So a couple people have tagged me to do this. If I've tagged you, it means I want you to write a similar blog post/facebook note. Because I think you're cool. (Or, if you're one of the people who tagged me, I've tagged you to show off the fact that I've finally done this!)
So, yeah, the idea is to list 25 facts/quriks/habits/etc. pertaining to me. Here they are.
1) I am verbose. I try to be concise, but I like to talk about things. This will likely be relevant throughout the rest of this post.
2) I have had my janitablog.blogspot blog/account for four and a half years now. I loved it and used it constantly at first. I still love it, but I barely use it anymore. I feel kind of bad about that. =(
3) I semi-recently acquired a Dreamwidth blog account, which you can find at http://janita.dreamwidth.org. A site invitation fell into my lap, so I decided to get my name while it was available. I think there are three posts on that blog, two of which are about the layout. Layouts on Dreamwidth are much more complicated than on Blogger. Actually, a lot of things on Dreamwidth are much more complicated than on Blogger. I'm starting to wonder why I bothered getting the account...
4) My vision is really horrid. I wear contact lenses for sever myopia, and I put glasses overtop of those for my mild astigmatism when I need them and remember them. My optometrist and I tried really hard to find a brand of torric contact lenses that worked for me so that I could correct both problems with just contacts, but we were unsuccessful. I have a pair of glasses that corrects both my myopia and my astigmatism, but I lose so much peripheral vision when I don't wear my contacts that it annoys me. Come to think of it, my optometrist recently had a stroke and is no longer working, so I have to find a new one. Dang...
5) I'm no good at playing the piano. I took lessons as a kid, and I could probably improve with considerable effort, but my piano profficiency course in first year university was like torture for me. Completing it supposedly gives me grade 3 on the RCM scale, but it was a mandatory pass/fail course, so it's not worth much.
6) I was a very literal child. I didn't understand the concept "figure of speech." The example I give most often of this is that, when I was very young, I thought that "making love" consisted of two people sitting around, cutting hearts out of construction paper. They were literally *making* love. It was therefore a shock to discover that you were supposed to be naked while making love--I didn't see why, and I thought it was rather inappropriate.
7) I've always thought that, if anybody could read my mind, I'd sound like a broken jukebox. I live with constant "earworms." And, for the most part, I don't mind. The only times it bothers me is if I don't like what's stuck in my heaad. Very seldom do I get annoyed with a song or something simply because it's been repeated too many times. Right now I have the music from the Finish diswasher detergent commercial stuck in my head. It's relatively inoffensive.
8) I am a night owl. I enjoy doing things at night because there aren't any deadlines or appointments. Nothing gets in my way. Well, except the morning. I do not suffer from insomnia. I did briefly, actually, but it was because I kept waking up early, not because I couldn't get to sleep. But, anyway, yeah, I'm productive at night, just like a lot of my friends, with whom I hang out online on IM and whatnot. ^_^
9) I work alone. This is related to number eight. I focus best when I don't have to worry about other people, so at night, when everybody else is in bed, I'm in my element. I'm happy to be social with other people while I'm working, so long as I don't have to deal with them in relation to my work. I find it really difficult to co-ordinate my thought process with other people, so group work just doesn't go well for me. It was always my least favourite part of school. If I wasn't a musician, I'd get myself a t-shirt that says "Does not play well with others."
10) I am a very private person. This is related to number nine, in that I work alone because I don't like other people knowing what I'm doing. It's rather stupid, really. For no good reason that I've ever really been able to articulate, I don't like other people knowing much about me or messing with my stuff. Obviously, there are many exceptions to this, such as friends and Peter, but my default setting is to just not tell people things and to keep my stuff away from people who might go through it or even move it around. I do think it's simpler in some ways because a lot of people just don't need to know some stuff, but I can't shake the feeling that this means I'm screwed up in some way.
11) I still cringe at gaffes I made 20 years ago. I am 25 years old. Nothing I did at the age of 5 should embarrass me, but some of it still does. I'm surprised I even remember any of it... ^_^
12) I eat a lot of cold cereal. It is my go-to food. If I'm hungry and I don't feel like making anything, I'll have cereal. This happens remarkably often. Raisin Bran and Mini Wheats are the most common kinds I'll eat, but I also like Just Right, Honey Nut Cornflakes, and Oatmeal Crisp. Occasionally, I'll eat my mom's Life cereal, though, ironically, I don't much like it. My cereal-eating habit makes Peter shake his head.
