A Few Words
Lots of love and hugs to those who have sent some encouragement my way. School is nearing to an end and I cannot help but feel the extra pressure.

So thank you all.

Cold Cold Cold Edmonton
Edmonton’s been extra cold lately. It’s been so cold that I need an extra blanket to cover myself with in order to sleep comfortably.

I guess I shouldn’t mind it at all. After all, I’ve been getting a lot of hugs and cuddles to compensate the chill.

In other news, my new boots arrived yesterday. I came home and checked the mailbox to see the little note left by the postman that said he dropped off the package at the nearest post office in the area. Unfortunately, it was 5-6 blocks away from my place which usually isn’t a problem except that it’s been -30 degrees lately. Because I needed to stop by the grocery store, I decided to stop by the post office and to go to the grocery store all in one go.

I grabbed my big bag and walked, walked, and walked against the wind. My face began to create ice crystals from my breathing. When I finally got there, I felt as if my contacts were frozen into my eyeballs. Gah.

I got the package, but it took almost all the space in my bag. I rushed over to the Tokyo Express’ womans’ washroom and like those secret agents who cleverly change their clothes and disguises in one go, I took off my bad boots, ripped opened the packge of the new boots and put them on. I left the empty box and wrapping paper all in the Tokyo Express’s washroom. But at least I had space in my shopping bag for groceries now. Hahaha.

I love my new boots. More pictures of it later when I have the time.

Tomorrow I have my final Italian unit exam. Let’s hope for a better mark than last time. Woo!

Bryce’s Housewarming
Bryce moved into his new house last weekend. To celebrate, he is throwing a housewarming this coming DECEMBER 2nd in his new place. For more info, contact ME or BRYCE.

It’s that time of year again: The time when I want to throw in the towel and flip the bird to the University.

I am tired. I am so close to graduating and so frustrated that I haven’t yet. I am one semester away from convocation, but that won’t happen until next year.

Sometimes I look over to my other friends, those who have graduated, and wish I was amongst them. I just want to start working and get the rest of my life on the go. Sometimes I just feel as if my schooling is just holding me back. I guess it’s hard not to feel this way when one is taking soccer and volleyball as courses.

Matt tells me to remind myself that the end of the semester is a mere 2-3 weeks away. It’s only 2-3 weeks, but it’s still going to be a hell of a 2-3 weeks since this is the time teachers cram as much stuff as they could. BAH.

Hmm, turning 23. I realized that after one year such big changes have occured.

- went from store lackey to store manager

- won the Rotary Cultural Ambassadorial Scholarship

- have been careful with money since August 2006

- went to Thailand twice; Nepal once

- attended FOUR weddings: 2 of Matty’s friends, Ashia’s, and my cousin’s.

- fell in love with a great (monkey of a) guy, Matt; one year and still going

- one semester away from graduating. I hate you soo much university.

- lost 15-20lbs and keeping it back! Only 5-10lbs to go for definite hotness!

- had two room mates: Elya and Forrest.

- had turned Wednesday Nights into Pineapple Society; still great friends with Ingey and Bryce. I love my boys.

- saw a great friend in Ashia

- reconnected with my sisters

- reconnected with an old anime, SLAM DUNK. Go Shohoku!

- Been to Ainsworth and Nelson, TWICE

- Scored two goals and one penalty kick goal. Loving soccer, not quite loving volleyball.

- Paid for my own tuition this semester and will continue to pay the consequent semesters after 2007.

- Learned to sing Hakuna Matata in Italian.  Reignited my passion for languages.  I want to continue with Italian, Japanese, and I want to start on ASL or JSL. 

Here it is: the long overdue trip summary. In short, it was fun.

Matty and I stayed over his aunt n’ uncle’s place over at Lethbridge for the first two days. I presented his cousins with cute wooly mittens.

Then the long drive began.

Finally we arrived at Nelson’s Hume Hotel exhausted but happy.

We ate at the Red Fish Grill (or something named like that) located a couple blocks away. They had really cool neon lighting near the back of the place. I ordered a chicken dish with a sweet chutney sauce while Matty ordered a steamed fish dinner.

