5 Year Grad Reunion

Well with nothing else to say I guess I better talk about my 5 year high school reunion. Boy that was an experience.

It took place on Saturday and I was pretty worried about going to it, because there are only about 3 people I actually wanted to see. Thankfully they were all there and I had some friends to talk to. Anyone I have an interest in hanging out with has moved out of town, but Barbra still lives in Kelowna with her boyfriend and we traded phone numbers. I hope to give her a call this week and maybe we can watch a movie or something. I'd be happy just to sit and talk about anything though, I'm pretty lonely when it comes to interacting with people my own age.

There were lots of people there that haven't changed at all from high school, and I mean that in the worst possible way. However a lot of people are doing pretty well. I was shocked at the number of people who have bought houses. Plus all the people I wouldn't have expected to be married are, or are engaged to be wed. My friend Chris Gross who got married 2 years ago is expecting a baby in mid September. That was pretty intense, but I'm really happy for him. It was tough to go to this thing and not put a positive spin on my life story. I'm sure many of the people there weren't doing that well, but they put their best foot forward. I would say it went as well as I could have hoped.

Aside from that I've just been working and surviving. I've been in pretty good spirits over the weekend. I'm starting to waver a bit today, and I'm really struggling to stay focused and positive.

I'm pretty excited to pick up Hot Fuzz and 300 tomorrow. I'm bummed that I won't be able to watch them with Syd, as we saw both of them in theaters and it's always fun to rewatch a movie with the people you first saw it with. Funny I never thought about this before, but since I moved to Ontario I only watched those 2 movies, plus Pan's Labyrinth in theater, and have bought or am planning to buy them all. I guess we pick good movies. I'm hoping maybe Barbra and Ian want to watch one of them together. I think that would be a fun thing to do and it would give me a chance to take my mind off things.

Well I guess that's a pretty good sized post. For not feeling like I had anything to say I managed to ramble on for a while. I guess if I do this a little more often I can have smaller but more frequent updates. Anyway if you know me, then you know how I feel about you, and I'm feeling that way right now ;)

New Bike Photos

Here are some pictures of me and my new bike. She's a pretty sweet ride, or at least I like it.

My dad of course has to keep pointing out that it has the same ride height as his (I was borrowing his bike), the gears aren't any higher, he has fenders for his bike he just never put them on, and anything else he picks up on that steals my thunder. I'm not letting him get to me, but it's tough. Just as I finished taking these pictures he measured the distance from the pedal to the seat on my bike to compare it to his. I don't know what he hopes to accomplish with this. Just so that he knows? I don't get it. Anyway as he measures his bike in the old wood shed area he asks me how I managed to get his bike and my mum's all tangled up. At a loss as to what to say to that, he always asks these questions where there is no correct or appropriate answer I said "I practiced", in what was quite clearly a joke. Then he added that the snow shovels were involved too and I said that I didn't have an issues getting the bike in and out with them there. I really didn't beacause I just backed the bike in slightly to go around the shovel, no big deal I thought. Well with that he marched off in a huff. I wasn't sure where he was going at first so I asked if I could put my bike back. He just said something like yeah I'm done here. I don't know how to handle him. I hadn't done anything to upset him today, and I can't think of any grudge he might be holding on me from past days, but he flipped the board over on me.

Anyway check out my sweet bike...

Crying on the outside

I'm really having a bad time here over the last 24 hours. I found out Sydney is nearly over me and that it really was my fault for not kindling her passion towards me. This is really hard to deal with.

However I'm just realising now that if my family wasn't my family I wouldn't like them. With the exception of my mum I don't like people like my dad or sister. My dad is an insensitive condescending jerk, and my sister is overly cute and frustrating due to her lack of opinion and stupid girl antics. I really don't like living here. I really miss my surrogate Ontario family more with each passing day. They really were the family I have always wanted to have.

