I've had a nice week. Monday went by fast enough, we finally learned some information about the different applications for supply that we will be handling. Tuesday dragged, our trainer just kept jumping from one thing to the next and wasn't explaining things well. I walked home and it was smoldering hot. Tuesday I walked home and stopped at Subway cause I didn't really feel like cooking and only had a cup of soup for lunch. i got home and Sam was here (unexpectedly, b/c I thought he worked). So I ate my sub at about 4:30pm. At 5:30pm Sam offered to take me out to dinner at Mikes. I told him that I wasn't hungry right then, but maybe a late dinner. At about 6pm he suggested that we go to the Hilltop's Twisted Tuesday. I thought he meant that instead, but he wanted to treat me to both! He gave me 20$ for drinks at the Hilltop and bought me 4 coors light at Mikes! He is so generous sometimes!
I think it was 27', but felt like 34' (according to the weather network). I had the great idea to stop at Sobey's and pick up some stuff for my lunches, well I got in there and figured that I should get dog food while I was there and some canned meals for me. So I ended up sweating like crazy while lugging all these cans home. By the time I got home I was just a sweaty mop of something that once resembled Krista. I had called Lisa to come to the Hilltop with us, but she wasn't home and I just left numbers with her husband, she returned my call on last night and said that she had just rented the movie We Are Marshall and Ryan(hubby) was about to go to hockey and could drop her off. She arrived and she wanted to go up to the store to buy junk food. She bought some little debbie chocolate eclairs and cream soda. (I had chips already). It was a really nice movie and we all had alot of fun!(Thanks again Lisa!). Today I don't know what happened, either I turned the alarm off this morning when it went off or I didn't turn it on this morning, but I rolled over and it was 7am (by my clock which is 10mins fast). I jumped outta bed in a panic and raced around the apartment getting dressed and packing a lunch. Thank goodness Georges taxi is fast and I don't work to far from here! I got there and I was still early! Jenn gave me a ride home today, we usually walk together, but her boyfriend let her have the car today. Tomorrow is the last day of training and our trainer suggested that we have a potluck. I offered to bring cake. I called Jackie to see if she wanted to go to the mall with me, but she was in class (I later learned) and didn't answer. She called me back shortly after, she was busy and couldn't but was leaving school and didn't mind drving me up to Sobeys (Thanks Jackie!) which saved me a walk and time. I found some good sized McCain deep and delicious cakes for $2.50. I got a chocolate and marble one. I work tomorrow 7:30am-3:30pm and then I have the weekend off. Next week is our practicum and we'll be taking calls. There is SO much information to remember and multiple and different steps for everything! I could get completely different calls all the time. It would keep it interesting, but intense. They really don't want their customer service reps to have a high talk time either, so they expect you to be multi task experts! Not only are you supposed to do 2 things at once, they want 6+! I am not looking forward to the practicum week, it'll get easier as I do it more...but...I'm not looking forward to trying to remember all this stuff. Oh well, from listening in on calls people in BC (for the most part) seem pretty laid back. We'll see. Next week we work 1pm-9pm, which is better, but the bus doesn't run at 9pm at all. The next one isn't until 10:20pm. Except on Tuesday, that is 7:30am-3:30pm again for some reason. I think that our trainer said we will be learning "Softskills"(so we know how to be nice to people!). I am so tired!! I got so used to sleeping in and not having to learn anything new, that this is just exhausting! (I know...I'm a drama queen) Oh well :) I know I should take a nap, but it just feels like such a waste of time, working all day and then napping in the evening, then BAMM!!! It's time for bed! And you have no time to do anything! I don't think I'll be able to get any time off at Christmas (other than Christmas day and boxing day) (also New Years day). I put a vacation request in for December 24th and 27th as well, but I don't think it will get approved. There are no hours available. The week before there are, but not Christmas week. It says that I'm on a wait list. Oh well, I'll make due. BTW did you realize that Christmas is less than 3 months away?! Holy Cow! Where does the time go?! Anyway I'm going to go do some laundry...

