ĭn'də-strē

headless horseman

Happy Hallowe'en :) Officially my blog is 4 years old today, not that readers would know that because of the endless amount of incarnations it's been through since October 31, 2004. I've been introspective today because unlike the internets, I remember everything that has happened to me these last 4 years. How do I feel? That Darwin was right and life is just one struggle after another.

I still feel, even after 2.5 years, that I don't fit in up here in the Oil Sands. I'm too intelligent, well-read and eclectic and just can't find the right frequency as everyone else. It doesn't bother me too much as I get along fine and do my own thing.

I have a lot of big and small goals that I want to achieve by this time next year including my move to St. John's, Newfoundland. I also have a goal to create all the textiles for my new home. Unlike most knitters and sewers, I don't have much interest in creating my own clothing. There are a few patterns that intrigue me, but with the exception of accessories, I prefer creating stuff for my home. Same goes for colour. With the exception of the pink scarf I'm knitting, my favourite colours are blue, green, grey, black and white. I plan to knit, sew and decorate almost exclusively in those colours. It's who I am and what I like. Bright colours don't do it for me; never have.

That makes me conservative, minimalist, demanding, picky, tenacious and hard to love. As always :)

P.S. Today I checked out the blog of the author of "the Gentle art of Domesticity" called yarnstorm. The last few posts, jane has been in a dialogue with her readership in regards to whether or not to keep her comments open as not to affect her writing. Here is my opinion:

A blog, if public, is published with the intent that people will read it and hopefully interact with the blog author. I believe blogs are a way to share stories, information, hobbies and egos. In the orginal sense, a weblog, was an online journal of links with notes. The blog has evolved of course, but it's main purpose is sharing.

If an author of a blog turns the comments off, then I don't consider it a blog. I consider it a website, journal or an ego piece. I truly believe that one's personal interactions with people, whether digital or analog, continue to help create and weave one's life. My interactions and relationships change who I am every minute of my life. It affects my writing, my poetry, my moods and my choices. As in Nature and as in energy, everything changes constantly.

If a person decides to create a public blog then they should expect that they will be changed by the experience and that will affect their writing and choices. If you write a blog, then yes, you are writing for an audience and that means your writing will reflect that; as it should.

Perhaps it's because I'm Canadian and despite my existential rantings, I've grown up with very socialist ideas, so I believe that we're all in it together for better or worse. I wouldn't have THAT any other way either.

freeze

today actually went alright. It was quiet as most of the people I work with went home. I got moved to the cross-shift so quiet is how my life will be for the next few months. I have to make a decision. I can stay the course and save money like a woman possessed and hope that my employer (who work in Big Oil) will show some empathy and let me fly back and forth to Newfoundland. Or, I can move on. I might stay for awhile longer and try to curb my enthusiasm. Still doesn't mean I not going to be active in trying to better my situation.

I got to knitting and the gym tonight. Bit sore afterwards so I'm reading and talked to Clark. He was the fellow British Columbian I drank beer with in Newfoundland :)

The view from my other office window looking out into the warehouse yard and yonder into Stage 3 (the new plants we're building).

Just a shot of the dusting of snow we got last night. Soon, I predict, we'll get the huge dump of snow we don't look forward to every year.

In my About section of this blog, it says I have a odd collection of coffee mugs. I dunno why I collect coffee mugs but these are a few I keep around with me in camp.

Why yes, yes it is. Happiness is a home in Newfoundland (or at my parent's home in British Columbia). This mug is like my reminder to stay the course and keep pursuing my goal despite the odds.

The Montego Bay scarf day 5 and the book I'm reading called, "the Gentle art of Domesticity" by jane brocket (yes in lower case letters yo). It's and awesome book and I almost love it. We're are having a fabulous time together, the book and I. It includes all the things I love to do; arts and crafts, baking, cooking, decorating etc. My favourite things are knitting, sewing, scrapbooking, baking, cooking, decorating, tatting and photography (as far as arts and crafts are concerned) so the book was a great find. Am happy.

meh

well I'm off to the gym. Today was rough. The powers that be are making it hard for me to move to Newfoundland. I'll have to make the choice of when to quit work because I'm not going to stay living in Saskatchewan because of my job. I figure by March, I'll have enough money saved up to leave this job and get on with life. I'll be 33 years old in February, I can't keep my life on hold forever. It's been 2.5 years already.

So I'm going to update my resume and cover letter and see what I can find. I want to keep working in the Oil Sands but I'm not willing to sacrifice my future.

Vive le Electricians!

We had a tailgate meeting with the Vice President today. That means standing in a crowded room for an hour and change. But I had hot coffee and my Blackberry Pearl so I was entertained.

