And now for your Sunday morning reading pleasure...
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You are Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor 84% Dr. Doom 74% Magneto 63% Apocalypse 62% Green Goblin 56% Catwoman 52% Kingpin 48% The Joker 46% Venom 42% Mr. Freeze 40% Mystique 40% Juggernaut 40% Two-Face 40% Dark Phoenix 33% Poison Ivy 30% Riddler 25%

A brilliant businessman on a quest for world domination and the self-proclaimed greatest criminal mind of our time!

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain are you?" quiz...

I'm really not feeling all that great today. Mentally I think the past few days have just taken a toll on me and I've just had it. I applied for a job with our airline today that is based out of Calgary. Essentially the job is very similar to what I'm doing now but is working for the other side of the project. As expected the money is really not all that good but it may be negotiable because of my experience with the project. Now I just have to wait and see as to whether or not I get a call.

Well the "President" of my company just called and left a message (I was otherwise engaged). Apparently he needs me back ASAP and there's been a lot of changes and restructuring since I've been gone! Apparently I report directly to him and the Big Boss now and Little Boss has been clipped up side the head. I've written down my list of things that I want done before I come back and they include:

1. Being paid for this time off
2. An actual letter of offer that is acceptable to both of us
3. My turnaround is next week so I expect that I'll be getting time off in lieu of
4. A letter of Apology from Little Boss for the humiliation he caused
5. No record of this incident on my employee file (not that I really give much credence to the thought that they even keep employee files but it's worth mentioning)
   

I'll update once I've had my conversation with him.

So now I'm starting to question whether I do want to go back to camp or not. Aside from the desperate pleas of my co-workers calling and e-mailing to make sure that I am coming back I'm starting to question whether it'd be worth it or not. All the things that happen in the real world while your gone really make you wonder...






But then the bank acount really makes you consider going back too...

So I may have been a bit hasty yesterday by proclaiming that Little Boss had been fired... I am happy to announce that his Wife's quit! Apparently the situation stands that Big Boss has told the company that they have to call me and tell me that I'm supposed to be back on site by next week. Considering that they've fucked up royally and are very proud people I think I may be waiting on the phone call for a while. How much would that suck, suspend someone for two weeks, without any real cause, then have to call them back four days later and tell them to come back to work! I'm glad I'm not in their shoes.

I am feeling incredibly optimistic, I just heard from one of my co-workers at camp and she intimated that Little Boss has lost his job. I'm waiting on someone to call and tell me what's going on at the moment but things are looking super good. I will be vindicated!

So what's next? That's the question that's been bugging me today. Strangely I'm not at all upset about not being up at site or the big paycheck. What's bugging me now is if things don't work out at site and I don't end up going back where am I going to live? Calgary or Edmonton seem the natural choices because of the job market. In Calgary I have relatives and two friends, Edmonton I have a whole bunch of friends but I just don't want to live there. As Raph very comfortingly pointed out today though, I always seem to land on my feet... now it's just a matter of waiting to see what happens.

By now I'd like to think that things in my little corner of the site has blown all to hell. I'm pretty sure this isn't the case but my ego needs to feel that it has. I'm writing this from Vernon.

Yesterday in a completely surprise move Little Boss suspended me for two weeks without pay, gave me an hour to clean out the room that I've been living in for the past year and put me on a plane for home.

So now I'm waiting on the Big Boss (who's in Edmonton and was not consulted on the situation at all) to see what his move is going to be. Little Manager even diabled my work e-mail account, which he is absolutely not authorized to do, so I'm really dead in the water.

Essentially this all boils down to Little Manager's Megalomania. He craves and desires absolute control which I won't give him. Well I'm going to work on my resume now.

To borrow the words of some famous person - "Overall I guess you could say we have a theological disagreement... he thinks he's God... I disagree".

I've had quite a busy week. We had reps from the Airline come up and do training sessions on their new online booking program on Wednesday and Thursday. Quite frankly I was rather disappointed with their performance as it seemed they were not ready for the training sessions and believe it or not a lot of effort went into getting our contractors to show up for it. I will admit having them around was fun and we overall had a good time but I don't feel the aim of our objective was met. As a result of having our guests here my days were stretched a little bit so I ended up working 12 hour days for the past two days. Needless to say I've made being under my quilt, when I'm not working, my natural environment lately.

Looking forward to going home in 11 more days!

I've got two Bosses. One is the Boss of the other Boss and I'll call him the Big Boss. I answer to the Big Boss most of the time (he's the one I sent the e-mail to the other night) but the Little Boss is the one that I actually have more contact with. Weird I know.

So Little Boss has his Wife working here as well and Little Bosses wife, who is actually quite a nice lady when she's not working, seems to think that she's a Boss to. Unfortunately Little Bosses Wife is not a Boss and in fact she's resigned her position a few times but just seems to hang around. I don't know how she can do that because I'd love to resign my position and still get paid and keep my room and a whole bunch of other things but I guess you have to be married to a Little Boss!

So anyway Little Bosses Wife is starting to push my buttons because it seems that she thinks she's in charge of me. You can imagine how well this is going over. Unfortunately and yet rather forseeably Little Boss is towing the line for her. Now because I don't usually answer to Little Boss I'm not really paying attention to either of them all that much and this is starting to cause a little bit of friction. Frankly I don't care and I fully intend to come out on top of this one but Big Boss is the type of guy that wants to keep everyone happy and have a meeting about everything all the time. Well a meeting isn't going to tell Little Bosses Wife to take a trip and not come back (although I'd love to do that in a meeting) so we'll just end up where we are now. I'm super frusterated and I don't know what to do about it. Any suggestions?

On Friday night I sent a real flamer of an e-mail to one of my Bosses. I went on for paragraph after paragraph bitching and complaining about a situation and some people at work that have been making me really mad lately. Well needless to say that after I sent it and started to think about it the next day I got very ansy because I realized just how stupid it was. Janet pointed out, after reading it, that I didn't offer any solutions to the problems that I was whining about. As usual she was right. So Sunday afternoon I had to write another e-mail apologizing for the first e-mail. I kept it short Apologizing because I realized that all the problems that I had been whining about could very easily be fixed. I then told him it wouldn't happen again. I got his reply this morning "Do not worry about it, we all need to vent sometimes!" Two things... I am very lucky and I have a really great Boss.

