It’s been a pretty crazy week. With a million things on my mind and a million & one things on the to-do list, it’s no wonder I’ve been crazy stressed. In fact, I think I’ve been more stressed after my exam than I was before it. It’s knowing that once May 7th hits, I’ll have to shift my focus over to summer school, so between now and then I have to work on everything I need to get done.

Since the beginning of 2006, I’ve subconsciously formed a concept of living in 4-month blocks. Basically, my year is separated into 3 terms; January to April, May to August, and September to December. Last year, the first term was completely dedicated to school, the second term to work, and a combination of both in the third. That worked out pretty well.

Nearing the end of the first term for this year, I feel like I have a lot to wrap up. Looking back at it, I managed to juggle school, work, and a social life, and that was difficult. But going into the summer, I’ve already made so many plans with so many people that I’ll have to make a big effort to keep up with this cycle. I know it’s going to be hard keeping myself disciplined with my two summer courses, working two jobs, and seeing everyone. I can only promise I’ll do my best.

So this week, I’ve been chugging away with a new layout for missfranny.com. I just started using Dreamweaver and PHP, both of which are completely new to me, so having to learn it completely on my own was a bit of a challenge. Luckily I’ve managed to get a hang of it quickly. I’m hoping to have the new layout up by May 7th. Stay tuned.

My cell phone is going off with its crazy stunts again and it’s driving me insane. I either have to get it fixed or get a new one. I also have to upgrade my computer soon. With two videography jobs coming up (a couple’s anniversary at the end of June and a wedding at the beginning of September), I need to have my computer in tip-top shape. I’ll be going solo for both jobs, so I’m pretty nervous about it. See why I’m stressing?

Staying up late to work on the site has been taking a toll on my health. I’ve been mildly sick throughout the week. I know you’re probably telling me I’m putting way more on my plate than I should, but when there’s something I want done, I’ll sacrifice anything (on my own terms) to make it work. Maybe one day I’ll learn to change that about myself.

Apart from being sick, going to work, and developing the new layout, I’ve taken time to hang out. I took Georgia out for lunch on Tuesday to celebrate her birthday, followed by shopping at Scarborough Town Centre. Then on Wednesday, I met up with Georgia, Vanesa, and Tim after work and did more shopping at Markville Mall. I didn’t really come home with much, but it was great just spending time with them all. The four of us had dinner at Pickle Barrel and then chilled at Timmies after. We always have so much to laugh about. So apparently, size matters a whole lot to these guys. It’s all about the Big Tim. And Georgia wants laser eye removal?? LMAO

*What would I do without you guys hahaha

It’s been a long day.

I had a customer from Montreal who came with his birthday card (which entitles him to 20% off his purchase). I spent almost an hour with him picking out 2 pairs of cuff links, 1 shirt, 6 ties, 12 pairs of socks, and a reversible belt. Thank goodness for that $1270.51 sale or I would have closed at $0. He wanted everything shipped to his home in Montreal (that way he doesn’t have to pay PST), AND he wanted all the tags removed so when he opens the box at home, everything is ready to wear.

Now, I don’t mind taking all the tags off, wrapping up the box and filling out the shipping forms. But I was half an hour away from closing the store at 4pm and I still had the entire store to put back together. Of course, that’s when a couple decides to wander in to have a look around. They had a lot of questions about our shirts and how to care for them. That started a whole new conversation about washing machines and dryers, thanks to me and my big mouth about looking for a new dryer for the house. As the clock ticked away, I began to stress. The second they left the store, I got cracking.

But of course, the phone rings and it’s an old man on the phone. He’s a brand new customer who wants to order 6 pairs of socks. So I have to input his address and billing info (which he repeated like 3 times) into the computer. By the time I got off the phone with that customer, it was 4:10pm. I close the doors, put together that order, clean & restock the store, remove all the tags and box up all the stuff from the Montreal customer, and then I look at the clock. 5:00pm.

So I was an hour late getting off work. I made a quick stop at Eaton Center to pick up a greeting card and $10 Rogers Pay-As-You-Go for my mom. I thought that was it. It wasn’t until I got on the subway that I realized I forgot to pick up a birthday card. At that point, I wanted to shoot myself.

On a happy note, remember the couple I wrote about in yesterday’s entry? The husband came by at noon just to say hi. And then at 3pm, the wife stopped by just to say bye and to tell me they were heading back home to New York. I thought that was really really cute :)

Anyway, the second I got home I decided I had to go for a walk. That was the only way I could unload some of the stress. By myself, I enjoyed a good 30 minute walk. It was so beautiful outside, even at 7pm, that I didn’t want to come home. When I finally got in, I had the urge to write.

Here’s the piece of writing I ended up with.

And now, I just want to shower and get a good night’s sleep before having to work at 7am in the morning.

First off, I was surprised to encounter Mrs. Anson Chan in the lobby of the hotel today. She is the former Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In other words, she is a political figure in Hong Kong. Despite my lack of knowledge on HK politics, I managed to recognize her as I’ve seen her on television many times before. Known as an “Iron Lady” for her powerful role, she’s actually quite tiny in stature. Apparently, she was here in Toronto to speak at a Fraser Institute Luncheon that took place in our hotel.

Aside from that, it was a very quiet day at work. I only had 3 customers in the 6 hours I was there, and for some reason all of them complimented me on my service and selling ability. As a salesperson, that is the kind of feedback I look forward to. This one couple from New York (who happened to be old friends of Mr. Halpern – my boss) said they wanted to hire me to sell for them. I chuckled at that.

So it almost seems as if Spring never came this year and Summer decided to arrive early. We’ve been pretty lucky so far. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to really enjoy myself outside over these past couple of days. I finished my exam on Tuesday and have been working everyday since. Nonetheless, I’m still happy to see the sun shining.

