induced a cardiac arrest. But my heart rate finally crept back to normal after I figured out how to shut the bloody thing off (no easy task when it's pitch dark -- didn't even notice there was an alarm clock in the room), and I was able to get back to sleep.
I thought I would wake up totally sick this morning, but after a marathon shower, I felt more like a human being again. Way to go immune system!! This would have been the absolute worst week to be sick, that's for sure.
