D(eparture) Day

8:15am: Do web check-in for Marc and me.

8:16-8:45am: Last blog post and emails, weather checks.

8:45am-1:00pm: Half day at work to finish up a few last minute things.

1:00pm: Friend to pick me up at work and drive me to airport.

1:45pm: Arrive at airport.

4:45pm: LIFT OFF!

I'll do my best to post during the holiday and keep everyone up to date on all the fun we're having 'en famille'. Until then, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

T MINUS 1

My apologies in advance for all the caps on this post and excessive exclamation point usage.

OH MY GOD - ONE MORE DAY!!!

I'M SO FLIPPING EXCITED ABOUT THIS TRIP I CAN HARDLY SIT STILL!!! (Sorry, Marc - looks like it'll be a long flight for you - heh.)

SEE YOU SOON YVETTE!!! SEE YOU SOON DAD!!!

T minus 2

Didn't get nearly as much done last night as I had hoped. I can thank the stupid STM for that. I had to drop off a book at the library and buy a large bar of Toblerone chocolate on my way home but still made it to the bus stop with a few minutes to spare. The bus had obviously not passed yet as there were 4 people in the queue ahead of me. Fine. Well, 40 minutes there was still no bus and my feet were frozen solid. So I ended up taking the metro and walking the 10 minute walk home. Never seeing a single bus pass me in either direction until I got 4 blocks from my house when I saw what the problem was. Snow removal. Traffic was backed up forever and no cars, buses or trucks were moving anywhere.

Anyway - I did get the cookies for work made. I did get 2 loads of laundry washed and dried. I did clean the counters and sinks in the kitchen. Tonight I go straight home and finish everything else.

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Update: It was a struggle to get to yoga today at lunch but once again I'm amazed by the good it does me. Even more so that our instructor gave me a small token of appreciation for organizing the course, year after year. It's funny because really, I feel that I should be offering her something, not the other way around. Guess that what's called good Karma.

T minus 3

Tonight I will clean, clean, clean, flip my mattress and do ALL my laundry. It will be a big job, I can tell you.

T minus 4

Apparently all the snow we've had is making me hibernate. I can't get motivated to clean or do my laundry. I did manage to throw some tops and jeans in my suitcase but I'm in serious procrastinate mode. Curling up in my reading chair with a good book and a pot of tea was the most important thing for me to do yesterday.

Wonder when the panic will hit?

T minus 5

Party was fun.
Got home late.
Got up f-a-r too early.
Snow's started.

T minus 6

You'll all be very happy to know that I am actually getting some Christmas baking done today (2 kinds, to be precise). And everybody can stop their bellyaching that there are no cookies around. Sheesh. Like that's all I have to do!

Tonight's the office party and I am going single AGAIN. I'm working on that. Honest. It's harder than it looks. Anyway, the party. I had decided not to go this year but in the end one of my friends convinced me to put on my Little Black Dress, Strappy Sandals and get 'purrr-ty'. So I am. So there.

T minus 7

One more week!!! This time next Friday I'll be going out of my head with excitement, anticipation and stress.

On to more banal items, such as my lack of willpower.

Seems I have a problem. Yesterday I went out with the full intention of picking up a little som'in'-som'in for my friend's baby. However, the kids clothing shop that I thought was in the Place Ville-Marie shopping centre is gone. I don't know how long it's been gone. In all likelihood, it's been gone a long time. I don't pay much attention to something like a kids shop, you know what I'm saying?

The problem. Instead of shrugging my shoulders and heading over to the Eaton Centre, I went to La Senza and bought 5 pairs of knickers!

Sorry, Selina (and Mamacita Cecilia), no present from Auntie Stef this year as she blew the budget on underwear.

T minus 8

These evening practices must be doing me some good, in more ways than one. The morning after practice and after my cardio at the gym, I find I MUST have chocolate milk. That's really weird for me. Of course, no chocolate milk at home so I've been stopping at the dep to get my fix, as it were.

T minus 9

As I said to Yvette yesterday, depending on the moment, I don't know who I'm more excited to see, her or my Dad.

Haven't seen Yvette since August 2005. Don't get to see her often anyway, and even though we chat online A LOT, it's never quite the same as spending time together.

Then my Dad - he's been away since July 28, gallivanting around India and making me insanely jealous with all his amazing adventures. It's also so strange that he's the one travelling this time and I'm the one staying at home. Quite a role reversal.

Nine days until we leave. Ten days until I see Yvette and then a few hours later, Dad! Can't wait!!!

T minus 10

Oh my God! 10 days until I leave for vacation!!! I'd better get cracking on the list making, packing, unpacking, repacking and obsessing - I'm wayyy behind ;)

T minus 11

Oooh ... look at that! Weekend is gone and the countdown jumps a few numbers.

Had a busy Friday night and Saturday. Spent most of Sunday recuperating. Ready and full of energy for this week! Practice tonight and no snow in today's forecast so I'll be sure to ache tomorrow.

T minus 14

Two weeks to go!

