Ending and Beginnings

I have to start off by saying wow is it ever hot outside today. This comment has nothing to do with the rest of the impending post, but I just thought I'd share with everyone how happy I am about this weather; dare I say maybe it's a bit too hot... Ah, who cares... I love the heat, but I am one of those people who has a very high tolerance for heat (and a very low tolerance for the cold...).

Summer weather aside, today is my last day at WPGA, or is it? No matter how many times I leave this place I seem to end up back here. I just hope the next time I end up back here it will be in the advancement office putting my marketing skills to good use.

But, for now, this is the end of my employment at WPGA and I am looking forward to starting my new job on Monday. It is more than starting a new job, however, it is the start of my career. The more I think about the things I am going to be doing and accomplishing, the more excited I get. I am looking forward to moving forward, moving up, putting my marketing skills and ideas to work... Can you tell I'm excited?

In other news... I had the best tropical drink last night. Colin and I were trying to figure out where to go for dinner. Both of us wanted to be outdoors and enjoy the warm evening, but English Bay and the North Shore weren't really an option. So we headed into Richmond to go to Doc Marlins... turns out it has been shut down for two years. We ended up going for Korean BBQ, but were indoors.

After dinner we decided to go for coffee, but it was getting quite late. We then decided to drive into Steveston, however on the way there, as we were driving over the 3 Road bridge, I yelled out, mid conversation, the Elephant's Arsehole... This is my mum's lovely name for the Elephant and Castle... We sat out on the deck and ordered drinks. Like I said, I had this amazing tropical conconction: Pina Colada, Banana, Orange, Mango and coconut rum - a Tropicalada - God, it was tasty :).

Relationships

Recently Tina commented in her blog on the fact that I enjoy doing my own things as well as doing things with Colin. But it wasn't always like that: I was only 20 when I first started dating him and I wanted nothing more than to spend all my time with him. I would opt not to hang out with my girlfriends in order to be with him... but that was (almost) seven years ago.

In the past few years we have moved in together, recently become engaged, and in about 2 months, will be married. Our relationship is strong because we are each others' companions, but haven't lost sight of who we are as individuals. We have learned over the years the importance of having our own time to do our own things, to be able to spend time with our friends - maintaining other relationships as well as our own.

But, like I said, in the beginning, I would give up a night with the girls to be with Colin... Now I wouldn't break those plans, because I enjoy spending time with my girlfriends, doing girl things. Colin enjoys his nights out with the boys.

But to each their own. What is strong and works in our relationship may not work for someone else. But I am happy to know that someone out holds my relationship with Colin in such high regard - I am very humbled by that :).

May 2-4

So, my Victoria Day long weekend left much to be desired; especially since this was the first one I had the freedom to enjoy in the last two years. The past two May long weekends have been warm and sunny; friends have made the trek to Whistler to kick off the summer season; and where was I? I was stuck indoors, in the city, studying.

Yes, that's right, it's not as if BCIT tortured us enough during the school year with insane work loads; no, they set finals AFTER the May Long weekend. So, I was really looking forward to this one, but the weather was crappy and no one went anywhere. Going to see Star Wars on Saturday was the bright spot of my long weekend. C'est la vie, I guess...

A Little Bit About Me

I first saw this on Jovo's Blog and since then, have had a few friends email it to me - so I thought I would post it in the Watering Hole for friends and strangers alike:

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Siobhan
2. Shiv
3. Fibo (for Andrew's use only...)

THREE HATED NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1. Chevron - I am not a gas station
2. Chiffon - I am not a fou fou piece of material
3. Fibo - I may go by it, but I don't like it

THREE THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My eyes
2. My loyalty
3. My weird sense of humour

THREE THINGS YOU HATE/DISLIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My insomnia
2. Panic attacks
3. lack of self assuredness

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. Canadian
2. British (Scot-Welsh-English)
3. Irish

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Death
2. Creatures with 8 legs
3. Being alone

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Tea
2. Chocolate
3. Social interaction

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WOULD LOVE TO DO RIGHT NOW:
1. Go away somewhere tropical
2. pay off all my debts
3. Go shopping

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE THINGS :
1. Dogs
2. watching movies
3. spending time with family and friends

THREE NEW THINGS YOU WANT TO TRY IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS
1. Marriage
2. Water Skiing
3. Photography

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP (love is a given):
1. Humour
2. Loyalty
3. Trust

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SE X (or same) THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. eyes
2. height
3. red/strawberry blonde hair

THREE THINGS YOU JUST CAN'T DO:
1. Give up junk food
2. Sleep through an entire night
3. face my fear of spiders

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Curves
2. Reading
3. Shopping

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Buy a house
2. Buy a new wardrobe
3. Go on a vacation

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING:
1. Stay at home Mum
2. Marketer
3. Wedding Planner

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. New Zealand
2. Italy
3. Carribean

THREE KID'S NAMES
1. Aidan
2. Patrick
3. Ciara

LAST THREE PEOPLE YOU KISSED
1. Colin
2. Mum
3. Grandma

Finally...

My career starts on May 30th. Yes, if you haven't heard, I finally landed myself a job in marketing. I will be taking on the role of Promotions Coordinator for Planet Bingo, a division of BCLC (BC Lotteries). It is a cosmic bingo hall, and the simplist way to describe my job is that I have to get bums into seats...

The best thing is, I finally get to put my BCIT schooling to use. It has been almost a year since I graduated, and I am feeling a little rusty, but I am sure I will be fine once I get into the thick of things.

