My 30th Birthday Presents - Balenciaga

As I said before, growing up, I've never had any interest in handbags. The thought of carrying something on me all the time without losing it is so burdensome to me. And then I got into having bags at 20 and I started to learn about Coach and Kate Spade and Gucci, LV, Chanel, Hermes. At the time I would covet the lower to middle end bags but I never really bought them. Most of my collection has been under $50 with the exception of 2 Kate Spade and 2 Marc by Marc Jacobs. Even the Coach stuff were just around $100 mark.

In the back of my head I've always thought, one day I will buy one nice bag that's over $1000 even though the idea seemed actually quite absurd. By the time I've been working full-time for a few years, I would consider the idea once a year and then do some searches and not find anything I want. The process was kinda like getting my tattoo. At some point in my life, the idea begins to take more concrete shape and maybe 2-3 times a year I'd browse and see what I like. In 2011, I had a convo with my friend about how i'd set myself a goal of buying the bag if I reach a certain status (e.g., my first pay cheque, my first promotion, etc) and then never doing it because I can't seem to justify it. We joked about how maybe I should make it my 30th benchmark bday present - big girl with a big girl bag and although at the time it was really just a joke, the idea stuck.

As I approached by 30th birthday, I started to get antsy, as I had pretty much decided what I'm going to get and researched the pricing and knew that the best place was to get it in Paris. Around October, I asked Caleb if I should buy it before my bday or after, since on my birthday I will be in North America and he laughed and said I can do whatever I want since it's a bday for myself. So on a weekend while he was here in Paris with me, I dragged him to the Balenciaga Boutique with me and made my purchase, 3 months before my 30th birthday. The best part about all this is that Caleb said Bal bags are the nicest luxury bags he's ever seen (and he's seen quite a few) so it really took a lot of the guilt away.

While we were there, we spotted something else that we both loved as well and while I bought one for myself, he ended up getting me my 30th bday present 3 months early as well!

My Marc By Marc Jacobs Classic Qs

Early 2012 as I sat at my desk feeling miserable from the winter weather, I decided I needed to buy a handbag. It had occurred to me that I just turned 28 and my holy grail was still a canvas Kate Spade bag from 2005. I deserved better!! I went online and started looking for bags I liked, going through Neiman Marcus, Saks, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's website to see if I saw anything I liked. This was when I discovered the MBMJ Classic Q line and I loved the clean and simple lines. I took at look at the baby groovee and decided it wasn't my type, and then I saw the lil Ukita and began cross-referencing the bags on Google images and on PurseForum. Then I started looking at the Hillier and did the same and compared it to lil Ukita. After about a week or two of online search everyday, I finally decided that I wanted the Hillier. Except now I needed to figure out how to procure one.

At the time, I wasn't aware that the MBMJ bags go on crazy 40% off sales around November and December. What I did see though is that the 2011 price was marked up from $385 to $428 in 2013. So when I spotted one in creme from Neiman still priced at $398 I decided I will take the plunge. I asked around to see who is in the US and can bring it back for me because shipping to Canada means duty. Luckily I had a friend who was making a trip to Chicago so I had it expedited to the hotel there. After tax and expedited shipping the total came out to be about $441 USD. I see it online for less than $300 all the time now so it does hurt me a bit when I think about it. Nevertheless, I have to say that I really love this bag because the leather on this is really durable and it made me realize the difference between leather and canvas bags.

My Salvatore Ferragamo Continental

As I had mentioned previously, my go-to wallet has always been compact tri-folds. When I was 20, Mike had gotten me a continental Guess wallet because he felt that it was more feminine. I didn't like anything about it - not the shape nor the monogram nor the brand nor the colour and I have never used that wallet. It wasn't until 2006 when I saw the Ferragamo Saffiano Continental that I was triggered slightly by the prospect of using one. Nevertheless there was no way I could have been able to allow myself to purchase a wallet that was $350+tax. At the time, my most expensive bag was the Kate Spade and it was cheaper than that wallet and I only paid for half of it. In 2007, when I was at the HK airport, I saw the wallet on sale in white and a part of me almost took out my credit card, but after wandering around the airport thinking really hard, I walked away from the deal.

I never forgot about the wallet and kept an eye on it after and showed it to Adam one time about my dream wallet when we started to date. I told him that one day, when I make enough money I will get this.

