I wish I had great tantalizing tales of adventure to explain away my absence. I know I’d love to hear them, but I don’t (have any tales, that is). My last post was a gleeful little one about how I was calling in sick in order to Christmas shop, well, maybe it’s karma… maybe I shouldn’t have.

What a great day it was for shopping! I walked all the way to the bank only to realize that I didn’t have the wire information (for my mom) so the trip was done twice over. I didn’t even mind that the bank is right next door to my office and I was supposed to be home sick. Took me less than an hour to buy all my presents and get them wrapped. Later that night, there’s a slight dryness and itchiness in my throat. Hmmmm…. I wonder what that is.

I have a obvious cough, a bit of a cold and feel a bit feverish but I’m not admitting to any of those! We get invited to dinner. Good food, I drink quite a bit and have a good laugh. By the end of the night my voice is gone. Welcome laryngitis!

I’m sick! It’s Christmas… never been sick on Christmas before!! Open presents… Yay! Got really cool adult-sy stuff except for a hideous sweater and sleep shirt, still can’t believe my sister actually bought them but she totally made up for them with amazingly gorgeous stuff from Furla

Spent my Christmas day in bed, coughing my lungs out, nursing a cold, voice totally gone, splitting headache, feverish and basically out of it. I feasted on orange juice and (Walkers) shortbread biscuits.

Got out of bed… I’ll be damned if I miss Boxing Day sale! Nothing was going to get in my way, not cold, not fever, not man! Besides the entire Boxing Day shopping ritual is a phenomenon in itself. Here’s my first experience from last year. I realized I seriously couldn’t shop under such conditions so I got one knee high boots and that was about it. Don’t quite remember how else the day went… was too strung out on cough medication.

Spend the weekend in bed. Slept, watched tv, called my mom but I had no voice to talk… I’m really miserable. Scared that I’d somehow develop bed sores; I got up on Sunday, took a much needed shower and went for a little walk. Felt much better afterwards.

Went to work, it snowed on the 30th and ‘they’ (Vancouverites) managed to make a big deal about it… it was just a dusting! It’s however my first snow since I came to Canada! It turns out when it snows in Vancouver no one bothers to shovel, salt, or clean it up; it just sits there and ices up when the temperature drops.

I’m still unwell but it’s more like a normal feeling of sickness now. Went to Granville Island, bought pizza, there was a line at the liquor stores! We got champagne and peach schnapps. Came home, made flirtinis and some other really good concoctions and watched a Swiss Toni marathon on BBC Canada… After a couple of flirtinis, ‘Elsatinis’, and ‘SweetPtinis’ that Swiss Toni is one hilarious dude! Even his obnoxious hair is funny!!!

At 9pm (12 Eastern) I watched the ball drop in Times Square, screamed ‘Happy New Year’ in my hoarse inaudible voice to a couple of East Coasters and drank some more. At exactly 11:30 I was asleep.

Woke up with a splitting headache but not quite hung over. My sister and I decided it was too dangerous to go running (icy patches every where) so we went walking instead. We walked the seawall towards Science World, took the train tracks into False Creak, then to Granville Island, then walked the long stretch of Kits Beach, and climbed back up onto Point Grey Road and took the Burrard Bridge home. It was an almost 6 hour walk and gave a whole new meaning to ‘long walks on the beach’. It was cold and icy!

I survived the great Vancouver Deep Freeze! : It got REALLY COLD! It got to like -10 degrees Celsius with wind chills up the whazoo! One day it was like -3 and we decided to go for a walk… OMG! I thought I’d freeze to death in motion!!!

So I was telling my friend in DC about the snow and how ridiculously cold it got and he went “You should have thought about that before moved there, everyone knows Canada’s cold!” Yes! Canada’s cold but Vancouver isn’t supposed to be, which is why I gave away all my heavy duty winter coats when I moved here.

It snowed again on Tuesday, ‘they’ (Vancouverites) proceeded to make ‘the second coming’ out of it, we were let out of the office early (not a bad thing!). Then snow turned to rain, temperature dropped and the weather went back to normal.

So that was my holidays, my voice hasn’t returned fully, my cough isn’t fully gone either… it’s been over two weeks…. I think it’s about time I saw a doctor.

PLAYING: Take me Away – Fefe Dobson

READING: The song reader – Lisa Tucker

WATCHING: The Practice

QUOTE: “It should be easy when two people love each other”