newest edition to the Mackey clan

Congratulations to Josie, Jonathan and Katarina! They welcomed the newest edition to their clan this morning. Gregory Theodore Mackey was born at 9:06am and weighed 6lbs 8ozs. The whole gang is doing well and are expected to go home tomorrow evening. :-) I'll post a pic when I get one.

phrrreeezzzing cold!

Today has been a photo-focused day. I met up really early with one of my buddies at work and we went to the roof of our building to take some pictures of the sun rising. Yup - it was freaking early and COLD. I was doing this more out of guilt as I bailed out on the weekend outing with them to Cypress Mountain. Feeling sleepy and unmotivated I lugged all the gear on top of my regular work stuff up so many flights of stairs. :-) What a workout! We snapped some pictures of the downtown core and of surrounding buildings. there's not much surrounding my building except for cranes. My fingers and face froze. After that we packed up our stuff and thawed out at Starbucks with some well deserved chai lattes before going into the office to "work".

After work Ian and I decided that we'd make another short trip as we already had the camera equipment. So the 2 of us went over to the "Dam" in North Van (forgot it's name - but it's on Capilano Road). Still cold as ever - probably due to the fact that we're wearing our work attire instead of snow attire - . We ran into Haydn at the park. He's and Mike are real enthusiasts and tend to go out daily to shoot images - hence why their pics are spectacular. :-) We spent about an hour there waiting for the sun to set over the Lions. Took some pics then ran back into the car to thaw my toes. I wasn't able to bend them. :-) I was happy to see that I wasn't the only one suffering from circulation problems.


Here are 3 pictures that I took throughout today. This one is of the Lions. I was enthralled by Haydn lens as he was able to capture the trees on those peaks. Talk about super-duper-zoom! Ian and I had lens-envy. On nice days the boys tend to encourage each other (and me) to come out and use our cameras. It's quite a noble thought but I have a trend of bailing at the last minute - especially when the weather forcasts anything other than "sunshine". :-) The next "adventure" is to go with the girls to Seymour on the Girls-Snowboard-free nights and hopefully catch some good aerial shots of them. The excitement isn't roaring yet because I'm thinking about how much colder it will be at night and sitting in the snow waiting for them to snowboard past us. :-) Hmmm...will need to wear like 10 layers to stay warm....

no news is good news?

You know that saying "no news is good news"? Well that's what I thought about the bone density test I had done in Dec. 2006. During my annual physical last week I mentioned the test in passing and said to the doctor "no news is good news right?" He pulled my records, read something then said "not in this case". So I was confused and irritated at having to book a separate appointment to discuss the test results with him. I felt that this should have happened last year if there was something on the test that they needed to tell me. Stupid clinic - don't they call patients back after exams?!

Anyhow I went in for my appointment today to find out what's wrong with me. I sat there as he told me that I have osteopenia. All I could think of was "what?! I'm not old!" I didn't really react to this news and while he went on with more doom-and-gloom news, all I wanted to know was if there was a treatment plan and if it was curable. Treatment plan - yes...curable - no. I find that as I get older and fall more apart - it takes more to get a reaction out of me. The doctor's main concern was why I developed this condition as I'm too young to be at risk for osteoporosis. Man - if I get it now...I'm screwed when I get older. My thoughts were focused on his dooms-day speech about the onset of osteoporosis. We went through a questionnaire on the factors that attribute to osteoporosis - I didn't think they applied to me. I consider myself reasonably healthy. It's not like I'm a couch potato (often) and eat "bad" food (other than my McDonalds cravings). Only goes to show that going to the hospital (in my experience) just digs up stuff you didn't necessarily want to know about yourself...such as that mysterious bone growth on my left tibia...lol....

