Growing Up

I was talking to my nephew Scott online tonight. I have a picture of me holding him in the hospital when he was just days old. I was 9, just a few months shy of 10, when he was born. Logically, I am aware that the math put his at 15 years old. However, the auntie in me, just can’t believe that my nephew is 15 freakin years old. The kid is over 6 feet tall! When the hell did that happen? Ok ok, so I’ve been gone for 3 years, but geez.



It’s the same thing with my other two nephews, I haven’t seen them in a couple of years now, and when I got the pictures from Christmas I couldn’t believe how big they have gotten.



It makes me homesick. Being so far away from my entire family, I’m missing so much.

girls night out

I am allowed to call it that, even though there was a guy present, because after several drinks he was dubbed 'one of the girls'.



4 of us, met up for a few drinks and a few songs at Karaoke last night. It was so much fun! I love Karaoke, I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but after a few drinks I don't care as much. Noreen, without consulting the rest of us, signed us up to sing 'Dirrty' that was simply horrid.



Adrienne and I decided today, that we should try and get out to Karaoke at least once a month. We'll have to wait and see how that plan pans out. We've vowed to do this that or the other thing on a regular basis several times in the past year, it never pans out for us.

Snow

Yes, that's right, snow! Not a lot, but it did snow yesterday. While it may not be much I fear that it is a sign of more to come in the near future. Now granted, living in the far north, I have to expect there to be snow, but damned if I have to like it! And I don't, I hate hate hate it.



We've actually been quite fortunate this year, by this time last year, we had had snow on the ground for a while, and it was bloody COLD. This year though, it's snowed once already, and that wasn't even worth mentioning, it snowed a bit and didn't even stick. Last week it was 14 degrees (Celsius of course)uncharacteristically warm for this time of year.



I knew the snow had to come at some point, I was just hoping it would hold off a while longer. Rumor has it though, that this is set to be a rather short mild winter for this area. I pray the rumors are true!

Riduculous Food Phobia?

Yesterday, I was reading this post over at Hot Toddy's Toaster Oven.

Last night I had a dream that I took a bunch of free popcorn from CC Slaughters at happy hour and put it in a big white bucket. Then I put Saran Wrap over the bucket of popcorn and brought it home. I lovingly placed the bucket of stolen happy hour popcorn on top of my dresser so I could eat it later.



I think I may go to the bar too much. Does anybody want to take a stab at interpreting this dream?

My comment, meant mostly in jest, was the following...

I say that it's your psyche telling you that you shouldn't eat that stuff. Free bar snacks scare me, if you do the math on the percentage of people who don't wash their hands after using the washroom combined with the number of people who touch the free bar snacks...

My comment, was met with this one...

people with these riduculous food phobias kill me...yea it sounds gross what you describe erin, but your body has natural defenses and anyway if one did wash one's hands, they would eventually get bacteria on them again. what do you suspect you'd catch? you'd be more likely to catch a cold from someone sitting next you at a bar rather than eating bar food. we don't live in a sterile environment babe. just use common sense!

I’ve seen several reports on the subject, and I’ve taken my Food Safe course. Over the course of several years, a few facts have come to my attention that keep me from eating the communal snacks in bars.



1) Around 20% of the population does NOT wash their hands after using the washrooms!



~ In the USA that is 59,146,826 who don’t wash their hands

(There are more people in the US who don’t wash their hands after they use the washroom than there are people in Canada period!)



~ In Canada that is 656,100.82 who don’t wash their hands



2) One of the leading causes of Food Poisoning is Fecal Mouth Transfer. And yes, that is as bad as it sounds. It’s caused by us eating food that has been touched by someone who has feces on their hands, mainly as a result of not washing after using the restroom.



3) Investigations have shown, through those funky UV scanner thingies, that more often than not, there is both urine and semen on community snacks at bars.



If I see the bartender open a bag of snacks, put it in a clean bowl and hand it too me, sure I’ll eat it. But if it’s just sitting there for anyone to help themselves too… I think not. I’m not scared of what I might catch, but having that knowledge floating around in my head makes it so that I just can’t bring myself to eat that stuff. It’s not a fear of germs, or a desire to live in a sterile environment. If I pick something up to eat it, and all that is going through my head is “this could have a strangers semen or urine or both on it” call me crazy or squeamish if you must, but I’m not putting it in my mouth.



