Welcome to December, Everyone!

I hope everyone had an awesome year.  Mine was pretty uneventful.  I finished my first year of college in May with honours in every subject -- something that I have continued since returning to classes in September.  I am still making plans for my future, but they're starting to become firmer as the year goes on.  I have decided to come back to school next year.  I'm going to take a program called Small Business and Entrepreneurship.  It is a post- diploma program that is offered by the college online.  I will (hopefully) be able to finish the program by this time next year, and then I hope to take my new- found knowledge and apply it in a small business consulting setting.  So by this time next year, I'm hoping to be totally done with school and getting ready to enter the "real world."

Things are going well job- wise.  After an entire summer of not being able to find a job anywhere in the Valley, I found one the last week of August.  I work part-  time as a cashier at the Atlantic Superstore that just opened up in Kingston.  I really like it there, and the people that I work with are all great.  Plus, it's close to home so I don't have to worry about days when I'm unable to get the car to go to work.  I'm hoping to have increased hours over the holiday season, and I think I'll stay at the store over the summer instead of trying to find a job in my field.

Speaking of being without a car, Mum and I were without one for about five weeks.  The Cavalier finally gave up the ghost (while Mum was driving it!) and it was five weeks before we were able to secure the money to buy a new car.  Let me tell you, those were the longest five weeks of my entire life.  The day that we got the new car (which is a '92 Ford Thunderbird), the first place we headed was the mall.  It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but when a self- confessed shopaholic has been denied mall access for five weeks, it can become almost tragic.

As most of you know, Dad and Julia left in July to move to Ottawa.  Dad is really loving his new job at DFAIT.  He's done a lot of traveling so far --  including a week- long trip to Tokyo!  He'll be back home for the holidays next week.  Julia, on the other hand, won't be coming home this year.  She's found a job working at CHUM -  Ottawa, Kool FM.  Right now she's working as a replacement operator, which means that she's filling in for everyone else who gets to go home for the holidays.  She's hoping that this job will turn into something more permanent in January, though, as the second year student will be leaving to go on their work placements and there will be some other jobs at the station that will be up for grabs.

So, that's about it for now.  Everything else is going great.  Angel's getting ready to celebrate his second Christmas with us --  although if he keeps chewing on my shoes he's not going to live long enough to open up all of his gifts.  But other than that, like I said, everything's great.  So I hope everything has an excellent holiday season --  whether you celebrate Chanukah, Yule or Christmas --  and a wonderful New Year!

Copyright by me 2002