today's post is about marriage.

congrats to mary ellen and terence douglas!

how much do i despise boxing day shopping? after spending christmas at niagara falls, we stopped by the outlet mall before heading home. of course, no asian family can pass up shopping (at ANY time might i add), we HAD to peek into square one.

i would like to take this opportunity to point out that i have not gone shopping at square one since forever. so the worst way to reintroduce myself to a fabulous shopping mall is to go in during boxing day. the AMOUNT of people that congregates at malls is ridiculous. the food court was so jam packed full of people that there were literally people standing in the middle just eating. as soon as a table of people stand up to leave, there are people literally putting down trays to mark their territory (my mom is really good at doing that.)

i love shopping.

but shopping on boxing day scares me. especially since i bought these beautiful boots on christmas eve (yes you can laugh now, i DID go shopping on christmas eve too) and i was so paranoid that people would be stepping on them. people do that when they are on crazy rampaged filled kicks at the mall.

seriously, how can i enjoy shopping (which takes time if you do it properly) when there are people pushing and shoving each other all over the place?

nevertheless, i still managed to get a couple of goodies. although, my favorite purchase is the new boots. haha.

christmas in niagara is overrated. especially when there is no snow. but ames and i did get stuck in the women's washroom after a woman opened the door without washing her hands. ew.

something bit me on the arm and it's really super itchy right now. it can't be a mosquito can it? yikes!

so i am leaving for niagara falls for christmas in a couple of hours. i figure that i'd take this opportunity to wish everyone a MERRY XMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! at this time.

i've done so much this holiday: i've met alot of ames' friends via her little housegathering party; celebrated georges' birthday (last min no doubt) at the red room; made an appearance at jake and steve's condo party where i successfully avoided getting wasted; had brunch with the fisherville boys at 'bonjour brioche'; helped set up jake and orlando helman (sorry, ALICIA, hahaha) on facebook; SURVIVED 'the pursuit of happyness' with daner and meggers; met up with my pr girls and david for drinks at the city grill; had an abbey reunion at spring rolls; WORKED for minto (thereby earning some cash, yay!); attended cat's belly dancing recital; went to see the new york rockette's at the hummingbird center; went to a champagne tasting with larissa; had lunch at the irish embassy with my bro, carl; went to a pilates class with mich...THAT was killer!

on my trip, i hope to finish the longest scarf ever, as well as the book 'reading lolita in tehran.' with so much activity, i haven't had enough time to just sit and watch tv. oops. ;p

the holidays are here!

i have officially been off school for a week now. i was originally faced with a panic attack because i didn't know what to do with all this free time. but i have quickly and easily slipped into relax mode. ok, obviously 6:45am isn't "relax" per say, but i am a morning person so give me a break!

just a quick recap on the past couple of weeks:
- rita came in to town from vancouver about three weeks ago. we had a little soiree at insomnia where i also saw carlo, colin, jennie k, ana p, mike allemano....and the hart house towel boy! granted, he's probably not the towel boy anymore, but i remember when i used to go to the gym almost everyday, he'd be the guy i see in the morning (what a nice face to see in the morning!)

- carlo was a super sweetie because i had actually overslept and almost missed the evening, but he woke me up and drove me there and back too! i *heart* carlo! he's also gone in for laser eye surgery since then. i should find out how that went...

- went to smc's annual musical, this year being "little shop of horrors." it was the best show they have put on since "blood brothers." "chess" was good too, but this musical was phenomenal! the singers were all so incredible (of course, we had the three girlies, jill, thanya and shannon!) and the actors were just so talented. matt and i were throughly impressed! we even ran into kirsten and lisa! i have seen those two girls since we graduated!

- there was the minto christmas party which caused me so much anxiety. this party took place the weekend before a huge class project was due. i couldn't even really enjoy myself at the party because i was working the "silent auction." the auction was a huge success, there were so many leafs and raptors tickets. and alot of the companies had donated ipods and those were out like hotcakes! minto even supplied fully paid limos to take us home after the party. i wish i had taken advantage of that! but some of the younger kids wanted to hit a pub called the "foggy dew" so we went over there afterwards where i finally calmed down with a double shot of my usual.

- CCMaaers had several excursions over our crazy time. one night almost everyone signed up to take an etiquette class at the u of t faculty club, and most of learned that we have very bad etiquette. haha. i think the most important lesson i learned from that class is that the bread plate is on the left and the water glass is on the right. ;p that was also the memorable night where i inadvertantly saw ryan flashing us. i've since recovered (i think.) last weekend, we also had two parties: a potluck at esther's on thurdsay, and a beautiful dinner at "pur superclub" on saturday. photos from those events can be seen here thanks to audrey, ashleigh, sonia and kristen.

- i have since taken up knitting (i'm knitting carmi a scarf, as per request) and have started to watch more tv movies (yay movie network!) along with seeing a lot of people i haven't seen in awhile (such as mel and larissa), i plan on hitting up an indigo and having a geeky day out just reading books. ha! ;p