ria_oaks

Yoinked from hells_half_acre

( Countries/provinces/states I've been to )

Anyway... in other news:

a. I appear to have a cold. It's really not that bad, just sniffles and generally feeling tired, but I am a pathetic wimp and thus spent most of yesterday and today so far doing absolutely nothing. I'm still wearing pyjamas... gotta get my ass up in a bit because if I feel up to it I promised Dad I'd help him move paintings (and really, getting out would do me good - the one time I got out yesterday, for an interview (more about that in a sec), I felt better), plus I'm heading over to flamebyrd's later to watch Slings & Arrows. :)

b. Never heard back from the company that I interviewed with last week. They said early this week, so... yeah, aside from being disappointed I'm rather peeved. Because really, it's just not professional to make someone jump through 3 separate hoops (after the initial cover letter/resume submsission), including a LONG questionnaire and two interviews, and then not give them the courtesy of calling to say "sorry, we've gone with someone else". Sigh. Will prob call them tomorrow to follow up, and also to ask for any feedback (I've read that it's good to do that - sometimes people even get another job with the company! But at least some feedback on what I could have done better)

c. I met with a 'placement specialist' for the tourism industry yesterday, and had a really good conversation. He was a nice guy and seemed confident that I'd eventually get something. He knows of a few companies that are hiring/may be hiring soon that he thinks would be a good fit for me. He's going to contact them then get back to me; hopefully this week because unfortunately he's going on a 3-week vacation starting Sunday... damn. Anyway, I wish I'd known about this guy's company earlier! Would have been nice if, say, my teacher at the college had mentioned his existence... I'm sure she must know of him.

d. And on a completely separate and shallow note, I am currently drawing a really quite filthy Fraser/RayK drawing. My inability to draw desks and correct perspective is thwarting me a bit, but it's getting there... it really is very dirty and will be hot as hell if I can get it right. ;)

Tomorrow's my last day of work... feels weird, leaving that place after having been there since we opened nearly 2 years ago. Wow. I'm excited and am ready to move on, but I'm also sad to be leaving all the awesome people I've gotten to know (both my co-workers and the members...). It's such a small community and such a small credit union (for a good chunk of the past 2 years we only had 3 people working there... we've been up to 5 the last few weeks as we've hired and trained my replacement, and when I leave they'll be down to 4), so I got to know the majority of our ~800-900 members. It's great working somewhere where you can greet most people by name as they come in, bring up their account right away (and hell, for some of them I even have their account numbers memorized), and do a withdrawal or whatever for them without any need to verify their identity or have them enter their card pin or whatever. I mean yeah, sure, there were inevitably a few people who I'd dread coming in, but most people were great. I've gotten lots of well wishes the last few weeks, and one of our board members brought me a balloon and a card yesterday. :) Aww.

Anyway, still have a party next week to say goodbye to my co-workers; they're coming to my house for dinner. Will be nice to see one co-worker one last time in particular, since he's the one that I've worked with from the start (the others all came in later, much though I like them) and he's been on vacation the last week and half, so my last day working with him was almost 2 weeks before my own last day (he gets back next week). I got all emotional saying goodbye to him before he left on vacation, lol, even though I'll see him again. For all the challenges of this job that first year (evil boss from hell, remember? ^^), we had a fun time together and, well, we faced the challenges together, at least. :)

Getting maudlin now, lol... next Saturday I leave. OMG. o.o People keep saying "oh, you must be so excited, you're going to have a wonderful time!" and I kinda grimace and say "sure, yeah... I hope... I'm also terrified..." Heh. I guess I'm excited. I'm nervous as heck. It still hasn't really sunk in. On some level, I... really don't know what the fuck I'm doing. I've never done anything like this before. But I think it'll be good. :) Just gotta get past the 15+ hour plane flight! And then have to meet people asap. And find a job. And a place to live. Eeep.

