Closing Time

I lost a small part of myself a week ago when my parents finally closed on their house.  My brother tried to one-up my sadness by saying "I lived here longer than you did."  I wasn't in much of a mood for a pissing match so I let him have it.  I left home when I was 18 but went back for many summers, and a year after uni, and a year after Calgary.  I've been visiting fairly regularly in the past two weeks to help my parents with the final push on packing up their belongings.   On Saturday they moved into their temporary living situation, and the movers came on Monday and emptied the entire house.   I brought over my vacuum so they could do one final last clean, but the movers were pros and left theirs out until the last load.  The lead mover was absolutely stunningly gorgeous.  Oh, he was What's the word? - Gorgeous? Hands off! I seen him first! Oh, he was lush!  My mom and I sat out on the back patio and had a moment.  And then we hugged out front and I drove away.  I don't think I'll be able to go back any time soon, and see unfamiliar cars in the driveway.  That chapter in my life is closed.

I'm on vacation this week, weeeee.  It's the first time off I'd had since last September.  On Friday I had this sort of longing feeling, like I was going to miss work come Tuesday.  But now it's Tuesday and all I can think about is doing absolutely nothing, and loving every second of it.  I woke up on Saturday with a vicious irritated bowel.  I don't want to give too many gruesome details but it ended with me clutching the garbage can so I could vomit at the same time.  Not a great way to start your weekend, at 5:30am.  There may be a culprit.  The weekend before I had the same fiery experience after eating some leftover meat that was apparently expired.  I like to say I only make those mistakes once but it appears I need to make that mistakes with each food group individually (first eggs, now steak).  I somehow managed to get my shit together, literally, and got out to see a movie with Kyle.  Now You See Me, good times.  It was a really clever movie, although Kyle said he figured most of it out early on, I'm a dummy so it kept me guessing almost all the way through.  I had a few small mental victories.  Add to that a quick trip to the Arms yesterday to see Jackie's gang, and I've spent most of the rest of my time melting into a pile of nothingness.

I'm on my way up to Heartland today to meet up with an old colleague.  She's still with the company we worked at together, and has been effed by them much in the same way I was.  Only difference is, I called Uncle and she's stuck it out.  A job that closely matches my old job with them has come up, and as it's permanent she's going for it.  I'm doing the best I can to prep her for the interview.  Give her the inside scoop on what the job entails, etc.  And if I have time I'm going to stop into Future Shop and get myself a Wii!!!!!  This is very exciting news for me.  I found $110 in gift cards during the move, and with a little help from a bonus we rec'd this month I'm going to get myself something shiny and new.  I don't know why I always wait so long and deprive myself of nice things.  This is going to be a good one.

And then tomorrow I'm hitting the road and heading up to the cottage for a few days.  I think I'll just pack a giant pile of books, and sit out on the deck and read.  I might take a few dips in the lake if the weather is nice enough.  Make nice with the chipmunk again.  Do some bbqing.  Nothing will beat those amazing steaks my dad stocked the freezer with last time, but it will be nice to eat anything off the grill.

Countdown to mom's move-in is looming.  It's about 4 weeks off so I won't start anything official.  But I think the walls just got a bit smaller as soon as I typed that.  Oxygen level in air....slowly depleting....can't....breathe........oh it's going to be an interesting two months.  But she did birth me, so I can't put up much of a fight.  Although, I think after this we'll be even lol.