I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles...

- Christopher Reeve (1952-2004)

Taking advantage of the holiday season, went for afternoon tea at the King Eddy with Faye and Romz last Sunday evening. What an array of good food and conversation!!! We had such a fabulous time that we'd even chatted up with the server, whose name is Kenny. We'd made such an impression that when I'd went to the King Eddy again for Christmas Eve dinner with the nuclear family, Kenny happened to be our server as well...& he remembered me and all of our names!!!

Christmas Day was spent over a lovely dim sum brunch and then we all went to see Bombshell.
I'm not going to lie, even though the movie was a good filler of interesting information and good acting (especially Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and John Lithgow), I found it a little too fast for me. One of those, possibly see again if I'm interested (I'm not tho…).

Yesterday was a busy and full day for me!
I had been invited to join in Eugene's birthday dinner celebration but then Karen had added a games play date at Snakes & Lattes in the early afternoon, how could I refuse?

Going to Snakes and Lattes was a fun experience with Karen, Eugene, Patrick, Vanessa and Cristina! Sure, it makes sense that everyone is charged a certain amount to be present and play the games...how else is money made?

We spent the afternoon playing 'Sushi Go' and Telestration.

Not going to lie, playing these games are fun but it also helps that I had a 'Boozy Coffee' (made up of classic coffee and baileys) as well! :)

After bidding our farewells when the games finished, I hung out at the Starbucks on the other side of the street waiting for Louie to pick me up so that we could head over to 'sauga for where Eugene's dinner at Astoria Shish Kebob House. There, I enjoyed a Mousaka (made up of ground beef in eggplant, rice and potatoes), finishing off with a slice of black sesame cake that had been purchased at Maxim's!
What I enjoyed most was that even though everyone had joined the party for Eugene's celebration, Louie was ceremoniously included in a belated birthday celebration as well (he's a boxing day baby!!!), yay!!!

I suppose that with the use of imagination (or not?), this would qualify as falling under hero status!!!

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood!

Busy busy week counting down to the end of the year...and this is our neighbourhood Eaton Centre!!!

Went to see the wonderful Tom Hanks movie, 'A Wonderful day in the neighborhood' on Tuesday with Louie. It actually worked out well as I had we'd originally planned to see it in the morning BUT due to some appointments that came up for me, we ended up catching an evening show before dinner at Wendy's.

Wednesday's big event was attending the Mon Sheong Inspired Toastmaster's (MSIT) Xmas Party!
It seems that due to the fact that it was a party evening and so close to the Christmas time, there was not enough members to attend so it became a joined celebration with another toastmasters group.

Here is Kollin as Table Topics Master. He had passed around a pocket with slips of paper with random numbers or not on it. The slips with numbers signaled the person would go up to speak.

As Raymond was lucky enough to get a number, he went up to speak on whatever he pulled out of the cute santa claus bag. It was a nice photo showing the two presidents (past and present) interacting!!!

Coming up to the end of the week, Jordan and I went to dinner at Le Montmartre French Restaurant. Starting off with appetizers! He had escargots and I had the French onion soup!

Our mains included my order of Les crevettes Natasha (shrimps in a rose creamy tomato sauce with fresh basil on a bed of pasta) and Jordon's Les petoncles sautéed a la Nicoise (scallops flambeed in pernod, served with mushrooms in a delicate curry sauce).

Dessert ended with coffee (mine had a shot of bailey's, yah!!!) and we split a mouth-watering tiramisu!!!

In regards to television shows, I've caught Gwen Stefani's You Make It Feel Like Christmas special where bf Blake Shelton also showed up with the other performers; Miss America 2020 where Camille Schrier, Virginia was crowned the winner! as well as Howie Mandel's 5th Annual All Star Comedy Gala to name a few...

A wonderful week in the neighbourhood...

Christmas is a time for giving presents to me. Plz.

I got MYSELF a present....EARMUFFS!!!!
YAAAASSSSS!!! It's been so long since I've had earmuffs! These ones are burgundy red heart ears!!!

I saw this written on a Christmas card and thought it was the perfect comment to how I hope Christmas should be for me. ;p

So this week's been really busy going to job information sessions to the TTC, interview preparation and went to an actual part-time job interview this afternoon. This refers to my subject line as well...

Which brings me to a sticky topic for me...I've been in communication with a past colleague from my most recent work employment (6 months ago) and even though they know of my situation, the fact that they continuously bring up the point of mentioning looking for another job...this is a HUGE sticking point to me. Considering I've been unable to maintain a long term full time job employment.

But here's to the upcoming year...I have positive thoughts for this!

Winter has arrived...

So, spent the night watching the Christmas tree lighting at the 87th Annual Christmas at Rockefellar Center (my main criticism is that there was absolutely NO SNOW) AND the Jann Arden - One Night Only show!

From the xmas tree lighting, I enjoyed these performances and appearances!

Gwen Stefani - Feel Like Christmas
John Legend - Bring Me Love
Neyo - This Christmas
Brett Eldredge- Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!
Idina Menzel ft Billy Porter - I got my love to keep me warm
Tina Fey & Cast of Mean Girls - Jingle Bell Rocks
Skylar Austin & Alex Newell - Christmas Baby Please Come Home
Chicago - Winter Wonderland
Lea Michele - Have Yourself A Very Merry Christmas
Miss America 2019 & Nia Franklin
Derek Hough - Sock It To Me Santa
Idina Menzel - Sleigh Ride
John Legend - Merry Christmas Baby
Straight No Chaser - Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Brett Eldredge - First Noel
Neyo - Rocking Around the Christmas Tree
Julianne Hough & Jordan Fisher - All I Want for Christmas
Chicago - Let It Snow
Lea Michele - it's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Jon Bon Jovi - Unbroken
Radio City Rockettes - Christmas Lights
Gwen Stefani - Dreaming of a White Christmas
Harlem Gospel Choir - Joy to the World

Jann Arden's - One Night Only show, included her singing 4 songs: Insensitive, the Devil Won, Merry Christmas and Good Mother

minor detail:

I finally watched:

- Red Nose Day, the May23rd campaign with the mission to end child poverty by funding programs that keep children safe, healthy, and educated. Hosted by Terry Crews with performances by John Legend (Preach), Kelly Clarkson (Broken & Beautiful), Blake Shelton (God's Country), Sting (If You Love Somebody), Chrissy Metz (Standing With You), Coldplay & Game Of Thrones cast doing a Musical, Josh Groban & Hope Children's Choir to name a few of the highlights!

