very little

Hi all,

It's amazing how little I feel the need to post on here when my life is in a constant state of slip-and-slide. I have no definitive plans for my near-future and I am therefore avoiding putting anything down in writing, you know??

But I can tell you little things:

• I was have been able to visit Lynmara (and inadvertently Kelly/Keith & Jordan) twice - YAY!

• I love that I can just randomly phone my friends (*VinceP*) and ask if I can come over & watch tv when I'm bored... and fyi: those guys have a fanTAStic basement!!!!!
  

• I went to the "boys'"* house here in Calgary to celebrate the birthday of a guy I didn't know on Halloween. I watched people play Rock Star, ate pizza & watched The Hulk - Ed Norton version - for the 2nd time in a week.

• the next night, I went to a YP costume party where I 'dressed up' as Jacob by wrapping a fake beard around my arm & carrying around a parchment** that said "Official Birthright - from Isaac - to Esau - unless he sells it for a bowl of soup" -- or something like that. Turns out John L had decided to come as Esau (unintentional planning on our parts) -- and fyi: hairy John = unfun. :)

• then on Tuesday, I went to a high school football game with Shelley B where it SNOWED! It was my first post-Ireland snow and it was perfect! I missed that. I'm sure I'll change my mind by spring... after the game, Shelley & I had a great visit over coffee and nanaimo bars.

• I volunteered to be the 'leader' for this week's YP study of The Screwtape Letters, Letter 10. I think it went well... but only because everyone was so willing to participate and it made me happy!

• I have a flight to go home for Thanksgiving, so YAY! I really miss my family. A Lot. This also means that...

• I may be in Canada for Christmas - preferably SK, please? We'll see how that works out - like I said: life = slip-n-slide lately!

I think that's all for right now.

love to you all!

*if I could tell you who all lived there, it would be helpful, eh? let's see... greg h, nathan d, eric s, tim l... and I would not be surprised if I left someone out. I only saw Greg & Nathan that night

**okay, okay... it was a certificate I printed on Ev's computer, so sue me!

nudged

Hello all!

I am sorry about my lack of communication since my surprise announcement - but even with everything that has been going on, nothing has really been blogworthy... per the request of Ky, I will at least give a mini-update. Ky, you will have already read this first part seeing as how I am copying what I emailed to you - lol!

Part One:
Everything was working out wonderfully to keep me in Eire until my thesis was complete. The idea was that the 2 jobs I had would keep me here until graduation at the end of January and then I would see if the contracts could be extended until July, which seemed possible. But the hotel job I had in the mornings did not like the fact that I needed to keep a schedule and leave work in time for my 2pm job at the writing centre and when my one-month probation was up, they procrastinated firing me until I forced them to.

It was so irritating.

But I had a feeling I would get fired after a conversation I'd had with Wayne (the hotel general manager) on my BIRTHDAY, when he brought up my probation meeting, so I was emotionally prepared. Wayne said that my meeting would be on Friday - and it didn't happen. I asked Ruth (my other supervisor) to just tell me if I am getting fired and she wouldn't. I got an email from Dan L on Friday saying that he was losing Victoria on the following (this past) Wednesday and that he would be interviewing the next day (a week ago today, Saturday), so I gave him a ring first thing saturday morning to warn him that I might be getting fired on Monday. He offered to wait until Wed to hire anyone.

So when my shift ended on Monday without a probation meeting, I called Wayne on his mobile and offered to wait until he returned to the hotel. He showed up 20mins later and I said, "I don't mind postponing the probation meeting if you're planning to keep me on, but if you're firing me, I need to know today." and he said "okay. consider this your one-week's notice". And then he gave me the scheduling excuse saying that i hadn't told him I needed to be off at 1pm, even though we had a very direct conversation the day he hired me when I said that I had a job at the university from 2-530 M-F... hmmm...

anyway: I took it as a sign that God doesn't want me here and stopped trying so hard to be in Eire. I called Dan, we agreed on a week's notice. I did not return to the hotel, but I kept my writing centre job until Friday, 3 October.

Between deciding to move and actually flying back to North America, I gave myself 7 days. It was insane and I don't remember much except packing and a wonderful going away party. My classmate/friend, Nicole, had been planning to move for a month and we were flying out on the same day, so I sort of crashed her party - but she says she didn't mind!


Part Two: and this is the boring part...

