First day done at the College. Some people suprised to see me there, some expected me but didn't know exactly when I'd be starting. It really does feel good to be back. Spent the day getting some background on service-desk-type stuff I never needed to know before, tomorrow will continue with more of the same. Wednesday-to-Friday, the list of stuff to get done before classes start next week is already growing, I have my work cut out for me. Feels good, though.
This Friday, back to the Hat to transport the cats n dogs. Then I'll take the rest of the long weekend to recover from it. The week after that, the move begins..renting a truck and borrowing any sucker that agrees to come along, we'll bring mostly packed boxes and smallish furniture, enough to fill a 16 foot truck, anyways. The week or so after, will do the same, but probably hire students or movers to get the piano and appliances into said truck.
I wish we were moving directly into a new house, but instead will be storing our posessions. We can't list the house for sale until the cats are gone, can't put an offer on a new house until the old one is sold (at least on paper, unconditionally). At least we have a place to store the cats and the stuff while all this goes on. I hope it won't be too long, as any good house for a good price seems to sell very quickly..we'll have to be ready to move fast to get anything good, and house prices in this town are just getting stupid.
Glad I'm here, will be happier to have the wife and animals with me, and to get the move over with.
I am now back in the fold. Yes, once again I am an employee of Grant MacEwan College.
Whew.
I really hope the college job comes through now, as I am unemployed again. Done at the RCMP, done at London Drugs, let the moving begin.
Attention sci-fi/fantasy geeks..an old friend of mine is promoting Pure Speculation, a sci-fi/fantasy convention, complete with spcial guests and all that jazz. Tell your friends! Hell, don't be petty, even tell people you don't like.
As a former event promoter myself, I know word of mouth is the best way to get things going, so spread the word about what just might be a cool, fun little thing to do in late October.
I am down to two more shifts at London Drugs. Same with the RCMP. I really hope everything works out and I get this gig back at the college, for I will be unemployed again in three days. Why give everything all up before finding out for sure, you ask? Well, if I get it, the start date is next monday, and we have lots to do around here, packing, preparing for the move, and having company from Scotland, too.
Maybe someday, I'l do something stress-free. But I doubt it.
Meanwhile, yay! I was about to resort to buying bootlegs of the Gatchaman series (known to most in my age group as Battle of the Planets), to see the whole, uncut original Japanese series, complete with violence, subplots, and deaths of main characters. The ebay bootlegs scared me a bit, becuase they aren't cheap, and quality can be iffy. But lo and behold, a North American releae of the uncut episodes..4 sets to start, so hopefully they will release the whole thing. Yay!
Job interview went well, I think. Hope I get it. It is kind of an ego thing, a bit of a blow to possibly come back to an hourly job after giving up a full-time continuing position, but hell, it will be a good challenge in a new yet familiar environment (if I get it), and Allie has a good lead on a job for herself, so combined it will be enough to make the move possible and get us the hell out of Medicine Hat. If I get it. Can you tell I don't want to jynx anything?
Sorry to those I didn't get a chance to call..it's not like we're not moving back and I won't see you shortly anyways.
Did some house drive-by's to look and see if the lower-priced houses were in poor neighbourhoods, and was pleasantly surprised by some. Hope they are still available in a few weeks, so we can look at them properly.
Was going back to the Hat this morning, but I seem to have aggravated the sore neck gods, and I can't turn my head to the left without great pain. Enter the muscle relaxants, hopefully will be able to head out this afternoon and not miss Friday at the RCMP (after missing two days already). London Drugs, I feel bad about calling n, but basically, I don't care if I ever go back. But I will when I make it back, just because I said I would. But I don't care.
Guess where I have a job interview on Wednesday?
Time, go faster. Or at least, new London Drugs AV manager, piss me off like I'm expecting you too so I have an excuse (not a very good one, but an excuse nonetheless) to quit.
The RCMP is actually pretty low-stress for me right now. It isn't even like work, just a place I go for four hours a day and do stuff. Well, if you consider the fact I don't know anything and have to ask questions every five minutes, I guess there's stress there, and the fact that it is a commitment, and that my attendance there really isn't optional, I guess that has a certain amount of pressure to it, but I don't hate to go. That's something.
Between the two jobs, I will be working 12, maybe 13 days in a row. That sucks. Especially working 8 1/2 hours at LD (1:45 PM til 10:15PM) after 4 at the cops (9AM-1PM) in the same day. Then back to the cops at 9AM.
Help me escape...
Medicine Hat has told us that we are not welcome here.
We are officially planning to move back to the Edmonton area.
We have applied for jobs back home.
We are scouring the MLS listings, wondering where we want to live.
We are stressing about packing and moving again so soon.
We are doing the painting and touching up that we never seem to get around to for our own benefit while we live here, but seem to get done when it comes time to sell.
I wish I could fast-forward a few weeks or months, and skip this part. Now that we have decided that this is what we want to do, every day of waiting for things to enable us to do so is hell.
Florida trip-
July 18- Another day by the pool. My other sister arrived that evening.
July 19- The whole gang (except for Pati's husband, Calvin, who arrives tomorrow) head for Epcot. Would like to spend more time there someday exploring..got a good once-over view of the two sides- science & technology and the international pavillions.
July 20- Went to Universal's Islands of Adventure. Allie and I went on the Hulk coaster..man, I love that ride. Calvin arrived later during the day, after we got back from the park. Disgusted with the crowds.