You Are 8% Nerdy

You are definitely not nerdy - in fact, you probably don't know any nerds. You probably care a little too much about your image. No one will know if you secretly watch Star Trek reruns!

How Nerdy Are You?

Well I did it! I applied for University and signed up for my course in two online credit transactions which left me holding my American Express somewhat breathlessly having spent $600 some dollars in a matter of moments. I can't believe how expensive it was for one course! Talk about insane.

I'm glad that I finished my formal schooling already and I'm just doing this on a lark. Who signs up and pays for a $600 course on a lark? I must be loosing it. Apparently this place is getting to me more than I thought it was.

Unfortunately my new course doesn't begin until March 1 which leaves me a month to pay the bill but also means that I'll have all sorts of things to distract me and add to my life before that time comes. It's going to be hard to stay dilligent but I'm committed... at this point anyway.

I HAVE A QUILT! Isn't it beautiful? Thanks to Wifey for hooking me up with such a wonderful peice of quiltmanship! Your Gram's got a gift!

I got back from Edmonton at 130AM on Tuesday night. That's what I get for booking myself on the late flight. We couldn't land at site so we had to go into Fort McMurray and then wait for the busses to pick us up. Unfortunately the busses travelled so slow because of the ice that it took us about 2 hours to do a trip that usually takes a little over an hour. I was completely exhausted the next day which belied how rested I'd been during the break.

While Sask was good but dull, Edmonton was anything but. I had the most fabulous time with Mr. G and friends. True to all his bragging Mr. G is an incredible cook and he proved with with Chicken Kiev with Portabello white wine sauce, rosemary carrots, and some kind of rice extravaganza and specially for me a chocolate torte with Sumac Ridge Pipe! I contributed 5 bottles of wine!

After we ate we drank, then we drank some more, then some more... then we went to a bar and drank, etc. The evening was Super Fantastic, now if only Mr. G could remember it all! Yes, the next morning while we were driving around looking for breakfast I asked him if he'd enjoyed the bar? All I got in response was a confused look. It seems Mr. G doesn't remember a thing about his evening after a certain point very early on. He's claiming that he was possessed!

After spending some time with Mr. G I went to Raph and Wifey's new place which is an absolutely fantastic condo in the downtown area. I was absolutely thrilled to be their first overnight guest and claim MY room. I'm looking forward to many, many visits!

Now I'm back at camp and things are well. Work has picked up dramatically and I feel like I have a purpose again which is quite nice. Today my Manager lost his liscense for speeding on site, so I'll have a vehicle for the next two weeks which is also quite nice.

Tonight I looked into a course at Athabaska U and I'll be making some calls tomorrow to find out a little more information then I'm fully intending on signing up. I'm pretty nervous about the whole prospect but it's not like it's anything I haven't done before!

What does the word Casino bring to mind for you when you hear it? I'm pretty sure that most people instantly think of Vegas in all of it's glamour. I know the last thing I think about is where I went yesterday. The Painted Hand Casino in Yorkton, like most other casino's I've been in, is absolutely depressing and completely disgusting.

The disgusting comes from the fact that smoking is still allowed in this backwards province. My eye's were literally burning from all the smoke in the place. I had to go and stand outside in the -15C weather (that my Grandmother keeps insisting on calling a "Heat Wave!") just to soothe my eyes.

The depressing comes from the sight of all the Seniors in there mindlessly plugging their money into the VLT's. My Grandparents seem to enjoy going and playing the penny machines. I don't really have any problem with that because at worst they may blow $20. It's the other ones that you know are just lonely and bored sitting there plunking Loonies into a machine that bothers me. I'm making the assumption that most of these people are on some kind of fixed income or meager pension, which may be wrong of me, but I don't think I'm all that far off. These people don't have the money to support the local Native band with taxes so why on earth would they do it this way?

I told my Grandparents that I'm going to get them a Nintendo if all they go for is to sit in front of a screen and watch images flash over it while obnoxious buzzers go off. If they want the real experience then Grandma could even stop pretending she doesn't smoke and light up in the living room. Win/Win for all!

As it is I'm going to see if I can download a slots game onto Grandpa's computer...

I am pleased to annouce the Yorkton Terriers trounced the Wayburn Red Wings 7 to 1 last night. The game was not terribly interesting though as it seemed very one sided. Either that or my complete lack of interest in hockey was showing through.

Going to the game with Grandpa last night was mildly amusing though. Just watching him and his friends interact was comical enough. Of course I was following him around all night like some over protective minder and you would think that he'd introduce me to some of his friends. Apparently he didn't think that it was worth introducing me to anyone though. So for all his friends knew I really was an overprotective minder from a home.

Watching my Grandparents and the way the interact with each other is really comical though. They've been married for 56 years, Grandpa's 81 and Grandma's 76 (I think). No one's told Grandpa that at his age he's supposed to be old so he's not. I'm sure he's going to be like his father who lived to 92 (we think, no one ever could find his birth certificate) and was in his own home until he was 90. Thankfully he's a little easier to deal with than his Dad was and he's still sufficiently up with the times to have an internet connection and computer in his house. Every morning he goes down to the basement to do his 'eye exercises' which entails watching some images flash across his screen. Then he check's his e-mail, complains about all the crap he gets on it and turns the computer off. If only I'll be as with it at his age.

Today I slept till almost 11, then Grandma and I went shopping. We went to the fabulous Yorkton mall where she bought four cans of Habitat Soup, for a dollar a can, and bought us both some scrath tickets. We then had some root beer at A&W and then I bought some new razor blades a magazine and a bottle of Armani Code cologne. I'd been thinking about getting some new cologne for a while now and figured that since I obviously had the time I may as well. So whenever I use my new cologne I'll be sure to think of Yorkton... which when you think about it is really bizarre because I'm sure the majority of the populace here don't have a clue what Armani is let alone buy the fragrance.

Tonight Grandma continued on her quest to "fatten me up" and fed me home made cabbage rolls, shrimp ceasar salad, smokies, clamato, and... Sumac Ridge Pipe wine. Completely random and bizarre meal but it sure was tasty. The Pipe was a complete surprise and was very exciting for me. Tomorrow I told them that I'm buying pizza from Pizza Hut, as is my regular routine when I'm out of camp, so we'll see how they like it.

