off to sin city

I have gotten so much exercise this past week that my legs and arms have been really sore. My legs feel like they took a good beating; I went swimming on Thursday and did a make-up ballet class today since I'm missing next week's class. It will either work for or against me this coming week - I anticipate much walking over the next few days in Las Vegas and I will either be a complete wimp or else all this exercise will have helped me after all!

It's wet snowing today after a night full of pounding rain. The Dining Out series kicked off last night and runs for the next two weeks. Last night, we went over to my grandparents for the new year tradition. Today, I am to pick up H. from the airport and we are going with my parents to the Observatory up at Grouse for dinner. However, all week I have been fretting over whether his plane will arrive on time; they took my credit card number down for the reservation and I couldn't move the time since it was all booked (no surprise). Right now, the plane actually is 'early' but who knows what will happen when it makes its way over our cloudy wet skies. Just because he gets here on time doesn't mean he'll get out any earlier if last time was any indication. Last time I sat for an hour waiting; he brings carry-on (thank goodness) but was stopped by customs/immigration for the longest time. So I was thinking I should give our seats up to my aunt and uncle but from the way things currently look, we should be able to get a good meal in! Things could, however, still change at any moment.

year of the monkey

It's Chinese new year tomorrow but for today, at last, a day without rain. I am soooo tired of work right now and am looking forward to my trip to Sin City this weekend. Ahh...to get away from all of the mundane monotony. I know I have a good job, but it's really not challenging me or stretching me in any way! Enough griping for now. 2 more days til the weekend!

blind date

I hung around the house yesterday doing a bit of cleaning and waiting for the date in the evening. It's this sort of weird dread - what if things turn out awkward, or what if we just don't have anything to talk about, or what if it's just unexpected? We both ended up getting to the restaurant early. There were almost no spots in the parking lot so I had to circle a bit further out and I spotted his car. So he had already arrived...even before me and I was 10 minute early! The place was hopping and I'm assuming they didn't take reservations. The lobby area was packed with people waiting and I wasn't even sure if he'd already gotten a table or not yet so I asked the hostess who looked up his name and said his name was down. So I asked if he was at a table or waiting. She said waiting. I guess she thought it was weird that I was asking. Anyway, there was only one Asian guy standing there with his back to me - he and many others were glued to the tv sets showing the latest hockey game. I stepped outside the restaurant for a quick breath and went back in. He finally turned around and came over to say hi. We sat on the bench and chatted a bit. My first impression was that he was probably as tall as me. And I wasn't sure how old he was but he told me - it was a little surprising. 10 years older than me! That's quite the difference in my books...

The awkwardness of it was lessened probably by the fact that we had emailed a bit and had gotten off to joking around. It was now a matter of putting the face together with the name. We had to sit for 45 minutes before a table opened up and by that time, I was absolutely starving. We ordered an appetizer but they had run out so I said just to go to the main course. We chatted between mouthfuls and then left for the movie, Big Fish, which was very imaginative and good, except for some scary bits. Anyway, I went home and realized afterwards that I didn't know much about him because I had talked so much! I thanked him for the dinner and movie and told him I had a nice time. We said we'd keep in touch by email. While he seems like a genuinely great guy, I still am not sure we are on the same wave length, and the age factor does bother me a bit....something to mull over.

hanging on by the thread

I woke up with a sore body; I took the deep-aqua fit class last night. It was an hour long exercise class in the water where they tie these floats to your feet and if you don't stand properly (i.e. with perfect posture), the floats will float so that you are either lying on your back, or doing a face plant in the water. It was extremely tiring especially because I hadn't swam for so many years. But I intend to keep it up since I know it's great for me!

