Life Update

Since it's been a little while since I have posted I thought I'd do a quick update on how things have been going. 

First off, J found a job!  YAY!!  Not only did he find a job, but it's a great one.  Good paying and great benefits.  He's just finished his 3rd week on the job and seems to be settling into it now.  He was very nervous and frustrated at first because he had a lot to learn in a very short amount of time but I had faith that he would figure it out and he has.  It's nice to see him settling in and getting some confidence back.  It has been a long 6 months for the both of us.  When he came into my work to tell me he got the job I gave him and big hug and congratulated him.  What I really wanted to do was break down and cry.  I had been trying for so very long to hold it together for both of us and it was like a huge weight had been lifted off me and all these emotions I had been holding in for so long wanted to come rushing out.  His new job may mean some big changes in our life, but I am looking forward to that.  He is working out in Taber and has to commute to work and back each day.  We have discussed the option of moving out to Taber.  This is something we have talked about before.  To be closer to the farm and be able to help out a little easier.  I am all for moving, but with the caviet that we get a new and more reliable car so I can commute back to the city and keep my job.  I love my job and am not ready to find something different.  The commute for me would be a little easier as my job starts a little later in the day than his.  We are thinking that January would be a good time to move. That way he is good and settled in his job and we have time to save up a little money beforehand.  I am really looking forward to this as I find myself growing more and more sick of the city.  I tried to sit on my deck and read the other day and I found myself getting very frustrated with how noisy it was outside!  Construction, cars, sirens, people yelling etc.  And I really miss having a yard.  I think we have outgrown our little apartment and I look forward to something new.

I am offically the stage manager for LMT's production of Hairspray this year as well as my duties as Vice President.  I was very excited that the director wanted me involved in the audition process.  I really enjoy working with this new director so far and I am hopeful for an amazing show.  I really enjoyed watching everyone audition and seeing such an amazing group of truly talented people!  I am glad that the final decision wasn't mine.  I did get the opportunity to call and offer parts to the members of the cast who made it into the ensemble.  That was an interesting experience.  I was expecting people to be a little more excited I suppose.  I was shocked by the number of people who auditioned, said they would accept a role in the ensemble and then turned it down when offered.  Two of the people who turned it down later reconsidered and were allowed back in and two more ended up declining after initially accepting the role.  But all in all, we have a great group of people and some amazing new talent to work with.  I will also be training a new assistant stage manager this year as one of my usual ones has been promoted to production manager.  I'm excited to work with her though and I know she will be an asset to me. So, as has become a bit of a tradition with my, my fall will be exceptionally busy.

Work has been going well, if not a little slowly.  This is our first summer since I've worked there that we don't have an alterations department in the store so we are finding ourselves a little bored at times.  But all in all, it's good.

Some sad news to report.  The little colt who was attacked by the coyote is now an orphan.  Her mother had a heart attack on father's day.  J and I arrived at the farm and were in the house for no more than 5 minutes when we went out to help his mom light the BBQ and found her dead.  We're not sure what happened but we think the stress of the attack took it's toll on her and she had a heart attack.  B said she had slowly been going downhill since the attack.  It was so sad.  I have been on the farm when a horse has died before but this was way harder to watch.  The little filly tried to wake her up and kept pawing at her mom.  I was heartbroken.  I just hope that she makes it.  She has fought an uphill battle since she was first introduced into the world.

On a happy note, I'm going to be an Aunt again!  Ms A and Ms E are going to be big sisters and I'm very happy for my brother and sis-in-law.

Anyway, there's the update.  I'm going to try to to get back to writing a little more regularly on this blog, and maybe my other one too until the fall hits and life goes crazy again.

Crazy Life

Wow it's been forever since I've even had 5 minutes to update this.  Life has been way more than hectic lately.  Between work, rehearsal and life in general, I've barely even had a minute to breathe.

I celebrated my 31st birthday last week and it was pretty good.  I'm not sure how I feel about 31, but it's not like you can go back right?  J bought me a new cell phone (horay for joining the rest of the world!) and I love it!  How did I function without a smart phone before?  Just having the calendar app has saved my butt countless times this last week.  I had a great birthday though.  We went out to see a band play on my actual birthday (after rehearsal) and Saturday we went to dinner with a ton of friends.  Sunday, I got together with my family for a little birthday celebration and the most amazing cake made by my awesome sister, D.  Thanks D!  I loved my TARDIS cake and it was super yummy too!  Oh, and I also won week one of my fantasy football!