Now I'm off to the hockey game with Grandpa.

So I'm very seriously thinking about taking a course or two. I talked to my Manager the other day and he has no problem with me spending down time on some course work. Now I'm trying to figure out what would be the most beneficial thing to take. It's to early to start on an MBA because I haven't been in a management position and most programs want a certain amount of time in one. Also I don't really think that I'd want to devote the time required. That said though I want to have the option of getting a certificate or some sort of designation from what I'm doing. Should I take a course from Athabaska Online or from OC or UBC-O or what! I need some advise. I'm kind of leaning towards taking some HR courses mostly because of the shitty way that most companies treat their employees at site. There's one from Athabaska that deals with employment law that looks interesting and would be very good for my own knowledge. I don't know what to do! Tell me would you!

Saskatchewan is really a very interesting place. Not really interesting in the "oh my god, that's fascinating" way of putting it but rather interesting in the "gee, this place sure is flat!" As I was walking out of the arrivals area of the Regina Airport today I happened to look out the window. Now as I was on the second floor I had a great view and I'll show you what I saw _______________________________________________ as far as the eye could see. I'd completely forgotten how insanely flat it is out here.

Getting into my Uncle's Van he asked if there was anything in particular I wanted before we headed out to Yorkton. I didn't even hesitate to demade a Starbucks run. Increadibly he was very excited about the idea and enthused how lucky it was that they lived not even two blocks from the only Starbucks in Regina. Lucky indeed! At this point I was thinking that the trip may not be half bad.

It's a damned good thing that I've been watching Corner Gas for the past few weeks trying to prepare myself for my visit. I swear that I ate lunch in a gas staition today! Well ok maybe it was a "restaurant" attached to a gas staition but none-the-less it was there and I ate. I was somewhat perterbed by the whole experience as soon as I walked in. As soon as I sat down I was all out disturbed. I think it was the waitresses coke fingernail (you know how coke heads grow their little finger's nail out to provide a mess free way of snorting) that really creeped me out. Either that or it was how her massive belly hung over her apron. Or it could have been the fact that aside from my 80 year old Grandfather I was the smallest guy in the place. They sure do grow 'em big out here! So there I sat in my gap jeans, Banana Republic sweater and leather boots eating a "Toonie Buger" at what may as well have been the seriously down market version of Corner Gas, and yes the locals stared at me.

I arrived in Yorkton and we went straight to the house. I was amazed that in the five years since I've been here NOTHING has changed. I'm not kidding NOTHING has changed. Come to think of it thought I don't think this place has changed at all since the first time I was here about 20 years ago. Yes, Yorkton is a time warp. Mom and Dad always say it's like going back to the 80's when you're here but I think it just may have moved into the 90's... early 90's it may be but things are moving!

Carrying on with my series of firsts for the day I did something that I've never done tonight. I watched American Idol for the very first time. It just so happens that it was the 2 hour season premier tonight and Grandma and I watched it together. I have to say I was very entertained by the whole thing and just can't believe how completely deluded so many Americans are (I'm sure Canadians are just as deluded) when it comes to their singing abilities.

Tomorrow brings more adventure as I'm going shopping with Grandma and will be attending a Yorkton Terrier's Hockey Game with Grandpa in the evening. I'll be sure to update on which is going to be more fun. Frankly I'm going with the shopping but the Hockey may surprise the hell out of me.

Quite honestly I've seriously been considering sneaking off and buying a mickey of Vodka to help me cope with the rest of this week. You just don't know when you're going to prefer to be drunk. So far since arriving here I've already bought one new sweater online from L.L. Bean and that's a coping mechanism that isn't cheap (although I've been haunting their web site waiting for them to get more in stock of this particular sweater and as luck would have it they had mediums in it in only one size left tonight, happily it was just the colour that I wanted!).



Maybe I will find a liquor store tomorrow...

Well after a reasonably good weekend I'm packing my green duffel bag (as opposed to the black crappy one my last company gave me (not that I'm ungrateful...)) to leave camp for my eight precious days off. Tonight I head to Calgary where I'm overnighting at some cousins place. Tomorrow morning I find myself in the airport again on my way to... wait for it... REGINA! I know I'm insane to go to Sask. in January but I figured I may as well do it now as opposed to waiting for a time that I'd rather be soaking up the sun and drinking wine at home in the Okanagan. So after a few (6) days in Sask. with the Grandparents I'm off to Edmonton to hang out with Mr. G and see Raph and Wifey's new place. Overall I'm sure it's going to be a good few days off.

Saturdays just seem to suck the desire to be productive right out of me. It's incredible actually, I'll tell myself I'm going to bed early Friday and that I'll get up at the regular time and get some work done in the morning. Then that morning comes around and there's nothing short of our cleaning lady kicking down my door and ripping off my sheets that would make me want to get out of the warmth of my bed. I usually feel guilty about this for a few hours in the morning but by mid-afternoon I tell myself to savour the fact that I'm the only one not working up here. Now I'm going into McMurray to have lunch with an old friend who's in town visiting her boyfriend.

Past few days have been really quite good. I have decided that having the weekends off is not a good thing. Turns out that I get WAY to bored and that bodes well for no one.

Rather than have any New Year's Resolutions this year I have decided instead that I'm going to try and start some new good habits. The main one that I have chosen to work on is flossing my teeth twice daily. Now I've done this in the past and been quite succesful at it over a reasonable course of time but I always end up quitting for some reason. I'm really not sure why it is that I can't seem to stay faithful to oral care but it just doesn't seem to happen for me.

The other habit that I'm trying to cultivate is dragging my ass out of bed every morning around 625 and being down in the gym before 640. This really shouldn't be a hard thing to do because of the fact that all I have to do is put my clothes on, attach my iPod to my arm and go. I am happy to say that once I arrive at the gym and start doing my stretches I'm fully awake and actually enjoy this new ritual. By starting at that time I can work out, eat breakfast, clean myself up for the day and be waiting for my ride to work by 900. For the past week and a bit it's been working for me so I'm planning on continueing the struggle to set the habit. The real test of this one is going to be on my turnarounds where I have 8 full days for the habit to die a slow exhausted death. We'll just have to wait and see.

