One thing about us..

Another one of us just turned seventeen an hour ago.
I know that we should be partying it up and all that jazz but we kept this special occasion small, just between the five of us. One thing about us five is that when we're all together, almost nothing ever goes as planned. So most of the times we take the liberty of not planning things at all; and just go with the flow.. And usually being spontaneous rewards us good fun. Our first birthday celebration took place on Friday, from Jericho all the way to Red Robins on Robson, on foot. Our initial starting point was supposed to be the Eatery and we would go from there. Of course, once again, our planning streak hit us and we didn't end up eating at the Eatery. So we decided to go down to Jericho, to a location Dannica and Isabel had named "the Secret Beach" because according to them, it's exclusive and no one knows about it. Turns out it wasn't so secret afterall! After chilling at the not-so secret beach, we walked the beautiful neighborhood and went down to Jericho Beach.
Another thing about us is that we are weak little creatures when it comes to cravings. And the birthday girl was craving burgers from Red Robins. So we walked.. Yes, walked across the bridge, across town, to Red Robins. It was one of the most calorie burning birthdays we had, without the help of alcohol or anything!
We split after dinner; birthday girl was tired.

Of course, birthday girl didnt' know anything about our surprise. A few hours ago, we sneaked into her back yard with the classic DAVID DQ cake; we just LOVE personalizing the cakes, and we have such talent for it! My past two birthday cakes consisted of a hooker, and a "MOTHERFUCKER" (love the expression on the DQ worker's faces).

Happy Birthday Dan the Man!!


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On Wednesday, after two years of careful planning, we finally launched our Passport to Play event. Alysha, Sioban and I, all part of the VDSC, came up with this idea on a ferry on our way back to Vancouver from a 2010 Legacy conference in Victoria. We can't take all the credit because I actually "borrowed" the idea from ISF, my dearly missed school in Germany.
The event was sort of a "Mini Paralympics", containing various sports for para- and special-athletes (para-athletes are students with a physical disability, as special athletes are students with mental disabilities). There was bocce, wheelchair soccer and basketball, obstacle course, softball, and so much more. Our goal was that the Vancouver students with disabilities will continue their participation in these sports after the event now that they have access to it. It was a nice warming in the heart when a girl asked me where she could keep playing bocce.
A few weeks ago, Alysha and I were invited to attend the AIM Games in Surrey, a similar event Passport to Play that's been running for five years now. Deb, the lady who organized the AIM Games, was one of the people who helped a great deal in organizing Passport to Play, and as we scanned the numerous sport events and tried to learn, she told us that their first year was hell. So we were considerably worried, but I think ours went fantastic! Of course, there were some flaws that we can work on, but nothing majorly went wrong.
We had the Olympic mascotts there as well, and the students loved them! Although I am not so pro-Olympics, the government gave us a funding of ten thousand dollars for this project because of its ties with the Paralympics. Without that funding and support, we could not have hosted this event and I did make a decision of hosting this event because it would help a cause of good importance, providing students with disabilities an opportunity to be active, although it supported a cause that collided, the controversial Vancouver Olympics.

http://olympichostcity.vancouver.ca/events/hostacityevent/grantrecipients.htm
http://www.tourism2010.com/CMS/Event/Detail.aspx?EntityID=196

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Thursday was one of those really stressful days. My phone has been with the company of my friend Peggy for about a week and to pick it up, we decided to meet at the Metrotown skytrain station. I "needed" my phone, and maybe that's why I scheduled it at the same time of my VYSO audition. So after letting her know that vanessa will pick it up instead of me; neither of them knew what each other looked like... But Peggy had my cellphone and she could reach Vanessa through that. Or we thought. Here's where we learn and relearn that technology can be so unrealiable; my phone died, leaving both my friends hopelessly "looking for" a face they couldn't recognize.

After losign the battle with technology, I had my audition. To be honest, I don't think I made it. The competition for the senior orchestra is like a fight for the last pushup bra on boxing day and I wasn't feeling so good about it. Results are coming out in two weeks, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I was feeling sort of down so we stopped by at Meinhardt and picked up my favorite olives in the world. When that wasn't enough, my mom and I went to Antoine's. Then everything was good :D