Tuesday, 17 February 2009

• Elation

  Weekends exist for the purpose of breaking up the monotony and dreariness of one's week at work or school or both. But many times, the weekend works itself into the weekly cycle and suddenly the break doesn't feel much like a break at all. You wind up doing the same things at the same time and the feeling you get is similar to the one you get at work...
  
  Well this weekend was certainly a welcome change. Actually it started on Friday night. Rather than staying at home, which I've been doing for the past few months since leaving the University fellowship, I drove out to Waterloo to pick up my sister. When she comes back home from work in Owen Sound (far-ass place) she usually hitches a ride with a friend back to Waterloo and stays at her residence overnight before taking a bus back to Toronto where we usually pick her up at Union Station or Scarborough Town depending on which bus she takes.
  
  Prior to heading out of town, I stopped at the Petro-Canada gas station outside my house to fill up on petrol. I chose the pay at the pump method and lifted the nozzle for 87 octane and beep beep beep, the machine alerted me to go inside to see the cashier. It wouldn't let me pump so I went in. Not the first time this has happened at Petro-Canada strangely enough... Well I wasn't the only. There was a line of people all experiencing the same problem in front of me. I finally got my turn and asked to pay at the cashier before going back outside but instead of helping me out, the counterperson told me I didn't return the nozzle "properly". Huh? There's only one way to put it back. She went on to tell me that I had to go out, put it back right, then come back in to pay before pumping. By now a nice line had formed behind. I bet those people were also having issues getting petrol. I muttered a "oh geez this is retarded" under my breath as I left but loud enough to let the other people hear me before going back outside. I jumped in my trusty car, not bothering to try to readjust the pump nozzle, and just made my way for the highway. My fuel gauge read that I only had slightly enough gas for the needle to read it just a little over the "E" empty mark. I thought I'd push my luck and see how far I could go. As I made my way through and out of the city, the needle steadily clung to above the "E" mark. I was a bit surprised and decided to continue. I left Toronto and the GTA and was finally making my way through the numerous townships. At each exit, I would glance down at my gauge to see if I had pushed far enough but it was slow to drop and so I kept on going. Maybe I would reach Waterloo without fueling up at all... Well that didn't happen. Eventually my needle dipped below "E" and went further and further beyond "E". My little car was still running though. Ah my trusty little Ford Escort of 20 year vintage. By the time I decided that I had chanced it enough and pulled into a truck stop to finally refuel I managed to drive 93 kilometers. Wow! Not only is my 20 year old car trusty and little, it's still extremely efficient! I love this little car. Anyway, after topping up, I continued on the last leg of the trip to the Univeristy of Waterloo. I pulled into town and made my way through stop and go traffic to my sister's residence even though she isn't living there this term. Picked her up, turned myself around and started on the return trip back home. I was feeling hungry soon after starting so we stopped for a quick bite at McDonald's at another truck stop. Cheapest thing on the menu was the Big Mac combo so being the poor but working Uni student that I am, I opted for the BMc. While eating, we noticed that a lot of high schoolers were coming in and out to eat. Where do these kids come from I wondered? Truck stops tend to be situated in the middle of nowhere as an oasis persay between distant points. Go home children and stop hotboxing in your cars in the parking lot! While eating, I did successfully gross out my little sister. Being tired and hungry, I tried to be as efficient as possible in consuming my food. At one point I was munching on burger and went for a drink of coke. I managed to coordinate such that on the downward half of a chew, I would suck in coke thereby making my cheeks sallow, and then stop taking in coke on the upward half of a chew. My sister looked at me in utter horror exclaiming that I looked like a cartoon character eating his food in a comical/gross kind of way. She expressed her disapproval and I could only help to contain myself from laughing and spraying my food all over the tray. She kept on going about how gross I was being but couldn't stop laughing either. Ah the joys of having a younger sibling. =P The rest of the ride home was spent singing along to Jpop and Nickelback. Oh and making my sister control the steering wheel for a good part of the trip back...! You can imagine how much she was freaking out. =b
  
  Saturday came around. Woke up nice and late and dilly-dallyed before heading over to Jay's place with my sister. We were supposed to all cook breakfast together but it turned into just him making breakfast and us eating it. I don't have much problem with that though... We each had two eggs benedict aka heart attack on an english muffin. I think each eggs benedict comes out to about 4 eggs roughly. Multiply by two, keep the yolks, and wow we were just asking for cardiac arrest. Wes arrived after early morning dim sum and we all packed into Jay's car to head downtown for the autoshow. We parked and hopped onto the shuttle bus to take us to the MTCC South Building. Nothing really to say here. The autoshow was pretty boring for the most part. The only item worth mentioning was taking pictures with Byamba, Subaru's sexy sumo wrestler. http://www.sexysubaru.ca/index2.php?lang=en If you want to know more, take a look at that link and click extras. I guarantee you won't be disappointed! Finished up the autoshow, went home, and out again for bubbletea at oh-so-good Green Grotto.
  
