Category Archives: loving.life

We all need to find out how to enjoy this lifetime. I love to learn and grow and laugh. Here is where you’ll find my thoughts on quality of life and personal development.

Simple Indulgence

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hand-indulgenceAre you like me? Do you have a favourite little ritual that feels indulgent?

Years ago, before I got married and started my family I used to enjoy taking bubble baths. Once a week I would pick up special soap, foot scrubs, face masks, do a Biore pore strip, grab a scented candle and indulge in a long soak followed by a manicure and pedicure. That was when I had all the time in the world.

Now that I’m a wife and a mom with a full time job, a home to keep in some semblance of order and another baby on the way, I feel like it’s even more important to find those small indulgences that make me feel good. The trick is finding those things that take no more than 5 minutes.

I wanted to share my little simple indulgence with you… if you’re a guy, you may want to pass (though I bet if you did this you’d feel great too, albeit maybe a little awkward about explaining the enjoyment), but for the ladies, try giving your hands a one minute pampering.

My favourite products are from Bath & Body Works. Last time I was across the border I picked some up at Bellis Fair. I can’t tell you how excited I am that I will soon be able to get my hands on these things here in BC! Bath & Body Works is coming this fall to Richmond Centre. Now granted it’s a bit of a trek to Richmond from North Van, but it’s a longer haul to Bellingham so it’s still a win.

Anyway, I digress. Here’s the routine:

  1. Wash your hands with Midnight Pomegranate Anti-Bacterial moisturizing hand soap with green tea extract and shea butter. It’s so nice and creamy but with a hint of grit to exfoliate; it will leave your hands clean  but feeling moisturized.
  2. Dry your hands well.
  3. Grab about 2 tbsp – a little glob – of True Blue Spa ‘there’s the rub’ Salt Glow with natural sea salt and rub it in your your hands. Really rub it… rub your fingers with it, your palms and the back of your hands… keep going for at least 30 seconds or longer. It’s got a super gritty, sort of greasy feel to it and it smells wonderfully of eucalyptus. Reminds me of being at the spa.
  4. Rinse your hands under warm water and continue rubbing until all the salt scrub has been removed.
  5. Pat your hands dry.
  6. Grab pretty much any of Bath & Body Works’ scented body lotions – I really enjoy Mango Mandarin – and apply like you would any other hand lotion.

And voila!

This one minute indulgence will leave you with the softest hands you can imagine, you’ll have had an experience that will make you feel like you might have just woken up from a dream about being at a spa, and your hands will smell so good you’ll want to lick them (don’t actually do this, though… the lotions don’t taste as good as they smell).

Then all you have to do is indulge at least 3 times a week for best results.

What little simple pleasures do you indulge in?

There’s No Such Thing as Work Life Balance

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Photo: purplemattfish on Flickr

Photo: purplemattfish on Flickr

At least that’s what Jack Welch, Chief Executive for General Electric Co. would have us believe. I read an excerpt from this Wall Street Journal article today and while I’m not interested enough to subscribe for the full article, I did read through all the comments.

I don’t think Mr. Welch is all wrong. In fact, I think he has a very good point:

“There’s no such thing as work-life balance,” Mr. Welch told the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference in New Orleans on June 28. “There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.”

In the commenting there was a lot of talk of sacrifices… sacrificing career for children and sacrificing family for career. But the thing that struck me most is the underlying tone that defines career success as more important or more valuable than family success i.e. devoting the time necessary to raising a healthy and happy family.

An entry level corporate job begins with 40 hours a week and increases from there. At the top of the ladder the execs are often putting in so much time that they’ve lost the ability to ever NOT think of their work… and honestly I don’t think it’s healthy.

Photo: Corie Howell on Flickr

Photo: Corie Howell on Flickr

We’re told we need to get 8 hours of sleep per night for optimum health; we’re told we need to eat a balanced diet and exercise a minimum of 30 minutes per day (some will say 60 minutes); we need to keep ourselves adequately bathed and groomed which, for me at least takes about 30-45 minutes per day… when you put just those things alone together that adds up to about 10 hours out of 24… then you add a commute of, say, another hour round trip (add another 30 minutes if you have a daycare drop-off and pick-up on the way to and from work) and you’re down to 12 and a half remaining hours in a day.

