It's been a while

Huh, so I guess it's been nearly a year since I last posted!  Why am I back here?

1. I've been meaning to start blogging again.  I'm headed to Manchester to study at MBS in September on exchange (so. ex. ci. ted.!!!!), so I've been planning to document and share the experience here.  Plus I go to business school.  There's always someone, somewhere, be it during a lecture, conference, workshop, etc. telling you to "expand your online presence and engage in social media," and all that hullabaloo.  Which is certainly worthwhile, and is pretty much the reason I started up this blog last April (this blog = result of comm 299 brainwashing).

2. It's exam season. Exams means I have a greater urge to procrastinate.  Nothing exciting is going on on facebook or twitter, I've caught up on all my favourite blogs and on lookbook.... So here I am.

3. There is a guy sitting near me who I have no one to talk to about.  But he is driving me crazy. And not in a good way crazy.  Crazy as in a I want to stab him where it'll hurt (ie. his macbook keyboard thereby also destroying his hard drive).  Ok so I got to the library at about 11:30am and headed straight to the silent study room to do some intense studying (on the docket today: finance, stats, and religion ie. the exams I have this coming Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Yes, hell is near), set my stuff up, and start studying.  People come and go, minding their own business while I mind mine.  Then around 12:30 I start noticing the sound of frantic clicking... Whazzadeuce?  I look back to see the source of the noise: some (insert lots of creatively inappropriate names here - I'm probably going to link this blog to my LinkedIn profile at some point and don't need future employers witnessing my sailor mouth in action) guy we'll call him, is franticly clicking his mouth playing one of those stupid games where you go around battling other armies or whatever.  I'm Canadian, I don't like to make waves, so I try to ignore the guy, thinking he'll stop.  Buddy doesn't stop.  10 minutes later I'm shooting him death stares, as is the guy sitting a few study kiosks down.  Buddy doesn't notice. Finally the other guy sitting across from him very audibly and purposefully picks up his stuff and migrates to another area of the room.  Buddy doesn't notice or stop.  I try to put up with it for another 10 minutes (I tried plugging in my headphones but it couldn't drown out the noise) but it got worse with him starting to loudly tap his foot the faster he killed his stupid whatevers. Ok, I'd had enough.  I got up and lightly tapped him on his shoulder and very nicely and politely explained that this room was meant to be silent and the people around him were trying to study and the clicking noise was very distracting, and if he could perhaps either move to another area of the library or stop his clicking noise.  Buddy said ok. 


....30 minutes later, the clicking started again.

Looks like he's taking a facebook break right now!! Time to get some quality studying in.  Will blog again after finals if I don't die from the stress!

Betty

I feel like I've been really busy but I can't really say what I've actually done or accomplished since the last time I wrote anything.

Here Comes the Rain Again...

Another busy, productive day in the life of Betty.  Ok well sort of anyways.  Woke up at 11 with good intentions to get my day going but ended up crawling back under the covers.  Fast forward an hour and a bit and I'm rushing to throw on some clothes and drive to Metrotown to meet up with Jesse and Aaron.  It was pretty fun.  They were pretty good sports about letting me shop in all the girl stores although they seriously underestimate me - I went to go try on a pair of shorts while they sat outside to wait.  When I came out two minutes later they seemed genuinely so surprised that I was done - when I asked why turns out they were expecting me to take at least 20 minutes.  Wutzadeuce lol.  I wasn't planning on eating anything because the night before me and Angela decided to go for all you can eat hot pot and ate waaay too much, to the point where it was kinda painful.  Arby's was too tempting though since there are none in Richmond so of course I had to get curly fries.  Oh I had Qoola for the first time too!  Super yum.  I got some green tea and some original yoghurt and topped it with yoghurt chips, strawberries, honeydew, and raspberry sauce.  SO GOOD.  What else.  Oh we checked out the Animal Grossology displays that they keep advertising on the Beat (did you know that some frogs burp their babies into the world?), which was kinda stupid but fun to look at I guess.  There were a couple of games you could play and compete against each other (I won all of them).  Somehow we ended up in Toys R Us and pretty much just had way too much fun with all the stuff in there given the fact that we are way too old to be in there.

