Week in and week out of speaking to upset Americans is bringing me down. I am calm and rational on the phone, and more often than not, truly understanding when customers vent at me.  Yeah, life's a bitch, especially when you drop your newly purchased Blackberry in a mud puddle. It's even worse when you know that trying to save 5 bucks a month has now prevented you from filing an insurance claim that you never thought you'd need because you take such good care of your belongings. ...

Dynamaso wrote a little sumptin' sumptin' about good manners, and in one part, stated that by simply keeping one's mouth shut, a whole lotta drama can be avoided. He was pointing at the divas, the showboats who DEMAND attention, but I think that, similarly, a whole lot of grief can be avoided by losers who don't know why they're not well liked. A girl in my class, while out on smoke break, mentioned that she wasn't well liked as a child. " Really ?" I asked, trying to sound sincere as possibl...

More snow, but today I embraced it. It's been coming down nonstop for a day now, and though I don't have an official tally, I'm thinking we've gotten hit with at least 30 cm, maybe more. The snowplow's been by twice since yesterday morning, and it's once again ankle deep in the driveway. I brushed off the car though, and after letting it warm up, Kole and I got in and went out. We watched as other vehicles tried to make it up hills, but failed; saw minor fender benders; and a wh...

For well you know that it's a fool, Who plays it cool, By making his world a little colder. Every day is the same, except for a few more centimetres of snow.  A winter wonderland always sounds so delightful to those who rarely see snow, and not the daily drudge of the slush, salt, and icy paths that accompany it. There's so many pluses about winter, but right now, all I can see is the negative about it. I wish it was spring; nothing like gentle breezes and ...

Sometimes, I'm such a bloody phony. I'm in week 4 of training, and though I've previously worked there before, I was required to re-train as I had been offsite for more than a year.  Fair enough. I'd be concerned if they just threw me back onto the floor without any sort of reintroduction.  Alas, I was sent right back in with the beginners, which, in my opinion, is pretty poor business; I really only needed about a week of review, followed by maybe an extra day or two in billi...

I'm on a building committee, a fundraising committee, a volunteer committee, and a general users group committee. All require my attendance to get my job done and to 'stay in the loop', as I've been told, but frankly, I'd much rather just get a copy of the notes and carry on my work from home. See, the difficulties with being involved within so many committees is that it generally just seems that for any decision that is to be made, we need at least 2 meetings to achive this result. The ge...

I walked into the bar with a mp3 player and a deck of rez smokes in my coat pocket, and a JG Ballard sci-fi paperback in my back jeans bocket. I had a handful of toonies that would ensure that the remainder of my evening would be easygoing and fine. I love AC/DC. I had hoped, earlier this afternoon, that Sam would slip in a disc or two tonight. I wasn't let down. I spent the evening floating from table to table, occasionally heading outdoors for a cigarette in the gently falling slow....

I haven't been writing much at all these days. Call it writer's block, or just a plain lack of interest, but nothing I've put down seems to make me want to hit the Submit Article button in the last few months. It's not like there haven't been some major life changes, either. But, perhaps that's it; maybe too much has gone on to even know where to begin to start. I'm still working for my local theatre group, but I'm also right back where I started, too. I got rehired by a telecommunica...

I am going out tonight (Yes, on a Monday night, oooh.) to see a friend play a small venue in Peterborough as a preview to a larger one at the Rogers Centre (Skydome) in Toronto. This evening's set is only 45 minutes long, but it gives my best friend a chance to spread her wings a little and climb the stage as Spread Eagle. Coincidentally, there are other bands with the same moniker, and I wonder if they get as much conversation points generated because of it. My friend first broached t...

At the gym, all the fitness equipment is stored in the middle of the room, with a walking track encircling it all. At the end of the room and beyond the track near the great panes of glass is the weight area. Here, men and women flex and lift, grunt and groan. I never use the weights. I feel kind of awkward asking people how to use the Nautilus equipment, and have no clue where to begin with the handweights. Because of the track though, I walk by the area every ten minutes or so. I go f...

I remember reading The Guiness Book of World Records as a child only to have my brain scalded by images never even imagined before. The World's Tallest Man, The World's Fattest Woman, The World's Smallest Human... yes, that was interesting, but it was the other freakshow stuff that startled me and gave me bad dreams at night. I'm not talking about deformities or odd displays of nails driven through arms, or seemingly average men lifting tractors in the air. The freakshow stuff for me was ...

Every once in awhile, when I have friends over, they take to looking over my bookcases. I've got plenty of reading material, and is fairly organized, which is surprising because everything else in my life is so random and scattered. I don't know why, but of the thousands of books that I own, the book entitled 1000 Names For Baby is the one most remarked upon. I've had the very pointed questions trying to find out if there's something in the oven, and semi-crowing of being over-nastalgic, b...

Because autumn usually brings out a bitterness in me, I've been spending a lot of time at home, or at other people's empty houses. I'm filled with rage these days; at drivers who don't know the rules of a four-way stop; at men who think that everyone has had a crush on them, at one point or another; and at a culmination of minor household catastrophes that include a non-functioning water heater, lightbulbs that seem to all die at once, and continually missing the rinse cycle to put the fabric...

It's been a series of ups and downs, as usual. I've made some changes in my life, including a regular excercise routine (after 2 months a build-up to 60 minutes of cardio every 5 - 6 days), elimination of sugar in my diet (okay, Hallowe'en got me a bit), and a decrease of white foods (only 12 grain, whole wheat pasta, and brown rice. Yum.) My smoking has decreased because I don't stay up late anymore, and I've taken a leave of absence from the local bar scene. Yep, that's a change. But s...

I'm boring myself, lately. Too much socializing, and while some of it is work-related, it's starting to feel like habit. I don't know how the bigwigs do it, but there are so many events, performances, and meetings I should be attending, in order to promote both my position and my company. However, the majority of these events are surrounded by gossip and alcohol, both of which fuel each other. I keep my back against the wall, and luckily, I don't often get asked pointed questions. I ten...