Back to Ontario

It seems that many a peeps has been disappointed by my lack of posts lately. Since I am laid up with a bad back today I’ve decided to give my fans what they ask for: A burst of nothing but Mau! Oh happy day!

Before I begin though, I’d like to share a funny/sad fact. I’m truly losing the skills I learned in Quebec. Yesterday, I realized that I was no longer making typos on my English keyboard. Yup. When I first moved back to Ontario, I was constantly fumbling at typing – inserting the wrong character here and there. I’m pleased that I don’t have to stop, scratch my head and wonder, “Where the hell is the proper key?” But it’s also kinda sad.

Anyways, there are a few key things I’d like to write down before I forget because, damn, they were funnier than hell when I moved back to Ontario.

• During my first weekend here, my friend Shruthi came to visit. When she finally arrived, she looked very hesitant when she knocked on the door. It turns out that right before she came to my apartment (I live on the second floor of a house), she accidentally went to the wrong house. How the hell is that possible? Well, I live on Ellis Avenue. She went to my house number on Ellis Crescent, which is right down the street. When she arrived there, she knocked on the door and asked for Maureen… And was escorted to the little 90-something-year-old Maureen who happened to live there. Yup, I have a senior-citizen twin living down the street from me. Whoops! Needless to say, when friends come to visit now, I emphasize that they visit Ellis Avenue, not Crescent.
• On my first day of work at RIM, my manager took me around and introduced me to a zillion people. I was overwhelmed with names and faces, but one stood out. I interrupted my manager and asked the guy, “Wait, don’t I know you from Ottawa?” It turns out that I didn’t know him (which was a relief, because I kept thinking, “I thought his name was Dave! Not Greg!). Nope. I know his twin brother. Hell, I went to SCHOOL with his brother. What are the chances?! For my first month of work, whenever I heard the guy’s voice, I kept wanting to make sarcastic and inappropriate remarks, but then I’d remind myself, “Wait a second Mau, you don’t know him well enough to say that.”
• On my second day of work, I decided to go explore the building on my own a bit. I visited one of the kitchens, didn’t recognize anyone and was about to leave when some guy randomly asks me, “Hey, are you Melanie’s sister?” I was like, “Who the hell is this random person, and how does he know who I am?!” It turns out that he’s one of my sister’s patients, and they had been gossiping about me. When he heard there was a new Tech Writer in his building, and heard my sister’s description of me (hmm, wonder what she said?) he put two and two together.

One of the other big changes in my life since moving is that I have now joined the ranks of automobile owners. That’s right. I got me a car! That being said, it was not a simple or easy process.

Because I’m vehicle incompetent, I enlisted my father’s aid in car shopping. He gave me the task of test driving a few cars before he came, so that I’d be familiar with the different feels of them. Well zomg. The day I arranged to do some test drives, it was raining. And I don’t like driving at the best of times. However, I was more afraid of my father’s reaction than of driving, so I forced myself to go out. I tested a Nissan Versa and a Mazda 7 Hatchback (which I was drooling over).

The moment I drove out of the parking lot in the Mazda 7, I was stressing out madly. I could NOT figure out what was going on, but it kept losing all power (not stalling, but the engine would have absolutely no oomph). I wasn’t even sure if the damned thing was an automatic or standard, because the shifter looked like a zig-zagged automatic and nothing I’d ever seen before. I made it all the way down the street before I turned back and pleaded for help from the salesman. It turned out that the car had the option to drive like an automatic OR a manual, and I had accidentally put it in manual mode. Umm, oops?

The day we went car shopping for real, also turned out to be a blizzard. How lovely! My dad and I braved the highways to go to Stratford, where I test drove a multitude of vehicles. (I was hell bent on finding something, just so I could get this ordeal over with.) However, we finally gave up and returned to KW. By the time we visited a few other lots with no luck (but many more test drives – each with me, white-knuckled behind the wheel) I was ready to give up. (Did I mention that there was one car where neither my dad nor I could figure out how to turn off the damned windshield wipers?)

Before we called it quits, my dad and I decided to visit one last random dealership. And that my friends, is where I met the love of my life. The most hilarious car dealer came out and introduced us to a black 2009 Kia Rio5. It was like at first sight, admiration at the mention of the price, and adoration after I slid behind the wheel. While test driving, I told my dad, “Dad, I want this car.” He started chattering about how we could look at others, etc. and I interrupted him again with, “No. Dad, I WANT this car.”

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how I came to be the proud owner of Utjabanish, which means “car” in Cree. (I briefly contemplated naming it “The Dark Knight/Knave” but this stuck.) My legs have practically atrophied from lack of use since I got it. And I swear, the first time I went grocery shopping, I could hear heavenly choirs singing. I never realized what freedom could be had with a vehicle. I no longer have to consider the weight of the stuff I’m buying in case I have to lug it home. I don’t have to plan my trips around bus times, etc.

Another… Interesting (I use this word hesitantly) experience I had was right before Christmas. My sister texted me, “Want to see Hendel’s Messiah?” A quick Youtube search revelead that I liked that Christmas/Christian song so I said sure. Thank God there are gun laws in Canada because by the end of that night, both Steve and I were ready to put a bullet through either our own heads, or my sister’s. It was long. It was boring. And at the crux of the show, my sister sent me into a massive, MASSIVE giggle fit that had my crying with the effort of containing myself. And at the end of the show, my seat neighbour, a former member of the choir, asked me, “So, did you enjoy the show?” I was beyond impressed with my ability to lie through my teeth and assure him, “It was absolutely lovely!”

That’s it for now folks. It’s time to go put a hot water bottle on my back and self-medicate with cookies. Until next time!

