Today two things happend that are of some significance. The first is that I withdrew from my online course at Athabasca University. The new job is just not leaving enough time to focus on it and learn. While I'm chagrined at the money I've lost on it I'm somewhat happy that I won't have a WF on my transcrips in case I ever decide to take another course from there when I have more time.

The second is happier in that I decided that it would likely be a good idea if I set up a, for lack of a better term at the moment, "program" in which our office will set personal and work goals, share and encourage each other on with them. The inspiration I got for this is from the Canadian Business series of articles entitled Canada's Best Workplaces. They had a feature article on one of my previous employer's 1-800-Got-Junk? that focused on the company's practice of encouraging employees to set goals for themselves in both their personal and work lives. I've borrowed the concept form Got Junk and expanded on it for my own purposes.

What I proposed to the girls looks like the following:

1. Goals
a. One Short-term Personal Goal (1 week)
b. One Short-term Professional Goal (1 week)
c. One Long-term Personal Goal (6 months - Year)
d. One Long-term Professional Goal (6 months - Year)
e. One Life Goal - Huge and Outlandish
2. Personal Development
a. Find one blog or web-site that you will devote a maximum of one half-hour a day that you believe applies in some way towards the acheivement of your goals (mine is going to be Canadian Business I think)
b. Meet every Wednesday at 2:00 for a quick informal meeting to discuss progress on goals for the week, set new ones and share one thing from the readings that you found interesting and would like to share
3. Encouragement
a. Each of the goals will be posted on a space on our bullitin board visible to everyone in order for each of us to maintain accountability towards our goals

I believe that I'm really not the only person who feels the way I do at times while I'm stuck up here. Of course I'm talking about those feelings of hopelessness and complacence that so many people all over the place feel all the time. I recognize that it's not just the people in my area of the country but many people in general. I digress, the purpose behind my deciding to presenting my "program" to my girls are I don't want them to feel as though they are stuck in a place in life that they're going to be forever. I want to help them acheive their goals both professionally and personally. I want them to help me reach my goals for the office and department. I want to grow as a Manager and a Leader.

One thing I have to say about my Boss is that he's shrewd. I just recently found out from some people that he's known company wide for coming in and turing operations around. He'll use whatever means necessary. I am proof of that.

Happily he's willing to stand behind me and what I feel needs to be done in the department. So in that light I'm working towards my first firing. I inherited three young ladies from the previous Manager and two of them are good, while the third is not. The problem with her overall is that she is infuriatingly slow and when I ask her about something she get's very defensive and snappy. The fact that she's making me crazy as well as making the other two resent that they're pulling all the weight means she's got to go. I'm going to be working on her written warning letter tomorrow.

I learned while working for HBC that when someone is not good in a job it's doing them no favours to keep them around. I wouldn't be in the position I am now had someone not made the observation that I didn't fit there. They were right and I'm happier for it. Of course it's taken a long time to come to that conclusion but it's there none-the-less.

Surprise, surprise...

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	High
Wrath:	Low
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	High
Lust:	Low
Pride:	Very High

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com

I've been back on site for a few days now and while it took me a day or two to get into the swing of things I'm doing well. Everyday my department has another minor sucess and that's where I'm getting my motivation from (I'd be lying if I didn't say that the pay-check I got this week didn't make it so much more worth it though). I came back to a spotlessly clean office, well as spotless as a construction site can be, and found the girls had made a few other minor improvements. Made me happy that things didn't go to hell while I was gone like my last two jobs.

Today I put together, hosted and moderated a very sucessful meeting between our company, the site owner and the support companies (housing, and bussing) on site. Everyone left the meeting surprised at how much was accomplished in the one hour that I had alloted for it. That of course left me feeling pretty proud of myself. Working with a group of people who were all significantly older than myself and had many years experience working in the kind of environment we work in.

While I would count today as a pretty good one career wise there was still the reminder of what I'm missing in the outside world. The friend I was going to the Gwen Stefani concert with, actually the person that I bought the tickets because she promised to go with me, backed out. I'm absolutely incredulous and somewhat depressed at how hard it is to find people to go to a concert with... especially when I paid for the tickets! So yes, my social life has degenerated to the point where I can't get people to come to a free big name concert with me.

