I’m Jack Benny’s age

While I was home over the holidays Mum took delight in telling me I’d be Jack Benny’s age on my birthday this year. Funnier than the comment, though, was her delight in sharing it with me – and, to be honest, every time I think of it I smile, so that’s all good.

Okay, so let’s do this in order or I’ll get emotional.

New Year’s Day I wondered why I hadn’t heard from the parents, so the day after I called and left a message just to say Happy New Year’s and all that. Didn’t think about it after that – Janelle had given me a knitting book for my birthday (early) but I already have that one, so she took me and Anita into New Hamburg to the shop she got it from so we could exchange it – I ended up with two new books and two new needles! Can’t help myself. It looked like I wasn’t going to be able to see Shawn on this trip otherwise, so when we got back to Kitchener we met him at Ethel’s for dinner – I miss Shawn, he used to come into town for camera safaris all the time, but I haven’t had the time to arrange another one in a long time, I need to make the effort more this year.

The plan that evening was to go to The Rude Native for a night of drinking and live music with the girls, but when J* and I got there the band we expected wasn’t playing – so we went over to Symposium instead and sat in the comfy chairs there. Good decision.

So weird stuff happened on Saturday. Janelle, Anita, J* and I went to the Psychic Fair, which was kinda cool, but it was the beginning of a disturbing weekend.

We first went to a talk given by a medium, she was a lovely woman who picked various people out and talked to them about the people who were guiding them, and she picked both Janelle and J* out and was oddly accurate with both of them. During this I found myself thinking of my Uncle Ronnie, who passed away a couple of years ago, and getting a bit weepy. Now, me getting weepy isn’t strange in any way – ask anyone who knows me, they’ll tell you I cry during Kleenex commercials – but I hadn’t been emotional thinking about him in a while. No problem, I had my hanky, just dabbed my eyes and continued on with the day – I’m sure people around me thought I had a cold or something, no big deal.

So we all walked around the fair, separating out and perusing the different psychics/mediums/aura readers etc., seeing if anything called to us. Janelle went to a woman who told her incredibly accurate things and basically shook her. That doesn’t sound good though, does it? It was, she was very happy with the experience. Okay, so we all went around, I looked at some jewelry and pendulums, but nothing grabbed me. Still thinking a bit about Ronnie, still a bit weepy. Went to the table with books and a bunch of tarot decks, but nothing called to me. Then I came to a table with lovely candles and I was smelling them all (all very nice) and I saw the Stone Tarot Kit. The lady at the table told me about them, I loved the scent of the candle, and she had me pull a stone from the bag and told me something a bit freaky, we talked for a while and she had me pull two more and told me something else pretty accurate and, well, I ended up buying the kit. It was the first thing that spoke to me, so there you go.

By this time, Janelle and Anita had to go but Tanya came to join us. Okay, so I finally decided on someone I thought might be good for me to hear from, but he was totally booked for the rest of the day, and we couldn’t come back on Sunday so I decided to go to the same person Janelle went to. She was a nice woman, I’d have tea with her, she told me a couple of strange things that made me think a bit but I didn’t feel like I’d had any kind of special experience with her. I felt a bit let down, really.

So I came out from there, found J*and Tanya, and they asked how it went – and I had a full-blown freakout! I immediately burst into tears. Not just a bit weepy, I mean serious sobbing, had to cling to Tanya and bawl on her shoulder, chin wobbling, face turning red, unable to speak, the whole thing. When I could finally speak I told them that the lady didn’t tell me much and I wasn’t sure why all this was happening, but that I’d been thinking of Ronnie all day. Then it happened again, sobbing and weeping, and I had to go to the washroom to put a cold cloth on my face. Strangers asked me if I was okay, that sort of thing. Phew.

Okay, I came out and we went around the rest of the show and left, me still with this huge lump in my chest and dabbing my eyes, and soon it was time to go. We went outside, got in Tanya’s truck, started to drive away… and I immediately felt lighter and clearer, it was gone.

J* is convinced – and I agree, it’s the only explanation I can think of – it’s all down to all the focusing forces in that giant room, all the mediums and such. I’d love to come up with a more rational explanation, but frankly one doesn’t present itself.

Alright, back to a bit of normalcy.

That evening I made myself pretty in some of my new finery, ’cos we were all going out for my annual pre-birthday dinner at Del Dante. There were a lot of us, we took up two tables, and it was a lot of fun. Good food, great dessert, yummy drinks, and lots of visiting with friends. Many of them came back to J*&P&A’s house afterwards too, and we all had a great evening together. I thought the freakouts were done. Ha.

So Sunday morning I finished a pair of mittens I made for my godson (I had them finished before, but they weren’t long enough for his wee wrists, so I had to extend them) and then we all packed into cars to go to Oscar’s (if you’ve never been, GO).

On the way I turned my phone on to find a message from Mum. Her voice sounded funny and she left a message that didn’t give any news, just that I had to call her. That just wasn’t right, and I was a bit scared so I called her right away, thinking about the fact that I hadn’t heard from them since I left town. She told me that on Tuesday, just a few hours after I left, she had been putting Xmas decorations away and stepped off the ladder wrong and broke her leg. TUESDAY. This was SUNDAY. So she’d had a broken leg for FIVE DAYS. My first thought was, how do I get back to Welland right away? How do I take that time off work? But she told me she was fine, surgery went well (surgery??!) and she was home from the hospital. She didn’t want Dad to tell me, as he’s far more emotional than she is and she knew that I’d be a mess. Which I was. We got to Oscar’s and I told everyone what had happened and broke down AGAIN. Wow. My eyes were so sore after two days of this! Is this what it is to be 39? And it wasn’t even by birthday yet!

So anyway, when we finally left, we gave Anita a lift back to Toronto. And got a speeding ticket coming down Mount Pleasant. And from a pleasant cop, strangely enough. Why can’t they all be like her? It doesn’t have to be a terrible thing, you know.

Which brings us to today. Today is my birthday, and for the first time I’ve taken it off work. I’ve slept in, watched some DVDs, listened to some music, and now I’m writing about my freak-out weekend. Back to work tomorrow! I don’t know if it’s going to be easy or hard to go back…