A Thanksgiving Update

Wow, work really does take a toll on one’s blogging output. I can’t even imagine trying to blog and raise a family at the same time! It’s hard enough having juggling it with kitchen cleaning and other household chores.

But I have some downtime at work today (given that I still haven’t been given any actual work yet), so here’s a little update for you.

- Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for it to go any better. I must admit I was a little disappointed to learn that my parents were only visiting for one night and my other parents were out of town for the whole weekend. But things worked out well!

- Friday night my parents came down for a visit, arriving at my place around dinner time. We socialized for a bit before embarking on a 4 hour outing to Lee’s Palace. The Family Three, as Matt likes to call us, attended a Magnolia Electric Company concert and enjoyed some beer, yummy pizza, and pretty good music. Matt was able to snap a wonderful picture of my dear little mother and I drinking. My friends are all jealous.

- Saturday night 67% of the family headed back to London on an evening train. Later on, a few Ivey friends came in to visit from Guelph / other various Toronto outskirts. We met up with some other mutual friends at Hemingway’s in Yorkville and had a good time there despite that it was raining on the patio and it totally ruined my hair … We rounded out the night with some traditional Chinese food and a nice little group sleepover at my place.

- Sunday began with breakfast out with the same group of friends, followed by some general house cleaning. Around 5pm I went to a work friend’s apartment on Queens Quay for Thanksgiving dinner. Exhausted from the night before, I slept until dinner was produced and again while waiting for dessert. Nevertheless, there was quite a lot of bonding and good conversations – it was, in fact, the best dinner party I’ve ever attended.

- What I am thankful for: considering the diversity of problems that other people in the world are experiencing right now, I am so incredibly blessed to be: healthy, employed, safe, and in possession of a wonderful support network of family and multiple groups of amazing friends.

The Big Move

I'm not going to write about all the millions of things went wrong, because I've done my venting to family and friends and have put that day to rest. But, I will share some of the positive details about my big move to Toronto.

- I really like the apartment itself. It's in a great location, walking distance from groceries, drug stores, comic stores (!!), a Canadian tire, the Eaton center, and all my favorite shoe stores. It's also a few minutes from the Bloor subway station, which means virtually never having to transfer subway lines. Moreover, it's cozy but I'm enjoying that (it's so easy to walk from one side to the other!), and it has everything I need.
- It was nice to have all my friends get together, and a couple of them stayed the night - good to have company for the first night.
- Last weekend, Mom and Matt made the trip down and helped me set up furniture, electronics, and paintings. A big help! And I think a fun weekend had by all.

Other Vehicles Beware!

This morning I took my G road test. After having mild hysteria the night before, I had calmed myself down this morning (and done some last minute practicing of my less-than-ideal parallel parking skills) and embarked with my Grandpa to the testing facility. Went to the bathroom, registered, and then sat in the hot car next to field of ragweed (my prime allergy) for 30 minutes. Finally my tester, a nice old-ish man came out, checked my signals and horn, and off we went. Travelled along the 402 to the 401 Wellington Rd. exit (about 3-5 minutes in all), made some turns, did a parallel park and a 3-point turn, etc. The tester would frequently jot things down on his clipboard, so when we finished I was sure I had failed. Turns out he was just noting that I had completed the tasks! The parallel park went close to perfectly, and in the end I only made a few minor mistakes. No more driving tests till I'm 80! Yay :)

Moving!

Taking a short break from my packing (which is mostly done). Two friends are coming and staying over around 10pm tonight. Two other friends are meeting us in the morning. One thing I'm a little worried about is acquiring my U-Haul truck. I made the reservation online and just called them asking when/where I could pick it up. They told me that they would call me tomorrow. Problem is, I only have the elevator in London from 9am-1am, so if I don't get the truck by 8:30... Thus I whined only to be told that they best option they could give me would be for me to call them at 7 in the morning. Apparently they don't often get trucks returned on time, so it'll be iffy. U-Haul really needs a better supply chain management system!!

Other than that ... I'm really excited to get settled in Toronto. I was able to see my new place a few weeks ago and I LOVE it! Hopefully will post some pictures soon.

