Ear issues

UGH!!!!!! I went all the way to Victoria, missed a day a work (we'll not really) and the stupid ear doctor was f-ing useless!!!!

If you want to hear about my ear issues we'll have to start from the beginning.....

Many babies who have ear issues, such as constant ear infections get tubes put in their ears, which help with drainage and pressure equalization, etc etc. So i got tubes as a baby, then in grade 4 i got them taken out. The right ear tube just sort of popped out on it own as i'm lead to believe is suppose to happen. the other one however was lodged into my ear drum and had to be surgically removed which left a hole, which had to be patched in grade 5. I'm not sure if they used skin donations, or shaved some of my hear for the patch, both options were presented to me however we were never clear as to what they do.

Anyway.... since then i've had mega ear issues. an ear infection or two per year, usually during exams oddly, maybe they're stress induced. Either way studying while super dizzy and in pain is not fun... but many people do it every day (ie university students tend to get drunk a lot).

Most recently, in September we went surfing in Toffino and a wave crashed super hard into the left side of my head and made my ear hurt so bad. I thought i got another ear infection but didn't do much about it, when the pain became constant and a regular part of my life, which it is in general but this time more noticeable, i saw my doctor, yes it was about 3 months after the fact but whatever it still hurt. My doctor had a look and nothing was wrong. Every time i saw my doctor after that (and if you know me that's a lot, yeah health issues) i got her to look at my ear and at some point she referred me to an ear, nose and throat guy.

So last friday i saw the ear nose and throat guy. what a colossal waste of time!!! "nope, nothing, you're fine. we could put tubes back in there but its really a grey area, it could make them better but it might make them worse and we don't want that". no i guess we don't but what i really want is FOR YOU TO HELP ME!!!!!! GAWD!!

So to make up for going to Victoria last friday I have to work this saturday which means a 6 day work week followed by a one day weekend, yaaaaay :'( and all for naught.

so annoyed!

AND to put some stress on my already full head (full of nervous 'cause im finally doing work at work) I'm worried i'm not going to get the time off that i NEED due to 2 weddings this year. one being mine and the other being my brothers.

Bankable

So once again i have a new job, YAY!!

RBC is going well, the training portion of the job is 6 weeks and I'm on week two. The confusing part is that my week starts on Tuesday, so even though its Wednesday it's day 2 of week 2 and I'm getting my days super confused. I.e. yesterday i thought it was Tuesday and today i thought it was Thursday. And even more confusing yesterday WAS Tuesday and i kept forgetting that fact.

One person that I worked with last week asked where I worked before the Bank. I told this person I use to work at Starbucks (apparently there's a lot of us). They then said that I should have stayed at Starbucks. It seems that they thought I could get more money and hours at Starbucks than at RBC. In what world?? Many other employees don't seem to enjoy their job etc etc but thats the same as any where.

However I already feel the want to go back to school, I'd still really love to work at a museum, and not in a retail/sale type position. And there fore I need more schooling.

Thats all for now.
I miss all my friends from Starbucks :(
I have an ear doctors appt on friday, maybe I'll finally get my ear taken care of, which may result in yet another ear operation, woot woot.

Jobs (cont...)

Ok so the issue with jobs continues....
.....yaaaaaay (pffft)

So two days after i started my job at Starbucks, RBC called me and asked if i was interested in a phone interview. I was very interested. The Starbucks job started Feb 1, the call from RBC was on Feb 3 and the phone interview was on Feb 7. And it went well which meant i had an inperson interview on Feb 16. I was told that if the interview went well i'd be notified by the 17th. Which was slightly hard to believe because Starbucks said they'd call me with in 48 hours if i got the shift supervisor job and it took a week for them to get back to me. I think if I hadn't called there first they would have forgotten and not called me at all. (yep my manager is that flaky).

So when RBC actaully did call the next day i was very surprised and extremely happy especailly because I GOT THE JOB! YAAAY! which means i'm now a mobile teller for RBC. Which has more hours and more pay than SBux, (YAY again).

