Socialising Like a Normal Person

I have been writing a lot lately. However, as none of it has been blog related, you'd never know it based on what's been happening here! I have also finally been enjoying a social life since the craziness of the work project and Christmas have finally settled down. It's been really nice to remember that I have friends. Like actual don't-just-live-in-my-text-messages-or-Facebook friends.

It's been nice to remember there is a world beyond my apartment, my office and the walk between the two. Walks to Government House, nights out at pubs, lunches with friends, movie nights that are actually planned in advance, coffees dates, and walks along Dallas Rd, Oh my goodness, I have a life!! I even went out for Valentine's Day!!

I went out with another single friend to watch overly hairy men tromp around on an oversized screen, but whatever. I went out for Valentine's Day!

So random catch up post.

1. In amongst all this socialising, there's been a lot of TV watching. I have two recommendations that I want to share with everyone.

Galavant

Agent Carter

(Also, follow Hayley Atwell on all the social medias. I dare you not to fall in love with her. I want to be her new best friend. We'd probably need bail money. Lots of bail money.)

2. I was hoping to give a review of a pedometer I bought shortly after Christmas. Pretty much the review was going to go something like this:

But then it went missing. I knew it was somewhere it my apartment. Sure enough, it turned up! On top of my washing! After the washing had gone through the washing machine.

I'm going to get a new one because I really did love the little thing. It's not the fanciest pedometer out there but it had a built in game and the more you moved the more energy you got for the game. Really, I just a giant 8 year old; I loved the game and now I'm going to pout about my destroyed pedometer.

3. I got the nicest complement from a friend at work. Nice... and wildly in appropriate. She works in HR. I love my office.

4. I went to a Tragically Hip concert on February 4th. The Hip is one of those bands that I have loved since I first discovered there were radio stations other than CBC. It was a fantastic night and my crush on Johnny Fay (the drummer) is still going strong after 25 years. My only disappointment is that they didn't play Music at Work. You know what that means...

However, every other song on my "I hope they play this" list was played. YAY!

5. Lonely Planet has a new Tanzania edition coming out June 2015. I know at least one person who reads here who might be interested to know that.

Always With the Random

I didn't mean to just drop off the face of the blogosphere (again) after the last post but remember how many times I've mentioned "I'm busy"?  Yeah. That. Random catch-up post? Yup. Professionally written with logical segues? HA HA HA! Nope.

1. I (finally) finished recapping my trip to Ireland that I took in May. I know. Shocking! I wanted to start posting them once I was done, but I felt like I needed to remind people I had gone to Ireland and I wasn't just randomly posting about Ireland. By the way, you can find the two previous posts of this trip here.

2. Speaking of Ireland, my brother sent me this video:

Just watching that gives me chills!

Investec is the financial backers for the Monaghan GAA, and Gaelic Football is the GAA of note in Monaghan. I always preferred hurling growing up because of reasons, but in the last five years, Gaelic Football has started to grow on me. If you're curious as to what makes Gaelic football different from other versions of football, watch this video.

The poem recited in the video is by Patrick Kavanagh, who came from Monaghan and was the occasional drinking buddy of my granddad. If we ever go drinking, there is a good chance I'll sing Kavanagh's most famous poem, On Raglan Road, to you. It's kind of my drinking thing.

How convenient that my cousin lives close to Raglan Rd!

3. Remember when you wanted to be friends with someone in Grade One, you'd just go up to them on the playground and say do you want to be friends? and then (assuming they say 'yes') you're friends? I wish it was that easy as adults. Never mind having a talk with someone you're dating when you want to start being exclusive, we need to start having talks with acquaintances we want to be friends with. "So, I've been thinking a lot about us and where we're heading as social beings who interact..."

4. One of my favourite ways to unwind after a stressful day is to drink an entire box of wine plan possible vacation itineraries. This way of unwinding does play a part in why I haven't been blogging (as well as the whole leaving-work-at-6pm-every-day-when-I-actually-get-off-at-4) and it also means that I have a lot of tentative itineraries currently sitting on my computer. If you guys are looking for some travel ideas, shoot me a country. Chances are, I have an itinerary for it. I really should have gone into tourism. 

As dorky as Rick Steves is, I am madly jealous that he made travel his life.

5. If you haven't already seen it, you should go see Big Hero 6. And bring some tissues because

Random Post is Random

Busy life means Random Post!

1. Walking down the street after work today I overheard a guy tell his friend that he needed to renew his drivers license except "it's going to cost me $200 because I have an outstanding ticket. Plus there's the $45 renewal fee on top of that so that's like $350. Fuck. And I need my license for my lifestyle, man."

I know I occasionally count on my fingers when I do math, but I'm pretty sure that's not correct.

