I realized that I have not posted a single entry for the month of April this year. I was a busy bee, I suppose. Well, I’d like to play catch-up and document a couple of events. First, the celebration of MAO’s birthday. It was definitely an interesting night – overall, fun! We had dinner at Miga, and after that, we karaoke’d the night away. I believe I came home at around 3:30 am that night (morning). I had about three hours of sleep before I woke up and got ready for church, that’s how I roll.

Second on the list is my first car wash. My first car wash by myself to be exact. It was a terrifying experience. The lady behind me was honking like I didn’t know what I was doing or something. Such an angry woman, that one. But yeah, I didn’t know what I was doing…

About three and a half years ago, my sister borrowed a movie called Donnie Darko from the library using my library card. Since I didn’t personally borrow the movie, I unintentionally neglected the due date and did not return the DVD on time. With that said, a $10 late fee was charged to my name.

Now, as for paying the $10 late fee…That, I purposely ignored.

For those who know me, and know me well, you’d know that I’m a fighter. When I feel that there’s a reason to fight for something (no matter how minuscule the subject is), I will fight at all cost, and I won’t stop until I win. That’s just me, coz I’m crazy. So, when I found out that the library was asking me to cough up 10 bucks for not returning a movie that costs $7.99 on time, I called, “blatant injustice!”

I knew that if I wanted to win this “battle”, I would need to avoid the library long enough until they write off my debt. My dilemma was; not knowing how long.

I initially avoided the library for 1.5 years. I thought, by then they would have forgotten and forgiven my debt, but I was wrong. As I was checking out the book Lucky Man (you should know that resisting Michael J. Fox is an impossible task for me), the library clerk asked me to pay the, “$10 you owe for over a year now.” I told her that I didn’t have anything on me, so I’ll pay her next time. She agreed to this…and I knew I just lied to her face.

Then today, two years after that incident, I had this sudden urge to go to the library. Perhaps, subconsciously, I wanted to make amends, or perhaps not. I went anyway. At first, I had planned to have my brother check all my books out. Then, as a last minute decision, I decided to just face my destiny and check the books out myself. I needed to turn myself in, cause life as a fugitive is kind of boring. I know that I’ve already exhausted the fight, and that I needed to move on with my life.

“Your library card please?”

I nervously gave my library card to the library clerk. I watched him scan my card…once, twice, thrice.

“Hmm, it seems like your card is not working anymore, you haven’t been here in two years, no?”
“Nope.”
“Well, I can get you back into our system if you have a piece of identification card with you.”
“Ok.”
“All right, cool. You’re back in. Ok, these books are due in three weeks.”

And folks, just like that, I was off the hook! It may have taken 3.5 years, and my card being canceled, but I didn’t have to pay that blasted $10 late fee!

So the moral of this story is, I WIN!

Everyone’s got one. Or even some. I’ve got lots.

Sometime last week at work, a couple of people were discussing quirks, and little, tiny things that annoy them (or even big things that get them fired up). This discussion also occurred in church, and for both times, I couldn’t really converse with people because I was unsure of what my pet peeves were. Perhaps, I’ve lived life so far thinking that I’m an easy-going person, and that it’s difficult for anything/anyone to get under my skin. To a certain extent this is true, but then, as I delved into the subject further, I realized that this statement is absolutely false.

So without further ado, here are some of my pet peeves (the major ones anyway):

• Clock ticking: If you’re a ticking clock in my bedroom, where I’m trying to sleep, you’re as good as dead. There’s nothing in this world that I hate more than a ticking clock when I’m trying to sleep. The sound of those ticks usually magnifies in a quiet room. And this magnified sound usually induces migraine. I don’t need migraine in my life, I’ve got enough headaches already.
• Do not steal my pens/pencils: I like my writing utensils. Don’t steal them. Or don’t borrow them and then tell me you “forgot” you borrowed them. That’s still stealing.
• Cracked CD cases/wrecked DVD cases: Do not borrow any of my CDs (compact disc? I know, vintage.) or DVDs only for me to receive them with the cases all messed up. I lend you my stuff back in mint condition, I want them back in mint condition! This goes with books as well.
• Teenagers that think they’re immortal: I highly dislike teenagers. Even when I was a teenager, I hated teenagers. They have this odd notion that their immortal (maybe not all, but most of them). Hence, they believe that they can get away with anything. And the things they think they can get away with, I’m highly annoyed by.
• People who can’t help themselves: I can’t stand full-grown adults who are completely dependent on others. I just can’t. You have your own life, live it.
• Scalpers: They are the dirtiest scumbags in the world. The lowest possible form of a human being.
• People taking credit for something they didn’t do: Using one’s work as an inspiration, that’s acceptable. Completely taking someone’s work and passing it as your own, that, I cannot respect.
• “Good” looking people thinking they’re too good for people: I just call them ugly douchebags, cause they’re hopeless.

