A Day in the Life of Ben

2004-08-05T11:15:00.000-04:00

My housemates are driving me nuts. They have a group study session every day in the kitchen and family room. It's really annoying because after a long day at the office and an hour at the gym all I want to do is make myself some dinner and watch TV. When my house is turned into the DC library I can't do that. I'm really starting to get aggravated because I can't unwind... and I feel like I can't ask them to leave because, well, it's their house too.

In other news... I have two highschool co-ops coming in on Monday for two weeks. I have to think of an interesting case study for them to work on. I'm thinking maybe something about why people would want to buy BlackBerry insteady of Palm Treo. More specifically it would be interesting to know why people would prefer instant email push rather than checking at intervals... or how important AES security is rather than normal encryption/decryption. It's kind of hard to know what level of market research these students are capably of. I doubt they have used Gartner or IDC before.

2004-07-30T09:19:00.000-04:00

I am really not enjoying my employment at RIM, I'm glad that I only have three weeks left and that the long weekend starts today.

Yesterday, my boss held a meeting about the launch of a new software product. There were about 15 people there, it was a lunch time meeting, and pizza was provided - but came half-way through the meeting. Try to picture this if you can... the meeting room was square, had a large table and a projector with a screen. There was a counter next to the screen. The pizza boxes were on the table, but my boss asked someone to pass them to me and put them on the counter next to the screen. So I did. Due to limited space, in order for anyone to get a slice of pizza, they would have to walk infront of the screen and block everyone's view, nobody wanted to do that so the pizza boxes remained unopened. No problem, I doubt anyone wanted to disturb the meeting anyway. Then about 10 minutes later, my boss stopped talking and said, rather flippantly to me "why don't you open those pizza boxes or something." Now, this put me in a difficult position - I wasn't going to open the pizza boxes because the pizza would just get cold, nobody got up to come and get any... and what was I going to do, walk around the room delivering a slice to each person? I'm not some pizza bitch!

What happened here? My boss was probably feeling uncomfortable because he had promised pizza, and now nobody could have any. So, rather than stopping the meeting and giving people time to get a slice of pizza, he made some comment that I should just "do something" as if that was going to solve anything... instead it just made me look like an idiot. Clearly the only resolution to the problem was for him to take a break from what he was saying, but it's easier just to put the pressure on the "kid".

OK, maybe I'm over reacting about this... but it really didn't help that at the same time, two people in the room were talking to each other on their BlackBerries and giggling - I'm talking 30 year old men here.

And, that is the epitome of what I hate about this place. I have never worked in an office with such a rude, unprofessional attitude. People sit in meetings and BlackBerry away even when you are talking directly to them - rude! And, every other time I book a meeting with someone (and they accept the meeting request) I get a little email from them 10 minutes after the meeting was supposed to have started saying that they won't be attending - RUDE!

People don't respond to emails that you send asking a question. If they don't know the answer, that's it. How am I supposed to know if I have the right person? There are 2500 people here, and I've only been here for 3 months! Why don't they tell me they don't know or forward it to someone who does?

Here's a great example of utter disregard for anyone else. I was given a spreadsheet from AT&T wireless asking for some product configuration info. i.e. dimensions of our packaging, weight of the boxes, how many cartons on a pallate etc. I am in marketing, I have only ever been to the plant once. I asked someone at the plant for info about the products, and a co-op student replied and told me most of what I needed to know, he even went and weighed some of the packages to find out for me. But, he didn't know how many cartons went on a pallate. So, I asked someone higher up. Instead of find out for me, he told me the dimensions of the pallate and told me to figure it out by myself. WHAT???? excuse me? I don't know anything about shipping! It's not like I was just filling out the spreadsheet for fun... AT&T is a HUGE customer, so, I had to send them a guess. Well, I hope that's OK.

