Vancouver meets Toronto

If I try really hard, I can pretend it’s the Pacific Ocean… #MissingVancouver (Taken with instagram)

Henry Ford

Confession: I have this bad habit of opening an email, glancing through it, and if I determine it requires further action, I’ll mark it as unread for later review. Unfortunately, this means I can miss out on things because I’ll sometimes revisit emails after they’re become irrelevant.

Luckily, I revisited an email from UBC Toronto Alumni just in time. In my effort to become more integrated into the city, I joined Meetup.com and was originally planned to attend a Toastmasters event tonight. When I saw the UBC alumni meetup event, however, I was quickly persuaded.

The original plan was to go home first, drop off my stuff, and change out of work clothes. A fire emergency at Castle Frank Station derailed that plan. I ended up getting stuck at Bloor Station among hundreds of disgruntled commuters. Instead of waiting on the platform among uncomfortably warm body heat and exasperated sighs and groans, I escaped to a nearby food court and caught up on some emails. I love being productive on the go!

Don’t get me wrong: I emitted a few exasperated sighs and groans myself, before I realized it wasn’t doing much help. The situation was out of my control and I just had to do the best I could with what I had.

Anyways, I wasn’t really quite sure what to expect, but I really like meeting new people, so I was game! I’m definitely glad I went. It was so great to connect with people who were going through the same Vancouver-Toronto transition. I met a bunch of great, friendly people, and I have to admit, it was kind of fun to see people gravitate towards me when they found out I was a recruiter ;-) Plus I won a shirt through a random draw. Huzzah for free swag. Definitely a good group of people and I’m looking forward to attending more of their events.

Yes, including the exclamation mark.

I have been having the toughest time regulating my sleep schedule from being off work for a month, during which time I was an insane sleep monster. Think 3am-1pm sleeps. I woke up ashamed of myself nearly every day. Anywho, this morning, I fell asleep again after I had “woken up” and turned off my alarm. I woke up (for real, this time) at 8:15am and my start time was 8:30am. ACK. I raced out of the house and frantically sent an apologetic email to Sarah and Kate… Only to discover that our internet was down when I arrived at the office. I felt so awful and felt like I had made a terrible first impression on Sarah, but hopefully the technical difficulties detracted from my tardiness :-P Dear self, from now on, JUMP OUT OF BED AS SOON AS YOU HEAR THE ALARM!

Ahem.

As a follow-up to my First Day Jitters post from my first day at Actionable Books nearly 6 months ago, I thought it was fitting to write about my first day at Poly Placements. (Don’t you just LOVE their branding? It makes my marketing heart go pitter-patter.)

The day was tiring, but also energizing. Complete information overload, but in the best way possible - my brain felt good about being finally used after a month of being off work. It’s going to be a steep learning curve, for sure, as I really don’t know anything about the recruiting world, but I’m excited to absorb and learn. Recruiting is fascinating - a fun blend of HR, marketing, sales, business development, and customer service. I’m really looking forward to making connections and learning about different industries and organizations in Toronto. 

It is with mixed feelings that I announce my decision to leave Actionable Books. Chris and I told Andy last week, so I can finally talk about it publicly. 

It took a lot of gut wrenching and soul searching to make this decision - anyone close to me can attest to this. Mostly because I truly believe in the work that AB is doing and because I love working with Chris (and didn’t want to jeopardize our personal and professional relationships). 

Plus there was the stigma of moving across to the country for this job, only to have it not work out a mere 5 months later. It was certainly a tough pill to swallow, and I received some good-natured ribbing from some friends. When it really came down to it, I think moving from corporate to start-up was just too big a change amidst a move to a new city where I didn’t know anyone. I think I underestimated how tough it would be to work at a startup. I had trouble defining and following that line between work and home; I thought about work constantly; I was spread too thin across too many areas; and the biggest kicker was the lack of a large team environment. I was spoiled by the incredible team I worked with at Central 1 - and missed it terribly.

Neil Gaiman (via puckishlove)

Every so often (more often, than not), I get serious cravings for Greek food, which is awesome/awful (depending on how you look at it from a wallet/flat stomach perspective), given that I live in a neighbourhood called Greektown. I swear, every third establishment is a Greek restaurant, so there are many choices.

Tonight, I opted for Asteria Souvlaki Place, which was recommended to me by F during my first weekend in Toronto, on a walk-about along the Danforth. I had already tried a couple of other spots (Astoria Shish Kabob House and Ouzeri), but wasn’t super in love with either, so I figured it was worth trying out a new spot (even though the Urbanspoon reviews were troubling).

7:00PM, Friday, November 25

• Overheard a couple behind me. Her: Are you laughing at me? Him: No! (In a tone that clearly meant he was) I would never do such a thing!
• A packed waiting room at the After Hours Children’s Clinic :-(
• Outside the LCBO. A passerby conversing with a street person holding a sign asking for money. “Yes, I have tried to get a job. I just submitted an application at Tim Horton’s.”