Saturday, July 25, 2009

WTF Moment #002

As the mercury rises, a number of things happen, wardrobe wise. Shorts get shorter and shirts get smaller, revealing all sorts of little treats and treasures of the human body, which in most cases, should not be so prominantly displayed. Aside from that, another phenomenon is occurring - bras are suddenly disappearing. It's as if the phrase "lift and separate" has become a thing of the past - evaporated into the hot and stale air and simply erased from our dressing requirements. WTF is goin on?

This past week I was at A Taste of Edmonton, where I noticed FAR too many women in need of some serious support. Not only that, but a slightly larger shirt would have also been beneficial - you know, one that comes down far enough to meet the waistline of your pants. With the shirt coming up and the girls comin down, a good sneeze would have scarred about 2 dozen people for life.

Ladies - NOT OK! If you can tuck those girls into your pants - you need a bra. If a light jog would increase the possibility of losing an eye - you need a bra. Despite what you may think, the heat does not exempt you from keeping yourself together.

Just keep in mind, though YOU might be more comfortable, the people around you are not.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

where's the fire?

Being in the service industry, the range of people I see in any given day is wide...and I mean WIDE. You notice trends, mannerisms and common social faux pas, and slowly loose all hope in humanity as you serve your next customer their non-fat, decaf, extra shot, sugar-free vanilla latte with double whipped cream (seriously?...seriously.)

As you watch hundreds of people file through your café, you realize that more often than not people are in a hurry, and therefore, you should be too. Where are we hurrying to get to? Work? ok..that's allowed. An appointment? sure, I'll accept that. But at 2 in the afternoon on a Wednesday, rushing me so that you can go sit down to leisurely leaf through the paper - that's not ok.

On a daily basis, we are all in a hurry at least once or twice. But overall, we're rushing ourselves into an early grave. Faster cars, the "express" lane, fast food - you get it fast, but it does other things fast too you know..., Minute Rice (which, by the way, is not as good as regular rice - I'm Asian, I would know) With all this extra speed, it's no wonder people are anxious, nervous, and rack their brains trying to find a way to "squeeze in" some relaxation time.

"What do you suggest?" inquiring minds may ask. Well, coming from the woman who is perpetually 5 minutes late - take your time...with everything. Enjoy it. And take solace in the fact that you took the extra time to put your underwear on the right way today.

Monday, July 20, 2009

on relationships and the like

As I sit in my desk chair at what will soon be 2am, I find myself reflecting on the idea of relationships. I say "idea" because we all have this mental picture of what our relationships should look like or will look like - whether they be friendships, romantic relationships or even friendly acquaintances at work - and in reality, they are rarely what we had pictured them to be.

To be quite frank and personal, I myself have been "looking" for a Mr. Right and have an image of what this relationship might look like. I've met some Mr. Close's, Mr. Maybe's and quite a handful of Mr. Hell-No's - all of whose classifications have been derived from their approximation to my own mental model. Which begs the question: how realistic am I being and what is it that I really want? Does my mental model exist within the world of "Hi, I'm ____, it's nice to meet you"s?

I've had the privilege of re-connecting with an old friend recently and it is really a testament to how relationships can surprise you and change, meet, or completely blow your expectations out of the water. And as complicated as they can be sometimes, I remember being told that your best investment is in people - even if some days you're wondering where the hell your return went to.

This summer has been, for me, full of opportunity to re-connect and re-build some relationships that I had once thought lost a long time ago. And I feel I need to mention how important that is to me because everyone develops bonds for one reason or another and for me, what was initially curiousity has brought me some of the people I hold dearest to my heart. The same can be said for every relationship, new or old, as they all started the same way and are rarely what you expect them to be.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

WTF Moment #001

Riddle me this:

At what point during a visit to a local coffee shop does one look at the cookie jar glistening in the sunlight and say to themselves "hmm I'd like a cookie" and then proceed to HELP THEMSELVES??? - I was appalled as I watched this person's sausage fingers dive into what I will call MY cookie jar (I work there, therefore, it's mine) and take out a cookie! WTF was that? I don't come to YOUR house and manhandle your loaf of bread to see which slice I want do I??...that's what I thought.

I see this lack of judgement and wonder if this person thought about how THEY'D feel if they were next in line behind a person who had done that exact thing. Maybe they don't care....MAYBE they're also the person who goes to Safeway and doesn't use the tongs to pick out their dinner buns.

To this I say....WTF!!?!