Well now, I know that things are always easy in an office etc. etc. but, I have the advantage of having been a co-op student at one point. I have worked for several different organizations and none have been anywhere near as bad as this. I can understand a couple of missed meetings, but litterally every meeting I have called for people have either been late or not shown up at all. Talking on BlackBerries in meetings is a step above passing notes, and the attitude towards the students here is disgusting.

I am sick and tired of being treated like "just another co-op student"!! a) I'm not a co-op student, b) you shouldn't treat anyone like that.

There's my two cents.

BTW BlackBerry is a great product for businesses, I won't deny that.

2004-07-19T10:44:00.000-04:00

I'm having one of those emotional breakdown days today. A friend of mine from school, Amanda, just sent out another journal entry about her ongoing trip to the South Pacific and Australia - I am so jealous. Why am I stuck at RIM working 9-5?

I have to pay $22,000.00 tuition next year and probably about $10-12K in living expenses, car, rent, bills, food, etc. that's like $34,000.00 for one year! I mean $34,000?!?!?!? 5 years ago I couldn't imagine how much money that was, and now I'm spending it. And what's worse is I only have about $12,000 saved.

And what do I get for this $34,000? a degree, and $20,000 of debt. It had better be a damn good degree. Non of this "we're willing to offer you a salary of $31,000!!" well fuck you... $50k and not a penny less.

I feel like I should just take the money I have saved at RIM fuck the masters, travel for 3 months, move somewhere hot like San Diego, find a job use my savings and investments to start a mortgage on a house, and get on with my life.

Fuck the masters degree.
Fuck the software industry (I hate software with a passion... if it was an ant, I would squash it)
And fuck snow (unless I'm skiing on it) - hell I'm not going to have kids... I'll have money... if I want to ski I'll fly to BC for Chrissake.

I appologize for the coarse language.

2003-11-30T23:23:00.000-05:00

OK, I need to vent. Why is it that UW's science server works just fine most of the time. I mean I love looking at the cheesy web pages and all - and it's great for course notes. SO WHY THE HELL DOES THE DAMN THING SHUT DOWN THE NIGHT BEFORE AN EXAM?? My course notes for marine biology are online. I was studying from them. I made the mistake of navigating to a different site and when I returned I found the server was gone. Oh and no, it's not in my cache or temporary files. So now I'm pretty much screwed, I needed the list of figures to study in the text book... I guess now I'll just have to remember all of them!

Maybe I'll just cut my losses, smoke a fat joint and pass out... maybe in the morning all my troubles will have magically dissapeared.

2003-11-03T13:51:00.000-05:00

Midterms are finally over, for the most part, I'm taking one of those three midterm, no final classes (marine bio) - a bit of a pain in the ass. You'd think I'd be a little less stressed now that the worst is done but no. I have 2 papers, an assignment and a midterm (in marine). It doesn't seem like it's ever going to end... well I guess not until December 13th. Basically I think I've had enough of this degree and I just want to get it over with.

Is there an equivalent to frosh 15 in fourth year, only it's like a senior 10. Maybe I'm just drinking too much beer, smoking too much weed and not going to the gym regularly enough. Well I guess as incentive I have a SCUBA course starting in January, so I kinda don't want to be fat for that, and then Australia in April - definately need to be in shape for that. I think its just time I got off my lazy ass and did something about it, and maybe I'll go to some classes in my free time.

I feel like Mike and I haven't done anything fun in a while. We always make plans to do things and end up not doing them and staying home. I guess it's partially a product of being in a long distance relationship i.e. not having much time to spend together alone. But it does fit in nicely with my "sitting on my lazy ass" theme. I kinda don't feel motivated to do anything - study, exercise or have fun.

OK, I'm going to try to get more sleep, take my vitamins and hit the gym - if I can get through the 4 inches of mud infront of my house that is. Hopefully my next BLOG will be a little more "lively".

2003-10-12T20:40:00.000-04:00

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I wrote. Things are getting busy at school, I have my first midterm next week and several looming assignments, the rest of the month is going to be nightmarish.

Mike came up for friday night and saturday we had martinis, exchanged gifts and went out for dinner at Del Dente's for our anniversary.