- This is Farrah Fawcett, also May 23rd.
**It's scary watching what she went through suffering from anal cancer because it's brought back flashbacks of my own cancer battle with colon cancer and the different outcomes between the two of us. It's scary how the biggest difference is in the time of cancer occurrence and where the research is in the cure for cancer.**

"Professor vogel calls this disease a terrorist. So unpredictable. Filled with hate and powerful enough to destroy all that is good and healthy. Cancer is my own private war. The strain, the nausea, the fever takes turns challenging my strength, my mind and my spirit. I must let go of my disease. And hold on to each and every moment of my life. Because it is, after all, mine. And I want to live. So with hope and determination I hold on and go on, flying on a wing and a prayer. "
Today, I've got cancer. But on the other hand, I'm alive! So I guess I'm great. Yeah, right now, I, am GREAT. My life goes on and so does my fight. And oh, by the way, how are you? What are YOU fighting for? - Farrah Fawcett

Telestration

I haven't had such a fun evening as I had last night in such a loooooooong time!!!! There was drama...good food AND so much fun with the game played afterwards!

It all began with Louie's personal invitation to join in a Christmas gathering with his and Karen's choir friends back in October. Accepting the invitation was simply the first step. Figuring out the logistics turned into a bit of a headscratcher as due to his mass commitments, Louie and Karen had originally decided that Karen would pick me up and we would hang out at her mom's place before he would pick us up and go to the party.

Turns out that Karen's piano commitments went much longer than expected and in the end, Louie came to pick me up. The traffic was pretty slow going and we ended up meeting Karen at Gill and Ron's house at approximately the same time. Their other friends, Mary and Flo had already arrived and were having appetizers. C'est la vie...

Gill and Ron's kids, Jordan and Marcus entertained us with the piano and their own games (they're both under 10 years) before we all dug into the wonderful potluck that we'd all brought to eat!

Afterwards, due to Louie's mass commitments this morning, he had to depart earliest but the rest of us (minus the kids who went to bed) began two rounds of Telestration...a new game to me!

Telestration is a party board game in which players are prompted to sketch a word listed on a card, then guess what the other players have drawn. My two hands that I made up 'my imagination isn't phenomenal' were: The cat is in the hat, which BECAME cat in the hat with thing 1 & thing 2 as well as Dime a dozen, which BECAME pacman eating money at 10:20pm!!!

I don't recall laughing so hard in quite a long time!!! It was SUCH a fantastic evening!!! I mean, I don't think I'll play this game ever again but it was fun while it lasted!!!

I'm not bossy. I simply make suggestions without options.

LOVE this quote from a presentation 'Oldest Child Syndrome' at Winnie's Yonge-Eglinton Toastmasters last night! Yes, I visited this Toastmasters again last night, especially to see and hear Winnie's presentation on the Hadza community, close to Tanzania, where she's from.

No, I'm not even ashamed to be promoting her Toastmasters nor feeling guilty about not attending my former Toastmasters (MSIT). I haven't been to MSIT in so long that I don't even think I would fit in anymore. Although, I am still part of the MSIT group message only because I had originally thought I would be returning. NOW I am very unsure. To the point that I haven't paid to renew my membership and am thinking of asking to be taken off the group message system.

HOWEVER, I'm tentatively planning on attending the MSIT Christmas party that'll be occurring in about three weeks time. I hope to attend (perhaps with Winnie as my sidekick) as a refresher, to scope out my situation and how I feel about the possibility of returning (or not).

Until then, I'm resigned to job searching and catching up on too many taped television shows...

The Finale!!! (DWTS)

So who showed up on the ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Finale?!?!?!??!!!?

PITBULL (MR. 305) & NEYO!!! as well as LIONEL RITCHIE!!!! & CHER!!!!

Oh yes...the dancing was phenomenal!!!

“Good night, sweet prince”

- Shakespeare

Began the weekend having lunch with Grace & Alice at Moto Sushi on Friday. We had such a wonderful meetup that is nice to have once in awhile! During our get-together, we touched upon some discussion regarding our family health involving a relative. Little did we know that this would come back by the end of the week...

There were potential plans to see Louie this weekend, however this was put off due to last minute family plans to head to Niagara Falls (casino :p) after my massage Saturday morning. I'm happy to report that there was enough winnings to cover dinner (at an Italian restaurant called Vittoti's where we split a penne with vodka & prosciutto) and Sunday's brunch!

Unfortunately, during our brunch, we found out the sad news about said previously discussed family health with Felix. I cannot say that I remember ever meeting said cousin as he lived in Hong Kong.

"Goodnite, Dr. Death"

Alright, Children
The lights are out and the party's over
It's time for me: Doctor D
To start running and say goodbye for a little while
And I know you're gonna miss me
So I'll leave you with this
You know that big ball of radiation we call...

After returning back to the tdot, we stopped by Ames to watch the new Frozen II movie by her fabulous theater that has really nice seat that can recline back with very roomy seats! Thumbs up, you cannot go wrong with anything Frozen!!!

Then to end this weird weekend, I caught Keith Urban's Grey Cup halftime show as well as the American music awards hosted by Ciara. Highlights for me involved Halsey's acceptance speech, her performance 'graveyard', watching Green Day, Taylor Swift, Christina Aguilera and Great Big World's fall on me and Shania Twain's closing performance!!!

ebs & flos

Today, I spent the day in a purple shirt...the color purple representing World Pancreatic Day and this brings to my mind the name, Alex Trebek.

An incredibly busy day...beginning with the fact that our building parking garage was going through maintenance repairs so cars that had to not be in the garage had to be out between 9-5pm.

Therefore, Mom and I began our day leaving the garage just after 8:30am to go to Yonge and Davisville where the TTC head office is so that I could update my wheel-trans support companion card. There we encountered an employee, Trevor, who suggested I look into opportunities within the TTC. We thanked him for his help after completing our transactions and as we were making out way out to the car, he came running out to give me several sheets of paper with the current job ops (26) with the ttc that he printed out for me. A lot of aren't relevant for me but I've since applied for the General Clerk, Accounts Payable role. As I was fashioning my cover letter, it brought back Minto flashbacks!

This was only our first stop of the day. Along the way, I stopped by the Art Inn @ Runway in Pacific mall to have my bangs trimmed by a guy named Benson, who added side bangs with the initial trimming of the bangs. Yay, I have a facial structure again!!!

Afterwards, on our way home, I was surprised by messages from Louie, wanting to catch up some time this weekend. However, after receiving the flu shot on Monday, I happen to be suffering from a cold that's recently begun. As well, he's been battling an on/off cold that began at the beginning of the cold season.Not wanting to bring his hopes up (or dash it), I've currently left my response up in the air. TBD for Sunday morning...

Making it home just after 5pm, the day didn't happen to wrap up like work...a CIBC representative that my family deals with helped with a potential networking job opportunity with a contact to this place called Moohan Taekwondo.

And THEN almost like a cherry on top, my job counsellor to the ODSP agency that I work with contacted me regarding a receptionist position with a company right at the corner to where I live. Unfortunately, as she's going to be MIA until the new year (due to a family emergency), I wasn't sure she would be able to follow up. SURPRISINGLY, a job developer called me a little later to give me more details about the position so I plan to send him all my information for tomorrow morning!

You'd think I'd be exhausted....I AM but something I've failed to mention is that I've had two cups of coffee too late in the day...and now I'm definitely paying for it!!!

