Downbursts Are Baby Tornadoes, Right?

"...severe thunderstorms...could cause large hail and downburst winds..."

Okay, so it turns out that downbursts aren't baby tornadoes.  But this was the gist of what I read on the National Weather Service website before I got on a plane to Dallas yesterday.

Last Thursday, I was eating lunch at my desk when my boss called me into his office. When I went in, he was staring at the vacation calendar that's posted on his wall. My heart nearly stopped. "Err...is everything okay with my vacation?" I asked nervously. "Oh yeah, we're good," he replied. "Can you go to Dallas next week?"

We are apparently looking into getting some new equipment. The sales guy for one of the vendors had arranged a demo at a cosmetics company in the States. This project actually belonged to my coworker, but his visa paperwork didn't come through in time. My boss was going to go, but there was a customer visit at our site on the same day that was pretty important. The sales guy had already rescheduled the demo once and couldn't change it again. So I became the pinch hitter.

When you think about it, I'm probably the more ideal candidate to go to a cosmetics company. On the other hand, it's Texas. All I can do is hope that they don't shoot the girl first.

I had dinner with the sales guy at a really good steakhouse, Del Frisco's.  It's a small chain that originated from Texas but has locations all over the US.  I would say it's a small step above Ruth's Chris.  They had valet parking and everything.  The meal was great, but it was a little too much food a little too late in the night.  I was exhausted and stuffed.  But I guess it helped me out because I slept like a log the whole night, which is unusual (I usually toss and turn the first night in a hotel from the unfamiliar environment and the different noises).

We went to the facility, which was a strange experience.  It had a security fence all around it.  We had to get buzzed in through the gate before we could even get to the front door.  They had a uniformed security officer at the reception desk.  It's a cosmetics company.  I wasn't aware that they had to protect themselves that much.  And yet, they let me take as many photos and videos of their equipment as I wanted.  So weirdly contradictory.

The equipment was pretty impressive.  The engineering technician who took us around the plant had nothing but good things to say.  The last 4 new pieces that they bought were from this vendor, so that's a telltale sign.  We got a good look around, and then we left, just as the rain started.

No hail.  No downbursts.  Less than 24 hours and I was out of there.

"The sun will shine from time to time, oh when you dream of me yeah"

When Front Row Becomes Back Row

It's a sad day when you realize that you've lost your concert legs.  Oh man.  I used to be able to stand for hours and hours to watch and listen to singers and bands perform.  It's also sad when you can't really remember the last time you went to a concert.  Well, at least I've been able to remedy that one.

I was fortunate enough to see the Lumineers yesterday.  My friend and I arrived a little late, or so I thought, and I figured we had missed the opening act.  But we didn't.  They were a band called You Won't, who unfortunately didn't endear themselves early on when they introduced themselves as a band from Boston, Massachusetts.  After the smattering of boos, he asked "What, is it a hockey thing?"  The band was made up of two guys.  The lead singer played the guitar mostly.  The other member played pretty much everything else, and simultaneously.  He played the drums and the harmonica at the same time, or the synthesizer and the drums and the tambourine.  And he sang back up.  I'd never heard of them before, so I listened to the first 20 seconds of some of their songs before I went downtown.  I thought they sounded okay.  In the live situation, it was a little different.  There wasn't much interest from the audience (the girl in front of me started checking the hockey scores on her phone).  The low point came when the lead singer started playing on wind chimes.  But they played their best song (in my opinion) last, so it ended okay for me.

A forest of tall people sprouted up in front of me between the opening act and the headliners.  We were in the general admission pit so the sight lines from further back weren't the best to start with.  There was one tall guy who spent the majority of the night making out with his girl.  Not exactly what I came here to see.  But the good thing was that his girl was short, so he had to bend down, which meant that I could see better.  Always an up side.

The Lumineers are such a sing-along band, which of course makes them great to see live.  And they really do want everyone to enjoy the songs.  As they were about to get to the chorus of "Ho Hey", they all stopped together and the lead singer asked everyone to put away their cell phones and recording devices and just enjoy the song.  Awesome.  Most people complied, but there were still some who ignored the request.  They played some songs from their album, along with ones I didn't recognize and a new song here and there.  Neyla got a fantastic response when she sang solo on part of a new song.

At the end of the set, I wasn't sure if they were going to do an encore.  But sure enough they came out to play again.  After the first encore song, I was abruptly shoved by the girl next to me.  But that was only because she had been abruptly shoved as the gates around the soundboard burst open and an army of security guys surged out, flashlights in their mouths, holding various wooden boxes, microphones, and a drum.  They made their way out to the middle of the crowd and set up a makeshift stage.  Suddenly we weren't so far away from the band anymore.  Someone behind me laughed and said all those people at the front row must be pissed because they're now suddenly the back row.  The band wanted to play the first song completely unplugged (no mics either).  It took forever for the room to quiet down, but it was worth it.  So cool.  They played another song with the mics before they went back to the stage and finished off the encore.

