Fobulicious » Life

It’s been a while

Louise — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:30:45 +0000

To my dear readers, especially the throngs of you who have been on edge everyday, wondering if I’m still around – I am happy to announce that yes, I live on! There’s a good reason why I didn’t have “update blog more often” as an item on my list of things to do over the summer…

I can’t legitimately cross off a lot of things from the aforementioned list, but the summer has been quite awesome thus far anyways. Work has been going quite well. By “well”, I mean it’s never boring, and I can’t ask for a better environment. I think I’m one of the few people my age who thoroughly enjoy being at work. Either there’s something fundamentally wrong with me, or I’ve really struck gold here.

As much as I bask in the feeling of selling my soul to corporate, an office job with a 3-hour commute is hardly the way I would prefer to be spending my first summer in five years where I don’t have to worry about academics. I decided to use this free time to catch up with my travels. Given the amount of crazy I’d been through during the first half of the year, I had initially decided on some relaxing, resort-type, lounging-around vacation.

NOPE. Spent two months running around.

Buffalo, NY. A much-needed shopping trip while the Loonie was flying high (it’s actually flying even higher now). After a day of outlet craze, we swung by Niagara Falls on the way back across the border and were lucky enough to catch some fireworks.

Fireworks at Niagara. Photo shamelessly stolen from Eric.

Mont Tremblant, QC. As a last-minute decision, six of us signed up for one of those Chinese bus tours that took us to Mont Tremblant over the Canada Day long weekend. WHAT, you say, WHY would you crazy people lumber up to a ski resort mid-summer? WELL, I reply, it was actually quite gorgeous with surprisingly a wide range of activities. We made a few mandatory useless stops (namely Upper Canada Village) on the way there and back, so we really ended up having only one full day to spend at the resort. It was decided that we needed to make the day count as much as possible. What followed was our execution of CHALLENGE ACCEPTED:

Breakfast at French café! When I start the day with chocolate milk on a patio, I know it’s going to be an awesome day.
Boat cruise around Lac Tremblant! Watch a ginormous helicopter land at a baller vacation home.
Lounging / swimming at hotel pool! Reject idea of poolside eating because we can’t afford a $7 hot dog at the Fairmont.
Lunch at Spanish restaurant! The day only gets more awesome with chimichangas on a patio.
Cable car up to mountain top! It was extremely windy at the summit, and the view figuratively and literally blew us away.
Luge down mountain! Apparently it’s a Québécois thing, and was one of the best random calls of the day.
Kayak in the lake! By the time we got a hang of things, it was time for our appointment at…
Scandinave Spa! Lily and I went for Swedish massages and Scandinavian Baths to rejuvenate while the others had their own little misadventures.
Dinner in the resort village! With live music and yes, on a patio.
Le Casino de Mont Tremblant! Matt gained a 1000% return playing a slots machine called Chien Académie (sounds legit).

View from the top of Mont Tremblant! Thanks Matt for giving me implicit permission to post this photo.

After we got back to our rooms I pretty much passed out instantly and don’t recall anything else. On the way home the tour stopped by Kingston where Char gave us a quick tour of downtown and the Queens University campus. Now Waterloo seems even uglier by comparison.

California. I can’t even fully recall what I did here, but simply thinking back makes me miss it so much!

My impression of Los Angeles was what I expected after speaking to numerous people who have been there before – sprawling, overhyped and kind of ghetto. Certain areas were only nice in the sense that you could marvel up close at the multi-million dollar mansions of local residents in the Hills. We ended up spending much more time in San Diego, where the beaches were nicer, the traffic was better, and the burritos were holy. Some Kodak Moments included:

