A Survival Story

I've survived my first day of doing both a graveyard shift and a day shift consecutively.  It actually panned out to be 12-8 at one place, home for a shower etc, and then 10-6 at the other.  I survived pleasingly well.  I had a harder time concentrating from 3-4 but I think I remember what we talked about, and then from 4-6 we were driving so I'm not surprised that I was tired.  However, the mistake I made was to "have a nap" when I got home.  I don't even remember the alarm I set... I slept right through until quarter after one this morning.  Good news is I know that seven hours seems to be the amount of sleep I need.  Bad news is that it is now almost two and I'm blogging. More good news is that blogging seems to putting me back to sleep so I should be snoozing again soon. 

I'm really liking the corrections job, the research isn't overly difficult, just time consuming and the pay is amazing.  Better than any job I got in Alberta.  And I am learning a lot about Criminology and stuff that I actually didn't learn anything at all about in school.  So this is really going to expand my horizons. And I really like that.  

Lastly, I went with work to New Westminster yesterday and had the chance to be a little bit of a tourist.  They have some pretty old buildings and cute shops on Columbia street (i think that was the name).  We ate at the Spaghetti factory. Walked by the keg. Saw some beautiful brick building exteriors. And there are about 10 bridal shops on a 3 or 4 block strip! The history of the area seemed very rich and its right along the river so our parking stall had a view!  I really need to go back and take pictures.  

But now I think I will do my best to sleep again, and I will think ahead better in the future and not let myself sleep all evening so I wake up in the wee hours.

Lots of Work

So work has kept me busy busy busy.  Tonight i finally had a chance to go out and check out a new path I heard about nearby. It goes through an undeveloped area that I'm sure has a story behind it.  There is a street that goes up halfway... and stops with a little spot where I'm sure some kids have been having a nice illegal time.  Along the way though there were tons of daisy's (or maybe they are the camomile stuff that is a horrible weed in Alberta?) And I found a rose plant that looked very out of place in the undergrowth but was beautiful. I'm wondering if they didn't start development and that is how rose got there?

It's going to be an interesting week. I start one day job and end up working a double shift.  But if I've done my calculations right working graveyard shifts for the next two weeks is going to make me $1000.  I think loosing a bit of sleep now won't seem like such a big deal when I'm in Slovakia at YWAM.  

Lastly, we also watched Book of Eli this weekend.. and I didn't get to watch the end of it, but the part I watched was really good.  If you can stomach alot of hand to hand combat and bloody grossness you will really like this movie.  It has an interesting story line (although I'm not sure if the ending makes up for the number of heads I saw looped off).  And we ate cinnamon buns with chocolate chips in them. It was amazing!

A Good Day

I worked again this morning, and I think this job will get better with time.  I cleaned much faster than the last two times I worked and it is getting much easier.  And I've started settling into this job just in time.  I got an email and a call from two other places that wanted me to come in for interviews.  I could confidently say no, I have a job already.

The bad part of this job is that I sleep through the sun.  It actually was nice today and I slept right through it. So I went for a walk this evening to the new little trail I found and took the pictures you will see below.  Then at midnight I'm off to work again and then again tomorrow.  I actually work 5 days this week

Apparently these are Salmonberries. I didn't taste them because I wasn't sure if they were edible when I saw them. Maybe I'll taste one next time I go for a walk.   (I'm not sure if the flowers are actually for these berries but they are pretty) 

First Shift

I've officially started one of the jobs. This is at a residential treatment program for aboriginal teen girls, most of which are in foster care and aren't there by their own choice.  Very big difference from where I was volunteering during the school year.  I can already see really cool differences and ways to run a program like this.  Last night I worked graveyard from midnight to 8am this morning.  And it was cleaning for pretty much the whole time.  They clean the whole house every night which is amazing to me that the vacuum doesn't wake the girls up in the middle of the night.  Although we did get to wake the girls up for school and make and serve them breakfast so I did get to kinda meet them, even if it was in a groggy state.  As for working graveyard, it wasn't that big of deal. I came home, made my phone calls, went to bed for a couple hours. Then i got up and had something to eat, stayed up for an hour and slept for a couple more hours.  I could totally get used to this. Its supper time and I'm sitting in the sun on the front porch typing my blog.  This is the life!

However, my tune might change.  Right now I have 113 hours on the schedule this month which is about 20 hours a week.  But with the research position I was offered at corrections canada I'm hoping to fill that out for June with some 9-5 hours when I can, and then get to a normal week of those hours with less of the graveyard stuff. Hopefully God can sort it all out because I really like both jobs right now.

So tonight I'm going to be cleaning again, and it will go much faster than last night because I don't need instructions on everything.  I'm excited because there are all these binders of procedure I'm itching to read.  I'm a geek aren't I? Wanting to read procedure?  It must be a sign that this is the stuff I am interested in.

Catching Up

So I have been neglecting giving any real information on my blog mostly because I haven't been putting time aside to write how things are going. Today that changes.  I've learned a few things since coming to BC:

It does rain as much as everyone says.  I just happened to get two weeks of beautiful weather when i first got here. Now the weather is done showing off for me and has settled back into raining all the time or at least being overcast all the time.  My tan might not actually get as much work here as it did in Alberta!

Also, I am not in shape. Or at least not as in shape as all my friends here. I should have trained to come be their friend!  Although they may whip me into shape.  Frisbee, hiking, climbing HUGE rocks, climbing mountians and none of those at a leisurely pace!  Although, if I get in shape it will totally pay off. Especially with three weddings to look good at, and one swimsuit to buy (because I use it 10x more here! which makes it worth buying a new swimsuit that fits and looks good). I tried a uber cute bikini on today on a whim (because it was over $40 per half and I would never pay that) I loved it but I think I'm going to do the superstore steal route instead. *I just looked to see if I could find a good picture of it to post but the pics I found don't do it justice. So imagine a cute plaid 50's dress and cut the dress off the top.*

Anyways... what else has happened?  I got another job!  WOOT!
However, it leaves me in the difficult position of negotiating how I can work both or maybe I can't.  But this new one is working for Corrections on Abbotsford doing research on Women in Custody.  But mostly its just stats and stuff on the data they already have somewhere.  And I'm not sure how much more is confidential so I'll leave it there. But it should be a normal 9-5 cubicle job so that will be super nice.  But I want to help out at the first place that hired me because I like the job experience there because its working in a residential program.  Oh well.  God gave me both.  Hopefully he can make them work together.

I also ate my weight in seafood this week.  Well, that might be an exaggeration, but I made shrimp and scallop fettucini alfredo on Thursday with a friend.  Then yesterday it was scallops, prawns, and crab with Shay's dad's.  I think I've had more butter in two days than the entire previous year!  Kinda gross when i think about it.  But it was tasty.

Lastly, I found a long lost relative this week!  Who knew I had two dentists in my family?  NOT ME!  But here i unsuspectingly find my dad's cousin in Abby with his dentist office next to the medi-clinic I went to to get a clean bill of health for work.  The doctor asked me if I was related to the dentist next door.  I figured I wasn't but went and chatted up his receptionist anyways.  Yep, he is some second cousin or whatever.  My brother figured I should go ask him for a job, but now I'm all set so no need to go beg from the relatives.

So that is all I can think that needs to be written about.  Do you have questions?  People keep asking me how things are going, but I don't really know what they want to hear!

Got a 9-5 job

God is Good!
Details to come.