JUDGMENT DAY...

Grey's Anatomy's 350th episode

WOW...

This past Thursday was Grey's 350th episode of the series. It was kind of emotional in both the plot of the series (Meredith's faced the medial board to see if her medical license is revoked or not) and also brought back many flashbacks of many late characters who had been a part of the show by giving nods to the likes of the late Lexie, Derek, and Denny Duquette. Alex showed the board letters of support from Addison Montgomery, Callie Torres, Arizona Robbins, and April Kepner.

Even though she didn't make an appearance, she'd sent a letter of support for her 'Person' that Alex read at the hearing:

"Dear medical commission: People who know me would describe me as selfish to a fault. After that, they'd say, 'honest.' I can honestly tell you that if I were dying and a surgery stood between me and death, Dr. Grey's hands are the only ones that I'd want inside my body. "Taking away her license is signing the death certificates of countless future patients. She is a light in a broken system that she will fix, whether you want her to or not. She is the sun and she is unstoppable. Sincerely, Dr. Cristina Yang."

BRILLIANT!!! and sooooooo Yang-like!!!

I'm watching the Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and it's brought really nostalgic memories of the days when I used to watch Sesame Street growing up...at the same time, seeing how it's been updated with the times!

The best part is seeing all the guest cameo's including: Busy Phillips, Whoopi Goldberg, Meghan Trainor, Sterling K. Brown, Alessia Cara, Lucy Liu and Terry Crews to name a few...woooooooaaahh!!!!

Karen's birthday was on Tuesday and I wished her a happy birthday online as she and Patrick are Honeymooning in Hawaii.

I'd gone to my in person interview at Sick Kids for a recommended position from HR (to another in person job interview position from last week) on Wednesday and even though I thought it would be a good fit, I'm not putting all my cards on this opportunity. Life and job opps work weird for me like that...

Thursday was a super busy day spending it at Roy Thompson Hall for the Global Summit 2019, an annual diversity and inclusion event like no other. The globally recognized Summit brings together thought leaders, partners and amazing humans of all identities to connect, learn and grow. I was extremely lucky to be able to attend this event for free as the testing company that I've worked for previously, Fable Tech Labs, had invited me. It was a great opportunity to come out and hear so many speakers like Randi Zuckerberg (sister to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook), Kat Holmes (Google), Angelica Ross (Actor), Erin & Sara Foster (Bumble cofounders), Colleen Ward & Norie Campbell (TD bank), Leagh Turner (Ceridian), Heather Clark and Salim Teja (SickKids Foundation) to name a few! #movethedial

After resting up on Friday, I spent the morning going for dim sum with Aunt Teresa but because I had an unfortunate tumble, I had to bail on Henry's bday party this evening. Instead, I tried out a restaurant, Jollibee with amazingly juicy chicken and great spaghetti!

Now I'm trying to take advantage of missing the party by catching up on many episodes of tv. It's a challenge...

Remembrance Day musings

A quick update as to what I've been up to last week:

Monday was Winnie's birthday and we'd already celebrated in advance when we'd had a sushi dinner before visiting her Toastmasters last Thursday.

Tuesday was spent doing something I'm not particularly fond of...going to job fairs. Unfortunate part of life yet I still attended a CAA job fair that my job developer had sent my way (in his defense, not like he needs it... but I had mentioned interest in looking into the potential CAA market). Sadly, it seems that even going all the way to Scarborough wasn't really worth it as the HR lady viewed my resume and suggested I 'add' her on LinkedIn and go to a website with job postings. Which, in my mind, is really saying that it's really slim pickings...ah well...

It seemed to brightened up a little on Wednesday as after I had applied to a position at 'Sick Kids', I'd received an invitation for a telephone interview, which led to a panel interview that morning. I'm happy that I made enough of an impression that even though I was unable to score THAT particular job (through follow up email correspondence), that HR lady actually suggested that I apply for another similar position through her HR network AND I now have another in person interview this upcoming Wednesday (fingers crossed!).

The rest of the week's main activities included grabbing a Thursday dinner with Louie at Max's (this Filipino reso seemed to be the safest choice for us at this time due to Louie's own health battle) before coffee at Starbucks in my old neighborhood in the Dufferin and Steeles area. As well, I was able to enjoy a Saturday lunch date with Jordan at a particularly long ago haunt, Bonjour Brioche, downtown off of Queen St E. The food and atmosphere was the same joyous was that we remembered it and we ended up spending quite some time there taking in the familiarity!

Topping this off involved beginning Sunday with visiting Alicia, Steve and Rosemary! During the visit, Alicia and I went off to grab a coffee at Jimmy's Coffee and then a lunch at San Remo's bakery...yum!

A highlight to this week on television was sesame street on the latelateshow!!!

It's been a busy weekend beginning with attending Malcolm's first birthday on Saturday at Ames' condo's party room in the early afternoon and then going to mom and dad's friend's (Uncle Norman and Aunt Susan) 50th anniversary party in the evening!

This morning I met up with Karen for brunch at Eggsmart! Afterwards, went to visit Ames' again with the rents for a take-out sushi dinner.

Luckily this is the weekend where we gained an extra hour so it mostly (mainly because due to the overlapping events that were occurring, unfortunately, I missed out on the Mon Sheong Cathay Ball, boo...) worked out! ;p

Caught up with Winnie yesterday! I miss our work lunch dates but such is life...at least we can still randomly catch up when we make dates!

We had originally planned on meeting up for dinner at Tio's Urban Taco. UNFORTUNATELY, when my ride dropped me off at the restaurant, I was sad to find out that the reso had ACTUALLY shut down (unpaid bills) not two weeks ago!! *tragedy*

No biggie as Winnie and I decided to have dinner at 'Sushi Shop' where we had tuna sushi tacos and split a dragon roll, salmon sushi burger (WHAT?!?!?! a sushi burger!?!?!? But it was DELISH!!!) and a lobster poke bowl. Good times!!!

Afterwards we went to her Toastmasters (shhhhhhh, no need to mention to my own toastmasters group...;p) where I enjoyed listening to the two speeches given as well as joining in on the table topics! The word of the evening was gregarious which I found complimentary to myself. ;p There were several guests (other than myself) that also included two girls visiting from Korea and Japan!

So THAT was my evening out!!! Of course after I got home, I caught The Good Place before calling it a night!

Tried a wonderful Thai reso called 'Khmer Thai' off of St. Clair W Thursday evening with Jordan. Jordan ordered the yellow curry chicken with sweet potato & eggplant, I ordered a pad thai that we both split (but the curry had a bit of a kick to it) and we also shared two spring rolls (vegetarian and chicken).

