Yesterdays and Tomorrows

This summer, I worked the worst job I may ever have.

Housekeeping at Redeemer is no picnic. I have experienced one of the darkest sides of the school, and it is a side which I never hope to see the likes of again. If it has been nothing else, this summer has been a learning experience. It has been a summer of firsts.

First time paying rent.

First time paying utilties.

First time (in about 6 years) going to the Canada Day fireworks.

First time working a Sunday.

First time legitimately living on my own.

First time being angry at Redeemer.

First time letting boys sleep in the basement.

First time sending a package through the post office.

First time doing MY OWN groceries.

First time hating a job.

Ranting about Redeemer's Campus Services and the awful experiences I have had with the administrative side of the school could be worth a blog post - it could also be worth a Crown article. This entry will, however, be more of a reflection on my summer; a summer I didn't do a great job of documenting.

I have learned a lot this summer. I have learned that I do not like working behind the scenes. I like to be in charge, and I tend to be vocal when I don't agree with my supervisor's actions (ie. we work hard, and the supervisor watches shows on the computer...last time I checked, being a manager doesn't give you the trip to work less, but harder...) I have come to measure my own sanity in the number of dorms I can clean, or the days I can go without doing dishes...

I have also been preparing for one of the most incredible experiences of my life - to be a Residence Advisor for six first year girls. I have been praying for them, and preparing myself for the responsibility, and getting excited about everything that is to come. I have stressed about a disagreement between myself and my Co-RA, and also been completely thrilled when her and I have agreed on basically all the big stuff. I am learning to step back and not be in complete control...and to take one day at a time.

This summer has been busy. It has been full of fun times and frustrating ones. It involved movie nights and pizza, girls nights with Kait, a trip to Webster's Falls, a hypothetical trip to the Toronto Zoo, many hours vacuuming, scrubbing showers, making beds. It has been a summer of weddings, professions of faith, baptisms, and Friends.

One of my favourite things to do this summer was to walk to church on Sunday morning in the sunshine, with my shoes off, down the sidewalk. I loved coming into the church which was lit by the sun, and letting the entire week fall at the door. I loved worshipping, listening, learning. God has been good.

This summer has brought some goodbyes, some hellos, and some see you laters. I said goodbye to one of my best friends at Redeemer as he travels to Halifax to do his Masters at Dalhousie. I said hello to all the girls I worked with this summer. And the see you laters, I hope, are for all the people whom have become such a vital part of my life this summer, but will probably never see me once essay season starts...

The upcoming year is going to be a challenging one. It will stretch every part of me. The girls will teach me, and I will teach them. My classes will challenge me, and the Crown will knock off any remaining energy I have. I will be sleep deprived, I will be crazy, and I will be hanging on by my faith in God.

So, yesterdays lead in to tomorrows.

A change of seasons.

MCC: 91

Word of the Day: Initiation

Quote of the Day: "It's the leaning tower of Cheese-a!" Emily Williams

Quick Update

I realize it has been a few weeks. I have been very busy. Work is work. The entire school is preparing for incoming students. I attended the wedding of one of my dorm-mates from this past year. There will be photos to follow.

I have another wedding to attend tomorrow. Yes, on a Friday. But the bride is one of my best friends from Redeemer, and I am incredibly excited. I will update on that one too.

MCC: 78

Word of the Day: Sore

Quote of the Day: "The awkardly mobile part of the Astro-family." A radio commercial

Sweet Weekend

For the first time in weeks, I have a weekend off work. So far I have:

- Had Cousin Katelyn up for a visit. We went out to dinner, the Jacob Outlet store (I got a sweet pair of pants for $5.oo) and saw Inception in theatres. Inception was unbelievably awesome. It may have trumped Toy Story 3 in my books for favourite summer movies. We took a trip to Limeridge during the day. I re-vamped my wardrobe entirely, deciding that it was time to permanently be rid of my old clothes. Those Garage tank tops from 2005 have to go.

- Cleaned the House. Anticipating a group of friends coming over tonight, I had to clean the main floor and bathrooms of the house. Kait and I get pretty lazy when we come home from work. We clean all day, and so we really don't feel an overwhelming need or desire to clean when we come home. This afternoon, following Cousin Katelyn's departure, I took an hour and a half and cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom, the bathrooms on the main floor and upstairs, and the living room.

- Bought 3 new books. I know I said I wouldn't. But I recently finished the Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The problem was, in his well-readness, characters had names of other literary figures that I had heard of, but not interacted with, so I picked up a Charles Dickens novel in the hopes that it would fill in some of the blanks.

- Did laundry. I figured that before I started packing the old clothing up, I should wash it, so that when I send it to the second-hand store, it would clean. Next, I will need to start making piles in my room of new, old, Salvation Army, and Garbage. Time to clean out my drawers.

