Murphy's Law

Well, this week continues to prove the very scientifically accurate theory of Murphy's law that "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." Ever since our car broke down last Tuesday (that's one week and two days ago) it has been nothing but a string of complications and unexpected difficulties. Where did I leave off? Last Thursday? I'll pick up there.

Thursday - For the most part this day was pretty good. I went shopping for teacher clothes for my new job with a good friend, and we hit a pretty incredible sale at the Esprit Outlet store where I spent over $100 on items discounted to prices of about $10-$15 (some of these clothes were originally priced at ridiculous prices like $170 per item...I got a pretty awesome deal). After shopping we went back to our hotel room (which as you might remember, was provided by Julian's work because he had some conference in Edmonton) to meet Julian. Julian had the good news to say that the mechanic had driven the car and he couldn't find anything else wrong with it and that we could pick it up anytime. We phoned a friend (Caitlin) that had offered to drive us back to Barrhead if we needed some help and luckily she was free that night to take us there. The plan was to go there, pick up the car and head back to Edmonton that night so we could head to Regina for Thanksgiving with Julian's family.

So Caitlin picked us up and we took off for our roadtrip to Barrhead, and found the car. Julian had said that the guy at the car shop had left the key somewhere in the car, but I could see right away that Julian was having trouble locating it. After searching for about 10 minutes we decided to try to phone the guy (his wife works in Julian's office) and see if he could enlighten us. So we headed up to Julian's office and he found the number. I guess, the guy forgot to leave the key in the car and didn't have a key to the shop or any phone numbers of anyone who did. He also told us that they opened at 8:30 but that he would likely be late...

After freaking out slightly, thinking that we'd just wasted 3 hours of Caitlin's life and mileage on her car, we realized that I could stay in Barrhead and pick up the car in the morning while Julian and Caitlin drove back to Edmonton. But I wasn't happy about it. They went, I stayed, and it generally was an unhappy time. The one good thing that came from it was that I decided that on my way into Edmonton the next day, I would stop in at my new school and meet the teachers and students I would be working with.

Friday - I woke up early on Friday and walked to the shop to pick up the car and paid the $60 for whatever they did (apparently they replaced an $0.85 breaker and test drove the car to find nothing else wrong with it). As I was about to leave the shop, the guy that whose wife Julian works with arrived and wanted to chat with me about what they had found...he suggested that I buy a few extra fuses just in case one of them blew again, because they weren't convinced that it wouldn't happen again...so at 85 cents a piece, I bought 5 extra fuses and made my way to Edmonton stopping at Busby Elementary. I spent the morning there and it went pretty great. I got a way better idea of what exactly I would be doing and got to meet all the teachers there and the kids. It looks like it's going to be a really good job for me (Yay!!!)

I made my way into Edmonton and picked up Julian and all our stuff at the hotel. We stopped off at Julian's old apartment to drop off some borrowed Tupperware and change out of our fancy work clothes (we still have keys because the condo is owned by Julian's parents and Julian is the manager...plus we are still friends with David who still lives there). Then it was onwards to Regina with one stop at Capilano Mall on the East side of town for dinner on our way out.

We had a bit of lunch/dinner in the food court and then it was off to Regina...or so we thought...I was driving because Julian was still eating his food and as I was backing out of the parking spot, the car stalled again! and lo and behold it wouldn't start again...but no big deal because we had all these fuses that they sold me just in case this very thing happened. They had predicted that it might stall again and said that if it did I should be able to replace the fuse and then drive it to the nearest service station to have it looked at again. So I replaced the fuse (which was indeed blown) and tried to start the car again. Nothing. I pulled out the fuse and this one was blown too. I tried one more time with a fresh fuse. Car still wouldn't start. At least we were at a mall where we could get out of the cold and rain. We checked out the WalMart there to see if they had an automotives department but I guess they only do oil changes and tires. After a few hours of trying to figure out what to do which involved finding various phone numbers of friends, almost buying a cell phone and flipping through the yellow pages for places nearby that might have space to look at our car over the long weekend, we called CAA again for a tow truck and our friend Jen, who lives not to far from Capilano mall. She was not home, but her mom and dad offered us their truck to use for the weekend. The tow truck and Mr and Mrs Kinghorn (Jen's parents) showed up at almost the same time and I gratefully accepted the keys to their truck hugged them both and followed the tow truck to the Fountain Tire where Julian used to take his car when we lived in Edmonton. It was pretty obvious that Julian was pretty disappointed about not being able to go to Regina. It would have been the first time in a very long time that he and both his sisters and their families would have been back in Regina for Thanksgiving. Poor guy :(

