Post-Birthday Ramblings...

Pretty uneventful birthday...I took the day off so I spent the day doing laundry and reading my volunteer stuff b/c I had training 630-930...not a terrible way to spend your birthday. Last year was such a shit show I really didn't mind the uneventfulness. Last year I made the mistake of making a plan for my b'day and going to Vancouver b/c Liam Finn was in town ON MY BIRTHDAY so it seemed like the right thing to do. My intentions were good...but it played out very differently...broke my damn neck and was in excruciating agony (almost didn't go but...IT WAS LIAM FINN!!! I couldn't not go) – everything went absolutely sideways...I strayed from my hotel plan and took an old friend up on an offer to stay at her place and it was just.completely.horrific. "You can stay at my house Jen, I do not have a couch to sleep on or a spare bedroom with a bed – but here is a lawn chair cushion you can use on the floor with your busted neck...oh and I have no pillows so you will have to use your jacket...and don't mind the rabbit shit all over the floor or the fact you are paying for the birthday dinner and my concert ticket and lunch and that I am ranting about having to pick you up at the ferry even though I offered." FML. I won't be revisiting that nightmare ever again. So yeah – this year was quiet and nice. Had a few meals out with friends and I get to see Ryan McMahon 2x this week so it is pretty decent.

Training is going well...it is a weird scene when while sitting in the middle of these sessions and it hits you full force that the material you are learning mirrors so much of your own life...I would love to pick my step dads brain one day and ask him where he was at when he was standing at the burning barrel on our farm in Edgerton, AB tossing all of my mother's things into the burning barrel while my little brother (4 yrs old) and I (10 at the time) stood around watching. I recall the moment quite vividly...I was horrified that he was throwing my mother's box of nail polish and stuff into the barrel...and we stood there watching it burn, being startled by the loud pops when the glass bottles blew up...I think I asked him for the nail polish b/c I knew it would make my mom so sad to lose all her nail polish (oh the mind of a child) but he dumped it. As an adult I understand the crazy dynamic of adult relationships...at the time though – the writing was on the wall...they divorced 3 yrs later. Initially the head trainer did say depending on my upbringing I may find that the training stirs up things and she was not kidding. Some of the programs available in 2012 are astounding...completely underfunded or not funded at all by the gov't.

In other news...ok not really news but...Thanksgiving approaches...A. and I are doing our usual yummy chicken breasts with stuffing and taters and veggies and gravy and cranberries and whatever else...I am going to ask her this year if her and I can cook it together...I promise to take ativan 1st so I am not a bossy asshole HAAAAAAAAAAAAA....or maybe I will do it all and request her presence in the kitchen to chat etc while the cooking is done....

Not surprisingly – A. finds the govt office environment boring as boring gets and the dynamic as an invisible temp is also a little disheartening...no one's taking a vested interest in making sure these temps know anything or are doing anything correctly so it is pretty lame in the regard...She will get 3 full paycheques by the time she is done (she assumes there will be no extension as there doesn't seem to be enough work (at their level) at the moment b/c they hired so many temps...so those 3 chqs will get her a nice trip somewhere...