Yay I'm in Vancouver! I'm not really feeling like a Vancouverite yet though because I'm currently a guest at Marcie and Franks. As usual Marcie is outdoing herself making amazing food and providing amazing wine to go with it.

Today class was long but it was also good. It was good to see my counterparts again and hear how they're final weeks of phase 1 went.

One of the assignments for class was to start and keep a journal. Thank God I'm already ahead on that one. Today we learned about our Managerial style and I learned that I utilize the Coercive style of leadership. Basically the definition is "Do what I say NOW!" Big revelation there.

It's been a busy day and I'm really tired. I'm hoping that tonight is an early night because I think I'm going to crash really soon. I miss my friends in Kelowna.

Where do I start? I've just finished off another successful day of partying. Friday was amazing. The day started off in Vernon because I ended up staying there after I went out for dinner with Sister. It's finally starting to sink in that I'm leaving tomorrow so I decided that I had better give Grandma a call and see if she was available for breakfast. Happily she was so I booted it down to the Vernon Timmy's and we sat and chatted for a while. I just love Grandma and I'm so happy that she's happy that I'm going to Vancouver. It really makes me feel good that the family is happy for me.

Later on that morning I went and picked up the newlywed, whom henceforth I have decided to call Raphael, as we had planned on spending the day together. First place we went was to my store where the Associates were having a BBQ and as I can't resist free food I had to be there! So we showed up at the BBQ and it turned out to be somewhat of a going away party for Pam and I. I was touched it was so nice. They gave us each a lovely gift basket with wine, cheese and other assorted goodies, a poster that has a picture of a chip and the caption "I think therefore I am over qualified to work here!", and they got a huge cake for everyone. After I had hugged what seemed like all 90 of my 'work Mom's' Raphael and I took off. Of course the natural thing to do would have been to go to my house and pack but we decided that we'd go to the Mall and visit Janet first.

The visit with Janet was short and sweet. So after we did that I decided that I should go into my old store and say good-bye to everyone there and let them know the location of my new store in Vancouver. After we finally walked out of there Raphael said it's like a KS love tour! So naturally after that we went back to my house and started packing... well not quite. Because we happened to be on that side of the bridge we decided that we would be remiss if we didn't go to a few of the local wineries. We stopped by St. Hubertus and tasted a few of their wines (the Chadonney is awful). Then we went to cedar Creek, sat on the patio and lingered over a glass each while enjoying the view and the company.

Leaving cedar Creek we headed in the general direction of my house but wouldn't you know it the car had other ideas and this is how we ended up at my FAVORITE winery Quail's Gate! Strangely enough the floor manager who was serving always remembers me and this led to her opening up and letting us taste a few of the Family Reserve Wines which start at $35 a bottle. Of course they were amazing and we really enjoyed the experience. The wines tasted we decided that we should get a bottle to take home with us.

Finally arriving at my house it was agreed upon that there was no point in packing anything as it was pretty much all packed anyway so we raided the aforementioned gift basket for cheese and crackers popped the cork on the wine and sat around the living room eating a drinking. Needless to say Raphael was highly enjoying himself by the time that it was time to go to the restaurant.

We arrived at The Greek House in Winfield shortly after 730 and the entire situation was just crazy. Janet had gone to a staff party prior to my picking her up and was already having a pretty good time. Of course by the time we ordered wine for dinner it was just wild. I think we may have scared one of my friends, who had never met any of the rest of the group, just a little bit. She insisted that everything was fine though and that she was having a wonderful time.

After the restaurant we made our way over the Tim and Lisa's house where I broke out the Fire Ball Whiskey that I had bought earlier that day. Turns out that Matthew is a fan! I'm not sure if it was the combination of the heavy food, wine, and then the fireball but I wasn't feeling all that hot for a while. Thankfully the feeling passed and by the time that Janet and I were dropped off at the bar everything was good to go.

For various reasons Janet and I were the only ones that Actually made it too the bar. We had a pretty good time dancing and left at 140. Walked home to her place and went to bed. All in all an awesome, very long, day!

