It's My Life

Randall (city editor at the Citizen): Al, no drinking all the booze on the golf course tomorrow.

Mick (photo desk): He'll drink and then try getting references after.

The Citizen golf tournament is tomorrow at Pine Valley Golf Centre. It should be a dandy. And it's not at Maggie May, it's at the local par three course. No more hitting the ball off concrete.

ONE WEEK UNTIL CANADA DAY!

I'm excited, and for good reason. In one week, I get four days off work and get to drink and play slow pitch. Yah, it should be okay. I'll be calling up what's left of the journalism bunch, and getting hammered (I don't care if you or anybody else has to work Danielle - I AM GOING HARD!). Then the following day I'll be drinking, the day after that I'll be drinking, and the day after that I'll be drinking. And I just have to watch Trooper, but I still don't know what day they perform, I have to find that out.

What else is sweet is because I'm doing sports for PG This Week next week I work Sunday, so I actually get four days of work in next week, so I'm only missing a day of work to go on a trip for four days. I only get one day off this weekend, but who cares? It's more money and I'm covering sports for a week.

Today I watched like the sweetest soccer game during my lunch break - Portugal vs England. England was leading 1-0 for the longest time until Portugal scored in the last ten minutes. I had to rip to work from home to catch the extra time on the T.V. there In the extra time there were another two goals, one by Portugal (A beautiful strike just under the crossbar), and a beauty from England scored off a corner kick. It was tied after extra time still, so you know what that means - PENALTY KICKS!

And would you believe who missed the first kick? None other than English star David Beckham. In the Citizen, we were all calling him Baggio after he missed that kick, it's too bad the Italian guy in the Citizen wasn't there for that comment, but the Italians have had to suffer enough, they didn't even make it to the quarter finals.

Anyways, Portugal won on a goal by their goalie, so you might as well add David Beckham to the list of goats which include the likes of Roberto Baggio, Tommy Salo, Marc-Andre Fleury, John Carney and the 2003 Vancouver Canucks.

HOW QUICKLY THINGS CHANGE

Well, I thought I had a week left at the Citizen. As it turns out, I've got only two days left of working there. PG This Week is getting a new sports reporter, and today the managing editor of the Prince George Citizen, Dave Paulson, told me the new sports reporter can't start next week, and the current one is leaving after this week. So Dave told Christine, the editor of PG This Week, that I would cover sports for a week, which should be okay. Either way I'm leaving town in a week.

I'm disappointed about leaving the Citizen because:
A. I prefer daily deadlines over weekly deadlines.
B. I'm taking a slight pay-cut to work there.
C. There is no TV in PG This Week to watch Euro Cup during the day.

Oh well, can't win 'em all I guess. I'm covering sports so I'm happy about that, and I'll still be getting paid two more times from the Citizen after I start at PG This Week. And I'll be drinking solid for three days straight beginning Canada Day in Kamloops.

Note: I won't be taking my car down to Vernon just so everybody knows. I'm traveling with my family and getting dropped off in Kamloops to save money and get drunk. Then, if I have to, I'll take a Greyhound on July 2 (Meghan's and my sister's birthday) from Kamloops to Vernon.

Ryan Craig: I might as well be hitting the ball off concrete instead of these fairways.

This evening I went golfing at the Links of Maggie May, a golf course just outside Prince George. Now, this isn't your typical golf course. Just what made this course unique you ask?

1. It's the only course in town where it's easy to lose your golf ball on the fairways.
2. The fairways are hard, have rolling hills, marshes, and many dirt patches.
3. You're basically golfing on the praries - there are only a few trees and each fairway is separated by some slightly longer grass.
4. The greens are really slow.
5. You're yelling "four" more than you're saying "par", "birdie" or "bogie".

Ryan Craig (at the end of the round): Let's make like safe sex and pull out.

Craig of course had a decent round. Mine was so brutal I won't even go there. So what else is new?

I'm down to my final week of work at the Prince George Citizen. While I'm excited about the opportunity to produce feature stories and take photos with PG This Week, I'll be taking a slight pay cut when I go there. Ah well.

I'm more excited about the Funtastic Slow Pitch Tournament, and spending Canada Day in Kamloops. I hope the weather is like it has been lately. Also, Trooper will definetely rock, as will the beer gardens, the fireworks on Canada Day, going camping, seeing all my friends from Journalism in Kamloops, Jessica and Josh in Vernon, and all my relatives joining my team in this exciting tournament. Yup, time to get ready for a serious party. And with this being my only real holiday this summer, I'll be there "for a good time, not a long time."

