The winds of change

While I was away in the States, my friend, who is also my colleague, had good news to share with me. We had a quick call as I was driving over to the arena to see a hockey game.

She had landed a project manager job in a different department. I was thrilled for her because she has expressed wanting to be one in the past. I did say to be careful. She would have a manager who was toxic towards me and enjoyed trying to sabotage me. She was unsuccessful.

Well, on the weekend, my friend said that there was an abrupt change. She ended up resigning. Wow! I was not expecting to hear that statement from her.

We are getting together later on today. She said that she'd explain everything to me. I have a feeling that perhaps this toxic woman did something that made my friend quit. We'll see.

Friends from grade 7 have found love

I found out through a friend that she has found new love. It's nice.

We all know one another. We all met in grade 7. She is dating a guy from our class.

It's interesting how life unfolds. We all got married. We all got divorced. We all carry on.

I am thrilled that they have found each other. They haven't made it official. She quietly shared the news with me. It's saying a lot, for she is like an open book, in general. They are being cautious for the time being, but are definitely together and enjoying being in love.

It's sweet seeing budding love.

My friend and a product manager

My friend, who has leukemia, has provided an update and it's promising. She went through a trial and she may be in remission. She'll know for sure on Wednesday. I like good news!

At work, it's busy, as we are gearing towards a major software release. I have been restructuring a section of our documentation that is long overdue, but it also conforms to changes that we have done recently. 

The review with the product manager and software architect was smooth. I'm pleased.

With the product manager, he seems to like me more than I recall. In the past, he grumbled about an issue in our documentation to my manager. The latter defended me by saying that I delegate the work to students, so the fault wasn't exactly solely mine.

I have worked with this product manager more closely over the past year or so. When we used to be in the office and once had a major meeting where it was standing room only, he actually pushed me in front of him, as he's probably 6'4" and I'm half a foot shorter. It was a nice gesture to allow me to see what was happening.

He does have a girlfriend, so we won't go into any romantic what-if scenarios. However, he does do smileys in his e-mails, more to me than most. Maybe he's just a flirt.

Taking a break from social media and news

Watching coverage of protests, looting, outrage over racism, and more on television and social media is a double-edged sword. 

On the one hand, it's good that we are discussing how wrong racism is. It's not cool for a police officer to kneel on a black man's neck for nearly nine minutes and ignoring his request to breathe like a human being. On the other hand, the coverage of windows being broken and idiots stealing merchandise and more is way too much for my liking.

I've decided to take a break from tuning into the news or reading my social feeds. It's way too much sensory information to absorb.

I spent some time reorganizing things at home. I stopped briefly due to the craziness happening at work for the last two weeks. It was nice to unwind by getting rid of items that I had kept for a while.

Pillow and devastating news

I sleep with a pillow under my knees. It helps with my back.

For the past week, the filling from this pillow was coming out. It is an old pillow. It has seen better days.

On Sunday, I went to get a replacement. It doesn't have to be an expensive pillow. It simply needs to support my knees.

I found one at a local store. It was $6. It was a great find.

After running a few errands and then coming home, I learned that Kobe Bryant, along with his daughter and everyone else on his private helicopter, had passed away from the helicopter crashing down. It was devastating news. May Kobe and everyone on that plane rest easy.

It makes you realize how precious life is and to cherish it more than we do.

Job cuts and absence

Things look fairly bleak at work. There are job cuts. Everyone job seems to be at stake.

My manager and I had a good chat. He feels that I have nothing to worry about. I am not worried, but we got to this conversation after discussing the incompetent woman's departure in the near future.

Interestingly, her departure saves losing more folks in my department. She has not taken the news well, which is understandable. I have not seen her since Monday. She has taken the last couple of days off as she is under the weather. She has an appointment later today and decided to work from home.

I can't tell if she is truly sick or needs a mental break. I can only hope that she is okay.

Bonus pay + interviews = good news

I got a glimpse of how much my bonus pay will be before taxes are taken off. It's impressive! We'll see how much is left after the dust settles on Thursday.

There is a good chance that I will be doing a short road trip to interview prospective students for our next work term. It's exciting.

I'm off to bed. I'm exhausted with all this good news!

Staying calm in traffic after a mixup

It has been a long week.

On Friday, while driving home from my various shopping excursions, my cell phone rang. It was my resource manager from the employment agency. I took the call.

He broke the bad news. He explained that the hiring manager who liked my skills during my first interview decided to go with another candidate who was more qualified. I was actually okay with the news. I explained that I hadn't been interviewed in over seven years and was simply pleased that I have a decent set of skills that gets noticed.

It was a cordial call. We hung up.

Five minutes later, my phone rang again. It was the same person. I was still stuck in traffic.

He indicated that he had made a mistake. He is working with two different hiring managers with the same first name. Mine is still interested in conducting a second interview.

It was an odd mixup. My resource manager apologized. I indicated that it has been such a crazy week that mistakes happen.

It's a good thing that I am a calm person stuck in traffic.