Thus, you can imagine how much I cried when I arrived in Boston in September 2009 when this wallet was waiting for me (along with a shiny red blackberry).

My Bags - 2006 to 2011

After 2005, my bag shopping has calmed down a whole lot. However, I was still purchasing them on a regularly basis and getting some as gifts. Unfortunately, there are some that I had gotten rid of before I took a pic of or with them. Below are some of the ones I have pictures of.

My Bags - The Beginning to 2005

I have decided to pay tribute to my handbag collection and note down all the stuff that I have had over time as best as I could. Every bag for me had a story attached so these entries will be a trip down memory lane for me.

Growing up, my mom was never a handbag fanatic and in my memory I only remember a very old and tattered purse that she used to carry on her and thus I've never really developed an interest in handbags. My mom did teach me the important of a wallet and where I should carry my money so I've always had a wallet since consciousness.

It's Always in the Last Place You Look

I arrived in Stockholm Monday night and the hotel asked me if i wanted to prepay and I said okay. After i got my credit card back, I held it in my hand, along with my room key.

I get to my room and tried to turn on the light, to no avail, realizing I needed the room card to turn on the electricity, so I slipped it in. Just as I was about to walk away, I recalled a trick Caleb taught me about using a useless card in your wallet instead of your room key - but I also remembered that there are some hotel rooms with contactless smart cards that will not let you do that. I wanted to see whether or not another card would work and was about to put in my credit card and in a split second decided that it was a stupid idea and didn't end up doing it.

Later that night, I went downstairs to meet up with my colleague and offered to pay for the drink, only to find that my credit card was not in my bag. Embarrassed as I was, I said I would pay for the next one. When I got back to my room, I forgot about the missing card and went to bed. The next morning, before I left for work, I searched thoroughly for it but couldn't find it. I left the room in a hurry, taking my Canadian back-up credit card with me.

While staying in Stockholm for the next four days, I searched morning and night for this card. The room is a very Scandinavian room with no cracks for cards to hide so it was really confusing to me as to where this card went. But since in my memory the card HAD to be in the room, I did not cancel it and felt that once I pack all my things, the card HAD to show up somewhere.

By noon today when I was all packed, I admitted defeat. As confusing as the situation was, I decided I'll have to suck it up and call France to get my card replaced. Of course, in regular French fashion, they asked me a million of question and told me that the card will be sent to my branch at work, and then a new PIN code I cannot change will be sent to my house, after a full week. So it looks like I'm out of a payment method until next Friday (anyone wanna come feed me?)

After I got off the phone, I put on my shoes and dragged my suitcase out of my room. As I was getting in the elevator, I felt something slippery in my shoe. In the elevator, I took off the shoe, and there it was.

.....

BOOOOOOO

Primark in London

Over the last 3-4 years, I've been to London countless number of times. However, it wasn't until the last time I was here, in November 2012, that I finally discovered what Primark really is. Every time I come to London, I stroll along Oxford Street at least once, and everyone is carrying bags that say Primark on them. At first, I thought it must be some some department store like Selfridges but the more bags I see, the more I started to think that there must be something more to it than a department store.

When Westfield Stratford City Mall finally opened before the summer olympics and I saw all these people carrying the bags, I decided I really needed to see what this place is about. I mentioned to Caleb right before Christmas that I wanted to check out Primark and he winced, and then shivered, and then shook his head violently. "No," he said, "there's no way you would like the place! It's crowded and full of cheap crap." But alas, how can he argue against my whining? We ended up heading there one fateful evening and being the brilliant guy he is, he actually stood in the line for 20 minutes to buy me a £5 scarf. Looking back though, I'm pretty sure it was actually his way of saving himself from the chaos while I waded through the mobs of people with their suitcases shopping for gifts.

This scarf would be our first purchase at Primark

Funny enough, if going to Primark right before Christmas didn't deter me from going back, then you know nothing will stop me from going again. After my first 20 minute experience in the store, I was hooked and I really needed to check out what the Oxford Store was about. So when I got back to London in late January, I went to Primark at Oxford THREE times, spending 4+ hours in there every time. And when my coworkers decided it would be funny to torture Caleb, they informed us of the NEW store at Tottenham Court! So after an early evening of hanging out, we ended the night at there. Yup, you count right, I must have gone to Primark at least 4 times that trip and ended up with 2 pairs of boots, a skirt, numerous tops, 2 pairs of thick comfy tights, 3 hats, ear muffs, some mitts, some scarves, and even a coat (£10!).

