Saturday, December 27, 2008

going home for Christmas

Hey everyone! Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas. I am sitting on my sister-in-law's couch in the tiny village of Magnetewan, which is four hours north of Toronto. It is 10:33 currently. Unlike Nova Scotia, there is snow everywhere. Tons of it. And I can wait to go out in it today. Ice skating is on the agenda, along with the thrill of getting pulled behind a snowmobile on a sled. It's gonna be saaweet!

We're going to be up here for two weeks and it will be a very nice break from our busy lives of the past five months.

We flew on Porter Airlines yesterday to Toronto. The plane had propellers instead of jet propulsion. Very retro! They served beer on the plane and let me tell you; a beer at 30 000 feet makes the anxiety melt away! Anyways, after we landed, Ruth and I had to take a shuttle to the Royal York Hotel and from there, we headed to the Subway. A guy we met in the Subway was asking for directions to Missaussaga from Ruth and I. He was from Peru and didn't speak much English. He asked Ruth if I was a Latino. That was a first!

So we got on the Subway and headed to the Yorkdale Mall where Ruth's brother Matt met us at the GAP. Oh, going through the mall on Boxing Day in Toronto was what I imagine to a small glimpse of Hell to be. It was literally a zoo in there only without the cages. It was packed person to person and we had to drag our luggage through the massive crowds. Luckily we found Matt and got the heck out of there!

And now we are here. Last night was fun. Caught up with the family, made plans for today and just relaxed.

So yeah, that's it!

Bye!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Free music

Who doesn't like free music?

Check out www.myspace.com/ruthandsean

Hope you enjoy!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Am I missing something?

I'm usually not a very content person. I often become obsessed with how I can upgrade my current job. I, like my fellow man, seek to find every flaw possible in my superior and how the work is carried out. I end up feeling frustrated, abused and exhausted (the joy's of physical labour). So is my answer to quit and move on to some other job where I will encounter the same set of logistic problems? I'm not entirely sure.

You see, when Ruth and I moved here in July, I had high hopes The Chronicle Herald would hire me full-time. I was fresh off a month of a stellar internship at the Belleville Intelligencer. I was hungry for stories and felt I had enough experience (combined with a year's work of campus reporting) to jump in the big pond. Unfortunately, this was not the case and I ended up landscaping for three weeks; the complete opposite of journalism. Needless to say, it upset me and I didn't do anything about it until the job started taking a toll physically on my body. I gave my boss a weeks notice. The excitement of leaving propelled me to start looking for journalistic employment. At the time, the Herald was looking for freelance photographers to shoot for their business/advertising department. Not quite what I was looking for but I figured it was better than nothing. And it looks good on my resume.

So I started taking picture of Herald clients. Shook hands, smiled and pressed click. Not bad money for two hours worth of work. Oh, I also had to find another job because this one wasn't steady. So after a few family connections and phone calls, I began working for Coca-Cola Bottling Enterprises. I was sure this job would be less difficult than weeding, mowing and sweating for 12 hours a day. I was wrong. You see, I expected to just be filling coolers in gas stations and such, but I was wrong again. It is the most physically demanding job I've ever had and it is destroying my body. I'm sure I won't stay after Christmas which means I have to quit and find another job. I guess I'm establishing a pattern in my life. Ideally, I would like to be a full-time journalist but that just doesn't seem realistic in Nova Scotia. All j-work opportunity lies in the West and we're not sure we want to move so far away from both families. So, it seems I am stuck. And feeling stuck is a feeling that is hard to shake off.

So to keep my mind fresh, I began editing my sister's Grade 10 English papers. I'm actually keeping my average above 90 per cent which is good. I am also sporadically writing in a book I someday hope to publish. Yeah.

Ok, that's it for today.