Now I'm going to work on the final habit I'm developing and go to bed early.

Good night.

"This Place Is A Prison"

This place is a prison
And these people aren't your friends
Inhaling thrills through $20 bills
And the tumblers are drained and then flooded again
And again

Ther're guards at the on ramps armed to the teeth
And you may case the grounds from the cascades to puget sound,
But you are not permitted to leave

I know there's a big world out there like the one i saw on the screen
In my living room late last night,
It was almost too bright to see
And i know that it's not a party if it happens every night
Pretending there's glamour and candelabra
When you're drinking by candlelight

What does it take to get a drink in this place?

What does it take, how long must i wait?

- The Postal Service


Aside from the glamour and candlelight bits this song really sums up this camp!

There are times every few weeks, hell it's oftener than that, that I feel quite lonely up here. I really miss Mr. G and wish he was still here. Having Sister here is good but she's got a new girlfriend that works with her so they spend much of their time in the girls dorm. I think I'm just tired so all of this is just weighing on my mind more than it usually would. Time for bed

I'm thinking about keeping a list that I'll call 'KS's "You've got to be kiddings!"' In the line of work I'm in we've got lost of those moments. Yesterday I had a great one to start the list off with. *Phone rings* - 'Mr. VP of Such and Such would like to be switched from the small plane to the big plane please*.' For some reason I have a feeling there's going to be a lot more of these to come.






*BTW I told Mr. VP's Admin Assistant that there was no way that was going to happen.

Well after a horrendous New Year's, that was horrendous because a 12 hour virus of some sort decided to celebrate in my body, I dragged myself onto a plane early in the morning on the 1st and made my way back up to camp. Happily I managed to sleep much of the way back in the plane as well as the truck. I arrived in time for dinner then promply went back to bed. Woke up the next morning feeling much better and managed to carry on about my business.

Things here haven't really changed all that much. The guys are all starting to make their way back from their respective holiday's and for the most part they're actually somewhat pleasant, I guess many of them, just like me, needed a vacation.

My turnaround in January is going to see me heading to Saskatchewan taking the trip that I missed out on in November. I'm looking forward to it as much as anyone can look forward to going to Saskatchewan. I am staying there for about 5 days then will be spending the rest of my time off with the Fabulous Mr. G and hopefully Raph and the Wifey in Edmonton.

New Year! New Template! Whooooo hooooooooo!

Another year of Christmas revelry has come and gone. This year's Christmas was very good, aside from Sister having to stay at camp, and went really quickly. Tomorrow night is New Years Eve and I'm looking forward to a bit of fun. I'll be spending the first bit of the evening with J and a number of her friends then moving on over to The Baron's place of residence where I will ring in the New Year with my friends.

Sadly I have to be on a plane headed back to camp at 1030 on Jan 1 (which I'm really not happy about) but I am looking forward to getting back to work. It will be nice to get back into the swing of things. It always amazes me that after just a few days off I'm ready to go back to work again. I think this may be a seriouse psychological problem...

Finally I got a wicked digital camera for Christmas this year and I've been spending some time learning how to use it; so I am excited to say that I will likely be incorporating more pictures into my blog.

Until 2007 (unless I decide to post something tomorrow)!

Yet again I find myself working up the the very bitter end of the Holidays. When I was in Retail this made sense and unfortunately I had to work Boxing Day and a bunch of the days in between as well. Now that I'm in the aviation industry I again find that I'm in the middle of a crazy busy time of year.

Yesterday the crew out here moved over 500 people. This was no small accomplishment but I'm proud to say that everything went really well. Aside from the fact that I woke up this morning feeling like I've been hit by a truck everything's good.

I'm really looking forward to getting out of here now. As things are finally starting to wind down I'm looking forward to the chance to just collapse for a while. Considering I'm flying out of here on Christmas Eve and going directly from the airport in Calgary to the first of three family dinners over the course of three days I don't think I'm going to be able relax until I get back to Vernon. Vernon's looking to be quite enjoyable as well as Raph and Wifey are going to be there and I'm really looking forward to some 'do nothing' time with them.

New Years this year has been somewhat subdued for me already because of the fact that I'm flying back to this lovely place on Jan. 1st at 10:30 in the morning. That means I get to spend my Birthday in camp this year to :(

All in all I should count myself lucky that I don't have to spend both Christmas and New Years here like Sister does.

Well until I get a chance to post again, Merry Christmas Everyone!

I ate so much chocolate today that I was practically vibrating by the time I left work. That's one nice thing about Christmas is all the great chocolate that people just give away... now if I can only convince them to give away red wine to go with it...

The past week or so has been excruciating and I didn't know why. It was just about all I could do to drag myself back to my room every night without wanting to cry. Then once I was back in my room the extreme weight of depression hit me and I just wanted to cease to exist. As this hasn't happened to me in quite a long time I was very unhappy and couldn't figure out what was going on. Then while talking to my Mother the other day I complained that I suspected the new naturopathic medicines I was taking may have something to do with it. Mom suggested that I stop taking them for a while and see what happened. Well I stopped taking them today and while I woke up feeling terrible around 2PM something switched and suddenly I was back to my normal self. It's really scary to me how these kinds of things can effect me so strongly but what's even more scary is the people out there who don't know that they are succeptible to this kind of thing and carry on as best they can every single day. I guess this is a good reminder for me to be more sensitive to the people around me and to keep remembering that as incredibly stupid as many of them are... some of them may not be able to help parts of their stupidity or crankiness.

I can hardly believe it but Blogger tells me that this is my 700th post! It's really hard to believe that 700 posts ago I started this blog as a class project. Since then it's followed my life through some extream highs and some seriously low, low's. In school I'd never really taken a major interest in writing and I think that's mostly because of the whole pen and paper thing. When I'm typing things are just so much easier. Here's to Blogger! Thanks for making this such an easy process and never telling me to stop writing.

This is Hilarious! I'm off to evade my army of screaming lovers now! Thanks Wifey great diversion for a Saturday.

I have climbed highest mountain
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you

I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire

This burning desire
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night

I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds and you
Loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Of my shame

You know I believed it
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for...

-U2

No matter what path in life one takes they're bound to find some aspect of their being that doesn't match up with how they'd like to see it. What is an ideal life? Is there such thing as a balanced life?