So this weekend is going to be kim-the-guinea-pig weekend. I have a series of blood tests to participate in. Oh joy! My doctor is leaning towards a thyroid problem - hyperparathyroidism to be precise. Even more fun eh? I tried to make light of the topic when he advised that I'd be susceptible to bone breakage/fractures - I told him that he should have told me that last week as I spent Friday night dangling precariously from wall climbing ropes really HIGH up! :-) Duh...that would have sucked even more if I fell and broke something. To keep on the positive side - I've got my fingers crossed for only having osteopenia. If I had to be diagnosed with something more - then let it be something that doesn't require surgery or tons of meds. I'm non-compliant when it comes to taking pills. :-)

shell shocked

Yesterday was my first day on the new job. Within the first hour I got a taste of what's to come for the next 6 months. I went into a project meeting with no experience and no clue what the project was about. I've been assigned to work with this established project team that's developing an resource management application. My first day was basically attending that 3 hour meeting at the start of the day in which I came of there just dazed by the amount of information being presented and anxious of what I had to "catch up" on. Unfortunately I've got to read up on a year's worth of work in prep for the design phase workshops that begin in 2 weeks. With any job change - first and foremost was to get a workstation, phone and computer access. I lost my god-like access and have now become just a regular "user". This is very frustrating as I now have to fill out forms for tasks that I would normally had administrative rights to perform.

I find that project management involves LOTS of meetings (like 75% of my day is spent in a meeting). I'm booked for an average of 2 per day - so far I haven't been able to contribute to the meetings and take notes like a mad woman. Deja vu of university life...someone at the front of the room spilling out jargon that I don't understand. This week I've been paired up with a business analyst to learn what she does and to spend the next 2 weeks getting my hands dirty in that field. I been asked to present my first "deliverable" for a meeting early next week. *sign* A business process diagram based on an interview and documents from some finance manager. :-) Should be interesting as I've never done a real-life one before.

Because this is a "developmental" position - I don't really have a manger, time schedule or core responsibilities. This is advantagous and dibilitating at the same time. I've been told that I can work what ever hours I like but I'd have to make sure I work 8 before going home. Coming from a restrictive environment - I didn't know what to do with this freedom and felt obligated to tell my mentors what my hours of work would be. I've picked 7:30-3:30. I've discovered that most of the project team don't come wandering in till 9am. I've also discovered that everyone has their own "preferred" meeting times - times in which they've had enough coffee in thier system to be coherent. On the downside - my time is shared between 2 project managers who have very differing ideas of what I should be engaged in. One person is very task oriented and the other is very "go with the flow". The personality types are challenging to work with as I haven't been able to adapt well to the "go with the flow" lady. Her ad hoc behaviour worries me as without defined goals - how will she measure my success? Duh - hopefully it won't be based on her "intuition".

So I will continue to plug away and hopefully feel more comfortable with the material. My stress levels are still high and I feel mentally exhausted by the end of the day. Each day is a learning experience and as soon as I get past the information overload stage - I'm sure I will enjoy working with this team. :-) I have justified buying myself a new work bag as I don't get to sit down at my desk much now and have dropped some of my file folders in the hallway. My backpack is handy but looks too kidish when walking around the office. Lol - it's all about fashion too!

resolve to...in

It's that time of year where the onslaught of other people's New Year Resolutions pulls at my I-should-do-something-too strings. The usual empty promises of eating healthier and exercising more spill out of my mouth as others ask me what my resolutions are. I'm peer pressured into joining the gym at work. I hesitate as I had only canceled my Fitness World membership in November and feel that joining another gym will result in the same behavior of paying money into something that I never use. The only good excuse that keeps me from filling out the forms is that I'm starting my new job tomorrow so I don't know where I'll be working or what my schedule will be like.

I'm a habitual list maker and tend to contemplate about exciting "opportunities" to check off long awaited activities off my list. I'm not going to school this semester so I've been looking at the local Continuing Education and Leisure Guides for inspiration. There are lots of hobby-type classes that intrigue me.

