Halloween apples!

I always preferred that option over the more standard "trick or treat" yell. It has a nice little sing songy tune.

We're not in the Halloween spirit this year. No candy can be collected at our door. No jack o'lanterns on the snowy steps. No cobwebs clinging to the doorway.

Oh wait, we do have those.

Just a regular old Tuesday night. Went to belly dancing. Trudged back through the snow without slipping - yay. I did go out on the weekend though. It was pretty fun. Well, on a fun scale, I guess it would register a 6. That's actually not very fun. I just liked checking out all the costumes, but nothing too interesting took place. I went as Alice in Wonderland. But the dress was a bit big so I looked wider than I really am and I think that the wig made me look like a guy in drag.

Happy Halloween!

Small pleasures

REALLY small.

Today was a great day because... I plowed my way through that whole stack of work I had to do! Unbelievable! I'm a machine!!! My office had been in disarray with stacks of messy papers everywhere, old post-its, paper clips, an overflowing rubbish bin, etc etc. But today when I left, it was a vision of tidy, organized splendour. Not a single paper on my desk, everything put away in its proper place, a new filing system to keep everything just one easy step away. I'm so proud of myself. I thought I'd be drowning in that chaos for much longer. It truly is a thing of beauty. Hence my steady stream of self-congraulatory praise.

Hey, when life is this dull, you have to find satisfaction where you can.

Where's the fun?

They say time flies when you're having fun.

Well time is whooshing by these days, but I can't say the old adage is proving true. My life has been seriously lacking in the fun department. I've got a surplus of work and exhaustion, peppered very lightly with a spattering of excercise, but a critical fun deficiency!

In addition to my Mon-Fri job, I've taken on some temporary weekend shifts promoting the Grey Cup and CBC. My full-time work is ridiculously busy, a million little things need to be done at all times, plus there's a huge pile of stuff left by the other girl that will take me ages to get through. And the crappiest thing is that it's all such tedious, mindless work. My brain cells will atrophy with disuse. Watching Deal or no Deal takes more thinking power! Okay, that's too harsh. I suppose some intellect is required. Like when I figured out how to change the toner in the copier. Yep, I sure am putting that university education to good use.

I don't hang out with my friends much these days either. I haven't seen one of my best buds in over a month! That's just rubbish. When did things become so busy and boring? I know we all have jobs and things to do, but I can always squeeze in some social time. Why doesn't anyone want to play with me anymore??

barf

Fantastic. Another weekend wasted being sick. Stomach bug hit Thursday night and has ruined the past few days. Last night was a big success because I managed to eat a bowl of soup. Sure, it took me two hours to finish it, but I didn't throw it up after. Yay me. I'm still feeling a bit icky today. This is getting very annoying.

we now bring you this important news bulletin.....

It's time for an update in the thrilling, fast-paced, ever outrageous life of Amanda Blue.

This week's update will feature news concerning professsional advancement, social vivacity, and passionate romance! Read on for the latest news, documenting in detail Amanda's blissful satisfaction, including euphoric commentary on the utter fulfillment she feels about her life.



There is nothing to report.

Mooooooooaaan.....grooaaan

Can.... barely.... move... Thighs...... aching.

Man, I am in rough shape, that kickboxing sure was hard on the legs! Every time I stand up or sit down, it's accompanied by "owowowowowowowow". But a good ow; lets me know I was exercising. And all that punching and kicking is so fun!! I can't wait til next class, I will soon be a deadly force to be reckoned with. LOOK OUT!

That is, when I'm not hobbling around all battered and bruised.

Ma petite vacance

Ooh, my French is horrible.

Anyway, that attempt at Francais was in honour of my most recent little holiday. We went to Montreal! I've been to Montreal many times before, because that's where my dad's family lives, but this was the first time I really got to be a tourist. The siblings and I all went, and my mom and her boyfriend were there too. Us kids stayed at the downtown Y which was great because of it's location. It was like we were backpackers again!

