Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

February 14, 2007

What did you get for V-day? I got an exploding egg.

Steph always prepares breakfast for us and feeds the dog while I get ready in the mornings. It takes him much less time to get ready. The dress code at his work is casual, he wears no make up and he has no hair. So this morning I walk in the kitchen and Steph is taking my the shells off my hard boiled eggs. We normally both eat boiled eggs, but this morning he decided to fry his. So anyway, he realizes that my boiled eggs aren’t cooked enough. The middle is still too runny and the white looks snotty too. So he says “Oh I’ll just put them in the microwave a little and they’ll cook”. Yeah. Neither of us remembered what happened the last time that I microwaved a boiled egg apparently hehe. The microwave went “POW” and one of my eggs had exploded. There were still some big pieces of that egg on my plate so as Steph handed me my breakfast he laughed and said “Oh well, that one’s already cut up”. I was laughing too…..

And then I took my knife and barely touched the 2nd egg…. “POW”!!!!…… !!!. My egg exploaded furiously all over me and the walls. There were even bits of egg on the cathedral height ceiling. egg all over the floor. I was laughing so hard I was crying. I think that Steph wasn’t sure wether I was crying or laughing, he was brushing bits of egg off my sweater and off my hair with his hand…. I was crying/laughing. I had the great idea of letting the dog eat all the bits of egg on the floor, but he’s the typical male and only picked up the bigger pieces. So I have a lovely egg mess waiting for me all over my walls, floor, table, and table centerpiece waiting for me when I get home :-S Fantastic. As depressing as the thought of cleaning that mess up sounds, I’m still laughing right now as I’m thinking about the egg exploading and my reaction and Steph looking at me with his mouth wide open. LOL!


Anatomy of a dreadful day.

February 14, 2007

If you’re part of the “HM Gang” blogger ring…. (That’s what I call all of the 2003 girls + HM girls + 20 something girls + my best real life friends group of blogs), then you’re probably familiar with the “Anatomy” post series. I *think* that Heather, Justine and Lisa all posted an “Anatomy of ……” entry. Unfortunately because of the incident below, the blogger bar on top of yalls blogs isn’t displayed. Instead I get a lovely “page restricted” warning. So I can’t search blogs anymore :( So you’ll have to search for the Anatomy series yourself hehe.

So my day started at 6am. It was supposed to be 5am but I just couldn’t do it. I’m the most anti-morning person you’ll ever know. Getting up before 6am makes me seriously physically ill. I’ve always been like that. [Having flashbacks of getting up at 4am to leave for a "New Kids on the Block concert bus tour" when I was a kid. I counted the days for months, I was sooo exited I thought I would explode. Until the morning finally came and we had to get up at 4am and I was so sick I couldn't enjoy that first day at all.] So yeah, at 7h30am I was at work waiting with J for G. G was driving. G was late as always. The meeting started at 10am and he wanted to leave at 8am. Which means 8h30am G time. So for the week prior to the meeting we begged him to leave at 7h30am, which really meant 8am G time. It worked! At least one good thing yesterday… we were NOT late for once. Nothing like 3 alienated regional staff walking in to a 200 person meeting in full session.

When we’re more than 2 we normally rent an SUV. He rented a Ford Fusion for some reason. Which I now know that I’ll NEVER own such a car. We all hated it. So off we went… We weren’t even on the highway when G started to play with the freakin radio stations. Which he did all the freaking way. I don’t think we ever listened to a full song the whole way there and back, besides the 2 songs that played while he was busy drinking coffee and talking on his cell phone. At one point he had NO hands on the wheel. ACK. Those 2 songs were ironically really not a song I’d expect them to listen to in their spare time. The first one was “Bah-bah-bah-bah-bah bad to the bones” and the other was “You shook me all night long” by ACDC. snort. (If you know G and J you’ll find this rather funny too hehe)

During the drive G kept shouting “OH MY GOD!” Me and J would go “WHAT!?” And he would reply something that really did not necessitate such an enthusiastic exclamation like “Look at that, another red Ford Fusion”. or “That truck in the front doesn’t have the appropriate wood truss hauling rack”. I’ll spare you the rest of the details that would only be funny ‘if you were there’ hehe. So guess what happened at the panic inducing meeting? If you know me and my whining, you probably already know. The same thing that regularly happens happened. Someone that works in a nicer office probably took the department’s organization chart and moved half of the little boxes around and called it a restructurization. And oh yeah… how fair is it that every employee besides the Admin. Staff get their own org. chart box ? I have to share my box with 2 other employees pfft :P So that’s one of my goals for my next job: have my own org. chart box. :P

Some people are happy, some are not. But most of the changes won’t take effect until the province presents the budget. Which won’t be after the feds present their budget. I think it’ll be mid-march. And then with all the 400 million deficit talk…. I bet we’re in for a few surprises. Which could warrant another org charg shake anyway. So basically… it was a meeting to kinda set the mood for the changes to come. So the verdict is, I still have a job and probably will until my contract ends in June. But the thing is, I really don’t know if I’ll renew. It might be time to move on.

The meeting ended at 12. A bunch of us went to eat at the restaurant in the Crowne Plaza since we were there anyway. It was a lunch buffet, and I did really good. I did so good that at least 3 people asked me why I was ‘barely eating’. heh. Gotta love those stick thin people with the heaping plates eh? FYI, I ate more than barely. I had a nice sized (about 4oz) of skinless chicken breast with a very hot and delicious thai sauce over it, and half a cup of mashed potatoes. Then for dessert I had a cup of “fresh” (fresh but wrinkled) fruit salad. Go me! (Let’s not mention the 2 fat-free pudding cups, 2 source yogurts and 5 caramel chocolate chip rice cakes I had at home later, post-breakdown.)

