Status update

Just finished a 2 hour nap. Still so tired. Excuse me while I go to find a bottle of artificial tears so I can unglue my eyelids.

Mission Accomplished! (Unfortunately)

ARGH! Everytime I try to get into the on campus pub, Bomber, there's always a huuuuuge waiting line and my friends and I end up waiting in line for two hours just to give up and go somewhere else in the end. I finally broke the cycle!

Victoria, Shruthi, and I managed to get our asses over to Bomber by 9:15ish, and lo and behold, for once there was no line! We were so happy to get in without a hitch! Surprisingly though, the pub was kind of empty... Well, by comparison to a normal Bomber night. (Usually the place was packed... This time all the tables were full, but it wasn't packed.) We grabbed a table and hung around, hoping that things would pick up in a bit...

A bit passed by. More specifically, an hour later the place was still empty as hell. (Okay, maybe a third of the normal crowd was there.) We decided to cut our losses and go to another nearby bar instead, Phil's. To save on taxi fare, we decided to just walk to Phil's since it's only a 15 minute walk from my house.

Well, no sooner had we walked in, but we see that Phil's (a truly stank place) is even emptier than Bomber!!! What the hell?! We hightailed it out of there. Some guys laughed because they realized we essentially walked in and then back out. By now it was about midnight, so we decided to go back to Bomber in hopes that it would be busier.

No such luck! Bomber was slightly more busy, but barely so! We made a half assed attempt to dance with the other 20 people on the dance floor, but we realized it was futile and decided to call it a night. Thus was our night at Bomber. And Phil's. And Bomber again.

Oh, and now Shruthi's on MSN telling me to go to Revolution. I'm such a pushover! Adios!

Soggy Bottom Mau

I'm soaked from the knees down right now. That makes for a very unpleasant class. That's right, I'm in class as I type this. It's easier to have my laptop here because my East Asian Culture prof provides online slides, and I can just type up my own notes as I go. Anyawys, back to being wet. Outside it's flipping between downpours and clear air. I walked from my apartment to the SLC and it was clear as a bell. 5 minutes later as I departed the SLC, it was downpouring. I got soaked!

The term is going terrifically so far. Again I'm taking four courses:

• European Colonial History
  
• East Asian Culture
  
• Human Resources Management
  
• Advanced Beginner Chinese
  

European History is pretty intense - we're doing a lot of theoretical discussions which I've never done before, so on one hand it's a bit intimidating since I don't have the background in the theories we're talking about, but on the other it's kind of exhilarating to make the connections.

(Oh god, it's raining so heavily we can't see out the windows! And the lights are flickering from lightening! Wowsers!)

East Asian Culture is pretty much a survey course so far. I've studied all the things we've talked about before, but it's just being applied to an Asian context now. (e.g. Right now he's talking about national self-determination. Been there, done that.) Long live my laptop, so at least I can keep myself occupied for the next 3 hours.

The only reason I'm taking Human Resources Management is because my mother has been pestering (and yes, "pester" is definitely the word I'm looking for) to take it for the past 5 years. I've only had 2 classes so far, and I'm shocked to admit that it's not quite the burden that I thought it would be. Actually, in our last class, there was nearly a lynching. We were discussing the wage gender gap and one guy tried to claim that the gap existed because women were more maternal and family-oriented and men were more business-oriented. You could hear the women growling in their chairs. Myself included.

My fave class of the term must be my Advance Beginner Chinese class! I know that "Advanced Beginner" is an oxymoron, but it's true. This class is for anyone who has some experience with any form of Chinese. This means that the majority of my class either speaks Mandarin and can't write Chinese characters, or they speak Cantonese and CAN write Chinese characters. Then there's Mau who just has a smattering of everything.

Unsurprisingly I'm the only non-Asian in my class. It's okay though. I actually feel like I have a bit of an advantage because I've studied Mandarin before using the same methods we're using now, and so far our vocabulary consists of the same stuff I learned in Hong Kong, with a few differences. I was eavesdropping on some of the other students and it seems as though I'm also doing better on the oral/writing homework than some of them too. Tee hee!

