in mediation

Tis another unhappy purchase for Kimmi. I've been dealing with a stubborn and incompetent Ebay company (TriState Cameras) for the last 2 weeks. Due to some miscommunication and accounting errors on their side, I was charged twice for a flash that I ordered. I didn't find this out till I saw my credit card statement. From there it's been non-stop emails and threats of "legal action" on my part. Being an unhappy client I filed complaints against TriState with my credit card company and with Ebay. The manager of TriState Cameras has been in contact with me for 3 days now trying to resolve the issue, before that I had to deal with their "customer relations department". I was not happy with his pushy attitude and he was equally not happy with my inability to just withdraw the paperwork and deal with this on "our own". :-) I've learned through many experiences that you get faster results when things suddenly become "official". Unfortunately Michelle and her family had to witness one of my outburst to the manager at Brandon's birthday party last night. I was getting ready to go home when he called. The manager was not happy that I didn't return his calls as there is a 3 hour time difference between us so he was calling off hours. I'm not about to call New York everyday to fight about charges that they've made to my credit card so I let them call me. So when I finally did speak to him, he was trying to give me a "resolution" to our "little" problem. I was fuming mad at his version of a resolution and was not using my "inside voice". :-) Luckily the kids were not in the room. You see - the issue here was that he wasn't going to refund me the money because the second flash has not reached their company yet. I was furious at being held financially responsible for a product that has been in "transit" for over 2 weeks now. He had tried to convince me it was my problem because should the flash get damaged or go missing during transit, who would pay for it?! I think that's B/S as it's UPS problem if a shipment is damaged or missing. Technically I never received the second flash therefore they should have refunded the money right away. It was their accounting department's mistake in the first place! Anyhow he was trying to get me to sign a document that said all was hunky-dory and we're best buds now (to counter my documents to them that said all was NOT hunky-dory and we're mortal enemies). :-) Ah...he thinks I'm new to this legal game...

Anyhow he's filed with a mediation company and I was contacted by them today. I filed counter paperwork. No biggie to me as last week I was in a vendictive mood and wanted to blast out horrible messages on the photography forums. I let my mood pass and didn't do it incase I would regret it later (in the event that my own reputation - and chances at winning this - is wrecked by emotionally charged comments on the web). :-) TriState is suppose to be a reputable company. They're classified as a Platinum Seller on Ebay - meaning they have processed over 3000 transactions and have a 100% satisfaction rate. I'm sure they mean well but just because they're reputable doesn't mean they can make mistakes, expect me to say "oh well" and sit back and wait for when it's an ideal time for them to give me my money back. Anyhow we back to playing the waiting game. The manager is also refunding my shipping fee for the first flash as a sign of good faith. I'm willing to retract everything once I see a refund on my credit card. I'm aggressive/assertive but not totally unreasonable...

planning

I've been in planning mode today. For the last couple of weeks I've been burning out at work participating in this corporate project. We're in product design mode right now so it's weeks of 8-10 hour days sitting in a meeting room and hashing out interfaces and definitions. I'm literally wiped by the end of week and feel like I can't bear anymore hours with the programmers. Being on the core project team has given me some good experiences in the world of project management but as of the end of last week I spoke to a couple of my managers and requested to be taken out of the design sessions. I feel that my time there is wasted as I'm not an SME and can't actively contribute. It's getting to the point where I feel like it's endless hours of sitting in a dark room watching the vendor go over fields on a screen and listening to people debate. Sometimes the debates are ridiculous as people get trapped with tunnel vision and circular thinking. This equates to multiple instances where I've fallen asleep or have to duck out for bio-breaks just so that I can splash some water on my face to wakeup. Programming is a VERY dry topic. Deeming this as not very good use of my time, the project manager agreed to relieve me of the next series of sessions. Getting out of the sessions, I was given the opportunity to do some mini-projects. Happily I accepted a BCIT Computing Career Fair event from the Education Department. :-) Finally...Social Club type of work in my "real" day-to-day job. :-) Excited to be doing something that I truly enjoy, I happily met with 4 managers on Friday and was given some information on what they wanted out of this event. The good thing is that I got to build my own "team" (with some guidelines) and can control content, presentation, etc. The team is now complete (thinking of people to be on the team was fun as I wanted to represent all "looks" of IT). I'm excited about getting to hang out at the BCIT to promote our company and work with an outgoing and diverse team.

