Wednesday, January 31

Month to date

i haven't updated the blog because of:
- drinking
- working late
- yoga
- performance review
- reading chapters of business interruption
- thursday night classes
- Ikea
- winning people's monies at poker
- a week long flu
- baby shower
- sorting out my financials (which is a big job for a math retard to do)
- exhaustion, late nights, must see TV and boring miscellaneous

hopefully february will require less of me and will require more r&r.
tatels!

Monday, January 15

we're making progress...

this past weekend was the most productive one i've ever had. jason and i went to ikea to get a few things to further organize our home. we got two rugs, coat hooks for the entrance and shelves for the washroom. the best part of this weekend was not just putting holes in the wall (finally!), but our new bedframe:we finally have a "grown-up" bed! we are no longer sleeping a few inches from the dust bunnies, we are propped high up there, high enough that i have to hop skip and jump onto the bed. it's fantastic! much love and thanks to toby and louise for driving down to ditchmond to pick up the frame as our car was too small to load it in.

but the BEST part was when jason went through his boxes and boxes of his stuff and threw things away! my little packrat made some space in our closet! i'm so proud...sniff sniff.

Tuesday, January 9

nostalgic for 2006

last night, i went through my photos from europe again. i realized that this time last year, i was in the preliminary stages of planning my eurotrip and i remember the feeling i had when i was doing all the planning - the excitement, the anxiousness, the nervousness. i still can't believe that 3 months ago, i was in rome looking at the ruins or having dinner in an authentique roman restaurant.
so in honor of my trip i'm going to post up some photos. i haven't posted up photos in a while anyway....

















i was seriously reconsidering going to the states this summer so i can go back to paris, but NO. i must see grandma. i love my grandma.

Wednesday, January 3

what i did last year

From my last blog, this is what I wrote for my New Year's Resolutions for 2006. The ones I have completed I've put in bold and italics

go to Europe and visit Zia in Greece, Melissa in Italy, my Uncle in Spain and roam endlessly till I run out of cash.
visit my grandma in California
win the lottery and buy someone out of a particular partnership
listen more
talk less
get a raise
or get promoted or both

lose weight (but it lasted 2 months. the holiday weight is back on)
smoke less
, but then i'd have to drink less...so nevermind this point (I quite smoking)
take transit less, walk more (Jason's been giving me a ride to work in the morning)
save money (it's all gone now because of eurotrip)
pay off my debt
take Jason somewhere he's never been in his entire life (although i completed this one just last week when we went to Celebrities) (we went to the PNE)
learn how to cook so i'm not deemed helpless when Jason's not home to make dinner
not be a bridesmaid
get a haircut more often, instead of being a cheap frugal ass and waiting till my hair is no longer bearable (with short hair like mine, you have to)


So, in retrospect, not so bad. I probably completed half of what was on the list?


Pat on the back!

happy new year

a new year for new mistakes. that's how i like to view the new year.
no two week resolutions. just the knowledge i'll be making mistakes (new ones, preferably) will make this an exciting year.
last year's mistakes? leaving my raincoat in my hostel dorm. smoking. not going to california with the rents.
last year's successes? going to europe! quit smoking! getting promoted! all good, not too shabby stuff. sandwiches. making a new best friend.

overall, 2006 a good year.

2007 -- i've started the year off with a cold. but also started it off with my closest & dearest friend and my wonderful man beside me. can't complain there.

christmas was great too -- showered with presents and i showered those i love with presents as well. i got a new coach bag! wowsas. a lot of running around and lack of sleep which is probably why i'm sick in the head.

kay. got the colds. need to rest. ta tels!

Tuesday, December 12

rumblies in my tumblie

i had food poisoning yesterday and let me tell you IT SUCKS.
the pain in my stomach/abs was unbearable.
lemme tell you this much - if labor pains are anything like this....no kids for me.

our lame-ass office xmas lunch is this friday.
going to go shopping during my lunch hour!

tatels...

Friday, December 8

the holiday blooes

as much as i love christmas, it stresses me out.
let me rephrase that.
every christmas, as much as i love my mom, she stresses me out.
it's a tug-of-war every christmas. i don't think i'm in the wrong either.

Background info: every year, i have a massive migraine because every year, my mother expects me (and jason) to spend christmas with them. we've been together 4 years and the last 3 christmases, we've spent with my parents. mind you, when jason's parents fly in from saskatchewan, my mother still wants us at her house for christmas. last year, jason's parents stayed in saskatchewan and his sister and her family went to go see them. so last year was ok. the two years before that though....different story.

my mother's opinion is that since jason and i aren't "officially" married, i shouldn't be spending christmas with his family because they're "technically" not my family. my mother thinks that i should spend christmas with her and my dad. the weird thing is she doesn't realize that i also consider Jason as my family. she doesn't seem to care if the only way for that to happen (this year) is for jason and i to spend the holidays apart. i don't agree with that.

