Apparently, I'm "It"

I've been "tagged" by an old friend of mine, Blue Trillium. I don't normally do these things but this one is interesting and relatively short, so I guess I'll give it a shot.

Four Interesting Jobs:
1. A Tim Hortons employee (for two unpaid nights)
2. A Parks & Rec summer volunteer (ach! too many wee ones!)
3. A project engineering co-op, working with sensors for the International Space Station
4. A good-natured coat-rack (that's an on-going gig)

Four Places I've Lived/Stayed:
1. Toronto (forever!)
2. Waterloo (ah, the good old days of one-pot dinners and never-ending landlord disputes)
3. Tours, France (staying with a friend)
4. Copenhagen, Denmark (staying with a different friend)

Four Countries to Visit: (only four??)
1. Spain
2. Guatamala
3. Ireland
4. Fiji

Four Favourite Dishes:
1. Crème brulée
2. Raspberry ______ (fill-in-the-blank)
3. My mom's chicken and rice
4. Scrambled eggs

Four Sites I Visit Daily:
1. Ucomics (need my "Heart of the City" fix ever since they stopped running it in the paper)
2. All of my friends' blogs
3. Environment Canada's Weather Office
4. Google (I'm always looking something up)

Four Things I Will Never Forget:
1. My family
2. My friends
3. All the little people...
4. My life (I hope)

Four Things I Wish I Realized Earlier in Life:
1. Everything always works out in the end, so quit worrying
2. Love hurts
3. Growing old is nothing to be scared of
4. I don't look good with short hair

Four Next Bloggers Tagged:
1. Alderman
2. A Day in the Life of KaRe^BeAr
3. hyc.blog (because you need a new entry)
4. Prove My Hypothesis (because you REALLY need a new entry)

Your Vote Makes A Difference

So, the first installment of "What Do You Think?" here on APG wasn't as overwhelmingly successful as I had hoped. But in the end, the (lone) voice of my audience has spoken, and I'm pleased to announce that:

I'M GOING TO PUERTO RICO!

I'll be going with a couple of good friends for a week in July. I can't wait. Of course, Guatamala was intriguing to me too, but with only a week budgeted for an exotic adventure, I felt it wouldn't be enough time. Especially when I looked more closely and realized that if I'm already in the area, I should also check out Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. Costa Rica would be fun too, but I've already been there.

So, why Puerto Rico in the first place?

1) I don't plan on lying on a beach at an all-inclusive resort for an entire week;
2) it's small enough that a week would probably cover most of the entire country;
3) it's a US commonwealth, so I don't even need to bring a passport (yet);
4) I get to practice my español;
5) it's low season in July (read: cheap!);
6) I could potentially converse with aliens (Arecibo!).

On the dicey side, it is also hurricane season, but I have a good feeling that everything will work out just fine. Statistically, I bring good weather with me on vacation (last year's Copenhagen experience is my prime example where it was cold and wet before I arrived, brilliantly sunny and unseasonably warm for the three days I was there, and reverted back to cold and wet after I left).

T minus two and a half months and counting.

"Vacation, all I ever wanted, vacation, had to get away"

Carnage

In the past week or so, I've heard four different car accident stories. What is going on here?

1. A week ago Friday, the weather was pretty bad and one of my co-workers was sort of in a rush to get home. She lost control of her car while turning left but luckily only crashed into the guard rail and didn't hit any other cars. She was slightly freaked out, this being her first car accident, and it was lucky that another co-worker was still at the office and was able to go and help her out. Thankfully her weekend wasn't ruined and she was still able to drive to Chicago on Saturday.
2. A friend of mine just started a new job in Hamilton. Since she hasn't found a place to stay in town, she has to commute from Scarborough every day. Monday was her first day at work, and on her way home she was involved in a minor fender-bender. She was the one who rear-ended the guy's van, and she agreed to pay him cash and not get insurance involved, but it was pretty sketchy since the damage to her car and the damage to the guy's back bumper didn't exactly match...
3. I had my corporate orientation on Tuesday. Part of the day's activities was having lunch with upper management. In the middle of lunch, the President's cell phone rang. His wife had just been t-boned at an intersection to the extent that it sounded like her car rolled over. She called him after she called 911, which seemed to indicate that she was okay, but naturally he left the lunch immediately. I heard later on that they took her to the hospital to get her checked out but she was fine.
4. My brother's friend was at our house on Friday to help him get his kart set up. He had parked his little red car on the street so that they would have the whole driveway as well as the garage to work on the kart. Across the street, our neighbour had visitors and they were backing their van out and ended up hitting his car. These little old ladies were about to take off as if nothing had happened, but my brother and his friend came out of the garage (having heard the sound of crunching metal) and chased them down. Everything I know about this incident is hearsay, but our neighbour seemed to insinuate that the whole thing was his fault for parking on the street. I've pretty much lost all respect for her. Her husband was apparently cool about the whole thing and seemed to be embarrassed about the scene she was making. Good thing the damages weren't too costly.

