RIP Birdies

This weekend went by really quickly. I played in a fastball tournament on Friday and Saturday in St. Catharine's. My school coach asked if I could play with his competitive team because they were short players. On the drive up the weather was really ominous, it was raining and lightning. But the sun came out and there were not one but two rainbows. I love rainbows, they don't happen often, and when they do, you can't help but look at them. Our first game was on Friday night at 9:30pm. I was actually a bit nervous playing against other competitive teams without much practice. My batting stunk once again. I am much more comfortable playing defence, and they stuck me in the outfield for a couple of innings. We ended up losing by one run 7-8.

We stayed overnight at Niagara College in a residence which only cost $20 a person! That was pretty cheap, but the beds were pretty small. One of my teammates ended up sharing the bed with me, I think it was a double bd. We were chatting for a while, then before we went to bed the last thing she said to me was, "oh by the way, I am a blanket hogger". I thought she was exaggerating, but 10 minutes later when she fell asleep, she was tucking and rolling. She literally tucked the covers underneath her and started wrapping it around her as she rolled. Bed sheet, fleece blanket, comforter and all. And I don't know her well enough to snuggle up with her, so I stayed on my side of the bed, blanketless and freezing. I was so tired though, that I didn't want to get up to put on a sweatshirt. When I'm tired, I can't get up or else I'll never get back to sleep. However, I must have woken up several times throughout the night. It was the worst sleep I've had in a long time. And to think, I offered her to stay in my room...I could have had the bed all to myself!

Surprisingly, the lack of sleep didn't catch up to me until Saturday night. I played two more games on Saturday. We won both games. One of our catchers had an injured finger and couldn't play so the defence was shifted a bit. As a result, I played 2nd base. I'm much more comfortable in the infield and it was an incidental turn of events that allowed me to finally show my abilities at that position. The infield to me is a lot more exciting and dynamic to play than the outfield. Well I had two good games at 2nd base, and I was able to make some good adjustments with my batting. I think I played more on Saturday than the whole of the school season. If I were playing next year at school, I would have been wise enough to play on the summer team because it's a good way to impress the coach. (Or unimpress him haha).

We brought the birds with us because they need to be fed frequently. I think they had a nice road trip.


I missed the last game of the day to come back to London and go out for dinner with Joanne and Amanda from my lab at Dragon Court, where we talked about lab gossip among other things. Joanne's off to Harvard to do a postdoc stint. She is so smart and I think she'll have a lot of success as a researcher in the future. Amanda was nice enough to whip out her credit card before the rest of us could pay and she treated us to dinner. We had peking duck, salted pork, seafood and kai-lan and corn/chicken/egg-drop soup. Yum. Then it was off to Mezie's place for a gathering. I saw some high school peeps. I developed a massive headache and the lack of sleep caught up to me. The headache lasted until about 4am, and Rambu was keeping me up, walking all over me when I was in bed. I was too tired to put him into the bathroom.

.....the birds just fell sick as I was writing this blog.....they both just died suddenly. I am so sad....

:|

Well I just got back from playing another fastball game. My mood is sullen right now because I sucked ass. I was really hoping to get some hits tonight but the other team decided to recruit one of the pitchers from my school team and she's good. I struck out three freaking times!! I am not happy with myself. That means I must practice, practice, practice. Anyways, we got one run -- that's so sad.

I did some sewing today to fix my cheaply made sweatshirt. I had to use my dad's secretary's machine because it works like a dream compared to mine. I was cruising along nicely when all of the sudden it stops working. And we tried for an hour to fix it but to no avail. So now I have a half finished sweatshirt. Grrrrr...

When I came home after my failed sewing expedition I could hear some chirping. I went to the window thinking that there was a nest in one of the corners of the window. Then my mom points out these little baby birds, but they are sitting in a box on my kitchen table! Apparently my dad found these two little guys on the ground in our backyard. No nest, no momma. So I guess we're going to take care of them until they are old enough to fly away.


