Nurse Sean (dot) com

I will tell you the moral of the story up front: Don’t get Bell Expressvu unless you own your own house. I’m sure that goes for any satellite system.

So, the satellite installer was supposed to be here on Saturday the 18th. Because I live in an apartment, I’m not allowed to physically attach the satellite to the building. No problem, you just stick the satellite on a tripod and weigh it down.

Right before the installer gets to the apartment, he calls and says that they don’t provide the tripod. And unfortunately, he had absolutely no idea where I could get one. So, I had to start calling around for satellite tripods. Installer dude promised to call back after the next appointment to see if I wrangled one up.

I found one!

Unfortunately, according to the guy at Radio Shack, it wasn’t complete and I would have to go to home depot and buy a 4 foot by 2 inch pole to finish the tripod. Unfortunately, Home Depot only had ten foot poles, and nobody there to cut it….

And then, the installer never showed up anyway. I got a free month of service out of him not showing up though! However, running around town for a stupid pole while I SHOULD have been helping move sucked.

Fast forward one week later. The appointment has been rescheduled, and a two inch diameter by four foot pole has been found at RONA. It’s all waiting there for the installer.

When the installer arrives, there’s a problem with the permission slip. He won’t install without the slip signed, and the management won’t sign it until it’s installed and inspected. Fortunately, I convinced them to sign in, I run back and hand it to the installer.

Unfortunately, two inches in diameter (of the pole) is too big! The installer says he’ll start the wiring while I run to home depot for a new pole. I phoned first, and I find out that they have poles that are thinner, and can even be cut since the plumber is on duty! YAY!

So, off I go to home depot. On the way, while talking on the cell phone to my mom, two cars get into a HUGE accident. One comes flying toward me and misses me by a couple feet. Fortunately, we’re across the street from the Foothills Hospital, and before I can say “holy crap mom, I have to go, I just witness an accident,” ten nurses are on the cars like . There was lots of witnesses, and the ambulance was already arriving…so I didn’t feel too guilty about leaving.

I was on a mission after all!

So! I get the pole, and then spend half an hour tracking down the plumber. Thank God! He’s willing to cut it to the right size!

I get in my car, and I had left my lights on. It doesn’t start. *cry*

I try one more time to start the car, and thank the HEAVENS it started.

At this point, I start wondering if this is a sign. Is it time to accept that this satellite things just isn’t supposed to happen? No, definitely not. I love my satellite. It is the centre of my life, my M.O., my raison d’etre! I must have my satellite!!!!!!!

So, I get beck and I hand installer man my new pole (also looking around the house taking a quick inventory of computers and stuff–after all, I just left a stranger alone there for an hour).

He looks at it and said, “you got the same size”

No, it can’t be. The last one was two inches, and this one is 1 7/8 inches. It just can’t be true!!!

It was true…

So, back in the car I go, off to Home depot, I get the 1 5/8 inch tube. But where’s the plumber? He’s gone! There’s nobody there to cut it.

*inner scream!*

*pep talk*

*manage to remain calm*

I call the installer man. He feels that the six foot pipe I’m holding will work. I beg the gods to let it be so. Should I be worried that this really IS a sing?

No, no no no no no!!!

Satellite is WAY too important to me. No God, evil or good, would ever want to face the wrath of me without my satellite. Let’s face it, it’s not pretty. Besides, I’m a rebel. The more someone tells me “you can’t have satellite,” the more I want it! And the more obstacles I encounter, the more determined I become.

I get home, collapse after handing installer man the pole. He finishes a couple minutes later, I sign the work order, he leaves.

I go to take a peak at the satellite for the first time. He has broken the following rules that I told him he had to follow in order for me to have satellite here.

1.) He drilled holes in the fucking balcony!!! It says explicitly not to do so! That’s why I attached the tripod to a board and weighed it down.

2.) He neglected to put a face plate on the outside. He put it on the inside, but not the outside.

3.) The dish extends a tiny bit past the balcony’s edge. Not a lot, but just enough to definitely be a problem.

I’m pretty pissed, because now the apartment management has to come and inspect the installation. It will not pass, it will have to come down, I will have to pay for fixing the holes in the balcony, and probably the siding that holes were drilled into.

Does it help that I have my satellite now? I mean, satellite DOES make me happy.

A little bit…but not a lot…

I find Bell Expressvu customer service staff AWESOME; however, I have had absolutely nothing but trouble with the installers. The first time I had it installed was as much of a circus.