Yay! I turned 23 that day!

Then the next morning, we had the Saturday Special over at the Hume Hotel’s own restaurant, “The General Store”: Eggs Benedict. Eggs Benny just happens to be Matty’s favorite breakfast sandwich, so he was pretty content.

We spent the day walking around, going into shops, going out of shops, walking into coffee shops — which Nelson has a lot of — and this one which I ordered a mocha and an apple crisp.

BWA HA HA HA. LOVE BEAM!!

We went over to the Ainsworth hot springs. We just sat there and relaxed. We met a cheery fellow who chatted with us a bit. He was a local with many talents one of which was carpentry and computer networking.

Flowers on our table:

We had a casual dinner of burgers and nachos. Yummy.

Nelson, nelson, nelson. We did more walking around and taking pictures.

Apparently, no pigs are allowed on the walk.

No bison allowed either.

The Outer Clove and For the Love of Shiva, two of my favorite little places to go.

Cool wall.

Dinner that night was over at The General Store again. We wanted to go to the Outer Clove, but with our luck it was closed.

Rib eye with beer sauce.

Pork tenderloin.

I made moony eyes to Matt.

He made moony eyes to me.

Huerk! Hahahaha.

Dessert was a cheesecake.

And of course, we had wine:

The next day we went shopping. We made the most purchases at the Culinary Conspiracy, a food specialty store, and at some kitchen gadget place. Woo!

Yummers. Ze treasures!

Beautiful Eject shoes, which later turned into “reject” shoes since I opted for boots instead.

Our final dinner was at the Outer Clove. We had some garlicky goodness; I had chicken, Matty had the linguine.

Then GOODBYE HUME HOTEL!

Our last night, our last picture together for the weekend:

Hahaha.

Then the long drive back, I amused myself by taking pictures.

And finally, the BIGGEST TRUCK IN ZE WORLD!

Haha. That’s all for that folks.

Regardless of my financial distress right now, I caved in and bought Flickr Pro. “I’m pro now” as all those skater/snowboard shop clerks would tell me. Since it’s midnight and I am tired, I won’t have a (badly) written prose about the trip until later. Until then, here are my pics!

God, I’m going to be soo poor until the end of December. Gah!

Finally! November 9th has come! I’ll be gone from today until Nov. 14th. I’m off to Ainsworth and Nelson. I’ll see you guys later and will provide pictures and stories.

Nothing but hot springs, relaxing, and a lot of FF12 gaming in this upcoming week. Thank god. Just let me get through this day. I have a presentation and an Italian midterm today.

Just gotta make it through the day …

I got my haircut. I got fickle AGAIN and went out to get my haircut. This time I’m way happier with the results.

Here is me heading out to Shanti to see Par, my fabulous hairstylist.

The results, Blue Steel style!

CLOSE-UP!

After some arm bending, twisting, and shouts I’ve relented and decided to enter the Miss Video Game competition. That’s right. Yours truly will be entering a girl gamer pagent.

I’ve never really been too keen on my looks. I criticise myself for having a too round head and face, my nose is a button, I have bushy eyebrows, I have fat lips, and I have a wide smile and wider horse teeth.

(Somehow I managed to snag myself a boyfriend. Miracles do HAPPEN!)

In my opinion, I was never a photogenic girl. Anyway, I’m going to try to change that. First, with the magical help of MAC makeup and a new hairstyle.

I’ve gotten my bangs cut recently, but I think I found a hairstyle I want to steal. We shall see. I think my hairstylist will think it’s funny if I see him twice within two weeks. Hmm. When this magical hair thing will occur, who knows? Today? Tomorrow?

Yes, I’ve walked over to girl world and will start to wear more makeup.

Next, I need to work on my online gaming since the competition includes an online gaming part. GAH! Why can’t I just stay happy with console gaming?

OH CUTENESS!
Ashia’s children are the cutest little buttons in the world! Here they are, Malina and Atari!

And finally, me.

Hmm, yes. Yes. Much improvement needs to be done to this chickee before I send in my application.

Ah yes, so cometh the one year mark for my relationship with Matty. Now, I know Matty pretty well. First, we’ve been good acquaintances that became close friends for 3-4 years before we actually started dating a year ago today.

