A special visit

I am taking an early lunch today, everyone is away from their desks on some crazy busy business mumbo jumbo; it’s going to be a long week. I feel I cannot go on rambling about little problems without first acknowledging my compassion for what happened between two good friends. I love you Geoff, chin up. A book is getting mailed to you soon. (don’t worry, it’s not a self help book) but hopefully it’ll bring you some comfort. Expect 2-4 weeks for delivery.

We had a couple of guest visitors for driving class last night. Their names are Bow and Kim. At 7 weeks old, adorable, playful and lacking in depth perception, they made my day.

Bow and Kim taught me an important lesson in driving and in life. If you’re not going to be careful for yourself or your family, then please, do it for the puppies.

A case of the Mondays

Lately I’ve resorted to putting up pictures of friends on my desktop at work. It always puts a smile on my face and makes the time go by easier. Right now, it’s a photo of a bunch of party happy people out for a mountain of beers at Molly’s. My boss asked me if it was St. Patrick’s day (some of use were wearing green), it was actually 3 days before finals… muahaha, horrible.
The weekend went well; I learned that cheese is actually bad for you, but not as bad as CHUCK NORRIS!!!!! I’m anxious again; As if something resembling pin pricks are bothering my butt. I can’t sit still; maybe it’s a case of the Mondays!!… Oh dear…

Boozing for Brantford

Weird how things have a way of balancing themselves out. Whenever I’m feeling down (as I have been for the last little while), something always happens to make my day. I remember sitting and looking very calm but my insides would turn in rapid, heavy, unsteady:
(a) anticipation
(b) dread
(c) unexplainable feelings
(d) all of the above

Do you ever get that? As if life is going on as normally as it can, but somehow you’re yearning for something more; you’re so filled with emotion that has no origin or purpose, a full stomach but the waves of hunger continue.

I am better now, inside and out.

If buses work out for today, I’m off to visit Kate and her bf in Brantford.

Finally, a conversation I had with the shipping guy this morning:
Me: “hey Dave, are you the one I call if I want to move a crate somewhere?”
Dave: “Well… *slurpping of coffee* under normal circumstances, no~
Me: “But…”
Dave: “But maybe for a special case…
…
Are you feelin special?”
Me: “uhhhhhh… It’s Friday. Everybody feels special.”

Do you think, he thinks I’m special? Because there’s gotta be somebody around here to move that crate!!!

I am who I am, but why?

So I had my weekly maintenance meeting with the head enchiladas of the plant this morning. It had the best attendance thus far. As I sit at the end of the table in full view of everyone, I noticed something. Most of them had a full head of hair!! It was very impressive seeing as how they were all middle aged and after… getting back on topic… I also noticed that I was the only Asian. Young. Woman. in the room. It dawned on me that out of all possible career paths I could have taken, I routed for this one, for this company, in this room , with these people. It’s no accident, I consciously made this decision because I liked the field of work. However, I didn’t expect to be so different and seemingly out of place. So why do I think the same way as middle aged Caucasian men? And why am I one of the only young women to do so?

That got me thinking… why am I so weird? Not for this whole mech eng thing, just in general. A friend told me something the other day that stuck. He said my personality was “(for lack of a better word) deep”. I know exactly what he means… perhaps it’s this quality that got me here. Sometimes I don’t like the feeling of standing out. Being different often feels lonely; I am tired of being alone.

Always in the wrong places.

OMG!!!

I don't know if it's the countless hours (actually 23) that I spend sitting on my ass... but I seem to have exploded in the mid-section. This is causing me much distress, but I cannot find time to work out!!!

Gosh this sucks.

Sleepless in Waterloo

I was relieved to be back and swinging in Welland after a tiring weekend in Waterloo, which leaves me to think where my home really is. I did meet up with an old friend from first year university. This totally makes my day; there is so much to catch up on but somehow we can always manage to pick up where we left off.

Please have a listen to Someone to Watch Over Me by Renee Olstead. I am crazy about the song as well as the artist. She has the best voice I have ever heard (I'm talking chills and goosebump worthy) and was only fifteen during the recording her album. The song expresses a yearning for something that I’m sure we have all, at one time or another, felt very deeply. If you want me to send it to you, just leave a comment.

The Driving Academy: Episode II

I my fingers made a breakthrough yesterday. They now allow me to play a song on the guitar without missing a beat. This maybe due to my hours of practicing… but since it just happened all of a sudden, I figure it’s the sardines I had for dinner.

Off to WaterWoo this weekend to see my best friend and her bf (a buddy of mine from class); they met during a party at my house last term. I’m looking forward to this weekend… but if I catch them cleaning each other’s teeth, I’m going straight to Home Depot to purchase a wall separator.

