Goals for 2011

I have a few resolutions that I would like to put into action starting January 1st ( ya know... the usual, eat better, work out more, blah blah blah!) but I have a few goals that I would like to achieve... scratch that, that I WILL achieve over this next year.

1 - Go on a vacation somewhere hot.

If there is a beach, I'm there. My last beach vacation was to Cancun and was the beginning of the end for my then roommate/best friends friendships. Needless to say it wasnt the best vacation. That was almost 2 years ago, I'm definitely overdue for some serious sand, sun and tequila poppers.

2 - Go to the movies by myself.

Why the hell not? I deserve a date night out with myself every now and then right?

3 - Sign up for at 3 different work out related classes.

Im thinking kick-boxing, (Natalie? Leesh? You guys wanna join me?), yoga classes and maybe some sort of dance class.

4 - Attempt to try acupuncture on my shoulder.

Notice how I said ATTEMPT to TRY? Thats because, due to a frightening blood donating episode, I am worried that my body wont react well to the acupuncture needles. My shoulder is a hot mess and massage just isn't cutting it. I need to take things to the next level and that will mean I have to face my fear of metal under my skin.

5 - Sign up for my next triathlon.

This one needs to explanation. I just need a kick in my ass to get training again.

So... what are your goals or resolutions?

A Year in Review - 2010

A lot of things happened to me this year. Lets recap shall we?

January

- Met and instantly became friends with work BFF

- Invited her to a games night with Leah and Natalie and the LeMoNS were formed

- Started my brief "affair" with a coworker I blog-named "Freddy". What a mistake THAT was

February

- Probably sulked because I was single yet again for Valentines Day

- Was a proud Canadian during every moment of the 2010 Winter Olympics

- Spent a lot of time with "D"

- Went to my Great Aunts funeral, she passed away after a long life of 103 years

March

- Was completely shocked when "D" suddenly moved away to Ottawa a month before he was set to leave and didn't even tell me until after he was already there

- Started going to Trivia Tuesdays and was hooked

- Adopted my kitten Maya.

April

- Revamped my bloggity-blog

- Met "Jimmy Fallon"

May

- Ditched the liar that is "Jilly Fallon"

- Met "The Fisherman" the same night that I realized "Jimmy Fallon" was a complete ass

June

- Started dating "The Fisherman" after a bit of hesitation due to the age difference between us

- Spent as much time as possible with the LeMoNS since we knew that sadly we would be separating soon

July

- Stampeded my ass off

- Cried my eyes out when Leah moved away. (It was the epitome of the ugly cry)

August

- Enjoyed every bit of sunshine that I could

- Realized my new found love for rafting on the Bow River and Bud Light Lime

- Travelled to Montreal with the LeMoNS for approximately 46 hours for Work BFF's wedding

- Let myself fall further and further into my relationship with "The Fisherman"

September

- Threw a surprise party for some friends birthdays and made minute-to-win-it games (BEST idea ever!!)

- Cried my eyes out AGAIN when Work BFF and her new hubby moved to New Zealand for 7 months

October

- Participated (and almost fully completed) Sober October

- Had my heart shattered by "The Fisherman"

- Picked my broken heart back up and faced the world again

- Realized just how lucky I am to have Natalie and Leesh as my friends

- Met "Mac" on halloween while dressed as a Greek Goddess

November

- Started seeing "Mac"

- Slowly stopped being vegetarian

- Was there for my best friend when she lost her sister tragically

- Decided that I want to write a book

December

- Had a great birthday!

- Had an even better Christmas

- Relaxed with my first full week off all year (isn't that crazy??)

- Started writing my book

The year was full of extreme highs and lows. Im really hoping that this next year evens out a bit. I don't need a roller coaster again. But what I DO need is a vacation...

Untitled

I honestly don't think I have ever cried as much before as I have over the last 6 months with Leah moving away, Work BFF moving away, The Fisherman break up and now this...

(take a deep breath and write Mich...)

My best friends 15 year old sister recently passed away in a tragic sudden accident. Long, painful story short she had a seizure when she was in the bath tub. She was under water for an unknown amount of time and was in the hospital on life support. After a week, her family had to make the heart wrenching decision of taking her off life support. She passed shortly after.

This hits home to me on so many levels. Not only is this a story of a young beautiful girl who lost her life way too soon, but its my best friends family. Someone who I have known for over 15 years and consider her family to me.

But I think what makes this the hardest for me to deal with is the fact that I know exactly what my friend is going through. And I cant make it stop.

I know the painful decisions she has had to face and the long road she will go down to deal with this grief. I know it all too well because I went through it. Losing my sister in a tragic car accident at 17 is so similar to her situation its scary. All the questions and wishing you could do something to take it all back...

All I can do is be there for my friend and her family, try to not let all the reminders of what me and my family went through get to me too much and most importantly make sure my friend knows that I know exactly what she's going through. She doesn't even have to try to explain it.

Who is this Mac character?

Halloween is an interesting time to meet someone new. Especially someone you may be romantically interested in.

