I'm going toooooooo

I'm going to to go to Chicago while Lisa is there! Right before, I go to Winnipeg for a workshop that I have co-coordinated (work pays) and I am going to have a little vacation right after.

My proposal is in. It was very hard work, and I felt exhausted right after. I know it'll need editing, but it feels free. Two days after I put it in, I had the exterminators come for their second visit (standard). The guy said that I should probably have a third, which made me feel defeated. But I think it is getting there. But another 4 weeks of things in garbage bags and storage totes. Almost all my clothes are freshly cleaned / dried now but bagged up in the basement until upstairs is clear. I am thinking of it as the chance to move in again in a more thoughtful, organized way as opposed to when I did move in first.

Today the bank appraiser comes to look at our building for our new mortgage approval (prepping for the subdivision).

Lots of tomatoes ripening in my garden. Purple beans, and I think beets will do well.

Good bye to My Company

At the Courthouse.

Laura and Mom left today around 3 for their journey home. It was really nice to have them come and stay. On Monday they took a long walk along the beach, they were gone for over 2 hours. I had a nap. Time has really flown by quickly, I cannot believe I only have a week until I come home. I could easily stay for another month.

Home and on the Road to Recovery

It is very nice to be back at home, in my own bed, and eating my own food. Theresa and Geoff picked me up from the hospital on Saturday morning. Once I got home I was not up for very long, I could here my bed calling my name. Laura and Henry came for a visit on Saturday afternoon. It was so nice to catch up with them. after a couple of hours though I kicked them out and went back to bed. In between my first nap and second nap, Geoff had picked up my pain meds, poor guy, because I did not have previous experience with them, he had to sit through the pharmacist going through in detail how to use the suppository, now that is going above and beyond the norm.

Uncle George did not get to the hospital to see me, because of all the long hallways, so he and Aunty Kay stopped by on Sunday afternoon, to visit. Always good to see them, some of the Folk Fest Attendees also came back and got in a visit as well. Geoff was around most of the day on Sunday just to make sure I did not need anything, and everything went well again. Said goodbye to Geoff around 11:00 pm, when he left to pick up Theresa and Will.

I called the surgeon this morning and have my follow up appointment on the 16th of September. I should also hear from her on the results of the third biopsy in around 10 days. I asked her on Friday if she thought I could go on the houseboat, and she said yes, as long as I don't do too much. I had a call from the Insurance Company this morning as well, and she told me I am approved to be off until September 20, so that works out perfectly. I also see my regular Dr. (Dr. Evans) on Friday, just to make sure the meds for the thyroid are working. I will get her to look at my incision, at that time to make sure that everything is looking ok. Too bad Dad is not around we could compare scars!!

Everyone at the hospital (nurses, residents) who looked at my incision were very impressed with it. Having nothing to compare it to. I guess I will just have to take their word for it. I am not sure how I expecting to feel after everything was over, but I know I did not think I would be feeling this good. An unexpected and happy surprise for me.

I think I will keep it fairly low key for this week, make sure I have lots of rest, and eat up some of the food in my fridge.

Home for the summer

Well, I arrived home for the summer last Sunday, and I still can't get over how much free time I have now!

Before I left for the summer, I had a phone interview with the Confluence Heritage Society, which is a non-profit that does a lot of work with the historic site near Rocky. Although I used to train people to take interviews, I didn't think this particular one went very well. I rely heavily on reading people in my interviews, and it's hard to know what they are thinking over a phone line. But like an hour later, they rang me up to offer me the supervisor job out there.

I went in for a couple days last week, and they seemed really disorganized. I'm showing them how to use and program their new till - it seems natural to me to use the till to track inventory and cashiers, but they had never heard of such things before. Turns out it sounds like they want me to do schedules, inventory, stock ordering, training, etc. However pretty much the whole staff turned over last year and nobody left any notes, so in addition to doing this stuff, I have to figure HOW to do this stuff. Should be interesting.

I applied for the co-op program at the U of A (for accounting). We'll see what happens there. I changed my minor to operations management, which is stuff like supply chain management, congestion management, aggregate planning, demand forecasting, etc. It's really cool, I think, but most people hate it. Got all my marks back, and I did better than last year, which is always nice as they'll be going down from here on in I should say. (Accounting curves on a B- for senior courses, while everybody else curves on a B+... fantastic).

I got offered an RA job next year, but turned it down (which, in hindsight, was a bad decision) so instead I'm the Food Ombudsman again next year.

Moved

Here I am sitting in our new house hooked up to internet.
Move went fine, though took long time. 8hrs with 3 guys from moving company. Where did we get so much stuff? There is still stuff in garage too for us to bring over.
Movers said this place is 'not moving friendly'. Meaning long flight of stairs makes hauling big things up difficult. I concur.
Kitchen is unpacked, (mom was big help with this) bathroom, bedroom mostly done. Living room-kind of. We are waiting to assess whether we are happy with bookshelves in current location and then when sure, will unload stuff for them.
So far, like house lots. But I feel out of place-like this isn't quite my home yet, but other home isn't mine either. Cats have adjusted quite well. Sebastian of course, found the whole thing more traumatizing, but Nick was all over the place right away, as soon as we let them out of the bathroom-Sebastian stayed a while in the pet carrier-pupils fully dilated with terror.
How do others move so frequently? I used to, but haven't for 15 years-and moving affirms that it really is wearing.

Returned; Applied; Tidied

It's good to be home. I super enjoyed Mexico. I felt a little jumpy at times due to not doing much (Shouldn't I be accomplishing something? Appreciate, appreciate, appreciate.). But after I caught up on sleep from late-night flight home, I found that I had all this energy to unpack, putter around, clean up, tidy the house. And I'm not even dismayed by the temperatures and snow here.

My PhD application is in, and my co-supervisors really helped me a lot with it. I feel it's strong! And more importantly, I feel I could do it! I'm nerdily enough excited that I took some books out on parts of my topic so I can do some 'pre-reading.' I think Anne will appreciate this nerdiness.

I am also excited because we are showing a video project at Latitude right now (Judith and Grace, have you seen it? Want to, still?) where male sex trade workers are talking about their grandmothers -- it's about humanizing prostitutes rather than making assumptions of who they are & what led them to that work. We are going to show it in the women's prison! And, the artist is interested in maybe doing a future project with the prison, if we could organize it. So cool!

We wish you a Merry Christmas

It is so great to be home for Christmas! Much better than sitting huddled in the middle of the Welsh hills with people I don't really know. And who are pissed off at each other. We've done the usual routine today - Grace up at the crack of dawn, stockings, presents, breakfast of champions, chili cheese dip and punch... next up is a nap! Yay!!

So happy to have everyone here, though. Nothing beats Christmas at home!