History of Me 1978-2010

Everyone seems to be writing these, year summary blogs (or letters, like Emily).  I know I haven’t really posted or blogged in ages.. and I may ore may not actually finish this and explain.

So Just this past year seems like not enough.. so I I’ve feeling nostalgic and am going to do something more silly.

My life in summary!

1978- I was born, I’m pretty sure the world stopped for a second because I’m so awesome!

1979-1997 – Lived in Smithers, it’s a boring story.  My grandmother passed away.  We moved into town.  A few years later my Grandpa passed away.  Went to France on a school trip, I always wonder if this was the beginning of the end.  Met my little brother and dad’s side of the family. I graduated from high school, started working at my mom’s company (Newpro), got laid off  and on the same day received a uni acceptance letter.  Applied for loans and off I went.

1997-2001 – Moved to Prince George, BC, went to UNBC.  Partied, studied, and all that good uni stuff.  Made lots of new friends, had ups, had downs.  Ended contact with my dad.  Dated, ended up with Erik which while the relationship was terrible and we should have ended it when I originally.  It was a pivotal factor in the rest of my life.  Tracey moved to Japan on Jet. At the end of school, had a conversation with my friend Mike Yeh where he suggested I love to Taiwan.  I scoffed.  I broke up with Erik, and suddenly realized why the hell not?

2001-2002 – moved home to stay with mom (saving money before the move), made plans to hang out in Thailand for almost 2 months.  Got a passport, all my visas, and finally on a jet plane. Arrived in Bangkok on December 7, 2001.  Exited the plane to be hit by a wall of hot wet air.  Travelled around Thailand with Tracey, we took sleeper trains, busses, boats, planes, stayed in hotels, hostels.  Went diving, got certified with PADI.  I got some weird unexplained sickness, hallucinated my way around a tiny town (because I dipped and Tracey was frantic trying to figure out how to fine me) in the south and Tracy found me chatting with dogs, sorry about that.  Went back to Bangkok, Tracey went back to Japan and I headed to Taipei. Cue next chapter.

2002 – Jan 12, 2002 I arrived in Taipei city in Taiwan.  I always said that I planned to stay for at least 5 years, I wanted to stick it out, make money, learn a language, and a new culture (all part of Mike’s sales pitch).  I did say that if I was still here after 10 years, that I had to move home to see if I was really wanting to stay or if I was just scared to move.  Moved into my first apartment in Taipei it was hideous.

2002-2005 – Travelled to Japan to visit Tracey in March 2002.  Travelled to Thailand a few times.  Tracey came to Taipei to visit.  Went back to Canada, a couple of times to visit the family.  By being snotty, I offended Sammi, made myself less than popular and was blissfully ignorant of what I had done. Got my first passport abroad (was actually my third passport) the guarantor was an interesting challenge. Moved to a much better but more expensive place, when our landlord sold out place my friend Sarah and I got the place I’m in now and furnished it.

2005-2009- Taiwan changed the APRC requirement from 7 years to 5 years, right about my 5-6 year mark, no I didn’t apply. Tracey moved back to Taiwan after her south American back packing trip. Met and fell in love with my ex, who was married and bipolar, that was a ride that went on for a while (on and off for years). Went to Thailand again in 2006.  Moved to Brazil for 5-6 months with Tracey  in the fall of 2006.  We lived in Sao Paulo for a while, travelled around and spent the last month (2?) travelling around, drinking, partying and beaching.  oh I miss it.  Went on a visa run to Argentina, accidentally and illegally went to Paraguay. Moved back to Taipei in The spring of 2007. Went to Hong Kong for the first time with Tracey and Melissa for my birthday, stayed at Mike’s place.  What a crazy weekend! Also went to Disney Land (even though it was micro Disney) for the first time. Went to the USA for the first time ever 🙂 in 2007.  Went to Boracay (a beach holiday destination in the Philippines) with a big group of friends, that was a wild and great time. Went to the states again in 2008, still with on again off again ex.  Made peace with my soon to be sister. Got back in touch with my little brother.

