March Madness

March was always pretty crazy in terms of workload when I was in school. In highschool it tended to be when we had our midterms and the first round of large assignments were due. When I got into university it was the end of the winter term and therefore lots of assignments, term projects and tons of studying for exams. It was madness, so much so that my birthday often got overlooked (or at least downplayed) for lack of time and energy (and sanity). My friends wished me happy birthday as did my family and I received gifts of course, but we didn't have any large parties or anything like that. It was partly on my asking so I am not upset or anything like that (just to clarify). When I graduated I thought for sure that I would be able to have a real party or something like that on my birthday. Apparently I was wrong. March is an absolutely crazy time for DST Consulting. Our major client, like most consulting firms in Ottawa, is the government and their fiscal year end it March 31. There are so many projects due and so many starting up with absolutely no time to prepare or complete them let alone think sanely or rationally. I will be celebrating with my friends on my birthday weekend, but once again nothing big will be planned or done as I just won't have the energy from the crazy work schedule. Oh well, I enjoy nice quiet nights with my friends anyway - and at least there will be cake...mmm...cake.

A Typical Work Day

Idea taken from Chris’ Blog.
6:01am: alarm goes off. I tell Dave “That was the first alarm”. He grumbles and we both go back to sleep.
6:10am: alarm goes off. I tell Dave “That was the second alarm”. He grumbles and we both go back to sleep.
6:19am: alarm goes off. Dave gets up and head to the shower.
6:40am: My turn in the shower.
7:00am: I am dressed and I head downstairs for breakfast which is eaten while watching Shamey (Shamus) on Canada AM.
7:30am: Head out the door to sit in the cold car while it warms up. Dave drives us to work.
8:00am: arrive at work where I check work and personal email then figure out what I have to do that day.
8:30am: others start arriving at work. This also happens to be the time when my work effort goes up significantly. I work from now until lunch writing reports, answering emails and phone calls from clients and coworkers and whatever else comes my way.
10:00am: If it is Monday, I attend the Monday Morning Meeting (MMM) where I give updates on all of my projects and the ones I am monitoring for other people. I am usually assigned a couple new tasks which really suck.
12:00pm: head to the kitchen and make myself my usual lunch and then proceed to Dave’s office (for now) where we eat lunch while surfing the net and making plans for anything that may or may not be happening that night.
12:30pm: head back to my own desk where I usually surf the net for a few more minutes and then get back to my report writing and other such tasks.
2:30pm: generally this is the time of the day where my work effort goes down the tube and I begin counting down the minutes until I head home. Small tasks are given to myself for the rest of the day as my brain has officially gone home and I am no longer capable of prolonged thought or conversation.
4:15-4:30pm: sometime during this time we head home but not before writing a note of whatever it was I was doing so I can remember the next day. We also have to ensure Dave has enough work to justify coming in the next day. I drive us home while Dave reads whatever book he happens to be on at the time.
5:00pm: start dinner and determine what we are going to do for the night (this usually consists of some sort of TV, movie or game – or combination thereof). If it is later on in the week we may have picked up a friend on the way home to hang out with and have dinner with.
6:30pm: If it is Tuesday, I head to class at Algonquin where I am generally bored enough to write things like this (guess where I am right now).
10:00pm: If it is Tuesday, I leave or have just arrived home from class at Algonquin.
10:00pm: Unless it is Friday, head to bed – usually with a movie in hand to fall asleep to.

Shadowed Smile

Chris took this photo of my for the media photography course she is taking at Carleton this term. I have to admit I was a little nervous when she said she wanted to use me for her model but as I used her in the past for modeling (for almost an entire day) and she has barely used me at all for this course, I went along with it. Anyway, I am really happy with the way it turned out. The lighting reminds me of a 50s Hollywood starlet photo.

And the winner is...

I have never really been a big fan of the Oscars. In fact I don't know if I have ever watched one from start to finish. I remember when I was younger I would watch it while watching a multitude of other shows that were on (none of the shows during the Oscars timeslot are ever very good and it is therefore necessary to watch several of them at the same time). I would catch an award here or there and then make sure I caught the last 15 minutes or so to get the top three awards (top male and female actor and best movie). These guys however, have found a way for me to enjoy the Oscars.

My Birthday Month

March really isn’t my favourite month as it isn’t all that pretty outside; the snow is started to melt and therefore goes that awful dirty grey colour, whatever grass that has revealed itself is parch and brown and there are few animals running about. It is however, my birthday month which makes it pretty wonderful. Chris asked me this weekend (or perhaps last week) what I wanted for my birthday and just like I did when it came to Christmas presents, I drew a complete blank. The things I want are either not things one can buy or way too expensive for anyone to get me other than myself (and even when I get them for myself it takes a lot of thought).
I want to travel and take photographs. I want to no longer be working in a place I don’t really like and I would love to be able to go back to school for photography with the idea of actually being able to make money afterwards (and not work at Wal-Mart or Sears Portrait studios – fine jobs, but not the type of photography I am working towards). I would love for someone to come over and take away a few pounds or magically show me how it is done in a fashion that I understand and am capable of. I want to own a home and be fixing it up (perhaps this is just because I have been watching a lot of HGTV and other such fix-it-up type stations).
As you can see, none of these things really add up to anything someone can get me for my birthday. So I guess I will keep thinking about it and hopefully I will come up with something a tad more feasible for my friends and family.