Coat and boots

Ear muffs, mitts, skirt and boots

Now that it's May, the summer season is about to begin, and I'm back in London - well it's time for another trip to Primark right? This time I was good. I only went to each of the three stores once (a total of 3 trips only :P) and ended up with three pairs of pants, a pair of shorts three pairs of flats (less than £6 each!),  two dresses, and two tops. Oh and a luscious bath mat for £3.  I think i'm quite well behaved.

At any rate, now that I'm super experienced with shopping in 2 central locations in London and one in the east end (there are more in various parts of London), I thought i'd provide some tips for budget shopping at Primark.

Eight Tips for shopping at Primark

1. GO EARLY
The Tottenham court one opens at 8am and the Oxford St one opens at 8:30am everyday. They actually open their doors more than promptly, so arriving on time doesn't make you look like a douche standing outside waiting for the doors to open. I needed to make some exchanges and got there at 8:32am and the store was already filled with a good number of people on every floor. By 9am, I was standing in the Customer Service line after trying on all the clothes I needed to exchange for. The wait was about 8 minutes, a lot faster than going during the day.


2. Don't spend all your time in one store.
Honestly, this might make some people cringe, but I have found that the best way to do this is to, I repeate, go early, spend an hour or two browsing for items you like and try it on, and if they dont have the perfect colour in the perfect size, then look for it in another location, the next morning.

The issue is that more often than not, only really big sizes are left (14-20). Their smallest size is UK 6,  EUR 32 (otherwise known as an XS) and it fits me perfectly (although more recently I've some 8s that are okay...). At any rate, 6 is a really difficult size to find, so I often end up buying an 8 or a secondary colour, and then exchanging it at a different store that has the right colour in my size. Stratford City, I have found, has been the best in terms of size, but does not have all the styles.


3. Wear a fitted tank top, leggings, easy to slip off shoes, cross-body bag.
The lines at al the Primark for the fitting room can be really really long. The good thing is that they have a good system figured out. Only 8 items per person and you can't swap. If you want to try more, you need to get back into line and re-queue. If you wear a fitted tank top, you can try on most things without having to queue, and leave your quota for the harder to try things (e.g., dresses, skinny jeans). The Tottenham Court one, I have found, is the fastest for fitting room queues. They even have a system where your baskets are numbered so although the line is long, the wait is short. Unfortunately, they also have the least sizes...

Also it's HOT in there. Mobs and mobs of people in there means you will be sweating so if it's cold outside, wear a sweater over your tank top so you can stuff the sweater in your bag when you need it.

The bag should be big and hands-free, so you can use your hands to rummage, carry, try things, or push people out of the way.


4. Try it at home.
29 days return policy. Enough said. If you follow 1-3, you won't have to do this. But I've seen people bring back bags and bags of clothing. Not classy? I know. But if you're shopping at Primark, trust me, class is your last concern (see #5). You can't do returns or exchanges at their regular cash. The best place to return/exchange? Oxford Street. They have 10 registers in a corner of their top floor just for this. BUT, I can't say this enough times, GO EARLY. If you don't, 10 registers still isn't going to make the line faster. (Disclaimer: I've only exchanged 2 items before for good reasons because i didn't do #7). Also, they allow exchanges at current price without receipt.


5. Buy for trendy not for classy.
People often say that clothing at Primark is cheap and the quality is crap. To a large extent, it's true. But if all your clothes comes from Primark, then you have a bigger problem. Primark is good for FUN clothing for a wardrobe with a high turnover rate. Primark itself is big and fun, filled with every style imaginable with average price of £8 per item. But when it comes to class, material matters. Looking classy sometimes isn't just about style, but it's also about fabric and cut. You can tell these things. Think before you purchase.

