The End of That

I guess this has turned into a once-a-month type of blog seeing how it's pretty difficult nailing Jello to the wall. But when you think about it, it tends to be worth the wait since usually by the end of every month I have some pretty lengthy stories to share. (Which I do apologize for in advance that I can never seem to tell a story without writing an essay about it.) Regardless of my awkward scrawlings, I do enjoy writing these beasts because I do seem to encounter somewhat ridiculous things.

To start, I had a rather peculiar experience the other day when I was at home. One of the kids brought home a small, red balloon from a birthday party they were at a couple of weeks ago, and said balloon continuously would float to the top of the stairs and get stuck in a corner of the ceiling that none of us could reach. So it caught me off guard when I happened to be walking up the stairs one day and walked straight into it hovering above the bottom step. I didn't think much of it, assuming one of the boys was playing with it and left it floating around. I got upstairs and went into the bathroom but when I came out, the balloon had surprisingly seemed to follow me. A tiny bit startled, I guessed that it was the draft of me walking up the stairs that had pushed the balloon to float up to the top. I went to see where Jessica was, not realizing that she was actually in Brodie's room talking to him. When I saw she wasn't in her room, I came back out to find the balloon sitting in front of my bedroom door. Officially a little creeped out by this tiny, artificial stalker, I looked at it and thought to myself, "You better not have moved by the time I come back." I went downstairs to grab my phone I had left on the counter, and when I got back up to my room, I was horrified to find that the balloon was actually sitting perfectly on my bed. Scared for my life thinking that our house was haunted, I ran back into Jessica's room to see her calmly reading a book on her bed. I told her I thought that the balloon was possessed and she looked at me for a moment, finally bursting into laughter saying, "Bree, I saw it on the floor so I put it on your bed." And that was when I breathed a giant sigh of relief, realizing that this entire time, Jessica was the one playing with it and had moved it upstairs. Thank goodness for that, because I don't think I would have slept in my room that night.

The second strange occurrence that happened to me recently was when an extremely strung out, bizarre older guy came into Sony on a day that most of us were working, and he began to serenade us with Bob Marley songs. At first none of us really knew what to do, because he was awkward-looking flailing around our empty store shouting at the top of his lungs, a white old man trying to impersonate a Jamaican accent. Dumbfounded, my co-worker shouted, "Just wait a second man, do you mind if I film this?" To which this guy replied, "PLEASE DO, MAKE ME FAMOUS!!!" So as we all stood around snickering at the sight of this person, he decided to swoop in and try to plant a kiss on me. I did a classic Matrix move backwards (which didn't turn out to be far back enough) when my ACTUAL Jamaican co-worker intervened. It was quite the sight, and in fact many customers walking past our store in the mall stopped to peer in to see just what on Earth this guy was doing.

Ever since I started working in the mall when I first arrived to Kelowna, I have accumulated a great deal of acquaintances. It's actually quite amazing to see the mall as it's own, small, self-sufficient community. When you work in any mall as long as I have, you start to recognize the faces that are also there every single morning, doing the exact same trot down the empty hallway before the doors open for business. First you learn their faces, then you see them walking around and discover where they actually work, and eventually you learn everybody's name. When you're trapped in a shopping center basically every day of the week, you start getting a little desperate to change up the usual routine. As an example, one of the boys from the hat store called "Lids" frequently would visit us at Sony on his breaks to sit down and play some video games with us. I've met a lot of different people working in the mall, and it's funny how much attention you attract when everyone finds out that your store is shutting down in a few days and that you're losing your job.

When I would walk throughout the mall wearing my Sony shirt, it felt like every single person who worked in the mall or customers who would pass by our giant closing signs would stop and stare at me. I've never had so much sympathy from strangers before in my life, so it was weird for me when I'd go up to buy lunch from Subway and they'd give me a free drink. There was also a day when I went to Opa! and they gave me a discount on my food when they normally wouldn't. Dave from EB Games would stop in the store every once in a while to chat and say hello, the man at Rainbow 24 Hour Photo gave me my prints for free, and an expert sketch artist who had a spot in the middle of the mall at a kiosk would often come in to talk for a few minutes on his break. Across the hall from us and around the corner was "The Source" and seeing how one of my co-workers was formerly employed there, all the boys would come into our store to chat as well. Several security guards would always come in just to talk about Playstation with us, and one of the guys that worked at a cellphone case booth offered us all coffee on our last day of business. Towards the end of our demise, we realized we were going to need a lot of boxes to start packing up the remainder of our inventory. One night I ran across the hall to "Footlocker" and asked them if we could have some of their empty ones, but they pointed us in the direction of "Northern Reflections" as they are a clothing store that usually hordes their cardboard. When I walked in there and got some boxes from them, we had used every single one that they had given us, and the following week I had to return to ask for some more. To my surprise, the associate who I'd never seen thus far told me that they had saved us all of their boxes as they knew we would most likely need more and they wanted to help us out one last time before we were gone. They lent me their trolley and through the mall I marched with my giant box of... well... boxes.

