I Hate Developers

When a greedy, smarmy smiling developer appeared on my doorstep over 3 years ago, asking me if I wanted to sell my home, I told him that I "might" for my price. Being a greedy, smarmy smiling developer, he offered $100,000 LESS than what I had told him. So for over 3 years he has been appearing and disappearing, and now is intent on staying in my beautiful neighborhood and ruining my life.

Not willing to be pushed around by this bully, I appealed City Hall's decision to grant him permits without sufficient parking, going up 6 stories when only 4 are allowed and I actually WON!!!!! Told that he was to get 19 parking spaces & deal with me fairly and without pushing me around, he decided that he would be a snake in the grass and find his parking stalls in hell. There's nowhere else to get them other than my property, so that's where the future tenants must be going to park.

Okay, now I have 111 units of homeless people, others who cannot afford housing, etc., and I am PAYING to build this monstrosity with the subsidies from the city and provincial governments. Glad to see my taxes are put to good use, protecting my life, etc., NOT!!!!!!!!!!

Even the MP called before the appeal hearing and wished me luck, the MLA's office also called and everyone I know has been 100% behind me....and many I don't know. So I am wondering how I can WIN against this puke-head and still lose??????? Something smells here and it isn't the cat's litter boxes.

Well, he wants the neighbor from hell? He has her, along with my 4 killer cats, and woe to the poor tenants who will have to bow down to Mr. Messiah of the Homeless and Downtrodden. I will NEVER sell him my property for his price, and thus, I am officially declaring war on Mr. Smarmy Smiling Developer From Hell and Beyond. Hear that, you creep???????????

A Skunk Thief Bitch Visits and Robs

I am so mad - finally someone paid me the last installment of $500, after waiting all year, and some dear, sweet con artist wormed her way into my home the next day and stole it! I am mad at my stupidity, along with losing $540 in all, just when I thought I could get caught up on bills. I didn't even have that money for 24 hours before it was gone.

This dear, sweet thieving bitch had "car trouble" and needed to use my bathroom and phone. Like an idiot, I let her in and continued getting ready to go teach for a few hours over at the college. When she parked her ass down, I told her I had to go to work and I didn't have time for her to stay. "Oh, I'll leave right after you get me some water." Yeah, sure, just long enough to pounce on my purse that was sitting open, about 3 feet from her greedy, thieving paws. Immediately she hopped up, told me to have a wonderful day, and I was such a nice woman to let her in. I guess I was a nice, stupid, trusting woman, to let the likes of her into my house.

It's a good thing she didn't know what Linus was worth, or he'd be gone, too. But I must say, she was certainly interested in his new 'lion cut." Thankfully, Linus is still here, just as mischievous as ever...I wonder if I can teach him to kill skunks who appear on my doorstep.

The RCMP thought they knew about whom I was speaking - they "had dealt with her before." I am hoping they catch her, get me some restitution, and then I will pay for a security system, complete with camera, out of the money restored to me.

I am so sick of struggling, financially and professionally, and I think I am going to give a lot of thought to leaving this horrible city and house, although there are a lot of nice people here. In the meantime, my cats and I will be on the lookout for stinky skunks with bleached blonde hair.

Not Much of Anything

I didn't feel like green anymore so now I am blue. My little house is blue, my carpet is blue, my slipcovered $90 sectional is blue/straw gingham, my eyes are blue, 3 of my 4 cats have brilliant blue eyes (much more beautiful than mine, for sure), and sometimes my mood is blue. There, reasons enough for a change of template. Besides, I don't know how to make it more unique, so I will just settle for blue/white for awhile.

Not much is happening here at the north pole, other than it rained here last week and I believe it was warmer than in Florida where my sister lives...hahahahaaha! All of my relatives from the Colorado side were in not-so-sunny Florida for a tropical getaway, but I bet they were happy to get back to Colorado, even with the 6 feet of snow that fell in Durango yesterday.

Two days off await me, so time to wash the dishes, ugh ugh ugh ugh hate hate hate hate, and then a trip to the mall for a good book to replace the one about Queen Victoria hunting zombies (picked that one up by mistake) and then off for a fabric fix at Fabricland. If I knew how to post photos which I have yet to take, I would show off the gorgeous quilt-to-be fabric I found there last weekend. Someday.............

