sisters – Imaginary Sunshine

Thoughts on university (and other things)

Michelle — Sun, 20 May 2012 18:26:19 +0000

More news on the pre-nursing school front!

I handed in my immunization records. Luckily my mom’s pretty good with the record keeping and I had all of my childhood records! No need to get a million polio shots! I got a MMR shot[1. Measles, Mumps and Rubella] because I never got a second vaccination against mumps as a child, and I got an Acadel shot [2. Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis]. When I went to my GP’s office to get vaccinations done by one of the nurses, once they found out that I’m getting vaccinated/boosters for nursing school, they started showing me around and showed me how they prepare syringes for vaccinations. Very cool – I don’t think I do that until second term! My arm was sore for a while after my tetanus booster (because tetanus is a bitch).
I handed in my criminal record check paperwork and paid $40 for the pleasure of proving that I don’t possess a criminal record. Awesome, right? It’s really for the hospitals where I’ll be placed for clinicals to know I’m not some raving lunatic, which is always reassuring.
I still need to get textbooks (I have 18 chapters of pre-reading to do), do a respiratory mask fit test and get recertified for CPR. My CPR certificate is under a year old, but I need to keep it up to date at all times. I need to get all the certificates done before the start of the program. I also start clinicals in the second week of classes – oh goodness.

In other news… Now that I’m out of school (and currently unemployed), I’ve actually been having a social life. It’s really odd for me because I’m not used to it. I’ve hung out with friends (multiple times), I’ve actually devoted time to exercising (!), I’ve been volunteering… It’s been fantastic! Over the next couple of weeks, I will be attending a friend’s birthday party at a pub (club? I don’t know, either way there’s music and drinking involved), getting a pedicure (a graduation present from my sister), walking across a stage in a cap and gown, and going on a road trip! I think that’ll be really fun. One of the stops on the road trip will be the Victoria Bug Zoo. They let you hold the insects! It’s hands-on! I’m so excited to get to hold giant stick insects. Best type of insects ever.

I’ve also been playing a lot of games on my Nintendo DS. Mostly Pokemon, because that’s how I roll… Embracing a part of my childhood before I’ll have no time at all to play games ever again (at least for 3 years). I’ll be starting the program in August and finishing it up knock on wood in May 2015. Which also means that I will have been in post secondary school for 8 years and in school for 21 years (1 year kindergarten, 12 grades, 8 years post-secondary). And I’ll be 25 when I’m finally done which means all I will know is school, and some summer terms spent working in an office setting. It’s kind of daunting, in a way. There is a light at the end of the tunnel! I will finish school! I will have some form of degree that can get me gainful employment!

As far as my Bachelors degree that I’m graduating with in just over a week, it’s in Life Science and Earth Science. Which means I took a crapton of biology-related courses and several oceanography courses. It was a fantastic degree. I didn’t like having to take chemistry or physics or calculus or statistics, but I took them as requirements. The problem is that degrees like that, while fantastic and very interesting, aren’t particularly useful like they were 5 or so years ago (when I started my post secondary adventure). People were looking for people with Life Sciences degrees five years ago. If you’re going for a B.Sc now, I would highly recommend something like a degree in chemistry, it’s a lot more useful than biology. Don’t get a very specific degree like biochemistry or pharmacology – it’s hard to get a job with those degrees because people are primarily looking for people with chemistry degrees. My sister who has a pharmacology degree ended up going back to school because there’s nothing in her field. My other sister who has a cell biology degree (and a minor in psychology) is now working in a position that’s technically more suited for a chemist but all of her work experience post-graduation has been all chemistry related. Chemistry is where it’s at. Too bad I have a strong dislike for organic chemistry!

But as far as if my B.Sc was worth it? Yeah, it kind of was. Yes, it’s terribly expensive and I spent a lot of time studying courses that will probably never get to be applied to my future career, but it was a fantastic experience. I made friends, some that I will hopefully stay in touch with. I learned how to study, something that I never learned how to do in high school. In high school, my method of studying was rote memorization. I couldn’t do that in post secondary and I had to learn how to study (for real). I learned something about myself. I got some fantastic pets from a professor. I made connections that I’m grateful for. I became friends with some of my professors and they’re wonderful people. And lastly? It’s because of my post secondary credits (and work references and prerequisite course grades) that I got into nursing. So yeah, it was worth it.