Please friends, take care of yourselves on the road. This is a disturbing trend to me, and I don't want to have to write about anything worse than these incidents.

"I felt the earth on Monday, it moved beneath my feet"

Expensive Habit

The location of my not-so-new-anymore job is right at the edge of suburbia. Far enough that, as I drive home on the highway, I pass a service centre. Everyone knows that service centres exist for people who have poor gas management skills, who are in far too much of a hurry to get their vacation started, or who are too timid to venture off the highway even for a few kilometres to look for a normal gas station. In short, we all know that these places will gouge you silly.

I've been working for about two months now, and I've noticed that every day on my way home, there is a dark green van filling up at the exact same pump at the service centre. First of all, it surprises me greatly that there are people who really use it. If they had just gotten off the highway at the previous exit 500 meters behind them, they would have been staring at a gas station (and it's even the same company). But that van puzzles me the most. Do they really need gas that badly? Are they really that unwilling to fully exit the highway to find a normal gas station? Do they have extra money to burn? Could they give some of that money to me and I'll go get some cheaper gas for them?

I looked over at the station today as I passed and was initially shocked that the pump was vanless (my little story would be ruined!). But then I saw it parked at another pump. I guess even creatures of habit need a little variety.

Before I close off, I wonder how many of you noticed the gigantic photo of the craziest looking condominium on the front page of the Toronto Star today? Well, that thing is going to be my new neighbour. For the record, I'd like to say that I didn't vote for it. I went with the most normal-looking design that would have matched the first three towers. Yeah, it's kind of typical, but it was the one I was the most willing to stare at every day. I have to admit, the "Marilyn" is slightly better than four of the other five designs that were being considered (I would have been pretty peeved if the "Spiderweb" or the "Jenga" buildings had won), and I'm slowly getting used to it. I am extremely curious to see what the floorplans will look like.

"Save your strength, save your wasted time, there's no way that I want you to be left behind"

Science and Progress

I'm still humming various Coldplay tunes in my head. The concert itself was a great contemplative experience. As I sat there in the arena, it occurred to me that there were an inordinate number of flashes coming from the audience. Some of them were really quite blinding, as though they were pointed right at me. It was odd because there really wasn't anything happening at that moment; the stage was empty. But as I kept watching it, it strongly reminded me of watching a thunderstorm from an airplane at night. Looking down, you can see all of the flashes spread out over a huge distance, randomly popping up here and there. And here it was recreated for me with cameras. So natural and artificial at the same time...it was awesome.

The same thing was noted during the slower songs. Maybe a few dozen people whipped out the traditional lighters for "The Scientist", but more people pulled out their cell phones to wave back and forth. Looking out over the audience was like looking up at the stars. I'm starting to see that more and more at the concerts I attend. A strange mix of beauty and technology.

"Homes places we've grown all of us are done for, and we live in a beautiful world"

What Do You Think? - Part 1

Loyal readers, this is the first installment of "What Do You Think?" - the first blog poll featured here on APG. I value everyone's comments about my thoughts, and I think it's about time that I take the opportunity to ask what your thoughts are on certain issues that come to my mind. So, here we go:

If you had the choice to spend one week in one of these two countries, which would you choose and why?

a) Puerto Rico
b) Guatamala

Please write your answers in the Comments section. Thanks in advance to everyone who responds. I look forward to reading your opinions.

"Tropical the island breeze, all of nature wild and free, this is where I long to be, la isla bonita"

Happy SAD

In the past few years, I had been celebrating this day as the annual NoMan event. But the term had always been too biased. On the other hand, NoPerson didn't have the same ring to it either. So I never changed it even though I knew it was not as all-inclusive as it could potentially be. Then I remembered a friend of mine once referred to the day as Singles Awareness Day, which sounded much better and promoted singleness regardless of the demographic you belonged to. Of course, the acronym for this occasion turned out to be SAD, which is quite frankly the most ironic thing I've ever heard.

