Good Mail Day

There's nothing I love more than a good mail day. Today was the ideal mail day. I got 3 items, none of which were bills or junk.

1. I got the handbag I ordered from eBay. This was a little splurge as I'd been wanting the bag for so long. I sold so much of my stuff in such a short time, I decided to buy myself a present. I can't wait to start using it. I was surprised how quickly it arrived! From Florida to Iqaluit in 9 days (it arrived on the 30th). I think it's a record. And surprisingly enough, the USPS tracking information continued to update even while it was in transit in Canada. It's so nice when things actually work the way they're supposed to. Things like quick shipping, accurate information from southern companies...they're luxuries up here.

2. I received a postcard from a cohort on a web forum I frequent. It also came from the USA, though it did take quite a bit longer. It came from New York state, so it doesn't make sense why it took longer than a package mailed 2 weeks later.

3. The last item, also from the USA, was from my boyfriend's mom. She sent me a really nice card and it made my day. Something as inexpensive and easy to do as mailing a card to somebody really makes a big difference. I'm going to try and remember that so I can repeat the gesture.

In other news, I have almost everything packed. The only stuff left is the stuff I'm still using. When Anthony comes up next weekend, we're going to finish it off and then I'll finally be able to relax! I want nothing more than to soak in my last few days here, go for some nice walks, eat some nice meals, and go for a couple drives. Besides the stress of giving away my cats, the move thus far has been seamless and easy. Even giving away the cats happened quickly, it was much quicker and easier to find a home than I originally anticipated. I can't remember if I mentioned in my previous entry, but there was about double the interest in the cats than my Suzuki or TV...combined! That was a big surprise. Had I known it would be easy to find somebody, I would not have been so stressed out about it all year.

I'm also happy because I have and will be donating a lot of stuff to charity. 3 boxes of stuff plus 3 garbage bags of clothing. On the weekend, I filled an entire Rubbermaid tote (the largest size) with clothes. I walked away for a moment and then had a breakthrough thought. I asked myself how I would feel if I was without most of those clothes. I realized I didn't care about most of them, and so with that I filled an entire garbage bag (about half the tote) to go to charity. Now I am bringing half a tote and a suitcase of clothes. Pretty good for a 24 year old clothes-buying addict, I have to say. I'm pretty proud of myself for that. Before last year, I was constantly buying clothes and other stuff online. I rarely buy clothes online anymore (I can count twice in the past year) and I only make the odd online purchase here and there anymore. A pretty big improvement from the once and twice a week online buying habit I had before!

Anyway, enough about materialism. My latest obsession is planning to buy a car when I move to Sarnia. Originally I wanted to buy something brand new but after giving it a lot of thought, I've decided to go with a nicer used vehicle. I've been looking online, but it only serves to make me feel impatient that I can't buy something RIGHT NOW. I know, car buying cannot and should not be an instant gratification thing, but I'm a generation NOW person and delaying the pleasure of buying a car is excruciating. Okay, that was a little melodramatic, but I am excited about owning a car that isn't so much of a soccer mom-mobile. And about seeing my friends and family. And having Timmy's and McDonald's whenever I want, at any time of the day I want. And mail that only takes a few days to arrive. And stop lights and highways and long Wal-Mart aisles of candy. And considering it was 17C today and I was sweating my butt off...air conditioning!

Dear Qiniq,

I apologize for all the lousy things I've called your company recently (never to your face, though, I'm not one of those people). You see, your modem had annoyingly been resetting itself over and over again, approximately once every 15 seconds. The internet was barely useable and was extremely slow when I was able to get sites to load (without photos of course). I blamed your company and chalked it up to the usual slow-downs we experience sometimes as your customers. I understand you are way over-subscribed and cannot help it. When this problem went on for two or three weeks, I still blamed your company and hoped it would get better. I even thought of blaming my wireless router, thinking maybe its signal was getting in the way of yours. Your modem didn't seem to think so, though. It just kept on blinking.

Luckily (and I'll explain that later), when I came home from work today, my modem was being okay but pages were not loading. I unplugged your modem and let it set for about 5 minutes. When I came back and plugged it in, I realized your modem had slipped away permanently to Modem Heaven and would no longer be able to connect me to Facebook. Within 5 minutes of this, I was in your office with my modem, and you agreed it was broken. You gave me a new modem and now I can finally use the Internet in a somewhat-normal way. I'm now SLIGHTLY getting my $120/month's worth, as opposed to NOT AT ALL when it wasn't working. I say I'm lucky the modem died because I probably would have continued blaming your company for several more weeks until I realized something was actually wrong.

