One Month Later

Wow it's been a whole month since I have blogged. It's not like I didn't try to blog. Or think about trying to blog. I just didn't have the motivation. I was in Canada, I have friends in Canada, I have pleasant distractions posing as friends, I have drinking to catch up on. I guess this passed month I realized why I didn't blog before. Blogging is actually kind a lonely type of expression. When I was conversing with my friends I was in a sense live blogging which led to the lack of motivation to sit down and put it down in writing. It's not a bad thing really. So let me catch you up.
Last post I had landed back in Canada after a long drive across America. The drive was wonderful as I had my Mom along for the journey. She has a gift for gab for sure. It was awesome because I could sit back and really spend some quality time with her as I haven't for quite a while. I loved watching the landscape change constantly as I drove North, conforming eventually into what I recognize as home. I have to say that the QE2 is the most boring portion of the drive (not surprising I guess). Getting my car into Canada was an ordeal to say the least. I am going to blog separately on the rigmorole of getting your vehicle back and forth across the border for you reading enjoyment. Stay tuned for that soon.
Being in Canada was great. It wasn't too cold in Edmonton and my car performed well even though it was not used to the cold. Make sure you have antifreeze in your wiper fluid before entering the cold. Mine froze in Calgary and I was washer fluidless for most of the month. I still worked on RawVegas while I was up there assuming that I would be able to come back down. I had a pretty sweet set up at the STATUSfirm head office - had my own office. Considering I was in another country, I actually got a ton of work done. The fact that I wasn't interrupted a million times a day really kept me on track and I had a real handle on my whole staff for the first time. I knew what each of them were up to at all time minus a few communication break downs, I came up with a new way to organize myself to organize them while in Canada.
I went to the STATUSfirm Xmas party which was a blast. Got me this neat watchthh. I was all like "Thanks Meissther" like that guy on UHF. It's a really nice Tag, thanks Chris and David!
The rest of the month was filled with working regular hours, catching up and drinking with friends I hadn't seen in forever. It was awesome. I was a social butterfly again. That is the one thing I cannot be down here. I got to see Sue's new bar The Empress Ale House. What an awesome establishment with very friendly faces. Also made some appearances at the Black Dog, Red Star, Halo and Martini's. Got to know the new STATUSfirm staff pretty well which was awesome. It's weird when you come back to a job and you almost need to know the new faces to really get a feel for what your job is again. They've got a real good team there and I wish them all the best in 2008.
I finally got my paperwork from my lawyer on the 19th, so I booked my flight down to the US to acquire my new visa. It wasn't the best time to book a flight and I paid through the teeth for the ticket. My flight plans were to leave from Calgary international (lawyers suggest I fly out the closest largest international hub and Edmonton just doesn't cut it), get my visa from customs and then fly to Salt Lake, then to Vegas, 2.5 hours on the ground then back to Edmonton. My day started at 4:30am that day. Dad drove me to Calgary where I went way early in order to be able to wait for the customs people to review my paperwork and make their decision.
I got to customs, told them I wanted a TN visa. I was escorted to a back room where I would have my case reviewed. I handed the official my paperwork and was asked to sit down in a waiting area. Up until this point I had tried to imagine all the different questions I might be asked, tried to think of all the possible scenerios that might put me in a precarious situation. Keep in mind that what I was doing was TOTALLY LEGIT. These people make you feel like you've done something wrong regardless. I sat there for about 5 minutes. Then the agent had me approach the desk. He asked me two questions, "Is this the same job with the same company?" I said, "yes sir." Then he asked me to go back to the waiting room. Five minutes he asked me to approach again and I thought, "oh here it is, he is going to take me into the back for further questioning," but he didn't. He said he needed a cheque for $50. And I am thinking, "it couldn't be that easy." Then I looked across the desk and saw my fresh visa sitting there - waiting for me to cut that cheque so I could get outta there. So I cut the cheque, and he asked me to have a nice flight.
That was it.
I was set for another year of work in the States. After all the crap I had to deal with last year (see my first blog ever) and he asked me two questions and then let me go??? Was this some sort of joke? If it was, I was laugh all the way to the bank. As I walked towards my gate I must have had the dumbest/biggest smile on my face. I felt like I just duped the American government (WHICH I HADN'T) for some reason. It was because of all the mental preparation I had done - I had prepared for the worst in my mind. I really wasn't ready for it to be that easy. But ready or not, I hopped the plane to the US, spent a little time with the staff in Vegas, and then I was on my way back to Edmonton for Xmas.
Xmas was great, spent a lot of time with my family and my brother's new in-laws. I really like his new parents and grandma.
On the 27th I packed up all my stuff and began the new journey back to Vegas. Took me a little longer due to weather but I am back now. I live in a house with two roommates closer to my office so I think this year I am going to save a lot of money. I really want to pay off all my debt this year.
That pretty much brings you up to speed. Again, I have to go into greater detail about moving a car from country to country as a lot of Canadians are doing this and you will learn from my experience surely. I am going to bed.