Yesterday I considered to be my 'only' day off this week, as Monday was spent at the company picnic. Nathan texted and then called me up (as I was oblivious to the text) about his company having a small function with a BBQ at the end, and would I like some free food? Of course I like free food. It's the yummiest sort of food. Next to free family food, that is.
So after a long 'how the heck to I get there' session of planning and yes, some whining (I hate taking buses for the first time, I get so disoriented!) I was on my way. The weather was so odd - when I left it was raining (oh darn! I just remembered I left my umbrella in his car last night!!) but when I got there it was very sunny, with blue skies and fluffy white clouds.
This was my first visit to his workplace, and I felt like it was 'meet the parents' all over again, but this time with coworkers sizing up the girlfriend. I had a few moments of wondering if I would make the grade in their eyes before I looked at Nathan and thought, 'who cares what they think? He loves me and that's what matters most.' I don't have to tell you all how it feels to have a confidence booster like him next to me, do I?
I had to live through their company presentation, with the big boss making a speech. I wanted to bolt from that room, screaming incoherently. Am I the only one who gets serious bad vibes from offices? It's the whole closed space, poor unnatural lighting and the 3 hour long meetings to come up with a simple mission statement. And all the gossip of an office! Jeez, it's enough to make my skin crawl. I told Nathan, later on, that if we were sitting at desks like in school, I'd be banging my head on the one in front of me to drown out the chatter. Was it all worth the free food? I haven't decided yet. At least at my company picnic, I was not expected to listen in, as all the speeches were made in Korean and my coworker Yoo-li filled me in on whatever was important.
Nathan's coworkers were interesting, I cannot say too much on the subject save for one reminded me somewhat of my brother Cenrik in appearance and attitude. I am not saying that is a bad thing, merely this was my impression. Nathan showed me around his work area and I could see why he wouldn't want to do this forever. There is monotony in this profession. But I can see myself making fun centerpieces of the fire extinguisher canisters. What can I say, my brain seems to be wired on wedding-type things. I'm in love. So sue me. Don't really sue me though, as I'm too broke to make any money off of.
When all that was said and done we went to the beach. As the day's rain was far behind us it was in the end a great day to spend by the ocean. We laughed and talked and I reminisced about our first visit there. White rock beach was the first place (after IHOP, of course) Nathan took me on my first trip to BC, back when I was still living in Montreal and we were SL avatars cuddling up in cyberspace. I will simply say that these days he is much more the gentleman, who isn't trying to fit in as much 'private time' as possible before I need to fly back. I am not going anywhere so now its all sweet romance which many of you might disagree with me when I say I much prefer it this way. Ladies, make your men treat you like ladies. It feels way more special.
Anyways, enough of that. We sat there on the beach surrounded by stones and made a game of hitting a log in front of us in such a way as to have the stone bounce over it. After I won at that game we started really admiring all the kinds of rocks to be found on the beach, and Nathan mentioned how fun it would be to have a rock tumbler to really shine them up and see their potential. So we zipped over to the mall and found one which Nathan believed was much more expensive than it ought to have been, but we split the cost and brought it home to his parents place, set it up and started it running.
It's really noisy. And it takes up to 4 days just to finish the first round of a total of 4 to have them polished up. We ended up putting it in the laundry room, surrounding it with towels to muffle the noise while we laid on the bed enjoying some peaceful tunes (by Casting Crowns) on his computer. Once it finally decided to load up, that is.
Eventually I had him drive me home, and that was my day, really. I will try to post the final product once the stones are finish tumbling to perfection. Then I will try to decide what to do with them...
Melody
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Woah a Post!
Well now, it seems like I had enough of a break from this thing. Time to get back to writing. Plus, I am sure my family wouldn't mind hearing a bit about my life and what's going on inside my brain.
I am trying to decide how to go about this, and all that goes through my head are those classic questions - who, what, where and when. Who, that is the biggest question, isn't it?
So who am I? Well, I am a girl (well, maybe more of a woman) who dreams. Have you ever written a bucket list? You've at least heard of the movie by that name. It's about two men who are at the end of their lives (both in the hospital, and it's not looking to great) who decide to embark on this whirlwind adventure around the globe crossing out items from their 'bucket' list - which is essentially everything they want to do before they kick the bucket. As a duo they end up being able to cross everything off their list (and I am freely able to cry my eyeballs out) and become better people for having done so.
We all want our lives to have meaning. If we were to die tomorrow, how much regret would each of us carry with us in the afterlife? (assuming, of course, that you believe in such a thing). A bucket list embodies our dreams, everything we want out of our lives. I really think everyone should write one. Sit your bums down for a few hours and really hash out what you want. And the fun thing about all this? You can achieve it all, if you have the drive for it.
So here's mine SO FAR (because, I've found, the more you go through life, the more your dreams might change or expand) as an example. It is, by the way, in no particular order.
MELODY'S SUPER DUPER BUCKET LIST
-get married
-have 1-2 kids (in this case, this must come after marriage. Just because. So there.)