Conversations with the big guy

Zomg. My head was going to explode this morning. Today was the first discussion session for the grad course that my organization runs. I was running around (figuratively) like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to tackle all the stuff that popped up all at once.

Luckily everyone managed to attend with little to no problems. It went very smoothly. We just need to encourage the Francophone/Allophone students to speak some more and life will be perfect!

My boss came to do a short post-mortem session with me afterwards. We discussed some possible issues for future sessions, etc. Finally he tells me, “Feel free to make use of me in any way that is needed.” (As in, feel free to call him for help if the course is having problems.)

I replied, “Those are dangerous words to say in my presence.” (In the sense of, I might call on him all the time.)

He says, “Well, you know me. I’m quite willing to help, but I’m not always prompt on responding to my emails.”

I couldn’t stop the sarcasm from erupting, “Really? I hadn’t noticed!”

He just cackled in response.

Snubbing

Since arriving in Montreal, I’ve become remarkably good at snubbing people. Most of it is justified – e.g. I don’t bother replying to people handing out the Quran, or bible, or copies of the Bhagavad-Gita. Nor do I accept flyers or pamphlets from the people protesting puppy mills, etc. Nope. When I’m walking, I tend to charge ahead and bull through things. If someone’s overly aggressive, I just jump out the way and detour around them.

It took me a full month (or two) to train one fellow not to pester me though. Everyday outside of my metro station there’s a guy handing out free copies of “24 Heures” – a French newspaper. He’s very aggressive about handing them out. He’ll nudge himself in your way to try to force you to take the paper. He also announces over and over, “24 Hours, free to take, 24 Hours,” etc. It’s very aggravating. It also doesn’t help that it’s morning whenever I encounter him. As already mentioned, I don’t do mornings.

After a month of ignoring him though, he got the hint. Now whenever I pass by him, he withholds his newspapers and just nods in recognition of my surliness. Phew.

Quebec Holidays

Despite my earlier rants, working in Quebec does have its advantages. One of those advantages is the holidays. In Ontario, we only got 10 public holidays. In Quebec, we get 13.

Ontario
1. New Year's Day
2. Good Friday
3. Easter Monday
4. Victoria Day
5. Canada Day
6. Civic Holiday
7. Labour Day
8. Thanksgiving Day
9. Christmas Day
10. Boxing Day

Quebec
1. Jour de l'An
2. Jour des Rois
3. Statutaire
4. Vendredi Saint
5. Lundi de Pâques
6. Fête des Patriotes
7. Saint-Jean-Baptiste
8. Confédération
9. Fête du Travail
10. Action de Grâces
11. Fête du Souvenir
12. Immaculée Conception
13. Noël

The even better thing about my workplace is that we get to displace several of these holidays and take them during the Christmas holidays instead. So for example, although Jour des Rois takes place in February, we work that day and take the time off at Christmas instead. The same goes for the Statutaire holiday, the Fête du Souvenir and Immaculée Conception. Therefore at Christmas I can take off nearly an entire week without having to take a day of vacation or a day without pay.

That’s also where today’s confusion on whether I should come into work or not stemmed from.

Congé statutaire

Today I thought I came into work on a statutory holiday.

Already running late due to a metro malfunction, I arrived outside my building to discover that my usual entrance was locked. I figured that the side doors were closed because of a pending swine flu clinic, so I shrugged and made my way to the main entrance. There I encountered a man, a patient, who was waiting outside too. He then informed me that the Research Centre was closed!

Sure enough in the door there was a sign informing people that today is a Statutory Holiday and the building was therefore closed. I was like, what the hell?! I came into work by accident??? I was positive that the list of holidays given to me when I started working did not include Remembrance Day.

Luckily a technician came out to meet with the patient and on her way back in (through a back entrance using a security card) I decided to tag along. I figured that I was already there so I might as well work after all! However, on my way to the office I passed by a bunch of other offices where people were also here and working, including some of my “co-workers.”

When I stopped to ask one of them why everyone was working, they reminded me that yes, Remembrance Day is a statutory holiday, but that the Research Centre takes the time off during Christmas vacation instead. Phew! I’m so relieved that I decided to work instead of just going home instead!

Montreal digs

Bonjour de Montreal!

I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads my blog is also on Facebook with me, and therefore knows that I've moved to Montreal. However, just in case, here's a quick recap of what's going on.

When I was first hired for my job in Toronto, it was only for an 8 month contract. The program wasn't sure if they'd get more funding from the government and so they couldn't hire me for longer than that. In addition, they told me upfront that if they got more funding, the job itself would move to Montreal and would I be willing to move too? Anyone who's ever done a job interview knows that the only answer to that question is always yes. I never had any intention of actually following through with it, but lo and behold, it turns out that I enjoy my job and decided to actually move!

So on June 29th (mere days after my return from Europe), I finished packing up and my parents and middle sister and her boyfriend helped me migrate to the new province.

First of all, let me say how much I adore my new apartment! It's on the second floor of a small apartment building and I have a balcony and I have huuuuuge windows. (Ugh, and said windows are open right now and it's monsooning rain. I've just put my headphones on so I can't hear the rain and won't think about the water filtering into my apartment, soaking things, etc...) It's much bigger than my place in Toronto. And best of all, it's $120/month CHEAPER. It has its foibles (e.g. the shower pressure isn't strong, the hot water takes forever, the oven is older than my parents, etc.), but nothing I can't handle. It's also really close to the subway, so it only takes me 30 minutes to get to and from work (that's 30 minutes from the moment I close my door to the moment I enter my apartment)! I have to admit though, I'm already missing my free laundry facilities. :S

Montreal so far is a lovely city. And I say this despite the fact that it's been raining 90% of the time since I moved here. (On Saturday I felt like I was caught in a flood!) It has so many patios and terraces. I just really like the vibe - it's like a more chill version of Toronto and with more culture. That being said, it's not without its intimidations. I speak some French, but I still get flustered when people talk to me. Whenever my phone rings at work I suffer a moment of "fight or flight" panic before I pick it up. I then stutter my way through a bit of a message before the other person relents and switches to English.

