No, see? It doesn't work like that

Alright, Time for that semi-regular update thing.

I have a place to live. Steve and I found a fairly sizable apartment in one of the nicer ctreets in the worst area of town. But it's a second floor place, with a great big kitchen and a comfortable living room. We've settled in, had a couple of get togethers.
Hallowe'en, actually, was a huge success. I had a ridiculous number of people come over, the booze was free-flowing, and we all had a great time. If I can find the pictures, I dressed up as Dean Winchester, and apparently did a fairly decent job of it. Hair cut and everything.

So life is looking up.

The job at Sitel is going well. I've made a lateral move to a different line of business in the same campaign, which doesn't mean anything more than I don't have to del with customers on a day-to-day basis. The really good thing though, is that I've been in contact with my HR department, and Marlo has really been pushing for me. There are positions open in Tennessee, and while most of them aren't actually in Nashville, a couple hours away in the right country is better than 22 hours and an international border between us.

I'm going down for Yule. Well, actually it's two weeks, running from the 22nd of Decenber through to the 5th of January, and Marlo's hoping to have interviews set up for me in both Oak Ridge and Memphis. There are coach and trainer positions open in Memphis, so I'm applying to them like crazy. There's also one position in Nashville, which would be most ideal, but the chances of actually getting it...slim to none.

It's a corporate receptionist position at Sitel Headquarters. Of the positions currently open, it's the one I'm best qualified for. But if they're looking for a receptionist, they're probably looking for one to start as soon as possible. Which means that I'm done before I even start, because unless they sponsor a work Visa, I have no viable way of legally entering the US.

So this is where you, dear flist, come in. My resume is fairly impressive, well laid out. Resume's I'm good at. My problem is writing a really kick-ass cover letter. So I'm asking, begging, groveling at your e-feet. If anyone, anyone at all willing or able to assist me with making myself appealing to this huge, multi-national corporation, please, please, I would appreciate it so much.

In other news, I am totally fucked. And not in a feel-good shivery kind of way. More in the warm-fuzzies kind of way. Meet Bullet:

http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=12173639

Cait, my fiancee, found him for me. He's in Dickson, maybe half an hour, 45 minutes outside of Nashville? Trust me, I know how absolutely insane this is. How there are dogs in Ontario needing adopting. And how expensive and difficult it is to ship dogs over the border. But look at that face. And he's at a kill-shelter.
I'm so fucked.
So I'm going to talk to my landlady, make sure that me getting another dog is okay. Technically she can't say no, but I like having a good relationship wth my landlady. It's that whole quality of living thing.
But, assuming that Rita agrees (which I'm 95% sure she will), Cait will let the shelter know that if, by the time Bullet's ticket comes up no one has chosen to take him home, then we will adopt him. And by 'we', I mean 'me'. Probably.
So very, very fucked.
Anyway, that's what's up with me! How about you folk?

( Copied almost wholesale from an email to my sister )

Chant came up last week, and we had a wonderful ten days together.
Last Friday, around two, three o'clock in the morning, I asked her to marry me.

She said yes.

Alright, so, if I'm on your friendslist, it's not because I post all the damned time XD
But, I'm very excited, so I'm killing time on IJ/LJ before I go pick up my new dog. Yeah, I'm getting a dog. She's an adorable dachshund (pronounced docks-und) named Duchess. Not my most favourite name in the book by far, but...she's 12. And as far as the rescue agency can tell, she's always had the name Duchess. So, I'm going to call her Dutch. It'll be something she can recognize, but still a little less common than Duchess.
She's not without her issues of course. You don't get to old age without having some quirks. Her back is slightly twisted, up at the neck. That means her head is cocked to the side, in a most adorable manner. She's also partially blind, which sucks, but so be it. According to Riian, the woman who picked her up in southern Ontario for me, she's absolutely darling. No issues with extended car trips, or anything at all like that.
I'll post pictures of her once I've actually had her for a while, and she's adjusted herself to the house and the kids. I'm a bit worried about how Sammy's going to do with her (Samara's my 2 1/2 year old sort-of niece...her and her sister Paige are my roommate's daughters. They call me Auntie Ray, it's adorable). But thankfully, the girls'll be in bed by the time I get home with her.
SO. EXCITED.

