Tag: work

work sometimes kills me

our staging/qa/production process is tedious, pointlessly so, and in this case didnt even catch the issue until production because the environments are so different.

and each stage takes 10 approvals.

and 1 week.

and we’re 4 weeks behind.

and developer just said that he figured out the fix but we should go back to staging because solution is recoded.

which sets us 3 weeks behind.

im gonna go make myself a drink.

february is coming

its a bit hard to believe that 1/12th of the year is already has went by. the stress situation is getting a bit better; in part because of lessened workload and in part because i’ve learned to handle it better. i still have ways to go in terms of managing to not let it get to me and to juggle all the responsibility without it eating into my after-5 time, but at least i have my priorities set.

its a bit trippy to think that 1/12 of the year has already passed. its such a large chunk of the year, and it seems like yesterday that time came back with the big white box from apple, or the policeman threatened to arrest my dad at nathan phillips square for public intoxication during the new years celebration.

this month has been particularly good because we made some correct steps to a better life. we have had some good conversations regarding what both of us want in the next 5 years; a cleaning lady will start coming in weekly; and a carpenter is coming in tomorrow to look at the kitchen for a possible reno. the 3 things have very little to do with eachother other than we’re becoming more adult-like in our thoughts, and behavior.

today we went to dave and busters for a friend’s birthday. the lady in question is a friend of a friend, though she has helped us out magnificently with the wedding.  it was shocking how young people there felt to me. this was probably the first day i felt Old/Adult. there is something very refreshing and terrifying about being able to spend $10 on tickets without any worry; there is something very wrong when 80% of the crowd is younger than you. WEIRD. and i’m only 26.

i still think of myself as being 25 years old. not 26. though i do actively remember my age.

the condo is coming along nicely. other than the hypothetical kitchen reno we’re pretty stabilized. OH YES! ALMOST FORGOT:

mom gave me some awesome birthday presents. she refinished (well, finished from our light start together) the fiberglass Eames Herman Miller chair that was made march 14, 1956. I know because I’m looking at the manufacturing label RIGHT NOW. its framed by my table. she stripped and sanded down the chair and repainted it, and replaced it with the legs that I got forever ago to replace the broken old ones. this chair came from my previous position with the Mining Company. I’m madly in love with the fact that I have a 50+ year old chair. HOW AMAZING IS THAT.

but to boot, she refinished the twin to the original wooden chair from the same corporate location; i now posses 2 matching vintage teak chairs. I love them to pieces. It’s probably a bit sick. BUT OH MAN.

I got myself some tulips on Wednesday and they still look great, even though they ran out of water last night when we slept over at Karmun’s; amazingly enough the refreshed vase this afternoon rescued them. they actually finished the exciting water bone dry.

I started buying musin on iTunes. I can’t stop listening to I’m your Man – Down With Webster – a Canadian band! And I bought it on iTunes. There’s something superbly pleasant about buying music so cheaply and easily. And legally.

Flat Rock Pinot Noir 2007 is awesome.

quitting

it’s been 50 hours since i stubbed out my last one and said i’m done.

it was surprisingly easy. tomorrow evening i’ll hit the 72 hour mark for all nicotine being out of my system, and before my birthday i’ll hit the 2-3 week pass when I hit the next milestone.
[1] [2]

It’s exciting. i’m doing this in the arguably most stressful and busy period of the entire year – i have 3 projects reaching major milestons and completion in the next 3 weeks; plus christmas, plus volunteering, plus a number of other initiatives at work that i’m working on; plus you know, regular life/cleaning/friends/family.

the first 2 days were very, very, easy. i’m finding tonight slightly harder than before, but evenings are usually more hard. once i get a final update on this project i can go to sleep… and that has become FAR better!

speaking of work – that has been a blast. though very, very busy i am loving the never-a-boring-moment, and working with people, and trying to find my way out of very complicated situations where i have to deal with people – not computers. this is why i like this job.

condo is going well. the couch is all i dreamed about and more. the next big project is the kitchen.

while tim was away i repainted the bathroom and hung up a new light fixture. mm, good light.

happy valley goose bay

my first day in goose bay was full of adventure.

goose bay, actually called happy valley goose bay is a city in Labrador. it has the largest runway in north america, was an important site for fuel refueling in WW2 and is a secondary NASA landing site. current population is around 7,000 people. i’m here because of business, and due to the flight scheduling i had to arrive on sunday, giving me a full day of exploring.

flight left toronto at 7am, meaning i left home at 5:30am, meaning i woke up at 4 and got up at 4:30am. painful. the flight and the transfer on halifax were pretty uneventful, however. (one exception to that is something that i’ve noticed: small airports in canada are way more strict about security – in toronto i didn’t beep going through the metal scanner – and in halifax i did. now, the only 3 items of metal on me are my watch, my wedding ring, and 4 tiny studs in my shoes. same for the amount of scrutiny for the scanning of the luggage. line moved efficiently, but still twice as slow as pearson.)

adventure started in the airport. i walk up to the National rental counter, say my name, that i’m with (the large company i work for) and that i have a car reserved. she pulls out the reservation, and 5 minutes into filling it out turns out that i’m … too young to get it. i’m 24, and i need to be 25. now, i’ve taken trips to sudbury and thompson (manitoba) already, and rented national in both places. the girl at the check in counter in sudbury recognizes me. i haven’t had any issues, except here.

after i feel my face going red, i realize i have nothing to be worried about, and start laughing at the absurdity of the situation. i suggest she calls her manager, and if that doesn’t work out i’ll call our travel agency and have them sort it out. thankfully, 20 minutes later it turns out that [my company] is one of the 4 others in canada that has the special deal of letting underage drivers rent cars. and the woman didn’t know it because they don’t have internet in the airport yet.

after getting my car and directions around the city, i get my brief lunch (caribou burger! tasty, but nothing too different), and take a break outside with my book before going out to explore the surroundings (which are gorgeous!). i unlock the car, toss my bag in, check that the door opens and lean against it to start reading my book. 30 seconds later i hear a *click*.

the car just locked.

and the keys are inside.

the same lady who dealt with me in the airport drives up, unlocks the car without getting out of hers, we exchange a couple of friendly jokes (everyone are total sweethearts around here), and i go off on my merry way of exploring. photos later – but salient point is that after those 2 events i almost got stuck in a sand dune. that would’ve been charming…

its almost 6pm now, and i have to wake up at 5am – class is at 7am. i’m not even sure if i should go get dinner!

photos taken, pratchett book finished, i am not sure what to do next. however, good day in happy valley goose bay!