On the bright side, my degree title is going to have the word “Science” in it four times. I’m nothing if not thorough.

Smile, don’t kill anyone.

Michelle — Sun, 29 May 2011 05:37:51 +0000

People have told me that working in customer service is a thankless job and it really is. The only calls I get are people who are wondering where their order is, why it wasn’t correct according their paper work, why is their order late? The only calls I get from people who are nice are people who are trying to sell things to me over the phone. Do I need a new printer and toner? No, thank you! Are people at this company interested in a time share cabin up on a mountain? They might be, but I’m saying no regardless.

It’s kind of miserable working in customer service. All people do is yell at me (for things beyond my control, for things that I know nothing about). And in return, I try to take it all in stride. After all, when people call in a frenzy, they’re not at their best. They’re not polite or remembering their manners like their parents had taught them. But at the same time, seeing how people treat others, even when they’re in a panic, is an interesting way of gauging how their true colours are. The time in the day when I can just enter orders or check orders is when I’m at my most relaxed, because I don’t need to talk to other people and I’m just doing my own thing (which is the best for me).

I have social interaction skills, it’s just hard to say anything when people are interrupting you and yelling at you for things that occurred before you started working there. On a side now, my email is finally set up properly and I have a fancy little signature for work that tells people who I am, that I work in Customer Service and what the numbers are for the company and faxes (along with a hyperlink to the website, yay. It almost makes me feeling professional.). My coworkers have been great though, as usual. All of them have been super nice and patient with me (and thank me when I catch mistakes!). It’s always nice to feel appreciated.

Monday (23rd) was Victoria Day, which is a statutory holiday. I went into the city with my sister because she had to work for a little bit. After, we went out for lunch and hit a few thrift stores (Salvation Army had 50% off everything in store). Despite our best efforts, we only bought books (at the first store we went to). I got a hard cover copy of Sarah Dessen’s Along for the Ride and a Heartland book that I was missing from the series (it ended up being $0.99 for the hard cover and $0.18 for the paperback Heartland book). Clothes were ridiculously picked over and there was no decent Pyrex to be found (and nor were there any Kenner Blythes, although I always look anyways!).

I did go with my other sister again today (to Value Village this week) (she wanted to look for t-shirts to turn into t-shirt yarn [it sounds weird, but she cuts it into strips and then crochets it all together, she wants to make a round living room rug for our other sister]) and I got a cute dress ($4.99) – no picture right now because it needs to go through the wash first. But it’s cute, hooded and has front pockets. My sister thought it was a shirt at first, but it’s pretty long and would look good over leggings because it completely covers my butt (always important! because leggings are not pants!). I also went through my wardrobe today and decided on getting rid of more than half of all my clothes. Now I know what I actually need (jeans, pants) and what I really don’t need more of (mostly underwear, because I have enough for over a month without wearing the same thing twice). And for someone who doesn’t wear a lot of dresses or fishnet stockings, I have a lot of them (dresses on hangers… and stockings that are still in the packaging – and when did I get red fishnets?!). I’ve decided to fix that and, at the very least, wear dresses more often. I really shouldn’t have so many dresses (bought in the last year or so) if I’m not going to at least wear them, right?

I hope everyone had an excellent and hopefully stress-free week!

Busy bee on a sunny Saturday

Michelle — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:09:05 +0000

Today seemed fairly short, which was good and bad. Good because it felt like the day went by quickly and that I did a lot. Bad because it’s the weekend and who ever wants the weekend to go by quickly?

I got my stitches removed at the dentist, it was a very quick procedure (maybe ~3 minutes!) but I had to wait about 15 minutes for the dentist to be done with his other patient before getting to me. But luckily, it wasn’t too long before he was done just snipping and pulling the stitches out before telling me that I was good to go and that all I had to do was continue to rinse with salt water for about another week or two and then it should be fine. Still doing pretty okay in terms of chewing, but still nothing too solid because I can’t use my back molars too much yet (no pain in general, but if I accidentally clamp down on food over the healed incision sites, it’s a world of pain for me).

