Sunday, March 25, 2007

Sometimes the sun is so misleading. Yesterday it was streaming in through my bedroom window, much like it is now, so I went bounding outside in a skirt thinking about what pair of sandals to wear. I came back in, and topped off my ensemble with a winter coat and boots. Sun does not necessarily equal warmth.

In good news,

I made it!!!!

It's now officially spring, so I survived a Canadian PEI winter. It was challenging by times, especially as I looked at pics of my friends still in Florida playing about in their shorts and t-shirts. Those days when I'd rather eat my banana pealing than run it outside to the compost. I won't say those days are over because it's still rare to get a temperature above freezing but *knock on wood* I think I won't be dealing with a -30C windchill again for AT LEAST EIGHT MONTHS!!! Probably longer due to the recent trend of late-starting winters.

On Friday night we had a impromptu "gathering of people" (Jannie: "We can't call it a party or someone might show actually expecting people to be here!") which was immensley entertaining. Jannie even captured some of our entertaining moments on video on my child/digital camera. Saturday afternoon I was hit with a very harsh reality upon watching said video: I am bloody annoying. AND I sound like a seven-year-old boy when I speak. Question: how do I have friends? Do they keep me around for entertainment? Quite possibly, quite possibly indeed.

In job developments, I have jobs. My time at Junior Achievement is over this week. It went reallly fast. Also this week I'm starting to work at the Delta. In the dining room. I have also been doing random administrative stuff at my mum's work.

Remember on Back to the Future II when Doc explains alternative 1985 to Marty? How life is the straight, horizontal line of destiny but a little choice throws you off the horizontal line and you skew diagonal? I am NO WHERE near my horizontal line. In fact, I feel like I'm a statistic that would be used to discuss the de-valuing of university degrees as they are so readibly available now on an over-saturated market. I pushed myself through a four-and-a-half-year program in four years, received scholarships/awards, and basically breezed through university pretty easily. That's not to say I didn't work hard, but I didn't mind doing it because it was mostly (in third and fourth year) stuff I enjoyed. (Except the DME marekting plan in Marking II. Not something I look back on fondly.) The point is, university graduation was almost three years ago and I feel that I am the statistic of why undergraduate degrees are over rated and losing their marketability. The other point is that I am impatient and being a moron, because really, I have been looking for a job only since mid January. So, like, just somewhat over two months. Not even as I haven't applied on a job in awhile.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote the Federal government GCT-1 test. It was quite easy. It was for an "administrative assistant" (which I later found out to be somewhat front desk work, greeting guests, and answering phones,) with Parks Canada at Dalvay. It's funny, because this type of position would be close to a minimum wage position at a non-government organization, perhaps paying, at most, $9.00/hr. But since this is a government position, it pays minimum approx $20/hr. Which is insane. No wonder so many people try to get into Government. Also making this position different than it's almost-minimum-wage equivalent is the hiring process. Applicants that successivly were screened through to the test-writing component were told that Parks was going to try and "really push this through" (as in make the hiring decision quickly) but the position's closing date was January 23 and I doubt they are anywhere near making a hiring decision. We wrote the GCT-1 test about two-and-a-half weeks ago and they were hoping to have our results within a week - week and a half. Hmm... Anyway, the next step for the position is a French oral and written test. Oye. The position is classified as CBC/bilingual imperative which, umm, probably puts me out of the running easily. My French is fine and gets me by; however, I think I would be extremely lucky to even get a BBA score. (In this case, A is the worst and C is the best.) I am learning that smiling excessivly during interviews gets me a job at Disney World or any service driven job, but doesn't necessarily work so well in "office" jobs. My office mate at JA was worried when she saw my resume that said I worked at Disney World. She was concerned I would be uber perky and, like, randomly break into song. But we actually get along very well because we both have a ridiculously dry sense of humour and laugh at the birds outside our windows.

This Saturday I am writing the govt's GCT-2 test for a position with Service Canada. It's a good thing I like writing tests =P I looked at the practice one online and it looks alright - all multiple choice, as most govt tests are. I did well on all the math/logic questions but the one that stated "What does 'SUCCINCT' mean?" Heh - NO idea. But of the seven practice questions, word definitions was only one of the questions. I figure if this ratio is reflective of the real test, I should do all right. I'm bound to know SOME of the definitions (although I may wish to amp to current reading from the Princess Diaries VII to something a little more substantial... like the dictionary) and I have a 25% chance of guessing the right answer.

I'm quite curious as to how much servers make outside of the Disney bubble. Before I worked at a ridiculously busy restaurant where most guests were on the Disney Dining Plan thus resulting in servers getting 18% of the guests' total bills. Pretty good as the DDP including an app, entree, dessert and drink. So I have very clear memories of making $195 one night (pre tax) and labelling that as a slow night. Oh Disney, how I miss thee on so, so many levels. Heh - we were $o $poiled.

I slept in today and it was AMAZING. I still (yes, STILL) haven't quite adjusted to going to bed at a "real" time. I'm generally snoozing by 12:30, and then have the urge to DIE when my alarm goes off at 6:45ish.

Now, I am off to do something productive. Well, sort of. Making long distance phone calls is classified as productive, right?

La fin.

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