Hello from Toronto!

I’m here for work, but only for a couple days. It’s been several years since I’ve been in Canada, the last time being my trip to Vancouver. I was looking forward to a trip here, and maybe trying some poutine or a beavertail, but I then found out that those aren’t really things that you can find in Toronto. Oh well, at least we’re going to have a trip to Tim Hortons, who supposedly has the best coffee out there.

I’m always a big nervous when going through immigration. My passport still has my maiden name (and will until it expires if I have anything to do with it) and although I’ve got both names on my driver’s license, I’m always scared that they won’t let me in the country with it. I also get nervous when they start asking questions, because if I answer something wrong or suspiciously they might throw me in some sort of underground jail, never to be seen again. Fortunately, I did everything right this time.

I’ve been expecting things to be WAY different out here, but really, coming in on the plane everything looked the same from the air. The airport looked the same (except for that whole freaky immigration thing), renting a car was the same. However, once I got on the highway (do they call them highways here?) I started accelerating, noticing how quickly my little camry took to get to 80. But even going 80, cars were whizzing by me. It was only after looking at my speedometer a little more closely that I realized I was going 80 kilometers an hour, which is only about 60 miles an hour (I think). So I gunned it a little, feeling a thrill when my speedometer hit 100. I think I’ve only hit 100 once in the US, and that was in the middle of Michigan (Lara, remember that? Or maybe that’s a drive you’ve blocked out of your memory).

Other than the whole kilometer thing (and the Celsius thing, too), everything is pretty much the same. I don’t know what I was expecting, really.

But who knows…my opinion may totally change once I see the city in daylight! I’ll definitely try and take some pictures tomorrow (if my batteries are still alive!)

Tags: Travel by Yano
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Happy Mother’s day to all of you out there, friends, family and my wonderful readers (if you’re all still out there, that is). My boys (Dave and Ben) got me seasons 1 & 2 of the Office, which I love, and it will give me something to do when I’m on the road. We also went out for brunch at a great Italian buffet. Ben made a whole bunch of new friends walking around and trying to hold hands with other little kids. He’s a friendly little guy!

Of course, whenever this day comes, I’m left with a bittersweet feeling. I miss my mother terribly, and this time always puts me in a little funk. It’s still sweet, in a way, because I remember my mother fondly, and as much as I miss her, I know that she’s watching over me and those that I love.

The other day, I found a plastic bag on the junk table at my place. I’ve been traveling on and off over the last several weeks, so I have no idea how long this bag had been sitting there. I opened it up, and there were a bunch of cards in there. I looked inside the cards, and realized that these were the cards that were given to my mother during her baby shower, before I was born. It was a weird jump into the past, a past that was before me. Seeing names of all my aunts and friends and family that I only slightly recalled from my childhood. Reading all their well wishes for her, and just wondering what the shower was like.

Of course, it was my father who dropped off that little present to me. It means a lot to have this little piece of her, something that she had kept for so long.

So once again, I hope all you moms out there had a great day, and that your husbands and kids have treated you like the queens that you are…

Tags: Motherhood by Yano
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Have you seen the Mother’s Day commercial from JCPenney? Check it out! (I posted it on YouTube yesterday morning, and there have already been 1400 views - I guess it’s pretty popular!)

The first time I saw it I got all misty eyed. This beautiful commercial is backed by an acoustic version of “Only You”, one of my favorite songs. It makes me a little bittersweet, knowing that I’ll have this happen to me, at least with my own mother. That’s a thought that I think of often, what my life would be like now if my mother was still alive. She would definitely spoil Benjamin horribly, giving him sweets and buying him clothes and toys. I know we’d have disagreements about his upbringing and I’m sure I’d say, “I know that’s what you did when we were growing up, but things have changed.”

