Great news...a new job!!!

Great news...I got a job in Barrie! Rather than commuting 1.5 hours to work everyday I will be working locally. My new office will be a 5 minute drive and in the summer I could potentially walk to work. I'm so excited!

Although it's a bit of a pay cut, it's totally worth it. I'll be a lot happier as I won't have "road rage" and I'll be saving myself a lot of time each day. I may continue to work for TBS but if I do it will only be once a week in one of the Barrie retail stores. That will be enough to supplement my income, ensuring that Josh and I are financially okay.

My first day will be November 26th--my birthday. What a great birthday present to myself. :)

I hope this job will be challenging and rewarding because I'm constantly bored in my current position at TBS.

Job hunting...

Egh!!! Job hunting is the worst! I apply for jobs, friends send me posting, I go for interviews, but I haven't been hired...yet.

I guess the positive side of things is that I currently have a well-paying full time job but I'm not challenged and I'm tired of the 1.5 hour commute to work. If I enjoyed my job, or even had enough things to do, it wouldn't be so bad. I've asked my boss for extra work and I've even offered to help out a coworker that in another department but I can only do so much. Sometimes I'm finished my work for the day at 10:30 but I'm unable to leave because "a store may call with a problem". There's nothing worse than sitting at my computer, bored out of my mind, knowing that the hwy is getting busier and busier the longer I wait to leave.

I'd love to work in the same city that I live. I currently leave at 6:30 and get home at 5:30pm but my shift at work is 8-4pm. If you ask me...that seems like too much time to be spent on the road.

Well, I'm an optimistic person so I'm convinced that when the right job comes along, I'll get it.

Hopefully my next entry will be to announce a new, close-to-home, amazing job that I'm passionate about.

P.S. If you know of any exciting openings in the Barrie, Newmarket, or Aurora area please let me know.

Middle of July already???

Wow, it's already the middle of July! Where is the summer going? This summer has been CrAzY for many reasons. Baseball seasons takes up a few nights, I work at Yogen Fruz almost every Wednesday, tennis falls on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I've been busy planning a Stag & Doe for a couple friends of mine. Josh and I have also been to a few cottages, birthday parties, Blue Jay games, the Grandprix, Ribfest, etc so it seems like every weekend is another fun-filled adventure. Don't get me wrong though--I love having things to do; I just hate how quickly the summer seems to be going by.

Between now and the end of August I've got a bridal shower, stag & doe, bachelorette party, camping trip to Granite Ridge, Survivor weekend, and I'm sure much more but I can't think of everything right now. I also want to go raspberry and blueberry picking before it's too late and I want to get to Wasaga Beach to go wakeboarding.

Well, I hope everyone's summer is going as well as mine.
Happy camping!

We're all Big Kids!

A couple Saturday's ago I went to Canada's Wonderland with a group of friends. Most of us hadn't been there in years so we were super excited to check out the new rides. The weather was great! It was about 30 degree celcius, sunny, without a cloud in the sky. We must have went on 8 rollercoaters and rides throughout the 7-8 hours we were there. The highlight for me was Cliffhanger. It's a fairly new ride and it incorporates water--lots of water. I guess I liked this ride one so much because it got us TOTALLY soaked.

The group of us were giddy all entire day. From Icee frozen drinks, to Itsakadoozee Popsicles (I'm not sure the spelling on that one) to Drop Zone, we couldn't get in enough laughing and goofing around like kids.

Having only visited 1/4 of the park (not to mention Splashworks) I definitely want to get back to Canada's Wonderland before the summer is over. We also didn't have time to do my favourite ride: White Water Canyon, which I was a bit bummed about, but since the rest of the day was so great I can't really complain.

If you haven't been to the park lately I strongly recommend checking it out. There's something for everyone.

Be sure to bring sunscreen and drink lots of water. :)

Reliable again!!!!

Great news!!! My car is fixed. It took more than three mechanics and multiple visits to the Nissan dealership to figure out what was wrong with my 2001 Sentra but the good news is that it's finally fixed. It needed a new Mass Air Flow Meter. Although the part cost $599 and $50 for installation I'm just happy they discovered what was wrong with it.

Josh is also thrilled because it means he doesn't have to get up early three days a week and go with his Mom so I can take his car.

I was persistent and didn't give up. I knew that eventually they'd find the root of the stalling problem.

I'm so happy to have my car back. :)

Cars are a wonderful thing...

I have a 2001 Nissan Sentra with 208,000km on it and up until a couple weeks ago, it's been fairly low maintenance and I haven't had much trouble. I always get oil changes and do regular maintenance but I guess things can still go wrong with cars, right? The problem with my car is that it stalls. It might stall while I'm at an intersection waiting to turn left (very scary!), while I'll driving through town, while I'm in Park, while I'm braking for traffic (it's happened on hwy 400)--basically it happens a lot. I've taken it to a local mechanic, who my boyfriend trusts and has been going to for years, but he can't figure out what's wrong with it. He's checked the battery, alternator, mass airflow sensor, he's adjusted the RPM's because he thought it might be idling too low, he's done a tune-up, and cleaned multiple hoses and valves but nothing seems to be causing the stalling. He suggested taking it to Nissan and hooking it up to their diagnostic machine because he was stumped for ideas. Although I try to avoid dealerships I decided that I'd pay the $85 an hour to have them figure out what's wrong with it. They replaced the fuel filter because after talking with many people about the symptoms that seemed like the answer. Well, after $300 worth of work at the dealership, it still stalls. No one can figure out what's wrong with my car--not even the company that made it.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be wrong with my car?

Carpooling is worth it...

My department recently hired a new employee and she's a resident of Barrie. This is great for me because I now have a carpool buddy. I wasn't sure if it was going to work out because I love my independence but this is a great way for me to save money on gas. I used to spend around $300 per month but I think it'll be down to $150-$200 depending on how often we can carpool. The only times we don't drive together is when one of us has a commitment after work in which we aren't going straight home. Driving together also passes the time--a 1.5 hour commute can be extremely boring so chatting seems to make the time fly.

The only thing that drives me nuts is that she's always late in the mornings. We're supposed to meet at the carpool lot at 6:30am but she normally pulls in around 6;40-6:45am. Since I drag my butt out of bed to meet her on time, it annoys me that she's late everyday. If this keeps up, I might have to say something.

Happy carpooling!!!