January 3, 2004
Well hey folks it’s a New Year but much as I’d love to celebrate this fact extensively well that just isn’t in the cards for right now. You see in my last entry O so long ago I mentioned that there was a computer course that I was considering taking at the U of R this fall, thought in fact it’s a U of C course offered here at the U of R, but the details aside, despite the extensive cost of the course I decided to take the course in the best interest of my future. This course has been going for 3 months now (four if you count the “warm-up” course I did in September) and I have to say I have had next to no life since this course started, my life revolves around school with no time for anything else, I can count on one hand the number of times I have been out with my best friends since this course started, sad I know. This course is just highly compressed with a lot of stuff in it, and it hasn’t left much time for anything else. So hence this journal entry is not going to have much in it. I have been on my Xmas holidays now however for a week and a half, I go back to school this coming Monday (not looking forward to it as this is the harder half coming up, gawd it’s hard enough lol).
For Xmas my sister came down from Edmonton to spend Xmas with the family, it was nice to have everyone together this year, it’s been a good 3 years since the last time since we were able to be together for the holidays and that alone made it special. I then took my sister back to Edmonton earlier this week and stayed there to party for New Years, did some country dancing :) I got back yesterday and have just been relaxing since. Did some reading on the next course that we start on Monday and have been drooling over wanting to go see the Lord Of The Rings final movie, big lines every time I wanna go, so I will let it die down a bit before I see it.
On a last and sadder note, my cousin’s wife passed away suddenly this passed Tuesday, she had been fighting cancer for some time now and to my extreme sadness the fight was lost, I feel so sad for their family and their children, the oldest of which is also fighting cancer. I worry how his state of mind is after seeing his mother pass away from the very thing he is fighting as well... the religious side of me however knows that his mother will now be able to care for him better as an angel and will make sure that he recovers from his ailment and live a long healthy life, as any caring parent would do anything to assure, and let it be that some semblance of good comes from the sadness of this holiday season for their family. I hope you will say a prayer for them as well...
June 1, 2003
Hey there everyone, how is the world doing today? I realize that a lot of you out there that check my web page for updates might have thought I was dead or something due to how long it’s been since I wrote last, but well that isn’t the case, much to my joy :).
Mostly life has just not been as a whole interesting enough in my eyes to write about and so it’s been hard to sit down and take the time to update this... but I have realized that though my life has been boring lately that the sum of all the little bits of news might be interesting to my friends out there. Undoubtedly after most of a year there has been a few events to mention.
One of the first that come to mind is the... betrayal? Well to say the least the loss of my best friend that I had known for years, it was an interesting lesson in life to realize that those we trust and care about the most can cause, without a doubt the most pain within us if they so choose, and she did. But as much as one friend leaves my life, others I have known for some time take new steps in their lives that I can be happy about. Today I received an email announcing the engagement of my dear friend Sharla to her now fiance, Conlan. I’m so happy for her to have found the one for her, I wish them all the best. Another friend of mine for years, Terry, recently told me she got married :) much to my surprise I heard about this after the fact, but they decided to not have a big ceremony which I understand, but I still wish I was there to photograph the union, I know she would make a lovely bride. I also found out that Terry has a little bun in the oven as well these days, and I can’t wait to meet the new addition to her family when the time comes ;-).
My job at the RCMP, which I still can’t talk about :P sorry guys... ended in January of this year when I was laid off after our last active case came to fruition. As I said from the beginning, I knew it was never going to be permanent full time so the end was always looming, but I had a good run of the job for a long time and was able to save up a lot of money before the lay offs. All of this would have never happened if Wendell had not helped me to get the job in the first place, so thanks man for the help there, I needed it!
The funny thing is I got laid off almost to the day that I was laid off from CUCS the year before... and like then I had to go on unemployment insurance to cover some bills. Last year I got a new job early into the summer at the RCMP which screwed any chance of having a holiday because I was too low on the seniority to get time off so soon... I am wondering if the same will be true this year or if I will actually get to go away this summer. It’s been two years since my last Gypsy Trip and I am eager to go away. My top pick if I do go away on a Gypsy Trip would be to hit Yosemite National Park in California. I have heard so much about it that I know it would be a great place for me to explore. It may however come down to a money issue that I not go away so far this summer.
