Dream on

Ever since I could remember hockey has been a family tradition. My father never had a son so he decided to treat me as one and give me all the experiences that a father would usually do with his son such as fishing trips, four wheeling and participating in all sport events. But my favourite past time of all was every night after dinner sitting in front of the warm fire and watching a hockey game. Little did my dad know that I wasn’t watching for the brick wall hits or the crazy dangles; I was watching to pick out my future husband.

There is an old sang that says when a daughter grows up she is generally attracted to a man very similar to her brother or father. My dad is hard working, strong, funny and a sports fanatic so what better option for a husband that a pro hockey player? Unfortunately the chances of me even talking to an NHL player are the same chances of me getting drafted 1^st round in the picks (I can’t even skate). So as my mom would say, “dream on baby, dream on”.

New Job Opportunity

The company I work for has decided to hire someone new for the New Year to help us out! Yay! They are hiring someone to help with the marketing and customer service, in other words to make my job easier. My boss has interviewed a few prospects but not the perfect fit for the job yet. It will take a very skilled person to fill this position in my boss’ eyes because he is so picky and the job is very demanding of organizational, personable, acting and writing skills.

This person will also be filming and creating a lot of video blogs therefore camera skills as weak as mine are not acceptable. Essentially we are looking for someone who can do what we can’t. I am not a shy person at all and I always wanted to model but when I am put in front of a camera I have a different personality. I get red and shy, start acting like a 4 year old that is meeting a big scary man for the first time. I try to hide behind anything I can and say as least as possible. Unfortunately I didn’t know that until my boss tired to film a very short, 4 line introduction video of me. We both agreed I would never be an actress and got back to work put out job ads!

First Phone Call

I sat down at work this morning and looked out at the beautiful, big snowflakes falling from the Canadian winter sky while I opened up my browser to check my emails and do my morning routine when I heard a weird noise. I checked all the tabs I had opened and looked for a pop up virus or an auto-playing video; nothing. I checked the speakers; nothing. Then I looked to my right at the office phone that had done nothing but get in the way of my computer mouse since I started working at Econo Magnet. It was ringing; I looked at it like it was a zombie coming out of a tomb. I was confused, do I answer it? Is it ringing on my boss’ line too? What area code is that? Then I awkwardly and shyly asked my boss, “Am I supposed to get that?” He looked at me and threw his hand to his forehead before replying with, “Yes Alana that is what I hired you for.” All questions and concerns had been posted through emails and chats up until today when my boss added a phone number to the website and I had forgot he did so. Needless to say the next time the phone rang I had picked it up before it could finish its first ring.

Work Out Plan

As a tradition with my sister every year at the beginning of December we sit down with tons of chocolate bars, ice cream and junk food and pig out while watching the Victoria Secret fashion show. Right after the fashion show is done the same thing happens every year; we look at each other with a depressed look on our face and say at the same time, “Work out plan? Yup.” We then start going over the ways we are going to cut back on all the junk food we consume and what our daily work outs will be. Fortunately for me and unfortunately for my sister, I am 6’0 and have a very fast metabolism, she is 5’6 and as she would say, “her metabolism retired after she got out of high school”. I promised her that I would work out with her in order to encourage her because a piece of chocolate cake is a lot more tempting then a long, hard workout. We agreed to start taking the stairs at work. She starts work an hour before I do so when I got an out of breath phone call at 8:00 AM; I laughed at told her to suck it up (she works on the 9^th floor). I got to work an hour later, found the stairs and started my way up. Conveniently each landing had a chair beside the door where I could sit before I fainted. I work on the 14^th level; I sat down after the first flight. I didn’t think it would be such a big hassle because I was always the captain of many different sports teams and worked out on top of that. Now I can’t do a flight of stairs without having to take a seat. I told my sister I did the stairs twice because the first time was so easy, there was no way I was letting her see my weakness. As the little sister I would never be able to live that pathetic story down.

EconoMagnet's Launch!

EconoMagnet is scheduled for launch, Wednesday! Everyone in the office is all tense and rushed to get our tasks complete for the launch of the new initiative of the older products. This is my first project and I’m really excited to see how I’m going to be able to help all the website guests I met and change their lives in a positive way. I’m ecstatic for Wednesday to come so that I can show all the knowledge that I’ve learn and pass on all the great information the world needs to and will want to know. It looks great, my boss has spent day and night for the past few weeks making this website nothing less than perfect and I would definitely say it’s a mission accomplished. So without any further adieu, Houston, 3...2...1... We have blast off.

My Acting Career

Yesterday I made my acting debut in a video to go on my profile. Unfortunately my debut would also be my retirement. The weird thing is that I’m not a shy person and I’m more than comfortable giving long speeches in front of huge crowds but the second the camera turned on I froze like a kid getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar. The first thing I started out with was, “Hi! It’s me... ugh, umm.” Followed by my boss stopping the recorded and saying, “did you just forget your own name?” Well yes, yes I did and now he knows I will never leave this job for an acting career. After about a thousand tries of messing up due to forgetting the right words, blushing, squinting my eyes and not smiling I took a deep breath in, thought about how I will never be famous now, breathed out and messed up again. After about an hour of what would have been an amazing blooper reel we finally got three “good enough” takes and I was back to work putting up job ads for video bloggers that are the opposite in front of the camera then I am!

Sisterly Love

My sister and I have a typical sister relationship. She is three years older than me and definitely treats me like the little sister. When we were younger we did not get along. We fought over everything but mostly over who got to use the phone and the television. I looked up to my older sister and she always had long, meaningful relationships if there was nothing I could do to help it. Due to the fact that I am older now, I realize that the reason I didn’t like any of her boyfriends and always tried to kick them out of our house and her heart was because they were taking my sister’s time away from me. Our break through moment was at my sister’s high school graduate when I gave her a congratulations hug and she said, “You know what... I kind of like you a little now.” We still have our odd fights over the convenience and inconvenience of being the same size in most of our clothing but we are closer than ever. I believe one of the main reasons we get along so well now is because I have recently become her permanent designated driver for when she decides to have a drink and she always managed to say at the end of the night, multiple times in the beautiful language of an intoxicated person, “I love you”.

Being Spoiled has its Disadvantages

My family consists of my dad, my mom, my sister and myself. That is 3 girls and one man; he doesn’t get to make very many decisions because we have the majority vote. My dad is very handy though and we take advantage of that! All three of us have elaborate, home-made closet organizers that we fill with clothes that daddy bought for his precious, lovely, little girls. I know what you’re thinking... I’m spoiled. But my sister and I have always had a passion for fashion, hair and make-up and my father always said having a hobby is a good thing. My mother was a model until she gave birth to my older sister and my dad was a model for one runaway show when he was five years old until, “Timmy wouldn’t hold his hand and he never got hired again”. Our mother taught us the basics and we watched tutorials and took classes to obtain the rest of our knowledge. For all of my sister’s life she has been playing around with her hair, she permed, bleached, dyed, straightened, curled and put as many products as she could in it. But I never once changed my hair; I always had the same long, dark brown, straight hair until two nights ago when my sister convinced me to make a change for what she called the better. She sat down and watched a video on how to ‘ombre’ hair and then gave it a try on my hair. I was shaking the whole time because for a girl, her hair is an accessory to every outfit that cannot be taken off. Unfortunately as most siblings are, as the young sister I believe everything my older sister tells me. She told me my hair looked, “So good if she could wear it as a wig she would!” It wasn’t until this morning when I walked into my office that I realized it probably isn’t all she worked it up to be and I will have to change it back myself because I do not trust her with my hair anymore!