I was really not looking forward to this birthday at all! 30 was fun to look forward to… it was the age I’ve felt all my life! A whole new decade, new hope, new horizon. 31 is… not so hopeful. It has all the “old” with none of the newness or freshness. Worst part is, I have officially become too old for my own precious young mom website. I had to take a bit of forced backseat the past few years anyways because I just couldn’t get to the home office (or even laptop keys!) often enough though the pain, headaches, & mental fog to keep things running smoothly. But now I’ll really have to slink behind the curtain and remain backstage.

And I guess YM is a bit of a microcosm of real life… even though 31 is by no means “elderly”, I had my days in the sun way back when. With the way my health has been looking since the accident, I’m not seeing much partying or adventure in my future. Time to step back and let others star in the show. Which is ok… hard to come to terms with, for many people! But then again, that’s part of why children are around. So long as those children can be recognized for who they are and not taken as just second chances for the parents to do what they never could manage in their own childhoods, everyone can enjoy watching what the next generation accomplishes.

Anyways, enough philosophical babble and I’ll record some little details of my day that I’d like to remember down the way and that I don’t mind sharing with anyone that may still be wandering by…

After a little sleep-in, I enjoyed a really nice breakfast in bed and opened some gifts. My hubby worked hard to create me a hand-made pouch holder for my e-reader… very cool! Luckily I’m so brain-dead these days I missed figuring it out: with the not-so-subtle clues that my son revealed about it (like that maybe Dad could make his friend’s mother a holder for *her* e-reader! lol), other info I had on hand (like my hubby having been to the leather store, etc.) and then finally seeing my DH get out the sewing machine!, I really should’ve been able to figure that one out! But given that I thought 3+1=5 the other day, I’m not surprised I failed to put two and two together…

The morning wasn’t very busy, just hanging out while we got ready for the day… I didn’t get my one big wish of having a pain-free day, but hey, I haven’t had one of those in hundreds and hundreds of days, so it’s not a big let-down. So no break from that even though I did get a break from other things (cooking! laundry!). I had a nice warm shower and tried out my new shower brush, and I love it as much as I knew I would! After that I had a session of “Fibromyalgia Torture Yoga” (also known as “trimming one’s toe-nails”) so I could wear light pantyhose socks with light shoes (yay spring-time weather!).

I played some games with the little guy (Battleship) and finished up with the gifts and cards for the other May birthdays on my hubby’s side of the family! These days packing to go anywhere is a huge ordeal and if we have gifts and things, even more so. Of course, this is me right, so everyone has to have a very special card and the gifts all have to be beautifully wrapped with pretty ribbons and with tags and everything. But even a non-party occasion, it’s like, “Where’s my ice pack?”, “Do we have everything?”, etc. One of the main reasons I’m such a homebody these days…

Eventually, off we went to the birthday tea for his mother, sister, and brother-in-law. Most years my birthday wouldn’t necessarily fall on the day we would have this get-together but this year, it did. I actually really like having my birthday on the weekend; it’s too bad it doesn’t happen very often. The kids met their new “bunny cousins” at the party and we found out my son likely has the same severe allergies to pet dander than my hubby did as a child (and still does pretty seriously still!). Going to the pharmacy on the way home to grab some non-drowsy allergy medication for him and giving it to him right there in the store was not a fun part of the day but the poor kid’s eyes were just so red and itchy!

After that, it was a movie and dinner and birthday cake! Having my little family sing to me was one of those moments I wish I could just freeze time. I tried to just sit and soak the moment in and remember it as much as I could. Please, brain full of holes, try not to lose these precious sights and sounds.

And now, we have been working at getting the tiny monster settled off (for oh, two hours now… how can one kid go through two sets of “patience”s?!) so we can get some down-time. I have been promising my achy self a bath for weeks now but if I can’t squeeze that in, I’ll at least make sure I try out the foot “spa” I got for mother’s day. And hopefully a little knitting and maybe even some time to reconnect with my hubby… who’s that again? Oh, that guy… right.

Good thing my son is so darn cute and hysterically funny… helps with the times you want to defenestrate him…

These Avery-isms were too cute to not write down… We miss so many of them, but these are a snapshot of what his typical (hillarious!) comments are like:

Watching Chronicles of Narnia #3 when you first see the Minotaur dude:
Avery: “It’s important to have a Yak!”

Upon my opening a gift:
Me: “Oh look! A Pom-Pom Maker!” … (reading the package:) “Pom pom maker”.
Avery (in all serious-ness!): “So what does it make?”

He would like to grow his hair out long again 2 months before his wedding so that he could look nice for his wedding.

Also, he says now that I’m older, I get a later bedtime.

Better go make the most of that time before bedtime…

Remember, if anyone asks, I’m still 30, ok?

