sacha chua living an awesome life

Went to Kick-Ass Karaoke Night with Joey de Villa, Wendy, Quinn, Jed, and a
bunch of random strangers.

Sang “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, which was an awesome
choice as everyone sang along. =) Also, sang the theme song from Ally
McBeal with Quinn Fung (see picture).

Had fun. =)

On Technorati: karaoke, singing, friends

My good deed for the weekend was spending time with Alice. Saturday, I
attended the birthday party for her 2-year-old daughter and managed to
blend in despite being nowhere near stressed enough to fit among the
parents there and nowhere near short enough to fit under the table
with the kids. Yes, I _can_ actually be taller than someone. It may
come as a surprise to some, but there are actually people (okay, kids)
who look up to me—physically, if nothing else. I think I will enjoy
the few years I have before they outstrip me.

I had an animated conversation with Ken, my research supervisor’s
6-month old son. This conversation mainly consisted of Ken going
“Baaaa… Baaaa” at me, and my exercising my superior listening skills
and going “Mmm hmmm” at the right moments. I tried getting him to say
“Blog”, but I don’t think he’s quite ready for it yet.

It was certainly an unusual experience for me. For the most part I
felt very much like my 22 years of age, although I’m somewhat proud of
the way I managed to quell the urge to run to the nearest library. ;)
Kidding. It wasn’t bad. It was just unusual.

I stayed afterwards to help clean up. I was glad to have the
opportunity to chat with Alice over the dishes.

I took her out for a much-needed girl day on Sunday. We wandered along
Yonge looking for a place to get an inexpensive massage, and spotted
this tiny one called New Moon Spa at 678 Yonge Street. It’s open from
11 AM to 9 PM, and you can get a basic shiatsu massage for CAD 10.
There was only one table and one masseuse, and Alice insisted I go
first. Totally small-time operation that’s only been there for two
months. I tipped the masseuse almost 100% for good service and for
encouragement, and I probably made her day too. =)

I remember massages as a simple luxury my mom also enjoyed. I’d like
to learn how to help people relax, and one way to do that is to
experience it myself. <laugh> It was nice spoiling a friend.
I’ll take her out next month, or maybe even sooner.

Then we went to Second Cup and had large cups of hot chocolate. It was
very much a hot chocolate day for Alice, and I’m glad to have shared
it with her. I wish I had answers, but I don’t. I’m just here to
listen and maybe help people gain a little bit more clarity.

Ayayayayay… If only a hug could make the world all right!

On Technorati: friends

I found myself in the neighborhood of a good friend I hadn’t talked to
in a while, so I decided to drop by. It turned out to be the best way
I could’ve spent that afternoon. I can’t share everything she talked
to me about, but listening to her clarified a few things I’d been
wondering about, and I hope that I helped her reflect on some of the
really tough things she’s going through.

I’m rereading Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s excellent book, A Woman of Independent
Means. I hope I can find something that will help.

On Technorati: life, friends

Random Japanese sentence: ネコがいる。 There is a cat.

Congratulations to Hrbs and Krisette on their nuptials. =) My friends
have been telling me all about it, including how my dad totally rigged
the garter thing to set up poor Kel, and how my mom was joking around…

I love how my friends get along with my folks! And I love how my
friends are just such characters! If there’s one thing I regret about
being here, it’s that my friends here can’t experience that part of my life…

On Technorati: friends

Random Japanese sentence: 彼は１日中行方不明の猫を捜した。 He hunted for his missing cat all day.

Wednesday was an interesting time for me. I am deeply, deeply grateful
to Leigh Honeywell and Jed Smith, who took me to the hospital and
stayed with me. Here’s what happened:

I fell while trying to get off my bike. I must’ve slipped or misjudged
the height because this was my first time to ride it wearing black
school schoes instead of hiking shoes. Fortunately, I was near
Graduate House when this happened, and I limped to my room to pick up
something I’d forgotten.