I got home, showered, and went to bed. Didn't really have a chance to ask my mom about my godfather. My parents went over to a friend's house, where my godmother was going for dinner and some support. I guess it was good I didn't ask cuz it would have been another sleepless night. They put him off the respirator this morning at 8am and said if he could breathe on his own, that's fine; if he couldn't, so be it. I was thinking about him as I stood at the train station. My mom left a voice message at my work around lunch time saying that he was breathing on his own. But who knows how long that will last? He has a really strong will though so we'll see. I will keep him and his family close to my heart.

potential work

I went to another model call right after work. It's for a different hair care company and they are doing promos on their website. There was a room full of girls also auditioning and we filled out a form (are you willing to cut your hair? are you willing to colour your hair? are you currently with an agency? if yes, which one? can we contact you for future modelling jobs?) and then we were called up to take a polaroid, sat down, and called up again to take a digital photo. I asked the girl if that was all and she said yes so I left. But then I later recalled someone calling up another girl and the girl had already left. The woman calling out her name said, "Oh, I didn't get her on video." Well, I left without being taped either so I don't know if it will affect my chances. They are only selecting 8 people and there were at least 25 girls when I was there...and I'm sure many more were going to show up after I left. When I went up for my polaroid, the lady (Corinne) said "It's very pretty" of my hair. I said thank you. The red in my hair only shows under the potlights, which they had. It should be pretty considering who did my hair! She asked also how much I'd be willing to cut off my hair and I said that as long as I could tie it up I was fine. Then I was gone and running to catch the train home.

praying for my godfather

Last night, when I got home after my voice lesson, I found out my godfather was doing even worse. He was on a respirator with pneumonia and in ICU. The prognosis did not look good. My parents were worried he would have a very slim chance of pulling through. With all the surgeries he has gone through, he has been delerious and he had even caught the superbug. :( So I was up last night thinking and praying for him...it's so difficult because his road to recovery is so long and it's not a pleasant one. At the same time, he's still relatively young at 66. I didn't sleep too well last night.

I just got an email from my mother saying that he's doing better today and off the respirator. I was worried because last night, they were saying he was yanking at the tubes attached to him because he didn't know what was going on. Well thank goodness he is able to breathe on his own. He's going in for surgery again today. I will keep my hopes high and my fingers crossed for him and his family.

shopaholic

I'm usually a very good window shopper but lately, I haven't been so good. Yesterday, I went with my aunt and cousin to watch Calendar Girls, a funny British movie based on a real story. It was great until we went shopping! I found a pair of Merrill hiking shoes that were discounted multiple times and bought them; they are air-cushioned and very, very comfy. Last night, we had dinner at my uncle's - a full out bbq with delicious steak, prawns, pork, crab and veggies. I was stuffed!

Today, I went to do my usual walkabout at lunch and found that the Swarovski store had a few things on sale, including these two hair pins that I have been eyeing since they came out probably 2 years ago. Well, they were being discontinued so I jumped at the chance to buy them. So now I'm the proud owner of Swarovski star hair pins. However, the downside is that I found out the store is closing! Apparently Holt Renfrew wants to take up the space because they have their main store on one side of Swarovski, and their gift shop on the other side, and they want to link the stores together. *sigh* So Swarovski may relocate, but who knows to where? In addition to that, Starbucks was selling their gingerbread biscotti from Christmas at a majorly reduced price so I had to buy the last 2 boxes they had available...

eating with my aunt

I'd say that this weekend was spent so far hanging with my aunt, but it's mostly been about eating with her so here's the short of it: My Aunt J. arrived yesterday afternoon so after work I was picked up at the train station and headed straight over to the restaurant for dinner.

Today was another food fest - brunch of dim sum in Richmond. I passed so I could do a make-up ballet class. This afternoon, I showed her my photos from Cuba along with my modelling photos and she kept raving about how cool it was to have a niece who was a model. I told her I wasn't big or anything so it wasn't such a big deal but it's cool to have an aunt who thinks I'm cool. :) Then we went shopping a little bit for some shampoo she couldn't seem to get back east and then it was some more shopping before dinner at another restaurant. She wanted us to go spend more time with her so we went back over to my grandparent's place and we drank a bit of wine and watched Phil Collin's Live and Loose in Paris DVD. Great songs, good music.

Now I'm home finishing chatting with my sister online and then I will be off to bed. I'll be spending some more time with my aunt tomorrow but she's going skiing in the morning and I have decided to pass on that and will catch up with her in the afternoon.

catching some i's and zzz's

For some reason, I haven't been sleeping too well lately. I tend to wake up in the middle of the night - around 4 and by the time I fall asleep again, it's time to wake up. I think I have figured out why. I know that earlier this week, I was excited like a little kid and couldn't sleep because of the anticipation of snow. Well, it's been mega-cold too and I guess I've been too cold! I switched blankets last night and man, my sleep was so sweet. :) Such a simple solution I should have smacked myself.

