GarniGal's Journal:

Derek got a new (to us) car as the Subaru we got when VV was on the way is on its last legs. He specifically wanted an EV, and after a week of test driving, he chose a 2021 Kia Niro. It was about $45K all in, and on day nine of ownership, he hit a deer. Fortunately it still operates fine, but it's not as pretty as it was last week.

She's headed to the body shop next week to get all pretty again, but it's such the story of our lives - get ahead a bit, and then WHAM.

just keep going.

I'm halfway through hell week (two weeks? Month?), and I'm exhausted.

It started last Wednesday, with a conference in Waterloo that my boss was involved with organizing. Naturally, there were also proposals and other documents due, so there was a lot of texting, calls, emails etc to try and get the input we needed.

If I'd been able to have the weekend to mentally prepare for this week, I'd have been fine, but instead we went to Toronto Zoo to celebrate VV's best friend's birthday. Left home at 8:30, picked up Derek's mom, got to the zoo around 10 and walked around until after 6. VV was passed out hard and slept in her clothes.

If we'd had Sunday to recover, I might have been okay, but we got family photos done at 9 am on Sunday and then up to my brother's for the littlest niece's birthday. They've got a pool, and it was warm and VV can swim like a fishie. She was all over, even the deep end without any floaties - my girl is brave!

Today at work is the calm before the storm as our big conference starts tomorrow. I need to be here by 6:30 tomorrow morning, and I'll probably be here until after 9pm. Wednesday is 9ish to 6ish, Thursday is 8ish but we're done at 3. Then Friday we are doing another event to announce/celebrate our $11 million in funding over the next 5 years (and to try and raise an additional $6 mil earmarked for our new building).

The weekend we are theoretically going to Murder Melee, a local SCA fighting event, but I don't know if we'll be up for it - Derek from single parenting all week and me from this crazy conference.

Monday and Tuesday should be normalish - just the usual amount of crazy, but Wednesday I'm off to get my gallbladder removed. I'm planning to work from home Thursday and Friday - hopefully it goes well and I recover quickly.

And then we're in the middle of June.

Its been an interesting introduction.

Background - I work for the G360 Institute for Groundwater Research at University of Guelph. They primarily focus on aquifers that have been contaminated or are threatened by industrial activity, and work closely with governments and industry as well as academia. As a university group, they have some odd organizational requirements - everything goes through the Director - and of course it's publish or perish, except to the max because not only is it publish papers, but it's also report to anyone who gave us $ on the findings.

The first week was horrendous. I started on the 7th, and the Director was going on sick leave on the 16th. Everything was coming to a head, no one had time for me, but everyone had something they needed. In my first week I wrote: a Letter of Intent for a new project, 4 reference letters for people I hadn't me, job posting for 4 new post-doc fellows, and a biography of our MP. I also edited 2 tech memos and learned a lot (like, a ridiculous amount) about hydrology and geohydrology. I haven't gotten a handle on the hydrochemistry yet. Tuesday I wanted to quit, but I talked to a bunch of people who, weirdly enough, had worked for the Director before, and people in science/academia, and my mom and Derek and they helped me calm down.

Since then, it's gotten better every day. I got a parking pass, an ID card, all the little bells and whistles that make you feel part of something (the HR person was in India for my first week, so I was super adrift). I get thanks on a near daily basis for things that I don't think are a huge deal (proofreading, organizing, paying attention). I got an apology for the insanity of my first week, and told that I'm wonderful and not to change a thing. The work itself is interesting, engaging and meaningful, with lots of opportunities to make small improvements that will mean a lot to the people doing the actual science. I'm at the point now where I can see myself staying in a campus position for the rest of my career. The Director is in her 50's, so I'm not sure what the transition plan is (though her mentor still works with us at 78). However, now that I'm a UoG employee I can look for internal UoG jobs so if something does happen to the Institute, I can hopefully find something else.

I will say there is a fly in the ointment. As a one year temp employee (with the expectation that my contract will be renewed), I miss out on a few things. There is a Flex account (1100$) that I don't get because my contract needs to be more than 1 year (or I need to have worked here for a year already). I don't get dental benefits or the ability to contribute to the pension until I've been here 2 years. That said, once I hit those milestones, I don't roll backwards if I change jobs within the university. Theoretically, I could find a new contract every year, always do something new and still get my flex account starting from Jan 2020, and dental/pension starting from Jan 2021.

On the plus side, the vacation increases are EXTREMELY attractive (15 days to start, 22 days after 2 years, going up to 30 days at 25 years) with 2 floater days and 13 sick days to boot. The hours are 35/week (7 a day, excluding lunch); my direct boss works 4 long days and takes every Friday off. The commute is AWESOME - 10 minutes drive + 8 minute walk in the morning and 8 minutes walk + 15 minutes drive at night. If something happens to VV at school, I can get there in 20-25 minutes. Just being on campus puts a smile on my face; UoG is lovely, and I can only imagine how much nicer it'll be once we can go outside more comfortably. I've got friends on campus, lots of new eateries to try out (as I recall from Derek's undergrad, Hospitality Services rocks), and, as evidence by this very long post in the middle of a work day, I'm not stupid busy (though my tasks will increase when the Director comes back from sick leave). I got the 70K I was asking (initial offer was 58), and since there's no retirement fund to contribute to until 2021, my take home has increased by 800$ per pay (though now I need to figure out how to increase my retirement fund myself, espeically since that 800$ is covering our mortgage so Derek can put more of his $ towards his business, which will hopefully take off this year and then I don't have to worry about it!).