Saturday was busy beginning with checking in with a massage master (who I hadn't gone in to see in over a year and half due to health issues) in the morning before heading to a Cathay Ball Orientation at Mon Sheong Foundation from 1:30-4pm. The Cathay Ball is one of the biggest events of the year for the Foundation! It's one of my favorites as everyone, even the volunteers dress up to the nines. The tickets cost like a fortune and everyone gets amazing performances and food. The volunteers also get a fabulous buffet dinner (just not in a sit down meal like the paid guests). If I had the choice, I would attend the Cathay Ball...however, I've two other events happening this upcoming weekend.

After being picked up from the orientation, I was dropped off for dinner at Paisano's with my parents and dad's bridge buddies. There we had a wonderful dinner (I split a penne vodka with sautéed mushrooms, penne pasta with vodka rose sauce with mom) before the group headed back to our place where as the bridge commenced, I caught up on some of my MANY television shows! Once the game was finished, we all had some amazing dessert and coffee before the guests went home and I conked out!

Sunday was a lazy day where after sleeping in, had a hardcore workout that proceeded a fabulous brunch with Romz and Fayewood at the Sunset Grill. Considering neither of the girlies had ever tried the Grill, we had a nice relaxing time with fabulous dishes! Romz was sweet enough to be my ride to and from the Grill!

There was no relaxing right afterwards as Ames had come back from a trip to Jamaica Sunday morning so the rents and I went downtown later in the afternoon to hang out with her and Mr. Trudeau, hear how the trip was and then a family dinner to finish off the weekend! :)

And we're still on the train with Trudeau...

With all the pre-election drama with the party candidates, liberal still came out triumphant even though it's a minority win.

I was working the election as a poll clerk and even though it was a super loooooong day (from 8:30am-11:30pm with a couple of 15 min breaks), it was worth the excitement! There were a couple of really busy periods but overall there was a pretty regular tide of voters. Other than the approximately half our 'lights out' in the gym (however, the lights in the hallways were still on and we all pulled out our cellphone lights (haha) before they were turned on again), it was pretty smooth sailing.

Luckily, this wasn't the first election I've worked. It's the first big (for the PM) one but I've worked as information and registration clerk in a couple of smaller election ridings.

Therefore, Mr. Trudeau is still very relevant which is good for our Mr. (cat) Trudeau!

I've been re-reading my posts from when I first started my blog from back in the day and I noticed how fun and care-free my writing and life was from back over ten years ago! I miss those school days where my numero uno priority was to finish my schooling, get a good job that in something that I wanted to do AND maybe be in a relationship or family.

How things change...

BUT I miss writing how life was from over a decade ago and this will be my new GOAL...bring back the writing from back in the day, just less activity from back in school days.

"That'll do, pig. That'll do."

Farmer Arthur H. Hoggett (James Cromwell) in "Babe" (1995)

My definition of travelling while on holiday (this Canadian Thanksgiving) is going to places and 'visiting' the area.

How interesting that it is so different from my parent's definition as we 'travelled' to Finger Lakes in New York State, to literally eat at a diner named Magee County Diner and go to Costco, where the tragedy of all tragedies occurred...the cafeteria had NO FRENCH FRIES!!!!!!! VERY tragic...

There WAS, however, churros...whatever, done deal.

We also stopped by the Niagara Casino on our way back to Toronto. C'est la vie.

Patience is what is indispensable to make a dream come true...

Otherwise known as 'patience is a virtue'.

Even though I'm in the midst of crazy job and life changes still...I've been slowly closing up shop on hopefully the end of my health battle in the chapter of life (fingers-crossed). In regards to the job front, there's been activity on that end so there's also something to look forward to...

While at the same time, I've spent two days this week lunching with past co-workers from my last job in preparation to a fellow co-worker's last day (today) from the company as well. Tuesday's lunch was spent with my actual past 'child operations' co-worker's team at the 'Granite Brewery' with a granite burger; where today's lunch was spent with past 'contract' co-worker's team at 'Churrasco Villa' with a chicken wrap and fries. I must also take an opportunity to thank my friend, Efren for the Portuguese tart dessert!!!

As well, I enjoyed a nice lunch with my cousin's, Alice and Grace at Sushi Moto on Wednesday. Our table was given a free tofu dish along with my own meal of beef enoki roll (enoki mushroom and beef wrap, teriyaki sauce) and a salmon sushi pizza (salmon, crunch, mayo on crispy rice patty)...yum!

Finishing off with a farewell dinner with Tanaks, Kristy, Karina, Faye, Marc, Karina's brother/sister & partners at El Mariachi Tacos and Churros in Mississauga! This was crazy fun as it brought back soooooo many memories of high school days but in the present! It was the best farewell dinner for Tanaks before she, Kristy and Karina leave for Oz by the end of the year for their own new chapters in their lives over there!

Excellent incentive to visit oz again!!!

Crazy little thing called love...

- Queen

Amongst other songs such as 'Another one bites the dust'/'Radio Gaga'/'Bohemian Rhapsody'/'We will rock you'/'We are the champions' sung by Queen and Adam Lambert that included a nice tribute to Freddy Mercury as well as performances by Pharrell, Alicia Keyes (including Empire State of Mind) and appearances by Chris Martin and Rami Malek.

This was my highlight from yesterday, watching the Global Citizen Festival on MSNBC...one of the few things I will stay up a little later for!

As for today, I look forward to catching J. Lo's 'Hustlers'!

People say nothing is impossible; But I do nothing everyday

- Pooh from Christopher Robin

This is the state that I am in right now.

However, my main struggle is to work with my new normal in the act of re-wired plumbing (literally). Sadly, this is quite stressful and challenging. Unfortunately, this is all up to only myself. Therefore, as I understand, just give it time.

BUT...time is a-ticking...which is very unfortunate for a person that likes to remain occupied with something or another.

I must give it time.

On the bright side, now that I can sleep through the night like a normal human being again...I’m happy to be sleeping soundly again and am now back on my caffeine-kick! And thanks to Jordan, I have a small supply of drip coffee for my mornings now, yay! Something to do while I do nothing...

The Show Must Go On

The Queen + Adam Lambert Story #QueenxAdamLambert

I've just finished watching the ABC story about Queen and Adam Lambert that I taped back at the end of April...such a great performance! I guess something that I hadn't realized was that Freddy Mercury had passed from HIV back in the day and it was nice that they did such a thorough explanation on the back story to both the band Queen and how Lambert became famous from the first American Idol as the runner up. Personally, I think he did pretty well with filling in with the team of Queen. Go Adam!

Anyway, another way to look at this story title is to bring it back to myself (hence my own blog, duh!)...a week after the end of another chapter of my life, I feel like I'm doing pretty well! I'm not going to lie, I do NOT miss counting hours etc and am totally relishing in the fact that I can now literally sleep through the night without waking up every two hours! (yay!!!)

Something not to take for granted until you realize that you were...it's part of the first world culture etc that a person NEVER has to think about until they do....but details... :)

As I'm still going through my recordings (I'm doing well as my family's recordings are down to 58%, I'm now watching 'the 2019 Met Gala' E! Live From the Red Carpet from back at the beginning of May now. It's 4 hours long so hopefully afterwards the % will be even lower! Most important to go through all the recordings now as new seasons start in the next two weeks!!!

