Christmas. Can you believe, it’s only 11 freekin’ days until Christmas? I was thinking about Christmases past today, and I can say is this still doesn’t feel like home. I’m trying really hard, but the whole “Christmas is at home” kinda spirit I should be feeling right now isn’t here! What’s missing? A tree for starters. I left all my Christmas decorations with my ex, so all I have is a garland around the fireplace with white lights and beads strung into it. It’s kind of helping I guess.

Maybe once I head up to Kelowna with my boyfriend, his sister, and her roommate to spend Christmas with their family, I’ll feel a little more jolly. What a funny word that is, don’t you think? Jolly? Bahhhaahahah. Does anyone use that word in common language anymore? Okay, I’m just being bitchy grumpy today I think. Where’s my axe? mistletoe?

My days for the next few weeks are booked solid full of Christmas-y type things so perhaps I just need to be around friends and cheer up. That’s probably my problem. I’m not spending enough quality time with my friends!

It’s my brother’s 30th birthday today!! Happy Birthday, birthday boy! Feel old yet? We were out last night to celebrate his birthday, and although we left before 10, I got to spend some time conversing with some of his friends… he has some really cool friends. The thing about my brother is he always tries to make sure that everyone feels welcome, and last night was no different. I’m really lucky to have such a sweet brother.

I’m off to my boyfriend’s friend’s housewarming party tonight. I won’t know a soul there besides her, and of course my boyfriend… it’s a different, younger croud — but I’ll try my best to communicate and be merry. I’m just not feeling very social today. Someone get this girl a drink!

<– smile therapy — let’s all smile together, shall we? Is it working yet? No? Keep trying!

What a great weekend I had! Friday night was about relaxing and watching movies… Saturday night was my boyfriend’s staff party… we all went to see “Santa Vs. The Snowman” in 3d Imax, and then went off to Heron’s Restaurant close by for dinner. The movie was great — set the mood for the Christmas celebration perfectly! Dinner was excellent, and the conversation was halarious. Afterwards, we all went off to Luv-A-Fair to dance the night away. I ended up wearing my new wig that night, so I was ready for an evening of dancing. Everyone thought I looked great with the pink head, sans the blonde hair, which surprised me. I was a tad concerned that I looked over-done for a company Christmas party, but no one else seemed to think so. It was fun looking like someone completely different for an evening!

Sunday, my boyfriend and I went over to his sister’s store to help paint for her soft opening in a week or so. I have never painted walls in my life — don’t ask me how I’ve always seemed to get away without having to do this?? It was a lot of work, and I’m glad we were there to help or she would have been there for a week doing all that painting. I think I still have little blotches of paint on my arms

Thankfully, today saw the end of the Christmas shopping! I thought I was done last week, but I had forgotten about the 24 stocking stuffers we needed for my boyfriend’s family gathering we’ll be going to. My back was killing me yesterday, but we managed to get through the last of the odds and ends, and I finished with a couple of remaining gifts today. I don’t think I would have had any fun at all last night doing all that shopping myself, so I was really happy that my boyfriend decided to leave work at a decent hour to help out.

I was going to have a friend over this evening for wine and scanning of some of his pictures, but he cancelled, so I think I’m just going to work this evening. Oh the exciting life that I lead, huh? ahaha… At least I’ll have the opportunity to finish up on a small issue that has been dogging me for weeks, workwise. It’ll be nice to see that done so I can start selling this add-on to my boyfriend’s software package.

A “bigtenfourgoodbuddy!” to everyone who stopped by to read…

I woke up absolutely exhausted this morning. I just couldn’t sleep last night — guess we all have those nights where everything seems so overwhelming. Thankfully, though, I was able to quickly shake off the fog, and go about my day with a relatively happy mindset.

After braving the mid-day traffic to West Vancouver this afternoon to visit my boyfriend’s sister, I drove over to Kits to drop off some items at a client’s store and picked up some more pictures to augment their newly designed site. I’m pleased that I can finally work on that site without dealing with someone else’s shoddy design… it was literally driving me crazy to update a site that I couldn’t even add to my portfolio as my work. They had a slim budget, but I managed to give them a clean, fresh look and stay within their means at the same time.

On my way home, I found the Vancouver location of “Sport Junkies” and the very first jacket I tried on was perfect. Thank goodness for my friend’s recommendation — I never would have thought to check the place out. The new yellow Mobius jacket cost less than half of the price of the jacket that I just purchased at Sport Mart, and I think it’s a better jacket. Colour me happy!

