Now That I'm Not So Bummed About It

Last Tuesday, I received an email from my cousin in Russia. He’s had a baby in the past few weeks so I didn’t think twice about opening up an email with an attachment sent from his address.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I should know better – I do know better – but I was so excited about the thought of baby pics… stupid ovaries being all “cute babies, YAY!”

In the general scheme of things, I got off fairly easy. To use my laptop to do actual work (you know, for the people who pay me) from home, I log into the server and it backs up every night. When I load pictures, I immediately put them up on my closed picsa account (which I did learn the hard way). The volunteer work I do is loaded on a shared site so they can review the updates.

The only thing I lost was personal writing I was doing. I usually tend to have three or four writing pieces on the go at any one time, but because I was so focus on this one project… it’s a very dull and tarnished silver lining, but I’ll take it nonetheless.

I’m still bitter and probably will be for a while – I mean, I’m still bitter about a French handball in 2009 and the remarks a Quebec politician made in 1995 – but on the whole, I’m not as bad off as I could have been and I recognize that.

It also made me happy that I live in the future where Internet-capable phones are a thing. Entertaining myself with the Social Medias was still possible while I waited for programs to reload on my computer. Remember the dark ages when a computer going down meant you’d have to talk to your family? Yeesh!

Despite my near-total meltdown on Sunday – I really am not exaggerating when I say there were tears – things are going well. I still haven't stepped on a scale because morning me is forgetful as... as... I dunno, something. But I have upped my weights (again!) at the gym and there is less gut than there was before. Not enter-in-a-bikini-pageant less gut, but a noticeable-hour-glass-figure-is-developing less gut.

My eight days of being my manager are nearing an end. While it wasn't without a few hiccups, we're not going to hell in a handbasket like I told our Director we would. Yay, for the small victories.

I recently completed a review of all the information in our training database. It took roughly 2 weeks and I have never been so happy that I snuck in so many nerd references into the database. It was fun to sit at my desk and giggle as I reviewed the file for the fake company Godzilla Inc. which is located on Gorilla-Whale Rd. (And if you nerdifacts, you'll know why that's funny.) But the best laugh I got was when I reviewed the data my coworker put in.

This coworker was in charge of handling the creating of the training scenarios and the original implementation of the database. One scenario involved creating 20 employees on a group and she called down to me to give her names for the people. I started calling out names of my extended family including my cousin, Declan.

I found Declan in the replicator data during my review except she had named him Dekleyn.

Dekleyn!

Google tells me that de Kleyn/DeKleyn is a moderately common Dutch last name, but no examples of it as a first name. In fairness to her, it's not too far off the sound; but if you're not sure wouldn't you just ask the person who said it in the first place?

At any rate, I'm sad I didn't call out Donagh. Would have loved to have seen her version of that name.

Mid-June Catch Up

I had originally planned to take a trip to Ireland in the Fall instead of in the Spring. The only reason that didn't happen was because I have a work project that launches in the Fall and I knew that asking for time off would be like asking for furlough from prison.

Why, yes. I did binge watch Season 2 of Orange is the New Black this week.
I did that instead of writing blog posts.

It also means that returning home pretty much meant I had to hit the ground running with work. Time off between now and when this project finishes is going to be a precious, precious commodity. It also meant that after 7 hours staring at a computer screen writing, I've found it really hard to come home and write for fun. It's like being in university again, when you didn't read any 'fun' books because there were so many bloody textbooks you had to read. Also, the World Cup started so there goes a huge chunk of my weekends until July 13th.

New favourite goal keeper: Guillermo Ochoa from Mexico.
That man is the only reason Mexico tied with Brazil instead of losing.

But it hasn't all been work, eat, sleep since I got home. I spent a day volunteering for the UrbaCity Challenge with my friend. We ran the challenge station at the beach volleyball courts on the roof of the Sticky Wicket pub. Six hours spent running around in the sand, laughing with the challenge participants, and raising funds for the Prostate Centre in the lead up to Father's Day and all I got was a lousy shirt, a farmer's tan, and this awesome picture from our set up.

We're ready to rock this station!

