27Jan09

So I have the flu.

Sweating through layers and layers of clothes one minute, totally unable to get warm the next. Which sucks. A lot. Especially since the guy mentioned in the previous post is in town (yay!) for a few days (yes, it's a sort of long-distance-ish thing, but we deal with that...).

He called when he arrived this afternoon. He knew I was sick. He knew I had the flu. I told him I would be horrible company. I told him I was quite possibly contagious (I don't know, maybe I am?!).

And yet he came over anyway. Granted, only for about 45 mins - he had tickets to the hockey game tonight - but he showed up. I wasn't quite at my unwashed worst, but close to it...

And he still wants to hang out?! He still wants to spend time with me later this week?!

Ladies and gentlemen, we may have a keeper.

03 Jan 08

So this survey materialized on facebook on about Dec 30, and I was just too lazy to do it there, so...

1) Was 2008 a good year for you?
Yeah... It started out pretty gloomily, but slowly improved, and the last 5 months of the year were the awesomest five months I've had in a long time - new experiences all around.

2) What was your favorite moment of the year?
Tough to say. Probably hearing that I'd gotten the new job. Freedom!

3) What was your least favorite moment of the year?
I'll go with slippinging down the stairs at Grandin LRT station and straining ligaments in my wrist. It's still not totally back to normal, and may not be for another month.

4) Where were you when 2008 began?
At Bonobo's. I left shortly after midnight.

5) Who were you with?
A whole bunch of my awesome friends from FEP.

6) Where will you be when 2008 ends?
I was hoping to be at Beans' with a bunch of friends and such, but that fell through, so I ended up on my couch watching CBC most of the night.

7) Who will you be with when 2008 ends?
I was all by myself. *sigh*

8) Did you keep your new years resolution of 2008?
I think I'd made a point of not making any. However, towards September I decided that with the new job I was going to try and get a bit healthier - so I joined the gym at work. It's working! I feel way better these days, and people keep telling me I look better, so...

9) Do you have a new years resolution for 2009?
Only to try and be more open to opportunities, even if they scare me.

10) Did you fall in love in 2008?
I don't think so. Not yet, anyway. But I did find myself someone that seems to be interested in me, and I'm interested in him, and things are going so well I'm wondering when they're going to go wrong *knock wood*. This ties into Question 9, really.

11) If yes, with who?
It's a guy. We'll leave it at that.

12) If yes, do they know?
Yup. Finally. Although it's not because I overcame my fear, it's 'cuz he made the approach.

13) Are you still in love with them?
See question 10.

14) Do you regret it?
Not so far *knock wood*

15) Did you breakup with anyone in 2008?
Nope.

16) Did you make any new friends in 2008?
Probably, but I think most of the "new" friends I actually made in 2007 or 2006.

17) Who are your favorite new friends?
Why rank? What a load of crap.

18) What was your favorite month of 2008?
Probably August. I did things I'd never done before, went places I'd never been before, and actually took some time off work.

19) Did you travel outside of Canada in 2008?
Yup. To San Francisco.

20) How many different places did you travel to in 2008?
outside the country - 1; inside the country - 5 places, some multiple times

21) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2008?
Thank goodness, no.

22) Did you miss anybody in the past year?
Of course. I've lots of special people in distant places.

23) What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2008?
Good question. It was obviously so very amazing that I don't remember.

24) What was your favorite song from 2008?
Cemeteries of London, by Coldplay... No One's Gonna Love You by Band of Horses...

25) What was your favorite record(s) from 2008?
In Rainbows, by radiohead

26) How many concerts did you see in 2008?
1. And it was awesome. Radiohead in San Francisco.

27) Did you have a favorite concert in 2008?
See above.

28) did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2008?
Actually, since I started the new job, I've been drinking more for networking-ish purposes - everyone in government seems to think that hanging out after work involves booze. :)

29) did you do a lot of drugs in 2008?
More than usual - but nothing illegal. I had some fun painkillers due to various things.

30) How many people did you sleep with in 2008?
Not the sort of question I'm willing to answer publicly, I'm afraid.

31) Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
Not ashamed of. I was certainly embarrassed after falling down the stairs, though.

33) What was the worst lie someone told you in 2008?
There was nothing so obviously bad and painful that it sticks out, thank goodness.

34) Did you treat somebody badly in 2008?
At work, I'm sure I did. Likely after they were assholes to me first.

35) Did somebody treat you badly in 2008?
At work, all the time. I don't know what makes people think they can walk into an office and treat government employees that way... oh, right, it's "I pay your salary, so you'd better..." syndrom.

36) How much money did you spend in 2008?
Not as much as I made. I've gone from being flat broke two years ago to actually having some decent savings.