So... biking wasn't as easy as I remember to say the least. I walk alot, but I felt muscles in my legs that I haven't felt in a long time, so I guess they aren't the same ones used in walking. I was biking up Regent street (trying to figure out what the best gear would be, cause there are 18 on my bike) and the chain came off, I got off and put it back on. It came off again pretty soon and I decided it would be Way to much work to get to work if I had to keep fixing the chain (& getting greasy hands), so I stopped and came home. It was just after 7am, so I called a cab and it got here pretty quickly. I walked home after work and stopped to get Gizmo some more dog food, well I picked up five big cans of dog food, two chunky soups and some stuff for nacho's. That doesn't weigh very much while it's in the cart, but my shoulders and arms were aching by the time I got home to say the least.
We listened in on some calls again today for an hour and a half and the guy was telling me some things while finishing up the calls (some things that I had learned and some I would ask questions about). He asked me when I had started and I told him on Monday and he was pretty surprised and said that I was a fast learner and doing great. He said that the other girls that listened to calls with him on Wednesday didn't even talk to him. He shook my hand when we were done and said that it was a pleasure meeting me. :) Also, when I arrived at work this morning there were some halloween chips and a mini chocolate bar waiting for me, apparently they were prizes for things we had done yesterday. I think Jackie and I are going to go to the 20/20 club tonight with her roommate Angie. I don't have to work tomorrow so it is a good night to go party! Woohoo! I'm feeling pretty happy about things right now. Life is good! Gizmo is adjusting to the new apartment wonderfully. She goes pee and poop outside when we are home and in the same spot (on newspaper) when we're not. The bunny is doing well (I think-she still hops around and sits under the end table when I let her out). I unpacked the pictures yesterday, the apartment feels alot more like "home". I decided to put the darker frames in the computer room, the lighter wood frames in the livingroom and any extra's in the spare room. I put everything away and it looks very organized. There is a box in the kitchen that has some nic knacks and miselaneous items that could be useful that I think we need another plastic unit with drawers for. Anywhoo.....I'm going to watch some t.v and relax.... :)

It is very sunny and wam in Fredericton today, so when 3:30pm came and I was done work I decided to walk home. Jenn, in the same class as me, just lives on Greensfield and Smythe and walks home everyday, so I decided to for a change. It only took me 45 minutes!! That's closer than walking from Connect! That used to take me 50-55mins uphill. I got 2 free bus tickets when I went to the information session downtown last week and I didn't need to use it, so I saved them and only needed to use 1 today. I might just bike to the bus stop, and get on with my ticket and bike home. Then I'll know how long it will take when I'm biking and not have to worry about being late for anything. Also, it's pretty cold and still dark at 6:45am when I catch my bus, so it'll work out better I think. We listened in on some calls for an hour and a half yesterday. They came in quickly, but the lady I was with was able to resolve the problems for everyone very quickly. She said she has been there 5 years and just loves it. They went over our points system alittle bit today and told us all about the benefits package they offer. It sounds really good. Some of the costs are covered by your "flex points" (which I don't know how you earn) and then you can choose the amount of coverage you want, 50%, 80%, or 90%, and pay the difference owing after the "flex points" are taken into account. We also learned how to fill in our own time sheets, it's kind of weird, the time sheets are due on Tuesday or Wednesday and they already include pay for the Thursday and Friday you haven't worked. If something comes up and you can't work one of those days you send them a revised time sheet and can either use vacation time, banked time (extra hours you've worked), floater time, or lieu time. I'm not to sure what the last two are, but I'll figure it out. We learned how to sign people up for payment plans that we offer, which doesn't seem to hard. I'll probably be eating my words when I have to do it, but.... I have this weekend OFF!! I'm pretty sure I will have next weekend off as well , I think we'll still be in the same training schedule. I was worried about having to work on Christmas (because the website application implied that it may be needed b/c they are open all year long). Not us though, we get Christmas day, boxing day and New Years day off. If we want to book any days off, we just go online and check to see if there are hours available for that day within the campaign and put a request in via email (I think). Then the staffing department gets back to you and lets you know if you've been approved. I'm not eligible for any hours until December 17th (3 months probation), but I can still go online and request days off after December 17th as soon as I get my user i.d and password. On December 17th I will get 23 hours for vacation time, so I could take three days off if I wanted. I don't think I'll mind working there at all. I gotta go make something to eat. Write later

