FIRST SNOWFALL

West coast snowfall

I love the first snowfall of the season, it blankets the city in white.  This morning on my way to work I couldn’t help but smile at how lovely all the trees looked covered in snow and ice.  I know, call me silly girl, but its only the first snowfall that it looks so pretty.  After that, it just looks like gray slush.

I took my car in on Tuesday to get winter tires so I timed it perfectly.  Its the first time I’ve ever gotten winter tires for my little car.  When I got to my mechanic he basically told me that it would be hard to get four winter tires since its been crazy this year with Quebec making it mandatory that all cars have winter tires.  Luckily, though, he was able to get two tires for me and good quality ones at that.  I was a bit hesitant to get only two since they say four is what you should be getting.  But, he assured me that my all seasons were actually in really good shape, so not to worry.  Good thing I got them cause driving home yesterday was slippery, but the tires held up so no accidents.  I definitely felt the difference.

I was talking with my co-workers today and one of them was telling me how she basically slide all the way home it was so bad.  She just bought her car 6 months ago, so her tires should be good, but they totally failed on her.  She’s now thinking of winter tires, but it’s gonna be hard to find them now.  My other co-worker, who is a car freak, put his winter tires on last night and was in Crappy Tire, aka Canadian Tire, for almost 4 hours waiting for them to be installed.  He was also telling me he was panicking the whole way there because his all seasons were horrendous and he was skidding and sliding.  He felt lucky to get to Crappy Tire in one piece.

I don’t mind winter, I do get a bit nervous with the first snow fall, but not as nervous as I use to be in Vancouver where they have no idea how to drive in snow.  My only hope is that this winter is not like last winter where we had snow every three days.  I may need to move if that’s the case.  Or just make alot of big ass snow angels. 

GIRLS WEEKEND

One of my closest friends birthday was on Monday.  She wanted to go shopping in Buffalo for the weekend for her birthday.  It wasn’t very imaginative, but it was her birthday so no complaints from me.  I just go with the flow….most of the time.

We left on Sunday, so I had to take Monday off from work.  We decided to do an overnight thing so that we could leave early on Monday, which worked perfectly cause I was home by dinner time.  Anyways, as usual, I’m shopped out.  Birthday girl is famous for her endless amounts of shopping and spending.  And, what’s funny is that we just went to Buffalo 2 months ago and she was still able to spend over $200 at Target.  I don’t know how she does it.  The only shopping I want to do after this weekend is grocery shopping.

It was good bonding time though.  I got caught-up with my friend whom I haven’t seen in awhile and birthday girl confessed to me her new crush.  We were having the best burgers at Fuddruckers (seriously, the best) and she says to me “I like that guy from the Montreal office”.  This is the guy that she tried to set-up her ex-assistant with but it didn’t work out.  Oh, the tangled web we weave.

I wasn’t surprised by her confession, I suspected that she would end up liking him, which is one of the reasons why I thought her set-up was a bad idea.  And she had told me about this situation that happened between them awhile back, which made me think he was interested in her (which he is), and her in him, but she denied it, as one does when they can’t admit their own feelings.  Anyways, distance is still a problem with this guy and he’s already pointed out her negative attributes, he’s starting off well, isn’t he? 

What do I think?  It doesn’t matter, because I’m just glad my friend is engaged in something other than shopping, stressing out about her family life, money and the next great lip balm she wants.  She’s already negative about the whole situation, so I’m not going to add to it, because its nice to see her excited (yet negative, I know, its crazy) about something other than the usual.  I think its good to take some risks because you never know what will happen.

MY ADDICTION

Hm..wonder what brand of toothpaste I like, eh?

I have an addiction (among a few others I’ll never confess to..lol)…………..I’m a Stockpilieraholic. 

On the weekend, I decided to go through some of my stuff in my spare bedroom to see what I could gather as gifts for Christmas.  I wasn’t being cheap, its just that I’ve bought stuff for the express purpose of giving them away as gifts.  So, I went through my storage bins in my spare bedroom again to figure out exactly what I had.

Well, guess what I found while shifting through the bins?  Apparently, I have a million tubes of toothpaste, like what the hell is that about?  Here’s the thing - when it goes on sale I get brain dead and go into a buying frenzy of cheap toothpaste forgetting I have enough for a family of 10.  Seriously, I kid you not, thats why I took photographic evidence of it.  Is there any sane reason why a single girl needs 9 tubes of toothpaste (there may be more hiding, I’m afraid to admit)?

