-
Again a demain
I was checking back on th titles I've been using for my entries, dear diary, and noticed that the word "sleep" kept coming up. I am really tired and I think a lot of it is just from the stress of staying centered and calm while everyone panics around me at the office. I am working away at my assignment - whittling a bit away each night, but that isn't tiring. On the contrary it is a great diversion right now. That might change as the deadline looms but I can't do anything more than cast my bread on the waters then wait for it to come back. E-mailed two more realtors today. No response from the ones I've contacted to date nor from the one school board.
Again, I can't fault them for that since the liklihood of an election is minimal, but I have to follow through on my assignment regardless. There was one election five years ago where the tech support supplier had been so complacent that they had told all their front line staff to take their vacations in anticipation of a spring election. Most of them were out of the country enjoying winter vacations in tropical places when the writ was dropped. Chaos reigned since Elections Canada hadn't planned for the logistical deployment of the other supplies either. Two weeks in to the election was when we received our supplies and it was another few days before we could honestly claim to be fully operational. Add in major software glitches and there was a good reason why it became known among ROs as the "election from hell". We all tried not to let the lack of organization affect meeting the needs of voters, but one can only do what one has the resources for or what one can cobble together out of other resources. I have it all documented dear diary. You weren't in my life at that time - "blog? What's a blog?", but I had other means to rcord the day to day issues we faced. Maybe there's a book in there somewhere - a real pot boiler with dirty backroom tactics and shadowy international power plays all converging on this on obscure little riding where the Returning Officer doesn't understand why but knows something really dangerous could emerge if she can't protect the integrity of the process. "Only in Canada you say? Pity." (ad for Red Rose Tea or the Plantagenet side of the royal equation.)
That year I ended up working with the RCMP on other elector fraud issues. Some of it was leaked to the press by the head office of one of the political parties - looking for a few more headlines I guess. I was doing my job enforcing the Elections Act but I still got in major doo doo with Elections Canada for it getting out. They were even angrier when I wouldn't let it go and took it to the commissioner for elections to investigate. It was finally turned over to the fraud unit locally after the RCMP officer had gone through the evidence with me. I really enjoyed working with her, but I would never want to see her angry with me. Uh uh.
Work today was still quit physical and that was good. I'm really tired from the extra work at night and the extra exercise but that beats feeling like one has a high voltage electrical current pulsing through one and right now I think that would be the alternative. Got through most of the material that I pulled from the one fileroom on Monday. At one point the liaison came by and joked about the appearance that I had barricaded myself in my workstation. I hadn't realized that but it probably was a pretty good reflection of my inner state yesterday. Keep everything out except the data. She said she was sorry I was going but that she was happy for me getting something a little more secure. It was odd too, the reaction that caused after she went on her way. I realized that I was scared about the change. Not the work because I know that what was described to me is well within my ability to complete and it offers a break from the intervention work that is often part of my assignments with my current company. Nope the fear was that I would be in one place for a year doing the same task that whole time. Aquarians need variety, change and challenge - none of which appear likely at this point in time. Need to feed my mind too. guess I'll have to find other outlets to meet those needs for that period of time. Come to think of it I might also find I need tha stbility if another election is called - sort of one island of predictability in a stormy period of time. Getting those prescient flashes so I think I'd better stop now though.
Went out for lunch with the one nice secretary today - the Spaghetti Factory again. We talked for a long time. She lives a block away from me, has been a single parent and dealt with a lot of challenges in her life too. Her current husband is very ill and she is obviously struggling to cope. She seemed to need to hear of my experiences - maybe as a way o not feeling so isolated herself. It does help psychologically. We talked of our childhoods and found we had a lot in common in terms of family dynamics and how we were parented. It explained in a lot of ways why we both reacted to some of our later experiences as adults in the same way. i really like her attitude toward life. It did have another cathartic effect on me though. Talking about some things that I hadn't really openly spokec about before with respect to my marriage meant I felt I had been kicked in the gut by the end of the lunch. Just really exhausted. Went back to work in a pasta induced haze of fatigue and sluggishness. Fell asleep on the train coming home.
So. Good night dear diary.
�
�
