Vodka and Soda

Photo Challenge: Day 2

 

Day 2 -  a picture of two things you love, together.

Photo Challenge

My first blog challenge; all pictures, no words. Easy, if you ask me.   Got this from Reni's blog.

If you want to participate, leave me a comment so I can take a peek at your pictures.  Here are the 10 challenge prompts:

day 1:  a photo of your view from your office window/from your desk.

day 2:  a picture of two things you love, together.

day 3:  three of your favorite pairs of shoes

day 4:  four photos from your past.

day 5:  five of your favourite/most used cosmetic products.

day 6:  five of your favorite flowers.

day 7:  four things that make you happiest.

day 8:  three photos of someone smiling. you and/or someone else.

day 9:  your favorite set of underwear, you don't HAVE to be wearing it (*hint hint).

day 10:  something beautiful.

 

Let's do this.

 

 

Day 1 - photo of your view from your desk

 

Adventures in Toddlerhood: March 2011

It's been a while since I posted my AiT series; things have been crazy at work these days.  Here's the latest edition of how my monkey is growing:

Stats:

• Age:  2.5 years old
• Height:  3ft, 1in
• Weight: Still 27lbs!

Developmental Milestones I've hit/working on:

• The only time I wear a pull-up is during sleep.  I pee and poo in the toilet!
• I love singing! I love singing Jahpo chinese songs and sometimes I make them up.
• I can count a little.  Mommy and daddy use smarties to help me learn.  I like that idea.
• I love imitating what I see.  Pretend play is the best!
• I'm learning all about phonics and the alphabet - I can pick out certain letters
• I can recognize my name
• I know that the letter "K" is the first letter of my name
• I can say my whole name, including my middle name
• I now have all my teeth!  yay!
• I can dress my dollies and put diapers on them
• I can remember every line of my favorite books
• I talk a lot and I'm really interested in everything
• I'm sleeping in a big-girl bed

What I'm doing now:

• Getting better at listening to mommy and daddy.  Sometimes I see how much I can get away with but they still don't give in.  Hmph.
• Helping Ryan feel better when his mommy drops him off at daycare.  When he cries, I give him Lego to make him feel better
• Dancing any chance I get.  I love to dance
• I'm going swimming with daddy!  Hooray!
• Negotiating with mommy and daddy.  They give me choices so I give them choices too

My favorite things right now:

• arts and crafts
• my big-girl bed
• Jahpo
• my big teddy bear that I snuggle up with in bed
• Thomas the Train!  I LOVE Thomas the Train!
• getting water from the water fountain
• playing "baby" with Leigha
• sharing my morning treats with Roland and Marian
• learning all about letters and numbers
• books.  I love books and when mommy or daddy reads to me before bed
• helping mommy clean and vaccum.  She says I'm such a good helper
• Going to Grandma and Pappa's house so I can play with my cousins

Photo Fridays - Vegas, baby!

I've been to Vegas several times but my first time was  on The Company's Dime.  

In 2000, I was a dough-eyed consultant, fresh out of school.  In the middle of the dot.com boom, there was plenty of money to be spent and a spendin' we did.  That year, a co-worker and I enrolled for a week-long technical training certification course in Los Angeles.  While I thought 'free trip!' he had other plans in mind:  his friends' basketball league was playing the championship game in Las Vegas and so he selected LA because it was only a 4hr drive from LA to Las Vegas.  Hubs - my boyfriend at the time - came along for the ride; all he had to do was pay for his airfare; the company took care of everything else.

We flew in on a Friday evening, jumped in the rental and headed straight for Vegas.   I've never driven from LA to Vegas before but my co-worker promised to wake me up right before we hit the strip; something about it being a magnificent view.  Somewhere around midnight, I was woken up and we came around the bend of some mountain or large hill, there it was - the Las Vegas strip.  Bright lights in the middle of a black, vast desert was all I could see - a truly magnificent sight.

Hubs and I spent the weekend roaming around Vegas.  Because it was my first time there, I wanted to see all the sights.  We walked the strip, toured the shops and ate like royalty - hell, it wasn't our money! I fell in love with The Venetian Hotel; had my picture taken with a wax figure of Mel Gibson and nearly went on one of those gondola rides in the Venetian.  The only time I saw my co-worker was when he took us to Primm Outlet Mall and we went crazy buying everything in sight.