March questions continue

The other day, I received a batch of fun questions from Han. Here are my answers:

Do you read a newspaper daily? 

Sadly, I don't read the paper version of a newspaper daily. Instead, I tend to read the online version as often as I can, which is pretty close to being daily. Otherwise, I get my news either on the radio or at night when I have a chance to watch the evening news on TV. 

Do you watch television a lot and what are your favourite programs? 

Great segue! I don't watch as much television as I should. I find that I watch more TV when I am on vacation, mainly because I am often in another country and like watching local programs. 

I probably watch television an average of fourteen hours a week. I tend to watch the news. I also like Live! with Kelly and Michael and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. I do enjoy watching hockey games and special sporting events, but I haven't been doing that much these days. 

Are you interested in politics? 

This question is a good one. My ex-hubby taught politics. I follow politics, but I am nowhere near being a passionate political junkie like he was. Coincidentally, my guy is interested in politics, but he doesn't ram it down my throat. He can spend a decent amount of time debating his views with others on Facebook and other sites. He has cut down on that these days. 

As for me, I am a mathematical girl. So, when there is an election, I am far more interested in the poll results, statistical trends, and other tidbits that are math-related. 

I don't have a specific party that I will lean towards supporting. Rather, I will look at what each candidate's platform is and decide which one I support. 

If possible, do you vote for a male or a female, or is the gender irrelevant? 

Gender is irrelevant to me when I vote for a candidate. It's more about what the candidate stands for and whether that person is fit to govern. 

I am fortunate to live in Canada and be Canadian. We have had both male and female prime ministers. When I lived in Winnipeg, I had a gay mayor. Living in Ontario these days, I have a lesbian premier. As long as they do a decent job in standing up for what Canadians want and representing them, all is well. 

Do you miss giving spankings as much as you like receiving them? 

I do miss giving spankings. I still like giving my guy lovetaps here and there, but it's not the same. However, I don't miss them so much that I insist on spanking my guy hard. 

I must admit that I love being spanked these days. My guy does it well and he has embraced spanking me. At first, I thought that he would think that I was weird for liking to be spanked. He likes that I get so turned on that he doesn't find it strange at all. I love that and him, of course. 

Did you do other D/s activities we she should know about besides spankings? 

Such a great question! My guy and I have explored light bondage. I like being lightly tied up. I enjoy having my hands secured while he spanks me now and again. If we don't have a silky scarf or some velvety rope, I get aroused when he holds my hand behind my back.

One time when we were on vacation, he gave me an eye mask. I tried it on. He tickled me and kissed me while I had the mask on. It was fun and enjoyable. I wouldn't mind giving the eye mask another try soon.

Thanks for the questions, Han!

If you have any questions that you'd like me to answer, feel free to leave them in the Comments section. Thanks!

Improving communications and making my guy wonder

As I had mentioned in a previous post, my guy has to work on improving his communication skills. I will admit that I have seen a bit of improvement, but they need work!

On Monday night, I had asked him whether he was going to be at work on Tuesday. He told me that he wasn't. Yet, a colleague had mentioned that he was at work on Tuesday, but wasn't feeling too well.

He typically is in the office on Wednesdays. He wasn't this past Wednesday. I was there all day long. I heard nothing from him. I figured that after my colleague had indicated that my guy wasn't feeling too well on Tuesday that he was sick at home.

My guy did manage to send me an e-mail, saying that he was working from home sick. He hoped to be better by Friday, hinting at some treehouse time with me.

I wrote back to him three hours later. I had two interviews to conduct, so I quickly sent him an e-mail. I hinted that he wasn't immune to working on Tuesday and hoped that he would feel better soon. I also thanked him for letting me know of his whereabouts. It was thoughtful of him and it did ease my mind.

I had good news to share with him. I decided not to discuss it in the e-mail. Instead, I hinted that I'd share it with him on Friday, provided that he was there. It was a good move on my part to make him ponder that over.

I do have a love for Starbucks. My guy teases me that I practically live there, which isn't true. I do visit a Starbucks roughly three times a week. It was different this week. I hadn't been there since Monday.

On LivingSocial, there was a Starbucks offer. You buy a $10 Starbucks eCard for $5. I shared this deal on Facebook because I like to share the wealth. 

My guy has a knack for catching me off-guard with sweet surprises. We are connected on Facebook. He saw that Starbucks deal. He surprised me with an eCard. He joked that he was worried that I hadn't been to Starbucks for nearly three days. He thought that he was the sick one!

He also told me that he had to wonder about my good news for another two days. He told me that I'd "pay for that!" Yep, I love a good threat that sets up a spanking session. I told him that it's fun making him wonder. 

Unfortunately, my guy didn't make it to work on Friday. He was stuck on a call with someone based in Pakistan. So, he had to wonder about my news even more and hinted that I could tell him either through texts or by e-mail. I told him that I'd rather tell him in-person.

It was a shame that we couldn't see each other this week. But, there's always next week. Here's to better communication!