MXN, a chain of Mexican fast food restaurants. We could’ve eaten this on any occasion. Proper meal, midnight snack, drunk food, post-roadtrip arrival food, beach-side munching… you name it.
Surfing at Pacific Beach. Or our attempt at doing so. We rented some boards and were merrily floating in the water when I started noticing that the waves kept pushing me out to sea and made it nearly impossible for me to get closer to the beach. Before I made it all the way back, a lifeguard actually turned up with a megaphone and instructed us to get out of the water ASAP. Once we were all safely on land, he explained that we were in a riptide, and lectured us about getting actual surfing lessons. First time for everything!
Jetskiing in Mission Bay. I get why people can do this in circles for hours by themselves. It’s just so liberating. 30MPH doesn’t sound like much but it gets intense when you’re on pretty much what is a motorized bike on open water.
La Jolla. An upscale beachside neighbourhood in northern San Diego, I regretted not being able to spend more time exploring the area.
Meeting up with Gavin & co. for a bar night and dinner the next day at San Diego’s best lamb shank joint, according to Yelp.
Gifting Dan a microwave. “What did you guys buy? It’s so big… You guys got me a microwave?”
San Diego Zoo. Having worked in a zoo, I was impressed with the way everything was laid out, the tour buses were conducted, and the variety of flora and fauna found there. I didn’t quite feel all the hype with the Panda exhibit though. There was actually a line-up for the exhibit itself, and as adorable as it was, only one cub was on display.
Driving through Gaslamp. We were so tired at this point that we settled for a comfy car tour of the district. It’s so much cleaner and more upscale than any entertainment district I’ve seen so far anywhere. Somehow it has this warm, friendly, yet sophisticated vibe. Maybe I’ve just been hanging out in all the wrong areas.

Can I just live here...

Mark my words, San Diego… I will be back for actual Gaslamp shindigs, SeaWorld and of course the ever epic LegoLand. And maybe to retire.

A morning drive up the I-5 later, we found ourselves back in the Los Angeles area to meet up with Connie and Herman. First up was ferrying our burrito-filled butts (1lb burrito for breakfast, say WHATTT) to Catalina. It was a gorgeous island, albeit touristy. After exploring the boardwalk, we did the only thing there was to do – golf cart around the island bluffs! This was much more fun than I expected. I don’t think anyone in history was as elated as I was driving a golf cart. Caddy, anyone?

Golf carting to new heights. That's how we roll.

The highlight of Catalina was having the chance to scuba dive for the first time in an actual reef. Normally for recreational dives they’d first train you in a pool or something. I have no idea how deep we went (40-50 feet maybe?) but the experience was interesting to say the least. Not the most comfortable hobby but I suspect you’d get used to it. It might be a while before I dive again, but it’s rather surreal to be swimming among schools of fish and holding a live sea urchin in your hand.

We spent the night out in downtown LA, then caught some Zs before flying back to the Land of Thunderstorms and Haze, aka Toronto.

On a couple of random notes:

I completely understand the California song, about driving down the freeway. It is really such an awesome feeling, with the ocean on one side (though you can’t really see it) and mountains on the other. The only thing that could’ve made it better was if we rented a convertible. While I’m at it with the random points, doesn’t that blond guitarist from Wave look like Neil Patrick Harris? A little bit??
I am impressed at how well flippers work in practice. For some reason I never expected them to be a necessity but they do quite a good job in propulsion.

I miss this.

I’m going to cap this post right here and continue MY SUMMER: PART DEUX in another entry, before anyone starts suing me for eye strain. You’re welcome!

Refresh

Louise — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:21:29 +0000

Long time no see, my darlings! I thought it’d be a good time to change things up a bit, for a simpler (and hopefully faster-loading) theme.

