I had a party last night.
It was a good party. It seems I over thought it, as I tend to do. It was a housewarming party, at least ostensibly, because the third roommate has finally moved in. Really, it was a party because I like having parties.
Throughout most of the party I was buzzing around the house preparing rumtastic mango smoothies and ensuring that everyone was well fed. I had a huge amount of cheese, some artichoke dip and, at the end, dim sum. Amanda, a coworker of mine, also brought a very tasty bunt (sp?) cake which she gave out to everyone.
I think the party had the following good points:
- good turnout
- people liked the food and mango smoothies
- Ottawa social events tend to be good because we all have things in common
- the back deck was a big hit
The party also had the following bad points:
- insufficient alcohol. It is not that I did not have enough, but people brought less alcohol than I expected and I was only giving out the smoothies. I should have set out the bar, or something like punch that people could just drink as they wanted.
- no music. This was also serious. Music can set the mood and the tone. There can be a "song of the party", but as I have no sound system, this could not happen. Next time I will be prepared.
I suppose there were other good and bad points that I did not pick up on, but I think they were the key ones that were within my control. One thing I did not expect was that because the weather was so hot, about half the party was on the back deck the entire time. The preparation work that I had done for the living and dining rooms were for nothing. Having people outside also concentrated the overflow into the kitchen, which became the nexus of everything. Of course, it was a bit of a freak accident that the weather peaked to 30 degrees yesterday. If I have more parties, the outside weather will probably not be as pleasant, and they will be internally focused parties.
On a different level, this party did not get roommate buy in. It is probably because I know more people in this city than my roommates, but everyone that was invited, was invited by me. That seemed to make them feel detached from the whole thing, and both of them ended up going to bed early. While it is possible that the situation remedies its self as my roommates find people they would like to invite to these events, I think this might mean that my future parties will happen when my roommates leave town to see their girlfriends.
So moving back to the last month...
I went to Montreal a few weeks ago. The trip was both to see Greg and because I wanted to get out of Ottawa and see Montreal. I had a great time. The first night, Greg and I went to a great French restaurant on Mont Royal. It had been so long since I had eaten a nice restaurant meal (since the time with Sarah in January, I think). The food was very tasty and the wine was good too. I also really appreciated the pace of the whole thing which gave us a chance to catch up. The whole thing lifted my spirits and started me out with a very positive impression of the city (perhaps more positive than it had been before). The rest of the weekend consisted mostly of me and Greg walking around parts of Montreal with which I was unfamiliar.
On the Saturday night I had dinner with my friend Di. I went to Queen's with Di and now he is in Montreal doing more studies with his girlfriend. As always, he had some fascinating stories to tell about people and places that I barely knew about.
After dinner, I went to the plateau to meet up with Jesse for a drink. We had a good time and caught up on our news, but it seems that we may have grown a bit apart in the last few years. I wish him well, but after about an hour and a half we had little to talk about. Maybe next time will be better...
The next weekend I went back to Vancouver for my cousin's bat mitzvah. It was very nice to be back in "my" city and to see my extended family. My grandfather is quite old, but still in very good spirits, especially when such events are happening. Apart from the family engagements, I spent most of the weekend giving tours of the city with my sister. It was a great time. We both have great and complimentary knowledge of the city. I can tell she learned a lot from her job directing the census collection in the downtown east side (although that is not really my thing...).
While I was in Vancouver I got to see Noah's new office, which was very nice, and had dinner with some of the old UBC econ gang. It seemed like half of the dinner consisted of them trying to convince me to move back to Vancouver and me trying to convince them to work for the federal government. I don't think either side got very far (although Sarah will probably continue to apply to some federal jobs).
The work situation throughout this time had been slow. The woman, who is soon to be my official boss, who gives me work to do went on vacation for about a month and left me with a few files, but no direction. At first it was ok. I would read the files and write down what I thought about them, but it quickly became clear that I did not have any framework with which to evaluate the documents. I had nothing upon which to base my comments. At this point, I was constantly pestering my Executive Director for direction, which he did not have much time to give. After about a week and a half I had reached a wall with my work, and did not have any more work forthcoming. My job satisfaction fell off a cliff... Thankfully, the woman (who is soon to be officially pronounced as the Principle Analyst) returned from her holidays and gave me direction on the files. I discovered how much I was able to do with them, and have been taking some pleasure in that. Her positive feedback has also been a boon to my workplace morale. I am now far more optimistic going into the fall.
