Good News/Bad News

Friday was like one long Good News/Bad News joke.

Good News: I woke up feeling rested and happy that it was Friday
Bad News: It was -15 (Celsius) and was supposed to drop to below -20 by afternoon.
Good News: I got an early start on my way to work
Bad News: Deerfoot was backed up and I still ended up being late
Good News: The day was quiet in the morning
Bad News: The day suddenly got crazy busy after lunch
Good News: My manager suddenly (at 4:45 pm) told me that I didn’t have to come in on Monday and Tuesday and that they would pay me for those days.
Bad News: He sat and watched me finish up as though he expected me to sabotage something or steal something.
Good News: It was my last time having to spend upwards of 20 minutes each way on Deerfoot just to get to and from work.
Bad News: I got rear-ended on my way home.

Seriously. I got rear-ended. About 5 minutes into my drive, traffic suddenly was stacked up. I came to a complete stop, as did the 1000s of other drivers on the road. Except the guy behind me. Who did not stop. Well, he didn't stop until he hit me.

My head whipped forward, along with every item in my car, and then whipped back (or it may have been the other way around. I wasn’t really paying attention to the sequence of my head whipping around). I sat, stunned, for a few minutes, realizing “That actually happened!?” and realized that my neck hurt. And my head really hurt. And my back hurt.

I finally pulled over onto the shoulder (luckily I was in an outside lane) and slowly got out. I expected the whole back end to be smashed in. I thought I had heard glass breaking at the point of impact. Amazingly (to me anyway) there was no real damage to my car.

The other driver pulled up behind me. I won’t go into the whole thing here because, frankly I don’t have a lot of kind words for him. Let’s just say he is new to Calgary (and probably to Canada), he didn’t want to give me his insurance information, and his wife kept telling me “Oh, you’re fine! Your car is fine! It’s no problem.” Um. Excuse me lady but shut it. You are not a mechanic nor are you a doctor so shut it. I nearly lost it when the driver started telling me that he had skidded “on all the gravel”. (There was no gravel on the road, nor was it icy)

I’ve been driving Deerfoot every work day both directions for 2 years and have never had even a real close call. I’ve had to stop suddenly and nearly got sideswiped a couple of times, but nothing really had ever happened. After I stopped being freaked out I just kept thinking: “This was the LAST time!! My LAST Deerfoot commute!!”

So, overall, a very strange last day at work. Especially since none of my coworkers know that it was my last day. The managers at that place do strange things and have this wierd secrecy thing. And, also, my manager suddenly realized on Friday that I would be gone a few days before they had to do inventory. (Ask me how disappointed I am about that)(haha)

At least today has been good news.

This morning, I was looking at the phone at about 10:30 my time, thinking about calling my mom. Then, I thought “Well, Keri will be having the baby today so Mom won’t be home.” My mom was on constant watch to be on the road immediately when my sister, Keri, went into labor, but I hadn't talked to either of them for several days. Initially my sister’s due date was November 26th. Then they changed it to Dec. 5.

At about 3 in the afternoon my sister-in-law called to tell me that they had just heard that my sister had the baby. Guess what time she had the baby. Go on. Guess.

At about 10:30 am my time.

(Spooky, huh?)

So, I will be relaxing* this coming week. I start at the new job on December 4. I'm looking forward to it, especially considering the way the Cool Kids were acting this week. (Whew am I glad to be done with them!) I plan to spend my week working on Christmas presents that I am knitting and I'm hoping to brave the mall one morning. I may be delusional, but it seems to me that a weekday morning will be much less crowded than an evening or a weekend.

*This is what the week's forecast looks like (these are in Celsius):








See that? This is a pretty normal Calgary forecast. Monday and Tuesday (when I can stay home and warm!) the weather is "Sweet Fancy Moses! I can't feel my nose!" then by Friday (when my niece wants me to take her to the zoo!) it's "Where are my shorts?"