In other news, there was discussion today at work (which has become insanely busy at the moment) of conferences and who is attending what. The Canadian one is in May in Quebec City, while the two American ones are in June in Nashville, and July in Boston. She's giving me the choice surprisingly. I assumed I'd be going to Quebec. They all sound good. Well, Nashville isn't so hot but if I don't go now, I probably never will. So it's another thing to dwell on over the next little while.

blind in the "eyes" [see above]

I got an email yesterday at work. I get so much I often delete emails without reading them. Guess it was good I didn't. At the skating championships last month, I ran into my ex-co-worker, who used to work at the firm. We were chit chatting as I was surprised to find out she was now seeing someone who is still at the firm. Things got to my side and she suggested setting me up with a friend of her's. Well, the guy emailed me yesterday. I've never gone on a blind date before and this guy asked straight out if I wanted to see the hockey game tonight on the big screen. Well, the game's 3 hours long and it would have been extremely late to go home and drag my butt to work tomorrow so I said no. I'm supposed to meet my guy this year...so I have to get out there but at the same time, blind dates freak me out. I know nothing about him and am basing this all on a co-worker who doesn't know me extremely well either. So he suggested this weekend instead but my aunt is visiting from out of town so this weekend's out as well. The hockey game would probably have been an ideal situation to get acquainted since one can't exactly talk right through a movie. I mean, I guess the worse thing I fear is that I have a miserable time and we have nothing to say. I guess the other thing is that I'd like it to be as painless as possible if things don't work. So it's postponed until next weekend so I can fret about it for another week!

snow day

I am sitting at home as I type this out. The snow didn't start falling until I reached the train station this morning. I figured I'd save my dad the trip and catch the shuttle down but I missed it I guess since it didn' t show up. So he had to drive me. By the time the train pulled into the last station downtown, snow was swirling all over and already starting to coat the tracks and everything else in its path.

When I made it inside the office, I was awed to see how white the main streets of downtown looked. I have to say I've never seen downtown quite like this before. A co-worked said she's seen it like this before but then, how can I compete? She's old enough to be my mother and she's got grandkids. So the COO sent an email around 10am saying that due to the weather, we could leave if the managers gave us permission to do so. My boss left before I did! I had to help a student with some research so I stayed until that was done. I got back to the main station at home around 1pm but missed my connecting shuttle because the bus was a little behind schedule. Understandable when you see the amount of snow on the ground and in the air. So my dad had to make the trip down to pick me up as well. It's hard to say how much snow there really is because my dad already shovelled the driveway this morning. It's supposed to snow around 25-30 cm by the end of tonight before turning to rain...yuck.

Anyway, my dance class has been cancelled tonight as well because the teacher lives up at SFU and can't get down the mountain. It's just as well since I wouldn't be able to make it to class either. I'm just going to take it nice and easy today. So nice to have a 'free' day! I'll probably go out and shovel some snow later to save my dad some trouble. I want to make a trek up to the back of our hill to see the view and amount of snow!!

eagle spotting

Figures that on a day when the high is -3 and the low (i.e. morning) is -10 that the train would be late. It was late about 10 minutes today so I stood shivering with A. as we chatted and waited.

On the train ride in, I saw 2 eagles sitting on one of those log buoys. Also saw a third one flying close by. Further down, I saw another bird - one lady on the train said, "Oh look, that's a young eagle" but I knew better. It was an osprey. So that's 4 birds of prey today. And yesterday I saw 3 eagles circling high above in the sky when I looked out the kitchen window. Things are happening...just don't know what!