I should also mention that I've finally completed my Chinese name. When I was in Hong Kong, my professor named me "Mo-Lin"... Now I have a last name, so now I'm "Bai Mo-Lin." (白莫琳) (Roughly translated it means "White Jade Forest." Ha ha!

Okay, I'm not paying attention to my class anymore. I should go back to my notes.

Grad school!

Happy news everyone! On Saturday night at 10:30pm (while I was slightly drunk) I received an acceptance email to the University of Ottawa. That's right baby, I'm going to grad school in September! I've been accepted to the MA: Globalization and International Development program. I honestly don't know that much about the program - the U of Ottawa website sucks, but I'm excited nonetheless. It's such a relief to know what I'll be doing after the summer. I hated being stuck in limbo.

To be honest, I'm rather numb to the idea of actually being in grad school - I think I'm more excited by the idea of living in Ottawa again instead. I love that city. I'm also happy because this is one step closer to my goal of getting an international job that makes a difference in the world.

While I would have preferred to go to Carleton U for grad school, I'm quite happy taking Ottawa's offer. It's rather strange for me right now about this whole Ottawa vs. Carleton thing. I can't think of a time when I wanted to get accepted to something and not gotten it. Usually when I apply to something it's just a matter of me working up courage to go for it... This time, I actually wanted into Carleton U, and despite my best efforts, I've been waitlisted until June. Even when I was applying to my undergrad schools I never had a problem with acceptance. I think Western U was the only place to waitlist me. I'm not really upset by not being accepted. I just don't know how to react. Should I be resigned? Sad? It's not like I can blame them. I'm not used to actually having to work hard to get something. This makes me wonder how I'll fare when working with other grad students... Time will tell.

Exam drunkenness

Egads. The 21st was a day of total fun. Even though I had finished my exams the day before, I trekked back to school the next day so I could work on my Hong Kong essay. I started off the day in the library, but then Victoria came to collect me and dragged me to work outside.

It was such a gorgeous day!!! We nabbed a picnic table outside the SLC and set up shop. It was hard to concentrate for me, both because of the good weather and because the sunshine made it hard to see my laptop's screen, but it was totally worth it. We were outside for so long that I got majorly sunburned - I didn't even realize it was so hot/sunny outside! Luckily the burn has faded now... But I was seriously scorched.

The plan for the evening was for Victoria to write her last exam then come over to my place so we could go out to Fubar for the evening. I ended up going home, finishing packing, and making dinner. Victoria also decided to crash at my apartment so that we could taxi it over to the bar instead of making her stay sober and driving. Needless to say, we got in a lot of pre-drinking before going out.

We met up with Sher outside of Fubar and managed to skip the line thanks to one of Victoria's connections. We had such a blast! I was already tipsy before even arriving at the bar, and within the hour I had had two more shots and another drink! There was much dancing and all around goodness.

Sher and I went to the bar again later in the evening. I had been intending to get some water but she ended up buying me more alcohol. While standing around, I saw a guy that looked kinda familiar, but I wasn't sure if it was who I thought it was. The next thing I know, I'm being tackled by Melanie and her school friend Grant! Of all the places to run into my sister! This is the first time I've ever seen her at a club or anything, so I was a bit weirded out, but it was all good. She was even drunker than I was. (Check out her porn dance shot!)

After last call Sher, Victoria, and I ended up going to Mel's Diner for some post-drinking food. After some much needed food, we went out separate ways. I think it was about 4am by the time Victoria and I went to sleep - normally I wouldn't have cared, but my parents were coming the next day to pick me up and help me move... Yikes.

All in all, it was a fantastic night! (Pics can be found here.)

Giving up pretense

I had every intention of coming to campus to work on my history paper today, but here I am, sitting outside the SLC basking in the sun with my laptop. I did some work (namely grammar) but my creativity is being sapped by the sunny rays and the fact that natural sunlight makes it hard to look at my laptop screen. Anyways...

