pattiez's blog

Stephen's comment made me chuckle... and I only say chuckle because giggle seems too silly for the content. Although I must say that chuckle isn't the right word either. *Remembers the short ramble by Miss Eisner about how words cannot be used interchangeably* I digress.

Are we both doomed to be insanely busy or is that how we enjoy our life right now? I think we're both ambitious in our own ways. I'm not clear on what I'm ambitious about, but it's something to do with benefiting my future. (That's good enough, right?) I must admit I need to take extensive breaks to recover from my life.

I just went on a retreat on the weekend. It wasn't much of a break though. It was an all YWiB retreat. (I'm in the SFU chapter, but there's a UBC chapter and a Greater YWiB as well.) The SFU-ers left Friday night and came back Sunday afternoon. Everyone spent Saturday working. We had meetings after meetings, with only meals as breaks. Intensive! Most of us did head out to Garfinkels after quiet time started. (We were staying at the UBC lodge.) As a huge group of girls, needless to say, we didn't have any trouble going in. It was fun and funny. We had each other so we were pretty awesome at getting rid of unwanted guys. Although at the end of the night, it was... different. Most of the stagettes left near the end of the night and all that was left, in terms of females, was our group of girls and a sprinkle of girls who were paired off with guys. Now imagine a club filled with males and a group of girls dancing with each other. It was like vultures checking out their prey. The dork in me immediately thought of Foucault's theory of the panopticon, and then the male gaze ideology. Yes, I'm a true Communications student.

Work hard and party hard. YWiB ladies are the best.

Now back to my notes... meeting with my Co VP tomorrow and then with the board on Sunday. Ahh.

10. work, meeting w/ Co VP
11. work, dino
12. dino, work CTS, out with CTS-ers (pending...)
13. YWiB meeting, grocery shop (pending...)
14. work, purchase world map+colour ink for work
15. work, site visit, meeting with site people, meeting w/ OC
16. work, out with Gor
...best thing about work is that there is not homework

Labels: trip, YWiB

After reading Stephen's new post, I figured I should write one too. I've been insanely busy this semester. I've confirmed that the busy lifestyle is what I love. I love the feeling of going from one place to another. The need to have a continuous to do list. It's so fulfilling to see a page of "to do's" all checked up and having it spill to another page. It's weird, but I'm not exactly "not weird".

It sure doesn't feel like summer though. The weather has been horrible. Toronto gave me a real summer to compare to, so Vancouver is disappointing me right now.

May highlights:

I'm not sure if I mentioned about my first official day of coop. Well, the wind blew out the power... twice. I ended up going home after 3 hours of work; two and a half of which we were out of power.

We spent our first anniversary in front of the television watching the very disappointing round two game four playoff game. Oh, and he made steak dinner. Yum.

Toronto! It was nice and relaxing. I really appreciated the luxury of taking Friday off from coop as well, so my trip was Friday to Monday rather than just Saturday to Monday. The concert was amazing. Our last meal before returning to Raincouver was outside in the patio. We enjoyed a nice meal with a cocktail and 27 degree weather.

Just on Friday, I went to a meeting with the organization that's paying for my coop. I found out when they were introducing me that they wanted me to do a short speech. Improvising in front of 23 established professionals is not exactly a easy thing.

The past week, I've had about 5 hours worth of meetings for YWiB (www.ywib.ca). Come to think about it, compared to the amount of work that has been done, 5 hours isn't a lot. I'm excited to see our programs and events launch by the end of the summer. The hard work will be worth it!

I finally tried the new ramen place: Hokkaido Ramen Santouka. It's a ramen chain that originated from Japan. I really enjoyed the soup. The cha-shu was delicious! It melted in my mouth. Om nom nom. I didn't enjoy the noodles too much, despite the apparent claim by Japanese people that Santouka cooks their noodles perfectly. I would prefer it if it was a tad softer. Just a tad. Oh, and locals claim that Santouka is the most authentic ramen shop in Vancouver. That may be true, but I've had ramen in Hokkaido and well... it's not the same.

Labels: canucks, co-op, concert, food, food adventure, him, holiday, Japan, trip, vacation, YWiB

So this past weekend, the six of us headed to downtown Victoria for our first trip together. We explored many places, but I think I might separate the main events to different blogs. Sound good?


Overall, the trip was relaxing. There were certain things we did that some enjoyed more than others, but that's just expected. It's no fun if all of us like the same things.

We visited many locations yet not enough at the same time. There's just so many places that we've yet explored! I can't wait to go back and hit up all those locations. (Anyone want to go to the Royal British Columbia Museum with me?) We visited Miniature World, Rogers' Chocolate Soda Shoppe, and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, just to name a few.

There's no good looking white guys there... what is up with that!?! (Bring one back for me, Nelson!)

Labels: ladies, trip, victoria