who's soonger??

Let it snow...

Monday, December 1

Well, it finally had to snow. Reminds me again why I don't particularly like winter in general. However, it did brighten up the world around us. Autumn isn't such a hot season, either. Everything is dying and decaying and the amount of daylight wanes. Roads were trecherous but luckily drivers weren't going particularly fast (Windsor is notorious for bad drivers, but not nearly as bad as Montreal...) It did make going out and about somewhat difficult. Bah humbug!

It's finally official ... I am no longer an employee of the hospital. Sent in my papers last month and I worked my last shift at the hospital yesterday. Of course they put me on-call just before I left. How nice of them... lucky for them I wasn't called late nor was I called in to fix something. I think they would really hate to pay me big $$$ for a trivial problem. Went in this AM to return the on-call pager, the binder, my keys and signing papers. One headache to resolve is how to convert my pension $$$ to my personal retirement savings plan without having to pay big $$$ in taxes. (Did I tell you how much I dislike paying taxes???)

What are my plans for now? Well, being a freelance pharmacist is my first order of business. Self-employment is the key to financial success -- you can virtually write-off anything that relates to work. And what do we do that is related to work? Almost everything we have -- our car, bills, stationery, accountants -- you name it, it's covered. OK, well maybe the trip to Australia isn't covered. Such is life but it's not bad when you can write-off gas for your car and depreciation.

Hours booked for December look pretty slim -- but that can be easily fixed with a couple of phone calls. Work at this one place on the east side for the first time today (4pm-9:30pm). Should be okay. Will also look at other places on the east end as well as this one place about 10 minutes from my house. They are dying for help so I might as well help them out (for a nominal fee, of course!)

Of course I would take a photo of my car -- look at it!!! The weather is rusting it away! Thank goodness for Zaino! (Let me tell you, car owners, if you want quality polish and UV protection for your car, get Zaino. It is the best, hands down!)

Christmas is near...

Monday, December 23

It's been a while since I wrote but that's the way it goes... been working now and then. Keeping myself busy but at the same time, allowing a lot of time for myself. Pacing myself (or so I want to believe!)

Let's see... I have made some inroads as to where I want to work out in the retail world. Got myself a niche close to home and all around Windsor. The tax man states I have to work a minimum of 3 sites to keep the self-employed status I cherish. Not a problem. I figure I will change things around and help people out from time to time. For instanc,e if I can go up to Midland during the summer and hang out in Toronto while I'm at it, then that's OK with me. Or little side-trips to Stratford or cottage country like Owen Sound wouldn't be a bad idea either. I can travel across the province AND work at the same time. That is truly a very unique situation...

Before I get ahead of myself, I have booked a considerable more hours at various places in Windsor. It's more like the 'regular' places I will be picking up hours in the new year. Maybe I should get my feet a little more wet to see how other environments work. Have to remember to finding a GST number for myself! Need it for next year, so I'd better get moving on that little project.

On the social side of things, many of friends are back in town. Guess this is the only time of season people make their way back to Windsor. It nice seeing everyone all together at the same time. Times like these are now far and few. It's so humbling to think that I've been working for well over a year now. The money and independence thing is great -- but there are times where I wish I could spend more times with friends (or make more friends here while I'm at it!)

Saturday, December 28

Christmas, come and went. Not that much fanfare, really. It all depends on perspective -- I got my presents *before* the actual day so when the 25th rolled along, it was more of a ceremonial thing than anything. What did I do that day? Let's see... I stayed at home and took care of the stomach flu I was suffering with! (I can account for my illness from my Dec 23rd visit to Mike's house ... his dad got a bout of it and I must have caught while I was over there... thanks!) Didn't go out and do much. Was supposed to do my last minute present exchange in the day but didn't make it out until the evening. (There was a big snow storm Christmas Eve, so travelling during Christmas Day was quite dangerous, really.)

I did manage to go to bed rather early Christmas Day. That was to rest up for Boxing Day shopping! Was supposed to get up for the Future Shop door- crasher sale (7AM) but didn't wake up until 8:30. Instead, I had a quick breakfast, went to Freed's to see what kinda sales they had but was quickly disappointed at the lack of merchandise (and goods on sales, on that matter).

I did a quick trip to Future Shop (nothing for me) and then journeyed over to the Mall. Walked around and hit the big shops but found nothing significant. On my way out, I stopped to National Sports Centre and I picked up some 20lb freeweights for me to curl with. This was all done before 11:30AM!

In the afternoon, I felt determined to do a little more exploring. My mom mentioned of a big sale at the Hugo Boss outlet store in the outlet mall (that's the place my mom went at 8AM!) Dorothy came along -- I found myself a beautiful navy cashmere overcoat I've always wanted. Retailed for C$2300 and I got it for about nine bills (taxes included). Not a bad sale, I must admit. Now I can start styling when I do my retail stint across the county. It's getting COLD here and I need to be warm!

Worked 1/2 day on Friday -- still shaking off the flu. Was OK for work but the flu returned when I got home. Had to go to Shoppers to get medicine AND Powerade (to avoid dehydration). I was surprised to hear that no employee discount during this time! I had to pay full retail price for stuff (unheard of!)

Happy New Year!

Wednesday, January 1.

