I have a confession.

I hate the Dashboard.

The Dashboard taunts me. It says 'you SHOULD be posting'. It says 'you WANT to post'. It says 'I know you have nothing worth writing down'. And it's right. On all counts.

Perhaps I should NOT have the Dashboard set as my homepage? Perhaps that would help? I've sat down at the computer a dozen times since Wednesday to drop a dime into the well of words that is this blog. And each time, the Dashboard (accursed Dashboard!) has stuck out its tongue at me and muttered "Neener, neener, neener!"

First--some housekeeping. Hi there, new folks. ~wave~ Welcome. Even the scary guy who called me names over on somebody else's blog. You're welcome here too--because I think it's okay for people to have different opinions about stuff. That, and it's very seldom that I express serious political opinions here on my blog. I save that for reading elsewhere. Other people manage to express my opinions so much more eloquently than I am able.

Also in the spirit of housekeeping, a confession. I have still not submitted my taxes. I know, they were due on April 30th. But since I have not submitted my taxes since the year 2000, why would I start now? I mean, I filled them out. I DID them...but there's a cheque for $26.73 that I'll need to write. And I don't HAVE $26.73 to give them, so...meh. 5% surcharge? Whatever. They (the ominous, lurking, omnicient government) owe ME money from previous years; so, I'm sure it'll balance out in the long run. I hope. I should probably do something about it.

I STARTED to do something about it. I mean, I got out all the papers, and sorted them into neat little piles. I actually filled out a lot of the forms--but I'm missing a T4 from 2000, which throws a bit of a monkey-wrench in the works for the following years. Whatever. Excuses, I know. I'm full of them.

I have been composing lists of questions to send out to potential interview candidates. People about whom I want to know more...people who, for one reason or another, think it would be interesting to tell random strangers random things about themselves. I can't knock this, because I was one of those people. And it IS fun, answering the questions of random strangers...because if people know you a bit from your blog, you want to know if their perception of you is the same as it would be had they met you in person. You want to know how they see you, and what parts of your own world-view mesh more closely with theirs than they had previously considered. You also, if you're a blog-stalker like me, are just plain nosey and want to know what they have to say. :)

So...once I send out the questions this afternoon, I'll post up some links of the folks I've sent them too...then we can all find out what people think about random shiznit.

***
THE WEEK IN REVIEW:

Monday: typical. Team meeting. Birthday cake. Good times.
Tuesday: typical. Two team meetings. Birthday cake. Some a-typical potential job-news. More on this later in the post.
Wednesday: typical.
Thursday: gym. Beer. Good times at beer.
Friday: dull. went bowling with Steven. Interesting 'sport' is bowling.
Saturday: haircut. dull. stayed in like a good little poor-person.
Sunday: Mother's day. Have not yet telephoned my mother. I suck, I know.

THE WEEK IN REVIEW IN DETAIL:

Monday-- usual kind of day. Except that our DM attended our team meeting on Monday night. I managed to tell him he was rude in front of a room filled with impressionable underlings. Not such a good career move, I'm thinking. Oopsie.

Tuesday-- usual kind of day. Team meeting early in the morning, and late in the afternoon. Was sung to by a herd of burly truck-drivers at 6:45 am. What a great way to start the day! Late afternoon, Job-news.* Then, birthday cake, more bad singing. Overall, a pretty good day.

Wednesday-- typical.

Thursday-- work. Gym. (Make note that this is the only time this week that the word 'Gym' appears in a post. Feel free to beat me with soggy pool-noodles. I need to do better at this!) Thirstday beer.**

**Notes on Thirstday:

A while back, at a party, I met a lovely girl with the same name as me. (Wait a minute! Just how many Sadie's ARE there in Halifax, you ask?! Lots, apparently.) She is a lovely girl, and she happens to, along with her husband, own a boat. This is a sailing boat. She races this boat. In races. This year, she is putting together an all-girls racing team to sail the boat. And she asked me to sail with her! She didn't care that I don't know how! Nor that I've only been on a boat 3 times in my life! She cared only that I am strong (relatively), I can swim (more or less), and that I am prepared to risk life and limb to learn a new and fun skill! But...this was a 'you should sail with us!' invitation, issued at a party where beverages were being imbibed. It was about as solid as a 'we'll do lunch!' Except that she seemed sincere. And mentioned it about 50 times. So I got excited.

Steven gave her husband my name and phone number, and I commenced waiting and hoping. Nothing happened for several weeks. Then Steven mentioned to me that Rob (the hubby) had asked for my info again, as he had misplaced it and his Sadie was asking for it. This gave me hope, just as I'd let go of my last glimmer. I, once again, got excited about the prospect of sailing this summer.

And then...nothing.

More nothing.

Even more nothing.

I abandoned all hope. I consoled myself with the thought that I wouldn't have been able to get the night off all summer anyway, so it was better this way. That, and I'd fallen off the Gym bandwagon, and my strength was questionable at best anyhow.

Until Thirstday. *BEAM* I came home to a message on my machine telling me all about it, and asking if I were still interested, and mentioning a women's sailing course that she'd like all the girls to take together, particularly since none of us really knew one another. FUN! I'm so excited it's ridiculous. I get to go sailing!

Thirstday night was fun too. I headed down to the Corner about 9:45, as Billy was meeting me there. (Aside: He got to go sailing this past Thursday, as a buddy from work has a boat and he was putting it in the water for the first time this year. I was looking for reassurance, and got it. He had a blast. I'm SOOOO looking forward to this summer!) I sat at the bar to order my beer, and Terry crept up on my left.

Something you may not know about me, is that I'm a jumper. I can see you standing there, but if I am distracted, otherwise focussed, or just not expecting you to speak? I will jump in terror, and possibly shriek, when you speak to me. I can't do a thing about this. I've tried, as it is so incongruous with my otherwise unflappable character, but to no avail. Consider yourselves forewarned.