Take my situation for example. I met Mac on halloween. He was dressed as an old man.

He had on a long curly grey wig, slippers (I believe he called them loafers actually), an old man hat and a pillow stuffed in his plaid shirt.

Sexy.

But he was charming. And very funny. We got to talking and by the end of the night he asked for my phone number.

He called me the next day and asked me out for dinner.

A few days later as I was getting ready for our date, I had a slight breakdown. I realized that HE was dressed as a dirty old man, no matter what he wore to our date, he was going to look better than he did when we met.

I on the other hand was dressed as a Greek Goddess... there's no topping that. So no matter what I wore on our date I wasn't going to look near as good as I did when we met.

Awesome.

The date was wonderful though. He's a real gentleman and quiet-funny. (isn't that the best type of funny?). We have gone out quite a few times since then and I'm taking things slowly and seeing where it will go.

ATL... How does he do that?

Anyone remember ATL?

Well, last year he was sort of a big part of my life. He was my kryptonite and even though I knew that he was bad, BAD news I couldn't resist him.

Then his true asshole colors showed and I cut him out of my life. For months afterwards he would randomly text me from numbers I didn't know. Every time he did my heart jumped a little.

Then I met The Fisherman and I knew I had moved on.

Somehow after months and months of no contact he decided to text me a few weeks after The Fisherman and I broke up.

HOW did he know? Seriously how on earth did he just know that I was in a vulnerable state and that if he sent me a text with his BBM pin that I would add him. And how did he know that seeing his picture and talking with him after a year would make me question possibly seeing him again?

Well... I was weak for a bit but after a few days I gave my head a good shake and knew what I would have been getting myself into. So I deleted him and moved on again.

And THEN last weekend I went to my work Christmas party and a group of us decided to head to a bar near by for our own after party. Guess who of ALL people works at said bar. Yep... ATL. Damn it.

I try to break free and the universe starts dangling him in front of me again.

Although he is verrrrrrry tempting, I am staying strong. I don't need to go down roads I've already travelled.

Instead I am moving on to better new things. Like Mac.

(details on Mac coming soon)

Things, things and more things

Things I will never understand: 

- Glee. *shudder* even the thought of it makes me cringe. Sorry to all you "Gleek's" out there, I just don't get how high school students with horrible voices doing their own versions of classic songs could ever be entertaining. 

- Dancing with the Stars. Its not dancing, its washed up celebrities pretending they can dance and a popularity/boob shaking contest. Brutal. 

Things I have learned over the last month: 

- I am awesome. And I don't mean that to be cocky or full of myself. What I mean by it is I went thru a break up with the first person I actually cared about in 5 years, It still hurts but it gets better everyday. But I survived and I truly believe it was his loss. And what's really helping is the "attention" I have been getting lately from the opposite sex. Apparently I'm a hot commodity. And a social butterfly. And confident in myself again. 

- I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. Including put up all my Christmas decorations a month and a half before Christmas. Yeah... that happened. 

- When you leave a kitten home alone all day with a newly put up Christmas tree, you will come home to decorations all over the floor. Fun. 

- I run better with out my Ipod, who knew? 

- Im not good with scary movies. Even lame ones like Paranormal Activity 2. I had to sleep with my lamp on for 2 nights after I watched it. 

- Some songs with never be the same for me again. Like this one. 

- And most importantly... I'm doing all right! 

Sober October - the results

Well... its the end of October. And I was alcohol free for 98.5% of it. 

Due to emotional complications there were a few (3 times) when a glass of wine was MUCH needed and the absolute best choice I could have made. Other than that I was completely alcohol free but I will say that my emotions were put to the test this month. 

I was under a ridiculous amount of stress regarding work. One of my best friends and her husband moved away to New Zealand and... well... The Fisherman and I ended things. 

Considering all of these factors, I think I did pretty darn good with Sober October. 

As I mentioned when I originally wrote about doing Sober October, I in no way have any problems with drinking. Its a social thing for me. Beer at trivia, wine with girlfriends, fun nights out. The whole concept was sort of a test for me to deal with my emotions with out using alcohol as an escape. I think I did pretty good. 

A letter to myself.

I originally wrote this post back in August. I don't know why on that specific day I needed to write it but I did. I told myself that if it ever came to it, I would post it with out changing anything.... so now I am. 

A blog post written for the future. 

Today is Aug 2, 2010.

I am currently falling madly in lust, possibly in love with the "Fisherman".

I know deep down somewhere in my heart that one day it will end. I dont have a clue when that will be but i just feel it.

When i think about him i have the strangest emotional reactions. I feel overwhelmingly happy. His smile, his kiss, his touch, his laugh, his desire for me, they all make me melt. I yearn for him to be beside me. To be with me. I miss him the minute i leave him. When i am with him i cant help but to be close to him and touching him as much as possbile. its almost as if he is my desire for living right now.

Yet when i think about him and the future, i get this strange feeling that i will be experiencing immense heart break. but immense isnt the world to describe it. more like devastating.

i cant explain why i feel this. i just do. its like he will be a chapter in my life. this chapter may last a few months, or maybe a few years, or maybe longer. but i have this gut instinct that one day that chapter will end.

i am hoping that pre-writing this post will jynx any chance of that and i am hoping that this will never be posted.