Now if you’re like me and you work a fairly normal 8 1/2 hour day in the office, you’re down to 4 hours left… 4 hours per day left to sort through the mail, and pick up the drycleaning, and stop by the bank, call to make a dental appointment, prepare dinner, clean the kitchen, maybe read a little before bed… and I haven’t even started talking about a spouse or kids.

When exactly would they get any time?

Photo: 3Liz4 on Flickr

Photo: 3Liz4 on Flickr

When I went back to work after my son was born I was mortified when I realized the schedule he was on had him waking up at about 6:30am and going to sleep for the night about 6:30pm. My work schedule made it so that we left the house at 8:00am and arrived home at 5:30pm… and that’s if I insisted on walking out the door at 5pm no matter what is happening.

I still only got 2 1/2 hours per day to interact with my only child. Someone else got the other 9 while I was at work.

I sometimes wonder what drives the C-Suite. I don’t think I have it. I mean, I’m pretty driven and I’ve never set a goal I didn’t reach without a good reason or a learning experience involved. I’m educated and intelligent and I have a good job; our household income is comfortably above average for where we live. But I have every intention of continuing to contribute my family’s income because where I live it’s not really an option not to. That’s my sacrifice, I guess… my family gets to live in what I consider to be one of the best places in the world but we need two incomes to make it work.

I know I’d be farther along in my career if I was more aggressive with my goals and just sucked it up and did it the way I’m “supposed” to… but I have too many life aspirations for that. I have too many interests and hobbies and other things I enjoy in life that I couldn’t dedicate my entire life to the pursuit of money and back pats from people whose families are falling apart all around them. When I sit down and think about the things I couldn’t live without in this life – the things I feel like I was made to be and do – none of them is my job… and I love my job!

I work hard. I play hard. When I’m in the office I’m working hard; as I’ve said, I love what I do. When I wake up in the morning the first thing I do with my morning coffee is check my email and deal with anything urgent. From the time I arrive in the office to the time I leave at 5pm I work hard and if need be I’ll work hard after my son has gone to bed at night, but between 5pm and 7:30pm is my time with my family. Every day. I mean, I think I owe them that at the very least.

Photo: richiedogg1981

Photo: richiedogg1981

This post alone is enough to get me passed over for an interview with some companies. It would absolutely take me off the short list for a corner office. But that’s my life choice. I value the quality time I do have, no matter how scarce, that I can’t imagine having less time than that… nor would I want to.

Why we define ourselves by how much money we make and how many people work under us is beyond me. Perhaps it’s peoples’ lack of self-worth that drives them towards needing the approval of others. Perhaps it’s because people are just greedy… but maybe, just maybe, it comes from millions of people looking for the love and approval they should have gotten from their parents but didn’t because they were too busy working.

Just saying…

Favourite Summer Moments

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Lately we’ve been making a habit of going to John Lawson Park after work.

Either my husband or I will pick up mini-man from daycare and we’ll meet at the park. Big-man will pick up something to eat or pack a picnic at home and I’ll bring my running gear and enjoy the seawall while the guys play ball, frisbee or just wrestle around.

I think this has become my new favourite thing.

I have missed running; I haven’t done it much lately – only once a week or so for the last few months anyway. Now with this quick jaunt from either John Lawson to Dundarave and back or from Ambleside to Dundarave and back to John Lawson Park to meet up with the family, I’m getting out 2-3 times each week it seems.

Such a beautiful way to enjoy the dinner hours.

What is your favourite thing this summer?

I don’t know how to say this

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I’m not very good at failing. I take it really hard. Tonight, though, my attempt at the Master Cleanse has come to an abrupt end due to a personal situation that has caused me too much stress… adding this cleanse just makes it worse.

