My Karma Ran Over Your Dogma

Sometimes life kicks us in the knee caps and laughs running away as we tumble forward to the ground. This happens to the best of us at least once in our life. The one thing that keeps me going as I lay face down in the mud is my belief in Karma. If it wasn't for Karma, then I think that the world would be a pretty bleak place. In Buddhist teaching it says that `for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful.' I've had a run-in with Karma more times than I have fingers, so I think it's safe to say that we have a fairly intimate relationship. I think my all-time favourite aspect of this amazing phenomena is when you get to personally witness Karma occur right before your eyes. Sure, sometimes it's happening to you, but it's still fascinating to watch. I'm not going to reference who or why I am bringing up this subject. I just want to remind everyone that if you can't get away with everything and not expect consequences. I'm just saying! Like gravity, Karma is so basic we don't even notice it.

So the little mouse in the house was repeatedly stealing the food from the traps and getting away. We decided that he should get three chances, and if he wasn't caught then we would have to resort to the other kind of traps. A quick snap and lights out. Well, it didn't take long for that little guy to get his bulb burnt out. We woke up to a sad little scenario in the cereal cupboard yesterday morning. Poor little dude. He had his chance at a whole new life, but he took the sneaky route and just had to steal the bait and run. Oh well. Now he's in mousey heaven where they leave peanut butter jars open and the cheese blocks are the size of Volkwagens.

I've actually had a rather hectic and mentally exhausting few days. Back in January I applied for a job at Cominco, oh wait! Teck. Sorry. I keep forgetting about the name change. They hire students every summer to do "student positions" which I am not even sure of what that entails yet...but last year they didn't hire students because of the recession, which is why I ended up staying in PEI for the summer. Anyway, this year business must be good because they are hiring again, so I applied and I got put on the short list, which means that I get an interview. And of course, they interviews HAVE to be in person, NO EXCEPTIONS, and the only days that they were conducting interviews are Feb 15-18th. This did not fall in my favour since I have an assignment due on the 15th, 2 midterms on the 16th, lab on the 17th and a presentation on the 18th. Anyway around this?? No, not really. I had a small mental breakdown listing off the pros and cons of traveling to BC for a couple days (like lack of money and time vs. the chance at making a good chunk of money over the summer). I talked to my dad and asked him if doing the trip was worth it, which he assured me it was because it would easily pay for my next year at school. But then he had a bit of a freak out saying that Teck is so unaccommodating to the kids in Eastern schools and that the whole system is crap...yeah yeah dad. I know, but what can ya do??
I talked to some instructors about moving some things around, and everyone was amazingly awesome (which is why I love this school), so I felt that I could figure this all out and book an interview for the 18th. I called BC Wednesday to book the interview only to find out that they decided to conduct interviews on the 22nd as well, so that Eastern schools could get to BC during their reading break (ours is the last week in Feb)! This made me very happy! Apparently someone complained that Teck's interview schedule was crap for some schools (....dad??), so they made some changes. So, I now have an interview on the 22nd for a summer job at Stinky ol' Cominco. Unfortunately this trip will be basically all business and no pleasure because I am heading back to PEI almost as soon as I can. I cannot take a whole week off from work. That's just never going to happen. The next step in all of this was telling my boss that I need time off to do a quick trip to BC for another job. Ha! Yesterday afternoon I stopped in the store to tell her about it all, but she wasn't there, as always, so I left a note. Leaving a note is so tacky, but what are my options? She needs to know ASAP and I need to not think about it anymore. I have a sneaking suspicion that a good ol' fashioned firing is in my near future...especially when I tell her that I'm going to probably take on another job and want my hours cut back at the store. Yep. A definite canning is on my way.