a note to my loyal readers: it's a long one today. i've got nothing better to do right now than sit here and write, so if you want the down and dirty, you'll have to actually read! important news of the day: i have two part time real jobs! with regular hours and regular pay! details at the bottom. and now, story time!
so over the past few weeks i've been spending most of my time near water, salty or otherwise, and with some of sb.com's finest. moselle, mike, and of course eryn, who doesn't fit with the m's, but is fine nonetheless. and i mean that in a purely platonic way of course. i've spent far too much time in a bikini (didn't have time to change yesterday and wound up wearing it to work under my clothes... how professional!) but at least i have a decent tan to show for it, which is much improved on my pasty-ass-ed-ness of late. mmm ass. but i digress.
so. sooke potholes with mo. how much trouble can two girls cause in the middle of the wilderness anyways?! far too much. we didn't meet a bear, but we did meet a divorced father of two who clearly thought we were lesbians with an open mind to including a lonely old man while his sons fished happily away. the potholes are beautiful, and we got in some good exploring, swimming, and psuedo-rock climbing. the water was... well... freezing. good thing i don't have balls or they'd still be somewhere around the vicinity of my nipples. it was an awesome time, just getting out camping for a change. the sound of a river is so soothing at night. i couldn't have asked for a better camping partner, either!
after our little holiday, we came back to victoria to celebrate some friends' birthdays by going out and getting drunk. yes, me. drunk. that half beer really finished me off! a couple old friends of mine also came out, so i was super happy to see them. they're living down in boston now, so i don't get to see them nearly as much as i'd like. i used up all my change throwing it down eryn's cleavage, and then spent the next few days wondering why i had no change to buy things with... we gave our friend a birthday gift of a tiny little girl's bike that eryn had found in the ditch. good times all around.
and then, after a few days of work, i had mike out here to show him the ropes of being a good summertime BC citizen. i also took him to the potholes, where we played jane of the jungle on the tire swing and tried not to hit any children in the head with rocks. the next day we took my little sister amanda (and a bag of trail mix fortified with extra chocolate) to sidney spit, a little island full of sand off the coast of sidney (bc, not australia). we had a sandcastle building competition where everyone got prizes: i had the best landscaping, mike's was prettiest, and amanda's was most durable (that thing could've withstood terrorist attacks). mike and amanda also dug gigantic holes and threatened to bury me in them. luckliy for me, the tide came in and filled up the holes. we finished the day with a big water fight (damn but the ocean's cold!) and then spent what seemed like an eternity waiting for the ferry to arrive.
saturday it was off to visit the parents (and eryn) and get a rundown on the boat. that night was the last fireworks of the season, so we took some snacks, my mum, eryn, and her friend kevin down to the beach to watch them. it was a good show, and good company, even if i didn't understand all the movie quoting that was going on in the male contingency of the party.
sunday was the day i became captain. oh, the power. i could've keelhauled mike for insubordination if i'd been so inclined... lucky for him we'd just had the bottom done and there were no barnacles on the underside of our boat, and so, keelhauling lost its appeal. my parents own a 25 foot C&C sailboat named Cirrus, and they were generous enough to let us borrow her for the weekend (actually, my mum was downright ecstatic that Cirrus was finally getting some use). so early sunday morning we cast off from the dock and motored three hours to portland island. i would've liked to have sailed a bit, but it was dead calm for pretty much the entire weekend. the main anchorage is tortoise bay, so named because it is protected by the tortoise islets. or perhaps the islets were named after the bay, i don't know. all i know is, it's a beautiful little spot and i'd expected it to be incredibly busy on the labour day long weekend, especially with such gorgeous weather. to my surprise, it was almost deserted, only another dozen or so boats in the bay.