We called David (old roommate) and told him our predicament and arrranged to crash at the apartment for a few days if we needed to. One thing I should say is that we are so lucky to have so many good friends that we can depend on if we ever get in a bind. For instance, the Kinghorns treat us like surrogate parents since neither of us have any family in Edmonton. So we stayed at David's that night and played a nice game of Settlers of Catan with David and his new roommate Steve and a very nice sleep on the futon couch (which is actually Julian's...haha) and also looked at a few car websites as we were planning on buying a new car now that I had a job that required a half-hour commute, each way.

Saturday - We got up early on Saturday and made plans to visit a few different dealers around Edmonton. The first one we hit was Sun Toyota on Whyte Ave. We test drove a lightly used 2006 Carolla. The dealer kept making comments like "I have two appointments for this car today" or "I am definitely going to sell this car today...it is such a good car" (if you can, imagine this with Polish accent with a lisp). We really liked how the car felt and were considering it, but it was the only car we had driven and it didn't have cruise control. Mario (our salesman) offered us a deal of free oil changes for a year at their dealership. We bargained with him to get cruise control installed in the car instead of the oil changes and put down $1000 to hold the car for us while we made a decision despite that fact that Mario's manager was "not very happy" with him since they had so many appointments for that car that day. We talked with the finance guy, Bernie, at Toyota to see if we could be approved for financing on the car then went back to the apartment for a while to phone our parents to get their opinions on the car. We decided to take the car and let Mario get back on his manager's good side. Bernie let us know about all the things we would need to get approval for a loan for the car and to have it licensed and registered by Wednesday, which would have to wait until Tuesday because of the long weekend.

As for the other car, Julian had gone in early to Fountain Tire to make sure they could take the car. They could and said they had found the wire that was causing the problem. They told him it would take 2-5 hours to fix, but they were only open until noon because of the long weekend. The car wasn't fixed by Saturday but we expected to to be finished sometime on Tuesday.

Sunday - Sunday was pretty relaxing and pleasant. Steve and David were planning on having a Thanksgiving dinner with some of Steve's friends. I took David and Julian to Esprit to capitalize on the amazing sale they were having (both are frugal guys who don't often spend money on clothes, so they kind of needed some nice stuff). We picked up some things to contribute to the dinner, had a nice dinner with good company and later went to play board games and card games with Dean, Scott and Nigel.

Monday - The plan for Monday was to have our friends Rathi and Jenica drive us to Barrhead to have a visit and a sleepover because our choir was supposed to have a performance for a high school band/choir retreat in the Camp Nakamun Retreat Centre on Tuesday and they both had nothing better to do on Tuesday and wanted to visit with us. They were planning on visiting us anyway on Tuesday before any of this car mess. We made these plans, and also started thinking about the performance. We were supposed to bring our sound equipment to Nakamun but realized that if the four of us were going to be in Barrhead and that the rest of the choir had school or work when we were supposed to be loading equipment, our director, Scott, would be the only one to bring all the equipment out and pretty much it just wouldn't happen and we'd have to perform without microphones and a sound system...not so good for a small jazz choir and a room of 170 teenagers.

So we arranged with Scott to get our equipment loaded after much trouble in tracking down and anxious emails begging the other people in the choir to come out and help us pack up and load the equipment. In the end it was me, Rathi, Julian, David (combined weight of probably 420 lbs...you do the math...we're not big strong people), Jenica (who has tendonitis and isn't allowed to lift anything, really) and Scott. We managed to take down and load all the equipment into the truck we had borrowed from the Kinghorns. Jen was working that day, but later phoned us and invited us all over to her house for another Thanksgiving dinner. This family is honestly one of the most kind and generous people you will meet. After we finished packing up we went over there for dinner and while there decided it made more sense for Julian to drive the truck with the equipment to Barrhead while I picked up the Neon from the shop, and Jenica and Rathi would go with Jen for our performance in Nakamun. Nobody had to sleep on the floor and Jen wouldn't have to drive her family's truck and park it at school all day with all the equipment in it.