As my Dad drove me to the airport yesterday we were discussing how some of the concerns and issues that my current living and working situation was bringing about. Concerns like 'Am I missing out on life?', 'Are other people moving furthur ahead in their careers by being in a city?', 'I don't "like" living where I do right now so will the sacrifice payoff?', 'When will I be able to live the lifestyle that I want to at some point in life?'

I suppose that when I look at these questions the answer really boils down to time. How long am I willing to put in up here? At what point do I just decide that the money isn't worth what I'm missing out on. When do I decide that I've got enough "experience" to move on to another career somewhere else? Will I be able to move to another career once I leave here or will this place have left an indellible mark on my psyche that follows me around haunting me for the rest of my life.

I deposited the largest paycheck of my life today. I wish I could report that it felt great and all those things that people are supposed to say but overall I felt... not so much. It's really weird but the old saying is true, "Money isn't important until you don't have any". I just never thought I'd be saying that...

An ideal life is really measured by the thoughts of the person looking for it. As for whether an ideal life is balanced... I think that's a pipe dream. There's no such thing as in ideal life let alone a balanced life.

I've been home for seven days now and I leave to go back to camp tomorrow. Overall I have to say that I'm already looking forward to going back as there's just not much to do here when I'm home. I've managed to take some inspiration from Raph and Wifey this time though and I spent most of Saturday and all of Sunday doing nothing. The fact that I've picked up a cold while home has likely helped in curbing my need to do anything as well.

As usual I've been hemorraghing money since I got back. There are just so many things to do in a couple days that people with 'normal' lives can spread out over the course of a month or more that I have to do in a compressed time. Things like servicing and gettting the car ready for winter (even though I'll likely only drive it for 3 weeks of actual winter driving), going to the chiropracters, stocking up on toiletries (this is stunningly quite expensive) and other such things have kept me quite busy. Trying to see the few friends that I still have here also takes up a bit of time.

All in all this has been a good, if not somewhat boring, time at home. After being at camp for 34 days though I think it's just what the Doctor ordered. Actually it almost is, I went to the Naturalpath two days ago and he told me my body was at the point of exhaustion. Nervous system friend and all that, of course the road to recovery cost a disgusting amount of money but I paid it and hopefully I'll start to feel a little peppier soon.

It's been a long day. Essentially my day went get up really early, work, get on a plane, get off a plane, go for lunch, go home, go shopping, run errands, go for supper with extended family, go home, watch Grey's Anatomy, do this, go to bed. See you in the morning.

The more I experience working up here in the oil patch the more I see how some companies completely take advantage of their employees. What I am about to say is almost complete sacrilidge but I can totally see where some form of Union might be a good idea in some of these companies.

The problem with the current system is that companies like ESS have Unions and that particular Union is SO corrupt that it's common knowledge that the Union President takes bribes to get certain ethnic groups admitted to the Union. That and the fact that the Union workers cleaning the lunch room make upwards of $100,000 a year while the office workers who are doing work that is much more technical and requires skills make around $50,000 just doesn't seem right.

Day in and day out we hear stories about companies that are scrambeling to find decent employees. Well you know what? The decent employees are out there and they want to work they're probably just to damned smart to take the job.

Today was a true Sarah McLaughlin day. You know those days where you're very pleased to sit around, drink mint tea and listen to Sarah. I think it's a combination of being tired and the fact that it's MINUS FUCKING 32C HERE!

Day 31 in here. I can't wait to go home!

I think I'm a little bit hung over today. Could be the three bottles of wine that we drank last night. Happily one of my bosses is in Edmonton and the other is likely in McMurray. So I've been hanging out in my room all day. Actually considering it's my 30th day in here I figure that taking a day off is completely warrented. No one seems to mind so I'm taking advantage of it.

Even up here it seems that the Christmas Season is upon us. I've got all of my Christmas shopping done already this year! Every year I get my shopping done really early but this year I've outdone myself. I've also spent more money than I ever have for Christmas this year. I figure that it's likely the only time that I'll be able to afford to give extravagant gifts so why not.

Lots going on up here. The most exciting / interesting part is that Sister arrived here tonight. I think that in a couple of days after the initial shock wears off she'll be fine. It will take a while though... something about walking into a dinning room with about 900 men in it, who havn't seen a good looking woman in weeks, that seems to have made her a bit antsy.

I was told today that it looks like my new rotation is going to be a 2 & 1. What that means is that I'll work for two weeks straight and get one week off. I think this should be better than the current rotation I'm working which is 21 & 7 but I'm worried about how this will affect my "lifestyle" I'm going to end up spending more money on planes and such than I want to because I'll be home that much more often. Of course I'm toying with the idea of getting a place in Calgary but I'm really, really wanting to avoid that. We'll see how it all comes out in the wash eventually.

Yeah, we ended up watching 'The Muppets' again. Mr. G and I drank a whole 40 of peach Vodka and I think he wants to die right now. I on the other hand am just fine.

WHO WANTS TO GO TO ITALY? I'm seriously dying to scratch the itch from the travel bug. I'm completely serious about this and I'd like to go in January or February. Unfortunately British Airways is having a SUPER WICKED seat sale now and I just can't make use of it. So let me know if we're gonna go to the Eternal City!

Ah, Friday night. The night when the world recovers from the monotany of their weekly life. Even up here at camp many of us try to stay true to the purpose of Friday night. Tonight Mr. G and I are going to get drunk and watch a movie. Happily this is a slight deviation from our regular version of getting drunk and watching 'The Muppets' in that tonight we're going to watch 'Thank you for Smoking' instead of 'The Muppets'. Not that we've lost our love of the Muppets but we only have the first season on DVD and quite honestly the majority of the guest stars in the first season sucked.

This week I have spent much time cobbelling together policy and procedures from every e-mail my Manager has ever sent out. Oddly enough I've found that I really like doing this sort of thing. I think I get some sick sense of pleasure out of creating something that impacts so many people. Maybe I should go into politics...

From the sounds of it Sister has gotten a job with my old company. She'll be working in Housing at one of the camps. Same office I used to work in but the job is pretty standard. She'll do well if she decides to stick with it. I'm fairly excited that she's coming up here because with Mr. G and Anneke leaving I'm going to be terribly lonely. These two have become great friends. We watch Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives together in my room every week. Eat togther, party together, just have fun in general. Things will be different with them gone but life moves on and new people are always moving in. I'm looking forward to the next friends to move into my life.