In some ways it is hard to leave WPGA, even after my great desire to no longer be a secretary and put my talents (and intelligence) to some good use. It has been a fun place to work; the students are cool; and the staff is a lot of fun to hang out with. But, Planet Bingo seems like a lot of fun as well. It appears to be very laid back and casual - hell they are giving me all the time off I need for the wedding, and time for the honeymoon. They also have the choice to work flex hours: I will be working 9-5, but if you put in extra hours here and there you get every other friday off - every other weekend, a long weekend? Sounds like a good deal to me.

I have gone from feeling really nervous, to excited, but I am sure the nerves will return on May 29th.

So no more bitching or ranting allowed about how bad my job is (unless my new job really sucks, but I don't think it will)... I am now in a position where I am getting paid more (always a bonus) and launching my career.

By the skin of their teeth

Well, the budget passed and so did the ammendment. BC isn't looking so insignificant anymore in the world of Canadian politics is it. It's quite funny really: the fate of the Liberal government was in the hands of an MP from Surrey... Actually, I guess it was in the hands of the Speaker of the House, but his job is to vote for what is best for the country (but not necessarily along party lines), so there was really no suspense there... all eyes were on Chuck Cadman.

This whole thing is quite a dilemna; who do you support? A government that is corrupt and using our tax dollars for their own purpose; or, an opposition that has hopped into bed with a party whose soul purpose is to tear Canada apart? It really is the lesser of two evils...

BC Elections Commentary

The Liberals won another majority - yeah! The NDP gained back a tonne of seats; I didn't think they would get more than 20, but it should be a good balance - The Liberals still in power with a majority should ensure a strong economy, but with so many NDP seats that should make the Liberals accountable for putting money back into areas and programs, such as Health and Education.

And that's my commentary - ok, so not much of a commentary, especially for someone with a minor in Canadian Political Science, but in my defense, I never took the BC Government course, wished I had though...

And now on to the Federal Commentary...

I would be much happier with Stronach's decisions to cross the floor if she didn't pick up a portfolio along the way...

But I concur - Stephen Harper is a nut job... The Liberals are looking crooked, but I sure as hell don't want Harper running this country...

Who's the Dumbass at Canada Post?

I have never had a problem with Canada Post before, until yesterday. Mind you, this isn't a big issue, just an odd little mess up:

I mailed out the wedding invitations on Monday (no turning back now); when I came home from work yesterday and checked the mail I noticed one of the invites had been returned. My first thought: we had the wrong address or accidently typed the wrong address. But, there was no return to sender sticker on it. No, some genius at Canada Post mailed the invite to the return address not the mailing address. The distinction between mailing address and return address seemed fairly obvious, at least to me... The mailing address was on the front of the envelope with the stamp placed in the upper left-hand corner; the return address was on the envelope flap (doubling as a extra way to keep the envelope closed). But somehow, it was sent to us... go figure.

By the sounds of things, however, the other invites have, so far, made their way to their correct destinations. Hopefully this was a one time, weird occurance.

And that is my Canada Post Rant...

Where did it go???

For the most part when I put my contacts in, it is uneventful. Every now and then a speck of dirt makes its way onto the contact, so I just blink my eye, pop it out, clean it and pop it back in.

This morning, though, my left eye started to sting like crazy. I reacted by shutting my eye tight, but when I opened it there was a hazel eye staring back at me, not a green one (I wear green tinted contacts). My assumption was that the contact had popped out of my eye, as is common when you close it too fast.

This is wear it pays to wear coloured contacts - when you drop them, they are easy to find. But I couldn't see my contact anywhere: It wasn't in the sink or on the edge of the sink; it wasn't on the floor. I began shaking my clothes to see if it was stuck on me, but to no avail. I then checked to see if I put the plug in... I did. So where the hell was my contact?

I remember someone telling me once that contacts could go to parts of your eyes where they weren't supposed to go; someone else told me that just doesn't happen. But the upper part of my eye felt irritated - it couldn't have...

I gently lifted up my eyelid, and again it pays to wear coloured contacts - I saw the edge of the contact poking out; after a split second of feeling completely grossed out, I blinked my eye and the contact popped right into place.

So, it is possible to loose your contacts to unknown parts of your eye - I just hope it isn't a frequent occurance!

...Yes, I have a message for Paul Martin

...you see Bono told me to give him a call...

I was very happy and fortunate to be one of the chosen ones. That is one of the U2 fans lucky enough to get tickets for their Vertigo tour. Two nights in Vancouver sold out in about 15 minutes. Granted I was behind the stage, and way up in the nosebleeds of GM place, but it still rocked.

I don't think I can even describe the excitement and anticipation in GM Place on Friday night, and the stage set up - well, you just had to be there. I was dancing up a storm (and there wasn't much room, sandwiched between Andrew L. and Colin) to Vertigo, Elevation, Sunday Bloody Sunday and the list goes on.

The one thing I noticed was the number of generations present at the concert, different generations for different albums. There were some young kids in front of us who seemed to know everything off of "How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb," and then there was my crew, the Achtuang, Zooropa generation, and so on.

They played a ton of stuff from the new album, more so than most stops, I believe. Why? Well, they are using the Vancouver (and I believe Seattle) concert for the Tour DVD. Pretty cool!

Then, during One, the UN charter scrolled across the big screens, and so did Paul Martin's phone number. Bono asked everyone to get out their cell phones and call PM-PM and tell him that Canada is the best nation to put a stop to poverty in 3rd world countries - these were Bono's words.

During One, everyone had their cell phones open, swaying to the music and the blue and green glows lit up GM place - it was an awesome effect. Very powerful.

The next evening, while at dinner with friends of ours, we decided to see if this phone number actually connected us to Paul Martin - we were connected to the Prime Minister's Office and then to the Prime Minister's voice mail... Bono told us to give you a call, we support his cause and want Canada to take a leading effort in ending poverty in 3rd world countries.