13) I have a partially eidetic memory. My father and siblings are the same way. I can usually be counted on to remember things. I have to actually take something in in order to remember it, though, so stuff like history, which I never really studied, I just don't know about. It makes an interesting contrast with stuff I have studied. And by "interesting," I mean it makes me look like an idiot. ^_^
14) I watched Sailor Moon when I was a kid. Like, 11-13 years old. It's where I picked up the ^_^ emoticon that I've been using occasionally in this post. It's pretty much the only anime I ever watched, but a lot of people who see me use that emoticon assume I watch all kinds of anime. I had Sailor Moon trading cards and everything. It was Pokemon for girls, but before Pokemon really came onto the scene. Ah, my awkward adolescence. ^_^
15) My mom tried to force me to take Home Economics in junior high school. I wanted to take Drama instead. I have never been in the habit of letting my parents force me to do anything, so I fought tooth and nail against taking Home Ec. My mom made me pass a test of what she thought I should learn from the course before she let me take Drama. The test included how to make baking powder biscuits. Because there's no such thing as recipes. My mother is a strange woman in some ways...
16) I love pickles, but I avoid any other pickled foods. The thing I love about pickles is the texture of the pickled cucumber flesh. Because of this, I prefer to eat pickles whole, rather than sliced. Other foods just aren't the same when pickled. I'm not a huge salt fan (I prefer sweet things), so the brine doesn't appeal to me all that much. It took me a long time to develop any kind of a taste for pickles. When I was a kid, Jenilee used to eat my pickles because I didn't like them. Jenilee would eat anything, though, so I'm not sure that anecdote is evidence of her more developed palate.
17) When I started university, I discovered an unexpected love for music theory. Though my favourite part of music was and still is conducting, I would have been interested in doing a degree in music theory. Sadly, though, that was only possible at the U of A if I did Theory and Composition, and I didn't want to compose. A lot of junior/senior high kids think of theory as that annoying bookwork they get punished with when they keep goofing around, but it's actually quite wonderful. I am toally a geek...
18) When I was on vacation in Mexico the summer I turned 12, there was a hurricane a ways down the coast that was causing large waves where we were in Cancun. My parents and I were wading in the surf on our way back to our room one day when, seemingly out of nowhere, a huge wave hit us (well, mostly me), and washed away my glasses. This was before I started wearing contact lenses, and it was only halfway through our two-week vacation, so I was blind for about a week.
19) In high school, a lot of people knew who I was. I went to a pretty big high school (over 2000 students in three grades), and I had no idea who most people were. It was always weird to have somebody say they'd seen me perform in band at some school function, or in the play or something. It was like being popular, except I was a keener instead of being cool. ^_^
20) Something else that happened in high school is that my school had a lockdown drill after 9/11. I thought this was bullshit, so I decided to protest it. I had Drama class at the time the drill was scheduled, which was a largely unsupervised class, so when the announcement for the lockdown was made, I went into the "rotunda" (big open space in the middle of the school) in front of the office. One of the teachers came out and told me to go to class, and I yelled at him for a bit about how stupid the whole thing was before I sat myself down and refused to move. I was alone for this. My Drama teacher knew where I was, mind. I don't think he made any of his students stop whatever they were doing for the lockdown. When the drill was over, I went back to class. I didn't have to go talk to the principal or anything like that (probably because they were busy at the time), but one of the administration cornered my Drama teacher later to ask him why I wasn't in class for the lockdown drill. He defended me, saying that my ancestors had had enough experience with fascism. He had no idea who any of my family members were, of course. He told me all of this after school that day when he was tweaking my costume for the play. Looking back, I can't believe I got worked up enough to do that, but I love my Drama teacher so much. =)
21) My favourite TV show of all time is ReBoot, one of the earliest CGI series. My favourite character from the show is AndrAIa. The show started airing when I was 10, but it still rocks my socks.
22) For my current job, I had to learn how to drive a standard transmission. I'm a school liason/sales rep for a musical instrument repair shop, so I drive around to schools all day. The company has a car for this purpose, but it's a standard. I was taught mostly by the guy I took over from, who was 21 or 22. It made me feel rather silly to be taking driving lessons from a guy who was younger than me.
