Downtown Adventures With Good Weather = A Great Day

I had a fabulous day yesterday, and the weather was fabulous too! My boyfriend took the day off from school because his brain was going to explode (from knowledge... not from some sort of medical emergency) and we went downtown to get him a pair of sunglasses he's been eyeing since the summer. After that we got some lunch at the new Poutinerie and Burrito Boys and boy did we feel disgusting after. Not that the food tasted bad, it was far from it, actually... but it's definitely not the healthiest stuff out there! So we walked around for a bit and made our way to the skydome and CN Tower, and the bf took some pictures with our awesome new camera. While we were there I pointed out the Steam Whistle Brewery which we had both never been to, and since we had some time to spare we decided to go and take a tour.
It was AWESOME!! We walked in the doors and they were like "do you want a sample?" and then poured us a half-pint of beer. And then handed us a ticket for a free sample. A tour was starting just as we got there so we tagged along and after the tour, we got another free sample of beer. Without giving in our ticket that we were given before, so now we've got 2 free sample tickets and totally plan on going back to take advantage of those!
It was really nice just to spend time together without thinking about external things. This past week has been kinda rough between his insane schedule of tests and labs at school and me being sick and still not having a job, so it was nice to forget about all that and just hang out.

Tonight we're hosting a bbq and we're having a few friends over for food and drinks. We've got a pork tenderloin all rubbed up and I've finished a pasta salad, so it's just a few appetizers to go and we'll be all set!

Gonna Attempt To Make Me Some Money... Again

So the interview last week went really well, I walked out of it feeling like I could conquer the world! But here's what went down: Basically, I am overqualified for the position I had sent in my resume to them for. It was strictly reception and quite honestly both me and the interviewer knew that I would be bored out of my skull. I've done a lot of different contracts and have a lot of different skills thanks to my BMus education and my experience with a youth organization I work with. The interviewer told me straight out that he would place me in a position that I wasn't qualified for, because I would become qualified for it while in the position. Great compliment, except that NOBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD IS WILLING TO DO THAT. For example, I have an interview with another staffing agency this afternoon and applied for an HR admin assistant position through them, which is EXACTLY what I want. Over the phone, the lady told me that the client is "looking for someone who already has an HR certification." Great. Then again, maybe she'll meet with me and realize the same thing my first interviewer did.
My interview last week really gave me the confidence to not settle for just anything. Yeah I have bills to pay, but I want to enjoy my life. Doing reception at my old job I wanted to stab my eyes out everyday and felt totally under-used. I have an Honors degree, I was on the Dean's List... I just feel like I should be so much more than I am right now and the right job will come around, I just have to be patient and hope it doesn't take longer than how long it will take for my savings to run out!
I just wish I hadn't woken up with a sore throat this morning. I feel like crap but I've gotta get a move on with this job finding process. And I wish it wasn't raining because now I have to worry about avoiding getting myself and my resume/references wet. And at some point I need to clean my whole place... maintaining such a small space is surprisingly difficult.
Oh! And we also got our computer fixed - a friend of ours who is taking computer engineering (or something like that) wiped our hard drive and reformatted the whole thing. I'm so glad we didn't have to buy a new computer... We want to get a second one, just not right now!

Never Download Illegal Crap

My boyfriend likes to download things for free. And then download code generators so that the programs work without having to pay for them.
This is a bad plan. A very bad plan. I have not updated recently because our computer refuses to boot up.

Thank goodness for friends who are studying to become IT technicians.

Will update more on the job front when the computer's fixed.

Gonna Make Me Some Money!

Huzzah! There is finally progress on the job hunt!!
In the past 2 days, I've probably sent out between 30-35 resumes and harrassed all my friends who have jobs to find me something, and last night I had a mini break down. I know, I know, it was just 2 days since I started seriously searching, but I have been off work for a week now and I HATE the idea that I'm not making money. Because of my tax return I have enough in my account to pay for my student loan payment for this month and next month's rent, but after that I'm going to have to start going into my savings. And with a Northern Ontario roadtrip planned for the end of the summer and tickets to the Olympics next year, I have quite a bit I need to save up for. And that's not to mention general saving up for things like a downpayment for a house.
But I have an interview tomorrow! Granted, it's with a staffing agency, but it's for a reception position downtown and judging by the job description, it seems exactly the same thing as I was doing at my last reception job. So they can't not hire me on the basis that I am not experienced! Take THAT, bitches!

I mean, wont you please hire me on permanent so that I can stop this job search crap every month?

10 bucks says I start on Monday.

