This is one of those weekends that can't get here fast enough. We've had a rough couple of weeks in the office, it's the busy season so we're already, well, busy. And it's just pissy customer week.
I've been yelled at every day, bar none, since Labour Day. What drives me nuts about this is that the people who yell are the ones who create situations for themselves. People who actually have a legitimate issue? They're super awesome for the most part and it truly is a pleasure to help them solve things. People who are angry about situations that they've created for themselves, or have unrealistic expectations? Not so nice. I've had customers the past few weeks who have left me so upset with how they are speaking to me that I'm literally shaking. And I'd love to repeat their bs back to them, but really? Not productive.
So TGIF. Because this week, the weekend is still too far away.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Thursday, September 13, 2012
News!! Excitement!!
You may remember the little vacation from life in its usual forms Bunny and I took a few weeks ago. The one where Bunny and I took off to take care of a somewhat secret special task ... and now, it's officially announcement time.
We eloped! We are married.
It's a decision that I was always ok with, but it took 8 months for Bunny to decide that eloping was what he wanted as well (and 8 months of me trying to plan multiple weddings for us and going crazy doing so). It was really important to me that Bunny love our wedding as much as I did, and it didn't seem fair to push him into eloping if he didn't want it. In the end, he had enough with trying to make other people happy and trying to sort out the money issues and we said eff it, we're doing this just for us.
The day itself was magical. I couldn't have asked for something more wonderful. Here's the thing, though: I'm not all that inclined to talk about it. Or watch the video his mom took. Three weeks later, I still haven't seen the handful of pictures that we have.
Partly that's due to the revisionist nature of my memory. I have this perfect impression of my wedding right now, and I don't want to somehow distort or change it by looking at it too closely. I'm slightly scared that I'll somehow overwrite the perfectness of it all by sharing it to much or letting myself see it through someone else's eyes. It's also partly due to the fact that even though it was small and very by the book, with just a standard city hall ceremony, that it's so intensely personal I don't want to share it with anyone. You may get a dinner review, though. ;)
What I will say is that I couldn't be happier. I'm overjoyed to be married to my Bunny. We really needed this, just to be married already, after the year we've had together. We've been each other's rocks and it was so important to have that formally recognized and have legal rights over each other in an emergency.
Being married to the love of my life? It feels so, so good.
We eloped! We are married.
It's a decision that I was always ok with, but it took 8 months for Bunny to decide that eloping was what he wanted as well (and 8 months of me trying to plan multiple weddings for us and going crazy doing so). It was really important to me that Bunny love our wedding as much as I did, and it didn't seem fair to push him into eloping if he didn't want it. In the end, he had enough with trying to make other people happy and trying to sort out the money issues and we said eff it, we're doing this just for us.
The day itself was magical. I couldn't have asked for something more wonderful. Here's the thing, though: I'm not all that inclined to talk about it. Or watch the video his mom took. Three weeks later, I still haven't seen the handful of pictures that we have.
Partly that's due to the revisionist nature of my memory. I have this perfect impression of my wedding right now, and I don't want to somehow distort or change it by looking at it too closely. I'm slightly scared that I'll somehow overwrite the perfectness of it all by sharing it to much or letting myself see it through someone else's eyes. It's also partly due to the fact that even though it was small and very by the book, with just a standard city hall ceremony, that it's so intensely personal I don't want to share it with anyone. You may get a dinner review, though. ;)
What I will say is that I couldn't be happier. I'm overjoyed to be married to my Bunny. We really needed this, just to be married already, after the year we've had together. We've been each other's rocks and it was so important to have that formally recognized and have legal rights over each other in an emergency.
Being married to the love of my life? It feels so, so good.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
food cravings
In Milton, there's this little restaurant that a group of friends and I know only as Eat Eat. That`s not it`s real name, of course but we don't know its real name. All we know is that it's some d*mn good eats.
They have the most amazing sandwiches there. Most everyone else goes crazy for the curried chicken salad, but me? I'm a roasted chicken girl. And boy do they do roasted chicken paninis well, with spinach and cheese and thinly sliced pears. It's OMG good. If I were going to marry a sandwich, this would be the one.
Which is all to say that over the past three months I have not been able to get my mind off of how good this chicken sandwich is and how much I want to eat it again. Which either entails a road trip (for a $15 sandwich) or figuring out how to do it myself. The latter would be easier, the former more decadent.
Every now and then I get like this with a particular food item; Kelsey's spinach cheese dip with the fried pita, the honey mustard roasted pork at Coquine, the tiramisu at Terroni, the crusted diver scallops at Lee. What's funny to me about this one is that as a general rule, I don't even like sandwiches. They are not my thing.
But this sandwich? I can't get it off my mind.
What restaurant dishes do you crave? Are they worth going out of their way for, or do you ever try to recreate them?
