Working in the Coal Mine

And by 'coal' I mean mutual funds, and by 'mine' I mean bland, anonymous, North Toronto suburb. So far, it seems okay, but being there makes me feel like I'm trapped in an episode of the office (only without the funny bits). They seem like nice people –a tad disorganised though as far as my training goes, but a nice group. My first day I arrived and did some human resources paperwork stuff, then the human resources lady took me to the department supervisor who showed me around, introduced me to some people and said "So you'll be doing your training with M, but unfortunately she's in a meeting until 11, sooo... d'you have a book?" –They're encouraging office time-wastage before I've even started –awesome! When I started the training with M, she said "the training will take about two or three weeks..." and I'm thinking 'uh, shouldn't you know how long the training is going to take?' It made me think back to my birth-by-fire Nova training (although at least they had a plan about what was happening on what day). There was a lot of detail and 'well-you-won't-really-come-across-that-very-often' situations before there was any kind of overview of, oh, I dunno, what this company does, or what my job is maybe.

But I digress. A job is a job, and heaven knows I’ve certainly had much worse ones. The people are nice, it doesn’t seem to office-politicky, the work isn’t stressful, so this is certainly fine for now. I think I’m in need of some stability right to help with my readjustment to “The Real World.”

However, speaking of the real world, I’m constantly thinking about what I want to do with my life, and I think I may have actually hit nail on the head and made a decisive realization; I want to work in the travel industry — travel agent, tour guide, tour planning, that kind of thing. If there’s one thing I’m passionate about it’s travel! Defiantely my skills, languages and expatriate experiences are well matched for this kind of job and would be put to good use instead of being amusing stories to tell by the water cooler.

Now I had always been hesitant to consider the travel industry because you don’t make that much money; stuck in the mindset that you need to make lots of money to be able to travel. But being back in the corporate world where people make the cash money, I’m reminded that you also only get two weeks vacation a year! What I really need is a way to turn that equation on its head, and I think having a job where your job is to travel is just the solution I’ve been looking for. I’m actually pretty excited about is because I’ve never really had a strong sense of what kind of direction I wanted to take with my life.

So, now all I need is a job. Any offers?

Quelle Surprise!

It may or may not surprise you that Lance Bass finally came out and said he is gay for Reichen from the Amazing Race. Here is the article (thanks to Jenni for passing it on);

NEW YORK (AP) — Lance Bass, band member of 'N Sync, says he's gay and in a "very stable" relationship with a reality show star.

Bass, who formed 'N Sync with Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, tells People magazine that he didn't earlier disclose his sexuality because he didn't want to affect the group's popularity.

"I knew that I was in this popular band and I had four other guys' careers in my hand, and I knew that if I ever acted on it or even said (that I was gay), it would overpower everything," he tells the magazine.

'N Sync is known for a string of hits including 'Bye Bye Bye' and 'It's Gonna Be Me'. The band went on hiatus in 2002. Bass has also found headlines for undertaking astronaut training and failing to raise money for a trip into space.

Bass says he wondered if his coming out could prompt "the end of 'N Sync." He explains, "So I had that weight on me of like, `Wow, if I ever let anyone know, it's bad.' So I just never did." The singer says he's in a "very stable" relationship with 32-year-old actor Reichen Lehmkuhl, winner of season 4 of CBS's Amazing Race.

Bass and Fatone, 29, are developing a sitcom pilot inspired by the screwball comedy The Odd Couple, in which his character will be gay.

"The thing is, I'm not ashamed," Bass says. "I don't think it's wrong, I'm not devastated going through this. I'm more liberated and happy than I've been my whole life. I'm just happy."

Well it's about freakin' time! We all knew he was a big power bottom — he's not foolin' nobody! Now's the chance for all those other B-list minor celebs to revive their waning careers with gay book deals and inspirational speaking tours à la Mark Tewksbury. Hello, James Van Der Beek, Jake Gyllenhaal, are you listening!?

Suddenly I'm Miss Midwest Midnight Check-Out Queen

I got a job today. I'm pretty under-whelmed about it. It's working at a call centre, talking to people about thier mutual funds. The pay is okay, but it's in North York (a horrible, bland, lame-o suburb north of Toronto). I basically just took it because I needed a job, but I have serious trepidation about going up there every day. It really is horribly life-crushing being up there. I could totaly feel the concrete and eight lanes of traffic across sucking the life out of me when I went up there for my interviews.

Taking the job has also brought to home the permanancy of my return to Toronto. It certainly has a "rest-of-your-life" feel to the whole thing which is terribly freaky. Yuck! While I know that if I really don't like it, I can always go on to something else, it'll in all likelyhood still be something that's grown-uppy and real-lifish. Booh! I need the Peter-Pan comfort blanket of my Japanese lifestyle to make me feel happy and blissyfully delusional again.

Shame!

Last weekend was Gay Pride in Toronto – sorry for the delay in writing about it, but my ego has barely recovered. I was all set for a weekend of fun and tawdry meaningless sex with transient tourists, but instead I had a series of ego-crusing failures and dissapointments. Oh woah is me! I am still a bit in disbelief that I wasn't able to get laid – really it should be like shooting fish in a barrel. Well, I contend that I was simply too gorgeous and people found me intimidating and perhaps out of their league (which, of course, I am, but that's another matter).

I'll have to try to fugly it up in the future – a pocket protector maybe?

Here is a picture of me being unsuccessfully gay, and a picture of some gay Native Canadians. How Gay!



P.S. Any tips on how to be gay and have empty meaningless sex with strange men? Apparently I am in need of a refresher course.