firing on all cylinders... finally

after 4-5 days of morale-destroying days, we are finally making progress on this job. actually, last night we sparked the fire and it continued through dayshift. tonight we are finishing up, might come in tomorrow for some cleanup, that's about it. may even get out of here in time to catch last call somewhere. that'd be nice. my flight out isn't until tuesday so i was thinking of checking out canada a bit. i've talked to people and everyone has a different opinion. i'll probably stay in alberta so i can drive to keep travel costs to a minimum. some suggest banff. apparently it is a crazy famous "canadian rocky mountain" tourist city. lots of skiing, gondolas, and whatnot, but the younger folk on site (that is, more my age folk) say it's ok, too touristy, and only one good bar. so, not sure about that. might stay here in red deer, and finaly explore. or i could go to calgary or edmonton, both an hour away from here. my flight is out of edmonton, but edmonton sounds like an old butler's name. calgary sounds sharp like cutlery, so i might want to go there. dumb reason, huh? i know. it looks like it is supposed to rain most of this weekend into next week, so i'm not sure how that might affect my decision. anyone ever been near the left side of canada (BC, alberta, or saskatchewan)? any suggestions?

oh and i might have a new pseudonym... when jules and i were in india, we made up names to give the locals when we didn't want them to know who we were (they were very persistent, this wasn't mean, it was necessary so as not to be hassled by phone calls, door knocks at all hours... really). hers was emma reinhardt, and i was roland (no last name). for some reason i was on a german kick. i came up with reinhardt, and there was a german onsite named roland, so i stole that. well, last weekend at the disco, i ended up in conversation with one of the safety girls, TheALX. i was a bit inebriated at the time, not sure how long we talked, but apparently it was a significant amount of time. two days later at work, i was talking to another safety girl, TheJess, and she asked if my name was zac or micah? i'm like, WTF?! apparently, TheALX had been calling me micah all night, and i was answering. i don't recall her calling me that, maybe i was just responding to general eye contact or context clues. today, TheALX was on deck making sure "you leave with the same amount of fingers and toes you came in with", and she asked me my name. i told her, she gave me a friendly push on the shoulder and asked why i didn't correct her when she was calling me micah all night. i told her i didn't HEAR her call me that, don't know where the mixup was, or maybe subconsciously i DID hear her, i like the name micah, and took it for my own.

so maybe now, i'll use micah as my intro name to people i might not want to associate with. but TheALX is cool, so she stands corrected.