meltdown or heatstroke?

Last night when it was really quite hot, I heard my mom say she was hot. I told her it couldn't have been worse than riding on a bus home with no air conditioning. Well apparently I was wrong. Today on the train, the air conditioning broke down so that there was nothing circulating at all except hot air. Not only that, but the windows don't open like they do on a bus!! So there was virtually no air flow. They suggested to those who were heat-intolerant to wait for the next train. Haha. It was probably around 31 degrees out. A nice long 50 minute wait in the searing heat. No thanks.

Once we started going, the conductor said that he was given permission to let us all have free drinks - at least until they ran out. Well, 100+ drinks later, they were out. I didn't make the dash for the cappucino bar because it was in car 8 and I was in car 2. I figured there would be a huge line. By the time I decided to go, there was nothing left but a carton of milk so I had half a cup just to cool down.

Wait. This gets better. I get off at my stop and make my way to the bus station to transfer home. The bus is sitting there; I can see it waiting to pull up into the right bay but it doesn't move. I am standing in the shade of the transit office and see the driver disappear into the little box. I hear him make a phone call saying that the fluid transmission has broken down. So I've stood and waited another 10 minutes. The driver comes out and another regular rider comes and asks him what the problem is. I hear the driver say that his supervisor is making his way over. I had to laugh. It had to have happened to me. I quickly go to call my mom. She comes down to pick me up. We drive up the hill and I see a girl standing at the bus stop. I suggest we pull over to give her a ride up or else she'll be waiting a long stretch of time. *sigh* What a day...but what a story!

on eagle's wings

I've been wondering what my totem has been; my sister thought it was a unicorn, I thought it was an eagle. I figured eagle because I've been seeing so many in the last few months after asking for some signs. Well, it has been confirmed! I have both - though the unicorn was mine in my past life, and the eagle is mine now. Eagles and condors apparently. And any winged bird. All around me especially when there are big changes about to happen in my life.

I went to have a reading last night and it was quite fascinating. With so many past lives and what I did in them, it makes sense why I am the way that I am. I have lived all over the world, which explains my need to travel; she told me that I wanted to get a sense of the past through memories of places I've visited and lived in before. She said I loved Hawaii (I still do!) and Greece, Spain, and Italy. She told me I'd probably still love it now. She sees travel ahead for me and says I have luck up the ying yang! I don't see it that way, but that's probably cuz it's not in terms of winning money or material items, rather through work, relationships and situations.

Grandma comes around me, and she is the one who comes to meet me at night and takes me to my dreams. She wears turquoise, and she doesn't look the way that I remember her; she's young and beautiful.

weekend bliss

I worked on Saturday and it was hot hot hot day! Surprisingly, though there were quite a few people, not many people purchased drinks or snacks from the concession. However, lucky me, there was a tour group from the states - I saw a bunch of people wearing badges with National Geography or Geographic signs (didn't want to stare) and this group of 20 or so left, one of the ladies thanked me for the tour and handed me a 20!! I was awestruck. They must have all contributed; it was the nicest gesture I'd received!

It was also a day of harbour seals and pups lying on the logs. An eagle was also spotted on a barge filled with woodchips, and in the afternoon, TWO were sitting on the barge. Quite a sight.

My sister and mom were supposed to come for the last tour but didn't show up. :( My sister wasn't feeling good and ended up going to see the TCM in Chinatown. They picked me up after work and we ate at ToKo before heading off to Mamma Mia. Since we were done eating early and had found an awesome parking spot, I suggested walking to Cirque du Soleil's big top to see the souvenirs they had. We managed to get in and I tried on some cool t-shirts. (The price of $39 wasn't so cool) My sister said the shirt didn't look right on me so we put it down and hoofed it back to the theatre where we ended up waiting 30 minutes for technical difficulties to be resolved.

The show was good, the singing great, but it was a bit of a letdown after all the hype. I'm glad I've seen it, but would not pay to go a second time.

On Sunday, we all got up early so we could take a day trip to Bowen Island on the MV Britannia. We were running late as usual, and I was worried we'd miss the boat literally! We made it with some of the office girls teasing me on how staff are usually the last to arrive. The trip out to the island was beautiful but I think I got a bit too much sun and wind on my head and ended up with a dull headache. There wasn't much to do on the island at all so we took a bus tour around it and had lunch and then boarded the boat again for the return trip.