I've moved and lived in many other cities (e.g. Vancouver and Ottawa) before, but they've always been temporary relocations. This one certainly has more of a sense of permanence. And the bad thing about that is that I don't have a support network here - I know absolutely no one beyond a couple of colleagues. And considering that English isn't the most-widely spoken language, that means that it's harder (than normal) for me to meet people.

To increase my socialization prospects, I joined a group I found online. They are comprised of people who are new to Montreal like me, or who are "old hands" and are here to welcome the newbies. I went for coffee with them on Friday and I had a good time. Through them I also found out about a language exchange group that meets for dinners on Wednesday. I'll endeavour to go to some of those events just so I can improve my French. I'm tired of being embarrased everytime I open my mouth.

Now I have to admit, work has been a semi-daunting ordeal so far. I say "semi" because in the grand scheme, I'm doing the exact same job I did in Toronto, so it's not like I'm having to learn anything overly difficult. The daunting part is the getting acquainted with the workplace and socialization aspects of the new job location. On my first day of work I was shown my office (which was totally empty. It didn't even have a desk or pencil in it!), given access to the net, shown the lunch room and that was it. I was left on my own. I figured, "Okay, not a problem. I'll just leave my office door open, unpack, and I'll meet people sooner or later."

Well, it's been a week and I've only met about 3 people on my floor, one of them being my boss. This floor is a veritable ghost town! I just can't reach a happy medium. In Toronto the office was hectic because there were 3 of us, the phones were ringing and patients and doctors kept wandering in and out. Here, my floor is home to the offices of mostly doctors and clinicians, all of whom spend the majority of their time in their labs and clinics, so I never see anyone. It's the same with the student offices. Most of them are with their supervisors, those aforementioned elusive doctors and scientists. So I have to admit, I've been feeling a bit bereft socialization-wise.

To combat my loner-tendencies, I force myself to go to the lunch room everyday. I'm met with varying degrees of success each day. My first day, I didn't bother bringing a lunch because normally people go out for lunch or something with the newbie, or I figured that I could at least tag-along with a group who already had plans. Well, but the time 1PM rolled around and nobody had shown up, I realized that it was not meant to be and went out for lunch on my own. On my second day there was a whole table of ladies chatting in French but there wasn't any space so I sat with a couple of Chinese people, but they only spoke English and are preparing to move to the states. The third day one of the students from my program came and sat with me, and we chatted together with two other random people in a mixture of French and English. The fourth day there was no one, etc... Today was my most successful "socialization" day. I successfully sat and chatted with a co-op student from France for 40 minutes in French! Yay me! It's unfortunate that most of the people I've met are only "temporary" but at least it's getting a bit better.

So that's the quick run down on my quebec adventures so far. Maybe I should re-dub this blog in honour of its French slant now? Perhaps I'll call it, "Coureurs de Montreal" or "Mau dans la ville"... Nah, my French doesn't extend to bad puns yet.

Stream of consciousness

One of the things I learned in my grade 10 creative writing class was a writing exercise to get your creative/writing juices flowing. Essentially you just sat down and wrote for 5 minutes solid. It didn't have to make sense and you didn't have to correct your spelling. All you had to do was write for the sake of writing.

I miss writing. I used to really enjoy it but when I contemplated sitting down these days, I just get really weary at the thought of the effort required. This got me thinking of the stream of consciousness exercises - after all, the point of those was to get in the habit of writing, so I thought I'd give it a try. I came up with the idea last night and I even started brainstorming ideas of what to type about. It seems like very few of them got implemented. The result of my exercise was so amusing that I decided to post it for you to read. Enjoy!

I'm going to try this whole "stream of consciousness" thing again. I haven't done it since highschool but I think it's like a muscle - you have to work it out in order to get it working again. Or, like my analogy this morning, it's like having "sleep" in your eyes first thing in the morning. You've got to rub 'em (or it in this case) to get things flowing again. My mind is so weary these mornings. I don't know whether it's because I didn't get enough sleep (god those pillows are comfy) or whether it's just too early. Or, as I said, maybe my morning brain muscles have atrophied.

Oh gosh. Now my mind is starting to wake up a bit more and more. Is it coincidence or is this actually helping?

I keep reloading the CIHR website, hoping to find the results of our CIHR grant but it's not loaded yet. I suppose it was too much to hope that the results would be on first thing this morning, but a girl can dream, right?

I felt so inspired by the Twilight website last night. I really do miss writing. Or do I just miss the praise that went along with my written work? I miss the creation, the thrill and excitement of creating what I considered to be "rivetting" scenes. I'd really like to start practicing again - and hopefully that's what this writing exercise will do - give me the incentive to sit down and actually do something.

God. Those pillows were so soft and fluffy. I'm kind of grossed out at the idea of how long I've had my old ones. I don't even know where that ink spot came from. And I'm pretty sure they aren't meant to tbe an off-brownish colour. Yup. Gnarly. I'll have to set up a reminder in Outlook to change them every year.

So fluffy.

I also need to change my contacts. It's rather gross to realize that I've rarely cleaned my contacts this month. I just hate that whole "decontamination" process when I get home.

