I worked in the corporate world for many years and often felt like my job was a thankless one.  I do recall that when I had worked for the same company for a whole year and that first anniversary came up I was pretty excited.  Well I was the only one.  There was not even a realization from my boss that I’d been there a year.

Even after I brought it to his attention I got a barely hear-felt “that’s great”.

This one company I ended up working with for many years.  After 5 years, the rest of the team that were hired two months ahead of me got a special Christmas 5 year recognition watch.  I was excited thinking that mine would shortly be on it’s way.  Only to be disappointed again when I was informed that they only gave out the recognition rewards at Christmas, and I would have to wait for the following year.  Then I got a gift certificate for a ‘something’ at a store.  The certificate had to be used on one item, and could not be a partial purchase (so I couldn’t even pick out a spectacular watch and pay the difference myself).  So I got a pen, but the certificate wouldn’t cover the engraving that I could have put on it.  What was I supposed to put on it “great job Karen for 5 years of hard work”…nothing like giving myself a pat on the back.

But that wasn’t all.  A  couple of years later we were at a luncheon, and out of the blue I was awarded a really great satchel with the acclimation of “congratulations Karen for three years of working with our company”…I was astonished and asked if I would get two because I had actually worked for the company for almost 7 years.  It was rather frustrating because this happened in front of all my other co-workers.  What a blunder…it made me realize that the company didn’t really care about me as an individual, and that there was less than any chance for me to grow further with the company.

Then kids came…and I left the job.

Recently I started selling Lia Sophia.  Not only do I get a chance to play with sparkly fun jewelry…but I get to work with a fantastic team of ladies.  When I started, I went to their monthly meetings where they recognized people who had top sales or had accomplished some goals with flowers and gifts.  At the time I though it was a little over the top.

But now I’ve been in the top 5 sales people within my unit for several months, and I love the recognition, the flowers, and the little gifties.  I really didn’t think it would matter…but you know, I strive to be in that top five.

Last month I hit the top 5 again and I was rewarded with a Lia Sophia calculator.  Really, it’s such a small thing…but I LOVE it!  I am so excited to have won it, and I look at here glistening on my desk (it’s nice and shiny).  It’s just waiting for me to calculate that next jewelry order, and all I can say is ‘Who’s next”….Thank you!

Love my Calculator!!

Today I’m ready to write.  It’s taken me over a week to sit down and write about Ripley.  After 19 years of fur and purrs, we put our little man down.  Ripley was a good cat, and was named after the movie Aliens (one of my favorite movies).

He had personality.  He liked being around people, and would often hang out in the bushes so that he could jump out at you as you walked by.  He had stealth, was curious, loved to frolic, and only tolerated the endless maulings we gave him.

His favorite place was the garden.  He loved to curl up in the bushes and sleep, or watch me as I messed around with plants.  A stick running through the grass was a great game.  It was always fun for him to eat his grass, and then yak it up later, and he taught himself to be a great mouser.

He wouldn’t come and curl up on your lap, but he may lay down near you, but just out of reach. Almost to say I want to be near you, just don’t maul me.  His favorite toys when he was a kitten were pom poms, we would play fetch with them.

We knew the time was coming as his kidneys slowly started shutting down, and he became more and more senile (yowling at night “where is everybody?”), and the arthritis that had started pushing his back legs out.  I cried when I took him to the vet.  I cried with him in the examination room, and I cried as I felt him relax in my arms with his final breath.  My little man is gone.

I walk in a room and I see him laying on the couch out of the corner of my eye, but it’s not him.  I hear a sound and I think its his little greeting croon, but it isn’t.  I yearn to bury my face in his fur and smell that wonderful cat smell, but it’s only a memory.

A letter came yesterday from the Vet.  A little card with a paw print, and a tuft of his hair tied with a bow.  I cried, what a thoughtful and nice thing to do.  The fur doesn’t smell like Ripley, but every day I get to pet him, and hold that little piece of him to my cheek.

We gave him a good life – 19 years – so I smile when I think of that and all the wonderful memories I have of him.  It will be lonely working in the garden without him this year…he’s always been there with me, my little man.

Technology is awesome!  I love the fact that because of the computer I’ve gotten in touch with many friends whom I’d lost touch with.  The latest is Susan…good friend of mine that moved away while we were in Jr. High School.

