Gracious People

I was a much warmer day today so I was able to wear one of my new dresses to work. I'm not crazy enough to freeze my ass off, waiting for the bus in tights when it's -25 with the windchill. Doing it at -1 is much more reasonable.

More people managed to hunt me down today but that's ok. It was all easy to deal with stuff. Our office is very, very full. While walking the floor today, there was people everywhere. And we're missing a bunch of people too. Everyone's sick. It's crazy. I think we're going to have to start building bunk-bed style desks soon :)

I made another awesome dinner tonight. I made pork chops in mushroom sauce with sauteed brussel sprouts and cumin basmati rice. It was really good. I made the mushroom sauce from scratch with fresh mushrooms. I think it was the best part of the meal. There was some onions and garlic in there too. I've been doing a very good job of cooking from scratch lately. I'm quite enjoying it. I don't know what I'm making tomorrow night yet but I don't think I'm going to be home for dinner. I'm supposed to go to the movies after work. I'm finally going to see Breaking Dawn Part 2. It's at the cheap theatre so paying $3 to see it is a pretty good deal.

Sometimes people surprise me. I got one of those surprises this afternoon. One of my favourite musicians is going through a hard time in his professional career, yet he continues to be so incredibly position and gracious. And he's a younger guy too. So many rock and roll musicians are all about partying, sex and drugs. But not this one. He's definitely not your stereotypical rocker. Might be part of why I like him so much. I'm also a fan of his killer guitar skills. But yeah, he's being so professional and so patient, it's incredible to watch.He seems mature beyond his years. I'd like to think that he's like that in real like too and not just putting on a public show, but it's great to know that people like him still exist.

I hear my book calling me so it's off to bed I go. And yes mom, I did do you my dishes. LOL!

Good Night!

Sarah

Kindness

It was a surprisingly good day at work today. I was a little on the sleepy side since I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, but other than that, it was good. I got to hide out in Finance and got a lot of work done. It was a very stress free day, which felt amazing. I'm really digging the whole new less stress approach to things.

Lunch was great too. A lot of old faces are back and it was wonderful getting to catch up with them again.

I made some really good tacos for dinner tonight too. I'm trying to eat healthier and add in more "good for you" foods. So I added avocado to the tacos. I just mashed one up with some minced garlic, onion power and a little salt. It was really good. I used it as a topping on the tacos. I've turned the leftovers into a salad for lunch tomorrow.

I'm also quite proud of myself as I did up the dishes tonight. I'm notorious for leaving them until a bunch have piled up and then doing them all at once. It's times like these that I miss having a dishwasher. Anyhow, I'm trying to do the dishes every night after dinner. I make my bed every morning so why no do the dishes every night? LOL. Baby steps to getting to be a more organized.

When I was in the grocery store this evening, a man in a motorized wheelchair was having a hard time getting a plastic bag off the roll. Another man had been over beside him but was ignoring him. I drifted over and the guy asked me for help, seeing as he was trying to do it with only 1 hand,  which I gladly did. I got him a bag, helped him pick out 4 very nice apples and then tied the bag for him so the apples wouldn't roll away. My good deed was rewarded two aisles over where I was trying to get a jar of jam off the top shelf. A store employee came by and he dug around on the top shelf until he found a jar of strawberry jam for me :) We all can do with a little more kindness in our lives.

 Good Night!

Sarah

Blog 2 Of The Day

Seeing as this is my 2nd blog of the day, it's not going to be a very long one. Not all that much has happened in the last 12 hours to warrant writing about.

It's been snowing on and off all day. Just what we needed. More snow. We were supposed to get up to 4cms today and now we're supposed to get another 2 overnight. That's just swell. On the upside, there's no snow in the forecast for tomorrow. In fact, we should see the sun and that's awesome.

I had a very quiet day today. I got some cleaning and re-organizing done. Not nearly as much as I wanted to but for having slept for almost 9 hours last night, I was on the tired side today and just couldn't find the energy to keep cleaning. So I watched some tv, checked FB, surfed Pinterest, killed some Zombies and went back to doing dishes. LOL. I've discovered a new show on Netflix. It's the BBC's show "Sherlock" which is set in modern day London. The guy playing Sherlock is very easy on the eyes and the shows have pretty decent story lines. The issue is that each episode is an hour and a half long. So watching them takes up a large chunk of time.

My computer keeps acting up and is pitching a small fit so I think it's time to end this and see if I can trouble shoot the issue without having to resort to calling one of my buddies for help.

Good Night!

Sarah

Ooopsie!

It would appear that I'm getting a little forgetful as of late. As in I've forgotten to blog for two nights in a row now. I think I might have been tired.

I remember there I didn't blog Friday sometime Saturday while I was walking to the grocery store. I realized that I didn't blog last night while brushing my theeth before bed. At that point I'd already shut down my computer and turned the lights off and really didn't have the energy to fire everything up again so I said screw it. And here I am now.