I flew in to Calgary late Monday night & stayed 2 nights at Dan & Saryn's place. Taliah & I bonded :) I slept most of the time...

Wed, I moved over to Dan & Ev's and was at the downtown office by lunchtime for a meeting. lol. *sigh*

Most of last week was sleep, with the occasional 5-7hrs day in the middle. I have really been enjoying my conversation time with Ev :)

This weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving, so Sunday I went over to John's new house (this place is way cool & perfect for him... except it could host a family of, like, 12) & had Thanksgiving dinner with 14 Levsons, plus 4. (me, Michelle B, Anna & Anna's daughter, Angela) - I count Mike S as a Levson now that they're engaged - that's probably cheating (I hope I don't get into trouble for that. I assume it's common knowledge!). I got to have nice one-on-one conversations with Jess, Steph, Dave & Phil and built barstools for a bit while I bonded with Angela... the kids are taking a liking to me lately! That remark is in reference to Angela & Taliah -- not Dave & Phil. ;)

And I spent my Thanksgiving day sitting on my bum catching up on this season's american tv shows, woot! Actually, I only got caught up on NCIS, Bones & Criminal Minds... but that's progress.

And that is honestly what I have been up to since the last update.

Now back to my tv show catch-up...

LOVE YOU ALL!

so much for that idea

See? this is why I avoid updates!

So. I'm moving back to Canada. WOOT! Calgary, Alberta to be exact. So looking forward to a Canadian winter... I missed it... seriously.

Will be there Monday. (yes, this Monday)

:)

If you want more info, facebook or email me. I don't feel like putting it all on here right now. Maybe when I've settled in SOMEWHERE. haha.

God is pretty cool, by the way. In case I haven't mentioned that before...

Love you all!

update - way overdue!

Hi all,

I don't know how much of my last 2.5weeks I can fit into a post, but I will try and let you know what is going on in my world:

I have moved to a new apartment - some of you have heard this, but for anyone out there who hasn't: I live on top of the "fountain of knowledge". haha! how cool/funny/sad is that??? My apartment is on the second floor of a semi-strip-mall building. It is curved and about 3 stories high. On the bottom floor of the entire building is a variety of businesses like: domino's pizza, an indian resaturant, a vet and a tutoring centre. They all face the street. When you go behind the building and climb up a couple flights of stairs, you're on the level with rented accommodations.

My apartment is a four-bedroom owned my my boss (which I will talk about soon). Only 3 of us live there now, and I really get along with my roommates, Michelle and Mary. The kitchen and living room, and Mary & Michelle's rooms are on the walk-in floor. Then you go up this tiny winding staircase and find my bedroom, bathroom and the empty room. My room is HUGE and I have a window that, when I open it, I am able to stand up and look out from the rooftop.

okay!

On to work:

After applying to 70+ jobs, I finally got calls back on TWO. and now I work at both.

I was called in for an interview at a hotel near the university called "kilmurry lodge" and interviewed to be a receptionist. I got a call about 1.5 weeks later saying that they had hired for the two receptionist positions, but that based on my CV/Resume, they wanted to create a position for me -- CREATE. In the midst of a recession. can we say "praise the Lord"??? So now I work on rate/yield management, websites and do research for the hotel local events. This is apart time job, I work from either 8 or 9am to 1pm.

Then I got a call from the Unviersity Writing Centre and they asked me to be a tutor. I work the drop-in hours, M-R from 2-5:30 and F from 2-4. WOOT!

Other than that, I am finishing my thesis and it goes off for printing in ONE WEEK. Please excuse me while I go throw up.

Miss you all and hope all is well :)

if you really want to know...

what Ireland is like... please don't think that I am just being lazy when I say "WET."

Below is a link to a breaking news report about summer weather (because fall in Ireland started today...sigh). There are phrases like:

"218% of the normal rainfall" and

"wettest August on record - in 171 years" and

"70-110 total hours of sunshine in august" [out of a possible 744hrs... okay - that's including nighttime, but you get it. To be fair, let's half that: out of a possible 372hrs of sunshine, we actually received 70-110 - what??? that's 230-300hrs of rain or clouds. *sigh*

... and my personal favourite: "all weather stations recording their sunniest day on June 5-7" -- TWO DAYS OF SUNSHINE?????

just so you know I'm not exaggerating: here's the link.

and yet I still like the place. hmm...

love you all!