2009-2010 – Went to Thailand for Jody and Kai’s wedding, and I almost missed my flight.  It was the last hurrah for our circle, Tracey moved back to Canada, Melissa stayed in Thailand and then moved back to Canada. Had a big trip to Canada, went to Toronto and Niagra falls for the first time, actually the first time I’ve ever been east of Alberta.  Got over my ex and let all that go, finally.  Ended up having a great bonding moment with Sammi and we adopted each other <3. I went to Hong Kong to Visit Gabby twice.  Raygan moved to Japan, and I went to Japan to visit.  Got my finances under control and it seemed like I might actually be able to get out of debt.

Dear Royal Bank: Fail

So I had some financial woes of late, it’s a long story but essentially something happened to my bank account and I had to rush and put all my money on my credit card.  But then there was no money in my account to make their metered out payments, and it was around Chinese New Year so that means no real money coming in for a month or so to send money home.

Anyway it was a bit of a mess, and when I tried to talk to them about it, all they would do is spout parroted bullshit with out any thought.   That’s assuming they would talk to me at all and not be incredibly rude and condescending.   So I ended up just writing it off, I’d make a payment when I was able to send money home.  Normally that would be in a month, two tops… but because of Chinese New Year it ended up taking 3 months to get enough money together to be worth sending home.

My card got cut off, and no one called me or informed me of what was happening.  The only reason I even found out was because I couldn’t update apps on my ipod, and when I called the bank, everyone I talked to was unbelievable rude.  Like I was some sort of  degenerate who had be accumulating mountains of debt and paying nothing for years, as opposed to I missed two payment I live overseas and I contacted then and let them know in advance.  Assholes.

I got pissed off with the rudeness and  asked to be transferred to someone else with manners.  After much BS I finally got someone who didn’t have their head in their ass, got everything sorted out and then I specifically asked if I was going to be running into any other issues or problems in relation to this situation.  I was assured that I wouldn’t and happily went about my life.

Oh another unforeseen shit fest was, I applied for a loan online but wasn’t able to complete it, it would have paid off my credit card and been at a much lower interest rate.  I needed to be in Canada and walk into a bank to sign the papers, but then all this happened and temporarily screwed my credit rating so I couldn’t get the loan while I was home.. most annoying part?  My credit rating corrected within 2-3 months when I was no longer in the country… annoying.

Then, in August they jack my interest rate.. ASSHOLES.  I pay for a low interest rate card and then they bump my interest up…dicks.  I call, pitch a fit and am again treated like a complete piece of shit.  I progressively get more pissed off, and finally get someone polite who agrees that the bank actually screwed up, but she’s not high enough up to change or fix anything.  She promises to talk to people and call me back.  No call, they have completely failed at communicating with and getting back to me.  GRRR

So I call again, pitch a bit of a fit, and insist on speaking to manager, they have taken another installment of interest at this ridiculous rate and everyone is so rude.  There is no manager on, but this girl takes the whole story down and swears someone will call in 24-48 hours max.  Four days later no god damn call.

Now in this time, it occurs to me that I really should just tell them to stuff it.  I mean if I let the card default, let it go into collections, wait a while then contact collections  I can pay it back at 30-50 cents on the dollar.  So I get to keep my money now, don’t have to borrow money from my friend and i’m kinda debt free now.  BITCHES.  sure it messes up my credit rating, in a country I don’t live in and have no intentions of going back to anytime soon.  Shrug, what do I care?

And if I wasn’t such a god damn goodie two shoes…. that is exactly what I would do.  So lame, I wish I was badder…. but given how badly Visa was behaving  I was ready to be bad.

But.. sigh… this week I called and actually got someone intelligent and polite on the phone, who listened to me rant and actually tried to fix things.  Returned the last interest payment (the interest rate had already been fixed) so they returned all they money they took illegitimately plus some.  When I said wasn’t really enough, I got a genuine apology and he offered me a different card with some points that would give me some merch.

Honestly, it still isn’t enough but I’m damn well taking it, I will pay my visa off.  But I am definitely going to investigate other banks credit cards and what they can do for me.  I’m a good customer, and they don’t seem to get that.