It’s been busy with work and study, so there’s not too much to say, except that I’m really looking forward to post-exam time. In fact I’ve already made a list of things I would like to do this summer (but definitely not limited to):

Wander down Queen St West and pilfer through vintage/thrift shops
Have a picnic in Scarborough Bluffs (with Lunchables…omnomnom)
Visit High Park during cherry blossom season
Walk along a beach at sunset (and a lot of beach-ing in general)
Buy and construct a 1000+ piece puzzle
Play a crapload of boardgames
Read a ton of books I’ve been missing out on
Camping, including hiking pretty nature areas (campsite’s been booked already!)
Get a lot of exercise
Frequent patios just to chill
Go to concerts/musicals/exhibitions, as my workplace is pretty close to entertainment/theatre district

I am open to suggestions and/or interested participants in any of the above! Hope you guys are all enjoying the spring weather. Also hopefully I will have more interesting things to blog once this exam is out of the way. I am pretty much going to be a major party-pooper until then.

Back to December

Louise — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:06:48 +0000

Miss Sardonic

It’s been a while since I’ve posted some artwork. This one was actually started in 2006, and out of boredom, I decided to add some touch ups, scan, and colour it. Man I have got to get a tablet or something.

I hope I can blog some more interesting content once I start work. These days have mostly consisted of rolling around in bed until noon (I’m sick again), and whining about how much I need to study yet still not doing so. I did get to participate in an unofficial gingerbread making contest on Saturday at a friend’s house. It was girls vs. boys, and anytime you have battle of the sexes, obviously girls are going to win. We chose to make Snoopy’s dog house, while the guys attempted London Bridge (photos stolen from Justin):

Note the Snoopy & Woodstock chilling on top!

Oh dear.

Before you ask, yes, the title of this entry is borrowed from Taylor Swift’s latest single. I am so in love with her album. You should go listen to it. Nowwwwww.

Happy holidays everyone!

The end of the beginning

Louise — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 04:56:09 +0000

I'm an alumna!

On October 23rd, I went to my convocation. Although it was rainy and gloomy, it had to have been one of the happiest days of my life, to celebrate an accomplishment, surrounded by the people I care about the most.

Despite the ceremony, it still didn’t hit me that I was officially done school. A couple days later, I was in Waterloo again to attend to some unfinished business. I went to campus a number of times, and seeing the students milling about, going about their daily routines, I finally realized that I would never be one of them again. Sure I could continue with grad school, but it’s a decidedly different atmosphere than the initial naivete of being a seventeen-year-old in a new place.

Last weekend was Halloween, so I somehow let myself get dragged to Screemers. I’m really not a haunted house person and essentially spent the time cowering in fear while screaming my lungs out. The day after, we hit up Tryst. Although planning was a giant pain in the ass (clubbing with a group when you live uptown requires a lot of coordination and patience), it turned out to be pretty fun.

Now that Halloween is out of the way, I can finally break out the tinsel and holly, and start looking forward to Christmas! I noticed that Sears at Eatons is already all decked out, which is awesome. *Cue holiday music*

The road from elementary (Part 2)

Louise — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 22:52:33 +0000

What was most interesting about my elementary building in Edmonton was that in addition to grades K-6, it also housed an all-girls junior high school on its upper levels. They had to wear uniforms so the junior high girls were always easy to spot. When I was in grade 3 or 4, sometimes during recess, a junior high girl named Amanda would come and play with us. I don’t quite remember why she first started talking to us, but she’d come by every now and then. I really looked up to Amanda. I thought she was pretty, smart, and had a warm personality.

When you are a girl in grade school, you don’t look up to your mom or adults. Instead, you idolize a slightly younger generation, but a few years older than yourself. You marvel at their vast knowledge of the world and degree of autonomy. When they talk to you, it’s genuine conversation, versus talking to adults who would mostly criticize and chastise. I was personally captivated by Amanda’s independence and her success. (She was in junior freaking high! She wore the prettiest hair accessories! She had a boyfriend!) I imagined myself at that age, and I saw myself living Amanda’s life. I thought, “of course, by then I will be just as cool as her”.

As you can probably guess, I wasn’t even close to having all the things she had when I hit that age. I had zero fashion sense (track pants all the way), didn’t have cool places to go out to, and was nowhere close to touching a boy.