Feeling like it was going to be a productive morning. I took a break from the BCIT stuff and did some Social Club stuff. I finished confirming with the Burnaby School Board for booking the dodgeball tournament for April 6th. I find the process for booking gyms at an elementary school or highschool to be cumbersome. The system is inefficient. The next couple of months will be busy as I'll be hosting a couple of events for the Social Club. :-) Lol - I've always wanted to be a bunny...now my mascot dreams will be realized! Hahaa...just kidding...it's my turn put on a hot/furry animal outfit for the Children's Easter Egg Hunt in March. In the midst of setting up these events and talking to vendors, I'm also focused on rebranding the Club so that it aligns to the new corporate marketing strategy. Lol - I've got ideas but not enough hours in the day to look into them, so some of the Social Club board of executives have a been delegated tasks. I think I'm just going to run for the President position in the Club this year as I already manage 80% of operations/events.

As the most visible Director for the Club, I'm sent/forwarded A LOT of vendor pamphlets/packages...aka junk. Most of the time I look at the stuff once and hand it over to Karen who is good with keeping track of our vendor information. I was staring at the stack of lower mainland golf course packages I got this month when I thought about my own wedding planning. I picked up one of the folders (for Redwoods Golf Course in Langley) because it had a bride on the cover so it sparked my interest. I looked at the maps, menus, pricing, etc and pondered about where I'd want to have my wedding. Getting distracted from "real" work, I went to my MS Outlook program and exported my contact list to an Excel format so that I can later on import it into Excel to populate the guest list. As you can see I'm easily distracted if I don't focus myself. After that it was back to doing "real" work and not playing around with planning.

Tonight I started my first "planning" type activity for the wedding. I went downstairs and dragged up a box of wedding magazines from the basement (my house had become a reservoir for wedding magazines, etc from all the weddings Kim Anh and I have been a part of over the years). I flipped through a couple of magazines, surfed on the web to see when the next wedding show would be, pondered about booking tickets but couldn't make the commitment so set the information in my daily planner for later. I also created my budget spreadsheet. I think I got more enjoyment from creating the pivot tables and formulas then thinking about what the spreadsheet will be used for. Lol - I'm such a geek! There are a couple of planners in the box but I prefer electronic versions of things (much easier to transport the info on my USB stick). I'm debating if I want to go to a wedding exhibit as they're all the same and we haven't really decided if we're getting married in 2008 or 2009. Oh well - doesn't hurt to have things planned/prepared early.

more birthday parties

Today Chicky and I celebrated Logan's 1st birthday. How time flies!! Andy and Michelle did a superb job of hosting the party. I love how Martha-Stewart-like they are. :-) The home was decorated with balloons, streamers and an impressive gallery of pictures taken throughout the year of Logan. Being a photo-enthusiast, I was especially interested in this wall display. Michelle created a Nemo birthday cake made of cupcakes. I would post a picture but didn't bring my camera to the party as Andy would be taking all the pictures with his pro-camera. :-) The cake was impressive and delicious. Kudos to Michelle's baking and imagination. At the end of the night everyone got to go through the gallery of pictures and select 2 pics to take home. Chicky and I had put dibs on a couple really cute images but they were snatched up by the elders. The ones we ended up picking were still adorable. I did notice that a lot of people aimed for the 6-12 month old version of Logan. I guess when you're a newborn - it's hard to portray your personality. :-) Most of his 1-6 month pics are of him sleeping.

On Tuesday night we'll be celebrating Brandon's second birthday with the family. He's growing up to be a very independent boy. :-) It's good to see that Mary's boys have their own very different personalities. It makes life more interesting when you've got a mix.

red egg & ginger

Lily's one-month party was on Saturday. We went to Pelican Restaurant on Hastings Street for the celebration. This is the same restaurant that they used for Angelina's one-month party 8 years ago. I haven't been to it in awhile so I was very pleased with the renovations and new menu. It's gone from a run-down-dim-sum location to a swanky all-about-presentation location. There was some mix up with the restaurant location and times but in the end everything worked out and we had a spectacular meal. Yummy - I was so full. After dinner we invited Minh's family to come over to our house to hang out. We ended up playing poker with the lot of them till 5am. There's been very little sleep as the main family had partied till 4am the night before and everyone was running on very little sleep. :-) Typical behaviour for our 'late night" family...

new beginnings

"The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination."

