Where it begins or ends

I have work to do tonight, but am trying to put it off as long as I can. So instead, I went to the gym and worked out, just vacuumed and washed the floor and now doing a little blogging. I guess I’ll get to it eventually, but I’m just going to enjoy a little more downtime before bringing out the ole work lap top. This weekend was pretty hectic. I had to  babysit Friday night, and not just your ordinary old babysitting job, I had 2 kids, a 3 year old and a 9 month old. It wasn’t the easiest night, and it made me wonder how mothers of more than 2 young children handle it. Well, hopefully they have a husband/partner around to chip in, but a single mom, wow, I couldn’t imagine. Just one night exhausted me. On Saturday, I met up with poh poh and went to Chinatown, where we proceeded to shop in the dingy, smelly chinese supermarkets. I really don’t enjoy the smell or environment - but it’s time well spent with poh poh. Afterwards we went for lunch, where we had congee and bbq pork on rice. hmmmm yummy. After my visit, I met up with some girlfriends for a drink on the patio. We stuck out for as long as we could, but the big rain droplets were a bit of a deterrent from keeping us outside. I don’t know what’s with the weather. I hope we get some good old fashioned summer weather. I also bought new walking shoes, and ended up getting major blisters, having to stop at the drug mart to pick up some band aids, and then proceeded to do the 45 minute walk home, debating whether to take the street car, but realizing that I didn’t have exact change, and too lazy to go into a store to break a bill, I just toughed it out and made the trek. Needless to say, my feet were so happy when I got home!

So I went over to my neighbour next door and asked him if he was playing loud music at 2 in the morning. And apparently its not him. Although, when I went over there, he was conveniently at the time blaring loud music. But he did say that he could faintly hear the music. He also mentioned that he could hear me banging on the wall. I felt bad afterwards accusing him of playing the music and banging on the wall thinking it was him. I apologized and left. So now it means that either the people above me or below me are the culprits. Unfortunately or rather fortunately, I haven’t heard anything in a while. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

This week, my boss brought in two potential candidates to take over my old position. I’m currently in the role of two, if I hadn’t mentioned that already. So I’m a little on the desperate side for her to hire someone yesterday. Anyway, she wanted me to meet with them on my own, to see how I felt about them. Interviews are so weird because I’m not sure how much you can garner from a person in just 15 minutes (as that was all I had with them). They were really nice, but I didn’t feel strongly for them either way. I wasn’t blown away by either of them. And then, because I really wasn’t prepared, I probably wasn’t asking the right questions, and was just blurting things out of my mouth as quickly as they came into my head. Luckily I didn’t resort to asking the most brutal question I have ever heard in an interview (and I wasn’t being asked it, I was sitting in an interview with my previous employer, and I’m not sure if he was tired or just out of it) - “What are you scared of?” Who asks that? The best part was the look of confusion on her face. Almost like a deer caught in the headlights. I somewhat helped to rescue her by turning on my boss, and asking him the same question. His answer was so cliche.

I got angry last night at around 2 in the morning when I was rudely awakened by my stupid neighbour blaring his horrible techno/hip hop music. For the record, I’d like to point out that I’m all for freedom of living and enjoying your space, but hello, we’re living in a condo, you can’t pretend there aren’t people on either side of you. Anyway, this has been going on ever since I moved in last August. For a while though, it stopped, and I thought, I had escaped the bad music. But alas, he has started up again, and it seems worse. I bang on the wall, but he either doesn’t hear me or he’s ignoring me. So last night, fed up, I called security, who went to the door, and stood there listening, but couldn’t hear anything! So I guess its only in my apartment that you can hear it. Anyway, I’m going to have to go over to his apartment and talk to him. I did it when I first moved in, and he was really weird, so I’ve avoided going over there ever since, but now I guess I have to. Hopefully he won’t be weird about it. In my old place I lived on the main floor of a house, and the guy below me in the basement apartment would play his music and tv super loud as well. Why does it keep following me around? Maybe this is the Universe’s way of telling me to move to the country.

Funny conversation with my manager yesterday. We were sitting, doing some work and chatting. And she turned to me and said “I’ve never seen you mad.” Which is very true. I don’t honestly get that angry very often. She gave me examples about how other people she’s worked with in the past showed their anger. One woman would just get very pink cheeks, and stay silent, while another woman’s neck would get super red, and she would also not talk about it, but just have a super red neck. My boss never holds it in, she says what she’s feeling, and people tend to quake in their boots She’s a red head, so that may have something to do with it. She’s never done it with me, and I hope she never does. I remember when I came back from Singapore, and after having gone through all of the crap that I went through, I decided to see a therapist to see if she could provide any insight. And after a couple of sessions, she said to me “We should really work on your anger issues” and I replied “But I’m not angry” to which she said “That’s the problem.” And immediately I thought, maybe I do have a problem. Is it weird that I never blow my top, and hardly scream and yell or even just strongly vent? I worry that its due to complacency, and that I don’t really care. I’m hoping that I just haven’t found something passionate enough to get angry about, and when I do, it will happen naturally. Or like a friend at work pointed out, I might bottle it up inside, and then all of sudden it will blow - which isn’t so good either. But I don’t think I bottle it up. I think I just look at the situation/problem from all angles, not just from my point of view, but from the other person’s point of view, and somehow that balances things out. Or it maybe that I’m just too lazy to care… But wait a minute, did I not just do a bit of a rant below. So maybe I am ok!

