The Black Ceramic

Bed Sheets Of Ice.

2007-01-16T00:54:00.000-05:00

My beagle was wagging the tail rapidly when I invited her to come outside with me to shovel the driveway. I looked down towering over her and she looked back up at me waiting for me to open the door to the garage. I let her out and told her to "sit" which for some reason she associates with "stay". I really messed up on the training for this one, I admit. I pushed the garage door opening button and it slowly climbed the metal railings to rest over top. Silence. A cool breeze blew some powdered snow on the floor. My dog trotted out on the driveway with the nose to the ground. She was an eyesore with her brown fur on the white snow. Snow was everywhere. I went to the side of the garage and lift a shovel hanging from a protruding nail and went to the lip of the garage to push away a path from front to back vertically down the slope of the driveway.

My first push ended early and my arms got rattled by the shovel not moving. I guess I need a better shovel. I thought to myself. I put the plastic shovel back on it's nail and took a metal plow-like shovel to do the job. Nearly the same result. Under closer inspection I found that the entire driveway was a sheet of ice with powdered snow on top.

The scenery before me was so serene, like the sound of flicking a crystal glass with the index finger to create different notes. The cold air is rough on my breath but still enjoyable. I put my body weight into the shovel and place my boot on top of it and push it in short intervals to break up the ice and push it to the edge of the driveway. Careful, of course, not to slip on the ice by standing on one leg. I went to work on the sheet of ice using this method. On occasion I would have to call my dog back closer to me if she ventured too close to a neighbour's house or the road on the court. Eventually I was getting too hot doing all this work and put my leather jacket and dog back inside the house.

I zoned out as I methodically pushed the snow/ice to the sides of the driveway. My thoughts were consumed with daydreams and memories. Thinking of working for my University as a snow shoveler back a couple years in my second and third year. My hands would get so cold early in the morning. What a great feeling to see the sunrise after finishing the campus too. I remember walking across the bridge with the shovel on my back shoulders and arms resting on top. Looking out towards the sun creeping through the overcast clouds.

I stopped and looked up to the sky above, I knew full well there was nothing to see, but perhaps to live in the memory I still proceeded to crane my neck. I saw nothing, but the dull gray overcast that has simulated the sky.

A Door/Me/Then December.

2007-01-15T03:11:00.000-05:00

I approached the windowed door to the outside. Slowly. My feet dragged along the floor in my slippers; by habit of course. I looked outside in the faintly lit scene that is my backyard. I could see my parent's barbecue, a snow shovel leaning against the yellow brick, a round table with benches surrounding it, pine trees and of course the sole bare cherry tree in the middle of the grassy lawn. I trace it's outline with my eyes and focus on the detail of the branches. A fractal pattern.

Whatever isn't lightly covered with snow - is a shadow - is an absence of the object it's suppose to be. As I stare into this wilderness I shiver and feel a tingling sensation more notable around my arms and shoulders. I love that feeling. I thought to myself. An obscure yet specific nervousness. Perhaps anxiety. Wondering if something will move in the darkness.

I lean up closer to the glassed window and looked around more. I remained still wondering what it would feel like to be outside at that moment. To be a part of the wilderness. My forehead against the glass, faint fog from my breath, I feel the shivers again. I looked to the sky; orange-gray overcast clouds. In the distance a street light.

Every time I turned around to go back upstairs I found myself turning around back to look out again. It's so calm and peaceful. Finally I rotated my head around once more to check every possible vision I could muster, and walked away from the glass windowed door.

music: "Possession" in Acoustic.

Means Headaches For Howard.

2006-11-06T14:20:00.000-05:00

Kelly got me a few pillows from the couch and closet. I placed a couple on the floor, and my backpack where my head would go, and the sleeping pillow on that. I draped my leather coat on top of me and started to pass out. Kelly wanted to know if I wanted to get something from Subway. “You're going to Subway? It's like 4am man.” I slurred. Then again I remember living across the street from his place now and making 4am trips to Subway for cookies and such. I requested a bottle of juice. I knew I was going to need it in the morning.

I wasn't awake when he got back, and I slowly got back to consciousness around 09:00 hours. My eyes tried to open but at the risk of allowing light to enter too much I kept them squinted. My hair was in a mess because of the strange cowlick feeling. Almost like it is constantly being pulled by someone. I pat it down and get up from my bed. I nearly fall down again. Fuck, I'm still drunk. As I brace myself to walk around I desperately look around the kitchen for that juice Kelly got me. Only to find that it was later in the room on top of his bookshelf. It was warm to touch, but I didn't care. I started to drink it and swallowing large portions of the grape liquid. I finally stopped and gasped for air. A pounding sensation started on the right side of my head near the temple. Boom boom... boom boom. I went to lay back down on the bed and put the leather coat back over me. Getting up once in a while to lazily drink from the bottle again.

Kelly eventually gets up and goes on his computer while playing the latest download of the Howard Stern show from satellite radio. He talks to me, or to himself while we listen, laughing at a lot of the stuff that is going on. “Here take the bed man, I'm going to make pancakes.” He says. As he is walking out of the room I squint up to the freshly made bed and crawl over to lay on top of it bringing my pillow and leather jacket with me. I fall asleep again on top of the comforter. I'm not sure how much time progressed but I got up after hearing Kelly talk to his roommate outside in the kitchen. So I joined them and sat down at their table. I eat a pancake and drink some more juice and eventually I full wake up. The pounding headache remains and the only way to deal with it, is to forget that it is there, almost like how you forget to breath but do it anyways.

I leave Kelly's place because he has to do some studying and limp my way over to Robs house to watch Howard The Duck. He bought the movie over at Chumleighs for two dollars in VHS form. My toe is still hurting and now I have a cut on my finger from doing up the laces on my boots so much during last night (Saturday). When I arrive at his place all I can hear is the roar of the vacuum. Laura and Elsa were near done cleaning the place up busy throwing stuff out and cleaning the floors. Rob is laying on the brown couch outstretched with one foot on the floor and the other on the top, slouched with one elbow on the arm of the couch causing his arm to fail limply above his head, and the remote in the other. I request to the girls that they stop vacuuming because of my condition and Laura laughs it off. I sit down on the adjacent chair and slouch myself. When the girls stop the cleaning Rob goes upstairs and gets the movie, sets up the VCR in the back of the TV and starts to play it.

We don't really pay attention much to the movie though as we are both laughing and sharing stories from last night. The creepy dudes that came over wearing belly shirts, seeing Cedric on the street, how I visited my friend Api last night who was absolutely smashed, to agreeing about the beautiful porkchops we made last night. The girls come down and join in the conversation and starting to talk about some red headed guy that stayed around at the party who ended up to the be 25 years old.
“It was so creepy.” Laura said. Rob looked at her and agrees saying “Yeah 25 year old would accept an invitation to a 17 year olds party?”
I jab in saying sarcastically “Yeah what 24 year old WOULD come to a 17 year olds party.” Indicating myself. We all start to laugh and go back to watching Howard The Duck. I look out the window and see my dad dressed to the nine walking up to the door. I open it to greet him. His response was only a command: “Let's go.” I guess the party he went to sucked really bad because he was earlier than when I was expecting him. As a result I had to leave halfway through the movie. I said my goodbyes to everyone and thanked them for the invite. Adam tells me that I need to come by again sometime. “Yeah for sure.” I say with a pause, “I'll have to check my work schedule though.” Rob is expressionless at first but after a couple seconds he gets the joke about my unemployment and laughs. Adam remains expressionless.

So I leave Peterborough once again on a gloomy day in November. And like all my other car rides back to Oshawa, I drift off to sleep in the backseat of the car.

music to accompany the blog: Death Cab For Cutie - We Laugh Indoors.

Lemon Slices For José.

2006-11-05T23:30:00.000-05:00

So Friday night I went out for a bit with Jordan for a little bar hoping in Oshawa, we checked out the Tartan and then Le Skratch. It was a fairly old crowd this time around at the Tartan which kind of sucked. That bar has a nice set up and design. Le Skratch was the same old thing with thugs looking out at the dance floor and slutty girls dancing around. Entering the place required the frisk down by the girls. Jordan got the hotter of the two and with both started to laugh about how they slightly tagged our nuts, and more so that the one girl rubbed my belly in a circular motion. "Next time ask her to pat you on the head." Jordan was quick to jab in.

The next morning I got up really early and painfully got CDs and DVDs ready for my trip to Peterborough. This time around I only packed a backpack full of stuff because whenever I went with a huge Nike duffel bag and sleeping bag, it was always taxing. Seeing that I am only staying one night I felt it is a wise decision. Change of clothes, small slip disc holder, busted PS2 controller, Polaroid camera, toothbrush and hair wax, and my minidisc walkman. I always bring my Polaroid camera everywhere I go for my blog; I know for a fact that I wouldn't be taking a picture in Peterborough though. For whatever reasons, it just never happens.

My brother drove me to the bus depot at around 11:40 hours so that I didn't have to worry about the bus schedules and disgruntled drivers just coming off a strike. The bus was scheduled to leave at 12:35 hours so I wandered around the downtown to waste some time. It was a bright day downtown but that October wind kicked in which made it dryly cold. I walked up Bond, took a side street to King, then to Centre and back to the Bus Terminal on Bond. It was pretty interesting because I took notice to a lot of downtown stores that I never seen before. An all Caribbean restaurant, a men's clothing store that had some sort of Italian name and even stranger was sort of orange reflective material in the window with faded pictures of men in suits, pedicure and hair salons with photos of models from the 80s, and sign for a new club at a spot where an old one use to be. I saw some familiar sites too like the Lovell drugs place across the King bus stop. I remember waiting for the 2King bus here while in high school and classmates I knew would go in and steal candy from the place. I remained in the bus terminal for the rest of the wait with my walkman playing. When the bus rolled up I go on and sat down and eventually fell asleep during the trip.

I wondered if I talked in my sleep because for some reason it felt like I was talking. I had my walkman playing so all I could hear was European power metal blaring away. Nobody was really starring at me though so I figure either I was in the clear or everyone else had walkmans on. I looked around some more and there was a little bit of both going on. I called Rob to let him know I'm in town and that I will be walking down the Rotary Trail to get to his place. "Alright lad, I'll meet ya along the way." He said over the phone. I got off the bus and started walking. I thought about getting a slice of pizza at Night Kitchen but thought it would be better to wait. The familiar sights make me smirk a bit and feel happy to be back in town. Rob meets me on the trail just before Parkhill Road and we hit up the G&P Milk Variety first. I didn't recognize him at first because he was wearing a different jacket than his usual brown leather one, and his hair was grown out a bit.

We then chilled for a bit in Rob's room as I wanted to show him the TV show "I Pity The Fool" starring Mr. T. We both have a fetish for brutal movies and brutal TV shows. This one really takes the cake though and we had some good laughs. Laura and Elsa kept darting in and out of the room preparing for the party tonight by putting everything valuable in Robs room. Laura is another classic Baragar with her style of humour. Yelling in my ear on occassion and do oddball things to try and get a reaction out of me. She seems to forget that I lived with Rob for 3 years and have become immune to the craziness. When Adam and Kristen arrive they see me and say hello. Adam reaches over and extends his hand for a hand shake saying "Hey guy, good to see you." I grab his hand shake it and when Adam starts to pull away it gets jerked back and I pull him towards the couch saying "No, give me a hug!" I reach my arm around try to choke him with a reverse headlock. We all start laughing as Adam keeps saying "No Matt... No!" and pulling away. They leave to pick up some alcohol at the LCBO for tonight and I slip Adam a 20 to pick me up some cider beer.

I watch some TV with Kristen as there is no more room in the car for me or her. She falls asleep pretty fast while laying down on the couch. When Adam returns to my surprise there are 6 tallboys of Magner's Cider Beer: the cider beer of cider beers. I know right away that this is going to be a great night. Adam looks at the tall 500ml cans and adds in “I prefer bottles, I don’t like that can taste.”
“Oh no way man, cans all the way, I can’t get drunk off cider beer unless it’s in can form.” I respond.
I get a slice of pizza at the local 2-4-1 and start the drinking with the rest of the house, minus Rob who had to do some personal business. I start to bug Elsa and Laura because no one has showed up to the party yet. "It's going to be so funny if no one shows up to your party." I say to them. They laugh and put on a pouting face and claim that it's not funny because it might be true and leave upstairs. My buddy Nick shows up with some of his homebrew in a backpack. It tastes a little different than his usual “honey beer” that he makes that is so damn good. We sit on the couches chatting for a bit and catching up. After having a bottle or two of his brew he has to go to another party.

Eventually three dudes show up with amps and instruments though. They pile it near the TV and then get acquainted with out names. We start watching SpikeTV which is showing "When Good Pets Go Bad" and we are all loving it. Rob eventually comes back and Tammy and Erica arrive as well with him. Halfway through the show five more people show up. Laura turns to me "See! I told you people would come!" We turn off the TV and the two guys set up their instruments. One has a mic and an acoustic guitar with an amp out, and the other has these bongo drums that have a long base to it so that it stands 5 feet off the ground. They play a bunch of covers from bands like Sublime, Weezer and even Destiny’s Child. They aren't really great, but at the same time it's kinda cool to have a live "band" going on while we're drinking.

I started talking to one girl when I am sitting on the arm of the couch. She's a pretty cute gal, but obviously only 18 so I put off the flirting a little. I think she came with some boyfriend or something, who was all over her at one point. He sits across and looks up once and a while. I lean over and talk right to her ear so she can hear me over the crowd. I leave the arm of the couch and get Adam, Rob and Kelly to do some tequila shots upstairs with me. As Rob and I prepare the lemons on the cutting board some young girl asks me what we are doing. "Oh just getting some lemon slices." I answer.
"Cool, I like lemons."
"Well then help yourself to some right there."
Rob and I start to walk upstairs and I peek over and she is standing by the kitchen with a slice of lemon in her hand and waves it too me. I wave back and then head upstairs to get the shots ready.

"To first year!" Rob says and laughs. It wouldn't make sense to anyone else but we all do cheers to first year. Kelly demands more shots and more afterwards. I filled up a glass Fruitopia bottle full of Jose Cuervo Gold, and it was all gone after 20 minutes of doing shot after shot. I get back down to the party and mingle a bit more with people and eventually everyone leaves for the bar. Rob, Tammy, Erica and I decide to leave as well for the 2nd Floor Lounge. We take the Rotary trail despite it being really out of the way for where we are heading. They stop on a house on the corner of Dublin and Alymer where some of Erica and Tammy’s friends live. They start messing around and Rob gives me some hilarious silent wording and I head out to the bar myself. Once I get to the entrance of the bar I immediately recognized the bouncer, but I don't know him that well. I waited outside and tried to think of who I could call to get in. I then think to call Adam who is probably already inside to get Kelly to get me in. Kelly comes down and motions me to come near as I start to enter the place the bouncer sticks out his hand and stops me. "Oh, you need to see ID?" I ask. "No, I can't let you in right now." I was so daftly confused about this and look at Kelly who shrugs. I stay in the doorway to chat with Kelly and he says that I can't get let in and to wait for a bit.

I turn around and see that Rob and Tammy are standing out in the street as well. Even though we got to say hi to Karem we still couldn't get in, so we decide to check out another bar. As we do we see Cedric, Scott and Mira across the street. "Ceddy balls!" Rob yells out as we run across the street. Cedric is really drunk right now and is in shock to see us. We walk with them to the bank and Cedric claims that he can get us in the bar. We walk back and he talks to the bouncer for a bit and comes back out to the side walk. "You can't get us in can you?" I say with a laugh. He does his usual Cedric chuckle and says he can't. "But you can get in right Ced?" He then starts to pretend he's popping his collar "Oh! Don't get me wrong" and chuckles some more. So Rob and I think that returning home is probably the best choice because we can just have some beers there.

We pick up a slice at Night Kitchen and start the walk back. Rob does his usual routine of asking for an outrageous slice of pizza that was created by the slaughter of a young animal. “I want to taste the innocence.” He says to the pizza guy. After finishing the slice down the street and exchanging bites with Tammy; I put the paper plate in the red mail box on Alymer Street like I usually do. It gives the mailman a present. When we arrived to the corner of Alymer and Macdonnell I realized that I couldn't walk anymore because of my sore toe. We called a cab for a ride back.

Back inside Rob’s place there was still some people partying, but apparently a lot of them left to catch the last bus back to the Gzowski residence. Minors... Rob's neighbours come over and we chat with them outside. Rob fires up the BBQ and slabs on some porkchops. He tells me to get some spices and the only thing I could find was some spicey mesquite. In our drunken state we keep lifting the lid of the BBQ violently, so much so that it comes off the hinges a couple of times. One of the neighbours, Gram, is slapping down the porkchops onto the grill with force. I decide to take over. Doing so I knocked over my beer that was sitting peacefully on the BBQ side. It tips over and begins to pour beer onto the concrete below, and eventually rolling off and falling down shattering. Well, no more beer for me. After the chops were done, as close as we could judge by the blackness, we put them on a plate, let them cool and grabbed them by hand to chomp on them. Probably the most delicious porkchops I have ever had in my life. Tammy actually takes a photograph of us with our meat in hand and beaming smiles.

After we finished I was invited over to play some SEGA Genesis with Gram and Adam next door. As I walk in they shout “Are you up for some Street Fighter II?” I of course confidently state that I’ll take anyone on. Gram is apparently the house champ at this game and schools me in the first couple games with Vega, as I played Ken. He’s pretty good, and claims that some people are only good with one character, so I switch up characters and actually start to win with Zengief. I even did the 360 move to his amazement to finish him off. I return to Ken and he uses Vega… and by sheer luck I figure out that pressing down and fierce punch counters his aero-move. He has no chance against me now and I clean out.

So satisfied with the old school gaming I retire back to Rob’s place which is winding down. Kelly eventually comes to pick me up though and I grab my backpack and head over to his place.

Part 2 Later.

music to accompany the blog: My Chemical Romance – The Sharpest Lives.

The City Swallowed Red.

2006-10-15T03:08:00.000-04:00

There I am sitting at my parents table enjoying a glass of wine. They started talking about getting me a job as a janitor again at the place where my dad works. Just six months to a year they say, then I can apply to any job that gets offered, and they would have to consider me before going outside. I think they have an idea in their heads that I am going to follow in my pops footsteps and work at the same place. They are horribly mistaken. At this point I am just staring off in the distance trying not to listen as they ramble on and on about it. I’m a University graduate, I’m not going to be a janitor, I don’t care where it takes me. I gulp down the rest of my wine and clean off my plates and head upstairs. “Where are you going?” My dad calls from back within the kitchen. I ignore him and head upstairs.

I call up Jordan and we make plans to hang out tonight, so he arrives fairly quickly and I throw on a jacket and head out the door. My parents are hanging around the entrance inviting us to watch the hockey game with them, but we head out the door. Pitch black outside. The weather is getting colder, inside the car though you are given the sensation or the feeling of being safe, even though the only threat is just a bit of chilly winds. Jordan starts up some music on a CD. As we turned on the street exiting my little community of neighbours we started talking about murky memories from our high school period of life. Memories that were seemingly lost forever until by chance we started to think about them and help remind each other of what happened to the best of our knowledge and eye witness accounts. As we drove around the city, Jordan started driving into unknown parts of the city. Places that are not in our general path when we travel around. We pass by a church where we use to go to a Youth Group once a week after school. Fond memories there of people we no longer see.

After we drove around enough to satisfy that we have reached enough unknown areas of Oshawa, we picked up Pete. Who was surprised that we were waiting outside his house for him when we called. Five minutes later he joined the fray and hopped in the backseat. We started to drive towards Toronto on the West 401 in hopes that one of our friends would be available to hang out with. Jordan uses his cell along the way to call people, and after a couple calls and no one able to come out, we exit off in Pickering to head back to Oshawa. We think about driving to Waterloo to visit our friend Jay, but the drive back at night would be rough. I suggested Peterborough. “You love that town eh?” Jordan asks, even though he knows the answer. I look out the window to avoid his jackass grin. “Yeah, yeah I do.” I muffle.

We’re back in Oshawa, driving along the highway 2. We stop into a local Blockbuster to pick up a movie to rent. When we get in the store I automatically look at the used games section for some collector value finds. Nothing there. I join in the search for a movie. I look all along the walls at the movies and see nothing of real interest. I check the other wall and get upset at all the copies of Click! with Adam Sandler checked out. Not because I wanted to rent it. But because I see that movie advertised so much and it looks so stupid, I feel bad that people actually gave into the advertising and rented it. I wonder if it is actually good though, who knows. I see a couple of unknown movies, you know the deal, first gig actors, medieval setting or something. I love those types of movies. There is another one with Bruce Campbell called Alien Apocalypse. Oh man it looks really bad. “I hate those types of movies man.” Jordan says. Pete was in for watching it. No dice though. I take photos with my cell phone to remind me to get them later. We ended up renting 16 Blocks.

As we pass by the local Pizza Pizza I suggested we pop in. Pete is down, so Jordan turns on the next street to go around the block to pick some up. We waltz in and start barking orders at the girl. The pizza looks so old, bleh, not like the stuff you get in Peterborough. I get a small square of pepperoni and Pete gets a regular deluxe slice. “Man, I keep thinking about that night here after drinking.” Jordan says in low voice.
“Yeah that was funny, you out back laying down by the dumpsters puking while I ate pizza in here.” Laughing after I said it. “Oh man.” He replied.

Walking into Jordan’s house I noticed how big one of his cats is. Seems like just a short while ago that it was still a small kitten. Now it is nearly the size of a full grown cat. We head downstairs to the basement den and finish off our pizza. Jordan comes down with a big plate of nachos with sour cream and ground beef. We decide on watching the rest of the hockey game which is now into the third period of play. The Leafs won on a high note in overtime. We switched on the movie shortly after. I want to use the washroom so badly thirty minutes into it. I know if I do, then they will pause it, and then Jordan will try to get me back by scaring me on the way back to the den. There is a short hallway from the stairs to the den, and these curtains hang in between two walls. So one goes and hide behind these curtains and reach out to grab the person when they walk back towards the den. I suffer on the chair and watch the rest of the film. After flipping the channels a bit more we decided to drive around the city some more.

Before My Eyes (Part 2.)

2006-10-10T23:47:00.000-04:00

I woke up. I am still groggy from staying up late again last night. It is just past noon and so I start my daily routine of going on the computer right away to check my inbox for job offers and newsletters, plus my usual blog reading and myspace.com time. My cellphone starts to ring and the vibration moves it closer to me. Private number. It’s Jordan.
“Hello?” I answer, trying my best to disguise the fact that I just woke up.
“Hey, what’s up? There is like massive flea market going on in Pickering man.”
“Serious, where?”
“Just west on Brock.”
“Yeah? Hmm.”
“Yeah you should try to get down here, selling vinyl records and everything. Anyways, just thought I’d give you a shout.”
“Yeah thanks man, talk to you later.”
I put down the cellphone back on my desk. Naw, I thought to myself, I would have to get changed, go downstairs, deal with the family. I just want to chill up here in my room. The phone rings again and it is Jordan again. This time to tell me that there is a Polaroid camera available for 10 bucks. As he described it, it bares a resemblance to a Polaroid camera I already own, but does not work. This one works.

I get changed and head downstairs and see that everyone is busy. My dad is washing the car, moms in the kitchen, and John is watching… something on TV, it looks kind of weird so I just head outside. My dad is leaning over a bucket that he just poured car washing soap + wax into. He squeezes the level inward on the nozzle on the hose to spray water inside. He had it at a high pressured stream as a setting so the soap shoots up and out of the bucket as the water hits the bottom of the bucket. He releases the grip, sets it to a fanned out spray instead and pours water in, submerging it when enough water fills up. Afterwards he looks up and gives me a sincere good morning. I guess I looked a little tired in the afternoon. In my defense I am battling off a cold. I tell him about the big flea market in Pickering and he seems interested. However, since it is no longer early in the day he figures there is no point in going. He’s probably right though, might close at anytime. He turns back to the car washing and sprays down his car. Afterwards he sprays some of the soap on the floor of the garage to run it down the driveway. Cruelly, he then attacks the anthills that lined the gap between the garage and the driveway. The homes to the little creatures are washed up and the wet sand spreads down the asphalt. I stood there starring at it happening, but no trace of animism idealism in my body compels me to say anything, because I’ve brought up with the belief that ants are bad around the house. I walk away and go back upstairs.

Kinda laying down on my bed and listening to music at the same time, I just rest there, getting up once in a while to blow my nose or to change the song on my music player. I keep changing to the same song though by Dallas Green of City and Colour.

A couple hours later I go back downstairs to see my dad cutting the grass. It is usually my job to do around the house because nobody else wants to do it. They didn’t ask me to this time because I have been sick. I don’t really want to do it either, but I would rather do it rather than my dad. I put on my new boots and head outside to take over. He did the small front lawn and is already tired so he welcomes me to take over. So I cut the back yard. Afterwards I brought the lawnmower out to the front and my dad wanted to cut a bit more and took it to the center of the court. Cut a straight line from the outside to the center, then want around cutting in a circle from the inside out. After three rotations he wanted me to take over, and so I got out from the lawn chair I was sitting on and finished the job. After I finished cutting I turned it off and put it back to rest underneath the back deck.

My dad looks at me as if to give me another gardening task “I want two things from you now, two vodkas, lime cordials, and club soda for you and I.” He said. “No problem.” I answered back and went inside to mix up a couple cocktails. I bring them outside and we sit underneath the big tree in our front yard. It is a green ash that is still kind of young for a tree. We kept the branches low so that when we sit underneath it, the leaves give us a sort of roof shelter from the sun. Of course one has to watch one branch when cutting the grass because it can bonk you on the head. My mom wants to cut it down, but my dad and I have been very resourceful with trickery and lies to prolong it’s demise. We say it’s too late in the year to prune, even thought we have no idea when is a good time to do so. We say that someone told us that it has to be done in the spring, when it could very well be done now. We hope by saying it, that she’ll forget about wanting it cut, and we can continue to sit underneath it.

I pull the brim of my hat down to my eyes and sip on my drink. I outstretch my legs to rest on the heels on the grass. Foxy, our dog, is laying down beside my lawn chair on a chain lease that pegs into the ground. Normally we’d just let her stay on the lawn without one, but with the increase of rabbits in the area, it’s not a good idea anymore. My eyes are drawn to the tree, small yellowed leaves fall when the wind picks up, and slowly hit the grass one by one. The sun is gone now and replaced by the graying clouds, the temperature has dropped. We sit there taking sips of our drink and not saying anything to one another. For no reason other than to enjoy the silence and to watch the leaves fall to the ground.

music to accompany the blog: City And Colour – Missing.

Before My Eyes.

2006-10-10T01:27:00.000-04:00

Not sure why, but I started to write this over at my myspace.com blog and it was really really long. Long enough to be an entry here. I don't really want to post stories here anymore, but I wanted to post this one anyways. So I hope you enjoy it, and happy Thanksgiving.

Nelson calls me up after I finished eating Thanksgiving dinner with my family. He wants to hang out and go to a show with me and Pete. I say sure and tell him to come over to hang out and have some dessert that was leftover. They arrive and eat their fair share of pie with ice cream. Nelson makes some obscene comment which luckily my parents did not catch on to. I must have given him a wide eyed look.

We get in his car, a black Sunfire, and drive off in the night to the movie theatre. We get to King Street and we have to decide whether we want to go to AMC in Whitby, or the Cineplex in Clarington. One is great to sit in and expensive. The other is really cheap and bad seating and sound. We choose the cheaper option and turn right.

The drive is fairly long and the street is not lit at all by any street lights. Instead we have to rely on the lighting provided by the cars passing by us and our own headlights. We're quiet in the car, not even the radio is on, laughing about this and that. While stopped at a red light talking about girls, Nelson thrusts his pelvis in his seat shaking the whole car. Pete squirms and hides his face from the onlookers from the cars beside us.

We get to the show pretty early and buy tickets to see The Departed. So while we wait for the show time to start we play some arcade games. Pete and I played a couple games with the light guns because nobody wanted to embarrass themselves with DDR with me. After that we went in and watched the movie. It kind of sucks watching a movie with a bunch of strangers sometimes. There are always people to annoy you when you want to hear what's going on. A cell phone went off during the movie. People were laughing at events in the movie. I don't know, I guess it depends on the movie. I had a blast watching Jackass 2 with a whole audience because everyone was laughing.

We left the theatre and walked down the parking lot to Nelson's car after the movie was over. Nelson lights up a dart and looks at a car closely parked to his. "I think he hit me man, look how close he is." Nelson said.
I inspect the bumper. "Nelson, if he hit you, he wouldn't have parked here." Pete and I start laughing. Nelson takes a drag of his cigarette.

Trying to figure out what to do, we decide on going to a bar and then hanging out at Jordans house. We stop at the local bar near my place but I didn’t really want to go in. “Man, we can just have a beer at my house, this place is kind of sketch. If we go to a bar, let’s go to the Tartan or something where it’s popular.” We don’t go to a bar and then just went to Jordan’s house. We phone up Jordan on the cell to tell him to meet us by the back door. Nelson undoes Jordan’s gate and we walk to the back door. It opens and Jordan stands before us from the inside. None of us say a word and we glance back and forth at one another. For whatever reason it was kinda funny so we all laughed. Except for Nelson, who was taking drags from another cigarette. Jordan didn’t want to go to a bar either, and so Nelson just walked to his car. We all agreed to go out for coffee though.

Driving back to the direction of my house and check out the local Williams coffee pub. It has a great atmosphere for hanging out; it’s sort of dim lit, wood-like flooring and décor, and some pretty glass windows all around to see the city streets. Though this night it was closed, we missed it by a half an hour or so. Instead we had to settle for Tim Hortons, which has an atmosphere of get in and get out.

We walked in and Jordan was the first to order and sit down. Before I order I look over at Jordan sitting by himself at the table. He smirks back with his jackass look like always and we both start laughing. Pete is confused as to what is going on. A couple of girls are sitting adjacent to us with large textbooks spread open and pads of notepaper at pen’s reach. I get my coffee and donut and sit down. Pete and Nelson join too.

Our conversations were normal as always, saying jokes to one another, and reminiscing about the old times. It’s moments like this that you can appreciate about life, and not remembering a thing you said to one another. We left for outside because Nelson wanted to light up another dart. Outside we stood on the sidewalk and shuffled our feet. Jordan and I got a good laugh talking about a trip to an old furniture auction house we did with his dad, and at the same time we both pictured the same scenery of the forestry that lined the road.

When we got back into Nelson’s car I opted out and wanted to get dropped off at home. I said goodbyes and went up to my room to chat online for a bit longer. For whatever reason I still was feeling a little sick so I went downstairs to get a Tylenol cold pill before going to sleep.

Laying in my bed I closed my eyes and listened to the hum of my computer still running beside me. My life played before me as I lay there. Starting from when I was a little boy to about grade 9. It was stream of conscious, in the sense that I wasn’t trying to remember anything. It was comforting in a way to remember all those events in my life, yet there was so much that I didn’t remember at the same time. Thinking back on it now, flashes of my childhood; things I wouldn’t normally remember appear my head. It is definitely a weird feeling to remember such things after all the time that has past since then.

I shrugged it off and feel asleep though.

Dates, dates, dates.

2006-09-18T23:59:00.000-04:00

I am a little shakey on dates, and I wanted to change up my style of writing for the book. I thought about doing a date format so that it seems like a journal. I didn't like assuming dates for events. I know that I did the things I am writing about, but I don't like assigning abbitary dates to these events. I figure as long as I know the month, then that's ok. I guess on occasion then the date will matter. Instead I added the style to this blog and everytime the day changes or what not I assign a quirky title to the story. I think that attribute is common among bloggers and I think it is a neat feature to put into a book. I assigned one to the last exerpt posted on here, and I also edited it around, because I remembered more stuff about moving in, and I added in more descriptions that I thought were necessary. I probably will be doing editing constantly so keep in mind what is posted here will probably be edited later. So anyways the following exerpt today is from my book, which has now reached around 3000 words, called "To those who dare." Enjoy.

Her name is Tanya. I picked her up on the front of some old mans lawn in Oshawa. $25 bucks. Not that bad of a deal. Until I found out the brakes don't work as well as I thought. Tanya is my bicycle, I wanted to get a bike that I wouldn't care about if it got stolen, something I can use to ride around Peterborough with. It is a woman's speed bike, a Vulcan, painted yellow, it has metal switches that do the gears, and black electrical tape is lined the handle bars. Small white letter stickers spell out TANYA vertically down the part that connects to the seat. Robs bicycle was from the sixties or seventies and it is a womans bike as well, with huge handle bars that sprout up and then curve down, a banana seat, and he spray painted it all gold. It is so low to the ground with small wheels, it is amazing that he can actually ride the thing.

We rode off towards the retail district of town on Lansdowne Street with out bikes. I uncomfortably tried to manage with the speed bike handlebars which brought my hands close together on the bar. The loose steering and barely working brakes gave me a lot trouble. It was a hot September day today, so we were both in just shorts and t-shirts, with our backpacks on. The mall was the first destination and after biking a fair distance we got to the entrance and locked up our rides.

The mall was fairly small, but then again, this was a fairly small city. We stopped in the usual places like the gaming store, sporting goods store, and music store. Our last stop was West 49, which is sort of a retail chain of skater clothes and such. I mentioned to Rob last night that I needed some new shoes, and he told me I should get some skate shoes because they fit my style. I wanted him to come along to make sure I wasn't buying something stupid, because he had more knowledge than me on the stuff. After trying on nearly every shoe I settled on a pair of Globes, they were brown and white, really nice design, and the fit great. I went outside the store and put them on right away and put my old shoes in the box and in my backpack.
“Ok this is how you wear them man, you put the laces underneath the tongue... yeah tie it up like you would normally, but tuck it under.” He told me.
I tried to follow his instructions as best as I could, but he just took the shoes from me and showed me. I slipped them on. Tight! I got up and we looked around some more before heading back on the bikes. Our next destination would be the downtown core.

As we rode back the opposite way along Lansdowne Street we ran out of sidewalk and were riding dangerously close to an edge of fall off on this bare dirty path formed from other cyclists. Street lamps lined along the side of the road so when the path was curved around it became even more dangerous to ride on, and with the cars zooming past you on the side of the road it really made it hard to concentrate on staying on the path. It didn't help with my bikes handling being so bad and no brakes. Dodging one Street lamp nearly made me lose control and fall down. My heart sank as I corrected my steering at the last second. Better ride slower I thought to myself. Rob was having no trouble and he got a laugh at the end of the path after I told him my near death experience.

We continued through some side streets and eventually came to Hunter Street which would lead us right into downtown Peterborough. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. I never really knew the city all that well until my third year and then more so in my fourth year of University. Now that I am in my fifth year I know the city perfectly, where to eat, where to shop, where to take girls on a date, and other lesser important stuff. Like the fastest way to get the hell out.

It looked like they were doing some work on the sidewalks on the street, I ventured over despite the vague warnings of the adjacent pylons and rode my bike on the sidewalk. I looked up ahead and noticed that there was a huge gap between the slaps of concrete. With practically no control on the handlebars and no brakes I freaked out and tried to swerve off. I fell into the gap and then crashed into a pylon that was near a chain-linked fence. I didn't fall off my bike, but I got knocked off my seat and cut up my leg a little bit. One of the construction workers looked over at me with a puzzling look. “Take it easy there buddy.” He said to me. I just laughed and acknowledged his recommendations.

There was a bike lockup spot near the Peterborough Square at the heart of downtown on the corner of Charlotte and George. We locked out bikes together and walked around. It was the “usual round” as we called it. To visit the used gaming stores like Chumleighs, Cottage Toys for clothing, and then Bluestreak to look at vinyl records and CDs. Jimmy Chumleigh, the puppeteer among other things, runs the best used gaming store in town. There are other goods like movies, books, and music as well. He is such an oddball character with his head shaved bald with a huge goatee which is sometimes dyed blue. I always make sure to have a chat with him because he has the best stories, some about being involved in the WWE pro wrestling, and others about fishing. When you talk to him he always asks for your e-mail address to write down on the back of a notebook. I jotted mine down after talking to him for a while. I picked up a PS1 game and then we headed out.

Bluestreak was a small hole in the wall with posters of musicians all around the store. Where there weren't posters, there were CDs. Hundreds. All in little slots along the wall, some so high that it would require a ladder to reach up to grab them. In small bins were the vinyl records. There is a section for new records and everywhere else had used records sorted by artist name. I also like to talk to the shop keep as well. He DJs around town sometimes and he has some of the best records and talent for selecting music. I make sure to find out where he is spinning records. He wasn't around today though.

It is really hot in the day now, the sun is blindingly bright out. So after walking around the downtown busy with people walking everywhere as usual, we went into McDonald's to grab some food to take back home with us.

I sat down in the living room to eat my burger. Scott, my other roommate, and Cedric were watching some NFL football on the TV. Scott is a big guy as well like Cedric, and athletic. Really competitive by nature. Things were settling in nicely at our place, we had furniture all arranged and our food and dishes was slowly being sorted and put away in cupboards.

After the game I went back up to my room to relax for the rest of the day and put more of my stuff away in dressers. I really wish I had the new desk right now and was tempted to just go pick one up myself so that I can set up my computer. Rob decided to just buy my old one seeing that he tons of room upstairs. I gave it to him for $50 dollars, even though it cost me a hundred and a half. I just wanted to get rid of it. To be honest I was glad to see it go. I bought it for my fourth year of University and although it was great to have for that year, it was such a pain to transport that I got frustrated with using a small Allen key to put in all the small individual screws. Must be like a hundred of them to put into place. I watched the sun go down in my room on my computer chair, and like last night, hung out in the loft with Rob and whoever else showed up. It would seem like this would be the place we all would collect as a house, usually over the years it would be my room, but since I have the smallest room it wouldn't be the case this year. I welcome the change though.

September.

2006-09-17T23:59:00.000-04:00

Right now I am posting quite regularly on 500 Photographs. It has been going great so far, so I hope you all are reading it :D I have been working on putting this blog together in a novel like format and so far it's been coming along. It is really rough to be starting out because the first four months of my blog started out as paragraphs on my MSN Space... and so I am relying mostly on memory and other things like my school notes and such. Well anyways the reason I am posting here is to give a preview of my novel... the following is an exerpt from the first couple pages. Enjoy.

Wallpaper is seen all around when you first step into the house. The floorboards were old, really old, and dirty. Some of them were very loose so I had to watch my footing when walking around in the living room. The old banister leading to the upstairs was a very nicely finished wood with an antique style, but years of students as tenants has left it scratched up with broken supports. This was my new home for the year. My father and roommates helped me carry my stuff to the second floor where I just dumped it on the floor. The room was the smallest, but I didn't mind too much. After I got the essentials moved in like my bed, little Danby bar fridge, L-shaped desk, Dell computer and duffel bags of clothing. I said good-bye to my father who then drove away in his Buick.

I went back to the upstairs and looked at all my furniture laying on the floor, unbuilt and scattered. Rob came from the loft upstairs to find me sitting on my computer chair swirling around. “Hey man, need any help putting stuff together?” He asked. Rob is one of my closest friends since my third year at University. We actually rented out the same basement apartment that housed four people. The other two people, Adam and Kelly, are close friends as well.
“Man, I really don't think this is going to work out. Just look.” I responded.
Rob looked around the bits of furniture and then looked up at me. “Come out to the porch, I'm having a smoke, then we'll figure it out.” Motioning with his head towards the stairs.

