Joseph the Beatboxer on Nouvelle Star

Um.... DAYUM!!

Cry Me A River (Acapella)

Awesome!!!

Hmmm...

Life is not fair sometimes. And that's all I have to say about that.

Isn't it ironic?

It's funny, I had a little moment today while in a meeting with my client - we were discussing how exactly we envision the customers and how best to suit their needs. Which sounds dandy and of course is an interesting project, but when we starting categorizing the customers into groups, it made me realize that this is how corporations see us: "young spender", "middle-aged mortgage owner" or "retiree". I realize this is the only way to make marketing effective - to group similar people into one group and create a strategy/campaign that they will all likely respond to in the same way.

It just seems ironic that we spend our lives trying to stand out, be original and unique, when in the end we are labeled anyway, especially so concisely as a "young spender" in my case. Especially since my recent motto is that "boring is boring" - I'm always worried about people who might judge me, but really the tragedy is to be forgotten! I'd take a little judgment than be lumped into that grey mass that no one knows and labels using just a few words. We don't deserve to be dumped into one category, but you have to fight to make your individuality apparent - that's definitely a goal I can work towards.

What the deuce is this!??!

1,500 Philippino prisoners choreographed and dance the Thriller - whaaaaat?

Another jam-packed weekend

So the past few days have been pretty hectic… after flying back home from Montreal on Thursday night, I had a few hours to get ready for the United Way event organized at our Markham location and to pack for the cottage so that I could leave straight after work. The United Way event was a HUGE success, and left such a good feeling except for the people who ruined it for me after. I don’t even want to get into the rage-inducing details, but all I have to say is that office politics far surpass people’s desire to do any greater good, and that I have much more faith in students doing a good job at these kinds of events than I do in adults. They seem to be more concerned with outward appearances and credit than with the actual purpose of the event, and maintaining monopolistic control over whatever they can. I don’t get it, and I have a growing distaste for these kinds of people. But really, to conclude, double the amount of projected people showed up and everyone had a great time - we raised about $1200!!

Anyway, after the exhausting BBQ, I met up with Eva and Sanjay at Finch station and we drove to Jim’s cottage. It ended up being on a small island on Lake Joe (which neighbours Lake Rosso) with Kenny G in the cottage next door! Which yes, is kinda lame but still kinda cool? Anyway, point being I’ve rarely seen such a nice cottage with nice toys and amazing food. We got spoiled in every way possible. Saturday was a flip cup competition and ended off with a hung-over 2 hour ride on the kayak for moi and swimming and chillin for others. The only bad part was my stupidity in not putting any sunscreen on and therefore still hardly being able to sit comfortably. We ended off at Eva’s boss’ cottage, which was one of the nicest cottages I’ve ever seen. DAMN.

Once we got back into Etobs, Eves and I went for a little golf action in Centennial for about ½ hour. I (surprisingly) didn’t get any rage and even (gasp!) enjoyed myself. We are playing a tournament in mid-August, so we are trying hard to really not suck and embarrass ourselves. As much.

P.S. The picture above is from a dance party from Saturday night, which was epic and consisted mostly of Eva and myself. Kudos to the Polaks.

Montreal week 3

So this week was my 3rd week traveling on this project to Montreal... I have to admit it's wearing on me a bit, but I really can't complain. I've got my groove down with what to pack, where to stay, where to eat etc.... I have yet to meet any local people, but I'm sure that will come with time.
Every week Trish leaves after work on Wednesday, so when it comes to dinnertime it's up to me to decide what I wanna do alone. The past few weeks I've gone on walks around the city, which is nice cause it's the only chance I have to do that, but this time I stopped for some pesto pasta on Rue Crescent, which seems to be a pretty happenin place in Montreal. I chatted with people and read my magazine while at dinner, and when I was done these 2 older men approached me. One tried to offer me peanuts, and the other told me he owned a very high-end clothing store. Both men were Lebanese, and the peanut one told me about his stories as a pilot and current travel agency. Usually I would dismiss these fools for being too old, but it was a social and funny break in my solitary evening. The only bad part came when my friend Wassim, who recommended the place, realized later that it's often frequented by EE (Easter European ladies) and the older ME (Middle Eastern) men that want them. How nice.

Otherwise, I'm feeling my lack of time in Toronto this week - I literally got home after 9, chilled and packed for the cottage this weekend, and organized stuff for the United Way event we're throwing. I am leaving right after work to go to Jim's cottage, then come back, pack for Montreal and leave Monday morning. Did I mention I'm traveling with my dad this time?? Iiiiiiinteresting...

And so it begins

Friday night we went to a lovely dinner at Saint-Tropez in Toronto. The goal: to see Maha and celebrate her last weekend before she starts the intense chemo process, which starts today and if all goes well, ends in the beginning October. It was the first time I'd seen Maha since her operation, and all I have to say is that I've rarely been so impressed by someone. She talked about the cancer openly: buying a wig, where to live during her treatment, what her plans are after the cancer and so on. I had never considered the 'everyday' parts of dealing with the disease, other than the big picture of actually fighting it, beating it and living a long full life. She talked about the more serious impact the cancer is having on her too - how to rebuild her body after the mastectomy she had, the effect of the chemo on her ability to have children, which I never knew was an issue.