Today I'm just getting random things taken care of, seeing a few final people, and having the oil on my car changed. Very exciting. Oh well Janet is dragging me out to the bar again tonight... We'll see how that goes.

What a fucking Dramatic day! First of all I though I ended up in bed last night well before 11 I decided that I would read last week's Saturday National Post (a wee obsession of mine) it was 1 before I put the sucker down. Which ment that this morning when I accidentally turned off my alarm at 730 and woke up at ten to 9 I was freaking out because I was to be at work in 10 mins. Well I am happy to say that I made it to work only ten mins late.

At work Pam told me that she has been asked if I was gay pretty much since we started working there. FUCK YOU ALL! Is all I have to say. Why is that something that anyone needs to know? I think part of what upset me the most is that no one has actually asked me! Just pisses me off like you have no idea that people I don't know and who mean nothing to me feel like they have to know something so intimate about me. God damn.

So then I went for supper with Sister and whoa! As expected way more drama. Of course she is entitled to this as this was pretty much a huge shock for her. Not so much the actual fact of my inherent gayness but moreso that I hadn't told her before this and that she was one of the last to know. I am so sorry that I kept it from her long before this. I feel so bad about all of this.

Thank God only a few more days before Vancouver.

Yay I'm not going out tonight! What a strange concept. Tomorrow seems to be another start of an action packed couple of days. Tomorrow is my last day at work! I'm really excited because it means I'm just that many days closer to being in Vancouver. I'm actually really going to miss the people at my store. As much as I laugh at them and their slightly low class ways they are an incredibly supportive group and have taught me more than I imagined. Pam and I have ordered 6 dozen doughnuts from Timmy's for tomorrow and we're going to use the restaurants coffee urn so that we can show our appreciation for everything. I'm looking forward to it.

Tomorrow night I'm going out for dinner with Sister. It's our last night that we can spend any time alone together before we both move. I'm honestly not sure when I'll see her again which makes me sad. I have to tell her about me tomorrow because I want to be able to tell her about things that are going on in my life. I'm slightly apprehensive about this mostly because I'm scared she's going to be mad at me for not telling her earlier.

Well now I suppose I should go off to bed... even I don't believe that.

Hi I'm back. So anyway got things straigtened out with Euro and I'm pretty excited about the outcome (I'm not elaborating on this point because I know for a fact that it drives one of my readers absolutely mad!).

Just spent an awesome evening with the newlyweds before they head back to Holland. Excellent food, conversation, and just all around fun. I miss them already. I hope they move to Vancouver while I'm still there. Ok, I'm tired good night.

I'm not feeling well. Possibly because last night I, yet again, didn't get to bed until after 12! This time I was actually all ready for bed and everything but then I decided that I had better call Euro to get some things straightened out. Well we ended up talking for over an hour and I finally had to tell him "I have to go!" Oops, I have to go now.

Sometimes some people just creep me out. Eeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Thank God it's Monday! The weekend was awesome and amazing and I'm going to be recovering for a while. Saturday night I spent with Marcie and Frank at Marcie's family in Kelowna's house. They fed me dinner after work then filled me with wine and dessert! How much more wonderful can these two possibly be?!! Sunday after work I drove home to my parents house in Vernon and had desert with my newly married best friends and other assorted family members. I ended up staying over because I knew that the drive home would be nasty if I didn't. This morning I drove straight from work and can actually admit that I found the drive rather enjoyable.

Five days until I go to Vancouver! Currently I'm planning on leaving Sunday morning with my stuff for a week, I'll be staying at Marcie and Franks which is SO nice of them but it's gonna be REAL tight! Their place is like 795 sq. ft. three people and an 85lb dog! It's a good thing that we'll be at work all day and that I've got a few other places to go and people to see in the evening.

Tomorrow the newlyweds are planning on coming up to Kelowna for a visit. I'm really looking forward to spending some time with them. Not really sure where we're going to go though.

