A Day In The Life of Krista

2008-10-13T13:15:00.002-03:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. Last week went by fairly well, we are getting really busy though which makes the day go by fast...but makes the day stressful as well (there are no little breaks to just catch your breath). Last weekend Sam and I went to see the movie "Flash of Genius". It was a good movie, but the previews had shown alittle to much and not enough of it was surprising. We also had dinner at Smitty's prior to that. I had gotten a gift card from work using my "performance points". It was for $55 and had paid for our movie tickets as well as some new bra's that I picked up at La Senza. I bought 2 really nice bra's for $18.50!
Friday when I got home Sam and I decided to rent a movie and we picked up "Ironman". It had really good graffics. It was really nice spending some time together. Sam and I decided to have our own turkey dinner instead of going to Saint John (he couldn't get the time off). We invited Luke and Tina over to help us eat the turkey. I went and bought all the stuff for our dinner on Saturday, Sam prepared everything on Saturday night and cooked the entire meal on Sunday! I didn't have to do a thing! I just packed up the left overs and am I'm going to clean up the kitchen today. It was an awesome dinner, we had all the fixins! I even bought a can of Cranberries and a pumkin pie!
My hours have been cut back to 371/2 for the rest of this month which I don't mind. I can catch the early bus home at 8:20pm and still have my evening to myself or Sam and I can do something. I still catch the same bus in the morning, but instead of taking the 10:20pm bus home I'll get home 2hrs earlier........Speaking of the crummy bus system, Saun (my driving instructor) called me the other day and told me we would go driving for two hours oct 28th and oct 31st and on Nov 4th I will go take my driving test!! He had called me earlier this month and told me he could schedule the test for oct 22, but I told him I was going to Montreal. He was pretty quick to rebook it for me. I am really looking forward to Mom and I getting to visit Lisa in Montreal. It will be really nice. Madonna will be awesome to see. I wonder if I'm allowed to bring my camera? hmm....I hope I can.

2008-09-27T17:04:00.002-03:00

Work went by pretty quickly this week, it's getting to be the busy time of year again, so there's not much time in between calls. Thursday I came home to a very drunk Sam, it was kinda funny. He rambles alot when he drinks and gets a lovey, telling me how much he loves me and how pretty I am. It's nice. :) Friday I went up and met him when he was done work. We sat around and had a couple of beer. I decided that I didn't want to cook and he didn't want to cook so I treated us to dinner at the Zellers restaurant. We then stopped at the Liquer store and Sam bought some beer and I bought shots and threw him $20 towards the beer. We then came home and got ready to go out and had a couple more beer. We decided to go to the 20/20 club. Sam called and invited his friend Amir and his roommate to join us. We danced, drank and had alot of fun. Sams friends left, but we met a couple there and they invited us back to their place after the bar closed for some drinks. We couldn't get a cab for awhile and decided to walk down town to the tannary to get pizza first. We were all feeling pretty good, and buzzed, and at some point we decided holding hands was the best idea for our walk. :) Eventually we did get a cab and arrived at their place around3am or 3:30am. We were all having a good time and drinking. One of their friends came over and was beign a real bitch towards Sam and I because we were thin. She said something about "why did you invite them, they're not like us?" to Tonya (the one who had invited us over). We all just shrugged it off for awhile, but it persisted so Sam and I decided it was time to go home at around 4ish. We thanked Tonya and Joe for inviting us over and came home. It was a really nice evening out for Sam and I....it's been awhile since we've been out to a club and just partied all night. If we see Tonya and Joe again, we'll just invite them to our place instead to avoid any problems. Sam had to get up and be to work for 9am, I do not envy him. I slept in until about 2:30pm. He should be home soon. I think we'll just rent a movie tonight.

2008-09-20T13:23:00.002-03:00

I had my shift changed so that I had wednesday off and worked Thursday and Friday. (7:30am-3:30pm) The training was really easy and we were let out early both days. On Thursday our trainier let us go at 3pm and then on Friday he let us leave alittle after 2pm! we still get paid until 3:30pm though. woohoo! My friend gail drove me to Zellers on Thursday and then again on Friday when we were done so I didn't have to wait around for the stupid bus. I get to go driving today at 4:30pm. He has given me more than 11hrs driving time (the amount included in the course), since I don't get to practice at home (most of the people in my class were just out of high school and they can drive with their parents). I wonder when he is going to take me to take the driving test with the government. I think I'll ask today, just so that I have enough notice to book it off at work. I think he does a bunch of them in one day (and then you get your certificate saying you took the First Rate Drivers Education course, when you pass).
Anyway back to getting off early yesterday.....when gail dropped me off I decided it was pay day and I wanted to buy myself something. I headed over to Urban Planet and bought myself this dress shirt that came with a little vest type thing that goes over the dress shirt and a tie. I think it looks pretty hot. I own lots of dress shirts so I can use the vest thing and tie with those as well if I want.
The "w" button on my keyboard is broken (it gets stuck repeatedly and doesn't work), and I never really noticed how much a person used the letter w when typing (I got it to work once and copied it and now just press ctrl v to get it). Sam actually bought us a new keyboard a couple of weeks ago, but that one doesn't work now either, so I'm back to using mine.
I was looking at the shift bid for next month and they are all pretty decent shifts, I think the latest one is until 11pm, but they are pretty good about adjusting my shifts so I can take the bus both ways. They did start this new thing were your shift starts at different times on some days though, some at 11am and some at 12pm. I'm not all that fond of this idea-because I take the bus and it makes a big difference in what time I have to get up and which bus I will need to take. I will however be getting more than 40hrs a week next mth, so I can just bank the double overtime. I think it will work out.

2008-09-14T14:11:00.002-03:00

I met Sam after work last night, around 5:30pm. We were going to go downtown to the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival (b/c Sam had wanted to go) and I had looked the information up online, but after realizing that none of it was free and the tickets were anywhere from 10-28 dollars a piece, we decided to go see a movie instead. Since it was supper time I offered to treat us out to dinner (Sam had treated us to drinks at Jungle Jims and dinner at Ringo's on Saturday) and we decided to go to Smitty's. We both had a blueberry beer of some sort (which was pretty good), I got a roast beef dinner and he bought a colassal burger, poutine and a baked potato. It was really nice. After dinner we went over to Crescent jewelers to return my earrings that I had bought when mom visited (they had broken after I wore them once!). I didn't have a reeceipt, but they were able to search the computer and find my receipt for me (I just told them the date I bought them), so I got a new pair! While I was doing that Sam went over to EB games (or so he told me), when he returned he had went over to the Dynamite store and bought me a burgundy lace tank top! We left there and headed towards the movie theatre. He humored me and treated us to the movie "House Bunny" (mom had recommended it to me). It was really funny! We laughed the whole time. We went to catch a cab and the cab driver asked us if we had a $5, he wouldn't call it in because it is a close drive. Usually that would have cost 7$-8$. We arrived home just after 11pm to a safe and secure apartment (Gizmo had guarded the apartment well!). I read and Sam played on the computer before coming to bed. This whole weekend has been really nice.

2008-09-12T14:33:00.002-03:00

I decided not to be as ambitious as I thought I would be when posting last week.... I didn't end up getting the top coat done. I probably won't do it this weekend either. Oh well! Last Saturday when Sam got home from work he invited me to go meet some friends of his from work at the pub on campus, "the cellar". We had a really nice evening. We split 2 pitchers of beer and Sam bought a 3rd for some reason, but right after he bought it everyone decided it was time to head home (it was just before 3am, Sam probably didn't realize how late it was), so we didn't drink very much of the 3rd. We live really close to the Cellar, we walked both ways....I haven't been there for a couple of years and forgot that it was so close. We went to the Coffee Mill for steak and eggs on Sunday when we got up, it was really nice. Monday went by fairly quickly (for a monday), and on Tuesday I had been chosen (as well as 3 other people) to represent the Terasen employees to suggest ways to improve employee satisfaction. Everyone had filled out an employee engagement survey and we all discussed the results and areas that showd a need for improvement. It was really nice to get off the phones for an hour. After that meeting I had my lunch and then a team meeting (that got me off the phones for another 45mins!). Wednesday was busy, so the day went by fast and yesterday was my last day of work....so it really doesn't matter what happens....I have my weekend to look forward to! Today I got up and walked down the hill to drop Gizmo off at the groomers around 9:30am (she looks beautiful!) and went to Kings place and got a egg mcmuffin, hash brown and coffee. It was only 4$. I bought a scratch ticket and wandered around there for awhile before the groomer called and told me Gizmo was done. I sauntered myself back up york st towards the groomers and while passing the vets office I stopped in to pick up some dog food for Gizmo (why miss the opportunity? ;) ...it's usually out of my way to buy it). I walked to the groomers (carrying a big bag of dog food, I may have looked kinda silly...hmmm..) and got to the groomers, paid and called a cab. I got home at 12pm, usually I'm still in my p.j's on my days off. I've been able to do 2 loads of laundry and make the bed! Last night when I got home (just before 11pm) I had this *crazy* craving for pizza, so I ordered some kind of deal at Pizza delight and got 2 12" pizza's and a 12" garlic fingers. We have lots of leftovers. Sam got his first two week pay today, so he is going to treat us out tonight or tomorrow night. He's doing very well at Jungle Jims. All the other employees are always saying how great Sam does compared to their slack and lazy kitchen manager. Sam figures he won't need to say anything about wanting the manager job (b/c everyone else already tells the owner/restaurant manager). It's nice b/c he gets lots of hours and he still gets off at a reasonable hour. He worked 9am until 9pm on Wednesday (b/c someone had called in sick or didn't show up) and the manager bought Sam 3 beer as a thank you. I think I will go get some of that left over pizza....mmm...pizzaaa... :)

2008-09-06T15:30:00.003-03:00

My week went by fairly quickly (since it was only 3days of work). Friday I went out driving for 2 hours. I'm getting better. I really liked the car that we drove in. It was a Honda Civic (which I have driven before), but this one had a digital spedometer! I could see it in my peripheral vision the whole time I was driving, which made it alot easier to maintain the speed limit. This Civic was easier to turn as well. I requested that we use that car the next couple of times we go driving. I ended my lesson at Zellers so I could get something to eat. I bought some soups, fajita kit and some new books and just got a cab home. I walked up and met Sam when he was done work and we stopped in at Canadian Tire to buy more paint when he was done work. We got home and I cooked some chicken fajita's for us and he played WOW. We then went next door to the convenience store to rent a movie. Sam wanted to rent American Gangster....at first I wasn't to interested, but I read it had Denzel Washington and Therize Cheron in it and was directed by Ridley Scott so we rented it. It was long...good...but long...I think it was over 2hrs. We both enjoyed watching it. Sam got up and went to work for 9am, I slept in! I didn't get out of bed until 10:45am! I've just been hanging out with Gizmo. I did paint most of the living room. This is the second coat and it was easier than the first one. Tomorrow I will probably do the top coat and it will be done!

2008-08-28T09:11:00.002-03:00

Mom arrived early Friday morning, I was in the shower when she arrived actually. We decided to go to lunch at Jungle Jims so we could say high. The restaurant manager served us and gave us Sam's employee discount! It was a very nice meal. We then headed over to Canadian Tire so that I could by some more paint while it was on sale. They didn't have any left, but I got a raincheck for the sale. We ended up there for awhile actually... mom bought me some new shelves for the apartment and convinced me to buy a full size BBQ. (which is awesome**thanks mom**) We decided to go to the Regent mall and mom and I ended up buying duvets for our beds. She bought us the duvets and I bought the covers for them. We came home and dropped everything off, but then drove back up to get Sam when he was done work around 4pm.We thought about going to a movie, but decided not to in the end. It was a nice visit. I have since put my feather bed back onto my mattress, added the new duvet and bought a new pillow, it's like sleeping on a cloud! Work is going by fairly quickly, it's getting really busy again, so the calls are back to back which makes the day go by quick. Sam is going to Dartmouth for the long weekend to see his brother-he's gotten sick and Sam would like to see him. So I get the apartment all to myself! I might call some of the girls on the weekend to hang out or something, maybe for a BBQ.
I was out this morning walking Gizmo and heard someone yelling at me from down the hill, I turned and saw a girl....looked around to make sure she was yelling at me....ran down to meet her and saw that it was Gillian McGinnis!! She gave me a big hug, she was heading to work, but we chatted for a bit. She has been in Fredericton for this month doing research at STU. It was really nice to see her, turns out she is moving to Halifax tomorrow though. She is going to Dalhousie University to get her Masters in Urban planning. That is pretty exciting. To bad she's leaving tomorrow, oh well at least I got to see her before she leaves. Anywhoo I gotta bust over to my Doctors appointment.....

2008-08-16T16:03:00.002-03:00

My week was good and I did not get sent home early any day last week or this week...it will be nice to have a full 80 hour pay period. BTW Susan it was great to receive a comment, keep them coming :) I went driving this morning from 11:30am -1:30pm. It was nice we did alot of turning. We went to some quiet residential area in New Maryland and just did alot of turns. He said that I make the turns alittle to drastic and quick...I guess I need to believe the car will turn, but when it doesn't start to turn when I want it to I get worried, therefore turning to abruptly. I still have lots more driving time so I'm sure I'll improve. At the end of the driving time I wanted to get dropped off at the Fredericton mall instead of home (so I could get some lunch) and I did have to turn onto Prospect street and drive along that busy street for awhile, I think I did just fine. Last week Monica had called Sam and told him she didn't think it was working out and not to come back to work. Sam was shocked because she had led him to believe he was doing well and would be supervisor in a couple of weeks, but on his day off (Monday) called him and told him that! So he went out later that afternoon and handed out some resumes. Tuesday or Wednesday he got a call from his friend Steve (they had worked together at the Hilltop and Mikes) and he offered him a job. We went there last night for a late lunch. I had won $20 on a scratch ticket and $4 on another one, so I treated us out. He started today at 12pm. Later on tonight we are going to a party that my friend Victoria is having. She gave me her address and phone #, but I threw it out while I was cleaning my dresser off. I think I remember her address (not her ph #), but I'll call Alicia to make sure it's right before we go over. Alicia and I where making plans for today (emailing each other back and forth) but when Victoria invited us to the party, we decided that would be easier/cheaper. I have been painting the floor in sections because it takes more than 4 hours to dry since I'm putting the first coat on a little thicker. So far I have alittle over half done. While Sam and I were out Friday I bought another can of the Stoncoat (on sale for $10 less) and some clear coat protector just to make sure it stays on well without chipping. (and easier to clean) I did a section right before I went to bed, so it could dry overnight and I wouldn't have to worry about anyone walking on it. Well....lets just say Gizmo had something else in mind....I woke up and there were paw prints all over it! Not enough to wreck the coat altogether, but its a good thing we're doing a second coat to say the least. It gets me worried though because the paint gets on the bottom of her paws and she licks it off (she won't let me wipe it off cause she's weird about people touching her paws). I hope she doesn't get sick. I did my best to get some of it off last night.
I also got my spot in the shift bid. I am number 3 out of 5. My friend Joanne is number 1 and she already told me she is taking the 11am-7pm shift which there is only one available, then there are 2 shifts for 12:30-11pm (Mon-Thurs). So she gets the 11-7pm and even if number 2 wants 12:30-11pm, I will still get it as well. Numbers 4 and 5 get the 3-12am. I think I will be able to get it adjusted so that I can take the bus both ways and it is the same shift I'm working this mth! (11:4am-10:15pm), they adjusted my friends schedule a full hour so that she can take the bus, so 45mins shouldn't be a problem, I really like working four days on and three days off, it's nice. Gotta run.....:)

2008-08-10T20:09:00.002-03:00

I went to the Fredericton Mall on Saturday to pick up some dog food, lunch stuff and these wonderful drinks called "Monkey" that mom and I had tried when she and Richard visited us. Well I went to Zellers at first, but decided dog food and lunch stuff would probably be cheaper at Sobeys. So on my stroll to Sobeys I noticed a new clothing store called "Urban Planet", so I stopped in. I have been trying to change up my wardrobe a bit and wear things that aren't necessarily the first thing I like in a store (more of the same things I already own). So I went in and noticed a really hot dress, it's long and bright (red, yellow, black, white and orange). So I picked that up right away, it opened on Friday and as a promotion it was buy one item get the second 50% off on everything. So I tried on the dress.....liked it but wanted a second opinion...so I peaked out of my dressing room and looked at myself in the mirrors outside the changing room...I noticed two ladies (between 40-50) and asked them if it looked o.k. They said that it looked great and I should get it. So I decided to get the dress and went to find something else. I searched and seen some things that I liked, but were a little to much like things I already owned. I did notice some funky looking shirts with a scoop type neck and a real flowing fabric in a nice orange color. I tried it on and it fit well. I also got a free prestige card for a year (20% off). They LC didn't have any of the Monkey drinks, but I was feeling happy enough about my new shirts, so it didn't faze me to much. I got home and had the house to myself (Sam was at work). I watched some t.v and wrote a blog post. He surprised me and called at about 9-9:30pm and told me he and Jilha were on there way to pick me up. We went over there for the evening, a couple of their friends from Iran were there as well. We all sat around drinking and listening to some music. It was a nice evening...the spoke persian amongst themselves a little to much though. That was the only downfall. Sam and I got up this morning and he treated us to breakfast at Hannahs. Later on when we got home Amir stopped and picked us up to go to a lebanese restaurant here in fredericton. I got a salad that was really good, to big though I brought 1/2 home for my supper.They both got some platters of some sort. We talked and ate until about 3pm, Amir and Sam dropped me off at home and then Sam at work. I had an appointment to go do 2 hours of driving 4-6pm, so I waited around and it turned out that the actual time was from 4:30-6:30pm. The guy who taught me in class (Shaun) is also my coach in car. The car that I drove in is a Honda civic, a nice little car, but very touchy. I had driven mom's cavalier and Richard's malibu before and didn't really have a problem turning, but I cannot turn in this little Civic. I don't know what the problem is....I can stay at the speed limit, stay on my side of the road, follow at a decent distance, brake o.k, but when it comes to turning.... I suck!! When we finally pulled into my driveway he asked me if I had any questions, I said no...just next time I would like to practice turning more. I also asked if I would always be driving the Civic or if I could drive the Cavalier that he has for training. Thankfully he said that I could try the Cavalier and that he usually drives it. Driving in the city for two hours is exhausting! (Now I understand why mom doesn't like driving long distances) I have my next driving scheduled for 11:30am-1:30pm next Saturday. Hopefully I can do better at turning. BTW I have noticed.....that I am not receiving any comments from Susan.....I wonder....have you stopped reading my blog?....Is it no longer interesting to you?........(sniff sniff)......do you not love me any more? (tear) :) Come on..give me something.

