I have a few minutes to kill before heading off to the airport.

Yes, I'm off to Grenada with Martina for a nine-day adventure to visit our old pal Paolo, who has been working there on contract doing GIS work since January. Grenada is within the West Indies, just north of Trinidad and south of St Lucia.

Oh man, I'm looking forward to thinking about absolutely nothing and laying there on the beach. Some snorkelling and hiking adventures should be fun too!

We have quite a long flight trip, because have to make a six-hour stop-over in Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago. So it's about a six-hour trip to get to Trinidad, and another hour from Trindad to St George's, where Paolo is currently residing.

That's it from me for now, expect perhaps some sporadic updates until my return on May 1st.

Grenada - [wikipedia.org]
Grenada - [wikitravel.org]

After doing some purging of my closet, I decided to set away quite a few things to Goodwill. It mostly consists of overly worn t-shirts, shirts, and a wide selection of khakis and dress pants.

Remember I was wishing so badly to gain weight? Well, be careful what you wish for, because there are so many pairs of pants that I no longer fit into. I am now bustling a 32 inch waist, and that is quite phenomenal when I could fit into a 28 just three years ago without any abdominal sucking effort.

So many pants had to go, this includes my infamous pair of Ass Pants dress pants from Mexx. Shima, who coined the term Ass Pants, was introduced to them during in Planning Theory class. We had to dress up for our presentations, and because it was quite fitted around my rear, it accentuated my (hot) ass. Haha.

Even though there is no way I can fit into them now, I couldn't fathom myself giving them up. I just liked them so much. For that reason, I started a collection of unwearable legacy clothing-- clothing that brings back too many memories to be given to Goodwill.

Once I started this legacy collection, I found myself being less and less inclined to throw things out. Mainly, I couldn't help myself to give up my jeans. Weirdly, I don't have the same feeling for khakis and shorts.

When I merged both my Markham and Waterloo closets, I counted a total of 16 pairs of jeans, in all various shades of blue. Just blue. The oldest pair that I recall was back in either Grade 11 or 12 when I had my underwear-showing thuggy baggy jeans (Size 32).

Then I realized, jeans are probably the biggest marketing ploy of our modern time. I mean seriously, why do I need jeans in all shades of blue? And even with 16 pairs of jeans, I find myself wearing the same two or three pairs, while the rest sit and collect dust. Clever marketing, Gap. From boot cuts, to tapered in at the knees, to low rise, to 'broken in', I succumbed to the garment industry's many tactics. Ah no, I lied, the only thing I haven't succumbed to is the skinny jean—-mainly because it's so not me. I'm way not artsy-fartsy-urban enough to pull those off.

Even though I know this awful marketing scheme, I will continue to buy jeans. I don't know why, I have this weird relationship with jeans. I love them. While only a few fit me now, I will be adding all of the pairs to my legacy collection. Jeans have a way of defining a time. Baggy jeans represents high school. Low rise and tight jeans represents those frosh party days. And of course, the wider jeans will define my current "spare tire" stomach era.

Who am I kidding, I just want to remind myself that I had a 28 inch waist when I was 20. Do you guys have a set of legacy clothes?

My closet.

Let's just say I'm not in it, I couldn't be in it if I wanted to. There just isn't enough space to camp in there.

It is about that time of year when I return back to Toronto after another exhausting term, and the first thing I must do is put back all my crap back into their respective places. Kitchenware is packed away in big plastic boxes, perishables back in kitchen, and of course my clothes go back in the closet.

And every end-of-term, I have sit in front my closet and think how exactly I'm going to organize and fit all my crap. This usually means actually trying garments on again to see if it fits and evaluate if it's still up to my liking. I have no choice but to do this because there is absolutely no way I'm going to merge two closets into one.

Now don't get me wrong, some of you might know that I'm not a big clothes spender, especially when compared to my queer peers. I consider myself only to be a moderate shopper. The main reason for my lack of closet space is the fact that my mom has essentially invaded my closet. I have for many years have considered her what I call a 'closet imperialist'; she waits for the most opportune time and invades closet spaces when family members' defenses are low (i.e. when I'm in Waterloo).

Anyways, she's made quite the British Empire here at home. She has managed to invade the basement closets, as well as some space in my sister's closet, that of course doesn't include her own closet space which is 90% occupied by her, and the remaining by my dad.

Part of my closet collection is a selection of mink furs. Gasp! I know, send in the PETA crew and arrest my mom! I think that it's almost a staple for many Hong Kong women of my mom's generation. I have to admit that I have tried it on. I must say that I look fabulously pimpy in it especially when I add in a set of shades to go with it. I might need some bling too.

