Domo Arigato Ms. Rowboto

I started a post before the New Year, but it was getting to be too long… and there’s no way I’ll ever finish it/post it. So here’s 2011 in point form!

This year I…

• Partied the hardest I’ve ever partied 
• Did some stupid things as a result of the above, and stupid things in general
• for the first time was so deeply infatuated with someone. 
• had my heart broken but I don’t regret the relationship
• Learned to forgive (but not to forget)
• Realized the best people can be douche bags
• Lost some friends
• Mitigated toxic relationships
• Found great friendships in people who a year ago I never imagined I’d grow close to…
• Had to face death for the first time
• Realized the importance of friendship (not that I ever took my friends for granted, but faced crucial times when I need them or when they needed me)
• Had the confidence to get involved and take on leadership roles
• ^ Did a good-ass job at said roles 
• Traveled: London, Miami, Bahamas, Calgary
• Studied hard and completed two of my designation exams
• Secured a fantastic job to start my career after graduation
• … plenty more. I just can’t think.

I’m sorry to everyone I let down this year, or people I’ve hurt. I know there are a few I can think of at the top of my head. 

2012 has a lot in store for me: graduation, new travels, new friends, moving to a new city, starting a new career… there’s a lot! Cheers to the new year :) 

It has definitely been a while… I get on and off the horse but I feel with the coming changes in my life, it’s therapeutic if I regularly maintain my blog. It’s interesting keeping a diary to look back on, but I actually tried looking back at some old posts just now (private ones that I wrote for myself…hah) and I just couldn’t get myself to read some of them. *Sigh* maybe one day I can reread my naive thoughts and not feel such humiliation. Also you’ll notice that I often update this when I know I should be working on something else… classic Rowena, classic procrastination. 

So tomorrow morning I’m meeting up with my mentor from this mentorship program that I’m part of. I applied for this program at the beginning of the school year with absolutely no expectations and just thought it was something cool to do during my last year of university. Really, I think the main reason the program exists is to prepare someone for that transition from the school life to work life (not that I truly believe much of a transition is required…). I ended up getting paired with a manager from a prominent NPO here in Winnipeg, and he’s a pretty cool guy. Our mentorship kick-off consisted of having a bunch of business professionals in suits, and us mentees, hanging around classily drinking tons of wine and doing arts and crafts. We ended up making dreamboards to illustrate where we see ourselves in 5 years. I’ll post a picture of mine sometime… it got everyone thinking and it was awesome seeing how creative everyone was.  It actually was a good conversation topic when I had my 8 hours of interviews the following week. But anyway…

So these are the questions he emailed me for our discussion tomorrow: 

- What is it that you really want to be and do?

- What are you doing really well that is helping you get there?

- What are you not doing well that is preventing you from getting there?

- What will you do differently tomorrow to meet those challenges?

- How can I help/where do you need the most help?

Honestly, I have no idea how to answer these. Well, I know the given answer for some of them but I really don’t know how to answer some of these. I want to be an actuary? That’s all though. I guess I’m blessed to have a fantastic job waiting for me…. and hmm? The biggest obstacle is the next few years of my life dedicated to writing exams… How can he help? He can’t really do anything lol. Where do I need the most help? Time management. What will you do differently tomorrow to meet those challenges? Maybe I’ll shut off the interwebz and study. That’s what I’ll do differently tomorrow… I don’t see myself being productive right now. 

Sitting on the porch with my laptop on my lap

My neighbor soon approaches asking why it’s outside I sat

I explain that my roommate is fast asleep in bed

With no intentions of unlocking the door floating in his head.

I tried to call his cellphone but he didn’t answer -

maybe it was on the silent mode? Which why he wasn’t bothered

So I spammed him with instant messages hoping I “uh-oh“‘d him awake

but alas - no response - Oh for God’s sake!

By now I was quite aggitated but thought of a plan! 

I’d SSH into the MAC thanks to the LAN

Through that I’ll use the voice synthesizer and type in a phrase

and wait for the mechanical voice to sweep him out of his laze…

Happy mothers day to my awesome mom, and to all y’all mothers out there! Thanks for everything you do for me… words can’t express how thankful I am :) 

So, I’m really failing at blogging. 

Life is good though. I had a great weekend! I kept busy… On friday I worked at the office during the day. I have 7 different projects that I’m currently shuffling right now so I’m being kept busy. During the lunch hour, after eating a yummy lunch from Marcello’s, Scott C. and I met up and went on a sleeping bag search since I’m in need of a new one… hahaha it was pretty funny because no one hates camping more than he does :P. After going to Zellers and MEC, I realized that I have no intention of spending more than $80 on a sleeping bag that I’ll be using on a carpeted floor… oh well!

