The end of all things (but, you know, much less dramatic and world-savingly important)

Good morning, world.

Today is my last ever day of work at my company - here endeth my first real full-time job, for which I was recruited right out of university. At this point, it just feels weird that I'm gonna go to work today for the last time and then never come back. I'm kinda sad, as I usually am when something ends (particularly when I'm not the one doing the ending), and kinda panicky, since I'm sure I'll forget to do something important before I go. Such is the nature of the worry attack. Egads, I have to give back my work laptop this afternoon, before the IT guys go home...

After that, though - I'm totally heading off tomorrow evening for a week at Disney! Huzzah! Hopefully that'll help clear my mind and provide some fun. The last time I was there my age was in the single digits...hope I find it just as magical now... Gonna go on the Pirates ride since I don't actual remember it from 20 years ago and try not to pass out from the heat. Yay! Hm, still need to get my packing sorted out...

I should stop using so many ellipsises. Ellipses? Yeah, ellipses. I should end my sentences/phrases/whatevers with a definitive full stop. Clearly need to work on that confidence thing and being more decisive. In terms of assertiveness, though, when it comes to driving during rush hour in Toronto, I SWEAR everyone else has gotten more aggressive and it isn't me becoming a less assertive driver. People, I have discovered, are nicer at 9am than they are at 8am. Well, 8:15. I'm usually running late. :)

Radio's been playing Michael Jackson songs since I woke up. Still not sure how I really feel about his death, but mostly I'm sad. RIP.

Labels: general, travel, work

Zzz.

So.

This Friday, I will find out (again) whether I passed the accounting exam I took in September (again)...and just like last year, the likelihood I am successful or not is completely a 50/50 split and there is no way to predict one way or another what's going to happen this time. Argh. I suppose it will be good just to get Results Day out of the way (again) so I can concentrate on...

The company Christmas party is this Saturday, and I'm excited b/c my non-date of choice, Susan (strophie), is coming with me. Unfortunately, the Barenaked Ladies are not performing at our party this year, so hopefully she'll still enjoy herself...

I have yet to post anything about my two week business trip to Houston, mostly because I have, as usual, procrastinated about uploading my photos to my computer. I've got to show and tell you all about my hotel tribulations...although probably everyone who actually reads this, I've already voiced my complaints to. Lol.

Er, I think I thought this entry would be more interesting than it turned out being. I'm too tired to be funny, I guess, because I have yet to (procrasinator!) correct my messed-up sleeping habits (eh, maybe I'll do that tomorrow?). Someone yesterday thought my sleep habits were just messed up as a byproduct of my trip to Texas, but ha! No, this is more of a structural fault in the system than just a temporary time change.

To make up for the lack of interesting content, I leave you with photos of the Chocolate Tuxedo Cream^TM Cheesecake I shared with my coworker while at the Cheesecake Factory in Houston... [erm, actually the photo I took on my phone of our actual cake doesn't seem to be on my laptop right now, so I'll add in that photo when I get home. In the meantime, you can have the generic photo from the Cheesecake Factory website ;P]

CHOCOLATE TUXEDO CREAM^TM CHEESECAKE
Layers of our Fudge Cake, Chocolate Cheesecake, Vanilla Mascarpone Mousse and Chocolate

Labels: bad habits, exams, food, general, travel

Colds are no fun

I've spent the majority of this weekend moving my actual Stuff into my new place -- you know, the things I actually use and need to have with me on a day-to-day basis. My computer, for instance, is over there, and I got the internet and TV hooked up today, whee! :D All is right in the world of my new condo now.

I can say "the majority of this weekend" even though it's not even Sunday yet, because I took Friday off from work to deal with all of this stuff. Not working = fun! On the down side, I've caught a cold from my mom and occasionally now have problems breathing. And Mom's kinda started to catch the cold back from me. Heh, oh well...

The parents helped me hang up my mirror and my awesome Serenity Blue Sun travel posters, yay! Now I just have to obtain my Marauder's Map back from Moonal (I got it from FAO Schwarz in NYC but it wouldn't fit in my tiny travel bag) and wait for its display case to get shipped to me. Good stuff. :)

I never posted anything here about my trip to New York over Thanksgiving, mostly because I'm lazy and partly because I've been busy with work. It was great - the main reason Moonal proposed this trip in the first place was to see Equus on Broadway, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the show. I suspect we still would have enjoyed it even in the absence of Dan Radcliffe, but obviously his presence added that extra interest factor. Due to our own mistakes, we failed to go to Liberty Island or to Toys R Us, but we were quite relieved to get to go on the TV/Movie Locations tour, since we were planning to go on Saturday but got to NYC too late for it and nearly missed it on Sunday. Also, Madame Tussaud's wax figure museum? Still awesome. :) I liked it the last time I was in New York (6 years ago) and Leo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp weren't even there then. Sweeet.

Anyway, gotta go do something restful, etc. in hopes that I will feel better tomorrow. Planning to go see Body of Lies, which hopefully is a good movie despite its lack of fire at the box office. As we all know (or should know), of course, not all good movies are box office gold, and not all glittery box office results imply that the related movie is actually good.