I have paid the thing off, but I’m completely unimpressed.

You’d think I’d better at this blogging thingie

Part of my problem is I put things off…  First I was a grumpy gus and I didn’t have anything interesting to say.. then it was that I was having too much fun and didn’t really have all that much down time to write about all the fun I was having… Damned if you do and damned if you don’t, When I finally got everything all balanced out… then it was too daunting of a task.  It’s like when your room has gone to the 7th layer of hell, and you have no idea where to begin.  Sigh (I know I’m so hard done by :P)

Anyway, here I am in the Manila airport, which still sucks… but vaguely less given that they now seem to have internet (spotty tho it may be).   So Canada… general impressions.

Well, they managed to piss me off with in 5 minutes of my deplaning.  No duty free store on entry (what…  lame.. especially as I didn’t bring any toiletries bc I was planning on getting them in duty free on the way in)  then, I got to listen to a very nice woman who was friendly enough but shockingly racist and completely unaware of it.  (We all have our little or big bigotries, but  you could at least pretend to acknowledge  them..) , but still none of this is a crisis.. minor annoyances.  Then I discover that they don’t allow non residents to reclaim their sales taxes on departure… neener .. you’re not using any of the infrastructure .. but  fuck you.. you’re paying the taxes for them.  Buncha dicks in the Canadian Government.  Sigh whatever.

It wasn’t all bad… some things about Canada I long for and miss dearly.  I miss my people, my friends and Family, it wasn’t as hard saying goodbye this time.  But I do miss them all.  And if you’ve never been, Canada is beautiful.  I mean really really beautiful.  The air is clean, the people are (at least superficially) friendly and nice (Although there were a shocking number of snobby cunts… yeah I said it.. get over it.)  My brother in law took me on a ride on his motorbike, and it was just gorgeous, I saw Canadian geese… I haven”t seen them in ages.  Swoon Geeses :D.

There is much more to the story, but I’m aiming for generalities.. and we’ll hope for more filling in later.  Mom and I rented a car, and drove all over hell’s half acre… You know how Canada is beautiful?  It really is.. it’s also HUGE.. like stupid retarded mentally incomprehensible huge.  We drove across the south, to Osoyoose (or as I  like to call it .. Soy-sauce) to see Nadine.. yay.  Then we went off through the crow’s nest pass… man I don’t recommend that at night… Dead and living deer all over the damn place.  Mostly killed by semi trucks, but it made for tense driving, constantly on the lookout for the damn deer.

I’ll resist mocking Alberta’s highways.. ok mostly… come on people that isn’t a corner.. and it’s definitely not one that needs that much attention and signs trying to warn me of the turn in the road.. lame. lol.

We got into Calgary at stupid o’clock in the morning, crashed for a few hours and then visited with my cousin.  On the road again to Edmonton (St. Albert actually), we stayed at my Aunt’s house for a week.  It was great seeing my Aunt and Uncle, I was quite close with them all growing up.  My uncle has always been more of a father figure rather than some distant uncle.  So his being sick, re

Are you an Organ Donor?

I often wonder why it’s not automatic, organ donation that is.  If someone comes into an emergency room.. and they can’t be saved their organs should be automatically donated, unless they have specifically stated they don’t want to donate.

Instead, the way it is now, if someone dies and hasn’t previously stated on their medical records or drivers license they want to be an organ donor.. then tough noogies.  So then the decision falls to the grieving family to decide to cut up their family to save strangers.   Most people aren’t that big, they are too selfish and can’t look past their own grief to help someone.  Give them a week or two, and they probably would.. but the organs are only viable for up to 24 hours (72 for kidneys) after death.

[lots of information about donations here]

Plus did you know, just because you have said once upon a time you that you wanted to be an organ donor, it doesn’t mean that you ar

Happy Birthday Bex :D

I’m stealing your idea.. why because it was good 😀

It’s my friend Becky’s birthday.  Becky is super awesome cool, and tons of fun.  I think my favourite was the time that I showed up and rang her door bell with no advanced warning, from Taiwan :D.  Although cruising the beach on Canada and enjoying the “scenery”.. that was pretty epic too!