The grownups took us around in the rented car, up Mount Royal, through pretty parks, past the sites, into Old Montreal etc. Very nice. However, when left to our own devices, all we did was shop. Shopshopshopshopshopshopshop. I bought quite a bit, or so it seemed at the time. Of course now I wish I'd gotten more. Oh well. We also went to synagogue for Yom Kippur services (serious day of atonement, shortly after the Jewish new year begins). That was nice too. It didn't seem nearly as long and tedious as I expected.

We also checked out Montreal night life one night. At $7 a pint, the prices were much higher than we're used to in our hick town, so we did the classy thing and bought some booze from the dépanneur, which we then consumed over card games in our room. Just like the days spent crossing Russia and the Baltics. Lots of reminiscing as we kept saying "a year ago today we were looking at the terracotta warriors", "a year ago today we were walking the Great Wall" etc. We had fun sifting through old memories of days on the road.

Anyway, we were on a very lively street, nothing but pubs and clubs. Loads of people everywhere, a really vibrant atmosphere. Man, I wish we had something similar in lame old Winnipeg. But we don't. Because we're lame. After a pub drink we tried out one of the clubs. Very young, very ethnically diverse crowd. People speaking French, people speaking English, people speaking a variety of other languages. I must say I was disappointed though. After seeing oodles and oodles of gorgeous young men on the streets of Montreal, there was not a single piece of eye candy in this entire bar. Boo! Jennie and I did get a good laugh at the dancers on stage though. Typically, in Winnipeg anyway, it's girls that hop up on the stage or speakers to shake their booty around. But there were nothing but guys up there. And about 5 guys were dancing in a line, facing the dance floor, all wearing similar dress shirts, all unbuttoned to mid-chest. It was hysterical! You'd think the unbuttoned shirt look was actually a dress code requirement. So ridiculous!

So that was Montreal. Shop-shop-eat-shop-shop-drink-shop-shop-dance-shop-shop-somberatonement-shop-shop. Comme j'aime être une touriste!

Another job

Yep, I've got a another job. This one is a proper Mon-Fri full time position. I'm an agent's assistant, working for a company that represents musicians and various artists, booking tours, concerts etc. And after my first shift, I''d like to share with you my first impressions:

I hate it.

The majority of the staff seem really nice. And perhaps there would be some cool perks like free tickets to shows and meeting lots of different people. But there are a variety of cons that outweigh the potential cool factor.

1) My salary is much lower than I'd like

2) The hours are stupid: 9-6 instead of 9-5. Grr!

3) The work doesn't seem very stimulating and it would be ages before it got interesting

and most importantly,

4) The boss is a real asshole,

I couldn't believe how rude he was to me! He wanted to arrange my contract, spell out the details etc. I asked if there was overtime and he replied very snarkily "No. Why, did you think there would be?" To which I said no, I was just wondering. It's a fair question after all, and if they have no intention of paying overtime, they better not expect me to work 10 hour days like the girl I'm replacing.

But that's not what really shocked me. I mentioned that I had a class once a week that started at 6, so would it be alright if those days I worked 8-5. He abruptly said no. Just a flat out NO. For a second I thought he might be joking. But he wasn't. Then he went on a tirade about how I'd already asked for 4 days off (I told him when he made me the job offer that I was committed to several shifts elsewhere and asked if it would be a problem) and he was running a business and blah blah blah being so nasty! I was so taken aback by his unjustified inflexibility and unnecessarily rude tone. Anyway, I don't take talk like that, even from the boss, and I told him that to be fair, he had just dropped those 9-6 hours on me last minute, which I found surprising because they aren't standard hours, so how was I to know that my classes would be a problem. Then, like an obnoxious child, he told me he wasn't in the mood to discuss it with me and shoed me out.

I'm not impressed. This doesn't make me look forward to tomorrow, let alone the next.... indeterminate amount of time that I work there. So, the job search continues.