I don't know what I'm going to be doing a year from now and it's really stressing me out. I'm considering different masters degrees but it's tough, I'm not sure exactly what I want to study or where I want to do it. I don't even know if I want to do another degree or move back to Toronto and get my life started.

2003-09-28T18:36:00.000-04:00

Went to a kegger last night. I was having a really good time until I stupidly decided to walk down the street with Mike and Erica holding a cup of beer (Erica had beer too). Out of nowhere these two cops on bikes rode up and asked us if we were drinking alcohol (it was kinda obvious). Long story short - Erica and I both got $130 tickets. We decided to walk back to the party where we met the same two police officers crashing it and threatening big fines. A bunch of us went to the Silver Spur (a western style kareoke bar - yes, it's ok to laugh), had more to drink there then walked home in the rain. Overall I had a lot of fun, but I'm not looking forward to going to the court office tomorrow to get my fine reduced - after all I am a poor student.

2003-09-25T22:12:00.000-04:00

I registered for a SCUBA course last week which was going to be taught at the UW PAC on Wednesday nights, but it was cancelled at the last minute because there were only 6 registrations (they needed 8 to run the course), I'm pretty dissapointed it because I have equipment that's going to go unused for a while. There are a lot of other places to take SCUBA courses but none for only $170, so I think I'll try my luck again next term - I'm not planning on doing any actual open water diving until May anyway.

Looking on the bright side, I got to go to the Bomber for the first time this term last night! It was kinda dead and there was no queue, I guess people didn't want to go because it was raining... I dunno. But I had a great time, I went with the Sci-Bus crew which is always fun.

I finally have a reliable internet connection after 3 weeks of calling Rogers - apparently they didn't beleive how slow our connection actually was - for example, my brother was coming over and he sent an email before he left - I started opening hotmail as soon as he sent it, and the email message still wasn't loaded by the time he walked over here. So I downloaded lots of music - some Stripes, Coldplay and David Gray.

Mike's coming to Waterloo tomorrow night, yay! And Momma-E is coming down from the T dot to the K dub it's starting to look like a great weekend.

2003-09-21T23:52:00.000-04:00

OK, I think I'm settled back into school now. I've been going to the gym pretty frequently and I'm feeling very healthy (see imood). I almost finished a paper and I have to get my resume done, there's graduate job postings already!

I spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning at Mike's parents' house in St. Thomas. We didn't really do much, but we watched "The Sweetest Thing" (with Christina Applegate, Cameron Diaz and Selma Blair) it was unrealistically funny.

I'm feeling extremely tired right now, I think that's enough.

2003-09-11T12:03:00.000-04:00

Orthodontics suck! I had the pleasure of driving for an hour and a half from Waterloo to Markham to visit my Orthodontist yesterday. "OK, now bite... now open... OK bite... open... bite... open... bite."

I took the opportunity to visit some friends while I was in the GTA. I went to Kirk and Joey's apartment for dinner with Shaun. Joe was away in Halifax so it was just Kirk, Shaun and I. My God, that "pasta thing with the chicken" was sooo good! And it wasn't just because I was stoned. Later their friend Darren came over and we watched Paradise Hotel. I thought I'd give the show a second chance... um no, I still don't like it - there are some HOT guys on the show, but it's just too bitchy and gossipy to be enjoyable. I think I prefer reality TV shows where the contestants actually have to do something apart from just sitting around gabbing at each other. When's Survivor starting?!?!

I got home last night to find out that the construction workers had accidentally cut our phone line. Great, another visit from Bell, that's all I need.

I have the day off and I need to get that damn work report out of the way.

2003-09-09T12:03:00.000-04:00

My night class last night was so boring. The class is Sci 423, it's basically all group work on two major assignments, so lectures are pretty much optional, except for the first one. The prof. went over a document that described how to write a report. Smack forehead with palm of hand! I mean everyone in the class is in 5th year, I think we should know how to do this by now. So he spent literally 2.5 hours reiterating and giving anecdotes... please tell me what a footnote is, how do I write a summary??