I only get to see her every couple of years when I go home, I’m still waiting on my visit over here :D.  But I always have a great time, and I really look forward to the times we do hang out.  Especially as we both have been working on being awesome possum, it’s great having someone cool to confer with who totally gets the need to have positive, fabu people to interact with.

Becky and I have a funny little history, she was my classmate’s little sister and our mom’s where friends.

Bex was having trouble with math so I used to go over and tutor her a couple times a week and hang out afterward.  She was always fun, and good for a giggle.  Didn’t really bother us, but it was a little weird back in school to be friends with someone a couple years out of your grade.  That’s us always pushing that envelope (in a good way! :D)

One thing I have to say, is I really love and appreciate how awesome Becky has always been.  I have a lot of different types and styles of friends.  But I have always been able to count on Becky for an ear, shoulder, hand (just full of handy body parts :P) and most awesome an encouraging word.  Perhaps you don’t know how important that kind of thing is, but it has value beyond words.

Hugs Becky!!!  I love you.

Happy International Becky day! W00T!

See how nice I am?  Didn’t add anything about how you sneak into pictures, steal lip-gloss (and then give yours up to throw people off the sent), and full on plot PLOT I say. GRIN.

Tee hee… times twelvety five.  But Becky… what we all really want, nay NEED to know is do you like sausage?

Canada’s Wonderland

I feel like I should write this big ass post about Canada’s Wonderland… but honestly why?  I had a great time there with my friends, I really wish I could have gone again this past trip.  It’s a fun place.  What else is there?

Well there is this video  WOOO Tee hee… they told me no Camera… rebel 😀 Seriously though watch the video!!  Most excellent good times, plus you can laugh at Gabs and I screaming the whole time… Gabs has quite the set of lungs on her!

And there are a bunch of pictures from the day on FaceBook [here]

If you’re ever in TO and you like amusement parks (if you don’t what are you doing hanging out with me????) Go!!! It’s totally worth it.

But make sure to buy your tickets ahead of time, I think the place was called Mac’s Milk (some convenience store) or online… there are ways to get discounts (instructions here) so you pay 30 something instead of 50 :D.. but really if you live in the area a season’s pass is totally worth it..

Letters Last Night

I’ve been going through some stuff, throwing things out, cleaning etc.  And I came across a couple of letters I had kept.  Something about snail mail, you just don’t want to throw it away.

I wish I hadn’t deleted all the emails from my ex, but I did and they are gone now.  He freaked out at me for being  a bitch, that he thought I was a shit friend and wanted nothing to do with me.  I think it was a year or so after I had moved here.  Maybe it was only 6 months, buy either way he said some hurtful things that can never be taken back. And that was it for me, I couldn’t take

Tipping the Nation

What is a ‘Tip’?  According to Wikipedia it’s a gratuity made to service people in addition to the cost of the product (or something like that).

Well you know what I think a Tip is?  A pain the the ASS.

Don’t get me wrong I used to be a server, (waitress) I’ve lived for my tips, and I STILL think the whole thing is BS!  At least the way things are now in North America.  Now, I’m more than willing to admit that I’ve become a lot more conscious of my cash flow now that I Track all my money (more on that in another post).  Also living in Asia where tipping isn’t really part of the culture has definitely given me a little ‘perspective’ on the whole issue.

Service in Taiwan sucks, not always and not as a rule, but generally speaking you can expect to be ignored and a great deal of apathy from your server.  While that can be annoying, it’s also a little liberating.  I like that I can just shout “OYE, MISS” to get the girl’s attention with no fear of

Decisions decisions… and a little bummed out.

Bah, life!  Full of decisions, the hotness for some, personal hell for others. OH OH PICK ME!!   I loathe making a choice, boo what if I pick the wrong one?  What if, even worse, they are equal?  Everyone else seems to have no difficulty with these things meanwhile I agonize over what I want for lunch for Christ’s sake.  Boo

So what is the current crisis?  I guess crisis is a little strong, dilemma I suppose.  What should  I do next?  I love Taipei, I’ve left a few times I’ve even lived elsewhere and I can honestly say I love it there, the climate is lovely and toasty with mild winters, fun easy work, good pay low cost of living.  Sounds great hu?  So what’s the problem!

