Oy, what a week. I was supposed to be out of town this weekend but due to some issues cropping up I have been asked to stay in town and attend a meeting Monday morning. This afforded me a chance to be home for the weekend to do laundry, some paperwork and get organized for another week out on the road. Looks like I might be in Montreal next week, when I finish up my area, to give my Quebec counterpart a hand. I adore her so I'm all for helping out if I can.

Anyway! That's all boring to you, I'm sure, but sadly I have little else to offer in the way of conversation. I've been working monster hours these days, walking out the door at 7am and crawling back in at 10:30pm and into bed, only to get up and do it all again 8 hours later. Good fun! Painkillers and hot baths have been a staple of my getting-ready-for-bed routine. That and massaging my feet in order to make them stop hurting long enough for me to fall asleep.

All that being said I am (still!) happy in my job. The crazy hours were to be expected and it won't always be like this. By the end of the month things should settled down... hopefully soon enough to afford me an opportunity to pack and move into my new place. Whew. Now THAT'S a busy schedule.

I managed to make time talk to a few friends this weekend; saw an old buddy of mine (and sometime commentor, Melra) on Friday night and we sat up and talked until 4am (how I stayed up that late after working all day is still a mystery to me). Today I talked to my friend Mulder who was sweet enough to call me all the way from Israel and make my day, as his voice *always* cheers me up. And tonight I'm off to see a some friends of mine and their new baby.

That's about all I have for now; I leave tomorrow afternoon for the great white north to work my butt off some more and will stay at Grandma's until Thursday morning and then I am on the road again heading south east.

I shall part by leaving you a couple of pictures from yesterday; my mom and I decided to go for a walk in a ravine/park and thought it would be a great plan to bring my cat Isaac. How cute is he?!?

 
14 hour days for the next two weeks means I may not have anything intelligent to post for the next few days.... I'll try and put some amusing pics up if I can.

In the meantime why don'tcha go over and see Occasional Bitch. She's pretty funny. Or go see my homegirl Cassiopeia (she's from my hometown, Hamilton).

And one day when I have a life again I will regale you with all kinds of stories, I promise!

 
I am back, alive, and well! Sorry I didn't post while I was gone but I simply wasn't willing to pay $10 US a day for an internet connection I was only going to have maybe an hour a day to use. The meetings went from 8am to 5:30pm with dinner being 6:30pm to 10pm. We were kept quite busy. Having spent 3 of the last 4 weeks traveling in the USA and staying in cheaper hotels (than this one in Texas) that had FREE internet in the rooms I got a little indignant that this nicer, more 'posh', hotel had the nerve to charge daily for the same service.

But I digress.
My trip started off just right; despite driving to the airport more times in my life than I can count I found that I am not a particularly sharp individual in the darkness of 5am. I missed my exit no less than three times as I drove back and forth and swore like a trucker everytime I missed it yet again. By the time I got to the Park N' Fly parking lot I was rewarded for my efforts with a spectacular wipeout on a lake of ice that on a better day I'm sure I would have noticed, but for the aforementioned reasons (darkness and 5am) it eluded me and I paid the price. Before I even had time to register what had happened I was on my ass, my luggage on the ground behind and beside me and my wrist protesting the event that had just occurred. I sat blankly on the ice for a moment trying to assess just how it was that I got there before I realized I was running quite late and that no one was around to help me up. Grunting, groaning, and rubbing my wrist I hiked my way to the shuttle station to be picked up.

The trip improved after that as I met up with my co-worker and we sat together for the flights (Toronto to Dallas to San Antonio, Texas). My recent turn in my 'flying personality' has continued resulting in palms so sweaty they look like mini Dead Seas. The flights themselves were actually not too bad, but that helped only marginally. Seems I am just determined to be terrified of flying.

Once landed my fellow Ontario co-worker and I settled into our room and decided to go for a walk to seek out drinks (the room had two bottles of water in it but drinking them meant you'd be charged $3.50 a piece to your room! wha?!?!). We finally found a convenience store (after taking the longest possible route and eventually asking for directions) and then proceeded to get quite lost trying to return to our hotel. It didn't help that people kept giving us different directions, I might point out.

As for the sales conference itself, it was pretty good. There were only 5 of us Canadians out of 173 which meant we put up with a lot of peculiar attention from our Americans, often in the form of ignorant remarks and insults and less than funny jokes. For example.....

Our company had the third floor meeting rooms rented out and during the course of the day we would rotate about between rooms for various sessions. To keep us awake and happy there was water and little mini chocolate bars and candies left out for us on the tables in each room. Different rooms had different candies which gave us something to look forward to in a sea of energy sucking presentations.