I will definitely be volunteering next year, I'm just sad that my partner-in-crime will be off on mat leave. If you're in the Victoria area next June, I strongly encourage you to get a buddy and compete next year. (And say 'hi' if you make it to my station. I gladly hand out free high-fives to participants.)

I tried Crossfit for the first time... and the second time... in the same day... in fact, in the same hour... because my trainer is evil. I did not care for it. (Luckily, my trainer doesn't either.) This pretty much sums up my opinion:

I spent an awesome Thursday night with friends drinking beer for charity (no, really) before taking a dry erase to a certain store front in the name of the World Cup. I was at that same store the next day watching Switzerland lose to France... badly. The upside to watching this happen with them? I got a consolation macaron with every goal France scored. It made up for losing the bet to them on the game.

Like the rest of the known Geek Realm, I watched the season finale of Game of Thrones. I understand why a certain character wasn't shown in the season finale (especially given how much is going on) but said character better still be included in season five. I also did that quiz and ended up with my Game of Thrones name.

I'll take it!

The highlight of the past few weeks, however, was eavesdropping on the conspiracy-fuelled coffee shop conversation of a Putin-supporting, capitalist-loving but corporation-hating, Chavez-defending, anti-media spouting, global-warming-denying, devout Catholic. Seriously. I half expected someone to jump out and shout "Surprise. You're on Candid Camera!" Sadly, it did not happen.

All-in-all, not a bad June.

And I have a few posts actually scheduled for this week so you won't have to wait so long to hear from me again!

Question: Anyone else following the World Cup? Who are you supporting? Favourite moment so far?

And Already February is Better than January...

I know all none of you are anxiously awaiting to find out how my very first macaron making session went. Well, I'm admitting that it occurred so that's a good sign. The taste was right, the look was good, but the texture was off. Still, they photographed nicely.

I knew what I did wrong as I did it so while I didn't share these with anyone, I will definitely give it another go. I learned an important lesson that everyone should know about making macarons, and I really can't stress this enough, make sure you have a Frenchman on speed dial. Honestly. It will make your macaron-making life so much easier.

Also, for someone who hates the French as much as I do (it's a soccer thing), I am racking up a fair number of French friends.

I did something else exciting last weekend, I booked plane tickets!

At the Giant's Causeway in 2011

I was very, very lucky growing up. My dad is an Irish immigrant so every couple of years we'd go there for the summer to visit the family. Sadly, I can't go for an entire summer like we used to, but I'll be back for a couple of weeks. Besides, at this age a couple of weeks is probably all my liver can take!

After my January of illness and crap workouts, February has been going much better. Lunchtime runs are back on and my attendance at the gym has been as regular as a Metamucil user. You're welcome for that lovely mental image, by the way.

Question: How about you? Any travel plans for 2014?

Well, That Sucked

I spent most of January either sick or recuperating from being sick. While I avoided the really nasty bugs going around the office (read = I was able to be in locations where a toilet was not handy), it really sucked thinking I was better only to find myself curled up in my bed the next morning wondering why I hadn't died in the night.

Linden and Tosio, however, rejoiced in all the extra time they got to spend snuggling with the mom-food-lady. After a four days of illness (including a weekend), they looked down right pissed when I got up at 6:30am to shower and get dressed for work.

How could I not cuddle with this?

The downside to this was that I'm only 1 month into the new year and I've already missed my goal of 11 visits to the gym each month. Seriously?!? REALLY?!?! I picked 11 because I figured that even the months when I have Alumni Band practice once a week I could still make it to the gym 11 times. Mind, given how many days I felt like death, I still made it there 9 times and I always gave it my all when I did. Not too shabby.

During one of the visits, I even ran on the treadmill for 4 minutes straight. I know that might not sound like a long time to many of you but for me, I was fucking unstoppable. Or I was until I stepped off the treadmill and did my best imitation of this guy while trying to grab my water bottle.

My legs did the exact same jello movement.

While I'm not totally ready to proclaim myself cured (I've learned that lesson!), I haven't been feeling as bad for as long so that's something.