I started my new job two days ago now and one of the things that I noticed the most was that I seem to be much less stressed out at work. Here I'm pretty much left alone to do what needs to be done. My new Boss told me that he'll supply the equipment I just need to tell him what I need to do the job properly. Far cry from the old company that's still going through people like they cost money or something...

Instead of writing in my blog lately I've taken to watching HBO's 'Six Feet Under'. Six Feet Under is quite an odd show yet I feel myself identifying with one of the main characters 'David' very intensely. That's not to say I like David or even admire him as a character but I do find it uncanny how many of the situations he finds himself in I've been in. The writers for the show have obviously had some pretty serious religious background.

A while back I stepped on the scale in my baggage room and almost died when the nasty red numbers rose up to 180lbs. Now of course this is fully clothed with my pockets full but good Lord is that heavy. Of course at first I blamed the scale and I made the airport order a new one. Well unfortunately when they switched it they didn't tell me so I kept insisting the scale was wrong, as there's NO WAY I should weight that much, and of course the joke was on me. So now I'm blaming my rapid weight gain on all the working out I do... that and the never ending buffet I'm forced to deal with everynight.

Tomorrow I'm officially going to have been here for 21 days and unfortunately because of the way that I left the old company and came into the new one there's not really anyone to step in and take my place when I'm gone. That of course means that I'm going to have to stay for an extended period of time. I'm just hoping that it's not going to be any longer than 2 more weeks as I think I may just lose it before that.

I'm sitting on my bed and I'm trying to quell the anger that is coursing through my body. I don't want this blog to be a constant bitch fest and I think that maybe what it's become in the past while. Of course it is possible that I am just angry in general and this is the only outlet for that anger. There are many things that I want to write about but I'm just to damned lazy to do so. I need a break.

I found this fairly interesting... and surprisingly accurate for something I found on the internet.

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||||||||||| 73% Stability |||| 13% Orderliness |||||||||||||||| 70% Accommodation |||||||||||| 43% Interdependence |||||||||||||||| 70% Intellectual |||||||||||| 43% Mystical |||||||||| 36% Artistic || 10% Religious |||||||||||||||||| 76% Hedonism |||||||||||||| 56% Materialism |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Narcissism |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Adventurousness |||| 16% Work ethic |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Self absorbed |||||||||||||||| 63% Conflict seeking |||||||||||| 50% Need to dominate |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Romantic |||||| 23% Avoidant |||||||||||||||| 63% Anti-authority |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Wealth |||||||||||||||| 70% Dependency |||||||||| 36% Change averse |||||||||||||| 56% Cautiousness |||||||||||||||| 63% Individuality |||||||||||| 50% Sexuality |||||||||| 36% Peter pan complex |||||| 30% Physical security |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Physical Fitness |||||||||||||||| 64% Histrionic |||||||||||||| 56% Paranoia |||||||||||||| 56% Vanity |||||||||||||||||| 76% Hypersensitivity |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Female cliche |||||||||||||||| 63%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
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Ok, I'm sorry but I'm not going to update tonight either. I'm really tired and I'm heading back to camp tomorrow. Quite honestly, as I'm sure you've all noticed, I've been having a bit of a tough time keeping this thing updated. I think that I'll be taking a break from writing for a while. I'll be back in November.

Sorry for the really long time between posts. Posts of any substance anyway. Unfortunately this is going to be another very short post. I just wanted you all to know that I start my new job November 1st! I promise that I'll write a much more in depth post tomorrow about what I've been up to recently.

Good Night!

Here's a thought... if you have an I.Q. of 2 you should seriously consider a career in Management. Ready to murder...

Another insane day. To much going on to post but I am still alive.

A couple pictures from Kalamalka Provincial Park on Sunday. What a day!

Dear Lord! This years wine festival didn't disappoint. Whooo Hoooooo what a night! The day of Mr. G and I went to Mission Hill Estate Winery because their tour and education on the Okanagan wine region and how to taste and critique wines is the best. After we were done at Mission Hill we ripped off to Penticton where S was waiting for us at the house.

We got ready and headed out for supper at The Pasta Factory which was fantastic and an excellent idea as having lots of food in our stomach was a great idea. We arrived at the Convention center and started in on the tasting. At various points in the evening more friends joined and by the time we were all said and done we had about 10 people with us. After they kicked everyone out of the convention center we went to Martini's on Martin and then onto the Blue Mule where we danced the night away. At one point Mr. G did a solo dance to 'Play that funky music white boy' on stage and the DJ turned the spotlights on and everything. The entire place was going crazy by the time he finished off his dance solo.

Tomorrow I believe we'll be spending the day in one of the Provincial parks until we're off to the 'A taste of Vernon event' and then for dinner at The Keg in Kelowna with Sister. Now it's time for bed.

Tomorrow I finally get to leave. It's that special time of year in the Okanagan known as the Wine Festival. So Mr. G and I are leaving camp for just short of 5, sure to be fun filled, days of Okanagan goodness. I think I've even managed to talk my Mother into making Thanksgiving Dinner this year.

Just because I feel like it I'm going to tell you a funny story from this morning. I was busy right away for my 0630 check in for our Newfoundland flight. This morning I had just short of 100 people to deal with and get organized. As usual the entire event went off without a hitch until I washed my hands of them and sent them off to the airport.

It would seem that once the plane had landed the duty of opening the door fell upon a new flight attendant. Apparently this was only the girls second flight. Apparently no one was watching her to make sure she was following the procedure correctly and she missed a step. That missed step resulted in the door of the plane being blown off and the emergency slide unravelling! Unfortunately something like this isn't quite as easy to fix as one might think and a mechanic had to be flown up from Edmonton with the correct parts and the flight was delayed by more than two hours. Thank God I'm out of here on the first flight tomorrow morning...

