Vampires

Posted by Vanessa June 30, 2009 comments (0)

I draw the line at scary movies. I admit it, when it comes to horror flicks, I'm a chicken. I can handle gore, a la Kill Bill style, but anything I can transport into real life, is off limits. So the alternative is Vampire movies. Not as scary, but unrealistic enough that my imagination can't run wild and scare me into becoming a shut-in. It started with the Blade movies...slightly cheesé - to say the least, not to mention, the not so great acting, but I do like how the vampires burst into flame and turn to ash when killed. The interest recently moved to books with the Twilight series and now it's made it's way to TV, completing the trifecta of obsession, in the form of a little series called True Blood.

I watched all of Season 1 in about a week thanks to free Shaw on Demand and I'm completely hooked. The fact that I had the first 3 episodes of Season 2 pvr'd at home for a full 3 weeks and did not watch them, is nothing short of a miracle! Thankfully Streefy & Scotty came by last night so the waiting was finally over.

While I didn't really like Movie Edward in Twilight, I might have a little crush on Bill, the resident Vampire in Bon Temps, who was born before the Civil War, and says things like "May I call on you?" to Sookie Stackhouse, played by Anna Paquin. While Bill may not be your typical Hollywood pretty boy, his 1800's charm more than makes up for it and kinda makes me wish people talked that way today.

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Posh Pal's Night Out II

Posted by Vanessa June 28, 2009 comments (0)

A few friends, the Posh Pals, have decided to fundraise $10,000 for the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. It's a 60km walk through the neighbourhoods of Vancouver. They held their first fundraising event at Relish a while back, but chose to hold it on a Thursday which is the night I play volleyball, so I opted out and ended up getting so much flack from everyone that I was guilted into attending last night's event. Well really only 2 people gave me a hard time, I'm just easy like that.

Naturally, a Post event requires Posh attire, so the boys decided to wear suits and I decided to wear a cute Japanese inspired dress that ended up being quite boobie. But since it's a fundraiser for boobs, figured it was appropriate. It was held at the Sylvia hotel downtown. It was fun to see so many people all poshed out and the free booze came in very handy as I was reunited with old co-workers from my Riptown days.

Between saying hi to old co-workers, trying to sit to give my toes a rest from breaking in the new stilettos and flirting with the cute boy from GIB, the event was suddenly over. Somehow 3 hrs had disappeared and I hadn't even made it back to my crew that I arrived with - I blame the free beers and lack of food, although they did have a risotto bar which was a pretty decent. I had also missed when Justin won a personal chef for either dinner for 4, a romantic dinner for 2 (I know Ozzie's hoping he'll be asked), or meals for a week. Disappointed that I didn't win anything, my whining was cut short by Justin who promptly asked if I bid on anything in the silent auction. As I confessed I had not, Justin was all too ready with "Well then no, you didn't". Clearly not a friend who sugar coats and gives it to you straight. Walking away sans any winnings aside, it was fun to give my schlepy jeans and t-shirt a break and go out dressed to the nines...especially when randomly running into a cute boy you've been crushing on and you're wearing a boobie dress.

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Toronto

Posted by Vanessa June 26, 2009 comments (0)

Let's face it, Toronto's not really a place I've ever had a desire to go. There are so many other wonderful and exciting places in the world that Toronto is somewhere near the bottom...right next to Manitoba. But since I was going to Boston with Tan, I figured might as well make the best of the jet lag I was going to suffer and check out Toronto while on that side of the continent.

Tan took his hosting duties seriously and as Wednesday approached, he began listing "suggestions" for the rest of the week. First off was dinner w/his nephew on Wednesday. It was his 30th birthday, a milestone not to be missed. Thursday was oysters with his close friends, however they were balls deep in packing, so they weren't able to join. Tan and I still ended up going for oysters and we later met up with his friend Jeff at Reposado a quaint little bar dedicated to Tequila with a live band.


The baseball game was scheduled for Friday. Aside from being surrounded by 14yr old girls, screeching in our ears, calling out to Alex Rios whenever he was in the field, and the fact that the Blue Jays lost in a dramatic fashion - grand slam in the 8th - and the horrifying replacement of "Take me out to the ball game" during the 7th inning stretch with some random song who's chorus is "Ok, Blue Jays, let's play ball", well....it was ok. Frankly it was tough to get over the 7th inning stretch song replacement, I mean, even the Canadians - a minor league baseball team - play "Take me out to the ball game". Sigh, I digress.


Saturday was the musical, and we decided to go see We Will Rock You, the Queen musical. We managed to score front row tickets for $25 which did rock! Aside from fearing we'd be kicked in the head or worse, spat on by the actors, it was a great show and amazingly, I knew more than one song! We proceeded to have drinks on a rooftop Milestones patio before making the subway trek back to Tan's.