My first day back at work on Friday was actually a really good day. People were genuinely happy to see me and Xtina, the new HR Casual had managed to get almost everything sorted out and organized so I was able to focus on the things that I had to do. So all in all, it was a pretty stress free day. Next week shouldn't be too bad either. I'm filling in for one of the finance ladies for the week, so one of our staff is filling in for me. I'll be on the same floor as everyone, just a different section. I might be able to hide from the chaos, which is fine by me!

Yesterday was an awesome day. The sun was out and it made everything look so crisp and beautiful. I opted to walk to Farm Boy (a local grocery store chain that prides itself on carrying fresh, local supplies) which is several blocks away instead of going across the street to Metro. It turned out to be a very nice walk in the sun and I got some very yummy things. After lunch, I ventured downtown to the Market. I hit up the Italian store and got some amazing sauce (wood oven roasted garlic tomato sauce) and a Canoli. I've never had one before. They're incredible. I don't know how I've never had one. So good. I then went to the butcher shop and got nitrate free sausages which went into the pasta I made last night, some double smoked bacon which I'm going to try this morning and a piece of marinated pork tenderloin which I'm having for dinner. After that, I went to LUSH and got some more of my favourite lip balm, one of their sugar scrubs and a bath melt (it smells so yummy and makes your bath water a pretty shade of pink). I couldn't get over how many people were at the BeaverTail stand when I walked by. As popular as ever, which is a good sign.

My last bit of shopping was buying a new pair of slippers on my way to back through the mall, en route to the bus.

After shopping, I met up with my buddy Xtinktor for coffee. Starbucks was too crowded so we got our drinks and headed to the mall to sit. We had a nice chat and visit, talking about our holidays and families and of course, talking about music. That's probably the one thing that we talk about most. It was nice to visit and the caffeine kick was very welcome.

Finally I made it home and started dinner. It was very, very good. I love the sauce I bought. I'm going to have to go back and get more. LOL. I think it's one of those things that everyone should have several jars of on hand, just in case.

I should get moving and get some tea or coffee into me. I bought a bunch of loose K-Cups when I was at home so I could try some new flavours. It's fun testing them out. I need to make breakfast and get on with my day too. I do love quiet Sundays. I'm going to attempt to clean and re-organize the kitchen today. Wish me luck!

Have a good day!

Sarah

We got lots of snow!

Home - The Other One

I am back in Ottawa. My 2nd home. Cambridge will always be my first home, since that's where I was born and raised and where my parents live, but Ottawa is where I currently live and is a city that I quite love. So I am home, again.

My train ride was good. I got good news while on train #1 - it was becoming train #2 when we got to Toronto. Awesome. It used to do that and then Via changed their schedules and I used to have to lug my bags down into Union Station and get into line to come back upstairs an hour and a half later onto the Ottawa train. But seeing as my train #84 was morphing into train #44 in Toronto, this was good news. Even better news was that I was already on the right car and only had to move up two rows and across the aisle. My train from Kitchener has "free for all" seating as in "find whatever seat is empty and take it" while the train from Toronto has "assigned seating", just like airplanes. Despite the fact that I could remain on the train, I opted to get off in Toronto and stretch my legs and walk through Union Station. It's nice being able to do that and not have a huge amount of luggage with you. So I left my bags on the train and into the station I went.

This is where I got good news #2 of the day: the bathrooms on the departure level were re-opened! Union Station is under-going a major renovation project. As a result, the bathrooms on the departure level have been closed for over a year. This meant that you used to have to walk up the ramp, past the ticket windows, down a long hallway and into the "great hall" to find the can. Very annoying. But not anymore! The new bathroom is quite nice but the soap was a little tricky to figure out. A nice old lady told me how to work it. Go figure.

We left Toronto on time but kept running into "train traffic" and had to slow down. By our first stop in Kingston, we were 10 minutes late. The freight trains were causing congestion on the tracks. One rather long freight train that was on the track beside us in Kingston was actually blocking a crossing and appeared to had been like that for some time, judging by the huge line of cars at the crossing and watching them try to turn around. We ran into a switch issue just before Smiths Falls and were stopped for some time. The train ended up getting into Ottawa 50 minutes late. Not too bad.

And OH MY GOD! There's all kinds of snow here. It's crazy. I'll have to take a picture of the snow in front of my apartment building. It's crazy.

My plants were very happy to see me and appreciated the water I promptly gave them. I made a curry pasta and shrimp soup for dinner and had a nice, long soak in a hot bubble bath tonight. That's one nice thing about being back in Ottawa: I have my own bathroom :)

Mom made it home past the round-a-bout. She followed a large truck though it figuring that everyone would stop for it. I agree, that sounds like a solid plan. Mom and dad enjoyed some more of the banana bread tonight too, as did I. I managed to get out of the house with a couple of slices. Dad's on his own if he wants more though. I miss them already. Watching tv isn't the same without having one of them in the room laughing along with it. And as hard as it is for me to admit, I miss watching Duck Dynasty. My parents got me hooked on those red necks!

