Sunday, February 22

Big weekend

This was the fullest weekend in the past while, by far. Friday night J and I went to IKEA and bought a new computer desk. We spent a while building and then reorganzed the office. It's a nice little desk and soon enough will be a nice little room. For now, there are papers everywhere, but that's how we do things. Then we watched What Happens in Vegas. The movie was better than expected with some really funny lines, the best one being "Are you sure you know how to drive an automatic?"

Saturday was my dad's birthday so we went over. I blew up balloons in the car on the way and when we showed up, I threw them out the car door at my dad who was standing in the driveway. It was nice to see him smile and laugh at my ridiculous idea. Max, the dog, didn't like the balloons at all.

That night we went downtown for JP's birthday. We went to Minglewoods and ate and drank and laughed while JP did a disco dance that ended with some enthusiastic hip thrusts. I left J to consume more pitchers with the birthday boy and went home. I was home after midnight and J not until after 2am. It was a fun night.

Today we had (breakfast for) lunch with S&L and L's parents. It was a nice visit. We made another trip to IKEA on the way home and had more building to do this afternoon. Sandy has taken over Rolo's role as helper which makes J happy. Happy until I break a part of the newest piece. But of course that's what I do. Ug.

Not sure what this week will bring, but it's getting warmer out and the days are getting longer. And with the potential new job coming soon, work seems much less hard. At least I didn't spend the day hungover like some people I know.

Saturday, February 21

New job on the horizon

Before my current job, I had only been in the same job for 9 months. Once I hit a year (July 2007) I started feeling restless, like I needed to find something new. Over the last year and a half, I've felt the same restless feeling off and on.

And then came the new boss. He started in November and seems like a nice guy at first. And then he tells you that you aren't doing a good job and that things have to change. Maybe he was unaware that my little group of 5, who are responsible for coordinating upwards of 800 submissions for pest control products (you can't just call them pesticides) in the agency, had been functioning for over a year without a manager and functioning quite well. We receive praise and pats on the back for a job well done. We do our job and we do it well.

Mr. NewBoss has all sorts of lofty ideas, which isn't a bad thing in itself, but when you first come to manage a group, take some time to observe how they work, how the work gets done.

Anyways, Mr. NewBoss basically kicked me into gear and made my search for a new job take on a new urgency. I enlisted the help of some friends and found myself something good. I spoke with my potential new manager and decided after much back and forth that this would be a good thing. I told them I was interested and they said they'd love to have me. The ball is now rolling and soon enough I will have this new job.

With this in mind, I'm getting much more work done. I have the motivation to not leave my portion of the 800 subs in disarray. Nothing is set in stone yet, but come April I should be onto new things.

Yet another change in my life. A good change.

Monday, February 16

2009 is the new 2008

I was speaking of routines and being thrown off. Here are some things that have changed recently, not necessarily throwing me off, but changes nonetheless.

When J got back from Tremblant, we picked up his new glasses. They look good and stop his head from hurting.

Project365 Day 033 February 2, 2009  IMG_4678 (Medium)

To up the nerdiness, he's also getting braces. They're the invisible kind and he'll have them for 7 or 8 months. Nothing compared to my 2 years of hell. Hopefully they will stop his teeth from hurting.

I got a new ring that I absolutely love. I found out it's a Russian wedding ring - it is three silver rings entwined. Extremely fun to play with.

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J and I went for a run outside Saturday. It was -10 but sunny and clear. We didn't go very far and had to stop every time we came to a street because it was mega icy (run run run, stop, J grabs my hand, walk slow on ice, run run run, repeat) but it felt so good to be out running. I've been wanting to run for a while, but with the sick and the weather and everything, it just hasn't happened. I did my pilates DVD afterwards and got the nice burny abs to go with the sore legs.

We celebrated Valentine's Day, which I do not subscribe to, in a non-romantic way.. though I guess there were elements of romance. It was a dinner and a movie night with S&L (date-like and two couples... fine). They brought lasagna and we had salad and garlic bread and raspberry pie. We watched Body of Lies. I wouldn't recommend the movie. I fell asleep (it was late and the movie was dragging on and on) and heard bad reviews from the other three when the movie ended and I woke up.

