Aptil 27 (Because, apparently, I can't spell anymore with this stupid technology of a no keyboard phone)

It is the evening of the premiere of The Bachelorette. Also, the beginning of the last week of May. And obviously, the sun is still playing peekaboo. Hell, summer in a wool coat seems perfectly appealing and not insane at all.

 It's been a while since I last posted an entry (No shiet. I can spell shit. Shiet just sounds cooler, ok?), and if you're asking what up, I'd shrug my shoulders, and reply, "Not much, buddy. I still think nyan cat rock my socks, and optical illusions? Still totally mindblown. I think my hair is shorter than last time we spoke, I guess."

Now if you're a girl you would throw in a compliment because that's what us girls do.

And, if you're a guy, you'll probably raise an eyebrow and ask "Really? Did you? I knew something looked different." Well, of course I did.

 To answer your question, I guess work is still pretty much insanity. A good kind of insanity, but sometimes dangerously leaning towards the asylum kind of insanity. Especially when my computer decides to go berserk, and go on a patience killing spree, in which I retaliate by making some serious clattering noise on my keyboard (and people tell me I'm zen. It makes me wonder what they do. Do I really want to know?). Computers, I tell you. Dangerous technology. One day, they're all smiles and sunshine and bam! Blood and violence. But can't live without them either.

As far as my social life goes, I sigh at the lack of time. Imagine this: 15 hours. Take 8 away for work. 2 for overtime. 2 for eating and shower. 1 for procrastination of anything really. 1 for transportation. 15 minutes for makeup. Oh yeah, 30 min of snoozing. You do the math. That's how my life is and will be for the next months.

The good news is... I finally acknowledged the equation of success. Art & Creativity + Intellectual & Math = Stability & Happiness. Like wtf is Math doing in there you ask? It's earned a great place in my book, just like art has taken a good place in my heart. Art is more of a personal thing while numbers have more of a universal aspect to me.

And to make my point, I have started taking art classes and have a few side secret projects along with a secret DA page.

I did say secret.

No asking! I'm awesomely mysterious like that.

Let's drink to that.

Please note that this blog is undergoing major surgery. It'll have a new facelift and whatnot sometime soon.

PS: I just noticed that we are no longer in April. May, it is. Talk about losing track of time!

October Challenge - Week 1

Monthly Challenge > October



I've got only one face for you.

∑(O_O；)

Yeah. That one.

What is that face, you ask? That face is the mask I sadly wore when I realized how seriously and fascinatingly out of shape I was.

I took my first dance class this week, and let me say that I was more than excited to tackle this month's challenge. Music fun? Check! Awesome dance moves? Check! This class had everything I wanted to do! And as the music began blasting through the stereo, my booty was moving like I wanted to own that dance floor! First came the one-two steps, then the kicking, then the jumping, then the rolling around, then the turning, then the running (right and left). At first, my inner voice was producing all kinds of onomatopoeia mimicking ease ("Pffff! I got this", "Psccchh! Easy, dude"). By the end of the third song, my thoughts were no longer with me. And then came the end of the fifth song... I started breathing so hard the girl next to me would think I've got asthma. Even I'd think I've got asthma.

And I thought that whole being out of shape at my age was just a myth. Psch! I can dance until 2AM when I go out! Yeah, turns out cardio dancing is quite different from regular dancing.

Let's hope by the end of this challenge/month, I'll still be alive and kicking!

Let's do the success dance!!!

♪(ﾉ´∀｀*)ﾉ

That's the best I can do.

Signing out,
MTam

October Cha-Cha-Challenge

There is always a silver lining.

Let me explain. I fell ill on one Friday morning, with extreme nausea hitting me like a bullet train, enabling me to even tilt my head sideways on my pillow. I remember seeing my entire week-end plans flashing before my own eyes as I tried to either bravely or foolishly (or perhaps both) stand up straight.

If there is one thing that I've learned from that bad episode is to never take my health for granted. Such a basic notion, and yet I've never really stopped to ask my own body how is it feeling today? Does it need to rest? Does it need energy?