For as much nagging and annoyance I know that I would have in my life if she was still around, that would only be minor. Because those times would be far outweighed by the joy I’d feel every time I would see her hold him, play with him, sing to him, laugh at him. My heart would warm when I’d see Ben running towards her, nuzzling his little nose in her arms. I’d laugh when I hear her scream as she’s changing him, knowing that he’s hit his mark with his pee.

I guess around this time of the year, I always get a little sad. More and more time passes since my mother passed away, but around this time, the same feelings resurface. Not as painful as before, but more of a sadness, a wistful feeling, wanting to turn back the clock and revisit moments with her.

*sigh*

Tags: Video Gaga by Yano
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…driving home on a cool spring night, with my windows open blasting “Shake Your Groove Thing”, listening to my son babble in the back seat, with green lights all the way home.

It’s little moments like that which make all the stress and uncertainty of the rest of my life just melt away…

Tags: Daily by Yano
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My Seattle trip last week was pretty exhausting. As much as I loved learning new things about the company and seeing coworkers I haven’t seen in a while, by the end of the week I was totally missing my little boogerman.

I took the redeye back home, and as soon as I buckled my seatbelt I was out like a light, not to wake up until 4 1/2 hours later when we landed in Chicago. I got in at around 6am, and since Dave was working, his father picked me up and took him to their place, where Ben was sleeping. Ben looked like he’d grown a foot since I left him! I plopped down on the bed next to him and passed out, without even changing out of my clothes. I was in and out of sleep for the rest of the morning, and Ben woke up and looked at me like, “Where the hell have you been, Mommy?” and jumped on me and played with my face. I played a bit with him, but then fell back asleep. I woke up again at noon, and heard Ben downstairs playing. I got up and then realized that I hadn’t switched my watch, and that it was actually was 2 in the afternoon. I’m a slacker! That week really took a lot out of me!

So for the rest of the day, I just vegged out and watched Ben. I just marveled at how much he’s grown and that he’s a little boy now. I couldn’t help but pick him up occasionally and hug him and cover him with little kisses. It’s hard to be away from him for so long!

So here’s a pic of him from a couple weeks ago, the first time he’s walked on his own in our backyard. He wasn’t too fond of the squooshy, uneven feeling of the grass!

Tags: Daily by Yano
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It’s really late out here in Sea-Town, but I just wanted to share with you all…

So we had this team building shindig today, which was kind of fun. You know the kind of team building exercises where you all have to work together to beat the other teams. As we were working on our team competition, I was called by the “big names” (I don’t really know how else to describe them) to come and pow-wow with them. I got a little nervouse, thinking that it had something to do with the project I’m currently on, but when I got in their huddle, they were like, ‘Can you do Paula Abdul?” and I was like, “Huh? You mean sing?” and they were like, ‘No, do an American Idol impression.”. I asked what it was for, and it turned out that the awards ceremony was going to be an AI spoof. Not one to say “No” to anyone, I agreed, but was really nervous about how much I knew of Paula and her actions on AI to do a good impression of her.

So my time came up and I sat there, and did the best Paula impression I could. I was SUPER nervous the whole time, trying to think of what off the wall comment I could say next. Some of the ones I came up with were “You really reached into my soul with that one!” “Well, this group has a lot of young men….meet me in my room later tonight” and “I didn’t like your performance too much, but you’re a star, a shining star!” and other Paula-isms that I remember from AI. It was silly, but I did my best!

Afterwards, I hung out at a bar with the people from the Europe, who were a lively, fun bunch. We then came back to the hotel for more drinks, and then headed out to a club where other coworkers were already getting their groove on. Turns out, though, that the Euros didn’t bring their passports with them (and really, who could blame them?) so most of them didn’t get in. Some of them went back to the hotel, but one of them was just hanging out outside the bar talking to people. However, most of our group was inside, so we were trying to get in. So I tag teamed with my coworker (who i guess is a regular at the place) trying to persuade the bouncer to let our friend in. He was pretty reluctant, but after a couple minutes, we could see that he was going to fold. So I took him aside, talked to him a bit, asked him how he liked working there, what the crowd was like, blah blah blah, and we were able to get our U.K. friend inside. The bouncer was a good guy, and in the end he was cool with it (though he was probably cool with it because the bar was closing in the hour) and he really appreciated that I said “Thank You” after he let my friend in, which I guess is a sentiment he doesn’t’ get much.

