I, like most people, am super busy. And like many people, find the time taken to answer a phone call during my work day can really disrupt my personal ability to focus, taking work time away while I am potentially on a big deadline, dealing directly with a client, etc.
I also, like many people, forget things unless they are written down. So by having an email arrive with all of the details of your, very important to me, question, I can refer to it when I can focus on it and give it my full attention. I also have lost my prize winning penmanship skills { ask me to show you the book I won in Grade 1} and cannot read my hand writing anymore.
I also may just simply be physically away from the phone and don’t want to panic rush from the facilities to try to catch the phone call.
Where does that leave you, the caller. The person who “likes” to call because for you, it’s faster than typing out an email. Or you are away from your computer/smartphone etc. and just need a “quick” answer to your question. Well, a bit outta luck.
Sorry Dude.
You get 2 options:
1 – leave me an actual detailed message on my voicemail so that I know why I have to call you back. That way, I can send you an email answering your important questions as soon as I can take a break from whatever kept me from answering the phone in the first place.
2- Send me an email.
Oh, and if your number comes up “private caller”, I’m call screening. So again – go with option 1 or 2. Nothing personal, just the way I roll…
Tonight I wasn’t sure I would be able to take advantage of a last minute movie pass given to me by a client. It was for “Five Year Engagement” and although I did check with a few girlfriends to see if they wanted to come with me, all were busy, or not home.
So I headed out and decided that I would come alone. I texted my hubby to let him know and got the perfunctory, “Aw, that’s sad”. I replied, it’s fine ( and yes, I’ll pay those $.20 per text later!)
And it is fine. I used to go to movies alone all the time when I first moved to Ottawa. No need to worry about where to sit, no need to choose the snacks that are share-able( mmm coffee crisp), and generally, I enjoy my own company.
So I found a back corner, where no one behind will kick my chair, and no one will crawl over me mid movie to go out.
And bonus: the Cupcake Lounge was giving away free mini cupcakes to each person!! One per ticket- I shoulda let then give me two at the door!! But I was honest and only took my ticket from the free double pass.
Note: Maple cupcakes- very nice!
Present were a lot of young couples – in theory already engaged/ newly married. But there is a surprising number of older ( my age of early 40s and older) ladies in pairs and male/female couples. And, of course, the girl gaggles- goes without saying…
Sponsored by KissFM, Y101and CTV, so a squealing microphone begins the show!!
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What a fun movie- just enough dark humor and absurd humor to have all bases covered! Deer sliding off the roof of a car… Not for the faint of heart!
And a priceless moment of parcour had us all rolling with laughter!
Enough spoilers- go see it- chicks and dudes will enjoy!
And if you only go to movies with a buddy, try it on your own! And tell me about it !
I’ve had a few people over the past few months comment to me, “I don’t know how you do everything you do.”
And I point out those things that are different in my life from theirs:
I don’t have kids.
I don’t go out and work for someone else from 9-5.
And then I started to realize that I also do things in cycles. I rev up over a long period of time, adding new projects/events/directions in my multifaceted self-employed existence until I reach a peak and then I step back and ease off.
And in the next few months I will again be easing off of a few things. a little bit…
I don’t evaluate my business choices/life choices etc on any kind of regular basis. I tend to look at things more closely when I see affects across all of the boundaries. Usually right after a really big event where I want to take a week off but cannot because I have another big event coming up. Or after a really busy year where many things changed and roller coaster-ed to the point where it began to get a bit much.
This week the re-evaluation of the wonderful creative circus that is my work/business life has begun. I can see some consolidation in the future, some shifts in focus and a little bit of letting go and moving on. I’ll keep you posted of course!
And then all of this will trickle gently over into giving me a little bit more of that personal time I like so much! Yeah, I strongly maintain a month off in August, but during those 11 months coming up to it , I’ll be happy to take a bit more time to recharge and enjoy the amazing things going on around me that I don’t organize 🙂
I should really consider being more organized through the year when it comes to my business accounting etc. but I just get so busy actually working!!
So I will spend some time over the next week or so getting myself as organized as I can, then I wait until the end of February for the paperwork from other folk!
Today’s progress:
@wtl { aka Tom} and i have been going to Sunday morning brunch at Patty Boland’s for around 7 or 8 years – it’s been so long we’ve kinda lost track. It started as just the two of us, then gradually we let folks in on our little Sunday morning ritual. And this weekend, in trickles of rumour and haphazard information we’ve been informed that the restaurant will no longer be open weekend mornings to serve breakfast. We knew things had been slow this fall, and with many factors to consider, I am sure it’s the right choice business wise for them.
2 questionable choices:
1 – Why not go ahead and serve breakfast for one final weekend on December 17th and 18th? We knew the place would be closed on the 25th and Jan 1st anyway, so one more weekend would not have been the end of the world, would it?
2 – Why did you not tell your regulars personally in an email/ Facebook announcement/ Tweet? We totally would have rocked the place this morning if we had known.
But hey, life goes on, and we’ll still frequent the place on Fridays and Thursdays when possible.