Also visited the other medical professional that I’ve visited so far in the last few weeks (in just under 3 weeks, I’ve visited the dentist 3 times, optometrist 2 times and family doctor once), my optometrist. But no big deal, I was just picking up my new glasses and he was telling me to walk in a straight line and making sure that the lenses were centred correctly for my eyes. Nice thing is that this time I got a new case! Last time, I got my glasses at a place that didn’t give me a case when I got my new glasses, which was disappointing because I always need somewhere to put my old pair. But because my prescription didn’t change (I got new ones because my old ones had a few scratches that were making it a *bit* blurry), I can still use both pairs and I’m planning on doing that (the old pair comes with magnetic clip-on sunglasses attachment, the new ones don’t).

My sisters and I went to the thrift store…. I went with the full intention of only looking through the books, toys and glassware (looking for Pyrex prints in good condition – I found one that was in the print that I wanted, but it was so scratched up that it was just not worth it). I ended up going through racks of sweaters, in hopes of finding something good to take apart for the yarn (didn’t find anything nice that wasn’t acrylic) and I ended up with a new hoodie. My sisters both thought it was the most busy-looking hoodie that they’ve ever seen, but I like it. I’ll take a photo of it after it gets cleaned in the wash, but it’s green and the print all over it is of sketches and doodles. I’m quite infatuated with the print. Photos to follow soon! It’s a bit big on me, but it’s a hoodie so I don’t care too much.

My parents commented on the fact that I’ve gone to so many medical professionals lately… And to be fair, it is the most I’ve ever gone to see doctors in such a short period of time. I mean, I went to the dentist three times in under 3 weeks (twice for teeth extraction, once for final removal of stitches!) but it’s just so many. The receptionist totally knows me by face and name now. She looked up and just went “Michelle! How are you today?” without even looking down to see the schedule list or asking me who I was. Gah… Clearly, I go to the dentist too often. When I went back to the optometrist today because both of my sisters had appointments, there was nothing to indicate to him that I was supposed to even be there (no appointment made, since I was just picking up my new glasses) and he goes “Hey Michelle, here to pick up your glasses?” <- That coming from a man that I see once every two years. Or maybe I’m just amazed that they can remember my name because I can barely remember the names of people that I’m supposed to know. Just the other day, I called one of my TAs by the wrong name and I see her 4 times a week! That might be it.

Questions for you:

Do you ever go shopping in thrift stores? (If yes, what sort of things do you look for?)
Do you wear glasses or contacts? If no, do you need them?
If you were stranded on a deserted island and someone came along and offered you one of two desserts (coconut cream pie or chocolate cream pie), which would you choose and why?

My answers:

Yup. I look for doll clothes/accessories (sometimes get lucky with things that fit Blythe), Pyrex (especially in prints that I want) and clothes (sweaters for the yarn, clothes for myself).
I wear glasses. I’ve considered contacts, but insurance wouldn’t cover all of it ($200 for 2 years).
Coconut cream pie. Because I had a small slice of both tonight (lol) and I liked that one better.

The Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion & Northern House

Michelle — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:16:17 +0000

Yesterday I headed out to Vancouver with my two sisters. D really wanted to go to the Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion and when we arrived, there were two line-ups. We weren’t aware of this at first, so we lined up in the first line that we say (which snaked around the entire block and rounded a corner). This line was for viewing the Olympic medals, as well as getting to touch them, and the rest of the pavilion.

That line up was an estimated 7.5 hours – just for viewing the medals, on top of everything else!

We switched to the second line up, as that was 45 minutes to an hour wait (we waited for an hour and maybe 20 minutes). During this wait, J stayed in the line while D and I walked across the street to get food from Subway – solid food! I’m so happy, haha.

This was the insane lineup. On the right was the ‘shorter’ line for the pavilion, sans medals. On the left is the massive lineup (7.5 hours!) to see and touch the medals (wearing gloves!) as well as the rest of the pavilion.

Super insane lines for the Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion.

I got to see some really beautiful coins – there are so many. I also learned that the Royal Canadian Mint has made currency for over half of the world’s countries, including the United States of America at one point. Plus, the mint runs 24/7, making new coins all the time. I thought this was really cool. All the ‘limited run’ coins are made in Ottawa (they only produce ~8,000 coins per day), while the general minting occurs in Winnipeg, Manitoba (and they produce a lot).

Entrance to the Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion.

