Busy Busy Busy

I'm so neglectful sometimes, my appologies. One would think having 10 days off for holidays would make for plenty of time to laze around and relax. Not so i'm afraid. I have a few friends home for the holidays that i do not get to see very often so i've been trying to spend quality time with each of them...which has not really worked out haha but i digress. Howard arrived home on the 15th and i have yet to see him and Jen was down for a few days and i also missed her. As well an old coworker is back in town from the Yukon for a few days and yup you guessed it...didn't get a chance to see her either. Mind you she called when i was out of town and i did call her back and left a message hoping to catch her on her last night here.

I went to a Christmas pubcrawl dressed up as Jack Skellington (see above pic) which is always good times. There were lots of funny costumes....Mary with the tummy and all, the really ugly bad christmas sweater, elves, reindeer, santa...you get the picture. We managed to make it to 7 bars which is not so bad, though the pubcrawl is called the 12 Bars of Christmas, so i guess we were slacking a bit or enjoying ourselves too much with the booze!!

On boxing day i was up at 6:30am and drove with my mom and sister to a mall about an hour away. We shopped till 5pm and yes we got some deals and i finally bought a digital camera yay for me!!! A few minutes later i get a call from Dawn asking about Gavin's open house that night.....i had completely forgot about it and was exhausted but we went and had a good time as all our old buddies were there.

Yesterday a bunch of us went up to TO. Now Moe a friend of mine is down from Dubai for the holidays. He asks me if he needs to bring anything. I suggest pj's a toothbrush stuff like that for the night. He brings nothing and makes us stop at a store so he can get a toothbrush and some deoderant but only because we were disgusted that he didn't bring anything. A few friends stayed in the hotel room and drank while Moe and i went to the Raptors game. We had great seats and ended up meeting Jennifer and Sly for some beverages as well as the hotel crowd. We danced and drank and i ended up chatting with a fellow at the bar and for some reason i took a picture of him LOL. Turns out he also does not eat meat and i got his digits, but we'll see, not sure he's quite my type. We return to the hotel where it's mayhem as we've had far too much to drink and we're all rather silly. In the morning I discover rugburn on my elbow ... curious... and i drag everyone to the Red Room for Pad Thai. Jennifer you will be happy to know that my New Year's resolution will be to step outside the box and try new things....get out of my comfort zone.

As for the next few days...well New Years is creeping up on us and i'm so indecisive. Happy New Years to everyone though !!!

The New/Old Job

So i'm back at my old job from a few years ago and i love every minute of it...well most of the time. Right now i'm concentrating on getting my client's files in order and figuring out all the fuck ups our two students have made but don't even get me started on them ughh. Anyway so i meet with people on probation and find them places to do their Community Service Hours. I probably have around 200 clients that i must see every month. Two of my favorite came in today.

The first gentleman i had the pleasure of hearing on the phone the other day while his probation officer and myself were disscussing an appointment for him to come and see me. She assured me he's really a big teddy bear deep down inside and laughed. He strolls into my office today 30 minutes late asking when i'm going to hurry up and see him cause he doesn't have all day. I start laughing immediately before i've even turned the corner to meet him. He's got some spunk that's for sure. I don't bother to reschedule his appointment as i'm surprised he came down at all to see me. In my office he proceeds to tell me that he's not going back to his placement cause he got bugs there....whatever that means....so i'm going through our database trying to find one for him. He complains about all the ones i choose, he's loud, crass and has absolutely no people skills whatsoever....I ask him if he has computer skills and he laughs and tells me that he can't even read or write...throughout all this though he puts a smile on my face and i am able to joke around with him even though he's a crotchity old bastard and i get a smile from him back.

The 2nd fav of the day is a girl who calls me in the morning and tells me she didn't fucking wake up in time for our fucking appointment and she needs to fucking reschedule it. Classy gal i can see. So we reschedule it for later in the day and she shows up 45 mins early and then appears rather angry in the waiting room that i'm busy when she's arrived and cannot take her right away. I did mangage to see her 30 mins before her scheduled time.....

Ah now i remember why i missed this job so much. You don't run into people like this everyday and as much as some of them will be a big pain in my ass, they keep me on my toes and make me laugh.