For dinner, we went to a Thai place near English Bay and then went home. It was such a good weekend to have one day off! :)

the waiting game

I really feel that I was thrown into the "waiting game" yesterday unknowingly. After all of the morning and afternoon waits, I had to wait one more time...this time at the train station. The train was suppose to leave downtown at 5:30 but was nowhere in sight. The woman on the intercom originally said it would be arriving in 2 minutes and to please wait patiently. Well, after a few minutes, the message changed to "The train will be arriving momentarily." Everyone was crowded onto the platform. Because we left almost half an hour later, the people who normally take the last train were arriving already! And I had missed the bus. So I had to phone home and arrange for a ride. By the time I got home, it was nearly 7 and my mom asked why I had switched times. I told her I hadn't...that it was because the train was late. I was pretty wiped out. I'm just glad it didn't happen on Tuesday when I had an appointment to see my chiropractor!

Giovanni phoned me. I hadn't talked to him or seen him in about 3 years apart from last Sunday when I ran into him at the mall. We caught up a bit on what he has been doing. His younger sister is living in LA, married with 2 kids at the age of 24. He himself has a 3 year old son, Ryan, and he isn't with the woman any longer. Somehow I'm not surprised.

And as for today, it's another sunny hot day at the office...

endless lines and paying for punishment

I just got back from my lunch...almost a 2 hour one at that. Was getting a new passport since the other expired the day before I got back from NYC, but the lines were horrendous. Went at lunch and as soon as I lined up and picked up my number, went out to pick up the tickets for Mamma Mia, where I had to wait in yet another line. Went back to the passport office where I sat with tons of other people and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally my number appeared. And I had to fork out $85 for the pleasure of all of this. It was a beautiful sunny day spent indoors and tomorrow I'll have to shorten my lunch hour to make up for this. How wonderful. :(

swapping shoes

I had bought a nice pair of dressy sandals/flip flops to wear to work and wore them for the first time yesterday morning since it was such a hot and sunny day. Well, not even 2 hours into work and I've got a blister on the side of my foot. The shoe was rubbing in an unexpected way and I was in pain! I ended up having to wear my high heel dress shoes (lucky I even had an extra pair of shoes at work) and running (stumbling in heels is a more accurate description) up to the department store to get a refund. The guy told me I could only do an exchange, that he couldn't do a full refund because I had paid for part of it by a cheque given to me by my friend and it was treated like a coupon. So I had to run around and find something else to buy. I ended up getting myself a nice pair of Swarovski three stone bezel set pierced earrings. They were pricey, but definitely cute and worthwhile, at least in my opinion. :) In the past, I've bought fancy Swarovski earrings that are really only meant to be worn for special occasions. This pair I can wear any day (and am in fact, wearing them as I type!)

Too hot to dance last night so I didn't go to a class. Too hot to do anything so I lay around the house, trying not to move. In other news, I have now got travel plans for the end of August! My dad phoned me up at work asking if I'd like to go to Alaska. I said yes! So we'll be going with my mom on a 7 day cruise on Celebrity's Infinity. Hopefully, this time I'll be able to relax since it will be my second trip up to Alaska. :) Knowing me though, I can foresee myself running around and trying to squeeze everything in as usual!

family feud

This has been brewing for quite some time though it really blew up last week. Little bits and pieces are slowly leaking out. Everyone has their own point of view and lies are being told. Alliances are being formed. Brothers against sisters. It's so so sad and I was and still am quite stressed out about the whole thing. Things aren't resolved yet, nor do they look like they will be any time soon. When I don't think about this aspect of my life, I'm ok...then I dwell on what I want to do with my life!

Another sunny beautiful day today. Will be hopefully exchanging my camera tonight, after tons of debating with myself about what I should buy. Funny how something that was supposed to be free is going to end up costing me several hundred dollars! But I hope it's worth it. I'll be spending my free time this weekend making my way through Harry Potter 5 [Order of the Phoenix]. I'm about 70 pages into this 766 page tome!

