The Astounding Logic of the Male

All manner of talk to your girlfriends about a certain situation will never match the astounding logic of telling the same story to a male friend and getting their feedback...sometimes it's so out there in its simple, logical reasoning that it throws you for a loop! You think, it can't possibly be THAT simple - can it? But the truth is that it can be and when you go ahead and test this logic, you find out that it actually IS that simple. You were overthinking, overcomplicating, overcompensating and had overwhelmed your brain with all sorts of societal and personal precepts - that all you could see was the impending storm and not the fabulous summer that is predicted.

With that thought, I wish all a simply fabulous weekend -even though 'real-weather-wise' we are plauged with yet another rainy-mixed weekend not at all living up to the June of last year...when I alreay had a summery glow by this point...oh well will just have to purchase any one of those fake bronzers/moisterizers on the market these days to look great in my white dress tomorrow!

Killing it!

The Summer Party

What smells of summer more than tennis and polo?

Granted I am not enamoured of either pastime, but I'm willing to see who is and pay $50 to do so...especailly if there's a free drink and plenty of food included, not to mention entertainment - and I'm not talking about the music roster...but the parade of skin and bronzer that will no doubt accompany this event. Not as cool as spying Hollywood stars at the Vanity Fair party as I did earlier this year...but just as cheesy.

If there's something I admire its original party planning in the City of Vancouver - http://www.blogger.com/www.jetsetcrew.com where you usually have to be in the know or be part of some niche group in order to experience any real cool event in the City. While Toronto basks in the glory of hosting the largest arts festival in North America this summer, www.luminato.com/ and already boasts a litany of multi-day festivals that block major streets and bring out the mulit-cultural masses, Vancouver tries to decide whether or not it should hold the Fireworks Festival again. All the while making sure noone should dare compliment the experience with a bottle of white - things might get out of hand. I remember marvelling at the mixture of precision and laissez-faire attitude that Toronto's summer festivals were run by - major streets for blocks on end closed to traffic for days...with nary a complaint - enjoyment for the whole family! And here we're applauding the addition of one more day to the Car-Free Festival on Commercial Drive! :-O Wooohooo! http://www.blogger.com/www.thedrive.ca/eventdrivefest.shtm

How the hell are we going to hold the Olympics? While New Yokers encourage the picnic-going public to bring their best bottle of pinot to the park http://www.blogger.com/www.bryantpark.org - Vancouverites are strip searched at the skytrain station before heading down to our internationally-enviable beachfront. In case you have not noticed - I like a nice beverage - and yes, my event doesn't really compare to a festival in a park...but it all relates back to summer...the freedom to enjoy your socializing outdoors - and what accompanies that better than a festive spritzer?

So, yes it is technically behind a gated archway on a manicured lawn at Gabriola Mansion on Davie Street but I am excited for my private party being held on public - or in this case a semi-public venue where you can sip cocktails to your hearts content...no one is going to 'throw one down' and if they do I'd love to see the tennis rackets swinging out against the cricket mallets!

Celebrating Lusitania cont....and then there's football

Stop!

Don't even talk to me - just enjoy!

Celebrating Lusitania!

SOOooo it is Portuguese Heritage Month with a slew of events happening all over the city if you are in the know...and I am...being a member of the Portuguese Benevolent Society and their 'youth' group. Finally wanting to give back to my culture literally: http://portugueseheritagemonth.com. I recommend the music nights at the Cellar Jazz Bar - http://www.cellarjazz.com/.
Music, readings, film, and other festivities - something for everyone.

Here are some fast facts and tidbits on the generally lesser know Iberian nation:

-Portuguese is the 6th most spoken language in the world behind Mandarin, Hindi, English, Spanish and Bengali...the teeny-tiny Iberian country may be small but its reach was once world-wide with colonies and settlements all over the world - most notably in Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Macao, East Timor, Sao Tome and Principe and Goa.

-The Portuguese gave Japan tempura and thank-you: Obrigado = Arigato

-We gave the English their tea-time courtesy of marriage into Portuguese royalty. Of course 3 meals a day are not enough!!!

-We actually 'discovered' India, albeit a little later than Columbus ;-) in 1524 by Vasco da Gama

-I once heard a non-Lusitanian at a dinner party answer the question - 'What exactly is portuguese cuisine?' -- 'Give a portuguese woman a cut of meat to marinate and cook, and it's like an orgasm in your mouth!'

-But if you're not satisfied with that explanation some signature dishes are chicken piri-piri, (made popular in Canada by the Nando's Chicken chains) barbequed sardines, (believe me you have to try them at least once) all manner of cod dishes, and of course many egg and almond based sweets that melt in your mouth...showing influences from our arabic neighbours.

the art of seeming busy OR "Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler?"

Gotta say...it's not as easy as it looks. To seem to be working on your work-work (that for which you get a monthly paycheque) and actually be surfing the various sites supporting your newest personal project or all those detailing a blow-by-blow description of Paris Hilton's ins-and-outs from prison. I've also been idly surfing my text messages and getting rid of old ones...checking my hotmail inbox incessently, listening to my old voicemails and finally posting to my blog again! All the aforementioned activities are especially hard to do when you share a small, often humid office with 2 other people. Cause you cannot (or at least I feel I cannot) work fully on your personal administration just in case someone quickly comes over to look at what you are doing (especially if that someone is the boss) or scans your screen as they get up to go to the bathroom...it's ok to idly be looking at gossip websites (or in the case of my office mates the cbc news or the latest conspiracy run amock in Germany) every once in a while to take a break from work-work, but to actually be working on something else seems wrong - would be perceived as wrong.

So the day invariably ends up being wasteful - for you and the company you work for...you get lazy - cause you're bored and end up neither creating more work-work projects or doing the many on your own personal to-do list when you get home, as you are literally exhausted from all the time wasting you did that day.

This week I have been doing a boatload of wasting time. Really, I have done all the work-work I can, even extra stuff. Is it my fault that there is no work for me to do at the moment? I think not. Shouldn't that be a manager's problem? I am really a responsible person and very conscientious - but I actually don't feel all that bad about all the time wasting I have accomplished. There! That's it! It IS an accomplishment - phew! I have not been wasting my time...I have simply been propogating the office environment - to break the continuum with the admission of time wasting would help no one. THANK GOD! 2.5 hours and counting to the weekend...