That being said there is a few trips I already have planned to Edmonton to see my beloved sis this summer, whom I miss dearly. One of the trips is just to see her in July; the other trip planned in August will also be to go to a McFayden Clan Reunion in a small town north west of Edmonton. I am so looking forward to this, I mean most of the people at this reunion will be direct descendants from my family however we have not known of each others existence for probably more then 3 generations and as such, except for those members of my immediate family that are going, everyone else of the supposed 300 people that will be there will be complete strangers to me... and yet not strangers at the same time :)
I have been job-hunting for something secure and permanent for some time now, and obviously since my layoff I have been doing that even more so lately. But as yet the search has turned up nothing. It’s disheartening to be having such trouble finding a good job, but I don’t stop trying... however it has occurred to me lately that my computer skills are becoming aged and need to be upgraded with the new technologies that are out there since I last was in school. There is a U of C course offered at the U of R that starts in November that I am considering... in fact I was basically decided that I would take the course if I could not find a good job by the start of the class... however finding out the price of the class nearly floored me and made me take a step back to decide if this is really what I want... spending $21,000 for a 6 month course is just... stupid... yeah that’s it... but this is something I need and so even with the price as it is I am still considering it. Most the people who know me know I don’t love the idea of sitting behind a desk and working on a computer for the rest of my working life... but it is my chosen career and so I really think that the course is a necessary thing for me. Lets face it there is enough National Geographic Photographers out there, so my chances of getting a job doing that, is just a really cool dream... but I will never stop doing my photography as a hobby/part time job, in fact I just got reminded yesterday that I have a photo session next weekend! :-/ Same weekend as Regina’s Mosaic Multicultural Festival but that’s okay I can fit both into a single day. Long as I am in the Scottish Pavilion by 9pm and dancing a Celtic Jig with a bottle of grog in my hand I’ll be happy :).
But as I sit here I’m finding that my leg is getting a little stiff... yes I’m injured again :P I’m sure some of you are not surprised hehe, this time I took a line drive ball into the ankle while pitching at a baseball game last Thursday. I’m kinda waiting for all the pretty purple colors to start showing up... but as yet it is still too swollen up to show any color :) maybe I’ll get some nice yellows in the bruise like when I got nailed in the side of the head playing baseball two years ago... gee I need a safer sport me thinks :-/
Oh and one last thing to ALL those friends who I told that I’m of Irish/Scottish/German decent... it’s turns out I lied. I just found out I’m NOT part German, I’m actually DUTCH! :) Yes so now I can’t watch Austin Powers 3 anymore because of all the racist talk about Dutch people in there :) lol bye friends!
Sept 20, 2002
Okay so YAH I SUCK, so what of it :) it’s only been uhm... a ... few months since my last entry right?!? Okay maybe a few more then that :). But uhm it’s been summer, was too busy, yeah that’s it!! Too busy definitely... I mean as small as computers are they are still kinda hard to balance on the handlebars of my bike when I’m out riding. But as soon as they build computers that fit on a bike you can be sure I’ll buy one ‘cause that would be cool to play games and chat while I’m riding... right up until I smack into that TREE!!!! LOOK OUT!!! Okay maybe I’ll have to rethink buying one...
What was I doing here again? Oh yeah, journal! Well you know it would have been cool to have had some big or amazing news since my last message, you know like a new full time permanent job, winning the lottery, or being kidnapped by aliens... well actually I was, but I wouldn’t sign the release form for the anal probe so they threw me back on earth again.
So what have I been up to then? Well in early June my bud Wendell got me a job at the RCMP. It was made clear to me when I started though that this job would NEVER BE full time permanent, the closest I got to that was a two month contract with them, during which I did in fact get full time hours. Now as for what I do? Well that’s a trade secret, I’m not allowed to talk about it, maybe in ten years I’ll tell y’all what I was doing... now :).
