I spent a bit of time this morning on the phone with an EI service representative. Apparently EI does not normally pay benefits to anyone who is not actively seeking full-time work. Attending school full-time would disqualify me from receiving benefits.

However, since I’ve spent the last few years attending part-time while holding down a full-time job, I should be able to continue attending part-time while receiving benefits. Then again, EI may choose to deny an application based on part-time university attendance being considered a potential hindrance to employment availability.

[Insert mental rant here]

Gee thanks government safety net that our family has been forced to pay into for decades. Some help you’re turning out to be.

[/rant]

I don’t want (nor qualify for) a student loan in order to continue with the degree. So now I must search bursary and scholarship programs if I want to go to school full-time after the lay off. Seems far more likely that I’ll continue to be working full-time – if I can find a job – while I continue pursuing the degree part-time.

Back to the drawing board.  It appears I need a new fall back position plan.

Argh! I had a complete post written on my iPhone and accidentally hit the cancel button instead of the save button. Here’s hoping I’m smarter and better co-ordinated the second time round.

Drew has written and asked that I pass the following message on to our friends and family who have been sending pacakged to him and the soldiers on his crew that he put up for “adoption”.

Do not send packages after March 15.

Anything sent after March 15 is not guaranteed to arrive in theatre before they come leave for home.

We’re told that the soldiers will be responsible for paying the commercial shipping charges from point of origin to return the packages to Canada if any arrive after the soldiers have been sent home. He’s also said that it would be international shipping charges as the packages will not be shipped back to Canada through Trenton.

I can’t speak for everyone but I know that Drew and I certainly can’t afford to pay shipping charges for packages returned to him from KAF with my impending job loss looming.

So, help me keep my peace of mind and don’t send any packages after March 15.

Also, if you haven’t yet received a letter from Drew or your adopted soldier, let me assure you that they certainly appreciate receiving your letters and packages these past few months. Mail call is the highlight of many people’s days and weeks while overseas. Everyone here has done a fabulous job of brightening their days.

Thank you.

Tonight is the time where we go out and stuff ourselves on Latin American food. I’ve written about visiting El Rancho before. It’s a small local restaurant that, I’m told, serves authentic El Salvadorean dishes. Having never been further south than Mexico I’ll have to take other’s word for the authenticity of the food. All I know is that it’s pretty good and always very busy.

Drew is not a fan of one of the spices they put in all their dishes so I only go there when he’s out of town. Tonight I’ll be joined by J & A. A will also be inviting R & R. Let’s hope they can make it on such short notice. It’ll be like a mini-reunion of the gang that I went to the restaurant when Drew was in Montreal.

Apparently I can talk about food on my blog as long as I limit it to food Drew doesn’t like 🙂 So now would be a good time to also mention the “goodbye” lunch I had with Big Momma R on Friday. For ages we’d been collecting recyclables to pay for a meal. WD40 returned the bottles last week and on Friday we headed to Mikado for fabulous sushi and sashimi. Ummm.

They do serve cooked food as well so perhaps Drew would be interested in visiting the restaurant some day. He’s usually willing to snack on a Bento box or order up some warm teriyaki dishes. Me, just keep loading the sashimi on my plate and I’ll be happy.

In non-food related news:

I’m very excited about some upcoming concerts coming to the city. Leonard Cohen is coming to town on April 25th! I’ve been a huge fan of his for decades now and am hoping the tickets for hisshow won’t be too expensive. Ticketmaster doesn’t have tickets for sale yet so we have no idea what the cost will to go see him. It turns out R & R may come with me if we can ever figure out when and where to buy tickets to the show. The timing is great for musical reminiscing. He’ll be in town a few weeks after the Gordon Lightfoot show.

Speaking of Lightfoot, Drew won’t be home to go to the show with me. Guess that’s what I get for buying the tickets before we knew Drew would be leaving. I’m bringing L with me instead. He’s a fan and has always been an awesome to neighbour to us. Taking him song with me to the show seems like the least I can do.

I’m working on my application package for a few positions that will be open next week. And I definitely need to call EI to find out if I will still qualify if I return to school full-time next year. I keep reminding myself that I have only one year left to finish my degree if I go full-time. The answer will make a difference in what I chose to do when the layoff becomes effective.

Now, back to a bit of reading for classes. Homework never seems to end.

I’ve has this post rattling around in my head for a while. A while back Wil Wheaton (@wilw) wrote a post on his blog – Wil Wheaton: In Exile – about playing frisbee with his son. Yeah. That Wil Wheaton. Get over yourselves already. He’s a talented author who knows how to weave a story. I’m partial to the audio versions where he reads his own stories. Visit his blog. Go buy his books. Seriously. He’s that good. And a bigger geek you’ll never find no matter how much searching you do. You got to respect a man who knows how to find joy and what’s important in life. Whether or not you’ve ever been a fan of his acting is beside the point.

Anywho. In his post he talked about growing old and not wanting to look back many years down the road only to discover that he wished he’d spent more time playing [insert game/activity here] with his kids.

The sentiment has had a profound effect on me lately. There’s lots of things I’ve regretted over the years. Can’t change any of those. But I can make an effort to ensure that I don’t end up looking back 20 or 40 years from now wishing I’d spent more time with Drew.

This has been a big motivating factor behind the upcoming vacation in July. Despite my impending job loss we’re still going ahead with it. Why not? It’s already paid for and perhaps there’s no better time than now to have a bit of fun time exploring ComicCon, Disney, and SoCal.

What will you do to seize the moment?

It’s Friday and time for Blues and Beer!  Just in time for this momentous (and weekly) event, we’ve received a message home from MOT.  It’s been some time since we’ve heard from him but he’s apparently still in fine shape. Looks like he’s getting lots of exercise and, if his lack of dust and dirt is anything to go by, he’s apparently somewhere close to shower facilities.

He was out and about exploring and came upon this a construction sign.

It appears something may have gotten a little lost in translation. Good to see MOT getting involved in the reconstruction efforts.

cp @ the Broom