Odds & ends

• In addition to being bummed out about missing out on the NotMom conference in Cleveland over the (Canadian) Thanksgiving long weekend, I was doubly-bummed out when I found out (via social media) that Jody Day was HERE, in my city, en route to the conference!! (where she was a keynote speaker) & was getting together with local Gateway Women for drinks that night.  Getting my act together, reorganizing my day (& organizing transportation downtown -- I don't drive, and I live in a corner of suburbia where the public transit completely sucks) within the space of a few short hours was just not in the cards. :(   I had checked out the local GW group a couple of years ago, but their meeting times & places were not that convenient for me to get to (even before I moved to my present location in a different part of the region).  I have since signed up for the local group's emails, in the hopes that next time Jody or some other cool GW drops into town for a meetup (and I certainly hope there will be a next time!), I will have advance notification and be better prepared!! 
• Tom Petty's recent death depressed me more than I thought it would. He wasn't someone I'd instantly name as a favourite -- but he was certainly right up there, and definitely part of the soundtrack of my youth. And we've been losing WAY too many of those artists lately. :(   He was only 66, for crying out loud.  :(  He was here in mid-July on his 40th anniversary tour;  I remember asking dh if he was interested in going (he's an even bigger fan than I am), & it never went further than that -- concert tickets being expensive and hard to get, and we were leaving on vacation a day or two later... "Next time," we said.  The lesson being that there isn't always a next time, so take those opportunities when you can...!  (See also above...!) 
• (Anyone see the video of an entire stadium -- 90,000 people!! -- singing along to "I Won't Back Down" at a college football game? So. Cool!! :)  )   
• I got ANOTHER mandatory questionnaire from the attorney-general's office to determine whether I'm eligible for jury duty.  You may or may not remember that I received the same form three years ago, just after I lost my job... and was summoned for jury duty about 10 months later, in July 2015. Dh & I went so far as to scout out the location of the court house & figure out how long it would take him to drive me there ever day... and then, just a few days before I was to report for duty, I received a phone message that the pool had been cancelled.  The courthouse here is in an equally inconvenient location, and he would have to drive me.  So here's hoping for a similar outcome this time. (Where were these summonses in the 28 years I was at work & would have loved to escape the office for a few days??)(Plus my company still paid your full salary if you were called for jury duty.)  
• SIL & I went shopping on Saturday for (another) mother of the groom dress (hers, obviously), for Younger Nephew's wedding in April. This is something I will never get to do myself -- and, as when we went shopping for her dress for Older Nephew's wedding, I was & am grateful to be included.  
• After finding a dress for her (she tried on just three, and opted for the very first one, which she loved from the moment she put it on), we went looking for a dress for me. I was afraid it would be hard to equal the kick-ass dress I found for Older Nephew's wedding (see photo), but I think we might have done it.  ;) 
• Earlier today, we attended a memorial mass for our hairdresser of the past 15+ years, who passed away in September after being diagnosed with cancer just seven months earlier. :(  She was 55 years old and the mother of two grown sons, around the same ages as our nephews. Moreover, she had been married 34 years -- to one of dh's childhood buddies. (He was an usher at their wedding. We didn't realize who she was the first time we went to see her, until she & dh got talking as she cut his hair -- one of those "small world" coincidences/stories that we've delighted in retelling ever since then.)  I haven't seen her since the last time she cut our hair, just before her diagnosis, and I still can't believe she's gone. :(  She was one of those people who was always full of fun and laughter (not to mention she was a great hairdresser), and I am going to miss her. Life is short, people... enjoy it while you're here.  :(  
• The church was crowded, incredibly warm & stuffy, and the service was long, so I slipped outside for a while to cool off & get some fresh air. While I was standing on the steps, I saw something fluttering through the air. It crossed in front of me, going from one side of the church to the other and then flew out of sight. It was a monarch butterfly, which we always used to release at our pregnancy loss support group picnics in memory of our babies. Coincidentally (or not??), it's also Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. So, little butterfly, I'm not sure whether our friend N. sent you, or Katie, or maybe both, but thank you for visiting, you totally made my day.