I'm Alive & Nexen Inc!

It has been ages since I posted, and there is a great reason for that... I am absolutely crazy busy with my new job!

So I work for an Energy Company called Nexen Inc. Check it out at http://www.nexeninc.com/ - I am the Recruiter in charge of all student programs, and I adore it. I absolutely love what I am doing! Unofrtunately the work load is insane at the moment, and I have been working long hours, some Saturdays and even other designated days off to stay on top of things. I will be looking for more balance soon, but for the next couple of months this is my big priority because I want to learn everything and get on top of my workload before the crazy Campus Recruiting season comes around from Sept. - Dec. - the neat part is that I'll be travelling across Canada to Recruit at various universities in the fall!

Between working, eating, sleeping and running (still training for my marathon!) I haven't had many free moments. That's my quick update for today before I dash off to work! Even if we haven't spoken, I am thinking about you and will be more in touch when things calm down a bit.

Has it been a month already? Crazy May!

Hello blog readers,

My apologies for keeping you hanging and not sharing my latest news. May was an absolutely crazy month, probably the wildest month I've had in years! In a nutshell:

I GOT A NEW JOB at NEXEN!!! My *DREAM* job!!!!! I was away with Lorne for the last weekend of April and got the verbal offer over the phone. Then, the offer package on May 1st. All was confired by May 3rd which was when I gave my 2 weeks notice to Maxwell Drummond Intl.

2 wild weeks of transition ensued, and I thought that things would calm down somehow once I started at Nexen (I was sooo wrong!) Just for fun, I got my wisdom teeth out on my last weekend at MDI and just 5 days before starting at Nexen. It went ok but there was definite exhaustion and pain for at least those full 5 days of intense transition.

Wednesday, May 16th was my last day at MDI. Thursday, May 17th was my first day at Nexen! Just to keep things interesting, Lorne's parents arrived for a visit, driving all the way from New Brunswick to see us, the next day on that Friday May 18th. They were going to be here for 10 days. We had a fabulous long weekend together visiting, and then it was back to my new job where I quickly found out things were not going to be easy, simple, or normal. Last week, on Friday May 25th, I flew to Ottawa to run 2 running races in the National Capital Marathon weekend, taking Monday off and returning to tons of work at Nexen on Tuesday.

Finally now, June is in sight and looks like my life will calm down a bit! Except that I just woke up with a sore throat and a cold!! Nooooooo! :( :( June will consist of sleeping, eating, running and working, not necessarily in that order, so that in July I can have time for my visitors and the Stampede. It's important for me at this early stage to make my new job a priority and put lots of time in to get organized, work through the organizational mess and disasters that were left for me, and get on top of things before we swing into high gear in August/Sept.

So in a nutshell that is my crazy but fantastic life! One friend recently made a comment that she felt I posted only the "good news" in my blog, so I will try to present a more balanced approach. However, since March, things have been so busy that I think the only thing keeping me from posting more has bee time, such that I've only posted the things I deem to be really important to share!

I will post more details on some of these news items whenever I have a moment.

Thanks for reading!
Lara

Happy Anniversary!!!

Happy Anniversary, Lara and Lorne!

April 30th is our 3-year Anniversary. Very very fun. Yayyyy us! Lorne has found and planned a Couples' Weekend away for the weekend. We will be going to Quantum Leaps Lodge for a relaxing, rejuvinating weekend in the Rocky Mountains! Check it out:
http://www.quantumleaps.ca/

I'll tell you how it went upon our return. I am feeling very grateful and blessed going into this weekend!

xoxoxxxx
Lara

New Record: 23 km!!

Hello out there... I know I blog about running quite often but I am *SO* pumped that yesterday I ran the longest I have ever run so far in my life... 23km!!! Next week it's 26 - Yikes! This is crazy fun watching my Sunday runs get longer each week. It took 2 hrs 50 at a very slow training pace... that probably sounds uberslow but guess what, I have no pain yet 36 hours later... which is why we train so slowly.

What else, last week I bought a plane ticket to go to Ottawa for the National Capital Marathon and Race Weekend. WOO HOO! All of my family is participating or cheerleading in the weekend... I'll do the 10km with Renee on Saturday, and the half marathon "with" my mom on Sunday (she'll be power-walking it). It will be a BLAST!!

