PART 9
PREVIOUSLY; I had arrived back in Edmonton, AB; got a 2 new jobs, at the Airport & a Hotel; Christmas came and went.
January 2005, I was working way too much, with little time off or rest, that kind of pace eventually catches up with you. I missed a couple days shortly after New Years at the Hotel, and they threatened my job very quickly for it. I had lost that job by the end of January, and taken on a Full Time shift at the Airport. Working from 5am - 2pm, I continued that for awhile.
2005 was a busy year for work, and other stuff...
Around March 2005, I got myself another second job and a trucking company, working at a cross-dock LTL shipping/receiving center. That was at night from about 6pm-11pm every night, very good pay, but it was a union job and the deductions were ridiculous.
I had these two roommates, that had a really hard time holding jobs, one of them worked with me at the trucking company. The other disappeared after awhile due to worsening drug problem. It was around the same time, my roommate and I got this job that his girlfriend introduced me to her cousin. She was a single mother, trying to complete school in order to get into some kind of work/study program at the community college.
My Roommate's girlfriend had 3 kids, my girlfriend had one, her sister had one, so very quickly it became a strange little family, with lots of kids running around. I also had to maintain my work life as well. I continued at the airport, but the shipping job didn't last long. My roommate managed to get us both fired in the same week.
By the end of March 2005, I had a new girlfriend, with a small child, and I had landed another second job at the Edmonton Sun Newspaper which was another night job, or early morning sometime. I lost track of time, I had changed my shifts at the airport and was now working from 3am-12noon.
It wasn't until April 2005, that I got the call from my lawyer in BC about my MVA court case, he said that I would have to be there now in May 2005, for a hearing to determine something.
They also told me that it would be partially funded, so I was to be given a small amount to get there and use for accommodation. I was given enough to fly out return, and stay in a hostel for about a week.
I spent about a week in Vancouver, BC in the first week in May 2005. That was a nice little trip, I hadn't been back since 2002, and was looking forward to it. I stayed in a really nice clean Hostel downtown on Granville street. I couldn't do much, except hang out, eat, but it was nice to get away. I wandered more than anything, just looking around the neighborhoods I had spent much of the time I lived there in. Then the day came to attend the hearing, answer some questions for the insurance company's lawyers.
When I got the job at the Airport, I was subject to a back ground check going back about 5 years or so, When I got back to Edmonton I got word that it was almost complete. This was Early June 2005. When It came back, I was no longer allowed to work in the Restricted Areas. So they moved me down to our Company's Maintenance facility while I could appeal the decision.
There was 2 stages of the appeal process, so it was about another month before that was over, at the end of it all, they gave me a choice. Due to some lateness, and the Rejection of my background check combined, I had the choice of either quitting or being fired. I chose to Quit, not the best of choices but what do you do?
I still had my job at the paper, it was just doing to printing production. It didn't mean much to me, but it kept me going for a while. As I tried to apply for E.I. I had worked just about everyday of that entire year. The insurable hours I had earned at the airport, added up to over 1100 or so, but all were disallowed because they ROE stated that I quit.
The next stage was to appeal, the first stage was no problem, but it was also rejected. The next stage of appeal was to go through Federal Court, and start filing affidavits at a cost. They handed be a pile of papers and told me that it was Federal Law, and bookmarked the pages I need to know. I basically needed a very expensive lawyer, to get my E.I.
That didn't happen. In July 2005, I was offered a job for a Marketing Firm, doing Demonstrations of Sony VAIO computers. The Company was based in Toronto, so I would have to come back for training. By the time me and my girlfriend weren't really getting along, to put it mildly. She had sent her daughter up to the father's house in Northern Alberta for most of the summer and he had refused to bring her back to Edmonton, so I offered to ride up with her and pick up the little girl. We had not spoken at that time for a few days because of a very heated argument.
We completed that trip in about 12 hours, we had a good talk about everything and I kind of had the impression that things were much better. The next day, after returning, I stopped by to ask her if she would like to come to Ontario with me, since I had to get there fast. She had just got her daughter back after not seeing her for over a month and left the house within hours to go out with some guy and hadn't returned since. I figured we were finished at that point, but extended the invitation anyway.
The girl had a very good singing voice, and I thought maybe if I brought her to Ontario with me we could get her recorded. I also needed some help getting there in a very short time. We left the next day, later in the afternoon. We shared the driving clear through to Thunder Bay, and were making very good time. After gassing up, on our way out of Thunder Bay there was Deer all over the highway, after a few near misses, one came darting out with it head down and eyes closed. I swerved really wide, and it seemed to put its shoulder into my front fender and took off my side mirror. It felt like it almost did it on purpose because when I got out to check there was no body anywhere to be seen.