On the upside, I'm making macarons for the first time this weekend. I won a gift basket from Bon Macaron at Christmas which included a book of macaron recipes; I figure it's time I tried my hand at making them myself. If it goes well, look for a post about it on here in the future. If it goes badly, I'll delete this paragraph and deny I ever wrote it.

Question: Make me feel better. What's something that went right for you in January?

Not a Real Post... Again

I wanted to post a real post tonight but the internet's been up and down more times than a white flag in the French army. Solution: write a small filler post, yell at the internet connection a few more times, write something offline later this evening, and then hopefully successfully post it tomorrow morning.

If there's not something here tomorrow morning, please have bail money ready. I will most likely be calling you at some point.

Anyway, on with the filler post. I got an email today for a new project at work showing the Project Resource Allocation Hours and my name was nowhere in the email. Every single person in my department is on this project but me.

I screamed with joy and rubbed it in the face of every single coworker.

I'm not joking. I did my Kermit Flail impression during our afternoon meeting today.

I love my job. I love learning new things, I love assisting in directing the changes that occur in our company, and I love teaching people knew skills and ideas. But I have been involved in all but one project that's come through our department in the last two years in some way. In many cases, it hasn't been to the same degree as my coworkers but I still have to learn the same policies and rules that they do to contribute my smaller amount of hours. I'm already committed 100% to another project which is why I'm not on this one, but now I have an emailed excuse for why I get to do diddly. I'll take it!

This, my friends, deserves a glass of wine tonight.

The Happy Dance of Life

[Source]

The sign above pretty much sums up my view of life. It is rarely the events of a day that determine if it is bad or good, but my attitude towards them. Obviously, some bad days are just bad days regardless of your attitude - my cousin's death is a bad day no matter how bloody cheerful I was prior to getting the news - but someone else's attitude in a meeting? That will only ruin my day if I let it.

I am, generally, a very positive person. I find that it makes life more enjoyable.

It also means that when life starts coming up roses, and you're already a happy person, it's really hard not to walk around doing this all day long:

Oh dancing Nathan Fillion, how I love thee!

What has been so fantastic? Just every day life, to be honest.

I know I said I wouldn't talk much about work on here, but work has been great. I grow to love my job a little bit more every day.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that this happened last Friday:

If you don't know who Eddie Izzard is (what's wrong with you?) then you need to watch this:

Oh, November 29th! You can't come fast enough.

I joined my brother's Yahoo Fantasy Premier League this year. I did it for various reasons but I honestly expected to spend my time at the bottom of the pool (I even named myself GunningforLast FC), stumbling through my picks and hoping that I (re)learn something about a league I love but haven't actively followed in about 10 years. It's early weeks yet, but I've done better than I expected.

That, my friends, is me sitting in 5th place. And that little asterisk in Week 7? That's indicating I was the points leader for the week. Week 6? I was 1 point behind the point leader. I'm feeling pretty darn pleased with myself right now.

Hopefully, I'm still sitting so pretty after this weekend.

On the flip side of feeling 'woo-hoo', Ireland is officially out of World Cup 2014 in Brazil and I can't even blame this guy:

Thierry Henry's handball, seen by everyone in the world except the ref, allowed
France to win against Ireland and knock us out of a spot in South Africa 2010.
Still bitter.

While I'm disappointed about Ireland, both Germany and Switzerland have qualified which means I still have teams to cheer for and will not have to wear a France jersey (because sometimes I have issues keeping my mouth shut) so...

Despite messing up my left tricep and bicep three weeks ago, I continue to love kickboxing and bootcamp. I was seriously bummed when I couldn't make class due to a cold-flu-breathing-issue last week. Unfortunately, I was so excited about getting back at it this week and kicking butt in kickboxing, that I left the gym after class in a haze of euphoria and failed to see the Pothole of Doom so I'm out until next week or whenever my knee scab heals and I can bend my leg again.

*sigh*

The Pothole was totally that goalie.

Finding a gym that has a built in support system (the other girls) and a trainer that holds you accountable has made all the difference in keeping me going back.

That and finding an activity that taps into my hidden desire to kick people's asses.

I guess that's what it really comes down to: I'm happy because I get to punch and kick things and no one gets mad at me.

I'm sounding really well adjusted right now.