boxed in

It's beautiful outside - I'm itching to go out. My sister and mom went out for a shopping spree today - I'm so envious! Will have to wait and see what they bought and if I lucked out with anything for me. :) It's so difficult to work when the weather is as nice as it is!! Ah well...when it's cold and miserable here, I hope to be off in sunny lands far away...i.e. cuba?? :)

broken pieces

I'm falling apart. I was feeling quite tight around my shoulder/neck area on Monday that I begged my mom for her physio appointment and stole her spot. My left foot was also hurting me and I didn't know why. My physio worked on my neck, saying it was really tight - she wasn't sure why. I said probably stress and how I was sleeping. Things have been quite tense around the house lately. Anyway, I was so concerned I said I was thinking of seeing my doctor. She suggested my chiro. So I booked the appointment for yesterday after work so I could pick up my camera at the same time. Of course, my foot cracked on its own at lunch time, making me ponder whether I should cancel the appointment. Good thing I didn't. My chiro said I was a 'broken little thing'. It's been a year and a week since I last saw him. Makes sense. I haven't skated in that long of a time. It was my diaphragm that he worked on as well as my neck - wow I feel a lot more relief there. Plus, he yanked hard on my foot a couple of times and said I needed to see him again next week. Whew. Life just does this to your body.

I picked up my camera and haven't even opened it. I'm hoping to exchange/upgrade it since this one really isn't that great. I mean, it's decent but if I can do better, why not? So now I'm going through this pain of trying to find something good but not too expensive, which is definitely hard to find.

Also went to see Finding Nemo by Pixar at the theatre last night. I love Pixar and this was no exception. Cute show, if not a bit long. Oh, and I borrowed Harry Potter 5 so I'm starting on that! And dad sold his baby, the old red Honda yesterday. So much stuff going on I can barely keep up!!

restless

Apparently the christening of the Island Princess was a bigger event than I thought! I almost stayed late after work, hoping to catch Jamie and David from my office view (since we're up so high). However, it was good that I didn't wait since it didn't happen until 7 pm....an hour later than they said in the press releases. Anyway, there have been the weirdest incidens on the buses these days. When I took the bus the final stretch of the trip home, the guy was probably day dreaming because we went straight past our normal stop and he had to loop back! A few people on the bus were looking a bit alarmed because we weren't on the regular route. That made me late getting into the house, where I promptly dashed to the tv and turned it on. I flipped between the various news channels to catch glimpses of the ship. The ship was to leave for a dusk to dawn cruise and sail under the Lions Gate Bridge, where fireworks were to go off. *sigh* How absolutely wonderful. Too bad I wasn't on it! :(

Back to bus stories. I took the bus home from work yesterday and this guy starts strumming his guitar. The young female bus driver tells him he has to stop; he doesn't listen so she tells him to get off the bus. He ignores her until she pulls over and opens the back door. He finally clues in and promises to put his guitar away. He's probably in his mid-thirties and knew what he was doing.

The weather here has sucked lately. Yesterday it was so hot and sunny in the morning and according to the paper, it said chance of showers so I went to my office to grab my umbrella before going to work on the ship. Well, it absolutely dumped by the last cruise and I still got soaking wet because I had to restock the bottles of liquor onto my ship. I couldn't exactly hold the umbrella with my full hands. And the carbon dioxide/pop tank wasn't working properly either. What a day. Absolutely crazy. Today - almost the same - started off overcast/sunny and became rainy as soon as the last cruise was done. I told my dad that almost every weekend that I've worked, it's been poor weather. It's just a pain in the butt since there are usually fewer passengers and things just don't sell - it's quite weather dependent. One of the girls told me that the Bowen Island trips were going to be transferred from the nice ship to a smaller ship to save money on fuel etc. The smaller ship is more like a dinky ferry - the Spirit of Yalis, which she jokingly referred to as the Spirit of Yuckis. I'm planning on doing this trip - and I'm gonna do this before we move over to the other boat!

I'm beginning to question more and more what I should be doing with my work...I'm really feeling like maybe I should tkae a LOA and go and do my cruise ship thing for six months and come back. Don't know yet...still pondering. And there's another day of work tomorrow....

consolation prize

I got a phone call at work this morning, about an hour ago... I won a prize! I had to ask what I won because I forgot what I had entered for - it was a digital camera! I was so excited about this because I've been wanting one for so long and was considering purchasing one...and now I don't have to! :) Then I took a closer look at it - this camera is worth around $315 so it's decent, but no where near the quality I'd like. But who's complaining? The girl who never wins has finally won something! Now the problem is how I'm going to go and pick this up since I work every day and they open and close too late and early for me. We'll have to see about this. Btw, the camera is a Kodak CX4230, not that it means much to such a non-techie like me! Consolation for missing the Island Princess christening that's happening this afternoon I suppose... I can see the beautiful Island Princess docked right outside my office. It's a beautiful sunny day out too.

bigger picture

I am still trying to figure things out. I want the puzzle to be solved! Still disappointed and bummed about the job but I hope there's a good reason behind all of this. After all, things do happen for a reason.