We got to Toronto, Some time the next morning, after driving that much your mind gets pretty foggy. We arrived at my parents house in early August 2005. I made arrangements to meet up with the artist that I work with, in his home studio, we were able to get her a recorded song just in time to add it to a CD mixtape that he was finishing up.
After my Training and some visiting, My artist and I were trying to get some copies pressed for my trip home. Soon after, another argument blew up in my face and she demanded to go back to Alberta immediately. After a lot of yelling I gave in and put her and her daughter on a bus back to Edmonton. Only days earlier than I actually left.
We finally got the CDs pressed and packaged, the next couple days I spent delivering them to Campus/community radio stations around South Western Ontario, and the day I left I continued the trend, Sudbury & North Bay, and all the way around to Thunder Bay. Every major city I went through in I made a stop at the local University Campus Station or Community Radio station that I could find. Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary & Lethbridge, and many that I had to put in the mail. And Finally back to Edmonton, AB.
When I got Back to Edmonton, I had a few days until I started my actual job. This would have been August 2005. I went over the girl's house to drop off the child car seat, and then I went back to my place only to find it in Shambles...
At that point, I had had enough. I emptied my apartment of all my belongings, and drove over to my Aunt's place, we sat down and talked. I asked her if I could stay at her place while working this job, as I needed someplace stable for a few more months until I completed the contract. She was fine with the idea, and even had a room for me. After the first Weekend of my job, I landed myself a good job during the week with a Landscaping Company. So again, I would be working 7 days a week. The contract job ended up making me the Regional Manager for the city of Edmonton, so I only had to show up on the weekend, and put through some administrative stuff during the week. That left me time to work at the other job, and put in some really heavy hours.
Just before September 2005, My friend from Thunder Bay had called me, and asked me about the possibility of coming out to Edmonton. She was trying to get away from some people and a situation... I was OK, with the idea, and discussed it with my Aunt, she was too and invited her to come stay for awhile.
In Early September 2005, my friend showed up in Edmonton after a few days on the bus, and some delays en route. She was welcomed into the house, ans started looking for a job of her own. Now, I was at work a lot and thought all was well at home. It took about three more weeks, of fake smiles and politeness for everything to come to a head. One evening during a heated conversation that turned into an argument, then into something else. My friend, who by that time had evolved into my girlfriend ended up saying something that got us both kicked out of the house.
I'd Say mid-September 2005, on top of my hectic workload, I now had to find us a place to live. we were able to find many that we could afford, but each one insisted in a credit check which in turn made it impossible for us to rent a legal apartment inside the City of Edmonton. She then suggested that we go back to her home town, Fort Frances, ON.
My Contract was finished after the first weekend in October 2005, so I reluctantly agreed to go with her, not really having many options at that point. I first had to leave my landscaping job a couple months before the season was set to end. As I did that, we left the same week. We left Edmonton, AB headed for Fort Frances, ON.... Couple days later we pulled into her Mom's place.
Upon arrival we started looking for an apartment in Thunder Bay, ON only a few hours away. We found one pretty quick and made arrangements to go see it and moved in pretty much right away. Soon after moving in and getting settled, her friends started coming over and being very disappointed to see me there.
After a couple weeks of listening to her friends trying to convince her to get rid of me, I decided to leave myself, I had to leave. It became a constant battle for approval from her friends and acceptance from my girlfriend, I left one day after dropping her off at work. I left a letter, with good intentions, but it was interpreted in an entire different way, and didn't go over well, especially with the friends.
I was already 13 hours into my trip back to Toronto, when I received a hysterical phone call which I really couldn't understand. The friend took the phone and starting laying into me about what I just did, etc... Not a good call...
I arrived at my Parents house the Week of Halloween, October 2005, almost 1 year to the date that I left. Being gone that long was never the plan. I wasn't back in Toronto this time, but I was close and I figured it might be time to take a break from all the Travel and take care of my finances.
By Mid-November 2005, I had landed myself a job driving forklift at a Lumber Yard. It was decent pay, I only worked three days a week, Friday-Sunday for 12 hours each; For which I earned an even 40 hours. I now had a FT job, and four days off per week. This gave me a lot of time to make plans for my own business, and set up shop where I was living.
After Arriving back in Ontario, Myself, the Artist I work with, and one of our oldest Friends, organized somewhat of a reunion. I had been gone for a year, out to Alberta, my Artist had Returned from overseas, recently; and our Friend had just been back from Washington, D.C. for a few months as well.
In December 2005, right before Christmas, I received a call from my Lawyer out in BC. He told me a settlement had been reached in my MVA case from 2001, and would be ready within a few weeks. This really helped, it was good news... since March 2004 until that time, I had accumulated quite a bit of debt, and this would help me both pay some off and allow me to put something away for the long term. So my Christmas was spent planning out what I was going to do with my money....