What is it about exercise that is both a pleasure and a pain? I am quickly discovering that while I do have a decent level of cardio endurance, I have no strength. At all. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

Wednesday night's practice probably humbled all of us on different levels. Some of the people couldn't paddle for 10 minutes straight, I had no problem. However, as good as I was keeping pace, for the life of me I couldn't do one single, solitary chin-up. Our coach makes all the exercises look ridiculously easy so I really thought that I might get one off at the very least. Never have I been more wrong. Our coach helped me get into the position and then said "OK - Lift!" and I just sorta hung there. If there had been a breeze, I would have been swaying in it. Anyway, not able to lift myself an inch. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't budge. But I did try. Three times. Because humiliating myself once wasn't quite enough, I had to do it three times. Aieeeee ...

Will I ever be able to do this? I don't really know but it will be interesting to see what I can do in six months.

T minus 15

If you need a little bling on a budget for those holiday parties coming up, check out Posh Inc. Online shopping is available for us Montrealers.

So many pretty little rings, bracelets and necklaces ... so little time (or rather money)!

T minus 16

Snowstorm's over so I guess practice won't get cancelled tonight. Tomorrow I'm sure to be aching.

Don't know if it's because I haven't seen the sun in three days but I'm feeling very sleepy today.

T minus 17

For everything that went well yesterday, it is all going horribly wrong today.

The 5:37am bus didn't come, ended up having to walk to the metro, got to the gym late, only did 100 crunches, got soap in my eye (who knew it would burn like that), forgot my lipstick, have hat-head hair.

Is it lunchtime yet? I need my lunchtime yoga. And my after work yoga. Seems I need a yoga day.

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Update (2:02pm):
- Lunchtime yoga got cancelled as our instructor got stuck in traffic what with all the snow removal happening, traffic's a nightmare again today.

- I ruined two pairs of stockings this morning (first my favourite funky fishnets and then my back-up pair) and will have to go through the rest of the day with a hole just above my right knee.

- I'm going to miss yoga tonight because I said yes to a special little project. (Can you see all my eye-rolling?)

- It's STILL snowing!!!

T minus 18

Only one thing to talk about today and that is snow. We've had quite a dumping here in Montreal (expecting approximately 35cm). It caused havoc with the roads this morning. At work lots of people decided to stay at home or they did take the chance and ended up spending a long time in traffic and getting in a few hours late.

None of that was a problem for me. I left for the gym at 5:35. The bus was a minute or two late but it didn't change much for me. Caught the metro fine. The only real problem occurred when I got to the gym and discovered that the staff who are supposed to open the facility hadn't arrived yet and so there were about 25 of us early risers waiting for somebody to let us in. We got in a few minutes later and started our workouts about 5 minutes late. Not so bad. Did my workout, showered, walked to work, which I admit took a few extra minutes because the sidewalks weren't plowed and arrived at work without incident. Pretty normal day for me, except for all the missing people in the office. Oh well, I guess some would call this a Snow Day, I just call it Monday.

T minus 19

What did I do to prepare for my trip today? Nothing!

I did some cleaning, some laundry. Mom came for lunch and then we hopped on the bus for some shopping downtown. I have some pasta boiling for my meal o' the week ("Mr. Bowjangles",i.e. bowtie pasta with veggie 'chicken' strips, broccoli and sun dried tomatoes). I will do some ironing after dinner. And that folks, is it.

The problem is, it's winter. I do not have enough pants to get me through the next 19 days if I pack them now. If this was summer ... no problem! I could put aside a few things now and it would all take care of itself. But in winter? No, this doesn't work. So I've been trying to buy a new pair of jeans or casual pants but so far no luck. This drives me nuts. When I'm not looking to buy clothes (shoes, lingerie, fill in the blank really) I find the wardrobe of my dreams. But then, when I actually am looking to buy one specific thing, it apparently doesn't exist anywhere, or it's wayyyyy over budget, the wrong colour, too big, too small. This drives me nuts. I'm trying to mentally put together a travel wardrobe and it's becoming very difficult. Maybe I will stick to preparing all the travel size containers of shampoo, lotions, etc. That at least I can do. And also start the packing list that will accompany me everywhere I go, with a copy in my luggage, a copy emailed to me in case I lose my copy, a copy with someone staying in Montreal and possibly also a copy with Yvette in Zurich. Does it sound like I'm obsessing? Yes, I know, it does. I'm ok though, I'll stop now.

The Countdown, T minus 20

Meant to start this countdown yesterday, exactly three weeks before I head to Switzerland but it just never happened. But here I am now - 20 days until our Swiss Family Vacation! Almost sounds like a movie or a TV series. Which would be worse? Ha, ha.

Spent this morning helping out at the Santa Shuffle. I helped cut and spread cream cheese on 17 dozen bagels for the runners. Never, ever thought we'd go through all those bagels (out of 20 dozen!) but we did. It's always fun to see people's reactions when they find out that the water, hot chocolate, bagels, etc. were all free. Even better is that everybody there, runners, volunteers, organisers, really everybody was happy to be there. Everybody said thank you, everybody smiled. So although it made an early to start to my Saturday and even though it was a cold, cold day, it was a happy morning.

Time now for some warm jammies.