Fri May 30 - Had work in the GS
Saturday May 31st - started at 7:30pm for the WVSS dry aftergrad event (ahh, memories...o.0=$@®©@§m), Daniel and I were both there until past 6:30am Sunday 1st, we signed out 6:30am and didn't have to close the building b/c the workshop people were already there by then to start their days. Brian Alfonso worked the event with us - crazy guy, he was planning on doing a Run of some sort that morning at around 7:45 or something, so we left him sleeping in the ikea-lounge. Event was alright, I suppose. We didn't have any serious problems... we had some issues starting up b/c the a/v-decorations company weren't done by the time the midnight opening time came around and still needed us to help them with this and that setting up even as the kids were already dancing. LOL - 9:45pm or so, automatic riser not fully lowered by decors people + Daniel, --> shattered glass panels above Admissions + band-aids + Housekeeping to the rescue for first-aid and cleanup. Kids had stowed alcohol outside in the flowerbeds and we (mainly Security) had to weed out the drunks at the door en masse. We had a few runners, which Security tackled and took care of. Parents didn't show up with the agreed chaperones, we haggled for a while, eventually Daniel, Security, and I made the call to proceed with the event nontheless. Gave Daniel a ride home.
Monday June 2nd - Work in the GS
Tues June 3rd - Applied Science Technologists & Technicians BC evening event - Eureka, Science Theatre, Big Wigs of SW, Emmelle's Catering with always-good-to-see Lauren in charge. Had Ruth and Richard working for me that night, everything went pretty smoothly. Learned how to use the mobile soundboard stack & speakers... had to get incidental music from Search though that was thoroughly unsatisfactory to me - henceforth I shall keep my own CD handy for emergency event music. Gave Ruth a ride home after.
Wed June 4th - Tried to download some movies to watch on my ipod during the long bus rides using the new iTunes rental service. Didn't realise until too late - as millions of other 5th Gen Video Ipod users have also found out - that Apple is being a stingy bastard and made Rentals only downloadable to the almost-identical Ipod "Classic" and other "current-generation" ipods/iphones... even tho my G5 Ipod is less than a year old! Was very irritated.
Thurs June 5th - Met Shari for lunch at Crystal Mall. I got there early =D. My one allowance of going out that week other than the weekend trip so that I could get work done at home. We were planning on doing hot pot at Top Gun, but hadn't realised that two people is too few for hot pot there. We settled for menu dishes and *all-too-expensive* dim sum there. Did a walk-around of Crystal Mall to chat before going home.
Friday morning we had to get to the bus stop by around 6am in the morning... parents came and picked me up at around 5:30am. We were getting picked up at the Crystal Mall pickup point. We drove straight down, stopped briefly in Washington State at some mall on Federal Way for lunch, I had a meatball sub double-cheese six-inch at Subway. Found the coolest little mini-bottles of Coppertone Sport sunscreen on a small carabiner at the Target there, also picked up a few small desk racks from Target and the small DaiSo there to try for standing up my coffee table coasters before we were back to the bus around 1:30pm. The cool orange plastic remote stand I got at Daiso for $1.50 was tough to store, but combined with the Coppertone biner and clipped onto the seatback handle in front of me it made a very useful little rack on the bus for garbage & odds and ends throughout the trip. We arrived at Portland by the afternoon and went to visit the Rose Garden there, which looked to me more or less like UBC's, only with far more varieties - most of which were not open due to the overcast/somewhat wet weather. There were a few really pretty rose varieties with oranges and dark reds and blacks... one was called "Playboy". Many kinda made me think they were coming up with varieties of roses just so they could give them creative names. Afterwards, I got to wander around downtown Portland on my own for a few hours on
Friday evening till about 7:45, which was kinda cool. This was supposed to be
"downtown shopping time" and was supposed to include dinner - they'd
reserved optional seats at this expensive korean seafood place... I ate
at the food court instead and found this awesome little rock and gem
shop underneath Pioneer Square where they had a great selection of
interesting minerals. I told Mom about it and she and dad went and
bought a heart-shaped rainbow obsidian there. I got a new vest and a
long-sleaved shirt at the Fossil store at the same mall - I'd known
they had watches and glasses, but had no idea they also carried
clothing.
