between the $100 Ikea gift card and $200 unallocated portion of my income tax refund due to me, i've been trying to figure out just what i'm going to spend all this "free" money on at my favourite swedish store for a few months now.

i've been eyeing the TOBO tv bench for almost a year.  it's not too big and with the drawers and sliding glass door, i can hide all my assorted multimedia crap from view which makes my neat-freak heart squeal a little with joy.  but, i just couldn't justify the $200 price tag when the tv solution i currently have is perfectly suitable, if not visually sparse.

i was *this* close to buying it when i was at meatball-land last week, but i wanted to hold off until after my credit card billing period ended (so i'd have another month to pay it off, duh).  then i started thinking... i don't need a new tv stand.  what do i actually need which 1) might ordinarily be just a little too expensive to fetch at the last moment; or, 2) might not ever be available ever again and would make me sad to miss out on?

the answer was:  a second new pair of Nike Air Zoom Vomero+ 3 shoes.

i bought my first pair of these just after i re-borked my knee and got my first pair of orthotics, two years ago.  they turned out to be the most comfortable things i'd ever put on my feet and i've worn them nearly every day for the last twenty months.

when i went to buy a new pair last month, i discovered, to my horror, that they were no longer made and had been replaced by the Nike Air Zoom Vomero+ 4.  the internet told me there were very minor changes to the design and fit should be practically identical and i believed them.  until i tried a pair on at the Nike store in West Van.  they hurt!  and i was so upset, i didn't know what to do.  then i remembered:  eBay has everything.

i received my new pair of 3's last week and i couldn't be more pleased.  they are just as dreamy to my tootsies as my old pair; they're just shiny new and blue instead of neon green.  AND!  they cost $40 less than my old pair i bought locally!

after getting my all-clear from the doctor last week, i started seriously thinking about joining a gym to get back into fitness (now that i know i won't suddenly drop dead on the treadmill).  then i started thinking about my new shoes.  shouldn't i have an "inside pair" for the gym?   so, instead of buying a tv bench which would make me happy in my house, but isn't really needed; i've ordered a second pair of super-comfy, good-for-my-feet shoes which will, hopefully, be an incentive to get healthier in the months to come.

so, there goes most of that tax refund.  i've still got the $100 gift card to spend at the blue & yellow store, but i think most of that will go to a dutch oven and a fancy frying pan to replace the one my cousin ruined with his egg-making adventures.

oh god, i'm practical.  killmenow.

so, yeah. last week's three big ticket items were:  migraine, VQ lung scan at the hospital and catching a cold.

oh, and some kind of sporting event is happening somewhere near my house. um, what's it called?  superbowl?  no, that's not right.  uh, commonwealth games?  no, that's not it, either.  olyphant?  olympics!  that's it!  the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  yeah!

i'm so funny.

first things first,  i had my final (i hope) diagnostic test related to my pulmonary embolism on Friday morning.  i wandered over to the hospital (it's nice that it's half a block from my apartment, sometimes) ridiculously early to get a pre-scan x-ray, only to discover that all the x-ray techs were in a staff meeting until 9am, which meant i had an hour or so to wait until my ventilation/perfusion scan in the nuclear medicine department.  ugh.

turns out that nuclear medicine is the happiest department at Lions Gate Hospital.  they were all decked out in red and maple leaves were all over the place.  they were all excited for the start of the games and were chatty and hilarious.  i guess they took pity on me, or were just in THAT good a mood, as i got ushered in for my test a little early.  yay!

see, what you need to know about me is that i want to know everything which is going on at all times.  i'm just nosy that way.  so, when i'm in a situation where i don't know the procedure, i ask. this whole lung scan was all new, but i didn't have to ask because my tech/nurse, Rhonda, explained everything. in excruciating detail. that was nice, but a little excessive.  and this is coming from me, so you just know it was crazy detailed.