The porch outside our front door was one of the sole reasons that we actually agreed to live at such a place. Seems like an old reason to get into renting out a house in such a bad looking area, but we wanted a porch that we can all just sit on all day that overlooked the streets people walked on. The porch was built from old wood as well, very thin boards which are faded and scratched up. Cigarette butts were trapped in between the cracks of the boards. The roof above was rotting, and in fact some of the boards were missing. We sat down on a couple of chairs that our roommate Adam had left outside. One was an old spinning chair with a rip in the seat fabric which I sat on, and the other was a matching four-legged chair. I kicked my feet off the brick of the house to spin myself around until they touched the pillar at the edge of the porch, which I used to kick back to the previous position. Rob took short drags of his cigarette and looked out to the street afterwards while exhaling. On occasion he would get a shiver and his shoulders would tremble a little bit.
“So how do your classes look?” I asked, wanting to know about his schedule, and toughness of selection.
“I honestly man, don't know.” He said with a short laugh. “I haven't really looked to much into that yet.”
Classes started up the following Monday after the weekend. I told him that I would help him out with scheduling and stuff when we get the Internet working.

We stayed out on the porch looking out until the sun was coming down. Must have been out there for five hours or so sitting and talking on the same chairs. When we got back up to my room I still tried to find a reasonable solution to how I was going to live there for the next eight months. I couldn't find anything and neither could Rob. “See, I have the desk out like this, and my bed here, and there's no room for anything else with that closet thing.” I said in frustration.
“Well man, just set up your bed tonight so you have somewhere to sleep.” He said. “Come upstairs afterwards.” He escaped to his room in the loft.
I remained sitting in that computer chair looking around me, suddenly feeling sad and angst about choosing such a small room. I called up my parents on my cell phone to talk to them about it.

“We'll get you another desk next weekend.” My dad said, finally understanding my situation.
“Ok thanks.”
“You'll just have to suffer until then.”
“Yeah I know, just sucks having such a small you know?”
“Alright, you want to speak to mom?”
“Yeah sure.”
I talked to my mom for a bit and then hung up the phone. She made me a couple of sandwiches before I left for school, it was going to be my dinner for tonight because I did not feel like cooking today.

I set up my bed in the late hours, and then after hung out with Rob up in the loft. He had his mattress just laying on the floor and computer on a broken desk. His room was pretty awesome, being the length of nearly the whole house. The floor was a dark brown and like the rest of the house the floorboards were loose in more areas, and even some holes were present leading to who knows where. He had a large brown lazy-boy chair by his window that overlooked the sidewalks and apartment buildings across the street. The window had no screen, so Rob and our other roommate Cedric would sit there by the window to have a cigarette. Cedric was a big guy, about six foot something, two hundred and something pounds, mostly muscle, huge black afro hair and a quiet, laid back demeanor. I sat down on the lazy-boy chair and chatted some more with Rob. Finally when the late hours got the best of us we retired for the night and made plans to do some shopping the next day.

Lightning Bug.

2006-08-11T19:09:00.000-04:00

“Your move,” I said to my brother. He was bent over looking at the wooden board in front of him. I leaned more back to take another drink out of my Coke. The sweat running down the can created a ring of water on the kitchen table where it was sitting.
“I think you may have this one.” He said and placed a wooden piece on the board.
“Come on John, are you trying to let me win!?” I said as I captured one of his pieces and placed it back beside his other pieces on the table. I took a savory bite out of my roast beef sandwich. John groaned because he did not see that potential move. The game was done; I won by a large margin. “He’s not just a pretty face.” My mom commented. It was our third time playing Cathedral, some medieval like game with wooden blocks, and the object is to form solid lines to capture the most squares and make sure you have the least amount of pieces left over. We tied a couple of games as well, but that was enough for today. I decided to tag along with my parents to come to the cottage for the long weekend, from Saturday August 5th, till Tuesday. I couldn’t resist playing the game with my brother when I finally settled in for some lunch. Last time we were both at the cottage a while back we went to Kingston for the day and stumbled into this store called Minotaur, and in there we found out about this Cathedral game, but didn’t purchase it. Well my brother, while on vacation for a week, went back and bought it for us.

It was really hot outside on this Saturday afternoon, the sun shone right from above with no clouds daring to move in front of its light. The Cicada bugs could be heard as if they were right beside you, a continuous buzz sound that usually accompanies the heat, a sort of electrical shock sound. I sat outside after lunch and joined my dad outside on the deck. I thought it was a good time to start drinking. I marched down the steps towards the back of my cottage to make my way to the shed where I had just put in some Corona. I figured they wouldn’t be completely cold just yet, but I did not mind at all because I enjoy Corona a little warmed up. My bare feet crunched under some of the hard grass, and whenever a blade caused too much resistance I would put more weight on the other foot, which made me look like I was walking on hot coals.

My shed is sort of like a miniature version of my cottage, with some differences. It has old wood flooring that borders on the rotting kind. In the sills of the windows you could see shells and shells of dead bugs, mostly wasps or hornets, as if to have died in some great battle. Junk consumes all the space inside, unorganized tools on the shelf on the far right, various gardening tools along the back wall which mostly get used for any other task except for gardening, a dresser which holds old and useless fishing tackle, a broken and incomplete croquet set, some outboard motors that haven’t been able to run since the 60s or 70s, a big black inflatable tube, and of course hordes of lawn chairs and chez lounges. The only things of use in here are the washer/dryer and the age-old rounded beer fridge that stands 5 feet tall. It keeps the beer cold.

I grabbed a beer that was semi-cold and I also got a couple of Pepsis for my dad. I walked in the similar fashion back to the deck where I put the cans of pop in the fridge, opened the crisper for a lime, and then proceeded to the counter with lime in hand. I opened the drawer to get a bottle opener and knife. I sliced the lime in half on the cutting board and then sliced a wedge for my drink. I opened the bottle and plunked the lime in with my index finger. When it reached the liquid below it started to bubble like I just created some sort of chemical acid in a beaker. I cranked up the radio in the kitchen before going outside and then headed out the side of the deck and pulled up a white plastic chair to sit in.

My dad told me of a task that needs to be done down by the dock. Apparently I need to use the scythe and clear out some of the whips out there so that people can drive their boats in more easily. After I finish my beer I go back to the shed and get the big scythe and some chest waders. I put on some socks and wiggled my way into the chest waders. I picked up the big scythe which was made of some twisted aluminum, near broken wooden handles, and a big curved rusty blade. I make my way down to the edge of the lawn into the river; I step carefully on some of the larger stones that are lined up on the bank. When my boots sink into the water and the sand bottom below the pressure causes the rubber of the boots to form as best, and as close, as it can onto my legs. I reach down and try and pull some of the smaller bull whips by hand but with little success. So I guide the blade down into the water and pull back as if to yank on a rope to cut away the weeds. My dad comes down to observe and tells me where he wants it lined up to, I walk over and bend one of the whips down to mark the spot. I clear out a big section of the bull whips and then try to guide them to the other side of the dock so that they are out of the way. The river is all mucky now from me walking about and stirring up the sand below. As I treaded back from the other side of the dock I feel the ground come out from under my feet, it crumbles and I start to sink down. I tried to step back to save myself but it was way too late and the water began to fill into my chest waders, I feel the cold liquid course through my body causing my arms and back to stiffen out. I stepped into a deep hole created by one of our boats. I stepped out and a sudden rush of tin bubbles made its way from the bottom of my boots all the way up to my chest. My brother is laughing in the distance as he is swimming around but took notice to me crying out.

I walk back onto solid land and take off the chest waders on the dock, slamming my socks down to the ground. I’m completely soaked. My dad starts to giggle up on top of the deck and asks if I found the deep hole. I got changed into my swim shorts and wife beater and grabbed another Corona. No more work for the day. Instead I just continued to sit down and soak in the sun.

Prodigal Son (Part 4).

2006-08-10T13:15:00.000-04:00

A hand reached around and grabbed the man wanting to fight me. It was his larger friend. “Forget this bitch, come on man.” He said repeatedly pulling his friend away to keep walking. I still stood there and watched to make sure they didn’t harass the girls I was with as they walked away down the street. Once they were out of sight I turned back to lean against the lamp post on the corner. One of my old classmates, Jacques, came across the street to see me. He talked to me for a bit, we exchanged updates on our life, and then he was off down Water Street.

When 03:00 hours nearing I went up to the two girls and told them I had to go meet my friend. They were clearly still doing the girl talk sort of deal, so I told them to stay safe and I went along my way. I didn’t like leaving them alone, but a lot of the drunkards have already gone home by this point in the night. I walked down Simcoe Street until I got in front of the Rooster. It was completely dark all over and no music could be heard. I was hoping that Kelly didn’t just leave because the bar closed early, and I just remained outside alone in front of the bar. It looked like some shady drug joint when it looked all closed up late at night. The yellow bricks had spots of dirt all over, an alleyway to the parking lot was pitch black with trash all over the driveway, and the windows of the building all opaque with the occasional crack. The big doors squeak open and it drew my attention, both Van and Kelly came out looking towards the Mr. Sub at the corner of George Street and Simcoe. They appeared to be worried about one of their fellow employees getting into a fight and hurting someone, but after closer investigation they found it wasn’t him.

Kelly told me more hilarious stories of the Liberal Party of Canada being at the bar today, and how one of them was telling people how she runs a porn website. The DJ at the 2nd Floor Lounge must have been interested in that because he took her in the booth with him for some relations. Wink wink. After the stories we walked back to his place. I went to sleep in a room in his house that is unoccupied by anyone living there, the bed is rather large and really creaks when I move around in it. It didn’t take me long to fall asleep though.

The next morning Kelly and I made some pancakes and French toast. As we’re eating his landlord makes a surprised visit. Kelly makes a freak out face and goes upstairs while talking to the lady. He goes up to the room I was sleeping in and puts the stuff in his roommates’ room because they aren’t technically allowed to let people sleep in that un-rented room. Kelly’s house is pretty cool, it had all wood flooring in most parts of the house with bright yellow and blue painted on the walls. The living room is mostly a dark wood with plants everywhere. After breakfast we had some time to kill before my bus arrives at 17:30 hours. So we make the rounds downtown. The rounds being all the pawn shops, used gaming stores, vinyl record store, and then Pete’s Subs for lunch. I couldn’t resist buying a vinyl record though. It was Stars – Set Yourself On Fire. After eating at Pete’s Subs and playing a little Die Hard Arcade there we went back to Kelly’s house to play some PS2 until my bus arrived.

I left his house pretty early and packed everything into my backpack, and slinged my sleeping bag over my shoulder. As we walk towards the greyhound station it starts to rain a little bit, but not too badly. It is still sunny outside when it was raining which cooled me off from the humidity. I take glances at some of the landmarks of this town that I will miss again when I get on that bus home.

When we arrive at the grey hound station Kelly says his goodbye and makes his way back home in the distance. The bus arrives fairly early and everyone packs into the available seats. I put on my MD Player and started to play some music as the bus pulled away. I wasn’t near a window to admire the scenery as some 16 year old girl occupied that seat. So instead I just drifted off in my chair waiting to arrive in Oshawa.

Prodigal Son (Part 3).

2006-07-31T01:06:00.000-04:00

I reached into Nick's freezer and shifted bottles around until I found a near empty bottle of El Dorado rum. The glass bottle was completely frosted over and the liquid inside had a syrup-like viscosity. I poured some into a white plastic cup by eye and stopped when I felt it was enough. I returned the bottle to the freezer and opened the fridge part to get a can of coke and a pre-sliced garnish. I mixed the drink pretty strong so I take little sips every few seconds. Nick's kitchen is really starting to get messy with empty white plastic cups all over his black and white checkered floor, sticky stains on the wood table, and broken little drink umbrellas everywhere. I notice a little plastic orange hawaiian flower clipped on the edge of the table in the kitchen. I slide it off and put it in my front pocket.

Everyone started piling into the kitchen just then like a congo-line, but only their objective is to get more booze. "Let's go to the bar!" Someone yells out in the hallway. I wait in line for the only washroom in the house, contemplating on just going outside in the bushel. I let a girl in before me and then when she's out I start to go in and see three more girls in line. This is going to be bad, they're drunk... better hurry. I put my drink aside in the washroom, unzip my pants and stare at the target below. I hear yelling outside and block it out of my mind to avoid stage freight. Not even ten seconds into the urination the girls outside start banging on the door telling me to hurry up. I start yelling back telling them that this is a bedroom. They don't buy it and bang some more. I finish and wash my hands, and they bang some more. I opened the door with my belt still undone to scold them and three girls charge into the washroom with me in it, I stumble back into the washroom and squeeze my way out with my drink and they slam the door. I put my drink down on the window sil beside me in the hallway to do up my belt. "Holy fuck." I said aloud laughing.

I wait outside with the rest of them in front of Nicks house. A couple of girls are walking around looking for something on the road, apparently some sort of blue tylenol pill. Yeah right. The white truck outside is owned by someone at the party and while we are waiting he cranks up the stereo. A couple of young girls come up to use skipping to warn that their neighbour will call the cops. He turns off the radio and sure enough a cop call rolls up. I put down my plastic cup on the sidewalk. The one officer talks to Nick and does the usual questioning. Nick gets off with a warning and soon after they drive off we all walk to the bar.

It was predetermined that we were all going to Sin City that night. Of course we didn't all go into the same group as some people didn't feel like waiting for others to get ready, so in total there was about three different groups leaving at different times. I was in the last group with Nick, Kevin and Alison. We wait in line up outside the bar and it is barely moving. Barely turned into not moving at all. We waited and waited while people off the streets just kept coming towards bar and jumping the line up. I'm standing on my toes looking to the front of the door to see if people are getting in. I suggest to everyone that we head to another bar so Alison goes inside to try and get everyone to come out (after some talk to the bouncer). She comes back out 15 minutes later, and we're still in the same spot, and looking distraught because no one wanted to leave the bar. So we head over to the 2nd Floor Lounge where there is no line up.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" I say to the bouncer.
"Sorry, private party, can't let you up." He replied.
"Private party? Who the heck is having a private party?"
"The Liberal Party of Canada."
I start to laugh, "You got to be kidding me." I said. He wasn't joking and I turned to the crowd to tell them we can't get in so they decide to just go to the Trash. I tell them that I'll join them in a sec. I look to see Van who I kinda know through friends and I ask if Kelly is working. I ask even though I know he is. He says yes he's upstairs and says he'll take me up. We walk up the stairs and on the first landing he looks at me and tells me to take off the leis around neck. "Oh yeah, sorry." I said. I continue to follow him into the bar area. There are some people dressed in complete suits, others in very casual dress clothing, some old and some very young. This is probably the busiest I have ever seen at this joint. He takes me to the patio where Kelly is there watching over everyone. He laughs when he sees me and tells me very hilarious stories of these Liberal Party members acting outlandishly. I look around the patio while he's talking to me at all the people outside. The patio of the bar is made completely out of wood, all the way to the tables and chairs, with a small tiki bar on the far side. It is very spacous out here and with very dim lighting. I tell Kelly to yell out something that indicates me as a conservative. We both laugh knowing that if done I would get my ear chewed off. I tell him that I will meet him outside the Rooster at 03:00 hours and that I'll be over at the Trash tonight. We do the handshake and then I walk out of the bar to the street.

I get to the sidewalk and it is nearly complete silence with the occasional yell from a drunkard in the distance. The street lights compete with the neon lighting from the various fast food restaurants for their place on the asphalte. I get to the Trash and make my way inside without having to wait in a line. Which isn't surprising since there is no one in the bar. Strangely enough the big doors were shut that usually leads to the main bar area. I bring this up to the girl at the front who tells me that I have to go through the patio first before going to the bar. I do just that and run into my party out on the patio, which pales in comparison to the 2nd Floor Lounge. Everyone decides to go into the main bar area. There are small groups of people on the dance floor doing their thing, a couple people hanging around the DJ booth, and the occasional waitress walking by with a tray of lab test tubes, each holding a bright coloured liquid inside.

I go up to the bar to order a drink, so I reach in my wallet and pull out the last remaining ten dollar bill and fold it in between my index and middle finger. I look to my right to see a girl ordering a drink. Man she looks familiar, that couldn't be... She looks at me. We both look away towards the counter and then slowly turn back to one another. "Matthew Hunter?" She questions.
"Shannon?" I respond.
"Oh my God, Matthew Hunter!" She says and runs up to me for a hug. Shannon and I were good friends back in high school. When she went off to college and I to University we just lost touch. We got updated quickly on each others lives and who we still hang out with back in Oshawa and then she went off back to her friends and I got my Corona.

We all head to the dance floor to dance and so we get in a big circle. This old guy breaks into our circle and starts harassing the girls. He must be like 75 years old, waving his hand around and smiling. He does these stupid dancing and all the guys are cheering him on. He finally leaves much to the girls relief. However he keeps coming back and harassing them more, I can't believe they let this guy in here. It is always something with the Trash let me tell ya. We all head for the stage where he can't bug us. A couple of the girls take off their grass skirts and place them on the speakers. Nick and I grab them, and in a complete drunk decision decide to put them on over our jeans. A couple of girls took note down below and look sheepishly up towards us with a camera in hand. She finally got enough courage to go on stage and ask to get her picture taken with Nick and I. So we did, with Nick on her left and I on her right. We gave our drunken smiles and a flash blinded us. She thanked us and went back down below to her friends.

After dancing for a long time we all decided to head back home. It was only about 02:00 hours so when I got outside I hung around the ramp for a bit. "Hey why are you such a fucking dick?" Someone says to me. His face is all red and angry.
"Oh I know man, I have no idea." I say back to the drunk guy. He keeps looking back at me as his friends prod him along the walkway crossing Water Street. The party finally gets out of the bar and towards a taxi. They pile into the van taxi cab and bid me to come in. I tell them that I have to wait around for a friend and so they speed off east on Water. I look back and see Alison, Kevin and that other girl with the sparkling wine earlier on today. I tell them that the taxi cab just left and Alison gets upset that they abandoned her. I guess it's been a rough birthday for her. The girl tells me that they are going to have a talk and that I should just go see my buddy. I tell her that I have to wait around for an hour anyways so I'll just hang around by the corner and make sure no one bothers them. She says thanks and they go sit by some stairs and I walk back to the corner of Water and Simcoe, across the street from the trash.

I observe the nightlife by leaning up against a street lamp. People yelling and running down the streets. Girls swearing as loud as they can about something or other. I look down Simcoe and see that same guy that lipped at me earlier walking towards me with two girls and some other big dude. Maybe he has forgotten about me in his drunkeness. I don't usually end up hanging around after the bar alone, in fact, after Aidan got shot in Montreal I made effort to make sure of that. However this time I was alone and as he got closer it was clear that he wanted to talk to me further about something. And then some.

"So why are you a fucking dick?" He asked me again. His face is still red. He is a really big dude, but around my height, wearing a red basketball jersey over a long white shirt and red hat to match. He has broad shoulders and his body fat matches them width wise. "What are you talking about?" I ask.
"What am I fucking talking about?!" He says, "You fucking disrespecting that handicap old man in the bar."
"I seriously don't know what you mean."
"Oh I think you fucking do, you were shaking you head and you wouldn't give him a fucking high five when he came around." He said getting closer to me. Is he talking about that creepy drunk old man?
"Alright man, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disrespect him."
"Don't apologize to me! Go apologize to him!"
He continued to talk to me in my face and I got fed up with it so I just walked up in front of his face and stare at him. As he talked I could see his crooked bottom teeth overlaping one another, and his eyes glazed over from drinking. I just stared back, not smiling, not scared, but just staring back intensely. He finally stops talking and stares back at me. What should I do? Sucker punch him? Hit him in the bridge of the nose to water his eyes and run. No I can't run, what if he reconizes the girls and then harasses them. Ok, I can dislocate his jaw by slamming my fist downward into-

"What? Do you want to go?!" He asks interupting my thought.

Ok that's it for tonight, looks like there will be a part 4. Until then.

Peace.

Stacked.

2006-07-28T02:03:00.000-04:00

I wanted to take a small break from the current storyline. I just got home from Jordan's tonight.

Today was pretty much uneventful as this whole week has been. I wake up everyday and check my GTalk messages for my brother's daily task for me to complete. Put the garden hose in the garage, clean up the beer bottles, bring in the green bin and recycling blue boxes, put the dishes away, clean up the beer bottles... It is really fun because it gives me more purpose in my day rather than just watching Star Trek. Which brings me to later on when 13:00 hours come around I watch my daily dose of Deep Space Nine, though it's not that great today with a focus on Ferengis. John gets home and we eat some beef jerky while watching Star Trek The Next Generation. It is really funny because when we were little we'd always watch it together growing up, but I'd have to ask him what some of the technical stuff meant. Sure enough I found myself asking him stuff that only he'd know, inside information about alien races and technical abilities of the ships.

We BBQ'd up some sausages on the patio. I run up and down the stairs to watch a bootlegged Pirates of the Carribean 2 and to help out with the food. I did what my father would do, supervise. However when my brother pointed out two earwigs that were mating on the BBQ I fetched a stick in the yard. In my bare feet I sprung around on the grass on my front pads. The grass feels so soft. I get a little twig from the yard and poke the earwigs down the BBQ and stop the mating process. Bet that pissed him off. There is more around the BBQ which is made partly out of wood, one earwig I poked got squished a little bit by the pressure and was hanging from the BBQ from his own bug guts. It eventually fell to the grown and it crawled under the deck.

After the dinner I called up Jordan's cellphone at around 21:00 hours to see what he wanted to do. "Hello?" A voice droned. It was Nelson. I told him I wanted to do something with them and they started arguing. I could hear the the background Nelson saying "Why don't you pick him up?" And then some murmer. "You aren't that drugged up." Nelson said in response. Some more murmer I guess from Jordan. "Fuck you! You dirty-" Nelson says and then laughs. I start laughing too and then mention that I'll find out if my bro can drop me off if he isn't drinking. I ask my bro and he agrees to it. When I get changed I asked if he wants to stay and hang out with us which he agrees too.

We drive there and park in Jordan's driveway. It is just becoming dark now. My stomach feels a little sick, probably from all the beef jerky. I manage though. I ring the doorbell and Jordan lets me in. I introduce John as the fourth for asshole. "Fifth." Jordan corrects me.
"Fifth? Who else is here?"
"Jessica." He says and walks into the living room. I say to John aside that I don't know who he's talking about. I walk in and I am introduced to her, skinny, pink sure, glasses and brown curly hair. "Hi I'm Matt."

"Hey you shaved your head John. Looks good." Jordan says. "You should do it now." Indicating me. I pick up the fashion section of the newspaper on the footrest and say: "I would, but my hair is everything to me, it would ruin my modelling career." Everyone laughs.

Jordan throws a deck of cards on the table and we gather around for a game of asshole. We play the first game and Jordan becomes president and I actually become asshole, I had some really shit cards. The next round Jordan looks at my hand and drops all his low cards into it to give me triples. The cheating already starts. During the game I get a kick to the legs, reach down and pick a card out in between his toes. A wild. I use it to get neutral. Game after game carrys on, I am always the dealer and I deal from both the top and bottom to stack the deck. I give all the good cards to Jordan and all the bad ones to Nelson. I see Jordan dump some low cards in the swipe pile, he looks at me with wide eyes and we both laugh cause everyone is so oblivious to our cheating tactics. In the end though my brother finally notice me dealing from the bottom of the deck and that ended it all. We all had a good laugh and then the night was over.

The previous night, the 26th of July, I stayed up to the late hours listening to the collection of vinyl records in the basement. I would listen only to the ones where I have not heard the name before. To my surprise I found some rare gems. I found a new love for Janis Joplin, her voice is so raw I loved it. My middle finger is starting to bleed now because of all the times I pushed the skin back to reach in for more records. We have about 300 of them down there. After that I decided to stop and I put some aside to steal for my own collection of records I like to play.

I still have a couple boxes to tackle.

Ok that's it for today, hopefully I can finish off the Prodigal Son arc tomorrow.

Peace all.

Prodigal Son (Part 2).

2006-07-25T13:19:00.000-04:00

"Ok Kelly, I need you to do me a favour." I said. We continued to walk down Water Street towards Nick's house. I am wearing my American Eagle button-up shirt that is white with thin blue, orange and brown strips with some faded jeans. Kelly is all dressed up with plain button up shirt tucked into black slacks with nice black shoes.
"Um ok."
"If anyone at the party asks, tell them I am a writer fulltime, and that I write non-fiction and technical writing."
He laughs for a second "Oookay, to the girls?"
"Well yes. Well to anyone. I just got out of school and want to avoid telling everyone I'm unemployed and then answer the next question about what my life plan is. If I just say a job-" I begin to impersonate a hypothetical person, who for some reason has a messed-up-high-pitched-voice "-they'll say: 'oh wow, that's really cool, blah blah blah'"
"Alright man, no problem."
"Thanks bro."

The sun is hidden under the horizon, a small breeze blows through the streets which shifts a bit of the dust on the roads. The sky is a very light blue grey, and it is still a little sticky from the heat. The breeze feels nice passing through my shirt causing the collar to flip up momentarily. We take the Rotary Trail the rest of the way to avoid as much traffic as possible. Of course the entire way we have to talk about girls and situations. It is unavoidable and really Kelly is the only one I have these half hour conversations with non-stop.

We arrive at Nick's house and can hear the music in the backyard and people walking back and forth from cars parked out in front. His black steel arc gateway has balloons and hawaiian phrase posters all over it. Some dude looks at us and introduces himself as Ty. He crushes my hand. "Party is in the back boys." We thank him. I look at my finger and there is a big indent where my ring pressed up against it. Man that hurt. We go to the back and I don't reconize anyone. We sort of just stand there. I look around briefly and then raise my hand in greeting.
"Hey everyone, I'm Matt, this Kelly." Some people introduced themself after, some just sat there drinking. I could feel a sense of awkwardness. "Ok, well, we're going to find Nick."

We went upstairs this time to look around for Nick. I see him in the kitchen and he looks at me and grins. "Oh, my God, this guy. This guy!" He says, and as I extend my hand out to do the handshake he grabs me in for a hug. "So glad you could make it." He continued.
"Yeah dude, wouldn't miss one of your parties."
Kelly took Nick aside to go talk with him and left me in the kitchen with these two girls, Natalie and... and... I couldn't make out the other name. Kevin was there too, he was the dude you may remember that I hung out with that time I got lost in Peterborough (check the archives for "Get Lost"). He says hi and offers me a Corona because of my inability to get alcohol in time for a party. Half the reason is cause of the bus situation, other half is laziness. I'll owe him one someday. The two girls were both wearing poka-dot tops that cut off at the top with grass skirts over jean shorts. Natalie was wearing a red version and the other girl white.

We talk for a bit and exchange info one what school we went to and stuff like that. One asked what I was doing now after school and I told her about being a writer, and right now how I am doing a non-fiction project for my dad. "Oh wow that is really cool." Said the girl in the white. Natalie had no opinion on it because she was too busy trying to stand up with a drink. I think she is really sloshed. After talking to them I went to see where Nick and Kelly went and they are out on the balcony. Nick and I get to exchange updates on our life while we were out there. Nick's balcony is really small, it is just a slab of concrete above his door going in the house. All wooden railings with loads of plant and tree coverage. More people pile into the balcony now and the door has to remain open. I meet Nicole and Julia. At least I think that is there names. Doesn't matter I guess, they both look like fake blonde bimbos.

We all head to the back yard where everyone else is. I then meet... Man I am bad with the names tonight. I can't recall her name but she is really cute. Kevin is all over this girl though, they share the same sense of humour. When Kevin leaves I am left to chat with her one on one. She lets me sip her sparkling wine and then I recommend some other sparkling Italian red wine. She asks what I do for a living, and I mention the writer thing and the non-fiction with technical writing. She get excited and then I ask what she does. And Kevin returns. Everything stops while those two joke around and act silly. I am rather amused by it actually and I wonder what their relationship really is.

At this point Kelly has to leave for the bar to work and tells us to show up later. I still hang around Kevin, Nick and this other girl for the rest of the party in the back yard.

Ok that's it for now. Peace.

Prodigal Son.

2006-07-24T02:48:00.000-04:00

I began to fade in and out of consciousness; an image of a 1/4 on a green sign flashed by as I passed out again. The rain was a vast mist that came down hard on the windows. I finally was able to maintain being awake long enough to realize where I was. I am back in Peterborough. I look out the window of the bus to see some familiar sights, like the shopping stores along Landsdowne, the Rotary Trail, and of course the downtown sector. I am listening to the new track by The Killers on my MD Sony Walkman, “When You Were Young, and the lyrics couldn’t have been more appropriate.

So how did I get here? Why am I here? A lot has happened since finishing my last exam for Trent University and then returning home to Oshawa. I get off the bus at the Greyhound station and plant my feet to the concrete. I only had one thing on my mind: Night Kitchen pizza. I call up Kelly to let him know I am in town and will be arriving shortly. I walk to Hunter Street along Alymer and turn around the bend. To my surprise I see a patio outside the Night Kitchen. I am not sure I like this new change in such a short period of time. I walk in and get the lunch special, two pizza slices and a pop or water for $5.50. I get a plain pepperoini slice with spices and my fav slice of feta cheese, leek, and spinach green. I choose the water to accompany the slices. I place my sleeping bag carrying sack and backpack by a stool and sit down with my pizza. I started to smile a bit because I keep remember that time that I came here with Rob and how he said he loves to see me come here cause of how much I love this place.

After the feta cheese pizza I go right into the pepperoni, only this time I do a little local tradition and put a little bit of honey on my slice. So good. I look around the pizza store and admire some of the artwork along the puke orange wall. One is just a bunch of angry black strokes of paint mixed in with some red to balance. Others are just weird abstract paintings of unknown people.

I then walk back along Alymer Street to the nearest entrance to the Rotary Trail which should lead me to Kelly’s house. When I get to Parkhill Road I instantly became shocked at the amount of construction work going on. It looks as though they are fixing the Rotary Trails very make-up. I walked along George and then cut into the small one way side street that connects to Water and then to Kellys house. I knock on the door. No answer. I keep knocking on the wood parts, on the glass parts, and then back to the wood parts. No one comes to the door. I begin to call his house when the door opens, it’s Kelly’s roommate. We talk for a bit and he invites me in. Kelly comes out of his room with a big grin. “Hey man, I am so glad to see you.” He said and we do the handshake.
“Good to see you too man.” I said.

We go into his room and I throw my things down and we chat for a bit to catch up and find out what has been going on since we last spoke. I mention the big camping trip I went on, seeing all my friends and hanging out with them, going into Toronto for some crazy adventures, trying to get a job and the interviews I have been going to.

We played a little bit of PS2 before deciding to hit up Subway for dinner. I was famished. After we finished eating we had to get ready for the big party.

My buddy Nick that I met from Walkhome invited me down this weekend for this huge house party that he is having at his house. I couldn’t say no to it, I really wanted to go back to this city, and I wanted to party. It was Hawaiian themed, but I decided on just wearing a nice stripped shirt. Plus I knew there would be some leis floating around. Kelly tells me the bad news that he has to work today, but he will come for a little bit to Nick’s house. I tried calling Nick at around 16:00 hours and his roommate Alison answers and tells me to call back around five thirty because Nick is out. I get caught up in some PS2 that I didn’t call back until 18:30 hours and she began to laugh because he just left again. I asked her what time people are coming over and she told me between eight and nine.

So we get dressed up and walk over there at around 20:30 hours.

Ok that is it for tonight. Will add part 2 tomorrow.

Peace all.

Comes Full Circle.

2006-06-16T00:28:00.000-04:00

I woke up and started packing myself. It was sort of a sad affair to say the least. I called up Kelly and told him to show up later on to say some good byes. I packed up my clothes last night, so this morning I thought I would get the dishes done and out of the way and then get my computer all unhooked. My father was suppose to be coming at around 16:00 hours. I get a call from my mom at around 12 noon and she tells me that he is on his way over now. "What?! I am no where near ready, why is he coming now? I haven't got like anything ready to go, he said four o' clock!" I exclaimed. Nothing could be done though, he was coming early. I started to rush now, I had an hour before he got here. I cleaned up the house as best I could by throwing away the garbage out in the bins by the street. I then went to my computer get it all unhooked. I was starting to sweat now, so I walked to the G&P Milk Variety to get some pop. I am liking the new black cherry vanilla coke. When I get back my father pulls into the parking lot. I automatically scold him for coming early, but he shrugs it off. I tell him I am no where near ready to go, he says it's fine and just tells me to get back to packing.

I move a bunch of things down by the bottom of the steps for my dad to carry to the car. Kelly arrives at the door and we chat for a bit. He wants to talk about this girl with me, and I tell him to hush up around my dad. In case he gets carried away. My father and Kelly chat for bit around the car while I pack away more stuff into boxes to put at the bottom of the steps. I move down a couple more and then my dad instructs Kelly and I to put on the plastic bag for my matress. So we do, struggling to put it on by scrunching it and then shimming it down the length. "Kelly, this is just like putting a condom on a big dick." I joked to get some laughs. "Only this mattress is white!" I said to get more laughs from Kelly and a "Hey now!"

I get to the dishes and clean them up and dry them off in a hurry and then putting them into an empty cardboard box. It didn't take me long to do so, but my mom kept calling on my cellphone wondering when we are going to leave. I give the cell to my dad who fumbles with the keys. "Just press the big black square dad," I said. I also wished my mom a happy birthday before getting back to work.

After everything was all packed I did one more round around the place to make sure everything was in order before I left it. Everything is check. I shut the door and locked it and went in the Buick. We took the usual route out of town, south on Parkhill, then west on Television road which turns into the 35/115. On the highway.

And just like the first day I went to University in the back seat of this very same car, I fell asleep and started dreaming.

Ghosts Of Myself.

2006-06-15T21:42:00.000-04:00

I left the curtain open so that in the early morning the sunlight would shine on my face and eventually get hot enough to wake me up. I didn't want to set an alarm for the last day of my University career. I eventually got out of my bed and made my way down the stairs to the kitchen where I opened up the fridge and grabbed the 2L jug of OJ out from the rack and started to chug a bit down omitting any thought of using a glass. It's just more dishes to do. I got changed and then did my usual run of the blogs online and e-mail inbox checking. I also put on my exam song, P.Diddy - Let's Get It. Ever since my first year I have always played that song just before an exam. Every single time I am not even kidding you. It was a silly tradition I had because when I wrote my first exam I had that song in my head in 2001.

I finished what was left of my Assignment 2 so I got all my books in my backpack and rode out to hand it in to the professor in person. No more sliding under the cracks of doors business. It was a bright sunny day and I was in a contrived zen-like mode as I was riding down the Rotary Trail towards the school. Nodding my head to everyone and smiling the whole way there. They must have thought I was high. I took in every sight while on the trail, from the flowers in the grass to the birds in the sky.

When I got to the campus it was pretty empty, there were no persons to be seen anywhere. My mind would make images to fill the voids in the scenery. Memories of that time I walked to Blackburn Hall for the first time. The times I would walk into the athletic complex with my Jitsu stuff ready to train. The path to the athletic complex that would be filled with students walking to their exams. I rode my bike up the ramp to LEC, I could see myself standing out there throwing a snowball to Jessie's window to get her to let me in. I rode up further to the podium and see myself dancing with everyone when the first heat waves started coming after the long winter, and the sound of the drums that the students would beat on that would be heard all over campus in raw perfect rhythm. There faces like stone, big sunglasses covering their eyes as they beat the drums, and their full black beards. There is the bridge crossing the Otonabee river, I look to Champlain College and look at my old residence buildings and remember all of us playing in the snow after a night of drinking. And of course another vision of when I sat on the stone steps by the river by myself looking out in the waters wondering to make of everything. I never really figured it out just yet.

I finally made it to Gzowski College and I locked up my bike to the railings and walked up the steps. I went into my profs office and he greets me. I show him my Assignment 2 and he says thank you and asks if I am ready for my exam. "Oh I better be ready," I said, "It is my last one ever!" I exclaimed.
"You're last one of the summer?"
"Last one for good." I corrected and motioning my hands parting from one another.
"Well congradulations!" He said and shook my hand. "You'll be just fine, don't worry." He said.
That's all I wanted to hear. I went to the business resource room after and sat with Alison for a while. We traded knowledge of the class and gossiped a little bit too. When 18:00 hours came around we headed downstairs to write the exam. We sat outside the doors on the benches with a bunch of other people in the class. The song played in my head. Make this money, make this money, ain't no way they can take this from me... Finally the prof invited us all in and we scrambled to get a seat with a peice of paper. After doing some simple explaination he said begin and all the students flipped their pages.

The exam was all multiple choice so I circle methodically, and whenever a question requires some accounting math I work it out on the scrap peice of paper. Some questions I second guess myself and cross out previous answers and circle other answers. I am a sucker for "all the above" option, I always circle that answer. Which is usually assigned the letter D. After about an hour I check it over throughly and hand it in. I wanted up the steps without looking back and got on my bike and rode home. The sun was setting in the sky as I crossed the bridge. It was all over.

When I got home I had to celebrate by getting a pizza at 2-4-1.

So the parents called me up to ruin my celebration and to inquire about the exam. I give them the best details I could to satisfy them. They told me that they are picking me up in the morning and to pack as much as I can. So of course that night I did the exact opposite and just eat pizza all night and watch TV.

As I lay in bed to fall asleep, I looked at the ceiling of my room because I was too excited to sleep.

It was all over.

When I Should Be...

2006-06-14T10:26:00.000-04:00

I was in my room by myself as usual, with my notes all spread all over my bed, looking at my computer and typing up some parts to my assignment. The occasional glance outside when a noise is heard. It is getting pretty late and I am just doing the final touches on my assignment. I can't believe my final is tomorrow, seems unreal. Nick called me up on the cellphone to tell me that his computer is not working. I needed to get out of this place. I got on my bike with all my computer software in my backpack and rode out on the Rotary Trail towards Nick's house. It's a calm night as it usually is in Peterborough. The trees create their shadows along the path, and people still can be seen on the sidewalks and on the trail, even though it is 01:00 hours at night.

When I get to his house he opens the door and looks like crap. I found it necessary to tell him this and he got a chuckle. His excuse was something to do with the strange shift hours he has at his job. I get upstairs and look at his computer and try to fix it. He pours me a beer, which he knows I can't decline, and sip that away while he lays in bed. "Man. I am beat. I don't know how much long I will be able to stay up." He said. I continue to work on the laptop and actually get some progress. "Alright, I fixed it up as best I could, I really need to install my anti-virus software though." I said. He told me he would rather I didn't cause he just purchased some software from McAfee. Uggh. I told him there was nothing I could do further and he understood that. We then played a little bit of PS2 and I totally realized that I should get some sleep and more studying done for my final. I bid him farewell and went back home.

So here I am now, it's around 10:30 in the morning. I pretty much finished my assignment 2 the best I could. Now I just need to do some more studying. I will write about it tomorrow.

So wish me luck!

Peace.

Skip.