Oh how I've missed my Tim Horton's fix!!!

Yesterday, I had my first small French Vanilla Cappuccino is over a year and a half...and it was SOOOOOO worth it!

Altho….I'm still waiting for my taste buds to come back...

The END.

"Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

said by Neo (Keanu Reeves) in "The Matrix" (1999)

This is a good quote to describe my long weekend spent with the abbey girls at Maija's place in Guelph! It's also special that we'd all met up... 'We' including Dr. Tanaks who'd flown in from NYC, Kristy, Karina, Faye, Maija and myself!

Why?

As it turns out...we had all known that the K squared were going to be moving to Oz back where Kristy originally came from. However, the that we all learnt Saturday is that Dr. Dune has accepted a job in Oz as well! Mind you, it makes sense as her whole family lives in Sydney...even though the best surprise (like they'd all arranged it...but hadn't) is that all three of them will be living in Melbourne, the wonderfully artsy city. Similar to our Toronto and Montreal is what Sydney and Melbourne is to Australia!

CRAY-CRAY?!?!?!? I think so!!!

Regardless, all five of us arrived at Maija's with two chocolate cakes as presents because we had run later (involving stops at Karina's brother's and sister's place for Tanaka's 'farewell tour'). Interesting side note was that while we were getting the cake, T also bought a couple of cheeses (including my fav, Brie). One of the cheeses, smelled bad, so T immediately chucked it into Maija's garbage can. Luckily, Maija insisted that she take it out of the garbage to return to the store (as it was bought NEW)...and as she was investigating T's receipt, turns out that this 'BAD' cheese was charged $60!!!! :O

Maija made T go with Kristy back to the store to return this bad cheese and get her rightful $60's back!

While they went to the store, the rest of us helped Maija with setting up lunch (with cake as dessert!). After a fantastic and laid back lunch, because the weather was so beautiful, the six of us went out to the backyard where Maija has a pool!!! T, Kristy and Maija had a fantastic time frolicking around the pool while Karina, Fayewood and I dangled our legs off the side. We had SUCH a great time, we even saw a rabbit off the side of the pool!

After a fantastically relaxing time, we went into town for dinner at 'La Reina', a Mexican-type restaurant where we had a couple of tacos and sopas while sitting outdoors.

Needless to say, we all stayed up very late chatting together like we haven't done this in much too long!!!

The wonderful thing about staying at Maija's was that while she has three children with Jonathan, they had other plans so that it was just us ladies Saturday. Even better was that we all had great sleeping arrangements involving beds for all of us!

Sleeping in until around 7-8am, we had a lovely brunch Sunday morning before Maija went to bring home Jonathan and their darlings, James, Ruuben and Emmi!

Emmi, Maija's youngest, had drawn little artistic presents for all of us to enjoy. Tanaka was so ingenious to ask Emmi to sign and date her art projects so that we can have them for safe-keeping for the future! (Plus we all graciously let T have all of Emmi's drawings to take to Oz!)

We all ended our great weekend with a nice drive home from the K squared. :)

Come holiday Monday, as Jordan lives in my hood, he walked over to pick me up at my residence and we walked over to Sheppard Centre to try out 'Blaze pizza' (we each ordered one personal pizza). He ordered the BBQ chicken pizza that had chicken, mozzarella, onion, gorgonzola, bbq drizzle and banana peppers (he asked for half of his pizza without the peppers for me) and I ordered the Art Lover with artichokes, mozzarella, ricotta pork and red sauce dollops. Then we had them halve the pizzas so we each had half of the other....so the best of both worlds! The best was that we even split a s'more pie for a pre-dessert...

Luckily, the pizza's are thin crusted and the s'more pie very small so that after dining and chatting for awhile, we popped next door to 'Sweet Jesus' for ice cream dessert! There, I had my favorite, a small 'red rapture' while Jordan had a small 'hella hazelnut'.

Needless to say, a FANTASTIC labour day weekend! My scale also let me know that it was fantastic... :/ Ah well, you only live once. This is MY choice!

Bday’s cheat day with bestie!!!

Today was a long over due date with my best friend, Shelley!!! The reason I've alluded the post to birthday's is because we were technically celebrating (in person) her very over due birthday (back at the end of May) and my upcoming birthday (beginning of Sept)! Even though I had sent her a photo of the card I'd gotten for her, and then FINALLY sent it to her two weeks ago...at least we could celebrate in person!

While we spent three sweet hours together catching up in person (we'd actually spent a couple of minutes discussing when we had last physically seen each other...that would be December 21st at Fairview Mall where we had cinnamon buns for dessert!!!), hashing everything over a vegetarian wrap and a salmon and cream cheese bagel!

The best part was that even though we were becoming full, we ended up splitting up a Nutella waffle for dessert!!!

Even though we haven't caught up in person for some time, we've been very lucky to always remain in touch via text/WhatsApp messaging and phone calls.

Hopefully, we plan on not allowing this large amount of time passing again before catching up in person! It might be easier now that the my challenging year and half is coming to an end and she's getting into the groove with her new full time job and other part time past times.

WE SHALL SEE!!!

"So you’re a talking Pikachu with no memories, who’s addicted to caffeine?"

said by Tim

Just came back from seeing the fabulous Detective Pikachu with Louie! It's so good that I'm glad I actually caught it in theatres while it's still out. Definitely made my day! I would've gone so far to say week except I know that there's still more to the week to come... ;p

"Son of a b**ch… stole my line."

- Sean (Robin Williams) in "Good Will Hunting" (1997)

I miss seeing Robin Williams but gosh, I cannot believe it's been FIVE years since his passing!

I need a vacay from vacay (minor detail...). Point is, this weekend has been incredibly busy. Perhaps the point being trying to fit everything in before the long weekend partying. This will be detailed after the craziness to ensue... call it a 'hunch' ;p.

Mind you, this weekend's busyness isn't a bad thing. It's all actually been just enjoying the weather and partying with family. After all, Friday involved going to the woodbine racetrack and casino!

I KNOW...how long has it been since I've last been to woodbine?!?!? DECADES, at least!!! Gosh, the last time I can remember must have been at LEAST two decades ago. Back then, we would have gone as a family (myself, Ames, mom & dad) with Uncle Stephen, Auntie Winnie, Grace and Jules...and we'd watch the horse racing in the bleachers, where it could become terribly hot! BUT, at the same time, we'd have such wonderful times in a sense, betting (in our heads) which horse would win. And cheering/booing the outcome!

NOW, it has become quite classy. We didn't watch the horses race at the bleachers at all. THIS TIME we watched INSIDE, in such a lovely atmosphere. In fact, we literally dined while watching three races. We went for a nice promotion of a lobster dinner. The deal was that we could either have a steak/salmon/chicken & a lobster dinner. So while the horses were doing their racing bit, we enjoyed the show indoors in the best environment ever. We could either watch out the window OR via a television screen that was at EACH table.

