Coulda Woulda Shoulda

There are some days that you arrive with the greatest intentions and leave with your head in a spin. I am about to walk out the door now because I truly think my brain has turned off. Just had this conversation. *Bring Bring* (A picks up the phone) A: Hello? AnyOldOne: Hi A? Yes I'm just calling *problem**problem**problem* A: Ah yes, no worries, I will get that sorted for you by the end of today Silence AOO: It is the end of today. A: Oh. I guess I won't then Silence A: Uhhh...have a nice long weekend? D's been gone 8 hours and already I've lost it.

Can someone please explain to me how I can list of names of companies that can get packages from Toronto to Orlando from by 9am overnight and yet getting a package from Dublin to Belfast (this is an HOUR AND A HALF DRIVE PEOPLE!!!) can actually take up to 4 days??? BY COURIER???? I love my job. I relish the challenge of the stress that comes along with deadlines. I even love the stress. I admit it. I'm perhaps a stress junkie. I don't, however, like to be at the mercy of people, who, in my mind have not had the foresight to really THINK about the important components of running a courier company. If I didn't care how quickly it got there, I'D SEND IT IN THE POST!!!! A lot of the time, my job relies on things being delivered. It also involves on things being delivered OVERNIGHT or within hours, something that perhaps my spoiled North American working self is quite used to. Not so much used to the Irish delivery systems. Not so great to endure the kind of stress that come...

I had a dream the other night I was 3 months pregnant. My stomach was in so much pain and the doctor told me 'that happens' in the first 3 months. I woke to realise that it was partly true - my stomach was in aches and pains although it was probably to do with the Pilates and Abs Blast classes instead of a child growing inside. When I relayed the story to girl at work, she promptly told me: "That means someone's going to die." A bit taken aback, I laughed it off and realised I could attribute this to ANYONE in the world as at ANY GIVEN MOMENT someone is sadly passing. It was only after I got home, however, that I realised my dream perhaps has actually predicted a death close to my home. I have killed the fern I was supposed to be tending. I walked past it last night, the pathetic leaves drooping, the stems at the bottom pulling themselves away from the roots. Who knew you could OVER water a plant? I did have one last ditch effort on Sunday where i mixed up some Mi...

The weather over here is pretty much the same temperature all the time. There is now extreme cold or extreme hot. Just extreme centre. I used to like that. But now, it's old to me. It's like one day just seems to slip into the next and I can't really remember if it's April or December because the weather certainly doesn't give me any indication. I hate to complain about the weather. It is such a trivial, inconsequential component. One that we can't control, so what is the point in talking about it. I'm happy my mood will soon be lifted. The excitement is building for a surprise visit by a truly cool Canadian travelling chick to Belfast. Our friend A.K. not only saved my lonely, anti-girlie girl butt on a booze cruise in Corfu, Greece, she also put me up in her bed in Edinburgh for the festival AND made Leeds a pit stop on her final trek around England before jetting off back to Canada. Also Ms. A.K. only stayed for a couple of months when she got back there....

It was the sound of the pipe band bagpipes and drums that brought me to a halt in the conversation with my mother this morning. I stopped her mid sentence. "Mom, sorry, there's a parade going by my window". She was as giddy as I was. I quickly opened the window to allow the music to float up into our fourth floor apartment. I knew it took us both back to a time when I was little and she was, well, probably about my age, perhaps a bit older. We would have been standing along a road - in small-town-Ontario-anywhere - waiting to see the Ingersoll Pipe Band in the parade, march past us. And there, at the back with all the drummers - the renegade musicians - would be my dad'; his brow furrowed in concentration, altering only slightly to give us all a wink and a half smile. The sound of a pipe band is such a lovely noise to me. To me, it was community. People of all kinds getting together locally to watch the musical procession. Togetherness really. About 2 minutes later, ...

Right, listen up little dude. I just realised that I am really crap - oh, sorry, don't tell your mother I just said crap; it will be our little secret. So, I'm really crap (AGAIN...ix-nay on the wearing-say) at updating lately and have realised that the least I could have done was update on 15 April to say a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my most avid reader (probably only reader) your mom. She has now - as my mother liked to point out - entered her 30th year. Which just goes to show two things, little man. 1 - I really need to get a grip and a schedule but mostly that I need your help to continue smiling and laughing all day as this helps me to feel not so bad that not only am I not there to celebrate with her but that I totally dissed her in the blog world, oh-bad-friend-that-I-am. 2 - Parents will get their revenge in the end. Like I'm not going to be able to call my 29th birthday the first day of my '30th year'. Thanks mom. But hey, they do clean our bums so we should ...

As I approach 30, I begin to think about the personality traits I have that I don't think I can ever change. It's not about giving up, more about letting go. I am so competitive - The only board game I can play without getting agressive and red faced is Trivial Pursuit, and that's because it feels less like a game and more like a 'joint learning experience'. I am crap at being alone - I need about 30 minutes alone time a day. This can be easily achieved on my walk to work and on the bus. I can go for about 5 waking hours not speaking to another human being but after that, I just start speaking to myself. After a day, I start reinventing my childhood imaginary friend Jenny. Although, she never really talked that much, just listened to all my wisdom. (With you're imaginary friends, you are always right) I am a non-conformist who hates breaking the rules - I was a goody goody as a child, rarely got in trouble, always was saying sorry and was deathly afraid of polic...

All day Saturday, in your comfy blue pants, your too long Hard Rock Cafe Mexico shirt and your Canada Hockey baseball cap, walking with bags in hands out of my apartment, down the hall, into the lobby, down the stairs, across the road, down the alley, across the other road, into the new lobby, up the new elevator, down the new hall and into the new apartment. Trip after trip after trip. Ready to sleep by 4:30 The arrival of a friend with a van sparks a bit more speed but conversation tends to take over. And then the realisation that the last ice hockey game of the season is on in Belfast. A mad rush to find out who wants to go. A dash to the box office to buy 6 tickets, a mental scramble to finish cleaning the old kitchen, eat chinese food amongst boxes and bags in our new apartment and frantically tidy ourselves up for a night out. Livening up at the game and the glee of realizing they have gin and tonics NOT just beer, although at the last 4 games you've suffered through with la...