St. Paddy's Fest

Backed by popular demand, the office social committee decided to put on a St. Paddy's karaoke party after work Thursday. 

There was planning, advertising, and then come the day of, committee members did a big haul of all the supplies (with Boss Michael in charge of karaoke machine and the green beer).  Attendees brought snacks to share. 

Wendy kicked off karaoke with
"Top of the World". 

Next, with some coaxing, Olivia let loose her lovely voice with "Superstar" (I've since learned this is a huge Carpenters hit), before heading out. 

It was a tough act to follow, but I gave it my best on "She Will Be Loved" (was it always that long?).

With more people arriving and people getting more comfortable, there were fewer pauses between songs. 

Oliver sang "What a Wonderful World", and Michael "Tight Fitting Jeans". 

Amy, Kerri, and Lainna picked some crowd pleasers we could all sing along to ("Tubthumping" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun").  And then Lainna stuck around for a solo of "Our House" (what strange lyrics). 

"The Agreements Team" thought it apt to sing "Money, Money, Money". 

And then, shockingly, Tricia and Amy took up the mics for "Ice, Ice, Baby".  The song is funny enough, but was made even funnier with their good-girl looks and occasional rapper poses. 

By far, Wendy sang the most (perhaps to ensure she had plenty of draw entries for the prize pack?). 

There was Coldplay's "Viva La Vida", "All Out of Love", and Beyonce's "Halo".  She encouraged me to join in on the last one, but it was all jumbled in my head - wasn't this Kelly Clarkson's "Already Gone"?

More comic relief came from Oliver, going into a rant of "Just how many times do we  have to ask you for help, Rhonda?"  (Below: Pat didn't know either.)











The social committee and a couple of others stuck around to the very end for the draw.  To everyone's surprise, the ballot wasn't Wendy's - it was Olivia's!

Hosting the event took a lot of work, and I was disappointed with the small turn out. But all those who came seemed to have a lot of fun (regardless of whether they sang or not... or maybe because they didn't have to sing, like Paul).  I hope the disappointing part doesn't discourage our new committee members. 

Math Formal

"Spurtle" sounds like a cross between a spoon and a turtle (not sure what that would be useful for), but is actually a Scottish stir stick. I learn this as I ran some errands with Steph. It was another dreary looking kind of day with some drizzle, but my mood was much improved with the company.

Later, after having visited Vespucci (Steph sighed when I said "What is this "too many dresses" concept you speak of?") and Elephants Never Forget, I got ready at her place for the Math Formal. It did feel kind of strange to be going when she and Rem were not, but they didn't want to. Beth assured me as it was the Mathies I was sure I'd know people. And she was right.

Beth and I sat at a table with Beth's officemate Val (and her husband) and Jim (from Swing). Malcolm and Anna were at another table. Across the room were Matt, Andria, Ben, Angela, Diana, Sam... Near the end of dinner I saw Joseph and his wife, Kristy, too.

Some speeches, award presentations, and door prize draws... it was time for *drumroll*: Karaoke! O.k. people groaned and made faces when it was first introduced, but there were a good handful of people who went up to perform. Including Malcolm! Val wowed with her ballad, and we giggled nervously as someone else sang (an ironic version? of) "White Christmas". Two guys (Cody and...), who had stage names and all, did a disturbingly good rendition of "Love Shack".

Was very glad Beth did invite me. Along with some swing and ballroom, we also flew across the floor with some crazy dancing (Great Big Sea style). Oh, and the conga line. Jim did a good job with this photo - Beth and I are right in the middle.

Met up with the TC Girls at Joey's on Jasper Ave on Monday. Much anticipated and true to form: lots of talking, laughing, and updates. Jazzy was near the end of her marathon wedding planning extended weekend (and looked sparkling for her engagement photos). Shauna's house has been under much renovation. Catherine's work place was just nuts. We were all curious about Char's pregnancy, but she hadn't been able to make it to quell our questions. After eating, we wondered if Joey's was going to kick us out, but the staff let us chat well into the night (as late as a work night would allow us). We departed talking about a road trip to visit Jazzy in Canmore. A van filled with us girls... and maybe a new baby...

Can hardly believe it's already been a week since work's OktoberFest. The event went well with me stressing as usual. The Old Arts Building is undergoing some massive renovations to their main entrance (the big acorn thing was dug up), which meant our access was limited to the backdoors (thankfully there was an elevator). Despite the obstacle, there was still a fair crowd from work. Things really started heating up when Michael kicked off karoke with "Tight Fitting Jeans"! "Lady Marmalade" and "Rocket Man" made an appearance. And then, with some jostling of the microphones, Michael and Big Boss Bill ended up in the duet "You light up my life." Ah... fun times. No tips for me though. Maybe I should have stayed away from the microphone.