2006-06-12T12:42:00.000-04:00

Again for some reason my father thinks it best that I wake up really early to go back to Peterborough. It’s not like I’ll miss my class at 18:30 hours anyways. If I am going at that. It is just a question and answer session for the exam, no new material. I think I will take the day to try and get this Assignment 2 done; I really have trouble with the budget section (chapter 9). Anyways, the Jays game was amazing, it was so exciting. Funny at some points too. We were so close to the action it was ridiculous. I also love that feeling when you walk up towards the inside of the stadium, it is so overwhelming.

Anyways I gotta get this done faster so I can do some moderate studying for my exam on Wednesday. I can’t believe it’s almost over!

Peace.

Take Me Out.

2006-06-12T02:29:00.000-04:00

I ended up getting picked up Friday evening and driven home. I did not have much time to pack for things, just a bag of clean clothes, my books, my GameBoy Advance, and another bag full of dirty laundry. When I get home I automatically get the call from the friends to see if I want to come out. I happen to agree and convince my brother to come along too. We all agree to go to Nelsons to drink for a bit. John and I drive to the LCBO to prepare for the night. John and I split on some bottles of Grolsch beer in the swing top bottle form. Later on that night Jordan picks us up and we head over to Nelsons house where Jay and Peter are already there. We sit around Nelsons table, the usual oval round kitchen table with blue checkers on a white surface, and then covered in a transparent plastic. John opens his warm beer and some of it geysers up into his face. I was downstairs talking with Nelson at the time it happened, but he was sure to warn me when I got back. I aimed my beer neck towards the sink and outstretched my arms putting all my strength into my thumbs to open the bottle. When it gives the beer shoots out and misses the back end of the sink and falls to the floor and a bit on the table itself to draw some laughter. I quickly clean it up so Nelson doesn’t get yelled at by the folks in Portuguese.

Jay starts to drink his big bottle of Fireball whiskey by doing shots, and over the night he seems to drink more and more until the bottle is just past halfway. He is becoming noticeably drunk, but not too bad. Peter has a small micky of white rum which he mixes almost half and half with some warm ginger ale, a brave poison. He drinks it slowly to not be overwhelmed by it. Jordan finishes the other half of his ginger ale without alcohol because he has to work early tomorrow. So after all of our catching up we decide to go to the Tartan.

Of course Jordan could not come out to the bars with us because he had to work the next day. So it was just my brother, Jay, Nelson, Pete and I going to the Tartan that night. Since we were all drinking that night we all walked from Nelsons house to the bar which was in the Rossland Square. I am hanging back with Nelson and chatting about things, and he is complaining about physical problems and wants to relate due to our similar design in appendages. As we walk down towards the bar, the night becomes really muggy, and quiet. As expected there are lots of cars on the streets at night, but only becoming moving lights brighter as they draw near, and then vanish. They are the background noise to our setting, and we laugh and share stories as we stumble along down the sidewalks side by side. I call up Kate just before I enter the bar to see what she is doing for the night, and she tells me that she will see what is going on with the people she is hanging out with and try to swing by. “Ok, hope to see you.” I said, and I hang up by closing the flip on my cell phone.

Nelson and Peter stay just outside the bar because they want to go to the nearest convenience store. The rest of us pick out a booth at the far wall just beyond the pool table. I asked the waitress for a pint of Murphy’s but to my dismay they don’t have it. I ask her what kind of stouts they have and she lists every beer they have on tap. I get a Guiness. We sit and chat and Jay is increasingly more drunk when he is sitting at the table with us. Peter and Nelson have been outside for almost 30 minutes it seems, I called Pete on his cell phone and he tells us that they are just outside and waves to us through the translucent glass windows at the front. I see a blur go in an arc-like motion. They finally come back inside and order some beers. After a little while Jay goes outside with Peter. I assume it is due to the large amount of Fireball whiskey that he just drank that needs to be emptied out of him, but no details emerge.

We all left the bar because it was getting late and everyone was already partied out. As John and I wait for a taxi cab ride home we stop into Square Boy for some pizza slices. After we get our slices Jay, Pete and I stay outside in front. It is strangely cold outside for a late spring day. We hunch our bodies to preserve the warmth while we scarf down the pizza. Looking into the window we can see John and Nelson who wanted to eat inside. Both of our parties are silent to the other through the large plexi-glass window surrounded by neon light. The backlit sign for the Square Boy logo is buzzing in an odd matter and it makes me and Peter a little uneasy.

Nelson and John finally come outside to join us and Nelson lights up a cigarette. Our cab finally arrived and we waved our good-byes and hopped in the cab. The trip home was quiet, and the driver let us off just where McClure Court begins.

Leaving John and I to walk to our house and sneak in so the parents can not find out our time of arrival. They are always ever curious to know this piece of information and find dubious ways to figure it out. But over the years we have outsmarted every means.

Like fucking ninjas.

Scholarly Tradition.

2006-06-11T01:14:00.000-04:00

It was Friday afternoon and I was still doing the final touches on my rushed-out-late assignment for managerial accounting. I look at my cell phone clock which read 15:40 hours. I figured that the prof might be in his office still, or the secretary would be at least. I got on my bike as usual and rode as fast I could down the Rotary trail to hopefully get my assignment in person to someone. As I crossed Water Street into the next section of the trail I changed gears and the chain fell off its track. I nearly wiped out from the sudden stoppage of my chain, but I maintained my balance and squeezed the brakes to halt my ride to a stop. I jumped off and inspected my dilemma by squatting down. The chain was wedged in between the gears and the frame that connects the back wheel’s axel. I reef on the chain with my hands until it finally gives, doing so causes my knuckles to scrap on the gears. I put the chain back on its track and continue along my way. I consider biking back to wash my hands but decide to do it in the school’s washrooms instead.

So continuing along my way I see the normal amount of trail goers going the opposite direction of me. I laugh to myself because I am visualizing me waving to everyone passing by with my black grease palms to get some reactions. I don’t actually do it though, and writing this now: I wish I had. I look to my left and see the sun sparkle on the river that follows the path; it can be barely seen through the foliage of the trees. I think about getting my hands wet to get some of the grease off but I really do not want to go rustling through some bushes and get all muddy. I finally got to campus and carried my bike up the library steps because I wanted to park it over at Gzowski College. When I put the bike back down on the concrete I left black fingerprints all over the frame from where my hand was.

I locked up my bike on the steel railing just outside the building and ran up the steps to the Business Administration Wing. Before seeing the professor, I jutted in the mens washroom to wash my hands. It is really difficult to get the grease out with the cheap foam soap that comes out of the dispenser, but I tried my best and got a lot of it out. I still had to resist rubbing my eyes.

Walking down the hallway I see other professors hanging in doorframes and bugging other people in the department. Obviously nothing better to do in the summertime. I looked left and right on the various name boards to see where my professors office was located. I finally saw his name, Jamie Morales, and knocked on the door loudly. No answer. I tried again, and stood there motionless with my right ear cocked upwards to listen to any sound. Nothing. I walked back to see if the Business Administration secretary was in her office and could timestamp my assignment before I hand it into a drop box. No one is there either and it is just after 16:00 hours. I shrugged my shoulders and did what I normally do here at Trent and slipped the assignment under the crack of the office door belonging to my professor.

I rode my bike back home and washed my hands thoroughly some more until it was finally reasonable.

Well that’s it for now, I will write about the Jays game next.

Peace.

Blue Jays.

2006-06-08T15:53:00.000-04:00

So my dad calls me up today, and normally I would dread the normal ramblings of the old guy asking me how the accounting is going. Everday, no joke. However this time he is calling me to tell me that he has four tickets to see the Blue Jays on the 10th, 25 seats back, row 118. He asks me to look them up online to see if they are good tickets. I immediately stop what I was doing and looked them up online and sure enough they are amazing tickets. I called him back right away to tell him that I am a go for the game. Now I just got to figure out how I am going to get this report finished in time.

It is a 1500 word essay type report on Activity-Based Costing versus other methods. Our research is an article he provided and the textbook. It doesn't seem that bad, just getting started is always the issue. Plus my stolen internet isn't quite up to snuff.

I biked up to campus to use the school's computers for a while, which I used to get the .pdf file online of the article. Jordan also sent me a photo of me running to Jays car from last night. Pretty funny.

Anyways that's it for now.

Peace ya'll.

Art In Dark Alleyways (Part 2).

2006-06-07T23:42:00.000-04:00

I skipped class today Wednesday, June 7th, 2006. I had to finish up some assignments that are already late. Eek! This class is really coming close to an end. I really got to get a hold of things. Anyways on to part two.

Gertis is really packed for a Tuesday night surprisingly. Aside from maybe one booth that has a high turnover rate, the rest of the place is filled up. We sit on the stools and order some drinks. I get my usual pint of Murphy’s while Jay and Jordan both get a Long Island Ice Tea. The cute barmaid puts my drink down and looks at the glass for a second and takes it back. “Oops! That ain’t a Murphy’s! Sorry about that.” She dumps the unknown contents into a drain. In my head I picture myself reacting as if to save the beer from such a dishonourable demise. Instead I sat there quite baffled at what just took place. She eventually returns with my drink and we all noticed that one of the spots on the patio outside was available. We picked up our glasses and pounced on it quickly. The tables outside are square, high and made from a cross-woven black metal. The outside atmosphere was alive with strange characters walking past us, people enjoying their stay at a café patio beside us, and of course a bunch of people like us having conversation while drinking.

“Here, let me take a picture, pretend you’re having a normal conversation.” I said while picking up the digital camera off the table.
Jordan looked at Jay with his usual smirking face and Jay striked up what would be their normal conversation:
“So Iraq, weapons of mass destruction eh?”
“Yeah-” Jordan started and they both started laughing. I eventually got a good picture out of this tomfoolery.

As we continue conversation these two girls walk by dressed all in black. Black tank tops, black mini skits and stockings past the knees. Some with black hair, some with blonde and of course your classic dude with them also dressed as a Goth. Jay inquired about what is going on tonight and I speculated that it could be a fetish night that the bars around Peterborough have once in a while. Jordan was right on the money however by noting that today was June 6th, 2006… which is the opening date for the movie The Omen, and a supposed devil’s night cause of the number significance. I tried to take their picture but the crowd on the patio seemed to get in the way.

We finished our drinks and I told them that they gotta try out the pizza at Night Kitchen. Jordan is an avid reader of this blog and has read countless times of my trips to the pizzeria. We both order my favourite spinach, feta cheese and leek pizza. Jay doesn’t order a slice because he isn’t hungry. “This is the only time in your life that you’ll be able to have this pizza though!” I exclaim. “This is no Pizza Hut type thing man!” Despite my pleas he stands on his decision, so we move on and walk around downtown scarfing our pizza. Throughout the walk I point out places to the guys and funny events that have happened. Like the phone booth that I received the mysterious request, the Double Double pizzeria which was Aiden’s favourite place to go, Hot Belly Mamas, and so forth. I ask if they want to stop in any other bars but they tell me that they are just interested in walking.

I show them the enterance way to the Junction, which is pretty much the place to go on a Saturday night. I begged Jordan and Nelson to come to the dance club one Saturday. Nelson was the only one to take me up on that offer. We circle round to Water Street where I show them more spots along the downtown core. When we get to Hunter Street I tell them that they have to go to Sapphire Lounge. They tried to get out of it but I wasn’t going to give in this time. We walk in and sit at one of the tables; I walk up to the bar and order a dark rum and coke, and a long island for Jordan. Jay is driving back home soon, so I don’t get an alcoholic drink for him. I offer him a coke when I sit back down but he declines and eventually gets some water.

As we sit there laughing about inside jokes, we take notice to the set up at the front of the bar. Two turntables are set up with milk crates full of vinyl records. They start to play really awesome tracks too. I notice that JR is up there too bobbing around to the music. He is the owner of the Bluestreak record store on George and probably the best DJ in Peterborough. He walks by our table and I nod in his direction. “Hey man thanks for coming out tonight!” He yells. He is drunk again, but at least he noticed me. We shake hands. Brian Costello walked in the bar too and we said “Hey” to each other too and did the handshake. “The Ice Tea at Gertis was better, it had a sort of tang to it. This is alright, but ya, that tang.” Jordan said, analyzing his drink.
“Oh really? I thought it would be better mixed here because this is a cocktail bar. Hmm.” I responded in thought. Oh well, maybe they have declined over the years.

After finishing our drinks and enjoying the music a bit more we walked back to my place at Peter Robertson Place. Across the street however we took note to a dark alleyway, the road entering it looked like cobblestone, and on the brick walls you could read faint graffiti and other markings from vandals and young people of days past. At the end of the alley was an even darker scene of a scantly darkly light parking lot with shady cars and dumpsters. Jordan entered halfway to use the wall as a washroom. When we got back they gathered their things and got in the car to head back home.

“See ya guys, thanks for coming.” I said.
“Yeah man, see you soon.” Jay responded. As they pull out the driveway to George Street I rush to meet them on the other side by running. Sure enough we meet on the street and they are stopped at the red light to turn left. I picked up a pinecone and underhand tossed it towards Jordan’s window but missed and it lightly bounced off the top of the frame. Jordan snaps photos of me. With my camera! They turn left but are met with another red light and so I went on the middle of the road running towards their car screaming and Jordan leans out to take more photos of me. With my camera! We all laugh as I just reached their car when they pulled away due to a green light. I walked back to the sidewalk and got a pizza slice at 241 Pizza.

It was delicious.

Art In Dark Alleyways.

2006-06-07T12:12:00.000-04:00

With the possibility of Jordan and Jay coming down for a visit, I thought I would sneak over to the LCBO to get some beers for the night. I got on my bike and rode downtown taking the Rotary trail most of the way. It was a bright sunny day as it has been all week. Yesterday was mostly uneventful, just had to attend another class with Managerial Accounting. I can’t believe it is almost over, we are doing chapter 12 already and that mean we have one more chapter to do on Wednesday, chapter 14. I still had to finish up a couple late assignments though; I don’t even think I will be able to hand in the first Case study. Oh well.

I get to the LCBO and park my bike against the railings for the wheel chair ramp and put the bike lock on by wrapping it around the metal poles. I struggle, like I always do, because the bike lock is in a coil and wants to spring back to its original state when it is stretched out. A person is sitting in front of the LCBO with a little flute that he occasionally puts to his lips. Another performer is lingering about probably to have his turn at a hot spot to gather change. I step in front of the doors and wait for them to automatically open. I browse around the store not entirely sure what I really want to buy. I think about getting some Strongbow cans, but then decide to look at the rum section instead. I pick out a 26oz bottle of Capt. Morgain’s Dark Rum and hold it in my hands at the neck of the bottle. I then cradle it like a bottle of wine and observe it. Choosing would be so much easier if we were able to smell them. I carry it around with me in the store and humour the wine section of the store. This LCBO is really lacking in that department and nothing really catches my eye for something for the night. I walked all around the store, looking for anything to satisfy my craving. I entertained a few offers from the different sections of the store, and eventually put down the dark rum for some Strongbow cans.

I loaded up my loot in my Adidas backpack and then went on my bike to head back home. Opening the door with my key and then backing in my bike into the living room has become a habit now I could almost do it with ease. If only that damn screen door would get out of my way when I attempt it. I put the cans of Strongbow in the fridge, but open one right away as I feel like a nice cool beer after my journey. My cell phone rings and it is Jordan on the other end of the line saying that he is almost in Peterborough and wants directions. I told him that I would meet him at the Subway at the corner of Water and Parkhill. He tells me he will be about 15 minutes. I hung up and rustled around my living room and bedroom to make sure it is clean enough so people are not tripping over anything. Plus I don’t want them to think it is a third world country living situation here, even though it really is.

I walk over to Subway and lots of cars pass me by on the road beside me. The sun is still bright this late in the day but it is not overly hot outside. I stand in one of the parking spots looking into the distance east of Water Street. I can only make out the odd car but I could not see Jay’s Echo anywhere. Just then Jay pulls up beside me and Jordan is chuckling in the passenger seat claiming to have been taking pictures of me like some sort of covert operative. With my camera! I get in the back seat and give Jay continuous directions to my place up until we get into the parking lot which is beside our building. We get out and walk towards my Unit. “Wow it looks exactly how I pictured it.” Jordan said.
“Oh ya?”
“Yeah, U of T has some residences that are similar”
We get into my pad and sit down on the furniture surrounding the table. I offer them some Strongbows to which they gladly accept and we all crack open our cans. Cheers. I give Jordan one of my Toronto Star newspapers to show him the picture I noticed of the Convocation Hall from U of T. It also had an interesting write up about some Russian diplomat that came to speak at this Hall and was interrupted by a swooping pigeon. After sharing stories and finishing out beers I tell the guys I wanted to show them something in my room. While we are up there I show them the other rooms in the place and they both agree that it is a pretty cool place. We all chill by my computer and I play them the video from the 2006 e3 convention, specifically the Nintendo conference. Why? I wanted to show them the new console that is coming out by Nintendo called the Wii. Much like Kelly, they were instantly impressed, especially with the demo of the Tennis game.

“So did you guys want to check out a bar?” I asked.
“Yeah man I’m up for it.” Jay responds.
“Yeah, sure.” Jordan says with a shrug.

I lock up the place and we all walk down the Rotary trail to the downtown sector. The night sky came faster than expected and it is near completely dark outside. When we arrive at Gertis it turned into the night, and we all sat at the bar, envious of those out on the patio. But it will be ours soon, oh yes, it will be ours.

Part 2 soon.

Get Lost.

2006-06-04T23:38:00.001-04:00

I forgot to mention a few details about last night. I brought that umbrella that Nick lent me after the yard sale adventure with me everywhere that day. Sure enough I thought it would be a great idea to take this along with me to the bar. I lost it somewhere that night. I can’t believe I forgot about that whole thing. I guess another damn moment that won’t make it into story mode.

Well today I rode my bike up to Wal-Mart to get a new one for him that would look almost the same. I got on my yellow bike (Tanya) with my Adidas back pack on and rode out at around 17:00 hours to the store. I took a bunch of side streets to avoid doing too many hills and heavy traffic. I made my way around town and darting in and out of various side streets. I had a general direction of where I was going. It was pretty relaxing to just ride the streets in the sun and see what is going on in the neighbourhoods. I was going pretty good getting towards Wal-Mart, but eventually I made a wrong turn and had to turn my bike around and go back the other way. The suburbs in this area are your classic brick houses with trees lining the sides of the road. Chalked up sidewalks from children, old people waving hi to you, and the grown littered with buds from the trees.

I turned onto Sunset Blvd, the connecting street to the Chemong straight. Nothing is too exciting about this road despite its famously stolen name; a few houses on one side, and a park on the other. I go on Chemong and ride on the sidewalk beside the traffic, cars and SUVs zoom past me as I bike uphill towards Wal-Mart. When I get to the top I rode around the parking lot to the very edge because of the elevation you can see almost all of Peterborough from this height. The town looks like a miniature model from afar; everything is shrouded with bubbled treetops with the occasional building popping out, most notably the classic building with a cylinder obstruction for a roof, the ones reserved for important historical buildings.

I walk into Wal-Mart wearing my grey tank top and shorts, plus the usual accessories like shoes, shades and Jays baseball cap. I walk around the store hopelessly looking for an umbrella. I dodge moms with shopping carts and runaway kids in the narrow walkways as I made my way to the clothing and accessory section. I couldn’t find anything remotely like an umbrella so I asked one of the confused workers who eventually asked someone else who lead me to a small stand of where the umbrellas were located. I picked up the cheapest one and took it to self-checkout. After paying for it I went back outside and hopped on my bike to ride over to Nick’s house.

I stopped suddenly on Chemong at the sight of paved trails going either way. I turned my bike to the trail leading west and headed down it. I called up Nick after a few minutes to let him know I am on my way over to his place. “Ok here’s the deal.” He started. “Mikaela kinda recruited me into going for a walk, so I recruited my buddy Mark, and now I am going to recruit you.”
“I’m going to be a while though; I actually don’t know where I am right now.” I said.
I wasn’t lying, I was actually wondering if it was a bad move to go on this paved trail.
“What do you mean you don’t know where you are?” He asked.
“I thought I’d take a side trail to get to your house, but now I am thinking it was a bad idea.”
“Is it paved?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t worry then, it will lead to my house.”
“Ok, I’ll call you back.”

I continued for another fifteen minutes and actually ended up more West than I should have been. Oops! I recognized Parkhill road so I decided to take that back to the main roads so I can get to Nick’s faster. When I turned onto Parkhill road I noticed another paved trail that spiraled downward on an elevation, with the end not visible. I turned my bike down the spiral and it picked up speed down the curving slow which eventually straightened out and curved back through some woods. I was really going fast at this point but it was thrilling so I continued at the speed. I rode over an all wooden bridge with a roof and jumped off the end of it onto some gravel path. I took this path further going in some unknown direction. I am thinking at this point that I found some path I’ve never seen before, and thought it really cool, so I continued along. I had no idea what direction I was going, but I figured it would take me to a street which I could get off at and then figure out how to get from Nicks from there.

The gravel path was really secluded; to my right the trees were right beside the trail the entire way. I would look inside the foliage as if to see if there was anything to it, but I can derive that it was only condense wilderness. To my left there was a river and often I would pass over a small bridge. I could see some teenagers on the other side of the river with mountain bikes talking on cell phones. The occasional person would pass me on the opposite direction so I anticipated finding a road soon.

No such road would show up though and I eventually had to stop a middle aged woman walking down the trail to ask her if a street was coming up. She asked if I was around here before. I didn’t want to say yes because then she would just think I am stupid, so I said no. She told me there is a street up ahead, so I continued on my way. I see an old couple walking towards me from the opposite direction, I get to thinking that there is no way that these old folks have walked that far and a street was coming up. I nodded at their presence and pressed on. The sun was behind the trees at this point and I could really hear the wilderness sounds all around me. I see a mother walking with two children towards me and I smile as I pass them by. Ok, there is no way that kids would walk that far, there must be a way off this trail into the city. Right?

I see a small stream that made its way across the gravel trail, I jut to the side to avoid most of the water so that it doesn’t splash up on me. I get my tires wet however so I slow down and let the gravel sand collect on the wheels. I turn around a bend and the scenery totally changes. It now looks like a setting from a wetlands brochure with tall whips protruding out of lily pad infested murky water. The water was on both sides of the trail which now has straightened. No road in sight. I call up Nick at this point and tell him about my location and the details. He has no idea where I am or where I am going. I see a couple of girls pass me by on bikes so I stopped one of them and asked them about a road, and they tell me there is one just up ahead. She rushed off to catch up with her friend. I told Nick that I’d call him back.

I ride for another fifteen minutes and get to the end of the trail. I was so relieved to see cars going back and forth on the road. The girls were at the end of the trail too and they asked me where I was going. I told them that I wanted to go downtown. They looked at me with gawking eyes and started to chuckle. “Yeah you have to go back, this road leads to Lindsey.” One of them said.
“You got to be kidding me.”
“Nope, this is the very outskirts of Peterborough.”
The cute one told me about going left will take me to Flemming College, but it’s a long bike ride. They argue a bit about the truth of the directions and eventually come to the same conclusion. I should bike my buns back. Her words, not mine.

I call up Nick to tell him I have to bike all the way back the way I came on the trails. He offers to pick me up, but I wasn’t 100% sure on my location. So I rode back. I started thinking about where that old couple came from, or the mother and kids, cause it was a least 4kms from where I ran into them on the bike. A couple of guys rode past me on motorized scooters which almost deafened me. The bugs were starting to come out and I was actually worried that I wouldn’t beat the night sky. I didn’t bring my LED lights with me on this journey. So I biked as fast as I could to get back to my old location. Passing people again on the way there, over the same small stream, over all the same bridges with the chain linked fence. I get to the park area again after around thirty minutes and see a circle of kids playing a game. I look over to my right and see more paths going all around. I make a sharp right which makes me drift a little on my back tire. I start biking up this trail that was a steep hill. I got about halfway and thought better of it because it would have worn me down. I rode back down the hill and turned to another trail that went deeper into the forest. I figured what do I have to lose?

It actually worked in my favour this time because after passing by some kids I found myself underneath a stone bridge which leads to a park. A park I was familiar with cause it is right near the Rotary Trail which runs through the city. I bike on the Rotary Trail and eventually get to Nicks house. I was so happy I was able to get there. I ran his door bell and he chuckled at my sight. I handed him the Wal-Mart bag with the umbrella. He looks at the bill. “Wow, five dollars, you really went all out.” He said with a laugh.
“Hey man, it looks exactly like the one you lent me.”
He agreed.
I went upstairs and met Mark and we all watched some TV until Mikaela came over, to which we omitted the walk and decided to drive to McDonalds instead.

We pile in Nick’s low-to-the-ground-80s Honda Civic and get to the McDonalds on Chemong Street which is right near the Wal-Mart. “You know,” I said in the car, “I really didn’t think I would see this part of town for a long while.”
We all laughed, they couldn’t believe my story as I recalled it in the car. Nick drops off Mikaela at the Blockbuster and we all go to McDonalds and sit down for some food. We joke, talk about women, and funny happenings. After we finished our meal we laughed at how sick we felt afterwards. We picked up Mikaela at the near DQ, and then drove back to Nick’s house.

I got on my bike and made my way home. Without any shortcuts.

Back In Time.

2006-06-03T23:55:00.000-04:00

I sat around my computer doing nothing, staring at the screen trying to get a good strength in the stolen connection while refreshing websites. Nick finally gives me a call at around twelve noon to see if I wanted to check out some yard sales. I of course agree over the cell phone and we agree to meet at the G&P Milk Variety store where he can pick me up. I’m wearing regular jeans and a shirt, and knowing that it is raining a little bit outside I put on my Reebok warm-up jacket. I get across Parkhill barely, as the traffic was pretty heavy. I lightly jogged towards Nick’s car which is already parked awkwardly across several yellow parking lines. “How’s it going?” Nick says dryly.
“Not bad, not bad.”
“So where we heading?”

We discuss several options which lead me to suggest we check out the East city first and then make our way back to University Heights later. He agrees and starts to drive downtown. The car zips along and the rain starts to drizzle a little heavier, people are smoking in doorframes along George Street, and to top things off the classic guy with a white t-shirt is running down the sidewalk to his location. “Which street do I take?” Nick asks. I tell him to take his next left on Hunter. The car tries to pick up speed over the Hunter Street bridge and we hit the East city just past the Quaker Oats building. This section of the city looks completely different than the rest of Peterborough. It almost is comparable to seaside towns in Ontario. Much more pleasant and less run down, and has that home-like cottage feel to it. We drive around the suburbs and stop at a few garages sales. We look and pick up the odd thing on the tables, one guy had a working organ player for sale too and he started to play it. I bought a CD by The Doors which is sort of a “best of” compilation. We pop it in Nick’s car stereo which was currently playing nothing at the moment. We weave around streets until Nick spots a wooden bridge. “Man, a wooden bridge, should I take it?”
The car is stopped in the middle of the road.
“No, don’t bother, probably nothing over there.”
“Man, it’s a wooden bridge, I have to take it.” Nick says and pulls up to it and makes his way over.

Once we got over the bridge the scenery totally changed. The overcast clouds were greyer, and all the houses were made from aluminum panels along the sides, some white, some light blue, some even green… with the odd brick house in between. We stop at a house having a yard sale. We get out of the car and look around, light rain falling on us. A couple was outside near their junk and all their stuff was from the seventies. Even their vehicles and clothing were from that era. We poked and prodded and found nothing of interest. Though the guy did show us this vegetable oil fuel system he implemented for his car which was really cool. As we got in the car the Doors began to play again and we went back over the bridge. “Man that was so weird.” I said.
“Why’s that?”
“Well, with this music playing, and all that stuff. It was almost.” I stop my sentence to think.
“Well it was almost like we traveled through time, which the houses, his cars and all that.”
Nick started to chuckle and agreed with me. “Yeah that’s kinda funny.” He said.

We looked in other areas in the East City, further along we kept on the road that ran underneath this giant stone bridge. It had huge narrow arches and ran parallel to the river. “Wow, I have never seen this part of town before.” I said. We look to our left and right at the foreign place we were at. Large fields, a bunch of boats at the docks, chip trucks every few miles, and an elementary school made from red brick. Continuing around this area we found more cottage-like houses with aluminum panels on the exterior. All of them were up top of hill with streets curving all around, and each were coloured in various pastel-like paint. They overlooked the river to the West, and in the grey rainy sky it almost looked like a great view.

After we finished our yard sale adventure on the East city we drove all the way back to University Heights to check out if anything was around there. Before we got there though, we noticed a yard sale sign pointing towards the country road North West. We decided to take a small trip there. We looked around everywhere but couldn’t actually find the yard sale. The rain started to pour really heavy no when we were driving along the road, so we decided to turn back. When we finally got to University Height we saw a giant sign telling us of a big street sale. We looked around and it looked like everyone was packing up. I notice one house that still had some stuff out so me and Nick get out and walk towards the door. Two little kids look at us and head out the door and run about with no one around. I’m starting to get a little nervous because I’m thinking “what if this isn’t a yard sale.” But a girl came eventually and told us to look around. We did and I noticed some old computer hardware that peeked my interest. Nothing I could use though. The rain started to pick up heavier just then as we were walking back to the car so we rain the rest of the way and jumped in.

Satisfied with our finds, we drove back to Nick’s house where he invited me for some beers. We sit down at his kitchen and he cracks open a bottle of his homemade beer and pours it into some frosty glasses. Cheers.

“That vegetable oil car was kinda cool eh?” Nick asked.
“Yeah, that was cool.”

After enjoying some beers with Nick I decided to head back home with my loot. It was raining outside so Nick let me borrow his roommates’ umbrella. It was a long walk home, all my stuff was in a price chopper bag that Nick gave me, tied up at the loops and held by my index and middle finger. I took the shortest way possible, meaning of course, the rotary trails. I finally made my way home and left the black umbrella open outside while I put stuff away inside. My cell phone rang.

It was Andrew on the other end. We talked for a bit and apparently he was in town and wanted to meet up. Andrew was my next door neighbour when I was in Champlain College residence for my second year. He was in town signing a lease for a place for next year. I took him up on the offer and we agreed to Dreams & Beans on Hunter Street. Even though I had plenty of time, it was soon later that I realize that I am running late so I put on my white Reebok jacket, pick up the umbrella outside and jog down George Street careful to avoid any puddles along the way. I finally get to the coffee shop and see Andrew at a table. I get my coffee and sit down and we have our usual conversation about games that we are playing, funny stories, preposterous ideals, and various other boondoggle subjects. I usually come to this coffee shop when I go on dates with girls, it all started in first year when I went on a date with a girl from San Francisco; Davida was her name. The entire place is composed of wood, from the furniture to some parts of the walls. Very obscure photos line the sides of the yellow-grey bricks, and in the front is a black iron patio. The actual coffee counter is in another room separated by a door frame with no door.

We finished our coffee and made our way around town, stopping in at some local used gaming shops before they closed up. It started to rain heavily now and we decided to get some food from a place near Night Kitchen called Caribbean Cuisine. I tried to persuade him into pizza, but he would have none of it. We both ordered a rotti with some banana soda. It was very spicy and overwhelming with curry. It was not too bad though. After that we went back to my place at Unit 5 where we had some beers and wine. I invited Kelly over too who showed up soon after. We all had some laughs and then Kelly wanted to head out to the bars. We convince him to come to Gertis with Andrew and I.

Gertis was fairly busy this night but we all managed to get a spot at the bar and ordered our drinks. I of course got a pint of Murphy’s, Andrew got some Creemore I think, and Kelly didn’t get anything, but the bartender gave him some water anyways. Cheers. We all had some laughs and got to tell Kelly some stories about our residence year together. Those days will certainly be missed.

After we had our drink Andrew parted ways with Kelly and I who walked back home. Laughing and joking the entire way.

Small Sins (Part 2).

2006-06-01T15:00:00.000-04:00

I invited Kristen in and she looks stunning. She is wearing a light green dress that flares at the knees, but not in a tacky way. She is totally done up too. I'm wearing my stripped black golf shirt that is sort of wrikley, but at least my unmanagable hair looks good after I gooped it with wax. "Geez if I knew you were going to look this good I would have dressed up too." I said. She told me not to worry cause only her and Dave were dressed up cause of having a dinner with their families. She snoops around the place like a cat entering a new home, checking every nook and cranny. She sees Adam's room and awws. "I miss him." She said.
"What?! Are you serious?"
"I shouldn't miss him, should I?"
I shake my head.

I get into her car and she takes me to Riley's pub which is right beside the Junction. Unlike Gertis, which tries desperately too look like an Irish pub, this is one. Nothing against Gertis though, I still think it's the best place around. We get inside and see a table with Stef, Dave and Henry. Henry is an international student who was in my 410 class. We all sit down and start talking and they are all exstactic about graduating. The waitress comes up to take our orders. "Heikenen." Henry asks. "Sorry. We don't have that." She replies. He looks around the table and shrugs, thinking of another beer.
"Blue?" He asks.
"Blue?" She replies.
"Yes."
And then she looks at Dave who asks for a Coors Light.
"Sorry. We don't have that either."
We all start laughing, and we can tell that the waitress is starting to get nervous.
"What light beer do you have?"
"Ummm... Bud light and Blue light."
"Ok I'll have a blue light."
She looks at me.
"Murphy's." I say confidently, it's my fav thing to order at Gertis.
"... Sorry... we don't have that either."
Dave cracks a joke about how we are all getting shut down.
"What stouts do you have?"
"Guiness."
"Ok one of those."
Kristen jumps in and orders two Tree Frogs. The rest of us raised an eyebrow.

After we get our drinks they raise a toast to graduating. Cheers. And then realized I haven't graduated yet and added in "... and soon to be graduating." Cheers again. Everyone but me shared in a laugh about the working world cause they all have special titles that go with their job. Human Resource Manager, Communications assistant... etc... I think it's kind of funny to have a job title. I look forward to my first official one.

Henry and Stef eventually had to leave. So I was left with Dave and Kristen. "Are you getting another beer?" Kristen asks me. I told her I wasn't cause I know she has to get up really early in the morning for the ceremony. We start to get up and then Kristen covers her forhead in disbelief because her and Dave's family have just arrived. "Are you going to stay?" She asks. I tell her that I was thinking about going to 2nd Floor Lounge cause I believe Kelly is there. She tells me to stay. "No, no, I don't want to impose." I said. She tells me it's "ok" and to stay. So I walked out the door to the other bar to get money out of the ATM. I get $20 dollars out cause I figured that's all I needed. I went back to the bar and ordered a pint of Kilkenee. Kristen's father comes up and tells the bar tender that he's going to cover for it. "Thank you." I said. Kristen comes up from behind to tell her dad what everyone else has ordered. "So who is this guy?" Her dad asks. She explains how I'm her friend at Trent and I'm going to be the guy that will come up and network their printers. "Oh, what do you take at school?"
"I'm in business and computer studies."
"Oh? And what do you want to do after."
"Well I plan on getting into information systems-"
I get cut off with someone else talking to her dad. Why do I always get cut off talking about this stuff.
"Yeah so it's like networking." I say simply.
"So a good guy to hang around." He says to Kristen.

We sit at the table and talk some more and her dad keeps buying me beers dispite my protest of taking out twenty dollars. I even offer a round. He explains to me more an aspect of business that could benefit me in the future. I'd detail it here, but, well you know.

After I could tell everyone is finished I said goodbyes to everyone and hugged Kristen goodbye.

I walked my way to the 2nd Floor Lounge to see if anyone is still there. I look at my cell phone and it is past 1am. I couldn't believe I was at the bar that long. I am just blazed though after all those pints. I walk up to the bar and there is Kelly walking out and towards me. "Hey!" He says.
"Dude, what's going on? Why are you leaving?"
"Oh, total meat market in there."
"Man, I really wanted to drink."
"Where are you coming from?"
I tell him the brief version. We decide to head back to our respectful houses. I manage to convince him to stop into Sapphire Lounge though cause I really wanted another drink. I order a southern comfort and gingerale and it was mixed to perfection. The bartender gave Kelly a free water cause he was just sitting there with nothing. After the drink and conversation we head back. And I fall asleep no problem.

Peace.

Small Sins.

2006-05-31T23:31:00.000-04:00

I woke up early to try and finish this assignment in time for class. However I spent most of the time just chatting on Skype. I went downstairs at noon to warm up some of that pizza that I got yesterday. I sat there and tried to eat the slices but for some reason they tasted really bad. I looked at my third slice, the cheese melted all around it, the veggies kind of soggy. I couldn’t do it; I had to throw it out. Then when the storm rolled in I had to shut down my computer for a while. My mom called me up at around 16:00 hours to make sure I wasn’t going to ride my bike to campus. I assured her that I was actually going to take the bus there. I get my binder, textbook, clipboard and jacket in my backpack and head for the bus. There is a light drizzle when I step outside. The sky is overcast with grey clouds causing every plant life to illuminate with a brilliant green. It makes you recall someone’s voice in your head telling you how much they love how green everything looks when it rains.

I wait outside the bus stop just outside the shelter. Cars speed past me on Water Street and the sun makes short appearances. When the bus comes around the corner and stops, I walk up the steps and put my money in the slot. When it beeps I sit down near the front. The bus was a little early so the driver took a second to take a break and let the bus idle. I try to open the nearest window by pulling on the grey lever mechanism. It was jammed. I gave up on it and tried to open the window on the other side of the bus. It was jammed too. So I sat back down and sweated in this airtight bus. Fortunately the bus ride was fairly short and only taking ten minutes to get to campus. When I get off the bus I notice a bunch of small pine trees lined up the steps towards the podium. On the podium floor is rows and rows of small cheap black folding chairs. A lonely security guard paces back and forth on the stage area in front of the library doors. I have never seen the graduation ceremony set up before. I then walked into the library and sat down by a computer to start work on my assignment. Just then my cell phone started to ring in my pocket, so I turned off the ring and then answered it. It was one of my friends from class, he called me up to tell me that he actually got caught cheating in class. I couldn’t believe it. I packed up all my stuff and went towards Gzowski College because I wanted to see my assignment now.

I popped my head in his office but he was busy with another student. I went into the business resource room where my friend Alison was. She was on the computer looking up news while waiting for class. We talked as I logged into a computer as well to chat on MSN. The eventually left and so I went up to the prof and asked if I could get an extension on the assignment. He said it was ok to hand it on Friday. I then asked about my assignment and apparently I was the only one not getting it back today because I handed it in a day later than the due date. But I didn’t mind. I went back to the resource room and hung around for a bit before class began.

Class went by fairly fast cause more material was getting cut out of the course due to the short amount of time we have left. Alison and I get to the bus stop at the library and debate whether we should wait an hour for the bus to arrive. We decide to walk all the way back despite the possibility of a looming thunderstorm. Walking along Water Street we stop at the local Kando convenience store. I get a PowerAid drink and some chocolate bars for the way back. I use to go to this store all the time in my third year because that was the year we all lived in that basement apartment at University Heights. As we continue to walk we are swarmed by bugs. Little gnats, other aphids and mosquitoes cling to our sweaty skin. It felt like we were hiking in jungles with the grey dark skies overhead, the bug treatment, and the noticeable sweat caused by a high humidity. We still walked on though as the grey skies turned darker until there was no more light to be seen. Along the side of the road there were people laughing behind some trees, seeping through came a vision of a flame. The fire penetrated the darkness and was the only visible oddity in a scenery of fast moving headlights and stationary street lights.

