It's been so long since I've last been to Frankie Tomatto's!!!
Mind you, I cannot stuff myself at buffet's like in the times long past....BUT it's always nice to have MORE options! (Literally just grabbing small bite-sized portions...)

Enjoyed a great dinner with Jordan last night at Stack a smokehouse specializing in bbq food. It's been much too long since I've last been there and the bbq ribs, mac & cheese with my additional s’mores shake was VERY FILLING!!! (BUT worth every bite)

This is especially nice after starting my new job. Major perk is that even though I go in part-time, it's actually at a wage which works out well so that I can do more than just work... :)
As well, the office environment is so welcoming and I hope this will be a nice long term project...fingers-crossed!!!

'I like to say David is yolo koko...you only live once so keep on keeping on, man. Keep on struggling with this & learning this and learning this...and growing!'

Said by Stevie Wonder in David Foster: Off the Record
Totally agree with Stevie on this sentiment...it's all about learning and growing through the struggle!

So in preparation for the upcoming year of the Rat, went to Art Inn Runway, a salon at Pacific Mall (that I go to now) to get a haircut on Saturday! I even have my preferred hair stylist, Benson (riiiiiight?!?!?!? SUCH an artsy stylist name, lol)! Personally though, I didn't want it cut too short so just a couple of inches...

Afterwards, we (even Ames!) went to Niagara to relax. Caught a show by The Voca People at the casino where the premise is that a group of performers dressed all in white with red lips. The Voca People claim to come from the Planet Voca (somewhere behind the sun) where all communication is based on music and vocal expressions. Their motto is "Life is music and music is life". During the show, The Voca People are supposed to sometimes mingle with the crowd...during THIS performance, one of the performers tried to sit on my lap (I was sitting in the aisle seat) but as my purse was in my lap, the performer jumped off like something made my lap unpleasant! It was the PERFECT prop!
Went to the Canyon Creek Chophouse for dinner where I had a Kansas City Steak Soup (slow roasted prime rib, carrots, celery, onion and garlic) and Prime Rib Sliders (prime rib on baked buns, cabernet jus and horseradish sour cream) as my meal. I also had a bit of Dad's Peppercorn New York striploin and some avocado from Ames' salad, yum!

After coming home in the early afternoon, I'm now catching up the tv movie I'd taped off of the W Network called Love In Winterland with Italia Ricci & Chad Michael Murray. Normally I don't go out of my way to tape cheesy tv movies BUT because I saw that Mr. Murray was in this, I was hooked! One of my crushes from back in the day in One Tree Hill with another cutie, James Lafferty....why not? Shelley and I used to LOOOOOOVVVEEE catching the show in between our studies during school! Such pretty faces to look (not just the guys) at in the show. Even though the show's ended since 2012, I'd still watch reruns if they played it (like Gilmore Girls :)) He's still quite the hunk and even though I'm just at the beginning of the movie, I'm totally rooting for him and Ally! Why not?

Aiming to get a good night's rest as tomorrow I begin another chapter...hopefully a longer and not as much struggling in this one! *fingers-crossed*

The day's been a turmoil of feelings but it's come out positive and can only go up now...woot! 👍

You've made this day a special day by just being you. There's no person in the whole world like you and I like you just the way you are.

- Fred Rogers

Enjoyed New Years in Niagara and went to see 'Little Women' at Fairview mall with mom thanks to Louie's movie tix present!

As this is the beginning of awards season, the Golden Globe Awards is happening this weekend and so in an effort to clean up all my taped shows, I've been binge watching 'A Very Brady Renovation' and 'The Masked Singer'. ;p

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!