When RBC called the first time I was very happy but at the same time I felt very awful about how the timing sucked and that if i got the job with RBC i'd be leaving SBux right after my training was up. And then when i got the job again i felt awful. But the whole time everyone kept saying that my boss would be understanding, but it didn't help much for the way I felt about the whole thing.

So then on Feb 18, the day after I got my RBC job I went to talk to my manager. I told him i had to talk to him and he seemed to be in a good mood and sounded kind of jokey when he asked if i was leaving and when i said yes he again sounded jokey in the way he initially reacted to it.

Then he practiaclly made me cry "i took a chance on you", "I very disapointed in you" "had i known you had a job offer from RBC sercumstances would be different" "i thought we had a deal" "why didn't you tell me about your interview" "blah blah starbucks career" etc etc etc. on and on and on about how he took a chance on me and how he was so disapointed in me. He wanted to know how much RBC was paying me and what kind of hours i was getting because he thought we could work something out. um.....unless you can double my wage and hours SBux i don't think so.

I would like to think that if i was every in the service industry as a boss and someone i had hired came up to me and said "im leaving, i have a job that pays more and has better hours" i would say "congrats, thats awesome!" and then later when they were gone freak out about how to fill their spot, not freak out at them and make them cry. It so hard going to an authority figure and let them know that you're going to let them down.

So, so long starbucks! Its not my fault the timing sucks. I handled the situation in the best way possible and have no regrets except for how my boss reacted. Thanks for being a douche.

Job(s)

So i told you all about the job i got at the beginning of January at the Cheshire Cheese Inn. my first shift started at 10 and went until 7 with an hour and a half break in between, so i guess you could call it a split shift, but whatever.

because this is a privately owned restaurant and not apart of a company there was no training model what so ever. So my training was basically throwing me into the deep end of the pool and yelling "swim" fat lot of help that's going to do me! now to be fair there was some training but not a lot and not all that helpful. the owner said stick to the manager like glue, the manager told me not to. whats a girl to do but stand back and watch. and you know what that's what they told me to do too. "today you'll be doing a lot of watching and tomorrow we'll get you in there and actually waiting tables". not that i didn't wait tables on my first shift i did but not all that successfully. whatever, i don't see this as 100% my fault having NEVER waitressed in my life before friday Jan 14 2011.

so my frist shift ends and the manager tells me she'll call me on monday for shifts on tuesady. Monday rolls around and Starbucks calls me for an interview on tuesady. i jump at it and call the Inn and tell them im unavailable tuesday and they so no problem give us a call when you are. So interview with Starbucks goes well, REALLY well. Because of the interview for a barista position with starbucks i get set up for another interview for a shift supervisor position. So then i call the Inn on wednesday to let them know im available. "ok, great we'll call you", no call, no call, no call. so i call again on friday and see whats going on.
"hello, Cheshire Cheese Inn, blank speaking" (ie the owner picks up)
"hi blank, it's laura"
"Laura... Laura? whats your last name?"
"laura Planden"
"Laura.... OH! hello, unfortunately you're not exactly what we're looking for at this time" etc etc etc

ok, when you hired me you asked if i had any experience and i said No, you then said you'd give me TWO WEEKS to train and we'd see how we went from there. i got ONE shift and you've decided to axe me and you took a whole week to do it. thank you for being a 15 year old boy breaking up with his first girlfriend. Had i know i only had THAT NIGHT to prove myself i would have done a lot better. I thought i was getting TWO WEEKS and i got ONE NIGHT! thanks alot Cheshire Cheese, you suck. (at least i still got paid).

So now Yay!! I have a job! i am now an employee of Starbucks. Im working at the Starbucks in Van at 41st and Balsam, come visit me.

today was my first day so we all know that that means A LOT of reading. but at least this job has a training method unlike the last place i attempted to work at.

right now im being trained as a barista and then after two weeks trains will commence for shift supervisor. Its very similar to a key holder position.

so its not exactly what i was looking for when i moved to van and not exactly the salary i was looking for but its not a bad job with not bad pay and what more can you ask for?

im just happy that i have a job and something to do every day

Frustrated

So I'm in Vancouver now and that's going along as well as it can. Doing my best to be up beat and positive about the whole thing. I burnt my hand yesterday while doing dishes and it sort of opened the flood gates of despair that I've been feeling. however i managed to close the gates fairly quickly and get on with my life again.

