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00:23 - 11.10.06
Balance Grasshopper
Hello dear diary, it has been a very busy couple of days. Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in Canada. It was a beautiful warm autumn day with a light, fragrant breeze redolent of wood smoke and fallen leaves. I woke early to get my youngest off to work. He was feeling a bit down about missing the dinner, because he enjoys family gatherings. I managed to bring a plate of the essentials home for him, so that helped a bit. My Dad did the same for his neighbour, the nurse, who had to work a shift in the cardiac intensive care unit. Maybe missing a dinner isn't that big a deal after all, eh?

Number three son swung by to pick me up for the afternoon gathering. He was accompanied by number one son, his partner and their two children. Lucky his vehicle holds eight people, because we had our contributions to the feast to add into the mix and various bits and pieces of paraphenalia that needed to be divvied out when we arrived. As I've mentioned before, I navigate by landmarks but rarely remember the full address of anything outside the downtown core. Had to call my sister for street directions to her home midway through the journey, so that my son didn't have to figure out what shopping mall I meant. We all arrived in one piece and that's what counts, isn't it?

My Dad and all my sibs were there as were all but five of the grandchildren/spouses and the newest of my grandbabies. Number four son's wife's family had scheduled their Thanksgiving fete for the identical time. Given that the baby is just over a week old it made sense that his mom would want that first festive event to be with her family. There will be lots of time for the rest of us later. Most of the adult males were still feeling quite sickly, although it didn't seem to stop them from savouring all the fixings of the feast. My sister had quite a cold too and said that the child care center where she works was seeing children and staff down with everything from flus to pneumonia. That is typical of this time of year of course. One long time principal in my sons' school noted that he always looked forward to that first full week of frigid weather in the fall, because it killed off all the germs. At the time I thought he was crazy, but it makes a lot of sense upon reflection, doesn't it?

Rather than eat, I was more interested in cuddling my grand-daughter while her parents ate, then spending time working on the computer with my oldest niece. Spent sometime with the hubby who was hosting going over the blueprints for my house - the ones I bought about about a year ago. There were a couple of walls that I was thinking of removing, but I wanted to know whether they were weight-bearing or not first. Talk then turned to a variety of possibilities around how to fix the interior once it has been gutted to clear out all the old damaged materials. Hundreds of options. We discussed how to maximize the choices on a very tight, nearly non-existant budget. Thanksgiving is about being grateful for the things that really count like family and friends - not things - and I know I have a lot to be thankful for.

My one brother-in-law complained of chest pains at one point, so my sister and I each offered to share our nitroglycerin with him. We both had to confess that neither of us had ever used it - although the last supervisor I had managed to release some of it into my desk-in-a-bag, the time I caught her trying to find out what meds I kept in it the one day we were both working together at the warehouse. Both canisters are quite old, so we weren't certain that the drug was still active either. Maybe there could be a movie that takes baby boomers from when they shared their "weed, man" to when they end up sharing their meds. My sister has hers because of a congenital issue, while I was given mine when I had that allergic reaction to the antibiotic I was given for pneumonia in 2002. Neither condition really merits that medicine, but it is part of the treatment protocol set in place for any diagnosis that has the word "heart" in it, it appears. Turned out my brother-in-law just had the two days of feasting indigestion blues, so it was much ado about nothing anyway. Shared the bromoseltzer with the other men in the family instead.

Got home rather late. I spent the rest of the night on things election and catching up on emails from friends and family not in the city this holiday. I really did mean to write last night, but eating even as little as I did meant I was ready for a nap long before I finished those tasks. Crawled into bed for a nap thinking I would write to you then, but the alarm this morning is what finally woke me up.

Today I had agreed to meet my sister's sister-in-law for one last get together before she goes home on Thursday. Got my youngest out the door to work, then headed off shortly after, much to the chagrin of the cats. I hadn't intended to wear a jacket or socks - sandals being my preferred footwear - but I'm really glad some common sense still exists in my body if not my mind. It was raining and the wind made it feel very cold indeed. A grey, chilly day with snow in the forecast for later - maybe. Met my friend at my favorite mall by the river. We hadn't been able to agree on where to have lunch - probably from food fatigue after Thanksgiving and all the other visits we've had in the past two weeks. Decided to walk along the river walk and across to the trendy shopping area about two miles down. We decided the Greek restaurant where I had met the other Returning Officer a couple of months back was a good choice. The food was delicious even with tastebud fatigue. The taverna music and staff - family owned and operated I think, since we were served baklava made by the owner's mother - just blended together in a perfect mix. The Broken Plate is the restaurant's name.

