I don't normally post twice in a day, but at the moment the funniest noises are coming from upstairs. I will never, ever understand boys and video games. Ever. The ones living in my house are no exception. The first time I heard them playing was at the beginning of the year,I was sitting quietly in my room when all of a sudden I hear Victor go "oh....oh....oh....oh YEAH!!!!!"

Get your minds out of the gutter. They were playing tennis on our PS2.

Since then, there seems to be a stream of guys that are constantly going in and out of our house. And I can always tell when they're over because our normally peaceful house will suddently erupt in a chorus of shouts and yells, the never-failing signs of male bonding at its best. I don't even begin to relate =)

My friend Trudy wrote something on her blog yesterday that really made me think. After having a heart-to-heart with her second cousin, she wrote "describing several relationships she [the second cousin] has seen and been in, she told me that knowing that those kinds of relationships - those built on God - existed, she was happy with just knowing what lay ahead of her, with waiting for the best. And what she said stuck with me because I think we both came to realize that our lives, right in the here and now, are blessed with God's peace. "

That to me, is a sign of maturity, and luckily it's something that I've been realizing in my own life lately.See, before I used to spend a lot of time complaining about being single. Well, not really complaining, more joking about my own lack of a love life =) Yesterday, when I went out for dinner with my cell group, someone said something along the lines of "wow, for once you're not with your significant other". Which is sad because he was referring to my friend Vivien =)

But I was in a serious relationship once. And by the world's standards it was a good one. He was an awesome guy, we got along great and he was very supportive of everything I wanted to do in life. When I broke it off, I spent most of my summer questioning whether or not I had done the right thing, because the majority of people couldn't understand why I would end a seemingly great relationship. A relationship evolves. When you first meet, you like certain things about a person. As you get to know them better, you find more and more reasons why you like them. The same is true of a break-up. Initially, you have some reason for ending a relationship. You may think it's trivial at the time. But the longer you think, you become more aware of, and you're more able to articulate the reasons why you had to end it, even if you didn't consider those factors at the time. I came to realize that we had connected on every other level except the spiritual one. When it came to religion, when it came to God, I just couldn't open up to him about my own struggle. And he wouldn't open himself up to me. Or to God. Or even to the idea of pursuing a deeper relationship with God.

So for the last year (wow has it been almost a year already?), I've been given the chance to observe other people's relationships. At retreat, I happened to look up, and see my friend Pris and her boyfriend praying together over another believer. Or else I would be sitting beside them at a meal, and he would be telling her about something he had learnt. And I thought, "yes, THAT is what I want. And I think Trudy put it best - just knowing that there can be more, that a relationship can exist on a much deeper level, is enough to give me the patience to sit and wait for the time when it is right, and when God chooses to give it to me. As for now however, I'm happy to spend my days slogging my way through my books, my nights catching up with my girls at home or hanging out with the housemates, and weekends and coffee breaks and pretty much every other spare moment with the ubiquitous Vivien Hon =)

Happy Birthday Troidy Ko!!!

Technically her birthday was yesterday, and while I didn't forget about it, I did forget to blog about it. I have a pretty horrible memory when it comes to certain categories of things. For example, I have no problem remembering school related things - pathways and equations and things like that. I do have a big problem remembering all the items my mom sent me to the store for, or when and where I was supposed to pick up my sister, or when my friends' birthdays are, or what time my finals are at =) Last year, Candice's birthday skipped my mind completely. So this year, both Trudy and Andrea sent me repeated messages over phone, ICQ and email to ensure that the same thing wouldn't happen again. Even then, I almost forgot.

Anyways, I suppose I should now proceed to tell an amusing story about Trudy Ko =) But I won't. Not because she isn't amusing, because I find her hilarious. She does lots of odd things that are quite fun to watch - like rip apart roast chickens with her bare hands, steal the food off of your plate at restaurants and ask the lady at "dumpster viet" if she can have number 25, but with chicken instead of pork, fresh spring rolls instead of fried, extra mint and lime, cooked beansprouts, hot AND cold water, and could we also please switch tables because this one's too close to the entryway =)

But more than this, Trudy has one of the most sincere and pure hearts out of anyone I know. When we were in Gr. 9, the two of us were on student council together and we were planning the spring dance. Trudy had this great idea for decorations: we could do a balloon drop. We would buy a specially designed net, the balloons would all be pastel colors, we would mix in some fake snow and at the end of the dance, we could pull the string and the balloons and snow would all drift downwards together and it would be beautiful.

