a weekend in mid october 2019
so my interview on friday went ok. it was an interview panel of 5. lisa, who just left the position, tanya, is the new program director, colin, the manager of career and housing unit, and 2 members, karim, and mike, both of whom i know, like and respect. after the interview i went upstairs and talked to jimmy and nuria more about it. they didn't have much of a reaction when i told them earlier that i was applying. that's the way they are. it takes them time to process. so we talked more about it and all the changes in general that have happened and what it all means. i told them my 'testimony' on why it is important to have lots of work, like we do in our unit. i don't want my work there to be in vain. you know? i want our work to stand and not fall apart when i leave.
because i am leaving. when i got home i sat in the car a while, talking to mom on the phone and while i was talking to her i got the call from tanya offering me the position. so work life is about to change. a LOT. i will have at least 6 months. because tanya left her position to become pd and she wanted a 6 month trial to see if she would like and could manage this new position, and then an option to go back to her position as housing manager if she didn't like it. so lisa, took the housing manager position, and so has the same 6 month thing. and now i am taking lisa's position as manager of membership and so will also have the same 6 month thing. because it's a domino effect.
now that i have it i feel more nerves than before. new beginnings. ack.
i basically spent the next couple of hours texting back and forth with different people about it until it was time to get ready for a night at the temple. i have a new goal to go weekly. i felt such strength from my 4 days there in sweden and i want more of that in my life. i asked my friend annabella to go with me. annabella is a single elderly lady with a spunky personality. she was friends with mei lin and leilani, annabella and i go out to eat and different and new places every couple of months or so. annabella grew up in hong kong and i think she had school in china, i don't know exactly but i know she was a young adult in hong kong and that's where she joined the church and later she went to hawaii to go to university and ended up in canada then back to hawaii then back to canada. anyways i asked her and she said yes, so i went to pick her up. on the way to the temple she told me all about her story and different jobs she has had over the years. she really did a lot of things. she said that many times she didn't know how she got the positions she got without God's help.
the session in the temple was nice, although i was a bit sleepy i was able to stay awake and i stayed in the celestial room until the whispers died away and it was just me in the pure silence with God. i love those moments.
on the way home annabella and i decided to eat something because we both hadn't had dinner. she said she knew of a noodle place by pricesmart. so we went there. well. it turned out to be so yummy. i got coconut curry broth with lamb, bok choy and shitake mushrooms. they bring you your soup in a small clay pot with the broth still boiling. then they give you a tray with many little compartments of different things you add to your soup. like shaved meat, which is raw and you put it in first to cook, a fish thing, one prawn, a little duck or quail egg, corn, lettuce, sauces, sausage, bean curd 'skin', etc etc. there is also a bowl of rice noodles you can either add to the soup or add the soup to your noodles. annabella and i put everything in the soup. then we went to town slurping it all up. something about a soup like that on a dark blowsy autumn night, it felt soo good in my belly and it was so fun and satisfying to eat. i'll definately go back there. it was ten thirty when we got there and we were out around 11. it was a good night. and a good day.
on saturday i woke up late and spent the morning, after scripture study, blogging and posting my instagram pics with my blog. then it was time to get ready and meet up with fatima. we were supposed to have a photo shoot but she also wanted me to help her 'party plan.'
i had to wait for her for a bit when i first got there because they were coming back from the natural path. so i parked my car on the side and amused myself by chewing all the gum in the tic tac gum dispenser and blowing giant bubbles. then apparently they came back and i didn't see them or hear them as they were trying to get my attention so then fatima said she would just come out. about half an hour more she was climbing into sahib and directing me to a party store. the party that is happening is a halloween themed birthday party for samah. and we spent a looong time in the party store looking for costumes, decorations, invites and cake stuff. there was a jumping spider and creepy ghost riding a horse in the front of the store just as you come in. as you walk by the jumping spider lurches at you and makes hideous noises. as time wore on that spider wore on me. i stopped myself several times from kicking it in the teeth. there was also a ghostly girl called 'lonely laura'. i kept putting on masks and saying "my mom never let me wear masks". i almost bought a half lion mask because i thought my hair could be a good lion's mane but in the end i was like 'i don't like wearing masks." and put it back. haha. fatima is going to be mini mouse and she found the ears and a skirt. she said she is going to wear black jeans under her skirt and i said you absolutely are not allowed to wear jeans under a skirt. then she was being rebellious to my commands which i just don't get. like why wouldn't she accept my absolute authority over her costume choices??
