Prayer

One thing that I don't do enough, admittedly, is PRAY. So what I've tried to recently is actually do it on my subway ride to (or from) work... Other commuters just think I'm sleeping... Instead of playing Sudoku, I figured I could use my time a little better. ;)

So what have I been praying about? Here are some of the things that have been on my mind lately--and feel free to pray about them if you feel compelled to do so.

• The Kyrios teens. Many of them are volunteering this week at the Bridletowne Summer Camp and more will be doing the same at TCCC's Summer Day Camp over the next two weeks. I pray that this will be a great experience for them and it will continue to further their walk with God.
• Kyrios. As usual, during the summer the fellowship is going through some transition. Some are graduating, so we are looking for new people to step in. Also, a number of the counsellors have decided that it is time for them to move on to something new. I pray that there will be people at the church who have the heart to serve in teen/youth ministry.
• Friendship. One of my friendships has stumbled recently. I have no clue as to where it's headed--whether we'll continue being friends or if it's better to go our separate ways. It's disappointing, but I pray that whatever God has in store for us, we will both be at peace with whatever happens.
• New relationships. Funny enough, a few of my closest friends have recently begun new relationships--I am really happy for them. I pray that they will grow and start off on the right foot.
• Seekers. A couple of my good friends were interested in finding out more about the church and/or Christianity. However, I'm not sure where they stand anymore. I pray that God will continue to give them the opportunity and heart to find out more about the faith and also that the friends around them--especially myself--are good witnesses to them.
• The Longlac Team. Brian and a bunch of others from TCCC are continuing their missions trip up at Longlac 58, an Aborginal reserve near Thunder Bay. Continue to pray for their safety and that they can connect with the young people up there.
• Sunday School. Eva, Clinton and I are teaching a class for the high school kids heading into university in the fall. The goal is to hopefully share our experiences and some practical suggestions to prepare the students to better handle university life, but also from a Christian perspective. This is our first time teaching, so we're pretty nervous. I'm actually leading the next class, so I'm a bit worried that I will have enough discussion to fill up the whole class. Anyway, just pray that we're effective teachers and we can provide information that is helpful to the students.
• Family. I know that my family loves each other, but we're just such a non-expressive bunch. :P I pray that we can connect more...
• Work. Pray that work will continue to be meaningful and enjoyable.
• School. I've recently given some more thought to what I want to do. Do I want to stay in the same field or go back to school and do something else? Sometimes, I'm just not sure--the story of my life. Sigh.

Anyway, that's just a sample of the stuff that I've been praying for. There's actually a whole lot more, so if you'd like to know, just ask.

Wedding Crashers

I went to watch this movie with Ben, Des and Jenn on Saturday afternoon. I now understand what Brian meant by feeling ashamed for watching this movie. It was hilarious, but some parts were pretty raunchy--I felt dirty for laughing so much. :P (It was pretty funny too listening to the old folks sitting beside me crack up--I didn't know seniors could have that kind of dirty sense of humour. :) ) And the ending was a too drawn out and high on the cheese factor.

Rachel McAdams. Wow. I've seen her before in "Mean Girls" and people have told me that she's really good in "The Notebook" too. She has this angelic look and amazing eyes. Every time she was on-screen, you couldn't take your eyes off of her. Great screen presence.

Vince Vaughn stole every scene he was in with his fast-talking ways, but Owen Wilson just doesn't do it for me. I don't know why people like his charm so much. There was also an entirely predictable cameo near the end of the movie--one of VV/OW's buddies. Totally pointless and it wasn't even that funny.

Anyway, overall it's still a decent popcorn flick. Good, but raunchy laugher. :D

Too much Ultimate?

Great shot... Thanks Sam... 

Last year was softball, this year I just can say "NO" to Ultimate...

