Can't Start a Fire Without a Spark....

I am being consumed by the fires of Derby..... And loving every second.

Last night was the most epic Christmas party I have ever been to, and I'm not just saying that because I was on the organising committee. Actually, the night before, while introducing the rest of the committee to Hendrick's gin, there was some anxiety as to whether everyone was going to enjoy the party as much as we were already pretty sure we would. Any nervousness we felt disappeared as we watched the full contact  portion of our silent auction. I, now, have a new gage for party awesomeness; The number of bruises counted the next day. If you are not slightly battered in the evenings events, you just weren't having as much fun as you should have been.

The Christmas party committee was never something I put my hand up for. I just figured I didn't really know how people like to party here. Canadians play games at wedding receptions and have "midnight lunch"(which, just quietly, is a little bit brilliant). Weird shit like that. It was all foreign to me as I felt most of the girls in the league were. I got involved after hearing that the party committee was looking at holding it at a hotel. Knowing that the hotel I work for would give me a discounted rate, I stepped forward to get some venue pricings.
Now, it is no secret that my work drives me a little nutty. This, however, is the one solid the hotel has done me. (of course, I can't tell said hotel that because I don't wish to give them the satisfaction.) If I did not work where I do, I would never have had the pleasure of spending the last month getting to know an incredibly smart, dedicated and hilariously funny group of women. Women that I now consider friends, in a town that has for much of my time here felt friendless.
I also feel some gratitude is owed the lady friend for breaking up with me. (This is fast becoming an Oscars acceptance speech. I should thank God and my Mum while I'm at it.) I am now free to invest in the relationships and activities in the city I'm living in. No more of this dreaming of being elsewhere (well, at least not for the moment) when I can enjoy what's right in front of me.... Don't expect me to stay in Edmo permanently though, because that's just crazy. It's effing minus twenty-two degrees right now!!

The party committee technically no longer exists, and while I'm sure we will all enjoy getting some small part of our lives back, I will miss the mammoth email threads that awaited me each day when I finished work. This is the only time I have ever been envious of a desk job. If you are in front of a computer all day you get to email people! I finally know what people with desk jobs do all day and it has nothing to do with what they are actually being paid for.
I'm sure, after some much needed sleep, we will get planning something else to fill this void but even if we don't, I know that my Edmonton is now filled with these wonderful people.