Sleepy Thursday

After all of my excitement yesterday, you think I would have passed right out. But no. Firstly, my hot, soothing bath backfired. I was too hot afterwards and couldn't get comfortable in bed. Then I tossed and turned for what felt like hours. I kept waking up too. I think the sound of the plows going down the road might have been the culprit there.

This is what I woke up to this morning:

I am truly not impressed. Even more so since it's STILL FUCKING SNOWING!!!!!! We're supposed to get another 2 cm tonight and 2cm tomorrow and 2cm Friday night and then a 60% chance of flurries on Saturday and a 40% chance on Sunday. Give me a break! We're already pushing 30cms over the last 24 hours. The damn snowbanks are as tall as I am. Crossing the street has become an extreme sport because you either have to climb over said banks or risk traffic going around them. Stupid weather. This is the most snow Ottawa has seen in 4 years. I guess we were due. Thankfully, the buses were running better this morning and this evening. Hopefully they keep it up for tomorrow. I hope the snow crews come by soon and remove our snowbanks too. I'll have to take a photo of the ones out front tomorrow. It looks like the front of the building is being eaten by giant snow monsters.

Trying to wrap my head around some travel plans for mid to late spring. I'm going to Montreal in April, I just need to pick a weekend and then I'm thinking of going home in May for my bday and my Great Aunt's bday. Mine is a semi-milestone and hers is a major milestone. I haven't seen the family since Christmas (and still haven't forgiven my rat fink brother for giving me the stomach flu at Christmas) so it would be very awesome to see everyone again.

Today is my mom's birthday :) By the sounds of it, she had a pretty decent day, except for the part where my brother broke in and ate all the chips - LOL. Thankfully mom came home and stopped him before he moved onto the cabbage rolls and chocolate cake. This is mom celebrating her bday last year:

It's safer for everyone if you don't ask me to explain that photo. All I'm going to say is that it was my Uncle David's fault. End of story.

I'm very excited by the fact that tomorrow is Friday. I've only worked 2.5 days this week (had French this afternoon) but it still seems like an insanely long week. I did a lot of cooking this week, so maybe that's why it seems longer. I dunno. I made some very amazing Monte Cristo Chicken Cutlets for dinner and a pineapple angel food cake for dessert (1 box angel food cake mix, 1 20oz can of crushed pineapple: just mix the 2 and nothing else. Bake for 25-30 mins and enjoy. So flippin' good!). Guess I was feeling domestic this evening :)

I really need to get some shit together this weekend. I need to mail away 2 bday cards and I have to mail home bday gifts for my mom, brother, nephew and niece. And I might get around to mailing a crazy belated bday and Christmas gift to someone else I know too. Canada Post is going to love me.

Ok. It's sleep time. I keep pausing to think of what to write next and I almost nod off. Oops.

Good Night!

Sarah

More snow from this morning.

Super Woman and Snow

I don't even know where to start with today. It's been all over the map and despite a rocky ending, I'm kind of laughing about it. But that might just be because I'm really sleepy right now.

So, I took the day off. I had 2 holiday days left at work and they're "use them or lose them" ones so I decided to use one. I arranged a shopping date with one of my very best friends(NB) and her adorable child (Baby F).  I got to sleep in this morning, which was awesome. Sadly, sleep did not come so easily to NB and Baby F, but he went down for a nap early so things were looking up. Mother Nature was cooperating at the time but soon decided that throwing ice pellets at us would be fun. I took the bus out to Kanata to meet up with them, which was quick and painless. Walking through the mall parking lot while being pelted with little ice chunks was the hard part. Once inside, we got our shop on. Baby F got to pick out a new toy and seemed very happy with all the new things to look out. He even helped me pick out a bottle of hair dye (he had some help from his mom). We then ventured onto Chapters which involved a caffeine stop at Starbucks for NB and I. I got a new book and we headed out to find lunch.

By now the ice had stopped but the snow was picking up and the roads were getting messy. We opted for a drive through and eating lunch at home. Apparently shopping tired out Baby F and he passed out about 5 minutes from home. As a result, NB and I had a peaceful lunch. Once the baby was up, it was time for a changing and a feeding. Both were a little rocky as someone was cranky after their nap. NB got through it all in fine form and with minimal swearing. I doubt she'll ever know just how impressed by her I am. After lunch Baby F seemed quite happy and crawled all over the room playing with all the toys, leaving time for the grown ups to chat and catch up - which was my favourite part of the day.

