Employment

Well, I applied for my first job here today. It took me nearly 4 hours. First, I had to re-write my resume and cover letter. I realize I haven't updated my resume in 3 years. Well, I'm sure I have, but apparently I didn't save it. Also, I wanted to change my resume, and make it more skills-based, rather than employment-based... It just makes more sense when I am applying for jobs that are not in the education field. So then I wrote a cover letter to go with it...

Side-note: The job posting was on a website. I was reading the qualifications, experience, and skills required as I was writing my resume and cover letter, making sure to include all of the things they mentioned in the ad.

When I finished writing the resume, I clicked on "apply for job" or whatever it says... and it brought to me another page where I could upload my resume. Then, it automatically picks out your relevant skills, from your resume! Not flawless - I did have to add some it missed, mostly due to a difference in wording... But then you have to rank them, and include years of experience! For example, one of the skills I had listed was "teamwork", and then you have to include years of experience. I think I picked 15 years - I'm sure teamwork was something I worked on in highschool! "Communication skills" was a really difficult one! I put 29 years - I figure I have been communicating in some form or another for my entire life. Maybe not what they're looking for, but what do they really expect?! It was HARD! And then, when I was trying to search skills (you can't make them up, you have to find them in their relevant skills database!) I would backspace on the keyboard, because I didn't find what I was looking for and wanted to try a different word, and I would hit backspace too many times, and it would actually take me back in the browser, and then I would have to start all over again! It was an incredibly frustrating experience. I have decided that I should probably not pursue a career in career advising, or job placement, or whatever - I HATE THIS!!!

I hate the process of reducing my skills and experience to 15 ranked skills. I am a much more well-rounded person than that. I have more than 15 skills and experiences. The website said to pick your strongest 15. Unfortunatly, some of my strongest are probably not relevant to this particular job, so I left some out... Ugh.

Ian is Mr. Joe-Cool when it comes to job hunting. Jobs are handed to him. He doesn't even have to look for them. And when he goes in for interviews, people just love him. I helped him write his resume, but I don't even think he needs it. I think he's very lucky, not that this happens to him, but that he doesn't have to look and try so hard. It's hard to be turned down repeatedly. He's waiting to hear about a job right now. We've been sitting here checking his email all day, waiting for the offer to come in. Nothing yet. It is very hard to wait, especially considering he needs to decide on another job by today, or he'll lose the offer... We have our fingers crossed.
Oh yeah, we're going to go look at an apartment to rent, too! What an exciting day!

On Vacation

Well, we're still here on vacation. Weather has been cooperating, we've been enjoying all the sites, and catching up on all the things we've been missing out on in the past several years. This past week we hosted a barbeque at Ian's parents' house for his parents and his sister's family, caught up with Ian's friend Ben, drove past the falls (and the thousands of toursits), toured the newly revitalized downtown strip, ate crepes, had drinks on Ian's sister's new deck, went for a few nice walks, had two picnics, drove along the parkway, and managed to stumble upon a battle reenactment at Old Fort Erie. We are clearly enjoying our vacation in Niagara Falls!

Only this isn't a vacation! We live here now!

It will be sad when we both start working again and our vacation time feels like it's over. But there are so many fun things to do here, especially in the summer! We are both wishing it could last at least until the end of the month...

A nice spot for a picnic!

 

The bridge beside our picnic island.

The picnic island!

 Us.

Buffalo, New York, as seen from Fort Erie.

The campers at the battlefield, the War of 1812. The battle depicted here actually occured from August to September, 1814, and was the bloodiest battle faught here. These were the Americans, who held the fort at the beginning of our viewing of the re-enactment..

Tents, and note the American flag flying at the fort in the background.

The British camp.

Waiting to begin...

 Waiting, and listening to the band...

 Some good explosions of peat.. we were covered in bits of dirt!

I think these two were just hiding, trying to get a good view point for the scaling of the walls.

Explosions on the battlefield.

Americans trying to hold the British back.

British troops pushing forward.
British troops at the wall fo the fort.
The British scale the walls...
And blow up 25% of the fort, apparently!

Party!

Last night was our "Niagara Falls Reception" for our wedding, ending the nearly 7 month wedding celebrations. Part of me feels relief that we don't have to plan any more parties. Part of me is really sad that it's all over now! Not many people are as lucky as we are, to have three wedding celebrations!