37) What was your proudest moment of 2008?
Getting the new job.

38) What was your most embarrassing moment of 2008?
More than likely falling down the stairs at Grandin LRT station. Fortunately there was only one anonymous witness.

39) If you could go back in time to any moment of 2008 and change something, what would it be?
Not a big fan of the idea of going back and changing the past, 'cuz you never know what else one little action might affect, and the end of 2008 was pretty awesome for me.

40) What are your plans for 2009?
Continuing to do the best I can at my job, my personal life, etc. That's about it really. We'll see where it goes from there.

24Dec2008

Not much new to report in my world, I'm afraid.

Fell on some stairs a while ago and may have injured my wrist - on a nurse's advice I have it splinted and am carefully observing - if the pain isn't gone by next week, I'll have to go in to a doctor and see about X Rays or something of the sort (joy). Making it difficult to type, I'm afraid.

Going home tonight, so will be offline for a few days.

Happiest of Christmases to everyone!

06Dec2008

I've said it before. I'll say it again.

I hate shopping.

I live in the city with the world's largest shopping mall. It's huge. It has a lot of stuff I don't need. But when it comes to getting everything I need all in one spot - it's about as good as it gets. Most of the year, I'll wander in, wander around, get what I want, and wander out. Yeah, it's busy. It's a tourist attraction, after all. But it's convenient. Veni, vidi, vinci, really.

So I look at every trip to that mall as a mission, really (unless I'm going with friends for something not-shopping-related). I have actually been known to sit down with the interactive map available on their website, and plot my strategy, so-to-speak.

Today was simple. Everything I needed was on lower level. I got there shortly after everything opened. I was out less than two hours later. It was an almost-perfect mission (I doubled back on my tracks only once).

I have, however, come to some very strong conclusions. Many of which I've stated before (although not on this blog). So here they are again.

• Pets should not be permitted in the mall. It's already pretty squishy in there, without you needing to bring your matching dogs along for the trip. Seriously. What do you dogs need at the mall? And if you weren't going to leave them in the car, why did you ever bother to bring them along? (Service dogs are, of course, exempted from this statement)
• They should paint traffic lines down the aisles in both the stores and the hallways. If I'm walking on the right-hand side, you should NOT be walking straight towards me. Stick to YOUR right, for god's sake. I'm even for traffic lights at intersections, if it comes to that. I'm sick of being cut off only to discover that I'm stuck behind the slowest person in the mall. Speaking of which...
  
• There should be both a maximum and a minimum speed limit inside the mall. If you can't keep up to a half-decent walking pace, get out. I would like to be able to get from one store to another in less than a minute, please, especially when the stores are right next to each other. And I also say maximum, because I realize I'm a fast walker, and that I probably piss people off by nearly stepping on their heels all the time. So yes, I realize that to a certain extent, I'm contributing to the problem.
  
• Children should be kept on leashes. I'm quite serious about this. Not only have I nearly run over escaping children, but escaping children have nearly run over me. My mother occasionally used one of those leash things on me, and I turned out ok (although I realize this point is probably debatable).
• Children shoud NOT be forced to sit on Santa's knee if they're crying. You're not going to get a good photo, and you should probably focus on what's pissing the kid off/why they're tired/what's scaring them. I mean, a big guy coming down the chimney can be pretty scary, a violation of safety really. How many times do you tell kids not to talk to strangers, not to let people touch them, etc., and then you're FORCING them into interacting with this creepy guy? And if it's nap time, for god's sake, it's nap time. You should have tried to get to the mall earlier. Save all our eardrums, please, and realize that the pic with Santa isn't worth it.
• People in the stores should bloody well learn that they're there to serve customers. Suprisingly enough, I had great service in most of the stores I was in today. The stores where I had crappy service? All staffed by young people. Since when did being under the age of 25 mean that you got away with ignoring customers and poor attitude? Not impressed. When I was working retail, if I'd behaved that way, I'd have been reprimanded. And probably fired. We can't just blame the poor customer service on the level of employment in this province any more - there's something wrong with the culture.
• Muzak does not make me want to shop more. If you're going to play music in your store, at least make it decent.

And that is all for now.

P.S. - most of the Christmas shopping is now done.

25Nov2008

So I've been horribly remiss in updating the blog, as per usual. I've come to the conclusion that now that I'm back in Canada, and have been for a couple of years, my life is pretty boring and not necessarily the sort of thing that people would want to read about. And I don't feel that I have a driving purpose in life to blog about, like some other folks I know. And yet somehow I still have a fairly loyal handful of readers out there, and I do feel sort of neglectful of you.