I left a bit later than I was planning too but figured if I drove a bit quicker it'd all be good.  Didn't quite work out that way.  It was rush hour when I was driving back so Knight street was packed.  On top of that it was raining and I saw (count 'em) FIVE seperate accidents today on my way to UBC.  I was 30 mins late to salsa class but turns out it was all good since they'd only been working on doing the basic anyways.  I picked up the spanish walk pretty quick and I think I've pretty much grasped how to transfer the whole hip movement-weight shift thing over to my basic so I got pretty bored and kept taking water breaks.  Our instructor totally lost track of time too - class is supposed to go until 6:45.  Normally we spend maybe 15 minutes on the warm up but we went all the way until 6:40.  He extended class until about 7 as a result though so today wasn't a total lack of learning.  We learned how to do outside turns, which I think are totally easier than inside turns because the guy basically pushes you through it, which involves way less thinking and reaction speed. 

After class I met up with some business week peepz to go over sponsorship and whatnot.  Took an hour but I feel a lot more clear on my role and what I need to get done.  Drove home, ate dinner, did my nails (see below), and watched the Office.  SO. GOOD.  (that's what she said)

Covergirl Electric Blue (it's more teal coloured) - I also painted my toes L'oreal Coral Me Wild but didn't take a picture.

Ok, goals for tomorrow:

- clean my closet (I shoved everything in my room in there on Monday because we had company over)

- good copy of sponsorship package

- work out

- get a haircut

- clean up my desktop

"Oh you know, blah blah blah"

That's what one customer at my store says to me every. single. time. I ask him how he's doing.

So I've been working a lot lately.  As in I'm on day seven of my eight days in a row of working.  It's been mostly mascotting but I've been working at Rogers for the past couple of days.  I really hate retail but I can't bring myself to quit my job.  Being Salty has been great though - super chill both literally and figuratively since the weather has been a lot colder and windier lately (perfect weather for a seagull) and because the CRSs are getting more and more run down and pretty much give me 45 minute breaks in between runs (although one particularily gung ho CRS had me in the suit for a full 50 minutes which is totally ridic).

Salsa has been going great and it's been soo much fun.  I've pretty much mastered the bare bones basics I think and I've officially upgraded from a Beginner to an Intermediate Level 1 - woop woop.  I'm going to be taking classes every day this week as well though so hopefully I can keep up!

Coincidence?

So of course right after I post about how much I love the sun and the summer weather we've been having, the virtual weatherman of course has to go and spite me.

This is gross.

I don't know how I feel about this weather though.  I'm mascotting all week at the Children's Fest at Vanier Park next to Kits so the colder weather will definately be a relief.  I sweat a ridiculous amount at my shift today.  A lot of highlights while in the seagull suit though!  A couple of kids picked me flowers, which was super cute.  One kid and I collaboratively made up a secret handshake.  And one child decided to peek into the changing tent and saw a dismembered Salty, promptly eliciting a look of shock then absolute terror.  I shouldn't laugh because the kid is probably scarred for life but it was really funny. 

After work I went home to shower and change before driving to UBC.  My friend convinced me to do this salsa boot camp but I wasn't sure about it so I just paid for a one class drop in.  It was so much fun though!  I'm definately going to be doing the rest of the week and hopefully next week as well.  The instructor is super talented and so goofy, I couldn't stop laughing (partly at his jokes and partly at the ridiculous moves we were doing - seeing all the guys in the room concentrating on trying to shimmy while moving to the beat is a sight that will not soon leave me). 

That's pretty much the rest of my week.  Salty and Salsa everyday.  Sounds like a good diet to me.

Summer Loving

I love summer :)  It's the one season I look forward to all year for several reasons.  The lack of school's ugly presence and the gorgeous weather is a given, but it's also because it brings out a different mentality in me.  I'm way less stressed and OCD during the summer, plus I get to break out my summer wardrobe which also makes me pretty estatic.  Needless to say I've been traversing about in shorts and sandals for the past two weeks despite the sometimes less than beach worthy weather.  Speaking of beaches, I went to Kits on Thursday and it was straight up g (g for gorgeous! lol).  Other than tanning and working I've been keeping myself busy catching up with friends and all the movies I've been meaning to watch (The Young Victoria was so good!  Maybe not the plot but the costumes and visuals were drool inducing.  Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man 2 was pretty good looking too haha).

Ok, off to play tennis!

School's Out For Summer

Woohoo!  Well, I've officially finished first year.  I haven't quite gotten around to checking my marks just yet  because I'd like to enjoy my summer a bit before having to worry about the terrible STT I'll probably be stuck with next year (ignorance is bliss).  So far summer has been pretty fab. 

