Eric Bailey's

Today is my mother's 75th birthday. We planned to have a surprise birthday for her by having all of us kids show up by the 2nd. As it turns out it will not be a surprise. I was hoping that at the least she would be surprised to see my older brother Neil. He arrived before me. We will arrive today after my wife attends a meeting in Vancouver.

I am contemplating different ideas for my own work for this fall. I might have a job available through the school board again. Pastor Allan is checking into what kind of coverage might be available through the church for me to start a counseling ministry. Then there is other available jobs as they come up. I need to decide soon though because I could get an interview with the school board when I return. I haven't heard from them yet so maybe I don't short list for their jobs yet. I still could receive a job offer to do the same job as last year but that would not be until closer to the fall. It is not a fun job but it is also not a terrible job. I am not sure how I would work some flexibility into that job come January because one of my classes in Jan would start at 4 instead of at 6.

I am registering for 2 classes for this fall (health and aging & child and adolescence). I have taken clases focused on these topics when I was taking my undergrad so I should have extra resources and should be good for these two. I do know that they require a lot of reading. In the winter term I plan to take Self in the Family Lab and Family Therapy Research Methods. The final term I know I will take Couple Therapy. With these courses I will be finished my Theory Certificate and only one or two courses short of the next certificate (one of which is the first practicum course). That leaves some practicum and three other credits to finish the Masters. Some days it feels so far away that I don't know if I can handle the wait.

The NHL should hang their heads in disgust after Vancouver was eliminated tonight because this was one of the worst cases of refereeing I have seen. With the "new rules" that they have preacher for the past while being thrown out the window except for a couple of times (one interference call against Vancouver and one against Chicago). It was a mockery of hockey to see the cheap shots, the high sticks and yes a tonne of interference prevent Vancouver from chasing the puck in the attacking zone. It was horrible and I do not think that these refs should be paid by anyone except maybe Chicago. What a way to decide a series and deliver the knock-out punch to Canada's last team. At the end of the game with the Canucks pressing a Vancouver player gets in behind a defenceman and gets slashed at just as happened to Vancouver earlier in the game but suddenly no call! This game was decided before the puck was ever dropped. The worst of it all is that the Chicago team thinks they accomplished something, they think they deserve something for cheating and getting away with it. If the game was like the previous one I would have just glumly slipped into my little depression saying I had bad luck with players falling at the wrong time, but no this was a poorly ref-ed game. It's too bad that the NHL seems to want to go back to the clutch and grab hockey of the past ("put the whistle away and let them play" - is code for not calling penalties when players break the rules). I'm not sure yet if I will be able to watch much hockey after seeing this game and being broken again. Especially without something competitive to play and use up this anger that builds when I watch clutch and grab, hack and slash hockey.

Yesterday was my birthday. To make it special I got to drive to Winnipeg and sit in an intense class for 3 hours and then drive back. After getting back home I sat around unable to sleep for a couple more hours. Since I am on call for work, I got called in this morning to work. I was hoping to sleep, leave early buy my books for my Tuesday night class and perhaps do some house work before I leave as well. Not going to happen. Instead I hurriedly washed some dishes this morning, took care of the dishwasher and prepared lunches. Now I am typing this because if I don't do it in the morning I won't get to it. I'm still tired. I wonder what tonight's drive will be like?

Yesterday's class was "Abuse Theory" and today's class is "Spirituality and Family Therapy". Both interesting both seem to have a lot of work to do. I'm going to have to be on my game for this semester.

I had a job interview yesterday. It sounds like the kind of job that could be a career. We will see if I get it and how it works out for me. It could work with my MFT degree that I am working towards but that may depend on how the government sees my qualifications. First I have to get the job.

Only one more week until my birthday. I will almost be old this year. I have not had either good or bad feelings about this upcoming birthday. It doesn't seem like much of anything to me. I did get a birthday present already with my trip to Vancouver and the Canucks games we attended. I guess that means I'm not getting an iphone.

My hockey team is doing great so far. If they do not let up they could be done this series in 4 games. That would be wonderful.

I've had a couple of facebook chats with an old friend that I have not seen in a long time. It is kind of cool with technology lets you connect a little.

I am working today but there is no guarantee that I have work the rest of this week.

On Wednesday I have my first class for this third term. This is Spirituality and Family Therapy. I should do well at this course. It may challenge me in how to handle people of other religions while counseling but I suspect it is a course I could also teach.

I have work again this morning. Not my regular job but instead I am back to subbing for other EAs right now. I'm not sure what is happening with my regular job but I found another job to apply for so I guess I'd better buy some ink for the printer. I printed my resume and cover letter and see that I forgot I needed ink.

I watched my Canucks win last night. Overall they were the better team. There were moments that looked scary and they never pulled away from the Blues but they did seem to own most of the game.

The kids have left for the bus and I'd better brush my teeth and take my medicine before I go to work. My skin is bothering me a lot. I wish I was getting my allergy shots but I have not found a way to make that work in town here. The person who was giving us our shots was the public health nurse and then she left. We have gone a couple years without now and our allergies are starting to catch up with us again. I need to do something, but I am not sure what.

Well we are back in Kenora. We had a wild drive back. I don't remember the whole thing but that is probably because when I wasn't driving I was sleeping. I did drive from the mountains to Regina. Then I waited and let my wife drive the next morning. We arrived in Regina at 3 am and I did not sleep until another hour or so later. I got up just a little after 9 but even I would not have been ready by 10 for going to church. Erica got up sometime after 10 and then we left by about 10:30. This gave us a good jump on that part of the trip and we arrived before dark at our house.

We had a nice visit last night and then this morning again with my in-laws. They did a number of different things around the house, including a lot of the spring cleaning things that I don't think of.

I don't start work tomorrow like I would have expected. Tomorrow I will call my boss and get the story of what is happening.

I will start classes again at the end of the month. I wish I could start doing some work now for those classes but I do not even have the text books for reading. I am going to do 3 different classes only two of them will occur in any given week (except for one week in May where all three happen. This spring might be difficult for classes and studying but from what I understand next year could be worse if I take the two classes I have already applied for. I guess that is something to worry about next year though.

Well it is early in the morning here and I am trying to get us going to hit the road back to Kenora. We had fun seeing different sights, attending events and spending time together. It is also Easter and time to get back to family.

We had a fun time at the Leela Gilday concert last night. The openner was not as polished but a very talented Cellist. When Leela got on stage it was easy to see that she was good at being on stage. She brought a certain energy and mood. I have a better appreciation for her music after hearing her live. My wife got to meet a couple of people from Yellowknife that she would not have seen in a long while. I think she had fun.

Hopefully the car ride back can be the same kind of adventure that the car ride out was. I am not looking forward to getting back to my world yet but maybe soon it will be a little less cloudy and a little less snow.