Well, I’m not Asian, and sometimes that rocks (like when it comes to rules we just get to ignore because we’re not local) and sometimes it sucks asshole, big hairy asshole.  I hate that I have no rights even though I’ve lived there for  nigh on 8 years, really??  Ridiculous.  They have stupid laws that actually discriminate against us, like this new tax law, we have to pay 3x the tax in the first 6 months of every year, no matter how long you’ve been a resident, you think I’m kidding, I’m so not.  Owning property and businesses is silly complicated for us, plus I live in a nation of tiny, or supposed to be tiny people.  So I am constantly inundated with comments like, you would be pretty if you weren’t so fat, and wow you run marathons and work out, so cool.. but how come you’re so fat?  You look terrible today, did you gain weight… the list goes on.  What it boils down to is no matter how much confidence I have, people still look at me like some HUGE beast.  Even the other foreigners get swept up in it, saying things like well if I ran that much I would be thinner than that.  Fuck off.  Yeah, I’m a little chubby (especially right now.. lazy girl on Vaca!) but Jesus, you all make me feel and it sound like I’m pushing 375.  I think my personal favorite is, it’s not your fault foreign people are just fat.  Even if no one says anything, you can see it in their eyes.  Know what I never see?  Admiration, attraction, appreciation in anyway trust me I’ve been looking.

Whine whine whine, I hate this whole line of discussion because no matter how you go about it, you come off as a

Drunk tastic

so as some may have noted I was a total retard last Sat.. booo..

So after some thought I have worked out what happened, well ok I know what happened but while I was an ass and a jerk I shouldn’t have been as busted up about the whole thing as I was.  So what happened?  Well, Mel and i started drinking in the afternoon and it was all fun and games, we pretty much kept drinking on into the evening but slowly.  I had a happy little buzz going on, but when we got to Mel’s friend’s place I started to get drunk ity drunk.  I blame Melissa and her fireball whiskey (really shooters.. never a good idea).  Bah so I shot a ton of booze.. that was

Tourist in the GTA

So I’ve been in Toronto for a few days now, and so far it’s been pretty cool.  The train ride up from London was a riot, Timmy and I were being Captains of silly the whole time.  We arrived in TO where Ken picked us up and took us to his place, where a bunch more people from Taiwan (James, Ariel, Oz and JR) were and we had an evening of sitting about chatting and drinking.  I was very fun, but very weird at the same time.

We went to Carabana, this Caribbean festival with a shiny parade, full of good times! Actually we just jumped the fence and joined the parade.. hoooray but I think I hurt my footsies :(.

I got a little shopping done (ok just MEC) met up with Emma, and went to a BBQ, we tried to go out to party on Sat night but it ended up being a bit of a bust, ah well.  Lunch with Emma was really nice, I really quite miss her, she is a really lovely person with great energy (even when she’s grumpy bumpy).

After lunch I walked all over just checking things out and wandered my way down to the CN tower, I took my time and ended up there are a reasonable hour to catch sunset.  In my usual fashion I made friends with people in line, in the elevator, at the snack machine… tee hee you know me!  I hung out at the tower and got some decent pictures, then a friend picked me up at the tower (side note.. I felt so damn bad, he showed up and i got stuck in a line to get down so he ended up waiting like 20 mins for me at the base of the tower!!! ).  We went for a late dinner and drinks, which was really fun, but I was tired and my feet were killing me so he took me on a little driving tour and then home.

Tuesday I did almost nothing, just resting and chilling out from the day before (god I’m such a pansy!).  Erik called and as I mentioned we went for dinner and drinks, and he drove me to the falls Wed morning.  I got to Niagra around 10:30 11 and just wandered around for a bit, eventually I went

Dinner with THE ex…

Well that was interesting, potentially very bad but things turned out just fine.  I was honestly very hesitant to meet up with Erik (my ex), for a number of reasons but primarily because of our past.  I just didn’t know what feelings meeting up with him would bring up, I spent a lot of years getting over everything that happened.  And I thought I was over it many times but not until recently was it really the case.  I guess I was afraid that I “thought” I had gotten over it but meeting up with him would make everything real and bring it all back.

