Tag Archive: friends

New venue for thanks

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Sun. October 9, 2011

About a year ago I wouldn’t have imagined that I’d be invited over to a friend’s place to celebrate Thanksgiving. I know, I know it seems like an odd thing to get all reflective about but it’s sort of new to me. Thanksgiving has always been a family thing for me, and even then it’s more of a case of “Oh…I guess we should do something, right?” Over the past year I’ve met so many people through my improv classes and through my running activities. There have been a lot of new valuable connections made. It just so happens that one of the people that I met holds a big Thanksgiving bash at her place for a lot of friends. What am I thankful for this year? I am thankful for the fact that I am expanding my social circle. I am thankful that my presence is wanted. I am thankful that I have a chance to be thankful in a different venue.

There’s a lot of good going on. I have to stay honest and keep working hard, or else who knows?

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Expanded social circles

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Fri. September 9, 2011

Today, after work, I decided that I wanted pho for dinner. I hadn’t been to the Vietnamese restaurant down the street from my place in a few months so I decided that it’d be a good time to head back. In my yearning to be social I ended asking an improv friend whether she wanted to join. I’m glad that she agreed. After we ate we decided to carry on our conversations at a bar nearby. So, really, that was my evening. I kind of find it interesting that I knew that there was someone close by that I could call up just to hang out. I mean, I haven’t had such close access to social fulfillment since maybe university. For now visiting my closest friends take a bit of time and coordination because they live a bit of a distance away. So knowing someone that’s in the area is a bit of a bonus. I guess it’s a matter of me having expanded my social circles. I need a good variety of people in my life with varying degrees of closeness. I think having this range is helping me realize what one of my friend told me long ago. She told me that despite what I say about me being introverted I’m actually quite outgoing. I never understood that before, or why she seemed so emphatic when she insisted so. Well…I get it. I see what it means to need other people to draw energy from them. Heh. Go figure. After all this time I’m still discovering things about myself.

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On deaf ears until

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Wed. December 29, 2010

Your friends can tell you all they want that you’re in a bad situation and that you should get out of it for your own mental health, but all that falls on deaf ears up until you start believing it yourself.

In my case, I think I’ve finally hit that turning point. Stay tuned in 2011. Yes, indeed.

(I do this type of post too often. I’m starting a “cryptic” category.)

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People, not stuff

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Tue. August 17, 2010

This ended up as a day where I had a chance to catch up with two people that I hadn’t seen in years. I saw one of them over lunch, and the other over dinner. It really is interesting how meals are great at bringing people together, right? So, I was just thinking that the younger version of me would have been fretting over whether I’ve done enough since the last time we saw each other. I mean, am I at the right place career-wise? Have I travelled anywhere exciting? Am I doing enough in my spare time? Am I dating someone? On some level, I believed I would be judged by just how far I’d gotten, and I would have wanted to the other party to look down on me.

Of course, all of that is silly, isn’t it?

Thankfully, this time around I was a lot more relaxed and forgiving of myself. I was genuinely interested in hearing about what they’ve been up to, and they were interested in what I’ve been up to. I may not be at the top of my game in all spheres of life, but that doesn’t matter at all; these people are interested in me and not my “status.” It’s amazing how liberating that thought is.

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Completely normal

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Thu. July 22, 2010

Once in a while, all you need is a really close friend to listen to your thoughts, worries and insecurities. After all that, having them tell you that you’re completely normal is enough to alleviate any self-inflicted pressure.

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When to work the network

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Fri. July 9, 2010

It’s a very good lesson to learn. As you go through work and life in general you’ll end up building a multitude of valuable relationships. Even if you end up moving on, to some extent you should try to keep some ties alive. You never know when those links will become handy. Now, I’m not saying those links should be exploited plainly for fun and profit, but there are certainly times when your information network can come in handy.

Quick story. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve changed departments. As a result I’ve had to relocate to a different floor, away from the main kitchen area where my old desk was located. The other day I was out for some ice cream with our company’s receptionist. She informed me that desserts were being served today, Friday, at around 11 a.m. So, today, prior to 11 I pinged my old colleague and asked him to message me when everything was served. He did just that, and I was able to scramble downstairs with my eco-friendly plate and get to the food before anyone else had a chance. Minutes after I got back to my desk, the email went out and everyone ran.

See. Information networks rock. Priorities, you know.

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Alex Trebek’s mustache

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Tue. March 23, 2010

Back in high school, instead of taking part in all of the physical extra-curricular activities, I was more than likely a participant in the things that had more a mental bend. As such, through the first few years I was an active participant in the DPCDSB Math League. Heck, we even won the championship one of those years. Later on, I was an active participant in the school’s Reach For The Top team. I’m not going to lie, I got such a kick out of competitive trivia. I loved playing around with the various buzzers that we had. It finally seemed like my repository of useless information actually had a use. Our team actually got to the top of Peel Region, allowing us to make it to the provincials in Kingston, Ontario. Yes, we were great. More specifically, I was awesome. We didn’t do so well in Kingston. In fact, we lost a shit load of games there. I swear, if I had a stronger supporting team we would have done better, but whatever: all in the past now.

Earlier, I was hanging out with some 20SB people over at Fionn MacCools. The place was having a trivia night. I was kind of excited, because it was giving me an opportunity to dust off my dormant skills. The questions weren’t so bad, but I was kind of surprised just how many of them I wasn’t able to get. Don’t get me wrong, we did well. I’d even say we did awesomely, however, there were many teams that did a lot better. Perhaps on some level I’m just a little bit sad about not having a better handle on everything. Jason circa 1998-1999 would be able to run circles around me. I guess though, in the end, trivia really doesn’t matter. I mean, that’s why it’s called “trivia” right? Of course, I can’t lose sight of the best thing about last night: I was able to hang out with some fun and classy ladies. We had a good time.

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Chicken, socialization, or beer

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Thu. January 7, 2010

I’ve been craving chicken wings for a few days. I don’t know, that’s pretty random isn’t it? Then, out of the blue I got an invite to meet up with running friends for beer and wings on Friday. Apparently I willed it and the universe obliged. Isn’t that how The Secret works? Hahahah.

Knowing what’s in store for tomorrow, I’ve been doing my homework. I’ve been checking out the caloric content for wings and potentially beer. I know what I can get away with and what my limits should be. I know how much variance I can get away with. That’s right:I’m going in with a game plan! Yes, it sounds all very fastidious, and even a bit overboard; however, I acknowledge that I need to at least make the effort.

I’ve been working hard for the past few months! It’s not that I’m forcing myself to be good. I actually kind of believe this is now part of a good habit thing that I developed. I’ve been doing this long enough that I don’t think I could just go ahead and throw caution to the wind. Of course, once I get there, it might all just go out the window and I might end up eating wings like they were going out of style. Even if that happens, if I do some prep work before hand then it at least minimizes the damage. See, I’ve thought it all out. This evening, I made a pasta sauce that was loaded with veggies. I normally toss in a few meatballs for some protein, but I met my protein reqs earlier in the day. As such, I knew that I could skip the meat. The result was a lower calorie meal. I know what I’m doing. I’m not going to deprive myself of chicken, socialization, or beer. It’ll all work out!

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