Hi ho there! I have been watching a lot of The Muppet Show lately since I received seasons 2 & 3 for Christmas. We’re on the last disk of season 2 right now. We watch it with dinner.

Speaking of dinner, my lovely idea to make meals this week quickly derailed as the week crumbled around me. Between work and weather it was just all over the place. One night we actually had take out chicken (Scores) and it gave me such bad heartburn that I was up much of the night and felt like I was going to throw up fire. Amazing how eating all freshly, prepared food for 2 weeks and then having processed, greasy stuff one night can cause such a reaction in my body. You’d think that the next night we’d have cooked from scratch again. Oh, no. We had KD. (The spiraly kind!) The snow that stayed away for two months all fell in the course of 24 hours and the commute home on Thursday was about an hour and a half. The Rush Hour Bus was less RUSH and much more HOUR that night. We didn’t even have the dedicated bus lane set up on the bridge because of the snow. Once 7pm rolled around and we were just getting in the door (we should have been home about 5:45!) we had to shovel both front and back – our snow removal company had NOT come yet for the driveway, and it was close to 8 by the time dinner could be made.

Speaking of the snow removal company… Our contract goes from November 1 – March 31st. There was absolutely no snow on the ground for them to plow in November and December. Last week they came by when there was less than 2cm on the ground. The contract states they will come only after 4cm has fallen, I came home to this:

I guess they were bored. Or felt like they should be out doing something since they’d been paid for two months and haven;t; had to do anything.

But Thursday… Thursday! We were supposed to get 5cm, we got 25cm (as we are wont to do the first major snowfall. It’s always miss-called by the weather people. ALWAYS!) It was snowing all day, the heavier stuff in the afternoon. Normally on days like that the snow people come about 3 times a day. The first snowfall often they might  be a little late, but they are there to clear out the end of the driveways by evening for people coming home from work.

When we got home Thursday night? Nothing had been done. Thankfully we didn’t have to take the car anywhere. They showed up after 10:00pm that night.

Friday morning it was still snowing, with a lot of freezing rain mixed in. We had to put the recycling bin out and that’s when we noticed that the snow from the neigbour’s house to the left of us had been blown into OUR drivway all along the side of the car. Lovely. Also, the snow removal people did NOT pass before 7am like they are supposed to do.

When I got home (before Shawn) on Friday? They hadn’t come AT ALL and it was STILL SNOWING.

I had to dig out the recycling bin because the city plows had passed and it was nice and stuck in the snow (not too bad, and it wasn’t a big deal) but climbing over the banks of snow that SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THERE to get into my driveway wasn’t fun.

I was out shovelling with my left side neighbour, who told me when they passed the night before they also plowed his LAWN rather than stop at the end his half-drive. The neighbours on the right (with whom we share the driveway) were out shovelling to get their car IN the driveway. Both sides told me the company didn’t pass all day.

When did they show up? 1:30 am this morning. Their lights woke me up. They didn’t do half of the left neighbour’s driveway, but blew his snow into ours. They took the bank away from the end of our drieway, but left another bank of snow in their wake. Total time? Maybe 20 seconds.

All three of us are unimpressed.

Anyhow, it was nice to focus my irritation on something other than work. Also I have had nothing but fun playing in the snow in the backyard with the dogs. Sophie LOVES the snow. She dives face-first into it, buries her entire head and then flips herself over in a somersault thing and rolls around. I can’t catch it on camera, but it is delightful to watch!

Work this week became more and more difficult as the week went on. My poor Big Boss has not had his two assistants working for him at the same time since he was appointed. I was there in the summer but my boss was away due to family emergencies, she came back, I was on strike. I came back, she went back to the family thing and is still there. I broke down late this week and spoke to my Big Boss about the possibility of hiring a “me” part-time to help me out since I am assuming the roll of my boss for the time being. There is too much that needs to be done for one person in that office. Hence why my position was created 6 years ago. Obviously they couldn’t hire help in the fall because of the strike, but had we not been on strike, they could have during my sick leave. I need some help. I am already overwhelmed and I have post-it notes stuck all over the shelf, desk, computer monitor of reminders of things I need to do. I didn’t even get a lot of it done.

Of course after I spoke with my boss on Friday when she called to touch base, that’s when everything hit me. I was pretty good at keeping emotion out of things all week, but of course there is emotion when it comes to her situation and just missing her. So at 5pm I was in my office trying to swallow down a panic attack and the tears just started. Oops. There’s nothing like crying in front of the Dean, you know? =P As always, I am just the epitome of professionalism in the office with my bright purple hair and stress tears. heh

I will be working from home this weekend on many things that are due early next week and on things I didn’t get done last week. I also have to plot out what I will need help with so that we can figure out the best use of a part-time me. A lot of what needs to be done isn’t something I can just explain to someone and have them carry on no problem. There’s menial tasks like filing and helping with meeting scheduling, but when it comes to the bulk of what I have due this semester, it’s pretty training specific.  Ugh.

Last night’s dinner ended up being Pogos (corn dogs) because it was late and I was too stressed to eat and we couldn’t get out of the driveway without hacking at the snow for an hour more. My mealplan/healthy eating went out the window quickly but by golly was it a rough week!

Meanwhile, I am enjoying some nice Creamy Earl Grey tea from DAVIDsTEA and taking deep breaths. I shall give myself the morning to putter around on the internet and maybe read, certainly blog (hi!) and then I will sit down and start working on budget things and scholarships and try to get stuff done from the comfort of my own home and not have an entire faculty drop by the office and ask me for things. It might end up being way more productive this way.

Oh, bright side to all of this, I have moved myself into my boss’ office during her absence. Have to say, moving from my open space desk space into a room with a DOOR has cut down stress levels immensely. I can no longer hear the inane chatter of everyone else on the floor about things I don’t care about. I can work without that distraction and I don’t have to have earphones in which often results to my missing hearing the telephone ring. I love having a door. Happiness.

Onward to another week! I shall make this week my bitch, yo!