Golf and Me

Now that I'm working at the golf club again, I decided that this year, I would finally take advantage of having free access to a nationally acclaimed private golf course. Hey, why not? And now I have the ultimate reason to brush up on my golfing skills (golfing skills? What golfing skills?): Mike has signed us up for a golf tournament with his company. Apparently, proceeds are going towards the Terry Fox fund for cancer research. It's on September 17th.

Anyhow, seeing as up until about a week ago I had never even held a golf club, I decided that I should get out to the driving range and try to figure out how golf works. Last week, Steph invited me to go out and play a round with 2 other people from work. However, the other 2 cancelled at the last minute and since neither Steph nor I knew what we were doing, golf-wise, we decided to look a little less idiotic and go to the Golf Dome instead. So we shared a bucket of balls and made some valiant attempts at driving. Steph helped me out with some of the basics, but nevertheless, it was a sordid affair. I sucked... but it was still fun!

Then, on Saturday morning, Mike took me back to the Golf Dome and gave me even more pointers and kept a close eye on what I was doing, coaching me along. In the end, I made some big improvements, but I still need a lot of practice. I mean, I don't need to be really good, I just don't want to look completely inept. At least our golfing partners will be Kim and Dave and not strangers. So we'll all be able to have a good, relaxed time at the tournament!

My Birthday - Part II

Okay, so during the afternoon of the 17th I ended up helping out at the field bar. Although it was insanely busy there, I had fun and ended up walking away with $15 and change in tips. Pretty exciting, considering getting tips at the golf club is a rare occurence.

Anyway, after work, Mike came and picked me up. We arrived at my house at the same time as my mom, who had gone to pick up my brother and his girlfriend. Dinner was yummy (BBQed steaks and potatoes for dinner and orange cake for dessert, just what I had asked for!). Then it was present time! My parents got me a new MP3 player. I had asked for one because my old one was old and no longer working properly.

Mike really spoiled me! And he was very clever about it, too! He felt somewhat vindicated, though, because he got his revenge for what I did to him at his birthday: I had ordered one of his gifts from e-Bay and it was taking a long time to arrive in the mail. So instead of waiting for who knew how long, I gave him one present on his actual birthday. And the next day, I gave him another, and so on. By the time the last gift arrived, he had already opened 3 gifts. Anyway, the waiting game can be pretty tough! So on my birthday, Mike gave me a 6-sided die. Every half hour, I could roll it and open up the corresponding gift for whichever number it landed on. It took a while, but eventually I opened all of my gifts! Among other things: a white gold necklace and earring set, the new "Harry Potter" book and season 1 of "Arrested Development"!

The funniest part about my birthday gifts concerned the jewelry he bought me. Apparently, when he bought the earrings and necklace, they came from a new jewelry line that the store was promoting. And it must have been a huge promotion! They gave him 2 more sets of jewelry for free, to go with the one he had bought! So in addition, I ended up with 2 more necklaces, an extra pendant, 4 more sets of earrings, 2 bracelets and a brooch! Whew! It's a good thing he also bought me a jewelry box!

As for my birthday party, it keeps getting pushed back again and again. So the celebration isn't over. Looks like I'll still be celebrating in August!

My Birthday - Part I

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote! It's not for lack of stories, though... it's just been so busy that I haven't gotten around to it!

I'm another year older... 24 sounds so old! But that's okay, birthdays are fun... and I was so SPOILED! We started celebrating on Friday when Mike took me to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I had some doubts about the remake, but all in all, they did a pretty good job in updating it. The Oompa Loompas were awesome! I was a bit disappointed in the morals they tried to sneak in there and Charlie was a bit too angelic. And Wonka too mean. But he was also really eccentric which was really good.

Saturday morning we had to go and bottle the wine we had put aside 6 weeks ago. My parents, aunt and uncle were there, too. The adventure started when the key to my uncle's new car wouldn't work in the lock. He was trying to open the drivers side door, wiggling the key around in the lock, to know avail. I thought, 'no matter' and stuck my hand through the open window in the back passenger side. However, as soon as I touched the car, the alarm went off! And the remote on the keychain wouldn't work either! So we stood there staring at the madly honking car for a couple minutes before it turned itself off. Meanwhile, the residents in the 3 senior citizens buildings right behind the parking lot must not have been pleased! Anyhow, word got around that my uncle's car was insane and my dad tried to help. The key wouldn't work in the trunk, so they couldn't pack up his wine. Couldn't put it in the backseat because the alarm would go off. My aunt also left to buy a new battery for the remote starter. While we waited, we managed to set the alarm off 2 more times. Then the new battery came and... it didn't work! So we all hopped into my dad's car. The plan was drop off myself and my mom at home and then bring my aunt and uncle to the Ford dealership to get everything figured out. Enroute to my house, my uncle, sitting in the backseat, was examining his keychain. "Where's the little copper thing that's usually on my chain?" he asked. At that moment, my aunt opened her purse and pulled out a keychain: it had a copper keychain, a familiar looking Ford key and an identical remote starter to the one my uncle had in his hand. The proper key had been in my aunt's purse the whole time! They had been thrying to use their son's car key on their car! In the end, we all had a good laugh!