It's Sunday, guess where Darren is? School. yep. I knew that moving to Van wouldn't change how much work Darren would have to do. I also knew that moving to Van only meant I'd see him every day, not that I'd get any quality time with him. and the little quality time we do get is generally poisoned by the fact that he should be getting work done. then i worry like a mother (which is highly annoying to me) that he's not getting work done, and feel guilty (i should have been a Jew) that I'm keeping him from his work.

so that's frustrating me

what else is frustrating me is a bit of a long story. i shall shorten it for you.
Darren has an uncle who lives in Japan, therefore he has Japanese cousins. One of these cousins has been in the hospital since Christmas, he is recovering but slowly.

To encourage his recovery Darren's sister and another cousin had arranged to do a project involving encouraging words and pictures of couples.

I have been SO out of the loop on this its ridiculous!!!!!!!
A picture has been chosen for myself and Darren, a picture we had never seen until last night and a picture neither of us are too fond of. its not bad, its kinda funny but there are so many other good pictures of us that we would have picked instead, but alas its too late - frustrating

also i know its Darren's cousin and therefore its not up to me and my input isn't all that necessary but the words Darren picked for his encouraging words i actually really don't like. at all - frustrating.

but he's not my family yet so its not like i can do anything about it. I'm just uber frustrated that I'm feeling yet again like an accessory to Darren's life not a partner in it. I see him every day but i barely spend time with him. I also don't get ANY input in his cousins "card". Yes im a selfish person, deal with it, i've been trying to for 23 years and it's a hard habit to break out of.

I'm SICK of feeling like this!!

Vancouver so far

On the 2nd Darren and I moved me and my stuff to Vancouver, so now I am living with Darren and our room mate Alex. so far its been pretty good. Because I didn't bring over much stuff i was able to get it all sorted and put away fairly quickly on the 2, which was nice. On Jan 3 Darren and I went night skiing at Cypress which is about an hour drive away from where we live. It was a lot of fun. However there were a couple hic-ups before we were actually able to get on the slopes.

I have new ski boots which must be fitted to my ski's by adjusting their bindings. Unfortunately my ski's are 5 or more years old. So the guy at the shop said that the manufacturer had just put out a list which has deemed a lot of older bindings no longer safe. And my bindings are of course on this list, therefore he is not allowed to work on my bindings. Therefore I can’t use my ski’s to go skiing so I have to rent a pair of ski’s. On top of that the manager of the shop tells me he wouldn’t work on my bindings anyway because they are child’s bindings and wouldn’t hold me. This confused and frustrated me because I’ve had the ski’s for 5 years, I haven’t been a child for 10 years and I have NEVER popped out of my ski’s, they have always worked just fine. But doesn’t matter because I had to rent regardless.

The last time I went skiing, which was last year, we had just bought my new boots and I forgot what they looked like, so when packing I grabbed what I thought were my boots. Turns out the ones I grabbed were Dad’s boots so they didn’t fit me and they didn’t fit my ski’s, so I had to rent boots. Which means my boots and my ski’s have never actually met. Haha.

So back to last week when I rented ski’s, because I have new boots I haven’t broken them in yet which means my feet HURT! Because we are night skiing there are no line ups to wait for the chair and very few people on the hill, which is lovely, so we got quite a few runs in in the 3 hours we paid for. But my feet hurt so much they go numb, I can’t feel them at all, except my arches, which I think are trying to detach themselves from my feet. On top of that because I haven’t been skiing in a year my thighs are also killing me. But I do my best to ski through the pain because I love skiing, the snow is perfect and the conditions are lovely, night skiing with not a cloud in the sky is heaven. But my thighs and feet get the better of me and I eventually have to call it quits, but Darren was still able to get 3 or 4 more runs in before we decided to go home. All in all it was a lot of fun and we hope to do it again.

