Reclamation of my LJ.
I've found some wonderful LJ communities here in the past year or so, but I soon discovered that I've been spending more time reading and commenting to communities than actually writing my own log. I miss it.
I did a major purge of my friends list. Everyone I love is of course, still here… but I purged those people who tend to use LJ as a chat forum. I was surprised to see how may people use an online journal to basically chat. I've been missing important entries from my friends because the communities and chatty folks are top posting it off my friends page before so quickly! And with so much to read, I tend not to read much of it.
I've just felt like the internet has become a distraction from work, and I haven't been feeling good about what I've been writing in the past few months. I'm grateful to LJ - LJ really has had a positive impact on my life. But I'm afraid I've developed a co-dependent relationship.
I'm particularly concerned about how addictive "Vagina Pagina" community is. So many women just bewildered about what their vaginas are doing to them! So many young 'uns having sex and not knowing what the fuck they're doing! I want to save them all! Alas, I can't.
Anyway, my LJ is once again about JOURNALING, and keeping up to date with the people I care about. So! Here's what's been happening with me the past six weeks:
Kat and I have hooked up. It's fucking fabulous. I can't believe how lucky I am. We get along so easily. She's sweet and wonderful and understanding. I just can't say enough positive stuff about her.
I've avoided writing about Kat or really taking about her to anyone because I'm afraid of jinxing it. I was afraid if I declared it a little too strongly or confidently, or loudly, that she'd just change her mind about me or something. I'm feeling a bit more secure now.
We're going on a Wild Woman camping trip in Temagami next week - I'm SO VERY EXCITED! I've never been to Temagami. I can't wait. We're renting a car and driving up to the base camp. I love driving, and it's going to be especially nice to have someone to pass the wheel to if I'm feeling tired.
I was promoted at work about six weeks ago. I really didn't think I was going to get this one. I was kind of shocked when I did. The past two years I've been on Special Projects which meant work was a lot of chipping away at a mountain to make sandbags and gradually build a 5 star hotel out of it all. Projects would last 9 - 18 months. By the time I was done a project, I wasn’t so much satisfied with the work I'd done as thrilled to be rid of it.
The promotion puts me back in the accounting cycle of month ends and deadlines - which is more pressure day to day but also much more satisfying. The coolest part is all the meetings I'll be going to now - I'm working with the Ministry of Health managing funds which the government is streaming to doctors who do research, teach and otherwise progress the field of medicine and sacrifice their income to do so because they're not seeing as many patients.
I love it. The first few weeks have been rather hellish only in how time-demanding it is. My predecessor left the company at the busiest time of the year, and so while the learning curve is slowing me down, I also have more work to do than I will at any other time. On top of that, I haven't been able to hand over by Special Projects job, so I've been keeping that afloat as well. I've basically been working two full time jobs and training part time on top of that. I've been working 10 - 13 hours every day, without a day off for the past three weeks. I went to the beach for a few hours and to a movie last week and felt like I was playing hookey.
I've barely had a social outing since I was promoted. Kat has been so understanding, and I've been lamenting the irony of having too many good things happen at once. This is another reason I'm really looking forward to getting out of town and away from the job, so Kat and I can be together without having to say goodbye after a few hours because I have to go back to work.
Anyway, it's all calming down soon. By October I should be well broken in and doing only one job again. Once I master this position I am SO hitting them up for more money. I happen to know (thanks to my previous position) that I'm making 2/3 what my predecessor did.
My parents have finally moved out of the House of Woe into a charming brick house in the city of Pembroke. For those not familiar with the House of Woe, I'll sum up:
The House of Woe is far too big. This family had lived in a bungalow for 13 years. We could always hear what everyone else was going. The House of Woe is huge, sprawling and COLD. The ceilings are high but the windows are small. It's dark. It's lonely. It just didn't feel like home.
The House of Woe has an evil vibe. It has a long history of woe - in the backyard is the foundation of a barn that had burned to the ground. Electrical things break inexplicably yet predictably. My cell phone kicked out after 5 hours in the House of Woe. Portable phones die. Electric toothbrushes die. Vacuums die. The sump pump died several times, causing minor floods. The washing machine died, was repaired, died again. The water heater died. Fluorescent lighting would FLING ITSELF down from the ceiling shattering carcinogenic-coated glass everywhere. Only poisonous plants like poison ivy, poison oak and rhubarb will grow on the property - everything else dies unless it's in planters. The fricking septic tank backed up on Christmas eve flooding the house with raw sewage!!! I could never sleep through the night at the House of Woe. I was always shivering no matter how warmly I dressed. Fruit would spoil quickly. It is a bad, bad place.
The new house seems to be very cheerful. It has a smaller kitchen but more sunlight, and a beautiful deck in the back. I'm planning to visit my folks in late October after my job settles down. I can't wait to see it! I can tell by looking at the pictures that it's the *right* place. Just a feeling. No more house of Woe.
Mocha, Leo and Zuki have been doing well. Zuki, the latest addition to my animal family, is a blue Betta fish whose full name is David Suzuki. I brought Zuki home on earth day, and well, he's also Japanese like his namesake, and I have a lot of respect and admiration for David Suzuki, so I figured it was a good name for a fish. Zuki lives in a big glass bowl on my plant shelf. He has his own Amazon sword plant which is flourishing - it's a pretty neat eco-system.
Mocha visited the Rosedale gorge with Kat and I a couple of weeks ago. She came back smelling like a swamp - so did I. Why? Well, of course she finds every rotting dead thing in the forest to roll on, and then she gets herself trapped in the creek - she jumped in and the bank was too steep for her to scale back. I had to go in after her and carry her back not once but TWICE, getting her dead-things smell all over me in the process. We had to take the subway home too. Eeeesh. Dogs.
So life is really goddamned good. I am grateful.