* Here are the pictures from last Saturday night at Timmies…

NAT160 is over and done with. I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been, but considering I’ve been sick, I’m not about to stress about it. These were my marks going into the final (click on image to enlarge).

I got my nutrition report back in class last week, and I was pretty excited to see my mark. Apparently, I got one of the two A’s for that project. There were two parts to the assignment: a brochure (15 marks) and a summary (10 marks). Considering I spent no more than 15 minutes typing up the summary, I didn’t care very much for the 8/10 she gave me on that part of the project. But when she gave me back the brochure portion of my assignment, I hesitated when I saw my mark. “Excellent use of information” it read. I flipped through both sides of the paper and noticed two very minor corrections in wording, nothing big enough to lose marks for.

My mark was 13/15.

As I walked down the hall after class with my assignment in hand, I couldn’t help but wonder where those 2 marks went. It was really untypical of me to feel that way because I usually just take whatever mark is given to me. But this time, I had put so much effort into that project that it really bothered me to not know how I lost those 2 petty marks.

I was at the other side of the campus when I stopped dead in my tracks, turned around, and decided to walk back to the classroom. Something inside of me told myself I needed clarification; I needed an answer. Luckily, my teacher was still there. Very casually, I told her I was curious to what I could have done to make the assignment even better. She looked it over twice and then gave me a quick explanation to why she gave me the mark. Then she stopped and said “Actually, I’m going to change that to 14/15. I marked yours early and had higher expectations then. I didn’t think the results of this class was going to be so bad.”

Heh, so I ended up getting 22/25 on that assignment. It goes to show that, sometimes, a little bit of effort can make a difference.

Sometimes, you just need to follow your heart.

I’ve been having this on-and-off relationship with my health. In the last two weeks, I’ve had both a reduced appetite and a binge-eating episode. This feast & famine cycle usually happens when I’m mildly stressed and on the verge of getting sick. Luckily, I’m a few days away from my exam. I just have to keep truckin’ until then. Everything will be back on track soon, don’t you worry.It was unbelievable that I managed to have 4 days off this last week. I gave away two shifts in order to squeeze out more time to study for my exam, and it was a good thing that I did because by then I was actually sick. Mel, thanks again for taking my shift! You’re a doll, I owe you! I guess I’ll make up for it this coming week with 6 days of work. I’m not looking forward to it at all.

After 3 weeks of planning to see Dead Silence with Andrew and Omar, we finally got around to it on Thursday. We managed to get Vanesa to come along as well. The movie wasn’t as interesting as I’d initially thought it would be, and it wasn’t scary either. Andrew would say otherwise since he was so scared he practically jumped out of his seat. THAT scared the hell out of me and Omar. Even Vanesa, who sat one seat over from Andrew, felt the jerk of the seats. hahaha We’re never going to let that one go.

After the movie, we hung out at Starbucks and Timmies. Tim and Georgia replaced Omar and Andrew when they left, and the 4 of us spent the remainder of the night laughing until our stomachs hurt. We had one too many jokes. Those were definitely good times.

…by 2am, I was done.

*I’ll have to post the photos from Saturday night at Timmies later.

How convenient that the cold weather decided to join us for the long weekend we all looked forward to.  If it weren’t for the cold, I would’ve went out for a jog or a nice long walk.  The gloomy weather paired with the fact that everything was closed made for a weekend that I would’ve rather spent working.  But on the up side, it reminds me of how much more I’ll appreciate the summer when it finally arrives.

I bought these a couple weeks back and still haven’t had the chance to wear them yet.  I think they’re cute, even though they’re kind of similar to my Lacoste Antibes from two years back (mine have a purple interior, though).

Everyone, meet Gus!  Short for Gustoph, he’s a farmer from Amsterdam and was the love of the merchandising team during his short stay atop the merch table in the back room of Chapters.  He now resides in the kids’ department and gets pushed around all day.  But despite all the curious stares from the kids who would look up at him and the icky fingers that they would use to poke at him, he’s a tough cookie.  And we love him :)

This last week went by waaaay too quickly.  I almost wish it could have slowed down a bit since I was in a particularly good mood.  The weather was beautiful, I went on walks almost everyday, and I even made time to hop on the treadmill.  Days like those don’t come around often.

My nutrition assignment was due at the end of last week; it was supposed to be a group assignment but I chose to do it alone.  I was really excited to finish it because as I researched my topic, I learned a lot about low-carb dieting and it also opened up a lot of conversations between my dad and I.  We were constantly talking about health, stuff that I actually began to understand.  It just felt so nice to be able to do that.

Saturday night, we celebrated Mel’s birthday at Dave & Buster’s with most of the Chapters crew.  It was definitely some fun times.  It was great seeing some old faces too.  Here are some of the pictures:

Fran, Georgia, Mel – the birthday girl

Georgia, Mel, Janet

Mel, Aydeen, Andrew B.
*What’s Bible laughing at?

Andrew W, Fran, Georgia
*Omar warned us about this one literally 3 seconds before he took it.

Omar, Fran, Georgia
G must’ve been blowing a kiss at the hot waiter ;)

From Georgia and I…the card says: “We both wanted to wish you a happy birthday, but we drew a cut-mark down the middle in case you only liked one of us.”

She screamed when she saw the first season of House,
then she screamed again when she saw the booze.

Yeah, she liked the booze.

Andrew left me with no good shots…

…but I managed to win anyway :p
(even if it was by default)  haha

Georgia & Omar

Ann & the other Mel

Georgia & Mel

Whatcha lookin’ at, huh?  *Aydeen & Ron

Awww, how cute!  *Aydeen & Bible

Jenny & her boyfriend (sorry, his name escaped me)

Aydeen, calculating the massive bill.