The New Floodgates of the Mind

Feels like I haven’t been here in ages… and yet, it’s only been 6 days or so 🙂

Was out at Manoir des Sables in Magog on an IT Strategic Review meeting on Thursday / Friday. Very productive, and quite a needed break from the day-to-day issues. Lots of stuff came out of it which was presented to the employees yesterday. In the good/bad news, I now have a new employee reporting to me (bringing the Team up to a total of 7 -if you remember, we were a team of 4 at one point) but with him comes an application that still requires a lot of hand-holding. It’s a nice/new challenge to get this app under control, though, so that’s a great possibility.

This weekend, my in-laws moved into their new house in St. Lazare. The kids were with me as well and we all had a blast moving (well, as much fun as you can have moving 🙂 ). By the time Sunday night came, we were all wiped. I remember driving the kids back on Sunday night and beginning to tear up. I told them, “You know, I really hate the fact that I start to miss you guys as soon as I start driving you back (and reach the bridge to laval)”. James was surprised at this and when I further explained how I feel we don’t see each other enough he answered that he also wishes we could see each other more. I told them how much Chantale and I both wanted them around more often and how many things we want to do with them… *sigh* 5 and a half years later and I still feel this much pain…

Anniversaries! I thought it funny to mention how this past weekend was full of them. Last week (april 27th to be precise) marked 3 years that Chantale had fully moved in with me (versus living with me for periods of time). Twenty years ago this weekend, my in-laws moved into their old house in Pierrefonds. Now, they moved into their new house. Sunday May 2nd, my niece Alexia turned one year old! It was also the 31st anniversary of the passing of my Grandfather (whom I’m named after). And yesterday, May 3rd, was the one year anniversary of when Chantale and I moved INTO our new home. AND, it marked 5 years that we’ve been together!!

So, last night, I took Chantale out to celebrate. We brought along a bottle of Beringer (2000) (one of the ones you gave us as a gift, Jeff!) to help with the celebrating and had an absolutely wonderful supper at the Vieux Duluth. She had the Chicken Brochette/ Souvlaki, Butterfly Shrimp trio and I had the Atlantic Salmon/ Butterfly Shrimp plate. YUM-MY! 🙂 Let’s just summarize that it was a fantastic and magical evening 🙂

If anyone was listening to CHOM this morning, the gang ended up calling some woman down in Fargo who supposedly has been channeling John Lennon and George Harrison for some time now. According to her, John is still as prolific as ever and has dicated to her over 109 new songs! I have to say that the Radio Gang really spoke with her in a polite way (as opposed to completely calling her bonkers) and got her to sing 2 songs. One was called Mr. Wacko and the other was calling 40 Years Ago (or something like that – having to do with the Beatles anniversary and how happy John was that people still loved the Beatles even though they weren’t around any more).

It was… interesting. And crazily enough, Mr. Wacko got stuck in everyone’s head (mine included!) and even after playing Dear Prudence to try to clear it… it stayed 🙂

As a prelude to the type of day I’m having… Wacko is quite accurate 🙂

Wow. Dungeons and Dragons celebrates 30 years. Here’s an interesting article from BBC News about it.

Outside of the fact that we attended the funeral service on Saturday morning (which affected quite a number of us) Chantale and I had a really good weekend. Even though we were up early every morning and up late every evening, we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves. I honestly don’t remember the last time that happened.

In fact, it was such a nice weekend, and we did so much together, that I don’t feel like sharing it with everyone. It was personal “us” time. 🙂

It’s a bizarre-ish kind of day today. It’s sunny, but it’s somewhat chilly. In fact, coming in to work today, I actually could have used my winter jacket!!! Then, I get to work and find the diskette I brought in containing the Comicopia House Organ was corrupted. Joy. And then, verifying one of my mail accounts, it seems that some intelligent little snot of a hacker tried to spoof my Jokers Mailing list by sending out a virus mail from the proper yahoogroups user!

Luckily, the rest of the morning was better than that. Did some performance reviews and prepared my documentation for the next batch. I currently have 4 performance reviews to do… all within the next 2 weeks. Ack. Oh well, part of the job 🙂

Right now, I’m just looking forward to going home… It actually “feels” like the end of the week. Means we can unwind for a bit and just relax. Maybe watch part of the Hockey game tonight if I’m not done with the other workstuff I’ve got to do. We’ll see. At least I’m not feeling rushed 🙂

Finally dragged Chantale out to see Jersey Girl this week. She said it was the lesser of 3 evils (I gave her 3 choices 🙂 ) but in the end, I saw tears in her eyes during the movie so I know she enjoyed it 🙂

As for myself, I absolutely loved the movie. As far as I’m concerned, Kevin Smith nailed it exactly like he expected to. It’s about deep love, relationships, committments, and sacrifice. Kevin commented in Newsweek about how: “Once I got married, I realized I never wanted to f— anyone else for the rest of my life. Even if my wife died. It’s not just physical, though that’s fantastic. Psychologically, I am tied to her. When you’re really committed to somebody, forget it, man. It’s impossible to think about f—ing somebody else.”