We'll see...
It was a good party. It seems I over thought it, as I tend to do. It was a housewarming party, at least ostensibly, because the third roommate has finally moved in. Really, it was a party because I like having parties.
Throughout most of the party I was buzzing around the house preparing rumtastic mango smoothies and ensuring that everyone was well fed. I had a huge amount of cheese, some artichoke dip and, at the end, dim sum. Amanda, a coworker of mine, also brought a very tasty bunt (sp?) cake which she gave out to everyone.
I think the party had the following good points:
- good turnout
- people liked the food and mango smoothies
- Ottawa social events tend to be good because we all have things in common
- the back deck was a big hit
The party also had the following bad points:
- insufficient alcohol. It is not that I did not have enough, but people brought less alcohol than I expected and I was only giving out the smoothies. I should have set out the bar, or something like punch that people could just drink as they wanted.
- no music. This was also serious. Music can set the mood and the tone. There can be a "song of the party", but as I have no sound system, this could not happen. Next time I will be prepared.
I suppose there were other good and bad points that I did not pick up on, but I think they were the key ones that were within my control. One thing I did not expect was that because the weather was so hot, about half the party was on the back deck the entire time. The preparation work that I had done for the living and dining rooms were for nothing. Having people outside also concentrated the overflow into the kitchen, which became the nexus of everything. Of course, it was a bit of a freak accident that the weather peaked to 30 degrees yesterday. If I have more parties, the outside weather will probably not be as pleasant, and they will be internally focused parties.
On a different level, this party did not get roommate buy in. It is probably because I know more people in this city than my roommates, but everyone that was invited, was invited by me. That seemed to make them feel detached from the whole thing, and both of them ended up going to bed early. While it is possible that the situation remedies its self as my roommates find people they would like to invite to these events, I think this might mean that my future parties will happen when my roommates leave town to see their girlfriends.
So moving back to the last month...
I went to Montreal a few weeks ago. The trip was both to see Greg and because I wanted to get out of Ottawa and see Montreal. I had a great time. The first night, Greg and I went to a great French restaurant on Mont Royal. It had been so long since I had eaten a nice restaurant meal (since the time with Sarah in January, I think). The food was very tasty and the wine was good too. I also really appreciated the pace of the whole thing which gave us a chance to catch up. The whole thing lifted my spirits and started me out with a very positive impression of the city (perhaps more positive than it had been before). The rest of the weekend consisted mostly of me and Greg walking around parts of Montreal with which I was unfamiliar.
On the Saturday night I had dinner with my friend Di. I went to Queen's with Di and now he is in Montreal doing more studies with his girlfriend. As always, he had some fascinating stories to tell about people and places that I barely knew about.
After dinner, I went to the plateau to meet up with Jesse for a drink. We had a good time and caught up on our news, but it seems that we may have grown a bit apart in the last few years. I wish him well, but after about an hour and a half we had little to talk about. Maybe next time will be better...
The next weekend I went back to Vancouver for my cousin's bat mitzvah. It was very nice to be back in "my" city and to see my extended family. My grandfather is quite old, but still in very good spirits, especially when such events are happening. Apart from the family engagements, I spent most of the weekend giving tours of the city with my sister. It was a great time. We both have great and complimentary knowledge of the city. I can tell she learned a lot from her job directing the census collection in the downtown east side (although that is not really my thing...).
While I was in Vancouver I got to see Noah's new office, which was very nice, and had dinner with some of the old UBC econ gang. It seemed like half of the dinner consisted of them trying to convince me to move back to Vancouver and me trying to convince them to work for the federal government. I don't think either side got very far (although Sarah will probably continue to apply to some federal jobs).
The work situation throughout this time had been slow. The woman, who is soon to be my official boss, who gives me work to do went on vacation for about a month and left me with a few files, but no direction. At first it was ok. I would read the files and write down what I thought about them, but it quickly became clear that I did not have any framework with which to evaluate the documents. I had nothing upon which to base my comments. At this point, I was constantly pestering my Executive Director for direction, which he did not have much time to give. After about a week and a half I had reached a wall with my work, and did not have any more work forthcoming. My job satisfaction fell off a cliff... Thankfully, the woman (who is soon to be officially pronounced as the Principle Analyst) returned from her holidays and gave me direction on the files. I discovered how much I was able to do with them, and have been taking some pleasure in that. Her positive feedback has also been a boon to my workplace morale. I am now far more optimistic going into the fall.
We'll see...
