September is the greatest month of the year!!!

What can I say, it's only been 19 days into September, and things can only get better. Of course tomorrow is the greatest day of the year, for obvious reasons!

First things first. I'm finally employed! After months of travelling, and lying about, I finally got myself out of it and got myself a job. I started workig full time at Rusell Investments for that production analyst position. The benefits make up slightly for the lack of salary, so, it's not that bad. Amoung the benefits are 20 days of vacation, oppurtunities to invest in their RSP program with the min. investment and manager fees waived, and 75% reimbursement for my gym membership. I wonder if I should switch to a better gym or stick with the one I'm at.

So, besides the job, the other major event is the Toronto International Film Festival of course. This year I volunteered at the airport as usual and at Roy Thompson Hall where I did the red carpet. I think that these will be my permanent venues from now on. I watched the following movies:

L'Enfer (France)
The Sun (Germany/Japan)
The Quiet (USA)
Harsh Times (USA)
Everlasting Regret (China)
Dave Chapelle's Block Party (USA)
OPA! (USA/Greece)
Romance and Cigarettes (USA)
The Duelist (Korea)
L'Enfant (France)
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Korea)
In Her Shoes (USA)
Wallace and Grommit (The curse of the Were-Rabbit) (USA)

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and Harsh Times are amount my favourites, while Everlasting regret is hands down my least favourite.

I also got a few autographs. Notables include Elsiha Cuthbert, Shawn Ashmore, David Ayer, Freddy Rodriquez, Sammi Cheng, Park Chan-wook, and last but no way the least, Mr. MICHEL GONDRY!!! Quite possibly my favourite director of the modern era. I also got some pics of Eva Longoria at the world premiere of Harsh Times. She was looking damn fine.

It's sad to see the film fest go again, but in a way I'm glad. Now that I'm working full time, it was hard to find time to do anything else besides go to work and watch films. I averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night, and it was really starting to take it's toll. In that time I also stopped going to the gym, which is starting to really show. The only exercise I got was walking around downtown from theatre to theatre. Next year, I'm going to use some of those vacation days just for the film festival. No Doubt!

This weekend was particularly eventful. On Friday English and I had a joint birthday bash at Distrikt nightclub. It was kind of a last minute thing, but whatever, cover was only $5. Unfortunately none of the guys back home could make it out, but maybe it's for the best. After what happened at REV the other week, I was worried something could happen again. The music wasn't the greatest, but 6 beers and 2 shots later, we were having a damn good time.

The next day, I woke up after about 6 hours of sleep and headed downtown to meet up with Jenn. We grabbed some thai food and walked along bloor street before heading to the marina. My aunt's husband was throwing her a surpise party on a friend's boat, so we had to get there early before they arrived. It was a great day to be on the water too. We just sailed around, ate some sushi, salad, and fish, and just chilled and talked. Afterwards, I dropped Jenn off at the Go station so she could go back to Hamilton.

After the bus left, I met up with Adil and we went over to the Film Festival Closing Night Party. The venue this year was amazing. It was nice enough to have a wedding reception in there. The food wasn't great, but since I already ate on the boat, I didn't care. As long as it was an open bar, it was alllll good. I met up some people I met during the film festival, and we just danced and drank for hours, until they kicked us out around 3. I had one white girl hit on me during the night, which is interesting because at Distrikt, this other white girl grabbed me and tried to dance with me. Never been hit on by white girls two days in a row. It must have been the full moon.

After they ended the party, I suggested to a bunch of people that we go chill at Tim's and grab some food, which most people agreed to, but instead of tim's we went to 7 west on Younge and Wellesley. One guy puked on the way there, and the aforementioned white girl had work the next morning, so they left after we ordered our food. So it was just Me, Adil, and girl named BiBi left. We ate, talked, and then parted ways at around 4 or so.

Sunday was my chill day. I slept a good 9 hours, went to the gym, and went out with my parents for sushi. We got the biggest boat of sushi you can think of. It was the length of the table! It was a boat with 120 pieces of sushi and sashimi that was supposed to be for 8-10 persons...and it was just three of us there! I wish I brought my camera so you could all see it. They had some unique rolls on there was well, including a tuna roll with the seaweed slightly fried, and this crab and hot mayonnaise thing on won ton chips. Just thinking about it makes me hungry.

Then of course, today I went to work, left work, and came home. I want to go to the gym but at the same time, I really want to just stay home and do absolutely nothing. we'll see...

On that note, remember one thing. tomorrow is the greatest day of the year. Tell your loved ones how much you love them, take some time to smell the roses, and reflect on how the world is a greater place because of that day. ;)

Wasaga Beach Weekend

I went to Wasasga with Martin and Mike for the weekend just past, and it was a barrel of laughs from the get go. We left on Friday at 7:30, and got to Martin's trailer at around 10:15 or so. We stopped by a grocery store, and bought our food supply as well as a prepared meal for that night's dinner. None of us had eaten yet, and we were starving. We pull into the lot, Martin shuts down the van, and says "OH SHIT!". I'm thinking that he just parked too close to the boat or something, and shrug it off. after a minute of Martin just staring out the window he turns to us and goes "I forgot the keys..." It's 10:15 at night, 2 hours from mississauga, we're starving, and we have nowhere to stay for the weekend. So...what options do we have? we can drive back to mississauga to get the keys and come back. we can sleep in the car that night, and have Krystian bring us the key's the next day (he was supposed to come and meet up with us), or we can try to break into the trailer...I mean, we're from Malton after all. So, we proceed to try to break into the trailer.