2008-08-09T15:21:00.002-03:00

I really like working four days a week, having 19hr shifts. I was able to do so much yesterday. Sam had told me that the apartment was smelling really musty and nasty a couple of weeks ago. I have no sense of smell and had been oblivious to the nasty odor. I spent all day Aug 1/08 (new brunswick day) cleaning the carpets with my new steam cleaner. I did it repeatedly and thought that I had eliminated the odor. After busting my ass all day he arrived home and told me that it still smelled pretty gross. I was near tears after working so hard. We let it go for the week, becaue we are both working, and especially with my shift I'm gone all day. Yesterday however I was up bright and early. I stopped at the Dollarama and bought a wack of vanilla air fresheners . Right around the corner from the Dollarama is Canadian Tire where I bought paint for cement floors, like the "Hard Rock" stuff that you buy at Home Depot, but without being "Hard Rock"...I think it's called "Stonecoat". I got home and spent the afternoon tearing up the crappy/smelly carpet and putting air fresheners around the livingroom. Sam worked all day and then went over to Amirs for some going away party they were having. I don't know either of them that well and was pretty tired, so I opted to stay in. I had the apartment to myself...it was nice. I watched the movie "Be Cool" with John Travolta and Uma Thurman and just chilled out. Sam got home shortly after 1am, I guess not to many people were at the party, it was a last minute kind of thing. He'll get really bored now that his two best friends are moving away tomorrow. Jihla's moving to Halifax and Amir is visiting Iran for a month. He's going over there again after work tonight. We went to see the movie Hancock last weekend, it was really good. I just love Will Smith. We also went to Bootlegger and I bought us each a new shirt. I got a blue halter top for $10 so I told Sam that he could get a shirt for $10 as well. He picked a short sleave dress shirt with some interesting texture throughout it. It's nice to see him wear something different than a long sleeve dress shirt (which he wears every day with jeans and a fidora). I didn't make any plans for this weekend. I called Alicia last night, but she has plans for the weekend and I forgot Erica's phone number at work. I'm going to put some effort into making some more friends, I'm getting bored. It's kind of hard though, cause I'm always working. Oh well I'm sure I can manage to be alittle more sociable and start inviting people to go out. :)

2008-08-01T15:00:00.003-03:00

What a long week! I never got to go home early at all this week, so I was upat 7:30am and went to school from 9-4:30pm, 5:15pm-12am was work. It made for a really long week, but I wrote my drivers educaion test yesterday (which I studied really well for) and it turned out to be easy. He had given us a review the day before (wednesday) and the final was pretty well the same thing. I had studied a lot of stuff that wasn't even on the test. Most of the people in my class were from the high schools and don't even have their permits yet! Only 3 of us in the class have had our 7-1 for more than 4months and can take our actual road test, he said that he would schedule us to do our in car training before the other people since they have to wait 4 months anyway to take their road test with the government. I'm very excited to be getting my license and a car eventually. It will make alot of things easier, especially since Sam wants to move next year. I'll be able to rent a truck. He starts his supervisor position Aug 11/08 (Monday) on the northside. I guess there is a bus stop right outside the restaurant pretty well. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn (last night) that "Georges Taxi" gives $1 off of their fares for people travelling to and from work. I have a three day weekend this week because of New Brunswick day, which is the beginning of my new schedule-so I get paid 10hrs! Then I work tuesday,wednesday and thursday and have another 3 day weekend. Anyway I gotta get ready for work. :)

2008-07-24T20:12:00.003-03:00

2008-07-21T14:19:00.003-03:00

I got to go home early on Friday! I was able to leave at 9pm. I got home and surprised Sam, we sat around and watched t.v together and a movie online. It was a nice evening. Saturday mom and richard came up to Fredericton for a visit, they rented a room at the delta and invited us to hang out for the evening. Richard treated us all to a wonderful seafood platter each and some bailey's at the delta restaurant. Mom and I had quite a buzz on, she had bought this martini type drink that was 15% alcohol and we just drank that over ice as well as some drinks called "Monkey" (which are really good) and a ceasar. We all ended up watching the show Punk'd for the remainder of the evening. It really is a funny show, I had never watched it before. Sunday Sam and I watched movies and t.v together again. It was a nice day, he made us supper as well. He's just waiting for the manager of mexi-cali rosa's to call and tell him when he starts and what his schedule is. He had to wait unitl today to get a reference from Monica. I checked my work email this morning and I have been scheduled offline to learn how and practice some coaching. That was pretty fast! I figured it would take a month or more for them to start training me to train other reps. I think that will be very nice. I start at 4:45pm, have offline work from 5-6pm and have a break from 6:15-6:30pm. So the start of my shift will go by pretty quickly. I start my drivers training one week from today! It is going to be so hard having to get up and be out the door by 8:15am!! I haven't gotten up that early in years! It will be worth it though to have me drivers license finally. Right now I sleep in until 11:30am-12pm! I'm going to have to start getting up earlier this week so that it's not a huge shock to my system when I have to next week.

2008-07-17T15:04:00.002-03:00

I had a supervisor (mark) sit with me yesterday and listen/evaluate to my calls and how I handle calls. I checked my work email this afternoon and he had emailed me my results. He said that I am meeting expectations for everything and that I don't need to have as many calls graded as I am having done right now (10 per mth). He wrote that I am very polite and I have a calming affect on people. He wrote that I am doing a really good job and he feels that I am ready to help coach other representatives! I think that's pretty cool. I would get to be off the phones and listening in to help other people. :)
Sam went for an interview at Brewbakers today and he called me to say he has a second interview on Monday. They offer benefits and the guy said that they usually start people at $9 and hour, but with Sams experience they can negotiate. It would be part time to start out with, which would work right now because he still needs some time to complete the GED. There are chefs there as well, so when he does get his GED he would have someone that can sign off on the hrs required to write the block two. Then he would be able to become a real/certified chef. He needs to get back to work anyway, he's getting bored. He was talking to Monica at Pizza Delight and she pretty well offered him a job, but there are no chefs there, so it wouldn't be as good. Gotta run.....

2008-07-15T11:59:00.002-03:00

I hate working until midnight!! It really blows! It was busy enough all day long (because they had sent alot of people home), but later in the evening it was really slow. They sent some emails around to see if anyone wanted to go home,but I didn't even reply to any of them. I'm a full time/flex customer service representative and my hours just got cut back to 35hrs a week for the rest of the mth. It's July and I reallyl rather not work 40+hrs anyway, but they made it so I start an hour later and still have to work until midnight, so if I do take a home early, I'm loosing out. I got home early last Friday and was off at 9pm! I came home and surprised Sam. We decided to go out to Nickeyzees to see the bands play. It was a really nice evening. Saturday we had decided to have a BBQ, so that I could meet some of his friends. We had about 8 or 9 people over for burgers and sausages. It was a really nice day. He and Amir had planned to go out and party somewhere, but Colleen (one of his friends from school) and I decided to stay in and play the nintendo and playstation. It was a really nice evening. She left shortly before 2am and Sam arrived home shortly after that. Sunday I had made plans to go shopping with Alicia, so we were up and out the door by 1pm. I had been looking at carpet cleaners for a couple of years now, and I went to check them out at Walmart. There was a bissel steamcleaner on for 89.99$!! I bought that and some cleaner and a couple of other things. It really was easy to assemble too! Three screws and it was together. I got home shortly after 5pm and Colleen called to invite me over to Jihla's apartment to hang out and have some drinks. I fixed myself something to eat and caught a cab over around 6pm. It was nice getting to meet them better. Jihla is moving at the end of the month to go to Halifax and she wanted to have a girls night out before she went. We made plans to go out tonight after work. I'm going to reply to the home early emails today, so that we can spend more time out. Jihla's working tonight as well, so I'm going to call Colleen when I get to go and she will come get me or we can figure out where we are going to meet.
Oh yeah....I was writing about how much I hate my shift this month, but we got our shifts for next month and I was number 1 so I knew I would get my first choice and I will have a four day work week (mon-thurs) 11:45am-10:15pm, with Friday, Saturday and Sunday's off! Woohoo!

2008-07-03T14:31:00.002-03:00

I hate working this crummy shift! Yesterday was SO slow! There was almost a 10min wait time between some of the calls. It was crazy and boring. I did some return mail, but that gets boring real quick as well. I signed the home early book for today and tomorrow (I had a drive last night, so I didn't want to leave early and have to pay for a cab). My drive has Thursday's and Friday's off, so I have to cab anyway. At least if I get sent home early today I might be able to catch the bus.
Speaking about the bus....have I mentioned how sick and tired I am of depending on it? Well....I am so sick of the crummy bus system that I booked some time off (so I can start later and still be paid) to take drivers education! :) I am enrolled in with First Rate drivers ed to take a four day course from july 28-31, 9am-4:30m. By the end of this month ladies and genetlemen I will have my license!! Woohoo! It will make for some long days (9am-12am), but I'm not to worried, it's only four days. Then I can work on getting a car for myself and Sam (he's going to start saving to take drivers ed as well).

2008-06-29T15:48:00.002-03:00

This week went by fairly quickly. Monday went by quickly enough and I got sent home early which was nice. One of the Team managers (Cindy) had some people doing off phone work on Tuesday, and I volunteered my services to her. She took me up on it and scheduled me to do offline work all day. It was awesome! I went in Wednesday and took calls until my first break and went to see her again (once again volunteering myself to complete the offline work) and she had me off the phones again. Thursday I think I took calls most of the day, but still did some offline stuff. Friday there was a BBQ at work, I had a cheeseburger and chips. Cindy booked me offline all day again. It was really nice. I was checking facebook a couple of days ago and in my status field had written that I was unhappy about my crummy July shift, working until 12am sucks! My friend Sari seen it and offered to give me rides home, she lives around the corner from me. She's off on Thursdays and Fridays, so I'll have to cab those days, but cabbing 2 days instead of 5 is great! I hardly see her anymore because we work for different gas companies, I'm terasen and she's source gas. I've decided to take Drivers Education a soon as they are offering weekend classes. I am really sick and tired of working shift work and having to depend on the really crummy bus system. Yesterday Sam and I went to Regent mall so that I could pick up some new tops (apparently he doesn't think I have enough sexy tops). I bought two new ones, one that he really likes and one that I really like, but he thinks both are sexy. I bought him two new dress shirts as well. Then we went and got some groceries. I called Alica and invited her and John over for drinks, John wasn't feeling well and didn't feel like leaving home, so they invited us over. Sam and I walked up to the liquer store and later on Alicia came and picked us up. We warmed up on some game called Mario Lego (for the Wii) and later we all played rock band. It's alot of fun. Sam and I called a cab shortly before 2am and it finally arrived alittle after. We had alot of fun. It was nice to stay in and drink instead of going out. (and cheaper). This week is a four day week, because I have Canada day off. I asked my supervisor if I would be able to start at 3:45pm instead of 3:30pm (just take 5mins off my 2 breaks and lunch to make up for it) so that I can take the 3 o'clock bus instead of the 1 o'clock bus (and be there 2hrs early). She said that was a reasonable request and to send her an email (that she would forward to staffing). I emailed her and she never sent me anything advising me it was approved or not, so I'm assuming it was and will take the 3 o'clock bus. Hopefully it's only for July (crummy shifts). The more skills a person learns the crummier the shifts get (or so it seems). When I was just billing, I never worked past 10pm and could always catch the bus. But when I got collections trained, my shifts started to really suck! People who have billing, collections and emergency have even crummier shifts. It really doesn't make a person want to learn. I get bored, so I like to learn new thing, but it's not really benifitting me that much. At least the shift premium will pay for my cabs for the two or three nights I'll need to take one. (7-12am is an extra $1 an hr=5$ extra). Sam stopped over Mikes yesterday to see a friend of his and Donna (the kitchen manager who initially wanted him and worked to get him back when he had left to return to the Hilltop told him to come see her some time next week). She is probably going to try and get him back. The manager that fired him is gone now. I told him to be careful, he was fired to easily and it doesn't speak well for a company when they just fire and hire whoever they please.

2008-06-23T11:37:00.002-03:00

This weekend was alot of fun. Mom came up to get me on Friday around 6:30pm with her friend Robert from school. We went to this really neat restaurant around the corner from moms. I got chicken Pad thai and mom got vietnemese noodles in some kind of sauce I can't remember (or pronounce correctly). There was lots of each, so we just shared. Friday I got up around 7:30am with mom and talked to her while she got ready for work. After she left I had some coffee and got ready myself. It was to early to go to any stores, so I took Gizmo for a walk. Later in the morning I decided to go to Giant Tiger. I had bought a pair of black capris at the one in oromoncto and they are really comfy, I was hoping to get another pair in brown. I got there and they didn't have my size in the brown and all the other capris that I tried were to small, but when I went up a size they were way to big. So I decided not to get anything, but on my way out I noticed some mosquito coil things, so I decided to pick them up. While standing in line I was pleasantly surprised to see Susan and Cole at the counter to the right. She invited me back to her place to hang out while we were waiting for mom. First we went to moms and picked up Gizmo though. We hung out there until mom picked us up at around 2:30pm. We got packed up, drove robert home, and realized mom and forgotten her cell phone charger. We back tracked to the apartment and got it and were on the road again. We arrived at the boarder around 5:15pm, went to the liquer store and waited to get through. We got through around 5:30ish and started trying to find pleasant lake. We asked at the Irving, searched and couldn't find, asked some people along the road, went back to the Irving and bought a map, searched some more-followed the stupid map (we later discovered pleasant lake wasn't even on the map-but we had been driving to pleasant river lake-American's aren't very original in the naming of things), drove some more (it was getting dark and very foggy by this point), we pulled over at the next rest stop and mom said she wasn't driving any more. The restaurant and store att he rest stop were closed, but I could see some doors along the side of the building and heard mens voices coming from one of the doors. I went up to the door and knocked. An older guy opened the curtain and gave me a look and then opened the door for me. I told them we were lost, they took out some really good maps and showd me exactly where we were supposed to go. Mom came to the door and asked if they knew if any other rooms were available and another guy took her over to the owner's house to get a room. Shortly after mom and the owner were back and we had a room. It was sheer luck that we pulled over at a motel/camping ground. We were up early Saturday and got some breakfast at the restaurant and headed out. We had been on the correct road Friday night, but had taken a right instead of a left. We arrived at the lake shortly after 10am and Cole was in the water right away. There were two big dogs on both sides of the trailer, they were nice and Gizmo got along with them. We had a nice day sitting around on the deck talking. After getting to the trailer, we didn't want to leave until we were heading home, so we ended up eating some hot dogs and beans for supper, (the hot dogs were in the freezer, we had brewad and the can of beans was there as well), later I had some toast. I was able to get the guy next door to make us some coffee later as well. The trailers to the left and right of us partied and shouted probably well past 2am, but we managed to get to sleep after laying there. Sunday we were up bright and early again, Cole is alittle human alarm clock that goes off around 7-7:30am everyday. I haven't gotten up that early since high school! Sunday morning Susan made us all some scrambled eggs and mom made toast. We left about 2pm and arrived home around 4:30pm-it''s not a very long drive when you know where your going. Mom and I decided that it was easier for me to take the bus in the morning than drive again, I agreed. Sam had gone down to Saint John and called us later in the evening. He is coming home on Wednesday and will bring Gizmo home with him. I got home at about 11am and decided I would check my work email to see if there had been an email about home early. I called my Team manager, got the info about how to access my account and got her to sign the home early book for me. I'm just waiting to see if there is an email sent, then I can apply to not go in at all and it won't affect my stats. It would be nice to have an extra day off (and the house to myself!). Although it's 12:15pm right now, and no email yet......hmmm.......better go get ready then......

2008-06-18T17:37:00.002-03:00

I got a crummy shift for next mth! 3;30pm-12am! My ride got an earlier shift and I can't trade with anyone because there are only 3 people in the shift bid. The other person with a 3:30pm-12 takes the bus too, so we are both screwed. I will have to pay 7$ every night for a cab! I'm going to put a note up on the message board asking if anyone drives around Regent St who also works 'til 12am, but there aren't alot of us. Boo to that!
I am excited however about this weekend. I booked Friday off and booked time off to leave early on Thursday. As far as I know mom, sue, cole and I are going to spend the weekend at Helens trailer in the United States. It should be fun, I am picking myself up some liquer. I think mom is coming to get me (and Gizmo) Thursday (I'm off at 5:30pm) and we are all going to leave from Saint John around lunch time.
Sam writes his exams tomorrow and Friday and then he is taking the bus to Saint John for the weekend. His brother is getting married Saturday. I didn't think I'd be able to get time off, so I told him I couldn't go....but then mom invited me to go to the States and I put some effort into getting the time off. I hope he's not mad at me (I asked him and he said he wasn't...). Anyway I gotta start work soon...

2008-06-15T15:01:00.002-03:00

I have great will power!! I had signed the home early book on wednesday and got approved to leave at 9:15pm. I emailed staffing back and said that I would rather stay and work (my bus leaves at 10:20pm so I would have to call a cab, wait for the cab and maybe get home at 9:40-9:45pm. I really wouldn't be gaining enough time to make a difference. Thursday came and went rather quickly, and on Friday when I logged on at 1:45pm I was looking forward to the weekend. I got an email just before my first break telling me I could go home at 3:45pm. I was stuck in a call until 4pm, but then I logged out and checked the bus schedule-it said a bus was to arrive at 4:20pm. I went out and waited for alittle while, but remembered that my schedule is from 2007. So I started walking (thinking if the bus came I'd wave it down and if not I'd be closer to the mall and home. (I had wanted to pick up some 3M hooks to put pictures up). I stopped over at the liquer store and bought a big bottle of coconut rum for myself and some beer for Sam. It was around 5pm (I think, I wasn't wearing a watch) when I arrived home and Sam was pleasantly surprised to see me (since I came bearing gifts). He made us some Sloppy Joes for supper, they were really good! At Zellers I had seen an entertainment centre, but no price on it,so I had just passed it by. Saturday Sam and I got up and went to Zellers to buy it. We got there and found out it was marked down, it was only $59.95, down from 129.95! I spent all afternoon putting it together-easy to assemble my ass!! Whoever decided to put that statement on the box, obviously had never attempted to put it together before! There were a crap load of these stupid screws with locks that had to be attached after they were screwed in and placed in whatever panel was required for that stage of assenmbly! It was Crazy!! From now on I will be shopping for products that say "no assembly required"! It was a really nice evening though, Sam and I hung out together and had some drinks. :)

2008-06-07T18:51:00.002-03:00

So....it's been awhile since I've updated...hmm....what is new? Well I love my new shift! I get off the bus and head over to work (rushing alittle) and log into everything and start work Immediately! No waiting at all!! AT about 10:12pm I get myself all ready to log out and close everything that isn't needed...Then at 10:13pm (my last break I only take a 12min break to make up for the 3mins I leave early) I log out and rush to the bus stop, which is really pointless, because the bus is always late, but I'm paranoid about missing it. Last Friday I got sent home early at 8:30pm, when I arrived home this time Sam was home. We went up to Dooly's and bought some beer and talked, it was a really nice evening. He even sat with me and watched T.V for awhile instead of just going to play his game. Actually I should give him credit, for the past couple of weeks he's been spending time with me almost every evening. I realized yesterday that I had a bladder infection, but couldn't get in to see my doctor until this morning. I came to work (feeling very uncomfortable) and Tracie (the team manager on duty) scheduled me for offline work until my lunch (so I could run to the washroom whenever I need to- which was quite often). Then my own team manager scheduled me offline until shift end!! It was really nice, I did return mail-which is just verifying addresses via canada post and calling people to make sure it's the right address. It doesn't take very long, so I could always run to the washroom. I had my appointment this morning and she gave me my prescription, I took it as soon as I got home and had to rush to get to the bus. I took some calls when my shift first started, there were no team managers available, but I went over to my team manager when their meeting was done and she scheduled me off all day again. Woohoo!! (I wrote this yesterday on my break at work).
Today has been really sunny and warm. Sam and I went to Delux for lunch and then stopped over at Canadian Tire to pick up some paint. I've decided to paint the livingroom, I hate the bland white. The color is called "Bamboo Shoot". It's a light color, not a beige, brighter, but not to yellowy. I think (*hope*) it might brighten up the room. It didn't cost as much as I thought it would, only 18.99$. Tonight Sam and I are going to Jungle Jims for dinner and drinks with Alicia and John. I have a bladder infection and I have a three day prescription......now this prescription is an antibiotic. Am I not allowed to have any alcohol this weekend? I read all of the information and it doesn't state anywhewre not to drink alcohol. Hmmm....I better google that before having anything to drink. Longer post later...:)

2008-05-28T21:08:00.002-03:00

I am Such A Slacker!! The first three weeks of this month were only 4 day weeks for me (thankfully). Last week I had Monday off and went home early (they send an email around asking people if they would like to go home early and you can reply to it) on Thursday (using 4 hours of vacation time to cover my absence) and again on Friday (leaving at 10pm and using 2hours of floater time to cover my absence). This is my last (and only) full week of this crummy shift and I get to work thinking " I want to go home". I worked from 3pm-6:45pm today ( I was on my lunch when I got the email stating my approval to leave early, but didn't get back to my desk until 7:05pm (my lunch ends at 7:30pm). I suppose I'll have to stay tomorrow and Friday to make some money, but I figured it was a three pay month and I got my tax return so I can afford to leave unpaid without to much damage. Next week I start my new shift (that my Team manager adjusted so I can take the bus both ways) and don't think I'll be tempted to reply to those emails as much.
So I logged out of everything and called myself a cab. I got home expecting to surprise Sam, but he wasn't home when I arrived. I called him and discovered he was over on the Northside having some beer with a guy from school. I was disappointed, but it's been kinda nice to have some time to myself. Last Saturday Sam and I were out and I bought the game Shrek 2 for the PS2. It's a pretty good game, I can switch between Shrek, Fiona, Gingerbread man and Donkey all the time, using different ones for different things.
I was able to book October 21/08 off for the Madonna trip, which will be nice. BTW Gzmo does not have another Kidney Stone, woohoo!! She's just a wimp and is sensitive around her stomach since she had one, the vet said it's just psychological, there's nothing wrong.