I didn’t get off to a good start with it – having to spend most of day 1 in the hospital with my 3 year old really put me on edge, but today there was a last-straw kind of thing that just put me over the edge. I know some of you were super excited to see how this turned out for me. Sadly, it’s not going to this time around.

If you have an interest in doing the Master Cleanse I highly suggest you read any of the great books on the topic, prepare yourself and go for it. It is not easy. They say day 3 is the worst… guess that’s true.

Sorry to disappoint…

Master Cleanse Day 2

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Good morning! Well, um, at least it is now… it’s been a bit of a rough start this morning. Now that I’m sitting comfortably, I can tell the story of yesterday a little. If you have no interest in hearing about this cleansing process I apologize, please feel free to skip to another post.

Day 1 on the Lemonade Diet

Yesterday was Day 1 on the Master Cleanse and things went quite smoothly… the salt water flush worked very effectively and quickly. I started drinking the litre of salt water at 6am on the nose, finished it about 6:20 (I’m aiming for quicker – hoping to get it down within 10 minutes in future), it kicked in about 6:35 and it was all over by about 6:55. A lovely one hour process.

I have to say it was not pleasant, but there was nothing uncomfortable about it.

At 7am I had my first glass of the lemonade. It’s made with 2tbsp of fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 1 organic lemon), 2tbsp of organic grade 3 dark maple syrup, 1/8th tsp cayenne pepper and 80z of water. It doesn’t taste like lemonade… in fact I found it worse tasting than a bottle of salt water. It’s okay, though, I’m sure within days I’ll be craving it.

Some time that morning I developed a splitting headache. It may be from caffeine withdrawal, but it seems to be related to tension in my shoulders. I can’t seem to relax… that might be a result of being pretty cold for the last week or so. I’m usually cold, but when I cleanse I’m FREEZING. So I think being cold has caused me to hunch my shoulders thereby causing the headache.

Anyway… I went on about my day: took mini-man to daycare, came back had a 2nd glass of lemonade at 9am, went to drop my car off for servicing, and came home and decided to lay down for a nap – it was about 10:15am. My phone rang about 10:35 and I ignored it, but then it rang two more times in succession and I knew something was up. It was the daycare – mini-man had fallen and split his head open on the floor.

We gathered up his factor (he’s a hemophiliac and we happened to have some at home that we had been given to take to Mexico when we went in January), grabbed him from the daycare and headed to Children’s Hospital. Over five hours, 2000 units of factor, 2 popsicles, loads of stickers and snacks and 3 staples in his head later we were on our way. Unfortunately for me I didn’t get a chance to make any lemonade to go, so I went from 9am to 5pm with nothing but water. I was most definitely not feeling well when I arrived home.

So when we got home I immediately mixed up two drinks and drank them as fast as I could. I then mixed up another two about 6pm knowing I needed to drink at least 6 of them in a day. The second mixture I didn’t finish until about 8pm. In that time, the cayenne pepper had a chance to steep a little and despite my not enjoying spicy foods, I think I enjoy the maple syrup less. The more peppery flavour seemed to mask the syrup a little, so it is actually more palateble hotter. Ideally, though, you drink it within 10 minutes of making it because the lemon enzymes are still alive.

Day 2 – so much to learn

Well I had been tired last night, but when I got up this morning things went downhill. I woke up feeling dehydrated. I obviously didn’t drink enough yesterday – I had 6 cups of lemonade and 4 bottles of water.

This morning, I thought I would use that thirst to help me get the salt water down. I worried that if I pounded a bottle of water I might be too full to get the flush down, besides, I can’t help but think if you drink more water with it it will ruin the effects. The point is you’re supposed to have the water saltier than your body so it can’t be absorbed. If it’s not salty enough, it’s like soup and you’ll just absorb it. I REALLY didn’t want to consider absorbing a litre of salt water, so I opted to just drink it when I was already thirsty. Wow.

