Happy Belated Birthday

Most people don't usually remember my birthday. A large part of it has to do with me being purposely elusive. I don't announce it, when people ask I weasel my way out of the question, and back when I had Facebook I would disable my wall so no one could comment.

But this year my birthday was additionally overshadowed by my cousin's wedding. Plus I'm getting older now so now one really makes a big deal about it anymore.

It's ok, my computer loves me.

But I got to see my cousins again and despite it being a decade since we've see one another we were laughing and joking like it was nothing. Also unexpected was that everyone noticed that I had put on muscle. Albeit they only noticed after we had hugged but hey, partial victory. Maybe the next time they see me it'll be more obvious.

I got a few gifts, and a few surprising birthday texts from other friends. Really didn't expect them to remember but I'll take what I can get. Also not sure why I got a birthday email from my bank too. That was a bit odd.

Uh, thanks?

Anyways, next post I'll talk about the wedding. For now, I'm going to find something to treat myself with. I guess that's what happens when you're an "adult", you have to buy your own gifts.

Happy Birthday Theresa!

It's time for another post about Theresa because it is her birthday tomorrow! Happy birthday to you Darling. I know you get easily embarrassed whenever I have a post dedicated to you on my blog but you've been too busy with Med school to even read my blog so it's all good.

Yay!

I've been finding it more difficult to get her gifts as of late. Simply because I'm running out of creative ideas. I mean, I could go with the generic card, flowers, and a baked good but that's boring. Plus, she hates flowers except for lilacs. And lilacs have to be specially ordered in due to their short lifespan. I would know, I've gotten them before.

Either that or I've been duped and paid extra for nothing.

Why can't Theresa like something more generic like roses?

What I've resorted to then is custom unique gifts. I'm very fond of finding odd things online because I spend way too much time on the Internet. So when a writer on Reddit had a Kickstarter for his horror novel (Theresa loves horror novels even though it prevents her from sleeping) I immediately funded it. Penpal was successfully funded and if you want you probably could find the original story on Reddit if you don't want to buy a copy.

Theresa is also fond of My Little Pony. Now I'm not sure if anyone is aware but the toys released by Hasbro are kind of garbage. I guess it makes sense, these are for kids to throw around and get hidden under furniture and what not. Not to be put on display. So when I found someone who was making high quality resin models I jumped on as soon as possible. It was pricey, I'm not going to lie, but I think it was worth it just because it was unique.

And of course Theresa likes the nerdy one.

The last material gift I got her was a laptop cooler. Hers has been heating up nonstop and we haven't been able to play anything together lately. Well, I like to blame her laptop because blaming Med school is kind of irrational.

I'm hoping to take her somewhere nice for dinner on Saturday, but knowing her, she'll want to go grab tacos or McDonalds. Sweetheart, you're not 8 anymore, you're an adult and it's not proper to have Happy Meals on your birthday as an adult.

Oh wait, I've gotten her Happy Meals before.

. . . .

Screw it, I'll get her whatever she wants. It's her birthday, she calls the shots.

Memories of China: Gift Hunting

Nearly everything is cheaper in China. Unless you're into paying for overpriced western brand name items. Then in that case you're an idiot. I mean, why would you go all the way to Asia to buy something from Gucci or Prada? It doesn't make sense.

Oh and Häagen-Dazs is more expensive there too.

I'm not paying $8+ CAD for a tiny container...

There are also things only available in China and it was my goal to buy as many gifts as possible for Theresa. If you recall, she did a miserable job of buying gifts for herself. If you want something done right, you need to do it yourself.

My personal preference for giving gifts is getting a big gift, and then compliment it with a bunch of smaller gifts. It's always seemed to be the best way to do things. And so I ran around China easily grabbing tons of smaller gifts such as food, cute things or t-shirts from my favorite clothing store Metersbonwe.

But I couldn't find the one BIG gift to put it all together. Theresa is the kind of person that'll go "Oh, it's nice. Thank you very much." when you give her something. She's that kind of a person. So it's extremely difficult to find a gift that she actually wants, that'll make her smile and become giddy with excitement. And then you overwhelm her with all the other little gifts.

Meanwhile, Steam decided to have it's annual Summer Sale and she proceeded to buy me nearly a dozen games. I'm not sure who was supposed to be giving who gifts while I was in China.

Durr...

But then, I saw something. Something in Chengdu.

It was after another disastrous dinner. You can read my description of Sichuan cuisine here. But I didn't want to eat anymore of that greasy food and left the table. Next to the restaurant was an arcade and I stepped inside and found the perfect gift for my girlfriend.