Upon entering one of the rooms I saw that there were mini Tootsie Rolls on the table, which had been previously unavailable to me. In my excitement I cried outloud "Tootsie Rolls!!" with the greatest of enthusiasm, to which one of the Americans at the table said "Oh, right, you guys don't have Tootsie Rolls in Canada" (spoken with a thick southern accent). Annoyed by his remark I shot him a look and said that yes, we DO have them in Canada, thankyouverymuch. The woman beside me then said "Yeah, I.." which drew my attention in her direction to listen to the rest of her sentence only to find out that *was* the sentence. Puzzled by the incomplete sentence I looked at her with my most confused face and she repeated "I !", with some excitement, and seeing that I was even more confused than ever she said "isn't that what they say in Canada? Aye?". With a mixture of amusement and sheer annoyance I replied "you mean EH??" to which she sheepishly said "is it eh? oh... sorry it's been a while". A while since what I didn't know and didn't care. She won the prize for the dumbest American remark for the whole week (though there were plenty of remarks competing for top dog). Look, if you're going to insult a Canadian, at least do it right.

And so it was working and living among my American brethren for a week in Texas, the state most opposite to Canada, ever. The favourite game at the dinner table at any given night was asking everyone what their education was (most loved to brag of their degrees) and then asking them who the Canadian prime minister is or how many provinces they can name (I could name countless American politicians and likely all 50 states if given enough time). Perhaps it was cruel of me but some of them just needed to be taken down a notch. It just took one too many "eh" jokes to drive me to put the person in his/her place. Swiftly and easily.

Wednesday night we were allowed a free night out on the town (which was nice considering I never even saw the light of day on Tuesday, having spent the *entire* day in the hotel) and if it's one thing I learned about my new place of employment it's they are a group of drinkers and partiers. While I am content to crash out in my room and hit the hay early, these guys are out drinking and having a crazy time until all hours. In an effort to be social I headed out with the gang (my boss included) to the famous River Walk in San Antonio. The River Walk is the strip along each side of the San Antonio river made up of all kinds of shops, restaurants and bars. The nightlife is loud, and ongoing, well into the night. It was nice to leave a country full of ice to arrive in a place full of beautiful sights, sounds and smells. As you walk along the river you pass by bars playing every manner of music and serving up various kinds of food. I loved the ambiance and feel of it and reveled in the idea that I was walking around in a t-shirt.

I was lucky enough to escape 2.5 hours early out of the last meeting on the last day (since the presentation didn't pertain to we Canadians) and my Quebec counterpart and I finally got to do the River Walk during the day (we really lucked out since the River Walk was *right* by the hotel). We strolled around and snapped tons of pictures like dutiful little tourists. I bought a few trinkets to bring home and we sat by the river and ate nachos with salsa and sour cream. It was a gorgeous day and those few hours along the river made the trip for me. Also, it was nice to eat away from the food supplied to our company by the hotel because it. was. HORRIBLE.

And that's about it, I think...... if you wish to see more pictures head on over to my photoblog. This week I am on the road here in Ontario as I meet up with two American counterparts whom I adore (I worked with them in New York a few weeks back) and begin to set up stores. I will be home most nights for the first week, but the second week I will be staying in hotel rooms all over Ontario (and yes, I'll be choosing my rooms based on internet capabilities. hahaha). One such hotel will be known as Hotel Grandma, where I hope to spend a few nights. :-)

Have a great week, everyone!

 
Well, it's time for me to sign off for an undetermined amount of time. I am off to San Antonio, Texas until Friday (lucky me, I get to wake up at 4am to get to the airport for an early morning flight!). I will be taking my laptop with me and we will have internet connection in our rooms, so I am supposing I'll say hi when I get there.

Y'all be good and come back, y'hear?
Yeeha! See ya there!

 
Well, the week is over and I am at the tail end of my sinus infection. At one point I was blowing my nose for 10 minutes straight, NO LIE!, in an effort to clear it. I blew, grabbed another Kleenex, blew again, grabbed another Kleenex, etc etc.. My cat started looking at me with great concern as it seemed like it was never going to end. When it did my nose was raw and a bit bloody (yummy imagery, I know!)

Anyway! I am getting ready this weekend for a big ole sales meeting/conference down in Texas next week, and am doing my best to plan my packing so that I do not overpack (as we women are prone to doing). It's tough because I have to wear something warm to the airport, only to not use it for the whole week I'm there. According to the forecast it's gonna be plenty warm in San Antonio. Yeeha!!

Before I leave you, here is a round up of links you might enjoy. I'll try and post again this weekend before I take off for the land of cowboy boots and oil.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

- Some of you may be aware of my obsession with the Magic Bullet. It is an ongoing love affair that I hope one day to see fulfilled (perhaps when I get my new apartment). Along with that I have a new obsession for yet another exciting infomercial product called the Sonic Blade. Like the Magic Bullet, I watch the infomercial every time I come across it while flipping channels. I must have them!!!