Let’s just say things went slower this morning. The flushing began before I even touched the salt water, and then I couldn’t finish the whole thing. I left about 2-3 oz in the bottom of the bottle but felt sufficiently cleaned out. I kept laying down waiting for more movement. In that time I was getting more and more tired.

I really should have watched the clock to make sure I had a lemonade one hour after the flush.

Instead I ended up snoozing all morning in a narcoleptic-like state, completely unable to respond – so tired. As if I had a flu, I could not open my eyes for anything. I finally dragged myself up just before 9am and guzzled a lemonade and a bottle of water.

I felt instantly better.

I need to plan things really well for tomorrow morning because I’m back to work tomorrow.

And Now the Master Cleanse Begins

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master-cleanse-ingredientsSo as I wrote before, I completed a week of Re-Cleanse last week as a lead up to the Master Cleanse. I ended up basically finishing the cleanse Friday night, because yesterday was a bit of a free for all… I still ate really scarcely in the morning and mid day, but we decided to hit the road for a day trip, so severe limitations were not on the agenda.

I did indulge in a Grande Americano from Starbucks on the road and it was very enjoyable. I also attended a party last night and ate a bunch of appetizers and had a couple of Full Throttles with Tequila and man did my stomach hate me later that night. I felt like I might explode by the time I got home.

Lesson learned. I can’t eat junk food without feeling like… well, junk. Actually, I was okay with most of the food, but as soon as I added any sugar – I ate two pieces of fudge that we’d brought back from our visit to Hell’s Gate and a single small truffle – the nuclear reactions began.

The week of Re-Cleanse was a great success, though. I lost about 8 lbs and my skin is much clearer than it was at the beginning of the week. My sugar cravings are gone, I took only 3 sugar packets in my Americano yesterday as compared with the 5-6 I would have had before the cleanse and it tasted plenty sweet.

Master Cleanse Ease-In Day: Orange Juice

Today I am consuming only fresh squeezed orange juice to prepare for the Master Cleanse lemonade diet starting tomorrow. Most people would want to have 2-3 ease-in days to move from fruits & veggies only to veggie juice to fruit juice and then start, but because I did the week on Re-Cleanse I think that will suffice. You can just launch into the Master Cleanse without an ease-in if you want, but I can’t imagine it will be all that comfortable. I think it’s best to give your body the best fighting chance of success that you can.

So in total today I will consume the juice from 20 small navel oranges… maybe a few more. Each 10 oranges makes about 2 cups of juice. I’ve mixed 2 cups of juice with 500ml water and have just started my 2nd litre of this mixture at 3pm. I’ve also had one 500ml bottle of water that I downed first thing upon getting out of bed.

Also of note, I haven’t had a headache today from the missing caffeine :)

And, I actually just got my first hunger pang of the day, so that gives me hope I won’t starve on the Master Cleanse either. Other than orange juice today the only other thing I’ll consume is a cup of Senna Tea late this evening. That’s an herbal laxative in case you were wondering.

I’m really nervous about the salt water flush. Really. Nervous.

Each day I have to drink 1L of water with 2tsp-1tbsp of sea salt. That acts as a top-down enema. Yeah, good times. There’s a reason I booked tomorrow and Tuesday off work. I need to get my head wrapped around this. Apparently the salt water is roughly the same salinity (or higher) than your body and, thus, your body won’t absorb it. It will just go straight through. That’s the theory, anyway.

I won’t let you know how it goes. I mean, I will, but I won’t.

The Emotional Response

On the way home from shopping and church this afternoon I was thinking how much I’d like to eat a slice of cheesecake. It’s not that I’m craving it, because I actually can’t imagine the flavour of it right now. The Re-Cleanse does that to me – totally unaffected by food commercials and such. But it’s just that my body remembers something about how I feel when I sit down to enjoy my favourite treats – and cheesecake is most certainly one of those things.

In the same way I was mourning coffee last week, I sort of had a moment of mourning favourite foods. My first thought was, “I’ll just have a slice once I’m off the Master Cleanse and have eased back in to normal food.” Then I remembered how I felt last night after putting party food into a freshly cleansed body. Not so good.