We finally got to our respective houses at around 21:20 hours. As I walk in to the Peter Robertson Place the bus we would have got on pulled up. I thought to myself, I saved $1.75 and an hour long wait to walk here, but I spent over $3.00 at the convenience store and got ridiculously sweaty. I guess I did get some exercise, but I ate chocolate.

I get inside and immediate take a shower. I get out and look at my cell phone and noticed that Kristen called me. So I gave her a ring back and she answers with a “Hello?”
“Hey it’s Matt. What’s going on?”
“We are all going to Riley’s for a drink, and I can come pick you up. Can you be ready in five minutes?”
I think for a moment.
“Can you make it ten minutes?”
“Sure no problem hun, I’ll see you there.”

I look around my floor for something to wear and finally settle on my white long-sleeved golf shirt with black strips and my AE jeans. I fix up my hair and go downstairs. As I open the door Kristen is there ready to knock on it.

“Hi.” I said.

To be continued.

All For Naughty.

2006-05-30T22:59:00.000-04:00

I had the fan in one position all last night; aimed directly on me lying in bed. I felt like I heatsink on a computer. Don’t ask. No covers on or anything it is so hot up here in my room. But I managed to sleep ok, after staying up to watch a special on the history of coffee on TVO. Then of course the business side of me thought up about running a coffee shop and the design I would use and stuff like that. Then I get thinking about accounting and all that boring stuff. Speaking of accounting I have an assignment due soon, which will take up most of my day tomorrow.

I wake up and get changed and walk over to the local G&P Milk Variety on Parkhill. They are really nice there, probably the friendliest owners of a convenience store in Peterborough. I pick up the latest Toronto Star newspaper instead of the Globe and Mail to test it out. I didn’t really like it as much though, not nearly enough interesting articles published as the Globe. Plus I found their Toronto and GTA section lacking despite the Toronto in its name. The Glove has far better Toronto coverage. Anyways, every page had something about the TTC strike and all that jazz, however there were some interesting job ads in the Business section. I was sitting outside reading it as this old guy was going back and forth with a lawnmower in the hot sun. He stopped it when he saw me sitting out there and started up a chat. I was sipping some lemonade and I offered him a bottle of water. He accepted and pulled up a chair and chatted a bit about this and that. I was going to talk with him about issues in the paper but thought I better not get him aggravated. You know you bring up stuff like the Natives creating blockades, or the illegal immigrant situation and some people get heated and like to flap their gums. So we stuck to talking about the weather. The weather and lawn care, because you know, I use to do lawn care in Scarborough.

He starts up the lawn mower again and covers up his baldness with a bucket hat and trends along. I go back to the paper feeling the hot sun on my arms. I put on loads of sun screen before heading outside. After reading the paper and separating the interesting stuff from the boring stuff (not joking), I decided I need to get out and get some biking done. So I get everything ready and cycle to the University. I put it on the highest gear that my bike can handle to make sure that my legs get some exercise and I speed along the trail towards Trent.

I get to the yellow poles that mark the beginning of the new part of the trail and I recognize Stephen Brown my old academic advisor and Master of my college in first year. I say hello to him as I pass by, but he does not recognize me in my shades and hat, but says hi back anyways. I get to campus and decide to bike around by going along the wheel chair ramps. I first go up to LEC where the entrance ramp is and stop for a moment to look at the outside of the college. So many memories, even at this college, like doing snow shoveling, throwing snowballs at girl’s windows to let me in, and going to their cafe on the weekends when the Great Hall was closed. I continued my journey across the bridge towards Gzowski, and when I got there I was unsure where to go, so I took the road back leaving the campus area, and then turning onto another road leading back to Ontonabee College. From there I took the steep ramp upwards next to the Chemical Science building and then back towards the bridge.

I raced down the ramps towards LEC and back down the entrance ramp. It is really cool when you go fast here cause at the bottom of the steep ramp there is curving asphalt right away, so you lean into the turn and the centripetal force whips you at increasing speed towards the main drag. Of course you have to stop when you get there or else you might be hit by a car. If it’s late enough coming back from class I whip around there and go across the road without stopping towards a jump that hits the parking lot. So much fun.

So after I ride around campus I bike back to my place in Peterborough. I go online and test out Skype. I use to go on that program a lot back in 2003; I called it my fantasy land. I use to randomly search for girls all over the world to chat with them and ooze over their accents. I actually still talk to one from the United States, really cool girl. But this time around I used it because I heard about their free SkypeOut to landlines in the Canada and USA. Can’t beat that! So I called up Jordan and talked to him for a bit, I could hear him just perfectly it was scary, but he told me that my voice was not coming through that good. It was understandable though because I am technically stealing internet from someone far away. I called my parents, who didn’t answer right away because it came up weird on the call display. They wondered about the technology and I gladly explained it to them… on my cell phone. They couldn’t hear me too good one Skype cause of… well you know. Jordan described it as if there were trucks in the background.

After that my dad told me to get a pizza, and I had a coupon for Pizza Hut, so I went to get a “chicken lovers” pizza from them. The girl behind the counter was a cutie who was obviously new working here because she was so nervous and someone was near her the entire time guiding her through the order. “Please make sure there are no onions on it.” I said with a laugh, “I can’t stand them.” She went to the back to make sure that none of the grease bags back their put onions on my pizza. Came back and told me that it will be around fifteen minutes. So I went back home and read the rest of the Toronto Star before my cell phone alarm went off. Picked up my pizza and enjoyed it back at my place.

The rest of the night consisted of me just chatting online, and now I think I might apply for some of those jobs I read in the paper. Busy day tomorrow, have to finish up this assignment.

Peace.

Arid.

2006-05-30T10:43:00.000-04:00

So I went to class on Monday night and let me tell ya, it was really boring. At the very start of the class the prof was saying how he caught people cheating and showed us on the projector the form you have to fill out when you get caught cheating. And so many people were confused on how you could actually be cheating cause it is textbook work. He explained if you did the same thing as a friend and both got the same thing wrong then he thinks it's cheating. Entirely stupid. He better not think I'm cheating cause I'll show him the 11 Excel files that I have of me doing all the formulas, then I'll write up an official complaint to the head of the business office, and then I'll contact a lawyer. I'll be damned if I'm going to let this stupid fuck ruin my university career.

We get back our assignments on Wednesday. Apparently cause of the supposed cheaters we no longer have a take-home exam. That really blows. I am definitely going to write bad things in his evaluation form at the end of the year.

Throughout class this student brought their kid into the classroom. Now normally the kid is not too distracting cause he'll just go in and out of the classroom. But today the kid was playing with toys and making all sorts of noise and the prof is a really low speaker so he was getting frustrated. The mom, who looks like she's only 22, was doing nothing to shut the kid up. If I was the prof I would have told her to leave. Why the fuck can't she buy a babysitter twice a week?

I came back home on my bike, so I got to put on the old squash goggles cause of the large amount of gnats lately. I had a bad dream last night where my bed was filled with dead gnats underneath the sheets. Yeck! But then I had a cool dream where I was playing Goldeneye 64 with Jordan, but losing. When I get home I walk upstairs and dispite my fan going on high it is extremely hot. So hot and sticky that I am just sweating. I couldn't figure out how the downstairs is so cool and the upstairs and unbarably hot.

All I did last is worked on the picture project a bit more and watched more TVO, the only channel I can get up here.

Well today will be busy... ok not really, but I might have to do that laundro-mat and who knows what else could happen.

So until then.

Peace.

Sweat.

2006-05-29T18:01:00.000-04:00

Today was uneventful. I just biked downtown to buy a ruler and a good pair of scissors for a project I'm working on. In my spare time I am scanning some photos I have taken in my third, fourth and fifth year of University and printing them out on photo paper. With these photos I am tacking them on the wall of this place as a nice surprise for the guys. I of course ran out of coloured ink so I turned all the photos to grayscale and it actually makes them look a whole lot better. The ruler and scissors is for the borders.

Right now I am in the library of Trent because the stolen internet was not working and I had to post my Saturday night to keep up with things.

I have class at 18:30 hours today which I am not looking forward too.

I suppose I should get over there and get a seat, so until then.

Peace.

We Might As Well Be Strangers.

2006-05-28T18:00:00.000-04:00

Well today was the day that Kelly, Nick and I went to go see X-Men 3. I got up pretty early at around 10:00 hours. I got ready and called up Kelly to walk over to Nicks before heading to the theatre. I’m wearing my glasses when I get there because I am a little near sighted and have to wear them when I watch a movie. I knock on the door and Kelly looks at me strange. “What are you ready to do some algebra?” he said. I peer back at him and tell him about being near sighted. When we get to Nicks house he offers us some of his homemade beer before the show. We tell him that it’s already 13:00 hours and the movie starts in half an hour. He runs upstairs to get ready, and comes back down with three small plastic cups of his beer. “These are roadies’ boys,” he says. We walk to the movie theatre located downtown in Peterborough, taking every side street and pathway to get there to avoid detection in the broad daylight. When we get the park on Brock and Alymer we finish our beers and toss them in the garbage because we’re at the busy downtown section now.

On Hunter Street a lot of commotion was going on as this female performer was setting up beside a newly opened restaurant called Sunset Café. Before it was where Grassroots was located, the health food store slash homosexual gathering spot. No joke, big rainbow flag in the window. All the rest of the pubs, cafes and other specialty restaurants had tents outside and chairs set up so that the whole thing looked like a festival. Gertis looks really nice because they put up some black iron fencing around to make a simulated patio on the sidewalk, and put a tree in one of the corners too for contrast with their maroon paint.

We finally get to the Galaxy Cinema and purchase our tickets. Nick has to get his frozen yogurt before the show. I have to break the seal from the beer because I know if I don’t do it now I’ll have to half way through the show. “I’m going to go to McDonalds and get a couple of burgers. Stuff them in my pockets.” Kelly tells me. I told him that it is already one thirty and that the show will be starting now. He was really determined to go, but I convinced him to wait until after the movie. When we get our seats the newest preview for Superman was showing, you know, the preview with Kevin Spacey in it. When I saw this new trailer I understood what everyone was talking about, it does look really good. The movie is just about to start; “We’re about to see something awesome boys.” Nick says.

We walked out of the movie pretty pumped and talking about what we saw. I think the first two films were WAY better. Nick disagreed. I’d give it a seven out of ten cause although it wasn’t as good as the first two; it still got me pretty pumped up unlike other films I went to see in theatres. Kelly was in an argument with himself on rating the film, could not decide between 7 or 8 out of 10.

We stop in at McDonalds so that Kelly can get some food and then we stop in at Price Chopper because Nick wants to get some jalapeno pepper poppers for us when we drink his beer. Once we get to Nicks house he opens a plastic bottle of homemade beer with some broken adjustable wrench. “The pressure of these things is pretty amazing.” He says. We pour three glasses. Cheers. Nick puts the poppers into the oven then sits back down to talk. Nick’s girlfriend Mikaela comes over and blends up some martinis for herself. Every time she does, she has to warn us because of the noise level of her blender crushing up the ice cubes. The poppers are finally ready and although I never tried them before I instantly fell in love with them. They are so good. We all chow down on them except for Kelly who is not feeling too well after McDonalds. After finishing those up we know that in about an hour we’re going to get hungry again. So instead of cooking later on when we know we won’t bother with anything good we should get something now.

So after talking for a bit we decide that we might as well get some hamburgers and what not to BBQ while we have these beers. So we all go back to Price Chopper and get some cheap Compliments burgers, 12 for $3.77, some ketchup and mustard. When we get back Nick pretty much takes over with the BBQ, while Kelly slices up tomatoes. I did what I do best and made sure everyone had beer in their glass. While the BBQ is going we all sit out on the porch that Nick has on the second level. It is a small concrete square with wooden railing around the edges. Trees and plants surround us providing a nest-like atmosphere. Kelly stayed inside near the TV watching Minority Report, but he ended up just falling asleep on Nick’s futon. Mikaela cooked up some baked potatoes in the microwave and then wrapped them in tin foil to put on top of the BBQ. After everything was done we went inside and ate the food. Nick decides to pop in a movie while we eat and cook up the second batch. He puts in Memento. Now don’t get me wrong, it is an amazing fucking movie, but after watching it we were all too bummed out to go to the Junction tonight like originally planned. Kelly and I started to walk back home.

On the way back we thought about it some more and decided at the very last minute that we should go to Junction tonight. So Kelly went back to his place and I went back to mine to get ready for the bar. I put on some dark navy blue slacks and the same Dockers shirt that I wore on Friday night. I didn’t have anything else! When Kelly arrived he was almost certain that today was going to be a good night. We walked downtown and there were a ton of people about hopping in and out of different places downtown. When we get to the Junction there is a short line up to get in, nothing major, and after ten minutes or so we walk upstairs to the bar and dance area.

We immediately follow tradition and head right for the DJ booth where we greet the DJ in the booth and start dancing. These two girls come up to me and ask I wanted to bike a candy off this girls shirt for a dollar. I kindly said no and went to grab a drink. “Rum and Coke!” I screamed to the bartender who mixes it half and half in a short glass. I walk back to the DJ booth and start dancing in an inhibited way to avoid splashing my drink everywhere. The same two girls approached Kelly to get him to bike the candies off this girl, and then they started asking me again. I give them two dollars to frankly leave me alone and Kelly bites one off near the side. I go near the chest and one of the other girls wants me to pose so I try to put it back in my mouth and look towards the camera. Never again I tell ya. The candies were a little stale too so I sucked on the sour key a little bit and then tossed it aside. Moments later my friend Stef comes up to see me who is here celebrating being a graduate. She looks so hot tonight, I made a note in my head to go dance with her later.

However, after about an hour the bar really started packing up and it was so hard to just move around. I went out to the bar to get a Corona and waited what seemed like ten minutes for the bartender to serve me. When I stuffed the lime into the Corona bottle I turned around and there was just a mass amount of unmoving people trapping me in my location. I eventually squeezed and squirmed my way through to the far wall on the opposite side. After I finished my beer I told Kelly I couldn’t handle this crowd anymore and we both left. They really need to fix that problem, it’s funny though, they have a huge dance floor but everyone packs in at the one side leaving a wide open area on the other.

We headed over to 2nd Floor Lounge afterwards. Inside there was a fair amount of people and so I went to the bar and tried to think of what to get. The bartender asked me what I wanted and I told him I really wasn’t too sure. I asked if they had any Spiced Rum, to which the reply was no. He then suggested this beer called Brahva or something because it has an odd shaped bottle and tastes kinda like Corona. I said ok and paid the man and went back to the dance floor. This bar is a much more cultured bar than the Junction because of all the international students who come here and the world music that the DJ always plays mixed in with good hip hop. After about an hour I get a little tired and tell Kelly that I am going to head back home. I leave the bar and start walking with my hands in my pants pockets and take a side route back.

Behind the bar is a pathway enclosed with chain fences. Further along you are greeted with incoherent graffiti along other building’s walls. When I get to the end of the pathway I get to Hunter Street. I looked right and then left and saw that Night Kitchen was not too far away. I looked in my wallet for spare change, but found none. Just then a woman walked towards me. She was very petite and skinny, wearing a black blouse and skirt. “Can you help me fix my necklace?” She asked. I said sure and went to work on the broken pieces, however, all the ends were loops and in the darkness I couldn’t figure out how they went together. She noticed my struggle and told me it’s alright and that she’ll just tie them together. “Sorry about that, wish I could help.” I said. She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “Do you have a smoke on you?” She asked.
“No, sorry, I don’t smoke.”
“Good for you.” She said softly and leaned over and kissed me again. “Have a good night.” She said and then went towards George Street.
“You too.” I said quietly; knowing that she didn’t hear me.

Watering Wallflowers.

2006-05-27T10:15:00.000-04:00

Most of the packaged grated cheese that I purchased a while back was all clumped together and starting to form some mold. To remedy the situation I biked over to Price Chopper to get some pitas and other supplies to fulfill my grocery needs, and my self-made pizza needs. When I got out of the store it started to rain, and I stood there with my school bag on my back and plastic bag in hand wondering if I should wait it out or just brave it. I figured it wasn’t coming down too hard so I made my way back home using the Rotary trail.

I talked to Nick and Kelly earlier today and tomorrow we’re going to see X-Men 3 in theatres sometime in the afternoon. Already got word from Ced and Scott that it is a really awesome flick, so I can’t wait.

I started making my pizzas and I called up Kelly to see if he wanted some before he went off to work at the Rooster. He came over and we ate some pizza and made jokes about Adam and the mean stuff we use to do to him through-out our fourth year. Kate and I would normally tag team him where if one of us insulted him the other would pop their head in and yell: “Zing!” Such good times. Kelly went off to get ready for work and told me to stop by at the bar tonight. I said maybe and he went along his way.

Upstairs in my room the internet actually started working for me quite well (I guess they read my blog), so I took advantage of the moment to catch up on my blog bookmarks. I have about 20+ blogs that I would normally read everyday, but with this internet connection I’m lucky to be able to get two in my daily schedule.

I was some what itching to get out and get some social interaction so I decided to head over to the Rooster. I threw on my blue Dockers shirt with white stripes that was lying on the floor and slipped on my Globe shoes and walked along George Street towards the bar. Along the way gangs of students owed the night. Some were gang of girls dressed up, some were high school-esque gangs of short white guys trying to dress like a black guy, and others were a mix of people expressing their individuality. They were all walking in the opposite direction as me, away from the Downtown center. This is very weird for this to be happening around 23:00 hours because this is prime time for the bars. I took some money out of the ATM at a bank and then stood in line up in front of the bar. Cedric was working the door so I could have just went up there and got in, but there were only two people in front of me so I thought it would be pointless. I remember how cool that was when I got Karen and her friends to skip the line with me that one night, (read Whitehouse) lead to some good rewards. I owe Ced for that one.

I chat with Cedric for a while before heading into the bar, we of course had to know if we saw 24 or not. Then we start doing some re-enactments from the last couple of episodes. I walked inside and there is a sparse amount of people, mostly around the bar. I go up and order a Corona and wave “hi” to Mike, who is an old residence mate of mine. I see Kelly at the wall near the patio so I go up to greet him and then I went outside on the patio to talk to Scott. He told me about what went on in Managerial Accounting last Wednesday and we shared stories about writing the assignment. I went back inside and stood by the wall and enjoyed the scenery. I had to eventually move away from the wall when a whole crowd of people were in front of me after a line up had formed to go outside. I needed another beer anyways. I stood around Scott for a bit after, who was now up on the stage on the opposite side. The bar was filling up fast now and the dance floor was getting packed. The DJ was being annoying by only playing clip-its of songs, some of which would have been nice to hear the whole version. He did redeem himself later in the night however by playing some sweet mixed tracks.

I ran into Leanne and Allison on the dance floor. Leanne is this tall beauty, about 6’1” I think or taller, and Allison is someone I am also friends with, she’s taking managerial accounting with me too. I dance with them for a while, Allison is so drunk it is rather funny, and when they eventually leave I stay on the dance floor for a while longer until it filled up with more dudes than women. That’s when I left to stand outside for a bit and talk with Ced.

Kelly always says that the best part about coming to the Rooster was not what was happening inside, but what would happen outside after hours. When all the drunken people come out from the bar fights always happen and drama blows up. One girl wearing this black top was holding her stomach and crying. Complaining how the girl bouncer kicked her in the stomach when escorting her out. I’m holding back some laughter though because she was just relentless in complaining. Of course when you are drunk you think you are in the right all the time. Later on this guy in a plaid shirt started fighting some random guy on the street. They were holding each other’s opposite arm and swinging each other around near a no-parking sign. It almost looks like a fight scene from west side story. After they were satisfied with the fight, the guy in the plaid shirt came up and asked Cedric if he can get in [the bar]. “I just saw you fight like two seconds ago!” exclaimed Cedric. He then told him a song and dance about how the bar is closing in ten minutes.

Everyone was crowding around the doors and nothing much else was going on so I decided to head home. When I finally got home from the walk I realized that I really wanted some coke (pop), so I took off my dress shirt and put on my Adidas warm-up jacket and got on my bike to go to the Macs all the way near my old place. It was a calming bike ride, I stood up on the pedals for most of the way looking all over in the dark trails for anyone lurking. When I got the Macs I put on the kickstand and went inside. It was the same as usual, the guy behind the counter is speaking East Indian on the phone, a couple of drunks are looking around for snacks, and I’m over at the drink section looking to see what I can get for the cheapest. I pick up the usual two cokes for $2.22 special. When I get outside I stuff them in my back pack and head back home.

As I approach a section of the trail a bright white parking lot light shines through some of the trees blinding my vision of the trail. It seeped through the trees and illuminated the fog around me much like when you see the sun shine through a window to reveal tiny dust particles. I looked downward to see if I’m still on the trail but all I could see is a dark void. Luckily I managed to get past no problem, you know, not running into trees or something.

When I got back in my house I drank one of the coke bottles and ate some all-dressed Crispers. What an awesome combination at two in the morning.

Peace.

Sub Culture.

2006-05-26T21:44:00.000-04:00

For some strange reason it was only early in the evening and I was feeling exhausted. Kelly claimed it was probably due to me spending so many hours doing that accounting assignment. I invited Kelly over to hang out last night but I couldn’t compel myself to stay away so I lay on my back on my bed and dozed off to sleep. It was around 00:00 hours that I woke up to here Kelly calling my name in my doorframe. “Oh man, I fell asleep, what’s up man?” I asked. He had some quite interesting stories to tell about this girl he’s seeing at the moment. I told him that I needed to get something, so to finish the rest of the story along the way to Mr. Sub. I know you’re use to reading about me going to Subway, but I had a coupon for Mr. Sub. When we get to George Street all we could smell is some sort of deep fried smell of sorts. Kelly and I discussed on what it could possibly be specifically but give up as the smell escaped us. “Dammit, reveal yourselves to us!” Kelly yells. The sound carries in the night because there are no cars on this otherwise busy corner during the day.

We pass by the notice of the unmarked cemetery sign again and find out that 501 George Street is actually the park and not some house. We made some jokes relating to ghosts of course and how we would want a new-age ghost who lived in our time, not some old-ass ghost from the eighteen hundreds. We get to Brock Street and this drunk dirty looking man and woman pass us by. “Do you have a smoke?” She asks looking at me placing her two smoking fingers to her lips. “No, I don’t smoke.” I replied. Kelly just walks pass her not even acknowledging her presence. “Hey, you didn’t say ‘hi’ to me!” The drunken girl exclaimed frowning. “Do I even know you?” Kelly said angrily and yelled back for them to just go home.

When we arrive at Mr. Sub on the corner of George and Simcoe we walk in thinking for some reason it is closed because nobody is in the place. When we step inside however this large guy walks out from the back and asks if he could help us. I reveal the coupon to him and ask if I could use it. He examines the poorly ripped out coupon and says I could even though he was not sure. The coupon states that if I buy one regular sub and drink, I get a classic sub free. Being an avid Subway goer, I had no idea what the fuck a classic sub was. I finally get my orders done and sit down; I give Kelly the free sub and he continues his story. I don’t want to get into too much of the detail because it is personal to him but let’s just say a girl he’s seeing came with some dangerous baggage.

We walked back home and parted ways at Parkhill and George and I went back upstairs to play more of those racing games before falling asleep. I leave the fan on it my room and it hums all night long. I can feel the wind through my hair as I lay in bed. Surprisingly it was quiet that night with no noise of sirens or heavy trucks. Just the fan.

Cell Phone Blues.

2006-05-26T02:08:00.000-04:00

I woke up rather early at 09:00 hours to my cell phone playing back a midi of a game area in Secret of Mana. I tried to snooze it but it was too late. I was wide awake. I rolled out of bed and moved all my papers from my chair back onto the bed ready for another session of managerial accounting.

That Wednesday night I couldn’t possible do anymore work. I called up Kelly at around 21:00 hours to see how his weekend was and such and eventually I biked over to go see him and to pick up a DVD that Cathy borrowed off me one night. He needed to get out of the house so we decided to talk and walk around the town at night. It was the usual conversation of video games and women that lasted for hours. We first started down George street towards downtown, when we got to the park with the statues of the Crusaders there was a giant white sign indicating that there are unmarked graves at 501 George street. Apparently these unmarked graves were from around 1820 to 1840 A.D. Well continued on our path and started to reminisce about how our third year started out. Kelly and I were ok friends in my first year, but when I moved in with him in third year we really became good friends. Same deal with Rob, who was moving in with us during his first year.

On the way back with used the Rotary trail and cut through different side streets on our way back to the Peter Robertson Place. Walking by this park surrounded by small run down houses this loud Honda came speeding towards us as we’re on the street. We dart to the sidewalk to anticipate his eventual arrival and when he pulls up he glares us down and then drives off. Kelly made some comments about the situation if the guy wanted trouble. When we got to my place I had to show him the e3 footage of the new Nintendo Wii because he was in disbelief that this thing was going to be better than the PS3. He understood what all the talk was about after I showed him the video. He left and I went to sleep right away cause as I mentioned before. No more work was going to get done.

As I sit near my computer all groggy the next morning on this very bleak Thursday, I tried to get the internet to work. It was just not connecting at all. I used my cell phone to connect online to check my Trent e-mail and Gmail. I went right back to work on my accounting until it neared 13:00 hours. I made plans to have lunch with Kalyn downtown today because she is leaving for New Brunswick on Friday. I walked downtown wearing my American Eagle jeans, Dockers blue shirt with white stripes and orange underneath it. The Weather Network claimed that some rain was going to happen so I thought about a jacket but it did not look like it was going to rain at all outside so I didn’t bother. I did however realize that I shouldn’t have worn so much heavy clothing because it was really uncomfortable in the heat. I walked at a steady pace downtown, I am a little early though so I stop into Chumleighs. I look at all the old PC games that he has, and of course the SNES games and PS1 games. Jimmy is there behind the counter and I had to tell him about how I went to a Chumleighs in Kingston. He told me that his brother runs that place but it doesn’t do that well. I understand why, there wasn’t too much stuff in the store, no like Jimmy’s. He told me about this weird thing that he caught fishing on a lake in Kingston. He pulled it out and showed it to me. In his hand was some large, very large, eel looking monstrosity. “That’s the mouth,” he said pointing at one end. “Very large, barb wire teeth,” he added. He explained how he showed it to the ministry of environment who replied: “You didn’t catch that.” I told him to e-mail me a copy of the picture so that I can show some of the locals in that area. I post it on here too.

I left and went to the meeting place but she was not around right away so I took some time and popped into some old book stores and a geek store as well to look at geek stuff. Inside the geek store the guy behind the counter was really engaged to his miniature painting, doing fine details to this little metallic thing which probably cost him over twenty dollars. I decided to just wait at the corner for her and to stop browsing around all these little shops. I leaned up against the brick wall and crossed my arms occasionally glancing at my cell phone clock. Soon after, but what felt like a long while, she showed up and we hugged and tried to decide upon a place to eat. We went to Maggies which was just on Hunter street and a couple seconds from where we met. However Kalyn didn’t have any cash on her so we had to go to the nearest Bank of Montreal instead. After she gets some cash we change our minds yet again on a place to eat and she takes me to a health food bakery slash restaurant that she apparently went to a lot in her second year. It was called Planet.

Inside it was fairly small upon first appearance, but as we walked down this narrow hallway the place opened up. The flooring was what appeared to be this clay red material, none of the chairs matched, some were wooden, some were metal, and all the tables were very 1950s in appearance but the metallic legs were all warped. We sat down at a table for two next to a picture of Jesus with the Mother Mary. The music they played was a mix between opera and Spanish guitar. The sandwich list read such choices as apple and old cheddar, brie and cranberry sauce and so on. Very odd combinations, and apparently it comes on their homemade bread that the bakery makes. I order the brie and cranberry with some juice. Kalyn gets the apple and old cheddar. We sit and talk for a long while about our plans in the future summer time and experiences in Peterborough. We both have a similar liking to Peterborough and the many experiences it has to offer with all its non-franchise places. Time was running out, she had to pack and get ready to fly out to New Brunswick, so I walked her a bit of the way to her place before we had to part ways. I carried the rest of my sandwich with me that I couldn’t eat in a brown paper bag. When I finally got back to my temp pad I changed into shorts and a t-shirt and collapsing on my bed.

I finished up the rest of my managerial accounting assignment and biked over to campus to go hand it in at either the main office drop box or slip it under his office door. I speed along on my bike down the rotary trail and after less than a minute I switch gears and the bike starts to jam to the point where I couldn’t pedal anymore. I get off and inspect my bike and see that the chain is off the gears and wedged in between the frame. Great I thought. I pull back the gear switch and grip onto the chain and pull it out after some effort. I put it back onto the track and hop back on the seat to continue my way. My hands are just covered with bike grease now. I try my best to avoid touching the grips and just let my hands loosely lay on top of the handle bars. I smile when I think about how silly I could be waving “hi” to everyone I pass by on the trail. I don’t actually do it though. Lots of people pass me along the way; the trail is busy as always. I think about stopping along side the river to rinse my hands in the water, but decide to wait until I get to campus where there is soap.

I ride up to the BATA library steps and dismount my bike and lift it up at the bottom frame up the steps. There’s no one around surprisingly, I guess there is very little classes being done on Thursdays. When I get up to the top of the steps near the bridge I hop back on my bike and put it to the lowest gear. On the frame now are four black fingerprints. I ride through the zigzag of the walkway towards the Gzowski college and when I get to the main doors I just dump my bike against a railing and head inside hoping to catch the Business Administration secretary before she closes up for the day. I get up the stairs and walk steadily down the hallway noticing the eerie silence. Hard to imagine that just a few weeks ago this place was filled with students walking up and down and profs darting in and out of their respectable offices. The office is closed. Using my new found time I went into the upstairs washroom and start to wash my hands to try and get some of this bike grease off. In the soap dispensers however is that foamy soap that doesn’t really do much to help my situation. I get enough of it off though and dry my hands with a blower. I walk all the way to the end of the hall and back until I stumbled upon his office doorway and slipped my assignment underneath the crack at the bottom. It’s kind of the Trent way to hand in stuff.

The bike ride back was uneventful and so when I finally returned home I ate the rest of that sandwich, taking off a lot of the stuff in between so that only the bread and cheese remained. I went upstairs to my computer and installed those two Microid games as my sort of reward for finishing that assignment. I waited around to see if Tim would call to head over to Gertis tonight, but it doesn’t appear that he’s going to.

Well that’s it for now, been playing those games a lot now, man they are so fun. The one game Warm Up! is a F-1 simulation game, and it actually has two player split screen on the computer. Very cool.

Peace ya’ll.

P.S. To the people whom I’m stealing internet off of… could you make your connection better for me? Thanks!

Old Chapters.

2006-05-24T19:06:00.000-04:00

As soon as I got back from my cottage over the long weekend I went right to work on the managerial accounting assignment that is due soon. I sat in my room with my computer and papers spread out all over my bed. During times I would have to get away from it all and head downstairs to warm up some pizza in the microwave. I then would sit on the big brown couch and eat my pizza starring out at the curtains. This would be come a regular routine during the whole day. I only got away from the computer once when I had to bike over to the Lansdowne Mall to pick up some black ink at Island Ink Jet. I now wish I purchased the double pack for $45.00 dollars when I was in Kingston just this past weekend. I had to go on yellow.ca to find out locations of computer stores to find ink. One particular store was listed as Peterborough Computers, when I called with my cell phone a woman’s voice answered simply with a “Hello?” in question. I explained how I was looking for a store called Peterborough Computers she sighed and had to tell me a story about how they are no longer in business, and haven’t been so in three years. I settled on Island Ink Jet and purchased the black ink for $28.86 dollars (plus tax).

I took some time and checked out the local EB Games in the mall since I was there and found a rare treat. Two old PC games were shrink-wrapped together and on clearance sale for $3.99. OpenKart and Warm Up! by Microids. I can’t resist buying old computer games with the ridiculously large boxes and the person behind the counter had to tell me the story of their locations in the store over time and how they originally were priced at $45.00 dollars roughly.

I biked back home to continue working on my homework. It’s very intimidating when you’re riding your bike around and all these cars are zooming past you all the time, even if you’re on the sidewalks. It makes me wonder why everyone couldn’t just bike around town; they’d save so much money on gas.

When I arrived at my temporary pad in the Peter Robertson Place I immediately installed my new ink cartridge. I had to change the printer settings so that it would only print out on grayscale using only the black ink. I then went to print out my assignment and realized I had no printer paper. Just one of those days I thought. I printed it all out on lined note paper instead. It actually looked really cool seeing all those income statements and formulas printed out on that type of paper.

Finishing up my assignment took longer than I thought and I couldn’t get it done tonight, so I realized I skipped out on class for nothing. I’ll have to finish it in the morning I suppose. I already e-mailed the prof with the usual excuse that I had family issues to deal with. In reality I didn’t have a laptop to do this damn thing when I was at my cottage all weekend. A laptop would really make my life a lot easier being stuck here in Peterborough for the summer. Many of you don’t know this, but I am jumping onto someone’s connection, and it’s really unstable because I believe it is really far from my location. With a laptop I could really just carry it around and connect at coffee shops and what not. Oh well. I am only here until June 14th anyways.

Well that’s it for now, it’s been so long since that I wrote a real blog post, so you’ll have to excuse if this one is really all over the place.

Peace.

A Nice Break.

2006-05-23T17:55:00.000-04:00

Well I thought about it, and thought about it. I decided to continue writing here. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to continue blogging after I finished my last year of University. However during the last month of summer school so many things has happend that I wish I was typing down. Like getting stung by a bee on the lip during a bike ride to campus. Walking by a man in a three peice black suit in the rain. Sleeping during one of my managerial acccounting classes. Running into Ced at the 2nd Floor Lounge and doing a tribue to 24 (Season 5). Walking back home with one of my oldest University friends whom I have not talked to in three years.

I thought about blogging somewhere else, but I have already established myself here so if anything I may just change the layout of the site. Have to see.

So if you care to continue to read what happens with me then look no further then where you are.

Peace.

Moving On (Part 3).

2006-05-03T13:52:00.000-04:00

Well it’s been a great trip and this turned out to be a worth while venture for me. What started long ago as one simple paragraph on my MSN Space saying how excited I was to see K-OS in the Champlain Great Hall, turned into tens of thousands of words a month about my simple life. It was all the readers that messaged me online with favourite quotes and encouragement that actually motivated me to take time out of my busy school schedule to squeeze in that blog update at 2 in the morning. I humbly thank you. If you’re wondering what will become of this, well, it will remain as it is, online for anyone stumbling around to look at. Maybe one day I’ll put it all together and edit it, take those old blog entries from my MSN space and try to expand them into the style I have developed now. Who knows? For now I am enjoying my stay in the PR place, Unit 5, doing summer school and enjoying the partial freedom, meeting new people and adventures. Until then, enjoy.

I woke up with the sun shining in my eyes. I felt so stiff from the couch that when I sat up I had to roll my head around my shoulders, grimacing at the pain that shot down my muscles. I looked around for anything to drink and found nothing. I resorted to a lone piece of gum to get some saliva in my mouth. While Adam did his usual eating a four course meal routine I did some final packing for stuff in my room. Scott and Cedric are already bouncing around the house taking apart their stuff for their move. The sunlight is shinning brightly in the early morning and it’s already starting to feel a bit humid. I opened my window all the way to let little if any breeze into my room while I packed. Adam and I make the first drive to the PR place and load up a bunch of stuff in the car when we do so. Neither of us is talking to each other in the car, sitting silently as we pass houses. When we get to the PR place we unlock the door and I go back upstairs to my room, the one with all the junk left over from the previous tenant. “Help me move this stuff man.” I asked Adam. He came upstairs and we took the mattress outside and dumped it on the front lawn, I took the monitor and put it in the room that was trashed, and garbage bagged other stuff of his that he left. I kept the leather case book bag though. “Hey man, want these shoes?” I ask Adam, holding up a pair of leather brown shoes.
“These are like a hundred bucks… why would he leave them?”
“They’re yours.”
“Want this monitor?” Adam then asked bringing in a black new Dell monitor.
“Hell yeah, matches my other one.”
I place it in the middle of the room.

We got back into the car and drove back and forth from our place to the PR place with our things. Scott and Cedric’s rent-a-truck was now on our lawn with the back end facing the porch. They were putting stuff in back occasionally. Both had their laptops playing hip-hop music at full sound, Scotts was in the living room, Cedrics was in his room. I was intrigued by what Cedric was playing.
“Hey man, what is the name of that song?”
“Oh this? Uhhh. Memories by Sean Paul or something.”
“It’s a good track man.”
“Yeah this track is not bad.”
We talked for a bit longer, and when the track ended I told him he had to play Bad Intentions by Dre, just one more time. So he did and he stopped what he was doing to enjoy the track with me. Bouncing to the song we both in unison sang the lyric “Damn you’re looking good… all ten of ya,” and then had a chuckle about it. The sun beat down on our place longer and longer, so I went over to the local Macs to get everyone a PowerAid drink despite no one wanting one. Some local woman made a comment about me buying four of them and I had to explain that it’s moving day. “Yeah I did notice a lot of moving trucks around today.” She said in an authentic hick voice. I left that place and walked back to our place. The sun was still really hot and dust flew around occasionally when a gust of wind picked up. Hot sweat beads rolled down my forehead until hitting my shades.

I handed off the PowerAids to all the guys who thanked me and went back to work. Cedric was enjoying a cigarette out on the porch. I sat down beside him on my usual chair that spins and has the rip in it. Had some short conversation before getting back to work. I was pretty much done and Adam and I made a couple more trips to the PR place to throw in our stuff before deciding to help out with Scott and Cedric to move their stuff. Besides they were going in apartment buildings they only had an hour of elevator time. We meet them there and help load their stuff on a trolley and then going up to the tenth floor to move their stuff. “Alright guys just set it down here.” Scott said.
“In the hallway?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Well I can stay here and move your stuff in and you guys get more things.”
“That’s what’s sketchy, we don’t have the keys yet.”
“That’s… really weird.” I said. “I’ll wait here in the hallway though, to keep an eye on your shit.”
“Alright cool, thanks man.” He said then left for the elevator.
I pulled up a fold up chair and sat there waiting and waiting. My parents called me up to see how everything was doing. Before I could finish the conversation Scott returned with some old guy who was working the door. I guess this is the landlord. He got the door open and I started moving stuff into their apartment. The landlord started explaining the dimensions of the room and various other things. One room was bigger than the other. I stopped my progress to see what Cedric and Scott were up to, and they were deciding on who would get the bigger room. They started doing rock, paper scissors. It was an evenly matched game, and then when it was tied 2-2, it came down to the final round. Scott wins with rock. He starts jumping and cheering and Cedric shakes his head in disbelief.

After we help them move in Adam and I returned back to the house and moved some more of our stuff into the PR place. I didn’t have much else to move just a few other things. Scott and Cedric return to pack in more stuff into the truck and then hurry down to the apartment building so that they can squeeze in more stuff on the elevator. After it was all done the house was empty. Scott and Cedric were off to their new place to settle in and we did a final check around to make sure we didn’t forget anything. Adam and I then drove to our new place and Bill the landlord calls me up on the cell phone asking why I called him last night. We had a laugh after I explained the situation and told him that everything was ok, and that Rob was just a little freaked out.