2. In the living-a-healthier-life department, I have temporarily lifted my monthly weight-loss goal in the sense that I'm still eating healthy, I'm still getting in some activity, but I'm not worrying about exactly how much I'm going down in a month. The point is to go down, and my weekly weigh-ins are doing that with enough regularity that I know I'm heading that way. But with everything going on right now at work, I just need to take a few things off my plate and worrying about hitting a specific number is an easy one to (temporarily) remove. You can fully expect to see it back on my plate after project launch.

3. Also in the living-a-healthier-life department, I've started running/jogging/occasionally-moving-faster-than-walking. Two of my friends suggested doing the resolution run on January 1st... and because I didn't think about the hangover factor, I thought that sounded like a good idea. I'm an idiot. At any rate, I pulled out one of my old walk-to-run programs then promptly ignored it. I headed out for a walk/run. When I felt like running, I did. When I felt like taking a walking break, I did. It felt great. I always enjoy running once I get into. I'm not going to lie and say that I love it and it's the best thing ever!!, but there's something calming about running. The repetitiveness of it allows me to focus on working through other things in my mind. I don't know why I don't find the same mental clarity when I'm walking, but I just don't. Still, as my oft-halted running attempts can attest to, I'm not the poster child for love-of-running! Who knows? Maybe the eighth time's the charm?

4. The Walking Dead and Supernatural both premiered this week. I LOVE FALL TV!! That is all.

5. I recently watched Band of Brothers, hence the gifs. Watch it. Right now Do it! That is all.

The Blogging Life

I'm starting to understand why so many bloggers follow a schedule or theme with posts. Monday Moves, Taco Tuesday, all that jazz. Sometimes it's just easier to start writing when you have set parameters for your topic. Friday, therefore I must talk about French Braids! I can't tell you how many posts I have in draft right now (actually, I can, it's 18) because I start writing and then get lost going on tangents and trying to figure out how to tie it all together.

If you haven't seen The Lego Movie yet, go watch it and then come back so we can be friends.
It will also help with the Taco Tuesday reference.

I shy away from the idea of themed posts, however, because I find so many of them boring and/or really repetitive. There are only so many What I Ate Wednesdays before the blogger can pretty much just link back to the one post over and over again.

Still, there is something to be said for regularity and themes.

*sigh*

Dammit.

So, I'm going to give it a try. Not every day (because I'm lazy) but I'm going to try for three themed posts a week.

1. It will give this blog more structure over all.
2. The blog will be updated regularly.
3. I won't be looking at a blank page with no idea where to start on a post.
4. All the cool kids People are doing it.

And I'm going to start next week because, again, lazy.

Also, then the World Cup will be over and I can pretend to have a life again. Until then, Germany is in the final against Argentina so win or lose, I'll be drunk on Sunday!

Until then...

I Need to Write the Dictionary

I've done it. It's happened. My life is complete. My name has become a noun.

At least, it has in my department. We have a new VP and when I asked my manager how her first meeting with him went, she replied "Ugh. I totally andread right in front of him."

Ha, ha, ha, ha, wait. What?

To andrea: make a fool of yourself in front of upper management.

My foray into the world of office-buffoonery started with an ill-timed f-bomb as the elevator doors opened to reveal our C.E.O. Whoops!

Then I made screaming noises and Chewbacca sounds in front of a project manager... twice... in the same day.

And I dribbled coffee down the front of my shirt saying hello to our C.F.O. before accidentally throwing a knife at him.

Those are just the first three incidents. I have - not on purpose despite my joking about it - pretty much said or done something stupid or silly in front of every upper manager in my office. It became a running joke at our weekly status meetings. "And what have you done to embarrass yourself this week, Andrea?"

Even some of upper management are in on the joke.

And now, my name has become a noun. I feel oddly proud about this.

Now, to go and andrea in front of the new VP...

Hey, I have a reputation to maintain!

(No, this post was not sponsored by Supernatural. I'm just catching up on Season 9 so...)

Question: Ever made a fool of yourself at work?

I Should Probably Start Wearing a Toga

Beware the Ides of March! Beware friends brandishing knives in the forum.

It was not my intent to go from one Roman day-of-note to the next one between posts but somethings that's what happens when you're busy being awesome. Yeah, let's go with awesome. I celebrated the Ides by waking up way too early after a night of drinking to clean gutters at my dad's house. Kind of hard to stab someone in the name of the Roman Republic when you're six feet up a ladder, dripping pine needles down your shirt, longing for some Tylenol.

Anyway, it's time for a random post because I have a lot of random thoughts in my head at the moment.

1. Running is on hold. My running partner, Katie, has been in physio due to a car accident a few months back. On her physio's orders on Thursday, she has to stop running. I'm not going to lie, without a running partner I'm not sure I'll have the get-up-and-go to continue lunch-time runs, especially with projects meaning lots of meetings with people I probably shouldn't be stinky around and evenings at the gym not leaving any other time to run.

