Aloha

Our Hawaiian vacation is just around the corner. In 48 hours I will be waking up and leaving for Hawaii and I can't wait.

Right now I am tired and sick. I haven't slept well in a while: I think it's a combination of Kiki returning to Gavin and Jess - I really miss him; excitement about my upcoming vacation and the fact I have a lot to get through at work before I leave tomorrow afternoon. I am worried about my cold. Colin had it last week and was quite sick. Yesterday I had a bit of a fever and today I am congested and have the inklings of a soar throat. I can't miss work to recoop though, especially since I am leaving for a 2-week vacation.

Right now there is construction going on right out side my office. The city has been repaving Main Street all summer and now they are at my section, repaving between 10th & 15th. Currently they are right outside my window - it reeks of tar and the whole building is shaking and as the trucks keep rolling up and down the street.

I am hoping they get the section between 15th and King Ed done while I am away - that way it won't affect my commute home!

Time With the Girls

This past weekend was spent almost entirely with my girlfriends: it was a Croftie reunion weekend of sorts, even though we do see each other a lot.

I met up with Thalia on Friday evening and started our night at Oakridge. Thalia had to pick up a christening gift for her niece and wanted to see what the Birks at Oakridge had. After that we grabbed some dinner and stopped by Rogers Video on the way back to my place.

I have to tell you, I have never seen the Marpole Rogers Video as busy as it was this particular Friday, and I have been going to that location for almost 5 years now - since Colin moved to Marpole. We lined up for about 10-15 minutes. Usually you only have to wait a few minutes, even on a Friday or Saturday night.

We rented Monster-in-Law. Considering we are both newlyweds we thought it would be an appropriate choice, but I will throw this disclaimer in here - we lucked out in the mother-in-law department. They are far from Jane Fonda's character in the movie. I actually enjoyed the movie. It was silly, but quite funny; and I don't mind Jennifer Lopez as an actress. Can't stand her as a singer though.

After the movie we looked at my photos. So far I have about 800 in the computer; haven't seen all the print ones yet, either. Needless to say I have yet to tackle organizing the wedding photos.

Colin and I spend time together most Saturday nights, but this Saturday he and Andrew were heading out to Travis' stag, so Lisa and I hooked up while our husbands were out partying.

We started the evening at Kisha Poppo for a sushi dinner and the headed over to Silver City - Riverport to catch Just Like Heaven. We both love all types of movies, but saw this evening as a good opportunity to catch a "chick flick." I really enjoyed the movie: it was cute and humourous. We didn't have any solid plans for after the movie so we decided to head out to White Rock to drop in on Mark's birthday party. It was a pretty quiet affair, just the usual guys hanging around the house.

We showed up at the right time. The guys were about to head out to Langley to go to the casino, but Tina didn't feel like going, so the three of us went to Starbucks. I had no idea how late Starbucks in Surrey are open. We were there till just before 1am.

We had a great time chit-chatting, gossiping and planning a Halloween party. I am very excited about the party, since Halloween is my favourite time of year, yet I never seem to have a Halloween party to go to. Now I have to come up with a good costume. I will only have a couple of weeks to put it together when I return from Hawaii, so I guess I will have to use my two weeks of lying on Waikiki Beach to come up with a killer idea for a Halloween costume.

On Sunday evening I met Thalia and Lisa at Benny's on Broadway for coffee. Tina couldn't make it out - mouse problems... It was a fun evening. I saw Jovo there with a friend. We said a brief hello and goodbye.

Only 8 days till I leave for Hawaii...

The Week Behind

This week had been a long week and a short week. Again my five-day week dissipated into four days, but for a very sad reason.

A very close friend of ours sister passed away suddenly last Thursday. She was my age, just a few weeks older than me. The frightening part is, the autopsy showed no reason for her death. Colin and I traveled to Victoria Tuesday night to be with our friend and his family, and to attend the memorial service on Wednesday.

