Cash Cab, Here I Come.

I’m so glad there are so many of you on the same page as me, in the “ladies’ holidays” way. It makes me feel much less insane, although the word “peri-menopause” is coming up a wee bit more than I would like it to. As an aside, my grandma had some very helpful advice regarding alleviating those menopausal symptoms: a late-in-life pregnancy. Apparently, getting pregnant in your mid-to-late 40s is a guarantee that your menopausal symptoms will be minimal.

I feel like this advice isn’t really going to work for me.

In any case, I am having a much better week and I’m in the throes of excitement since bright and early tomorrow, I leave for The Big Smoke, for the Blissdom Canada conference. All indications point to this being a very enjoyable time, except maybe from the point of view of my husband and children. The children in particular have said several times how SAD they are going to be and how much they are going to MISS ME, and while I appreciate the sentiment, it’s not like I’m throwing them to the wolves. Jake offered me the remaining quarter of his strawberry Tic-Tacs, and Mark gave me a partially consumed package of Ice Breaker Sours, so I would have something to eat on the plane; this, along with my husband offering me his fancy noise-cancelling headphones, makes me feel like I’m travelling in style.

Although the boys are going to MISS ME SO MUCH, they are pretty excited about one aspect of me visiting Toronto: Cash Cab. The Cash Cab is in Toronto and I will need a taxi, therefore I could be on Cash Cab. I don’t have the heart to tell them that the likelihood of a taxi at the airport being the actual Cash Cab is very small, since exhausted travellers would probably not take well to being dropped off in the middle of the highway with all their luggage, in the event that they give three incorrect answers. Secretly (or not so secretly) I wish I could be on Cash Cab. I think I would totally rock it.

The boys seem to have inherited my love of game shows. During the Christmas holidays I love to watch The Price is Right with them, and not just because Christmastime seems to be the time for Firefighter’s Day. Much to the irritation of my husband, we like to watch Wheel of Fortune and, less often, Jeopardy. I have never told them that I once was on a game show: Spelling Bee. Anyone who grew up in Calgary in the 1980s might remember our beloved Ed Whalen hosting the game show for kids. Our team made it three rounds before we were cut, and I’ve always been a little disappointed we didn’t go all the way. I’m not sure, exactly, what we would have won had we become Spelling Bee champions, but I’m sure it would have been amazing.