I really hope this experience gets me to a place where food doesn’t have the same kind of associations it has had for me until now. But it’s strange, for now, the emotions that are cropping up about not indulging.

Cleansing of the mind and… well, colon

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Photo: ms.Tea on Flickr

Photo: ms.Tea on Flickr

So I’ve embarked on a journey of sorts… a journey to improve my health and mindset.

I’ve been a fan of regular cleansing for some years now, but have only been inclined to do a very gentle one-week cleanse, during which you still get to eat food. I’ve never fasted more than 24 hours either, but I’ve decided to dive into the Master Cleanse.

The Master Cleanse, also known as the Lemon Cleanse and the Maple Syrup Diet, is a dieting program created by Stanley Burroughs in 1941 and made popular by Peter Glickman through his book Lose Weight, Have More Energy and Be Happier in 10 Days, which promotes Burroughs’ regimen to a modern audience. Burroughs states that it is a detoxification program that aids in the removal of harmful toxins from within the body, as well as a reducing diet for loss of weight, and a cure for ulcers and “every kind of disease,” resulting in “the correction of all disorders [wikipedia]

I’ve had stomach problems for years now and have never been able to get to the root of the problem, nor put a name to my symptoms and discomfort. So my own analysis? I’ve just done damage by years of poor nutrition.

I’ve decided to start the Master Cleanse on Monday, May 4th.

Leading up to that time, I’m doing the gentler Re-Cleanse for one week. On the Re-Cleanse regimen, I eat a very simple diet and, ultimately, the same thing every day. This isn’t necessary, but it makes it easier for many reasons:

  1. I only have to cook twice during the week
  2. It prepares my head for going days and days without eating anything at all
  3. It reminds me how blessed I am to have a variety of foods to eat every day

So my meal plan on the Re-Cleanse program consists of the following:

  • Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal with a few chopped up pecans and a chopped banana
  • Snack: 1 apple
  • Lunch: mixture of 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup lentils, veggies with a hard boiled egg
  • Snack: cuccumber, tomato, pecans & a couple of prunes
  • Dinner: same as lunch

I also have to drink a minimum 10 cups of water per day – but I’ve been averaging about 12-13 plus 2-4 cups of herbal tea.

Today is day 5.

So far, in 4 days I’ve lost about 5 lbs and my moods are very stable from the lack of sugar and the associated ups and downs. I love the feeling – it’s almost like being sedated, but with mental clarity. Last night I was really tired before dinner, though… but as soon as I ate dinner I perked back up.

It’s sort of shocking to realize the extent of the emotions we tie to food or drinks. The biggest one for me, so far, has been coffee. I’ve written before about my coffee addiction and this experience has brought to light just how much it has come to mean to me.

On the Re-Cleanse you can still have coffee, but only one cup a day and no sugar or cream… so black it is. But, because I’m starting the Master Cleanse next week and can’t consume any coffee at all during that time, I’ve decided to just wean myself this week so that I can (hopefully) avoid the awful caffeine withdrawal headaches. Yesterday I poured less than a full cup of coffee and it actually made me sad. It’s like I was mourning my coffee.

… now if only I can get so excited about downing a litre of salt water each morning, I’ll be all set.

This weekend will be a transition period – my Re-Cleanse ends Saturday and I am going to a party that evening and will end it beforehand so I can enjoy a little bit of food and drink. Sunday will be an ease-in day to the Master Cleanse – I’ll only be consuming orange juice while I try and get my head around a purely liquid diet for 2 weeks.

I’m excited to see how my body and mind cope with the Master Cleanse. I’ve planned to take Monday and Tuesday off work just to ease myself into this. While I am going to try and do 14 days, I won’t limit myself to that if it’s going well. Then again, I may not make it through day 1. We’ll have to see.

If you’re interested in trying this, you should pick up either Peter Glickman’s book Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days or Tom Woloshyn’s book The Complete Master Cleanse: a step-by-step guide to maximizing the benefits of the Lemonade Diet (this is the one I have, only  because Glickman’s book wasn’t available at Indigo when I went).

