I made the list...

...and probably even checked it twice.

You see it over there to the right side of my blog. Yeah, that list. The list of the few things I wanted to do this summer. Notice how only one of them is checked off? Oh, you do see that too. So it wasn't just me imagining it.

-Get my first massage - DONE
-Tour Grand Pre winery
-Visit and photograph some of Nova Scotia's waterfalls
-Go camping at least once
-Hike the Skyline Trail
-Hike the Seaside Adjunct
-HIke Duncan's Cove again

While I realize there is still a fair bit of summer left, I've only got one thing crossed off my list.

I know hiking the Skyline Trail isn't going to happen since it is at the other end of the province and would require me taking at least 3 days off work to make the trip up there worth it. Which is OK. While I wanted to do it, I knew going in that there was a chance that I wouldn't get it done. There's always next year.

Everything else I had really wanted to do. And yet somehow they still remain undone. And for what reason? It seems I'm a lazy ass. On my days off I just want to veg and relax. And I don't like doing things alone. I was having a stressful week back before I went on vacay and P suggested I go to the beach. I told him I had no one to go with, and he told me to go alone. Alone? Well, ok. I've got my mP3 player and a book, I could do this. So off I went. EPIC FAILURE. I felt so out of place there by myself. What was supposed to have been a relaxing few hours turned into an anxious 30mins. I don't relax well on a good day, never mind when in a situation i don't REALLY want to be in.

And I'll be honest and say I got swept up in the whirlwind that was (/is) P. While I didn't purposely neglect some of the things I wanted to do, they did sort of get pushed to the back burner. I knew they were there, and I was hoping maybe he'd so some of them with me along the way.

Anyway...on to other news....

The union people had another vote on Friday. This time the offer was accepted which means there will be NO STRIKE at work! Thank goodness!! That was definitely a source of major stress in my life. And I seemed to be one of only a few who were actually concerned for how a dozen of us were going to run a 200 room hotel.

This past week has been a hellish nightmare at work. The housekeepers, thinking there was going to be a strike, flucked off and weren't doing their jobs. Us at the desk were constantly checking people into rooms we thought were clean (and were entered as clean in the computer) only to find out they hadn't been so much as touched. It was just a disaster. It was rumoured that a few of the housekeepers were doing it on purpose to give us at the desk a taste of what it would be like if/when the strike took place. You know, so we'd know what we were getting ourselves into. Now that there isn't going to be a strike most of the housekeepers are in a blind panic because they know now that they screwed up. Strike or not, you still have a job to do up to the time you walk out. We know what rooms were coded as clean when they weren't and we'll be able to find out which roomkeeper was responsible for that section. Oh, don't you worry, we know who you are. And thank you so much for making our lives miserable for the past week.

The kick in the ass: they're all whining and complaining that they don't make enough money, they deserve more...blah blah blah. Do you really think after the way you've conducted yourselves over the past few weeks that you really deserve it? You cost the hotel more money and made us at the desk miserable (to the point that a few of us had to be talked out of just walking out). So you're fighting for more money, when going by your actions recently you don't deserve it, and we at the desk who are left to pick up the pieces won't get jack-shit (because we're not in the union). And honestly, I do think we ALL deserve a wage increase, just some of us more than others IMVHO. But c'mon people we need to remember the basics of our jobs: we're there to work together and to look after the guests. Thats it. Morale in that place has been waaaay down lately, and now its even worse. And with the housekeepers now all fighting amongst themselves (half of them wanted to strike half of them didn't....which lead to a departmental battle ground) the vibe in there isn't all that great.

And one more work related ramble here: two of our night guys are going to be doing a couple of day shifts here and there which excites me to no end! I can count on one hand the number of weekends I've had off since I started working there 2 years ago. The answer: 3. My manager works M-F/9-5, D and myself are the two supervisors, so we have to be there on the weekends to fill the manager on duty shifts. So that means we don't get weekends off, ever, unless we're on vacation. So now with the night guys coming to days, and them being able to fill the MOD stuff, D and I are able to get the occasional weekend off! You have no idea how much this excites me! Weekends off mean I can take weekend road trips (yes, I know, N...M'ton....it'll happen! I just need to find the time!), and see my brother SIL and nieces. It means *gasp* I can have something that resembles a social life!!! It means my schedule won't be completely backwards from the rest of the worlds. I may actually have time off at the same time that everyone else does! I'll take "what are things that make me happy for $400 please Alex!".