It sucks.

Working now with two different journeymen and an apprentice--still under Drew--and there must be a personality conflict or something. I like the JWs alot but the apprentice is an arrogant prick. When I can work with one of the JWs then it's okay. I learn, I work. But if they are together, they both kinda forget about us (the apprentices) and the day just drags. We're running pipe but I don't feel like I'm learning a thing.

That's all I have to say, I guess. School is busy, alot to take in, our labs are coming up and I'm worried we will be way behind. As for my family, I don't know: I don't have time to see them anymore.

Oh the pain.

For the past three weeks I've been in unbearable pain. It's like a massive bladder infection but it's taken over my entire pelvic area. It's a constant pain, and I finally went to the doctor when Lortab quit working. They say it's viral and can't give me anything, but for the pain they gave me this awesome pill that completely numbs the urethra. Oh I love it. I love it so immensely. It felt like i was pissing crushed glass for the past week.

So around the time when my pain was at its zenith I got a call from my gyno: he said my pap was abnormal. Not freaky-like, not serious, but abnormal. So now I have an appointment to meet with him in a week and he'll do another one. I'm not happy, since cervical cancer (and other cancers) run in my family, but there's not alot I can do with worry so I'm trying to just go on with things. We'll see, I guess.

Classes this year.

First of all, remodel is done: I'm sad. Troy's crew is doing crazy 6" rigid in an attic and I'm doing odd jobs: slipsheeting, troubleshooting, things of that nature.
I guess I've kinda neglected to talk about class so far. Sorry about that.

Firstly, my instructor Kenny is really cool. I know his brother Rob from work, but they both insist that one is not like the other. (That is evident.) Anyway, I get to sit between Cliff and Ryan which is great, but Sanj isn't in my class at all, which is not at all cool. She and Cliff got me birthday gifts: Sanj got me Happy Bunny goodies and a card that melded crossword puzzles and whores; Cliff got me four Monster Java energy drinks. He knows I'm addicted. But yes, anyway:

Classes are alot more adult, as odd as that seems. No assigned seating. No random homework checks...in fact, no homework checks at all. We leave when we're finished, and we don't have to fill idle time. I'm told that there will be plenty of labs and study groups but it's good for now. As far as the extras go, I know we have foreman's classes (starting at the end of this month for two weeks), COMET II (mine's scheduled for 13 October) and F-Card to get into. So I'm sure it'll get more busy as time goes on. It's a little exciting and frightening to look at our class schedule and see graduation dates.

Another thing that will keep us busy are the full class labs. Each instructor has a specialty and for four weeks we rotate to the four different instructors for two days each week. This coming week is low voltage with Kenny; then fire alarm with Tom, then high voltage splicing with Trevor, then motor control with Buck. That's 10 hours a week in lab. No homework, no test, just labs. That starts sometime this semester. Wondering if we can even get all our lessons done by the end of the year; I know last year, the 5th years had to start going to school several days a week just to meet graduation. Not quite looking forward to any of that. But at least the overtime is done for now.

My new iPhone: awesomesauce.

About twelve hours before Jack came into the world, I went from the pour watch to Fashion Show Mall's Apple Store and bought the 4 GB iPhone. I'm so happy.

[...backtracking...]

Firstly, Drew and I arrived at about 04h30. We went to the site and walked around and no one else was there At all. Lights were on, yes, but no other workers. We could see that even all the rebar hadn't been secured. We waited and wondered, speculating on all manner of things. Finally at 06h00 workers began trickling in, but no concrete trucks. Men were still laying the rebar and tying in supports. It was kind of bizarre, we had been told the pour was a certainty, and yet nothing was ready. He and I watched the work going on around us, we even checked our pipe, retaped the end, resecured it. As I said before, Drew isn't very talkative so I'm certain he was bored. After break (09h00) we started to wonder if it was going to happen at all. They usually don't schedule major pours too late in the morning simply because it's too hot...I think that does something to how it sets. And finally, after nothing at all had happened all day, I was sent home at 10h30. That equals 6 hours of a shift at doubletime...I took it and left. Drew said he was right behind me.

So anyway, I went home, got Tannah, we had lunch and headed out to the Fashion Show Mall. It's basically across the street from the Venetian (more so from the Wynn) and as we drove past at about 14h00 I saw the concrete trucks and the crane hoisting buckets of mud to and fro. Immediately I texted Drew and let him know, since 14h00 was close to the end of a normal shift. I hoped our pipe was all right. (I found out later that he'd already gone home and he broke loads of traffic laws to get there.)

It was easy: I went in, said I wanted the phone, asked some questions about the durability and new plan charges, and was off. My bill went up $20 a month but that's okay...I now have unlimited texts and internet, and I know I'll use it. The multi-point interface is amazing, but the keyboard is a QWERTY, which is something I'm not at all used to. Texting is slow-going for now. And I have to manually input my contacts, but that's okay too. Each contact gets a photo and there's room for e-mail addresses and extra numbers, notes, all kinds of things. Same with the calender.

However for some crazy reason, I can't get multimedia messages via text. Nor can I text photos. WTF. Seriously that's a major negative point to me. That, and the automatic spell check. Eh. All in all its pretty incredible though.

Jack!

We got the call last night around 19h00 from Remo that Dee was at Sunrise in labour. We went down there and said hi...I felt so bad for her, she was in a lot of pain, she'd been given two epiderals already but both of them just numbed her legs. I'm so thankful mine worked first time. Remo was trying to lighten the mood by watching "The Simpsons" and every time Dee laughed it ended with a sigh of pain. We left after about an hour, and neither of us had the heart to tell them that the room she was giving birth in was the same one in which we had Gabriel.

Jack Van was born two minutes to midnight, 09 September. :)

This post is all over the place.

Well I only have $800 or so left to pay off on my medical bills so far. (I just had a surgical procedure last month...did I get into that? They were just visualising my heart with a scope, basically, to see if they could plug it.) I don't have that bill yet but still, it's way better than the thousands, y'know?

Gabriel's birthday was so much easier this year than last year. I lit a candle, then Tannah and I just basically stayed home with each other...remembering. It was melancholic but not devastating. It was kinda hard though, a guy from work told me last week that when he was like 10 he had a baby sister that died right after birth and he said how hard it was...and I was like "Yeah, I can relate." It'll be hard when my sister's baby Radek starts Kindergarten because it'll be like Gabriel would
have started near then, too. And my brother's baby is due in a week, and it's a boy too. My mom tried pressuring me to go to the baby shower and my brother said no, he and Dee (his girlfriend) understand and it was cool. But I'll have to see the baby in the hospital, that will be hard I think.

Last month Tannah and I decided (for various reasons) to get separate bank accounts. At first Tannah was pissed, thought it was the "beginning of the end"...but now Tannah likes the separate accounts now, since he can kinda do whatever the hell he wants with his money and I dont nag on him anymore. :)

"Beowulf" is coming out in theatres here in November! I can't wait, in English Lit I loved "Beowulf"!!
So I have to be in to work tomorrow at 04h00 for a pour watch, so I'm heading to sleep early. It would suck except 90% of the time its a cake job and since it's Saturday, it's doubletime!! Very cool. The weird thing is, the remodel job is about done, and that's sad. Drew and I are still working together, mostly on last minute fixes on the past few floors that were done. It'll be just me and him on the pour, too, and he's not the most talkative but secretly he's fun.