How insane is this?

I just finished unpacking my small suitcase from Montreal. Normally, this takes a day, and that's with the large suitcase I bring for Christmas!

I have three main e-mail accounts and right now, all three are going through heavy traffic. My work account is, as usually, steadily spitting out questions, concerns, and requests for status reports. My school account is a collection of partial assignments (to be assembled), instructions, announcements, and sometimes great news (that's when we receive a past assignment that was recently graded). My Hotmail account, where I receive my personal e-mail, is filling quickly with Strata business and messages from friends to which I should eventually reply. Strata items are a little bit more heavy these days because our garage was broken into last Friday. They didn't break a door, they cut through the gate. $1,500 to fix. They didn't break locks on some of the storage lockers, they broke off handles and badly damaged some of the doors (probably around $500). They broke into one car. What did they ended up leaving with? As far as I know, someone's snowboarding equipment.

Theft is so frustrating, especially when damaged is caused to the property. Often, whatever we have to repair costs a lot more than whatever was stolen. And for what?

Stupid.

Much better

The poor dog next door (Kermit! It's a frog!) does not live next door, he was just there for an evening. Good thing the owners decided to spend the evening with the dog they offered to look after. Poor Kermit.

You've gotta be kididng me...

Why am I the one who seems to always get the neighbors with the neurotic dog that cries and barks all night when his owners are away? Remember the chia pet? Well, she's gone to Maple Ridge but has been replaced by something that sounds like a much larger beast. It's almost 11 p.m., this started around 8...

It's actually nice to stay home one night out of the week

and Monday it is... Not that I'm doing anything exciting, mostly cleaning, laundry, dishes, figuring out what to do with the 200 e-mails in my Hotmail Inbox (that's a new record), replying to e-mails that are a few weeks old (sorry...).

And then the week insanity starts again. Tomorrow, I'm having lunch with Raf to chit-chat about our lives (hard to say anything when a man is spinning you around), then after work a Special General Meeting with the Strata to kick out the incompetent property management company, Wednesday is salsa, Thursday I'm signed up for bootcamp at lunch time and I have a date after dinner (yes, I figure I've been single for long enough now, I have an actual date for drinks at a cool place on Broadway, Bin 942), Friday is salsa again... I also need to get a few runs in. I never have to ask myself why I sleep so well.

Well-deserved long weekend

It's Thursday night and I feel like I've filled the past few days with many initiatives, concerns, and activities. I'm happy to sleep in a bit tomorrow.

The week at work has been busy. I'm trying to see if I can redefine my role to make it more interesting for me to remain with the company for a little longer. It's a real challenge, but in a strangely rewarding way. I think a few teams are interested in keeping me around, everyone of them with different ideas, goals, and offers. What I'm not sure at this point is who will decide. Will it be strongly hinted where I should focus my attention, or will I be presented with a choice. I expect the next few weeks to bring answers.

Then, in addition to the mysteries at work, I've been dealing with Strata business, pushing forward to replace our existing management company. I think we're getting close, but nothing is decided quickly when a Strata is involved. This weekend I have to prepare a letter to invite the owners to a Special General Meeting, where we will decide to go ahead with the change or not. Council does not have the authority to make this decision. I'm hoping to have this business addressed before I return to school in September, as I will not be able to devote any attention to much else besides work and studies.

I've also spent a few busy evenings. On Tuesday, I had a lovely dinner with Gerri and Lara. Gerri was telling us about her recent trip to Thailand and Lara saying how much she misses Charles. We had a tasty Indian meal, all vegetarian, with a wonderful home-made daal. On Wednesday, I went for another level 2 salsa class. With my Friday class, I have the option of also attending Wednesday classes for free. The opportunity of getting more practice in was more than welcome. The open session afterwards gave me the chance to dance with some very talented leads. I think I'm slowly getting the gist of following, at least when the signals are clear. It actually requires to completely let go of your thoughts, to only keep moving, 1,2,3... 5,6,7... I'm really enjoying these classes!

And tonight, a Council meeting with yet another property manager. After I phoned the general manager of our current company, I think he fired our existing property manager and then sent us a brand-new hire. Poor guy, we were discussing leaving the company and he was just starting his first day! We told him not to take it personally.

Now, I'm off to bed. I have lots of stuff to do this weekend, my taxes, more resume work, Strata letters... Lara and I are renting a car and driving to Whistler on Saturday. Unfortunately, the weather looks pretty disappointing for the long weekend. Cold, rain, wind. Maybe a good idea to spend most of it on paperwork.