These are just some of the things that make me want to shoot fireballs at anything or anybody. There’s more, but I’ll keep the list short. This blog site can only take so much hate-o-rade.
Yes, I said, “hate-o-rade”.

I love sushi. I crave it on a daily basis. I’m addicted and I admit it. You see, I wish I wasn’t so obsessed over it cause those AYCE restaurants, they can suck your bank account dry like a good gold digger.

But then again, I cannot imagine living life without raw fish…

Salmon, tuna, you guys are always welcome to swim in my belly. Preferably for free, but I’m willing to pay.

Here are some of my favourite Sushi places in my area: Hinote, Sushi 168, Prince Sushi

And I have never encountered anything so scary in my whole driving life. I also have never been pulled over before, so this was my first time, and let me tell you, nothing on the road is more frightening than seeing a car with flashing lights on it and a police officer stepping out of that car to approach you.

So, what did I do exactly to get pulled over? According to the police officer, I didn’t do a complete stop when I saw the stop sign. I say lies! Actually, he was right, I did roll over a bit, but I did stop. The lady before me also got pulled over for doing the same thing (this popo, man, two birds with one stone), the only difference was, she got a ticket and a $110 fine, I did not.

How I managed to pull that off, I will never figure out, but for my reference I would like to document the very first conversation I’ve ever had with a police officer:

Me: Hello, Officer Pretty…

Ok, I kid, I would have gone to jail for saying something like that. Real convo below. Mind you, it’s not much of a conversation. So I really don’t know how I got away with this.

Popo: Roll down your window. You didn’t stop at the stop sign.
Me: I thought I did.
Popo: You rolled over, you are not supposed to do that.
Me: *Puts head down, defeated* Sorry…
Popo: I need your driver’s license, insurance and car registration, please.
Me: *Gives items to the police dude* (at this point, I was shaking too much to even reason with the guy, so I did what I was asked and said nothing else).

The police then approached the other car, asked the driver for the same stuff and then he went inside his popo-mobile to check the validity of our documents. After that, he stepped out of his car with a ticket, walked toward the other girl’s car and then handed her a ticket. He turned around to my car and to my relief, his hand was ticketless! This is how the second conversation went:

Popo: That is a $110.00 ticket and a 3 demerit point penalty. But I will let you go.
Me: Oh, gosh, thanks…
Popo: Just don’t do that again, all right, Ms. G2*?
Me: *Smiles* I won’t. Thanks again…
Popo: Ok, off you go.

*Sigh* I’m just thanking God right now! If I were penalized, the $110 ticket would have been the least of my worries.

Anywho, I promise, I will do a complete stop every time I see a stop sign, and as an added bonus, I will drive like your favourite grandma from now on.

* I have been refusing to get my G license, now I know why…there really is a reason for everything.

Maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I feel like revamping this site. Not just any kind of revamp, like a total makeover kind of revamp. I want to make scribbled more girly. It’s quite a scary thought, really.

You know what, maybe this is just my 12:00-AM-brain-not-functioning-well-hormones-all-messed-up self talking. I could be completely against this idea tomorrow morning.

You know what, I probably am opposed to this idea right now.

You know what again, I just made up my mind, this is a bad idea.

Gosh, the creative juices ain’t flowin’. Creative block sucks. I would like to take a sledgehammer and smash it.

I think I’ve set myself up when I said, “I’ll blog more often in 2010.” Clearly, I lack the sticktoitiveness to actually stick to doing such crazy promises – or anything for that matter. It’s not entirely my fault, though. Nature dictated that my life should be boring, and boring people don’t blog much, or don’t blog at all. Ok, I lied. Nature didn’t exactly dictate anything. I’m just lazy.

Also, the Winter Olympics had completely taken over my life during the month of February (hence, the lack of blog posts). It was awesome to see Canada do so well! For every single medal Canada had won, there was a tear-jerking back story that made the triumphs even more triumphant. I think that was the beauty of these games; the athletes were real people facing real obstacles in life, and in spite of all the boulders, they still managed to bring this immense honour back to their country. Truly beautiful and inspiring, indeed.

Which reminds me, I should stop being lazy and blog more often.

I try not to blog things that are way too personal (this includes reflective entries and such) because I hate putting “private” matters on a public forum. I try to deal with my problems by myself, and as much as possible, I don’t want to burden anyone else with my shhhtufff. However, sometimes, you just need to forget about your restrictions and just let things out to keep yourself sane. So, without further ado, here goes nothing…

Lately, I have been feeling lost, extremely lost, and I hate the word lost. Never in my life have I ever felt this way. And it’s not just this feeling of uncertainty that’s bothering me, but also knowing that I have been living my post-student life with an abundance of self-doubt, and approaching everything without an ounce of passion. This mind-body-heart-soul synergy thing has not happened for me yet. That ain’t cool.