So Terry crept up on my left, and said something irritating. I jumped and let out a small shriek. I may or may not have called him an insensitive bastard. He apologized, but seemed pleased to have gotten some sort of physical reaction from me.

He then proceeded to attach himself to me. He spit on me no less than 3 times, and touched me a minimum of 10. He kept touching my arm, and my shoulder, and once...horrifyingly...my back. I kept inching away from him. He's a creepy old man. The first time we met, I thought he was alright. Harmless enough, lonely, but alright. He has proceeded to become creepier and creepier as time goes by.

When I'm on my own, he flirts up a storm in hopes that I'm going to come to my senses and agree to go out on a date with him. (For the record? This will NEVER happen.) When Bill's there? He's much more respectful in terms of keeping his distance. He makes a point of trying to be Bill's friend, and ignoring me...more or less. The last couple of times? He's acted like an 8 year old boy...being mean to me, and rather rude. Last week Bill wanted to punch him in the face. This week? I wanted to. Bill *did* pour beer on T's leg when T tried to block our path to a seat--AWAY FROM HIM. I said 'excuse us' a couple of times...Bill said 'please move so we can get past'. Terry thought it was a game--and kept his foot up like a bridge. So Bill poured beer on his leg. Yes, juvenile...but sometimes you have to play by the rules that have been set in place already.

Terry later attempted to stick something in Bill's beer. I politely (barely) explained that it would not be a wise course of action, and that I would appreciate it very much if he would kindly step off and leave us be. I'm soooo curt and polite when I'm really angry. Bill was somewhat taken aback by how cool and calm my voice was, when he knew exactly how annoyed I was. It was entertaining.

But other than that minor sideshow, the evening was fun.

Friday I went bowling with Steven for a fundraising event for the local 5-pin bowling club. (I'm sure they have a fancier name...but it's bowling, and I really can't get that excited about it.) It was fun. It was held on the base, and was by far the nicest bowling alley I think I've ever been in. Did you KNOW there was a bowling alley on the base? That you and I, the Canadian taxpayer*, subsidize in its entirety? (*Fine, so I haven't actually submitted my taxes in a while...they still deduct them from my paycheque--so I DO pay them, I do, I do, I swear I do!) It's nice. It's clean. They have 6 lanes. If you like bowling, you should go there. If you don't like bowling, I'd skip it. It's not nice enough to convince me to START bowling. Although several people repeatedly encouraged me to join a mixed-league. They also seemed to think that Steven and I were dating, so they're a little delusional, these bowlers.

I won a carton of chewing gum, and a frisbee. I consider it to be a grand success, this foray into the world of bowling. I am even sore. Two days later, my legs are still sore. What-up with that?! Bleh. Does not bode well for softball!

Yesterday was Saturday. My usual hairdresser is in Europe for 3 weeks, and I was desperate for a trim. One of the guys I work with has a wife who's a hairdresser at a discount hair salon. I used to get my hair cut at the discount places allll the time when it was long, and needed only to be cut in a straight line. Once I cut it off into a short cut though, I decided it was worth paying big-bucks to have it looked after by someone who engendered a bit more trust.

I found the hairdresser I loved when I lived in Rothesay. She's the one who actually did the deed and chopped off my Rapunzel-like tresses into a scalpingly short pixie cut. I loved it, and I loved her. She did a fabulous job, and I trusted her. She even used to mock me because I went in so frequently for trims.

When I moved back here to Halifax, I was scared. I went, once, to the place recommended by my Rothesay stylist. The girl did an okay job on my hair (it was alright, but I didn't actually LIKE it) but I wasn't really fond of her, and couldn't see myself going back every 3 weeks for a visit. I started asking around for suggestions and recommendations.

I then remembered that a girl who had worked for me in the past, had since become a stylist. I figured 'If I'm going to pay someone, it should be someone I know'...so I went to see her. And Michelle is awesome. She's pricey (for me, anything over $25 is Ex-Pen-Sive) - it costs me $35+tax and tip - but I love her, and I love what she does to my hair. She's ALWAYS booked solid, so you need to make an appointment in advance, or hope for a cancellation, but she's worth it.

But Michelle is currently in Europe. And my hair was unruly. And not in a good way.

So I went to the discount hair-shop. And it was okay. They didn't wash my hair. There was no fantabulous scalp massage. The cut itself was a bit rough on my scalp, when she razored it, it pulled and almost hurt. She cut off more hair than I wanted her to. But it looks fantastic. I LOVE IT. And it cost me $11.49 + tax. That's $13.10 people. My usual cut costs me $45. I tipped 50% (just call me Mrs.Rockefeller) and still saved money.

But now I'm scared to go back to Michelle. I have to wait until this grows in a fair bit before I can go to Michelle--because I wanted Michelle's next cut to be a pixie--and this is far too close to that to give her anything to work with. But man...in the meantime? And for less than $20? This haircut rocks the Casbah.

I didn't go out last night, even though I saved so much on my haircut because a) nobody was around, and b) the bank took out an extra car payment at random and I'm afraid of being homeless.

Today is Mother's Day. I need to go to the store and pick up a long distance card so I can do that. I also have to call Tracey back as she called me last night from Calgary. She wasn't liking it so much, from the sounds of it. I missed the phone, and just got the voice mail. I miss her a lot. I didn't know I was going to miss her this much--it's funny how some people become so very important to you during certain periods of your life.

Anyway...I'm out of here to enjoy some sunshine, get a long distance card, bake a pie, and call my mother. I'll fill you in on the possible job news later on tonight.

Happy Sunday, folks! :)