Friday, April 27, 2007

I heart my job!

How many times do you hear those words from people?

Well, yesterday was my first day at my new job. It felt like my first day of school. Remember how great those were? You never did any work, you just met your teachers and class mates and got your text books and schedule and usually left a bit early. Well my day yesterday was just like that.

I met the entire organization and I think i'll do an ok job at remembering most people's names. Everyone is really nice and laid back, but let me tell you about the "perks".

Well, as most of you know, i have come from a very small company. There was six of us who worked at the company, and we didn't have very many luxuries. Coming to such a big organization (or is it?), i found so many things really cool!

1) I got one of those cool security swipe passes that you clip to your pants with the extendable leash thingy!

2) I have my own email address now :)

3) I have my own telephone extension

4) I can import my voice mail messages into my email and listen to them as wave files. I can also forward them to other people to listen to!

5) Our copy / mail room has a HUGE hole puncher that can do about 50 sheets at once AND a HUGE stapler that can do about the same! argh i can't wait to use them and not be frustrated by the ones i'm used to that jam all the time!!

6) The photocopier can scan things and send them right to your email or anyone else's email! you can also just scan something and fax it to another person...too cool!

7) we have a little gym in the building

8) we have free coffee machines in the building

9) we have a little cafe for our lunch with 2 microwaves and a huge fridge and all of the drinks are free (pop, juice, tea, water, coffee etc.)!

10) we have picnic tables outside for lunch time

11) i get a parking pass and free parking

12) my cubicle is probably the best cubicle arround. Almost eveyrone (except the execs) share an office or a cubicle! and there's usually 2 or 3 per. I get my own, large cubicle which is nicely tucked into a cozy corner, not too far from the elevator, bathroom and coffee maker, but not too close to them either...it's perfect :)

13) my superierors are THE nicest!

14) i can come and go when i want

15) probably some other cool things i'm forgetting but will sure to post about in the future.

yay for my new job :)

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Home Sweet Home

So it's been a few weeks, since my last post...i'm still trying to get used to this whole thing. I much prefer to read other people's blogs rather than writing my own, cause i already know what's going on in my life. In my defense, however, there has been a lot going on in my life these last 3 or so weeks. Namely 2 deaths in my family, a new job job and....buying a house.

Ok, so those things actually only happened this past week, but still.

So buying a house...how crazy is that? It's such a weird feeling. Here we are looking at a ton of houses for months and knowing exactly what we want....or do we?

I had a list of things that I thought were a priority for me when looking for that perfect house. So as i was saying, we've looked at house after house after house, and none of them really jumped out at me (or "us" i guess you could say...) and quite frankly they all started to look the same after a while. Because we were pretty specific with what we were looking for our agent showed us a bunch of houses that were very similar.

I felt silly when our agent asked us what we thought of each house and i rhymed off what seemed to be trivial things i didn't like. For example:

agent: what do you think of this house?
me: i dunno, it's ok...

agent: this is the layout you said you liked
me: ya, i know, but this laminate flooring looks really cheap...
me: ya i know, but this yard feels really small
me: ya i know, but it doesn't have the nice roman tub
me: ya i know, but this is a middle unit
me: ya i know, but there's power lines behind us
me: ya i know, but it's not as new as i would like
me: ya i know, but the master bedroom is kind of small
me: ya i know, but it backs onto a busy street
me: ya i know, but but but....

After a while i started to wonder if our agent was thinking to himself that we were being spoiled little brats. I mean, how can any of those things be worse than living in an apartment when you have no ability to alter anything? I mean at least with a home, if there's something you don't like, you can do something...well for the most part...i guess it would be a bit difficult to move those power lines.

All this to say, we ended up buying a house that didnt' have all of my "wish list" items. But for some reason it just felt right. My heart was telling me to buy it, but my head was saying "WAIT!! this house doesn't have hardwood on the main level, or a fireplace, or the kitchen layout you want...what are you doing? those are the things you really wanted!!!"

But my heart kept saying, "i know, i know, but it feels right and it has other things that i really want like the corner lot with the big yard, and we have no immediate rear neighbours, and it's new, and the rooms are big..."

I still don't know why i thought it was a good idea to buy this house...maybe i was tired of looking at houses...maybe all of the houses started to look the same anyway...maybe it was mat telling me he loved the house so i felt bad not agreeing....

Nah! it was none of those things...i simply love the house and the hardwood and the fireplace i can add in later.

I'm really looking forward to my new crib...we move in July! Check out the pics :)