I always had a picture of where I would be when I got to a certain phase in my life. I look at the people around me whose lives I am envious of, and I picture myself being in their position. But then when I reach that same stage, it’s nothing like I imagined. Sometimes I’m better off, and sometimes worse.

By now, most of the people I know are probably finished school. We might be starting our first jobs in the real world or trying to find one. It’s a defining yet puzzling moment in our lives. I’m sure many of us are familiar with the “quarter life crisis”, either through having experienced it or maybe being approached by a friend about it. It’s a time of reflection.

I never would have imagined I would be the person I am now. So I propose to you the following question:

Are you where you thought you’d be at this point in your life?

What did you imagine you’d be doing in your early twenties when you were 5, 10, 15 years old (hell, even just last year)? The kind of friends you’d have? Places and activities you’d enjoy? Your role in society? Your values and attitudes on life? The things you’d talk and joke about with your friends? Your accomplishments? Relationship expectations?

What now?

Louise — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:33:27 +0000

A couple days ago I changed my phone number, from 519 area code (Waterloo) to 416 (Toronto). Of course, there were technical difficulties with the process but I won’t get into that. It seems that the undergraduate chapter of my life has finally reached completion.

I’ve tasked myself with the simple deed of finding work. It’s rather amazing how complex the application process has evolved into. There was a time when you just submitted your cover letter and CV to a manager, and if you’re a serious contender, go in for an interview. Now, hiring policies encompass everything from having to register for online applications, tracking down references, answering essay-type questions, standardizing tests such as cases, multiple interview rounds, Superdays, and probably an arm wrestle or two. Yes, the point of interviews is to “assess fit” and “determine suitability”, but some of these endurance marathons feel like an evaluation of how deep corporate can rip apart your soul before you crumble into grains of despair, and the extent to which you’d fellate HR’s middle finger.

So far the job hunt has not exactly been kind to me, and it’s making me restless because I can’t stand sitting at home all day with nothing to do. The guilt of unproductivity has actually been a great motivator for me to get other things done like cleaning up around the house, organizing my finances, and just all-around consolidation of my life. This lack of interesting things to do has also provided me with an abundance of time to sit and think. Think about my next challenge to myself.

The world is shrinking, there’s so much going on, and it takes a lot more to understand things.

Let’s talk about summer

Louise — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:53:55 +0000

Woodbine Beach. Image credit to Mattie

How is it August already? I’ll be wrapping up my studies in a few weeks. Lectures are long over, and I’ve already written my first final exam. It’s pretty amazing how fast summer term whizzes by, especially when you’ve missed the first three weeks of lectures.

So what’s next? I’m a little itching to get a job and start work. I got my time to dawdle around Hong Kong, and it’s time for some stabilization, at least for now. July was pretty fun – there were so many birthdays, I’ve become shit broke. Still, I’m looking forward to having a proper “summer vacation” like last year during the last few weeks in August.

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I suck at blogging

Louise — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:58:47 +0000

I deeply apologize for the lack in posts. I don’t really have an excuse either, because although school’s busy, it’s not that busy. Then again, life has not exactly been super exciting since I got back from HK, so there’s not much to report. It’s like sitting on a bench feeding bread crumbs to geese after jet-skiing through the lake. Mostly, I’ve been shut up either in my room or in a library. I went out a few times over the recent Canada Day long weekend (all these July birthdays…) and that’s about it.

To be honest though, it is quite nice to be home, away from the humidity, mosquitoes, suffocating crowds, and random drippy signs. The thing that bothered me most was that as much as I shower or attempt to stay hygienic, I was never able to feel totally clean. I’m also really enjoying the awesome weather we’ve had this summer so far. Last week’s heat wave would’ve been unbearable in HK. Hallelujah for air conditioning!

So to compensate for lack of any real content, I’ll turn this into a gimmicky music post! Again, I’m gonna try to put up songs that aren’t rampant everywhere. Not indie though, I’m probably still not “cultured” enough to appreciate it. New-ness of music is not guaranteed :P

Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars