Day 108: Most memorable birthday

I had my birthday bash yesterday, Fri, Nov 27. I can say it is one of the most memorable birthdays so far. There was lots of food. Some of my friends practised their culinary skills by making something. Some brought desserts. It was all good! It was great to have my friends over. I am very glad everyone got along with everyone else. Everyone is pretty easy going and easy to talk to. If they weren't easy to talk to, there were activities that encouraged conversation. I had everyone wear a name tag. But the rule is to not write your real name. It has to be an adjective, a word you like, a phrase you like, or anything else you feel like writing. Some people has a tough time thinking of a phrase. Some words included 'yellow', 'pink', 'Detriot Dan', 'Random Hero', 'Al Dente', etc. I think it made it more fun and entertaining. I also had two banners on my wall. The top banner was '33 Questions for Lisa'. Everyone was encouraged to write a question about me, ideally something they don't know. People came up with the most interesting questions. For example, 'why are your eyebrows so nice?', ' if you were a fish, what fish would you be?' Later on the night, I answered all the questions. Apparently, the reason why I'm cheerful all the time cause I'm on drugs..hahah.. The bottom banner was 'Lisa's Birthday Banner'. It was basically a huge birthday card. They can write whatever they wanted. All of them were wishing me a great birthday.

I think some of my friends have sick perverted minds. With the stickers, one of them draw boobies and stuck it on his gf. Another person drew a penis. That was popular with the guys. The penis was disturbing to some people. But it was all in the name of fun.

We also did a shot of rum. I know it's pretty gross to take it straight up but it was all I had. I had to chase it down with some juice to mask the strong flavour. Not everyone did the shot, there was only about 8 of us that did the shot.

I had a goal of 33 people attending my party. I achieved the goal.

Day 107: Loud places

I never really thought about it but I don't really like being in loud places. Tonight my cousin had her birthday dinner at Chambar. It has a really nice decor with the brick wall. The service was good. Our waitress reminded me of Tina Fey with her short dark hair, small face and angular glasses. The only thing I didn't really like was that the music was too loud. I do understand that they need music to give the place some atmosphere. But once it gets to a point were I can't have a conversation with the person next to me, it's too loud for me. There was ten of us at the table. I only can hear the three immediate people beside me. It would be nice to be part of other conversations to spice things up a bit. The conversation with the person on my left got stale pretty quickly. He is my cousin's friend's cousin. He's only 19. We didn't have that many things to talk about. He came up from Seattle for the weekend. I was just being my nosey self and asking him questions about where he lives and where he goes to school. But after awhile I felt that he didnt really want to talk to me. There were some gals that were sitting at the other end of table that I would've liked to talk to. We finally managed to have a conversation outside of the restaurant, where it was a bit quieter.

When I was younger I loved going clubbing. That was about 12 years ago. I go to a club maybe once a year these days. I don't like it so much because the music is too loud for me. I think I would rather have a conversation with someone at dinner or dessert or coffee. At a club it's about yelling in someone's ear. Just because you yelled in their ear, it doesn't actually mean that they understood you. I'm sure there are many miscommunications too. They hear "what? you like my pants?" ....when you actually said "do you want to dance?"

Day 106: The commercialization of holidays

The commercialization of holidays. Does birthdays count as a holiday? Why do we give someone a birthday present when it is their birthday? I'm not sure if it is Chinese or Vietnamese culture, when it is your birthday, you have to treat your friends to a meal or a drink. Doesn't it cancel each other out if they give me a present and I treat them to a meal?

When I came to Canada I didn't know what Christmas was about. We went to our relatives house every Christmas and they distributed presents. It was in school that I learned about Christmas. I don't think my parents know the origins of Christmas. I think they only know the 'commercialization' of it. They know it as a time to give presents to us. As time goes on, they don't know what to give us anymore. We don't celebrate Christmas anymore. It is more of an opportunity to get together with family. There are no turkey dinners. My aunt is asking us what we want for our 'Christmas' dinner. We are requesting salad rolls, springs rolls and other Vietnamese / Chinese food.