I've decided that the first step is to work hard at building up my strength through exercise, and then, by experience, healthy eating habits will follow suit.

Enter October cha-cha-challenge!

All I remember doing that fateful day was setting my foot in the gym, scribbling down some letters, finding a bright spot so my picture could later be shown without silly comments being thrown in, and then carefully studying the schedule of classes.

At that moment, I clearly recall curiously peering into the glass window right next to the billboard and seeing some hands running freely and unsynchronisingly, although no one seemed to care.

I produced quite a few creases into my forehead that reflected my inner bewilderment. Seriously, what were they doing?

As I sped up to the glass door to get a clearer view of the situation, I saw that they were forming a human circle, wailing their arms in an almost crazed, lazy manner, as mismatched footsteps were clumsily dancing.

I had a strange love at first moment and knew what my October challenge was going to be!

I was going to take that damn dance class! Call it modern or interpretative dance, but that stuff's da bomb.

It is all about letting your emotions tingle through your body, freely letting it run loose with each movement, and not giving a crap about other people's thoughts.

I never quite knew how to really let myself go. My life has always been peppered with self-control. I think that this need for self-restraint stems from the fear of being judged and criticized, although it is very unjustly unfounded. People will always talk anyway, and if my actions do not harm anyone, why should I hold back and act how I feel?

And so, I present to you my October challenge: whip myself back into shape with interpretative dance classes, step classes and toning classes every week.

I've never dared to venture beyond the usual equipment in place, but these classes will definitely yield greater enthusiasm as I usually feel much more energetic in large groups rather than solo.

I cannot wait to tackle my October challenge!

Colour Me Happy Yellow!

Picture taken with my awesome Canon camera.

"Happiness is not a matter of good fortune or worldly possessions. It's a mental attitude. It comes from appreciating what we have, instead of being miserable about what we don't have. It's so simple, yet so hard for the human mind to comprehend."

We may all be different in our makeup, but I believe that at the end of the day, we all seek some sort of happiness that can either be shaped by something or someone. It can be translated into work for some, into love, friendship or dreams for others.

Personally, I haven't given much thought as to what happiness means to me, nor have I tried to really understand it. That wasn't until misery found a friend in me. I believe that anyone who has ever been through a very difficult time knows what I mean when I say that I found my hell hole. I was never really alone, but that's how it always felt. In short and very poetically, I found myself staring into my own reflection and wondering who the hell I was.

But that's how life is, right? You go through sunshines and storms, and then sometimes, there's a violent storm that strips you of everything but your physical self. But sometimes, a rainbow appears out of nowhere.

There's always a trigger. And this is where my story gets awfully cheesy. Insert cheerful soundtrack, some hot guy and some love storyline. Oh yeah, something special and very magical happened to me one day. But I won't go into details, as it is tremendously personal to me, and I'd like for it to remain that way.

But funny how human relationships can change one's perspective on life; how a connection can make you question your beliefs.

Anyway, that's when my happiness hunt began :)

I decided to do monthly challenges, do new things that I have never done before. Sure, novelty gives me the shivers (I will now refer you to my last post), but doing something new gives me some sense of accomplishment.

So, starting from October, I will be revealing my monthly challenges, and of course, keep you posted about it.

For how long will I be doing this? Who knows, as long as I am having fun, I won't stop.

I am extremely excited about doing this, and hope that you'll have as much fun reading it :D!

Big Announcement

Dear friends, readers, internet cookies, and passer-byes,

I am here to announce that I will finally confront one of my darkest fears next Saturday. That's right! I will be waving buh-bye to bleachophobia: the fear of bleach and light hair dyes. Okay, so I might have invented that word, but I will be dyeing my hair very soon in quite a light shade of colour (I've decided that a few minutes ago). I think that I can hear my heart shriek in panic and the roots of my hair standing straight up like a frightened cat. But all will be fine; I simply need to take a deep breath and pat my hair with love!

I might be petrified, but also supah excited as well, if that is even possible. I can't wait to see the results. Will keep you posted!!

