Surreality

So I'm sitting at work for the last time, listening to classical music and thinking. I've got two hours left. Hard to believe after nearly 6 months working here.

Something has occurred to me over the past couple of days. I have had 10+ish jobs over the past 10 years and this is the only one that I've actually been sorry about leaving. Of course, I love that I'm going, and I LOVE why I'm going, but it's still going to be hard to say goodbye to this place and the people that make it what it is.

In some ways it feels like I've been here much longer than six months and in some ways it feels like I just got here. I can still clearly remember the 3 day bus ride, my first night in town, spent in room 120, my first nights in Cave Hell, all of it, really, from the summer. I remember being taken on a tour of the town, and, of course, meeting this intelligent, gorgeous man and agonizing over how I would ever get up the courage to ask him out :) It's forever ago and five minutes. Time is definitely malfunctioning here.

I have so much to do today. Most of it is laundry, some of it is packing and a fair bit will be deciding what stuff to donate to charity and what to do with things like that bigass painting that I did in (I'm going to say September, but I'm not sure). Somewhere in there, I need to have a nap, go to the gym, take down the Xmas tree, hopefully go to the bank, head to the post office. Then wings tonight and sushi tomorrow... and then it's off to Edmonton, early, early Friday morning.

It's a whirlwind. Even this shift, which consisted of one phone call, which I transferred, zoomed right by. I remember once, when I was little, we went camping and when I got into bed, I closed my eyes and counted to three. I don't know why I counted to three, but when I opened my eyes, it was morning. The whole night went by in 1... 2... 3. This feels kind of like that. In three seconds, I could be stepping into the arrivals area of the airport. Unbelievable, but deeply wonderful.

Flesh for Fantasy = Never Changing the Radio Station

At work and nothing much to report. It is Rtardedly hot in here, and I am absolutely melting. Either there is something very wrong with my ability to regulate my body temperature or something wrong with all (3) of the buildings that I spend time in. I'm always either freezing cold or sweating buckets. Blah.

I love that my only complaints in life at the moment are tied to body temperature. Everything else is going wonderfully right now (*KNOCK ON WOOD!!!!!*) I leave Canada in a few short weeks and I think this is easily the most excited I've ever been about anything, ever.

I'm starting to stress a little, but it's all self-inflicted stress, brought on my guilt when I'm procrastinating and know I shouldn't be and it's easily overcome.

I'm going to miss this place; I have a great job, I've made some great friends and I live in a beautiful national park - but I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone back home that I haven't seen in 5.5+ months and I'm really looking forward to the part that comes after that, the end of the 108 day wait, when I'll fall into a state of ridiculous happiness which will somehow contrive to surpass what I'm feeling now.

123+

My last post was number 123. That's sort of funny, if you're lame like me and have no sense of humour.

Unfortunately, I have no way to upload photos, otherwise this entry would be swimming in scenery. I suppose it's probably a good thing that it's not; I took 250+ pictures yesterday (would have taken more but for the memory card filling up) and it's nice when my blog actually loads.

My sister is in town, so yesterday, she, myself, my older brother and our friend Clayton took my brother's cab and went a-travelling. We went to Maligne Canyon, which is amazing and scary and just awesome. We went to Medicine Lake, which is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, a perfect mix of bounty and stark emptiness. I'm a little in love with it. Then we went to Maligne lake, which is absolutely beautiful, one of the places you're 'supposed' to go, if you visit Jasper. We didn't go on the tour of the lake, due to not really having the $$, but we walked along part of the shore and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Since I had planned to go swimming in the lake (I'd say the water is about 3 degrees or less), I went, despite the warnings of friends and the shocked expressions of the fishermen, who actually stopped to watch me in my feat of insanity. That water was effing cold! It started to snow as I was climbing back onto the dock to retrieve my clothes. After we got back in the car (I was pretty sure my toes were going to fall off), we went back into town to drop Claytron off so he could go to work, then we grabbed some food and headed for The Edge of the World. It's absolutely stunning, this lookout up in the mountains with 700+ foot drops everywhere and an unparalled view of the foothills and vallies surrounding Jasper. We did some pretty stupid, dangerous things (including, in my case, hanging onto a tree with my leg so that I could lean over a waterfall and take pictures), and generally had a fantastic time. We went back to my brother's house to put the pictures from my sisters camera onto the kick ass external hard drive that she got me for my Christma-birthday present, watched some videos on YouTube, napped, then went back to my apartment and had a wonderful night of watching the beginnings of a bunch of movies, then giving up and going to bed.

And that was my fabulous yesterday.

Boo!

I'm at work right now, which means I really shouldn't be blogging, but it's 7:30am and the loby is dead. I feel like complete ass, so I was sitting down for a while, but there's only one chair and two front desk agents, and I feel like a tool, just sitting there, being sick.

I'm adjusting well to life in Jasper, I think. Yesterday was my first day off since I arrived, and Linky and Clayton and I rode to the beach (Jethro has still not arrived, due to lack of funds to send him, so I rode Jeremie's brother Julienn's bike (they are part of the family who Lincoln and Clayton are staying with)), which is way too big for me and stuck in a high gear. It wasn't too too bad, once I got the hang of it, until we were on the way back and I fell off the seat onto the bar at a stop sign. I nearly threw up. That was awful.

The beach was gorgeous. I would post pictures, but my camera was out of batteries, and even if it hadn't been, there's no screen on it now, so I never know if I'm taking pictures or not - or what they might be of. A new camera is definitely on my list, even though it's after a new laptop and some Dr. Scholls gel things for my shoes.

I don't think I have anything else for the moment. I'm back at work, but I think I'm going to have a nap right after today, because I am dead tired. Blah.

Ok, that's me.

Alberta: 1+1-1 (=1), Ontario: 0

Reason being, the people who called back and wanted to do a phone interview never called me, and I spent ALL DAY Friday waiting by the phone. I only went to the bathroom once, and I left my cell right outside the door, so I could hear it if it rang, which it didn't.

But, I did get another phone interview set up for yesterday, and that guy did call me, and either he or his boss is going to call back sometime within the next hour for interview number 2. So far, Alberta is still beating Ontario in the job finding war. They would be tied, since I did have a call back for a job here, but O had a point deducted for taking a bloody month to get back to me.

Anyway, on to more painstaking waitingness.

Alberta: 1, Ontario: 0

So, I applied for a job here in... late May or early June. I got a call back today, asking me if I was still interested. I applied yesterday for a job in Jasper. I got an email today, asking me when we could set up a phone interview. Both jobs pay about the same.

A Super-Quick Post

I've just applied for 900 (about 15) jobs in Jasper, which is all the jobs I qualify for, up to today.

I am absolutely bloody starving, and I need to find some food. We're out of almost everything.

Crap. I had another one, and I totally forgot. Oh! I know. I sold another FU, BP thing, this time, a shirt. Basically, I want to sell enough shirts that I can get my Russell Brand and Noel Fielding Shirt for myself.

I think that's it for now. Rhiannon is making pie, so I'm going to go eat some crust.