Well after an all to short time in Edmonton I’m back at camp. Let me tell you about my super expensive haircut. After struggling not to fall asleep I made my way down to the salon (Swizzle Sticks) and after waiting for a few moments in the lobby I was introduced to a total cutie of a “prep girl” (I have no idea what her actual title is) who handed me a roll of black fabric and directed me towards a change room with the direction that I could “take my shirt off in there”. I think the way my voice broke and the look on my face when I said “take my shirt off!” gave her some indication that I had no idea what was going on. After a casual glance around the salon I noticed that everyone was wearing the “smock” so I figured that it must be ok. I entered the room and got into the smock and tried to calm down.

Leaving the relative comfort of the change room I entered the main salon area where “prep girl” told me that now she was going to give me a ‘relaxation massage’. Well the relaxation massage consisted of her rubbing her hands over my neck, shoulders, biceps, and scalp. Well let me tell you there was very little relaxing about having a random hottie ‘massaging’ me while I was wearing a smock not knowing exactly what I’d gotten myself into. Thankfully the massage didn’t last long, as I suspect that ‘prep girl’ was just about as uncomfortable as I was. She led me over to the sink and proceeded to shampoo my hair. I have to say that I enjoyed the shampoo and condition much more than the massage. I think the ‘prep girl’ did to as she started to open up and chat quite a bit more. After getting my hair satisfyingly shampooed and conditioned I was ready for the main event.

This was when I met Galina! Galina was to be my Stylist for the duration of my time at Swizz. Galina was the epitome of what one would think of when they think about a Russian stylist. She had the accent, she had the pink dress, she had the stiletto’s! Just watching her run around the salon made my calves want to beg her for mercy. Galina is of that breed of stylist who seemed to feel that it was necessary to chit chat while she did my hair. I, being as tired as I was, was really in no mood to chit chat or be my regular charming self so I tried to keep it short.

I’m not really sure if it was a communication / culture gap or if she just felt like insulting me but if it was the latter of the two she was a master at making you feel like an idiot while giving NO indication that she was doing it. First she asked me when my last haircut had been, when I told her it had been just less than three weeks before she brought her hands up to her perfectly ‘O’ shaped mouth (almost poking herself in the face with her scissors) and said “Wit all of de split endz I sought it was MUCH longer zan zat!” Then she asked me if I used a flat iron? Later she advised me to stay blonde as my natural colour isn’t all “zat appeeeling”. She finished off with a round of “so many girlz would LOOOOVVVEEE to have your hair it’s was shame that I wasn’t a girl!” The final salvo might or might not have been a dig as she told me that she was sure when I was liiittle I must have beeen ahn Anngellll.

Now quite honestly I think that Galina did a fairly mediocre job on my hair and I’m not just saying that because I’m bitter or something. It’s just not the best haircut I’ve ever had. I do have to say that I would consider going back to that place just because Galina herself was so damned entertaining. Hell I even left her a $10 tip just because it was so strange to see a salon full of people that uncomfortable because I had wandered in wearing a bright yellow and green Old Navy t-shirt and jeans. Obviously these people were used to catering to Edmonton’s “elite” and thank what powers that be I’m not one of those. Next time I go I think I may grab a random homeless guy and treat him to a ‘relaxation massage’ and haircut!

I'm in Edmonton having a lazy day. Originally I'd planned on coming to town and doing a little shopping at the mall. Then I started to think about it and realized that I'll be going to Vancouver in less than two weeks so really what's the point of going and wandering around by myself in the mall.

This morning Raph and I walked down Whyte Ave and had coffee at Starbucks (I'm pleased to announce that Pumpkin Lattes are back!). Then we came back to the apartment and sat around and chatted for a bit. I tossed around the idea of going to watch a movie and getting a haircut but the whole movie idea seemed a little bit to ambitious. So after I had lunch I stopped in at a local salon and booked an appointment, for what I suspiciously believe could be the most expensive haircut of my life, then since I had an hour to kill I decided to come back to the apartment. I've been avoiding laying down because I'm pretty positive that if I do I'm going to fall asleep and miss my appointment... and we wouldn't want to do that.

Why are my feet cold?

The Devil you know is better than the Devil you don’t... wise saying or great cop out?  As I am looking into the possibility of switching companies that saying is marching through my head.  There are many things that I really like about the company that I’m working with now.  I adore the people I currently work with (which is a direct result of the work of my good friend that the higher ups in the company fired on Tuesday), our current GM is awesome (I fear he’s not going to last all that long either) and the benefits package is really good.  The things that make me crazy about this company though are how no one ever really knows what’s going on, the insane amounts of overtime and lack of gratitude on behalf of Management, the fact that I have two full-time jobs and I’m only paid for one, that Managers and co-workers cycle through the company like crazy and finally the general feeling of instability.

I had a meeting with some people from another company that I work directly with yesterday and I outlined the reasons that I would like to stay in this job as well as the reasons that I wanted to do this job for another company.  I must have made a good case because they are going to set up a meeting with one of the higher ups that could be very beneficial for me.  This meeting is on Monday and I leave Monday night, for two days, so I’m relatively happy about the timing of this venture.  I am of course concerned about a few things, there’s the possibility that the higher up won’t go for what I’m proposing, my current company could find out that I’m working on getting out or that everything could go my way and the situation is much worse.

There is of course the other aspect that I am getting excellent experience here.  In the past six months I’ve accomplished more on the job than I think I ever have in a workplace.  So am I throwing all of that away to soon?  How is it going to look if I do make the jump and I’m not happy?  Then I’ll have six months worth of experience at one company and maybe a little more with another but that’s still not all that much.  How much pain and suffering on the job is a resume worth?

Politics

Because life in my company is getting more and more uncomfortable and the decisions made are just more and more insane I’m starting to sniff around looking for another opportunity up here.  The thing is I really enjoy my job, I really like most of the people I work with and I actually quite enjoy the lifestyle I’ve got up here.  So the fact is I’m in a interesting position it’s the politics that are making life unbearable… and I’m absolutely not a political animal.

Sick

Yeah, I’m still alive.  I’m taking a sick day today because I’m so worn down that my cold is threatening to shut me down for good.  Currently I’m semi-planning on being in Edmonton next weekend.  I’ll arrive in time for the feast and leave gawd awful early in the morning.  Will update any affected parties ASAP.

Stop the Merry Go Round... I'd Like to Get Off.

I find it incredibly odd that when I go back in my blog and look at the same date a year or even two back it’s just uncanny how I’m often thinking about or feeling the same things presently that I did then.  The past two years now has involved Marcie and Frank on the same weekend in August for the Wine Weekend, and now three years in a row I’ve had Vancouver on my mind on today’s date.  There are a huge number of these ‘coincidences’ and it’s just weird.  Maybe it just comes down to the fact that our lives tend to be one continuous cycle.

What A Rotten Day...

There are always going to be people in your working life that are difficult to deal with.  Unfortunately there also seems to be some sort of cosmic joke that causes these people to be in positions that effect what you do on a daily basis.  A bigger problem happens when these people are dumber than you.  In fact life is just plain interesting if these people just happen to be completely stupid.

How is it that incompetent people seem to gain positions of authority or power?  Is it just because of age or, dare I suggest, experience?  Are these the things that seem to get people promoted?  I hear all sorts of stories about people my age (26) doing phenomenally well, getting promoted, and doing all sorts of fabulous things while having a fabulous life yet I seem to know very few of these people.

Today was one of those days where the grass was greener in the other Province.  I woke up this morning missing Vancouver terribly.  All day the city and the life I used to have haunted me.  While my work life there was unspeakably awful (while I was with HBC anyway) I definitely had a good social life.  I miss my friends there, miss the climate, the pulse of the city and the general sense of a mission that people in the city seemed to have.  Here I’m surrounded everyday by 1,000’s of miserable people with a good portion of them being terrible human beings.  Sure the argument can be made that these people are missing their family’s, not in good health, blah, blah, blah.  Reminding myself of the good things here can be difficult.  There is NO comparison between here and Vancouver, hell there really isn’t a comparison between here and anywhere so I just need to keep reminding myself that the grass is as green as it needs to be.

With any luck tomorrow will be a better day.