Music for a Hurting World

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Photo: bigoneep on Flickr

Photo: bigoneep on Flickr

Music is slowly taking over a larger and larger portion of my life… and I couldn’t be happier. It does leave me less time to blog and share my thoughts, but it’s helping me to put things in a more natural order in my life.

I’ve shared before about my thoughts on music – the serenity it brings – so I’m absolutely thrilled to be a part of a new R&B/Soul Gospel band that is going to be doing some super fun music. I’ll share more about it once it’s a little more public I think, but it is an absolute pleasure to be able to spend 3+ hours once a week making music with this talented bunch… this in addition to my time spent with the Lynn Valley Black Bear Band and my monthly weekend for leading worship at my church.

I’m also really excited to be going to some great events in the near future:

Third Day – May 9th

Multi-platinum-selling, Grammy-winning Third Day will be at the Abbotsford Centre at 7pm on May 9th.

Here’s the video from their latest release “Revelation”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPniMv6te64

I have been a fan for almost as long as I’ve been a fan of Jesus.

Unite In Worship Conference – May 22/23

On May 22nd and 23rd, I’ll be at Willingdon Church for the Unite In Worship Vancouver 2009 conference to hear some amazing speakers and worship leaders and learn more about worship ministry. Brian Doerksen and Bluetree will be highlights for me, but sessions I plan to attend include:

  • Vocal Skills – Speaker TBA
  • Creating a Culture of Invitation – Ian Campbell
  • Corporate Worship: God and Us – Donna Dinsmore
  • Becoming a Songwriter who Serves the Church – Brian Doerksen
  • Eggshells No More – Paddy Ducklow

The conference opens up with Bluetree – a band that came to my attention thanks to my friend Andrew. Here, Aaron Boyd of Bluetree explains the story behind their hit song God of This City:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXh_tgjnYJw

This song is touching, but the story of how it came about is even more so.

Creation Northwest – July 22-25

Creation Northwest ’09 takes place July 22nd to 25th at The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington. I have wanted to go to Creation Fest since I became a Christian 4 years ago. It’s a multi-day outdoor music festival featuring the best Christian artists in the world plus speaker sessions and, of course, camping.

I’m still waiting to hear back from some friends about who may wish to join me, but I’ll be going regardless.

Music for a Hurting World

I’ve had a lot of really deep conversations with people lately. I guess that’s another reason I haven’t taken much time to blog. The truth of the matter is there are people out there who are hurting… I have been hurting. Things are not always easy. In fact, they’re usually NOT easy. People have such misconceptions about what it is to have faith in Jesus Christ… to be a Christian. It doesn’t make you perfect and it doesn’t make things easy. Sometimes, it actually makes things harder.

I have friends – Christian and non-Christian – who suffer or have suffered through some horrible situations: addictions, infidelity, suicidal thoughts, divorce, depression, abuse, even coming out as gay to a wave of condemnation from those who claim to love them… to all my friends who have ever put their faith in God. Here’s a song that hits right to the heart of it:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BkN-4NYQj0

I hope you have a listen; the message is for you.

Resort Marketing: A Day In The Life

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grouse-view-from-peakIt has been suggested I write more about my day. As the Marketing Services Manager for a mountain/ski area/attraction (sometimes I hate putting a title to it – it seems so limiting), I know many people are curious about how I spend my time. The truth is, it depends on the day and it depends on the season.

In reality, though, it’s not all resort marketing I guess; I do marketing for Grouse Mountain, but also for Whistler Water and Polaris Water ever since the owners purchased them in 2004.

Mondays I work at Whistler Water, so I’m not actually at the mountain today. It doesn’t much matter, though, because I could really work from anywhere and get the same stuff done – ah the beauty of the interwebs! Well, except that I’m most efficient while connected to the Grouse Mountain network for my email, files and FTP setup etc. I work on Grouse Mountain stuff from Whistler Water and Whistler Water stuff from Grouse Mountain; I also work on both from home when required.

