Matt’s mom and sisters and I took to the streets of Halifax and had a girly day out. We started out at Luxx, which was FANTASTIC. We had some white wine and brunch/lunch food, and it was all so reasonably priced. I’m proud of my choice, as I had a baby spinach salad, and it was delicious, too!

After that we went and saw some homes that were decorated (inside) for Christmas. The first one was a bit lackluster but the other two were absolutely gorgeous. It definitely made for a wonderful day out. I’m glad I went!

Happy Thanksgiving, all of you Americans out there! Today’s a day for family, friends, and food! While I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving last month, I still feel attached to this holiday in a major way.

I called my grandma last night. If I was still in Michigan I’d be heading over to her house tonight for a big family turkey dinner, so I wanted her to know I was there in spirit. She’s supposed to give everyone a big hug and tell them it’s from me.

After I called her I called my mom for a bit. I figured I could tell her happy Thanksgiving, too, and I had a few things I wanted to talk to her about. Sadly, by the end of these two conversations I was in tears. For the first time in three years, I was truly homesick. It was crippling. I literally sat for a half hour and stared at the wall, crying.

Most days it’s fairly easy. I can pretend they’re in the next room, because we’re in contact. But when it dawns on me that I don’t have the OPTION to just drive over for a nice dinner, or to go for a walk… That’s when it hits me the hardest that I’m 1400 miles away from everything I’ve ever known.

I really hope this gets easier. In the meantime, I’ll build myself up for a visit, hopefully next year when this nightmare is over.

Grumpy. That’s how I’m feeling today.

• The server isn’t working, so it’s not playing videos to anything, so I have nothing to watch right now.
• I’m up a pound from yesterday, which was down a pound from the day before. Up, down, up, down.
• My whole body is aching right now. I can only assume it’s from jogging and doing laundry yesterday, but even walking hurts.
• I couldn’t find anything for lunch, so I had a piece of bread and am going to have a banana. Seriously.
• Matt’s dad keeps taking the cat outside. I don’t want her out there. I haven’t wanted her out there since I got her. He knows this. He refuses to follow that, though, and takes her out there anyway.

I need a hug.

So much to talk about that it’s hard to know where to begin, so I guess the beginning would be a good start. So let’s see…

Woke up around 10:30 or so and confirmed my appointment for tomorrow. Scared out of my mind for the blood work because, let’s face it, who wants giant needles in their arm? Oh, well, though. A bit later, Katie (Matt’s brother’s fiancee, and a good friend of mine) called me to let me know that she’d be over to pick me up in a little while. I got dressed, emailed with my mom, and headed downstairs to wait.

Katie and I headed back to her place, where we sat around for a bit, mopped her kitchen floor, and chatted while playing with her daughter (my niece), Lannah. We went looking for Matt’s cousin to see if she’d watch Lannah while we went to the gym, but she wasn’t home. However, we saw a much more disturbing sight on the way to her place. We pulled onto a small side road and saw a boy (around 13 or so) on the ground with three boys on top of him, kicking and punching him while he flailed around. We locked our doors and rolled up our windows (I don’t care if they were 13, we weren’t taking any chances, as they were obviously not friendly to begin with) and as we were pulling into the parking lot we saw one of the boys’ faces - it turns out it was Matt’s cousin’s son. The son of the woman we were going to go find. I believe Katie’s going to talk to his mother later, and since we had no way of getting ahold of the police or anything and since the boys fled the scene, we couldn’t really do anything. I can honestly say it was scary though. I can’t imagine what young boys would have to fight that much about, really.

Anyway, Katie found a sitter for Lannah around 3:30ish and we headed out to the gym. I had my four photos taken for my medical tomorrow while Katie ran to the bank, and then we headed up and she had her orientation for the gym while I wandered around with them. Then we did a bit of cardio warm-up on the bike, the weight circuit, and then 5 minutes on the treadmill. We decided to stop there so we’re not too sore for the next couple days, and we’re going to go back Friday. I think having her around will really help my motivation, and I hope I can do the same for her!

After that, we decided to go swimming (even though the sun and heat and humidity had all but disappeared by this point) so she took me back to my apartment so I could put on my swimsuit and grab a towel, and we headed out to the lake. We swam for about a half hour, in ice cold water, talking about how we’d waited a year to do this again. Regardless of how cold it was, it felt fantastic and I think it was a great way to relax my muscles down after a nice workout.

After this, I came home and made BLTs with Matt, played some EQ2, and am sitting here just relaxing. Tomorrow, I’m going to clean up the apartment during the day, and then head out to the doctor for my medical, and then the hospital for my X-rays and blood work. All in all, it was a great day. Summer’s officially here!

This is big news for me, the sleep-until-noon person. Not to mention I’ve been up for an hour!

I had such a weird dream last night, though, that I woke up feeling rushed and anxious. It wasn’t a bad dream. Just a busy dream. I think I wore myself out in my dream more than I did in real life! All I remember is something about moving into a new apartment with Matt and two of his friends and his family and arranging the furniture.

The cat wants out of the bedroom right now. Lately she does this thing where she sits at the door and paws at it, like she’s knocking. I’d go and let her out if she wouldn’t be begging to get back in within five minutes! That’s the only frustrating thing. I do think it’s cute that she knocks, though.

I need to go to the gym today. I haven’t went since last Monday (bad, I know!) and so I feel like a slacker. I’m also feeling extra big lately and that makes me unhappy. I talked to Matt and Stacy last night to ask what they each thought was a reasonable amount to set a goal for the gym. Matt said two days per week would be the acceptable bare minimum. Stacy said to shoot for four days per week. So I’ll be trying for four, settling for three, never going below two.

I think part of my big problem with losing weight is that I have two options, as I see it: set low goals so they’re achievable without much hassle, or set high goals and feel like a failure when I don’t reach them. I need to turn my outlook on this around and start setting high goals and achieving them! And in the meantime, I need to accept myself for what I’m like now. Life’s too short to always be waiting for tomorrow!

My grandparents visiting was absolutely wonderful. We did a bit of sightseeing - Matt showed them around downtown by the waterfront, I showed them where we got married and where we used to live. We did some shopping - my poor grandmother sat there while I tried on over 40 pairs of jeans to find one that fit properly. We went out to eat - we showed them some of our favourite restaurants and even visited some new ones! We did some crafts and played some games - I made a belt and we played Scattergories. It was a short visit, but everything was fantastic.