- How To Be Annoying Online (in case you need help)

- I got the strangest damn spam in my email I have EVER seen in my life. I don't even know what the hell they were trying to sell me, but here was the body of the message:
"carefully beautiful appearance, disappoint light added? hard bought how evening.
gym leader edge? explain tying benefit motor fire. carefully respect is miserable music. find speaking whom turning. not bad filled we? development nothing whom find very next?
he profession whom nothing. drew rich thus make.drew find next parents leader? thus night servants here fire." WTF????????

- Clowns are scary, let's face it. Now you can create your own scary clowns with this Evil Clown Generator.

- Are you a Lord of the Rings fan? If so you might find these "Very Secret Diaries" amusing.

- There is an *awesome* new website out there to help you plan some fun around Israel, called Tel Aviv Guide. Be sure to visit and bookmark it for planning your next trip (or first one!). I only wish I had this when I went!

- Some very cool and abstract peace posters over at Another Poster For Peace.

- my very favourite Calvin and Hobbes can be found here at the Calvin and Hobbes Snow Art Gallery. I laugh outloud every single time.

- I have NO idea what this is but it. is. AWESOME.

- Can you tell the difference between a serial killer (not to be mistaken with a cereal killer) and a programming language inventor? Find out here.

- If you love 80's arcade games than this site is for you. You can thank me later.

- Everything you to need to know in the event of a terror attack. (be warned, this is very tongue-in-cheek, so if you have delicate sensibilities don't bother going on to come come back and bitch at me)

- I bought the best tasting cookies I have ever eaten in my life. And here I bought them coz they were healthy!!! (which we all know usually results in icky tasting food) Sorry my American friends, this is likely only available in Canada, but if you sweet talk me, maybe I'll send you some. I love them so much I wrote them an email to thank them for making me so happy.

 

So it was like this: I sat in the Tampa airport last Thursday for 3 hours, then caught my flight to Philadelphia. The time passed easily as I was able to get online using free wi-fi connection and I got a call from my buddy Mulder over in Israel. The flight was a little late taking off so I had to *sprint* to catch the connecting flight back to Toronto. I was dreading catching this particular flight because I knew the weather back home was unsavoury and it was going to be a rough ride through the storm (what an understatement that turned out to be).

Upon boarding the small 50 seat plane I realized my seat was at the back. The VERY back. By the toilet. I sat down and immediately befriended a nice guy who had the seat beside me. We laughed and chatted the whole time and I had warned him at the start that I was a nervous flyer, that the flight down had been horrible and the flight back was going to be through a storm. He was sweetly reassuring and did his best to keep me talking and to keep things light. He would later tell me that he thought I was joking when I started freaking out, right up until my claws dug into his legs. He then realized I wasn't joking. (maybe I should stop using humour to deflect from my level of discomfort or fright?)

The turbulence was, in fact, even worse than I thought it was going to be. I was absolutely green around the gills by the time we landed and I wasn't the only one. I honestly did believe we were going to die thanks to some of the most stomach turning drops I have ever experienced in a plane and the visible ice build up on the wings. When I talked to the pilot while getting off the plane I told him of my sheer terror to which he looked stunned and said that he didn't think it was that bad. He knows not how close he came to dying right then.

To ensure the level of fun continued I then had to drive home in the storm. It was sort of a icy rain, occasionally hail, kind of storm. There was lightning as well, something I can't say I've seen too often this time of year. At one point the storm had kicked it up a notch and I couldn't see much beyond the hood of my car. Myself, as well as all the cars in front of me, slowed to nearly a crawl to try and make it through in one piece. The rain had a way of coming in waves and during one of the 2 second breaks I finally saw where the dividing line was on the road and I came to realize I was on the very wrong side of it and was heading into oncoming traffic.

Is it any wonder that after all that I got a sinus infection the next day? I think not. But ya know what? The strangest thing *did* happen to me while I was in Florida..... I found myself missing Israel again. A lot. I thought I had "gotten it out of my system" but I guess not. I also thought my less than stellar experience with Livnot had completely ruined Israel for me, but I find that old feeling creeping back again. That "I gotta get over there again" feeling. I think it was the warm air, open bars/patios and palm trees..... it made me yearn to be back in the Holy Land again. *sigh* Maybe in 2007 when I get my 3 weeks vacation. And if Mulder is willing to let me sleep on his couch again. lol!

Anyway, for more pics head over to my photoblog.

 
Still sick.
Worse, in fact.
Trying to get better before I fly to Texas next week.
Send your 'get better' mojo my way, if you please.
Thanks.

 
Sorry I haven't written, but after a death defying flight home (yes, I sincerely believed we were going to die, thanks to that storm rolling across the north-eastern seaboard) I was rewarded with a sinus infection that has ensured I haven't seen sleep in two days. I am tired and extremely irritable. I'll write a much better post when my mood and/or health has improved.

Oh, and it would seem that two people I know (in "real life") are reading this blog without telling me. Could you please just step up and say hi or email me and let me know. You know who you are and we both know you have been doing it for a while. Yes, I have ways of tracking this sort of thing and I know you use Sympatico, for instance. So please drop me a line so I know you're here. Thanks.