Tofield

November 7, 2005

Well I had a good weekend in Calgary.  Unfortunately I didn’t realize that my first job this morning, in Tofield, was just out of Edmonton until yesterday.  So I drove up Highway 2 until the snow started to fall.  By the time I reached Leduc there was a thin layer of snow all over the highway that made it feel like I was driving on butter.  I slowed down to between 40 or 60 kms/hr but the fools around me didn’t.  I had one jack-ass fish tale in front of me twice before he finally pulled off the highway as I’m sure he only had summer tires on!  Now I’m in Tofeild listening to the CBC and the accident reports are crazy.  You’d think that living in Edmonton people would know how to drive in snow.  SLOW DOWN!

Because of this weekends antics I’ve decided to quit drinking.  Yesterdays hangover was just horrible and lasted until I went to bed last night.  Now don’t worry I’m still going to drink wine but anything else is done.  No more…

Travelling through Alberta has been rather interesting actually.  Listening to CBC and witnessing the hyper-growth economy in action here just blows me away.  It’s rather frustrating that in both Alberta and BC all you ever hear about is how there’s not enough workers to supply demand and yet I can’t seem to find a job that I actually want to do.  How does that work?  It really gives me incentive to keep working at looking to see if Narcissus will be a viable business.

I’M GOING HOME ON THURSDAY!  I’m very much looking forward to it as I’m pretty tired of travelling.  It’ll be nice to see my friends again.

So I'm in Calgary. Arrived after driving all day. My trip went: :Leduc, Wetaskiwin, Camrose, Wainwright, Provost, Calgary! I was so fucking mad at the clients in Provost. The bastards kept me waiting around for two and a half hours for no reason! If my truck was powered by anger I'd have made it to Calgary in no time.

Anyway I'm exhausted so just wanted to let you all know I'd found an internet connection. Would you believe there's one accessible from my Uncles house! Accessible from the basement no less. Makes me hate Edmonton even more!

Leduc II

November 2, 2005

I went to Edmonton last night (from Leduc where I’ve been staying this week) and had supper with Raphael’s brother.  Dinner at Earl’s was excellent and I had a fantastic time.  Really enjoyed the conversation with him after spending the summer with him we’d become much better friends and I’m quite glad about it now.  

Tomorrow is my last night in Leduc and then I head to Calgary for the weekend.  I’m looking forward to staying with Uncle Frank and seeing all the cousins down there.  Also looking forward to seeing my friend who used to be from Penticton and who we’ve been partying with so much there this summer.

Leduc

October 30, 2005

Ok, I’m starting to feel a little bit crazy.  Last night I was sitting watching TV on my own and it just hit me that I was tired, lonely and frustrated.  As decent as this trip has been I’m looking forward to it being done now more than ever.  Kind of stupid as it’s going to be this last leg of the trip that’s going to involve more friends and people that I haven’t seen in a long time.  Don’t get me wrong I’m looking forward to seeing them but even though I’ve been able to stay with relatives I’m ready to go home.  Weird actually as once I’m home I’m sure I’ll be tired of being there.  Am I the only one who has this stunted form of wanderlust?  I love travelling and going to different cities and when I’m home I want to leave but when I’ve left I want to go home.

Spent yesterday working on the feasibility study for Narcissus I ended up spending way more time defining who my customers were than I originally thought I would.  Working through this feasibility study keeps bringing up doubts I wasn’t expecting but so far nothing has popped up and told me it won’t work.  I’m still waiting for that.

As I contemplate going into business for myself I know more and more that it’s the right thing for me to do.  I’m just so disinterested in doing anything else.  Anything I can actually see myself doing I don’t seem to be qualified for and anything that I’m qualified for I can’t seem to get because of the competition.  Although to be fair I haven’t even bothered trying to get anything in the recent past.

Today I’m going to visit a friend from Prairie who’s living in Wetaskskiwin.  Looking at the lives of some of my friends I’m frankly relieved that I don’t have his life.  Married and has a child, living with the in-laws and being supported by his wife as he stays home with the kid.  Ugh just not what I’d want although I’m thrilled that he seems very happy about it.  Either way I’m looking forward to visiting with him as we were really close.

