Making It Up As I Go Along #373

A little switch around. I’m moving story ahead of weekly stuff. And will see how things go. More changes may come, we’ll see. Anyway, back from BC and getting back to normal.

Three Women

Trips always have a way of leaving me unsettled. And this one is no different. After six years in Ottawa, I still don’t feel as comfortable here as I do in Newfoundland or BC. Newfoundland is understandable. I grew up there. There are places there I’ve been hundreds or thousands of times. BC is different. And it’s what makes the Ottawa discomfort all the more uncomfortable.

I feel more at ease and at home in Vancouver airport than I do in any place of Ottawa. The mountains of the interior are comfortable like a blanket over you while you lay on the sofa on a blustery winter day.

Even the lack of French is a relaxing thing. I don’t have any beef with the French. I am friends with several French people and I don’t begrudge them speaking their language. But it is just one more thing to be considered here. People have to pay attention to those around them when they begin a conversation… to see if the language the conversation will be in will leave someone on the outside looking in. In BC, such a consideration is not necessary. In Ottawa, simply picking up the phone when it rings can cause a complication.

That being said, my flight to Vancouver from Castlegar was half full of South Koreans… and Vancouver Airport has signs written in a language that I couldn’t begin to fake my way through. Sesame Street and school gave me enough French to get the gist of a conversation or sign. Maybe if Sesame Street came with Muppets living in New York’s China Town, I’d have a fighting chance.

If places to live were girls, Newfoundland would be exotic and stormy. Sometimes hard to live with but never boring. BC would be beautiful with lots of curves and a laid back personality. Ottawa would be nice looking, but hardly beautiful or exotic. And her personality would be very reserved and slightly coolish. Not Happy Days, the Fonz cool, I’m talking about distant and stand offish cool.

This is all, obviously, in the eyes of the beholder. Lots of people like Ottawa. I like Ottawa myself. I just can’t get as close to it as I can the two places on either coast. We all have different types of friends. Close friends that you share everything with. Comfortable friends you can be yourself around. And work friends who you can get along with fine, but will never share any real closeness with. Ottawa is a work friend for me. I mean this is the only place I’ve been where people make a point of keeping friendships in check. It’s only here where I’ve heard people say “I’ve got enough friends, I’m not interested in making more.” This is where, if your friend quota is met, it doesn’t matter how interesting you find the next person, or how well you get along with them, they can not become a friend. Maybe next year, if one of the current friends is cut loose, but not now, sorry. Now if that’s not stand offish, I don’t know what is.

Now, I’m reserved and a touch aloof. But if we’re keeping our regions and cities in the context of women, that doesn’t mean I want a place just like me. That’s just boring. I’d rather be in a place that tries to bring me out of my shell… not confine me in it.

The question is what to do. If oil or waiting on tables isn’t your life, Newfoundland doesn’t offer much. Sure there’s the arts community but doing enough there to make a living is not at all easy. And I wouldn’t know the firs thing to do in BC.

So I’m left in a rat race. Where the work I do now is interesting but where politics and perception play key roles. I work in a place where job advertisements that ask for two years of experience won’t actually tell you it wants two years of experience. They’ll give presentations on this stuff. Two years are several. More than five years is extensive… or some such term. Everybody knows that they mean they want two years experience. But nobody is willing to just straight out say… “two years experience”.

I know it’s a game. And two years experience cloaked as “several years experience” isn’t the most complicated code to crack. But it’s a game I tire of. And I can’t say that two and a half weeks of BC… or, put in my work terms, several weeks of BC… has fuelled my desire to play the game.

THURSDAY (June 18)…

--- Nelson for some shopping with mom and dad. Did some lunch there too and hung out at a park.

FRIDAY (June 19)…

--- I’m home most of the morning alone. Waiting to tee off in golf with Duff… hoping rain stays away… and alone because Edena, mom, dad and the girls have gone off to some Hot Springs.

SATURDAY (June 20)…

--- Family pictures at Millennium Park. Other than that, I do a little drive around with mom and dad to Syringa Park. On the way back, we stop to check out some used books and CDs. I get three books for under $8.

SUNDAY (June 21)…

--- Mom and dad leave in the morning. It was nice with all of us. I likely won’t see mom and dad again until the fall.

--- Hang around the house the rest of the day. Putting clothes into the closet mom and dad had occupied and watching some golf on TV.

MONDAY (June 22)…

--- Quiet morning around the house watching golf. This is to be a lazy day.

--- Go out when Edena comes home. We do some shopping (some swim wear and a protective sleeve for my Blackberry) and then a walk with the dog in the evening… with a few drops of rain falling around us. It’s cool and wet most of today… unusual for here at this time of year.

TUESDAY (June 23)…

--- Hot springs time. It’s really relaxing. We have supper before it in Nelson as well. A nice evening.

WEDNESDAY (June 24)…

--- Quiet day. I almost ruin a new shirt by putting it in the dryer and shrinking it. But a trip back to the wash and the proper lay to dry helps out and I avoid the hardship of it all.

THURSDAY to SUNDAY (June 25 to 29)…

--- Putting it all together cause too much stuff. Travel from BC to Ottawa after a last day with Edena and family. Duff and I climbed the rock outcrop by their place and I get a golf shirt at the local pro shop.

--- See Mt. Rainier from the air. There was thought of driving there on this trip but we opted for Lake Louise instead. The flight into Vancouver has Rainier jutting out of the clouds and the flight out of Vancouver sees us pass by again, at a higher angle. It has a way of holding the attention.

--- Home I do little. Mess with the computer, which seems very low on memory and needs a new hard drive I think, get basic groceries, and hang around the home.

--- Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett die on the same day. I feel bad for both, and am surprised about him. But I can’t say I’m going to start proclaiming either one of them as a favourite that I’m crushed about losing. I paid little attention to the life of Farrah Fawcett. And disliked much of the life of Michael Jackson. But I do find myself thinking back to the days of me laying on the living room floor with headphones on and the Thriller album blasting in my ears. Take away the Michael circus… I miss the enjoyment of that album and those memories.