And now, another installment of the crazy hooting at driving school.

Airbags have the highest failure rate for saving lives. Seatbelts have the lowest.
Jen: “Airbags inflate at 300 km/h. So if you’re driving 100km/h without a seatbelt, that’s something hitting your face at 400km/h…. bye bye face.”
People: “….”
Jen: “Same goes for things if the way of your airbag. If you drive like a rap star, (indicating one arm at 12 ‘clock) you will get a nice imprint of that bling bling watch on your forehead. And can you imagine driving with your foot at the time? Hahaha ‘I didn’t know I bent that way?!’ ”

During a circle check around your car, you’re are looking for anything out of the ordinary.
Jen: “that includes the hobo sleeping in, under or on top of your car.
How do you keep a hobo out of your car?”
Touqy: “give him food!”
Jen: “no, OUT of your car.”
Demento: “you crucify him!!”
Jen: “…you are just too weird… try locking the doors… stupid.
How do you get a hobo off your car?”
People “dm.f,mummbblee”
Jen: “Poke him with stick, hit the horn, or just drive.”

80% of all accidents occur with a 80km radius of your home.
Jen: “you know why right? When I drive down to the 7/11, my mind is on the lotto tickets and..”
Touqy: “and cigarettes and krispy crèmes.”
Jen: “*condescending look*
So I’m only driving with half a brain, other people on the road, probably also close to home and headed to Timmies, also using half a brain…”
Demento: “so that’s a whole brain missing somewhere!! Can you imagine a whole brain?”
Jen : “yeah ok…”
Me: “I’m going to read about you in the toronto Star one day; front page!”
Demento: “at least I don’t wanna shoot helicopters down.”
Jen: “I don’t like the Star, Toronto Sun is a lot more interesting.”
Me: *GASP!*

Touqy drank a litre of chocolate milk and didn’t say much during class… and by that I mean we saw his mouth shut and stayed shut long enough for time to pass. It was funny to see him turning greener and greener to match his toque. Jen feared for her clean carpet.

An intesting fact about driving… even though cars are now made safer with airbags, ABS and all that jazz, vehicular fatalities have remained the same. This is because people drive more aggressively knowing they have less chance of being injured. This is also one of the reasons people purchase SUV’s (…bastards!)

Jen: “so I’m giving driving lessons to this girl from Port Colborn, a cocaine dealer btw…we were driving past a cliff one day… haha you see where this is going…
People: “…”
Jen: “ and she said, ‘I’d totally jump’.
I said jump where? Off the cliff?
‘yeah, if I ever crashed the car and it’s tumbling down, I’d unbuckle my seat belt and jump out.’
I said that’ll kill you just the same.
‘No it won’t, I’ll just be rolling down the hill.”
I said huhhhh… alright you try that….
She didn’t showed up for driving class next day. I never saw her again.”

Can't we all just get along?

I may realize this to be mean spirited and regret writing it… but this is how I feel right now. Please don’t take it to heart.

Do you ever get a bad feeling about someone when you meet them or right after talking to them? Though this rarely happens to me, El is one of those people. My avoidance of him is not due to shyness or my lack of curiosity, but rather my immediate distrust and suspicion. I hoped against odds that we could live comfortably under one roof; this is not happening.

I suppose this suspicion is due to El’s ability to sneak up on you and scream in you ear while you’re cooking over a hot stove; lets not forget that neanderthal wig he wears for a the bonus distortion on your face when he “gets you good.” This is something a 10 year old would do. He also howls, openly demands for attention and disrespects others. Sorry… make that a mischievous 10 year old depesperately in need of some decipline.

El is not 10, his son is closer to being 10 than he is. Yes, his son, still back in El Salvador with his ex-girlfriend. I found his behaviour more and more disturbing after knowing this.

Yesterday (Valentines day) J had her beautiful new girlfriend over for dinner. They had just sat down to eat when El decided it would be a good time to tell J to take out the garbage for tomorrow's pickup, adding that J does not do enough work around the house. J went on to argue that he does plenty around the house, but he will gather all the garbage and leave it at the front door. El persisted that J take all the garbage outside that night (so racoons can get at them right?).

Nevermind what they said, it was inappropriate of him to interupt their dinner, especially one that J has been preparing for since last week. El stormed up to his room.

J called me over, “I can’t believe this guy, why is he so hard to get along with?”
“I don’t know.” I replied, “just take out the garbage, no big deal.”
“but see, some people just don’t appriciate the stuff you do for them.” Said J. “when my computer broke down, I gave him all my spare parts and software, and he’s still being difficult.”