As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing sad about being single. I know there's no way for me to say this without sounding like I'm trying really hard to convince myself and the rest of the world, but I'm perfectly content to be on my own at this point. There's a whole list of things that I want to experience, and being single simply makes it easier to attempt them. And it's not as though I'm against the idea of being involved with another person. If I happen to find someone with whom I can share my life, then great! I'd be the first person to say "Woo hoo!" (My mother would be the second person) Until then, I've got things to do, places to go, and people to see. So kindly step aside.

Happy SAD to all my fellow singletons.

"I'll stop the world and melt with you, you've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time"

Spectacular Debt

Wow...I'm about to have a Simpsons moment...please bear with me...

Grampa Simpson: "Lay-tex Con-dome. Boy, I'd sure like to live in one of those!"

Okay, while I won't be living in one of those, I will be living in a brand spanking new condo unit in Mississauga.

I'm sure some of you will now be scrolling back through my blog archives, looking for some mention of this in a previous post. But you won't find any. I only started looking for potential units last Tuesday. I made my decision on Thursday, and I was going to make the deal yesterday, but as it turned out, yesterday was the groundbreaking ceremony. My parents and I had no idea, so when we showed up and saw over a hundred people in the presentation centre, we were thinking that this place must be selling like hot cakes (I personally don't know how well hot cakes sell, but suffice it to say, they probably sell very quickly). We wandered in, helped ourselves to the free food and drink, listened to the mayor say a few words (geez, I really hope I'm as lively as she is when I turn 85), and tried to get the attention of a sales rep, but we were informed that it was not a good day to talk business. So we went back today and signed the deal. I swear, it was so quick and painless, I thought I was doing something wrong. Even my dad (who, by the way, is the best real estate agent in the whole world) was slightly surprised and mostly relieved that it all went so smoothly. We even got everything we wanted, including my beloved breakfast bar.

So the first deposit installment is down, the papers are signed, and now all I have to do is pay a visit to a laywer and prepare to shell out money for the next few months until I'm spectacularly in debt for the first time in my life. The closing for this place is October 2007, so I'm going to be excited for quite some time.

What's really great is that I already know what I want for my birthday and Christmas for the next two years.

Stage 2 of Plan B complete. Proceed to Stage 3.

"Homeward bound, I wish I was homeward bound"

The Hills Are Alive...And So Am I

Forget all this balmy, rainy, spring-like weather. I want snow. And lots of it. So since it wouldn't come to me, I went to it. As they say in one of my favourite movies: "Vermont is America's Snow Playground." And they weren't kidding about that.

I spent three awesome days skiing at Jay Peak Resort in Vermont. A guy I knew from university has been organizing this trip annually for about five years. It has ballooned to about 250 people, which made it ridiculously cheap. The cost included bus, accommodation in a condo, three full-day lift tickets, the party on Saturday night, taxes, and a tip for the bus driver. We left town Thursday at about midnight and got to the resort at 9am on Friday morning. I wasn't sure if I'd have the energy to ski for a whole day after not getting much sleep on the bus, but I managed somehow. This was my first time on an actual mountain, and holy crap, I loved it. I was able to stay on the green (read: easy) runs for the whole day and yet not get bored, because there were so many to choose from. My favourite was the glades. Skiing through the trees was awesome, although there was one run with a terrifying drop and then a sharp right turn which, if not executed properly, would allow you to become well acquainted with the forest.

The second day I was slightly braver and took the lift that brought me almost to the top of the peak and into the blue runs. The wind had been kind of bad the day before but they were fierce at the top. It didn't do anything for my confidence as I stared down the easiest blue that was dotted with icy patches. A few of my fellow novice skiiers and I slowly made our way down. We came out relatively unscathed. In the afternoon, we attempted a different blue on the other side of the mountain, where it turned out the wind was even stronger and the run was not just icy, but covered with icy moguls. This time I didn't quite make it down gracefully, but I was okay.

On the third day, we put on our best game faces and took the gondola all the way up to the top. Thankfully, there was absolutely no wind, and we took a fairly easy (but narrow and extremely close to the edge of a cliff) way back to the first blue run again. We were all really surprised at how much easier the blue seemed to be this time. After that, we just took it easy and swooshed down the green glades and easy hills until it was time to go home.

I was pretty proud of myself for getting through the weekend in one piece. Unfortunately, one of my friends was injured to the point that she needed to be taken to the hospital to get stitches for her forehead. This news came to us as we were packing up the bus to go home. We quickly grabbed her stuff and our bus took a detour to the hospital where we waited for her to be patched up. She was a little worn out but everything was fine. After a dinner stop somewhere in Quebec, we ended up arriving back in town at around 2:30am (more than two hours behind the other buses). The interesting (and rather amusing) turn of events came when we got to the border. I suppose the other buses had gone through the same checkpoint and told them there was another bus coming that had a girl with a head wound on it. We barely stopped at the gate when we were waved right through. At that moment, I wished I had bought more stuff at the duty free store.