We moved in the last of our stuff and then Adam sets off for Ottawa. We did a hommie hug and he drives off honking his horn as he pulls out of the driveway.

It was finally over. I went into the new place and cleaned out all the garbage that I could on the main floor and started to set up my room. The whole night consisted of me cursing and swearing as I set the bed up and the computer running with internet. When it was finally done at around midnight I realized that I didn’t have my blue bed blanket. Now where the fuck did I leave that? I looked all over for it but it was no where to be found in the stuff that I brought.

I got on my bike and made my way to the old place. In the dark cool night I rode silently. I biked up to the now old porch and used my key to open the door. Silence. No TV blaring away, no fighting between Scott and Mira, no N64 being played, no Adam making something in the kitchen, and no laughter from Rob. I walked upstairs with an eerie feeling and went to my room to look for my blanket. The room was completely empty when I turned on the light. Looks a lot bigger with nothing in it. I un-hooked my keys from my keychain and placed them on the window sill in my room and turned off the light with one final look. I went downstairs and found a sole Grand And Toy box sitting there in the room with my blankets and pillow. “Kinda need those.” I said out loud. I put the blankets and pillow in a garbage bag and locked the door behind me before exiting the house.

I got back on my bike with the garbage bag in my hand as I rode back down the path to my new place.

As soon as I arrived at my new place I put the blankets onto the newly made bed and put the pillow on top as if to complete a puzzle. Then I fell asleep in the quiet stillness in my new room, ready for another day; ready for another adventure.

The End.

Moving On (Part 2).

2006-05-02T12:12:00.000-04:00

I finally awoke from my brief slumber from drinking. I checked my elbow which was bloody from the fall and rubbed it a bit. My back was kind of aching too. Nothing bad though. The sun was fading outside my window; I rubbed my forehead after glancing at the sun. Too much beer. I went downstairs and outside and a few people were still there from the partying. I sat down on a chair and joined in the conversations. “Matt, you up for some NetWok?” Rob asked.
“Yeah man, let’s do it.” I said.
“What’s NetWok?” Adrian inquired.
“Chinese buffet.” Rob answered.
“Oh hell yeah.”
We got our things together and started to walk. Adam comes out and asks where we are going and when we mention Chinese buffet he tells us to wait for him to get ready. Everyone stands for a bit then just starts walking. I could have reminded them to wait for Adam, but I didn’t. We get to about Bethune and Brock before he calls my cell, I hand it over to Rob who tells him he’s sorry that we just started walking. I don’t feel too guilty at the moment. Adam decided to go to Riley’s with Rory instead.

We continue our walk along Bethune Street with the occasional car driving by us. The air is cooling down but I still felt the sun under my skin warming my body. I looked up and around and drowned out the conversations of everyone around me to hear the shuffle of the feet on the sand below us. We arrive at the restaurant and get seated and order some drinks, after that proceeded to get stuff from the buffet section. We are all laughing and carrying on because we all still had some alcohol in our system. I put some of my crab legs in Adrian’s water glass without him knowing. When he found it out he was in awe. “I was drinking this the whole time?” He says with a stunned look. We all paid our bill and walked back home. When we got there everyone went up to Rob’s loft and I told him that I was going to call up Brian, the previous owner of Rob’s new place.

“Yeah?” Someone answered the phone
“Hey is this Brian?”
“Yeah what’s up?”
“This is Matt Hunter man.”
“Hey what’s up buddy?”
“Nothing, just, I am roommates with Rob and Adam, the guys moving into your old place. I was wondering if it was cool to move in now, or whatever.”
“Yeah we are all moved out; Guy still has stuff in his room, but if he didn’t come to pick it up by now then just throw it out.”
“Ok thanks man.”
“Late.”

I informed Rob about what Brian said and he has an upset look on his face. “That fucking prick,” He said with a pause. “He told us that he isn’t moving out ‘til tonight and he has already moved out.” He continued. I sympathized and said that we should call up Adam and Rory to come back because moving should start now if we are to get anything done. I call up Adam and tell him what’s going on; Adam is absolutely drunk when I reached him. This can’t be good. I tell Rob that they are on there way and Rob notices that nothing in Adam’s room is packed. “He hasn’t packed a thing.” Rob said.
“Yeah I asked him about that, said there isn’t much to do. I don’t know man, we’ll have to see.”
I start getting all the big heavy stuff downstairs and ready to go. I feel a bit rushed cause I know that this is going to take a long time with all our stuff and only a truck and SUV in tow. I start to shutdown my computer and turn everything off. I’m squat down and dip underneath the desk and start taking out all the connections on the back of the tower. Sweat is running down my forehead. I rise up briefly and open the window more and take some swigs of my lemon flavoured water. I go back down and remove the tower and speakers bit by bit, and pack away the cords in boxes. I leave that for a second and pack away some other stuff into old “Grand And Toy” boxes of miscellaneous junk all over my room. After the computer is done and the desk is folded away and junk taken care off I run up to Rob’s loft and get my plastic cover for my mattress. I go back downstairs and put on the plastic over like I’m fitting a giant condom over penis tugging at the ends. Maybe a sock analogy would be better here… anyways; I get that one and then slide it down the stairs and lean it up against the wall over the living room. I did the same with the box spring, then the desk, bookshelves, and other boxes. All right all ready to go.

Rory shows up with the truck and we are all strategizing on what will go first. They decide to check out the place first in Rob’s SUV to see if it’s all ready to move into. While they do that we move all our mattresses into the box of Rory’s truck and box springs as well. Then we wait.

I’m up in my room packing the little things when I hear them return from the trip. They are all distraught. “Man the place is a fucking wreck!” Rob says to me. My heart sinks. “Are you kidding man?”
“No man, the rooms are all messed up. It’s fucking wrecked.”
“Well… I mean, is someone able to at least live in there, I’m going to be there for the summer.”
“The bathroom is all dirty it’s crazy. I’m so fucking pissed.”
I start to freak out. I have all my stuff in the truck, what if I move in there and I can’t even find a place to sleep at night. What do I do? I call up our current landlord’s voice mail pager and leave a message to call me back, in case I could ask to stay at the house for a month instead. “Ok let me see the place,” I said.

Rob moved some of his stuff in the SUV and we went over there going pretty fast. When I arrived at the PR townhouses it was really dark now and gloomy. The townhouses were all lined up facing a common grass area, each with a small dim light illuminating above. I followed Rob along the path to see which place was his. When we went inside he moved in some of his stuff and I immediately went upstairs to see what the fuss was about. One room was just wrecked; garbage all over the floors and some weird silly putty like substance on the walls, to top it off there was a trophy on the center of the room broken into shards. One room had a bunch of stuff in it, old RCA stereo, mattress, bunch of clothes, computer monitor which look broken, and other junk. This must be Guy’s room. The other rooms were fine; there were a bunch of big metal staples and nails all over the carpet though. I told Rob to go back and get everything and I’ll wait here to help move in the mattresses. When he left I went to work to pick up all the nails and brackets/staples on the floor leading upstairs so no one would step on them or anything get scratched on them.

Rob and company came back and I opened the door and then went to truck to move stuff in. All his friends are helping move the mattresses and everything else. I ride back with them to the house. Adam and Rob get there stuff ready for the next move and I wait outside with Rory who is taking drag after drag on his cigarette. “Man lotta stuff to move, good thing we started now and not at twelve o’ one like we originally planned.”
“Well,” He said. “We’re just going to get Bob’s stuff moved in then we’ll head home.”
My heart sank again, because even though Rob said it was ok and that we didn’t need to rent a truck anymore, it became apparent that the truck that he brought ended up being only for him. I had to think of something so I talked to Rob who was too busy to think of anything. So I took it upon myself to sneak things of mine into the truck during loads. During one trip Adam hopped in the back to make sure the stuff didn’t tip out or slide out, it really wasn’t necessary
“Yeeehaw!” He said in the back of truck when we arrived at the PR townhouses.
Rob just looked upset and shook his head more. “It’s fucking 12 midnight and he’s yelling.”

Everyone is still working hard moving stuff back and forth, back and forth. I pretty much got my stuff there except for the little things that Adam and I can take back into his car. The two big things I leave behind is the computer chair which couldn’t make the last truck load and my bed headboard. But I have a feeling it can fit in Adam’s car. I asked Adam if it could though.
“If not, we’ll roll it over.” He said with a chuckle.

The last load had Adam’s two tall closets in the back standing up. Everyone tried to convince him to lay it on the side but he said it will be fine. “Man I am not driving the truck with that thing like that.” Mitch said. Adrian agreed. “Do you want to drive the truck?” Mitch asked me. I inspected the truck and realized that I was drinking all day and could not afford to drive it no matter how much I wanted to help out. Rory stepped in and said he’ll drive it. I get in the back seat in the cab and Adam in the front and we try to get over the hill on Stewart Street. One of the dressers tips because Rory ventured too far to the side of the road nearly hitting the driveways. I guess he’s still a little eneberated. Adam gets out and hops in the back and taps the window for Rory to go. He duck down low so any cops around could not see him in the back.

We get to the PR townhouses and move the last load of stuff in the house. I ask Adam if we should start setting up the beds and stuff and he said we’ll wait ‘til tomorrow and just sleep on the couches tonight. I protest but he convinces me otherwise. When we arrive back at the house we said our good buys to Mitch, Adrian and Rory, also thanking them for all their help. I said good-bye to Rob too even though it was short we did the hommie hug and he was over into the night back home. Adam and I set up the couches to sleep on in the living room and started to fall asleep. I am laying there on the most uncomfortable couch ever. It’s pink with some sort of synthetic leather and all ruined. I sink deep into it with all my weight lying down. I can’t sleep though because I keep readjusting and nothing seems to work. I finally just lay there on my back looking out the big window in our living room. I stare out into the night sky and look at the moon which is shining brightly and nearly waning. Adam is asleep right now and I stay motionless looking at it, fully aware of all the little bangs surrounding me in the house. I wonder what tomorrow will bring, I wonder about the future in general. So full of uncertainties and sadness. I drift away to sleep with my concerns in tow, and the same moon I stared at for so long stayed there reflected the sun’s light back on top of my motionless body.

Part 3 soon. I swear.

Moving On.

2006-05-01T22:47:00.000-04:00

I woke up with such a bad hangover from that night of partying. My stomach actually was hurting as I lay in bed. Why did I eat those chicken nuggets? I repeated that thought over and over. I grabbed my hurting stomach and groaned. I eventually chugged down some lemon flavoured water and sat on my computer with a droned out look on my face. My phone starts ringing. “Hello?” I answered.
“We’re coming up to pick up the fridge and freezer.” My Dad says to me.
I groaned some more, “Alright, but the bed stays.”
“You don’t want us to change mattresses?”
“No, I want this one.” I droned.
I don’t think my dad would be able to win this argument so he agrees and hangs up. I get dressed and head downstairs to clean up the freezer. I take the multi-purpose cleaner spray and layer it on the freezer. I take a sponge and scrub it down. There is so much crap on it from the toaster being on top of it for the enter eight months. Some of the stuff is really hard to get off because it’s sticky, but on my knees I put as much force into it as possible until it gives. Yuck. I just take some of the stuff and fling it down to the kitchen floor because I’m pissed off that I’m doing this with a hangover. “Fucking slobs I live with, fucking slobs.” I say out loud. I then move it to the edge of the kitchen ready for pick up and go back upstairs for my fridge. I take everything out of it, yogurt cups, old cheese slices, a half empty bottle of grenadine, mustard, ketchup, and three jars of strawberry jam, some completely empty. I put them all on my desk and lift up the fridge to take out of my room. I knocked my thigh on the door knob on the way out. “Son-a-bitch!” I yelled. I took it downstairs and to the front door. My dad and neighbour rolls up in a truck. I put on my shoes and head outside to greet them. “Got the stuff ready?” He asked, straight to business.
“Yeah fridge is here, freezer is in the kitchen.”
“Ok let’s get the fridge first.”
We both grab from the bottom and then life it into the box in the back of the truck. We then head inside to get the freezer. We struggle for a bit as expected but managed to get it into the truck as well. My dad hands me off some money and tells me to study. They drive off stirring up some dirt and sand on the streets. I cover my eyes and watch them travel over the head on Stewart Street and then go back inside.

Soon after I notice that Rory and Rob are up. Just as hung-over if not worse than I was. Rob apparently dove into a new low by tinkling in his bed. We all got a good laugh about that. “Hey Rob, my dad came and took the freezer, what do you want to do with all your meat?”
“Cook it up!” He said.
“That’s a lot of meat.”
“Yeaaah.” He says with a chuckle.
I sit by my computer to check up on some e-mails and what have you, Rory heads outside with Mitch and Adrian. I join them on the shaded porch. We tried to estimate when the sun will actually hit us but get fed up after 20 minutes and move our chairs out in the sun on our lawn. We sit and talk for a while and Rob goes up to the neighbours to see if we can borrow their BBQ for all the meat that we need to cook up. They agree and so they set up the BBQ just in front of the porch. I head upstairs for a little bit to make a few phone calls and to chat online. I go back downstairs later and they already have some bacon ready to eat. I take a one in between my index finger and thumb and eat it. So very good. He starts cooking up a couple steaks too, and a sausage with the bacon. Rob starts marinating some chicken in sauce. “This is just Meat Fest 2006” Rory says.
“I’ll go make up some CDs for some tunes, be right back.” I said.
And so I went back upstairs and make a couple CDs with my selection of music. I head back downstairs and missed the first batch of peameal bacon. “Dammit, where’s all the peameal?” I asked.
“Sorry dude all gone, there is a second batch coming though.”
I grunt in response. I pop on one of my CDs which has some Soundclash and Godsmack.

We talk and eat some of the meat on the BBQ, watch as the neighbours start to move away back home. They come over to talk here and there and wish they could party with us. The steaks are finally done and I cut up a few pieces and eat it… so very good, full of flavour. After all the meat is cook up Rory says that we should get some beers, the cheap kind that only cost 26 dollars for a 2-4. So we round up everyone in the house and collect $10 dollars per person and Adam heads out with Scott to go get some Lakeport Honey Lager. He finally returns and Adam wants to put the beers in the freezer. “Fuck that!” I said. “We’re drinking them as is.” Everyone agreed with that notion and we dipped into the first 2-4 to start drinking. The beer is actually pretty nice for being of the cheap selection. We are all there, sitting around in a circle, beer in hand, waving at the cars driving by as if we knew them for the longest time. In the distance we can see the crazy lady who sits outside all day. We are all wearing tank tops and wife beaters and soaking in the sun. The tailgate of the truck is down with the leftovers of the meat on baking sheets, flies buzzing around and landing on the odd piece of meat.

I went inside to make another CD. I came back out and Tammy, Tim and some other guy was out there too. I sat near Tammy to chat for a bit and talk about old times. After awhile I went to use the washroom, I came back outside and Adam is sitting in my chair, my beer is still right beside it. I know how he is though, he wants to try and get with Tammy, even though she’s out of his league, he thinks he’s Gods gift to women. “Adam man, you’re in my seat.”
“Go fucking sit somewhere else man.”
Man, how disrespectful is that?
I pick up my beer and tell him that it was my seat, my beer is right here but he doesn’t move. I start to kick him in the shins and bug him laughing the whole time. Rob eggs me on to keep doing it and he laughs too. Adam grabs one of my feet and flings it up and I fall back nearly hitting the back of my head on the pavement. I sprung up and got right in his face with my fists clenched. I stared him down. “Go ahead, hit me.” He said. “Go on hit me.” And he stuck out his chin a bit. I remained still staring into him with rage. He looked up at me for a bit and then looked down. Nobody was saying anything.
“Got to love beer.” Rory said with a laugh.
After ten minutes of staring I picked up my hat and looked at Rob who was shocked at what was happening. I snorted up in my mouth and turned back and spat on Adam.
“That’s not cool.” Mira said.
My eyes didn’t leave Adam afterwards hoping he’d get up and try to attack me. He doesn’t so I just go inside to get another beer. I feel kinda bad for ruining the party but it’s all about perspective, he had no right to do that to me, it’s putting my life at risk and I really wasn’t doing anything to him that showed any danger. I wanted to smash in his face so badly, so badly, but the difference between me and him, is that I have way too much self-respect than to cause harm to a friend.

I go upstairs and pass out for a bit, not really fully asleep but getting to that point. Adam comes up to my room to talk. He apologizes and I tell him it’s cool just so he’ll leave. I drink some water and fall asleep.

Ok Part 2 will be added later.

Running Gag.

2006-04-30T02:43:00.000-04:00

I woke up in my usual pseudo-hangover state looking for liquid while in bed with a groggy head. I hear knocking downstairs. I look outside and notice a large truck parked in front of our place. I sit there on my bed looking out the window. The man looks about a couple seconds longer and then drives away. I flop back down into my bed and lay awake under my sheets a bit longer. Could not here a sound from anyone at this moment, I guess all the roommates are gone. I get out of bed and shower, then I sit in front of the computer listening to some music. I see Adam come up the stairs. "Hey Adam, what are you doing?"
"Nothing right now."
"Wanna go shopping?"
"I gotta go eat right now, then I'm going to school to study."
"Aww come on man, you don't need to study."
"Yes I do, dammit!" He says jokingly.
"Want to go later on?" He asks afterwards.
"Yeah sure."
"Ok see you then."
He gets some stuff from his room and ventures downstairs.

I couldn't wait though, I got changed and got everything ready and went towards the downtown of Peterborough. My first stop was Blue Streak, the local music stop for vinyl records and a vast amount of CDs. I look through the current punk and rock vinyls for anything good. I see some Jack Johnson, a lot of Tom Waits, and various other artists I’d love to buy. I had no money though. I look at the CDs on the wall for some Massive Attack, but did not find the album I wanted. I looked for some Death Cab For Cutie, but there wasn’t a single CD from them. Ok, well time to leave this joint.

I get back outside and stand on the sidewalk looking around. The sun blazing causes ripples to form above the streets like they are leaking propane gas. I squirt my eyes underneath my shades; everything is discoloured yellow and bright like a nineteen seventies Polaroid picture. I continue my walk and make my way to Clumleighs. I look through the SNES section first like always. I overhear Jimmy talking with a customer about pro-wrestling. I make my way over to the PlayStation games too look for a gem, but find none. So I look over at the GameBoy games and look up and greet Jimmy. “How’s it going man?”
“Not too bad.” He says smiling, rocking back and forth.
“What do you think about the Jays this season?” He asks, clearly noticing my hat.
“Oh they’re going to be great this season man, definitely going to check out some games, I tell you best entertainment you can buy for that price.”
“Yeah definitely man, I’m usually there with my puppets and they show me on the big screen.” He says laughing and makes some gesture to tell me it’s wild.
“That’s sick man, they did so much work to that place, it looks great inside.”
“Yeaaahh they did. It is great.”

I leave the store unsatisfied that I didn’t find anything. So I check out the Disc Depot after and look around in their store. This store is like 2 stores down from Chumleighs, and apparently it’s run by an ex-employee. So they had a little war going on between them. Chumleighs has better stuff overall, but you never know what you might find. Low and behold, what do we have here? Legend of Mana for PS1? Near mint? That’s at least 50 bucks US on EBay. I look at the back and see that its $29.99… pretty pricey, but I got it anyways. It was in great condition.

After that I decided I better go home before I spend anymore money. But when I finally reached home and got on my computer Adam returned from school and wanted to make the rounds around Landsdowne and such. So I went along with him. We stop at Staples, FutureShop and whatever is around that area like we have always been doing all year. The same stores, the same routine. This was going to be the last time though. We didn’t treat it as such, and it was just another trip. When we got to FutureShop I look right away at the CDs and so many where available for $9.99 or two for $15 dollars that it was so hard to resist. We managed to escape without buying anything though and went to Reid’s Dairy to get some milk shakes and drove home.

It was so sunny out and hot that Adam and I decided to walk up to Jeff Cards & Comics to do some trading. We go along McDonnell to Monaghan road then we reach the store. I bring out my trades and the guy behind the counter brings out his stuff. We spend a good two hours between us and so after satisfied with our trades we started to walk back. “Hey where does that trail go?” I asked, pointing to this dirt trail leading into woods.
“I don’t know guy.”
“Let’s check it out, might be a shortcut.”
We run across the road and head down the dirt path. It lead us to this hidden playground where a couple of families brought their kids. I look around me checking out the trees and the clouds when I stepped on a stick. The stick got tangled in my legs and piercing my shins. “Fuck.” I muttered.
“What the hell are you doing?” Adam asked.
“The stick speared me man.”
We both look back and the stick is sticking out of the ground.
“How the hell did you do that?”
“I... I don’t know.”
We both laugh.

Finally we start to walk up to our house and there is Rob with his buddies Adrian and Mitch. Rob is raking up the cigarette butts on the ground into a garbage back, with a few pieces of trash as well. We say our hellos, get introduced to one another and then I went inside up to my room to check out the cards I just got. “Hey man, we’re going to Subway, do you wanna come?” Rob asked.
“Yeah man.”
I get my coat and wallet and hop into his Nissan Xterra with his buds. We get to Subway and Rob says he has to go to school now because his exam is in 30 minutes. So Mitch, Adrian and I go into the restaurant. Adrian orders a steak sub, and when the girl asks what he wants on it he says hot peppers, frank’s sauce, and mayo. “Damn man, we got to walk back afterwards.” I said.
“Oh I’ll be fine, I have to have it hot.”
We eat our subs and then walk back along the Rotary trail back home. As we are walking a group of two guys and a girl are walking towards us going in the opposite direction. One of the guys is sticking out his chest and trying to walk like a tough guy. He’s eyeing us down. I’m trying so hard not to laugh. The girl says “hi” to us and we just ignore her. A couple seconds later we burst out laughing. I start to walk like that guy “Look at me, all tough in my American Eagle golf shirt.”

When we get home we all head up to Rob’s loft and I finish the rest of my sub there. I turn on the hockey game and we all watch it. I get bored though because NHL sucks now so I just go downstairs to organize my cards again.

Rory drives up in the big truck. We say hello and what have you and he goes up to Rob’s loft too. When Rob finally got back we all partied up in his room before deciding to go to the 2nd Floor Lounge tonight. But before that Adam has arranged that we all go to his soccer buddies house for a private keg party. Only ten dollars and two kegs. So we all get ready and head out the door. It’s me, Mitch, Adrian, Rob, Rory, Adam and Kelly. We walk down the streets together and stop at the local Macs first so Kelly can some money out. Kelly makes joke about robbing the place, so funny. I hold his beer and he goes inside to use the ATM machine. A Honda Civic sees us and it goes into a parking lot across the street. When Kelly comes out the Honda Civic comes across the street and goes into the Macs parking lot. “Hey you, come here.” The guy in the car says. So Rob starts to walk up. “Not you. Him.” Indicating Kelly.
They chat for a bit in the car and Kelly walks away with a smile. “What’d they want? Do you know them?” I ask
“Naw naw, they’re asking if I’m keeping the corner hot.”
“Oh geez, seriously?”
“YUP!” He says, “I guess cause I’m black they assume I am a drug dealer.”
We arrived at the party and entered in the house, walked through to the kitchen. There is duct-taped cardboard flooring below us and people all around, some are playing drinking games on the kitchen table, and some are in the other room watching the hockey games. We walk into the living room and some guy takes out money and pours us a beer from a giant pitcher in his hand. Everyone but Kelly, Adam and I, goes outside. We remain indoors. We talk to the host Alex Bridal for a bit and to some other people we know. I sit on the couch with Kelly and we're watching the Ultimate Fighter on the small TV, we are both kinda buzzed and checking out the asses on the girls in front of us. "Hey man what does this remind you of?" I ask. We both start laughing, remembering that last keg party we went to at the end of our third year. At that keg party we were drunk sitting on the couch checking out the asses in front of us. I decide to see what’s going on outside after I finished my beer.

There is a small porch outside and some reclining chairs, and just in front of those are two kegs with two bags of ice on top of each one. I pour myself a beer and pump the keg tap a bit. It’s still a little foamy, but not too bad. Rory, Mitch, Adrian and Rob are on the grass beside the porch. I make my way to them and step down. “Well I might as well get this out of the way cause it will be only time I’ll be able to do it.” I said. Everyone laughed. They went back to their conversations about home and funny events. I blow on the top of my beer to knock some of the foam out. “Heeeeeeey,” I started to say and doing a cheers with everyone. I kept doing it over and over, so then they started to do the same thing. “Ok alright, that’s enough.” Rory said. Eventually we made our way on the porch when everyone else who was there before us went inside. “How the hell did we score this spot?” Rory asked. “This is like the best spot, right beside the keg.”
We started drinking beer after beer standing near the keg. Tammy came out and took some pictures of us too. Then this guy comes out from the living room just trashed and slurring his speech. “Dooesh anyone have any drugsch?” He says. We all start laughing. Rob offers him some baking soda or laundry detergent. He starts to laugh and goes “If I can snort it I can do it.” His friend’s comes out of the living room and starts laughing “Hey Poopsie, you feeling ok?” One of them asks.
“Yesch, I just want some coke.”
“Yeah you want some drugs eh? I don’t have any.” Starting to laugh.
The rest of the friends start laughing too and saying “Oh Poopsie.” I guess that’s his nickname. After all of us stop laughing at him he looks around with his lazy eyes and says: “Fuck you guys… you’ve changed.” And stumbles into the living room. He trips on the arm of the sofa and crashes face first into the cushions below causing a roar inside.

We went back to our spot on the grass and taking turns peeing on the house. “Heeeeey,” I started again and we did some cheers. We are all feeling quite buzzed now. Poopsie makes his way back outside and asks us where he can go puke. Rob leads him to this outdoor lamp surround by a large flower pot. “Right here man.” He says.
“Thatsch not a bucket.”
“Yes it is, it’s a magic bucket, it has a light.”
“I’m… not going to puke there.”
“Man, this is a good spot to puke.”
His buddy comes out looking for him and leads him to the side of the house where he starts to puke. We start laughing.

They go back inside and then everyone starts to gather out beside the keg. The lift one guy up and put the pouring thing in his mouth and start pumping it in. Alex Bridal is doing the count to see how long the person can handle it. The first guy goes 21 seconds. The next guy is lifted up and he only goes for about 16 seconds before shaking his head to indicated he had enough. “Alright Poopsie! You’re turn!” Someone said.
Poopsie walks up and says “Do this shit.” And they lift him up. Everyone is counting now and the people holding him up are struggling. Somehow his jeans with the boxers slide down to his ankles and he is still drinking the beer with his dong revealed. Everyone roars laughing. One of the guys holding his legs tries to find another spot to hold up Poopsie and he accidentally cups his balls. “Ahh! God!” He says, and let’s go. Poopsie falls to the ground. I’m nearly throwing up at this point laughing so hard. He goes inside and I return his hat to him that fell on the ground beside me.

We all finished our beers and got Kelly, it was time to go to the bar. As we walk down the drive way we see Poopsie in his car trying to start it to drive off and his friends are pulling him out. We just shake our head. What a guy.

We start walking down the neighbourhood towards George street and this guy Evon is following us. Apparently he was some first year. I noticed Adam isn’t with us. “Hey guys, where’s Adam?” I said. Nobody knew or cared. He calls me up on the cell phone and he couldn’t believe we left without him. He asks what bar we’re going to, but I tell him I am not really sure myself. When we did make it to 2nd Floor Lounge there was no line up at the bar and so we all just head upstairs. Evon couldn’t get in though, I guess he had a fake ID. I call up Adam to let him know where we are. We see Jeff the tampon working the coats. “What the hell are you doing? You working here now?” Rob asked.
“Doing a favor for Karem is all man.” He says. “Man I rarely see you guys these days what’s up?”
“Oh you know.” Rob answered.

We went inside the bar and got our drinks. Rory waits patiently at the other end of the bar and no one is coming up to serve him. “Man I’m sober now.” He says. He eventually does get his beer and he gets a shot of Jager with it. I sit in the back room with Mitch and Adrian. It’s all brick walls in here with tables and couches, very dim lighting and a bar at the other end of the room but unattended for, so it is pitch black at that end. “I don’t know whether or not to get a beer, if I do, I may not have enough for pizza later. What do you guys think?”
“Beer.” Mitch says. Adrian has no answer.
I walk to the bar and I notice a tray of chicken nuggets on the table. I grab one and dip it into the BBQ sauce in the middle of the tray. Man, these are good! I run back into the room to tell Mitch and Adrian and they come with me and scarf down some nuggets. A couple black guys exclaim that there are chicken nuggets ‘over there!’ and they come up to it and consume the rest of the tray within seconds. Disappointed that we only got around three we head outside to see what the other guys are up to. We get to the porch and see Rory and Rob on a picnic table. Rory bends over underneath the table and pukes. His eyes water up. “You ok man?” I ask.
“Yeah just all those shots of Jager, and not having anything to eat today.”
He pukes again. We stand outside a little bit more and go back into the bar. I head over to the dance floor and see Kelly dancing with he’s lady at the time and I look around the floor for anyone I know. I leave the scene on the dance floor though and check back with the guys. Mitch and Adrian are back in the back room. I sit with them with my beer. “Where’s the washroom?” Mitch asked.
“Oh just over there man, to your right.”
As he walks away to leave we notice he has puke all along his back.
“What the fuck is that? Puke?” Adrian says.
We both start laughing.
“I think Bob* puked on his back!” Adrian exclaimed.

I went over to get some nachos and then one of the people working at the bar brings out another tray of chicken nuggets. Nobody seems to notice. I scarf down a couple and then go tell Adrian and Rory. Rory just ignores me and goes back to the bar to do shots. No time to convince him. Adrian and I must have consumed 10 each. I feel so full right now but I eat a few more. Ok, that’s enough. I go back to drinking my beer and what not, talking to some people. Rory and Adrian come up to me saying they want to go. “Alright.” I said, and we walked to the enterance. “Wait, where’s Mitch?”
“I don’t know man.” Rory said. “He must have went with Bob to the other bar.”
“What? What other bar?”
“I don’t know man.”
I skim through the bar looking for Mitch, I check the back room, the patio and the washroom.
“Ok Mitch isn’t here, let’s go.”
We leave the bar and walk back home. We stop into Night Kitchen to get some pizza, Rory lends me the cash for a slice. He gets the same one I get, the feta cheese, leek, and spinach. When we walk back Rory will not shut up about the pizza.
“Man this is the best pizza… I have ever had man.”
“It’s good eh?” I said.
“Seriously, this is amazing, I can’t get over it. What is on it again?”
“It’s feta cheese as you know, and it has spinach greens and leek.”
“Man it’s so good, you know the Irish really love leek, I remember having leek soup when I was younger.”
“Oh ya?”
“Yeah man, leek and potatoes, leek soup with beer.”
“Sounds good I guess.” I said.
We get home and we find Rob outside on the porch.
“Hey Rob!” I yell.
“Hey dudes, how’s it going?”
“Not too bad… Hey did Mitch come with you?”
“Mitch? No.”
We all stopped chewing on our pizza.
“Seriously?” Rory asked.
“Yeah I thought he was with you.”
We all roll our eyes and realize that we have to go back. Adam, who just ended up coming back home after the keg party, comes with Adrian and me. We walked to the 2nd Floor Lounge, Adam took an alternate route and stuck to the main roads. When we got to the bar we asked if we could upstairs. We had to wait for people to leave. The bouncer asks if we’re looking for the same guy Scott is looking for, we say yes, and he tells us that Scott is already up there. So we wait outside for Scott. Adrian keeps calling Mitch’s cell phone to see if he’ll answer it. Eventually Adrian starts talking.
“Mitch? Where are you man.” He asks
Silence.
“Trent residence?”
I look in disbelief, the Trent campus is about a 30 minute drive away and is all the way at the north end of town. Adrian turns to me.
“He says he’s at Otonabee residence.”
“How the fuck did he get there?”
Adrian turns to the phone “How did you get there?” He asked.
He turns to me, “Says he got into a taxi cab with some people.”
The bouncer ever so curious looks at me and asks: “Where is he?”
“He’s at the Trent residence.” I answer.
“How the fuck did he get there?”
I go upstairs in the bar to look for Scott who is just about to leave.
“Hey Scott.”
“Hey man, what are you saying? I can’t find Mitch up here.”
“Yeah we called him, he’s at the Trent residence.”
“What? How the fuck did he get there?”
“Hopped in a cab… we’re going to try and get him to take a cab back.”
“Alright man, peace.” He says and goes back into the bar.
I go back downstairs and Adam is coming up to us telling us a story of how he got the DJ to ask for Mitch to come to the DJ booth cause his mom is in the hospital. We tell him he’s at the Trent residence. Take a guess at what he said. So we walk back to our house after telling Mitch how to call a cab and where to take him. I call up my house on my cell phone and Rory answered.
“Hey man, we found Mitch.”
“Where was he?”
“He actually went to the campus residence.”
“How in the fuck did he get there?”
“Followed some people in a cab.”
“What a guy.”
When we got back to our house I talked to Mitch and told him how to get to the library steps because that is where the cab will pick him up. I then call up a cab company and told them where to go and where our place was. Adrian and I sit on the porch talking waiting for Mitch to arrive. After 20 minutes or so a cab comes by and Mitch walks up to the porch. We all had a laugh about the situation.

It was time to fall asleep though because tomorrow is moving day. So I went upstairs and fell asleep.

Ok well fans one last story arc to go.

Peace.

Polar Bear.

2006-04-28T22:28:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning pretty late, once I finally slithered my way out from underneath the sheets I went right to my computer to check on some downloads and gaming sites. It never really hit me that I was complete in my full-time studies at University. I sat there on my computer looking up useless info with the same guilt that I felt when I did this act when I was suppose to be doing work or studying. I finally got dressed though and went about my day hanging out with the roomates on the porch, soaking in the sun, talking with the neighbours next door about the summer, throwing a lone rock at our roof where a bird made a nest in a hole. It felt so good to be done.

I remained there on my spinning chair on the porch, the same chair that I used in my 4th year of university with the rip in the cushion. Watching the sunset over the creepy apartment buildings one last time. My eyes strained underneath my oakley shades. People walked by on the sidewalk, glancing up at our house with the trash all around it. When the sun dipped down and the evening sky appeared, I walked back inside to chat online to see what's going on for tonight.

Apparently everyone is going out to the Rooster tonight, that should be fun. I see what Adam is doing and he said he's going with his soccer buddies, so I ask Kelly and he mysteriously says he'll meet me there. Hmm. Kristen messages me but obviously I cannot go right with her cause she broke up with Adam, even though Adam says it's ok. I told her I'd meet her there. Before Adam left he told me to come to his room. Inside he poured two polar bear shots, vodka and creme de mint. Cheers. He left for his party and I got ready and walked to the bar alone. When I arrive at around 23:30 hours I notice that there is no line up. Which is shocking. I go up to my roommate Cedric and say "Hey man can you do me a favour?"
"Umm sure what?"
"Can you get me in to skip the line?"
He gives me a unique Cedric look of disapprovable for the joke and goes "Get in there."

I went in paid cover and looked around, Kristen waves at me near the bar. I went up to her and her friends Stef and Heather. We all stand in a circle and share some laughs. A couple of the are itchin' to dance, but Heather does not want to cause she apparently cannot dance. But regardless I lead them all to the dance floor to enjoy some tunes. He plays some old 90s rap which is really nice like Shoop by Salt N' Pepa, This Is How We Do It by Montell, No Diggity and so on. I look to my left and I notice some dude break dancing on the little platform leading up to the stage. He's pulling off some pretty ill moves. I look up on the platform and these two girls wearing skin tight tank tops start dancing like you would see in hip hop videos. They are really petite though, both wearing baseball caps. I look around the room and a bunch of girls are impersonating them with dumb looks on their faces. Yeah be a hating bitch, I don't see you dancing. Jealous ass girls. Girls are funny that way. I dance with Kristen for a bit until Adam takes over. It gets really awkward now cause I know they broke up, but what the hell is going on here?

Karem takes a photo of us on the dance floor and goes about his way. I get another beer and drink it pretty fast. As I'm standing their enjoying the music all I could think about is pizza. That delicious feta cheese pizza with spinach and leek. I told Kristen I couldn't take it anymore and I need to get the pizza. So I leave the bar early. When I get out on the sidewalk in front of the club I notice the line up has gotten quite larger than when I entered. By 100% in fact. Cedric lets a couple people in since I came out. All of a sudden Tammy stumbles my way. "Woah, Tammy hey" I said holding her up.
"I got kicked out." She said in a drunken voice.
I laugh, "Oh geez Tammy."
"They wouldn't even let me get my coat."
"What? Seriously?"
I look up and see Brian talking with Cedric, meanwhile Tammy is calling someone on her phone.
"Yeah Adam is going to get it for me though?"
What? Why is Adam getting it for her? I hold her up again cause she was about to fall down. These dudes come out of the club with her jacket and wisk her away. Weird. I look around the corner and everything seems fine so I went on my way to get a pizza.

When I arrive at Night Kitchen the usual unique music is playing and these two hot girls are serving up some pizza. This one girl especially look so pretty, hair a dirty blonde without and dye in it, tied back, and a very pleasent face. I wait in a long line up to get a slice. Some people butt in front too, adding to my frustration for waiting. When I finally get up there I get my feta cheese, leek and spinach pizza. They warm it up and return it to me. I eat it right off the paper plate while I'm walking home. As I'm walking down Alymer street this guy walks past me and says: "Hey, where did you get that pizza?"
"Right across the street, Night Kitchen."
"Thanks man." He said and went towards where I was pointing. It made me smile because he is in for quite a surprise when he first tastes this wonderful pizza. He has no idea what he's in for.

When I get home I went right upstairs to my room and sat back listening to some tunes by myself and chatting online. This huge crash is heard outside on my porch and I freak out. I run downstairs and put on my shoes and grab the detached table leg as a weapon figure it some punk kids messing around. I flung open the door with table leg in hand and see Kristen. "Man what the fuck are you doing out here?" I said.
Adam in his usual drunken sloppy voice tried to explain something about the snow shovel being in the wrong place. Fucking tool.
"I was nearly about to crack you skull retard what the hell is the matter with you."
"Hey guy!" He says with a smile. Kristen walks in too and then they both go upstairs. I return to my seat on the computer and notice that Kristen is messaging me online. What the?

Kristen says:
hey can you get kristen
Matthew says:
one sec
Kristen says:
thank you
Matthew says:
hmm she is in my roomate's room and the door is closed
Kristen says:
i'm coming over right now
Matthew says:
hey wait
Matthew says:
I checked with my roomate
Kristen says:
what
Matthew says:
she didn't come over

I figured out by myself that this must be her retard roommate Dave, who was a boyfriend for like 15 years. He has some sort of complex where he thinks they are still together even though it hasn't been the case for months. He also wants to kick Adam's ass apparently. You may remember me talking about this guy in a previous post where he threw a hissy fit. Yeah the same guy. I went over and knocked on the door to warn them hoping I got to them before any night activity started happening. "Hey guys, sorry to bug ya, but someone is messaging me from Kristen's computer... I think it's Dave, he's saying he might come over."
Silence.
"What the fuck?!" I hear inside the room. "You got the be fucking kidding me!" It's Kristen.
They open the door and get changed and ask me what's going on, so I lead them to my computer. Adam starts yelling "Tell him to come over, I'll fucking fight him." Kristen phone is ringing but she's not answering it. I guess it's up to me.