Well it's another Saturday at the Lodge. We're sitting in the office with my iPod blasting Whitney Houston telling us she wants to dance with somebody that loves her(it's on shuffle and that's the artist playing right now). I've literally spent the morning cleaning up parts of the mess that my replacement made. Overall he did a good job just wasn't paying attention to a bunch of stuff and let it slip through the cracks.

This last turnaround was wicked fabulous. The wine weekend was absolutely awesome and everyone wants to know how I'm planning on topping it next year. The limo was an absolutely inspired idea. Technically there are a few things that I need to keep in mind for next year, mostly involving food quantities as we had enough this year but just enough.

As usual I'm happy to be back here for the moment. Although yesterday was my first day back by the end of the day it already felt as though I'd been here for a week or two. Today is a little better because at least my demonic phones arn't ringing.

Heads up to Raph and Wifey, I maybe heading your way for a night or two in the coming weeks.

Just a quick update

Just a quick update

The wine tour went off without a hitch.  Considering that I took two bottles of wine with me in the limo and we were drinking it before 11 before we even got to the wineries probably helped.  The fact that one of our party members was drunk before we made it to the first winery was just hysterical.

Will write more when I feel like it.

It's That Special Time Of Year!

Well it’s finally here, it’s Wine Weekend!  This is the weekend that I invite a bunch of friends up from Vancouver and elsewhere up to Vernon and we have a day or two of touring wineries.  Aside from a few diva moments last year the event was phenomenal, this year is going to be even better.  For this years events we actually rented an 8 person stretch limousine!  I’m terribly excited about the whole limousine thing because every other year we’ve had to travel in two separate cars and that’s just no fun.  Last year, not thinking very well, we went clubbing the night before and the majority of the participants were terribly hung over the next day.  Couple the hang over fact with the lack of air conditioning and you’ve got a not so fantastic experience; so, no clubbing the night before this year.  

Everyone is arriving here tonight and I’ll be making dinner.  Then tomorrow after what I imagine will be a quick breakfast we’ll pile in the cars and make our way to meet the limo.  After five hours of touring in Oliver we’ll probably hit a beach somewhere and then make our way back to Vernon.  All in all I’m SUPER excited.

Unwanted Body Hair!

I really do think that there is something to be said for people being TOO comfortable with their bodies.  As I live in an all male dorm it’s not surprising to see guys running around in various states of undress in the evening or early morning.  Well there’s one guy in particular who has absolutely no problem with walking the entire length of the hall in his briefs and flip flops.  That in itself would be bad enough, add in that he’s a middle age dude and is absolutely the hairiest guy I’ve ever seen and it just pushes it over the edge.  There’s something to be said for decency and this Dude just doesn’t get it.  I usually try and stare at the floor, while passing, but invariably he waves with a big smile and say’s “How’s it going?”  Ugh, let me be uncomfortable already!  

Fucking Morons, they're EVERYWHERE!

Sometimes people make me so angry I just don’t know what to do with myself.  It’s usually those days that you can find me at the end of my shift screaming my frustrations out on some unsuspecting cardio machine at the gym.

Today, after a multitude of frustrating experiences, the one that set me off involved a new hire.  I get a phone call around 2:00PM, I’m almost loath to pick up my phone lately as it’s always something that’s not going to make me happy, buddy is calling from the bus station in town and wants to know where his ride is.  Well I’ve never heard of him before but I do find his dispatch slip and on it, it states “will call for travel arrangements”.  The fact that he didn’t follow the directions of his own Union annoyed me as it was.  I told him that I would have to see where my driver was at and arrange for him to be picked up.  I told him to stay put and call me in 45 minutes.  45 minutes go by and he calls back.  I tell him that the driver would be leaving at 5 and to just stay where he was.  For some reason buddy is all worried and tells me that the bus station is going to close at 6.  I said “well take your stuff outside and sit on the curb, but DO NOT go anywhere.  Driver leaves and goes into town.  An hour and a half I get a phone call from him asking where buddy is?  As I have no idea where he went I told driver to wait another 10 minutes and then come back.

As I’m sitting at my desk finishing off a few last moment things I get a call from the other Lodge asking if we were expecting a “buddy”!  I almost went through the phone.  It turns out that Buddy had decided to take a cab in.  So not only did he waste my drivers time he cost the company money.  A few moments later the cab pulls up Buddy walks in the front door.  I remained at my desk and let one of the blondes deal with him.  Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and I asked him if he always completely disregarded directions?  He stared stupidly at me and then said “I’m new here!”  I was flabbergasted, I felt like asking him if he was new to the fucking country?  What the hell does that have to do with anything?  So cause your new you can’t follow directions?  After a few more words with him I just couldn’t take it anymore and went on to ignore him.  The only thing that gives me any sort of pleasure is that the cab ride cost him well over $100 and we’re going to charge him for the cost of the trip to town as well!  Fucking Morons!  They’re EVERYWHERE!

Somewhat along the lines of yesterdays topic we've had some mildly interesting events up here of late. Last night I was awakend by the screech of the fire alarms, as usual my response was to think to myself "oh well I'm gonna burn cause I ain't getting out of bed!" Sure enough after going off a number of more times the damned things shut off and I continued to sleep.

This morning as I walked to work I looked at one of the doors to one of the other dorm blocks and wouldn't you know it, it had red security tape on it telling everyone 'this area is closed do not enter'. I got into the office and it was sheer chaos. Seems some Son of a... got drunk last night and decided to discharge a fire extingusher all over the dorm. So because of this Moron we had to move all 200ish people out of that dorm and over to one of the other camps... at 2 in the morning. So this morning they were all on their way back and we were doing room transfers forever. The absolutely stunning thing about this whole situation is that not even two months ago another group of jack-asses did the same damned thing in another dorm and it's just finally been opened again.

Are You Interesting....?

Am I interesting?  Are you interesting?  And by who’s standards?  For that matter is anyone really interesting?  

What is it that makes so, so many of us humans out there so terribly interested in what someone else is doing?  Everyday when I sign into MSN Messenger, MSN Live Today pops up and tells me all about what’s going on in Hollywood.  Or rather I’m told about the latest antics of those that someone (or something) in Microsoft’s head office has deemed to be ‘interesting’.  Of late the unfortunate (for the reader anyway) subject’s have tended to be either Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan both of whom are reported to lead not just interesting but fascinating lives.  Generally I don’t find these two young ladies interesting aside from the fact that they seem to be driving the cars and visiting places that I’d like to be driving and visiting.  As Paris and Lindsay are hardly Road & Track or Conde Naste Travel staff writers I wonder what it is that makes me even remotely interested in clicking on that link to see what’s up.  I digress…

Everyday the insane things that happen around me would probably be interesting to someone, somewhere.  Unfortunately by the time I finally get back to my computer and contemplate posting I’ve either completely forgotten about what I was going to post about or I look at the situation and realize that even though in the outside world said situation would be completely inane in my world it’s repetitive and boring.

What kind of things do people want to read on this blog?  Do you really want to know that I had a bagel with an egg and bacon in it for breakfast along with a bowl of Sunny Boy hot cereal?  Does anyone care that I just bought some new underwear off the LaSenza web-site (free shipping people!)?  Do you want to know my opinion of World events (Israel is completely justified in their attacks on Lebanon, but should show more restraint).  Here’s something that’s going to keep you coming back to read more, I bought the new Nelly Furtado album ‘Loose’ off of iTunes and I really like it!  

In short I guess I’m curious about what it is that makes people stop at my site to see what it is that I’m writing about?  Is anyone aside from Wifey reading this thing (I’d still keep writing just to keep her informed)?  

The two blogs that I read faithfully are ‘Zoey’s World’ and ‘With Tongue Firmly in Cheek’ I read Zoey’s world because I find her very entertaining as well as informative.  I read Artem’s blog because he’s a good friend of mine in Vancouver and it’s a great way to stay in the know about the going ons in his life.

Let me know what you think?

Ring, ring, ring goes the... bank account!

The past few days have been absolutely wild up here.  I don’t know if I’ve ever been as productive, or as busy.  The sheer volume of work that came at me on Monday was staggering.  I was trying to train a new person for one job, that I don’t usually do, while trying to make sure that my two full time jobs kept going.  There were periods during the day that I just stood in the middle of the office and spun in circles trying to decide which phone to answer first as my two lines were ringing non-stop and the front desk phone and my co-workers phone were both holding a ringing marathon.  Weirdly enough I just love all that’s going on here and even though it’s really crazy it’s somewhat energizing.

