*whump*
What sound does a bird make when it hits a window? *whump*
I'm minding my own business, sending emails on my sister's computer, when all of a sudden, there's a *whump* against the window! After recovering from my near heart attack, I opened the blinds to see if some kid had been paintballing our house again. I didn't see any paint on the window, but I did see white feathers floating around everywhere. HOLY POO! Our windows are dirty, and the blinds are down, so I would have thought it was easily avoidable. Apparently not.
Silly bird...I feel sorry for it, but it's survival of the fittest. Birds that can dodge dirty windows are going to live longer than birds that cannot.
my CAAARRR!!!
Oops. I noticed this post was saved as a draft from Aug 9...I'll just finish it off and post it now.
My beloved car, the 1989 Prelude SI, is gone...kaput..finished!
It all started last last Friday on my way to work. I had made it across the traffic jam ridden 401, and was finally on the fast-moving 427, when I noticed that the car was slowing down even though my foot was on the accelerator. Uhoh...downshifted to 4th gear in the hopes that it was just a gearing issue, but nope, still slowing down. I pulled over onto the shoulder and braked completely because the oil and engine lights came on. (Hm, I wonder if this counts as an 'I-almost-died' story, because technically speaking, I might not have been able to pull over and I could have died...;)
Anyways, there I am on the shoulder of the 427, with trucks roaring by and spraying water all over my car, and I discover that I can't start the car. At all. Lucky for me, I purchased Canadian Tire Roadside Assisstance earlier on in the year when my alternator was crapping out on me. An hour later, the tow truck arrives, hooks me up, and tows me to the nearest Canadian Tire located at Rexdale and Kipling. Sketchy neighbourhood, according to Sumit. After two hours and a $100 diagnosis, I find out that the timing belt has snapped...and will cost $550 to fix. All I needed out of the car was another 3 weeks and 2500km, but clearly that was asking too much.
Bah. I ended up selling the car to one of the mechanics at the Cdn Tire for a sweetass $150. This barely covers the diagnosis and the 3/4 full gas tank...but hey, I dind't have to pay to get it towed to the junkyard! So no more car for me...back to asking the parents if I can borrow the car for a few hours...and even worse, I had to plead for rides from people at work who I'd never met. Well, I didn't have to ask, but that would have meant 4 hrs a day taking public transit in the 40 degree weather..no thanks.
*sigh* R.I.P. RAP-mobile =(
Rage in a parking lot
Btw, I'm back =) Got back about 2 weeks ago, and just haven't gotten around to blogging. I've got about 1GB of pictures, so I haven't gotten them printed off and sorted out, but once I do, I'll make a scrapbook or something =)
Back to the title. I went to Scarborough Town Centre today to do some quick shopping, and lucky for me, a lady left her spot near the door just as I pulled into the lot! I didn't have room to front in b/c the spot was an 'edge' spot, so I figured I'd pull forward and back right in. A minivan with a phillipino family was coming from the opposite direciton, so I was forced to stick to the right side of the road instead of going into the middle like I wanted. I was about to reverse, when I noticed the minivan GOING INTO MY SPOT!! I had obviously been signalling, and wanting to back in, but that ASSHOLE went behind me. I reversed about a foot away from him and leaned on the horn until he rolled down his window. I then proceeded to let him know in a polite but pissed off voice that I was about to park in the spot. He responded with "you're right, you're right" so I assumed he'd back out. So fine, I go to reverse again, waiting for him to get outta the spot..but he JUST KEEPS GOING!! WTF is that?!?!? Luckily, two cars left the same row, so I pulled into one of those spots along with this other minivan. The man in the minivan gets out of his car, taps on my window and says that the spot should have been mine b/c I was there first. Since I'm still steaming mad, I march on over to the jerk who stole my spot and tell him that's not how things work, and it's common courtesy and an unwritten rule that the person there first is the person who gets the spot. HE responds w/ yeah, first come first serve...and tells me he saw the car leave first...FROM ONE LANE OVER!! Buddy, that doens't count. UGH I was pissed, and then security came over to calm everyone down (I guess they were attracted by my angry honking) so I just walked off. Haha, the other man in the minivan who supported me said that even though he was Phillipino as well, he was on my side. =) Same with this other lady who was passing by...they both yelled at the stupid man too. Nice to know there are strangers willing to stick up for you...
Bon voyage!
In case I don't get a chance to write a lengthy blog before I go, I'll at least have this here.
I made a new
blog for our travels in Australia, so hop on over to see how we're doing. We'll try to update every few days, and hopefully we can manage a his and her perspective so there'll be two sides of the same story.
Old friends and toilet fears
Two part post!
High school seems like forever ago, so when I pulled up into my old friend's driveway, it was with just a touch of nostalgia that I rang the doorbell. I haven't seen Sam since we graduated from high school... other than the brief conversations we've had on campus. We were pretty good friends back in grade 11 and 12, but we drifted apart in OAC, and havne't really kept in touch since. It's sort of sad actually, because a lot of the memories from high school have her in it...only in high school would I have rollerbladed/scooted to the Dominion at the corner, bought a McCain's chocolate cake, eaten HALF of it on the way back, and the other half when we got back to her house. Ugh, now that I think about it, it's pretty gross. But back to present times, I have to admit that I probably wouldn't have called her up for a chat..and she wouldn't have called me up...lucky for both of us, Jocelyn was in town and so the three of us went for dinner. It wasn't as awkward as I had worried it might be...in fact, it almost felt like time had gone back 5 years! We chatted it up, found out what was going on in each other's lives, gossiped about other UTS people...turns out one of the couples is getting married this summer! WHOO! All in all, it was a good night out...maybe Sam and I will keep in touch, and it won't be another 4 years before I see her again...