RIP Old Modem, you lived a hard life.

Regards,

One of your surplus customers


Sometimes, I really can't believe I pay $120/month for the Internet, and not even a fast connection at that. The thing is, I've used the lower tier of Qiniq ($60/month) and it was so bad I couldn't handle it. I'm an Internet junkie, I use my own connection probably 4-6 hours a night and if my Internet is slow, I'm gonna be grouchy.

Anyway. I've been keeping up with my resolutions so far. I've been going to bed early, taking my vitamin pills, and today I brought some treats to work (at 8am, not 8:30am). I haven't rejoined Atii Fitness Centre yet, I'm not sure if I will this month. I'm trying to eat healthier and I worked out today. So all that's left are the long-term plans.

Oh, and I am working on a BIG grocery prices post for the past several months. I've been collecting all my receipts and plan to scan them and write a post. Sadly, Iqaluit's prices are no match to Rankin Inlet's inflation, but I hope it'll still amuse some.

First Minus Night

Well, it reached -0.6 last night. It pretty much feels that temperature during the day although the thermometre says it's 4. I put the electric blanket on the bed (thanks for the gift, Laura!) because my feet were so cold. It's very soft...I love electric blankets.

We decided to go with cable TV for the time being. We don't want to turn into TV zombies, we'd both rather spend the winter doing more productive things or at least, less mindless activities. Our cable was supposed to be hooked up yesterday but it wasn't. I called and they told me to call again today if it still wasn't hooked up, which it isn't. I'd really like to watch some TV tonight since Jeff is off to Coral Harbour until tomorrow.

Orientation is still going well. It's a bit boring but what orientation week isn't? I know from our site meter that there are Rankin residents who read our blog so I'm a teensy bit paranoid all the time now that I'm in the presence of one of our readers. If someone looks at me a little longer than normal, I start convincing myself that they're one of the Rankin readers.

I just looked out the window and I see that the windmill is moving! Jeff was told that they locked it up because they didn't have the proper resources to do maintenance on it.

Well, that's all for me until something exciting happens!

(posted by Jaime)

Bye, Baygulls!

The baygulls are flying south!
I just heard about 5 minutes' worth of squawking over the apartment. It comes and goes but it definitely sounds like they're all leaving.

I don't blame them, it is getting seriously cold here. It's been averaging about 6-7C during the day AND night. Putting on the toque and winter jacket to go fetch the mail felt weird but it doesn't usually occur to me all that often anymore how warm it is in Ontario right now. At some point it's probably not healthy to keep comparing here to Ontario and I'm glad to say I don't think about Ontario that much these days.

It also actually occurred to me just now that Jeff and I will soon be wearing down-filled parkas. Why are we using bird feathers if most birds fly south for winter?! Doesn't that mean their feathers aren't warm enough for winter? Heh..figure that one out!

So Jeff went to Chesterfield Inlet yesterday. Due to the fact he was only there for 3 hours, he did not get any photos or any stories of what it's like there.

Jeff's flight tomorrow for Coral Harbour has been cancelled as well which is probably better for him anyway since he has a cold.

Oh yes, the dreaded television situation. One of Jeff's coworkers let us borrow one of his TVs while he took his vacation. We were excited, thinking we'd at least get CBC but alas, nothing comes in. Our antenna is with the rest of our stuff in Mystery Land right now so no TV for us. I looked into the satellite attached to our building but it's going to take a long time to ever get connected to it. We have to have our own receiver shipped up (there's $100-$200). Once it arrives, we pay some guy another $200 to probably plug the thing into the wall (it looks like our apartment is already satellite-ready), and then fork over another $136 for annual "maintenance." After that $436+ (at the cheapest), we have to give Bell even MORE money on a monthly basis for the channel package we want. Needless to say, I'm disappointed. I've never had satellite TV before so I didn't realize the dish can bring in multiple TV packages. I just assumed a package was assigned to the dish and the guy would have some spare receivers lying around. He'd hook 'er up and we'd be set.

One more week until school, yay!

(posted by Jaime)

Mini Sealift Day

Wow, we got lots of mail today!

I got an article about the Beatles from my dad, all of our redirected mail from Jeff's mom, and a 23lb box of dried groceries also from Jeff's mom.

I actually ended up having to pay $25 for Linda's box because it was underpaid. I asked how that could have happened if Linda had taken it into a post office in Ontario. I was told that what was paid was enough for shipment in southern Canada, but up here it was not. So there you go, $50 in shipping for a 23lb box. I didn't mind at all because $25 for all that was in the box was a great bargain.