Spring is a time of planning for me, so in amidst the regular marketing execution stuff are some larger projects, proposals, reports etc. to prepare for the year ahead, starting with the summer season. To make things more interesting, my colleague – the Marketing Specialist I work VERY closely with – is on a well-deserved vacation for over 3 weeks (two more to go) and I am doing a little more of the stuff she usually does while she’s gone: website edits, graphic layouts for ads and collateral materials, fulfilling logo and photo requests etc. so this is just today… tomorrow will be entirely different.

So here’s how today went down:

Work started around 8:30. I checked my email. I start with Twitter follow-backs because each adds an email to my inbox. As soon as they’re taken care of I can get the emails out of my inbox so I can see the actionable items facing me that day. I then check my Facebook fan pages for new wall posts or messages for Grouse Mountain, Grouse Mountain Terrain Parks and the Grouse Grind. Found the cutest posting from a guy who obviously developed a little crush on someone last time he came to the mountain. I love those kinds of messages :) I’ve seen so many proposal stories, wedding stories, relationships starting, first dates… my second date with my husband was on the Grouse Grind, incidentally.

grousemountain-facebook-takeshi-mekaru

After deleting the new Twitter follows I’m down to 11 emails in my inbox. I’m a little neurotic about filing emails.

I find an email from Google letting me know I need to renew my site search so I process the renewal but the credit card doesn’t go through… I re-process on another card. Now I’m hoping it doesn’t go through twice in the end. I file the emails for when Accounts payable wants to know what I bought before paying my credit card bill and then send an email to AP as a pre-emptive measure anyway.

I find an email that was sent to me Thursday evening asking for an ad to be prepared and submitted by first thing Monday morning; originally when I read it (from home on Good Friday) I read that it needed to be done ON Monday morning, not BY Monday morning… such a small but important detail. So I prepared the ad in InDesign (I use CS3) and submit it by about 10am.

I then checked my voicemail and realized there was something I should have called back about on Thursday. Oops. I have no idea how I could have missed a voicemail or left the office with one still on my phone, but such is life. Honestly, the phone is my least favourite communication tool; sometimes forget it exists. I like email; and I respond faster that way. I also get a running record of everything I’ve discussed, assigned or agreed to.

Next on the day’s agenda was updating the new Whistler Water community site with info about the Adopt An Athlete program and have the navigation updated throughout Whistler Water’s corporate website to take visitors to the new site.

I then make a quick update to the Grouse Mountain website with a message about the main Red Skyride maintenance beginning tomorrow.

While I’m doing web edits, I remember the next item on my outstanding to-do list: rebuilding a web page I built last Monday for the Polaris Water site. It is a little improvement to the private label water pages. I managed to lose almost 2 hours of work without saving… this time I CTRL+S’d in Dreamweaver a few times during the process. As an aside, if anyone is interested in ordering their own private label water, just let me know…

Sidetracked: Discussion with co-workers about Jian Ghomeshi’s interview with Billy Bob.

Finally I finished the Polaris Water website updates and moved all the updated files to the live site, then ate lunch at my desk while working. Lunch was way too small. Booked a yoga class online for tonight.

Had another conversation with my colleagues about art and music – one of my colleagues is a fairly well established singer/songwriter.

Stopped to check twitter and found the latest post from VanCityAllie on her surfing trip to Tofino for the Easter weekend – couldn’t help but indulge in a little read…

That was followed up by a long conversation with my colleagues about the differences in promotional needs for selling bottled water vs. selling a resort lifestyle experience. Definitely deep and definitely interesting, but not fodder for my blog.

It’s now coming up on 3pm.

After getting side tracked checking Twitter and Facebook and then checking the GrousePark admin for new posts and stats while I was in there, and then reading How to Make Money with SEO from Seth Godin, I am now working on an e-commerce requirements report. I would like to get it finished and sent out for estimating soon. I’ve finished most of how I want the e-commerce stuff to work, but I’m working on writing out the CRM elements I’d like to include.