The thing is, if you own your own house, they come in, nail it to your house and leave. None of this crap that I had to go through. Hence, the moral of the story: Bell Expressvu is great! But don’t bother unless you own your house!

*Stomps away on a Dionysius style rage*

Did I mention that I have a horribly hard test in Community Health Nursing tomorrow? I just have not had any time to spend studying. Between moving and desperately trying to work on our project for my practicum, there just hasn’t been time. Now, I find myself studying in bits and pieces when I can. An hour between the final cleaning of my old apartment and ritual, another hour before bed, half an hour before work today, a bit before bed, and the ever popular “wake up early Monday before the test and squeeze in one more hour.”

I really don’t expect to do well. There’s just too much stuff to learn. It’s all lists and definitions. I would be alright if it was multiple choice, but unfortunately, it’s written. So, you get those horrible questions that depend on hours of studying and memorizing. I hate school. 9.5 months to go, and counting!

So yes, we cleaned our old basement suite yesterday for a few hours. It was a little sad to say goodbye (unexpectedly), since it was the place that R. lived when I met him. Although I didn’t like the place, it definitely had sentimental value attached!

We had ritual last night. It was a good, casual, fun time. And I learned that Hermes has the hots for Aidan. What a cute match! *wink* And, for a change, I got home relatively early–enough time to have some tea and soup before doing a bit of studying and going to sleep.

I sleep like a baby in this apartment. I realized last night that I have yet to wake up in the middle of the night here. No 2am pees, or 4am excursions to the television or computer. Yes, sleeping is good, and I do lots of that here! And when I sleep here, it’s a deep, refreshing, energizing sleep.

Well, I need to go study before going to work. There’s a Mary Kay convention in town, so it should be a day from hell. Just once, I would love to have a nice quiet day. That’s the price I pay for working at one of the busiest Starbucks in the city.

*sigh*

There are great big fir trees outside my apartment window. They are covered in a layer of snow. They look so beautiful! I wish I could paint! Or at least draw.

I don’t have to work until 14:00, so I get to spend my morning with a cup of coffee and some television. I’m watching the Olympics, of course. They have become pretty boring the last couple days. Near the end of the two weeks, they start to run out of sports to show. Actually, I should say, they run out of interesting sports to watch. They are about to show a curling match. While I have been known to watch curling (and enjoy it), I think I will pass.

SO! Regis and Kelly it will be! Then the View!

Work should be fairly hellish today. There is a teacher’s convention on right now. We will be busy busy busy!!! I will probably end up staying until 20:30, even though we close at 19:00. Then I have to come home and study for my midterm exam on Monday.

I feel like I’m “spinning my wheels” with this class. Even though I study study study, I don’t seem to learn anything. In fact, it seems that the more I study, the less I learn.

At least R. has offered to pick me up from work tonight. That always makes me happy. I don’t mind taking the bus, but getting picked up is a definite treat. Plus, it means I get home earlier and have more time to study.

Tomorrow, we have to go back to the old apartment and clean. It should make for a crappy way to spend the day. I hate shampooing rugs and cleaning windows. And scrubbing walls is the WORST! I should definitely have hired a cleaning service to do it for me.

Oh well…

There are great big fir trees outside my apartment window. They are covered in a layer of snow. They look so beautiful! I wish I could paint! Or at least draw.

I don’t have to work until 14:00, so I get to spend my morning with a cup of coffee and some television. I’m watching the Olympics, of course. They have become pretty boring the last couple days. Near the end of the two weeks, they start to run out of sports to show. Actually, I should say, they run out of interesting sports to watch. They are about to show a curling match. While I have been known to watch curling (and enjoy it), I think I will pass.

SO! Regis and Kelly it will be! Then the View!

Work should be fairly hellish today. There is a teacher’s convention on right now. We will be busy busy busy!!! I will probably end up staying until 20:30, even though we close at 19:00. Then I have to come home and study for my midterm exam on Monday.

I feel like I’m “spinning my wheels” with this class. Even though I study study study, I don’t seem to learn anything. In fact, it seems that the more I study, the less I learn.

At least R. has offered to pick me up from work tonight. That always makes me happy. I don’t mind taking the bus, but getting picked up is a definite treat. Plus, it means I get home earlier and have more time to study.

Tomorrow, we have to go back to the old apartment and clean. It should make for a crappy way to spend the day. I hate shampooing rugs and cleaning windows. And scrubbing walls is the WORST! I should definitely have hired a cleaning service to do it for me.