Tony didn't want his picture taken so I Kinneared this Electrician's hard hat. We wear different colour hard hats based on what we do: Electricians wear yellow; Instrumentation wear red; Mechanical (pipefitters, welders, iron workers etc.) wear blue or grey; support personnel wear grey; Civil wears grey; and management (Superintendents, General Foreman, Foremen, wear white.

Shawn (aka John Cleese) addresses the b-aw-ys. Clockwise: Shawn (Newfoundland), Dan (British Columbia), Jamie (Newfoundland), Tony (Nova Scotia)

Dennis (Newfoundland) and Vicki (Alberta). Yes she's a female construction worker. They do exist.

Marc (Newfoundland) eating dinner (aka lunch to the rest of us non-easterners).

Just a nice picture of my friend Marc :)

nuts!

well hmm...something has come up at work that might be a hitch in my giddy-up concerning my move to Newfoundland. They're not real keen on the idea of me moving because they prefer to hire and keep workers from western Canada. Not cool and I'm working on a solution.

In the meantime I'm watching me some hockey (Canucks are playing Boston), drinking tea and knitting. Taking a night off from the gym to let my legs muscles relax and heal. Meanwhile enjoy the pictures :)

Clockwise: Godwin, Ferdie, Gary (who brought me the last flower on site), and Al

This is my good friend Shawn from Portugal Cove, Newfoundland. He broke my heart but it worked out for the best. (Shawn is an electrician).

My friend Jamie from Port Aux Basque, Newfoundland. Most of my friends are electricians.

More random abstract art from my Blackberry Pearl. I don't mean to take the pictures but I think it's cool when I find them on my memory card.

Sea Silk yarn by Handmaiden. It tangled on me while I was spinning it into a ball. Fucker took me 6 hours to untangle.

The Montego Bay scarf (designed by Amy R. Singer) day 1.

Montego Bay scarf day 3 aka today. I think I'm going to give it to my sister as a birthday present next week.

These are cows. I stole them from Ray. This is Ray's evil eye. I was caught and couldn't get a way. He stood on my boots until he understood that I felt no remorse for my thievery.

This is Kevin and he is well tattooed. Kevin had his sister buy me this silver skull in Bali. He gave it to me this morning and I proudly put it on top of my computer. It makes me happy like all the Newfoundland pictures I also put on my desk. Yup, Kevin is awesome :)

subzero

it's getting ass cold here. Last night at dinner it had to be colder than -10 Celscius and with the steam from the plant, it was painful. So what did I do? I curled up in a ball under my duvet and knit my new scarf until it was time to go to the gym. That is how I will probably spend the rest of the winter; knitting and watching movies while bunkered down under my duvet and only slipping out for quality gym time.

I have a lot of stuff to do for the move to Newfoundland. After talking to my mom, I might not even be going home for Yule. I haven't decided. Moving and all the toss-sort-give away and to-do lists have been the focus of much of my thoughts.

by and by...since I said I wasn't going to spend any money, I haven't :) But I'm at camp...so not really that hard but still, I haven't even bought anything on the internets.

what the hel

remember the other day when I wrote "- storage locker (for extra books. Think I'd be crazy to give 'em away?)"? Well pigs fly, shit has hit the fan as the cows have indeed come home because hell has frozen over. Brace yourselves. I am giving my books away. Yup, it's true. You did not misread that.

I am giving the books I cannot take with me in my car away to the local library. I have enough space in my car for 9 rubbermaid containers of books. I have about 16 rubbermaid containers of books. Therefore, 7 containers of books will be given away. But that is how my life has been going. I no longer have 100 Essential things. As of yesterday, I have 25. I have been de-evolving back to my minimalist roots. I have gotten rid of bad habits, bad friends and a lot of unnecessary clutter.

I hadn't even realized I had been doing it until last night when I seemed okay with giving away almost 1/2 of my library. I think this way of being has evolved from being away from home so much in the last 4 months. I've been home to BC twice to visit family, in Alberta for work, and to Newfoundland for vacation. I've only taken what I needed or wanted with me and gotten by happily. I realized that all the stuff I've acquired in the last 2.5 years I never use so it's not necessary to have it any longer; including books.

I will have a box each for philosophy, Star Wars, fiction, graphic arts & scrap booking, knitting, interior decoration, cooking, science, and photography. I'm already dreading the elimination rounds.

I tried knitting my new silk/seaweed scarf tonight and well...I suck. I ripped it back four times already. But I think it had more to do with trying to knit a lace pattern while watching 5 hours of hockey (it is Hockey Night In Canada afterall) with only a one hour break for the gym. It's cold and it's snowing as of 7:30pm but my hockey team won so it's all good. My life in pictures:

My friend Zotie refusing to cooperate for a photo. Reminds me of those old Calvin n' Hobbes comics when Calvin refused to let his mom have a normal picture of him.

