Archive for the ‘Stories’ Category

The promise of bananas and motor vehicles

Aug 21st, 09 / 0 Comments

I was at home with Lyra today, since it’s Friday and that’s what I do on Fridays. Just after lunchtime I was cleaning up the kitchen and rambling away at her while she played with blocks around the corner. I ramble at her regularly. I explained my plans to her about how we were going to go out and do some laundry, and maybe go pick up some fruit for her at the grocery store, like a banana or something. From around the corner I heard her squeal with delight, drop the blocks she was playing with, and sprint crawl towards me in the kitchen, excited about the prospect of a banana, apparently.

I have realized that I can’t offer bananas right now unless I actually HAVE one to give her. I wouldn’t say she was disappointed, but she certainly looked for it, and I felt a bit guilty to lead her on and not produce the fruit in question.

She is definitely beginning to understand language. Who knows what other words she recognizes but isn’t excited about, and thus doesn’t express any reaction to them… Time to make sure the boys watch their tongues around her, I guess. Even if it would be amusing to hear her swear like a sailor…

Tomorrow we are going to Ikea for Lyra bedroom things, and then stopping in at my mom’s to drop Lyra off for a bit while we contemplate car ownership. We’ve been without a car for nearly two years now, and we were doing all right with it, but the inability to go biking without depending on other people has just reached a point of making us crazy, and it’s affecting our activity level. It’s just sad that I’ve only been out riding three or four times this summer – not because I was tied up with Lyra, but because I had no way to get to the trails with my bike in the allotted time. It sucked. We’re also finding that we are spending a lot on the car co-op these days – nearly as much as a car payment, to be honest – and we can barely get cars anymore without booking far in advance because there are only six near us, one of which won’t hold a baby seat and three of which require transiting to (which is really hard with a single person, baby, and baby car seat, let me tell you.)

And so we are going to look at cars and see what we can figure out. The environmentalist in me is feeling guilty about it. The mountain biker in me is crazy excited to be able to get out to trails again. The road tripper/camper in me is crazy excited to go on road trips and camping. The mother in me is happy to have the option of driving to things like swimming lessons when time is short and buses are few and far between. And while it’s been satisfying to not have a car, it’s just not practical for us anymore. Again, this makes the environmentalist in me sad, but I’m trying to assuage the guilt by making sure that fuel efficiency is a top priority, within the limits of what our needs are. No point in getting a tiny fuel efficient car that can’t carry bikes.

The environmentalist in me has settled for internally raging that Canada is designed for people with cars.

We shall see how it goes. I’m excited and nervous, and I know it’s unlikely that we’ll buy anything tomorrow on sight, but part of me kind of wishes that’s how it’ll happen. Now that I’m committed to car ownership, I’m ready to have the car RIGHT NOW. When I make up my mind about something, it’s hard to be patient.

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Lyra at one and beyond

Aug 21st, 09 / 2 Comments

Lyra is over thirteen months old now. Her first birthday came and went so quickly, I barely had time to think about what it really meant. And then She got sick, and Adam got sick, and I got sick, and we all got better, then all got sick again. Many weeks passed with varying degrees of sickness in the house, and I was too tired or sick to really think about anything.

We’re finally all better now, which is nice. It won’t last, but it’s nice. Daycare is full of babysick germs that apparently attack us grown-ups worse than the babies.

So Lyra turned one, and within a few weeks so many developmental changes started kicking in that I could barely keep track anymore. She started cruising around furniture with a vengeance. She began standing up unassisted from the floor – although every time she noticed she was doing so she would sit back down because she’s pretty sure she can’t actually do that. She started eating regular foods in earnest and with great joy – especially fruit like blueberries, bananas, and cut up grapes. Just last night she discovered that the tube-shaped wooden block fits into the hole of the donut-shaped wooden block perfectly, and apparently spent two hours just doing that over and over with a huge grin on her face.

The best part of it has probably been the emergence of preferences. Not just ‘she likes food A more than food B’ but actual choices. She will pull every book off the shelf until she finds the one she wants you to read her, then bring it over to you and crawl into your lap. Right now her favourite books are Oh the thinks you can think by Dr. Seuss and The Awesome Book by Dallas Clayton. She also now points at foods she specifically wants, and even sort of says Banana if that’s what she’s looking for. It comes out as ‘ba’ – which is the same word she uses for baby, ball, and book – but accompanied by energetic pointing and a certain inflection that I can’t describe in words, you know which one it is she means each time.