Lana flew over from Saskatoon on Sunday night - she had to attend the night class last night... it's a long story and I won't get into it now. Anyway, we went to the bomber last night after class with the Sci-Bus crew and drank beer from those huge 4 L pitchers. I realized that I was fortunate enough to have missed the entire Bomber being closed ordeal, it closed a month after I left Waterloo and reopened before I got back.

I drove Lana back to Hamilton Airport this morning, now I'm listening to David Gray - White Ladder. And I'm about to head out for lunch with Shawn Parry (who I haven't seen in about 4 months).

2003-09-07T15:39:00.000-04:00

I've taken a long hiatus from writing in this thing, so I think I'm due for an entry.

I'm finally back in Waterloo and ready for school. My new place is awesome, I'm really close to campus, directly across the street from the gym and it's completely new inside. They ripped out the inside of the house and redid it this summer, so we have new appliances and everything. I'm looking forward to starting school tomorrow, I only have classes in the morning, so it shouldn't be too much of a shock after 8-months of working.

I had a very interesting night last night. My friend Matt asked if I wanted to go out in Toronto for the night, I didn't have to drive or anything so I went. Our first stop was at Montana's in Mississauga where Matt's friend Fred works. We had some drinks and chilled with the servers after they were done work. Afterwards Matt, Fred and I headed to Woody's for some more drinks. We didn't realize that it was the best legs contest that night, I thought it would be fun to watch. So after doing her usual drag show, Sofonda started picking people out of the audience to compete. I tried to hide behind people and avoid eye contact... it was going well until she had chosen 9 contestants. She pointed her finger right at me and said "you!" Well I'd had a couple of drinks and thought I might even have a chance of winning $150 so I thought to myself "fuck it, why not?" I got up on the stage, told Sofonda my name, where I was from and what I did and then infront of about 300 people I pulled down my jeans (thank God I was wearing good underwear). I turned around, bent over, the usual, but difficult with pants around my ankles. I put my clothes back on and got off the stage. After a few minutes all the contestants were called back onto the stage for the "elimination round". After eliminating 6 other contestants I was left on the stage with another young guy and two older guys (who had much better legs than mine I think). We all showed off again were told to "work it" - we did. To my surprise judging by the audience cheer-o-meter I won the contest and the $150 prize. I bought my friends a round of drinks. Then I started getting far more attention from people in the bar than I was comfortable with so we decided to leave and go to 5ive which was almost completely dead (at 1am). We left and headed over to Fly where I met Shaun, Lee, Neale, Chad, Patrick and Bryan... had a pretty good time but I was tired so I dragged Matt and Fred out so we could drive back to Waterloo.

I've spent most of today watching TV and avoiding doing any work on my work report. I guess I have all day on Tuesday and Thursday to finish it up.

2003-08-29T18:38:00.000-04:00

I borrowed a friend's truck (Ford Explorer) to move some furniture yesterday. The trip to Waterloo and back used 40 L of gas. My cavalier uses about 20. More proof that SUVs are evil.

2003-08-26T13:58:00.000-04:00

Well I'm trying to avoid writing my work-report so I guess I'll write in this instead. The weather was great last weekend, I think it was the best we've had all summer. It made my trip to London / St. Thomas / Port Stanley even more enjoyable. Mike and I (mostly Mike) made a pizza on the BBQ on Friday night, for those of you who haven't tried it, you should. It's kinda like making a pizza in a wood stove, but with a BBQ (Mike doesn't have a convenient wood stove in his kitchen). We went to a bar in London called "The Barking Frog" it's an OK bar, probably more enjoyable to sit down with friends and have drinks rather than dancing. Personally I can't stand most top 40 music, sometimes I do tolerate it in the car, but I don't like dancing to it very much. I'm more into electronica and 80's or 80's remix for dancing. Saturday was spent mainly watching Mike play video games, but we did go to beautiful downtown London for beer and lunch. I especially enjoyed finding a pubic hair in my caesar salad. After enjoying my replacement salad we went over to "A Taste of London" and watched HOT firefighters do a firefighting competition - they ran up stairs, dragged dummies, aimed fire hoses, took their shirts off - let's just say it was fun to watch. I guess the second last weekend of August is popular for weddings, we saw 3 or 4 of them, lucky they got such great weather. Back at Mike's we had trout, potatoes, red wine and cheap cigars. On Sunday we went to the "beach resort town" of Port Stanley with Mike's friend Becky and her boyfriend Mike - we enjoyed greasy food, ice cream and a walk up and down the beach and around town a little.

