Archive for April, 2010

Taxes, The Happiest Place on Earth and Special Requests…

Monday, April 19th, 2010

I finally decided to sort out my taxes. For the first time since becoming an employee, I regretted it!  I can’t believe how much of a tax hit you can take when you are most of the year as an employee and a few months as a contractor.  I won’t go into details about my actual tax owing but I can tell you, a glass of wine was definitely needed! I am hoping that the government looks at it and finds out I figured something wrong.. hoping hoping hoping! So much for having a savings account… sigh!

So it is Friday morning.. which in general seems to make people a little happier.. it is spring too, so that helps.. but this morning, Lauren and I were at Tim Hortons and it seemed like the happiest place on earth! 

It is ‘roll-up-the-rim’ time and so the long Timmies line-ups are generally much longer.. so we are in line and a man from near the front of the line offers his spot to trade with a woman at the back of the line who was toting around 2 small children.  I think I can speak for everyone in the line-up when I say that we were all really impressed.  He not only gave up his spot, but he influenced the entire line-up with his infectious friendliness. I think it ended up affecting the entire place because suddenly people were holding doors open for one another etc.. it was pretty cool and I am glad to have wittnessed it.  In fact, I have really begun to lose faith in the Human Race.  We have so many horrible people living on this planet.  Our history is riddled with hatred and torture and murder.

It is really nice to know that somewhere on this little planet, on a tiny speck of land in Calgary… someone was kind!

Now it is lunch time… and I have been craving both egg and tuna salad sandwiches thanks to our catered lunch here at work yesterday.  Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a variety nut and often, when I can I will ask for as many variations and options as possible. 

So I went to Marcellos and asked for a sandwich.. 1/2 tuna, 1/2 egg.  So she starts to spread the tuna salad on a whole slice of bread and I try to explain that I want it spread on only half.. she doesn’t understand so she passes me on to another girl who claims to understand EXACTLY what I want.  So she begins to spread the egg on another whole slice of bread… so now I am envisioning how this sandwich will taste.  I can’t imagine it will be revolting.. so I just play along.. I get the lettuce and the cucumber and salt & pepper… Luckily she puts all the vegetables between layers.. and then folds it up and cuts it diagonally.  She hands me a tuna & egg salad sandwich on white bread with lettuce, cucumber, salt & pepper.  Hmmmm.. thanks! I brought it back to my desk… took a bite of the frankenwich… and its not THAT bad!  As a matter of fact, I would consider eating something like this again sometime.. but my craving was for each sandwich individually.  So I carefully separated the two halves, split the veggies evenly between them and ate them separately.

The Cubicle…

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

It is an interesting dynamic moving from an office to a cubicle. Granted my office space was shared so my real estate wasn’t reduced by much but the walls came down and that is where things are different.  I feel somehow liberated.  Even though I am more exposed now… my privacy non existent, I am somehow more organized.  It is like being forced to scale down and taking down the walls has made me think about my space more efficiently. 

I remember this now from when I was in a call centre working as a phone rep.  Everything had a place.. albeit a small one.. but things were orderly.  The occasional rep had a horrible mess for a desk but in general, things were tidy. 

I have been getting teased though.  Apparently by moving in my gumball machine and multiple photos of friends and family, I have made the place seem homely.  As I look around, I realize that no one else has brought their own flair to their cubicle… how sad.  I spend more waking hours at work than at home. 

I didn’t actually bring home to work… the things I have here  were acquired for work specifically or were given to me as a gift.  I want to make it clear that I am not making work my second home.  I am not trying to bring home here… I am just trying to make it a comfortable and enjoyable place to be!

I guess this all leads me to the fact that I have a new job!  I was transferred to a new role.. an exciting role.. a role that actually seems to be a perfect fit for me.  Most of all, I am going to be challenged which is something I have been missing for a long time.  I miss being challenged and I miss being part of a team.  I will get to experience that here.  I am in the same company but in a different department so even though the learning curve is steep, I have the advantage of knowing most of the members of my team.

All in all, so far so good!  Things are looking up!