Taking a Break

I will be taking a hiatus from blogging. I'm not sure how long I'll be gone, but I will be back. Until then...

Loungin Around on a Sunday


It was just one of those days where I felt kinda blah. I slept in until 11:00 am and have been in my pj's all day. I had no motivation to go out or do anything. [Hmmm, maybe it's that time of the month for me?] I hardly did anything, except clean up my room a bit, but that was pretty much it. Since I don't watch much tv, I decided to watch EDtv with Matthew McConaughey. It was quite funny, but I don't think I'd like the whole world to tune into my life. But then who does?

Just when you think something's not going to happen...

...you get a phone call from your uncle and suddenly anything's possible. Thanks Tito Joe, you're the best!

Walking Over the Bridge

Since it was quite a nice day (probably the last until winter is officially here), Irma and I went for a walk. And we decided to walk over the High Level bridge. We had talked about walking over it during the summer, but it never happened. But we finally did it. Yay! Crossing the bridge took 10 minutes. Considering we came from Whyte Ave, which is the southwest part of the city, it took us about 25 minutes to reach downtown. Once we crossed the bridge, we made our way around the Legislative Building and then headed back. We finished the day off with a Booster Juice. Yum!

And you thought that was all?

It's official. Canada 3000 has stopped operating. After watching the news and reading this article, Canada 3000 is gonzo. Which means that I'm not going to Hawaii. WHICH TOTALLY SUCKS!!! I've looked at other ways of getting there, but the airfare is double what I originally paid for. I'll call my travel agent on Monday to see if she can do anything for me. Cross your fingers...

There's more...

I skipped going to the gym before kickboxing because I was so tired. Mentally drained from what happened earlier this morning with the phone calls and the whole Hawaii thing, and physically drained from all that driving and running around this afternoon. I took a 30 minute power nap instead and felt much better. Then it was off to kickboxing.

Thinking nothing else could happen today, something minor did. As I was heading toward the freeway to get to class, traffic was backed up. Wasn't sure what was going on but traffic was slow. I started to think that maybe I shouldn't go to kickboxing and just turn around and go home. Apparently there was a 7 car pile up. A semi rear-ended a Neon (which was toast), which rear-ended a minivan, which rear-ended another car, and another car, and another car, oh and guess what ANOTHER CAR. [OK, I'm being just a wee bit sarcastic, but that's because I can be =P]. Anyway, I made it to the freeway and figured the drive would be OK. Wrong. I had people tailing me and cutting me off, and one almost caused another accident. How do these people get their licenses? I made it to class in one piece and I'm so glad I went. I feel much better now. :-)

I don't know which was worse -- the morning or the afternoon?

I left the house at 2:00 pm to drive out to Stony Plain. Since I'd never been there, I figured I'd take a dry run at trying to find my way to this place, so I'd know for tomorrow. Getting to Stony Plain was no problem. Trying to find the roads that they told me to turn onto was difficult. I don't think these roads even exist. I drove around for an hour and couldn't find the damn place. AARRGGHHH!! I finally decided to head back. I still had other stuff I had to do.

I went to the mall to pick up (and drop off more) drycleaning. Then I went to Esprit to look for this top that I want to wear to this anniversary party next weekend. But no luck. Ugh. I went to a couple other stores but couldn't find anything. I was getting irritable so I decided to go home and get something to eat.

So now I'm home. I'm tired and the sinus cavity above my left eye is throbing. And I still planning to go to the gym and kickboxing. Is this day ever going to end?

Could anything else happen today?!

I haven't left the house yet, and what a morning I've had so far. Between scheduling a time to go out to Stony Plain (small town west of Edmonton) for a possible temp job, scheduling doctors' appointments, calling the travel agent, and calling AMEX, I've been on the phone for the past couple hours. The temp job thing is only from now until Christmas, but I'm going out there tomorrow to see if it's something I want to do. The doctors' appointments were scheduled in no time. Talking to the travel agent was a bit disappointing.