Last Friday, Jan 7, I finally hear back from all my references and am able to hand out my resume. I printed off 15 resumes and wasn’t able to hand out 1. NO ONE was hiring. It was very depressing. Then I went into a convenience store to buy a bus pass, because I rarely have change and was planning on going more into town to look for jobs later. A bus pass for one month in Vancouver is $110.00. I am now very depressed. But its ok, Darren took my out for a friends birthday and we had a lot of fun watching the hockey game.

On Tuesday, Jan 11, I muster up the courage and the happy attitude to go out and look for a job again. This time I was able to hand out 3 resumes. On my way home I stopped into a pub called “The Cheshire Cheese Inn” and I asked if they were hiring. The owner said yup and took my resume then asked me to sit down and he’d be with me in a minute. So he interviews me on the spot.

“have you had any waitressing experience?”

“No, but I did work at McDonalds for 3 months”
“are you a fast learner?”
“I think I can be, but it really depends on what I’m doing.”
“we’re looking for someone we don’t have to train and we’d like them to start in a week. So why don’t you come in on Friday and will give you a two week trial run and see how you do”

Just like that I got a job I have no requirements for, haha. So Friday I start at 9:45am and he mentioned id be working in the evening too. I’m not sure when I’m off but they close at midnight, so at the moment I’m expecting the worst but hoping for the best. I’m expecting to work from 9:45am to midnight with an hour and half brake (he mentioned I’d get an hour and a half brake) and it’s a game night, which means the place could be filled with a lot of hockey fans. But I’m hoping for the best in that I learn quickly and hoping that it wont be too hard. I keep telling myself that if I can work at McDonalds at their busiest times and the Butchart Garden’s coffee shop at their busiest times I’ll be able to work in a small British pub. This pub that I’m working at really reminds me of the local pub where I lived in Wales.

In the mean time I’ve been being a bit of a house wife for Darren. It’s fun in that I know it will end soon, so I’m enjoying taking care of him as much as I can. Right now I’m waiting for Darren to get home from band practice. Darren’s playing trombone in the UBC Godiva band which is just a volunteer school marching band but he really enjoys it.

And that’s pretty much all that’s been happening with me since I moved over here. I’m still looking for a Job with better hours and decent pay, I’ve applied online to a lot of banks and other businesses and today I sent an e-mail to the head of the Classics department at UBC to see if he could suggest anything or had any work for me. So even though I have a job I wont stop looking until I have a good job.

life since then

So i keep on trying to do my best to remember about updating this thing and it never goes well. So Darren and I are still engaged, the wedding is at the end of this year.

Whats happened since then:
I finished school, i'm graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in Greek and Roman Studies. Its slightly frustrating how many people don't understand that Greek and Roman Studies is its own thing.

"so what are you taking?"
"Greek and Roman studies"
"but what is that?"
"Greek and Roman studies"
"So are you in anthropology?"
"no, its greek and roman studies, it's its own program, faculty, department etc etc"
"oh.... so is that like in the archeology department?"
"no, its GREEK AND ROMAN STUDIES!"

no joke that is an actual conversation i had with someone, and there have been many similar ones to it. Its frustrating.

So now im living in Vancouver (which btw im a bit afarid of) with the hubby-to-be while he finishes school. Looking for a job, and its depressing because no one is hiring, oh well. something will come a long eventually, i just have to keep looking.

Thats about it.....

this summer Darren and I lived together in Langford, that was interesting. our toilet broke so for 2-3 weeks while both of us were working in langford we were living in saanichton with my parents waiting for parts to be shipped in.

what else? OH YEAH! I signed up for a class in july, or at least i thought it was in july, but really it was in june. so on july 2 when i showed up for class it wasn't there. then i looked at the schedule on the board and my class was in june. OOPS! no worries, I got 100% of my fees back for that class so yay. at the time i was really embarrassed, but now its kinda funny :D

Anyway, thats a really short recap of life.
school, work, school, vancouver.

if you want wedding info go to plande-thomas.blogspot.com