Settler words&music in S'ólh Téméxw, (leanpub.com/upsun) living where privilege meets precarity in MST country. she/her/they———– Novels: Midnite Moving Co., Upsun; Sweep Off Those Waves coming soon, Hair Sinister after that. —Restore All Indigenous Lands!
Probably during the week – the staff at the Cedars want to go.
Work is awesome, and will be even more awesome when I have email, ERP and a proper phone for the call center work.
I am thinking of my dad and it’s hard not to cry. It doesn’t matter how much you expect it, it is still shattering. And while shattered, you must get up, and eat, and deal with lawyers and doctors and arrange things and make lists.
So the heavy sigh is for missing posting yesterday, but I got called into work. The great thing about temping is that you get to see what other places to work really look like.
This place had:
The heavy sigh is because I won’t get it, but gosh it was pleasant working there and I would have had loads of fun teasing elderly engineers. I would have also got to watch the Skytrain go by all day long, which doesn’t hurt my feelings.
BEST LINE OF THE DAY. One of the engineers, responding to something a contractor was saying in a conference call, and sounding, how shall I put it, mildly exasperated, said, “You are confusing expediency with practicality“, which caused me to SWOON.
Then I came home after a satisfying day, smiling in the rain and clutching my signed sheet, which I still haven’t faxed, and found my brother had just got home. He said, “I got ya a present, I hope you like it.”
Well, it was from that batch of slides that Loki processed from 35 millimeter to digital, the slides from when we were, like, 9 months old and 2 and a half, respectively, and Jeff’d had it blown up to half poster size (with Blossom Su of course, the framing magician of pictures, art and media, she wot did the Inuit hunters). Of all of the pictures in that batch, it was the one I wanted. Both of us look incredibly goofy, and nothing much has changed. I could hardly be more pleased.
A thoroughly satisfactory day.
Today, dentition maintenance at noon. Dafter Katie (that’s daughter written US Revolutionary War style) is going to Victoria to be a prop and stay to her grandmother (and, if I may be so bold as to say it, to get the hell out of Dodge the week before her -hopefully- last legal encounter with her ex boyfriend.)
Also today I have to phone my old employer and work some contacts. I am so ready to go back to work it’s ridiculous. And to think, a couple of weeks ago, I thought I had forgotten how. I am anticipating work – but things are, apparently, not very rosy at the old place and I have had two different engineers tell me not to come back, although I suspect both of them have ulterior motives. Maybe it IS time for me to move on, can’t step in the same stream twice, harrumph harrumph.
I warned you. Scanged from Reddit.
I checked my job card again and I don’t have to be at work today until one. Full report upon my return.
Paul called me up yesterday and we went for a walk on the Quay and then we sang and played for a while – like a couple of hours, so it was a singing kind of day yesterday. Also, balm to my wounded ego, he wanted to play along to a bunch of my tunes (he did the back up guitar for the recorded version of “Evening News” which I have always found quite tasty).
John’s six string Guild is a Man’s Freaking Guitar; the tips of my left hand fingers feel like I tried to stop a grinding wheel with them. And of course playing it without crying is hard to do sometimes; I’ll be messing with it and there will be a vertiginous sense of loss, and then it’s “Just keep playing, just keep playing.”
On the plus side I know how to play the rhythm mandolin for Two and Twenty Blues now, and the only solace as my fingers started to burn was that Paul was having a bear of a time with the guitar portion. We played just the guitar and mando parts through about four times; Paul said it was all he could do to play the guitar part let alone sing on top of it. The mando and the guitar sound sweet together – the final result will be worth it. We STILL don’t have a set list, but I suppose I shouldn’t whine, it’s all about the having fun, right? Except it doesn’t sound bad, and I enjoy performing, during the brief spells when I’m not wanting to cocoon against the rain and the O Rim Pics.
After weeks of being impossible to keep in tune, the mandolin is finally behaving. Turns out the problem is the hanger! When I hang the mandolin up on the wall it promptly goes out of tune and stays that way. However, when I put the mandolin in the case and hang THAT on the hanger, it behaves. The guitar doesn’t behave like that at all. I need new mando picks, all my old ones have wandered away, the little beggars.