If you have been following me on either Facebook, Twitter or Google+, you probably know that those past few weeks/months have been quite chaotic (bachelorette parties, weddings, fruit flies infestation, festivals, short distance travelling, etc...), but that's okay, because I love being everywhere at once anyway.

In the spirit of keeping my life busy (because my feet simply won't stay still), I've decided to do something new each month. Now, for a total nerd and a control freak like me, novelty scares the crap out of me. It's like watching a horror movie, with surround sound alone in the dark, and I never watch horror movies! But I decided, what the hell, I am still very, very young and can still do crazy stuff like bleaching my hair (oh, the scandal!) and get away with it.

No, but seriously, this is going to be fun!

Will be blogging about that shortly, because that project deserves a big, fat entry for itself ;) Booyah!

Tah tah!
MTam

Dealing With Difficult People / Want To Hear a Funny Joke

A lot of people believe that there is a special someone out there made for us. I don't. But that is besides the point of this post. What I do believe in, however, is that there is at least one person out there that makes us want to poke our eyes out, bang our head repeatedly on our desk and stab our hand with a pen.

Enter The Most Annoying Person That Won't Just Go Away (or Mr. Tmaptwjgo for short - using the masculine gender for the sake of simplicity).

Mr. Tmaptwjgo is inconsiderate, arrogant, mostly a jerk. And guess what the good news is! He works with you. So close to you that you can hear him breathe. Hurraaaaay!

Well, I have met Mr. Tmaptwjgo. He scoffs like he breathes, he yells "What do you want?!" when someone says "Hello", and he believes that without prior training, you, in particular (don't ask me why - that's life), cannot perform a simple task because it is too difficult to read instructions by yourself. Instructions such as "check in section A if the boxes in paragraph 1 are checked" is of course the most complex arrangement of consonants and vowels, and it exceeds four words, therefore, it is too hard for you to understand.

"You can't do it, you just can't do it! No, no, no, you won't be able to!! It's too hard for you; too difficult and complex! You won't be able to understand anything at all. It's way too hard for you! Why did they even put you on the project?" He would passionately exclaim with such heavy drama that you imagine epic music playing in the background as waves violently crash against the walls of your office.

In addition to his enthusiastic speech, Mr. Tmaptwjgo gives you the wrong information to do your work, but will not take responsibility for it, although he knows he speaks lies.

He is, to me, the definition of a difficult co-worker.

How does anyone deal with this kind of person professionally??

Like any other life trouble I have that needs to be fixed... I googled it. Yes, I googled it, okay!

I learned that to make it better, the following had to be done:

- Offering someone $15 to kick him in the head
- Hoping the person gets fired for being useless and annoying
- Trying to ignore them as you sit at your desk getting more and more pissed off until-

I furrowed my eyebrows until I realized that I skipped the line that said "The following are bad ways to deal with this person and will only make the problem worse".

Right. The answer to all of my woes wasn't going to be by simply giving 15 bucks away. No, it was going to be much harder than that. In fact, Google's answers defied me to keep my cool and be the bigger person.

Now, it does make a lot of sense in the context of work to take a deep breath and suck it up rather than stir more trouble. Sure, that person's poking at me dangerously, and he is slightly crossing the line. Very slightly. But it is not as if he were trying to be verbally/physically abusive. I guess for now, I will swallow my pride, although it tastes like crap.

But if he so much as runs over my line, it is ON!

***

Be warned that some of the examples given in this post have been altered to protect the identity of a guilty, difficult co-worker. Because that's how nice and considerate I am.

Since I don't want to end this on a bad note, here is a joke to lighten up your mood! True story, by the way.

"I have a really bad memory."
"How bad is it?"
"How bad is what?"

Toronto Adventures

I've been quite the traveller recently! During the long week-end of Canada Day, I packed my bags, and with my good old, reliable DSLR, I ran off to the Big Apple looking for tall buildings and adventure! That short trip wasn't enough, evidently, because when my friend decided to elope from her wedding, she frantically texted me and suggested we promptly go into hiding in Toronto. I couldn't say no.