Oh I have decided that I'm going to have a going away party of sorts on Friday. It's going to be an eclectic mix of people that I've invited. All of my good friends from forever, school, church, and the internet will be there. It's a good thing they are all sociable people! Never have to worry about a dull moment with my group!

Tonight I'm taking it easy... Which basically means that I'm going to do some wash, go for coffee with Peter and then come home and go to bed. Looking forward to it.

I just literally spent the past 12 hours partying! I think that even Janet was surprised at the lengths her company went to for this staff party.

First I guess I should update about the events of last night. Got to Penticton to find Euro already pretty smashed. Met his brother and some other friends that I actually had met before as well as his friend that we had hung out with the first time we met. Thank god she was there. Of course as is my style I ended up hanging out with three absolutely gorgeous women for the entire night. Euro was otherwise occupied, but I had fun anyway. So anyway the night started out at a pub on the lakeshore and moved to Elements nightclub. Had a good time dancing and hanging out with the girls in general.

This morning I woke up at 7:30AM and cursed at myself for being such an idiot and not going to bed earlier the night before. Then I had a shower and as I was wandering around the house in a daze I had a few conversations with my house mates... that I don't remember now in the slightest. I know that I didn't make any sense because I was told I wasn't making any sense. I then rushed out the door in search of a double shot latte. I raced up to my store and dropped off Euro's keys, which he unfortunately had to drive up and get, got my latte then I raced off to city park for the 9 o'clock start of the party. At the park I was handed a large Tim Horton's double, double which finally got my brain started again. By 10 o'clock we were doing jello shooters! Yes, in the park! When I enquired about the legality of doing such a thing I was told that we had obtained special permission from the city! I was quite obviously stunned... so I had another.

By the time the catered boxed lunches arrived we were all feeling pretty good and were raring for the boat to arrive. At about 1ish the boat finally arrived and we loaded the $300 worth of alcohol on and off we went. We cruised around, swam and drank the afternoon away. We went back to shore to pick up some late arrivals and then continued with the previous activities until 8:30 when the alcohol supply's ran out. The boat was quickly driven to Rose's (one of Kelowna's waterfront pubs) and much more alcohol was obtained. At this point I was completely ready to get off this crazy boat and come home to bed so when the opportunity arose I hopped off the boat and came home. Of course the rest of the boat is still going hard at it right now and were planning on going to the boss's house to continue the party into the wee hours. Apparently the boss has a great supply of alcohol that needs to be finished TONIGHT! Overall today has been wicked. The people were awesome, the events were fun, the food was great and I just had a great time in general.

Tomorrow I work until 7 and then I'm going out with Marcie and Frank who are in town visiting from Vancouver. I think it's gonna be another REALLY long day.

Talking to Sister tonight I realized that if we don't see each other before next Sunday that'll be it. I likely won't see her again until Christmas as she's leaving for Calgary and I'm leaving for Vancouver. We're going to try and arrange something for this week. God there is so much to do this week and so many people to see that I'm just not sure how I'm going to pull it off. I guess the important things will get done in due time.

Dear Lord, just got home from the boi's birthday. Realized I have his car keys! Oh my. Not going to be pretty tomorrow when I am supposed to be at city park for Janets party at 9! Yeesh.

Why do I do this to myself. I'm running ragged. Things are going well but man am I tired. Last night after work I went and watched Janet's soccer game then went out for coffee with Peter and Janet. Had a great time chatting. Janet was in rare form which was very entertaining.

This morning I barely felt like I was gonna make it out of bed and tonight I am driving down to Penticton to celebrate Euro's birthday which is likely to be very late and possibly quite drunk. Tomorrow morning I'm going to Janet's staff party day. Apparently her company goes ALL OUT for their staff parties, the day starts at 9AM and doesn't look to be over before at least 1AM, the day involves a houseboat, catered meal, open bar, and a really big house party after the whole thing is done! I'm gonna make it I swear!

And of course as I have tons of plans for this weekend wouldn't you know it I work! Fabulous baby, just fabulous.

I JUST REALIZED THAT I ONLY HAVE 11 MORE DAYS BEFORE I MOVE TO VANCOUVER!!!!!! So much to do and so many people to see before that time! I'm starting to think about panicking.