I'm really unhappy and alone and sad. I can't believe things have come to this because my life is a mess right now. Everything I wanted I've lost and everything I have left has long been overshadowed and exposed as fundamentaly different from the person I am. I'm just at a loss. All I can do is work and save money. I wish I could deal with my emotions.

I'll post some picture of my new bike tomorrow when I feel up to it.

New Bike!

Oh... my... gawd!

Today after work I bought the most awesome-ist bike ever! It's exactly what I've been looking for, it was kismet, fate, love at first sight. I've fallen for the most beautiful piece of steel ever fabricated.

I was checking out some bike shop that I found the address of and they did carry used bikes but none my size. So I asked if they knew anywhere else that might have used bikes. I ended up just slightly farther down the road at a place where this nice Australian girl helped me pick out the bike of my dreams. It's a big bike to suit my massive 190 pound frame ;) It's really simple and vintage looking. It's blue with cool chrome fenders on the front and rear tyres. I really wanted fenders on a bike but I was worried they would be too costly and I'd have to settle for ugly black plastic ones. It has only one gear selector because it only has 7 gears. Which I love, because I hate fiddling with 20 odd gears that hardly change anything. It has really nice brakes and the seat is even slightly nicer than my dad's bike, which I'm borrowing. It also has a bell!

The handle bars really sucked though. They were this disintegrating black foam that made my hands go black. So I picked out a new cheap pair that they'll install for me. I also got a water bottle holder. But aside from that it's great and it was within my price range. I wanted to spend under $200 and it came to $129 with taxes and my simple changes. Plus if I have any trouble with it they'll fix it for me at no charge.

I pick it up tomorrow after they inspect it and make my modifications to it. I'm super excited. I really love the look of it. it just screams me, it's so awesome. It's right between a street bike and a mountain bike. A very generic bike. It has tyres that are less knobbly than a mountain bike, but they are still wide so I could ride on a gravel trail without issues. Plus since it looks so plain it's less likely to get stolen. I'm so in love with it. I was worried I'd have to settle for a lame wannabe mountain bike, or some street bike that I would require me to ride only on tarmac and learn to use those weird goat horn handle bars. I'm so happy right now.

I'll post lots of picture tomorrow when i pick it up. Oh I'm so happy, now I can be a hippie with a bike!

I'm seeing someone....

Well after very little happening this week aside from work and much deliberation I decided to post that I have started seeing a psychologist.

I was hesitant to mention this, because I am not going to be discussing any details here. I'm just having a really difficult time emotionaly and I want to recover from this spiral dive before I get close to the ground. I'm having a hard time with moving away from my family and friends in Ontario, and I don't feel like I have any focused goals in life right now.

I probably wouldn't have done this if I had to pay for it, but since my mum works at an office of psychologists one of them was willing to see me at no charge. He seems like a nice guy, I hope he has some things for me to think about when I see him next.

Aside from that very little is going on. I have rented two Wii games in the last week. Trauma Centre and Cooking Mama. Frankly I was disapointed with both of them. I really thought I would like them, but I found them to be too mini-game like, too rigid in gameplay, and too much fluff and not enough actual gameplay. Trauma Centre ramped up the difficulty faster than I enjoyed, and cooking mama had very frustrating controls. I really expected to like them, and I'm really upset that I didn't :(

I also created a Facebook account yesterday. I never really knew what the deal with it was, but now I see it's pretty cool. Of course I have a tenth the number of friends that most people I know have, but I've never really had that many close friends.

I guess I've done more than I thought this week. I've also started working on the stenciled shirts that I bought last week. I have several stencil designs made on the computer, and one shirt awaiting a final coat of paint. I'll likely start another one tomorrow. Oh and of course I'll post pictures when they are done.

My BIG Bike Adventure

Yesterday I went out on a big long bike trip to do a whole bunch of errands. I was out for hours and I had a really great time doing it too.