I guess the point o f life at this point, for me, is to work and get as much experience and make as much money as I can. Living is for turnarounds and later in life.

I'm spending money like a rock star! Yesterday my Dad and I went on a wine buying trip through the South Okanagan and came back with a trunk full of wine, 20 bottles to be exact. We then stopped and had dinner at Sumac Ridge and I won't hesitate to state it was probably one of the most exquisite meals I've ever had. I started with an appatizer of mixed olives and Steller's Jay Brut! A combination I NEVER would have though of but it was oh, so good. So yes, yesterday was a very nice and very expensive day.

It's not my imagination... the air does smell sweeter in the Okanagan. It's good to be home, even though the heat is killing me.

The last few days at site were really long and I'm so completely exhausted right now it's sad. Yesterday on my way back from work to camp I was going to walk (there's a great backroad that's been closed to vehicle traffic that helps me get SOME exercise) but I was just so tired I couldn't get my butt out of the seat of the van. Well as we drove up to camp one of the local residents came wandering out of the woods, stared at the van then ran back into the woods. When I say local residents I am, of course, talking about a black bear. So I'm thinking that I'm going to go to a hunting supply store and buy a rather large can of bear spray before I go back.

As soon as I got off the plane today and headed back to Vernon my first stop was the bank. First I went to see my broker; who informed me that I would need to stop contributing to my RRSP's in about three months because I've already almost maxed them out. Secondly, I'm excited to annouce that I was able to get a bank draft for $4,000 that I am going to send to Ford tomorrow to help pay off my car! So as much as I bitch and complain about the, at times, futile feeling of working where the bears and the moron's roam free there are some major benefits.

The next few days look like they're going to be leisurely and relaxing. Tomorrow I've got some appointments, Thursday I'm driving my beautiful, almost fully paid for car, down to the Penticton area to sample and likely buy a case of wine and Friday we're going to Nakusp to seriously get away from it all. Yes, life is good.

Two more get ups and I'm out of here. I'm really looking forward to going home... not so much because I'm looking forward to going home but rather because I'm really tired and am looking forward to a break. Things in the office are running so smoothly I don't think anyone can believe it. I had document control come in to clean up our files at the beginning of the week and they took not two, not three but EIGHT bankers boxes of old useless files out of my filing cabinets. Originally we had thought we were going to have to get another filing cabinet, until I started questioning what we actually needed to keep. Making some other major changes as well, spent some time today cleaning out the hard-drive, which was cluttered with multiple copies of the same documents in many different files. Took a long time and I was stunned at how much crap was in there but it's all gone now or in a file I called Donna's File of Mysteries (we also have a bankers box that is sitting in the office getting fuller and fuller that I call Donna's Box of Mysteries) that is only in existance in case we get audited or something bizarre like that.

Overall I'm feeling pretty good about things at work right now. Of course I'm a little bit anxious about leaving for my eight days but... there's no way I'm not going. Things will look after themselves.

G-L-A-M-O-U-R-O-U-S! For some reason that's how I'm feeling tonight. For no other reason than I had a pretty darn good day and I've been listening to Fregie's song 'Glamourous' off and on all day. I think I'm going to be heading to Vancouver again this turnaround as Marcie and Frank are having a going away party and I really, really want to party again. These periods of stress and bordome in between just drive me to it. That and the thought of visiting my friend MC at Harry Rosen and possibly buying a suit's got me pretty pumped. Yep, glamourous that me! *Rolling eyes*

I've been super busy hence the lack of updates for the past while. Seriously my day involves getting up at 5 to be at work for 630. I work until 530 or like tonight until 7 then I come back to my room, watch an episode of Nip/Tuck (a fantastic show I just found out about) then I go to bed. I've just finished watching the show, so now it's time for bed.

There are a lot of times when I fall into one of those funks where I start to question everything I'm doing. I think these situations are somewhat valuable because they get me to think and question what I'm doing. I think about the fact that I'm up here and that I'm very much alone. I think about the money that I'm making and I ask myself what do I have to show for it? Then I think about the experience I'm getting and I ask myself what the hell are you going to do with the type of experience you're getting right now? I suppose I'm being hard on myself as usual but the future is a scary place to be when you're in the present. It's even harder to be there when you're alone.