Well I'm back! Home that is. Thank God. The weekend was SO busy and I'm SO tired now it's incredible. I drove straight home from Edmonton today, we left Leduc around 7 this morning and I arrived in Kelowna about 4 this afternoon. The traffic was extremely heavy the entire trip but due to my killer stereo and the a/c I had an enjoyable trip.

Both weddings this weekend were awesome in their own way. The Saturday wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was held at an acreage a friend of the Bride owned. The wedding party had spend about two months cultivating flower beds and getting the yard ready for the event and it was worth it. The Bride was absolutely stunning in her traditional white gown and the rest of the party was perfectly attired as well. As far as formal weddings go this one was perfect. Personally I accomplished all that I set out to at this wedding as well.

The Sunday wedding, that of two very important people to me, was perfect in it's way as well. The best way I can describe it is ordered chaos. Which if you know the happy couple makes perfect sense. I am very happy for them and they know they have all of my support and love. I can't wait to see them again when they come to the Valley at the end of the week.

I'm starting to get more and more excited about the move to Vancouver! I have been talking to Julie and we are getting very excited about the whole process. It's gonna be great! We are all STILL waiting to hear which stores we will be placed in but should be hearing by this week hopefully.

Well I'm off to Edmonton! Yay! Weddings... The trip is actually looking to be quite a lot of fun even though it's going to tire me out completely. Could take a while to recover from this one. Anyways I will be seeing many of you over the course of this weekend and I CAN'T WAIT! Have a Great Day and see you soon!

Ciao Baby!

I'm trying to pack for the weekend. Stupid casual weddings! What the hell do you wear for a casual wedding. The gamut could range from business casual to khaki's and a golf shirt, to t-shirt and shorts. Argh! Then there's the weather to consider, as it's in Edmonton you don't know if your gonna get summer or winter conditions. STUPID CASUAL WEDDING!

Today was my day off. I used it very productively. I went to Vernon and got my hair streaked again... it's REAL blonde now! It's funny but I realized that I'm really very vain and quite selfish. With the wedding weekend coming up I have been really into my appearance. Sad but true. The Sunday wedding I'm not all that worried about but for some reason the Saturday wedding has me thinking thoughts like... "I have got to make sure that all those people I went to school in Alberta with know that I'm doing SO much better than they are!" I have to look better than them, appear more sucessful, and just be wittyer, funnier, and more popular in general. What is wrong with me. Am I really this shallow? And why is it that it's this wedding in particular that I feel I have to put on this show for?

The Sunday wedding I'm just looking forward to in general.

Tonight I spent the evening with Janet. We're both sad that we only have about two and a half weeks left within which to spend time together. I'm really going to miss that girl. I don't know if I would have made it this year without her. Time moves on though and good friends remain good friends for a long time. She told me tonight that I'm going to be the MC at her wedding! I'm completely relieved that, that doesn't look to be happening anytime soon.

What a night. Unexpected as it turned out to be. After closing the store tonight I went to Jesse's house. She's going to be leaving on Sunday and I won't be able to see her off because of the soon to be infamous wedding weekend. I'm really sad that I won't be able to go out to Gotcha's with her one last time!

I had previously decided that I needed to talk with Janet about my announcement of a couple of days ago. So we both left Jesse's house at 10. As I'm sitting talking to Janet the phone rings and of course it's my friend Laura from the Island. She had just read my blog as well... it gets better. After her call Jesse calls back and says that I forgot my glasses and that she needs to talk to me! Oye. After a good talk with Janet I head back to Jesse's house where she sits me down and beats around the bush until I tell her "Yes!" at which point she freaks out and gets very excited. Then she invites me to girls night... not amused. So three in one night. This coming out thing is getting easier all the time! Now I really have to go to bed because I'm getting my hair done in Vernon tomorrow.