Had a slow day at work today - good little lunch with one of the students. It was so hot outside today (almost 30!) that we sat in the shade by the cruise ship Maasdam. Hmm..glutton for punishment? Anyway, had the most delicious Tiamo Tropical Twist drink from Second Cup. It's a new drink; they are copying Starbuck's Tiazzi but I found it quite lovely, especially since it was made of organic tea and "premium fruit juice." Quite refreshing on a hot summer's day. Boy, that sounds like a commercial. :p

I worked over time tonight too - doing a copying job that needed to be done for tomorrow. My boss asked sort of jokingly if I needed the money or something along the lines of why was I doing this. I said I didn't have dance classes now so I had extra time. Had dinner at Steamrollers with Sarah. And then another sweet drink - Starbuck's chai tazo creme frappucino. That was something else too! :) I was stuffed.

Went to dinner with my cousin Tony last night. He's visiting from HK and getting married in December! Unfortunately, the wedding isn't here so I won't be able to attend. It was great seeing him - I haven't seen him since last summer when he came back for our other cousin's wedding. He asked me to be his MC if I went to HK, but I can't see myself forking out tons of money during high season to attend his wedding!

bummed out

I just read an email rejecting my application for this job I've waited so long to apply for. I'm at a loss as to why they won't even interview me...I've been eyeing this job for almost a year now and don't know what to do. I know that things happen for a reason but I really wanted this job badly.

Just Monday, I tried to get an invitation to the Island Princess christening happening here in port with Jamie Sale and David Pelletier as godparents...was unsucessful at that also.

In other news, the conjoined twin sisters, aged 29, didn't make it through the surgery to separate them yesterday in the 50 hour marathon surgery. It was really such sad news to hear.

stampede day

Our Calgary office got the day off for the Stampede. Lucky them. *sigh* It was a beautiful morning but I don't know where the sun has gone! It's cloudy all of a sudden. Work has been fine but I'm already looking for the next trip. Restless I guess. It was weird having a Tuesday off. I was saying yesterday how I wished it was Friday. Then I realized it didn't really matter since I work everyday anyway!

Going to go do a little shopping after work tonight. Window shopping, my sister would say. I often go but rarely buy. We'll see what I end up bringing home.

Tomorrow, I've got a bbq to attend. Make that an intimate sit-down dinner, as Cam says. I organized it but it's being held at his place. Only a few of us are going but unless it's some massive reunion (like the last dinner I organized!) there will always be some people who cannot make it. I'm starting to think that maybe there's a career down this path for me...organizing tour trips or something...hmm.

vancouver 2010

They announced that Vancouver won the Olympics bid about 30 minutes ago. I was getting off the train and walking and started hearing car horns outside. Stood outside Canada Place where Pamela Martin and Lloyd Robertson were doing the news live in the CTV tent. They showed the events at GM Place as well as in Prague. I'm not that excited about the Olympics - I think our government needs to get a hold of priorities such as education and health care first but this is the way it went. I'm only writing about this because it's a big event that will affect BC in the long run.

Examples of cost:
- the bid cost $35 million Cdn
- the final push in Prague cost $875,000 to send the likes of our Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Wayne Gretzky
- a budget of $2 billion for the games: (a $57-million speed skating oval, a $28.8-million hockey facility and a $24-million curling rink, $102 million cross-country, biathlon and ski jump facility and $52.8-million bobsled and luge track will be built)
- critics say the Olympics will end up costing B.C. taxpayers around $1.2 billion - reason enough to not participate!! (One city pulled out of the race after asking its people via referendum whether they wanted to go ahead with the bid or not...)

canada day

Wow - is it ever nice to have a day off from work! With the dance recitals over and my NYC report done, a lot of weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Today was a great day just to kick back and head down to Canada Place to celebrate. Not too much happening down there but dancing and music but with beautiful sunny weather, it was just a nice trip out. Went with my sister and my mom. No fireworks this year due to safety issues. That's ok since I need to be in bed early for work tomorrow. Happy birthday Canada!