eve of may madness

The last week has been super hectic and it's not about to let up soon! Work has been extremely busy and I was told that my Montreal counterpart was taking a sick leave...basically until our project launched. Surprised? Yeah, but at the same time no. I almost felt like I could do with a sick leave myself! Anyway, we ended up having a staff meeting on Monday (a very nice sunny day too!) and so my lunch hour was shot. It was super hot and I danced after work. P. managed to find a parking spot and he came up to the dance centre where he said that the smell of sweat hit him when he arrived! He saw my class madly tapping away. We ate at the Granville Room and then he drove me home.

The rest of the week was not much better. I danced again on Wednesday, and then had two cpr courses - one on Tuesday, and one on Thursday. P. came to pick me up and to see me on my birthday; I was so excited to see him but he showed up late by 30 minutes and by that time, I was really no longer a happy camper. It was also the U2 concert so parking downtown was absolutely nuts. We ended up going to Aria one last time. I had spent my lunch hour going to my other job to pick up the passport for tourism and speaking with our server, found out they were no longer offering the awesome deal of x% off our food bills. So sad!! Apparently there was quite a lot of abuse of the system and so they changed their minds. The program had been in place for 2 years already so I suppose I was able to use it well anyway. We had a super good meal and then he drove me home.

Yesterday was my tea day and I had made rice krispie squares and included 2 jelly bellys per plate. I couldn't believe what a hit it was! I thought people would choose based on the size of the square but in fact, they were standing there trying to decide which jelly beans they wanted! It was also staff appreciation day so we had the opportunity to wear jeans and were served a hamburger lunch with chips and cupcakes. They came around and we were able to draw a prize which included a $25 gift card to the shopping mall, $40 gift card to the Keg, $40 gift card to Chapters or a free vacation day! I got the shopping mall, which is fine. I would have loved the extra vacation day though! P. called me in the afternoon to let me know that his parents were going out for dinner and had invited us. He asked if I wanted to go. There was also a farewell gathering for one of the lawyers I had known since he started as a student at the firm. I decided on his family dinner - I wanted to see what the rest of his family was like, and I didn't want his parents to think ill of me because I was taking their son away from a family dinner. It turned out to be quite a good dinner. He had made it seem like his family was completely dysfunctional but it wasn't that way at all. The only embarrassing thing that happened was that I ended up spilling tea all over his grandmother's portion of the table when I was trying to be helpful!

After dinner, we started planning out May - so that we can figure out all the activities that we need to do. I wanted to do the kayaking tour and it said to book early. Well I phoned today and found out that ALL weekends in May were booked out. So now I have to take some time off to go! But the guy said it was worth it. I hope he's right. Tomorrow the madness starts...

shopping frenzy

It was the annual Army & Navy shoe sale yesterday. Some of the girls at work lined up at 7:30 for the 8am opening...and of course came in to work late as a result. 50,000 pairs of shoes discounted. Craziness. I went at lunch hour yesterday with a girl who had bought 3 pairs that morning and 2 the night before. One girl bought 5 pairs. Everyone on my floor was talking about the sale. It was great because it was a sunny day so we were able to walk down there in no time and back; would have sucked to have to wait for the bus in the rain. I didn't find anything but it reminded me of a sale at Filene's. Madness. Sheer madness. Funny and hilarious. I guess my size is too popular and it was over lunch hour so everyone else was there at the same time. Of course I'm also the practical one and refuse to wear pointy shoes or those with high heels, which eliminated about 80% of the shoes...

Met with E. for lunch; she was back in town from Toronto and we were discussing work and how I can't decide what to do. She told me that her ex co-worker at her firm was leaving at the end of June and her husband, another lawyer at a different firm, was also quitting and that the two of them were going to take a year off to travel Europe and Asia. Well, the funny thing was that I had just seen the girl while I was waiting for E. The guy was the best man at my best friend's wedding; he's nice but his wife isn't so much. Anyway, that made me really rethink what I want to do. I'm thinking of leaving my job too after I get back in the summer. Will have to seriously think on it.

white smoke, new pope

Just found out white smoke has poured from the sistene chapel but no word yet on who it is...! Will be finding out shortly.

in memoriam

It's been a year yesterday that my godfather passed. This is in memory of him.

As for yesterday, the day was spent as usual doing not much but waiting around. I wasn't chosen as a key model for the show so I had to wait - from 9am until 1pm - before someone got to me. And I wasn't even the last one . What really sucks is that I could have gone and spent the four hours doing something (apart from reading) but I couldn't really leave. I asked one of the technicians how long it would be and she said soon. That was at 10:30. Their version of time is quite warped. So because the stylists are different from last year, and the format has changed overall; they are doing 3 cuts on stage per day. I am one of the cuts. Because I said I was availble on both days, they scheduled me in for Monday. Most of the models were only available on Sunday. If I had known I wasn't going to be needed for both days, I would have just said I could only do Sunday and then saved a day's holiday at work. But it probably wouldn't have mattered because I wouldn't be able to get the good deals at the end of the show! So I'll have today off and then a short work week to boot. Luckily, I'm not on until 12:30 so that means I can sleep in too as they won't need me for makeup until 10am. I am contemplating going in for 9am so that I have a chance to browse.

