Christmas Vacation So Far

Okay, it's been a while.

First of all, the cold snap I mentioned in the last post really escalated. It turned into an ice "storm" that knocked down telephone lines and ripped out tree branches. There were streets barricaded with rubble and danger tape. The power kept coming on and off. Funny, because I didn't notice it while I was inside. I just walked out one day and saw destruction everywhere. Guelph didn't get it as bad as Toronto, though. Some people there had to have a Christmas without electricity.

A friend of mine has come down with Wegener's Disease, a super-rare disease that strikes seemingly at random. She had to be put in a medically induced coma. It was expected to last up to a couple weeks, but she has regained the ability to speak and has been admitted to a less critical room on this day, her tenth since being admitted. The disease is severe, may have long-term consequences, there's a high risk of relapse, and until recent development, the mortality rate was not good.

However, our new medical approaches are far more successful and she has been doing almost as good as anyone could have hoped for, although she's had a few minor relapses.

My closest friend from last year is pregnant and ready to give birth at any time. In fact, she is one week overdue today. I'm told that I will be an honourary uncle.

Christmas was good. It was kind of a quiet thing. I stayed at home in Guelph, exchanged presents with my immediate family and had a big Christmas dinner. Then I went and stayed with my grandfather in Toronto for three days and had the opportunity to visit my aunt and her side of the family. I got to watch a couple of movies, including a new one, Gravity, which is a survival story in outer space, and an older one, Before the Rain, which is a kind of trippy Macedonian film about concepts surrounding war and violence.

I got my criminal record check into the processing stage. Now I just need to get my driver's license and health card renewed. I also have to do  my info desk training on January 3rd.

I also caught up with my old Big Brother Couple. We went to an Indian restaurant called Diana's Downtown, which was pretty cool.