So much smoke – a rant

It is not cloudy. It is not foggy. This is what the sky has looked like for several weeks now.

Yes, this smoke is a direct result of the California fires. It is blanketing Western Canada and a lot of the Western States. Although, I have heard that the smoke is starting to clear in some states, which I am envious of.

In case people aren’t abundantly aware of the effects of these fires, I am over a thousand miles from the closest California border, and the world is covered in smoke. Our meteorologists predict another week of this before we get any sort of rain to dissipate it. And I’m not even in Vancouver where last week the air quality index ranked the city as having the worst air quality in the world because of the California fires.

If you’re anywhere within the Western portion of our continent, you’re likely experience the same, or similar sights as my photo above. People don’t want to go outside because, well frankly, it’s not good for you to be outside for prolonged periods of time.

The part that pisses me off the most is that California is literally burning right now and one of the fucking fires was started by a couple who were hosting a gender reveal party and decided to use a pyrotechnic device to announce the gender of their baby.

That’s right, the El Dorado fire, that is still burning and has claimed the lives of firefighters, was started by a couple who needed to have a gender reveal party, during a pandemic, and use a pyrotechnic device to reveal their baby’s sex, during what I’ve read is one of the driest, if not the driest summers on record.

I really hope the selfish idiots enjoyed their gender reveal party, because the fire they started has burned 8,500 hectares, is still burning and has claimed the lives of firefighters trying to contain it. I also really hope the state of California charges them for being fucking idiots.

Who needs to host a fucking party during a pandemic? Isn’t California one of the worst states in the entire country for Corona Virus? ‘HEY GUYS, I’M PREGNANT, WHY DON’T YOU ALL COME OVER AND GIVE ME CORONA VIRUS SO I CAN TELL YOU IF I’M HAVING A BOY OR A GIRL! OH AND WHILE YOU’RE HERE LET’S START A WILDFIRE!’ Why couldn’t they just text their friends? In all likelihood their baby was conceived during this pandemic, so it’s not like they don’t know what’s happening in this world.

Their own idiocy burned down their house and likely all of their neighbours houses as well. And then continued on for 8,500 hectares or more, as it’s still burning. As a size comparison, that’s roughly 17,000 football fields worth of land.

Ugh.

California is burning and the man in the whitehouse thinks it’s due to exploding trees.

I’m just pissed off about this whole situation. Evacuations, loss of lives, loss of homes, smoke blanketing the entire west coast. Hundreds of thousands of animals lives lost, land burned to a crisp, ecosystems destroyed.

I just needed to rant.

RBG

The leading story on our local news tonight was that the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died from complications due to her metastatic pancreas cancer.

I’m not an American but I know what she stood for and what she accomplished in her lifetime. She was a truly incredible woman who played a huge role in pushing the United States forward and she was a role model to so many.

She stood for morality, equality and she stood against discrimination. She was a voice of reason in a world clouded with what seems like everything but reason.

I truly believe she is someone the history books will favour. I mean… she was such a badass. I hope that her legacy is treated with the utmost respect, around the world, and most importantly, in the United States.

May she rest in peace.

JSYK

You can buy some bomb stuff from the Dollar Store.

Seriously. Genuinely.

Drinking glasses, face cloths, make up removers, glass lock kitchen containers, fridge organizers, cleaners, rope baskets, wire baskets, plants… there are so many good things.

You can buy a Wet Brush at Wal Mart for $14.99. You can buy that exact same Wet Brush at the dollar store for $4.

You can buy acrylic fridge organizers for $10+ per container at TJ Maxx or could buy them for $2-5 at the Dollar Store. They’re the exact same containers.

Some people say it’s cheap, I say it’s smart. If they’re literally the exact same items from the same manufacturers, why would you pay more money for it? The makers of Clorox don’t care where I buy their bleach from. It all comes off the same assembly line.

What are your favourite items to get from the dollar store?

I bought a car

She’s a beaut, too.

I’ve owned her for about two weeks now and it’s been two incredible weeks. Progress, am I right? If only January-April me could have seen me now and known how this year was going to shape up.

She’s a pre-owned vehicle. There’s 55,000 kms on her, so she’s been around the block a time or two. I love her no less, though. She’s dependable, reliable and completely beautiful. When I say beautiful, I mean… she turns heads when I drive by.

Yes, I refer to my car as a her.

I need to give her a name. I’ll gladly accept recommendations if anyone has names that would suit a car. Brownie points go to any names that are recommended more than once!

Tuesday’s surprise

Five people from my work were fired today.

Five people. No explanation as to why, just notification that they no longer work for the company.