But if it is, i hope to remember the feeling that i have right now in this moment. completely smitten. complete infatuation. completely carefree. completely falling in love.

So future Mich, if you are looking back for this post and are posting it with heartbreak, remember how wonderful the experience was. remember that he broke through the protective barrier you had around your heart. remember that he showed you how to desire again. remember the music. remember the moments at 3am with him singing you your favorite song on his guitar. remember the way it felt when you woke up in his arms. remember it was all real.

and remember that everything happens for a reason.

Forgive and Forget??

If you have been a WIM reader for a long time (including long before the re-vamp) than you might be familiar with my whole ex-roommate situation.

LONG story short, I lived with 2 of my best friends of 15 years for about 4 years. Things fell apart and basically, after a lot of hurtful things on both ends we haven’t spoken in over a year. One of my other friends is still close with them and she and I have been able to keep our friendship strong through all of it. Her birthday is coming up and even though she hasn’t even mentioned anything about it yet there is a really good chance that the ex-roommates will be there which would make things EXTREMELY awkward, mostly for me.

I have been thinking a lot lately about calling the ex-roommates to rectify things and try to clear the air but I know deep down it wouldn’t change anything and no matter what I said, they wouldn’t understand why things happened the way they did or why I chose to act/react the way I did. I was talking with someone about this whole scenario and she had a great point. She said that the only way a friendship between the ex-roommates and I could ever happened again is if all of us wiped the slate clean and forgot about everything that happened. Basically start over.

But how can one possibly do that?

How do I erase the painful words and actions and all of the emotional stress that it caused me? How do I ignore the fact that people who I thought were my “best friends forever” were so quick to be okay with not ever talking to me again? How do I be the new me with people who only knew the old me?

I know that it’s the “mature” thing to do and it really does make sense, I just don’t have any idea how I could do it.

Do blondes really have more fun?

Ive been thinking about changing my hair color and thanks to the magic of the internet I can see what the colors would look like with out having to make any decisions/mistakes.

So my lovely bloggy friends, I would love to know your opinions.

This is what my hair currently looks like.

Do i take it DARKER? A la Angelina Jolie/Katy Perry

Or maybe a little more reddish... a la the Little Mermaid? LOL

Or... do I make a drastic change and go BLONDE!!!

A reminder for myself.

I wrote this poem over a year ago. I was on my way to work and the words just kept coming. As soon as I got to work a grabbed a notepad and just kept on writing. I was at an eye-opening point in my life and I knew that things were changing for the better.


Live.

When you least expect it
You’ll feel the spark.
It will pull you in from the cold,
Shine light into your dark.

Sights, sounds, tastes,
Will all seem brand new.
You can face the world with your head held high
… Confident in you.

But how? You wonder.
How can you make this be?
Take a long look in the mirror
… See what I see.

Every wrinkle, spot or line.
Every freckle… all part of a design.
It’s what makes you who you are,
What makes your face different than mine.

Can you just imagine,
What’s deeper inside?
Every feeling, every heartbeat,
Everything your body can hide.

No one else can be you.
They can’t even try.
So again, look in the mirror,
Take a deep breath and sigh.

Be true to yourself.
Be true to your soul.
Wake up every morning
With an exquisite life as your goal.

Let the past be the past,
Tomorrow is a new day.
Start with loving yourself
And your life will change in everyway.

Sober October

Every now and then we need to clear our minds and our bodies and basically get our selves back in order. 

Its October 1st. The start of a new month. The perfect time to hit refresh. 

One of my best friends decided she was going not going drink for all of October. With all of the stress I have been under over the last month or so (not to mention the emotional breakdowns) my first thought when she told me that was "there is no way I can do that right now!" Not because I drink a lot at all, just because the thought of going out and having a few (or 8) drinks to unwind on the weekends sounded perfect. 

But then I thought about it and drowning my problems in Gin is not the answer. Facing my "stress" head on, clear minded and not distracted is the answer. Its time to let it all come to the surface instead of suppressing my stress and it all boiling over in ridiculous emotions out bursts. 

So... I decided to join her in what has been dubbed Sober October. 

Its not the non drinking that I am worried about, its the decisions that I am hoping to make over the next month or so and all the deep thinking I plan on doing. 

My wallet, liver and future plans are thanking me already. 

Shiz The Fisherman Says - Vol. I

Some of you (most of you) have probably wandered over to Li-Lu-Land at some point in your days of blogging or blog lurking (yes, you lurkers... we know you're out there. We have ways of tracking you). For the few of you who have no idea who Lilu is... here you go. You're welcome.

Now back to my point...

If you have ever been to Lilu's blog you are probably firmiliar with a little something she likes to call "Shiz My Boyfriend Says". Trust me that man of hers says some crazy shiz. Her posts got me thinking about The Fisherman and the random ramblings he says and I realized they were completely post worthy.