Dress i did not buy

6. Buy Kids
No, not actual kids, but buy in kid sizes. Their kid sizes are huge. For shirts, dress sizes, their Large is about Women's UK6. Shoe sizes, I'm generally a 35/US 5, which is about a UK Kids 2. If you can't find your size, they might have a style similar in kids in your size. All three pairs of flats are from the kids section and Caleb actually likes them. Their selections are smaller, but worth a try. I was trying on these kids shoes when to women working at Primark were next to me discussing how many kids shoes they've bought for themselves.



7. Check the quality.
Buttons fall off, seams rips, style goes awry. My last trip there, I bought this super cute dress. When I got home and put it on, Caleb was like, omg what's that nasty thing in the back? Apparently the giant gold zipper is sewn on the outside of the lace dress and went all the way from my neck to the middle of my butt. The devil is in the detail, as my grand-boss loves to say.

Caleb loves to look for flaws in my Primark buys and he usually finds them (at this point, you might have realized he hates that store). So before you buy it, make sure to do a quick check to make sure everything is in tact.

8. Don't go if....

• You don't like shopping
• You are carrying a boyfriend/SO who hates shopping
• You don't have enough time
• You don't have patience
• You don't like tripping over clothing, shoes, or children
• You hate rummaging
• You hate trying things on
• You hate crowds
• You hate crying babies
• You hate americans
• You hate the french

Hey, Primark isn't for everyone. Sucks for you!!

Now that I've spent this much time declaring how much I like shopping at Primark, I shall leave you with this: Primark bans attractive people.

I HATE ITUNES

There, I said it, it's out in public.
Here is why:
For my birthday, Caleb bought me a macbook air. The last time I owned an Apple product was 2005, a gift of a 3G ipod nano (what is it now after 8 years? 15G?). I hated itunes then. I never could figure out how to use it. Now, at the tender age of 29 - here i am being technically challenged again (last week i learned how to mess with web apps and repackage .war files with very little help from caleb and a lot of help from the internet and yet i can't install a single app on my macbook...WTF).

I've been avoiding signing up with itunes for the last two months since i've had my computer. Last week, I finally created an account when i needed to talk to Matt using facetime. Fine, whatever. account created. (I probably have another account somewhere when i had my nano) (oh and another sidenote, i've not touched my nano for 5 years now and it looks brand new - why? because i hate itunes.)

So today, I wanted to install evernote on the mac to plan my trip to australia with Caleb.
1. google evernote for mac
2. click download
3. taken to itunes
4. tried to click download
5. asked me to sign in
6. sign in with account, asked me to register and review my itunes data
7. agreed to terms, filled out all information, until i get to billing
8. I CANNOT continue unless i put in a credit card info?!
9. press cancel
10. Back to square one, unable to sign in because i cannot register
11. google how to use itunes without my credit card
12. find FAQ "How to create itunes account without credit card"
13. tried for 5 minutes trying to find how to use itunes account without credit card - apple has no answer
14. found answer on youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSBSdqcoRcU
15. follow the instructions on this TEN MINUTE video
16. had to create a NEW account, because old one would not work.
17. finally registered, tried to find evernote in itunes
18. searched for evernote, would not start in my computer - why?
19. looked around for five minutes and figured out how i just downloaded evernote for iphones. WTF - why is this even possible?!?!?!
20. searched for evernote in itunes again, in attempt to find MAC version
21. CANNOT find versions that are not ipad or iphones....
22. went back to google to google evernote for mac
23. went to evernote site, clicked on download, and app store opened up - wtf is the diff and why do i have itunes then?!
24. clicked install app - computer asked me to restart....okay
25. computer restarts, searched for evernote in spotlight - does not exist
26. opened app store again, evernote was not installed....
27. clicked resume download...finally....

TWO HOURS.
I HATE YOU ITUNES - WHY DO YOU EXIST???

/end rant.

Just Another Day

Friday after work, a coworker of mine and I went to hang out in the La Marais area. After work, we got into her car and drove from Suresnes to the 3rd Arr. On our way, we passed by the Seine, Grand Palais, Champs Elysee, Arc de Triomph, and as we drove across the roundabout of the Arc, sitting in traffic while my coworker complained about the density of Paris, it hit me that I now live here. From now on, every single day, I am going to be passing by these grandiose landmarks people read about in books, see in movies, watch on TV, listen to on the radio, as though they are street lamps or parking metres. "In fact" (the phrase the French love to use), I see the Eiffel Tower from my terrace across my bed, glittering at the hour, and the golden dome of Les Invalides glowing in the dark from the terrace outside of the living room.

