Thursday, January 26, 2006

Save the Octopus!

Complete and Utter Exhaustion

Wow! And I thought after university, I would never have another week like this one has been. Do you remember those weeks? The ones where you had work, and like, four assignments due, and you worked 18 hours a day and collapsed into bed, only to wake up with the realization that you had to do it all over again the next day?

Well, that has been what the last week has been like. My Tracker is STILL broken. It has taken Canadian Tire over a week to order in a part that is supposedly coming from Regina. Geez! How long could that take? Shall I drive to Regina myself and get it?? So, I have been getting rides in with one of my co-workers. Lucky for me, four of the people I work with live in this neighbourhood, and the one lives only about a block away. So I ride in with her to work. But she gets there an hour earlier than I usually do. So I'm used to leaving for work at 8:45 (or later, I've been bad for that lately) and now I leave for work at 7:45. I have never been a morning person, so this has been hard on me. Plus, I have been doing a lot of workshops, where I have to drive out to various towns (using the library vehicle), and some of them are at night. So I get to work at 8:00 am, and get home at 11:30 pm. How's that for a work day? And I didn't go into law school because I didn't want to work 14-hour days. HA!

I am banking some over-time, which I will get to take off later...that is if I didn't have so much work to do. We have just discovered that a grant we didn't think had to be used up until the end of March, has to be used up by the end of February, so we had to move our staff workshop (which is being paid for by this grant) up two weeks to the end of February. I am in charge of most of the sessions. I was counting on having those two extra weeks to work on my sessions, so now I have to fit that in right now with all of the public workshops I'm doing out at the branches.

Needless to say, I am right now so exhausted, I'm not even sure what my name is. And the next few weeks are just going to be more of the same. But I do have the night off tonight, so I will relax and think happy thoughts.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

La bête bleue, part deux

AAAUUUGGGHHH! AAUUUGGGGHHH!! AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!

Apparently, when my fuel pump went, it also fried the computer in my car. Computers are even more expensive than fuel pumps. In total, I see this whole thing costing me close to $1400. I'm not even sure my car is worth much more than that. Even worse was finding out the reason that both my computer and fuel pump got fried was because the fuel filter got clogged. Why was it clogged? Apparently it just builds up over time, and most people (according to the Canadian Tire guy) get theirs changed every year or so. To change a fuel filter would cost about $60. Sixty Dollars. Sixty Dollars a year, versus $1400 dollars PLUS the fact that I do not have a vehicle and likely will not until MONDAY or TUESDAY. WHY don't people tell you these things??? I check the pressure in my tires, check the oil, the coolant, the windshield washer fluid. I get oil changes twice a year. I even check the air filter once in a while. WHY in GOD's name did no one tell me to change the fuel filter???

I guess there's no one to blame really but myself, but I have honestly never heard that fuel filters are one of the things that need to be changed on a regular basis. Does everyone else get their fuel filters changed and am I really out to lunch on this one???

In other news, I think they must be really desperate for librarians in this province. I went to a meeting today, and then on a tour of provincial library, and I was STRONGLY encouraged to apply for jobs both at provincial, and at another regional library. At provincial, they even went so far as to show me "my office" where I would work if I got the job.

The thing is, I am just not sure right now if I am ready for that kind of job. You know the kind of job I mean: you work in an office, your duties are administrative and managerial. Sure, you get paid more, but I'm just not ready for that. I'm not done playing around with web sites, and making up funny newsletters, and doing fun workshops and programs. For the time being, I am quite happy to leave the supervising and strategic planning for someone else. Perhaps I should add this to my cover letters from now on:

P.S. I just really want to play with puppets, okay?

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

La bête bleue

My car just died on me. Driving down the street, it suddenly stalled and would not start again. I had it towed. Turns out it is the fuel pump, a very expensive part to replace. Very upsetting for me. Which brings me to one of the biggest disadvantages of living in a rural area: you need your car to get around. The public transit system sucks.

If I was living in Edmonton and this happened, I'd be like "Meh." I either walked or took the bus or the LRT to pretty much everywhere I needed to go. Here, it feels like my right arm has been cut off. I am not within walking distance of work, or a grocery store. There is bus service here, but it would probably be at least a 45-minute bus ride to get across town to work, where it is normally a 10-minute drive, max. Very frightening. But at least they know what's wrong now. And though I will be very poor afterwards, I hope to have my car back soon.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Don't Forget...

Life, it's ever so strange
It's so full of change
Think that you've worked it out
then BANG
Right out of the blue
Something happens to you
To throw you off course
and then you

Breakdown
Yeah you breakdown
Well don't you breakdown
Listen to me
Because

It's just a ride, it's just a ride
no need to run, no need to hide
It'll take you round and round
Sometimes you're up
sometimes you're down
It's just a ride, it's just a ride
don't be scared
don't hide your eyes
It may feel so real inside
but don't forget it's just a ride

Truth, we don't wanna hear
It's too much to take
Don't like to feel out of control
So we make our plans
Ten times a day
And when they don't go
our way we

Breakdown
Yeah we breakdown
Well don't you breakdown
Listen to me
Because

It's just a ride, it's just a ride
no need to run, no need to hide
It'll take you round and round
Sometimes you're up
sometimes you're down
It's just a ride, it's just a ride
don't be scared
don't hide your eyes
It may feel so real inside
but don't forget it's just a ride

Slowly, oh so very slowly
except that
there's no getting off
So live it, just gotta go with it
coz this ride's never gonna stop

Breakdown
Don't you breakdown
No need to breakdown
No need at all
Because

It's just a ride, it's just a ride
no need to run, no need to hide
It'll take you all around
Sometimes you're up
sometimes you're down
It's just a ride, it's just a ride
don't be scared now
dry your eyes
It may feel so real inside
but don't forget...

enjoy the ride

jem - "just a ride"