Must purchase GPS...

So I have never had a good sense of direction. All my family and most of my friends will attest to this - there are numerous stories of how ridiculously lost I can get in a short period of time and now we can add a new one.
On Tuesday I got lost in Abbotsford for 1.5 hours! Honestly I think it's a special gift to be able to get THAT lost! I decided that I wanted to find Superstore as there were a number Superstore specific items I wanted to purchase. I did my due diligence and looked up online where it was and actually found it rather flukily and easily. The trouble started when I tried leaving Superstore. I was SO sure of myself that I figured I would go home a different way than I had arrived. This was NOT a good idea and I ended up on the #11 - TWICE! I was honestly SO lost I just kept driving and driving - turning around and driving some more - then turning around again - trying desperately to find some street name that I recongized. I would eventually find one and then drive on it for AGES and realize it was NOT taking me where I wanted to go so I would turn around and try again. The sad part is I started out only a couple blocks from my apartment - I made one wrong turn (right instead of left) and that began my little adventure. Atleast my car has air conditioning!

If you're going to talk then talk otherwise be quiet...

During my trip to GP I realized I'm a pretty lousy travel companion. I was flying with my dear mother who likes to chat which is fine - if you're going to keep up a conversation - but if you're going to say one thing then stop then wait a minute and say one more thing and then wait a minute and say one more thing then wait a minute and say one thing...(I think you get the idea) it gets annoying.
I love the quiet - silence doesn't scare me it relaxes me - I'm used to travelling alone and as with everything I have my little routine and this one includes me reading in the relative silence of the plane from the moment I get on to the moment we land. I'm not one of those people who strikes up a conversation with the random person sitting next to me - I'm the person who sits there and pretends you all don't exist. It's anti-social - I know.
After 30 minutes of the talk-not talk-talk I finally told my dear mother that I had the read the same three sentences over and over and either we have a conversation or she had to stop talking to me and watch her TV with the earphones I lent her. I'm sure I hurt her feelings - I'm evil.
I tried to make up for it by being pleasant and not tearing a strip off my greedy brother during the trip but I ended up actually getting in trouble for that. Apparantly it would have been appreciated if I HAD stood up to him and told him to stop being such an @$$ - I can't ever get it right. I did try to appease people on this trip, despite the combined 6 hours of sleep I got the two nights I was there - I even bought mom breakfast on our way home and she even let me read my book on the plane :)

There and Back Again...

So I spent the weekend in GP - it was hot - but not as bad as what I came home too.
My brother-in-law's birthday was Wednesday so as a surprise mom and I flew up Friday night and back on Sunday. My sister had planned a surprise party for him on Saturday night which worked out well as he was very surprised. Stemma, Mom and I met Anna and Yuya for breakfast at his favorite restaurant. Yuya was told that Stemma wanted to take him out for breakfast to celebrate his birthday and then there would be a family barbeque that evening after he had gone golfing with a friend of his. When he got to the restaurant he ran into another friend at the door but was distracted from that conversation when he noticed me sitting at a table across the room. He didn't trust his eyes. As he shook hands with and spoke to this friend he kept peering over the guys shoulder looking at me. When he and Anna finally made it to the table and hugs were giving out all around he said that he had seen me right away and kept saying to himself "That girl looks like Sarah but what would she be doing here?". We had a wonderful breakfast and Yuya went off to play his round of golf sure in his thinking that our trip up was his surprise. It wasn't. When he got home from golf there was a houseful of people waiting to wish him a very happy 30th Birthday. That party didn't end until 2am Sunday - well that's when I went to bed - had to be up at 5:30am to catch the flight home.
What a whirlwind trip - but worth it!

I'm going home...

So I've been living in my mom's house since she and my little sister departed a week an half ago for Mexico to build houses for the poor. I have enjoyed my solitude - a little too much probably. I find the more anti-social I am the more anti-social I get. I have also not had a good night sleep since they left. I have been getting only 2 to 4 hours of sleep each night and for that reason I am an absolute wreck. Tuesday I came to work at 6:30am - worked for 2 hours and then gave up and went home and slept until 2:30.
It's been productive week and a bit though. I wrote my second midterm for my OrgBeh class - I didn't fail! I went to an absolutely wonderful wedding - I spent quality time with a friend visiting from Ghana - I spent even more quality time with a friend visiting from Edmonton and we had an impromptu sleep over (on a work night no less!) - I enjoyed a wonderful time sitting around a fire hearing my favorite true story re-told by fabulous friends - I spent gobs of time catching up with a friend who has been exploring the other side of the world for months and months and is back doing that already - I played frisbee with some very encouraging people who didn't seem to mind that at my age I needed lessons on how to throw said frisbee - I had a 4.5 hour conversation over coffee at Starbs with a friend I hadn't spent any quality time with in 4.5 months.
Wow - I guess I haven't been as anti-social as I thought...