Tails side of the Million Dollar Coin

Heads side of the Million Dollar Coin

A block or so away from the Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion was Northern House, representing Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Sunday was Nunavut day! I got two pins (one with Nunavut, the other with Northern House), which was nice. There were demonstrations of games that children play, as well as displays of mining, transportation, traditional clothing and shoes as well as artwork.

It was well-worth the wait to get in, just to see everything! There was this impressive mountain of food, the sign said that it was approximately 6 months of food for an average family and most families only get the chance to order food twice a year and that if they forgot something, they would have to either go without or trade with another family. It really put things into perspective, considering how lucky I am and a lot of others are to be able to go to a grocery store on a whim to get whatever food we want while some people need to plan for months in advanced. Also, a dollar for a can of pop in Vancouver, BC is nearly $3 for a can of pop in Nunavut.

I also got to say hi to John Furlong (the CEO of VANOC!) while I was in the Northern House, but he couldn’t pose for a photo because he was constantly having mothers shove children into his hands for photo opportunities. The artwork there was amazing. The small gift shop that was there had a sweater that was made from 100% qivuit (for those who aren’t completely fibre geeks, it’s the fibre that comes from a muskox which is incredibly expensive because the animals aren’t sheared like sheep) that was adult-sized and priced at well over $2000 for one sweater. But it felt like a complete dream.

Caribou at the Northern House

Muskox at the Northern House – this is the animal that qivuit comes from!

Polar bear (squee!) at Northern House

Saturday Minor Highlights

Michelle — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:00:41 +0000

Completely swelling free today. Completely. Michelle rejoiced.
Ate solid food today! (Ham and eggs with noodles for lunch at a small restaurant while my parents ate other food – the kitchen screwed up my order and they wanted to know if I’d take my order with udon noodles instead, I said no and they made a huge fuss about how it was going to take so much longer for me to get my order.) I can’t manage anything very large yet, it’s not the swelling hindering my jaw movement now, it’s the stitches.
Went to the optometrist – my eyes haven’t gotten any worse, but I’m still getting new glasses because my current pair of glasses is sporting scratches (should get them in about a week).
Sisters went to go see free Olympic things, told me to call them when I was done at the optometrist. I did, multiple times to both of them (no answer). They called me 4+ hours later to say that they “completely forgot” about me. When asked if they knew they had incoming calls, both said yes but didn’t want to answer.
Bought a book (The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen) from Coles with a gift card money that I still have ($9.23 left).
Wandered around the mall – something that I’ve been eyeing at La Vie En Rose was in the clearance racks (for shame!) – marked down from $59.95 to $9.99. I bought it. Last one in my size too! Happy, happy me.
Tip-toed through the carnage of Olympic wear at Zellers – there was a Sumi doll without his little hat on lying on the ground. I picked him up and put him back on the shelf (poor bald little spirit guardian).
For most interested, London Drugs was having a sale on Olympic wear – 50% off on everything. They were completely out of plushies though. Did you know they had mascot keychains (not the little stuffie variety) for $17.00? A keychain for $17.00 + tax??? No wonder they still had buckets of keychains left.

Boxing Day

Michelle — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:49:04 +0000

Boxing Day was… shabby. A.K.A. the day where I spent literally all day with the family. I’m not used to spending literally 24 hours a day with nearly everyone in my family. Even when I was working in the summer and technically in the same building with my mom, we didn’t spend every single moment together. But now it’s the holidays so it’s all, yay, let’s spend way too much time together. Ugh. Got woken up at around 9am yesterday, my mom wanted to go shopping (on Boxing Day). And the only thing that got me out of bed was the promise of lunch as there was no food in the house (erm, we ate leftovers for Christmas dinner, if that tells you anything) as we hadn’t done any grocery shopping (yet, at that point). So I went out.