It’s nearly five, and I haven’t a clue what’s on for tonight — I’m still waiting to hear back from a friend as to her plans… if all else fails, it’ll be dinner and a rented movie with my boyfriend, which is fine too. It’s going to be a busy weekend with his staff Christmas party tomorrow night, and helping paint the new store that my boyfriend’s sister is opening in West Van in a few weeks, on Sunday.

Have an awesome weekend everyone! I will…

Arrrgh! Where’s the snow? The first week of December is almost over, and not a single flake has been seen by us Vancouverites! What’s up with that? That figures… the first year in many that I have decided to go out and buy a season’s pass to Cross-country ski, and it looks like I’ll be hiking for the cash outlay instead. Bummer! To get into the whole skiing spirit, I even went out and spent a whopping $300 on a jacket — wishful thinking, it seems. Really though, I actually kept the tags on, because I’m considering checking out “Sport Junkies” down in Port Moody for a high-quality used jacket. I’m sure I can save a load that way, and get something that I like even better than my new Columbia waterproof jacket. We’ll see…

My Christmas shopping is nearly done! Yay! I went out last night with a girlfriend and picked up the last of the kids’ gifts, and even picked up a really cool pink (yes, that’s right — pink!) wig for myself. I can’t believe I spent the money on it, but I just felt like a temporary change, and that was an easy way to accomplish that particular need. I think the girl at the store thought I was completely nuts as I tried on the wigs over my long blonde curly hair — everyone needs a change sometime… even the blondes! I can’t wait to finally get out to a “fetish” night with my friends, sporting my new look! Some time ago, I went shopping with a friend, and she wouldn’t let me leave the store without purchasing a long, black, latex< ??> dress for an upcoming Fetish do… I never made it out, so that dress is still sitting in the closet. It seems like quite the shame, because that dress was really freekin’ expensive! Hopefully there will be a time that’s convenient to get out to one of these nights soon. I can’t wait to experience one!

Life is finally starting to get back to normal — after not being able to eat for a few weeks (that’s obviously a slight exaggeration) from all my stresses. My stomach just felt like one big, gargantuous knot. Good thing was I lost about 9 lbs. in 2 weeks, but the bad news is that I’m sure it will all come back to haunt me as soon as I can eat normally again. That certainly is NOT the right way to lose weight! I guess I’ll just have to keep an eye on that until I lose the last 5 lbs or so that I would like to see off by the end of January. Nice time to set that particular goal, huh?

I’m getting a little ansy about upcoming projects — I have next to none showing up in the next month. That’s a little scary! Something always surfaces at the last minute, and I’m sure that this time will be no different.

It’s hard to be me sometimes. I’m terribly positive on the outside, while recently on the inside, I’m questioning everything. For such a confident, self-assured person, I’m certainly over-thinking and over-analyzing everything these days.

When so much change happens all at once, I suppose that anyone would be stressed. I’ve decided to just let life calm down for a while — I’m going to relax and accomplish my work, see my friends, and try to enjoy my boyfriend’s company when we have time together. My goal is to not spend too much time thinking about anything that has already happened, but to look forward and see the exciting possibilities that lie ahead of me. I’m going to be happy, dammit. I know that to truly enjoy what life has to offer, one needs some crappy things to happen but I’m not dwelling anymore.

I’m quite busy with work this week, which is great. I’m almost done one project that is taking a bit longer than originally anticipated, but the results are better than I expected they would be, and some things that I learned for this client came easier than I thought they would. That’s always nice! I look forward to embarking on a re-design for a client that I have been bugging for months. They need a serious overhaul, and I think I’ve finally got them to realize that it’s important to have a fresh look every once in a while. (read: I’ve been updating someone else’s design, and I really dislike the work this company did on the site). I also have the opportunity to update a banking site that I did quite a while ago, and I’m looking forward to freshening up this high-profile client’s web presence, too!

Enough about work! I saw some fun bands on Saturday night (my favourite was “The Orchid Highway”), and I was delighted that my brother and his girlfriend could make it out to “Amped Up” at the Anza Club with the gang. My brother’s girlfriend is a complete nut, and she was a hit with the rest of the croud that made it out with us. She is definately someone that can keep up with my brother — I never thought such a person existed until she came along a little over a year ago. That night, even though my boyfriend and I were getting over a serious argument from the previous evening, we managed to enjoy our time out together to see some live music.