I went back to the TV just in time to see El come down from his room with some computer speakers and wires in his arms. He placed the items on the dining room table where they were eating. I tried my best to ignore this drama. Drama drama drama, don’t do it, don’t like it.

J and his gal went downstairs. El stayed behind to watch American Idol with me.
“that singer is Chineee!” he said, “is that jou brother?” followed my ridiculous laughter.
…What do you respond to that?

I’ve reached the point where I can’t stand to be in his company. If he touched my arm, I’d involuntarily flinch. I know how horrible that sounds, but how can a grown man with all this responsibility in life turn out to be so completely irrational and lax? Doesn’t he feel guilty for not supporting his son or even contacting him for months on end? My aggravation for him is confusing, unexpalinable, maybe even unreasonable… he is one of only few to have this affect on me. I cannot shake it off, but if find a way to, knowing El would have taught me something valuable about myself.

The Driving Academy: Episode I

First of all, happy Valentines day, I wooooove you all!!
I think I’ll go home today and give everybody a hug :D

Yesterday was my first driving class. The instructor, Jen, is a total hoot! We laughed off the entire 3 and a half hour class. There are about 10 people all together, mostly around 16. They remind me of how much people change in their late teens. The main characters in seating order:

Guy with the toque – Quick and witty little jerk, hereby named Touqy
The Lion – real name’s Leo, likes to bore us with stories about his sisters car, and his mom’s car and his sister’s boyfriend’s car, likes to start sentences with “this thing happened one time…”
The Musician – A musically capable young man, he mostly likes to laugh at what everybody else is saying.
Beta – The self-acknowledged computer geek. Likes to crack corny jokes and snarl; you know the sound
Blondie – a 16 yr old valley girl who “is not emo!” She is not used to going to the bathroom by herself.
Mr. Demento – Blondie’s friend from school. Disturbed, weird, random and wildly funny.
Tallness – Quite developed for his age, one may need a step ladder to find a personality (also a friend of Blondie and Mr. Demento)

Jen – the hoot and
Me.

The following are some conversations and car facts from class.

The colour red increases the insurance rate. Because sports cars in the 80’s were either red or black. This no longer makes sense now; sports cars are all sorts of colors.
Jen: “so the insurance people came up with a new explanation. Back in ’96 they make a pamphlet saying the color red is hard for people to recognize immediately.... ahh hello? Why don’t we just drive through some stop signs?!”
Beta: “The colour red evokes aggression.”
Mr. Demento: “yeah, if you paint a room red, you go insane.”
Jen: “um yeeeah... did you know if you paint your room pink your brain turns to mush? And while we’re on this, why are hospitals painted puke green? It’s like they want you to get the hell out of there as soon as possible.”
Beta: “They don’t have to wipe off the walls if you puke on it.”

A holder of a G1/G2 license must go for an interview if 6+ demerit points have been accumulated.
Jen: “This is not a job interview… but ladies, this would be a good time to wear a short skirt, or a cleavage top… or both…. or cry… that usually works. Men, do not wear a short skirt, do not wear a cleavage top either, unless you have cleavage… but if you have cleavage you might want to hide that. And please, don’t cry, crying doesn’t suit guys very well.”
Touqy: “What if they’re into guys like that?”
Mr. Demento: “Can’t we threaten them?”

When sharing roads with horse and carriage.
Jen: “who gets the right of way?”
Musician: “the driver?”
Jen: “*grunt*, who is more in control of the situation?”
Demento: “the horse?”
Jen: “*sigh* no…”
Demento: “the guy on the horse?”

Jen: “slow moving vehicles must have a yellow triangular sign indicating so.”
Touqy: “Can’t we brand the triangle on the horse’s ass?”
Jen: “I don’t think the horse will be too happy with me if I did that.”

And last but not least. The federal government is involved in only 2 cases of vehicle violation. They are…
Musician: “Hiding Drugs?”
Jen: “you can do drugs on the street.”
Demento: “Shooting someone?”
Jen: “no, you shouldn’t do that anywhere.”
Musician: “Speeding a lot?”
People: “Failure to stop? Stolen vehicle? Driving with your foot?”
Me: “shooting down a helicopter?”
*weird stares…*
Me: “I’m thinking about Grand Theft Auto…”
Jen: “I’ve never gotten THAT one… you’re all crazy.”

A lot more went on, but this is what I can remember. The ability to recollect and observe go hand in hand with how bored I get. Hope I can cut this crap out when school starts. Until then, 4 more weeks of driving school! Btw, the answers are D.U.I and Vehicular manslaughter.