I feel like I'm sitting on the proverbial 'pins and needles'. Today is the day that the company I currently work for is supposed to be advised that they no longer have the contract to do what I do for them. That means as soon as that happens I can give my two weeks notice and QUIT! Whoo hooo! The timing couldn't be better frankly as the current company is bringing in a whole bunch of new Managers (again) and at the end of the week they're having all their big wigs come in. I'm trying not to get to excited because it could still take some time before everything with the new job is ironed out so I may have to suffer a bit longer but I'm still excited at the prospect. Now one of my only problems is that I've completely lost all motivation to do any of the extra 'special' duties that I'm doing for current company.

On a side note, Wifey I did get your e-mail I'm just holding off on sending my address because I'm not really sure where I'm going to be as I may be moving to another camp as part of this job situation. I'll let you know as soon as I know. Frankly though I think that you and Raph should be able to make a decision on the quilt. Just no denim please!

It's finally Friday! The fact that I work weekends when I'm here really doesn't make Friday all that special but that said the weekends are always slower AND I can sleep in on Saturday's because I don't have any flights going out Saturday morning.

Thanks to Raph and Wifey I've started watching Firefly a now defunct TV sereies on DVD. The basic setting of the show is Space Cowboy and I have to admit I find it very hard to deal with. That and the music makes me crazy, anyone who's seen 'Brokeback Mountain' and hated the music would hate this music to. Aside from those two peckidillo's I am rather enjoying the show as the stories are quite good.

Today, like the rest of this week, has been horrible. I feel like I'm in a three ring circus and the elephants keep shitting on me. Just when I think that everything is going to be ok from somewhere up above a pile of crap comes down on me. Seriously the only thing keeping me going here is the knowledge that in three weeks I won't be working for this company. In less than three weeks I'm going to be more than thrilled out of my mind to walk into my current Manager's office and say "I'm done, leaving, good-bye!" Then I will turn on my heel and walk out. Never to work in this circus again.

At some point down the road I'm sure bull's will grow wings and shit will begin to fly again but having everything I've gone through in the past while under my belt will really help. Until then I'm just going to put my head down and try to stay out of it's way.

I wasn't back for five hours and I was called into the office by my Manager and basically told that I was to behave myself. FUCK YOU! That's all I have to say to him. It blows my mind that they can tell me to behave myself when they have absolutely no idea what I do in a day. By behaving myself I assume that I'm supposed to be a good little worker bee, do what I'm told quietly and unquestioningly (is that a word?). Unfortunately that's not me. I work really hard and I do a great job I'm just not quiet about it. I'm a social person and I happen to be pretty loud. If we were working in an office tower or something then yeah I would tone it down but as far as I'm concerned until Management works with us in the office and doesn't get their impressions just from walking through they can go to hell.

I'm also being ridden about the fact that I need to arrange coverage for my vacation in a few days. As I see it I'm not a Supervisor or a Manager so it's not part of my job. Proper Staffing is an issue that has been a major problem here and there's nothing I can do about it. If Management wants someone to cover for me when I'm gone then I would suggest that they arrange to have someone around to do it.

The end of turnaround is always somewhat bitter-sweet. As I'm sitting here in the Kelowna airport typing away, listening to my iPod and sipping an ice tea I'm reflecting on what was an awesome time out. It really seems that everytime I go out I have truly fantastic times that my co-workers are generally somewhat envious of but hey that's the point of it all isn't it?

So the concert! As with every concert in Vancouver the distinctive scent of "herbal refreshment" as Mariah put it was really heavy in the air. I told my Dad that if I fail a drug test because of this concert I'm really not going to be happy. Then again if Ross Rebagliati can get away with it then it really shouldn't be a problem for me.

Oh my God what an amazing experience! Sitting in GM place I was pleasantly surprised at how many people at the concert were my age or even younger. There was an air of excitement that was just palpable. Sitting there waiting for the opening act we were very curious to see who it would be. Imagine mine and just about everyone over the age of 35 when it turned out to be Busta Rhymes! Now as far as rappers go I suppose Busta is decent but I really wasn't all that impressed by his performance. He ripped out a few songs that I recognized that were pretty good but I was pretty sick about hearing how "Hot all da' Vancouver, Canada women are" by the time he was done.

When 'The Big Bang' finally vacated the stage the air was electric as everyone was getting pretty excited about Mariah. We waited, waited, waited some more, and then... we waited! The divine Ms. M didn't take to the stage for about an hour after the opening act. I was pretty irritated about the wait because I'd been waiting for the concert for months now! Once the stage curtains parted all was forgiven.

MC rocked that stadium from the opening note of the first song to the final song. There were only a few times during the event that people ever sat down other than that they were on their feet dancing. Mariah herself was far, FAR more gorgeous than I expected her to be. Pictures really don't do that women any favours. She is just stunning in real life. After the show one of the radio commentators said that obviously Mariah had, had some problems at the airport because she performed in her underwear the whole time! True her costumes were comepletely revealing but as one of the female radio hosts said "If I had that body I'd show it off to!" Drew from Z95 the Fox's morning show summed it up best though when he called into the radio station after the concert and screamed "MAN I'M COVERED IN PINK GLITTER AND I DON'T EVEN CARE" Yup, Mariah was worth the money!

I also spent a lot more money than I'd planned to this week. Bought three new sweaters and new boots. ok, pre-boarding the plane now so I've got to go.

I spent an entirely enjoyable day with Janet today shopping in Kelowna. I’d called her this morning to the happy news that she was just going to call me as she needed to talk. So after a brief stop at the Naturopath’s office for some desensitization I made my way to Orchard Park. Starting off with a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks we cruised on down the mall cause I wanted to go to Aldo and buy some dress boots. Wouldn’t you know it I found the perfect pair in just a few moments, bought and paid for ‘em and we were on our way down the mall. Part of the reason she wanted me there was because she is going shopping with her new boyfriend tomorrow and needed someone with an eye for fashion trends to advise. So after I got my boots we hopped in the car and went to a few other stores. At the Mexx warehouse (I’m thrilled with the fact that Orchard Park is getting an actual Mexx fashion store in a few months) she pointed out a sweater that she liked and it turned out that I did too. I tried it on and bingo I spent more money. At that point I decided it was time to stop shopping as I’d been planning on spending very little money before I go to Vancouver. Guess that idea’s out the window. All in all a fantastic day and just the right amount of time spend with one of my best girls.

