I'm back... and it's hot. Really hot. Well maybe not as hot as it could be but it's definitely hot. So Vancouver was quite enjoyable overall. One of my fellow trainee's is getting more obnoxious by the day though. He's turned into a name dropper. Anytime he meets anyone high up in the company he starts to drop that persons name into just about any conversation. For example - "May I take your order Sir?" "Yes I'll have the Caesar Salad, did I mention that I was telling Andrew Jackson just the other day that Caesar Salad is one of my favourite meals!" After about hmmm, two hours of this I wanted to just plow the guy. After four days of it I was really ready to kill him. Thankfully I'm not alone in this and Thank God that I won't end up working with him next phase of the program.

VANCOUVER HERE I COME! I found out that my next posting will either be in one of our stores in Richmond or Downtown Vancouver! I'm so happy about this. My friend (who I haven't decided on a name for yet) from school that is living down there right now is going to move in with me and we'll get a two bedroom apartment somewhere downtown. I am so stoked about this it's crazy. At first I wasn't wild about the idea of another room mate but once I saw the price of rent in downtown I reconsidered. That and I think that living with a girl will be pretty easy. I'm not willing to drop my standard of living just to live on my own.

I'm sure I'll write some more later but I'm thinking I should do some work right now. Lots of clean-up and reorganizing to do after the trip. Not to mention that my parents are making me pack up a bunch of books, that I have scattered around their house, for storage. Considering the fact that I'm at their house right now I don't really have the option of laughing it off.

Well I'm off to Vancouver.  Likely not going to be any new posts until Friday.  Have a Great Week!

Wow!  That's all I have to say.  The concert was sensational aside from the fact that half of the songs were from the 60's and I had no idea they were Cher songs!  I think the production was the biggest yet to have hit K-town.  There were 6 semi-tractor trailers and 7 Busses involved.  The stage had two elevators and a platform that descended from the ceiling.  The whole thing was very Cher, over the top and fabulous.

After Cher, Jesse and I went dancing at the club.  Had a good time.  It was nice to just go dancing and not get loaded.  I dropped Jesse off at her place relatively early and then I went to another club.  One I had never been to but I knew some friends were going to be there so I decided to stop by.  I was there for about 15 mins... Decided it seriously sucked and was making my way to the door when the door opened and a classmate from school that I didn't particularly want to see walked in.  She saw me and kept pestering me as to what I was doing there.  I blew her off and pushed my friend out the door.  There is possibly going to be repercussions from this...

I'm wondering tonight if people that you meet online and chat with frequently are to be considered friends.  If you've never met them in the real world and then you eventually do would you consider them a friend and would you introduce them as such.  How do you introduce net people to your friends.  When they ask you how you know such and such what should you say?  Normally I would be straight up about this type of thing but lately I have found myself lying occasionally.  Because of where I meet net people I am quite reluctant to share how I met them.

It's Cher day!  Yay!  So excited.

I'm frusterated.  Somewhat upset.  Why me!

I'm ramping myself up for the weekend.  This is going to be an extremely busy one I believe.  I work late tonight, which means 'till 9 then Janet and I may go and see Catwoman!  We're both so excited about this movie, I hope it's good.  The I work early tomorrow which means 9 again.  Then I am going straight from work home where I'll get changed then go to Janet's park my car and walk over to see CHER!  I can't even describe the feeling of excitement I've got right now.  After Cher I'm going dancing with Jesse and maybe Janet as well as the possibility of an assortment of others.  If I don't go to Catwoman tonight then we're going to a matinee on Sunday with Peter and Dave.  Then I hope on a plane for Vancouver.  I'll be in Vancouver until Thursday when we come home.  I'm looking forward to seeing Marcie and my friend Tiffany from school, who's living down there now.

Now I have to go and practice a presentation that I have to give for the store executives today.  I'm slightly nervous about this presentation as it is on a 'store problem' that I have diagnosed and have to offer suggestions as to how to fix it.  Usually this wouldn't be a problem but the only way to fix the problem is to get a new person who actually knows what they are doing to do the job that is being incorrectly done now.  Of course this person is going to be sitting there listening to my presentation.  Which means I now have two endings to my presentation... One for Kelowna, one for Vancouver.