But the rest of my week has been good. It has gone quickly, and I have been busy today which has made the day go very fast - my weekend starts in just over an hour.

I went to the SIN office this morning to finally update my SIN card. God, Canadian Government employees are the laziest bunch of sods I have ever met. I arrived at the office at 9:30 - it opened at 9:00. There were only about 5 other people there, but everyone was waiting. Finally, at 10:00, the wickets opened and the line started moving. After that it only took about 10 minutes to get to me, and only a few minutes to hand in my info. But I had to wait 30 minutes on top of that, because everyone seemed to be on a coffee break!

Tonight Thalia and I are going to hang out - it has been a few weeks, so I am sure we will have lots of gossip to catch up on.

Tomorrow night Colin and Andrew are going to Travis' stag, so Lisa and I are going to hang out. I don't think I have seen her since the wedding, so it will be fun to catch up.

Two weeks today I will be on a plane to Hawaii!

Burnin' Burns Bog

I was driving along Denman Street last night, on my way to the North Shore for my book club, when I had the sinking feeling that I had left the oven on, after baking a cake last night. But considering I was almost at the Lions Gate I chalked it up to that fleeting feeling you sometimes get and enjoyed my evening.

As I got close to home, however, I could smell smoke in the air. But it wasn't my apartment on fire (I did turn off the oven) - it was Burns Bog.

This morning I woke up to find ash all over my car and later in the morning, at work, it smelled like the bingo hall was on fire, but it was the bog - the winds were blowing all the smoke and ash towards downtown.

There is a strange haze in the air and I can still smell the smoke. Because it is a pete bog, Burns Bog could be burning for days. This is not the first time this has happened, however. Apparently the bog caught fire in 1996, but I don't remember it at all.

A Crazy Weekend

Friday was a slight improvement on Thursday. It wasn't a bad day, just a frustrating one. We got up Friday morning and met with Travis who opened us a joint account at Vancity. Another thing done on the long list of post-wedding things to do.

After that we went out for lunch with Travis, which we both really enjoyed. I haven't seen him in awhile, so it was fun to sit down with him and chat. After that Colin and I headed to Kerrisdale so I could go to the Royal Bank and finalize my name change on my account. It took about 15 minutes, but was pretty straight forward. After that we headed out to Surrey.

I also wanted to change my SIN number that day. There are SIN offices much closer to me than the one in Surrey, but Colin also needed to go to the CGRA office of which there is only one - in Surrey.

So I found a SIN office out there, which is relatively close to, but funnily enough, not in the same Government building as the CGRA office. I checked online as to what I would need to change my name on my SIN card - all it said was I would need an original of my marriage certificate - in the section referring to name change it did not say anything about my birth certificate or some other Government document to identify that I am, indeed, a Canadian citizen. I was highly pissed, but luckily I didn't have to wait in line - not like at the CGRA office and this where the frustration kicks in.

Colin had a pretty simple question to ask CGRA, so he called them. They said they couldn't answer it, and he would have to go to the local CGRA office. So we sat in the office for an hour. Now it seems that every time I am in a Government office, usually renewing my passport, I wait and wait and wait. Everyone in front of me takes forever, yet, when it is finally my turn, I am in and out in five minutes! And this is exactly what happened on Friday. After an hour of waiting it was finally Colin's turn. We talked to the agent for about 5 minutes, she answered the two questions Colin had - but here's the kicker - these were the most standard questions, and yet someone in Ottawa couldn't give Colin the answer over the phone and made us sit in a government office in Whalley for an hour!

Friday night was both hectic and relaxing. We finished putting away our presents, but the apartment was mess: boxes, tissue paper, bags and bits of Styrofoam everywhere. But at this point we were too tired to deal with it, so we left it and enjoyed the evening.

