Sunday, April 30

Can I collect unemployment?

The answer to that is an obvious no. Sometimes I question my choice to return to the soo for the summer. I really am happy to see my family and this will likely be the last extended stay at home (this is my wishful thinking that I will skip the move back in stage after school), but the employment prospects are looking about as bright as .... you know, things that aren't too bright. I haven't heard anything from my dad's work meaning I think I lost the lottery (yes, they choose interview candidates by lottery...how nice). Home Depot: nuthin. Banks: not hiring.

I felt inspired. I went to Canadian nanny and registered (ok, so i'm not exactly sherry bobbins but I like kids). Turns out no soo families are in need of a nanny. So I google "sault ste. marie jobs". Ok looks promising, there are two sites devoted to it. Oh wait, there is one listing? And its for an accountant? (an accountant i'm not). Oh the other site, wow 5 listings. March 1, 2006? Apparently I'm slightly behind.

Oh its not that bad. Just ranting. Actually the call centre is hiring. Luckily its the kind where they call you, not you call them. Its for those irate people who's cars break down on the side of the I-something-or-other in houston and press "onstar" only to get some canadian teen.

Friday, April 28

Chain Chain Chain

Change is afoot. Actually, it may have already been afoot and under foot and now its waiting in the bushes behind me. My reflexes just aren't too fast.
My mother came to get me. It was good to see her. It was also hard. We ended the semester with meat, ice cream and a salt solution (which may or may not have originated in the ducts on the lower eyelids). The drive home....not as excruciatingly long as one would have expected.
I learned a few things. Sudbury is somewhat of an ugly city. We cannot drive for 9 hours without feeling lost at least once (even though for most of the time, only one road leads north).

The conversation in the parking lot in front of Old Navy before we left Guelph:
Mom: oh, your dad was looking at one of those Toyota hybrid things. They want over $30 000 for them though.
Me: I thought dad wanted a truck. Is he not getting one anymore?
Mom: With gas prices the way they are, he won't be getting a truck any time soon.
Me: So he's keeping the green thing for a while? [green thing = 98 dodge stratus that once had its rear view mirror duct taped on with army duct tape]
Mom: well he just had it painted and its only 7 years old.
Me: oh, ok.

10 hours later (we detoured to the washroom, tim horton's, and costco so it was extended)
we arrive in the soo. The green thing in the driveway I opened the garage to put the van in and this mysterious vehicle just sat there.
me: who put their car in our garage?
mom: [smiles]

Thats right, I have a mobile of my own for the summer months. A 2005 grey toyota corolla. Cd player, air conditioning and a cigarrette lighter all for me. They're reasoning was that with my sister and I working all summer we needed a way to get around. However, she does not have her G2. And she won't before july with the way tests are booked. Sadly, it will not be accompanying me back to school. Its ok, I may have had a heart attack and a stroke at the same time if it was actually my car, so it was nice of them to think of my health.

I will be a painting my room as well. I came home to plastic sheeting on my bed and primer on the walls. It will be a nice start. Although, not unpacking anything I own for a week may be trying. It will be pear and a grey/green colour. We'll see how it goes.

I may have over done it at the library today. THe books aren't in front of me but its at least 9...possibly more.

Tuesday, April 25

Moving Day

Today has been a semi gooder. Last night Becky left, there were some tears. This morning our house went to Smitty's and just chilled.
Tip: if you're the only people in a restaurant you can order whatever you want and pay the 'special' price.
We moved Kirsten's inordinate amount of stuff. Right now i can't tell if I used 'inordinate' properly or not.
I have a new slang word: "Mungo". Said with a british accent it means something is "whack" or "uncool". Just wait, it will be on urbandictionary.com.

Actually, lets check if its already there. Yes actually it is. There is no concensus as to its true meaning though. A loser guy with no friends or "exceptionally large" or various others. I think that means I'm free to create an alternate meaning.

*edit*

I had a random memory today. I think it came while fighting the alarm clock today. I thought I would add it, but it doesn't deserve its own blog, I don't want to have two blogs in one day....at least not two pointless ones haha.

In grade 4 my friend Sarah made this snake (you cut a circle from a piece of paper and then cut in a spiral, its really ingenious) and made it green (ingenious again, i swear) and then she put a pink cape on him. We made up this song called "Rupert the Green Snake"
It went: Rupert, the green snake
He flies around in his pink cape
When he hears danger a callin
He won't fight, he'll use his noggin'
(to the "sound off, one two" type chant)

A good solid message about choosing smarts over violence. Think about it.

Monday, April 17

Techo-saavy

I may not be very computer literate in comparison to some of our genius friends BUT, today I altered the template HTML code for my blog to add a section for links. Now ppl can officially blogroll from my site!

