Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Hello Productivity!

This is going to be a productive week for me. I'll be going on several missions and accomplishing several tasks. Hopefully. As productive as a week can be for someone who's currently not working full time. So far, not bad. I've accomplished the following:
  1. Cleaned fish tank.
  2. Purchased 5 new fish - 2 of which, my lovely pearl gouramis, named George & Loretta, are dead already - I won't be going back to that pet store any time soon. Fish should come with warrantees. Owner negligence cannot be the reason if they die within 24 hours.
  3. Filed my income tax return (well before the deadline, I might add!). I'm getting a whopping $91 refund, which is next to nothing, but which I'm ridiculously happy about because I thought I was going to owe money.
  4. Scheduled my next career counselling appointment.
  5. Helped teach my 3 Tuesday dog classes.
Not an awful start, anyway. Oh, and discovery of the week is definitely Kicking Horse Coffee, which not only tastes fantastic but has that wonderful coffee aroma - now I need to purchase one of those programmeable coffee makers, so I can wake up to that every morning without having to put in a single bit of effort.

I'm planning to start jogging every day with the mutters, but I'm waiting for it to get a bit warmer. I have to walk her anyways, so why not give us both a little more exercise while I'm at it? The idea of me jogging is hilarious in itself, given that I'm not exactly the sporty/active type, and that I smoke half a pack of cigarettes everyday. We'll see how it works out. The weather is getting nicer and I think that spring might actually be around the corner. It's sunny, the snow is melting, and I hear birds chirping - all good signs. I rediscovered my Ella Fitzgerald CD today and it was the perfect spring day listen - happy, hopeful and lively. I'd forgotten how much I've missed it.

Monday, March 21, 2005

Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul...

Christ, that song is following me around everywhere. Honestly, it's starting to get a bit disturbing. Has it been on every Toronto radio station at least once on the same day? Or do stores just have it on their store CD and loop it over and over and over? I swear, at the convenience store, at the LCBO, at Honest Ed's... and there always seems to be someone in front of me in line, singing it very quietly, under their breath, but like they really want to just BELT it out. Sigh. Dobie Gray apparently recorded it. I had to google that. I don't know who Dobie Gray is - that was probably his one big hit. Cool name, though. Too bad that's one of the most irritating songs known to man.

I did dinner at the parents last night, and surprisingly it didn't turn into dysfunctional family drama night. And I got to bring home date squares! The mutters came with me and got to run around the backyard at top speed like the lunatic she is. I took this photo of her - hopefully I can make it show up here - still learning the blogging ropes, dontcha know.
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My parents are finally starting to tolerate her, and she behaved very nicely - until she puked in the car on the way home, poor girl.

I smoked a joint with a friend and watched Finding Nemo to cap off my evening. And I really liked that movie, actually, when I thought I'd really hate it. I haven't laughed that hard in a while - who knew?

Thursday, March 17, 2005

On Inertia

If you can ever take a leave of absence from your job, I highly recommend it. That's what I'm doing right now - week 8 of a 6 week leave of absence. Heh. I just can't bring myself to go back to the grind, whatever grind that may be. Any work=grind, I suppose. I was doing a crappy job at a crappy job. I wasn't happy. I had savings, so I figured, I'll just stop doing it. That was 8 weeks ago. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. People keep asking me what I've been doing with my time. It's amazing how quickly time can pass when you haven't actually done that much.

Errands eat up so much of the days. For example, I've been trying to fix up my apartment. I'm obsessed with replicating the concept of
The Heavenly Bed. If you've ever slept at a Westin, you know what I'm talking about. And mind you it's just me and the dog sleeping there at the moment, but hell, nothing too good for me and the mutters. I believe in spoiling myself upon occasion, and I spend a lot of hours sleeping. So, swanky sheets and pillows purchased. And bedskirt, too. You know, just because.

I successfully micromanaged my landlords' handling of, uh, a rodent issue. No more holes in the bathroom walls, no more hearing strange noises in the night.

I went to Glasgow for a week to visit an old friend. Took in a week's worth of architecture, art, design, and culture. Figured out what tattoo design I'd get, if indeed I ever decided I wanted a tattoo. Went to Edinburgh again, and walked around the big Castle there. Took a lot of
photos that didn't come out as nicely as I'd hoped.

I'm also working a second night at the dog obedience school, to pick up some extra pocket change. (Swanky sheets, as you might have guessed, ain't cheap.) I'm teaching Siris how to master the
Weave Poles. Trying to teach her would be more accurate, actually.

I've been going to see a Career Counselor whose job it is to help me figure out what my next step is. Except that last week, I skipped my session and I have yet to reschedule it. I went into work last week to meet with our Director of Operations about some jobs, and all my old work friends just kept saying how happy I looked. That's what a leave of absence does to you - it's fantastic! So, there's a job I might want to do, but I might not. Today I watched Law & Order in French, rather than do my taxes. I understood most of it. And I've been meaning to set up a grooming appointment for the dog but for some reason, feel too lazy to even call and make the appointment. Sometimes it's good to do nothing. But sometimes, it gets boring. Tomorrow I'm going to kick myself in the ass and do something important.

Friday, March 11, 2005