For some people it is about decorating their place to be festive and into the mood of the occasion. We have Christmas tree ornaments in our garage. We haven't had a Christmas tree for years. I don't really believe in spending so much on decorations for one day. I guess you can leave the decorations there for a week or so. But it would silly for me to leave birthday decorations on for a few weeks till Christmas??..haha..

I think it is about making money. The retailers know it is a time where everyone spends their money. After Halloween, the Christmas decorations come out. They always skip my birthday! I guess more people spend money on Christmas decorations then birthday decorations. The restaurants know that it is a time for large group bookings. They start taking bookings in October.

I think people have high expectations when it comes to special occasions. If you are dating someone, when it comes to Christmas or their birthday, you are expected to give them a gift. If it's Valentine, you are expected to give something lovey dovey. If only you can express your expectations in the relationship, then you don't have to spend so much on each other. Maybe you don't even have to give each other anything!

Day 105: Early Birthday

The celebration started early! I was at my aunties tonight for dinner. We had hot pot. My cousin's birthday is on November 26 and mine is on the 29th. We celebrated our birthdays with mango cake after dinner.

I think I am a lazy eater. I think hot pot is too much work. I don't really want to go to a restaurant and for them to give me raw food and I have to cook it myself. If I'm going to pay, they should be doing the cooking. I have been to Stone Grill before because of Dine Out Vancouver and of the Entertainment coupon. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't go there. Really? You want me to pay an arm and a leg for two pieces of veggies AND I have to cook my own meat? What am I paying for? For you to bring me the raw food?

November 29 isn't actually my real birthday. It is on November 25. My sister is really born on November 29 and I am on November 25. When we came to Canada, my dad got our birthdays mixed up and it has been like that ever since. All my government ID's says that my birthday is on November 29. Ok, I have no way to prove that November 25 is my real birthday. I don't have a birth certificate. I can make up any date and say it's my birthday..hahah. It really doesn't matter because it is only a four day difference. It is the same zodiac sign.

It was fun tonight getting together with my family. I got to see my cousin's daughter who is in grade 8. The lifestyle is so much different then when I was younger. She has a cell phone. Damn, when I was 13 I didn't have such luxuries. I saw my other cousins who came back from an European trip. It was neat to see some of their pictures.

Day 104: Visit to the Dentist

At my last visit, they said my teeth were perfect and I just have to come back for a check up in six months. That was about a year ago. Around the six month mark, they would call to remind me to come. I sometimes have a weekday off. I call them to see if they have that day available. Of course they never do because they are so busy. What I have to do to book an appointment, is to book the appointment then ask for the time off. Lucky me they called me today at 8:25 am. They said they had some cancellations and asked if I can come in. What a coincidence that I had the day off today. It was originally scheduled for 1 pm. She can hear the hesitation in my voice. I had other plans at 1 pm. Going to the dentist wasn't one of them. She then called me back at 10:30 to let me know that there was a spot at 11 am. Wow! You should've heard the excitement in my voice *sarcasm* I did tell her I would be late because I just woke up. I got there at 11:20 am. They didn't get a chance to do a complete cleaning on my teeth because I came late. Oh, too bad for me!

The original dentist that I went too was my mom's cousin. She retired. Too bad for me that she doesn't check my teeth anymore. I now have a middle age Asian dentist. He's a very nice man. It's good he doesn't want to do more fillings and work on my teeth. He just told me to keep maintaining my teeth.

This is the only place that I go to that another person that has the same name as me goes to. They didn't realize it was two different people until this year. The other gal is a young Asian gal. One time when I was there for a cleaning, they put notes about my teeth on her file. They just cleaned it up a few months ago. The receptionist had to call me twice that day to make sure the information she was putting in the file was correct.