I miss wearing my sweatpants. I wish I could wear informal clothes here at work. My grad school shirt would get a hoot. I wonder what Michelle's dress looks like. I feel the urge to go shopping for myself now, but I can't justify it (I think) because I have stuff I can wear to the gala. I think I do at least. I'll have to double check the state that my clothes are in. Maybe I can justify it after all.

I wonder why I always misspell after all. I should look it up online. Maybe it's one of those weird words that aren't a word. Like shebang and hooplah. Heh. I just should try to include "shebang" in an email with Alyssa.

I wonder how Cathy's liking her new job. I haven't seen her online or anything on Facebook. It's crazy how people get into jobs they don't want just for a paycheque. I know that technically that's what I did, but at least I enjoy my job, if not my boss. I wonder if CIHR is loaded yet. I should go check. It's been morethan the 10 minutes I wanted to spend on this exercise.

Will this exercise count in my whole, "get used to writing again" attempt? Because I do write everyday... Just not so continuously. Maybe I should put this off until I get home and actually intend to write something for personal reasons.

Did my damned mp3 player freeze up? Oi. I don't know what to do. Oh email! I hope it's either Lyss or Bilodeau. I'd prefer the latter, if only to find out aobut the grant and nothing else. Here's teh incentive I need to finish this up. And off I go!

Hepatitis C

Disclaimer: For random people who find this blog posting, I'd like to point out that I am NOT a physician in any sense of the meaning. I'm merely writing about a few things I've learned since I've started working and I may have misunderstood some of the knowledge below. For more information on Hepatitis C see the Public Health Agency of Canada and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Before I started my current job, the only things I knew about the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) was... Nothing. The only Hepatitis viruses that I knew about were A and B and the only reasons I knew anything about those was because I was vaccinated against them. Now, 6 months into my job I'm amazed and horrified at how little the world knows about Hepatitis C.

To give some perspective on Hepatitis C think of it this way: In the world today, 36 million people are infected with HIV. Now contrast that with the 170 million chronic Heaptitis C infections in the world. This is 3% of the world's population! In addition, an estimated 3-4 million people become infected with HepC every year. Similar to AIDs, the highest rates of infection are in Africa and Asia. Country-wise, Egypt has the highest prevalence rate (22%) (Contrast that with Canada at 0.8%). In addition, death rates are higher for HCV than other viruses.

A study on "percutaneous injuries among health care workers" showed:

	HBV	HCV	HIV
# of acute infections	65,600	16,400	1000
Estimated # proceeding to chronic infection	656	13,120	999
Estimated deaths	262 (40%)	3,936 (30%)	999 (100%)

(Source: Am J Industrial Med 2005;48:482) Essentially I just want to show that more people are dying from HCV than from the other two "biggie" viruses.

Most people contract HCV through injection drug use (in Canada, drug use accounts for two thirds of HCV infections, in addition, you are 10 times more likely to contract HCV than HIV through a needlestick injury), use of sharps (e.g. needles, nail clipping equipment, toothbrushes, etc.), unsafe sex (less than you would anticipate), through birth, etc. The high risk populations are:

• Developing world
  
• Immigrants to the developed world
  
• Incarcerated
  
• Homeless
  
• Living in rural areas
  

Unlike HBV or HIV, Hepatitis C can be cured. It can sometimes spontaneously clear and sometimes it needs to be cured via treatment. It costs approximately $13,000 for 24 weeks of HepC treatment. By treating for the HCV infection you eliminate an infectious source to other people and stop a variety of complications that would later cost the health care system even more money (e.g. fibrosis progression, liver cancer, liver transplants, etc.). However, the treatments are very toxic and create many side effects in patients such as:

• Mental - Depression, irritability, difficulty concentrating
• Phsyical - Flu symptoms, marrow suppressioin, weight loss, skin rash, etc.

In addition there is always a chance that treatment might not work - depending on what HCV "genotype" you have, there is anywhere from a 30-70% chance that the treatment will fail.

As I described above, it's shocking to learn how terrible and prevalent HCV is and how few people know about it. So the next time you're discussing pandemics or fretting about the bird flu, stop and think about the pandemic that is already loose upon the world. Everyone needs to be aware of Hepatitis C!

World Hepatitis Day is on May 19. Find out more at Am I Number 12?.

Good thing I'm not claustrophobic

I've had my morning chuckle already. I got into the hospital at 8:20 yesterday and still ended up being 5 minutes late into the office. Why's that? Because the newly renovated elevator decided to stop working just after I, and 10 other people got on it.

I think it was the first day the elevator was put into comission since it was renovated. We all piled into it, pushing our various floor buttons, and then the elevator sank several inches while the doors closed. Everything went still, followed by an electronic voice saying, "We are experiencing minor difficulties." Heh.

The safety features in the elevator left a lot to be desired. The people near the doors tried hitting a bunch of buttons but nothing was working. (I was at the back of the elevator.) The elevator told us to hit the alarm button but no one responded. I guess that someone finally found the "call an operator" button because an operator called into the elevator saying that she'd find someone.

Annoyingly, the woman nearest the control panel kept pushing the alarm button even though no one was obviously paying attention. Another few minutes crept by and she called the operator again. Unfortunately it seemed like the operator can't tell who's phoning her (e.g. no call display) so we had to go through the spiel again. I just thought it was obnoxious because the woman who was leaning on the alarm button told the operator, "Can you please hurry, it's getting really hot in here!" Yes, it was uncomfortably warm, but she was only saying it to try to make it seem like an emergency to get us out.

Another minute went by before someone finally called to us through the doors. The asked us to hit the "door open" button first. Gee, you think we didn't try that? They finally ended up having to pry the doors open to let us out. LOL. The whole experience wouldn't have been so bad, but it was too bloody hot in the elevator!