I am in the full swing of rehearsals for Oliver now.  Stage managing a cast of 74 people is a full time job in itself.  Yes, 74 people.  The orphans are all double cast in case you were wondering why there are so many as the run of the show is 3 weeks and that's a lot of time for any kid, let alone adult.  It a great cast to work with and once we get the scheduling bugs worked out things should run pretty smoothly.  As much as I'm enjoying it, I have to admit I'm tired and can't wait for it to be over.  Plus the songs are playing on a continuous loop in my head.

Yesterday was a really tough day.  J's uncle Davey was killed the day before my birthday in a really bad car accident.  He was a truck driver and was killed by another driver who crossed the center line and hit him.  The other driver was later discovered to be texting at the time.  Such a waste.  His funeral was yesterday and I didn't think it was going to be as hard as it was, but I broke down more than once. It's weird to say, but that was one of the best funerals I've ever been to.  Everything about it was just so...him.  From the coffin that was the same color as his truck and all chromed out to the funeral procession of motorbikes and semi trucks.  His sister and daughter gave the best memorial speeches.  They made us all laugh and cry.  There was even a guitar solo of Stairway to Heaven.  The part that really was the hardest for me was after the graveside service, my feet found their way to J's grandfathers grave.  He was such an amazing man and his loss still leaves us all very raw emotionally.  I was doing ok until my oldest nephew cam up beside me and put his arm through mine.  We stood there in silence for a minute and then I heard him sniff and I realized we were both crying.  J's dad came up behind us and put his arm around my nephew and we all just kind of crumbled into each other crying for a few minutes.  When I finally had the strength to loo around, I realized that the whole family was standing there and we were all crying.  We all miss him so much and losing Davey just made us all break down again.  But they are a strong family and we will all get through it.  J's mom and sister are amazing in situations like this.  They sweep in and make sure that all the things that need to be done are completed and that everyone is taken care of.  I admire their strength.  I am so grateful to be a part of this family.

So there's a little update on my crazy life.  It's been a week of ups and downs, but through it all, I think I've found a little more strength in myself through it all.

My Vacation

Today is the last day of my summer vacation, and it's been great.  J and I didn't have any major plans but we had a wonderful time anyway.  Last Sunday we spent the day out at my mom's place visiting with the family and spending some time with my Aunt that was up visiting from Arizona.  It was a great time and some great food.  J still had to work Monday so I went in for a couple of hours to get caught up on some stuff and then went and did some shopping.

Tuesday was our anniversary - see last post for details on our day.

On Wednesday J got a call that he had a coaches meeting that night for the football team he's helping with this fall so we headed out to the farm for the rest of the week.  The first few days were pretty uneventful just hanging out at the farm with a few of my nephews.  My oldest nephew and I did sit outside and watch a pretty amazing thunderstorm on Wednesday night which was followed by a biblical down pouring of rain that only lasted 5 minutes but made me wish we had an ark during that 5 minutes.  On Friday, J's sisters both decided to pull their trailers out and we could all camp together.  It was so nice to camp out with everyone and not have any major chores that needed to be done.  On Saturday it was hot out.  One of those sweltering heats that makes you now want to do anything.  My youngest nephew was bored so we turned on the sprinklers for the kids to run through.  None of the other kids wanted to play with him so I decided to jump in even if I didn't bring a bathing suit with me.  I got really tired of the other kids being lazy and just hanging out in their great-grandma's house watching tv and playing video games so I decided it was time to do something about it.  J's dad went in the house and yelled that it was time for them all to come outside and play and as they grumbled their way out the door I got them with a bucket of water and an hour long water fight ensued.  It was so much fun!  After the water fight died down we decided to take the kids swimming in the canal.  The water was clear and moving quite fast and was surprisingly warm.  Despite dousing myself in sunscreen I still walked out with a super bad sunburn.  We headed back to camp and relaxed around the fire while my brother-in-law cooked burgers over an open fire.  They were fantastic!  We stayed up late around the fire visiting and watching J and the kids play a late night game of "war" running around the fields shooting each other and having a grand time.