Although I've only been playing for just a little over a year, I think it's almost at the same level of interest/enjoyment as softball now. This week, I played it 3 nights in a row. Monday was with my actual team. Tuesday, I went out to help out with the other team that I'm organizing. And tonight, I ended up playing with people I didn't even know--I was invited out to play by a friend, but he didn't even tell me that he was in California and wouldn't be there. :P (I've also been playing occasionally with Nicole/Mag's IBM team.) All in all though, it was a good week as all 3 games turned out to be wins.

The Monday team has been doing great so far this year. It's been a bit of a surprise, 'cause there are still some newbies, but they all seem to have picked it up pretty quickly. It could be the competition too though, so we'll see. The next few games should be tougher as we will be facing the top half of our division. The Tuesday team started of slowly, but they've come back with two solid wins. It's a more inexperienced team, but they seem to be coming together nicely.

Still, I dunno how much of this my body can take. I actually somehow jammed my finger on Monday--probably running into someone. It's ok, but it's been a bit swollen the last couple of days. Plus every time I shake someone's hand, it seems to reaggravate it. :P Today, playing on consecutive days finally caught up to me. Despite drinking lots and lots of water throughout the day, I got a nasty calf cramp near the end of the game. Did it ever hurt--I was rolling around in pain and needed someone else to massage it until the muscle relaxed.

Thanks again to Sam for the photo above...

Wedding #4 - Jason & Bonnie

The mad rush of weddings has now started...

Saturday was a pretty busy day. It started by waking up at 7:30 in the morning to meet up with Christina for some coffee at Tim Horton's before she was gonna drive out with her parents across the country back to Vancouver. I barely saw her during her 3 weeks here--she spent quite a bit of time at home. But I guess I would too if I had been away for so long. Strangely, catching up with Christina was easy. She's one of those friends that even if you hadn't seen in months or years, the conversations would come back easily just like old times.

Right after the quick breakfast, I rushed back home to get ready for Jason & Bonnie's wedding. The ceremony was nice, but unfortunately the church--at which I'm going to be attending 3 weddings in a row--didn't have any A/C. However, they (It was probably Bonnie's idea. I don't think Jason would have been so thoughtful. Hehe.) had an ingenious solution to this--the programs actually folded out to be handheld fans. Very very cool. Still, it didn't help that much 'in the end 'cause it was incredibly humid. Afterwards, the organization for the group photographs was pretty bad. We were sweltering in the heat/sun for almost an hour before our group finally had their's taken. We felt so gross by then, we ended up going to McDonald's for a quick bite. The afternoon felt like such a waste. I wanted to go watch a movie ("Wedding Crashers" or "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") but there didn't seem to be enough time. I ended up going home to take a nap after lunch. Latte morning/early afternoon weddings really suck! It's practically in the middle of the day, so it's hard to plan to do stuff. So to all of you out there, please have the ceremony at 4 PM and do the reception right after! Why must the bride & groom need to take so many pictures?! :P

Anyway, the reception itself was pretty good as usual. Jason & Bonnie had over 330 guests. Nothing beats Chinese banquets--abalone, lobster, e-fu noodles, shark's fin soup, etc. Simply the best! :D It's great too when you sit with Caucasian/non-Chinese people too--you can have their portions 'cause they just don't appreciate our 'delicacies'. :) I think I had a bit too much to drink too quickly at dinner though. I actually started feeling a bit lightheaded about halfway through, so I actually had to down a couple glasses of water and go for a short walk. Everything seemed to go off without a hitch, although some of the speeches and games dragged a bit. It's bad, but i'm starting to tune out a bit during the slideshows & speeches 'cause after a while they all look/sound the same... :P

The Fall of Team Justice

Christina invited us out last night to watch "The Fall of Team Justice" at the Toronto Fringe Festival. It was co-produced and co-starring her younger sister, Andrea.