Paranormally Paranoid

I have this thing about ghost shows. You know, the kind of shows where people go into a haunted place and they get a medium or psychic to talk about what they're sensing and stuff.
So last night I'm watching tv and see that Paranormal State is on. Now, I've only watched one other episode, and have to say that of all the ghost shows I've watched, Paranormal is the SCARIEST I have ever seen. The episode I saw was about this family who was complaining of a demonic presence in their house that kept attacking their daughter, and then they find out that the demonic presence is attached to the daughter and they have to do an exorcism. Anyway, the episode I watched last night was about this couple and the wife's sister had moved in with them when they first bought the house, and the first night the sister sees this figure with a Ram's head standing in the doorway and tells the couple about it and how it said it came from the river and then a week later she commits suicide by wandering in the Mississippi River nearby. So the people are investigating the house, and the psychic guy says that he keeps getting the name of something they had dealt with before, and it was 6, which was the demon thing I had seen in the last episode! And THEN, they get a call from the girl from that episode saying that things had gotten worse and the exorcism didn't work, so then they drive the 5 hours to go see her and try and help her. So then while they're there, they figure out that the 2 cases are related and it's a combination of 6 different demons and the connection was the Mississippi River because it was nearby the girl that had to have the exorcism! The whole time I was watching I was so freaked out and I've never been more glad to switch to baseball in the middle of a show. And of course by the time the show ended it was midnight and I was heading to bed, but I had to hang out in the bathroom while my boyfriend took a shower so that I wasn't alone. And even when I was in bed, I had to have the covers in front of my eyes so that I couldn't see the doorframe for fear of seeing the Ram-man.

Apparently I have issues.

It's crazy how even though I was scared shitless, I want to watch more of it but have decided not to because I am home alone. And considering how freaked out I was even this morning, I believe it is a bad, bad plan to watch scary things alone.

K, I don`t know what I did to this laptop, but for some reason my question marks are now É`s and my apostrophes are all weird (seeÉ see themÉ Gah I just want question marks!!) There`s like 4 characters for every key and some are red and some are blue, and I know that by pressing the red Alt buttons you get the characters, but there`s no magic blue button that makes the blue characters, which are all the normal ones.

Maybe the keyboard`s possessed. I like that theory, so I`m running with it.

Paying Attention Is Overrated - I'd Rather Eat

Ugh... I HATE applying for jobs. I always screw up SOMETHING on each application, which narrows the amount of people who will probably contact me back. Things like forgetting to attach my resume, or forgetting to change the contact name on the cover letter, or the position name or take out certain parts of the cover letter that pertained to the previous job but has absolutely nothing to do with the one I was working on. Like right now, someone at a property management company is going to be reading my cover letter meant to be for an admin assistant, but instead is focused towards an office admin position. And says office admin position in it. And mentions how I'm taking HR courses which will be useful for assisting the HR manager which is not part of the job description. Gah... I guess I'll just try to be more careful. That way I'll be telling the truth when I say I am detail-oriented.

In other news, I marked yesterday as The Beginning Of The Time When Lil S Stops Eating Crap And Starts Exercising Again. Last spring I ran every day and then in the summer I worked out every day and was really active while I was working at camp. Since then, I have been working office jobs and eating whatever I wanted, far too frequently. Needless to say that especially over the past week, my weight has... inflated. What can I say, I come from a family that eats when we're sad, stressed, celebrating something... so basically all the time. And it's not even that I think I'm fat or anything, I just don't feel as healthy as I did last summer. So I went for a run yesterday (stamina? I had that once? Really?? Could swear that I have NO idea what that is now...) and made shit loads of tea rather than eating cheese and crackers as per the norm so that I would feel full. Helped a little, I guess. But the major issue now is that I'm unemployed so I'm home all day, and that means I have access to my wonderful fridge of yummy surprises all day long. Here's hoping I can resist the urge to shove my face full of food!

Excuse me whilst I make a pot of tea.

Death and Life

This week has been a long week. I managed to get 5 1/2 hours of work this week filling in as a last minute receptionist and could have even worked again yesterday, but being at work on Wednesday was tough. My grandfather passed away on Monday and we've been spending all week trying to get things organized for his memorial service tomorrow. I think that's all I'll mention about that here - I HATE it when people announce personal stuff like that on facebook or in their msn name. It's like, if I really want you to know about it because you're a good friend to me, I'll call you or send you a message personally. I'm not out there to be looking for sympathy. I just mentioned it because it's why I haven't written more frequently.
Anyways...
Yesterday was also my 2 year anniversary with my boyfriend. In typical us style, we celebrated with food at an asian place that was AWESOME - and between the both of us, getting a roll of sushi, dim sum and a main course each, it only cost $50!! So then we went to a nearby pub and split a pitcher :) It was a really good night and a nice break to focus on life and the present.