Baby birds
Most of my life I've lived in a house devoid of animals. Now all of the sudden I'm Dr. Doolittle. We now have one cat, 4 siamese fighting fish and 2 baby birds. Not all in the same room of course. This is kind of nice. However, it will take me twice as long to get ready in the morning now that I have to take care of them.

Anyways, I'm off to drown my mood in some fattening dessert and settle into bed with Romeo (the book)...

Rambu has a voice

Rambu was meowing last night. Baby steps.

Pain No Gain

On Saturday night I went out to Cafe Demetrie's with Mezie and Drew for some dessert after the Knights game was over. Downtown was so busy and usually in the summer it becomes quite dead. Drew is in the army. I don't see him very often unless he's training nearby or is on leave. He seems much more serious than in our high school days. I think the army must have hardened him a bit, especially after hearing some of the stories he told.

Ok so yesterday I went to Toronto with my parents to move some more of my sister's stuff back home. I thought Boon was a bad packer, sorry sister, you take the cake! :) I think I deserve to raid her wardrobe. Before we got to my sister's place we stopped off at IKEA. I didn't get anything but an encounter with a really rude lady in the bathroom. I was reaching for the door handle to leave the bathroom and as I was pulling, already walking through the doorway, this older lady starts to walk through the door. She doesn't even make eye contact and I have to press myself up against the door frame to get out of her way. Meanwhile, my mom is still propping the door open for me, but this lady just keeps walking and ignores me walking through. OK I don't think that there is some default in manners that says if you're going through the push side of the door, you have the right of way. Usually, the person who gets there first, and is already walking through the door gets to go. Wow, I just experienced a rudeness drive-by, no excuse me, no sorry. Lady, learn some social skills please!

After we had packed up Andi's things we made our way to Markham. My parents wanted to check out this massage place recommended by one of their friends. I was hoping to read some of Romeo's book while they were getting their foot massages but my dad insisted that I try it as well. From now on, I am using the term "massage" very lightly. After a nice soak in warm water and ginseng herbal fragrance my feet were feeling pretty good. I was sitting next to my mom and two ladies entered to give us our massages. I felt bad for my mom because her lady looked heftier and would probably massage harder.

My lady was older and quite skinny and knew very little English. She proceeded to put lotion on my left leg and then the massage began. She started to push really hard on my shins and I thought, this hurts a little, but if I can handle my sister's massages I can handle this. Then she starts digging her knuckles into the base of my foot. I grimace with pain. The lady looks up at me and says, "Pain?" (I think this is one of the few words she knows in English) YES PAIN! If you're digging your knuckles straight into my bones I'm going to feel pain! She then finds every other pressure point in my foot and pushes on it. Holy, is this a practical joke? I think my dad is pulling one over on me. But then I hear my dad ask if I was feeling fine, and then I know he's also hurting. Now she's pounding as hard as she can with her fists. She's a strong little lady.

One leg down, on to the right leg. I have a much higher tolerance for pain in my right leg, so it wasn't as bad. I tried to read calmly but I found it hard to concentrate. It was now a battle between her and me: I was not going to show that it hurt, and she was determined to make me feel pain. She said something I couldn't understand, then in Mandarin repeats it to my mom. My mom's mandarin is shaky, so her masseuse translates into Cantonese to my mom. Then my mom translates in English, "Are you having your period?" What the hell?! What is going on? No, I say and she continues. Every so often I could see her look up at me to see if I was making pained faces, but I resisted. She did hit a couple spots in my foot that really hurt and she says, "in reflexology that is the kidney". Oh, so that's what this is, Chinese reflexology. If I could read the Chinese words on the entrance sign, I might have figured it out earlier. Then she pushes on another spot, apparently the liver. Nearing the home stretch, the endorphins are causing me to sweat a little. Adding insult to injury, my mom says that the lady thinks I look like a teenager. Great, the second time in 2 weeks someone says that.

