I can’t belive that November is almost over. When this month started and I challenged a friend of mine to blog every day for a month I really didn’t know if I could do it. For the most part (just this past week) I have written a post every single day this month.

There are so many thoughts that go through my head every day and thoughts to sit down and write about. Sometimes they actually go out of my head if I don’t write them down, sometimes they come back as a different thought or topic and then maybe they don’t.

I have had so much feedback on my writing, it is overwhelming. People have sent me messages that my thoughts and theirs are in the same place at the same time. How what I am writing about strikes chords in people. I am writing my life as I see it, and if I can write how someone else may be feeling but not able (or willing) to put it out there, that is okay. I am willing to put it out there.

Putting yourself out there is hard work. No matter what anyone says, you care about what others think about you. Do they like what they are reading? Do they think I am full of s**t, does any of it make sense to anyone other than myself? Does anyone feel the way I feel? Am I making them laugh, cry, think about their own life? I would like to think (and hope) that the answers are yes to these questions.

Something I found out about myself that has really impressed me. I am not always the best person for follow through. I say that I want to do this or that, and have big ideas and don’t always see them through, but for the last 27 days I have seen this through. I have stayed the course and made the committment to myself and that is just one of the many things I will take away from this experience. To thine own self be true…Shakespeare right?

Stay tuned…a few days left of “Me”vember…..and more thoughts from the way I see it….

This time of the year always seems to move very fast. It feels like from October 31st onwards the rest of the year is a blur. Before the halloween is even over, the candy is still on the shelves, the shelves are being stocked with Christmas cards, decorations, and everything else that goes along with this time of the year. There are always the one or two shelves for the blue and white of Chanukah, but otherwise it is a sea of red and green.

Until I found the Bouclair flyer at my parents house a few weeks ago. Guess what, this holiday season is a sea of purple and fuschia – I found my heaven! LOL. Seriously, I was tempted to buy the purple feather christmas tree and the dozens of purple, silver and fuschia ornaments to put on it. But alas, I settled on some purple and fuschia nutcrackers to put on the display. I may go back and buy the small little tree with the mini ornaments in purple – they are just too pretty to pass up. And for the record, ‘festive’ not religious, so what the heck, they are PURPLE! 

This time of the year always introduces the all christmas, all the time radio station channels. I like Christmas music, but I think starting on November 20th is a bit early…..December 1st and for the month…okay….but how many different ways can you hear, Frosty the Snowman, Little drummer boy, Silent night, and all the other songs.  Of course, other than Adam Sandler and the Chanukah song, how many songs are there about Chanukah….? I dare you to let me know…..haha.

I really DO LOVE Christmas. Over the years I have had amazing opprotunities to spend amazing holidays with my friends family’s, sitting by their fire and their trees. I have to say that it has always meant so much to me when I would go to the Gilliland’s for Christmas cheer that there was always a gift for me under the tree. Her mom has always treated me like part of the family, and last year, her brother’s family did the same. I always cherish those memories over the last wow – probably close to 12 years.

The funniest part of spending December 24th with friends is that my own family was always waiting for me to come home so that we can do what everyone else we know that wasn’t celebrating Christmas was doing – either going for Chinese food or ordering it in for delivery or pick up!

It is a very busy time of the year. A time for me that I ususally reflect. Reflect on the year that has been, and this year there is time for a lot of reflection. Writing every day for the past month has made me realize that.

The musical interlude today is really one of my favourite songs. Going back to my post the other day about singing loud and proud in the car – if you pull up beside me this time of the year, and this song is on, you can believe that I am singing along with Bono, Sting, and the others….turn up the volume and sing with me today!

Enjoy!

I was one of the lucky teens that got their own telephone line in my parents house ‘back in the day’. This was way before cell phones, computers, texting and all the rest of it. There was no voicemail, or call waiting, call answer – NOTHING! This was even before you had to dial 10 digits to call someone. This was an old fashioned telephone. I don’t even know if my first phone was even touch tone. I do remember my phone number 416-590-9878. Back then, you didn’t have to use the area code, as there were still enough numbers to go around.

My parents still have the same phone number that they had when they moved into their first apartment which I can tell you was 1967. The SAME number. When call waiting first came out my mother wouldn’t get the call waiting because she had to change her phone number. It wasn’t until years later that they offered it in her extension area and she got call waiting.

Back to my story. I remember when I bought my condo I was thinking about not only changing my phone number, but MY AREA CODE. I was going to be “one of those people”. The people that live ‘north of the city’. What was I going to do?

The day came, to move and sign up for home phone service and cable, etc. I remember that when I called to set up my phone number I asked them if I could have the last four digits the same as my cell phone four digits. Flat out – NO! I said, “but I know a lot of people that have their numbers the same”….still the answer was no. She said she could only give me a number that was in her sequence. Okay fine.

So….for everyone number she gave me I had to push the keys on the phone pad to see if it was easy to dial. I must have said no to at least 10 numbers before I came up with the one that I accepted. And away I went. I was now a resident of 905. Gone was 416-590-9878….

It has now been five and a half years….

Funny….to see the growth that has happened in this area in the last eight years. I live on what used to be the site of the Disera Motel. For those of you who used to drive up Bathurst Street past Promenade mall you know what I mean….low rise motel that almost looked like they should rent by the hour and not by the night, but it was the motel in the area before the area. Now the area it sat on and the area around it is moving with the times.