On the whole, I'm pretty satisfied with where I landed.

I had an interview at the local uni and I rocked it.

So I waited patiently, hearing from my references that they'd called and I was a shoe in.

And then they called. And it wasn't exactly what I expected. Maybe better?

Basically, the role includes some 'front end' stuff - interfacing with the public, basic admin. I'm... 20 years into my career. I'm past it. The role also had some Knowledge Management, which is what drew me.

So the call was, we love you, we want you, but... we want you to write and organize, not admin. So if I'm patient, they will get a new role banded with HR and offer it to me in a couple weeks.

Because it's a university, the jobs are offered as temporary. So I need to find out the likelihood of the job only lasting a year.

On the same day, a job I've been waiting for finally got posted. It will take a month or two to get through the hiring process, and its private industry, so very sidfeeebt from the university life.

Some hard decisions in my future, but not a bad place to be.

I've seen lots of 'round-up' type posts, some resolutions, and thought I'd like to jot some stuff down.

2017 was actually pretty good, other than politically.

Work - Derek quit his job at the end of June to work full-time on the business he's starting. Money is tight, but he's doing some consulting that is bringing in an equal amount to his paycheque. I was able to change my insurance through work so we're totally covered that way, with only a bit more cost. My job continues to be interesting and challenging, so I'm happy to come in every day - at least until I win the lottery.

Money - Like I say, money is a bit tight. Not that there isn't enough coming in, we just haven't paid off all our bad decisions from the past 20 years or so. Lottery would be good, but until then we're living frugally and picking away at the debts, and hoping the business is a success.

Health - Our health is good, though we're both at that age where things don't work as well as they used to. In Feb I completely tore my left ACL skiing, and had physio for that. The past couple of weeks my right knee has been hurting a lot, so that'll be fun to figure out. Derek is also suffering some aches and pains - plantar faciitis, knee pain, shoulder and back pain, insomnia... Genevieve on the other hand, hasn't even had a cold that made her miss any school.

Family - Gen is awesome. She started school in Sept and within weeks was able to write her name. It's a long name... She loves TKD, a little too much in my opinion. I'd like to take some time off from it once in a while, but she's adamant we go every class. She is however, very 4. Changeable, full of attitude, but also funny as heck. The rest of our family is still healthy as well. Derek's mom is moving into a retirement condo, so we have her cat now. My parents are going to Peru in Feb, and Dad is doing the Machu Picchu hike. Because he's crazy. Mom is taking the train. :)

Pets - 3 cats again. We got Tiger just before Christmas, and the integration hasn't gone well. Introducing Midi last year wasn't too bad, but over the past year she's gotten very territorial about her home. Lots of fights, and Tiger is 17, toothless, declawed and extremely pathetic.

As for 2018, we're trying to declutter the house. The first room to attack is the office so that we both have a place to work, though mostly D so he can be focused on the business without fighting for a place to put his computer.

I'm also trying to finish some craft projects - a hat, a sweater for Gen, a yoga bag, and a cross stitch.

Yesterday we went to Tim Horton's and all Gen wanted was 2 timbits and a glass of water. So we're also trying to take a page from her book and develop healthier relationships with food and exercise.

Finally, I'm trying to be more compassionate - a better listener, more patient, more accessible for my daughter (read that as less staring into my phone).

In my fantasies, 2018 is also the year that we start on the renovations, but unless there's a lottery win (a lot of my dreams focus on the lottery), or Derek's business grows much faster than expected, we're looking more at 2019 or 2020. First up will be the basement - redo the bathroom, take out the wet bar and rework the 'tv hole' - a beautiful built in under the stairs... for a tube tv. We'll take that out and regain the storage under the stairs and mount our flatscreen on the wall. 5 years after that will be the upstairs bathrooms. I am hopeful that we'll be able to get Gen a bed built this year. We're planning on a low loft for playing under now, but that converts to a high loft for a desk later, and eventually a regular twin bed for when she's in university and only home weekends and holidays. We'll get our measurements and requirements, and see what Mom's Mennonite furniture builder can do for us under 1000$.

I belong to a community group called Guelph Needlecraft Guild. We meet every couple of weeks for classes organized by the group, or just to sit and work on our crafts. In October, it became apparent that the organization is in a contracting phase (over 50 members when I joined 7 years ago, 28 now), and we've lost a lot of our active members.

I'm an idiot.

I volunteered to be president.

So now I'm responsible for either putting it on the right path to rebuilding or... putting the final bullet in it.