NOW obviously because I took this job in June, you can assume that my summer was pretty much f’ed up. By that I mean... no 2002 Nomadic Gypsy Trip. Yes I am very sad about that, it’s kinda like a whole summer wasted, but I think it is worth it... the money I saved up has gone to good ‘causes, like my Save Neil From Old Age RRSP Fund, and the Save Neil From Having To Wash His Car Association, who did a very nice job of cleaning my car by repainting the whole damn thing... though I thought 2 grand was a little steep for a car cleaning it seems to be a nice change. My car is no longer black but it now a DEEP DEEP red tone, I like it :). Also tinted the back windows to. As my bud Vicky said I got the car all pimped out... all I’m missing are the little red ball edging inside the car and the dice hanging on the mirror. So yeah, for all the money I earned I pretty much have nothing left... oh well the weather is still nice, I’ll have to do some panhandling before the snow comes.
Actually I am still working at the RCMP but not too many hours so I am keeping my eye open for a computer programming job in this city... not to many available but hopefully luck will smile on me.
What else have I got to tell? Well I completed my second annual MS 150 Bike Tour this summer. This year was much harder then the previous, at least the first day was; There was a 50 km per hour head wind during the whole first days 75 km’s. This was a painful test of my personal endurance I must say, but I triumphed and impressed myself a little to. I feel sorry for some of the children biking that day, I heard of some getting hypothermia, others needed rides ‘cause lets face it little 12-13 years old girls don’t weight enough to be a match against that kind of wind. It took me 7 hours of riding to complete the first days right... this compared to me doing the same distance the next day in only 3.5 hours... that too amazed me ‘cause I was in terrible pain that morning when I woke up so being able to finish was a surprise to me alone, finishing within a good time was all gravy!
So yeah, my summer was over in a flash, as was my birthday a few days ago. Its now almost officially fall, the weather looks crappy and cold out, the days are getting shorter and everyone is back in school... so obviously I’m already dreaming of next summer, nothing will stop me from a holiday next summer... well unless I can’t get someone to housesit my cardboard box while I’m gone, but I have to think positive and know that next summer I’ll be going somewhere nice :)
I hope everyone out there who reads this had a wonderful holiday, and those I haven’t heard from yet... well I look forward to living vicariously through your summer’s holiday adventures :) Keep smiling! Peace \/ Out.
May 5, 2002
I thought I should add a little something in here, even though I was waiting till I found a new job, but well I'm still waiting for that. I know I know I could find a job easy enough if I look internationally, but I find myself not willing to so quickly pack up my life again and move away from here, I could do it but I don't think I will yet. I... much to my surprise saying this... don't want to move away from Regina just now. I find myself jokingly slamming this city a lot but honestly I kind of like it here. So my job hunting is ongoing trying to find a job in this little city.
In the meantime however I have found myself doing a lot of traveling and road trips to break up my typical day that seems simply like one big mother of a weekend that doesn't end. The best road trip had to be to Edmonton though; I miss my sis so much that any chance to see her is a treat. Better yet, I brought a few friends with me on that road trip so it was a big getaway for all of us. No immediate plans to go anywhere far away now for a while, however with the May long weekend quickly approaching I find myself wanting to bring life to my old ritual of having a big drink fest camping trip with my friends to welcome in the new summer season. Hopefully the weather will be beautiful out then so this will actually come to be.
I've also signed up once again now for the Regina 150 MS Bike Tour, I had such a blast last year that there was no way I would not join again. However the big question on my mind is do I want to do two MS Bike Tours this year?? I have found that the Alberta chapter has a Mountain Biking Tour for the MS Society, which I think sounds like a blast! You spend the night up in the mountains, very appealing to my adventurous side, plus its in the mountains west of Edmonton so I would be able to see my sis too as I pass through. The only question is would I be able to raise enough money for two tours easily?? Will be hard since I'm not working at the Credit Union Central this year, they were incredibly supportive to me, ill miss that but will have to make up for it with more door to door stuff this year. Wish me luck in my raising, and if you want to donate to help me help the MS Society then I will gladly welcome your donation, and thank-you ahead of time for your help :). Ill write again "soon", take care everyone!
January 18, 2002
Okay I'm just being lazy not updating this journal at least a little bit.