I headed back down and decided to brave the bike again so that I could
go to the bank. After a block of much pain, I decided that biking was
probably not the best way to travel. I headed back, found out that I
was bleeding, and did my best to deal with it. It wouldn’t stop,
though.

I texted Jed to tell him that I couldn’t make it to samba because of
the bike accident. I also told a couple of friends who biked, just in
case they had any advice. One of those was Leigh, who turned out to be
on campus taking a class on Java exceptions. Upon hearing of my
distress, she left the class and headed to Graduate House in order to
help me get to the hospital.

I left out the specifics of the accident because it was a rather
embarrassing thing, but Jed insisted that I keep him updated. I told
him that Leigh was taking me to the hospital and that everything would
be fine. We took a cab to Western, and Jed met us there after a short
while.

The Canadian medical system is good, but the lack of doctors makes
things a bit slow. That said, I was glad that I didn’t have anything
serious enough to make the triage nurse increase my priority. Having
company certainly helped pass the time. =)

The examination was a bit brutal, though. I cried and hyperventilated
from the pain, losing a contact lens in the process. They gave me a
painkiller afterwards. (Hmm, might have been a better idea to do the
painkiller before the examination…)

The resident doctor told me that it was a routine injury and nothing
to worry about, although he referred me to a Mount Sinai Hospital so
that a specialist could make sure that everything was all right. The
doctor told me that the next few days would be rather painful, though,
so I texted Quinn Fung, asking her to e-mail all the people I had on
my schedule.

We took a cab to Mount Sinai and waited for a few hours. The
painkiller helped, and the company of friends made it easy for me to
pass the time.

I got admitted to the emergency room at around midnight. I talked to
one of the ER staff about what happened, and then I dozed on and off
while waiting for the specialist. I woke up when Jed came in. He said
that Leigh had to leave already (it was way past midnight then!), and
he also brought some food. I didn’t have much appetite, though.

The specialist came at around 3:00. The preliminary exam was still too
painful for me, so they stuck an IV into me and gave me a stronger
painkiller. It made me drowsy, and when I woke up again they had
finished with everything and reassured me that nothing needed
stitching or patching up. Jed stepped out when they did the
examination, but remembered the instructions that the ER staff gave
him. That was good as I couldn’t remember the examination at all.

So that’s my first experience of the Canadian medical system. I’m
really, really glad that friends were there to help me navigate the
system and to hold my hand throughout the process. Big shout out goes
to Leigh and Jed, who saw me at my worst and stuck around anyway… =)

On Technorati: friends, sick

Random Japanese sentence: 私が出掛けている間、猫の面倒をみてください。 Please look after my cats while I’m away.

Last night was also a spectacular evening. Kat, Mike, Shane, Simon,
and I chatted over coffee for a while, then had Korean BBQ. One of the
highlights of the night was heading down to the lake. We watched a
thunderstorm in the distance and talked of many different things.

We should have more nights like that – and perhaps, sometime, some
sunshine too?

The night also raised an interesting question, which I’ll reflect on
more over the next few.

On Technorati: friends

Random Japanese sentence: 私はこの小猫を猫の好きな人には誰にでもあげます。 I’ll give these kittens to whoever likes cats.

Today I finally made it out to Centre Island, thanks to Joe Whitney.
It was a wonderfully sunny day. The ferry passed through a flock of
black loonies and a flock of white birds on the way to the island. The
birds in flight made such a wonderful picture, but I didn’t have my
camera! Waah.

We had barbecue chicken before biking all around the island. I
discovered that I’m completely hopeless at steering a tandem bike and
that synchronizing is difficult on a tandem bike with locked pedals,
so I sat at the back and tucked my feet up when he was pedalling,
balancing on the thin frame. We alternated pedalling during the trip.
It was nice to be able to pedal but be free to look around, enjoying
the sight of all that water and all those trees.

Other highlights: chocolate milkshakes, an animal farm, good
conversation in a huge chair, another chat out by the rocks that jut
out into the lake… =) It was such fun hanging out!

On Technorati: friends

Random Japanese sentence: その犬は猫を追いかけた。 The dog ran after the cat.