So, I've covered most of the skiing bits but didn't really get to the social parts of the weekend. It's really hard to compress it all into a readable paragraph that doesn't ramble on and on, but the synopsis is: it was fun. My condo had seven other people in it, and combined with a neighbouring condo we were a party of fifteen. Our group shared the grocery bill and ate pretty well all weekend (steak dinner the first night, Chinese New Year dinner the second night). I got to meet a lot of new people, hang out with a fun crowd, and play with fire. The party on Saturday night had a '90s theme, and it was pretty crazy. Let's just say that I have to get back at the Butabi Brothers sometime in the near future. Damn, I have to get a hold of those photos...

"Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me no more"

A Lot More "New" Than Expected

Happy New Year to you all.

It's been kind of quiet on my part lately. There was a good reason for it: it's a little hard to talk when you're holding your breath.

For the last month or so, I was being considered for a position in another pharmaceutical company. This was entirely of my own doing, since I went and applied to the job posting. It's a validation specialist position, which is more in line to what I'm interested in doing. I didn't tell anyone (outside of my family) in an effort to avoid jinxing the entire process. The last time I was this excited about a job prospect, I didn't get it, and then afterwards everyone I had told asked if I had gotten it. It was like reliving the disappointment over and over.

It wasn't like I was actively looking for a new job. I just casually glanced around here and there for the past few months. If it weren't for the fact that my current job didn't utilize much of the knowledge and skills I had paid so much to learn in university, I would have stayed there for a long time. There are also some personal perks associated with this new job which helped me with my decision:

1) the company is 15 minutes away from my house,
2) I'll get to work with new products, and the duties are more applicable to my goal of becoming a professional engineer, and
3) despite first appearances, and after doing some calculations, I'll actually be making the slightest bit MORE (per hour) than I am now.

They offered me the position yesterday and I accepted this morning. The only thing left to do was to break the news to my boss and co-workers. There was some degree of surprise, and a little sadness mixed in with the happy from everyone. I will sorely miss this group when I leave in two weeks. One of my co-workers was slightly more distraught over my leaving than the others. Of course, she's the one whose workload will probably double until they hire my replacement, so it's understandable. Even the director of my department expressed his sadness to me personally. I think he's gotten used to my quick responses to his requests.

I've got a few days of recreation scheduled after my last day, and then it's straight to my new place of employment. Onward and upward.

Stage 1 of Plan B complete. Proceed to Stage 2.

"It's like the calm before the storm, you'd better swim"

The Cost of Stupidity

I lost $100 tonight. Not for any particular reason, I just lost it by being stupid and putting $100 in my pocket instead of somewhere else. If it were just my own money, I suppose I would feel stupid enough, but in this particular case:

a) it was a Christmas gift from my uncle, and
b) it was to be split between me and my brothers.

The worst part was that we were at a restaurant, and I got out of my chair only once to get some condiments (we were at a hot pot restaurant). That was near the beginning of the evening. Two hours later, no matter where it was or who it was who picked it up, it was definitely long gone.

Of course, I gave my brothers their money and took the loss myself. Then my mother walks into my room with $100. And now I feel EVEN MORE stupid. Why should she pay for my mistake? It was my own stupid fault. She didn't want to see me so sad, she said. I tried my best to talk her out of it but as anyone with a Chinese mother knows, it's pretty futile to even attempt to argue with them.

So Merry Christmas to whomever it was who scored a hundred dollars on a whim at a shabu shabu restaurant in Markham tonight. People gain from stupidity all the time. Especially from mine.

"You stupid girl, all you had you wasted"

What Were the Odds?

Yesterday, my father was driving in our shiny new car and he got struck by a pedestrian. Honestly. He told me this after I had spent two and a half hours trying to get home from work and somehow it both surprised me and didn't surprise me at the same time. I don't recall if he told me where it happened, but basically some guy was getting his car ticketed across the street and in his mad dash to stop the cop he ran into our driver side mirror and cracked it. The guy stopped at first, but that was mainly because the mirror had physically stopped him. Then he was about to keep running to his car when my dad stopped him and showed him the damage. "Oh, your insurance will cover that," he said. WHAT?? Oh, but that's not even the most infuriating part. The most infuriating part was how much it's going to cost to fix the mirror. Even now, I can't bring myself to repeat the number, it's just too ludicrous.

