A Geeky Tale

10:50 AM

I bring up the Blizzard store, log in to my account and find the BlizzCon ticket sale page. I am in a focused and determined state, extremely positive about my chances of getting tickets.

10:55 AM

My finger once previously hovering over F5 in anticipation is now jumping up and down refreshing that ticket page as often as I can. You see the tickets go on sale at 11:00 AM mountain time, but these computer clocks can be manhandled and may not be exactly right, I won’t be missing my chance at having the best October ever by relying solely on the computer clock! No I am prepared, my right hand is resting at the ready on the mouse and as the minutes go buy I begin left clicking the spot that will soon become the purchase button.

F5, left click, F5, left click, F5, left click….it continues until…

11:00 AM

There it is in all it’s orange and white glory! Tickets are officially available and the button has been clicked before I can even fully understand the situation. But here it is, now suddenly upon me. A few brief seconds of terror. What is my spot in the queue? BlizzCon sells out in seconds, this is why I prepare and refresh. Everyone interested knows that the best spot is under 3500, that if you’re lucky and people keep to one or two tickets under 6000 has a slight chance. So where am I? 5500…Don’t panic! The tickets are only 97% sold, the odds are stacked against me, but I still have a chance. This is when I start to lose my breath, I watch in desperate anticipation. There are two numbers, my spot in the queue and the percentage of tickets left. When I hit 3500 about 15 minutes later, ticket availability is just over 50%.

I am a religious whore, I am whispering to any God who will listen, “Please, please, come on!” Then I get on to the karma and positive thought track and I start chanting “I’m going to BlizzCon this  year, it will be awesome”

11:25 AM

This is it, the last leg, the final inning, the big finish, it’s coming down to the wire, I finally hit 2500 and there are 25% of the tickets out there, I barely breathe at all as I watch 1% per 100 places in the queue. It’s agony and bliss, I could be purchasing the last two tickets, that could happen, someone has to! And just as begin to un the fervor of my chanting, I witness the first big jump, 23% to 19% in a single second, how could that have happened? Not to me…I’m going to get tickets I just have to! But here I am 2200 in cue and there was a crash in tickets like that? Okay, I say to myself, just calm down, if I’m really lucky everyone ahead of me will only need one ticket and I’ll still make it.

11:28 AM

WHAT????? I was catching up I made it to somewhere around 1700, there was 17% left, I blinked once!! One time I blinked!!! As I opened my eyes I witnessed a tragedy…All tickets are now sold out.

There is a brief moment of stunned silence, a wave or melancholy, I have no tickets…

I failed in my quest for Awesome October 2011, or have I?

Wednesday evening Blizzard is releasing the second batch of tickets…I will have another chance! Once again I wait with bated breath to accomplish DisCon 2011.

Wish me luck!

SB

Having a Nice Weekend

That’s it, we’re having a nice weekend. The weather is lovely, Ryan and I have had time to just sit and cuddle and we’ve had some good fun at the dog park. I hope your weekend is just as happy as mine

Because there's nothing like a giant noodle to make you smile!

Re-Emergence

I took a good long break and I’m glad, I was going through some rough things, but spring has sprung and there is a lot more positive in my life to talk about!

Ryan and I are going to New York in June, technically it will be my second time in New York, but I was a baby the first time, so I don’t really remember any of it. We’re staying at Time Square!! I’m very excited!

Emma is doing really well, aside from what is likely a case of conjunctivitis, we are now taking  a break from kennel training because that seems way to stressful her (she literally barked an entire night a month ago). Instead, Amber let us have the pen for a test run and Emma actually likes it, she sleeps on her own bed, curled up, inside the pen! She hasn’t destroyed anything that wasn’t her own toy in about 5 days now! Plus she is learning again, we enrolled in Intermediate Obedience classes, and although I got frustrated in our second class, Emma is doing rather well. I can’t remember if I ever mentioned it, but she wasn’t eating all that well a while ago and now between a pretty structured routine and a change in food she’s eating much better. She hasn’t lost anymore weight, and I would have  to get near a dog scale again to see if she’s gained some.

My Mom found out yesterday that she will finally be able to sell her house, this whole divorce battle with my Dad is coming to an end. All apparently because he spoke to a financial adviser and found out that if he kept fighting, the debt he’d left behind would throw him into bankruptcy…at least that’s what he said. My Mom is so happy! There is a for sale sign on her lawn, she delivering a cute little Yorkie puppy to my Aunts in B.C. and spending Easter with her Mom too, she left super early this morning with Auntie Denise. She has also already bought a new a house and it is so perfect, I think Mom finally feels like she can move forward and as a family I think we might just start to heal up together. The only sad thing I will post about today is this; I haven’t spoken to my Dad in weeks, it was my choice and request. He said some things to me after their court appearance in March that hurt a lot, especially after I had tried to be so supportive for him. I don’t know when I’ll talk to him again and right now I can’t even lie and say that I hope to soon, because I am honestly too angry, but at least now I know how I feel and I’m not frustrated or confused.