Tuesday - I was awakened by the phone ringing at 8:00 in the morning at David's house...it only rang once so I forgot about it...until later that morning when I was chatting with David and he said that someone had phoned for me to sub at my new school and for some reason he didn't want to wake me up to talk to whoever had phoned. (Gah! Why?)

By noon I hadn't heard from Julian or Fountain Tire about the car. I had expected to be able to go and pick up our fixed car by then. When I phoned Julian he said he would phone them and find out what was going on. Meanwhile I started to make new plans for getting me to Nakamun that night. I called Rathi and she said she would pick me up after she picked up Jenica and we would all go to a pre-arranged meeting place where Jen would pick us up to drive us. About 15 minutes before Rathi was supposed to pick me up Julian phoned back saying that Fountain Tire had said that they had found the problem and it would take 2-5 hours to fix...exactly what they had told us on Saturday...somehow they screwed up and forgot to work on our car that day. Unbelievable. The only explanation I can think of is that we somehow managed to cast a stupid spell on anyone we hired to look at this car.

So we arranged to keep the truck for one more day and I went to Nakamun with Rathi, Jenica and Jen. We would bring the truck back on Wednesday for our regular rehearsal time to set it up in our jazz choir room again and pick up our NEW CAR to drive home.

The concert in Nakamun went awesomely well, and the highschool band kids thought we were just great. It was probably one of our best performances ever. And we had thought that this would be a disaster because we have only been working on some of this music for a few weeks. Murphy's Law doesn't always apply.

Wednesday - This day was my second chance to visit my new school. I spent the whole day there. The morning was spent with Grade 2 doing Language Arts, Grade 5 doing Math, and the whole afternoon in the Kindergarten room, singing songs, playing with puppets, doing pudding fingerpainting, changing peed in pants, etc. It was an active afternoon. When it was time to go home, two boys were hitting each other while putting on their shoes. I went up to them to stop this behaviour, saying "Hey, you don't ever hit your friends!" I looked at the first boy and said "Do you hit your friends, yes or no?" He started at me blankly and blinked a few times. I thought he might cry. A little surprised, I looked at the second boy and asked the same question to which he answered "No." and I let him go to get his bag and coat. I looked to the first boy again and repeated my question. He just started at me. Blink...blink...blink...blink... His eyes weren't focused on me and I tried to get him to look me in the eye, so we could talk about the seriousness of his behaviour. blink...blink...blink... trying to pick my battles, I told him it was okay and that he wasn't in trouble, that I was just trying to keep him and his friend safe at school. blink...blink...blink...blink... I took him by the hand and led him out to the hallway and told him he could get his coat and bag to go home. No reponse. He stared straight ahead. blink..blink..blink..blink... Then I noticed some drool coming from the corner of his mouth and dripping onto his sweatshirt. I yelled for the teacher I was taking over from that there was something wrong with this boy. She looked at him and tried to talk to him...nothing...I ran to get the principal (who also teaches the Kindergarten, when I'm not) and she tried to get him to respond to her...blink..blink..blink..

She picked him up and took him into the sick room at the office while the other teacher phoned his mother and an ambulance. His mom said that he sometimes shuts down when he's reprimanded but she had never seen him do anything like this. We thought that he might be having some sort of mild seizure or something. He ended up being taken away in an ambulance. When they took him out on the stretcher he looked like it was in REM sleep, his eyes moving beneath is eyelids. I don't think anyone knew for sure if it was a seizure or if he was just a really good pretender. Either way, I felt really really terrible about it.

But once there was nothing more anyone could do, I went back to Barrhead to pick up Julian from work so we could get back to Edmonton to pick up our car(s) and go to our 'Nuf Sed rehearsal. Julian had news that our old car (the Neon) was fixed and ready to be picked up, but then they phoned him back an hour later saying that when they were driving it out to the parking lot another fuse blew...

