Dec 24- Drive home with Sana. I ended up meeting a fellow FI at StatsCan who knows all the DND FORD people. I cannot stress this enough: the finance community in Ottawa is small.
Dec 25 - Crazy family Xmas dinner prepared by moi! It was a long night, but great time to spend with the kids. Regarding their parents though, let's say some things never change.
Dec 26 - Drinks with the boys + gf at Coopers. I always wondered what these guys would look like in relationships, and I must say it's pretty adorable.
Dec 27 - BBT with Candy. She's been through a lot since the last time I saw her during Thanksgiving, but it was great catching up. I've never known anyone more honest with their feelings.
Dec 28 - Engagement day! (more on this later). Hung out with Steph, visited her condo, shopped downtown and met up with the happy couple for dinner at Kinton Ramen. Ran into Mike & friends and ended up going for drinks and Korean fried chicken afterwards with them.
Dec 29 - Annual dim sum brunch with Thomas & friends at Emerald. Went to Lisha's party at her downtown condo. We played pervartistry and girls won, even though we were outnumbered 6-5. Fun!
The Remainder of My Holidays...
- Lunch at Panera Bread with Becky
- Coffee shop time with Denbo
- Downtown NYE's party with Charis, Seth & friends
- V time
- Hang out with Jacey & Mike downtown
- Drinks with Kevin at West 50
- Maybe Ripley's aquarium with my parents & my youngest brother's family
- Seth's bday at Etsu and karaoke at BarPlus
- Become a beggar on the street after spending too much, become obese from all the delicious food consumed, and pass out from exhaustion.
Thank YOUS for showing up and making Marilyn happy. I've been planning this since April, and all I wanted from the beginning was an end of the summer blow out where everyone can just enjoy themselves. Hopefully I've done my job.
I prayed for good weather and I was blessed, even when I almost got a heart attack when it was raining a sh*tstorm two hours prior to boarding. It cleared up fast and the weather became lovely - I couldn't ask for more! The boat wasn't that bad, the steak was thankfully NOT 5 oz, and people actually suited/slutted up and looked fabulous.
The planning was actually very easy and systematic, not that difficult as everyone thought it was. Getting $$$ from people was easy for me because I'm good at nagging people to getting things I want.
Special Thanks
- Richard
the person I was talking to the moment the idea of having a party on a boat popped into my head. It was just a wild idea, but he showed me the link to the website and then it suddenly became much more than just a wild idea. Thank you for your help and for collecting the $$$ from peeps and being the person I bitch to whenever a stupid issue arose
- Vanessa & Chris
helped me count the money (an accountant and an assistant manager - how can you go wrong? Even if Chris did miscount hahaha). V-bear went with me to the boat to see Captain Evil while I was walking around with $3000 in cold hard cash in the downtown core. It was also her idea for me to get the red dress and for that I love you for it. You're the best!
- Michael Viola
for collecting $$$ from your people and enduring my endless nagging. P.S. you might've collected everyone else's money far in advance, but thanks for being the absolute last person to pay BTW!!!
- Michael Luong
(in blue stripes) being very very helpful and concerned when I didn't even ask for it. Your help on the date of the boat party was especially appreciated
- Justin
(in purple) for wearing what I wanted you to wear, helping with the music, driving especially when you HATE Toronto and enduring stupid traffic, driving backwards and fake parking ticket machines. And staying up all night avec moi even when you had to wake up in 4 hours...... THANKS
Charis, Ira, Lilian, Howard and Shannon.
For either helping with the dress code, being hilarious by obsessing what dress to wear, for the drinks, FOR FINALLY SHAVING YOUR GOD DAMN WOLVERINE OFF YOUR FACE (SHANNON), or for offering a ride so graciously. You guys are simply "bomb"
For those who didn't hear any of the two speeches I was forced to make while inebriated, to sum up:
1) Thank you for everyone showing up. You MUST know it means so so so so much to me.
No grad pics from me yet, my brother was my personal photographer and has it all. I refuse to talk about grad (best day ever) until I have my photos.
Crazy grad night with drunkerds in our house. What happened that night stayed with that night...
Saturday
I made him three sandwiches. Studying with Mike, then pulling an all nighter for my exam that didn't deserve my all nighter. It's okay, I was playing blockles most of the time anywho.