Edmonton II

October 26, 2005

I am super frustrated tonight.  Not only is the only hotel in Acheson (the industrial park where I start work tomorrow at 515AM full but I haven’t been able to check my e-mail since Saturday!  It’s making me crazy!

Other than those two irritants, things here are fine.  I am really tired though.  I hate 12 hour days.

This weekend I’m going to start cobbling together a feasibility study for my store… which I think I’ve decided to name Narcissus!  The Baron and I were discussing store related issues before I left and that name popped out of the conversation.  So from now on I’ll refer to the store as Narcissus.  I was reading over my Entrepreneurship text from school today and it indicates that a feasibility study is the first step.  I’m glad I started reading that book because I knew that a Business Plan wasn’t the first step but I couldn’t remember what was.  Now I know.

  

Edmonton

Let it be known that I am officially annoyed with the backwards, red-neck Province of Alberta.  I don’t get it.  Have they not heard of wireless internet here yet?  Frankly I’m not surprised.  I’ve noticed this before while travelling in Alberta.  It seems that things come slower here than BC.  Things I take for granted in BC (i.e.- reasonably good coffee or wireless internet) seem to take a while to catch on here.  Now I’m not saying there isn’t any wireless internet connections, it just seems that most hotels here haven’t figured out there is a demand for it.  Hell we were in Grand Forks a couple of weeks ago and they had wireless internet at Johnny’s Motel.  If Johnny’s has wireless why doesn’t The Yellowhead?  I can only assume that if I come back here in a year or so they will have it.

I have seen hell today.  It took the form of the largest Mall in North America… and me with $0.  Seriously I was so depressed I had to get out of there fast.  This no money thing is sucking I tell you.  I think I had more money when I was a student, as a student though I wasn’t driving a great car though…  Last night I stayed at my Aunts home in Leduc so I finally got a good night sleep.  Today was a really slack day with just one job but tomorrow will be a little bit busier.  

Talked to my Dad last night and my new truck is ready!  They’re going to Vancouver to pick it up this week.  I’m very excited that I’m going to have my own truck from now on.  Shuffling between trucks is a such a pain in the ass because you constantly have to get things the way you want them and then you get changed to another truck again.  So getting home to that will be pretty nice.

Slave Lake III

October 24, 2005

I’m finally leaving Slave Lake.  Not a moment to soon either as far as I’m concerned.  I woke up feeling pretty crappy today but still better than I felt yesterday which was just unreal.  Rarely do I get headaches like I had all day yesterday, it was so bad my stomach was even upset.  So of course I tried everything in terms of drugs that I carry with me but to no avail.  Next was a cup of coffee and wouldn’t you know it the headache subsided greatly.  Now the problem was that I was up till about 1130, which didn’t make me all that happy as I was exhausted.   This whole week I’ve looked like crap because of the terrible quality of sleep I’ve been getting.  Even using the substantial amount of skin care products that I lug around with me everywhere hasn’t helped to subside the dark circles and puffiness under my eyes (although it does sooth them).  Yes, I’m a certifiable mess, it’s only Monday and already I’m longing for the weekend.

Today marks the first day of the second week of my trip.  Only three more weeks to go and even though this week had a few hitches (mostly sleep related) overall everything has gone superbly.  No major problems or anything to complain about.  I’m almost sorry about that.

It’s been months now since I’ve seen my counsellor.  I did talk to him on the phone about 4 weeks ago but as for actually being in his office it’s been a while.  I’m looking forward to the opportunity but I really feel fine even though I haven’t seen him for such a long time.  I really feel that’s a significant milestone.  That and the fact that I don’t freak out as much anymore on the way I think things are ‘supposed’ to be.  Rather I’m generally pretty content to let things ride.  The old Popeye adage “I am who I am” is actually starting to make sense to me but more importantly it’s starting to mean something.

