becoming 30...

... is fantastic! i was looking forward to this and now relish being able to reply "30" to "how old are you?" (somebody hurry up and ask me!!). after a wonderful birthday, things have just kept getting better and better. i welcomed my 30th year skiing at sunshine on the sunday with mi amor, steve, chris and meli... beautiful mountains, great company and slidy thrills! then met up with some more friends for dinner in banff. on monday i was spoiled rotten by ger... throughout the day new clothes popped up in surprising places, until i practically had a new wardrobe! what a very naughty boy. we had dinner at my favourite restaurant with chris and meli, and when we arrived home ger surprised me with a cake topped with twirly candles! i felt pretty darn special :)

a couple of days later my boss told me that immigration had accepted world web's application to sponsor my work visa (very relieving news) and on top of that, i got a promotion! starting with my new contract in may, i will be in charge of articles in the content department, which means i'll be assigning article topics to the other writers, managing deadlines and doing final edits on all articles! i'm pretty excited about the new responsibilities and the valuable experience i'll gain for what i'm hoping could possibly be a career...

and today i had another surprise! a couple of months ago i wrote an article about the top 10 zoos in north america, of which i named calgary zoo as one of them. i arrived at work this morning and my co-ordinator called me to her desk to have a look at yesterday's "metro", a daily paper here... there was an article in it about calgary zoo being nominated as one of north america's top 10 zoos by world web... in other words, by me!! calgary zoo also released a press release about it, with my article attached, and they were apparently interviewed by two tv stations and the radio about it!! i had no idea that my article would spur such a reaction, but i'm thrilled of course! and it's great publicity for world web.

here's a link to the zoo's press release, with my article attached :):

http://www.calgaryzoo.ca/documents/Top_Ten_WorldWeb.pdf

now, i think that's enough about me. let me update you on my shining star!! ger is right now performing on-stage with the calgary opera (a very big deal)! mi amor is one of six goons (thugs) that are quite significant roles in the story (tosca), i'm so friggen proud of him! i've been to a couple of the rehearsals, but haven't seen the real show yet... i have that priviledge on sunday - woohoo! ger thinks acting rocks, and according to the director, he has a real talent (i heard him with my own ears at the opening night party). yep, the above photo is him in full costume (and yes i know all the girls in the audience will be drooling!), i'm a very lucky girl :)

anyway, im off to bed. goodnight to anyone who made it this far through this excessively long blog! :) i hope everyone's warm, cozy and well-fed.

xx