Off to watch Obama on Leno now, yay. Then bed. Then tomorrow... oughta be interesting, anyway. Gotta hand in my various company suits/shirts, my nametag (aww...), and my business cards (keeping a couple anyway, as souvenirs). Hopefully it won't be too busy, Friday's often are. ^^

*giggle* TOTAL dorkout moment at work a few minutes ago... a few today actually, heh. Most recent one: we got our new Sirius Satellite Radio today in the mail (we've had it for about a year, but it's stopped working properly so we ordered a new one). In it is the new channel guide. on the new channel guide is a picture of Anderson Cooper. In a purple shirt. I promptly started giggling insanely. My co-workers dont' know why, fortunately. XD God help me, this fandom is eating my brain. I looked over the channels and while we have several news stations, including 2 CNN ones and Fox News (which has the description "Fair and Balanced News". that made me laugh for a good few minutes, too), we don't have MSNBC so I can't listen to Keith. Woe. Figured if they aired it while the actual show aired live, then it'd be at 5pm our time, right as we're closing... not that I could really listen to it here without giving away my new obsession ^^

(the other dork-out moment today came a bit after 10 when our courier arrived bearing a big box full of stuffed "Buckley the Beaver"s which we're supposed to sell for charity (he's 2009's "credit union collectible" evidently). My co-worker arranged a bunch of them along the top of the filing cabinets, which was actually kidna creepy cuz it looked like they were going to attack us. XD Encded up taking most of them down and storing them in a box so they don't gather too much dust or get in the way, but there are still a few out... and I have one on my desk. :) Probably going to buy him, or ask Mom to get him for me for my b-day or Christmas. He's pretty adorable. :)

It's not as crazy quiet in here today as yesterday, so I haven't had a chance so far to write Keith/Anderson post-election porn, but oh well... maybe another time. ;) (as you can see, it's not that busy, either, based on this post... off to do some work now, though.)

Yay, prelim schedule for Browncoat Cruise is up! Less than 1 week left, wow... o.o Getting pretty darned excited. Might go buy some more clothes this on Monday, I'm not sure.. I have one nice dress for the formal dinner, and the other dinners are semi-casual. Not really sure what I'm allowed to wear for those -_- Skirts and a nice top, I think. So I can probably do it with what I have, but... might be nice to get another dress or another nice top. Anyway, the schedule of events looks like fun - we've got a viewing of episodes/the BDM/whatever we feel like watching, a panel with the guests, a concert, some other stuff... In Cabo San Lucas there's an 'official' excursion (boat/bus trip around the peninsula) which I'm going on, and nothing planned for Ensenada so I need to figure that out.. either an excursion or I'll just find people to go wandering around the city with. Also looking forward to my first day in San Diego for some shopping with the American dollar. XD Bought $250 USD last week (for $233 CDN!), and am looking forward to buying some Christmas stuff and DVDs and whatnot.

Anyway... very quiet day at work today. Manager was back and complaining that the Christmas decorations hadn't been done yet. *eyeroll* Yes, because we were busy taking care of members. You know, those pesky people who keep coming in wanting money? -_- It's been a busy week, plus we have a ton of backlog in accounts to take care of, so I barely even thought about decorating even though I knew she'd sent an email asking it to be done soon. Plus, you know, it's only November 24th. Come on. -_- Anyways, upshot was that we spent all day decorating. Had a grand total of 6 transactions in the 4 hours I was there. Made a fair number of cut-out snowflakes, though. :) Managed to wrangle a $20 budget for buying decorations out of the manager (*eyeroll* again) and have been sent to go to Michaels to buy a wreath and stuff to decorate it with. For $20. Oookay. It was a nice day overall, though, I suppose.

Had a bad experience during my break though, heh. Went to local coffee shop to grab a snack, and the older guy who works there (who I chatted with previously and he'd seemed quite pleasant) saw my Outweek 25 pin and asked what it was. I didn't want to lie and frankly I don't see why I should be embarassed or anything to be wearing it, so I told him that it's from the pride week at UBC. "Pride week?" "Gay pride week. At UBC." "Gay pride? Hah! What about heterosexual pride??" I laughed this off a bit, told him that hey it's cool to be proud whatever you are, but then he started exclaiming loudly to all the other workers "Can you believe this! Gay pride week at UBC! Hah!" and then started talking about how it was being rammed down our throats, blah blah blah, "why can't straights have a pride week??". So I shrugged and said "well, heterosexuals don't need to fight for their rights." "Hah! Yes they do, the gays are taking over!" And okay, now I was getting a bit annoyed even if it had all been in (relatively) good fun at the start (when I thought he was just joking and wasn't really serious). I just said that I didn't want to argue about it, but he was still kinda pushing it. I can't remember what he said, but I responded with something to the effect of "well, it [homosexuality] is normal..." to which he replied "two guys together?? it's not normal!" and now I was pissed and said as politely as possible "well, I disagree. Good bye." and took my sausage roll and rasberry cream cheese croissant and left. :) (both were quite tasty, I might add, though I felt nauseous a bit later so I suspect the latter didn't agree with me, having had the sausage rolls plenty of times to no ill effect).