I will still walk the TC10K because I promised someone I would moonwalk across the finish line. Silly promises like that obviously have to be kept!

2. To make myself feel better, I've listened to this cover of Frozen's "Let It Go" about three dozen times. I'm in love with it:

3. Warning: Rugby talk ahead. Ireland won Six Nations this year with a win over France this morning. There was a lot of smack talk between myself and some certain French macaron proprietors prior to the game. Sadly, the next time I'll get my macarons with a side of sports sass won't be until the World Cup. It's going to be a long three months.

4. Today's rugby game was also the last game for Brian O'Driscoll in an Ireland jersey. This is a bitter-sweet moment for Ireland fans. BOD, as his is affectionately known, has done great things for Irish rugby. He is also a fantastic humanitarian. I recommend having a hanky nearby while you watch this video.

5. I am obsessed with BBC's The Musketeers. I'm actually more excited about watching it on Sunday nights than I am about The Walking Dead and that's saying a lot. I think part of that might be simply because I've been watching a lot of fairly heavy drama TV shows and while this is definitely drama, it's a lot lighter in tone. 

Witty dialogue and a cute cast also helps.

6. Alumni Band season is starting up again. In other news, I'm a gigantic nerd. 

7.  St. Patrick's Day is on Monday. You know, just in case you somehow weren't aware of the biggest drinking day in the world.

End of the Week Already?

Happy Valentine's Day!

I neither like nor hate Valentine's Day but I do like an excuse to post this:

Source

I discovered Katie Cook's drawings about a year and a half ago and I love her. Not only does she have the cutest Star Wars series, her Gronk comic is simply lovely.

Proper post coming tomorrow but I just wanted to ensure I got the Katie Cook up today!

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.

So...

There was supposed to be a full post going up today except the internet connection has been pants and now I have to run to catch the bus to concert band practice. Yes, a grown adult just typed that sentence.

I did want to say that life lately has been pretty...

Also, the Walking Dead starts on Sunday, so after the turkey dinner...

I'll have some good stories to share. I promise.

The Week That Was

I disappeared from the blog this week for personal reasons. For those friends reading this who let me babble on about random things this week while I processed what happened, thank you. 

In happier news, tomorrow is the All-Ireland Football Final (that would be Gaelic Football, by the way) at Croke Park in Dublin. What a treat to see my cousin on a Sunday Game TV spot:

Good on ya, Patrick!

What is the Sunday Game? It's the GAA version of "After Hours" for you hockey fans. As much as it pains me to say this: Up Dublin! Kick some Mayo arse!

As for the things that kept me going in amongst the random babbling? Well, one was that we had a successful launch of a new series at work. Sound oddly vague? Yes, but that's all you get. All you really need to know is that we knocked it out of the park.

Knocked it out. Just like Luther.

The other is that I joined a kickboxing gym... and I love it! I honestly did not expect that. At least, I didn't expect to love it as much as I did.

I got a two week free trial pass to Chakara Kickboxing and Total Fitness from my friend, Katie, who has been trying for a while to get me to come with her. K attends a combination of kickboxing and bootcamp classes four nights a week and was determined that I should attend all of them with her. ALL OF THEM! Sorry, Katie, but you be crazy! There was no way I was going to do all four days and not die.

Well, I did four days. I didn't lay down and die. In fact, I've signed up for more. I think I owe Katie an apology. 

.

.

.

But she's not going to get it.

(I spent this week watching season 3 of Luther, hence the Luther gifs.)

Sunday Snippets: September

Well, it only took 10 years of not being in some sort of schooling for me to finally stop thinking of September as a new year. Now it's just September, killer of summer dreams and bringer of longer nights. Thanks a lot, September.

September is pretty much Omar in month form.

Many years, September is just a continuation of August weather-wise, but this year it is definitely the beginning of Autumn. While the days are still warm, nights are downright cold here at the moment. We also had some crazy freak rain storms over the last two weeks which left me with two very cuddly cats because, dude, thunder!

This year seemed to be the summer of out-of-town visitors which was a good thing.

It was also the summer of macarons which was a good thing for everything except my waistline.

It was the summer of a missed DietBet because it takes forever to set up PayPal. Lesson learned.

And it was the summer of setting up a bedtime schedule due to sleeping issues. For the first time in years, I turned down social evenings specifically because I wouldn't be home in time for bed.

Yup.

But summer is actually my least favourite season - go ahead, mock me all you want for that fact - so I'm not too sad to see it go. Autumn is my second favourite season and the rest of September is shaping up to be an awesome month. The only thing I'm not looking forward to? All the bloody pumpkin love on the blogs I read.

The only thing I like about pumpkins is carving them and roasting the seeds. I don't care for the Pumpkin Spiced Lattes at Starbucks, I actively avoid pumpkin pie as an option for dessert, and I will roast every other type of cucurbita there is but pumpkin. Every recipe posted on a blog between now and American Thanksgiving is going to have pumpkin in it. To be honest, it makes me a little stabby.