Yesterday I got up to go shopping with Mum and Colin headed off to an info session with the VPD. That afternoon we cleaned up the garbage left from the wedding presents. Last night we saw The Constant Gardener - excellent movie, except we were stuck sitting in the 2nd row from the front, which took some enjoyment out of the movie. Following the movie we went out for all you can eat sushi.

Tonight I am heading over to North Van for my book club - we are reading Couldn't Keep it to Myself by Wally Lamb. I finished it a month ago, so I hope I remember it!

A Bad Night

It has been a long time since I have had a night like this. It has been nothing overly bad, just a lot of small things that seemed to be the result of the previous small, bad thing... it all started a few hours ago when I went to Curves.

Today was my weigh in day. I was quite excited as I have been feeling and looking better - yet somehow I now weigh more and have a higher body fat percentage than when I started in February! How the hell did that happen! Especially since I look slimer, haven't gained any of the inches back... So that put me in a foul mood.

I decided during my workout I would go to the tanning salon after. I haven't been in about 6 weeks, and my tan is starting to fade. At this time of year I usually let my tan fall to the wayside, but since I am going to Hawaii in 3 weeks, I don't want to have to start from scratch (tanning-wise) when I get there.

I arrived there to find out that the hours of my tanning salon have changed. It used to be open till 9PM every week night - now it's only open till 9PM on Monday, Wednesday and Friday - it's Thursday and had closed at 6PM!

I decided to make taco salad tonight. After discovering the tanning salon was closed, I headed over to Safeways to pick up a couple of ingredients: avacado and taco chips. I was certain I had all the other ingredients at home.

Of course, I only decided while at Curves to make taco salad for dinner, so I had to thaw the meat out when I got home. In order to speed up this process I throw the frozen meat (in its ziploc bag) into a pot of hot water. But, as I got the pot out of the cupboard all the pot lids proceeded to fall and broke my Brown Betty (teapot).

With the evening I had been having this sent me to tears.

Our apartment is a mess right now because we are in the middle of a "spring" clean and trying to find somewhere to put our wedding presents. You'd think with 1200 square feet of space that wouldn't even be an issue, but that is a whole other entry.

In order to make some space in the kitchen so I could prepare dinner I did the dishes that were sitting in the sink. In doing that I managed to chip one of our new bowls - I only used it for the first time this morning.

Then when I went to collect the ingredients to make the salad I noticed there was no lettuce.

A few foul words came out of my mouth at this point, but I didn't feel like going back to Safeways just for a head of lettuce, so I made it without lettuce and put in extra tomato.

I'm not a big fan of lettuce anyways.

Since then things seem to be going smoothly. But I haven't checked the clothes in the dryer yet...

I hope tomorrow is a better day!

Back in the Swing

The wedding is nearly a month behind us now, and our lives have returned to normal. Or as normal as can be, which includes actually doing something with my volunteer positions for the sorority, which I have neglected for months - both locally and internationally.

Because I am a gluton for punishment I have been volunteering since graduating in 2001. Actually, I really do love what I do, which is why I am still doing it and there have been some great perks.

I started off as a Membership Development Advisor for our Eastern Canada/Eastern NY Region. I stayed in this position from April 2001 - September 2002. Over the summer of 2002, the role of the Regional volunteer changed, requiring more of us, including traveling. Traveling from Vancouver to back east is highly inconvenient and expensive, so it worked well for everyone when I took up a vacant position in the BC/California/Texas region. I volunteered as a Membership Recruitment Advisor until January 2005, when I took over as Regional Coordinator for that region. But just as I was getting settled into my new position, the whole system changed again and the entire regional system was done away with.

The regions were disbanded and small groups of chapters were placed together to form Clusters. Only one volunteer would be in charge of a cluster - the Chapter Operations Specialist - basically all regional positions rolled into one.

So now I am a COS for Texas.

I have had this position since May - I started actually doing stuff for it today. Of course no one is in school over the summer, but that is no excuse on my part; however my summer was consumed with the wedding. But that has been over for a month, so I have taken my time to look at my new position and get into contact with those I will be working with...