I came home to Ira's homemade Shepherd's pie
Sunday
9 am exam in the morning. I took a nap for 3 hrs then Ira woke me up for Monica's BBQ. Mike won (AGAIN) $50 in poker so me and Jacey attacked him and I reaped my Party on a Boat funds from him.
Monday
A bad morning so I went to the gym and ran into Shannon. Then we went to hang out with Mike. They bought a softball and they were teaching me how to catch and throw (even though there's no way in heck I'm joining their MLSB team). We then went back for badminton
Tuesday
They raided my room to play poker. This is the first time Mike lost...... I think this was a very important day for all of us. Amen.
But I am sick and its made the past couple of days sucky.
This has been a very relaxing two week vacation. I spent a lot of time with my family and friends and I guess going back to school for the summer won't be all that bad. I kind of miss it (and now I can't imagine life without Waterloo to fall back on). These are my highlights, so far:
Went out for beer/wings with Howard, and the waitress girl asked me questions about Laurier for a while before even getting served. I kept having to pause and say, "Sorry, Howard"
My baby friends abso-freakin-lutely LOVE "Auntie Me-lon." I don't know what it is, but Mercedes DIDN'T want to go home because she wanted to play with me. She got so sad because her parents wouldn't let her stay! If they didn't drag her, she would've had her first overnight stay away from home
Working out and swimming days with Priscilla = FUN. Oh, the hot tub............. how we love it. Oh, and also church - being introduced to my new favourite pastor, Pastor Greg! I also can't wait to go to J&F this Sunday
Getting drunk on two glasses of wine and throwing up in my friend's car = not a pretty sight = SORRY FRIEND. I am severely restricting myself from overdrinking (the first step is admitting you have a problem)!!!
Party in Toronto @ Vitor's. Fun fun fun, and also sad because Seth is leaving to Chicago
Bombarding V-bear at work and hugging her lesbianingly in front of all her managers. We had lunch and major FUN FUN shopping day after work!
Leaving Richard's house about to leave to catch a movie when my car doesn't start up. Richard has to DRIVE to my house (with me, Vanessa and Dennis also in the car. P.S. DENNIS IS BACK!!!) and PICK UP my DAD and drive him back to his place where our car is... to fix it. Talk about one of the most awkward moments of my life
Tania, aka. Ms. Rich treated me and Andrew to bubbletea at the new BR! The old BR totally trumps the new one. I came home and went to bed that night, got the chills and got a high degree fever and couldn't sleep a wink until like 6am. Been sick ever since
So yeah, I am 100x better except I think I'm catching a common cold now which sucks ass. Just when weather is starting to get nice again. Four days left until school...
Happy be-St. Patty's Day, friends. I hope yours went well because I barely remember mine. Just kidding of course. But seriously, I got kicked out of The Spur because I drank a little more than I could tolerate at the moment, and I puked in the bathroom sink. I use the term "kicked out" very loosely, because the girl was very polite and I sincerely obliged, even though I didn't really know what was happening. I even asked Justin, "Why are we leaving?" and he lied to me and said it was because we finished all the food and beer and I believed him. I didn't know, so for that, I am sorry.
It was a pretty alright night, I think - Lilian was happy. She said I was "hilarious" last night, so as long as I didn't inadvertenly offend anyone, it was all in good fun. I enjoyed the walk home the best, I think. Cyrus was kind enough to take an incriminating video of my incessant drunken ramblings. It would've been better if certain events played out better so that Ira, Jacey, Jackie and James could've got in when we did but it was all okay in the end, I think. No green beer though, but massive hangover yes =(
So this thing has been going around facebook for a while, but since I don't write notes on facebook, I decided to do one here.
Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.
1. No one knows me.
2. I am not as sad as everyone thinks I am.
3. I only drink for the sake of getting drunk.
4. Jane and Finch, born and raised.
5. My arms are crooked and bend in weird ways.
6. I love RPGs.
7. I had a speech impediment as a child where I couldn't pronounce "sh," "ch," "r" and "w" words.
8. I was never in a relationship that lasted more than 8 months.
9. I like High School Musical.
10. My biggest pet peeve is being ignored.
11. I can't keep a secret for the life of me.
12. I don't know what I am doing with my life and frankly, it doesn't bother me.
13. I eat popcorn with chopsticks. Add some cajun to that
14. I hate talking on the phone.
15. When people hurt me, I always have to do something stupid to myself.
16. I hate how people now like How I Met Your Mother and "I'm Yours." Likewise in grade 9, I hated how people started liking anime.
