woo hoo classic simpsons trivia

in 2012, i made a craigslist missed connection post to a dude i saw on the subway one morning on my way to school. he was a mega hunk and we exchanged some flirtatious smiles and glances.

i received a shit ton of responses, but one dude in particular was convinced that it was him. after an exchange of pictures, it turns out it wasn't him, but he was cute enough that we became friends. it also ended up that he was from niagara and living in toronto. we had a few niagara friends in common and were probably at some of the same social gatherings once or twice but were never introduced.

several months pass and we don't really talk. he barely uses facebook until one day, he messages me and asks if i think i'd be any good at simpsons trivia. i was ecstatic. why yes, i'd probably be pretty decent at it.  he told me about woo hoo classic simpsons trivia toronto and i was stoked. i studied up and in july 2012, made it out to my first trivia night. it was the first time i had met this dude and he brought along a few friends on his team. i don't remember much about how we did in points or questions. i remember one question - what was the name of the babysitting service the simpsons used. yeah, you know, that one. rubber baby buggy bumper babysitting service. needless to say, i didn't get it then and i still had to look it up now.

two things i can definitely recall from the night: this dude was insanely attractive and this was the most fun i've had since moving to toronto. after it was all over, i became friends with the rest of the team and hoped to return the following month. unfortunately, that never seemed to happen. as much as i made attempts to get in touch with the team to go, they never responded. i was at a loss. i figured i'd never get to go again.

in may 2013, i round up a group of friends who know something about the simpsons and we make it out. we did pretty awful but still got something in the 15-20 point range. around this time, i started following some trivia related people on twitter and kept asking if i could join a team. i just wanted to participate in trivia so badly. eventually, i make plans to join a twitter dude's team on twitter and in july 2013, a friend and i ventured out to join this team. the dude himself wasn't actually there but everybody seemed to get along fine and i made some new friends.

i went again in august, october, december, january, and most recently, february. last night was the valentine's day edition. every month we seemed to do better and better but it was difficult to know whether or not we would place in the top 3. in september or november, when i missed those months, one of the winning teams graciously offered my team leftover donuts. my new goal was to at least be present when donuts were offered or, well, you know, actually come in the top 3 and get donuts for myself.

last night, we came in second place! donuts were glorious and surprisingly, i did the best i've ever done at trivia by knowing the answers to nearly 95% of all questions asked. born to runner up. next month, we place in first. with a perfect score (50/50) like the team first place team did in february.

donuts!!

new beginnings

in early january, i applied to an administrative assistant job  posting i saw for a green energy firm. three weeks later, i was called in for an interview, and two days later, after completing an aptitude test, i was hired on.

the following week, i started job shadowing and training. there's a lot to know but i feel like i have an actual idea what i'm doing this time. i also don't believe that it will be as stressful as my last job, seeing as though it's only going to be part-time for the time being.

i've opted for a  part-time commitment because i'm just not sure if i can go back to full-time work. although i haven't had any real symptoms in nearly a month, my fear still stands. i don't want the same thing happening. i can't go back to hospitals and antibiotics. i can't go through what i did again. i'm not interested in almost dying again.

my director knows that i could eventually go full-time. so getting more hours than anticipated for some weeks if things don't get completed in their entirety is a good possibility. in the mean time, it's almost as though i'm a supervisor. i look after reps and keep tabs on their performance. i'm the punctuality police. i'm their performance tracker. i'm their payroll administrator. i'm the management operations specialist. i'm the customer relations expert. i'm the information request extraordinaire. i'm all of these titles and more for a pay that doesn't nearly seem like enough. and yet, i am enjoying it way more than being a gruntwork analyst at my previous job. 

unfortunately, this means i've also turned into old lady amber again. i'm exhausted by the time i get home and i don't want to do anything except play video games and go to bed. i can make attempts to maximize my weekend hours.. but it's never enough.

i was introduced to the 100 happy days challenge and have decided to take part. unfortunately, i picked the wrong day. i start tomorrow officially, but here's a sneak peak. i bought two very toronto-esque books today - robyn doolittle's crazy town (all about rob ford) & olivia chow's my journey. i don't feel i've spent nearly enough time reading lately, even with my unemployed free time. these will help me unwind after work days and i'm already hooked on crazy town. the rob ford saga is something that continues to baffle me, day after day. i'll post #100happydays across both my facebook and twitter platforms, as well as this blog if the happy is substantial or has a good story.

i'm usually a pretty happy, optimistic girl. i don't get overwhelmed by negative emotions and i think that is something which keeps me happy most days. even when life tries to get me down, it might for a little bit, but i know ways to make me happy. so why am i participating in the challenge?

i just want to be thankful for what i have. i want other people to see what i see, that i can find the happiness and positive every day. i want my friends who are struggling with mental/physical illnesses to maybe find some happiness in the happiness i bring to life. i want to keep my optimism up. i've never actually participated in any kind of online challenge before and this seemed like a good way to start, considering those facebook challenge things going around right now where people make videos in their undies out in the cold weather, chug a beer, and nominate three other people to do the same in 24 hours isn't something i'd ever participate in... but that's just my preference.

so what was my happy yesterday?

the german grapefruit wheat beer i had at house on parliament. deliciousness knows no bounds.

i'm ready!