Sick & Tired

I've been walloped with a nasty bug & haven't been doing much of anything but lay on the couch & feel sorry for myself. I forced myself to go to a walk-in clinic so I could get a prescription for antibiotics. I loathe the doctor's office. I'm a very impatient person at the best of times, but to sit in a cramped waiting room for over an hour catching up on the 1997 news as reported in creased Macleans magazines & trying to lean away from the people with the nasty coughs is just pure torture.

I'm hoping tomorrow will be the start of a health upswing because I really need to get back to work. My mom filled me in on the holiday plans this year & it looks like we're going down to Texas to celebrate Christmas with my sister & her family. A holiday season flight to TX from Canada is friggin' expensive & I'm behind on my taxes already. My other alternative is a flight or long, boring bus ride to Manitoba & then hitch a ride with my parents & grandmother all the way to TX. Can you imagine being stuck in a van with your parents for a 2 day drive in the middle of winter? That might be even worse than the doctor's office!

In all honesty, I wish I could just stay home & hibernate for xmas this year. Less money, less stress, no worries about treacherous driving conditions. But we've all been hit with some yucky health issues this year, so there's a certain extra pressure to make this holiday "count" - whatever that means.

Shopping for my mom's xmas present is going to be fun. She's never a tough one to buy for, but this year will be even easier because she's ordered a catalog that she wants me to choose a gift from. Doesn't sound out of the oridinary, except that the catalog is from World Vision. Goats, bunnies, seed packs, medicine - you can pick a number of much needed items that will be delivered to the community World Vision is working with. I'd love to get the way out of my price range water buffalo just so I'd have an entertaining response to the traditional "So how's your xmas shopping going" question. Good! My mom's water buffalo should have already arrived. hehe

I'm proud of my mom. It's not the lack of personal gifts - she's never been the materialistic type. I'm proud that she's doing what she can to help out other people without needing the ego reward of recognition. She has wanted to take a trek to Africa for as long as I can remember, to help dig wells or build a school or do whatever she could to lend a hand in the most poverty stricken areas. She's been saving up a little bit of money here & there, but this year she decided that even though she would really feel good about doing the trip & getting her hands dirty, the money she'd give to the airlines just to get those hands over there could be put to better use. So she took the money in her Africa fund & donated it to the people from her church organization that were already over there.

Tomorrow is back to work for me & who knows? Maybe one day I'll have the money to do the trip with my mom and bring a hefty donation along with us.