Discovering Perspective

That's right, I went from not working (really) for four years to eleven days straight. And when most of those days were nine hours, you can imagine how exhausted I am.

But I now have four days to catch up on sleep, Mekki, relaxation and beer.

Natasha is in town so I'll be off to have dinner with her and a bunch of people at the Blue Cactus this evening. Should be fun especially since I won't have to be a party pooper and go home early to sleep.

I'm not sure if I will survive the summer. Some days are better than others. Yesterday I was torn between feeling like crying and feeling like I needed to slap my boss. But today was better.

That's right people. I'm employed. My very first nine-to-fiver (actually it's 8-5, ick). I haven't had to wake up at 7 a.m. since high school. It's going to be rough. But it will certainly keep me busy and considering I've spent the last month complaining about being bored, I shouldn't complain too much yet.

So what is the job, you might ask?

Mekki described it as tapdancing. I'm the resident architect(ural designer) for a biochemical machinery manufacturer that has recently expanded into a secondary business of high end design. Which means I do any and all design work needed from fireplaces, to kitchens, to lighting fixtures, to cabinet door handles, to flyers, to interior design, to webpages, to material choices, fixture choices, to curatorial design of the gallery and on top of that open-house co-ordinator and hostess, spell checking the boss' correspondence, faxing, filing, locating miscellaneous information, framing, repairs, chauffeur...

All in two days.

I'm hoping it settles down fast and that I actually get to do some work on the above mentioned tasks which for the most part have only been assigned to me. If that happens, then I think I will enjoy the job and it will be a really great opportunity for me. Very few designers get to work with high-quality materials, design and labour until they have established themselves.

Of course there are some frustrations. The major one is the lack of appropriate tools and space for design work. There is no drawing table. I'm using scrap paper and regular HB pencils, a CAD program for flyer design, and there is no webdesign software with the semi exception of Microsoft Publisher but I don't even want to think about the amount of code it is producing for the silliest little thing. It's probably forming 20 overlapping tables, at least. Once I'm there long enough to get my own computer, hopefully I can get away with installing OpenOffice, the GIMP, and Mozilla and have a sane install/setup. I hate working on other people's machines.

But, it's a nice office. Lots of paintings on the walls, aeron chairs (ask Mekki), young group of people (almost everyone is a new grad), and a chance to do something and make money for once.

So I graduated, officially. My parents came up for the event and had a good time as did Mekki's parents.

In usual Carleton style, there was a mix up with the paper work and so they pulled the "congratulations, oops, we take it back, maybe." I went to get my card for the line-up (cattle call) and it was marked "medal" so I was told to look for the person with the red sash to get the card for medalists. When I found the guy, he couldn't find my name on his list and so for the rest of the ceremony up to podium I was being asked by five or ten different people for my information and if I knew what my CGPA was and how many courses I had taken and blah, blah, blah. And finally, the usual Carleton response "we'll call you."

It put a bit of a damper on the day along with the pouring rain but it was great to see the whole group together and then venturing off to add a bit of pink spice to the orange engineering group shots.

After dinner with the parents, Mekki and I went to meet up with Martha to head over and make our cameos at the architecture party. We finally made it to the party after two hours with Martha and Cathy and then after another two hours at the party, I finally made it through the front door to say hello to everyone who hadn't ventured outside and then say goodnight.

I realized at the party in April, that I had missed out on something by not going to the parties and decided that it is something I want to make an effort to do during Masters. The architecture bunch are an interesting phenomena and I shouldn't just hang at the fringe of it.

My parents came up today for my graduation tomorrow so Mekki's parents took us all out to dinner at Algonquin College's Restaurant International, my choice. I had heard a number of people talk about it and I was quite impressed with Fanshawe College's equivalent, Saffron's. It was a very pleasant evening with good food, a comfortable but formal setting and because it is part of the training for the hospitality programs, you're a bit more forgiving and understanding of the occasional faux pas. Besides, you're getting a discounted meal.

When Mekki was informed that it was Nouveau Cuisine, he was sure he would end up at McDonald's afterwards but the meal size turned out to be quite decent. I like places with smaller appetizers and desserts so that you can actually manage to eat them. Normally I find that restaurants make the appetizers and desserts big enough to be a meal all by themselves and so I normally have to pass.