I started work yesterday and seems like a really good place to work, much cleaner that Connect. It's very large. I got up yesterday at 6am and got all ready and caught the bus (with my student i.d) and arrived at work to get introduced to my class. Turns out that myself and 5 other people are from Connect North America. I didn't know any of them, they were day shift or worked on different teams than I. Accenture surprised us all and brought in water bottles, juices and pastries for our first break and also bought us lunch from the Happy Baker. We had sandwiches, drinks, salad and some more pastries. I felt very welcome! :) I got off and was done at 3:30pm, caught the bus at 3:50pm and arrived home shortly after. I had all evening to do whatever, so I decided to make supper, do the dishes, and unpack the spare room. This place is feeling like home alittle more every day. I hung my diploma up in the computer the other day (snazzy frame and all). It looks GREAT!! Getting those Tragically Hip tickets was a really nice treat before starting a new job, it worked out nicely. Oh, great news about the Campaign I'm on too. I'm getting customer service/billing inquires from peopl in BC, so the earliest I will work is 11am and the latest is 12am (which is only an hour later than Connect). And we don't take calls on Sunday's, so that is one of our days off definately. The schedule for the first month will just be randomly drawn for the new employee's, but it really doesn't matter to me what I get with hours like that available. We also get Thanksgiving off and don't work Sunday's, so we'll have a good couple of days off. The schedules run from Saturday to Sunday at Accenture, so I'll be just gtting done nesting on friday and go on the phones Saturday, before a 2 day break, oh well!! :) Sam was supposed to have today off, so I thought we could go get a movie or something, I called his cell and he was at work! He said he went in to help them out. Oh well, at least he enjoys his job. He is going to be closing the restaurant 2 or 3 nights a week and got a raise. So, he's doing well. I'm so happy for him!! He is a great guy! Anyway... I am starving!! So I have got to go get something to eat...

I start work tomorrow morning. I am not looking forward to getting up so early (work from 7:30am-3pm). I'm going to have to catch the 6:45am bus to get there in time. The next bus doesn't get there until 7:32am, so maybe I'll ask if that is o.k or if I know anyone in the class (maybe I could get a drive with someone). My friend Sari(pronounced Sarah) got called in to start on Friday night, so I won't be able to get drives with her right now. Oh well, I'm sure I'll know someone or be able to figure something out. I'm pretty excited to start a new job, it will be interesting to get calls that differ from one to the next instead of just saying the same script over and over... I think I'll look over the information that they gave me some more. I know that I'll be doing customer service for power companies, but I wonder which one I'll get and what the hours will be (hmm...). The training is 3 weeks worth according to the information sheet that Shannon gave me. 2 weeks in class and 1 week for practical experience. That is not bad at all. Connect was 2 weeks training and connect was 1 week. Jackie and I went to the Aliant store in the Regent mall today because they had sent me a new modem and new internet stuff that I did not need, so I just wanted to make sure I wasn't charged for it and she wanted to return her new LG chocolate phone. She had alot of trouble with it and aliant, bell, LG phones, she got alot of different and useless information about transferring photo's and the sound quality was not good. So, finally, some guy (Mike) helped her by letting her return the chocolate phone and buy a samsung one (which sounds better). We then headed to Oromocto to get lunch at a nice Chinese restaurant we had gone to before, it was closed, but we found another one close by and ate there (the food was good and reasonably priced). After lunch we went to the Giant Tiger. I got a wack of little frozen pasta dishes for my lunches and a wack of maple leaf frozen chicken, turkey and beef pies, they were 2 for a 1$. I also found some chocolate bars for 44cents. Woohoo! I think I will go make a coffee...

