At last, it is time to retire my old wallet. I've had it for a whopping 11 years. I barely even remember getting it, and I think it was a grade 8 graduation present from my dad. I remember having an old eddie bauer wallet that got stolen in grade 8, so i think it was around then when i got this new one.

We've shared some good times together, and it's memory will live on! I still have the chain (a $1.99 purchase from Canadian Tire!) which i have surgically added to my new wallet. I'm sure many of you are rejoycing at its passing, and rightfully so. It was at a pretty sorry state this past year. I'm not one to hold on to many things for a long time, but i guess this was one of my exceptions. But we've all gotta get rid of the old and start fresh sooner or later right? :)

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry"

Moving Day! Friday was the big day, with the movers coming in and taking our stuff to the new house. It was quite funny since the new house is only 1 block away :). But it makes a ton of difference.

The new house is away from a really busy side street that many Yonge St. drivers take as an alternate route. It’s quite hectic especially before/after school, because there are 6 schools within a 5 minute drive of my house.

I had the day off from work to help out w/my parents during the move. But my luck, I got a bad case of an office flu that hit HARD 4:00 PM Thursday night. I was out with severe aches and pains, headache, stuffed nose and sore throat. I don’t think I’ve ever had it happen so fast. Usually it’s a sore throat, some sniffling and the next day it hits you. This time I was at work perfectly fine by the afternoon, and could actually feel the virus go into each part of my body within 2 hours. It was crazy.

Rather then being a help on moving day, I was more like a dead weight. My dad told the movers just to move my bed with me in it into the truck, and to be honest, if they did that I wouldn’t have noticed!

Today I feel much better, and can help out a bit more. It’s some kind of 24 hr. knockout virus or something. I have been able to help out by unpacking the basement rec room and upstairs washroom, with the internet hooked up and washroom looking liveable. Even though I was deathly sick, I still mustered the strength to set up my room. It’s a tighter space than my old room, however I took out a piece of furnature to help give it the illusion of a bigger room than it is. Good thing I don’t need too much in my room—all I need to add is my sleek Damien Rice frame and a few candle accents and I’m good (until I move out!). heh. Next week I should be of more use, however most of the big work is already done!

I think I may take a day off work on Monday just incase, b/c I don’t want to spread it to anyone else there, and I don’t think I’ll be able to handle the workload given the sad state I’m in! We’ll see how I feel though!

Take care,

RE

“eat drink and be merry”

Before I start, i hope you like the new look of the site! New year, new look :)

So..

It has been an insane 3 weeks since I last wrote. Work has been madness. No really, not the usually madness that I talk about, 12-15 hr. a day MADNESS!

First off, my manager was on vacation for a week since the first day of work back. No problem, since everyone deserves a vacation... But of course, in my team, after me (a lowly coordinator) the next person up is the account director! That's a $60-80K difference in salary (+ a share in the company's profits, so I'm sure it's higher than that!). Can we say understaffed?

It was tough because I had to put on an account manager hat, sitting in meetings about programs that I knew little about. When clients asked me questions, I had to give short and opened ended answers like "well, that's something we're still exploring" or "I'll have to get back to you to verify" or some shit like that. It was super bad for the first 3 days because of a major program that my manager has been spearheading mostly herself. I was also on vacation just before she left, so I had a backlog of 100 emails to catch up on my programs that she was covering for me.

Anyway, the main issue was that one major program I just wrote about. I assisted with the concept development stage before the pitch (November/Dec), but after I've only been doing siloed tasks like building the critical path. Of course, the account director had many other things to take care of (since she has to manage more than just my accounts) so sometimes I was left working on decks and that budgets by myself. Thankfully after those 3-4 days of hell I started to get an understanding of the mechanics of the program, and more importantly the budget!

Ok, I'm getting into too much detail, and obviously I can't get into detail about the programs on an online journal. But all in all, when my manger got back from vacation she had to go to Montreal on business, and while there one of her family members passed away! OI! Understandably, she was MIA for a few MORE days... That lasted until this week, when she finally got back.

Even while she's back, I‚m still working until 8, but it's better than 10-11 p.m. I know it sounds insane, but the "regular" firefighting work hours of 8:30-5:30 just fly by, and it's only then when I can start doing some of my own work.