We dropped by Fountain Tire just in case they had fixed it in between the time Julian talked to them and us getting to Edmonton, and they were closed and our car was still in the shop. So we headed to the Toyota Dealership to pick up our new car, where we were barraged with a new set of setbacks. The Finance guy we were working with (Bernie) said that there was a problem with the letter that Julian had sent by fax proving that he worked for his job. He said it also needed to have confirmation of his salary and proof that he wasn't on probation. This was all news to us. He let this slide as long as Julian promised to fax in a new letter first thing in the morning. He also said that he hadn't received our insurance papers, which he needed to get our registration done. Julian said that he had forwarded the email the insurance company had sent him that afternoon, to which Bernie replied that he should have faxed it because he never checks his email. Now, I don't know about you, but I think it's bad business to include your email on your business card and then claim that it's the customer's fault that something didn't get done because he emailed something instead of faxing it. In my general understanding, most people have more access to email than a fax machine. As it was already 7:00 PM by now, this meant that we couldn't get our car registered, even though it was indeed insured. In Alberta some things that should be simple are really stupid, like not having insurance and registration one and the same thing like in most other provinces. Bernie assured us that this wouldn't be a problem because he could get us a temporary in-transit 24 hour registration so we could take the car to Barrhead and get it registered there.

So, after ironing out the wrinkles in that Financial mess of getting a new car, we headed over to the used car lot to pick up our car. Mario wasn't working at the time and the manager there said that another guy, would help us. We waited outside in the cold near the car for a few minutes before going back inside to see if someone was actually going to help us. The manager saw us again and yelled to the other guy to help us, to which the other sales guy yelled back that he couldn't do it right then because he was with a customer. After grumbling about it, the manager then decided that he would actually seal the deal and set us up with our keys and had Julian sign a few more papers. He took us out to the car to find that the car wasn't cleaned up like he had expected it to be. The floor mats were in the trunk and there were marks from stickers on the windows that had to be scraped off. We told him we didn't really mind too much, and that we had to be going soon. So he quickly ran over the instruments of the car showing us how to adjust the seats and how to dim the lights in the dashboard, etc. I asked him how to turn on the cruise control. He paused before realizing that they hadn't actually installed the cruise control like they had promised they would. He told us that we could bring it back anytime to have it done.

So, we left the dealership without cruise control or proper registration (ie. there were no plates on our car...just a temporary in-transit piece of paper taped to the windshield) and headed to our jazz choir rehearsal, for which we were half an hour late.

Driving home we were both feeling a lot better about things...we actually had a car that worked, which just made things a lot easier and things were starting to look up.

Thursday - I drove our new car (without cruise control) to school and I had a pretty good day there. Nobody had any seizures when I reprimanded them, I got to see how this teacher does music classes and the fire department came to show a fire safety video. I wasn't planning on going back to the school on Friday, but by the end of the day, I thought maybe one more day wouldn't hurt. Also, the art teacher in the school had asked me if I could take some colouring contest entries into Barrhead for her.

When I went to pick up Julian from work, he was on the phone and looking quite agitated. He was on the phone with somebody from the Toyota Dealer where we bought the Carolla. I guess he had gone to get plates for the car on his lunch break and the ladies in the office there told him that the car in question was not in their system and they couldn't register it until it had an out-of-province inspection. I imagined a very irate Julian walking back to work with a wad of cash (they only accept at these places) and no plates for the car. When he got back to the office he called the dealer and they said they would fix the problem. He called back at 2 and they said they were still working on it and that they would phone him back in 10 minutes. They didn't phone back so Julian called again at 4 and they told him they were still working on the problem. Finally they phoned him back at 4:30 saying that the car should be on their system and that he should be able to get it registered now.

We drove down to the registry office with 20 minutes before they closed. Once again, the lady looked up our car and told us that it was NOT on their system and they still couldn't register it. We told her that the manager had just told us that it would be on the system and that we needed to phone him. She asked us if we had a cell phone and when we answered that we did not, she told us it would be $5 for a long distance call from their office. We told her to add it to the bill. After 2 phone calls to the Toyota people we were informed that there was some kind of mix-up at the registry office and we couldn't have the car registered that day. Which meant we weren't allowed to drive it anymore. Which meant that I couldn't go back to my school again. So annoying!

So that brings us up to date...hopefully this series of blog entries doesn't have to get any longer.

All we can do is be happy that we are healthy and have good families and good jobs. Here's to hoping that things start to go a little more smoothly very soon.

...continued

So if you haven't read the previous post I made, please read that first. It's long. But this won't make sense if you don't. And this is likely to be long, too. The last two days have been that way...long!

So where did I leave off...