23) I have read the Twilight books, and I didn't hate them. Actually, I kind of like them. Please note that this is a moderate opinion. I bought the first one when I was living in England and my computer was sent in for repairs, so I was bored stiff. I read it twice, then bought the other books as I went through them. They have their issues, certainly, but there's some neat stuff in there. The movies are vastly inferior to the books, of course.
24) I haven't bothered to get a haircut in over a year. I've been meaning to since the summer, but I've always been wanting to get a salon dye job to make my hair silvery-gray, so I've been postponing getting it cut until I dye it, which I have been postponing for various reasons. Currently, it's because I'm post-Christmas broke, so I think I'll cave and just get a cut without getting it dyed. My hair is almost down to my waist now, which is kind of crazy.
25) My drink of choice at Starbucks is a triple grande non-fat latte. If I'm in the mood for something sweet, I get a grande non-fat caramel macchiato. On the rare occasion that I'm looking for something low in caffeine, I get a grande non-fat earl gray tea misto with vanilla syrup. The Starbucks giftcard I got for Christmas has already been used up. ^_^
That's all! I hope you've enjoyed this extremely long entry! I don't even want to guess at how long it took me to write. =)
1/21/2010
10/01/2009
Meditative Blogging
There was frost this morning, and, though it wasn't really that cold, my car had trouble starting.
Things have not gotten better since then.
And, of course, I'm blogging about it, because the world totally wants to hear about my headdesk-inducing day. Except not. Moving along, then...
I have a plastic sleeve that contains my birth certificate, my health care card, and my social insurance card. This sleeve usually lives inside my passport. Throw in my driver's license and my bank card, and that's basically the official me. Not all of those documents would be needed for identity theft, but it's kind of odd to have such a dense handful of official identity.
In a related incident, I discovered today that you can't sign up for Alberta Blue Cross online. You can, however, fill out a form and have them contact you with a recommended plan. I did not do this. I'll have to call them tomorrow. The plan I'm getting pays out $15,000 if I die accidentally. That surprised me.
Looking at all these documents with my name on them makes me think of how much of a pain it would be if I changed my name for whatever reason. It's enough to tempt me to keep my current last name when I get married. Well, that and the fact that I like my last name. I don't want to hyphenate my name, and, really, if I got married to Peter, I'd be Mrs. B-S if I hyphenated, which I obviously don't want. I wouldn't necessarily mind taking my husband's name, though, and I like the idea of the whole family having the same last name (especially me having the same last name as my kids). I think it mostly comes down to the sense of identity I've attached to my name. My first name is uncommon enough around here that I think of it more or less as belonging to me. My middle name, the rather common Helen, I wouldn't particularly mourn the loss of, though. My last name is somewhere in between. *ponder*
There's music coming from the next room that sounds like Burl Ives, and it's making me think of Christmas. ^_^
Things have not gotten better since then.
And, of course, I'm blogging about it, because the world totally wants to hear about my headdesk-inducing day. Except not. Moving along, then...
I have a plastic sleeve that contains my birth certificate, my health care card, and my social insurance card. This sleeve usually lives inside my passport. Throw in my driver's license and my bank card, and that's basically the official me. Not all of those documents would be needed for identity theft, but it's kind of odd to have such a dense handful of official identity.
In a related incident, I discovered today that you can't sign up for Alberta Blue Cross online. You can, however, fill out a form and have them contact you with a recommended plan. I did not do this. I'll have to call them tomorrow. The plan I'm getting pays out $15,000 if I die accidentally. That surprised me.
