Hello Blogging

I have been inactive with blogging, so is for my exercising, needless to say!

So what's up with me lately?

• I returned from Austin for business. Austin is off my "to-live" city.
• It's hay-fever season. I sneeze like gunfire!
• Got a few new postcards from no begging! Yo're a good friend
• Coops going back to school, reclaiming my peace of mind
• Reading Devil Wears Prada. I start laughing after 100 pages ...
• Thinking of my relationship with exercise. A girl is who I'm, passive by nature!
• Starting my 6-days long weekend soon, and get ready for some screaming at Wonderland!!

Just finished a can of coke here. I feel happy and carbornated. Back to work!

Wedding Helper

A friend's wedding is coming up. I am pleased with the assigned role and will be responsible for disributing wedding favors (the small gifts for guests) to each table at the reception. The couple said that there should be 40 left-overs that I can safely eat 20 of them. The wedding favors are are chocolates, the fine kind too from France! Yes, I'm only allowed to eat 20 only as the bride confessed that she already consumed quite a few. Now, you see why I like my helper job? That also explains why I'm a little chubby and soft.

Give me back the hour!

I don't think I'm hard to please these days, especially when I know exactly what I want. Sunday I got myself a BIG pot of blue hydrangea from Costco for a great price. I can't wait to have it planted outside when the weather gets warm. I also picked up my very own copy of Da Vichi Code to finish the unread chapters. Not only Spring Forward has messed up my sleep. Da Vichi Code is so good that it keeps me up page after page at night. I seriously should put the book away until Friday evening comes. Dan Brown is jeopardizing my rest and my typing speed at work. Yawn, it has been sleepy past couple of days. Give me back the hour! .. or someone go burn the book for me.

Badge in!

Little habits can be transferred from work to personal easily. Sometimes one may start answering phone calls at home with company name stated as open greeting, or even add the extra dial-out number to reach a friend. I've got a new one today. Ever tried to badge-in to supermarket? I feel stupid at times though, but as I was waiting for the glass door to slide open and was not opening even after a few seconds, the action came so naturally to me to draw out the badge. Symtoms of overworked? I am, but it's not very fitted in this case. Let me call it ... a repetitive straining of a kind?

Attacked! Attacked!

I was getting grocery out my trunk on the driveway. Wind was howling. All of sudden I was being attacked. Everything happening so quickly, the sharp pain came from above. The next thing, my body was down. I scrambled up quickly to look for attackers. I looked around, there was no one. The street was dark. There was only the wind blowing my unzipped jacket. Soon after I realized it was the trunk slamming blindly on me. For getting the rest of groceries out safely, I gunpointed one arm up to unload quickly. Spring is around the corner (2 days away), but the strong winds still prevail in Toronto.

Freaky February

Freaky, it's month end already! One sixth a year is gone by if I put the perspective mathematically for you. February has been a pretty horrible month. I see myself not having a life anytime after June.

When your life is bound by unreasonable demands, it is miserable. Do I want this for life? I'm sure a normal person to shake my head. Car has been ready for a week, and I have no time to pick up. Insurance shopping is headachy, and so are few other things ...

What brings me today is the story of a coworker leaving the company. The coworker is leaving officially today and will embark her new career of one-year vacationing! My first reaction was, "You won a lottery?"

She is of my age, probably a few years older. She didn't bother taking the leave-of-absence offered by the company. She simply resigns and starts some serious traveling with her husband. I see she prepares quite a bit before taking off, like moving out, selling her car and finding a new home for her kitty.... so if you want one, let me know.

One-year traveling (or even just a few months) has not crossed my mind before. I think I prefer the comfort of my own home. Although I do love the experience of losing my luggage and getting paid for ... the thrill of missing a flight ... encountering a few pilots ... and finding ways to wear out my newly bought items ... to make sure no one knows .. :-)

That's what I call good traveling. Apparently you see which part I love the most. But what I truely enjoy are the good movie channels available in some hotels. Hey! not those. After all these talking, I want a vacation just now.

3 hours at bank

All I needed to accomplish on Saturday was to prepare a bank draft (for my car). I was patiently waiting in line for service. A young lady in front was screaming her boyfriend, "Can't you just check?"

The drama made me take a quick look. The guy held his stance and refused to check. I thought, good for him, not bending to her evilness.

She was rude. I would never be like that. Just before I finished my thought, who knew I could be one difficult person too?

I stepped to the counter for my turn. I smilingly requested for a bank draft, thinking the process should take no more than 15 minutes. After a brief moment of checking on computer, the teller commented that my home branch is not with them. I agreed, and wondered if that would be any problem?

T = Bank Teller ; B= Me

T: Sorry, I would need a signature card from your home branch
B: Why?
T: Any request over $20 000 would require a signature card
B: What a signature card?
T: To prove your identification, and that you have an account with them
B: I have a few identifications with me. Isn't that good enough?
T: No, we would need that from your home branch
B: What if I have the form that I initially opened the account with them?
T: Yes, that would do.

(in between, the teller discussed with the branch manager)

So I sped home. How could any customer keep a paper form this long? It was a gleam of hope for me to find the form of years ago.

To my suprirse, I found it.

It didn't even take me too long to find it. It was probaby my freaky Saturday super power. Wonder if being a regular Google user actually helps the search. :-)

As I was getting ready to charge out of the house to the bank again, Mom remarked on how abnormal a person (like me) to keep things this long. I was little disbelieved, but I think the constant reminders in the upbringing made me keep important things for record. However I do prefer paperless billing and recording whenever possible these days.

The bank got a little suprised when I returned. "I got this" showing the branch manager the form. "No, " she said, "We would still need the signature card from your home branch." My voice went up an octave, "What?" Then why your teller saying the form be equally good ? Urgh.

I started to feel the teller never expecting me to return with the form. She only said to make me disappeared. I was getting mad and their Saturday could only get better if I could leave with what I wanted.

The branch manager was not being too helpful as I tried to be constructive. The manager asked if I could wait til Monday for my Waterloo home branch. Monday was the best they could do.

"I need it today." She started to inquire what the money was for and tried to mind my business for ways to leverage her end. As seeing how this story goes, the story could only go better with escalation.

"Sorry. I need to escalate this." I said. They opened a ticket as if something they do everyday. They felt there was no way to help me other than getting the signature card on Monday.

The teller read to me the complaint message she wrote. I helped her with a few words, "Your system is not centralized as the problem."

The money is mine and the money is there. If your system is not centralized, why do you put such a difficult process for employees to follow?

Closing the account came across my mind. But she explained that could only be done with the signature card. So getting your money out does not seem as easy as closing your account.

What's with this whole signature card thing?

What gets you to open an account in the first place? A few photo identifications which should all do. Why are they so stubborn in not taking my identifications as the alternative?

After two hours of dealing with them, I suggested if I could open an account with them today. They said yes. And that would allow me to transfer the money from my home branch to the new account, for getting my bank draft.

Thank you. After 3 hours, the Saturday stupidity had finally come to an end. I later shared my story with a banker. His comment, was that TDs are smarter!

At the end, I got ..

• my bank draft, and $6 fees waived
• a new account
• I got smarter, so did they (I hope!)
• oh .. and I got to blog about this too