Hello Internets,

I have been on journeys afar. I have seen much and heard much.

Last Thursday we had massive amounts of snow. But only within city limits. I had a flight to catch and instead of taking me 11 minutes to get to work in the morning, it took a bazillion. I was a good hour late getting to work, trying to finish up some very important things in time to hail a cab and get to the airport. We passed no less than 2 city buses, 3 mustangs, 3 cabs, and several cube vans in the ditch on the way to the airport. Each one encouraging me to believe I would survive the trip in the cab – if only the driver would hang up his damn cell phone. When finally in the air, it was clear that the snow had not bothered to fall just a few kilometers north of the airport, which was good – a lot of my colleagues were driving and I wanted to see them at our meetings in one piece.

A recently fired/forced to quit before his time work-friend of mine took me out for dinner. It’s always nice to get to meet up with someone you speak with (or spoke as the case is with us) all the time, but only see once a year. He’s a great sorta fellow who is in much greener pastures now, I’m sure.

Without revealing too much about who I work for or what I do, I want to describe my Thursday evening meeting. First, I will say there was much denim. Denim of all kinds. There were denim pants, with denim shirts, with denim jackets. All on the same person x 160. I have never seen so much denim-on-denim. When they say blue-collar, they’re referring to denim. It was a tribute to Levi Strauss. Anyway, I’m in the kind of position where people don’t come up to me to tell me what a great, wonderful, awesome job I’m doing. They call me up to tell me how much they hate this, or got screwed over by that, or feel like the company cheated them out of something. So, people would walk up to me, sometimes in groups, sometimes in groups of people all with the same first name. They would introduce themselves with a smile, shake my hand, act very friendly… and then they would start yelling or ranting about something. It was awful. It went on forever (4 hours). Some of them also made some very interesting, and very valid points and even suggested new ideas…. as if bureaucracy doesn’t exist and they are the only employee in the entire company. At least it was open bar.

The next morning, I weasled breakfast and a ride to the airport out of some colleagues who were driving back to town. I caught my flight and got to sit face-to-face with Jane Goodall. Which was fantastic and distressing. Do I tell her I’ve read all of her books (maybe) and that when I applied to transfer universities they accidentally registered me to graduate with a degree in primatology, and even took a few of the courses in my anthropological-type degree? No. I just ogle. Luckily only for 45 minutes.

Straight from the airport I had to go to another work type function. A party. A party with another open bar. I hadn’t planned to stay long, but something like 22 drinks later I was still there having a really good time. Not acting inappropriate, but definitely having drunk beyond my capacity to censor myself. Realizing that and not wanting to act too ridiculous, I went home. And vomitted.

Yesterday, was a bit of a date day. We drove to Turner Valley and ate at Route 40. The food was delicious, the space was bright and sunny, the service was cordial. On our way back to the city we drove through Black Diamond and also stopped at some rock in a field. It was a big rock. Is it the infamous Big Rock? I don’t know. It was definitely a large chunk of quartz.

Later I bought another book. I feel like a retard walking into a bookstore and buying the book right inside the door. But, I did. Reading has got to be better than watching television, so that’s my excuse. I finished Friday Night Knitting Club last week. I liked it, mostly. Insert spoiler here: I guess I’m just pissed off that the main character dies of cancer. I’m not a big fan of cancer->death lately. I would have preferred a cancer-victory knitalong or something happily-ever-after.

Now I have Late Nights on the Air which I’ve heard nothing but good things about and is on the Walrus Reads list. I hope I like it.

Today I’m torn between spending the day at home, maybe going out to pick up a latte and walk around…. or going to the mall and doing a wardrobe/make-up upgrade. I’m not really feeling it, but I think I’d have fun IF I got off my ass and just did it.

Or maybe I just need a day at home, alone, on the couch.

We spent the weekend in Banff. I find it hard to say that word. So, I don’t. The roads weren’t the greatest on Saturday morning, but it was still a smoother trip than say… flying Air Canada to Cuba without a passport would have been. It was also a fair bit colder.

The premise was to a)not be at home, and b)eat food. Easy! And so it was.

Without going into a lot of detail, we scampered around the Banff Springs Hotel without missing anything. No unlocked door left unopened. I even popped my head into the staff lunchroom. We ate some food at the hotel, at a lovely restaurant called the bison (twice, how obsessive!), and also stopped in on a cafe/bakery called wild flour. It was all nice. Not having to worry about driving there and back in one day, especially nice. Hotel reservations are great.

Today was not a particularly great Monday. I didn’t eat enough in the morning and my blood sugar levels dropped. I went to grab a late lunch, but it was too late when I blacked out at the top of a flight of stairs and endo’d down them. Hmmph. I was paying attention to my body, but apparently not close enough. I think I’ll be ok when wrists and ribs and necks and backs and bruises recover. I’m still young and nimble. I left work early, despite the ever escalating stack of work that’s overdue. I’ve been working so hard lately, I’m just wearing myself thin. I know the company I work for cares about me. Sort of. Some of them. Well, I’m well known? I’m certainly not paid well enough to compensate me for starving myself to the point I fall down stairways on my way to grab a lunch to eat at my desk while I continue working. I’ll put it that way.

Behold!

The loverly boyfriend sent me this link today to zenhabit’s guide to create a relaxed workday. I think it’s a bit optimistic… and by a bit, I’d say it’s a lot optimistic. If you maybe… worked from home by yourself as a blogger and the deadlines you have to meet are with your editor, if you even have one then maybe you could have a relaxed workday. Maybe. The use of “unbeatable” in the title might just be accurate, as in: you will never be able to beat enough time into your schedule to follow this guide unbeatable.

The Guide.

Like… idea number 8. I ignore my phone and e-mail at work all the time…. in an I currently have 33 voice mails and 18 unopened e-mails to get back to kind of way. That’s a luxury I’ve earned out of necessity. I wouldn’t be so kind to one of my more junior coworker type peoples. They would get lashings. You need to pick up the phone when your responsibilities are such that, say, if you don’t someone else won’t be getting paid. Take breaks and eat lunch! Ideas 12 and 14. OUTRAGIOUS. You won’t last long in this city. Ditto for number 15: mini-meditations. That stuff’s for liberal cry babies.

Number 17: roll with the punches. That’s practical advice. That’s what’s useful. It’s what you have to do when all of your coworkers go on extended vacations, repeatedly call in sick, and then another coworker and your boss both quit. Number 17, you were helpful.

I’m pretty tired. Last week I worked 70 hours. My birthday was on the weekend, and I played pretty hard. Now I’m sleepy, and don’t really feel like facing another 4 days in the office. 4 days that will go by so fast it will be 8 pm before I realize I should have been home chilling out for hours.

Next weekend, we were going to go spend Saturday night at Banff Springs. I almost pushed the reservation button when it occurred to me that it might be way more fun to spend less than 1/3 of the price it would cost to stay there to crash somewhere else, and to spend my hard earned overtime money on food! Delicious food! So instead, we’re staying somewhere a little bit less princess-castle-in-the-mountains and a little more budget-hotel. But the pictures! The pictures that will be taken when we visit the above mentioned princess-castle-in-the-mountains! Those are what I’m really excited about.