Round Two

Just got back yesterday morning from another trip to Halifax. It was very productive - in more ways than one. The meetings were great. We've figured out our schedules for all four subcommittees, and I found a place to live!

I had three places to look at, and I went in pretty much convinced I'd be taking this furnished apartment in Dartmouth for $650 a month that I'd found online. It was the first place I saw and it was quite nice actually. A woman from the office drove me over. I think she was a little shocked at how small it was. No bigger than my living room at home. The room was small, but well-appointed. The nicest thing was a huge wall unit of cherry-wood veneer cupboards and shelves. They'd thought of everything. Dishes, linens, utensils, toaster and microwave on top of a full-sized fridge and stove. The man who ran the place during the day was a cute little old guy who was obviously very pround of "his" building.

The second place was an unfurnished room in Halifax in the home of a fire captain who is a good friend of a man who works for my company. It was pretty small, and wasn't even finished being renovated, so it seemed dark and not very appealing. It had nice big windows, but they looked out on the walkway along the front of the house, so I'd have had to keep them tightly covered at all times. I thought about it for a few minutes, but seeing as it wasn't furnished that pretty much made it a non-issue.

The third place was a very small suite in the lower level of the home of a single schoolteacher in Dartmouth. It's hard to describe. There's a single room, about the size of a large bedroom, with a largish bathroom off one corner of it. There's a couch and 12" tv, a small desk, a couple of bureaus and a clothes closet. The kitchenette is a counter about five feet long with a bar-sink a bar-fridge and a hot plate. There's a toaster and nuker too. Pretty skimpy kitchen...but then, I don't need much in that regard. I'll probably find it frustrating because the amenities are so scant, but for the price - only $420 a month - it should be worth the sacrifice for a while. So I think I'm going to take the schoolteacher's place.

This is going to save me $460 a month. Wow. I'm going to try and put most of it in the bank. I may even be able to save more than that, as I won't be (probably) temped to buy stuff because I won't have anywhere to put it!

So, the next step at work is to find a temporary graphic artist to cover for T, who is on long-term disability after suffering a stroke. She had hoped to come back to work after the holidays, but she says that's probably not going to happen. I'm guessing it might be another three months. Things are so messed up in my department right now. We lost one of my staff when she decided to move into the sales department. We lost another (temporarily) to that stroke. And we'll be losing me (also temporarily) at the end of December. I've hired one full time permanent designer to fill the full-time position. I've got someone to cover the year-long position. So now I just have to find someone competent who will help us out till T comes back. Blah...I hate looking for staff. But I do have a few names and will try and do some interviews next week. I'd like to have someone set up by two weeks from today.

I'm not moving to Halifax till the end of January, but since my salary is going to be covered by the special project as of January 2, I have to remove myself from my department so I can work on the project from Ottawa until I move. This is working out well, actually. There's a nice office opening up downstairs at the end of next week, and I'm going to move in there after Christmas. This will keep me out of the production department and avoid me being roped into doing production jobs, while keeping me in the office where I'm accessible to my replacement, who is going to being doing the trial by fire thing starting Jan. 2. I'm a little nervous for her. I think she has an idea what she's getting into, but I don't know if she really understands the full scope of it. She can handle being insanely busy...but I'm not sure how she'll handing being insanely busy with fourteen different jobs at once, constant interruptions so you can never work on one task for more than five minutes at a time, a phone ringing off the hook, a constant barrage of emails and a lineup at her office door ten times a day. Come to think of it, I'm not sure how I'M handling it!! Excuse me while I go insane.

I can't wait to get to Halifax now. The meetings this week really got me pumped up and I'm anxious to get started on "The Work." I have so many ideas, so many things I want to do. So much to learn!! I get along great with everyone. On Monday night I went for a beer with my committee chair and the two main guys from the other committee. I'll be sharing my office with one of them for the year I'm in Halifax. Nice guy. Looks and sounds exactly like Ray Romano. Over beer we all chatted about the job ahead. Some people are sceptical that the changes being talked about in the big committee meetings are really going to happen. I hope they won't drag us down. That part of what we're doing is SO important...we need to make big changes, but those people are notoriously difficult to drag out of their cosy holes.

Oh!! And my office!! Wow...half again as big as the room I'm in now, with floor-to-ceiling windows along TWO walls. One side faces north into the harbour, the other faces west over the downtown streets. It's RIGHT downtown, RIGHT on the waterfront boardwalk. Ships, sailboats (huge ones...three masted tall ships), tugs, government ships, cruiseships and container ships all moore and travel up and down right in front of our building. I'm told the boardwalk just crawls with people all summer long, street performers playing music, buskers etc. It's going to be so great.

After the meetings this week, I think I may be back in Ottawa sooner than I thought, too. The plan is to launch everything in September, so I suspect I'll be back in Ottawa by October. This is a good thing. I'll be glad to get back home, especially if I can do it before it gets cold and snowy.

Exciting days ahead!!