Sunday we were supposed to leave in the afternoon to pick up a friend at the airport but I decided to stay while J went back to town so I could go horseback riding with my sister's in law.  Things were going well at first.  I caught Jack with no problems and got him haltered and in the round pen with no resistance.  He was acting a little funny once I put his bit in but calmed down after I walked him around for a bit.  I decided to get on him in the round pen and ride a bit in there before we went into the field just to make sure everything was ok and that's when things went wrong.  I got on him and it was ok for a minute and then all hell broke loose.  He just started bucking like mad which he has never done before.  I tried to get him back under control but I soon realized it was a losing battle.  I managed to hang on until he turned away from the fence and then I bailed.  I hit the ground hard landing on my right foot and left knee  I scrambled to climb the fence quick as he was still bucking and had just reached to top when one of the kids and one of my sister in law's rand around from the other side of the barn.  My ankle was hurting pretty bad but I walked around a bit and C and I got Jack calmed and started checking his tack to see if we had done something wrong to make him buck.  C got on the phone and called my father in law to come down and help.  When B got there he checked things over and thought things were ok so I got back on with B holding a lunge line just in case.  Things went good for a couple of minutes and then he started again.  I lost my balance and my inner thigh's slammed into the pommel of the saddle hard and down I went.  B got him calmed and lunged him for a bit and then back on I went.  He seemed much better at this point so B gave me the reins and we went to riding.  I screwed up a bit and scared him and he jumped in response which threw me off balance again and scared him even more and he started bucking again.  In my head I knew what to do, but in that moment my body didn't respond and he managed to throw me high in the air and I cam down flat on my butt and my wrist.  That really hurt and I wasn't able to get back on at that point.  My nephew got on him for a bit and I went back to the campsite.  I found out later that my nephew got bucked off as well but thankfully he's ok.  I, on the other hand, am not.  My ankle is bruised and swollen.  Both of my thighs are jet black with some of the worst bruising I have ever seen.  And I have very limited use of my right arm.  I have injured my ulnar nerve which is really making life difficult since I'm right-handed.  Work tomorrow is going to suck!

Right leg 3 days after.

Left leg 3 days post "rodeo" I love how you can still see the seam line of my jeans in the bruise.

2011 Can Bite My Shiny Metal Ass

I know it's been a while since I posted but I have been so busy and stressed lately it's been the last thing on my mind.  If you've been reading this you probably know about how this year started off badly and I have been trying to get ahead ever since.  I am frustrated and feeling defeated at every turn.  Work is a disaster right now with serious staffing issues that just seem to keep getting worse every day.  The car keeps having more and more little issues all the time, the latest being a hole in the gas tank that cost me a full tank of gas before I realized it and with the price of gas right now that sucks.  I keep getting sucked into the middle of other people's drama at work and at home with my family.  I'm tired.  I don't like this anymore.  I don't want to be the one who feels like they have to solve all of the problems but that's what I feel like.  I will find a way to make this year better.  I am not giving up on my happiness yet.  2011, you can kiss my ass!

Rant Over.

A Dying Art

I have discovered something about the world we live in today.  There are certain things that used to be common place for most people to know how to do in life that are becoming extinct in our fast paced modern world.  One of these things is making my life a little more difficult right now.  There are so very very few people left in the world that actually know how to sew!

Once upon a time, almost every woman had at least a little experience with sewing.  At the very least just about everyone could sew on a button or hem a pair of pants.  Now it's pretty rare to even find someone who knows how to thread a needle, let alone what to do with it.  The lack of seamstresses has made it difficult at work recently because our main seamstress has retired and one of the other seamstresses is only able to work a few days a week.  This has made it so I have had to step and and start doing pin fittings and sewing (often after hours) on top of my other Management/Head of Alterations duties.  The major problem is it is much harder to alter something than it is to sew something from scratch so it's difficult to find qualified people.  We have so many dresses that need altering this year and I can't seem to find anyone who is able to help us out.  We used to have a solid pool of people to draw from at the local College because they had a Fashion Design program there but the have recently re-vamped their program so it mainly focuses on Fashion Merchandising and less on the sewing end of things.  So right now all I can do is try to get through the season (come on September!) and hope I don't have a major heart attack in the mean time.