I'm done my exams! Yay! I kept telling everyone that my last exam (Humanities) was going to be my easiest, but it turned out that it was the exact opposite. My history exam went really well - I think I did well... But I know the prof is a really hard marker in that class, so I don't know how my final mark will turn out. (e.g. I thought I rocked the midterm but only got 75% on the thing!) As for my political science exam... I walked into the room, made the exam into my bitch, and spat on it on my way out of the room. I've never written an exam essay and known my stuff so well. It helped that the prof had given us the exam questions ahead of time, so we knew what to study.

My final exam was ridiculous. Our prof told us that three quarters of the questions on the exam would come directly from our online quizzes, so we knew to memorize the questions and answers to the quizzes. The rest of the questions would come from the chapters that we hadn't covered in class. Oh my god. I sat down at my table, and within 15 minutes I had answered 111 of the 160 multiple choice questions on the exam. I could not believe how fast I went through them! LOL. Then when I went to do question 112, it was like I ran into a brick wall - that was the start of the new information, so I actually had to stop and think about my answers. I finished answer the entire exam in 30 minutes... But the pain in the ass thing was that the university won't allow students to leave the exam room until at least an hour has passed. So I had to spend the next 30 sitting at my desk being bored. (Yes I did check over my answers, but it didn't take long at all.) Oi!

I've also been busy saying goodbye to my various friends who are graduating. It's strange - I don't feel like it's really a goodbye - I've known them for so long that it feels surreal that I might never see them again. This reminds me of when I was leaving Hong Kong - I had a hard time grasping that I would never see some of those people again either. Anyways, Tao and I went out for dinner on Wednesday as a goodbye, and Stacy and I did the same last night.

Speaking of last night, Agnes and I decided to go see "Hot Fuzz" at the movie theatre. That movie is so frickin' hilarious. It's a British film and is totally over the top. The funny thing about the whole movie-going experience happened while Agnes and I were in line to buy tickets. I was trying to tell her about an actor in a movie and when she recognized the name, I thought her answer was sarcastic. I told her, "Oh, I thought you were being facetious!" Suddenly this guy in line in front of us chuckled, turned to me, and said, "Excellent use of vocabulary!" It was so unexpected and random that I didn't know what to make of it. LOL.

I think I'm getting a little sunburnt now. I should get going - my laptop is melting in the sun, and I still have to finish packing so I can move home tomorrow.

Fare well!

Let them eat cake!

I don't know WHAT possessed me to do this. I've only been home for Easter Weekend for about 4 hours. We had just finished eating dinner and then we broke out some maple sponge cake for dessert. My sister, mom, and I were sitting around eating and chatting... I went still.

Suddenly I took the cake that was in my hand, launched myself at my mom and smashed my cake into the side of her face. LOL LOL LOL. I of course immediately ran like hell afterwards, but as I was making my getaway, I realized my mom was grabbing the rest of the cake (3/4 of it was still left). I panicked, thinking she was going to retaliate, and grabbed at it too. I managed to snatch the cake away, but as I was running out of the dining room, it slipped off the plate and fell all over the carpet. LOL

I was laughing so hard that I was crying and couldn't talk. I'm in pain still from laughing so much.

The Bomber That Wasn't

So Wednesday was Bomber's last pub night. To make the evening more fun, the pub decided it would be a no-clothes event... Patrons were encouraged to make innovative costumes. I had managed to talk Victoria into wearing togas, but due to the sudden change in weather which brought snow and ice I wimped out.

Victoria picked me up but before we could go to her house to get ready, we had to stop off at a church so she could go to confession. I had already gotten dressed to go to the bar - so there I am standing in a church in my low-cut top and bitch heels. LOL, luckily I had my long jacket on so I could feel a bit more presentable in the house of the lord. :)

Anyways, we got ready for the bar, picked up Sher, and ran to the SLC. We got there just a bit after 9pm, but the lineup was insanely long! We waited in line and had a blast for an hour and a half just goofing around. (Check out the pictures!) Only about 10% of the people were dressed up - this group was one of the more innovative ones. We kept trying to trick people into leaving the line by loudly exclaiming, "What?! It's a 2 hour wait?!" (Actually, some girls near us nearly did believe us, except they had heard us planning this ploy outloud and laughed at us instead.)