So ladies and gents... here you go:

One of the first times I was over at his house he wanted to show me something in the basement which I had never seen before (side note... he wanted to show me his guitar and other musical instruments. Hearing your man playing rock songs for you is so HOT). Anyhoo... as we were walking down to the basement:

Me - "is your basement developed"

Fisherman - "its a little immature"


------------------------


A few months back Leah, The Fisherman, Work BFF and I all went out for some beers/dancing. This was a few days after Leah had her second seizure and we were all a little worried about her but she had been secluded in the house for 3 days and needed to get OUT. Leah's boyfriend called and was not pleased with the fact that she was out. When she hung up the phone:

Fisherman - "Was that your boyfriend?"

Leah - "Yeah... he's just worried about me being out"

Fisherman - "Tell him not to worry. Just tell him you are out having a few beers, you arent having any Caesar's"

(womp womp)


------------------------

There are many more of these little blurbs to come. Lately they have all been a little inappropriate... I might just have to save them for a TMI Thursday post.

The days are getting shorter… and the nights are getting hotter…

In a blink it became fall in Calgary. In fact it might have just happened while I was at work today. This afternoon I was driving from one job to the next (I work 2 jobs… I’m hard core like that…) and I noticed that there were yellow leaves just sprinkled everywhere.

(its doesnt look like that QUITE yet here... but give it a week and I'm pretty sure it will...)

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fall. I love turtlenecks and boots and scarves and everything orange, but I felt like these golden drying out leaves were taunting me… whispering in cute little voices “winter’s coming… la-la-la… no more summer for you… la-la-la”.

Those little bitches.

Anyhoo… although the fall and winter are sadly just around the corner, I am very much looking forward to the many nights I will spend snuggled up with The Fisherman. Drinking wine, watching Entourage and/or just enjoying each other’s company. It may be colder outside but I can guarantee you that I will be kept warm!

Why I believe in mediums, psychics, and the other side.

I’m a skeptic, especially when it comes to “the other side” or anything regarding communicating with spirits. So when my mom asked me to go see a medium with her a few years ago after my sister passed away I gave her a look of “have you lost your mind??” and then realized that she didn’t lose her mind, her heart was shattered and she was looking for some sort of comfort. So I told her I would go with her for support.

On the drive there I was the acting adult and told my mom “don’t feed her information” and “make sure she doesn’t take you for a fool and scam you for more money”. As I said… I was skeptic.

When we got to the mediums “office” (by office I mean home), we met a younger lady. She seemed normal. No scarves wrapped around her head or Spencer Pratt gems hanging anywhere (click on that link… its worth it) She just had a table and some candles burning. She welcomed us in and said that my sister “wasn’t there yet” but she knew we were coming because she had been around the medium all day. I rolled my eyes and sat down. The three of us (medium, me and my mom) just started talking about how it would work and mid-sentence I swear I felt shivers like I have never felt before. It felt like a head to toe ZING!! It was to the point where I sat straight up in my chair and looked right at my mom. She said “did you feel that???”
The medium said “your sister is here”.

(To this day I have only felt shivers like that once more, it was when I was driving and I honestly burst into tears after).

Still not convinced that the medium was for real (she could have had some A/C blasting or something… people are tricky) I waited for her to start talking. My mom asked a few questions and the answers seemed pretty general and nothing that made me really believe in it.

Not until my mom said “did she like what we did for her funeral?” (my poor mom… so distraught and confused… she didn’t know what to ask). The medium replied and said “yes, she was there in spirit, you know she was**. She’s telling me everything was beautiful and that she really liked her… socks??” The medium sort of laughed at that point thinking that it was a ridiculous thing to say but my mom and I knew why… When we had to choose the clothing for her to wear we chose very simple black clothes but we secretly chose bright rainbow colored toes socks. No one in the entire world knew that except me, my mom and whoever dressed her at the funeral home.

** We knew she was there because the power went out at the moment everything started to get too serious. And during the funeral it was the loudest thunderstorm ever, it actually sounded like they were moving furniture in the room next to us, as soon as the funeral was over, I mean the SECOND it was over, when the car got around the corner, the rain stopped and the brightest rainbow came across the sky**

The medium also said “she’s showing me a cross necklace with a stone in the middle” (exactly what she wore)… “and a ring…” when she said ring she pointed to her middle finger on her left hand. But not where you would wear a ring normally, it was half way down her finger before the knuckle.

At the funeral when my family and I had our last moments with her before closing the casket my little sister took her hand and put a ring on it. It was too small to fit so it sat half way down her finger… on the ring finger of her left hand.

Again, no one except my family knew that.

That’s when I believed.

She told us some other very personal things. None of which I could really explain. When my mom and I left, we didn’t speak to each other on the drive home. We both just sat there in deep in thought. The only way I can describe the experience is creepy, yet comforting.

I have had some other eerie moments over the years when I just knew deep down it was my sister letting me know she’s there. It truly helps me to know she’s always watching out for me.

Whaaaa????

Ummm I think I’ve lost my job, without actually losing my job… yet.

Are you confused? So am I.

