Switchboard ... Past, Present and Future

Sitting here thinking about the people that have worked at switchboard and don't work there now.   People I miss so much.

Doug, Sherry, Pam, Lana, Jacob, Micheal C, Micheal P, Chantale, Sonia, Kylie and Roberta.

Then are those people that I just don't work with too much anymore, like Jodie, who went casual recently.

 

They are what made working at switchboard so much fun.     I like the people there now but so much has changed and I don't think it's the same kind of environment it was before.     It was a much friendlier place when I first started.    People aren't as friendly and people are getting bitter.   It's too bad.

 

I thinking of them today because I was offered a 0.7FTE and I accepted it.    I don't know if I want it truth be told.    It's not a fun place to be any more.    I'll do it for a while and see how it turns out.    I won't be holding my breath but I'll be hoping for the best.

Visit With An Irridologist

I went to see an irridologist a few days ago.   It was interesting and a little weird at the same time.   The one thing I wasn't too crazy about was the bio-feedback type of thing they had hooked up to a computer.   It seems a little too out there for me to think it could be believable.  But it seemed to be part of the process, so of course, I went along with it no questions asked.

 

By the time I was done I had three bottles of herbs/etc in my possession.   One bottle is going to help detox my liver/kidneys/thyroid.  One bottle is an amino acid.   The last bottle contains Chinese herbs that will "curb the heat", whatever that means.

 

The whole visit was interesting and there were some things she picked up on very quickly.  My headaches for one.  She also mentioned that my small intestine has trouble absorbing nutrients and mentioned my stomach and intestines were tense, if that was the correct terminology she used.    She says I'm dehydrated and thinks my achilles tendon injury had more to do with being dehydrated.   

 

What she didn't pick up on was my blood pressure problems so to speak.   But she did say my eye itself seemed to be full of pressure.   Same thing?   I don't know.  I didn't bring up any issues because I wanted to see what she would see without any leading from me.

 

Overall, I would say I'm okay with the whole appointment.    I will go back and see her in about two weeks.     She wants me to bring in my vitamins and see if they are doing anything for me.    I'm okay with that too.

 

I'm trying to be pretty open minded about this and it can't hurt.   

 

Lots of Random Stuff

Finished working 3 day shifts and I'm wiped.   Those are really long days ... not any longer than other shifts but they really do drag on and on.

On the weekend I worked the early shift starting at 6:45 then went right into the 3 day shifts.    I'm so ready for some days off -- five days in a row was enough for me.  

 

Some random thoughts:

 

Jacob is wondering when I'm going to have my jaw surgery.    He wonders because he wants to use my car while I can't drive during my recovery.    What do I make of that?

 

Shevaughn is going to Austrailia with her boyfriend at the end of the month.   My guess is that they get engaged there.   I bet I am right!

 

Summer is almost over and it's been a crazy one.    Floods in June that are still affecting High River drastically.   You don't hear too much about Calgary anymore.   I'm wondering if it's just because it's old news, or are things really back to normal now.

 

Jacob starts Grade 12 at the beginning of September.    This is a big year for him and I hope he takes it really seriously.   The SAIT open house is in October this year.     Lots going on for him in the near future.    He bought himself a wonderful computer and he's thrilled with it.    He's still working at Co-Op and he has been working a lot.

 

Still wish I was happier.   Still don't know what to do to make myself happier though.   Still searching.

Scottsdale, AZ Holiday

Back from our summer vacation in Scottsdale, AZ.     I'm really glad to be home too.    It was really hot there and although it was beautiful, it's just another city to hang out in.    The highlights would have been things like the Botanical Garden or Biosphere 2.    But we didn't see either of those.    It was too hot to sit in the backyard or by the community pool.   It may as well have been winter for all the sitting inside I did.   We went to Sedona but Jillian was sick so we didn't really do anything there either.   We did have some nice Mexican food there in a little restaurant that we would have bypassed if it weren't for a recommendation from someone Jonathan talked to.     The guy there was really rough around the edges, almost a little unfriendly, but he warmed up a bit and the food was really good.

 

The highlights of the trip were the different birds all over the place and the grapefruit tree in the backyard.    The hot weather was interesting but even if it would have been 10 degrees cooler we would have been able to spend more time outside and do more things.