Today I experienced a new level of frustration as I attempted to get Coldplay tickets yet again. I can't believe that I can say that it was much easier to get eight U2 tickets than it was to get a pair of Coldplay tickets. But, after multiple website crashes and a split second of hesitation, I was finally victorious. Now we play the waiting game...

"...aw, the waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos."

"The sign that I couldn't read, or the light that I couldn't see"

What's Important

After a couple of months, my brother has decided to quit his job as an apprentice at a nameless dealership. There are many things I could say about this place, most of which would probably reveal glaring and blatant violations of general labour laws, but I will refrain. I think most people tend to follow this simple guideline: If your place of work is a hazard to your health, you should find another place of work. My brother has been quite unlucky in his recent choices of employers.

Before his untimely descent into unemployment, he was asked to clean up some of the cars that had been returned after the lease had expired. (Why, you might ask, would he be asked to do this? Because the guy who was supposed to do it was fired and had yet to be replaced) This is where he (and I) discovered what people view as being important. First of all, one of the cars experienced some kind of catastrophic snack disaster, where it appeared that an entire bag of potato chips self-destructed. Under the seat, no less. Actually, he was able to find a good portion of the chips UNDER THE FLOOR MAT. People, I don't know if you value your automobile, even ones that you lease, but for pete's sake, that's just gross.

What else did my brother find in these newly abandoned cars? Loose change was a popular one, not just on the floor but also in the storage compartments in plain sight. He claimed it as his gratuity. But that's not very original. Well, how about a bunch of baby photos? Once again, shoved under the seat. I can understand if, like any parent, they had taken a gazillion photos of the kid and losing one or two shots would probably not be so terrible. But what were they doing wedged under the seat?? My brother didn't comment on the appearance of the child. (Hey, there could be good reasons for these things)

Here's the best one: a woman's wallet. Complete with credit cards, the car's license and registration, and $4 worth of Canadian Tire money. He found it...you guessed it...as he was trying to vacuum under the seat and had to stop because something was blocking the hose. I can't recall if the owner returned to the dealership to claim the wallet, but my brother turned it in anyway...after claiming a $4 finder's fee.

So, next time you have to return something, or leave a location, what should you do?

Lesson of the Day: Keep a close eye on your potato chips; you never know when one of those suckers could go off.

"It's a shame we have to die, my dear, no one's getting out of here alive this time"

New Addition to the Family

We welcomed our new baby to our home today. She's so shiny and new.

After months and months of badgering, my father finally found the time to buy a new car. A Hyundai Sonata. It all happened really fast, once the ball actually got rolling.

So what does this mean for me? Well, it means that Phase 1 of my plan has hit a snag. Basically, there's no more room on the driveway. But never fear! Phase 2 will commence shortly.

And now, for those of you who enjoy all things quirky and old-school, this is for you.

"And you may ask yourself, how do I work this? And you may ask yourself, where is that large automobile?"

The Sensation of Falling

While I wouldn't say that I nearly fell to my death a few days ago, it wasn't until after it happened that I could properly evaluate the experience of freefalling. And, given the circumstances, I really only have one thing to say about it.

Cool...

After more than a year, I ventured back to the climbing gym. I knew that my technique had become quite poor (who am I kidding? It was ALWAYS poor), but I had the gear and a few more visits left on my ten-visit pass, so why not?

After a few easy climbs, I went over to a 5.7 that didn't seem too bad. Laurie was belaying me. I climbed to the top of the wall with only a few minor pauses. So I made sure Laurie was ready and I sat in the harness. As she lowered me slowly down, I kept my gaze slightly upward, watching the fake rocks as I passed them. Partway down, Laurie let the rope out a little too quickly and there was a short drop (maybe a foot) before I jerked to a stop. As she started lowering again I could feel the drop again, so I was ready for it. Only this time I didn't jerk to a stop.

I kept falling.

And falling.

And falling.

Until I realized that, hey, I'm kind of falling now.

And hey, that's the floor right there.

And I'm still falling.

And just like in the movies or in cartoons, about two inches from the floor, I stopped falling. My feet touched the ground as though I had meant to plant them there, and I felt Laurie next to me swinging about two feet off the ground.

In reality, it might have been maybe ten feet of falling, but of course in the moment it felt like forever and a split second at the same time.

Some guy (out of the half-dozen witnesses) came over and said to Laurie, "You know, if you lose control of the rope, you just have to let go of the lever."

You know, if you were watching carefully, she did let go of the lever. If she hadn't, I would have been a mangled heap instead of swinging with my butt two inches off the floor. But what you didn't know is that her first instinct was to grab the rope with her right hand, which unfortunately meant that she ended up with a pretty nasty rope burn while I walked away injury-free.