I don’t know what happened. I’ve always been a very goal-oriented person: I know what I want, I get what I want and as a result, I get this temporary happiness. Once that state of happiness expires, I start over. This lovely cycle has worked incredibly well for me, and it has gotten me places and things that I never thought I’d get otherwise. But lately, this cycle has not been very effective, and that’s bringing the sads in my life.

I suppose, when I was still a student, I thought I had it all figured…I thought I was fully equipped to tackle the “real world” once I graduate. I even wrote on my undergrad “yearbook” (with such confidence too) that I was ready for the “real world”. What an absolutely naïve thing to say, but can you blame me?

The “real world” all sounded pretty simple and clear: leave school forever, get a job, pay-off debt, get a car, get married, buy a house, and all that jazz. This is a pretty standard pattern of life, as we all know and are familiar with. My goal was to just simply put a check mark beside the ones I’ve accomplished. I mean, I’m on the “right” track so far, but somehow I feel like I’ve taken the wrong path. And I’ve been “accomplishing” things, but sadly, have not been getting any sense of accomplishment.

What a downer.

I guess it’s a good thing that I get to go through something like this now rather than later. It’s also nice to realize that money does not equate happiness.

Conan was right, “no one gets exactly what they want in life.”

But man, I need to figure out what I want, and I need to figure it out soon. While I can still afford to do this whole figuring out business…

I’ve only played Rock Band maybe four times in my entire life:

1. A couple of high school friends introduced me to Rock Band about two years ago. I played it for 20 seconds or so before I completely gave up on it, because I realized that I was embarrassing myself, while simultaneously defiling the name of David Bowie.
2. Attempt numero dos was at another friend’s house. The moment I opened my mouth and let a tune out, the game ended.
3. My third attempt was at an Old Navy store (I know, what a hobo, right?). I decided to play with this 10 year old kid – you know – thinking that that would help boost my confidence. But then, she happened to be pretty decent at the game, so that’s that.
4. Finally, my fourth and last try (so far) was last Sunday, at KN and AT’s house. For the first time ever, I actually appreciated Rock Band and found it quite entertaining. I suppose, when you play it with people who are as equally bad as you, it makes the game far more exciting. Some “competition”, finally!

I honestly thought I was going to be naturally triumphant at this game, because a) Karaoke is in my blood b) those Rock Band songs mirror my playlist and c) I’m Asian. But to my surprise, these “advantages” are useless if you ain’t got rhythm. And the lack of rhythm, that runs in the family. True story. Check the video out, those two lovelies playing the drums, they’re family. So yeah…

In spite of my lack of skills at this game (or any game, really), I still believe that there’s a whole lot of Rock Banding in my future. Just gotta play this game with people who suck.

I don’t want to start the year off with such a bitter entry, but the GTA’s transit system has left me no choice.

I have been commuting for almost five years, and I was able to endure wasting four hours of my life – a day – on public transit with almost zero complaints. Not once (within those five years), have I ever wanted to dedicate a whole blog entry on commuting just because I have encountered an experience so bad, that dragging my exposed, bended knees on a pavement of nails for an hour would have been far more desirable. Well, this no-complaining-thing ends tonight, because there is absolutely no reason for me to be on the road for over three hours just to get home from work, especially when there’s no snowstorm…

TTC: All I needed was to go three stops down on the Southbound train. Normally, that would only take 5 minutes, max. Today, it took almost half an hour. I still had a lot of patience at this point. I have learned to accept the fact that Toronto’s subway system, especially during rush hour, is as competent as a three-legged donkey.

Mississauga Transit, Bus 1: This bus arrived seven minutes late. Fine, I can forgive that, because at least it showed up. However, arriving late, then driving 1 km/hour, on an almost snowless road – thus prolonging a 30 minute ride to over an hour, is utterly unforgiveable. If I could *breathe* IF. I. COULD. inflict pain on this bus, I would. I would do it ten times over! Also, my being very hungry at this point did not help, nor did the phone call I got from my mother telling me that, “there’s Popeye’s on the table waiting for you.”

Mississauga Transit, Bus 2: I cannot forgive you. You did not even have the courtesy to show your face…three times! ASDFGHJ! I would like to inflict pain on you as well.

Mississauga Transit, Bus 3: The bus that saved. I was beginning to feel hopeless, cause time was flying, but buses weren’t. Then this bus showed up. I don’t normally take this bus home, because it’s not the most convenient bus, unless my dad is willing and/or is available to pick me up at the bus stop, and tonight, he was. This bus was driving like the car behind it was on fire! It was great. But then again, no matter how fast the bus driver was driving, it did not matter cause I was starvin’ like Marvin’ and every single minute of that bus ride felt like a Millennium.

Ok, so the moral of the story is, public transit sucks (except in NYC), and when it sucks this bad, I need to blog about it.

The end.