TO BE CONTINUED...... Q1 2006
PREVIOUSLY; I had arrived back in Edmonton, AB; got a 2 new jobs, at the Airport & a Hotel; Christmas came and went.
January 2005, I was working way too much, with little time off or rest, that kind of pace eventually catches up with you. I missed a couple days shortly after New Years at the Hotel, and they threatened my job very quickly for it. I had lost that job by the end of January, and taken on a Full Time shift at the Airport. Working from 5am - 2pm, I continued that for awhile.
2005 was a busy year for work, and other stuff...
Around March 2005, I got myself another second job and a trucking company, working at a cross-dock LTL shipping/receiving center. That was at night from about 6pm-11pm every night, very good pay, but it was a union job and the deductions were ridiculous.
I had these two roommates, that had a really hard time holding jobs, one of them worked with me at the trucking company. The other disappeared after awhile due to worsening drug problem. It was around the same time, my roommate and I got this job that his girlfriend introduced me to her cousin. She was a single mother, trying to complete school in order to get into some kind of work/study program at the community college.
My Roommate's girlfriend had 3 kids, my girlfriend had one, her sister had one, so very quickly it became a strange little family, with lots of kids running around. I also had to maintain my work life as well. I continued at the airport, but the shipping job didn't last long. My roommate managed to get us both fired in the same week.
By the end of March 2005, I had a new girlfriend, with a small child, and I had landed another second job at the Edmonton Sun Newspaper which was another night job, or early morning sometime. I lost track of time, I had changed my shifts at the airport and was now working from 3am-12noon.
It wasn't until April 2005, that I got the call from my lawyer in BC about my MVA court case, he said that I would have to be there now in May 2005, for a hearing to determine something.
They also told me that it would be partially funded, so I was to be given a small amount to get there and use for accommodation. I was given enough to fly out return, and stay in a hostel for about a week.
I spent about a week in Vancouver, BC in the first week in May 2005. That was a nice little trip, I hadn't been back since 2002, and was looking forward to it. I stayed in a really nice clean Hostel downtown on Granville street. I couldn't do much, except hang out, eat, but it was nice to get away. I wandered more than anything, just looking around the neighborhoods I had spent much of the time I lived there in. Then the day came to attend the hearing, answer some questions for the insurance company's lawyers.
When I got the job at the Airport, I was subject to a back ground check going back about 5 years or so, When I got back to Edmonton I got word that it was almost complete. This was Early June 2005. When It came back, I was no longer allowed to work in the Restricted Areas. So they moved me down to our Company's Maintenance facility while I could appeal the decision.
There was 2 stages of the appeal process, so it was about another month before that was over, at the end of it all, they gave me a choice. Due to some lateness, and the Rejection of my background check combined, I had the choice of either quitting or being fired. I chose to Quit, not the best of choices but what do you do?
I still had my job at the paper, it was just doing to printing production. It didn't mean much to me, but it kept me going for a while. As I tried to apply for E.I. I had worked just about everyday of that entire year. The insurable hours I had earned at the airport, added up to over 1100 or so, but all were disallowed because they ROE stated that I quit.
The next stage was to appeal, the first stage was no problem, but it was also rejected. The next stage of appeal was to go through Federal Court, and start filing affidavits at a cost. They handed be a pile of papers and told me that it was Federal Law, and bookmarked the pages I need to know. I basically needed a very expensive lawyer, to get my E.I.
That didn't happen. In July 2005, I was offered a job for a Marketing Firm, doing Demonstrations of Sony VAIO computers. The Company was based in Toronto, so I would have to come back for training. By the time me and my girlfriend weren't really getting along, to put it mildly. She had sent her daughter up to the father's house in Northern Alberta for most of the summer and he had refused to bring her back to Edmonton, so I offered to ride up with her and pick up the little girl. We had not spoken at that time for a few days because of a very heated argument.
We completed that trip in about 12 hours, we had a good talk about everything and I kind of had the impression that things were much better. The next day, after returning, I stopped by to ask her if she would like to come to Ontario with me, since I had to get there fast. She had just got her daughter back after not seeing her for over a month and left the house within hours to go out with some guy and hadn't returned since. I figured we were finished at that point, but extended the invitation anyway.
The girl had a very good singing voice, and I thought maybe if I brought her to Ontario with me we could get her recorded. I also needed some help getting there in a very short time. We left the next day, later in the afternoon. We shared the driving clear through to Thunder Bay, and were making very good time. After gassing up, on our way out of Thunder Bay there was Deer all over the highway, after a few near misses, one came darting out with it head down and eyes closed. I swerved really wide, and it seemed to put its shoulder into my front fender and took off my side mirror. It felt like it almost did it on purpose because when I got out to check there was no body anywhere to be seen.