As I was reading Frank's feeds - I came across this article - which lead me to write this blog...
how to make exercise last

new baby in the family

Congratulations to Carol, Minh and Angelina! Carol delivered a healthy baby GIRL on January 10th. The baby is still nameless - not surprising as Angelina was nameless for a week before they decided on her name. She was born at 7 lbs 14 oz. We went to the hospital Friday night to visit the family. It's been so long since we've had an baby in the immediate family so I was really excited. :-) Carol had a really fast delivery that was drug free (not by choice). The baby wanted to get out so much that Carol nearly didn't make it to the hospital! The hospital pics are posted to my web album. More pics to come in the next few days.

gateway of India

KA and Mike left for Mumbai, India at the beginning of the month. They are on a one month adventure in the land of marble and spicy food. Their journey will take them through a few south east asian countries as well. KA has succumbed to creating a blog to keep us abreast of the sites and sounds of Surat. You can find their ramblings here. This is funny as she normally makes fun of my blogging habits and says that I don't enjoy life but enjoy narrating it. :-)

happy new year!

Happy 2008 everyone!

I hope you all had a great time off. December went by in a flash. Lots of things happened and tons of parties to attend.

First off I guess the most significant (for me) is that Kel and I reconciled our differences and are back together. Some of you may have been confused to see us out and about but I didn't mention it as it's gets to be a pain in the ass to explain our topsey-turvey relationship to inquiring minds.

New Years Eve we attended Nick & Lisa's wedding. Nick was Chicky's roommate downtown. The wedding was wonderful and it was great to see all the hard work that Lisa put into it come together so nicely. I was astonished to find out that she hand made 80% of the wedding decor, etc - including her own wedding dress and catherdral-length veil. :-) The veil was longer than the dress and the dress was right up there with in the princess-length category. I like the idea of a new years eve wedding as there was a theme to the party and it's guaranteed that all the guests will stay past midnight. Chicky was on the wedding party so I found myself wandering around and trying to befriend strangers. We ate, listened to speeches, did all the other normal wedding things then after that it was dancing and the count-down. The good thing about it was the way Lisa had set up the head table. Chicky was able to sit with me and I didn't have to be stuck at a table with strangers. Head table was basically the bride, groom, bestman and maid of honor. The other bridal party members sat at 2 tables right below head table. All other guests were spread out on their respective sides of the room.

life changes

I don't really feel like writing but thought I should let you all know that I will be taking a hiatus from blogging for awhile.

Kelvin and I have broken up for the last and final time yesterday. This was unplanned and stressful for the both of us. We have come to realize that we're not meant to be with each other. For the best interests of both parties - we've departed. It's a really crappy time of year to be breaking up when others are getting together with their loved ones. The decision was not a light one but it had to be made as we were going nowhere with each other and external influences were basically what kept us together.

I didn't sleep at all last night and thought about the many years of ups and downs that he and I have been through. It's a relationship that will be hard to forget. I'd like to say the past 10 years have been good but that's not true either - we had our challenges. I want to be diplomatic and say we parted on good terms but realistically - who does? The only thing I'm grateful for is to find closure to this relationship. I try not to let my emotions rule and see the logic behind it but at times it's tough to put on a happy face. This morning I had to host the Social Club's Children's Xmas party and as I was up on stage in my jester costume - I was finding it hard to pretend to be happy/chipper. I guess not sleeping didn't help and as usual - events don't always go smoothly so that added extra stress to my already stressed out mind. After the event I just came home and crashed. I'm physically and mentally tired.

Good thing I have tomorrow off. It's good timing as I'll have time to mope around and adjust/absorb what this break up will mean. Time to start thinking about making myself happy and losing the unhappy thoughts. As a favor, I ask that if you see/talk to me that we don't discuss Kel or "what happened" as I want to move on with my life and talking about unhappy stuff is just like reliving it. Thanks.

I just had a conversation with Kel's mom who was so worried as she just got the news from him. I'm touched by the amount of love and care from his side of the family for me. I tried to reassure her that life would go on and that eventually everyone get use to it. Everyone is hoping that this is just one of our usual "temporary" break ups and that we'd eventually resolve our differences. I told them that it's not and that this time is the final time. Both Kel and I are emotionally drained and will not be attending any of the planned events with friends or family.

If I don't speak to you soon. Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and all the best in 2008!

a code green

This afternoon as I was waiting for my next caller, the intercom bursts on with a message from Nancy. She said "this is your site commander - all ERT personel to your muster stations!" Then she announced a "code green". We were all puzzled. I was trying to figure out what a "code green" stood for and other were not even listening. A couple of minutes later she comes back on the intercom and calls the code green again and an immediate evacuation of all employees.