Finally we're done. The three of us all get up and look at each other with the same thing on our minds. What kind of voodoo massage did we get ourselves into. The Chinese must use this as a torture method in prisons. I barely read 4 pages of Romeo in an hour. My legs feel no better and maybe a little worse than before. I did get one good tip from the massage lady, drink more water. My dad had to take pain medication last night.

We then went to Pacific Mall. I got some good deals, bought a webcam for $30 and some tops for half off. I also got some Dragon's Beard (a peanut dessert). Afterwards, it was off to T&T. It's a supermarket that is similar to Loblaws in size and selection, but it's got an Asian twist. It's a bizarro Loblaws. Except it resembled the mall on Boxing Day and it was a Sunday night! Consumer fanaticism at another level. 15% off baked goods, watch your fingers. I bought some star fruit and green onion pancakes. I also thought of getting some blackcurrant Fruit Pastilles but I found out recently that it is banned in Canada because the food colouring causes cancer in rats. T&T even has bathrooms and a food court.

Having relied on public bathrooms all day I have to say that the Americans are on to something. Why don't our bathrooms have disposable toilet seat covers? It's an essential barrier between me and all the germs of thousands of people who used the toilet before me and I'm getting tired of laying down rectangular pieces of toilet paper over the round toilet seat.

Well all-in-all, an interesting trip.

Beauty Shots

The ANTM finale repeated yesterday and I finally found out who was chosen as America's Next Top Model! Naima was the winner. She's cool, edgy, beautiful and high-fashion says Tyra Banks. I have to agree. I actually yelled out "yes!" when she won, I'm such a geek. Kahlen was the runner-up and she would have been my second pick for the winner. She's got some amazing pictures too. I wish that I could take pictures like that. Why do I love this show so much? Well there are some really cool personalities on the show, some good cat-fights and some cool challenges. It's not all frivolity though. I think that us girls can see a bit of ourselves in some of the contestants and it makes us think a bit about ourselves, how we can identify with their insecurities and also realize that some of the things that we beat ourselves up over are ridiculous. For the guys, well, it's a show about hot girls.

I love fashion, art (I'm a very visual person) and I admire people who can perform under high-pressure situations. I get chills when I watch gymnastics or figure skating routines and this show is no different. They make them dance, do runway shows, take photographs, and do interviews. Man that's tough! I secretly wish that in some warped world, I could be doing that, but I think I would have horrific stage fright, so I just live vicariously through the show haha. I remember getting an adrenaline rush out of performing cultural dances when I was younger, however I think that my fear of performing in public has increased over the years. Anyhow, I'm looking forward to seeing how Naima does in the future.

Naima


Kahlen

Is beauty universal? Yes to some extent it is. Scientifically, the symmetry of the face is a trait that is unconsciously perceived as being beautiful. Even babies have this preference. Other traits of beauty still remain a mystery. Attractiveness on the other hand is a conscious thing. I think that we choose to be attracted to someone, it's whether we allow ourselves to be open to others. It's why humans cheat, or preferrably, don't cheat on on their significant others. It's why some people are attracted to a specific profile: hair colour, eye colour, race, height. Some people have it instantly good if people find them attractive, especially in first-time, short, random encounters. For instance, this guy Matt, a relatively good-looking guy, went up to the bus ticket counter and the girl helping him just about jumped into his pants! Life must be good for him. The way people treat you will affect how you treat them, it's all reciprocal. Maybe that's why some people are so obsessed with making themselves look good.

I decided to work out this morning with some success. I only focused on the upper body because, well, it's easier for me. I have a pseudo gym in my basement with sufficient weights to get a work out done. My house is much too cold to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt unless you're moving around. So although it's a really nice day out today, I was so cold after the work out. Then I jumped into a hot shower until my fingers went pruney. My shower head is kind of clogged now because I've neglected to clean it for a long time. Instead of a nice dispersed stream, water comes out in a lumpy down-pour. If I positioned my back right, it actually felt like acupuncture therapy. Anyways, I better use this long weekend to do some cleaning.

