New company, new opportunities

I've decided to move to a different company.

About two weeks ago I got a BBM from an old coworker, inviting me to come work with her. At first I laughed and was like 'no way, I'm happy where I am', but they pestered and negotiated with me day after day and made me an offer I thought foolish to refuse.

The first project I'll be on is in Fort McMurray. It's a multi-disciplinary civil project that will run until December. After that, I've asked to be transferred to the Vancouver office to work for their highways group. This is a super exciting opportunity for me because it means I'll actually be able to work in my field of transportation AND I'll be more likely to work locally.

They offered me more money, full benefits, to pay for any schooling I need to get my EIT (engineer in training) status, to find me a mentor who can help me get my P. Eng. designation, and the opportunity to work on transportation projects from the Vancouver office. I mean, come on! It would have been stupid for me to refuse.

I have to say, I'm sad to leave this company. I've made some friends over the past year, and really enjoyed my job. I had a kickass mentor who gave me nothing but good opportunities, guided and challenged me, and became a friend as well. My decision to leave came as a surprise to everyone, even myself!

I'm having a hard time writing this blog eloquently, so instead of editing I'll post a picture of myself. How very narcissistic. The hard hat is crooked thanks to the wind and a full brim.

Hello from Fort Mac!

Back in the Mac (Part I)

Yes indeed I am officially back in the Mac.

The snow has melted and the first black bear has been spotted, having come out of hibernation. The deer are looking rather scruffy as they're shedding their winter undercoats in preparation for the warm summer sun. Grass has started to reappear, as have the leaves on the white trunked birch trees that bend into almost a half-moon shape, pushed by the wind.

I'm happy to be back on site. Although it's been a fairly slow job start-up, it's still much more interesting than working on the office. The camp is nicer than the last one; it has bigger rooms, jack & jill bathrooms, an in-room sink, bigger beds, and best of all a better rec room and gym. The food is a little fried for my taste, and they serve some variation of fries and gravy with every meal, but overall it's pretty good.

Now, once again I've been bad and haven't updated this blog in a while, so I might as well fill all you dedicated readers in on some happenings of the last... 2 months. Wow, has it really been that long?

I trained for the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon, reaching a final long run of about 19km. I also achieved the "runner's zen" that runners talk about - that is, when you get into this mental zone that resembles a meditation of sorts. When I snapped out of it, I could honestly say I had no idea what I had been thinking about for the previous 45 minutes. I think it's safe to say I was hardly thinking anything. I was just living in the moment and truly enjoying my run. It was really neat!

About three weeks before race day, I started my "tapering". This means that you decrease the length of your runs in the weeks leading up to race day in order to prevent injury. I think I may have tapered a little too much because I didn't run for almost a week straight. I did, however, try Bikram's Yoga for the first time. My dear friend Willow (aka yoga extraordinella) took me and Chelsea to our first class at Bikram Yoga North Van. She mentally prepared us for the heat, and told us everything that we needed to know before our first class: what to wear, what and when to eat, how much water to drink, not to panic when you feel nauseated or insane etc.

The first yoga class was... interesting. Yes, it was hot. I sweated in places I didn't even know could sweat (the tops of my toes, really?). Overall it was a pretty positive experience and I made an attempt, however feeble, at each posture (or asanas, as I'm told they're called). I must have been hooked after that because I returned the very next day for class #2, then again two more times that week. I think it's fantastic.

Sunday, May 6th was half marathon race day. At 6:30am, I was briskly walking towards the start line at Queen Elizabeth, trying to think about the 94 year old woman who ran the Honolulu marathon in 9 hour 53 minutes. If she can do a full marathon, I had better be able to do a half! As I stood amongst the thousands of race participants, I slightly regretted having trained and come alone. But as soon as my area of the crowd approached the start line, that was the last thing on my mind. I had 21.1 km ahead of me!

I hit a wall around the 14km mark where I swear I was running slower than molasses. "Just run to complete," I told myself. My goal was to run the whole thing, no matter how slow, with no walking. As I rounded the corner towards the finish line at Canada Place, I saw the race clock reading 2:28. I couldn't believe it! Even if I had started right when the start gun went off (in reality I started about 10 minutes after), I could still make it in under 2:30. Sure enough, 2:29:30 rolled over and I crossed the finish line. I pretended that all the cheering friends and family lining the finish were all there for me. Unfortunately, I got a little overexcited and almost stopped breathing. Some coaching from the nearby medic to sit down and remember to breathe did the trick and I was back on my feet receiving my "silver" medal for finishing the race. That was a nice touch by the event organizers.

After the race it was time to relax and enjoy my accomplishment. Wait a minute, that's not true at all! I had to be on a plane to Edmonton in four hours, pick up a truck, and drive to Fort Mac. Yes, it was a long day, but I made it here. The race results were posted that same day. 2:19:59 is going to be hard to beat next year!

I haven't gone running since the race, except for about 10 minutes at a time on the treadmill. The weather has been too windy to run outside (remember, windy = dusty here) so I've been practicing Bikram Yoga at the gym thanks to my Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class tracks that I loaded onto my iPod before I left. I'm sure all the tough beefcake guys lifting huge weights next to me think I'm crazy, contorting my body into all sorts of strange positions, but then again who am I trying to impress? And for the record of all you yoga-inclined readers, I'm only doing the standing postures (up to Toe Stand), partly because I need more practice before my next real class, partly because I think I might get trampled if I lay down for savasana, and partly because I'll miss dinner if I spend the full 90 minutes.

Well, I think that's about it for me today. Comments are always welcome! It's nice to know that the odd person actually read this :)

Back to the Mac (soon)

So it looks like I'll be heading back to Fort Mac a little sooner than expected. And just as I changed the name of this blog! April 1st is our tentative start date, provided we have everything ready to go. We'll be building the second half of the landfill we started last year, but this time I'll have a new position. I've gone from Construction Site Clerk to Quality Control Manager (QCM). It's quite the promotion, if I do say so myself.

I'm actually really excited about going back, mostly because of the new role I get to play. It'll be much more technical than before, and I'll get to learn a ton. Last year we had a fabulous gal in the QCM position who I learned a lot from. Luckily for me, she set up most of the systems and now I really just have to execute them.

I'm also looking forward to seeing some friends up in the Mac. I now have two friends who are residents, and there will definitely be some visiting!

The only drawback to working out of town is the fact that I feel like I miss everything here in Vancouver. I'll probably miss the Sun Run, and possibly even the half marathon that I'll have spent six months training for. I'm going to try to make it to the half, since it might coincide with my days off anyways. I'll just have to push to get us home for May 6th. I also got offered a solo tonight at my vocal ensemble rehearsal - Summertime by Ella Fitzgerald. How cool would that have been? I can't do it because I probably won't be here for the performance (or many of the practices before then). Sigh...

I guess this is the life I chose though. It's probably the right thing to do at this age - when I'm not tied down with kids and a mortgage. I definitely want to take advantage of the company I work for and travel the world. That's the great thing about working for a global company - you can ask to be placed just about anywhere and be paid for it!

That being said, I am a cat owner and will probably need to find her a more permanent home if I'm going to be galavanting all over the world. I hate to be a fair-weather cat owner. I hate it when other people get rid of their cats just because it's no longer "convenient" to take care of them. I'd like to say I'm not like that, but it just isn't true. Does that make me a bad person? I'm already her second owner, her first owners doing the same thing when she was three years old. I gave her five good years, but still it makes me sad. Ideally, her new owner(s) would be someone I knew (a friend or family member) so I knew she's not only in good hands, but I can see how she's doing and even visit her.

Well, there's an unedited collection of things on my mind at this very moment. Apologies for the bad writing.

Blue Wine

I'm sitting down on this rainy Friday night, having decided that I'll do a bit of work so I won't have such a long day at the office tomorrow. My rather mischievious cat decides that it's playtime. Catnip toy in paw, a Chritmas gift from grandmother to grantcat, she gets overexcited and loses traction on the hardwood floors of my living room. I glance over as I hear a panicked scratching on the floor and see her skidding towards the small piece of furniture on which I've decided to place my glass of red wine. For the record, red wine makes working on a Friday night rather more enjoyable. I manage to catch the glass of wine, but not the contents before they go splashing all over the floor, wall, and surrounding furniture. Kitty scurries off. I, in a huff, grab my all purpose Mr. Clean cleaning spray and don't hesitate to get on all fours to scrub up the mess. To my amazement, I discover that red wine doesn't stay red for very long when in contact with Mr. Clean. It turns blue.