My first reaction? I looked outside and said - what a crappy day to be doing another drill! We had done an evacuation drill a couple of weeks ago and we all remembered standing in the downpour for an hour for the drill to complete. This time it was slightly different. The "fast bells" were triggered right away. We know that slow bells mean "get ready to evacuate" and fast bells mean "get the hell out of there". So I grabbed my stuff and headed towards the stair wells. As we walked a cross the street towards the meeting area - cops, ambulances and firetrucks started pulling up. Wow - they really got the whole 911 crew involved in the drill today!

People were confused, wet and irritated as their day had been interrupted. We all diligently followed the evacuation process and were good little soldiers. The Site Commander finally told us that this WASN'T A DRILL and that there was a BOMB THREAT for the building! OMG! This was a surprising turn of events. There was more confusion and anxiety. Some people had come out believing it was a drill so they had nothing with them. Others quickly called coworkers and family to let them know that all is ok. We stood outside in the rain for over an hour with information being blasted over the bullhorn every now and then. The word was that the police were investigating and sniffer dogs being brought in. They announced that we could all go home. The company bought bus tickets and handed it out to people. No one was allowed to go near the building. They also evacuated our other 2 buildings - just incase. Some people had despair because they only had a shirt on them and nothing. How can you go home if you didn't have house keys?! I wanted to wait out a bit more to see if the building would clear so that I could rescue my car. The thought of going on transit was not appealing.

Too bad - so sad. Another hour passed with no hopes of getting back into the building. I gave up and headed for the seabus. The police had only quarantined off our building. All other businesses in the Quay were not evacuated. Boo! This is my second bomb threat experience at work. That's the "cool" part about working above a seabus terminal - it tends to be a target for such things. :-) I'm sure we'll make the news tonight.

home sweet home

This weekend Chicky moved back home to his parents house. It's been a LONG time since he's lived at home so he's starting to readjust to life with the parents. Of all the weekends to move - we picked the one that was snowing. It took a couple of trips back and forth between the downtown apartment and his parent's house. We got 95% of the stuff all pack up, shipped and unpacked. The only thing that couldn't fit in my car was his bed. I think we're leaving that for the weekend when he can borrow a truck from Lisa. After moving we were tired and didn't really want to rearrange furniture. I think he has most of the stuff put into it's proper places by now.

It'll be nice having him closer by - that way I don't have to drive an hour to hang out with him. He's 5 mins away from my house so it's more convenient.

exploration exhibit

On Saturday Chicky and I went to see Michael's mom's art exhibit. She's a painter and was debuting her work at the Crystal Mall location for one week. The number of people that came to show support was tremendous. Even Michael's dad came back from Taiwan to be there for the grand exhibit. Chicky and I took in a bit of the art/food in the middle of his move. Plus it was good to see the number of supporters despite the awful weather on Saturday. After this exhibit she and the art will be taking the show on the road. She has another exhibit planned for Taiwan for the New Year.

At lunch today I went down to the Quay to get a cookie from the cookie shop. When I got there I was horrified that they've shut down. Having walked all the way down there from the 4th floor, I figured I couldn't go back empty handed. While waiting for my coworker to get some cash. I looked at the little vending carts that were scattered in the isles. My eyes fell upon the jewellery one. :-) The lady recognized that I was interested in hair clips and got me. I succumbed to 2 hair clips that were "discounted" (though horribly over priced compared to what you pay in Asia). Being Asian - I couldn't resist the extra "cash only" discount. :-)

So a trip that was suppose to be for some cookies turned into a hair clip and icecream run. :-) Oh well - I had fun trying on hair clips and even more fun taking this pic of them.

pan pacific delights

On Saturday I went to the annual Social Club Christmas party. I dragged Chicky with me. He has been sick the last couple of days due to romping around in the mountains in the snow playing paintball games for Nick's bachelor party. He left Whistler and spent the next couple of days recovering from the "fun".