The Kingdom

So there is this bar that is about a 40 min drive from my house called The Kingdom. When my friends and i were in our late teens we would go religiously every friday and continued to do so until our mid 20's. It did not matter if the weather was shit, we were hardcore and went in blizzards, i remember driving behind plows and salt trucks all the way home once, it took us 3 hours LOL. I guess the reason we loved it so much there is that it was very big and they played fantastic alternative music 102.1 The Edge live to air. So as we grew older we did not go as much. A few of us went about a year and a half ago and had a great time as usual. Now i recall being horrifically embarassed as we had not been in almost a year at that point and the bartender looked at me and handed me a Canadian ... the beer i always drank there and he just smiled.

So skip ahead another year and a half later to last night. Dawn, Dave and I decide to make the trek up there and party like we're 19 again. Well actually Dave bailed but he's forgiven, we're going to the Mandarin next week :) So Dawn and I made the trek up there. We arrived fairly early because parking was always a terrible issue. We grabbed a couple of beers and sat down at a table. We then proceeded to laugh and smile and sing along both very excited to be back in our element. It felt great. We continued on the evening pointing out TYB's and i must say mine was quite the dancer. Larger fellow but man could he move and i'm being serious i loved the way he just let go on the dance floor it was great he reminded us of the Cosmic Dancer but better...anyone in our Gord's days will get that reference. Yes of course there were younger kids there, but i didn't feel exceptionally old or anything, though a lot of the guys were really quite tiny and short. It also occured to us that in the past year and a half it has turned into a big make-out bar...everywhere we turned people were getting down and dirty which i don't recall seeing in my previous years there.

We had a fantastic time and danced the night away. I'm sure we will be making the trek up there again sometime soon. And guess who i saw there....yes indeed....the same bartender i've been seeing there for years....and yes he smiled and asked me how i was doing and handed me a canadian, shameful i am.

By the way i purchased the school supplies for a child in Laos as my gift :)

Editorials in the Paper

I was reading the newspaper last week and came across what i found to be a funny
response to an editorial. It was titled: Killing is a funny way to show love for animals. So this woman responds to another woman's editorial by saying : "So and so mentions that she is an avid animal lover and almost in the same breath mentions that hunters are animal and nature lovers too. I have never understood how hunters can use that phrase. When you love something you don't murder it. You don't watch your beloved in all it's beauty and then blow it away with your gun or bow. I'm glad she doesn't love me or my children."

The letter continues on about how humans should respect the planet and other earthlings on it, but i just started to laugh when i read that last sentence, i thought good for her it put a smile on my face. Granted it was one of those "she didn't just write that" type of laughs. Of course since then there have been many editorials in response to this woman's about the definition of murder blah blah.

As for my weekend i went out for a lovely dinner with a few of my fellow volleyball players and some friends. Dinner was great ... as were the many drinks that followed. I must say i have never in my life consumed so many martini's and cosmos at one time. I payed for it dearly the next day as i could not even get out of bed until 2pm and then only managed to make it onto the couch for a few more hours of rest. I suppose this is what i get for staying in the past few weekends a big kick in the ass from the booze. I am never going out again :S

P.S Jennifer your boyfriend was there in his cowoboy boots and white button down shirt with Wrangler embroidered down both sleeves :)

Ten Thousand Villages

So i came across an article in the paper last week that got me thinking about Christmas and gifts. The following is a rundown of the article.

No Kidding Give a Goat for Christmas

For that dreaded impossible to buy for person on your Christmas list, how about a goat? The $31 goat you buy from Ten Thousand Villages goes straight to Rwanda. The article goes on to say that in our country so many of us have more then we can shake a stick at and giving someone a living gift, as they call them makes sense.

For $40, 100 kilograms of corn will feed a farming family in Burkina Faso in West Africa, where crops have been devastated in recent years by locusts and drought.

$25 will buy school supplies for children in the impoverished Southeast Asian country of Laos.

$10 will buy 10 chickens that will give a new start to Croatian families returning to their farms after years of civil war.

I think this is brillant and would love to send something however i am having a bit of a struggle deciding what to send. I do not eat meat and cannot imagine sending chickens or goats but at the same time am not sure i have an extra $40 lying around to purchase corn....well i suppose if i'm being honest i technically would if i missed a night out. As well it got me thinking, i don't generally push my views on others and if chickens or a goat could really help these people out why am i so hesitent to send such a gift? Perhaps the school supplies would be the best way for me to go, not too pricey and i believe that education is everything. Unless someone would like to split on the corn with me ......... ahhh i'm such an indecisive person, thoughts anyone? I also struggle with the fact that there are alot of needy people in my own backyard...should i instead find an organization here in Canada and donate to them? Help me decide........


