Panama - Now that I don't live there...

Last week I went to Panama for a week of balancing work and pleasure, which is normally the case when I find myself in that country. This time around I had my best girl Ja with me as well as my Marketing Assistant Kat. Ja had her own reasons for being there. Kat on the other hand, I brought her there for work. Now those of you who know me know that I love what I do in every sense of the word so work is pleasure for me (some may think it's sad, but I think it's bliss). I am a work-a-haulic but I truly don't mind...especially when it entails trips to Panama with some REALLY cool people, like my best girl and my amazing marketing guru.

After many delays in airports, we made it down on a Wednesday night, pretty late. We were staying in a cute little hotel called Hotel Ejecutivo (Executive Hotel), which is not only close to everything we needed (work, bars, shopping etc..) but they have one of my favorite 24hour breakfast menus in the city. After dropping our things in our room we both decided we needed a drink so we went to the bar for a glass of wine and met up with some colleagues who came out for a drink.

The rest of the trip went something like this:
Work, work, more work, Party, party and more party.....eat tacos...sleep for a few hours....back to work....a little shopping...party, party and more party.

I saw so many good friends who I've missed along the way (thanks all you guys who came out with us for some good times!) but I also missed a few good ones who for whatever their reasons had to raincheck me. It's all good though... I'll be back and they know it.

So highlights of the trip:

• Discovering just how well Katrina and Janel got along - never a dull moment with either of those girls.
• Singing... so much drunkin singing outloud...in bars, strip clubs and retaurants...too funny.
• A day at Gamboa - Best Brunch EVER....Crocodiles and monkeys and birds...oh my!
• "Im Canadian, in Panama" - and cantiplatin nat waarin a braa...
• YaggerBombs!
  
• In the strip club...paying absolutely no attention to the strippers.
• Meeting Ja's best man.
• Eating Ceviche...oh how i missed you...
• Visiting Casco Viejo
• Ja, Kat, DimeBag, Antonio, Monica, Lucho, Nari, Osvaldo, Teddie, Jake, Rob, Al, Gena, Michael, Pancho, Bama, Scotty, (sorry if I missed anyone) - you all rock!

In a way I really like visiting there now because not living there means that I take nothing for granted. These days I actually take the time to do touristy things... I love Panama.

xoxo

Biking With Cars - Part 4 - Oh the Possibilities! haha

So here is the final post about my recent accident, I promise. From here on, I move onto other topics as I prepare for yet another trip to Panama to more than likely get into trouble. ;)

This is the last memorable thing that I can recall about the whole accident thing and my colleague reminded me of it today so I thought I'd share.

When Looking Banged Up Can Bring with it....Assumptions

I was still in the hospital 6 long hours after I got there and they had just finished feeding me pain killers, patching my arm up in a sling and at long last...set me free. At that point, the person who I went with had to go but she called in a replacement to fill in for her to make sure that I got home in one piece from the hospital. I had a bookbag with me (that I couldn't carry very well) and after taking 3 pretty white pills all at once, god knows how drunk I was going to be leaving there.

So my designated male (the importance of him being male will come, I promise) bag carrier and I are walking out of the Hospital and I begin to observe the looks around me... you know... the people who try not to stare but the effort they put into trying so hard not to just makes it so obvious that they are trying to? Wait... maybe that's just my paranoia tendencies talking.... Anyway, people were looking.

That's when I smiled and said to my friend "Hey... you know I look like I was beaten up...", to which he replied "yes you do.." in a non-chalant way as we made our way through the crowd. Then I smiled and said "How many of these people here do you think might think that you did this to me?" and proceeded to get this huge devilish grin on my face....

His face went white... "I never thought of that...but now that you say it....geeze..." was his reply...to which I started in a drunken laughing fit as we walked by a swarm of police officers.

Now please don't get me wrong folks. Abusing women is NOT a funny topic at all...in fact, I of all people can contest to that as I have had the unfortunate experience of witnessing first hand the effects that this can have on women...the ultimate battered woman syndrome. Not a laughing matter... I promise. But the look on Jeff's face when I said that.....now THAT was funny.

Walking out and saying loudly in front of all those cops "Now Jeff, Promise me you will NEVER hit me again!" to see the reactions of people watching and listening never crossed my twisted little brain... I swear.

Biking With Cars - Part 3 - Telephone Game

Keeping the theme of my recent accident alive, here is another funny of the whole situation:

The Telephone Game

I am a work-a-haulic. Those who know me know that there is no contesting this point. I have an 800# that forwards straight to my cellphone at all times and as long as I have phone and internet connection, I am working. Well at the time of the accident, I realized that there are probably times that I should just not answer the phone.