Ah two mildly interesting / funny events happend today at work.  The first one was just plain funny.  I was putting out some stock in one of the departments near mens underwear.  As I'm working I hear the voices of a bunch of young boys.  They were saying things like... we'll need two teams.  Just grab a bunch of underwear...  Ok, ready go!  On hearing the last one I was also privileged to hear the sound of bags of underwear being thrown.  I quickly went around the corner and saw five young boys (about 10 or 11) happily throwing bags of underwear at each other!  I almost laughed cause it was funny but then remembered I'd probably have to pick it up.  I yelled at them and they all froze!  Bags of underwear dropping from beneath their arms and falling threw the air.  Three of them had the sense to scatter but I caught two of them.  I proceeded to make them pick up all of the underwear and put it back in its rightful home.  I then escorted them out the front doors and told them not to come back in without their Mothers!  I then started to laugh.  Imagine an underwear fight!  Who thinks of that.  Just awesome.  I should have told them that if they were going to pull shit like that to go to Wal-Mart...  Oh well next time.

The second mildly funny thing happend during coffee break when our kitchen manager asked me if I had gotten my hair permed!  After I denied that I had had a perm she proceeded to bitch to me that I was SO lucky and that she wanted my hair...  Still smiling about that.

Three days to Cher!

Finally after what seemed like an endless drive I am home on the Westside again.  I was in Vernon this afternoon for a Dentist appointment and then went to an event called Aria Extravaganza.  Essentially Aria Extravaganza was an event to support the singing school my sister has been attending this past year.  The event was held in a local restaurant and as we ate we were serenaded by a number of professional Opera singers that had been brought in to teach for a week of singing camp.  It's interesting actually when I was living at home and would put on an Opera CD I would get hassled so badly that I would usually just go turn the music off.  Now my parents are going to every performance and dragging there at times unwilling friends along with them.  Funny how parental pride can change tastes...

Just got back from Spider Man 2.  Unlike most sequels for movies this one is really good.  I actually think that it's better than the first one.  Not that I really remember much about the first one.
 
Today at work one of the funniest things happened.  I was re-arranging a bunch of stock on a shelf when I heard yelling... about five seconds later the yelling got louder and as I stood looking towards the main isle a young handicapped (is that the politically correct term?) guy went racing at full speed down the main aisle of the store.  I was momentarily stunned.  About 10 seconds on his tail his Mother / Caregiver went racing down the aisle after him yelling his name and stop at the top of her lungs.  I was almost rolling on the floor laughing by this time.  Seriously the kid was having the time of his life!  Great to see someone enjoy shopping that much!
 
J came over for dinner.  Had a great visit with her before I went to the movie.  We are planning a night out on Saturday after my Cher concert!  I CANNOT wait!

After a flaming hot weekend (highs of 37C) I'm now heading back to work.  My weekend off was interesting.  I ended up spending a bunch of time with my friend Peter's boyfriend Dave.  The whole experience was rather interesting and I can honestly say I wasn't planning on spending that much time with him but had a good time none-the-less.  Overall the weekend was too darn hot to do much more than sit in the house with the A/C on.
 
Janet got back from Merritt and she's now a golden colour.  Really strange actually the colour that her skin goes when she's had too much sun.  Overall I think she had a good time, I really missed her while she was gone.  Good practice for September.
 
I talked to my best friends yesterday, who are currently living in Holland.  They are coming home and are one of the weddings that I am attending on the weekend of August 14-15.  I'm very excited to see them again and can't wait to catch up. 
 
I also talked to my friend Nay in San Francisco.  She's been down there working with street people for the past... two years I think and I'm sure is going to be the next Mother Theresa.  The girl is amazing and anytime I need encouragement or just to be reminded of what's important in life I talk to her.  Last night was a difficult conversation for both of us (I think) because of an issue I'm dealing with.  Essentially at the end of the conversation she challenged me with "Who are you going to serve?" 

I don't even know what I'm writing here for right now.  Aside from the vague notion that writing is therapeutic.  I am lost.  Abandoned.  Disturbed.  When will I find what it is that I am looking for.  When will I know what the hell it is that I am looking for.  My mind is a messed up wandering place.  I pivot from one extreme to the other.  Religion, I believe I know the extremes of that.  I didn't find what I was looking for.  Maybe I went to far.  Is there such thing as balance in this life?  Isn't that the eternal question.  Are humans to know what balance is?  What is the next extreme?  Am I experiencing it?  I don't think so...
 
Pivoting, is that the word that adequately describes me?  At times like these I often feel as though I'm sitting.  Sitting in the middle of life with ripples emanating away from me.  Those ripples are the lives of others racing through time.  People grow up, go to school, move, meet people, travel, get jobs, get married...  I sit and watch it all go by.
 
Days go by and I wonder if I missed a whole period of my life that should have (could have?) been different.  I don't know if I regret any of the choices that I have made, because they have led me to the place that I am today, but at the same time I often wonder how things could have been different.  Would they have been better?  Am I trying to make up for lost time now?  The past few weeks have been almost a non-stop party.  Drinking, dancing, enjoying life in general.  Am I too old to be acting this way?  Does asking that question make me look silly?  Rhetorical questions all.
 