After 8 months, Margot has finally figured out that when I pick her up I may just brush her, so she’s learned to scamper away at my approach. If this keeps up I’m going to have to take her to a groomer and get her taken down to about an inch.
She really enjoys getting right behind Eddie when he’s eating and enthusiastically licking his butthole. Eddie makes a series of loud and unhappy noises – mixed with eating sounds – but stands his ground. The visual is really quite striking. She never does that to Gizmo. I guess there’s something really irresistable about Eddie’s butt, and if I ever said I wanted to come back as a cat, I take it all back now. Really.
Apart from reporting that I’m singing in church on Sunday and working temp for two days starting Monday, I have nothing to report. Oh, and there’s a demo and a birthday party in there as well this weekend.
He spoke to his G’ma this morning about Dave. Hard to do, and he did it.
And he’s employed – at an optical place just off Kingsway in Burnaby – for a three month contract starting Monday.
All hail the mapfolks!
This link goes to a visual representation of job creation and loss in the continental US since 2004.
I am of two minds about this article.
Part of me says, Oh this is great it’s really helping people.
The other part says, “What she is doing is still easier than lobbying for better public transportation in the land of the Great God Car.”
I applied for a job yesterday. I am already having second thoughts about a year off. I may forget how to work for others entirely if I don’t get going.
The Charbaums very kindly put up their land for a party; the usual gang of well loved friends was there, as was a proper portable Finnish sauna. Yay is for Jarmo. Mike and I slipped away at midnight; he had to go look after his Spuddy-buddy. I could have spent the night, but I didn’t want Mike driving back by himself. No, he wasn’t impaired; he’d quit drinking around 8:30; I wanted him to have the company on the long drive back.
The downside is that somehow, probably because I was sitting in Very Bad Chairs, I have put my hip out very badly. I suspect this is actually referred back pain. I am stumping round like an old lady. Jeff will be back with pain killers and milk shortly, and then I’ll make brekky and start laundry and all that domestic style stuff.
I got to meet Braden, Jerome and Shannon’s baby. Never in my life have I seen a 15 day old child with that much blonde hair. We’re not talking that flossy blonde hair you get on babies, this is like Spike’s do in Buffy, and there is SO much. I got to see Sarah and Ian’s young pjokk, and had a boo at Vijay’s two gorgeous boys (oldest is 8 already… and I can remember Vijay going through hell trying to get Lakshmi into the country… how long ago it seems) and then there was Elise and Arden (Elise is heartbreakingly gorgeous at almost three) and there were Sigrin and Lobo and Max the dogs, and Ariel, Megan’s daughter, in pre med at UBC while her parents explode with pride. Jenn and Rob, Kyi and May were there… Wally …. Tom U… Otto… Mike of course and Jim E., all the good folks. Jarmo and Susana, without the boys. Remember when the boys locked me in the outhouse? How long ago that was. Brian said friends and relatives he hadn’t seen in years were there; he was a little overwhelmed.
Next Friday is Sarah’s last at Xantrex. I’m going to the golf course to see her off.
We didn’t have a campfire…. we respected the fire ban and used a portable campstove on ‘simmer’ for a fire. A beautiful, happy, mellow time was had by all. Yes, I went in the sauna; yes, I let Jarmo beat me with hot wet birch branches. It felt UNBELIEVABLY GOOD. Especially on my back. It was so funny sitting outside the tent and listening to other folks get whacked… the noises! People might have gotten the wrong idea…..
Storm Brewing Keg. Jarmo fries. Nuff said.
It shows him oxters deep in airplane.
So, anyway, I had a faboosh time at the going away bash last night, and yes, there was a rainbow. There was also a cement mixer, purchased by RobbieBaum, but I know what happens when you mix Baileys with something sour. It curdles, resembles vomit, and makes the recipient unhappy. Drunk as I was, I looked at it, realized I was going to have limey tinged cheese curds appear in my mouth, and didn’t even change my facial expression, causing me to uplevel to a new platform of coolth. Nobody wanted to believe that I wasn’t disgusted. I wasn’t. It’s all about managing expectations, yanno?