Oh well…

I must say, Livejournal is impressing me. It has changed a lot since I last seriously used it as a blogging tool. There are many new, cool features to play around with. I especially like the new templates/layouts they have. I am using one called “mint chocolate chip” which actually matches my new shower curtains (I can’t believe I spent $96 on shower curtains…yikes!). I am also using a desktop publishing client for Mac OS X right now which also seems pretty darn cool.

I am settling in nicely. However, since this is my third post today, I really don’ t have much to say. I have saturated my experiences for now. there’s a couple things I would like to mention though.

I walked to the university today. As expected, it felt wonderful to walk through the snow, and see the beautiful white of the world. The cool air on my face inspired me. I find my spirituality spikes when the weather is cool. Whether it is summer or winter, when a storm comes in and the temperature drops–I feel more in tune with nature, and I feel more inspired to work on spirituality.

I have been feeling decidedly mundane lately (I love using that word due to it’s controversial nature within Spira). Life has been about moving, organizing, analyzing, assessing. Today, it felt like I let go of the mundane and allowed spirituality to take over. However, when I started studying for a midterm later, and realized how behind I was, spirituality slipped away, and in came the mundane.

And yes, I know there’s spirituality in everything, but I use the words mundane and spiritual to differentiate between intent.

So, I picked up the first part of our community project. We received a B+, and we are angry. We are ten A students, put in a group, working to the brink of exhaustion putting together our best work to date–to get anything less than a A is devastating! We have reviewed the report and critique, and have excellent grounds for appeal.

OK, I promise, I will stop posting today. As I mentioned, the whether is my muse. I feel like opening plank pages and writing forever! I rarely ever write this prolifically.

maybe I’ll get out my poetry book and start writing.

It is so hard for me to commit to blogging. I find that I occasionally feel compelled to write. At these times, I usually find myself writing quite frequently. This seems to happen approximately every three months or so, and lasts for several weeks. Then, slowly, I realize how much of a commitment it is to write frequently, and to the quality I prefer. I struggle to write, and eventually, the words just fade away.

Another huge issue I have had is my own confusion as to what I want in my journal. I have played around with many blog sights, and levels of privacy. When I first started blogging, I spilled my guts onto livejournal with no hesitation or censorship. It was a fairly strange and dark time in my life (dark in a chaotic way, not in a bad way), and I had SO much to say. There was also a huge lack of people online that I actually knew. Those that read my journal were strangers that I really had no chance of meeting.

Slowly as the years went by, more people I knew joined livejournal. The problem I found, was that I couldn’t be honest. I couldn’t spill my guts. All I could do was talk about what I did that day. It lacked the passion, beauty, and power that I felt my original posts had. I still read some of those posts, and feel the agony pouring out.

I also branched out and searched for other blogging tools–I found some I liked better (much better). But they lacked the community feeling I had at livejournal. I missed sharing my life with friends.

I struggled with this for a LONG time. Eventually, I created a blog out there that was completely anonymous and only open to strangers that found me. It has been so freeing to be doing this for the past year. However, as stated above, I miss sharing my life with people. So, I have decided to come back to Livejournal–which feels like home. In some ways, I think I will always come back to Livejournal eventually. It’s where I started, and it deserves some continuity throughout my life.

I considered making a webpage with my own domain–set up as a Weblog. But this lacked the community that I craved. So I am back for now.

I will maintain my anonymous journal, and I don’t promise that I will never take off again. However, I am back for now. And I’m very excited about this decision!

It amazes me how seriously I take blogging!

It’s a part of my life though…will be forever.

I am sitting in my chair, which looks directly onto my balcony. Beyond that is a courtyard with trees and a pathway–which, after a huge dump of snow, is beautifully covered in white fluff. I toasted myself a bagel, and I’m clutching a Tim Horton’s coffee. My apartment is right beside the dreaded coffee shop (Since I work at Starbucks, I have definite loyalties to their coffee). I threw on a make-shift outfit and clomped through the snow, waited patiently in a thirty-person line, and dutifully asked for a triple-triple. A Canadian tradition?

After living in a dark basement suite in a sketchy area of town (not THAT sketchy, but sketchy enough), living in a nice area, in a nice apartment, with big windows overlooking some nature is absolutely refreshing. Even more exciting is that I have been able to set up some plants inside the apartment because we have natural lighting now! I feel very much at home. I think I may stay here for awhile! I am lapping up relaxing days such as this. I am overwhelmed with a sense of peace.