17. My life dream is to watch a Westlife concert in Dublin, Ireland.
18. I like beer now.
19. When I was born, my dad was 51.
20. I am trying to learn the phrase "Your ass looks big" in every language.
21. Ghosts scare me.
22. I never sleep with a mirror in front of my bed. Or my bed facing towards a window.
23. Elyna is a character I draw and write fantasy stories about. Not my alter ego.
24. In my life I've stolen three things: 1) A skeleton pog from my childhood best friend, Michelle, 2) A Coors beer cup from Morty's, 3) The recycling bins from next door three days ago
25. I am never changing my facebook picture until I get another picture with Spider-man.
I spent my actual Chinese New Year's at Morty's with Justin, James and Jackie. The original plan was to have hotpot at Leng Yue at 10PM but there were some discrepancies with SOME people. So yes, instead we ate wings and drank beer.
I went home for the weekend for my dad's 73rd birthday. On Friday night, a bunch of us RHSS-ers went to Sweet Avenue and the rest of us ended the night at Michael's house playing Mad Gab. The next night, my entire family came out to celebrate my dad/mom's birthday at Miga.
Sunday, I took my brother to Westside with me and at night, me and my parents had a Chinese New Year's feast! No not really, but we ate dinner together and pretended it was a feast. We don't really celebrate. Mike kindly gave a bunch of us a ride back and so my hectic week began.
I was at school all day yesterday from morning to night after a 4 hour nap the night before, and all I had to eat was a croissant so by 10PM I was exhausted. But for the sake of Chinese New Year's, we had to go out to Mortys! I woke up at 8am this morning after literal 1 hour of sleep and now I'm in class falling asleep... Happy days
I had a good weekend. We celebrated Kevin's bday at Morty's on Thursday, temporarily headed to Justin's house to help break into James's door and then house party at Shannon's house for a bit. Friday morning, Mike drove us home for the weekend and I spent the entire day doing my work at home (believably!). Saturday, me and Charis headed downtown because she was on a mission to buy her Longchamp bag. P.S. We totally ran into Kevin and gang on the subway for his birthday dinner number two! What are the odds. Then I headed by myself to Don Mills & Eglinton area to Memories of Japan for Seth's birthday dinner where EVERYONE showed up late! Then we headed to Seth's place after for a bit but couldn't stay too long because me and Vanoo had to catch the last Go Bus back home...
I'm going home again hopefully tomorrow night, so let's hang out people. Friday night at Sweet Avenue... be there! Ex-boyfriends with babies not invited
Check out the video I posted up of the party. Basically, me and Tania ran around Jenny Lai's mansion taking a video of people and it primarily consists of me acting like a dumbass and making a fool of myself haha. Enjoy!
Christmas Eve @ T.J.s House
Ottawa/Montreal Trip - Day 1
The trip there was pretty good considering the very foggy Silent Hill-esque travel conditions. We drove to Ottawa to meet up with the rest of Michael's friends, and explored Chateau Laurier (a fancy hotel apparently where the Queen stays when she is in town) where this Cuban janitor started taking pictures for us, giving us a tour and telling us ghost stories.
We had dinner and then headed to Montreal where we checked into our sweet hotel, The Hyatt. We played this board game - drinking game style and everyone (minus me) was basically tipsy to drunk and was acting funny until like 5 am in the morning.
Montreal Trip - Day 2
We woke up and walked past the Notre Dame Cathedral to Old Montreal where we visited Creperie Chez Suzette - the quaint place that we found last year. We briefly went to an Art Museum in front of our hotel and then walked around for a while. We had dinner at this French restaurant where I wasted 28 bucks on stupid 6 scallops and a morsel of dry pasta in the corner - disgusting. We went to W hotel where Matt & Julie were staying, drank and headed back to our hotel.
Montreal Trip - Day 3
Our last day! We had breakfast at Mike's and checked out. We spent the entire day "shopping" aka walking around all day until I couldn't walk no more around St. Catherine and St. Laurent's. We had a drink at this nice little bar, and ended the day at one of the best restaurants I've ever been to: Pintxo.