Why are some people who are so smart in life, so stupid in love?

It's hot here. Very hot. Yesterday was a high of 35 and it's causing me to feel sluggish. This weekend is shaping up to be a bit of a bore. Especially after the last two. Janet is in Merritt for the Mountain Music Festival, which is essentially a drunken orgy, and the majority of my other friends are off doing different things as well. I'm sure I'll be able to keep myself busy though.

Ah yes so this day got better and better. I went back to bed for two hours after work and then got up and washed my car before going back to work. At work I was in the stock room all day doing grunt work. Very boring. Then I was ready to leave and the store was shut down and the Manager in charge tells me that I have to wait until he and the computer guy leave. I'm their for an extra 40 mins. Not impressed. I have decided that I will likely leave early tomorrow.

I've been had! At work we've been expecting one of the company VP's for a couple of weeks now. He was supposed to be showing up this morning at 7, thing is he showed up yesterday. Now because yesterday was my day off and I work with a bunch of liars I was not told that he showed up yesterday. So this morning at 7 I was sitting in the store parking lot wondering where everyone was. I go into the store and find a note that says "Happy late April Fools!" What the fuck is a late April Fools! There is no damned such thing. I have to admit they got me really good. I'm not really sure how smart that was though because I work late tonight and can already tell that I'm going to be terribly mean by the end of the night. Guess they didn't think that one through. :) Don't get mad get even... if anyone has any suggestions please feel free to comment.

Dear Lord I was asked if I was Irish today! Not that there's anything wrong with that! So what to write about tonight. Work today was interesting. The number of hung-over women was rather entertaining. Seems that one of them invited a friend over after the party and ended up with 12 people sitting in her house. I was told that I HAVE to come back for the Christmas party because it's supposed to be an even bigger gong show. We'll have to see about that one.

Mercifully tomorrow is my day off. I'm going up to Vernon for a Dentist appointment and hopefully I'll be able to hang out with my sister a bit. I bought her a purple hippo pillow today at work. I was putting out some discontinued merchandise I found in the stock room and thought the pillow was adorable. The fact that it was cheap made up my mind. I mean what 21 year old girl doesn't want a stuffed purple pillow shaped like a hippo! :)

I just got back from our companies house boat cruise. I have to say it was unreal. Unreal in a surreal way actually. It's funny actually the branch of the company that I work for right now has a somewhat... How shall I say trashy reputation. Well tonight I fully understood why. All I have to say is put enough partiers, or any type, on a house boat, tell them they can bring their own liquor and ba da boom your gonna have an interesting night. One of our waitresses was so hammered everyone left her sitting on a pier at the yacht club. I'm sure tomorrow the club staff will have a good laugh at the X company employee they found sleeping off a massive hangover on the dock.

I took Janet with me tonight as protection. Thank God I did. It's official I have at least two fat chicks and at least one cougar after me at work. My manager put it into perspective tonight though when he was telling Janet that I'm one of 9 guys working in a store with 110 women! With those odds even I'm bound to have some admirers... So as far as I was concerned Janet and I were a going concern tonight. Ha! I hope they never find out the truth. One of the fat chicks is pretty damned brazen though. She was all over me the entire night and tells me that I now OWE her a Gotcha's night (Gotcha's is the club in town that I tend to go to). I'm terrified she'll make good on that threat.

One of the funnier parts of the night was when I was told that they all knew I was Management material when I was dancing with Annabelle. She insisted that I get up with her and swivel my hips. So what the hell was I gonna do, I had 60 people staring at me. May as well just get it over with. In retrospect it was the best thing to do because they all seem to believe that I'm one of them now and they can respect me for that. One of life's lessons learned.

I am so tired right now I can hardly type properly. The raging social life is coming to an end though. The girls all wanted me to come out to the bar tonight. Regretfully I had to turn them down.

I learned a lot tonight about leadership and management by example. Our store manager was there and the guy is just amazing. He works his ass off on the floor with the rest of the staff and treats them as equals. They all respect him tremendously and I honestly don't think that most of them would leave the company just because of him and his influence. Truly a great man that I am privileged to work with.

Hahaha I just read Tuesdays post. I'm an idiot.

Out of Control! That's my MSN Screen name right now. Why because I sort of feel that way. I believe that I have become almost unrecognizable from what and who I was even a year ago. I'm not the same guy I used to be. It's apparent to me by a lot of the choices I make and the way that I react to things now. Funny how much a year can change you.