After a couple of hours, I went out to shovel snow out of the way so the garage door would close properly and so that the car would get out and then it was time to go and pick up Mr. NB. The four of us then headed out for dinner. By now, the roads were a mess, traffic was a mess. the buses were all fucked up, broken down, delayed or jack knifed so we figured that waiting until after rush our would see a smoother trek home.

Dinner was nice. Baby F inhaled it. It was incredible to see. LOL. And our server just kept screwing up. The irony was that he was training someone new!! Towards the end though, Baby F started to get cranky and it was time to jet. I got dropped off at the park and ride and they headed home. When I got into the bus shelter, there was a good number of people there so I was taking that as a good sign - I hadn't missed the bus. Turns out I didn't have to worry about missing the bus simply because there hadn't been one yet......and one wouldn't appear for another hour and 26 minutes!!! We kept seeing "out of service buses" coming into the west end and letting people off but nothing was heading back east. I saw 5 local routes too. It was very frustrating. I could have stayed the night out there but I figured I could last a little while longer and it paid off. The ride home was relatively quick and only slightly nerve racking. It did end was my less than graceful exit off the bus and through a snowbank rather than over it, but nothing was bruised other than my ego so I"m fine. I managed to successfully make it over the next 2 snowbanks I had to traverse on my trek home.

Once home, I got out of my wet clothes and checked my email and then went and had a nice, long soak in a hot bath with some Lavender Epsom Salts. I finished reading my book while I was in there and had a chance to reflect on  the day.

With the weather aside, it was a great day. I didn't have to work and I got to spend several hours just relaxing and hanging out with a very dear and awesome friend who I don't see nearly enough. She's such a wonderful and amazing person, even more so now that she's a mom.Just getting to hang out and chat made the day a great one. Despite being very tired thanks to yet another sleepless night, she just kept going, making sure Baby F was taken care of. I couldn't do it. Watching Baby F play and crawl around was great. He's adorable and highly entertaining but I don't know how she does it. She's Wonder Woman. I honestly don't think I'd have the patience and capability to be so selfless that's required when you're a mom. And she certainly has it in spades. I'm in complete awe of her (and her husband). They're amazing people and kick-ass parents :) And I can't wait to see them all again. But next time, the weather had better be much, much better!

Good Night!

Sarah

This is the only place I like seeing snow!

Monday *sigh*

I cooked a kick ass dinner tonight. I had a little tenderloin steak in the freezer so I had that (just salt and pepper on it) with a salad and some peas (frozen, not canned) and it was great. A fast, simple dinner. Doesn't really lend to leftovers for lunch tomorrow but that's ok. I've still got soup from last night that I can take for lunch. 

My work day was a little on the busy side, which is never nice on a Monday. The afternoon proved to be very busy for a couple of my managers and lead to some confusion. That was fun to watch. You need to find amusement where you can. I have Wednesday off this week so it's a short week, which means I need to get more done in less time...but I get a day off, so it's worth it. Unfortunately, Mother Nature appears to be trying to rain (or snow) on my parade. Not nice.

Not much else to say tonight. I'm pretty sure my brain has already headed to bed. I really should do the same.

Good Night!

Sarah

I would so love to go back to Vegas!!

Oscars and Violets

Compared to yesterday, today was quite a dull day. LOL. I'm currently watching the Oscars. There was a tie in the Sound Editing category. Who knew? I haven't been paying attention to the whole show though. It's kind of been one of those off and on sorts of things. I did like the musical numbers. They were very well done.

I cleaned, watched a movie, baked, did some dishes, spent way too much time on Pinterest and made soup. So a very domestic day over all. I also slept in until 10am so there went most of my morning. Sleep rocks.
I'm currently trying to decide if I can stay awake long enough to see Adele's performance at the Oscars. I probably should be in bed instead.

I'm a little stressed out at the moment as I keep thinking off all the stuff I have to get finished at work tomorrow. I was covering for someone else last week and things got busy on our end so I didn't get everything done. I'm hoping this week is much quieter and I'll be able to focus and get everything finished. I'm sure I will. It's just normal Sunday night mind wandering crap. I only have a 4 day work week this week. I took Wednesday off as I had two vacation days left and if I don't use them, I lose them.