I saw Hitch on Thursday with Amanda. It was enjoyable as one of those brainless but entertaining movies. Will Smith and Eva Mendes has enviable wardrobes. It makes me want to get back to sewing again. I spent some of yesterday fixing some shirts for Colleen to make them smaller. Now that I don't have to study this summer, I think I'll make some garments!

Rambu was purring today for the first time.

I finally have crepes to go with my Aunt Jemima

My orange chair was revoked today wahhhhh. It's back to the plastic chairs. Supposedly the dental students need the chair. What's so special about the dent students?! Well it was nice while it lasted. Apparently chairs that have wheel castors must have five prongs on the base as a safety design so the chair doesn't tip over. You learn something new every day!

I was listening to CBC news the other day and the guest was an older gentleman who was illiterate. He was always seen as an outcast. He attributed his turn to drugs, alcohol, unemployment and homelessness to the fact that he couldn't read. Many years later, he has made an effort to overcome his illiteracy and learn how to read. Now he is heralded as a hero and role model in his community. It is a great story, but it reminded me of my illiteracy in Chinese. Sure I went to Chinese school for a few years but I don't think it was the right way for me to learn. My parents don't speak Chinese to me at home and when they do, it's very hard for me to pick up new vocabulary (without translation). When I go to China, Hong Kong, or even Toronto, I do feel like an outcast. People expect me to understand what they are saying, and to a certain extent I do. Because I look Asian I am supposed to understand. I don't feel as if I don't belong, but I feel handicapped or out-of-the-loop sometimes. So one of my goals for the future is to learn more Chinese.

Rambu is a freak! On Tuesday he woke up up at 4:30am. I could hear him digging his nails into my carpet. When I stooped up to see what he was doing, I could see him running in tight circles on the carpet. It was really weird because I have never seen a cat do that before. Last night I put him in the bathroom so I could get a night of peaceful sleep. He's been hiding underneath my bed for the past couple of days so I blocked off the area under my bed so he can't hide there any more. I did that so I could interact with him more easily. He's at least letting me pet him now, that's a step in the right direction.

I had a fastball game yesterday with summer team, Byron. My school team's coach also has a summer team (different team) and they were having a practice before the Byron game. So I decided to go to the practice before my game. Bad idea haha. We mostly did running drills and by the time we got to throwing I was so tired. I am almost glad that I had to leave early to eat dinner before my game. I am impressed by the skill level of some of these girls. It is certainly better than what I am used to. I have to keep checking to see if my hand is intact after catching Hayley's throws. After the practice, I was really exhausted because I am SO OUT OF SHAPE! I have been put off working out this whole week because I am lazy, but honestly, I must do weights, must run.

We won our game against our sister team, Byron, 11-1 (0 for 1, 2 walks, 1 run and a badly scraped leg). I remember playing against Byron when I was younger and I always thought that they were snobs, high maintenance biatches. I didn't always play for Byron. My team right now is an amalgamation of girls formerly from other organizations, who have found a home in Byron. I think that my team is really nice, friendly and we just try to have fun. The other Byron team though is unfriendly. They act like they have an inner circle and if you are not part of it, you are not worthy. They are my least favourite team so far.
Duane came to see my game and then we played some ping pong after. It was good times playing and catching up. We must have played for two solid hours.

"That could have been spicy." ~ Duane.