I find myself today starting a new chapter in my life and for that reason above all I thought I should say something in here. Much to my sadness, due to the project I was working on at Credit Union Central being put on hold, I as well was put on hold. Or more to the point my contract was cancelled while a study is done by the company to determine if this project is really what they want. In the meantime while they decide if they want to do this project though my services were not required. Possible after some two months have passed they will decide once again that they wish to do this project; at which time hopefully ill be considered to be hired again as I must say I really do enjoy working at the Credit Union Central. However the big question is where will I be when that point comes around. I cant not look for other jobs in the mean time, and if I start looking I know my focus will not just be on Regina, and for that matter who really knows where in the world I may end up in two months... I guess it will be interesting for me most of all to discover how this will all turn out.
In other news however; I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Xmas and New Years. I spent my Christmas with my parents, sadly minus my sister which made it feel admittedly a lot less like Christmas then I would have liked. Well I can't say I ever really got into it this year. Guess I shouldn't have passed up that opportunity to go to China... seriously I thought you were kidding Fiona! :) But even still I did end up going on my second road trip of the winter over the Xmas holidays. My first being a excellent weekend getaway to Calgary and Banff with a bunch of friends. The second holiday, the Xmas break, took me all the way to Minneapolis, Minnesota of all places, and though it was a long drive, it was worth it to spend some time with someone very special to me. Maybe she will let me put some pictures of her on my page, lets hope! :) So yah two winter road trips this year, thank goodness its been a mild winter! Both drives went without problems thankfully.
But I think that pretty much covers the highlights since my last entry, so I think I will leave it at that. Wish me luck for wherever I go from here okay?
October 15, A2K
Well i finally did it! I got a bunch of my summer pictures up for y'all to see. I found out recently however that Geocities is restricting the amount of viewing that can be done on free homepages now in an attempt to get all of us free homepage users to now pay into their capitalistic desires. Well before i pay them anything they will have to prove that their service is worth having, limiting page access to SO little is not a big seller and it doesn't get that much better when you pay for better access.... BUT anyways.... the end result of all of this is that when you are viewing my page you might get a page come up that says that my homepage reached its allocated download amount and that its been disabled until the next hour...if you get this message i apologize!! I hope that you will continue viewing the page at a later time when there is maybe less traffic on it, thankyou and happy viewing!!
August 27, A2K
Well i've been back in the work groove for a month now and missing fiercely the open road lifestyle, but i know I need to do the work thing to be able to do the traveling so theres not much choice in life. I've got some 2 weeks to go at work before I'm done covering a maternity leave. Soon as Jaime comes back from that ill be put back in my old department, which I'm looking forward too. I've learned a lot of new duties since I started covering this maternity leave and i know that will look good on a resume but I just want to get back into something I know well again. I'm on a day off right now from work and have spent most of it working on putting my GYPSY TRIP 2001 pictures on my web page here. Things are coming along well, so all of you I think can expect to be able to see my trip pictures pretty soon! I'm impressed i'll be done before Xmas!! Woo hoo! :). In other news I did the MS Bike Tour the weekend before this one. The weather was fantastic for it thank goodness. This was so much fun for me people! I can't say enough good stuff about it. Lots of great people to meet, lots of great food, hilarious entertainment in the form of a hypnotist, access to the swimming pool at the air force base, live band. It's over now and all I can think about is wanting to do it all again next year, anyone who is wondering if they would like to ride in the MS Bike Tour I think you should, you don't have to be a die hard biker to do it, you just have to want to help, and in return you have SUCH a fun time!!! Welp that's enough for now, see y'all later. :)
July 30, A2K
Well friends im back home and well my trip went FANTASTIC. I travelled through some of the US's most beautiful parks taking pictures all the way. I went through, Rosevelt National Park in North Dakota, Badlands National Parks in South Dakota, The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks in Wyoming, Glacier National Park in Montana, Waterton National Park in Alberta, then through Calgary to see friends, Edmonton to see my beloved sis, then back to Regina for only a few days to get my dad and then the two of us went up north into SK to Lac La Ronge Provincial Park for a father son Kayaking trip...i blew off 8 rolls of film on this trip and trust me there are a lot of pictures ill be putting on my page when i find the time...sadly though ill have no pictures from the kayaking trip of my own :( ~pouts~ i had to leave my camera in the car cause well we didnt have room for it in the dry holds of the kayak, i guess food IS more important...however i will have a picture showing our camping spot taken by another photographer with people in the picture i dont even know but hey its the best i can do... Keep your eyes posted here for updates! Laters Friends...and if i made any spelling mistakes here...SUE ME lol i wrote this up quick ;-) bye!