Life updates!

No time for breathing these days, all life all the time! Here's some of what I've been busy with:

Accounting Courses --- Ivey may be in the ground, but accountants never sleep! So far we've written 3 exams, done 2 presentations and submitted 2 assignments. Did I mention we started these courses only two weeks ago?! Still to go there is one exam and 4 assignments. Funnily, this hasn't been stressing me out that much. The only difference between getting a 50 and a 90 is personal satisfaction ... it still just goes down as pass or fail on your CA transcript! (I've been getting 80s, for the record).

Europe Trip Planning --- I leave in less than 3 weeks and I'm gone for quite a long time. I'm also going alone, and in peak season, which means it is really best to book hostels in advance. All of which adds up to a pound of work. You should see my spreadsheets!

Saying Goodbye to Friends --- nearly everyone but the accountants and those who hail from London have left by now, but at one point I had a close friend leaving nearly every day! Many of whom (because Ivey graduates tend to pursue international careers) I will not see for at least a few years. And of course everyone wants to have dinner or hang out before they leave...

The Toronto Kerfuffle --- so you may remember a few months ago I joyfully posted some pictures of my future roommate, Azadeh. Well turns out that's not happening! She's transferring to a different school and won't be living in Toronto anymore. As much of a hassle this is, a part of me is relieved because she is really quite unreliable. I've been talking to a few friends and haven't had much luck finding a new roommate yet. I know a couple of Ivey girls who want to collect 4-5 girls and get a big house in North York. This would be great except they're being sort of wishy-washy about doing it for sure ... I just want people who can committ! So if there's one thing keeping me up at night, it's this.

Tying Up Lose Ends --- along with the trip planning, comes things like taxes (which are done but still not sent in! I suck!), cancelling internet for the summer, dealing with graduation details, needing to get glasses before I leave, confirming employment details with Deloitte, etc. etc.

Not complaining or anything - these last few weeks have honestly been great! But if you haven't heard from me in a while and you think you should have (i.e. my parents! not the rest of you!), here endeth my explanation.

Hello again

I went away for a little bit, and now I am back. Did you miss me? I bet you didn't even notice I was gone. Well I missed you, in any case!

Where was I? Well in Kelowna for 2 days, very last minute. My dad has to travel out West on business a few times a year (visiting clients), and usually Trish (his live-in girlfriend) goes with him to keep him company. But she couldn't go this time because she hurt her neck/back/all over and recently quit her job, so not a good time for her to be travelling. Dad said his work had already paid for all of her travelling costs, etc. so I got to go skiing for a couple days and spend some quality time with my dad -- all for a total cost of $5 (lunch at the airport) and only one hour of missed school. Not really something you pass up, even if you already have 2 vacations planned for the next 6 months! Anyways, I don't have any exciting stories to tell but there are a few random anecdotes that are perfect for blogging so expect to hear those soon.

In other news:
- Excited to watch Battle Royale, the movie, sometime this weekend.
- I've gotten into the habit of watching Letterman every night. Usually just the first 20 minutes unless the guest is funny. It's kind of nice to have a pattern and a reliable bedtime. For the last 2 or 3 years I've been pretty all over the place, ranging from 10pm-4am bedtimes. Now I generally turn off the TV at midnight, read for a bit, and lights off at 12:30. It's nice to have a little structure again.
- Almost finished reading the 4th (of 5) installment of the Vinyl Cafe series. This was the only one I hadn't read yet. I really can't get enough! If there were 20 others, I'd read them all ... consecutively ... right now.
- This makes me die inside a little.

Totally flipped on the cat

So, one of the stranger sights I witnessed today was the way my cat chose to exit his litter box. He came screaching out like a racoon was hot on his tail, one piece of poop flew out of his bum, then he proceeded to squat and slide rapidly across the carpet, removing another piece and leaving a brownish trail in his wake. What bizarre behavior, considering there was nothing to scare him (no loud noises and I wasn't even near the litter box). So I gave him a really hard time, including a swat and a lot of yelling.

