A week in the life of Miss Fill-in

Where has the time gone? Oh I know, I passed it being a community fill-in. On Wednesday of last week I hung out with Karen at the learning centre (Karen runs the centre) learning the ropes for the job I was going to do for the coming couple of days. I worked about 4 hours that evening - I even got to sit in on a 'thrilling' conference call. It actually wasn't that bad, because Karen and I could just put our phone on mute and have a little gossip and conversation. Too bad we forgot to put on the mute ... oops.

So Thursday and Friday I filled in for Karen. I started Thursday at 9am. I honestly did not see another soul until a student came in to pick up her marked work. Then I had to wait until 7pm before 2 other students came in to get some work done. I usually like a job with a bit more to do, but money is money.

There are no classes on Friday so I only had to work from 9am until noon. I spent the hours cleaning as much as I could. I didn't want to move too many things around because I didn't know if Karen had a method to her madness, but I still straightened and cleaned surfaces. I even swept and mopped - yeah I know - it must have been a blue moon the night before.

On Saturday Chris and I went to Dryden to hit up the bank (no, that doesn't mean rob it) and go grocery shopping. Unfortunately the bank was closed which really sucks because I need to get Chris on a joint account so he can pay our bills by transferring money into my account. Hmmm...?
We went to Wal-mart and did the "good-car-owner" thing of getting an oil change at Canadian Tire. Our last oil change was only a month and a half ago. Do you think we've done a lot of driving lately?

On the way home from Dryden - on the never-ending dirt road - a magical and mythological event occurred. Your patient and loving Christine viewed, with her very own eyes, the infamous MOOSE!!!! OMG it was amazing. It was only a little guy - meaning it was only 6 FEET TALL!!!! It was so awesome that I literally clapped my hands. Yeah, I did.

Sunday we FINALLY got all the boxes unpacked and found a place for (mostly) everything. We rearranged most of the furniture too. Here are some pictures.

The living room is shifted to accommodate the desk. We couldn't get wireless internet so we have to use our computers next to the phone. That's me sprawled on the couch - typical.

The mega-bed is no more. This is the main bedroom now. We even put the bed on a frame to get it off the ground. Plato finds it comfortable. Can you find the Newton? He likes the bed too.

Monday was time-sheet day. Pretty much everyone who works in some way for the band office goes in every other Monday to fill out the time-sheets. I went with Karen to claim my 16.5 hours I worked last week. There was a lot of hustle-bustle going on. And guess what? I was asked to be the receptionist fill-in for the day. "Why not?" I thought. So I hopped on the phone and started transferring calls. Needless to say I was pretty lost with everyone coming in and asking me questions, and smiling politely at the random girl behind the counter. I eventually learned most of the ropes - I learned how to fax using email too. I think working at the band office was really great too because I learned a lot of people's names and I learned a little bit about how the community functions on an administrative level.

They were having trouble finding the person who was actually suppose to work, so I filled in this morning too. I took the afternoon off though to prepare for my next job - TEACHING!

Tomorrow I will be working with the Grade 6-7-8 teacher, our neighbour, Edward. I will be introducing the unit on biodiversity. I'm totally pumped. I'm planning a whole food chain thing. I'm going to draw cartoons on the board. Then what happens when you take out part of the food chain - i.e. biodiversity decreases? The universe collapses, that's what.

And finally, because I rocked the receptionist job on Monday and today, the health clinic has asked me to fill in for their receptionist on Friday. Who wants me to sneak them some Xanax?

That's all for now - xoxo

p.s. A certain wife of Chris's brother, Neil (who shall remain nameless *obviously*) has been showing off the beautiful sunsets from the tropical paradise where she now lives. I took some sunset pictures on our drive home from Dryden to show off that the North is beautiful too...

Take that Grenada and Niki ...