Anyway. So. Kinda pissed off about that, heh. We were just sorta joking at first, but when he said that it's not normal I got a bit angry. Stayed as polite as possible, and I didn't want to argue about it or discuss it in the least, but he kept pushing it. One of the girls behind the counter commented that everyone should just get along (when I said something to the effect of how anyone can be whatever they want and should be proud of it) and I laughed and agreed with her. It just annoyed me that he didn't seem to care that he was being ignorant and offensive. Mostly ignorant (the gays are taking over? seriously? that argument fails on every level. because evidently fighting for equal rights means taking over. *eyeroll*) I mean, as far as he knew I could be gay, and wouldn't it occur to him how hurtful it would be to say that to me? Considering that I was even wearing that pin, it could have been a fairly legitimate guess. Gah. I just don't get exposed to this kinda shit in real life enough... in online forums, sure, and in the news, but I just... don't talk to people who are like that. Is it bigoted to be anti-bigot? I'll respect someone if they do the same to me and to all people, but if they're saying that a part of the population doesn't deserve respect then... I mean, I still try to respect their opinion, but if their opinion is to be disrespectful and bigoted then it all just seems kind of ironic to me. -_-

(and granted, if he'd thought I was gay then he wouldn't have been entirely wrong.. or right... yeah, I'm still not too sure on that area. XD let's call me "bi-curious" or "open" for now, mmkay? Or if I decide that I'm ultimately completely straight, then I'm still hugely supportive so... there. :)

And on another note, btw, I'm in North Van right now. Will be until Monday evening or even Tuesday morning. Possibly going downtown Monday to meet bloody_sakura, but otherwise free. Let me know if any of you wants to do anything. :)

Have I mentioned yet how much I want a plush DRD for Christmas? Cause I do. To go with my plush Rygel and fill up more space on my already stuffy-filled bed. :) I think I'm slowly wearing my mother down. Success!

Anyway, I went to Park Royal today with rainbowpegacorn; closed my TD account since I obviously don't need it anymore (staff account at First Credit Union, ftw!) and bought a copy of Serenity Found, in part to read and in part to have Ron Glass and Johnathon Woodward sign. :) 1 month left! Flight is booked, and we're good to go.. getting excited!

Oh yeah, and I made my Grindledore t-shirt last night. It's awesome. XD Will wear it under my costume on Wednesday, and I don't care. Woot. It's not overtly slashy, anyway - I could just say that I liked the characters and the picture. So long as they don't see the Dumbledore "fabulous" picture on the back. XD XD

Also, finally saw Casino Royale last night. Parents didn't think much of it and kept comparing it unfavourably to the classic Bonds, but never having seen more than maybe one Bond movie I quite enjoyed it. ;) Took a bit to get into, but once the storyline became clear it was pretty entertaining. Lots of action and a hell of a lot of Daniel Craig smouldering sexily. Yum. Mom was all "I don't think he's that attractive" and I was all "are we watching the same movie? Look at that body! And the smoulder!"

Yes, I'm shallow. *hangs head*

Tomorrow, doctor's appt before work to ask about vaccinations for going to Mexico... will only be there 2 days and it's getting kinda late now, but I figured I should ask anyway. Then another dull day at work; on the plus side, there's a big bowl of candy on the counter which we are steadily working our way through even though it's for the members. ;p And Wednesday, Halloween! Excited about dressing up. Agreed to stay late after to hand out candy, although that amounts to spending an hour plus with possibly just my manager (co-worker is trick or treating with kids, supervisor is probably getting the hell out of there and off the island to go home and avoid staying late with said manager). And I can't imagine we'll see many kids; they all go to Deep Bay (next to Snug Cove) for trick or treating and fireworks. But whatever, I agreed and I guess it'll be fun... on the plus side, she's kinda into TV (her and her husband watched the new BSG on DVD and really liked it, so that's cool) so maybe I can spend the time convincing her to watch Firefly. XD XD

Heroes tonight was good. Noah Bennett is fucking badass. That's all I have to say. :)