2008-05-21T14:09:00.001-03:00

This weekend was really nice. Friday night we went to Snooty Fox, Alicia and John showd up, but (I found out this morning) Joanne and eric ended up at Nickyzees. It was nice to get out on a Friday night, I spent way to much on Fancy named drinks. We got Nacho's and by the end of it the total came to $65. Saturday Jackie and her parents came to Freddy for her grad. We all ended up going to Mcginnis landing. We just had lunch stuff so it wasn't to much. I went to Jackie's graduation ceremony, but I left after she walked the stage (It was an hour and a half in and my chest was/is super burned). I didn't care about any of the other graduates anyway. ;) Sunday we didn't do to much. Monday on the otherhand was great!! I have already beaten Super Mario world with Princess Peach, but on Sunday I not only beat it with Mario, but again with Toadstool! I felt very accomplished all day!! Today is going by fairly quickly. I booked from 3-5pm off on Friday, so I can take Gizmo to the vets without worrying about being late. (and it's a Friday so the less work the better!). (this was written yesterday)
Today I found out that I did o.k on the shift bid and I work 2-10:30pm. I can take the bus to work and find another way home, but I might also talk to my TM about starting 15mins early and leaving 15mins early so that I can catch the bus home as well. It would be cutting it close (its supposed to get to the bus stop at 10:20pm, but it's always alittle late). Woohoo for not having the crappiest shift for the summer!! At least for June anyway, gotta log into all the crap for work, write later!! :)

2008-05-16T10:20:00.002-03:00

So I got my position in the shift bid. I am 10 out of 15. It's an o.k spot in most circumstances, but in this case not so great. The first 9 shifts end before midnight and I would gladly take any one of those, but in less someone chooses a midnight shift. I as the lowly number 10, will be stuck with a crummy shift. BOO to that. However I am aware of one individual, Victoria that doesn't mind the later shift, so if she chooses that I will be o.k. (otherwise I'm screwed!). If I do get a crummy shift I think I will go to the human resource manager and tell her that this is the reason I didn't want to be collections trained. I have been here 8 months and there are new billing people that have better shifts than me. I'll just complain to my team manager and her and I'm pretty sure I can work it so I could get a better shift. I'm cute and I can use it to my advantage! (hahaha) Yesterday I went into my schedule planner and cancelled some days off in August that I had booked off randomly and went into the planner and requested to have Oct 22,23, and 24 off (so I can go to Montreal and attend a Madonna concert) and I was APPROVED!! Later when some more of my banked time actually gets added to the planner-it takes forever- I will request to have Oct 21 off as well. I'm excited, I've never been on a plane before and I've never seen Madonna (and likely never will again-although, maybe... this is like her 160 farewell tour isn't it?) :) Yesterday I did some off phone work!! I didn't even start until 3pm and I was off the phones until 6pm, then I only had to log on for 1/2 an hour because my lunch was at 6:30pm!! Woohoo!! I hate the phones..... and people.....people for the most part suck!! Today Sam and are meeting Alica & John, and Joanne and Eric at the Snooty fox for beer and nacho's, it should be a nice evening. Which reminds me I have to call and make some reservations. Saturday Jackie will be arriving, I am excited to see her (and meet Steve). Mom said she was thinking of coming to Fredericton, I'm not to sure how far that thought got, but it would be nice to see her if she can make it. I was at work the other day and Joanne (who also worked at Connect) came over and told me that we have to go to court some time in June, she showd me my name on the great big sheet of paper she had and it said that I was entitled to alittle over $500. That will come in handy. I have to get Gizmo some more needles next week and another ultrasound, I think she has another Kidney or bladder stone, hopefully this time we can catch it early enough to avoid another surgery. It's only benn 6mths since her last one and I feed her this expensive preventative food, what's up with that?! She should not have gotten another one this early! I should go straighten up the apartment and get showered and dressed....Oh and "note to self-buy an antivirus for the computer"....:)

2008-05-08T18:01:00.002-03:00

I just had an introduction meeting with my team manager, everyone is scheduled for one, and I found out that I am #3 on our "team", which is mostly billing CSR's. I won't know where I'm at in the actual collections shift bid until mid May. She did say that I had a good score though (99). I'm still fairly confident that I will get a decent position in the shift bid. My friend Alicia is on the same team as me and is in the collections bid and I know I did better than her. The whole points thing is very misleading!! It doesn't really matter where I rank in the team, if we aren't in the same shift bid! Ridiculous! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

2008-05-08T13:59:00.002-03:00

I was pleasantly surprised last night when I received an email from my Team manager with the shift bid points. Last month our position was randomly drawn because we were the new class. This month however it is based on our performance. I am number 3 out of 18 on the shift bid!! I have never been that high before! Woohoo!! This means I will probably get my first or second choice in shifts and I won't be working until midnight (which really sucks). I couldn't beleive it when I looked at my position based on my score. I checked my ID # about twenty times to make sure I was looking at the right ID. I think I will purchase myself a new bike (with an awesome lock to prevent this one from being stolen). I will be able to bike to and from work all month, it will be really nice. I am very happy about having tomorrow off and going to Saint John for Lisa's going away party. Then next weekend, Jill from work invited a bunch of co-workers out to Jungle Jims to hang out. So far there are 10 or more people going, it should be nice. I have that day off as well. Jackie is coming to Freddy on Saturday for her graduation and to see me (obviously). I'm really excited about that, I've missed her alot. It will also be an opportunity to meet her new boyfriend Steve (a military firefighter) who has invited her to move to Alberta with him soon. Whoa!! I'm happy for her though, it's adventurous. Woohoo number 3!!......oops....sorry for getting alittle off topic there, but I'm excited about my kick ass position! :) The best thing about today, is that after today, I don't have to come to work tomorrow!! Gizmo has an appointment at the vets at 1pm and it's supposed to be nice, so I think we will walk down. After that we may cab home b/c I have to buy some more dog food (and it would be awkward to carry up the hilll). Upon arrival at the apartment we may hang out in the back yard for a bit (gizmo loves having a back yard!). Then I will pack my things for the weekend and await mom and richards arrival, mom said about 3pm (so they probably will arrive around 4pm) :) This will be a nice weekend, as well as next weekend. I should probably log into all the stuff I need to start work shortly....Happy Thursday!!

2008-05-01T00:14:00.002-03:00

I was done the offline work in about 20mins, but since I was booked off from 8-9pm I just kept it open and went back and forth "reviewing" the slides. It was a nice day having the breaks. On my break I was sitting around with some friends and we started mentioning our shifts for next month. I told everyone that I had the 3-12am but I had a stupid hour lunch, Bill said that he would prefer that shift over his 3:30pm-12am with 1/2 hr lunch. So we tried to switch our shifts. We both sent an email to staffing and I wrote to my Team manager. My TM said that it was fine but we would have to make sure it gets done, the new schedule starts Saturday, so I ran over to ask Bill if he worked Saturday, and then I said "oh well, we're both collections so we won't work Saturday anyway" and he told me that he didn't work Saturday, but he is only billing. So that probably won't happen, we're in completely different shift bids. I was so hopeful and upbeat* and then it didn't work out, at least my hopeful mood was only about 10mins, otherwise I would've been more disappointed. Oh well

2008-04-30T12:15:00.000-03:00

So I was alittle confused as to why I was on a waiting list when there were 17 hours available for july 8 and 10 so I asked a team manager (not mine, cause she's never around) what was going on. She told me how to refresh the hours to show how many were actually available. Turns out both days had -1 hrs available, so I probably wouldn't have gotten approved. So I cancelled all of my july requests and went into August. There were alot of hours available (even after I refreshed) for August 11-15, so I put a request in to have that week off and got approved for all 5 days right away!!Woohoo! Finally I'll be able to make some plans. I'm doing well on mario 2. Sam showed me how to warp on a couple of levels and now I can make it as high as world 6-the desert world-which I'm not liking very much (probably cause I can't beat it yet). Mom called me and asked me to book Friday May 9th off so that I could come to Saint John and help her clean, not my favorite thing to do, but it's mom, so I'll do it. I have Friday May 9, Friday May 16 and Monday May 19 off, even though I have a crummy shift this month (3-12am) I'm only working 4 day weeks for the first 3 anyway. It worked out quite nicely. Sam is doing well at school, I think he's enjoying it. This week is dragging...it's only Wednesday! Two more days to go! Boo!! I did get an email saying that I can go offline from 8pm-9pm to do some HR policy stuff (that I'm pretty sure I've already done, but will do it again to get off the phones for an hour). Also Paulette just came over and told me that I would be asked to logg off in alittle while to go to some sort of huddle, everyone in my area is going a couple people at a time, so more time off. Woohoo!

2008-04-22T19:40:00.002-03:00

I arrived at work this morning and thought to myself, it's a beautiful day out I don't want to be here, so I signed the home early book (figuring I wouldn't get sent home at all and if they asked me to late I would have just said no). They usually email people asking if they want to go home and to reply what time they would like to leave and how they would cover it. The day was going alright and by 5pm I went on my lunch.When I returned to my desk to log back in, they had sent me an email telling me to log out at 5:30pm and go home, just send an exception to staffing adv of it. They just told me to leave, so I left!! By the time I got myself all logged out of everything and ready to go it was 5:37pm. The bus was leaving at 5:50pm homeward bound, so I just caught the bus. When I got home I figured I would surprise Sam and we could go do something. I got home and he was in bed taking a nap!! He got up to greet me and then returned to bed! He's tired getting back into the swing of school and homework. He has alot of work to do tonight, I'll let him rest then. He received another cheque in the mail today, so he's got more money for me!Woohoo money$$ We've decided to go to brunch at the pub on york and then to the market. Hopefully I'll be able to find some more Nintendo games. I've got my heart set on Mario Bros 3. Maybe I can pick up one of the guns because the other game Sam bought me has the oldest mario and duck hunt on it.I love my Nintendo! It glitches out while I'm playing it sometimes though. I'm going to see about having it cleaned. Off to play my nintendo again....chow!!

2008-04-19T15:51:00.002-03:00

I was cleaning up the computer room this afternoon, I wasn't impressed at having to clean it because I has asked Sam earlier in the week a couple of times to clean it. I discovered a mug with about 10-15 cigarette butts in it and soot all in and around my desk. I was not impressed and called Sam to bitch at him for smoking in the apartment. We agreed 5 years ago that he wasn't going to smoke in the apartment! So I called him up and told him he would never guess what I had discovered while cleaning, he asked what and I told him about the mug. He apologized and told me that he had a gift for me, something I have been wanting for a long time. I had no clue what he was talking about, I don't want much and if I do I go buy it. He found me an original Nintendo!! I am so friggin happy!! He said that he also bought me 2 games to go with it! I have been wanting one for at least 2 years, but since they don't make them anymore they are really hard to find, so I had given up. I'm going to have to book a day off next week so I can devote it to playing Nintendo!! Hehe....aww.....Nintendo! Woohoo!! It is so nice in Fredericton all this week, today Gizmo and I walked to Tims and Zellers and I just wore a sweater.

2008-04-18T00:02:00.002-03:00

I did get the 3-12am shift with an hour lunch, oh well it's only for one month. I've decided to take a week off july 7-11 and I have weekends off so it will actually be a 9 day vacation. I was able to use the banked time that I've been saving and had some vacation and floater time to cover 2days. I've been approved for the 7, 9, and 11 and I am #1 on the wait list for the 8 and 10. I'm pretty sure that I'll be approved, there's lots of time available, so there is no reason for them not to approve it. I'm taking a 4 day weekend in May for the victoria day weekend. Jackie is coming to Fredericton for her graduation, so it was a good weekend to book time off. I'm going to do taxes this weekend, I know...I should've had them done by now, but I had to call and get my T4 for Connect North America and I just got it (2 wks ago)....which I suppose is no excuse, but after working all week the last thing that I feel like doing on the weekends is my taxes. I wonder if that place "help for taxes" charges anything to get them to help out, probably. I should have a pretty decent return, if I get it before July, maybe I'll use it to treat Sam and I to a real vacation somewhere. Do I need a passport to fly within Canada? That would take some time, I'm sure we could work something out with the travel agency we book with. I was thinking maybe going to Toronto, I've never been to Ontario at all, maybe it would be a good choice. Any suggestions?
The lady from family services contacted Sam the other day and said that she is going to try and get him some extra money for transportation and living expenses! She be at school to meet him on Tuesday to get his signature for some things. So the government is paying for his $1800 program and giving him extra money!! He got his first EI cheque in the mail today, so I got some money he owed me and he paid his mom some money for his cell bill (that he doesn't need, but wants for whatever reason, silly man). I got home and he told me that he was going to go downtown to his buddy Charles' house to hang out for awhile. He also asked me if it was o.k if he went to Saint John this weekend. I told him it doesn't matter to me, but he has to make damn sure he's home Sunday, since he has class Monday morning. I'm so happy for him. He's been pretty happy the last week, everything's been working in his favor. I emailed Compu College about their pharmacy technician course and a woman called me about it and wanted to set up a meeting, but I told her I work full time and I wasn't available. She said she would email the info to me, but still hasn't. I hope she doesn't forget. If I were to take that course I would know absoluely what kind of job I'm qualified to do and have the training for something more specific. Stupid BA....learn to think for yourself.....gain a bunch of knowledge but have no where to apply it......challenge ideas....

2008-04-14T13:16:00.002-03:00

I loved having a four day week last week, it was wonderful and just flew by! I also have a four day week this week, having booked today off awhile ago. Alicia from work also has today off to attend a dentist appointment, so we decided to drink and watch cartoons last night. Now I haven't watched any cartoons in years and was shocked to discover how inappropriate and sexually oriented they have become! We watched channel 17 and it was the Simpsons, 2 episodes of family guy and then we just watched TLC. Where are the cartoond for kids? Are they all japanimation now? Who knows!
So, on to my low position in the shift bid, thankfully Alicia is low in the shift bid 12/15 and offered to give me a ride home if we're both off at 12am, which we probably will be. Most early shifts only have one opening, the shifts that end at midnight have 5 openings! Which will mean that the people 10-15 will be working until midnight I would think. At least it's just for one month though, cause my collections calls kick butt(toot-toot), so next month I would think I would be higher on the shift bid. My team lead gave me alittle project to do while the calls were slow on Friday. She asked me to make up a survey to get to know the team better(favorite colors, foods, etc), so that was nice to be asked out of the rest of the team. She also called me on Saturday to see if I wanted to come in and make some extra money. I politely declined the offer, I'm there enough already.
Sam and I have decided that I should book a week off the second week of July. July shifts are only 7hrs on the calendar right now, so if I book now I'll only need 35hrs. I've already got 24 in my banked and I'm pretty sure I still have 13hrs vacation left. Sam went and did his testing for the program that starts next week today. I'm pretty sure this means that he got referred....he said that the woman at family counselling services (the one he needs for the referral) also said that she would help him get his EI, so he would have it the entire program period. If he can take another culinary arts program while he's got this lady's help I told him to go for it. This way when he goes back to work (working under an actual chef) he can clock his hours and take his test for his block two.
My ring that mom bought me when I was eight broke. I am really rough on rings. I've got to get the one Sam bought me reset, the stone in the ring mom got me put back in and to extend the gold band across the ring, AND the little diamond (that I already replaced once) replaced again on my ring like moms. Good thing I've still got some Regent mall gift cards. I'm just not getting any of the work done at the same place that replaced the little diamond and it fell out again, what shotty work!

2008-04-08T22:49:00.002-03:00

I just didn't feel like coming to work yesterday. I rolled over before my alarm went off after a very nice sleep and though to myself "I don't want to go to work today", when my alarm went off I thought it again, and after hitting the snooze button to lay there and ponder my choices I decided to call in sick!~ I arrived at work this morning to discover that I still get paid for 60% of the day. On a bad note I discovered something that put a damper in the morning....I was completely wrong in my wonderfully ignorant assumption that by using my banked or floater time to cover when I leave early, that I would still be able to bank it as double overtime. NOPE!! Not the case apparently. I just noticed this on my online schedule. So I get paid for it, but only at 100%, instead of the 200% if I were to work it. BOO to them expecting that!! I was so proud of myself for outsmarting "the man". So, now I'll have to actually work the extra time to bank it. Today was really nice, I was taken off the phones from 1:25pm-2:15pm by a supervisor to listen to some of my calls, I didn't do well in any of the calls that they had chosen to record. I forgot to say the two tag lines that we are required to say (have I resolved the reason for your call? and thank you for calling terasen gas) and lost a wack of points for that. I was feeling alittle down on myself (they all were billing calls), but mark said that I was being to hard on myself and was very encouraging. Later on at around 6:30pm paulette sat with me and marked some of my collections calls. She said that I would have gotten a 100% on the first call that she listened to and that I did very well on the other calls as well. That had the rest of my day going nicer and I was cheerful all day long! My very last call of the night was a woman who had been disconnected for not paying her bill(now I know that I can't reconnect her without confirmation of her paying the overdue balance) but for some crazy reason I set up a payment arrangement and sent someone out there to reconnect her for 95$. That was a BIG mistake! I knew that I couldn't reconnect her when I first seen the acct, but as we got talking I got into a payment arrangement kinda mode and totally forgot what I was doing! I will be scored down for that! Oh well it's done now. I was having a really good evening, and I screwed it all up on the last call! Anyway gotta go watch some "Girlicious".

2008-04-05T15:03:00.002-03:00

Now that I'm in collections I really like it. Probably more than I like being in billing. People who are calling the collections department are just setting up payment arrangements so that they don't get disconnected. They are pretty friendly to me (considering I'm their last contact before getting disconnected in most cases). I still get the sob stories about how they can't pay their bill and it's not their fault and they have 3 kids and.....I try to help them as much as I can, but when it comes right down to it...you have to pay your bills (period). People expect their phone or cable to be disconnected if they don't pay their bills (after repeated warnings and overdue statements-even phone calls reminding them), but for some reason think that we are being unreasonable to disconnect their gas service. Whatever. Now I don't have to deal with people calling because they think their bill is to high (because they don't think they used that much gas- I don't know what their basing this assumption on, but they believe they didn't use it). I never called NB power and disputed using more or less electricity than they billed me for!! I really don't understand what these people are hoping to accomplish by making these ridiculous claims!! I had a nice week at work. I signed the home early book on Wednesday and Friday and was fortunate enough to get an email telling me I could go. Wednesday I left at 9pm (only 45mins early), so I used 45mins of floater time to cover and banked that 45mins at double overtime for 11/2 hrs. Yesterday I got to leave at 7pm!! I did the same thing, used banked overtime to cover leaving 2:45 early and still was able to bank 11/2 again. I got home shortly after 7pm and Sam and I went out to a late dinner at the Hilltop. We had gone there last weekend for breakfast and I was surprised at how good their prices were, so we went there for dinner Friday. They have sweet potato fries which are really nice. This morning/afternoon Sam made us some omelettes. I've been banking all of my double overtime for awhile and in another week I think I might have enough time to book a 5days off paid. (+ I usually have weekends off). I suppose there are worse jobs out there. Anywhoo I think I'll go online and play a game or something since I have the computer for a couple hours.

2008-03-27T22:55:00.002-03:00

I had a wonderful long weekend! I slept in on Friday and lounged around in my p.j's for awhile before calling mom to see if she would be up to get me. It wasn't the nicest weather so we decided that it would be better to come and get me on Saturday instead. I read all day and eventually got showered and dressed. It was nice. Saturday I got up around 9:30am and showered and got ready, had a couple cups of coffee and figured mom was probably at home doing the same thing (drinking coffee), so I figured I would call and see when she would be coming to get me. It was about 10:30am or around there at this point. I called and she said that she was about 5mins away from the apartment!! I nearly fell over with shock! It was great! We all had some more coffee (on the broken coffee maker, which thankfully didn't explode), watched some Girlicious and headed to Saint John about 11am. The drive was very nice, no deers! We didn't do to much when we got to Saint John. Richard was off at 7pm, so we made reservations to go to the Delta for dinner. Mom and I both enjoyed the buffet and some drinks and Richard ordered fish and fries (I think). Our buffet came with everything! I even left some room to eat dessert. I was never really interested in cheese cake before I met Sam, but now I always make sure I eat it when I'm out and it's an option or dessert is included. hmmm..... We were then going to go bowling, but got to the bowlarama on the westside and there was a wait to get a lane. We then decided to go get some movies and a game for the Wii at blockbuster. We rented sleuth, license to wed and braim academy (or something like that) for the Wii. License to Wed was funny, sleuth we didn't finish (sunday). Te wii game was pretty fun, just easy things but you have to be really quick at it. Sunday Mom and I went to Giant Tiger and bought some new clothes. I got some really nice shirts and a dressy skirt and matching top. Mom picked out some new tops as well. We had a reallly nice boiled ham dinner, there were enough left overs for me to pack a whole bunch of ham and vege's (I ended up forgetting on Monday though *grr*). Monday mom had to work so I lounged about with Gizmo for awhile and then headed down to Giant Tiger to buy a new coffee maker, since ours has been broken for about a year- and we've "fixed" it kinda, and return a couple fo shirts mom had bought the day before (she hates trying stuff on, I was trying Everything on and modeling too!-so I knew it all fit). I found an awesome coffee maker! It's got a timer and everything. I set it the night before and by the time I shower and get dressed I have a pot of coffee brewed and ready! It's wonderful and long overdue, it was only $29.99! Mom and Rich drove me home around 5pmish. I got home and decided to treat myself and Sam to dinner. We went to Hannah's and I had a turkey dinner. I worked 71/2 hr shifts for my "practicum" for collections, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and then I go back to my 8:45 shifts Friday. It is really nice having the extra time not at work. Alicia has been giving me rides home while I get off at 10:30pm (the last bus is at 10:20pm) which is really nice of her. I get home before I would on the bus anyway. Tomorrow I have to get back into the longer shift (boo!!). Hopefully the summer shifts are more barable. Collections really isn't any more difficult than billing, easier in some ways. Sam surprised me and is making something for us to eat and wasn't even playing WOW when I got home. He went to service nb today for an appointment with a representative to get a referral for a program that he would like to take. He'll know next week if he got the referral, otherwise he would have to pay $1800!! For a 2mth program at that! Anyway it smells like dinner is ready!!mmmm!!