So here's the whine for this post - I'm getting sick. Sore throat, sniffles. Blech. Ah well. At least it's happening now, and not earlier. Fortunately no choir practice for me tonight as I'm not singing the next concert due to an upcoming business trip to Ottawa (last time I did a concert the night before a business trip, I never really recovered, and was cranky the entire time).

So what's been up for the last couple of weeks? Work, mostly, but also music. On the 21st, my choir performed Handel's "Solomon" with the Alberta Baroque Ensemble and a selection of amazing soloists (hence the gladness that the cold is happening now, and not earlier). I thought it went well, as did most others, apparently. The choir director seems to have concurred, in spite of some very last-minute adjustments, and really, that's the opinion that matters.

Afterwards I went out to celebrate a friend's successful PhD defence. And he got to asking me why I joined the choir. And it took me a while, to be honest. I did have to think long and hard about it. I could answer immediately why I didn't join - to be social. I do have a few friends in the choir but they're very limited to a select number - just enough to give me a buffer zone. I go, I sing, I leave. I don't stay and chat. I avoid the social gatherings after concerts (usually 'cuz it's well past my bedtime... when you work at 7 a.m. anything after 10 p.m. becomes a late night... and not going to lie, average age in the choir is closer to my parents' than my own).

As for why, I suppose there are multiple reasons. I like the music. I know that sounds pretty stupid and obvious, but your average 20-something usually isn't into 'classical'. Hell, the majority of my friends don't come to my concerts, and I can totally understand that (although I sometimes wish that some of them would - no, this isn't a dig to anyone who was out celebrating or had other plans that night; it's not you to whom I'm referring). But for me, I've already gotten to fulfill one ambition - singing Mozart's Requiem - since joining. It's that sort of thing that makes it totally worthwhile to me. It's certainly not everyone's cup of tea. But I digress.

I didn't want my training to go to waste (I trained classically all through high school).

I missed choral work (I was in an awesome choir under the amazing direction of Dr. Mark Sirett, who was such an inspiration - I've always regretted that my family had to move away from that, and unfortunately the choir is now defunct - and was an alto section lead my first couple of years of uni at a local church, but hadn't done choral work since).

When I was still working at the University I was looking for something to keep me busy that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg.

And those are the big reasons I came up with, really.

And y'know, if the job makes me move somewhere else in Canada, with the exception of a few individuals, it's just the music I'll miss. Hopefully I get moved somewhere where something similar exists.

On a completely different note, Magnolia has mentioned a musical theatre project to me that might go up for this summer's Fringe, depending on how the lottery goes. And she's suggested I should audition. Which both scares the crap out of me and is kinda exciting all at the same time. I've not done musical theatre since Kiwanis classes in high school. I have no formal dramatic training. And in all honesty, I'm not sure I want to make the time commitment. The Fringe is not for the half-hearted, and I'm trying to save vacation time to go somewhere super in 2010. But I'm not going to lie. I'm intrigued...

Which is where I currently am for work. Although I've not seen much of it. Honestly. Cab ride to the hotel. Inside of hotel room. Mall across the street. Meeting rooms in hotel. Last night I escaped and made it out for dinner with some friends and had the best catch-up chat I've had in a very long time. But of course, it was night, it was dark, not much to see. Today, more inside of hotel meeting rooms. Cab ride back to airport.

The worst bit is that I have no idea why I'm here. My boss decided it was "a learning experience", but I have nothing to contribute and don't understand half of what's going on.

Ah well.

Someday I will make it out here for a really for real visit. Someday.

I finally got to see the friend from that last post for the first time since she's gotten back this weekend.

She met a guy while she was on training, and when I heard this, I was incredibly happy for her. And I still am, I guess.

But with the exception of the times when she was driving, she spent a huge portion of the time we were together texting, and I'm pretty sure a lot of them were to the guy in question, although I can't be 100%.

Granted, we were in a sort of house party situation so it's not like we were one on one and having an in-depth conversation, but it felt like she was totally tuned out, not only myself but the other people present, the entire weekend, which really sucked after my friend B and I made an effort to try and sort of make her feel special.

I know she's still probably not feeling all that great. I can understand that none of us out here won't exactly know what happened during her training, and we'll never be able to 100% relate to her circumstances, and I know that infatuation is a glorious feeling (being in the midst of it myself, and knowing that if that text message came I'd probably feel amazing - and no, I don't know if the feelings are reciprocated, but given my track record, I'm probably getting my hopes up for nothing, and yes, perhaps I am a teensy bit jealous of the fact that she's managed to find someone, but I wouldn't have minded so much if not for the behaviour attached to it... but I digress...).

Nevertheless, I'm feeling like there's this wall that went up while she was gone and it makes me sad. I know people change and drift apart, but I'm wondering what's going on with this...