I've been going through a box of old mementoes that I found while organising the laundry room. I was meant to deal with it when we moved in - it was stuff stored in my mum's basement in her old house. I'd forgotten all about it until I cracked it open the other night and it was pretty weird to see most of the stuff.

There were a pile of old letters that I'd gotten from old classmates when I moved to Port Coquitlam from Dawson Creek. I didn't remember getting nearly that many letters. I guess I must have been a better penpal than I thought considering how many people were writing to me. My lack of memory of most of the information in the letters or the circumstances they referred to, like "thanks for the amazing talk the other night" really freaked me out because generally I have a great memory for details. I couldn't even remember who a couple of the people were that were writing thanks to their use of obscure nicknames. I eventually puzzled it out then thought, "she wrote to me? were we really that close?" Apparently I even had penpals in both France and Austria (which I vaguely remember) who wrote to me in French and German. And they wrote often!

As great as the memory trip was I ended up putting most the letters in the recycling box because I just can't keep carrying all this stuff around with me. I kept a couple out to show to friends I keep in contact with so we can laugh over them together. The blackmail photos of the mall/rocker-bitch hair are also keepers.

Also amid the piles of paper were a ton of certificates of various academic awards I got in school ranging from the French 12 award to something from Grade 2 congratulating me on doing well on a spelling test. It was all kept tidily in a Duran Duran folder, no less. Again, it's cool to look through all of it but do I need to keep any of it? Gah!

And I haven't even cracked the box of letters from old boyfriends. Wish me luck...

I went to see Duran Duran on Friday night, which was pretty awesome. I loooooved them when I was around 11-13 years old. My whole room was plastered in posters and I was planning to marry John Taylor as soon as I figured out a way to meet him, and have him wait for me to be old enough. The concert was really fun, although our seats sucked. Next time, if I'm shelling out for someone I really want to see, I'm going to shell out more and get some decent seats. We rented binoculars, so we could see them okay on stage, but it would have been much better to be closer.

I discovered that John hasn't aged as well as I thought he might have. I actually wonder if he's had surgery because his face doesn't just look older, he looks way different. And Simon really can't dance. People say he never could but I didn't notice it back then. It's pretty damn apparent now.

But the show was really fun, and they played almost all my favourites (except The Reflex - maybe they're just sick of it). Since I never got to see them in their heyday, it was pretty awesome to get a chance to do it now.

I spent a very sleepless night last night doubled-over with cramps. And most of the plans I had for today have gone out the window due to the pain. Dammit! I really didn't expect miracles from my surgery but I did really hope that I'd be done with the 3-5am crampathons. I'm taking fewer drugs than I did previously, so that's a plus, and I know it's very soon after the surgery to know the full effects, but I gotta admit, it's pretty disheartening.

Valentine's Day is a really lousy holiday. It's a lousy day for singles and it's a lousy day for couples because of the pressures put on them to perform perfectly to their particular partner's needs. Aside from all the usual stuff about how the whole holiday has evolved into the conspiracy of flower and greeting card corporations to pad their bottom lines, Valentine's day can do a lot of damage to relationships. It can make you completely re-evaluate the stability and happiness of your relationship based on how your partner performed at the tasks (implied or expressed) that you have assigned to him/her for the day. A holiday should not have the power to mess with the value of everything else in a relationship; to make all the preceeding romantic dates or kind gestures seem less meaningful. And I am a total romantic but I am seriously considering saying "fuck it" to Valentine's day. It's just not worth the anguish.

I had surgery a few weeks ago to clean out the endometriosis and uterine polyps that have been squatting illegally in my body. They're gone now and I am very happy. The surgery itself wasn't too bad - a general anaesthetic which didn't make me puke thanks to the anti-nausea meds they gave me in advance (that knocked me out before they even got to giving me the anaesthetic - lightweight!). I was in and out of the hospital within 4 hours and I got to have the surgery in a private clinic because the local hospital doesn't have enough rooms or staff to accomodate all the necessary procedures. I got a warmed-up gown and robe. This ain't your regular hospital!

Theo stayed home from work to look after me for a couple days because I was pretty sore and tired. We had fun lying on the new sofa bed in the living room and watching movies. The cats thought it was pretty awesome too. As the sore decreased we progressed to sitting on the couch and watching movies, which the cats still thought was pretty awesome. It was amazing for them because I was home and I was sitting still. Those two things don't happen in combination all that frequently.

All in all, I was off work for nearly 2 weeks, which was nice for recovery. And I know that I was feeling under the weather because I didn't go insane being that inactive for all that time. I've been trying to make up for it now, being on high-alert bustle. I've painted living room cabinet doors and cut a bunch of baseboards with my beautiful mitre saw. I really want to paint the whole living room but Theo is having none of it. Stupid Theo! Instead I will put up new curtains which should help the rest of the room look less in need of a change of colour.

We've also started planning our trip to Australia in May. It will be 11 years since I've been there to see my family and this will give Theo a chance to check the place out too. After visiting family for a few days we're going to play full-on tourists and travel to all the exciting parts of the country like Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and the Great Barrier Reef. I've never seen any of these areas myself so I'm totally pumped. There's also a little island outside Adelaide that has penguins. I am sooooo going to see those penguins! Screw kangaroos and koalas! PENGUINS!