RE: Back on Track Part 1

So this is a little awkward.... It's the beginning of November and I still have things from the summer that I haven't brought up. My summer started off with school and not so much fun and ended with more of an intensity ( if that even makes sense). A lot of it is highlighted previously here. Be warned that that post is photo heavy. However, I forgot to mention a couple details.

I started babysitting my four year old second cousin (I belive that's what it would be) during the summer. Her mom needed me to watch her while she did some gardening and house work once a week and it did a big part towards livening up my summer. I decided to only take one school course over the summer naievely because the offer came up. Nonetheless, I really did enjoy it and am grateful for having the oppourtunity. I only ended up seeing her for about a month but somehow I feel like we connected and that's all I would ever want. These past couple years has really got me appreciating relationships, expecially within the family. There are certain times where I have also opened up my eyes to instances where a "family" does not look like a family (as us Chinese would say). To keep it short, I'm really happy to have been able to help someone out while building a unique relationship. Now that Thanksgiving and Halloween have passed, I am over the moon about going Christmas shopping. It kind of feels like out of the blue, but I have so many little ones to think of this year and that has gotten me way way too excited. 

I got the oppourtunity to hang out with my direct cousins again just before school started with annual famjam dimsum. It was great because we weren't able to plan much as M started working weekends and the V's went on vacation (which I becames super jealous of). I kind of wanted to make something more of it because usually we just caught up, ate, and then went back to our boring lives, so I suggested we hang out afterwards. M was already hungover so he bailed and my sisters had plans of their own. So Bert and I crashed the V's just for the sake of doing something. It was pretty chill we ended up killing a lot of time eventually pulling out the booze. Arth made us a massive long island in one of the decor glasses from the shop and apart from being humongous, it was delicious. He made a fruity weird one afterwards and that easily put Bert to sleep. In between mixing drinks, we made a trip to Safeway for some snacks and that was when Arth realized his ex was looking for him because she was crashing his place for a couple nights and she was transiting with her luggage. So she ended up showing up and pretty much bitching him out. He was downstairs with her for what seemed like way too long and we ended up going home for dinner. Interesting day nonetheless and all I can say is, that guy. *sigh. He'll make it in the real world someday. Somehow. Haha. I should really be worrying about myself first anyways.

With that, school started again. Pretty uneventful in the begining with nothing that really stuck out. I feel like maybe it was a little too boring. The only issue was 8 am mornings 4 times a week with the punch line being Math first thing. As school chugged along, fall ultimate started and I might have mentioned it but I was "recruited" (being B's sister) to a team based off of the team I played on in the summer. I was kind of hesitant worried that I would be supper busy and truth be told, I only made a handful of games. I ended up bailing a couple for school (and because I didn't think I would help), and ended up sitting out the very last game because Mother Nature can be a b*tch. It was fun when I was on the field though. 

I mentioned having an excess of kids to shop for this Christmas earlier because I met and have been spending time with a niece and nephew who recently moved to Canada from HK (ruuun onnn...). They are tiny, delicate, rich, children but are the smartest, cutest, rowdiest little beings I have been related to. (I can't say they are the rowdiest I've met, because some of the kids at work get pretty darn rowdy.) I feel like everytime I'm with them, things get brighter and as cliche as it sounds, it's true. Along with the impact of "here, meet the kid that you played with in his stroller  at dinner when you were little and his little sister", we were also welcomed with the messy and unfullyunderstandable story of their family. I can't really go into much detail but I feel like the fact that such smart kids could come out of a situation so messed up is a miracle. And regardless of the fact that in reality, this mess has affected them, they will be loved in the future. I can't really pinpoint it at the moment but spending time with them leaves me refreshed and happy about my life. However, often, the feeling is bittersweet.

Flipping again back to the other side of the family (and yes, my family are my friends), popo decided to invite us over for dinner and to cook up a storm for us one night. It was awesome because my grandmother is an amazing Asian cook as well as I got to see people again. =D I really like seeing popo super happy because it feels so rewarding. I don't know how to make this sound good but it's hard to make a person that happy alone. And when we're all together, you can kind of see the extra sparkle in her eyes. I'm probably making things up but I feel like she's reporting to Grandpa for herself. "If you could only see this." Aside, B brought up Christmasses with Gramps yesterday and the fact that I only really remember one Christmas scene with him is kind of upsetting. But, I feel like they had to have been amazing. There's no way such an amazing man could do otherwise. I didn't know him very well but I miss him. 

Whoa, that got really sentimental really fast. Moving on, midterms came and went. Sort of created another shitty phase im my term. Nothing special, tons of regrets by now, but I'll get over it. 

October 11th was a pretty memorable day this year (wow, sounds like I'm recapitulating the year cuz it's over already but I swear, I'm not). I had a midterm in the morning and then let school on my break to prep for a pair of twins' birthdays. I wanted to help make it special so I decided to get flowers and pick some other cute gifts. We went to Sweetery cafe near Olympic Village and had lunch. It was really nice to go out and talk and eat. It's a lot more fun when you're with friends versus your laptop screen and textbooks. Up until that day, I had done some planning and organising to get my cousins and some friends out to try the Electro Dash. Photos can be found amongst the many in this post. It was pretty much a glow in the dark run at night for charity ending with a rave inside the colluseium. It was a lot of fun, proving how so very unfit I was. Only my friends, and the underages were free before the run so I think Arth was reluctant to pull out anything strong but he did end up mixing a round of fruity drinks. Along with our order of 300+ glowsticks, he had ordered LED plastic ice cubes so we threw those in just to add to the theme. I was skeptical when he ordered them, but I'll admit that they are pretty cool. We crashed Arth's again after our post run Pho binge and spent a lot of time in the dark with glowsticks all over the place. I guess I couldn't have expected much with the assortment of people and ages we had. So we pretty much bummed around and were lame until my friends and R's friends left before hitting the "bar". Bert and I spent the rest of the night plastered to the floor with shot glasses in our hands. Yeah, the alchoholism runs in our blood. No shame in that. Besides, Arth's a pretty good mixer. Tried some nasty shit for the first time as well as a Brain Hemorrhage (however it's spelt) which actually tasted like brain. It's pretty much what happens when you accidently mix bailey's and anything fruity and sweet. *So psyched for xmas famjamming ;D

After that comes Thanksgiving Albert was away but we made roast beef and lamb racks anyways. I ended up being in charge of the roast and while it was easy to prep, I got the timings a little off. Regardless, it came out a little overcooked like always. We had Mama and the kids over and too much food but all in all, a great time. Food was delicious after so much effort put into it. 

So I've been typing and typing now and I feel like by now, I'll probably get tired of reading the next time I get back to this. I had one last thing to talk about from before this month started but it's pretty long winded. Plus it's not something I think I will forget easily at all so it can wait. I asked N to join me for a run tomorrow because I realized how unactive I have become so I really need to be able to get up for that. Good night for now. Ciao.

Old draft. New post.

Flipping through the past couple posts, I've realized how photo congested this blog has become; purely because of how fast time is passing. I almost feel like life is spinning past me and by the time I think of something to write down, it has gone and passed. *thank goodness for iPhones and instagram.....

Things.

I realized I hadn't posted about this here to keep things light and the reason why it seems so long is because I have déjà vu about the other blog but I figured I can follow up here (#runon).

I just got this photo this morning after hearing word about donation processes and such. 

Unfortunately, I don't know her name but this is one of the newer sponsored child from Guatemala and her sister. The plaque was made as a memorial for the library being built there. Funded and sponsored by the world of an exceptional memory and person. 

Photo update