Never ship anything via UPS!

I have decided I hate UPS! My printer went on the fritz about 2 weeks ago now so HP sent a new printer out to me and then I return mine. They sent it UPS which is all fine and dandy except they only deliver in Fort Mac about 9-5 Monday to Friday... when I'm at work. They tried last friday and of course I wasn't home so I called. They said they'd have someone bring it over on their own time on Saturday so I waited at home alllll day saturday and no one showed up. Then I called them again yesterday and offered to have them drop it off for me at work but then they said they'd bring it by after 5:30 yesterday night. Sure enough, they again didn't show up. So I called back today finally getting through to them at 1:30 this afternoon and they said they'd find out what was going on and the girl would call me back at work. You guessed it, 4:30 rolls around when I'm heading home and nobody has called at work or at home or anywhere and it is now 6:15 and nobody has shown up with it... Of course I could go pick it up but it's on the other side of the city and I have no car so it would cost me about $60 cab fare just to get there and back not to mention trying to drop off my old printer. What a headache. I have decided I will never ship anything UPS if I have the choice. I would go Loomis or Canada Post.

Ah, the joys of being around people

Went to church yesterday and finally got hooked up with people that I can actually spend time with. I talked to the pastor at the alliance church and he introduced me to the college & careers group which they call intimate & interactive (I&I) where I was promptly invited to their meetings on mondays or wednesdays as well as a BBQ that afternoon. It was gorgeous outside so there was no way I was turning them down, not to mention the opportunity to actually be around real people again! I have also been invited on a camping trip on the weekend of June 9th so we'll have to see if Dan wants to go since he's coming up that weekend again (YAY!).

Had a little tiff with Michelle this morning. She wants the dishrack to stay out so that she doesn't have to pull it out every time she does dishes. I think it's an eyesore that takes up valuable counter space when it's not being used. Stupid thing to get a little upset about but I'm an only child who's used to getting her way. I gave in though, I mean, really, I get everything else my way so I have to give her something too. Besides, I'll get used to it... eventually, and I can still put it away when she goes away on the weekends.

I'm pathetic and my hands smell like lobster

I went and had lunch in the cafeteria today to meet some of the other co-op students. They seem pretty nice but their lunch seems to last exactly 12-12:30 whereas mine starts anywhere between 12 and 12:15 and can go as long as 1. Made a couple of contacts though which is good cause that means I may get invited out. One of the contacts is with one of the people that seems to be the queen of planning student activities so that should help too.

Went to the lobster boil put on by the social club tonight. It was good, steak, lobster, salads, buns, fruit and fondue... too much food but so good. The unfortunate part is my hands continue to smell like lobster and I've washed them 4 times now not to mention I went to this thing hoping to make friends but sure enough the other co-ops are all going tomorrow and went bowling tonight. I still met a few very nice people that may hook me up with volunteering for community events which should help me with the friend finding. I hope to run into them again soon.

Oh, on top of everything else I met at least 4 people today who either go to or have gone to the U of S (or at least lived in Saskatoon for a period of time). That was kind of neat, helped me fit in a little, found some people we knew in kind. So now I'm off to my sad, pathetic Friday night to watch a couple movies I rented all alone... This had better pick up soon.

The keys to my heart

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free. In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored. You'd like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy. You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic. Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something that will confine you. You are afraid of marriage. In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

back to the week

oh well, weekend went by too quickly. It was really nice to have everyone here and I invite everyone else to come visit me too. It gets pretty lonely on the weekends when Michelle goes home to Edmonton. It was sad this morning when I had to leave Dan behind knowing that when I came back he wouldn't be here. *sigh* what can you do when you move away I guess. Any ideas for someone who's a little reserved to meet new people? I'm not really good at just going out to the bar and having instant friends or anything like that and everyone I work with already has their groups cause they live here.

Had a meeting this morning... all morning... it was long and boring and I spent a lot of the time doodling on the side of my notes but at least we got a free lunch out of it!

I think once we have a dvd player I'm going to have a weakness for dvd's as well as cd's and video games. Gotta have something to do out here.

Oh, went for a walk in the woods behind my house today. It was nice to get out and get some excercise but note to self: wear bugspray when walking in the woods. You'd think that would be basic common sense but out of the 4 of us none of us did... brilliant I know. Anywho, I'm off...

Happy birthday mom!

One more work day till the weekend then I get to see my Danny!! Woo hoo! Oh, I suppose my parents are coming up to, that's alright too. I'm actually very excited to see them all so we'll see them Saturday.

I think I'm going to watch a movie or something...

Yay internet

Finally got the internet set up properly. The guy comes in and says that along with giving us internet he has to disconnect our cable. Talking with my roommate we decided to just pay the extra to keep the cable figuring the person who lived here before us had it and they just hadn't disconnected it yet. So internet gets setup and this all goes through and I'm all happy when the lady comes over to have us sign the lease. Talking with her for a bit we find out that they were the ones paying for the cable! Grr... So she said she'd call up shaw and get the cable under their name and just the internet under mine. Guess we'll see what happens on my first bill and then they may be getting another angry phone call but for now, well, I'm pretty happy.