On our way home, I bought $50 worth of Montreal smoked meat at Schwartz (YUM!!!). Michael's GPS just decided to stop working, so we got really lost trying to find the highway, ended up going to opposite direction and that's when the winter storm started. We had to go to Ottawa to drop off Bob and even though the GPS told us to take the local roads, we stopped listening to it. And thank god because Mike realized the GPS was set on "walking mode" - DOH. Basically we left around 11pm, got caught up in the worst possible storm EVER (it was the scariest thing, I never want to drive under those conditions again), and by the time we got to Mississauga, it was 7:30AM on December 30th. Time to prepare for my New Year's Eve Eve party LOL.
New Year's Eve [Squared]
On 4 hours of sleep after a hectic tiresome week, I pulled off a party for 40+ people, and stayed up til 7:30AM single-handedly (with aid from Charis) cleaning it all up to perfection. It was super crowded, but I hope everyone had themselves a good time. More importantly, THANK YOU FOR DRESSING TO IMPRESSING =)
HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!
New Year's Eve
I woke up at 3pm and me and Becky had a long lunch at Picklebarrel =) and I dropped her off. No one wanted to go to Nathan Phillips (first time in years since I haven't gone), so we celebrated at Richard's house. We had drinks, watched a movie, I ate a bagel, had a crappy countdown because it was kind of rushed, and then crashed soon after. It's good to know that I'm going to spend the rest of my year like this. Happy New Year
I went out after my exam and hung out with some friends.
Ate wings at Molly's and then headed to Fox and the Fiddle for some odd reason. Blegh, I didn't drink because I was driving since everyone lives so far away, I didn't like the thought of them having to walk home in the cold so late. It was funny though because the other people got pretty tipsy and saying funny things that I am most definitely not going to say here. The conversation got pretty weird that night, that's for sure.
Then we went to someone's house and played Guitar Hero all night. It was my first time playing Guitar Hero and now that I finally get what everyone is talking about, I don't see where the hype is. Guitar Hero kinda blows after a while, no?
The minute we arrived, we got straight to the drinking!
Vanessa whipped out her magnificent coloured jello shooters. We tried sucking them up to no avail so we wound up eating them with spoons, LOL.
Richard blended these blue drinks and I could taste the tequila. I tried to shove the drink into other people's hands but no one would take it off me. Just thinking about it now makes me want to hurl - these drinks were absolute TORTURE. Sour and strong - it's what did me and Vanessa in.
Best buds!
Jeivelt, the crazy guy who opened the beer bottles with his mouth - INSANITY. Me, Chris and Richard
Everyone gathered in the living room playing Rock Band.
We were playing drinking games like dice and Kings, basically making up rules while we were playing. When you draw J, you can make up your own rule so I made Chris drink every time someone else drank. Then he drew a J as well and made me drink a shot of vodka every time he drank. This game did not last that long
Time for individual pics!
Me and my passed out lover. Actually, she wasn't passed out this time as much as I can remember but pictures from my photo album beg to differ. Surprisingly we had a lot of control - no more crazy "wasted" times
Denbo! Where was he the whole party?! Dennis was the funniest!!! So unusually quiet... I love it when he doesn't talk like a smart person. HAHAHAHAHA
Michael Lee, the DD and Rock Band champion. He was taking incriminating photos and videos of us the entire time, but I have some incriminating stuff on him if ever he should try to blackmail me.
Richard, the host slash bartender who did an amazing job with the party and served me that blue drink that almost killed me.
Everyone hanging outside in the cold just for funsies. By that point, I am pretty sure I was talking a lot and saying a lot of stupid things, like rhyming off basic arithmetic. I always wake up the next day with a lot of regrets... not because of what I do but because of the really pathetic things I say LOL.
I kept waking up at night and I dragged myself out of bed to drink some water at 6AM. I felt like the alcohol was right at my throat but I couldn't puke it out and it made me feel sick. I went back to bed and woke up at noon when Vanessa called me out for breakfast, and I was fine. This is me with Vanessa and Chris at Bobby's in Streetsville enjoying a nice and greasy breakfast after a crazy fun night =)
Thursday. We had another wing night at Morty's where Howard took a "souvenir" for me. There was about 20 people so everyone got split up into two very crowded tables, upstairs and downstairs. We stayed there for a bit and then some of us headed to K-Zone after.
Friday. We got back around 3:30AM and I went to bed at 6:30 and had the most uncomfortable sleep of my life for those three hours (me and Vanessa on my twin = erk!) before heading to my group meeting. A bunch of us went to East Side Mario's for dinner and we had the plan to watch Saw V but that was scrapped in the end. Instead, me, Vanessa and Mike Lee went to Symposium for some of the best cake and wine in town before they had to leave for home.