That was a fun trip; hubs stayed with us for the entire week while we were in training in LA.  He would drop us off at the building and then spend the day driving around the city.  After training, we would roam around the city or head over to Venice beach.  One day, we  skipped out on the training session and spent the whole day at Venice beach.  We got free tickets to a free taping in North Hollywood for this show:

Remember this?  it didn't air for very long but it was pretty funny and was this was the day that Ryan Reynolds made it into my "cool hollywood celebrities" list.  We got lost on our way there, scared the hell out of some poor lady who thought we were trying to car-jack her when we were only trying to ask for directions and after the taping, to our surprise, Ryan was the only one who came up to the audience, sat in the front of everyone and talked to us for a about 40 minutes.  He answered all of our questions and made everyone laugh.  The rest of the cast didn't even bother and look where they are now - nowhere!  and where is Ryan Reynolds?  on the cover of People's Sexiest Man Alive.  Haha suck on that, snobby actors!!

Proud Mama

Thanks to everyone for their kind words of support and love.  I'm happy to say that Kayla is doing very well and after lunch, she was back to her hilarious nutty self; jumping around and being the crazy monkey that she is. 

Although her procedure is a very common and short one (it only takes literally 10-15mins) having a small child - your small child - go into surgery without you where you can't monitor every single thing is incredibly nerve-wracking.  I was expecting a flood of tears and meltdowns when the nurse came to take her away to the operating room but she went to him and as they were walking away, I overheard her telling him about her princess robe and showing him her pony-tail.  Even when we were waiting and it was past 9am, she didn't complain once about being hungry considering she hadn't had anything to eat or drink since 6:30pm the night before.  When she woke up from the surgery, she didn't cry or whine; all she wanted was to cuddle with me, hubs or lie down.  What a trooper.  She's the best!  The only thing that sucks is that she has to wear ear plugs at bath time and when she goes swimming.  I get wearing them when she swims but at bath time?  Isn't that a tad overkill?  then again, I'm not a pediatric ENT so who am I to argue.

Tomorrow is back to our regular scheduled program. 

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Right now, I'm watching American Idol downstairs in my living room which is sort of a big deal.  Why?  because usually after I put Kayla to bed, I spend the rest of the night in my room with the tv on either lying down or sitting in my Lazy Boy.  This almost always makes me so lazy and tired by the time 9pm rolls around so it's time to stop behaving like a senior citizen!  I will only go upstairs at a reasonable time and chill downstairs until it's time to turn in for the night.  This means that I have to be more diligent about keeping my living room in decent shape which means Kayla will have to be more diligent about cleaning up.  I mean, look at the state of this room:

Non-parents:  your living room/house/life will be over-run with your future child(ren)'s toys.   I've since learned to live with disorganization and chaos in my house because for real, I'd rather spend my time playing with Kayla and hanging with my family than fret over the mess that is called my family room. 

So yes, this is a big deal for me.  I'm tempted to pop a bag of popcorn but it's way too late for that and it wouldn't go well with my plan to try on my bikinis later this week. 

As for American Idol, I have to say, this is one of the most talented bunch of kids the show's had in a while.  I really like that Pia girl - she has a great voice.  I also love Steven Tyler on the show; what other man can pull off all the wacky outfits he wears and still be mad cool?  But check out the Mad Magazine guy:

Seriously, don't these two look alike? 

Random Tuesdays - spring is in the air

 

 

Spring is bad for my wallet.  Whenever the weather warms up after a brutal winter, I get the urge to shop.  A lot.  Behold my current objects of desire.  I really really want that Burberry bag.  Like, rilly.  But I can't justify spending that kind of cash after the month we had (read: Holt Renfrew shopping spree + Kayla's bedroom set).   And aren't those wedges just so rad?  Imagine them paired with white capris and a flowy tunic.  With the bag.  Damn you to hell, Burberry; damn you to hell.

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I can't wait until April when we take our first family vacation.  We'll be heading off to beautiful Turks and Caicos and staying at the Beaches Sesame Street resort where we'll be dining and frolicking with none other than Elmo and his crew.  Kayla is going to lose her shizz when she sees what's in store.   She's already super excited to go on an airplane, splash around in the ocean and play in the sand.  I'm super excited to lie on the beach and do nothing but sip fruity drinks and nap.  The bathing suit hunt continues but I'm losing hope in finding a standard, cute tankini that doesn't make me look like a 60 year old grandmother.  Whenever I open my drawers, I see my pre-pregnancy, pre-labour bikinis mocking me, daring me to try them on.  I want to look good in a bikini dammit, is that too much to ask?  My expectations aren't high either; I just want to look like an average person, not some overstuffed sausage or a beached whale. 