The only other elevator issue I've had was that I once accidentally hit the emergency call button in an elevator at Carleton University. The buttons in that elevator were really really low, and each was the size of my palm. I was juggling a bunch of grocery bags and accidentally knocked one bag against the button and then I had to wait for someone to answer so I could assure them it was a mistake.

Lost in cyberspace

For over a month now, I've been emailing a colleague at the Canadian Liver Foundation, asking her for information. She didn't send it, didn't send it, etc. Finally I called her and left a voicemail, asking for the info because I really needed it.

When I returned to my desk, there was a voicemail from her stating, "So Maureen, I'm getting the impression you haven't been receiving my emails!" We managed to figure out that for some reason, her emails were randomly being lost in cyberspace! I received 1 out of 10 emails she sent! Normally I'd blame the users, but in this case we're both computer savvy people.

After a bit of detective work, we found out that I couldn't receive any emails from the CLF. We both called our IT people to ask them to sort out the problem. It was funny watching them start to communicate. (Note, these conversations are not verbatim.) The CLF's guy wrote, "Well our logs show that the emails were sent properly." The UHN people respond, "Well our logs show that Maureen has only received emails on this, this, and this day." and so on.

I'd got a couple of phone calls from the CLF's IT dude asking, "Maureen, did you receive Karen's email?" And of course I hadn't. Finally today the CLF managed to figure out the problem, not that I understand what the problem was. Apparently the lost emails were due to an AVG smtp outgoing scanner. *blink blink*

The whole ordeal was so odd though. I'm so used to emailing people that suddenly not having the ability to get the information easily was a huge issue. I'd send her an email and then realize, "Oh wait, she can't reply!" We started joking about how I could email her and she'd reply with smoke signals.

This is the voicemail that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends....

Hospital voicemail systems have the longest messages in the world. It's very aggravating when I call someone, get their voicemail, and just want to leave a quick message. Instead of a generic message saying, "Hi, you've reached so and so, please leave a number," a lot of the voicemail messages here say, "Hi, you've reached so and so. I'm not available to take your call right now. If this is a medical emergency, please contact your family doctor or visit the nearest emergency centre. I will be out of the office from date to date inclusively. If this is a clinical matter, you may contact so and so at extension blah blah blah. If this is a research matter, please call so and so at extension blah blah blah. For all other concerns, please leave a voicemail with your full name, patient number, and a phone number you can be reached at."

It's even worse when you know the person is out of the office but need to leave a voicemail anyways. In that case, it's like a ticking time bomb of aggravation and I end up tapping my foot impatiently, afraid to not pay attention lest I miss the beep.

P.S.
Jill - don't gimme none of that crap about me not posting on my blog anymore! You apparently just don't visit here enough! You're still stuck on your smiling heavens in Australia post!

Stuck

Getting to work shouldn't be difficult. I wish I could say that was the case on Wednesday this week. I got FROZEN into my backyard and ended up being 20 minutes late to work!

To get in and out of my apartment, I have to go through my landlord's backyard which is surrounded by a fence taller than I am. The only point of entry in the fence is a gate with a bolt that can only be released by key. The problem was, the lock was frozen closed!

I have never ever had to deal with frozen locks before, so I ended up going downstairs, getting some warm water (the fastest solution, although I know that it would just freeze over again) and a pack of matches. I also phoned home, waking up my mom and dad to see if they had a better idea on the spur of the moment. Nope. Water it was.

I troop back upstairs and outside and manage to melt the ice in the lock so I can finally get my key into the hole... But, alas! The key wouldn't turn! The entire BOLT was frozen! Due to the shape of the gate opening, I couldn't maneuver anything into the gap to try to de-ice the bolt. I thought of getting my hair dryer out, but I didn't have an extension cord long enough to reach the fence! By this time, 20 minutes had passed and I was getting worried about being so late to work. (I had already taken a moment to email my coworker to let her know that I'd be late - turns out that I spelled her email address wrong and she never got the message. Oops!)

I would have tried climbing the fence, but it's not the most sturdy thing in the world - it leans over, so if I were to try to climb it, it would probably collapse. And only sturdy portion of the fence is the part where there's a coniferous tree in front of it... I didn't feel like being tackled by pine needles while trying to manage my escape.

I finally ended up calling my landlord. Crap. The call goes straight to voicemail. My last recourse was to start banging on his backdoor. Thank God he was home for once! LOL, he ended up letting me through his house and out his front door and later on, he fixed the gate so that I could at least get back into my apartment later that evening.

I now own my first bottle of lock de-icer. And, the landlord has provided an extension cord just in case there's another fiasco like this again

Welcoming package

I unexpectedly had to go to Montreal for the past four days for work. The Doctor who's taking over the program I'm working for asked for my help on some paperwork. I was asked on Tuesday and by Thursday I was in Montreal. I asked him for a couple of hotel recommendations and ended up booking a room at Le Roberval.

On my first night there, I crashed relatively early because I was exhausted. (Getting up for a 9am flight will do that to you.) At midnight though, I woke up for no apparent reason. Then I realized I was woken up by the sound of someone knocking on my door. I wasn't about to get out of bed and see who it was, so I ignored it and heard them leave.

Just as I was falling asleep again, the phone rang. It was the front desk. The woman on the phone asks me, "Hi there, did you hire an escort?" [Read: Prostitute - my hotel was close to the red light district.]

I'm like, "What? No."

The woman replies, "Oh, sorry." And then before she hangs up, I hear her saying to someone else, "A woman answered. You have the wrong room."

I managed to fall back asleep, but the next day I joked with the Doctor, thanking him for arranging the welcoming package to Montreal. :)

Morning calm

The one thing I look forward to about going to work every is walking by Alexandra Park. There's nothing special about the place - it's just a regular city part.