Rajaton concert! Yes so we went home, checked on the car (still didn't work) and got to bed late, only to wake up early the next morning (this would be yesterday). Julian and I walked from our house back to the car again in the morning before he had to work, in the foggy frosty 7:30 AM. Julian thought maybe the problem was that there was no oil in the car and that's why it wouldn't work, so the plan was to walk to a gas station to pick up some oil, walk to the car and see if it did indeed need oil and then see if it worked after we put it in the car, and if it didn't, to push it to the nearsest mechanic. (I may or may not have mentioned that before all this mess with the car happened I had been planning to go into my new school to get a sense of what I will be doing once I start there...this was definitely put on hiatus as I had no transportation, and wanted to do everything I could to possibly have a car by the end of the day.)

So we got to the gas station and saw a co-worker of Julian's filling up and he drove us the rest of the way to the car. Julian popped the hood to check the oil and as he was about to pull out the oil testing rod-thingy a little mouse crawled out of hiding and around the engine, causing us both to shriek like little girls. He seemed to know his way around quite well and seemed to want to stick around, but Julian was able to check the oil after a few good kicks to the bumper to scare the little guy away. There was lots of oil, albeit a little dirty, but it was clear that oil wasn't the problem. So Julian started running to a Fountain Tire that was just a few blocks away to see if they had time to look at the car that day while I stayed warm by scraping the frost off the windows in case we were going to start pushing that car down the street. I got all the windows and most of the windshield frost-free when Julian came running back with news that Fountain Tire was all booked up, and another co-worker close behind, who stopped and took a look at the car and was also befuddled with what could be wrong with it. See when we tried turning the key it would try to start, but wouldn't turn over. It was clear (to some...I have no clue about this stuff) that the battery was working and that everything appeared to be in working order. Julian's co-worker seemed to think that it wasn't getting any gas.

Anyway, by that time it was 8:15 and time for Julian (and this other guy, I guess) to get to work, so that guy drove us there and we went in. Julian called around to every mechanic in town to see if we could get the car in, and everyone said they couldn't guarantee that it they could look at it that day. Which was bad. Because not only did we need to get into Edmonton for the Rajaton workshop, but Julian also had to be in Edmonton for a conference thingy about roads the next morning. So he picked a shop that had the likeliest chance of being looked at and then called CAA to send a tow-truck. They said it would take 90 minutes, then called back about 20 minutes later to say it would be 2 more hours. The plan was for me to go with the tow truck to the shop when it finally showed up, so I had a bit of time on my hands with nothing to do in Julian's cubicle. The first little while was occupied when another guy Julian works with (not his boss, but someone he works under) wanted to take a look at our car so we drove back out to the car, to take another look. When we popped the hood I noticed what I thought was a mouse nest, but upon closer inspection saw that it was just a dirty rag that some previous mechanic had left in there. Julian said it had been in there for years. I joked that maybe that's where the mouse was sleeping last night when Julian's boss-but-not-his-boss-guy poked at it and it started moving and the mouse actually crawled out again! It was more funny and less scary this time, but a little worrisome at the thought that maybe there is a mouse (or mice) living in Julian's engine. When we got back to the office Julian gave me a pad of paper and a pencil and a Learning Journal, provided to him to track his professional growth, to keep me occupied while we were waiting for the tow-truck. I chose to read the inspirational-quote filled book and was soon asleep on the floor of his cubicle.

Around 10, we got a call that the tow-truck was about 10 minutes away, so we started making our way back to the car (about a 10 minute walk). Julian had to go back a few minutes in to the walk/run because he forgot his CAA card by the phone and I continued on to meet the tow-truck. So the truck came, loaded the car up onto the back of it, Julian showed up and decided that he might as well just come along to the shop to make sure everything was okay, seeing as he was the one with the CAA membership and it was his car. After the car was dropped off and things were sorted out with the shop I walked back to home, and Julian walked back to work.

Around noon Julian called to say that we could get a ride into Edmonton with a guy who works in his office who commutes from there every day if the car wasn't fixed (which would leave us potentially stranded in Edmonton, but we'll worry about that one later). So my job was to pack for both me and Julian so that we could leave by 4:30 PM when work was finished. So my day was spent tidying up and packing for a 2-5 night trip to Edmonton, writing yesterday's blogspot post, and chatting with Wayne (my bro-in-law) on the phone about what kind of car we should get and other various topics.