First off, we took transit instead of driving (not sure why, parking didn’t seem like it would have been that bad). A while later, we’re walking on a busy street and my sister decides to turn into Futureshop (for those not in the know, it’s an electronics store is generally very busy on Boxing Day). And it was very busy and there was a line up for the cashiers that snaked around the store (even that late from when the store opened) and she was in the line for ~30 min before we could leave the store. Then there was a trip to London Drugs (for chocolate) and The Body Shop (because J forgot her friend’s birthday party was yesterday night… ugh). We went into a bunch of small clothing stores (that were still ridiculously packed, most likely due to the “50-70% off!” signs in the windows. And 4 hours later from shopping and walking up and down a stupid busy street (you can tell how much I love Boxing Day shopping when I don’t actually want to go Boxing Day shopping, can’t you?), we ended up at a store where I actually wanted to buy something. Granted, it ended up being La Senza, but ehhhhh… it’s all ‘necessities’, right? Besides, with cute prints, how on earth was I supposed to not buy a thing? (Please don’t ask how much I spent…)

See ^ cute prints! Plus I count them as ‘necessities’ given as I needed more that fit properly. And I also have a love for frilly lace and oh-so-carefully placed bows.

For lunch, we went to Earls. I got a sandwich that was called ‘Grilled Chicken and Baked Brie’. Delicious, for the brie and chicken part, but there was also this fig spread that was in it that was way too sweet for the rest of the sandwich (there was also apple slices in it, which were quite good as well). We walked around some more after lunch. My mom swore that there was a Christmas display this year, so we walked until we found a sign stating that the displays were on ‘holidays’ this year (ugh). So we went to expensive pricey stores (haha) and didn’t buy a thing. But I must say, I loved trying on the Burberry coat that I found – even though it does cost the same amount as my tuition for next term (meep) and there was no way I could ever justify buying it (seriously – the tag said 100% cotton, but it also says something along the lines of: do not clean, do not wash, do not tumble dry, special professional dry cleaning only – but it’s only 100% cotton, the lining, which felt awesome, wasn’t silk or anything).

Didn’t get home until mid-to-late afternoon-ish. And then my sisters wanted to spend more time with me (because apparently they weren’t sick of me yet? I don’t know why not…) and so they wanted to play cards. I played a few rounds of Big 2 before bowing out none-to-gracefully. I claimed I needed to get a sweater because I was cold and then didn’t show my face again until dinner.

At which point, it was yay for awkward moment while people I’m related to look at me funny for adding cheese (only a little bit!) to my mashed potatoes. Apparently they think my eating habits are odd (they can join the group of people who already think so).

Questions:

Did you go shopping for Boxing Day (December 26th)? If so, what did you buy?
What is one ‘odd’ eating habit that you have that even your family finds odd?
When was the last time you splurged on yourself, what did you buy?

My answers:

Yes, unfortunately… I, ahem, improved my collection of bras.
Adding cheese to mashed potatoes (along with not eating certain artificially flavoured candies)
Yesterday (Boxing Day), amused myself with the sale going on at La Senza and bought myself frilly, lacy, and ribboned bras. Along with plain ones. Too much fun.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without the backhanded insults!

Michelle — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:38:04 +0000

Oh… Christmas, Christmas, Christmas… What can I say about today?

My family and I had crepes this morning for breakfast. Super organic crepes. If it could, the bag of crepe mix would have had a superhero cape because it was just that full of seeds and other healthy things. It tasted super healthy, even with copious amounts of strawberry jam (yum) and peanut butter (not on the same crepes… but damn, does it ever taste good). Opening presents was kinda fun, my sisters got me a 2g micro SD card (from J, for my Nintendo DS) and pretty cupcake liners (from D, and also a ‘gift certificate’ for bakeware, score!). There was also chocolates from my mom (Lindt… delicious! and some chocolates from the someone at work). Tertiary Jane was a birthday/Christmas present from my parents, so she’s been out for a while… And was not repackaged and put underneath the tree.

I went with my family to my aunt and uncle’s new house for Christmas lunch. And after, I remembered all the reasons why I don’t like family lunches (or dinners… or meals in general). There is nothing like sitting there and eating your lunch and taking a sip of tea and then your aunt commenting on how you’re the only one who’s had seconds of the main dish. Insert coughing/choking on the tea (which was delicious tea, by the way – she did give me a box of it, it’s a type of green tea that she’s never been able to find in Canada, she bought it in Taiwan) and then I politely go “Pardon?” (in Cantonese). And then she repeats herself. “Oh, you’ve had seconds of [insert dish name here]” (I can’t translate things well, lol). Apparently she’d been paying attention to my eating habits? And if she had been paying attention, my first bowl had been only half filled, as opposed to everyone else who had a completely filled first bowl. And then came the whole “So how much weight have you gained over the last few months?” Hello, appropriate extended family Christmas lunch conversation topics? Not really.