Anyhow, it's time for bed. It's been a long day and I have to get my ass out of bed for work tomorrow. I think I can survive one day of work this week. Atleast I hope I can. I know it's a bit of a gong show there right now but I'm not going to let it stress me out. Just before I got on the train this morning, my mom gave me some great advice. She told me "Just breathe". And that's exactly what I plan on doing.

Good Night! (or Good Morning depending on when you read this)

Sarah

My wonderful parents :)

Time To Go Back To Reality

Sadly, today was my last full day at home. Tomorrow is my last day of holidays and I'm spending pretty much all of it on a train. My train leaves here at 9:15am and I get into Ottawa somewhere around 4:30pm. This is always the worst part of visiting. Knowing that I once again have to say goodbye to those I love, not entirely sure when I'm going to be home again. Before my dad headed to bed tonight, I gave him an extra long hug since he'll be up and off to work before I get up tomorrow. Mom's driving me to the train station so I get to say my good bye to her there. I guess they aren't really good byes as much as they're "See you later".

Despite the fact that both Mom and I sounded like we were trying to cough up lungs today, we got up and headed out for a bit. The cute little gift shop she wanted me to see was closed, so that was a bit of a bummer but we managed to keep occupied none the less and picked up some things for our colds and to make for dinner.

This afternoon we made banana bread. Last week my dad came home with a large bunch of ripe bananas from Giant Tiger. He was all excited because he only paid 97 cents or something crazy like that for them. Not per pound, just in total. I asked him if he planned on making banana bread and he said no. Then the stomach virus hit. The bananas did not get eaten. So last evening he looked at me and said "Are you going to make banana bread tomorrow?". LOL. I laughed and said sure. Mom and I pulled out some cook books and I hopped on Pinterest and we came up with 2 recipes to try. A Banana Cinnamon Swirl and a Banana Sour Cream one that we added raisins too and topped with chopped walnuts. Both turned out really well and the house smelt amazing all day. Dad gave them both his seal of approval. Which is awesome, considering I forgot the eggs in the 2nd one. Oops. Meh. It all worked out. The last time I was home I made a cobbler and my dad called me up and asked me to come back home so that I could make him some more cobbler. I'm leaving him some banana bread so that should hold him for a bit.

I got all packed this afternoon so I don't have to run around like a crazy woman tomorrow morning. Getting to the train station is an ordeal on its own. My mom doesn't like taking highways or major roads, so we go the back way to the train station. It takes longer but it works. The new problem is that they installed a round-a-bout earlier this year, which my mom now has to navigate. She hates them. She really, really hates them. I just close my eyes and pray when we go through them and once I'm on the train, I keep checking my email on my phone until Mom emails me and I know that she's made it back through and is home safe and sound. Then I relax.

This visit home has been a pretty subdued and quiet one, mostly due to the damn stomach flu knocking us all out for a week. But it's also been very stress free and relaxing, which is what I need. I know I'm going back to a crazy place, but I refuse to get stressed out about it. I may just switch my phone off tomorrow and forget all about work for the day. I should have done that today.

As much as I'm looking forward to getting back to Ottawa and my own bed, I'm going to miss home and my parents very much. I really miss just being around them. Both my mom and dad have said that they feel bad that we didn't get to go and do things but that doesn't matter to me. I don't really mind. I love just being in their company. Just being around them. Talking to them. Laughing with them (or at them as the situation may be). Just knowing that someone else is there, even if we're not in the same room or on the same floor. I enjoy  helping my mom out with the dishes and hiding utensils on her (my Gram used to do that to her too!) or making lunch/cooking dinner for my parents. It seems like mundane, silly things but I don't get to do those things very often, so I appreciate it and enjoy it when I get to do it. Even if they laugh at fart jokes and even though I'm somewhat convinced they're both going senile or they're insane, they're my family and I love them.   My parents are two of the best people you'll ever meet, and they're mine. I'm so lucky and so blessed to have them in my life and I will treasure every second I get to spend with them.

It's time to log off and get to bed. It's going to be an early start to the day tomorrow. We like to give ourselves lots of time to get to the train station, especially if it's snowing in the morning.

Good Night!

Sarah

Mom and Dad back in August

Happy New Year: Resolutions for 2013

So I didn't blog last night, mainly because it was New Year's Eve and by the time we'd finished watching the movies, I was way too tired to blog. I thought about blogging this morning but couldn't really get motivated. That and I had too much of an audience. And trust me, my mom has been pouting all day because she didn't have anything to read. I'm pretty sure my brother was too hungover to notice the lack of blog so I'm good on that front.

