I took a picture of all the lights at City Hall. It’s too bad I didn’t have a steady hand when I took it.
Monthly Archive: December 2006
Flushing misdeed
I met with H downtown today. After wandering around, we got hngry and finally settled on a dodgy looking sushi place on Yonge. The meals we got were pretty mediocre: the beef was chewy, the maki rolls were kind of mushy, and some of the sushi was fishy. Shortly before leaving, I found that I had to go to the bathroom. So, I left some money with my friend and ventured down to the basement. When I was done my business, I got up and flushed. Moments later, I mentally screamed “OH, SHIT!”
I’d clogged the toilet.
See, the toilet was kind of weak. Anyway, I scrambled around, and saw no plunger anywhere. So, I put the cover down, washed my hands, and walked back to the table. When I got there, I whispered to H, “C’mon! Let’s get out of here!” I put on my jacket, grabbed my bag and scrambled out. As son as I got outside, I walked at a brisk pace, trying to distance myself away from the restaurant as much as I could. I was kind of laughing at the whole ridiculousness of the situation. I mean, as if the restaurant would come chasing after me to punish me for my misdeed. I was also feeling bad for the next sucker who had to do some business. What would he do?
Oh man.
Well, perhaps the only thing that makes me feel better about it all is that the place served crappy food. Some sort of karmic retribution, perhaps?
Err…no, just bad luck.
“The office smells like ass”
There’s a leak in one of the pipes in the office’s kitchen, causing sewage gas to seep into the air. Usually, things are under control, and the odor is barely noticeable. However, today, the scent was particularly potent. I could smell it all the way from my desk. The office stank as if a toilet exploded.
For whatever reason, I changed the subtitle of my MSN name to “the office smells like ass”. It got a laugh from one of my coworkers who openly mused about the professionalism of having such a name. He imagined out loud about one of our clients, all dressed up in formal business-wear, giving a corporate presentation, only to have MSN pop up having the phrase projected on a large screen for all to see.
I removed the subtitle shortly after.
Peanut butter chocolate latte?
For a while now, I’ve been joking with a coworker about creating a peanut butter and chocolate latte. I’ve mentioned before that there’s an espresso machine in the kitchen. Up till now, we’re still making our lattes on a regular basis. Some while ago, I experimented with the syrups and came up with a chocolate hazelnut combination. It was reminiscent of either a Ferrero Rocher or Nutella (hey, did you know they’re made by the same company? I’d forgotten until now when I looked it up). So, after that success, that’s where the joke has come up. I’d been secretly hoping that the result would be like a liquid Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. However, each time, the coworker has been reluctant to try it.
So, today, with almost everyone in the company still away on vacation, I ventured in to do it on my own. The only peanut butter I could find in the fridge was the chunky kind. I dropped a small spoonful in the milk and tried to dissolve it, but was right out unsuccessful (obviously). Well, I just added the chocolate, and hoped that the steam would break it all up. After the milk was frothed up, I took a whiff of the milk. Man, the scent of peanut was nauseating. Not a good sign. I poured it into the espresso and took a sip.
That was the nastiest latte I’d ever tasted–much worse than the one time I’d overdosed on the chocolate syrup (that was a different type of nasty).
Well, if you never try, you’ll never know.
Not ready to return
I’m sitting here in front of my laptop feeling the onset of some sort of sickness that I can’t figure out yet. I’m wondering whether it’s a symptom of some sort o just not wanting to return to work tomorrow. Psychosomatic, perhaps? My mind still hasn’t recovered from last week, I guess.
You know, before, when people would ask me why I hadn’t used up any of my vacation days, I would joke that “I see my family all the time: why would I want more time with them?” That was all a lie. I love my family. I love seeing them. I want to stay in bed all day and wake up whenever my body says it’s time, even if that’s 11 a.m.
I’m just not ready to return to the office. I regret not taking at least one or two days extra. Hell, I kind of just want more time at home so that I can go Boxing Day shopping with less of a crowd.
Holy crap, the crowds were ridiculous today. I wanted to experience the shopping crowds for myself today, so I took a bus over to Scarborough Town Centre. Good idea, too: on the way there, I saw that the car lines to get into the mall area were unbelievably long. As I was walking through the mall, I was artfully dodging people and trying to position myself in places where I didn’t feel like I was trapped. At times, with so many people there, I kind of wanted to scream out at the top of my lungs. The insanity can overwhelm you if you’re not careful, you know? I was walking around Old Navy–not intending ot buy anything because the lines for the cashiers were too long for my liking. There was this one kid was was bouncing a ball in the aisles, and chasing after it with careless abandon. The guy crashed into my leg once or twice. I have to confess that I felt a strong urge to just kick the damn kid and yell at him to not play like that in a crowded place. Seriously. Anger management issues? Well, I didn’t actually kick him, you know?
Anyway, that was my Boxing Day. Tomorrow is another day. Maybe I’ll be in a better state of mind by then.
Yesterday wasn’t Ash Wednesday
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Eheheh…
I’m currently in the process of shifting entries from the old blog pages (that weren’t on GM) manually. I might accidentally slip and not change the timestamp on an entry, causing it to appear on the main index as a current entry–which is not the case. I was surprised this morning to see an entry on Ash Wednesday 2003 on the main index. Yeah…wrong time of year.
You look so drained
I met with H earlier today for dinner. After sitting down, one of the first things he said to me was: “Wow…you look so drained.” I was. I still am. He commented that way because of the apparent dark circles under my eyes and the tired expression on my face. Earlier today, I saw the darkness in the mirror, but didn’t think it was too bad. After returning home though, closer examination revealed that I was really looking in rough shape.
Yeah, the past week hasn’t been all that great. I’m like some emotional sponge. I hang on to everything and don’t let go for a long time. I’ve been losing sleep. I’ve been generally ungood. So, right now, I can uncharacteristically say that I’m looking forward to having Monday and Tuesday off. I don’t know if two days is enough to release me from this stress and get rid of the black circles under my eyes, but really, every little bit helps.
Starting to feel like Christmas
I guess I didn’t really state it explicitly, but yes, I did enjoy the party. The dynamics were wholly different in that the event wasn’t really about couples at all like a ball or a school dance would be about.
Anyway, I think I over-indulged that night. During the dinner, the servers kept pouring the wine. Afterwards, I used up my 3 drink tickets. As well, some people leaving the party early gave me their remaining tickets. In the end…I was pretty out of it, although, not at puke levels like that time this past March. I took a cab home (it was on the company’s account) which cost about $58.
Up till today, it seemed like the celebrating hadn’t ended yet. At about half past 4, everyone gathered upstairs where we had wine and cheese. I kept on saying to everyone: “this is just awesome, man.” Seriously, not many places are like this, right? I had two glasses of red wine, and unfortunately, I kind of got blindsided by them. I think my stomach would have been able to handle it better if I had more starchy stuff in my stomach (I didn’t). I wasn’t drunk…but my typing suffered. Luckily I didn’t update any work tickets afterwards, you know? That could have been embarassing. I ended up walking for 45 minutes just to burn off the buzz.
All is well now. I will readily admit that now things are starting to feel a bit more like Christmas.
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