In the end, nobody got permanently hurt and there was never any danger of that happening anyway. Woo hoo for cushy floors.

And Laurie, for God's sake stop apologizing.

"At the end of the world, or the last thing I see, you are never coming home"

Dancing on the Edge

It's been pointed out to me by several loyal readers that I have been very remiss about the frequency of my blogs. And they are very correct. Life is funny that way: you don't blog because there's nothing to blog about, but then everything starts happening and then you don't have time to blog. I'll try to remember what happened, but I think the only way to do this is in reverse. So here goes:

Last night I went out to celebrate the birth of my good friend Livy. She was my clubbing buddy back in the day and when she went off into the world for a couple of years I was sure that my clubbing days were over. But she's back home now and we've had some fun (although my stamina is not what it used to be). As for last night, we started with a Chinese feast with a large number of friends, and then moved the party down to Clubland. The night wasn't quite as crazy as we had anticipated (the venues were not quite as packed as usual). I, however, managed to step right up to the edge of drunkenness and dance my way back from the brink with minimal damage. Unfortunately for Livy, although I knew that she could hold her liquor a little better than the average Asian girl, the event did end with some hair holding. But I'm happy to report that she's feeling much better today, and we've got some photos to remind ourselves of the good times.

I went to the opera on Thursday with my brother. We went to see Carmen, which is one of the few operas that I'm actually familiar with. The best part is that they now have a system called "Surtitles", where the English translations are projected above the stage as the lines are being sung. But I was stunned to see a number of people showing up to the opera in jeans and sweatshirts. Granted, there were two busloads of high school students there, but even amongst some of the adults who attended the performance, the standard of dress was surprisingly causal. I know that we don't have an opera house like they do in Europe, but it just seems to me that the opera is one of those occasions where dressing up is expected.

I know I've mentioned quite forcefully that you should go and see Wallace & Gromit if you can. I can also recommend Corpse Bride. It's a little creepy at one point but the amazing thing is what they can do with the technique of stop-motion. Even though I had put it on my list of movies I wanted to see, it wasn't until I was opening my mail a couple weeks ago that I had made up my mind for sure. I thought I had received another piece of junk, when out of the envelope I pulled a double pass to see the movie for free. I had won a contest I entered months ago and had forgotten all about it. This totally renews my faith in the $2 I spend almost every week for the Super 7. My time will come.

I spent a weekend up north in Muskoka with some of my co-workers and had a blast. They went golfing while I went fishing with another girl. We weren't very successful on the boat, but I caught my first fish off the dock, which was rather exciting. There are too many details to be described here, but I plan on revamping my website, and hopefully that will be up and running by the end of the year (I'm being optimistic), so hold on to your hats until then.

"Monster hospital, can you please release me?"

Wheelings and Dealings

I am still recovering from four weeks of constant activity. It only ended on Friday and, aside from little events here and there, will probably pick up again in about two weeks. During this brief hiatus, I will attempt to convey all of my recent wheelings and dealings in this (hopefully) concise blog.

Labour Day Long Weekend
A road trip to visit Marie and Louis in la belle province. Not your typical jaunt into Montreal. For starters, we were hardly on the island. Except when we followed one of our friends on a blind date. In a nutshell, she gave him all the chances and he still came up "short". Add in a hyperactive cat and a really long game of mah jong, and that adds up to a really relaxing enjoyable visit.

DJ Andrew
Andrew, a friend from way back yonder, has been dabbling in the art of the turntable (if you count a CD player as a turntable...beggers can't be choosers). Jocelyn and I went to see him in action at his favourite place in the whole wide world: a hole-in-the-wall that occasionally passes for a pub. It took us a while to recognize him without the mass of hair on this face and the absence of glasses (it was the Clark Kent effect). But a good time was had by all. We also learned that hosts a karoke night at another local watering hole. In his words, "Good money, bad for the psyche." I can only imagine (until I go there and witness it myself).

Film Fest
It's that time of year again. Learning from last year's logistical meltdown, I wisely chopped my number of tickets down from 30 to 10, and only partnered up with one other person in terms of film selection. Just the same, I was able to take in five films (four regular screenings and one gala).

A travers la foret: One guess as to who chose this film (Jocelyn). A quirky French film dealing with loss and grief. The ending was one of those "what do you mean this is the end??" feelings. But the cinematography was really cool. The whole film (about an hour long) was shot in ten separate scenes, but each scene was one continuous take. It's doubtful that it will ever show in North America again.