There are down sides to all this though in the form of the crash that I know is very likely to come.  There are times when I wonder what this is all going to get me, where is this going to take me in life’s journey?  Somewhat depressingly I sat with one of our Kitchen workers today at supper and we started talking about wages.  This guy puts out sandwiches and baking and keeps the lunch room clean and he’s making around $80,000 a year!  The incredible thing is that because this is his last year of work before he retires he took a pay cut in coming here.  He used to be a janitor at another camp and was making between $100,000 – 120,000 a year.  I’m making what I consider to be pretty good money but it’s nowhere near the lunchroom guys!

Burning out...

14 hour day number two, done.  God am I tired!

Instant Rage

I was woken up by Security this morning somewhere around 0430.  Seems the Kitchen computers had gone down and they needed someone to ‘fix’ the problem.  By the time I walked/stomped into the kitchen the problem had miraculously fixed itself and I was no longer needed.  Now the thing with this situation is for some reason, I don’t know why, but when I’m awakened before 0500, for any reason, I wake up in a serious rage.  I can’t think rationally, the only thing going through my mind is how much I F-ing hate whatever reason I’m awake.  I did of course try and go back to sleep when I’d walked back to my room… but, well you know the problems I’ve been having with that.  It could be a very scary day.

Sleepless at the Lodge

This whole not sleeping thing that I’ve got going on is really getting old… as am I because of the lack of sleep.  I think it maybe because I take my vitamins to late and they’re energizing me when I shouldn’t be.  Argh, it’s terribly frustrating either way, during the day I’m exhausted and at night I can’t sleep.

I'm FREE!

Celebrate good times, c’mon!  Last night I made the final payment on my line of credit with the Royal Bank!  I’m completely free of all debt at the moment (aside from my car loan) and now it’s time to start saving!  Whoooo hooooo!

People Behaving Badly!

Last night I ended up going back to the office after a thoroughly exhausting day to write up two incident reports.  I had to deal with two drunks at check in tonight and one of them got very upset and verbally abusive.  The worst part of it was that I had Security there with me and he got scared and left!  I’m so glad we have such a top notch security detail.  The other one was for one of our employees who has been a constant thorn in my side.  I’ve been trying to help get rid of him for a long time but it just doesn’t seem to happen.  So on top of all the insanity that is work right now I had those things to deal with.

What can I say a month of bad days here is still better than six months of good days at HBC!  

Buried Alive!

I looked at my desk today for the first time and it’s completely COVERED with work.  I am so buried it’s not even funny.  Everyone is stressed to the max, as usual they’re all thrilled to see me, even the GM came and was shaking my shoulder she was so happy to see me today!  Yeah, as usual it’s going to be an interesting ride.

Back

I’m back at camp!  I’m really pretty happy to be back at camp.  Always to much drama at home.  A few days with the family’s great but enough is enough.  So I’m back and I’m tired.  I’m going to bed so I’ll be ready to rock and roll tomorrow.

No Beach!

Well I accomplished most of what I wanted to today but I didn’t make it to the beach.  I’m seriously thinking about going out tonight still because it’s so warm.  In fact driving home from Kelowna an hour ago it was still so warm that I left the A/C on in the car.  I love Okanagan Summers!

It's HOT!

Have I mentioned the insane temperatures this past week?  It’s been incredibly hot.  Well over 30 degrees for days now.  When we were at the coast I was having a tough time with it because of the humidity.  Every time I go to the coast my skin goes to hell and I break out for a few days.

I’m spending my last day of freedom doing some running around, saw Grandma and I’m going to Kelowna in an hour or so to hang out with Janet.  I’m also going to stop and have a quick visit with Lisa… we’ll see how that one goes, I’m pretty curious to hear about how much things have “changed” for her.  Considering she doesn’t drink or eat pork anymore I’m wondering how much influence her new Muslim boyfriend is having on her.  

I am also hoping to get to the lake tonight to have at least one swim this year.

Exhausted

The weekend is finally over and I’m absolutely, completely, exhausted.  Was it worth it?  Without a doubt!  I’ll start with the wedding.  Aside from being the most amazingly beautiful wedding I’ve ever seen the wedding was utterly incredible.  Nothing and I mean nothing went wrong or sideways the entire day… Well aside from the wedding party’s limo dying on them!  

True to form Marcie was the most incredibly beautiful bride I’ve ever seen.  Just like a movie as she walked into the church the sun was streaming through the doors behind her obliterating her and her father’s faces.  As they made there way down the aisle they slowly took shape and your breath was taken away.  The ceremony, like all other wedding ceremonies, was pretty dull and the church was insanely hot but absolutely gorgeous.

The reception was completely unbelievable.  Just like a movie wedding everything was thought of.  The drinks were endless, the appetizers more than plentiful and the food was exceptional.  Perhaps it was because of the wine we’d all been drinking but when the salad portion of the buffet was put out none of us realized it was the salad (even though there were menu cards on all of the tables) so we loaded up.  It was after the Head Waiter came over to the table to tell us we could go for the second course did we realize our mistake.  We loaded up again and continued on our merry way!  The dessert buffet and the open bar were definite hits.

The dance was an absolute blast and the picture of the Bride double fisting while holding her arms over her head and grooving on the dance floor is definitely going to be a treasured family picture for many years to come.

Without a doubt the wedding was one of the highlights of the year for me and I’m sure that it’s going to be the bar that all future weddings are going to be measured by.

Last night we went to Cirque Du Solie – Verekai which was possibly the most phenomenal event I have EVER seen!  The experience almost defies words so I’m not even going to try and explain it.  There were two aerial acts that absolutely blew my mind and the precision and skill the performers displayed made the event worth far more than the $95 ticket.

Now that I’m back home I’m going to try and relax a bit and catch my breath before I go back to work in a few days.  Tonight one of my friends is coming over and we’re going to watch a movie.  Tomorrow I’d really love to spend some time at the lake but with the weather in the 30’s I think I’ll probably wait until the evening before I go anywhere.  

As is typical of any major event weekend I’m really struggling right now with keeping my emotions in check.  The let down after this kind of thing is always really hard to take.  Such an amazing weekend is always fantastic but seems to come with a price.

It's Wedding Day!

It’s finally the big wedding day!  Last night Sister and PD crashed my hotel room so we went out for dinner and then got some drinks and brought them back to the room.  It turns out that Sister works with Marcie’s cousin in Vernon and the whole family is staying in our hotel.  Well after a series of text messages back and forth I ended up with 10 people drinking in my hotel room.  So it was a much later night than originally planned.

Well I’m off to pick up MC!  Will update about the actual events soon.

F-Off!

Damn am I CRANKY!  I’m having such a hard time hiding my irritation with people today that when I was helping at the front window today my co-worker told me to “Go sit at your desk, I need to protect these people from you today!”  So I happily (well as happily as I can muster) walked back to my desk in the corner and started working on some things.  Even my hour work out at the gym didn’t help.  Usually by the time I’ve left the gym I’m in a great mood.  Well today I didn’t really want to go there and even now that I’m done I’m tired.  I think I’m overtired, which hopefully means that I’ll be able to fall asleep quickly tonight.  One more sleep and it’ll be all over.

How Drunk Was I?

One of my co-workers and I went out with two friends of ours from another company last night.  We went to Moxie’s in Fort Mack and got absolutely smashed!  The final drink tally for three of us was 17 Martini’s (we were trying to get through the whole list but our DD cut us off) and 7 double rye and cokes.  

The pictures of the ride home are PRICELESS!  We had the absolute Best time.  It’s great when you get to blow off some steam.  I had to be up for a 0500 check in this morning and when my co-worker walked in still drunk I sent her back to her room to sleep for a while.  All in all it was a fantastic experience and we all had lots of fun!

The below pic is JG wearing the painters coveralls (we found 'em in the truck so of course everyone had to have a picture wearing them) hanging out the window of the truck. AWESOME!

Friday Night Freedom

It’s Friday night and I’m exhausted.  Completely exhausted, why am I still up?  Good question.  Only four more days and I’m out of here!

