The Yellowknife Misadventures

I should start a t-shirt slogan company, but who would buy shirts that read 'I survived a weekend with my family and all I got was this lousy t-shirt'?

Well, gimme the t-shirt all the same! Where was I? Well, yours truliest woke up at an ungodly hour on Wednesday morning to get to the airport to fly to....Yellowknife. I know, I know...you must be in shock and awe, but please try to contain your obvious envy.

My sister and brother-in-law decided to go AWOL to Vegas this for the long weekend, and I was flown up there at no expense to myself to care for the boys. I arrived early Wednesday morning and was picked up by mum, with whom I spent the day until it was time to go to Karyne's to start the adventure. Prior to my arrival, Karyne and Scott had put together a schedule/dossier of details about taking care of them, school/babysitters, etc. Mum found this funny, seeing as how she had managed to raise kids herself and seemed to know how to take care of kids.

Karyne and Scott breezed out to the airport shortly after we got there, and the games officially began. The boys are good kids, meaning both that they are well behaved much of the time AND they are good at being kids...really. They played, ran, made messes, fought the rules, used their outside voices inside, etc. But they were a lot better then I had expected so I can't really complain. Yay me. They just made me really stop and think about procreation, and how I just really should not.

And everyone who knows either me or Yellowknife, knows that it's not the place for me to be. In the course of the 4 days I was mobile, I had covered every part of town several times. The boredom of a Friday night in Yellowknife is enough to make one want to get in the car and drive....far, far, far away to a better place...like hell.

While at the pool, I spotted a certain ex-boyfriend, and never have I been so glad that Brady and Austin are gadabout boys who need to be henpecked into doing things, so I didn't have to make overly-awkward conversation with a man whose heart I had broken and with whom I've never made any attempts to be friends. Call it the coward's way, but when I saw him, I turned and ran the other way, and if he recognized me, he made no attempts at contact either, so we'll just shudder a bit and forget about it.

Some minor fights, a few bumps and another ungodly early morning flight later, I was back in Edmonton. But wait...where was Rod?

My flight was due to land at 11:45 am, so when we landed at 11:30, I wasn't too concerned that he wasn't at the airport. I called his cell and left a message, and then sat and waited. And waited. And waited. I tried the cell a few more times, but I knew by then that he'd probably forgotten it. I called Jette and Chris to see if maybe they knew where he was (as I wouldn't put it past him to forget, but this was ridiculous), and no, there was still now Rod. 11:45...11:55...12:00....12:10...12:15. By this time, I was on the ground for 45 minutes without any way to find him. I was upset, tired, cranky and hungry. I moved over to the central part of the arrivals terminal so that I could see him if he came.

Well, at 12:20, Rod comes walking up to me just as I'm on the phone leaving him a nasty message. He had been at the airport since 11:45. He didn't check the old terminal, for if he had, he would have seen me sitting there looking abandoned and mad. He did not think to ask information if my flight had landed or to have me paged (I considered having him paged, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and didn't). He was upstairs on the departures level. Having a hamburger.

Well, I called Chris back to inform him that Rod was, in fact, alive and well, and not stuck in a ditch in the downpour by the highway. Chris wanted to know why Rod hadn't thought to use a payphone to try to call *me* on my cell. I received a sanction to hit Rod because he was late, forgetful and had the common sense of a Goat.

Gawd, it's good to be home. Or something.

Mining Rod's History

This weekend's theme was 'Radical Slash and Burn' in the Poitras/Chudyk household. I spent last week going through my papers and purging/refiling, and oddly, I stumbled on 5 poems I had written about 6 years ago that I have no recollection of writing, which just goes to show how important it is to get one's life in order. So, with that in mind, I hunted high and low for Rod's papers on Friday, and starting yesterday, we did a first-round sort/purge.

Today, while Rod was out in Vegreville helping with the construction of the chair-lift, I tackled the piles of bills and statements left from yesterday, leading to another massive purge. Well, this wasn't enough for me, and I finally took the initiative and emptied Rod's drawer in the filing cabinet in hopes of getting it sorted/purged. I'm pleased to say that it's about 40% complete and I totally reformed his filing system...or rather, I created a coherent one for him. Poor Rod's paper trails were "organized" chronologically, and I use this term in the loosest possible manner. Complete messes of paper were just stuffed into file folders and then shoved in the drawer. First I had to sort all that paper into file type. Then each stack, and there were about 10 stacks, had to be organized chronologically before being filed. It sounds anal, but it's actually the most basic system of filing.