So by the time 4:30 rolls around I've pretty much packed, the house is pretty messy, and I hadn't done the dishes. I might mention that I also had to pack Julian's suit and about 5 different shirts that he might like to wear at his conference in Edmonton on Thursday and Friday. Julian shows up and we madly try to get last minute things done and try to remember everything we're forgetting and throw everything in this guy's car to get to Edmonton. Between dashing around the apartment and the car ride, Julian tells me that about 10 after 4 the shop called him to say that they finally had a chance to look at the car and (good news) it was just a spark plug that had shorted and that was easy to fix and the car is running again, BUT (bad news) they don't know why it shorted out and didn't recommend taking it on the highway at this point. Maybe that little mouse has been snacking on our wires. So this leaves us in a stranger's car on our way to Edmonton with no forseen way of getting us home again. With an hour and a half to think a bit, I realized that I had forgotten Julian's bag with his toothbrush, razor, deodorant, etc. and that I had eaten a grand total of 1 bowl of Crispix and 1 apple so far that day.

We got to Edmonton at around 6:00 and the guy who drove us dropped us off at West Edmonton Mall to take a bus the rest of the way. We decided against dropping our stuff off at the hotel downtown (provided by Julian's work as he was there on business for the next 2 days) as it was an hour bus ride to choir and we were supposed to meet at 7:00. So at about 6:10 Julian and I boarded the #1 with 2 bags each and one half eaten box of soggy fries to share for dinner. We knew we would be a few minutes late, but figured we could be forgiven considering our circumstances. Plus we were tired and stressed and that point didn't really care. We were suprised about half way to choir when Julian's old roommate (also in the choir) got on the bus. Apparently the bus was like 25 minutes late, so we didn't feel quite so bad being the only ones that were unexpectedly late. This news also explained why the bus was packed to the brim which forced us to squeeze in to two seats side by side with all of our luggage on our laps (a suitcase, a backpack, a duffel bag, a suit bag, Julian's work folder-carrier-thingy for work, and my purse) and why another #1 bus passed us at one of our stops. Normally that bus is at a 15 minute frequency, not over 25 minutes and then 3 seconds.

We got to choir about 15 minutes late, dropped all our baggage and rehearsed with our choir while we waited for Rajaton and Scott (our director) to show up for our workshop. This is where the story takes a turn for the better because we had an amazing workshop with them, got a lot of good tips from them and then they sang again for us at the end of the evening. It is really something else to get your own little private concert from a internationally acclaimed group like that. They are 10 times more amazing when they are that close to you. I will post pictures when I get a chance :) Afterwards we went out to a restaurant with half of Rajaton and a few other people, finally got to eat real food and then got to our hotel downtown shortly after midnight.


So I guess that brings me to now. It's now 10 AM, I'm in my comfy comfy hotel room bed typing this, and I have plans with a friend to go shopping for teacher clothes. The whirlwind has started to die down. We still don't know the exact condition of the car, or how or when we'll be back in Edmonton. But for now, I'm not so worried.

My rollercoaster life...

My tame life suddenly became quite active yesterday. With some high highs and some low lows. And it doesn't look as though it will calm down for a while, or a least for another few days.

I have been applying for jobs in the local school district here, and got on the substitute teacher listing about two weeks ago. While that was exciting, I have yet to receive a single phone call from a teacher looking for a sub for a class. At about the same time a few part-time jobs surfaced within this school district. Seeing that substitute teaching wasn't quite as fulfilling as I had hoped it would be (ie. me sitting at home doing exactly what I did before I got on the sub list) I applied for both of these jobs. I got a call to be interviewed for the first job last Thursday, as a 0.5 (that means I'd be working half time) teaching job in a 5/6 split class teaching mainly Language Arts and Social Studies. I was hopeful, but didn't get my hopes up too high for this job. What I was really hoping for was the second job: a 0.65 teaching job where I would do the random odd jobs around the school, as it would seem, including Grades 1-6 Music, Grade 5 Math, Grade 1/2 Language Arts, and one afternoon a week of Kindergarten. On Sunday night I got a call from the principal of the first school to say that although, they really liked me in my interview, they had chosen someone with more experience. It was a bit sad, but I wasn't crushed.