Looking at all these documents with my name on them makes me think of how much of a pain it would be if I changed my name for whatever reason. It's enough to tempt me to keep my current last name when I get married. Well, that and the fact that I like my last name. I don't want to hyphenate my name, and, really, if I got married to Peter, I'd be Mrs. B-S if I hyphenated, which I obviously don't want. I wouldn't necessarily mind taking my husband's name, though, and I like the idea of the whole family having the same last name (especially me having the same last name as my kids). I think it mostly comes down to the sense of identity I've attached to my name. My first name is uncommon enough around here that I think of it more or less as belonging to me. My middle name, the rather common Helen, I wouldn't particularly mourn the loss of, though. My last name is somewhere in between. *ponder*
There's music coming from the next room that sounds like Burl Ives, and it's making me think of Christmas. ^_^
9/13/2009
Have Blog, Will Write (Occasionally)
Time for my monthly blog post. I actually went and poked at all of the settings for this blog, which I hadn't done in years. I didn't really change anything--I just set it to e-mail me when somebody comments on my blog, and to send me a copy of my blog when I publish it, which I did so that I can easily back it up. As I've mentioned before, Blogger is nice and simple to use, so the fact that I haven't looked "under the hood" in so long hasn't had any kind of negative effect.
Tomorrow I start my school rounds at work, which means I start at 8am. Blah. Oh, well. I wouldn't be terribly thrilled to just sit around in the shop all day with nothing to do, so I guess this is a good thing. So I'll go gather up my promotional materials bright and early tomorrow morning and head off to introduce myself to teachers. It'll be shiny.
I've joined Festival City Winds this year. It looks like it's exactly what I've been wanting to do, and I know lots of people in the ensemble (I'm in the advanced band). Our first rehearsal was on Wednesday, and it went well.
Peter leaves London on the 19th. He'll be in Uruguay until he comes home for Christmas, I believe, getting the lay of the land in terms of what resources are available to him. This means he likely won't have regular access to WiFi internet, so our methods of communication will have to change somewhat. I will greatly miss actually talking to him every day. Sad.
Ok, now that I've totally depressed myself, I'm gonna end this entry and go plug in my laptop, because it's showing me the yellow triangle of plug-in-your-laptop-right-now. Hopefully you people who read this from around the world are doing well. =)
Tomorrow I start my school rounds at work, which means I start at 8am. Blah. Oh, well. I wouldn't be terribly thrilled to just sit around in the shop all day with nothing to do, so I guess this is a good thing. So I'll go gather up my promotional materials bright and early tomorrow morning and head off to introduce myself to teachers. It'll be shiny.
I've joined Festival City Winds this year. It looks like it's exactly what I've been wanting to do, and I know lots of people in the ensemble (I'm in the advanced band). Our first rehearsal was on Wednesday, and it went well.
Peter leaves London on the 19th. He'll be in Uruguay until he comes home for Christmas, I believe, getting the lay of the land in terms of what resources are available to him. This means he likely won't have regular access to WiFi internet, so our methods of communication will have to change somewhat. I will greatly miss actually talking to him every day. Sad.
Ok, now that I've totally depressed myself, I'm gonna end this entry and go plug in my laptop, because it's showing me the yellow triangle of plug-in-your-laptop-right-now. Hopefully you people who read this from around the world are doing well. =)
8/08/2009
Still Alive
I'm bored, so I'm writing a blog post. That's how these things work, right?
Peter was in town for pretty much all of July. That was really nice, but now I don't get to see him until Christmas. :-( He's spending the next several months flitting around Europe and South America. While he was here, I was ridiculously busy. We had a joint birthday party (which I still need to post pictures of on Facebook) and many, many other social obligations. What with working full-time during all of this, I was left exhausted most of the time. Getting to spend time with Peter was worth it, though. I miss him. And I'm going to stop writing about this now because it's making me sad.
Life in general is good. Work is going well. All of the instruments that are in for summer maintenance and repair are done (except for a few tubas, which I've cleaned, but my boss hasn't un-dented). This means I don't have much to do for the next couple of weeks. We'll be returning the instruments during the last week of August because there's much less chance that teachers will be around before then. My boss has suggested that we trade half days so that neither of us has to sit around for 7 hours while the shop is open.
My dad is going out of town for a few days tomorrow, and my mother and I have made plans for activities in his absence. She wanted to go see Harry Potter for her birthday, and we're finally going to get to that. We're also going to go look at the new Sephora in Southgate. The new section of that place looks pretty spiffy. I have no idea why there would be two Coach stores in Edmonton, though, but whatever.