Ultimately what I decided was that meeting up for a drink was a good thing.  One of two things would happen, everything would be fine I really am OK now and it would be interesting to reconnect with an old friend.  Or, it would suck, all kinds of yucky resentments, fears and hard feelings would surface and I would get really upset.  Not the positive aspects of the first outcome is pretty clear, the second might not be so apparent to the casual observer.  There were a lot of hard feelings, resentment, and general mess-ed-up-ed-ness on my part, and honestly I over it.  All of it, I can talk about it freely with out emotional distress, I’m really fine.  But.. if, IF there were some residual issues and crap that I hadn’t addressed, more things I had swept under the rug of life.. this would sure as hell bring them out.

I’ll be honest, I was mighty hesitant to meet up.  But as I already explained, it really was in my best interest.

Now for those of you who know the story (some or all) you’ve always heard me say, that in-spite of everything that happened he was

Canada is Rough

Seriously, it must be a horrible place. With all the complaining and dissatisfaction people have.

I met up with a friend the other day and she was very aggravated with out how much people whinge and whine all the time about how hard their lives are.

Seriously is life all that bad here?  Ok the cost of living is a little higher, you might have to work a little harder.  It’s not the neverland that living in Asia can be.  But Really?? There are good and bad things about every place, I’ve lived in a few countries and I’m not claiming to be an expert, but honestly there are things I HATED, and there were  things I just love love loved about each place.

Brazil, was FANTASTIC but I hated the insincerity of the men there, drove me nuts that while they worshiped women.. their ‘you’re so beautiful’s  became rather aggravating (to me anyway).  But I loved the fun social atmosphere, the friendliness etc!

Taiwan, Is great low cost of living, lack of rules is fun, but it’s hella frustrating all the cultural issues that

Scalpers and Naked Ladies, Welcome to Toronto

I arrived at Pearson Airport and I was rapidly reminded why I hate this airport…. ok they lowered the price for the trolleys, now they are 2 bucks.. but internet is still $10 a freaking day.. or $15  a month.. RETARDED..  You know even if they made it something stupid like $5 for 3 hours.. or  something, they would probably make more money and people wouldn’t be so annoyed.  Or you could just do what 90% of other places and just freaking give you free wifi.  Stupid Pearson, the only saving grace were the employees why joined me in the complaints about the place.  At least it’s not just me who thinks the place garbage!

Moving along, Eric and Vince got stuck in traffic but I entertained myself just fine until they made it.  Then they went to the Depeche mode concert, and I upset scalpers (I asked how much a ticket would be and dude said 80 bucks, he got pissed when I laughed at him).  I called Marcus and decided to walk the 400 blocks (ok wasn’t that far) downtown to meet up with

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Island Ho

Sorry I wrote this on the plane and couldn’t get online to verify where I had left off so there is a a little overlap here and there.

I dove down to Seattle and picked Casey up.  The drive back was way better than the way down, having company in the car makes the drive significantly more pleasant.  We Got to the border crossing and I was a little worried about it, just because Casey is American and they can be a little weird at border crossings about things.  But driving across is a lot more mellow than flying, the guy just asked a few questions and off we went.  Although, it was kinda funny that I had no cell reception on my mom’s cell until I reached the border, and then the phone was ringing off the damn hook.  Dude looked a little cranky about it and told me no phones, I was like sorry we’re late and I had no cell reception so my sister is trying to get a hold of me.

We drove into town, stopped by the liquor store and supermarket to grab some stuff for the BBQ and as soon as we got to the house we were practically attacked by a very excited Dee and Becky.  They were super stoked to finally get to meet Casey, it was cool to finally get to introduce him to some of my people.  I always forget how

Lemmi Ride Your Couch ;)

A little note at the beginning of all this…  From Thursday to Sat I had a total of  6-7 hours of sleep, I faired a little better on sun mon but I think I drank every day but Friday so even when I did sleep it wasn’t a good sleep.

