who shall i propose to..?

from wikipedia:

In the English speaking a world, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only on leap years. While it has been argued that the tradition was initiated by Saint Patrick or Brigid of Kildare in 5th century Ireland, it is dubious as the tradition has not been attested before the 19th century. Supposedly, a 1288 law by Queen Margaret of Scotland (then age five and living in Norway), required that fines be levied if a marriage proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to £1 to a silk gown, in order to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to the modern leap day, 29 February, or to the medieval leap day, 24 February.

now to find a boy to propose to.. haha :)

grade 9 flashback!

i just experienced a random memory. cbc is showing a documentary on jeans and it reminded me of grade 9 math. yes, that's right. the teacher used to end every (maybe it was actually once a week..?) class with some sort of random tidbit from a book. i swear those times i felt like i was in kindergarten cause she would read from the book like it was story time with a soft, calm voice. anyway, one day she read about the history of jeans for the class, which is why the documentary triggered my memory. i don't remember any of the other stories she read oddly enough.

now i'm trying to remember that teacher's name. this is going to bug me.. if i were home i'd definitely be rummaging through my old report cards by now just to figure out her name! she was an old woman, short white curly hair, who would always talk about her car that would tell you the temperature outside. woo..? and who would always tell this one girl (who sat at the front of every class and would get annoyed and frustrated over grades lower than an a) in the class to throw out her gum cause she couldn't stand the smacking noise the girl would make.

wow.. i remember that class so well. i remember the room we sat in, the fact i sat against a wall, near the back, on the opposite end to the door. falling asleep whenever she was teaching us how to solve equations that had variables (something i taught myself how to do a year before) - that wall was great for naps. having a green duotang for those weekly assignments we had to hand in.

whoa.. anyway, enough with the reminiscing. mostly cause i can't think of anything particularly funny that happened during that class. okay, i'm done procratinating for the night.

apparently i look like a corporate whore..

while talking to a friend about crazy people, i forgot i never told the story of what happened the second day at the tradeshow i attended in vegas..

i was dressed in normal corporate clothes, fixing a stand of tote bags we were giving out, and this old man comes up to me. he's probably in his late 60s, early 70s. starts asking me about our products,

old man carpenter: oh that's interesting. well i'm a carpenter from brighton, england. it's where the river is.
me: that's.. nice..
old man carpenter: i'm staying at the ho-jo, here's my address and phone number.
[ho-jo is short for howard johnson.. and yes, that's what he actually called it.]
me: uh..
old man carpenter: what's your name? [reads my id tag] reena? well i look forward to talking with you soon.

what the..?! seriously! it's not like i was dressed up like a playboy bunny like the models in some of the other booths.. i was dressed NORMALLY. so how in the world?

i stood there confused for a minute, walked up to one of the other people in the booth and told him i just got an old man carpenter's phone number.. his reply? "you'll have really nice cabinets!" another one replied with, "you know, there's a chapel in the hotel.. eh? :)"

*sigh* no i didn't call the number, no i didn't make a trip to the "ho-jo". i'm not that insane.

land of neon lights, gambling, booze, and hookers

so i'm back from vegas, and oh dear do my feet ever HURT! it feels like i'm walking on shards of glass wherever i go. oh well, since today's a lazy day i'm hoping i'll be okay by tomorrow.

vegas isn't AS dirty as i assumed it would be. it's actually not all corny, flashy lights.. except for the cvs - hahaha, i was surprised the drug store even had to make their sign all sparkly just to fit in.

one of the sales guys, k, was designated my official las vegas tour guide. i was actually happy he was there cause i'm not sure i'd have had that good of a time with any of the other guys. k's the closest to my age (10 years my senior) and actually likes to stay up past 10pm :P

so i ooh'd & aah'd over the fountains at bellagio, warmed up by the volcano at the mirage, pouted at the sight of the rollercoaster that wasn't running at new york new york, filled myself with wolfgang puck's magic.. twice, was amazed by the gardens at bellagio, fell in love with the venetian (the hotel, not a guy :P), visited mgm grand - large in size but lacks a personality (*yawn*), in awe of the eiffel tower at paris, was amused by the line of guys on the streets making slapping/clapping noises with prostitute cards, and asked elvis to marry me (*kidding*).

friday night, the last night, was probably the best for the entire trip! the six of us who were down for the tradeshow went out to dinner at mandalay bay. we went to aureole where one of the main attractions is their wine rack. it's not any ordinary wine rack.. think of a four-storey pillar with wine racks on all four sides, and this wine rack pillar was enclosed by plexi-glass (or maybe even proper glass). here's the fun part, in order to get access to a bottle, they have to strap themselves to one of the cords hanging from each side and propel themselves upwards to get to the appropriate bottle. i didn't get to see it because apparently we went to dinner at the old people time (7pm). *sigh* oh well. since they didn't have a single vegetarian item on their main course menu, i asked if they could make a vegetarian risotto - which they did.. so happy :) it was the best risotto i've ever had. but it was nothing compared to the dessert.. OMIGOD. banana bailey crème caramel (i was in heaven..), dark chocolate torte (so delicious), and this weird ice cream thing which i wasn't too thrilled about.

after that we wandered into the casino where the five of them wanted to watch me spend one of the coworker's money given to me along with numbers at the roulette table. i lost.. hahaha. oh well. at least i did it, and have five witnesses to prove that i didn't just take the money and run! at that point, the three southerners headed back to our hotel and us three canadians (prez, k, and i) stuck around. there was a bit more gambling and then we were off to the rio.

enroute, i read in the taxi's tour book that cirque de soleil's o performance was at 10:30!! exciting because it was 10:09pm.. so we detoured to the bellagio and speed walked straight to the theatre - got there five minutes before start *phew* the show was FAN-FLIPPIN'-TASTIC! so amazing. i couldn't believe i finally got to see a cirque performance. i've seen them on the imax, seen them on tv, but never live. holy batman, i'm still on cloud nine about it.

after the performance we decided to head back to the hotel. there was no formal line up for a taxi at the taxi stand.. so taxis would come, and people would just jump in. the prez was getting tired of waiting, so a limo pulled up and he told k and i to jump in. hahaha, so we ended the night in style. not that limos actually excite me any, they really don't.. i was just amused by it :)

overall, even though i did have fun, i wouldn't be disappointed if i were to never go again. really, the only time i'd go back is if it were on the way to some other place and i were to stay in vegas for a couple of days just to see some of the things i wanted to see but never had the chance to.