We got to Toronto, Some time the next morning, after driving that much your mind gets pretty foggy. We arrived at my parents house in early August 2005. I made arrangements to meet up with the artist that I work with, in his home studio, we were able to get her a recorded song just in time to add it to a CD mixtape that he was finishing up.
After my Training and some visiting, My artist and I were trying to get some copies pressed for my trip home. Soon after, another argument blew up in my face and she demanded to go back to Alberta immediately. After a lot of yelling I gave in and put her and her daughter on a bus back to Edmonton. Only days earlier than I actually left.
We finally got the CDs pressed and packaged, the next couple days I spent delivering them to Campus/community radio stations around South Western Ontario, and the day I left I continued the trend, Sudbury & North Bay, and all the way around to Thunder Bay. Every major city I went through in I made a stop at the local University Campus Station or Community Radio station that I could find. Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary & Lethbridge, and many that I had to put in the mail. And Finally back to Edmonton, AB.
When I got Back to Edmonton, I had a few days until I started my actual job. This would have been August 2005. I went over the girl's house to drop off the child car seat, and then I went back to my place only to find it in Shambles...
At that point, I had had enough. I emptied my apartment of all my belongings, and drove over to my Aunt's place, we sat down and talked. I asked her if I could stay at her place while working this job, as I needed someplace stable for a few more months until I completed the contract. She was fine with the idea, and even had a room for me. After the first Weekend of my job, I landed myself a good job during the week with a Landscaping Company. So again, I would be working 7 days a week. The contract job ended up making me the Regional Manager for the city of Edmonton, so I only had to show up on the weekend, and put through some administrative stuff during the week. That left me time to work at the other job, and put in some really heavy hours.
Just before September 2005, My friend from Thunder Bay had called me, and asked me about the possibility of coming out to Edmonton. She was trying to get away from some people and a situation... I was OK, with the idea, and discussed it with my Aunt, she was too and invited her to come stay for awhile.
In Early September 2005, my friend showed up in Edmonton after a few days on the bus, and some delays en route. She was welcomed into the house, ans started looking for a job of her own. Now, I was at work a lot and thought all was well at home. It took about three more weeks, of fake smiles and politeness for everything to come to a head. One evening during a heated conversation that turned into an argument, then into something else. My friend, who by that time had evolved into my girlfriend ended up saying something that got us both kicked out of the house.
I'd Say mid-September 2005, on top of my hectic workload, I now had to find us a place to live. we were able to find many that we could afford, but each one insisted in a credit check which in turn made it impossible for us to rent a legal apartment inside the City of Edmonton. She then suggested that we go back to her home town, Fort Frances, ON.
My Contract was finished after the first weekend in October 2005, so I reluctantly agreed to go with her, not really having many options at that point. I first had to leave my landscaping job a couple months before the season was set to end. As I did that, we left the same week. We left Edmonton, AB headed for Fort Frances, ON.... Couple days later we pulled into her Mom's place.
Upon arrival we started looking for an apartment in Thunder Bay, ON only a few hours away. We found one pretty quick and made arrangements to go see it and moved in pretty much right away. Soon after moving in and getting settled, her friends started coming over and being very disappointed to see me there.
After a couple weeks of listening to her friends trying to convince her to get rid of me, I decided to leave myself, I had to leave. It became a constant battle for approval from her friends and acceptance from my girlfriend, I left one day after dropping her off at work. I left a letter, with good intentions, but it was interpreted in an entire different way, and didn't go over well, especially with the friends.
I was already 13 hours into my trip back to Toronto, when I received a hysterical phone call which I really couldn't understand. The friend took the phone and starting laying into me about what I just did, etc... Not a good call...
I arrived at my Parents house the Week of Halloween, October 2005, almost 1 year to the date that I left. Being gone that long was never the plan. I wasn't back in Toronto this time, but I was close and I figured it might be time to take a break from all the Travel and take care of my finances.
By Mid-November 2005, I had landed myself a job driving forklift at a Lumber Yard. It was decent pay, I only worked three days a week, Friday-Sunday for 12 hours each; For which I earned an even 40 hours. I now had a FT job, and four days off per week. This gave me a lot of time to make plans for my own business, and set up shop where I was living.
After Arriving back in Ontario, Myself, the Artist I work with, and one of our oldest Friends, organized somewhat of a reunion. I had been gone for a year, out to Alberta, my Artist had Returned from overseas, recently; and our Friend had just been back from Washington, D.C. for a few months as well.
In December 2005, right before Christmas, I received a call from my Lawyer out in BC. He told me a settlement had been reached in my MVA case from 2001, and would be ready within a few weeks. This really helped, it was good news... since March 2004 until that time, I had accumulated quite a bit of debt, and this would help me both pay some off and allow me to put something away for the long term. So my Christmas was spent planning out what I was going to do with my money....
TO BE CONTINUED...... Q1 2006
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