Ok here’s the scoop. So as I've mentioned before, the company I work for is lame and I want to leave. Three other people (out of six) have very recently quit. I have been on the job hunt for a while now but haven’t found the right new job yet. After all of the other resignations my supervisor (the one I mentioned here…) pulled me into her office and asked me if I was happy working there. Now although she can be a biotch at times, she is not the owner of the company and I feel like I could confide in her if needed. She looked me straight in the eye and asked me if I was planning on leaving. I couldn’t lie to her. I told her that I was actively looking and that I will be leaving (hopefully) somewhat soon (for reasons which she said she completely understood). She also told me that whatever she and I talked about in her office that day wouldn’t leave her office.

She lied.

She went and told the owners that I was planning on leaving. Fuck.

Now, my position there is not one that is easy to replace or train for. So in a panic she started interviewing for my position… which I hadn’t even quit yet! She then pulled me into her office last week and told me that they had a plan. They found someone they want to hire to replace me, and they want me to give my 2 week resignation from that position and then stay on as a “floater” until the end of October if needed. The pros for me are that I am guaranteed work until the end of October and that I can leave at any point with no notice if I find something after my 2 weeks is up. The cons are if I don’t find something by the end of October… I’m so screwed!

So somehow they are letting me go… but not really.

This just adds to why I hate working for this company and why I can’t wait to get out of there. So pray for me blog-land. Pray I find something AMAZING before the end of October!

Sleeping Beauty...

Some days I am so jealous of her. 

I wish I could be sleeping so peaceful in a far away tower just like her. I bet its so quiet up there. No alarm clocks. No construction outside her window. No one to wake her up except her Prince Charming. 

It would be perfect. 

I’m a wanderer…

Some people know what they want to do for a career from the moment they can speak.

Some people are told what they are going to become, usually by parents or other family members and they do it.

And then there are people like me… wanderers.

I have no clue what I want to do for a career. I’m 26; one would think I would have some idea by now but nope. Nothing.

Instead I want to do everything and nothing.

I want to become a photographer and travel the world and take pictures of the beauty that I see in everyday things. But then again I want to work in a 9–5 office job for the rest of my life for the routine of it because then I would know what to expect and where my next pay cheque will come from and where my stapler is. And I would know that I would be home every day in time to watch Ellen.

I want to be a wedding planner and help couples create the most magical day of their lives. But then again I don’t want to work on weekends… or deal with psycho brides.

I want to be a food critic, or a secret shopper, or a judge on Americas Next Top Model, or a flight attendant, or a writer for Hallmark, or a sunglasses designer, or a professional blogger. But I don’t like any of those ideas enough, or have enough drive that I would want to do them for the rest of my life.

No not me, instead I will be one of those people who at 90 years old will have a list of (I’m assuming) 42 jobs that I have held in my lifetime.

And to be honest… its sounds so damn exciting!

Montreal in a nutshell.

Last weekend I was in beautiful Montreal for work BFF’s wedding with Leah and Nat (as previously mentioned here).

Although it was my first visit to Montreal I couldn’t stay long or see too much of the city but I was okay with that because my main priorities for the weekend was to see THIS GIRL and to be there for the most memorable day of Work BFF’s life (so far).

Mission accomplished.


The wedding ceremoney was at the most breath taking church (cathedral?) I have ever seen!

And then once all the “proper” traditional wedding stuff was done, it was a wedding reception (party) that only Work BFF could have planned.

So remember how I mentioned before that I wasn’t able to go to the wedding because of the crazy costs of the flights and how we got a great deal with some buddy passes from our friend who works for an airline and was going to the wedding as well? Well… there is one stipulation with buddy passes. You fly stand-by.

So 3am rolls around and we are all at the wedding looking something like this…

…and making plans to go to some type of after-hour-shin-dig when we get a phone call from the friend who arranged our flight.

“uhhh…. Guys…. Were not getting on the flight I originally thought. Change of plans. We need to be at the airport at 4:30”.

Crap.

So we rush back to the hotel (en route Leah has a drunken french argument with the ass-hole cab driver - awesome) and throw our stuff in our suitcases. We packed in such a rush that I left my bathing suit in the closet. Grab another cab and hurry our drunken and tired selves to the airport.

We catch a flight to Toronto.

And then a flight to Regina.

And then a flight to Calgary.

FYI – a flight directly from Montreal to Calgary only takes about 5 hours. We travelled for almost 12 hours.

After what seemed like the longest day of my life, I went home and slept for 13 hours straight.

Lesson learned – Paying for cheap buddy passes? Awesome!
Flying Stand-by? Not so awesome…

But I got to be at the blessed union of these 2 amazing people so all in all it was worth it.

Serenity... who knew it was possible?

Yesterday after work I came home and before heading out for a drink with some friends I took some time to snuggle on the couch with my kitten (who is quickly turning into a cat and no longer a kitten).

I was laying there all sprawled out. Jeopardy on in the background, kitten purring and intertwined thru my arms and took a deep breath.