We did so much together.  Endless hours of dancing to Shawn Cassidy, Bay City Rollers, and Rod Stewart.  Actually whenever I hear “Do Ya Think I”m Sexy” it brings fond memories of dancing in her living room.  I remember us singing along to Roxy Roller, watching movies with her family…her brother bugging us all the time.  I think I was almost a fixture in their house…it was so cool with a lofted Master Bedroom.

We stood up for each other under the endless persecution from the “popular” crowd.  She was a friend that watched my back as consistently as I watched hers.  But she left to Toronto…

After Susan moved away we wrote back and forth to each other…she was much better at it, and I was always so happy to get a letter from her.  And then we just kind of lost touch.  There was a phone call here and there if I happened to be in Toronto, but years became lost to us.

Now we have Facebook, and Classmates, and Twitter – a multitude of networking sites and an internet of information for the finding.  I’ve tried several times to find her without much luck…it’s hard enough when she has a common last name…but if she got married.  How do I find her??  But she found me!!!!

To me it’s very exciting that she’s back in my life, and we can re-establish a friendship that was lost.  But it also makes me wonder how many other friends are out there that I haven’t found yet.  Where is Belinda?

How do people find me if I’m married…I guess the best way is to just tell everyone.  I was Karen Godwin once upon a time.  Now I’m Karen Biko….and I’m jazzed that I”ve found Susan!!!!

Today was the final day of the open house event at Bearspaw.  I had filled many of the spaces there with my artwork.  It’s been a nice couple of weekends getting to know some fun people.  Today was a busy day with lots of people through the house.

A good day for me as I sold a little painting of mine.

I just took a quick breeze by the Leighton Centre today to see how things were going with the Christmas in the Country sale.

I’m so excited that I’ve sold five pieces already!!!  The sale is on into December, so you can drop by daily to have a look.

5 Paintings!!!!

Today was a great day as I zipped downtown to pick up the paintings I had at the TransCanada building, and move them over (with a whole bunch of others) to another show in a gorgeous multi-million dollar home.

My work is showcased throughout the house as well as my own gallery room.  I was joined by other vendors at this property.  Part of the proceeds for the sale of items in the house, as well as the house itself will go to support Habitat for Humanity.

So many beautiful things, including the player grand piano… it was very cool.  If you have some time this weekend or next you can go and have a look yourself.  The show runs from 1-4 on two weekends (Nov. 6 & 7 and Nov 13 & 14).

128 Grizzly Rise (Bearspaw Country Estates)

Map to the location

So my post for November 4th is being written on November 5th.  That’s what happens when life gets busy and you go out to an Art Opening in the evening.

Tonight I went to the Triangle Gallery.  I have shown there for a couple of years with the open invitation they have sent out.  It allows me to submit 3 paintings up to $450.00.  Then they are juried into the show…or not.  For the last two years I’ve made it into the show without any problems.

This year was different.  I actually got an invitation to the show.  This allowed me to submit paintings up to $3,500.00.  I was excited to have recieved this honor.  I submitted my three pieces, and one of them was a big one!!

Last night I got all dressed up and headed out to the opening.  With glass of wine in hand I walked through the gallery looking at the great selection of art.  There was one of mine, two…where was the third?  Where was the big one…was it too big…maybe that was it.  There was no space to show it.

Then I turned a corner, and back on it’s own wall was my painting.  It looked amazing.  I smiled.  I can’t tell you how great it feels to stand back and see a big painting of mine displayed like that.  I shone!  It was the biggest piece in the show.

I recieved so many compliments on it, I was delighted.  Some of the other attending artists even wanted to meet me, and were inpressed by the sheer volume of dots on my work.

When I left the party I was feeling happy with myself.  Although I had no red dots (sales), I was satisfied with the quality of my work in comparison with other artists there.  I spoke with Katie Ohe and Harry Kiyooka (Harry always has some good advise for me).  I may not be that well known in the Arts community…but I’m working my way in there!!

I remember when Hubba Bubba first came out.  I remember how excited I was to find a gum that you could blow bubbles with and it wouldn’t stick to your face once it popped!  It was all the rage and I was hooked.  I loved blowing bubbles.  The cracking and popping of gum could be heard resonating around the community.  Okay, so maybe I’m dating myself…but I can still blow those bubbles.

The other day when we were at the store, my daughters picked out a pack of hubba bubba.  So I bought my own pack of the gum…I was going to show them a thing or two.  Poor Sidney was still struggling trying to figure out how to make a bubble in the first place.  She kept trying to do it with regular gum.  Well that just wouldn’t do.

