Waiting for the Weekend

I am only a few hours away from a four-day weekend, a jam-packed four-day weekend. For starters, this is really the last, free weekend I have before the wedding: Colin's family arrives from London and Belfast on Thursday, and mine arrive from London on Saturday.

So, how did I score a four-day weekend? Well this Monday is BC Day and tomorrow is my flex Friday. Tonight, after work, my mum is taking me to my final dress fitting, and then we may be going to Oakridge afterwards to do a bit of browsing.

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, and then I am heading out to Richmond to buy my friend a birthday present and card and buy an anniversary and wedding card for Colin. Saturday, we are heading to the Blarney Stone for Thalia's birthday. Any other spare time we have this weekend will be spent finishing off last minute things for the wedding.

On Monday, August 1st (BC Day), Colin and I will celebrate a milestone in our relationship. No, the wedding isn't till August 12th, so what on earth am I talking about? This Monday marks our 7 year anniversary. Yes, 7 years ago Colin took me out on his dad's boat, to the middle of English Bay, to watch the fireworks. So every year we make sure we catch at least one night of the fireworks. Considering how busy the next week will be, we decided to go last night, just in case we can't make any other night. But I will come back to that.

From the very start, on August 1st, 1998, I had the first glimpse into what our relationship would become, even though I am just realizing it now: Colin was very adamant that I be at his fraternity house no later than 7pm. Time was important because we had to get down to the Heather Civic Marina and out into the water to get a good spot in English Bay. We learned our first lesson, I am extremely punctual, and at that time Colin wasn't.

I waited for Colin for about half an hour, or what seemed like half an hour, and even when he was ready it was still another 15 minutes or so before his dad showed up.

Over the years, Colin has tried to teach me that I don't always have to be on time or the first one "there". And I have taught Colin there are instances where punctuality is imperative: to this date Colin is doing better than I am.

What I realized that night, and over the last seven years that while we have many, many things in common, there are certain things about us that are extremely opposite, which make us perfectly suited for one another.

You don't think about those things, when you go on a first date, especially when you are only 20 years old. You don't think that this is the person I am going to marry. You think, this is just a date, and we will see where the night takes us. Maybe nowhere. Maybe to a second date and possibly a third.

But that first date was different than all the other first dates I had been on: just before Colin asked me out we had been talking about the fireworks and how he was going out the next evening (Wednesday) to watch them from his dad's boat. I told him how much I loved being on the water, and how I always wanted to watch the fireworks from a boat. On Thursday, he called me (yes actually called when he said he would...) and told me that Saturday we would be going out on his dad's boat to watch the fireworks. I knew then and there that this wasn't your typical first date, and it wasn't: it was the first date that would eventually lead to a marriage... A marriage that will be taking place in 15 days.

So back to last night's fireworks: Colin and I headed over to Tina's mum's house which is located right across the road from Spanish Banks. The nice thing about going over to Tina's house is being able to find a parking spot, except there were a few available on the beach side last night. Tina's friend, Sean joined us, and we made the long trek across the road to the beach (nb: great use of sarcasm).

We found a vacant log, laid out the blanket and Colin and I set up our mammoth double chair set, complete with cupholders. A contraption my parents bought at Costco many years ago to take to Andrew's numerous Rowing regattas.

We hung out, eating candy, watching the sun set, and marveling at Vancouver's beauty. Lisa, Andrew and Gus and Olly (their two wiener dogs) joined us just before the fireworks started. Canada kicked off the Celebration of Light with "Jazz in the Sky." I must say I was somewhat disappointed with Canada's show. Not enough big explosions in my opinion. Perhaps if we had a better view of the barge and saw some of the lower fireworks I may have thought differently.

We have an open invitation to join Tina and crew again this Saturday, but we are heading out to Thalia's birthday that night. If she goes next Wednesday, I am sure I will join her. Next Saturday, we have been invited over to the house of one of my sorority sisters: her parents live in West Van up in the British Properties and have the most amazing view of the city, so we may do that.

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What we did last BC Day: Windsurfing at Alta Lake, Whistler.

