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1. OK this is really a hypothetical question, I have not gotten any job offers, but it’s just something that I’ve been thinking about. So I am studying nuclear medicine technology right now, which is basically training us to be nuclear medicine technologists that work in hospitals. That’s fine. But sometimes our teachers tell us about other job possibilities like radiation safety officer, or central pharmacy worker, or something at BC Cancer, for example. Would accepting a job in something different like that be a good idea? As a first job? What if the job might not last forever? I worry about what would happen if I did something like work for a central pharmacy for a while, but then the job ends, and then I would have been several years out of date with things like working with patients etc. etc. and I wonder if it would be very difficult to get another job after that. Is that realistic? Are other types of jobs a good or bad idea? In the overall life career sense, I guess.

2. How do you decide when you can afford something, like going on a trip? I mean, if you are putting money in savings, and gradually accumulating money, how do you decide if you should do something fun or not? We don’t really have any specific savings goals at the moment since we don’t need a car or a house here, and are socking away money for the future… but then decisions need to be made like ‘can we really afford to go on three vacations this year’ or something like that and I have no idea. Any advice?

Anyway I would love it if you left me a comment with anything about these topics that you know something about or have thought about before. Or if you have no idea either.

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Saturday morning headed out to Michael’s early because they were having an extra 25% off sale in the morning. We got big canvases for super cheap. I thought they were $9.99 for each pack of two, so we got two packs, but then they rang up as only $4.99, and then 25% off of that, so I made the cashier wait while I grabbed another pack! Immediately after we left the store I realized I should have gotten the bigger size, since they were so cheap. I really wish there was such thing as rewind of life.

Anyway, 6 canvases for $11 is pretty good. Now we can do tons of masterpieces. Scott has another video game-y one in mind, and I have a geometric series idea and also a melted crayon thing I saw on Pinterest that looks super cool. It needs a hair dryer though and I don’t have one. Rosemarie???

After Michael’s we went by the old house to pick up our mail and then to the farmers market. We spent too much money a coffee, a korean short rib taco, homemade ginger ale, strawberries, tiny peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes. I wanted to get some plants too, but we need to do a bit of research about what can grow indoors, in the dark.

We came home, and started the squares project. Then I decided we REALLY needed a level to do it so we hoofed it over to Metrotown to pick one up. We also got some Coldstone ice cream with a 50% off coupon. I had a cup with cookie dough, choc chips, caramel and fudge, and Scott had a mint one with brownie, choc chips and fudge. They were both very good, but too large, and neither of us really liked the chocolate chips. If we go back we will definitely share. On the way home we stopped by a girl’s apartment to pick up a desk chair I saw on Craigslist. It’s green and funky. She lived right around the corner so it was super convenient!

Scott made a pizza for dinner with sweet potato and lentils and some other things. He’s gotten quite good at making the crust, but the toppings were too carbolicious.

I just realized I never actually took any pictures of the other paintings I did, at the old apartment. I will, I promise! I only have one more week left of work (WOOHOOOOOOO) and then I will have lots of free time.

Sunday was mostly spent bumming around. We watched some Masterchef, the movie Paul, played Agricola, talked with Rosemarie, and now Scott is out at The Keg with some of his friends. I don’t know what he will get to eat there!

I also did some online shopping. We ordered this antenna thing to pick up free HD channels (bet you didn’t know about that!). Apparently there are 6 free HD channels floating around in Vancouver and all you need is an antenna to pick them up. You can get CBC, Global, CTV and three others that I forget right now. That’s all we need! We also ordered some new jeans for Scott and more of my favourite t-shirts for me. Yay!

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Yesterday was such an awesome day!

Well it didn’t start off that way. Work was boring as usual and I still couldn’t get in touch with the BCIT lady. I had to email Toronto by about lunchtime to accept my offer and time was ticking. I never reached her so I had no choice but to accept Toronto.