June 21, A2K
Well not to much new stuff goin on so this will be a short entry. Lets see the big thing i guess that happened was getting smacked upside the head while playing baseball a few weeks ago..yadda yadda...concussion yadda yadda...trip to emergency yadda yadda... but im almost better now. More importantly though my holidays start as of the 30th of this month. At which time i decided to go tour North Dakota and Montana a bit. Then tour up into Alberta and hit Waterton National Park and then Calgary and see my sis in Edmonton. Then back home to pick up my dad at which time we will both be going up north to Lac La Ronge for a kayaking trip for a week. I cant wait! I LOVE it up there at Lac La Ronge... will take lots of pictures no worries... see you all when i get back!
May 29, A2K
Well it?s been a month so I guess it?s about time to update my "Daily Journal" LMAO... So what?s new... well the big new by far this past month is my pending sex change! lol ~yah yah joke~ :)... um okay really I guess it would be that at work this past month I had a real sad occurrence. What happened was, after a year and a bit of working VERY hard on a project for my workplace, I was told out of the blue to punt the whole thing, in other words toss it, forget it, don?t do it...so needless to say I was disappointed that I wouldn?t be able to finish it, I mean I put so much into it, how could I not feel a big let down. Now you may be thinking then that my job would be over then right? Well no they made it clear to me that they still have much use for me and that getting rid of my project had nothing to do with any performance problems on my part, I honestly don?t think there is any, no bragging intended. So now with my project gone my days have been going a lot slower without as much stuff to keep me busy, but no worries ill find things to do, I always do.
What else, my dad?s workplace (Molson Breweries) is going to be closing down in a year now. Not sure what my dad is going to do then, stay here and retire, or try for a transfer, guess it depends on the package they offer for retirement. It might be an option that my parents may move to Edmonton to be closer to my sis... and yah to get as far away from me as possible lol. But it?s really up in the air right now. All I know is I don?t plan to be going anywhere for a while, I?m happy at the job I?m at and wanna stay as long as possible, even if it is only a contract position and not permanent. Permanence would be SO sweet though!
And now for the sports update. Baseball and Beach Volleyball have started now. We suck at baseball we rule at volleyball... go figure we only play volleyball 20 times more!! lol...so heres the stats, no losses so far in Vball.... and ~sigh~ no wins in baseball lol lucky its a bar league! Its not whether you win the game, winning is just being able to not pass out during the game! ~joke~
Besides all that its MOSAIC this weekend, for those not familiar with what that is, its Regina?s Multicultural Festival, a lot of fun to go to! Especially the Scottish pavilion. Aye ba tis too bad dat tha band I look fowerd to seein the last thwee years tis not gowin to be thair this year? but I hope the replacement band with be as much fun! Hope everyone is well out there in the world?laters?
April 14, A2K
So how guilty do I feel right now, I feel THIIIIIIIIS guilty right now for not writing sooner ~arms are stretched out side to side~. Things have been busy as usual and delegating time in these short 24-hour days is not easy. Its like okay wake up at 6:30, get to work by 7:30, work till 4:00 or 4:30(flip flops), go home and veg. or walk 2.5-3 miles on the treadmill and dream about summer when I can go biking, shower, if I have time then ill maybe go on the net a bit and play a game, seems to work great to relive stress to blow up things online :), round 10-11 I'm either in bed or out of the house trying to have some fun. That's the weekdays. The weekends are happily a lot more open and I sure don't take my work home with me on the weekends anymore...hard to think one year ago I was just starting here and I put my life completely on hold it seemed for a few months so that i could cut my learning curve of the new job down as small as possible. I was thinking then how this job is my BIG CHANCE, the only one I had since finishing computer college 2 years prior. Here I am a year later, infinitely more confident in my abilities to succeed in this career and more importantly having bosses and co-workers who have all the confidence in me that they could have.