Around 11pm we finally got tired of waiting and decided to leave and grab a bite and some drinks elsewhere. We tried going to the Flying Dog, but it was closed. So we ended up going to Symposium. Sher and I paid for Victoria since she was being our chauffeur. We had such a great time just goofing around and striking stupid poses.

One more term to go!

So yesterday was the official end of classes at UW. All my friends are so excited because they're either graduating or have the summer off to party. They keep asking me what my plans are and I gently have to remind them that alas, I'm stuck in Waterloo for yet another term. Doh!

I wasn't very enamored with my classes this term.

• My Humanities class was absolutely useless, and I told them so on the course evaluation. It's a 3rd year class, but it's stupid easy and the only reason ANYONE takes it is because it's mandatory!
  
• Introduction to International Development has been mediocre. I think I learned a lot more stuff in my Intro to International Studies class last semester that was more useful than in this one. The prof only scratches the bare surface of our topics. I guess I just don't like the feeling that I still don't know a think about international development.
  
• I did enjoy my American history class. It wasn't so much the topic that pleased so much as the prof. (No there is no innuendo there so stop snickering.) My prof was fabulous - you knew exactly what you were supposed to get out of each class and his viewpoints and presentation methods were totally effective. I would totally take more of his classes just because he was terrific.
  
• Last but not least was my Canadian history seminar. I've enjoyed that class a great deal because our prof tells us a lot of random stuff about academic life that we've never heard of before. He's also taught us how to write a damned good paper. The only infuriating thing about the class has been trying to schedule meetings with him. He never has time for his students! The one time I did get an appointment with him, he ended up missing it. I finally did get to see him, but it was only because one of the people he was supposed to meet had to cancel.
  

So now I have exams on the 16th, 17th, and 20th, and my Canadian history paper is due on April 28th. I shall worry about that stuff tomorrow though because tonight I'm going to the Bomber for the last Bomber night of the term! (Crazy! Some of the people I'll be seeing tonight will never go to Bomber again after this...)

Party hardy for a sibling

So last week was my middle sister's birthday. We had made plans to get together for dinner on Thursday, but after a mis-communication (or should I say lack of communication - something went funky between our cell phones and we couldn't get through to each other) we ended up postponing the dinner to Friday. I'm happy to report though that dinner was great - lots of fun.

Since several of Mel's friends also had parties around the same time, they decided to have a party at her place and then go out for a pub crawl. Apparently there's a clause in our sisterly contract that demands that the little sister be present for such events. I had only met two of the people before, so it was a bit awkward.

I ended up going to Mel's on Saturday evening and was there for the party. It's a bit odd seeing my sister get all liquored up with her friends. I don't really drink with her that often, and when I do it's usually with the rest of our family. So when I watch my sister get drunk and start directing porn pictures with her friends, you can understand how I could be weirded out.

Around 11 we ended up going out to the Heuther pub in Waterloo. It was a lot of fun - we all ordered food and alcohol. The best part of the evening though was that they messed up our bill and totally undercharged us. Rock on! For a group of 18 people, our bill only came to $115. I totally dug that.

Mmm, opiates

I'm surprised to report that I'm not as sore as anticipated today. My right arm hurts, and so do my legs, but my back is quite fine! Woot!

SQUASHed like a bug!