They have the most amazing sandwiches there. Most everyone else goes crazy for the curried chicken salad, but me? I'm a roasted chicken girl. And boy do they do roasted chicken paninis well, with spinach and cheese and thinly sliced pears. It's OMG good. If I were going to marry a sandwich, this would be the one.
Which is all to say that over the past three months I have not been able to get my mind off of how good this chicken sandwich is and how much I want to eat it again. Which either entails a road trip (for a $15 sandwich) or figuring out how to do it myself. The latter would be easier, the former more decadent.
Every now and then I get like this with a particular food item; Kelsey's spinach cheese dip with the fried pita, the honey mustard roasted pork at Coquine, the tiramisu at Terroni, the crusted diver scallops at Lee. What's funny to me about this one is that as a general rule, I don't even like sandwiches. They are not my thing.
But this sandwich? I can't get it off my mind.
What restaurant dishes do you crave? Are they worth going out of their way for, or do you ever try to recreate them?
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
New Crafting Skill
This week I should probably be finishing my latest cross stitch. This is kind of a big deal because it's the first piece I'd ever say was really near to perfect. Oh, there were maybe a couple of individual stiches just slightly out of place, but nothing that truly affects the pattern. The back is incredibly neat as well; from a distance it's so clean that it looks like it could be the main picture.
The patter is gorgeous, three wolves howling at the moon. I'm using a dark navy aida cloth, which made the whole thing harder to stitch accurately. When I saw the pattern I knew that I had to make it as a gift for my mother. It reminds me so much of her and her two best friends.
What's kind of cool is that it's making me learn some new stitches - couching for outlining. I've only ever done backstitching before, and couching seems like it should be more complicated (two needles? two strands of thread?) but I quite enjoy it. The effect it has for outlining is a lot nicer than just backstitching which surprised me. It's weird to use for short strokes, though. Next I have a few French knots to put in, which is another new skill. Finally, since this is a gift, I'm actually going to have to sew it onto some cardboard and frame it.
I've also been reading other crafting books, so I can pick up a few more sewing skills. I'm also looking at starting to buy some books of cross stitch bits, like lettering, and buying my patterns, cloth and thread separately. Give myself a little more freedom in pattern construction. Maybe do a few customized pieces as gifts for friends.
I'm looking forward to expanding my repetoire of sewing skills. It's something that I find very soothing and calming. Plus, it makes me not feel like a freak when I'm bored watching a movie that Bunny picked out and need something to do with my hands.
The patter is gorgeous, three wolves howling at the moon. I'm using a dark navy aida cloth, which made the whole thing harder to stitch accurately. When I saw the pattern I knew that I had to make it as a gift for my mother. It reminds me so much of her and her two best friends.
What's kind of cool is that it's making me learn some new stitches - couching for outlining. I've only ever done backstitching before, and couching seems like it should be more complicated (two needles? two strands of thread?) but I quite enjoy it. The effect it has for outlining is a lot nicer than just backstitching which surprised me. It's weird to use for short strokes, though. Next I have a few French knots to put in, which is another new skill. Finally, since this is a gift, I'm actually going to have to sew it onto some cardboard and frame it.
I've also been reading other crafting books, so I can pick up a few more sewing skills. I'm also looking at starting to buy some books of cross stitch bits, like lettering, and buying my patterns, cloth and thread separately. Give myself a little more freedom in pattern construction. Maybe do a few customized pieces as gifts for friends.
I'm looking forward to expanding my repetoire of sewing skills. It's something that I find very soothing and calming. Plus, it makes me not feel like a freak when I'm bored watching a movie that Bunny picked out and need something to do with my hands.
Friday, September 07, 2012
happies
I'm tired, and I have a half dozen posts in the first draft stage (ie, written in a notebook because I wasn't at the computer) for you but I'm really too lazy to type them up. So that in mind, I did want to give you something and I figured a TGIF happy break was called for.
In no particular order, these things make me happy:
In no particular order, these things make me happy:
- The collection of beautiful new brown things I have: dress, shoes, bag
- Buying an amazing purse original price $398+taxes, actually paying $154 taxes in
- Going to see my best friend this weekend
- Text conversations with my funniest/most supportive friend
- Bunny cuddles
- Dexter. How did it take so long for me to find that show.
- New season of Doctor Who. (Not so excited for losing the Ponds though)
- Weekends off
- Fresh coffee
- Living near family
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
WTF Quebec?
Quebec's kind of been taking over the Canadian newscape lately. There's some craziness going on there.