Looking back, 2012 was a pretty good year. It got off to a kind of sucky start in the fact that I ended up spending New Year's Eve home alone (plans got cancelled on me). But it actually wasn't that bad. I still had fun. 2012 ended in a kind of sucky fashion too seeing as I had a stomach virus at Christmas and just as I started to feel better, I came down with a sinus cold. I'm blaming the cigarette smoke at my parents' place for that. But everything in between was pretty good. I managed to find my way more often than I have in years. I was home for my mom's 65th bday, my niece's Christening and summer holidays. Getting to see family more often was a definite plus. I got a 1 year contract in 2012 (which I'm really hoping to at least repeat that this year) and am doing a job that I actually enjoy doing. I went to Montreal for a weekend all by myself and in doing so proved to myself that sitting around and just hoping for something to happen never works and that I'm a lot braver than I give myself credit for.

I also started blogging in 2012. It's been almost 6 months since I started. Some days I can't believe that I've been able to keep it up this long. Other days I wonder how I ever got by without blogging.

2013 got off to a slightly interesting start with involved watching my parents snake out the sewer clean-out this morning. My mother owns an 18 foot long, professional, sewer snake, designed to go into a sewer clean out and remove any blockages. Seriously? Who else's mom has that (who isn't married to a plumber!)?? Apparently our toilet didn't like the toilet paper currently being used. It wasn't breaking down fast enough I guess. Fun times. I assisted by bringing more newspaper and paper towels. That's a fantastic way to start off the new year. After that was all cleaned up and I got to have my shower, we hit the road and once again visited my favourite 100 year old, Mr. B. I helped him by throwing out some dead plants that were in his house. I'm pretty sure they died of heat stroke. When I picked the one up, he actually asked me to water it. I told him I was pretty sure it was beyond hope. So now he gets to buy new ones. LOL.

This evening, my parents and I went to dinner with my great Aunt and Uncle and my Grandparents. It was really nice. The restaurant wasn't very crowded so we could talk and actually be heard at the other end of the table. After dinner I said my good byes since I'm heading back to Ottawa on Thursday. The tail end of my visits are always a little sad since I have to say goodbye to everyone and 90% of the time, I don't know when I'll see them again.

Since 2013 is here, it's time for some resolutions. I stopped making them several years ago because I never kept them so why bother? But I started making them again a couple of years ago. I just started to get smarter about them and make them less specific. So here are my resolutions for 2013:

1. Be Happy. Seems simple enough right? Not quite. I do have depression issues, which are mostly seasonal in nature but even when I'm happy, I don't let myself actually "be" happy. I start to worry that something bad is going to come along and change everything. Or that my depression will come back at full force. I have to stop that. When I'm happy, I need to embrace it and enjoy it. Not ruin it with "what ifs".

2. Stress less, Worry less, Laugh more. I'm a worrier. I worry, a lot and often. I worry about big things and little things. This leads to stress. I'm almost 600kms away from my office right now, yet I'm already stressing about what's waiting for me when I get back and what work has to be done and in such a short time frame too. ENOUGH! I've had to tell myself several times over the last few days to knock it off and stop worrying about work. I'm only one person. No one else really seems to notice is some of the smaller things don't get done. So long as my boss is happy with my work and I'm happy with my work, then we're good. I have to stop letting it bug me. I need to find more things that I love doing, that make me laugh and smile and focus on those. Leave the worries behind and re-focus my energy.

3. Have faith. This one isn't as religious as you'd think. It's more along the lines of me needing to have faith in myself, in others as well as in God and the Universe. I need to have faith in myself that I will be able to figure everything own in my own sweet time. I need to have faith in others and believe that they won't let me down, won't abandon me if I ask for help or reveal that I don't have it as much together as I lead most people to believe. And I need to have more faith in the fact that God/the Universe isn't going to drop me on my ass. I might be tested, but they won't let me fail. I'm a good person and deserve to be happy.

4. Stop being afraid. Fear is stupid reason for not doing something. And I have to stop letting it be my excuse for not doing things that I want to do. Like Montreal. I got over my fear and had an awesome time. I need to do more of that.

5. Stop being complacent. If I want things to change, I can't just wish the change to happen. I need to get off my ass and make it happen. I have to be the change that I want to be. I have a crappy little apartment. I complain about it all the time. Fine. I need to either move or make changes to make the sucker less crappy. I need to stop accepting mediocre. I don't have a fairy godmother so I need to take whatever steps are necessary to take my dreams and make them real. My 2013 horoscope said " If you can dream it, you can have it. Don't settle for less". Sounds like damn good advice to me.

So that's the list. 5 resolutions for 2013. This year will be a happy and healthy one. And I hope it's full of good luck, good laughter and great people too. And lots and lots of love.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Sarah