I have a week off school, so I’ve been spending the days unpacking, settling in, and relaxing as much as possible. I had to work a couple times, and I have a midterm to study for, but for the most part, I have been nesting. Today I get to walk to the university to pick up the first part of our community nursing project. It’s snowy and cold, but I am looking forward to the walk. I love getting out into the beauty of winter! I will slap on my iPod and make my way to the nursing faculty. Only a thirty minute walk round trip.

As for the MAJOR item that is taking over my life–the Olympics. I am absolutely obsessed! I am glued to the TV at all times, desperate for my next fix. I am SO proud of the Canadian athletes. We have 19 medals–tied for second place with the USA and Austria.

R. and I are good. We have been fighting A LOT lately, but I think it was the pressure of moving that caused that. Moving involves a lot of painfully tedious, hard, exhausting work, and it made both of us snippy. All sense of passive aggressiveness or politeness was gone.

Well! It sounds like the women’s figure skating finals are about to start! I need to get going! Yes, it’s pathetic how addicted to the Olympics I am (I even own several official Olympics clothing items), but how could I not be–the Olympics are very sentimental for me. When I was a kid, the Olympics took place here in Calgary. I even went to several events. It’s my comfort food!

I am sitting in my chair, which looks directly onto my balcony. Beyond that is a courtyard with trees and a pathway–which, after a huge dump of snow, is beautifully covered in white fluff. I toasted myself a bagel, and I’m clutching a Tim Horton’s coffee. My apartment is right beside the dreaded coffee shop (Since I work at Starbucks, I have definite loyalties to their coffee). I threw on a make-shift outfit and clomped through the snow, waited patiently in a thirty-person line, and dutifully asked for a triple-triple. A Canadian tradition?

After living in a dark basement suite in a sketchy area of town (not THAT sketchy, but sketchy enough), living in a nice area, in a nice apartment, with big windows overlooking some nature is absolutely refreshing. Even more exciting is that I have been able to set up some plants inside the apartment because we have natural lighting now! I feel very much at home. I think I may stay here for awhile! I am lapping up relaxing days such as this. I am overwhelmed with a sense of peace.

I have a week off school, so I’ve been spending the days unpacking, settling in, and relaxing as much as possible. I had to work a couple times, and I have a midterm to study for, but for the most part, I have been nesting. Today I get to walk to the university to pick up the first part of our community nursing project. It’s snowy and cold, but I am looking forward to the walk. I love getting out into the beauty of winter! I will slap on my iPod and make my way to the nursing faculty. Only a thirty minute walk round trip.

As for the MAJOR item that is taking over my life–the Olympics. I am absolutely obsessed! I am glued to the TV at all times, desperate for my next fix. I am SO proud of the Canadian athletes. We have 19 medals–tied for second place with the USA and Austria.

R. and I are good. We have been fighting A LOT lately, but I think it was the pressure of moving that caused that. Moving involves a lot of painfully tedious, hard, exhausting work, and it made both of us snippy. All sense of passive aggressiveness or politeness was gone.

Well! It sounds like the women’s figure skating finals are about to start! I need to get going! Yes, it’s pathetic how addicted to the Olympics I am (I even own several official Olympics clothing items), but how could I not be–the Olympics are very sentimental for me. When I was a kid, the Olympics took place here in Calgary. I even went to several events. It’s my comfort food!

WELL!

I have been noticeably absent lately. This post won’t be long either. It is just meant as an acknowledgement that I still exist. It has been the most incredibly busy three months.

I started a new job and very quickly learned to hate it. I’m still there, and I still hate it.

I started a new rotation at school. I’m in Community Health Nursing. I actually really enjoy it. I’m working at an agency that shelters homeless youth. So, it’s out of my comfort zone for sure. Unfortunately, the work load is INCREDIBLE! It is an all consuming course that allows for almost nothing else.

However, I have had to move over the last couple weeks. So, my head is still feeling a bit dizzy. Hard work and careful organization is all that has been getting me through.

I haven’t had a chance to play my video game AT ALL! Which I despised at first, but then after a couple weeks, I was happy about. It seemed to release me from a bit of an addiction. I don’t spend all day and all night thinking about my video game. Now, it’s low on my priority list. I feel more balanced.

…and that is all for now

…back to the Olympics

Pyrsos