Anyways, I did find quite a few items I had bought to be given away, so, there’s a few people I can scratch off my Christmas list.  What else did I find in my dig?  Well, I have enough moisturizer to last me a million years, bars of travel size soaps that will keep me squeaky clean while I’m on my business travel extravaganza early next year and an assortment of other things that are not worth repeating.  I went through all this stuff a few months back when I was cleaning, but couldn’t quite admit to my addiction, but I can no longer hide it.  Aiya…I need to stop this madness of stockpiling household items!!

The digging was good, because I’m going to donate a load to charity – I’d been meaning to go through the stuff again after my intial organization, but got busy, so this was good.  I put some stuff aside for donation, perfect timing since Christmas is around the corner.

I pledge to stop the stockpiling.  I’m not a shopper – I can go weeks without stepping into the mall, but I tend to buy things on sale and then just put them away and forget about it.  From now on, buy only what I need, seriously, less is always better.

ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO REOPENED

Courtesy of the AGO

When I was young, I remember going to the AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario, and looking at the various exhibits there.  I didn’t understand it much at the time, but I could appreciate that I was looking at something not only was artistically appealing but had a story behind it.  The next time I was there was many, many years later with a family friend who was visiting.  That was the last time I stepped into the AGO – more than 15 years ago.  I’ve driven by it, wanted to visit, but time just rushes past you and you forget. 

I read an article online today that they were reopening the AGO.  It had been under construction for quite awhile now, three years?  Its a bit of a landmark on Dundas and Beverly.  The grand opening is tomorrow and for the weekend they are going to have free admission.  I’d love to go this weekend, but unfortunately, I have plans on Saturday and Sunday.  So, I’ll just go another day and pay for it.  I think its worth it, especially considering who designed it.  And, there are some interesting exhibits going on right now that I’d like to see.

So, who designed it?  I was surprised to learn it was designed by Frank Gehry.  Famous Canadian architect currently living in California.  I’ve admired his work for many years, so I’m happy they choose a Canadian, and a famous architect to boot, to design the new AGO.  I went to the Experience Music Project in Seattle about 6 years ago and loved it.  It was definitely an experience.  And, of course, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millenium Park.  His signature style can definitely be seen in both of these designs.

I don’t think I can get any of my friends to go with me to the AGO, except for one friend who likes the arts like me.  I suspect the new building has revitalized the neighbourhood.  The area stirs up a lot of good memories for me, and I was even around there about a month ago but was in such a rush that I didn’t stop to see the progress on the building, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it looks now all completed.

Funny how something like this stirs up old memories long gone that can still make you smile.  Call me sentimental.

LIFE RAMBLINGS

I can’t believe that its already November.  I got my first Christmas party invite.  My best guy is having his annual party in a few weeks time.  I’m looking forward to it.  I haven’t seen the boy in ages.  We’ve both been so busy.  Him especially since he got a promotion.  He offered me a job, but I turned him down.  It wasn’t enough money and I wasn’t willing to commute downtown again for less cash.  It would have been fun to work with him again, but it wasn’t meant to be this time around.

Speaking of jobs, work has been super tense lately.  Over the past few weeks there have been a number of layoffs and reduction of hours for a number of employees.  I feel bad, but I’m not worried about my job.  Its not that I think I’m indispensable, I’m just not worried about it.  My co-worker is pretty worried.  He was telling me how badly the company is doing, which I knew already, but he knows it best because he’s the analyst.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the next month.

I had a feel old moment today.  One of the girls in marketing came over and we got into a conversation about the weekend.  She mentioned she was going to a party at Queen’s university – she wanted to have fun and hook-up with some future doctors and lawyers, which Queen’s is filled with.  I laughed and told her to pick me up one, then remembered that most of these guys were about 10 - 15 years younger than me.  She was like “oh, come on its fine, I’ll find you a lawyer!!”.  I laughed…of course we were just joking, but it made me feel old thinking how young this party crowd would be.  I am certainly way past the partying age, I did my damage way back when, so for a few seconds I had my feeling old moment, but honestly I’m quite happy to be beyond all the body slamming, head banging, drinking, dancing till dawn and bad pick-up lines of my younger years.

And, honestly, who would want to see me head bang anyone, right?