So we all spent an entire afternoon climbing up the sides of the gym to string up this balloon net, blowing up balloons with an air pump and inhaling lots of fake snow. Unfortunately, when it came time for the balloon drop, someone thought it would be a good idea to jump up and pull on the net. And then everyone at the dance decided to pull down the net and instead of that picture-perfect scene, we had a torn plastic net, 5 minutes of non-stop balloon popping and girls screaming, and Trudy running around crying "Stop! Stop! What's WRONG with you people?". And then she ran into the bathroom and it took me 15 minutes to get her to stop crying.

But that's why I love Trudy. Because no one else would have put so much time and effort into something as trivial as the Gr. 9 dance. No one else would have invested their heart into something like a balloon drop, and no one else would have cried when it didn't happen. Tru's the only person I know who puts so much of herself into everything she does. Honestly, I think bits of her soul went into those balloons. And although such little things can wound her, it makes her one of the most amazing people I know.

Again, Happy Birthday Troid. I could have shared the 'pee-nuts' story or described any one of our eating experiences together, but I won't =) Cuz it's your barf-day =)

I am a big nerd =)

Today I got my micro midterm back. One of my questions asked me to list 5 reasons why there are so many different secretory mechanisms in bacteria. One of these reasons is redundancy (if one mechanism fails, another can compensate). I lost a mark because I stated this point in two different ways. I find this ironic =)

Another time, I started chuckling to myself because my prof had run out of room on one of our slides and had written the word 'contraction' as 'cont'n', thus creating a contraction of 'contraction'.

I have Internet again!!!

And I'm virus-free =)

So thank-you to all the male engineers (yups, it's the return of the abused ones) who helped out: Chewy, Victor, Sam (because I tied up his phone line) and the only non-engineer of the group, Jeremy.

However, seeing as I have been Internet-less for so long, this post will be quick because I have 3 weeks of catching up on TV gal to do =) And quite a bit of school reading too, because "reading week" must be the world's biggest oxymoron.

In other news, the people who created my exam schedule should be shot. Two exams on Monday, one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday. Then a one and a half week break! Then my last exam on Friday. And of course, the last one is the simplest one. Sigh. I'm done whining now. Really, I am. Done.

I'm trapped in my own basement.

No, really.

I think over the years my grandmother has developed this strange basement door-locking compulsion. Bascially, I was in the basement earlier this morning catching up on some emailing when she locked me in. I guess she must have thought that I'd already left the house or something. She then proceeded to leave with her cohort of grandmotherly friends to go grocery shopping, or go for dim sum, or gossip and exchange recipes, or play mahjong, or have a grandma sleepover, and I have no idea when she's coming home. And my mother's in Edmonton, and my sister's in school and my dad's in North Carolina.

So of all the places to be stranded, my basement really isn't that bad of a place. I definately won't die.

Food - Our family is typically Chinese and we have a deep freeze and a fridge and 2 storerooms stuffed full of food. Albeit, most of it is strange dried herbs and mushrooms and frozen chunks of meat that have probably been there since before I was born. But I'm sure if I let it thaw for a week or two, eventually I would have a chicken thigh or two to gnaw on. I've also discovered an inordinate amount of canned food. Again, mostly Chinese things like canned lotus bud and coconut milk and abalone, but there has to be SOME normal food, and maybe I can use my dad's tools and bust a can or two open.

Water - Well, there is a bathroom down here. Plus, while exploring my basement I've discovered quite a bit of alcohol. The funny thing is that my parents don't drink. So when people bring alcohol over, whatever isn't consumed just gets stored in the basement, just waiting for the day when I'm trapped in the basement for an unspecified amount of time.

Entertainment - It could be worse. At least I have a TV and my family likes to amass DVDs. And I have a treadmill down here. And a computer. And a phone. And a fax machine...but that's going a bit far...So at the very least, I'll get to catch up on all my soaps (Marlena is the killer?!?!?!?!) and my emailing and I'll ICQ all those people I never normally talk to on my ICQ list because we don't really have all that much in common but I just happen to have their contact. But today, I will message them. Just because I can.

Of course, I wasn't smart enough to bring down any books with me. So I can't study. Oh darn.

At the moment, my favorite person in the world is my friend Trudy. She's taking the bus up to my place so she can climb over my back fence and come in through my basement door, to keep me company. I love you Trudy Ko =)

Karma bites me in the butt!