After our dinner and 'show', we went to the casino section and because it was our first time at the casino (it's a new edition since when we were there last), we each had one of those free $5 card plays, which went uneventfully until the last game, where it worked in our favor! THEN, we called it a night, haha!

Yesterday was a quiet day where the 'event' was in the evening...after going to visit Ames and Trudeau in the early afternoon, we (the family) walked over to the Fairmont Royal York, to dine at REIGN, the newly renovated restaurant, where I had a lovely lemon thyme gnocchi (that included roasted mushrooms, smoked ricotta and heirloom tomatoes) meal. Dad had the aged tenderloin, mom the butter-roasted BC sablefish and Ames, the brown butter scallops. This was all finished off (for me & Ames) with a lemon poppyseed financier of lemon curd, olive oil cream and thyme!

I had originally anticipated a nice relaxing day of chilling at home in front of the television. HOWEVER, mom got the idea that the three of us should visit Unionville Main Street, after all, such a beautiful day. How could I say no? Once we got to main street, we discovered that there's a farmer's market (where we OBVIOUSLY had to check out) that had so much beautiful vegetables, cakes, fish etc! After getting our fill of what we wanted, we had lunch at Next Door Restaurant. Here, I had the Okonomiyaki Cheeseburger, Japanese pancakes with a 6oz grilled beef patty, mozzarella, iceberg lettuce, sunny side up egg, double smoked bacon, kewpie mayo, Japanese BBQ sauce, bonito flakes & nori. YES, I was able to finish the WHOLE thing!!! It was SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!! And SOOOOOOO FILLING....

Luckily, afterwards we walked it off checking out the entire main street (it's not too long), dad and I each had a scope of ice cream! His was chocolate something or another (mom wasn't all that pleased but whatevs), mine was a scope of black raspberry thunder, yum! (Did I not mention that I was full? Mind you, dessert always has an extra spot in my fullness...another minor detail that may/may not come back to bite me later on...we shall see.) As we were all full and tired afterwards, we've since gone home.

The most exciting discovery while we were on main street was that there will be a GILMORE GIRLS FESTIVAL taking place on Octover 4-6. Why? What kind of blows my mind is because the actual pilot was filmed on this main street! Apparently Scott Patterson (Luke Danes) will be in attendance!!! WHAT?!?!?!?

Ok, not just him. The town troubadour Grant Lee Philips, Miss Patty (Liz Torres), Caesar (Aris Alvarado), Brian (John Cabrera), Madeline (Shelly Cole), Olivia (Tana Shrick), Mrs. Kim (Emily Kuroda) and writers, producers and costume designers that will be also attending this event. This is all nice to know! :)

What's so incredibly crazy and thrilling is the fact that even though this show ran from October 5, 2000 to May 15, 2007, 12 years later, it's still so enduring! Honestly, THIS has made my day!

My last comment may be incorrect *wink wink* but this will be to be determined, hopefully in the near future! But until then, looking forward to the upcoming long weekend! :P

A tease...to myself...

I'm still binge watching Jerry Seinfeld's 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' on Netflix.

Just finished the 20 episodes in 'First Cup' and even though I'm thoroughly enjoying each episode with car information and comedian interaction...I keep telling myself I'm mostly watching the show for the interaction...ALTHOUGH I am also at the same time telling myself that I should just ride out the whole premise of watching the pouring and drinking of coffee in EVERY SINGLE EPISODE...mind you, I find it so interesting that even though Jerry and the comedians are enjoying such exquisite food choices in each episode as well...it's the drinking of the coffee that puts me over the edge each time.

However...I will not stop watching these episodes for the time being.

M.Y. B.A.D.... shrugs

Leo celebration

This weekend included celebrating Ames' birthday!

We had gone to visit her Saturday afternoon and for dinner, celebrated at 'Spring Sushi' on the 5th floor of the N/E corner of Dundas and Yonge St. An interesting point that was noted...even though it's put as an 'all you can eat' sushi price, they sneak in other additional prices if you're not quick to notice the price difference in the menu. SNEAKY... Which leads me to this review...if not for the pretty skyline on a nice sunset, I've decided that even though the food is the normal type of sushi that you get at a sushi place, it's not some place to be recommended nor where I would gravitate toward again.

Sunday was my lazy (except for a hardcore gym workout) day where I had a late lunch with Louie at Fortune Stone Restaurant (NW corner of Warden and Steeles), having a Portuguese chicken meal, Louie a club sandwich, and then we split a French toast for dessert. Afterwards we had tofu drinks at zenQ (NW corner of Steelcase Rd W and Woodbine Ave). Totally my first time trying this out and I went for the sweet potato tofu drink while Louie went for a grass jelly tofu drink. I enjoy trying new things and so far, as long as I've known Louie, he's been introducing me to a lot different types of foods and drinks. I LIKE!

Tdot's brought one back!!!

After spending nearly 6 years in Seattle (I'm not going to lie, I only remember her location due to the fact that grey's anatomy was based there...;)), I've learnt earlier today that my good friend, Mich, will be coming back to the Tdot in another two months!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! :) I've missed this friend interaction soooooooooo much!!!!!

Considering our history...we had first met in Tokyo, Japan back in the mid-2000's...I'm going to say 2004/5?...when I was visiting Liz, who was teaching English in Osaka, and she had come on this trip to Japan with her then new bf (and my friend), Christian.

After our great experience in Japan, we continued our friendship within the CS (comp sci) group, what both she and Christian were studying at U of T. We discovered that we both liked to listen to music and eat out with the group of CS friends (back then, I was the social butterfly back at SMCSU and we had shared friends from CSSU). This led to us sharing great times going to the TSO (Toronto Symphony Orchestra) on the cheap TSOUNDCHECK tickets, scoring symphony tickets for as low as $19, an exclusive program for people ages 15 to 35.

Either way, even though we haven't seen each other as much since she's been away, I cannot wait to reconnect and hear how the train ride in to the Tdot was when she's back in October!!!

Binge watching shows...

Is pretty much the only thing I can do at this moment.

Especially as I cannot be working (or maybe I could if I still was? Perhaps...), volunteering, just waiting for a phone call for this over extended appointment that I've been waiting for over half a year now.

Therefore, I've been binge watching many television shows that I've taped or catching on Netflix including (but not only): - Elementary (disclaimer: I just saw the last episode of the series, it was a good wrap up!; - Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee; - My Next Guest Needs No Introduction; - You; - Lee Daniels' Star; - When They See Us; - Oprah Winfrey Presents When They See Us Now; - many stand up comedy acts on Netflix;

As well as still wanting to start watching The Umbrella Academy and finishing watching Designated Survivor and Lucifer (now that the shows have been canceled and on Netflix)

You would think I'm thrilled to just be watching tv...but I find myself falling asleep (thus needing to re-watch once I've woken up) or needing something to keep me occupied on the show (I mostly miss when I used to do my work and watch shows at the same time...I call THIS multi-tasking at my best...details...)