I had some banking to do which I went to do first. I saw a guy walking his dog and smoking a joint on the street. A bust street with cars and pedestrians on it, but he didn't care.

After dealing with my finances I went to Canadian Tire to finally get a bike lock. I ran in and picked one out really fast and then ran back to lock my bike up. There was an employee waiting for a ride near my bike. He said he kept an eye on it for me and let me use his exacto knife to open my bike lock packaging. I'm pretty happy with the lock I got, it seems pretty tough. After I got the bike secured I went back in and bought mysdelf a helmet. My dad's is probably more than 15 years old, so I imagine it has degraded in strength over that time. My new one is a blue, grey, and white in an aggressive design that can only make me go faster ;)

From there I headed to Walmart and bought some fabric paints and looked at shirts. They had all three of the shirts I wanted but only one in my size. So I bought a brown one to remake my Ben Folds shirt with. I wanted to get an olive drab one for my Stargate shirt and a grey ringer for my Rez shirt, but I was outta luck. I stopped next door at Michaels and bought some orange fabric paint for my Rez shirt. The prices of paint are twice as much as Walmart, but they have the full range of colours :P

I really wanted to get started on this Tomten hoodie I found online. Actually it's a pattern from a book, but it was modified by this guy on his blog. He knits some really nice stuff, very cool. Anyway it looks like this http://brooklyntweed.blogspot.com/2007/07/adult-tomten-jacket.html. I really want to do it in an earthy brown I think. I'm not sure about the accent but I really like that rich autumn he went with. This will require some thought and I'll need to have the yarn in front of me to decide it. I really like the look of the tweed though, I just hope I can afford to make this. It's my first project of this magnitude and I don't want to screw it up.

Chapters didn't have either of the books that the original Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern is found in. I'll have to order the book, I just don't want to have to wait.

I stopped in at the run-down looking Kelowna Zellers. It's a normal (but small) Zellers but the building is really old looking and inside it has terrible lighting so it looks like a cheap discount store. I never knew Zellers was a decent store until I moved to Vancouver. After shopping at this one I always thought it was sort of a dive. Luckily they had an olive drab shirt for me in my size, so I snatched it up. Now I just need to wait until Walmart gets some grey ringers in stock.

I stopped at my local yarn store, but they were closed already. I really want to see what they have and ask if they know of (or sell) one of the knitting books I wanted, before I order it from Chapters.

Then on the way home I went to the grocery store mini-mall near home and I bought some freezer paper for stenciling my shirts with, some Pears soap, a good pair of tweezers, some booze, and a wart freezer kit. I don't have any warts, but I do have some skin tags that have been around for most of my life, and I think in my effort to change into a new person I want to get rid of them. I'm nervous about doing it though, I've had them so long it feels weird to try and freeze them away. I'll work up the courage for that ;)

On the way home I rode on the other side of the street on a guy riding one of those arm peddle bike thingys. We were going about the same speed so we ended up riding side by side for a stretch. He asked me why I was riding on the left hand side (into traffic) when all the painted bike lane arrows say to ride on the right (with traffic). I said I didn't like riding with my back to the traffic and I felt safer being able to move away from cars when I saw them coming. He said he thought it was a bad idea. I think it's a pretty good one. When I ride a bike I don't think of myself as traffic, I think of myself as a pedestrian on a bike. So I follow those rules. I don't use left hand turn lanes and ride on the street mere inches away from passing cars. I ride along the sidewalk, crosswalks, and use the bike lanes when they are present but I always ride into traffic. It seems like the safest thing to do. I'm not a hardcore bike racer after all.

My satchel (the one Syd bought me for Xmas) was so full and heavy when I peddled my ass home. By the time I got home it was past my work bed time already, but I didn't have to work the next day so no biggie. My mum's sisters are staying for the weekend. Margret and Ursula come to visit my mum from the coast and northern BC once a year and they have a sisterly get together. It's nice for them all, and I haven't seen either of them in a long time.