Oh, and for my birthday I was given a Blackberry Curve. It's red, and I love it. It lets me be much more connected than I was, which is good because I'm rarely at a computer during the day. I still have to do things like enter stuff into the address book, but maybe I'll do that one of the days I'm stuck at work with nothing to do. :-)
And... that's it, more or less. You'd think that, with how busy it feels like I've been, I would have more to say. I guess the verbose tendancies of my youth have faded--after all, I'm now 25. Gasp! A quarter of a century! Shouldn't I be having some sort of crisis about now? Meh, whatever. ^_^
Peter was in town for pretty much all of July. That was really nice, but now I don't get to see him until Christmas. :-( He's spending the next several months flitting around Europe and South America. While he was here, I was ridiculously busy. We had a joint birthday party (which I still need to post pictures of on Facebook) and many, many other social obligations. What with working full-time during all of this, I was left exhausted most of the time. Getting to spend time with Peter was worth it, though. I miss him. And I'm going to stop writing about this now because it's making me sad.
Life in general is good. Work is going well. All of the instruments that are in for summer maintenance and repair are done (except for a few tubas, which I've cleaned, but my boss hasn't un-dented). This means I don't have much to do for the next couple of weeks. We'll be returning the instruments during the last week of August because there's much less chance that teachers will be around before then. My boss has suggested that we trade half days so that neither of us has to sit around for 7 hours while the shop is open.
My dad is going out of town for a few days tomorrow, and my mother and I have made plans for activities in his absence. She wanted to go see Harry Potter for her birthday, and we're finally going to get to that. We're also going to go look at the new Sephora in Southgate. The new section of that place looks pretty spiffy. I have no idea why there would be two Coach stores in Edmonton, though, but whatever.
Oh, and for my birthday I was given a Blackberry Curve. It's red, and I love it. It lets me be much more connected than I was, which is good because I'm rarely at a computer during the day. I still have to do things like enter stuff into the address book, but maybe I'll do that one of the days I'm stuck at work with nothing to do. :-)
And... that's it, more or less. You'd think that, with how busy it feels like I've been, I would have more to say. I guess the verbose tendancies of my youth have faded--after all, I'm now 25. Gasp! A quarter of a century! Shouldn't I be having some sort of crisis about now? Meh, whatever. ^_^
6/27/2009
Post 427
Five weeks to the day since I last posted anything here. Not much is going on. Peter gets back Tuesday evening, which I'm looking forward to. I'm glad I have Wednesday off for Canada Day. =) There should be some people coming over to watch the fireworks. I'm not sure where they'll be coming to--I think it mostly has to do with how jetlagged Peter is. The weather forecast said it might rain that day, actually, which would not be fun.
Work is good, I guess. I quite like my job, generally speaking, but cleaning out so many instruments with acid has given me a rash on my arms (where they touch the edge of the counter by the sink because the gloves aren't long enough). Oh, well. I found a really good hand cream yesterday (a variety of Aveeno), and it was on sale, too, so that made me happy. =)
My parents returned last weekend from their 5-week European vacation. They were both glad to get home. My mom bought herself a real Hermes scarf, something she's wanted for a while. My dad looked at buying this nice corkscrew, but he didn't want to spend the money it cost, so my mom sneakily bought it and gave it to him for Father's Day. My dog is happy that he's back to having three people to beg for food.
I'm very much enjoying the summer weather we're having, even if both my work and home have the AC cranked to the point where I have to wear sweaters. I prefer warm weather, I guess. ^_^
And, yeah, that's about all I have to say for now. =)
Work is good, I guess. I quite like my job, generally speaking, but cleaning out so many instruments with acid has given me a rash on my arms (where they touch the edge of the counter by the sink because the gloves aren't long enough). Oh, well. I found a really good hand cream yesterday (a variety of Aveeno), and it was on sale, too, so that made me happy. =)
My parents returned last weekend from their 5-week European vacation. They were both glad to get home. My mom bought herself a real Hermes scarf, something she's wanted for a while. My dad looked at buying this nice corkscrew, but he didn't want to spend the money it cost, so my mom sneakily bought it and gave it to him for Father's Day. My dog is happy that he's back to having three people to beg for food.
I'm very much enjoying the summer weather we're having, even if both my work and home have the AC cranked to the point where I have to wear sweaters. I prefer warm weather, I guess. ^_^
And, yeah, that's about all I have to say for now. =)
5/23/2009
Saturday Fail
It is 10pm on Saturday night and I am at home, not quite sure what to do with myself. I took both Thursday and Friday off work because I was sick, but I'm doing a lot better now. I even offered to go into work today, but my boss told me not to worry about it. I made brownies earlier and ate some for dinner. I'm actually kind of disappointed in my brownie eating abilities--my stomach gave up on me long before I expected it to. Stupid stomach.