Now that one year has passed, I think it’s time for me to reveal a not-so-shocking-truth: I am so much cooler than Matty. Now now, I know that Matty will see this; he’s probably shaking his head right now, or laughing in his cubicle while thinking that this is a falsehood. But this is nothing but the truth.

Because he’s can calculate math problems in his head, he thinks he’s soooo much better than me. In reality that is far from the truth and is true only in his crazy little mind. Everyone knows (except him) and agrees (again, except for him) that I’m damn cool. He can calculate math problems from algebra to calculus to fluid mechanics in a snap with a lot of the calculations done in his head. In fact, he probably could have been to MIT. But I’d like to point out that it’s called an INSTITUTE for a reason. It’s one place where they could put all the math crazies in. You don’t brag about your math skills, you get institutionalized. Hospitalized. It is a sickness! Oh, and he was asked ONCE to come by to this model agency. He mentioned it to everyone that day. Bah!

I guess I could help him out and write down a list of all the things I like about Matty, but I came out short-listed and, well, blank. Instead, I will provide you, dear reader, a list of things I DISLIKE about dear Matty. It was quite long so I have taken the best points and written them here:

1. Matty is too tall. Everytime I try to kiss him I have to tip toe to reach his CHEEK. Sometimes I miss and I end up kissing him in the chin or neck. There is much damage to my calves. For shame!

2. Matty is indecisive. I am indecisive. How we have managed to retardly function together this long, who knows?

3. Matty is TOO GEEKY. He keeps himself informed of the latest events though BBC news and other news reels but never tells me the interesting bits. (Like the Sudan man who married a goat!). Instead I pretend to listen but really, I’m just watching him play Neopets. Oh, and I can’t play my video games alone anymore. He must play them with me as well — EVEN ONE PLAYER GAMES!

(Frick, he buys me geeky gifts! Instead of flowers and chocolate, I get a 1GB flashcard and Final Fantasy 12~! BAH! He might claim that FF12 is his, but in reality, it’s mine. I’m sure he bought it for me since he doesn’t even OWN a PS2!)

4. Matty listens TOO well. He’ll notice my speech idiosyncracies and make fun of them, even it’s a year-old joke. For example, “-Ish”. “It’s around 8-ish, in the University-ish area, right ANA? RIGHT?” Yeah, yeah. Or if I mention I like a certain shirt or like his hair a certain way, he’ll make note of it. Talk about creepy!!

5. Matty is there all the time. No longer can I go on a rampage if I’m having a bad day. Gone are the days of utter misery where I sit around eating ice cream and all things that will rot my teeth. He’s always there!

6. Matty likes cats. I am/was slightly allergic to them. He says he doesn’t and makes a show of chasing his cats away, but leave him alone with Mittens and he begins to coo. He has a special CAT VOICE! “Hey, muffy-wuffy-fluffy”. How unmanly of him.

7. Matty compliments me and unshamefully grabs or pinches me in public! I, at least, check him out in secret. Matty has no shame and no awareness of his creepy factor.

8. Matty gets along with my friends. Gone are the days of friend hording. I no longer can call them “my friends” as they are now “our friends”. I would just like to say that I found them first, they are mine.

9. Matty likes to scare or tickle the bejeebus out of me. I don’t like being scared or tickled as I am very sensitive. Yet, he will scare me in my store and in my own condo! That’s right Matty, keep being creepy. You think it’s funny, don’t you?

10. Lastly, I dislike how Matty can make me laugh. And not just sparingly, ALL THE TIME. And not just tee-hee, how quaint funny — LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY. Heck, he’ll watch the COmedy network with me. (Even though I’d prefer it to be on Spike for my CSI.) It makes it very hard for me to get rid of him.

In the end, I guess Matty’s not too bad. There are some days when I just want to kill him — relationship hiccups they call it — but after a good while I realize that the only thing I love to kill is time. I wouldn’t want to spend it with anyone else but him.

And on occasion, the Pineapple Society members. Who should be barfing or gagging on the cheesiness of this post.

BACIONI!