To that end, I posted a survey on Facebook - and got bupkis. Clearly, FB is not the place to get responses. So I'm going to try here. Mostly I'm looking for ideas and advice, though if there are local Guelphies out there in the ether - come join us! We're friendly, hardly bite at all!

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I've volunteered to be Guelph Needlecraft Guild vice president for the remainder of the year, which means I'll be president next year. We're currently in a membership contraction and rebuilding (we hope) phase of our guild, and I'm looking for some external guidance about going forward. The guild's purpose is to bring together like-minded crafters for education and fellowship.

1) Are you a crafter (knitting, beading, quilting, sewing, embroidery etc)?
2) Do you have any interest in getting together in person with people who share your interests?
3) How do you find people with the same interests as you?
4) What do you expect to get out of meeting with people who share your interests?

Thanks for your input. Once I have some ideas, I may approach those of you who respond with to ask for more detail. Let me know if you want me to leave you alone!

A few weeks ago, my best friend posted to FB that she'd been awake until 3:30am reading. Not that unusual - we both try to avoid it, but sometimes the book sticks you your hand, or your brain won't let it go and you just. have. to. finish.

Then she said it was fanfiction.

You have to understand, she loves TV, movies etc, but she's always been very devoted to canon. So when she started reading fanfiction I was boggled. When she told me it was Draco/Hermione, I started to laugh uproariously. Then I calmed down enough to explain some of the terms we're all so familiar with that she's just encountering now. It's awesome. :)

And on Saturday, we went to Stratford (Ontario) to see Macbeth. Stratford is always excellent, but the staging of Macbeth was some of the best I've ever seen. The witches were phenomenal, the porter totally stole the show. There were some pacing problems, but I'm not sure if that was due to the source, the actors or the direction. Macbeth is an extremely exposition-heavy show, so it could have been the source, especially given how many names there are tossed around. There was a bit of explanation for Derek after the show and during intermission (I'm the theatre and Shakespeare lover in the house, so I'm well-used to providing background knowledge and commentary), but still an excellent show. We don't go back until the end of July to see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which should be interesting. We also ran into some friends at the theatre, which was random and awesome. We didn't get dessert or anything afterwards, as we all just wanted to get home, but it was still nice to chat during intermission.

Macbeth in the 2016 playbill. I kept getting distracted because her reminded me of Jax from Sons of Anarchy. And by distracted, I mean hot for the Thane of Cawdor. :)

When I picked VV up on Thursday, she was sitting outside with the babysitter. So all three of us got to gaze in astonishment and horror at the smoke pouring out of my car.

When I took it in on Friday, they discovered it was oil pouring onto the hot exhaust from the cam shaft. So kind of a fire hazard, apparently. About a 5-6 hour and $800 job, which is bad enough but... oh the but. It's the time of year where everyone in Ontario wants their summer tires on. So they are booked solid for 2 weeks with tire changes. No idea when they'll get around to me. I have a loaner - which I have to return every morning in case someone else needs it, and I might get a different one every night, who knows! And of course, they have to move the car seat for me for every car change.

Also, I think we're getting another cat. I had hoped Derek was off the idea of a friend for Lyra, but we stopped at a pet store and they had a lovely tortie (named Tortellini) they were fostering for the humane society, who put up with toddler pets and with other cats... she's lovely. She'll need a new name though.

And tonight is guild and I have to help serve, but I also have to take VV with me. So that'll be fun.

The fog and the local wildlife conspired to scare the hell out of me this morning. A hawk burst out of the ditch right beside me as I drive through a wooded area. So close that I jumped and swerved. Pretty cool, once my heart rate got back to normal.

I had a great birthday, turning 39 on Friday. Derek took us out to dinner on Friday, eventually. They had a mail issue at work, so he was stuck there until after 7pm. Veeps kept walking by asking if they could order dinner for him and the other guy working on it, and Derek kept saying "can't, gotta go out to dinner with my wife for her birthday" whereupon they got very apologetic and slightly horrified. One of them called Derek just before he left the office saying "I've been driving around trying to find a florist to send flowers to your wife, but they are all closed!" A very kind thought, but as Derek said to them I'm used to being an IT widow. :)

We did finally get food. :)

On Saturday, we taught our TKD class. It's been interesting teaching without our head instructor to second guess us. I'm much more comfortable with the Peewees now (4-7) and while Derek still struggles with the Juniors/Adult class (8-they don't want to tell us), he's figuring out how to fit everything into the limited class time we get. We do have an advantage in that we haven't had a full complement of students due to March break and just the fact that without Master Jen a lot of people are taking a break, but it's a lot easier to get into a rhythm without someone else (who has accepted all of the risk) giving her two cents.

After lunch and a nap, we headed off for the real birthday fun. Dropped VV at my aunt's, and we went to an Escape Game in Mississauga. The set dressing and space wasn't as impressive as the one we did in Nov, but the game was definitely challenging. We won one and lost one, and I can't believe anyone would ever win the second game. The final code is damn near impossible! Then dinner at a very odd steakhouse (great food, but all middle aged male waiters - we're thinking Mafia front), and back to get Vv who was still awake at 10:30.

Needless to say, we all slept in on Sunday. :)