My dog also seems uncertain of what to do with himself. For about 24 hours, his treatball was lost, and he was heartbroken. It turned out to be behind my dad's recliner, where I looked at least twice before (but whatever, as long as I found it), and now it's almost as if Farley is bored. He begged for brownies earlier, but I'm not about to give chocolate to my 13-year-old dog who has digestive problems already. So right now he's asleep on the area rug in the upstairs sitting area, where I am also sitting. We make quite a pair.
My parents are in Europe for five weeks, and being by myself so much is kind of disorienting. But the internet will affirm my existence! Right? Right?! ...Damn.
Nothing much is new with me. I miss Peter. He'll be back in Canada in a little over a month. He'll only be in town for a month, of course, but I'm trying to focus on the positives. I finally turned off the AC in the house, so it's not freezing cold anymore. When I finally went to poke at the thermostat, it was 63 degrees in here and set to Cool instead of Heat. Brr.
On a random note, I love the mug Jenilee gave me for Christmas. It is very large and holds an excellent amount of tea. And honey. Tea and honey. Mmm. Actually, I went outside a few minutes ago to let my dog out, and the weather was nice enough that tea seemed almost unseasonable. This was a great contrast to earlier in the week, when it was frekaing SNOWING! Actually, come to think of it, I made iced tea earlier today, too. My beverage moods seem to be fickle.
On Wednesday, I was getting gas, and I had a thought that should not cross one's mind in late May: "Holly hell, those trees have leaves on them!" I've noticed more trees with leaves since, but, really, spring is running late this year. Did I mention the snow on Victoria Day? Oh, wait, yes, I did. Usually, it rains in May. The whole "April showers bring May flowers" expression has always been about a month off for Edmonton, but this May has not seen much in the way of actual rain. I'd make some demand about getting a particularly hot July, or maybe a nice warm September in exchange for this, but I know I'll just be disappointed.
Ok, I'm talking about the weather. A lot. This limits my "Blog Post Interest Rating" to no more than a 4 out of 10. So I'm gonna stop while I'm behind. Later, all.
My dog also seems uncertain of what to do with himself. For about 24 hours, his treatball was lost, and he was heartbroken. It turned out to be behind my dad's recliner, where I looked at least twice before (but whatever, as long as I found it), and now it's almost as if Farley is bored. He begged for brownies earlier, but I'm not about to give chocolate to my 13-year-old dog who has digestive problems already. So right now he's asleep on the area rug in the upstairs sitting area, where I am also sitting. We make quite a pair.
My parents are in Europe for five weeks, and being by myself so much is kind of disorienting. But the internet will affirm my existence! Right? Right?! ...Damn.
Nothing much is new with me. I miss Peter. He'll be back in Canada in a little over a month. He'll only be in town for a month, of course, but I'm trying to focus on the positives. I finally turned off the AC in the house, so it's not freezing cold anymore. When I finally went to poke at the thermostat, it was 63 degrees in here and set to Cool instead of Heat. Brr.
On a random note, I love the mug Jenilee gave me for Christmas. It is very large and holds an excellent amount of tea. And honey. Tea and honey. Mmm. Actually, I went outside a few minutes ago to let my dog out, and the weather was nice enough that tea seemed almost unseasonable. This was a great contrast to earlier in the week, when it was frekaing SNOWING! Actually, come to think of it, I made iced tea earlier today, too. My beverage moods seem to be fickle.
On Wednesday, I was getting gas, and I had a thought that should not cross one's mind in late May: "Holly hell, those trees have leaves on them!" I've noticed more trees with leaves since, but, really, spring is running late this year. Did I mention the snow on Victoria Day? Oh, wait, yes, I did. Usually, it rains in May. The whole "April showers bring May flowers" expression has always been about a month off for Edmonton, but this May has not seen much in the way of actual rain. I'd make some demand about getting a particularly hot July, or maybe a nice warm September in exchange for this, but I know I'll just be disappointed.
