Let's get baking

After a year long journey in South Korea and not having my own oven, I am having some baking withdrawal symptoms. I walk in the grocery marts and see the flour and icing sugar but couldn't do anything with them. Now that I'm back home, it's a baking galore (after waiting a month to re-arrange the kitchen and pantry). First item on the list?

Chocolate crinkles!

This has been one of my favorite Christmas treats as a child. Not entirely sure if its strictly a Christmas dessert but I only got them around that time. So glad there's an easy to follow recipe from Joy of Baking. I'll be making more of these for sure.

On the other hand, I'm not sure what I wanna make next. I do have a bag of butterscotch chipits that I really wanna use.

It's off to work I go

Heigh ho!

So I just worked my first 2 shifts at my new job (yes, that temp job I mentioned on my 5 Year Plan). A great thing about a new company is that everyone is else is new too; even if they are a level higher or lower than you. You don't have to feel like the only newbie.

During training, I met the people I would likely be working similar shifts and departments with. So far they seem okay. All excited about starting and playing working with the equipments. They seem dependable. Not the types that would 24/7 ask me what's going on or how to do something. Oh, don't get me wrong. I like helping people but I think after explaining something over 10x to the same person, you have the right to be a little irritated. No one appeared to be lazy or bossy or a know-it-all. 3 of the characteristics I hate the most when it comes to professional relationships. But then again, its really too early to tell.

I have a really good feeling about this job though. I sorta have a clique already but I'd still like to meet the other newbs from the other departments. I also saw 3 people that I previously know before getting hired. Not counting KC (one of my best friends) who told me about the job fair. My superiors are also super friendly and I really don't feel like they're trying to shove their status to my face. If any, they are very encouraging. There's also a couple of guys in my department/shift that are cute. Though I'm sure KC would say they are short. They both are just slightly taller than me, so for guy standards, yeah that's short. But still taller than me. Hehe.

Too bad I won't see them until my next shift which is on Friday. My department's not needed until then. So for now, I'll be visiting the nieces and doing more errands and pre-hibernation rituals.

Pre-hibernation season

You gotta love the "ber" months. SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER and DecemBER. Not only is it full of holiday spirit and cheer, you also get to hibernate like many of our animal friends. And what's better than sleeping in after a very exhausting but joyous occasion? PRE-HIBERNATION!! It's all about preparing for that cold and lovely winter.

Here's a few of my pre-hibernation rituals (in no necessary order):

1.) Season premieres marathon

Nothing like warming up the old couch (and PVR) by sitting on it after watching back to back season premieres. With How I Met Your Mother on its last season and the return of a few other favorites like Supernatural, Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and Grey's Anatomy.

2.) Chug-a-thon

If you know me enough, you know I love to drink. Not the alcoholic kind (but it works occasionally). Whether they're soda, pop, milk, juice, coffe, tea, shake, smoothie or good ole water. I've stocked up on my hot chocolate powder mix and tea packets. What about you?

3.) Knitteroo

As if it's not obvious enough from the first picture. I'm still a noob at knitting though. I can only do basic scarves that have 1 solid color or multi-colored stripes. Learning to make a toque is next on the list. Ohh!!! And if someone is kind enough to help me with one slight boo-boo. Whenever I change colors/yarns to do the stripes, the back side of the scarf would get a floating line from the previous yarn color. So it looks pretty neat from the front but the back side gets the weird line in between colors. If some kind soul can share a link on how to fix this, please do. I tried googling the problem but it just teaches me how to change colors/yarns and not so much deal with the actual problem.

4.) Shopaholics meeting

I don't actually do my Christmas shopping last minute. In fact, I do it all year round. If I see something that is perfect for someone, I just buy it. Why? Because whenever I am on a quest to actually find something, I don't find it. But when I'm just strolling around the mall with no intention of spending, I happen to find the things that I do need to buy. However, during pre-hibernation season, I'm just in the mall twice as often than usual. Plus there's the off season sale. Fall fashion is my favorite so I can't wait to buy marked down fall stuff for next year (and even for winter after just layering a  few of them together).

5.) Decorating the Christmas tree

That and of course spending time with the family... and pigging out. Basically, everything about Christmas that makes it awesome! Yes, even that fire log channel.

The 5 Year Plan

If I had to describe myself, I admit to being a bit of a control freak. I like being organized and prepared but I'm also open to the fact that many things in life are unpredictable and out of our control. Still, I enjoy gazing at my potential future... viewing the highlights of each chapter of my life. Somehow that led to my 5 Year Planning.

Basically, its attempting to finish 5 important achievements in 5 years (so roughly one per year). There is an ideal order to these achievements but I like that I can just bump one down or up to make room for the others. Once that 1 year is over, another 1 achievement will be added (or upgraded) for the next year. Its pretty awesome because when I read my old blogs and saw what my then 5 Year Plan was, I got so amazed that I actually managed to do the whole thing... even if it wasn't the ideal order I originally planned out. Of course, not everything is perfect. I still have this letter I wrote when I was 14, it was meant for my 18 year old self. It talked about the many things I hope to have accomplished by 18 and even some lecturing from the younger me. Anyway, let's just say I was a little too optimistic back then.

Now, I can kinda say I'm a little smarter when it comes to planning. My favorite part is just having something to look forward to. Even if there are chances of it being a disappointment. There's a reason for when things don't turn out the way we want and when we do find out, we'll be glad we are where we are. There's also gonna be times where its just down time. Nothing major happening because realistically, you gotta work your butt off to make those other achievements come true. I call these times hermit mode.

So, here's my current 5 Year Plan. A little something for my future self to be proud about (or laugh at):

2013: integrating back to Canadian society (just came back from working abroad)
2014: back to school; travel
2015: career hunting; moving out
2016: hermit mode (gotta pay those bills)
2017: engagement (a little silly to have it here but I always figure its the right age to do so)

Let the memorants begin!

Hello people (and web bots)!

Welcome to Memorants.

Lost count on what number blog is this one but I really did have a lot before. Different topics while going through various stages in life. I had one about cooking, another about photography, even one about my first car (hoping to record many road trips). I also had one about my one year job abroad but got too busy to document everything. The only thing that was constant about all them was that I always did run out of what to write about. I guess now this one will be a little different. As I said on my self/blog intro below, I really do love to rant... right after whining.

So here's to publicly exposing my own emotional roller coaster!

Anyone wanna pull my hair up while I puke?