Go ahead. Make my day... week... month... year

Have been way too whiny lately. Who wants to hear that crap?

Lots of good, positive things have happened lately too...

My boss gave me a plant for my office. She has a 'green thumb' and was transplanting plants and brought the wee ones into the office to distribute. But she didn't know what kind of plant it is that she gave me 'in particular.' We think some sort of cactus/aloe thing. So it's soft and good inside but with a wee bit of a prickly edge. (Reminds me of a few people I know...) I've bonded with it. And I haven't killed it yet, so that's a good sign.

My car takes premium gas. Which can be a real b*tch with gas prices these days. BUT my usual gas station is in the middle of a pump/gas upgrade so they are not serving silver and bronze. Only premium... but at bronze prices! I'm told it will be at least another five weeks before the full conversion/upgrade thing happens! The savings!

A co-worker said I looked really skinny yesterday in my outfit. Always a good sign.

But the best is... when I was getting ready to leave from work tonight. I was sifting through folders, powering down my laptop, etc. when the regular office cleaning dude poked his head around my door. (We always joke that I shouldn't be around at the office when the cleaning team comes.)

"Hi," he said. "You should be gone by now, no?"

I smiled and said: "Doing that right now."

And then the best thing ever!!! He put out his hand which revealed a Kindersurprise and said: "Ok, I was going to leave this for you on your desk. Happy Easter."

How freakin' sweet is that????

(If you must know the surprise inside was a lame ass key chain thing. I think it may be a camel or some sort of animal shape that resembles a camel. Is that possible? WTF resembles a camel? A distorted hippo?)

He made my day/week/month/2008. I can't thank him enough....

In. In. Out. Out.

So, not liking 2008 so much. Little things are getting under my skin. And for those that know me... it's unusual for the little things to get to me. I've been told many times that I "have perspective."

Normally I "Breathe in. Out. Let it go." Six words that have always been a powerful mantra to me. I've always thought life could be built around those six little words. But lately the universe has been testing my patience. My latest list of grievances:

• $2.50 garbage bags that get eaten - by god-only-knows-what creatures - within 20 minutes of being put outside (We have a pay-to-play garbage system here.)
• A bathroom skylight which has literally cracked under the pressure of the never ending snow we received this winter leaving trails of water down the walls (Insurance will cover that, right?)
• A salary review which still hasn't happened and we're now in month three of of the year...
• Line-ups to Tim Horton's drive-thrus that block traffic on the street! WTF?
• People in mini-vans.
• Inability to find my favorite bra. (Where did it GO?)
• A cat with bad breath and a penchant for *snoring* right into my face at night. Again, WTF?

Crikey. And these are just the *trivial* things. Breathe in...

The Couch Chronicles

It’s a “snow day” today… on a Saturday. The kind of day when you can’t see beyond your front step for the snow beating down. The kind of day when slipper socks and oversized sweatshirts and pajama pants are haute couture. The kind of day when you do everything – napping, reading, drinking tea, doing crossword puzzles – on your couch.

I got home very late last evening/this morning from Las Vegas. (I hate Las Vegas. But I think I’ve mentioned that before…) LB is away. So a day like today when you can’t drive anywhere and when the power keeps going out so you can’t really be productive is perfect. No guilt for not doing anything “important.”

Curled up one of our couches and all of a sudden I’m surprised. When did we get such nice couches? I mean I know when we got them, but I’m a little put off. “We have grown up couches,” I think. And then… “I think I like it.”

It’s kind of like waking up one day and looking over at your partner (drool hanging from his mouth and all) and realizing that you are exactly where you want to be. (Ok, minus the drool.) Not that I mean to compare LB to a couch and all, but it made me think about the past couches in my life like many women think about the past men in their life.

I remember a plaid one when I was younger. I think it was gray and black and charcoal and not very comfy; too stiff. It smelled off. It was relegated to the basement.

And there was another one down there too. It had a very strong flower power theme; orange and green and brown. It had a matching chair. I believe they followed me to university.

“Upstairs” I remember the L-shaped couch. Very 80’s. Beige. With flecks of brown. Comfy. Removable throw pillows. I believe that couch still exists in my family somewhere.

And then there was the “living room” set on Valley Drive. The couch that was ivory with subtle teal and rose flowers. It was never sat upon much. Or maybe it was just because no one used the living room all that often. I don’t think the couch was at fault. It still exists too. But I think it’s in storage somewhere.

I remember the first couch set LB and I bought together after the futons and hand-me-downs. It’s now residing in my sister’s basement with new slip covers. When we go to visit it is inevitably where LB ends up falling asleep.

There were two couches we also brought with us from The Farm when we moved into our house. One was disposed of very quickly; too short, too shallow, too stiff. The other stuck around for awhile. But it too eventually moved on; much to LB’s chagrin. He LOVED that couch.

I like our latest set of couches. They are exactly where I want to be. We spent months finding them. We even tested the material together to make sure it was resilient to red wine spills. But that’s another story…

Viva Las Vegas!

Am most relieved to have finally made it to Las Vegas. Getting here was not that easy…

It started with the “slight delay” (i.e. 40 minutes) leaving the ground at Pearson and was followed shortly thereafter with BIG TIME turbulence for the majority of the trip, an overhead reading light which acted more like a strobe light and made me feel nauseous, and a screaming two year old stretched out across her parents lap beside me for the duration of the four hour flight.

Note to parents everywhere: If you have to fly with young children please be considerate and drug the little ones in advance. People do it with animals. Why not kids too?

I was worried that this trip was going to end up like my Lakeland, Florida business trip of 2005. I won’t go into all the gory details on that one but let’s just say it involved a $100+ cab ride, bad directions (damn you MapQuest!), a customer that went AWOL, a hotel stay at AmeriSweet Hell (along with all the competitors in the Florida Wrestling State Championships) and a flight back that had me rerouted to Philadelphia for an overnight stay due to a severe winter storm.

So in comparison, this trip is faring much better.

I just finished day one of the conference I’m attending and it’s been great! Have met some cool people and I have yet to suffer from a nose bleed or cracked lips. (The weather here often does that to me.)

Things are looking up!

Eeek!

Haven't posted in a long time. Somehow life just got in the way.

Will vow to do better in coming weeks.

Off to Las Vegas tomorrow night to attend a conference. Stay tuned.