A look back:
Admittedly the best years were when Mike Libbos was our server. He had it covered. Our table became the testing ground for servers after he moved on, but we loved ya Mike!
Birthdays, homecomings, and socializing that might not have happened without the weekly knowledge that you could always join us for Sunday brunch have been part of our lives for so many years, change will take a bit of time.
So, 2012 will bring some new approaches. We could just show up for lunch at noon. But that doesn’t have the same feel to it for me. I guess it’s time to try something new and check out many of the other amazing brunch options Ottawa has.
Last night I slept with Squishy, my new best friend- and it was different!
Squishy arrived yesterday afternoon and cuddled with me on the futon, creating this bubble of comfort that actually made me speechless! ( I really couldn’t be bothered to talk and texted @wtl who was there right beside me)
After a short while, I realized I had better move Squishy to its new home in the bedroom, otherwise I would just lie there, getting nothing done!
I found a sheet I had stitched years ago to accommodate camping mats and it slipped right onto Squishy’s long and cushy body. There was concern the Squishy might come between us, but I reassured WTL that would not happen- the bed is big enough for all three of us!
After a couple of movies and relaxing time with WTL, we came to the end of the day, where the anticipation of what awaited me in bed was growing!
Climbing in, and wrapping my arms and legs comfortably around Squishy, I soon felt the shift in my reality to new levels of ecstasy!
Zzzzzzzz
I awoke this morning to note that Squishy had indeed worked itself between WTL and I, a sign that I still might have been somewhat active overnight.
I do believe this is the start of a beautiful friendship!!
You can get your own Swuishy here:
http://www.sears.ca/product/obus-forme-l-shaped-body-pillow/696-000018333-6475?campaign=rr_item_ClickCP_0_1
Every once in a while, I need to look beyond the “hobbies I’ve made into businesses”. This past weekend gave me mulitple opportunities to do this. We’ll call it a long weekend, as things really began on Thursday.
Thursday was kind of a transition into exploring beyond my boundaries – sort of. I don’t often go out on a weeknight. I don’t often go see live bands anymore. Heading out to see Delhi 2 Dublin was really an exploration – honest.
The fact that we are using a D2B song for my Bellywood with Halyma class routine this session, and will tweak it for Bollywood For Fun 2012 usage, is besides the point.
We went out for sushi first to make it more of an adventure and had a blast! Seeing Bellywood students of mine there and attending with some of my BFF troupe mates is again, besides the point.
Friday is date night, for the most part, so it was a quiet evening at home with the hubby – resting up for the next two days of fun. no photos – 🙂
Saturday took me back to exploring my celtic roots. Attending the Ottawa Storytellers encore of the Kymera’s Voice production: The Warrior Queen: Chasing Boudicca was an intimate evening of seeing old friends { who just happen to be previous belly dance students}, hanging with present friends { who just happen to be my BFF troupe mates}, and meeting some new folks who have great stories of their own! I loved the idea of just sitting and listening to these creative folk tell this wonderful story, and I hope to make time in my busy life to do this sort of thing again!
And then came Sunday. Final day of one friend’s 3 day birthday weekend, so it started with brunch as usual but with added folk at all ends of the table! SO Happy Birthday Erika!
And then the next adventure began.
Theruvial Milltall drawn by me.
Once again, with familiar and new faces surrounding me, practically hand-holding me through this afternoon of ethereal adventuring, I embarked on my first AD&D, 2nd ed gaming session in the guise of Theurvial MillTall, the halfling Cleric, created for me by my good buddy, Andrea, who along with her hubby Rob, our DM, were hosting this afternoon of chocolate eating fun!
OMG I have never seen that much Halloween candy consumed over an afternoon! We fortunately also had an amazing selection of healthy veggies, and a fabulous supper, so yay for yummy food, laughter and good energy galore and making my brain hurt from thinking so hard! With one side of the table being totally noobs and the other folks being totally patient, it was a blast. Thanks for your patience folks!
One major victim was our friend’s table – that was uber unfortunate and hopefully won’t be too hard for them to get repaired. Rule # 1: Never have two people lean on the table at the same time. But it was taken in stride, dealt with quickly and the game resumed with careful gusto!
All in all, having great company along the way, I really enjoyed developing some new interests and hope that I can make the time to enjoy them more in the future. I just have to make sure these new hobbies don’t find a way to become new businesses!
I guess I should touch on why I find it important to have other interests, but you folks are all pretty smart right? So you get it already! And this is really just a reminder to me to make sure I stop working all the time, and being such a strong creature of habit! You can choose to pay attention to that advice too, or not, as to whatever works best for you!
Click photo to see more…
Okay, another fabuolus Halloween bash extraordinaire!
Tom and I were part of the costume judge crew and had a great time with Auz and Marianne as we sought out the best of the best to bring them forth on stage and doll out awards for the efforts made.
It’s not easy.
There are a lot of great costumes!
For more pics form other folk, be sure to check the Witches Gathering Flickr group!
