A series of fortunate events

I cleaned out my e-mail inbox yesterday. It took me a really long time. Since going to UT, I have received no less than 3,000 potentially relevant e-mails in the past year. As someone who tends to have a short-term memory about things, I have accumulated many many e-mails, thinking that I might need them in the future. At the end of the school year, I think I accrued over 1,000 e-mails in my inbox. Most of which is irrelevant. It was interesting to scan through the old mail and see what I went through during the year.

I came across a series of exchanged e-mails which was quite amusing to me, given the ensuing circumstances. Basically what happened was there was a sign-up period for positions in a club. I hadn't signed up immediately, but I had e-mailed this guy to tell him the position that I wanted. However, the position that I wanted had already been requested (but not filled). The next e-mail that I get is telling me the positions that are available because nobody has spoken for them. I can't remember exactly what I wrote back, but I had still expressed interest in the original position that I wanted. A couple of correspondences later, I ended up getting that position.

I never thought anything about it at the time, but going through the e-mails got me thinking. Was the sign-up system on a first-come-first-serve basis? If not, people only do favours for you because:
a) he/she is a nice person
b) he/she thinks I am a nice person
c) he/she likes you

It turns out that c) would apply in this instance, as I would later find out. Should I feel bad for getting something because someone liked me (if that's what actually happened)? I kind of feel bad, but I can't help it if someone feels that way. I definitely didn't reciprocate the feelings, nor lead him on. Anyhow, food for thought.

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Sister quote: "i have a bad habit of patting children on the head like they are pets"

Porcelain God

Forgive me if I am a bit picky, but why is it that my roommate leaves the toilet seat up? I know that it might sound like a stupid request, but is a toilet seat meant to be up? No, I don't think so. If it were, the people who make them would make the underside far more attractive to look at.

Here's a quick mental exercise. Imagine a toilet.

Now tell me, was the toilet seat up or down?

Yeah, I thought so. Even in your head it is supposed to be down.

:) Ok I am being a bit silly here. But, even though I'd prefer not to have to put the toilet seat down every time I go to the bathroom, it is a bit unusual. I've lived with my roommate for the past year and for 365 days, he has always been putting the toilet seat down. Why the change all of the sudden? Does he think I wouldn't notice? Or is this some sort of rebellion. Yes, that's right, it's a rebellion. He's fed up with doing all other things my way that he has to show his dissent by flipping up a piece of plastic! (Is this a metaphor?) Oh, why I ought to...break up with you!

Just kidding. Roommate's a stand up guy. I just want to know why he's doing it.

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PS. Would it be blasphemous to download Paris Hilton's new CD (I heard it was good)?

School. No, that other thing, Career.

In the time it took me to get through to a Rogers tech support operator, I sprayed my suede slippers, made another phone call and hung a painting. I thought maybe everyone else was having the same internet problems as I was, but after talking to the operator, I realized that all I needed to do was to push the standby button on my modem. Damn, that was stupid! I started to get mad at myself but then I realized, hey, this was something I didn't know about before...am I ever getting savvy with electronics :)

Woohoo, I got a pair of pink Kate Spade slingbacks for $49! The original price was $420. Who would buy shoes for four hundred dollars? Tell me, who?

So tomorrow's the first day back to school. I feel I ought to stop calling it school. It really is my career we are talking about. This is it; this is what I'll be doing for the rest of my life. If I approach it in this manner, I'll start to smarten up and have a more mature outlook on things. The theme of this year: perspective.

Always keep the big picture in mind, and frequently evaluate what it is that I am doing, why I am doing it, where I am, and others around me.

One dolla

Love, love, love the new eyeglasses that I got! It is supposed to improve my eyesight, but if it doesn't do that, at least it will make me look older. And if it doesn't do that, at least it will make me look cool.