That is all for now...

8, not for me...

For people of Asian descent, the number 8 is regarded as the luckiest number in Chinese culture. Apparently, with pronunciation of 'Ba' in Chinese, number 8 sounds similar to the word 'Fa', which means to make a fortune. As it contains meanings of prosperity, success and high social status, Asians (like myself) favor this number.

Therefore, today hypothetically, was the perfect day for me, except that it was not meant to be...

Due to a previous situation, I was pushed back to another day yet to be determined.

Too bad, so sad...C'est pas pour moi, quel dommage.

Getting ready for it...

Highlights after spending the long weekend in Buffalo and Niagara Falls include dining at Cora's and Canyon Creek (yum to ravioli!) and seeing Toy Story 4 (after missing 2 & 3, it wasn't difficult to fall back in with 4...especially with Duke Caboom, Keanu Reeves!).

Back in the Tdot, I've had an exception dinner with Louie at Petit Potato (you've got to love the French name that's run by Asians!) and gotten a haircut at Pac mall before my D-day occurring tomorrow morning...I've been asked how I'm feeling about it but honestly, I'm very nonchalant about the entire process. It definitely helps that I'll be out the entire time as well as the fact that this is sadly, nothing new for me.

C'est la vie...

The art of disclosure

In a sense, this blog is a type of disclosure, the action of making new or secret information known as even though I am pretty much an open book in person...I find that sometimes when I write things down, I can organize my thoughts more into a coherent sense. Also, in normal conversation with people, it's a natural ebb and flow conversing on topics but here, I direct the reader in where my mind is going!

One of my favourite subjects to disclose about is food!!! I went to Tuesday dinner with Louie although the vegetarian restaurant we wanted to try out, Blossom Vegetarian didn't open at the time it was listed as opening at. PLUS, after hanging around for about 10 mins, we decided that even if it HAD as we were the only two customers, it didn't feel worth it. We ended up going to Turtle Jacks, where I had a delicious French onion burger & fries combo while Louie had Honey garlic roasters (wings) that he studiously ate so well that I had finished my combo wayyyy before he finished (I was hungry).

As we had such an interesting dinner conversation that didn't feel like we had enough time to finish, we continued the conversation by having bubble waffles (Asian dessert). He had a strawberry Nutella waffle with a whisky cranberry orange green tea while I had a banana Nutella waffle with a handmade taro milk tea. It was all so delicious!!! HOWEVER, only after the fact, I realized that I had over eaten as after we had left and he'd driven me home, I made sure to stay up a little later (it was late but hey, I had no reason to worry about the time) to make sure the food was properly digested before going to sleep.

Yesterday, I had an out of the blue dinner date with Henry, Laurianna and one of their family members at sushiOne due to the fact that Henry and Laura wanted to catch up with me before my big 'date', to be disclosed by the end of this post. They had originally suggested meeting up for $1 oysters but in the end they had to abort due to the long wait time (surprised? not really). They went for the all you can eat dinner while I decided to go with the salmon sushi pizza. Normally, they don't allow one person from the party to not have the all you can eat dinner but luckily, due to the fact that it was a weekday evening with not too many people in the restaurant, it went off without a hitch! The restaurant was so nice that I actually got a free green tea ice cream for dessert out of it!

This morning, I went out with my rents to a Dim sum lunch at the relatively new Yanyu Chinese dining off of consumers rd. I'm not going to lie though, I find dim sum pretty similar at most places we go to so regardless of the fact that it was new, I didn't find the reso good enough to stand out and make me want to go back in the future.

Enough with the food disclosure for now, as I will continue with the backlash over The Bachelorette Finale 2019 (full disclosure, I normally don't watch any of the Bachelor shows as I have no interest in following a show where people are trying to find their mates...as I am in the exact same situation...I focus on myself first, why root for someone else? *minor detail*)...however, I'd been hearing about the fact that the guy that the most recent bachelorette had chosen had NOT DISCLOSED being in a relationship before going on the show. I applaud the fact that she broke off the engagement and it seems like she and the runner up may try again...off camera. But this is an example how not disclosing information can work negatively.

There ARE situations where disclosing can work positively but speaking out of experience, this is a very tricky subject. EVERY situation is different, there's absolutely no map book to help with this situation. Which brings me to the fact that I have been disclosing about my own health battle to people who I feel comfortable about sharing this information to (this is where Henry and Laura come in). Only my family, closest friends and people from my work know about this battle I have been fighting since after Faye's wedding last year. 15 months later, I'm now able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. After next Thursday (note for Asians that this is August 8), this will hopefully be the end to another chapter in my book of life.

I'm most excited about having coffee again!!!

Hakuna matata!

Enjoyed a wonderful summer weekend spending Saturday visiting Ames, catching the newest rendition of 'The Lion King' at the theatre closest to her place. This was a really nice theatre where the seats could recline back so we watched the movie with much comfort! :) My review of the movie? I enjoyed the realness of the animals in the movie so much more than the Disney version! Plus it really helps knowing that Beyoncé is voicing 'Nala'!

Thanks to Wikipedia, "Hakuna matata" (pronounced [hɑˈkunɑ mɑˈtɑtɑ]) is a Swahili language phrase from East Africa, meaning "no trouble" or "no problems". (The word "hakuna" means "there is no/there are no", while "matata" means "troubles" or "problems".) This phrase is translated as "no worries".

After catching the movie, we tried to go to the 'Spaghetti Factory' but due to long wait times, we decided to go over to 'The Keg' where I had the delicious Keg burger with fries.

Sunday was spent going for a late catch up lunch at Ten Ren's Tea with Purple and Rebecca where we shared three different combo meals of pork cutlet, crispy chicken and beef ribs. The combos included sides, drinks and dessert.

It's always nice to catch up with past convexE2 coworkers, as I had such great times there when the company was still around. Even though the three of us had a great time eating, drinking tea and catching up, I hope that we can try to meet up again with more coworkers in the near future!

Being a flâneur

What a good way to learn about exploring Toronto through listening to a podcast. It's another way to learn about areas of our wonderful city!

Considering I was born and raised in Toronto, I find that too many people are stuck in their habits of simply going to work or school and then back home. We don't normally take the time to leave our routine and explore the many faceted areas of our very integrated city. There are actually so MANY different and wonderful parts of our city to explore on foot, literally right in our backyard! The best part of walking is that you don't need to rush around and can go at your own leisurely pace. (MY style ;p)

Toronto has some really nice areas to walk around in, I particularly like walking in the distillery district, st. Lawrence market and Kensington market areas to name a few. They're really good areas to get coffee and shop around in for little niks and naks.

You can listen to the Toronto Library Podcast called Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto here Focusing on being a flâneur and their love for walking around in the city of Toronto, this is a interesting talk between Toronto Star columnist Shawn Micallef and my SMCSU friend, wongie.