On an entirely different note, Gavin and Jess are moving into Kai's condo in Kits. Gavin is over at our place now emptying us out of house and home - which is fine by me, because we have nowhere to store our wedding presents. Currently it looks like The Bay exploded all over our living room, and front hall, and kitchen and....

The sad and hard thing with Gavin moving into his own place is that we have to give back Kiki, his cat. We have been Kiki-sitting since April and after five months I have grown extremely attached to the cat. But he is sticking around for a few more days, while Gavin and Jess get settled into their new place.

I am glad it is only a three-day work week for me. Usually I have plenty to do at work, but this is one of those weeks, and today is one of those days where I have absolutely nothing to do and am bored out off my skull.

Remember the scene from LA Story - "Bored Beyond Belief."

I am thankful these borning work days and few and far between.

Book Worm

I love to read. It is one of my favourite pastimes, especially now that I am done with school and have time to read what I want to read. Currently, I am a member of my sorority's alumnae association's book club, which means at least one new book a month for me to read. I usually have more on the go - right now I have three.

I have decided to post the books I have read since joining my book club. I got this idea from Glenscotia's blog, and I thought it was a neat one. So, if you like to read there may be something here that interests you...

I will start with the three I currently have on the go:


And now the rest; the most recent to way back when...

• Jane Austen Book Club - Karen Fowler
• The Birth of Venus - Sarah Dunant
• Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Album
• Wicked - Gregory McGuire
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
• The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
• Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
• Drowning Ruth - Christina Schwarz
• The Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan
• Can You Keep a Secret - Sophie Kinsella
• A Woman of Passion - Virginia Henley
• Sushi for Beginners - Marian Keyes
• Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
• Prague - Arthur Phillips
• How To Be Good - Nick Hornby
• Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
• Atonement - Ian McEwan

New Orleans is Sinking...

How frightening that the Hip's hit song has come true. I cannot believe my eyes and ears when I see and hear what has happened to New Orleans. I can't imagine ever being in a situation like that. And I hope I never am. What has happened to those people in Louisiana and Mississippi I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy.

Many different groups have speculated over the cause of Hurricane Katrina. It was a normal hurricane when it passed through Miami - so what the hell happened as it made its way across the Gulf? Mother Nature getting mad is what happened. The reason why Katrina became the destructive hurricane that she did was due to an increase in ocean temperature. Hurricanes are fed by warm water, so when the water is a couple degrees warmer than usual, bad things are bound to happen.

The pro-life groups believe that abortionists and pro-choicers are being punished for their bad "deeds." Apparently the destruction left in Biloxi and other Mississippi towns looked like a fetus. I am not kidding you - this is what some people believe.

Here is my theory though, which many seem to agree with: the ferocity of the hurricane was fueled by Global Warming. I am not an environmental nut; however there definately have been some warming trends and strange weather patterns over the past few years to open even the most skeptical eyes. And I am not a religious person, but I do believe in Karma - the United States government refuses to take action to deal with pollution. They didn't sign Kyoto, and according to George Bush, early in his first administration: "We are blessed with coal..."

I am certainly not saying that the people of New Orleans deserved what they got by any means, but the US government is the world's super power and they certainly have not set any good examples since George Bush came to power. Maybe they can redeem themselves for the mess in Iraq by taking action at home and becoming more environmentally cautious. Reducing emissions and other pollutants does make a difference and you can see results in your lifetime. Take, for example, BC's aircare program: In it's first 10 years it reduced [vehicle] emissions by 35%.

I digress, however. As a student of history it is hard to see what has happened to New Orleans. I have always wanted to visit the "Big Easy." Go see the French Quarter and the Garden District. I know New Orleans is one of my dad's favourite cities, and he and my mum were planning on visiting it next Spring - it won't be the same place. I doubt it will be ever again.