Got to seriously go to Pac Mall more often. Yes, it's a Chinese Mall filled with wonderful cliche Chinese things. Yes, it has some really annoying people in it, shoppers AND salespeople alike. Yes, there are some pretty tacky things in there, but amidst it all, some of the things there are solid gold.

I got lots of ripped DVDs yesterday. One salesperson tried to get me to buy any DVD she could think of. "Little Man, it good, Little Man."

My friend told me that her dad bargains like nobody's business. Even at high-end chain stores. His motto is "it doesn't hurt to ask." And it doesn't, bottom line. However, you run into the danger of being labelled as the cheap person who wants to get things for free. If you can live with it, that's yours to decide.

Salesguy: "One for one dolla."
Customer: "Three for one dollar!"
S: "Two for one dolla."
C: "Four for one dollar!"
--An example of bargaining gone wrong! :)

Eye had a great time

This past weekend was another memorable one spent with my family. I went home on Thursday night, spent some time with Mom on Friday, saw a great basketball documentary called The Heart of the Game at Hyland Cinema and then on Saturday we went to Ajax to see my cousin's baby, Nathan. My cousin's wife makes THE BEST shortbread cookies!

We then headed to Pacific Mall (also known as Pac Mall) so I could find a new pair of eyeglasses. I was really excited to look around for some frames knowing that there were so many stores to check out. But then I remembered that you have to have one-on-one service to look at frames. The silly way it works is you tell them an idea of what you want and the salesperson goes around trying to find your conception of a style. Everything is encased within glass cabinets so you can't try them on yourself, unlike at an optometrist's office. I was getting flashbacks to 3 years ago when I was in the same situation, and the salesguy insisted that I try rimless glasses because they were so trendy. Dude, I don't care about trendy, I want something that looks good on me.

Glasses are an accessory that needs to be tried on in order to know how it looks. I mean, I really like fedora hats, but if I tried one on, I'd surely look like a dork! The first store I went to, the girl was a little helpful, but I should come with a warning: I need to try on basically the whole store in order to decide what I like. Naturally the girl was annoyed at me that I didn't like anything she pulled out. Meanwhile, she was speaking Cantonese to her friend about me, in front of me (so funny when they think I'm a complete Cantonese idiot, when I'm not. Also funny that they think someone doesn't know they are being talked about when he/she has her head slightly turned and speaks in a hushed voice). Good thing that all she said was that I was picky, which is true.

On to the next store. Completely Incompetent Girl who clearly dislikes her job asked me what I wanted. I told her the general shape that I want, and that I don't want rimless. She pulled out maybe 5 pairs when the store has at least 200. So much for having a job when you don't do it. I was not very impressed and I decided to leave. Frustration began to settle in, and then we (my whole family has recongregated) happened to walk into a store which has unpretentious, no-attitude salespeople. They were very patient, accomodating and not too pushy. Then I find a frame that I think is pretty cool. Now the fun part, the bargaining. I got a $350 frame, down to $250 including the lenses with anti-scratch, anti-glare, anti-UV protection. All covered by insurance, go me! The optician there gave me a new prescription too. They look kind of like these:
Things really started heating up because as I'm choosing, each family member started to look around and as soon as I knew it, everyone was getting into the spirit. My sis bought 2 pairs of glasses, my dad bought a pair of sunglasses, and then as we start to leave, my mom spotted a pair that she likes and buys one too. I love how my little venture somehow sucked everyone in to joining in the fun!

I also bought this awesome gold belt. We then ate at the "Food Alley" and had some interesting conversation. My sister was telling a crazy story about her friend. It went something like this, in summary form: My sister's friend C. got really drunk one time and ended up sleeping with some woman (slut) he is friends with, but who is unfortunately married. He used the usual blame-it-on-the-alcohol excuse. Then a while later, slut decided she wants to leave her husband for C. C. refuses to have anything to do with her so she tried to get revenge by sleeping with his roommate, and another friend of C's, and 2 other friends "all within 48 hours" according to my sister. My response was, first, holy shit she's screwed up. Then I said, "so she had sex with 4 guys, like at the same time?"