Ok, I'm talking about the weather. A lot. This limits my "Blog Post Interest Rating" to no more than a 4 out of 10. So I'm gonna stop while I'm behind. Later, all.
5/08/2009
Hello!
I have a blog? Really? Oh, yeah... So, in honour of this rememberance, have a real update about my life:
I have been back in Edmonton/Canada for one month and ten days. I miss Peter. =( If Peter is to be believed, he misses me as well. I've settled back in comfortably with my parents. It's cheaper and easier this way, plus, I get to be with my dog. =) Perhaps, eventually, I'll move out. We'll see.
I gave myself a week to get things together before I started looking for a job. The search was going so-so when I got a call from Frankenhorn, the musical instrument repair place. I'd been around to talk to people at those kinds of places and leave resumes. Robert (the guy who owns/runs Frankenhorn), had told me that he wasn't hiring, and, if he was, it wouldn't be until the end of June, when the summer rush would hit. But, yeah, then I got a call from him the next week. Turned out that the "sales" guy wanted to be gone by the end of June, so Robert had decided to train me to do his job and to cover for the woodwind repair girl, Frauka (I may not be spelling that correctly) during August, when she'll be in Germany getting married. I started on Tuesday.
So far, it's seems quite excellent. I'm refurbishing a couple of clarinets to familiarize myself with their mechanics and basic repairs, then I'll move on to flutes, I think. Frauka, who is training me in this, is only in three days a week, though, so the other two days I've spent with Louis, the "sales" guy I'll officially be replacing. I put "sales" in quotation marks because this job isn't like any other sales-type job I've ever had. Basically, it involves dealing with schools to get them to send their instruments to Frankenhorn for repair, instead of elesewhere. It does involve "cold calling" some places every day, but it's not like telemarketing--the teachers know who we are, and we call every week or so to tell them we'll be in their area and ask if they need anything fixed. There are also flyers to hand out sometimes that we just leave with the office for most teachers. Basically, it's a lot of driving and picking up and dropping off of instruments.
Speaking of the driving, the "company car" (*snerk*) is a standard. I never learned how to drive a standard, so Louis has been teaching me. I drove from the shop to St. Albert today. There were three stalling-related incidents, but, overall, I don't think I'm doing too poorly. It really helps that I know how to drive to start with. I have no idea how people first learn to drive on a standard--it seems like it would be a great deal to learn about at once.
This is the kind of job I would have gotten in London if I'd had my pick of jobs. I'd probably have wanted to work with Phil Parker, which deals only in brass instruments, but I have no problem fixing woodwinds. The thing is, though, that this job isn't in London, and it's not just a summer job, either--Louis' position won't really need to be filled until the fall, when school gets back in session. I've decided to stay at the job for a full schoolyear, so until next summer or fall. Peter, obviously, will have to be in London for at least a couple more years. We've decided to give the long-distance thing a try. This is hardly ideal, and, like I said, I miss him a great deal already, but this is the best thing to do, we think. A good job in a field I like will allow me to save up some money and get some experience that I can put on my resume for when/if I go to London or elsewhere with Peter. Robert knows that there's a chance I might go back next year, and he's fine with that. Honestly, I think I lucked out in getting this job, so I'm not going to just assume that I can go anywhere and do the same thing.
But, yeah, after being together for five years (nearly five and a half, now), being away from Peter for so long is sad and difficult. =(
Other than that, life is pretty normal. I've been hanging out with friends, something I missed desperately in London. Even before I was working, I had much more of a sense of purpose after coming back to Canada. It's nice to have more things to do and people to interact with. I asked my psychiatrist to lower my dose of meds so that I only had to take them twice a day instead of three times a day, and that's going well. Actually, I feel good and fine in that department. I have an appointment with the specialist who deals with they myriad of things that have been wrong with my ear over the course of my lifetime. Not too long before I left London, I started feeling pressure in my left ear, and it was... leaking, for lack of a better word, this sweet-smelling stuff. I went and talked to my GP about it, and she said that she couldn't see anything wrong, but that what I was describing warrented going back to my specialist. I doubt it's the cholesteatoma again--after the second surgery, I was doing remarkably well, and even if it was growing back, there's a large enough cavity in my inner ear from all the little organs they removed that a cholesteatoma cyst wouldn't be causing pressure yet. That appointment's in a little over a month, so I'll know then what's going on, hopefully.