Jill taught me how to play Squash today! I cannot believe how difficult that game is - it's a lot harder than it looks. Of course, this may have something to do with my total lack of hand-eye coordination - I missed some of the most ridiculously easy shots ever! Ha ha

My best score was getting 5 points (Jill still won)... Of course, the majority of those points weren't technically valid because I'd accidentally hit the ball out of bounds but we'd keep playing anyways. So technically my highest score was like 2. :)

I suspect tomorrow (err, I guess it's today now) is going to a brand new world of pain for me. Even though I stretched before playing (thank God Jill recommended it) my back was sore half an hour into the game. Since pain usually takes a day for it to settle in, I think tomorrow will be a challenge for me to get around. :)

Oh, and I also got hit by the ball twice - both times my fault. I got hit in the shoulder because I just stood there stupidly watching the ball come towards me (remember that lack of hand-eye coordination thing I mentioned? This was more of a lack of brain function - I don't even think I tried to hit the damned ball.) I also got smacked in the back by Jill because I was too stupid to get out of her shot LOL. Yup, I definitely need to practice this game some more.

Despite its difficulty and the pain that went with it, I had a lot of fun. I can't wait to try it out again.

Impossible to understand

I can't understand my landlords. It's not the language barrier that confounds me. It's their habits. I'm beginning to wonder if they're afraid of the dark. I also can't understand how as engineers they don't understand thermodynamics. I shall elaborate. Also, I should clarify that my landlords aren't that old - they're maybe in their late 20s early 30s, so senility isn't an issue.

First of all, they're incapable of turning the lights off when they leave a room. There's a light at the top of our staircase that is FOREVER on. It's on whether they're home or not. Even if it's bright daylight out, they have to turn it on in order to ascend or descend the stairs. I'll wake up at 7am and the light is burning brightly just to irritate me. One time they also left a mini lamp on downstairs overnight. The thing was so bloody hot when I turned it off the next morning I nearly burnt myself. (They had also left their laptop running overnight... I haven't got a clue as to what prompted that.)

I also have a beef with their refusal to be responsible with the house heating. I believe I've gripped about how they crank the heat up to 27 degrees at all times and while I keep turning it down whenever I see it up there. Now that the warm weather has arrived, I've discovered a new issue. They leave the windows open while the heat is turned on... And I'm not just talking about opening up a window here and there to quickly air out the house, I'm talking "leave them open all day while the heat is set to 25 degrees."

I'll admit that I was the first person to start opening windows when the weather turned nice. But I at least turned off the heat before doing so. And when I was done downstairs, or when the day began to cool down, I closed the windows on my way back up. The next day when I came home from school, the windows were wide open, and as I mentioned above, the heat was turned up to 25 degrees. I was flabbergasted. These people are freaking PHD engineers! They should be smart enough to know that having the heat on while the windows are open is not going to do anything except contribute to global warming! GAH!

And then this evening. Oh my gosh this evening. I'm in the kitchen drying my dishes. The heat's turned on again, but whatever. Shunde (the guy) is upstairs in their room. Shuang comes home and yells his name. She leaves the door wide open while waiting for him to come down. It takes about 3 minutes for him to come downstairs. Meanwhile the door continues to stand open, sucking out all the warm air of the house. You know what she called him for? To bring in the groceries. She had brought them all the way to the top step, but was incapable of bringing them those final five steps into the house. I was beyond flabbergasted at this point. I was speechless and trying not to laugh hysterically. And the sad thing is, it only took Shunde 2 trips (hell, can that even be called a trip when the groceries are literally just outside the door?!) to bring in the groceries. She could have done it faster than him for Christ's sake!

Nothing I learned from my time in Asia can explain this behaviour. Can someone, anyone, please please please help me understand what's going on here?!

The library is now closed.

Remember this post back in February? The one with the picture of the ridiculously large amount of books on my desk? Yeah. That's no longer the case.

I finished my research for my Hong Kong paper tonight! Yippee!!! I have 33 pages of pure quotes and research from all my resources... 33 pages of single-spaced research at that. And it's all for a 30 page paper that's going to be double-spaced and have footnotes! YEAH baby!!!

Winter strikes again

I used to be a big fan of winter. I loved the bite of the cold air, the pristine white fields surrounding the land, watching other people suffer. But I have to admit, I'm fucking sick of it now. LOL. Ever since I came back from sub-tropical Hong Kong, the cold has been an absolute bitch! And the way it keeps being a cocktease just makes it worse!