I think I'll be one of those impatient parents who eventually resorts to beating the crap out of her kids with a wooden spoon to get them to behave. I think something on my list of "husband requirements" should be someone who can prevent me from doing this!

Stuff about the 90s

I think the only songs I like from the 90s are Smells Like Teen Spirit, a handful of U2 songs (though, as a collection, it's 1/100th as good as their 80s stuff), and 1979.

There's probably a handful of others I'm forgetting at the moment, but still - what a terrible decade! Thankfully everything else was great.

- Fresh Prince of Bel Air opening credits (I can still do the entire thing)
- Leggings, the first time
- Babysitter Club, Goosebumps
- Saturday morning TV that was actually good
- Side ponytails and scrunchies
- Smurfs
- Power Rangers, Care Bears, Saved by the Bell, 90210, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Ghostwriter, The Secret Life of Alex Mac, Pinky and the Brain, Ninja Turtles
- Talk to the hand
- Slap bracelets
- The Macarena
- Stickers worn on your face as makeup (I swear this wasn't just me)

etc. etc.

The fourth arrow

Today I discovered for the very first time that when fast-forwarding through a program on my "Sara" PVR I could make it go at NASA speeds with the illustrious fourth arrow. For over a year I had believed the fastest possible level was three arrows. I'm assuming I've just been strangely ignorant of this, and it's not a new feature? How odd.

Bearded Lady

So the bus was rather crowded today, but one college-aged brown girl stood out. She was the closest thing to the bearded lady I have ever seen. Granted, not a full-blown bear mask, but she had significant stubble on the entirety of her chin and lower cheeks.

In an act of bus karma, I was told on the very same ride that I looked like Marie Osmond. Dear old man, please keep your comments to yourself next time.

Update on the purse

- Still missing. Tried calling my cell phone number, no one answered. Sent it a text message with my mom's work number just in case some non-thief wants to return it.
- Met mom at the train station and got into my apartment. Luckily I have spare keys already, so she just had to let me in. As Matt mentioned in an email to me, I totally spaced on remembering that the landlady could let me in - she's hardly ever in her office, and I have bad memories of my old landlord (whenever I called her for anything, she'd swear at me... long story).
- Big thanks to Matt for phoning the LTC and reporting it stolen. I only have 10 min breaks in between classes in which to relocate, plug in computer, check/send emails, get food/go to the bathroom, etc. By the time I realized it was missing I only had one of those breaks left. I was able to borrow a friend's cell phone and attempted calling the LTC and my mom at work but no answer on either counts - so I resorted to a last minute email to Matt before my internet access was cut off. So thankfully he phoned and left them his number in case it turns up.

Anyways, fingers crossed that it turns up tomorrow. And in the meantime I am only reachable via email and msn.

Oh silly purse, stop wandering away

I seem to have left my purse on the bus this morning. I'm really hoping I can recover it because if not it means having to purchase/deal with getting: a new cell phone, key copies, garage remote, and actual purse. My phone is pretty old, and it was free to me, so I didn't actually lose something valuable but replacing it is bound to be expensive.

Fortunately, as you can see, this could be a lot worse but I had removed my iPod this morning because the battery had died (otherwise it would still be in there) and a few other items worth about $30 had been tangled on the iPod headphones and in my morning rush been removed as well.

I also keep all my wallet-type things (money, credit card, ID) in with my bus pass which, thank god, I had put into my coat pocket.

So all in all, hassley, but not as hassley as it could have been. I've appealed to my mommy to call the LTC and stay at work a bit later today so I can pick up her spare keys.

Kicked the Crap Out of Those Old Ladies

Well I opted out of drinking for a change, as I was suppose to and really probably should have gone to the Palasad and then Barking Frog on a semi-official exchange student outing. But I shluffed off my buddy duties (it was really a mandatory event, like tomorrow morning where I have to get up at - shudder - 7:30!!). Note that this is teasing because I know most of you have to get up before then every day.

