Yay! I went out on a really fun date tonight! It was fun because the guy that I met for the first time tonight made me howl… I mean, really laugh! That was such a nice departure from what I’ve experienced on the other dates I’ve been on recently.

In fact, I was grinning ear-to-ear all the way home. We met at Cactus Club for a drink, and yacked for a couple of hours about anything and everything. It’s amazing how similar our outlooks towards life are, actually! If it wasn’t for my absolutely *bizarre* sudden hot flashes tonight, it would have been an absolutely perfect date. I don’t know what was up with me tonight — maybe it was the spicy food I’d eaten before I left, I’m not sure — But, it sure was weird. Ah well, I’ll just chalk it up to something memorable to laugh about later, I guess. [grin]

Today, waking at 6:15am, was super early start start to my day. That’s after only 3 or so hours of sleep — Another sleepless night for me. That’s okay, because it was totally worth it to get to my Macromedia roll-out conference this morning. I love that company! What an amazing set of tools they provide… The suite certainly keeps me productive, and their new product line will only improve my workday!

I’m looking forward to getting out with Jenn and Paul on Friday night to Laughlines? (or was it Yuk Yuks? …I think it was Laughlines) to see that new host of “This Hour Has 22 Minutes”! Sounds like a load of fun! I’m also heading out with Mark on Sunday to see “Kill Bill” — I can’t wait! I think it’s pretty funny, though, that he’s already seen it, and is more than happy to go and see it again. It must be a damm fine movie? I’ve heard it is — In fact, I’ve not heard anyone who’s seen it so far that has had anything but good things to say about it. Should be a great night out, too!

As you can tell, I woke up in a better mood today, despite my exhaustion from my sleeplessness. It’s good to feel better. I don’t like those dark moods — I shall try to avoid the next one at all costs. The only good thing about feeling so crappy is that it makes me really enjoy my better moods even more… Occasional extremes are necessary in life, I guess!

Hope everyone else is having a great week!!

A good way to threaten somebody is to light a stick of dynamite. Then you call the guy and hold the burning fuse up to the phone. “Hear that?” you say. “That’s dynamite, baby.”

– Jack Handy

I’m feeling down. It’s one of those down-swings that everyone experiences, I suppose. Even still — I can’t put my finger on why I am struggling with this to this degree. By all accounts, I should be a happy chick with all the good stuff that’s going on in my life. Work’s good — Can’t complain there. I have no real strife with any of my friends, so it’s probably not my existing social life. And yet, I was in such a horrific mood yesterday that I couldn’t even call Jenn on her birthday for fear that I’d just completely ruin her day with my bad attitude. Man. That’s sad. [Place a big, warm hug to Jenn here -- Wish I could've been in a better mood yesterday, Hon!]

Friday night was fun, regardless of this stupid funk I’m dealing with. I made dinner for Glenn and Vern, and then Glenn and I sat and talked for hours, catching up. I haven’t seen him in ages, and it was good to spend some time yacking about life and work. Afterwards, I wasn’t tired, so I went online, and had a nice long chat with Anders until almost 5am… something we haven’t done in a long time! He always makes me smile. I’m so happy to hear that life is treating him so well, and that he and Anna are so happy together. [Grin: Du gör mej mycket lycklig, Anders!] Now, if only I could find that kind of happiness!

Online dating is pretty destructive to one’s ego, I’ve decided. I haven’t been on a date in a while now, but upon reflection of my recent past’s experiences with that, I’ve come to realize that it’s not a good way to meet new people to date. People who’ve been on the sites for months and months are pretty much all cynical, or they’ve decided that there is a certain checklist that they must obtain. That’s unrealistic. It’s the “overdating” syndrome. Stretch the timeline over weeks of dating several men, and it’s really hard to keep up and remember all the details, myself! I’ve become desensitized I think.

So… as you can probably guess, I guess my mood is probably related to the fact that I haven’t been surrounded by anyone who’s interested me romantically, or been interested in me to any real extent that way. I really miss being the object of someone’s affection. That’s the high and low of it. On an intimate level, I’m a bit lonely.

Here’s to a better, happier week, next week!

Kind of a wierd day today. Odd/wierd… felt like I was having an out-of-body experience all day today. Perhaps it’s due to my almost 19 hour workday…?

Sigh. Yes. I just finished work, and it’s 3:40am. You know, I am finally starting to think that I should just stop taking on so much extra work when it comes my way. I’d love to just focus on one client at a time, and not juggle so many projects so regularily. I love my work but this is getting a little silly.

I had an awesome Thanksgiving weekend! Friday night I made Thai food for the first time in my life, and for 8 people to boot! It turned out really great, and I ended up having a bunch left over to freeze. Afterwards, Tammy, Deetria and I headed off to grab a late drink at the Foggy Dew down the road. We all had fun, and closed down the place. As Tammy had to work early (well, actually, so did Dee but she never sleeps anyhow) she left Deetria and I to take a guy I’d met while dancing to Denny’s… that was much needed! I was a little intoxicated, to say the least, and I’ll just say that I wasn’t making the best choices that night. Sigh. Oh well… We all get a little stupid sometimes, and the guy, Wayne, that I met didn’t seem to mind. (Neither did Deetria, who I’m sure was laughing her ass off, but at least she kept it to herself!)

Saturday night, Deetria, Vern and I headed out to see a cool DJ at the Picadilly Pub downtown. The music was great, and if I hadn’t been so tired from just a few hours sleep the night before, I’m sure I would have had an absolute blast.

Sunday, after finally taking a lazy day off, I headed out to Tammy’s for a big Thanksgiving dinner with 12 other people — That was fun, and I got to catch up with a lot of Tammy’s friends that I haven’t seen in a heck of a long time… I guess as Thanksgiving has come and gone, the start to the busy social season begins, as it does every year with a big feast at Tammy’s place. Thanks Tam, it was really good!

I had to work Monday, unfortunately, as I had a project due for this morning (I just finished the first draft, PHEW!) I hope my client likes it. I am a little concerned because my usual attention to special effects and cool design just didn’t seem to shine this time. I guess I can’t always be “on”.

Hope everyone else had a really awesome Thanksgiving! I’m really looking forward to catching up with everyone soon for a wild night out on the town or something!

Let’s see… I hurt my knee this week, and it took me right back to a time not so long ago, when I was almost completely disabled. It scared me actually, because I’ve put the pain from the years of 1997 – 2000 far behind me — Or, so I thought. My knee is starting to feel better now, but man, those were times that I certainly didn’t need to recall! I don’t even know what I did to hurt my knee last Sunday… I was just walking, and then, I was barely walking. Strange. Thank goodness it’s healing now!

Mark and I were going to see a movie tonight, but work (drasted work!) got in the way. He unfortunately had stuff come up, which couldn’t be changed, so we’ll have to go another time. Thanks for the invite anyhow, Mark! It’ll be nice to finally meet you in person when we both can arrange our schedules to make it happen!

So, I’m off to go and eat some and drink some… and then take in “Brit Night” downtown tonight. I am looking forward my first “Brit Night” and I’m sure I’ll dance most of the night away… I’m definately in the mood for it tonight! Thankfully, my workload has normalized (at least for now) so I don’t feel overwhelmed like I did last week!

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s Adobe Seminar at the Plaza of Nations! I haven’t been to a roll out like that in over a year… ack, longer then that now that I think about it. The last full day one was for Macromedia, and it was on that fateful day of September 11th. What an odd, sad day that was… Especially bizarre because I didn’t hear about most of the Sept. 11th carnage until I met Vern for lunch half way through the seminar that day. Needless to say, I didn’t return for the afternoon session.

Well, I must go and get ready now — Dinner’s in an hour and a half!

I saw “Bowling for Columbine” last night. Finally. It’s one of those movies you just know you need to be in the right frame of mind to watch and recently I’ve not really felt like being educated on the nastiness of the American gun situation. Last night, I finally rented it, and was overwhelmed with the tragedy that I saw.