Here’s my good-bye email:
11 Commandments for an Enthusiastic Team
1) Help each other be right – not wrong.
2) Look for ways to make new ideas work – not for reasons they can’t.
3) If in doubt – check it out! Don’t make negative assumptions about each other.
4) Help each other win and take pride in each other’s victories.
5) Speak positively about each other and about your team at every opportunity.
6) Maintain a positive mental attitude no matter what the circumstances.
7) Act with initiative and courage as if it all depends on you.
8) Do everything with enthusiasm – it’s contagious
9) Whatever you want – give it away.
10) Don’t lose faith – never give up
11) HAVE FUN!
A long vanished Sales VP gave me that list, and I’ve tried to live by it.
As I survey 12 years of employment at Xantrex, I have a LOT of happy memories…. And not so happy ones…and downright bizarre memories.
The time a customer told me, “Lady, your hold music would make a dog eat her puppies…”
Walking around the office and seeing Valentines I handed out 5 years ago still tacked up over people’s desks….
Sitting around a campfire on Gabriola at the old Statpower company camping trip….
People screaming in delight when it was November and I started baking biscotti again….
Forcing a CEO to buy me beer after I invited myself along for a team building exercise…. (now THAT was satisfying….)
Going through a team building exercise during which all of the people on the team reviewed the ‘challenge’ and then turned as one person to the smartest person on the team and said with one voice, “You do it!” (No it wasn’t me, it was an engineer). It was like being back in high school.
Fires…. Power outages…. Ludicrous, inhuman weather… getting really good help from the first aid people (who rock, incidentally).
Having a coworker come through on an orientation tour with a new HR person, and when asked, “Do you know this person?” saying, truthfully, “Well yeah, I’ve seen him naked.” (Long story, and not anywhere near as dirty as it sounds….)
A lot of really amazing customer interactions… because really, without customers, Xantrex doesn’t exist. And some of customers are very smart, and very nice, and they shared a lot of good information with me.
“When are we doing a product rationalization?”
The time a customer said “Do the fans on your inverters exhaust or intake?” And running to a certain person who is still working at Xantrex for help. And he said, and I quote, “We used to suck, but now we blow.” And I ran back to my desk and told the customer that – he laughed his head off. We weren’t recording Customer Service calls in those days…. Too bad, that would have been a keeper!
Neckrubs!
Taking care of my ‘internal customers’ at Xantrex. Because we’re not in this alone…..
Trying really hard to be a good coworker. For those of you for whom this was not a reality, my abject apologies and a hope that you won’t take my lapses personally. For those of you I didn’t get a chance to get to know…. We were part of the same team. We served together, and that counts for a lot.
I’m taking a year off paid employment to ‘pursue creative interests’. Yeah, I know, it’s lame, but it’s also true. I lost a close family member at the beginning of May, and it made me re-assess my life in a way that I hope none of you have to go through anytime soon. When the year is over, I’ll be back in the work force, hopefully with a lot of items scratched off my ‘bucket list’… as in, things I wanted to do before I die. But not at Xantrex, unless you guys are crazy enough to want me back!
The friendships, the unparalleled learning experience and the opportunity to serve our customers — all this has been humbling and character building. I’ve worked here more than a third of my adult life…. I will never forget Xantrex and you can bet I’ll be by to say hi, and re-acquaint myself with Chris’ cooking in our ‘caf’. Yes, Andy, I paid my tab.
I’d like to thank Tanya, Frozan, Cris, and Andy N (my immediate teammates and boss) for being awesome, and ALL the CS techs whether in Renewable or Mobile for their long-suffering assistance…. You’ve all been great. I’d like to thank the equally long-suffering bunch of folks I’ve eaten lunch with so many times over the last few years (Ryan S, Scott, Trevor, Peter A., John A., Francis K., and Hardeep). Sorry about all those anecdotes that made it impossible for you to finish what you were eating. A special shout out to Patricia O’Connor and Mike McG for their helpfulness.
