Montreal!! (part 1)

I'm back! As you may have noticed, I haven't blogged in a while. Almost a week in fact. I do believe that this is the longest period of time I've gone without blogging since I started. I actually missed it and I think I might have started having withdrawal symptoms. LOL.

Anyhow, the reason for the blog hiatus is that I was in Montreal, with my friend Michelle. We had a blast. It was great fun and I really enjoyed having some company this time around, even if she did try to get drunk on our first night there (no worries, I attempted revenge 2 nights later).

We went to the Botanical Gardens and saw the "Butterflies Go Free" exhibit, visited the BioDome where we saw the sloth this time (I didn't see him last time) but the Bobcat was hiding, took a tour of the Notre Dame Basilica (stunning and neither of us got struck by lightening), toured Old Montreal and the Old Port (and managed to not get blown into the St. Lawrence), ate the best poutine I've ever had (while sober), got upgraded to VIP status at the hotel which scored us a free breakfast, managed to not get lost in the subway, learnt that taking 4 lefts in a row will actually take you to some place different and not back to where you started from, got to swim outside (in the rain, in April) without freezing our asses off and generally just had a great time with a great friend.

Our train ride from Ottawa to Montreal was good. The train left 1 minute late and arrived 1 minute last so that's pretty good time. The guy on the train with the food/drinks cart was pretty funny. I spoke French to him and he was impressed by my attempt, so he tried to get Michelle to do the same. That didn't work. LOL. He then told us a funny story about offering "Swedish Balls" to a couple the week before instead of saying "Swedish Berries". It was pretty damn funny. Once in Montreal, we checked into the hotel and headed off to the Botanical Gardens. We'd lucked out and the hotel sold us discounted tickets to the Gardens and BioDome so we save some money. When we got to the Gardens, they were having electrical issues and all the lights/power was out. Since the green houses just use nature light, we were still allowed in. They said that the power should be fixed within a half hour or so and they were right. We were in the tropical  plants section when all of a sudden, we heard a funny noise and then what sounded like water gurgling. I looked over at the little waterfall they have and sure enough, the water came running down it again. The pump was back on. This meant that by the time we'd finished the tour and saw the butterflies, the gift shop had re-opened. That was very important. LOL.

Afterwards, we ventured back to our hotel and then out to a place called The Burger Bar for dinner. It was crazy trendy. I definitely felt under dressed. I needed to add a scarf or floppy hat (the girl beside us had one) or something. I did have a very yummy Orange Creamcicle martini though, which according to Michelle, I drank far too slowly (she had 2 double Sex on the Beach in the same time it took to drink my 1 drink). She made some comment about not getting out much. The food was amazing though. Very awesome, unique burgers. They had one that had won an award during "Burger" week. It was called "The Hangover". It had bacon, cheese, a fried egg, mini poutine and truffle oil on it. There might have been a few more things too. I skipped it and had the Wild Shroom burger instead. Very yummy. We walked around the area for a bit, hitting up Ben and Jerry's for ice cream on the way back and taking a detour to see the Bell Centre (since Montreal is Michelle's team) before finding our way back to the hotel for a much needed rest.

And the rest of this story is to be continued because I need to get my butt to bed since I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Good Night!

Sarah

There's A Mystery A Foot!

Two more sleeps and Michelle arrives and I'm on holidays for 5 days. I can't wait.

Work was really good today. I focused and got through so much stuff. For the most part, I was pretty much left alone to my own devices today, which allowed me to plow on through my "to-do" list. I'm certainly less stressed as a result.

Wish I could say the same thing about my apartment. LOL. It was tv night so I wasn't really focused on cleaning. I did get the dishes done, along with 2 loads of laundry. But I still need to sweep and mop the floors and dust a shelf. Good thing I don't watch anything special on Tuesday nights. Michelle was right. Tomorrow is going to be one very long day.

Last night my dad did something a little 'odd'. He asked a woman I went to high school with (and haven't seen or spoken to since roughly 2000) for her phone number. When I asked him why he's requested it, he said "no reason". My dad is a horrible liar. Mom's pretty bad too. But the older I get, the better my BS detector gets. So I knew something was up. Today in the mail, I got an invitation to my great Aunt's 80th birthday party. I've already bought my train ticket to go home that weekend so I was planning on going. It also happens to be the long weekend in May and my Aunt's birthday happens to be the day after mine. The party is a surprise party (so if anyone reading this knows my aunt, shhhh, don't tell her!), but there was a note written on the back of my invitation which says "P.S. It's a surprise for Sarah too. Haha". I quizzed my mom on this and she's claiming that she knows nothing. Which isn't true. My mom;s like Wikipedia - she knows everything even if some of it's made up. So now I don't know what the heck is up. Are they messing with me? Is it s joint party? Screw it. I'll worry about it after Montreal. I've got enough to think about already.