Falling into the totally random category, I'm quite happy to see that my little violet is blooming again. It's been so long since it bloomed, that I'd actually forgotten what colour it is. Turns out it's purple with white, which is quite pretty. By the looks of it, there are a couple more buds so I should see some more blooms soon. I love flowers so I'm very happy to see that this one is blooming. It makes me think that spring isn't too far away after all.

My bed is calling so I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to see which movie wins best picture.

Good Night!

Sarah

I can't wait for spring!

Sexapalooza!!!!!!!

As several of you noticed and took the time to point out, I didn't blog last night. Yes, I do that from time to time. I was in a very foul mood last night and didn't want to write as I was somewhat leery of what was going to come out. So I opted to grab my book and curl up in my bed instead.

I was still in a bad mood when I got up this morning. I had a very restless sleep last night and kept waking up so that didn't help matters any. When I logged into my Facebook, I discovered that some very smart people gave me some very smart advice over night and that started making things better. I got to have a pretty lazy morning at home and then decided to go out and have some fun, since I obviously don't need anyone else to help me do that.

I went to Sexapalooza. It's a trade show that was happening at the Convention Center and it was a blast. It's designed and geared towards women and couples. It's an educational experience and a fun on too. They have a main stage where presentations and shows happen, along with seminars and education sessions. While there, I saw a mini-show by a Burlesque troop which involved a strip tease that ended with a giant Jalapeno pepper being set on fire (it had a sparkler in it), a fan dance, two different belly dance performances and a sexy swing dance performance. It was great. I also saw part of the Canadian Hot Bodies show which features male exotic dancers. Wouldn't you know it, the first guy out was dressed like a fire fighter. LOL. I only saw his routine though as the women there were insane and I was starting to fear for my safety, but it was a hoot. Clearly, since it's a public event, the don't take ALL of their clothes off.

The show also had a sex museum, a whole mess of exhibitors and a dungeon. Now I don't know if some of the "kinkier" facets of sex have become more mainstream thanks to Fifty Shades of Grey or if they've been there all along and no one really noticed them before. The Dungeon was something else. You definitely needed an open mind for that one. All of he people in there were super nice and incredibly eager to answer any and all questions. They were giving demos on how to properly spank your mate, how to play with wax and how to correctly tie up/retrain your play mate. There was one other demo but I have no idea what the heck it was. I have to admit that I learnt some interesting new fact about a few things. Can't say that I'll ever use that info unless Jeopardy holds a "Random Sex Trivia" competition, but it was kind of fun to see it all in such a casual setting.

The sex museum was neat and my favourite part was a listing of strange laws from Canada and the USA about sex, flirting, dating and just general male/female interactions. It made for a good laugh. I did have one traumatizing incident while looking around and surprisingly, it didn't happen in the dungeon. A lot of the exhibitors sold sex toys, aids, lingerie, movies etc... While wandering though one such place, they had a "Just Beaver" (yes, Beaver) blow up love doll for sale and there was a young man pictured on the box who looked very much like Justin Bieber. That grossed me right out. LOL.

There were a couple of health type places there like one place doing pulse analysis and another doing posture analysis. There was also the local chapter of Birth Right (a planned parenthood type of place) and a great group who are running an anti-bullying campaign. And there was a booth selling exotic candies. Mostly sucker shaped like penises. I picked a few up for myself and a couple of friends :) Oh yeah! And there was some poor guy walking around who was dressed up like a giant penis. I was standing next to a man who said "Hi Dick" as the poor penis man walked by. I wonder how many times he's heard that one this weekend.

I spent just over 2.5 hours there. I enjoyed myself and I have to admit that I was surprised and impressed by the number of "older" people there. As in probably 10-20 years older than me. Granted, by the time I left, a lot more of the younger people were coming in but it was rather interesting to see the diversity of the ages of people there.

Ottawa gets a good deal of flack for being a "reserved and conservative city". We're not. And I see that we're breaking out of that shell more and more. The Ottawa show is 4 days long where-as the Toronto version is only 3 days long. That's kind of cool. I was a little surprised to see that Montreal didn't have one though.