Well, Day 2 is over, and it was a complete success. Tomorrow I'll tackle Rod's personal papers and get them squared away, but I can't do anything for the mountain of paper he has for work projects. I'll just have to slowly urge him to deal with those in an organized manner, and once those are done, Rod's life on paper is completely organized and SANE.

But the part I'm the happiest with is that all of this was done without a fight from Rod. He's quite the packrat and he's super protective of his stuff, so the fact that we've cut his paper trail literally in half is SUPER-fantastic, and I'm so proud of the work he put in and getting it ready for me to file.

I've also started yet another pile of things that can be donated, though it's mostly odds and ends, nothing super significant like clothes, pots and pans, housewares. Now that I have the time to really deal with our house, there are going to be a lot of changes. I can't do anything about new dishes/kitchenware or new furniture until I get a job and get paid, but for now at least, the battle against clutter is slowly being won, one battle at a time.

A rant about Fundamentalists or a Fundamentalist rant?

Since it's Friday, and I'm in a cheeky kind of mood (a nice change from my drama-queen-on-the-brink kind of mood yesterday), I will give you all a wonderful gift. Me.

On Tuesday or Wednesday, Jette forwarded a URL to me, and I checked it out. The first words to pop into my head were honestly, "Psychotic-oh-crap-wow!" I was witnessing the absolute focal point for crazies on the internet, and I wished with every fibre of my being that I was smart enough and bitchy enough and criminal enough to hack the site, but alas, I'm only 2/3 of the required criteria (duh...smart enough, in case you didn't know me by now), so I'll have to make do with a "Fanciful Rant" and leave it there.

I'll bet you're all holding your collective breath, just dying to know what site I am talking about. But I'm not going to give that away just yet, because I want you all to go to the site knowing full well what my highly-sought-after opinion is: FUCKING HILARIOUS AND SCARY AS HELL AT THE SAME TIME!

The introduction itself was enough to infuriate Chris, but after taking in other parts of the site, a recorded "First" in history occurred, and he seriously was left speechless...well, as close to speechless as he can get...(courtesy of our MSN conversation)...

Chris Hubick said:
You know, it's just so far gone there is no real way to confront it
Chris Hubick said:
it defies all logic
Chris Hubick said:
i wouldn't know where to start with someone as fundamentalist

The site is so ridiculously full of errors that it deserves an award for it's utter retardesness, and I *hate* to use that word, but this time, there is just no other way to put it. A site were generations of children and youths are unwittingly duped into stupidity deserves such low praise from me, which is so sad, because I myself am terribly harsh on younger generations and see them as a lost cause, but this...this is a new low.

But on the other hand, the insanely cheesy scripting and attempts to make the content appealing to youths through the use of faux anime is hilarious, earning it yet more low praise! But then, I have a twisted sense of humour, so I understand why not everyone will laugh as I did.

http://www.thetruthforyouth.com

Enjoy...

And the winner is...

Someone else.

I didn't get the job. I can't say I'm surprised. I knew that I wasn't going to get it because I just didn't feel comfortable after I walked out of the interview.

But I guess that I don't have time to be depressed right now because I'm far too angry about the business going on in the House of Commons. Again, the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois have shut down government because the Liberals and the NDP are sticking to their May 18th plan to put the budget forward. I'm disgusted with the Conservatives and the Bloc for holding up the business of Parliament because they can't wait 1 week. To say that there's no point to sitting there this afternoon only to debate committee reports is wasted time is OFFENSIVE to me, as those committee reports or meant to lead to future possible legistation, and I take seriously the political process in ALL of it's parts.

Last night, the Conservative Party phone lackeys called our house to ask if we would vote for their party. It's a good thing Rod answered the phone, he handled it far more politely then I would, but he was not vehement enough for my tastes. I would carry through and have them take our names/phone number off their list because it will be a snowball's chance on the Sun before I vote for that party after their reprehensible behaviour this week.

Now we wait...

Well. I just had an interview for a good summer job in my field of interest, with a health-related community organization, and I would *really* like to get this job as a first step into the field. I just don't feel confident that I'll get that job though. I was too nervous during the interview because I've placed so much importance on this job as a potential foray into my career. Also, they want a specific type of reference, and I'm up against a fast-approaching deadline to get it to them, and I'm not even sure I can get that reference in the first place. I don't see why not, but still, it's definitely not a given.

