avrelia | Entries tagged with work

It is not swearing, it is the current weather conditions.

Happy belated birthday to

spikewriter!

I am at home and writing and posting in the unseemly hours of afternoon. I will be working again tomorrow, but as of this week I am now on the part-time basis. And I am not upset in the little. Well, I would prefer to get the money I am losing with the loss of two working days, but on the larger picture I am fairly okay with the situation. I am checking the Ontario labour law (again, to be sure about my rights), and I am trying to use productively these days. So far, it is not working very well, but I think I may get to better time managing through careful planning and following it though and kicking my own ass to do stuff in time.

I decided to put my university in the schools feature on my info page. First, I am proud to have studied there. Second, it has a huge list of users, so it doesn’t make my journal easily stalkable. I think. I am not sure I want to put my schools there, but I am checking the users who list them. I wouldn’t mind finding a person I actually knew there.

Off to do something useful!

Will be back soon. ;)

Current Mood: energetic

Non-work-related:

The Corpse Bride – we saw it last Friday, and were rather disenchanted about it. I certainly expected to like it much more. The Bride was lovely, and visuals were stunning, the music with songs and without was good, and the dancing skeletons were amazing and very enjoyable, but… It was boring! The story was absent whatsoever, and the fact that I couldn’t care for any of the characters lost the movie for me.

Just like Heaven – rather enjoyable fluff, but utterly forgettable. The end was too happy for my taste (I am surprised, as I usually like happy ends) – too magical or whatever. They seem to put all the best things in the trailer, which is the wrong idea, as it brings higher expectations. Except I didn’t (as opposed to the Corpse Bride), and managed to enjoy the movie and forget it immediately after.

To say nothing about the dog by Connie Willis. I’ve never heard about it before, but somehow through some cross-references I found it, ordered from the library – and was happy for several days reading it. It hit all the right buttons with me- the time-travel, the mystery of time, the making of history, personal choices and general course of events, happy fluff and irony. Kittens and ugly objects of décor to add – all made for very satisfied Avrelia.

I almost didn’t watch TV, and I don’t feel anything about it. What I did watch though – AtS DVD, s1 and 2 – still the for the first time ever. And it feels a lot like filling in the blanks. And seeing it all again, it came to me that they face the same problems over and over again - it is they are running circles – first just running, then running and jumping through the hoops, them running, jumping through the hoops blinded, then all that but carrying 50-pounds stones, then all that, but with the left big toe in each others’ ear… Yes, a disturbing image…

Work-related:

It was crazy and very crazy – conducting the shareholders’ meeting in Russia, while being here. I didn’t sleep that well, and when I did, I dreamed about shareholders’ meetings and raccoons. It is done now, It could have been done better – I could have done it better, but it is done, and now I can focus on other things – not better, but different. I am still worried silly about the thing, but the important thing, it is over. (and on Friday night – after work- I fall asleep on the couch at our friends’ place watching Star Wars.)

Looking forward to the vacation…

Current Mood: exanimate

I am sitting here under the pile of lawsuits trying to figure out things.

I am surprised to discover:
1) I have to actually work – to do stuff for the whole day
2) I have no time left
3) I have no idea when to cook
4) I have to spend money on lunch
5) I want to buy a lot of stuff – right now.
6) I miss my husband

First thing: being a lawyer is an incurable disease. You can stop working; you can change careers, but if by any chance you start again, it is like slipping in the old favourite pair of jeans that you thought would be too small by now, but it is not, and after a couple of days you feel like you never stopped wearing them.

I feel like this. This is not to say that I don’t feel lost and confused, because I have no idea where everything is, and how it is working, and the Russian laws changed well enough in the last four years… There is a lot of stuff to do, but it is not as overwhelming as I feared. Yay!

Yesterday I picked up an old lady in the subway - a tiny, tiny, but lively old lady. She asked me when the St. George station is, I said I was going there and would show her, then I helped her to get to the Bloor line, then the train went off without us, and we were waiting for the next one and talking, talking, talking. Well, she did most of the talking. About that she is well after eighty, but independent. That she cannot recognize familiar places any longer, because her eyesight has changed and so are the places - with all the new high-rises and renaming the streets… that she doesn’t go to downtown often now, but when she comes she cannot find anything… that I don’t look my 28 at all, and if I keep it that way nobody would give 80 one day… that she worked as a nurse for 17 years, interpreting from six languages. I asked what languages. She said, “first of all, Russian…” I was surprised, really. She came long ago form Ukraine knowing only two words in English: “yes” and “no.” Anyway, when I had to get off the train, we were both very disappointed that I had to go. I kinda wanted to adopt her.

