Journey & Adventure

Dear Co-Workers,   In an effort to save some time and frustration on both our parts (okay, mostly mine), I’m providing you in advance with this office etiquette list.   Don’t tell me to do something. If you ask, you will likely get a better response. If you tell me, it will likely go to the bottom of my priority list. Similarly, don’t tell me something is mandatory – especially meetings. I don’t do well with the whole “do it or else” mentality. Regardless of how old you are - if you are my co-worker, you shouldn’t be calling me “missy”. This missy gets mighty pissy when that happens.   Don’t ask me how my weekend was or how I’m doing if you’re not intending to listen to my response.   Don’t cut me off mid sentence. I appreciate your opinion regardless of what it is, so I would appreciate if you listened to mine.   Unless you want to see a very cranky person, kindly refrain from piling files on my chair when I’m out of my office. I h...

I’ve always been perplexed by that phrase, but now that I have a specific goal in mind, that phrase holds new meaning to me. “A means to an end” is exactly what my job is…something done to achieve something else. My current job is simply a way to facilitate my disappearance from North America culture. I’ve always done well with my career, but I can say with 100% certainty that I don’t enjoy what I do and I haven’t enjoyed what it for probably the last decade. I’ve come to the realization of late that this latest job, while the most financially fruitful has left me feeling like I’ve sold out – money for happiness. My previous jobs left me counting the hours down until the end of the day. I was always bored and unfulfilled, but I seemed to find a way to make it work. At least I had the freedom to come and go as I pleased, I was able to freely surf the internet, to blog, or to just laugh with co-workers.   Here, there’s none of that. Every hour of the day, I’m monitored ...

I’m a decisive person. If you present a situation, I will present you with a solution. I won’t guarantee it will be the right solution, but it’s a solution just the same. If you ask an opinion, I’ll give it to you. It might not be what you want to hear and if it’s not, oh well - you shouldn’t have asked me in the first place. Ask me a question. I’ll give you an answer. Why the hell can’t people give me the same courtesy? There are numerous individuals in my life that cannot come to a decision on their own and it’s pushing me to the brink. I simply hate wishy-washy responses like… “I don’t care. What do you want to do?” or “It doesn’t matter. Whatever you want will be fine with me.” I could make all the decisions and never give these individuals any opportunity to make a decision, but that would be rude and uncaring. Instead, I say “Grow a spine and decide already. The earth will not stop rotating if you make the wrong decision. Trust me….I’ve made a few wrong...

I’ve never thought myself to be OCD in anyway, but lately I find myself consumed with my e-mail inbox. You see, I use my inbox as a sort of “to-do” list. If a matter needs to be dealt with, it stays in my inbox until it’s either been dealt with by me or had become someone else’s problem. Once it’s been addressed, it gets moved out of the inbox and into a customer specific folder. Out of sight, out of mind.  Life is good, but... Around my workplace, it’s like a big ole game of “hot potato”. Something comes in and of course, it needs to be dealt with ASAP. Sending a response to the person immediately is the ideal course of action, but lately, I’ve noticed a new mentality forming around here. I like to call it a “stall tactic” and my boss is the king of such tactics. If you ask him a question, you will get at least three questions in return and at least one of them will send you off on a wild goose chase…to places unknown, where no one has gone before and no one will go again. ...

I’ve mentioned before that I have a crazy-ass family.  My immediate family is slightly quirky, but it’s the extended ones on my mother’s side that cause me the greatest concern.    My mother was the eldest of 8 brothers and sisters and this is likely the reason she only had one child.   I understand that now – they are freakin nuts.   For as long as I can remember, there has been in-fighting between them.   At any one given time, no more than 2 would be on speaking terms.    It’s been going on forever and I’m pretty sure they’ve actually forgotten what they’re fighting about.     The majority of them live in another Province, with a handful within an hour of me.   I’m not close with any of them.   They don’t send holiday wishes or call just to say hello – unless of course they want something.   When my mother passed away, they surprising all came together for her funeral, but still were sep...

The weekend has been a blur and I know I'm not alone when I say, the holiday season is sucking the life out of me and of course my wallet.  Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays - I just don't like the panic and anxiety it causes in everyone around me, because sooner or later, a little is bound to rub off. It was J's birthday this weekend, so yesterday we set off to celebrate by going to a movie and then dinner and then because I had too much wine with dinner, I decided to get in some last minute Christmas shopping.  Yes, I went to the mall!  It's be years since I've been to the mall this close to Christmas and now I know why - the people. I don't know how to explain it, but last night I found the mall to be the most depressing place on earth - the looks of panic on people's faces, the picked over shelves, the screaming children (and parents), the rudeness of people trying to find parking spots, everything about it was horrible.  I went wi...

Well, after last night and the torture/running clinic, I’m happy to report the following: The running instructor chose a ghetto route for our first run. There is nothing like a little visual motivation to keep you running and the verbal heckling from the crack heads and AA rejects certainly provided some positive reinforcement. It was a 3K running clinic, so silly me thought we should have stopped at the 3K mark, but apparently the instructor didn’t get THAT memo and we ended up finally stopping at 2.25 miles or 3.6K. It may have been my cursing and threat of a lawsuit that suddenly encouraged her change of heart. There were three running instructors in total and each one of them would ask at alternating intervals “Are you having fun? Are you feeling any pain?” WTH? I couldn’t even manage a breath to respond to those stupid inquiries and as God as my witness, if I could have caught up to any of them, I would have tackled them to the ground and kicked them in the shins. When my f...

I apologize in advance for this long post, but the story needed to be told and there isn't a condensed version... For the past year and a half, I have stood idly by and watched a good friend, go from an independent, fun loving, self-absorbed, control freak to a bi-polar, emotional puddle of goo, with insane tendencies. She is still self-absorbed, but with a fatal attraction, bunny-boiling, stalker-type twist to her personality. I bet you are wondering what can turn some someone so quickly. Perhaps it was being told by her husband of 17 years “I love our cleaning lady. I hope you’ll understand. I haven’t had sex with her yet, but I know she is my soul-mate. She is nothing like you – she is thoughtful and has a great heart. We’ve rented a house together, but can’t move in together until the beginning of the month, so I’ll be staying here until then. I will be moving out on your birthday because my shrink says I shouldn’t prolong the agony I feel when I am without her. I kno...