My sister's sister-in-law and I had talked about spending part of the lunchtime talking about her computer issues and website and part finishing off the astrology reading for my solar return (progressed chart). Also included was her story of the trials of one of her sisters, who is going through a tough time at work. The company broke the union when they struck last year and it was a very bitter time. I wrote about it last year, because I had to walk through their picket lines to get to my workplace. At that time I mentioned there were negotiations going on with another major communications giant to sell the business off. I speculated then that the wages and number of staff in the local company was probably the remaining bone of contention. The deal would be made when the seller cleaned out the current staff. That seems to be confirmed now, because she reported the sister and her co-workers are distraught because they are being subjected to continuous harrassment and abuse arising from the new CEO's restructuring program. The treatment is becoming progressively more controlling and draconian, according to my sister's sister-in-law. She says her sister and her coworkers are all ready to pack it in and many are already looking for other jobs. Corporate North America in all its shadow manifestations. Another part of the conversation was about my family members. She zeroed in on my Dad and seemed to want to know a lot of personal stuff about him. It got uncomfortable when she started asking more probing questions about his relationship with his erstwhile nieghbour and now new partner. I had to wonder if she had developed a personal interest in him. A number of my female friends and co-workers have commented on how attractive they find him on other occasions. Personally I've always believed him to be the most handsome man in any room. But then again, I admit to being a Daddy's girl even now. Of course, now when my sons are in the room too, then I believe that they are all the most handsome men in the room. It's a family trait you see.

Next up, she had a load of questions about word processing and spreadsheets that took up the largest part of the afternoon. It was about the time dessert arrived that talk turned to her planned website. I think I must have hurt her feelings when I wouldn't agree with her counsel during our last session, based on my progressed astrology chart, where she insisted I needed to write off and walk away from my home. You see, she mentioned she had reviewed the astrology websites that I had sent her, the ones I said were my favorites because of their creativity, so she could get an idea of how to keep people interested in staying on her site to purchase her products. Her only comment was that she found them all really shallow and disgusting and wasn't interested in sites just given over to fortune-telling. The sites I had chosen were ones where I know the astrologers write their own material and take great pride in their interpretive work. They also all have a social justice and/or personal development component, sometimes very cleverly disguised as blogs or other diversionary tactics. Each author also writes additional material that is offered freely simply because it is something that is a passion with each person. Having worked with, and interpreted, astrology charts myself since my teens, I can tell the difference between canned mini fortunes and actual original work. Admittedly each writer has their own perspective or "lens" through which they write, but that is no different than my sister's sister-in-law who declared in that same comment that she only wanted to talk to other Jungians. Fair game, but don't diss or diminish someone else because they don't agree with you. She has spent her life following the beat of her own drummer and living "authentically", true to herself - much to her family and church's chagrin - but doesn't seem willing to let others do the same.

Again I think hurt feelings were being repressed and expressed by projection onto me, because I challenged her assessment and she started backing off at that point. She allowed that she had detected some merit in Rob Brezsny's site - I loved my weekly horoscope reading today about being vindicated for my "weird" ideas. She mentioned that one of the few "credible" astrologer's website,a fellow Jungian, hadn't been included in my list. When she mentioned it was Liz Greene she was referring to, I pointed out that she was an affiliate on one of the collaborative sites and co-director on a second site I had sent for her assessment. That astrologer's name appeared in both home pages, so I think her fit of pique meant she hadn't really looked at the links I'd forwarded to her for more than a few seconds at best.

She asked again about how to go about using a weblog as part of a site's features. As an example I mentioned the social networking sites that offer blog support as part of the package, because she asked how she could set that up within her own website. The social networking sites are a good way to find and interact with people with the same interests as one's self. I mentioned some of the ones I had interacted with, such as the meditation diary rings and parenting rings where new and experienced moms can exchange stories and strategies for surviving one's baby's childhood. She started in on how shallow and trite most blogs like that were. Again I think maybe her assessment of trite is based on her values and life experience, but it also seemed to be a swipe directed at me. I'd mentioned to her about keeping a diary to document all the activity that has occurred at the downtown and the election assignments, and she asked to have access to it. I don't let anyone read your posts other than my sons, dear diary. I explained that I have blocked searches to your electrons, because a lot of the information refers to confidential and regulatory issues. It is meant as a real time record of events, should I ever have to go to court. The personal material I write is whatever happens to be on my mind on any given day. I am certain that many people would consider some of what I talk about trite, but I'm not and never intended to write for anyone but myself. You are my confidante and my own personal form of mental health therapy. I decided that she was just having a bad day and changed the subject to more interesting things like her packing and return to her island in a few days. I think there is some friction in her family, just as there is in mine and probably everyone else's, that has maybe thrown her way off her normal good natured balance. We all have days like that.

Time to go visit my oldest son now. He had seven responses called in about his resumes that we sent out on Sunday and he's very pleased with that. Strategy for dealing with it is up for discussion I think. Good night.

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