So, yes, I am working now. Have to write some stuff right now. Totally forgot how sleepy the reading of court documents makes me…

Current Mood: working

No, seriously. I’ve got a job. I’ve been looking for it for some time, and it was hiding from me – maliciously, no doubt.

And then – bang!

You see, I wasn’t looking in that direction – I wanted to find a job the regular way, in a regular Canadian company. And I was having a lot of interviews these last two months, but to no avail. And then, this Friday, we are having a party for all Russian students in my husband’s school (Russian in a wide sense of language and culture, not nationality or even citizenship), and we meet new people, and we introduce ourselves, and then there is a guy desperate for a Russian lawyer in Canada. Oops. Cue me, getting a job.

I’ve always been (unofficially) of the opinion that my job will find me itself (as my adventures usually do). I knew it was a wrong opinion, but I was joking about it and didn’t really expect it to happen. But it did. Well, it also had to do with networking , but still… weird.

Me? Happy.

I returned from the interview, and sitting here trying to compose a nice and gracious thank you letter. I am trying to do something to increase my chances of getting this job. Can I sacrifice some goats? After long enough time of unemployment a confident professional (can you believe I was one once upon a time?) starts to doubt seriously why anyone would ire me.

People seen today (employment unrelated):
- a mounted Mountie
- a cute snuggly Muslim couple
- a pharmacist who is, probably, a lost twin of the head of the Rome office of W&H (Ilona?) – well, slightly less flamboyant and not evil, but the way she talks – intonations, accent, gestures…

Let’s see, this week was full of adventures and various stuff, and generally me being busy. It was good.
I had an interview today. With a temp agency, so no much hope for any results, but still fun. I tried to do my cheerful best, don’t know if it worked. I am the kind of person who has to remind oneself to smile on formal occasions. Will have to do some MS Office tests tomorrow, so probably I should stare at Excel a little bit.
I visited an allergist this morning, and left without much appreciation of modern allergy cures in Canada. Stay away from cats! Easy to say.

Yesterday I had a wonderful walk with Jonesie, but she’s already told all important points.

I have started to knit a pullover for myself recently. Wonder, how long will it take me to finish it? The last thing I knitted, a turtleneck for my husband, took me three years of work (I am serious, of course, there were interactions and stuff, but still)

Finally, convinced my husband to watch “Pirates of the Caribbean”. He liked it. Yay! I found myself again fascinated with the world of pirates and adventurers, and beautiful tall ships. But not with the characters, oddly.

Tomorrow the Olympics start. Hurray! The main hope of mine for these games – less scandals. Scandals kill for me all the fun and spirit I love the Games for.

Current Mood: cheerful

I spent this week generally feeling tired or running like crazy around Toronto, looking for a job. The job keeps hiding from me. I decided to try and apply for a job in a bookstore, and went through most of the Chapters/Indigo/Coles in Toronto trying to engage in a meaningful conversation with managers about Life, The Universe, and my possible employment. Most of the times I actually managed to do it. That’s not to say I’ve got a job as a result. I guess, my complete lack of retail experience is a hindrance here. But may be it will still work out – some of the stores will be hiring in a month, and I told that I will remind about myself at the time.

But what do I do next?

Anyway, by this afternoon I felt very dead and had a headache. Slept couple of hours, got up without waking up and tried to write a cover letter for a position I really like. Do you want to know my painful secret? I suck at writing cover letters. Really bad. They turn out too clichéd, trite, and formal, or flippant and silly. No wonder I am unemployed – I cannot convince anyone to hire me. With all the useful job-searching stuff I forgot about writing. I have to write how many things? A lot. A while ago I finished a short story I was writing since May. Sent it to some friends for reviews and beta-editing. Some are still replying, but I already know what has to be changed – and am I editing it? Nope. Btw, it is in Russian, so I can seriously offer it to read only to a very small part of my flist.

Writing stories are so much more pleasurable activity than writing cover letters, yet I spent more time with the latter. ::sigh::

Apparently trying to catch up all Writercon reports is positively impossible, as well as commenting on all of those that I did catch up. Generally, I’ve got an impression of a happy blur with some minor annoyances.