we found almost everything but the girl's costumes. they were out of both of them. meanwhile i lost my will to live. party stores can do that to you. when we got out we were surprised at how bright and sunny it was. i didn't realize how dark it was in the store. we took a little lookiloo in winners too but didn't find what we needed. what we needed was black food dye gel, the costumes and possibly a floor decoration. what i needed was some food. so i spanned the whole parking lot and took us to the longest line up at tim hortons. fatima wondered if they had kombucha at tim hortons. this seemed so odd and funny. when we finally got up to the ordering mic, i had the hardest time communicating with the drive thru girl. i had to spell out flat bread after several incorrect interpretations on her part. we could hear her co-worker saying "flat bread!" to her. then i weirdly ordered 2 different cheese and bacon things and some potato wedges. the potato wedges were good.
where do we go now? i asked fatima. she wanted to know if we should go to queensbourough landing in new west because there was a bulk barn and another halloween store there. bulk barn had the dye gel, and i knew it. fatima had never been to bulk barn. didn't know about it at all. how? she kept asking me if i thought we should go there, but as you know my soul had died in the party store. so all i could say was "i don't know." so we stopped driving because we didn't know where were were going. we stopped on a side road and i ate my bacon and cheese things and we talked and we decided yes we would go to new west. so we did.
when we arrived we were offended by the restaurant "naan bites". "naan does not bite!" we yelled and pumped our fists in the air aggressively. "naan is delicious!" "don't be rude about naan!" after our 2 person riot we went into bulk barn and fatima's mind was blown by all that bulk barn is and offers. we got the gel dye, icing sugar, marshmallows and some halloween party, including BRAINS and EYEBALLS foam gummies and we felt quite accomplished. then we went into the halloween spirit store and found the 2 costumes we needed. at first it seemed that fatima might not get one of them and i looked her in the eye and ominously said "you will end up with NO costumes." then she shivered at the horror of that thought and bought both. meanwhile i got cat ears and tail and face stickers for my costume. cat it is.
then we drove back and i dropped off my bud and drove home. i watched the new show stump town and stayed up too late and got up too late. i was late for church but i put together quite a cute outfit so that matters. sunday school was really good with lots of good discussion and sharing. after church was our first ward youth council with the bishop. he is running it just like a ward council and it was good. our bishop is good.
meanwhile our ward was having a linger longer potluck and me and the youth got there late and filled up our plates. i started with the brownies which is pretty smart of me. i went to sit with billy but then crystal who is visiting home from nz with her new baby indie, came and hugged me and melissa who was holding said cutie pie indie, came over too and we were talking about my trip and then they were like come sit at our table, and i was like ok, so i did and we ate and talked and ate and talked and talked and talked and ate. well i was the only one eating. they were all done.
after i sat in the foyer a while talking to sister rauma about scandinavian treats (she's from finland) and she does a lot of christmas baking and then melissa joined us and we talked about ovens and baking and yadda yadda and then the bishop was done we were all leaving and that was my day at church. lots of visiting. now i'm cozily esconced on my couch under my fuzzy blanket with my warm pad of a cat curled up on my thighs and sunday music playing.
because i am leaving. when i got home i sat in the car a while, talking to mom on the phone and while i was talking to her i got the call from tanya offering me the position. so work life is about to change. a LOT. i will have at least 6 months. because tanya left her position to become pd and she wanted a 6 month trial to see if she would like and could manage this new position, and then an option to go back to her position as housing manager if she didn't like it. so lisa, took the housing manager position, and so has the same 6 month thing. and now i am taking lisa's position as manager of membership and so will also have the same 6 month thing. because it's a domino effect.
now that i have it i feel more nerves than before. new beginnings. ack.
i basically spent the next couple of hours texting back and forth with different people about it until it was time to get ready for a night at the temple. i have a new goal to go weekly. i felt such strength from my 4 days there in sweden and i want more of that in my life. i asked my friend annabella to go with me. annabella is a single elderly lady with a spunky personality. she was friends with mei lin and leilani, annabella and i go out to eat and different and new places every couple of months or so. annabella grew up in hong kong and i think she had school in china, i don't know exactly but i know she was a young adult in hong kong and that's where she joined the church and later she went to hawaii to go to university and ended up in canada then back to hawaii then back to canada. anyways i asked her and she said yes, so i went to pick her up. on the way to the temple she told me all about her story and different jobs she has had over the years. she really did a lot of things. she said that many times she didn't know how she got the positions she got without God's help.
the session in the temple was nice, although i was a bit sleepy i was able to stay awake and i stayed in the celestial room until the whispers died away and it was just me in the pure silence with God. i love those moments.
on the way home annabella and i decided to eat something because we both hadn't had dinner. she said she knew of a noodle place by pricesmart. so we went there. well. it turned out to be so yummy. i got coconut curry broth with lamb, bok choy and shitake mushrooms. they bring you your soup in a small clay pot with the broth still boiling. then they give you a tray with many little compartments of different things you add to your soup. like shaved meat, which is raw and you put it in first to cook, a fish thing, one prawn, a little duck or quail egg, corn, lettuce, sauces, sausage, bean curd 'skin', etc etc. there is also a bowl of rice noodles you can either add to the soup or add the soup to your noodles. annabella and i put everything in the soup. then we went to town slurping it all up. something about a soup like that on a dark blowsy autumn night, it felt soo good in my belly and it was so fun and satisfying to eat. i'll definately go back there. it was ten thirty when we got there and we were out around 11. it was a good night. and a good day.