So after work I went to get food from Green Leaf Cafe, and made my way to my second job. By the amount I work, you’d think I’d be rolling in dough! :P (not true at all). Boy was I exhausted! It wasn’t too bad though because I was training that day… it was an eventful night, let me tell you that. The cops showed up due to a misunderstanding haha… that certainly got my blood boiling for a sec! Thank goodness none of us got arrested lmao. Finally, I got some sleep late in the night after watching some Full Metal Alchemist with the security guard. 

(Ok I’m getting really tired, so I don’t think I’ll be able to finish this entry lol… time to point form this!) 

-Slept for 3 hours

-Smooth and easy breakfast! Delicious banana chip muffins. Got out early! 

-Afterwards, bussed to the MTS Centre and bought Britney Spears tickets with Amy!

-Bussed/walked home

-Took a nap since I didn’t sleep properly the night before (can you believe I pretty much worked a solid 25 hours straight, with an hour in between?)

-Woke up…. realized I was running late (Fuckk!). Fast shower.

-Picked up Talia, and struggled to find parking in the exchange.

-Met with the people from Bergmann’s to check out their venue (GORGEOUS!). I’m really leaning towards having our event there… It’s in the Canadian Grain Exchange building so the ceilings are lower. Not as extravagent as a ball room, but its got character!

-Afterwards, I dropped Talia home.

-Went thrifting for a bit! Found some awesome stuffff :) If I weren’t lazy I’d post some photos.

-Went to garden city, bought flowers for my mom, my mom was there too and found me (HAHAH that was funny..). I guess my mom gets her flowers a day early!

-Went home for a bit, but soon left to have dinner with Marlene, Diana and Jonnah. Original Joe’s once again! 

-We laughed. We laughed A LOT. 

- Went home just in time to catch the start of the Pacquiao fight!

Anyway, that was my Saturday. It was good. Now today was Sunday, mothers day… hung out with my mama! I’m too lazy to go into anymore detail lol but HAPPY MOTHERS DAY ONCE AGAIN :)

Tasty as fuck

I started off Monday eating some leftover pulled pork from Easter dinner. Holy mackerel, best breakfast EVER! Also, is it possible to eat too many pickles? I’ve been eating a lot of pickles recently… I think I may have finished an entire jar of pickles in a day. Bah, I can’t help it!

So bored I take photos of Missey

So bored I chase around my niece 

Anyway, monday off started off pretty slow. I watched a few episodes of my drama, and took pictures of my dog. Let me tell you… at one point I decided to go for a jog - put on some running clothes, and got all pumped up to run… but as I was looking for my hat, I found a huge bag of old photos that included some of us from grade 3. I never did go on that run.

Christmas gymnastics. Yeah, I don’t get it either.

Later that night, a few of us went to go visit Tito’s grave… or should I say, Spiderman’s grave? Hehe. It turns out we weren’t all going to fit in one vehicle, so Leslie picked me up and dropped me off at Jonnah’s place where I would chaperone her as she drove. So Les, Ash, and Krista went in one car, while Jonnah and I went to pick up James. It definitely was an interesting drive. Despite her being blind (“IS THAT A GREEN LIGHT GUYS?”) she did well! It also included a lot of hilarious conversation that included a few n-bombs and talks of kiddy pool drownings vs. falling out of your car because you forgot to close the door.

JJ Butas, Jansen, and some of my asper crew (ha!) joined us at Original Joes afterwards. I admit, I was incredibly inappropriate that night. It definitely wasn’t intentional but it was just full of “That’s what she said” moments. My dill sauce, my mouth not being large enough for my burger, my jaw hurting, yeah… It’s been nice seeing that gang though! I also had an intense craving for an oreo cheesequake blizzard that I was fortunate enough to be able to satisfy :). There was nothing wrong with me sneaking a blizzard into Original Joe’s… right?

Cotillion practice? I wish 

Part of the sisler-asper crew. Missing Nick, Andrew, and Aaron.

So today was my first day of work! It’s as if I never left… I looked forward to it for the past few months, but now I’m really missing school life. My school friends are still at school everyday and I’m kind of jealous of the fun I hear about. Pathetic haha.