On Wednesday Chicky and I got engaged! It was a total surprise and very sweet. He wanted to celebrate Valentine's Day early so we met up at his place after work and he cooked dinner. After dinner I gave him his V-day gift (the Planet Earth DVD set) and he went upstairs to get me mine. He came down with a big bouquet of flowers. I was so happy as it's been like a decade since he's boughten me flowers. :-) They were so fragrant as "our" flower is the Star Gazer lily, also mixed in the bouquet was roses and baby's breath. He also handed me a midsize box. I opened it up and was confused by the car parts. I didn't know what to say as Chicky has given me car parts as a present in the past and I wasn't sure if this was my real gift or if there was another gift hidden inside (which he also likes to do). So I gingerly ask what it is and keep poking around for the possibly of a hidden gift. He said it was some kind of coolant thing for your car. I came across an envelope under some of the wires and a wave of relief washed over me. Whew! It wasn't a car part after all - maybe a gift certificate. I had been hinting that I've been overworked and in desperate need of a massage package. I opened the envelope and see a picture of a ring inside. I didn't clue in and looked over to ask Chicky what it was. He was down on one knee and held out a ring box. I was in shock and didn't say anything at first. Lol - it was awkward, romantic and amusing all at once.

We wanted to tell our family right away but his were out of the country and mine weren't home. It wasn't till last night that my family finally found out. I didn't really want to tell anyone till our family knew but I was bubbling with excitement so I told some coworkers the next day. Now it's time to let the rest of the gang know.

Thank you for all the well wishes! I haven't had a chance to talk to most of you in person and feel bad about that. I'm sure we can touch bases soon.

making the news

On Saturday I took my car into the dealership for it's regular oil change. On the advice of the savy technician - I opted for a coolant flush as well. This turned out to be a BAD idea. My family and I were on our way to attend Nyah's 1st birthday party in Vancouver when our car troubles mounted. The 5 of us were on the highway (big Mike was driving my car) when it started jerking. I was a bit startled - as we were going quite fast and the roads were slick with rain. After a few more jerks the hood started to smoke up. By this time there was another car honking beside us and pointing to our hood. Everyone in the car was surprised. Mike tried to maneuver the car over to the side of the road. This was a bit scary as there was heavy traffic and the car was continuing to jerk and smoke. The rain and smoke made visibility horrible. We finally got to the shoulder unharmed. The other car had pulled up in front of us and was trying to help out. Chicky hopped out of the car and went to the hood while Mike tried to turn on the hazards and pop the hood. We were making quite the scene on the highway. Not knowing what was going on with the car - I felt anxious. Should all of us had gotten out of the car incase it catches fire?! We took our chances with a potential fire because no one had an umbrella and didn't want to stand in the rain.

A few minutes passed by and a cop car raced past us with it's lights blaring and sirens on. It was in the far left lane and we were on the right hand side. All of a sudden it stops and backs up. Great - just what we needed...more attention drawn to our car. The cop car cut across 2 lanes of traffic and stopped everyone on the highway. It didn't stop there. As Chicky was leaning over to talk to the officer - 2 fire engines come blazing up. I think someone called 911 - not us of course. Confused and excited by all the commotion and hoopla, I thought to myself - this would be fun to take a picture of. Lol - I was riding in the back seat so only saw Chicky talking to the cops. When the firemen jumped off the fire truck and ran over to my car - I was sure sure that they'd make us get out of the car and thus face the onlookers. :-) Luckily Mike talked to the firemen. Apparently there was an accident infront of us that they were responding to and thought that we were the ones that were in trouble. Oh no...I taking up precious emergency vehicle response time! So they rushed off after confirming that my car wouldn't blow up on the road. :-) So we made it to News 1130 as the car that was smoking and causing a delay on Highway 1 eastbound. :-) Hope you guys weren't on the highway then!