Saturday. Cathy came home from her CN Tower climb and me, her and Bhu embarked on our journey to find the Marbleslab in KW. What is Marbleslab, you naively ask? It is the best tasting ice cream in the world, and comes in a variety of unique and delectable flavours. You pick your flavor and they put your ice cream on a marble slab and you pick a candy or fruit topping. They put it in the icecream and kind of mash it up together (but the icecream is very smooth and durable) and they put it in a waffle cone and it makes the most expensive, most delicious ice cream ever.
The short of the story is, we took the bus, got off, got lost and wandered around for a long time and FINALLY found it eventually after an hour and a half of getting off the bus. Good thing is, when we found it, it only took us ten minutes to get back to the bus stop LOL.
Sunday. I just got back from a nice time shopping at Fairview Mall with Cathy. I can tell you that taking the I-Xpress is probably a better idea compared to that time I went to Fairview Mall on the 12 bus in 2nd year and went in the wrong direction, taking me 2 hours to get there.
I had a great weekend. Check out the photo album for some updates.
Thanksgiving weekend. I had a nice weekend at home. Right after my Thursday night class, Justin drove us home and then I had a nice night out. On Friday, me and Vanessa watched Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (it was cute) and spent the afternoon taking weird Mac photos at the library. At night after dinner, the whole gang went out to Sweet Avenue, this new dessert place in Mississauga which pretty much sucks. It was a great night of catching up with close friends.
On Saturday, me and my mom spent the day preparing a Thanksgiving dinner, after my mom spontaneously went out and decided to buy a turkey. Keep in mind that we are not a conventional family and have never celebrated Thanksgiving before. We've never eaten a turkey either. So I spontaneously decided to make turkey stuffing. I've never eaten stuffing before except for the little sidedish they give to you at Swiss Chalet during holiday times, muchless have ever made stuffing - but I was confident that I could pull it off. How difficult can cooking be? Nevertheless, the turkey, the stuffing, the pumpkin pie, the entire meal turned out wonderful. The next afternoon, we had a second Thanksgiving meal when my oldest brother and their family came over. My youngest brother and his wife roasted lamb, made butternut squash, spinach salad, and yams - how Western are we? By the time everything was wrapping up, it was time for me to go back to Waterloo with Cathy.
Jason Mraz @ Massey Hall. To get downtown for the concert, there was no choice for me but to rent out a car. I got Michael to drive me to Enterprise, but they said I needed insurance so I lied and said it was under my parent's name. They told me I needed a document for proof so I told them I would go home and try to fax it to them - and we left and never came back. He then drove me to Discount, which was SO difficult to find because it is hidden at the back of a hotel, but first you have to go through a restaurant to get there. Fortunately, these guys didn't even ask me for insurance so I was good to go. Me and Cathy drove to Mississauga first to pick up Ira, got McDonalds on the way and headed downtown.
Massey Hall compared to the ACC is a tiny place. It was amazing how close we were to the stage. The concert itself was fantastic. Jason Mraz is a God when he's out on stage performing - his voice, his talent, his energy - it just gets the entire crowd pumping. This concert definitely beats out Spice Girls and all the John Mayer concerts I've been to, in my books. He is just plain awesome.
Oktoberfest weekend. I had a Management Accounting assignment due Friday afternoon, which me and my group members stayed up all Thursday night working on. Of course, we started working on it Thursday at midnight so it only makes sense that we worked on it non-stop until 10AM the next morning. I woke up around 4PM on Friday, took a shower and got ready to go out for Oktoberfest with Becky and friends.
Oktoberfest - which none of us have been to, was fun and money draining. The entire night, was let's say... interesting. The Heidelberg house was playing pure country music and there were old people line dancing - talk about being out of place. We went to Symposium in the end for desserts and that was our night! I uploaded photos in the photo album.
** wedding pictures posted (link on the top navigation bar)
the wedding couple: Rod (Marcia's brother) and Mary. no, i don't know them very well or at all, actually...
four glasses of white wine + 2 cocktails = beyond tipsy, almost drunk marilyn. i personally had a good time, the wedding had a lot of people but the restaurant was beyond squishy and oddly set up. the slideshow didn't even work which sucked (the DVD was burnt at a high speed). remind me never to have my reception at a Chinese Restaurant
anyway, this weekend is gonna suck. and why won't my pimple go away? and why is the font of this blog so darn small?!
