The Favourite Default

My brothers and I have gotten along a lot better now that we're older. Although it's not completely harmonious, it's a far cry from the constant squabbling that used to occur when we were little. At least I can say that we will do things for each other a lot more willingly, but it always prompts a comical "THANKS (insert sibling's name here)! You're the BEST!" kind of comment.

It's become something of a joke that we pit ourselves against one another in this way. The other night, Steve asked me to help him pick out some interview clothes for him. Edmond piped in and said that he could help him out in two seconds: shirt, pants, done. Steve retorted that he wanted me to help because I was his favourite. Since he always calls me his "favourite sister", I laughed and asked, "Your favourite what?" Edmond immediately responded, "You're his favourite default, just like I'm his favourite default." Which is entirely true and which is what makes it so funny. The only sticky point is that I have to hesitate when I say who my "favourite brother" is.

"The road is long, with many a winding turn"

The Loud Demographic

I attended an open house at the volunteer office for the film fest this evening. There were 70 people who signed up to listen to a couple of seminars. The demographic of this group was all over the map: slightly more females than males, ages ranging from young to not-so-young, people representing every nationality on the planet. But of these people, three of them stood out to me: Brown-clothed Woman, Blue-clothed Woman, and White Bandana Woman. They stood out because they were the ones who basically yelled out questions and comments throughout the session, regardless of whether it was question period or not. There was no order, no "raise your hand" as we had been taught time and again. Just random blurting, like "Were you at Cannes last year? I remember your voice!"

At first it struck me as being rude, since occasionally the speaker was still speaking at the time. And a few of the questions were posed just before the speaker was about to cover the topic. But looking a little more closely at these women, I realized a couple of things: a) they were women, and b) they were slightly not-so-young women belonging to different (or maybe similar) ethnic minorities. So their general loudness could be attributed to the fact that they weren't raised in the same culture and society in which I was raised. Or (and this is my scarier conclusion) it could be inherent in the gender. So when I reach the age of not-so-young, I could naturally end up being a loud, obnoxious blurter.

Or perhaps not. Looking around, all of the younger volunteers had no questions whatsoever. Maybe I'll be a member of a silent generation. Not likely, but still just as scary.

"When I grow up I'll be stable, when I grow up I'll turn the tables"

No Time For Observation

It's been such a hectic time, I haven't had a chance to blog about the little things I've noticed or thought about from time to time. Such as:

When I drive down the Gardiner with my windows down, I often get a wonderfully huge whiff of freshly baked cookies when I pass the Mr. Christie plant. Now that there are so many condos being built in that area, I thought at first that these people were so lucky to get that great smell all the time. But then I realized a couple of drawbacks: 1) having to smell that every day could potentially turn people off from cookies, and 2) the water treatment plant is also nearby, and I'm sure on certain days the odours from that place could be extremely potent as well, or at the worst, be mixed together with the cookie smell. That could lead to the possibility of people associating cookies with sewage, or vice versa. And that's just messed up.

My brother and I were driving down a street populated with strip malls, and one of them contained an adult entertainment store with a sign in the window that said "Enter at the rear". And I honestly couldn't help laughing at how well suited that sign could be for a particular business. If you're into that kind of thing.

I was on the subway last night, sitting across from a woman with two young girls: one of them looked to be about six years old, the other was around the age of ten. I didn't pay any attention to what she was saying to them until I noticed that she was talking to the ten year old as though she were an adult. She was discussing life at university, using words like "allocation" and "non-resident". I instantly thought: "That is exactly what I'm going to end up doing to my child." How do I know this? Because I've already done it to other children.

I've finally figured out why I'm so interested and strangely eager to be a volunteer, first with dragonboat racing, and now with the upcoming film festival. I relish being behind the scenes. I want to know what's going on while other things are going on. I love having access to places that the general public can't go simply by wearing a special shirt and flashing a laminated badge. In other words, I am a nosy busybody. And here I thought I was just a nice person.

By the way, the film fest is fast approaching. As a patron for the past 5+ years, I can tell you it's always a good time. Partake if you can! I'll see you there! (You'll recognize me as the one with the laminated badge)

"The original fire has died and gone, but the riot inside moves on"

Makes the Night Come Alive With Freshness

So, if you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, as the song goes, then you'll love Puerto Rico, because you'll get plenty of both. Yes friends, I have returned from the Isla de Encanto, a little crisp and slightly injured (long story) but otherwise wishing that I could have stayed longer.

So many stories...but I'll save the "what I did on my summer vacation" version of the story for future cocktail parties. Here are a couple of observations and general conclusions from me:

• Burger King became the landmark for every place we needed to go. Where's our highway exit? When do we get off the bus? Where is the nearest bank? All we had to do was look for the Burger King. Thankfully we never set foot in one.
• The name Steve kept showing up as often as the Burger Kings. The manager of our guesthouse looked so familiar to me when I met him, and then I noticed that he looked exactly like an older version of Steve from "Sex in the City". I learned later on that Esteban (the manager's name) is actually the Spanish version of Steven, which I found hilariously creepy. We also met a fellow tourist named Steve, who was staying at our bed and breakfast, and then later showed up in our kayaking group.
• Speaking of kayaking, anyone who's reading this must go to a bioluminescent bay at least once. The coolness cannot be conveyed in words or photos (because it doesn't show up in regular photos). Sticking your hand in the water and watching the water glow is just amazing.
• A lot of pharmaceutical companies have manufacturing facilities there. Interesting...
• The photo above is the sunrise from the door of our room in Ceiba. The sky is a little hazy, isn't it? The reason is African dust. That's right, it's actually DUST FROM AFRICA.
• I don't think I'll ever be as excited again about alcohol as I was when we were in Casa Bacardi, the world's largest rum distillery. A very lengthy free tour, two free drinks, and so much cheap alcohol that I didn't know where to start. Interesting point: Bacardi 151° is not allowed on airlines because it's flammable. Perhaps the fact that it's 75% alcohol might have something to do with it.

Despite our jam-packed days, there is still a lot that we didn't get to see or do, so I am definitely putting Puerto Rico back on my list of destinations. For now, I just need a little time to recover.

"Don't you see baby, así es perfecto"

Waiting for Laundry

It's finally here...Puerto Rico Eve. My suitcase is open on the floor, it's almost midnight, and I'm waiting for my laundry. My dad has restricted my mom to doing laundry at ten o'clock at night or on weekends, when it's cheaper somehow. Go figure. And it makes packing in advance a little difficult.

So I'm as ready as I'll ever be. My stomach is acting like it does when I'm about to speak in public, which is weird. But I'll take it as a sure sign that I'm excited. Not that I needed a sign or anything.

Almost positive that I haven't forgotten anything.

Remember not to eat the ice cubes.

Hasta luego.

"I can't live, I can't breathe unless you do this with me"

"I know a genuine Panaphonics when I see it"

My brother was browsing through the weekend flyers when he came across an ad for a portable DVD player that was on sale for some ridiculous price, like $20. I asked him what brand it was. He stared at the flyer for several seconds before he said, "It's a Magnasonic". I didn't believe him at first, but it was true. And then I couldn't stop laughing.

I've noticed (as I'm sure you have) that the general number of interesting things that happen to me is reflected pretty accurately in the frequency of my blogging. So yes, May was a surprisingly boring month for me.

And now, all the exciting stuff is happening to people around me. Some people are graduating. Some people are finally getting engaged. Some people have asked me to be a bridesmaid...okay one exciting thing has happened to me.

Anyone have any bridesmaid advice?

"Find yourself a girl and settle down, live a simple life in a quiet town, steady as she goes"

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?"