In short (but not really) what I have learned from this experience is that even if you're a stranger and people see that you're going through a "rough" time, people tend to be good and give you these little triumphs to keep you going. So to all of my fellow mall employees out there, thanks for looking out for one another. Although I had only worked at Sony for three months, just barely, I still felt a sense of true belonging with the rest of the staff. My co-workers were the best part of my day, everyone made it so easy to wake up every morning and go... even on days that I was feeling discouraged about my lack-of-expertise, they were always there to help me out and pick me up. I feel sorry that yet another band that I have been a part of has broken up, and most of all that many of us have spread to various areas of BC by now to continue on with our future endeavors. But I will miss everyone very much and hopefully we'll all run into each other again throughout the summer. I can honestly say that I made some decent memories there in the short time I was around - and I will admit that the first month was probably the most challenging I've dealt with so far for a job, but once I got a little more familiar with things and grew closer to my co-workers, I really started to feel more comfortable. 

But do not worry, (as I'm sure you all are) because I am one of the lucky ones who has already found work and ready to rock and roll for through summer time. I got hired at Best Buy and will be working in the Home Entertainment department, so I'm not too far off of the Sony realm. I am pleased that I will be looked after now that we're officially closed but at the same time, sad to say another goodbye to another "family-like" workplace.

Apart from all of that great stuff about my job situation which I'm sure was very enthralling for you to read, things otherwise seem to be going swimmingly. The only major difference so far is that our townhome has been sold, as I'm sure I have mentioned in a previous post (hopefully) that our lovely landlady had skipped town with all of our rent money and our suite was being foreclosed. Now that it is sold (we had shown the house several times throughout the past few months) we have until June 30th before we find our next place of accommodations... and so far we have our minds set on a rent-to-own house. We haven't found our perfect match yet, but when we do, I think it's going to be exciting to move into a place with a little bit more elbow room. It's almost like a fresh start, like we can finally find somewhere that has what we want. A backyard, a BBQ, 2 car garage, etc. We're also keeping our eyes peeled for a place with an extra bedroom, so if anyone is interested in taking a road trip down here this summer..........

Shucks. I still really miss Winnipeg. Today I had my first Slurpee of the summer and it tasted like home. It's a shame I won't be making it out there in the earlier months, but I do intend to return around the September benchmark to attend my cousin Samantha's wedding. (Which by the way, I am very much looking forward to seeing the entire Hawkins family again.) It will be good timing, but again a little disappointed I'll be missing the classic summer fun of pool parties, BBQ's and friends/family birthdays. I spent fifteen minutes driving the car yesterday, and from that short period of time I got a strange, rectangular-shaped sun burn on my arm. Which can only mean one thing: it's going to be a long summer in the Okanagan. Don't get me wrong, I'm rather excited to be spending it here too. It's vacation town after all! The best part about living here is that there is a beach right smack in the middle of town... with amazing food, parks and cool things to do by the waterfront.

Another thing I had wanted to share, was that the other day I finally had the opportunity to do some true Kelowna sight-seeing on a hot day. My manager from Sony and the district manager of the province who was in town to help us close the store picked me up from my home a few days ago to go downtown to eat our last supper with the staff. As we were driving, my manager mentioned that he was going to take us both (the D.M. and I) to Knox Mountain, a famous look-out point here to see a great view of the city. We drove for about 20 minutes when I saw the mountain up ahead - a very tall and steep road spiraling up to the very top with fenced-hiking trails next to it leading the way. We drove to a plateau, and there was a plaque with all the facts and information about the 2003 wildfires that had spread across the mountains on the opposite side of the lake - a view that could pretty much only be seen from this look-out point. It was incredible to see just exactly how far the fire had spread and how big it was. A remarkable sight indeed, I took a few photos and up we went to the highest point of Knox Mountain. That was the windiest feeling I had ever experienced, I was actually rather concerned I was going to be blown right off the peak. But it was an amazing view of Kelowna, I could see the whole town as well as the West Side, with the bridge connecting the two. It was a gorgeous view of the lake and the valley, and I've never witnessed anything quite like it in a place I could call "my own backyard".

It was a great side trip before we wrapped up our last official day of work at Sony. We met with the rest of the staff at Misato's Kitchen, the Japanese restaurant downtown that my manager's wife owns. We indulged in a traditional Chinese meal of Hot Pot (Given the fact that my manager is actually Chinese) and we all said our goodbyes, hugging and handshaking after we had digested. It was probably the most food I had ever eaten in my life, other than the BBQ I had attended at his personal home on a few weeks back.

It was a perfect way to leave Sony behind, and get prepared for what is coming down the pipe. A lot of changes are underway this summer, I'll be turning 21 and finally will be legal in Vegas, I'll be starting a new job, and I'll be living in a new home. I'll be living a totally new life by the time I return to Winnipeg, and it seems like change is no longer a stranger to me as it once was. Funny how I used to be so afraid of change, and now I am rather used to it. I guess in the end it's all for the better, as it keeps me on my toes and experiencing something new each day. You can't regret much if you try new things all the time, right?

Life is one giant rollercoaster I have learned... and when I used to be so terrified of it all and would try to back out of all the loopdy loops, I have eventually learned to just ride along with it and go with the flow.

You can quote me.

Check back in a couple weeks for another KWA Report from yours truly.
This is Bree Hawkins signing off.