Anyway, I’ve got a new friend in Seattle. He let me sit next to him when the bar closed and yell at people to kick ‘em out.

Oh, and if you haven’t guess, I’ve got my drinky drink on.

Time to pass out…..

Hope you’re all having a good week!

Tags: Travel by Yano
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The craziest thing happened today (well, yesterday) to me. I got an award!

We had an awards dinner for our big meeting, and awards were being given out to people for various things. The people who I knew that got awards definitely deserved them. One woman always takes the time to answer people’s questions when they send out a mass email to everyone. One guy has been the expert on one of our products and has done a lot of work, helping people out. It was great to see my coworkers get recognized for all the hard work that they’ve done.

For every award, the presenter gave a little speech, talking about the work that has been done and sometimes offering a little tidbit here and there - she’s a poet, this guy travels all the time. Then a presenter came up, talking about the next award winner’s childhood heroes…and they mentioned Ralph Macchio, and how she watched it a hundred times. I laughed, because I loved Ralph as a kid, too. Then they mentioned Scott Baio. Then Michael J. Fox. I started seeing a trend - the list had sounded familiar to me. Wonder Woman was then mentioned. The clincher was when the mentiond the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. That’s when I knew it was me.

That wasn’t possible, though. All the people who got awards before me DID stuff. They worked their asses off and they knew their stuff. True, I work a lot, but I really don’t feel like it’s worthy of getting award. There were so many people I work with who are more deserving than I for an award…it couldn’t be me.

They went on to talk about how the awardee had trained a lot of clients, done work in Crystal Reports, worked on other projects. Then they called out my name. It was all a bit surreal. I only slightly remember going up there, hearing some cheers from the crowd from my old Company X and X-Systems peeps. I shook hands with people up in front, mumbled thanks, and really concentrated on getting back to my seat without swaying. Then again - the whole swaying thing had nothing to do with the award, it was more because I had a couple drinks and was a little tipsy.

Anyway, I’m still in complete awe that I got this thing. Me? Why me? I feel in some ways like I don’t deserve it. I know so many people on my team who work just as hard as I do, if not harder. I wish we all got awards. I wish they all got the recognition that they deserve. As much as I am humbled and honored by getting the award (this pretty glass block with a globe inside and my name engraved on it) I am always uneasy when picked out of the pack like this. As much as I like getting the spotlight in some circumstances, I’m always uneasy when awarded or complimented in front of the team. I’m not really sure why. Nonetheless, I’m not giving back my cool little block!

So I got back to my seat in a daze. I then started to wonder, where the hell did they come up with tha list? Did I fill out some form during a workshop or ice breaker where we had to list our childhood heroes? Because I always mentioned Wonder Woman and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Then I realized where I remember that list from. It was from a post I made a couple weeks ago. I went into a bit of panic mode, because it always freaks me out a little bit when I think about someone from work might stumble upon my page. Luckily, I don’t really speak ill of clients or say the name of my company, so I think I’m safe. Sure, I complain about work at times, but doesn’t everyone?

I talked to my manager later that night, and he had mentioned that he was wondering if there was anyone famous that might share my name, so he googled me (ohh, that sounds so naughty). Of course, this site pops up, and he found my little Hero list which they used for the awards. A little freaky, but not too bad.

I’m having a good time here. As I said before, it’s great to hang out with co-workers. I really love most of the people I work with…they’re a good bunch!

So I’ll stop babbling, and get some sleep.

I’ll leave you with a picture of my soap. Why? Because it’s cool….and it smells good.

Tags: Daily by Yano
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