Colin windsurfing

I'm Melting...

I am not one to complain about the heat, especially when summer has taken so long to get going, but my office, first thing in the morning, is unbearable to say the least. I would consider myself lucky, because I have air conditioning, but it doesn't make a difference.

My office faces east, so the sun belts in heating up my desk. I do have blinds, but there is a large square cut out in the bottom right-hand, corner, to make shelf space out of the window sill. So I sit here in the morning, sweating. It's a rather disgusting way to start your day.

I keep my office door pushed to, to trap in the cold air from the air conditioner. It works, eventually - my office will finally cool down (to a somewhat bearable environment) around 4:00pm.

But, as soon as I am away from my office, I relish in the sun's heat, and enjoy every minute of these hot sunny days. (And am praying to the sun gods that it remains like this through August 12th...)

The Ugliest Dog in the World...

Actually I don't think ugly does it justice - even fugly is being too kind...



Someone pointed out that this dog looks like the Crypt Keeper. It had been so long since I had seen an episode of "Tales from the Crypt" I couldn't really make the comparison. But as luck would have it, I saw an add for "Tales from the Crypt" on Space the other day, and this dog is the spitting image of the Crypt Keeper. Creepy.

If you want to find out more about this esthetically-challenged pooch check out this link:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/uglydog.asp

Such A Long Week

I am happy that it's Friday - this week has just dragged for a number of reasons: This is the first, five day week I have worked since mid-June! Yes, due to flex Fridays, stat holidays, illness and other events I have become accustomed to working four day weeks, not five.

On top of that, this is the first week, and first Friday that I have spent entirely in the office. All the other Fridays I have worked, I have spent mostly out of the office shopping for promotions. And the last Friday I worked I was at the Sea Vancouver Festival, so I was outdoors all day. I have to say though, what a waste of time and money the festival was; it places such a black mark on Vancouver's image. Hopefully other events will make people and vendors forget...

The last few weeks at work have been extremely busy; with four day weeks and four day weekends, I have had a lot of catching up to do - but I caught up, and now I don't have any work to do. Well, that's not entirely true. I do have some work, but not enough to last an entire day - maybe a few hours.

But it's Friday. And next week is a four day week, and next weekend is a four day weekend, so I can't really complain, can I?

So on to the other part of my life... the Wedding.

So only three weeks left of planning, thank god! We managed to get through a lot of the details this week, so now we only have a few things left to do. I had a couple of hiccups this past week, but it is all dealt with:

"We have a piper down, we have a piper down..."



Unfortunately, my piper had to cancel, but he did find me a new one, so I still have a piper for my wedding - who happens to be the ex-Pipe Major for the Vancouver Police Pipe Band, so I guess I could do worse. I just hope he doesn't keel over during the ceremony - he joined the Police Pipe Band in 1951! And was the Pipe Major from 1967-1984.

Speaking of keeling over, this is what is preventing me from being able to book a rehearsal time at the Yacht Club; which, by the way, I can't book until the Monday before the wedding! Apparently they can't book small events, just in case a member dies and the Yacht Club is needed for a wake or something along those lines. I am not going to say too much here, as I have already ranted and raved over this "rule", but have come to accept it - so here's the game plan:

We have arranged the rehearsal for the Wednesday (two days before the wedding). Colin's parents are hosting the rehearsal dinner at their house, so if we cannot book the Yacht Club for August 10th, we will do the rehearsal at the Blackstocks. But to ensure everyone knows what they are doing, and where they are supposed to be, Colin and I will recreate the space we will be in. Let me explain: Next week we are going to the club to take measurements of the room and patio where the ceremony will be held. Then using string (or some other substitute), we will outline the size of the patio, the width of the aisle, and the space the guests will be in. So even though most of the wedding party won't know what the space looks like, they will know what to do. I hope...

Just think, only a couple more weeks of me blogging about the wedding [planning]. I'm not sure who is more glad about this: you or me!

I am looking forward to my and Colin's family arriving - I am sure they will be happy to be away from London for a couple of weeks. The first of the family arrives this Sunday, and the rest a week or so before the wedding.

