Thursday Night

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

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

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

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

Crack Music

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

Music

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

Not Quite Ordinary

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

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

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

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

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

Friday Music

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

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

I'm too sexy...

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

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

Have a happy Thursday!

Sunday Night

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

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

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

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

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

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

Strange Events At The Gay Bar!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Handeling Stress Badly

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

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

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

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

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

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

Union Morality... Gimme a break!

March 30, 2006

I guess I really shouldn’t say that I have nothing to write about while I’m up here.  There are a ridiculous number of things that go on here on a daily basis that absolutely blow my mind.  

Take the phone call that I got yesterday for example.  The first time this lady called she was looking for her husband.  When she told me what company he worked for I told her that he had been moved to another camp.  She was satisfied with this answer and hung up.  

About four hours later the same lady calls back and I had the misfortune of answering the phone.  I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was obviously distraught and when she asked her first question I knew I was in for a weird conversation.  

“Is your staff unionized?” she asked.  I replied that yes the housekeeping and kitchen staff were unionized.  To which she asked where the hell are their moral standards?  Now I was completely confused by this and asked her what she meant.  She proceeded to tell me that she had been a union worker for 17 years and that if people she knew in her union acted the way that people in our union (allegedly) acted that she would be completely ashamed.  

By now I was wondering if she was calling from a mental institution.  “Well what did our people do?” I had to ask.  She then proceeded to tell me that her husband had (allegedly) been messing around with one of our female staff members, whom she referred to as a crack hoe, and that her union would never let that happen.  By this time I was frantically waving my hands trying to get the attention of my co-workers so that they’d rescue me.  My co-workers both walked across the office and stood in front of me mouthing what’s going on?  Well of course I couldn’t tell them I had a crazy lady on the phone so I had to go on listening to her for another five minutes with my co-workers staring at me.  I finally just told the woman that I would pass her thoughts on to the Union rep and that I hoped she found her husband soon.

Strangely enough you’d think that a story like that would be a-typical, well apparently it’s not.  Go figure.

Today I had to go to a meeting that proved to be insane.  All I had to do was take the minutes but I came out of there absolutely frazzled.  One of the most insane meeting experiences I’ve ever had.  For confidentiality reasons I can’t say what was discussed but I can say that in my view the demands of the people that live here are so out of whack with reality it’d make your head spin.

Final story for today, I don’t think I mentioned I got chastised the other day because I cleared my own spot at dinner.  Apparently by picking up my tray and carrying it to the dirty tray cart I was stealing Union jobs.

KS Out!

Grinding to a halt

Tonight was the first time that I really didn’t feel like talking to anyone at dinner and of course it was the first time someone came and sat with me, as opposed to me sitting with them, nice guy and he talked forever and ever and ever and ever.

I have a feeling that this blog is going to get more and more infrequent as my life up here is good and there’s really not all that much worth updating most of the time.  I can only go over the menu so often before all of you stop reading (Prime Rib tonight by the way).

All I can say is that I’m tired and it’s time for bed.  

Karen Armstrong

I first heard of Karen Armstrong while driving along in my truck on my way to Mackenzie a few months ago.  She was the featured guest on CBC’s Tapestry and I found myself completely enthralled with what she was saying.  A few weeks after the broadcast I was wandering around in the Kamloops Chapter’s when I suddenly remembered her name and thought that I should look for one of her books.  Well as luck would have it her latest book, The Spiral Staircase, My Climb out of Darkness, a biography, was inexplicably in the bargain books section so I picked it up for a measly $8.

Throughout the book I have consistently been surprised by many of the insights that Karen has mentioned discovering through the various travails of her life.  Reasons for the surprise vary but they all seem to draw to a final conclusion – I relate.  Below I have taken a few excerpts that particularly stood out among an astonishing book.

“I didn’t want to make those years a dark secret.  After all, I hadn’t robbed a bank or been in prison.’ ‘Despite all my negative feelings about religion, I still felt protective about the nuns and still felt sorrow and regret for a lost ideal.”

When reading this passage, where Karen is relating her experiences going to dinner parties in London where most of the guests were very interested in knowing about her 7 years in a convent as a nun.  Reading about this experience I quite honestly thought about Prairie and the time that I spent there.  For obvious reasons Prairie wasn’t a great period in my life but I do feel I grew out of the experience.  The weird thing I usually hold back on telling people that I went there, yet have a weird pride that I did and still stay in contact with many of the people I met there.  The school is now a part of my personal history and for some reason remains important to me.

“As T.S. Elliot had noted: “time was all we had.  But that night, for once, I was wholly present in the moment, not looking before or after, or pining for what was not.  And the present moment was not a bad place to be.”

Coming upon this passage was absolutely staggering as I have been struggling with the concept of being in the moment for a long time.  My Counsellor often wraps up our sessions with a reminder to live wholly in the present moment and it’s something that I’m really not very good at.  Knowing that someone as accomplished as Karen has the same struggles is comforting.

“As I left the school grounds to wait for the bus that had been the bane of my life during the last six years, I felt as though I were beginning a new journey.  Other people seemed to progress much more smoothly through life, I reflected wryly, as the bus finally crested the hill and roared toward me.  They went through college chose a career and a partner without all this drama.  But that didn’t seem to happen to me.  I kept getting derailed, ejected from one job, one lifestyle after another.  Doors kept slamming in my face.  But had I really wanted to be ordinary; had I really wanted what T.S. Elliot had called “the usual reign”?  I forced myself to remember all the times I had been bored and frustrated by school, despite the regular salary.  I couldn’t have it both ways.  And now, here I was again, heading into the unknown, and yet I felt in some strange way as though I were back on track.  The bus was taking me away from my nice safe job, but it seemed to be going in the right direction.”

This passage happened right after Karen had been fired from her post as a High School Teacher.  A job she absolutely despised and resented, yet it was comfortable.  Even this early in my career having failed more than I’ve succeeded I completely relate.  How is it that it does seem so easy for some people and that their lives just seem to float along merrily with the current while mine seems to be hurtling along in some kind of manic riptide.  Not standing still, just moving along at such an insane pace it seems like it.

Mutiny at the Camp!

The internet was down all day yesterday and most of today and I have to say that I’m dumbfounded at how something like that can cause a camp in the middle of nowhere to just about grind to an absolute halt.  The guys get almost as cranky as I used to when I didn’t have an internet connection while I was travelling.  In fact the entire office and administrative staff were going into web-withdrawal today.

Other than that life is starting to fall into place quite nicely.  This is my daily routine:

1. Get up


2. Look for socks


3. Wander to breakfast in pj’s


4. Go to office to see if co-worker wants breakfast


5. Go back to room and change into gym clothes


6. Work out


7. Shower and change


8. Go to Office & work


9. Eat supper


10. Finish work


11. Check e-mail


12. Watch TV / Read


13. Go to Bed

Repeat next day.  Terribly exciting, tomorrow I think that I’m going to change things up a little and do laundry somewhere between steps 5 & 6.

I just found out that my first turn-around (days off) goes from like Wednesday to the following Tuesday, which I think kind of sucks as I was planning on going to Vancouver for part of it.  We’ll see what’s going to happen I may fly into Calgary and stay there a day or two then go to Vancouver before going home.  Lots of flying…