Things are really starting to calm down around here a lot.  The new GM seems to have realized that the people she’s got left are good people and she’s in a much better mood towards us.  I’m keeping busy, but it’s a good busy.  The GM seems to believe in giving people a job and trusting that they are going to do it.  That means she leaves me alone and that makes me happy.  I hate it when people hover over people they’ve delegated jobs to.  Come to think of it I have an astonishing amount of freedom up here.  That’s likely why I actually enjoy work so much.

Life's worth laughing at.

Today was a good day.  Even though it started off fucking terribly I chose to have a good day and that made all the difference.  The girls at the Airline were really funny this morning actually.  My MSN screen name was something like “FUCK OFF YOU GOD DAMNED MORONS” and they were immediately popping up trying to make me laugh and smile.  Of course they succeeded and by the time I got back from the gym I was in a stellar mood.  N is back in the office from her turnaround (the older lady) and I’m SO glad to see her.  She always makes life so much more interesting.  She entertained us with a few stories tonight and then my Buddy from one of the other companies and I went to the bar and had a couple drinks.  Just sat around and laughed at the insanity around us.  By the time one of the female coordinators stumbled over to our table, absolutely smashed, I decided it was time to go.

Life’s a blast at camp!  You just can’t make it though a full day without laughing your ass off at something.

Don't let them know you can handle more!

Words to live by “Never let anyone know that your job is less than you can handle”; if you don’t heed these words then what has happened to me, will likely happen to you.  I was called into the GM’s office today and now I’m going to be learning parts of Accounts Receivable on top of my people moving responsibilities.  I’m still not really sure how I feel about this because Accounting and numbers have never been a strong point of mine.  I am looking forward to the challenge though, after all I am up here foremost to get experience.

Update

Well I didn’t get to the movie because the line was four blocks long.  I did get a large Pizza Hut pizza though!  It was fantastic.

My Dad always claims that I always say there isn’t really much going on up here… and then I talk about all the things that are going on forever.  So with that in mind I have very little to update at the moment.  I’m sitting here watching TV because it just feels like a TV night.

As we’re losing two of our friends from the office on Thursday I decided that we should have a little good bye get together.  I ordered the cake and am getting the driver to pick up some supplies in town.  Come to think of it that’s something new… I’m in charge of ground transportation for the camp now as well as air travel.  I’m actually pretty happy about this as it’ll add to the experience I’m getting here.

Funked...

I’ve been feeling somewhat out of sorts the past while.  Maybe it’s all the change that is going on around me.  I think that it’s good change but it’s still change and it’s somewhat disconcerting.  I really hope that I’ve snapped out of whatever this funk I’m in by the time I go on turnaround.

We have been getting some absolutely insane storms up here the past few days.  Standing on the front porch of the lodge and watching the thunder and lightening crash and boom over site today was quite the impressive display.  Not to mention the insane amount of water that fell from the sky.  That should definitely put an end to the forest fire that’s been filling the lodge and area with smoke the past number of days.

I may get to go to Ft. McMurray tonight to see Pirates of the Caribbean!  I don’t really care about the movie but it would be nice to get out of here.  Hopefully I’ll be able to go.

Talking throught the fat.

Well another day is done and here I sit in my room.  I’m actually contemplating going to the gym because I didn’t make it there today as a result of an appointment with my Counsellor.  It was good talking to him and I feel quite a bit more grounded than I have been in a while.  I always find it amazing how just talking with someone, who is completely unbiased about your situation, can really help to ease my mind.  I’m feeling very much at peace with myself at the moment and could very easily fall into bed right now.  Why I’m not doing that is because I can feel my stomach fat getting dangerously close to my belt and that’s just never a good feeling.  It’s time to go do my half hour of cardio.

Uncertain Times

One of my friends in the office, a lady in her mid-40’s, has been doom saying since everything that has been happening with Management started.  She’s completely convinced that along with most of the Management staff we, the office staff, are going to be let go.  Personally I think that she’s blowing things out of proportion and that we shouldn’t be worried; but she is pretty wise and has been through situations like this before.  The fact that I’ve been in a precarious job position before also gives me a bit of perspective on what’s going on that does make me feel slightly uncomfortable but I’m choosing to ignore it… for now.

It's funny how things tend to all pile up and then slam down on you all at once. Today that happened to me. Not even the fact that all the Managers either left or were fired today really effected me. No my issues were all to do with stupid people.

I've mentioned before that it's very hard to get away from these people. They always want something or want me to check something. Usually I find it funny. There are times when I don't. I truly thought I'd seen it all when people started asking me questions while I was in my pj's brushing my teeth but alas I haven't. In the past few days I've been asked work related questions while I:

a. Walked down the hallway in my housecoat after having had my morning shower.

b. Was on the stairmaster in the gym (that was rather funny actually cause I glared at the person with distain and said "sure let me check that for you" and pounded away on the stairmaster's display screen).

c. Walked all the way down the hall from my office to my dorm (a really long way, I kept walking faster and faster and the short guy trying to keep up was running by the time I finally got to the dorm).

d. In the lunchroom while I got my lunch.

These irritants I can somewhat put up with but today after I'd finished my workout and showered and was lounging in my room my phone rang. Somewhat surprised that anyone would be calling me mid-morning I answered and hear... by this time I'm sure you've got a good idea as to what the caller wanted. When I did finally get back to the office I kicked open the door and yelled "WHO GAVE OUT MY FUCKING PHONE NUMBER?!" Once the culprit had identified herself I let loose with a tongue lashing that I'm sure will ensure I don't get called in my room by any of the staff again. So help me God it had BETTER not happen again. They've invaded every other sanctuary but my room is off limits.

To top that off I had the airline call me today and tell me that anyone who had been on one of the Friday planes had been completely banned from flying on any of the company planes. It seems that some of the more enlightened fellows had smuggled beer and chewing tobacco onto the flight and spilled it all over the seats and carpeting which ment the seats and carpeting had to be completely replaced! As I had 8 staff members on board I had to call all of them today and tell them that they needed to make alternate arrangements to get back to camp. As you can imagine none of them were pleased at all. I for one was not pleased either because all 8 of them were actually decent people. Although I 100% back the airline in their decision it won't make my life easier.

The final thing I'm going to rant about tonight is the fact that certain members of the staff are complete morons and can't seem to fill out a form correctly. Twice today I've had to deal with people who didn't fill out their forms properly and now want to evade the consequences (monetary penalties). How is it that people can be so incredibly stupid and still survive. I swear it's incredible to me that none of them have wandered out into traffic and been killed because they didn't understand a don't walk sign.

The End.

Dolly Parton walks out of Cirque Du Solie!

I’ve always loved Dolly Parton’s music and have had a number of songs on my iPod that get played infrequently in the office.  Well since I’ve been here everyone else in the office has started to download Dolly too!  Seems we have our own little fan club started here so, Dolly if your reading your welcome to come up to site ANYTIME and do a show for us.  In fact we should even have enough musical Newfies to have a fairly good backup band.

In other not so interesting news it seems that our Management is planning a walkout for the 14th.  For some reason none of them are happy here.  We can’t really seem to figure out why because they don’t do anything!  Seriously they’re lucky that ‘the little people’ support them so well.  So we’ll see what’s going to happen here.  It’s been an interesting ride so far.  Our Safety Manager walked off the job yesterday and the Business Manager was terminated as of Monday.

I don’t think I have mentioned it so far but I’m really looking forward to my next turnaround.  I’ll be arriving in Vernon just in time for the annual Mid-Summers Eve Art Auction, Then the next day the fam is heading down to Vancouver for Macie and Franks wedding, which is sure to be talked about for years.  The day after the wedding we got tickets for Cirque Du Solie which is putting on their final show in Vancouver!  After that we’re heading back to the Okanagan where I plan to spend a lot of time drinking wine and being at the beach.  The whole time is going to be more than fantastic.  Yay Summer!

It's oh, so quiet! Shhhh, shhhhh!

Well I know they missed me!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen more Union people so happy to see me as I did today.  It’s interesting how all you have to do is go away for 7 days and leave them in the hands of a hastily trained person to have them really begin to appreciate you.  Today was filled with the usual laughs and stories.  I’m told though that the whole office really quietens down and is somewhat staid when I’m not around.

