a bunch of us went into fort mac proper to go to Boston Pizza for dinner. for the amount of money people pull in up here working, you’d never know it driving through town.

i was not at all prepared for today. i never brought any snacks, forgot my water, never packed any thermals… i went and got some red bull, powerade, power bars and microwaveable lunch for tomorrow. cause im gonna be ready. except maybe for the lack of thermals. oh well, double up on shirts i guess.

people kept asking me today if i was having a good time or getting bored. heres the thing, my job description does not generally involve sending multi tonne vehicles over super sensitive scales, so it was pretty neat. a few hours in i think was i getting the hang of it, picking up on which trucks showed signs of being heavy or overweight. i know it wouldnt be the first choice for most people to be sent up here for a week, but whatever. at least i get to see and participate in both ends of what im involved in. i get to sit in meetings with the politikos on one hand, and on the other i get to come up here for a week and actually get thrown into the middle of the service end of our branch. so yeah, it might not be  super exciting all the time but at least it’s refreshing.

anyway… bed time, morning shift awaits yet again.

i was kind of zoning out thinking on the plane up here that after i graduated i probably would have liked a job where i drove around or flew around to different places and did stuff. i guess i was hoping that’s be like, vancouver to hong kong or something but whatever. i’ve been more places in the province in the last six months than probably the last three years. so yeah, fort mcmurray.

honestly, i had no idea what to bring. so ive got office clothes mixed in with nomex pipeline coats and hiking boots. it’ll work. either that or i’ll find a marks work warehouse and pick up some coveralls or something.

the land around here from the air looks fucking desolate. really. it all looks dead. and it only looks like that because the forests are a mix of deciduous and conifer. more deciduous, so everything kind of is dead right now anyway. but yeah, fuck it looks odd.

we have our big briefing in an hour and a half. im hungry so i think i’ll go to the mcdicks across the road and get some chicken nuggets. dont ask me why chicken nuggets, i just really want them right now.

aside from the obvious eating and drinking and cambie’ing this weekend there are two thing that I have to do:

find the one wine store in canada that carries Caduceus Cellars Merkin Vineyard wine.

k, well the second thing sort of involves a few little things but whatever. find a new set of skate wheels, or boots and laces and bearings while hitting up the RollerGirl in store clearance with danielle and jen.

that’ll have to make up for not ever managing to go for that ice cream and beer. i’d say that digging through clearance derby stuff is a fair trade off. but then of course, on the chance that said visit to said store is successful, I suppose that would be cause enough for celebratory lunch drinks.

i had to sit through four hours of FOIP training today.

you don’t ever want to sit through four hours of FOIP training.

ever.

if someone tells you that you have to sit through four hours of FOIP training run away.

far away

to a place with no phones

so they can’t find you and tell you you’re late for your four hours of FOIP training.

btw, it’s my birthday tomorrow. let the accolades and/or insults begin in earnest.

This is what happens when you put four geeks in one car for a weekend roller derby road trip. apart from the songs and comics and general squeaky voices, we found time to fit a derby game in there.

I didn’t get to ref this one because of last minute official changes, but i did get to penalty track for Red Deer which basically meant standing in the middle of the floor for the whole game finding out that penalty tracking is NOT a relaxing NSO position. holy fuck. and it has to be said, the reffing was not the best ever, so that added a bit to the chaos.

Saskatoon were gracious hosts and much like the US olympic hockey team pulled close, but in the end lost out to the Belladonnas. 108 – 102 final.

oh right, and i found out that cramming four or five people in a motel room where two people snore… yeah. it can drive you batshit crazy but leave you too tired to really do much about it other than swear a lot. oh, and punch someone in the face in your sleep apparently. but to be fair, i DID say I’d do that if anyone did snore.

so now monday is pretty well over, leaving a scrimmage in edmonton to ref tomorrow night, practice on wednesday, and then GETTING ON A PLANE AND GETTING THE FUCK OUT TO VANCOUVER ON THURSDAY!!!!!!

holy fuck I can’t wait. this weekend was fun, but the whole time in my head I was going “FLYING AWAY TO VANCOUVER SOON!!!!”

I was going to buy groceries today and then realized that i’m only home for four days in the next two weeks. leave thursday for vancouver, get back sunday night, monday morning I’m off to Fort Mac for the week for work. should be hectic and interesting and hopefully a pretty awesome two weeks.

oh, and I just have to say… closing ceremonies. what. the. fuck?

that is all.

tonight i watched Team Canada kick the ass of Team Russia, taught a bunch of people how to play Dibs, watched the Canadian women’s bobsleigh teams win Gold and Silver, and traded slang with Québecers.

i think that qualifies as pretty high up there.

sometime in the last week someone told me I’m not a small town person. I have to agree. i don’t know if it’s the fact that in a little more than a week I’ll be back in Vancouver for a few days, but i left work today with an overwhelming sense of how miniscule things around here feel. eight months here, and I still catch myself looking around for the mountains to the north. i wonder where the tall buildings are. part of me is intensely aggravated that it doesn’t take me hours to navigate the ‘downtown’ here.

I watched a guy drive down the street the other day who i thought was the very embodiment of what most people think rural alberta is. and i was a little surprised at myself for agreeing with it. freezing out, window rolled down, beat up old truck, unshaven, cigarette in mouth.

i would joke with people in Vancouver about being the redneck from alberta. and then i moved back here and was completely taken aback as to how much i wasn’t that at all. the off the cuff mutterings about faggots, vehicles with christian and go harper stickers on the bumper, groups of people talking about the one friend who moved up to Edmonton to the Big City, complaints about the oil patch being slow.