Though it's crystal clear and cold today, we are supposed to get a massive dump of snow tomorrow - anywhere from 5 to 20 cm. I am dreading the ride in and the [inevitable?] hike that will be required of me to get back up my hill tomorrow. I don't know if the shuttles can take me up that far!

sunny wintry day

It is another gloriously sunny day. The snow is still sitting around though one can see the sun has been eating away at pieces. I wanted to swim last night but decided against it in case the roads were too icy. So much for kickstarting my resolutions! However, I did purchase a 10 pack of tickets to go swimming on Friday so at least I'm semi-committed... so last night instead, I finished watching the commentary on the film Kandahar. I cannot emphasize enough the beauty and pain of this film. If you haven't seen it, you should. Filmed right before 9/11, scenes of the vast desert landscapes and the women dressed in colourful burkas were etched in my mind. You can really feel the sadness and desperation of the people living there, the refugees who are trying to make their way back home only to find the land is still unsafe, to the people who have been affected by landmines and must wait a year to get a new pair of legs. They hope for things to fall from the sky when all hope is lost; the director made it possible by producing a scene in which pairs of legs are dropped from parachutes above. Such a moving film that leaves more questions than answers, and makes one appreciate all the more what we have here.

missing items

Laziness or tiredness always lends itself to unwanted happenings. I was up talking to my mom last night, went to bed, and forgot to take off my Swarovski earrings. Normally, I'd remove my earrings, particularly if they are poking into my neck but these earrings have the clear plastic backing and are very comfortable. Well, I woke up this morning and discovered the right earring was completely gone. In fact, I didn't even notice it until I went to take a shower. I frantically searched my bed and located the actual earring under my pillow but no backing was in sight. :( I can't figure out when it came off - the earring could have stayed on for a short while without the backing but then I probably would have felt it poking me. I guess it's better that it was the backing and not the earring since I can always replace the backing. I won't be sleeping with earrings on again. Sometimes you just gotta have these lessons to smarten you up. It was an otherwise cold and sunny day out. It stopped snowing sometime last night and was clear all day today.

resolutions and other strange things

My resolution for this year is to wear perfume and to swim a few times a month. Why? I have the new swimsuit from Cuba and with all the things I've purchased at Speedo, I have to use it or else it would be a waste. I really just need to exercise more than I have been. In the fragrance department: I've been given perfume as gifts and found out the shelf life is 3 years since the date of manufacturing, not the date when you buy it, so I have tons of perfume to go through. In fact, some of the stuff I have I've owned for 3 years already. Anyway, so I started sneezing today...don't know if it's the perfume. Now that would be ironic.

Speaking of perfume, I don't know what it is. Today, I went to Chapters at lunch and I was looking at some non-book materials and saw this Asian guy looking at me in the strangest way. I by-passed him; he was paying, and went down the escalator. He followed me down to leave. I turned into the bargain books section and paused to look at some books. Looking up a few moments later, I saw he had passed the aisle but had turned back to stare. I gave him a "What's up?" kind of look. Not an encouraging smile or anything. I wasn't sure why he was just looking at me. And then, after work, I went to buy some pizza for dinner at the Flying Wedge. This young teenager was bored I guess as he tried to make some conversation. It gets pretty dull watching people leave the building after work! He asked how my new year's was and I said fine, that I worked. He told me he went to Science World with some friends and that there was some music and entertainment. I asked for a slice of Szechuan chicken and when he pulled the closest one, I pointed to another piece that had less cheese. While I dug through my wallet looking to get rid of change, he packed it in a square box. I was about to ask him why since it's a waste of space - they usually use the triangular boxes for one pieces but I didn't think I ought to waste my breath. I wished him a good night and went to the train. When I got on, I opened the box to eat and found that he had stuck in two pieces of pizza!! So it was sweet and nice of him to do so. I guess with the New Year falling on the Thursday, many places have extra stuff to get rid of since tomorrow's the weekend. He probably would have had to throw it out anyway; and I didn't see the boss (grumpy old guy) who ran the place.