The party was great and it was nice to just come to eat. The event was being handled by 3 other executives and they did a wonderful job. I went around and took pictures of the event. Everyone was dressed up and feeling festive. It was nice joking around with the members and saying "hi" to people that I know or vice versa. Though I wasn't actively involved in the preparation of the party - I still got tons of compliments from everyone about the selection of the location, food, etc. The Pan Pacific hotel is beautiful and the Christmas decorations are so festive. It makes me love Christmas time even more.

Dinner was great - buffet style with delicious food. I took pictures of the guests while waiting for our table to be called to eat. Drinks were not on the house but because I have "special" rights - I get unlimited pop/juice. That's fine with me as I'm not really a drinker anyhow. I did have a lady come up to me while I was taking pictures and give me a story about being a designated driver. :-) We usually give drink tickets to designated drivers - but that's done when you first enter the party. I felt bad for her as she had to walk across the room to talk to me and it takes time coming up with a story. So I said don't worry, apologized for the greeters for not asking her if she was a designated driver (not sure why I should apologize as it's not my fault she didn't speak up when coming though the doors), gave her some tickets and told her that if people at her table were also designated drivers and didn't get their drink tickets - they could come see me. :-) Setting myself up for sob stories - yes...I know. But what the heck - pop is like $4 at the hotel! I'm sure some of the greeter ladies forgot to ask the guests as they came in.

After filling our tummy with dinner - Chicky and I were in line for dessert and it looked like by the time we would reach the table - the cakes would all be gone. This couple behind us (jokingly) said to me "the dessert table is almost empty - someone from the Executive should do something". He was looking directly at me. Then the others did too. I grinned and said "that's right! someone should do something about that" and winked. I gave up my spot in the mega line to hunt down some staff. Not sure what I was going to complain about as I knew they were trying to fill the food tables as fast as they could. I ran into the hostess and asked her to bring serving spoons to the dessert table (as I also noticed that there weren't any) and to see if we could remove the empty cake plates (hinting that we needed more desserts). She was very nice and did it. I went back in line and people were gracious enough to let me butt back in with Chicky. Chicky is really good about me abandoning him at these Social Club events to fend for himself. He's not so fond about attending them but I had assured him that at least this year I'd get to eat with him instead of being infront of the group and running the show. The rest of the night went by quickly. Did some dancing with coworkers and then played the Alphabet Movie game with our table. It was fun and made us think. :-) Chicky and I took off at around 11pm as I was tired of entertaining and he was bored. We spent the rest of the night watching License to Wed with Nick and Lisa. Lisa is suffering from a cold as well and slept through most of the movie.

black friday

Tis the season to spend! No better way to do it then to head to the States for the Black Friday sales. Tracey and I embarked on this expedition at 4am Friday morning. My mom came with us as well. We wanted to get across the borders before they became busy. The Seattle Premium Outlet mall had opened at midnight so Carol had been there a few hours before us.

Carol was still in line at the Coach store when she called me. She waited 2 hours in the cold to get through. I wasn't interested in high end items and was on the lookout for the "steals". Tracey and I shopped from 6am to 8pm. We went to Seattle Premium, another Outlet mall for some shoes at Nine West and then to Bellis Fair as the radio said that the waiting time for north bound traffic was 3 hours. We were exhausted and lacked food - so we ate the yucky food court stuff again. My poor mom reached her shopping max about 2 hours into the game. She gave up and waited in the food court for us. I think she sat in the food court for 6 hours before we circled back to get her. Tracey and I found that the deals that were to be had were for guys clothing. So Shawn and Chicky scored big and they weren't even there! We ran into Chris, Cindy and Toshiki at the Banana Republic store hours later. By that time the crazy deals were most over and the lines weren't so bad. What we discovered late in the game was the VIP Coupon book extra discounts that could have been applied to the sales ones. Duh - we only managed to get reimbursed at Banana Republic (with Tracey's stealthy management skills) for the difference. I was quite surprised as Tracey's assertiveness and persistence. Lol - I thought it would have to be me that would have to put on the "difficult customer" hat today. It was funny watching as a bystander for once. We pissed off some people though as we got this done at the counter and stirred up some commotion as we had to get the management involved. Persistence prevailed and we got our stuff refunded/rescanned on the spot - thus barging infront of the super long lines. GAP wasn't so flexible and insisted that we wait at the end of the line if we wanted to refund/rebuy our stuff with the extra discounts. We weighed the costs/benefits for GAP and figured the savings weren't as worth while. Those line ups went around the whole store. Not to mention the evil glares from patrons who have been standing in line for over 1/2 hour was troubling. :-)