Ryan and I are really happy, we have our occasional living together road bumps, but we’re doing things together and we’re looking forward to everything that will happen this year. I am slowly but most definitely losing weight, I get frustrated sometimes that it’s not faster, but I have also learned how important focus is and not to beat myself up when I do indulge. Well I sometimes don’t beat myself up, but I am getting a healthier relationship with food and that’s what counts. Do you know what the best little secret is, I’m working on a book, I’m actually putting pen to paper again in a really creative way. I have no idea how my story will start, but I do have some cool scenes in the middle an a clear plan of how I want it to end. I haven’t written anything like this since school and even then I don’t think anything I wrote in school had quite as much meat to it. I write wherever I can and I’m loving it.

I have a few other things on the horizon, but it’s a bit early to mention them just yet.

Happy Spring!!

What is happening here?

I have been absent from my daily posts. I will tell you why.

If you’ve been following, you know my purse was stolen during our trip, this is what I’m choosing to call “The Beginning”. Two days after we returned the unattended ice on the road played a large part in a fender bender that I was involved in. A fender bender that happened two hours before work, at least no people were hurt, which is good I guess. However, in order to deal with everything I had to call in for a personal day. Which for whatever reason was more complicated than usual.

So I go to the police station, I fill out my report, then Mom helped me drop off the car for an estimate and repairs because everything is going through insurance. Later on that same day I get the full collision report and find out that I’m at fault. Well in my opinion the city should be at fault for making road maintenance its lowest priority! I can only do so much, I pulled every defensive driving technique I knew out and thanks to that the accident was a lot smaller, but still!!! Aghh!

The “Final Blow” the next day the shop called to say my car is a write-off. It can’t be confirmed yet until the insurance company sends someone out to look, but the guys at the shop said I should probably start looking. I liked my car! Sure it was a bit old and still had my Dad’s tattooed butt girl on the side window, but I had made it my own! I had a Great Dane sticker on the back, and Jack Skellington was everywhere inside that car….

I know I’ll get everything inside back, but I really thought that 2011 would be an improvement over 2010. Last year I was the plague, I caught just about every cold and flu there was going around, and some nice lung infections too. It’s early in the year, and the jury’s still out, but this year is off to a poor start.

That’s my whining, I’ll ask for patience while I sort a few things out and obtain a new-used car, then hopefully, I’ll be able to get back to daily posting. On the plus side, because it’s good to end with a positive note, I made my daily posting goal while on holidays! They weren’t my usual style, because I decided to use the blog as a bit of a travel journal, but I wrote one on my little phone everyday and although the internet wasn’t around until the end of the trip for posting, I feel very good about that indeed!

Wish me some good luck would ya?

SB

Passports and Mall Rats

Our last full day in Vancouver started at eight-thirty for me, I called Grandma and we met at Lougheed Station. We went to Coquitlam Center to look for a candy that my sister is considering using as a wedding favor and found it as well as gelato. I had a scoop of mint chocolate chip and a scoop of cotton candy. I was surprised that I liked the cotton candy better, then again I am picky about my mint chocolate chip.
Grandma wanted to stop and look at a ring she had seen in a flyer and decided to buy it. Just for fun, I got my ring finger sized, much like my feet, my hands ere giant! I’m an eight-and-a-half!
It was nice to have my passport and Grandma also gave me a cute Coach change purse, so my money wasn’t loose in my pockets. She had a lunch to go to and invited me to come along, but Ryan and I had made loose plans to meet before he went to see his family, so she dropped me off at the train station.
I got to spend most of the afternoon at Metrotown Mall though because I missed Ryan’s text that he had gone with Daisy to an open house then they would go to visit their Grandma.
By three Ryan called to say that they had been invited to dinner so I got back on the train to meet him halfway and join them. We went for traditional Chinese dinner, I tried every dish and, for once, liked everything but the fish dish. Ryan had to pick something up from downtown, so we had Daisy drop us off at the sky train. I totally splurged on a monogram charm from Tiffany’s. It’s from the lock line and has a little M on it, I love it! Anyways, tomorrow is the last half day of our vacation before I have a six day grind of work, wish me luck!
SB

Travel Naps

I was up early on Thursday to pack up and clear out, everyone decided to ski for another half day so after we checked out I dropped them off at Whistler base. I decided to stay with the car because I was still worried about theft and everything we had was in the car.
I read for quite awhile, ate some lunch, had a nap, and read some more. I also typed up a post. By two-thirty we were on the road. I had another nap
For dinner Ryan and I went for Korean bbq, it was an interesting experience for me. The appetizers weren’t to my taste, but I did enjoy the main course and it was fun to cook at a grill at our table.
I had cinnamon toast crunch, sans milk, for dessert and hit Tue sack early. I also made plans to meet with Grandma the next day to retrieve my passport which Mom had sent by express mail.
Only one day left,
SB

