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In Canada, I think Boxing Day is a bit like Black Friday. My day has been a bit different than I thought it would be:
9am – wake up and notice that it is snowing.
9:15am – wake up again, call my brother, S., because he had to work yesterday.
9:16am – leave a message for S., who doesn’t answer the phone.
9:17am – lie in bed again.
9:45am – get up.
9:50am – stretch for exactly 8 minutes.
9:58am -flip the TV on.
10:00am – watch pointless TV, because it is about the 90s. I remember the 90s with fondness and a brief shudder.
10:45am – decide to clean the house before I shower.
10:46am – vaccuum the living room rug.
10:55am – sweep the main floor.
11:15am – collect the garbage.
11:18am – decide I should shovel the path to the garbage in the back lane.
11:20am – outside, in my pyjamas and shoes, shovelling.
11:40am – deposit garbage in bin, after clearing 18 inches of snow from the lid.
11:41am – decide to shovel the path to the front of the house too.
11:55am – finish shovelling the half of the stairs that are clear.
11:56am – back inside, roll up my wet pantlegs, notice that my hand is bleeding a little.
11:59am – decide to clean the bathroom surfaces before showering.
12:10pm – finally showertime.
12:11pm – decide to soak in the bath first.
12:17pm – getting into tub.
12:18pm – reading in tub.
12:40pm – showering and getting out of tub.
12:45pm – notice the tap is dripping still.
12:47pm – can’t turn the tap off…so I go get dressed.
12:55pm – still can’t turn the tap off. I put a bucket under and decide to watch it.
1:15pm – hm. hot water collecting. I google “how to fix a leaky faucet.”
1:17pm – general consensus is that I need to turn the hot water off first.
1:19pm – move the guys’ kitchen shelves to access the hot water tank. I follow the hot water pipe all the way along the ceiling and into K’s room. No place to turn it off.
1:29pm – look everywhere I can think of. Nowhere to turn it off. Reread googled instructions…definitely need to turn hot water off first.
1:32pm – fret about wasting hot water and the bill that we will get.
1:38pm – email D, who is on his way back to town. Ask for our fix-it guy’s number.
1:48pm – jiggle the tap some more. COME ON, turn off!
1:58pm – text D to ask for number.
2:01pm – D calls and gives me the fix-it guy’s number.
2:05pm – I call fix-it guy. He is going to a family gathering soon and the roads are treacherous…the valve to turn it off should be in the closet just outside the bathroom.
2:08pm – I empty the closet in search of the valve. No valves. No pipes. I wonder if he meant the cupboards, and I check in them too. Nothing.
2:30pm – I call the fix-it guy again. He will see what he can do after his family shindig. I decide to find a creative solution for my ripped lampshade, using materials found in my closet raiding.
2:38pm – D arrives home. He has adventures from the roads.
2:45pm – D checks out leaking faucet. I go back to my lampshade.
2:50pm – D does stuff and looks around for a solution. This includes pulling out the drawers UNDER the cupboards where I previously looked. Pipes, check. Valves – no check.
3:10pm – It is worse. And I don’t like the lampshade.
3:20pm -I do dishes using the hot water that is collecting in our bathroom.
3:30pm – D and I ask what we should do? D doesn’t like messing with plumbing (or auto mechanics, apparently these are the two things that should be left to the pros) and calls fix-it guy again.
3:40pm – D on the phone with fix-it guy. Trying to find the valve.
3:45pm – fix-it guy is going to come later. D has turned down the hot water.
3:50pm – it sounds like someone is running a bath. I write this blog. It has recently stopped snowing.
4pm – Arrested Development Season 2 begins.
4:10pm – snowing again.
4:25pm – fix-it guy is en route.
4:50pm – fix-it guy arrives.
5:20pm – fix-it guy is done. All fixed. Back to TV.
5:30pm – Arrested Development.
6pm – The IT Crowd.
7pm – Law & Order.
Things to do this Christmas:
- buy Christmas gifts for family and friends. Roughly 14 people.
- read books. Let’s say 4 of them.
Under the Banner of Heaven
The Kite Runner
Baroque-a-nova
Spiral Staircase - host my parents & grandpa for a week.
- make puzzles with said family.
- do things with my little brother.
- bake – I think this should include fudge.
- write – at least five pages of something.
- renew my driver’s license.
- shovel snow. wait. snow!? in Vancouver? yeah, that’s what I thought. too bad we don’t own a shovel.
- sleep. lots of sleep.
- watch TV. too much TV. watch Christmas specials just because they are on. watch crime TV because we all like it.
- wrap gifts.
- open presents.
- clean up after the family leaves.
Good things that are coming up:
- Hanging out with the brotha.
- Working on a Saturday (no seriously, it’s a good thing).
- Dinner party!
- Interview/meal with potential new housemate.
- Spoken Word/Readings
- Working from home next week
- Cable TV
- 8 Minute Abs (“These exercises are safe, effective, and fun! And they work!”)
- My parents are coming to visit.
- They are bringing my grampie.
- They are coming for Christmas.
One of my favourite holiday songs is Santa Baby by Eartha Kitts. In keeping with her extravagant wish list, here is my if-there-were-no-limits requests for Christmas:
- an end to sexual trafficking (why not start with something noble and deeply overdue?)
- dinner with Rick Mercer, Seth Myers, and Stuart MacLean (they could hang out, I’d just listen in and laugh)
- a boyfriend or a dog (I don’t think I’m mature & patient enough to handle both at once)
- some sort of PDA/phone/music machine that does exactly what I want (I’m not sure what that is yet)
- a new wardrobe (the clothes, not the furniture)
- an unlimited subscription to iTunes. (all music, all the time!)
- a new lens for my DSLR. (and photography lessons to go along with it)
- a family reunion (with all my family – siblings, spouses & parents)
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