Lorne and I did another personal development seminar this weekend, The Goal Achiever... all about not only how to set goals, but to set the RIGHT goals and how to get past our subconscious mind, conditioning, past programming, and limiting beliefs to do anything we want to do in life. We have weekend stuff going on for the next few weeks, this is an intense time. But ever so fun to do all this growing together.

Speaking of growing, it's bedtime! I've been getting up at 6am most days and find that I fall flat around 10:15pm. Nighty night!

Bought Ticket to OTTAWA!

I finally did it!! I've been thinking about getting a plane ticket to Ottawa for the National Capital Race Weekend for some time now... and tonight I *finally* did it! I just went for it and feel so good about it.

This is an opportunity to see my family, especially Barry and Renee who will be down from Toronto for the weekend, my friends too, but especially to take part with my family in the running races of the NCM weekend! I think Dad, Barry and Renee will be running the 10km on Saturday evening. Mom will be fast-walking the half-marathon on Sunday morning. I will be running the 10km AND the half-marathon... I want to do both because a) That way I can do both events with all my family 2) I am scheduled to run 32K that weekend for my marathon training so I figure running 10KM + 21.1KM = 31.1KM which is close enough!

Check it out at:
http://www.ncm.ca

I'll be in town on Monday recovering so hopefully I can see some friends that day too. The only unfortunate piece of the puzzle is that there is a long weekend right before this weekend, and I miss an extra day of Ottawa -boo. BUT, I do believe I will be visiting with Lorne's parents who are driving (DRIVING!!!) to Calgary to see us around that time. Then, I miss my dear friend Natalia's wedding reception which is on June 9th in Ottawa.. so close yet so far. But Barry and Renee won't be around that weekend in Ottawa and I should still at least be able to see Natalia!

I am so excited. Just 5 weeks to Ottawa!!! If you're there, please mark the dates for me!

$12 Black Suit!!!!!

On Sunday Stacey and I went shopping along 17th Avenue. We were going to go to a mall but it was so nice and sunny out, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day. We found some great used book stores (dangerous!) and a classy little consignment shop. At that shop, I found a black Jacob suit. For $12. That fit. Can you believe it? What a find - talk about retail therapy! I still want to buy another proper-fitting suit, but this is definitely a good start. I dressed up more to go to work in Houston and quite liked the effect, so I'm looking at sprucing up my work wardrobe. I'll let you know if the $12 suit falls apart ;)

Home from Houston

Hello, Calgary!

Today I got home from Houston. I had a wonderful time. Made new friends with my colleagues there, discovered an amazing new city, and enjoyed some respite from cold winter conditions.

It was great to get back to a clean, uncluttered house - I had finally finished my organizing project before I left (!) - and great to see Lorne again. On Saturday, we went on an underwear shopping spree. Lorne let me help him pick out new socks and underwear for work. As boring as that sounds, I had a fabulous time. He must have bought at least 20 pairs of black socks!

Saturday night involved me taking my friend Jen out for dinner, then drinks at her place and out to a place called the Metropolitan Grille for the evening. It is a restaurant that turns into a dance club after 10pm, and we had a great time.

Sunday I was back on track with my Marathon Training and we ran 20km!!! It was a gorgeous day and I felt like a million bucks after the run.

It's great to be home. Everyone in the Calgary office really missed me, and I could feel how happy they are to have me back. Yay!

Photos coming soon

I finally downloaded all my photos from recently so I will be posting a few up here soon. From Houston etc. Stay tuned!

Texas-Size Update from Houston!

Happy Easter 2007!!

I just wanted to give y'all a brief update on my time in Texas so far... I am here for work for 2 weeks if I didn't already tell you. Houston is AWESOME!

Highlights (just read these if you are short on time):
-Eating lots of great food, definitely too much
-Went to see WICKED the Broadway Musical (again!)
-Went to North America's largest church for Easter Sunday today
-"Stole" an Audi then lost it... then got it back!
-Loving Houston!!! -- Even pickin' up the draaaawl a lil' bit!

I thought I wouldn't mind it, and was looking forward to the weather and the potential for good Mexican food, but this town has blown me away. I just love it here... I must be in the honeymoon phase but I can even see myself living here happily. I never thought I would love Texas but hey!