I borrowed my Mike's "Six Feet Under" 1st season DVDs and I've been watching them in every minute of free time. I had watched a few episodes on TMN last year, but the series really makes a lot more sense when you watch them in order from the beginning. It is probably the best TV show I have ever watched and I would recommend it to anybody. The show is a commentary on life and death and has really improved my perspective on events in my own life.

I'm really looking forward to being back in Waterloo. I miss the bomber and I hope rumours about the liquor license being renewed are true! Momma, you gotta come down on the 10th, it'll be a blast.

2003-08-22T15:30:00.000-04:00

Our landlord is letting my roommates and I move into our new place next Thursday, which is a big relief; we won't have to pack our stuff into a truck on the 31st and sleep in a parking lot over night.

TGIF. I've been at home sick most of the week and today was my first day back, but it's been a long one and I'm looking forward to driving to beautiful St. Thomas, Ontario for the weekend. Mike and I and some of his girlfriends will be venturing to the "Barking Frog", a lounge/bar in London tonight and hopefully rollerblading tomorrow afternoon.

2003-08-20T12:48:00.000-04:00

Ok, if you're at an intersection, you have a green light and there are cars at the other side making it impossible to cross without blocking the intersection you wait. Especially if you are driving a huge tractor-trailer. You don't drive into the intersection, wait for the light to turn red and then make 30-40 cars sit through their green! I am sick and tired of people who don't give a shit about anyone else!!

2003-08-18T11:46:00.000-04:00

The weekend was fun and exhausting. After surviving "Blackout 2003" on Friday (I wish I was in New York so I could buy one of those "I survived Blackout 2003" T-shirts) I took my chances and went out clubbing at IT. There were no power cuts but they did play that song that goes "blackout - a compulsory period of darkness": how apt. Saturday I drove to Waterloo for some partying at Mike Schmidt's house (a.k.a. gamma gamma homo) and then club Renaissance. I stayed at Matt and Mark's place and watched some great porn on pride vision. On Sunday we got Wendy's - Waterloo people, have you ever noticed how hot the guys working at Wendy's are and how gay the manager is? - I wished Matt and Mark good luck on their move to Ottawa, drove back to the 'Hill and went to bed at 9:30.

2003-08-14T13:48:00.001-04:00

Tori Amos was awesome as usual. Ben Folds' opening act was great - he entertained us with humorous lyrics, high energy piano playing and even some audience interaction. Tori played some of her best music from Scarlet's Walk, The Choirgirl Hotel, Boys for Pele and others. After two expected encores she finished off with "Hey Jupiter", Mike's favourite Tori song.

On the way home I failed to see my gas light - I don't know how, I think I was still full of Tori energy and didn't notice. So after driving 60km round trip downtown and back my car ran out of gas literally 15 feet from my house. I must have been suffering from SARI (Severe Acute Reduced Intelligence) because I thought to myself "oh it's ok, I'll push it into the garage and then tomorrow I can fill it up with the gas for the lawnmower and take it over to Esso" I decided to push my 1 ton vehicle up the street and into the garage with Mike at the wheel. I realize retrospectively what a dumbass I am because it would have been just a tad easier to have walked to the garage retrieved the gas can and filled up the car down the street so I didn't need to push it.