Today, I decided to go to a Korean grocery store in Little Japan. The closest direct stop for me via the metro is 10 minutes at Opéra. Coming out of the Metro and seeing "the most famous opera house in the world" right in front of my face while knowing that not only was it not my destination and just another building i pass by on my way to go grocery shopping, but also that i will be seeing this monumental infrastructure on a regular basis, is quite a disconcerting feeling. 

And so, to mark this monumental moment, from hereon, when i refer to these landmarks, they shall be written with lower case. Bon matin eiffel tower! Bon soir arc de triomph et champs elysee! Douce nuit, les invalides!

Coins

The office cafeteria in Suresnes, France has two coffee vending machines. If you want a coffee, it will cost you 25 centime. Therefore to have coffee, you will need change. When someone wants to break for coffee, they go around asking "cafe?"

Me: "Cafe?"

Coworker: "Do you have money?"

Me: "I have 10 cents!" picking up this yellow coin I have on my desk.

Him: "That's not 10 cents, that's 20."

Me: "It is! It says 10 cents on it!"

At this point, we were both confused...

Apparently when I went to the Carrefour (supermarket) this morning, I got a 10 cent Ethiopian coin disguised as a 20 cent Euro coin. 

Of course, after being here for a total of 5 weeks this year, I still had no idea what Euro coins look like...

Eyelash

As an Asian, I don't have many eyelashes, so you would think that the probability of the scary scenario of living alone and having an eyelash go into and sting your eye without a person there to blow out for you to happen to me would be pretty low. Alas, that is not the case.

Living alone:1

Lynn: 0

Eyelashes on Lynn's eyes: -1

New Face

Lately the new endorsements for big brands have been pretty fitting. My disposition towards the brand has a 1:1 relationship with my disposition toward the celebrities.

Gwenyth Paltrow --> Coach (tries too hard)
Angelia Jolie --> Louis Vuitton (ritzy, but not for me)
Jessica Alba --> Piaget (tasteful)

The guy who never compliments

Andrew after I got off the phone with my mom: "Man I hate China Mandarin"
Me: "uh....thank you? I'll take that as a compliment...?"

The closest he will ever get to giving a compliment.

Politics of Politics

Walking around the city and even surfing around on FB, I am bombarded with the phrase "Did you Vote?"
Even my temporary MA driver's license said in big bold letters "YOU DID NOT REGISTER TO VOTE TODAY."

The best part is likely when I was at the T stop and a woman tried to hand us pamphlets while saying "Did you vote?" We shook our heads at her, subconsciously rejecting the pamphlet and answering her question. She scowled at us like we are awful American citizen.

Look lady, you can try to shame us into voting, but do you really want a Canadian voting on American politics? We'll turn you socialist in no time! (Okay, maybe not with the recent Ford election...)

About my bags

There used to be a period in my life when I hoarded handbags. It's true. I even made a blog post about my handbag inventory back in the days. In August, I went back to Toronto to move most of my stuff out of the house because my family was moving. It turned out that this "moving" became the purging of all my childhood and young adult life memorabilia. Now that I am writing this blog I wish I took some photos to maintain the memories of the stuff I threw out...such as my gigantic collection of pencils (the ones that need sharpening)...I want to cry just thinking about it. Imagine this: I donated approximately 10 garbage bags worth of clothes, shoes, and bags, and stuffed animals, recycled 3 giant boxes of old paperwork and school work, and tossed out 3 garbage bags of STUFF.

But I digress: I wrote this post because I wanted to talk about my handbag fetish (or lack thereof?). I mean, I feel like my fetish is pretty mild in comparison to many people I have known or read about. When I was young, I had one wallet that I often kept losing and never believed in handbags. When I started going out with Mike, he said he would like me to carry handbags so he can put his stuff there and it was then I began buying a ton of bags. Within our two years and some months of relationship, I must have accumulated 15-20 bags.