OK enough about work. I am starting to look for a new job, so when (if!) I find time I will send out a few more feelers and see how the market responds. I've sent 2 out already, with more to come.

Bday Dinners and Moving

Yesterday I celebrated one of my longstanding best friends' 25th bday. Wow, a quarter century. He's the same age as me, so my big 2-5 is coming soon too... So. We went out with a couple friends to Milestones, sitting in a booth with high tables and low lighting. I think I have a smurf torso b/c I felt like I was at "the big people's table". I just sunk into the booth too the point where the top of the table covered 3/4 of my chest! I reverted back to my younger days by taking off my shoes and crossing my legs (a la budda style) to give me some lift :)

I gave him a Floyd calendar and a great shirt from American Apparel (almost bought of another colour one myself), which I think is totally his style. He already has great style, and I think it will accompany his wardrobe quite well. Let's hope it fits him. I know that he has commented that some of the shirts sat just a bit too high on the waist, so I made sure that the silver grey t-shirt (with subtle lime green stitching) I got him was cut an inch longer. I'm always apprehensive about buying clothes without trying them on, but this time I thought I'd take the plunge. Plus, there's always a gift receipt!

Today I'm also packing because the big house move is next week! Let's hope these next few days will be the only snowstorm for the next week, or else it will be an even tougher move! I get a day off from work for moving, so at least I can help out as much as I can on the big day. This afternoon I should be packing, but I'm writing instead. Heh. There isn't too much of my stuff to pack, b/c most of my stuff is still in boxes from when I was in co-op at university. Too bad for my sister though. She's 9 years younger, however she's got 4x as many clothes, accessories and other crap than me. I guess I'm a bit of a minimalist compared to her!

I have another bday to go to tonight, which I have been planning for the past week. The only thing I couldn't plan on is this insane weather! It's crazy out, and thankfully I did my shopping in the morning just as the snow started to come down super hard. This night will not fall because of the snow, and I will keep you posted on how it went!

Take care,

RE

"Eat drink and be merry"

Happy New Year Everyone!

Wow, the holidays came and went really fast, just like it does every year. Each year there is the intent to do so many things, b/c there is “so much” time to do everything. The possibilities are endless.

But as usual, time runs up and you wonder what the hell you did with “all this time off”. If you think about it though, you only get about week off. I guess it’s the anticipation of everything, which starts weeks before the actual holidays.

I feel for those who have to work even during these weeks, and for you I tip my hat off. I SERIOUSLY needed this time off, more than I realized. I haven’t had a true vacation since I started working in February, so this was definitely due.

This Christmas was mostly spent with family/friends as well as scrambling to get gifts finished. Speaking of which, I am content with my spending this year. It’s always a bit nerve racking when I’m tallying up how much I spent, but after using the “=sum()” function in excel, the final number wasn’t too bad! Seeing that university was over, there were less school friends to buy gifts for, nor roommates or any clubs/associations I was apart of either…Only 1 secret santa this year! Course, the $$ per person was higher, but thankfully it didn’t hurt the pocket TOO badly.

Gifts
Well, the biggest gift I received was a 20 GB iPod. I was totally shocked when my parent suggested it, since I didn’t think they would go for such a bit ticket item for me. Hey, I’m not complaining! :). Since I am using a PowerMac, it was really easy to sync up the music to my iPod. It was basically plugging it into my computer and coming back 10 mins later! There wasn’t any software to install, or anything other than ripping my Cds into the computer.

I found a cool hack program that lets me access the iPod, in the event I want to take music from the iPod off to my mac. The problem with it is the way iPod categorizes its files – there is NO rhyme or reason to it! All my music is subdivided into “f” folders, numbered from “f00” to “f49”, with about 10-25 music files per folder. I’m sure there has got to be some reason for it, but finding an album would require digging through each folder one by one to find out where all 12 tracks are. They are not placed together by name, date modified, date imported, file size or kbps rate. Who knows. Ah well.

I also received some great gifts from my other family and friends, which included an assortment of wonderful organic herbal teas, an alternative foods cooking cookbook, Cranium, Cds, iPod accessories, American Apparel / H&M / Mexx clothing and a super snuggily handmade fleece blanket. I am truly grateful for all these amazing gifts! WOW, my friends/family really know what I want :). I’d say there wasn’t anything that I didn’t want or liked, which can be a super issue when it comes to clothing.