I have never been comfortable with the family (extended, or not) talking about my weight. And, for some odd reason, it’s always during a meal. My aunt mentions it. J is always “too skinny”. D looks like she hasn’t been eating much lately. And me? “Oh, Michelle, have you been gaining weight lately?”. My mom just laughs and then talks about how much I eat at home, compared to everyone else. At home, for Christmas dinner (with just the immediate family – we had leftovers), my sisters were talking about my weight, and my mom joined in. I asked them to stop it (because I was eating at the time and because I’m in a ‘normal weight range’ for my height/age/whatever). And they continued. So I left the dinner table and went to my room. Where I have stayed, I only left to go to the kitchen to do some chip swaps for my dolls.

And, as always, odd family gossip gets revealed during holiday meals together. Like so-and-so recently got married, but the new spouse only got divorced a week before the wedding and the new spouse used to be (or is?) her boss (how scandalous) and someone else got a loan from a loan shark…? With daily interest at 30%? Yeeeeeeep, I have awesome relatives, right? In my defense, I didn’t pick them.

Also… My dolls had a good Christmas morning and Sophie and Tertiary Jane got new green chips. =)

Merry Christmas (Eve)!

Michelle — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:08:10 +0000

Merry Christmas (Eve) – depending on when you’re reading this. I hope you all got what you were hoping to find underneath your Christmas tree. I’m just glad that I have a tree this year – even though I didn’t get to decorate it (it looks fabulous though! More photos of it tomorrow!).

I spent this morning shopping with my sister. She bought my Christmas present for me (… while I was there and picking it out and watching her fork over her credit card for it… -coughs- So yes, I ‘peeked’ at my gift!) and we went shopping for craft supplies (it so happens that there’s an absurd amount of people who also go shopping for craft supplies – mainly yarn – on Christmas Eve). We bought some more yarn as the store I went to on Tuesday got new inventory, I also got some fabric (marked quilting squares?) that were priced at $0.25/each, it’s more than enough fabric to make at least one doll dress out of each, so I’m happy about that, as well as a double-ended crochet hook! I’ve been trying to find one for ages, it’s used for double crocheting and it can also be used for Tunisian crochet if I’m not mistaken – new methods of crocheting to try out!

No baking for today, I didn’t get home until about 2pm-ish, at that point my sister was more interested in showing off our ‘loot’ to my other sister (who went shopping for my Christmas present – on Christmas Eve, apparently the mall were ridiculous!) so we had lunch and then watched a movie (Borrowed Hearts – the only Christmas-y movie that I watch every year).

And then the rest of my evening was spent watching The Sound of Music (yay) with the sisters and during/later, I changed 2 pairs of eye chips on my Blythe dolls (more details, and photos!, over at Little Miss Sophie, my Blythe blog).

Birthday smasharoonies!

Michelle — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:00:05 +0000

(Yes, I make up words for the hell of it. It’s fun sometimes, but I do still have a great appreciation for the English language.)

So last night was my birthday party. People were fashionably (and not-so fashionably) late as well as being super early (while thinking that they were late, haha). But it was so nice to see everyone again. Some of my friends, I hadn’t seen since the summer and others I hadn’t seen since September (October was definitely an anti-social month for me, for reasons that shall not be disclosed at this time). So it’d been a while since I’ve seen a lot of people.

We watched a movie (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – I hadn’t seen it before and thought the kitty plates are kind of charming… if there had only been one) and had an awesome dinner (friends C and K helped out with the cooking, because I’m fairly hopeless when it comes to cooking anything beyond breakfast foods) and we had some form of pasta that was not spaghetti (my sister can’t read names on packaging, apparently) with very yummy sauce that required an impromptu shopping trip for an onion and realizing exactly how much pasta was made with one package (the family and I will be eating pasta every day for like… ever). But it was so nice seeing everyone again…

Even if my friend K was awfully mean with wrapping my present. It was a super light-weight box that had shredded paper inside with little taped folded pieces of paper. And she told me that I had to find 20 pennies in the wrapped up pieces of paper. I found 19. And then she starts giggling and laughing and hands me another penny and says that there was only 19 there. Then she goes out to her car and gets the real present, which also had duct tape… Oy. I hope her family owns stock in a company that makes duct tape, given how much she uses on me every year, haha.