But anyway, there aren’t any projects that are laid out for me this summer but they did have some work for me to get started on. And within an hour of working, we were sitting in Timmies on a coffee break. This is why I love my department! I sent out some emails and met up with my engineering friend Reena. It was nice seeing her again… but I’m pretty bummed out that I won’t be seeing my friend Jiasi around anymore. She was my best bud at work last year, but she received a permanent position at the other office. Seriously, one of the sweetest people I know! Haha. Anyway, after working for a bit… I met the new summer student, who turns out to be Erika whom I know from school! Really funny how this all worked out. She’s good friends with one of my relatively close asper friends, and I had HR class with her… so I’m thinking it’ll be a good summer. 8 hour days are definitely tiring though. I bussed home at 4, walked home because it was super nice, cooked dinner, and followed that up with a run with Leslie. Which leaves me to where I am right now… I’m feeling really good post-run! We went for a few hours and it’s just been nice catching up with her in general.

OH wait, let me mention another highlight of my night; Finding out that Janet, a friend I’ve known since I was in nursery school, has believed I was adopted… for the past 10 years… Funniest thing ever. Serious LOLs right now.

Dear phone alarm - What is up? I set you for 8:20am, and instead I wake up on my own at 9:30… when I have to meet people for breakfast at 9:45. That sucked balls. 

Yesterday morning I met up with my flower blossom crew (do we really still call ourselves that?) for breakfast. I was super late and it didn’t help that they arrived early… so they ordered my breakfast and it came before I did. I feel terrible! But the breakfast was delicious, as it always is at Stella’s :). Afterwards, we met up at Polo Park and spent the majority of our time in line for the change room and the line for the till at Forever 21. My friend ended up having to buy my clothes because I had to leave to pick up my brother. Yeah ;.;. It was a fun outing but definitely not enough time to catch up with my friend who I won’t be seeing all summer :(. Boo. Luckily she might be stopping by in July before her trip to New York… I hope so!

During the weekends I become the personal chauffeur for my brother when he has to work his shifts at the airport… After picking him up I picked up the last of ingredients for my spinach and artichoke dip. I also got some fresh french baguette to cut up and serve with the dip. But the dip was a success! It was also a hit amongst the other tapas. Very cheesy and comparable to ones I’ve had at restaurants. 

After baking the dip, I got ready and headed on out to my friend’s apartment on corydon for some Stagette shenanigans!. The next while was a lot of fun! We broke up into teams and did a car rally scavenger hunt. We were given a list of objectives and had a bit less than 2 hours to complete them, and were required to take photos to document it. The list included getting as much strangers to sign a greeting card, taking a picture with an inanimate object resembling a penis, finding underwear, take a photo in a shopping cart, taking a sexually suggestive picture with a statue, starting a flash mob in a public place etc. Seriously, TONS of fun! I would post my photos but there are a ton and some not very appropriate ;) My favorite part was definitely the picture in my last post. The first Banana Boat employee that I spoke to was super innocent and had no idea what I meant by a phallic banana split hahaha, but as soon as she understood, she had to give it to another employee to complete. This girl had a ton of fun, and ended up giving us our ice cream for free :) It wasn’t as awkward as I expected it to be… until of course, the shop filled up with children and their families. We went outside to eat the banana split and it was delicious! My first time having Banana Boat… haha I always just pass it on my way to BDI :P. But anyway, other highlights included dancing to the YMCA on a busy boulevard with a police checkstop a few paces back. 

practicing the YMCA in the legislative building (yes i’m aware we’re missing an A haha)

Prize for winning the car rally/scavenger hunt

Once time was up, we met back to share our pictures with the other teams and indulged in some yummy food and alcohol! SUV Limo picked us up… went to Republic to dance, and then finally ended the night at the KingsHead to watch the live band. Really enjoyed the band and their song about Kevin Bacon! I definitely had a good day. Slightly disappointed that I missed out on the Tax Return party at Justin’s place though because I heard it was a good time, but also very happy that I did after hearing about some of the happenings hah.

Today is Easter! You best believe I slept in after that long night. Spending the day at home with my family, aside from church later tonight. What I definitely want to do is watch more episodes of my drama… I need to finish that up before I get serious with studying again.

Anyway, I guess it’s best I enjoy today because I won’t get the opportunity to do absolutely nothing for a while. Tomorrow I’ll spend the day looking for work clothes because my full time job starts up again on Tuesday! Back to corporate hooplah :) I look forward to the full time grind, but I know I’ll begin to miss the school life in about a week…. 8 hours day in and day out, wheras at school while I’m there for 12 hours, I spent the majority of that wasting time haha. Then in a week, summer school begins! Boo-urns. I’m excited for my first day though; I’m excited to see what projects I’ll be working on in the next 4 months and what summer student I’ll be working with… I also have a long list of people to have lunch dates with! Chyeahh, time to spend my hard earned moolah on yummy overpriced lunch :D. Seriously, I look forward to it. 

Until then, I’m going to continue to sit in my pajamas and watch this drama.