2008-03-15T17:22:00.002-03:00

I had a really nice day at work yesterday. The calls were steady, but not relentless and all of the people that I spoke with were pretty friendly. I worked from 12:30pm-3:30pm and the time was just flying by. Kelly Levesque (the human resources manager) approached me at 3:35pm and told me to log out. She said that she had a reward for me to show her appreciation for joining the collections training when she asked me to. She booked me off the phones from 3:35-8pm doing back office work. Cameron(a guy from back office) showd me how to log some things on addresses where there is gas being used but no one has set up an account to take responsablility for the gas service. I didn't have to talk to anyone all day! It was an awesome break from the phone! When I logged on at 8pm I only had an hour and 45mins left of the day. Near the end of my shift I spoke with an older guy who said that I had the nicest voice and sounded like a sweetheart! He said that I was in the wrong line of work, probably assuming that people yell alot. I asked him why he thought I was doing the wrong kind of work if I have a nice voice, and he just said that I sounded like a sweetheart. I don't even remember what he called about. I think he was frustrated about something, maybe not getting his bill, but he kind of forgot why he called after he was talking to me for a bit. I told him that he had a credit on his account, but I probably should have verified his postal address. hmmmmm...oops!! Sam went to Saint John to visit his mom and dad this weekend, they wanted him to go down for some reason. Which means I have the whole house to myself! I can do whatever I want to! (including use the computer whenever I want to-not having to wait 3-5hours to use the computer is nice). I went and got groceries this afternoon and I did a good deed! A representative from the Fredericton food bank was around the fruits and vegetables and I asked him what the bags (on the table) were for, and he told me that you buy the 5$ bags of food and donate it to the food bank. I thought that was resonable and offered to buy one. I had a donair for lunch and it was delicious! I think Gizmo is cold since her hair cut, she stays on top of my fuzzy p.js on the bed all the time. I am so excited to have a four day work week for this week and next week. I still have to get ahold of mom to see if she and/or richard can pick me up on Friday or what they want me to do.

2008-03-13T23:02:00.002-03:00

I was approached by a supervisor and she asked me if I wanted to be collections trained. I immediately said no, telling her that I don't like people yelling at me. She said that was o.k and approached some of my other co-workers. Alicia and Ashley said that they would do it and enrolled in the training class (4-12am). The hours for the training class weren't all that great for me either. I was talking with Alicia and she said that I should join the training class and offered to give me a drive for the training period. So...I was thinking about it and was later approched by the human resouces manager inquire to why I was so hesitant to join a collections skillset. She told me that it is mostly payment arrangements (which I know how to do) and getting people reconnected after being disconnected for arrears. She told me if I would give it a chance and hated it after 3mths, she would remove me from that skillset. We shook on it. So, at least I will be learning something new and know that I won't be stuck indefinately if I don't like it. I was unable to book today off, so Sam and I dropped Gizmo off at the groomers shortly after 10am and went to Second Cup before catching my bus. We both got a caramel coretto, nice but I probably only needed a small instead of the mediums I bought us. We then went to Mcdonalds and got some sausage mcmuffins. I caught the bus shortly after that. I really should start eating something in the mornings. I feel alot better when I do. But i am pretty friggin lazy when it comes to making something for myself to eat. I signed the home early book today, and actually got an email asking if I wanted to go early. I was able to leave at 8:45pm(an hour early) and just use "floater" time to cover it. I got home shortly after 9pm and Sam had left overs for me, which I love to have when I get home from work (it was a chicken pasta dish-very nice). I've been able to read my book for awhile and I'll get to wat Without a Trace. Gizmo is SO little after her jair cut. The groomer trimmed her down to almost nothing!! Even her ears are little, I usually ask that they be left kinda floppy, but I forgot and now realize how little her ears actually are. She is such a little dog! She's awesome!

2008-03-09T19:11:00.002-03:00

My hope that I would be working less hours with the April shift bid opening has been foiled. I checked the shift bid and the only shift that works with the bus schedule will have me working 15mins more than I do right now. So instead of 8:45min shifts I will have 9hr shifts. Boo to long stupid shifts!! When I applied for this job it said that they hours would be from 35-42. After training I've never worked less than 44 and up to 47! I am really getting sick of being there ALL the time. I'm there 44 hrs this month and probably 45 next mth. I have enjoyed having weekends off though. Yesterday Sam and I spent the whole day together. We got up and went to brunch at Hannahs and then headed over to Zellers to pick up a few things. When we got home we had coffee and watched some t.v together. It was really nice. Today we watched some t.v together and Sam made us some scrambled eggs and toast before he started to play WOW. I cooked a roast for dinner and made some fries and gravy to have with it. We were out of potatoes, so I settled on fries. The reason BTW that I don't update as often as I used to is because I'm not allowed to post at work (I'm there all day), and when I get home I don't want to look at a computer after sitting in front of one all day. Sometimes on my breaks I write a post and email it to myself intending on posting it when I get home, but I always forget. Sam and I also stopped at the bulkbarn while we were out yesterday and got some treats. Sam got some chocolate covered coffee beans and I bought some chocolate covered rasberry creams. I've had a nice relaxing weekend, it's been nice to lounge about and do whatever I want (even if it is nothing!). I tried to book this Thursday off as a vacation day, Gizmo really needs a hair cut and the veterinarians office/groomers is not open on the weekend. It would be nice to have a day off as well, maybe go see a movie or something. Hopefully I can get approved Monday and be able to call. I gave them more than a weeks notice that I would like the day off and I checked the group allowance and it had the least amount of hours in the negative. I don't know if I wrote this last time, but I was checking the online message board for my skillset and it turns out that I have the entire Easter weekend off! I knew I would have Good Friday and had tried to book Monday off, but the message board said that we have it off anyway! Woohoo! It will be nice to have a long weekend. I get paid that Friday too, so it should be a nice weekend. The message board listed all the days that we get off for stat holidays and there is one almost every month until Christmas time. March is Easter-April I booked April 14 to have a long weekend-May19 (Mon) is victoria day-June-nothing but maybe I could work something out- July 1-Canada Day(Tues)-Aug 4(mon) is BC day (I work for terasen gas who supplies BC)-Sept 1 (mon)-labour day-Oct 13(mon) Thanksgiving and Nov 11 (tues) Remembrance day. I also booked the week of Christmas off and have been approved for Dec 22, 23, 24 (on waiting list to be app), 25-closed, 26 closed and approved for dec 27th as well. With weekends off that will give me 9 days off this year. I wish I could get a 9-5pm job though that would be nice. Oh well, nothings perfect! :)

2008-02-27T23:42:00.002-04:00

As many of you know I have been on a search to find ear muffs for quite some time now. At Christmas I requested a pair from a couple of people, but no one could find them. Last week I called a cab and when it arrived I shared it with another girl that I work with. We spoke on occasion, but don't sit near one another. I had noticed for some time that she had a pair of ear muffs (purple with green poka dots). I had always wanted to ask her where she bought them, but the opportunity had never presented itself...until then. SO I asked her where she got her ear muffs. She asked me why (probably thinking I was going to make some kind of smart ass remark about them), and I told her that I had wanted a pair since Christmas but had been unable to find any. She laughed and said that her mom had bought a whole bag of them and she had an extra pair at her apartment if I wanted them (she said they were pink leopard print- not my first choice, but beggars can't be choosers). I told her I would appreciate it if she could find me a pair, it would be great. I didn't see her at work for a couple of days. Today I went on my first break and when I returned there was a pair of ear muffs sitting on my desk!! Thankfully she had found me a pair of beige leopard printed ones (you can barely notice the print). When I saw her later and thanked her for them. That made my day alittle nicer. In general my day went by pretty quickly...3 days down...2 to go....I'm on the home stretch now! This Saturday or Sunday I am going to try to remember to go buy some fancy hot chocolates. I just have regular hot chocolate left now....and once you've experienced the luxury of after eight hot chocolate and wonderful white hot chocolate, and the creamy dark hot chocolates that I got for Christmas (thanks mom!) I just can't go back to the regular stuff :)

2008-02-24T21:27:00.002-04:00

I got off at 5:30pm, but the application I was using was acting up and it took me about ten extra minutes to finish what I was doing, so I was a little late getting done. Mom and Richard were outside waiting for me, it was pretty awesome for them to be there right on time. (having grown accustomed to waiting for mom, it was a nice surprise). We had planned to go to a movie, but by the time we finally got into Saint John we changed our minds and just stopped at Sobeys and Richard ran in and got a rotisserie chicken and a couple different salads. It was all very enjoyable (thanks Rich!). We all sat around and watched a couple of shows before Richard went home and mom and I crashed in the bedroom. Gizmo on the other hand thought that her apartment was dangerous or something and "guarded" all night. It was kind of cute she was sitting in the hall between the front door, livingroom and diningroom when I went to go get her. Saturday she went over to Richards and was allowed to bark and run around the yard (he still keeps her rope there for visits). Mom and I went over to Susans so I could play on her new WII (Richard bought it for her birthday). I was doing pretty well playing the mario game!! At 5pmish mom, Sue and I all headed over to Vito's to meet everyone before we went to the wine tasting Red Cross fundraiser. We were the first ones there and were later joined by mom's friends gail and doug and then Richard. We had a very nice dinner. Mom went to bring her car home and was later dropped off by Richard. while gail, sue and I headed to the Delta. Sue and I stuck together drinking the most expensive white wines we could find. I think the first one that we drank ( my choice BTW) was the best! I chose it because it had a funny name, cookootama. Gail left at some point and Sue and I were joined by mom. It was crowded and we got sick of being there soon enough and also left early. We walked back to moms and sue went back to her place at about 9pm I think. It was a really nice evening and the walk was enjoyable. I got a much better sleep on Saturday without Gizmo barking at everything. Mom and I woke up at around 10am and had a coffee before calling Richard. We went to Cora's for breakfast, but it was packed and there was a line up so we decided to go to Buckaneers for steak and eggs. Mom was able to do her laundry while we ate and while Richard and I drove over to pick up Gizmo. The weather was nice, so the drive was alot nicer than it had been on Friday. Mom and Richard were kind enough to stop at Zellers so I could pick up some groceries. I'm set for another week. It has been brought to my attention that I state that I am going to make a coffee or hot chocolate or something whenever I'm concluding my posts (which I always do and is truthful) however some people (it seems) don't like this or find it repeatative. So tonight I will just advise you that this is the end of my post, I may be going to go do something, but I won't tell you what! hahaha! :) So there!!Post is Over!! :)

2008-02-22T10:19:00.000-04:00

I am such a problem solver! I looked up online all the information about unjust dismissals and how to log a complaint against your employer. Sam is doing that today. I typed up a letter explaing the whole story about Sam going in and then leaving because he wasn't feeling well. Added in there that he left before his shift had even started, allowing plenty of time for them to call someone in if necessary. I also made a reference that he has been employed with them more than 12mths but less than 5yrs and is entitled to sick time. I also came up with a way to go to Saint John tommorrow. I get off at 9:45pm, way to late for anyone to come and get me, so I applied to use some of my banked time to get off early. I was number 2 on the waiting list to be approved so I knew I would never get approved. I emailed the head of human resources and explained that it was my mothers 50th birthday and that I really would like to spend time with her for her Birthday (adding that I would start earlier if I could leave at 5pm-5:30pm). She emailed me back very quickly and asked if I would start at 11am and work until 6pm, with my lunch from 5:30pm-6pm, so i could still leave at 5:30pm. I told her I would start whenever she wanted me to. Problem solved!! Woohoo!! We are going to see the movie Vantage Point thsi evening. Richard is even coming! I hope he can stay awake in the theatre. Write later :)

2008-02-16T15:39:00.002-04:00

We had a very nice anniversary. We went to BrewBakers for dinner at 5:30pm and had brie for an appetizer and steak for dinner(mom had mentioned they had good steaks- she was right). After dinner it still wasn't time for to go to the theatre (which I was able to keep a secret until we called the cab at 7:20pm. Sam was very surprised when I said the Playhouse, he had thought we would end up going to a movie. We got to the theatre alittle early. We went to the counter to pick them up and they had my name printed right on them! It was great! "The Blues Brothers Revival" that we saw was very entertaining. It ended at 10pm, and we could not get an answer from any of the cab companies (they were so busy b/c it was raining so badly). We ran over to the Tim Hortons on the corner of Regent and King and went in. They were about to close (at 11pm) and we still couldn't get ahold of anycabs. Sam ventured out into the rain to see if he could hail a cab while he tried to call cabs on his cell. He eventually was able to wave one over and he was kind enough to give us a drive. We got home at 11pm and just hung out for abit before going to bed. Thursday I woke up and kept hitting my snooze button, which in turn lead me to sleeping in past the time to catch my bus, so I cabbed it to work. Work went by quickly and I had a pretty nice day. I got home and Sam told me that he had gone into work around 4pm (his shift started at 5pm), wasn't feeling well and decided that he couldn't stay and work. He tired to call the kitchen manager (Donna-who has been a real bitch towards him) , couldn't and just ended up telling the dining room supervisor that he was going home. I went to work Friday and when I got home he told me that Donna had fired him for leaving (before his shift even started) saying that he shouldn't have left. He was very upset and I told him that it was o.k, we would file a complaint against her with the labour board (I think we can do that, I'm going to call Sue and ask her about it later), and he can file for his unemployment. That was not right for her to fire him. She didn't have the right to fire him! He always goes into work early, covers for other people when they want time off or call in sick. That's not right. Mom says that we should be able to get severence pay and his vacation pay. He's never taken any of his EI before, so he has lots built up. We decided that he should go back to school and take some upgrading and classes while he is able to get his EI. Mom said that we should type the whole story up, listing the dates and times etc to have a record I guess. He decided to take the bus to Saint John tonight to go home for his brothers birthday. I'm going to type it all up and he's going to go to the labour board first thing Monday when he gets back to Fredericton. This may be a blessing in disguise, he was very unhappy working there since Donna took over as the kitchen manager. This way he can take some time off and take classes at NBCC or something.

2008-02-10T15:15:00.001-04:00

I've been having a really nice weekend. Friday I was off at 9:45pm and called a cab instead of waiting for the bus. I got home really quickly. I walked up to meet Sam at blockbuster when he got off at 11pm. We rented disney's "Ratatouille", we ended up waiting until Saturday to watch it though. Saturday I got up (after sleeping in until 12:45pm!) and caught the bus down to the vets office to return the super expensive canned dog food I had bought for Gizmo (which she stuck her nose up at). I walked over (noticing the empty parking lot) and got to the door, where there was a large closed sign. I couldn't believe it. Apparently they are only open mon-fri, when I'm at work. There was however a woman sitting inside who noticed me at the door and came over. She seen the great big bag of dog food that I had and was kind enough to let me exchange it for the dry crunchy dog food that she likes. I got 4$ back because they wet food is more expensive than the dry. So I was feeling pretty good about the day and went over to Victory Meat market to pick up some groceries while I was downtown. While at the cash I noticed a sign that said 5% off for students and asked the cashier if that was everyday or just specific days of the week. She said it was everyday and proceeded to give me the discount (assuming I was a student! woohoo) I then called a cab which arrived quickly and got home and unpacked the groceries. I had picked up some pickled pork ribs and decided to make that for our supper. They were SO salty. I like salt (on some things more than others) but these were crazy salty! Good, but salty. We watched Ratatouille later in the evening, it was pretty cute, I enjoyed it. I read for awhile (I just completed the "half blood prince" for a second time and have now begun reading the "Deathly Hallows") and Sam played WOW until I don't know what time because I was already sleeping when he came to bed. We got up this morning and went out for lunch at Hannahs. We've been going the last couple of weeks for breakfast, but we both got lunch today. He then went to work and I picked up some soup for my lunches and went to the Dollarama for a couple of things. I think I'll go have that coffee I started brewing earlier and read for a bit......chaio!

2008-02-07T22:48:00.000-04:00

I am so excited about our anniversary next week. This year is my turn to make the plans and treat us (Sam did last year). I have been making plans and reservations left right and centre!;) I love planning stuff, it gives me something to look forward to. It's all going to be a big surprise for Sam as well. I've been making the reservations for stuff at work, so he won't overhear a thing!! I'm not going into any detail about my plans on my blog until after our anniversary, just in case he checks it. It's next Wednesday, so I booked the entire day off again. So I get a short week again. It will be nice. I work from 12:30 to 9:45pm now, but I still take the bus and arrive at 11:30am and catch the 10:30pm bus, which really sucks. Oh well...it could be worse I suppose. Actually my friend Joe started working here recently and he offers me drives when we gets off at the same time. Monday he got off at 8pm and was going to be in the area when I was done at 10pm, so he dropped by to pick me up and drive me home. Last night I used some floater time to get off at 8pm instead of 9:45pm and he gave me a lift again. Drives are so much nicer than waiting for the bus. Almost nice enough to make me want to take drivers education. But that is pretty expensive and owning a car isn't cheap either. I'm looking forward to the weekend. I get paid Friday and I think I'll try to remember to cash my birthday presents :) I really have to remember to buy hot chocolates while i'm out shopping though (I'm frighteningly low). I really never appreciated hot chocolate until recently. I think I'll go make myself one come to think of it.

2008-01-31T22:49:00.001-04:00

I had a really good day at work yesterday. Most of the calls were people just asking for balances and due dates and they all were very friendly. I arrived home and noticed that I had received the "Juno" soundtrack that Lisa had made for me (thanks). I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm sure I'll like it. I also noticed that there was a letter from Service New Brunswick, I was pretty excited to see it already (I wasn't expecting a letter for another month or more). I opened it up and it said that the interviews had been completed and I had not been added to the inventory. It went on to say that I should apply for future opportunities if I feel I have the skills needed. I was disappointed, but now that I've had time to reflect on it, I'm not as disappointed. I think that they didn't add me because I wanted a full time, long term/perm position. I probably wasn't as flexible as they want. I don't want a job that only guarantees me 12.5 hours a week (part-time) or a term position, where I'm unemployed again in a matter of mths. I suppose there were people that were willing to take those kinds of positions. Whatever...I have an O.K job for now and I'm going to keep looking. maybe if I apply for another government position in the near future I won't have to take the testing again since I just took it. Alicia and I went to Walmart yesterday before work. I got alot of junk food. I also got a great caramel machiatto from starbucks. It was really nice to do something other than work. Broke the week up alittle bit. I'm looking forward to the weekend though, sleeping in...watching movies....eating some junk food....mmm.....weekends!