I saw a bit of the news last night and the airline I booked my flight with may be filing for bankruptcy. Just great. I was talking with the travel agent and she couldn't really give me any answers as to what's going to happen. She looked at other flight alternatives, but they were double the price. I have no idea what's going to happen now, so now I have to wait. I hate waiting. If the airline does file for bankruptcy, I won't be able to go to Hawaii, which totally sucks!! AARRRGGHH!! It's a good thing I got travel insurance, so at least I'll be able to get most of my money, if not all of it, back should the airline go bankrupt. As for the hotel, that's up in the air too. I'll have to talk to my travel agent on Monday to see what's going on. After talking to her, I called AMEX to get some kind of purchase protection thing. In the event that the airline goes bankrupt, then I don't have to pay for the charges on my credit card.

And that's only been my morning. I still have a lot of running around to do. Not to mention a lot of driving too. *sigh*

Busy Day Ahead

I have a lot to do today. And why does it always seem that there's more to do on Fridays than any other day? OK, so maybe I've just been putting stuff off until today but whatever. I know it's gonna involve a lot of driving around. *sigh* Great. Oh well, better get going so I can get all this stuff done.

Workout

I went to the gym earlier this afternoon. It was good to go at that time because there was no one around, which meant that I didn't have to wait for any machines, etc. I hate going to the gym when it's totally packed because when you do get on a machine, there always seems to be one person who gives you the "eye" and you know they're thinking "Hurry up and get off will ya?!". Now they can stare at me all they want, but it's not gonna make me go any faster. And I'm not about to rush MY workout simply because they're following their program to a T and they happen to need that machine at that point in time. Sorry chickie, you can wait. =P

So being able to take my time was good. After I was done, I went to stretch and couldn't help but overhear a conversation between these 2 girls next to me (no, I wasn't being chismosa =P):

Girl 1: I love doing this one stretch because you just feel the stretch down your whole leg (as she places her leg on this bar and bends forward).

Girl 2: Oh really?

Girl 1: And I've noticed that my rectus (pointing to her thigh) is developing. I noticed it the other day and was like "sweet"

[blah blah blah -- they continue talking. I figured they were studying human anatomy in school or something with all these technical muscle terms they were using, so I stopped paying attention.]

Then Girl 1 says: *sigh* We're 23. We're so ancient.

I'm thinking "If you think 23 is ancient, what the hell am I supposed to be at 28?!" After I heard that, it just made me shake my head. I mean, I don't feel 28, nor do I feel ancient. All I have to say is these girls still have a long way to go before they feel ancient.

New Blog Experiment

As I was chatting with Bern, we came up with the idea of starting a collective blog. The idea is to come up with a new topic each day and then put our opinions on it, without using Reblogger (since it's been acting up again). Kinda like a daily debate. Each person will take turns coming up with something to talk about. It will be interesting to see what topics we come up with. ;-)

Day 2 of Unemployment

I'm starting to like this whole unemployment thing. Sleeping in. Lounging around the house. Running errands with my mom. Going to the gym. Going to kickboxing. Blah, blah, blah. Nothing to worry about. Well, I know I DO have to find a job. Can't be unemployed forever (unless I marry some rich guy or win the lottery or something, but what are the chances of that happening?). Guess I'll just take advantage of this freedom for the time being.

Reblogger is down again...

...*sigh*. I wonder if this is going to be a regular occurrence?

Oh well. Better get ready for my day...

New Additions

I've been wanting to do this for the longest time, but never had the time to figure it out. And I finally did it! YAY! After reading Bern's blog on tagalog and stuff, it kinda inspired me to add a few filipino links to my site, which I've been reading from time to time. [Hey Irma, now I don't have to search for all those sites I was looking at before. ;-)]. As for the colors, still not sure what to do with them. I'll figure that out another day.

*yawn*...

Cheap Movie Night

Irma and I watched 13 Ghosts at Eaton Centre tonight. The movie was OK. Not as scary as I thought it would be (didn't scream or jump out of my seat or anything). And it was a short movie too. I wouldn't recommend it. If you must see it, wait till it goes on video or DVD.

Since the movie ended early, we headed to the Sawmill for a drink. Of course, I had to get something to eat. So much for not eating out until Hawaii. =P

Keeping Myself Busy

Now that I have all this free time, I'm able to do things I wasn't able to do before because there was never any time. I cleaned up my room a bit, washed my car, picked up my drycleaning (which had been sitting there for 2 weeks) and at the same time dropped off more stuff to be drycleaned. [I think I should get a discount for all this business I'm giving them]. Hmmm, now what should I do. I'm kinda hungry, so I'm gonna get a snack. Ginatan anyone?