I was so compeltely content and I realized its because I have absolutely no drama in my life. None, nada, zip, zero, nothing.

And I made it that way.

I realized that I took all the things in my world that were stressing me out and I either fixed them or got rid of them. (The job change is still in the works but its not stressing me out). I took the necessary steps to make MY life better. Along the way, some didn’t understand and eventually were no longer part of my life. Others stood by me and not only supported me but pushed me to make the positive changes I needed to. It was hard at times. It was eye opening and it was definitely an emotional roller coaster. But now I am happy. Blissfully happy.

Recently something came up that put my “growth” to the test. It was a he-said-she-said situation regarding someone very close to me. At first I didn’t know how to react so I took the advice my dad has given me for years. “Before you act, take 30 seconds to really think about it”. I took more than 30 seconds, I took a couple of hours. And eventually made the right reaction decision. A year ago I would have just reacted and, in this specific situation, probably caused some uneccessary comotion. Instead, because I took the time to think before I acted I chose to react in a way that dealt with the issue head on and in turn left no drama for me. Once the air was cleared and everything was sorted out, I knew I made the right choice.

I'm not trying to give advice in this post, or brag about how happy I am. That’s not my intention at all. I just want to put it out there that positive changes can happen when you make them happen. We cant control the world around us, the only thing we can control is our actions and reactions to the world around us.

Everything happens for a reason/Ask and you shall receive/Time to work on my French

So remember when I posted about the great job I applied for?

*cough cough* it’s the post right below *cough cough*

Well I finally heard back about it and the “company” is deciding to “reevaluate the structure of their company”and they are putting the hiring of that position “on hold right now” but they will “keep my resume on file because they really like me” and “hopefully something will come open in the future”.

Sorry for all the “ “s but seriously WTF? Why go thru the hiring process and post their ad and waste my time and theirs if they arent even sure if they are hiring for the job??

Anyhoo… moving on.

(I have applied for a few other great jobs but I’m not gonna jynx them by mentioning them on here)

In other news… my Work BFF/outside of work BFF is getting married in less than 2 weeks in Montreal. Her and her finace are flippin-full-of-awesome-sauce and I love them to bits! I couldn’t go to their wedding because of a few factors:

1 – Money – a flight to Montreal from Calgary is running around $700 – ouch.

2 – Time off work – we work together and she is gone for 2 weeks (obvs to get married) . I am supposed to cover her and her to cover me when one is on vacation, there was no way I was getting time off to go. Not even for a day… my work is pretty shitty strict about that.

3 – A place to stay – I don’t know anyone in Montreal so I would have to pay for a hotel … by myself… on top of the cost of my flight, and a wedding gift, and food, and shopping/spending money.

So I had to tell her that I couldn’t come to their wedding and my heart was broken. I have spent pretty much this entire year hanging out with the 2 of them and I just couldn’t imagine not being there but sadly my wallet couldn’t fathom paying over $1000 for one weekend.

Well just when I thought all hope was lost all the Mich-cant-go-on-vacation-factors disappeared!! A “new” girl at work will be covering for Work BFF while she is gone, time off work… CHECK! Another one of our kick-ass friends is going to the wedding and works for an airline and can hook us up with buddy passes, cheaper flight… CHECK! And we are getting a great deal on a hotel split between 3 people, place to stay… CHECK!

Ladies and Gents… Mich is going to Montreal!!!

Time to brush up on my French…

Le Poisson Le Poisson…

The $hit is gonna hit the fan…

Here’s the scoop.

I hate my job.

I hate the company that I work for.

I love the people I work with (most of them).

I work for a construction company. It’s a fair sized company but there are tons of employees who work on site and aren’t in the office very much. In fact there are only 6 people who work in the office and do the administrative work. I am one of them.

Last week I had an interview with a WAY BETTER COMPANY to do a WAY BETTER JOB. My interview went really well and I am (fingers crossed) supposed to hear from them on Tuesday to know if I got the job. If I get it, I will be giving my notice a.s.a.f.p. (as soon as freakin possible!).

Here’s where the shit on the fan comes in. The girl who works beside me had a great interview somewhere else last week and found out today she got the job! She is planning on giving her notice on Friday. Then out of no where today at a meeting, we found out that one of the other ladies gave her resignation today. THEN because our receptionist is my work BFF (and outside of work BFF) and tells me everything, I know that in 6 weeks (after her wedding) she is giving her notice as well.

So the team of 6 is going down to 2 all in a matter of weeks. The 3 of us that will be quitting over the next few weeks had a moment of “oh crap… they don’t know what’s about to hit them” after the meeting today.

Well (insert current employer name here), Karma is a bitch!! Maybe if you treated your employees better and not like your slaves they wouldn’t all run.

I might be getting ahead of myself as I haven’t even GOT the new job yet… but keep your fingers crossed for me!

Where have I been?

Ive been a little MIA from blog-land lately.


Why? Well my dear bloggy-friends, I have been busy living this summer to the fullest doing such things as:


Rafting on the Elbow River

Dancing
BBQ-ing
Reading in the sunshine
Wearing summer dresses and flip-flops
Drinking Slurpees
Playing tennis
Hugging Leah as much as humanly possible
Running
and...

falling in... like. Extreme like.