It was about 2 hours after I was hit...when i realized that I could no longer move my arm without experiencing excruciating pain. At the time of the hit I got up and knew that my arm was stiff but the doctors say that adrenaline is high at that point so I wouldn't realize pain until later (and in actuality it was the next 2 days that were by far the worst). So I gave in about 2 hours after the accident happened and allowed my assistant to take me to the hospital. I was sitting in my lounge waiting for the car to pull up when my phone rang. I figured I could still answer calls or questions so I answered it. My colleague on the other line was going on and on about an amazing email regarding positive feedback on a project that my team recently completed. He wanted me to see the email right then and there so I told him: "I'm sorry I'm not at my computer at the moment, I was just in an accident and am on my way to the hospital..." which of course started all the questions - how / when / where / are you ok / etc.... which I answered with ease because besides a really soar arm and a shitty looking face, I was fine.

When I got to the hospital, I decided to turn the ringer on my phone off because it was ringing non-stop.

Six hours later, I exited the hospital and decided to check my phone. Of course, 95% of all the missed calls were from Panama so I figured word probably spread. I called the office back and got a hold of my client. The conversation went something like this:

Bama: Jen? Is that you? What the hell happened to you?
Me: Well, I dunno if Simon told you but I was hit by a car riding my bike earlier today so I went to the hospital to get things checked out.
Bama: Huge sigh of relief... Yea Simon told me he spoke to you so I took his word.....but who else did you talk to?
Me: Nobody...why?
Bama: Holy Cow you should have HEARD some of the things I was hearing in the office today! Somehow everyone found out that you were hurt and all hell broke loose!
Me: huh???? I don't follow...
Bama: I walked passed someone outside and they said "Hey Bama did you hear Jen got hit by a BUS!".. Then I walked into another office in another wing of the building and I heard "Hey Bama! Is it true that Jen was involved in an explosion?"... Then I get back to my office and my phone starts ringing with our clients in the U.S. talking about "Hey Bama how come you didn't tell me that Jen was involved in a hostage situation?" Holy Shit Jen! It was amazing! Worse than Ferris Bueller's Day Off! Like WTF??
Me: Laughing my ass off by now telling him to stop making me laugh so hard cause it hurts.
Bama: Seriously Jen, For a minute I was thinking you may have downplayed what happened to Simon cause I know you... you don't make a big deal of anything.
Me: No Bama... really... it was a car and my bike... i have a face that looks like I got into a fight with a boxer and a fractured elbow... I'm going to live.
Bama: Ok so no Bus?
Me: No.
Bama: No explosions?
Me: No.
Bama: No terrorists taking you hostage?
Me: LAUGHING TOO HARD TO SAY NO...
It's like the phone game you play when you're a kid! You sit in a circle and tell one person a story and get them to pass it on all the way around the circle and watch how many details change by the time the story gets back to you... AMAZING!


The moral of this story? I should not have answered my phone at all that day.... LOL

Biking with Cars - Part 2 - The Ballsy Bum

If you read my last post, you know that I was recently hit by a car while riding my bike. Shitty deal all around really but overall I feel lucky because it could have easily been a lot worse. Now that a few days have passed it's time to look back and laugh at some rather humorous things that went down throughout the whole ordeal. Over the next few days I will be writing about the funnies of the whole situation.

Today we start with The Brave Bum...

I was sitting in the back of the police car chatting with the good looking officer while filling out my official statement etc... My bicycle was leaning up against a tree right outside of the car within plain view to us both. There was no lock on the bike but I figured nobody was going to try to steal it while a police car is parked right in front of it. All of a sudden this less than good looking man (he wore stinky and dirty quite well actually), who I could only assume was a bum, came to the front passenger window of the cop's car and tapped on the window. The police officer reluctantly opened the window slightly to let the guy's head peer in. His words made my eyes widen.

The bum said: "Hey if you're here about that bike over there (and pointed to my baby leaning up against the tree in front of us), then it's cool, don't worry. I figure I'll save you the trouble. That's my buddie's bike. I saw him riding it this morning. I'm going to take it out of your way and bring it over to my buddy... I was watching it for him."
The officer's face twisted and he bit his lip and said: "oh is that right?"
The bum said: "Yea yea, it's cool don't worry. I'm going to get it out of your way now ok?"
The officer: "Hey man what did your buddy look like?"
The bum: "UUhhh he's a native american guy..."
The officer: Pointing to me and my wide eyes and huge grin by now in the back seat says "Does he look like this young lady in the back seat?"
The bum sticks his head somewhat in the car to look at me in the back nods (cause by now I guess he realized defeat in the matter) and then proceeds to walk away.
The officer yells: "Man! You better get lost quick!"