-adopt a dog
-own my own house with a greenhouse
-run my own small business
-take as many baking classes as I can (this will be ongoing for life)
-learn a ballroom dance (at least one)
-go skydiving
-go hang-gliding
-take a hot air balloon ride (see a pattern?)
-learn to snowboard
-learn to scuba dive and dive in tropical waters
-go on a romantic and adventurous cruise
-travel across Europe
-go cave-diving in giant caverns, such as those in Lebanon
-learn a martial art
-go sailing
-eat jerk chicken off the beach in Jamaica (not literally.. that would be too sandy. yuck.)
-go white water rafting
I used to, as a joke, have in the list 'win the lottery' but really, it's not likely, and not necessary to achieve all these goals. What are your dreams? Do you have a bucket list of your own?
Now, forgetting all those questions at the beginning of this post, I will tell you about my day yesterday, because I would say it was fairly blog-worthy.
As many of you know, I am taking care of Nathans pet lizards - they are female bearded dragons named Rhea (Ray-uh) and Toothless (named after the dragon from 'How to Train Your Dragon'). They often eat crickets, and Nathan brought over a hundred or so for their food - to be fed a few dozen a day or so, to make them last. They were fairly small, and got out of the cricket cage they were being held in and wandered the top floor of the townhouse I live in. Now, I live here because Jennifer, the owner and housemate, is a total sweetheart who needed an extra body in the house to be able to pay the bills, and I've been here less than a month. Daily, she has been finding these insects roaming in her room and it's got her freaked out. I am totally embarrassed, to say the least, and made sure to feed all the remaining crickets to the lizards and yesterday moved all my furniture and vacuumed everywhere to make sure there was none remaining. I cleaned out their cage completely as well, and when I placed everything back, all clean and tidy... out popped a cricket from nowhere. I mean it. There are, in fact, such things as ninja crickets, I am convinced of it now. I nabbed in and hand fed it to Rhea, to make sure it was eliminated. Now, I just pray that NO MORE somehow ninja their way into Jennifer's room and scare the bejeezus out of her. I also plan on baking her something sweet as a "I am so sorry and embarrassed, it won't happen again' apology gift.
Later on in the day was the company picnic. I work for a Korean grocery store as a cashier. It's not a glamorous job by any means, but they are amazing people to work for and I feel blessed to be there. And seriously, I am. I am the ONLY non-Asian employee. Of all the branches. At least, I was the only one to go to the picnic.
The food, as always, was delicious. But it was the games that we came for. First up was volleyball, and the guys played amazingly well. Most of the employees at my branch are older, and in some ways this puts them at a disadvantage. But they excelled, and came in 2nd behind the catering company, who were younger and obviously better players. Even so, it was a close game and really fun to watch. I led a few cheers, teaching the other cashiers a few simple English ones (Let's go Langley let's go! woo woo!!)
Then came dodgeball. I used to be fairly good at this game but jeez the field we played on was tiny and you had no room to maneuver. We totally smoked the downtown branch, which is mainly comprised of young girls who squealed when the ball came their way and were seriously easy targets but when it came to playing against the warehouse crew, we fought valiantly but eventually were defeated. So once more we were 2nd place.
Then came *groans* the relay race. Remember when I said we were an older group? I will also add that all the men are avid smokers. Yeah, we didn't have a chance. I was pegged to be last in the relay to run for our team - they thought that since I've been biking to work on sunny days I must be somehow a great runner. Umm yeah, sure. I would like to point out that I am very short, and have only just started using my bike this month. But I didn't really have to worry, because we had already lost by the time the baton was passed to me. I just had to run against a girl for 5th place (of 6) and tried hard to a)not trip her up as she was running into me and b)not sprain my ankle as we were running on rough terrain, and not a track. Oh, and I don't have running shoes. Maybe I ought to add 'own a pair of running shoes' to my bucket list.
Finally was the XO game. It's trivia statements that you had to determine was either true or false. Doesn't sound too complicated, right? Well, it's all in Korean. One of my co-workers, Yooli, helped me by translating, and everything she couldn't translate I simply went with the majority. I ended up winning third place. Out of EVERYONE. I was stunned. My co-workers were thrilled!
I won a 1TB portable storage device for a PC. For those who do not know what a TB is, its 1000 gigabytes. I looked up the model and it sells for about 120$. Not too shabby. Only thing though? I own a Mac. So I am deciding now what to do with this thing. My boyfriend has been needing one for quite awhile, so maybe I might trade it to him for something?
I am trying to decide how to go about this, and all that goes through my head are those classic questions - who, what, where and when. Who, that is the biggest question, isn't it?
So who am I? Well, I am a girl (well, maybe more of a woman) who dreams. Have you ever written a bucket list? You've at least heard of the movie by that name. It's about two men who are at the end of their lives (both in the hospital, and it's not looking to great) who decide to embark on this whirlwind adventure around the globe crossing out items from their 'bucket' list - which is essentially everything they want to do before they kick the bucket. As a duo they end up being able to cross everything off their list (and I am freely able to cry my eyeballs out) and become better people for having done so.