I hope your summer has been as wonderful as mine so far.

Friendships

A while back I was talking with a friend about how much our friends and circles of friends have changed over the last little while. How we have been trying to hold on to friendships that we have had since we were 11 years old. Some of those friendships are very difficult and yet we try our best to make them work. She told me something that her boyfriend told her and it really struck a cord with me. 

He said something along the lines of "Look at my circle of friends. How many of them did I go to high school with or have known forever? Maybe one or two of them. Thats because when we are young our friends are chosen by location and convenience. As in our neighbours, or school mates. We didn't have a choice, now we do." 

This made a lot of sense to me. Especially since I have outgrown half of the people I was friends with in high school. Think about it, when we were 7 the only other kids we interacted with were the kids in the neighbourhood and the kids in our class. That's it. Those were our options. Now maybe some of those kids grew into wonderful people we actually have things in common with and should be friends with. But maybe not. Maybe we just stayed friends with these people because we thought we were supposed to. Its not like we had jobs at that age and met new people all the time. Its not like we had cars and could drive across the city to hang out with a new friend. We depended on our parents and our surroundings. 

I am 26 now. I have a world full of people I could be friends with. I opened my heart and mind to meeting new people and because I opened up I met amazing new friends through blogging and through work. Friends that I would do anything for and tell anything to. Friends I trust and admire and respect more than they could ever understand. Friends that I met because I stepped out of my comfort zone. 

Its an exhilarating feeling... 

My Stampede Pledge

If you choose to take this pledge with me, please remove your Cowboy hat and repeat the following:

I vow that for the next 10 days, my attire will consist of at least one, preferably all, of the following items:

Denim
Plaid
Cowboy Hat
Cowboys Boots
Sheriff Badge

I vow that I will begin most conversations with “Howdy” and end most conversations with either a “Yahoo” or a tip of my hat.

I vow that for the next 10 days, mini donuts are acceptable as their own food group.

I vow that free pancakes are the greatest breakfast around because not only are they delicious but they will absorb any left over alcohol from the night before.

I vow that it is perfectly acceptable to drink a beer with my free morning pancakes.

I vow that all deep-fried food on a stick is wonderfully delicious and worth the money and guilt.

I vow that hangovers and diets are all to be dealt with AFTER July 18th.

I vow to two-step and line-dance until the cows come home.

And most importantly, I vow that whatever happens at The Calgary Stampede… STAYS at the Calgary Stampede.

Let games begin…

My favorite things - Canadian Edition

Tomorrow is Canada Day which got me thinking about some of the things I love about this beautiful country.

1 - Our awesome (hot) celebrities. We grow 'em well up here! I could stare at Ryan (both Reynolds and Gosling) all day, and to know that they were born right here on Canadian soil makes them that much hotter.

Kim Cattral - the queen of all things sex (and the city...)

Evangeline Lilly

Both Rachel McAdams & Ryan Gosling (seriously WHY arent they together anymore??)

2 - Poutine - even as a vegetarian, every now and then I give in to the deliciousness that is Poutine.

2 - Nanimo Bars - I dont really know what it is about them that makes me devour them... its probably all the chocolate.

4 - Kelowna/The Okanagan - Its always hot in the summer, there's oodles of fresh fruit (cherries... mmmm) and beaches and lakes everywhere. Definitely my favorite Canadian summer destination.

5 & 6 - This feeling right here...

... and here...

...and here... (Our national anthem always give me chills... especially at hockey games)

7 - How colourful our money is!

8 - Timmies - The most glorious coffee - and a staple for any road trip.

9 - Our beer commercials (and our beer)

10 - And last but not least... the pride that I get when I am able to say "I'm from Canada". There are no pictures to explain that feeling...

So Happy Birthday Canada!! You dont look a day over 125.

The universe is messing with me...

Anyone remember who ATL is? Anyone? Bueller? 

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a long time, ya know, before I decided to delete everything I had written for the last year as part of my own therapy, you will remember ATL as the guy who is basically my kryptonite. 

For those of you who are new around these parts, ATL was a bouncer I met last summer and fell completely head over high heels in lust for. Then he took my little fragile heart and shattered it into a million pieces. Typical. I know. 

So all that heart breaking happened around Christmas/New years last year and I haven't seen him or talked to him since the beginning of January. I moved on. Obvs. 

As of recently I have been seeing a lovely fellow (did I really just use those words?) by the name of "Jimmy". He's sweet, funny, genuine and a total gentleman. I get butterflies when I think about him and I am falling for him very quickly. I haven't mentioned too much about him on here yet because I don't want to jinx the great thing we have going right now. (But trust me, if it keeps going the way it is I won't be able to contain my excitement for long).

So things with Jimmy and I are floating along smoothly when all of a sudden BAM! Text msg from a random number on Friday at 2am. 

"What's up?" 

I wrote back in the morning because I was in the middle of catching up on my beauty sleep and say "who is this?"