I was excited to haul that box home and see what was in it. There is so much stuff, thanks Linda! There's pasta and drink crystals and cookies and garlic and gravy mix and whiskey and vodka and so much more. There's a LOT of stuff in it. It's our own mini sealift day, haha. Plus Linda is apparently sending us two more of these very shortly. We're running out of cupboard space!! Haha...seriously, this apartment is pretty bad on kitchen space. There is about a square foot of usable counter space and then a bunch of small cabinets.

(posted by Jaime)

Home Alone...Again

Woo, an afternoon amazing thus far!

#1. I went over to the college to drop off my confirmation of acceptance. All the employees were sitting around in the office and the registrar said to me, "Just out of curiosity, why are you taking Office Admin. and not Management Studies?"
I was like, "Uh...I don't know. I didn't really look at the management course."
After about 5 minutes of discussion, they switched me over to Management Studies because they said it would be more up to par with my skills. They said my marks were too good to just be in the Office Admin. course and they said that since I want to work for the government, that I was much better off taking Management Studies.

That's pretty cool, I'm happy about it. Actual class work doesn't start until the second week of September which I guess is how most colleges work. I asked one lady how many students go to college at the Kivalliq campus but she answered that last year there were 21 graduates between the Office Admin and the Management course so she said, "About that many then," but there are other courses held there so my guess is that probably is about 50 or 60. Wow, and I thought my elementary school of 200 kids was small!

Have I mentioned that I can't wait to go to school again?! I worked at a call centre before moving here. It was across the street from the college I was going to go to this September and I was always so jealous of the students on the bus, of which there were many. I hated my job and they always seemed so happy to go to school.

#2. After the college, I walked over to the Co-op to pick up some cookies (heh) and a Nunatsiaq News. The newspaper says it costs $1 but they never charge me for it, I'm not sure why. I should try buying a Kivalliq News there and see if they charge me because the Northern does.
Anyway, the good part was when this guy about my age came up to me with two 5-week-old huskey/whatever-mix puppies in his backpack and asked me if I wanted to buy one. I said no but he let me pet them anyway. They were the most adorable thing I've seen in ages. I scratched their little heads and behind their little ears and I almost wanted to take the backpack and run, haha. I'm thinking that the only way to get Leah to be quiet is to buy her another cat to play with. That would definitely make her be quiet. She loves other animals.

#3. I finished my outing with a trip to the post office, where a package from my dad had arrived. It was a microphone so I can use Skype. I downloaded Skype so if anyone has it, add me! I don't know a lot about it yet, but I think giving my username is enough? My username is [removed for privacy reasons].

(posted by Jaime)

Yay for Internet

Yay, we finally have our own modem! I called today and when the lady said the modems had arrived, I was so excited I said, "Okay, I'll be over to pick some up! Err..just one."

If you're familar with Qiniq, we went with the Masak plan. Mmmm...it's so much faster than what we were borrowing before.

I'm going to go browse my usual sites and revel in the blazing 384k speed, heh.

(posted by Jaime)

Pessimism #2

Ah, darn.

It turns out I can't take the course I wanted to at the college (Information Technology). I've had kind of an annoying ordeal so far with the college. Observe:
#1. Their website is extremely outdated and half the links do not lead to existing pages.
#2. The website listed a course called Computer Technology that I wanted to take.
#3. I went to the school the other day and found that the person I needed to talk to wasn't there but someone else who was rather unhelpful didn't tell me that Computer Technology was now Information Technology. All she said was, "We don't have that." So I took information on the Office Admin. course because it's pretty much the only other course that's going to get me near a computer in the future.
#4. Then I find a more updated course list on the website when I get home, where I find the IT course. I call the college to find out if they have it. Of course, I have to leave a message. Nobody has called me back about it.
#5. Annoyed that no one called me back, I call head office and leave a message on their machine about the IT course.
#6. I get called back this morning from the head office and all they say is they don't know, I have to call this campus. How does the head office not know what's being offered?
#7. I try my luck with this campus again and someone picks up and tells me after all this that no, IT is not being offered.
#8. Arghghgh.

Office administration it is! Now I just need three references to fill out some forms for me...

P.S. I changed the background back to where it was originally. I still need my own place to host the picture so again, if you know where I can, please let me know.

(posted by Jaime)

Internet Woes

If you want to have a good cry, like I'm about to, read this service/rates page for the Internet company here.

Look at Piqsiq! $400/month!

This is officially worse than the pop thing. AND the Tide thing*...put together!

Someone hold me!


*It's $40 for a small box of the stuff.
(posted by Jaime)