At this point I was just hoping that I would get called for an interview for the second job. And this happened. On Monday evening, I got a call from the Principal of Busby Elementary School to come in for an interview. She said that she had spoken with the principal of the other school I had interviewed at and that they thought maybe I would be a good person to interview for this position. So we arranged for an interview on Tuesday afternoon...aka yesterday. When Julian came home for lunch, I drove him back to work and then took the car for the half hour drive to Busby, AB. The interview went well. I was pretty nervous, but having already gone through the process once, I was feeling fairly confident. The principal and secretary of the school were both very nice (the principal is also the Kindergarten teacher of the school...how mean could she be?) and I felt pretty comfortable there. So I interviewed, and went home again. About 20 minutes after I got home, I got a call from the principal and she OFFERED ME THE JOB!!! Of course I excitedly accepted and made tentative plans to go in tomorrow to shadow the teacher I am taking over for. The job isn't supposed to start until Oct. 16, but apparently the lady I'm taking over for is pregnant and her baby dropped on the weekend, which prompted her to insist that the principal find someone to take over ASAP.

So yes...much rejoicing occurred in our little apartment, which included me dancing and jumping around excitedly and telling random people on MSN that I am in fact EMPLOYED!!! Now at this point I must explain that this was shaping up to be one of the best days in a long time because not only did I get the job I wanted, but also, one of my favourite a capella groups, a Finnish group called Rajaton was coming to Edmonton and we were going to their concert!! It really couldn't get much better at that point.

At 4:30 I went to pick up Julian from work and told him my great news. Immediately we started talking about how we would need to get a second car so we could both have convenient transport to and from work. On our way home we were going to stop by the recycling depot to drop off some cardboard boxes that had been sitting in the car. As I went to turn into the Recycling Depot the car stalled...and then it wouldn't start again. This was bad news. But not terrible. We had a similar problem before and last time we just left the car for about half an hour and then when we came back it started again. We were supposed to meet the rest of our jazz choir at 7:00 in Edmonton, and if we left by 5:30 we could make that. So we carried our boxes out and then tried the car again. Nothing. Okay...so maybe it just needed to sit for longer. Meanwhile we figured we would start to make our way home, me steering and Julian pushing the car. This went well at first, until we came to a stop sign, directly followed by a slight incline. We got about 10 or 20 feet before we gave up pushing the car up this now-not-seeming-quite-so-slight incline. At this point we figured we'd give it one more chance and give it a good half our to calm down before trying to start it again. Julian would stay with the car, while I walked home (about a 25 minute walk) and got dinner started. At this point we could see that we were going to miss our 7:00 meeting time with our group, but this wasn't the end of the world. The actual concert didn't start until 8:00 which gave us another hour to play around with. So I went home and put a pizza in the oven while I waited for Julian to come home...best case scenario, he would wait the half hour, and then would be coming in the door about the time when the pizza was coming out of the oven.

Sadly, this was NOT the case. I got home, made the pizza, called a few people from our choir to say we wouldn't be meeting at 7:00. The pizza came out of the oven, and Julian still was not home. At this point I was starting to get a bit worried. I ate my pizza while I waited...and waited...and finally around 6:15 Julian came home with the news that the car didn't start. However, he was able to go back to his office and call a co-worker who lives nearby to borrow his car for the evening. It takes about an hour and a half to drive from Barrhead to Downtown Edmonton, so we still had time to get there before the concert started, Julian ate his pizza, we checked on the car one last time (it didn't work...surprise!) and to fill up this new car (a badly rusted 1981 Toyota Celica that did not lock) with gas. We raced down the highway, with mixed feelings of excitement that we might actually make it to the concert and worry and disappointment in the performance of the beloved purple Neon.

We pulled into the underground parking lot of the Winspear Centre at 7:56 and ran up several flights of stairs to grab our tickets and race into the auditorium and make it to our seats just as the lights were starting to dim. This is where the story gets happy again, because Rajaton was everything I expected them to be. It was a really fabulous concert and they sang most of the songs I expected them to sing and a few that were a new and pleasant surprise. The highlight of the evening was when my old choir, Kokopelli, was invited up on stage to sing 2 songs with the group, and a good friend of mine Jen Kinghorn got to sing a duet with one of the men of Rajaton. It was absolutely incredible!



So that was yesterday...today was quite a day too but I still have to do several things before the day is over. My choir gets to do a workshop with Rajaton tonight...much needs to be done...i will let this post be continued soon with the events of today...once they finish happening...