home stretch

i move to toronto on thursday!

i spent 6 days at embassy last week: sweep, cutlery, cold, hot, more cutlery, more sweep, toast when somebody was sent  home.. and so on. the week went by so slowly. but i tried to do something every night.

i saw lots of friends and had some good hangouts. on saturday afternoon, dad and i went to toronto to measure up the new place, see what i need and what can fit, and really just to look at the place since i couldn't remember a whole lot about it! it was just as nice as what i did remember, however. and the majority of my stuff should fit. in typical corey fashion, his room is a disaster and spills into the living room. hopefully that will all change by thursday!

i came back saturday evening to hang with friends and see the dj big chocolate where i was on the guest list. it was a pretty good time. sometimes, i forget how much fun i can have when plans to do things actually happen.

i had today off for recovery -- both from work and the drinking that took place last night. tomorrow, i start back up at embassy for 3 more mornings. i did not give sport chek my availability for this week. after they cancelled my shift the other week and didn't put me on the schedule for last week, i decided that i would just bail. not that they would probably give me shifts anyway!

friends, if you're reading this and we haven't seen each other in days, weeks, months, or years, and you're currently residing in and/or visiting the niagara region in the next 3 days, please get in touch for last minute hangouts.

72 hours remain.

what else happened last week?

despite my injury, i went into work at embassy on the wednesday of last week.

my knee and body killed. i stuck around doing cutlery for service and peaced out shortly after. i had to go home and ice my knee so i could go into work at sport chek that evening. i had originally been scheduled for 2 shifts at sport chek; wednesday and thursday evening.

i went in for 5pm and talked to one of the managers who asked me when i was leaving. i told her she could schedule me up until august 31. she told me that it didn't make sense for them to train me on cash since i wouldn't be able to get it anyway (well, duh, not if i only go in once a month) and decided to use me as a sales associate/guard/helper for the sidewalk sale. sometime after 8:30pm, they began to take the sidewalk sale inside and i was told to go home around 8:50 as there was nothing left for me to do. i gladly went home as i never told them about my knee and by that time, i needed to  ice my knee and the tylenol had worn off.

an hour before my shift on thursday and before a big ass thunderstorm, sport chek called me and told me not to come in. they had cancelled my shift but didn't give me a reason why and i didn't ask why they did. i was happy to now have 3 days off -- which ended up being 4 days off to rest since i didn't have to work at embassy sunday either.

i'm not on the sport chek schedule for this week so i work 6 days at embassy, monday to saturday. in ten days, i move to toronto! i bought a new dining room table and a chair for my room. i haven't started to pack yet and i should probably do that soon.

i am so excited to move. this has been the longest summer ever. but at least i'm just starting to enjoy some of it.. whatever's left of my summer now.

injured on the job

i had an accident at work today, but the good news is that i'm still alive.

i finished the majority of stuff i was supposed to do for my cleanup after service today when i went to go grab a drink. i left my mug in the bar lounge where i normally leave it. not thinking much of it, i walked normally over to grab my mug when my feet slipped from underneath me and i came crashing down on the tile floor. in the process, my left knee dislocated outward and i screamed in pain. there were at least ten people standing around me when it happened, mostly servers and bussers. they called for a manager and within seconds two managers had surrounded me asking me if i needed an ambulance.

i kept telling them no in between my screaming ('cause fuck, dislocating your knee really fucking hurts) and then i felt my knee pop back into place and the pain started to recede. they asked me not to move; i tried to move anyway. now, i guess from all my years of running/soccer/track/etc i've known that i have some pretty awful knees and had several dislocations in both during the times i played sports a lot and even when i didn't throughout high school. it had been at least five to six years since i last had a super horrible major dislocation like that. i knew i was fine as i've had it happen before, but they didn't seem to understand that.

eventually, a server helped me up and i hobbled over to write up the accident report. they complained that it was because my shoes were not non-slip... but they actually are. when i got up, the side of me that was on the ground was soaking wet. what happened? well, somebody didn't mop the floor properly, there's a foot of water on the ground, and no wet floor sign. i've fallen similar to this on black ice before back at brock one morning; feet just flying from under me. luckily, my knees didn't dislocate that time.

i didn't go to the doctor but i will if it's still acting up in a few days, though it will probably be fine. i do intend to go back to work tomorrow morning, as they said i could if i was feeling better. i might just have a bit of restricted movement. last summer, i had a similar incident with my knee (a smaller, minor dislocation) when i tripped down a few stairs tour guiding (ironically, trying to help someone not fall down the stairs) and had restricted movement the next day. no report was filed last summer though, as the pain didn't start to kill me until the day after.