About a year after we broke up, my horrible bag hoarding issue also broke up a little (partly because it was replaced by a horrible shoe hoarding problem that's outside the scope of this blog post (but do recall my shoe inventory blog post made a few years ago)). By breaking though, I mean that I stopped subscribing to forums that talk about handbags and I stopped paying attention to brand-name handbags. I didn't stop buying, I just bought less and stopped researching. By the time I was leaving for Boston, I had a gigantic Tupperware of handbags (comes up to my waist) plus a few sitting in my dresser, most of which I donated during the purge.

This weekend, Adam's family came to Boston and we spent literally all weekend shopping. At Wrentham Outlet, Adam bought me my second Kate Spade item: a cross-body bag for our trip to Europe in November. Honestly, I haven't been this excited since he got me my Salvatore Ferragamo Saffiano wallet since last year around this time. While admiring my new KS bag, I decided to clear out my collection to see what I have left (*silently cries*).

And here is the essence of my post: my remaining bag collection.

Salvatore Ferragamo:

• Black Saffiano continental wallet <3

Kate Spade:

• Cranberry Maddie <3
• Black signature Noel Thomas Crossbody <3

Coach:

• small white soho flap shoulder (FS)
• small navy signature top handle pouch <3
• large beige leather madison wristlet
• purple signature wristlet
• small red soho signature wallet

Miscellaneous:

• three nine west bags (2 FS)
• two puma bags (1 RT)
• one old navy cross-body sling
• one big aldo bag
• one small aldo evening bag
• one transit clutch
• one guess shoulder bag
• one buffalo back pack bag thing
• one pacsun slouch hobo
• one guess continental wallet (RT)
• one no name oversized yellow synthetic bag I got from HK <3
• one no name pink shoulder bag I got from TW (RT)

Total: 24ish
FS: I want to sell them
RT: Ready for retirement (donation)

At this point, if you are still reading, you probably have realized that I am totally quantity > quality. I don't own any real haute-couture bags like Chanel or Prada or BV or even Gucci and LV...mainly because I can't afford them. I've been threatening adam that i'm just gonna go out one day and buy a $3k bag, but I have yet the courage. I also keep asking myself whether i would actually keep a bag forever and use it regularly for the rest of my life to make that money worth it at my income level, and the answer has always been no.

Also note that I have rather large coat collection....

Do you see two common themes?

J: speaking of forgetting to bring (haha) thank you for delivering my watch to Jen next week :D
L: oh yeah
dammit i better remember that
maybe i need some incentive for me to remember
J: hahaha
Daily fb wall reminders, with personalized messages attached?
L: um, that will make me forget :D
J: evil :*(
L: so lets talk about incentives :D
J: lol, what is it going to cost me
L: i dunno...what do u have to offer?
J: friendship? Baskin Robbins coupons?
L: not free ice cream? just coupons?
...how valuable is your watch again?
J: it has sentimental value!!
fine free ice cream!
L: which means it's invaluable you would say?
and that it's worth more than the cost of the watch itself
hmm....
J: lol I am so being hustled
L: and ice cream is what? $3.00?
J: plus tax
L: i am thoroughly enjoying this
in case you haven't noticed :D
J: yes, I am fully aware!
L: so 3.50 for a very nice Seiko watch with invaluable sentimental values attached
sounds like i'd be gypped if i accept this offer
J: damn it, if you were Adam I could throw in ***ual favours :(

[subject was conveniently changed]

[some 20 minutes later]

L: btw, what's it feel like to be without your watch?
J: I had to revert back to an old watch that ran outta batteries! So I replaced that. It's weird. A lot heavier than my other watch, took some getting used to
L: oh, so i guess you really would like your watch back, huh
J: what do you think?! :P
L: oh, i'm just making sure, that's all
it's important to put a fair price on what i'm selling so fact check is warranted :D
J: :(
L: haha
sad face doesnt work on me
i use that on other ppl all the time
J: :****(
L: you still have four days to make acceptable offers
so no worries
lots of time to think about it :D
_________________________________________________
E: yo
L: yaow
E: did you pass my Quest shirt to Jay Kwan?
L: erm...no...lol..
we forgot it at home
we should keep it hostage until u pay us back tho
hahahaha
since now im hustling jay
i might as well hustle u
E: we'll be mean to you
L: How? im not even in the city
E: when we visit you
hahahha
L: haha, u cant visit me and be mean to me
that defeats the purpose!!
E: yes i can! i can go see Adam.
hahhahh

Cougar Alert

Yesterday, I posted the following on my FB:

Mike Zhang and I are trying to figure out who I should go for, Leonardo DiCaprio who is 8 years older than me, or Taylor Lautner who is 8 years younger than me. The real questions is, which one can I pull off better, dating an 18 year old or a 35 year old? Btw, Inception has rekindled my love for Leonardo DiCaprio. Gotta dig out my old posters from Romeo & Juliet and Titanic ♥

It garnered a lot of responses...mostly girls.