July 21- Calvin and I went to Islands of Adventure, and I made a discovery, several days too late. If you get to the park when it opens at 9AM, it is still very crowded..you'd think, because of the "one main entrance" phenomenon, that it had been open for hours, or never closes, because of the throngs of people boittlenecked at the entrance. If you get to IOA, instead of following the crowd, turning left towards Marvel Super Hero Island and the Hulk coaster, turn right. Nobody turns right. We were practically alone in an empty side of the park. Walked onto Deueling Dragons and the Jurrassic Park River Adventure. Dueling Dragins rocks, it made Calvin swear. He said afterwards it was the scariest ride he's ever been on. This should have been my last Universal day for my pass, since it was a 5 consecutive day pass. We also park-hopped to the Studio side, saw Fear Factor Live and rode The Mummy's Revenge. Neat ride, I liked it.
July 22- Magic Kingdom..the flagship park of Walt Disney World. The one and only time I had such a rotten time at a Disney park that I wish I hadn't gone. It was the hottest day of the trip, 95 degrees (about plus 35) and humid..and crowded..and two of the rides we wanted were closed (Splash Mountain, which apprently reopened minutes after we walked by), and the Haunted Mansion (which had the courtesy to break down after we had endured the lineup, entered the indoor queue, and got packed in like sardines in front of the broken ride with two or three more elevators full of queued up riders, in an area not meant to pack people in. Was hot and miserable and disappointed with much of the trip due to the heat and the crowds by this point, and was pretty much ready for a mental breakdown by the time we got back to the hotel.
July 23- Allie's Universal pass was still valid, since she was sick the day we all went on the 17th. Mine was done, but I borrowed my sister's (the same one Calvin had used) which is technically against the rules, but they didn't check ID's or anything, so it worked fine. Disney, on the other hand, now uses a finger scan, not prints exactly, but "distances between key points on two fingers" to link your pass to you. Anyways, it worked, so I got an extra day, Allie got to ride Dueling Dragons (both sides, got really sick afterwards), had a very helpful employee give her an icepack to cool her down and showed her where to sit in the restaurant for maximum air conditioning effectiveness. Even going the "empty side of the park" route, after a couple of hours, the heat and the crowds are draining, so we left at about noon. Unknown to us at the time, this is the day my dad passed away back in Edmonton..we were probably cooling off in the restaurant at about the time he went.
July 24- Breakfast, packed up, and headed for the airport and the light to Calgary. Shuttle to the hotel, picked up the car, drove to Edmonton, and found out about my dad, beginning one of the most painful weeks I have ever had.
Back from another soul-sucking shift at London Drugs. I realized something tonight regarding HDTV.
You see, we have several HD ready big-screens for sale at the store, and while we have two different Bell Expressvu receivers available to use as sources, I prefer to have the HD receiver feed the HD displays, to show what they're capable of. Unfortunately, not too many HD channels are available in comparison to standard-definition channels. Add to that, the fact that channels like TSN-HD and Discovery HD don't show 100 percent HD programming..if a show is available in HD, they'll show it like that, otherwise, it will be a regular old TV signal.
One channel that we get that seems to broadcast all HD, or at least a lot of it, is a PBS station. Unfortunately, apart from some music programs, the shows are boring as hell.
My realization about HDTV, you ask? Well, on a PBS documentary tonight, and old black woman was being interviewed..and she had the grossest warts on her neck, and one big ugly one at the left corner of her mouth, and the high definition resolution of this image was horrifying..you could see, in infinite detail, even the two long white hairs growing out of this wart.
Maybe we don't need to see everything in this much detail...
Second day at the RCMP..went better than the first, I think. Starting to feel a lot more comfortable, and began learning to transcribe taped statements. I can see that down the road, some of the statements will be emotionally difficult to work with, due to the subject matter, but they hired me partially based on the impression that I will be able to distance myself from the content and just do the job.
Also started learning to do criminal record checks..what potential for mischief can you think of there?
I'll get back to the Florida trip soon..have to sit down and consult the notes..that's as many details as I can remember for now.
Started the RCMP yesterday..it was OK. I have a feeling that my training won't be very involved, that I will have a lot to learn very quickly, in an on-the-job fashion, pretty much thrown to the wolves to sink or swim, to mix metaphors.
If I thought we had a long term future in Medicine Hat, I might be concerned about this, but as it is, I think we will be leaving sooner rather than later and I just don't have anything in me to put any emotional investment into this job. I will do my best while I am there, but I don't think that will be very long.
July 14- First full day in Orlando. Wisely spent the day hanging about the pool, wandering the International Drive area to see what was around, and avoiding the theme parks. We had to strategically plan our theme park days, since various members of our party were yet to arrive, and we wanted to make sure we didn't use up all our admission days before some of us arrived. I particularly wanted to go to Universal on July 17, as TNA Wrestling, a wannabe competitor to WWE, was holding a PPV event, free with admission to the park.
July 15- Hit Disney/MGM Studios. Best rides- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and the Aerosmith Rock'n'RollerCoaster. The Tower was too short of a ride, but both were fun. Allie had her first reaction to her antibiotics, knowing that they would make her light-sensitive. Found out later from a pharmacy student friend that they were also phototoxic, hence how sick she felt.
July 16- Another pool day, with one of my sisters and her husband arriving that evening.
July 17- First day at Universal. Overwhelmed by crowds, underwhelmed by the Studio side. The other park, Islands of Adventure, has the coasters and is more fun. Found out the start time for the wrestling show I wanted to see, and apart from being too tired and hot to wait around, all the non-taxi transportation back to the hotel ended at 10:30PM, and the PPV wouldn't be over until 11 PM or so. So, never got to see it.