Check this interesting little thing out.

Hello all you Happy People! Well things are still going along well. I'm starting to get the rythym of how things in this new company work. Overall I'm enjoying it and I have to say that even at this early juncture that I think it was a good move. I'm busy, the girls in my department (yeah, I am in charge of a department of women, what a surprise) are a lot of fun. Management is supportive, if not somewhat overbearing at times but overall they leave us alone. Yes, I'm rather pleased with things at the moment. Although there's a huge amount of work to done I know it's only a matter of time before I get things working.

Had a very good day today. Things are going along swimmingly. I do have one hell of a headache though so I'm going to bed. Like now.

I'm sure you may have heard about the fatalities up here. Apparently a roof collapsed on one of the giant boilers and two people were killed immediately, 4 were rushed to hospital where one died today, and there are rumours that 14 are still missing. I think the site was where the Chinese Nationals were working so can you imagine the reaction when the full story gets out?

I've been with the new company since Monday and yesterday was my first full day. Right now I'm in that phase that you get when you begin a big project or something like that. You know the one when it's the first day of class and the instructor is finished going through the course and your sitting there thinking 'how in hell am I going to get this done?" That's pretty much me right now. The difference is that I know that I'll be able to do it and that it's not really all that big of a problem. Doesn't make me feel all that much better though in the short term.

The fact that I've moved out of the camp I was in for a year and had lots of friends at and moved to another camp is kind of magnifying the problem too because I don't have any friends at this camp and I don't really know any of the people that I work with yet. Combined with the fact that they have their own little cliques and groups with their own schedules doesn't help because I can never seem to find them. Makes the loneliness that much more pronounced.

I am LOVING the suite that I'm in though. My own bathroom never seemed like such a big deal before but once you've got one it's great!

My new schedule is going to take some getting used to...

It's been a really exhausting week since I posted last. Tuesday I returned to site to finish off my last three days with the last company. Finishing those three days involved things like making sure that my replacement had the information that he needed and some other final administraitive details (my replacement has already called me once this morning... I didn't answer though). Friday I cleaned out my room and moved over to my suite at my new camp. All I have to say is this new room puts just about ALL of the hotel rooms I've stayed at over the years to absolute shame. I have my own washroom, the floors are carpeted and the bed is a double! YAY!

Late Friday night I touched down in YEG and The Baron and Raph were at the terminal to pick me up. After cajouling them into stopping at McDonalds to get me some junk food we went to Raph and Wifey's where I proceeded to eat my McDonalds AND the left over cornbread and soup from their dinner. After I'd finished eating everything in sight it was time for bed.

Saturday was lots of fun! In the morning I argued with Wifey about a number of topics. Then I got to go for lunch with Mr. G and T where we sat around, ate and generally enjoyed life. After lunch Mr. G took me back to Raph's and he and I went for coffee at The Second Cup. Well let me tell you, there'll be no seconds from that place! Terrible coffee and the brownie was a dried out brick. If it wouldn't have been for Raph's excellent company I would have been really upset. Once we'd returned home I waited for L and her boyfriend to come pick me up for dinner. We went to a place called 'New Asian Village' for Indian food which was delicious (the next morning I was having some issues with it though) then L and I started to work our way around town looking for Martini's. We started off at Earl's Tin Palace where the drinks were okay but way to pricey. Next walked down the street to Suede Martini bar which had pretty good drinks for a decent price then moved on down to Caelyes (sp?) Irish Pub to finish the night with some good ol' shots and dancing. I for one had a great time! Had I been able to figure out how to get into the condo faster upon being dropped off though that would have been nice.

Sunday was another excellent, albeit much more low keyed day, we tried to get The Baron to make us a cake (he wouldn't) so Raph and I went for tea. The tea place was closing down for a special event or something so we walked on down to a place called Vi's Pies (or something like that) where I had one of the most fantastic pieces of cheese cake I've had in years. White Chocolate Raspberry! Tres Bien. To top the day off we went to 'The Sugerbowl' for dinner where I had one of their incredible lamb burgers with goat cheese and garlic mushrooms. Truly a day of gastronomical sucesses.