She also made Adam watch So you think you can dance Canada last week. He was flipping through channels and flipped past it, and she got excited and pointed at the tv until he turned it back. She then sat down and watched it for a while. The girl definitely knows what she likes, and is not at all afraid to tell you in any way she can communicate it.

In addition to saying ba, she also says something that could be ‘hi’ – it comes out as “I!” and is usually to get your attention. It makes sense, since we say hi to her to get her attention.

Some of her new favourite games (and old ones that never get tired) are piano playing (on someone’s lap or from the floor), dancing to music, pulling disks out of the ps3, knocking stacked blocks over, assisted walking (either by holding hands or by pushing her walker thing around), and flinging herself between people who catch her – it’s nearly like trying to walk, but she doesn’t take steps so much as throw her entire body at you and expect you to catch her. Naturally, she’s either grinning or laughing the entire time.

She has favourite songs & music videos too. She loves Twinkle Twinkle little star, and Daft Punk’s Around the World. She will dance and smile to anything she likes, and ignore whatever she doesn’t like.

She’s also enjoying daycare more every day, which is nice. The interaction with other babies has been great – she hasn’t had that much time to play with other babies her own age, so I’m really happy with the amount of socialization she’s getting.

Last night I dreamed she was starting to repeat words we said to her. She’s not quite there yet, but I don’t think it’s that far off. The thought of her being able to say things to us is a little mind-blowing at times, and also very exciting. Then again, every single thing that I get to see her figure out is just amazing.

Babies are little geniuses. I wish I could learn at that rate now.

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It’s like juggling feral cats!

Aug 4th, 09 / 1 Comment

There’s a lot going on this week.

On Sunday Adam’s bank card didn’t work at Tim Horton’s for breakfast, so he called the bank. They confirmed that his card had been compromised. When they went over recent transactions and found a $400.00 withdrawal from a bank machine in Quebec, we were not impressed. We were less impressed to learn that, while the bank will refund us the money, it would not be immediate and there would be paperwork, and it would likely take a few weeks. Naturally, this is around rent cheque time, and our rent hadn’t yet been removed from our account – and we were now short.

Fortunately for us I had a cheque for some photography work I had done that I hadn’t yet put into my photography account. I deposited that to cover rent, and promptly started wondering how I was going to pay for Adam’s birthday present next week. Still haven’t figured that one out.

For the moment, we are in limbo with the bank account stuff. Adam’s card doesn’t work, so he needs a new one, which means going in to a branch to pick one up. This was his plan for this morning before work.

He woke up this morning feeling kind of crappy, but then he’s been feeling on and off crappy since Lyra’s birthday or so in early July, so I guess he didn’t think much of it beyond “I feel crappy.” He hopped on a bus to head down to the bank and had to get off two stops later due to extreme nausea. He walked over to our doctor’s office and got in to see her pretty much immediately.

The Doctor expressed some concerns about him having lost weight, and decided that it’s probably been the same thing wrong with him for the past month. She ordered a barrage of blood tests and the like, and sent him off to the lab with instructions to avoid Lyra and stay home from work until they know what he’s got, in case it’s something bad and contagious (Norwalk?) or something along those lines.

Off he went to the lab, which is just upstairs from the doctor’s office. They took a few vials of blood, and then he passed out on the floor. He tells me that he lay there for about fifteen minutes until he felt up to walking home. Our apartment building and the lab have one small building separating them… he was in pretty rough shape.

Since then, he’s been hanging out at home, mostly sleeping and feeling terrible. I left work a bit early to pick up Lyra and bring her home – normally he picks her up after work. She’s doing okay – she doesn’t seem to have whatever it is that he has, right now. Still, we’re playing it safe and he’s not spending much time with her, which really sucks for both of them.

Adam has an unknown illness that might be serious, is hopefully treatable, and may be contagious, but we can’t do a thing until we know what it was. And some asshats stole our bank card information and then stole cash from out of our account the day after was due to come out. We’re just lucky it hadn’t yet, or it would have bounced. Or maybe it did and we just don’t know it yet. I have no idea how it works with this bank, I haven’t bounced a cheque in years.

My stress levels are slightly elevated. Also, I need to eat my dinner before I develop a blood sugar imbalance.

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Update: Adoption Fraud Scam

May 30th, 08 / 4 Comments

I called Detective Hudson back a few minutes ago – he gave me an update and asked for some information. I was quite happy to oblige, really. Apparently this woman who was defrauding couples has actually done this before. In this case, she was actually saying her name was Jennifer Silver (since I guess I didn’t crop that out on the photos online – oops.)