On the up side, my co-workers have really stepped up and are all trying to learn whatever they can so they can help out.  I can see a light at the end of the tunnel...it's faint, but it's there so I'll hold on to it and plow ahead.

How my 2011 started off with a "Bang'...and not in a good way

I had a great Christmas holiday filled with great family, friends and more food than is healthy.  It was a really nice time...until New Year's that is.  I worked on New Year's eve.  It was a good day at work, although a bit slow in the afternoon which was to be expected.  My boss even told us to shut down an hour ahead of schedule and enjoy our evening.  So J picked me up from work early and we headed home to pack and go to the party we were planning on attending which was about an hours drive away.  I felt like we were rushing a bit but we wanted to get on the road.  I should mention that the day before we both had "eye emergencies" so our pocket book was feeling a little tight.  (J broke his glasses and had to get a new pair...$400...and I managed to get something under my contact and scratch my eye...fun!)  We packed an overnight bag, fueled up and headed out.  After driving for about 30 minutes we realized we had forgotten a few things that we were supposed to bring...I was considering suggesting that we turn around and go get them since we were a hour ahead of schedule as it was when BANG!  There was a loud crash in the engine followed by all the lights dimming in the car and the battery light came on.  J limped the car to the side of the road and shut it off then got out to check what was going on.  When he opened the hood of the car all I saw in the pitch black on the side of the road was a lot of smoke.  Thank goodness for cell phones!

We called J's dad to come help us and he headed out right away.  The problem was he wouldn't be there for 45 minutes and it was -34 with the wind chill.  We couldn't start the car for heat as the belt had come off and there was very little battery power left and we needed to keep the emergency flashers going so we didn't get hit by another car on the highway on top of things.  It was very cold and very very dark out.  I'm glad I keep a set of gloves and a touque in my coat pocket at all times.  We sat there and waited.  And waited.  And watched all the windows frost over while we waited some more.  I was disgusted at the amount of cars that sped by and didn't even slow down or stop to see if we were ok.  If we didn't have cell phones we may have frozen to death waiting for help.  We were at least a 40 minute walk from anywhere.  J's dad arrived and rescued us and took us out to the farm where my awesome nephews were waiting with warm blankets and a warm drink.

I spent all night stressing about how we were going to afford to fix and and how much it was going to cost. The next day J and his dad were planning to head out to the car first thing to take a look in the daylight and see what the damage was and how bad it was when disaster struck.  The cattle had no water.  Something was wrong with the pump and now all of the animals had nothing to drink.  Obviously this took priority.  We bundled up and headed out to the pond where the water is pumped from and found that a branch had broken off a nearby tree and fallen on the rope that holds the intake in place under the water.  The rope had pulled the intake close to the surface of the lake and it froze.  We spent the next 7 hours chipping the intake and hose out of the ice which was about 2 feet thick, repairing the hose after it was punctured by one of the ice picks and replacing the motor on the pump since it had burned out.  This was interrupted by a daring escape by the horses lead by the ponies who had discovered that the snow allowed then to cross the lake, get over the fence via a deep drift and cross over the cattle gate that was covered in snow.  Thank goodness horses are easy to round up when they are trained and used to humans so that didn't take long.  By the time we finished with all the farm disasters it was dark again and they still hadn't looked at the car.  Did I mention that I had an appointment at 9 the next morning back in the city?  Luckily J's dad got up early and drove me home and then took J back out to the car.  It turned out to be a broken pulley and they managed to find the right part, tow it to the shop and fix it while I was at my appointment.  Thank goodness for small favors.  Here's hoping 2011 gets better.

The Good, The Bad, and the WTF??

It has been an interesting week at work.  Although this time of year we are slower at work because people are more focused on Christmas shopping it is by no means uninteresting.  Here's a slice of the week I had.

The Good:  About a month ago I helped a grad girl find the perfect gown and all the trimmings to go with it.  She was so excited.  I found out last week that her home had recently burned down and she lost the dress and everything else to go with it.  Her mom called me this week and asked if we still had any of the stuff that she had purchased so she could replace it for her.  I did some rooting through our stock and found everything she had purchased except for the tiara.  When I told my boss about he situation she contacted the manufacturer and had the piece custom made for the girl and decided that we would replace the pieces for this lovely young girl for free.  I love working for a caring company.

