LITTLE ADMIRER

On the weekend my parents, sister-in-law and I took my nephews to a Christmas party at the community centre nearby my place.  For a $1 entrance fee there were about 10 different stations/areas of activities for the kids.  They also handed out coffee, popcorn and candy for free.  And when you redeemed your ticket you got a can of pop and cookies.  My nephews decorated gingerbread cookies, made Christmas ornaments and got fake tattoos.  A great deal for only a buck. 

We all ended up in the gym area of the rec centre.  There were 3 huge inflated playgrounds inside.  Then scattered around the parameter of the gym were various games.  There was a stage in the centre where these two volunteers danced up a storm for the kids, who followed along.  It was really cute, especially when my oldest nephew, almost 5 years old, tried to mack on some older girl who was dancing.  I almost peed in my pants laughing so hard cause it was so funny.  Seriously.

There was this little boy, probably about 2 years old standing nearby me as I was sitting on a bench watching the dancing.  I wasn’t paying much attention to him, but he was pretty cute.  Suddenly, I felt this little hand on my knee.  I look over and there he was, little guy decided to rest his hand on me, while leaning himself against me, oblivious to the fact that I’m a complete stranger.  His mom looked over at me and we smiled and chuckled.  He did this for about a good 5 minutes, with my dad taking a photo of it cause it was so cute.  When he finally realized he was leaning against a stranger, he smiled shyly at me and moved away.  Then, for a good 10 – 15 minutes he stood in front of me fixated.  He kept smiling shyly, staring at me, while waving chocolate animal crackers at me.  At one point his mom said to me “he really, really likes you” and we laughed.

Little guy copping a feel of my leg

Little guy (circled in red) in front of me giving me the eyes..lol (you can't tell, but he is, I swear!)

I know, I have this effect on younger men, they see me and want me…lol..yeah, right.  It was certainly a cute moment in the middle of all this craziness in the gym.  😉

CUPCAKES

I was thinking about what to bring to my best guy’s Christmas party.  Wine came to mind, but I wanted to do something different and bringing wine would be boring and knowing me I’d get bad wine since I know almost nothing about alcohol. 

At his last party I made grilled prawn skewers, which was a great hit.  But, I decided not to do that this time.  Then, on Friday I was at Walmart, and there was this mega sale on Betty Crocker cake mix.  As I was reading the instructions on the back, it came to me, cupcakes…cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles.  Cupcakes it was.

It all starts with Betty

Fresh out of the oven

Lined up like little soldiers ready for frosting

Finished product

My decorating abilities were not professional, but I tried my best (I screwed up only one cupcake out of 36).  When I brought them to the party my best guy was impressed.  I kinda felt like my cupcakes weren’t posh enough, only because he does such a fabulous job of decorating his condo.  Just his Christmas tree alone is incredible.

I call this the "Martha Stewart" tree

The party went really well and it was a lot of fun, it was nice to mingle and talk with so many different people.  On my way home I was stopped by the R.I.D.E. program.  This was the conversation:

Officer:  Hi, have you been drinking any alcohol tonight?
Me: Um, no
Officer: So, you don’t have any opened bottles of alcohol in your vehicle (scans my car)?
Me: Um..no (looks innocently into the eyes of the officer)
Officer: Opened bottles of anything?
Me: Well, no..oh, just an empty water bottle
Officer: How about any dead bodies in the trunk? (I see a half smile)
Me: Hm…(pausing for effect)…no, no dead bodies
Officer: Ex-husbands in the trunk? (smiling now, obviously joking with me)
Me: Nope, none of those (laughing)
Officer: Are you sure now? (laughing as well)
Me: Definitely not!  Just this empty bottle of water (waving said bottle at him)
Officer: (gives me a few pats on the back) Ok, then, have a great evening (smiles)
Me: (smiles back) ok, thanks!

I drove off, passing another police officer who smiled at me, and then thought to myself  “did that officer dude just touch me on the back”?!  I’m sure he was just being friendly, but it was strange.  I’ve been stopped by R.I.D.E. a few times and don’t ever remember them being that touchy feely nor that jokey and friendly.  But, thinking about it, dude can pat my back, crack jokes anytime as long as I don’t get into trouble.

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.