The Flashbacks: 2006 pt. 5/6

In November 2006, some of the girls I'm friends with [from home] did a weekend get together in North Bay. Many Facebook photo albums ensued. Obviously, this meant that Mando and I had to outdo them. On December 6, we had the most jam-packed, best day ever! Here is that day.

We shopped at Value Village [and IKEA] and then got gas.

We grabbed some Subway and ate it at Mando's place.

The parking lot outside set the scene for the pure awesomeness of me finding this homemade shelf which we picked up for me and I've used ever since!

We then drove to Renfrew and did a full town driving tour. We saw the Renfrew Bakery, which is no more.

We saw my old job at TeleTech, which is no more.

We saw the tiny little restaurant with the outdoor bathrooms called Esther's Place, which is no more.

We saw our high school, which is still there. But ugly now that they added blue siding crap around the new, smaller windows. Poor RCI.

Next, we swung by Momma's place to surprise her. She had photos for me to look at. I was silly and wore oven mitts and her hat. Because hello, we needed an awesome album of photos for Facebook!

Momma was baking cranberry cookies for Christmas!

And I even got to help her decorate the tree!

Then, we got Momma into the car and went to surprise Mando's Momma.

We took the Mommas out for supper at Finnigan's. Although I'm sure they probably paid.

After taking the Mommas home, we swung by Rocky Mountain House to see Alison at work.

Next, we were off to Cobden to visit the animals at Logo's Land.

And to stand under

The gigantic Christmas tree, which is the tallest in Canada or the world or something.

Then, we drove home, stopping in Arnprior for a town tour, then we went to Parliament Hill to check out the Christmas lights in the rain, before finally heading home.

What a good day.

The Piles

I apologize for talking about my job all the time, but well, its all I do now, so its all I've got to write about.

As you all know, Old Navy is an immaculately organized Zen escape. Unfortunately, the location I work at has fallen from grace, with one or two items out of place, as noted in the example of the girls section here:

Disgustingly, the entire store became a hazardous wasteland, and I wasn't having any of it. I confronted the manager and told him it was time for change, and that meant overnight cleaning shifts. He agreed, got the district manager's approval [she's been visiting weekly and has obviously not been impressed]. We came up with a small team that would be good at helping to turn the store around, and we pounded out some top notch work over the course of 3 nights. It was fun. There was good music. There was a lot of laughter. There were no customers.

The first night, we worked as a group in two sections of womens... I spent 5 of my 9 hours creating a clearance zone and organizing it by size and colour, which is the unrealistic expectation. It was gorgeous.

Night two, everyone took their own section so we could finish with the womens clothing. I tackled the slippers, pyjamas, tank tops and various odds and ends of the Lounge section, and it was gorgeous.

Night three, we were only a group of three, as two people called in sick. We didn't get as much done as planned, but we got some of the mens stuff cleaned.

First, I organized this selection of t-shirts, adding some body forms to show people what they're looking at, so they didn't have to rip everything apart anymore.

The rest of the night saw me tackling this wall of khakis. I'm the so-called Denim King [and yes, there's a Jean Queen] so I easily parlayed my jean folding skills to khaki folding.

Apparently, elves came in and cleaned up the kids and baby section, and by the time I showed up to work today, I was absolutely stunned by how in one week, we turned the store from absolute disgrace, to probably 80% organized.

Also today, the district manager came for her weekly visit [I'd never met her before] AND she brought along the regional manager. Apparently she had briefed the regional manager on the way to the store, that its likely to be a huge mess. But her jaw literally dropped when she walked in and saw our progress. Progress that I initiated. And she thanked me.

The Flashbacks: 2006 pt. 4/6

With just 5 weeks left before school started, I was in Ottawa pounding the pavement. It was the hottest day of the year. The radio said people should stay at home and inside. But me? I was up and down the streets of Sandy Hill, learning firsthand the reason for the Hill part of the neighbourhood's name. Finally, I stumbled upon 39 Steawrt St. After meeting my future roommate and her two best friends, and them sharing popsicles with me, I was officially destined to live with

Krista.