Here's the situation: This year, jason's parents are coming for Christmas. They're flying in from saskatchewan. Since we've spent christmas with my parents the past 3 years, I thought it would only be fair that we spent christmas with jason's family. I told my mother that back in November, hoping she can ease into this. she was very disagreeable. clearly, upset. she even regurgitated all i've said above about not being technically married, etc. i guess until we're married, our relationship doesn't count as anything serious or worth mentioning. but i'm pretty sure she would behave the same way if we were married. i don't get that. anyway, mother is upset. very upset. we haven't talked about it since because honestly, i don't want to. but we're going to have to. and when we do, my mother will be pulling out the big guns. the almighty-over-the-top-filipino-catholic GUILT TRIP. my mother knows how to lay it on, and she lays it on really thick. i told her our plans: that we will spend christmas eve and go to midnight mass with her and my dad, but christmas day, we'll be spending the morning at our own apartment and have dinner with jason's family. she does not approve. she even told me that she'll think that over. think what over? this is what we're doing. if you don't agree, well, i don't know what to say.

for once, i'd like to spend christmas the way i want. i'm trying to compromise to make everyone happy but my mother won't have any of it. it's her way or the highway.

what do you say to someone like that? honestly, i think it's selfish that she expects me to center my holidays around what she wants me to do. she treats me like i'm 12 years old. i should be able to enjoy the holidays the way i wish instead of trying to appease everyone. the last time this same dilemma came about, my auntie tet was in town and she insisted that i go straight from work to her house to see my aunt. (it was also christmas eve and since we were spending christmas day with my family, we planned on spending xmas eve with jason's family. i told my mom i'd drop by after work, but i wanted to go home first and get some things done.) she called me at work at 9am and gave me the guilt trip of a lifetime: "You don't want to be with your family? your auntie is here from california! why are you being like that? why don't you come here to see her now?" so, of course, the dutiful and pathetic thing i am, i caved and went straight to my parents. i got there around 12:45 pm. where was everyone? IN BED SLEEPING. wtf. that's the last time i cave in.

next year, jason and i will either:
a) go on vacation during the holidays
b) tell everyone to come to our place on christmas

this is too much. i'm going to die of a heart attack. i know it.

Wednesday, December 6

hungry hippo

last night i baked 4 dozen cookies. 4 dozen. that is ..... 48 cookies. that's a lot of cookies. not only did i bake them, i iced them too. i iced 44 cookies. that's a lot of icing. today i ate a 6x6 chocolate cake. well, not all of it, just a slice. i've consumed a year's worth of sugar in 3 days. that's a lot of sugar. that's a lot of fat.
i've gotten a bit chubby. that's ok. i'm spoiled because i cook maybe twice a month since Jason likes to do it and he cooks well. but he's not really health conscious. and i also probably drink a glass of wine (or two) every other day. that can't be good for you either. i eat too much. i get way too much pleasure from eating. i used to find pleasure in smoking but i gave that up. smoking, eating. it's all bad for you.
oh well. gonna get another slice of chocolate cake...
latersss

Tuesday, December 5

yoga, fun.


so i had my first yoga class at the Y yesterday and it was better than i hoped. it was an hour and a half long and i really felt rejuvenated and energized after the session. my favorite part was the end where we cuddled up in a blanket and laid there doing absolutely nothing. this morning, i felt like i was taller, for some weird reason - maybe it's all the strengthening and lengthening i did prior. anyway, yoga's a great alternative to running on a treadmill for 40 mins! i'll be going to this yoga class once a week for the month of december and perhaps register in a 10 week class starting Jan '07.
soon i'll be jumping on the lululemon bandwagon and buying all the yoga gear in sight. but mind you, i'll actually be using it for YOGA, not for everyday wear. :op

Friday, December 1

festivus for the restivus

today is december first, which marks the day i get to send jason down to our storage locker to dig out all our christmas decor. i wait for this day all year. since our holiday cocktail party follows on the ninth, i'll be spending most of this weekend, making our place look as hospitable and festive as humanly possible. i can also start wrapping presents and take out our train and put it around the tree with our various little "town" pieces. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

and something i already got myself for christmas is my two front teeth! i had this slight gap forming between my front teeth and really, i was 1 more millimeter close to looking like one of those rednecks from Deliverance, but i had it fixed and I look like a hillbilly no more. thanks to my dental cover it only cost me $54. THANKS GREENSHIELD!

i'm also going to start yoga classes this monday at the Y. i run 3x a week, which really isn't enough and it gets quite boring since i haven't put any new songs on my ipod and i'm listening to same nelly furtado songs over and over. i'm excited but scared because i hate doing things in groups, especially when it comes to fitness. it reminds me of PE class in high school where i'd make myself scarce in fear of having my lesbian-wayne-gretzky-lookalike gym teacher yell and berate me for not being able to run around the block 3 times in less than 8 1/2 mins. i couldn't do it! she scarred me for life. hated gym class. i liked playing sports after school, but not in a class where you're marked on how "fit" you are.
anyway, i was talking about yoga. so yes, yoga class will be interesting. i've never done it and i think it would be a good way to liven up my predictable exercise regime. i just hope the class isn't packed with Twenteens who speak like the kids on Laguna Beach and wear Lululemon religiously. GAWD Twenteens really bug me. It amazes me that two or three decades ago, my parents were ADULTS when they were in the twenties and now, this whole twenteen generation exemplifies total lack of sober intellect and logic.
"like oh my gawd, like why would he like do that to you? that is soo like not cool."
Why do they talk like they went to school with the kids from Clueless? And that movie was made in the early 1990s when twenteens were probably still in Grade 5!
I can't stand it!

Christmas, Hurrah!