Winter is becoming a hateful process - much too long at the north pole, but the days are beginning to get a bit longer now. Oh, I can't wait for 18 hours of daylight during spring and summer, but it is difficult to convey to the cat alarm clocks that just because the sun is up, it doesn't mean that their mom is up!!!!!

Working is taking up most of my waking hours as we prepare for the annual politicking in the Music Festival at the end of April. After boycotting the "games" last year, we will be back in true form, ready and eager to experience less-than-genius-level adjudicators at their worst. I guess that because we live at or near the north pole, we can't afford to fly in adjudicators who actually KNOW what they are talking about. Most of the young adjudicators are no friends of mine either, as my students have won so much at provincials, usually winning over THEIR students, so I feel at times, perhaps, that some of them are just a tad jealous???????

I won't even get into the subject of the previous paragraph.....well, not tonight anyhow, but do I have tales to tell!

End of work week #3 of the new year and all is going really well, other than I broke another molar, got it fixed for about $900 worth the other day and the house is a mess. That new year's resolution about not having dirty dishes piled up EVERYWHERE in that "kitchen" of mine every week....hmmmmmmm....will have to rethink resolution priorities here.

I need to sleep. I'll try again another day.

A New Year, a New Decade and Where Are You, Ship?

I'm not tired; yet I start teaching really early (for me) tomorrow. I believe it is getting close to the bewitching hour because the cats are hanging around, looking at me with that, "Let's go to bed" stare. I know I have to get up early and therefore I know I cannot sleep - I HATE getting up early.

It is the new year and I haven't gotten in a flap yet, even though a lot of money needs to fill my pockets before Friday. It is such fun being self employed in January...Mastercard called tonight and I will call them back tomorrow after I count my pennies, dollars and such, to tell them that my ship will come in very soon, I am hoping. This is the first time they have called me in many, many years, and it does my heart no good when they are forced to remind me to pay on my account, when I already KNOW that I have to pay on my account.

It's not like I live in a castle or something, it's not like I own a car or anything else on wheels, it's not as if I have a real kitchen with cabinets, etc., it's not as if I have beautiful floors or anything, it's not as if I have gorgeous furniture or anything, but I do have 4 cats and they have to be fed first. And it's not as if I eat lots of food or anything, either, because I have IBS and can't really eat a lot of what other people eat - it's called "food."

But I DO have to get up early and maybe tomorrow my ship will come in to dock in my non-existent private whatever ships or boats call home.

2010 - I am NOT getting into a flap because I need for people to pay me! No no no, I am not getting into a flap about money or the lack thereof. In 2010 my cats will eat and once in awhile I will, too. That's all that matters - oh, and I will continue to teach music to the nicest little and big kids in the world.

Goodbye Rotten Decade - Welcome Sweet New Decade

Happy New Year to me. Happy New Decade to Me. There, it has been said and done and I am left to count down the few hours remaining until life gets a whole lot better.

What made 2000 - 2009 so awful??????? Here goes:

2000: Breast cancer, mastectomy and finally, an "all clear,"

2001: Duodenal Ulcer - bad bad bad bad bad

2002: Still ulcering - still bad bad bad bad bad

2003: Dirty doings going on.

2004: Still dirty doings going on.

2005: Still more dirty doings going on.

2006: Still more dirty doings going on, only now I have PROOF!!!!!!!!

2007: Revenge of Catwoman.

2008: Catwoman lives to wreak more havoc.

2009: Catwoman and cats are worn out!

Welcome sweet new decade in just about 2 hours from now. I need a rest!!!!!!!

Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly

Fa la la la la, la la la la! It's the busy Christmas season for us, starting on Saturday afternoon, November 28, at the Festival of Trees, our annual Christmas Recital on Sunday, December 6 and finally, our appearance at the annual Carol Fest on Tuesday, December 8th. By "we," I mean my Grande Prairie Regional College Conservatory Choir, now in our 22nd year of performing, and all of my varied students, aged 6 on up to 17, who will be singing solos and duets as well as singing in the Choir. (Actual photos are going to appear after all of this concertizing), I HOPE!!!!!

This afternoon for 2 hours, we (the choir) rehearsed our 4 songs for the Festival of Trees. We are singing four 2-part selections, one of them an a cappella arrangement of "I Saw Three Ships" written especially for them by our friend and composer extraordinaire, Christine Donkin, who lives in Ottawa now. This arrangement was my best birthday present on November 6, as that is when it arrived, along with my worst birthday present, a very bad cold, cough and all the rest.