first, i had my nose clamped shut and a tube stuck in my mouth so i could inhale radioactive fog.  no, really.  they even used a mini-geigercounter on my chest to see if i'd sucked in enough nuclear particles for the machine to detect.  after two rounds of what i can only assume is very close to scuba diving above water, i wandered over to a big machine i got to lie down in for the next twenty minutes while it detected where the radioactive fog got to in my lungs (this was the ventilation portion of the test).  next, i had TWO nurses/techs both trying to find a vein to shoot me up with more radioactive juice to perform the second portion of the test (perfusion) -- oh me and my tiny, invisible veins of death.  this would detect where the blood flow in my lungs was going and if there were any blockages (which is what we're mostly concerned with in my case since there was a BIG CLOT in one of my blood vessels in my lung, duh).  after finally giving me my injection and lying on the table for another twenty minutes of having pictures of my chest taken and making the staff laugh and say things like "i think i like her!" i got to mosey on over to x-ray for even more radiation.

unfortunately, when my hematologist sent in the request for my lung scan, she didn't specifically ask for the x-ray they need to go with it.  consequently, i got to sit around for almost an hour waiting for someone to sign some sort of paper so i could have what turned out to be a 35-second chest x-ray.  i'm not kidding.  from the time i walked into the room to the time i walked out was way less than a minute.  it took longer to take my shirt and bra off than it did to get the x-rays done.  crazy.

by the way, i'm STILL waiting for my superpowers to manifest from all that nuking i got.  i'm really hoping for either invisibility or translocation.

pretty much the rest of the last week has been dealing with this annoying cold i probably picked up at the clinic last week when i went to get more rat poison.  the cold which made me miss both the Wilco and Hawksley Workman free concerts.  the one which has made me seriously consider surgically removing both my throat and sinuses.  stupid cold.  but, hey, at least i've been amusing myself by singing "i got the mucus in me" whenever i'm not coughing or blowing my nose.

last night, i got a phone call from my cousin.  this is noteworthy for two reasons:  1)  Christopher and my parents are the only people who ever phone me; and, 2) i haven't talked to him since, oh, 2003 when i was in Ontario for my other cousin's wedding.  turns out he's working at the Richmond O Zone doing security and, since he lives in Kelowna, he'd been staying at his company's accommodation in Burnaby.  unfortunately, he described the conditions there as "post-earthquake Haiti" and pulled the family card to ask me if he could stay with me until the end of this gig.  seeing as he's my baby cousin (on my mom's side) and i'm a sucker, i said sure.  so, as of tonight, my cousin Robert will be sleeping on an air mattress in my living room until the end of the month.  

he's working nights, so i probably won't see much of him during the week and, if i'm honest, the chance to reconnect (and collect points redeemable for a place to stay in Kelowna) is entirely worth any potential discomfort.  he's a hoot and we've always gotten along well;  you know the less than a dozen times we've been together in our entire lives.  ;)

oh god, what have i gotten myself into?

just one more thing of note:   as i did last year, i am again giving up all forms of refined sugar and artificial sweeteners for Lent.  i'm only allowed stevia in my coffee and a little bit of maple syrup on my oatmeal.   i may not be doing it for religious reasons, but i do find something a little satisfying in challenging myself to go without for such a well-defined period of time.  let's see how long it takes me to go cake-crazy like i did last year.  place your bets!

so... is there anything you want to ask me?

you see, that is the day i (finally) received my iPhone.   *sounds of bells chiming and a chorus of angelic voices fill the air*

after blogging and tweeting and pricing and debating and whining and sulking and planning and dismissing, i finally bit the bullet after i received an offer i just could not refuse.

from the first day the iPhone was announced, i wanted one.  i knew, in my heart of heart, right down to my tippy-toes that it was device i would love and use.  i may have poo-pooed it publically and declared that they were silly and superfluous, but it was all bravado.  i wanted one and was upset you had one and i did not.  but, you see, i'm still trying to pay back the bank for the reckless financial foolishness of my twenties and a $100+ bill every month just to have a fancy cell phone (even if it will rub your feet, make you chicken soup when you're sick and make unicorns shit rainbows) was just too much to even contemplate then, just as it is now.