I'm a coffee person. I know that alot of people don't like it. I know that it causes cancer. I know that I would probably be better off carrying around a giant Nalgene bottle and gulping down a litre or so a day of good old H20, like a lot of the girls I see on campus. But I can't help it, coffee is just so good. Most days, I need at least a cup at home to start off my day, I'll usually get another cup mid-morning at Tim's and once in a while when I'm feeling rich, I'll splurge on a mocha at Starbucks. The first thing my housemate Keith does when he sees me, is offer me a piece of gum. Oh yeah, and I work in a coffee shop which doesn't really make avoiding coffee any easier.

Anyways, so I decided that I would start off reading week in a good way and actually make my way to the library to...read...On the way, I make a stop at Starbucks, and because I don't like having to gulp my coffee and prefer to sip slowly and enjoy, I decided that I would try and sneak it into the library. I don't normally do this. Honestly!

But of course, the one time that I decide that I will, the lid pops off in my bag and I have coffee everywhere. Not just covering my books and papers, but it's seeped into my pencil kit and even my sunglasses case. So I spent a good half hour this morning in the bathroom. And while Trudy dried my agenda underneath the handblower, I tried to rinse out the inside of my bag. Haha, serves me right =) At least now when I'm tired all I have to do is sniff my pen, but I think poor Keith will have to spray me and my belongings with Febreze the next time we sit together in class.

So it's been quite a while since I've blogged, but I have good excuses! Really! Obviously I've made it through this round of midterms alive. Although I do have a few of what I like to term "nerd scars". You see, I have a tendency to rewrite my notes while I'm studying. Yes, I know it's not the most efficient way of studying but it does make memorizing a lot easier. Anyways, so I rewrite my notes, which means that when midterm and finals roll around I usually go through a minimum of 2 pens and an entire pack of paper (I can hear the tree in my backyard crying). It also means that I develop blisters on my middle finger and thumb where I tend to hold my pen, resulting in...nerd scars. I've also noticed that the amount of Free Cell I play is directly proportional to the difficulty of the material I'm studying. It's strange. Whenever my brain gets really hung up on a particular concept, I tend to automatically turn on the computer and play game after game of Free Cell. It's like my brain needs a little confidence boost. It might not be able to understand the urea cycle, but hey! It can win 18 straight games of Free Cell and if that isn't something to be proud of, I don't know what is. So yeah, the Free Cell is a bit of a morale booster and when the brain is feeling confident again, it's ready to go back and tackle the Biochemistry.

After midterms though I had the opportunity to go to fellowship retreat this weekend. Which was great btw. But seeing as the hour's growing late and my sleep has been sadly neglected this last week, details on retreat will have to wait until the next blog!

My New Year's resolution was to whine less. But at this moment the urge to complain just cannot be suppressed. So instead of whining, I think I'll let it all out as one big rant...ahem...

WHY IS MY COMPUTER NOT WORKING!!! WHAT'S THE POINT OF HAVING NORTON ANTIVIRUS IF VIRUSES MANAGE TO SNEAK THEIR WAY ONTO YOUR COMPUTER ANYWAYS! AND WHY DO THEY ALWAYS HAVE TO INFECT ALL THE IMPORTANT FILES!! WHY CAN'T THOSE IMPORTANT FILES BE CLEANED? WHY CAN'T THEY BE DOWNLOADED OFF THE INTERNET? HOW DO I FORMAT MY COMPUTER? AND WHY, OH WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN IN THE MIDDLE OF MIDTERMS WHEN I HAVE OTHER THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT!!!

speaking of midterms...

WHOSE CLEVER IDEA WAS IT TO SCHEDULE 3 MIDTERMS, ONE ESSAY AND A LAB IN ONE WEEK??? WHY IS YOUR LAST EXAM ALWAYS YOUR HARDEST EXAM? WHY IS IT SO HARD TO FALL ASLEEP AT NIGHT BUT SO EASY WHEN YOU'RE STARING AT YOUR BIOCHEMISTRY TEXT???

wow...I feel loads better...

My friend Priscilla came up to visit this weekend from Toronto. Haha, I haven't been well and properly chastised in a long time, and I appreciate a person who can tell you when you're wrong, without being hurtful. But no really Pris, I don't mind being asked the tough questions, and there aren't many people with the guts to do so.

My weekly virus scan revealed that I have over 700 viruses on my computer; technology and I just haven't been getting along lately. As a result, I can't connect to the Internet and probably won't be posting much until it's fixed.