Between Thursday and Monday, slept on 3 different couches, visited 6+ cities, 2 countries and drove for more that 16 hours, took two ferries and met up with 6 different close friends.  Packed .. I’m telling you action packed… now I’m run down sickish and hiding at my sister’s place.

I was supposed to have dinner with Jordy on Wed but we postponed so I could go to roosters.  I tried to get downtown in time to meet up with Amanda on Kits beach but I was too slow and missed her so I went to MEC instead and then met up with Jordy for dinner and drinks.  I had a super great time catching up with Jordy (did you know he is getting married??)  and then I decided to crash on his couch because I just didn’t want to drive all the way into Vancouver for dinner then back to Maple Ridge only to spin back to Vancouver in the morning.. just stupid and a waste of time and gas.

Ended up staying up silly late chatting with Jordy and sipping wine and beer, the next day I got up made myself purty and met up with Troy!  Horray.   (oh in between there I was hella upset because I was trying to arrange meeting up with Casey and he was being FULL of suck and unhelpful.. but it was all ok in the end.. my sisters rescued the situation by essentially giving me her car for the whole weekend!).

Troy and I went for a little drive downtown and a coffee, we also stopped into little sister’s book store to check out possible books for my new job as a dominatrix (really I just want

Ride the Bull, Yeehaw

I can hardly keep up with myself as to the happenings of the last few days.

Let’s see, I flew down from Smithers on Wednesday and that night Dee and I went to Roosters (a surprisingly famous bar, I’m guessing due to the topless bull riding) where they had bull riding WEEE and ridiculously cheap wings (20 for a buck… seriously) and cheap Wed night drinks like $5 for a triple paralyzer.  Fun! Well lemmi tell yeah the action started before we even got in the door.

The door guys wanted ID but the only ID I had was my Chinese DL, well that sparked this convo about me living in Taiwan and next thing I knew the dudes had ‘kidnapped’ me shut the door and wouldn’t let me into the bar. LOL  The attention was fun so I didnt’ mind but eventually I made my escape inside.  We’re sitting around chatting waiting for the bull riding to start.. really hoping some girl would be drunk enough to take her top off.   There was this dude at our table who started making the moves on my sister, which gave her a little thrill but he was oddly snobby to me.  Not like I was getting in his way but just kinda pft I don’t want to talk to you.  I didn’t care so kept talking to my nephew.  Later dude rode the bull and was freaking awesome.. so we didn’t want to follow him!!  But lo when we got in line there he was right in front of us, but he let us go in front of him yay!  So we’re getting ready (taking off jewelry etc) and suddenly he is captain chatty cathy to me??  And just as I’m about to get on the bull he said something about the black lights by the other table and how he didn’t realize until now that I was

Amazon.ca Sucks <– with some resolution in the end

Being back in my home town has reminded me why I grew up hating the states.  For one thing it’s just part of the social ‘joking’ culture of northern rural towns and there is a lot of bitterness at the American companies that clearly take advantage of Canada and it’s resources.  The water, the hydro, and lumber it is pretty offensive that it’s cheaper to buy BC lumber in the US and ship it back to Bc that to just buy it in Bc due to some fancy fan-dangling that the companies have done.. not to mention the how  they raised and illegal tariff on lumber bankrupted all the companies bought them out and by the time the courts had ruled and ordered them to pay back damages.. they were just paying Damages back to themselves as they had bought everyone out.  There is good business and dirty business… that’s down right dirty.

Not say I’m back to my old hating ways, just that I have a little more insight as to why I hated the USA so much before, and why so many people and countries still do.

And on to why the USA doesn’t suck and back to the Title.

Amazon.com, which is the US page is just full of awesome they answer you quickly they almost always have the lowest prices even if you have to pay for shipping, they ship to you almost guarantee-ably faster than the ‘estimated shipping time’ and your stuff always arrives at the beginning of the projected arrival period and usually even before that.  So if  something takes a little longer every now and again, you’re not too irritated about it.  Also if you use free shipping (aka you bought a bunch of crap from them) they do their best to ship it to you reasonably quickly instead of saying “you didn’t