Saturday, April 15

Katie Needs....

I took this idea from Feth Bisher. You google your name + needs. I didn't want to copy a post but, i think i might have a winner. Straight from google:

  • She needs help with feeding and drinking but she does manage to use the litter pan herself. Katie is making more and more of an effort to walk on her own
  • Katie needs to "grow up" and give up the things of childhood.
  • Katie needs a real man, not someone who believes in aliens
  • Katie needs someone to coordinate performance groups anyone?
  • Katie needs to consume at least (281.25 – 262.5) 18.75 more grams of carbohydrate
  • No, Casey, the REAL question is what happens if Katie needs a C-section.
  • Katie needs someone to teach her how to fix those lips. pale lips with dark lip liner is so ouuuutttt.
  • Katie needs to wear something more Fox-ish.
  • I think that Katie needs to step back and take a look at what her future with Tom will bring
  • someone like Katie needs no last name
  • Katie needs a new home. Katie needs new pants. Katie needs us. Katie needs to wear panty hose.

Thanks beth, i had a good laugh. Some i'll agree with. Lip liner with pale lips is out and i think i'll take the advice about the carbs. Thanks google

Friday, April 14

Earthworms

Earthworms are in the family Lumbricidae of the segmented worm phylum, Annelida. The scientific name for one common species is Lumbricus terrestris.

My thoughts on earthworms. It is raining today, and in early spring that means the (*gag*), smell of earthworms when you step out the door. Not to mention the nicely squished ones on the sidewalk.

I used to really like earthworms though. They are good for the soil. We had 9 gardens in Wawa and I would spend hours digging up the soil looking for the biggest worms. I had my own worm bucket. Boys couldn't scare me with worms, i loved worms! My favorite job in the garden was digging up the potatoes, and some great worms came with them.

At my grandmother's funeral, there was a board full of pictures of her doing the things that she loved to do when she still could. She was one feisty lady, I will never trek 10 km into the bush and shoot a moose, but she lived for it. One of our favorite pictures of her was taken early early in the morning after it rained. She would go outside in the yard and gather all the big juicy worms that came to the surface so that she could go fishing. Thats one way that she showed she loved her family, serving (yes, even with worms!)

Once, my aunt Tara, (my dad has 5 sisters younger than him, she is the oldest of the 5), found worms in the yard, rolled them in sugar, cut them up really small, fried them, and fed them to her little sister! Why didn't I think of that.....

Wednesday, April 12

the 86th post

I'm pretty happy about that. 86 posts. Since Winter 04...but oh well.
One of my favourite things to do is do something that I have never done before. It keeps life from being monotonous. Or at the least doing something that I do rarely. Today I had a spanish exam, thats rare right? Well besides the fact that it was fairly fun and I am even more spurred on towards my goal of bilingualism. But the real new thing today was that i bought a giant, dead, frozen bird and carried it home in my packsack. 7.202 kgs to be exact. Quite the investment, especially for a girl who, until a few years ago, violently fought against any mention of having to eat a *gasp* horrible turkey dinner.

Saturday, April 8

An exercise in memory

Today I shall take a trip back into long ago. Cuando era nina....When I was a little girl....
I was realizing these last few days that I always call JK-12 Elementary School without fail, but lots of people call it Public School. I had never really heard that before and it sounds American to me. So it made me think about back in my elementary school days. Here is a year by year of my teachers and maybe a memory or two.

Jk-mrs. mersereau- I really liked her at the time. She made us call our bums "boom-zee-ays" (I like to think i'm quite the speller but this one alludes me, any ideas?). We had buckets on a shelf and each was filled with a different toy from those ANTZ to tiddlewinks, we would all sit in a cricle and she would dismiss us for bucket time. Me and Shannon would always run for either the tiny animals, or the buttons or....the ANTZ (i think, could be a fake memory), depending on our mood.

SK- same lady. Mrs. Babcock helped in our room. I remember we all once danced to La Bamba. Our class pet was a crab named sebastian that may or may not have been smuggled out of the dominican by someone who may or may not have looked like my dad.

Gr. 1 - Mrs Tremblay. We played math challenges, two teams, and she would fire math questions at us (what's 1 +2). The winning team always got these teeny tiny suckers...but they were so good. There was a girl who didn't have a great home life, and she wasn't fast at math, everyone secretly (or not so secretly) hoped not to be on her team. Kids are really mean.

Gr. 2 - Mrs. Ward. We leared via 'units' in this class. Mostly i liked colouring. Our units were Dr. Seuss, Apples (we went to the Valu-Mart and got to pick a free apple!), now..my memory fails me...rainforest? I"m grasping at straws. Oh yes, dinosaurs, thus began my obsession with becoming a paleontologist or archeologist.