****

July 8-10.  Asian Sensation blogging expedition.  'nuff said.

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I'm incredibly disappointed with this lip tint.  I love LM products and they always work so well with my skin type so this came as a surprise to me when it reacted badly on my lips.  Right now, the edge of my lips are so dry and peeling; sort of like how it feels when your lips get sun burned.  I've been slathering on my La Mer cream for the past 2 days in hopes to repair my lips right quick.  Back to Sephora for a return I go.

****

I'm very nervous right now.  Tomorrow, my Kayla goes to the hospital to get tubes put in her ears.  My poor monkey has been battling chronic ear infections since she was 16 months and the pediatric ENT said that the fluid in her ears has been there too long and it's starting to affect her hearing.  No wonder she doesn't respond to me sometimes when I ask her things.  I just thought she was being a cheeky toddler who had selective hearing and ignored me when I said words like "bedtime", "clean up", "time-out".  

The worst part is although I've tried explaining to her what's going to happen, I don't think she quite gets the fact that I won't be going with her to the operating room.  She thinks that we're going to the doctor's but I'm always with her throughout the entire examination however tomorrow, I have to hand her off to the surgeon and nurses while she cries and reaches for me :(  WAHHH!! :(  MY BABY!!!

Photo Fridays - France

Circa December 1992, I went to visit my sister in France.  She was partying studying there for a year in Montpellier, France.

She stayed in an apartment in Montpellier but travelled down to Paris for the Christmas holiday and we stayed in her friend's place during the 2 weeks I was there.  Most of her friends were also exchange students but from various countries in Europe and Asia.  I was 17 and spent Christmas and New Year's in Paris.  How awesome is that?

The folks we hung out with were locals and oh so very nice.  Because there were so few students who remained in Paris for the holidays and we were all too broke to go out to a fancy restaurant, we stayed in and cooked our New Year's dinner at Remi's place (btw, Remi was uber-hot and such a sweetheart):

My sister loved off Remi but sadly, he was hung-up on over his ex who was also at the dinner.  She was really nice too so that made it hard to hate her. 

After dinner, french wine and yummy desserts, we headed out to the Copa Club to ring in the new year.  Because I was under-age and the lack of funds prevented me from getting my drank on, I welcomed 1993 completey sober but nevertheless, it was fun!  and goddammit, I was in Paris, France, dancing and hollering with French people halfway across the world.  The guys were hammered so we decided to walk back to Remi's place, stopping along the way to grab some snacks and as it seems, to rest by the bus stop.   Even though we weren't taking the bus.  Nothing says classy like sitting on the curb at 3am by a bus stop.  

I just remembered the name of the guy 2nd from the left - his name is Mehdi.  Remi and Mehdi were roommates and spoke pretty good English but JP didn't speak a word.  He liked me so for the two weeks I was there, we spent most of the time trying to figure out what the other person was saying.  The only thing we took away from those two weeks was bad language and cuss words.  He was a joker so even though I didn't understand 95% of what he was was saying, I laughed anyway because he acted like a clown.

I remember Mehdi being hesitant to leave for the club on New Year's eve because his cat was sick.  That was the night that I learned cats could get AIDS or as they say in French: le SIDA.  Mehdi's little sister came over to babysit the cat and when we got home in the weehours of the morning, we heard Mehdi crying.  That's when we saw the box where they cat was sleeping; his sister had gone to bed for the night but left a note on the cat that read "le chat est mort".  For you non French-speakers, that means "the cat is dead".   I don't know if it was the awkwardness of the situation or that Mehdi was drunk and crying or that everyone else was drunk but we all started laughing.  Not that a dead animal is laughable but instead of putting the cat somewhere,  his sister left a note on the corpse that said "the cat was dead".  That was the funny part.