I just got back from the bar with Janet; we both just wanted to go dancing no drinking tonight. When I got off work today I felt like going home and watching the ants climb the wall. I didn't even make it into the driveway when the phone rang and Janet told me that she got us on the VIP list to get into the bar tonight. So I had better hurry my ass up, drive to Vernon, join the pig roast that she was at (OMG the food was amazing) then we'd drive home in time for the bar! And I work tomorrow at 9. Oye.

To sum up the past few days Thursday I got home from work, went to Peter's house and got completely smashed with him then we went to the bar. Last night Janet and I went to the Evanesance concert, where she got a little smashed. And tomorrow after I work we're going on a houseboat party with the staff from my store, where I hear that they will all get smashed. When will this rageing social life come to an end. Probably once I completely collapse of exhaustion.

Wednesday night when I was sitting at The Cat's Meow (a trendy restaurant/club in town) with Janet and some friends she turned to me and told me that I needed to look at a picture of myself from a year ago. I did and I have admit that I don't even look like I used to. The change is subtle but it's definitely there. Most people tell me it's the weight loss, others the hair, others the way I dress. I think it's a combination of all of those things and the internal changes to my though processes. Essentially I've loosened up. It's gonna be a wild ride this summer. Big changes still ahead. Stay tuned for details!

Interesting seems my post from last night didn't upload. Damned. Will try again after work... if I don't go to a pig roast.

I'm back! Feeling great again. I really don't know what was wrong with me the last few days aside from a sneaking suspicion that I was just incredibly over-tired.

Today went really well. I had a very productive day at work and managed to get a lot of stock out of the stock room and out onto the floor. Our District Manager was in the store today for one of his monthly visits and of course he came over and talked to Pam and I. He was very concerned to know if we had any questions for him. I dunno what the heck am I gonna ask?

When I checked my messages today I had a pleasant surprise. I had a message from a Marketing Manager of a rather large British Columbia Marketing firm. Apparently my International Relations Professor from last term had given him my name as a potential employee. So this gentleman has a position in his International Marketing Department that he would like me to apply for!!! Wow, crazy opportunity. I'm going to call him back and see what the position entails and all but I think I'm pretty happy with X company now. Can't hurt but to look into it though.

Seeing as I went to bed at 10 last night and woke up feeling really good I think that I'm going to have a repeat performance tonight. Have a great night all!

This is my 150th post! Yay! So anyways I was just thinking about the fact that I usually come home on the days I work, play around on the internet for a while, maybe read a book, then go to bed... does this mean that I don't have a life?

I'm still not feeling on top of the world. Last night I fell asleep at 830 which was really very pleasant. I think the reason for the nausea and now the threat of a headache is because my back is out. Definitely going to have to get it adjusted soon. Hopefully Friday.

Today at work I marked things down for clearance. No one can believe how many mark downs there are currently. A full eight hours of marking things down isn't nearly as fun as one might think.

Interesting story from work today. One of the cashiers had two drunk teenagers come in and ask for help in the hair dye section. They then proceeded to try and pay for their purchases with a stolen credit card. Strangely enough the cashier didn't think to call the cops until I happened along and told her to! Very strange I would have thought the minute a credit card came up stolen that would be one of the first things most people would do.

My Mom and Grandma turned up at the store today. I haven't seen them both for a while so they seemed to be in the mood to embarrass me. To get my attention when she first walked into the store and saw me walking away from her my Mom put her fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. Then as soon as I got close she latched on to my waist and hung on for dear life. Terribly embarrassing. Then before she left she insisted on meeting my Manager. Oye, that woman!

ok, I'm back. For some reason I feel like waxing eloquently about something. Thinking, thinking, thinking... I don't think that I've mentioned that Conrad is driving an ice cream truck as of late! He's doing it for a friend I think but he tells me the money is actually quite good! Yay Ice Cream!

Thinking some more... Nothing. I think I'm going to read for a while and go to bed REAL early.

I think my weekend finally caught up with me. At work today I was getting these waves of nausea that were just terrible. A few times talking with customers I had to excuse myself because I seriously thought I was going to vomit in front of them. Never did though. So after work I went and got some gravol and took two when I got home. Hopefully that'll make my stomach calm down.

I just got back from church where the message was on decision making. The three points if I remember them correctly were:

1. How will my decision affect my relationship with God?
2. What would my mentor do?
3. How will my decision affect my household (family/people who care about me)!

Messages like that really have a way of messing with me. The questions are all excellent and very much thought provoking. Considering I thought that I was sort of near making a pretty big decision. Why does life always throw these interesting curves at me?

