Totally unsure about what this week is going to be like. Initially I was supposed to be in training, and then I wasn’t, and then I went in for a bit, and now I’m back.
And I’m tired. And it’s hot in this room. Very hot. And my eyes are telling me to sleep but I have to keep them open to see what’s going on.
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 training. *yawn*
Can’t stay here for the full 5 days expected of me. Have other, real, work to do back at the office!!
I knew today was going to be a wild one. Any time I have a really great and relaxing morning, I just know it’s not going to last. Let me give you today as an example:
I woke up feeling rested. I washed my hair and shaved, all in the frame of mind that I didn’t have to rush because I knew what I was wearing so it would go easier. I picked up around the bathroom, the living room, the kitchen, and then even decided to wash the pile of dishes sitting on the counter! (Some of you might be thinking that this is not what you call relaxing, but to me it is – slow, peaceful, moments to reflect). I made my lunch, had a bowl of cereal as I watched the morning weather news, and then got dressed. Still feeling very relaxed and at ease, I sat down at the kitchen table and even etched for about 15 minutes! Brushed my teeth, got my jacket and bag, kissed Chantale good-bye (she was still in bed – at 8:20am I would be too if I didn’t have to work), and left. I hesitated on calling in to work to see if everything was going well. I decided not to just because there was no reason to stress myself out since I was feeling mellow.
Cool but nice, crisp, day. I get to the bus stop and watch the 8:25am bus leave. Rats. Bad omen? Nah, don’t think about that. I had a nice bus ride and then spent another relaxing 30 minutes on the metro as I read my copy of Men’s Health magazine. Another cool, crisp walk to work and I walk into the building feeling fine.
I don’t even get to my desk before my co-worker says, “Good Morning, Mike. You’re not going to be happy”. That was all he had to say for me to know what it was that had gone wrong. So, I laugh, take off my jacket and drop my bag and sit down to solve. What a mess. Things were going wild all over the place. Almost felt like the computer equivalent of fireworks with blasts in every direction. It took 3 hours but it’s all finally under control. All systems are back online and my missed meeting of 10am was re-sheduled for tomorrow morning at 9:30am. Now I can get back to getting the “ship” back on track and schedule.
So, now that I can breathe, I’m still in quite a good mood. I didn’t suffer any headaches yesterday and even got to see my commercial on Global in primetime. Cool 🙂 I didn’t believe that Global was one of the stations carrying the Standard Life commercial so it came as a very pleasant surprise 🙂
I’m looking forward to heading over to A.L. Van Houte at lunchtime and enjoying another relaxing hour of coffee and reading. I keep thinking how really expensive a daily coffee is. But when I think of how much enjoyment I get out of taking an hour to myself to just relax with a book (or a friend) and a cup of coffee… well… it suddenly becomes worth it. 🙂
Had the weirdest thing happen yesterday morning. My future mother-in-law calls me to ask if I’d listened to the news. Apparently in the story on the terror bombing in Bali, Chantale was mentioned. This was really strange and after a quick stop at the Montreal Gazette website for the Canada.com news, I found this piece in the article by Michael Casey for the Canadian Press entitled “Bali in shock over terror bombing; flowers left at blast site, memorial planned”
“Chantale Turgeon and her husband, Stephane Binette, of Montreal had just finished supper at a nearby restaurant when they heard two loud explosions.
“There was debris falling behind the restaurant,” Turgeon, who was on her honeymoon in Bali, [told] radio station CJMF in Quebec City.
“We left through a hole in the window. On the street everyone was screaming, everyone was crying. We saw a big fireball, like a nuclear explosion but it was pink.”
Is that freaky or what??
In other news, I’m feeling better. The coffee and relaxing hour helped 🙂 And my mom called earlier to thank me and Chantale for the flowers we had delivered for their Wedding Anniversary 🙂
Actually, speaking of Chantale, she’s on her way over here so I’m gonna go down and meet up with her :>
Hello! Not much to say today. Got another migrane at 9:45pm last night and quickly went to bed. Chantale pointed out that I’m just overly stressed and when I thought about it, I realized that’s quite true. I have a TON of stuff in my head right now and it’s bothersome. Comicopia deadline is on friday and there is still much to get done. My parents 42nd Wedding Anniversary is today and we had quite a row this past weekend. I’m overloaded at work what with taking on my supervisor’s work while he’s on a leave of absence. I had to finish up the Church Newsletter (but that’s done and emailed out and everyone’s happy with it). I’ve got a dozen meetings and training sessions coming up that the deadlines are piling higher and higher. I’m doing rather well in my LOMA 280 course but haven’t had the time to properly read through the book. I’m enjoying my Theology course but haven’t had the time to make proper notes and read through most of the text. Bah.