I had to stop writing for a minute when that happened cause both the officer and I were laughing too hard at the whole thing. This freakin bum was going to try to steal my bike not 5 minutes after I put it up against that tree and got in the car! AMAZING. Talk about balls.
I gotta say... Toronto has some colorful people in its' streets! LMAO

Bad things happen in Threes...or Fours?

This week seems to have been a not very good week at all for the people in my office, including myself. Monday was a holiday but the long weekend saw no end to work for me. It all started when a very important manager of mine down in Panama quit on me without warning. Saturday he called to say he was giving his 2 weeks notice. Sunday he didn't show up. Monday he called to say he wasn't coming back at all. Unbelievable...at least with 2 weeks he could have been able to train someone to fill his shoes...you think you know a guy. So that left me in a shitty predicament with LOTS of work to do over the weekend.

On Tuesday everyone comes in with a bubbly and rested attitude except myself of course, but I noticed that my Marketing Assistant was also less than bubbly. Turns out a very good friend of hers died over the weekend. Ouch. She was taking it extremely well however and I have already told her that I think she is amazing for that.

On Wednesday I am just starting to turn things around with work (found a solution/replacement for that position in Panama) so things were looking up until I get a phone call in the evening from a staff member to tell me that his father passed away in a sudden freak accident. Once again...Ouch. I am not really good in situations like that so I simply told him to take as much time as needed and do what he has to do and not worry about work.

So we are halfway through the week and we are looking at 2 deaths and a work-related crisis. Great. I was talking to my office manager about the whole thing and remember saying the phrase "Death Happens in 3's"....so they say...or is the saying "Bad Things happen in 3's"? She shrugged and pushed the thought out of her head. I on the other hand kept thinking about it. If it's Death that happens in 3's then I've still got one more to go. If it's Bad Things that happen in 3's then I'm done.... I wonder...

Well yesterday morning I believe I got my answer....

I had just finished meeting with my office manager and a Realtor at a location fairly close to my home. We left the meeting and she jumped on a street car and I jumped on my bike and told her I would meet her at the office. I didn't get 3 blocks up the street when it happened.

I always go on and on about how Toronto seems to have amazing infrastructure for people who ride bikes. It's a rare thing to find a city in North America as big as this one that supports bik-riders.

So I am on the right side (in the designated bike lane) of the rather busy street riding at a comfortable pace when this big black car comes out of a side street to turn onto the same busy street that I am passing on. The driver looked at me and saw me and I could have sworn he was slowing down. When I realized that he wasn't going to stop, I started ringing my little bell and screaming WOAH! but it was too late. The impact happened right at my right leg of the bike. He hit me hard enough to throw me off my bike and into the heavy traffic in the street next to me. THANK GOD a car who saw the whole thing stopped behind me before hitting me a second time and the driver jumped out of the car to help me get out of the road. I was stunned.

Something to note. In Toronto it is not law for adults to wear helmets while on a bike. It is law however to have a bell on your bike... yea well....I'm buying a helmet before I ever get on a bike again...Also, when you are flying in the air, you tend to close your eyes, brace your body and hope for the best... You don't quite remember details about how you landed and what happened to the bike etc... A bunch of witnesses told me the same story. I landed on the right side of my face first and then flipped over onto my left arm. The damage on my body definitely matches that story. At first I thought I was fine but as the minutes passed and the adrenaline in my body began to calm down, I realized that I had damaged my arm pretty badly. After about 2 hours I could not move it at all. After many hours in the hospital, begging for pain-killers (which I eventually got, thank god) and watching my arm visibly swell to twice the size of the other one, turns out I fractured my elbow pretty badly and so have to wear a sling for the next 2-3 weeks.

So in the end, it's all good. It could have been MUCH MUCH worse so I feel lucky. My face looks like shit and my entire body is soar today, including of course my arm...and I'm irritated as shit trying to do things with one hand all the time (including typing this story)...but I'll live.

I tell you what though - as soon as I realized that I was going to be hit, there was one thing going through my mind...it went something like this.... "NO WAY....AM I GOING TO BE #3??"