Gr. 3 and 4 - they all blend together, Mrs. Parisee. Both times it was a split class. Our school was small. Her husband was my bowling coach (yes, you can snicker). Kaitlyn moved from White River this year. We would be on and off arch nemeses until I moved. She had a sweet farm-like place with pheasants, horses, chickens and donkeys. Her parents owned a small hotel, we got to have sleepovers in the hot tub room. I never met her mom, she was always away having chemo.

Gr. 5 ok now i really am having a hard time. There was a mrs. Desjardins in here somewhere. Shoot. She had a baby, she brought it in and its head was warped (i'm sure its fine now, it had just been through the trauma of birth) Mrs. I can't remember her name! took over.
She was nice, someone made her cry because she sang "Mighty Gitchie Manitou" to us and they laughed at her.
One of those ladies read us Island of the Blue Dolphins. I wont' ever forget that book

Gr. 6 - Mr. Kreps. First name 'Jorge' pronounced "Yorg". Favorite Saying "Lord love a duck!". Had a mighty comb over and drove a red sports car.

Gr. 7 -Mrs. Rody by morning, Mr. Kreps by afternoon. Mrs. Rody was the principal's wife. She had a hard time in the class with a few of the kids who had taken to throwing things or smoking things when stuff didn't go their way. She was even more uncomfortable with the topic of puberty as we pretended not to be.

Gr. 8 - Mr. Bumbacco (Stubbs). I moved to the soo. Big school, 4 times the size of my other one. Two grade 8 classes (had i been in Wawa, my presence would have given them 12 grads). He played "Good Riddance (Time of your life) by Green Day on the first day of school.

Well there you have it. That was probably way longer than I should tolerate but it was fun for me! Another little tidbit of information: if you have ever wondered where animosity and cultural insensitivity come from, go to Wawa. Ok that may not be true but my elementary school there was not only St. Joseph's School, it was Ecole St. Joseph. All that means to me is that there was a mysterious hallway that we couldn't go down and these 'alleged' french children who studied there. I bet they studied the same things as us (but in French). I'm not sure who decided this or which side incited the segregation but our recesses were at different times, we couldn't go on the French side of the playground (they had way better play equipment too!). I never saw them in the hallway, or talked to any of them during school hours. Or after I suppose.

Friday, April 7

Things on my Desk

I have a lot of things on my desk, luckily, a little bit of crowding doesn't really bother me! Here is what I have
-a valentine from Jacquie's mom
-glass
-a bowl that had my oatmeal this morning
-a purple tin bucket with pens in it
-speakers
-a finger puppet of my head
-3 hair elastics
-a pen and a pencil
-a drink umbrella (orange)
-3 rocks
-my peer helping evaluation
-white bead necklace and blue bead necklace
-a rent receipt from Sifton (wait, my mom needs that by April 30th for my taxes...)
-random notes to myself
-my birth certificate
-passport application
-4 cds
other crap covered by the above crap
-a second drink umbrella (yellow)

So if you can tell what a person is like by what they keep on their desk, ..... I got nothing. I already know the truth.

Wednesday, April 5

Little Reminder

Tonight was a little reminder that my actions affect others. It was also a reminder that I still have a long way to go but that it gives me something to work on.
I'm anal. Let's just get that out there. Depending on the situation you know me from i'm either "katie from marketing", happy go-lucky, totally lax. Or, anal, wound up, snob. Hm, one of those images is not something i want to portray. Perhaps the second one is a tad exaggerated. But it reflects me and school. I value school a lot and I value my marks. Lately I have been stressed about everything that is due this week and not being able to work on it because they are all group assignments.
So i did what I always do. I started on my own. When the group met for the first time I already had my little plan and outline and direction. I didnt' even think about it until tonight, when there was a flow chart that needed to be done and I thought i wasn't being clear enough (again, I wasn't being clear enough, because of course, I need to explain everything and not let others just do their work) so I just started to do it myself....and then finished. I then wisked it off to the group member not thinking anything.
Wrong. She was really hurt and rightfully so. I had done something that wasn't mine to do. She (and possibly the rest of the group) had felt like she didn't have a place in the group and was feeling like she was slacking. And here I was thinking that I hadn't done enough yet.

I need to just relax and trust people. All my group members are solid, hardworking students.
This is an area that I've always struggled with but it didn't usually matter because people just let me do everything. I need to be rebuked when I do this. I am thankful that she did so. These are not qualities of a good leader. I want to edify the Body and to create an atmosphere as an upper year student where the gifts of others can grow and foster.

Tomorrow is my CNS evaluation. I hear what both my supervisors and my peers all think about me. I've spoken to two people after their evals and neither were extraodinarily happy. I am praying for a good attitude and an openness to constructive criticism.