Well I’m trying to spend less time online when I’m in my room because I spend SO much time on the computer at work.  That means that I’m going to put this computer down and actually read a book now.

A Celebrity Returns Home

Well I’m back and for some reason for the first time since I left I’m wearing my glasses again.  It’s really weird but I don’t seem to need to wear my glasses in the outside world.  Here I seem to need to, maybe it has something to do with the dry air or the fluorescent lighting.

Leaving home today I had a mix of emotions going on.  On one hand I was relatively pleased that this last week off had gone so well and that my time at home was pleasant and relaxing.  On the other hand, likely as a result of the aforementioned reasons, I was quite despondent at the thought of leaving.  Emotionally I was quite sad at the thought that I would be missing out on things at home.  Now logically I know there’s really nothing that I’m missing that’s all that exciting but… those pesky emotions are quite hard to ignore.

While waiting in the Kelowna airport I spotted a tag on another traveller’s luggage that indicated he was coming here to camp as well.  Naturally curious I asked him if he was indeed coming to camp and he said that yes he was.  We chatted a bit and he’s a rather pleasant fellow but of course he couldn’t help but ask a number of questions about things happening here at the lodge.  Now I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it en-blog before but I’ve laughingly been referring to myself and the other people that work in our office as ‘Local Celebrities’.  Everyone in this place knows us and they all want and need us to help them CONSTANTLY!  There are times when the whole situation gets absolutely outrageous.  When I am off work I generally cloister myself in my room because anytime I go out into the hall someone invariably wants me to do something for them.  One night before I went on turnaround I was standing in our bathroom, in my pyjamas, brushing my teeth and a Gentleman, that doesn’t even work for my company, was happily asking me if I knew any information about his upcoming turnaround.  This is the type of harassment, only magnified 1,000 times, that I believe makes real celebrities act like horrible people (or as refugee’s in other countries).  It’s absolutely draining to be on the job all the time.  Usually my response to most requests while I’m obviously not working is “sure after you go dig me a ditch / weld me something / do whatever the hell it is while your on the job I’ll be more than happy to do that for you”.  Generally that works but sometimes you just have to acquiesce to their demand / query and do what they want because some of these guys are just that much of a pain.  So with that said I’m back in the public light so “what’s your question?”

Winding Down

I’m wrapping up my time in Vernon and it’s been really good.  There are still a few things to do and a few people to see, which will keep me busy until I leave.  Reflecting upon this time I have come to the conclusion that there truly is not a better place to spend summer time than the Okanagan.  In the past few days I’ve gone from Summerland buying wine to Salmon Arm having dinner with a friend from Prairie.  Partied with Sister, walked with Mom, played racquetball with Dad, had lunch with Uncle.  It’s been a very busy time.

Of course the first day out of camp I spent on a whirlwind shopping trip through Calgary with S.  I have NEVER spent as much money on two items of clothing as I did that day.  Unfortunately I needed a blazer and after trying on different ones at every store in Chinook mall I finally went to Harry Rosen and of course the first one I put on was perfect.  Now I’ll just need to buy a suitable shirt and we’re set for the July wedding.

Now I’m off to spend some more time in the sun.

Just another gorgeous couple days in the Okanagan.

Sunny and Drunk

It’s been a pretty busy couple of days.  I’m writing this from Vernon, where I am on my turnaround, and the weather is exceptional.  Blue skies, sunny and warm.  I’m currently off to Thornhaven Estate Winery where I’m going to buy a case for a wedding present.  

Father's Day and eBay.

I called my Dad for Father’s Day, and true to form my Dad thought that it was next weekend…  Anyway, I love you Dad, happy Father’s Day!

In other news, I bought my first item off of eBay today!  I bought a Penguin shirt and it turned out to be much cheaper than if I had paid for it at the mall.  Now I’m eagerly awaiting my shirt.

Sleepless in...(?)

As I get closer and closer to my break I find it harder and harder to sleep.  This happens every time I leave this place.  For a weekend this one has been relatively good here.  Usually we’re bored out of our ever loving minds but it really hasn’t been all that bad for some reason.

A big slice of casual letdown.

Today was supposed to be casual and pizza day.  The casual part of it went off without a hitch but for some reason our driver wouldn’t get us pizza from Fort Mac (Fucker!).  I was really tired today and I’m looking forward to going to bed tonight.  It’s been really hot here so I’m really glad that my room is so comfortable right now.  True I’m wearing flannel pj’s because the A/C is so high but that’s just the way I like it.  When our Office Supervisor left I inherited a humidifier from him which helps to keep the humidity level in my room really high to (which makes me happy) so I’m pretty happy environment wise right now.

Only four more day’s till I’m out of here!  I’m SO beyond excited.  Now if I wasn’t so damned tired everything would be great.  I’m starting to make stupid mistakes at work as a result of the tiredness.  Not good.  Four more days… four more days… four more days…

Let's get this week over with!

Well this week has been somewhat of a wash-up.  I can’t wait for it to be over and for me to get out of here.  Starting off the week by being shit on by my so called friend, getting sick, losing a friend in the office, having one of the other staff members go on turnaround early, and being short staffed and stressed has just made it a bit of a tough couple of days.  Overall, I have been able to keep my spirits up.

I decided the other night that I would get a web-cam and it arrived yesterday… now that I’ve got it I just need to figure out what to do with it.  Quite honestly the web-cam has been the most exciting part of my week.

Sweet Toxicity

I learned something new today.  An excess of sugar in your diet makes your immune system go down, because your body is working so hard to get the sugar out of your blood it doesn’t have the energy to focus on making sure the viruses and other nasty’s don’t get a foot hold.  This very likely explains why I’m sick again.  I thought I was just run down but it could be the cake and cookies that I eat everyday!  Stupid bakery (because it’s the bakeries fault, not mine)!

I chatted to my “friend” in Van again briefly tonight and he further explained that it was because I was so negative while I was there that he’s been keeping his distance.  Seems he doesn’t need to be dragged down… I guess I didn’t realize that I’m still such a toxic personality.  Here I thought that I’d been doing really well in that respect.  I suppose that this is another of life’s lessons learned.  Someone else’s perspective of you is always going to be entirely different than yours.

C.R.A.Z.Y

I’ve been going over why I was so upset by my friends comments this morning and I think it’s because I feel like I have so few friends right now that potentially losing one is a major scar.  Ugh, I have to get out of this mind-set.  Fuck him.  

Some People Suck.

So I’ve been wondering why I haven’t heard from one of my friends from Van since I had visited there months ago; I finally got him on MSN today and he told me that he’s been distancing himself.  When I asked him why, he told me that it was because I had seemed so unhappy when I was there.  Apparently a number of people had commented on it.

So right now I’m feeling really hurt and fairly upset but mostly confused.  I don’t understand what I had done or said that gave off the impression that I was ‘unhappy’ but the fact that his reaction was to distance himself hurts.  I really don’t need this right now.

.

I’m lonely.

MUCH Shame

Sitting here watching Much I’m constantly being bombarded by advertising for the 06’ MMVA’s.  While I don’t ever remember being excited for the MMVA’s this year I’m extra unexcited.  The over promoted list of promoters includes such *ahem* luminaries as Paris Hilton (who’s just released her first single in which it seems that Gwen Stephanie is singing), Nick Lachey (who? Wasn’t he married to Jessica Simpson?), Tori Spelling (SERIOUSLY PEOPLE!), Jesse Metcalfe (so you made out with Eva Longoria on TV, congratulations… your famous), Tricia Helfer (well that’ll keep the Sci-Fi geeks happy, oh and apparently she’s got a low budget show called Canada’s Next Top Model going to), Jay Manuel (God I actually had to google this guy to figure out that he was one of the people on America’s Next Top Model).  Personally I think ‘The Nation’s Music Station’ can do better; a good place to start would be by cutting out some of the laughable guest presenters who are famous for being famous and have 0 to do with music.  I’m predicting that they’re going to have to start or MTV Canada is going to eat their lunch.

The fish is spending the next 24 hours or so in his beach cottage while his regular home is cleaned.

Another One Bites The Dust!