I am SO employed!! Woohoo for me!! My friend Sarah from Connect told me that she had gotten a job at Accenture when I seen her Monday. She said she had her interview and they said they would call her in a week or so, well the called her a couple of days later to tell her that she had gotten the job. I went to the interview and they told me right away that I had gotten the job!! Tara (the woman interviewing me) told me that she would like to offer me the position, I could think about it and just give her a call (pretty soon cause the training class starts Monday). AND cabs are cheap from there, it was only $5.50 for a cab from Accenture to the bank, just up the street. So, even if I did have to work late, the cabs are cheap. They also have a benefits package there that all employees are eligible for from day 1 of training. Sarah also told me that she lives close by (on Kings college) and she'll be getting a car soon and wouldn't mind giving me a drive. I'll be scheduled for 35-44 hours a week, 35 definately, but if something comes up and they need more hours they will let us know. Any hours worked over 40, we get paid double time for. It's actually not as far as I thought. It's just past lakeview inns and suites that I applied at last summer (I biked there in about 30mins). They are open 24 hours a day, so I had been alittle concerned about having to work until 4am or something stupid. She said that they offer people incentives to work nights and that they don't have any trouble filling those shifts. The latest day shift would be 12am or 1am, which I'm fine with. I called back a couple of minutes ago to tell them that I would like the position, but I got the answering machine. I left a message saying I had accepted the position. She just called me back and told me some info about Monday. Enough excitement about my new job, now for some info about the hip concert:

It was AWESOME! We all had so much fun! The sound check was great, we got to see them all performing without distracting lights and noise from other fans (cause we were the only ones there, other then the set up crew). We met with the band after the soundcheck, we all lined up along the arena wall and they walked down the row of us shaking hands and signing some pictures and the backs of our VIP passes. I thought that we could only have one thing signed, but turned out that they signed more than one item for a couple of us. I got a picture signed (Luke had thought to print some out thankfully) and Sam got the back of his pass signed by everyone and Gordon Downie signed his ticket as well. Rob was the friendliest one of them all. He put his arm around Jackie for the picture and talked to us all for awhile. They are going to send me the pictures, it was a group one, but whatever. I'm getting a giant frame and putting the picture of us with the band, the autographed picture, our VIP passes and tickets in. It's going to be awesome!! We took so many pictures, thankfully I have a good memory card. (pictures coming to Facebook later today). We then went to Amici's for dinner, all ten of us each got an appetizer, main course and dessert. Lisa, Jackie, steve, and myself all got the tenderloin steak and rosemary and herb potatoes which was a $27 meal. The others ranged from 22-30$. I think each of us ended up eating a $70-$80 meal. We asked to make sure that the tip was included and it was as well. We left there alittle late (because we all ordered so much). I had four jumbo shrimp in some kind of sauce for my appetizer and taramisu and coffee for dessert. Lisa got some crazy caramel thing and jackie got chocolate cheesecake ravioli and we all tried alittle bit of all three. Mine was the best. The cheesecake ravioli was not sweet and didn't really taste that great, but it was FREE, so it doesn't matter!! After dinner we got back into the pimpin limo and headed back to the Aiken centre, were we snobbily got through the crowd towards our floor seats by flashing our VIP passes at everyone (HA!). We had great seats, centre in the 5th row!! We could see everyone perfectly. The pictures are awesome! There are alot of Gordon Downie. I seen my landlord this morning and he asked me what I had won because he had seen the limo (pimpin Limo BTW) and had talked to the drivers. I told him all about it. He is a very nice guy. I knew the words to more songs than I had thought I would. Lisa sang along to almost all of them, she is a big hip fan and just kept thanking me. After the concert was over (about 11:20pm after the encore) we ran to the pimpin limo (which at some point someone called th K unit, which I like) because it was raining and got dropped off at my place, where everyone thanked Sam and I and ventured home. I had so much fun! I think I'm going to go out tonight with Jackie and celebrate my new employment and tomorrow Sam and I are going to head over to Tina's for her birthday celebrations. I stopped in to grab a coffee at the Great Canadian Bagel and seen her. She said that she's already begun decorating. I'm going to get my pictures transferred and get something to eat! Write later.

