mikao's world

Lost and Found

So yesterday morning the car rental people picked me up at 9am and took me to the car rental place. That is a nice service. I had never rented a car before so I didn't know they did that. Way to go smart car rental people.

Anyway, when we got to the car rental place, there were no cars in the lot, just vans. I thought that was funny, as in funny odd, because I had reserved a Sunfire. You know, a cool-ish car. A smaller vehicle. One of the easier-to-park and less-gaz-guzzling variety. But hey, they had garages on the back, so I though maybe my cool car was in there.

So, I went inside and gave them all the details and stuff, and then at the end of all that, the lady said "Unfortunately no Sunfires or other cars have been returned today, so we are giving you a free complimentary upgrade to a minivan for no extra charge, I hope that that is okay." Okay? What choice did I have? They didn't have anything else and I needed a vehicle.

So, I ventured out in my dusty green Pontiac Montana off to the land they call the Muskokas. The Muskokas are were lots of people from Toronto who are rich have their cottages. There are lots of lakes with lots of trees and big rocks and it's generally very pretty. I had been there a couple of times before, but I had never been there from Peterborough (where I am right now) and had definitely never driven there before. I got directions off of the internet and also took a map for good measure. PTL I had the map because I missed a shortcut. But I got lost in Orillia for over an hour because I needed to get to Hwy. 11, but every time I took a road that had signs that said "to Hwy. 11", I ended up on detours around construction that took me nowhere. So eventually I found some nice gas station ladies who were able to give me real directions on how to find it. There are lots of cool churches in Orillia and I wish I had had time to take some pictures. Taking pictures of churches is one of my new favourite things. Usually just old churches though, there are too many ugly new ones. Church designers should take some lessons in aesthetics.

Anyway, back to the story at hand. Eventually I got to the camp road and it started POURING rain. It had been slightly misty all the way there, but then it really started to come down. The road to the camp turned out to be a long twisty windy one with lots of cottages dotting the way, which I guess, is to be expected, seeing how it is in the Muskokas. My interview was at 2pm, and even with my very large detour in Orillia, I ended up pulling up to the building where my interview was to be held at exactly 2 o'clock. Yay for God's timing, it's definitely better than mine!

My interview went well, from what I could tell. I was a little nervous, of course, but I think I answered the questions okay. The job is in administration working with all the scheduling, which is very similar to what I have done the past three summers, only on a much larger scale. I had two interviews with two people each, they were all pretty nice. The first question I was asked was "What are your three favourite board games?" Then the rest were all normal questions! The office building was pretty neat, wooden floors and nice green walls. :) I wanted to look around a bit more, but I also knew I didn't want to have to drive at night, so I just left right away to start the drive back. On the camp road I came upon a deer feeding it's fawn on the road, unfortunately I wasn't quick thinking enough to take a photo, but it was pretty neat to see.

I discovered, on this trip, a few things:

a) Driving does not really promote good posture when the seats aren't really made to fit a 5'5" person's back.

b) It's easy to miss street signs if you're not paying attention.

c) It's hard to switch CDs when you don't really have any previous experience switching them whilst driving.

d) Ontario is dumb. They need to have more roads where the speed limit is 100km/hr like in the rest of the country.

e) People in Ontario speed way more than I'm used to. Practically no one follows the speed limit.

f) Singing along in the car with no one else in it is kind of fun. :)

So, I made it back to Peterborough with no scratches, just very tired. This morning I had to get up and return the van by 9:00am, so I did. Altogether this job interview cost me $116.16 with the vehicle rental, gas, and food. Cheaper than flying to Alberta I suppose.

I'm supposed to find out soon how it went when I find out if I got the job or not. I'll let you know when I do.