And then monica msged me today.

_________________________________________

- mun.:
lynnnnnnnnnnnnnie!
so did you decide
leo or talyor

Lynnie:
hahahahahahahahaha
whoever i can get!
i think taylor might be tired of all the old women drooling over him

Lynnie:
i just googled taylor lautner
his abs are....
i feel like a pedophile

- mun.:
hahahhahahahhah
DROOLS?
hahahha..
you must have saw this one
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn.buzznet.com/media-cdn/jj1/headlines/2009/03/taylor-lautner-shirtless-abs.jpg&imgrefurl=http://justjared.buzznet.com/2009/03/19/ashley-greene-taylor-lautner%25E2%2580%2599s-shirtless-scenes/&h=300&w=300&sz=24&tbnid=YcGHK-pdvvqzTM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtaylor%2Blautner&hl=en&usg=__4ME35vAu-9qGskws5JQ_ZXBG7ic=&sa=X&ei=-kNGTKaSJ9CKnQem09HiA
8 pack!
hahahhah

Lynnie:
i did! i asked adam if they were photoshopped
he said they were real

- mun.:
well
how do you tell
look kinda airbrushed in that pic

Lynnie:
thats what i was telling him
and i said makeup helps it get defined better
but then we looked at a few other ones
and he deemed them real
i'd like them to real
so im really not gonna refute that

It's ALIVE!

No one in my family has a green thumb..in fact, the concept of having plants was obscure to me until my first coop term, where, at the end of the term, I received a pot of plants as one of my goodbye presents. At first, I was confused and excited...ooh my very own plant. I placed it next to my window and watered it religiously..until one day, I discovered fruit flies around the plant, at which point, I tossed the whole pot into the garbage and brought it down the garbage chute. Insects in the house...didn't know civilization was going backwards(!!!)

We were at IKEA a couple months ago, trying to figure out how to make our place look better with decorations and we bought some art and I wanted some fake flowers or sticks as decor. At the fake flower section, I saw a bunch of fake potted plants, because, y'know, IKEA isn't a nursery so it's gotta be fake right?

I spent a lot of time picking out the best looking plant ("Wow, Adam, these are amazing! No two fake plants look alike, they must spent a lot of time on the mould!"), accidentally depotting some by picking them up from their stem, and getting soil all over the floor and my clothes ("Man, Adam, IKEA is amazing! Can you believe how many realistic looking plants they have? Even the soil looks real!"). I even bought a white plant pot to put the plant in, because that would match our bathroom better than the ceramic looking pot in which the plant was plotted.

A few months later, while I was in the bathroom, I found a brown leaf on the floor. Weird, I thought to myself, where did we go to attract a brown leaf into the house.....if this were a movie, there would a loud "DUN DUN DUN" from the background music the moment it hit me and i looked up at the plant sitting on the shelf.





I've been watering it regularly now. It still looks unhealthy. I just looked up instructions on the IKEA website and it says to leave it in bright, but not direct, sunlight. There's no room where our window is for that plant and having soil in the bathroom is enough for me. Mr. Real Plant, hopefully you can survive in our bathroom with being watered whenever I remember and am feeling sorry for you....Just pray that you're not going to attract any fruit flies, k?

Rogue Hero of our Building

Living in a condo, one of the conveniences is being able to take your trash out whenever you want and tossing it down the trash chute.

The rule of the building is, if you have large items that don't fit down the chute, you are allowed to leave it in the chute room. If these items happen to be recyclable, they will not get recycled. Although we do have a large recycling/trash room downstairs, many people get lazy and just don't recycle their large boxes.

I don't know if this happens just on our floor, but we also have some lazy (or germ-phobic) person(s) who enjoy(s) leaving their garbage bags in the trash chute room, rather than tossing it down the chute. This makes the room smell pretty badly, needless to say. So after a couple of these incidences, we saw a hand-written sign taped next to the chute by a fellow resident that asked, not very politely, for the person who does it to stop.