Gary brought me a flower. Probably the last flower on site. As of now, everything is buried under snow.

Eric brought me the awesomeness.

My Blackberry Pearl takes random photographs. I'm almost jealous because this is a cool photo but done by accident.

Dawn. I think it's pretty

's where I work. Last shot with no snow.

Me as seen through the back of my ipod touch :)

My hard hat. I don't really wear it often but once in awhile they do let me out of the office to scuttle about the site.

Electricians. Clockwise: Ken, Andy, Brenley and Chuck.

oOoH a variety. Clockwise: Dan, Rob, Daren and Theo.

a day in the life of - #3

the books:

1. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
2. Neuromancer by William Gibson
3. Alt Fiber by Shannon Okey
4. Free Ranger Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
5. No Sheep For You by Amy R. Singer

the music on heavy rotation:

1. Fortune's Favour by Great Big Sea
2. All Hope is Gone by Slipknot
3. Indestructible by Disturbed
4. The Hard and the Easy by Great Big Sea
5. Ride the Lightning by Metallica

better than a bad movie

Darren > We had snow today. How's work going?
Sonja > Wow. Like a lot of snow?! Work is crazy busy but that's what I get for slacking off in nfld :)
Darren > No not much at all. But it's a start.
Sonja > hehe. I picture you praying to the snowmobiling gods for more snow. Even offering a beer sacrifice.
Darren > I like my beer too much for that. *lol*

there you have it. Better than discussing the cheesy Josh Harnett movie I've suffered through the last hour. Something to do with vampires...maybe 30 Days of Night? I dunno....

I got to go on a field trip this afternoon so I took some pictures. Enjoy.

yup, a storage tank

C'mon admit it. Storage tanks are cool!

yay. Cranes. We build stuff

oOoh a piperack

what can I say? I like piperacks.

chapter by chapter

I had to let a 8 month friendship die today. I had to decide to struggle through and keep being let down or just save my energy and end it. I ended it because there was nothing good about it any longer.

I've decided my move date to St. John's, Newfoundland will be December 27. That means I have 10 paydays left to save enough money to move without any worries or struggles. So I'll need your help making sure I don't spend any money on anything not on the list. The list:

- fan belt
- gas cap
- windshield wipers
- car detailing
- exterior rated extension cord
- gas
- food
- Yule presents for family
- plane tickets home and back for Yule
- storage locker (for extra books. Think I'd be crazy to give 'em away?)
- hotels for my trip
- bills (student loan, rent, utilities, personal loan)

That means no yarn, fabric, craft supplies, books, dvds, cds, clothing, shoes, make-up or magazines. Nothing. I'm counting on you, as my friends, to help me with this. The day I leave I am only taking my 100 Essential things, some clothing (easy since most of my clothing is at camp), and 6 containers of books.

Check it out. I scored me some hot chocolate and got my jack-o-lantern lights hung up in my office. go me :)

Pretty jack-o-lantern lights

The whole shebang!

Some orange Hallowe'en lights I hung up around my window. The one time of the year I adore the colour orange. Seriously. I hate it the rest of the year.

Free hot chocolate. A nice electrical inspector left it on my desk for me.

like I never left

well...I'm back at camp so that means I'm back at work. The first day back went ok, I guess. I'm being moved to the cross-shift which means my days off are going to change. Not so bad really. Gives me almost a month off at Yule to move to St. John's.

I bought a new coffeemaker for my camp room plus some good coffee so I'm sure the next 17 days won't be completely unbearable.  I also have my knitting,  some movies and a few (okay more than a few) good books.

Tomorrow I'm going to hang up my jack-o-lantern lights for sure and see if I can scrounge up some hot chocolate. Below are pictures I took with my Blackberry Pearl of my 12 hour drive up to camp. If I drive instead of fly, this is what I have to look forward to 4 times a month:

6:00 am after driving out of Buffalo Pound Provincial Park. It was -10 Celsius and not a soul on the road except me.

Dawn on the prairies just south of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Morning rush hour in Saskatoon. The Tim Horton's is only a few kilometers away. If I can just get there. I was listening to the new Slipknot album and praying for more caffeine.

yay! Tim Horton's. I'm buying my 2nd extra-large cup of coffee. By the time I finished it, I had drank the equivalent of 6 cups of coffee. good times.

The shadow of my car. The only interesting part of the drive. This is Saskatchewan for the most part; flat and yellow. I'm listening to the new Disturbed album.

More drivin' on the prairie. I love torture.

Entering Alberta. I will only see 1 town for the next 7 hours. The rest of the drive is just trees and road.