We had to get to the stadium by 8am Saturday morning for our seats, so the wake-up call was 6am and we had to be out by 7am. The hotel was nice - I forget the name - but it was cold, I had to sleep on the couch foldable bed with flimsy sheets, and dad snored the entire night. I didn't get much sleep. The first thing to watch once we arrived at the Rose Bowl was the "Rose Queen" - high school senior girls from around Portland - pageant coronation at around 9am, and the see the parade between 10am and 12noon. There a bunch of naval admirals and officers sitting high up on the opposite side of the stadium - one of whom was a Canadian admiral. Later in the day, as we were busing from the city, I saw the ships moored along the side of the river too, including the two Canadian frigates. The parade was pretty cool, chatted a little with the tour member next to me, took lot of photos and a few videos of the parade entries as the parade went straight through the stadium (in one side, out the other) - they even had a huuuuge contingent from the Calgary Stampede there, including the Calgary Stampede Show (marching) Band, riders, rodeo queens, Calgary Police Pipe Band, etc. Another highlight was this local marching band - the largest in the world with several hundred members - composed of people of all ages who used to be in highschool marching bands. They weren't all primped and dressed up and were there for the fun of it, so it was great to watch. Actually, there was a decent Canadian presence there - I felt bad I had no Canadian identifiers on me, being a proud Canadian (especially since Cantonese folks can be somewhat loud and raucous). Ooh, there was also a Chinese fan dance troupe and traditional Chinese band there marching with shengs and drums and whatnot - they were from a Taiwanese highschool from Portland's sister town in Taiwan. The fan dancer kids were very good, far far better than the after school Chinese dancing children you usually see anytime in Vancouver. I got a video - they obviously impressed even the Oregonians. Other parade highlights included giant puppets from New York, a local highschool marching pipe band, a Gemini capsule replica float from the local space centre, more-entertaining-than-scary clowns, and many Rodeo Queens. Many, many, many marching bands from just about every marching band in Oregon, but I've always found high school marching bands to be more of an American tradition (as with cheerleaders) than a Canadian one - the whole extravagant get-up with the tiny steps (functional as they are, and yet Calgary's show band makes large natural-looking yet synchronized steps look good all the same) and the flowery caps, gloves, colours, etcetera always seemed to me a little too flamboyant and yet artificial for my taste eschewing genuine expression for constructed pageantry. It is as if they somehow took the original military bands and put them through the head of an overzealous fashion designer. After the parade, we picked up and had lunch at this small Chinese grill place where you put your raw food in a bowl and take it to the counter and they grill it for you (sorta like Mongolie Grill). It was way too much food (they give you these deceptively vacuous metal bowls to fill, which store more than you expect since you choose all the ingredients yourself), and I felt really stuffed and gross the rest of the day (it only got worse, as traveling eating often does to one). In the afternoon we went to the same electronics depot there I went last time that's known for its low prices (on top of the great No State Tax in Oregon!), got a few Wii accessories, a few SD cards and a Memory Stick, saw Guitar Hero for $79 but couldn't bring myself to get it before we had to leave (only an hour and half there till 3:30pm). They were sold out of Wii Fit there too, after only a few hours after their morning shipment had arrived. They also had aerobatic kites there, and for only $3! I didn't have time to get one tho, oh well... don't fly kites that often anyway. After that, we drove to Woodburn where we went to the Woodburn Factory Stores. (Really nice washrooms there! huge stalls, clean, etc). I got my new black Rockports that I was hoping to get ($79 for Rockports, plus a bottle of leather protector, a bottle of shoe polish, and some spare shoelaces), plus some shirts and ties and a pair of cargo pants from Van Hausen, and a few other assorted items. Didn't find a suitable replacement messenger bag. My dinner was a pretzel dog, a cherry slush, and a bread pretzel from this great pretzel place they have there. Met the bus around 8:30pm. Next, to the hotel (Super 8 Motel in Woodburn), and wandering around the nearby Walmart for the rest of the evening. As we were first going by the hotel, I saw a family restaurant with a green roof and a big sign that read "Shari's" - got my camera to take a photo to send to Shari but it passed by too quickly and I never saw it again. In retrospect - I thought a few moments later - I should have used my far-quicker my cellphone camera. Walmart in the States is more or less like Walmart here, only bigger, with more clothes (like Zellars), a full plant and gardening section (like Home Depot), and a full supermarket section with food. And a McDonalds. And is open 24/7! Got a few $9 ties and a $20 Wii party game there. We had after-dinner snack at McDonalds in Walmart. Saw Guitar Hero there for $10 more than the electronics depot but still worth it because of the absent taxes. Spent the night pondering whether or not to get it.
else since I was trying to keep to the budget as closely as I could for
the tax exemption limit. Stayed there till about 3:30pm before we were back on the bus headed home. Got back around 7pm at Crystal Mall; Zhongxi and Karen came by to drop off Mom's car, family had dinner at Crystal Mall (baked spaghetti for me), and Karen and Zhongxi drove me home.
Mon 9 June: Work in the GS all day.
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