At 1pm we walked across to head office because J had a short meeting and G had to “talk to a couple of guys”. Well we only left F’ton at 5h30pm. UGH!!!! I had to wait all by myself for like 2 hours until J came out and made the waiting all that more painful because she just can’t sit still. At first I waited in the lobby… until G came out and asked me to run down to his car to get a box of papers and bring it to records management. It was like minus 200 yesterday. He wasn’t even parked on King st. At some point I saw a 20$ bill swirl and fly away in the wind, into the street, and I realized that it was mine. And you know how broke I’ve been lately. Yep, the cars kept passing and the 20$ bill kept swirling more furiously further away. At some point, on the verge of frozen tears, I dashed in the road (yes, I was willing to be hit by a car for 20$ LOL) and finally caught my 20$ and stuck it DEEP in my pocket.

I went to deliver the papers and went back to wait in the lobby. There was some asian guy sitting there, wearing a business suit and tie, and white Nike sneakers. He got up and started taking pictures (of the lobby and me?) with his cell phone camera. Then he sat down and asked me : What…. er… do.. you.. do here? Me “Here at ……. you mean?” him “Yes”. Me “In short, business development. We facilitate…. commercialization…. innovation funds… etc” Him “oh.. okay…” Me “Are you waiting to meet someone?” Him “No… I… jest.. had.. interroo” Oookay. I wished him luck. Then M sees me in the lobby and finds it ridiculous (as did I) that no one invited me to wait in a more comfortable spot, and he takes me to one of the vacant offices. Only it wasn’t vacant. I turn around and he’s gone. er…. okay. So I go to wait in another waiting area, and C sees me and says to come with him, CA isn’t there today I can go wait in his office and use his computer etc. Okay. Then J finally comes out of her meeting and I hear her voice in the halls “I’m looking for Nancy”? So I stick my head out and now the 2 of us wait in there for about an hour. Then at some point we decide to go wait in the waiting area outside the office where G is having his meeting so that he hears our voices and realizes that he’s made us wait for too long and that it’s rude.

We wait another 42 hours, and then G finally comes out and he’s jogging and says that he has to go meet with Y and M and he’ll know what’s the scenario in a few minutes. I’m like WHAT? I thought the only scenario was that we’re finally going home!! So anyways. The meeting ended at 12 and we were only on the road at 5h30. Do you know how long it feels when you have to wait somewhere where you feel that you’re in the way and you’ve got nothing to do?

Well this is already way too long, so here are bullet points for the rest of the interesting crap :

  • You know how I’m always whining that I’ve been working on contract for 5 years and don’t feel like I’m going to be hired permanently anytime soon? Well I was talking to L, and she’s been working for them on contract for 17 years! SEVENTEEN years. On contract. Do you think that they might need her services next year? Geez. She’s retiring in 5 years so she doesn’t care if she ever gets hired now. But I won’t hold my breath this year.
  • Because I’m their kids age, because I’m fat, because I’m just plain not likeable or a combination of all those factors, people in my department just don’t seem to like me, pay attention to what I say, or even notice me. I’m the invisible employee. It was ridiculous. I could be having a conversation with someone and as soon as L or J flapped open their pihole, all attention turned to them and my conversation was left hanging. Several times yesterday. It kicked the little bit of self-esteem I had left in the nuts.

OMG! I’m logged in!! Thank you Justine!!!

February 14, 2007

This morning, as every workday morning, I sat down at my desk with my steaming cup of coffee, ready to browse through all of my favorite blogs. I was able to comment on a couple of blogs, but half of the other blogs I can’t comment on!!! The comment page is blocked!! GAH! Bloody hell. Then I tried blogger.com and when I try to log in… BLOCKED!!! I was seriously on the verge of tears. Blogging and reading blogs and commenting on them is my very favorite thing to do at work when I’ve got nothing to do. Which is really quite often. I was crushed!!! At least thankfully I can still read all the blogs through bloglines. But I can’t comment on half of your blogs unless i remember to do so when I’m home :-S

So anyway, I see Justine updated her blog, I try to comment, and it WORKS! And then lightbulb moment, since it already let me log in to comment, I try blogger.com… IT WORKED!!! Thanks Justine! I don’t know if I’m always going to have to go through your blog to blog at work, but hopefully you don’t mind me using your blog as my personal portal :P hehe

iVillage-ing is really getting old too. I’m seriously contemplating stepping down as cl of my two dead boards. (The Biggest Loser is over… until the next season at least… but who’s going to talk about the show when it’s not on? And Light & Lean Cooking isn’t that popular. Why would an ivillager invest time in such a board when they can join a more ’specific’ & trendy boards like Weight Watchers or South Beach Diet?) And frankly, the 3$ a month compensation (free ‘express yourself’ package for cls) isn’t that motivating anymore, since I don’t particularly enjoy iVillage as much as I used to. And to be bold, the yearly Christmas cl gifts are getting lamer and lamer. Miika and Amanda, are you wearing your fabulous ilead iconnect ipost baseball caps? They should have sent toques instead. That’s just me and my practical side coming out.) Anyway, all that to say that I really don’t enjoy iVillage anymore. It’s hard work trying to liven up a dead board and to be required to post several times a week aka talk to yourself. And do board reports about all that talking to yourself. I’m almost sure that I’m going to step down, but I feel guilty. Argh. Stupid guilt. Stupid useless emotion as my friend would say. What do you think I should do? Please make up my mind for me?

PS. I’m particularly frazzled today, had a LONG day yesterday. So I’ll probably be blogging like a freaking maniac today since I could finally log in.