This morning I left my hotel and went to my new companies works yard where I pee'ed in a cup and went over a bunch of administraitive things. Then because I was finished there WAY earlier than I thought I would be I get myself transported to the airport where I'm now sitting killing time. Mr. G was supposed to get in touch with me and we were going to hang out for a while but I'm not sure if that's going to happen now as I can't seem to get a hold of him.

Still not really sure what's happening tomorrow, work wise, but I guess we'll see. I'll keep you all updated when I have time.

It's probably bad that when the other team scored the winning goal with 30 seconds left in the third that I almost cheered. The mere thought of overtime just about made me sick.

Well I'm off to do my least favourite thing. Hockey playoff game. I really wish Dad would just listen to me when I tell him I'm bored out of my ever loving mind sitting there watching a game. I'm thinking of taking my iPod and a magazine tonight.

Vancouver was a blast! I spent WAY to much money but it was oh, so worth it. I drove down on Friday and Marcie and I went shopping on 4th for a few hours before we headed over to Commercial for dinner at Marcello's. We hit Lulu Lemon pretty hard and even went to the "Hidden" outlet store where I got a good deal on some pants. Marcello's saw us goarging ourselves on amazing food and some good wine all served to us by the 'highest' waitress we'd ever seen. Amazingly though her service was awesome!

After dinner we were to meet up with one of Marcie's friends at a club downtown. Well we went and the club was, perhaps, the most tragic club I'd ever been in. It just sucked. So I called up my friend The Russian and requested that he save us from the aweful straight club. He very happily obliged and swung by to pick us up on his way to a houseparty. Well we walked into the houseparty with no forwarning that it was a "Cops and Robbers" theme party so Marcie and I were somewhat taken aback that everyone was dressed in costume. Didn't stop us from having an interesting time as most of the people were really nice. There was this one gay that kept "shushing" me everytime I said something (he was a cat burgler and you had to be quiet) that I wanted to punch but it was no big deal. An hour or so after we got to the point where the partiers were drunk enough that they didn't care if we left so we did and went to 1181 on Davie St. which is a very "swank gay martini bar" as The Russian said. I think it was the Martini at 1181 that pushed us over the edge because my Lord the next thing I remember is doing Zoolander poses on Davie St. with The Russian and Marcie. The night finished off as per our usual dancing on a stage at The O. The theme song of the weekend was Pink's - 'U & UR Hand' which when Marcie and I read the lyrics online were somewhat scandalized by but it's still a great song.

So after waking up Saturday morning Marcie and I went to meet my friend Chris for brunch and Matthew came in from Coquitlam and spent the day with us. Poor guy ended up getting dragged around downtown Vancouver shopping all day. I felt kind of bad for him but he kept insisting it was ok so I'm going to belive him.

Our original plan had been to party our asses off on Saturday night too but as luck would have it all of my friends ended up with some sort of drama so they couldn't come. The fact that Marcie and I were still somewhat exhausted from the night before ment that when the opportunity came up to go to Coquitlam for dinner with Matthew and his Fiance it was more than welcome. So that's how we ended our night. A fabulous Greek dinner with awesome company. I really couldn't have asked for more.

I've been home for two days now and I have to say it's been nice. Yesterday after I got off the plane my Mother dragged me around Kelowna for a few hours. The experience wasn't completely painful but I was exhausted already and she just would not go home, so I comprimised and we went to Quail's Gate for lunch. All I have to say about that is... don't. Don't get me wrong the food was good and the restaurant is beautiful but the cost was completely unreasonable for the amount of food you actually got. I'm talking outrageous. Cost me $40 not including tip for a sandwhich and salad. We didn't even have any wine! I did end up buying a case of Gwerts though :)

I'm getting super excited about my trip to Vancouver this weekend. We've decided that we're getting a hotel room for Saturday night because we figure that we don't want to face the wrath of Frank when we stumble in drunk in the middle of the night. I'm hoping to see a good number of friends while I'm there and expecting to spend some time with Matthew.