So, yeah, that's what's new with me. What's new with whomever reads this blog?
I have been back in Edmonton/Canada for one month and ten days. I miss Peter. =( If Peter is to be believed, he misses me as well. I've settled back in comfortably with my parents. It's cheaper and easier this way, plus, I get to be with my dog. =) Perhaps, eventually, I'll move out. We'll see.
I gave myself a week to get things together before I started looking for a job. The search was going so-so when I got a call from Frankenhorn, the musical instrument repair place. I'd been around to talk to people at those kinds of places and leave resumes. Robert (the guy who owns/runs Frankenhorn), had told me that he wasn't hiring, and, if he was, it wouldn't be until the end of June, when the summer rush would hit. But, yeah, then I got a call from him the next week. Turned out that the "sales" guy wanted to be gone by the end of June, so Robert had decided to train me to do his job and to cover for the woodwind repair girl, Frauka (I may not be spelling that correctly) during August, when she'll be in Germany getting married. I started on Tuesday.
So far, it's seems quite excellent. I'm refurbishing a couple of clarinets to familiarize myself with their mechanics and basic repairs, then I'll move on to flutes, I think. Frauka, who is training me in this, is only in three days a week, though, so the other two days I've spent with Louis, the "sales" guy I'll officially be replacing. I put "sales" in quotation marks because this job isn't like any other sales-type job I've ever had. Basically, it involves dealing with schools to get them to send their instruments to Frankenhorn for repair, instead of elesewhere. It does involve "cold calling" some places every day, but it's not like telemarketing--the teachers know who we are, and we call every week or so to tell them we'll be in their area and ask if they need anything fixed. There are also flyers to hand out sometimes that we just leave with the office for most teachers. Basically, it's a lot of driving and picking up and dropping off of instruments.
Speaking of the driving, the "company car" (*snerk*) is a standard. I never learned how to drive a standard, so Louis has been teaching me. I drove from the shop to St. Albert today. There were three stalling-related incidents, but, overall, I don't think I'm doing too poorly. It really helps that I know how to drive to start with. I have no idea how people first learn to drive on a standard--it seems like it would be a great deal to learn about at once.
This is the kind of job I would have gotten in London if I'd had my pick of jobs. I'd probably have wanted to work with Phil Parker, which deals only in brass instruments, but I have no problem fixing woodwinds. The thing is, though, that this job isn't in London, and it's not just a summer job, either--Louis' position won't really need to be filled until the fall, when school gets back in session. I've decided to stay at the job for a full schoolyear, so until next summer or fall. Peter, obviously, will have to be in London for at least a couple more years. We've decided to give the long-distance thing a try. This is hardly ideal, and, like I said, I miss him a great deal already, but this is the best thing to do, we think. A good job in a field I like will allow me to save up some money and get some experience that I can put on my resume for when/if I go to London or elsewhere with Peter. Robert knows that there's a chance I might go back next year, and he's fine with that. Honestly, I think I lucked out in getting this job, so I'm not going to just assume that I can go anywhere and do the same thing.
But, yeah, after being together for five years (nearly five and a half, now), being away from Peter for so long is sad and difficult. =(
Other than that, life is pretty normal. I've been hanging out with friends, something I missed desperately in London. Even before I was working, I had much more of a sense of purpose after coming back to Canada. It's nice to have more things to do and people to interact with. I asked my psychiatrist to lower my dose of meds so that I only had to take them twice a day instead of three times a day, and that's going well. Actually, I feel good and fine in that department. I have an appointment with the specialist who deals with they myriad of things that have been wrong with my ear over the course of my lifetime. Not too long before I left London, I started feeling pressure in my left ear, and it was... leaking, for lack of a better word, this sweet-smelling stuff. I went and talked to my GP about it, and she said that she couldn't see anything wrong, but that what I was describing warrented going back to my specialist. I doubt it's the cholesteatoma again--after the second surgery, I was doing remarkably well, and even if it was growing back, there's a large enough cavity in my inner ear from all the little organs they removed that a cholesteatoma cyst wouldn't be causing pressure yet. That appointment's in a little over a month, so I'll know then what's going on, hopefully.
So, yeah, that's what's new with me. What's new with whomever reads this blog?
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