Sis and I think about that for a second, then unbeknownst to us, my mom was listening. In her cute, innocent voice she says, "Like, an orgy?"

You seriously had to be there because it was literally the funniest thing I'd ever heard my mom say, and she says a lot of funny things. I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time. I slammed my soya milk into the table, basically bounced off my chair laughing until I cried and had trouble breathing.

(Sunday - we had korean food, sushi, watched the Rogers Cup on CBC, and then my family left me...)

All in all, it was a really fun weekend, even though I passed up watching my old ball team in the playoffs, seeing Jenn play badminton against the defending womens' world #1 from China, and beach volleyball.

Wedding bells

My friend Amanda is getting married in September and she asked me to be a bridesmaid. My response to this request was yes, and then I asked her how many bridesmaids she would be having. One she said. So I guess that makes me the maid of honour....or not, because she didn't ask me to be her maid of honour. Truth be told, she's from China and doesn't know the extensive details of how weddings are done here.

Anyhow I'm doing my best to help her out, despite this being the first time for me as part of a wedding party. We had our make-up trial done last weekend at Clinique. The "beautician" did her best to make me look like a clown, after which I frowned and told her I didn't like the make-up that she did (in a more diplomatic way). She was visibly peeved that I told her how to do her job. Since she seemed to have a good idea of the proper look for a wedding, I gave her complete freedom to do whatever she wanted. But I had to draw the line at having white eyeshadow; even though she started all over again, the final look was a variation of what she started with. I think I am happy with the make-up and we came to a good compromise. My eyes burned like mad though (for a day and a half) after she applied eyeliner. At the end of the day, I bought a facial cleansing product, so that should make her happy. Strangely though, I have increased my cleansing regimen to twice a day and now I'm having a minor breakout, which rarely happens. Next, we booked the hair salon for the wedding day.

The final step is finding a dress. Since I am the only bridesmaid, I get complete freedom in choosing the dress, as it doesn't have to match with anyone else. Amanda is also letting me choose the colour of the dress and she will match the flowers and the cake decorations accordingly. This task has proven to be quite arduous. All of the dresses that I have considered are blue, of some shade. Two of which are slightly risque, and the other doesn't quite suit the occasion. The last thing I want to do is ruin the wedding by showing up too naked or wearing something that doesn't say "wedding". What's hardest is doing this without a second opinion, but I'd hate to drag someone around to watch me try on dresses. Anyhow, I bought a dress today from Marciano (left below) and only because I can return it if it doesn't work out. The sight of which caused my sister to call it skanky HAHHAHAHAHAHA! OK it's going back for sure. The other dress I tried on (right below) is from Bebe, and sis says that she doesn't think it's a bridesmaid dress.





And yes, I do look that good in them *wink! Does anybody have an opinion?










My friend called me while I was in the mall today. I told him that I was looking for a dress for a wedding. To which he exclaims: "You're getting married?!"

Oh dear..."NOOO!", I said.

How could he have misconstrued that sentence so badly?

Ode to an apartment

When I look at this picture, it makes me really happy that I moved. It's the view from my 17th floor apartment which has an obstructed view of the sunset every night. I can see the Four Seasons, the Hyatt, the ROM, the Planetarium, Robarts Library and the church across the street with bells that ring at noon and 6pm. I can even see a whole bunch of treetops (who knew there were so many trees in D/T Toronto?).

I have fond memories of my old apartment. The smoke detector going off when bread is in the toaster. The toast had to be popped out just before it started to make that distinct crispy smell, otherwise you had to fan at the detector with a dishrag or by opening and closing the closet door.

It wasn't all that bad. I mean, even though my apartment had very little light, I had my own personal sun and moon. The sun of course, supplied by my lamp, reflecting light off tinfoil that was taped to the ceiling just above it..(insert pic here). Then I had the moon (pictured at left). The construction people, whom had been obstructing the view from my window for months, felt so bad for me that they decided to erect a crane that shone a light brightly through my window at night.

