Updates from June

Highlights:

1. I celebrated my birthday one week early with the Gang. They surprised me by taking me to dinner at Saigon Star. That's when I discovered that Saigon Star had been renovated, and now it looks just like all the other Asian fusion restaurants, like Spring Rolls and Asian Legend. That's not a bad thing, except they changed their menu, too! All the former authentic Vietnamese dishes have all been expunged to make the menu more presentable and easier to read. That means that there's a lot less variety to choose from now.

After dinner, we went to see a movie, Shrek 3. The reviews weren't all that positive, and at the end, some of the Gang said it was quite boring, and I have to admit, the beginning was a bit boring. But, it was still very funny the rest of the way. I liked it and that's what matters most! =P

Then we went to have dessert at Kelseys. We ordered some finger foods and then two apple crumbles a la mode. The waiter even put two candles on it, the sparkly kind when it burns. It was so pretty! For gifts, I got a $50 dollar gift card from T&Ca, and then I got an elegant chrome watch by Guess from Cl. and D.

It was a fantabulous night!


2. On Friday afternoon, I went downtown to the World's Biggest Bookstore to buy a textbook for my summer school course. While riding the subway, I was reading Speaker for the Dead, the 2nd novel in the Ender Trilogy by Orson Scott Card. A stranger sitting across from me interrupted me to ask me if I liked the sequel, b/c he apparently doesn't think sequels are any good. I told him he should try it b/c in some ways, it's just as good as Ender's Game. Some ways.

He went on to tell me about the books he likes, and then I asked him his opinion on Robert Sawyer. Surprisingly, this stranger doesn't think very highly of Sawyer either. He was trying very hard to say that Sawyer is a self-obsessed, self-gratifying and self-promoting writer, but he couldn't say it. I could guess though b/c that's how I found Sawyer as well when I met him. The Stranger said that Sawyer believes he's a much better writer than he is. A lot of his ideas aren't that original. I TOTALLY AGREE!

Anyway, I thought that was so weird how I bumped into a total stranger who also doesn't like Sawyer. To be fair, I only met Sawyer once, and I haven't read any of his novels, only heard and read excerpts. But, the thing that is strange is that I don't feel like I want to read any of his books, especially after having met the writer and have heard the writer read live. This is very unusual b/c what has happened in the past is that when I meet a writer and I listen to him/her read live, the experience is so special and magical that I get sucked into the hype. This time, it was totally the opposite. Could you believe that?

How sad.


3. On Friday night, my mum had to go to her friend's house to help out with preparing the food for the next day's BBQ. My dad drove her, so I was stuck with babysitting Steph. She was okay at first, but then she realized that my parents were gone, and so she started to cry. I asked her if she wanted cookies, and she said no. Then I asked her if she wanted milk, and she said yes. So, I gave her the heated milk and I was hoping she would fall asleep after that. Boy was I wrong!

She wasn't feeling secure enough to fall asleep without my parents at home, so she sat up watching TV. Then she wanted to have cookies, so I gave her the cookies so that she won't start crying again. She had the cookies, and then went back to watching TV. A while later, she wanted to get out of bed and go look for my parents. I wouldn't let her b/c then she'll start crying again. But, she cried anyway. As I was helping her out of the bed, she vomited on me and the blanket! EW!!

I remained very calm, though. I was very surprised with myself. I took the blanket off the bed, put our clothes into the washer, and washed all the sheets. I didn't get to bed until 1:30 am. My parents came home in the meantime, and my mum was not pleased. She glared at Steph and the toddler almost started to cry again.


4. Finally, on my birthday, I stayed at home and filed. I have to file my stuff right away and organize everything, otherwise, I won't feel like doing it any more in the future.