Scraped Leg

Office Antics

Being in a lab all day takes its toll on you. It's one thing to have a thesis project to juggle with classes, when you have very little free time. But it's another to be stuck in the lab all day racking your brain for something to do. It's as painful as trying to keep your eyelids open for more than 5 minutes, it's very hard! So Alfred and I have cooked up some juvenile antics at work to pass the time and get some giggles out of them. Let's see, there were a bunch of chairs and tables that were sitting in the hallway for a few months. We thought that they might be garbage, since they were made circa 1971. I scoped it out to find a decent chair to bring back to the student office. The present chairs that we have suck! Yes sure they're brand new 2005 rolling chairs but they don't have arm rests, they're too high and they are covered with plastic. If nobody else has noticed, sitting in those chairs for over half an hour, despite being cushioned, gives you SWASS, or sweaty ass. Not comfortable at all. So I found a nice fabric-covered bucket seat, arm-rests included. It's on wheels, lower to the ground for my short legs and bright orange! On our way back to the office, chair in hand, the maintenance guy stops us and asks us if it's our chair. No says Alfred, we were just borrowing it for a few minutes. Then the guy looks at us suspiciously and says ok, but that he needs the chair back. Supposedly all that tacky and out-dated furniture was in the hall while the room they belonged to was being cleaned. I decide to stay out of it because I am a terrible liar and Alfred was doing a good job. Almost in the office, then the lab manager comes out of the lab and sees us carrying this bright orange chair, OMG, busted! But then he goes: "I'm not even going to ask," and walks on. Anyways, the stolen...I mean borrowed chair was supposed to be returned last Wednesday but it is still sitting in our office for me to enjoy. I'll give it back soon, I swear!

Since Alfred is obsessed with poker, he always has a pack of cards on him. So we learned how to play 2-man euchre. We were playing at lunch-time and the manager walked in. It was like deja vu. I was working at another lab a couple of years ago, playing euchre at lunch, and my lab manager came in and told us to stop playing. But this time, the manager goes: "I have to ask, so what's the deal with the orange chair?" Again I let Alfred explain. Then he asks me a lab question and doesn't bring up anything about the cards. Phew. Sometimes I feel like a little kid trying not to get in trouble.

What else? We've been trying to set up one of those mini basketball nets in the office. The thing was so poorly engineered that it's taken almost a week for us to actually get it assembled. It required me to find some smaller screws to attach the hooks to the backboard which hang on the door. Plus also finding a screwdriver, and of course will and motivation to get it done. After finally putting it together we tested it out in various locations in the room, and settled on putting it on the door, where it's meant to be. Considering that our supervisor's office is right next door and the lab is just across the hall, we have to be quiet and covert. Other people also use the room too, not just us. So I think that we'll have to use it only after hours or at lunch. We had an after hours game of Bump and I got my butt kicked, but I blame the ball I was using.

Alfred thinks that we're going to get fired.

I was just listening to Untitled by D'Angelo. One of my all-time favourite songs. And I remembered seeing a picture of D'Angelo now. A far cry from how he looked in his 2000 video. D you used to be H-O-T. I guess once you reach your peak, it's just downhill from there.

What happened D'Angelo?

Eggs-periments

Cat Update: The cat is named Rambu, short for Rambutan. He's been here for 3 days and he's done nothing but hide in small confined spaces or anywhere that no human could physically (comfortably) reach. Right now he's underneath my bed, lying down. That's where I left him last night before I went to bed. But I assure you, he's up and about when nobody is in the room, or when he thinks that he is safe, like when I'm sleeping. He emerged from his hiding spot to eat some food *crunch, crunch* at 4:30am. How do I know that? He woke me up with his chewing, then proceeded to walk around my room and explore, just loud enough to keep me from falling back asleep for at least half an hour. Are you kidding me?! As a result, I had to have a noon hour nap at work. He's still cute, I can't be mad at cats, even though he's been hissing at me. Haha. It makes me wonder how poorly he was treated before to make him so distrustful of humans. I am hoping that I can help him trust us again. My cat paraphenalia has increased now. I just bought him some treats, a pooper scooper and hair brush to add to the litter box, jangle ball and food dishes that I already have. The pooper scooper is working out so much better than using a plastic bag glove.