I try to call my girlfriend this morning, as I usually do whenever I know that she'll be awake at the same time as me. My phone wouldn't make a call. I tried a friend's number, same thing. Thinking that maybe it was an issue with the area I was in (driving through the boonies, with really bad cell reception), I left it until my lunchbreak, and the damned thing still wasn't working. So after my shift, I drove down the wireless centre. There I had one of the worst customer service experiences in my whole life.
I hate ragging on customer service reps. I really, really do. I've done retail and customer service for four years and I know exactly how bad it can get. My mental stress and depression increased to the point of requiring an increase of medication because of customer service. I know. I know exactly how hard that kind of jobs are. So it's not like I'm an EB in this story.
I walk into the the Rogers Centre and up to the service desk. Standing there are three reps, one of whom is a trainee and the other looks like a manager. The trainee steps up, and I slide my phone across the counter and explain that my phone isn't making calls, and I can't send text messages. She looks down at the phone, looks up at me.
"how old is it?"
"oh, probably a year, a year and a half?"
"it's not coverd under warranty anymore. We'd have to send it out for repairs. So that means 25 dollars just to look at it. 55 if there's any actual repair involved. Plus labor."
"...you can't take a look at it here?"
"no."
"...okay, what about getting a new phone?"
"You'd have to buy one."
"even if I'm under a plan still?"
"yup."
What she said was pretty plain. But her whole attitude towards my was just plain rude. She acted like a complete bitch.
I'm not exactly proud of what I did next. I grabbed my phone, said 'this is bs." and walked out.

So I called Rogers Customer Service tonight and had a quick conversation with tech support. Two seconds into it, he says 'oh, well there's your problem. your account's been suspended.'
A zippy transfer to Customer Relations had my account up and running again. Easy Peasy. I made a payment (at the same Rogers Centre) two days ago to cover some of my bill. (I call my girl in Tennessee all the time). Apparently, payments made at a Rogers Centre will take ten days to process. So the money I put down hadn't hit my account yet, so I hit the limit and it was suspended. Not a big deal.
If the trainee at the Rogers Centre had bothered to look up my account, then I wouldn't have walked out of there, thinking that I needed to by a new phone and that I never wanted to deal with Rogers again.
Seriously. am I being overly ridiculous? I just felt like I wasn't work the scummer on her shoe. I was over my warranty, so I was a cash opportunity.
I'm just so, so very angry with them. and her, in particular. Just...rargh.

I apologise for the complete lack of coherency.

http://www.fireflyseason2.com/BrowncoatProfile.asp

Yes, Firefly is aiming for a season 2, not for regular network television, but either On Demand or online, or episode-by-episode DVDs sent to your house. It looks like the most they want to charge per episode is 3.99 USD.
Anyway, I registered. You really should.'Cause Firefly really deserves to come back. Yus.

I am a sheep. No, I am worse than a sheep. I am a lemming. No, I'm worse than a lemming, because I see the cliff coming, and know wat's going to happen, and so gleefully fling myself off the edge.
What has caused this, you wonder? The three seasons of Stargate:Atlantis currently being torrented onto my computer at this very second. That's what. And the only thing stopping me from getting into Doctor Who is that I have absolutely no idea where to start. A series that has what, 11? 12? people playing the main character rather intimidates me, and I simply cannot fathom where to jump in. So I'll hold that one back for now.
But yes. After watching David Hewlitt's home videos as he geeks out over his own show, I feel as if I have no choice. Plus, you know, PT has excellent taste, and it'd be nice to know the characters I'm reading about when I click on her fic-links like the worse-than-a-lemming I am. *nods*

On to things of a more personal nature...

Petsmart has greatly upset me. I handed in my resume, did their little job fair video thing, had a great first interview...and was then told to wait. So I waited, then I called, and was told that the store manager was on vacation, so I should wait some more. Then I went in and actually met the bastard, and he said that he'd absolutely take a look at my resume. A week went by, so I called yesterday and spoke with him again. And apparently, despite one of the cashiers telling me that they were losing three of the cashiers and that my chances were good, they apparently don't have any job openings available at the moment.

But you know what? They're my ticket into the States. I want the training that they can give me. So I'm going to just keep. on. calling. Like the persistent bitch that I can be.

Also? Never work for Linens-N-Things if you don't have to. Because I hates it, yus I do. I hates it very, very much.

That's basically it. Not a very epic post, is it? Ah well...