Okay, so maybe she wasn't exactly eloping, but needed a break from wedding planning, and perhaps we didn't exactly go into hiding since her fiance dropped us off in Chinatown to take a tour bus. Details, details.

So, our Toronto adventure starts like any other adventure: at the beginning. And that beginning was me in deep slumber in my bed hugging my favourite pillow. I had to be up by 5:30AM, and frankly, I can only remember sleepwalking throughout the morning.

When we finally got to the bus station (a few freaking minutes before departure), the place was so crowded with buses that I was sure we were going to miss it just by searching for ours. However, everyone arrived super late, and we ended up being the first ones to be seated in the bus.

Around 2 hours, one ice capp, ten Timbits later, I found myself wide awake in Thousand Islands with the sunshine glaring down on me. That was only the start of Toronto's heat wave. Good thing we were going on a boat ride!!




I don't know why everyone always decides to rush to the top floor. It's always the most crowded floor (you can't even see the landscape), and it's so HOT because no shelter can be found from the sun rays.


We went down to the second floor.


And then, to the first. So refreshing down there!! I fired away some shots!!




Ticket to get on board. Took a picture of it as a souvenir, because I knew I was going to lose it anyway. I am aware that it says coupon, but it is also a ticket. Strange, I know.




This is the perfect house for two friends or siblings to live in! An island right next to each other, joined by a bridge (yes, there is a second smaller house hidden behind the trees). Quite brilliant.


It's crazy how still the waters are with all the boats passing by!!


End of boat ride!! Time to relax!!

After approximately four hours of bus ride (and lunch at a Chinese buffet), I couldn't feel my butt anymore, and I was more than happy to stretch out by the CN Tower. The eloping future bride and I decided not wait in line for two hours for elevators, so we headed to the Harbour Front instead, where we battled the heat wave with the best gelato in town (and with a scarf on my head). While in Toronto, we also visited the two City Halls and the Parliament.


Me, doing a super awesome pose. Can you spot the CN Tower?

After that, we headed back to the hotel situated in Mississauga and had a nice, quiet diner. The next morning, we went to the Niagara Falls, and we opted to stroll in the Downtown area of the Niagara Falls...


Where we found ourselves attacked by dinosaurs!!!


And my friend was strong enough to tame them!


I made a new Canadian friend too! (I have no idea why I appear to be as white as a whiteboard on this picture. I swear my skin is super tanned.)

After a long walk, we finally arrived at the Falls!


I did the most typical tourist thing... take plenty of pictures of the Niagara Falls.



Of course, we could not go to see the Falls, and NOT drop by MarineLand. Who doesn't want to see dolphins and castles??


Dolphins flying in the air!


And Willy!! Who apparently is not so free...


I guess Willy is a mom?


An adorable smiling beluga!! It's so cute how they blow bubbles underwater and suck the bubble back in! It sounds weird when it's put into words for some reason...


Had to say goodbye to MarineLand... and Toronto :(

Boo!!

End of summer adventure #3.
Next stop: Ottawa!!

Yours Truly,
MTam

Next Chapter, Please

These few weeks have been quite the roller coaster ride. I kid you not! As a result, I was feeling nauseous, disoriented and wanted nothing more than to sit down and recover my sense of balance.

“What happened?” You ask.

My answer is threefold:

1) I ended a relationship, and as cheesy as it sounds, some part of me died.

I'm not going to lie: I miss PP like crazy, OK! And I have the right to say, scream, write, repeat incessantly what I want (I miss him, I miss him, Imisshim, ImisshimImisshim soooooooooo much), because it's my blog! However, that little inner voice - the one that tails me like some vengeful ghost - keeps on repetitively whispering rather loudly into my ear, in its usual nagging tone, that if I truly love him, I have to let him go because it's the most noble thing to do. I’m actually suspecting that I am unconsciously stealing lines from a Sailor Moon (aka defender of love) episode because it does sound like something she would say before shooting out pink hearts from her magic, crescent wand.