"The more I have walked, the more I have discovered that there's more to walk and understand." -Shawn Micallef, Toronto Star columnist and noted flâneur To listen to other different types of podcasts, you can check it out here.

This is one of the past-times that I love to do...walk! It's a really good stress reliever and type of exercise, just by being out and active.

Unsuccessful at multi-tasking

Note: please refer to my note on watching the Oscars from two posts back...I HAD finally finished re-watching the 2019 Oscars.

Kind of...I'm currently watching the Oscar after party while trying to blog at the same time. I say kind of because I know that I am the most horrible example of someone trying to do two things at the same time. Main point is that I CANNOT. The long and short of this point is that it takes an exceeding long time to finish this blog while I'm watching the after award-Governor's ball interviews with the happy actors.

Actually, what I've finally smartened up to doing is blogging during the commercial section (that I had been fast-forwarding) so that I can pay attention to this task...ish...

Considering I am taking advantage of the summer, weather and all, I've been pretty actively out and about this week. I started off the week with obtaining a new bank card (as I had seemed to have misplaced my debit card) after determining that it was me and not having had it stolen.

The rest of the week's events centered around eating out...a dinner with Louie, Tuesday evening at Donburi Japanese Restaurant...finishing off the lovely meal with a first time Toraro (rice milk tea - Louie's recommendation) at OneZo Tapioca. Dinner at Touhenboku Ramen Wednesday evening with Winnie, before attending her Eglinton-Yonge Toastmasters again because I enjoy the relatively smooth/flawless way the meeting commences (due to the fact this club has been in existence MUCH longer then my (MSIT) club. *minor detail that I actually have not attended my own club since the beginning of the year, even though I've paid for the year...*. Finished this week off with having Moto sushi lunch updates with Grace and Alice today.

This week also happened to be the same week that Jennifer Lopez celebrated her 50th birthday with Alex Rodriguez. Gosh, she does NOT look even close to this age. Just someone to look up to as a model for myself. hrm…

In closing, I've realized the biggest mistake I've made, ESPECIALLY as I'm multi-tasking...I shouldn't have made the decision to blog so late in the evening...when I'm at my most vulnerable time in terms of thinking...oops! Anyway, signing out for now. :)

The green-eyed monster...

is trying to claw out of me and I'm trying desperately not to let my imagination go wild.

I had recently been receiving alerts that a close university friend (whom I've since lost touch with) from mostly my first and second year has started a wedding and event consulting business.

What stings is the fact that in our past days on SMCSU (st. Michael's college student union), our roles were as the communications commissioner (her role) and officer (my role) and after we had graduated our under grad, one of my first steps was to study wedding planning. I ACTUALLY am a certified wedding planner....but this came to no use as I never did anything with this certificate. Although, this was a stepping stone...as it eventually led me into studying communications where I would have succeeded in my goal had life had not intervened with different plans. *minor detail*

So due to curiosity, I looked into her website and then looked into where she was in life...she's married to the guy she was dating back in university and has a child! ***disclaimer, THIS is where my green-eyed monster started to try to crawl out of me...it's sickening...

The long and short of this post is that even though I am so jealous that my girlfriend seems to have fulfilled a lot of what I may have secretly been trying to fulfil in life, I'm actually pretty proud of knowing that we had (mine have now veered onto a different path but this is besides the point) such similar goals in life. GREAT minds DO think alike!!! That we spent some fabulous times of our lives together and mainly that I can remember that time!

Even better is that I know that there's still more life in the future for me!

So THERE green-eyed monster!!! I HAVE overcome YOU.

THE END

Now moving on...

What an exhausting weekend....but it was a GOOD kind of exhaustion, the type where you have a really restful sleep thus waking up to a new day!

I spent both mornings with a really nice & long aerobic walk in the little stretch of park walkway through the neighborhood as the sun was rising. This is the best time in the morning because the sun hasn't fully come up so the air is still slightly cool enough to walk with a rain breaker (in case it is cool or has drops of rain) as the heat has yet to gain it's full strength (and it DID both days). I love waking up with the birds chirping and the squirrels fighting over food! My favorite routine is after my morning walk, I cool down with breakfast before showering and getting ready for the day.

Saturday was spent visiting my really good university friend, Alicia and family. I'd brought some really cute types of colorful pasta as a gift for their having me over. It was really nothing considering they had me over with a wide selection of food, including blueberry pancakes made from scratch! Sunday involved no less food as I had afternoon tea (it's been some time since I'd last had afternoon tea!) with two abbeyite friends, Fayewood and Romz at T-buds off of Yonge, between Wilson and Lawrence. This is why I maintain my exercise schedule...not to lose weight but really to MAINTAIN my weight!

Normally this is where I chime in that come tomorrow morning, I'd go to work to gain back a 'normal' schedule...I'm not worried though. I have plans for this upcoming week. We'll see how this goes...

Now I'm off to catch up on Oscars (yes, this was back in February...don't judge!) before I catch some zz's!

Ambitions

As I've been unemployed again for 3 weeks now, I've been taking the time to catch up on tv (note, it will never happen) and on the side I'd been re-reading my old posts. I've realized that my blog used to be a very good calendar-eske indication of what was happening in my life from back in the day.

Considering I like to write how I think (which to some may be considered garbage...lol), I appreciate my own writings as like a diary of some sort, keeping account of what was happening in life back in the day. As I've been reading my old blogs, I have been mentally patting myself on the back because I'd been in a sense helping myself keep track of life for over a decade.

Therefore, I've decided that I'm going to try to blog more regularly again, keeping account of what's been happening (well, other than my planner, which I've got like nearly a decade of those) and try to be more in depth and descriptive again. Who knows, I could be re-honing my writing skills again but in this sense, this is more like an online thought process into my mind/imagination. Again, it can be scary but I will try to keep it at bay (as duh, I recognize this IS online and ANYONE can come across this....especially if they know me...plus plenty of people used to know this existed. Just may or may not know it will be revived).

Besides, I LIKE reading my writings and remembering what's happened. Who knows, this could help in my memory in the future. But of course, this means I will need to go out of my way to post more regularly. We shall see how this goes...for now, I will get ready for the weekend!

We the North...

has become We the Champions!!!! Congratulations to the Toronto Raptors who have won their very first-ever NBA championship title as of June 13, 2019! They, the rogue team winning in the oracle arena, wow...good times to the Raptors!

When They See Us

I just finished watching the 4 part Netflix series 'When They See Us', directed by Ava DuVernay. Considering I never followed the story when it occurred (I was too young to have known about it); even though I know very little about Central Park Five case, I feel it's given me a better understanding of what happened back in 1989.

The acting was phenomenal and made me feel so bad about whatever sort of trauma that the kids went through. So many emotions went through me as I was watching it. Bravo to such a well told story of such a brutal event! It definitely puts a different perspective on how I view life, considering what others have gone through.

I plan on watching the special Oprah Winfrey Presents When They Se Us Now that's going to come out tomorrow.

A very well titled series: I (we) see you...