For a couple of days this week, the weather was AMAZING. It was so warm the snow was melting. I could walk to school with my jacket undone, etc. It was gorgeous. And it was that way yesterday morning - I walked around campus content as could be... But by lunchtime you could barely see across the street from the driving snow flailing us! By the time I left campus, I couldn't see where I was walking, snow was clinging to my head, and I practically had to climb over the snow drifts to get home. >:( (It didn't help that I was starving and sore from weightlifting and the vaccine I had just been stuck with.)

Other amusing happenings yesterday:

When I was in the SLC having a quick bowl of soup prior to going to the gym, I was watching people set up informational booths to promote things. Suddenly two people at one table get up and start doing random dances. And damn they were good. When I finished my food, I got up and wandered over there, but they didn't have anything signs - just a TV showing people doing ballroom dancing.

I don't like approaching tables in the SLC just in case they try to sucker you into buying things or are crazies who are advocating something I don't agree with. I ended up doing two laps of the SLC before I finally approached the table and asked them what they were promoting. Turns out it was UW's Ballroom Dance Club! Before you know it, I had signed up as a member and paid for waltz, jive, and rhumba lessons. (See? They suckered me into buying stuff!) The guy I signed up with was named Jesse. Today was supposed to be my first set of lessons, but with the snowday, they've been canceled. Whoops!

After signing up for the lessons, I had to scurry off to my weightlifting class. It's amusing because the instructor calls a few of us her "regulars" because we haven't missed a class yet. That makes me happy for some reason. *flex*

After our class was done, I then went to pick up a prescription for Gardasil I had ordered. (It's the new vaccine against the Human Papillomavirus virus - the one that causes some cervical cancers.) It was up to me to take it to health services to get it injected, so that's just what I did. For some reason, this needle hurt a hell of a lot more than normal. Well, maybe not a lot more, but it hurt more than normal.

I stuck around health services for 15 minutes afterwards just in case I collapsed before making my way home. As mentioned, my walk home was not pleasant. By the time I got home, I was dripping water EVERYWHERE. It was ridiculous. The snow clung to all materials, especially my hair.

Several hours later I was all snuggly from having a shower and being in warm clothes. I had vowed not to leave my house again, but alas, twas not to be! I had just gotten up from my desk when I saw a car right outside my house. It was stuck in a snow drift literally right across from my front door. It became apparent that they and the people who had stopped to help couldn't push it out, so I decided to do my good deed of the year.

Mau goes tromping downstairs, dons her boots, and goes outside to offer her help. The weirdest thing of all? The person stuck was Jesse, the guy who got me to join the Ballroom Dance Club. Ha ha. Even with three of us pushing, we weren't able to move the car, but luckily another car pulled up and offered to help pull the car out of the ditch. While they were waiting to find rope, I ended up going back instead (I was only wearing a sweatshirt).

While I was making myself some hot chocolate, I kept watching out the window to see if they were successful. Another car came by and offered the use of a shovel to help dig the car out a bit. That was what did it. Shovelling coupled with 4 people pushing got the guy moving. He stopped about 3 feet away and thanked everyone who then drove off. He got back in his car and started to drive away again. But he couldn't. That's right, the car got stuck a mere 3 feet away from his original place. LOL. So I went back outside and helped push again and this time we got him on to the cleared part of the road. LOL. (This entire ordeal began because he had pulled over to make room for a plow.)

Thus was my yesterday. While I was trying to read my textbooks later that night, I actually ended up putting in my ear plugs because the rain hitting my windows was ridiculously loud! Oh, and today's another snowday! YAY!

Hill of death

The day after I arrived at my parents house for reading week, I decided to hop on their treadmill (aka: mom's clothes hanger) for an hour before they woke up. Since I hadn't used it in a loooong time, I decided to set it at a really easy pace. I pushed the "lower" button on the incline setting, and set myself an easy speed.

Things were going good. I was definitely sweating, but not out of breath, so I decided to do a two minute sprint at 5mph. That's when things went terribly wrong. By the end of my first minute, I was gasping for air. 10 seconds into the second minute, I was trying not to fall over. I managed to finish the sprint, but by then my lungs were bleeding, I couldn't get enough air, and even though I kept lowering and lowering the speed, I was still gasping.