I spent the next 15 minutes trying to get a hold of Nissan road side assistance so that I could get the car towed. It turned out that a hose had detached which caused fluid to spill out of the car and smoke up the way it did. Stupid dealership - this is the second incident in which their service department has caused me grief. With 3 of us on cell phones we managed to get Little Mike and Carol to come rescue us from the highway. I left my car for the tow company to pick up and went straight to the dinner party.

Nyah's birthday party was really sweet. Betty & Hanif hosted it at a chinese restaurant. There were 7 tables, our family taking up nearly 2 tables, and TONS of food. :-) Betty made some yummy cupcakes for everyone to take home and of course gift bags for all the kids. After dinner we went over to Betty's house to hang out. Chicky and I had to take a detour first to see if my car was towed to the right location. We couldn't find it at the dealership. I had to call them later that night to find out where it was. It's very difficult getting in touch with a call center after midnight. :-) So at 4am Chicky and I gave up looking for the car in Coquitlam and I suggested swinging by the Nissan Burnaby location. I had told the call center earlier that night that I wanted it towed to Nissan Coquitlam but since it wasn't there - I thought that maybe the tow truck guy got lazy and towed it to the nearest Nissan - which would have been the Burnaby location. Low and behold - it was in the Burnaby lot.

I have all day workshops so left Chicky to deal with the car situation today. Luckily after a long day of meetings, Chicky left me an email message saying that my car was fixed by the Burnaby location, brought back to Coquitlam and is ready for pick up. They're also refunding my money for the "servicing" they did on Saturday. So dumb. Anyhow it's all over now - I have my car back. I'll have to see how it runs tomorrow. I'm so happy that Chicky is there to take care of things like this. I was fighting with an Ebay company last week and was unmotivated to take on another annoyance. :-) Last week was a long week, with work draining me and dealing with an incompetent Ebay seller. But that's another story. Seems like my series of "unfortunate" events has not stopped. :-) Oh well - makes for good blogging....

rock on!

Spontaneous purchases sometimes work out! Chicky - having spent 6 hours playing Rock Band at Nick's house on Friday night - bought his own copy on Saturday. I was a bit weary at another game that he can play and I spend watching for hours. Turned out this was a pretty fun game as it's MULTI-PLAYER! It's one of the few video games that we can both enjoy. He loves hitting the drums and I get to live out my kareoke dreams. We played it for a couple hours into the wee-hours of the morning. We even made up a band and went "touring". Lol - it was fun creating alter egos and trying to improve our "talents".

We'll have to have the whole gang play this sometime. I can totally see Chris being into this game - he's such a natural performer.

so you think you can dance?

Instead of watching the Super Bowl on Sunday - I found myself surfing over to So You Think You can Dance. I LOVE dance shows - much more than singing competitions. In the spirit of making a fool of yourself in the privacy of your home - here are some moves that will sure win you some brownie points on the dance floor at the next wedding!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLGLum5SyKQ&feature=related

oh baby!

Today Chicky and I went over to see Josie and Gregory. He's such a cute baby. :-) The whole family is doing well. Katarina looks like she loves her new brother very much as she wants to kiss and hug him (though she's unaware of her own strength and has to be restrained by Josie).

Katarina is in that 'repeat-after-me' stage and it's adorable hearing her name things. She even showed us how much of a good helper she is by diligently wiping the coffee table. Lol - forgot to take a picture of that. So cute!

Josie is as chipper as ever and always the multitasker - happily breastfeeding Gregory and entertaining us at the same time. I think Josie will post more pictures of her boy once she gets settled into her routine. :-)

Lily time

On Friday night KA, Mike and I went up to see Carol and Lily. Lily is 3 weeks old now and getting more interactive. She's a healthy weight and is pretty strong for her age. She's able to roll over and lift her head up if on her tummy. I suspect she'll be walking by 7/8 months (like her sister Angelina).

Carol has been stuck at home for a month now and is looking forward to freedom. :-) She's following her mother-in-law's strict chinese traditions. It's so fun playing with Lily. She's curious and is beginning to mimic emotions. I hope she learns to smile as that's always an endearing trait. Joshua learned that from an early age and it's what makes him adorable.

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.