The Bad:  A bride came in to shop for a gown with her terror of a child.  I love children, but this was no little boy.  I think he was a demon.  He ran all over the place, knocked over things, went into the private office area, stepped on gowns and even stole money out of our cash box.  And what did she do about all this....absolutely NOTHING!!  Please brides, we don't mind if you bring your children with you.  We even have a toy box for them.  But if you are raising a demon-child that you won't even try to control please come another day...when you have a sitter or someone with you to wrangle the monster.

The WTF??:  And lastly, I helped a walk-in customer and her fiance search for a gown.  Everything was going very smoothly and we were having alot of fun in the appointment until he asked me if he could speak to her alone.  This isn't an uncommon request, but it usually happens at the end of the appointment once the gown has been found and people want to discuss finances...but we were only 2 dresses into the start of the appointment.  They got into a very heated discussion and he ended up leaving the store.  I took her back to change out of the gown she had been in the whole time and she told me that she must have gotten a text message while we were in the dressing room and he checked it.  Turned out it was from he ex-boyfriend saying how he couldn't wait to see her again and blah blah blah...  Needless to say, she left without purchasing a dress...and I'm not too sure, but i think she left single as well.

Ahhh the drama of working in a Bridal store.  Keeps my life interesting at least.

"Does anybody even notice..."

I've had a couple of songs stuck in my head for weeks now that seem to be summing up m feelings lately.  Both of them are from the Buffy episode "Once More with Feeling". (Points for the geek half right?)  Maybe it's because I'm having a bit of an early mid-life crisis from turning 30 recently or maybe it's the holiday season or maybe it's the crappy weather but any way you slice it, I'm feeling a bit out of sorts.  I started this blog to have a bit of an outlet for myself and I don't know if anyone is even reading anything I write, but I'll continue on for now and just blog for me.  Maybe it's time for me to make a change in life.  The only problem is, I don't know what to change.  I have a great job that I love (most days) and an awesome hubby, great friends and wonderful family.  I do wish we had a bigger place, but it's so hard to find something affordable here.  I'm feeling a bit in a rut and I'm hoping to find a new outlet to stop that.  Maybe it's time to start painting again.  I'm not sure what I need to change, but something'f gotta give...and soon.  I don't know if anyone out there will ever see this, but I promise to try and at the very least get tis song out of my head.

GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS (Buffy, et al)

(Buffy)         Every single night, the same arrangement,
                    I go out and fight the fight.
                    Still I always feel this strange estrangement,
                    Nothing here is real, nothing here is right.
                    I've been making shows of trading blows
                    Just hoping no one knows
                    That I've been go - ing through the motions,
                    Walking though the part,
                    Nothing seems to penetrate my - heart.
                    I was always brave and kind of righteous,
                    Now I find I'm wa - vering.
                    Crawl out of your grave, ya find this fight
                       Just doesn't mean a thing
(Henchman) She ain't got that swing.
(Buffy)          -pause-     Thanks for noticing.
(Demon & Henchmen) She does pretty well with fiends from Hell
                    But lately we can tell
                    That she's just going through the motions
                    Faking it somehow.
(Demon)      She's not even half the girl she...owww!

(Buffy)         Will I stay this way forever?
                    Sleepwalk through my life's endeavor.
(Handsome Young Man) How can I repay - (Buffy) Whatever!
(Buffy)         I don't want to b - e
                    Going through the motions,
                    Losing all my drive.
                    I can't even see
                    If this is really me
                    And I just want to b - e    a - live.

Really Brides??? Really??

So today was one of those days that I thought WTF???  Do you really think the world revolves around you just because you're getting married and spending money?  Don't get me wrong, I strive to make every bride feel as special as possible no matter what her situation or budget but there is a line people!  Employees at Bridal stores are just that...employees.  We are not miracle workers (although sometimes we do can) and we have lives outside of our work just like you do.