Oh story from work for the day. I'm standing talking with the store Service Manager when the owner of the spa approaches us. She makes some small talk then get's to the point that she obviously came for. "I'm going to embarrass you" she announces. Fabulous I think. "Is your hair naturally curly?" She asks. After I respond in the affirmative she proceeds to tell me "my 16 year old Grand daughter was in here with me yesterday and she thinks your hot!" OMG! I turned the colour of a tomato... I perfectly matched my shirt.

Have a good night!

What to write... last night was a blast. OH OH OH! I think we got a place in Vancouver! It's in Kitsilano and it's two blocks from the beach! I haven't actually seen the place but Julie and Marcie both assure me that it is a good place. The best part so far is the location and that I have secure underground parking. So happy to have that off of my mind. Now if only I would be told if I'm working downtown or in Richmond. That would really make my life a hell of a lot easier.

Right now it looks like I'll be staying with Marcie and Frank for the first week of September until I can move in, as I have to work and our place won't be ready to move into until the 1st which is like a Wednesday or something stupid like that. So that's where the apartment saga is at. All we're waiting for now is for the landlady to check references and then get back to us.

I woke up with a headache today and decided that I was going to have as low profile a day as I possibly could. I semi-succeeded. I decided that I would go downtown Kelowna and have a pita at The Pita Pit for lunch, as I had no food in the house, then that I would go to the Bean Scene for a coffee and read Off-Center. This is exactly what I did. Upon arriving at the Bean Scene I noticed that I had a free coffee left on my card and realizing that I was not likely to be going for coffee there much more I used it. I then decided that while I was downtown I should get my hair cut as I want to look my best for the weddings this coming weekend. So I wandered around town a little bit, got my hair cut, then called my friends Justin and Jolene. They told me that I should come up to their place and hang out so I did. Then I decided that I needed to go to Costco and as they live very near we piled into my car and off we went. I bought my years supply of vitamins, we had Pizza then went back to their place where they decided we should do some shots. We did shots. Then we had ceasars. Then we had some sort of alcoholic Dutch drink that tasted like caramel pudding with alcohol in it. Then I stopped. They proceeded to have Margarita's and shots of Fireball that I had thoughtfully bought for Justins birthday on Sunday.
Overall it was a good day.

Tomorrow is Jesse's going away party. Our good friend from school Christin is driving up from the Island to come to the party and she's going to be staying at my house overnight. I'm anticipating a really fun evening. Then Sunday is the aforementioned Justin's birthday party. Why does everything happen the weekends that I work?

An entirely satisfying day at work today. I've finally been given some responsibility and have been able to rise to the occasion. I'm really hoping that I will be able to make enough of an impact in the next three weeks at the store that it'll look good for me.

Tomorrow is my day off, thank heavens, and I'm looking forward to doing just about nothing. I don't know if that's actually going to happen or not but I'm looking forward to it none-the-less.

There is a moth beating itself to death on my ceiling... good night.

Rain! Finally, the rain has come. Personally I've been waiting for three days as ominous black clouds hovered overhead. It was just killing me, my car was excessively dirty but I didn't want to wash it because I knew the minute that I did a torrential downpour was assured. So just this one time I was able to plan for the weather.

This weekend is Jesse's going away party. From the sounds of it she has actually rented an entire campground on the westside of Kelowna! The potential is that it's going to be a HUGE party. Unfortunately I work the next morning so it's going to be rather tame, for me anyway. I absolutely cannot comprehend how it is that every weekend that I have to work all of my friends want to do something. When I'm off they're all busy! Totally irritating. I'm still trying to make the most of every opportunity before I move to the coast. With the wedding weekend approaching very fast everything kicks into high gear this weekend! Wheeeeeeee.....

There are times that I marvel at the human mind. Not because of the great and amazing things that it can accomplish, rather because of the stupid things that we humans do to feed some desire.

Well the Answer Man did it again. He explained to me that my issue of waking up extremely early after I drink is actually quite common. Apparently what happens is that the alcohol makes you sleepy and that's why you sleep so well after drinking it (duh). It's after your metabolism has cycled the alcohol out of your system that you wake up because your body is suddenly energized and on a high. And here I always thought it was the sugar in the alcohol kicking in!