Work went well today, I had pork chop and potatoes for supper, I have internet, found out I don't have to pay for cable. All in all it's a pretty good day :)

On with weak too

Yes, I know, I can't spell, I've been figuring that out all day today. It's the usual but instead of being trouth moubble it's minger froubble... you know what I mean.

So this weekend was fun. Laura came up as she will be here for about 3 months working at Moxie's and the Keg. This is good cause now I know someone with a car! Heck, this means I know someone!! I'm right in there with what Brennan was saying today about it being tough being away from the place you really call home and all the friends therein. I've been having an tough time trying to meet people. Guess I'm not nearly as outgoing as I thought I was. I'm afraid to just go out and meet random people, I mean, how much would I like to go out with my friends and have someone come up to us and say "Hi, I'm Heather, wanna be my friend?!" aside from it just being weird to have someone else around named Heather it's an odd way to meet people. On top of that my department is relatively secluded from a lot of the rest of the company and I don't have a vehicle to get to most of the student events cause they're all downtown. Grumble grumble. Guess I'll have to work on that.

Good news is, I get to go to CANJAC again! yay!! This means a free 10 day trip to Ottawa in August (not to mention a break from work though I know it will be a lot of fun but a lot of work and VERY little sleep). I'm very excited. Oh, and mom, dad and Dan are coming up for the long weekend. double yay!! All in all I'm in a pretty good mood. Hope this keeps going all week cause then it will go fast!

Self Check-out?

So yesterday I came home and was soooo tired from the rest of the week that I just watched some tv and went to bed. Very exciting, I know! I didn't even really have supper.

Went and got a hair cut today. Yay, no more bangs in my eyes. She blow dried it after and so I think I got charged for a cut and style cause in the end it cost me about $35. That's ok though, it looks pretty good still. I then went for a walk.

Nowhere on the Alliance church down the street does it say what time the services are! Guess I'll send an e-mail to the pastor (whose contact info I got off a visitor's guide) and find out from him, otherwise I'll go Anglican for the next 8 months cause that's the next closest. Maybe I'll check that one out too.

I went and bought some stamps... finally! I've been meaning to do that all week. I'll be able to send out cards, postcards and letters now so we'll see when I get around to that.

First time in this Safeway. I'm not sure but I think I might like it better than the IGA here. Too many stupid people working at the IGA I think but I think they're all new hires, they all look really young. It's still the closest though so it'll be my main grocery place I think. Anyway, at this Safeway they had a few "self check-outs". I don't know how that works to prevent theft but I liked it in that I can't get mad at a slow cashier this way, just the slow people in front of me but that's not so bad. Had to get them to punch in the safeway club card number since I don't have one of my own though. So with this gadget you ring your stuff through and swipe your air miles and visa yourself and they just pack your groceries. Kinda neat.

On my way home I ran into a couple guys my age who asked me if I knew the bus system out here. I just kind of laughed cause I've only been here a week. This started a bit of a conversation. The guy I was talking to was from Moncton, NB and was telling me (after I stated I was from Saskatchewan) that the Wheatmonkeys (from Saskatoon) were playing at Paddy McSwiggins tonight so maybe I'll go do that tonight. It'll give me a bit of a chance to meet some new people while releiving some of my homesicknes by seeing someone from home.

Guess that's all for now.

The weekend is almost here!

Today was better than the last couple. I actually got to use the software a little bit so now I have a better idea of what I'll be doing and how the software works. It's actually not so bad. :) The part that scares me the most is chasing after people who do things wrong or who become confrontational, guess I'm going to have to learn to be sure of what I'm doing and not be afraid to give people heck. It's still pretty scary though, apparently payroll gets labeled as a bunch of bitches due to it sometimes. Oh well, that's what I get for doing commerce instead of chem... don't get to do the fun, interesting mine stuff but rather get team leaders in trouble for screwing up the time charts and such.

so, I was looking forward to having real internet hooked up today, I was sooo excited. As we walk up to the door to the complex when we get off the bus we see a shaw sign... Sure enough the guys had been there 5 minutes before we got there! GRRRR... I had asked them to put a notice on the work order than we wouldn't be back until 5:30 (apparently they had written down 5:00) and it was only 5:20. Fuming I went inside and called shaw who said they would contact the guys and see if they could get to me before the end of the day or else they'd call. End of the day for them is 8:00. By 8 no one had shown up or called so I called back and complained to which they said "Well, the soonest we can hook you up in the evening is next Tuesday." I got sooo upset, I've already been waiting nearly a week for the stupid thing and now they're telling me I have to wait longer, not impressed. Still better than Telus but still not impressed. So I went to my room, read my book, and tried to calm down. Finally Dan got home and gave me a call and that was the only thing that calmed me, was to hear his voice and know that he still cared and if he were closer would have arms to run into and a shoulder to cry on. He really is wonderful!! So the long and the short of it is that I still don't have reliable internet and won't until next week but my boyfriend loves me!