Just found out that our current Office Supervisor as given his notice.  That’s two down since I’ve been here.  I’m actually pretty sad about the fact that he’s left because he’s a great guy and I’ve enjoyed the fact that there’s been another guy in the office.  I really hope they don’t hire another woman to replace him.  My entire working history has been FILLED with women.  I don’t know what it is about me but I seem to be the only male in history who is constantly surrounded by women and I don’t even try for this outcome.  It’s insane that I moved up to a camp of 2,000 men and I end up working in an office with all women and one other guy.  Now the other guy is leaving and it makes me feel slightly alone.  

Oiler fever has taken over the camp… at least for tonight.  As I sit here I can hear a roar coming from a number of different directions meaning that the Oiler’s have just scored.  Yay Edmonton *that was my most enthusiastic tone I swear*

Going B-a-n-a-n-a-s!

To much time to think is not a good thing.  I try and keep myself occupied on weekends when I’m working but fuck is it hard.  Even the fish is asleep!  So little going on here it’s insane.  The security guards in the cage across the way all look comatose as well.  Even though I bitch and complain about weekends here I’ve had far worse jobs and this is definitely the highlight of my working history so far.  Maybe I should eat a banana!

Do the hokey pokey!

Two steps forward and one step back… As far as we progress in this world there’s always this overwhelming feeling that there is still so much more that we need to accomplish.  Often I have found that these feelings that cause so much frustration and anxiety stem from talking to my parents about future plans.  At this moment in time I’m busy trying to improve myself and my situation so that things can only get better from here.  I think the problem lies when you try and plan to far in advance with no real idea of what’s going to happen.  Ultimately none of us do know what’s going to happen in the future so what’s the point of stressing ourselves out trying to figure out how we’re going to react to events that haven’t even occurred yet?

I feel that an update on my four days off is in order.  I enjoyed Raph and Wifeys fabulous hospitality and made an absolute mess of their home while I was at it.  It many ways it was the perfect time off as I was able keep myself entertained, or be entertained, for the entire four days but at a leisurely pace.  Thanks again kids!

I finished ‘The Great Gatsby’ last night and I really enjoyed it, again another highly recommended read.  

It’s a typical Saturday around here.  Totally dead and I’m here till 10!  Yuck.

Hopefully my next post will be made from the comfort of my room.  In room internet services have finally made it to camp which means that I’ll be back on messenger more often as well.  Hope to see you there!

At long last here is a picture of my desk. If you look in the fish tank you can see Blue swimming around. Arn't you glad you stopped by here today?

Easy life....

Vacation time is just too easy sometimes.  I’ve had a very enjoyable time with Raph and Wifey as well as L.  Things have been very good the only major problem has been the amount of money spent… as usual.  L bought a VERY sexy hat at a hat store on Whyte and I managed to pick up a few books.  One Karen Armstrong and ‘The Three Musketeers’.  Now we’re just killing time until Wifey comes home and then we’re going out for dinner.

While in the Birks at West Ed today with my high school friend L buying Sister her birthday present I was plesantly surprised and quite amused when the sales lady came up to us, looked at me and said "Your not from Edmonton are you?" Ummm "Nope" I said but was quite happy about the whole exchange. Thank God I don't fit into Edmonton. :P

WHAT A FUCKING AWESOME DAY! I just bought Mariah Carey tickets for her show in September and I'm leaving camp and get to spent time with Raph in Edmonton! Life could NOT be better!

Sunday

Although it was Sunday and Sunday’s tend to be very boring around here it’s been a rather pleasant day.  We’ve blasted music in the office for hours, had a number of good laughs, and tomorrow I’m going to Edmonton to visit Raph and Wifey!  I’ve also become friends with the girls that work for our airline and may end up going out with them at some point.  Also seeing one of my high school friends is sure to be a highlight.  Can’t wait!

Housing Prices Cause Depression

As usually happens when I get tired and bored I get depressed.  Tonight I tried to entertain myself by looking through ads for condo’s in Kelowna and now I’m more depressed.  I don’t know how people do it.  I’m making reasonably decent money but when a 1 bed room has a monthly mortgage payment of 1,000 or more you start to wonder.  True I am not seriously looking and have not done any proper research into any of this but it still makes me uneasy.  Time to stop thinking about the future and start living in the present again.

Fanatical Fish!

Yet another excruciatingly boring Saturday at the office.  The fish did a flip today right out of his water.  It’s a good thing there’s a lid on his aquarium or he’d have been all over my desk which wouldn’t have been entirely good.  As it was I thought he was going to get stuck on top of the filter in the tank.  It was WILD man!  WILD!

The Breakfast of Champions

Unfortunately, at breakfast this morning, I ended up sitting with one of our strongest Union supporting people.  He’s a fairly powerful man in the Union that works for our company and he’s a miserable son of a bitch.  Of course I can’t go into the details of what was discussed but I can say I was clenching my teeth so hard that now my jaw hurts.  He made the wild accusations that the company was ONLY HERE TO MAKE MONEY! … Well let me tell you I was stunned that he’d come up with something like that; personally I wonder what the hell he’s here for.  He also stated that 75% of the people up here were just waiting for a better opportunity so they could get the fuck out.  I think I’m going to start surfing the internet looking for other Tim Horton’s counter positions that make $50,000 a year and giving them to him, just so we can get him the hell out.  Unfortunately I don’t think that’s very likely to happen.

Everything's Copesetic

Much better day today.

Started reading ‘The Great Gatsby’ last night and the first three chapters were really good.  I’m looking forward to reading more.

Dramatic Changes

Just read my post from this day last year.  Funny how life has changed SO dramatically.

Celebrities & Boys Who Bitch!

OMG!  I had a brush with Celebrity today!  On November 19, 2005 I had linked to my favourite blog and this morning I got a comment from the writer thanking me for the link (hey better late than never)!  WOW!  How insanely amazing!  So anyway here’s the link one more time http://zoeybella.blogspot.com/

The question of the night is… Is it possible for a camp of 2,000 men to simultaneously start to PMS?  Now I know physically it’s impossible and just should not happen but something has gotten a bee in they boys’ bonnets and they’re making life VERY difficult.  

The bitching and moaning started this morning at 6AM when I came into the office and continued throughout the day and is STILL going on at 7PM.  Yeah guys! I understand that your issue is excruciatingly important to you and the balance of your life.  I totally understand that life as you know it will end because your furnace is blowing hot air and your a/c is just to cold.  I totally commiserate that the guys on your floor are “fucking pigs” and don’t clean up after themselves… I live there to.  I’ve even gone as far as trying to convince the Recreation Manager that we should offer ‘Basic Personal Hygiene’ courses after work but, well we just didn’t think any of you grubby bastards would actually show!  No, life in camp isn’t as perfect as your lovely abode but hey we can’t all live in paradise.

Frankly it’s been a hard day and I really hope that tomorrow will be better.  

Work out...

The weather up here is HORRIBLE.  Well at least it looks really bad from my vantage point at the window.  There are many, many days I’m glad that I rarely if ever go outside.

I’m back working out at the gym during my down time and I’m really happy that I’m able to work out without feeling like I’m going to throw up.  I’ve been doing a lot of Pilates type exercises using a Nautilus ball and I’m very pleased with the results.  My core is a lot stronger which helps a lot with the headaches and back problems that I used to have.  Amazing, exercise and you feel better… who knew.

100 Years of Solitude

(No the title doesn’t actually have anything to do with my life…)

I’m within pages of finishing 100 Years of Solitude this wacked out crazy novel that Matthew recommended.  I don’t think I’ve read a more confusing novel since I was reading the Russian writers a couple of years ago.  Even though it’s insanely confusing I give 100 Years two thumbs up… as long as you can handle reading about generations of a family seemingly obsessed with incest!

Looking forward

Two things I’m looking forward to:

1. The Desperate Housewives season finale that’s on in 8 minutes.


2. Visiting Raph and Wifey in two weeks (or so)

Hot Fights

I’m SO fucking bored at work I’m trying to goad my Beta (fighter fish) into attacking his thermometer just to entertain me.  Weekends are deadly here because it’s so dead.  I’ve spent the last few hours taking apart and rebuilding Employee Hiring forms for the Human Resources Department.  SAVE ME FROM THE BOREDOM!

I'm not sick anymore but I seem to have to be careful of what I put into my tummy. For some reason it's got this queasyness to it that is not entirely pleasant. Ok, enough about me...

