Tonight Your Ghost Will Ask My Ghost

Wow ok, so much has happened in such a short period of time! Where do I start? Alright, how about the most exciting news? Let's start with that!

Congratulations to Dave and Kim!!!

These two got engaged on January 13th and I couldn't be more excited for them!

Alright, what's next? Let's continue with the Kim theme. Last Thursday, on my second to last day of work Kim e-mailed me to let me know that someone she knew from her office was looking to hire someone... and she passed the message on to me. Many e-mails and phone calls later, I had an interview for last Saturday afternoon... and I got the job! Well, anyone that reads this blog probably already knew that, but I'm writing this for myself, ha ha!

Anyway, starting Monday I will be a Technical Officer working at the Biotechnology Research Institute of the National Research Council... how professional does that sound?! I'm starting off on a 2 month contract and if everything works out I should be extended. To start, I'll mostly be writing up environmental scientific reports and cooler stuff will come along as I get acquainted with the department. So I'm pretty excited about being able to keep my foot in the Public Service door because that is where I want to stay!

And lastly, least exciting of all to everyone else, but pretty damn exciting to me; I got my new glasses! I can see again! I ventured to my optometrist's office on Monday (I trudged through the snowstorm and almost got run over by a rampaging snowplow). I told her about how the losers at Lenscrafters wouldn't even consider fixing my glasses and she told me "Oh yeah, I used to work there, they were just trying to get you to buy a whole new pair." Stupid Lenscrafters; what ever happened to customer service?

Well, with all of this exciting stuff happening, it's really kept me distracted from the dreaded end of my fabulous job at AAFC and the impending move back to chez mom and pop. It's really nice to have things to look forward to! Oh yeah... cruise in 8 days too! The excitement just doesn't end!

Happy New Year - You're Blind!

What a great way to start off the new year: fumbling around in a visual haze.

On January 2nd, my first day back at work, my glasses fell on the floor and broke. Just wonderful. I figure I had it coming, considering my bad habit of always putting my glasses on my head when they're not on my face. Mike said he was surprised it didn't happen earlier, since they often slipped off my head and fell to the floor whenever I wouls tilt my head up to give him a kiss. Okay so yeah, it was coming and perhaps I deserved it. But why on the first day back after the holidays?

Anyway, the logistics of getting my glasses replaced have become retardedly complicated. After the initial 'accident' I phoned my mom, who got in contact with my optometrist. Her office informed mom that my frames had been discontinued, so just replacing the frames wouldn't be possible. But they called back the next day to say that the designer's new model was the same as the old one, they just had new colours. Good enough for me, I thought; then I wouldn't have to pay for new lenses, just the new frames. So mom was nice enough to ship the 3 new frames to me in Ottawa. I chose some frames that I rather liked and kept them so I could bring them to Lenscrafters on the weekend (keep in mind I spent the whole week either without glasses, or with my glasses perched precariously on my nose - no moving, or else they'll fall off!). Anyway, I made my way to Lenscrafters (in the rain, of course) just to have them tell me that the new frames were, in fact, not the same shape as the old ones. Therefore, they wouldn't switch the lenses for me. Apparently this could be damaging for the eyes... but what do I know? All I knew was that I now had a useless set of frames that my mom kindly paid for, a useless pair of glasses that barely stay on my face, and two eyes that still can't see properly for at least another week. Wonderful. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper on Saturday.

Now, I have to get back in touch with my optometrist and see if they'll be willing to make my old lenses fit into the new frames. If not, I'll have to cough up $300 for a whole new pair of glasses. Because of course, I'm not insured.

For Your Entertainment

Okay, here are a few photos from Christmastime. While Mike and I made sure to take lots of photos with our new camera, we unfortunately only bought it on Boxing Day, so everything all of the photos I have are post-Chistmas. Oh well!

The Assest Management department Christmas party

Girls night!

Testing the egg nog on New Year's Eve

Spreading the joy of Piddle Paddle

It's Peanut-Butter Jelly Time!

Isn't amazing how quickly the holidays go by?? I was off for a week and a half and it felt like maybe... 4 days. And going back to work on January 2nd is tough stuff. I feel like I never even had a break! There was somewhere we had to be every single day of the holiday and we were perpetually busy. But you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way!

I guess Christmas this year was pretty standard, nothing out of the ordinary happened. But that's good, because that means it was great! Theoretically, this was the last year my family will be all together on Christmas morning, so we made it a good one! This was, however, my biggest Boxing Day ever: Mike and I bought ourselves a new digital camera (8 mega pixels, baby!) and our very own Christmas tree for next year, the first Christmas in our house together! So it was pretty exciting, these were our first purcahses together, which has, in a way, made this whole home-buying thing all the more real to me. It seems like things are finally moving along!

The only disappointing part about the holidays was that I never got a chance to drive! Throughout the whole week and a half off, I was either out, the weather was terrible or the car wasn't available. Sucks. But I'll get my chance when I move back to Montreal.

My time here in Ottawa is wrapping up pretty quickly. After this week I only have one week left at work. And the week after that is moving time. And the part I hate the most about moving is that I'll be back at my parents' house. The loss of independence is going to be really, really unpleasant; I felt it enough throughout the holidays. It's funny how quickly one can get used to being alone.

Anyway, when I have more time I'll post some photos from the holidays... the photos taken with our new digital camera!

In the meantime:

Music Video:PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME (by Family Guy)

Music Video Code provided by Video Code Zone

If you were there, you'll understand.