a sort of wonderland ;)

I'm shocked by how unreliable people are. ^^ If you say, you have a job for August. Shouldn't you have a job for August? Riiiiiiight? Okay, so we are in agreement. But do *I* have a job for August? Maybe. It depends on registration. Great. Thaaaanks. I'm glad we got that cleared up.

I was supposed to have a coaching job for all 4 weeks in August. To my knowledge, this had been set in stone since the Spring. So, I did my first 35-hour week from June 23-27. It went really well. I heard REALLY positive things from the parents, who in turn told my employer (who was also my former coach) what a good job I was doing. There was no reason why I shouldn't have maintained the job, but...

There's always a "but"!!!

My employer phoned me two weeks ago and left a message on my answering machine, since I was still in Winnipeg. Apparently, my job *wasn't* a definite. If there weren't enough kids registered for the training camp, she might not need me to coach. I was totally blindsided by this. There are ALWAYS recreational girls enrolled in the camp. (Sooooo... I did my research. And surprise surprise, two of the former coaches who'd quit to go away for university were back in town and wanted jobs at the club. Fab-u-lous. For some unexplained reason, they get priority over me even though *I* was the one who'd been promised the job. Nice.) My employer finished the message by saying if I got any other offers for summer employments to take them. HA. I don't even know what to say. It's not even remotely fair. And to make matters worse, my employer has LEFT THE COUNTRY until August 2nd. She was gone by the time I came back from Winnipeg, so I couldn't even call her to ask what was going on!!! I'm so pissed off. Oh well... :( That's how things are.

So, now I'm the hunt for a new job. I've been looking like a fiend for "Help Wanted" signs and new advertisements on the Service Canada Job Bank. And things have been going okay so far. Thank God, because if they weren't... I might just have a breakdown. :P And I'm not so nice when I go psycho. LOL!!! ;))

Anywho, I had my first job interview today. It was for a part time position as a Barista at Second Cup, which is a coffee shop chain (similar but BETTER than Starbucks). I walked in with my crazy little résumé, which was, may I add, complete with a cover letter about why my past work skills would be AWESOME for their company. Bwahaha. And so, I asked to speak who the advertisement and told me to ask for... but no, that guy had since quit. hehe. Don't you hate it when that happens? XD

BUT they did have someone who could interview me. Let's call him "A*", which was his first initial. You know, in case my potential employers read SkyBlog. ;) A* was, it turns out, a part time Barista who wasn't really all that much older than me and not *exactly* the dream employee. He starts out the interview by asking my name and them promptly saying, "I'm sorry. I'm fucking hung over and I've been doing interviews for 3 hours already." *SQUEE!!!* I liked A* already. mdr. Apparently, I have already become bitter and jaded by the working world. Why, that was *fast*! LOL!! So, coming to work completely zoned-out after getting completely trashed the night before? My kind of guy!!! <3 Mwahaha. Joking, of course. Still, the interview went quite well... though we mostly talked about English degrees, Carleton and the fact that I didn't seem at all put off by his swearing, which apparently had shocked a 16-year-old that applied in the morning. Generally, he seemed to like me and attempted to give me hints on how to get the job. ^^ So... so far so good. :)

On with the epic job-finding adventure!!!

So as a brief introduction, here are 5 things you need to know about AGG :)

1. AGG stands for Aesthetic Group Gymnastics and is a discipline closely related to rhythmic gymnastics. Therefore, flexibility, speed, strength, coordination, and ability to move gracefully are necessary skills.

2. A group can have 6 to 10 gymnastics in it, who are expected to move in sync, so they seem like one individual. :)

3. An AGG program must have varied and original body movements, such as body waves and swings, balances and pivots, jumps and leaps, dance steps, and fabulous lifts.

4. Routines usually are 2.30 minutes in length and are set to music that may contain lyrics.

5. It's beautiiiiiiiful to watch!!!!!!! <3


Also, if you want to know more... These vids from Miss Valentine 2008 are a must watch!!! :D

Estonia - GC Janika: Currently these girls are the best AGG team there is in the world. :) Their routines are unreal. They move in such synchronicity that you can hardly believe they aren't all the same person!! ;) Not my *favourite* routine, but when they are lifting two girls at the same time... so crazy!!! I love that part. :D

Russia - Oscar: My favourites!!! I just adore this routine. <3 Okay, they aren't quite as good as Janika... :P But their routines are soooo stunning and beautiful! Their lift at 1:05 is so fab (see photo). :)

Russia - MPSU "Madonna": Very nice routine to "Winter" by Bond. :) They won the bronze at this competition, but clearly they aren't as strong as Janika or Oscar. Fab choreography, though. First lift is super weak, though... for an International team it's a very Provincial level lift. :S

Ukraine - HSPC "Alcor": This is one of the lower ranked teams, but I adore this routine to "Roxanne" from Moulin Rouge!! :)) It's wonderful. The expression and drama is faaaaab!!! ;)

I just love Feist. She's amazing. Completely. And finally, other silly Canadians have started to recognize this!! hehe. Thought it took... erm... a while? ;)) pffffft.

This song is called "I feel it all" and I've been playing it constantly on my iPod. Soooooo fab. (If you like it, I can send it to you, Marish!)

Thank you for reminding me how amazing this song is, Marish!! :))

Fix You Up
by Tegan and Sara

What do I, what do I, what do I need
To do to get myself in a better mood
What do you, what do you, what do you need
To do to get yourself in a better mood
Well there's not a lot for you to give if you're giving in
And there's not a lot for you to feel if you're not feeling it
You bring it up and bring it in and we'll get you fixed up in no time
What I wanted most, what I wanted most, what I wanted most
Was to get myself all figured out
And what I figured out, what I figured out, what I figured out
Was that I needed more time to figure you out
There's not a lot for you to give if you're giving in
And there's not a lot for you to feel if you're not feeling it
You bring it up and bring it in and we'll get you fixed up in no time
Cause this love is all I have to give
This love is all I have to give