His response - "ATL" 

(well not really because thats not really his name but you get the idea). 

My reaction?? I dropped the phone. Stood there for a minute in complete shock. Almost like I had seen a ghost. 

Seriously, the universe is messing with me. I have this great guy, one of those "nice guys" that we always look for but never actually find and the universe is saying to me "Hey Mich, remember THIS guy and how ridiculously hot you thought he was and how much he made your heart flutter and how he could make you completely melt with one touch? Well, how about I just dangle him in front of you for a little while and see if you still want your nice guy after that. It will be a fun little game for me" 

Well Mr. Universe, your game sucks and I don't want to play. I will stick to my nice guy thank you very much. You can take ATL back to wherever he's been hiding for the last 6 months (hopefully under a rock somewhere) and tell him I wont be falling for his little bag of tricks this time.

Love.

"Fathers who believe in their Daughters give them the courage to succeed".

Happy Fathers Day to my Papa-Bear and all the other amazing dad's out there.

Untitled.

My boss can be a bitch sometimes. I dont think she means to, but sometimes its crazy.


And sometimes I bend the rules at work. Approximately 4 out of 5 days I am running in the door either late or just in the knick of time. I take extended breaks every now and then (almost every lunch hour... but I make up for it) and although I kick ass at my job I am still learning and I mess up every now and then.


I've done some small screw ups that have cost "the company" money (technichally it didn't, they just didn't profit off of it) but I've also caught other peoples screw ups and MADE the company money they would have missed out on too.


Well... today Little Miss Bitchy Boss was at my desk and something interesting happened. She was standing right beside me asking about some pricing thing and all of a sudden "PFFFFT".

She farted.

A loud one too. I couldn't help but laugh.


From now on when she's being bitchy I can look at her and laugh in my head knowing that she accidentaly let one slip when she was trying to be serious.

Definite win for me.

Why I will never look at Jimmy Fallon the same way again…

I while back, lets say 2 months-ish ago, I went out to a pub with some friends (including someone who is new to the blog-world – check her out here).On said pub-night-out I happened to meet a boy.

Shocking, I know.

This boy was cute, a little scruffy which is always fun and he resembled a certain celebrity. Not only in looks but in his actions and demeanor too. He was the spitting image of Jimmy Fallon… and I proceeded to tell him that approximately 100 times through out the rest of the night too. We had a blast talking that night and exchanged phone numbers.


We talked a bit over the next week or two and then came May Long weekend. (Also known as May 24 those on the Eastern part of Canada). I decided to host a BBQ and when I host a BBQ I do it big! There was tons of food and drinks and a fire pit and a plethora of amazingly wonderful friends.



I invited Jimmy Fallon (who from this point on will be called Mr. Fallon as I don’t want to confuse you with the other Jimmy I have been mentioning in my blog recently. Completely different people) and he showed up. Not only did he show up but he mingled with ALL of my friends and everyone seemed to love him. And most of them started calling him by his celebrity look-a-like nickname too.

Very important fact – one night during the week leading up to my BBQ, Mr. Fallon and I were talking and I asked him why he was single. He said that technically he wasn’t single, that he had been dating someone who lived in North Carolina but that it was pretty much over, just not officially. He hadn’t seen her in 3 months and had no intentions of moving there. I wasn’t necessarily mad at that fact (even though some of my friends were when I told them) because 1 - the topic hadn’t come up before, 2 - nothing you could categorize as “cheating” happened the night I met him and 3 - the first time I asked him about it he was honest.

So fast forward to about 4 am the night of my BBQ. He stayed over. No “sexin” happened but it almost did…

He left in the morning and everything was great. I talked to him a few days later and everything was still great.

The next Friday night I was out with some friends and went to go send him a BBM. He was missing off my contact list… as in he DELETED me!! Wtf? What could have possibly happened in the 2 days since I talked to him last that would warrant him deleting me? So… as some one who will no longer put up with shit, I sent him a text msg that simply read “Really…?”.

No response. All night.

The next morning I woke up to a reply that read “Hey, no worries, North Carolina Girlfriend is in town for a few day, I’ll hit you up next week”

Hold on just one freakin second… first of all he told me it was over with her and that he hadn’t seen her in months and all of a sudden she’s HERE? Second, he’ll hit me up next week??? Thanks for making me feel like a mistress, Fucker!!! And third, he had to full on delete me from his BBM list? Wow…

Ok all of the above I could deal with (eventually… I’m not gonna lie; meeting “New Jimmy” definitely helped) but what’s got me so weirded out about it is that last week I heard through the grape vine that he hung out with some of the friends, MY FRIENDS, that he met at my BBQ. They had a little jam session…

Mind you, the guys he hung out with didn’t know what happened and when I told them they were all “whoa… dude… WTF?” but still. Who does he think he is? He still hasn’t tried to get a hold of me.

So for now, any reference of Jimmy Fallon makes me cringe a little. Sorry real Mr. Fallon… I had to stop following you on Twitter. I couldn’t take the constant reminders but just so you know, your doppelganger is a great kisser!