エピックな更新 Part I

Wow, been forever since an update. Nearly a whole frickin’ month. Too much crap to mention….probably would fall asleep before even covering 5% of it, and if i try to go in any detail, I’ll probably give up. So let’s start with the breakdown (which is gonna be broken further down because no one is gonna bother this FIRST segment, let alone the rest I’ll post later. Want something posted before the end of the month because it’s been THAT long..give ppl time to digest, and it’s getting late ):

Mar 3: Left Vancouver to go back home to Edmonton. Parents drove up all the way from California to come meet me and help take stuff back w/ them. Stayed over at cousin’s house in Salmon Arm, we set off some fireworks at random places around town at night in celebration of my new job? Typical small-town mischief.

Mar 4: Drove back all the way home, only to find out we had a huge leak in our water pipes somewhere due to our furnace shutting down sometime before we came back (house was empty for 5 months) and a pipe broke somewhere from freezing. Fortunately our uncle came a few days prior and shut off the main valve, otherwise the whole basement would have been submerged in 12ft of water. My dad turned on the water for a bit and it started MASSIVELY leaking thru the basement and main floor ceilings…oh boy. No shower/toilet for that day….good thing uncle left some buckets of water so we could flush toilets in emergencies…

May 5-8: Cleaning of rooms, repacking stuff, visiting friends in Edmonton, and running TONS of errands….like closing bank accounts, filing taxes, taking out RRSPs so I could have starting cash in America. Also was majorly biting my nails as my official letter for visa application came in the 11th hour..ok maybe the 10th. Couriered one to me on Wed, only to realize it still had mistakes so they sent out another one the next day. Fortunately they fixed a major error…but still left in the mistake of saying that I “graduated from the University of Alberta in Vancouver, Canada” @_@ Had a nice farewell dinner w/ a few friends….but because of my procrastination and business w/ everything else I didn’t really get on the packing til 10:30pm the night before my flight out….

March 9: Needless to say I got ZERO sleep because I set my alarm to 4am to wake up to catch my 7am flight (and apply for my visa at immigration at the airport)….cut it quite closely…only had 20min to spare before I could board my flight….least i had a few brief naps on the plane rides….but not much.
Flew in to NJ at 5:30ish after being delayed in Chicago (was stuck on the runaway for 45-60min…had my longest nap then). Met up with Poon at the hotel, since my flight got delayed…even though I was supposed to get there 15min before him. The company figured something like that was likely to happen so they booked us separate drivers….couldn’t rent a car that night cuz it was too late when we got there. We stayed at a hotel off a freeway, 15min west of our workplace. Couldn’t walk ANYWHERE….so could only get snacks at neighboring gas station, and ordered in food.

March 10-11: Got up, rented a car (mini rental shop inside our Best Western)…first destination: Costco…to buy a GPS..except they only had one model which wasn’t what i Had in mind….so next stop: Best Buy…Got my GPS (TomTom Go 910)…got $30 off cuz I pricematched (without verification!) off Costco’s website. After that, went to get a SIM card and local cell# through Cingular. They were able to sign me on a 1yr contract by doing a Canadian credit check on me…o_o Quite cool, and even though it took a bit longer than normal, I finally got approved and the contract signed…and my new NJ cell # (I could have gotten an NY area code…but then I’d have to pay NY state tax which is a bit more…plus found an easy NJ # anyways). Poon got so engrossed by my GPS that he absolutely had to buy his own later that night (even though we were sharing a rental car and I was the one driving all the time because he was absolute scared sh*tless to drive in NJ? ooooookaaaayyyyy…..)

The next day we decided to drive to our workplace to see it for the first place, and get familiar with the route to get there. I lent my point-and-shoot camera to him to take whatever pics he wanted to take that day…including pics outside the office (you can view his awesome photography skills on my facebook account here) as well as our roadtrip (and first time on toll roads) to the nearby outlet mall. Even though he had NOTHING to shop for. Except to look at purses for his gf? And he thought he could get a decent brand-name purse for under $300….HAHAH WTH.

Sooner or later…..work began……

(to be continued)
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