My contract I was notified last week was being changed again...the contract I'm on right now (the fourth contract revision in the past year) has my end date as somewhere around mid September I think. This new contract, get this, could be anywhere up to 2 years... I get that number from the fact that a project starting right now (a BIG ONE) is going to take 2 years to complete, and I think they want me around to help them with it.
You know I love this job and chances are i'd stay with it two years if I can...but lets face it I really wanna be permanent somewhere, not a contract position...it makes it hard to buy a house or even a car or anything big like I might have done by now if I was permanent. I don't know...I'm looking into buying a house anyways right away here, I can't afford to furnish a house right now, but I can afford to buy a house lol, try to figure that one out. It wont be a big house, but I'm going to try to get a new house I think, there are a bunch of new ones going up nearby my parents place that are nice looking, not big enough for a family to grow in but for me right now I think it would be great.
So I guess I'm looking into settling a bit eh? Ahhh man! I think I'm maturing... that sucks! I knew it had to happen eventually but not till I was like 40 or so!!
Well what else is new? Indoor V-ball season is over, mostly. My Sunday league took second place over all which was a nice way to end the year. My Tuesday fun league still has a few weeks of playing left. Then beach v-ball and baseball will be soon to start up. I took three of my 4 weeks off this year in July and I'm planning on going on a gypsy trip, probably west this year. Alone or with someone, I don't know, no major prospects right now for significant others.
For my gypsy trip I'm getting some new toys this year, a kayak and a new bike, my old bike is just not made for the punishment I put it through so I thought I better upgrade.
That's pretty much all I can think of that's going on right now, mostly what's on my mind these days is summer...I cant wait! And May long weekend is almost here! First weekend of camping :) woo hoo!! hehe
I hope who-ever is reading this is doing well in your little corners of the world. Happy Easter Everyone!!
January 30, A2K
Wow there goes another two months in a blink of an eye. I'm getting bad for that i know leaving this going without updating it more often. Trust me I've had a few people kicking my ass over it. So what's new wow well where to start... Xmas ruled spent it in Saskatoon with my family, was a small gatherin' just my mom, dad and sister. Scored decently on the presents though its pretty much for sure I musta been bad this year at some point otherwise why would Santa have given me a toothbrush for Xmas ~sigh~, and then he had the nerve to not give me any toothpaste with it!... O well ill be good this year, yah right what fun is that!
On to New Years i spent it clubbing with my sis at a local bar, CHASERS, was a fun night cept for all the guys trying to grope my sister, no I didn't hurt anyone, but it sure was tempting!
Now I've been pretty lucky lately cause I've been FORCED, that's right forced to take holidays that I didn't use last year. So sad isn't it? Yah I can feel your pity from here. So I took a bunch over the Xmas and New Years holiday season and traveled back and forth between Saskatoon and Regina here a few times. Had a blast. Then here this past week I took another 10 days of and traveled to good ol' Calgary. Now I've been through Calgary countless times traveling to BC and back but I haven't actually explored the city since I was like 7 or 8 years old. Even then all I remember is kicking some serious ass on the bumper cars at Calaway Park. This trip though I did a lot of exploring and with the help of a lot of friends living there I got shown all the major sites, you know the best places to pick up prostitutes and best bars :) well I'm kidding bout the prostitutes but the bar scene was a lot of fun. Also was shown a lot of nice places to go biking, surprisingly enough RIGHT IN Calgary. Can't remember what the park was called but it was in a valley within the city trees and streams all around. Was a very calming place to be. Was hard to want to come back to SK after being to Calgary... but I'm still not sure if I could live there, I think I still miss the West Coast more cause I think I need the ocean...
So obviously I've been having a good time of things lately, except for when my car broke down on a major expressway in Calgary, but I learned a lot of new swears that day so all's good. Now though I have to concentrate on work cause I am back at it today... o well I still have another week of holidays to use up before the end of February, it sucks I know but ill take the holiday just cause their making me do it :). Hope all's well with everyone out there in the world that I know. Talk to you all soon, bye. |
