Be True to Thy Self

I have a confession to make. Most of you who are my friends will already know this confession. But here it is.

I am a bad friend. I rarely return phone calls, I randomly send emails, I make plans and then cancel at the last minute, I sometimes don't cover my mouth when I sneeze, the list could go on and on.

I would like to say that all this bad friend etiquette started when I had kids, but there are too many of you out there who know differently. For a while it was masked because I lived in Victoria and actually sent out Christmas cards to a whole host of people. Little did they know that one Christmas card was me running at full friendship capacity. It just looked good because I didn't live in the same town.

The weird thing is that I genuinely like / treasure all of my friends. I think of you guys often and wonder how you are with your families and careers and lives. If I called or emailed every time I thought about you guys then I would be bordering on stalking..... well maybe not. But there would be more than one or two calls a year.

How did this happen? Am I lazy? Is the Metro Vancouver to blame? Are we simply too thinly spread between working full time, parenting, random acts of exercise and commuting? Throw in a 30 minute drive to the old stomping grounds and it is kaput?

There is no excuse. I am not an artist, I am not involved in any team sports (they would kick me out for lack of participation), I am not actively involved in any sort of time consuming hobbies (scrapbooking 1x a month if I am lucky), I do not have any debilitating illnesses (unless you consider 3rd pregnancy in 5 years incapacitating) and I do not cook very much or bake. There is no reason for me not to eek out some time for my friends.

So here is to you - the friends who have hung in there and call even though I am criminally negligent. I enjoy all of our conversations and I value your input. The emails and random cards brighten my day.

I will do better!

The Wii Mii

She is quite a catch. A nice bob haircut without any fly aways, she has a clear complexion, no need for glasses and seems to always be smiling.

She has a 120 average in bowling. There are no hissy fits when she gets a gutter ball. She doesn't stamp her feet or curse everyone around her. She smiles and picks up another ball. She doesn't do a dance when she beats Wii Mii Colin at bowling. She even smiles as she boxes Wii Mii Rowan (always to a KO - cyber child abuse?).

I would love to be Wii Mii for one day.

I want Nunavut!

All this time I was saying "I want None of It", but clearly after seeing the Jobs section of the Vancouver Sun this weekend, what I really meant was "I want Nunavut!"

I have reached the top of my pay scale as a social worker in BC. This is a livable wage and it generally keeps me in the way in which I have been accustomed. Sure the merlot is sometimes in a box - but I really have no complaints.

Until now. Turns out that if I was plying my trade in Nunavut I would be making $65,228.00 per annum with a $25,030.00 pre annum northern allowance. Or should I make it as a supervisor the wage would be $73,398.00 per annum plus the northern allowance. To me this would mean, without a lot of thought into why the northern allowance is so high, farewell boxed merlot, hello fresh from France merlot.

$90K to be a social worker in Nunavut....... $98K to be a supervisor. Now depending on how much money I would need to make a comparably lifestyle up there.... this could be very tempting. Even if it meant mail order Lululemon for two years and months of snowmobiling training in order to make it work.

I am clearly not a Nunavut Land Claim beneficiary... which could be detrimental to my success of panelling for the position. There is the distinct possibility that my children could be lost in a snow drift. And of course I can not ignore the massive amount of education I would require in order to learn about the North and the distinctive cultures of the people who live there. Safe to assume that my limited knowledge of first nations people is seriously lacking. But for $90K plus a year (and that is the starting wage!) I would be a fast learner.

Just something to ponder on a Sunday before the beginning of a long work week....

The BEST job EVER!

After much deliberation and many years of questioning peers about the attributes of the best job ever, I have decided which job is the BEST. Sadly it is not my job. But I know someone who works in this employment and he gets 8 weeks of vacation and is off every day between 2 - 3pm.

The job is..... Canada Post Mailperson!

Sure they have to work in the rain sometimes - but they get standard issued uniforms complete with rain slickers and matching short outfits for summer. All in navy blue! My favourite!

Sometimes my mailperson has their own mini golf cart type vehicle which they drive on my lawn and leave idle while they deliver their wares. Rarely does a parcel weigh more than a few pounds and my mailperson has wicked muscle tone in the leg.

I am not the first to 'discover' this dream job. A good friend who is currently a teacher in Delta first claimed this to be the best job ever while we were still in university. Why she never pursued this dream is unknown to me. Instead she spends her days with cheeky elementary school kids.

If I could do it all over again, I may have taken a different route.