These Girls: A twisted Canadian comedy. In a small Maritime town, three teenage girls, fresh out of high school, spend their summer blackmailing an older married guy for sex. Did you ever wonder what Amanda Walsh was doing after quitting MuchMusic? Well check this out. She's the delusional one who thinks the older guy (David Boreanaz of Buffy and Angel fame) is in love with her. Caroline Dhavernas (of the untimely cancelled Wonderfalls) is the devious one. And Holly Lewis (yeah, I don't know who she is either) is the remarkably nutty religious one.

Bee Season: A Richard Gere head-scratcher. I didn't realize it would be so religiously based, but what do I know? In a family of over-achievers, the unknowingly talented daughter discovers she is good at spelling. Hence her secret entrance into spelling bees. The father finds out and focuses his Kaballah studies on her to help her achieve some spiritual state of being where she could possibly talk to God. Meanwhile, the rest of the family falls apart. The daughter brings them back together again, but even now I don't really know how she did it.

China Blue: Coming to a PBS near you. A US-made documentary about migrant workers in Chinese sweatshops. It focuses on young girls who work in a factory making jeans for the "big and fat" Westerners. Really well done considering it also shows the other side of the story (our demand for jeans and other clothes) and the consequences of our desire for cheap goods.

Wallace & Gromit - Curse of the Were-Rabbit: I don't care if you've never heard of Wallace & Gromit, YOU MUST SEE THIS FILM. The makers of "Chicken Run" took five years to bring the short-film adventures of Wallace the inventor and his much smarter dog Gromit to the big screen. Wallace & Gromit operate a humane pest control company, Anti-Pesto, to rid the community of rabbits days before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition. But the presence of the mysterious and devastating were-rabbit threatens everyone's veggies, including Gromit's prized melon. (I know I sound like a promotional junket, but I don't care)

More Concerts
Mixed in with this bag of films was the highlight of the 2005 concert season: the U2 Vertigo tour finally landed in Toronto. Although the reviews weren't glowing, I thoroughly enjoyed my first U2 experience. The occasional political rantings were tolerable. Their catalog is so immense that I know it's impossible to play everyone's favourite songs. I heard that we were robbed of four songs from the previous show, but the story of the origin of the Edge was amusing.

We arrived late to the show, so we missed all but the last ten minutes of Dashboard Confessional's set. Fortuitously, that same night I was invited to go to their special acoustic show last night. All proceeds were donated to Hurricane relief, so if nothing else I was going to go for that reason alone. I'm sort of familiar with their songs, but I think I prefer them much more acoustically. A really long show considering they were playing for free (but for a good cause). Amusing stage banter, and constant spontaneous song-writing live on stage. And Chris is pretty cute. (Thanks Steve!)

And Finally...
After a morning of frantic clicking, I was able to achieve the Canadian Dream. And no, it's not warmth. Although it is just under seven months away, I figure I've waited this long already...

"My hopes are so high, that your kiss might kill me. So won't you kill me? So I die happy"

Year of the Concert

I can almost call the Molson Amphitheatre my home. The ACC would be my second home. The number of concerts I have attended so far this summer has surpassed the number of concerts I've been to in the past five years combined. And I'm not quite done yet.

Let's review:

David Usher - a surprise last-minute concert invite from Cathy was accepted through peer pressure (I was at a birthday bowling event). The best part was that I got to sit down for most of the night. Very rare in a club gig. His music is still good although extremely more mellow than his Moist days.

Sarah McLachlan - I returned the favour and went with Cathy to see my favourite performer. The Perishers, a band from Sweden, were the openers. As expected, a great show.

The Killers - I went to see them two days after I returned from Europe, still a little jet lagged but very excited. Louis XIV and Tegan & Sara were on stage first. Wasn't fully familiar with any of their music, but quickly got into it, especially due to the energy from the crowd.

Jet - Another sudden concert invite, this time from Ron. I had never been to the Opera House before, and it's one of those great intimate venues. Somehow I had managed to position myself just outside the perimeter of the mosh, so I was able to enjoy the show without being manhandled.

Weezer/The Pixies - Amazing double-bill. Second concert with my little bro. "Here Comes Your Man" remains one of my favourite tunes. (I just heard it on the radio today) "El Scorcho" was in my head for days afterwards.

Foo Fighters - Last night's concert was kick-ass! The Constantines were the openers, and they weren't bad, I think I have to listen to their music a little more to get into it. Surprise guests were Sloan, who had been part of the bill in other cities but were not scheduled to be in the line-up (they played at the Rexall Centre the night before with finger eleven and David Usher, and I actually had an opportunity to go to that concert too, but I had other plans). Dave Grohl is an awesome musican. He played drums during the encore which was sweet. This was the last concert with my bro for the year (my concert buddy). He'll be back at school in a few weeks.