the price of the phone itself was always daunting, but not necessarily prohibitive.  it was the monthly cost, multiplied by 36 because of the contract you were forced to sign before you could even get your hands on the thing, which slammed the brakes on the practicality of my ever procuring an iPhone.

then, for my thirty-seventh (ohgodohgodohgod) birthday, my lovely boyfriend, Christopher Evans, bought me an iPod Touch.  that was the beginning of the end to my iPhone protestations.  the iPod Touch cemented in my head, and heart, my desire for The Real Thing: an iPhone.  it was both glorious and a horrible tease.  it could do so many things the iPhone could, for free; but it wasn't quite there.  i wanted the camera, so i could tweet photos.  i wanted the GPS, so i would never get lost.  i wanted access to the internet EVERYWHERE i went, not just where i could scam free-fi.

after the iPod cracked the wall around my iPhone-loving heart, the announcement that the iPhone would now be carried by Bell & Telus (in addition to Rogers & Fido), planted the seeds of an insidiously ivy-like idea which would worm its way through that crack into my fortress of self-denial.  if there were more carriers carrying it, then the prices for the monthly plans would drop. right?  that's just good business sense!  more competiton means better prices for consumers!  well, they were pretty good, but still, after data and caller ID and text messages, plans were still over $75/month, which was still way too much for me to seriously consider committing to paying every month for the next three years.

that's about the time that i found out about a way to buy a two-hundred dollar iPhone for ninety-five dollars; but the plan was still too far above my mental barrier for my to take advantage.  next came an email from Colene which boasted an incredible plan.  loads of minutes, caller ID, voicemail, texts, data all for a price i could justify just by not going out for dinner once a month.   i waffled and whined some more, i crunched so many numbers my spreadsheet was begging for mercy.  then, once the last cheque from the November craft fair cleared... i made the call.

just like that, i was an iPhone owner.

of course, it took over two weeks for me to get my phone because it went "out for delivery" via Purolator (now and forever after to be known as "Fuckyouhater") SEVEN DAYS IN A ROW without an actual attempt at delivery at my apartment.  my poor, long-suffering boyfriend camped out at my place for three days in their entirety just to make sure i wouldn't miss delivery before Christmas came and i was away to miss it for even longer.  gah.  even thinking about that ridiculousness makes me cranky.  

finally, after some festiveness on the island with my family, i came home to wait some more because the offices weren't open until Tuesday.  you can bet your bottom dollar that as soon as my lunch break came that Tuesday, i was in my car, rushing towards the depot to finally rescue my phone from the evil courier's hands.

all that trauma aside, this last month with my iPhone, Spud, has been as advertised.  it's everything i hoped it would be.  i'm even astounded that the Bell 3G network gives me five full bars of service almost everywhere i go (and even in my office, which is just astounding because with my old phone i had to stand on a chair by the window to be able to have a conversation in here).  it's with me everywhere i go and has made me totally anti-social at social occasions because i'm always taking it out to tweet something or check my email (but, thankfully, most of my friends have them, so they're all doing the same thing -- phew).  it's my precious.  i loves it and kind of wonder why i waited so long.

i'm going to bed so i don't have to think about it anymore tonight.

very tired and feeling kind of sad because my oldest and best friend is suffering something which might not ever go away. it breaks my heart to see her and know just how much it kills her to not be able to do the things she wants to. but, i do what i can, like giving her my old mp3 player filled with all the music we listened to in our youth for her birthday this coming thursday. it's very near the least i can do, but i know she'll appreciate it almost as much as the biggest gesture i could muster.

i couldn't do this craft fair thing every weekend. i have to go back to the office tomorrow feeling like i haven't had a single day off. ugh.