Half of our 12 singers are 6 & 7 years of age, and it is so thrilling to hear those little kids sing such difficult music - in tune, accurate notes and musical to boot! The other half are from 11 years to 17, and they really are the foundation of the group. The students who are singing this year work very hard and actually learn their music. Ha! (There have been other years with other singers who were, for want of a better word, lazy). I'll take six itty- bitty kids who work, over 15 who can't pick up their music in-between rehearsals. They really make me proud!

After the Festival of Trees concert finishes, I am then headed to the Grande Prairie Regional College for an evening concert of The Messiah where I sing Soprano 1 in the GPRC Concert Choir. After being sick for over two weeks, it is wonderful to have my high notes back, as there are a flurry of them in this oratorio. Our conductor is a friend of mine, John Murray, who has conducted the choir for many years now, and I am so thrilled to be singing in the choir this year.

Now, before Saturday night, I have to get rid of Linus so I can cut out my skirt for the concert that I still have to sew, and I discovered the perfect ruse today - turn up the Christmas music on the stereo full blast and zap - he's out of here! I haven't seen him for 4 or 5 hours, but I still haven't cut out that skirt. I guess I can't be motivated unless I have to fight off that cat rolling around on the pattern and chewing the glass bead-top pins. The dress I was making for last Christmas still hangs in the "to do" closet with the sleeves sewn in inside out - I believe Linus "helped" me sew that, too.

Ha! I DID finish my new coat for the Christmas season that I began about ten years ago. It is an "in" color, a black and royal blue plaid with a faux chinchilla collar and cuffs, wide shoulders (they're back in now) in a princess style maxi length and lots of thinsulate, good for -40 Celsius. The 10 year- in- the- making- coat was designed before global warming, so it may be too warm, even here in northern Alberta, Canada, but I certainly intend to wear it to all of the festivities this season. Then it's back to the orange coat that I have yet to finish - the one Linus has been laying on for 2 months now.

It seems as though we were just preparing for last Christmas season, and here we are again. Only this year the kids have worked ever so well learning their music AHEAD OF TIME, and I think the crowds are going to enjoy them so much. I know that I will!

Thoughts and Memories Brought by the Snow

Life, as I know it, is going to get better......I can just feel it all through my cold, weary bones. You see, it snowed out there today, and all of the ugly brown leaves that littered my unkempt lawn are neatly hidden underneath that blanket of snow.

I remember another little plot of land that had also been covered with newly- fallen snow in the autumn of 1983. Before that snow fell in late November, wrinkled, rumpled brown leaves lay scattered, along with bouquets of dying roses, over the grave of a little girl gone much too soon.

For 26 years, autumn has brought its own version of a grievous hell into my life, and I have survived both badly and quite well along the way. On the good side of hell, there has been my music, and my ability, they tell me, of "having a way" of successfully reaching the many students entrusted to me. This is something I own, something over which I have control, and should I not succeed in being a good music teacher, then I will have only myself to blame. For most of the past 26 years, inordinate success has come my way, and I had hoped for that to continue unimpeded. But..........

On the bad side of hell are the influences that have dared to rob me of my life, my livelihood and my very soul. Forces not attuned to the emotions of a mother's loss of her child, forces without a whit of an idea of a mother's grief, have forged a presence in my life that has become almost irrepressible in its strength to devour and destroy. What once was thought to be mine totally, had nearly morphed into carrion for the crow.

However, unwilling to surrender the remains of my being to unfeeling forces of nature, I determined that I would once again be the force in control of this mid-hell in which I reside. Steps have been taken to enrich my life, despite my long ago grief, and I continue to think of a better tomorrow. Lately, unforeseen circumstances lead me to believe that the road ahead will no longer be a path of unfilled potholes, but rather, a smooth, scenic roadway through beautiful mountains and bountiful valleys.

On this new journey, I am reminded by a poem I discovered copied into the scribbler of a little blonde girl, gone too soon:

Frost's in the air now.

All the trees are bare now.

Grey shadows creep,

Cold breezes blow.

Daylight is dying,

Withered leaves are flying,

Soon they will sleep under the snow.

So the dead leaves are hidden under the snow today, as are the past few years' travails hidden and sleeping under the snow today. Let them remain forever under the snow, even when the sun shines on a better day tomorrow.