Saturday evening was much more relaxing; Mike took me to Baton Rouge for dinner (my choice!). Mmm, baby back ribs!

So Sunday was my real birthday! I got to sleep in a tiny bit because I had managed to switch my 6:00 am shift to an 11:00 shift. Thank goodness! Anyway, during my break, Steph gave me some birthday gifties, including a "Betty Boop" t-shirt and "Care Bears" socks! I really am just a big kid, aren't I?!

Okay, I'm going to continue with this post later! So much left to say, but I've still got other things to do!

No Longer Poor!

I'm happy to say that I am no longer unemployed! I've got my old job back at the Beaconsfield Golf Club and I'll be starting sometime next week. On one hand, I don't want to subject myself to serving grumpy, rude members, but on the other hand, I've always had a lot of fun hanging out with the other waitresses and the kitchen staff: the social scene there is excellent! So I'm kinda looking forward to going back, kinda not.

On a completely different note, we went to see Kim and Dave's new house in Pincourt! Mike and I brought over some steaks, dessert and wine, and they provided all the rest and we had a real grown-up-like dinner party! The house is super cute, perfect for a first house, and they have all kinds of new furniture (that kept getting rearranged, naturally!). So I got to see the oft-mentioned roman tub (very nice) but I'd have to say that my favourite part is the cupboard handles in the kitchen... very cool!

It definitely made me want to have a place I could call my own. I wasn't jealous... just wistful!

Ernie Saved My Life Today

For the first time ever, my terror alert button has changed in my links section. Yellow-level Bert is now half orange-level Ernie! So what's up with mass transit in the States? Consider it a warning, dear readers: don't travel in the United States today! Ernie has spoken.

Ten minutes later...

Ernie says: "There were terrorist attacks in the London Underground today." That explains the heightened terror alert level in the States. It must have something to do with Tony Blair and the G8 conference. Bush is there in Edinburgh, too.

Ernie says: "Terrorism must stop!" You tell THAT to the kids watching Sesame Street. That'll start them off on the right foot!

That's No Way to Get a Girl

It's amazing the amount of emotion a single person can incur. And I don't mean happy emotions. I'm talking anger, frustration.... and nausea. Even though nausea isn't an emotion. An ex-boyfriend called me this morning. Actually, I don't know if I could ever have called him a boyfriend. We were together for, oh... six weeks, I'd say. This was 2 years ago. Since then, I have learned to dislike him with a passion, and I try to never think about him because I've come to view my past relationship with him as the single most regrettable thing I've ever done. So what do you do when, all of a sudden, 2 years later, he e-mails you? I was told to ignore it because answering back would just encourage him. So I ignored it. Seems that wasn't enough because he called me this morning (my sole consolation is that it was long distance). Wanted to know how I was doing, what I was doing, "blah, blah, blah" (that's his quote; eloquent, eh?) Anyway, just hearing his voice got all those aformentioned emotions (and stomach ailments) going. At one point he asked if I was still using the same e-mail address for MSN Messenger. "No, I changed it" I answered. I know this was his way of asking for my new address, but I don't want him on my MSN. He's already blocked, anyway! So at this point, I realized that he was trying to get back into my life, which I really don't want. No need to ALWAYS feel angry, frustrated and nauseous! So at that point I said, "Listen, I don't want to be mean, but I got your e-mail, and I chose to ignore it. I'm really not interested in keeping in touch." He said "Okay, no problem" and I hung up the phone. Enough's enough, I hope I never hear from him again. I hate having to be so mean to people, but I think that sometimes, they won't take 'no' for an answer, otherwise.

"It's Just God Bowling"

This is what I heard a little girl say last night when we went to see the Canada Day fireworks in Dorval. Ah, kids say the darndest things!

Happy Canada Day!

I'm one day late, but that's okay!

Mike and I went to his best friend's place yesterday for a Canada Day BBQ. It was a great day for some burgers and some swimming! It was lucky that the rain held off for as long as it did. Anyway, at one point this girl came up to me and asked; "Were you in Cuba about 2 months ago?" I answered yes and she asked, "Were you at Tryp Cayo Coco?" I said yes again and she exclaimed, "I knew I recognized you from somewhere! My boyfriend and I were there too, at the same time as you!" Now what are the odds of that?! It was hilarious though, considering that Mike's buddy's parents are also at that same resort right now! Anyway, after this girl approached me, I also recognized her... she and her boyfriend had gone on the Jungle Tour at the same time as us! It's pretty weird that we had never seen each other before and we recognized each other from an island 3,000 km away and we have some of the same friends... strange, but cool!