Even though I miss having a little pet around, I could always rely on those antennae sporting visitors to keep me (my food) company. The little ants bothered me at first but I quickly adapted to not leaving food out on the counter and I was happy that the carpet was so dark that even though they might be crawling around, I could not see them. They were so small and so many that it was pointless to kill them anymore. I did however leave some boric acid laying around in case they decided they were hungry for some white powder poison.

There are things I definitely won't miss. The smell of Subway sandwiches that greet you at the point of entry or exit to Bay Street. Random people walking into my apartment thinking it was theirs. And the couple of incidences with street masturbators. Yes that's right, I have already written about the one time that I ran into a masturbator while walking along the side of my building. This first time it happened, it was 8pm and I had just taken the TTC subway at College. He probably had a bad day after work ( he was wearing business suit) and decided to just whip it out then and there. The second time, it again occurred after I had taken the subway, and down the same alleyway. It was a bit later, 11pm. The guy was pretty much on Bay Street, pleasuring himself in plain view. He was a different guy, but again he was pretty young.

How could it have happened to me twice??? Anyhow, let's hope that by moving it won't happen again.

Some things that I will miss are my old apt's proximity to school and to the bus terminal; Rich Tree's yummy food deals after taking the subway; encounters with Ross Hull from Student Bodies in the elevator (asking myself: should I get his autograph or not?); invitations from my pot-head next door neighbour to "hang out"; and random hellos in the elevator.

Goodbye apartment, I will miss you...but not that much.

Who wears short shorts?

Can you believe that these shorts used to belong to my dad?

Razor Burn

I've been following an amazing show this summer! Reality-based of course. It's called So You Think You Can Dance? It really makes me want to take a dance class and I feel really inspired after watching the performances. It's down to the final four and I couldn't have predicted who would be left 3 weeks ago. One of the audience favourites that didn't survive, Musa, reminds me of my high school bud Stefan. I definitely thought Allison would have made it through and I thought Ivan would have stuck around, but I'm glad that Benji and Travis were the top 2 guys because they are more technically sound and have the ability to mould themselves into different styles.
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I shaved my legs today for the first time in a few weeks (thank goodness I'm not a hairy person). Shaving is like one of those liberating things. I can imagine that it feels pretty damn good for hockey players to shave their play-off beards. Anyhow, I got a little overzealous, and perhaps tried to compensate for my cheap-ass razor, that I ended up not only shaving hair, but in some spots, shaving skin. I don't know if the hair was more conspicuous or the razor burn that I now have!
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On another unrelated note, do you know what word really makes me laugh? Pannus. First of all it sounds funny, secondly, the thing that it means is pretty funny too.

The Curse that keeps on giving

Wouldn't it be sweet if we could hear what people are thinking in their heads. Like in the movie What Women Want. (*I think you're soooooo hot; I just want to wring your neck until the lights turn out; Who dresses you?*) Mind you, nobody would EVER get along, but I'd like to hear what people are really, really, saying in their heads. Better yet, I'd like to have people hear what I am saying in my head. If you know me, you'll find that I hardly ever swear - in my head it sounds really venomous and blood-curdling but it just doesn't seem to have the right effect when it comes out of my mouth.

I am angry. Really fucking angry for caring too much. Consider this my blue period. What frustrates me the most is that I want to say all of these things, but I can't. I want to scream at the top of my lungs, but I won't. I want to....nuh-uh....too R-rated for your viewing.

So cheers to you, you *(&$%*&&#^^%(((&%&*)__!!@$#)(*$W%^@*&%(*@$%()*%^&# and I wish that you *&^$#*@((($&&#($_)^@*&!#)(*%&$%*&$@()*$%@>>?#)_^@+=-! Period.