Life has been a complete blur lately, both personally and professionally.  I’m actually at the point where I have friends contacting me to see what’s been going on because they haven’t heard from me.  And I see this.  I haven’t been sending my normal barrage of emails.  It takes me days to reply to a facebook email at this point, and I was barely on MSN last week.  But, oddly enough, I can’t look back and pinpoint what exactly I had been doing.  I can only say I was incredibly busy. 

This week will be no different.  In recuperation of last week, I slept almost all of Sunday.  Then the storm hit again yesterday.  I had to wrap up my work for the quarter, then went dress shopping and ran some other errands.  I cleaned all night in anticipation of company coming this week.  Today, I finished my work for the quarter, while leaving time for a meeting this afternoon.  Tonight, I finished the cleaning.  Tomorrow, my company will arrive.  Luckily I’ve booked Thursday and Friday off, which I’m hoping will make her visit a little more relaxed for both of us.  She says she needs a vacation, and I kind of think so do I. 

Things definitely won’t slow down for long however.  This weekend, on Saturday, I have a full day volleyball tournament/beer tent event to raise money for charity (I haven’t played volleyball in years so this could be interesting . . . luckily, with the beer tent, maybe everyone will be too drunk to notice how rusty my skills are!).  Cross your fingers for good weather!!  Next weekend, I have a wedding.  The weekend after that, I start dog sitting for two weeks.  After that, vacation at home, which never truly feels like a vacation with all of the people there are to see and all of the things I need to do.  My days are already being filled with plans for the duration of the trip.  At this time last year, I was sitting in my apartment on my computer, knowing no one in Ottawa, and doing nothing.  Man have things changed.  Now if only I could find some cheap airfare . . .

Before going to work this morning I grabbed the receipt from my dress to check out the return policy.  It turns out both the exchange and return policy is within 30 days!  I’m still under the two weeks mark, so my options for dress shopping just got a whole lot wider!

I emailed one of my friends from work and asked where she recommended for dress shopping.  She sent me an entire list of stores which carry more unique dresses.  So, after work I went shopping!  The first two stores were busts.  They’re owned by Asians and carry styles shipped from overseas.  One store was much too casual, and the other one carried clothing that was much too small unfortunately.  Great clothes.  Next I went to the market, more specifically Dalhousie Street.  The market is known for unique shops with more one-of-a-kind type items.  I checked out one store and found a cute little powder pink dress.  When I tried it on, I liked it, but at the same time wasn’t sure it was the dress.  Next I went to a store called Milk.  There was only one dress in the store I would consider wearing to a wedding, and conveniently, it was in my size.  I tried it on, and stared at myself in the mirror for what seemed like a very long time.  Since I already need to return one dress from not loving it, I didn’t want to make the same mistake.  Out of need for a second opinion, I asked the sales clerk.  She loved it, and thought it was perfectly wedding appropriate.

I know you shouldn’t always trust sales people since they’re after the sale, but I was scared to leave the dress in the store.  It was the only one there.  With great hesitation, I changed back into my clothes, and placed the dress on the checkout counter.  The store has a credit note only policy on returns, so if worse came to worse I could always go back and buy a purse (of which they had several I loved!). 

Oddly enough, I ran into the friend who recommended the shops afterward.  I pulled the dress out of the bag and showed her.  She loved it!  I’ve since showed two friends online as well, and have received wonderful comments from both!  That’s it, clearly I made the right decision.

The dress is a V-neck, empire waistline, knee-length, lavender chiffon creation.  It has ruffles on the shoulders, the bottom of the skirt is cut into V shapes, and it flows wonderfully.  I will feel very, very pretty in this outfit.  It’s wonderfully feminine and somewhat Sex and the City. . .  I already own silver, strappy shoes that I think would be perfect with it, so now I get to go shopping for earrings and a clutch – then I’m done!

On July 18th, friends Sarah and Mike will be saying their vows to make their romance official.  And I need a dress.

A few weeks ago I went to RW&Co, a favorite store of mine.  I had seen a dress earlier that week which I loved, and decided I was going to buy it.  It was a brown, one shoulder, empire waist dress with a knee-length A-line skirt.  I thought it would be beautiful.  Unfortunately, they sold out very quickly and no longer had my size.  I tried a navy dress while I was there and ended up purchasing it instead.  It also has an empire waistline and A-line, knee-length skirt, bu a sweetheart neckline and no straps.  The bottom of the skirt is both scalloped and embroidered, with small pieces cut out amongst the embroidery. 