Plan A) pick the door lock. I tried for several minutes, but just couldn't get it done. So that was a bust.

Plan B) unscrew the panel in the back so that we can crawl into the trailer, and open the lock once we're in. To do this, we needed the proper wrench...which we didn't have...at least not on us. The tool shed, however, did have the proper wrench. Of course, the tool shed was also locked. So...we had to break into the shed, and then break into the trailer. We were able to pry the lock off the shed, and successfully found the right wrench to take the screws out. After about 30 minutes, we finally get the panel off and find a large wooden board behind it. On to plan C...

Plac C) Unscrew the window pane, cut the wire screen, and go in. This takes about 30 minutes as well, however, it worked, and we were able to get in sucessfully. All in all, it took us about an hour and 30 minutes to break in.

The rest of the weekend went off w/o any problems. Just a lot of eating, tanning, chilling, and laughs. Good times for sure.

My Entry Level life

I've been working as a QPB Assisstant at Russell Investments for the past few weeks, which kept me busy, and provided me with some much needed cash so that I can maintain the lifestyle that I'm so confortable living.

While at Russell I got to experience what it was like to work in downtown Toronto, which up until now, I never had. I got to hang out with Umu, Farooq and Aliza for lunch in the courtyard, which was cool, cause we would just chat, and enjoy the being outdoors and our surroundings. Every Wednesday they would have a live R&B performance in the courtyard, and while the Rogers Cup was in town, we saw Monica Seles and Kris Everett promoting the Rogers Cup with a little scrimmidge.

I've had a couple of interviews in the past week for various entry level jobs. One at Russell Investments, and one for BMO NBesbitt Burns. I've lost touch with Clarica for a bit, but I'm sure that if I call them up, I can still work for them. Right now, I think I want to work at Russell Investments as a Production Analyst. It'll be an entry level job, but it may provide me with great oppurtunities for the future.

I had some relatives in town for a week. I got to meet some of my cousins whom I barely remember, and who are surprisingly much older than I thought. Jenn and I spent the day with them just chilling, playing some mini-golf, drinking some beer, playing pool, and eating. It was nice. I have about 25 cousins or so on my mom's side, and none of them live here in Toronto. Well, 4 of them do, but they're like 12, 10, 3, and 2 years old...or something like that.

I realize that I should start paying off my student loans, which makes it more imparative that I get a job soon, and spend less money. Over the past week, I've bought a brown cord blazer, a messenger bag, and a set of golf clubs. I justify my purchases because a) I've been looking for that damn blazer this whole year, and I finally found one that's in my size! so I had to act on it! b) I've been looking for a messenger bag for months, and I got this Nike one for $25!!! Here's the bag I got which is listed for USD$60 on the Nike website: Messenger Bag. c)My mom is going to reimburse me for the bag as my Birthday present.

Funny Story about the Blazer I bought. I've been looking for this blazer for so ling, and when I finally find it, they never have it in my size. day after day, week after week, I go into H&M and they never have it in my size (42). So, one day after work, I had an hour to kill before going to a Toronto Film festival training session. Farooq and I go to Eaton Center and just browse around looking at clothes. He's been looking for a tan balzer, which he's found, but it's expensive as hell. I tell him to check out H&M as they have the cord blazer in tan, and recall seeing it ina 42. I was in a rush to get to the training session and tell him to go in by himself, figuring they wouldn't have a 42 in the brown anyways. So, I go to my training session, come home, and get an email from Farooq at around 10 at night saying that they had 3 brown blazers in a 42! Not only that, but he bought the tan one for himself. At this point my heart is just leaping out of my chest, and I'm kicking myself for not going in...but then I think about it for several minutes, and figure that he's just messing with me, cause well...it's Farooq. So I reply back to him with some choice words and go to bed, still thinking about whether it's a joke or not.

I get into work the next day, do some work, recieve an email saying that he's not joking and that they really did have 3 42's. So, I call him to confirm, and hear absolutely no hints of a lie in his voice. Without any hesitation, I get up, and make my way to H&M to buy the coat. Took me 40 mins to get there and back, but it was so worth it!

So, that's my life right now. Still waiting on that full time job which hopefully leads to something more in the future. Alot of people keep saying "don't worry, you'll get a job, and it's just entry level now, but you'll move up within 2 years" but I'm starting to doubt it a bit. As the days, weeks, and months go by, I feel like I won't really amount much to anything. I see everyone else getting jobs, good jobs too, or even the analysts at Russell, and I think that there must be something that I don't have. I don't know what it is, but it must be something. Why else is it that they're were they are, and I'm where I am. People say it's luck, but I don't think so. It's something else. and whatever that something is, I wish I had it.