I have an Alberta flag. I used to hang it in every place I lived. I used to identify as Albertan first. just about 8 years out of province doing that. then I step back in the boundaries for more than a few days or months at a time. now it’s folded up in a box. do I feel pride for this province anymore? I’m not sure. I don’t think it’s fair to say not at all, but I know it’s not the feverish sense of identification I once had. I don’t really have a problem with that. I know some people will point it out that it was pretty obvious that I had scratched out a pretty big chunk of BC after five years.

on the phone today someone laughed and said “but you dont live in vancouver anymore”. probably not physically, but mentally, other than roller derby, I haven’t even attempted to root myself here. that’s probably not fair to red deer. it’s probably a really nice place to live, but I just can’t see myself settling in to some kind of comfort here. there’s nothing hectic here. there’s no sense of chaotic activity. that’s why i feel more drawn to Dhaka than maybe even Vancouver. it was chaotic, there was always something there. you could walk down the same road over again but it would take hours and chances are you’d see something new every time. red deer just feels… flat.

i’m aware that spending night after night glued to scenes of vancouver and the olympics is probably just adding to this. that’s fine. danielle said that i’d probably forget everyone there and the city a little bit more each day. i doubt it. living somewhere and having friends that make you completely reassess who you think you are aren’t that easily forgotten.

most people i know here are excited for this coming weekend. team road trip to saskatoon for derby. I’m stoked to go, but there’s no denying that this weekend is entirely overshadowed by my stepping off that plane next thursday, breathing in that air, feeling the vibrance of the entire city,

ain’t it good to be back home.

i know this isn’t new, but it’s still awesome.

i need something in my living room more comfortable than a futon. like a real couch. or an awesomely comfortable chair. an awesomely comfortable chair with cup holders.

i rearranged my bedroom after I put together a new shelf from Ikea. it’s cool how moving things a few feet and putting up one new piece of furniture can completely change how a room feels. i have to work on my living room now. i have a couple of painting i did in high school of Santana and Jimmy Page I want to get framed and put up in here:

and maybe this one f Tony Iomi:

plus then there’s the thousands of picture to go through and pick some more to put up… most of the ones i have up now are shots from Dhaka. I have lots of those I want to put up. there’s a framing place about a minute walk from my place, i’ll have to go check out their prices.

yesterday i spent the majority of the day, afternoon and evening buried in blankets, sweaters and a toque with the thermo cranked eating soup and drinking tea and making friends with advil. thankfully i managed to get a good sleep last night for once and woke up feeling way better. as much as it sucks when you’re sick, I have to say that I enjoy neocitran induced dreams. cant remember a lot of details, but it had something to do with a giant trek across a glacier and then it turned summer and it kept going and it was just all good times.

i suppose i should clean up in here a bit. or watch more olympics. i think i’ll go with the second option.

i looked at one of these today. and what i learned in the few minutes that i examined it can be summed up as the following:

everything you’ve ever heard or seen about them on tv or in a movie is complete bullshit.

and i mean that in the sense that you see the bad guys shoot these one handed and hold them up easily. no.

they weigh more than 7 pounds. the .50 has a grip so big that I couldn’t get my hand all the ay around it. and it’s safe to say that the recoil of a .50 pistol that big shot one handed would result in epic failure. or pure comedy, depending on if you’re the one shooting it or watching it be shot. personally, i’d rather be the one watching.

i have a head cold. it sucks.

i want to go try speed skating. i found a speed skating club that’s close to here. i might go check it out.

i dont understand why figure skaters have those ridiculous costumes. you’d think having frilly things hanging off you would be a bad thing when you’re jumping and spinning.

“we’ll be right back on CBC…er… CTV” smooth Brian, smooth. still, it’s not the olympics with a Brian Williams commentary.

i think more olympic commentary should make use of this routine.

like it or hate it, today represents the bringing together of a group of people who will strive to be the best they can be and hope to hold their heads high for their countries and personal accomplishment and pride. it’s hard to ignore the social and economic costs that the games have placed on Vancouver, but at the same time this is one of those rare opportunities where the feeling across the country is one of civic pride and support. I went to watch the torch as it was carried through Red Deer more as a curiousity than anything else, but as soon as it approached and went by, I was almost reduced to tears by the sudden feeling of pride for my country and countrymen that I felt.

the opening of these olympics has already been marred by an unfortunate tragedy and uncertainty about what will happen after they are over, but as of this moment, I hope that every Canadian can hold their head high and recognize that we are providing inviting the world on to our stage and show the utmost respect to a corps of people who are living their dream.

to the athletes affected by the death of their Georgian teammate, I offer my utmost condolences.

to the athletes of every country that has worked hard to make the journey to the country that I call my own and the city I still call home, I wish the very best.

to our Canadian athletes, I salute your accomplishments and will cheer you on , win or lose, as the very best representatives our nation has to offer in these games. You all hold a unique set of skills and bravery unmated by a majority of Canadians and deserve to be held in high regard because of this.

to Canadians across the country, I wish you all the best in cheering on our athletes and those of other countries, and hope your sense of national pride is given its full potential to come out and say GO CANADA GO!

to my friends and family in Vancouver, I wish I was there with you right now to cheer and support each other. please know that I am there in spirit and as much as I can be.

15 minuted until we show the world who we are.