we'll see how i feel tomorrow. i'm scheduled to work in the morning at embassy and the evening at sport chek, though i assume sport chek will still be sitting at the computer doing training. but yes, i'm fine. i have been icing my knee since i got home this afternoon and will hopefully be alright.

clearly, this injury is just one more reason for me to not be working in a kitchen.

a long week

i had the weekend off and started back at embassy monday morning working until saturday morning. 6 shifts.

over the weekend, i relaxed and threw a party. i had fun and that's really all that matters in the long run. monday, tuesday, and wednesday, i was back working cutlery. thursday, i started earlier and was on toast for my second time ever. i guess the kid who's normally on toast was off that day. i can't say i enjoy doing it but it was okay for a change. friday, i stocked the cold buffet.

i asked for saturdays off from embassy as i talked to sport chek and they said if i can get saturdays off, they would try to schedule me for a shift on that day. unfortunately, i wasn't on the schedule at all for sport chek this week and i couldn't understand why. but i had told embassy i was working there on saturday. on wednesday, a manager asked if i could come in early on saturday for 3 hours. i agreed even though i really didn't want to -- but my terms were that i could be guaranteed the sunday off, which i did receive. by the time this morning rolled around, embassy forgot i was even coming in this morning and i just helped out where i could/sweep etc.

i had a bit of an awkward encounter with a dude at work but hopefully we can move on from it. it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks and where the rumour ends up by the time i leave, but perhaps it has already hit its peak for now. i also went to brock this week and picked up my thesis finally that's all nicely bound and printed, and spent my $10 gift card from the bookstore on a sweet canteen.

i got my timetable from seneca finally! but it's not that awesome. 
mondays i have 3 classes: 10:45am-11:35am, 1:30pm-3:15pm, and 4:15pm-6:55pm.
tuesdays i have 1 class: 8:00am-9:45am which is a such a long hike for just one class.
wednesdays i have 2 classes: 8:00am-9:45am and 11:40am-1:25pm.
thursdays i have off which i'm stoked about.
fridays i have 3 classes: 10:45am-12:30pm, 12:35pm-2:20pm, and 2:25pm-3:15pm, but hopefully the last one is just going to be online like it says.
i essentially have about a 45 minute commute to school everyday.. which means for my 8ams, i'll have to leave my apartment by 7am. not looking forward to that at all.

i've started to look into furniture and things we need for the apartment and so has corey; he moves in on monday and is super stoked. next week, i only work 3 shifts at embassy which is good since i'm exhausted from this week already. i have tomorrow off to play squash. hang out, and maybe check out buskerfest. i have thursday and friday off as i'm supposed to go to peterborough to see my brother but i may bail on that if i have to work at sport chek or might go to toronto or do something else cool.

5 days

i worked five days in a row this week.

sunday, i think i was on cutlery at embassy. again, i really enjoy that job. it's so simple! monday and tuesday, i started something a little different and was on sweep. i pretty much just walk around and clean up messes on floors/counters/etc and help out where i can. this got boring after awhile when there wasn't anything to do. time went by slowly.

tuesday evening, i had my first shift at sport chek. i went in for 5pm and they forgot i was even coming in. they set me up on a bunch of e-learning modules at the computer and i sat there for four hours completing like 1/4 of them. there were so many and they took so much time to finish! i didn't even get a chance to be on the floor. i just sat in the super air conditioned staff room and did simulations set up by the training modules of these ridiculous scenarios about some guy wanting his skates sharpened but the laces were discolored, so he wanted a discount, and he's paying in gift cards with the remaining balance in debit and cash and blah blah blah but then he also wanted to return items etc etc. ugh. they were so annoying. my hands were actually turning blue by the end of the shift because i was so fucking cold sitting there the entire time working on these scenarios. i doubt i would even come across a scenario like that anyway when i'll probably only get one customer during a shift if i'm lucky.

it seems as though i'm not going to get that many shifts (maybe only 1 shift a week?) and the majority of those shifts will be just finishing the training... and then i'll be moving away at the beginning of september. sport chek knows that i'm leaving at the end of the summer. i feel like it's a stupid move on their part for having to pay me for training and not actually use me. though i guess i don't care that much as long as i'm getting paid for the training!

wednesday, i was on cutlery again (where it was such a dead day and had nothing to do most of the time) and today i finished off with working the cold buffet. since i started working at embassy, i'm usually pretty tired when i get home, so i take a nap. when i have these naps, i have the strangest dreams. my dreams only get worse when i go to sleep for the night -- mostly nightmares that i'm definitely not comfortable with. i wake up with sweats and my heart racing. it's not a fun experience. i hope it goes away soon. i don't really know what i have to be nervous or stressed out about. i can't say i enjoy working at embassy but i don't hate it either.

i'm just happy to have the next 3 days off to relax, hang out, and throw my party.