I just did something amazingly lame. I just became the obnoxious women in all those horrible laundry detergent/fabric softener ads. As I dried my hands on my freshly washed towel, I leaned in and inhaled it's fresh scent. And smiled.

GAH ! Horrors.

It's unpleasantly chilly in my appartment today. It seems evil Adelina does not see the point in heating the house during the day, despite it being 4 degrees outside and blustery. In the space of ten minutes it snowed, poured with rain, and shone with sun. I am glad I'm not a weather reporter in the Toronto area. Most of the rest of the country experiences normal Canadian weather: four seasons, heaps of snow in the winter and construction in the summer. What does Toronto get? An identity crisis. It wants to be warmer than everywhere else, and mostly it is, but it still wants good old fashioned Canadian weather. Together, these two things make for slushy, wet snow and drizzle. Head one hour north of the city and you enter proper weather and it's at least three degrees cooler at any given time.

It's quite lovely outside, when it isn't pelting freezing rain. I went out in it to deal with some student loan documents and then down to Metro Hall to contest my parking tickets. I had a lovely woman help me and got to write down exactly why I was contesting the tickets and she seemed to empathise. I got there just before the lunch hour rush, too. There were two people being served when I arrived and no one waiting before me. By the time I was done, just barely ten minutes later, there had to be a dozen people waiting. Good for me.

Mom was supposed to come to my house at 2pm today, but when I got home there was a message on my machine saying she would be late and that it was 1:30 and she was just leaving. Silly conference calls on her day off ! So, taking into account her departure time and the roads between Peterborough and Toronto in the middle of the day, she should have been here half an hour ago. I had been hoping to snag lunch with her before going to visit Julie together, but I guess we'll just head straight for the rehabilitation centre. It's hardly worth it, but I can't call her now. Rick's due at my house around 7pm to go to the trade show tonight and this just isn't going to work. I can't call him to say 'be late' because he still has no phone. It's irritating. And I can't call my mom, because she doesn't keep the car phone on and I don't even know its number. AND, she should be here very soon.

What did we do before we had phones? I don't suppose people found it annoying because what didn't exist they didn't want. And now, only 1% of Canadians are without a phone, Rick, presently among them. I don't really like phones, and with the exception of a few people I don't talk long on them, but it's at times like this when I realise their usefulness. I suppose I'll have to put a note asking forgiveness of Rick saying I'll be back at around 7pm, and hopefully he won't have to wait very long. Maybe, in lieu of Mom and I going to lunch, the three of us could go somewhere and have a nice dinner. That would be nice, but I had hoped for Mom time. I don't get to see her as much now, thanks to school, and obviously I can't cancel on Rick. Oh well. It will sort itself out. At least, for once, it's not my fault.