On an entirely different note, I am happy I can finally (and easily) put pictures into my blog!

...And Then It Consumes You

Wow. As of today there are only four weeks until the wedding. There's a scary thought. I am really looking forward to the day, and all the planning coming to an end.

Now, I love to plan things, but when I hit the five week mark (last Friday) the wedding all of a sudden consumed me. All the big planning is done, but there are so many, tiny, nit picky things left to do, and it seems to be interfering with my sanity (or with what's left of it).

The biggest thing is trying to coordinate all these details with the Yacht Club. This shouldn't be a challenge, but it is because the catering coordinator is useless. I am very surprised I have yet to go on a rant about her.

I have discovered the secret to get her respond to my emails: Re-send the original email, but this time tag it as urgent, write "please respond" in the subject, and close with "a quick response is much appreciated." I shouldn't have to do that - in fact, I hate doing it, but this woman is a flake, to say the least. And to top things off, I can't book a rehearsal date until closer to the wedding (keep in note, I have already organized a date for the rehearsal dinner...). Closer to the wedding? How much closer do you want to get? My schedule and Colin's schedule will be open that week, but we have to let our wedding party know. We hardly expect them to drop everything for us, and I would like to do a run through with the JP present.

My other big issue, which got resolved today, is limos. The second you say the word wedding you can't book less than two consecutive hours. WTF??? All I want it a limo to take me from my house to the Yacht Club, not a far distance. Luckily, Colin found a limo company today that let us book them for one hour to get to the Yacht club. The only catch is that we are getting married on a Friday. If we were getting married on a Saturday that would be an entirely different story - the minimum booking time is four hours. It does not take four, fucking hours to get from Crown and 41st to Point Grey and Dunbar. Hell, it won't take Colin and his crew 4 hours to get from 4 Road and Westminster. Damn, I could go to Whistler and back in that time.

But, enough of that rant. I now have a limo for one hour, and it is one of those SUV ones, so that will be fun.

"Hello, hello, I'm at a place called Vertigo, it's everything I wish I didn't know..."

How fitting is that lyric right now. If wondering where that came from, I am currently listening to Vertigo...

"Just give me what I want, and no one get's hurt..." Yes, sadly, the bridezilla in me is starting to emerge...

But despite the stress and frustration I am feeling, am I also very estatic and excited; because with all the annoying little details, comes the fun: the family, the parties and so on...

I am surprised though I made it this far before having a nervous breakdown...

Next time I blog I will have either made a full recovery or will be strung up in a straight jacket... depends on what gets accomplised this weekend... For my sake and everyone else's let's hope it's the former.

London Calling

Colin had woken up before me on Thursday morning and was in the living room watching CTV News Net, per his morning ritual. The noise from the TV wasn't really disturbing me, but then I heard it - bombs had gone off in the London underground, crippling the city. This did not sound like the usual IRA attack - I flew out of bed in panic. In some ways it felt like 9/11 all over again. I was half asleep hearing this surreal news.

Of course the London bombings have nothing on what happened in New York, but the majority of my family live and work in London. I stood watching the news, having no idea if they were ok, if anyone had been killed or injured. It was a horrible feeling.

Colin was a lot more calm than me (as usual), but he also has family that live and work in London, so he was a bit concerned as well. But good news: we have talked to our relatives and everyone is ok.

On now on to some lighter news:

The Lord taketh away, then the Lord giveth back, and then Lord said "psych", and taketh away again, and then the Lord says, "no, just kidding, I'm serious this time", and giveth back: what the hell I am talking about... I have not suddenly found religion, just talking about my weekend:

This week is the Sea Vancouver Festival, and like many of the other summer events, Planet Bingo has set up a booth. Originally it looked like I may have had to work today (Saturday), and then we found someone to cover the two of us that make up the marketing department, so I was happy. Then that fell through, so I was pissed off and grumpy. But then we found someone else, so I have a full weekend again.

