Passing the time

The past couple of weeks have been insanely busy with traveling for work, work changes and normal personal life stuff. But the time spent in Canada was beautiful (While Montreal I love – Toronto and the surrounding areas are also really nice) and the weather stayed a balmy 70 plus the entire time. The Toronto natives said that this season has been really rainy but as someone who likes the rain – the mid afternoon showers were a nice break from the intense Texas heat.

While in Toronto these past few weeks I also had the opportunity to run down to Buffalo, NY to take part in a friend’s wedding  – So once again I have another pretty dress hanging in my closet and some wonderful memories of the evening spent dancing, talking and of course more dancing! There might have been adult beverage or two consumed during the course of the evening – but I admit to nothing.

Wedding fun

Additionally, this particular wedding had two of the cutest flower girls and a ring bearer who kept us all in stiches throughout the evening as he tried to avoid dancing with the flower girls who were relentlessly pursuing him.

Flower Girls and Ring Bearer

Such drama – things are changing left and right at the establishment with is so gracious as to provide me with a paycheck every two weeks.  Needless to say – I’m currently in a holding pattern as far as seeking new employment. Especially as a request was made that I hold off until things settle down. So things are still tense but in a holding pattern - which while not perfect isn’t bad either.

Favorite song of the moment - ”The Winner Takes It All” from the Mamma Mia soundtrack – the beat is great – the lyrics interesting and lets face it – haven’t we all felt that way at some point in out lives? Ok, I felt that way this morning but nonetheless, it is a great song. Benny Andersoon & Bjorn Ulvaeus knew what they were doing when they were composing.

Well, I’m back in Toronto again, there was a huge propane explosion in Toronto this morning which resulted in the 401 being shut down all day causing sever traffic delays as everyone was trying to find alternate routes around the city. Thankfully it only took me a little over an hour to reach the hotel (it usually takes 20 minutes) so not to bad overall. The best news is that although the blast could be felt for up to 7km away there was only 1 fatality. So thank goodness for that blessing.

Aside from that life looks like it is going to be hectic for the next few weeks – lots of thinking to do, work to do, and working out to be done (it is the only thing keeping me sane these days!).

Take care till I have a spare moment to breathe! I’ll post as I’m able.

Last night I attended a wonderful function with the Nosejoy Wine Club in Plano, TX.  We sampled a huge variety of wines, enjoyed some wonderful food and participated in some boisterous conversation.  The venue was a small club in old Plano – just 15 minutes from my house.

This was the first visit to the Nosejoy Wine Club-I initially heard of them through some friends at Landon Winery in McKinney, TX and after hearing their rave reviews of the 5 course meal and accompanying wines I decided to check it out myself.  I am so happy that I did! This event was titled “Stay away from the Red Light district” and it featured the cuisine from Amsterdam – traditional German fare with a contemporary twist. And the wines were all from regions in Central Europe. All in all a wonderful time and I’ll be going back again the next time I’m in town!

This week has been filled high points and low points:

High point: Worked out 6 of 6 days thus far this week – Yeah me!

Low point: Ate out 4 of 6 days this week – poor pocketbook

High point: Watched the evening rain fall as I sat on my patio enjoying an adult beverage

Low point: Work stress – re upper management (situation still unresolved)

High point: Found a terrific birthday gift for a friend of mine whose birthday is this Saturday – I would love to receive it myself. Someone once said that you should never give a gift you wouldn’t want to have yourself. I think that is GREAT advice. Now if only others had my great taste

Low point: Being a creative bee for the week. Who knew the creative process was so ridiculously difficult? Needless to say a project I’m working on is 1,000 times more difficult than I ever anticipated simply due to the fact that while I can enjoy the end result of an individuals creative process (design, video, photography, art, music, etc) I cannot be enthused about the process by which the art is created. Free flowing thought, random association and seeing underlying connections – these are the things of my nightmares. Not opportunities for expression. I would be more than happy to cheer someone on as THEY go about the creative process, I can be enthusiastic about the quality of the finished product, I can appreciate all they went through to complete their masterpiece – but – I don’t want to have anything to do with the creative process myself. It sucks.  In the end, I’m a great worker bee. I would have been the person running out to procure paints for Monet, not painting those beautiful/damn water lilies myself.

And no the project is not done yet….I’m now dreaming about it – these moments though fleeting in the grand scheme of life are dragging on for way to long.

High point: It is Friday!!! I don’t have to work, per se, over the weekend – although there will be work done on the project to be certain. But the great news is that it is due in a week. It will all be over soon!