The Weekend Report - late edition!

Friday night was uneventful. After a very yummy dinner I passed out as we watched a rented movie and missed about 30 mins of the movie.

Saturday I went to the gym and then I watched a few episodes of Dexter (very scary!!). We celebrated my husband's 30th birthday! whoa!?!?!? 30??? THAT IS OLD!

Yup - PP's official birthday is tomorrow and I cannot believe that I am married to someone that old! Well I guess the most surreal thought is that I too will face this significant birthday in 2009.

As surreal as it is, there is no denying that I am really looking forward to this birthday. First of all, I may be almost 30, but I still kick most 20 year old's butts. (ok - maybe not in English...haha). I have the opportunity to work with a lot of younger people and I would not trade my experience for their youth.

Anyways - here is what I think the advantages and disadvantages are to being older:

Disadvantages:
1) It is easier to get exhausted (passing out during a DVD is pathetic! sheesh)
2) Not that much impresses me anymore
3) People are less forgiving when you make a mistake

Advantages:
1) I can buy whatever I want and go wherever I want
2) Since I have been living a "grown up's life" for the past 6 years, it is really nice to finally be treated like one.
3) I am WAY more scary than I used to be. With a glare, I can stare down all the bitches! snap!
4) I am 1 year closer to going FULL-ON LEOPARD!

Sunday was relatively uneventful except that I went church, brunch, and to club price (aka costco)!

The ghost of wedding past coming back to haunt me.

So it has been more than a year since my wedding. Last week it greatly saddened me to find out that someone has shunned my parents (literally looks away when my parents are in a room and will not say a word to my father). The reason that this couple and entire family have stopped speaking to my parents is because PP and I did not invite them to my wedding.

Apparently this is not the only family or group of people that really feel insulted that they were not invited to my wedding.

It really annoys me that my parents are being consequenced on a decision that I made - to have a smaller and more intimate wedding. Now, it is important to note that at 200 guests my wedding was very small by Chinese standards. There was a maximum capacity in the room and most of the people were family or very close friends.

It is also important to note that both PP's and my parents have been in Montreal for over 40 years and both sides were greatly involved in the Chinese community and Montreal community. If it was a "saving face" wedding - it could have easily been over 1000 people.

I guess the biggest annoyance here is that none of these people actually even care about PP or myself - it was a question of entitlement.

It angers me that they expected me to have one of those gigantic Chinese weddings. It angers me that they are disrespecting my parents now. Most vexing of all - these people can't even tell the difference between B and me but they felt that they had a right to my most special day!!!

Honestly, it's not that big of a deal because PP and I are very happy together and with our families. I guess I am just hating that people are being mean to my parents.

STOP right there! Thank-you very much!

That's right! i am almost 30, and i am simply glowing with excitement because I just got my sister and i SPICE GIRLS TICKETS!!!

Woohoo! I am totally bringing my "the extra half an inch" book written by Posh - and I am going to get her autograph!

Ladies and Gents! This is MAYJAH!

WEIRD AWKWARD MOMENTS!

Even though I am almost 30, I still fast-forward past the inappropriate scenes when watching movies with my parents.

If you don't know what I am talking about, try renting and watching with your parents: Eastern Promises or Shoot em up. The discomfort and awkward silence in the room always makes me CRINGE and hate myself for not checking the labels for "nudity" or "sexual situations" or worse... "sex".

Office etiquette...

One of the biggest hassles of my worklife is the reality of having a very small bladder, the HUGE need to constantly hydrate, and the LONGEST conference calls known to humankind.

Things I have done previously for the sake of emergency/desperate pee breaks include:
Hitting mute and then running to the bathroom (leaving the phone in the office.)
Hitting mute and then running to the bathroom (while staying on the call...i know...shame!!)
And the most recent shame...admitting out loud to my boss that I needed to call her back. To which she replied, "OMG is it an emergency?!?!?!?" My sheepish response was, "umm...yea sort of...I have to pee. I WILL CALL YOU RIGHT BACK!!"....click...

A million thoughts were running through my head - but alas, the need to pee made my brain inefficient and I chose the least graceful way possible to answer...

Surprisingly, when I called my boss - she responded "Thank God you mentioned it, I was dying for a biology break as well!"

Duly noted: a graceful way of saying "I HAVE TO PEE" = "I require a biology break." Got it. Next time, I shall interrupt conference calls with that more graceful terminology.

But at least I made my boss admit that she had to pee as well...so in some odd way - I feel it makes us even.

A summary of 2007 would be - FAMILY.
This year, PP and I began building our family of 2. It was not easy at the beginning since I was in the T-dot and he was here in Montréal. With the prayers of our small group and family, we did not feel that burdened by the situation and were even able to rejoice. God worked a miracle and I had the chance to move back. And now we are working on the day-to-day of a marriage - which is quite fabulous because I have good food everyday!

Secondly, after a few years of distance, my family became 1 unit again...literally! My parents moved back to Mtl and bought the downstairs of my duplex! It is another blessing from God because we are getting a chance to catch up on lost time and PP has a chance to get to know my parents. It is working out really well. We love our home and the proximity to our family.

Thirdly, I am getting to know the Cheungs. A quirky, warm, welcoming bunch. It is weird that all of a sudden, I have another 70 to 100 people to call family (yes...the Cheungs are numerous!) It is also a true blessing that all of a sudden, I have more people I can truly say love me for who I am unconditionally.

Finally, it was wonderful to be able to spend the holidays with our extended family. As I get older, I realize how difficult it is to keep in touch with cousins, uncles, and aunts who live far away. And yet, this year we had the chance to share great food and wine with both the Au's and the Ma's.

Let's begin 2008 with a rant!

Bill 101?
Since our childhood - growing up in Quebec has been about this famous bill. It insists that French be the number 1 language in our province (rightly so) but goes about it in a brutish manner. l.aws dictate that signage must either be 100% French or the French characters be at least double the size of English characters. There are government workers which have the title of "the Language Police" go around and enforce the signage standards with fines.

Moreover, all immigrants must assimilate and send their children to ALL French school unless one of their parents went to Bilingual or English elementary school (my mother attended English grade school in Quebec). The other loophole would be for immigrants to send their kids to ridiculously expensive private schools $20K+ per year per child. They go out of their way to make English really unavailable to everyone including themselves.

Now this quick and dirty of the Bill serves to contextualize the ridiculousness of my day-to-day experiences as a Québecoise. PP and I are both perfectly bilingual. He is doing his med school in French and I work in French. BUT, 9 times out of 10 we are always approached by Quebecois in broken English. The most absurd incident was our 1 year anniversary. We went away to Quebec city for a weekend getaway and every single person would approach us in broken English even while we were speaking French amongst ourselves. They automatically assumed we were speaking an Asian language and did not stop to realize that we were indeed speaking French.

Based on these experiences, I wonder about the validity for Bill 101. Why would they want to force French on all ethnicities only to turn around and speak to us in English??? Colis! It makes no sense!