It's now snowing quite madly. I was outside about 30 minutes ago shovelling the driveway so that there would be a thinner layer tomorrow morning when my dad goes to work but the driveway was completely covered by the time I was done!

new year - 2004

Got up about an hour ago...happy new year. Let me backtrack a bit to New Year's Eve. I woke up to a furious snowfall - tons of flakes that covered the driveway as soon as my dad had shoveled. There was probably 10 cm of snow from Tuesday night. I decided to take the bus down to the train instead of having my mom drive; this would give her extra time to get herself to work and I didn't want her dropping me off somewhere enroute so I could trek through the snow. The shuttle bus came down the hill and could barely stop in front of the bus stop. There was pretty much just a path in the middle of the road for two cars to squeak by - the snow was coming down that quickly even though snowplows were going through all night. (I heard and saw one at 4am). I told the bus driver (and in the process, the whole packed bus) that you couldn't even read the sign. Snow was obscuring the bus no. and I noticed it was the same on most shuttles. Who knew what route we were taking? We were on ghost buses...

It continued to snow on and off all day at work with it looking more like rain in the afternoon. My parents were concerned about me driving to work in the evening in case there was a ton of snow and the roads were impassable. I phoned my boss to let him know but he wasn't there. He ended up calling me back and trying to convince me to see if public transit would take me home. He added that it ran late. Unfortunately, my bus wouldn't run the extended hours and besides, there was no way I'd be finished the cruise cleanup by 2am. I fretted over this as I had specifically requested to work a shift and he couldn't exactly find anyone to fill in on such short notice. So I made my way home and then drove back out. Sweet dad offered to pick me up but I didn't want him to drive out to get me at 3am. I figured worse come to worse, I'd stay overnight and walk over to the Westin Bayshore and hangout til early morning.

I worried about it some more when I caught the bus home (I missed the train by 1 minute!). It was still snowing quite rapidly halfway home. It turned out fine. Going out, it was still snowing but coming home, it was just raining.

Sassy Cruise

So I had worked from 9am-3pm at my regular job and then worked again from 6pm-3am on the cruise, which they promoted as being sensual, stylish and sensational. We had a pax count of 263. I was the only floor person doing the bar shift - there was a martini bar downstairs (2 men) and 2 bartenders upstairs. Appys were served buffet style. Madness ensued. The bar was extremely busy all night with sales of $5000 - just upstairs! We ran out of some stock quite quickly. I guess last year's crowd was older - this year's was younger - in their 20s and 30s though I did see some older folk but very few. People complained to me that there wasn't enough seating and I said there wasn't anything we could do about it unfortunately. I ended up practically chained to the dishwashing station on B-deck. There was barely a moment to breathe and I was on my feet all night. I had no idea where we went but I saw glimpses of Science World and English Bay (Denman area). Really though, if you're working, it's like working in a restaurant. The only benefit is that people onboard aren't allowed to smoke.

Originally I was scheduled to work on the Britannia (the wild cruise where it was casual dress) but I ended up being moved to the Princess where sassy meant sensual, sexy, and chic. I'm not sure what would have been better. These tickets cost more but there were fewer people since the Brit can hold up to 390 people. But more people may mean more drinking. But people dressed casually may tip less than those in fancier clothing. Who knows. It was a good tip night regardless....but I will say that I really worked for it. It was non-stop the whole night. And the mess!! People trashed the place with the party favours and celebration hats. It took us almost 2 hours to clean up. There were four securitiy guards hired for us (8 for the Brit!!) While we had no trouble, apparently there were a few trouble makers on the Brit - someone tried to set off firecrackers on the outer deck!

So we were done cleaning up around 3am and I was happy that I actually ended up working on all 3 boats this Christmas season. We brought our leftover food over to the Brit to have our own party. I originally was going to go straight home but decided to hang out a little. When I got there, we were still waiting for people to finish up cleaning so I left. I saw some great food - desserts and some wraps from the classy cruise, which had a fuller meal. I wanted to eat some of it as it looked good but could not wait any longer. It was late. I was tired. And everyone around me was smoking! (As usual, staff smoked onboard even though passengers aren't allowed to!) I left, saying goodbye to Jessen - who was the guy who drove me home that fireworks night. He said it was his last shift - he was moving to Japan; he wanted to play hockey there among other things. He is a really nice guy. Then Pepita's boyfriend, Darcy, let me out of the gates and I was on my way home. There were still lots of people hanging around downtown Granville. It was either clear or a bit rainy on the way home so I had no difficulties at all. I got home and made it into bed around 4am.