When Awesome Security Becomes Too Much Security

Today I learned that it is never a good idea to have invested in a ginormous amount of security and no backup plan B to cover your own ass. As is the case with any other day, I found myself in the office working extra hours to get caught up. A new design recruit was with me today because he is scheduled to start work with me on Tuesday. He wanted to come in and take a look at the office in advance so I brought him along.

Because it is a weekend, and most sane Canadians who are not work-a-haulics like myself do not work on weekends (especially long weekends), the office building is in lock-down mode, with access only to limited managers like myself. Let me paint a picture of how the office works on weekends. The main office door on the ground floor opens during off-hours such as this, with an electronic fob. From there, stairs take you to the appropriate floor (in my case the 3^rd floor) and another door, also with fob access needs to be opened in order to reach the hallway in front of my main office door. Both the door at the stairway and my main office doors are rigged up with their own (2 different, that is) security alarm systems which activate if the doors are left open for too long during the off hours. Bathrooms are in the hallway, in between these 2 security systems, as opposed to inside of the office.

So after a few hours of working, my new recruit decided that he was ready to leave and go explore some of downtown Toronto RIGHT when I decided to go to the washroom. So I come out of the washroom and I see him in the hallway waiting for me to ask to borrow my camera… at that point, my face turns white… as I realize that we are both in the hallway…and my camera that he wants to borrow is in the office on my desk, in my purse, alongside all my keys to the office and even to my apartment and my cell phone and my wallet and anything valuable to me…is in the office….and I can’t remember if I unlocked the auto-locks. SHIT. Shawn, did you close the door? – Yes…... SHIT.

We were SOOO locked out. No way in, no way to call anyone (my phone is inside and with the existence of address books in the phone, I’ll be damned if I actually know anyone’s phone numbers by heart), no money to go anywhere (wallet inside) and nowhere to go anyway….cause I don’t know where anyone nearby lives and the keys to my place were locked inside. Hhmmmm I think back to the days when I refused to own a cellphone. That was just over 3 years ago….how did I survive? hahaha

So we sat down on the floor in the hallway trying to figure out what to do. Looking back, THANK GOD this guy chose to stop and ask me for the camera before going…had he left without doing so and left me there by myself, I would have been ridiculously screwed. I would have been walking around knocking on doors asking for someone to take me in for the next 2 nights, considering that Monday is a holiday so people won’t arrive at the office till Tuesday. Oh yes, I was in a Royal Tiffle ladies and gents.

He had quarters in his pocket so I told him to go out and find a payphone with a phone book and call a locksmith. I had to stay behind to be able to open the door to the building for him downstairs….easier said than done. Why? Because if I close the door at the top of the stairs, which I explained earlier requires a fob (on my keychain locked inside), I’d be locked out of the 3^rd floor and be even more screwed. So ok, I will leave my shoe in the door upstairs and wait for him at the bottom of the stairs to open that door when he gets back from the payphone….solid plan right? WRONG. Again, if that door is opened for too long, the alarm is triggered..

So what do I do? He leaves to call a locksmith and every 5 minutes I put a shoe in the door and RUN MY ASS OFF down 3 stories, which is actually 6 flights of stairs to check to see if he is there and then, if he’s not (which happened 3 goddamn times), run back up those same 6 flights of stairs and get back to the door to close it before 45 seconds passes and the entire building’s alarm system goes off. That’s right…when was the last time you tried to run up and down 6 flights of stairs in 45 seconds while hearing warning beeps coming from an alarm system that you really don’t want going off? LOL

I didn’t need the extra workout or the feeling like my heart was going to explode multiple times but in the end it worked and when he finally came to the door, it was with a locksmith. $250 later I was home free, sitting at my desk on the phone with a friend laughing about the whole thing.

So what did I learn? 2 things: (1) The security in our building is AWESOME and I won’t EVER have to worry about people breaking in after-hours….and there is the realization that by investing in so much security, I may have been a tad on the paranoid side. Hey, at least it works. (2) I have suddenly found the need to attach a bracelet or something that will attach the keys to me at ALL times.

What a day.

Imagine...The Power of the Mind

If you can imagine it, you can have it. This is the name of the game. This is the lesson to learn. It couldn't be any easier. Reality is not what your eyes show your mind, but what your mind creates for your eyes to see. You are not limited by logic, the past, or the world around you. You are not even of the world around you. You are supernatural, pure spirit. You came first. Magic, miracles, and luck are the consequences of understanding this, the inevitable result of dreaming and acting in spite of appearances.You are ever so close. Simply stay the course. It won't be very much longer.

If you can imagine it, you can have it !

Make it a great day!