Yearly Archives: 2010

Today I learned how quickly a bond can form with someone you’ve just met and how effortlessly they become a valued constant in your life; time plays no part. Relationships with people mean more and more to me as I grow older; they are important. Acquaintances are plenty but people you can really, truly, naturally connect with, are rare. I am blessed to have good friends, who make an effort to keep the bond alive and strong with unexpected phone calls, funny text messages, ranting coffee dates, gossiping dinner dates, catch up lunch dates, meaningless wall posts, goofy photoshoots, angry voice messages, apologizing emails, and other such sweet things. And I continue to be blessed to meet new friends like you, who’s gotten me enthralled by the thought of meeting new people in the years to come, not just anyone, but the special ones whom I can share an instant bond with, just like this one. It’s a great piece of awesome to look forward to. Ah, life.

Another photo of my bear below. It fits the mood, I think.

There was snow on the ground and it’s starting to feel more like the holidays! With my new winter parka, I am begging for the temperature to drop because I want to test how cold-proof it is. I actually get excited to go outside. One way to battle the winter blues (if you have them), is to buy a new winter jacket. It helps!

I think I’m going to go hang out at the mall – that place gets you all Christmas-y more than anywhere else.

Thank God it’s Friday!

I’m going out for Congee dinner. I’m going through a Congee phase. Not that you’d care to know but I have very obsessive tendencies with food that I fall in love with. By obsessive I mean having it for lunch or dinner at least twice a week for as long as seven or eight months. Some of these foods include:

Wendy’s five-piece nugget meal with fries, caesar salad, and sour cream and chives baked potato
Boston Pizza’s cactus cut potatoes
Popeye’s chicken (one drumstick and one wing) with fries and mashed potato, sometimes cajun rice
Kagawa’s spicy salmon roll and tempura appetizer
Port Credit Souvlaki’s chicken souvlaki dinner with a glass of water
Swiss Chalet’s quarter chicken dinner with fries and caesar salad
Triscuits with spicy thai chili tuna
Sunny side up eggs with plain white rice
And now Congee Dynasty’s duck congee

I think the longest obsession may have been Boston Pizza’s Cactus Cut Potatoes because I still haven’t gotten over them and I’m pretty sure we’re fast approaching 365 days. I order these over the phone and pick them up at BP. What’s worse is that I used to have them delivered to my house and then that stopped after they put a policy in place where orders under $20 cannot be delivered. Can’t say I didn’t grieve over that…

I don’t think I ever posted a photo of Bruges, Belgium. It was my eurotrip’s last stop and it was of course, a stunner just like everything else in Europe.

I updated my iPhone with a few of my favourite pop Christmas Songs. May I share to help you get into the holiday spirit? :)

All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
All I Want Is You This Christmas – Nsync
Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) – U2
Happy Christmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Christina Aguilera
I Don’t Wanna Spend One More Christmas Without You – Nsync
My Only Wish (This Year) – Britney Spears
O Holy Night – Mariah Carey
Please Come Home For Christmas – The Eagles
Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time – Paul McCartney
The Christmas Song (Holiday Remix) – Christina Aguilera
This Christmas – Christina Aguilera

I’m working away on my Christmas letters; I’ll have to mail them out soon!

Last night, I waited at the bus stop for 50 minutes, FIFTY MINUTES, for a Mississauga Transit bus to come while slowly freezing to death. It didn’t help that it was 13 degrees that morning, so I wore a light jacket and then winter decided to say hello at 5pm, when the Mississauga Transit also decided to F up my life.

Then the bus came and I asked the driver “What happened?” (keeping my language PG here), he says, “Yeah, everything got messed up.” No, really? That’s all you have to say? At that point, I was convinced that hell was better than the Mississauga Transit.

That was last night.

As for tonight, the Mississauga Transit bus did not come at all. There was a half ripped yellow sticker stuck to the bus shelter that said “This bus stop is out of service.” And then there was an arrow pointing to God knows what direction directing you to an alternative bus stop. I took a guess and waited at one of the possible alternative bus stops and of course, no bus. At that point, I was ready to die. So, I went back to the office and worked until 6:40pm while I waited for my dad to pick me up.

So, how was your day?

Hey, Mississauga Transit, you are a royal piece of you know what. You need to start firing your whole company of stupid people and start hiring some smart people to clean up this gigantic mess that you’re making that is near the point of no return. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. EVERYBODY hates you. I’m going to buy a car because of you. I want to start my series of The Mississauga Transit Trash Talk and buy www.TheMississaugaTransitTrashTalk.com so I can build a community of haters for you.

I was cleaning up my drawers and I came across my keepsake box from junior high school and of course I pulled out the crinkled notes, old photos, celebrity cut-outs, etc., laid them all out like so, and snapped a photo.

Remember when we were 13 and graduating from Grade 8 and singing and crying to Graduation by Vitamin C? Remember how we memorized the whole song and thought how amazing it was that someone out there wrote the perfect song, just for us, on our graduation day? What I’d do to go back to that very moment and freeze time. Everything was perfect in that universe. Nothing has topped Grade 8. In junior high, you are old enough to appreciate life and old enough to create memories and old enough to remember them, but still young enough to be carefree.

My favourite lyric now is in Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know; the line that sings “Oh simple thing, where have you gone?” because life is getting more complicated every day.

Anyway, I thought that Vitamin C’s Graduation should accompany this post because when I reminisce about junior high, this song plays in my head like a broken record. Lyrically, the song is most appropriate for high school graduation at 17, but we rocked it at 13. No biggie.

I will be doing another Topdeck Tour next summer; this time with this girl. We’re looking at the Paparazzi Parade tour, which hits Spain, Monaco, France, Italy and Switzerland. The key is Spain. Then after the tour, we’re going to do our own thing for a few days before flying back. That’s the plan!!! Gotta save to book now.

Somebody tell me why standard vacation time is only ten days? It’s inhumane.

I don’t drink coffee but I like sitting in Starbucks because it makes me feel good. Starbucks has mastered experiential marketing with their cozy, pretty, feel-good atmosphere that makes you want to get up and give out free hugs, or simply sit there and have deep, inspiring conversations with friends for hours and hours. Kudos, Starbucks, you got us!

And they’d appreciate it if I shared them on my blog, so I will.

I have a bad habit with seat belts; I don’t wear them unless the car persistently beeps or the driver yells at me. FACT.

I didn’t know what Triscuits were until a month ago, when my colleague brought some. FACT.

I have a bad habit of not holding doors for people, so they slam behind me and people think I’m rude. FACT.

I despise Excel and spreadsheets terrify me. FACT.

I didn’t know that pickles were cucumbers and that you can “pickle” things. What the..??? I thought pickles grew out of the ground? FACT.

I don’t watch ANY television, so I feel left out when people talk about stuff that happened on this episode and that episode of any show. FACT.

I can’t remember the rest.

I’ve finally invested in a brown winter parka from Aritzia. Finally. I’ve pushed this off for three years because every time I’d try to buy one, I always get distracted by their dazzling wool coats and end up buying those instead. They’re not half as warm and they’re double the money but they’re much prettier and I value the pretty factor more than anything else – who cares if the thing works or not. This is one of the few times in my life that I will purchase something solely for its functionality. I look like crap in these big jackets because I’m so small that I drown in them. But the thing is that I really, really, really, really need a solid jacket that keeps me warm. It was time.