The Daily EO: October 9th, 2012

There are sometimes we just want to share a secret.  I am often struck by a weird compulsion to admit my sins.  Usually they are fairly innocuous, and by the time I say something, the receiver of my confession just laughs at me.  I consider eating hot white bread with butter a sin, so you can get the idea.  It doesn’t mean I don’t do it – I just recognize that I shouldn’t probably be doing it, but do it anyways.

When it comes to technological sins, I always confess to my husband.  It’s just he that would consider many of the things I do trespassing against a computer, or phone or whatever it may be.  I also know that he’ll spent 5 minutes explaining why I shouldn’t have done what I did and then forgive me anyways – with perhaps only a minor penance.

About 2 months ago, I bragged to him that I successfully fixed my “comma/less than” key when it fell off.  I got it all hooked back into place and working completely perfectly.  This is true – mostly.

October 9th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary:  My confession:  the key didn’t mysteriously fall off.  I ripped it off to get a Beavis (cat)hair out of it that was hindering its use.   Oh, Emile, I have sinned.

The Daily EO: Thanksgiving Weekend 2012

I have many things to be thankful for this weekend and among the foremost are my generous and kind friends Colin and Alison who let us stay at their house for a month until we could get ourselves settled in our own place.  They and their delightful children welcomed us with open arms sharing their rooms, food and attention with us.

After a full day shopping, visiting, buying, cooking and eating on Saturday, our truck arrived on Sunday and we then spent a whole day moving and unpacking.  Today was also spent moving and unpacking, but fortunately with a lovely afternoon with margaritas in the backyard also.

Over this weekend we:

  • shopped
  • purchased mattresses
  • searched for beds and other furniture
  • Had a house-warming party with Colin and Alison and kids enjoying fire roasted pizza at Incendio in Gastown
  • helped to cook a turkey dinner (and ate said turkey dinner)
  •  moved all of our stuff into a storage unit or condo
  • unpacked the kitchen
  • unpacked the living room
  • transported all of our things from Colin and Alison’s
  • made up our bed (I write while sitting on a foamy leaning against the wall)
  • unpacked all of our clothes (a difficult feat considering we have no dressers or bookcases)
  • took my grandpa for Thanksgiving pizza lunch at Me & Ed’s
  • Didn’t write the Daily EO daily (they would have gone something like this.  Moved and unpac. . . . zzzzzz.)

Here are some other things I am thankful for:

  • My husband Emile is the brave and supportive and he made this move happen.
  • Our truck with our possessions arrived on time and under budget and tax-deductible and so far unbroken.
  • I discovered that Benalyn is more effective than Safeway knock-off Nyquil.
  • Thanksgiving Dinner was a delight of new and different sides than I usually do.  Yum.
  • Sushi restaurants serve non raw fish options so we can go as much as Emile wants
  • Whoever the guy was that decided to have the lit sails of Canada Place change colour during the night.
  • My in-laws are so close by telephone and supported this move whole heartedly (despite a few tears on both sides)
  • That I never reduced my credit limit from $15,000 despite certainty that I would never ever break a 5 figure balance.
  • I am climbing in the call rotation from my grandpa – I can now help when he needs something.
  • That my weird habit of sticking kleenex up my nose when I am sick is tolerated by my husband as long as we are in the house alone.
  • My family is close by – comparatively so.
  • That pottery can go in the dishwasher.
  • I have a job.  In my field.
  • I no longer live in the house with a huge bag of Jelly Bellys so I can now lose the bean weight added.

I could go on and on and on as I realize what I have.  I only have to travel a few blocks east to see the crushing poverty and addiction that some struggle with.  I miss the rural life in Huntsville of course – but neither of us regret the decision to come to here and make a different kind of life.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2012 Extra-Ordinary:  I live in Vancouver.  Family lives here.  Friends live here.  We are going to make a home here.

The Daily EO: October 3rd, 2012

Today I signed a letter that made all of this move official.  And aspects of it were like getting married.  Yes, when Emile and I got married that was the official point that we were husband and wife yet our marriage was not made that day – it was made bit by bit, day by day over five years.

And this move, so quickly, that we are Vancouver residents before we could even realize it.  The last two months each piece was put in place, each step was taken.  So to sign the letter made it official, but it wasn’t when the work got done.

October 3rd, 2012 Extra-Ordinary:  Me:  Materials and Logistics Manager at Rhema Health Products.

The Daily EO: October 2nd, 2012

I was thinking of that old Friends episode this morning where an ill Monica tries to seduce Chandler.  He is repulsed until she finally gets him when she invites him to help spread on the Vicks Vapo Rub.   I didn’t get the attraction and I have never used the stuff.

Staying at a friend’s house, I’ve managed to catch a cold from one of their germ bags. ..  ahem.. . . I mean children.  So, they felt somewhat obligated to provide cold relief for me in the form of pills and Vicks Vapo Rub.  Given the problems that adding oily things to my skin causes and my slight feeling of aversion to such a product, I left it sitting on the window sill for several days.  This morning I ate some eggs, had two extra strength ibuprofen, and then stood looking out the window massaging my poor swollen lymph nodes wondering when this would go.

I insert an aside here.  I rarely get sick, and in fact ever since I started working out and eating better, it is even more infrequent.  It is pretty great, but leaves me with a lack of empathy for those who deal with frequent illness.   But when I do get sick, I am certain this is the end.  I am sound like a fog horn when I cough, my nose produces boxes of kleenex worth of liquids and I am forced to sit around moaning with tissues stuffed up my nose.  I believe that my immune system isn’t level loaded.  I think that my body had a tremendous defensive position on the walls of the castle.  But once the walls are breached, my defenses have to regroup to deal with an internal battle.   This is what I believe.

I eyed the Vicks Vapo Rub and smelled it again – I love the smell of camphor.  What the heck?  I haven’t showered yet and I’ll make sure it stays off my face.  I’ll just try it on my throat and just a touch under my nose.  Afterall, that is what they use on those crime shows in the morgue.  I rubbed it on and felt vaguely like Burt Reynolds in Striptease (not that I’ve ever watched that movie).   I dabbed a little bit under my nose and found that it did actually help to feel less stuffed up.  So I rubbed it on my throat still not convinced of it’s ability to make me feel better – after all there is a lot of muscle, bone, nerves etc this stuff has to go through.

But what the heck!

And what’s this?  My throat and neck feel tingly, cold and open.   Open.  Less swollen.

October 2nd, 2012 Extra-Ordinary:  Vicks Vapo Rub really does do something, but I’ll be damned if I get the stuff on my sheets.

The Daily EO: October 1st, 2012

Sometimes I drive erratically.  I make quick right turns, pull u-turns, move speedily into another lane, drive significantly under the speed limit, switch back and forth between lanes, hammer on the brakes, and occasionally use my hand-held device.  I do hope ICBC is not reading this, but these things are true.

October 1st, 2012 Extra-ordinary:  I wish I could have my Ontario plates back so people know I am learning, not a yahoo.  I’m trying people – this place is hard to get around in even if I have a map on my phone.

The Daily EO: September 30th, 2012

Sometimes being uninvited is just what you need.  At least that is what I think.  This has happened twice recently.

First time was before I left Ontario when I was following up with a girlfriend about dinner invite – one of our going away nights.  She didn’t want to come.  But she hemmed and she hawed and them said “I’ll be there.”  I could tell she didn’t want to be there – I think I know her pretty well nowadays.  So, on the way home, I dropped by her place and told her she was uninvited – she was not longer welcome to come.

