My Year In Review
So, it is that time of year again. It is time for my second annual “year in review.” Yes, it is my blog anniversary. It’s my blogaversary. Happy Blog Day to me.

Another year of prattling has gone by and again I have some comments. Now I did much less blogging on 2006 and I think it has to do with a better job. While it has its problems, it certainly has kept me busy.

I have done a lot of traveling this year. Since January, I have been to Toronto, San Francisco, Niagara on the Lake and New York City. I count myself lucky because my job has been paying for me to travel as the trips have all been for professional development purposes.

I really do think of interns as play things. I have written about them, used them in social experiments and I like to watch them get drunk. At the same time, I really appreciate them and you wouldn’t know it, but they often confide in me. I have respectfully kept their personal problems off the blog. But, I admit, that was a struggle.

The most popular blog post of the year had nothing to do with bras, panties, or bikini waxes. It had to do with a cat. A big fat cat named Oscar. How much does Oscar weigh now? I’m not sure but on June 9th he was 25 pounds. This came as a surprise to GRC but it was plainly obvious to both me, and Nadia (the woman who guessed his weight).

I decided to keep my love life off the blog but I did write about two proper crushes I had this year, the security guard at the Nordelec building and the guy at the gym. Both respectable crushes, but nothing compared to 2005’s Portuguese Chicken Guy, Construction Workers, and certainly not to Dust.

However, there is a new crush on the scene, my capoeira instructor. I have named him “The Best Looking Man in Montreal” and he really is. It is a little bit crazy, actually. He is like his own urban legend.

On the fitness front I have belonged to two gyms. I got back together with the YMCA but still think about U.N.I. Training in my old neighbourhood. It was my first extended experience with a personal trainer and I miss him. Scott was amazing, so were the facilities. I work out as hard as a girl built for comfort should work out.

My work related drinking was at an all time high in 2006 thanks to many an industry event and the aforementioned professional development opportunities. I even swore of the bottle when at work events. But, that was a useless measure especially since I work in an office that encourages wine drinking while working. And, my boss was really upset this summer because we didn’t have the chance to “get hammered and go see Talladega Nights” together.

I had the chance to publish in arenas outside the blog this year. Nothing special but actually getting paid to write was new and exciting. It was an article about interns but I was disappointed because I really couldn’t mention that they are my playthings.

So, this was my Blog year in review. My close friends know what I have left out. There are some things a woman has to keep to herself. On to another year of blogging.
- posted by Debbie @ 2:37 PM |

 
So, I am sitting at my desk here so tired I have no ability to really concentrate on my work. I think I am in stage two of a bad hangover. I can barely keep my eyes open and I have no ability to apply my brain to anything I am actually being paid to do. As a result, I can only blog my progressive hangover away. Really, I don’t know if you can call it a hangover. It is more like the culmination of a ridiculous weekend that involved booze, the Montreal fire department, a winter storm and power outages.

On Friday, I left the office early because the city had been gripped by a huge storm and giant clumps of ice came falling from the sky, bouncing off the windows of our office building. Much of the city lost power. Here in Montreal power outages are common. I like to think of it as our homage to developing nations. I’ve heard there are two reasons that when combined cause the frequent outages. The amount of ice here is surprising, and the power lines are old and the cost to replace that infrastructure is prohibitive. At least this is the layman’s reasoning for the outages, but it doesn’t explain why the power was also going out in the summer. I called Hydro Quebec to get an estimated time for the power to come back (Hydro Quebec encourages consumers to call for this kind of information). The agent curtly informed me that there were over 270,000 people without power and every five minutes another block goes down so I cannot expect her to tell me when my power is coming back. We pay for this service.

Totally dependant on my laptop screen and cell phone for light, the temperature in my apartment quickly fell, and there was no way I could just stay there. Luckily the hosts of the party I was going to attend got a generator and it was time to dance. Body heat replaced Hydro Quebec. I have learned that a blackout + lots of booze + generator powered music + full moon = a house full of scandalously drunken adults. I got home at 4:30am, or so I have been told. I can’t believe I got my key in the door. I think my power was on when I got in because there was enough light for me to wash my face in my drunken state and not fall over.

A couple hours later, loud crashing noises and some yelling got me out of bed. Not sure if it was a dream and still intoxicated I started wandering around my apartment naked as the day I was born looking for the cause of the commotion. It wasn’t until I stood in my kitchen did I see that the building behind mine was, well, burning down. Drunk as I was, I immediately became concerned for the people living in the building and started to cry a little. I stopped when I noticed that the firemen were pointing in the direction of my apartment and I remembered that since there are huge windows in my kitchen the inside of my apartment is plainly visible from the backyard – where the firemen looked to be heading – I decided that I had better get some clothes on which would prove difficult as the power had gone out again making it almost impossible to sift through the tangled mountain of clothes on my bedroom floor. And, oh yeah, I was still pretty drunk. Luckily they did not evacuate my building, and I could sleep the booze off – sort of.

For some reason I decided to get out of bed at noon and attend a capoeira thing that afternoon with a friend of mine. Oh, I remember what the reason was, my power had not come back and my apartment was about 1 degree warmer than outside. I am a trooper, I tell you because I sat through that whole thing. After ward I went home and took a bit of a nap. Thankfully the power was back on.

After my nap, I attended two parties with the intention of staying mostly sober for the whole night. My plan failed and two red wines, a beer, three gin and tonics and a caprinha later I found myself dancing to the Thriller album in my coworkers kitchen. You know, the thriller album really is timeless.

I arrived home at 4:00am. Sunday morning I got out of bed at 2:00pm, making it Sunday afternoon and spent the whole day – well, what was left of it, on the couch. I went back to bed nine hours later and shockingly I couldn’t sleep. So, now I feel terrible. I did it to myself.
- posted by Debbie @ 1:21 PM |