Oops...

Sorry guys, I'm fine, just haven't been in a posting mood... Anyways, here's the post I've been meaning to post...

For those of you not in North Bay, Karl opened a BEAUTIFUL store in the Northgate Mall called the Tea Garden. It's lovely, their mochachinnos are fantastic, and they have these toffee-chocolate bars of deliciousness, and I think everyone should try them. You should go. Seriously. Indulge in coffees and teas and be merry!

Things at the Red Cross are going... Ok. The conference was awesome! We stayed at a resort on a little lake, and instead of hotel rooms, I was in a little cottage, and since the branch manager (who was supposed to be my "cottage-mate") couldn't make it, I got the place to myself! It was gorgeous! I wish we had more time to explore, but alas, we had a LOT of work to do. We looked at management styles, we talked about what we needed to be better coordinators, we looked at our budgets for the year, and more importantly, we got to meet other coordinators from across the province! AND we found out that we're all in the same boat when it comes to deteriorating equiptment and falling training numbers. It was nice to hear that we're all pretty much on the same level. Except for Toronto, which, though they still face falling enrollment and issues with high maintenance instructors, are still kicking all of our butts training-number wise, because they're... you know... Toronto, and therefore HUGE.

So, all in all, the First aid side of things has been awesome. I'm still filling my courses easy-peasy, even my instructor's course is almost full. I've got a bunch of training lined up for myself to make myself more valuable to the team: I'm getting my instructor's course so I can teach, I'm getting my Babysitter's instructor course so I can teach that too, we're going to be getting courses so we can teach Oxygen Administration, which will be awesome, and I'm going to be getting some Disaster Management training at the end of November.

It's the CHS side that's getting to be a bit of a pain. My official title is "receptionist". That, to me, means answering phones, filing paperwork, things like that. And I do that. But, as of this week, I'm also now teaching the 2-day orientation course and conducting interviews to new PSWs. Now, don't get me wrong, if I was qualified to do either of these things, I'd be more than happy to. I'm just perturbed because I'm not, nor have I ever been, a worker with or for the elderly, so these new workers are going to be asking me questions, and I'm not going to have answers. I'm expected to grade new candidates on their responses to questions that I wouldn't be able to answer myself. And, what really "grinds my gears", is that I found out that I was going to be doing interviews about 10 minutes AFTER the interview candidate showed up, AND I had to do it in my office, which was, and is still, full of confidential information about my first aid clients. I had to stuff everything into drawers, which meant spending most of yesterday re-sorting out papers and hunting for things that should have just been sitting on my desk, ready to go. Boo. And, even with this increase of responsabilities, I'm still getting the original rate of pay, meant for a receptionist, NOT an Admin. Assistant, because I don't have that one piece of paper saying that they can (or should) pay me more. I'm seriously considering taking the 6 week intensive course next year at Canadore, just for the extra 35 cents an hour, or whatever it is.

Moving on to happier things: the countdown is ON! That's right, readers, it's almost that time... that most special time of year where thousands of people from around the world gather together to share in the peace and harmony of playful competition. The time where coffee replaces water in our diets (hah... like it hasn't already), and where the only thing that matters is reaching 50, 000. That's right, kiddies, it's almost November, and you know what that means:

NANOWRIMO!!!!

(National Novel Writer's Month... gawd!)

Yes, I will be Municipal Liaison again this year, with the help of Other Lacey (Ace), and we will rock. We will rock Hard. The site, www.nanowrimo.org, has already crashed, which is actually a good sign. No, really, it means they got higher traffic than the high traffic they were expecting, and hopefully one or two of them were from North Bay! I'm already hosting an event at my place, hopefully Ace will be convinced/able to hold one at her place, we might be able to do one at the Branch office for $25, and with any luck, we might even be able to have a write-in marathon at Karl's shop, the Tea Garden (seriously, you should be there RIGHT NOW). Maybe a Saturday, 9am-9pm, 12 hours of frenzied plot ninja craziness!

Also happening in November is the Red Cross Holiday Fundraiser! YAY!!!...? Anyways, this year, we're going to be selling pointsettas, which I think is a FAB idea, since pointsettas are pretty! the only problem is, as Don is taking on Northern Raffle, I get this fundraiser... Which is awesome, because I love fundraising, but sucks, because I have NO volunteers. Like, maybe, one person has come in for an application in the last 3 months. This means I have to recruit... All month. Bad enough I'm recruiting PSWs for the other side 2 days a week, now I have to dig for volunteers too! Boo...

Oh, well. I'm going to be abusing "free" advertising for the next few weeks, but that's not so bad, really. I get to do it all from the comfort of my desk... for the most part. I'll be putting up flyers by the end of the month, I'm sure.

Moooooooving right a long, Mom and Dad came up earlier in the month, so not only are the boxes gone (YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!), but I have furnature now. Furnature, and a blender, and an electric mixer.

And an exercise bike. Dad got me an exercise bike, for free, I might add. At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. It was this thing that sits in my living room, staring at me while I sat on one of my 2 couches (one for me and one for Relly...). I'm sure if it had a head, it would be shaking it's head, sighing and giving me the eyebrow. I did get on it a couple of times, but I couldn't go more than 5 minutes without getting winded. Now, I managed 15 minutes the other night because I was on it while I was watching TV and my brain was in shut-down mode so I couldn't feel pain, but still... It's the most uncomfortable thing I have ever come across, with the exception of maybe the medievil torture tools they use in a yearly physical. I put some towels on it so my butt and arms dont' go numb, and it really isn't that bad. Really. I'm just still not sure how I feel about it.

Also, blenders rock.

I think that's pretty much it for now. Even though I'm not part of it, I'm assured that SoS is up and in full swing once again. Auditions have been going well, I'm told, and aparently, to quote Beth :" SoS just isn't the same without your [my] cynicism". At least I left an impression. And with Adam busy being an exec, I've actually been able to be at home with Relly most of the week, getting decent amounts of sleep and catching up on my Facebook-ing. I even took a NAP last night! It was awesome.

So, back to work for me (yes, I'm at work. Really, I've been waiting until 10am for the Bank to open so I can do a deposit). Send love and coffee my way, if you can!

And I promise never to leave you all hanging like that again! :)