My last final ended at 9:30pm Friday night (my prof forgot to schedule it until I guess the last minute so we got stuck with a terrible time slot) so May 1st was my first real day of summer.  Did my first Salty shift of the season, which went really well.  Worked with some great people at a very cool event in Port Moody.  The focus of the event was mainly on the salmon hatchery, so during one of my breaks I went with one of the leadership students to release baby salmon into the river.  It was SO COOL! 

I'll try to avoid eating sushi next year.

After getting home quickly changed and headed to Vancouver to meet up with friends for poutine at Belgian Fries.  I got poutine with chicken and sweet peas - super delish!  The portions were ginormous though - we all had more than half our bowls left over.  After finishing the Canucks game there we headed over to Metrotown giving away some leftover cupcakes from Chris' belated birthday cake to strangers.  Ended up taking sticky pics and just sitting around chatting before heading home.  I can't remember the last time I took sticker pictures - reminds me of my good ol' grade 8 days.

Sunday I met up with Angela, Brandon, and Michelle for ABC Country's Sunday Breakfast Brunch.  I really didn't want to do the all you can eat brunch because I had an interview later for Business Week, but when the waitress came to take my order there was just TOO MUCH PRESSURE and I ended up just pointing at the brunch menu.  Whoops.  The food was SO good though.

Monday was the start of my Seattle trip!  It was a really great way to celebrate the end of the school year.  The drive down was nuts though: we encounted the craziest weather - redonk winds, heavy rain, sunshine, hail, you name it.  Did tons of shopping (we fell in love with Nordstrom Rack - we hit up 3 different ones), eating, and exploring, and of course, saw Wong Fu Productions at the University of Washington.  We even got invited to eat with them after the show but ended up not going.  Got back Wednesday evening, safe and sound, though significantly poorer.  Oh, fyi something I am very proud of: got about 620km out of a tank of gas, I kid you not!  My car holds 40L and normally driving well I can get maybe 400 at absolute max.

Thursday got lunch with Andy and shopped at Metro.  I had to buy a new Canucks car flag because Emily opened my window when we were driving to Seattle... lol oh well.  Friday I grabbed coffee with Ennis and wandered around downtown catching up before I headed home to get ready for the Canucks game.  We made a Can't Beat Canucks sign and even painted our faces but it was such a brutal game...  By the third period I was so out of it, I ended up just texting friends and wishing the game would hurry up and be over. LONGEST PERIOD OF MY LIFE!

The view.

After the game went to a friend's birthday party.  Wasn't really in the mood to socialize though after the game haha. 

Saturday I had to get up early and head to UBC for our first Business Week social/meeting (I got hired as VP External, woohoo!).  Super excited now, our team seems really great.  Afterwards I had to rush home, change, and head to work (for the first time in a few weeks actually - I booked off finals and my Seattle trip).  Sunday was Mother's Day so my sister prodded me awake at what felt like the crack of dawn (read: 8 am) to make her breakfast in bed.  We made bacon and cheese quiche, which turned out really well considering I've never made it before.  It took quite a while though since I had to fry all the bacon first and the actual baking time took an hour.  My sister had to insist our mom stay in bed.   

Probably the best quiche lorraine I've ever had

After breakfast we went househunting in North Van and West Van but nothing really stood out, so oh goodness I suppose we'll have to keep looking.  I feel terrible for the real estate agent, my parents have been using him for a good 2 months now.  Although I guess he'll get a pretty sweet commission once we do buy one, so it works out.

Whew, I'm finally caught up now on my life!  Today was sorta a fail day.  I was going to get a haircut with Michelle but all the places we went to were closed!  Fail.  Ended up grabbing food and picnicing at Minoru Park where we ran into Terran and Paul.  Watched the ultimate game before heading back to my place to tan in my backyard.  Only managed to stay out for maybe 30 mins before it got too cold though (Fail #2). Went inside to eat dinner and then wound up watching funny videos on youtube.  Around 9:30 we decided to get Tenku and booked it there but they were closed by the time we got there :(  Wound up at McDonalds lol (Fail #3).  All in all a good day though.  I can't believe this is going to be my life for the next four months!!  Nuttin to worry about but what I'm going to eat and wear the next day.  LOVIN' IT!