First, I met up with Charita, Frances and Tim at dinner for some Mexican food. I had some enchiladas and also had some of Frances and Charita's burrito and quesadillas--definitely better than Taco Bell. :) Unfortunately the restaurant didn’t have any A/C, so we sat on the patio. Despite enjoying a couple glasses of Sangria, it was still way too hot—just chewing made us sweat.

The play itself was OK. It was pretty entertaining--a political comedy on the world's current events in the style of a superhero/comic book story. It spoofed and took jabs at mainly Americans and their quest to find 'Weapons of Mass Destruction'. A couple of the actors were really good in their delivery and their comic timing, but others left a little more to be desired. I'm no expert on theater, but some of the other characters just didn't capture my imagination. It was pretty interesting how they combined different types of mediums into their show--live stage, animation and film. The "war propaganda" films were hilarious. However, the play was just too long and it didn't help that it started at 10 PM last night. The 90 min. show definitely could have been condensed into 45-60 mins. Some of the plot lines were unnecessary and other scenes just dragged way too long past the punch line. Anyway, for an amateur production and since the ticket only cost $10, it's still worth checking out.

From joy to sadness...

Man... there are some crazy things going on in the world... Every few months there seems to be a terror alert... 9/11, Madrid, and now London... I'm not sure if there's really anywhere that's safe from these terrorist activities anymore... Even riding home on the subway last night made me a tad nervous. I don't think I was being paranoid, but it was just the thought that something like that could happen anywhere, at any time, and when you least suspect it...

I'm relieved to hear that Brian and Ina are OK. My thoughts and prayers are with them and the rest of London...

Slowly creeping towards 30...

27. Unfortunately I can no longer say that am in my mid-twenties since I am now officially entering my late-twenties... sigh... :P I mentioned the other day about how much I feel blessed by those around me and, again, God has reminded me of that today.

Jeanne took me out to "Spring Rolls" for lunch today for some Thai food. I enjoyed a strawberry fruit shake along with my mango salad and a "tango mango" spicy chicken. And that was just the beginning...

Upon arriving back at my office, I had a meeting scheduled for 3:30. Thanks to my naivete, I brought my notebook and pen ready to talk about work. To my surprise, they presented me a birthday card and we had a nice cake together. I didn't even know they knew when my birthday was.

I even got a call at work from the Kyrios teens who were hanging out at the church. Apparently, they were trying to figure out where I worked downtown so they could bring me a cake and embarrass me. Good thing they couldn't find out in time--but a sweet thought nonetheless.

After work, I met up with my mom and brother to have dinner. We ended up settling on "Baton Rouge". Brian also came out to join us for some steak and ribs. While enjoying 2-3 glasses of wine along with our meal, Alvin entertained us be fawning over Brian's 'gangsta' lifestyle--living alone in a PH and having family working in Vegas. :)

Brian and I decided to head back to his place for some rest--eating and drinking that much makes you tired! We watched the best parts of "Napoleon Dynamite" again and even managed to catch bits and pieces of "Dancing with the Stars". It's actually a pretty entertaining show 'cause the 'celebrities' actually have to perform or they could humiliate themselves pretty badly. Luckily I didn't start watching this show earlier or it might have become, admittedly, a 'guilty pleasure'.

To top the night off, Charita, Sonya, Nicole, Anita, Ben & Brian came out to celebrate with me some more over some Chinese mango desserts near First Markham Place... Yummm... It was great to hang out and enjoy some more laughs with my closest friends...

What a night of gluttony... :P.. I don't think I've eaten like this in a while--where your stomach actually hurts from eating WAY too much...

Chun Prom 2005

I have to say that the teens at Kyrios are pretty amazing. A bunch of them decided to organize a 'prom night' for one of their fellow teens because he didn't have a chance to go to one of his own. Even though it was still pretty small and intimate, everyone put forward their best effort to make this evening a great time. They had a theme, put up decorations, made a nice dinner and even had special awards--including Prom King and Prom Queen. It was a pretty sweet gesture.

Happy Canada Day!