2008-01-26T17:06:00.000-04:00

I had a wonderful birthday! Sam took me to Smitty's for dinner, we had appetizers, drinks, a nice dinner and I got a free piece of cheesecake because it was my birthday. Sam and I shared it, but were already full and barely ate half. After dinner we looked around the mall for alittle while. I went into Suzy Sheir and tried some things on. I ended up getting a mathcing blazer and pants and a couple of new t-shirts. The pants and blazer are black with dark brown lines in it. I barely noticed until I put them up to one another. This is great because my coat is black and my boots and purse are brown. We then went over to the movie, which turned out to be funny, a good pick. When we got into the cab Sam gave our address and said with a stop at Sobeys. I asked him what he needed to get at Sobeys? I couldn't imagine him wanting to pick up a cake, I was way to full for that. He came out later with a really pretty bouquet of flowers. It had roses, babies breath, and some pretty purple flowers mixed thorughout. Mom had asked him to surprise me with something earlier (so I knew there was something planned) but I had figured he would just wait until Wednesday to get whatever for me. I recieved calls from mom, susan and Jackie (all of who sung me happy birthday) and got a card from Irene. I called her to thank her for it and she suggested I give Wayne a call to thank him for the Christmas picture that he had made for me (from my NYC trip). I don't even know his number! He's never made any attempt to contact me, why would I thank him for something he gave me a month ago(which I thanked him for when he dropped them off)? Whatever.... I went into work yesterday and the day went by very quickly, I was looking forward to having today and tomorrow off. Sam didn't have to work unit 4pm today, so I treated us to steak and eggs for breakfast this morning. I have a cold though and I am feeling very stuffy and congested. Sam picked me up some Advil cold and sinus yesterday, so I'm hoping that will help. I'm going to go make a cup of tea and possibly something to eat.... :)

2008-01-22T13:39:00.001-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!Happy Birthday toooo meee! Haappy Biirthdaay dear Krista! Happy Birthday to meeee!! I slept in this morning and watched some t.v for a bit. I then called Smitty's to make reservations for this evening. Sam is treating me to dinner and a movie for my birthday. I think I'll buy a new top or sweater with those wonderful gift certificates that Richard gave me for Christmas. We are going to see the movie "Mad Money", it sounds funny. It is pretty cold out today, so we'll be cabbing both ways. I still have to take Gizmo for a walk, but she's a big wimp and usually stops and looks up at me with those big brown doggy eyes about 5mins into our walk and needs to be picked up because her paws are cold. Thank goodness she only weighs 10-12 pounds. Thanks for all the nice birthday wishes on Facebook! Work went by really fast yesterday, we barely had any wait time between calls at all, just one on top of the next. I like it when it is busy, but not That busy. But this is short week anyway, so it won't take long until I get another couple of glorious days off. Anyway I'm gonna go get Sam to make me a (birthday) coffee (I am totally playing the birthday thing up all day), write later...:)

2008-01-19T16:57:00.000-04:00

I got my shift bid and it is exactly what I was hoping for! It will start on Feb 2-29, and I will work 12:30-9pm with 9-9:45pm double overtime. I will be able to catch the bus there and back. I figure I can just goof around on the Internet for 15-20mins before going outside to wait for the bus at 10:20pm. My supervisor came around to my team and told us all that we are getting a 50cent raise as of Feb 2/08! That just made my day yesterday! I also got my three month review yesterday (a month late) and I am doing well in everything. My supervisor said that there is always room for improvement, but I'm right on track and consistently improving. I'm very excited. Yesterday there were cookies and juice as a for the staff as a thank you for everyone working extra hours while we're so busy. Last night I met Sam after work and Sam, Tara, Matt and I all sat around drinking for awhile after the restaurant was closed. At about 12am they decided that they wanted to go downtown to Sweetwaters. I didn't really see the point because it would almost be closing time by the time we got there anyway. Sam and I had planned to go get groceries and rent a movie, but they all decided to go out to the bar. Sam offered to pay for everything so I agreed. We left Mikes at about 12:30am, stopped at our apartment so I could drop off my enormous purse, then went to Matt's house so he could change his shirt, it was dirty from working all day. We finally arrived downtown at Sweetwaters at 1amish. We got in and Sam bought us a couple of drinks and we went to hang out by the bar. The floor was really wet and Sam slipped and smashed his beer bottle into his hand. He has a great big gouge out of his hand, I told him that he probably should get stitches. By the time he got his hand all cleaned up and stopped the bleeding the bar was closing and everyone was herded towards the coat check. That took forever and getting a cab took forever, so we didn't end up getting home until after 3am. What a waste of a night. We could have gotten a couple drinks and rented a movie...*snuggled*...and gone to bed without injury at a decent hour. Oh well. Today I walked up the hill with him when he needed to go to work. I just got groceries at Zellers to avoid the crowded grocery store and so I could bring Gizmo. Usually I walk home with Gizmo, but I had a ton of groceries, so I called a cab. They always laugh when I call a cab to Zellers for myself and little dog. Next week I only work three days! i took My Birthday (Jan 22) and Jan 23rd off. So I go to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off, work Thursday and Friday, and then it's the weekend again! Woohoo! I love weekends. I'm going to go make something for my supper....:) Happy January!

2008-01-13T16:02:00.000-04:00

I love having weekends off, I'm low on the shift bid because I missed time for grampy's funeral and they didn't score any of my calls (so I got no extra quality points). I'm hoping that I'll still be able to get a decent shift though. I was low in the first shift bid (it was randomly done) and I still was able to work 12:30pm-9pm (with Thurdays off). I think I'll select the shift that ends at 10pm as my first preference. That way I'll be able to take the bus there and back. Yesterday and today I slept in until 12:45pm. I've been so tired lately that it really was needed. I work 12:30pm-10pm all this week. I think I've been approved to have my birthday off, it says pass, but I am on a wait list for the 21st and there were no hours available, so I knew I wouldn't get approved. I checked and there were hours available for jan 23rd/08 so I put my request in and got approved 5-10mins later. Now I have to figure out how to cancel my request for jan 21/08 without deleteing the pass that I got for jan 22/08. I emailed staffing, but they never got back to me about it.
Sam and I went to see Juno last night. It was a really funny movie, I loved the sarcasm of the juno character. Those gift certificates I got from Richard come in handy. So far I've gotten some groceries at Walmart and paid for Sam and I to go to a movie. And I still have lots of money left on them too. I went to Zellers earlier Saturday and used the gift certificate that Helen had gotten me. (again picking up groceries). I really have to keep track of how much I put into the cart and start considering that I live further from Zellers1 I always weigh myself down with groceries and the cheap bags start to rip about a block from the apartment! Thankfully I have my massive purse and can transfer some things into it. and use the bags to replace the ones that have ripped. I got paid pretty well, so before I met Sam at work before the movie I went to the liquer store and picked up some kahlua and vodka and some b52 shots for Sam and I to put in our coffee. Last week went by really quick since I took wednesday off. I hope this week goes by as fast. Anwya I'm going to go make another coffee....:)

2008-01-09T19:02:00.000-04:00

Today was Great!! I slept in.....I mean Really slept in. Sam had to go to Saint John yesterday because I guess his brother is really sick and he wanted to be there for his family. So last night little Miss Gizmo took it upon herself to guard the apartment. I mean guard, she was up and down on and off the bed all night patrolling the apartment, doing her rounds I guess and occasionally she would start barking to warn off any potential intruders. So...needless to say I didn't get the rest that I could have, but I was able to sleep in. I caught the bus downtown and walked around Kings Place for awhile before heading over to my interview. I got there at about 3:05pm (I left early to get there b/c I wasn't sure exactly where it was), it turned out to be in the exact spot that maps.com had inticated and so I waited for about 25-30mins before my interview. I looked through all the little pamphlets and noticed one with a picture of a woman wearing a headset in what appeared to be another call centre. I was going for an interview to become a customer service representative, but the ad hadn't said anything about calls, so I dismissed that. A lady came out and introduced herself as Cory and I stood up and shook her hand and introduced myself as well. I forgot to write this earlier, but I was looking pretty snazzy wearing my beige high collared sweater (not quite a turtleneck but similar) and the black suit that I had bought last year. I had black boots and my black purse and all in all looked pretty friggin co-ordinated! :) She lead me through the doors and into the conference room where she introduced me to another woman named vicky. She told me all about the job before the interview even started. Recently the starting wage had increased from 16$ to 17$. Employees get full benefits and a pension program from day one of their employment. She told me that the entire interview consisted of 5 questions. She asked me if I was currently employed and I told her that I was a customer care representative at Accenture business services and had been since September, I offered pulled out my new resume and references from my purse. She laughed and said that that would take care of the first two questions (also noting that I had rolled it and put an elastic around it instead of folding it). I never thought I would say this, but I am SO happy that I stuck it out at Connect North America (it had a reputation as being a difficult place to work being an outbound call centre). The questions that Vicky asked me were really easy, tell me about a time you've dealt with a difficult customer? and tell me about a time where you had to deal with someone who wasn't listening to what you were saying? I answered those without even having to think about it. That happened all the time at Connect, no one wanted to listen to me, I was interrupting their dinner or something. Cory asked me about a situation that I've been in where it was very important to listen to details. I told her about working in the billing department and every call is different and the details are very important to finding a quick resolution to the problem. I told them that I provided service to BC and alot of the customers did not speak English and trying to figure out what they needed was challenging. The next question was something about trying to deal with people who speak another language, and I had already answered it! The interview went well and they told me the interviews would finish up sometime in February and I would be getting a letter in March telling me if I had been selected for the inventory (for jobs in the next 2 years). I think I scored some brownie points by saying that I would need to be able to give two weeks notice at my current job before starting a job there. Cory said that they always give their employees lots of notice before the job will start because they don't want to get a reputation as a place that won't allow employees to give good notice. I'm glad that I did well and it was a good day, but it's to bad that I won't know for another couple of months if I'm even in the running for jobs. I said that I would be interested in permanent full time, and maybe in term jobs (because I asked and they said they try to keep trained people, before hiring outside). I was going to say part time as well, but the part time is only guaranteed 12.5 hours a week and that's crazy. The hours rock though. 8am-5pm Monday to Friday and 12pm-5pm on Saturdays, but you really only work one Saturday a month! The training is for 2 weeks in the class, 1 week you observe while the trainer takes calls and the 4th week you take calls while the trainer is observing you and can help whenever you need it. The busy season is March to September I think she said. Property tax season and something else. Hopefully something will be available for me in March, a week or less after I get my letter telling me I'm in the inventory. They said that the training is only offered at one site at a time, so if I need to travel to Saint John, Moncton or Mirimichi they would pay for my travel, accomodations and meal expenses. Woohoo! That would be a whole month away from home, but I'd do it for a wicked job like that! They said that 700 people applied, about 150 were dropped because they didn't pass the test and another 100 had not been interested in an interview. So, that leaves about 450 people that I'm up against, but really I live right in Fredericton, alot of those people probably don't live as close, maybe that will give me an advantage? I'm hoping it does! I only have to work tomorrow and Friday before the glorious weekend and my two whole days off. I'm really hoping I get weekends off next shift bid, I really like it. I lost all my attendence point because I had to miss those extra days for grampy's funeral. For some reason they didn't score any of my calls, so I didn't get any quality points either...hmm....last shift bid I had an extra 28 quality points which was very helpful. Anyway I'm going to go get a drink....woohoo for me! hehe...

2008-01-05T17:29:00.000-04:00

I had a really good week last week. I had Monday off, used my banked time- Jan1/08 work was closed and we got paid, I worked Wednesday and had Thursday off. I went in and worked yesterday and I got the weekend off as well (I got weekends off this shift bid). Next week I work Monday and Tuesday. Then on Wednesday I have a vacation day to go to my interview with Service New Brunswick! (wish me luck). I am really looking forward to it. I'm trying to think of what I should wear...hmm.....I think I'll wear my glasses (just in case my eye is little droopy) and a high collared shirt to cover my scar. I don't need them making any assumptions. I know it is for jobs within the next two years, but I sure am hoping something is available soon. I want out of the call centre world. I forgot to write in my last post that I got together with my friend Anne Dance on New Years day. She was visiting from B.C. She surprised me and gave me a nice vase that she bought while in Morocco this summer past and a Chocolate that is popular in B.C (thanks). Its been nice to sit around doing nothing today. Sam and I watched the movie "Once" the other night. It was a nice movie and it was nice to spend the evening with Sam. We hadn't done a movie or date night in awhile with both of us working so much. Anyway I am starving, gotta go fix something for supper.... :)

2007-12-28T11:17:00.000-04:00

This has been a sad week. Dec 21/07 was a horrible day. I woke up, got showered and dressed and was just about to go catch my bus when I remembered to feed Snowball. I looked over and she was stiff as a board and layin on her side...dead. I don't know what happened! I thought I was doing pretty good taking care of her, feeding her every morning and giving her lots of water. Dwarf bunnies are supposed to live a long time !(15+ yrs) I broke down crying like crazy! I was so upset and I had to go to work soon. Sam (thankfully) took the initiative to wrap her up in a pillow case and get a shoe box. I don't know what she died of, she had been sitting in the corner of her cage the night before, but other than that nothing out of the ordinary. I left and had to go catch the bus.. I cried the whole way there. I got to work and went to see my team manager and told her that I had just found my pet rabbit dead and was really upset. She got me a seat and gave me some work for a couple of hours off of the phones. I would have started crying the second someone even raised their voice at me. By 2:30pm I had to take calls. I was really lucky that no one yelled at me. Other than the horrible start the day would have been a good day (the calls were really good). Now I have all this bunny stuff and an empty cage. I felt so guilty about not letting her out for as many hops recently (being so busy at work). Saturday I went into work and it was slow thankfully and no one yelled at me. Richard came up to Fredericton to pick us up Sunday morning. We went to the hilltop for steak and eggs. While waiting for our food to arrive we received a call from my mom. She told me that my grandfather had passed away while at the hospital. When we arrived in Saint John a couple of hours later we went straight to my grandmothers house. There were alot of people there and more arrived later as well. We decided that someone should stay with my grandmother for the night. I ended up staying and later found out it meant alot to my grandmother. I'm just glad that I could be there for her when she needed someone. Christmas eve I went over to Sams parents house. It was packed! There were 26 people there. Sams mom always does a great buffet for Christmas and she made tons of food. We went over to moms apartment for Christmas eve night and mom, rich,lisa, sam and I all opened our presents on Christmas day. It was nice to see Lisa, not the best circumstances, but it was nice. I received alot of nice presents (thanks everyone!). Richard got me some gift certificates, so I'll be able to get some stuff at the regent or mcallister mall. We went over to nanny's house for alittle while later in the evening to see her. Boxing day the whole family was at nanny's for a potluck. There was lots of food. Nanny's fridge is packed. I called into work and told them I couldn't work today and Saturday, my team manager will try to get monday off for me as well, and will call me later today. Today we are going to the funeral home. We all made a collage of pictures of grampy, his kids, the boat. It turned out really well. Tomorrow the family is going to bury the ashes. This is all very sad. I've gotten to see all my family though, which was very nice. Anyway Richard and I should head over to moms.

2007-12-20T16:19:00.000-04:00

I had a particularly good day Tuesday. Monday I called in sick to work because my stomach has been really upset for about two weeks and I hadn't slept particularly well. My team manager called me in the afternoon to see if I was feeling any better and could come to work. I wasn't so she said that she would like to have a doctor's note. So, I had to go up to the medical clinic to get it checked out (which turned out to be a good thing). Channel 5 was stuck saying 5:32 all day, I forgot about this and headed up to the after hours clinic (I'm assuming) something just after 4pm. I got there and I was shocked to see that I was the first one there, usually it's packed by 5:30pm! I waited and waited, another girl arrived and checked the time after we had been sitting there for awhile- it was 4:45pm! I didn't have my watch on and was none the wiser! I got in and the doctor gave me an anti nauseant. It's been working great and actually gave me my appetite back. Tuesday I was checking my email thinking about how much I needed to find a new job and discovered that I had been emailed to go for an interview on Jan 9/07 for the customer service position with service new Brunswick!! That sweetened up my day a lot and I was very cheerful to everyone that I spoke with. It would be downtown, I'm assuming, but I would definitely be able to afford cabs. The job starts you at 16$ an hour! I wouldn't mind a job like that at all. Wednesday went well enough because I was looking forward to having today off. Today I woke up for some reason at 8am! I don't wake up that early even when I do have to go to work, so I was not getting up! I laid there (awake) until 11:30am. I am supposed to sleep in on my days off. I went to buy Richard his hockey bag today and it was marked down 30$! I was very excited, except they ended up being sold out! I am getting that hockey bag for him no matter what, he has never asked me for anything, the first year he does I'm making sure I fulfill his request. I got my shift bid back for January. I still work stupid overtime, but now I start at 1:15pm and get off at 10:30pm with Saturday and Sunday off. The only bus that I can take gets there at 11:30am, so I'd be there way to early and probably would end up doing overtime to pass the day faster. The last bus leaves at 10:20pm, so I miss that and have to cab home every night. I'm going to put a note up on the bullitin board seeing if anyone is driving around here when I get off, I'd offer them 15$ a week or something. I bought a ownderful caramel log cake today, it looks very good. The doctor says I should avoid really fatty or really sweet foods, but it was far to tempting...I had to buy it! And now...since I bought it...I'll have to eat it (I wouldn't want to be wasteful!) ;) Only two more days until my Christmas vacation, I am totally in need of a holiday and some sleeping in. Anyway I have to go eat that ridiculously delicious log cake....

2007-12-15T00:17:00.000-04:00

I had a very nice day at work today. I had some lady listen to my calls with me and give me tips. I then got to log off while we discussed the calls for a little while. This was later in the afternoon after having a slow morning (which was nice). I then logged out and went to a security "huddle" and watched some slides before taking my first break. My lunch break rolled around quickly enough and I had a nice Irish stew that I had bought yesterday. The rest of the day was steady, but not hectic. I also received an email from my team manager that I had gotten a "world class call". That means that in a call they listened to I did everything correctly. I found out that I am number 14 out of 32 on the shift bid list this month. Last month I was 31 because I had called in sick and lost all 15 attendance points. Well this shift bid I had no attendance points again, but had gotten 28 points for a call they listened to. I'm really lucky with the calls that they have been choosing to listen to. I work tomorrow, but Saturday's tend to go by fairly quickly, it's only an 8hr shift. These 10 hour days are really wearing me out! I did get paid today though and I'm banking my overtime and still got a pretty good pay. Gizmo is doing great! She is bouncing around bringing me toys and eating twice a day. Snowball is doing great as well, as far as bunnies go, she's doing great (I think). Alicia was nice enough to bring me some milk chocolate lindor chocolates today. Victoria had given me a couple of the white chocolate mini ones and I really liked those, Alicia said the milk chocolate ones were really nice too. I ate one and they are delicious!!:) I asked Sam to get me some for Christmas. I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday. Only 11 days unitl Christmas! Holy Cow! Anyway I'm going to bed! Merry Christmas!

2007-12-09T17:09:00.000-04:00

My upcoming attempt to be rebellious has been thwarted by the not so useless staffing department! I received an email Saturday morning that said that it was fine to start at 12pm instead of 11:30 am and work 1/2 hour of my lunch. I was going to show them that I don't follow the rules!....I'm a rebel at heart!....or something to that effect...but now that plan has been smashed to pieces!! That's right...Pieces!! It does work out well enough though, I suppose following the assigned schedule at my place of employment may have it's up sides. Sam and I were supposed to meet at Ringo's at 7pm, but when I got there it was packed and he wasn't there. I called his cell and he was over at Mikes having a drink with some friends. So I went over and met him, we decided to go to the Hilltop for dinner. The food was good and the service was as well. He then told me that his buddies at work had invited him out and he was going to go party with them. I am upset because I thought we could spend some time together, but he didn't see it that way. So we parted ways and he went to his buddy Charles' apartment and then out to see his friends band play. I told him not to bother coming home and to crash at his friends house. I did not want him to come stumbling in at 2 or 3am acting like a jackass. He came home this morning before work to shower and get ready. He apologized for his behaviour and agreed that we'll talk about it later when he gets off work at 9pm. Why do men have to be such assholes sometimes?! I thought we could spend some time together since we both work 40+ hours a week and don't get to really spend to much time together. Oh well..we'll talk about it later...Oh and I found some decongesting flu pills in my storage container so I'm not taking the awful buckley's anymore. I'm not telling Sam that I found it though (he has the same thing). He can go buy his own decongestant!! ;)

2007-12-07T21:57:00.000-04:00

I am what is referred to as a "full time flex" customer service representative. I learned exactly what that entails this morning. My shift has now changed to be 11:30am to 10pm. I still have that stupid useless hour lunch, but now I would need to take an earlier bus (at 9:30am) and be there an hour and a half early! I emailed staffing and requested that I be able to start at 12pm and take a 1/2 luch (b/c my bus arrives at 11:30am). I still have gotten no response!! I don't care I will arrive at 11:30 am and quickly log in and check all the stupid emails by 11:45am and then take a 45 min lunch whether they approve me or not!! Until someone says something about it, I don't care!! That way I can bank an hour of overtime and save an hour of work for 2 banked hours. I'll be able to make enough hours to cover dec 28th in a week!I ran into a girl that I worked with at Connect North America today as well and she works until 10pm and lives close to me so I asked if I could catch a ride with her on Monday. I realized later that I will be working until 10pm every night, I wonder if she would mind be getting lift on other nights? hmm.... I'll have to ask her on Monday. That is going to be a long week...I already feel like it's to long and I'm working 8hr days. Ugh! Oh well more money....and I like money...it's helpful...and it will be nice to get extra right before x-mas. My tree looks great!! I couldn't find my Christmas CD while I was setting it up though, but it still turned out nice (toot toot!). I feel so rebellious!! Not following the rules at work or their stupid schedule. But I'm not being to unreasonable. I will work the time and do the extra, but I don't want to have to be there at 9:45am and not get paid until 11:30am. I'll check tomorrow to see if I got approved, I wrote in my email that the reason is because I do take the bus, hopefully they'll be understanding. ( I doubt it though!...stupid staffing department!.....never helping anyone but themselves!...Grrr!!) Anyway enough ranting...although I do a good job at ranting...toot toot....I just got another call from Irene, I had completely forgot (when she called last week) to mention that I had moved. Apparently she sent my card and it got returned. Speaking of gift cards, my friend joanne won a $500 gift card for the Regent mall. For every hour of overtime you work you get a ballot for these gift cards. That would be really nice. I don't know if that is actual hours or overtime, I already have two hours banked for working the extra 1/2 hour on tues and wed, but I wonder...is that one ballot or two? hmm? I work tomorrow at 1pm, but checked and I still only work until 9pm on Sat and the floater time will cover it. Sam decided to go to Ringo's for his Birthday dinner. I agree with him on that choice, good food-good portions-good service-and good prices at Ringo's. I'll check the movie schedule to see if we have time to catch a movie as well. My throat is really sore! I think I'll probably loose my voice next week some time- it always happens once a year where I loose my voice for 3-4 days. Maybe I can head it off by taking some Buckleys first...Ugg!! That stuff is so grose that I make a face before I even put it in my mouth- the anticipation of the stuff is enough to make someone cringe..yuck!! I'll go take some now...(while crinkling my nose at the thought)....yuck....