A massive, plush turtle.

Theresa loves plush toys, she also loves turtles, and if she can use it as a pillow or a blanket, all the better. I could feel it mocking me with its pink blush and stupid little bow. I had to win it.

My goal is to do this one day, except with turtle plushies.

How this arcade game worked was there were multiple prizes and if a prize received a set number of points, you won it. After selecting a prize, a wheel spun and when you stopped it, depending on what you stopped on, number of points were added or deducted.

I don't know why, I know these things are rigged, but I had to try. I felt like I could win. I mean, $10 CAD would have gotten me enough tokens to try nearly 3 dozen times. And I was willing to keep playing until I won or ran out of money.

But then, after handful of attempts everyone else had finished dinner and we had to leave. I never won the turtle, and in the end, I found a similar, smaller version in Hong Kong. Theresa still loved it but it's not the same.

I'm still very bitter about not winning that turtle. and I know it's still mocking me with its stupid smile.

I hate you...

Happy Birthday to me.

It's my birthday tomorrow and I turn 22. I'm not sure if there's an significant milestone that I reach upon turning this age. If you know of any, do tell me in the comments below.

But in the meantime, I guess we should be celebrating or something?

No really, I think as I grew older I began to shy away from birthdays and all the attention that comes from it. I refuse to tell people I know in real life the actual date, and for those who do know, I am completely useless in what I want for gifts. My default responses are "Nothing" or "Get something for Theresa".

I prefer to give gifts. Receiving just feels odd. Like it's some kind of weird obligation. And this year may be my best year of avoiding people yet.

See, another thing about me is that I'm extremely difficult to buy for, mostly because I'm so unhelpful. Unless you're talk to me on a near daily basis you're not going to know what to get me or where to get it. So that's why most people will head over and ask Theresa what to get me.

But Theresa is far away in China right now. With terrible internet I might add. Sometimes I go days without hearing from her so good luck to anyone else trying to communicate with her. Oh, and with Theresa in China she can't get me anything. Really no point seeing as I'll be going in a few weeks myself.

Hahaha! I'm so clever!

Well, happy birthday to me. I'm cutting this post short because of that. I'll see you guys on Friday.

Congratulations Theresa

I know she isn't going to like this but I'm going to talk about it anyways.

Congratulations on getting into Medicine Dear, we're all proud of you.

There, I posted a picture of your favorite pony. We're even.

Yes, as I may have mentioned before, Theresa was in Pharmacy. For whatever reason she decided to resubmit her application to Medicine again. She had no intentions of accepting the invitation however.

Until after she experienced her pharmacy hospital rotation.

Yeah, apparently it was so boring that she realized that Pharmacy wasn't for her.

Funny, not many people would use Medicine as a back-up.

Another reason to love her, she's different.

So as expected, I wanted to get her some sort of celebratory gift. In typical Theresa fashion, she declined. Seriously, just let me get you something nice now. You deserve it. Do you know how many people would kill for what you just got into?

Also typical Theresa she's acting like it was nothing. My other friends who got in are freaking out, posting crap all over Facebook and she basically had to be bullied into admitting she got in.

Not like you murdered a person.

I'm also putting more pressure on myself now. I'm dating a doctor, I have to make a good impression on her new doctor friends. I really don't want to be some slacker who somehow managed to mooch off his girlfriend's success. That's just not right.

Med school is going to be even more stressful than Pharmacy and I don't want her worrying about me and my inability to find a job and what not. I'm hoping that I can somehow get a Ph.D so I can call myself a "doctor" as well.

Totally not a spy.

Anyways, well done Dear. We're all happy for you. :)

Gift Woes

So, after two long weeks Theresa is finally back from her Pharmacy rotation. From what she told me via Skype calls she was stuck in this dinky town with nothing to do. Also, her roommates were kind of idiots but you didn't hear that from either of us.

So that's great. Except she's leaving for China in a week. And while she's there we're not going to be able to celebrate our 4 year anniversary together. And while I'm disappointed by this, I'm more worried by the fact that my Anniversary gifts may not be ready.

This isn't good.

I figured it's better to get an early gift than a late one. Who's ever been upset at receiving an early present? And I don't mind giving her her gifts early it's just that they mostly haven't arrived yet.

See, I generally like to order things online. I've had a higher rate of success with online gifts for Theresa. And normally I account for late shipping and what not by ordering early. Ordering a month or two in advance means the gifts arrives just in time for Christmas or her birthday.