This man understands emotions. Silent Bob runs deep my friends. 🙂

Anyhow, I thought Ben was really good and I also felt that this was Liv Tyler’s best performance in anything (sure they were an item in Armaggedon, but these are different characters (and not really an item here 🙂 ) ). And George Carlin… really impressed me. Hit me right in the heart near the end in the bar after the big School play. I give it a 4 1/2 on 5! 🙂

I feel drained this morning. Wasn’t exactly at 100% when I got up but managed to get my butt to work. Sadly, when I got in, there was a message waiting for me from Chantale to give her a call. I did and she told me a bit of news. One of the Pastors (Pastor Helmut Sabaas) at our church passed away this morning. Seems he went away in his sleep…

He was such a nice man, always with a ready smile, and we knew he was having some minor health problems (for example it’s been a few years since he drove at night due to not being able to see well enough to do so) but I wasn’t expecting this. Not so soon.

I’m at a loss for words… Just sad…

just busy… tired… working… so much to do… all the time… much around the house… where/when can I sleep? … time to get up… catch the train… work work work… can i leave now? … more work? … but… but… Comicopia Deadline is on friday! stuff to prepare… envelopes to prepare… people to meet… sections to pick up… copies to make… work work work… tired… need sleep… can’t sleep… can’t breathe… more deadlines upcoming… more deadlines… ooooh boy…

sigh.

I even forgot why I started this post. … oh yeah. I finally finished the 600+ pages of my Loma 330 book so I can finally begin to read for entertainment again. Closest thing at hand this morning was Elvis Up Close (in the words of those who knew him best) which has so far proven to be interesting. Need to read and review more comics. Feels like it’s been a few weeks since I last updated my review blog.

Was off sick on Friday. Not doing well. The day helped, though. Came in to work yesterday and actually had an extremely good day (ie; no pressure, lots of good work done). Today, feeling a little of the same, but with tiredness. Habs won last night which was quite an exciting game. Anxious to see the Ottawa/Toronto game tonight, too. Those who know me would find this quite bizarre. I haven’t purposely watched a Hockey game since I was in Junior High and my idiotic classmates ruined it for me. I couldn’t stand the fact that these morons would get into fistfights over game outcomes and players. That was one of the first times I wanted to stop living in a world which spawned such wastes of flesh.

Oh well.

Just some thoughts to start off a Monday:

1. At least 2 people in this world love you so much they would die for you.
2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.
3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.
4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don’t like you.
5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.
6. You mean the world to someone.
7. If not for you, someone may not be living.
8. You are special and unique.
9. Someone that you don’t even know exists, loves you.
10. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.
11. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look: you most likely turned your back on the world.
12. When you think you have no chance of getting what you want, you probably won’t get it, but if you believe in yourself, probably, sooner or later, you will get it.
13. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.
14. Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know.
15. If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they are great

How’s this for a kick in the head?

Back at the end of February, I called TD Visa to update my address and request a new card. March 3rd they sent me a letter telling me the card will be ready at their Maissonneuve branch. March 9th or so I headed out to get my card. Last night I got my statement. And a heart attack.

It seems that someone pretending to be ME called TD Visa to tell them I was going to be in Vancouver for a week. They asked their general questions to verify identity which mean SHIT if you actually have a COPY of a statement. “What’s your address, what’s your account number, what’s your credit limit”. How stupid is that? And then, believing it, they walked into a BRANCH on March 18th and got themselves a nice Cash Advance of $4,200 off MY card. And then they headed out to Staples and spent $1,600 and some drugstore for $700 or so and then something else for a lower value. End result? My credit card with over $6,900 on it.

LUCKY for me they actually went into a branch to get a Cash Advance. Had they done it at a machine, the code on my statement would be different instead of having a Transit number listed. BUT, the transit number actually reflects a tiny tiny TD Bank somewhere in nowhereseville Ontario. We’re talking a town smaller than Metabet. in Lac St Jean. The purchases were all in cities in B.C.

I was on the phone for almost an hour with the Fraud department and they promised me that I wouldn’t have to pay anything, that the card was being cancelled (whole lot of good that does me now), a new card would be issued (like I really fucken want to deal with them now), and that my credit rating would not be affected (believe it when I see my statement back from Equifax next month). They didn’t want to provide me with anything (signatures or whatever) unless they deemed it necessary as a means of “proving” I was actually there. Right. I was there on Thursday March 18th while I came to work and attended a Change Management meeting at 10:30am, and gave a presentation to a team at 2:00pm, and ended the day picking up a sub at Subways in Ile Perrot with my Interac card!! More than likely I even have a Royal Bank Visa transaction for that day but it’s not visible online right now.

*sigh* I would love to wring the neck of that fuck who pretended to be me.

hm. haven’t thought of this as Hump Day in a long time.

ok, I’m having a lousy week. It’s probably not as bad as I imagine it to be and it’s not because of any ONE thing in particular. It’s just a lot of small crap piling together to make me feel overwhelmed and buried in crap. I’m just, overall, feeling fed up. Fed up with people, places, and things. Not exactly the “friendly, smiling Mike” we all know (quoted from a co-worker). yeah, well, whatever.

Chantale’s been a doll, of course, trying her best to cheer me up and for the most part it works. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t last as long as I hoped it would. I think I still need that mental health day I wrote about weeks ago…