The girl that was laid off a couple of weeks ago is back! Seems that one of our other girls (women) was homesick or something for her boyfriend so she talked Management into letting her go and the other one come back. Totally bizarre situation and pretty weird but that's what happend. So eviedently everyone is happy.

Really nothing more to say. I had Cream of Wheat and oranges this morning for breakfast... in case anyone is interested.

Money, money, MONEY!

Sometimes I hate paydays.  No actually I usually hate paydays.  It’s not the sudden influx of cash into my bank account; rather it’s the sudden outflow of cash that happens when I pay my bills.  I hate bills.  It’s weird actually I don’t know how in hell I have so many bills… I don’t do anything or go anywhere.  The upside of this is that I have the money to pay off the bills I accumulate so all is not lost.

Oh did I mention that I caught another variation of the flu when I got back that kept me in bed all day yesterday.  So much fun.

I have a headache. I hate headaches. Otherwise it's been an ok day. I'm going to bed.

Campy Madonna

YAY!  I’m back home, well camp anyway.  It’s really kind of scary how quickly this place has turned into home for me.  What’s even scarier is that I was looking forward to getting back here while I was away.  Mostly I believe the reason for this is because here I have a purpose and some friends.  While at home I drift aimlessly doing nothing and have few to no friends to do it with.

I’m trying to figure out how I can go to see Madonna.  Her only Canadian date is in Montreal and I’m frantically trying to win the contest to go and see her that Telus is putting on.  Such and amazing prize package.  If my plan to win my way to see her doesn’t pan out I suppose I’ll have to go and see her in Vegas or something.

Oh so here's something else I've been thinking about. I've got an appointment with my broker tomorrow. As I'm making decent money I really want to start working on investing and saving. Currently my savings are almost nil, as I had a good long stint of living beyond my means and I'm still paying that off. As the debts of yesteryear have slowly been getting smaller and smaller I'm trying to figure out what my next step is going to be. My Dad thinks that doubeling up on my car payments and getting rid of my car debt would be a better use of the money. I don't think I agree though because I have a 0% interest rate on the car so it doesn't make much sense to me to do that when I could be shovelling the money into investments that will be earning me a return. Frankly I don't want to be coming home to my parents house much longer. I want a place of my own, or a business of my own, and paying off my car faster isn't going to help expediate that process very quickly. So at this point I'm thinking I'm going to start shovelling the money into some form of investment where I can't touch it (curbing my own frivolity) and maybe upping the amount of my car payment as well. Hell, at this point I'll start putting money away like I'm paying rent again and shouldn't even miss it.

OMG Grey's Anatomy was FANTASTIC! Can't wait for part II tomorrow!

Sweet, sweet, candy!

I’m sitting here listening to my Parents kvetch at each other for opening a bag of liquorice candies.  Apparently neither of them has any self control and they both keep eating the candy, yet neither of them wants to take the blame for providing the candies.  Dad bought them… but Mom opened them.  This is SO typical!

ARGH!

Argh!  I am seriously feeling frustrated tonight.

Today I hated being here. It was one of those days where I nothing to do and no one to do it with. Sometimes I just hate coming back here. On top of that I did something really dumb last night that really makes me mad because it shouldn't have happend.

I walked around today thinking to myself I wish I was back at camp. Shocking even to myself. I couldn't believe that but that's how much the place has become like home already. That and the fact that I feel comfortable there already. I'm looking forward to my next turnaround though because it's only going to be 3 days I'm just going to go to Edmonton and relax and visit with Raph and Wifey. It'll be nice to visit with them and catch up.

Two more days to go...

Haemorrhaging!

HELP!  I’m haemorrhaging cash.  The fact that I need to get a whole lot of things done in one week that I can’t do in the three that I’m gone for means that all the expenses pile up and beat the shit out of my bank account in that one week.  Today my rough estimate of my spending would be upward of $350!  Maybe I should have stayed sick.

The joy's of advanced age and driving.

It pains me to say it but there really is one major flaw with the Okanagan.  Fortunately it has nothing to do with geography and everything to do with the people.  People in this valley, particularly Vernon, couldn’t drive the rats out of a shit house.  

Today on the few trips out that I made I was cut off by a Terasen Gas truck, an old man, two old ladies, and another old man.  Three times that I went through an intersection near my parents house people almost drove into me because they didn’t have a clue how to follow basic road signs.  On the highway people were careening all over the place with nary a signal light to be seen.  It’s seriously enough to make me really glad that I don’t go near a vehicle for 21 days straight.  It was while I was driving behind an old man in a very large pickup truck that I realized how dangerous most of these people are.  The double solid line was cutting straight through the center of his truck all the way down the road.  I was absolutely stunned when he didn’t even get out of the way of an on-coming car.


I think tomorrow I’m going to stay home.

I can't believe that I go on my days off and I get SICK! This frigging sucks. The one saving grace about the whole situation though is that I'm not sick at camp, which would be intolerable. As it is I fell asleep twice on the bathroom floor yesterday. Probably would have been there all night had my Mom not come home and opened the door, hitting my head in the process. So now I've got a sore head, I bit my tongue at some point in my sleep and I can't go farther than 100 feet from a bathroom. Happy Turnaround!

I'm in Calgary and I think that I've come down with the flu. Started feeling shitty yesterday and still do. Had a nice dinner with S but had to cut it pretty short cause I'm just not feeling well. Hopefully this won't last the entire time I'm home.

Just about there.

Two more days ‘till home time!  VERY excited.  Things are good here but it’s time for a break.  

Thursday Night

One of my co-workers were laid off today because the company is behind in some of it’s commitments to our client which means that we’re over-staffed.  We’ve all been expecting this for some time but that doesn’t make the fact that she is leaving any easier.  Working in the office has been a lot of fun because of the awesome people that we’ve got in there right now.  True the expected outcome of this is that she will be brought back on in a month or two but the chances of her waiting around to get back on are, in my opinion, slim.  

The uncertainty of this whole venture reminds me of HBC and the whole horrible experience that I went through there.  Everyday it seems that no matter how hard you work someone is trying to get rid of you for some reason.

At this point I’m not worried about my job because I’m the only one filling my position and I’ve been getting rave reviews from our clients, one of them actually went up to our HR Manager in the dinning hall and told her how happy they are with me, but the feeling of uncertainty still remains and still really sucks.

In other happier news I talked to MC today, for the first time since I was in Vancouver, and solidified some of our plans for Marcie and Frank’s wedding in July.  MC is going to be my date.  As she works at one of Canada’s most pretigious men’s wear retailers she is going to look into seeing what kind of a deal she can swing me on a BOSS suit for the wedding.  I’m very excited about this wedding as I don’t think I’ll ever be to another one like it.  The whole thing is very movie wedding because of the huge lengths Marcie and her family are going to for it.  Just about counting the days.

Crack Music

Oh, I keep forgetting to tell ya’ll about our Crack experience.  Buddy comes up to the window one day yelling about how there are spider webs all over his room and him.  As he’s standing there he’s pulling off spider webs (that we can’t see) yelling look at them!  I was in the shower forever and couldn’t get them off!  His hands were totally wrinkled and looked like he’d been in the shower for hours.  Essentially we laughed it off but it really is a sad situation.  So kids, make sure you say NO to Crack!

Music

Things have been pretty busy as usual.  I’m looking for music because I can’t find anything to listen to.  Bizarre when I have over 900 songs on my iPod.  Just can’t find anything I want to download.

Not Quite Ordinary

I think I’ve alluded to the fact that life here is not completely, normal?  There are daily occurrences up here that really remind you of the fact that to live and work in camp successfully you have to be slightly ‘odd’.  The reason for this is because the time between our brief periods of being in civilization is really quite long.  You honestly forget or don’t give a damn about much of what goes on in the outside world.  

There’s also the  fact that you’re living with the people you work with means that there’s no way in hell you’ll be able to constantly impress these people.  I’ve really gotten into this way of thinking and I think it’s because my College Dorm living experience was relatively recent that I’ve been successful in it.  Rolling out of bed and wandering to the dinning hall for breakfast, totally dishevelled, with the Management team seems totally natural.