MCC: 51

Word of the Day: Sweet

Quote of the Day: "It's okay, I'm lumpyshmooface3." The guy at the Bluenotes. He was making fun of my email address.

Matters of July

Time to post.

Kait and I are currently in the process of baking. She has taken on the impressive task of butter tarts, and cupcakes. I am making apple-blueberry crumble. I don't know why, but we just felt the need to bake.

My movie collection is getting larger again. I want to own as many Disney movies as I possibly can. I realize that by the time I have kids that will watch them, DVDs will probably be non-existant, and I will have wasted money, but the use they will be this upcoming year as an RA...oh, they shall be loved.

So, this weekend, HMV had a sale. And I picked up 3 movies for $30 ($20 of that was Disney).

1) Pretty in Pink: Did you know that they were originally going to cast Charlie Sheen as the male lead, where Jon Cryer plays Duckie? Would the dynamics of Two and a Half Men be the same had that been the case?

2) [500] Days of Summer: A very well done break-up story told out of order. Loved this movie. Kait and I laughed our heads off when we watched it, and I feel like I will need to watch it again a few times to pick up all the clever lines.

3) Finding Nemo: a Disney-Pixar classic. Just keep swimming. It sits on the shelf beside Tarzan, Hercules and The Incredibles. I also have The Rescuers, but Mom is borrowing that one.

Now, for the Disney movies I am waiting for to come out of the vault (so I can buy them, obviously):

- Aladdin

- Mulan

- The Lion King

- The Hunchback of Notre Dame

- Pocohontas

- The Little Mermaid

- The Rescuers Down Under

- Wall-E

- The Princess and The Frog

- The Sword and the Stone

- Peter Pan

- Robin Hood

I can live without Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Black Cauldron and a few others...

But oh, I love Disney.

MCC: 51

Word of the Day: economical

Quote of the Day: "And later in the show, we'll find out why Toronto is angry at Niagara Falls..." Chum FM morning radio host

Northrop

So, I guess its been a while since I've updated the good ole BK spot here, eh?

I bought a fish. I wanted a guitar, I still want a guitar, but instead I bought a fish.

He is a Betta. His body is pink and purple, his fins start off blue and transition into a deep crimson red. I named him Northrop.

Believe me, there was much debate about the name. Suggestions were flying: it could be a Sheldon, it could be a Merlin, it could be a Steve. I think I even tossed around the name Alfred for a while. Then I remembered that I named the dead chipmunk Alfred, so I couldn't name my beautiful fish that. I finally settled for Northrop. I did, in fact, name my fish after Northrop Frye - everyone's favourite Canadian literary critic. His red fins also kind of reminded me of Winthrop from The Music Man (that, and I had the Wells Fargo Wagon song stuck in my head at the time).

Now, let me tell you a little about Bettas. They are supposed to be brightly coloured, and very mellow, and not very big on the whole swimming thing. To which I think: "Yay! Low maintenance!" Bettas are supposed to eat once daily. They don't have large appetites because, well, they aren't very large fish. They need to be able to breathe at the surface because they actually breathe oxygen from the air, not from the water itself (cool fact). They are native to small ponds and puddles in Japan. Males are very territorial and don't like seeing other male betta fish on their turf.

Northrop, however, is not your average Betta. He does the whole breathing at the surface thing really well, but everything else seems to be an issue. Northrop is smart. He knows when I feed him. He knows how to swim into the cup when the water needs to be changed. He also figured out that the little purple beads I have on the bottom of the bowl will float if he rams into them hard enough. Northrop is the least lazy Betta I have ever seen. He also has no interest in his reflection. Most Bettas will flare up if they see their reflection. He looks at it, and then decides he is hungry and stares at me (actually stares at me) until I give him some pellets.

On a completely unrelated note, isn't it good to know that Matthew Broderick went from this

to this?

MCC: 31

Word of the Day: Maid Service

Quote of the Day: "Get your butt out of my hands!" Angie to Deanna

The Post Office Strike Back

It's kind of like the Empire. Except it manipulates you with letters.

I wonder if it is some sort of game to the Post Office, refusing to allow you to forward an address and then sending you spiteful reminders of the fact that the package is still sitting in their office.

If they start with-holding my own mail, I will be angered. Very angered.

On the bright side, I recieved the list of girls who will be in my dorm in the fall. I cannot WAIT to RA!

MCC: 16

Word of the Day: Creep

Quote of the Day: "I usually forget to make my bed." The answer to 'other information that might be helpful when placing you in a residence' on one of the girl's housing application. It made me smile.

The difference between the laws of science and the laws of mail

So, here's another reason why I detest science.

Actually, it's more on account of dumb laws (not scientific laws here, just common postal laws).

Upon moving into Olivia Place, one of the guys who had lived here previously told me that he was expecting a textbook to come in the mail. He needed it to be mailed to Au Sauble, Michigan (he is taking a course in Au Sauble that has something to do with his biology major at Redeemer..). He asked me to make sure it got mailed. Easy enough, right?

