Rehashing this Year

So my boyfriend's blog has inspired me to recall this year(in more than just our household Christmas newsletter form) for my loyal followers. Although I will be more verbose, because that's how I roll. And if I can't be self-indulgent in my blog, where CAN I be self-indulgent?

This year has involved probably near to as many hours serving as sleeping(or probably half). It started off with me working part-time at Tumblers and enjoying the shit out of being a Legislative Page. Katie, Shaheen and I became great work friends and will be those random friends that we'll call to hang out with for years to come. I also made some great connections in the Clerk's Office, my boss, etc who I enjoy visiting even though I'm no longer employed there. Not to mention all the exposure to politics I got during my time there. My interest in all levels of politics has been piqued, and I got to joke around with some of Saskatchewan's greatest political minds(when a coworker can give the Minister of Justice the finger and get away with it, you know you have a dream job). End of session pranks that we put together included: putting coloured ice cubes in Members' water glasses; putting some pirate paraphenelia on the Sargeant at Arms' desk(he looks like a pirate, for reals); putting a "memo" on all members' desks inviting them to the End of Session Arm Wrestle Competition between the Ministers and Critics( in which a group of members on both the opposition and Gov took the liberty to fill out who would win with some commentary); and a paper on Ken Cheveldayoff's desk with a picture of himself and his doppelganger, Alec Baldwin. We hoped to be remembered fondly by Saskatchewan's MLA's.

Immediately after session, I jumped into the most hours-intensive job EVER. Reid owns both Tumblers and the Western Pizza at Regina Beach. They wanted to get reliable , solid staff out there this year, so I worked with 3 others, who I thought would be great. But it turned out that I was the most reliable person out there, and as assistant manager(and waitress, and dishwasher, and busboy, and cleaning lady, and cook) I suppose I assumed that at the least the manager would take on more than she did. Unfortunately I worked with people who party and smoke pot a lot, so the only person I could count on was myself. At the end of summer then only person I could look at the same was the guy. The two girls, who are emotional wrecks, completely lost the respect I had for them at the start of the "adventure" that I thought I had signed up for. Good things: I learned how to cook at a restaurant, learned how to handle an incredible volume of customers, troubleshoot problems as a person in a position of authority, and every once in a little while had a fun time. Also managed to throw in a sweet trip to what is now an annual tradition of "Dirty ol' Tisdale", where me and a whole bunch of couples tore up the town on their Canada Day weekend street concert(The Stampeders this year) and a weekend at Caitlin's cabin where we drank the weekend away and went Watersliding.

My time at The Beach also gave me some time to text without the always-scrutinizing eyes of my boss at Tumblers, Jim. During my Beach summer, I had some extra time on my slow days to text away and get to know a new boy, Chris. We hit it off(and he let me bitch incessantly about work) and by the end of summer, with our demanding work schedules we had managed to get in a few visits and start dating. Although he lives in Yorkton, two hours away, we've made things work and are having one hell of a relationship. We've got a solid foundation because we're pretty rational, are both super-sexy, have similar tastes in most things, are hella-fun to hang out with(aka not uncomfortably couply) and encouraging of the other in achieving goals. We also have dreams of adventuring and regardless of when in life we'll get to do them, I'm enjoying the small ones we have, plus the guy makes me happy.

Anways, blah blah blah, summer ended, back to Tumblers, started loathing Tumblers, looked for a new job, got a kick-ass, incredibly well-paying(tip-wise) job at Hotel Saskatchewan and am working part-time at Tumblers. At the start of next year I plan to kick Tumblers to the curb, because I can just feel how unhappy the place makes me and my ties there are slowly loosening. Strangely enough, the one I'll miss the most may be Jim, the crazy 50-year-old guy who's been yelling at me for years. We've hit a comfortable place where he finally trusts me and I'll miss that.

Regardless of work, I know that I'll be applying for Journalism as soon as I finish up my portfolio, and hopefully be back in school in September. If not in Regina, I'll be applying elsewheres as well. I realized today that I've been straight-up serving for the past 7 months, with no more than 3 days off at a time. In the new year I plan on taking some holidays and getting some quality time in with my man, maybe going on a little tripski. After a year of making a bunch of money(and buying a '06 Ford Focus and paying it off within 10 months), I feel I've earned some sort of release.

Anyways, this has been incredibly long, but hey, so was my fucking year! A lot has happened, and I've grown a ton. I finally see my future as something within reach and I'm totally done with this "taking some time off of school" phase. People said I'd get comfortable making money and not go back, but I've spent this past year wishing I was back in school, and definitely have not been comfortable most of the time! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to my intelligent and classy fan base!