And now I'm off to clear the clean laundry off my bed and get some sleep.

Good Night!

Sarah

Clean-Sweep of a Weekend :)

It was a pretty quiet weekend here. I didn't actually really leave my apartment, except for the trips I made to take the garbage and recycling downstairs. The weather wasn't the greatest so I didn't mind being indoors. When the sun made an appearance late this afternoon, I did go and stand on my balcony. I stood in the sun, closed my eyes, and soaked in the warmth and happiness for a little while. While I was out there, two chickadees came along and were eating the seeds and nuts that I put out for them. They didn't seem to mind that I was there.

I spent all weekend cleaning and re-organizing. Or trying to at least. It would appear that my idea of re-oganization is moving a pile of stuff from one spot to another. I quite literally got down on my hands and knees and was scrubbing the grout on my kitchen floor this afternoon. It paid off too. Literally. I found a toonie wedged under the baseboard by my kitchen door. I pried it out and now have $2 more than I had this morning.

When I booked the trip to Montreal, it seemed so far away. And now it's almost here. 4 more sleeps :) I'm sure I'll be a little more excited about it once I'm finished with my apartment and I've made it through work this week. I'm really looking forward to just relaxing and spending time with a good friend and a change of scenery. Maybe getting a difference perspective on things. And on the bright side, I'll have finished my spring cleaning so I can go out and play on the weekends again!! I really do need to over-haul my bedroom though - but it can wait a bit long.

Good Night!

Sarah

Blog trivia - this is the photo that I used on my very first blog.

More Weather Venting and A Bus Caused Power Outage

I made it through the wilderness. Somehow I made it through. Didn't know how lost I was....because the damn snow/ice pellets were in my eyes. It was definitely a brutal day. Those bloody little ice pellets really hurt when they're coming down. The wind whipping them around didn't help. The funny part is that the ice pellets actually were providing some traction on the sidewalk. There'd been some freezing rain earlier. Thankfully that had stopped before I left for work. It's zero and raining right now. Our "Winter Storm" warning ended at 10:18, so about a 20 minutes ago. We still might see some freezing drizzle overnight and possibly some more tomorrow morning but it sounds like we're in for just normal rain and above zero temps tomorrow. My apartment is still damn cold though. It's kind of like being at my parent's house. My poor nose has been cold since I got home from work. Looks like we have a rainy week ahead of us too.

Work was good today. I was kept busy doing research on requests and getting some late finance things done. It was relatively quiet in the office as a lot of people had taken the day off and even more didn't make it in today due to the weather. We had an office "coffee break" which involved getting coffee and doughnuts for the staff. I think everyone liked that. We even managed to get some for the evening shift and they were happy. Unlike parts back home, we lucked out and didn't lose power at all today. The storm caused power outages back in Southern Ontario. Only one part of Ottawa lost power and that was thanks to a city transit bus. It slide off the road and took out some power poles in the process. Our buses are talented like that. And it's the second time one of those particular style of bus has slide off the road this winter. I think the City of Ottawa needs to "Winter Road Test" any new style/type of bus that they're thinking of purchasing. That was they'll know that they can survive our winter weather.

I'm in for a quiet weekend. First up on the agenda is a frequent item: sleeping in. Once that is accomplished, I really have to get my ass in gear and finish getting this place cleaned up. I need to re-organize the clutter and then sweep/swiffer/wash the floors. I also need to wash the towels and bedding. Lots of fun, right? Curling up with my book or a good movie might be in the cards too. I think some Chinese food might be as well. I'll have to see what I feel like tomorrow. Here's hoping that the productivity fairy comes to visit and I can get a lot accomplished. My bedroom is pretty much a lost cause (always is) so I'm not going to worry about that right now. Besides, no one but me sees it!!

Since my eyes seem to be closing on their own, I think it's time to log off and go burrow down under my blankets and see if I can get warm. Which will probably backfire and I'll wake up at 3am, hot and sweaty. LOL.

Good Night!

Sarah

Snow be gone!!

More Ranting About The Weather and Random Thoughts.

For a long week, it's gone by surprisingly quick. It's been a very busy and stressful week too. Plus I've got PMS. I'm kind of impressed that I haven't snapped and tore someone's head off. But tomorrow is going to be a tricky one. We're in for a very nasty storm, full of snow and ice pellets and maybe even my favourite thing of all: Freezing rain. Stupid weather.

I was in bed a little after 9 last night. I curled up and decided to read for a bit but I'd put my book away and was asleep before 10. I haven't made it to bed that early in quite awhile. I sure made a difference on my day today. French class was good. We had a quiz and I made it through the quiz in one piece so that was good. In fact, the class seemed to fly by today.