Coming up on the horizon: I'm eagerly anticipating the U2 show in September, I just bought tickets to see Metric, and I found out that Our Lady Peace is returning to town. The concert season is far from over...

"If anything could ever be this good again"

Start Your Engines

I don't think I've blogged much about my brother's hobby, have I? He races go-karts competitively. I know...cool, huh? He bought a kart (which I always describe as a chassis with a lawn mower engine and a steering wheel) and all the associated gear. He looks kind of impressive when he's all suited up, doesn't he? Funny story: the place where he ordered his shoes turned out to not have the ones he wanted, so they gave him a pair of better shoes for the same price. They're flame retardant. I asked him what the odds are that he would need flame retardant shoes, and he said very small. But in the event that there is some kind of spectacular accident, every part of his body will go up in flames, except for his feet.

This is his first year, so he's "the Rookie". Today was his fourth race. Usually, his friend Calin goes with him when he races, but he's in Romania for two months, so I've been recruited to help him out in the pit. I've already helped him once on Canada Day. While it may sound glamourous (or not), all it really involves is some heavy lifting, and a lot of sitting and waiting. Each weight and engine class (novice, junior light, junior heavy, senior light, senior heavy, junior rotax, senior rotax, and masters) goes through four rounds: practice, qualifying, pre-final, and final. So, you can imagine how uneventful it can be. But today was kind of exciting. I almost got run over by a junior heavy kart. Apparently his brakes malfunctioned during the practice and he came off the track with no way of stopping. He somehow managed to steer his way around everyone standing in the pit before being pulled to a stop by some of the fathers.

It was also "picture day". They had a professional photographer on the track taking pictures of the racers. I told Steve that he probably has some of the best shots in the group because, as opposed to the more experienced drivers who were always going around in a group, he was always by himself at the back of the pack.

But it's all in good fun. He had a good practice, but his qualifying round was pretty poor. Turns out his rear axle had become loose and was shifting around. We didn't realize this until just a few minutes before the pre-final. One of the fathers (also named Steve) helped him out and we were able to get him onto the grid just as they were about to start. That improved his performance drastically, and by the end of the final, he had beaten his previous race's best time by a second. And nobody lapped him. So now he's pretty confident that he'll be able to finish second-last next time. Hopefully he'll be able to race against his new nemesis, #7. He probably would have passed #7 this time if the other guy didn't suffer a setback in the first lap of the race and had to pull out.

Until we meet again...

"He's going the distance, he's going for speed"

Strap On Your Tango Shoes

My taste in music is varied, to say the least. I'll pretty much listen to anything and everything. My brother Steve is very similar, but he experiences waves of interest. He'll like a certain kind of music or artist for several months, and then it will be replaced with something almost completely different. He's gone from Mozart to the Spice Girls to Shania Twain to Diana Krall to Linkin Park to Bond to Stars, from what I can recall. I'm sure there were other flavours in between. Lately, he has developed a taste for tango music. So he asked me if I wanted to join him to see a band called Narcotango, who was playing at a place downtown last night. I said okay.

We got to the venue (a former church, it would seem) a little late, so there were no seats available. We went upstairs and surveyed the scene. The stage was set up where I suppose the altar would have been, and there was a bar in the back. The balcony wrapped around the perimeter, so we had a pretty good view of the dance floor below. There was a DJ spinning some interesting tango music, and people started dancing.

Being a girl, the first thing I noticed was the shoes. All of the ladies had similar looking shoes: high heeled, closed toe, with straps across the middle. Some of the designs were a little different, and although most of them were black, there were some white pairs and even red. These ladies came prepared to dance.

Then there was the dancing. It was fascinating watching these people move. Their legs kept weaving back and forth. A few times there were couples who almost collided, but otherwise everyone continuously moved chaotically around the floor with no problems. There was a boy who was trying to cross the room, and it was like watching a game of Frogger.

The demographics were all over the map, people from all ages and ethnicities. The combinations ranged from professional-looking couples with the women in flowy dresses, to casually dressed couples, to a pair of ladies dancing together, to a single woman twirling around by herself. Every couple was moving to a different rhythm and tempo, despite the fact that they were all listening to the same music. It looked really fun, although I wasn't about to try since I was with Steve and I have no idea how to tango. Plus I'm not entirely sure that I can handle that level of coordination.

"Now I've had the time of my life, no I've never felt this way before"