Scott got an interview this week for a new job that pays quite well. Even more reasons why I desperately wanted to get in to BCIT! Also I’d looked up truck rentals and gas prices the night before and it looked like it would cost $2500+ to drive across to Toronto. Ack.

I actually started tearing up at work because I was so frustrated and anxious with anticipation.

At 4:30PM I left work to head to Brian’s to watch the hockey game. I’d just left the building and saw that I had a missed call and a voice mail on my phone, and it was from the BCIT lady!!!! I went back up to the office to use the phone and hyperventilated! She said that she had been away on a conference and didn’t get back until today and that YES they considered me a strong applicant and wanted to offer me admission! She left me her cell phone number so I called her back and she repeated all that stuff and said she will get my offer sent out on Monday IF I WANTED IT. I was like YESSS YES YES YES I WANT IT!

I was giddy with excitement as I fought through the crowds in the city (CBC.ca says estimated 100,000 people gathered on the streets!!!) We all watched the game at Brian’s. It was incredibly stressful. We were all tense right up to the last second of the game since I think we were all remembering all the other games where horrible things happened in the last moments of the games. Canucks did it though and won! Everyone expects them to lose again in Boston though and then we’ll have game 7 here in Vancouver on Wednesday.

They might lose though because Scott has to shave his playoff beard on Tuesday night now for the interview!! ;)

After the game we went out to the streets for a few minutes but everyone was really moving around a lot and it was a bit rough in the crowds so I didn’t like it. I tried Japadog (and loved it) and then we went home. My mouth is burnt and scraped from the delicious hotdog but I’m so relieved and so much less stressed and feeling a lot better than I have in a long time. Oh and the Toronto dude wrote back and cancelled my acceptance so we don’t have to pay $500.

More later.

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Blossoms on our street.

Another week gone by, nothing from NAIT.

Nothing from BCIT either yet, but since I did the bio challenge and finished the first half of physics (I got an A) I should hear from them any day now.

We just want to make some plans!!!

Ah Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals! We watched the last game downtown. It was nutso, as soon as they won people started screaming and honking their horns everywhere downtown. It was crazy noisy! We all rushed down to Granville Street where everyone was singing and cheering and high fiving each other. Apparently 20,000 people flooded Granville Street! That wasn’t even the finals!!

 

We took some videos too. Maybe Scott will post one on his blog IF HE EVER WRITES AGAIN.

Work has become very very very boring. I’ve mastered all the different documents so nothing is challenging any more. I could do it with my eyes closed. Well not really, but almost. I’ll obviously keep at it for the next couple months but I will admit I have been dreaming about my last day for a while now.

Well time to do something productive now… so I’m off!

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STUFF I LOVE #1

Audiobooks

I recently decided that I LOVE AUDIOBOOKS! I read listened to an entire book in two days, WHILE WORKING. How’s that for multi-tasking.

I’m sure I could have curled up in bed and read the whole book in two days too, but who has time for that!? Now I can earn money and “read” at the same time. I feel like I’ve opened up a huge new chunk of day for me to take advantage of. Plus it was also kind of… comforting… like the old days when dad used to read to me at night time. A nice feeling.

I was listening to Terry Fallis’ The Best Laid Plans which he podcasted one chapter at a time a while ago when he was having trouble getting it published. You can get it for free off iTunes. Then it won the CBC Canada Reads 2011 contest and I’m sure he’s doing a lot better now. It’s a good story, check it out!

I suppose some books are better for listening to than others. The Best Laid Plans worked well, but we also downloaded audio files of Jasper Fforde’s books and now I am thinking that they might not be as good since he does a lot of clever things with different fonts or intentional ‘myspelings’, which would be lost.

I’ve also listened to Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything which was also quite interesting, but that was a serious time commitment since it really is not short at all. Now I need some kind of audiobook library (does that exist? probably) to pick what next! Any suggestions?

The question is, does listening to a book have the same educational benefit as reading a book? It certainly is a lot more passive. But I think I personally absorb more from listening than reading.