The other day I saw someone whom I considered a good school-mate in 1st and 2nd year. We haven't really hung out in the last couple of years, we just became acquaintances I guess. She was sitting across the room and I usually go up to her and say hi, but she usually responds like she doesn't really care if I talk to her or not. So I decided to see if she would come over and say hi instead. She saw me but didn't come up to talk. I feel like I've been getting the cold shoulder from her during our last few encounters. Did I do something to her? What do you call someone who is below an acquaintance?

My supervisor told me today that a 46 year-old woman from the States contacted him to ask his opinion on her having a child through assisted reproductive technology. She already has two kids and has a happy and healthy family. However, she is thinking about trying an ART called oocyte transfer. Older women have difficulty becoming pregnant for some mysterious reason attributed to their oocytes, the female egg. Scientists are finding alternative ways to manipulate the egg to overcome this problem, however this experimental procedure is on the moral, ethical and pragmatical fringes. Oocyte transfer involves replacing the cytoplasm of the woman's egg with that of donor cytoplasm from a younger woman. It doesn't involve any transfer of genetic material, but it is highly contraversial because it is experimental and not scientifically studied. As well, the experimental subjects are humans. I wonder what is her motivation to want to try this procedure. Is she unsatisfied with her life right now, so much so that she is compelled to have another child? The scientific what-ifs are creating scenarios in which we can see ourselves being, yet we also lose sight of our own limitations. The possibilities are tempting, but my supervisor put it aptly that there are plenty of little Chinese girls who need families.

Random questions:
1. How much does Jarrod from the Subway commercials make?
2. What colour should I paint my basement?
3. When someone is being friendly, are you more suspicious of him/her being up to something if he/she has a significant other or if he/she is single?

"Tha not queer as folk." ~ Kevin B.

Game vs. North Blue

1 for 3, 2 walks, 1 hit, 3 runs
We won our first game of the season. Nicole hurt her ankle doing a funky slide into 2nd base and had to go to the hospital. I hope that she hasn't broken anything. I don't know what the score was. Our team policy is to not ask. I've got to figure out how to stop scraping my leg when I slide.

Colleen, Jenn and I went to McDonald's after the game. We got free food because Cristina Bonasia was the manager at the drive-thru!

"I get double nuts!" ~ Jenn V.

(supplementary) I found out the score was 13-4.

Collect Call

Hello?? Who's out there? If you're reading this be sure to say hello, leave a message ok? Then I know not to talk about you, just kidding!

So Keenyah is still on ANTM, and Brittany got kicked off on Wednesday. Brittany was annoying at first, but I grew to like her. I'm just happy that Naima is still around. It was a close one though.

I saw In Good Company on Friday at Hollam's. It was so good that I fell asleep near the ending. It was especially worth rewinding 2 times when I fell asleep again so that I could see it.

Well I decided to get my hair cut and considering that I had about 7 inches cut off, I am rather untraumatized. While Bernice, a senior stylist at Entrenous, was lopping my hair off, my cell phone rang and it was "Kelly" telling me that I had won a trip for four to Orlando and if I wanted to hear more about it, to press 7. I would really love to take a vacation and Kelly sounded like a very nice person but I think by now, we all know that it's just a scam to somehow get access to my account in order to make collect calls at my expense. So I didn't press 7. Given that I don't have caller ID on my cell phone, I am duped into picking up all my calls. In other words, I can't screen my calls (isn't that evil?), and despite hanging up imediately after hearing "Hi, my name is Kelly..." my minutes are being wasted. Whoever this Kelly is, I want to track her down and "thank" her personally!

So by the time I finished hanging up, 4" of my hair was on the floor. But I was ready for a change. I had been to Entrenous 4 years ago to get an up-do for prom, but never for a haircut. It is pricier than what I am used to but I would rather pay more and ensure my hair looks good. Besides, Bernice also had an assistant (coincidentally named Kelly) who gave me a massage. Yes! "You really don't looked worried" said Bernice as another 3" came off. Meh, no big deal.

