TGIF, and where the heck did this week go??!

Hi kids!

Did you miss me? Where the heck did this week go?

I had all sorts of awesome plans to do a January 1st round-up of “best-ofs” from the past year of blogging. Sadly, though… I was so darn busy that I just didn’t get to it. I’ll be doing a retro-active post on the subject this weekend. I bet you can’t wait!

In the meantime, let me tell you what’s going on with me lately. And, I’ll squeeze in a “Friday Silliness” bonus at the end of this post.

So, in point-form, and without further adieu (what does that word mean, anyhow?) here’s my random-what’s-up-with-me lately:

– New Year’s Eve was *awesome*! I celebrated my cousin Hollie’s birthday with her, her husband Chris, and their girls that night. We started off at “Mona’s” for some Lebanese food (yum!), and then went back to their co-op complex in Kits to enjoy the celebrations with their neighbours. What a great night. I elected to sleep over, as trying to get a cab on New Years is simply a waste of time. Besides, we didn’t actually get to bed until after 4am, so I was a walking zombie when I crashed on the couch. What a great night…

– My occasional sleeplessness has turned into an outright-nightmare. Or, lack of nightmare, really. I’d take a nightmare, over the lack of sleep, at this point. In the past week, I’ve had a combined total of 14 hours sleep (except for last night, when my body finally gave in at 1am… I actually slept til 8am this morning.) I believe know what’s causing this insomnia, and I’m hoping that the light is getting brighter at the end of the tunnel… We’ll see. I’ve just recently removed some medication from my daily regime, and I am hoping that this will improve my situation significantly. All I have to do is look back to when this all started (well, the worst of it, anyhow) and I can see the pattern was pretty much set when I started on a new medication about four months ago. Oh hell… I will tell you what I was taking… It was an anti-depressant — Effexor XR. I felt that I needed something to help me through a particularly rough and challenging time in my life, but now that I look back, they actually caused more grief than they helped. And, these last several days, I’ve been feeling much better after weaning myself off those horrible pills. I have literally felt like I’ve been in a fog for four months, while taking the meds. I know that’s not what they’re supposed to do (basically eliminate most emotion from my life, both good and bad) but, that’s the effect they had on me. My physician convinced me not to give up after the first few weeks of feeling this way, but, I’m so done now. And, like I said, I think I’d prefer a decent night’s sleep over evening-out my mood. And, hey, with the significant steps I’ve taken to change the things that were causing me so much pain, I’ve done what I need to do to have a better, brighter time ahead.

– Wow, that last point form item wasn’t really point form, was it? Let’s move on to the fun stuff, now!

– I *heart* my XBox 360!! Why? Not because I can spend hours and hours being an anti-social nerd, playing first-person shooter games in a darkened room… But, just the opposite! The XBox has become the big attraction within my entertainment system! I now stream my downloaded torrents (yes, I’m bad… I download tv series from the net), directly from the bedroom computer to the big screen in the living room. I can also stream all my music, and photos there, too! How cool is that? The SlingLink bridge that I bought to connect my Xbox to the XBox Live community has really been a perfect addition to the entertainment system… The Bridge gives me access to full-on high speed internet without a wireless connection through the power lines in my place. LOVE that!

– I bought “Rock Band

” and “Scene It? The Greatest Story Ever Told hd Half Broken Things ” for the Xbox, yesterday… To get ready for this weekend’s Xbox/Martini Madness party that I’m hosting. Oh. My. God!! Those games ROCK!! Seriously! Miranda, Reilly, Vern and I played them both last night, and had a fabulous time! We all surprised ourselves — We knew they’d be fun, but we weren’t expecting the level of entertainment we got! Believe it or not, I’m not one to really actually play Modigliani video “Guitar Hero III” in front of a big group (even though I have people over to play it) because I SUCK at video games, and it’s embarrassing to suck as badly as I do! (Uh, yea, I know, I’m weird.) But, both of the games entertained us all until 12:30am last night — And we would have played even longer had I not just about fallen asleep “rocking out” with them. I can’t wait til tomorrow night!! Everyone who’s coming over is going to LOVE these games! (Okay, except Reilly will be avoiding the drums, apparently…)

– There’s a pile of magazines on my living room end-table about 3/4 of a mile high that I haven’t had a moment to read. The pile is growing. And growing. I am actually going to book some time for myself to enjoy the mags with some tea and a warm, fuzzy blanket tomorrow morning. It’s been *far* too long since I had some reading time to myself. It’s kind of sad that I actually have to book time for myself to do something relaxing like that.

– For the first time in a very long time, my house isn’t tidy at all. Sure, it looks tidy to those that are visiting. But, I’ve developed a nasty habit of piling things in closets out of sight, and now it’s to the point where it’s going to take me a whole day to sort out the mess. Why do I do this to myself??!

– I’ve been exchanging emails with a really neat guy on Facebook that I’ve never met. How cool is that? When he originally added me as a friend on the site, I thought his name sounded familiar, so I accepted his invitation. Turns out, that he found me on a dating group on FB that I didn’t even know I was a part of. Too funny! I’m quite looking forward to meeting him soon, as it sounds like we have a lot in common. We’ll see!

– Next weekend, I’ll be heading to Alberta to meet many of my other biological relatives that I’ve only met via phone, email and videophone so far. I’m so incredibly EXCITED!!! More on that, later!

Okay — I’m sure I’ve completely bored the snot out of you at this point, so I’ll leave you with this very important safety announcement for male bloggers:

What are you looking forward to, this weekend? Have a fantastic one, guys!!

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