So now, the wait is on to see if I actually pulled this one off. I'm more worried now about how to take the utter disappointment if I don't get the job. This is the first attempt at getting into my career field, and I don't want to be totally discouraged from trying again if I fail, because my options are slightly limited for other organizations here in Edmonton. This is not me getting down on Edmonton (not this time, at least), it's just a reality that there are better opportunities in my field in larger cities, particularly for positions that could lead to overseas experience.

I need a lot of positive energy or whatever right now. And you guys all want me to get this job because a Happy Fancy means another day of not fearing my evil plots to take over the world

Be yourself (but only when others want you to do so)

The last 24 hours have been a rollercoaster of emotions, and the ride shows no signs of stopping. Last night, on our way to the Goodwill depot to drop off the donations, I sighed and mentioned the lack of entertainment options in Edmonton. I lamented that there was no big theatre scene mostly. Rod started to tell me about a coworker who apparently shares my propensity for critiquing her surroundings. He said he wondered how long I would last if I wasn't allowed to complain, and then he mentioned that my complaints about this city are starting to piss off some people.

He later made things worse by implying that when I say stuff like how this city's not good enough for me, I'm putting down people who do like it. This pissed me off, because I've always held to the mantra "To each their own." Hey, just because something's not working for me, doesn't mean it's not working for someone else, and I'm quite frankly offended that anyone would think I'm trying to insult them because I have completely different tastes and I'm expressing my opinion.

Of course I'm going to complain about Edmonton and our apartment. I'm bored and frustrated, and complaining is about the only thing I can do about it right now, because we can't afford to move right now. This isn't one of those situations where one can tell me to stop complaining and get doing because it's financially not possible.

So I was left all night feeling like I was this horrible person for living, and that none of my friends actually wanted me to be me. Recognizing that I am fully aware of all of my faults, and that I do try on a daily basis to work on them, accepting me means accepting my faults too, and I completely acknowledge that no one has to *like* my faults, they just have to give me the courtesy of accepting that I'm not setting out to be an asshole on purpose (most of the time anyways).

But what the fuck. I suspect that with the return of my backbone and my trademark defiance, my sorrows will pass, and more quickly then they should, and I'll go back to being the person everyone loves to hate. Stay tuned folks...Fancy in Progress

Purge-o-rama!

yes folks, spring comes late to the Poitras/Chudyk household, but none the less, it's officially spring when a major purge occurs. Today, 2 green garbage bags full of clothes and miscellaneous items, a box of kitchenware, and a duffle bag full of purses/bags all go to a donation sites here in town, a bag of toiletries goes to the food bank, and an old scanner goes to be recycled.

And all this is just the beginning really. I did get rid of a white garbage bag full of old school notes and stuff, and I have a whole filing cabinet drawer full of stuff to go through. I want to go ALL out this time, because I'm considering finding us a new apartment with more space, and if I manage to talk Rod into a move, I don't want to move stuff that can be tossed. Call it all part of my "growing up and moving on" plan. Rod's nearly 30, and at 26, I'm no spring chicken, so it may be time to give up this "Student" existence that we are clinging to.

We face years of debt, but we can't really afford to put our lives on hold for 10 years while we pay it off. It's time to start accommodating our growing household and making sacrifices like all the other grown-ups do. Of course, the future does scare me somewhat, and I know change scares Rod a great deal, but no one ever said growing pains were easy.

It ain't pretty, but...

...it's done.

My mortal enemy, Formal Studies Credits, and it's henchman, Philosophy 120, have both been defeated in an epic battle to complete my degree. It is a confirmed unofficial D+, meaning I came out of the epic battle bruised and bloodied, but my opponents fell in the end to my mighty determination, my intense tenacity, my incredible...oh who the hell am I kidding? It was all about the dumb fucking luck. I would have gotten a D if not for the cushions of removed questions and approved formula sheets.

I was sent to gitter done. I gotter done. The next big adventure in my life is to get a job to get me some savings for the big move on to Grad school.

In other news, other tasks in my life were completed. I finally had a conversation with Rod about some of those crucial "grown up" issues like insurance, retirement, wills, etc. It's not hard to believe for those who know Rod, that more than a year after graduation, he has not put any thought into stuff like this. So if he's not thinking about stuff like this, he's not thinking about his future in general. I laid it out for him that it's time to start thinking about security and stability, and I told him that any sane girl in my position would say the same things to him. Back me up here girls...as we are getting older or more mature or whatever, we are wanting to ensure that our futures are somewhat secure, right?

Again, it ain't pretty, but at least it's out there.