I’m gonna head out to A.L. Van Houte and relax for an hour nursing a nice hot cup of coffee. Then maybe this afternoon I’ll throw some CDs into my computer at work and listen to some music while I keep reviewing documentation. I guess I’ll post again later on in the day.
Well the weekend has come and gone and it’s back to the working grind. I was thinking on Friday, after I’d picked up the kids and was driving home, just how much time and mileage I spend in my efforts to see them and be a part of their lives. As much as it could be considered a hassle, I really don’t feel that it is. It’s worth it. When I get to the school and have the both of them yell out “Daddy!” and run into my arms screeching in delight, it just makes me melt while it fills me with pride and joy. 🙂
We had a nice pizza supper that night and an early night for Melyssa who wasn’t feeling too hot. James stayed up a bit as my brother and his wife came over to give him the birthday gift they haven’t been able to deliver in a few weeks 🙂 It was a Tiger etching, and a model Hummer. James was ecstatic! We sat around the table chatting and I realized how my little guy has grown up so much. The 4 of us (my brother, his wife, Chantale, and myself) sitting at the table, and James holding court. It was a really sweet moment 🙂
The weekend was nice and relaxing with the usual Saturday Gymnastics for Melyssa and then Beavers for the both of them with Chantale and myself helping out. A nice lunch and nap followed and then some activities. James etched, Melyssa painted and afterwards James and Chantale worked on the Hummer. After supper, we settled into our PJs for Family Movie Night. This time around we watched Winnie The Pooh: Boo To You! (the Halloween special) followed by The Santa Clause (which Chantale hadn’t seen before). As always, Chantale made some excellent BBQ Popcorn we all devoured and had a great night. 🙂
On Sunday, we were all quite tired. After church and lunch, we all napped! Then, we packed our stuff and headed over to Chantale’s parents’ place where her mom was home recovering from pneumonia (instead of being up north with the Turgeon family) and Chantale cooked us all a fabulous Thanksgiving supper! Green beans and bacon, Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Gravy, and Ham cooked in pineapple juice along with cooked pineapples! It was scrumptious!! 🙂
Monday was our complete day-off. We spent most of it in our pjs as we lounged around the house doing arts and crafts and just enjoying having nothing to do 🙂 We all took nice long baths and by 3:15pm, we loaded up the car again to drive the kids back. It was a beautiful weekend and we were saddened that it seemed to end so quickly. (Chantale admitted to me how she realized how much she actually misses the kids when they’re not around…)
Ah, the life of a parent. Filled with so many peaks and valleys… But definitely wouldn’t change it for the world, except if I could spend more time doing it :>
I actually thought I was recovered yesterday. Then, at about 9:45pm, my head slowly started to throb again. Within 15 minutes I was lying in bed in excruciating pain as it felt like my brain was about to burst out of my skull like a zit.
I had popped some more Tylenol and tried to keep down the pounding with a cold compress on my forehead. I don’t remember when I finally fell asleep, but I know that Chantale was next to me the entire time trying to help me relax and try to unfocus from the pain…
This is getting way too frustrating.
Feeling a little better today. Can’t really say I got a headache although I did feel some tension during the afternoon…
I’m looking forward to this weekend. Long weekends do that to me. Especially long weekends where I don’t have anything planned 🙂 I pick the kids up from school tomorrow evening and outside of the usual Saturday-morning Gymnastics and Beavers, the rest of the weekend is free! Yay! 🙂
Chantale bought a ton of food today which will make for a fun Thanksgiving Supper. Hm. I guess that in keeping with tradition, I should bake a pie… mmmm…. Strawberry-Blueberry Pie…. mmmm…. I know we’ll spend of the mornings having a nice brunch with fresh croissants and double-strawberry jam… maybe some ham and cheese and Quiche Lorraine…
Oh boy. All this thinking about food and I’m on my way to the gym… Ack!! It’s hard to stay in shape when food tastes so GOOD!!! 🙂
My alarm went off at 6:30am today. I hit the Off button instead of the Snooze button and turn over. I open my eyes again and it’s 7:25am. That’s when I realized what I had done. Oh boy. No way I’ll get to work by 8:00am. I sit up and it takes me another 5 minutes before I’m awake enough to even get UP out of bed. By the time I figure out what to wear, have a bowl of cereal, and get ready to go, it’s 8:25am. The phone rings and it’s a co-worker asking for help on a process that failed. It’s another wonderful start to another wonderful day. I help him out, put my jacket on, kiss Chantale good-bye, and leave. I didn’t have time to shave and because of the phone call, I’ll get in even later. Joy.