How I love going to the dentist!

Day 103: Coast Restaurant

Tonight I went to Coast Restaurant on Alberni St with a couple of friends. Overall it was a great experience. It was a chance for us to catch up with what we are doing with our lives. We haven't had a chance to do this for about 12 years. We enjoyed great food and it was very relaxing atmosphere.

The atmosphere was very relaxing. As we approached the entrance of the restaurant, we see the circular bar in the middle. It is lit and there are shelves of wine and seafood. There are mirrors on one side of the walls. They are not mirrors that take up the whole walls, the mirrors are slender and you don't even notice them unless you look really carefully. The mirrors make the restaurant look bigger than it actually is. The restaurant is three 'levels' which allows them to have more seating space. We sat on the second 'level'.

The service was great. Our waitress was very patient with us. I asked about wine flights. On the menu they didn't mention they have wine flights. The waitress said they didn't have it but double checked with someone else and came back to us to let me know that they could accommodate the request. I ordered my drink already so I didn't want the wine flight. By the end of the night, she gave me her card to reassure me that the next time I come I can have wine flights.

The food was good. The special tonight is fish and chips for $14. I don't like eating fries, but I like eating poutine. They have a lobster poutine. It was an extra $5 to 'upgrade' to the lobster poutine. I ordered the fish and chips with halibut and lobster poutine. The waitress told us that halibut season will be over next week. I wanted to take advantage of the halibut while it is still in season. The lobster poutine was great. It had big chunks of lobster. The gravy wasn't too salty. I ate all my halibut. I only ate half of my lobster poutine. I was going to save some room for dessert but I didn't end up ordering dessert. I was too full.

I went to dinner tonight with two friends. One friend I went to high school with and the other I met a few years after high school. The one that I went to high school with I haven't seen him for about 12 years. The other friend I see on rare occasions. We used to hang out about 12 years ago. It was nice to see and chat with them again.

Day 102: Last wedding of the year

Today I went to my last wedding of the year. It was pouring rain outside. But there was lots of love and excitement inside. It was my second cousin`s wedding. She is the one in the middle wearing the wedding gown.*duh* The ceremony took place at a church in downtown Vancouver. We parked at a parking lot across the street. Of course I wanted to look pretty and I wore a dress and high heels. Wearing a dress and walking in the pouring rain isn`t the smartest thing to do. It was a Catholic wedding. There was a lot of reading verses and prayers. It lasted about 45 minutes.

The second part of the wedding was held at a hotel ballroom in downtown Vancouver. There were cocktails served before the reception. It was beautiful inside. The walls were very ornately decorated. The centerpieces were tall vases with white flowers. The chairs had white chair covers with gold sashes. They had an original itinerary. They had four bridesmaids and four groomsmen. When the bridesmaids were introduced into the banquet room, they did a little dance number. When the groomsmen were introduced, they walked in really casually with a beer in their hand. There was supposed to be a short slide show before the bride and groom made their entrance. They had some technical difficulties with the slide show so they showed the slide show later on the evening. They did the cake cutting first. There were some speeches. The best speech was from the brides father. With his best effort at speaking English, he said how much he loved his only daughter and welcomed the groom and his family into his family. I get teary eyed so easily. If someone starts to cry, I cry too. If someone says something sentimental, I cry too. I cried at a few of the speeches. After wiping away the tears, we finally got to eat dinner. It was a buffet with lots of delicious food. After dinner, the dancing started. I got my groove on. It was about 9ish that the dessert bar opened. The most unique item was the fruit with the chocolate fondue..ummm so delicious.

I like attending weddings because it is about reconnecting. It is a great opportunity to talk to cousins that I haven`t talked to in a long time. There was a cousin from San Fran that came to attend the wedding. I don`t get to see her very often. I didn`t get to talk to her much tonight. She was busy with her two daughters. I only got to talk to her for about 5mins right before she was leaving.