Point being, this has been a sobering experience for all her friends, especially the women in our group. We are all thinking of and praying for Maha, since her attitude is really an inspiration for everyone of us.

Woo woo

Now this is the kind of news I like reading.

Not only are more teens completing high school, but the rate of teen pregnancy and those having sex is decreasing. It's pretty refreshing that all the effort that has gone into campaigns for safe sex and the importance of education is actually working.

On another note, the Globe and Mail published an article today about the fact that Canada is really high on the list of countries whose citizens smoke a lot of pot. I have to say, given even my group of friends from high school/university, I am not surprised at this stat at all. It seems that people have a pretty easygoing view on smoking weed, although funnily enough we tend to judge people who smoke cigarettes or drink & drive pretty harshly... the stat shows the rate of smokers at about 18.6% in the past 3 months, which is about 1 in 5 people. Which means at least 2 peeps on my team are statistically potheads... figuring out which ones they are will make for an interesting day today.

Esmee Denters singing ``Unwritten`` by Natasha Bedingfield

I am really starting to love this girl...

Sister, sister

So I had a nice (read: extremely delicious, expensive and wineful) dinner last night with a few colleagues from work (T and Wymond), and we inevitably dicussed relationships and Wymond's relationship with his 3 daughters (no sons). He talked about how much more fun but complicated it is to raise girls, because of all the extra ‘drama’ that can happen to them, but that he felt better equipped to handle them because he grew up with 3 sisters himself.

That got me thinking about this theory that I have that men who have at least one sister are a lot more prepared to deal with relationships with women (or at least have a very dominant mother, female cousin, you get the idea). However, the theme of the “man with a sister” is so powerful that I find that every guy I have a close relationship with has at least one sister, and often times an older one.

I can say with confidence that I think my brother is an excellent person (among other factors) because he has an older sister. That sounds extremely cocky, and it’s not meant to because I am not crediting myself with his upbringing, but simply the fact that as a child, he had a female to analyze and understand as I was going through the different phases in my life. Now that I am slightly less crazy and more mature, he seems to “get” me and what I’m going through without me having to say much about it. Although now he’s at a disadvantage because he is just TOO mature for his age (hahaha, poor Adam).

Anyway, on that note, I have to say that despite my being brought up with excellent male figures in my life (note: grandpa, dad, Adam and more ‘uncles’ than I could count), I don’t have an easy time understanding guys at all. In fact, I think I am usually attracted to guys that are the exact opposite in some ways to my role models (although they are always nice guys at least). I really find the whole concept of dating extremely difficult, and stay on a plateau of “this is not for me” which is interrupted by very rare moments where I meet someone I have a connection with (which has happened maaaybe 4-5 times in my life), I wear my heart on my sleeve and then get it broken, and then the plateau continues at an even lower level than before. Plus I feel like men have this evil radar that as soon as they sense a girl is finally over them, they renew contact and bring up all sorts of emotion. It’s exhausting. So on that note, as of today (along with my friend Eves), I am making a conscious decision to think much less about all those shenanigans and really focus on ourselves, so that our love lives become secondary concerns.

On a separate note, I just found out that I added something called sitemeter to my profile, which tracks and categorizes the people that visit your blog! Pretty cool - although I expect most of my leads to be Google searches like “young, 20-something cynical traveler”.

Robots have feelings..? But Western people don't.

An interesting weekend - Friday was a reunion party for Western kids, which was an interesting event. I started off the evening with drinks and food at Ki, which I am really starting to get addicted to (especially those lychee martinis, you don’t even see those coming and all of a sudden you’re a very happy tipsy girl). The night then progressed to dinner with the girls at Monsoon for Summerlicious, which I couldn’t enjoy because of too much edamame at Ki. Anyway, the 2 bottles of wine were enjoyable and made going to the Phoenix that much more bearable.

We girls were dressed to the nines in our high heels and freakum dresses, and arriving at the Phoenix was kind of a shock. I had been there before, but some girls’ first impressed was the dingy alternative music room, which I’m sure freaked the Western out of them. Thankfully, they were comforted with $2.50 drinks and the more Western crowd that arrived pretty late into the night. By 1am I was done (as were my feet) and I took good old faithful (a.k.a. the subway) back home. The Western crowd didn’t disappoint, in that they are just as hot and generic as they ever were, and not much has changed since I left.

Saturday evening I went to see Transformers, which was surprisingly good considering the crap reviews it got. I have come to expect that I get emotional at movies (the whole separating film from reality doesn’t work for me), but I didn’t expect Transformers would evoke any kind of feeling. They totally worked the girly angle, and gave the Transformers human sounds and practically made them cry when they got hurt, including puppy dog eyes etc. Of course I didn’t cry, but that whole scene tugged at the heartstrings a little. Pathetic isn’t it??

I ended off the weekend with a chill day of TV, shopping, work and taking it easy with Eves. And some late night packing because I couldn’t get to sleep. Sometimes I’m glad I live at home because I wouldn’t want to subject a boyfriend to seeing me wake-up at 5am in a rotten and tired mood (poor Adam, he deals with a lot).

Montreal week 2 underway! We shall see how this one rolls out… no skunking yet; the boys are actually really sweet here. Although I may be proven wrong when Trish and I go out on the town…