Getting back across the border was a pain. We had a group guard who banished us to the declaration line. Tracey and I had a lot of stuff and we declared it all - wasn't about to lie about our purchases as it wasn't worth the hassle. Feeling depressed about having to pay taxes/duty on our goods, we lined up in the mega line at customs. Due to Canada having not enough staff, a border guard lady came up to us in line and asked us what we bought. We told her 90% mens clothing as gifts. She looked at our bills, took our border ticket from us and told us to go home. Whoopee!!! We were spared! Excited we ran back to the car and scuttled home.

new year - new job

Today I had an interview for a support analyst position with our project office. I had decided to apply for a 6 month assignment with this group as I have been really stressed with work the last month or so and have resented being there. This all translates to Kimmi taking a break from Help Desk before she goes postal on them all! :-)

The interview was a standard panel interview. I knew 2 of the interviewers through the Social Club. Ah - the few benefits of being so actively involved in the Social Club, it provides me with networking opportunities. They asked the usual behavioural questions and stuff. I was a bit nervous when they started asking me about project work, etc. I haven't worked on a project before and realistically don't have leadership experience outside of the Club. One of the ladies wanted to make the interview "equal" (I think she just wanted me to sweat in my seat) in terms of asking me the same questions as they do with their coops. :-) Seeing as I have no formal training in business or management - it was challenging. I think I did well though as I was able to answer an important question correctly. "What is the difference between an issue and a risk." I wasn't sure if was a trick question at first so I stalled for a bit. One guy on the panel felt pity for me and told me that the other people didn't get the question correct so it would be "normal" if I answered it incorrectly. Lol - yup...he had low expectations of me. :-) That's alright though. I thought about the definitions as it applied to my work and what I learned in school and told the questioner. She looked at me and I wasn't sure if it was an approval or disapproval look so I looked to one of the other panelist and that lady grinned. I sighed in relief - passed! The interview as a whole went well and I felt comfortable to speak normally after they finished the "technical" stuff (thank goodness I taken those database and MS Project courses). At the end of the proces everyone looked at each other. There was some pausing and I waited for instructions - either to get my ass out of there or wait for some more questions/answers. One of the ladies looked at the rest of them and said "are we ready to make a decision". I was like "OMG!" - I felt felt like a contestant on American Idol. :-) Waiting for Simon Cowel to strike me down. Luckily the stars were aligned today because I got the job! Hhahaa...I was really excited as they didn't realize how much of a break I was looking for. I thanked everyone and went happily off to another meeting. So starting in January - I'll not be on the phones anymore and mentoring under 2 project managers to learn the in and outs of project management.

Help Desk BC Awards

Today I attended the Help Desk BC Awards ceremony to honour the next Help Desk Analyst. I came as the "photographer" for the event but also as the cheering committee for my two fellow coworkers who were finalists. I'm super proud to work for a company that has produced wonderful support staff. It was no surprise when one of our own won the designation for 2008. I cheered super loud and grinned the whole time. :-) I'm really proud of him and of us as a company.

The week has been really busy so I haven't had a chance to prepare the pictures to be submitted to Help Desk BC. I should work on that soon. On top of that I haven't posted the pictures of the Go Karting event and Chris has been hounding me about them. Lol...falling behind in picture production. Doesn't help that I have intermittent power failures on the laptop. Grrr...sometimes I feel like killing it for good! ;-)

brunch with the girls

I had brunch at IHOP with Cindy, Josie and the kids today. I had scheduled the day off weeks ago and we all managed to coordinate our schedules so that we could catch up. It was nice to see the girls and the kids. Both Katarina and Joshua are growing up so fast! Katarina is speaking and Joshua has discovered that he's got a voice box as well.

