Tepid return

After a long departure from the land of blog I have decided to make a timid step back towards my more openly expressive ways. Much has happened in the months since our family comet started to break-up. Most of which are medium to large in effect on a personal time scale.

Before May could even start I had landed myself a job. It wasn’t glamorous, or paid all that well. Actually, there were times when you were lucky you got paid at all. I didn’t even need a degree to get it. But I had fun, got a car to drive to jobsites and was paid at a rate slightly higher than some of my fellow workers. I took the route of many a student before me and painted for a College Pro Painters franchise. We worked mainly in the Montreal boroughs of NDG, Hampstead, and Rosemont, but sometimes wondered as far south as Verdun. The experience was fun and frustrating while it lasted. I did meet many good people during my two month work term. However, a new job was offered which paid more and allowed me to work less and so I took that instead.

Speaking of new jobs… Over the next couple of weeks my work will be divided over a couple of areas. Before anything major will get up and running I am going to be painting the interior of my apartment building. Yet again not a glamorous job, but let us stress the word JOB. The big one that resembles something more along the lines of thought provoking work is for my cousin Paul.

Let me start by congratulating Paul and his colleagues for work well done in starting up their new business. I won’t say much now because they are still in the process of releasing it, but when it starts it’ll be great. I can just about guarantee it as a matter of fact. I will be doing some selling of their service myself, so a small piece of their success rests on my shoulders.

Now I have to do a little bit of back tracking. Mid May a certain gentleman reappeared in my life after a much too extended absence. Yes, the infamous Ash has come to Canada. He got off the plane groggy and understandably jetlagged; Australia is a tad of a time difference. The first week of adjustments were of course didn’t go perfectly. However, I expected as much because of the enormous change that was jolted into both of our everyday lives. Now things are chugging nicely. Believe it or not, my apartment is looking clean these days too! While I was working I even got spoiled by having dinner ready for me after 10 hour days of physical labour.

Years of papers, exams, and assignments have finally yielded results. On the sixth of July I graduated with an undergraduate degree; B.Sc. (Agricultural and Environmental Science) in Wildlife Biology. Both of my parents came for the event, along with my great aunt and uncle Brenda and Kotik, and of course Ash. If you're truly an eager beaver you can watch the entire ceremony online - it's at the bottom of the page.

Outside of the ceremony there was the typical restaurant lunch with the family, and a number of celebratory cheers. That night, Meghan, Ash, and I headed back to good ole Ste Anne de Bellevue for some drinking at the pier. Those of you who know about the pier know how appropriate such an act is. For those who don’t know… we had a limited supply of bars in Ste Anne. The end of the day left me satisfied on two fronts. First, the world did not come to an end on 06/06/06; only a minor stressor to the day. Secondly, I have a degree longer than my name.

With Ash around I have been doing a little bit more traveling than I would usually do in a summer of work. We’ve seen what there is to see in a day in Toronto. Ridden the Maid of the Mist near the base of Niagara Falls, and finished the night off with dinner in the skylon tower, and gambling away a small amount of money to the government. We even went to Parliament in Ottawa to see the sites, and activities that were loaded on over the Canada weekend. You can find pictures from all of these in my photo album; link on the right hand side of the page. We are still looking forward to side trips to other popular and characteristically Canadian destinations. If anyone has suggestions please feel free to make them!

I have chosen to finish off this entry on a very sad note. Much of my traveling lately has been between Montreal and Burlington. These trips have had shared a central purpose. Late last year my grandfather John fell ill. What we thought was originally just a bad case of pneumonia ended up being lung cancer. Since then John’s condition has been worsening quickly. Because of this I have been back to Burlington to firstly visit him in his final few weeks. On the small upside to the whole thing those he is in a gorgeous hospice and is in no pain.

As for the status of the comet, I hear they are relatively robust – so your guess is as good as mine.

On a side note, I would like to wish an incredibly happy belated birthday to one Miss Oriana Nierojewski. I am so sorry for having missed it, and I hope you had a great time. Hopefully I can make it up to you sometime in the near future.