What a fantastic day! The wine tour was great. Lisa and Tim were fantastic companions. We drove down to Oliver and went to all of the wineries that interested us there. We stopped and had a lunch of Ukrainian sausage, Dutch Gouda, Monterey Jack, freshly baked croissants (Lisa made them this morning!!!), and bottled water. We ate in a gazebo at one of the wineries.

I spent WAY to much money today. We actually came home with three boxes of wine and the winery is shipping me two bottles when it's ready. Not to mention the fact that we went out for a fairly extravagant meal. It's a bloody good thing I'm going back to work Monday.

So I met up with my Sister and some of her friends tonight at the local bar. She wanted me to come out so that I could meet her friends as they had come in from Toronto. While at the bar I was approached by a couple of young girls. They stood waving and smiling at me and finally when they noticed the look of extreme confusion on my face they yelled "were from !" "Right! You look so different out of uniform." They then happily told me that they were both underage! Wheeee.

Which brings up another topic. One of my sister's friends asked me how old I was and when I responded as I usually do now with "how old do you think I am" she said "well drinking age in BC is 19 right, so you've gotta be either 18 or 19!" Still not entirely sure what to think about that. Strange thing is that this has been happening a lot to me recently. Very weird.

A piece of trivia to end the night. Quails do fly! The Answer Man told me so.

Nothing to report. Oh well aside from the Lake is the perfect temperature.

Well I just spent a huge amount of money today. I picked up my Cher tickets, paid for a years insurance on mon auto, bought some car-washing supplies, filled the tank with gas, and ordered new arms for my Ray-bans. Whew even I'm in a little bit of spending shock over this one.

Now I just want to go and have a swim in the lake. Who can I call...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA! I LOVE YOU!

I ROCK! Yes, I'm modest too! There is so much to update that I think I'm going to go in reverse order starting with the latest happenings first.

I got back from my business trip to Vancouver this evening, it seems almost surreal that I would have business trips to Vancouver. To be honest I'm already at the point where I'm not excited about them. This week went well and I had a good time with the other trainee's but I think the fact that it's summer in the Okanagan led me to be a little more not happy to be away from home. Anyway the first three days of the week was focused on learning the financial metrics of my business, retail math, how to read a profit and loss sheet for a store etc. Incredibly dry and it would have been terribly boring had the presenters not been very well picked for both their knowledge and their sense of humour. Great guys who made a terribly boring subject palatable at least.

The fourth day (today) was spent watching 'us' trainee's presentations on the Product Lifecycle. I, of course, blew the presentation away. Again 'my humour' which I don't even try to put on wins all of the judges over and I get top marks everytime. I wasn't even given any constructive feedback on how I could improve. I am so great! Ok enough of my own inflated head.

After getting home from the airport I called Tim and Lisa to see what they were up to. They were going to be heading downtown to watch the Canada Day fireworks. I decided that I would join them and am glad that I did. I met my friend Peter at his work and he asked me if I wanted to go to Evanescence tomorrow as he had managed to get free tickets! Of course I'm going. Can't wait!

Moving on to my new home. I love it here. It's just incredible what a relief it is to not have to worry about whether or not my room-mate is going to be home. Living with Conrad and Barbara (no not Black, I wish) has so far been fantastic. They are exceptionally nice and allow me to do whatever I want (as they should). Conrad is an exceptionally cool guy and we actually seem to have many of the same interests. He started his career in retail years ago (he's no longer in retail) and has been able to give me such excellent advice as "Give ulcers don't get ulcers!" He was also kind enough to hook my computer up to his home network allowing me to have a blazing fast ADSL connection. Oh did I mention that I have access to a 300 channel satellite TV! Going from basic cable and a total dickhead to this has been unreal.

Last time I wrote I mentioned the new stock program at work. Well the launch didn't go so well and let's just say that I'm thrilled I was away for a week. When the system was powered up and put online for the first time it crashed, causing all of our tills, price scanners, etc to die. We were lucky in that we were able to operate our tills off of our backup system but the price scanners and a number of other important systems were down for a number of days causing no end of work and extra running for our service associates.

I went to a gay dance on Saturday night. I had fun.

Tomorrow I'm believe that I'm going to hit the beach as the weather here has been incredible. I also have to do some planning for my big wine tour with Tim and Lisa on Saturday. I CANNOT WAIT for this one. It's going to be so much damned fun. We're going to make a day of it. We're driving down to Oliver in the morning and then are going to be working our way slowly back for the rest of the day. We'll be taking a decadent picnic lunch and stopping at a five star seafood restaurant on the way home. It's a good thing that Tim isn't much of a drinker and seems to be amused by Lisa and I's antics. Tim will be driving.

I think that's enough for now.

Good Night!