Can I just say that Singapore Airlines has one of the worst built password protected sites out there? I don’t know how a company that is supposed to be so ahead of its time, does not have the ability to build a program/script that allows you to properly re-set your password in situations where you forget it. Maybe its my fault, maybe I should write it down, but I never do. I guess I’ve been spoiled by other websites, that have the re-set your password functionality built in, with no qualms whatsoever. Hello? I work in Marketing, and manage a website that has the same login capabilities, and I know what type of stuff happens in the back end, and really, its not that hard. You’d think that Singaporeans would be able to figure that S*(& out! (pardon my language). And then, so you think, maybe I’ll call the help desk, and the only numbers they list on their site, are: a local number in Singapore, and a number in California. So on top of wanting to actually get into the site and maybe shop around or redeem for points, you can’t do that unless you spend some of your own out of pocket money by paying for the long distance fees for calling them for fricken help. Its ridiculous. In an age of such great technology, this shouldn’t be an issue. Gawd, even smaller sites can get it right, and an international airline can’t? And one that is supposed to be the best of the best? Yeah right!

First off, a big congrats to my cousin, who I just found out, scored an insane amount of scholarships that will definitely be a boost for her upcoming University career. So much so, that she’s receiving a prestigious award from a well-known media personality, who is shelling out $10K out of his own pocket. And as an aside, my cousin was chosen not only for her academic abilities, but also her super generous contribution to her community. She is a volunteer machine. She is the second person in our family, who has made a dent in the highschool academic world, and is looking to make the same mark, if not bigger, in the University world. I’m super proud of both of them, they are the pride and joy of our family (on my mother’s side).  Unfortunately us kids (my siblings and I) didn’t inherent the intellectual and ambitious genes of my mother’s side. Not that my father’s side isn’t ambitious or intellectual, its just that we either missed the boat, or as I’d like to say, opted for an alternative path. Not that we’ve done so bad for ourselves, with one sibling in Advertising, another in Engineering and me in Marketing, I’d say all, in all, we’ve done pretty well. But even so, still bit of a disappointment to my dad. When I was working at an ad agency last year, my dad called one night to say hi, and we ended up having this conversation:

Dad: Hi, how are you? How’s work?

Me: Great dad, things are going well. I’m super busy at work, but its really interesting and I’m learning a lot.

Dad: So it’s advertising right? Do you write jingles?

Me: No dad, I work with the clients. More like client management.

Dad: Oh. (with a slight twinge of disappointment). *Pause* Maybe you should go back to school. You know get some sort of professional degree.

Me: (Trying to be as diplomatic as possible) Really? What do you think I should study?

Dad: *slightly longer pause as he ponders the possibilities*

You like animals. You should become a Vet. 

Ah, the good intentions of our parents. You gotta love them! Not that I’m bitter, I really hope I’m not sounding bitter, cause I’m not…really…

Today, my mom came to town. Its always so nice to see her. My siblings and I were just chatting before her arrival about how much she has changed since we were young. I guess the heavy hand of discipline is more inherent when you have young children over grown adults. She’s definitely mellowed out as we’ve gotten older, wonder if that’s attributed to her growth as well. And of course, upon arrival, she jumped right into making my favourite meal - her awesome chicken wings. You can beat them. Unfortunately I can’t make them in my tiny digs, as it would smell up the entire place, but when you’ve got a nice big kitchen, away from any of the living space, you can go nuts with pan frying the chicken. hmmm yummy. Thanks mom!

So I’ve got a new roommate, who’s hairy and sheds a lot, and is surprisingly affectionate for someone like her. A cat I mean. I guess its about time I took back the little kitty I brought home oh so many years ago, and then abandoned while I treked across the world and back. Now she’s back with me and let me tell you it was quite the journey, both for herself and me. I’m sure Maggie was freaked out by the plane ride, and the cold weather that she encountered when she landed. Coming from a more temperate weather locale, I can understand if she felt some physical shock. I was so excited about her imminent arrival, I made sure I had the litter box ready and waiting, I went to the pet store and got advice on the best type of food to feed her. Bought her a few toys. I wanted to make her feel as comfortable as possible. I even cleaned my place! Ah, the things we do for our pets. So I made my way out to the airport. Unfortunately she didn’t have the luxury of arriving at the airport like her human counterparts. Instead she was shepharded here on a cargo plane, and so I had to pick her up at the Cargo pick up building. Well, first off, I got lost and had to call them about 3 times for directions. When I finally arrived at the building, I was greeted with probably 30 different doors. So I had to call again to ask which door to enter at. The man who answered the phone didn’t even say “hello”, he just said “Tell me where are you now.” It was quite funny. Well, now I’ve got a furry little friend to keep me company during the long and cold winter months.