 

Jonathan seemed to really like it.   I don't know if it was just because we were in a really nice place or what.   He golfed early in the mornings and enjoyed himself.    Good thing he did -- someone needed to have fun on that holiday.

 

Since we've been home, we really only had two really nice days outside.   The day we arrived home and the day afterwards.   I took the day and took care of the garden.  It was extremely overgrown and crazy.   The pansies in the front garden are almost dead.   I pinched them back a lot and I hope they'll spring back a little.

 

I always look forward to going away but this was boring, very, very boring.        

 

Another Thing That Just Didn't Work Out

I haven't posted in a while because I was so darn busy.   Busy with WestJet and working at Switchboard on the weekends.    

 

Something had to give and it was WestJet.   Sadly I had to let it go.   It wasn't an easy decision for me to make.   In fact it was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make.     Funny how when you think you've finally got what you've always wanted it doesn't turn out as you would have hoped.

 

What it came down to was scheduling.    Training was for 4 weeks, full time.   So I was told.   What actually was expected was full time for 5 weeks.    Weeks of working in the call centre then back for two more weeks of training.   It wouldn't have been completely finished (training) until the beginning of September.     Seriously, I would have been working 7 days a week just to get the training portion finished.   Then I would have had to quit or go casual at switchboard to make it work.   Part time over at WestJet is 5 days a week - working 32 hours.   They don't put it into 4 shifts, they spread it out over five days.   That makes it next to impossible to have another job for any length of time.

 

Other factors that forced me to make this decision were family.   Mostly Jonathan.    He was griping about me being gone for the initial 4 weeks.    When I saw it wasn't really 4 weeks, my heart sunk.   It was hard coming home every night having him complain about the dog waking up to greet me and waking him up.    I was pretty mad at first because he wasn't getting behind me and my new adventure.   

 

As time went by, I could see that it was more trouble than it was worth right now.    Schedule conflicts and conflicts at home were sucking the life out of me.      

 

I'm still disappointed in my decision.   I felt like my hands were tied.

News Finally Some Good News

Well I finally have some good news.    I've known about it for a while but haven't taken the time to write about it here on-line.     I got a job with WestJet as a Super Sales Agent.   I start my training on June 3rd for 4 weeks.   I am both excited and scared but most of all just pleased that I have an opportunity.

 

There is a lot to learn even before I get there to start my training.    I've been working on and off on my studying airport codes and they are getting a little easier all the time.    I picture above gives a good idea of what I have to learn except there are 86 of the codes to learn.   It's a lot but I'm excited. 

 

We had an evacuation at work on Monday and in the day since I have become more acutely aware that I don't want to be at switchboard anymore.     Moral has been bad for a long time now and it's only getting worse.    I've never seen it before quite like this.     It's gotten to the point where a person really has to watch their back (which is sad).    An example of this is everyone saying how it was good that Lori was our Team Lead when it happened and thank God it wasn't Kathy.    There is something fundamentally wrong when someone is judged in a particular situation when they haven't even been given the opportunity to raise to the occasion or fail on their own accord.    What a shame.     I've heard of back stabbing at switchboard but have never seen it first hand.    I can say I've witnessed it and I'm also happy to say I did say it was wrong to say that.   In fact, I said it several times.    You can never know how a person will step up to a situation when it is presented.   To judge someone - anyone - based on speculation is just plain wrong.      Shame on them.    And although my own speaking up made my point of view and perhaps me very unpopular so be it.

 

I'm excited to be starting something new.    It's exciting and I'm very happy.

 

 

Weekend in Edmonton

This past weekend Penny and I went to Edmonton for the Health and Wellness Show that Jenny produces. All in all, it was pretty good but nothing special. The venue itself was pretty small but the show itself isn't very big either. There were a couple of things that limited the success of this year's show: the weather (too warm) and construction getting to the venue. We even drove past the parking entrance because of the lack of signage.

The main reason I went at all was to see Jenny. She has promised for years to come to Calgary when on her way to Medicine Hat or when she is in Canmore. Since she hadn't made the effort I thought I would. Jenny was very sweet, she put us up at their host hotel. She also gave us passes to enter the show for free. Once we had seen everything we found her walking around giving vendors coffee and water. She then gave us meal tickets so we could buy ourselves lunch. That was super sweet and unexpected.