Let me fill you in on where this all began today.  Last week we had a bride come in searching for her dream gown and, as often happens, she came in without an appointment.  We always strive to serve everyone whether they have an appointment or not so we shuffled things around a but and were able to fit her in.  Her consultant worked tirelessly with her to help her find the perfect gown for her and it was well within her stated budget (under by $700 actually) and was able to find a gown in stock that would need very little done to it which helped with her tight timeline.  In case you are unaware of how things work in bridal, it typically takes between 4 and 6 months from the time of ordering a gown for it to arrive in the store and sometimes takes 2 months for alterations as the seamstresses can be very busy working on multiple gowns at a time.  So when this girl...we'll can her "Jane" came in with a wedding date of February, her consultant jumped into action and pulled out all the stops to not only find a gown that would work, but one that she would love.  Jane seemed very pleased at the end of her shopping with everything until she got to the register.  Suddenly she wasn't feeling so sure about the price of the gown and wanted to shop around.  We allowed her to put the gown on hold and told her she might want to go check out our outlet store when she got a chance as the gowns there are sold 25 - 50% off and are still really great gowns.  Keep in mind dear reader that this was at 5:15 pm and our stores close at 5:30....and she came in at 3:00.  Jane the proceeded to go to our outlet store and demand that she be allowed to try on as many dresses as she wanted because she "was going to be spending alot of money in our stores so we should stay open late for her."  Our outlet consultant didn't want to be rude to her or make her feel like we didn't care so she proceeded to help her shop for gowns until almost 6:30.  The stores have now been closed for over an hour and she still hadn't made a decision.  We decided to hold 2 gowns for her until she could make a decision so she wouldn't feel pressured.

That brings us to today.  Jane had decided on the gown from our main store and had booked an appointment to see our seamstress for alterations at 4:30.  She slowly sauntered into the store at about 4:45.  My seamstress usually only works until 5 pm as she has young children at home and needs to get back to them so we had already made an exception by booking her in at 4:30.  To top things off, she didn't bring shoes with her and it's very difficult to hem a gown if you don't have shoes.  We have a large selection of shoes avaliable for purchase so now Jane decided to start shopping again.  We finally find a pair of shoes that are the right height for her (she was very specific) but once again she balks at the price.  Now she wants to go look for shoes at our outlet store....5:00.  I let her know that she is welcome to go shop for shoes and I would be happy to reschedule her appointment with our seamstress for another day so she wasn't rushed.....nope...Jane wants her alterations done today.  So we settle on shoes and now I remind her that she needs to pay for the gown in full before we can do any alterations on it and she is fine with it...until I tell her how much the gown is.  Now she starts accusing me of changing the price on her and trying to rip her off.  I calmly show her the original tag on the gown with the price and show her it's the same as what her invoice says plus tax.  Now she is freaking out because of the tax.  Where we live, there is ALWAYS tax on everything.  We have no control over it.  Her friend calms her down and she hand over her credit card to pay for the gown.  Once again, even with the taxes added this gown is still $650 under what she said she wanted to spend.  So now we have shoes and a gown and it's time to get her in the gown for alterations...5:15

Our alterations appointment are booked in 1 hour time slots.  Jane had an exception made for her as she didn't need major alterations done on the gown so she was booked for half hour as the later time was better for her and my seamstress could do the pinning in half hour....had she been on time and prepared.  Now my seamstress in already 15 minutes late getting off work and she still hasn't started her job.  I get Jane into the gown and then she drops the bomb.  Jane wants the alterations completed and the gown ready for pick up by next week.  Alterations take time...even when you are really good at them.  And we have tons of other dresses being altered as well.  EVERY bride gets equal time no matter what they spend or when their wedding is so when you come in and demand that everything be done to your timetable that means taking time and effort away from other brides.  Jane doesn't need the gown to be completed for next week because of something like she is moving and won't be back before the wedding or the wedding is in another country and she is flying out, she just wants it done so she can have a photo shoot done in the gown....without her fiance...to send out to people for Christmas with the invitation to the wedding that may or may not be in February or June or maybe in 2012 now because they haven't actually talked about when the wedding will be or where it will be held.  REALLY?!?!?!  We are bending over backwards and working into our own personal time and leaving our families so that you can do things now because you just feel like it?  People please promise me you will have a little consideration for employees at any store you go in to.  They are there to assist you and hopefully help make things easier for you, but they are not slaves or punching bags.

Thank goodness very few Brides are actually like Jane.  And a huge thank you to all the ones who make my job and my life easier by being polite and considerate!