2007-12-05T23:00:00.000-04:00

I had a pretty good week. It was really busy on Monday and Tuesday, so the days passed quickly. It wasn't as busy today, but it was steady. I had a good day...all day the customers were pretty nice and thanked me for helping them. I get off at 9:30pm now and at 9:14pm I got a call from a guy who wanted to activate his acct. I have questions that I ask in order to understand what the customer is looking to do. I seen that he had had a previous account for the same address and that there was an active account there now. So I asked him why he was opening an account when there was already one active (sometimes in between tenants landlords take over responsability for the gas). He pretty well told me it was none of my business. (he was foreign and would not shut up, he was rambling on about nothing and wouldn't even let me ask questions). I told him that I could set up the account but there would be a 25$ application charge (that EVERYONE pays). He immediately started arguing with me, I mentioned that I could waive the security deposit all together because he has good credit with us. He didn't even hear this and began arguing again. I told him I would ask my supervisor if there was any way to waive this. I called and asked and I couldn't (he wanted to take over responsability because his girlfriends account said that she had been requesting and complaining about her security deposit refund). I kept trying to explain to him that it was a standard fee (probably to deter people from doing exactly what he was trying to do) and that it is in the tariff agreement we signed with the British Columbia utilities commission. He Still would not give up and kept yelling at me and ignoring everything I was saying. It was like trying to explain something really simple to a wall. By this point it was 9:27pm and I was not going to resolve this any time soon, so I told him "sir please stop yelling at me or I will disconnect this call". He kept on yelling and I clicked the hangup button. I was not going to be there any longer because of some jackass trying to waste the companies time by opening and closing accounts for no good reason...AND...because I was off in three minutes and had been there 9 hours. I mean it's worth it to do the half an hour of overtime since I've got to be there anyway (have 1hr lunch-work 1/2 and take 1/2 lunch) but it is really tiring. I'm there pretty much all day. But...the half hour of over time pays for my cab, coffee and still leaves me with alittle change. Have I mentioned how cheap the people are that I have to provide service for? I am talking ridiculously cheap. They call in about 1 or 2$ late payment charges that were correctly charged because they didn't pay their bills on time!! They don't understand that the due date is the date they have to pay their bill by. And...I don't know about the rest of you, but when I was setting up service for my phone, cable, and electric bills I never questioned that I would be charged a security deposit. Some of the people argue about security deposits non stop. They fight it tooth and nail-even if they've failed the credit check. They always say "well I don't think I should have to pay that". That makes no difference to me or the company if your credit sucks!Hmph!! Thankyou for listening to my rant...now to better topics...like....I have tomorrow OFF!! Woohoo!! I have doctors appointment, so I can't sleep in, but I figure I can go to that in the morning and come home (take a nap if need be), pick Gizmo up and go do some x-mas shopping. Christmas is right around the corner! This year has passed so quickly. Sam's birthday is Saturday. I'm going to take him out to a late dinner- I'm using 2 hours floater time so I can get off at 7 instead of 9:30pm...which now that I think about it won't cover it all...hmmm...I'll have to check into that on Friday. Anyway I'm going to go decorate my Christmas tree!

2007-11-29T20:15:00.001-04:00

Gizmo is doing great! Jackie was nice enough to drive me down at 6pm to go get her and she came bouncing over in the best of moods. I have to switch her to the vetrinarian food Medi Cal. It is only 6 or 7 $ more than pedigree, but I can only buy it at the vets, which is not to close. The surgery cost me 560$! The food was another 20$. I have a follow up appointment in two weeks, they are good enough to give me that for free. I am so lucky this month turned out to be a 3 pay mth. My entire cheque went to Gizmo. Thankfully I get one tomorrow that will cover rent. I'm going to look at the pet store close to home to see if they carry it as well, and price it there. Jackie and I seen the kidney stone, it was the size of a gumball! I took yesterday off because a)I didn't want to go to work and b) mom and richard came up to Fredericton to get mom's passport. It was nice to see both of them. Gizmo didn't seem to fancy that dog food that I gave her...hmm... I wonder if that is because she is still feeling abit off from the anethesia OR if it's because she is super fussy? And if it is the latter, what am 'I supposed to do?Continue feeding her a dog food she doesn't like? I did compare the ingredients on the medi cal to the beneful ingredients...and they do sound alot better. I'm probably as much to blame for her fussiness as anyone, but she is so cute! She's worth it.she is great company, never talks back to me. ;) Holy cow!! Tomorrow is November 30th! That means that christmas is only 26 days away, and barely that! Today's almost over!! (BTW does everyone appreciate the ridiculous amounts of exclamation marks that I've used in the last two posts?!) I suppose while reading this it would sound as though I'm really excited or yelling...oh well!!!!hehehe Aww...man I am way to tired...Sam went home on Monday and I have not slept. Anyway I am going to go make some tea and unwind a bit, chow

2007-11-26T22:40:00.000-04:00

I am Fabulous!!...You may be thinking "why Krista are you fabulous today?". I am more fabulous today (than any of my other fabulous days) because I have found a way (dispite my useless team manager) to get Christmas eve OFF!! When I emailed my team manager and staffing about my request being deleted, they were of no help. But I was not discouraged, oh no! I emailed the head of human resources about my request being deleted and that I had been number 2 on the waiting list. (I never would have gotten approved-there were no more hours available). The head of human resources however could tell how upsetting this was to me, and pulled some strings and will have it approved! So, I now will have Dec 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27th off (I might get approved for the 28th-I'm 1 on that waiting list). I now have more faith in the company! I don't like the job itself, but instead of looking for a new job after x-mas I think I'll look for a position within the company doing something else. They are always sending out emails about job opportunities, I just have to start reading them. I am not going to mention this to any of my other team mebers-because I know a number of them are still scheduled for Christmas eve. She told me not worry if it doesn't show up in my schedule editor immediately, I will have it off. I was grinning from ear to ear for about two hours after I got her email. Woohoo for me!! Sam went Saint John tonight I guess, I knew he was going tomorrow for his mom's birthday, but he got off early and left this evening. I have the whole apartment to myself. I can watch whatever I want....or actually use the computer...I won't have him to sleep with though, but I've got Gizmo! I think I'm allergic to the soap at work, my hands are all red and itchy for the past couple of weeks. Stupid crappy soap! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to bring a little bottle of my own, I've got everything else in my purse. Well it's almost 11pm, I'm gonna go see what's on T.V. :0)

2007-11-22T17:47:00.001-04:00

Gizmo is sick! I took her down to the vet today because she has been having a hard time going pee and I figured it was another bladder infection. It turns out that she has a bladder infection again because she has a kidney stone! The vet took an x-ray and I seen it..it's pretty big. She goes for surgery next week to have it removed. It is going to cost between 400$ and 500$ just for the surgery. This is after spending $188 on today's visit. I am not going to be able to buy much for x-mas presents. Thankfully I received a backdated GST cheque yesterday (because I didn't fill out my taxes until Sept), but that doesn't even come close to covering it. I am going to have to max out my visa or something. Poor Gizmo, I didn't get the x-ray done last summer b/c her bladder infection was cleared up, but she has been yelping since then when we pick her up. I thought that she was just being wimpy, turned out it was from the pressure this stone has on her bladder...poor Gizmo! Oh and by the way I was at work and checking the request viewer for my schedule to see if I had been approved for x-mas eve off. It's missing! It got deleted or something. I don't care I am not going in on Christmas Eve. No way. Seriously...how many people are concerned about their gas bill enough to call on Christmas eve? I wouldn't think to many. I'm not even trained in the emergency or collections department either, so the ones that are likely to be calling on Christmas eve, I would transfer to a different department. Whatever....I hate working there. I am really sick of the whole call centre thing. I am going to find something different after Christmas anyway. Gotta go, write later...

2007-11-18T21:06:00.000-04:00

I got my shift bid back the other day and it's not to bad. I still have Thurdays and Sunday's off, but now I work a 1/2 hr later. Instead of getting of at 9pm I will be getting off at 9:30pm with an hour for lunch instead of 1/2 an hour. I figure I can work 1/2 an hour of over time a few couple of days a week and bank it. That way when I call in sick on Christmas eve I can get paid for it. I figure I can go to SJ on Dec 23(sunday), call in sick on the 24, have the 25 & 26 off and go to work the 27. I have requested the 23 and 27 off, so I might get approved and get to stay down an extra day. It's not to bad, except I will be getting off a 1/2 hour later than Jenn and won't be able to get a drive home anymore. But cabs are only 6$ and I get a 5$ credit after 10 rides. Still cheaper than owning a car. I can always put a note on the bullitin board in the lunch room. Maybe. This Friday is Jackie's birthday party and I'm pretty excited. We don't have much for a plan yet, but we've got all week. I can't blog or go to facebook while at work, but I can check my emails during breaks, so we'll be able to plan something. I did so much today! I went and got groceries, cleaned the fridge, rearranged the kitchen area, did three loads of laundry, and cleaned the bunnies cage. Oh and I even made the bed! I slept in though, this all happened after about 1:30pm when I got out of bed. I did receive an email from Service N.B about conducting interviews in the near future. They want to have a number of people available for upcoming positions in the next two years. It said something about being for term positions, but I figure if I can get my foot in the door, I could be transferred or something. More on that when I hear anything back. I'm going to go make a hot chocolate, write later. :)

2007-11-12T18:48:00.000-04:00

I've just had two glorious days off in a row, I always have Sundays off but this week I also got Monday off for Rememberance Day. I had really underestimated how great two days off in a row can be! I think I'm going to put in some bids to have Saturday and Sunday's off, I know I probably won' t get it, but I can still try. Jackie, Sam and Alicia (from work) all joined me at the 20/20 club on Friday. It was a nice evening out, but it's way to much of a cougar bar (the cab driver even called it in as 4 people to Cougars) that we should go to a younger bar next time. The DJ was not the greatest either, it took a long time for any of our requests to get played. I invited Lisa to come with us on Nov 23/07 for Jackie's birthday festivities, I hope she can join us. I can't believe that Jackie will be moving back to NS in less than a month!! It makes me sad, but I know it's for the best. I'm gonna miss you Jackie! :0) Oh well I have a completely unlimited calling plan to anywhere in the maritimes, so we'll call each other lots! Oh yeah...back to the shift bid...if I get Saturday's and Sundays off + Christmas and boxing day, I only really have to worry about getting Christmas eve off (which is a Monday). That would work out even better and give me an actual vacation for Christmas. Maybe working a later shift for this bid would allow me to have a vacation. Sam has a whole week off for Christmas to go see his family, so it would be awful lonely if I couldn't get any time off other than christmas day and boxing day. I'll look into that more when I get to work tomorrow. Anyway...I'm going to go see what's on t.v :)

2007-11-08T18:38:00.000-04:00

I still haven't been approved to leave early on Friday Nov 23/07, when I applied to use floater time for Dec 6 I was approved in one day. Oh well, I only work until 9pm anyway ( I think), I'm not to sure when our new shift bid will start and end. I called in sick with a stomach ache one day, so I lost ALL of my attendance points...yup All of them! for being sick ONE day, I lost all 15 points! They don't even take into consideration that I'm there 1/2 an hour or more before every shift to check all the stupid emails and logg into everything! Nope! They don't even care. One girl from my training class has been late quite a few times, takes random breaks, and leaves her phone unattended...but she is higher on the shift bid than me! Whatever...I think I was number 23 out of 25 last shift bid and I still got a decent schedule. I don't care about having Saturday and Sunday off because Sam works all weekend. Alot of people on the team take later shifts to have those two days off. I am going to put Thursday and Sunday off and 12:30-9pm as my first choice, maybe I'll get it that way....cause I was actually perrusing the calendar the other day and realized that Dec 27/07 ( a day I requested off-but have not been appoved for) falls on a Thursday...I think I'm going to keep that to myself and try to keep Thursday's as my day off. I get November 11 and 12 off, which will be kind of nice to have two days off. Well enough about work!
Today was a hair do day for Gizmo and I, I dropped her off at 1:45pm to get groomed and walked over to The Heade Shoppe to get my hair cut as well. Jackie had recommended them. My hair is just at my shoulders and kinda whispy in spots, I got bangs again too. I was looking at a picture the other day from first year university and I realized that I like how bangs look. When the girl styled my hair she used a straigtener though, so it's flatter than it will be when I style it. I like the haircut though, she thinned it out really well, so I don't think I'll have to spend to much time blow drying it. Gizmo's hair turned out well, her hair cut ended up costing more than mine! She got her nails trimmed as well I suppose. The groomer even tied a little pink ribbon around her collar! Anyway I'm going to go stretch out on the couch and watch some t.v....write later

2007-11-03T22:02:00.000-03:00

Work went by pretty quickly this week. I had Sunday off, worked mon, tues and wednesday and then had thursday off. I worked today, which dragged horribly. Partly because daily processing wasn't complete until 3:30pm, so from 1-3:30pm we had to do most of the work on paper and then record and set up accts later in between calls. Thankfully the only app for supply that I had were with existing customers or new customers who passed the credit check. Jenn left early because she wasn't feeling well, but Alicia was getting a drive and was able to drop me off at the corner of Regent and Montgomery. So I didn't have to pay for a cab at all *sweet*. I had cabbed there this morning, I really didn't feel like walking (it was really windy and cold). I've tried to use some of my "floater" time to get off early on Nov 23/07 for Jackie's birthday festivities. She has informed me that I will either need Saturday off (b/c of my hangover) or need a late shift. I don't work until 1pm, so I think I'll be alright. Man...I really hope that I don't have to work in a call centre for to much longer...it eats away a little bit of my soul every day...sigh. (I really did sigh to, it wasn't just a typed one ) :) I've been approved to use some floater time so that I can go to a doctors appointment on Dec 6/07, 11-1pm will be floater time, so if my shift falls within that I can be late and still get paid. I totally lied to my supervisor though...hehe..my appointment is for 9:45am before my shift would even start-but I told her it was for bloodwork and I wasn't sure how long it would take. HA!! :) It is stupidly difficult to get any time off at this place, so when I have a legitimate reason (I'm using the word 'legitimate' loosely) I'm cashing in!! I'm going to go watch some t.v...:)

2007-10-28T18:17:00.000-03:00

Hey, sorry about the delay in posts, but I can't log into my blog while at work and by the time I get home I really don't feel like looking at a computer anymore. Sam has been wanting to go out all the time recently. Friday after work we headed over to Tina and Lukes place for drinks and to hang out with some people there. We got home shortly after 12am and Sam got a message from Charles to hang out or something, so he headed downtown and just crashed there for the night. Saturday I had to work 1-9pm, our schedule at work is weird, it runs from Saturday to Sunday, so even though I worked 50 hours this week, only 42.5 of them will be on my coming pay, Saturday's shift goes on the next pay period. I have Today and Thursday off this week and then for the most of November. I was filling out my timesheet and noticed that we get paid 200% for any hours worked over 40, which is a nice incentive to say the least. I am a full time "flex" employee though, so my schedule can be anything fro m 35-44 hrs a week, but they were asking people to work overtime, so I don't think I will have any trouble getting my hours. Sam has Thurday off as well, I think I'll get Gizmo a hair cut, get myself a hair cut and Sam and I will probably go to a movie. Anyway...after work yesterday Sam and went out with Melissa and her husband for the Halloween festivities downtown. Sam went and bought a whole costume, he was a Sultan. On the way home from work, jenn had a CD playing in thec ar from the Disney movie the Lion King, so when I saw him in his Sultan costume, I immediately thought of Aladdin. I hadn't had a chance to buy a costume, but he picked me up a some devil stuff before he went to work. I had the horns, a tail, a feathery necklace, and a little pitchfork. I must say... (not to toot my own horn or anything)... that I was pretty damn cute! (toot-toot!) I'll upload the picture I took before we left. We headed down to Charles' apartment shortly after 10pm. Ronn and his girlfriend were there as well, she was a nymph of some sort and he was a pirate, Charles was a devil as well. (Melissa was a 1940's pin up girl-fancy dress and Justin-her husband- was a hockey player, there was nothing scarry about their costumes though, they could have added some fake blood to the outfits and been dead...oh well...at least they had costumes). I had alot of fun, but slept in ridiculously late today;) I think the clock said 12:50pm when I rolled out of bed. I had been trying to get up relatively early everyday so that I don't feel as though my day is wasted (working 12-9pm). Sam had bought my costume and my liquer for the whole weekend and paid for the cabs on Friday night.
I haven't heard back about that government job, I don't know when they are supposed to do call backs, the guy never mentioned. oh well. I appreciate all the crossing of various body parts for luck on my behalf BTW!! Let shope it works! Anyway I'm going to go eat a donut I bought earlier!! :)

2007-10-18T22:03:00.001-03:00

I fogot to write in my last post that Sam and I had gone out Friday night. We went downtown to his friend Charles' apartment and then walked over to Nickyzees at about 12:30am. Sam treated me to beer while at Charles' and bought me my drinks while out. We had alot of fun, it was pretty slow at Nickyzees and it was nice to go out somewhere and actually dance. I met Sams co-worker and his girlfriend Christina. She was really sweet and kept telling me she thought I was beautiful. She was a real confidence booster and put me in a good mood. We stayed a Nicky's until close at 2am. Sam had to work a twelve hour shift the next day, but wanted to stay out anyway. He is alot of fun when we go out, I'm glad that he got over what ever it was that he had a problem with and wants to go out with me again, for awhile he would never come out with me and friends to clubs. Work has been alright, I'm doing better now that I've been on the phones for awhile. I wouldn't mind getting out of the call centre business though. I went for the general knowledge testing for the customer service representative position with service Canada this morning. I think I did well enough. It was a two part test, the first was 50 multiple choice questions that we had 12mins to answer, he told us that we wouldn't be able to finish it, but do as many as you can. I think I did alright on that, some of the questions were alittle confusing, but I tried. Then there was the second part that we had an hour to do. I took 45mins to complete this part and I know I did much better. It was still multi choice, but also some fill in the blank. It was spelling, grammar and some math. Basic math that I knew how to do, just percentages and multiplication and division. I did forget to put my preferences for shifts on the test though, I'll call and leave a messge tonight. I don't want to do any term work, permanent full or part time depending on the hours and wage. There was probably about 20-25 people at the testing. Keep your fingers crossed for me! :)

2007-10-14T15:12:00.000-03:00

I have been so friggin tired all week long, I work the 1pm-9pm shift and walk 45mind to work everyday, so by the time I get home I just bundle up on the couch and watch t.v. I had a good week though. The phone calls are getting easier and I know what to do with the different types that come in. I also have been going to work alittle happier since about Wednesday. Tuesday evening I came home and received a message from service N.B to come in for an interview/knowledge testing group thing at the Fredericton Inn on Thursday Oct 18th/07. If I do well at this first stage I think I'll get a real interview and then possibly a job with the government. I would be a customer service representative. So I would be doing exactly what I do now, but better pay and better hours. Wish me Luck!! :) I don't even remember applying for this job, it must have been through the Federal student work thing I applied for ages ago. So I have been alittle happier all week long, knowing that if I get shitty hours for the shift bid with accenture, I might not even be there to worry about it. For the shift bid we rate the different shifts from 1-16 based on which ones we would prefer to work. Some of the shifts aren't really that bad, still working 1pm-9pm but your days off aren't consecutive (ex:Sun and wed) which I really don't want. The one to nine shift really doesn't work for me anyway because of the shitty bus schedule. I am number 22 out of 25 people on the shift bids, at least I'm not the last one. Accenture does offer a pretty decent medical plan as well. I signed up for mine real quick on Thursday. I get 80% coverage for prescriptions, dental and vision (I think) and then an ESP plan of some sort I didn't really read it well and then they give me money at tthe end of the year for the money left over. I've gotta go feed Gizmo, write later...

