Now I understand why....

I am a wanna-be mermaid. Last night I listened to the droning hum of NHL hockey all night on the TV, heard countless mid to high-intensity squabbles going on in various rooms between Boys 1 & 2 and actually had the dog fart at me when I bent over to rub his exposed belly.

That's it. Fuck this. I ran a very deep bath, stuffed my huge frame in it, almost spilled the contents into Boy2's room below and stuck my head underwater.

If I could live my life for a week like that, I could actually book it as a staycation. I'm serious, when I was a kid my sister and I would sit at the bottom of our pool and look up at the hazy, feaky world and listen to nothing but the shooshing of our eardrums getting ready to pop. I think this is where I found my "I'm so fucking happy, I don't need Jesus, I love sunburns and I wish I had sticky candy" place in my head and heart. So when I can actually picture throwing my family's shit onto the lawn, I run a bath.

Don't fence me in....

....or DO fence me in! Now understand that we have been living in our suburban cottage for almost 5 years now. Without a backyard fence. With a ton of neighbourhood children, dogs, teenagers, skunks who live under our deck and a whole warren of sweet little bunnies. The thing is now that we have a big dog who does not like any of the previously listed visitors, we needed us a ding dang fence. PRONTO. So the posts went in yesterday and the "stringers" (thank you Dave my vocab guy who teaches me all things constructiony)and planks will hopefully be up within the week.

Although I am gloriously looking forward to the extra privacy, I am starting to wonder how damned expensive this dog is gonna get? LOL - Time will tell.

Because I love her....

For my sister's birthday in March I planned to redo her whole Master Bedroom. Although she had painted 2 walls a chocolate brown she had hit the decorating wall. My mission was to completely redo her room for as cheep cheep as possible.



I do really love you Jules & Steve.



My nieces and my Mom really worked like dogs to complete the whole makeover in 4 hours and 20 minutes FLAT!



Ahhhhh that colour is like tonic...that caramel and chocolate, the room is starting to look like a Caramilk bar.



BEFORE - used donated IKEA special....yukky pine.



....much better hey?



Now the room is starting to take shape!



A corner to curl up in.



It all makes sense.

The whole room in fact came in at just over $40.00 to redo. I gathered decor and pictures from her girlfriends, my closets and those that wished to donate towards the room, my Mom remade over a bed-in-a-bag set she already had. I haunted second hand stores for about a month and got a lamp, shoe organizer, decor items and craft papers at a steal. The only things actually bought for the room were new curtains and some paint. I remade the dresser over from a donation from our I.T. guy at work.

I have to say this was one of my favourite projects to date not only because it turned out so gorgeous but because it truly showed my sister and my BIL how much I love them.



Tears were present at the reveal which only cemented the notion that I already knew.... she loved it!

"I always get my way"

A woman who works for me is convinced I should have "I always get my way" tattoed on my body somewhere. She never tires of telling me that I am a force to be reckoned with in our little corner of the world. I'm a medium-sized fish in a very small pond after all. Well today I proved her right......again.

I have been hunting down funding for a project I've been pushing for over 2 years. I've had lots of enthusistic help along the way and for that I am so grateful. Today I got confirmation that my project is a GO! This project is something that actually MAKES A DIFFERENCE in people's lives in this little burg and for that I have to shout out to the Universe for letting me again get my way.

So now I am wondering....what if I used my powers for evil? Teehee....

Set Out Runnin'

Sometimes a song just feels like it's about right now. "Right f-en now".

This crazy, found, serendipitous song by Neko Case sets my hair on end....like it's been whipped in the wind cause I've got the ragtop down.....runnin. One day I'll figure out how to do links in this blogosphere (hoping the link below works but if it should not) and I will provide you with immediate gratification but for now you'll just have to go over to YouTube and type in "Neko Case Set Out"....you will be so gloriously happy you did....picture my hair like wind ravaged garter snakes twisted together and flying behind me as I drive on by.........................................................................................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYGod41gG9M

123 Bitch Street

123 Bitch Street, The Doldrums….this is what I was thinking of actually formally changing my address to for the past few days. Not quite sure why, per se, but I have been in a roiling, disconcerted FUNK of late. I know that hormonally I am at a certain age where this news is not so earth-shattering that you just stood up in front of your monitor and screamed “What is wrong with Dharma?” but it has been a worry for me.

See, the women in my family suffer with mental illness. And not your garden-variety “Suzy’s got the bummers” kinda depression or mental illness either. I’m talking full-blown strapped to a table somewhere, incoherent madness. It has struck quite a few people in my family. We’ve run the gamut from manic-depression to schizophrenia to what I think is a case of out and out multiple personality disorder. Young, older, mid-stream….there is no pattern just the inevitability of wacko. Just ask me, I’ve been quietly looking to and fro for years knowing I’m one of the last sitting ducks in this familial pond.

Now, to be clear, my ho-hums do not classify as a spirally downward into a dark abyss….but they always do make me more nervous than most I think. Somewhere along the fringes of my thoughts, there is that little sniveling kid walking alongside me chanting “Dharma’s losing her mind, Dharma’s losing her mind….”

I always feel like I have to be “cheerier” or “tougher” than everyone else or that kid is going to be right. I have had therapy in the past over this issue and that may warrant a revisit but for now I’m just doing as instructed and blogging about myself here…where in a weird open-to-the-world’s-eyes I am safe.

Mostly because my Mom doesn’t have a computer….lol

Much ado....

...about nothing.

My sister reminded me that I have not posted anything on here for ages. Which, in sister speak means "Getoffyerass". So I am revisiting this place to see if I can conjur up anything interesting about the last couple months. Truly my mundane suburban life does not lend itself to "super blogging" a la the Dooce or Pioneer Woman. I read their missives daily, albiet jealously and with bile in the back of my throat. See, I am a jealous blogger. A wannabe.

So, I never think anything I have to say. I know, I know. EVERYONE is special and has their own story to tell......REALLY? No, really? Think about it, do you want to know what the check-out clerk at your LCBO is thinking everyday? Do you care?

This is where blogging loses it for me. Why does anyone give a shit? I didn't create a blog and have it turn into a job or a cookbook or an appearance on national TV....so what could I have going on in my cul-de-sac life that would make your toes curl up and cause you to exclaim "I want this woman's life!"???

However, in a roundabout way I did save my dog's life this past few weeks and I did get my husband to start painting my kitchen. Maybe that warrants a shout-out. I'll keep coming back here. If not just to entertain my one loyal reader....you know who you are!