Health and wellness seems to be loosely translated to weight loss because absolutely everywhere there were vendors selling every type of weight loss program out there. Most of it I find ridiculous and some down-right harmful. The only vendor I liked was the Vitamix one. They were promoting and demonstrating - it was really good. Penny asked me about my own Blentec blender since she admitted she had no idea what on earth made me think it was so great.

One funny thing happened when we were walking around. We spotted the MMA fighter up on the main stage, he looked like a little kid. But his dad was something else to see. He was this massive, good looking fellow. Of course Penny and I commented on how good looking he was and moved on. We watched his son lead a fitness class with four overweight ladies in attendance. The dad came over and asked why we weren't joining them. We laughed it off but he continued to chat up Penny, he was clearly flirting and she was clearly enjoying every minute of it. What I thought was funny, when he asked what she did, she told him she was a dancer. Of course he thought "stripper" and she said "ballet" but quickly added "burlesque" dancing too. I was standing there thinking, "what the hell?". Whatever happened to the truth, I mean, does it matter at all what you do ... what does it mean to a person you don't know? I am still shaking my head at that one. She really likes the attention, that's all I can and will say.

While we were in Edmonton, not on family business, I took the opportunity to see some friends. My first stop was to visit Jan at Christopher Clayton. She is an old friend from the Mayfield Inn days. She looked a little different, a little older but still the same Jan I remembered and adored. She has recently lost a member of her family, Aunt Betty and when we talked about that, it brought tears to her eyes. Too bad I didn't see her when she wasn't under so much personal stress.

When we finished that visit I phoned Colleen and we drove out to St. Albert to the Earls to have dinner with her. That was a fortunate turn of events actually. I had made the phone call just before the dinner hour and worried that I would be interrupting her family's dinner but she said she was alone (husband and foster daughter out of town) and the timing was great. A hope to get together over coffee turned into a great visit over a meal. Colleen is pretty determined to get another Class of 40 reunion going. She wants Penny and I to help getting this thing underway. I'm up for helping, but I don't want to do too much. Is that wrong? Yikes, I hope it's not.

The next morning we took our time checking out, we had until 11:00am so that was nice. I called Lisa Williamson before we left the hotel because she had mentioned that she would like to get together for lunch on Sunday. Truthfully, I knew it would be a 50/50 chance that we would meet. The reason being, she has returned from Hawaii the day before. And when she called back it was to say she wouldn't be able to meet with us after all. She had slept in and now had to run to do some grocery shopping and go to Guy's dad's for his birthday dinner. She seemed genuinely sorry and I sort of knew that might happen so it wasn't a really big deal.

Penny and I ended up at Old Strathcona. I wanted to go to the Farmer's Market because I remember it being so much fun. We found it, parked close by just to find out that they are closed on Sundays. Closed on Sundays!! Really?? Gosh that was a surprise, here in Calgary, Sunday is a very popular day for the Farmer's Market. Luckily we had lots to see along the street itself and didn't really miss it. I made an impulse buy of a little recycled handbag made in the States. The store itself was lovely and the owner had a little female Boston Terrier there that made my heart melt. She looked like an older pup and oh so very sweet. I found out she was a rescue doggy and she warmed up enough to let me pet her a few times. It was a fun store. Penny and I had lunch at a place we spotted while we were walking along. From where we spotted it, it looked interesting. By the time we reached it, it was no more than a cafeteria type place with the wall opened up to the front street. The tiling was half done, meaning columns were left ungrouted. An oversight, or just sloppy, I don't know. We ordered hamburgers and fries. We stayed because we were hungry and by this point in time anything would do. The food was good enough for the price but nothing special. If I would have known, I would have just had the fries though. They were above average if you ask me.

We ended up leaving Edmonton at about 3:00 or 3:30pm. The drive back was uneventful. As I drove I was remembering and telling Penny about Jenny, Jan, Lisa and the Mayfield Inn and all the fun I had working and living in Edmonton. Those were good times and good memories. I'm lucky to have them and I'm even luckier to still have these special people in my life.