Anyways, I'm quite pissed that the fur is still lying in my room, not because of my righteous will for the ethical treatment of animals, but because I just need the extra closet space. The space these corpses-turned-coats take up is equivalent to about 8 or 9 hung shirts. I told her to put it somewhere else, but she insists that my closet is the only space with the right climatic conditions. I snubbed her because that answer was just lame.

My mom has not worn the coats in years, and I'm sure that she never will, for numerous reasons beyond it being atrociously unfashionable. Because of that, I suggested to her to sell the coats on eBay or something. She looked at me as if I uttered something unfathomable; similar to a face I'd expect when I tell them I'm gay. Though I should've known better; she wanted to keep them for memorabilia's sake, and I suppose that I can respect that.

So corpses continue to live in my closet. Send in the CSI crime lab.

Elizabeth May looks like a Super Nanny in this picture.

Reports are flying everythere that Dion and May are going to scatch each others' backs by mutually not running candidates that would oppose the two leaders' potential victories. In other words, the Liberals won't appoint a candidate in May's riding, and the Green's will not run a candidate in Dion's riding.

I consider myself to be fairly green-minded, and having a Green member in Parliament would definitely be turn the page towards greater environmental leadership and stewardship. But many questiosn come to my head. Does this look good for the two parties? Is this plan a threat to our democracy? Will the Conservatives just prevail against these two parties? And ultimately, is this seriously a good move?

Personally, I'm not too happy with the idea. Sure, I am overreacting about this being a thread to democracy, but think about it. How would it look on the Green Party, should May actually win? I think that people would develop a bad perception on her, and attribute her victory to the fact that another party placed her on a pedestal. On the other hand, this is the profile that the Green's actually need to convince voters.

I'm a little torn. What do you guys think?

Liberals agree not to run candidate against Green leader - [cbc.ca]
Grits and Greens make a deal - [thestar.com]

In first year I remember...

• meeting Liz and Shawn at Bomber during frosh week
• having a crush on several frosh leaders; the wet events certainly didn't help
• quickly finishing Stats homework with Shima, so that we can party down with the Konja kids
• admiring the hot and polite Japanese exchange students
• working on design projects with Shima, Liz, Shawn, and Jeff C in the V1 Great Hall
• receiving a 69 in ENVS 195 (Intro to Environmental Studies)
• cramming for my economics final with my roommate Chris three hours before the exam
• going to Fed Hall one too many times
• having "tofu chicken" at the REV cafeteria
• returning to my dorm room smelling "housemom fresh"
• having LAN parties with floormates, playing Warcraft and Counterstrike
• playing mahjong with floormates in the wee hours of the morning
• doing my laundry having forgotten to put detergent
• learning that Louie's is a dirty place, but still continuing to go
• eating poorly and eating like mad, without getting fat
• falling in love with the sausage-egg muffin at Modern Languages
• performing a skit with Shima in PLAN101 tutorials; I was Oprah, and Shima was a sad personified city needing talk-show attention
• seeing my roommate embarrassingly smashed when he returned home from a night out
• learning to do the Figure 8 from Liz
• feeling eerie about the REV Great Hall upstairs
• walking Tiff T home from a night out at CLT, and realized how far she lived
• not sleeping because Chris would be up all night; ear plugs were not discovered until third year
• rolling my eyes each time I heard the word “sustainability,” because it’s a word used without much value
• waking up to puke on my face
• discovering that REV (the night club) is a tad overrated
• missing my family
• humping Paolo and Jeff M's garbage can

In second year I remember...

• being depressed because I lived so far from campus
• being depressed that I didn't receive many interviews
• being depressed that I didn't get a planning job
• being introduced to coffee, and have not turned back since
• getting very mad when Paul, my roommate, would not clean the dishes
• riding my bike funny
• welcoming my newest hot roommate, Gary, who rented Jaime’s room for $200 a month
• doing the dreaded tree preservation project with Shima
• moving Gary's car each morning, so that Jeff's car could get out
• laughing when my housemates Tiff G and Jeff would wrestle for fun
• going to Spongey Lake, a bouncy regional aquifer
• deciding stupidly to take ECON 201 Intermediate Microeconomics, and did poorly
• checking out the hot construction worker guys who lived upstairs when my roommates subletted their rooms in the summer
• waking up at 5 am when the hot construction workers would stomp their heavy boots as they got ready for work
• our night out on Halloween at Fed Hall
• discovering that Morty's had the best wings in my history of eating wings
• losing bitterly two crappy bikes
• almost killing Jaime's hamster with my foot
• building a great model of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with Shima, Norio and Laurence
• screaming at Laurence for his then poor work ethic
• Jaime almost causing a fire in the kitchen by blowing into a flamed popcorn bag
• procrastinating with Leo on the weekends
• discovering the joys of 105.3 KOOL FM
• gathering a group called "MeMe Planners," which stemmed from the fact that it was easy or “Mickey Mouse”)
• working on my portfolio last minute to show my work for an interview with Brutto; ended up being flustered during the interview
• being happy about being matched with a job at Queen’s Park
• becoming web editor at Imprint