Day 1 of Unemployment Enjoyment

Slept in until 10:30 am. Woo hoo! But I've already received 2 phone calls in the span of 10 minutes from a former co-worker asking me questions on how to do things. What's wrong with this picture? Uh hello, I DON'T WORK THERE ANYMORE! Yes, I told her she could call me if she had any questions, but I didn't think she would. Not this soon anyway. And twice in 10 minutes? OK, I realize there's a lot to learn, but couldn't she look back in the file and figure it out?


Random Thought

Ever notice that some people can't figure things out for themselves? They always want someone to help them and hold their hand through the process. There's no initiative to think of the many different ways to do things. They've become so focused on a task that they end up limiting themselves to other possibilities. Then they get frustrated when things don't work out because they're so set in their ways of doing a certain task. And if they do have a process of doing things, they seem to make it so complicated that it's almost impossible to do whatever they have to do. They fail to see the simple way of accomplishing things.

Appendix to Previous Chapter

The intention was to go in for a couple hours (key word is COUPLE) to tie up the loose ends. And say my "goodbyes." Well, the couple hours turned into the whole day and the "goodbyes" weren't made. So I guess I'll just have to settle for the fact that the farewell lunch on Friday was my goodbye. I know I shouldn't be too concerned about it, but I guess I just wanted to "close" everything. I do know that I am detached from that place. I've made my decision to move on, and I'm not looking back. Now if only I could figure out what to do with all this spare time I have (besides look for another job)???

Birthday Celebration...the conclusion

I had the final birthday outing today. Thank goodness. As I've mentioned before, I'm getting tired of eating out. But what a way to end things off. Jenn took me to Hotel Macdonald for brunch. I had never been there before and it was interesting to see the hoity-toity people in this classy hotel. Jenn and I felt somewhat posh to be amongst this crowd. I noticed this one lady who was the epitome of high society. Your typical snob. She was so prim-and-proper and was all about the whole etiquette thing. Um yeah, that's nice. I mean, I'm not saying that I don't have any manners, but do other people really pay attention to which fork to use, and how you place your napkin on your lap, or even how you chew your food? Whatever...

Jenn and I were only there for the food anyway. Talk about FOOD! And the best part was it was a buffet. We started out with champagne and orange juice, eggs benedict, banana walnut pancakes, blueberry danish, and this lemon herb chicken dish. Yum! The second round consisted of shrimp, smoked salmon, adobe (not adobo =P) special baked halibut dish (or something), honey glazed carrots, and pasta with creamy sundried tomato sauce. That was only half of the buffet. We probably could've had another round, but we decided to have dessert instead. Because there was so much to choose from, Jenn and I decided to get a few things and just share them (we were starting to get full). We had tiramisu, chocolate cake, fruits (had to have something healthy), and peach crepes. The crepes were SO good.

After we ate, we went for a short walk around downtown because the food was starting to settle in our stomachs. Good thing the weather was nice. It got up to 13C/55F which is not typical weather for us during this time of year. Usually when there are warmer days like this, it's followed by a really cold day. And the weather forecast is calling for snow tomorrow (like you didn't see that one coming...). Oh well.

So that concludes my eating out phase. Since I'm going to be eating out when I go to Hawaii, I better stick to mom's cooking until then. Her food's always better anyways. ;-)

Blog Withdrawal

I feel like I haven't blogged in ages and it's only been a couple days (yes Irma, I'm feeling OK. hehehe). I guess I got used to entering something on my blog on a daily basis. But the last couple of days have been hectic, not to mention exhausting. But I'm back. Bear with me as I write about the events that happened during the past couple days.

Shopping with Irma

Irma and I went shopping at West Ed this afternoon. She had to return her boots (and no, it's not my fault that you bought them on impulse, so you can't blame me if you bought them and I wasn't there to stop you from doing it. hehehe. =P), as well as get her glasses fixed. We shopped around and of course, got something to eat. [I REALLY need to stop eating out! ;-)] As we were walking through the mall, I noticed that a few people have started their Christmas shopping. Ugh! It's too early for that. I don't even want to think about Christmas right now.