I met a lot of my in-laws family that I hadn't met before, and met a few that I did meet a few years ago, and then of course I got to see the ones we see frequently, nearly every time we've visited. Ian had some friends in attendance as well, and I had a friend from Toronto who very kindly made the trip down to "represent me." I believe that a lovely night was had by all. A lovely night was had by me anyways. Ian really does have a lovely family, and it's always nice when family can get together and celebrate anything!

I'd like to post some pictures, but I will have to do it later for two reasons: 1, my camera is upstairs; 2, I only have a few pictures, mostly just of what the hall looked like decorated. Hopefully other people will send me their pictures.

Today we are going to his sister's for a post celebration breakfast. My stomach is already growling, I can't wait to go!

Arrived in Niagara Falls!

After waking up at 5 AM yesterday morning to the sound of booming thunder and flashing lights, with a pounding headache, I was not off to a good start. I managed to finally fall asleep again only to be woken up to my alarm at 6AM signaling it was time to get up for breakfast. This was the only hotel of the 3 we stayed at that offered a continental breakfast, so we were going to take advantage of that. I finally managed to get downstairs and make myself a bowl of oatmeal, and pour a cup of coffee, then made it back to the room to put them both down untouched while I tried to make the nausea stop. I was able to swallow a few spoons of oatmeal before crawling back into bad, squeezing my eyes shut, hoping the pounding headache and accompanying nausea would go away. It didn't. I was not well. Headaches always make me feel nauseous, but this is the first time it's actually made me throw up. Not a nice picture, I know. So we didn't actually leave the hotel until around 9, or 9:30 in the morning. Rather than the 7 or 8 we were aiming for.
But you know, when you consider the time difference: 9AM in Wisconsin is really 7AM in BC, so were actually doing alright. That was our third early morning, following several days of extreme heat and dehydration in the car, little sleep, lots of "excitement" and emotions in Kamloops, etc. etc. etc. I think we did alright.

Yesterday may have been the longest drive day of my life. I slept off and on in the car until noon or so. The hour of 4PM seemed to drag on for days. We stumbled in at 9:30PM EST, and sat here dazed for two hours before crawling into bed. I think we were both pretty out of it.

But you know what? Most importantly, we made it! We are now in Niagara Falls. We are at our new temporary home, with Ian's parents, until we find jobs and an appartment.

I can't quite wrap my head around it yet. It still feels like we're visiting, although we drove ourselves here this time, rather than being picked up at the airport. I guess it will feel different when we're settled in our own place. Maybe it will take a few days to adjust. I still have no idea what to expect. This feels so weird.

Photographs smotographs, who needs photographs?

I saw fireflies tonight! I don't think I've ever seen a firefly before! Oddly enough, they're apparently a bit like fairies and when you return for photographic proof, they disappear.

The moon is red. It's awesome. Tried to take a picture of that too, but it just looks so tiny and insignificant.

Today was not a good picture day. Every time I tried to take a picture, it seems it didn't turn out. I tried to capture the Mississippi River as we raced over it, but alas, the picture is pathetic.

This morning I was scanning the sky for tornados. All I saw was some awesome fork lightning and one heck of an ominous rain cloud. At first I thought it might be a huge tornado from a distance, because of the angle of the rain falling. It seemed to have a curve to it. It wasn't. I think I'm glad. Besides, I like lightning, so I'm happy with that. However, again, no pictures.

Thunderstorms in the morning kept us a bit cooler at the start. It wasn't until 1 or so that I started feeling really hot. Luckily I planned ahead this time and filled the cooler bag with ice from the hotel before we left, two bottles of water, a can of Sprite, and two Red Bulls for Ian. We savoured the water throughout the day, and I dipped paper towel into the melting ice water to hold on our necks. I wiped it down my arms, my face, my legs, and tucked it in the front of my dress. It was fantastic.

Ian drove all day. He did a great job. But I'm still exhausted and I feel one heck of a headache coming on. I can't imagine how he must be feeling!

Looking forward to arriving tomorrow and I think it will be some time before I want to do another road trip!

West to East Day 2

The morning started bright and sunny, and a wonderful temperature in the Gas City, Medicine Hat. I drove to Regina, Saskatchewan today. I must say, the first hour was great. The second hour was okay. The third hour I was bored. Bored silly. I have never been so bored while actually driving. It's not that the prairies aren't pretty, because they are, but it's just that it's straight. Then there's a little hill. Then there's a sign warning of a slight bend in the road. Then it's straight. Repeat for 11 hours. That was much of our day!