Waterfalls and icicles

I went to visit a friend in Niagara falls over the weekend. The best thing about living in Welland is how close it is to the falls; I took a public transit bus there! Somehow, I had set the idea that my friend, who shall be appropriately named Pooboy, should pick me up at the bus terminal. This would make sense if I was actually ending up there. However, the Niagara transit bus goes all the way through town before the final stop at the terminal, I may have passed right by Pooboy’s house for all I know. Midway through the ride, I was already the only one on the bus. The crazy driver dude made sure I was indeed headed for the terminal, then floored it!!

I had the spontaneous idea to jump off the bus when I saw Planet Hollywood and all that downtown hustle. But seeing as how Busman had already built up such a momentum, I let him drive on uninterrupted. Downtown turned into no-town really fast. Bright lights and party city suddenly merged into a narrow road with no street lights and desolate farm land. I was starting to wonder maybe Busman has had a bad day and decided to change things up a bit.

Pooboy was yet to finish dinner, so I walked along the Niagara river until I hit the falls, which turned out to be quite nice. It was my first time seeing the falls in winter, at night and snowing… pretty.

I met up with Pooboy after about 45 minutes of waiting. Turns out, he meant INSIDE Boston Pizza. Whoops, and there I was wandering in circles listening to doctor Fankinstein brag about his haunted shack: “just remember, once you enter, you may never return…” Give me a break…

We met up with Alan, a chem. Eng from Waterloo and headed down to Casino Niagara. It was my first time in a casino and was more or less what I expected. I expected to lose money, and did. Pooboy and Alan did pretty well; Being from the area, they must have been born with some luck them genes. What I found memorable was how loosely people treat their money. Some took out hundreds and just as easily gambled it away. These people don’t look rich either, more like honest working folk. With all that money, they could have some huge rhinestones on their jackets (or maybe not… for fashion’s sake)

Pooboy was a great host and gave me some useful guitar pointers. He’s an established player with a handful of beautiful guitars. He played some sweet Bach on his Fender Stratocaster. I was happy to get back home to my own Fender so I can start on some of that Mozart!! Oh who am I kidding?

*photos to be added later*

The unfortunate exccident.

Yesterday a “major catastrophe” as my boss put it, occurred to one of our strainers. It’s a rubber filtration/forming machine that works kind of like a spaghetti maker but can only manage to squeeze out one thick, flat piece of noodle. For whatever reason may it be a pressure difference in the tubes, faulty equipment or someone unknowingly tried to make noodle out of a piece of dough that’s been in an oven overnight… the rubber managed to push right through the mould, splitting a 1½” piece of circular steel disk and a heat treated steel ring that used to be fully attached to the framework. That’s an estimated 20,000lbs of pressure. I have never seen noodle do that.

The crew was shocked and amazed, they asked me to take pictures of the crime scene while they juggled the liability and how much this is going to cost them. I clicked away at every possible angle. It was a horrendous sight. At least our strainer is now at a peaceful place, where the rubber runs free and the pressure is at most, atmospheric.

The next day, the boss presented me with the piece of steel ring that stripped off the machine. Incomplete and jagged, it threatened to cut me if I dared touch it. The ring was to be Fed-exed to Germany for investigation. I took my precious to the shipping office. After a gazillon layers of bubble wrap, I sealed the box. The woman at the shipping office, we’ll call her Shirley (mostly because that’s her name), weighed the package at 2lb and brought over the seemingly simple paper work. I struggled with the German address, the street name had a letter in it that looked like a greek beta but fatter…

Shirley proceeded to fill out the rest,
“Do you know how much this is worth?” she asked
“What’s worth? How much is the stuff in the package you mean?”
“Yes.”

I had no idea, but I knew the ring was important; the ring was unique; we cannot lose it.
“uhhh… it’s priceless.”
“I can’t write down priceless!!” Shirley said after laughing hysterically at me.
“oh,” I said, thinking quickly… “actually, it’s broken, so… it’s worthless.”
Thinking some more after seeing the look on her face… “well, it’s important, we can’t lose it… so it’s somewhere in between priceless and worthless.”
“Just estimate something.” Shirley laughed as I was starting to calculate what 2lb of steel is going for these days… and ultimately decided it was a couple hundred (the average price of everything in this world I guess).

“ok that wasn’t so hard was it?” said Shirley, “now, what should I put for the item’s description?”
“uhhhh… evidence?”

The ring is out of my hands now. All it cost me was some dignity, the equivalent of a couple hundred bucks. Good thing there's an endless reserve.