2003-08-12T10:16:00.000-04:00

I had a good weekend. I went to my favourite hole in the ground on Saturday night (Fly) with Matt and Mark (plus siblings). I ran into a lot of other friends there. On Sunday David and Dwayne had a BBQ at their house, I had a good time as usual - it was a relaxing end to a busy weekend.

Last night I went to “Epic Fitness” with Shaun. I had never been to a “gay” gym before – it was great. I like working out with dance music, it makes me feel so much more energetic than the R&B they play at my gym. And of course there’s a great advantage to working out in a gym full of mostly gay men: eye-candy. Other bonuses include: less attitude, protein shake bar, and people actually put away their weights – what a concept!

Mike’s coming over tonight, I’m so excited. We’re going to the Tori Amos concert at the Molson Amphitheatre tomorrow night (yay).

2003-08-06T16:32:00.000-04:00

Rice crispy square ingredients translation: marshmallow (sugar, sugar, water, sugar, gelatin, artificial flavour), crisp rice cereal (rice, sugar, salt, sugar, sugar), margarine, sugar, sugar, artificial flavour.

Yum

2003-08-05T11:59:00.000-04:00

Shanley's cottage was great! Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad, but we managed to make the most of it - bonfire, marshmallows, beer, skinny dipping, "spoons" (and other drinking games). It was nice to spend a whole long weekend with Mike, but I don't get to see him for another 9 days now :(

I really have to get started on my work report, I'm having trouble coming up with topics, I'm thinking "Software Marketing from an Industry Specific Angle". Sounds frightfully interesting, I know. I just need to get it out of the way and get this co-op business over with.

I HAVE TO GO TO THE GYM TONIGHT!!

Tip of the day: don't cook "magic" mushrooms - they won't be so magic.

2003-07-31T12:06:00.000-04:00

I am so pumped today. I finally upgraded my computer, it's so fast! And Mike is driving up to see me today (yay!). Tomorrow we are driving up to Shanley's cottage where hopefully we will be spending most of the weekend on the beach or drunk or both. I hope it doesn't rain too much.

2003-07-30T10:34:00.000-04:00

Hot tubs are good. So is Indian food.

2003-07-29T11:05:00.000-04:00

Went to Fly on Saturday night, the music was great! But I didn't leave until around 6, spent 3 hours in and around a hot tub, went shopping at Costco and didn't end up going to sleep until Sunday night - I think I over did it. I ended up working from home yesterday because I was to tired to actually get dressed and drive to work.

Last night I succumbed to temptation and bought a Playstation 2, it came with Gran Turismo 3 (a car racing game) and I played it all night. I think the fact that my books are going to cost $200 less than I was expecting this term and that I don't have a DVD player justified the purchase.

On a completely different note: 3-way relationships. There are so many cultures that accept either polygamy or polyandry as the norm. In most western societies it is not. Polygamy is not legal in Canada. One of the arguments used by "pro-family" groups and anti-same-sex marriage groups is that if gays are allowed to marry then eventually polygamy will become legal. Most of us (pro-same-sex marriage) scof at that suggestion. My biggest personal argument for same-sex marriage is that if two people are happy together and want to be married that they have every right to do so, no matter what their gender. Society has no right to tell individuals what is right for them if the individuals consent to it and others aren't being affected negatively. Following that line of thought, if three people can commit to a relationship together then they should have the right to do that. I can't imagine any time in the future that our society would officially accept a marriage beyond the scope of two people - but nothing can stop three people from having an unofficial relationship. I just found out that a couple I recently met is actually a "triple". I didn't know what to think when I found out, I had never really thought about how a gay three way relationship would work, I don't think I could ever do it. I am capable of loving many people, but I love different people in different ways; I don't think I could love anyone else the same way I love Mike. But my philosophy is that I can't impose my feelings on others, just because I don't really understand something doesn't mean that it is wrong. I am being completely honest when I say that they are great people, I am happy for them and I hope everything works out well.