Just to give a bit of a background on Ten Thousand Villages they provide vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America.

Ten Thousand Villages works with artisans who would otherwise be unemployed or underemployed, providing sustainable income through fair trade. This income helps pay for food, education, health care and housing. Thousands of volunteers in Canada and the United States work with Ten Thousand Villages in their home communities.

For more information about these living gifts and possible locations near you visit:

http://www.tenthousandvillages.ca/

Ah Mode comes through yet again :)

Apparently i have no idea how to incorporate my pics throughout the blog at the appropriate places so just enjoy them as they are.

So Sly and I and a few of her friends went to see the Depeche Mode concert on the 1st and as expected it was absolutely phenomenal. We were right in the action eighth row to be exact, which does make all the difference in the world. The Ravonette's opened up for them and as Sly began dancing in the aisle one of the men in suits came up and told her no dancing LOL and ushered her back into the seated area....whatever was she thinking dancing in the aisle at a concert...tsk tsk :P
The Ravonette's finish their set which we all enjoyed and Sly and myself bugger off for a bit the usual pee break, check out the goods sort of thing.

We return to our seats, a gentleman in the front row raises his beer and shouts out a toast to Mode and we all cheer. The lights go low and oh yes it is time !!!! Everyone is screaming and yelling and the excitment is growing. Be still my heart there they are ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Let me describe everything before i go any further. First of all there is a giant silver sphere with a window on stage with words that light up according to the song as well as these UFO type of keyboard stands. Dave Gahan is looking sexy as usual in his black pants and a vest which he strips off at some point....showing off his sweaty tattooed body...and he struts and moves his hips gyrating and i'm damn sure this is what heaven feels like :) And of course the lovely Martin Gore looks spectacular in his fallen angel get-up. He has on all black of course as well as a kilt, feathered wings and a fuzzy mohawkish hat and sparkles on his face. He whips out a star shaped guitar for a few songs and i know i'm in love ... he makes me tingly :) The set list was phenonmenal as you can see up above....my favorites being Never Let Me Down Again & Somebody & Everything Counts & Home &....oh fuck who am i kidding i love them all :) I must say though the way that Martin sang Somebody was hauntingly beautiful it sent shivers throughout my entire body and brought Sly to tears....it's such a heartfelt and honest song.

We screamed and clapped and danced and had our arms in the air the whole time and i had not a care in the world. It was like we were five again and it was Christmas day. My whole mind body and spirit were there in that moment, which is rare. Usually i'm trying to do 10 things at once and my mind is wandering around....but for those 2 hours i was there, really there enjoying every second of it with my good friend and our boys serenading us hehe.

I have this ridiculous grin on my face even thinking about it .... the singing was spot on, the setlist amazing, the band was sexy and gorgeous as usual and the crowd had a great energy about them...it was perfect!!! Thanks go out to Sly for holding a Lottery :) We've been going to concerts together for years now .. back to like 1992 when we went to see The Cure's Wish tour...we're old pros at this and the times just get better and better :)

HNT, Mode and a new job

Alright so this week has turned out to be surprisingly swell. I found out Sly had an extra Depeche Mode ticket ... 8th row i must add ... and i shall be right there with her. It's very nostalgic for us as we have attended a few Mode concerts together dating back to 1993 & 1994 good times always.

As well i have been offered a position at my old place of employment which i accepted. For the time being it is a contract but just getting my foot back in the door is great. My old supervisor/co-worker is the head honcho now and told me if noone applied internally she already told the board it was my position and alas noone did so yay for me :)
It was funny though when i told my current employer of my plans i mentioned that i would have friday's off ... which i was very excited about a long weekend every week. She then suckered me into staying in my current postion just on fridays LOL, it's good to feel wanted. I actually felt validated today i must say like i've actually been doing something right for them to all want a piece of me :)

I also watched Bridget Jones to refresh my memory before i viewed the 2nd one and oh my i think i'm her LOL the resemblance is uncanny really... they granny underpants the few extra pounds her lack of tact...on and on the list goes.

As for my picture it is one of my ears as you can see. I do enjoy earings/piercings and have 9 altogether in various places. It is however getting late and i must get my beauty sleep ... i do have to be in top form for my darling Martin Gore tomorrow evening :)