2007-10-01T21:32:00.000-03:00

We weren't supposed to go on the phones until today, but they surprised us Friday afternoon and told us that they were really busy and needed everyone on the phones, so we started Friday. I decided that I wanted to work by myself and took calls alone (instead of listening to a person in my training class and switching to take calls after an hour). We all took calls for about 2+hrs. It really wasn't to bad going it alone. But today we had to be on all day and I decided to pair with Alicia. We made a really good team. I was super nervous when I was taking the calls (she jokingly let me know that I was going first), but she helped me out alot while I was talking with the customer and I did the same for her when she was on the phone. It was alot easier to think and know what to do when you didn't have to talk to the customer. We put the customers on hold an awful lot, but they had music. It was really nice not being yelled at, people were very thankful for any help that we gave them...it was nice. For some of the calls we just transfered them to another department. The time went by REALLY fast. There isn't much wait time between calls at all. (not even a minute). I get to do so many different things as a customer service representative, no scripting at all! I can put everything into my own words (using jobaid-terasen aid for help). We do softskills training all day tomorrow, so that should be an easy day, maybe boring, but easy. I mean....really now...do many people have to be "trained" on how to be respectful and nice to people when they call for customer service? We do some more doubles calls Wednesday and then we all have to go on alone. It is really helpful having another person in training right there and listening to the same call. When the trainer is busy, it was nice to have someone there that might remember something you didn't and vica versa. The only problem with working this 1pm-9pm shift is that there are no buses at all!! I would have to catch an 11am bus to get there in time and there isn't another bus unitl 10:20pm for me when i'm done work. I walked there this morning(left at 12pm) and got there at 12:45pm and thankfully Jenn got picked up by her boyfriend and offered to drive me home. I found out that the people who got trained from 4pm-12am got the 11am-7pm shift for their practicum while the staff that trained in the morning (7:30am-3:30pm) got stuck working the 1pm-9pm shift!! Weird. We are servicing different companies, but I didn't think that mattered as much. Oh well at least for this month I get paid an extra dollar an hour for 7pm-8pm-9pm. It's a nice way to entice people to work past 7pm I guess. I also found out that I have the entire Turkey weekend off! I work until 9pm on Friday and have Saturday, Sunday and Monday off. Sam is going to go to SJ for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (he didn't want to give up his Sunday shift). I might be able to get a drive with his parents from SJ to Freddie on Monday..hmm.....I'll have to ask about that. That way I would only have to worry about getting to SJ. Longer post later :)

2007-09-27T15:51:00.000-03:00

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...

2007-09-21T18:57:00.000-03:00

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.... :)

2007-09-20T17:16:00.000-03:00

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

2007-09-18T16:48:00.000-03:00

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...

2007-09-16T16:56:00.000-03:00

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...

2007-09-12T15:25:00.000-03:00

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.

2007-09-06T13:26:00.000-03:00

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 ;)

2007-09-05T15:53:00.000-03:00

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!

2007-09-04T19:13:00.000-03:00

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!

2007-08-24T19:10:00.000-03:00

I've had a fun week. Tuesday night after work I arrived home and there was a message from Jackie inviting me to join her and her roommate at the Hilltop for her rommmates (Angie) birthday celebrations. But there was no way to get ahold of her, she didn't have her cell phone. Being the brave individuaL that I am however I risked going all by myself and hoping they were there (Sam also offered to pay for my cab there, so if they weren't there I would only have to pay for a cab home). I arrived and thankfully they were all there. We danced and drank beers and had alot of fun. Also Angie's husband didn't drink at all and was able to drive me home. So I didn't have to pay for a cab at all. Wednesday afternoon, at about 2:45pm Jackie showed up at my apartment and convinced me not to go into work for extra hours (which wasn't hard). However if I was going to skip work, we had to actually go do something. So we decided to go over to the mall and get a fancy Starbucks drink of some sort. We both tried the rasberry mocha frappacino, which was very disappointing and didn't have very much rasberry flavor. We walked out and seen the theatre, which prompted us to decide to go see a movie. That was still in the afternoon, so we went to her apartment and had supper (Salmon and rice, thanks for supper Jack!). At about 6pm we left and went to see the Bourne Ultimatum and really enjoyed it. There are alot of movies recently that are part of a trilogy. She also invited me to a tentative staff party the next day. I called her from work on Thursday to see if the plan had come together (I would have just met them at the tannery after work) and everyone had bailed out. Which was good for me anyway, cause I really couldn't afford it. We are moving in six days!! Wow! It makes me alittle sad because this place has been our home for three years, but I'm glad that the packing and moving will be over soon. I also finally got some definate information from Luke about our moving plans. We are moving both apartments on August 30th, and cleaning on the 31st. We went to Hannahs tonight for supper and both got there daylight hours special. It came with an appetizer, entree, two sides, and desert for $9.95. I had a salad, turkey and dressing with mashed potatoes and carrotts, I brought my cake home. Sam got soup, 2 fish pieces with a potato and a poutine and cake as well. It came to $29 and change plus $5 for a tip. Not bad at all. Sam and I rented the movie 23 with Jim Carrie to watch tonight. Its a psychological thriller. The main character becomes obsessed with a novel he believes was written about him. As more similarities seem to arise he becomes obsessed with the number 23. It looks like a good movie and it will be interesting to see Jim Carrie do a movie like this, instead of his usual funny characters. More on that later. Well I'm going to go play wratchet and clank on the PS2, mom lent it to me and I'm doing pretty well. :)

2007-08-21T10:51:00.000-03:00

That movie was exactly what is said on the back...and nothing more. They got stuck in a motel and the owner/caretaker was trying to kill them for his video collection. That's it! There were no twists or surprises. I work today, tomorrow and Thursday, maybe I'll go in on Friday as well, but it all depends. Mom might come up to visit us this weekend to get out of her house and away from some of the stress there. Nothing's for sure though, so my work schedule kind of depends on if and when she wants to come up. I'm supposed to work this Saturday b/c I can't work my scheduled Saturday because we're moving, but I'm pretty sure it will be o.k as long as I make the hours up somewhere. My supervisor is pretty understanding as well, so I don't think it would be a problem. The windows are being replaced on our side of the building this summer and there are some men directly outside my window, they can peek right in if they want to. They are replacing the windows in the apartment above me today, so I might be tomorrow. I haven't gotten a little piece of paper on my door though telling me that...hmmm........Sam bought chicken dinners Sunday and bought us pizza last night!! Princess treatment!!! :)

2007-08-18T19:15:00.000-03:00

I have been treated like a princess the last couple of weeks!! Last week Sam came home and showed me that he had bought a tim hortons travel mugg for himself, on Friday he brought me home one! Today he surprised me with a bouquet of flowers!! No reason either! I wasn't pissed off at him or anything. Just flowers for me today, cause he loves me! ;) They really put me in a better mood, work was ...LONG...today. The time just dragged on and on and..well you get the point. We were calling people and they would just answer...say not interested and hang up. That was it, or not even say anything and hang up. I made one sale all day. We are going to watch the movie vacancy tonight. It's a scary movie about a guy and a woman getting stuck sleeping in a shotty motel after their car breaks down off the highway. The only thing on T.V is gruesome horror flicks that they later realize were filmed in the same room that they are staying in..dum..dum.dumm!! It should be interesting to say the least. More on that later...gotta go...write later...:)

2007-08-10T13:17:00.000-03:00

I FOUND THEM!! woohoo!! I called the transit services , just to double check that I hadn't left them on the bus. Turns out I did and the I called the office and asked if they had found any keys. They did and now the guy is trying to figure out a way to send them over with a bus driver to Kings place around for the time that I get downtown on my bus, then I can just walk over and get them!! He is being very helpful

2007-08-10T12:27:00.000-03:00

I misplaced my keys, I think I left them at work. I got on the bus last night and usually I get my keys out right away and sit them on my lap. When I got off the bus I realized that I didn't have my keys, so I looked in my purse and realized that they weren't there and I hadn't taken them out. I do remember looking at them while at work and having them in my hands while I was sitting at my desk. I called Connect this morning and the secretary checked with the supervisors to see if anything had been turned in. Nothing had. I'm hoping that my supervisor found them after I left last night and is holding on to them for me. I'm going to go into work tonight for extra hours and to put up a sign saying that I misplaced my keys. The keys can be replaced, except maybe my mail box key, but I had alot of keychains from some interesting places. I had one from Great Britian that Karen brought back for my, one from Ireland that Pat brought back for me, one from PEI and New York, and a nice engraved keychain with my name on it that mom got me for my graduation this year. I forgot about that one, so...if my supervisor did pick it up, she would see that it had my name on it. Mom is going to come up and visit me this weekend. She still isn't feeling that great because her muscles are really sore, so Richard is going to drive her up.Sue and Cole might come as well. I think that would be really nice, it's supposed to be very warm and sunny in Fredericton all weekend. Hopefully they don't have any incidents with crazy deers this time. :) Apparently that deer did $4000 worth of damage on the silver car!! Good thing mom and rich have coverage in their insurance for crazy deers and such. I did pretty well at work last night, I made 6 sales, that's the best all week. I met someone new last night as well. Jasmine, she just started and we talked in between calls all night, which made the time go by much faster. She just got married last month and showed me the pictures. They had gotten married at Riverview beach I guess. The pictures were beautiful. They met at the beach, he proposed at the beach and so the also got married at the beach. It was free to use the beach, they rented some tents and bought a keg of beer and used the picnic tables and BBQ for the reception. That is the way to do a wedding, mostly free stuff. I'm gonna get something to eat, write later...:)

2007-08-04T18:26:00.000-03:00

Jackie and I decided to go out last night, for some crazy reason. She had called me in the afternoon and invited me to Killarney lake to go for a swim. It was really hot yesterday so we went. We got there, took our pants and tops off and were heading to the water when the life guard stood up and ordered everyone one out of the water because of a storm warning. We were still uncomfortably hot and in our bathing suits, so we decided to go to the waiding pool downtown just to get wet. We arrived and began walking towards the pool and some guy said that the pool was closed to. So that idea was wrecked as well. We then just decided to go to the liquer store and figure out something from there. We arrived and noticed that if you bought a 12 pack of Corona you get a free straw hat. That was a sure sign letting us know we needed to go out. (we had talked about needing cowboy hats or something last weekend). After supper Jackie got a ride to my place and we drank here for alittle while before catching the bus downtown at 10:30pm (we are so cheap!) :) So we got there and went to Nickey zees first since we thought that they would have cheap drinks since they did last week. Well they didn't, but we both had a keiths draft and a vodka lime. We then went over to sweetwaters and the rodeo again. We had alot of fun dancing. I got up this morning to a stomach ache, but got ready for work anyway. I got downtown and went into work and began calling. I wasn't feeling all that great, but my supervisor informed me that I was in session right away and that I had to be in a bad campaign. Which ended up being alright because I don't think I can really be "monitored" when people just pick up, say I'm not interested, and hang up. Whatever. Then I went on my first break and had a green tea, which made my stomach feel alittle better. I made one sale right before 1pm and my supervisor said that everyone with two sales or less had to go home. Woohoo!! I lost out on some hours, but I worked and extra shift last week so I don't think it will matter. I caught the bus home and just lounged around all afternoon, it's been awesome! :) I also get Monday off for New Brunswick day and get paid for it, so I still get a weekend type break. Sam's friend Charles is over and he is going to install a really good video card in the computer for Sam. I don't know when though...hmm....they're out back drinking right now. I think someone has to drop the card off before they can fo anything. Oh well....gotta go....write later...

2007-07-29T15:19:00.001-03:00

Jackie and I decided to go downtown for this highland games thing that was supposed to be going on downtown yesterday. The webpage said that the activities and stuff ended at 5pm with some type of awards ceremony. The webpage also said that there was a beet tent. It said that it was open until at least 8pm. So we drank two very strong vodka and orange juice drinks here, caught the bus downtown at 7pm and discovered that not alot was going on. So we bought two lemonades and a little mickey of vodka and had some more strong drinks while trying to figure out what to do. We decided to grab something to eat at McGinnis Landing and had some slings. By this time it was still pretty early, I think around 8-8:30pm, so we headed over to Nicky Zees. It was completly dead there, but the drinks were cheap. We had some Keith drafts there and then headed over to Sweetwaters. We danced and drank there for the rest of the night. We met some guy, P.J I think his name was, and danced with him for most of the night. We were getting ready to leave and he asked me something about where I lived, I said Oh I live uptown with my boyfriend, at that point Jackie asked me something so I turned to answer her, when I turned around P.J was gone. We got a cab up to my place at about 1:30am and came home and just crashed. At about 3:30am Jackie said that she was to hot and was going to catch a cab home. It really was hot. She waited outside were it was cooler and I just went back to bed. I rolled over at about 10:30am this morning and thought, I'll sleep until 11am and then get up. Well I overslept and didn't end up getting up until 12:45pm.Oh well I don't work today.Sam and I have to go get groceries when he gets home,even though I hate going on Sundays. Write later:)

2007-07-27T15:35:00.000-03:00

This week has gone well, last night work dragged quite a bit, but it eventually came to an end. I'm going in today for some extra hours and to talk to my supervisor. I told her last night that I will be needing August 30th, 31st, and September 1st off because I am moving and will be helping others move as well. She was going to talk with Kevin and see if I could book that off as vacation time so that I can still get paid for the following Monday. She told me she would let me know today, so I kinda have to go in now. Oh well, extra money. I got paid today, but most of this pay is going towards rent and cable, so I'm not to far ahead, although all my bills will be paid. I just mean I don't have alot of extra spending money. I'm taking the later bus today, where it is just for extra hours, I can be alittle 5-10mins late. I think you have to let the people scheduled get computers before anyone who just wants extra can start anyway. I slept in today!! I usually set the alarm for 9am after Sam gets up at 6 or 7am, but I didn't today and just figured I'd wake up aboput that time anyway. I rolled over and it was 11:30am!! I showered and took Gizmo for a walk, wow is it ever hot in Fredericton today! 31 degrees today and tomorrow! Poor Gizmo, I couldn't get her into the groomers unitl Monday, so she has to suffer through this heat for the whole weekend, poor dog :( I don't work tomorrow and Jackie called me while I was in the shower and told me about a Scottish Festival that is going on this weekend, so I think we are going to go to that tomorrow. Sam and I rented Mortal Combat for the PS2 last week and we had alot of fun playing it all last week. It was really nice, we just took turns on the Conquests and when one of us died the other got a turn. I'm pretty good!! I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I thought that it was just fighting, but there is some actual boards/levels that you complete in between the fights. We also rented Shrek grand slam. That really was just a fighting game, nothing else. I got kinda bored with that after a day or two. I think I'll start renting some games more often, we have a bunch of coupons that we got with our blockbuster gift packs that we've never really used. Gotta get ready for work, write later :)

2007-07-26T10:53:00.000-03:00

I called Philip (future landlord) and asked him if he remembered mentioning that he thought about putting a door betweent the kitchen and room next door with the fridge and if that would be a possibility. He told me that it was something that he had thought about doing, but the elctrical box and wires were in that wall making it a big renovation project. I told him that was o.k and I was just wondering about it and thanked him. Last night at work his wifes sister introduced herself to me. Sharon (his wife) had mentioned that her sister worked at a call centre downtown when we met on Monday. She mentioned that I also worked at a call centre downtown to her sister. They both know my supervisor (Charlene) and she asked to meet me. She seemed like a very nice person as well. Charlene said that Philip and Sharon are nice people too. I called and got my phone and cable switched over for the end of August. Aliant waived the switching fee b/c I'm a value package customer and Rogers doesn't have a switching fee. But I have to be at the new apartment on August 31st between 2-5pm. I mean really, do they need a 3 hour window? Is it that crazy to actually give people appointments? hmph! I might see if my landlord can just let them in for me if we're not home. For my room/dressing room mom is going to let me use their day bed so that we can have room for guests and something in the room other than my dresser. It has been SO ridiculously hot in Fredericton the last 2 or 3 days! Yesterday and Tuesday it got up to over 30 degrees and today the high will be 33. Have I ever mentioned that Connect North America has no central air conditioning? No?hmm....well the don't! We just have a couple wall air conditioners placed reandomly around the room and some floor fans, and then a wack of computers that let off alot of heat. It is brutally hot in there all summer and cold in the winter b/c they don't want to over heat the computers so they don't turn on the heat. grr....Oh, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I found out from a coworker that part time staff can get benefits. Full dental, vision and a blue cross plan for $22 a pay. I thought full time staff were the only ones that it was available to. I might sign up for that when my blue cross runs out at the end of the summer. The job market in this city sucks! There are no job opportunities for recent graduates. Well, that's not true, if you have one or more degrees and your masters in one of them you might have a chance, but a plain old undergraduate degree? nothing. I do not want to be stuck in a call centre for the rest of my life. I could have got a job there with my high school diploma and saved myself about 20+ thousand dollars in tuition costs. Oh well, maybe something will turn up. Anyway I'm going to make a coffee....

2007-07-20T15:44:00.000-03:00

I started packing away some of the things that we don't use everyday. I packed away my bookshelf with my school books and binders (I went through my binders to throw away the unimportant stuff) and Sam packed a couple of boxes last night. I don't think it will be to much of a problem as long as we keep packing little by little. We also found out that Luke and Tina are moving the end of August as well and Luke offered to help us move and use his truck. We'll help them move and they will help us. Which worked out really nice for us, considering neither one of us have our drivers license. We would have had to get a friend to rent a truck for us or pay movers, either way it would have cost us a lot more. We're still going to offer Luke money for gas and buy him a case of beer or something, but it worked out nicely. Sam and Luke booked August 30th,31st, and September 1st off, so I'm going to book that the 30th and the 1st off too. I don't work Friday's. Work went by pretty quickly this week, we got off an hour early on Tuesday, Wednesday was alright and Thursday went by pretty fast as well. I work tomorrow, but I'm off at 6pm, so I can still go out and do whatever in the evening. I'm going to go bake something, maybe some cookies.....hmmm....:)

2007-07-16T16:36:00.000-03:00

We went to see the apartment this morning. It turned out to be a nice place and the owner seemed to like Gizmo(I brought her with me). We can move in before September or whatever time we need to move in. He said he would give us the keys whenever we paid for Septembers rent. I just have to call and get our t.v, phone and internet switched over for the end of August beginning of September. It turned out to be a 2 bedroom and another room that is going to be our computer room. There is a big backyard that the owner said we could use and have BBQ's at. There is still a convenience store pretty close, and we aren't that far from where we currently live. It's at 816 Regent (between kings college and Montgomery.Did I mention that Gizmo is allowed? yup, no problem. :)
The lease is from September to May. He said that he doesn't like people moving in and out in the winter. He said that he was going to paint and finish some trim work before we move in. The bathroom is a split bathroom, meaning that one room/hall is for the shower and there is another room for the vanity and toilet. The kitchen is laid out alittle weird. The sink and stove are in one room and right next door is the fridge and room for a table with a little window. He said he was thinking of putting a door in, I think I'll mention that I think it is a good idea when I drop of the rent cheques, etc. My stupidly expensive cheques arrived today, I need them for my rent now, b/c most landlords like cheques. The only reason I bought them is to write rent payments. The cheques say my current address, so then I'll have to scratch out the address and put my new one. That will look really nice. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now, cause I'm not ordering more cheques. Our lease, which is more of an agreement, is from September-May and then will figure out what we want to do.He just said that he doesn't like people moving in and out in the winter. Which is fine anyway, I think I would avoid moving in the winter. I'm very excited, it will be nice to have a new place that Gizmo is allowed at and only have two neighbors. Sam and I are going to rent a movie or game, write later...