Yesterday was the So You Think You Can Dance live show. J's sister and mom took me and J's grandma. We did the valet parking - such a good idea and it was so fun seeing the guys run to get the cars. The show was really good. J's mom asked me to point out Nico, the guy who won, but I didn't have to. Every time he was on stage the girls went wild, screaming and shrieking. SJ's ears were ringing the whole time. Good times.

And now we're here. I took some time this weekend to catch up on getting my pictures on Flickr, but still have a backlog. We're starting to think about how we want to organize our spare rooms. It seems silly the way we have them now. I think IKEA may come to the rescue once again. There are trips to IKEA in our future, painting and organizing. Fun.

Next post: update on work.

Thursday, February 12

In my head

The fire is in my head. In fact, there may not even be a fire. Maybe it's just smoke.

Things are changing and the older I get, the worse the changes seem to be. I guess I'm settling into a routine. My life is becoming more and more routine the farther I get from the constant flux that is life in school, university especially, when you didn't know where you were living one year to the next or how you would make enough money in the 4 short months of summer to survive 8 long months of school.

I'm getting old. I'm married, have a house and a full time permanent job - all good things, but all lead to routine living. But when I think about me, about who I am, I don't think I'm average, that what I do, even if it's the same day in and day out, is the same as anything anyone else is doing. I take my cue from the people who tell me that I should write a book. These are people that don't know me well and don't know about this book: my blog. My question is always: who would read my book. I would, they always say. I'm sure you would, but you could always just ask me questions until I've told you all my stories. How long could that possibly take. Ask J, I think he's close.

The routine that I didn't entirely realize I had, was badly disrupted in the past, oh, 3 weeks or so. I would say things were pretty normal until we went to Mexico. We came back and haven't settled in - being sick and apart and thrown off are some things getting in the way. Other things are unbloggable and mysterious even to me. Everything seems to be conspiring to change me, change how I do things and change the things I want to do.

All this time pondering my navel, to steal a phrase from Crazy Aunt Purl (who got a book deal based on her blog I should mention), and I finally figured out what to do. Do I try my best to go back to the pre-Mexico routine or do I forge ahead and create a new normal? The answer to that question is to forge ahead and that's what I'm doing, grudgingly.

I'm finding that I don't blog as often as I did before, even though it still acts as a catharsis of sorts, I don't take as many pictures and I don't seem to care. I'm spending more time in the kitchen, preparing healthy meals, more time with J and with Sandy, more time sleeping. I suppose my focus has shifted somewhat and, apart from being a little freaked out by the resulting fire, I'm going to go with it. To the new, glowing me.

Thursday, February 5

"Sometimes you have to walk through fire if you want to take on a glow."
- from Carol Higgins Clark's Popped

I feel like I'm in the fire and the worst part is that it's in my head. Hopefully the glow at the end isn't a bad burn.

Sunday, February 1

Funnee

J and I had some time to kill last week (or maybe even the week before) so we wandered through a pet store. We looked at all the birds and lizards and snakes and finally got to the fish. I like that fish are so colourful and different and interesting. Nothing, however, could have prepared me for this fish:

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Oh, how I giggled!

This weekend, so far, has been exactly what I thought it would be: lots of lying on the couch and avoiding shoveling the driveway. I'm spoiled because J's dad actually came over with Bob, his trusty snowblower, and took care of the driveway for me. I had a nice visit with L and went back to doing nothing. I did leave the house to get some Quiznos and a new book to read.

Today is going to be busier though. I have plans to go shopping with SJ and have dinner with J's family and then meet up with my baseball girls to scrapbook... well, they might be scrapbooking. I will be hanging out because I'm nowhere near organized enough to actually do anything in an album. That will come. I have plans to get myself organized and get back in it, but other things keep getting in the way. Like yesterday, I randomly decided that our luggage should no longer live in the spare room closet but in our closet. Why now? Who knows. But it now has a new home. I'm wondering how many things I can change so that when J gets home he won't recognize the place. Hmm....