Classrooms

Classrooms haven't changed much since I went to school. But the other day, I heard about some schools thinking of having "different" desks. They would be stand up desks for ergonomic reasons and to help with chidren and their fidgeting. We all know they can't sit for long. Interesting idea...especially when they linked it up with the possibility of children being less obese because they could move around and not sitting on their asses all day.

Then it made me think about what my kid's classrooms will look like. Will they have netbooks instead of books? Will they have palm pilots for agendas? I mean really, it's not that far away.

Then my poor kids will have to hear stories from me starting with..."when I was in school...." Gosh, I'll feel really old then.

Hollywood

Ahhh...poor Miss Jessica Simpson. I feel bad for her. Like really bad. The media is being a totally bully to her. I laughed when the media said she bloomed up to a size 8. Um, hello! I'd love to be a size 8. And when the heck was that considered huge?

Anyways, she seemed like the golden girl in Hollywood. Popstar, fairy tale wedding, cute as can be...then it starts to go downhill, she's selling informercials for the best acne treatment, then they drop her...now she's singing in bars. What the hell? That's quite the fall. And then the never dying weight issue.

She's rehired her last trainer...apparently she's not allowed to eat more than 1,200 calories and exercise. Huh. That's pretty extreme. But I guess Hollywood doesn't always makes sense...and it's no wonder young girls these days have so many eating disorders. Just not cool.

Lawyers

One of the jobs that I wanted when I was younger was to be a lawyer. But of course, deciding what kind was difficult. Did I want to be a divorce lawyer, one of many immigration lawyers or go for the big stuff...defence lawyer of some kind?

But life didn't offer me that opportunity nor did I try hard enough for it. I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Part of me still wouldn't mind doing it...I'd love to be one of those lawyers that you see on tv...sassy and all. But that won't be a part of my life...but I can at least still watch shows with lawyers in it.

Date

My husband had a couple of days that he had to take off from work. Something about no rolling over time, yet everybody in the office seemed to. So, we thought it would be fun to have a date day...and we had that today!

We started the morning by taking the kids to their respective daycares and then headed off downtown. The stores weren't open yet, so we ended up going to the coffee place where we first met. Seemed fitting! And having a much needed coffee was an extra bonus.

I thought the stores opened at 9:30, but in fact, it was 10. So we just wandered, checked out how downtown has changed. It was a beautiful day so it didn't matter that we were outside just wandering. To kill some more time, we went to Chapters. LOVE that place. It was quiet, we had time to browse, and it's a bookstore...what's not to love about a bookstore?!

Then we went off shopping. My husband was so sweet and he got me two pairs of shoes...even a clunky pair that he's not so fond of. But I need some clunky shoes for casual wear and that I can wear socks with! Some shoes, you can't wear socks with. Women understand this. Off to the comic store for my hubby. He wanted to get the Watchmen comic. Hey, as long as he likes it, good enough for me. Then we found a great t-shirt store for my husband. And I got him some shirts as he's been looking for some for a while. I also found a smoking deal for sandals for myself at this store! Summer is actually going to come this year.

We wanted to shop more, but it was time to go for lunch before heading to the movies. We went to the Revolving Tower at Harbour Centre. Pricey...yep. Beautiful...absolutely. It was just a perfect day for an endless view. The food was good. And it was quiet. I'm sure all parents can attest to the fact that it's nice to have some quiet time and some time to just be with a loved one without being tugged on the whole time.

After a beautiful lunch, off to the movies to watch Slumdog Millionaire. Watching all the press on this, we figured it would be a good movie to watch. And basically, it was the only good thing playing at this one theatre! Bit of a sad movie, but truly a fantastic film. I hope it does well at the Oscars. And seriously, the female lead is SO gorgeous. I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

And just like that, our date was coming to an end. We had to go pick up the kids. I didn't even bother making a "proper" dinner. It's whatever was easiest. Figured I had a good day of just enjoying, I enjoyed the rest of the night. Didn't bother with chores (except to make lunches for everybody), didn't exercise, didn't do my kid's mandarin homework. Nothing. And I don't feel guilty at all.

It's true that dates have to be made with your spouse in order to make sure that you both know that you love each other. And just to be with your spouse as adults...not as adults with kids. I hope to have more dates with my husband soon. I really had such a wonderful day....

Valentine's Day

Every year...this date comes up. And I keep saying the same thing. I don't like Valentine's Day. It's too commercial. It's kind of stupid...the only day that you show someone that you really love them? I don't think so.

And I can't even imagine going out on that "special day." Paying double for everything and having it tremendously busy....and having everybody profess their love. Bleah. I don't care, call me a downer.

I had asked my family and they agreed that we could have our own little festivities for this special day. My kids were really excited about Valentine's and I didn't want to not do anything. But I didn't want to hype it up so much that it was the end all be all type of event.

So, my eldest went to Mandarin school that morning while the youngest went shopping with me. When they got home, we had lunch. Nothing special but we ate together. Then we baked heart shaped cakes, we played some butterfly game thingy, and then off to the video store. We had yummy food and watched Beauty and the Beast with the kids. They had a ton of special treats while watching the movie. They had a blast. My husband and I enjoyed watching them have so much fun. Simple things that made for a great day. Maybe I'll start to like Valentine's a little again....

February 13th

I've never had a fear of Friday the 13th. The number 13 in Chinese culture isn't even a scary number. It sounds like "to live." How can a number like that be bad?

It was even better to know that on this day, my husband went in for another routine scan and he was found once again to be cancer free. The wait at the office was extremely long and it was an extremely short visit. I joked and said, well, everytime we come, this is what happens...so we're bound to get good news as that's the routine.

I wasn't expecting anything bad as my husband seems to feeling fine and looks good. But at the same time, I expect the worst. I can only imagine what my husband feels on these days. It was nice to see that he didn't seem too nervous this time.

And I must say, the cancer agency has some really great people there. The person that took us into the examining room actually recognized me. "Weren't you pregnant the last time I saw you?" Well, that would have been at least 3 years ago. But then she said, "No, you brought a baby in too." Crap, that was at least 5 years ago. That woman has a good memory. So we started talking to her and she was such a proud mom herself...showing us pictures of her daughter and son in law. She then proceeded to tell us that she can't wait to have grandkids.

And as we left, she asked how it went for my husband. Thumbs up. I walked by and said goodbye...see you in 6 months. We gave each other hugs and all.

I'm hoping all my visits to the cancer agency will be this way.

Jobs

I have a girlfriend that is a teacher. And she's thinking of taking a leave of absence and interested at looking at marketing jobs. Maybe even HR. Kudos to her as she knows that she'll have a job to fall back on if it doesn't work out. But I must say, I'd be crapping bricks if I had to look for work in this economy. I feel extremely fortunate to have a job that I like and that I'm not looking for work.

But wow. To walk away from a good job and risk finding something else in this market, that takes guts. Good on her for having the confidence to do something like this. Wishing her the best of luck. As long as she's happy