A woman from the human resources department for the Accenture call centre emailed me and told me that she wanted to set up an interview, but when she called it rang once and disconnected her. So I called her back and got the answering machine and explained that the phone number was right but we have been having troubles with it since we moved. I asked her to try back later and that I looked forward to her call. Then I called Sams cell and got him to call the home phone and it would only ring once and disconnected him. I then called aliant and explained this to the woman on the phone and she said that they would try to reset it from the office, otherwise they would send someone tomorrow morning to fix it. Thankfully it worked and the phone is working o.k. Meredith, from the promotions office is going to call me tonight with details about the hip tickets and get the names of my guests. BTW did I mention in my last post that not only do I get a ticket and go to meet the band, but I get to bring 9 guests with me~~ Yeah, 9!! That is just ridiculous beyond words. She sent me alittle bit of info this morning as well. At 3:15pm, we all get to go to the sound check and meet the band, then the limo takes us downtown to a new Italian restaurant called amici's. At 7pm we get taken to the concert (she didn't mention where we are sitting, but I'm sure they are awesome seats) and then the limo takes us back here. Woohoo!! I'll have a job in no time!! hehe ;)

I've applied for a couple of jobs, I'm being alittle more choosey than I was when I decided to work for Connect North America. I found out that we can go down to the centre on Friday to pick up our last pay cheques and record of employment. I had been slack this pay period and didn't work any extra hours, I figured I would the next pay period to make some extra cash (unaware that there would not be another pay period).I also found out that there will be an information session/job fair on September 10th at the Crown Plaza. So that might be something I'll attend. I've applied for some customer service representative job for service New Brunswick that I would love to get and am completely qualified for (other than the bilingual for some of the jobs) and has wicked hours and awesome pay ($16-20hr). I also applied at the call centre Accenture. The application process was really weird, first there was a long online application, then I called a toll free number and did an automated interview and then it said that I will be contacted in the next week... Whatever. I noticed that they are looking for 26 part time people who will eventually become full time, that would work for me right now anyway. I found out all of this information about Connect North America through Facebook!! Yeah, not by the company contacting me or anything, but Facebook!! I should go get something to eat. Sam and I have been getting up ridiculously late recently. There is no window in our bedroom and with the door shut it's pitch black which makes it difficult to wake up in the morning, even when the alarm goes off. That snooze button is just to tempting, I have no will power from that little button!! Well, wish me luck all!! Write later!

My last post didn't work, it never posted and I just didn't get around to writing again. Well I found out last week that I am unemployed. Yup, apparently people went into work on Monday and found out that Connect Norht America was closed. There was just a note on the door, no explaination or anything. So, I as well as about 300 other people in Fredericton are now looking for employment. We moved on Wednesday the 30th and our phone and stuff wasn't supposed to be transferred until the 31st. Well Aliant didn't transfer my service, they disconnected it and sent me a new modem and stuff for the internet which is a pain in the ass. Because now I will be charged probably or something. So I called on Friday and told them that I had no dial tone, so they set up an appointment for someone to come fix it on Tuesday (today). After the weekend of no service it was great when the girl showed up today to fix it. I was cursing aliant something terrible last night. (which I feel bad about now). Turns out the people before us had Rogers, so the telephone line wasn't connected. The service was there, but not connected. So I was sitting here on the internet when the phone rang, and the caller i.d said it was aliant. I thought oh my what do they want now? Well the girl told me that I had won tickets to the Tragically hip concert next week. Because I was entered into a draw for getting new service for the school year (new service because of their fuck up). They are going to pick me up (in a limo) in the afternoon to go meet the band at their sound check and then take us down to d'amicos for dinner, then back (in the limo) to the concert!! I never have luck like this!! This is Sam's luck rubbing off on me or something! Woohoo!! I just hope that a new job doesn't want me to start on Tuesday or something stupid. WOOHOO!! I also applied for some government job today, it took forever, their application process is ridiculously long!