But the fact that she's leaving before our Anniversary means my ordering schedule has been completely thrown off. And I'm now I'm being forced to think of what I can get her in replacement with the one week I have left before she flies away.

All I need is a towel and I'm set.

I've discussed Theresa's present preferences in the past. See, most girls are easier to buy for. They just point out a designer bag, fancy dress, some jewelry that they want and bam, problem solved.

Theresa hates all of the above items. In fact, I'm certain she despises all of the stereotypical girlfriend gifts including perfume, beautification products, lingerie, etc. etc.. The only thing she doesn't mind receiving is adorable plush toys but I've gotten her way too many Squishables so I might want to stop with those for a while.

Thanks to me, there's barely any room left for her to sleep on.

So, any ideas of what to do? I'm thinking of baking something for her (not cupcakes, she hates cupcakes) if I can't figure out a decent lunch combination to cook. Maybe I'll find something on a date that'll catch her eye? 

That's the other thing that bugs me. She's the kind of person that looks at something that clearly interests her but refuses to let you buy it for her. It's infuriating. And she wonders why I resort to buying things online in the middle of the night.

I'm pretty picky, just like her.

So if anyone has any ideas to share with me that's great. I'm hoping Theresa is too busy packing to read this post. Sweetie, please just make my life easier and give me something decent to get you. I'm not taking "nothing" as an answer.

Belated Valentine's Gifts

Valentine's day was last week. Also happening last week were the crapload of exams, group projects, presentations, and meetings that Theresa and I had to endure.

Needless to say, we barely saw each other let alone had time to do anything.

Oh yeah, so romantic.

Fortunately, we have a week long break right now to catch up and relax. Also due to time constraints and being a poor student I wasn't able to get her much this year.

I managed to grab her a charm that resembles her favorite Team Fortress 2 hat from Fossil. As well as a new computer mouse because her current one is absolute garbage. Now we can properly work together in whatever computer game we chose.

Probably more Team Fortress 2.

I also got her a copy of Bridesmaids because it's the kind of movie I think she'd enjoy. She loves watching movies together and now that I think of it, we have a massive backlog that we still need to get over...

And if you've been paying attention that's only 3 gifts. And if you know anything about me, I love the number 4.

I need a 4th gift.

I however, will.

Usually I like having a food related theme as one of the gifts. I know a lot of you asked why I baked brownies if I don't like them, and if no one in my family likes them. Theresa likes them, that's why I tried to learn how to bake these. I'm considering trying another brownie recipe sometime this week, expand my repertoire.

Taking her out to eat isn't really an option because she considers finer dining to be "overpriced" IF I'm paying. When she's paying, then it's suddenly ok to be eating there. Yeah I know she's looking out for my wallet but a gentleman doesn't let a lady pay, simple as that.

Lastly, I could try and cook for her. Not sure what I'd cook and how I'd be able to do it. Be slightly odd to burst into her house one day unannounced and go "HI DARLING, I'M HERE TO GIVE YOU FOOD POISONING COOK YOU A DELICIOUS MEAL."

Looks legit.

Anyways, I still have time. I'll figure something out. I'll see you guys on Wednesday.

Happy Turkey Day!

As most of you probably know today was Thanksgiving for those of us up north in Canada. So I got an extra long weekend to spend with family and eating food.

I didn't have any pumpkin pie though, maybe I'll buy one just for myself.

So I'm going to keep this post short because I feel lazy. Quick update regarding various things. Unfortunately I was unable to find anything on my date with Theresa so I'm thinking of just getting her a game via Steam. BUT, she's busy this entire week and next week so I could play the "I had your gift but you were to busy so I saved it for later" card and just have more time to get a gift. If that made sense.

This would also buy me more time to find a recipe for something to cook/bake for her. If I can't find one in time I think I'll just cook her lunch on campus using one of the few recipes I'm actually good at. It's angel hair pasta in a tomato broth and she loves it BUT I've cooked it for her a few times and I don't want to look like a one-trick pony.

This bird could probably cook better than me.

And to end, here's this cat video that I find hilarious but Theresa finds really annoying.

I feel bad for laughing but that doesn't stop me.

Presents for Theresa

Hey my midterms are done (at least, round 1 of them are) so I'm kind of free now! Well, not really.

I wish.

Regulars of my blog will remember my panic of buying my Mother's birthday present. And at the end I mentioned that I had to start hunting for a present for my girlfriend Theresa. Well her birthday is next week so let's see how well I'm doing.