Why do I like Houston?
-Amazing food & resaurants, especially real-deal Mexican
-Latin American influences and community
-Fantastic weather... sunny & 28 for 3 days last week
-Beautiful city
-Really nice people; Texan Hospitality
-Generally empowered and abundant population
-Low cost of life (significantly lower than Calgary!)
-Lush green backdrop, near water...

Last week, my work week was quite standard: Work 8am-5pm, grab real Mexican take-out for lunch (yummmmm), run in Memorial park after work (they have a dedicated 5km running trail around the golf course!), back to hotel, eat dinner with colleagues, read, talk to Lorne most nights and go to bed. I did do a little exploring around the area but have stayed clear of the 350+ store Galleria shopping mall next door, in the interest of not spending too much money there.

At MDI my colleagues have been friendly, helpful and wonderful. There are 2 British guys here visiting our Houston office concurrently and there are about 5 single girls who work at MD and have been great guides and social planners. They've taken us to try authentic food (Crawfish, seafood, the taqueria and Po-Boy sandwiches) and generally entertained us. Work has been good although the office here feels really different from our small, casual slower-paced Calgary office - it is more fast-paced and demanding, which isn't a bad thing?

The big highlights have been the food of course, Winning Wicked (the Broadway musical) lottery tickets and going to see the show downtown on Friday night, even though its run has been sold out for weeks. Also running every day, swimming in the hotel pool, 28 C weather, a rowdy night out on Thursday night with my new friends, a fancy dinner out on Saturday night with those same friends, exploring downtown and the Museum district, and today: I decided to spend Easter Sunday at the largest church in North America and went this morning to Lakewood Church (seats 16,000). Somehow although I arrived late (you have to park a few miles away) I still managed to get a FRONT ROW seat in a full house arena... and so of course I ended up on TV about 8 times - they broadcast around the world! The music and message were phenomenal. It was an awesome experience.

Finally the latest thing I've done is I got hooked up with an Easter Dinner invitation from distant family... Lorne's sister's husband's brother and his family! Jaako and Chris live in Houston with their 3 adorable kids. I rented a car and trekked out after lunch to find them in their gorgeous "gated community" bordering a golf course... in a Northen suburb of Houston called Spring. 45 minutes away at 70 MPH!! We had a great visit and talked all about how they decided to move, what life is like, the differences between Canada and the US, how much they love it, the tax scheme... etc. Jaako almost has me convinced to move!

One last fun thing I did was trying to track down my boss' car to share with the UK boys for the week. He didn't leave it at work like he told us he did... so our first day here, we had to become detectives and track it down... we figured it must be at his apartment. So, we had to break into his parking garage at his apartment to get our wheels! THEN just yesterday due to a mix-up it got towed from the boys hotel parking lot - someone (not us) made a mistake on that one and mixed up parking spots.... phew. So they luckily got it back... it has been interesting having partial ownership for this troublesome Audi A4!

Sorry for the novel, hope you are well, HAPPY EASTER and lots of Love! Please drop me your news when you have a chance!
xoxoxoxox
Lara

Posting Drought...Over!

Howdy to those that are still checking this desolate, drought-filled bog! It's not over for Passion Lives Here... but I have been quite busy. Let's get things on track!! So, my news:

-Really liking my job as a Recruiter, got my FIRST official placement YESTERDAY!
-Going to HOUSTON for work for 2 weeks; from April 1st to 13th! From April Fools' to Friday the 13th...
-Did an AWESOME & intense personal development course from March 7-11 with Lorne - it basically took over our lives for about 2 weeks and has had a profound effect on us!
-Started training for my first MARATHON on March 1st... the goal date is July 8th.
-Bought a plane ticket home to New Brunswick for the last week of June.. woo hoo!
-Discovered cooking with ground bison instead of ground beef... tried it and loving it! 60% less fat than extra-lean beef and soo tasty and fun. It was even on sale for cheaper than beef the other week at the Co-Op

In a nutshell, that's my life right now and my news! I plan to post a little more frequently again and also post more detailed entries about some of my news, but that's it for now!

Oh and I should have some photos going up here soon too!