What I enjoy about it is the people. It's close to Chinatown, so every morning there are little old Chinese men and women there doing their morning exercises. My absolute favourite moment though is watching the group doing Tai Chi on the baseball diamond. They look so serene going through their movements with the sun shining on them.

Life changes

Wow! After nearly a two month drought, I'm back! With lots of news!

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I've been job hunting. Well, two weeks ago, I sent my resume to the University Health Network in Toronto at 4:17PM. 8 minutes later, I got an email asking me to come for the first round of interviews. Wow!

Later that night, I found out that my father had the day off, and he was kind enough to offer me a ride to Toronto. So off we rode so I could have an interview for an Administrative Coordinator position.

I wasn't quite sure how the interview went. Some questions went well, but the girl who was interviewing me (and whom I would be replacing) had the greatest poker face in the world, so I was never sure where my answers sat with her. She also told me more about the position itself. Essentially the Admin Coordinator role is responsible for running the National Canadian Research Training Program in Hepatitis C. That includes coordinating weekly web conferences, planning the annual meeting in Banff, and bookkeeping. Yikes!

The interview was on a Wednesday. On Thursday I got the call back to come in on Friday. This time the interview included the same girl as Wednesday as well as the current director of the program, a Dr. Heathcote. The interview was much more a "getting to know the personal side of you" kind of interview. I yammered on and on, all the while thinking, "Shut me up!"

Well, apparently my yammering worked. By the time I arrived home that night, there was an email offering me the job and could I please start on Tuesday? First interview Wednesday, second interview Friday, starting on Tuesday?! They apparently took me a little too literally when I said I could start immediately. Can we say slight panic? I had to pack, buy new clothes, etc. (The clothes were especially important since 3 of my last 4 workplaces were casual environments, so I had nothing to wear that was business casual!)

I kept joking that the planets were aligning with regards to this job. I sent the resume, got the interview within mere minutes, my dad could give me a ride (thus negating a 4 hour bus ride), I got the second interview, and then I got the offer! Yes, the planets aligned indeed!

Oh yeah, one other small problem with starting work on Tuesday. I have no place to live in Toronto. Hrm. This is when I called in favours. My friend from university, Stacy, was kind enough to offer me a place to crash for the first two nights, and my high school friend, Michelle, was nice enough to give up her bed too. (And I literally mean her bed: She doesn't go to bed till 3am whereas I have to be up and at work by 8:30am, so she chose to sleep on the living couch so she could continue to stay up late.)

So essentially I arrived in Toronto on Monday, got my transit passes, found my way to work, etc., and then I started the next day! I can't really tell you what my first week has been like - it has been crazy information overload! I was in training all week and so on. There's so much more to this job than I anticipated. I guess I'll just have to rise to the challenge!

Also, when I applied to this job, I didn't realize just how quite well known the program, or my boss, was! My supervisor (Dr. Heathcote) threw an annual socializing bash at her house on Thursday, and while I was going there with some of my coworkers, I found out that Dr. Heathcote is one of the top three, if not the most well known doctor in her field! Also, the liver clinic where the course is kind of based out of (I say "Kind of" because this is a national program) is also one of the foremost in its field. Yikes! Can we say intimidation factor???

Anyways, as I was saying, I spent my first week going to work and stressing. It probably wouldn't have been too bad, but then I'd come back to my friends' apartments and stress about housing too! I didn't realize how expensive Toronto housing was, and how difficult it would be to find a place! I called and saw a few, but they weren't the greatest, or they had already been rented!

But hooray for me, the planets aligned one more time! On Friday I was looking at apartments online. I half heartedly phoned a bunch to find out more information. I was generally in one of those, "Woe is me" moods - sad, intimidated, etc... The next morning I went to go see one of the apartments that I had made an appointment with.

PRETTY! I was salivating on the floor looking at the place! It's a basement apartment with only two windows but it's newly renovated (heck, they haven't even finished the place!) with its own set of laundry machines! It's so big compared to some of the other places I've seen! I left with the rental application and came back within an hour. I pretty much bullied the landlord into signing the lease (he wasn't going to sign anything till tomorrow) but we worked it out. So tomorrow, assuming the credit he runs on me goes well, I'll move into my new place! (Ignore the fact that it's unfurnished for now - I have a sleeping bag and I went home last night and gathered a plate, frying pan, etc.)

So that's my life in a nutshell. Tomorrow I have an orientation session and then the real work begins! I shall endeavor to update more often now that I have a job and am living in the big city again. :)

Walking the line

My mother's union went on strike last Thursday. Since I'm unemployed (and believe in their cause of course), I've joined them on the picket lines outside their workplace.

This isn't the first time I've been on a picket line. Back in 1996, my father's union went on strike for 7 weeks. I was about 13 or 14 years old then and he took me on the picket lines with him. We even traveled to Toronto to take part in the massive demonstrations in front of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. I don't have many memories of the strike, but now that I'm older, I realize that my view of unions is very different from others.

I've met a lot of people over the years who are vehemently anti-union, and to be honest, I just can't understand why! My father has been a union member for my entire life. My mom has been a union member since 2004. To me, unions are a Good Thing. My History courses have shown how hard people have fought for the right to have unions. They're meant to help protect employees from their own companies and whatnot. The fact that they still serve the same purpose today makes me rather proud.