My friends had gotten so good at getting me doubles of things. When I was 16, I got three copies of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares, when I was 17, I got two copies of P.S. I love you… by Cecelia Ahern and for my 18th and 19th birthday, there were no doubles/triples (I was impressed!). Heh, this year, I got two copies of Story of O by Pauline Réage and the strangest thing that I found was that the racier looking cover was given by my friend who generally wouldn’t even given a book like that the time of day. And this morning my sister sees the two copies of the book (with different covers – one is plain white with black lettering, the other has the image of a woman sitting in lingerie, not truly modern lingerie) and asks me what the book is about. First thing that came out of my mouth? “It’s a story about BDSM from a woman’s point of view.” That was an incredibly awkward conversation to say the least.

My sister J and friend K put the candles on my cake… 20 candles is a lot and the cake was so full of holes after, so glad I wasn’t turning 50 or something, then the entire thing could have been lit with a torch or something and gotten all the candles in one go. But yeah, the candles were lit, and everyone was just sitting there kind of staring at me and someone went (I think) “Made a wish yet?” or something like that, and then someone else went “Shouldn’t we sing first?” and then everyone starts singing.

All in all, it was an excellent time with my friends. I had an awkward time fielding some questions (because when someone asks you, more than once, if someone is showing up, it gets a little awkward after a while), but overall it was a fun time. A lot of time was spent just catching up with everyone and that was fun. K managed to summarize her life from the last 1-2 months in about less than 5 minutes. A record? I think so!

Went out shopping with the sister today. We went grocery shopping for the week (marshmallows was the number one thing on our shopping list), and then did some other shopping at the mall. I bought season 1 of Pushing Daisies for her, along with season 2 of Pushing Daisies (but she’s paying me back for that) and season 5 of Grey’s Anatomy. And then we happened to go wandering into Jacob’s. Whoops? Ahh well, I hadn’t bought new clothes in a while, and it’s always nice to wear nice lingerie, right? I’ve seriously gained a new appreciation for nice underthings over the last year, and learned to like handwashing clothes as well. But yeah, lots of shopping and ended up with new things to wear and season 5 of Grey’s.

It feels like it’s a Sunday even though it’s a Saturday, such a weird feeling.

Anyways, hope everyone had an awesome Friday and an even better Saturday!

I wish it were another lazy Sunday

Michelle — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:14:21 +0000

My sister’s friends left after singing their little hearts out to karaoke at around 2am. It is not cool to be kept up that late listening to people sing. However, my sister did have the decency to turn down the volume. But when it’s already the next day, in the early am, the last thing I want to hear is her friends singing “Barbie Girl” (it was the only one I recognized/was loud enough).

So I went to sleep at around 2am, woke up a little bit past 8am. Had breakfast and then studied some biology. Took a mid-morning nap (because I desperately needed it) and then worked on my reference sheet for my biology midterm tomorrow and then ate lunch. I finished my shabby reference sheet, went grocery shopping (because apparently my sister’s friends eat a lot…) and then came home to clean, snack and watch a movie.

Oh, also started on a biology project that is due this Friday. Hah. Yeah… This is going to be an excellent week. Two midterms, 1 evening (organic chem) review session, volunteering (yay!), one biology project and it all ends off with my birthday party for Friday/Saturday. Every girl who turns 20 should have a sleepover, seriously. (That’s what I thought when I turned 19, as well!) So this week should be interesting, to say the least. Very packed with things to do.

After Friday’s awesome mishap with the chocolate cake incident that may or may not have involved food, I went for a run today… for an hour. What the fudge was I thinking? Legs are totally hating me right now, to say the least, and it was a few hours ago when I got home. My body is not impressed with me… I generally only go for a run when I’m upset/angry… Eating an entire chocolate cake counts as something to be upset about, yes? And other things, of course, that are going on, that shall also not be named (it’s like the Voldemort of my personal life, yay? Whoot for lame Harry Potter references!), led to me running for an hour (not the entire hour was spent running. I run it bursts… there were a few segments of 5 minutes spent walking and breathing – yay for oxygen). However, no matter what the reason of why I went for a run… My calves are looking a little bit better. Or maybe it’s just my imagination.

Anyways, hope you all had a wonderful, exercise-free Sunday!