2004

in leiu of this evenings festivities, where we say good bye to the old year and welcome with open arms a new year, i am writing what i hope to be a semi-reflection of the past and my hopes for the future.

i hold no regrets for the past year, but i can definately say with confidence that i can't wait to welcome 2005.

ultimately, the year 2004 was not good by any stretch of the imagination. what with natural disaster after natural disaster plaguing our planet, Bush being re-elected and continuing his war on terror...but that's getting on a whole different level. and that level would involve extensive discussions relating to politics, and THAT is no good.

i have had a roller coaster of a year. mentally struggling with multiple issues. i started reading blogs. i started my own blog. that and an amazing support system of family and friends all contributed to me coming to terms with and slowly once again overcoming my depression.

also, this year i watched my dad get weaker and weaker, succumbing to his diabetes. this disease is hereditary in my family, it attacks from both sides of my bloodlines. there was a point when we feared that it had been passed onto me too early. thankfully it wasn't, but regardless the warning signs had been shown and i have been forced to reorganize my health habits. which, when all is said and done, life will be better. it will come, but i will be ready.

i go into this new year's eve festivities with an optimistic eye. 2005 will be a good year. for me. for my family. and for the planet.

don't let things force you to take notice. notice everything. and take it all in.

go ahead. annoy me!

this is probably not the best time to be bringing this up, it being the holidays and all, but i have a few pet peeves with people. some that i can do without caring about, but two that stand at the top of my list of super-freak-out-annoy-me-so-i-get-high-blood-annoyances, they are as follows:

• be late. significantly late. actually i don't mind people who are late, it's when you dont make any serious effort to be on time i get annoyed.
• DO NOT answer your cell phone, pager, voicemail box, answering machine, instant messenger of choice, email, homing pigeon. what's the point in having any of them if you don't use them? oh. right. screening. if you dont want to talk to anyone then why give them the method of contacting you in the first place?

dah! that's just me being annoyed. sorry.

merry merry regardless.

CRUZn'

today was an excellent day! i was at home. yah home! while the other people were at work...where i WASN'T! get the hell outta here!

sorry, i know that my excitement may seem to be a bit excessive, but give me a break! it's a rarity that i say that i'm at home because i really seriously don't have to be at work. and it's not because i'm sick or dying, snowed-in (yay! for the burbs), or heaven forbid suffering from another serious inner ear viral headache! i dont have work, because well work is CLOSED for the week! so i'm happy and downright ecstatic!

after last night's festivities at the cruz' we organized mission : "old school Nintendo" and put it into play, today. wherein the mission entailed us trying to locate a nearly extinct Nintendo system. that's right, don't laugh. we were looking for the red and grey system, the first ever "gotta-have" console.

we stopped by FMP, thinking it would be less hectic. only to find that not only does this place not have the electronics we were looking for but rather a tonne of stores selling WIKKID AWESOME bootleg DVDs (3 for $20 from the lady with cuffs but no sleeves!) but we also learned, SOME PEOPLE JUST DON'T KNOW HOW TO PARK and it's 10 times the good times when there's snow involved! where's the logic in parking so far in that u take up two spots? and to make it all that much better, have someone park behind and in front of you so now you've got three pro-star parkers trying to fit in two non-existent parking spots! oh the best was the invent-a-spot in front of two cars so that you and all other surrounding vehicles can't get out. classic times. and a picture of the chaos:



and the two men? well they're trying to figure out how many other cars they can fit in there. just 5 more! i swear!

we continued on to sPACIFIC Mall, watching illegally one of the newly bought illegal DVDs on the illegally placed TV. we're all about being gangsta, when going to the asian mall. [sideNOTE: i want a tv in my car, for the sheer rabadiculousness of it all] although the parking process was once again lengthy, we managed to score a kick-ass spot right by the entrance! it was unfortunate that we got nowhere in our "old school Nintendo" mission, GEE got laughed at enough times, and glared at even more times than that. but loi and i both scored some wikkid purses at my new favorite store, and found a "one-sousand fohtee fi dorrar" cell phone i've been eyeing on the nokia site for a while. one-sousand is a rot of money for a phone, perhaps some other time.

to complete the night, we brought dear GB to the Scarberian answer to Sauga's "Tremendous", we had dinner at "Perfect". it was Delightful! really! i hope to one day open a 24-HR restaurant named, one of these, then i'd fit right in!

really, the point in my mentioning this day at all is coming up. and it's a good one! are you ready?

we made our order, and as our waitress is reading back to us what we ordered, we notice that her speaking skills aren't all that great, and her engish wasn't qualitay either. she goes through our dim sum list...