Now, granted, I believe that Michael Moore understated the Canadian lifestyle when it comes to violence and crime, but still there’s no accounting for 165 gun-related deaths in Canada to the US’s 11,127 per annum. Almost *70* times the amount of gun-related deaths. Yes, there is a population difference, but on a whole I fail to see why we Canadians have such a different level of crime and gun-related deaths when we have more guns relative to the American populus. Perhaps it’s as Moore said, and the Americans are so overwhelmed with fear, that they feel the need to arm themselves to ensure their safety. I know I don’t feel that way as a Canadian (although, I do lock my door, as do most of the people I know).

Having lived in LA for almost seven months, I’ve had the opportunity to live both sides of the spectrum… My jaw dropped the first time I saw a “No firearms beyond this point” on a federal building in West Hollywood. There are parts of the culture on both sides of said spectrum that I’ve found an appreciation for. Guns, however, are something that I believe should be left unloaded, and separate from the ammunition, especially when children are in the home. Call that the Canadian pacifist in me, but maybe it’s just that culture that has kept us from the situation I was made more fully aware of after watching that movie.

Oh, yea, and what the heck is with Charlton Heston, anyhow? I knew he was a jerk before I saw the movie, but wow. What an asshole. That man has no respect… His “ethnicity” remark spanked of the KKK of yesteryear. Good thing you stopped yourself when you did Moses, or maybe you’d really need all those loaded guns you have in your home to protect yourself, afterall. [place eye roll here]

And thus concludes today’s rant.

By the way, for those of you who don’t know, I’m an accomplished marksman, using a 303 Lee Enfield. Or, at least I was when I was 18. I don’t own a handgun, nor a rifle, and probably never will. I welcome your commments…

I guess we were all guilty, in a way. We all shot him, we all skinned him, and we all got a complimentary bumper sticker that said, “I helped skin Bob.”

– Jack Handy

[Taking a breath] — Holy incredibly busy week, batman.

Looks like I’m working this weekend, again. It’s gotta be done, unfortunately — I have a bunch of clients needing things yesterday, and I’m still waiting on a ton of materials to finish off a project from another client. It’s seriously like pulling teeth, to be quite honest. Love my job, hate the follow-up when I don’t get results.

It’s official, by the way… I’m now a spammer. Okay, only in a good way! One of my clients was having issues trying to embed this flash movie I created for email for them (which has a replacement animation if the recipient can’t see the flash in their email) and so, I had to get the email recipient list from them, and send all the emails out directly. Now, this is a targetted list, so I don’t feel too badly, but it is the first time I haven’t used a third party emailer to send out a campaign (due to the campaign’s highly technical scripting it required). It’s done, now, at least! I wish I could say who the client was… as it’s really very exciting! Unfortunately, I can’t.

Monday, the only night I took to myself, was halarious! Jenn met up with Vern and I at work, and we all went to Brandi’s (yes, yes, of the J-Lo and Affleck nortoriety) which was the very first time ever that I’d been to a female strip bar! It was halarious! So much drama… the lights, the action… the silly men. Get this: One very drunk asian guy (who arrived with his girlfriend and friends in tow) got loopy and started flicking off a total of about $460 in $20s onto the dance floor!! Insanity. Heck, for that he could have gotten to the “private room” I’m quite sure… LOL. [place eye roll here] At one point, he even went downstairs to get more money out of the bank machine I think. It was crazy. Add to this scene, several guys who went to the bathroom for a simple “checking myself out in the mirror” visit (they were far too fast to be doing anything else, unless they didn’t wash their hands! and guys who didn’t seem to even notice the girls at all… (left me wondering why they were there paying the high price for drinks, then?) and finally the women in there who mostly seemed like they didn’t want to be working there at all… interesting evening. I must say, though, that this experience certainly left me wanting to get to the gym. Those dancers must *live* in the gym.

The rest of the week was just plain stressful. I don’t mind a hectic day, but when I can’t possibly get to all my clients’ needs in a timely manner, I get pissed at myself. Hopefully, next week, I’ll be able to not only get all my work done before late evening each day, but also have time for my personal life again.

Got my fingers crossed!!