Week 12 - August 25

Week 12 - August 25 - 31, 2001

So far, just a collab link for my Recently Received entry. Check it out.

Well, it's over. I'm no longer forced to eat hotdogs cooked in the wrapper, freezer burned ground beef mixed with maple beans or juice that has taken on the flavour of fridge. No more inane conversations, no more being introduced as "Leah, who doesn't drink milk." No more being forced to shower at night and ending up bedhead for a week. No more having my every move noted.

That's right, I'm out from under the mother hen's wing. And good riddance.

As Mom and I pulled away from the place, I smiled, and said, "I'm outta there!"

Yeah, it was a good moment. This week was harder than any other. I'm having emotional overload because:
a) I'm leaving the newspaper and I'm going to miss everyone in the office;
b) I'm leaving Matt, who I haven't had nearly enough time with this summer;
c) I'm really excited to get back to school, but also very worried about money, jobs, classes, internships, etc.;
d) I'm about to see the ocean; and
e) I'm really excited to be getting the fuck out of dodge when it comes to the B&B.
And then, then that bitch of a mother hen, whom Matt calls Madame Martian because of her odd behaviour, like screening my phone calls, tells me on Monday morning that I can't shower in the morning anymore because I'm disturbing her paying guests who want to sleep in because they're on vacation. In this case, I said, "I have to work, and it will only be Tuesday and Wednesday, really, and..."
"I have been very accomadating," she said, "And I can't afford to lose these guests."

So I showered at night. But think about this: it's a B&B, a place with a communal bathroom. There's a student living there (the mother hen acts like she's a martyr for taking me, though she made $1500 from me over the summer) who has a job. Does it not seem rational that they would say, "Maybe this girl would like to be presentable to the public for her job."

But I went to work with ponytails all week - bedhead, you see, is my hair's personal vendetta against me. It sticks up, gets flat in weird places, and looks like it's not even my hair. Sometimes, it's sexy. If I sleep restlessly, I wake up with that sexy "rolled out of bed in silk pyjamas" hair. I do that at Matt's a lot. But this week it was just B - A - D. Hair wax to keep my ponytail under control, for instance.

But I survived.

At first I was afraid, I was petrified...
But then I spent so many nights
Just thinking how you'd done me wrong
I grew strong
I learned how to get along

I wrote a bad check for my last installment of "board" (should be "bored") by accident forgetting it was the check book for my account and not my line of credit. There's no many in either of my other accounts because I closed the one at the bank there and I didn't have any way to make deposits in the other. Oops. Then I started looking at my accounts and it looked like I had overpaid for a week. She says no, that I never gave her a check for $250 but I know I did.

But this other check I wrote might bounce too, which means that the old biddy just may never get that money. Oops.

At this point, I'm thinking of calling the people who certify B&Bs and telling them she stores food until it gets freezer burn, washes the sheets people sleep on in cold water (a no-no in the hotel business, germs and bugs and such), and has a boarder in a room that they don't know exists (but if they did she'd lose her current type of license and have to meet higher standards).

I'm so tempted. I have fantasies about what would happen to the old biddy.

My last week a the office was interesting. I went to a photo shoot and a car commercial shoot, though I couldn't take photos at the second, got mentioned on the CBC for one of my photos, and had the entire front page to myself. That was nice for my last paper.

I honestly think they're going to miss. And I've promised to write. And I will. I'm going to send a thank you card soon.

Nothing stands out about my last week - the Boss took his baby in for her clinic so he wasn't there on Tuesday. And the power went out that night and they said at least four hours at the power company. Luckily it was out for about two hours. I listened to the radio and chatted briefly on the phone with people. I was prepared though - I had my flashlight ready in case of no power.

It delayed my work a little, but I had everything done.

We also had some interesting personal ads in the paper this week: a response to a "Dear John" letter that said the girl found John dominating and annoying, and John said it was probably true. Interesting approach. We also had an ad from a man looking for a French woman. We found out over the case of the week that this guy is a nudist. He talked to Micheline, the office staff, and told her he liked strip clubs, but he wanted to get naked and be spanked, tied up and chained by the girls. And then he asked if Micheline liked to throw parties like that. He called later and asked if he could come visit her this weekend.

Needless to say, we laughed, but were duly shocked and afraid.

Matt and I had an emotional week. It was a lot of missing each other and getting prepared to miss each other, and he met my mom on Friday night. That actually went really well. Better than I really expected, though I didn't think Mom would automatically hate Matt. He's a good guy, ten years older or not. And he has a job and real ambitions and savings.

Already head and shoulders above the stupid boy and his habits.

Oh, Jan mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the stupid boy called them after he would have received my letter, but she kept not calling him back until long after the release party had passed (and still hasn't returned any calls) so I think he's given up. At least I hope he had. I don't want to hear anything about it anymore.

He's a bunch of toadwart.

Oh, the toadwart that used to grow in the field behind the house is now all over our lawn. It's really nasty looking, but the weedguy is coming before it goes to seed and takes over the neighbourhood. I'm not big on chemical herbicides, but this stuff is pretty... well, resilient and... not good for the soil. It eats nutrients, which means it might completely kill the grass and everything will have to be reseeded and fertilized (more chemicals) if it's not taken care of properly.

Sad, but true.

Oh yeah, this is the last of the Red Sandal diaries. My sandals have faded to a rather pleasant shade of ... well, faded red. I'll take a photo later and post it here. So I'm back to my regular posting, and I won't be online for a couple of weeks so don't expect anything marathon-ish or regular like Metamucil users.

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