December is here!

Greetings everyone!

First off, above is a very educational video about Montrealers' habits in the Winter. It's snowing tons? Meh, no big deal. Go out anyhow, no point in letting it change our habits, otherwise we're going nowhere until April! And in this respect, I am speaking of true Montrealers, those who live near enough the Downtown core that they do not need to take the highway to get home, let alone a bridge. Anyone who needs the highway or the bridge to get home and hears that large amounts of snow will be falling either stays home or heads for home no later than 2:00 P.M., otherwise they are prepared to sit in traffic for at least two hours to get home. When I lived in the suburbs it once took me three hours to get home, at which point my Sweetheart and his roommate at the time rescued me and took me in for the remainder of that week. On another note, this video  is also a nice look at how pretty our Christmas decorations are!

So, it's December! We had our first snowfall that stuck this week, although it was only about four centimeters worth of the stuff. No traffic pandemonium ensued and it has now all melted because it got very warm (7 degrees Celsius, which is very warm for us hardy Montrealers at this time of year) overnight and rained. I would prefer -5 degrees and snow personally. No colder than -5 mind you, it got down to -12 some nights this week and that was a bit much since we skipped the whole -5 thing and when straight down to -12. Anyhow, I'm hoping for more snow soon, since I find that bare trees and Christmas decorations look much better with snow than without.

As for how my week went, it was very up and down. I was in a very sour mood on both Tuesday and Wednesday, partly because of PMS and partly because of boredom at work. I'm normally quite a cheerful person, so when I'm in a sour mood, I feel awful about it and also everyone can tell. Not fun at all. I've been feeling better since Thursday though, which coincidentally (or not so much) was when I was going to my Sweetheart's place. He made me dinner for the second time in a week, which was lovely and we chatted and worked on his kitchen cabinet doors. We got together again last night for a fun raising concert for my colleague C's former high school in Haiti, then we went out with a few of my Sweetheart's friends for a drink before heading back to my Sweetheart's place. We only got home around 12:30 A.M. which is quite a late night for us! This morning we overslept and then ended up having to rush out the door since my Sweetheart was heading out to his brother's place on the South Shore and the buses that go out there only run every half-hour on the weekend. As for me, I came home and am planning on putting up the rest of my Christmas decorations today. I got started on them yesterday when I bought a Christmas wreath for my apartment door and today the tree is going to go up as is the advent calendar.

Finally, I realize that I didn't let you all know how my concert went last week! It went quite well once we were passed the first three songs. I think the major issue was that my director put all the hard pieces towards the beginning of the concert, so we didn't really have a chance to work up our confidence in front of the audience and get over our nervousness before hitting the hard stuff. I told the director so and hopefully he'll take that into account for our next concert. Also, my father didn't come, so my Grandma G couldn't make it in either, but I did have my brother and my Sweetheart there and also my dear old friend G who brought a friend with her and C came as well. It's always more fun singing when you have people you know in the audience. I particularly enjoyed seeing my Sweetheart with his eyes on me for the whole of the second half of the concert :)

Well, off I go to put up my Christmas decorations! But before I go, for any of you worried about the whole 'Mayan Doomsday Prophecy' for December 21st, here is a link to a page NASA put up to calm people down. I wish I could direct some of the people who have been calling into the Oratory worked up about this whole 2012 thing to this page, but it would probably do no good since most of them are zealots trying to tell me that I need to practice fear of God more and make penance for my sins because the end is most certainly nigh. Yeah, right...in my mind, December 21st is my aunt A and my Grandpa G's birthday and three days before I finally get off work for two weeks. I fully intend to wake up in one piece of the 22nd, hopefully with my Sweetheart next to me :) What do all of you think about the December 21st thing?

My favorite :)

So after a week of listening to the Breaking Dawn (part2) soundtrack (on and off, I do have over a day and half of music on my iPod, so I rarely listen to just one album, most of the time I turn it on, hit shuffle and off I go), here is my favorite song from it. All of the music is quite good, but this is the one song that I still listen to twice in a row before moving on. Let me know what you think of it if you decide to give it a listen :)

On another note, my Sweetheart has been home since Thursday. We were happy as could be to be reunited on Friday, even though my poor Sweetheart was of course still a bit jet lagged and suffering from the tail end of a case of food poisoning he got from his first class meal on the flight from Luanda, Angola to Amsterdam. He was lucky he didn't eat the fish, because his business partner, E, and another engineer who worked with them in Angola did and they got even sicker. So never let it be said that the food is better in first class, that is a myth!

Sweetheart did not get as much time together as we would have liked since he and E had a bit of work to catch up on on Saturday morning, but we should be getting together again either tonight or tomorrow. We just can't get enough of talking with each other or spending time together, I could hear my Sweetheart grinning through the phone when we talked during my break at choir practice last night and I naturally grinned right back. We're like a couple of kids when he gets back from long trips like this, it's quite something to see :)

Not too much else going on right now aside from work and my being in concert with my choir this coming weekend. It should be quite a nice show, I'm looking forward to it!