The student protests over tuition hikes have been interesting enough to watch (and they're starting to affect another school year). I'm not 100% sure how I feel about those protests. Because students do pay too much for school, but even with the hikes Quebec still has the lowest tuition rates in the country. Then I consider this fact, a leftover tidbit from when I did fundraising for my alma mater: tuition only covers 50% of the cost of education. The rest is paid for by a combination of taxpayer support, university endowment funds (for those that have them) and parental/alumni donations. My understanding is that about thirty years ago, student tuition only covered about 30% of the education costs and was even further subsidized. It`s really a question about how we value education and how accessible we want it to be for our future generations of young adults. I think the Quebec protesters have some valid points, but I think it`s getting buried based on the fact that they pay less than anyone else in the country. (And all the antics. So many antics.)
Then there`s the fact that the Parti Quebecois just won the provincial election. Are we really back to separatism again??? They had a referendum on the subject when I was younger and voted to stay ... can't we be done with that? I kind of take issue with the fact that certain factions in Quebec use the threat of separating in order to bully the rest of the country's political systems to get what they want. I want a decision to be made, one way or the other, and the issue dropped. If they're staying, fine, stay, but don't use the threat to continue to try and get more and more out of the national government.
But the really oh wow moment: someone tried to assassinate the leader of the Parti Quebecois while she was doing her victory speech. How crazy is that??? I have a lot more to read on the incident, but it just boggles my mind that someone truly thinks the best way to further their political desires is to take someone's life. It's nuts.
At least it keeps my morning newsfeed interesting!
The student protests over tuition hikes have been interesting enough to watch (and they're starting to affect another school year). I'm not 100% sure how I feel about those protests. Because students do pay too much for school, but even with the hikes Quebec still has the lowest tuition rates in the country. Then I consider this fact, a leftover tidbit from when I did fundraising for my alma mater: tuition only covers 50% of the cost of education. The rest is paid for by a combination of taxpayer support, university endowment funds (for those that have them) and parental/alumni donations. My understanding is that about thirty years ago, student tuition only covered about 30% of the education costs and was even further subsidized. It`s really a question about how we value education and how accessible we want it to be for our future generations of young adults. I think the Quebec protesters have some valid points, but I think it`s getting buried based on the fact that they pay less than anyone else in the country. (And all the antics. So many antics.)
Then there`s the fact that the Parti Quebecois just won the provincial election. Are we really back to separatism again??? They had a referendum on the subject when I was younger and voted to stay ... can't we be done with that? I kind of take issue with the fact that certain factions in Quebec use the threat of separating in order to bully the rest of the country's political systems to get what they want. I want a decision to be made, one way or the other, and the issue dropped. If they're staying, fine, stay, but don't use the threat to continue to try and get more and more out of the national government.
But the really oh wow moment: someone tried to assassinate the leader of the Parti Quebecois while she was doing her victory speech. How crazy is that??? I have a lot more to read on the incident, but it just boggles my mind that someone truly thinks the best way to further their political desires is to take someone's life. It's nuts.
At least it keeps my morning newsfeed interesting!
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
sleeping in
Some days this whole "working for a living" thing kind of sucks. Not that I don't like my job (because I do), and not that I'm short on money (while I could always use more I'm making out just fine), but it's just so tiring and takes up so much of my time.
I've had the best of intentions all last week. To make dinner, do laundry, cut up a watermelon, tidy up the basement. None of it's been done. I'm too tired by the time I get home to really deal with anything that involves more energy than just sitting here and doing something quiet. On the plus side that's meant I've had plenty of time to do crafting and reading and just chill out with Bunny, but it's also meant that I haven't felt very productive.
Even on days that I don't work I'm tired. Case in point, I went shopping on Saturday with my mom for a few hours, and I literally had a three hour nap afterwards. I probably could have slept straight through to the next morning. The past few mornings I've given up the desire for pretty eyeshadow in favour of another five minutes of sleep.
In deference to my increased need for sleep, I may start taking an extra day or two off from blogging a week. Hopefully posts will keep coming on a more normal 5 days a week schedule, but I'm just not going to beat myself up if it doesn't happen. There are too many important things going on in my life that I just don't want to miss out on.
I've had the best of intentions all last week. To make dinner, do laundry, cut up a watermelon, tidy up the basement. None of it's been done. I'm too tired by the time I get home to really deal with anything that involves more energy than just sitting here and doing something quiet. On the plus side that's meant I've had plenty of time to do crafting and reading and just chill out with Bunny, but it's also meant that I haven't felt very productive.
Even on days that I don't work I'm tired. Case in point, I went shopping on Saturday with my mom for a few hours, and I literally had a three hour nap afterwards. I probably could have slept straight through to the next morning. The past few mornings I've given up the desire for pretty eyeshadow in favour of another five minutes of sleep.
In deference to my increased need for sleep, I may start taking an extra day or two off from blogging a week. Hopefully posts will keep coming on a more normal 5 days a week schedule, but I'm just not going to beat myself up if it doesn't happen. There are too many important things going on in my life that I just don't want to miss out on.
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