I tell her not to answer her phone yet and told Adam not to go online and not to get this guy to come over. I talk to Dave online:

Matthew says:
adam said she's at miras or something
Kristen says:
just tell her i'm coming over
Matthew says:
buddy she's not here
Kristen says:
tell adam i'm coming over
Matthew says:
but no one is here, adam is drunk in his bed
Kristen says:
thats bull shit
Kristen says:
i just wanna talk to her
Matthew says:
look man don't talk like that to me

Maybe this fucker should come over... then again I realize I am essentially lying to him... but still he should be nicer.

Kristen says:
i'm sorry
Matthew says:
I have no part in this don't bug me about it
Matthew says:
just chill out, and figure things out tomorrow, she's not here
Matthew says:
don't come over and cause trouble
Kristen says:
i don't wanna cause trouble
Kristen says:
can you tell adam i just wanna talk for real
Matthew says:
he's like passed out pretty much, you can talk to him tomorrow, leave me your cell number
Kristen says:
no don't lie
Matthew says:
man, stop calling me a liar

Meanwhile while I'm typing this Kristen is yellin on the phone downstairs pacing from the very end of the kitchen all the way to the front door, back and forth. Adam is continuing to tell me to tell Dave to come over. I sent him to his room and told him to not go online and stay there til she's off the phone.

I finally stop talking to Dave cause Kristen called him and he apologized a couple more times and finally I was able to get some sleep. That could have been a messy night.

Bare Cherry Trees.

2006-04-27T13:15:00.000-04:00

I had to force myself to fall asleep at midnight last night. I layed awake for the first hour. With my eyes opening on occasional, adjusting to the lack of light, and then being able to make out objects in the pitch darkness that were previously consumed by nothingness. I plugged in my MD player and listened to some R&B in hopes of getting me back to sleep. One of the songs that I listened to that hit a cord with me was Usher's U Remind Me. This was one of the popular tracks when I first came to University back in 2001. I remember that night at the Ceilie getting to know a girl named Sarah Zandbergen. She unfortunately left University but we kept in touch for a little bit afterwards. I haven't heard from her since she moved in with a boyfriend. Oh well. I eventually got some sleep before waking up at 06:30 hours. I sat at my computer listening to P.Diddy's Let's Get It, my exam song. My mom called me on cue at 07:30 hours and I got ready for the bus for 07:50 hours. As soon as I sat down I got back to my notes studying for a little bit.

When I finally got to campus I went to see if the caf was open for some breakfast. It wasn't. I decided to skip out on breakfast cause it was already 08:10 and I needed to go over my notes some more. I walked into the Great Hall to find a table. For some reason, probably some special even all the tables were taken apart and layed out in a special way.

I sat down at one of the tables overlooking the river once again and the sunlight outside. I put all my papers on the table with the text book opened. I started to read and take notes for the chapters. Footsteps in the distance. I look up and I girl walks past me not taking notice to anything. Quiet once again. I went back to studying and a few minutes later my studying was distrubed again by some wandering girl. She went in and out of the caf doors looking for something. Finally taking leave at the other end. My brain was jolted by her scent. That's Satsuma. I reconize that smell anywhere. For a brief moment my mind reflected back to the past, in the summertime of 2003. Good memories. I shook it off and got back into focus on the chapters. Just then the sun moved and shone through the thin yellow stained glass windows and shone right on my exact position. It penetrated my lined paper that I was holding up showing the very inside of that peice of paper. I decided my studying was finished and I stood up and began to walk towards the AC. But then stopped. As I stood there in the Great Hall I took a moment and remained still. I looked around the room and bask in the quiet nothingness. Nobody will remember this moment but myself.

As I walked the path towards the AC for the last time the giant shadow of the BATA library devoured everything. I envisioned University growing up in Highschool as something monsterous. But when I walked on the cold concrete path, taking notice to the small details of the hard exterior of the buildings, the bare hard exterior of the cherry trees, the pine trees, and the ceramic green looking lamposts. I realized that all this time I thought that University is something that forms you, something that breaks you down so you are ready for the real world. In this moment I knew that the University did not break me. I am unbreakable.

I finished my exam relatively early and hopped on the bus for home. As soon as I got in, the first thing I did was flop right on my bed. I'm all done. Kinda. Now all I have to do is wait for summer school.

Peace.

Enough About Floppies.

2006-04-26T13:18:00.000-04:00

Coming back to Peterborough after all that time at home was really hard. To make things easier for me my mom packed me four roast beef sandwiches. They were pretty much consumed over the next couple of days. I had an exam coming up but found myself unable to boggle down and study for it. I went online to chat with some people and Kalyn was online so we talked to see if we could think of something to do.

We finally made plans to meet up for a drink or what not, and so we decide to go to the Old Stone Brewery at around 20:00 hours. I have some time to kill before then so after I get ready to go I sit downstairs watching Cedric and Scott play some N64. They start getting excited when one person starts to win, and frustrated when someone else counters. My cell phone alarms and so I get along my way to meet her downtown. The sun is starting to fade away leaving some sort of light for the streets. A cold breeze picks up, but I am protected mostly by my sweater. I dart across the busy street despite the warning stopping hand flashing at me. When I arrive at the Old Stone she's not there so I go inside the main hallway for a bit to wait. There is a narrow hallway that leads to both the Old Stone and Hot Belly Mamas. When you reach the end of the hall it tells you to go either "This way" or "That way" and of course "This way" leads to the Old Stone. On the far way adjacent to Hot Belly Mamas is a bulletin board, one of thousands in Peterborough. I look around to see if there are any interesting bands coming to play. I look over and Kalyn arrived so I open the door and we go inside.

We sit in the corner sharing the naugahyde and wood bench that hugged the wall in an “L” shape. Having small talk conversation and having some laughs. I keep looking at the waitress walking briskly back and forth in hopes of getting noticed so that she can take our orders. Finally our eyes meet. She walks over. “Have you two been looked after?”
“No, not yet.” I replied.
“What can I get for you to drink?”
“What do you have on draft?”
She whips out a drink menu and hands it to me in timely fashion and then draws her attention to my partner in crime.
“Pineapple juice.” She said.
I look through their list of home made brews (non-gaming reference this time) and ordered their stout.

We continue our conversation. “So what are you getting?” Kalyn asked me.
“Looks like fish and chips for me.” I said.
“Good call.”
“Yeah can’t go wrong with that, I love seafood. What are you getting?”
“I think I’ll just get an appetizer.”
When the waitress returned I ordered my fish and chips and Kalyn ordered salad. She leaves behind my dark stout which tastes excellent, and gives Kalyn a glass of ice with a pineapple juice can beside it, small white straw in the glass. “Hey I never knew what they used before.” She said inspecting the can.
“You’re a big fan of the pineapple juice here eh?”
“Yeah, but they never usually brought out the can like this.”
“Looks like they lost a customer.”
“Naw, I’ll still come here. Only now I know what to go when I’m at home.
“Fair enough; Cheers.”

Within ten minutes she arrived with our food which shocked both of us. Usually they are at least 25 minutes on a slow night. Her salad is loaded. “That’s a big salad.” I said.
“Yeah I’m quite surprised.”
“I should have got that instead, looks filling.”
We laughed. As we’re eating and talking this group of people started to accumulate beside our table. All of them seem to be focused on a table beside us, and they are starting to make a lot of noise. They were all in their middle age. Kalyn and I could barely hear each other, and we were sort of darting our eyes back and forth from each other to the group of people. Finally the annoyance left after a few minutes though, was a really odd occurrence.

We get our bill after finishing our dinner and drink and went to pay for it at the bar. Kalyn sneaked in and told her to put my drink on her bill. Sneaky. When we leave the bar I nudge her with my shoulder very lightly. “You bum! Thanks.”
“No problem!” She responds.
“I’ll walk you home.”
This time the walk was less eventful and no drunkards yelling at us while cranking up house music. The wind is really chilly though so we both huddle in our jackets.

When we get into her place she invites me to watch a movie with her, and we decide on Just Friends, even though she’s seen it. It was a really hilarious movie. It was a big ordeal for the set up though, moving tables here, stuff there. But it was fun. “Well I better get going, exam coming up, gotta study for it.”
“Alright. Oh, here are your disks.” She says and hands me a handful of 3.5 inch floppy disks.
“Sweet, nice colour floppies! I can pretend I am in the movie Hackers with this yellow one.”
She doesn’t get the reference.
“Never mind; But thanks for these, I’ll send you what’s on them before I format um.”
“Oh ok, thanks, probably nothing I need though.”

We said our goodnights and I ventured home. I studied for a little bit before falling asleep. I’ll study more in the morning before the exam.

Toronto.

2006-04-23T13:23:00.000-04:00

I desperately called up my friends to go out with me to Toronto. My brother was driving out to Warden and St. Clair subway station to go somewhere downtown. So I thought it was a good idea to tag along and go downtown and check out a venue or a bar scene. Pete was the first to jump on board so on the way to pick him up I call up Nelson to see if he's still up for coming too.

"Hello?" A girl's voice answers.
"Oh, hi, is Nelson there?"
"Yup one second."
"Hello?" Nelson droned.
"Hey buddy, you still coming?"
"Yep."
"Ok we're picking up Pete now and then we'll go to your house. Is that Lisa there?"
"Yep."
"Is she coming?"
"Oh I didn't tell you? Yeah she is, is that ok?"
I muffled the phone and asked my bro if one more can come.
"Yeah it's cool, see you soon."

So we picked up Pete and then Nelson and Lisa. Who were dressed up for a club, Nelson with khakis and a dress shirt with dress shoes, and Lisa with a cut off black dress. Me and Pete were wearing skater shoes and throw on jackets.

"Hey guys... a little dressed up eh?"
"Yeah I assumed you wanted to go to a club and it was too late to change when you said you wanted to just go to a pub."
"Ah got'cha."

My bro drove back to the Harmony on-ramp to go West on the 401 towards Toronto. We play some rock music in the car and have a little chatter. He finally arrives at the Subway station and we pay our way through. Once on the Subway we sit on both sides of the car and talk about which places we are going to get off and times to meet etc. We decide to get off at Osgood to be close to Richmond Street, where all the bars are at. When we finally transfer and then get off at Osgood we're weaving down corridors to try and find the best exit. By chance we manage to rich University Ave. which then runs into Richmond. My brother told us of a place called Montana which has a eatery and a club, so we look around for it. Eventually we find it across from the big Chapters store and go inside. "It's about a 20 minute wait." The girl behind the counter said. She gave us this black bulky coaster which apparently will light up when the table is ready. So we go over to the bar to have a social. When our coaster eventually lights up and vibrates we exchange it in for seating. Luckily we got a table right next to the window overlooking the busy intersection.

I marvel at the people walking around in herds, the bright flashing lights illuminating the night sky. Me and Pete share a pizza which turned out really nice because it was thin crusted. Nelson and Lisa both ordered Stirlon steaks. Then the complained about it. After we were done the meal and dishing out the cash, the waitress tells us if we take our recipt to the stairs we can go up to the club and not pay cover. Sweet. So we do this and go up the stairs. Dead inside. A few cougars are on the dance floor and the rest of the old folks are scattered about. We leave the club and look for another place to party.

We go all over Toronto looking for a spot. One place looked packed, the Black Bull didn't sell pitchers only seven dollar pints, Horseshoe Tavern, which had some live music didn't have anywhere to sit, Chicagos was cheesey... I mean this is fucking Toronto and there is no God damn place to go! We could be drunk already if this was Peterborough! A few other places were fine dining lounges, Tonic wouldn't let me in with my skater shoes despite protest. So finally we walked all the way to Front street and went down into this place called OverDraught. $21 dollars for a pitcher of beer. You have got to be kidding me. So we drink our fill and I steal a beer mug and we head for the subway at Union Station. I call up my bro to tell him we're on our way. Lisa is plastered at this point, which is good cause she stopped arguing with Nelson about him going to a strip club when they were broken up.

We meet John back at Warden station and head to his car.

"You guys are lucky." This old man says to us. "Why's that?" Lisa asked.
"All these cars got their tires slashed but yours." He said.
He wasn't joking. We were lucky, one car got all four tires done in. We drive back to Oshawa and drop everyone off before returning home ourselves.

I place the stolen mug on top of my desk and then went to sleep.

Lords Of Shwatown.

2006-04-22T14:14:00.000-04:00

On Thursday the 20th of April I was picked up by my dad at around 15:00 hours. It was a long process of taking down those posters and vinyl records from my walls. Packing up papers and textbooks into GrandNToy boxes. Stuffing hordes of dirty laundry into duffle and gym bags. When everything got packed into the Buick we set off for Oshawa. Along the way my dad of course inquires about what's going on for my exams and asking what I'm going to be doing in the summertime. I put on my MD player though and listened to some Death Cab For Cutie and gazed out into the fast moving landscapes. I'd stop listening to it periodically to start conversation with my dad just so he is not bored. Before arriving home we stop in the LCBO and then Sobeys to get some wine and some hamburgers for dinner. At this point I'm actually anticipating my arrive at home for I have no been there in such a long while. When we finally do get home I walk into the door and my dog goes crazy as expected and hangs around my legs the whole time. Until feeding time really. I go outside and kick this big red ball around for the dog to try and keep her away from the BBQ. It stopped working after a while though, cause my pup loves the grease and BBQ sauce that falls down. So I had to barricade her from going near it. I gave up eventually cause the hamburgers were all done and so we sat down to eat them. Shortly after dinner I receive a phone call from Jordan's house and it was Jay on the other line.

"Hey how's it going?" He says.
"Who is this?"
"It's Jay."
"Who?"
"Jay."
"Who?"
"... It's Danger calling." He then says. A little lame inside joke, it will be the last one on here I swear.
They tell me that they are coming to pick me up and then head over to the Waltzing Weasel for some drinks. I say sure and go upstairs to get ready. My dad slips me some money and I went out the door and waited for their car. I sat on the concrete steps looking up at the setting sun which caused the sky to turn a purplish hue surrounding it, the rest was a darkening blue. Jay's Toyota Echo rolls up and I hop inside. "Hey, I didn't know you were in Oshawa." Kate says.
"Oh, yup, I'm here."
"You didn't tell me you bum, next time I want a heads up!"

We arrive at the Waltzing Weasel in Courtice and get seated in a booth situation with two round tables. The waitress puts them together and walks away to get menus. I pull them apart to avoid another Tartan situation (check the archives). I order a strongbow draft and the rest of the knuckleheads order pina coladas. "You know, I make a mean Colada." I said. Pete and Nelson stroll in and sit down. We have some conversation and also ordered some wings too, but they were really lame. After were were done Jay decides to drop Kate off at home and go home himself, Nelson and Pete go to play some Xbox, so I went with Jordan to his house.

He sets up his NES for me and pops in Vice by Sammy Studios. It's a pretty fun game, although suffers a little in gameplay (what NES game didn't) because objects that look like they were in the background actually hurt your lifepoints. He calls up his friend and we go Scarborough to pick her up. When we get to Scarborough I'm reunited with all my old route points that I did during my stay with GreenLawn and I wouldn't shut up about it. When we picked up her friend we drove to a Tim Hortons and had some coffee and conversation. She actually couldn't stay out later than midnight (even though she's 22) so we had to drop her off again. At that point we call up Jay who also lives in Scarborough.

Ring. Click.
"Hello?"
"Hey Jay, are you sleeping?"
"Nope, just watching a movie."
"We got something here of yours is it ok if we come over?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Ok, we'll be be there in 10 minutes."
"... Ok."

We arrive soon after and then hang out in his apartment. I instantly want to check out the skyline cause he is 15 floors up. When I get outside Jordan tells me to look down cause it looks scary. I do so holding my hat in case it flys off. He takes both hands and shakes my shoulders and that makes my heart drop a bit. We both start laughing. I take some photos with my cell phone and then went back inside. We sat there watching some Jackass and then me and Jay played a little Xbox and we went home.

Inspirations And Apparitions.

2006-04-20T13:04:00.000-04:00

The original plan was to go to 2nd Floor on Wednesday night to celebrate the completion of an exam. That plan fell through though because a lot of people had exams or felt like no one was going to go out tonight because of exam. Nevertheless I had a really fun Wednesday night anyways. Kalyn messaged me online and we decided to watch Dead Poets Society and catch up on old times if you will, listen to some music as well. I told her that I needed to clean my room first because in it's current state I had popcorn all over the floor, papers everywhere, empty coke cans on my desk, a pile of laundry in the basket, and bills/transaction records everywhere in arms reach. After I made my room accessable I told Kalyn to come on over, and I went outside to wait for her. I sit down on the spinning chair on the porch, wearing my brown Jays shirt and jeans. I look over and in the darkness sits Jeff, one of our neighbours with his head in his hands. "Hey buddy." I said.
"Hey how's it going?"
"Not too bad, what are you up to?"
"Just got in from a run. My knee is killing me."
"Oh ya."
"This isn't even my bad knee." He pats his right knee, "This is my bad knee."
I pat my right knee, "Yeah this is my bad one."
"Same one."
"How'd you do yours in?" I asked.
He then told me the story of getting hit from behind in hockey, and I in return told him my Jitsu injuring story.
"Alright man, I'm going to go in for a bit." He said.
Once he entered his house I looked up into the night sky, there are not too many stars out. I realize that I should walk and meet her along the way instead of just sitting around, so I got up and walked down MacDonnel street to run into her.

Shortly up the road I run into her and we walk back to my house. We sit in my newly clean room and I start playing some songs on my computer. We both have an appreciation for music so I wanted to play her some Jack Johnson which she totally digged and then went on to play Death Cab For Cutie after. "Ok check out this song by Death Cab, but let me say that it's-" I pause for a second. "It's sort of a beautiful sad song." I continued. I put on "I Will Follow You Into The Dark," and we both listened attentively to the lyrics. My mind wanders to that night in November when I laying down on my bed, staring into my walls crying, and then the next morning hunched over on the chair on the porch looking into my glass of whiskey and ginger ale. We both agree that it is a nice tune, but the second chorus really does not fit in. I put on Dead Poets Society and we hop on top of my bed and watch my computer screen. I'd normally use the living room TV, but it was already in use at the time. The more we lean back on my walls the more the bed creeps forward on it's wheels. I try to brace the wheels with my jeans. In the end I just stop leaning back on the walls much to the dismay of my back. I really could use a futon for these situations. "Don't do that dad!" Kalyn yells out. "Woah, hey, no yelling, my roomies will think something kinky is going on in here." I joke. I won't give away what happens in the movie but it was pretty sad.

After the movie was over I walk her back home. It's still a really nice night out and both being from country lives we share stories of our observations with stars. And the lack there of when going to the city. When we walk up George street towards Parkhill these two guys open the window above us. In the room you could hear the house music playing on one of their stereo systems. "Wooo! Yeeaah!" They yelled at us with their hands waving around. I clench my fists and start to do a house dance in return to their delight and they begin to cheer some more. I stopped moving my fists in a circular motion and continued on the normal stride going back to a previous conversation. "So where do you live?" I ask as we approach the Subway on the corner. "Just at the white place there." She said. I make my way to the one behind the store. "No no, the one beside."
"Oh" I said. "That place there?" I pointed.
"Yup."
I begin to laugh. "I use to know people who lived there."
I'm laughing to myself cause it was the place where Adam's ex-girlfriend use to live, Amy. Boy he was an idiot to let that one go. Who knew what would happen after they broke up too.

We get inside and instantely I feel weird going up these steps. It was a return to a familiar place. We get up to her room and she bids me to sit on her computer chair, but since she has no chair for herself I plop on the floor across from her. To her dismay of course. The phone rings. Her roommate comes out and gives it to her. Who calls this late? After everything is sorted out we sit down again and she gives me a tarot reading. I of coursed asked about my love life. The first card representing the past comes up the World card. Which signifies something being complete in my life. I instantly think of my ex-girlfriend Jessie but do not reveal that to her. The next card representing the present comes Ace of Cups, signifying an emergence of emotions. Not sure about that one. And then the future card turns up. It's the Magician. Although this card can be representitive of some event, it can also be a significator. Meaning it represents a person. Someone powerful and strong, someone with a burst of energy, creativity and a focused will. Who knows if such a person will appear before me, or has already.

We then sit down longer and chat about movies and other stuff, reminising about our first year and the people we knew. When 04:00 hours came around I decided it's best that I head home so we both can get some sleep. We hug and say our goodbyes and I walk back home with the streets to myself. I look up at the stars again and the very few that remain there for me.

I came into my house, went right into my room and feel asleep.

Evolution Baby!

2006-04-19T17:38:00.000-04:00

I know the ending to the last story arc was a little over dramatic, but it happens, I won't apologize for it, just enjoy the story as it is. It's so funny how much this blog has progressed into something that can be analyzed into something that has turned into one ore two short paragraphs into thousands of words. If you ever wonder what my influence could be in terms of my writing style, in fact if you ever asked me, I would tell you that I don't really have one. That was until I re-visited an old website I use to go to way way way before the whole blog thing became popular and that is a short online novella called "She really hates my futon." I was looking at the website to see if the latest chapter has been added yet. It hasn't. But re-reading some of the chapters on there I realized that my style of storytelling is pretty similar. With the minor differences is that mine is littered with spelling mistakes and I have a different way of presenting stuff, often over-dramatic. If you like what you read here then you will absolutely will love what you find at this mentioned website at www.myboot.org, I encourage you to read it when you have spare time.

Anyways, I finished my retail marketing exam today. I didn't stress over it like I did with my accounting exam. I think the reason for that is I did really well on the essay and group project so this exam is really worth pennies in comparison. As opposed to the Accounting exam where nearly everything was riding on it. I did well though and got through it. Even had a little be of fun doing the essay question because we had to do a flagship retail store for YAMAHA, draw out a floor plan as well then relate it a diagram called Walter's Model. My idea in actual application could be financially well off, but probably nearly impossible to implement due to start-up costs.

I then took the bus ride home in the hot hot sun, ran into Steph (the athlete) and talked to her for a bit. Man her legs are smokin' hot. Got off to hit up some Subway cause I was so hungry. I got the special and then went over to Kelly's to talk about whether or not I should go to this party tonight. I'm still on the fence. The bread was actually kinda hard too which sucked, I hate getting unfresh bread. And afterwards I walked home and just started to relax now.

It feels so fucking good to be done everything. Well, almost everything. I still have one more exam to go on the 27th. But you know what I mean when you finish off a course it's just like a huge fucking weight off your shoulders. Anyways...

It's around 22 degrees celicus outside, f'n amazing, love global warming, big fan. I am going to drown my sorrows in Coke tonight (Coca-Cola) and enjoy the weather.

Peace.

My Dummy Hand (Part 3).

2006-04-18T18:08:00.000-04:00

When we get back into the Great Hall we once again brought out our notes. This time however we only had maybe three pages each after studying so long we were able to condense the information. We went over all three cases and the questions over and over. As we're doing that we both draw our attention to the stairs leading up to the Champlain office. A Trent student was standing there with a bunch of tourists. "And this is what is called the Great Hall and it is one of the many cafs here on campus." She said. I look at the group of potentials with their parents and notice how they are gazing around the room. It can feel pretty timid at first when you walk in because of how high the ceiling is and the medieval look of the place. I remember when I took the tour long long ago when I first arrived on campus during Intro Week. The tourist continued along their way and I finished up studying because so much is riding on this exam; It is the end of all ends.

When we walk towards the gym I start singing "Let's Get It" by P.Diddy. Ever since my first year I use to listen to that song to pump me up before an exam. Of course I only know the chorus off by heart. I keep looking at Vishald's peice of paper before going into the exam trying to remember the details of it. I know I shouldn't, but I keep forgetting it.

We walk into the gym and set our bags and such down. I take our a bunch of pens and my calculator. I know I won't need it for the exam but I keep it there to add up my marks when I take a break from writing. I sit down at a desk and Vishald sits beside me. "Ok everyone," Konopaski says walking to the middle of the gym "You have three hours from now, and remember that if you think you're going to do badly, the sign up sheet for summer school is at the front." Everyone starts laughing. I'm not laughing. "Begin." He says. I look through the booklet before starting right away and looking over the two cases. The one I did is on the exam which is sweet, and the other one is one I kinda looked over but I know it's easy to do. I start on the short answers. Three questions down, that's 12% so far, five done, that's 20%. My hand is getting sore, and as I continue to write it feels like glass is in my veins. I shake it and then stare at the back of my hand, a small blister is forming where the pen rests. Ten questions done, that's 40% right there. I get to question 14 and I don't know the answer. I leave it blank. I finish off the last of the short answer questions and then proceed to the first case study. Writing the case was very tedious because I just wrote it this morning, this time however I had to write it very well. I finish that off then skip the next case and write down the bonus questions as a sort of break. My hand is killing me. I open and close it several times while looking at the palm and nothing I can do can seem to stop it from hurting. I open the last few pages and begin on the last case forcing my hand to write. At this point my penmanship is starting to suffer, words are not coming our right, spelling mistakes scribbled out, and it's starting to look very un-neat overall. As I wrote the very last sentence I pounded the tip of the pen into the page for the period. Got up and handed it in to the front and walked out of the gym. It was over. I continued to try and loosin' up my hand to no avail, but I managed to catch the bus right away and went home.

On the bus someone pulled on my backpack, I look back and a young girl is looking at me, I turn my head around and I hear some laughter. I look back again and see Melissa sitting there. "How's it going Matthieu?"
"Oh going good, how are you?"
"Not too bad just coming back from the library, typing out an essay."
"Cool. I just wrote my first exam."
"How'd that go?"
"My hand is just dummied! But other than that I did well."
She laughed again. We walk down Stewart together and said our goodbyes when we arrived at my house.

It was over. No more accounting. The thorn in my side was ripped out and although I bled on the way back; I felt fucking great.

My Dummy Hand (Part 2).

2006-04-18T12:29:00.000-04:00

So I left off seeing Vishald in the caf and we started to study. On the long wooden table we had our books and papers surrounding us like a war room. I get back to work on the case that I was trying desperately to finish before I ran into Vishald. Across the table Vishald takes out his earbuds connected to his MP3 player. "Ok man, we do the twenty questions right now, and in 1 hour we do the cases."
"Man, I gotta finish this case, I gotta."
"Alright man." He puts his earbuds back in and goes back to his method of studying. I go back to writing down the case answer with references to the textbook. I'm looking up "arm's length transactions", "unrealized gains", ethical responsibilites and other things related to shares. When I finally finish it is around 12:30. I give Vishald the finished case to study and I go in for some french fries. She puts a bunch in the basket and puts it in the deep fryer. Walks away to talk to someone for a bit in the backroom. I look attentively at the grease flying up out of the fryer and back into the bubbling substance. She walks back in and shakes the fries around and moves them around with the tongs. "For here or to go?"
"For here." I said. "No wait, to go."
She highlights something on the small peice of paper which is my order form. Puts the finished fries into a small plastic container and hands both that and the peice of paper to me. "Thanks." I said.

I sit back down with Vishald and eat my french fries and Vishald goes in to get some food as well. He comes back with a pita. "This is a big pita." He says and chomps into it. "They did it wrong though."
"Yeah they never mix pitas unless you ask."
"No; It's not that. This stuff should be over there." He says moving his head in the direction. I really have no idea what he's talking about so I go back to studying.
"Ok" He says. "We should do the cases now."
"I haven't even looked at these twenty short answers yet, I gotta do them man."
"Alright man."
I write down my answers even though we have the answers already written down.
"Man don't waste your time writing them down."
"It's how I study, if I write it down I'll memorize it."
He goes back to eating the pita.

We exchange arguements back and forth, disagreements on accounting practices and definitions of terms. We eventually come to an agreement for each arguement however, this is how it always is when we study. We try calling up Anosh to see what he's up to and whether he is coming. He's still in Toronto but said he'd try to make it up. After an hour and a half we go to the library to see if he's there in the library. We go up to the fourth floor looking but no one is there. A bunch of students consume the table and creating a noise level like no other. "We couldn't study here anyways." I said. "Let's go outside." Vishald suggests. So we go outside the library and sit on the steps in the main "podium" area. As we sit there I try to bring out my notes on my lap to study. "How long til the exam?" I ask.
"In about half an hour."
"Ok man, we gotta go inside the Great Hall again to study."
"Man, it is so nice outside, come on."
"Man... we need to study!"
"Alright fine."
"Plenty of time for sun after this bad boy." I said. We walked back into the Great Hall to get in some last minute studying done.

Ok well that's it for now. I will add in Part 3 later on today. Right now I have to go to Karens to study for my retail marketing exam tomorrow.

Peace.

My Dummy Hand.

2006-04-17T23:15:00.000-04:00

My alarm on my JetAudio player woke me up to some Zero 7 I layed in bed in the early hours at around 07:00 hours. Today is not going to be a good day. When I finally awoke I played around on my computer expecting the phone call from my dad. Came right on mark at 08:00 hours. After he hung up I got ready to get into the shower, I took three steps and my phone rang again. I bolted back to answer it so that it doesn't wake up the roomates. "Yeah?"
"Did you double check your exam time?"
"Yes, I already told you, 2 o' clock, 14 hundred hours!"
"Ok, see you in an hour."
The whole time in the shower my brain simulated the ringtone that my cell phone has, it was driving me nuts to hear it inside my head over and over almost as if I was actually hearing it ring. Needless to say as soon as I got out of the shower I put my cell phone on silent.

My dad finally arrived and I got my stuff ready to go because he offered to drop me off at the library. He gave me some pop, water, and leftovers from their turkey dinner. Mashed potatoes and turkey drumsticks. I put those in my fridge upstairs to ensure none of the roommates eat it. I hop in the car and we drive to campus. It was almost reminiscent of all the times I rode in the car going to campus with him because it was a rare occasion. Hasn't happend since I was in residence last. I peered into the side mirror as we zoomed past the Peterborough zoo, I could see the mirrored blurry reflections of the green trees as I starred at my face behind my shades. My skin looked synthetic and plastic, sagging around the cheeks. My lips were a light pink with little bristles underneath my bottom lip. I took my fingers and pulled on the synthetic skin to test it. It was real.

He dropped me off and I gave him instructions on how to get out and I went on my way to the Great Hall. I took out $20 dollars from the ATM and hit the caf. I was the only one in there so I paced back and forth looking for something to consume at 09:30 hours in the morning. Pacing back and forth I looked at the tiny offerings of cereal, candy, soda pop, a couple nutrientgrain bars left over, pastries of all sorts but nothing desireable. The caf worker stood near the grill section at me, probably as anxious as I was to make a decision. I finally find a crossient and some butter and take that. I sit down at one of the tables overlooking the river. The sunlight is breaking through some of the evergreens and through the windowed doors leading to the ouside shining on the tiled floor below my feet. I butter my crossient and eat it. I then take out my books and start to study for accounting. I sit and study, writing down the answer for a case study that I know will be on the exam.

"You're in 102 eh?" Someone says to me. I look up and there is a guy standing there with buzzed black hair and looks sorta of goofy.
"Yeah."
"How's that treating you?"
"Pretty good I guess, just going over the case studies."
"Did you get the answers online?"
As a side note here in case you're confused at this point. Our accounting prof gave us the exam in advance, 20 short answers and 3 case studies, and said 15 short answers and 2 cases will be on the exam. So someone posted the answers online.
"Yeah, but some of them were really wrong, so I'm doing it myself."
"Yeah I noticed that too, well we're going to be at the library if you want to study with us."
"Alright man." I said. I knew very well that I wasn't going to the library to study with those morons.

I got back to work and tried desperately to finish the case. I'm starting to grumble in the stomach. Fuck, alright, I'll just go to the washroom and come back. It's starting to pain up and I'm wondering what the hell was in that pastry. I go to the secret washroom near the senior common room. I sit down on the toilet and look around for the usual graffiti. What the heck did you think I was going to say? To my right I notice some red ink. It scribbled "look right toilet tennis" with a red box around it. I looked to my right and saw nothing on the walls. I examined the area some more and found a faded away red box on the toilet paper dispenser that had "Loo le" in it. Janitor probably tried to wash it all away and only got some of it. My toilet tennis was interupted by the sound of the large wooden doors opening from the outside. The washroom door open and some guy walks in. I look below the stall door to see his shoes, I lean forward to look through the crack and the guy looks in the mirror and checks his spikey hair and walks back out. Clearly upset that I occupied the sole stall in this washroom.

I get out wash my hands and head back to the caf to study some more. To my surprise Vishald is sitting at the tables surprised to see me. We sit down and hit the books.

Part 2 tomorrow.

Peace.

Double Double.

2006-04-16T12:51:00.000-04:00

Last night was fairly fun, I totally missed out on watching the Jays game which sucked. So I went downtown with Cedric. As we were walking we were sharing dream cars and what not. I told him I would hire a guy to call Alfreid to drive me around in a Rolls Royrce to roll play Batman all the time. He would say: "Sir, for the hundreth time, my name is James, you are not Batman, and we are not going to Joker's hideout; We are going to Subway." I guess you had to be there. We both popped into Dixon's to look at some comic books and argue whether Batman or Spiderman could win a fight. It really shouldn't even be an arguement, Batman could fuck him up.

Cedric went to visit his friend and I went on my way to the LCBO. When I got there the parking lot was crazy with cars coming in and out and lined up. People scurrying to get out of the place with their bottle(s) in hand. I stroll in. There is a service rep giving away tastings of Hypnotiq. I think back to New Years where some 17 year old kid got wasted off that stuff. I didn't try any. I get a bottle of Italian Pinot Grigio & Verduzzo. It's a 2004 by Masi Masianco. I stuffed it into my bag after buying it and stuffed a Vintages magazine in there too. And walked home. I called up Kelly on the cell phone to tell him that we're going out tonight and as I'm doing so the wind went crazy and roared as I walked up the street. A couple of girls were across the street jumping into it while laughing. I started to walk backwards to cut some of the noise out cause Kelly couldn't hear me. After we finished talking I continued home.

I put the bottle in the fridge and chat on my computer for a while. Cedric comes home so we play a game of N64. Then we decide to start the evening by sitting out on the porch enjoying a J. I open the bottle of wine and pour two glasses, we sniffed and drank some. I cooked up some spagetti to have with my wine and I'm starting to get really drunk already. I go upstairs and chat online for a while and Cedric gets ready and heads over to Chad's to watch UFC 59. He invited me to come along but Kelly was coming over and I was really enjoying my online chat at the time.

Kelly came in at 22:30 hours and so we went immediately to the Junction. We had to wait in line for around 15 minutes which isn't too bad. Inside you see the usual white guys with button up shirts and jeans... wait a minute, I'm a white guy wearing a button up shirt and jeans. Fuck. Anyways the DJ played one of my fav songs LL COOL J - Phenomenom and he plays it so well cause he was the DJ at Illusions nightclub during the 90s. I went up to the booth to see him do his shit and he's stratching and playing with the sound board totally doing an amazing job. I never seen anything like like it. He sees me and comes over and I just yell "Man that was fucking amazing! Thanks for playing that song love LL Cool J." He laughs and says thanks.

I ran into Karen... and her friend Karen and talked with them a bit. They went off instantly to do their own thing. That's cool. Cedric eventually came into the bar and chilled with us. And there was this one girl at the bar, wearing this red blouse that just went down to the top of her rib cage, this short black skirt. She was really shaking her stuff too. And there was some white dude dancing with her with his arms up in the air swaying side to side. We all just shook our heads. "He doesn't know WHAT to do with her." I said to Cedric who agreed. Then again I wouldn't know what to do either, so I'll just laugh.

We left for home and went to get some pizza at Double Double, Aidan's fav spot, and the guy gave me a deal on a couple slices and a pop. $3.00 dollars. We carried it home and ate there while watching Running Man. I went upstairs to chat for a bit online and then finally falling asleep.

Ok well today I have so much studying to do, and the Jays game is on later! Woooooo Blue Jays!! So probably won't be an update til like Monday after my exam.

Peace.

Scape Goat.

2006-04-14T17:28:00.000-04:00

I could barely wake up this morning because I was up very late finishing off the final touches to my part for my group 410 project. I freaked out cause it is Good Friday and I have no idea if any buses are running. I tried calling the transit office but no one answered, and the same with the Trent University office. I called up my parents in frustration and a call for help to go home. They told me to take a cab to the library. I eventually did find out that there are a few buses running so I got my accounting stuff together to go to the library to study.

I arrived with Vishald and met up with Ginosh on the 4th floor. We decided to get some food and so we went to find some vending machines. Ginosh stays back to guard the stuff and so Vishald and I go around campus to get some food. We try to get into Champlain but all the doors we pull are locked. Even the secret doors. The wind is a bit chilly and the rest of campus is bare with one or two students walking about. We decide to go to O.C. and try our luck there. As we're walking across the bridge I murmur "Jesus didn't die on the cross so that we can be inconvienced!" Vishald thought that one was funny, he probably did not understand this Western civilization phenomenom either. As we approach the doors into Wenjack we noticed one of the doors wedged open. "Hmm, Someone is looking out for us." I said. There was a little pinecone used a door stop to prevent the door from being shut and locked.

We get a some junk food and head back to the library. I replace the pine cone on the way back. I'm a firm believer in the pine cone system. I'm eating my chips on the way there and Vishald is jogging and jumping around beside and in front of me. When we get back to our spot in the library Ginosh is no where to be found. Nice job, my $400 dollar MD player was still in my jacket though. I go on one of the computers and break down the case studies we have to know for class while talking to people on MSN messenger about other group work. It's around 16:00 hours and after a few hours of arguing and studying I decide to go home.

I'm so tired at this point that after Cedric and I finish our game of N64 I go up to my room and fall asleep to some Keane playing. Waking up two hours later Il ook at the time. 20:00 hours. I go downstairs to cook some fish and chips. My dad wanted me to go to Red Lobster, but I did not want to waste that much money on it. I suppose they just wanted me not to feel so lonely on Good Friday. I sit by the TV eating my food watching Most Haunted. The light bulb flickers above me while I watch it, then it goes completely dark and inside the bulb a little flash of blue occurs. Great, another burnt out bulb. After the show is done and I finish eating I go over to the neighbours house to watch the Blue Jays game. It's so exciting, although the Jays ended up falling short 5 runs after two innings they came back to win 13-7 against last years champs the Chicago White Sox. Jeff and I exchange baseball thoughts the entire time, who should be traded, who do we like. Allen sits there beside me reading this rediculously large Texas Hold'Em book on strategies. Outside it starts to pour down rain and thunder roars in far distance. I run back into my house to shut down my computer and before I do I talk to Karen who invites me over to watch a movie with her. I go back to watch the rest of the game and then get my jacket on and head to Karen's house.

We decide on watching Sideways, she hasn't seen it yet, and I haven't seen the beginning of the film. It's such a masterpeice, I remember trying to watch it back in Oshawa (I think I mentioned it in a blog) but the parents kept bugging me. After it was over I walked home and went to bed. I fell asleep so easily and for the first time I managed to get around eight hours of sleep. And managed to get my blog on track to where I am right now.

We'll see how long that lasts.

Peace.