Anyways what I decided to do instead was go play cards at my Grandma's with some of her old lady friends. It started off with Canasta (which I lost, but it's all based on luck anyways), then moved into Euchre (I came in 2nd, and I had terrible cards every hand), and finally my forte because it actually requires a significant amount of skill and luck barely factors into it at all: Old Hell. Also known as Scratch and Bugger Your Neighbour. This is the game where you have to bid on how many tricks you are going to take, given a certain trump suit. See, there isn't much luck involved because if you get bad cards but bid correctly then you do just as well as if you had good cards.

So I didn't really "kick the crap" out of anyone, considering I only won 1 game out of 3, but I thought it made for a suggestive title.

Foreign People are Nice

I don't know if it's their broken English (which in this case is actually pretty good) or their innocence of not knowing where anything is, but they all seem really nice.

I had 6 of them over last night. You see, I'm an exchange buddy who agreed to show two of these little foreigners around for the semester, answer any of their dumb questions, etc. One of my buddies, from Poland, just moved in on the 4th and lives with a couple of kids from Denmark. There were a few others who got to London early (and none of the other Canadian Ivey students are in town yet) so I agreed to take them all out. Asides from the aforementioned, there was one from Germany, one from Brazil, and one from Spain. An interesting bunch. It was neat to compare social customs. Rather unfortunately (or not, depending on your viewpoint), there is no such thing as a 2am last call in any of their countries. So I was pretty tired and ready to go home by 1:30 but they were still ridiculously energetic as apparently they're used to staying out till 6am. And they still seemed to get up earlier than me this morning because I had a message waiting asking me to meet them to see Rocky Balboa. Ummm just how far do you think my duties extend?

Much Music is Stupid

Not that this is a new epiphany, but it came to my attention in particular today as watching their rendition of the "Top 100 Videos EVER". This isn't a VH1 or even MTV list, so I wasn't expecting to see the usual list-toppers like Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer, Michael Jackson's Thriller, Madonna's Like a Prayer, A-Ha's Take On Me, etc. This is a fair allowance, seeing as the majority of Much Music's viewers (aged 13-18) wouldn't have ever seen these videos before.

BUT, I didn't even recognize half of the videos! And it's only been a couple years since I gave up on following current music closely. Approximately 70% of the videos were from the last 2 years. COME ON, this is pathetic. I would have hoped for a better range of videos from maybe 1990 onwards? Or even just the last 10 years! You know, a little Freedom, Virtual Insanity, 1979, Ironic, Sabotage, Waterfalls, Loser, Smells Like Teen Spirit, etc. To give you a taste of just how bad this list was, the top 5:

5. Work it, Missy Elliott
4. Dirrty, Christina Aguilera
3. Cry Me a River, Justin Timberlake (this one is actually pretty great, regardless of your opinion of the song or artist ... IMO)
2. Baby One More Time, Britney Spears (also deserving of a spot, for a much music list anyways)
1. Stan, Eminem (stupid)

I'm thinking I should start a new label for my posts called "Grievances". That foot post got me thinking about it.

Noisy Neighbours

At least 2 boys live next door to me in my apartment building. One works across the street at the Radisson (?) hotel as a bellhop. I know because one time in the elevator he was talking about how he had lent his tie to a hotel patron. Earlier this year (Sept onwards) they'd been fairly noisy, often playing loud music and yelling. The walls are pretty thin here and even though the elevators are between us it seems my bedroom is right next to their living room. I could sometimes even make out the actual words they were saying, if that's any indication.

So around October I ran into the bellhop in the elevator again, and when he saw we were getting off on the same floor, he asked which unit I lived in. He was quite dismayed when I told him, as apparently his group had thought they were neighbourless. He promised they would keep it down in the future, and to just pop over if they were being too loud. And, surprisingly, this has been very true - generally quite quiet over there for the last few months.

Then a few days ago there was some sort of raucous fight between multiple boys around 8am. Lots of swearing, yelling, door slamming, etc. Then one screamed that he had to go to work and it ended. Well, they seem to be having a lot of trouble over there lately, as last night around 3am they got into it again, this time with a girl doing most of the screaming. Luckily I'm a fairly sound sleeper, not easily annoyed, and don't have to get up at any certain time these days.

Apparently I'm the oldest person alive

Clocking in at a ripe 250 years of age, I was born in the year of the rat.

