My exciting day

It began like any other day. I woke up, pressed snooze and fell back asleep, then woke up again. I got a coffee on the way to work, did some interviews, some data entry and some filing. Went to lunch with my sister, then did some more interviews, data entry and filing. Very exciting. Then I left work.

I take two buses to get home from work. Between these two buses I usually have to wait about 20 minutes and since there is a starbucks on the corner where I wait, I occasionally break down and treat myself to a grande half-sweet, non-fat, no water tazo chai tea latte. Today as I was sitting in starbucks waiting for the bus I watched a couple of idiot teenagers jumping into traffic, running along side cars and generally being stupid. They were waiting at my bus stop. So the bus comes, I leave starbucks and get on the bus. We have gone two blocks when one of these idiot boys comes to the front of the bus where I am sitting and asks the bus driver for a first aid kit because he has somehow managed to cut his arm on the seat. The driver pulls over to call in a report and then as she is getting the first aid kit, she realizes that this isn't some little scratch. It is a cut nearly 2 inches long and the idiot boy* is dripping blood all over the bus. So she has to call an ambulance. The fire truck arrived first since we were just around the corner from the fire station and idiot boy and his friends get off the bus. One of the other passengers on the bus calls the driver over to tell her that he was on another bus with the hooligans and explained that they had gotten into a fight with an old man on the other bus and then he went on to describe their traffic games. My fellow passenger says that he wouldn't be surprised if idiot boy cut himself on purpose. Another passenger pipes up that she overheard one of idiot boy's female friends tell him he should cut himself and then somehow he mysteriously now had a cut on his arm. So by now the ambulance has arrived and we are quite the spectacle in rush hour traffic - a bus with a fire truck behind it and an ambulance behind it and a couple hooligan idiots out on the sidewalk with the paramedics. With the police on the way our extra bus finally arrives and the two other passengers are asked to stay behind to make a statement to the police. After a little while the rest of us finally board the new bus and continue on our merry way. 40 minutes after idiot boy first asked for the first aid kit. And so ends my exciting day.


* Names have been changed to protect the idiotic.

No cats were hurt in the making of this post

I was on the phone last week with Annemarie and I walked into my kitchen and freaked out. Amp laughed at me, but I was not happy to see the furry little mouse scurrying around my kitchen floor. I actually stepped up on a chair - not really out of fear, more out of disgust since I was barefoot and it grossed me out. My cat was less than helpful and ran in the opposite direction when she saw the cat. I asked to borrow amp's cats, but that wasn't really realistic. So then I had to find a mouse trap, all the while blabbing nonesense into the phone at Annemarie who was trying to be as supportive as someone on the other side of the country can be, but at the same time she was laughing at me and my crisis. I finally found a mouse trap in the back hall closet, but then I couldn't get it to work. Really, this should not have been hard. They are not all that complicated, but I couldn't get the stupid bar to hook onto the snapy part. Finally I got it set up and I tried to put it under the fridge - since this is where the mouse ran to - but it wouldn't fit. So I put it right beside the fridge. Annemarie and I finished our phone conversation and I went upstairs. An hour later I heard a distinctive snap and my cat running around (for such a small cat, she makes a lot of noise when she runs). I went downstiars to find the trap had been set off, but not by a mouse. Now the trap did not actually snap on my cat or hurt her in anyway - I think she just sniffed it and it went off. Anyway, the mouse was still on the loose but I put the trap away so as to not hurt my poor scared cat. This all happened while my parents are out of town. All my mouse adventures do. But I didn't see the mouse again until after they came home and now we have trapped two mice and we think that is all there is. We hope. So that is the less than climactic ending of my story. But my next cat will chase mice and be useful.

fun and frustrations

Saturday was my last shift at Zehrs ... and there was much rejoicing! So no more stupid mindless scanning of food and rude customers! This is very good. I do like most of the people I worked with so not seeing them anymore is a little sad, but overall leaving is a very good thing. Now I have three weeks of working at my HR job and then it is off to Mississauga to live in a hotel.

I have been having a good week. The weekend was full of fun and people and movies - I finally saw Harry Potter - and friends are home from Europe. Tomorrow we are watching all the So you think you can dance episodes that Steph and Andrea PVRed while they were gone so no one tell Steph who won.

Right now I am trying to get my application together for interest relief on my student loan so that I don't have to pay it while I am in Africa. This is very annoying and there are two pay stubs that have buggered off or are hiding somewhere. I am also trying to pause my gym membership while I am gone and that is a big hassle too. I don't like all the admin and beaurocracy involved in planning for my trip - don't even ask about my visa- but I am starting to get really excited about the internship. September is almost here so it is starting to feel real.

Fun things in the summer!

So summer is going by very quickly! This is sad because it means I will be leaving soon, but it is happy, for the very same reason! So the best thing to happen lately is that I gave my notice to Zehrs. This means I am almost done there. Yahoo!! Also, I went camping on the long weekend and had lots of fun. I went with Pam, my cousin Mike and a friend named Jen. It was great. We went hiking, we went swimming and we ate copious amounts of marshmellows with chocolate and graham crackers. The weather was terrific and the whole thing was very relaxing.

Another fun thing is that tomorrow I am starting to make skirts out of the fabric I brought home from Rwanda. My friend's mom is helping me since I have limited sewing skills. I will post pictures when they are done. Yahoo.

Tomorrow we have a team bbq for my Rwanda team and I am excited to hang out with them again. My parents are off galvanting for the next week so I get the house to myself and can do dishes when I want and not when I am told to do them. This is very exciting.

So despite the crazy hours that I am still working there are fun things going on and there is light at the end of the 50 hr work week tunnel.