2) I professionally confronted my manager about problems at my current job.

I can't believe I boldly spoke my mind without an ounce of hesitation because I usually keep everything inside, but I actually did. That’s how unbearable things have been, but kudos to me and my awesomeness! It took a lot of guts, but I am at a happy place! Or will be if it does work out...

3) Got back on my feet, sort of.

The best way to distract myself from my problems is to talk. I've been talking non-stop to friends, and when I noticed that they have a life that needs to be lived, I grew curious and turned to the online world.

Now, please listen closely: your mother wasn't lying when she told you that the online world is a very scary place filled with strange people. I can confirm it is. Some 40-year-old man, married with kids WILL try to convince you to have an affair with him. Some Anthony Weiner look-a-like WILL try to send you some naked pictures of himself. Some women WILL ask you to have a threesome with them. The rumors are all true.

I grew tired of those people, and that's when a kind friend came to my rescue with a recommendation to her favorite pen pal site, which I gladly joined. I now meet normal people who have normal conversations that do not involve sex positions and kinky words. Just old-fashioned friendships. Thank god.

That concludes my answer, but not my post ;)

To those who let me ramble on for HOURS and DAYS about my long life stories and useless details, and to those who texted me, reached out for me and/or called me to make sure all was well: You are the most awesome people a friend could ask for!

And for you readers, internet high five for reading the entire post!

I'm now flipping the page. Chapter over, and moving on.

Thinking Positive,
MTam

My Wonderful Samaná Adventure

My awesome trip to Samaná was quite memorable! But everyone knows that I have a 95-year-old grandma's memory (ridiculous!) so as soon as I will be done with this sentence, I will have forgotten what I just said.

In order to remember the good times that I've spent there, I've decided to post a few pictures online. The first post will consist of artistic shots. I'm an artsy person, what can I say.

Warning The re-sized, small pictures looked absolutely ridiculous so I adjusted the size. However, it doesn't fit into the design of the page. Oh well, the sacrifice was totally worth it.



Super nice swimming pool at the hotel!



One of the paths leading to the lobby. They're all very much alike.



Colorful flowers were nicely decorating the hotel grounds!



My dad filming at the Italian restaurant. He had a cool HD Sony Handycam.



My favorite turtle pal: Dudette! She's happily sunbathing (she's smiling in the pic - had to re-size it so you can't see :(). On turtle watch #5, I caught her yawning 3 times (and she was stretching her body too!). She's super cute! I wanted to hide her in my purse and take her back home, but remembered she would die in cold, wintry weather.



Of course, it's not paradise without palm trees!



Random shot.



Secret garden.



My camera and I! A photogenic couple!



Most centerpieces consisted of dusty plastic flowers.



And one more! Because I couldn't resist posting a picture of my favorite turtle's charming smile that will just melt your cold, cold heart!



Awwwww. Less than three, Dudette; less than three. (<3)

Turtle Smile,
MTam

The Day I Learned of the Extinction of My Favorite Blobfish

I know some of you are über excited because of an upcoming Hop-iday, and you have a day off I'm finally back with a second entry! You'll have to excuse my erratic updates. It's only going to get worse. And better at some point. And then back to worse.

Anyway.

My post today is dedicated to a very serious cause. After watching Disney Nature's "Oceans", which was conveniently playing on Earth Day on the Movie Network, I immediately switched to save-our-ocean mode, while my mind was swiftly gathering a collection of information and memories related to the subject.

And then my brain suddenly hit the pause button at a certain crisp and clear memory: The day I learned of the extinction of my favorite blobfish.



Obviously, you can tell by the picture he was very sad as well.

I can definitely recall that some blobfish hater posted some rather rude comment: "OMG he so ugly no wonder he's extinct". Just remember, fish have feelings too. Also, there should an apostrophe followed by an 's' after "he".

But seriously, it's Earth Day. We should all take a minute to think of some positive environmental action we can take to ensure the safety of our Oceans and to bring the smile back to our favorite blobfish :)

Blobfish Love,
MTam