2003-07-26T15:57:00.000-04:00

Martinis of the day:
Zelda's - Trailer of Love
Wettbar - Apple Martini (bonus: you can look sexy eating the slice of apple)

Frapuccino of the day:
Mocha Mint

2003-07-25T13:28:00.000-04:00

I finally went to the gym after a 3 week hiatus - I was really starting to miss all the rude, incosiderate people and the incessant top 40 music. I'm starting a new routine and it was painful, infact I am still sore from my workout on Wednesday. No really exciting stories to tell, there aren't too many hotties at my gym (although there are more than at the Waterloo Goodlife).

Yesterday I learned the joy of telemarketing. For some reason my department at work decided that we'd call all of our customer contacts to ask them to come to our users' conference at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage California. This highly technical and innovative forum... there I go again! Anyways I had to call about 90 people and discovered that most of the phone numbers on the list were wrong. I didn't get even a single yes. The owners of the building I work in and the other buildings in the area threw a BBQ yesterday, it was fierce... well as fierce as a BBQ in an office parking lot can be.

And now to the highlight of my week: last night momma and I went out to Babylon for martinis I had a Cary Grant and a Nutty Monk. Momma had a Cary Grant and to her surprise a second Cary Grant that she didn't order - ah the language barrier. We discussed highly intelectual topics like cat worshipping incestuous office coworkers and chemical drugs.

I think it's time to get back to work and fill out that course override form.

2003-07-23T13:42:00.000-04:00

For the first time ever I actually did some work at home yesterday while "working from home". Granted, I did about an hour's worth of work and spread it over the whole day.

Last night my mom had a dinner party - I didn't participate in dinner. I did, however, participate in sitting around the chimenea in the backyard after dinner. I smoked a cigar, had three glasses of sherry and enjoyed conversation with four intoxicated, middle-aged couples. Did you know that urine is a compost accelerator?

Definately going to the gym tonight!

2003-07-22T13:46:00.000-04:00

I went out with Fab last night, we had martinis and mushrooms (yes, on a Monday night) then watched Austin Powers and several episodes of the Simpsons. Today I am "working from home".
I really need to get back to the gym - I should go tonight... or maybe tomorrow!

2003-07-21T11:34:00.000-04:00

Well, all the cool people have a blog and now I've caved under the peer pressure and started my own (yay). Now that I've spent most of the morning deciding on a name for my blog and coming up with nothing particulary interesting, here's a bit about me: I'm a student at the University of Waterloo studying Science and Business - Biology major (yes, it is an interesting combination; no, I don't know what I'm going to do with it; yes, I love it). Right now, I'm finishing up my final co-op work term doing product marketing at a software company in Markham - I've had my share of Biology jobs and now I'm getting some business experience - and soon I'll be back in beautiful Waterloo for 4th year! Anything else?... my birthday is October 26th, 1980 - that makes me 22 and a Scorpio.

I had a great weekend in Waterloo, Dan's birthday was fabulous, sunday I had the "pleasure" of watching Jackass, which is quite amusing when you are stoned, except for the part where he gives himself paper cuts - those people have some mental problems, even if they are hot. The highlight of my weekend - Mike (he's my man) and I went to the Bay to buy a Lancome gift certificate for Rosemary (Mike's mom). We were greeted by a friendly middle aged sales rep who said "oh, well unfortunately we don't sell Lancome gift certificates, you'll have to buy a gift certificate for the gay... I mean the Bay" a moment of awkward silence followed and Mike and I tried very hard to contain our laughter.

Today I have a case of the monday's, although not quite as severe as usual - the frozen soy coffee my coworker just brought me is helping a lot. I would like to spend the day emailing momma, chatting on MSN and playing on bored.com but I got a call from the VP of sales this morning at 9:30 (which is 6:30am his time - why anyone would want to be at work at that time is beyond me) and I promised him that I would send out new price lists tomorrow, so I will be spending the day generating 49 price lists - fun stuff!!

Ok, I really have to run to the bathroom now, caffeine tends to have that effect, then it's back to the grind.