Screw unsanitary or germ infested, or bacteria laden. Urine is sterile, and lots of people eat semen on a daily basis. That has nothing to do with it. I just find it yucky to eat that stuff on my pretzels.



P.S. While I really do feel that way, this is not a bitchy rant, but rather an amused rant! lol

Work Stuff

Sometimes recently, work is just overwhelming me. I think part of it is that I only have one day off a week. Another part of it is my co-worker. If I met her in a social situation, I would like her, but she makes it hard to work with her. Yesterday, I talked to her about something she wasn’t doing, and asked her if she could please start, she flat out said no. She’s been here a year, and has a harder time than most dealing with change. Before the conversation was over, there was yelling and Kyle had gotten involved in it at the point when she declared that he and I didn’t know what we where doing, and didn’t do our job. Now Kyle is of the opinion (and I’m glad) that I can take care of myself, so any disputes I might have I can deal with on my own. So, he stayed out of it until she said HE didn’t do his job.



In brighter work related news, I had an interview with a woman yesterday. I liked her, she’s older and her husband died a couple years ago, she is going stir crazy being at home all day everyday. That is the kind of employees I tend to like, the ones that don’t HAVE to work. She applied for this job because she wants this job, not because she needs full time work to survive. People who take a job just to get out of the house, tend to last a little better at part time work. You don’t have to worry about them leaving because they’re not getting enough hours etc.



Sadly I was unable to hire her on the spot. My boss had originally given me the go ahead to hire someone while he was out of town, but then some crap happened. The same girl from the start of this post, hired someone and scheduled them for training without talking to me. So I called my boss and got mad at him for letting it happen, and told him that the girl was only 18, known to not show up to her shifts at the restaurant sometimes, she doesn’t have her own transportation and she has on occasion gone and smoked a joint on her break. This is NOT the employee that I want. So, after all that crap, my boss decided that I couldn’t hire anyone until after he got back into town, because he wants to discuss it with me first.



Now for an amusing work related tale…

This guy called down to the Front Desk at 9:30. He asked about the free breakfast. I told him what was included and that it only ran until 10am. He asked “So as long as I order by like 9:59 it’s all good?” I said, “No, you have to pick up your coupon at the Front Desk by 10am”

So, at 10:06 the guy comes down and asks for his breakfast ticket.

Dumbass!

The Next Step

After lengthy discussion on the subject, Kyle and I decided to combine our funds. We went in to the bank yesterday and had him added to my existing accounts. It seemed easier to do it that way since I have about a bazillion bills that come out of my account automatically. I really didn’t want the hassle of contacting my rental agency, my car loan people, the car insurance people and both the student loan people, and telling them I needed to change my account information.



I made Kyle think about it carefully before he made a decision. It was his idea in the first place, but I didn’t want him regretting it later, because I have a LOT more expenses than him.



We’re going to set it up, so that we put $250 a month into a high interest savings account, $250 a month into an RRSP, and then we each get $50 a week to send on anything we want, no need to mention or discuss with the other person. The rest of the money, after bills, will be used as agreed between us at the time.



Since he is a lot more financially responsible, I told him that I want him to “be in charge” so to speak. I’m bad for spending money when I shouldn’t. If we stick to the plan though, we should have no problem coming up with the money to move in just under a year. Combining our funds, will keep both of us from randomly spending our spare cash. We won’t be able to make impulse buys (over $50) since it is shared money, so we’d have to run it by the other person, and talk about if it was a good idea etc.

Where Did the Week Go?

Wow, it’s been forever since I blogged. I must apologise to all 3 of my readers! I guess time flies when you’re in a tired zombie like state.



So far, I’m loving the new job. My new boss seems really nice, even though half the time I have no clue what he’s saying to me. Out of the blue the other day, he hands me a 10pc knife set. I’m like “Ooo that’s very nice” thinking he’s showing it off, then he says “You keep! Gift” It’s a freakin $80 USD set!!! It’s awesome!



I’m loving the morning shift. Sure I have to get up a little earlier than I’m used to, but I’m done by 3pm. Hell, even banks are still open at 3pm! I get my whole afternoon to do whatever I want. Which, since I’m still adjusting to getting up at 6:30, is pretty much nothing at all. Also, everything pretty much dies off by 11am. So it doesn’t matter how far behind I get if it’s busy, I have a couple hours to catch up at the end of my shift. Evening shift, which Kyle works, tends to be busy WHILE they’re trying to cash out and go home.



Anyways, I’ll try and be a little more regular about my blogging from now on, I promise!