Slave Lake II

October 23, 2005

I am so ready to get the hell out of this town.  Now yesterday when I was writing about how much I enjoyed this place please don’t confuse the town with the lake itself.  Slave Lake, the body of water, is amazing.  Misrepresenting itself as a small ocean (from certain vantage points) with beautiful white sandy beaches the lake itself is about the last thing that you’d expect to find in Northern Alberta.  The town… well the town is fairly typical of what you’d expect to find in Northern Alberta.  I believe the liquor store to person ratio is likely extraordinarily high.  

Hardly to my surprise yesterday’s Edmonton Sun ran the “shocking” cover story that Alberta led the nation in mental illness and depression numbers among citizens.  Apparently the oil patch has something to do with it.  I’m shocked!  The working conditions are dismal, the jobs generally terrible and the only reason most people do them is for the obscene amounts of money to be made.  The sad fact is that the oil patch probably extracts an equal amount of life, or the will to live, out of its workers as it does crude.  As an uninformed visitor looking around these towns and hearing about the substance and alcohol abuses I’m not surprised.  Usually I would be the last person to encourage more social spending on community support but here I think the cry for these resources is actually justified.  The majority of the guys working up here are here to make tons of money and leave.  What I don’t understand is how they figure they are going to be able to escape from the lifestyle the oil patch allows them to afford.  Sadly many of them don’t seem to be able to make that break of reaching the ‘magic bank balance’ and then quitting to pursue whatever it was they originally wanted to do.  For many of the young men that move here in pursuit of that dream they don’t have any social network and few if any friends.  No wonder depression is a leading killer in Alberta.

I’ve spent the great majority of the last two days in my hotel room and as nice as it is I tire of it too.  I’m really looking forward to staying with my Great Aunt in Leduc tomorrow night.  This much alone time isn’t all that much fun.

I rented four DVD’s yesterday and how finished watching them all now.  Last night I watched the first four episodes of Desperate Housewives which I enjoyed immensely.  After the Housewives I watched Nicole Kidman in The Interpreter which was a surprisingly good movie.  Not at all what I expected it to be a definite recommend.  Today I watched Mulholland Dr. which I thought would be a great movie but turned out to be one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in my life.  The only reason I rented it was because every time I go into a movie store I always notice it and think that it maybe good.  So I finally rented it.  BIG MISTAKE!  After that I watched The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy, which I know I vowed I would never watch.  In spite of myself and a killer headache I found myself enjoying.  It was quite loosely based on the book so I can’t fault them for screwing up what I view as one of the best books ever written.

Tonight I am going to pack my things up and try to go to bed early.  I’m hoping that the headache will go away with some rest.  Tomorrow looks to be a very long day.  Week 1 of 4 down.  Only 3 more to go.

Slave Lake

October 22, 2005

Wow the past couple of days have been excessively busy.  I’ve been here in Slave Lake since Tuesday and it’s been non-stop until now.  Even this morning (Saturday) I had to go to the Pulp Mill for two hours at 6AM!  So now I’m sitting in my fantastic hotel room on the shores of incredible Slave Lake looking out the window considering the things I should / could do today.  There are the usual chores, washing the truck and cleaning it out, laundry, and mailing off the completed work to the office.  But right now I’m pretty much content to just sit here.  I do really wish that I had internet access though as that would help to dull the monotony.

Quite honestly Slave Lake has turned out to be the biggest surprise of a long time.  The last time I was here was about 5 years ago.  At that point this place was a dismal little dump.  The first clue I got that things may have changed was when I called from High Prairie the other day and tried to get a hotel room.  Every room in town was booked!  At this point I kind of got a little worried because I needed to stay here.  I called the office and told them to find me a room as I wasn’t having any success.  Thankfully they found the place I’m staying in on the internet.  I can’t even describe how much I like this place aside from saying that I would happily live here… well maybe a few months a year.  Yeah, I think I’ll trade in the car and buy myself a big ass Ford F-250 King Ranch 4X4.  Then I’ll go get an obscenely high paying job on the pipeline… yes that’s exactly what I’ll do.