Yeah, right.

So, this afternoon I took a trip to the postal office (it got mailed to the one in the Shopper's Drug Mart which is like 20 minutes away by foot...as opposed to the post office that is just down the road from my house which is 5 minutes away by foot). And when I got there, I found out that I couldn't simply forward the package on. No, first she wanted to see photo ID. Great, except that my passport had the address of my Strathroy house on it. Then she wanted proof that I'm renting the house. Kait's parents own this house, and they haven't actually given us a rental agreement yet. Besides, who carries their rental papers with them in their purse. Really, mail lady? (haha..mail lady.. that's funny). Then she wanted written consent from the guy whose name was on the package enabling me to pick it up. Okay, that I get, except that I just wanted to forward the package on.

So, what did I do? I argued with her.

I explained to her that I had no interest in the textbook whatsoever, and it didn't really matter to me whether it sat in her post-office all summer or not, but I would like to see my friend graduate, and in order to do that, he needed this textbook (which, by the way, should have been in a week and a half ago. Amazon's mailing got behind orders). I explained that I didn't even want to open the package (thereby obeying the law that I cannot open mail addressed to someone else), I just wanted to forward it on. I explained that my major is English and so clearly I have no interest in the biology textbook. I explained that I don't even like science. I explained that if she let me mail this, she would be my favourite postal worker in the world. And then, I gave her a big smile and fluttered by eyelashes just a little bit.

She thought a minute, and then said to me, "Mam," (she called me Mam!) "I believe you, I really do, but the laws of science are different from the laws of the post office. You need written consent from this guy."

And so, I hung my head in defeat. I handed her the other two letters which were addressed and stamped and needed to mailed away, and then I turned around and walked out.

Funnier part is, I have no idea how to get a hold of this guy. He is living in a cabin in the middle of the woods for the summer (eco-biologists *rolls eyes*). He has no phone reception, and contacting him by email is hit or miss. So, here I sit, trying to figure out what to do about this stupid textbook.

I hate science.

MCC: 13

Word of the Day: Consent

Quote of the Day: "The laws of science are different from the laws of the post office." Mail lady

I am a tech guru

This evening I decided to try and hook the internet and landline back up.

We had the internet for a few days, but then the owners of the house (aka Kait's parents) came through on Saturday and did a major clean-up of the house. They ripped up the carpet in the living room, finished the job Kait and I did on the kitchen, and scrubbed every other inch of this house.

In the course of the living room excavation, the internet became unplugged again. Previously, one of the guys who had lived here before us hooked everything up for Kait and I, but then he went and moved to the USA for 2 months, so we were a little stuck. For the past 3ish days, I have been *stealing* (borrowing...tomato, potato) internet from some unsuspecting neighbours. However, I only get that signal in one place in the house, and it is incredibly weak, so hooking up the ethernet box seemed like a good idea.

Then I realized that I should probably follow through with this idea. I'm not exactly the most technologically apt person out there, so I was pretty excited when I sat down with about 6 different cables, and outlets and boxes. Oh goodness.

After plugging and unplugging things several times, I realized that I was going about this the wrong way. The key is not to try and see which wires fit in which hole. No, that's only a small part. The key is to plug these wires in, and see which ones make the boxes light up. When I figured this out, it took me about 5 minutes to get everything plugged in. Whether or not I am actually using the right wires for the right boxes is beyond me. But the phone and internet are both working. It's a happy day.

MCC: 11

Word of the Day: Lazy

Quote of the Day: "We have carpet!"

Photo Editing

I did a little bit of photo-editing after a photo shoot with some friends. Used Picnik.com. Useful site, I might add.

We are moved into Olivia Place, which means that I am sitting on a couch writing this entry, not at a school computer, or at my friend's house. The place was a mess. I don't think that the guys knew how to clean. Housemate and I were going to bake a pie, in celebration of our moving from Blue Castle into something less sketchy, however, when we turned the oven on, there was so much crap caked to the bottom of the oven, that it actually lit on fire.

There were flames and smoke.

If I had been faster, I would have taken a picture, or a video, or something to commemorate the occassion.

Needless to say, Housemate and I decided that it would be better to just clean the thing.

So, we opened some coolers, looked at our messy house, and decided to tackle it in the morning.

See, originally, we were supposed to work the day after we moved in, but God knew we would need the day to clean and get organized. So, after working on Saturday, we both had Wednesday off. It took Housemate 5 hours to clean the oven alone (not the stove, not the little drawer thing underneath)...and that was using some super oven remover from work...the stuff we used to clean the ovens in the dorms. It took me 2 hours to clean the fridge (excluding freezer), and another couple hours to wash down gross walls, and kitchen floors and tables.

Needless to say, its been fun.

MCC: 5

Word of the Day: immature

Quote of the Day: "Our oven's on fire!" -Kait