Here are a few favourite Avery quotes from the past little while…

Avery: “I’m so smart I don’t need any other people”.

Avery (after being told to go back to bed as the TV in our room is turned off): “You’re just doing a trick on me – when I go back to bed you will just turn that TV back on again.”

Avery: “I saw the muffin bag on the counter Mom!”
Me: “Oh you did eh…?”
Avery: “So what’s for breakfast?”
Me: “Guess!”
Avery: “I don’t know!”
Me: “Muffins!”
Avery is genuinely surprised and delighted to find this out! LOL

Me: “Well how did they watch that back then? There were no TVs!”
Avery: “WHAT?”
Me: “In the olden days, TV hadn’t been invented yet.”
Avery: “That is just. not. possible.”

Avery asks his dad: “Was it awesome?”

Avery tells me (as I leave the couch): “But Mom, the game was just so awesome that it *made* me kick the couch. It’s done being awesome.”

And another few that I’d scribbled down (on a note paper that got lost again and found again about a million times!):

“I need you to just do this by yourself.”
“See, I told you it was gross.”
“That so freaked me out!”
“I always share with everyone the candy that I get at Halloween.”
“I obey you to play Xbox!”

May 27th 2009
The “add a new bill” feature in the Online banking is not working. This is the 3rd day in a row I’ve been trying to add a new bill to my list and I get an error message every time. Please advise of ETA of having this fixed, if possible; I need to know if I should find another alternative to pay this bill (due next week).
Thanks,
Kris ——–

Their reply:
Dear Kris ——–,
Thank you for taking the time to write ——–.
I apologize for the inconvenience you experienced while trying to register your bill.

You can register your bills with a representative at ——–. Assistance is available 7 days a week from 7:00 a.m. to midnight, local time across Canada.

You may also ask to have the issue reported to the technical department at the time of your call.

Thank you for visiting ——–

Sincerely,
Natalie
——– Specialist

May 27th 2009
No thank you. I avoid the nightmare of telephone customer service whenever possible.

Sincerely,
Kris

Their reply:
Dear Kris ——–,

Thank you for taking the time to write ——–.

I am sorry to read about the inconvenience you experienced.

We attempted to replicate the issue you experienced where you were not able to register a new payee when using online banking without success. We were able to register multiple new payees on the same account without encountering an error message.

If an error message appears when you attempt to register a new payee, please reply to this e-mail and include the error message displayed when you attempt to register a new payee without success.

Upon reception of that error message, we can provide you with more information as to what could be the cause of the error.

The team that answers e-mail does not have access to your accounts or personal information. We cannot modify any information on your account nor can we manually add a new payee on your account on your behalf.

If you continue to experience difficulties and require immediate resolution, please contact a Technical Support Desk representative at ——–. Key your ——– and ——– password and select option ——– for Internet banking inquiries. Representatives are available to assist you seven days a week from 7:00 a.m. to midnight local time across Canada, and will be able to transfer you to Technical Support.

Thank you for visiting ——–.

Sincerely,

Tommy
——– Specialist

May 29th, 2009
Here is the error message:

Thanks,
Kris

Their completely copy-and-pasted reply:
Dear Kris Cormier,

Thank you for taking the time to write ——–.

I am sorry to read of your difficulty in adding your bill.

Please contact a Technical Support Desk representative at ——–. Key your ——– number and ——– password and select option ——– for Internet banking inquiries. Representatives are available to assist you seven days a week from 7:00 a.m. to midnight local time across Canada, and will be able to transfer you to Technical Support.

Thank you for visiting ——–.

Sincerely,

Dan
——– Specialist

Since they are not actually listening to me, I send my own copy-and-paste reply and wonder how many times they’ll send us around and around…

No thank you. I avoid the nightmare of telephone customer service whenever possible.

Sincerely,
Kris

Finally, someone actually responds to the actual content of what my message has been the entire time:

Dear Kris ——–,

Thank you for your reply.

This brief acknowledgement is to inform you that we have received your message.

The details have been forwarded for further investigation.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Thank you for visiting ——–.

Sincerely,

Natalie
——– Specialist

And guess what? A month later, the problem hasn’t been fixed… June 25th, 2009

Thank you for forwarding along the information. However, the technical difficulties do not seem to be resolved…

I tried again this month to add a new bill with no success. When I click the “add a new bill” box, it refreshes the bill payment page and that’s it.

No need to contact me with the copy-and-paste routine… I just thought you would want to know so you can fix the problem before you lose more customers. I’ll be using my ——– online banking this month again like I did last month when first experiencing this error on your website, and will likely rely on ——–’s services more in the future as they seem to be more reliable and technically stable.

Sincerely,
Kris ——– (——– banking customer for about 10 years)