MY PAID DAYS OFF

I've been on maternity leave for 8 months. It's been great so far although there had been so many times when I get so bored at home, especially when Brice is on duty at the hospital. I started thinking about what I could do to help with my boredom but nothing good enough came to my mind (nothing that doesn't involve spending money, that is).

Then one day, my mother-in-law asked me if I wanted to help out at her store. I was kinda iffy in the beginning but the hubby reminded me about my childhood dream. And he said I was gonna get paid, too! So I went and tried it out... and I loved it! I was living my childhood dream but I can be sitting down doing it and read all the magazines I used to spend lots of money on- FOR FREE! Plus, my boss is not really a boss. I don't really do any heavy work cuz the hubby or the brother-in-law are always there.

How cool is that? I get some time away from the kids (I love them but I need a break once in a while), catch up on my mags, spend time with the hubby all while GETTING PAID!

The only bad thing is, I've been munching on a lot of junk that we sell at the store.

A LITTLE GIRL'S DREAM

As a little girl, every time my mom would take me to the mall, department stores or grocery shopping, I've always felt envious about these ladies. I told myself that when I grow up, I wanna be just like them.

I wanna wear those nice little dresses, put on some stockings, slip on those high-heeled shoes and have lots and lots of money. They sit pretty, chat with their friends and people line up to give them lots of money. But the good thing is, they also give back- sometimes food, clothing, etc. and sometimes even money! Yet they still get to keep loads of cash in their little boxes. How awesome is that?

I could be in the mall ALL DAY LONG- Perfect!

I could NOT wait to be a grown-up.

I could NOT wait to be a CASHIER!

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Every other Tuesday is my payday for being on maternity leave. So every other Tuesday, as soon as I wake up, the first thing I do is get the laptop and make sure MY money did come in. Since the beginning of my maternity leave- the money always comes in!

So today is one of those Tuesdays. I woke up, took the laptop and logged in to my bank account and froze... "What!? Why would they only deposit that much- or little (in my case)?" I clicked on account summary and guess what I found?

January 13 ABM WITHDRAWAL $500

WTH?! Somebody took out $500 from my account TODAY! I knew it wasn't my hubby since he only has a couple of hundred withdrawal limit from that account per day. So I called my bank and as expected the wait time was less than a minute. I spoke to a customer service rep and told him and he said that "...it was taken from MY bank card 50 minutes ago! Well, kind of impossible. 50 minutes ago, I was still in la-la land dreaming about my next vacation (with matching sound effects- ZZZZzzzzz) and secondly, my bank card was right infront of me and it's been in my purse ALL NIGHT! So I've filed for a Fraud Report and a supervisor is supposed to call me to confirm that I wasn't the one who withdrew that amount. UGH!

So now, I have a cancelled bank card (again- this is another story) and worst of all- I am $500 poorer. What a way to start the day!

*And to whoever it was who stole money from me, "May karma bite you HARD in the butt."

CONDO LIVING

I never thought I'd actually like living in a condo but now... I'M LOVING IT! Here's why:

• The maintenance fee pays for pretty much everything- including cable TV!
• Our unit is on the 2nd floor- very practical for us, especially with the two kids. In case of an emergency, it's easy for us to get out (the stairs is right infront of our unit). No elevators needed- especially when we're running late for work, appointments, etc.
• The party room, squash courts, billiards room, SWIMMING POOL and the GYM are just a door away from us. Our unit is the closest to all these facilities. Oh, and the entrance to get to the 'rooftop' park and tennis courts is just right there, too! No more excuses of not exercising- everything is FREE!
  
• No need to MOW the lawn and/or SHOVEL snow!
• 24-hour security. We can contact the security guards directly through the alarm system.
• We're back in SCARBOROUGH! What's the big deal? Everything is here! Lots of Asian grocery stores to choose from, lots of Filipino stores/restaurants and TONS OF CHEAP restaurants (i.e. Dragon Centre- Brice, Kyla and I can have a meal for $5! #44, please!- that's Chicken Fried Rice for those who don't go there enough). There's also a grocery store, McDonalds, bakery, Chinese restaurant/take-out, hair salon, nair salon and a convenient store in the plaza right infront of our building.
  
• Work is only 5 minutes away!
• We've been good on gas- everything is close by!
  
• and... Kyla finally stopped asking for her own room!

Oh yea... I also learned how to cook, clean the house and BUDGET! It's already been 3 months since we've been on our own and so far... so good...

F-O-B

I am currently in Ajax at my parents' place and I don't know how it all started but we started talking about random stuff- including MY FOBBY moments. And now, my MOTHER AND HUSBAND wanted me to share my VERY EMBARRASSING moments to the whole wide world!

-I was on my first few shifts at McDonald's (my very first job) and a customer asked me for something... I couldn't understand what he was saying at all. It sounded like pure mumbling to me although that 'something' he was asking for sounded familiar. After he repeated himself so many times, I started to panic- I still had no idea what EXACTLY he wanted and he was getting really frustrated with me. And I was already trying my hardest to lip-read! I thought I was gonna cry but since I thought I knew what he was asking for I said, "Oh, that!" I can see the relief on his face while I started to walk to the side- going to the ice cream machine getting his 'something.' I walked back to the customer with a huge smile on my face and handed him the MOST PERFECT VANILLA CONE I was capable of making. The customer looked at me like I just did the STUPIDEST thing and said, "What's this?" I said, "You wanted *me mumbling trying to make it sound like whatever he said*, right?" At this time, a good friend of mine (who happened to work with me and was working on the next till) was looking at us trying to figure out what was happening. When the customer shouted, "I want some S**V****ES!" I was almost in tears, then I saw my friend walk outside to the condiments counter and got him a whole bunch of napkins. She then walked up to me and said, "He was asking for SERVIETTES!" (To all you Filipinos out there: get it? SERVIETTES? SORBETES? And I wasn't even sure what SORBETES meant. I just remembered seeing that word on some ice cream container in the Philippines so I assumed it meant ice cream!).

-Same setting: McDonalds. A man came up and asked for some 'chips.' I was very apologetic when I said, "I'm sorry, sir. We don't sell chips here. This is McDonalds. The convenient store is just around the corner." He looked at me and pointing to the fry machine he said, "What are those then?" FRIES!

At least when the incident above happened, I finally realized that it was okay to order 'Fish and Chips.' I never wanted to order it before cuz when they say 'chips," it's usually Lay's or some kind of potato chips which I don't really appreciate much. And besides, why would you eat fish with CHIPS? Fish and Fries sounds more appetizing!

-I was doing some shopping and when the cashier handed me the receipt I looked at it and looked at her in shock. I walked back and said, "How'd you know my name? I never told you my first name, did I? By the way, it's misspelled." Then I left staring at the receipt that said, "THANK YOU, MERCI!"

And lastly...

-We were at Fairview Mall earlier this evening and I volunteered to order the food. Brice wanted something from Grill It Up so I decided that I'd get something from there too to save time. I ordered Tandoori Chicken and I specified that I wanted it mild. When the guy handed me my order, I stared at it surprised (again!). On the container was scribbled, "TAN, M"- my last name and first initial! I guess the guy saw my expression cuz he then said, "That's what you wanted, right? TANdoori Mild? I just smiled like an idiot and left.

Mahn! Even after being 'Canadian' for a while now (over a decade already!), these things still happen to me! But now, I can finally laugh it off and say, "I AM SUCH A FOB!"

It's okay, you can laugh WITH me :-D

HA - HA - HA !