it's over!!! and just starting.

SOOO I decided I had enough. On Friday (Aug 8th) I quit. For good. No more apprenticing. I'm done with construction. At least as a job. I'll still do stuff on the side if anyone asks me to change a light fixture or whatever. But as of now I am finished. Let's go back a bit...

In my last entry I talked about how I thought I was losing my job at the place I got my new job at. Sure enough I did. So I started looking elsewhere. A guy who lives down the street is friends with an electrician (go figure we only find out now and not 3 years ago). He said he'd hire me on as summer help and see how things go and whatnot. So I start working for the guy and it's all commercial jobs. No more houses. No more Romex. No more grey connectors. Not really any more wood. Everything is steel or some other form of metal. All BX cable. Everything is very sharp. Almost every day I would bleed. Before when I was working on houses it was usually me cutting myself with a knife by accident. But not anymore. I hardly ever use a knife. Everything else cuts me.

This job took me all over the place. Opa! Souvlaki - Erin Mills Town Centre (Mississauga), American Apparel - Sherway Gardens (Etobicoke), Charm Diamond Centres - Georgian Mall (Barrie), Laura Petites, Laura, Laura Plus - Fairview Mall (Willowdale), Freshly Squeezed - Fairview Place (Kitchener), Freshly Squeezed - Scarborough Town Centre (Scarborough), Charm Diamond Centre - Cambridge Centre (Cambridge), Thai Express/Villa Madina - Admiral Inn (Niagara Falls), Teriyaki Experience - Walker's Line (Burlington), Toys 'R' Us Canada Headquarters (Concord), Toys 'R' Us (Vaughan), Toys 'R' Us (Kitchener), Merriam Pianos (Vaughan), and everywhere in between. They apparently have done work in Windsor, Ottawa, Belleville, and The Penn Centre.

As cool as working on all those places was, and getting to see the inner workings and secret corridors of malls and stores, I hated it. I was working 12 hour days with around 4 hours of driving time on top of that for the last while. The only free time I had was weekends and that was because I refused to work them. I worked one Saturday and it was terrible. If I wanted to do anything during the week I needed to sacrifice sleep and then be tired all day. I was always tired at work. There were some days when even if I fell asleep as soon as I walked in the door when I got home, and woke up when I was supposed to be in Hamilton, I wouldn't get 8 hours of sleep. That's not a life. Not one I want to live at least. I don't mean to offend anyone working in the trades or whatever, but I felt that I was living a meaningless existence. I just felt that for my own life. I applaud anyone who can actually do the work for a living and do a good job. I just couldn't see myself doing that for the rest of my life. As jon says, "we were meant to live for so much more".

There's so much BS that those guys have to put up with. I would always hear my boss and the other tradesmen talking about how many times they've gotten screwed and stuff. And everyone is talking about a big slump coming up in the industry and that doesn't interest me. I need job stability. And they all complain so much, and swear, a lot, and say the most filthy things about women they see walking around in the malls. The stereotypes about construction guys being dirty and constantly checking out chicks is actually true. That's what break is for. I'm not lying. I'm serious. I also hated working for my boss. He means well. Unless you piss him off then he is likely to kill you. Also not lying about that. I'm not gonna get into all that business but suffice to say, working for him was crap. I could go on and on, but I won't.

So that all begs the question, 'What now?'. School. Three years after leaving highschool (four after graduating) I am going to college. Tomorrow I should be hearing back from Mohawk with an offer of admission for the Electronics Engineering Technology (Co-op) program. That's what they told me anyway. So ya. Oh look its raining again. Anyway, I quit for ever. I'm going to college. The band is coming along. Working on a few songs. Time to enjoy what's left of summer.