In third year, I remember…

• being happy about living at Eby Hall in the Winter and Woolwich Court in the Fall
• having fabulous, quiet, and responsible roommates, Abhishek and Jacob
• preparing a marketing plan for a dog breath strip product called Pooch Smooch
• playing email tag at work with Tiffany, who worked at another ministry
• meeting some great coworkers at PIR, many of which I continue to hang out with
• writing countless briefing notes about transit and transit investment, many of which were revised to no recognition
• learning about Waterloo’s LRT plans and the Regional Growth Management Strategy
• admiring the hot prof who looks like Richard Gere, who solidified my understanding of watershed management
• going to “A Whole Lotta Gelato” with Shawn, Shima and Ram
• falling asleep in almost all of my classes, especially those held in the afternoon
• returning to work at Queen’s Park
• hallucinating when attempting to complete my Research Methods group assignment with Margaret in the wee hours
• Shima's wine and cheese party
• admiring Tiff’s pastry-making skills
• learning to cook using the oven
• realizing how rarely I go out to have fun; but did frequent trips to Bomber
• listening in on all the complaints students would make in our Research Methods class
• getting frustrated about the linear programming tools in the MS Excel Analysis Toolpack
• tabbing almost all the sections of my Law notes for the midterm
• discovering the joys of Shandiz Persian food
• being introduced the Places to Grow and Greenbelt Acts, which was later discussed ad nauseum
• being matched with a job with the Toronto Transit Commission

In fourth year, I remember...

• going on an exchange to Oxford, obviously
• working at the TTC for eight months crunching numbers all day
• meeting awesome OMB groupmates, Noel and Maggie
• drooling on the bus daily en route to work
• spending too many hours with Shawn, my unlawfully-wedded husband
• having crazy social and messy roommates, which would later drive me insane
• Jaime hooking up with Dan at the Still
• spending tearful hours preparing for grad applications, scholarships, and retrieving reference letters
• feeling sad because the majority of the ‘cool’ people like Shima, Liz, Greg and Paolo are gone
• meeting Vanessa, the “Miracle Lab” girl, the lab that work miraculously gets done
• working at the MAD Helpdesk, the sweetest job in the world
• frequenting the Grad House, a fabulous coffee hangout
• jumping over the Bomber patio fence so that we could get in; they wouldn't allow us to enter because it was past 1:30 am.
• being a teaching assistant for GIS, which was truly a great experience despite being time consuming
• listening to Shawn’s rants about the Professional Practice class and its instructor
• realizing that group work in urban design turns me right off
• being project manager for my OMB group, which was insanely stressful but incredibly satisfying
• admiring the power, money and sexiness that is Land Development Planning; made me want to become a bigshot developer
• discovering the studio is a great place to do work
• … the list of fourth year memories is still in progress

I am attending my last undergradaute class as we speak.

We are currently having a review session for my Organizational Design class for our upcoming final exam, and it seems like he's really trying to make it easy for us, since I and many others have failed a number of quizzes.

We are allowed to bring a cheat sheet, and that's usually bad news, because it would actually require our... understanding! Ack!

I can't say that I feel a sense of remorse about my last class or about leaving as an undergrad. I'm very excited to be completing this term, and just enjoy the joys of summer. Perhaps I'm used to swapping school and work in 4-month intervals, but these two consecutive terms have been physically exhausting.

Why am I not sad? Is it because I'm returning to UW? Maybe. Is it because I haven't left yet, and I am not at a point to appreciate it? Probably. Is the (unsustainable) grass always greener on the other side? Very likely.

What I can tell you is that these five years flew by in almost an instant. It seemed like just yesterday that I saw Shima and Shawn measuring the dimensions of the Modern Languages Courtyard. It seemed like yesterday that we stomped around trees because we were unhappy with our tree preservation project. It seemed like yesterday that Shima, Liz and I passed out on the V1 couches after fun night af Fed Hall. Haha.

I should make a list of these moments, especially since I have such bad memory retention.

It's so weird tracing back the paths that led to where we are today. I recently went to Fed Hall, I went to FUBAR (which is nothing like Louie's), and I intend to visit the REV cafeteria with some old floormates. I think that it would definitely be weird to be back in REV.

Hey, maybe I feel more sadness about leaving this school as an undergraduate than I thought.

What do you guys remember Waterloo?