on saturday i woke up late and spent the morning, after scripture study, blogging and posting my instagram pics with my blog. then it was time to get ready and meet up with fatima. we were supposed to have a photo shoot but she also wanted me to help her 'party plan.'
i had to wait for her for a bit when i first got there because they were coming back from the natural path. so i parked my car on the side and amused myself by chewing all the gum in the tic tac gum dispenser and blowing giant bubbles. then apparently they came back and i didn't see them or hear them as they were trying to get my attention so then fatima said she would just come out. about half an hour more she was climbing into sahib and directing me to a party store. the party that is happening is a halloween themed birthday party for samah. and we spent a looong time in the party store looking for costumes, decorations, invites and cake stuff. there was a jumping spider and creepy ghost riding a horse in the front of the store just as you come in. as you walk by the jumping spider lurches at you and makes hideous noises. as time wore on that spider wore on me. i stopped myself several times from kicking it in the teeth. there was also a ghostly girl called 'lonely laura'. i kept putting on masks and saying "my mom never let me wear masks". i almost bought a half lion mask because i thought my hair could be a good lion's mane but in the end i was like 'i don't like wearing masks." and put it back. haha. fatima is going to be mini mouse and she found the ears and a skirt. she said she is going to wear black jeans under her skirt and i said you absolutely are not allowed to wear jeans under a skirt. then she was being rebellious to my commands which i just don't get. like why wouldn't she accept my absolute authority over her costume choices??
we found almost everything but the girl's costumes. they were out of both of them. meanwhile i lost my will to live. party stores can do that to you. when we got out we were surprised at how bright and sunny it was. i didn't realize how dark it was in the store. we took a little lookiloo in winners too but didn't find what we needed. what we needed was black food dye gel, the costumes and possibly a floor decoration. what i needed was some food. so i spanned the whole parking lot and took us to the longest line up at tim hortons. fatima wondered if they had kombucha at tim hortons. this seemed so odd and funny. when we finally got up to the ordering mic, i had the hardest time communicating with the drive thru girl. i had to spell out flat bread after several incorrect interpretations on her part. we could hear her co-worker saying "flat bread!" to her. then i weirdly ordered 2 different cheese and bacon things and some potato wedges. the potato wedges were good.
where do we go now? i asked fatima. she wanted to know if we should go to queensbourough landing in new west because there was a bulk barn and another halloween store there. bulk barn had the dye gel, and i knew it. fatima had never been to bulk barn. didn't know about it at all. how? she kept asking me if i thought we should go there, but as you know my soul had died in the party store. so all i could say was "i don't know." so we stopped driving because we didn't know where were were going. we stopped on a side road and i ate my bacon and cheese things and we talked and we decided yes we would go to new west. so we did.
when we arrived we were offended by the restaurant "naan bites". "naan does not bite!" we yelled and pumped our fists in the air aggressively. "naan is delicious!" "don't be rude about naan!" after our 2 person riot we went into bulk barn and fatima's mind was blown by all that bulk barn is and offers. we got the gel dye, icing sugar, marshmallows and some halloween party, including BRAINS and EYEBALLS foam gummies and we felt quite accomplished. then we went into the halloween spirit store and found the 2 costumes we needed. at first it seemed that fatima might not get one of them and i looked her in the eye and ominously said "you will end up with NO costumes." then she shivered at the horror of that thought and bought both. meanwhile i got cat ears and tail and face stickers for my costume. cat it is.
then we drove back and i dropped off my bud and drove home. i watched the new show stump town and stayed up too late and got up too late. i was late for church but i put together quite a cute outfit so that matters. sunday school was really good with lots of good discussion and sharing. after church was our first ward youth council with the bishop. he is running it just like a ward council and it was good. our bishop is good.
meanwhile our ward was having a linger longer potluck and me and the youth got there late and filled up our plates. i started with the brownies which is pretty smart of me. i went to sit with billy but then crystal who is visiting home from nz with her new baby indie, came and hugged me and melissa who was holding said cutie pie indie, came over too and we were talking about my trip and then they were like come sit at our table, and i was like ok, so i did and we ate and talked and ate and talked and talked and talked and ate. well i was the only one eating. they were all done.
after i sat in the foyer a while talking to sister rauma about scandinavian treats (she's from finland) and she does a lot of christmas baking and then melissa joined us and we talked about ovens and baking and yadda yadda and then the bishop was done we were all leaving and that was my day at church. lots of visiting. now i'm cozily esconced on my couch under my fuzzy blanket with my warm pad of a cat curled up on my thighs and sunday music playing.
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