Antics in the office are almost as insane.  Recently the Camp Manager (a total loon), Business Manager and Executive Chef have taken to waltzing through the office.  Did I mention that they’re all fat men!  Just the other morning I rocked with laughter as two fat men waltzed through the office while two of the female Housing Administrators sang “Country road, take me home…” at the top of their lungs.

One morning I randomly started singing the Copacabana at the top of my lungs in the office.  By the time dinner rolled around that song had made it’s way all through the camp and you could hear it everywhere.

These my friends are just some of the reasons that life in camp is worth while… no actually it’s the money, but those other things make camp that much more bearable.  So the next time you find yourself singing the Copacabana at the top of your lungs while you wander through your office take comfort in the fact that you’re not strange, you just belong in camp!

Friday Music

Is it just because I’m up in camp that it seems like there’s been very little interesting music released lately?  Or is that actually the case?  Even scanning through iTunes show’s me very little of interest.

A mosquito just landed on my leg and I felt it… I’m wearing jeans!

I'm too sexy...

Ooowwww!  I FEEL GOOD!  I’ve been working out everyday that I’ve been up here and it’s finally starting to show.  Boy am I hot!  (  

Nothing else to report other than that the mosquitoes up here must be descendants of Pegasus fuck are they HUGE!  

Have a happy Thursday!

Sunday Night

The most interesting news of late is that we now have a fish in the office.  Weirdly enough we’ve inherited two different bowls of fish as of late.  Weird mostly because we’re in the middle of nowhere so who’d have thought that we’d be inheriting tropical fish from employees who have left for one reason or another.

It’s seemed like it was a long week.  The split shift I’m working is taking some getting used to.  I wake up REALLY tired most of the time.  As usually happens when I’m tired, I’ve been having a bit of a tough time staying ‘up’ emotionally.  Mostly by the end of the day when I’m alone in my room I’m really ready to be there and away from people in general.  

Here’s a weird observation for you, it just about seems to be the story of my life, even though I work in a camp with around 1,500 men in residence I work and spend most of my time with women.  Go figure!

Sorry for the lack of posts. Things have not been all that interesting around here lately. No hold on I lie. The OB was FIRED! Yay! It's amazing how much nicer it is in the office without her here now. Everyone is happy.

I've started working split shifts because of the way that flights work. So far it's not so bad but I'm glad that I have tomorrow off so I can sleep in.

I'm loving my iPod. And that's about it.

Strange Events At The Gay Bar!

Well my Vancouver people did it again.  We managed to have an absolutely unbelievable night on Friday.  The party at Peter and Brian’s started at around 7 and went until a bunch of us left to go to the Odyssey at 12.  We danced for two and a half hours straight and just had an absolutely unreal time.  Marcie got hit on by a gay stripper, some guy tried to pick up Chris (yeah, weird that he’d try and pick up a chick in a gay bar…), K from Ottawa and Pavel danced like I’ve never seen anyone dance, in fact he claims that his hips still hurt two days later, and I just enjoyed every moment of it all.  The fact that Marcie, Pavel and I were dancing on the stage is pretty funny too!  I finally stumbled home at 317, according to Peter’s Mom, after putting K in a cab and walking Marcie home.  It’s honestly nights like that, which keep me sane and help me remember that even though my friends may not be with me where ever I am they’re just waiting to get together and have an amazing time.  Thanks guys I love you all!

Vancouver Rules (Even though it's Raining like nobody's business)!

I have been having an absolutely Fabulous time in Vancouver.  Yesterday I spent the day with Matthew, who generously came downtown from Pitt Meadows.  We spent time wandering around the city, eating various things, looking at various other things and just catching up.  

I spent the evening with the boy’s (Peter and Brian) and Pete’s Mom who is also visiting.  Today I had a naturopath appointment then went for a three hour Dim Sum with my Vancouver Asian connection.  After Dim Sum I wandered around downtown with one of my friends boyfriends.  As I’m planning on buying an iPod in the next few days I went to Guess? To by an iPod case and found a matching wallet and case combination for $10!  SCORE!  I then went for dinner with Marcie and Frank.  They dropped me off back at the boy’s place where the boy’s and Mom were having some wine before they went for dinner.  We realized that as tomorrow is Good Friday, the liquor stores are very likely going to be closed so we made a list and while they went for dinner I went and stocked up on liquor for the party.  

As I’m home alone I signed onto MSN and low and behold one of my awesome friends from high school had signed on and she is spending the weekend in Vancouver as well, visiting her Mom from Ottawa.  So of course I invited her to our party tomorrow.  This party is going to ROCK!  It’s going to be SO much fun.

Tomorrow Marcie and I are going to hang out together and go to Good Friday Mass at her church.  We’re also going to hook up with my high school friend and catch up a bit before the party starts.  It’s been an awesome visit so far and I think it’s going to continue to go in that direction.  Life is good.

LEAVING CAMP TOMORROW! VANCOUVER HERE I COME! ANYBODY READING THIS THAT CAN MAKE IT BETTER BE AT THE PARTY ON FRIDAY!

I'm sitting in the lobby in one of the faux suede chairs that are scattered liberally around this place , hooked into the free wireless, trying to ignore the sound of some sporting event on the big screen TV on the other side of the lobby. Yeah, life is real rough. I didn't bother to haul my ass out of bed this morning for breakfast and now I'm really hoping that I didn't miss eggs benny day. Instead I slept in, went to the gym, and now here I am. Waiting for time to pass before I go into the office to start my day.

As rough as life is here though I am looking forward to my days off. I'm feeling fairly tired to be honest. The stress I've been under has been taking it's tole so I've made an appointment to see the Naturalpath in Vancouver. Very confident that I'll be back in tip-top condition shortly after.

As this upcoming weekend is Easter I'm mentally preparing myself to deal with the family I'm sure to run into while home. They mean well but there is so much pressure around holidays it does make it difficult. Regardless I'm looking forward to a break.

I just got my first pay deposit and I think it's the most money I've ever been paid for a job before. Considering I wasn't even paid for a full pay period I'm excited to see how much a full check will be worth! I entirely paid off my Visa and put a significant dent in my line of credit and still have a lot of money left over. I could get used to this.

Now if only some things would change for the better in the office I'd be happy as a clam in mud.

Handeling Stress Badly

It’s been a really stressful two days.  Work has just been stupid stressful because the airline I’m dealing with has a new guy who is making all sorts of insane mistakes.  Making me absolutely crazy!  Yesterday they cancelled a flight I’d booked that they’d confirmed for one of our managers, and they didn’t tell me!  Once I found out from someone else that the flight had been cancelled I had to fight with the airline to get them to put her on another flight to the same destination.  Their solution to the problem was to tell me to put her on a flight to a city that was NO WHERE NEAR where she needed to be.  I asked who was going to be paying the cancellation fee’s and such for the connecting flights she was going to be missing and for some reason they had no answer.  Long story short after sweating a lot I finally got her on another flight.  I think I’m going to start going to the gym at night after work as well because I’m so stressed out.

The fact that I’m getting so stressed out really bothers me because I really have no reason to.  Sure I want to make sure that everyone gets to where they’re supposed to be at the designated times but so far all the problems have been the airlines fault.  That and the OB came back today.  That woman makes me supremely crazy.  Ok, I have to go to the gym.

I finally figured out how to get an iPod cheap! I cashed in my Visa points for $200 worth of Future Shop gift certificates! Now I just need to know which iPod to get when I get back to Vernon. Do I get the 4GB Nano or do I get the big 30GB iPod? All you people with iPod's out there tell me what you think! So Excited!

It’s starting to hit me. I’m getting tired. Not being used to working for 21 days straight makes it tough but I’ve been assured that it gets better after the first couple times. Even now it’s not so bad I’m just dragging my ass a little.

What made it worse is that it’s been very slow lately so it makes the days just crawl. Today I spent a good deal of time wandering the halls looking for snacks. The kitchen keeps the Rec Room fully stocked at all times with an astounding array of snacks but the past few days they’ve been slacking so I complained to the Head Chef and within minutes the snack room was magically full. So now I consider myself somewhat of a hero!

Went for a drink with a friend last night in the bar and had two glasses of wine. For some reason it hit me extraordinarily hard and I've been feeling kind of crappy all day. I really don't get it but guess it's because I havn't drank anything for a couple weeks. Weird. Next time I'll stick to Vodka ;)