At any rate, he asked if I would be willing to be listed as a ‘victim’ in the case – which is helpful for them in building the case and proving that the woman is not, in fact, me. The victimization is basically one of stealing my identity. I asked what would be involved for me, and he said that I may have to fly down to Texas to testify in the trial, which apparently wouldn’t happen for at least a year. Federal court, he tells me, moves very slowly.

I said he could list me as a victim in the case (I like to be helpful, after all, and I’m all about justice and such.) An FBI agent actually takes over from here, but Hudson said if I had any more questions I was welcome to call and ask him. He really was quite nice.

A trip to texas may be in my future next year. He assured me that they would pay for the flight. Life can be such an adventure!

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Welcome to my life: It is nothing if not interesting…

May 23rd, 08 / 17 Comments

I have a very strange and surreal tale to share with you. The weirdest part is that it’s all true.

There were a bunch of messages on my home phone yesterday from the manager at North Shore X-ray, where I go to get ultrasounds done. She assured me in the message that there was nothing wrong with the baby, but it was very, very important that I phone her back as soon as I could. She even gave me her cell number to make sure I got in touch with her, and at one point called after Adam had arrived at home and made him promise that I would call (she wouldn’t tell him what was up either.)

Wondering what was going on, I phoned her as soon as I got in the door.

She told me that she had received a call from a Sheriff’s office in Placer County, California, and had confirmed with the RCMP that it was a legitimate call. They had just arrested someone in Alice, Texas, on several counts of fraud. Apparently a woman had been contacting adoption agencies, saying she was pregnant and wanted to give up her child for adoption. She sent them a bunch of paperwork and the adoption places put her in contact with a few hopeful people who wished to adopt. Here’s an excerpt from the Press Release:

The suspect asked for monetary expenses to be covered and the victims forwarded these funds to her. Victims in Placer County flew to San Antonio to be present for the birth of the child only to find that they had been defrauded. Another victim was due to fly to San Antonio on May 21st but they were contacted by The Placer County Sheriff’s Department and advised of the scheme.

Placer County Detectives and the FBI arranged for what the suspect thought would be a delivering of the birthing expense money. When the suspect arrived to pick up the money she was taken into custody.

So here’s where it gets weird.

They started investigating the documents and paperwork she had sent to the hopeful future adoptive parents, and traced an ultrasound picture back to the North Shore X-Ray clinic. They called the clinic and spoke to the manager there, who looked up the file and found out it was the Ultra Magnus ultrasound. I’m going to have to assume the woman in Texas got them off Flickr, since they’re not exactly hidden or anything. She couldn’t give out my contact information (with good reason; privacy laws forbid such things) but took his number and said she would contact me and have me call them if I wanted to.

Fast forward to this morning. I’m sitting here with a California number in hand for a detective Jim Hudson. I just called him a few minutes ago; it was a very T.V. moment, because he answered the phone by just saying “Hudson.” For some reason I thought I was going to get a switchboard or receptionist or something, so it threw me off for a second. I told him where I was calling from and he sounded pleased to hear from me, but told me that he was just in the middle of something else right now and could he call me back in a few minutes?

So now I’m just waiting for him to call me back.

Just. Plain. Weird.

I’ll let you know what happens next… I’m keeping this friends-only until I know more, I think.

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About a turkey

Jun 9th, 00 / 2 Comments

Well, since my last little story about the grade three class picture was entertaining, I was asked for another. This was what I came up with:

The Turkey Story

How about a story from back on the farm? Perhaps a touch morbid, but amusing nonetheless.

We had a hobby farm when I was a teenager. There were 16 acres of trees, 4 acres of lawn to mow with that pushmower, a vegetable garden, a pond, a barn, a shed, and a house. We raised birds and rabbits. The birds were show birds, mostly fancy chickens and a few turkeys, quail and cockatiels. The rabbits were pets that we sold at auctions; lop eared, dwarf, angora, and so on.

This story is about the turkeys… or rather, one turkey in particular.

You might have heard, at some point in your life, that domesticated turkeys aren’t necessarily the most intelligent of birds. For the purposes of this story, we shall assume this to be a truth.

The turkeys were kept in a pen next to the shed. they could wander in and out of the shed at leisure, and the fence around them was a good ten feet high. They never tried to fly over, they were generally too fat and heavy to get off the ground, and too lazy to try. This day was different though.