2007-07-15T15:58:00.000-03:00

I may have found an apartment that will allow Gizmo. Well...I don't know if they really accept pets, but when I told the man that the apartment was for myself, boyfriend and little dog, he made no immediate objections (so I took that as an o.k to the littel dog). He told me he was going away for the weekend and to call him on Monday to set something up (that was Thursday). It's on Regent street, which isn't ideal, but I can't be to picky with Gizmo. The apartment is a 2 bedroom + extra room for storage or study area and heat + lights are included for 650$ mth. It's available for SEptember 1st as well. He also mentioned that he is flexible with the leases. I found it completely randomly. It was posted online at some strange site. He said it was a home, where he and his wife lived as well and there was another apartment with an older lady. I really hope that this is an actual apartment with actual rooms and doors. That one that we went to see in May was such a huge disappointment. (with the curtained off kitchen as a bedroom). It says in the ad that it has a split bathroom, what does that mean? I am so frustrated trying to find a place. stupid people and their hate for dogs or even pets at all. Keep your fingers crossed for me...I'll need it! :)

2007-07-10T11:05:00.000-03:00

The lady called this morning to let us know that we had been approved for the apartment. I was pretty excited, but then I asked about the leasing arrangements. The ad lied and it isn't month to month, but actually a year. AND you have to give them the damage deposit before you even get your keys. I was going to transfer mine over, but Pat isn't going to give us our damage deposit before we move out. So, just to make sure that I wouldn't get evicted and loose my damage deposit I mentioned that I had a little dog and asked the policy. The lady said that she also has a little dog so she had already enquired and this new company said that they have a zero tolerance policy, so I would get evicted and be stuck without an apartment at an even worse time then right now. I figure I've still got over a month and a half to find something, I'm sure I can. I've gotten a couple of emails from people about my ad on the adsforum. The apartments are to far away from anything though. Maybe I'll luck out and someone will email me with a better location. Wish me luck! :)

2007-07-09T14:17:00.000-03:00

We seen the apartment this afternoon and it was nice. We filled out an application and are just waiting to hear back from them. It's only a block from here, so we're still pretty close to everything. It didn't have a balcony, but that's o.k. Sam and I seen a fenced in yard when we were leaving, so there is still a spot where we could have BBQ's and stuff. It's on the top floor, but pretty close to the door anyway. It has very separate areas for everything. Our current apartment is kind of everything together, dining, living and kitchen. This place is alittle different. you walk into the living room and then to the left you walk into the kitchen, where there is room for a table and dishwasher, washer. To the right of the kitchen is the bedroom, which is alittle smaller than our current bedroom, but still large enough for our stuff. Around the corner is a linen closet and then the bathroom. The apartment is painted a light beige instead of just plain white, which I like. I went and ordered some cheques alittle while ago. I told the lady why I was ordering them and she said to change the address on them after I move. I asked her if they would still be valid and she said they would, so I'm hoping that works out o.k. The smallest book of cheques that I could order was 50!! I don't need 50 cheques! That will last me 4+ years! I wouldn't use them for anything other than rent. I've never had them before, but this way we don't have to deal with care takers, (who lives downtown BTW). Did I mention that it's month to month!! Well it is, and I'm pretty happy about that. The lady said that Colpitts developments just took over and they may actually replace some things before we move in, she wasn't to sure how they operate b/c the switch just happened last week. The carpet wasn't that nice, but I have my blue one and she said that it would be cleaned before we move in, so...as long as it's not dirty the color of it doesn't matter. It is really security locked, much better than this place, there is an intercom, not just a buzz. O.k....I'm pretty excited about this place...but I swear that I'm not imagining this...while we were waiting for Janet to arrive...I heard a dog bark!! So someone else in the building is also hiding a dog! Woohoo!! Janet said that she was heading over to drop the application off, so we might hear back relatively soon. My cheques will take 5 business days to arrive though, oh well I'll figure something out. Wish me luck in getting the apartment. Write later. :)

2007-07-06T14:57:00.000-03:00

I may have found a place! It isn't far from here, about a block away, behind the city motel. It is a one bedroom, heat and hot water included for 625$ mth!! It is also month to month lease, so I'm not stuck, and the apartment is available September 1st. I didn't mention that I have a little dog, fuck it. I did however inquire about onsite landlords or what not. The care giver is off site, so i don't have to worry about them seeing Gizmo. I also made sure that it's not a basement apartment, I'm not very fond of them. All is not lost!! I will still have my school bus pass until after September and then I'll just find out what colors the stickers are to validate my id myself! ;) I hope it has a balcony, it's on the top floor, but she didn't mention a balcony...whatever. They do allow cats for an extra $20, so if they find out somehow I'll offer them the extra $20. I'll just get mom to take her for a week or two when we first move in. Woohoo!! I think Sam will like the sounds of this as well, he'll be getting home pretty soon. Today has been a good day all around, I took two scratch tickets in (that I thought I had lost on) and won 4$ on one and 2$ on the other! It's also a pretty good day out as well. It looked kind of like it would rain this morning but recently the sun has come out and it's gotten quite warm. Jackie if you read this before I talk to you next are we still going out on Saturday? Let me know, I think it would be nice. Anyway I gotta go get ready for work...write later

2007-07-05T16:44:00.000-03:00

I took the bus downtown to go to work this afternoon, walked in, looked around and the place was completely EMPTY. I turned around and seen a woman sitting in one of the offices and asked her where everyone was. Turns out that the dialer had crashed and Connect North America had lost their internet access. They had sent everyone home at 1pm, and she was calling night staff to tell them that they didn't need to come to work at 5pm (I had gotten there shortly after 4pm). I left and walked over to Kings place and got back on the bus! I'll just go in tomorrow and Saturday and then I get Sunday off again.Woohoo!! :) I mean, I could have used the extra hours, but I can't do anything about them not being open, so I can feel guilt free! If Sam gets home in time, we can go see a movie tonight. I've heard good things about Transformers and Fantastic Four. He said he was leaving Saint John at 4ish, so he should be home soon. :)

2007-07-04T18:03:00.000-03:00

Today has gone well...I competed and mailed my taxes....I know...I may be a little late, but they're done now. I went online and looked for some more apartments, I had called a couple of places yesterday, but nothing really appealed to me. There was one place down on Regent that had potential, but it was pretty far downtown and not near much, and pets weren't allowed (I was going to sneak Gizmo in), but I think I'll try to find a place that will allow her. I emailed someone about an apartment building that allows dogs today, so I'll see what comes of that. I also have the names and numbers of a couple of landlords who allow pets as well, so all is not lost...yet. I enjoyed having these last couple of days off immensely!! It's been great! Sleeping in, staying in my P.J's until after 11am, well today I woke up at 8:30am and couldn't get back to sleep, but other than that it's been nice. I may be sleeping in alittle late because Sam is in Saint John visiting his family as well, so I'm not sleeping that great. It's hard trying to find a place for September though, because if the ads are posted now, landlords are looking for tenants for August or ASAP. It's hard to find apartments that are available for September, let alone ones that allow dogs. Well I'm going to go make something for supper....

2007-07-02T18:43:00.000-03:00

Last week at work went by pretty quickly. I went into work on Saturday to make up for last Saturday and they let us go early. Instead of working until pm, we only worked until just after 3pm. I think they ran out of leads for that campaign, oh well. Last night Jackie and I hung out and drank. We went downtown at about 9:30pm and watched the fireworks at 10:40pm. They were pretty good, the finale was great. There were tons of people downtown and we just started walking (hoping we would be able to wave a cab down) and we finally came to Greco and called a cab from there, except...no answer, so we just walked home. We took Regent street and made it home in about 30-45mins. It seemed shorter than when I used to walk up York street, hmm. I got home just after 12am and watched some T.V before heading to bed at 1am. Sam stumbled into bed at around 4am...ish. He had to work this morning and it took me awhile to get him out of bed at 8:30 this morning. He worked until 4ish today and his dad just picked him up. He's going to Saint John for a couple of days to see his family. I'll have to ask him what he did until 4am, hmmm.....I slept in ridiculously late after he went to work, until 12:30pm ish!! I feel pretty well rested today though, so I don't regret it in the least! I paid my rent yesterday and it really dawned on me, that I'm going to have to move the end of next month!! I may have found a couple of places. I know of one spot that the landlord is offsite and lives in another building, so if need be I can sneak Gizmo in. A girl that I work with also said that there were apartments on Parkside that allow small dogs (261), but I haven't seen any ads for those ones, so I don't know if they are available. There is an apartment down the street that I partied at once, in the basement, and the top floor tenants are using a flag to cover their bedroom window, which isn't working very well, so that's kind of sketchy....but I might check to see when it's available and the landlords feelings about dogs. I cropped my PEI pictures and they are all ready to be printed. I bought a ton of stuff to make a nice scrapbook. Gotta run....write later ;)

2007-06-27T14:04:00.000-03:00

PEI was awesome!! We had so much fun.I give you the weeks events.
Monday- Richard came and picked up Gizmo and drove us downtown to the bus stop where we purchased our tickets and then went to second cup for coffees. We left Fredericton 11:20am, went to Moncton (had a short stop over and switched buses) and were on our way to Charlottetown. We arrived at the bus stop at about 5pm. We took a cab to our B&B and then headed out to find something to do. Well everything was closed, but Sam wanted to look at some tattoo's to cover his pepsi world one on his arm. We got some directions and walked to a tattoo shop. The guy told him that to get a tattoo to cover his, and not look like a cover up it would cost $300+. So...need less to say we decided to wait until he saves some money and really thinks about what he wants, then he can get it done at Pins & Needles here in Fredericton. We were at the end of university ave, away from any of the restaurants on the wharf, so we decided to go to a place called Papa Joes. The food was good as well as the service. We headed back downtown and decided to head into the Olde Dublin Pub on Sydney St. We had some cheap drinks and then headed back to the B&B.
Tuesday-I set the alarm for 9am, but I woke up alittle early and showered and got ready and then bugged Sam to get up. We had breakfast and went downtown to see if the Harbour Hippo (a land & water tour boat) was operating, the girl said that it wasn't operating today because of the weather to my great disappointment. We then went "The Guild" which was a theatre type place, but they had nothing going on that day. The Mack (which was a movie theatre), also had nothing playing that evening. I had suggested going to see "British Invasion-a musical revue" to Sam multiple times, but he said no, until I found an ad for it and he finally read about it. We then went to the Confederation Centre to purchase tickets. It was opening night and the tickets were sparse by the time we got there, but we were able to get two on the balcony. The great surprise was that the tickets were half price (b/c it was opening night). It was a musical tour through the most popular music from the mid 1960's to the mid 1980's. The cast performed over the music of over 80 British artist-the beatles, Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones to Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and Elton John. They also did songs by the Eurythmics.After the 31/2-4 hour show we went to the olde dublin for drinks again. We had wanted to go back to the Gahan house brewery, but it was closed until Thursday for renovations.
Wednesday-We got up early again and went to Founders hall to buy tickets to go to Cavendish, we missed the early bus though and the next one wasn't until 4pm. We bought tickets for the next morning. So we went to see about the Harbour Hippo, it was running, so we bought our tickets for the 3pm tour. We then walked around and I took lots of pictures (see facebook soon). We arrived back after a quick lunch at A piece of Cake restaurant. It was organized so that the kitchen was right next to the tables and we could watch the chefs prepare our food if we wanted to go over and look. Sam talked to the chef there, she was a graduate of the Holland College Culinary school on the island . We boarded the huge boat/vehicle and took a nice tour around the city and then into the water. It was alot of fun. :) We were going to go to the Culinary school for supper, but one of the tour guides told us that they were closed for the week for something (her boyfriend worked there). We then went to the Confederation Court mall and picked up some key chains. We went to the Olde Dublin Pub for supper and drinks again.
Thursday- We went to Founders Hall and waited for the bus to arrive. We didn't know where to wait and thankfully Founders Hall opened and there was someone to ask. We took the bus there and arrived at about 10am. We got dropped off at Ripleys Believe it or Not!! and the Wax Museum of the Stars. They were both alot of fun and pretty interesting to see. The had a tim hortons there, so Sam and I bought one before going to Ripleys, well we weren't allowed food in either places. After Ripleys we had lunch at Tims. We headed to the Wax museun and seen some interesting characters done in wax, Sam and I got our picture taken with the giant wax Shrek. We then went to Grampa's Antique Photo Studio. We got a picture with me on the bar wearing a fun costume and Sam standing just in front holding a gun and beer, wearing a cowboy type costume. We got one 8x10 for us and 2 5x7's for mom and Rich and his parents. We then walked to Avonlea, but decided that it wasn't worth $22 to go see. We headed back to the visitor info centre to catch the bus, but wanted coffee, so we crossed the street to the convenience store. On one corner was a grave yard and Sam and I went to go see it. Turned out to be the grave site of L. M. Montgomery. We then headed back to the info centre and talked to a couple that had been on the bus and were also waiting. They turned out to be from Australia and were doing month and a half trip all over. They were just coming back from Alaska, and were going to L.A next before heading home. The went to a couple other places in Canada and the U.S as well. We went to Gahan house, but it was still closed, so I called later and made dinner reservations for Friday. We had seen a restaurant called the 42nd and Broadway next to the Olde Dublin and decided to eat there for supper. We went in and got seated and looked at the menu, well we could afford nothing on that menu!! The appetizers were 10-15$ each and the meals were 27-35$ each! So I told our server that we were just looking for something to have for a desert and I order two glasses of yellow tail chardonnay (6$ each) and asked for his recommendation for a desert to go with them, he suggested a lemon tart to share($8). We ate and Sam asked him about wines and ales and chardonnays. He was very nice and stood there talking to us for about 10-15mins. We left him a good tip, we spent $26, just for that, went next door and had supper at the Olde Dublin for $35 (including drinks!). .
Friday- We weren't to sure of what we wanted to do, so we spent most of the day looking at the shops on water street and victoria row. We went to Peake's Quay for lunch and finally tried some oysters (somehting the island is pretty famour for apparently). Our lunch and drinks were good. The oysters tasted kinda like a salty mussel (although I haven't eatten mussels since a bsad experience at Keystone Kelleys 5years ago). The oyster was good, but salty. We decided to go on an afternoon cruise. The ad showed alot of seals, so I was pretty excited to see some seals. Well, it turned out that the lobster fisherman chase the seals away during this time of year and i seen none!! :( This tour went further than the harbour hippo, it was 70mins out on the water. We seen the Lieutenant Governors house and Hillsbourough bridge. The guide told us that the waterfront property on the island sells for $300,000+!! I took some pictures of the gorgeous homes and the red sand cliffs. After the cruise we headed back to the B&B to relax for alittle while it was really warm that day. We then headed to the Gahan house for dinner. The food was really good and we bought some growlers, they were only 14$!! I remembered them being more than that. 64 oz of the ale and a nice jug. I bought a honey wheat ale and Sam bought one as well. He also got an ale called Ironhorse. It had a hint of a chocolate taste to it. We drank there for the night before heading to the B&B.
Saturday- We slept in this day. We weren't to sure what to do so we just walked down Queen street and bought lots of coffee. We ended up having lunch at the "China Garden". The food was good and filling. We then headed down to the shops on the wharf and bought some t-shirts. Sam got an authetic PEI dirt shirt, payin 28$ for his with the taxes, but I (being the cheap individual that I am) just went and bought a gray t-shirt that says i did the island, Prince Edward Island. for $10. We hung out down there for most of the day before dinner. We walked around trying ot find a new place to eat, Sam would have went to the Olde Dublin again, but I wanted something new. I remebered that the guide had recommended the "pilot house" restaurant on our tour and we decided to go there for supper. The food was really good, I got an almod brie chicken dinner and Sam also got something with Brie. I had looked online and found out some info on entertainment for that night. We headed to the Gahan house and had a couple of drinks there at about 9pm, then headed over to the Olde Dublin for live entertainment. The band Shanneyganock was playing. They were pretty good and Sam ended up buying the CD for his mom (the band was from Newfoundland and so is Sams mom), they were all nice enough to sign it for him.
Sunday- We got up and ate, walked around Queen street again, got some more pictures, called a cab and caught the bus for 2pm. We arrived in Moncton at 5pm. Sam went to Fredericton and I wen to Saint John. (I had a dentist appointment).That concluded our vacation, we had a blast!!
I have to go get ready for work, this took longer than I thought it would. I found out yesterday that my work is closed July 2 to celebrate C anada day, the 3 and the 4th as well. We can't call the U.S on the 4th of July weekend, so I get another vacations week, kind of, Woohoo!!! :) I signed a form to see if I can get vacation pay for the 3 and 4th.

2007-06-16T19:56:00.000-03:00

Only two days until PEI!! Woohoo!! (upcoming pictures on Facebook)The vet called the other day and told me that there was something still wrong with Gizmo. Apparently there was some blood and something else in it. So I went down and got her some more meds. I'll probably have to bring in another urine sample in a week for analysis (33$ every single time!) and then if there is something still wrong she'll need a bladder ultrasound just to make sure that she doesn't have any kinds of stones. I hope she doesn't, she'd have to have surgery! I'm wondering if it was caused by that dog food?! I returned the cans when I heard about the recall and got new ones. They can't sell dog food that's been recalled, can they? hmm.... All day yesterday I was thinking that Sam and I could go get a drink or something when I got home from work. He was at work until 10pm, so I couldn't suggest it to him, but figured he'd be up for it. I got home and sitting on the floor was a six pack of beer and four white russians!! That made my day! I was so surprised and appreciative. Jackie and I went to Walmart this afternoon and I found a pair of brown dress shorts. The only problem is that I don't have any lite colored shirts to go with them, oh well I'm sure I'll find something.We then headed over to Smitty's and had a nice lunch together. It was a nice day in Fredericton today, very warm. I've had the fan on all day and the windows are open as far as they will go. Write later

2007-06-12T11:00:00.000-03:00

Amy and I went to see "Knocked Up" last night. It was really funny, we laughed the whole way through. I think we'll rent it when it comes out on video so that Sam can see it too. Less than a week until our vacation!!Woohoo! It is so sunny and beautiful in Fredericton today, if I had a car and didn't have to work tonight I would go to the beach! :) Hopefully the weather will be this nice in PEI and for the drive to PEI. I think I'll check the weather network for PEI. We need an air conditioner. If anyone knows of any decently priced ones I would appreciate the help. Longer Post later :)

2007-06-10T16:16:00.001-03:00

Gizmo is feeling alot better, she hasn't pee'ed on anything since she started her meds and is more playful and happy. Thursday was an alright day at work, I couldn't find a computer to start early (like usual) so I only worked from 5-10:30pm. I had worked an extra shift on Tuesday, so the hours are already caught up. Friday was nice and relaxing. Gizmo and I lazed around and didn't do a heck of alot. Saturday went by really quickly. I worked from 10am-6pm, but it went by fast. I made 1o sales and did a one bill.(combined cell phone charges onto home phone biill=1 bill). Everyone on the phones was pretty nice to me and most of them even thanked me for calling. It was nice. I'm going to go see the movie "knocked up" with Amy from work tomorrow. It looks like it will be funny. Then I'm going to work Tuesday-Friday to make up the hours I'm missing while on vacation in PEI (woohoo). I still don't know if I got approved for vacation time, so I might get paid for it but I don't know. If I do I'll have some extra cash, if not the hours are made up and it will be a slightly smaller pay (still not that bad). I am so excited for our trip, only 8 more days!! Mom and Rich are coming up sometime on Sunday to pick Gizmo and Snowball up (thanks for pet sitting mom). I think that Sam and I will go downtown and get our tickets early and then go somewhere for breakfast since the bus doesn't leave until after 11am. Jackie and I went to Walmart this afternoon and I found a really cute dress. It's a lite material that will be nice to wear on a warm day. I also got Gizmo some more dog food, since she only eats the stuff from Walmart. I'm going to go to tim hortons for a coffee, write later...

2007-06-06T14:28:00.000-03:00

I took Gizmo to the animal hospital on Monday. The vet seemed to like Gizmo alot. She puppy talked to her and got down on the floor to pat her. It was a bladder infection. The vet did a urinalysis and gave Gizmo some pills and drops to take. The pills she has to take every twelve hours and the drops just calm her stomach and I give those after the pill once a day. It cost me $108 + cab fare!! What an expensive trip that was! But Gizmo started feeling better a couple of hours after I gave her the first pill. I've had bladder infections before and they are really uncomfortable. I'm just glad that I figured out what was wrong and was able to take care of her. I worked last night, but the dialer was down for the first 20mins, so we just sat there and got paid, which was awesome! I'm going in tonight for extra hours and tomorrow is my scheduled shift. I have Friday off and then work on Saturday. Pat told me that she is showing the apartment to two different people on Saturday. I told her that Sam and I both work, but she said that she would just say Gizmo is visiting for the weekend. What a pain in the ass moving is going to be. I'm just not going to mention that I have a little dog. If it doesn't say in the ad "no pets" and it doesn't say anything in the lease, I'm just not going to tell anybody. There are lots of places downtown that are houses converted into apartments. I don't think having a dog would be to much of an issue in those types of apartments. In July I think I'll start looking for a place, but right now is just to soon. only 12 more days until our trip!! Woohoo! I am so exciting to be taking a vacation and just relaxing for a week. The drive there is only 5 hours, so it's not like we'll be stuck on a bus forever. I think I'm going to bring my bottle to Charlottetown and get it filled at the Gahan house brewery. I paid 10$ for it, so I my did's well get another use out of it. I don't know when mom and Rich are coming to get Gizmo, June 17th is fathers day, if they come up then, I could treat Rich and mom to lunch or supper. I better go get ready for work....write later!
P.S: I don't remember the trip that mom and Sue are talking about, but I do know I don't like camping, we are staying at a bed and breakfast!! :)