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…