It was a more spur of the moment purchase, and although it’s a pretty dress, I’m not convinced it’s the dress for me.  I went back to the store this afternoon, and they’ve brought in more of the brown dress.  They now have my size.  I tried it on and snapped a few pictures with my cell phone, but I’m not sure it’s as beautiful as I originally thought.  Granted, I’ve been quite hard on myself about my body lately (one of those phases), so I’m not in love with anything I put on lately. 

The store has a great exchange policy of 30 days, but I think their return policy is only 14.  Since the 14 days would have passed (I think, I need to check the receipt), I ultimately need to choose a dress in that store so I can just exchange the navy one for whatever I decide I like more.  I’ll have to go back this week and see what I can figure out. 

And I know, it will be the bride’s day . . . but I need to feel pretty too!

I haven’t really sat all night . . . I made an awesome salad for supper, cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom, baked 4 batches of cookies to surprise my colleagues with tomorrow, and then had to clean the kitchen again.  Never underestimate the joy a clean kitchen can bring you, especially if you don’t get time to clean it very often!

A few changes going on around here.  For the blog, I’ve been updating the pages.  New music is slowly being added to the music page, I added some details to the about me page (more to come as I figure out more about myself), and I have a few books that I need to get on the book page.  I have to remind myself to do that soon.

As for Ottawa life, I registered for 3 courses at work today.  One, an 8 week course called BEST, will teach me everything I need to know about Statistics Canada.  The second, a 6 week course called SSDC, will teach me the steps of a survey from beginning to end, and will provide some basic stats training.  The third, Project Management in a Matrix Environment, is . . . well . . . project management in a matrix environment lol.  It’s only 5 days.  I’ll take BEST in the fall, SSDC hopefully in the spring, and the PM course whenever it’s available.  All of this will make me marketable to basically every division of StatCan, and will allow me to climb the ladder higher and higher as I gain experience.  Not that I can complain about where I entered the government, as I’m constantly reminded lately.  Everyone seems to have an opinion about my career path lately, what I should be doing, when I should be applying to the boards for a 5 position and leave my 4 behind me, what training I should take, etc etc etc.  And of course, no one’s opinion is the same.  It’s getting frustrating, it seems like my work life is everyone’s topic of choice lately.  I’m in the process of tuning some of it out, and have made an appointment with my mentor to discuss everything with her and get some firm direction.  Now I just need to figure out how to maintain my french training.  I can feel it slowly slipping away, but with the length of the courses I have scheduled (two of which are mandatory within three years of my appointment date), I won’t be able to take part time classes like I planned.  One of my chiefs is the section’s “Learning Champion”, so I also need to schedule a meeting with him to see what he proposes I do about this french dilemma.  I can’t let 7 months of work go to waste.  I don’t have to test again for 5 years, but still . . . I can’t go through that training all over again.  Hopefully he has some ideas.  Maybe there’s a classroom training alternative.  Oh, and yeah, I’ll still be balancing my job amongst all of this.  I never knew this is what the government was going to be like – not that I’m complaining!

Ok, I didn’t intend for this to be this long, and seeing as how I barely slept last night, I need to get my butt in bed.  Cross your fingers for a good sleep tonight - I wish you one as well!

Do you know where you belong?

Is there one place you always feel like you belong?

Throw in Some Tourist Attractions

Fun with Tiaras!

Interesting Cab Rides

Can't Forget the Deep Fried Pickles!

And Far too much wine . . .

Lifelong Friends Visiting

And Watermelon Adventues With New Friends!

Friends Along the Way...

Finally, Always Stay Cool With a Hat . . .

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

I started my day off quiet, finishing a movie I had started in bed last night.  Then, off to the mall I went to treat myself to a new shirt for a birthday party I’m going to tonight.  It’s a really nice day out, so I thought why not invite the girls over to tan on the roof? 

Not long after, Laura was at my door.  We headed to the roof to catch some rays, and she was talking about how she’s been asked to see if we can be put on a list for the bar tonight.  I asked if one of our friends was coming, and Laura wasn’t sure either, so I texted her. 

I didn’t hear back until after Laura was gone, so when I knew the friend wasn’t coming, I went to text the news to Laura.  Instead, I texted it to the friend.  Slightly redundant, as if she didn’t know she wasn’t coming. 

After I actually sent the text to Laura, I got some lunch.  Yesterday on my way home, the bus driver slammed on the breaks just after I stood up, and I smashed my knee into a steel post.  My knee is bothering me now, so after lunch I went to the bathroom to get some aspirin.  Took it, made my way back to the couch, and drank some more water.  Then I realized – I didn’t take aspirin.  I took a birth control pill.  *sigh*.  Some days, I think I’m hopeless.