France was a year filled with tragic events for the students.  That was the year "la poisse" - bad luck - plagued my sister and all of her friends:

• the stairwell of Mehdi and Remi's building that led to all apartments caught fire so for the entire year, the stairwell was pitch black.  It was covered in soot and ash which was  never cleaned and no matter how careful you were not to rub up against the walls or railing, you always got black shit all over your clothes and ruined them
• Mehdi fell down the stairwell and hurt his  knee
• Mehdi's cat died
• $100 francs was stolen from my wallet
• a water bottle exploded in my sister's bag and everything got soaked.  My camera got wet and broke :(
• While dropping a friend off at the train station, Remi was on board saying good-bye when the train left ... while he was still on board!  he didn't have a ticket or his passport and ended up getting yelled at and fined several hundreds of Francs
• I lost my train ticket and that was the day they decided to check for tickets.  La poisse!

When you know you're meant to have it

Ever have one of those "oh yes, we were made for each other" moments?  I haven't had many and today was one of those times.

It was one of those moments when a product fits so right and makes you look so awesome that the price is only but a fleeting thought;  you just have.to.have.it.   Check it out:

I have a hard time finding sunglasses that fits the frame of my face, sits well on the bridge of my nose (or should I say lack of a bridge) and feels comfortable.  I usually end up wearing my cheapie $10 sunglasses that I got at Payless because I've all but given up on finding the perfect pair of sunglasses...until today.

There are certain stores I always peruse whenever I'm at Yorkdale, Burberry being one of them.  I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to all things designer and I'm not ashamed to admit that I covet everything and anything that has to do with Gucci, Prada, Burberry and all of the other fab brands that I can't purchase anymore.  God says that I can't covet thy neighbour but the bible has no references about lusting after inanimate objects so I think I'm safe.   Since having a child, I've had to give up my frivilous   extra spending money to buy the necessities of life rather than things that make me look fantabulous.   It wouldn't fly with Child Services if I passed up buying Kayla warm clothes and putting food on the table for a beautiful purse....right? 

 So I walked into the Burberry store and these glasses were just calling me.  I could hear it whispering sweet nothings in my ear as I walked by.  Out of the hundreds that were on display, I immediately zoned in on this pair, put them on and shouted "OH YES!"; they fit so right and felt so good I nearly had to have a cigarette after trying them on.  Hubs rushed over to see what was wrong; he thought I gouged out my eye or something from the way I shouted out my ecstacy in the store.   I huffed and hawed for a bit; tossing around ideas and trying to figure out a way to get these for a better price but then decided it was taking too long because these needed to be on my face so I bought them.   Me and the sales guy squealed in delight at my purchase and then we chatted incessantly about his tie.  See, my buying these sunglasses makes everyone happy!  It's a win-win situation or as Charlie Sheen puts it, it's bi-winning! 

 

Job history

I think first jobs are funny.  Dough-eyed kids will pretty much take any job to get some pocket money; hell, I did.  My resume isn't at all glamourous, especially when I was in high school.  I've been fired once, quit twice and never showed up the second week because I wanted to go on vacation and they wouldn't let me so I didn't go back to work. 

Here's a run down of my job history:

Consession stand person - Cineplex Oden at Scarborough Town center.  Also known as The Popcorn Girl.  When police patrolled on $2.50Tuesdays.  When there were regular fights on the weekends.  When they actually banned all Filipinos from the mall because of all the fighting.  These were the days that Cineplex didn't have cash registers at the concession stands - you had to do all the math in your head.  Not a good thing for someone who sucked at math so I would make up prices; higher prices for the assholes and bitches and lower prices for the hotties and old people (I have a soft spot for old people except for the miserable ones - they got the asshole prices).  Every night, my manager would ask why my till would never balance and every time I told her:  get me a cash register (or a calculator) and it will.    I quit about a month later.

Server/cashier at a burger joint.  My first gig as a waitress - I was horrible.  This is how I know I could never be a waitress  because I always gave attitude right back at bitchy customers.  If I'm going to serve you fries and coke, you better be nice to me or expect to get a loogie in that drink.  I quit about 2 weeks into it.

Intern at a mutual fund company.  My first real office job and I was excited.  I can't even remember what I did but it wasn't much.  I always wanted to be a city worker; traipsing back and forth into the city, meeting people for after-work drinks and gallivanting all over the city.  It turned out that I hated commuting and working in the city actually kind of sucked simply because I lived too far.   To be honest, I think I got hired because the manager had serious yellow fever and my sister worked there.  The whole department were all asian females and he was the only white guy.   Talk about surrounding yourself with the things you love.    I got fired (my first time!!) because they needed to get rid of some people, didn't have the heart to just tell me straight up so they made up some lie.  The company ended up going under so that made my day when I heard about it.  Karma baby; it's a bitch, remember?

