Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Anyplace in the world is warmer than here

It is obscenely cold outside, and today I suffered the indignity of being made to go outside in that twice, first to work, then back home again. There isn't even any snow on the ground to make the cold worth it, there's just freezing blowingness that stings. And no snow means no hope for a snowday of any kind. I vote we institute Cold Days, when work is called off so you can stay home and cozy, hopefully with fuzzy socks on your feet and a blanket around your shoulders. It would do wonders for morale.
Another thing that would help with morale would be to not have performance reviews. Mine's on Friday and I don't want it. I really wish this was the sort of thing I could opt-out of. Just let me keep my head down, do my work, and pay me, and everyone will be happy.
Anyways, because of the review coming up, and the cold, my day (which wasn't terrible to start with), didn't leave me feeling stellar, so I stopped at the store and splurged (perversely) on ice cream.
But there are good points. The Mom is talking about going to Mexico, and now that I have my vacation planner for this year, I can start really planning my Britain trip. I'm not really sure how I'm going to make both of those work, but I'm gonna try. Besides, planning for them both is FUN! I researched Mexico (cause I know NOTHING about it), and have floated the idea of going to the Yucatan to the Mom and brother. I like the beaches and the archaeological sites nearby, I think the Mom agrees, and when I looked up 'Yucatan' on wikipedia, it said this:
"Queso Relleno is a "gourmet" dish featuring ground pork inside of a carved edam cheese ball served with tomato sauce"...which I used to get the brother interested. Do I know how to spark his interest, or what? More foods should be cooked inside of hollowed-out cheese balls.
Anyways, I gotta go draft an email to England Aunt...and research England, and Ireland. WOO HOO, I'm finally breaking the chains North America has had on me! Escaping to the big blue!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Playing Nigella

So, a couple of weeks got in my way, and even though I found some time to draft a blog, I forgot to post it, so here is it, a little delayed.

Last weekend I took home work from the office (again) and buried myself in that. I had planned to have a couple of friends over on Wednesday (I had a recipe I wanted to try), so I was looking forward to that, but I figured I had enough time in the evenings Monday and Tuesday after work to prepare for that.
Then Lauren called, and said she’s coming into the city on Wednesday. Yay!
Yay, but it means a change of plans. Okay, so move the dinner to Tuesday, and make Monday the one day that I have to go grocery shopping, start cooking, clean the entire apartment, wash the sheets for the pullout couch, and do more work I’ve brought home from the office. Go to bed very late.
Tuesday rolls around and I make it through the workday, then friends come over and rave about my Nigella Lawson skills, and we eat and watch DVD’s and talk and it’s all good, and at the end of it I’m full and happy and very tired. But the house needs tidying, cause I’ve got more company coming the next day, so I clean a bit…and go to bed very late.
Wednesday is not a great day at the office, but I’m looking forward to Laur being there after work, so I get through it, and meet Lauren, and there is talk about going out, but she knows what it’s like the Wednesday of a busy work week, so we decide to be lazy and stay in and order thai food. We talk a lot and it’s great. But we also talk very long, and I go to bed very very late.
Thursday I slog though work, meet Laur briefly afterward, before she jets off to her next destination, and I grab some quick dinner, and then sit down in front of the computer, to finally blog like I’ve been meaning to. That was at 6:30pm.
At 7:05pm I woke up, curled up in my desk chair (which is NOT a comfortable way to nap), and decide that instead of blogging or beading or any of the other things I’ve had in mind to do this one evening to myself this week…I’d rather just climb in bed, and watch TV.

And that was great.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

2008's already got me spun...

First, the back story. I haven't blogged for months because, every time I've been at a computer (for months), I've been working...even at home. The office has gotten incredibly busy, there aren't enough people to cover all the work to be done, and there isn't enough time in the day (workday or daylight) to fit everything in. So, I've been doing at the office what can only be done at the office, and taking home what I could do here. It sucks. I've been frustrated at how my work life has bled into my real life, frustrated that I'm always focused on/worrying about/making time for work, and add to that the fact that this is the most money-tight time of the year, and there is no such thing as overtime pay...let's wrap this up and say that I've been a little stressed lately. I've thought about blogging, but even when I had the time, it was hard to think about spending more time in front of the computer, even if it was for my own stuff.
But things are looking up. With some judicious sacrifices of my free time, I'm nearing the top of the 'to do list' mountain, and with the winter break behind me, I can pretty much breathe again. Workwise, anyway.
That's not to say I haven't had a life. Socially, November was beyond busy...it was actually a little nuts. Two thirds of the days of that month were taken up by something. Family visiting (that was great; our own mini family reunion- Aunt from England it was wonderful to see you), dinners with friends, pottery class (it's over now, but I had a blast; I will do that again, when it's financially viable), bead shows, farmer's market, gathering Hanukkah gifts for the Mom, book club friends getting married, the list goes on. By the time December rolled around, I was exhausted. I purposely kept my calendar pretty clear, having only the company holiday party (food was decent, music was sporadically okay, none of my friends won any prizes, and that night was the first big storm of the winter), and a couple of visits from friends to take up my time. The best part was that Lauren came home! Yep, my best friend is back in the country, and she came to visit, which was great. We haven't had much time to hang out yet, but I'm looking forward to when we can spend some real time just hanging out again, doing nothing. I miss nothing. With fake cheesecake.
Then the holidays (blessed time off!), and the Toronto branch of the family gathered for finger food and gifts and movies and games. It was a great night; we had a ton of fun, and I got home at 4am. Unfortunately, I was supposed to meet some friends at noon the next day, and totally forgot, but after one short phone call, and one quick dash to the bus, I made it downtown by one and we got to shop a little.
Christmas eve the Robins and I did the predictable Jewish thing and went out for Chinese food and a movie (Juno is awesome).
There was more to my winter break, but I'm skipping ahead to this past Sunday, when my friends half kidnapped me to Blue Mountain to go skiing. I haven't been skiing in, like, four years, but I had a great time (and paid for it the next day- ouch), and then NYE we went out for a great dinner and then hit up a med-student house party. Spent New year's day having brunch with the friends, and cleaning the apt.
Then came today.
Got to work ready for a busy day (everyone leaves for the national sales meeting tomorrow, so all the last-minute stuff had to be done by today), and instead started the day with a call from my bank letting me know that my account had been hacked and someone in Montreal withdrew all my $. Woo hoo. So I spent a very busy day running around the office, then rushed off to the bank after work, where they cut up my bank card. Yeah.
So, I came home, called the Mom for some venting, and then called the student loan office to get my payments put on hold rather than bounce one. While I was on the phone with the osap lady, the pizza I had in the oven turned into a cinder, and I spent five minutes with the osap lady on hold while I opened the patio door (letting the snow in), and waved a blanket at the smoke detector to make it stop screaming.
Got the finances triaged, salvaged enough of the pie for dinner, then thought I'd make a batch of cookies to make myself feel better and to take to work tomorrow (a little 'while the cats are away' celebration). So I'm getting out the ingredients and I can't find the brown sugar (and I know I have brown sugar), so I get the desk chair and climb up to look for it (yes, make fun of the short girl now, go ahead, ha...ha), and there's no brown sugar, but there is aluminum foil, and a whole unopened bag of peanut butter kisses, so I call that a win. Put away the cookie ingredients, and sit down to stuff my face with chocolate and peanut buttery goodness and finally blog again. The Mom said not to take today as an omen of the year to come, but it's hard not to.
But then, stolen money versus unexpected chocolate...I guess this year can go either way.