In the grand scheme of things this is nothing, but I do enjoy my full weekends (even though I just had 4 day weekend last weekend and have a 3 day one the next weekend). But I have not done, so far, what I plan to do this weekend: clean up the mess that is my apartment. Sanitarily speaking, it is clean, but when it comes to clutter, well, it looks like a disaster zone. So the plan this weekend is to finally tackle all the crap lying around the apartment so I can see surfaces again.

I have started that? No. Today I got up, went out shopping with my mum and grandma, and now I am writing this blog entry. When I am done here, I am going over to my parents to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening there.

Colin is up in Sechelt this weekend for his stag, and my dad is there too. Andrew is not, because he broke down and decided to do some racing this summer, so he is on the Island for a regatta. I thought it would be fun to do a girls' night, but everyone is busy tonight, so I am going to spend it with my mum and grandparents. Not your typical Saturday night, but I'm not really complaining. There will be so much going on in the next few weeks, having a quiet night tonight won't be such a bad thing.

I calculated in about mid May what free weekends I would have between then and the wedding... I think last week was the first one (since that weekend in May), and this one and next one are low key, and then that's it...

In other news: I finally figured out iTunes and how to upload my music off my discs. I was quite happy with this revelation last night.

So this post's title is fitting: London Calling - obviously it refers to what happened there on Thursday and more subtly (for those who know your music and know me), refers to my uploads to iTunes: except I think the only Clash song I have uploaded so far is Rock the Casbah...

Happy Canada Day!

Happy 138th Birthday Canada!

As usual I had a fun Canada Day! Last year I was in San Antonio - yes, that's right, I celebrated Canada Day Texas style - actually, it was a lot of fun. This year, however, I stayed close to home.

Colin and I spent the afternoon at the 60th Annual Steveston Salmon Festival. It was a huge, fun Canada Day celebration. I have to say Steveston is a well kept secret of great Canadian patriotism. As we drove down Moncton Street (and other streets in Steveston), we noticed that most of the homes were all decorated with Red, White and the Maple Leaf. Moncton Street was one, giant Canadian block party. I am sure you see scenes like that throughout the country, but it is not so common in Vancouver, so it was a very welcome site. I felt like we had uncovered some wonderful secret.

We returned home after a somewhat overcast, and chilly (but enjoyable) time in Steveston and turned our attention to the wedding... Can you believe that six weeks from tonight I will be a married woman? I can't. In fact, it really hasn't hit me yet that I am getting married... I will probably have that epiphany after a few months of marriage.

I guess it hasn't sunk in that I am getting married, because, in a way, I already am. Colin and I are veterans: what the heck does that mean? It means we have been together for seven years (living together for 2 of those years) and already feel like a married couple. I am looking forward to getting married - it means our lives returning to some sort of normalcy. This whole engagement period has been like an interruption to the regularly scheduled program. A welcome interruption, but an interruption nonetheless.

But we are into the wedding festivities now. I had my first of two showers last weekend, which was a lot fun. Colin is going away for his stag next weekend, and I have my second shower two weeks from now. And then the family arrives from the UK; and then we get married; and then we get away to Whistler for a few days and start our lives as husband and wife and then it's off to Hawaii in October for a honeymoon...

Now back to Canada Day, and my four day weekend. Four day weekend? How did I score a four day weekend (considering I am not American)? I am sure from reading past blogs you have heard about my flex fridays - well today happens to be my flex Friday, but it also happens to be Canada's birthday, so everyone has a day off. Doesn't seem fair that those whose flex friday isn't today should have 3 long weekends in a row - so in order to compensate for that, I get to take an extra day this weekend. So I am not going into work on Monday.

I also luck out and have a four day weekend for BC Day - this year BC Day falls on Monday, August 1st (which also happens to be our 7 year anniversary); the previous friday is my flex day - the same thing happens for the Thanksgiving long weekend; however I will be in Hawaii, so it won't really matter - it just means extra vacation days... my life is rough, isn't? You want to smack me right now don't you :p.

Things are good right now.


Fun Canadian Fact: Pamela Anderson is a Centennial Baby - she was born July 1st, 1967.