So back to reality.  I’m looking forward to hitting Edmonton on Tuesday.  It’s a shame that all of the people I used to know in Edmonton no longer live there.  I do have to make a stop at The King’s University though to drop off some things for friends of The Baron’s.  I suppose I’ll also see Raphael’s brother while there.

I’ve really been missing Vancouver lately.  I’m not sure if it’s just because things in life are getting so predictable and I’m longing to shake things up a little or if it’s cause I just really want to go shopping?  Possibly a little of both.  

The more I think about starting my business the scarier it gets.  There are so many things that I never learned in business school.  Mostly things like how do I figure out how to get the suppliers I need on board, how do I open a retail store with absolutely zero money of my own, etc.  So right now because I happen to have ample time for reading I’ve been re-reading my Retailing text book from school (which is proving to scare me more with talk about population density equations and retail failure rates) but I’m finding that it’s not really all that much help cause I already know everything it’s trying to tell me.  Seems I didn’t miss very much from that class.  I’ve decided what I need is a mentor.  Someone who has been successful in retailing and would be willing to help would be excellent.  I know one person in Vancouver who used to own 10 Club Monaco’s when the chain was just new and who’s a real retailing diva but I’m going to have to track her down again.  I don’t think that’ll be hard.

Wow, a bald eagle just soared past my window.  I really wish my stupid camera phone was able to take a picture that adequately portrayed how beautiful it is here.  I’ve tried numerous times to get it to work but it just can’t get the immensity of the lake.

I suppose it’s time to go and wash the truck.

Grande Prairie

October 17, 2005

Few words can describe Grand Prairie better than ‘eeeeewwwwww!’.  Because of the oil boom in this Province the city is booming like there’s no tomorrow.  It’s amazing.  I arrived in town late this evening after driving for 11 hours to get here.  Looking at the hotels on the strip I was dismayed to see No Vacancy on every single one as far as the eye could see.  So I just walked into one and asked the lady at the desk to find me a hotel.  She probably called 7 before she got one that had 1 room left.  I high-tailed it over to the place to get the room before someone else did.  Just because I’m grateful that I have a room I’m not going to pass judgement on this place at all… aside from saying that I’ve stayed in cleaner accommodations at logging camps 12 hour drives into the bush!

The drive today was long but I’m driving one of the new trucks which is quite, comfortable and has a CD player.  Thank God for small mercies.  It also has a V10 engine which made the hills almost effortless.  While most of the drive was pretty the 4 dead moose that I saw laying on the side of the road quickly sobered my driving.  Not a pretty sight.

Tomorrow I’m heading up to Slave Lake where I will spend the rest of the week and… possibly the weekend.  My Mom has cousins there, where doesn’t she, but I’m not sure if I really want to get in touch with them.  The last time I was in Slave I did and it was a slightly disturbing experience.  I guess I probably will call them because I do have to spend the weekend there but I’m quite terrified that they’ll insist I go to church with them.  They’re extreme Pentecostal and I don’t think they’ll look lightly on my personal rule while travelling.  Never attend a church with Calvary, Living, or Freedom in the name.  I’ve had a few to many strange experiences with those types of churches.

Finally a story that I forgot to mention the other night.  While The Baron was making supper for Sister and I, I happily pointed out the fact that a deer was eating a part of one of his trees in the front yard.  I was happy to point this out because I know how irritated The Baron gets about this.  In a sudden flurry The Baron was out of the kitchen, still holding the really large knife he was cutting veggies with, and racing after the deer pelting it with small stones and yelling!  Truly one of the most magnificent displays I’ve ever seen from him.  Sister and I were laughing heartily when he came back in the house still brandishing his knife menacingly and muttering about pesky deer eating everything.

I'm still updating my blog on Word but STILL havn't been able to find a connection. I'm going to a friends house in the next little while and I'm hoping I will be able to connect and update from there. Cross your fingers!