In other news, I may have to do some salsa dancing tonight if I can't persuade the others to go to a normal kind of establishment.

My adventure on Dundas street

I think I might see Happy Feet tomorrow as a matinee. Not that I think it'll make my list for 2006, but it might be fun and it's only $4 and I'm not quite bored yet but almost.

Today was an exciting day, from being woken up at 9am (early for those of us who had been getting up at 1pm), to running around dealing with rent cheques (Dad got his wallet stolen about a month ago, whole kerfuffle with the pre-authorized debit things), lunch with Mom, Dr.'s appointment at 6pm. Speaking of that, apparently all doctors in Ontario have to "night hours" one day a week. I think these run until about 8pm. My guess is that it's for single moms (for instance) who can't get off work during the daylight hours. I felt kind of bad for my old man doctor. At least he's still robust, not feeble.

He convinced me to go in for a phyiscal some time in late January.

So anyways, there was kind of a story here I swear. The combination of these new night hours and the fact that it's about 2 blocks away from my apartment lead to me walking the streets of almost EOA (not quite) after dark. I am not afraid of such things at all, but on the way back there was a slightly sketchy looking young man walking in front of me. I crossed the street (not to get away from him, it was just street crossing time), but shortly after I did I believe he was tackled to the ground by some other men? Being as it was dark, it was hard to tell exactly what had happened. But there was definitely one man on the ground, behind held down by two other men. No one was yelling, and the two standing men seemed to have flashlights which I thought might be a sign of "good guys" ? It didn't really seem like much of a struggle, so I briefly considered phoning the police (while funnily trying to stay out of sight in case I was witnessing some kind of criminal activity) but opted to just walk home instead. Hope my inaction didn't cause any harm.

I'm try and be the type who opts for acting, even though I'm just a girl and not a very big one at that. I just never want to be one of those people who hears someone screaming and does nothing just because they assume someone else will. But in this case, I think inaction was the right choice.

Happy New Year!

I don't have any resolutions that I plan to stick by, but here are some random thoughts on general goals / improvements I would like to have in the grand old era of 2007:

1) Stick to my budget
- I made one for the summer of 2006, and then adapted it for the school year 2006/2007. So far it has been going quite well. I am about $1000 under budget for the first semester of school, and that's a nice feeling. So I guess you could say my goal for next semester would be the same level of saving. Most of my money in 2007 will be going towards (in no particular order): books/school fees, cost of living from Jan-May (food, cable, etc.), cancun trip, europe trip, buying car from parents, extra accounting course fees (for the CA requirements), moving fees to Toronto, first/last month's rent in Toronto (not excited for this).

2) Excel at work
- Hopefully I'll have work to do! If they start me off not doing anything, that's not a good thing for me. I need to be motivated and busy from the beginning or I'll get used to doing nothing! Of course I would overcome this onset laziness, because I don't want to be unemployed!

3) Find a good balance between serious and care-free
- I used to be all the former, now I'm almost all the later. Balance is needed.

4) Continue being social
- As a sidebar to #3, it's worth noting that I've become ridiculously social in the last year. Sometimes I'm still shy, usually when tired, but most of the time I put myself out there, meet lots of new people, organize social gatherings, etc. This has been a great change in my life because I've made so many new friends, and I enjoy being a "go to" kind of person who always knows everyone, and what the plans are.

5) Health stuff
- This is a pretty typical resolution. Eat less, exercise more darn it!

6) Life-long learning
- Read at least X number of books. Suggestions on how high this number should be?
- Read The Economist at least once a month, or keep up on current events in some other fashion.
- Take up some kind of enriching hobby (gardening? cooking? 2nd language?)

7) Fashion
- stayed tanned (still not vacuous, I promise) and fashionable

What I plan to do with the rest of my time off

1) Sleep
2) Tan (not to be too vacuous, it's just that I'm awfully pale and I don't want to spend my entire spring break and then the summer nurturing sun burns.)
3) Go to the gym
4) Accounting course #1
5) Accounting course #2
6) Watch movies
7) Play Caesar IV
8) Annoy my grandparents and parents a bit more