When I saw it, I giggled uncontrollably: "So I'm not the only person who gets annoyed, eh!" I tell Adam. Unfortunately, that sign did not scare anyone except for the building management, who replaced the sign with an official notice that stated what belongs down the chute, what belongs in the room, and what does not belong in the room. Nevertheless, the disrespect for rules (or illiterateness) continued.

Yesterday afternoon, while I was happily (or miserably, you decide) sitting in front of the computer doing my work, I heard a lot of commotion outside of our door that, I thought at the time, could have been from our neighbours across the aisle, but was a little too close to our door for me to feel safe. I chose to ignore it, like all normal (or abnormal) people.

At around 6pm, Adam opens our door from the outside and shows me a sheet of shipping paper taped to our door, addressed to Jessica Something or another, apartment XXX, with a handwritten scribble on the sheet saying something like, "Stop leaving your garbage in the room or management will come get you." Another apartment number XYZ was scribbled across the sheet.

Beneath this taped note, was a pile of garbage (thankfully nothing gross, just a large biodegradable packaging paper and some torn up large boxes.) Oh, so that was what that commotion was...

Hmmm...here's some of my observations and theories:

• My name is not Jessica something something, and we don't live in aparment XXX (we live in apartment XXY, right across from XXX). So this rogue law enforcer must have been illiterate like the person(s) doing the littering...
• OR, she/he might have some of form of spatial dyslexia
• The hand written XYZ on top of the sheet makes me suspect that perhaps the original person who did this put it at the wrong door, but the litterer wrote a different number...
• ...You know...I can't explain why there was another apartment number scribbled on the sheet at all....doesn't make any logical sense.
• Technically, that pile of garbage does belong in the trash chute room, since it's oversized, so it does prove to me that rogue law enforcer is illiterate.
• ...But to be fair, we live in a pretty yuppie condo, so the chances of people being illiterate is pretty low...I really have no explanations

Anyway, Adam and I stared at this mess for a bit, then we decided to gently nudge the garbage across the hallway and place the note on the door of apartment number on the shipping sheet (not the scribbled over one, since that one was too far down the hall). Five minutes later, I decided that I wanted to take a picture of the pile, but it was already gone...

In the evening, each unit of our floor got a notice from the building manager asking the rogue officer to please stop taking the matter into his or her own hands based on his or her own suspicion...

All I can say is that I am sorry I didn't open the door during the commotion and took a look at our illiterate rogue hero.



Oh, and Adam thinks our rogue hero is a girl because only girls would do passive-aggressive things like that. But I think it has to be a man, cuz it's pretty juvenile and all girls can read.

It's not as easy as it looks

Buying ham at the deli in Stop n Shop (grocery store)

Me: can I get 200 grams of the lemon chicken breast shaved?
Guy behind the counter: GRAMS?
Me (in my head): *AH CRAP THIS IS NOT CANADA*
Me (out loud): erm...sorry I meant...erm...what do you guys use here for measurement for buying deli meat? ounces?
Him: Uh...pound...
Me: Oh...well is a pound a lot?
Him: *silence while trying to digest my question*
Me: ...I'm so sorry.. I'm Canadian... I meant...what do people usually get?
Girl next to me: Is it for two people for a week?
Me: YES!! YES!!
Her: I usually get half a pound to 3/4 of a pound for that
Me: oh yes! Thank you!! I'll get 3/4 of a pound then
Him: *looks at me* Um...How about we try 1/2 pound first, and see from there if that's enough for you?
Me: oh ok.. let's try that..shaved please
Him: *raises eyebrow while getting the meat*

While he cuts, he tries to make conversation with me about Boston. When he was done, there was about 0.65 lb of shredded meat, that looked like a lot of meat.

Him: Is this too much for you?
Me (in my head): *YES!! And why is it shredded... D: *
Me (out loud): Umm... no...I mean yes...but don't worry I can deal with it...

Lesson learned: they use a different measuring system (duh..) and shaved means something else than what I usually get when i asked for shaved in Canada....
*EDIT* I asked an American friend if they get it shaved, and he said they call it "thinly sliced" here.