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot to mention - my parents bought me an electronic piano keyboard! They said it's my birthday/Christmas/getting my CA present. Haha. (Will be nice if that CA thing works out this year)... Anyway it's awesome 'cause I was kinda regretful that I couldn't move my piano with me and I mentioned that a keyboard would be a good alternative. Haven't put it all together yet but whee!

Labels: condo, fandom, firefly, general, travel

The condo, it is warm

I had my condowarming on Saturday, and I think it went well? I'm a horrible hostess, though -- I was gonna take everyone up to see the 7th-floor terrace and party room, etc., and then I totally forgot. I also forgot about the wine bottle I had and the champagne bottle that one of my friends brought over, and I forgot about the frozen desserts I was supposed to serve. Balls.

Anyway other than my hostly shortcomings, I think everyone had a reasonable time at my new place. :) Today, I had so little energy left over now that it's over and done with and the adrenaline that kept me going over the past week (from the delivery of my furniture up to the condowarming) has dissipated somewhat.

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Almost everything that can be sorted out for my upcoming weekend trip to NYC with Moonal is sorted out now, which is good since we are leaving on Friday evening. Yay! Hopefully everything will turn out and we'll be able to do the things we're planning to do while we're there (if we have to end up seeing Dan Radcliffe's understudy in Equus instead of him on Saturday night, I think we're going to scream. Lol.)

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There may have been something else I wanted to post about, but I just looked at my work schedule and it looks like I'm gonna have to travel for 3 consecutive weeks in November. Yay? Man, they like to give senior accountants a substantial amount of work to do, and almost no time in which to do it...

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Back to work tomorrow. The thought makes me tired. Also, note the abovementioned lack of adrenaline and the fact that it's 1:00 in the morning. :)

Labels: condo, friends, travel, work

Niagara

Hi all.

Am in Niagara Falls now - we've got 4 days of job training starting tomorrow. Drive here was all right, except for some brief spells of intense rain. Like, seriously.

Anyway, I've been in my hotel room (sharing with my friend Joanne) for about 15 minutes and already I've paid for the one-day unlimited wireless access. Mwahaha. $15/day, for god's sake. But I can expense it! Oh corporate culture. You are a strange, strange creature.

In other news, I, uh, bought a condo apartment today. !!! Yeah my offer was accepted so I got the unit I wanted in the building and location I wanted. Man, that means I really actually have to commit to this moving out on my own thing.... O_o Wish me luck... Not moving 'til after my exam this September, though, so that leaves you plenty of time to think of my housewarming gifts. ;)

Talk to you all soon - gonna explore a bit with Joanne. I believe I saw a sign for a Hershey chocolate store and a Marvel [Comics] Adventures store. I think I'll be all right here. :)

Labels: condo, travel, work

I figure the best way to deal with not having enough time to do everything I have to do before tomorrow is to take a minute to write in my blog here. I feel it is the appropriate response to this situation, but I am open to counterarguments. The crapload of stuff I still need to do is .... well, a crapload. The list ain't gettin' any shorter...

Y'all down here in Texas certainly do say "y'all" a lot. If it weren't for, you know, the actual work that I have to do while I'm here, I'm sure I would consider Houston pleasant enough for the most part. Then again, without the work, I wouldn't BE here, so... double-edged sword?

Anyhoodle, talk to y'all later, all right?

Oh God, I'm never gonna get everything done...

Labels: poor time management, travel, work

Oh, right. THAT's what doing nothing feels like.

So I'm in the office today and tomorrow with approximately nothing I need to do, a phenomenon that I haven't experienced to date since I started working here. If we weren't busy doing client work, we always had CKE exam studying to fall back on and/or neglect to do. Now? Nothing. Our exam results will be out next week and now I'm going to go about forgetting about that entirely because I don't really want to think about it, thanks. Anyway, I basically spent this morning reading through parts of our company expense policy mostly because I'll be travelling to Connecticut this Saturday to Friday and there are things I need to know. Anyway, I could use these two days of down time -- somebody mentioned this thing called "sleep" that I should get better acquainted with. Except that I won't. Because I'll SAY I'm going to sleep, but then I'll do something else instead since I suddenly have more guiltless free time on my hands. Yay! I'm gonna try to enjoy it while it lasts. I'll probably have free time while I'm in Connecticut, too, but it'll likely be spent at my hotel there, in front of the television or book. I intend to read as much as possible, if I can help it. Depends how late we work every day.

Huh. I've written more than I intended to. Sometimes I just keep babbling on, and with no one here to stop me, I could go on forever. Except that I won't. Because I am lazy and because technically there are more productive uses for my time while I'm here.

And, um, as the antithesis of that thought, here are the first promotional images from Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (everyone's been writing the title as "At World's End", but the writer specifically said that the title the people-in-charge have decided on does not have the apostrophe in it).


See the rest of them at Ain't It Cool News!

Labels: movies, pirates of the caribbean, travel, work