Sorry, pumpkin. It's not me, it's you.

It was also, in case it's not already abundantly clear from the gif choices, the summer that I bought and (re)watched all five seasons of The Wire because it is arguably the best show to have even been broadcast. It is the show that ruined all other cop shows for me because it is so good and it is rooted in reality in a way that no other cop drama is. Fair warning: there is strong language, violence and nudity - hey, it's HBO! - but if you want to know why the war on drugs will never be won then this is the show to watch.

Plus, it has Idris Elba in it; do you really need another reason to watch?

Yeah. I didn't think so.

Sunday Snippets

Being the anniversary of Elaine's disappearance, I took Thursday off work. The last place I wanted to be was surrounded by people who a) didn't know about her and b) I didn't want to get emotional in front of. It turned out to be the right choice as I cried twice before 10:00am.

I spent some time with my dad, went blackberry picking with my mom, and then baked a blackberry pie with said berries. All in all, it was a much better way to spend a day remembering Elaine then feeling alone and weepy in a soul-crushing cubicle. (This is not a commentary on my work place specifically, all cubicles are designed to be soul-crushing. In fact, I'm pretty sure the word 'cubicle' means 'four wall soul destroyer' in Sanskrit.)

Say hello to my mom, the woman who taught me how to bake.
Home Ec Teacher Moms for the win!

I love to bake but living alone (and not having a dishwasher), I don't do it very often. When I do bake, I tend to keep one or two pieces of the baking for myself and then give the rest away to family, friends, co-workers and the employees of my favourite coffee shops and restaurants.

If you are a proprietor of such an establishment and you see me coming, you want to befriend me. So far this year, I have given out Sansa's Lemon Cakes, Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey's Cream Cheese Icing, Zopfe (a type of Swiss bread), and Blackberry Pie. Plus, there's another round of the cupcakes already in the works thanks to a certain beloved employee's imminent return to Dublin. I pay you to serve me and I give you food... not a bad deal.

My younger brother is significantly younger than me. This means that for the releases of 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'Hot Fuzz', he had to patiently wait until they were available on DVD. With the release of 'The World's End' this past weekend, we finally got to a Cornetto Trilogy movie in the theatres together. We decided to forego a sunny afternoon outside for the confines of a darkened theatre in which we proceeded to laugh our asses off. According to my text messages, we made our plans to see this together on June 21st. It makes me happy to know I'm not the only geek in the family.

Is It Only Tuesday?

You know those weeks where it feels like it should already be Friday but it isn't? In fact, if you're really unlucky, it's only Monday? At least I made it to Tuesday before I started ugly-crying about my desire for it to be the weekend already. During one of my meetings, we were talking about setting up review sessions for next week. Plans for next week?!? It must be Friday!!!

Lying bastards.

For my next (and last) meeting of the day, however, my coworker brought each of us one of these:

I totally stole this picture from Bon Macaron's Facebook page without asking. So, if you're in the Victoria area, please visit them and tell them Andrea sent you so they don't get mad at me when they find out. Or Jennifer. Or Claire. Any of those names should work.

I raved to my coworker about the awesome blackberry not-really-a-macaron creation from Bon Macaron during a meeting on Monday (my picture here). Obviously, my powers of persuasion are amazing if she bought three of the blueberry ones today! Best. Meeting. EVER!

(Just to be really clear, I'm getting diddly squat for raving about the macarons so when I say this is my honest opinion, this is my honest opinion.)

***

Once upon a time, I attended university in Freiburg, Germany and lived in a student residence called Ulrich Zasius Haus or UZH. The UZH had a magical Pepsi machine in the foyer/mailbox area. What was so magical about it, you ask? Well, two buttons dispensed Pepsi but the other six buttons dispensed beer! BEER, PEOPLE! Even more magical? It was cheap beer. Our building became the meeting place for nights out... which often became nights in.

My older brother and two friends came to visit.
They were also amazed by the magic Pepsi machine.

I was reminded of this fact while I stared at the Coke machine in my current apartment building. Sadly, all its buttons are for non-alcoholic beverages and no amount of fake spell casting would change that.

*sigh*

As much as I made fun of the UZH and called it 'the ghetto', I do miss some things about it.

***

I try to remain vague about my job for various reasons (not least of which because it's the professional thing to do when you work in my field and have a personal but public blog) which means that it's hard to explain why finding this picture online today made me so damn happy. Just know that it put a huge, goofy grin on my face for the rest of the day.

If you don't get this poster, click this link.
And then ask to borrow my DVD so you can watch the whole movie.

Now to figure out where I can put it up in my cubicle without it being noticed...

Question: Any work pet peeves of your own to share?