I'm a legal alien!!

So if you read both of my blogs, apologies for a double posting....smightly different since I am too lazy to copy and paste from the other blog....ummm, okay.

I realized this week that I had not renewed my residency card which allows me to live in brussels (no work visa - we are in the process of working on it since a law changed which now requires me to have one). I went to the commune this morning full of dread and fear of what was going to happen...would they update it, yell at me, make me go sit in the city center commune in 3 hour + lines or even...gasp....deport me????? The thoughts that went through my head on the way there were not very pretty happy thoughts! Thats what happens though when I wake up before 8 am!! Make a long story short, I went, wrong line, changed lines, waited in line, guy called 3 other people over to stare at his computer and my residence card & file, guy called his whole office to the window to see me when I complaigned that he was speaking english and not french to me (they thought that I was an oddity since no other American in Blegium has ever said that one!!) finally got the stamp; paid my money and said au revoir! In a nut shell, under 200 words! :-)

Ian's last day is tomorrow....very sad!! I think that I shall cry....no one to call me anymore and say "hey babe - hows it going" *sniff sniff* I'll try my best not to break down tomorrow in my meeting the the VP of Supply Chain, head of the Nike project; ny Nike supervisor and whoever else is there....probably would not be a good thing!!

Time to go to bed - going to Germany sat rather early in the morning so I need to get all of my beauty sleep tonight - the girls are coming over tomorrow night for mexican and drinks!

Never again on a Wednesday

I mean it this time! I will never ever ever drink again on a wednesday! I swear it! Today has been utterly brutal beyond belief! Last night was Ian's (my now former Boss) leaving party. We went out to a really nice french restaurant here in Brussels, where we had a great meal, great food and great company!

It will be really sad without Ian around - he has become a great part of the office social group, and will be sorely missed when he is no longer coming over from the UK! I will miss the weekly questions on Monday from my office mates "Is Ian coming here this week" and then seeing Ian walking down the hall, dumping his bag in my office and saying "Right. Lets go Eat" His humor and tap dancing will be missed, his British sense of sarcasm, his overall "joie de vivre" and his ability to put up with my moodiness and sheer grumpiness that I have been going through the past 6 months here!

So, back to the dinner - we figured it out this morning that we all had a champagne apertif to start, then a bottle of wine (white for me this time) each! Then we got the great idea at 12:30 to go down to the center, where we had champagne at Mappa Mundos, a Guiness at Nua's and then I had several Amaretto and Cokes while dancing at Celtica!! Finally stumbled out the door at a little past 4 this morning! Not a good thing for those of us whe had to work, but it was such a smashing good time that I can not really complaign aside from the moaning about the lack of sleep and my inability to concentrate at work today!

To summarize, even though it was for a great cause, I swear that I will never again go out on a session on a Wednesday! Unless of course its for another leaving do....special event....work social occasion.....team tipple...... LOL

Work overload, amazon books and general bs

Kay all, its been a while, but such is the norm when you are working two full time jobs simultaneously plus trying to find time for everything else in ones life! My laundry has piled up since I've only found time to do the bare necessities (for one load to wash and dry it takes a minimum of 2.5 hours per load - who has that kind of time to donate to sitting by a lundry machine in a basement because you have psychotic neighbors who steal your mail and laundry??? Not me!

Ahh, the mail - my second shipment of Amazon books finally appeared.....back at Amazon! seems like someone in the building was there when the postman was delivering packages and said that I did not live there and to send the books back - nice neighbors I have eh? Please discount the fact that my name is on the door buzzer AND on my mail box (which is big enough to hold the book box since my other shipment fit in there nicely). Must be the same neighbors that find it hilarious to keep their finger on the door buzzer for 10 minutes while people are trying to sleep.....their buzzer is on the wall of their kitchen which is the opposite side of my bedroom wall - rather loud and annoying!! I went off on the voice box, I first told them nicely to stop becuase it was waking me up, second time when they continued to press the buzzer I had a nasty tone in my voice (yes, sweet little ole me can get a nasty tone) and when they refused to stop, I told whoever it was off in the nicest sugary tones using words that only a sailor (or prison inmate) should know! I am sure some of what I suggested that they could do with their finger and the door buzzer is anatomically impossible, but its still felt nice to say! Aren't I priceless??

I am going to Valencia Spain next week! What a hard life I lead eh? I've also figured out that even taking a week to go skiing in January and two weeks to go to Florida in March that I still have 28 1/2 days of vacation left for 2005...I love my life here somedays! Okay, some of it is set - 5 days are christmas holidays, and 6 days are other public holidays, but still!!! I am going to have to find somewhere great to go for another long holiday....Australia perhaps??

Weekend ramblings

Today starts my first day of Cat sitting for my co-workers cat while she and her husband are back in the US. It will be nice to spend some time with an animal again - it does get lonely here without anyone to talk to! I'll probably spend most of the next week over at their house for kitty-time! Mils is a great cat - very friendly!

Hmm...did not do much this weekend - spent some time fooing around the internet as always! I am helping a lady with her web blog on getting a better format than the pink crap :-) I frankly don't care for myself - it does the job, so why spend a lot of time on presentation when it is content that counts? If you read the blog, you are doing it becaue you want to know whats going on in my life, not from some deep-seeded need to visit a cool layout! I might decide to combine my blogs and websites into one format, but until then, WYSIWYG! :-)

Yesterday consisted of shopping and then an early night! Went to the hardware store where I tried to ask where the twine was so i could tie up my plants - I think that my french was way off since he had no clue what I was saying! LOL Managed to find it though, along with a hammer (you never know when you might need one) and some storage tubs! also stopped at the pottery store down the street that is going out of business and managed to pick up some good deals ! Waited a bit too long to go though as the selection was a little bit picked over, but managed to find some that I could use and like! Will see about getting some pics up!

Thats it for now folks - TTYL