Well, my days of camp life are coming to an end. At the end of the work day on July 5, 2012, I'll be heading home for good. I've been offered and accepted a job scheduling the nursing staff at a nursing/retirement home and saying goodbye for my Albian family. I've spent quite a bit of time wondering how I was going to wrap this up, and I still am just going to "fly by the seat of my pants" here.
I guess for one thing, I never intended to be here this long. I thought maybe six months, and if I made it a year, it would be a miracle. Never thought I'd be able to handle the twenty days in a row, ten hours a day. But I really did like those eight days off every month! I do really like my job, and the people I work with. I've made a lot of good friends, met a lot of very nice people. It's an experience I could have never foreseen for myself, but I am really glad I was able to have the first hand "tour of duty" in the oilsands. It is a whole different lifestyle, and the variety of people who work here, reasons they are here, length of time they spend here has always been interesting to me. I know it's hard to really explain camp life, unless you've lived this type of life before, but I have tried to give some sort of picture of what it's like. The last while has been difficult to book flights, not "technically" difficult, just hard to realize what a pain in the butt it is to get someone to pick me up at whatever airport I was flying in to (because of the cost and time of flights, some had better options than others) and then getting me to the airport when I had to go back. Then making sure I had the car or someone to pick me up in Fort McMurray, so I didn't have to book a flight first thing in the morning (to catch the ESS shuttle back to camp). Seeing the price of flights get high, watching the airlines changing their flight schedules, it all became very burdensome for me. But there are things I am going to miss. It will be strange to leave these long days, (and long nights, once winter rolls around). It will be strange having the 24 hour round-the-clock activity of the camp. It will be strange not to hear the water cannons going off all day and night. It will be strange to not hear of bear, coyote, moose, or other wildlife sightings. Or seeing bear paw prints on the dining room window :) Of course, it will be strange to be able to go to the store whenever I want, and not have to worry about at least an hour drive each way. I won't miss that! And yes, it will be strange having to cook and clean for myself again. THAT I might miss! It has been fun being "Jomamma", kind of a den mother, or a camp mom to most of the staff here. Heck, I am the oldest of the salaried staff here! I enjoyed the vast majority of the people who work and live here too. There are always those grumpy souls that you can never make happy, but most of the people that work here are appreciative to being "cared for" by ESS staff. It was always interesting to hear how far people were travelling on their days off, who was back home, and being in the Guest Services area, the luggage room, I did have contact and time to chitchat with a lot of people. I enjoyed being on my feet most days, running the halls. Even though I DID complain when I had a lot of rooms to visit, or memos to deliver, like a couple hundred or so, especially when it was hot and humid. Well, Alberta humid. (Albertans do NOT know what humid is, believe me!). But it felt good to be active and not just sit at a desk all the time. So, it will be sad tomorrow to leave people behind for the last time. I've had a lot of nice comments from people, a lot of people telling me how much I'll be missed, and that feels good. I do feel like I've made a difference, however small it might be, to my department anyway.
So, come Monday morning, I'll be getting started at my new job, and settling into the regular Monday to Friday workweek. Driving to work everyday, instead of walking down the hall. Having two days a week to sleep in! Cooking and cleaning, and looking after my house and yard. Sounds kind of "normal", doesn't it?
Bye all....it's been fun!