My mother's coworkers went on strike because they feel they aren't getting paid enough. The union conducted a survey and discovered that their salaries are in the bottom third for similar positions in the province. Then they found out that their managers are in the top third salary-wise. The union was demanding a pay raise - not even to be brought up to the absolute middle of the scale - no, they just want a raise to the lower middle area of the salary scale. Management told them that there simply wasn't any money to give them the raise. The big controversy now is due to the fact that the company recently built a brand new building that costs around $20 million! There's a lot of superfluous spending and needless additions (e.g. an exercise room that has no exercise equipment, a drive-thru window that's doomed to be environmentally-unfriendly, etc.). So when Management has the money to spend on this garish ugly building (nicknamed by the public as the "Taj Mahal", or the "Copper Kettle") but not the money to spend on their employees, it looks bad. Also, the Board of Directors has told Management that the pickets SHOULD be brought up to a fair wage.

Given the fact that unions are legally recognized, and they have certain rights, it's amazing how people have been reacting to the picketers. Employees on strike have the right to hold traffic up for 10 minutes. Apparently, no one told this to Management. I saw one manager actually bump 3 women with her car because she refused to be held up (which we have the LEGAL RIGHT TO DO). Another picketer got hit immediately after, and even had to be taken to the hospital because of minor injuries. She's probably going to end up pressing charges.

While walking along the picket line, we've received an amazing amount of support. People honk their horns as they pass by (much to the annoyance of Management who can hear all of this and are getting complaints from the neighbors about the noise - but the neighbors are deliberately complaining because the more they bug Management, the more Management will need to give into the union's demands). We've been receiving coffee and treats from members of the public and even from people who are still working in the workplace. Not everyone has been pleasant though. Some people have driven or walked by and yelled at the pickets for being greedy and whatnot. People don't seem to understand that a union won't go on strike unless they feel really strongly about the issue! They don't get paid while they're on strike, or if they do, it's usually only $25 A DAY. Obviously they'd much rather be at work than on the line. One or two people have made rude gestures, and one fellow went on a 5 minute temper tantrum. Overall though, the good has outweighed the bad by a long shot.

What's also surprising me is how personal people are letting things become. Some situations are understandable. For example, one union member was offered a full-time non-union job about 2 days before the strike, so she's been crossing the picket lines and according to inside gossip, she's been taking on some of the picketers work, making her a Scab. But even the reaction from Management is surprising. After the strike is over, both Management and the picketers are going to have to work together - but there's going to be A LOT of bad blood between the two groups. I don't get why Management can't be pleasant and just wait for the 10 minutes while we hold them up and so on. Instead, it's rather childish, they completely ignore us on their ways in and out. Also, amusingly, they have a small web camera pointed out the window and are watching us with it the ENTIRE time!

Luckily the other employees inside the building are being very supportive. ONA, the union for the nurses and public health inspectors, have encouraged their members to join us on their breaks and lunch hours. They've also been instructed to try to avoid taking on the work of the union members (within reason), and so on. Other unions from around the city have stopped by to help and disrupt the work inside the building. On Friday, some correctional services workers (aka jail guards) came to join us on the picket line. Canada Post and a bunch of the courier companies refuse to cross the picket lines too.

All in all, it has been a very interesting experience being on the picket line now that I'm old enough to appreciate the intricacies of the situation. I have a lot more appreciation for unions and the laws that help govern their relations with the workplace. So if you see a group of employees on strike sometime, give them a honk or a wave or anything to let them know that you support, or at least acknowledge their complaints! Go OPSEU!

Entry denied

At my internship, we're occupying two different offices. We've got our main Peacebuild office, and we're also using a small office within NAPO's (National Anti-Poverty Organization) offices which are right beside our own.

We started locking out own little office within NAPO's offices and we keep the key in our main office. NAPO's main doors are locked with an electronic keypad, so entry is no problem.

However, this morning I happened to be the first person into work. So I went into NAPO's office to see if our office door was unlocked. No luck, so I go to get the key from our main office, only to realize that our main office doors are locked.

I ended up having to set up shop in the main lobby of NAPO and wait for my supervisor to get there so we could unlock everything and get the ball rolling.

Shattered hope

You know how you can sometimes pinpoint the moment your spirit breaks?
Today, I could hear the shattering sound that signaled that all the hope I had carried that something better might come along was lost. What happened to create this awful realization? I had had no work to do yesterday. I ended up reading my textbook for the most of the day before I finally contacted a lady who had mentioned she might have work for me.
She told me to talk to her the next day and she'd have something for me to do.

Well this morning I came into work and when she finally contacted me, she told me to ask Donna (a lady in business services) for work. I track down Donna and she leads me over to the shelves that act as mail boxes.
She tells me that they had devised a "big project" for me to work on.
She then proceeds to hand me a roll of paper towels and a bottle of Windex... My big project? Cleaning the shelves and relabeling them.
That's the moment when Bruce Power finally broke me.

(Sorry, there was a bit of exaggeration there. When I got back from lunch there was a message on my phone from another coworker saying they have a bigger project with more responsibility to work on from now on. I hope they're right, because if I had to do two more months of this stuff, I think I'd crack.)

Other than work stuff, the rest of my life is good! I had a great long weekend. On Friday I went to Waterloo with my mom to visit my sister. We ended up going out for cake at Symposium and playing mini-putt. On Saturday I dragged my mom and dad out for a walk around Harrison Park.
It was a great walk. Later that night, my mom and I went to see two
movies: The Devil Wears Prada (hilarious) and The Lakehouse (adorable).
I can't recall what I did on Sunday night... I think my mom and I watched Desperate Housewives and we did the same thing on Sunday.

I've moved into my new house without a hitch. I don't have much to say about it yet. It's much cleaner than my old one... The sounds echo like crazy though because it's all wooden floors. My housemates seem very friendly and chatty. All in all, I feel pretty encouraged by my first 2 nights here.