I had the veal terrine, spring vegetable salad with raspberry vinaigrette, roast beef with pepper sauce and a chocolate roulade. All very tasty and a nice assortment of flavours without too much clashing.

I would recommend a visit to anyone who wants a formal dinner and is restricted to a /reasonable/ budget. The Table d'Hote was $22/person. Unfortunately, the restaurant is about to close for the summer so you will have to wait.

I like looking for good deals and when I came across a great pair of shoes for $2.99 at Value Village, I couldn't resist. After finishing my shopping, I brought my items to the cashier who promptly looked at the shoes and told me they must be listed wrong. In the past, cashiers have joked at the amazing deals I've found in the store and good on me. Today, the cashier pulled the tag off the shoes and when I asked if I would still get the listed price, she told me no "because some people go around changing tags" (in a rather accusatory tone). I remember in the past that if you brought an unlabelled item to the cash, you received a discount once the item was priced. The cashier looked at a piece of paper and told me the shoes should be marked $12.99, so needless to say at more than 4x what I was about to pay, I told her I wasn't interested.

Given there were no signs of another tag and that the mistake was from $2.99 to $12.99, I would suspect the error was with the staff when pricing, likely misreading the chart. The other shoes I looked at ranged from $2.99 to $14.99, I've seen identical items in the store listed at very different prices, so I didn't think much of it other than it was a really good deal. If someone had gone to the trouble of switching the pricetag, I would assume they would have bought the shoes themselves.

Needless to say, I found it very insulting to be accused of trying to cheat the store and am very disappointed to have left without the items I wanted. And be sure, I'm going to let Value Village know about it.

Well, after sitting around all day, everyday this summer, I've decided to finally try to find a yoga routine to start off my day. Yesterday I took a walk over to the library to see what they had. So I'm testing out a couple of videos. They're really annoying... perky blonds telling you "you can do it" but after following along this morning to the first twenty minute routine that is a mix yoga/pilates, I feel pretty good. And I figure I only have to listen to the video until I learn the routine. I can live with the perky blonds til then.

I'm hoping I will stick with this because I really want the exercise and the increased flexibility. Of course it looks a lot easier than it is. I was bright red, out of breath and sweaty after only twenty minutes.

Mekki and I had a pleasant weekend touring several of the buildings in Ottawa open to the public for Doors Open Ottawa.

We hit:
-Nortel Carling Campus
-NRC Wind Tunnels Testing Facilities
-Dominion Observatory
-Lemieux Island Water Purification Plant
-City of Ottawa Archives/Old City Hall
-Canada and the World Pavilion
-Supreme Court of Canada
-Government Conference Centre/Union Station

I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't as architecturally interesting as I was hoping (I lugged around my sketchbook but wasn't inspired enough to draw). However, all the stops were interesting in their own right. I think Mekki enjoyed himself and wasn't too bored except for some of the tours which went on a bit too long. I prefer to wander around on my own and just have someone about if I have any questions. Guided tours can get tiresome.

Overall a pleasant weekend. I got to spend some time with my boy and share some of the things that interest me in return for all the gaming lessons he's shared with me over the last three years. Unfortunately, Ottawa is not the ideal location for architectural lessons but it will do until the time when we can afford to travel elsewhere.

Here is the what Mekki and I discovered when attempting the throw a few burgers on the barbie. It took a while to clean up but we eventually got to enjoy those burgers.

Quite the resourceful bird, most of the nest was comprised of lint pulled off the inside of the barbeque cover.

I'm terrible with summer vacation. I can't deal with it for very long. I'm soooooooooooooo bored. I'm sick of reading already. Reading too many books in a row just highlights how unoriginal and formulated they all are. And the sad thing is that they're better than t.v. or the movies. Why do I have to be so picky?

I can't paint because I'm living in the basement with no natural light.

I want to start walking to get some exercise and get away from the basement and computers but there really isn't anywhere worth walking to or any especially nice parks to stroll through.

I had an interview on Monday for a job with Park's Canada's Heritage Department and should hear back soon whether I got it or not. At least it would be something to do and even if it's boring, I'll be making some money.

That's the problem with a university education, it's hard to keep up the level of mental stimulation on your own when you don't have anyone with the necessary background to discuss things with.