life

I forgot how much people budge in line in Vancouver. I was aware of it before, but it was “normal” and I was used to it and only found it annoying when I was screwed over for a seat on a bus or something. Now it seems incredibly rude and I can’t believe the nerve of these people, practically pushing me aside as they hustle onto the skytrain. It goes against the whole west coast relaxed attitude vibe we’re supposed to be faking, too.

So I got my apartment, and most of my stuff is in my apartment. Mom’s got two LCD monitors, a 42″ LCD TV and a kitchenaid mixer that she’s holding to ransom, but the joke’s on her, I can’t bake her cookies without that mixer. Ha ha! Oh wait.

My cat is acting totally out of it, which is weird because she acted less out of it at both bedrooms she was stuck in over the course of September, and now she’s back in a full apartment with familiar furniture so you’d think she’d be totally chill about the situation. Instead she’s been hiding under the bed for the last 48 hours, coming out just to poop. Though she did find an afternoon sunbeam to sit in today after her poop, so there’s hope.

The new job is going well in that I haven’t been fired yet. I spend most of the time feeling like a complete idiot and often wonder why the hell I signed up for a constant ego-pounding. But then I remember that I’m not on call or working overtime and I feel much better.

that I haven’t written much lately, and of course this blog is all for his benefit, so to him I apologize.

The general problem with me in the past couple months is that I was pretty much all-consumed about the planning and execution of the changing jobs and moving back to Vancouver, but these weren’t things to talk about before they were official, so there was nothing left to say. I mean, I could’ve talked about my cat some more, but it’s not like much happens in her life either.

I’ve got an apartment sorted and am waiting to hear on a quote from the storage company about moving my furniture down here in early October, so I feel a bit better about life. I hate change and uncertainty. So much so that I’ve moved back to Marpole, to the chagrin of 95% of my friends who have all unfollowed me on Twitter because I am now completely uncool. But I took the apartment because the entranceway had swords and a crest built into the wall and a general medieval English hall theme (disregarding the anachronisms of the lightbulbs in the Ye Olde Times lanterns, not to mention the elevator) and I decided I had to live there for the irony. (Don’t worry, I will take pictures.) The apartment itself is pretty lame and nondescript, making the building foyer somewhat of a cocktease, really.

Just for kicks I paid off one of my student loans yesterday. I feel like I should get a certificate or some kind of fanfare. The lady on the phone from BC Student Loans did say congratulations so maybe that’s it. I guess they don’t need to be particularly friendly since they hardly get repeat customers.

I hope Dad is satisfied with the contents of this posting, but I’ll find out soon anyways since I’m crashing at his house.

Fuck, does it ever stop raining here?

…

Okay, I know I’ve been saying for months how much I missed the rain, but I didn’t miss this much of it. It’s been pissing down for over 5 hours, which is about 4 hours and 30 minutes longer than what I’ve been used to in Kelowna.

But, um, yay, I’m back. I’d be excited if I weren’t so exhausted. Good thing I have the next week off before I start my new job; I may just sleep through all of it.

I keep finding myself without any free time these days as I try to sort out how the hell I’m going to work this move.

Last Friday I gave my 2 weeks notice, and then was reminded that I signed some contract a year ago stating that I’d give 4 weeks notice. Suppose I should pay more attention to stuff like that in future.

So I had planned to move at the end of August but then this 4 weeks thing suddenly threw a wrench in. Now my last day at [current employer] is September 10th, except my last day at my apartment is August 31.

The good news is that a friend is letting me and the cat stay with her in Westbank for the first bit of September, and then my dad said I could stay with him for the rest of September, so that’s settled. Shebang and I will not be sleeping under any bridges next month, unless we want to of course.

The not bad, but awkward news is that I have to not just move my furniture back to Vancouver, but I have to store it for a month too. I’m currently trying to organize getting one of those mobile storage containers to keep my stuff here in Kelowna for September, but I’m not having a lot of luck, and there are only so many companies. I may have to hire movers to take my stuff and move it into a storage unit in Vancouver for me if I can’t do anything here. I’m going a little mad from this because I’m not good at organizing anything anyways, plus work is too busy for me to deal with this stuff properly.

I do have a job waiting for me in Vancouver, and if you’re a friend who’s known me a few years it’s the same job as the one I was supposed to get at the end of 2008 but didn’t due to a hiring freeze. I’m switching from a pure DBA role to Tier 3 tech support, where I will be helping DBAs and developers with their database problems rather than being the one with the problems. I look forward to not being on call and not working unpaid overtime. I won’t know what to do with myself once I give back the blackberry but I will figure it out eventually.

This is also my first job with “Senior” in the title. I hope I can fake the maturity.

A few people here in Kelowna have commented that phew, moving back to Vancouver means that life will suddenly become much more expensive for me! Which is a bit silly of a statement to make if you don’t know me and my lifestyle. A few comparisons:

Granted that’s an odd list (except for rent; note that my place in Vancouver was much larger and nicer than this dump I’m leaving, and wasn’t surrounded by white trash neighbours), but I used to have sushi twice a week back in Vancouver, and here I’ve barely had it since the quality suffers and it’s a third more expensive. Take out and restaurant food is more expensive here in general, and again not as good on average. I’ve ended up either spending too much money, or having cereal for dinner.

I cooked chicken today but then my cat stole it. Which just proves I shouldn’t cook anything my cat would want to eat. That leaves cookies.

I never went to a single personal training session here because $70/hour is absolutely ridiculous unless it comes with a happy ending. But yeah, various services are much more expensive in Kelowna, maybe because there’s less competition.

Anyways, that’s it. I thought I’d update you since last week’s posting was kind of open-ended, really. Now it’s time to pass out from exhaustion.

I’m moving back to Vancouver. I miss all the cheap sushi and women.