We all want our lives to have meaning. If we were to die tomorrow, how much regret would each of us carry with us in the afterlife? (assuming, of course, that you believe in such a thing). A bucket list embodies our dreams, everything we want out of our lives. I really think everyone should write one. Sit your bums down for a few hours and really hash out what you want. And the fun thing about all this? You can achieve it all, if you have the drive for it.
So here's mine SO FAR (because, I've found, the more you go through life, the more your dreams might change or expand) as an example. It is, by the way, in no particular order.
MELODY'S SUPER DUPER BUCKET LIST
-get married
-have 1-2 kids (in this case, this must come after marriage. Just because. So there.)
-adopt a dog
-own my own house with a greenhouse
-run my own small business
-take as many baking classes as I can (this will be ongoing for life)
-learn a ballroom dance (at least one)
-go skydiving
-go hang-gliding
-take a hot air balloon ride (see a pattern?)
-learn to snowboard
-learn to scuba dive and dive in tropical waters
-go on a romantic and adventurous cruise
-travel across Europe
-go cave-diving in giant caverns, such as those in Lebanon
-learn a martial art
-go sailing
-eat jerk chicken off the beach in Jamaica (not literally.. that would be too sandy. yuck.)
-go white water rafting
I used to, as a joke, have in the list 'win the lottery' but really, it's not likely, and not necessary to achieve all these goals. What are your dreams? Do you have a bucket list of your own?
Now, forgetting all those questions at the beginning of this post, I will tell you about my day yesterday, because I would say it was fairly blog-worthy.
As many of you know, I am taking care of Nathans pet lizards - they are female bearded dragons named Rhea (Ray-uh) and Toothless (named after the dragon from 'How to Train Your Dragon'). They often eat crickets, and Nathan brought over a hundred or so for their food - to be fed a few dozen a day or so, to make them last. They were fairly small, and got out of the cricket cage they were being held in and wandered the top floor of the townhouse I live in. Now, I live here because Jennifer, the owner and housemate, is a total sweetheart who needed an extra body in the house to be able to pay the bills, and I've been here less than a month. Daily, she has been finding these insects roaming in her room and it's got her freaked out. I am totally embarrassed, to say the least, and made sure to feed all the remaining crickets to the lizards and yesterday moved all my furniture and vacuumed everywhere to make sure there was none remaining. I cleaned out their cage completely as well, and when I placed everything back, all clean and tidy... out popped a cricket from nowhere. I mean it. There are, in fact, such things as ninja crickets, I am convinced of it now. I nabbed in and hand fed it to Rhea, to make sure it was eliminated. Now, I just pray that NO MORE somehow ninja their way into Jennifer's room and scare the bejeezus out of her. I also plan on baking her something sweet as a "I am so sorry and embarrassed, it won't happen again' apology gift.
Later on in the day was the company picnic. I work for a Korean grocery store as a cashier. It's not a glamorous job by any means, but they are amazing people to work for and I feel blessed to be there. And seriously, I am. I am the ONLY non-Asian employee. Of all the branches. At least, I was the only one to go to the picnic.
The food, as always, was delicious. But it was the games that we came for. First up was volleyball, and the guys played amazingly well. Most of the employees at my branch are older, and in some ways this puts them at a disadvantage. But they excelled, and came in 2nd behind the catering company, who were younger and obviously better players. Even so, it was a close game and really fun to watch. I led a few cheers, teaching the other cashiers a few simple English ones (Let's go Langley let's go! woo woo!!)
Then came dodgeball. I used to be fairly good at this game but jeez the field we played on was tiny and you had no room to maneuver. We totally smoked the downtown branch, which is mainly comprised of young girls who squealed when the ball came their way and were seriously easy targets but when it came to playing against the warehouse crew, we fought valiantly but eventually were defeated. So once more we were 2nd place.
Then came *groans* the relay race. Remember when I said we were an older group? I will also add that all the men are avid smokers. Yeah, we didn't have a chance. I was pegged to be last in the relay to run for our team - they thought that since I've been biking to work on sunny days I must be somehow a great runner. Umm yeah, sure. I would like to point out that I am very short, and have only just started using my bike this month. But I didn't really have to worry, because we had already lost by the time the baton was passed to me. I just had to run against a girl for 5th place (of 6) and tried hard to a)not trip her up as she was running into me and b)not sprain my ankle as we were running on rough terrain, and not a track. Oh, and I don't have running shoes. Maybe I ought to add 'own a pair of running shoes' to my bucket list.
Finally was the XO game. It's trivia statements that you had to determine was either true or false. Doesn't sound too complicated, right? Well, it's all in Korean. One of my co-workers, Yooli, helped me by translating, and everything she couldn't translate I simply went with the majority. I ended up winning third place. Out of EVERYONE. I was stunned. My co-workers were thrilled!
I won a 1TB portable storage device for a PC. For those who do not know what a TB is, its 1000 gigabytes. I looked up the model and it sells for about 120$. Not too shabby. Only thing though? I own a Mac. So I am deciding now what to do with this thing. My boyfriend has been needing one for quite awhile, so maybe I might trade it to him for something?
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