The second part of this post is a topic that came up at Sam's house...I've always had this phobia about toilets not flushing or clogging or backing up...less of a problem in my house, but imagine you're at a friends'...Holy crap, can you imagine the embarrassment?! Apparently the toilet in Sam's washroom takes a little while to flush, so you have to hold down the flusher for about 5 seconds before it'll start doing it's thing. When she warned Joce about the problem, we started talking about our mutual fears, and lo and behold, it turns out that I'm not alone!There are so many possibilities for disaster...
1) You're in a restaurant that has a washroom with only ONE stall...and it just so happens that the toilet is faulty. It's "fine" if you're by yourself in teh washroom, because you could just leave it, right? But let's say you walk into the stall, and someone else comes in immediately after you and waits outside for you to finish. Everything's fine and dandy until you try to flush..and discover the problem. You can't walk out b/c you haven't flushed...and if you stay in for a long time, you just KNOW what the person outside is thinking about you. Moving on with this hypothetical situation, let's say that the person gets tired of waiting and walks out the door. Of course, this is when you'll finally be able to flush the toilet. Is the problem over? NO! I bet the person who was waiting for you is now outside telling their friends at their table that someone was in teh washroom FOREVER...and they'll all be watching the door waiting for you to come out!! GAAAHH!!!
2) You're in someone's house...and the toilet backs up. WHAT DO YOU DO?!?!
3) This one is sort of gross, but it could happen...you're in someone's house and the toilet doens't flush properly, and you have your period. Holy crap, what do you do?!
*shudder*
How do you keep everyone happy?
I've come to the very simple conclusion:
YOU CAN'T. It's just one of those things you have to accept is impossible, much like having a real-life version of George Jetson's flying car that turns into a little box when you get to work. (Damn, I've wanted one since forever.)
Scary as it is, I'm getting older. With 'age' comes experience, and with experience comes leadership positions. I've relished these opportunities as they're chances for me to make a difference, chances for me to make whatever experience as amazing for others as it was for me. And don't get me wrong, it IS fun, and it IS rewarding and I love doing it...but the longer I'm in positions like these, I'm finding more and more that it's one just big minefield. You step in one direction, and you upset this group of people, you step in another direction, and you upset that group of people. You're surrounded and it's almost impossible to find that one safe path that will get you from point A to point B.
There's no pleasing everyone, and sometimes anyone. I finally see why my leaders used to, and still do, get angry and tired of explaining themselves. It's FRUSTRATING that there are people who are so selfish. I know they're not trying to be selfish, and they likely don't think they are either, but from my new standpoint, I can see that they're not seeing everything. I'm not saying that my way is right, and I'm always open to suggestions for improvement or constructive criticism. But when I only get complaints without suggestions about how to solve the problem, or receive demands for change from ONE person out of fifty, then I have an issue. Let's see YOU run everything and you'll see it's not that easy afterall. There are so many different people with varying opinions, all of which are equally valuable....but frig man, think of the
group and not just yourself for once.
You need discipline in any group...things will never run without it. It doesn't matter if you're a group of friends or complete strangers. There need to be rules and there need to be consequences if you break those rules. If you're going to be late, call and let someone know. It's basic courtesy to do it. If you can't make it, just say something instead of making up a bogus excuse. I appreciate honesty. If you think something could be done in a better way, say something. Don't sit there and be passive agressive. The silent treatment is bullshit. It solves nothing and complicates everything.
GAH! I should just resign from everything.
Chocolates for sale!!!
...No really...I'm selling
chocolates for my dragonboat team. $3 for a bar or a box...these are
Belgian chocolates!! Indulge your cravings and buy a box! Mmmmmmmm...
Anywyas, I feel guilty because everyone's been posting and I haven't, though I always mean to. So I guess a quick update on what's going on...
Dragonboat season has started picking up, and I am PUMPED! We just had a pool practice this morning (starts at 8am, which means meet the carpool at 7am, which means wake up at 6:30am....with the end of Dayligh Savings, it's actually 5:30am. O.o ), and my right shoulder is feeling AWESOME! The soreness has already set in and I'm just waiting for the pain tomorrow morning. I'm also a tad worried that one shoulder will end up much larger than the other one, along with half of my back and one of my legs. My left shoulder is nowhere near as sore as my right one...which leads me to believe that I've worked my right one a lot more. More muscle tears, so more healing and building of muscle...ON ONE SIDE!! ARGH!
Hm, what else? Oh yes. Tomorrow is Monday, a day most work people dread because it means the beginning of the work week and the end of the glorious weekend. BUT, my cubemates and I have made Mondays so much more bearable by creating the...*drum roll*...
DESSERT CLUB!! That's right...every Monday afternoon at 2pm, there's a 15 minute meeting in my cube. If it's your turn, you make a dessert (any dessert you like, jelly rolls, mousses, tarts, trifles, creme brulee, though we've recently had many a delicious cake) and bring it in to feed the other 15 people in the club. 4 months of desserts, and just ONE day of baking. Who wouldn't want to join the club? The rules are quite simple.
1) You eat, you join. ...The sinfully decadent chocolate mousse + ferrero rocher + chocolate brownie + raspberry coulis lured former non-members into the club.
2) You must make it yourself. No purchasing a pre-made dessert. Pilsbury cookies are already borderline, and you will be banned from the club if you buy a cake from Longos and have the words "SCREW YOU BAKING CLUB" written in icing. (...Note: this actually happened. The former member who committed this travesty is no longer a part of the club..or the company).
3) Show up at 2pm on Mondays and enjoy your dessert!
I suggest to all you working folks to create a similar club. Mondays are a day to look forward to!
