KEEPING BUSY

Toronto's Eaton Centre

I really don’t like shopping.  Its just not my thing.  I can’t even bring myself to go to the mall and finish my Christmas shopping.  You’d think with all the time I have now that I’d be living in the mall, yeah, that won’t be me.  And, considering I don’t have as much disposable income as before, I do need to keep myself away from the toothpaste sales  going on..lol..kidding. 

So, in my second week of freedom, I’ve decided to take a walk around my neighbourhood every afternoon.  Well, every afternoon that I’m home that is.  I’ve been pretty busy, busier than when I was working.  It’s interesting how your time fills out so quickly when you have free time.  Anyways, it’s freaking cold outside, but it’s nice to go for a walk.  It’s actually refreshing.  Although walking around a bunch of punk ass kids getting out of school isn’t my favourite, so I’m going to go in the earlier part of the afternoon, to avoid the kiddie crowd.  Oh, I live like two minutes from my old high school, therefore the punk ass school kids.

Anyways, my first Christmas party is this weekend.  I’m looking forward to it.  I love seeing my best guy and he’ll make me laugh, something I’ve been sorely missing (well, my nephews make me laugh, but that’s a bit different).  Laughter is a great release, therapeutic actually, and I love to laugh, whether it be at myself, or something crude or hilarious someone says to me.  I am putty in your hands if you make me laugh out loud.  

I’m already smiling just thinking about it.

LEISURELY DAY

I got together with my former co-worker yesterday for lunch.  She got laid off the same day I did.  I could get use to these leisurely days.  We decided to meet at Pacific Mall, big Asian mall in suburbia.   

Anyways, we had a nice long lunch and talked about a bunch of stuff.  My co-worker is still quite into the whole mess that is our former company.  I have already moved on from it, I don’t like dwelling on the negative.  But, I understand her need to talk and vent about it.  We both enjoyed our jobs, but the difference is that she would still love to work there and I’m rather happy that I’m not there to witness the whole ship sink.  Honestly, I’m better off than the people who weren’t let go and now have to keep it all afloat.  That is more stressful to me than being out of a job.  I have freedom now, they don’t.

So, after lunch we walked around the mall.  I’m not a fan of this mall, because, well, I’m not a shopper, but also because I always get lost in there.  Its like this maze of tiny little shops with almost all the same stuff and I get confused.  I know, sad, but its true.  But, what I did remember was that there was a tattoo shop there, Chronic Ink.  I told my co-worker about it and then told her how I’ve been contemplating a tattoo for the longest time.  She was totally caught off guard by that because she did not peg me as the tattoo type.  Most people don’t, but seriously if I wasn’t so petrified of the pain, I would have a few of them by now.

We found it, and just listening to the needles buzzing away freaked me out.  So, until I can get over my fear of that needle touching my skin and scraping a design on it, I’ll probably never get one.  I’m brave, but not that brave.  I can’t even stand it when they draw blood from me, makes me wanna faint.  But, my co-worker could not get over the fact that I wanted a tattoo.  Funny how perceptions can be so wrong sometimes.  😉

LET’S TRY THIS AGAIN

Change is always good – sometimes challenging, but good.  There are people who hate change and then there’s me, I like change, it can be scary, it can be life altering or it can just simply put some kinks into your plans.  So, I have a lot of time on my hands now.  Its been a long time since I’ve had some free time. 

At the beginning of last week, my company laid off over 80 people, which included me and many of my immediate co-workers.  Honestly, before you all start feeling sorry for me, please don’t, because its all for the better.  I knew it was coming, it was obvious for the past couple of months.  I just didn’t know when it was coming.  And, frankly, I wasn’t really concerned.  You can’t control everything – so you just hope for the best.

The economy certainly had something to do with it, because the business relied heavily on the U.S., but mostly the company was poorly managed.  Anyone with half a brain could see that.  When you’ve poorly managed a company for 25 odd years, it starts to show.  Anyways, I’m not going to go into any detail about it cause it doesn’t matter now.  All that matters, to me, is that I’m ok and I’m grateful to have some free time now.  There are a few things I’ve been wanting to get to and now I can. 

The added bonus of all this is that with Christmas coming up I can ease into it rather than be stressed about baking, cooking and entertaining.  I’ve got some resumes out there, but I’m not really going to start pounding the pavement till after the new year.  I know there are people who think its in poor taste to lay someone off just before the holidays, but I don’t see it that way.  I’ve been given an opportunity to enjoy the holiday season and I’m going to do just that.

And, maybe this is my time to seize some opportunities and take some leaps of faith.  They say things happen for a reason and I tend to believe that.