On that note, I hope you're all doing well and that all of my American readers have a lovely Thanksgiving with your family and friends this Thursday, just be safe if you go shopping on Friday, I couldn't believe it when I read that there were already people camping out in front of stores to take advantage of the sales that don't start until FRIDAY!!! That's pretty nuts.

I'll try and pop in again soon, but I'm quite liking this weekly blogging format, it's much easier than trying to get a post up every day!

Today I...May 7th

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of an array of annual flowers that were for sale at Jean-Talon Market last Saturday, lots of marigolds and pansies!

...am happy to report that yesterday's concert went very well. My choir is now on break until September. I'm going to miss it, but at the same time, it feels nice to be able to have laid back Monday nights!

...went for two half-hour walks, one during my lunch break and then I walked home from work and stopped in at a frozen yogurt parlor just past the halfway point, yum!!!

...am going to try and be in bed with my light out at 10:30 P.M. again. I'm trying to knock myself off of the nasty sleep-cycle I was on for nearly a month. It was actually more like insomnia. I would be exhausted, but wouldn't be able to wind down enough to be in before by Midnight and once in bed it would take me forever to get to sleep. I was pretty much a walking zombie and I'm still not much more than that now. It's something that happens to me this time of year, I'm just too tired and stressed out because of how crazy work gets and my concerts and practices and on top of that there has been some Sweetheart related stress as well since he has been working so much. Anyhow, I'm trying to do better and get to bed way earlier so that even if I don't fall asleep right away I'll at least be asleep earlier than I would be if I only got to bed at Midnight or 12:30 A.M.!

...thought my Sweetheart had left for Quebec City until he popped up on Skype at 8:45 P.M. It turns out he's leaving tomorrow morning at 4:00 A.M. much to his disgust. Why he and E couldn't leave tonight I don't know, but I guess E was working too late or something. They are heading To Quebec for a bridge building conference. Also, the horror of the building project my Sweetheart is working on just north of Montreal continues. The person requesting this building, I swear, makes the Pharaohs of Egypt look like the best bosses in the world, so let's call him M. Pharaoh. He wants construction plans in two weeks even though he doesn't have a building permit from the City yet. Sweetheart and I would love for him to be reported. Sweetheart would love to find some way out of this project. Lesson learned: never work on a friend's building project (M. Pharaoh is a friend of J, Sweetheart and E's business partner). They will think that they can treat you any way they want and that you will follow their schedule no matter what just because they are your friend, or in this case you senior engineer's friend. I wish I could waltz up to M. Pharaoh and give him a piece of my mind. I will refrain from expressing what I would like to say to him here because it includes several words that are not normally included in polite conversation. Since I can't waltz up to M. Pharaoh and tell him to go someplace hot and fiery in a hand-basket though, I'll just pray for a solution to the problem. God will know what is right in this case.

Skywatch Friday

I'm back a day later than planned. That choir practice I thought was on Tuesday? Yeah, it was yesterday. It went quite well, as did my concert last Sunday, we helped my choir director get an A- for his Master's recital, which is pretty much as good a grade as you can get in music or arts generally as professors tend to never give a perfect grade in these two disciplines because it is the general opinion that perfection does not exist when it comes to music and arts. So there you have it, if there was such a ting as perfection, my director's work was it and I agree :o)

On another note, this week's Skywatch feature is another piece of the South Carolina sky, this one see from the hammock in my grandparents' back yard. Oh, how I wish I could leave on vacation, like right now. I am tired and sick of work and irritable. It's not that I don't like my job, it's just that I'm at that point that everyone reaches every once in a while where I've had enough of work for now.

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, stop by the Skywatch Friday blog. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a nice, relaxing weekend :o)

Today I...January 11th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of Notre-Dame Basilica with you.

...am apologizing for being an absentee blogger for the past few days. I got hung up downloading picture for my desk calendar and ended up only finishing that at Midnight and last night I had choir practice, which always bumps off my Monday night blogging.

...had a fairly steady workload at work. Enough to keep me busy, but not enough to make me sigh with relief when it came time to leave at the end of the day.

...was hoping to talk with my Sweetheart tonight, but didn't connect to Skype in time and he disconnected just as I was getting on. Oh well, better luck tomorrow!

...am happy that I get to sleep in a bit tomorrow as I'm starting work at 11:00 A.M. and finishing at 7:00 P.M. in order to help C with a multi-faith remembrance ceremony for the victims of the earthquake in Haïti and we have already hosted one commerative mass for it and my choir and I are performing a benefit concert for the reconstruction of C's former school in Port-Au-Prince at the end of the month. This is a project that is very close to my heart as C very nearly lost her entire family in the earthquake last year and at that time I felt completely powerless to help her. I was so happy to be able to offer my choir as the group that would perform in the benefit concert and I really hope the concert is a success and that we can meet our ticket sale objective!