Five people got fired and I wasn’t one of them. I know it’s just my being overly sensitive but I really feel for each of those five people. Whatever the reason they were fired, I know what it’s like. It’s never good to be abruptly out of a job… let alone during a pandemic.

Usually you hear about last hired, first fired… but I was the last person hired. I’m still here, still standing and feeling like I dodged a bullet in some way.

The tie-dye extravaganza continues!

I mentioned (here) that I had ordered some face masks that I intended to tie-dye. Well, they finally made it and I finally got to tie-dye them. Well, some of them. I actually bought a lot!

I really wanted to tie-dye masks because I think they’re so cute, but, way too expensive for my liking. Stores near here are selling them for $25 a mask, and, shops on ETSY are selling them for $20 – $75 per tie-dyed mask.

This batch is looking rather lilac on camera (I have white lighting in my room where I took this picture). In person they’re more of a soft blue with dark blue speckles.

I personally love them. I’m going to give one to my mom and the rest I’m going to sell. It looks like we’re going to be wearing masks for a while, and I personally believe that everyone should be able to have a cute mask if they want one. And tie-dye masks should be way more affordable than they presently are.

If you’re interested in a tie-dye mask, let me know! And if you’re not interested, thank you for reading anyway. I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Stories about this past weekend are coming.

Traveling during a pandemic
Attending a funeral during a pandemic
A few more stories of the goodness my uncle spread in his lifetime
Running into my high school bully and her husband
Meeting Americans in a hotel elevator who are blatantly ignoring the border closure and coming to Canada for a holiday
Smoke from the California/Oregon fires blanketing our world on the West Coast
I bought a car!
What two weeks in quarantine is going to look like now

There’s so much to talk about! More coming soon.

If you’re reading and you made it this far, thank you. If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, thank you. And, in any case that you need a reminder today, you’re doing great. Keep going.

-Vee

Fun fact

I, along with two of my brothers, was an extra in X Men: The Last Stand.

The entire summer the movie was filmed will forever stand out in my mind as some of my fondest memories. It was one of the most fascinating, fun, difficult and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. Also, I was a teenager being paid more money in a week than most adults make at their day job, and I was hanging out with people that my teenage self truly idolized.

The whole summer came about because my brothers and I were sitting in a mall food court one day and heard a man near us pointing to a blind ad in the paper telling his friend that he was certain it was a casting call for X Men. ‘It would be fun’, we thought. ‘Why the heck not?’ At the very least, it’d make a cool story to tell our friends… going to a movie audition. Turns out to be a ton of cool stories to tell our friends.

I know it’s an older movie, but if anyone owns it or watches it, I’m a student in the mutant school. I’m not saying which one though. If you watch it, tell which one you think I am, or which three you think my brothers and I are. Your hint? We look enough alike that the casting crew thought we could pass as triplets.

Overheard on discord: The CEO dropping wisdom

Today’s a real zinger. A short, simple and relevant quote left by the CEO.

“If you don’t make time for your wellness you will be forced to make time for your illness.”

Let that sink in.

From time to time I have been sharing stories of things seen on my company discord.

If you missed the first posts, you should check them out!

Story time: The office frat-boy

Story time: Overheard on Discord

Second job hunting

I’m looking for a second job. I need something to keep me busy. The way I figure it, if I can make myself busier, I’ll have less time to think. If I have less time to think, I’ll have less time to be anxious. At least that’s the train of though I’m presently following.

Plus it would mean extra money. Extra money is always a good thing, right?

Christmas is coming.

I need some new glasses.

I need some new work shoes.

Extra money could come in handy for all of those things.

The problem with finding a second job is trying to find one that has minimal interaction. There’s all kinds of jobs available around here that involve a lot of interacting with the public. While I greatly admire everyone who’s been working those jobs for the past seven months through this pandemic, I just don’t think I can be one of them. I need to keep my interactions with people minimal right now, for my own peace of mind. If the point of working a second job is to keep myself from being anxious, I don’t want to put myself in a position to make myself more anxious.

Right now I’m thinking a delivery driver would be a good job for me. That or finding someone who is willing to pay me to work from my couch. I know, I know, I know… a girl can dream, though. Perhaps if I hope for it long enough, I can dream it into fruition.

I feel like I’m drowning.

It really scares me.

I should be happy. Why am I not happy?

On paper everything sounds perfect. In reality, I cannot shake this anxious pit in my stomach.

I hate being truthful about it because I don’t want to seem ungrateful. I know how lucky I am. Anxiety is not logical, though. There doesn’t need to be a reason or a rhyme. Sometimes you just have to deal with the quakes as they come.