"two har gow, two siu mai, one sticky lice, two spa...spa..*trails off*, one deep fly squid, one pa...pa...mumble mumble..." and she walks off.

she gets the A for her effort, but the A++ for the silent talk. that was great, she had serious "numb-chuck skills"

all in all it was a great day hanging out with GB and Loi, "HECK YA!"

oh! and if anyone knows of a Nintendo system i can buy off them email me and i'll send you a cookie for making my day! not bad for a holiday post. i should write more later, but for now, i will sleep.

christmas wishes

or to be politically correct...

merry happy christmakwanazanukah!

today i wore...

a hat. mittens. a jacket. a sweater. a tshirt. pants. long johns. long socks. and runners.

when i got to work, i sat down at my desk and i wore...

a hat. mittens. a jacket. a sweater. a tshirt. pants. long johns. long socks. and runners.

i work in a meat locker!!! who would have thought u could type so well while wearing mittens.

why why why is it so cold?? brrr...

holla holla!

BYE BYE VINCE. an empty hotel room. kavin. walking 5 minutes in the wrong direction in the name of alcohol. chocolatini 1. simpsons. chocolatini 2. red bull looks like pee. taxi ride 1. street meat 1. discount troops. JJ rocks! lots of friends and alcohol. 'leyna&tricia-where's my boobs at? a stack of red tickets. dumbass bartender. want a drink? okay! spank everyone! JA's my bestest friend because he's almost as drunk as me. pinch everyone's bum. dancing with a pole. maymay's "blue" sexy top. dropping my drink 1. my gad bradder. gad bradder's friend's HOT hair. grinding and grinding. i can hide in tricia's shirt. i'm so drunk, but let's get another drink. dropping my drink 2. let's get another drink. hot dog 2-from the preying vendor. hot dog 2 ending up on the floor because drunk people can't eat properly. adventure in the 7-11. there were NO taquitos. kissing a cow. loi scared of bomba. laughing at bomba. ketchup chips and ringolos. sleeping. drunk b. trying to sleep with drunk b snoring. sleeping on the edge of the bed. freezing cold.
***
7:36 am - wake up. still drunk. how do i know? i can't walk to the washroom straight.

b slapping the coffee machine...COFFEE! saturday morning cartoons. correction, bad saturday morning cartoons. Fran's steak & eggs. dancing to "my girl." christmas trees. sleeping. not knowing what day it is anymore...

a birthday of point form - probably innacurate and randomly ordered - memories: PRICELESS

thanks to everyone that came out yesterday! it was fanFREAKINtastic seeing you all!

and yes, i know i probably missed a tonne of things. forgive me! why don't you tell me about what i missed.

crash control

i'm writing this out right now because i know i'll forget to write about it later.

today, i saw the most insane thing: well not exactly first hand. but the aftermath of it. you'll get what i'm saying by the end of this. can u really expect me to be coherent at 2:58 in the morning? i didn't think so.

imagine a car on the highway in the far right lane, it loses control, starts veering to the left. so far left that it hits the median between the collector lanes and the express. hitting this median, causes the car to spin a full 180 degrees so it is facing the flow of traffic, where it finally comes to a stop. hissing and smoking and blocking two lanes, did i mention he was facing the oncoming traffic? this is the explanation i got from Mrs. Bee, i first hand saw the wreck, only 3 cars ahead of us.

one can only imagine what was going on in the driver's mind, from the moment he first lost control and then came to a stop. and only the horrors of thinking you're on the highway and the cars are coming at you headlights blaring at 120 km/h.

i'd be scared. shitless. scared mother freakin shitless. but i'm sure he was just happy to be alive. oh yes, he was alive. looked just fine as we attempted to stop by him.

i guess the rambling on about this story only leads me to say. be careful driving. that man and his passenger were really lucky, but you can't base everything on luck.

*pOp*

and just like that. 30 minutes.

it took THIRTY GOD DAMN MINUTES, to toss months and months of planning out the window.

not only did my birthday plans get tossed out the window but once they hit the road they were run over, and not by a pretty vehicle either. because, you know, having my dreams run over by a maserati spyder gt would beat out them being run over by a Neon with 23" rims any day. but, no my poor bashment party saw the hood, the undercarriage, and then the exhaust of a renault lecar.

FYI: lecar? lecar ce n'est pas LE CAR. c'est chier.

so now i'm back at having a bad day, 59 minutes from it being over. but i'm holding no faith for tomorrow. for tomorrow, i will be trying to salvage my "run-over" birthday plans, with JJ. JJ ROCKS! he's trying to come to my rescue and i love him forever...ONCE...for it!

17 days more.

daily cheer

one thing that makes me happy in a day, guaranteed.....

"fanks. fanks you merry much!"

SHE didn't really say that. but fanks is one of the more polite words she picked up upon entering this country.

man! did i ever need that lift.

month of tim zeltner

today i changed my desk calendar and with that marked the first day of the last month of the year. this means so many things:

• 24 more days to christmas
• 15 more days to the beginning of december birthday madness! watch out for your day my fellow late-borns!
• 31 days until i resolve to not resolve, but attempt to change my wicked ways
• another month has gone by and there is STILL NO NHL HOCKEY

that last point really hurts, and there are no more month pages left in my 2004 calendar.