Happy New Year, everybody! Can't believe that another year has started. That means another year of paying taxes (sigh). Well, I'm in the midst of updating my Quicken... I am utterly shocked at how much I billed pharmacies last year. Even though I worked full-time at the hospital until the end of November. Sheesh! But where does all that hard work end up? To subsidize some crack mommy for her smokes and beer...

Anyway, I spent a lot of time updating my much-ignored Quicken file. I also had to start up a 2003 file -- now that I am self-employed, good record- keeping is imperative. To facilitate matters, I also will be integrating my Palm Pilot to keep things straight. Not only is it my pharmacopoeia (meds database), it will also keep track of expenses (have good software), log all my work schedule and my phone book. I would be lost without it! The cell phone is just my link to the outside world. Don't have much use for it other than that (maybe I should have waited for the integration of all that hardware?) But most of those all-in-ones (ie Handspring Treo) use GSM -- the coverage in Windsor blows big chunks and what's the point of a phone that has terrible reception?

I'm off tomorrow so I might do a little more updating of this pathetic webpage (it needs a facelift, don't you think?)

Wednesday, January 8

Quite a week! Lots o' work, or should I say, I scheduled myself with a lot more work than during the holidays. Keeping myself busy, but at the same time, I'm collecting my GST to pay the jolly ol' government 7% of what I make for doing my job. Lovely... On the bright side, I can work when I want, where I want and enjoy some of the benefits of self-employment. Is this a recurrent theme in my journal entries? I guess it's because I'm quite happy with where I am right now -- don't have to worry about the same crap that I had to deal with for the past year or so...

Worked the weekend at Shoppers by my house. It was a busy weekend -- 140 scripts on Saturday 15.5 scripts / hr), 108 scripts on Sunday (15 scripts / hr) . That's about 1 scripts every 5 minutes -- nearly an ideal time setting for some PC. I did do a lot of callbacks and counselling while on the job -- that's one of the reasons why I am happy with what I'm doing. Having to be an order- entry technician for half a day just wasn't cutting it for me. (I found it ironic that I spoke to patients more often out in retail pharmacy than in a hospital!!!) Monday & Tuesday I was back at Shoppers for an extended stint there. Today, I'm out in the county -- Amherstburg. It's nice to have 'net access at work at a not-so-busy store. (Plus my computer is on the fritz right now -- stupid Internet Explorer being so integrated into Windows!)

It looks like I'll know what I will be doing on Friday -- going to do a reformat of the P3-550 and perhaps I'll install WindowsXP. Will see how that helps (or hurts) me. I am not that familiar with the new OS but I do feel comfortable reversing things by reformatting a reformatted hard drive! My copy does work on the 'experiment computer' I won a while back (P2-450) but it did crash on the install ... I wonder if it's more stable than Win98. My only fear is that Dell will not give me any tech support on the computer if I do decide to upgrade to WinXP...

Thursday, January 9

Another day in the county ... it's a lot quieter now than yesterday, thank goodness! Time, however, is crawling at a snail's pace. Not a big deal for me -- at least I have internet access at work, baby!

A couple of surprises yesterday after work -- got a phone call from a friend who I haven't heard from in ages! She's in town -- broke her leg during her vacation to Florida and now she's nursing it back to health. Work isn't so happy with it, but what can you do? It's a good thing she got travel insurance otherwise she would have learned, first hand, why there are so many poor Americans out there and why prescription medications cost so much money!

I was on the 'net after I ate. Did a lot of surfing about stocks and what's going on with the US economy (and how it will affect me). Got a little scare when stocks fell sharply yesterday (it's rebounded since then). I am also interested in what stocks to amass in Canada. Should I even bother with my RSP fund account? I can contribute a lot this year so it should be good on the most part. I hear Trimark Fund is always good.

I did miss an important call. Another friend of mine is not doing so well. She's got a lot on her mind and things at work is not helping things, either. What to do? I'm not that great a listener at times ... (sigh) I can only hope things will turn around.

Saturday, January 11

I had a very productive day off. Got up around 8:30 and started to format this pathetic computer. Backed up the data first and then formatted this sucker. Took me about 2 hrs to get it back to bare-bones functional (Windows, sound & video working) and then went to lunch.

After lunch, I went to Purolator topick up my emblems I ordered for my car. (Yes, more JDM badges for the Acura / Honda) I'm happy with them. =) Stopped over to the mall to get some magazines to read on the plane ride to Asia. $20 for 2 car magazines! Then I went to pick up some dog food for Rex -- he'll be in the pound for 19 days and we need to get him some food! Lastly, I stopped over at Shoppers to drop off my invoice for this past week of work.

That was quite a day! Went back to the computer and started installing critical software for this computer. It's back and running quite smoothly, which makes me quite happy. (Plus it keeps Pat off of my back...)

At night, we went out for supper. It was one of my mom's bowling buddies who wanted to 'introduce' her niece to Pat. She's a pastry chef up in Muskoka. Very interesting! Who would have thought a Chinese girl would make French pastries in Muskoka? Well, now I know one!

Work today 10-2. Glad they have 'net access there (otherwise I'm not a very happy camper. Don't know what I'm doing afterwards ... maybe some PS2? I haven't touched it in over a week! Talk about self-control! ;)