Don't Drink Pina Coladas.

2006-04-12T20:05:00.000-04:00

I needed a change of scenery today so when I caught wind that Cedric and Scott were heading to campus I rushed to get all my 410 material together to go to the library with them and use the computers there. I get everything in my backpack and try to get the manager interview I did onto my MD player. I converted the file but could not find where the heck it was. Three minutes til the bus arrives. I'm sweating at this point and nervous that I will not catch the bus so I tell them to go without me and I'll catch the next one. I went back upstairs and finally figured out where the converted file went so I saved it on a MD and stuffed them into my leather jacket and went on my way. As I approach the bus stop on Reid I see Nick up ahead and I try to hide a grin as I walk up shaking my head. We talk for a bit before the bus comes up and have some laughs. "That's an nice pee hole you got there" I said, because of the large hole on the front of his pants. "Yeah got that from college when I took chemistry, hydrochloric acid got on it." We get on the bus and trode along. The skies are a looming light grey, a little bit of rain falls down creating sand brown, wet sidewalks. When the bus gets to the library we go our seperate ways and I walk up the steps and walk in. It's still pretty busy inside dispite it being exam time. I see Scott right away and we talk for a little bit.

I walk downstairs and look for a computer that doesn't allow anyone to see my screen. Not sure why. I get one at the far corner and log in. The screen looks more purple than it should so I spend some time playing around with the settings of the monitor until I figure out how to change it back to normal. Once that was out of the way I turned on my MD player and listend to the manager interview I recorded while typing out some rough notes. Hmm, the battery is getting low. I call up my parents to chat for a bit and get some info about the OPG employee I interviewed. I forgot to ask him what a section manager for project and modifications actually does. I finish listening to the interview and statisfied with my notes I head to the front of the library to catch the bus.

When I get there it's around 16:00 hours, meaning I've been in the library now for over 2 hours. Nick is there when I arrive and we shake our heads again at our chance meeting. As I'm talking to him about nonsense Melissa appears before us. All three of us joke around and the rain starts to come down lightly. A bunch of students waiting on the steps go underneath the concrete ceiling further back. We remain where we are though. The bus comes up and we all get on and sit at the front together. Nick jokes that I should get him an umbrella and come back to get him on the bus. What a joker. I actually made plans with little Steph to meet up at Subway. So I said good byes and went to Subway. I called her up to let her know I'm at Subway and I get inside to order my sub. Afterwards she walks up with her dog and I stuff the goods in my backpack and we walk our way back.

It stopped raining now and so we take the bike trail behind the houses. She lets me take the lease for a little bit and the dog waddles along. We get back to her place and I sit down and talk to her while eating my sub. Afterwards we watched a little bit of the Simpsons while I rubed her dog's stomach with my foot. The dog rolled on her back with the paws sticking outwards and flopped over.

I walked back home after the show ended and listened to some HIM on my MD player. Walking back the rain started to pick up a bit to a light drizzle. I took the side streets on the route to my house and walked by a playground where two mothers were at a park with their kids. The rain continued to come down lightly and yet the family seemed unphased as if we were all living in two co-existing worlds layered on top of each other with polar opposite weather conditions.

As I walk back home I look up to the light grey sky and feel the tinyest of drops freckled my face. I then took a big inale of the aromas around me only to notice the distinct smell of a fresh worm being washed out of the grass.

It felt good.

Slim Fast.

2006-04-09T16:56:00.000-04:00

The Plan That Went Wrong.

It's Tuesday (April 11th) right now as I type this out, I kinda just started to start entries and save the drafts and finish them off later. It's been really hard to sit here and write when I could be doing other important things like sitting here reading up on useless information while chatting with people. I felt so artificial this morning when I was waking up. My skin felt like it did not belong on me, and my movements felt sluggest and unresponsive. I was sitting here listening to some music and reading up on stupid dating web articles and then I look to my left and Rory is walking towards me. "Oh... my... God." I said stunned. What the fuck is he doing here? I was instantantly exstatic. Way back in Novemeber, if you remember reading my old blog, Rory stayed with us for a about a month and he was one of the coolest guys ever. We had some chat and he had to go right soon back to Belleville. But anyways this is my accounting of my Friday and Saturday, the 7th and 8th respectivitly.

Friday.

Originally Rob and I planned to eat nothing all day and just drink Slim Fast drinks before going to campus. Once we got on campus we were going to just get shit faced on beers. However this all changed, it was almost noon time and Rob still did not wake up yet. I was sitting on my computer watching the rain come down asking people if dionysus is still going to happen. Ends up it is, but I had an assignment that didn't get done in time for me to be able to head out there. So we all stayed in. After finishing my assignment for 15:00 hours, we head out to get some beverage for tonight. At the LCBO Rob decides that he is going to just get some beer. I get a bottle of [yellow tail] red cabernet. At the beer store he walks in and gets a 12 of Lakeport honey.

We stop into No Frills after the beer store and get some groceries. Rob and I are trying to decide upon sharing Pizza. "We can get this big one here for three bucks, or two of these for five." I ponder at the pizzas. "How about this?" I point to a rectangle pizza. "Naw." Rob says and continues to ponder about the two pizzas. I look down below in the pits of the freezing displays. Six pizzas in a bag for $8.99. I pick it up "We're getting this, three pizzas each." Rob nods and we continue our shopping.

Getting back home I sit in the back and open up a 500ml chocolate milk that I bought with some cheese bread. I break off some for Rob and tell Adam that he can't have any. I take a sip of the chocolate milk and look at the expirary date. April 3rd... It was the fifth right now. I swallow the horrible tasting substance cause I was in the car and give it Rob. "Man I think they sold me bad milk. Take a sip." I said, and he does and instantly gags. He tries to give it back to me and I say "No man, throw it out the window." He rolls down his window and as we drive down MacDonnell street he tosses it to the sidewalk. The carton makes a thud on the cement and tumbles to the grass beyond the sidewalk spilling it's guts everywhere. We laugh.

Once we get home I cook up a couple pizzas for Rob and I. I open the bottle of wine and pour a glass and put the rest in the fridge for later. It tastes wonderful, the fruity smell and not so bitter taste is very welcoming. We eat our pizzas while watching TV. Afterwards we head up to Robs loft and I take the rest of the bottle of wine with me and continue to drink it. After about half way I stopped bothering to smell the wine cause I was use to it and feeling fairly buzzed. Kelly and Tammy eventually came over and so we're all listening to some music and having a good time. At one point in the night I'm having one of Robs beers and Kelly tackles Adam to the foam couch in Robs room. I hop onto Kellys back with the beer in my hand. Kelly rises up with me still on him and I come crashing down onto the couch. As I land with beer still in my hand it geysers up towards the ceiling and spashes all over me and people around me. "What the hell Kelly?!" I exclaim while laughing. I go downstairs and change my shirt. Nancy comes over too and after chilling upstairs with us for a bit drives us to the Rooster.

Nancy goes down an alley way downtown into this creepy parking lot surrounded by buildings. The low lighting and sweating bricks added to the effect and we all go up to the line up at the Rooster. Of course Ced is working at the door so we see if it's possible to skip the line. He tells us that his manager is lurking about so we wait in line up for a bit. The line is not moving and our old friend Zaf comes into the line with us for a bit, and we're there with Cathy too. So we're all laughing and joking around. All of a sudden that same peice of shit, who you may remember I wanted to throw off the stage that one time butts in front of us with some girl. "Rob watch this." I said. I sucked in all the saliva in my mouth and made an audible spit sound and flung my spit towards the guy. The foamy saliva stretches and lands on the shoulder of the girl's coat. Rob starts laughing uncontrollably. I'm kinda chuckling and shushing him. "What did you do?" Nancy ask. I shushed her laughing. "No, what did you do?" She asked again. I couldn't stop laughing and then she saw it. No one else noticed though and Cedric gave us the signal to go in. We leave our place in line and walk into the bar.

Inside I get a Corona and start to bounce around. I get up on the stage wearing my blazer and jeans. I dance with Cathy and Nancy for a bit and Nancy keeps going over to Kelly. What is the friggin' facination with that guy? I run into my neighbour Allen who is just as trashed as I am. Continuing to dance I also run into Tim, Rob and Adams kickboxing coach. We all stay for a bit long and decide to leave around 2:30am. I go outside and wait around with Cathy and Kelly talking to Cedric. I noticed that Rob hasn't come out yet with the guys so I asked Ced if he's seen him. "Oh Rob? He left a while ago man." I curse and walk with Kelly and Cathy back home. I finally get in and start making a pizza. After it's done I sit down to eat it and the rest of the gang comes in and tell me that they all went to Night Kitchen and got slices from Tim. I slice my pizza in half and Rob asks if he could have half of it. I said sure and start to take a slice. "Woah man, you're taking the bigger half!" He says. I told him they were the same, but I really wasn't sure. Afterwards I crawled upstairs and layed on the floor in the upstairs hallway. Adam and Kristen tell me to get up and get to bed so I crawl on my back towards my room and they try to lift me up. I have a huge smile on my face and I just give up on the floor underneath my computer chair.

"Do you want a pillow buddy?" Adam asked. I say no but he gets me mine anyways and so I grin and start to fall asleep. "Want a blanket?" He asked. I said for him to pass me a sweater and I layed it on top of me and he turned out the lights and walked away. The grin never left my face as I layed there in the most comfortable state known to man.

I eventually woke up and went to my bed.

Ok folks, took a while to get this up and so I'll briefly say that Saturday wasn't anything too special, went to Junction at night and walked Kristen home to Adam. In the morning I told Rob that I couldn't believe about heckling me about taking the bigger slice of the pizza when he already got pizza and I cooked this one. We all laughed.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Everything.

2006-04-06T23:59:00.000-04:00

My morning consisted of me just sitting around looking up the usual information on shortwire and other blogs. I'm sort of a blog fanatic right now, I have about 20 that I have bookmarked and the list is growing. I talk with my friend Kalyn who has her own blog and she laughed when I mention how narcisstic it makes you feel. She tells me that blogging is to "welcome to the art of conversation with yourself". It's a pretty funny quote. It's finally around 16:00 hours or so, I decide it's the best time to catch the bus and attend my final class of the year. It's only accounting so I figure what a good note to end my University career.

When I arrive to school I sit around the back instead of up front. He's going over the questions for the exam and explains the business case we have to do. Wait a minute? That's the same case I did last year for an assignment. I start to drift off and fall asleep. I desperately try to remain awake but my tiredness becomes the best of me. I remember some classes I would hold a pen in between my thumb and index finger so that if I drifted off the sound of the pen hitting the floor would wake me up attentively. I didn't do it this time though and it was the feeling of my body go lifeless that finally woke me up.

After the class ended I went over to see my friend Vishald to talk about when we are going to study. There is a line up to talk to Konopaski and some people ask some dumb questions. He points to me. "Oh, I just wanna say goodbye." And he starts to laugh, so he offers a handshake. "So this is it eh?" He asks.
"Well, we'll have to see, it's either graduation or summerschool."
"We'll work something out."
We said our goodbyes and I headed towards the bus. I feel pretty good about that conversation and I hop on the Trent Express to make my way home. As the bus slowly crawls up the steep street of Parkhill the waning sun welcomes us at the top. Everyone who was looking ahead had their pupils adjust to the sudden burst of light. The sun light touched everything from the seats on the bus to the people themselves and created something beautiful in return.

I spent the rest of the night chilling with my roomates and making plans for tomorrow for Dionysus (a campus event).

The Last One.

2006-04-05T16:12:00.000-04:00

I woke up from a dead sleep this morning after having a bad dream that I actually missed my presentation for today by sleeping in. I was up fairly late last night, until like 04:00 hours maybe more, I have such a lack of sleep. I managed to finally rise out of my bed and start the final touches on our presentation for retail marketing class. I try endlessly to get a quicktime movie file to work in PowerPoint. I try installing a few programs to convert the file. Nothing seems to work so I get the slides ready the best I can and send it to myself and head to campus to meet with my group. I'm already half and hour late.

I wait for the East Bank bus to arrive, I'm wearing the usual presentation get up of a dress shirt and khaki pants. The bus arrives and I go right to the back of the bus and lounge on the bench like seats with my legs spread apart and arms around the seats. The bus shakes back and forth as it trodes along, I look around at the people sitting near me and silently our eyes talk with one another but we don't say anything. When the bus finally arrives at the Gzowski college I get off and make my way downstairs to the cafe. I look around and can not see my group anywhere, I peer into the seminar rooms in the surrounding area and see them with our powerpoint up on the slides. Practicing here it seems, and I walk in. They all greet me and inform me that they actually got the quicktime movie to work in our PowerPoint. Perfect. "Ok I'll be right back." I said. I was so hungry. I walked up to the counter with a small milk. "Can I get a slice of pizza too please?"
She made a grimicing face, "... I wouldn't..."
"Bad eh?"
"Yeah, it's really old, I wouldn't sell it to you."
I pick up a small bag of Lays lightly salted chips instead because there really isn't much else at this cafe. Then go back to the seminar room. We have to change rooms cause a prof came in who had a class at the time we are using it. In the new seminar room I make some corrections in the language of the slides. They want to add in another slide and so I do this as well, but I did not have photoshop for the headers so the result was something half-ass.

We began a run through of our presentation and it all looks good. I get to my part, "Besides the new floor design of the flagship Blockbuster we also have some other recommendations base on what other competitors are doing. First they should partner with a sable or catellite company to bring an OnDemand service-" Karen starts laughing and I'm confused why. I run through the rest of my speech and it wasn't until later that she told me I mixed up cable and satellite.

We go into our seminar room and watch a presentation on Sport Mart. Kim Sanderson the TA for the course grilled the group with questions of advertising costs and renovation costs. Our group was taken aback and starting to get more nervous about presenting. One of our group members, Byrce, assured that he had it covered. When we finally got up there I sat down at the computer to click through the slides and the group presented until it was my part. Afterwards we got no questions from the TA. Then we got a question from the prof asking about bringing the home experience to Blockbuster... really odd question because it was something we did not talk about. We also got a question from this idiot Jacques (one of the only guys able to fail a Stephen Regoczei) course about the hardwood flooring we were implementing. Byrce said that we aren't actually using real hardwood, but the plastic kind that snaps in. I had no idea it existed. So when it was all over I think we achieved a great mark.

I went home and played some Magic The Gathering with my roommate Adam. I told him after the third game that I really wanted to go to the LCBO to pick up some wine. I call up my father and talk with him the whole way. I'm sort of missing being home but I realize that I have to stick it out and stay here to finish my school studies. I get into the LCBO and pick up a Kozelmel red. It doesn't look like a vintage wine, but I got it anyways. After picking up the wine I went over to Subway and got the special. The guy accidently put ham on it when it was just turkey day. I walked back towards my house taking bites out of my sub with the wrapping peeling off around the sub. After I finished it I stopped into Night Kitchen for a slice of pizza, they had my fav kind, feta cheese with greens. I sat down and had the pizza with a coke and looked outside. People walked past and glanced looks at me while continuing their muted conversations. I finish eating and return home. Open the bottle of wine and clean out a glass.

"Hey Ced, want a glass with me?" I ask.
"Yeah man, sure." He says and goes downstairs to get a clean glass.
I tell him that we have to wait awhile for it to chill. Emulated cellar temperature I like to call it. After it's done I really struggle with the cork because it appears to seem like it's going to rip in half. I managed to finally get it out in one peice and pour us some glasses. Cedric explains that he's sort of ignorant on how to taste wine. I personally am no expert, but I do know some advice. I explain to swirl it around and smell it so that to reconize the fruits and what have you. Then to take some in, and the sugary taste or bitter taste tell you about the wine. We head up to Rob's loft and take the bottle with us and enjoy the wine. I pop on the Jays game and Rob eventually comes upstairs with one of his group partners for a project. We all joke around and eventually the bottle of wine is finished.

Unfortunately the jays lost big time. But oh well, at least I completed the final presentation of my University career. It felt really good.

Thunder Creeps (Part 2).

2006-04-04T13:48:00.000-04:00

Man, the past few days have been absolutely insane in regards to workload. Anyways, thanks for waiting on me.

Adam drives back pretty fast, I could feel the force pulling me towards my original state as he drives around the bend that is the University main drag. When we roll up near our house he turns the wrong way. "Hey man, you were suppose to turn-" before I could finish we pulled into the lawn of this house. Our mutual friend Alex Bridal is cooking hamburgers on the BBQ and a couple other guys I don't know are just chilling on some starchy chairs drinking a beer. Adam makes arrangements with them to do some drinking and we head back to our place. We put nearly all of our beer we split on in the fridge. "So you coming to Alex's place with me?" Adam asks.
"Naw man, I think I'm just going to stay here and drink on the porch like we originally planned."
"Alright."

Rob comes downstairs with a beer and Cedric and I go out on the porch with him. We get Scott's boombox up to the living room window and start playing some Rage Against The Machine as we drink out beers in the sun. Mira gets dropped off at our house and sits down with us. The sun slowly fades away behind the large apartment complex across from our house and so it gets more colder. We take our drinking inside and head up to Rob's loft. When Scott finally gets home we all engage in some N64 action and do up some Royal Rumbles. As we're sitting there talking shit to one another as we play this game, an orange light flickers from just the top of our window that is not covered by this large blanket. The orange light is followed by a loud rumble right afterwards. I run upstairs and shut down my computer right away. I look outside and the streets were murky brown and the sky was a dark grey. When I stare out my window I can see a translucent reflection of myself staring back at me as more lightning flash in the sky. The bags under my eyes were just as dark. Looking at them intensely caused them to feel scratchy so I massage my eye area with my palms.

I returned downstairs to continue the N64 game playing with the roomates. Afterwards I stayed up pretty late doing school work and chatting online. It was then that Adam came into the house in a drunken rage cursing and speaking incoherently. Rob and I started kill ourselves laughing at his behaviour. So we decided to poke the fire.

Rob and I stand over him as he layed in bed drunk out of his mind. Constantly yelling "Adam!" and giggling. He was getting frustrated with us. "Adam, do you need a bottle of water?" I asked.
"No I got.. some here."
"You're not going to piss your bed are you?"
"... What? No, I'm not going to fucking piss my bed."
Rob and I can't control the laughter.
"Why would you fucking say that." He continues.
Rob jumps in, "You're going to piss your bed aren't you Adam?"
"Fuck you .. guys."
Rob starts kicking his mattress at this point. Adam starts to get angry and throw stuff off his bed and curses at us. Then rob starts to flip it, so I join it and we push it upwards from the foot to head rolling it to trap Adam.
"Fuck... Rob... if your face was near me I would punch." Adam said.
When he finally starts to jolt and nearly break free Rob and I bolt out of the room assuming that he was going to chase us. He was physically unable to do so. We took a break for laughter and went back to bug him. He goes into the washroom and throws up. I situate myself by my door and ready my Captiva camera. I hold it there in a vertical possition shaking it as I laugh knowing what I'm about to do. He opens the door. *FLASH* my camera makes some loud photo-taking noises. We start to laugh again. "Are you done yet?" Adam asks and stumbles into his room.

We were not. Scott and Cedric come upstairs to see the commotion. We piled garbage that has been accumilating upstairs and piled it against his door. Now we have to try and get him out. "ADAM!" Scott yells, "Kristen is here! She's waiting at the door for you."
"Tell her to fuck off." Adam says. He's drunk of course remember.
We start laughing and continue to try to get him out.
"Adam you idiot, you left the stove on, go turn it off." I said.
No dice. He eventually passes out.

"I got an idea." I said. I grab my electric broom (think weird vacuum cleaner) and plug it in outside his room. The loud vacuum noises fill the whole upstairs and everyone is laughing. I run the broom along his door. He still does not wake up. So Scott gets the bigger actual vacuum cleaner and sits it there outside his door. We wait at the other end of the hallway for him to come out. But he doesn't. Discourage at our efforts we leave the garbage piled up against his door and fall asleep.

He would later wake up in the morning and kick it all away.

Thunder Creeps.

2006-04-03T19:01:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning was a little rough because when Cedric and I were finished playing N64 the clock read 2am. Of course day light savings came into effect and when I was shutting down my computer it automatically switched to 3am. I was so confused. Woke up eventually and e-mailed my group for 317H to find out our meeting is at 15:00 hours. Which is no problem, gives me lots of time. My desk is full of empty water bottles and yogurt containers. I still have papers all over my floor and random articles of clothing. I work on a powerpoint slide presentation for our project. Adam bugs me to join him for a beer outside on the porch. "Ok, well I have about half an hour, so let's have a quick one." I said. As I start to bring down my beer I see him beginning to drink his. "Matt, we have to do this group meeting at 2, want a ride to campus?"
"Yeah sure." I said, and went to rush to get the powerpoint file burnt onto a CD-R.

In the car we wait for Scott to get ready. Finally when he jumps in, Adam accelerates away down Alymer street. He's driving very maniac-like, still a little pissed off from the night before. Girl troubles again.

I met with one of my group for a retail marketing project to do some work. We set up our stuff in the Native common room or something. I have never been in the place before and it was pretty interesting. There was this huge collection of painted ropes that were put together to give a nature scene. The room was round with yellow paint on the walls, old beat up tables and chairs in a circle around the room with nothing in the center. One of my group members turned on his laptop and the rest of use piled papers on the tables throwing ideas back and forth why he typed things up on the laptop. Another member chilled on the couch and drew up plans for our new store design. After we got two hours of work in we decided to end the meeting to do individual work. I really need to get that HRM report edited. I walked to the library with a couple of group members. "I am just going to get BOMBED on the Wednesday." I said. They laughed and mentioned when they'll be all done their assignments. We said our goodbyes at the library steps and I call up Adam while I wait for the bus.

"Matthew." He answers.
"Hey man what are you up to?"
"Still here at the library, where are you?"
"I'm out front."
"Ok."
"Come out here for a bit."
"Alright."

I sit down on some of the concrete steps, the sun is fairly hot but there is a cool breeze that makes itself known every few seconds. Adam walks up the steps and comes over and sits down. He tells me the woes of what's going on with his group work.
"Let's just go then." I suggest.
"I can't."
"Come on, let's crack open some beers on the porch."
He knows he wants to do it.
"Come on, beers!" I egg him on further.
"Alright fuck." He says and walks back to where he was working.

After a couple minutes he emerges and we head to his car to drive home.

Ok I need some sleep, I'll add part 2 in the morning.

Peace.

The Man.

2006-04-02T23:28:00.000-04:00

Ok well school work is on heavy load still. If you run into me you can probably see all the grey hairs forming. I have clown hair now too as Jordan would say, it is just so shaggy and long. There is so many stories I just could not write here that I really wanted to because of all this school work. I thought I could just write them here later but as the days go by I realize that remembering every little detail fades away. Which is really a shame. I've been sort of on this wine phase trying out different Ontario red wines whenever I want to get into a night of drinking. I tried a Jackson-Triggs Cabernet, and another such type from Pellee Island. I think the next one I'll try is Inniskillin reserved pinot which has won quite a few awards.

Of course the Friday night was rather interesting. I was drinking wine and playing some Mario Kart 64 with Rob, his girlfriend Kelsey and Scott. And it just got heated between me and Scott. We were talking shit back and forth and it lead to me saying: "Whatever, I'm better than you."
"Whose stats are better?"
"Doesn't matter, I'm better than you, and I have better stats."
Seems kind of silly doesn't it? But for this brief moment it escalates into a heads up battle. Of course everyone is getting involved and so we do a best of 5 situation. I lost the first match and Scott just layed it to me with the shit talking. Then I won three straight races to win the series. Nobody can touch me that night. And I just sipped my wine with a smile on my face. Scott then continued to insult me, and I exchanged blows. And I said something I can not repeat on here, but it ended the exchange and we all went our seperate ways. Don't fret though, we're still good friends.

So then Kelly and I went to our friend Nicks house. It was his birthday so we just had a drink there and had some laughs. I played a joke on one of the girls there saying I am from Austraila. Got the accent going and everything. "No seriously? Where are you from? Is he really from there?" Kelly obviously wanted to leave for Rooster and so that's where we went. The whole way there he was going on about how I am the man for what I said after playing Mario Kart. Waiting in lineup to get in, cause Ced's boss was lurking about, we ran into Cathy and our neighbours and joked around with them for a bit. Inside was pretty fun, they played the use ammount of hiphop, reggae and soca. This one guy though, was just pissing me off, he kept grabbing my friend Cathy, even when I was dancing with her. I was so close to just shoving the peice of shit off the stage.

I was so tired at the end of the night that I just fell right asleep.

What happend Saturday? Oh man it's already fuzzy. I know at the end of the night I just went to the bars with Rob and Kels. Ended up going home at 1am cause nothing really interesting was going on. I never really got to know Kels all that much, even though Rob has been going out with her for well over a year. So it was nice to finally get to know her more and hang out with her. We were all up in Robs room listening to tunes. Rob's room is in the loft at our place, all brown wood floors, with the window facing the streets, he has red and green light bulbs in the fixtures. We downloaded Eric Clapton's song Cocaine and did some singing to that. Anyways after leaving the bar Rob, Kels and I walked to Pete's subs after the bar and I kept introducing myself as "the third wheel" in a professional manner as a joke. I got some fries and a gatorade for later at night to remove the hangover. Cedric and I then played some more N64 til I fell asleep.

That's pretty much the abbrivated version of my weekend.

Today nothing really happend. I went to campus to do some group work, came back and had a couple beers on the porch in the sun. Jeff, one of our neighbours, was just wrecked from the weekend and he was feeling the side effects today. I went up to Robs room to lay down on his couch and watch TV with all of them. I drifted off to sleep and woke up farting. I kinda got embarrassed, for some strange reason, and rose up saying "How'd you like that boys?" Cedric and Rob just looked at me and said "What are you talking about?"

Ok well I need to try and finish off this report for tomorrow at noon.

Peace.

If Fate Would Have It.

2006-03-30T11:25:00.000-05:00

Man I couldn't find my alarm today and it ended up being underneath a kleenex tissue. I was so tired from staying up last night that I snoozed my alarm for an hour. So I'm up now and I gotta get ready because I need to work on my accounting assignment today. Anyways, here is my Wednesday March the 29th.

I hid my cell phone in this metal bucket with the alarm set for 07:00 hours in the morning. When it set off I convolted out of bed looking frantically for the phone to shut it off. When I finally found it I reset the alarm for 45 minutes and rolled back into bed. When I finally got up it was around 08:00 hours, I rushed to get ready because I have a presentation when class begins at 09:00 hours. So I put on my dockers khakis, belt, with stripped grey dockers shirt tucked in, and I put on my jays baseball cap to pat down my hair. I leave the house at 08:30 hours to catch the West Bank bus. There was suppose to be a bus leaving at 8:30, 8:35, 8:40, 8:45 and so on. The bus doesn't come to the stop until 08:50 hours. At this point I am just furious. What can I do though? Complain to the bus driver and get kicked off? I was so mad. As I got off the bus I did get to complain to my good friend Edgar who said to me "The bus always gets me late man." I was almost ten minutes late for class but I was lucky that presentations did not start yet.

I go to the washroom to make sure I look alright. I look in the mirror in the washroom in the Gzowski basement, my hair is greasey and nearly hangs in front of my eyes, there is obvious racoon baggy eyes from the lack of sleep I've been getting, and I'm unshaven cause frankly I didn't have time to in the morning. Ok time to present. When my group got up there it was nothing horrible, but nothing great, I was just glad it was over. Then I had to sit there and watch the other presentations. When they were all over I bolted. Karen ran into me outside of class and told me to come to retail marketing class. I told her that there was no way I was going to that class today. So she called me a slacker like always. As I walked towards the bus stop I could not help but admire the nice heat we're getting. All I could think about is sitting on the porch after a nice nap. I'm waiting for the bus at the library steps, the sun bakes down on them, and in the shaded areas underneath the cement ceiling it gets pretty cold with a light breeze. I feel really hungry at this point so I rush in towards the great hall to grab a strawberry milk. I down it fairly fast and then the bus rolls up.

When I get back home I run into Rob and Cedric out on the porch. We all move the chairs to the lawn because the shade was still hitting porch with no sun. Rob takes one of the chars and rams it into our muddy lawn. It sinks deeper and deeper into the ground and we're both laughing. Rob tells me that he wants to go downtown to get a candle. You see, a few weeks ago we all got candles at the local Price Chopper, but they all did not burn properly. Adam wants to stop at the card shop, and I do as well, so we all embark on the journey. We first stop at the local macs cause I was craving something to eat, ended up getting a twix bar. This weird looking bald guy was hanging around the shop, totally freaking us out. So we hurried along down Alymer street. All of a sudden our conversations is interupted by these screaching tires. This big faded black Ford truck pulls up across the street from us and drops off this kid with a cigarette in his mouth. He looks like he's nine years old, seriously. The black truck has garbage all over it, in the box, in the cab... and Rob said that he bets it's been in there since the winter. The truck screaches in a U-Turn around and back the other way. But I guess it turned around again because as we approached Hunter street it whipped by us.

We finally make it to the candle store on Charlotte street and walk in. "Smells like candles in here." I said as I walked in. "Oh can you smell it from outside?" The girl behind the counter said.
"Oh yeah." I murmur.
"How are you doing today?" She asks.
"Ok." I respond. And I didn't notice but apparently I said that in the most depressing manner, because Rob started laughing and later informed me of this fact.
The candle shop of course had hundreds of candles in the store, all sorts of colours. It was dimly lit in the place relying on the sunlight from the outside as the main source of light. Lots of candles were available in jar that were fat on the base but near the lit was smaller in circumference. I smelled one that red Macintosh. It smelt like the very same sweet apples.

We told her our story of getting the candles from the grocery store and how they did not burn properly. She told us to never get a candle from a grocery store. She also shared some stories of how people left candles burning when they went to work and thought the company would have to pay for a torched coffee table. Pretty funny stuff. We stopped in Cottage Toys as well, I looked around for some Globe stuff, but there was none in sight. We then made our way to the card shop. I get a couple of booster packs and Adam gets a bunch of stuff too. Yeah me and him are geeks, so what. I ask Rob if he's getting anything and he just gives me this face and says "Oh, yeah, yeah I'm getting something." Sarcastically.

When we retun home Rob and I just sit on the porch for a bit. I put a bunch of paper into the burned up soup can and light them on fire to get a good flame going. Jeff comes up and talks to us too as he returns from class. When Cedric comes out he tells us that he wants to come to the Macs. So I get my wallet and stuff from upstairs and we go to the Macs. As we approach it, I noticed that Kalyn is walking down the street so I go up to her. "Hey! How are you doing?" I ask. "Great! I saw you walking there and thought I knew who it was." She responds. We talk for a bit and I give her instructions on how to add me to MSN. "Vinyl.. October, one word at hotmail dot com." She nods and walks off. If you have been a long time reader of this blog you may have remembered this post.

She walks off in the distance and I'm happy that I got to run into her again. I get a couple pepsis and we go back to our place. We all sit on the porch chatting it up. I tell them how that girl was one of the first friends I made in University.

The night was just me and Adam playing cards, until Kristen came over to use him for sex. I'm kidding. Kinda. So Rob and I just watched some TV until he wanted to get some sleep. And so I just sat by my computer typing up blog enteries until rolling into bed.

Bend And Break.

2006-03-30T03:13:00.000-05:00

Man it's already three in the morning. That last blog entry was almost not going to be done tonight. For some reason blogger.com was running really slow and was not letting me load up my saved drafts. I'm so exhausted right now and I'm not looking forwards to tomorrow because I need to wake up and finish up my last accounting assignment. A lot is riding on completing it with an amazing mark. Nothing less than 90% is acceptable.

I would normally start writing up about the rest of my day but I just wrote a whole lot already. And so I'll get to it later.

By the way do you all like the new layout for the blog? I think it's pretty sweet, took a little while to figure out how to modify the template. I got the hang of it now though.

I mentioned to Jordan today that this blog will be coming to an end after my school semester is done. Continuity is key for this blog. So right now I'm in the process of thinking of another original and awesome blog title.

Plus I need to figure out what I will write about.

Anyways, I'll try and add more stuff soon, cause I have a lot of catching up to do. But school comes first, glad you all understand.

Peace.

Whitehouse (Part 2).

2006-03-29T19:34:00.000-05:00

The following takes place on Friday March 24th.

As I left off from before I just walked into the main bar area after paying the guy cover to get in. The place looked pretty interesting. It looked like a cheap hotel dining hall on the inside. The walls were painted a midtoned green with clamshell-like light fixtures on the pillars. The Tables were all black with simple chair seating all around, there was a pit in the centre of the bar that people were dancing in, bright lights shown on them. Multi-coloured light mechanisms flashed bright colours all over the room, and the bouncers walked around with bright red shirts on that read "Secret Service."

I see Karen and a group of people sitting with her so I come up and greet them. "I'll be right back, need to grab a beer." I said. "Where is the bar?"
"Just over there." Karen points to an area adjacent to the pit.
I walk up and try to find a hole in the line of guys standing in front of the bar looking attentively at the pit. Finally grab a spot and hold a five dollar bill in my hand. "Corona." I said. She couldn't hear me over the music. "CORONA!" I yelled. She nodded in response and popped the cap and stuck a lime in it. I return to the tables and Karen introduces me to her roomate Ashley.

We talk for a bit and I find out that she is from Whitby, which is pretty close to my hometown Oshawa. She asked what school I went to and when I responded with Pereyma her eyes widened. "Do you know Zeg?!" She asked. Unfortunately I do know Zeg. I went to elementary school with this guy and he was a total waste of a life. Last time I saw him he just got back from getting his fingerprints done. Apparently they were really good friends. Ashley then introduces me to Katie who was her highschool friend. Man these two kind of look familiar. "Do you mind me smoking?" Katie asked. I didn't really like it but I said I didn't care.

Some of the friends that they came with got kicked out cause the bouncers thought they were too drunk. Karen just bought me a Corona, so as they left for the Trash I remained there with Karen, Ash and Katie. Ashley was doing most of the talking being very intoxicated. After our drinks we decide to go to the Rooster. As we're walking up George street the girls are stumbling trying to take digital photos of themselves. They recruit some random guy to walk with us. I can't remember his name. When we arrive at the Rooster there is a short line up to get into the club. I overhear one of the bouncers say that the club is at capacity. Cedric, my roomate, is at the door as well. I go up to him and see how's it doing and he gets straight to business. "How many?"
"Four." I said, even though there were only three girls. I figured one of them might try to take the random guy too.
"Ok that's cool, just hurry it up." He says with a smile.
I look over at Karen and twitch my neck towards the door and the girls show ID and get into the bar. "I owe you one." I said entering through the doors. As I'm going in I can overhear the girl who was in front of the line yell at Cedric. "What?! I thought you guys said you were at capacity, what the hell is this shit?"

I find out later that Cedric just said to her "some people get courtesy".

"Well you are certainly awesome to be around!" Ashley says and kisses my cheek. As I pay cover the girl across from the rediculously high table slaps down the coins back at me and one flips off the table to the floor. We share a laugh cause we both know that we are very much intoxicated. Instinctively we all go right to the bar where Mike Sims serves up Coronas and bitch drinks for the girls. Then we hit up the dance floor, right now I can't get enough of that new Sean Paul song "Temperature". That and the song "If It's Lovin' That You Want" by Rihanna. Ashley and Karen leave temporarily so I dance with Katie for a bit. This big black guy creeps up behind her and she starts to shake her booty into his crotch. I glance back over and the guy is reaching in... well you know. I pay no mind and keep dancing in close proximity, just to make sure this guy isn't going to be a problem. Karen and Ash return and I tell them that I'll return in a bit. I go over and greet Kelly who has been going to the Rooster at lot lately. We do THE handshake and laugh. "Yo yo man, Nancy is here yo." He says. I perk up and say "Oh ya?" Sure enough she walks up to both of us five minutes later wearing this black sleek shirt. I dance with her for maybe four seconds before her and her crew go off into the crowd. I return back to the group of girls I came with.

At this point the big black guy is dancing with both Katie and Ashley under his arms. The girls get weirded out and escape to the bar. I get another Corona while we're there. We chat for a bit and I say "Hi." to a few people I reconize. After our retreat we decide to head back into dance floor. Man I really have to take a piss. I hand one of the girls my beer and head to the washroom. Scott, my other roomate, is hanging out there (he works at the bar too) and we chat for a bit. I make my way into the guys washroom. Probably one of the nastiest washrooms in all the bars/clubs in Peterborough. I think Champs on Simcoe street takes the prize for that honour. It's comprised of the usual sinks with foam soap dispensers, typical condom machine that probably never works (do people actually use these?), wet tile flooring and open urinals packed close together. The actual "stalls" are just brick walls that don't even reach the top of the ceiling. I chose to squeeze into one of these and aim for the toilet. I play around and whip my stream up and over to the walls, kinda chuckling to myself as I'm doing this. A thin line of watery urine slowly runs towards my shoes. Crap. I finish my business before I get any new stains on my shoes. As I wash my hand this black guy sitting on a stool sprays liquid soap into my hands. "Thanks man." I say to him. He hands me some paper towel and I head back to the dance floor.

I retrieve my beer and start dancing again. Kelly and I exchange glances and smile in approval of some of the songs the DJ plays (that sounds really gay but it's what we do). I finish my beer and put it by one of the pillars at the dance floor. Karen and Ashley leave again, not sure where. I dance with Katie for a while and she makes it over my way and starts to dance close with me. She presses her body to mine and we match our rythms grinding against one another. She presses even closer and wraps her arms around my neck. I position my thigh inbetween her legs and run my hand up to the middle of her back. She runs her hand in my hair and grabs a mit full and tugs it a bit. Our foreheads bump together and I move in for a kiss. We tease each other with the tongue and kiss fully aware that everyone can see. Karen and Ash return and take a digital photo of us. We all start laughing about it, I'm not embarassed at all.

The night is coming to an end and so we leave the Rooster. The majority ruled that the next stop has to be Pete's Subs on Brock and George. I'm walking beside Katie with my arm around her waist. We both stumble a small bit. As we get to the crosswalk waiting for walk sign, I pull her in and she presses her two hands on my chest. It was strange because it felt like a natural fluid reaction. After eating some fries we get a cab ride home.

What a night.

Dry Throat.

2006-03-29T01:58:00.000-05:00

Man it is so damn hot in this house all of a sudden. So when is the last time I actually posted on here? Yeah I got worst news too:

Hiatus. I have so much work right now that I couldn't possibly write in this blog as much as I use to. I'll try to finish off the stories tomorrow.

I have a presentation at 9am for Management Thought, it's only going to be like 5 mins long and three slides. Seems like a waste to me. It's not even worth many marks either. If it wasn't a group assignment I'd probably not even bother.

Then when I get back from class I'll take a nap and then finish off some stories.

I gotta do the rest of my Friday night (Whitehouse)... saturday, sunday, monday and tuesday.

Fuck...

Whitehouse.

2006-03-26T12:56:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting by my computer on a Friday night starring into my computer screen. I'm very groggy cause at around 17:00 hours I decided to take a small nap. That ended up to be the worst decision of my life cause after I woke up two hours later I felt useless. As I'm sitting there Karen messages me online and tells me to come out with her to this bar called the Whitehouse. This bar, located on Charlotte street, has a bad rep. When people talk about dirty bars, they are usually referring to bars like the Whitehouse. I've never been in there and in five years I proudly told people that fact. She told me to come cause she's going with some roomate and her friends and what not. I told her that I'd think about it and I called up some friends to see what they are all doing. Each one indicated that they are going to Rooster. That's normally where I'd want to go as well. I mention this to Karen but plans can not be changed and the Whitehouse is the destination in stone.