I’ll be seeing some of you at the Golf Course for beverages later….
My apologies to anybody I missed… it wasn’t deliberate….
I can be reached at allegra.sloman@gmail.com if anybody wants to get hold of me. Goodbye, and take good care of each other and the customers!
All the best,
allegra
June 19th is my last day. I’m walking down the road to Jericho Beach Tuesday night and thinking “This is nuts. How much more pondering do I have to do to know I don’t want to be doing this anymore?” I phoned Katie and told her, and she provided consoling words. Then I turned the corner and there was the biggest rainbow I’ve ever seen. I’d post the pics but rainbows need a good photographer and a hefty lens, neither of which I had. Then I enjoyed the show at Jericho (Brighter Lights Thicker Glasses, and I can’t recommend them enough) with Peggy (after playing John’s Song and That Godforsaken Hellhole I Call Home), and then came home and told myself I’d sleep on it. And I did, and I went to my brother and said, “I’m quitting my job today,” and he said “Great!” and then I went in and told NewBoss and then everybody in the building knew and I had a stream of miserable engineers and unhappy techs come by and ask if it was true.
Why? Because John died. I knew, after Brian C. quit, that something very fundamental was gone and not coming back. I knew I was not giving it my best. And time’s winged chariot is outside my front door honking. I have an immense list of stuff I want to do and no energy or heart to do it as long as I’m working full time.
Daughter Katie came over last night so I could help her with her job hunt. I fed her and Jeff chicken thighs in mixed herbs and bouillon, peas, asparagus and tater tots. Mike came over.
While they were here, Miss Margot jumped up on the keyboards that I have negligently and sloppily left in the living room, and I turned them on, and then Jeff coaxed her into walking up and down the keyboard a couple of times. Katie and I knew, and Jeff and Mike did not, that the keyboard splits and is percussion sounds on the left and piano on the right. So we were laughing – I laughed until I was gasping for air, and we were all crying and hooting in a most unseemly manner – because she walked to one end of the keyboard sounding like she was trying to compose the climactic piano music for an artistic horror film from the sixties – and then she parked her butt on two keys and just sat there, eyeing us with something resembling resentment and puzzlement, her butt making a chord the whole while, for at least a minute, possibly longer, while Jeff tried everything to get her to walk up the keys. Then Mike did something that got her attention, and she walked toward the other end, writing a very beautiful and unusual song as she did so, and I ran to get the camera, and all I got was her walking on some percussion and dismounting with a “Bam-dum KISH!” exactly like she was finishing off a comedy sketch. It’s not long enough to post and the light level is very low, and I’m SCREAMING with laughter and shaking the camera. I wish I could have gotten the whole thing, it was just about the most amazing thing I’ve seen lately. And it happened in my living room. Katie, wiping her eyes, said that was the hardest she’d laughed in a very long time. Miss Margot is a really remarkable animal. I mean, a cat who eats oatmeal?
You know, if I quit my job, I could train Margot, the clown cat. I wonder if I can get a false nose fitted for her. No, some ideas are better left unrealized. Hey, I DID quit my job! But taking a year to train a clown cat, THAT has income possibilities. I should set the house up for camera operation in every room. Oh, Jeff!? Wifi webcam throughout the house? I know Miss Margot won’t be little and cute forever.
I need a root canal. I hope I can make it through the weekend. The poison from the abscess is affecting my jaw and tongue.
Take your kid to work day goes really wrong.
On the other hand, brute force and ugliness DOES work for some applications. Just ask any guy who fixes aircraft.
You’ve gotta be shittin’ me. This is CANaDA? I just don’t remember Montreal being like this. Trigger happy anti immigrant cops, sure, but this is ridiculous. Okay, I’m definitely learning a cop brutality song. Pukka Orchestra’s Cherry Beach Express, here I come.