Though our evenings were jam packed, we did manage to find time for band practice, a la Rock Band style, and movie watching. There were also numerous afternoons spent drinking beer on the patio and doing the daily crossword or game on Tan's iPhone. I was quite impressed at the patio selections in Toronto. Granted we stayed out of the downtown core and hit up mostly neighbourhood pubs/patios but they seemed to be in the middle of the most unlikely of places. One of my favourites was a mexican restaurant on Balwin street, which was just a hop, skip and a jump away from the AGO, and had amazing margaritas that Tan couldn't resist and had to double fist.

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Boston

Posted by Vanessa June 22, 2009 comments (0)

Once a year I usually take off, leaving my troubles behind and head somewhere new for a few days. I try to time it around the holidays since it's usually a busy time and well...let's face - that much family time can sometimes drive a person crazy. This year I delayed my trip because Ozzie and Jenn decided get married in January in Mexico, forcing all of us to take time off work, drink all we can drink, eat all we can eat, and above all else - have an absolutely fab time. The nerve!

So instead, I decided to take my trip in June. I left on a jet plane to Boston, a city I've never been to before and I was looking forward to seeing the historical city full of cute boys with Boston accents, amazing clam chowder, Harvard and above all else, the Green Monster. Although I'm not a big baseball fan, going to a ballgame is an entirely different experience. Tan decided to accompany me on my Bostonian adventure, and while he's a Blue Jays fan at heart, he was willing to put hometown pride aside and cheer on the Red Sox at one of the oldest and most famous ball parks in all of Baseball history.


Our adventures started out by dining at a quaint little restaurant in Little Italy where we made friends with the server. She had a lovely Boston accent and later in the evening, gave us a free glass of vino, probably due to the inordinate amount of "please" and "thank you's" we said. This might have been a mistake had we not recovered gracefully, since Tan had already tried to pour wine into my water glass and I later became deaf and completely missed the hooting and hollering from drunk boys stumbling out of the bars on the walk home. I was safe though - Tan was prepared to defend my honour. All he asked in return was to avoid eye contact with the drunkards.


We spent the next couple of days putzing about the city taking in the various sites: Harvard, Boston Garden, Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market to name a few. I learned a lot about the Boston Massacre at the Old State House museum. For example, the Boston Massacre got it's name after a kerfuffle broke out between the locals and the British during which 5 people died. Yup, that's right - 5. Moving on...


We stumbled upon Cheers where we stopped to have a beer and we even spent a morning at the Aquarium, which was a lesson in patience as we made our way through the scads of tweeners running amok through the Aquarium, screaming, yelling and randomly singing songs at the top of their lungs. Not to mention losing Tan a few times. He later informed me those plaques beside the fish tanks that I couldn't be bothered with, were apparently meant to be read and contained valuable information about the sea life you're looking at. Again, moving on...

We did the Fenway tour as it was recommended to Tan by a friend of his, during which we got to sit on top of the Green Monster and in the most expensive seats in the ball park. Seats in this section will cost you $315K because you have to purchase 2 season tickets for 7 years. Later that night we took in a Red Sox vs Yankees game which puts all other baseball games I've been to to shame. It was standing room only, the cheers would've fooled anyone into thinking the Red Sox won the game when it was really only the first pitch in the first inning and if you were a Yankees fan in the stands, of which there were a surprising few - look out! "Yankees Suck" was a common cheer throughout the game. A surprising treat at the game, aside from the Fenway Frank and introducing Tan to Kettle Corn Popcorn (seriously - who hasn't had Kettle Corn Popcorn before?!), was that "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond is played at the bottom on the 8th inning at every single home game. Seeing a sold out stadium of 37,000+ fans sing the chorus at the top of their lungs is a sight not easily erased from memory. Nor is the memory of a Red Sox and Yankees fan getting into a fight which resulted in the girlfriend of the Red Sox fan throwing a beer at the Yankees fan and subsequently being thrown out. A little excessive in my humble opinion, I mean really...that's alcohol abuse.

Next stop...Toronto.