Call me a workaholic, but I think I’m going to work the rest of the night and get ahead on some of this backlog from last weeks’ upheaval in living quarters. Have a great night, and thanks for visiting!

My, how life changes in a week!

I moved in with my boyfriend this weekend… after dating him for over 15 months. Sunday was officially moving day, and thankfully not a thing was broken. Today, I woke up, and felt relieved. Living out of my knapsack for over a year has not been a treat, and due to the fact that I have spent most of my time here and not at home, I felt very scattered and uprooted — until this morning.

A project is breathing down my neck, but I just couldn’t get into doing my work today. Not with boxes and furniture and crap all over the place… so I did what most women would do — organize!! Phew. I just got done, and now I’m feeling at home. I have Diana Krall playing on the cd player, my desk is all in order, and the last of the laundry drying from the dusty moving truck left-overs. My world is glowing again!

Now, because I just *had* to clean up and put things away, I have to work until all hours tonight to catch up on the tasks barely started and due tomorrow. Oh, did I forget to mention, I also have a massage therapy appointment tomorrow afternoon, and I have to visit another client downtown tomorrow as well. Tick, tick, tick, tick… Crap! I’d better get started on this darn paying work, or I’ll be shot on Wednesday. Ack. I hate being a procrastinator. Okay, I’ll start the work right away — just as soon as I go and eat dinner first.

Goodnight all! Thanks for visiting…

1. Coffee and Ephedra… combined. Nothing makes me feel more alert — not to mention, exuberant!
2. A glass of Quail’s Gate Foch. (A really, really amazing red wine for those non-wine drinkers out there!) This would even be more spectacular if it happened to have been bottled in 1998!
3. A long, warm, intimate hug from my boyfriend [mmmmmmmm!]
4. An out-of-the-blue phone call from a friend with good news. I love surprises, especially when it makes someone else equally thrilled!
5. An intimate dinner party with friends that I adore.
6. Finishing a project that I know I’ve aced… and having the client be completely ecstatic about the results of my efforts.
7. Meeting new people, and learning about their lives. [Everyone's got an interesting story!]
8. Christmas mornings — nothing beats the absolute thrill of sharing it with the special people in my life.
9. Snow falling at midnight.
10. Sharing a private joke with an old friend… and watching the expressions on the faces around us as they try without success to figure out what the heck is so funny!

I think we should all stop and think about what makes us smile every once in a while. I find that it helps get me through the “less appealing, rather be sleeping through this stress” kind of days.

Stay tuned for my list of dreams coming up in a future blog entry!

…are completely incompetent! I settled a car accident claim with those lovely people at ICBC just over a month ago (on the day that the trial was to begin). My lawyers involved in the case have been talking out of the side of their mouths since the very beginning of this case, almost six years ago. Now, over a month after their “help” with settling, I’m still dealing with a subrogated claim by another insurance company that should have never been an issue at all. I don’t understand how lawyers can get away with promising one thing and delivering another, over and over and over again. Now I’m faced with hiring another civil lawyer, and potentially dealing with another lawsuit to finally see closure to this very painful ordeal. Justice seems to be hiding at the moment. Where’s my axe?

Okay, so in an effort to overcome this latest setback, I’ve decided to just look ahead at the many, many positive things that are happening in my life. There are so many reasons to be happy right now, that this stupid legal situation shouldn’t sour my mood — and I’m determined to make sure that this is the case.

For example: I’m so happy that I’m finally moving in with my boyfriend after 16 months of dating. In an effort to spend time with him, I’ve been living out of my knapsack for these many months, and it’s so darn inconvenient, not to mention back-breaking when I have to drag my laptop and accessories with me as well. This is a *very* postive and exciting change for me — us, actually. Hopefully soon, he’ll be as excited about me being here to come home to, and wake up to, as I am. When he’s a happy boy, life feels that much more perfect.

Last night was a blast! A friend of ours normally has us over to yack, relax, and watch Osbornes on Tuesday nights, but I decided to have them over at my boyfriend’s place (soon to be my home too!) for a change of pace last night. It turned out to be so much fun! (not that it isn’t at my friend’s place…) I burnt chicken on the BBQ, we all had some homemade Shiraz, and pigged out on cupcakes that my friend brought with her. There was five of us, and although my friend’s sister couldn’t show up due to work, it was an almost perfect evening.