Ahem... is this thing on? *tap, tap, tap* Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen. I'd like to welcome you all to K-Air please buckle your seat belts, ensure your seats are in the upright position, and above all please make sure you HANG ON FOR DEAR LIFE! Today's destination is unknown with a brief stop for lunch at Tim Horton's.

Alright enough of that.

So anyone who is a consistent reader of my blog will likely notice somewhat of an unwritten theme. Many of my posts refer to issues and things that I love that would be consistent with issues and things that gay men love (i.e.- Cher!). Well there's a reason for that and if you read yesterdays post it'll become crystal clear. That's really all I feel about writing about this topic on here now. If any of you have any questions or anything I would love to chat... you know how to get a hold of me.

Yesterday turned out to be great! Well it was pretty darn funny anyway. Starting from the top. I got a hold of Sister and told her that I would be coming up to Vernon and that I wanted to go swimming. She told me she would meet me at her best friend Patricia's house as they live on Okanagan lake. I decided on my way into town that Vodka and Coke seemed like a good idea so I stopped on the way in and grabbed a two-six of Vodka Vanilla Twist. Got to Patricia's house and we made ourselves a couple of drinks. Patricia had failed to mention to me that she had not eaten that day and as I make drinks strong she proceeded to get completely trashed! Then her family came home... with like 900 relatives in tow! Ah Patricia I'll be laughing about this for a REAL long time.

After I left Patricia's house I went over to the Answer Man's house where MATTHEW HAD ARRIVED! Yay! I was absolutely thrilled to see him. It's been almost a year. We proceeded to hop in the car and head directly to the beach. Some habits die hard. After we swam around for a while we went and picked up some groceries for dinner. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner with the most excellent company of the Answer Man. Just like old times.

Seriously the Answer Man's house is one of my favourite places to be on earth. I just love being there. There is always something fantastic to talk / argue about, excellent company, beautiful views, and just a sense of peace in that house that you don't find just anywhere. I'm eternally thankful for his and his family's friendship.

Of course because of the amount of alcohol that was in my system yesterday (we had a bottle of wine with dinner as well as a bottle of dessert wine) I proceeded to wake up this morning at 4:45AM! Why! So now I'm sitting here thinking about going and taking a shower and wondering when my Mom is going to get up so that she can talk to me none-stop until I leave the house and go to the lake again. The day is shaping up to be amazing. Let's get at 'er!

Yesterday I thought that I was supposed to be at work. So I go in at 9 as I usually would and work for a number of hours. Near hour 6 my Manager, who happens to be on holidays, came in and saw me there. "What are you doing here?" He asks. Well of course I'm like "well as I took Friday off I thought I should come in today." He just looked at me and said I didn't expect you to come in, you weren't scheduled... So I left!

I'm so excited. I'm just beside myself. I went out on a spontaneous date last night and it was just fantastic. Euro, the date, and I met online... yes perhaps there was a reason for my anxiety about online people a couple of posts ago. We have been chatting back and forth a little bit in the past while and finally we decided to meet. Because he lives about an hour and a half away from me I offered to go to him. So I drove down to visit with him. We ended up driving up to Penticton, kinda circuitous actually, and hanging out with one of his friends for a while. She was awesome and I hope I get to know her better. Anyways we left Penticton and went back to his town where he showed me around a little then we went to this amazing lookout, that seemed as though it was a million miles up, overlooking the town and lake. We sat and talked, well he talked (he was rather verbose), for a very long time. As I was driving home the sun was rising! But so far the absolute best part is that he's moving to Vancouver in a couple of weeks! I believe we'll actually be living in the same area of town and everything!

Toady I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. I'd like to hang out with Sister but I haven't heard from her yet. I'm actually thinking of heading up to Vernon overnight. All my friends seem to be busy again so I've got very little to do. My friend Matthew is supposed to be showing up in Vernon sometime this weekend. He's been living in Taiwan for the past year so I am SO STOKED to see him again. Yes I think I'll go to Vernon.