After shopping, we went to Chapters. Since I'm going to Hawaii (YAY!) and I've never been there, I figured I should pick up a guide on stuff to do, site-seeing, etc. So I got Frommer's Hawaii from $70 a Day. I took a quick glance through it and it seemed helpful. Which reminds me, gotta start thinking on what to pack...

Our next stop was to watch a movie. We saw Pearl Harbor at the discount theatres. I heard the movie was long, but I didn't think it was THAT long. My butt was getting kinda numb from sitting that whole time. I'm not a big fan of war movies, but I managed to stay awake through the whole thing. There were a couple teary moments, but overall I enjoyed the movie.

Key Notes from the movie:

stuttering

"Do you have any friends?" [hehehehe. :-)]

And of course, the night wouldn't be complete if Irma and I didn't make our "appearance" on Whyte Ave. ;-) We walked around for a while (to relieve the numbness in our gluteus maximus) and went to Tim Horton's to eat, AGAIN! Then it was off to the Billiard Club for a drink and finally called it a night.

Key Notes:

"Are you feeling OK?"

"Hold on a second. Let me look at your eye. You have an eyelash that's about to go into your eye" and gently blow into his eye, even if there's nothing there (excerpt from La Vie En Rose by Dominique Glocheux.

[another inside joke. hehehe. :-)]


The End of a Long Chapter

I woke up to an early alarm and as usual I turned it off. Not "snooze", but off. I looked at the clock and thought "What the hell am I doing up so early?". So I went back to sleep. It must've been a light sleep because I noticed these strobing lights shining through my window a little while later. A police car had stopped someone for speeding? Now who could possibly be in such a hurry that early in the morning when there is no traffic? I finally pulled myself out of bed and got ready for my day.

As I was pulling out of my drive way, I noticed the sky was a pinky-purply-orangey color. They say it's a sign that it was going to be a windy day? I'm not a meteorologist, so I don't know if that's true or not. [OK I'm digressing again...get back on track again Michelle =P]

I finally got to work and I was actually early. How ironic is that? I haven't made it to work on time for the last year, and I finally make it to work early on my last day. Speaking of irony, it was also my 3rd year anniversary with the company. How fitting is that? And the weird thing was, when I walked into the office, I felt detached.

I chit-chatted with Lynne for a while. She (along with a couple other co-workers) mentioned that they were going to miss my presence in the office. I didn't realize I had such an effect on people. From what Lynne told me, she said that she'd miss hearing my laughter from the other side of the office. She went on to say that, even though she didn't see me, as long as she could hear me she was OK. I didn't want to get all emotional first thing in the morning, so I put an end to that. She and I have become somewhat close, especially as of lately. I guess you could say she became my "big sister" in the office. I know I will definitely miss Lynne.

I finally decided to start my day. All these "last minute" things to wrap up. I plugged away at them and did what I could. Then we broke for lunch. [*sigh* another lunch? hehehe]. We went to Doan's Vietnamese Restaurant and had lots of food. Lemongrass chicken and beef, this seabass dish, cashew chicken, mixed vegetables and rice. Mmmmm! Before we ate, my boss made a toast to my pregnancy [No, I'm not pregnant. He just said that because he doesn't know the real reason I'm leaving because according to him, I gave him a half-ass answer when I handed in my resignation and he thinks there's more to it. Well, maybe there was but I didn't want to get into the details with him. What's the point? I'm digressing again, aren't I? Focus Michelle, focus!! =P].

After lunch, we went back to work. My boss and I were supposed to meet later that afternoon to "button things up." Only thing was, it didn't happen. His meeting took longer than expected, so we didn't get a chance to finish everything. Which means I have to go to work on Monday for about an hour. I could've been a bitch and just left him high and dry, but I would like to use him as a reference. Plus, he realized that I didn't want to stay longer than I had to, but was appreciative for me doing so. Monday will also give me a chance to say my final "goodbyes" to everyone, since they all left by the time I was done my meeting with my boss. Gee thanks! Yeah, I can see I'm really going to be missed.

So I guess this chapter isn't quite finished. There will be an appendix to follow...

1 more sleep...

...*yawn*...

[Sorry for the lack of blog updates. It's been a rough day.]