bluebacon

After 78 years of existence this is the year that the Victoria Choral Society decided it's time to hold their very first fundraising gala ever. A few months before I step down from the board -- lucky me, the lucky Chair of the event. Of course it makes sense that I run it, I am after all the board member responsible for fundraising. But you know what my take is on galas -- it's a pain in the freaking ass. Until I met my present executive director I was so sure that there is not one fundraiser in his/her right mind who likes organizing galas, even though it's the necessary evil of our profession. So naturally I tried my best to contain this event. After all the only thing the board said was we needed a special event fundraiser. Special events could be any shape and size so I tried my best to steer it towards the direction of, let's just say -- not a gala. But I don't know, I guess that's the common perception of people who don't usually get to attend or...

So in the beginning of the school year, in fact the very first day of kindergarten, Raine came home with a bunch of papers, forms, and all sorts of information for the parents. It talks about the different events for the whole school year and how parents can get involved and all that fun stuff. Mind you, at this time I was just as giddy as Raine was about school. I went through all the information he came home with as if it was my  own graduate school acceptance package. So I checked a bunch of stuff I was "interested" in helping out with and submitted them, not really remembering afterwards what I signed up for exactly because a week later I started my new job and well, let's just say that from then on I'd been so busy I had a little trouble remembering much of what happened previously. Then a few days ago came the email. It was contacting everyone who expressed interest in helping out with the South Park Valentine Dance. Right. That dance. Of course when I origi...

The kids usually go home pretty early from school. Even though Bell can stay in daycare/pre-school until 5:30 pm at the latest, Eduardo usually picks her up as soon as Raine gets off from school at 3 pm. That is unless it's Monday when Raine has music class until 5 pm, then I'm on deck to pick them both up. So since today is a Monday, that's exactly how the routine took place. I picked up Raine from the Conservatory then together we head over to go get Bell from school. It's only January so it's still pretty dark around this time. We were all heading out the gate to go to the car when Bell stopped this teenager who was entering the gate, obviously going the opposite direction from us. She looked at him sternly and suspiciously and in a commanding voice asked, "Hey who are you and what are you doing here?" The poor teenage boy was so taken aback that he had no choice but to respond, sounding almost a little scared. He stammered slightly and said "Uh...

The office was closed for the holidays, which was something that was incredibly generous and considerate of our executive director. Everyone at work works above and beyond without even the need to ask, so a week and a half of well-deserved break was very much appreciated. It's partly because we all really need to recharge for the non-stop events and productions that we're up against until uhm... June. To me it was definitely the calm before the storm. My boss is away on vacation for a whole month, leaving me alone to handle everything by myself. I'm grateful to have very helpful and knowledgeable people at work whom I could count on for help and advice, but the legwork was still all me. I started my first day back at work with about 50 items on my to do list. I'm not going to lie, it was overwhelming. My goal was to get everything done as efficiently as possible and not give my boss any leftover problems to take care of when she gets back. It was pretty safe to say th...

Earlier in the week the Royal BC Museum posted one of their surveys on Facebook again. They usually do this to gain feedback from the public on what prospective travelling exhibit would interest them the most. This time they were surveying for possible exhibits for 2016. I got excited when I read the options because I know how much the kids would love it when they found out what the options were. So I called them excitedly and told them that we needed to vote to help the museum decide what exhibit to bring to Victoria. I read the first option -- it was all about Vikings. As expected Bell started jumping up and down and was shouting to vote for that one. Then I read the second option -- it was all about Mammoths. Then of course Raine started jumping up and down and it was pretty obvious what his vote was. Then they asked what the third option was and I said Sherlock Holmes -- they just laughed. Wasn't sure why but anyway I got their feedback and so we casted our vote. The follow...

I'm very excited for 2013. Think of it as a do over. 2012 was not a fun-filled year for me in general so I'm eager to start the new year and put everything else behind me. For my resolutions, I'm taking a new approach this year. I will not focus on the volume of achievements I want to accomplish this year but rather concentrate on the quality of life and quality of work I'm able to produce. 1. Cut down on extra-curricular commitments -- I will miss being on the choir board but something has to go, so at the end of my term this year, I will step down. I will also be mindful not to say yes to everything no matter how tempting the challenge is and how cool the project is. 2. Spend more time at home -- The last thing I want is to slack off with my kids and sometimes I feel that's what's happening. I don't want that at all. As much as I want them to see me as a good example of someone who contributes to society, I also don't want them to think that I ...