Work and Other Fun Stuff

Anyways I am on "break" right now at work, so I figure I should work on this a bit...

Nothing much worth mentioning so far, except:
a) A "bad" incident happened at work on Tuesday, which I felt turned out for the better. Claudine was doing some admin work and after 2 hours of sheer boredom on her part, she asked me to help her fill up the rest with postal codes (she was working on labels to paste on envelopes). So anyways I did one page of that, and as I tried to continue on with the next page, I couldn`t find the next page anywhere. So I saved the work and closed the window, thinking perhaps if I reopen the file everything will be there, plus the work I saved. However it didn`t work and instead windows popped up (in French, no less) asking me if I was the admin and I need permission for things. Because the logical part of me is convinced that since I saved the work, it has to be somewhere within the computer. So I kept looking and Claudine pops by, asking how I was doing. I then explained to her what happened, and she immediately tried looking for the file, with no luck...so pretty much the files were lost (although I am still convinced it`s somewhere within the computer) and she was frustrated. This is totally understandable and I felt bad (because come on, we all know how it`s like losing an essay we worked on for hours) but this is where I felt the problem is. Instead of venting her frustrations to me in a healthy manner, she simply said, "ok Angel I will take care of it" and after half an hour or so she comes back to me and said everything is fine now. I know it sounds like I am thinking about this too much and I am complaining for nothing (which Rebecca/Stephen/Cynthia said I am) but it feels like Claudine is being overly polite and patient with me...as if she is not very comfortable with showing herself with me. And I don`t want that to happen with people I work with constantly.

So despite Rebecca/Stephen/Cynthia`s idea of ignoring the situation, I decided to talk to Claudine about it the next day as I was doing dishes. I explained to her what I felt, and she actually said that no, she was not being overly polite or patient with me at work, and she is very happy with the way I worked (some days I think otherwise). She just didn`t direct her frustrations with me because there was an obvious solution and there is no need for me to get those frustrations. On top of that, she said she is impressed enough with my work ability that she is trying to train me as "one of them" so when there are opportunities to serve 50+ meetings, she doesn`t need to get someone to come in and instead it could just be me and her...and at the end the tips will be split. This is quite a big deal and honor, so I was quite happy to hear that...although I am actually not allowed to take tips due to volunteering...but would that day of me taking tips ever come?

Oh speaking of work, today was a bit of an interesting day. 3 things happened:
1) I come in at 8 am, and I see a crowd of women (about 8) chatting. Then I say Claudine, who was feverishly preparing food...she was like "Angel I need your help, now...can you give me 6 fruit plates?" So for the next 15 minutes or so we were just working straight. After we were done she told me that she came in at almost 7 and unfortunately couldn`t open the door because it was frozen shut. So she had to go next door to Cafe du Clocher and ask for help (unfortunately no one was there). And then she drove to Annie`s house which was 8 minutes away, and they both had to go back and try to unfreeze the door, which they did by blowing water to the hinges...by that time the ladies were waiting outside the cafe and the rest is history...quite a little adventure she had.

2) Poor poor Aurelie...she came into work and I asked her how she was doing...she then told me that on Sunday, she was cleaning the toaster oven and a small piece of metal entered into her eye...first she was fine but Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday she had terrible headaches and she thinks the thing entered her optic nerve...and looking at light kills her (throughout the hour I was with her, she kept pulling down her tuque so it covered almost all of her eyes...it`s funny in a tragic way). And she finally decided to go home...hopefully she will feel better.

3) At the end of the day I was sent to do my usual grocery trips. This time it`s to La Maison du Pain (The House of Bread) and instead of having Annie call them in advance for food, I decided to go there and ask for items myself (Annie wrote me a list). I wanted to challenge myself and speak more French, and I was pumped to do it...however within 30 seconds of my talking the lady behind noticed I had a list and wanted to see it...and she starts packing me food based on the list. A bit disappointed...

4) One of my ideas for this blog/emails is to dedicate something especially for Mike, a "Mike moment" kind of thing where I talk about something he said that day that's extremely bizarre. Anyways...Yesterday night the group and I were in the cafe...they were doing a film event and we were watching a documentary by National Film Board called "Histoire de Sable"...anyways there's this scene where a bunch of African men are working hard...Rebecca told me that Mike turned to Rebecca at that moment and asked if those guys were slaves...just because they are "black and working"....oh my god...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

5) Oh yes before I forgot...I think I got invited by Aurelie to her art exposition. She says she is going to have a party for her art at Cafe du Clocher...should be fun. I saw some of her stuff and it's pretty cool.