It's here

A firedrill.  - Well, not exactly a fire drill.  More like an actual 'fire' incident, complete with fire truck, seven fire fighters in full gear and oxygen tanks and a very angry captain.  7:35 in the morning, I was in the kitchen at work about to put knife to peach and make my breakfast when the fire alarm went off.  I'm a fire warden (one of three on our floor) at work and I know that the other two girls don't work till closer to 9, so I gently set my peach down and ran for my desk where my Fire Warden gear is. (vest, flashlight, post it notes and whistle).  I also put my iphone in my handbag and grabbed that too, on the previous advice that if it's a real incident, it will be a while before you can get back in the building and as a woman, all your stuff is in your purse.  I did my rounds on my floor, checking all the rooms and closing the doors behind me.  At first I was in a bit of a panic but I stopped for a second and realized that there was no smell of smoke and no obvious problem on our floor, in a concrete building.  When I was the last one on the floor (a bit creepy), I headed down the stairs and outside to find two other fire wardens standing outside.  When I asked what was going on, one of the guys said 'There's an incident on the 2nd floor'.  I had to DRAAAAG the rest of the information out of him, including whether the fire department had been called.  The 'incident' turned into a gong show.  Our fire 'marshall' (the guy that is supposed to talk to the FD, know where everything is and give direction to the wardens (who's only job is to clear their own floor) was a pansy!  Seriously, I think the FD scared him or something because he sort of turned into a pudding brain and was completely unhelpful.  I ended up 'taking over' because even tho I also knew nothing, we all looked like a bunch of fools and at least they needed someone competant to talk to.  90 min later the captain came out of the building in a bit of a rage.  They went up to the 2nd floor, investigated everywhere, including in the ceiling and found nothing to report.  Like NOTHING!.  So we found the woman that had pulled the fire alarm and called 911 and she said 'I heard a noise and smelled something funny so I called you guys'.  Uh, what?  Seriously?  At no time did you decide maybe you should get up out of your office and LOOK AROUND?  Seriously?!?  It was SO embarassing!  We (as the fire warden/marshall team) did learn some good lessons and we've made changes to some of the procedures based on the call, but it still is going to cost the department the $1000 fire call and she broke the glass in the pull station.  I hope she feels like an idiot.  In a concrete building at 730 in the morning, when there are MAYBE ten ambulatory adults on each floor, you can stand to investigate a bit before you go full throttle at the fire alarm.  Also, we have dialysis patients on the ground floor of the building... what a dummy!

Quitting - I've temporarily quit my yarn store job.  I have the next five weeks off and then we'll revisit and see how I feel and what the scheduling might be like.  I've worked 6 days a week for the last 7 months (and a few times in there I worked 7 days a week, which made for some very long distances between days off).  Don't get me wrong, I like my job there and I LOVE the owners and Amanda!  They're just fantastic people!  The problem is that I am in a strong requirement for some down time and I need my two days off to get through the next little while.  I will revisit working there (hopefully in the evening) in September.

A book review - The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom.  A. MAY. ZING!  Seriously excellent!  I borrowed it from my friend Tara (www.tarable.blogspot.com) and it was almost impossible to put down.  At first I was a bit put off by the language and grammar used, but quickly realized that it was respectfully an integral part of the book and the story was told with such emotion and passion.  Highly HIGHLY recommend!

Finding an old friend - A LONG time ago in a far off land (northern BC) I accepted a job to be a supervisor and keyholder of a large chain grocery store in the interior of BC (think 7 month winters, -40c before the wind chill and NOTHING to do).  Prior to moving there, I had to go to even more north in BC to do my training.  There I met a few of the people that would end up making up the management team.  I distinctly remember HATING it there and realizing that the managers that were moving to my new store were less than impressed with me.  But when I GOT to the new store, I made fast friends with the Grocery Manager (I being the Front End and Cash manager).  We were pretty much inseparable and our friendship (to me) felt like we'd known eachother for ever.  He looked out for me (like when I stapled through my finger, or had a mental breakdown in the cash office) and I think I would have ended up in a much worse position than I did if he had not been there.  (the Manager took great pleasure in picking on and bullying me).  Anyway, the evil that is Facebook reconnected us and as it turns out, we're both sort of in the same boat relationship wise.  I really enjoy getting friendships back together and this continues to remind me that when relationships grow apart, it's best to let them go and not force it.  If they were meant to be (friendships I'm speaking of, not romantic relationships, altho maybe them too), then they'll come back around.  I'm sure there's some cliche floating around about that!