  Wow it's late. I'll post up the rest tomorrow. My goodness this post was long and it's still not done yet!
  
  Green Grotto. Headed to our local watering hole with Wes, Matt, and Willio and heard his Cindy story again. Just go for her already man! That out of the way, he began to point out our "types of girls" that we either wind up with or attract. According to him, Wes is too flirty and flirts with all girls and because of that he can't settle down, Matt somehow manages to attract all the kinky freaky girls, Willio himself gets attached to one girl and clings to her for dear life till he botches it up and then moves on to the next one, and as for me? Apparently I am heads over heels for "her" and that no matter who I come across and how well things go, I always go back to "her". *insert wtf face* Okay. Finished up that strange conversation and we all made our way home.
  
  Sunday morning came and that meant servince in the morning at church. We had a guest speaker and it was everything but interesting. It's only been 3 days and I've forgotten what was said already. After service, I met up with some new faces to celebrate Tomoka's birthday. She claimed to be 22 but I wished grandma a happy retirement instead. We all met up at the Fish House for lunch and got familiarized with everyone. Some new faces and some old ones. A lot of her friends that she brought were from her school so a lot of international students. Jay made it out, after much struggling to find the restaurant that he suggested to begin with due to his horrible sense of direction, Elsie was also there along with her SO. We ate, we chatted, we laughed. I brought along my Byamba pics from the autoshow and there was a good round of laughs there. Had some jokes made alluding that Jay and I were a couple so we played along with it and clasped hands and called each other pet names. I think he got uncomfortable. Haha. Finished eating and spent a good half hour prodding Tomoka for what to do next. We decided eventually to go for a walk in Unionville along Main Street. Got there and it was pretty darned cold. We sought refuge in the Old Firehall which is now a snowboarding store where Elsie picked up a few new goodies. While strolling along the sidewalks we did come across a number of ice statutes and being the asians we are, it was time for some picture taking. I tried licking one to see if my tongue would freeze onto it but no luck. So much for that idea. Walked some more and headed to Demitri's for desserts and coffee. By then we were all quite tired but it wasn't time to go home just yet. Tomoka wanted to do more so we had to put our heads together again to figure out a way to entertain her. We wound up at Mix2 at my suggestion to play pool. We played in pairs and suffice it to say, whoever was partnered up with me had a smile on their face when the match was over. I managed a few fancy shots that even I was surprised by, specifically jumping the cue ball over another to knock one of my own into a side pocket. I never get that one right. Till Sunday! Played for a good two and a half hours and we were off again in our cars for dinner. Indian food was on the menu and our restaurant was Bombay Bhel. Had some good chats and got to know a few others at the table better. Might have even found a new job. ;) Keeping my fingers crossed on that. Would be excellent to get the job at my school. I've been looking for a job downtown and I'm not particularly picky where it is either. Dinner was delicious. I had an order of Lamb Vindaloo, don't ask me what Vindaloo is but whatever it is, it's darned good. I'm looking forward to having Indian food again. I'm not looking forward to my clothing smelling like my meal again though but hey, small price to pay. I suppose. Dinner ended and by then it was already 11 at night. We all made our way to our cars and bid each other goodnight over and over again. But Jay and I decided to make a stop at Tim Horton's before going home. Had a long coffee to go over the weekend and talk about what? Well, relational stuff. We went on till it 1 in the morning and by then we had to call it a night because...
  
  Monday came. Plan for the day? Drive my sister back to Owen Sound. Not much to say about the drive other than it was boring and as painful as cutting your lawn with a pair of scissors. The roads were straight all the way and there was no scenery to look at. I don't think I ever want to go back out to Owen Sound again. If I do, I'll definately take a different route. One with many hills and bends in the road to break up the monotony. We got there safely, dropped her off, took a nap, got back on the road and made my way home. How long did the drive take? 8 hours. 8 long, excruciatingly plain hours filled with horse manure. Fitting since all the lands we were driving through were farm lands. Got back into the city, had dinner with Jay, went home and promptly fell asleep.
  
  It was nice to get out and stay out of the house this weekend with old and with new people. It's a pity though that many of these new acquaintances will be leaving for their respective homes in the coming days. Ah such is life isn't it? Well all in all weekend fun 10/10. Work accomplished 0/10. Reading week is almost over and that means assignments are due starting Monday. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend. Going out of course!
  

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