I decided to take a short 5 minute break and got off the treadmill. As I was about to get back on though, I noticed something. The treadmill had a definite incline on it... That's when I realized that the "lower" incline button actually lowers to back of the treadmill to CREATE an incline. For CHRIST'S SAKE! Every other treadmill in the world raises its upper portion to create the hill. No wonder I was so damned exhausted - I was running uphill the entire half hour! Needless to say, I immediately corrected my error and did my next half hour at an easy pace. LOL

Reading Week

I finally got a reading week! This was my first reading week since first year! (In my second year, I was working at Bruce Power, in my third year I was working at Business Objects, in my fourth year I was in Hong Kong!) It's horrible to say, but I got more work done this past week than I anticipated. (Meaning, I actually did a little work as opposed to none at all.)

The week was super relaxing. I have a switch in my brain that flips on and off whenever I go home. The moment I step into my parent's house, I start gorging on all kinds of junk food. It's ridiculous, and even maddening. When I'm in Waterloo, I live like a monk - no (well, nearly no) sweets, chips, etc. Heck, I've been carting around a box of popcorn for 3 houses now! When I was at home, I had cookies, chips, nachos, pizza, pie, ice cream, etc. Yeesh. Oh well, it was bliss. :)

I spent a lot of the week watching movies and relaxing. My mom and I also went to see the movie Music and Lyrics. It was cute. :) We also rented movies like School for Scoundrels, Mistress of Spices (terrible), and the Protector (so terrible it was hilarious). The week kind of melted all together because I was so relaxed. I just switched from shopping to watching TV to playing on my computer to eating. Fabulous.

Yesterday was also my mom's birthday. I bought her a hilarious card that mocked her techno-incompetence (turns out my oldest sister bought her the same card). I then gave her money for a new curling iron (she needed one, and I didn't know what type she used). I also bought her two sticks of deodorant. I know that seems like an odd gift, but she made such a fuss at Christmas about not getting some (it was on her wishlist - none of us daughters remembered though) that I went and bought two to compensate. :)

My crowning gift though was a bowl of random chocolates. Scattered through the chocolates were a bunch of little notes I had written, reminding her of some of our funnier moments in life. For example, I mentioned a time when I was 5 years old and gave her a gumball that I had rolled in air freshener. She did know this of course, and popped it in her mouth and of course gagged. I don't know what possessed me to do that, but it has become a favourite family story. I also mentioned when we went to the flea market near my hometown. She had been bugging me and bugging me to go (it had been years since we last went) and she finally took me there without my permission. The flea market was SO scummy! Everything in there was from the 70s and ridiculously expensive. She was so disappointed in the place, which allowed me to mock her endlessly as a result. :) The stories went on and on, but you get the idea.

Melanie also drove up to visit my mom for her birthday, so we all ended up going out for dinner and flaking out that night. This morning we went to my parents' favourite breakfast place and relaxing for the morning. Mel ended up driving me back to Waterloo. We had an absolutely wonderful ride and had a lot of fun in the car. :)

I know I had some other funny stories to tell, but I'm getting tired and apparently can't remember what they were. Now, it's time for more reading! (Darn, I was about to type "it's time to go to bed" but it's only 9:30pm! I have to do some more reading! Doh!)

Boo to testing!

Back in January, the Department of Foreign Affairs came to UW to give a talk on their post-secondary recruitment campaign. I've always been interested and to be honest, smitten, by the idea of working for DFAIT, so I applied for several jobs at the department. To do so required a mad scramble to assemble an updated resume, create a short essay (and I mean short short short) detailing my leadership experiences and so on.

The recruitment campaign also requires its applicants to write several exams at the school on a specific date. Since Agnes had also applied to the same jobs, we went together. This meant that we appeared at school, on a Saturday, at 7:15am. Egads! I was so freaking exhausted. At least I got to eat though - Agnes just rolled out of bed and came to pick me up. Hee hee.