Present for SBF
This was actually the first xmas spent with SBF. This has been quite a great year so far, and for a xmas present I give him gifts and began with “H”. That translated to: Something...

Hallmark;
Huggibly H&M;
Handy;
Hilarious; and
...Something from the Heart

I think he liked the gifts, b/c c’mon, it’s always fun to get lots of little gifts :). To even my surprise, I even wrapped it in remaining wrapping paper from Christmas and not newspaper (we exchanged our gifts after Christmas/boxing day)! SBF’s gift to me was extra special as well, with each gift corresponding to “EAT” “DRINK” and “BE MERRY”. Impressive indeed!!

Paying Respect
This marks the 6th Birthday since my cousin passed away. His birthday was on Dec 25, and each year we go to pay our respects. I got some potted mums to place on the grave. He would have turned 25 years old this Christmas. I still miss him a ton b/c he is my age and theoretically we could have been close cousins/friends. Visiting his grave each Christmas is NOT something that puts a damper on the day, and on the contrary, it reminds me of the delicacy and beauty of living. We are not invincible. Dave Matthews has written many songs that speaks to death and tragedy: rather than mourning forever you’ve got to live life to the fullest and celebrate life for its sweetness and shortness. My favourite quote, “Eat drink and be merry” is from a Dave Matthews lyric that speaks to celebrating today b/c for all you know tomorrow we may die. This quote also does have a historical reference too:

There is nothing under the sun better for man than to eat, drink, and be merry. Go, therefore, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with cheer.” Ecclesiastes 8:15

I’ll just leave it at that.

Dinner in our own Italy
Without getting too personal, over the xmas holidays I did get to see my SBF. We actually didn’t get to see each other until the following Tuesday, due to our family engagements as well as seeing our friends. SBF went back home outside of Toronto and had lots of catching up to do with his family and friends back home. We booked off the entire Tuesday and New Year’s Eve together. I can be quite a hopeless romantic, and so the evening before we went off to New Year’s celebrations with friends we had a special dinner together. SBF found a organic pizza place downtown called Magic Oven that makes Organic Spelt and Gluten free dough, Organic Non-Dairy and Rennet Free Cheese, Dairy Free and Vegan Pizzas. For once I could have a pizza! It was perfect. We ordered take out and transformed his dining room into our own little alternative restaurante in Italy, accompanied by the mellow sounds of Diana Krall. We also made some vegetarian rice pasta to go with our meal, topped off with mango juice to wash everything down. What better way to spend an evening before heading out for New Years!

Wedding Bells!
Oh, I have to write about this. I will be the BEST MAN at one my friend’s weddings! Can you believe it! I am totally honoured and hope I can help them out as much as possible. The wedding won’t be until July, but there is a Stag and Doe to organize in the next few months. I don’t know the first thing about wedding, but after our pre-wedding party meeting/dinner, I think it will go just fine!

Tsunami
I have to write about this tragedy, b/c it had totally blown me away. I can’t believe such a major disaster could come during the holiday season, and while we sit here basking in our homes people are still searching the corpses washing up on the shore each day to see if it’s their missing loved one. Wow. I am definitely going to donate some $$ to relief aid, which will probably be Oxfam or some of the smaller organizations that are working directly our East. Most are giving to the Red Cross, but I’m not sure if 100% of the funds will be going out directly to the relief out east or if some will be diffused to related causes and probably some to pay off their massive overhead costs too.

Resolutions
And finally, there are the resolutions. I’m not big on these, and thus I will not list out 100 things I want to improve starting today. I know what I’ve got to do in my life right now, and I’m going to keep working at them. Once thing I want to start with this calendar year is having a binder with all my major expenses in them. That way, each year I’ll have a binder corresponding to all the big ticket / credit card / rent etc. costs in one. Wouldn’t that be great? Ok, geek accountant coming out here! I could go an recollect all that happened this year, but that will take forever, and i can just as easily hit "see archive" to see some of the major happenings over 2004 :)

I hope everyone had a great holiday, and hopefully 2005 start off with a bang!

Take care,

RE

“Eat drink and be merry”