My weekend was fantastic. It started on Wednesday morning - I picked up my rental car, popped in one of the random CDs I’d made in a tired haze the night before, and was greeted with The Happy Song sung by my Terrance. I bopped and sang all the way into work. The day was super busy, as I attempted to squish 5 days’ worth of work into 3, but I managed it - and even got out an hour early! The day ended with an electric date (not the kind with batteries, the kind with chemistry and a heartbeat). It was so lovely I nearly stayed home just so I could have some more.

I got up the next day and leisurely packed, had some breakfast, and drove to Halifax, stopping at the Museum of Industry to buy some agate slices and amethyst clusters. I went for groceries with Shauna, and then we just hung out and went to bed fairly early. Thursday we woke up and chatted while still snuggled under her extremely comfortable sleeping bag. The theme for the weekend went something like this: “What shall we do next?” “Whatever we want!” So we got up, had some smoothies for breakfast and listened to some tunes, went downtown and wandered around shopping for a few hours, ate at East Side Mario’s, visited her sometime-beau, and headed home.

We tried having spaghetti two nights in a row, but didn’t end up eating it until the third night. Whoops. It turned out delicious, though.

Shauna had to work on Saturday, so when I woke up I just lounged around listening to some mellow music and reading. At 1:30, I picked up my friend the Uberwench - possibly the happiest person I know - and were off for more shopping - clothes this time. She’s the only other plus-sized girl I know, and it was a completely different experience than anything I’d encountered before. Shauna is about ten sizes smaller than I am, and all of her friends are just about as small, and I don’t really have any other girl friends. So when she and I go somewhere, either she can look at clothes or I can look at clothes, but we can’t look at the same clothes.

Anyway, we went to some stores I’d been in before - Additionnelle, Pennington’s, etc - but it was so different this time. She made stuff look better somehow. I’m not sure I can explain it. Usually with those stores I walk in, look around, and walk out, but this time the clothes looked interesting, and she recommended some things I would have never tried on in a million years, but it turns out they were fabulous. I had so many fistfuls of clothing the shopgirl had to take my hangers into the dressing room three times. The very best part? Being in a dressing room and every single item fit me well, and all I had left to do was to decide if I wanted it. It must be ten years since that has happened to me. I was positively gleeful.

Not only that, but there was a big sale on. There was some buy one, get 1 at 40% off action going on, plus some marked down items, and just about the whole lot was reduced by 50% more. Plus, when I got to the counter, I filled out a little survey on the Petite sizing in the store, got to the bottom and read that if I handed it to the clerk, I’d get an extra 10% off. I walked out of there with seven shirts and three bras, all of which were stunning, for $138. I know it’s tacky to talk about money, but COME ON, that’s a freaking steal. The receipt tells me I saved $113, but all I can think about is how powerful it felt to have a bag of clothes that fit. I’m so uncomfortable in my clothes because they don’t fit that the worst part of my day is waking up and realizing I have to decide what to wear AGAIN. Now I can throw out some of the ugly self-conscious ones and add to my slowly-growing grown-up wardrobe.

So. Saturday night. I picked up Colleen (kev’s sister) and she and uberwench and I headed to Shauna’s to await the partygoers. A bunch of people showed up, I was so glad! It was really quiet, just lots of people and talking and laughing, a little bit of music, hardly any drinking even. I met lots of new folk, and got to hang out with old favourites, and all was right with the world. The girls even convinced me to wear my new sheer-ish black shirt over my new lacy black bra, with no in-between shirt. Scandalous!

I was up wayyy too late on far too little sleep, and then spent about six hours in bed wishing I was sleeping. Stupid insomnia. After about 4 hours of fitful dozing, I got up and read for a bit, debating whether or not to call my cousin Laura (who’s just had twin boys!). I’m nervous of waking anybody in a house with three children in diapers, you know? So anyway, she called me, and she and I and her mom went out for breakfast at the Athens on Quinpool. I thought I’d been there before, but I was thinking of the Greek House - Al’s fave hangover joint.

After brekkie, we went to my cuz’s place, and her brother showed up with his little girl and their dog (from the same litter as Laura’s giant Chesapeake Bay Retriever), and her mother-in-law was there, and some other relatives, and in about five minutes there were two babies, two toddlers, two dogs, and eight adults, one of whom had just had a C-section for twins. Yikes. I was ready to start throwing people out, Laura looked that stressed.

Anyway, after a bit some people left, and I took some black and white photos of the newly-expanded family, and my aunt and I hit the road home. We stopped for a bite to eat at the causeway, and then dropped in to see my third cousin and their two girls, also a toddler and a baby. We played with the girls and had a chat, and I took some photos there, too. My aunt got to see all three of her children and all six of her grandchildren in one day! Quite lovely.

And then I came home and fell into bed, where I proceeded to Not Sleep some more. Which I’m about to do now, except hopefully with more Sleep than Not Sleep. ‘Night!