Day 2

I'm getting sick of filing already, hope I won't have to do it for long. I'm starting to miss being home and with my friends though. I know it's only been a week but I usually see at least someone everyday (like Dan for instance) and now it's my roommate and co-workers, not that that's a bad thing, I just miss my friends.

My co-worker are really nice though. I like them. I think this is the first time I've worked in a female dominated workplace (mind you it is in the office, out in the field it is most definetly mostly men). I also got my expense claim in so that means I should have some money coming to me pretty quick. I can't wait till my first paycheque but it won't come in until the 25th so until then I'm relying on Mr. Visa and Ms. Mastercard to cover my bills. *sigh* Oh well. It's not so bad. Work should get better tomorrow too when I get real training on some of the software we use and I can get down to "real" work.

I'm starting to realize how quickly things go bad when you're on your own. Guess I have to eat faster!! Other than that though I'm doing pretty well for myself. Got lots of food, should be good for a while and the IGA is right across the street so that helps too. Anyway, back to supper speaking of food. Later!

Hee hee

What Your Underwear Says About You

When you're bad, you're very bad. And when you're good, you're still trouble! You're sexy, in that pinup girl, tease sort of way.

The Underwear Oracle

Day 1

Ah, so day one is complete. After three phone calls yesterday to Diversified transport to figure out when and where to take the bus we finally had it figured out and had no trouble this morning.

We got to take a tour of some the lands of Syncrude at Mildred Lake, saw some the reclaimed land and the old drag lines they used for digging up the sands. They went out of commission just this year because when one went down they lost a quarter of their production. They now use heavy haulers and shoves... they're pretty big too but not quite AS big! Still I wouldn't want to get in the way of one of those heavy haulers, the wheels are twice the size of me and crushing a pickup truck feels like a little bump to them. We got to see the work at the north mine as well as a lot of the conveyors, buildings and pipelines. It was pretty neat all in all. Then I got taken to my post in payroll. There I was briefed on what went on back there, had lunch, did an emergency response quiz and some filing. Finally my day was over, I was nearly falling asleep after lunch and had to resort to coffee!! Either way, it worked!

We'll see how it goes tomorrow when we get a little more into things. So far, so good!

Orientation

YAY SHAW!!! Very excited! Telus wouldn't set up my internet because the land line here is a business line through Syncrude so they would have to set up the internet account for a business at $59.95/mo.!! That's just nutty. Anyway, I got frustrated and called up Shaw who happily set me up with their current promotion of first month free and $29.95 for the first 6 months and I don't even have to sign up for a full year or anything! Woopee! This makes me happy. On top of that they will be able to use the telus modem Dan and I purchased last Friday which saves me money! Take that Telus!! Hehehehe!

Anywho, my roommate got here last night. She's really nice and has a lot of the same interests as I do. She's a civvy from Edmonton and also an only child. That could be good or bad!! We were up late last night chatting away which meant I should get an early night tonight (hopefully).

Orientation today was sooo dull! There was a lot of repetition about things like safety (which is fair seeing as how there's a lot of dangerous equipment both in heavy vehicles and chemicals.) We also got to hear all about the EFAP and it gave us a bit of a chance to meet some of the other people (particularly students) working terms as short as 4 months and as long as 16 from what I gathered. It's kinda neat. Lots of engineers though, holy freak!! Not that I'm not used to being around them... At least there was someone there that I recognized from U of S commerce. (Or at the very least he recognized me and came over to chat... that was nice!)

Get a tour of the Mildred Lake mine tomorrow, that should be fun! Have to get up at some ungodly hour though... Guess that's what I get for taking sort of public transit to get there. Time to go have supper I guess.

Signing out!

Of loneliness, roommates and food

Alright, I held out for a long time but sure enough I eventually got dragged in by Brennan's blogging of his life away from home. Guess it's my turn now that I've gotten myself caught up with his life. So I got to Fort McMurray and the place I now call "home" Friday around 1am. We made pretty good time but that's easy enough to do when you're driving a deserted highway at night. Friday I had my physical for Syncrude and Friday and Saturday were spent unpacking all my dozens of boxes... Done and done!

Today was spent with a hard, heartfelt goodbye to Dan, going for a walk for yet more groceries and finding out (unfortunately) that hairdressers around my place aren't open Sundays. Oh well, guess it'll have to wait.

I really can't complain about my living quarters. I have everything provided for me, a queen sized bed and room for a nice desk in the bedroom, a local phone line, utilities, cable. It's a pretty good deal. Above all they pick me up in the morning for work and drop me off again after. The only problem with this arrangement is that the bus picks me up at 6:20 so it means a lot of early nights so I can have early mornings. We're going to have to see how that goes.

Supper wasn't fantastic. It was alright but the beef was kind of tough and I have decided that instant rice really isn't very good. Good thing is my roommate is asian, has a rice cooker and is willing to teach me how to make good stuff!! We'll see how those experiments go. I tried to upload some pictures but gave up after at least 2 hours of going off and doing something else only to come back and find it still hadn't been done. Grrr... Anyways, I think it's about bedtime now. Maybe just laying back with a good book for a little while.