It's proving rather difficult to find hotels with Internet connections. I'm at the Public Library in High Prarie right now waiting till my next job. I've been passing the time by listening to CBC's call in show about the strike that is going on in Brooks, Alberta at the meat packing plant. Suffice to say listening to a radio call in show on CBC without the obnoious Mark Forsyth (the man I love to hate) was refreshing. Callers who didn't agree with Marks point of view wern't cut off or anything! Very good and insightful program even though I did have my finger on the 'Send' button of my phone most of the time as I wanted to weigh in on the topic. Likely best I didn't as I really wanted to scream at most of the callers.

Later on it's off to Slave Lake. I have been blogging on my laptop and will post when I get the chance.

The Baron's surprise party was an absolute success! I'm very pleased with myself. I had invited Sister over last night for supper under the pretense that she hadn't seen The Baron for a long time and wanted to have dinner with him. This worked wonderfully aside from the fact that we ate a large lovely meal and were excessively full by the time that all of his friends arrived carrying all sorts of appetizer. The actual arrival of the guests happened in two stages. One of them arrived exactly at 7... as planned. She explained herself fantastically by saying that because he missed dinner with her last night that she thought she would stop in for coffee. So of course The Baron was slightly confused but happy to see her. As we were all sitting in the family room having coffee and chatting the door opened and in rushed all of his other friends singing 'Happy Birthday!'. He was completely flustered. Such a great thing to see. The rest of the night involved everyone sitting around the house and enjoying each others company while enjoying coffee and snacks.

In other, not so exciting news, I've caught a very nasty cold. Not so happy about that. Although the experience that all of the colds I had in the last year while working for HBC have helped cause I know there's no point in waiting it out I'm taking as many pills as I safely can to decimate this virus!

Today will be spent doing some laundry and getting prepared for my Alberta trip that starts on Monday. I'll obviously try and keep in touch but I'm not sure what the facilities I'll be staying at will be like so I'm not sure if I'll have internet access.

Well it's finally happened! My Baby's turned 30... 30,000 that is! On my way to Kamloops tonight I had to take this picture. I'm so upset. Why can't they stay young and cute forever?

In other news I'm conducting entry research on a business idea I had last week. I've got a partner who's very excited about the idea as well and we're going to see if it'll work. I just found out about one potential competitor already though and I'm slightly worried. Oh well to soon for that. Cross your fingers and wish me luck! If all goes well I plan on opening our doors sometime in April or May.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAPHAEL! May life continue to be a float down a pleasant stream with Wifey and all those you love. You have always ment an aweful lot to me and I truly love you. May the next 25 years be full of the colour green, fabulous music, good friends, good books, and all the other things you love.



Well I managed to get a whole bunch of things out of my system last night... mainly the desire to go dancing and have some fun with some great friends! The Murder Mystery was completely hoaky but because Tim and Lisa were so much fun we had an absolute blast. Not surprisingly our table managed to entertain all the surrounding tables. There's a little tradition that we have when we go out for food, we name the waiter or waitress. Well last night, inspired by her flashy earings, we named our waitress Margarita! Turns out that it was the poor girls first night serving and well... lets just say we made it fun. We're still not sure if she really enjoyed it when we implicated her in the murder with the actors but we thought it was uproariously funny.

After dinner we went to Penticton's Blue Mule danced for a few hours. All in all a great evening with the promise of more fun today!

I believe the picture speaks for itself! Yes, this was my hotel room this week. Honestly when I opened the door I think the carpet assulted me! Either way I feel violated for having stayed there. I don't think my sense of colour will ever be the same. The beauty of the thing that you can't quite see is the bed spread in the bottom corner of the pic. The bed was actually a BRIGHT peach colour! OMG The whole room only looked ok in the dark... and even then it was bad. I really shoudn't complain to much about this place though because it was meticulously clean. So basically the final word on this is that if your of Ukrainian extraction (as I partly am) you really won't have a problem staying at the Greenwood hotel.

