Hello,

Just some updates on a few things, and... a few other things.

I'm working now. I thought I'd hate saying that when it actually became fact; but so far I'm loving it. I was hired last Tuesday, as in, the 3rd of July, I believe. I started working as an office assistant in my community's Aboriginal Affairs office and I've been learning so much and enjoying nearly every moment of it. Aside from answering phones, which I barely mind, I've been learning and doing a lot of very interesting things that I never really fully understood before. Today, for example, I did the payroll for the workers, I did some faxing and some tinkering with the photocopier, I wrote some fancy official letters and mailed them off. I thought it was just great! Lately, I've been making friends with the schitzophrenic paper shredder, and by schitzophrenic, I mean that when I press the 'On' button, it decides to go in reverse and spit back bits of paper at me, and if I ever decide to turn it off, I have to wait something like 48 hours before it deems me worthy enough to work for again. Oh well. Last Thursday, I got my first pay cheque and I was understandably thrilled; but they passed it to me when I was in the shredding room, which prompted me to frantically search for said cheque every 15 minutes or so, to ensure that I hadn't shredded it.  Thankfully, no!

I ended up taking last Friday off because I had what I believe to be a case of extreme food poisoning. I wanted to die, and then when it got worse, I was determined to live and destroy whatever/whoever induced such misery. I've settled on the idea that it was the effects of a bad BBQ. It fits. I was also nearly hospitalized with some kind of reoccuring spasms inside me somewhere. (I added this line for dramatic effect. To communicate to you all just how bad it became.) A few muscle relaxers happily took care of that... and made me entirely loopy for ages. I quite enjoyed it.

Anyhow, I'm glad to report that I'm back to work... or, I have been. I'm off for the weekend and I'm guessing that Monday will be the true test of my abilities and all that I've learned thus far, as my supervisors will be away on business, leaving me and a co-worker to run the fort until they get back. *crosses fingers*

I'm very tired. It seems I don't have any time or energy for the things I love... reading, writing, cooking, etc. I just come home and flop on my bed and mellow out until bedtime. I'm falling into a routine though, which should help restore my creativity indefinitely.

I'm trying to help fund a new computer for Chris. He doesn't want me to, he doesn't need me to, but I want to. So, of course, that is that. The male ego never bothered me. Perhaps then he won't need to borrow his sister's laptop for important conversations with his friend Sam.

Ah yes, and I feel the need to share with you all, that there are at least three wild black bears roaming my backyard as of late. Just in case for some reason you never hear from me again due to them eating me or some strange thing. I'm not sure if many of you know how far out into the wild I live, but yeah, black bears in the backyard, that's at least a clue...though subtle it may be. We have men on call who are permitted to shoot said bears, so I'm sure the excitement will be over fairly soon, but I'm just trying to actually see one and maybe get a picture. So far, they've been crafty little devils and they only come out in the dead of night when I'm fast asleep. Though I wonder, would the flash on my camera attract them or repel them or would they perhaps be indifferent towards it? I must know!

Now, onward to the cheap thrills that are the semi-interesting ramblings of my childhood:

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me, or care about me, as the case perhaps is:

1. When I was little, I used to think God was the Mr. Clean man. Reason being, he was bald. *Emphatic shrug*

2. When I was also little, I played with barbies in the bathtub. I put cloths around their shoulders like capes, and made them flip over and do gymnastics in into the water. And I thought they were so beautiful, that they intimidated me to the point where, if I was in their way, I said things like, "oh, sorry" and "excuse me".

3. My first real ambition was to become a nurse. I used to carry around a little purple Beauty and the Beast bag with Belle on the front, and I carried band aids and medical tape in it. I also had this friend who would ride her bike as I took inventory of my supplies and I prayed that she would fall off so that I could bandage her up. On a few occasions I even pushed her. And then I'd say, "see now, if I wasn't here, you'd bleed to death", even if the resulting injury was merely a bruise. I'd put a bandage on it and then plaster it on with the medical tape. Fun times.

4. When I was 6 years old, I went to a friend's birthday party, and her mother was videotaping the blessed event. I wasn't best pleased with this, so naturally I had to say something about it. "Please can you turn off the video camera? I'm deeply concerned I might say something I'll regret" was not the thing to say at 6 years of age, considering I didn't want to draw attention to myself.

5. When I was just entering school, my first teacher, who was very pregnant at the time, let me touch her tummy, to help calm my first-day-of-school gitters. I politely refused and said, "thank you, but no, I don't want to catch it."

6. I had the most beautiful dolly, Joanna, who was my favorite possession for quite a few years. She was life-size and she looked like me, so I thought she was my sister. I remember taking her hand and asking her to dance on many occasions...of course, she never said no. We'd waltz around the room pleased as punch... and somewhere, there's a video tape to back me up.

7. When I first started talking, my dad had me saying all kinds of Hockey-related words and he got a big kick out of later teaching me all the names and titles of the Wrestlers he used to watch. Somehow, he didn't think it was so great when we were being introduced to our new Pastor and his wife, and I was occupying all their attention rattling off every Wrestler I knew and his title and all the soap-opera storylines that went along with them. The word 'mortified' comes to mind.

8. When I got a little older and settled in school, my mom became the Principal of my school. She was always busy, and it seemed the only way I could see her, was to hurt another kid. So, every couple of days, when I wanted to see my mom during school hours, I'd do something utterly devious and end up in her office. I'd sit in the big leather chair obviously designed for the bigger kids, and say things like, "now, it's time to get down to business" ...how very Godfather of me.

9. Later on I wanted to be a Lawyer... (still an ambition of mine) ...and I would spend time putting together "court cases", which consisted mainly of mountains of papers stapled, clipped, bound together, with a little squiggly line on each one, which represented my signature and meant that they were utterly important. I put them in folders and took them out of folders and put them back in folders again, and I was making $200 an hour doing it, in my mind.

10. Also with paper, I would often scribble up a whole stack of sheets and tape them together to make one very long "list", and be ready to whip it out of my hand bag at a moment's notice because Mother Goose never went anywhere without her grocery list in the movies my mother had bought for me.

Just some things I thought about tonight as I was remembering.

I'm coming back into my own self now after having seemingly taken a vacation from daydreaming and planning and wanting things. I'm starting to be childlike again. It's wonderful!

Anyway, that's all to report for now, I believe. More later if there's more to tell. For now I'm just going to head off to bed, as I'm beat!

Good night!

Be Blessed!

Yours Truly...