So Bubble blowing 101.  Driving in the car you could see all three of us blowing bubbles and bopping to tunes on the radio.  First you got to make that gum nice and flat, press it against your teeth, push your tongue through and blow.  I think the girls were impressed at how big mom could blow a bubble.  It wasn’t long before even Sidney caught on.

I even taught them how to blow a bubble within a bubble…no easy feat, but something I recalled from earlier days.  A few days later when Bill joined in, I was very pleased to see that even he could not compete with my bubble blowing abilities.

So I am happy with our little trip down memory lane.  Now when the teachers ask the girls what they did this summer they can both answer that they learned how to blow awesome bubbles!!

I’m pretty Jazzed about that!!

Last weekend I took Saturday and made it mine.  I felt that there were no pressing issues that I HAD to deal with and that I could take a day to do something.  It started out small with a hose hanger for the side of the house.  Right above where weeds were continually growing.

Katelin pitched in and although she didn’t want to get her hands into the dirt, she did clean off the front step.  Taking down the chairs, and hosing out all the cobwebs and stuff that collects in the corners.

Meanwhile I decided to build a little garden under that hose.  So I got out the tools and soon enough I was pulling out grass and weeds, and dealing with the mess.  I mixed up what dirt what there, with my own compost that had been cooking all last year and through the winter…  and now I had a little patch of dirt.

I decided to go shopping.  I had been reluctant to buy many plants because we are living thin, and I felt that it was an extravigance that I just shouldn’t do.  But I had a gift certificate, and some clear ideas of what I was looking for.

One of those was a rose that I had at our house in Riverbend…I dearly miss it.  But as I walked the greenhouse isles, finding all sorts of treasures, I didn’t find my rose.  So I bought a substitute.  An Adelaide Rose (which I feel was appropriate because Gramma’s sister was Adelaide).

I felt giddy as I came home with my plants.  I had forgotten how much I loved that feeling.  Another hour and everything was in place.  I took my lawn chair and sat at the side of my house and smiled.

I even started working on my new gardening journal (which I will go into more detail another time).  I was so energized that I went into the back yard and started working on the half completed back garden.

Once it was cleaned up I knew another trip to the greenhouse was in store.  So Sunday morning that is just what I did.  This time I went to another place and guess what I found!!??  My rose!  All these years I had thought it was called a Daphne Rose, but I found out that it is actually a Morden Hoodless Ruby!

I’m so pleased that I actually planted her in the back yard, because now when I sit out I can look at her and look at her.  She smells wonderful, and she makes me smile.  A part of me will always call her Daphne.

I’m pretty Jazzed about that…

Things are going on in my life right now that frustrate me and bring me down.  In the last seven years we have been working steadily in Real Estate.  We understand that there are ups and downs in all markets.  We set up good cash-flowing properties that we work very hard to maintain.  We found areas that there was need and worked to fill them.  But things don’t always turn out how you expect.  We’ve dealt with tenants who are dirty, who don’t pay, and are down right disrespectful.

But a new bully has appeared to us in our Real Estate.  The Banks.  When the market was good they offered us mortgages galore, and we got them, realizing that markets could change, but feeling that if the property paid for itself, then there would be no issues.  Then the market changed, Real Estate prices have dropped and everyone has seen this across the world it seems.  Quite often, depending on when people purchased, values have declined enough that they are near or even below what the original mortgages value.  Again we understand this, it’s part of the cycle and we have a couple properties like this, but the difference is that the property still pays for itself.

What we didn’t realize is that in their panic some of the banks are now calling many of their loans due.  This leaves the owners of the property in a position where they must now sell the property, and pay back the bank the difference between what it is sold for and what they owe.  If this is a personal residence then it leaves the owners with only a couple options, to file for Bankruptcy or use whatever savings they have.  In an investors situation it creates a domino effect where they must now sell any properties with equity in them to pay out the banks.  This is the situation we are currently caught in.

In between being angry and feeling like I’m on a sinking ship with only a bucket to bail, I turn my head to the light, to the positive things, to the reasons why I won’t let this new setback drag me too far down.

I’m so grateful for many things in my life:

I have a husband who adores me and is my strength

I have two beautiful girls that I love so much

My husband makes me laugh even when we are down

I have family around me who love me

I have friends who support me when I’m sad

My daughter got 100% on her math test

I love the Jazzercise classes I’m running

I get to explore the passion of painting

I have and have had great mentors in my life

There is a little stash of chocolate bars just for me

I have a clear vision of where I want to be

I understand I have the power to change my life

∞∞∞ Karen Biko is Jazzed About This … sort of ∞∞∞