So my hair no longer has the icky brown/bronze/copper look and it's almost all back to black (but really, it's just super dark brown and a lighter shade of brown (which I can't really see) and some (3) magenta sections.) The technician rearranged the panels and when the stylist came to look aftewards, he wasn't happy with it. It worked if my hair was parted the other way so that's what he's going to do instead of redoing all the colour. I was done by 3. So I waited for 4 hours to have 2 hours of work done. *sigh*

Off I went to catch the bus to P's office. The day started out miserably wet and was now sunny so I was dressed inappropriately in my winter coat but alas this is spring for you. We went to a public charette (a sort of forum discussing what is happening with redevelopment of land) but they started late and we had to leave early. Then we drove and he dropped me off at Betsey Johnson where they were having a bash to celebrate the store's 6th anniversary. They had little goodies and a sale. The store was packed but I didn't find anything that I was willing to fork over tons of cash for so I left.

We decided on Lift Bar and Grill for dinner. It had only opened this January but was already becoming quite popular. Because we hadn't made reservations, we ended up sitting at the bar where we could see the sunset. Gorgeous location and beautiful interior. Food was great but SO overpriced. We shared some whet plates (jumbo prawn and foie gras with pear coulis actually meant ONE prawn and at $17, that's an entree at some restaurants!) Interesting clientele - with a range of young 20-somethings to those in their 40s. People were dressed as if they were at a Manhattan night club or bar - i.e. ready to pick people up. We saw a couple of Asian girls dressed to the nines drinking martinis at the chef's table (i.e. kitchen bar as opposed to the central bar) and P. said he bet they were looking for some white guys. His words were, "cash, flash, and dash". I overheard them talking to the waiter about how they wanted a seat with a view (the chef's table has the back to the windows) and as we got up to leave, they gathered their belongings to take our spot.

We strolled along Coal Harbour briefly before P. got too cold (he had left his jacket at the office). We went back to the office and I got down to figuring out accomodations for the trip. He ended up sleeping face down on the carpet after he got some letters done. Oh. And although he said he liked my hair, he wasn't keen on colouring as he said it was unnatural. I prodded some more and he said that he wouldn't pay for it.

I'm housebound today...trying to figure out more accomodation stuff but most likely trying to catch up on reading the paper and more cleanup. I can't believe how time is flying by so quickly - I'll be heading to Las Vegas in 3 weeks, and Newfoundland in 4!

silence

Wow. It has been already over a week since I last wrote. After discussions with P., we were on a self-imposed solo week. It was supposed to be two weeks. I was unhappy that he hadn't asked or considered asking me along for his practice rally and told him as much. After hearing about it, I was glad I didn't go. It was a disaster from the start. It didn't help that I was already in a bad mood due to the death of the pope which made me think (again) about how short life really is and how we all have our own way of suffering. We had a long discussion about us and how he needed to get his life in order. He came up with the figure of 2 weeks; he had to drop by on Sat. to pick something up. I asked since he was going to be out here, whether he wanted to go for dinner or not. He took too long to decide and then when he did, said no. So I said I might as well not see him and left his package in the mailbox for him to pick up. He almost didn't even call me that night except that he ended up talking to someone and it made him rethink things. If he hadn't called, I don't know if I would have been even more upset.

So Sunday (April 3), I took my grandmother out to the mall. It was pouring rain, and wet and windy and cold. I was completely underdressed and ended up catching a flu bug. Nasty. Just as well that I didn't see P. all week. I ended up going out for dinner with the girls this past Friday night and K. met P. for the first time when he came to pick me up.

He and I went to Calhoun's where I ran into someone from work who saw P. and came to say hi. I had no idea that they knew each other. Then he saw me and said hi as well. And asked how we knew each other... Calhoun's was loud and noisy. He drove me home shortly afterwards.

This Saturday, I was expecting to stay home; P. phoned me up in the midafternoon. I was about to fall asleep and take a nap but he said that we should take advantage of the weather as it was still nice out. It turned out to be a wise decision although he came to pick me up so late that by the time we got to White Rock it was almost 6pm. We parked far away on the hill and walked down, stopping for a mountain of ice cream (3 scoops). Then we walked along the shore and down the pier and finally stopped by a Caribbean restaurant (Caribbean Breeze) for dinner. It was quite a lovely afternoon. And then it rained on Sunday.

death of the pope: 1920-2005

J picked me up for lunch at 11:30 and we headed to the Milestones close by. We had a good long chat and he dropped me off around 2pm. I flicked on the tv hurriedly to CNN and saw the breaking news that the pope had passed at 21:37. It must have been just a few minutes after I had stepped out the door and of course I had been watching the news up to that point in time. 26 year reign. 3rd longest reigning pope. I just stopped watching the coverage a few minutes ago.

pope john paul II

We are all awaiting news of the 'conclusion of his medical crisis.' The pope is expected to pass any hour now. He's 84. By the time I wake up tomorrow, I would not be surprised if he has crossed. Such big news. Probably headlining all the papers around the world.