Summer student at a big bank down town.  My friend got me the job and I seriously don't remember doing any work.  I remember going into the office every day, sitting around, meeting friends for coffee/lunch and then going home.  Oh, I raved partied a lot back then so I would go into the office every Monday majorly hung over only to complain to my friend how fried my brain was.  Then I would sneak into the filing room and take a snooze.  That was a great job.

Cashier/sales person at a shoe store at Fairview Mall.  I only applied to get discounts on the shoes.  My friend worked there and he got me the job.  The only stipulation was that I had to work there for 2 weeks in order to get the discount so I paid my dues, got the discounts and then didn't go back to work.  Not my best moment.

Cashier/sales person at Coles Bookstore at Fairview Mall.  I originally got hired as a seasonal employee during the Christmas season and I swear, to this day, this was the best.job.ever.  I'm an avid reader so what better way to spend your time surrounded by books?  the freedom to read any book and/or magazines during down time?  I was about 16, got paid shit but I loved every minute of it.  If they needed me to cover a shift, I rarely argued.  I fought my way through snow storms during a weeknight to make it to work and never complained.  I met my party-sidekick and we would bring our party clothes to the store, change in the back after our shift and then book it down to RPM or Zoobar or Fluid or whatever club was happening that night.  By the way, these were 19-and-over bars and we were only 16.  You can imagine what we were dressed like (for shame!).  

Do you remember your first few jobs?  How hilarious were they?

Weekend Recap

This is the first weekend that I haven't had to do any work and it feels pretty freaking awesome.  Actually, it felt a little weird because for the past month and a half, every waking moment was filled with work to a point that my hubs was starting to complain a bit and my arm is now feeling the effects of 60+hr weeks.  I really have to call my acupuncturist and make an appointment.

***

I peeled my eyes open this morning at 7am even though my body screamed 6am.  Yesterday I took a long nap (nearly 2hrs!) and it messed up my night sleep so not only did it take me forever to fall asleep, waking up a 6am 7am and needing to start the day really sucked.    Damn you, DST; damn you.  Why is it that North America has to follow DST when some other countries don't?  Why can't we do like my fellow Jamaicans and be irie with just one time?  For parents, DST really sucks because your kids internal clocks are messed up for a few days until they adjust.  

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We're gearing up for our vacation which is just under a month away.  We went out and bought some water shoes for Kayla so she can frolick in the ocean.  We got her an extra swim suit and I see that hubs bought her a Tinkerbell towel.  I seriously have to have a talk with him; he buys her way too many things when he goes out.  On Thursday, he had the day off with her and when they came home, she was all "look what daddy bought me!" while he was frantically whispering in her hear "shhhh!!!  I thought we agreed to keep it betewen us!".  Yes, definintely need to have a talk with him.  

Back to our vacation.  We leave April 9 to sunny Turks and Caicos and we're so excited.  What I'm not excited about is me being on the beach.  I had over 2 months from when we booked this trip to get myself bikini-ready and am I ready?  not in the least.  Ok, I'm exaggerating but I'm not ready as I'd like to be.  In fact, I'm going to make the switch from a bikini to a tankini but my problem is that all of the tankinis I've seen are for women in their 50s with gross old-lady designs.  Where did all the cute ones go?  You know, the ones that look sporty while hiding your belly pooch?  I used to see those all the time but they're no where to be found so if you've seen them, please let me know asap!

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Remember that blanket I started to knit for Kayla back in January?  Well, it's still in progress.  It's taking a lot longer than I thought it would but mainly because I sort of made it too big and I've come so far that I can't stop.  I also chose the wrong yarn; what I should have done is selected a bigger crochet needle and thicker yarn so that my crocheting time would be cut in half.  Anyway, here's where I am.  Her monkey is making sure I'm on track:

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I also finished reading this fantastic series:

Leesh was going on about how amazing this was so I picked it up and gave it a go.  For the entire week, I fought hubs for the iPad because I could not.put.it.down.  I read any chance I got - during lunch, when I got home, after dinner, before bed.  I haven't been this captivated by a series since - I'm embarassed to say - the Twilight saga.  If you want to be rendered useless for a week, get these books -  now.

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I'm tickled with myself for updating my social media icons.  Aren't they just so wicked?  I'm planning on classing this bitch up and by that, I mean doing the photoshop hackjob that I call digital manipulating to make this site all kinds of fancy.

Hope you all had a great weekend!