Note before we start, I have a thing for the number 4, thus my goal is to always give my girlfriend 4 gifts. (Somehow Bersercules remembers my obsession with the number 4, I'm not sure why....)

Gift #1:

For those of you unaware of Squishables they make great gifts. Basically they're giant plush animals.

I think this is their second largest one.

Theresa already has both of the turtles offered but recently she really likes koalas. So the obvious thing to do was to buy her the koala Squishable as well. Gift #1, easy.

Gift #2:

This is also easy. On her birthday I'm taking her out to lunch at her favorite Italian restaurant. It's been a while since we've been there so I think she'll like that. I'm hoping I can get the waiter/waitress to give her a slice of cake with a candle in it or something. No singing though, Theresa embarrasses easily though and she'd kill me later.

Gift #3:

A lot of you suggested making things. Good idea, so I've been looking through Lizzy's blog to try and find something that I can bake without dying.

WHO LET DAMIAN INTO THE KITCHEN?!

Ok, I'm not that bad but my baking isn't exactly my strongest suit. Things to note, Theresa doesn't like cupcakes or pastries that are too sweet.

Gift #4:

I'm actually uncertain for this last one. I have a date with her on Sunday so I'm thinking of buying her something then, you know, like an early birthday present. But Theresa is really, really, hard to buy for. As in, she'll see something she'll like, refuse to buy it because "it's a waste/no necessary/I don't need it/[insert stupid reason here]" AND refuse to let me buy it.

I'm still bitter about that dress she wouldn't let me buy her.

Worse comes to worse I'll gift her something from Steam. It's a cop-out gift but I'm kind of running out of options.

Plus, I need to start thinking about Christmas gifts too. Can't use up all my ideas yet.

Moms are hard to buy for: Update

This is an update with regards to this post. Some of you suggested that I get my Mother jewelry for her birthday. Unfortunately she doesn't care for the stuff and usually finds it tacky. Which is odd because she did get three lobe piercings in one ear a few years back. She's not the typical Asian mother.

Not her but you get the idea.

And there is a reason why she would prefer and Oddish plushie over any other Pokemon. Long, long ago, back when Pokemon was still extremely popular (i.e. when I was still in Elementary school) Burger King had Pokemon kids toys. One of them happened to be a little stuffed Oddish. Mom thought it was adorable.

My brother (being the derp he is) lost it.

In his defense, it was kind of small.

So hopefully one day I'll be find someone who can commission one for cheap or maybe some outlet store will have some. I'll figure something out in the future.

But she did like the Edible Arrangement. Dad assumed it was overpriced but that didn't stop him from stealing the little flower pot for his own plants. My siblings haven't even gotten anything for Mom yet so I guess this makes me the best child.

Hahahaha! Look at me be petty!

So now I can sit back and relax. And then start panicking again. My girlfriend's birthday is in less than a month and I'm scrambling for gift ideas. She's just as difficult to buy for and unfortunately due to a lack of a job, I'm going to need to be creative this year.

But I'll share my panic in another post.

Moms are hard to buy for.

Or it could just be my Mom. It's hard to say. Maybe it's just hard to buy gifts for extremely practical people which is exactly what my Mother is. Thus, when her birthday comes around no one has any idea what to get her.

I remember getting her flowers one year to which she responded "Don't get me flowers, they die." Mom doesn't like sweet things so getting her a box of chocolates results in my Dad eating all of them. Cards are also no good unless they're handmade because she thinks it's kind of a waste of money otherwise. Unfortunately the only person who has any artistic talent in the Wei family is my sister. Don't expect anything amazing from me. Who do I look like, Dalf?

Behold! The limits of my artistic ability!

Honestly, I think her favorite present that she's ever gotten from us was a coffee mug from my sister. And that was because her other mug was getting kind of old. I have an idea of what to get my Mother in the future but unless anyone knows where I can get a plushie of the Pokemon Oddish for a reasonable price it will remain an idea.

This guy, right here.

This year however, I'm going to try something different. I don't know how many of you have heard of or even have this store in your city but mine does. They're called "Edible Arrangements" and they basically create bouquets of fruit that you can eat. The prices are fairly reasonable. I mean, I've bought flowers for my girlfriend before and they're roughly the same price. Actually I think she'd like the edible ones better.

This is the one I got for Mom. It's called an Apple Daisy.

We'll see how Mom likes it. I picked the bouquet up today and the service was pretty good. I mean, I was half an hour early for the pick up time I asked for and it was already ready. If it tastes as good as it looks, they might be getting a repeat customer.