It was warm and sunny, a spring afternoon. My stepdad had just gotten home from work and was walking around outside the house. He wandered over to the shed, and noticed that one of the turkeys seemed to be missing – there were only 10, so it was easy to notice that. He walked around to the back of the shed, looking for the turkey.

As he turned the corner of the shed, my stepdad saw the bird standing on the grass in front of him. It looked confused and disoriented. My stepdad looked at the fence, which didn’t have any holes in it, and came to the conclusion that this heavy, dazed turkey had somehow managed to launch itself high enough into the air that it reached the top of the fence, then jumped down the other side. Now it was standing there, confused and dazzled, staring around itself cautiously.

My stepdad looked at the turkey…

The turkey looked at my stepdad…

My stepdad looked at the turkey…

The turkey fell over and died on the spot.

We never figured out if the turkey died from the shock of the fall, the exertion of getting out of the pen, or the evil eye my father gave it.

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Third grade picture day

Jun 7th, 00 / 4 Comments

Once there was a little girl, her name was JennyLee. Her mother had never told her that when you wear a dress you shouldn’t also wear running shoes and socks over your tights, but it was picture day, and she simply had to wear a dress, since she never got to wear one any other time. JennyLee fell down a lot, and played in mud and got grass stains on her jeans and thorns stuck in her knees, so dresses were highly impractical for day-to-day wear.

All the other kids in the class thought JennyLee looked silly on picture day, but they never told her why, they just laughed, so JennyLee pretended to not hear them and felt pretty in her dress. It was February, and there was snow on the ground, so wearing dressy shoes would be silly, JennyLee had thought when picking out her clothes that morning – they’d get all wet and dirty and her feet would be cold. JennyLee hated having cold feet. She hated it more than she hated the taste of Pea Soup. It was just awful when it was so cold out that her feet and her fingers got too cold to feel them anymore, except for how much they hurt from it. JennyLee really didn’t want cold feet on that February day, so she wore socks over her tights. It made sense to her.

When the other girls in their pretty shiny dress shoes went outside and started laughing at JennyLee for her socks and shoes and tights, JennyLee started to smile, just a quiet little smile that no one could really see. As recess time went on, the other kids started to get cold in their fancy dress shoes, but JennyLee’s shoes were nice and cozy with that extra pair of socks, and her tiny smile grew, just a little bit, as the other kids started forgetting to make fun of her shoes and began complaining about their chilled little toes.

Recess went on, and their feet got colder and colder, til the other kids had frozen little feet trapped in those pretty shiny shoes, and JennyLee’s feet were still warm and cozy. When recess was over, and everyone went back inside, they were all upset and complaining about how cold it was outside, except for JennyLee.

When the photographer came into their class and lined them all up for the class picture, JennyLee sat demurely where she was told to sit, and rested her hands in her lap, all the while, that little self-satisfied smirk lighting up her face, with a tiniest glint of childish evil (not the grown-up bad kind, the fun kid-kind) glowing from her eyes.

The photo was taken and the evil smirk captured forever more on film.

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Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone….

May 28th, 00 / 0 Comments

It’s easy, when you’re dissatisfied with something in your life, to look at something else and wonder if it would have worked out the same way if…

We never let it go too far, we never let it get serious, we never got too attached… or at least, we never admitted it when it happened. After all, neither of us wanted a relationship, not with each other and not with anyone. We just wanted to fight off loneliness, and the best way to do that was together. It certainly helped that we were attracted to each other…

So, we were never ‘a couple,’ just friends – and when frustration overwhelms me now, it’s hard not to wonder what could have been, had circumstances been different, had we done things another way, had the timing not been wrong.

It’s impossible to say, one way or the other. It’s a given that temptation always has the potential to appear, but it’s a fact that I won’t and could never act on it. What I have is too much for me to just toss it away on a temptation, on wondering about ‘what might have been.’ It may be frustrating at times, but where I am now is real, the feelings are real, it’s right, and it’s worth fighting for.

I guess it’s like window shopping. Sometimes you can’t help but look when something catches your attention, and sometimes you wonder how it would look on you. It’s fine to look, and maybe even to wonder a little, that’s only human really… but you know that you can’t buy.

So I looked and wondered, but I didn’t buy, and I won’t buy, because I’m happy with what I have, and because the respect we have for each other would never allow that. Frustration brings doubt, doubt makes me wonder, but it can’t go farther than that. You can’t always know what might have been.

I wish there was a way to have everything, but that’s not how life works. *sigh*