Tree killer

Today I killed a small forest.

Greenpeace hates me now. How did I manage to accomplish this feat? Through photocopying. I received the task of duplicating some binders today at work. Combined, they probably held about 700 pages of information. The photocopying took me about 2 hours, if not more. After lunch I returned to the lady to get another job, and she pointed out that all the documents I had photocopied had a small set of random lines near the top of the page.

I don't really understand why these lines/streaks were a big deal - they were not covering any information, they actually overlapped with the lines already on the sheet (so instead of looking single underlined, it would look trip underlined). When I did ask why it was a problem, the lady could only respond with, "Oh, well the guys who use these will complain."

Therefore I had to throw out (recycle) about 700 pages of brand new, practically nothing wrong with it, paper. I'm not terribly impressed with the wastage. And now my feet hurt from standing so long assembling the cursed binders.

Last night I went for a walk with Lauda. We went to oggle some potential gyms... Unfortunately the one I'm thinking of going to is kinda far. I don't know when I'd go either - I like exercising at night, but I'm usually getting ready for bed by 9. And when I get home from work, I just feel like relaxing. The walk itself was good though - long and effective... Although the slushies we bought on our way home pretty much nixed any health benefits we may have attained.

Later in the night, after I finished cooking my food, Tao and I taught Lauda how to play Mahjohng. Well, he taught her more than me. I just randomly tossed in helpful rewordings here and there. I lost all the games we played.

Tonight the plan is to go home, chill for half an hour, then head out to the beach to hang out with Henry, Rishi, and Liz.
It'll be fantastic because the heat here has skyrocketed in the past few days. We're now usually sitting at around 31 degrees, with humidexes of 40. Everyone else is completely suffering, but I find it positively cozy. I attribute this to the fact that I didn't try to acclimatize myself to the Canadian climate upon my return, so for me this feels like a regular day in Hong Kong. Heck - not even a regular day - it feels like a warm spring day. Mwahahahaha.

Anyways, there's 15 minutes till work is done! Adios!

The tedium of being a summer student

I had a fun day at work on Friday. Well, I guess it shouldn't be described as "fun" but that's the best way to put it for now. My tasks for the day were to do some of the most boring jobs I'd ever anticipated. This meant I had to photocopy a stack of 60 page documents, find and print out another 300 pages worth of documents, making labels for tabs, and assemble filing folders.

How could this be described as fun? Well, it's because of my coworkers that I was so amused. While I was making labels (a surprisingly long and arduous task), one lady came and stood beside me (my desk is beside the office printer) and watched me for a bit. She had a small smile on her face which I noticed. In response to her chuckle, I grinned and simply said, "Oh the life of the summer student." She started cracking up and replied, "I didn't say it! I was thinking it though!" And later on my boss popped by my desk (while I was making labels still - those mofos took most of the morning and afternoon) and tried to make me feel better about my job. She tells me, "You know Maureen, that's a very important job you know. Without these labels there would be so much confusion." At this point I simply pasted a smile on my face and tried not to laugh hysterically. Here's a piece of advice for my boss: The only thing that makes me feel good about my job is the pay cheque. So there!

It seems to have been another event-free weekend. I had been planning on staying in Port Elgin for the weekend, but I cracked at the last minute and decided to go back to Owen Sound. I really can't stand the idea of staying in this tiny town for an entire weekend. It's silly, but I just can't do it! Thankfully I have a valid reason for going home on this upcoming weekend - I have an optometrist appointment in Waterloo on Friday.

My appointment means that I'll be taking Friday off of work and heading down to the big city. I've started emailing some potential apartments to arrange for house viewings. Hopefully I'll be able to find something.

Also related to the topic of house viewings... My friend Agnes and I are planning on living together. In the midst of our house hunting, I suddenly realized that if I wanted to lease an apartment, I probably wouldn't have enough money to put a deposit on the place! Thankfully Agnes and her mom were able to transfer the necessary money to me. However, because the money transfer was conducted online and blah blah blah, I was told it would take 3-5 days to complete the transfer. I totally forgot about the transfer over the weekend and then on Sunday I went and withdrew money from the bank machine and was floored when it told me I had a lot more money in my account then I thought I had. I spent a good 3 hours trying to figure out what was going on and it was finally my mom who realized that it was the money transfer. I blame my stupidity on the fact that it usually means 3-5 business days, not regular days. Wow, that's efficiency for you.

The rest of my weekend was pretty lazy. My mom and I went to one of my favourite places for lunch on Saturday - the European Bakery Cafe. Even while I was in Hong Kong I sometimes missed this little restaurant. They have the best sandwiches and even better desserts. Unfortunately they didn't have my favourite dessert, a nougat ring, so I left both empty-handed and empty-stomached.

The only other highlight to my weekend was that I went to get a picture framed. Before I left Hong Kong, my friend Limin painted a picture of some bamboo leaves for me in a very traditional Chinese style. She wrote, "To Mo-lin, from Limin" on it in Chinese characters. It was so pretty that I wanted to get it framed and framed well, so I decided to take it to a professional. It took forever to decide how to get it done, and we'll have to wait for about 2 weeks to see the results. Cross your fingers for me folks!

When I finally returned to Port Elgin last night (yes, I remembered my laptop this time) Tao had invited a bunch of co-ops over for a barbeque. So I got to crash the party and sit around and chat with them. (I had already eaten.) I had a good time - I had only met the students once, last week at the Bruce. Then ended up leaving to go play frisbee on the beach and I stayed home so I could finish my unpacking.

Thus went my weekend. I'm excited about this week for some reason - probably because it'll be a short week for me (again.) I slept really well last night and am in a good mood. Hopefully it lasts. :)