Anyhow, that was my adventure for the day. I'm rather sleepy now so I think it's time to head to bed and dream of half naked firemen. LOL.

Good Night!

Sarah

A Very Good Day

What a day it's been! It's been one of the best days I've had in weeks, which feels amazing.

It was a pretty chilly start to the day. I'm hoping that's the last of the arctic air. Work went smoothly this morning and all my finance stuff totalled properly on the first time. That's pretty rare in itself. So that put things off to a good start.

This afternoon I started the next level of my French classes. My co-worker and I weren't looking forward to it. Our first 2 levels weren't exactly thrilling and our teachers weren't all that good. We decided to switch to an afternoon class this time to see if we'd be a little more alert. I think that might have done the trick. That and the fact that our teacher seems pretty awesome. We have a female teacher this time and her teaching style is so different from the other 2 we had. She likes to write things done and puts a lot of emphasis on verbal communication, which is where I need the most help. This might not be so bad this time.

After work, the bus gods were making up for the last 2 days and I only had to wait 1 minute for my bus and I got a seat! Woohoo! We flew home. I can't recall the last time I got home so quickly. It gave me plenty of time to check my email, brush my hair, change my top and head back out. I met up with one of my best friends for dinner tonight. As always, the meal was great and the conversation was even better. There was some laughter involved as well, which is never a bad thing. And we capped off the evening with one heck of a dessert. I'm very happy we opted to split it because I think we both would have been rather ill had we tried to eat one ourselves.

Just as I was getting home, I got a text message from my brother telling me to check my email. I thought that perhaps he'd sent me another photo of my adorable niece but nope, it was something better. He'd got my niece laughing and he recorded it and sent it to me. I was grinning from ear to ear hearing her laugh. It's such a happy,joyful and innocent sound. Incredible. And the perfect way to end a wonderful day.

And tomorrow's Friday so that's awesome too!

Good Night!

Sarah

Tonight's Dessert

More Bus Stories

After last night's epic bus ride home, I was looking forward to tonight's ride being much better. On the whole, it was. I didn't have to wait too long in the freezing cold, snow and wind (less than 10 minutes) and when my bus did arrive, I was able to get a seat. Yay!.

Two stops later, a man got on the bus. He had an expired transfer. And not a "just" expired one. This one was over 10-15 minutes expired. He had words with the bus driver and it ended with the man saying "I've already paid for a ride, I'm not paying again" and he went and sat down. We made it 2 more stops along the way before the bus stopped. And we waited. And waited. At first I thought it was a time point and he was waiting until the correct time to leave but after 5 minutes, I was guessing this wasn't a time check. That's when a transit security person got on the bus. The bus cop had a few words with the driver and then came and found expired transfer man and escorted him off the bus. They stood outside chatting. While we sat and waited some more. Finally the transit security dude waved us off and we left without expired transfer man.

The rest of the trip was uninteresting until we got to my stop. My stop is about 10 feet from where an off ramp exits onto the main road. Not only does the exit have a yield sign, but there's a city bylaw that says you have to yield to all transit vehicles. My bus put his signal on and started to move over into the exit lane to get to the stop when some jackass came barrelling up the ramp and without even looking, tried to fly into our lane. The bus driver laid on the horn and the jackass can to a very sudden stop. Which was rather impressive given how snow covered the roads are. Seriously. How do you not see an articulated (so extra long) red and white bus? And what makes you think you'd win if you attempted to cut it off? Some people are just plain stupid. Maybe we should make people pass IQ tests at the same time as they take their driver's tests.

I'd actually love it if the cops would sit in the parking lot and wait for all the idiots that don't yield to the bus and then ticket them all. It's not like they're going to get stuck behind the bus. Once the bus has pulled up to the stop the cars can go around it in the other lane (there are 4 lanes at this point in the road, 1 turning into the mall and 3 straight through). Some people I tell ya.

On an unrelated topic, my next French course starts tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it. A 4 hour class where I spend most of it lost and/or confused for 13 weeks. And my partner in crime is already slated to miss classes 2 and 3 so that blows. Sigh. Why can't it be a fun class that I actually want to take???. Wish me luck.

Good Night!

Sarah

If buses came with these, no one would dare cut them off.