Compared to yesterday, today’s workday is a breeze. Compared to last week, it’s not.
I’ve got a headache. Again. This has been going on for almost 2 weeks now. I can’t figure out if it’s because of fatigue, bad lighting, air quality, or just the pressure of stress!! More than likely it’s a combination of everything. It seems the only times I don’t get headaches is on weekends. Hm. Must find a way to bring the peace, tranquility, and serenity of the weekends to the weekdays. In the meantime, though, it’s time to pop a couple of extra-strength Tylenol in my mouth and wash it down my throat with some coffee.
There is an end in sight, but right now it’s just a painful road to travel… Blah.
This past weekend was a really nice one. Chantale and I will probably suffer from it, though, as we both had tons of work to do, but, we were both so wiped from the previous weeks that we basically spent the weekend relaxing together. We slept in, lounged about, and simply enjoyed each other’s company without needing to rush about town as we’ve been doing for so long. Outside of my going to help out at the Beaver’s Car Wash on Saturday and seeing the kids, and a leisurely walk through a shopping mall that afternoon, we relaxed. We honestly couldn’t remember the last time we did that.
Sunday afternoon we had lunch at my parents along with my brother, his girlfriend(?) and his in-laws. We had a nice meal, chatted, and got the wine production going for this year. That evening, Chantale and I went to the Casino Cabaret for a showing of Danse-Sing. It was a lavish production number with some great songs and great dancing. Personally, I preferred the show we’d gone to a few months ago (Cinema-Show) as I didn’t find all the singers in Danse-Sing to be as good. Out of the two male leads, one growled and yelled a lot, and the other just didn’t keep time properly with the songs he was singing. The female lead was also a “yeller”. Besides all that, though, we had a wonderful time. We both really enjoy stage shows be it dramatic plays or musicals and so far we haven’t been disappointed. We got home that night in high spirits. I decided to end off the evening by going out on the balcony and having a Vanilla scented cigarillo my Best Man Francisco gave me, while Chantale made us a large bowl of popcorn. I sat there in the cool night, enjoying the sky, relaxing some more, and picturing how on the night of our Wedding Reception, I could envision us along with Francisco, his wife Line, and a few others just lounging outside the Reception Hall, smoking celebratory cigars at around 3am… 🙂
Having a weekend like this does wonders to the spirit…
Ok, more strange things but this time on a good level.
As I mentioned before, Babies seem to be a main topic revolving around my life right now. Chantale and I have talked about them on various levels (ie; how many we’ll want, names, activities they’ll be involved with, etc). We know it’s a few years from now, but the topic keeps coming up. Why? It’s in the air!! Her aunt is pregnant. An ex-co-worker of hers is pregnant. An out of town friend of ours is pregnant. Heck, even my mom’s cat got a neighbor’s cat pregnant!! Everyone around us seems to be pregnant!!
Last night, we’re just channel-surfing and the various shows we watched involved babies: Dharma & Greg was an episode where Dharma thought she was. Friends was the episode where Rachel comes home with her new baby. Heck, even Dateline had a feature on Vince Gill and Amy Grant and how they also had a baby together!!
Actually, that last storyline was the one that got me somewhat nervous. See, the road they travelled to be together was quite touching. But when their wedding was broadcast and I watched them exchange vows… I suddenly had a panic-attack!
Omigod! Chantale and I are getting Married!!! Less than a year away! I’ve gotta prepare!! My speech! Probably in 3 languages!! My vows! Toasts! Ohboy!!
Let’s just say the reality hit me like a ton of bricks. Mike, it’s time to get your ass in gear, said I to myself. Woooo….