After chit chatting and catch up with life we went over to Walmart and did some shopping. Josie manages really well with being pregnant and running after Katarina. The girls are great mommies and I'm happy that we can still see each other even though our schedules don't always match.

start your engines!

Today I hosted the second annual Go Karting race at TBC Indoor Racing. The event turned out to be great. Lots of enthusiam from the crowd. We had 45 participants this year. Less than last year (which was 90 people) but I prefer managing a group this size as it's not so crazy. Because of house stuff last week I ended up slapping together the last minute details on Friday night - which included trying to find a new pizza parlour which would deliver to me at 10:45am. No such luck so I had to go with Panago again.

Everyone had a good time bashing carts and cheering on team mates. The facility has new carts so we were happy with that news. The new carts are much faster and I'm told by the drivers that they were a more comfortable ride too. I only had one injury this year (one of my coworkers managed to crash into a kid and have her cart wheel pin his knee) and zero broken carts. Whoohoo! :-) Last year was 3 injuries and 4 broken carts. Injuries only suck when it's some kid and I have to deal with the worried parent. :-) I didn't race but hung out with the manager and staff at the site. They are pretty young Asians (probably a few years younger than myself). We joked about suped up cars and how to "file" a claim when you have a rice-rocket. :-) Plus they don't seem to mind it when I treat the facility as if it's my own place. Lol - I was surprised that Arthur (the operations manager) gave me the master key this year when I just told him that he should. :-) Asking requires too much work. But it's a logical argument - I usually want to lock the party room (so that people can leave their valuables in there) and I want to be able to access it at anytime during the event. So - instead of hunting him down every 5-10 mins - it's just more convenient for the both of us if I held onto the key.

I think I'll run this event in the summer time as well because it's always fun and the comments from the people that attend is basically that they would come again. I did get a few suggestions for new events such as snowboard racing (hmmm...don't know if I can make that happen) and paintballing (doable). I'll have to see what the Club Executives think about that though.

After the event I drove home and took a nap. I was pooped out from getting up early and not sleeping much the night before. Chicky was in Whistler all weekend for Nick's stag party. He called me Saturday night to tell me that it was raining ice up there and that they had played paintball in the freezing rain. I'm happy he had fun and I'm sure Nick had a memorable weekend.

used car salesmen

So for the last 2 days I've been involved in negotiations with used car lots in search of dream vehicle for my parents. What they thought was a dream turned out to be a nightmare. My parents are indecisive people. In this exercise I've learned that they are easily pursued by the next shiny new object. Unfortunately their impulsiveness put us into a situation where we had "deposits" on vehicles at 2 different car lots. My parents kept bouncing back and forth between a Jeep Patriot and a Ford Escape.

When they changed their minds and wanted to back out of the deals - they asked me to deal with it. I've been in need of a stress break lately and dealing with their problems wasn't at the top of my "to do" list. So on Tuesday night Chicky and I went down to Maple Ridge Chrysler to back out of a 2008 Jeep Patriot deal. We felt bad as the salesman was really nice and his service was impecable. We ended up leaving our deposit with him with the intention of him finding us a Ford Escape. Marco (the salesman) was nice in the sense that he didn't fuss much about refunding the deposit. We hadn't signed any official papers at either dealership so we felt that getting our money back was legit. I called WestCoast Ford at 9pm and got into a fight with Santino (the other salesman). I was not impressed with his service to begin with and resented the fact that my parents wanted to deal with him at all. ;-) I'm big on first impressions. He gave a bunch of excuses about having to clean the vehicle and having to get head rests, etc for it. He wanted to deduct the cost of those "extra" services from the deposit amount. I yelled at him through the cell phone in a restaurant (as we were starving from not eating and dealing with Marco earlier). I am normally a loud individual and can be heard miles away - when I'm pissed off...my voice goes up to hysterical levels. He was making me hysterical. He was going to sell my parents a stained vehicle that lacked standard safety equipment (head rests) and he wanted me to pay for that?! Is he an idiot?!!! Ah - I have no shame in expressing my frustration. It was ugly and he wanted to escape it so he gave me that stupid line of "I can't make that kind of decision, only my manager can". I didn't gripe about the escalation as I would have done the same. I told my parents the outcome of my "talk" and said I'd deal with it the next day.