So I get ready for the bar with my white Reebok warm up jacket and jeans, and walk to the Whitehouse. Of course I stop in at the local Macs to get some cash out first. I lightly jog some parts of the way because I am already late in meeting them there. The exterior of the bar is quite a marvel. It's all white (obvious) with lightbulbs blinking around the windows. And then there is a big sign that says "Whitehouse" in white letters on a red background. It just feels out of place, like it belongs to a circus. I enter the bar behind these 40 year olds. The bouncer takes a look at my ID and notices the sticker on it. "Yeah I gotta get it renewed fast." I said. He nods and I continue to the next guy. "That will be four dollars." The old man says. I give him a twenty and he gives me back $17 dollars. I kinda think for a moment and realize that he gave me back the wrong ammount. Oh well! I then walk into the meat of the building.

Ok I am so tired right now. It's 02:00 hours at night, I think I'm going to just post this as it is and do up a part 2 tomorrow. I have to get up bright and early to get my license renewed. So until then.

Peace.

Strawberry Milk.

2006-03-26T12:52:00.000-05:00

Well it's sunday morning and I still have a towel wrapped around me after getting out of the shower. It's so bright and sunny outside, I should go for a walk and get some groceries or what not. I'm out of the important stuff like juice. I also need to clean my room badly, it's a complete mess here. So I finally finished that post on Thursday called "Loser Party" and I'm really sorry it took so long. I guess with all the group meetings and stress I just find it harder and harder to sit here and type away at my blog. Anyways I'm going to go out to do grocery shopping and when I get back I'm going to type away at the newest story.

So look for it later today.

Peace.

Loser Party.

2006-03-23T23:51:00.000-05:00

"Anyways Rob have a good weekend, I'm heading out."
"Where you heading man?"
"Uhhh well, it's sort of this party for the volunteers for Walkhome."
"Oh ok. Well have fun at your loser party."
"Yeah yeah. Free pizza. See ya."

I put on my sweater, leather coat and toque and head out to catch the bus. I'm on my way to this Walkhome party and award ceremony. I jog to the bus stop cause I am late and figure I don't want to miss the bus. I get there are there is someone waiting for the bus already. He is staring off at the distance opposite to the direction I'm walking. He stands there with his mouth open looking. I am kinda freaked out cause I'm not sure if he's looking at me or not. He turns around and starts kicking the post of the catwalk. I stand there trying to ignore this behavior.

I get on the bus and immediately make my way to the back of the bus and sit at the corner near the window. The bus rolls along and stop at Traill. Megan Davis, my walkhome partner, gets on the bus with another girl and Barb. So who is Barb you may be asking. I'll tell you. When I first came to this University in 2001, I could not get into residence because I was late in getting acceptance. So I was on a long waiting list. My cousin with high influence at Trent was able to get me bumped up, and when some girl left room A22 in Champlain. I moved in. That girl was Barb. Since then she's be notorious on campus as the weirdest girl around. Very loud and obnoxious to boot as well.

We get to campus thankfully, I was about to drill out my brains from them talking. I hold back cause I don't want to walk near them when I go to the party. I call up Andrew on my cell phone just outside the library to see if he's home. No answer. I look around and notice that there are not very many students at all right now which is odd at this time because a lot of students hang in the library til late hours doing big projects and assignments. I make my way to the Champlain senoir common room. I walk through the Great Hall to get there, all the chairs are flipped upside down and on top of the tables. The lone janitor starts to sweep the floors with the long brush broom. I stand in front of the door to the senoir common room and pause for a second and peer inside. Open the door and walk in. A couple people I don't know greet me and I nod my head in recognition.

The room is really dark because the lighting is very selective with lamps here and there. The couches on the far corner have big tan leather cushions that tower upwards giving the whole "L" shaped seat the impression that it's throne like. They have set up a pop and chip format on the tables until the pizza arrives which apparently comes in half an hour. I talk to Nick and Maekala. We joke around by ourselves away from the rest of the population. Nick was given the responsibility of taking photos for the head of security for a webpage somewhere. It was announced that the awards will be announced. People go up and receive prizes and awards it's pretty funny. That girl barb keep interupting the people speaking to say these out-there unfunny jokes. It's really getting annoying. "Ok and the best new volunteer for downtown is:" The girl says. Hey I wonder if it's me? "Matt-" and then she said someone else last name. Drat. Would have been funny if I got it cause I only did like six shifts total. Would have did more if Megan Davis did not exist.

So the pizza arrives and we all dig in. Nick finally ditched the camera and sat with me and Maekala. People are taking pictures of us. These two other people join us, Tom and Robin. Tom is a first year and really quiet. Robin is some 2nd year girl who wanted to join our end cause the other side is "crazy." We welcome them both. Nick and Tom have to go set up some trivia and Maekala leaves. So I end up sitting with Robin and chatting. We throw questions and answers back and forth, silence enguffs us inbetween thinking of things to say to each other. The trivia starts and so we just sit by and watch. I don't know any of the questions. When it ends we sit and chat a bit more until everyone starts leaving. I hitch a ride with Robin to Parkhill where she lives. She doesn't really know Peterborough so I figure I'll just go visit Kelly. As I exit out of her car I ask for her MSN which she gives me. That was the last that I've heard of her though, no idea why she'd give me her MSN and not add me.

So I just sit and chat with Kelly for a bit for our usual talk of girls and Adam's misdeeds.

Then I walked home.

We Like Fires.

2006-03-23T14:36:00.000-05:00

"We need to get this baby lit." Rob said with a smile. I run upstairs to get a full book of matches. Run back down and rob walks in to get get a can of shoe spray. I take match out of the book one by one and lay them in the soup can. I strike the last match in my hand and hold it in front of my eyes for a second and dropped it in the can.

Earlier today.

I wake up with a pounding headache again. It was earlier than I thought it was, only about 10:00 hours. I instinctly crawl out of bed and turn on my computer monitor and start moving the mouse. Right away Keith messages me on MSN: "hey homie". Keith is my old working partner for when I worked for GreenLawn. We talk for a bit and he tells me he's starting up work again next week. That's sorta cool, I might start up a job there after I am done summer school, depends. I did my usual run of looking up blog sites, and other related gaming news sites for my daily dose of video game goodness. Apparently they showed off pictures of Nintendo's latest console, codename Revolution, at the latest Game Developer's Conference. It looks pretty weird if you ask me. One person compared it to a cable modem. Apparently they are going to reveal the name of the console pretty soon so Joystiq cause they'll have it up there first. Apparently the console will allow you to download a vast array of old nintendo titles from systems of old. Nothing I haven't been doing with emulators since Grade 10. Other neat news is the PlayStation 3 will be region free in regards to gaming. What does that mean? Those sweet japanese games will run on North American consoles.

I looked at my hands and it looks very irritated. Kinda red with flakey skin. I looked up skin diseases online and looks like it might be derma-something or a very small case of eczema. In which case I need to get some hand moisterizer to get rid of it. So I decided that I wanted to go to Shopper Drug Mart to get some Nivea cream or whatever. I looked up the weather online and it said 5 degrees celicus. That's pretty sweet! So I looked around for my baseball cap. No such luck. My room is a diaster with clothes all over the floor, recepts from ATMs, and a big pile of papers of school work. I moved everything off the floor to the bed and try to clean up the room for a bit.

Cedric walks out of his room to go up to Rob's room for a cigarette. "Hey man, wanna smoke that out on the porch?" I ask. He agrees and we both sit out by the porch. There is a small cold wind that comes and goes but not at a fast speed. I'm sitting on my usual chair spinning around once in a while. Cedric lights up a smoke with a match. I look in the recycling bins by our chairs and pull out a soup can placing it inbetween us. I stuff some old flyers into the can and light a march onto it to watch it burn. Cedric sees it about to die out so he rips some more paper and puts it on. "I'm glad I'm not the only pyro here" I say jokingly. "Oh no worries guy, I think everyone has a bit of pyro in him" He replies and we both laugh. After it keep going out we stuff leaves and dry sticks into the can and light it over and over to no avail. To my surprise Rob comes up behind me and grabs me for a scare. I jump a little bit and go "Hey ya." It's at that poing that Rob demands that this baby gets going.

So as I drop the match into the can the fire slowly fires up and small flair sounds come from within the can when the matches ignite. Rob then takes the shoe spray can and shakes then, presses down on the button and flames shoot up. Cedric stands up and walks away. Rob begins his laughter and continues to spray flammable stuff into the file causing burst and burst of flame. Eventually the fun dies out and so does the content of the spray can.

We relax some more in the sun and venture out the local Macs once in a while. Rob and myself laugh as we talk in southern accents about having a "drinking can" as a possession. It came about when Rob decided to take a can of apple juice with him when we walked to Macs.

Then I sort of just stayed inside for the most part. Watched bits and peices of A River Runs Through It. Really sad-like film that makes you think about childhood and what your future will be like.

I'm going to this Walkhome Award Ceremony at 20:00 hours today, so I'll probably will have a post about that.

So until then.

Peace.

Terrorist.

2006-03-22T18:09:00.000-05:00

It's a very difficult feeling to describe when you have a lack of sleep. I woke up at 07:30 hours this morning and I felt like my head could fall off my shoulders. I set my alarm for 40 mins and went back to sleep. When I woke up again the result was the same to a lesser degree. Karen messaged me online telling me I better show up to class today. She was right though, I've missed a lot of classes cause of projects and cause they were showing this movie WallStreet for a couple of weeks. I got my stuff together and went to school. I managed to run and catch the EastBank bus at the Alymer stop. Some guy got on the bus, he was overweight and had this long pea coat on, chubby face, and some weird toque with thick braided strings attached at the ear flaps with a hoodie sweater over it. He just gave me the evil eye for some reason. I had my oakely's on so he couldn't see my eyes but I remained motionless. I just wanted to say "Buddy, what the fuck are you looking at?" But I did not.

I walk into class and there is a different professor standing there. She's short and wide, long red coat with gold colour buttons. Grey hair that is very straight and to her shoulders. I was a little weirded out when she asked the class "Why am I here?" Apparently a lot of students have her in ADMN 350, which is a required full year course for B.B.A. students. So a lot of students in that class were joking with her. She was kind of obscene too saying the "F bomb" over and over. Of course I don't really mind cause I say it all the time too. The whole lecture was about the dependant relationship between manager and employee and compared it to the dependable relationship between teacher and student. We are experts in this sort of relationship and she went around asking everyone for examples. When she got to me I told her how I love to give something back to the professor or teacher that let's them remember the experience. Like photocopying my notes because I always jot down quotes the professor say in class when they go off on a tangent. Or I take a polaroid of the class and give it to the teacher. Stephen Regoczei still thanks me for the polaroid picture of the teepee on campus. He claims that I gave him a teepee. You wouldn't get it. One thing that stood out during her lecture was when she claimed to read eyes (not minds) and the eyes tell your story. "At least four people didn't eat breakfast" She said. Walked up close to me "And at least four people didn't get any sleep and have to keep their eyes open with toothpicks." How could she possibly know I didn't get any sleep?

After class I went up to the business office to pick up my Retail Marketing paper. After I get it I look at the back for the mark. 56% was written in pencil with Arabic-like scribble that I guess were what I did wrong. I was completely demoralized from seeing that mark. Thoughts invaded my head of having to re-take the course in the summer, or dropping the course, but knowing that could never happen. So the only option was to talk to the professor. I had an hour before my next lecture so I went to cheer myself up by getting a pizza and coke. And like the computer supply in Trent, every cafeteria on campus was out of pizza. At that point I was just more and more emotionally lost. I was just aimlessly walking around campus. I finally walked all the way to the Great Hall to get some plain cheese pizza. I sat there overlooking the Otonabee river. The current was flowing at a rapid rate, of course I've seen this before being a Champlain resident for my first couple years at Trent. It's an indication of fluctuation in ice flows, so spring weather is approaching fast. I sort of felt sick after eating the pizza though, not sure why. Almost like a tiny pain in my abdomen.

I got up and went back to Gzowski and just sat on one of the benches by the windows. I leaned back so the back of my head rested on the glass. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing. I could almost fall asleep. The basement (or red light district) was busy with students running to and fro. This section of the school feels like the most like where I belong. It's where the Business Admin wing is, and I always run into people I know there. The basement is where nearly all my classes are so I am there everyday pretty much. When I was in the English program I never really had a place that I felt like I belonged too, nor did I make too many friends in my classes. The ones I did have all left or I do not see anymore. Business students on the other hand, I see them at business socials and at the bars and what not. Class begins and I sit with Karen again. I jot down some notes and then I see Karen making up a grid. Last week I started up a game of SOS with her, which is a great way to make lectures go faster. We played that game again for the last 30 mins of lecture.

Afterwards I went to talk to the professor about my mark and the unreadable comments he made about it. It bids me to follow him to his office to have the conversation. He leads me and a bunch of other students upwards to his office. Someone goes in before me so I wait in line with Meesha and Tracy. I've had Tracy in my COST 261H class years back with my good friend Will. She's a really short and soft-spoken girl who is really sweet and kind. Meesha is someone I met in my Communications class, she's brown as well, really pleasant looking face and wonderful smile. It was actually funny I normally wouldn't have went up to make her acquintance, but she started to talk to me about my polaroid pictures after my presentation for that Communications class. We've been "Hey there" friends ever since. We were talking about summer school and classes and stuff, in El-Amir's office we can hear the professor yelling back at the student with the door wide open. "Oh man... great, I have to go in there to talk to my paper as well, and now he's upset." I said. Tracy made a wincing face and squeaked a good luck to me. The student left the room in a huff.

I go in there and immediately shut the door because I don't want anyone to hear him yell at me. I show him the paper and he goes over his comments. He think questions me on my essay about what I meant by this, how do these things relate. And to be honest I told him. "-I mean, I haven't literally looked at this paper in a month, I can't honestly tell you the connection I wrote cause I can see it right now, and I don't have the lecture notes on me." I said, sort of trying to lower my voice. At one point in the conversation I said: "Look, is it possible that I could get a re-read of my essay, cause I really don't see how I should only get a 56%." He confirms that I can get a re-read (which sort of helped me in an English class. Sort of.), but he continues to scan through the essay questioning me some more. "Well I can see what you were trying to say here now from looking over it and talking to you, I probably looked over it fast, and I was harse on the marking grade." He continues to scan it. "I can bump this mark up." Continues to scan and read blurbs from my essay. He checks his watch over and over because it's close to seminar teaching time. "Yes well compared to other papers I would not give this more than a 70%, and talking to you I can see that you do know what you're talking about, you just need to focus on the links more. And so I'll give you 75% because I was wrong in my marking, it was my mistake." At this point I had to make sure my jaw didn't drop, I did not actually think he'd break and give me a deserving mark. Or was it deserving? So I just nod my head and almost whisper an okay. And a thank you. I walk out of the office with a 75% on my paper and a smirk on my face.

I grab a strawberry milk (best shit in the world) to celebrate. Definitely a mood change from this morning. I heard from Kristen that they are watching a video in class, so I walk upstairs and get on the EastBank bus heading back towards civilization. Beside me is that same guy who gave me the evil eye.

Continuity I suppose.

Catchin' Up.

2006-03-20T23:12:00.000-05:00

Watched prison break and 24 just now. It was really nice to see the return of Prison Break after it's three month hiatus. I was going to post about the keg party I went to on friday where I drank and drank and didn't get buzzed, and then went to the bar to dance with Crystal and Marisa. But I just was not feeling up to the task I'll be honest with you. So I thought I'd just mention it and then write about my Saturday night going to Scott's birthday party, but honestly, all that happend was a bunch of talking and then going to SFL to find no one there and then me just going home. So I figure there wasn't much to write about. Sunday. I don't even remember what happend Sunday other than I stayed up til five in the morning dicking around on my computer even though I knew I had to wake up early this morning.

Prison Break is already starting to annoy me. It's becoming too predictable now. 24 on the other hand, I won't spoil anything, but holy fuck I did not see that coming. So I'm just chillin here now after watching those shows and reading up on my Trent e-mail. Walkhome wants me to do a shift fill in this Friday with that Megan Davis character. I'm debating on it. I don't know if I really can stand it with her. Also got an e-mail from the Trent IT department on how they are expanding their wireless networks. It's funny because they refer to the basement of Gzowski college as "The Redlight District" which I thought was sort of funny. You see in the basement the lighting is cylinder red plastic tubes with a lightbulb in the middle. They also mention that The Crypt has wireless connectivity as well.

Anyways, I'll write a little bit about today (Which means a lot).

I wake up and it's around 08:00 hours, I am so tired, but it's entirely my fault as I mentioned already. I quickly print out some necessary documents for this morning for classes and head out the door. I need to meet my friend Sam for 09:00 hours at the bus terminal to interview some manager at the Boys & Girls Club in Peterborough. I walk up and look around and don't see him outside so I walk towards the inside waiting area. Inside there is the usual crowd of degenerates and homely people. The men wear dirty work jackets or fanel. The women are still in a sort of 90s era with jump suits with bright colours. I sit down beside Sam and we both remove our earbuds from our respective music players. "Sam."
"Hello."
We shake hands.
"Did you bring the recording device?" He asks.
"Yep, all in here." I respond looking down at my bag.
"So I guess I'll just take notes while you ask the questions."
"I don't think we need to take notes, we're recording the interview."
"How confident are you in the quality of your recording."
"Very."
So we agree on not taking notes.

Our bus, COLLISON, arrives and the bus drivers says for us to go on. We walk all the way to the back. We sit across from each other in a new style bus almost like a GO Train design seating. The bus driver calmy walks towards me. "Do you have a pass or something?" He asks. "Yeah." I reach into my back pocket and flip my Trent ID. He scans it and says thanks and walks back to the front of the bus. The bus pulls out and drives down George street. We look at the numbers of the buildings to estimate when to get off the bus. When we finally see Princess street (the nearest crossroad to the location) someone already rung the bell so we get off the bus. We are greeted by a big gust of freezing wind. The building looks like an old house remodeled. Along the side is a mural of children in play with blue waves and other things like stars and such. We walk inside and someone asks if they could help us. Sam tells her the name of the woman we are seeking and she pops up from behind a computer and greets us with a smile. We explain that we are the students that requested to interview her for our project so she leads us to the conference room.

The conference room is one long table that curves round on the ends. Old grey carpet chairs are in place around the whole table. The odd paper bulltin is on the walls, other than that it is plain white. We all sit down. The woman has a really really dark tan and tons of make-up, her hair is dyed red.
"Ok so what is this interview about?"
We explain the details of the interview and show her the consent form that she signed.
"Now, I don't remember seeing you come in before." She said.
"Our other group member, Richard, came in with this form." Sam explained.
"I just don't remember-" She examines the paper.
What the fuck is the problem, it's YOUR signature.
"-I had another group of students come in too, they are doing presentations soon."
Me and Sam just kinda look at her thinking "where is this going?"
"Are you in the same class or what not?" She asked.
"I don't imagine so, we don't have presentations for a while." Sam explained.
"Well what I'm getting at here is I am wondering how my name is being distributed to be doing all these interviews with students?"
Me and Sam just kinda look at her.
"I'm not really sure." Sam said.
She examined the consent form more.
"Yeah the other group had the same form. So I mean, if I've already done one interview. I don't see the purpose to do it again."
Are you fucking kidding me? ARE YOU fucking kidding me?
"It's a consent form miss, it's a general paper that is used by every department in the University. The only difference between one and the other is the course title." I said. I am really biting my tongue.
"Oh." She says.
"Do you want to see our questions?" I ask.
So we show her the questions and she agrees to the interview because the questions are different. I'll briefly give you a sense of hose it went:

Sam asks: "So what is the tougest decision you had to face as a manager."
"Terminating people." She replied.
Sam is sort of caught off guard by the short answer.
"So was that tou-well, obviously it was tough, but what was the result of that?"
"They were terminated." She said quickly in a perky condensending voice.
Well thanks for that you fucking bitch, you could have ellaborated on how the employees reacted, how they felt, did you offer conseling, did you explain why it happend, were they close, did you help them get another job. Fucking bitch.

So afer the brutal interview we braved the cold winds and went home. So very tired. I rest for a bit and then head to campus for my HRM class. We had a guest speaker today who was incredibly boring and he went on for two hours. Class ends at 14:00 hours and he was still talking and just was just past half done his lecture. It didn't help that this bitch in class was giving him her life fucking story with her business. During the break Joevan took me into the ATOP lab beside my lecture hall. It's full of SUN system computers with some Java Desktop System as an operating sytem. It was so cool. You need a password to get into the lab as well which is really really cool, so this was probably the only time I would be able to get in there.

Got back home and just chilled out for the rest of the day.

Anyways, I'll try to keep up more at posting hahaha.

Peace.

Blur.

2006-03-17T17:20:00.000-05:00

The following takes place on Thursday March 16th, 2006.

As I got back from accounting class I thought about doing some laundry. The house is going out to Riley's tonight for some beer and pool. I really don't have time for laundry. So we all gather ready to go, and of course we have to wait for Cedric who takes longer than a woman to get ready sometimes. It's around 22:00 hours, and as we stand outside in front of Adam's car we are then faced with the dilemma of how we are all going to fit inside. "Shotgun not the tampon!" Cedric says. I start laughing. Rob is a bit confused. "Not the tampon?" He asked. "He means not sitting in the middle Rob." I said.

Cedric actually sits in the front. Scott and Mira fit in the back with me and Rob. We drive to the bar and park in this parking lot across the street from it. "We'll catch up with you guys." Scott says with a grin on his face. "What? You're not coming?" Asked Adam. "They're going to smoke up." I explained.

We walk into the bar and I am met face to face with the ex girlfriend and her click of roomates and business students who are aquintances. I kinda just put my hand up with my palm facing out towards her. She does the same. Adam, Rob and myself get a table by the window overlooking George street. My eye catches Kim Sanderson and she notices me too. She smiles and waves "Hi!" I walk over dodging the waiter and go up to greet her. "Hey how's it going?" She asked. "Oh great, how are you?" I replied. I don't know what to do at this point, do we hug? I mean we don't really know each other that well. We maybe talked like twice on the way to class. She motions for a hug (at least it appeared so) and I motion for a handshake. She backs off on the hug and I back off on the hand shake. So we just continue the conversation. "So what are you doing here?" I ask, and she tells me it is sort of an after gathering after some business event. She asks me the same question and I explain to her that it's my roomates birthday. "Ok well it was great seeing you again." I say and she smiles and wishes me a good time. I reach out and touch her hip and walk off.

"We got a pitcher of Stella." Adam says to me. "How much are they?" I ask. "Sixteen fifty." Rob says, "Not too bad of a price for an imported beer." He argues. I disagree though, I think that's a bit of a steep price. I know I will have to end up getting one of the rounds so I head over to the ATM machine in the adjacent bar with the pool tables. I pop in my card and decide on 40 dollars. PLEASE WAIT WHILE YOUR TRANSACTION IS PROCESSING. Why is it taking such a long time? Before I know it someone has just put me in a choke hold. I look back and it's Chris Beattie, one of my group members for HRM. "Hey man, how's it going?" He says and we shake hands.
"Pretty good, pretty good. Just taking some cash out for some pitchers."
"Right on. Yeah I'm just here with some buddies."
"Cool, where you sitting?"
"By the window looking at the street there."
"Oh ya? Same with us, probably on the other side from you."
"Oh ok, well I'll be right back gotta use the washroom."
He leaves and finally my cash comes out, seriously took that long. I put it all in my wallet and watch a bit of NCAA basketball until he gets back. I pretend I'm interested in what's going on. He gets back and we talk for a bit more and I return to my table. Scott, Mira and Cedric are there this time when I get back.

Our entire house is together in one spot. It is one of the few occasions where this happens. Rob and Cedric start to light up a cigarette. I really don't like the cigarette smoke cause it makes my eyes feel irritated. I don't say anything though cause it's just one smoke. As we converse and joke around I look out to the lonely street outside the window. No cars pass by and the orange glow from the street lamps are outshined by the light coming from the local No Frills store. I look over and Rob and Cedric have lit up another cigarette. "What the. You guys just had a fucking cigarette." I said. "Well that's cause we're on another drink." He responds. Such tomfoolery. I reach over and grab Rob's cigarettes. "Well that won't stop Cedric from smoking." quips Adam. But I am the wiser. I know that Rob doesn't have his cigarettes, he will not smoke, and if he doesn't smoke than Cedric won't. And if Cedric smokes without Rob then he'd have to offer one of his cigarettes. Sure enough it worked.

We're on our second pitcher now and we are all just trashed. Plus we all went up to the bar to do a shot with Scott. I am not even sure how it turned up in our conversation, but it is worth mentioning. We are talking about Adam and his mom, and Adam says "I don't care, my mom is hot." and we all just start laughing and shake our heads. "Yeah, he slept with his mom too!" I said in joke. "Hey! Nothing really happend." Adam responded. At this point we are all laughing in hysterics. "So is that how Zack was made?" Rob joked. Scott gets up from the table and leaves because he is laughing too much. Rob just has a look of disbelief and asks "Adam. Why do you set yourself up like that?" I leave for the washroom too. Scott and I could not believe Adam said that.

We get back to the bar and the nachos arrive and we all dig in. Afterwards Scott and I do a shot of liquid cocaine. We pay our bill and go play some pool. We keep playing games and drinking more beer. In my first game I couldn't even break to start the game. "I'm too drunk guys, you break." I said. We continue playing and Adam, Mira and Cedric leave. Rob and Scott are playing and Rob wins because Scott sinks the white ball on the eight ball shot. He just dumps his cue stick and walks away. Me and Rob play the final game. We are both just missing easy shots. "The balls are all a blur." I argue. He is down to his eight ball shot and I have three balls left on the table. In three shots I sink the three balls and set up the eight ball perfectly for the corner pocket. I missed. Then Rob won the game. Fed up with our drunken pool playing, we leave for Sin City and promise to return sober for some proper matches.

Sin City is fairly populated when we get in. Scott was worried they wouldn't let him in cause it's really obvious that he's just trashed. I right away go towards the dance floor to look for Kristen, Kelly and whoever is hanging around them. I can't really see anyone cause of my height, so I hope on top of the stage overlooking the dance floor. At the far back I see a black bald head. So I make my way there and surprise everyone. We all start dancing and eventually Rob and Scott find our location as well. They make the last call announcement and play the final songs, which are always slow songs.

Dirty Dancing - Time Of My Life

I take Kristen and dance with her putting my hand on her hip and holding the hand up. She puts her hand on my hip too. I quickly put her hand on my shoulder. Rob is dancing beside us with Kristen's friend Daniella. He still has a beer in his hand and he has his classic drunkin look* on his face. They dance in one spot but go around in a circular motion. That's why you never let a girl lead, you'll end up getting dizzy. Each time that he circles round to face me he puts his beer bottle to my cheek on my face. And each time he does that I continue the joke and make a sexy face and an attempt to lick the bottle. Rob chuckles each time it happens. After the sixth time I take the bottle and put it in his mouth causing Kristen, Rob and I to laugh a bunch more. Then on the final circle round he tips the beer into my mouth. Blah, this beer is warm. The song ends and we head home.

We stop at City Lights though and order two medium poutines. We compliment the guy at the back for making some stellar poutines. The way home is really cold, the wind picked up and it even stopped me from eating my food. Scott wanted to stop at the Macs, so I finished my fries in there. Some woman comes up to me. "Do you have a dollar or a twonie I can borrow?" She asks. "Not me, I had to borrow from this guy." I respond. She continues to ask everybody that walks in. As we're walking away Scott yells back at her: "Fucking crack whore peice of shit, you ain't getting a fucking dollar from me you bitch." And we all laugh hysterically. She starts to yell something back but could not muster a loud enough voice to reach our ears so we just continue laughing.

We walk into our house and play a little N64 before crashing.

What a night.

*Rob's eyes get squinty, and a smile on his face.

Sunny Day.

2006-03-17T16:53:00.000-05:00

I woke up today and my head was pounding. I leaned out of bed looking for something to drink cause my mouth was dry. I chugged water back. Man what time is it? 07:35. I was confused as to why my body would wake me up at such an unforgiving time. I fell back asleep only to be woken up again an hour later. I could barely keep my eyes open. I chugged back more water and collapsed in bed again. When I finally woke up in a functional manner it was just after noon. I got changed and left for shoppers drug mart to pick up my pictures and do some grocery shopping. It's pretty sunny out today so it felt nice, however the wind is really strong and freezing.

HIM - Soul On Fire

As I pick up some deoderant stick I see Chad working. We talk for a bit, and remind each other of Scott's birthday party on Saturday. I pick up my film, it's a little heavier than usual. I walk towards Price Chopper and there is Carem coming towards me. "Hey Matt-chue what's up man." He says, and we do THE handshake (look back a couple posts).
"Not much, what are you saying?"
"What are you doing tonight?"
"Oh I'm going-" I just remember he is promoting this party bus.
"-My friends house, I promised I'd go to their party."
"Still going to Scott's thing?" He asked.
"Oh, you bet'cha." I replied.
And so we said our goodbyes and I go through the Charlotte Mews and stop at a bench to check out the pictures. Hey, there is a CD in here, that's why it's so heavy. I flip through the pictures. Some really amazing shots in here.

I packed it back in and continued my walk to Price Chopper. I am sort of on the fence on whether I need anything or not. But I figure I better get some milk, juice and whatever else for tonight. I also get $20 bucks cash back for the keg party.

Rhapsody - Dawn Of Victory

The wind is really picking up now and I'm walking faster to get home. As I cross over the bridge on Bethune street I notice one of the trees had a branch that is bent down into the stream. At the tips of the little branches are big blocks of ice hanging on it. I guess the water froze itself on the branches as it dipped into the stream. Up above are old shoes tied up by the laces and hung on the power lines.

I get inside and I get use to the warmness. I get sort of sleepy so I just lay back on the bed listening to more tunes on my MD player.

Jack Johnson - Questions

I drift off to a half sleeping state. Man it is going to be so fun at the keg party tonight.

Ok that's it for now. I still have to post my Thursday night, it's a funny story. Look out for that tonight.

Peace.

Not So Samrt.

2006-03-16T13:37:00.000-05:00

Well last night we watched Get Rich Or Die Tryin' with 50 Cent in it. It got an extremely low rating on IMDB so I figured that it was going to be just brutal. It wasn't that bad though, I would have rated it at least above 50%. I skipped out just before the ending cause Kelly wanted to go to Second Floor Lounge. I decided to go too cause I was feelin' a Corona. First thing I did when I got there was buy one, the sourness of the lime made my wet lips tingle. I danced for a little bit and actually left around 01:30 hours.

This morning I got to wake up late cause I don't have class until 16:00 hours. I actually just wasted nearly 30 minutes doing an online IQ test... and then found out I have to pay $10 dollars to see my results. Gah! I think I did pretty good on the test, but now my brain is just scrambled (not scrabbled). Luckily I only have accounting today so I don't really need to use it.

So the word is I am going to Riley's tonight with the house. We are just going to have some pints and maybe play some pool. Then later on tonight I will probably make an appearence at Sin City cause a friend asked me to go.

Alrighty, well that's it for now.

Chaps (Part 3).

2006-03-15T16:47:00.000-05:00

Ok this is the final part to this story arc. I'm sorry for the double story lines running at the same time, I know it's an incredible ammount of readings. But if I just added them in later to the same post then I think it wouldn't be noticed. My Wednesday was nothing eventful thus far. Just me falling asleep in classes. Trying desperately to find a computer on campus. It was unbelievable how there were none available anywhere. And I mean there are close to 200 computers on campus. Yeah I know that's not a lot, but I guess a lot of Trent students don't have computers.

So we left off in this story me driving off with Nancy and Ally to the place where they do their riding.

"Hey your pink hair is gone." I said to Nancy.
"Yeah, graduation picture are coming up and I couldn't reapply it in time."
"Ah, well it looks good anyways."

The fog is getting thicker and thicker the further we drive. Ally twists and turns down the country roads further east. The road dips and to my right there is some sort of huge river that appears ghostly with the fog and a bit of ice along the banks. We chatted more along the way and then finally the pulled up to the place.

It was your typical farm looking structure with old wood with red paint that is overly faded. Old trucks and new ones are in the parking lot made up of loose gravel. We walk through the door and I'm met face to face with a brilliant white pony with blonde horse hair. The floor is all cobblestone and lightly wet. Big ground fans are placed blowing cold air around the room. The stables are luminated by a few bulbs.

Nancy then took her horse out of the stable and I kinda just chilled checking out the scenery. Looking for good photoshots. They hooked up the house from the ceiling on two D-links. She brings out some treats for the horse and tells the horse to dance and bobs when she says that. The horse in turn started to shake one of it's legs. They brushed it off and fixed the hair. "Here pick out the stuff from the feet." She says and hands me some hooked screw driver thing. "Ok, no problem." I said. "Just push your shoulder into the horse and grab the feet."

Seemed simple enough. I lean into the horse and it adjusts it's feet and lifts up a leg. I grab the leg and pull it up a bit and run the pick around the shoe take out horse shit and mud. I make my way to the other foot, lean up again and this one had way more stuff. The horse shit and mud fall off in chumps onto the diamond plating below with chunks of other stuff. Ok this isn't too bad. I get to the back legs and try to lean against it. No dice. I try again and it just backs up a bit. "You have to really lean into it and grab it." Some woman said to me. Where did she come from? I lean harder and the horse slowly lifts the leg a bit. Nancy comes in and holds up for me to get. The next back leg was still a little bit hard to get but I managed. After I brushed myself off and returned the pick. Wait a second. I'm the photographer, why did I just go through that?

They take the horse to the inside arena. We tread through mud and hay and other chumps of stuff I don't know want to know what they are. My feet squish with each step. "I should have brought boots."
"Yeah, we should have warned you." Ally said.
"Well. I should have known better." I say with a laugh.

We walk inside and there are more horses. Some of these ones look better. But what do I know about horses? "Door!" Nancy yells and slides open a big aluminium door. Inside was this spooky quiet arena, translucent windows line up all way around with mud splattered on them. Pigeons coo and fly around in the wooden rafters above. The ground is all soft dark sand. A small mud puddle makes up a bit of the corner near the door. In the center are wooden off center jumps with logs underneath them. I get my polaroid camera out and leave it around my neck. Nancy leads the horse over to this stepping block and hops on top. She then leads the horse around the arena.

Ally sits down on one of the plastic chairs.
"You can sit down eh."
"Actually I'm good, want to stand. I'm not making you nervous am I?" I ask with a smirk.
She laughs and says "No." Begins to say something else but then goes off on telling Nancy some advice for riding. Using terms I really don't understand. Her eyes remain focused on Nancy.
"Man I wish I got some boots that you two have." I say, looking at her long black leather boots with spurs.
"Yeah, well you can even just get boots with just strap on chaps. Stops the sliding around." She replied.
"I have buttless chaps. Would they work?" I joked.
"Yeah those would be fine." She says still focused on Nancy. And she yells out more advice.
I guess she didn't catch that one.

Nancy then asks us to set up the jump in the middle. Ally begins to walk over and I follow and we set up the jump. She goes over it a few times. The horse is having trouble landing on the right foot as a lead. So she brings it over and over again to try and get it to no avail. She then approaches the jump slowly and the horse jumps over it with no momentum. The back feet catch the back of the peice of wood and Nancy is flung to the ground. She lands on her back and holds on to the bridel. The horse drags her for a bit. Ally is telling her to let go but Nancy says that the horse will break the bridel if she does. Nancy gets on her feet again and says that dirt ran down her pants, and we all get a laugh. Ally hops on this time and takes the horse around and over the jumps as well. Nancy takes over after 30 minutes and I take a polaroid picture of her on the horse. The temperatures are way below freezing so it doesn't develop quite right. But it still looked ok. I wanted to get Nancy to look at the horse, but I didn't think she could hear my direction.

They then finish up and take the horse back to the stables. The girls talk and talk about horses in the stables. I just stand there like a boob cause I really don't know anything about horses.

Overall it was a fun experience. I'll have to go again when it's warmer, and get some proper pictures.

That reminds me. Trent is having a nature photo contest. I am going to enter in it. But before I do, I'm going to post the pictures on my blog and I want everyone to vote which ones I should enter. A maximum of five will be allowed.

Alrighty. Well it's 20:00 hours on the dot right now as I finish this up. I have to go over to Steph's to fix up her computer.

Peace.

King Of Concrete (Part 2).

2006-03-15T16:26:00.000-05:00

Me and Adam get going to go shopping. We step outside and it's pitch dark out, with snow blowing like a sandstorm. "When did it all of a sudden turn into a blizzard; We were just out on the porch on Saturday." Adam said. "Yeah, fucking eh." I replied stepping into his car. Our first stop was Staples, it's always the first stop. As he pulls into the parking lot the car slides sideways, so Adam pulls on the hand break to cause the car to re-adjust. "Why are you doing that?" I asked, thinking he purposely slide out like he usually does. "Man I had no choice that time." He said. We shop around Staples and then decide to hit up Futureshop. So we drive there and as he turns into that parking lot the car instead slides up over the curb causing a very audible "CRUNCH". I'm sort of nervously laughing as he backs up off the curb and then go forward into the parking lot. Under further inspection there was no damage.

We walk in and I check out the CDs for sale. Hey Jack Johnson's Curious George CD, only $11.99! I saw it for way more in other places so I picked it up. I pondered at buying a Great Big Sea CD for $8.99 but decided against it. I looked at the PC games and noted that Day of Defeat: Source was only $24.99. Since I don't buy PC games on CD-Rom format and only DVD-Rom this seemed like an ideal buy. I was unsure if my video card would support it, it seems like it does, but I decided to wait and check up on it first. So we leave and head for the nearest Price Chopper. It's bigger than the one by our house.

I pick up the essentials. Mushrooms, lettuce, bread, fast fry steak, yogurt drinks, chilli and some other stuff. Hey what are these? I pick up a box of snow crab legs that were on sale. "Hey Adam, what do you think about snow crab legs? Wanna split on them?"
"I never really done them before. Only had them in restaraunts."
"Yeah. Same here."
I look down at the box some more, trying to decide on it.
"I don't even know how to cook them." I said and put the box back.
Adam picked up a box. "Guy, it says to just boil them for 4 minutes after defrosting." He said.
"What? Really?" I scoop out the box. My eye caught some different snow crab legs packaged in syrofoam with seran wrap.
"Hey this looks better." I said.
The package had two giant claws and legs to boot. So I put it in my basket.
"So did you want some?" I asked Adam.
"I have a roast in the oven right now. Want some roast?"
"Alright, deal. Surf and turf."

We pay for our stuff and drive back to our house.

Jack Johnson - Broken

The rest of the night was me stuffed from eating snow crab legs and roast beef with potatos and caesar salad. Then me and Rob watched a brutal movie called Prison of the Dead. It was a gem!

Alrighty that's the end of my Tuesday story. Now I gotta finish Monday.

Peace.