Now it’s 3:10pm and while the E-Commerce report is begging to be worked on, I think I’ll go get a cup of tea before I start… Can you tell I’m stalling? Why is that?

Oh yeah, and I returned a call to someone from a large resort not to far from here who will be involved in a major world-scale winter event in the not too distant future in our general locale, who wanted to look at cross-promotional ideas. Now my brain is pondering hiking and wind turbines and all sorts of upcoming stuff rather than e-commerce and CRM. But I digress…

Before I start adding to my report, I read through a bunch of info on CRM Trends to make sure what I want is actually what I want. And, woah, now it’s 4:30. Lots of good info there interspersed with some comical conversation with my boss about ears on posts, mobile payment solutions and bathing cats (thanks to Jess Sloss for the cats link).

I almost don’t have any time left to actually finish writing the CRM portion of my report, but I sure do have more things to think about and include.

Tomorrow will be an entirely different day. Here’s the agenda:

  • Morning meeting about Tourism Vancouver’s new online advertising
  • Vancouver Restaurant Awards in the afternoon
  • Conclusion of staff day on the mountain after the restaurant awards
  • Try and finish my e-commerce/CRM report
  • Work on my social media report (that’s a whole new blog entry on its own)
  • Process a bunch of outstanding invoices before my accounting department freaks out

I’m not sure if it’s interesting or not. I do know, though, that the variety of different areas my job touches on keeps me excited. There’s a great variety between quick and easy check-them-off-my-list types of tasks and bigger projects that require a lot of deep thought. It also allows me to use my love of communicating with people as well as my technology-prone curiosities to solve probems… I consider creative problem solving one of my biggest strengths to be honest.

So there you have it. Hope it was interesting to you.

I’d love to see some track backs to a day in the life at your job…

Giving Up Our Vices

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Vice:

a practice or habit considered immoral, depraved, and/or degrading in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a defect, an infirmity or merely a bad habit. Synonyms for vice include fault, depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness and corruption. The modern English term that best captures its original meaning is the word vicious, which means “full of vice”. In this sense, the word vice comes from the Latin word vitium, meaning “failing or defect”. Vice is the opposite of virtue. [Wikipedia]

Okay, well… maybe drinking excessive amounts of coffee is not a vice. I mean, drinking coffee is part of the fabric of Vancouver society, so it’s most certainly not “degrading in the associated society”. But it’s not particularly beneficial to one’s physiology is it?

Photo: g-monkey on Flickr

Photo: g-monkey on Flickr

Do you ever stop and take stock in the things you rely on to feel good? That glass of wine at dinner that has slowly evolved into a half bottle? That 3pm chocolate fix? Those cigarettes you hate but love all at the same time? I think it’s important to look at all those things we rely on and try and think of what we stand to gain from them? Is there a way to get that ‘thing’ from something healthier? Is there another way to deal with the state of mind that made us want that ‘thing’ in the first place?

I have come to a place where each morning I make a very strong cup of coffee in my French press. Then, when I get to work, I drink a quad-shot Americano from Starbucks. It started as a harmless few-times-a-week Grande (3-shot) but slowly evolved over time into a daily ritual. Then Starbucks started making espresso shots in twos and the 4th shot came to me free…  that’s how these things tend to go. But not only does that cost me nearly $50/month, it’s just become a habit that serves no real benefit.

Today is my first day without the Americano in a long time… and I’m fuzzy-headed and easily distracted. Now, I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night and I worked a good chunk over the weekend, but I’m really less productive today than I usually am. I’m craving a coffee so bad I’m irritable and I have a mild headache from the lack of caffeine. If that alone isn’t indication I should consider dealing with this relatively newfound addiction I don’t know what is.

Besides, I take my coffee with half and half cream and sugar, so the calories also pack a bit of a punch out of my day. I estimate my daily Americano to be about 150 calories. If I have one 300 days of each year, that’s about 12 lbs worth of calories right there… another good reason to favour green tea instead.

What are your bad habits? Are you ready to give them up?