we anchored on the first try (some other fancier boats took as many as three tries to anchor! go us!) and set about exploring the island. and explore we did. after a quick dip in the ocean (quick because it was so bloody cold!) on my part, and a foot dabbling on mike's, we decided, foolishly as we were to find out, to take the path to the right. it was all fine and dandy until the path petered out. but we could hear (and see) some people ahead of us, crashing away through the undergrowth, so we decided to follow them, because, obviously, they knew where they were going. well. after getting a little sidetracked, we found that we'd lost our questionable guides (along with mike's sunglasses), and were now somewhere in the middle of the island without so much as a deer track to follow. i think they were actually wood sprites who would have led us to our death if they hadn't realised what an incredible dork i am and thought better of adding my soul to their ranks. we decided to push on, and eventually we would meet up with either the shoreline trail or the mid island trail. that was the idea anyways. the undergrowth was full of unseen brambles, and neither one of us were dressed properly for bushwhacking. i was wearing only my (still wet) bikini and flipflops that have seen better days. not ideal. but we survived, and an hour and a half later ended up back on the shoreline trail in a spot that would've taken us about ten minutes to get to if we'd chosen the left fork.
one of the keys to good boating is good (junk) food. so i was pretty happy to get back to the boat and all my delicious chocolate i had waiting for me. hello, my name is kendra, and i have a problem. i'm addicted to chocolate. and cherry blasters.
monday was labour day, and a lot of the boats in the anchorage left while we were walking around the island. we managed not to get ourselves lost this time, and brought enough snacks to feed amanda's kid's klub. during our lunch break we had a nice parks canada girl come up and survey us. they are thinking of introducing a $7.00/person/day fee for all of their parks, just to use the trails. now, i'm all for keeping our parks beautiful. but. $7 just to hike some trails? and no discount for locals? they already charge for parking, usually between $3 and $5. it starts to add up in a hurry. so much for keeping our children active... i know if i had to pay every time i wanted to hike i wouldn't be hiking nearly as much. i don't have a lot of money to throw around on fitness; if i did i'd have gym memberships and gear for every sport out there. and i'm way off track again.
anyways. we walked all the way around the island without getting lost! the only bad part was me being too short to get over a log, misjudging how far i had to lift my leg, and opening up a big gash on my shin. mmm yummy. it looks pretty nasty. after dinner we went back ashore and raided the apple trees. portland island used to have a farm on it, and lots of sheep (we had a problem with kiwis so the sheep have been moved to a high security farm with kiwi repellant fences) and an orchard. so mike climbed the trees and shook the branches while i danced around underneath and tried not to get hit in the head by falling apples. of course, i was useful and tried to catch any good apples that mike might throw at me, only, i became rather wary of him after he tossed one while i wasn't ready and it bounced off my chin.
yesterday morning bright and early we weighed anchor, and, after cleaning all the seaweed off it, headed back to my parents place. it was my first time docking the boat, and i have to say, i did a damn good job of it! backed her in beautifully, mum was there to hand me the lines, and Cirrus was back safe and sound. had time for a quick lunch and a chat with mum, then it was off to work for me. which brings me to my good news...
WORK
i am now a permanent part time employee at vancouver island autistic homes society! the house i have been working at had no positions available, so i applied at one of the other houses within the agency, and ended up getting the job. it's weekend work, 8-4 saturday and sunday, and i'm going in for training at the new house today. i get full benefits and am now at the top of the call list, meaning if a shift comes up at either of the houses i'm trained for i'll be one of the first to know. so yay! more hours, regular time... what could be better?
oh yeah, another job! i've decided to once again sell my soul and work for the BC provincial government, this time in refunds. at least i'll be making people happy instead of angry. it's part time work for two months, so i think i'll be able to handle it. 4 hours a night, 5-9 shift, and supposedly i'll get shift premium, meaning i'll get to make proper money. i get stat days off too, so that will be nice.
the only thing is, i'll be working 7 days a week. and during awkward hours which won't let me see a lot of amanda. she's back in school so we won't have entire days to spend at the beach. but i figure a couple hours a week is still better than no hours... eh well. hopefully i won't go crazy!
to those of you who read this whole thing... wow. i applaud you. shirts... i mean hats... off to you! hope everyone else has been having as much summer fun as i have!
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