My Ode to Aylmer...

So I had a good time in Aylmer. I spend the past 10 days there helping my brother, doing an interview, and just hanging out with the family. As I noted in an earlier blog my brother is doing renovations to his upstairs and has needed more help then he realized. The process took much longer then anyone thought it would and wasn’t even close to having the walls back up on Saturday, the last day he had time to work on it. He had the week off of work and the next week he was working days and would be much too tired to progress much on his own. That Sunday he took some people that had helped him out to the Mancurian Restaurant. It was a nice thought, but I’m sure he could have saved some money if he went anywhere else.

One great thing about Aylmer is my niece. I can’t believe how cute she is, but she is her dad’s daughter so it should be expected. She’s funny and knows it. She gets all the attention she wants, and knows it. Her favourite words are “Daddy” and “what’s that” and she likes barking at dogs and cats. Her way of showing affection is by pinching. And when you show a sign of pain she’ll start to cry because she feels really bad about hurting you.
On the first day of the renovations Belinda had dropped Alexa off at the sitters and was helping us upstairs tearing apart the floorboards. After lunch she picked Alexa up and asked if my sister or I wanted to watch her. I agreed because of the four of us pulling out the floorboards I was obviously the weakest and thought that the job might get done faster if they loose the weakest rather then the strongest. Looking after a one year old isn’t as easy as it looks. I thought it’d be a good time to check my emails and jobsearch but it turns out that she devoured all my attention. She wasn’t happy playing with any little toy that I could give her. My other niece Ansleigh would have been however. Alexa wanted to be held constantly and then when Randy came down to do work she wanted him, but my job was to distract the baby so that Randy could actually get some work done. After two hours of her requiring too much attention and her being cranky because she hadn’t had her name yet I sat down by the tv hoping the colours would catch her attention. And it worked, she calmed down and rested her head very peacefully against my shoulder, I was tired too and laid back on the couch. Twenty minutes later just before I could close my eyes and take advantage of the peaceful baby Belinda, Randy and Joanne had came down for a break. Joanne told me that Alexa had fallen asleep and Belinda had taken her to her crib. So within two hours of deciding that a baby wasn’t worth the sleepless nights I realized it would be as she fell asleep in my arms. But do I want one of my own, well, I’m not sure yet, I guess its not only my call.

Of the first week at home four days were spent working on the house, one day was spent at the restaurant and the other two days were spent preparing for the interview. I was home in Aylmer for the reason of the interview but after hearing stories of this guy hosting the interview I kinda thought I should have rejected it. People thought the job description was odd and thought that the interview might be this guy promoting his course rather then filling a job. Tony, from the CCCA, a place where I worked one summer said that this guy, Mr. Jolly, was destined to be a used car salesman and for some reason got in hand in the environmental field. He told me that if I decide to take the interview he wanted to know what I thought of him. Way to make me feel confident in an interview Tony. Well after deciding that I should go to this interview with every intent to tell Mr. Jolly that I wasn’t going to enrol in his course, I went and an hour and a half later I came out of the interview. Apparently he was making a few teams of forestry technicians and was legitimately filling positions; the catch was though that the next phase of the interview involved passing his field class. I stated that I wasn’t willing to take his class if it meant that I might be offered a job in the end. If I have to pay $550 bucks for a course without the actual job offer I’m not going to do it. It’s not that I am weak and lazy; it’s just that I have a degree and if my degree isn’t good enough for him I’m not going to offer him the satisfaction of getting that extra cash out of me. I have a four-year degree and I’m not going to take an extra course because I think I may want to that. Nope, just doesn’t seem worth it. So even though I haven’t heard from him, I’m not even concerned for the response. I don’t want the job that bad and I’m not crazy working for a nutjob like that. It was an experience, good or bad I’m not sure about though.

Some other exciting events of the week were breakfast with Melanie Saturday morning and dinner and a movie with Will and Ani and their kids. Sometimes I get annoyed when the kids accompany my dates with Will and Ani. Those two are my favourite people to talk to and I take any chance I can to pick their brains about religion, dating, and our heritage that I can, but the deep talks are limited to their kids crying out for attention. But Andrea, Markus and Sammy are the kids where Precious Moments are taken from. The whole family is a picture of perfection and they make my dreams seem worth the wait. Monday, despite the fact that it was my first day after a busy first week to relax, I was extremely ill. I napped twice and spent the rest of the day taking turns lying on the couch, the bed, the floor and leaning against the wall or the chair at every moment I couldn’t be lying down. I hate being sick and I hated the feeling of swallowing a fork every time I tried to inhale. However I am feeling much better and excited to face the next few days. Today has been a good day, Thanks.