Well it was a fun trip and now I really want to get my own bike. Here's a quick run down of all my stops:

1 RBC (they were closed)
2 The Keg (to pick up my cheque)
3 RBC (I found a different RBC and deposited my cheque and got a direct deposit form for COBS)
4 COBS (I dropped off my form)
5 Canadian Tire (I ran in and quickly bought a bike lock, ran back outside and locked my bike up, then I bought myself a helmet so I don't need to borrow my dad's 15 year old one)
6 Walmart (I bought some white and black fabric paint, brushes, and a brown shirt to paint)
7 Michaels (I bought some orange fabric paint)
8 Pharmacy (couldn't find any Pears soap so I left)
9 Chapters (they didn't have either of the knitting books I was looking for in stock)
10 Zellers (they had an olive drab shirt that Walmart didn't have in my size so I bought it)
11 Kelowna Yarn & Needlecrafts (they were unfortunately closed, so I'll have to try another day)
12 Pharmacy (a better pharmacy were I could get Pears soap)
13 Coopers (I bought some freezer paper for stenciling shirts with)
14 Liqour Store (I bought a small bottle of Kaluha, I think I earned it)
15 Home (back to start)

They can check out my whole adventure route around Kelowna here: http://www.google.ca/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=49.853701,-119.471512&spn=0.103594,0.2314&z=12&om=1&msid=115086778432601111041.0004353d3fae0292f1374

Apollo and Starbuck

I forgot to post some pictures of the bunny's house. I posted them on Craftster and I guess I forgot to do it here too. Here's a link to the Craftster thread http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=181047.0.

Here they are in their happy home.

I got a NEW job!

COBS Bakery finally called me on back and I had a quick interview with them before getting the job as a baker. This was the job I wanted when I first started appling around town. I had my first training half-day today and I really liked it. I mixed dough, cut it down to the appropriate weight, and then shaped it so that it could sit and rise before baking. I really did enjoy it.

It's nice to work with morning people and to see the difference between evening people. Everyone at the Keg was a partier / drinker. After work people would hang out and drink beer from the tap until late, then I guess they would stumble or drunkenly drive home. I liked that when things were really busy and we had to work overtime that they gave us free drinks to keep our spirts up, but after having a free drink every night, even when it wasn't busy I have come to realise why it's called the Keg.

So after working my ass off at the Keg, I'm glad to leave it. I really think I'm going to feel a lot better physicaly by working in the mornings.

I got a job!

That's right I got a job today at The Keg. I'm a line cook, wahoo! I've always had an interest in cooking and now I can finally learn something about it.

It's funny after appling and several different jobs last week, I sent out a half dozen resumes today via email and about an hour after sending one to The Keg I got a call for an interview that same day. I was the first one there for the interview and I filled out an application. I had a great little chat with the manager there and she seemed to like me and hired me right there on the spot. She wrote me on the the schedule for the next 5 days and I start tomorrow. How about that!

I'll start off doing line cook stuff which is all manner of things I guess. Getting little sides ready and stuff. Then I'll have some shifts doing dishes, I'm not yet sure if I should be afraid or very afraid. Then I'll get some shifts doing salads the next time there is a space on the schedule for me. Cool beans!

I suspect that I'll be one of the youngest people there, so I'll have to really be outgoing to fit in. I'm looking forward to the challenge and the chance to meet some new people. There were 3 or maybe more other guys in there for interviews too. I'm not sure if Holly (I hope that's her name) was planning on hiring all of them or if she just really liked me? They looked a lot more skivy than I expected. This Keg is located deep downtown and isn't as upscale looking as I thought it would be. I'm sure some of them will be starting at the same time as me, so I'll have to make sure I shine.

I'm so happy I finally have work and I can relax a bit. I really wish it wasn't evening work though, but I guess I can't get everything I want. Until I get used to the time zone this will be like working until 4 AM for me :(