I've now poured myself a second glass of wine, and am once again sitting down to start working. I wonder if any readers can explain this strange phenomenon - that is the red wine turning blue, not the tractionless cat.

My love affair with music

I just came home from choir practice.

Yes, you heard me right. Choir practice. Those of you who know me can say I am by no means a singer, nor do I intend to be. I joined the choir as part of my new year's resolution: to get back in to music in a big way.

I've been playing music since I was quite young. I started plunking on the piano in the garage when I was... maybe 7 years old? I'm sure my Mom would know the exact age. Guitar came next as soon as I could reach my arm (but not quite my eyes) around the body of my Dad's acoustic.  I started playing saxophone in elementary school, probably around the age of 10, with the Grade 6/7 concert band. A few other instruments have come and go over the years as I got bored - flute and bass for example - but the first three stuck around.

I hit my best when I got the chance to play with (or at least open for) some incredible musicians: Martha Reeves, The Temptations, Gene Hardy, Jim Byrnes... but around 18 years old, I started to take university really seriously. I let school take over my life for a few years. I hardly did anything else, and music dropped nearly off the radar. To be honest, there wasn't really a better excuse than that.

I moved to Vancouver, which made it easier to avoid questions like: "who are you playing with these days?" and "did you bring your horn?" I would make excuses like "no one at the moment; I haven't really broken into the scene yet" and "oh, well I walked on the ferry and didn't want to carry my sax." The more I said it, the more I believed it. The more people would ask, the more I would shy away from the idea of playing again.

Long story short, music became a real sore, soft spot for me. I can honestly say that I became afraid to try playing again. About a year ago I decided to pull out my sax, just to see if I still knew how to play it and all that came out was horrible honking noises and squawks. Sounds funny right? The bloody thing just about broke my heart. I put it back in its case.

I can't say there was a definite turning point, but I can say that over the last few months I finally took a look at my relationship with music. I was terrified of trying again, because I knew that there was no way I'd be where I was before. I was worried about disappointing myself. I was hesitant to even give myself another chance and skeptical of my ability to really try.

The New Year just happened to come around at a convenient time. While I haven't been known to make resolutions (again, probably for the fear of disappointing myself), I decided that 2012 was the year I'd get back into music in a big way.

And so I am.

So far, I've joined a community concert band, a jazz ensemble and a choir. I've purchased a new sound module for my keyboard, eliminating the setup hassle that comes with a computer/MIDI keyboard combination. I put new strings on my guitar, and put it next to my bed, ready to play at a moment's notice.

All this has put my playing time to 5-10 hours per week, which I think is a pretty good start. I even solo-ed on Sunday night. Yes, musician friends, you're rolling your eyes at me but it's a big step OK?! And there I go being defensive again. My confidence is growing each time I play, or sing for that matter. Hopefully some day I'll get back to where I was before, and maybe even beyond.

Thanks, everyone, for listening to me blather on about my battle against myself. And thanks, everyone, for asking those difficult questions, because you were right. And thanks in advance, everyone, for coming to my terrible, out-of-tune concerts in the near future because you love me and support what I'm doing. Yes you do. Don't deny it.

Working in town means I can have a life outside of work

Hi again! Well, you may have noticed that I've changed the name of this blog. As the sub-header indicates, I wanted to keep writing now that I'm done in Fort Mac. Well, I can't say I'm really done in Fort Mac, in fact I expect to be back there this spring. But that's a story for another day.

A brief update on my life since I last posted:

I'm still working with the same company, but now in the office as a Project Coordinator. The job has been pretty good so far, though I'm not learning nearly as much as I was when I was on site. I'm finding that my new position is a whole lot of administration and accounting-related duties, of which I'm neither good at nor fond of.  Our group is pushing hard to get a full-time accountant-type person in the office, which would relieve me of 75% of my day-to-day work and allow me to learn some new skills. Let's hope it works out.

Working in the office means I have a regular weekday schedule, allowing me to have a life outside of work. I started training for the BMO Half Marathon. Yes, folks, that's just over 21km. I've been training quite seriously and am up to about 11km on my long-run days. I've also started playing music again, as it was my new year's resolution.

I have a lot to say about the running and the music, but I'll have to save those for later posts. Right now it's time to go to bed. Goodnight, everyone.