Enforced Sick Days

On Tuesday, I woke up feeling under the weather. I had a bit of a fever, a cough, and body aches. Figuring that I work in a hospital with lots of not-so-healthy people around, I decided not to go to work. I thought I could just rest lots, drink plenty of fluids, and then report back to work on Wednesday. Turns out, it's not that simple. I showed up to work today and was told that because my symptoms were flu-like, I had to go check in with Occupational Health to get the all-clear from them to return to work. I was thinking "I'm feeling mostly fine, they'll just take my temperature and then I can just get back to work".

Wrong.

Thanks to H1N1, the rules for what they send you home for have changed. Before, it was just fever WITH vomiting or diarrhea. Now, they can send you home for just a fever, cough, or any sort of respiratory problem. I told the nurse that, while I did have a fever on Tuesday, it was gone that evening. She even took my temperature right there, and I was fine. But, the rules are that I can't be at work until 48 hours have passed since my fever ended. She also had to take some swabs to send for testing. Let me tell you, nose swabs hurt! I had no idea they had to go so deep with them.

So, the conclusion of this story is that I am now not allowed to go to work until they phone me with the results of my tests - even though I feel fine now. The nurse suspected that will probably be Monday.

Extra long weekend!!

Yikes! It's been a while!

Okay...so a lot has happened since I last wrote!

Biggest thing is that we bought a house and sold our condo. Closing on the house is May 7, and closing on the condo is May 14. There's lots to do, but it's pretty exciting. I can't believe I'm growing up! Haha! Actually, having a house and mortgage doesn't mean my maturity level has gone up at all ^_~

Going to Kim's baby shower next weekend in Ottawa. The whole baby thing is also very exciting! I can't wait to see her, and how she's doing.

Jamie got picked for jury duty this week. He was so mad about being selected, but now he seems okay with it. They've finished closing arguments, and will begin deliberations tomorrow.

Still doing lots of dancing. Mme Fong is coming back on April 13th, so I need to get myself ready for the onslaught of work to come. PushPULL is going to be performing at some pretty public events in April too, so I'll be sure to post about that too.

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Am I a snob if...

This morning I was listening to the radio and a commercial for a Boston Pizza promotion came on. They were advertising some Italian special, and the ad was sung in an operatic fashion by some contralto with too much vibrato, which would have been amusing...EXCEPT they set it to the music for Carmen, which is a FRENCH opera. Written in French, by a Frenchman.

I was instantly turned off by the ad and wondered just what uncultured buffoons came up with that commercial. After a few moments of calm, I wondered if perhaps I was being too critical since it is just Boston Pizza, and not the Canadian Opera Company. But still...I can't help but have a not-so-favourable impression of them now.

Am I being too much of a snob?

Maybe you should drive?

Monday morning, and I think I already had my excitement for the week! This morning, Jamie set off for work, and all seemed normal. And then he rushed back up to the apartment to tell me that our car was gone. He's all panicked, so now I'm all panicked, and I start thinking about what it is that we should do now that our vehicle has been stolen. And then I think a little more and realize that our parking garage has video surveillance, so it would be stupid to steal it out of there. And then Jamie turns to me and asks, "Oh. You parked it in E11 last night, right?"

Uhh.....I think so? But maybe check D11 just in case?

A couple minutes later, Jamie returns all smiles. Panic over.

Moral of the story: When Karen can't tell the difference between a D and an E, maybe someone else should be driving.

This is how rumors get started

I know it's Wednesday already, and the weekend feels like it was so long ago, but the story I have from this Saturday is just too funny for me not to tell.

My good friend Nick from PEI, who I met at Shad Valley all the way back in '96 (who is now in Calgary doing his Paed's residency), was in town for his cousin's wedding. Since we only see each other once every two years or so, he thought it would be a great idea for me to attend the dinner portion of the event with him since he has no significant other to bring. I figure, sure - why not? His joke was that since he missed my wedding, it was only fitting that I go with him to one so it could sort of even out.

We sit down, drinks are served, bread, wedding party enter - all the usual wedding stuff. And then the MC gets to the part where they start introducing out of town guests. Sure enough, they announce him...and then me as his girlfriend. We start protesting, and his parents who are close enough to the MC correct him by saying that I'm already married. What they neglected to say was that I wasn't married to Nick. So, the MC misunderstands and announces "Oh! Sorry. Didn't know they were already married." Gah! So now Nick's whole extended family is wondering how come they weren't invited to "our wedding", so we have to explain to them that I'm married, but not to him. We think it's all cleared up, but there's bound to be someone out there who thinks that Nick is dating a married woman (haha!)

Things get better when another Shad friend (who is also an old family friend of mine) arrives. So now it's me, Nick, and Krissy. Nick now has not one, but two dates with him, all of whom look very comfortable together. I bet there was more talking after that.

To top it all off, when the bouquet toss happened, Nick's cousin tried to get me to go up too. I laughed and said that it wouldn't really work since I was already married. Then she laughed and told me she thought I was joking when I said I was married. Guess the wedding band on my left hand's not a good enough hint (haha!).

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Wow, I'm stupid

I am living proof that it is not always the man who forgets anniversaries. This morning, I woke up and Jamie said "Happy Anniversary"to me, and I had to pause because for a minute my brain was saying "Oh, who's anniversary is it today?" Yes, I forgot my own wedding anniversary...

And thus, we have no dinner plans, no presents, or anything (haha).

Oddly enough, I do this very often for my birthday as well...guess I'm just not good with dates.

A funny thing happened...

Today was one of those days where I became grateful for a lot of little things. I am grateful that I live so close to where I work, and I'm grateful that I was at work at 6:30am today. That second point might be kinda odd, but once you hear this story, you'll understand.

Not long after I got to work, I got the back pocket of my pants caught on something. It made a bit of a hole, which I ignored thinking that it was just my pocket. Things would have gone the rest of the day just fine had I not chosen to sit down after a while. And that's when I heard it. A most terrifying sound...the sound of cloth ripping. Yes, I now had a big hole in my pants...

Lucky for me, my jacket was long enough to cover the hole, so I put it on and raced home to change. So, you see, had I arrived to work at my normal hour, my co-workers would have seen my embarrassing situation, and if I had lived further away from work I would've been stuck.

And you thought that stuff like that only happened in sit-coms!