Queen of... the day before yesterday

Please listen to “King of Yesterday” by Jude. It’s like walking through a winter wonderland with a puppy and the best cup of hot chocolate you’ve ever had … but for your ears!

My initial thought today at work was that it was Tuesday… gahhh, so early in the week. Then to my delight, I realized it couldn’t have been Tuesday because it was going to be Whopper day today at BK!! Turns out, Whopper day was yesterday and today is actually Thursday.

When you get into a routine, time just passes by, even if you are bored half the time. The thing is, besides working from 8 to 4 + an hour walking home. I don’t do anything in particular, but still do not have enough time to do all the “not much of anything” I want to; Mostly because I can sit and read/play with Fender for a day without realizing it. So preparing dinner/talking to roomies/making lunch the next day take a back seat. I brought a pound of carrots for lunch today (it was the best I can do in 30 seconds). El (the roomie) is in a fowl disposition lately, probably from the lack of attention he needs to feed on. I can see him shrinking before my eyes; maybe I should give him my lunch?

Google takes over the world.

I have just discovered the earth. Google Earth provides a panoramic view of the entire planet. Just type in a destination and it zooms from a sperical lil' planet all the way down to your car in the driveway. I flew from Toronto to London, Amsterdam, Paris, China in seconds. The satellite images give a whole new point of view. It’s so real, the earth, at my fingertips… MUAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!

If the Almighty does in fact exist, this would be a pretty kick ass way to pass the time. Except he can probably zoom into people’s houses and pluck hairs from their heads.

Good food and better company x2

So spring is coming!! We just have to wait 6-8 weeks for delivery. So I opted out for spring rolls instead. Yesterday, I hit every Chinese buffet in town... there was only 2 of them, but still, that's a lot of noodles my friend.

I had to meet with a vender from the States, during lunch we talked about his business trips all over the world. He'll be going to Europe next week to speak with BMW, Chrysler and the tire companies that serve them. All that traveling wears him out, but how exciting! I don't know what career path to go down yet, but I hope it takes me to amazing places too.

D (my landlord) took me to dinner at the Red Rice restaurant that same night. I found out a lot about him. He's a wedding photographer on the side. Seeing so many newlyweds through the years, he said he can tell right away who's not going to make it for sure haha... but there are some that should have lasted but didn't.

D got married very early, he was 18. His wife was 16. They're still going strong after 32 years!! People really did mature a lot faster back then. I think at such a young age, you're yet to discover yourself and what you want in life. People change as they grow, and most of the time they grow apart. D knows he is extremely lucky in that sense. I asked him what the secret to his great marriage is. (people ask them that all the time.)

He just said, "Well, we wanted to prove everyone wrong... and actually started to like each other again after a while."
He said some people just don't put enough effort into making things work; they give up too early before realizing how good it would have been. Divorce rates have gone up substantially over the last few decades. D figures it's because the world is becoming more dispensable. People are constantly upgrading into new cars, computers, clothes with a new attitude to match. I never thought a person can be regarded the same way as a PC... but when we treat everything we own like this, what's next?

"But living things are different." I argued, "what about your dog? You'd never throw that away."
"You know your dog is just a dog, but you expect so much more out of a person, sometimes they don't perform to your expectations."

Wow... I have never been so full in thought and stomach at the same time!

Cheers to the weekend. Happy b-day to Sophia and Janet!! Hope you both like booze.

Another round for El.

El is sometimes happy, the kind that laughs at your jokes and howls on occasion to show his contentment. He enjoys hip hop music and movies, has had his ups and downs during his 20 some odd years around here, and there, and everywhere.

Sometimes El is sad. El is lonely. El is unhappy and El is envious. He is feeling this way lately because J has a new girlfriend. It’s only been four days, but they seem to be very much infatuated with each other. All the time once spent wrestling has now gone to someone else. El is sad. El is lonely. El is unhappy and El is envious. El has a funny way of showing it.

He puts on earrings, silver hoops, the very kind J wears. He knocks on their door to show them.

“Look at how big they are,” Says J, “you’re lookin funky, go tweak that afro.”
The door shuts behind them. Soon after, another knock at their door. El attempts to joke around, he takes objects from the kitchen table and throws them at J. He stops upon grabbing his beer bottle, one of two. He sees the door shut.

“EY!! Do jou like 50 cen?” He yells, he knocks, he yells.
They come into the living room to listen.
“You really like 50 cent eh?”
“Yah, theys good.”
“We’re going to bed now El, see you later.”

El turns up the volume, the bass shakes the floor.
“Keep it down El” I said.
“I have nobody.” was his reply. The music gets louder.