I also picked my courses for next year, my final year of Journalism, which includes two upper level electives and six journalism courses. I also registered (at the last minute of course) for Journalism 399 - Internship Studies.

Believe it or not, my summer break from school is about half over. It's now been almost 2 1/2 months since school ended. Wow! Anyways, there is still over two months to go so I'm not concerned.

Boy, this heat is something else. It reached like 33 degrees here yesterday, which is extremely HOT for Prince George. Thank goodness for the air conditioning in the Citizen or I would roast to death, well not literally.

A story I worked on yesterday made front page of the Citizen today. Check it out here.

Devan (random girl I met standing in line at the Generator): Will you take off your underwear for me?

Wow, what a night in downtown PG last night! While I was standing in line a group of hot girls came up, and this Devan girl instantly introduced herself and stood next to me in line. It was her stag, and her and her friends in PG and from Mackenzie were going to the Generator and Cadillac Ranch bars. She wanted me to take off my boxer shorts (she thought I was wearing underwear but they were white boxers), but I said no because all she offered in return was a kiss. I'm not going commando just for a kiss. She may be good looking but it's just a kiss. How foolish does she think I am? Unfortuntately as I was trying to get a better deal out of it a pair of boxers miraculously appeared, so she had her boxers to play with for the night, which I must say started off as a complete sausage fest! I mean, I'm talking like 15 guys all at Mike Campbell's house watching the Calgary Flames lose at home to Tampa Bay 3-2 in double overtime. At least I got to watch the game on a 50" TV screen. Finally a few girls showed up, and then we left downtown at around 11. Somehow these girls from the stag ran into us in line, and thank goodness for that.

Although the night ended quietly with me going home after the bar, at least I got to dance and hang out with some good looking girls all night. And not once did they tell me to "go away" or "get lost" so that's a bonus. And it's a good thing the girl I was two-stepping with at the Cadillac was as bad as I was. I think the alcohol was affecting my balance and timing.

Wow, Meghan posted! Can you believe it? Rather than giving her a hard time for having not posted in so long, I think we all need to recognize what a good post she made this week. Talk about making up for lost time. She did a good summary of the last two months, and I like the "lessons learned" feature she added one. I think that needs to be in every post she makes, and none of us can duplicate it.

I also love the quotes she puts in. Sure she doesn't use them often, but the ones she uses are priceless. If you want a good quote, just talk to Dale for a while.

A POST FOR THE SAKE OF POSTING

The reason I haven't been posting is probably similar to the reason other people haven't - like Meghan in almost two months - I haven't had anything significant or exciting to post about. Since the wedding, things have been more quiet around here.

Work is pretty much the same, and I'm still covering the community beat mainly, which is okay I guess. I don't mind doing human interest stories, profiles and promotions for upcoming events. It's less stressful. However, Karen Kwan, the crime/court reporter, left the Citizen to begin working for CBC this week so the workload is a bit heavier for the rest of us because we probably won't have a replacement for as long as two weeks yet.

Other than work, I've been doing a bit of drinking of course. I drank all four nights the weekend the wedding took place (Fri-Mon), and this past weekend I went to the Generator both Friday and Saturday. I'm really not a bar star or anything, but it was the UNBC grad ceremonies and I had friends graduating and celebrating so I couldn't just skip out of a good party. I've seen so many people from high school and elementary since I've been back in town it's like I never left. We're even talking about bringing the old Foothills vs Lakewood and Spruceland road hockey back.

Back when I was in grade eight, and going to Lakewood Jr. Secondary School, we organized a best of seven series with two teams, one made up of students living in the Foothills sub-divisions and former Foothills Elementary School Students, like myself, and another of the Lakewood and Spruceland sub-divisions. It was a great series, and if I recall correctly, my team won in the seventh game. This wasn't a bunch of regular games for fun either, this was full out hockey with hits into the grass and even a few scraps. I hope we can get it started again because it was so much fun.

Anyways, I hear other people like Jenny talking about missing J-students and living in Kamloops, but I don't feel the same way. I guess it's because I've ran into so many people up here I haven't seen since I left to move to Kamloops for my first term at UCC. And these people have been awesome to hang out with since I've been back. I'm sure it'll grow on me eventually, and with time, I'll miss the J-school posse. But until the Fall, I'm just going to enjoy what Prince George has to offer, which is a lot more than what many people think, especially people south of here.