I just keep telling myself that I only have to make it through tomorrow. Then it will be the weekend. I've stocked up on food so I don't have to go out (but I still might as I think I'm going to make mussels again this weekend). I'm going to focus on cleaning all weekend and get my apartment in tip-top shape again. It might not look/feel like spring but my spring cleaning is in full swing. I still need to find something for my friend to sleep on while she's here. I'm pretty sure I saw some air beds on sale in the Canadian Tire flyer for this upcoming week.

My winter boots are ready to go for tomorrow but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that the storm misses us all together (yeah, I'm delusional) or at least doesn't hit as bad as it's supposed to or maybe just brings us a little snow and no ice. Or just rain (normal rain). Sigh. I'm so ready for spring to be here.

Time to hit the hay and dream of sunshine. Oh, and my little blog here now has over 8000 page views. That's  crazy awesome. And still incredibly unbelievable.

Good Night!

Sarah

Sarah + PMS = this photo :)

You call this Spring? Oh Look! Firemen!

This has to be one of the worst springs that we've had in years. The weather just can't seem to even out. I got used to this roller coaster type weather when I was in Alberta but this is very odd for Ontario. Environment Canada is calling for a significant snow event on Friday. This isn't good.

We had some excitement this morning. I'd gone on a coffee run. When I came out of Tim Horton's, there was smoke in the air and I could see it rising from the back of the restaurant across the street. By the time I got a block away, the fire trucks were arriving. So I dropped off the coffees and headed back out with 2 co-workers (it was only a block away). So we got to stand there on our break, watching the firefighters in action. I have to say, some of them were on the very handsome side of things. LOL. Sadly, that was the highlight of my day. Who am I kidding? That's been the highlight of my month thus far. Luckily, the restaurant wasn't heavily damaged. It was a fire in their exhaust system.

An alarming number of people in the office seem to be sick at the moment, coming down with spring colds. Given our wacky weather, it's not surprising. I just really hope that I don't come down with a cold before or during my trip to Montreal. I don't really want to get sick after it either, but if I'm going to catch the cold, I'd like to do so after the trip. I still have a lot of cleaning/organizing to do before Michelle gets here. Guess what I'm doing this weekend? Yeah. Cleaning.

I think I'm going to go and crawl into bed and try to get warm. It's a little chilly in my apartment this evening.

Good Night!

Sarah

How I feel some days.

Reflection

I spent a lot of today looking around and thinking about things. Specifically, my life. It was a very reflective day. Some of the stuff that reflected back to me was pretty good and that made me happy. However, the majority of stuff wasn't so good and that made me kind of sad. I didn't sit down and tear myself apart or put myself down. This was just a general evaluation of how things are going in my life. My 35th birthday is only 6 weeks away, so I think that's what spurred on today's thoughts. Time to check in and evaluate things.

I'm doing so much better than I was 5 years ago. When I turned 30, I was miserable. I kept that to myself as much as possible but things were bad. With the exception of still being single, almost everything else has changed and improved. A lot of things in this world get better with age. Apparently I'm one of those.

The problem I have before me at the present is that I've become complacent with my life. Things have gotten better and are going well, so I'm ok with just letting things be. This isn't good. I'm a dreamer. I have a vivid imagination and wild dreams and unfortunately, I seem to be operating under the delusion that I live in a Disney version of the world, where if you wish hard enough, and believe strongly enough *poof*, your magic godmother fairy type person appears and makes all those dreams come true. Yeah, that's not quite how it works.

I've come to the rather sobering realization that if I want any of these wild ass dreams of mine to come true, then I'm going to need to work for them. Really, really work for them. Put plans in place and follow through on them. Strive to be better and not accept mediocrity. I've been doing that my whole life. Like back in high school. I was a good student. Good grades came to me easily, so I never really pushed myself. Same with University. Had I actually pushed myself and really applied myself, I could have got great grades but for some stupid reason, I never felt the need.

But not anymore. This isn't just limited to my personal life either. My work life is going to have to change as well. I need to start looking for the next step. My career needs to grow too. And while complacency can be safe, it's not what I want. Don't get me wrong, I like and most of the time enjoy my job, but it's not my "dream" job and it's not the final destination in my career path either.

I am holding out some hope that the universe will help me along too and I have faith that it won't let me fall on my ass either.

I know what I want and why I want it. I just don't know the Where, as in where this will take me, the Who as in who will I become or the most important and hardest one, the How. That one is going to require some more thought and planning. But I do know that whatever I decide to do or how I decide to approach it all, everything is going to start with one small step, taken with courage, hope and determination. And I'm taking that step right now.

Good Night!

Sarah