The exams were neither hard nor easy. The first one was a generic exams testing your logic and school smart skills. They included questions that needed you to find number patterns, rotate figures around, word similarity questions, and evil evil questions that required you to create formulas to math problems. Those last ones were deadly. I hate math! The second test was a "situational judgement test." Essentially it gave you a bunch of scenarios and asked you to select the most effective as well as the least effective response. This sounds easy enough, just use your common sense and answer! Not so! Some of the potential actions you could take were pretty similar, or difficult. And in the example they gave us, we knew they didn't want the goody-two-shoes answer either (e.g. "Gee, my coworker is doing something wrong, so I should run and tell my boss." Wrong!) The final test was a written communication test. They gave us a 4 page booklet and we had to summarize its contents in 450 words. I don't know how I did on it... I think I might have been a little too concise in my writing. :S

Luckily the first two tests were multiple choice, so they were graded fairly quickly and I'm happy to say I got decent marks on them. I still have to wait for the written test to be graded. And the pain of all this is that I might not even be qualified for the jobs I applied to. The descriptions said I needed to graduate by June 2007... But I won't graduate until August 2007. Hopefully I'll slip through the cracks. Even if they do decline me though, it's good experience for when I apply next time. :)

Funny email

My sister sent the family the following email. It's subject line was, "Death in the family." It was too funny to keep to myself, so I have posted here so that all may enjoy the hilarity.

---

PEPPY
a.k.a. "the little red rocket", "lama's rocket launcher", "the death trap" , the "Hi-I-Wanna-Die"
February 1998 - February 2007
Odometre reading: 330,899 kms.

It is with a heavy and sad heart that I send along the news of the passing of everyones favorite vehicle, Peppy. Peppy in all her shiny, red splendour came into our lives on a cold February day and it is fitting that she leaves us in the same way.

Peppy saw me, and numerous others through 9 years and almost always got us to where we needed to go. Along the way she kept me safe through 4 years of traversing some of the busiest highways in Ontario and I thank her for some of my exemplary driving skills because of it. ;)

She survived a brutal break in (we're still both in therapy), numerous major operations and overhauls (thanks Wolfie), long trips up north when no one thought she could make it, WAY too many lacrosse games, mocking from the family (she knows you guys loved her!), do-it-yourself body work, ONLY one speeding ticket and one parking ticket, overstuffings like you wouldn't believe from camping trips and Christmas goodies, DUCT TAPE, being on palliative care for the last 6 months and finally: a system to system shut down (who knew an automatic could drive like a standard!).

Although Peppy is still slightly chugging along (literally) she will be officially heading to the Great Scrapyard in the Sky tomorrow. I bid her a heartfelt adieu and thank you.

On that note it is my extreme pleasure to announce the arrival of the newest member of our family. Ladies and gentleman, please welcome: Silvercuda!!!
(oooooo, Baracuda!)

She's a sleek and stylin', saucy silver lady. Although she's got a bigger ghetto bootie than Peppy (ie. 4 doors) she's alot younger being a child of the new millenium- 2001 to be exact. With low kilometres, all the right parts in the right place (and in new/great condition) and an amazing price, she and I knew we were meant to be together.

Silvercuda made her official debut to the world this morning and so far has gotten rave reviews- YEAH! NO DUCT TAPE (black was never her colour anyways), no stalling/chugging/shifting gears unexpectedly- she drives as smooth as she looks.

So, please help me in welcoming Silvercuda to the family. She can't wait to meet you all and she accepts 'car shower' gifts in the form of cash donations, chocolate and fuel injector cleaner. ;)

Love you all!
Mernie

Ps. I was told by Scott and Mau that if I named a silver car the "Silver Bullet" I would be disowned- APPARENTLY that was too white trash... ooooooo Silvercuda!!!

A library near me

Is it possible to measure one's intellect by the amount of books they have borrowed from the library? If so, I'm getting to be a freakin' genius!



(This mountain of books looks a lot more impressive in real life than in the picture. :( )