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Hello Grandma

Posted by Vanessa June 21, 2009 comments (0)

My grandma is 93 yrs old. She's a current resident at Carlton Gardens due to old age and slight dimensia. I went to visit her one weekend and was greeted by my grandpa. After saying Hi to my grandma and listening to her mention how she used to have long black hair like me - the usual routine - I sat and listened to Grandpa regail me of stories of their past. They once had a boat and they used to go sailing to Pender island all the time. They were both retired then so I suppose they had nothing better to do with their time. I have vague memories of standing on the docks with a foot on the boat, probably too scared to actually step onto the boat - my sister is the fearless one in the family. The story continued as I listened quietly and asked questions only when there was complete silence otherwise Grandpa would continue along having not heard me. Randomly when my grandma thought we were talking about her, she would try contributing to the convo but it generally was a mumble combination of japanese and "aaahhhh". Finally after about an hour, I started to get ready to go. The moment I stood up, my grandma reached for her walking cane, slowly got up and headed to the door. Slightly startled, and frankly shocked at the speed my grandma moved past me, I quickly said goodbye to Grandpa and rushed after Grandma. Luckily for me her charm school training stopped her at the door and she paused to say " It was nice to meet you " before she sped off down the hallway, unsure of where she was going, just knowing it was time to go.

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Spring cleaning in full effect

Posted by Vanessa June 15, 2009 comments (0)

Ah, Spring. The flowers bloom, the snow is replaced with rain, the sun makes guest appearances, the allergies kick in and it's usually when people decide it's time to clean out all the useless stuff that's been collecting dust over the long dreary cold winter. Ok sure, it's currently closer to Summer than Spring, but being a little late to the party seems to be a common occurrence for me and Spring cleaning was no except.

As previously posted, I went to Seattle a while ago and ended up coming home with 9 pairs of shoes (please hold disbelief, shock, lecturing and commenting till the end). I needed to make some adjustments in order to accommodate the latest additions to the ever growing shoe collection. Tripping over the 9 boxes on my way to my vanity was just not cutting it. The re-org took 2 full days because along with re-organizing my storage space, I decided to do a bit of spring cleaning and find stuff for the Posh Pal's yard sale in July to raise funds for the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. Ok, that's a lie - it didn't actually take 2 days. That was just how long the whole process would've taken if you put it all back to back. It actually spanned over the course of about a week. Every time I went through a pile of stuff to cull, I ended up with a bigger mess to clean up. Every time I re-organized a small section of my closet or bookshelf, I ended up with a bigger mess to clean up. Every time I took a break to eat something, I ended up with a bigger mess to clean up. You get the picture.

It was a very long week. And after finally ditching some old pictures, getting rid of clothes that I no longer wear, finally letting go of shoes I haven't worn in years and cleaning up the big mess for the ump-teenth time - I ended up with a bigger mess to clean up. And now I have chaotic yet somewhat organized piles cluttering my already small living room to boot. Really, it's a never ending battle. One that could only be resolved by the hiring of a maid if it weren't for the embarrassing fact that I live in a 570sq ft box. Evidently a new solution is needed but until a effortless non-embarrassing way arises, I'll just embrace the "lived in" state of my house and hope the cat doesn't decide to use the mess as a litter box.

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Was that a date? Hope not

Posted by Vanessa June 2, 2009 comments (0)

I'm sure everyone's had an experience like this in their past. You know that awkward question that starts in the back of your head and takes over all your conscience thoughts: "Did s/he just ask me out on a date?" Sometimes, it's an invitation from someone we'd like to date and just aren't sure if the invite can be classified as a bona fide date. But sometimes, it's the even more awkward statement of "Did s/he just ask me out on a date? I hope not because s/he's really only a friend". I have been the victim of this situation a few times unfortunately, and I apparently didn't handle some of them very well. It seems ignoring the guy was not the way to go - who knew.


Having had this happen to me yet again, I decided to met him for drinks one night, as friends, in hopes of redeeming my a fore mentioned uncouth behaviour. We were sitting in a bar/restaurant where there were many tables of pretty gals. First step in handling my situation properly was to introduce him AS my friend to the staff who have started to recognize me. (Will definitely need to start dealing with this Cheers effect soon - it's becoming embarrassing) Immediately after that, I took the wingman approach and began scoping out the lovelys for him, trying to gage who he thought was cute and who wasn't. After that the conversation flowed pretty easily, and by beer 2, I was pretty sure we were just 2 friends having a drink.

As the evening came to a close, I felt pretty good about my job at nipping this idea in the bud until the bill showed. He wouldn't let me pay for my portion of the bill, which is a pet peeve of mine when I'm out with friends. I protested and finally caved on the basis that he kept holding the bill out of arms length - not a difficult feat when it's compared to my arm length. I chalked it up to him being just a sweet guy. So we left the restaurant and headed home. I was almost skipping back to my place feeling very grown up for having handled this time around much better than previous times. And then Mr. Friend called when he realized he should've offered to walk me to my door. Eek - did he not get the hint? Were my clues about us just being friends not clear enough? Sigh. In the end, I chalked that one up to him being sweet as well - after all, he really is a genuinely nice guy with the rare chivalrous manners most women gawf at these days.

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