Today I... December 12th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of Quinn lolling about in the sun with you.

...am happy to report that my concert went quite well. The audience seemed quite happy with us (two standing ovations) and nearly everyone who had bought an advance ticket made it in spite of the slightly iffy weather. The only person I know that didn't make it was my friend V who got caught in traffic on the bus.

...wrote a 'happy birthday' e-mail to my Sweetheart and sent him my program for our spring concert and he answered both, which made me smile :o) I called him on Skype before but there was no answer, so I'm guessing that his two friends are still over. If he doesn't call back tonight, that's okay, I'll just give him a call tomorrow.

...am not ready to go back to work tomorrow, I don't feel like it. I sure am looking forward to my Christmas holidays. Even though they're only two weeks away, they seem a lot further.

Today I...June 21st

Today I...

...am trying to recover from my busy weekend. Kinda hard trying to do that at the beginning of a work week lol

...was told, just after punching in and while I still had my headphones in, that there had been a problem over the weekend and that the bell ringer had given an earful to one of my tour guides over something totally ridiculous. I of course had no ability to control my frustration since I had just gotten in to work and my mood was sour and my patience minimal for a good hour afterward. There's nothing worse than being faced with a problem the second you walk in to work. I always obey the half-hour rule when I want to speak to a colleague about an issue. Give them a half hour to settle in for the day and then approach them. It's the only human way to do things I think, or at least the only way people should approach me if they want me to have a human reaction. Otherwise they cannot blame me if I ask them to please give me few minutes to get in the door before dealing with their issue.

...was so happy to have my long-time fellow tour guide 'L' back on board for the summer today. I now have a guaranteed lunch buddy four days a week, nothing like an hour of girl talk over lunch to brighten my day :o)

...went to an absolutely brilliant Arvo Pärt concert with one of my choir directors, my favorite out of our two directors this year. I was absolutely flattered that he invited me and loved getting to know him better.

...had to buy a bottle of natural bug spray to get rid of a bug infestation in one of my orchids. C told me that I should just toss my plant when I showed it to her, but I was not willing to do that since it was still so obviously alive and cost me nearly 70$!!! I cannot bear killing anything (aside from bugs of course) and get emotional even just having to toss a plant which is clearly deceased, no way was I going to toss one of my much doted upon orchids!

...am going to try my hardest to be in bed by midnight, so I had better get along. You'll get a picture with tomorrow's post, I promise :o)

Today I...March 21st

Today I...

...am still on a bit of a high after my concert last night. It went incredibly well and we got a long standing ovation afterward. My family and friends really enjoyed it as well and told me that the choir I'm with now is definitely a keeper :o) I'd been searching for the right one ever since leaving the one I was with in University and am glad that it only took me two tries to find the right musical fit :o)

...am looking forward to begin practicing our program for our next concert in June. The theme is going to be 'Magnificat' and this is one of the pieces we're going to be singing. It's literally one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful Ave Maria's I've ever heard. Go and have a listen, you won't be sorry!!! I wanted to post the video directly to my blog, but just couldn't figure out how to do it...

...went to lunch with my family and had a lovely time...and a lovely meal! I had veal Romano and it was definitely worth the wait (I got my meal nearly 10 minutes after everyone else did)

...nearly died laughing when my brother said that my mother liked her beef cooked rare enough that when flies flew by the meat had to swat it with its tail!!!

...enjoyed going for two more rides in brother's brand new BMW. I may never be able to afford a car like that (it costs nearly a year-and-a-half of my salary), but at least I can cruise around in one anyhow :o)

...am taking it easy for the rest of the day before going back to work tomorrow. I could use another day off, but I'm still feeling much better than I was on Friday and yesterday morning.

Today I...20th

Today I...

...am relieved that the week was over. I love my job, but by the time I left work yesterday, I was completely worn out.

...was thrilled when I calculated how many people must have gone through the Oratory yesterday, well over 10 000, probably over 15 000.

...dragged myself to my dress rehearsal for tonight's concert and dozed in one of the church pews during our breaks.

...sang well, especially considering how tired I was.

...was in bed and out like a light within 40 minutes of getting home.

...was sick this morning, but luckily I don't seem to have a bug, I simply seem to have suffered from too much stress and not enough food over the past 24 hours. I'm feeling better now.

...will do my laundry, wash my dishes and try to talk to my poor, neglected Sweetheart before heading out to my concert. I haven't spoken to him since last weekend or written to him since early this week, probably Tuesday I think.

...am hoping our concert goes well.

...will try and be back on my regular blogging schedule as of today.