I love flying, seriously I do. What I have figured out though is that charter is the way to go when your flying. Now I know most people have never had the pleasure of flying charter and I am stupidly lucky to be working in a place that flys us in and out so trust me on this, it's the way to go. Last night I hopped on one of the fabulous Canadian North 737's along with, count em, 13 other people and enjoyed an hour long flight down to Calgary. Now one of the wonderful things about flying on a charter that's almost completely empty is the fact that there's more leg room, you don't have a fat sweaty German tourist spilling over into your seat, you get whatever you want from the Flight Attendant, and nobody bugs you. Yep, if you ever get the chance to fly charter go.

Upon arriving in Calgary I was picked up at the airport by a cousin of my Mothers. I'm really the only one in my family that even knows these people because I spent time with them when they lived in Scotland many years ago. So over the years I've kept in touch and finally decided that it was time to go for a visit. He is a retired Executive with Exxon/Mobile oil and they're perhaps two of the most interesting people I've ever met because they've lived all over the world. Their gigantic million dollar plus home is filled with furniture they had custom made in Indonesia, tapestries and art from Europe, statuary and for lack of a better term knick knacks from Africa, rugs from the Middle East and stuff from Asia. Truely an inspiring place to visit. So after a fantastic meal the wine, chocolate and spirits were brought out and we spent the evening relaxing in and talking. At one point I thought to myself "These are my kind of people" so now that I'm freshly inspired I need to go about making sure that not only are they my kind of people but that I'm their kind of people. It's always good to have a fresh batch of inspiration.

I am SO angry right now. I thought that going to the gym would help and after 20 mins on the elliptical I think my anger is stronger. Here’s what happened. I was in the office working on some stuff and the French Girl was at the counter talking to her bf. Not thinking anything of it I wadded up a bunch of paper that had just come out of the printer and threw it at her. The paper bounced off her head and fell to the floor. I laughed, yelled bulls-eye and went back to what I was doing. About five minutes after this she turns around yells something at me, bursts into tears and runs out of the office with a full line-up of people waiting. So now I’m thinking FUCK she’s done it again. I go up to the window and cover for her.

The background to this is that I throw balls of paper at the girls all the time. The usual outcome is something like “ha, you missed” or “nice shot”. So I thought nothing of throwing the paper at her tonight. Now last week all of us in the office had been teasing the French Girl about this stupid midget guy that’s been hanging around her at night. Well last we’d heard she didn’t like the guy. Well apparently between not liking him and us teasing her she’d fallen madly in love with him or something. So that time she burst into tears and ran out of the office too. The difference was that time she just went, calmed down, realized what an idiot she was and apologized.

Tonight she went to our Manager and “told” on me. So I get pulled into the office where I’m told that I have to be more sensitive towards her because I’d apparently humiliated her in front of someone she liked. We’re not from the same culture, etc, etc,. Also I needed to watch it because what I’d done could be considered harassment. Now the talk I could take because fine whatever obviously I wasn’t thinking when I did something I’ve done a million times before. It was the fact that she’d told on me! I obviously need to change my approach to how I handle the French Girl. I have a feeling that she’s not going to like the new way anymore that the old way but she won’t be able to complain that I’m humiliating her. From here on in she’s an office tool to be used to get work done. Nothing more.



(I’ll probably calm down and re-think that later)

STOP! Do NOTHING!

There really is an art to doing nothing.  However you may choose to do nothing I think that it’s very important to our psyche that we all take the time to do nothing every once in a while.  I am fortunate in that I have two excellent ‘do nothing coaches’ in Raph and Wifey.  They’ve been excellent in teaching me how to relax, calm down and not worry that I ‘should be doing something’.  Sometimes doing nothing is exactly what we need.

Only 8 more days until I get to Vancouver and get to watch and hear that Fantabulous Mimi! Yes kids it's true I'm going to see Mariah Carey live! I bought my tickets MONTHS ago and I'm getting pretty stoked to see this concert. I'll admit it's probably kind of weird that I'm as much of a fan of Mariah's as I am but hey, we've all got our guilty pleasures. Hell even if Mimi wasn't involved I'm super excited about getting out of here again! I'm really looking forward to just sitting around the house and doing very little. Sleeping, watching movies, visiting The Baron, hanging out outside and going for walks. Yup, those are the things you'll find me doing this turnaround. Hopefully by the time I get back I'll have some news on the results of my meeting last week.

I realized that I've been up here in the not so frozen (yet, anyway) North for six months now. It's already been half of the one year time line that I promised myself I would stay for. The months up here whip by like nothing and it's seriously amazing what has gone on here. Since I've arrived we've lost all of the Managers, gained a few new ones, I've gained another job title (with no pay raise I'll point out), I've paid off all of my debt, camp occupancy has sky-rocketed, the weather has warmed, the bugs came out, the weather got cold, we've added nine new return flights at the airport, and I've had a pretty good time. When my year is actually up I'm really not sure what I'm going to do. Will I take a massive pay cut and move somewhere different, will I stay up here and float along, will I move to Cuba, become a communist and reject my family? Likely not. Either way I'm optimistic that things are going to be good.

Night, that special time of day when all goes quiet and rest is available for the taking. It is night when we're supposed to give up all the shit that has gone on during our day. Forget about the insanity of the phones ringing, the people whining, the numbers crunching. Now is the only time that is supposed to be truly ours. If this is the time that we are supposed to use to refresh, re-juvenate, recycle as it may be... why can't I do that. My mind starts to race, I can not seem to block it out. I dwell on every minute detail of my day. It makes me crazy. It keeps me up. It makes tomorrow more difficult than it needs be.

I’m feeling down in a way that I haven’t felt in quite a while. I’m not sure if it’s just the inability to get to sleep while I’m here or what but it’s really taking a toll on me. I can’t wait to get out of here again!

Ack! I forgot to tell about my important news. I had a meeting with the Manager from the 'other' company that I work for on Monday before I left for my time in Edmonton. I'm hopeful that I may be working for a different company soon. I'm very excited about the whole prospect.

What happened was I wrote up a job description and responsibilities for a job that I know is needed on site yet we don't have yet. I then presented this document to him while doing my damnedest to sell the idea to him. I serioualy think that he bought it and is looking into what I proposed. He told me that he REALLY didn't want me to quite and that I needed to leave this with him and he would see what he would do. So cross your fingers for me!

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.