Sunday, same thing happened – we were going to have a picnic in our new place with our friends and their kids.  We were all looking forward to it earlier in the week, but soon Sunday arrived and four of us are sick, one is satisfyingly working at a project he’s wanted to get to for a long time and the three kids were just happy to be hanging out on a non-school day.  The last thing I felt like doing was dragging my snotty, coughing, aching ass downtown to sit on a hard floor with no furniture eating picnic food.  I figured if I felt that way, perhaps the rest of us did to.  So I uninvited everyone – please do not come to a picnic that was promised to you.  Yes, you too children.  Do not come.  Shoo.  Shoo.

Harsh it sounds I guess, but both time the responses were positive.   My friend was exhausted and had so much going on that a dinner out was not a pleasure, it was a burden to her.  We had already seen lots of each other recently, and said our goodbyes (such a lovely card she gave me), so another night?  It wasn’t needed and it wasn’t easy on her to make it.  What is the point of that?  It was supposed to be good.  It was supposed to be fun.  We had a good hug and said goodbye – and she kept the grip on her sanity.

And Sunday?  We ordered pizza, spent time together, kept the project going, and had a pretty good night.

September 30th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary:  Sometimes the plan just has to be chucked out.  There will be other picnics.

The Daily EO: September 29th, 2012

My god, there are a lot of furniture stores on United Boulevard in Coquitlam, BC.  I woke up with a cough and aches and fever and I thought we could visit a couple of stores.  But they never stopped.  Each side of the street, sharing buildings, dual levels, it went on and on.

By 2 pm, I couldn’t take any more.  The problem with most furniture is it isn’t what I want.  I know what I want, and often I know it when I see it.  And nothing yet – I don’t want a platform bed, I do not want a condo bed, I don’t want a wooden bed, I don’t want a neutral bed, and I don’t want to be close to the ground.

September 29th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary:  My day ended without a bed despite looking at 100s of them.

The Daily EO: September 28th, 2012

We had cake.  Rich Chocolate cake with Raspberry filling.

A simple 6″ cake purchased from a bakery to celebrate my new job (details coming soon).

September 28th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary:  The simplest gestures are the most kind.  I didn’t know that I wanted the occasion marked until the cake was pulled out.  I am gratified and fulfilled.

The Daily EO: September 27th, 2012

Dear Future Employer,

I am excited to be getting back to work soon!  I plan to work hard and to make a difference.  But I am going to need some accommodations.  Over the last year, I have been unemployed and have become accustomed to certain things.  But I want this relationship to be successful!  So here are some things that I think might help us both – you will gain a focused and committed employee!

  1. I am concerned about working 5 days/week and all of them in a row.  I mean, if I work on a Tuesday, I don’t think it is reasonable for you to expect that I also come in on Wednesday.  And Fridays can be tough for anyone, so maybe I could get all of those off – but I’ll work most Thursdays in exchange.
  2. And while we are on the topic of days of work, lets talk about start time.  I’ve never been an morning person, so having a set start time could be difficult.  I’ll just come in when I wake up (and after I’ve worked out with my personal trainer now that I can afford one).  That way I don’t have to start my day with a jarring alert from an alarm clock.  I’ll be much more relaxed and well rested this way.
  3. There are several days I must leave early – days I am feeling stressed, when I am cooking brown rice for dinner (it takes a long time), Thursdays (so I can get off to my long weekends easier), when there is a major traffic snarl, and days that I need to get to the grocery store (I just hate shopping when it is busy)  I will give at least 15 minutes notice.
  4. Vacation is important – your team members are much more productive with downtime – and with six or seven weeks of vacation, I think I will be able to bring a clear and focused mind to work.
  5. Your professional office environment requires a certain level of dress and I want to fit in.  I would like to request a bi-weekly clothing allowance.  How much you provide determines the level of my professional dress.
  6. I may continue to do some consulting work on the side, this will not interfere with my work for your company about 75% of the time.

With these points – that you can see I’ve been quite reasonable – I think this is going to be a successful win-win relationship.  I look forward to your feedback!

Yours Sincerely,

Susan