Her friend Jeff became my new best friend in the whole wide world. We were attached at the hip for the next 18 months before we just kind of stopped :(

The blue water tower of Renfrew welcomed me home for Thanksgiving.

So did the always sweet and sassy Tabitha... a town legend that can't be rivalled.

Momma and I enjoyed a sweet and sassy moment of our own, under the maple in the back yard.

After a bar night in Ottawa, I ran into my cousin Jordan and his then-girlfriend Michele in the doorway of Zak's Diner. This is one in a series of MANY similar pictures that Michele took. Such awful awful pictures.

Through Krista, I met Tim: my next roommate/messy disaster.

Basil and Sarah didn't stick around too long on my 19th birthday, which was probably smart, since I started hitting people with the wand they taped into my hand. Oh, to be drunk again...

Jeff and Justin were the instigators of intoxication that night.

Another night, Cowboy Mike graced our apartment with his hillbilly presence.

Then, I was treated to a birthday treat of homemade brownies and frozen hot chocolate

Courtesy of Lisa, who is completely awesome, but I sadly never see/saw enough.

The Darryl

Monday was Darryl's birthday [its a busy month]. He is pretty awesome, for the fact that he does anything I want him to for a good photo op.

Someone gave my mom this awful hat at her birthday party, so I made Darryl wear it.

When he blew out his birthday candles before I had a chance to get a picture [jerk!] he went along with me re-lighting them and getting him to do it again.

And when his students gave him a gift with this bow on it, he posed, knowing that it was going to happen whether he wanted it to or not.

So, Happy Birthday to my life sized Ken doll!

The Surprise Party

A week ago, Alison came to Ottawa to pick up Darryl and I. The three of us headed so far South in Ottawa that no one has ever even been out there, and the maps are wrong because new roads exist due to the city's love for expanding. We arrived in extreme suburbia, to pick up Momma's 50th Birthday cake.

I had to hold this deliciousness all the way to Renfrew. It smelled like marshmallows.

We spent the afternoon decorating a pub. We also got super hungry, and ate some chocolate bars, because we needed the fastest available sustenance. Then, we drove out to Alison's place, changed, and drove back into town to greet the 20 or so guests we invited to the dinner. At 6:30, Momma and her boyfriend came in the back entrance, thinking she was going to a lovely birthday dinner for 2.

When she saw Darryl sitting at the end of a table, she freaked out because she knew I was obviously there, and not at work. She was incredibly surprised, which is awesome, because we thought grandma was lame and ruined the surprise. Grandma is usually lame like that.

We had a great dinner, and she assumed that was all the fun. But then the band she has recently fallen in love with came in and started to set up, and she freaked out about that too. They're an Ottawa band called Deja Vu Acoustic, and they are quite good. This is completely unrelated to this picture of Alison, our cousin Cheryl, and friends Leigh and Diana.

And my friends Rebecca and Lindsay were there, because over the course of the night, 60-70 people showed up to celebrate Mommma. She absolutely loved it.

There were former coworkers like Emmylou, and family like Cecil and DonnaLynn [we got most of the two-namers into this picture, for your reading pleasure].

We made Momma wear an cammo patterened birthday badge, because I thought it was her birthday as a 5 year old boy. I was mistaken.

The pictures all turned out fairly terribly, because I let Leigh take my camera around, but you can tell in all of them that it was a fun night, regardless of the fact that the bar staff was the WORST. [see: My "Manhattan" was a shot of whiskey and a shot of sambuca. very very wrong. But closer to right, after the bartender asked if I wanted my Manhattan to be vodka or gin based. FAIL.]

Finally, Momma use some wussy little steak knife to cut the cake, and it was extremely delicious.

By the time we went home, we were all dead.