I come home tonight after a LONG battle with traffic. Being in a foul mood I hear that the sales manager had called my mom earlier in the day and given her a "credit" to the dealership. I was not happy. What in the world was she suppose to do with a Ford credit?! Already in a pissy mood I figured I'd vent my road rage on the manager. I only had a first name so I called the dealership. The receptionist put me through to his line and I explained the situation. He wasn't budging. His attitude only served to make my frustration levels become exasperation. He tried to redirect my anger and evade the main point (the deposit). After 15 mins of arguing with him about service levels, bylaws, trust, etc. He tried to intimidate me by telling me that my parents had signed a contract to buy the car and that he was being "nice" by giving them a credit for backing out of the deal and that he has the right to hold the full deposit. I flipped out (again). I told him that I had a copy of the Purchase Agreement in hand and there were no signatures on it therefore making it non-binding. I was bad and went into my condescending tone - which only made him defensive. Wrong tactic on my part. He changed his mind and said it was the worksheet that my parents had signed. Trying not to be the hot-headed person and have the conversation drag on for more than it had to, I backed off and went into my "futureshop-mode". I asked him what was on the "blue sheet". He didn't say anything. He said he would fax me the sheet as evidence. I think he was hoping I would say I didn't have a fax machine. I told him I didn't have a fax machine and that he should scan it and email the document to me. He said he didn't have a scanner. I was adamant about seeing this mystery form. I pushed harder and said that if it's truly a legal and binding document - I needed to see it and that I would gladly come down to the dealership to do so. He was surprised. I then told him that because I would have to make an unplanned trip into Maple Ridge to see this document - I would be bringing a copy of the Demand to Dealer Letter with me so that we would save time. He asked me "for what?!" I told him that according the Motor Vehicle Sales Authority of BC (lol - I was Googling while fighting with him on the phone) I had the right to file a claim against the dealership if they were to falsify document for gain on their part. I think that caught his attention as he said I didn't have to come down. He then switched modes and said he couldn't authorize a refund. I was tired of running around the bush with him and said that if he can not solve my problem then he needs to escalate this to the owners of the dealership. He was not happy with that request. We argued some more about his lack of management skills and inability to resolve conflict. When I began asking for his full name and phone number he told me he didn't have a direct line. Yah right! He's the general manager and has his own office - no direct line my ass! He didn't want to give it to me for the fact that I told him I've documented our conversation and would like his direct line so that I can follow up with him tomorrow and the next day and the next day until this situation has been resolved. :-) I'm good at pestering people for updates as I do it for a living! When he refused to give me the names of the owners I told him that I do not need him to get that information and that I can contact Ford Canada for it. I think he was tired of me and finally took my earlier advice for just giving me the deposit so that I would leave him alone. He said he'd call the owners, I asked him for an ETA of when he'd be calling back (so that I know when I should bug him next). He couldn't give a time so he said "soon". 10 mins later he called back and said that a cheque will be cut tomorrow for the full refund and that I could pick it up. Feeling exhausted, happy and relieved - I went downstairs and had dinner with my parents and told them the news.

After the Thomas issue and these dealers - I feel that I'm ready to work in Collections. :-) My skin grows thicker with each new "challenging" situation and I have a more abrasive attitude towards those that try to screw around with me. I've turned "documentation" and "escalations" into an art. That or I've gotten so fed up with salesmen that I have zero tolerance with them. Ah - maybe it's time for a day off for some relaxation.

On a happier note. My manager came over from her Victoria office today for one of her weekly meetings and noticed my quiet demenour in one of our meetings. She bought me flowers and a Starbucks card to wish me good health as I complained about crappy tenants and sleezy salesmen. It's very sweet of her to do so and brightened my day. She's worried that I might stress out and run away from the department for good. Lol....