My lab manager, as someone who hardly notices when someone has a hair change, said he liked my cut. You be the judge.

I went to DoubleDown afterwards to look at some clothing, but basically to watch Boon try on some jeans. I don't usually find anything there that really suits my own style. And if I do, it doesn't fit. I'm probably branded as the girl with Boon who never buys anything. I can see them having nicknames for everyone.

A dream I had the other day involving my high school friends compelled me to call Mezie, a good friend from hs. This summer could very well be my last few months in London before I move on to another city for school. It was good to talk to her. I had another dream today, that I was in high school again. It was the first day of class and I couldn't find my homeroom. Whenever I asked my friends, they all seemed distant and weren't being very helpful. I woke up feeling a little sad. It's time to catch up with my old friends again.

I went to Toronto yesterday to help my sister move her stuff back home. I must admit I wasn't really much help. But, welcome home sister! I was also able to pick up a little cat from the Humane Society to foster for few weeks. He needs to be socialized to humans. Poor thing hasn't come out from its carrier since he got here except to eat and pee, when I'm not around of course. He doesn't have a name yet. Got any suggestions? Well he's a sweet little guy, not a kitten, but not full grown yet.

Scaredy Cat

Tonight's my first fastball game. I hope that it goes well considering I've only been to one practice so far. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

(I wish I was in Washington right now)

"He's got little dick syndrome." ~ Mezie

Summer-time

I know the summer can be boring, so I'm keeping my eyes open for some interesting things going on. Work has been really really really slow lately. I am basically relying on patients to undergo in vitro fertilization in order to get some human samples to do my research experiments. My work can't move forward without samples, and we're going through a two week drought right now. But I guess it's a good thing that there aren't a whole lot of women having fertility problems, so I'm not feeling that bad about it. Anyways, I have so much free time that I'm taking the day off tomorrow. It's Boon's last day in London before he takes his vacation with his family (minus his father) and goes home to Malaysia. I am going to get a haircut. My hair is way too long...I manage to only get my hair cut twice a year, once during the Christmas holidays and once during the summer. I am torn between keeping it long or going dramatically short. Well, we'll see after tomorrow. I'll post a before and after picture.

Tonight I went to a dinner associated with my lab. During the day I went to a Research Awards Day where two PhD students from my lab presented their work. I was very proud and impressed by their presentations and tonight was a recognition night for grad students, post docs and obs/gyn residents. Props to Amanda and Caroline (both from my lab) who won awards, first and third place respectively! Afterwards, I kicked "someone's" ass in ping pong. I won't mention who for fear of humiliating him/her. I guess badminton doesn't translate well into all other racquet sports.

Funny thing I saw the other day while driving...at the corner of Oxford and Wonderland, while stopped at a stop light, I saw this fat guy walking very cautiously with a camera in his hands on the grass to the right of the street. I couldn't tell why he was walking so slowly, but I'd never seen a big man tiptoe so gracefully. However, whatever he was sneaking up on probably would have seen him easily given the BRIGHT YELLOW SHIRT he was wearing hahaha. Way to be covert. It turns out that he was sneaking up on a groundhog coming out of its burrow. Aw! I guess I learned 2 things from this: 1, groundhogs must have very bad eyesight, 2, I've been wanting to take a picture of a groundhog that lives by my work, if a big guy wearing a yellow t-shirt can do it, so can I.

OK I'm going to watch America's Next Top Model (ANTM) now. Only 4 girls remaining: Naima, Kahlen, Keenya and Brittany. I taped the show, so obviously one girl has already been kicked off by now, but I'll make a prediction (and I didn't cheat by looking it up on the internet). I think that Keenya will be kicked off tonight and I'm hoping that Naima is still in. This show looked really juicy from previews, lots of cat-fights I hope! Man I love this show!!!!