Lazy Day

I slept in! Well only about twenty minutes, but it felt nice and I didn’t have anything other than laundry planned for day three in the mountains. It was a day just for me and I spent most of it watching CSI reruns. I know, I know, I’m on vacation in the beautiful rockies I should have gone out and done something, but truth be told I was tired. After all the excitement from the day before I just wanted to chill out, do a few normal comforting thing to bring some Zen back.
So I told Ryan to go out and have fun with Daisy and Mike and curled up on the couch with a cup of tea, my book and the remote. I had an afternoon nap, ran a load for Ryan and I, and read about three chapters.
It was pretty windy that day, bit we still braved the evening wind to shop a little in the village. Ryan and I picked up some Roger’s Chocolates and enjoyed a slice of pizza, we met back at the condo for left-over dinner and watched Survivor. By the way I love Survivor and think that Russell is awesome, I don’t care what people think, Russell has game!
I had a quiet and refreshing day but tomorrow would be full of packing and cleaning.
That’s it for now
SB

Karma Confusion

The morning of day two I decided to return my rentals early everything was still too sore and I knew I wouldn’t male it through a whole day of skiing. I had a back-up plan though and I packed my purse with my Mom’s IPad, my camera, a book and a bunch of other things to get me through a day at the chat, including my wallet for munchies and spiked drinks .
The problem with renting skis is that when you’re not planning on using them they’re rather difficult to carry around so as I was juggling everything on the bus I managed to drop a ball. Just at the stop I needed one of the ski boots fell over and I had to put my purse down to get at it. The problem occurred to me two minutes later when the lady at rentals asked for my debit card to refund me the extra day I had purchased. I had left my purse on the bus. They helped me call BC Transit to report the lost purse but the radio call out came back empty. At least the lady at returns was able to make a note on my rental form that I was owed a refund.
Unfortunately the majority of my day was spent cancelling all my credit cards and ordering replacement ids. Ryan went skiing but only after he had called the RCMP for me and was sure that I would be okay.
The silly thing was that I felt most worried about Mom’s iPad, she had lent to me and I felt like I had been careless with it. She told me not to worry and that it isn’t careless to be briefly distracted, but I still feel bad about it.
The day wasn’t completely ruined though later after in the evening Ryan and I went to the Coca-Cola tube park, that was awesome and took my mind off my missing belonging for awhile. We also walked around the village and bought some caramel apples.
Overall I had a good day and was able to make just about everything in my purse as useless as a pile of broken bricks.
SB

Ski Day One

At seven am the alarm chirpped our wake up call. I had a  breakfast hiccup and ended up settling for plain toast. Ryan, Daisy and I went down to the Blackcomb Day lodge to pick up our Edge passes and to get me some rentals. We returned to the condo got geared up and set out. I took a level two beginner class, but before we even got to the hill I was having trouble with my boots and skis. I made it until about a half hour past the lunch break before my feet were just too sore to go on anymore runs. I took the gondola back down the mountain and slowly made my way to our condo. I was a miserable little mess, dropping ski poles, stumbling down the stairs and feeling like at any moment I might puke from the pain I was in.
I made it though and allowed myself to relax a bit before everyone else got back. Later in the evening Ryan, Daisy and I went down to Whistler Village picked up a few groceries and looked around a bit, but most of the stores had closed by eight so we went back to the condo and enjoyed the hot tub a bit more before bed.

Metro and Motors

Our first day in beautiful BC required we do two things: pick up the rental car and drive to Whistler. We didn’t need to get the car until noon so Ryan and I took the morning to wander through Metrotown Mall, I picked a few odds and ends for the trip and for fun then we hopped the sky train to go over to Granville to pick up the car.
I didn’t realize that we had booked from a company so close to Granville Island, but after we got the car I practically begged Ryan to take me over to the markets. We spent an hour walking around, checking out my favorite shops and found Emma a raincoat that will actually fit her as well as some posh loose leaf tea for me.
Then came the sweetest real-life tetris Ryan and I have ever played. By shear determination we fit three sets of skis, three boxes of groceries and four sets of luggage into our Ford Edge. Which is quite nice but not as big as it looks. Daisy and I squashed into the backseat so that Mike could have some leg room, he’s the tallest, and Ryan drove. Thankfully the roads were in relatively good condition because Daisy and I lost feeling from the waist down and by the time we got to our condo we practically fell out of the car.
It was pretty late after everything was unloaded and there wasn’t a lot to do. Mike made a macaroni casserole which was quite good, Ryan and I spent some time in the hot tub and everyone tucked in for the night by around eleven.
Onward to adventure…
SB