We stopped in Moose Jaw for lunch and to take the requisite picture standing under the giant moose. The pictures are on the cameras and I'm too tired to post them tonight. Besides, everyone who's been there has a picture under the giant moose so I'm sure you can figure out what it looks like. Replace the person/people in any said picture with Ian and myself. Done.

In Regina we switched drivers and Ian drove to Winnipeg. A few hours out of Regina I started feeling really car sick. I was trying to nap in the car when suddenly I felt like I couldn't breath, and I realized how hot it had gotten. Earlier in the day the sun was hot, and it felt hot on your skin, burning hot. But okay! I can handle that hot. Suddenly the air was so thick and heavy, even with the window wide open, that I couldn't seem to catch my breath. And I was thirsty! I took a sip of my water, only to realize it was hot. Like tea. But just water. And it wasn't satisfying my thirst at all. In fact, the warm water in my throat was making me feel worse and I suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous! I warned Ian to drive carefully - I might suddenly need to pull over. We were just about in Brandon, and when we got there I thought, it's not toooo much further to Winnipeg, certainly a bit longer and I'll be okay. Besides, we drove through it before I noticed really. Then, probably ten minutes or so out of Brandon I realized I really needed water. I was still feeling horribly nauseous and sooooo unbearably hot!! This stretch of highway seems to go forever without a single gas station/shop that sells cold drinks. Finally I asked for the TomTom and looked at where we were on the map. It indicated a "town" coming up, you know when the area is shaded brown? So we figured that was a good bet. The town was Sidney, Manitoba. We finally turned in, it's just off the highway a bit. No gas station. Luckily, there's a corner store. It happens to double as the Post Office, Library, Coffee Shop, etc. There were two little girls playing outside with water guns. The thought crossed my mind to ask them to shoot me. Instead, I went in and got two bottles (one for Ian of course!) of blissfully ice cold water. I've never been so happy to have cold water in my life. I paced by the car for a few minutes, willing the nausea to pass, and it did very quickly once I drank some water. I put the bottle down my shirt, held it to my neck, my cheeks, put it down my shirt again. It felt absolutely wonderful! My bottle was warm in about 20 minutes. Then Ian let me use his. That's love. I really have the most wonderful husband in the world.

The rest of the way to Winnipeg I watched these huge cumulonimbus clouds puffing up in the sky. It clouded over quite a bit and we even got a few drops of rain. I was willing those clouds to dump some rain on us and cool me down. I was begging them, silently. About half an hour after arriving in Winnipeg they had collected together and resulted in a thunderstorm. We went for a walk, and at the first clap of thunder I heard I think I cheered. It was a bit late, but I do love a good storm. Sadly, I never did see any lightning. We didn't go far because it did start to rain, and we hadn't had dinner yet. About ten minutes after we got back to the hotel, the clouds released a torrential downpour. We would have been soaked. I happened to notice on the Weather Network tonight that there was a tornado warning for Winnipeg, and one reportedly touched down in the North East apparently. I'm a bit sorry we missed that! (Just a bit!)
Tomorrow's supposed to be even hotter and I'm very scared I'll be car sick all day. We're driving south, into the states, and I'm really nervous about driving in these big cities. The love of my life says he'll drive all day if he has to. He says it's okay.

Could I be any luckier?

making mountains out of no hills

I'm trying not to focus on the leaving friends and family part. There have been a few tears shed. My head hurts, my stomach feels like it's in knots, my eyes are still red, and my face is breaking out big time. But I'm trying not to think about it.

Instead, let me tell you about our first day on the road.

Ian drove to Salmon Arm, then I drove to Canmore, then he drove the rest of the way to Medicine Hat. I drove from Salmon Arm to Canmore because he's never been through the mountains here. He was impressed. At least, I figure he must have been impressed because he killed the battery in his own camera, and then took a ton of mountain pictures with mine.

It's also Ian's first time in Alberta, and the first song we heard on the radio after we entered Alberta was by the band that "brought us together". It must be a sign!

As we were driving away from the mountains I felt incredibly sad to see them disappearing behind us. I kept looking for them off in the distance. At one point, looking east into the horizon I was sure I could see rocky mountainous peaks poking through the clouds. You know how around Vancouver and the Fraser Valley you can see the mountains just barely behind the smog on hot summer days? It was a bit like that, but I was just hallucinating mountains I guess.

Here are a few shots from the day.