My Experience with Hoe

First blog, 'nough said. I can't remember the last time I had a beer. It's been quite a while since I even had the urge or the stomach to drink a social beer with nothing but school to think about. So on Friday Boon and I decided to pick up some beer after dinner at Kambie, a Chinese restaurant on Horton Street. On the way to the the LCBO we saw a sign outside the former Passage to India restaurant that said "UWO Badminton Social"...ah memories of a fundraiser that I helped to organize 2 years ago! I can't believe that sign is still there considering that the restaurant closed down. Anyways, on my way I wondered if I would be carded at the cash register. Boon obviously looks older than 19, but I on the other hand still could pass for a 14 year old on a bad day of course (don't even think of saying I look any younger!). So I decided to perform a test. I would pay for the beer rather than Boon and see if they would ask for my ID. After some beer perusing at the LCBO we decided to try a six-pack of Hoegaarden...what a weird name. When I went up to the cashier four black kids wearing NBA jerseys and ball caps sauntered through the entrance; immediately all attention was shifted towards them. One employee was trying to be subtle about monitoring their activities but he was quite blatantly staring at them. As I approached the counter, even the cashier was staring them down, and the funny thing was that he even looked like a shady black dude too. I think the cashier was so distracted that he forgot to pay attention to me and didn't seem to care that I could have been underaged, and therefore didn't ask for my ID. The LCBO must have some protocols: pay attention to the 4 rebellious looking black kids over small unsuspecting but under-19 looking asian girl. I guess my experiment was a failure because of uncontrollable factors. So if anyone is making a trip to the beer store, I'd be glad to buy it for you (with your money of course), to test out my experiment.

Needless to say I tried the Hoegaarten and does anyone else think that it has a bubble gum after taste?? We also decided to try out a beer and mussels dish for dinner the next day. Luckily the bubble gum taste went away, but I think that I still prefer wine-based broth with mussels. The mussels had a hint of hot chilis in the broth, Boon's trademark, but it was a sign of hotter things to come; some crazy anchovy and shrimp sambal dish that was reminiscent of a jerk chicken incident I had last year which was so hot I didn't even have time to sweat, just the searing pins and needles pain permeating through my tongue! Mmm, I've never loved Coke as much as I did then.

I really only had one bottle of beer myself. The rest went to Boon and the mussels. Later on I went to get a glass of water from the fridge and there's an empty Hoegaarden 6-pack holder just sitting in there, chilling away! Am I anal or does that bother anyone else? Throw out your empties damnit! hehe.

Yesterday was Mother's Day/Daughter's Day. My parents and I went to Toronto to take care of my sister who was madly studying for an important licencing exam for medicine, the LMCC, hence the "Daughter's Day". I love the people in Toronto, such diversity and interesting characters. It's good for people watching. Here's a funny story: my parents and I were driving along Bay St. and we saw a couple, a white dude and asian chick. The girl was wearing a skirt and I noticed a white dressing on the back of her leg, I thought maybe she had fallen during rollerblading and cut her leg perhaps. But as the wind started to blow, I saw that this dressing was not attached to her leg, but freely flapping. HAHA, she had toilet paper tucked into her underwear underneath her skirt and it was hanging out the bottom. I pointed at her and tried to get my parents to look. At that moment the guy looked over at our car, and probably saw 3 people staring at them, one pointing, and all simultaneously bursting out into laughter! Man that was such a good moment! And then we drove away.

Question: do you think that the guy knew that the toilet paper was dangling in plain view? Maybe he was on a first date and felt embarassed to point out such a fact. Would you say something to your date?

Poor girl.

I might sound mean, but I love physical comedy. I even still watch America's Funniest Home Videos (post-Bob Saget) and laugh my head off when they do those montages set to music where the theme could be men getting hit in the nuts, slipping into water, people dancing on tables and falling down, or generally someone getting hit in the head. I think that I am redeemed because I am the first to laugh my ass off when I do something stupid like that.

On that note, when I was walking to work this morning, a bird pooped on my head. Just desserts.