Next in this mini picture tour is a lovely little number I've entitled RAGE! Why you ask would a seemly innocuous little red Jeep cause rage? Well normally this wouldn't cause me to even give it a second thought. Well when said cute little Jeep is driven by a very old man wearing a cap, the cap wearing variety of old men are perhaps the most infuriating drivers I've even encountered, and doing 70 Kms/hr down a straight stretch of road Clearly marked as a 100 Kms/hr zone the rage is explainable. Now when there is a steady line of cars in the opposite lane thereby not allowing a chance to pass for quite a while the rage is downright excusable! I fear that Raphael is going to be a hat wearing little red wagon driver someday... seeing as Wifey already is (it's true minus the red wagon... so far)!

Overall my trip to the Grand Forks area was quite a success though. As mentioned in my previous post I enjoyed the food and overall the people I was dealing with were a very pleasant lot. I'm hoping that my 4 week trip to Alberta in a few weeks will prove as pleasant as this one was... although I'm not expecting the weather to be nearly as decent.

Since I've been getting up at such ungodly hours this week 3:00AM etc. I'm dying right now even though it's only 9:18. So that said I'm signing off and going to bed. Very busy weekend coming up. Tomorrow is a quick Thanksgiving dinner with my family. A Murder Mystery dinner with Tim and Lisa and Sylvia in Kelowna then likely going to Penticton with Sylvia and will end up meeting with Janet and going out. Then Sunday it's Thanksgiving dinner with Janet's family and Monday is recover from the previous two days. Happy Thanksgiving to all you Canadians out there... displaced and otherwise.

Yes I'm still alive. I've been down in the Grand Forks area eating Borsch and Bread with Vereniki. Yum!

I actually took a picture (will be posted soon) of my hotel room in Greenwood because it's so God damned ugly! Once you see the picture you'll know what I mean. Of course the town of Greenwood doesn't have Cell service and I just noticed while checking out of my hotel room that they do offer internet connetivity... Oh well. I'm using the computer at the town's combined Tourist Information Office and Museum. The pasty animic looking fellow at the front desk seems to be getting antsy because I've actually come in and taken them up on the use of a computer. It's rather a strange set-up because I actually had to come into the back office of the Museum to use the computer! Come to think of if I'm getting antsy just setting in here... it's kind of creepy with the big pasty guy floating around...

God Damn does my head hurt. I thought I was actually going to throw-up a couple times today because my stomach was so upset from the head ache. Thankfully the job today went fairly quickly for 11.5 hours. Tomorrow it's off to Grand Forks where I'm very anxiously awaiting a meal of Borsch and very likely bread! Sometimes there are perks to travelling to the middle of nowhere.

Oh in case your wondering the new template got changed again. Didn't like it.

Tonight I'm thinking about some of the kids that are left on the outskirts of society. Ruth came over tonight and we watched a movie and ate some pizza. Ruth is staying with an Aunt and Uncle in a poorer part of town and as I was driving her home I commented on how many kids there were out wandering the street. We pulled up in front of her gate and across the street there was a young guy, I would guess around 13 or 14, wearing a t-shirt that he'd pulled his arms into, sitting on the back bumper of a van. Ruth and I sat watching him for a few moments and discussed whether we should do anything. Finally I said we have to at least ask him if he's ok. So we dropped the window of the car and asked if everything was alright. He tersely answered that it was. His face was clearly telling us to leave him alone. We backed away. Now everything about this situation was ringing alarm bells in my head and frankly still is. Of course once help has been offered there is nothing that can be done once it has been refused but still the desire to help doesn't dissipate quickly.

I bitch and moan about my life and the wrongs done to me all to frequently but the truth is that overall I've got it good. My parents love me and would do anything for me. And I have friends all over the world who would come through for me. If only every kid were so lucky.

So it was time for Template Change... not sure I like this one. Possibly a bit to frilly. I also added Site Meter Counter to the page as I'm totally curious to see if there are more people reading this thing than the ones I know are. We'll see.