It's Angela's birthday today. Or at least one of the possible days that her birthday could be (for some reason they only recorded the lunar calendar date). I'm not sure what to get her exactly. Though since she's always talking about how red wine can be healthy... I'll let someone knowledgeable at the liquor store decide.

Days until the UADC Hallowe'en social and my costume is still a bunch of scribbles on scrap paper. Not yet time to panic. But close.

And that was the year...

... we had the biggest snowfall in March.

So the St. Paddy's Day mixer afterwork was a success. I was thoroughly stressed out though because not only was everyone trying to close up to go to the mixer (which meant I would be locked in), I also had to fax in an important document across the country, with both fax machines in the office not cooperating! In conclusion: Paper is evil; fax machines are evil, too. But things turned out o.k. I lugged my precious cargo to the Old Arts Building where we feasted on munchies and green beer (glad I didn't try it), and we filled the halls with *ahem* lovely sounds of karoke :) I even got my boss to dance with me. Just having stayed long enough, I then headed back to Stephanie's place for the main event: Birthday party! So many different types dessert, so little time and stomach space. We put the dictionary to good use... but again did not play Strip Scrabble. Overall great time. (Thanks again for the invite, Steph).

And then there was Saturday. Lots and lots of snow - so much that even buses were getting stuck. Hope everyone was able to navigate themselves around the city. Lana being quite oblivious to all of this, had decided to make Saturday her "errand day". So she heads out with the car to Sherwood Park... mildly wondering why everything was so white and foggy. Long story short - it was a challenging driving day. Got stuck various times, but due to the lovely kindness of strangers (and people with shovels) I managed to do the bulk of my errands. I also proved myself to be quite inept at snow brushing, by the time I finishing brushing the front, the back is covered, and then I brush the back... and so forth.

Main highlight besides making it home with the car in one piece (which parents definitely did not expect), went to the One World Beat, 30th Anniversary for A Change for Children concert at the Winspear (and meeting the sweetest dog, Taiga). Ah... *happy sigh* the Winspear. I know it's crazy to love a building... but this is close. And of course the music was great. There were bands that I had heard of, but never gone to the concert (Mad Bomber Society, Souljah Fyah). Bill Bourne and an Icelandic vocalist did this one number called "Pie and Ice Cream" - I think it challenged Rem's Garlic for World Peace treatise. During intermission, Ben and I wandered around the auction items - and we tried to decipher the animals in the weavings... horses? Birds? Dinosaurs? The performance was all capped off with a number by the Knock School of Irish Dance. Their lines were so straight... and the stepping so in time... waves of envy. Only 3 more weeks until we do our formation performance... yikes.

Anyway - must get to practice so that those lines actually look like lines the night of. Again, hope everyone is doing well. More plugs for Top Hot and dance club next time :)

Sunset on Saturn

Life is short – make fun of it.

Only a day more of work before heading into a lovely, lovely 4 day weekend. Can hardly wait. Sleep!

Another work week that’s been fairly quiet. I’ve been running more errands for Christmas related stuff (delivering treats to clients, picking up gifts for employees). At least I’m still here!

I glossed over Chris’s birthday party, thinking I would write about it at a later time. But Chris insists it wasn’t that important – probably was worried that I would write it into something trashy like a Harlequin :P Well, I won’t go into too much detail, but there was an EXTREME game of Pictionary going on, while another group watched the hockey game. The baby did steal the show for the first half… and then… yes… there was karoke. Liz indulged me by singing “Barbie Girl” as a duet with me. Thanks guys for being patient – with two cameras in hand, the “Lanarazzi” was in full force (really, really hope the pictures turn out).

Margarita Monday! My first ever! And it tasted like cough syrup. But Anne was very nice and traded my Sunset on Saturn with her lime. The rest of the night was a good catch up with the Circle K gang. I had missed them so much. And I remembered exactly how silly we can be all together. Star Trek trivia was flying around Steph’s apartment as we tried to find out who was the “geekiest” of us all. Val and I left the apartment thinking we should start a board game – GQ: What’s your Geek Quotient? :D

Found this wonderful blog online: http://sherrypg.blogspot.com/ I have no clue who she is, but she’s brilliantly funny. Here was one of her ideas:

Post a comment with a completely fictional memory of you and me. It can be anything you want– good or bad, silly or stupid, believable or not – but it has to be fake.

So, what false memories will you plant in my head? I'm looking forward to it! Oh, forgot to mention – mystery revived! Val denies being the Phoenix… so who’s our next guess?