And then it was over.  We waded through a sea of empty (and not so empty) beer cans and out into the night.  As we drove out, we passed by, of all things, a music video shoot.  It was clearly a rap video.  The guy (whom I didn't recognize) was sitting on top of a bus shelter, surrounded by bottles of champagne, while a chick was standing on the sidewalk with an umbrella.  Now I'll be watching for that video all the time...

"So keep your head up, keep your love"

Three, Four, Shut the (Front) Door

It's probably been more than ten years since there's been even a hint of winter weather on my birthday.  And we were really close this time.  But, once again, much ado about nothing.

Oh yeah...yay...birthday...

34 years of life.  I've never been ashamed or hesitant to say what my age is.  Because frankly, nobody's been able to guess it correctly.  Well, one guy did, but he had an actual frame of reference, so he doesn't count.

I am, however, looking back a lot more these days.  I suppose that's evident in my recent blog topics.  And I shouldn't be doing that so much.  Reflection is good to a point, but I've only gone through just over a third of my life (assuming I've been endowed with the appropriate genes).  I still have a long way to go.

Alas, I continue to regress.  After all, the thing I'm looking forward to the most in the next couple of weeks is volunteering at the TIFF Kids International Film Festival.  Why?  There's going to be a meet-and-greet with Elmo and the Cookie Monster.  Seriously.  So excited.

"You said that irony was the shackles of youth, you wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh"

Always A Little Different

When I was little, I might have thought about what my wedding would be like.  When I was a teen, I started to think about what marriage meant to me.  These days, when I watch "Say Yes to the Dress" (and I watch that show a lot), I take note of how amazing some of those dresses are, but I never think about being in the same position as those girls.

I'm pretty sure I've covered this ground before, but I feel the need to say it again.  I have nothing against marriage for other people.  I will drop everything and be there to help my friends with any and all aspects of their weddings (dress shopping is still dress shopping, and I'm not bad at it).  I'm genuinely happy for them and wish them all the best.  I know a lot of couples who have been successfully married for years.

For the past few weeks, I've been watching a coworker friend's marriage suddenly and quite rapidly disintegrate in front of his eyes.  Seemingly out of nowhere, his wife announced that she was unhappy with the marriage and wanted to move out.  Now, I absolutely do NOT have the full picture or story, and I am obviously biased because I'm hearing my coworker friend, who I've known for the past 7 years, talk about his wife, who I met once during that entire time.  He's one of the nicest people I know, and I can't even imagine what the problem could be.  Of course, the dynamics of a relationship aren't always seen by the general public.  There was a moment when it seemed like a reconciliation was possible, but then things took a turn for the worse and he admitted today that it's pretty much over.  And now the messy paperwork part begins.  They also have a young son, who's already starting to become affected by this.

My coworker has the dubious distinction of being my first friend to experience the process of divorce.  Over the years I've seen my parents' friends and older relatives divorce, but it was different to me.  It was like being a step removed.  At the same time, not a single one of my friends comes from a broken home.  I've had friends who endured big breakups, but that's not quite the same either.  Shoot, I've endured breakups.  But that's not what turned me off of marriage.

My biggest beef about marriage is the legal bit.  Obtaining "permission", essentially.  And paying for a license.  I understand the necessity of having a license to drive or otherwise operate large machinery.  You need to prove that you know what you're doing.  I understand having a license for a dog or cat.  But the marriage license thing bothers me.  I get that religion plays a really big part in it too.  So are you getting married because you want to, or because you're being told it's socially acceptable to?  Or is it something that we're taught that you're supposed to do when you grow up?

Don't even get me started on equal rights.

I spent part of the afternoon googling "Are humans meant to be monogamous?"  There are a lot of scientific opinions about it, and of course no consensus.  Comparisons between humans and other animals were made.  Evolution also has a huge part in it.  There are statistical differences between how men and women view monogamy, both socially and biologically.  I think the gist of it is that most animals are polygamous because it's a way of ensuring the propagation of the species.  Humans are only different from most primates because of our capacity to associate love with another person.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating promiscuity.  If I've learned one thing about myself, it's that I can't be like that.  I think I'm just always going to be a little different than most people.

My coworker friend was really down today.  I told him that I know two things to be true: things happen for a reason, and it always works out in the end.  I don't know how, but it always does.

"Upon the hill across the blue lake, that's where I had my first heartbreak"

Ten

*Blink*

It boggles the mind sometimes.  Ten years ago today, I started writing.  I've had some interesting thoughts.  I've had some interesting things happen to me and around me.  332 times.

I thought I could retrospectively look at my writings and actually see the change in myself.  Like a time capsule.  Or a montage.  As I read them over again, a couple of things struck me.  First of all, other than a few really vague references and dead links, I was able to relive all of the events that I wrote about.  How it felt as I finished my last exam, or got my first job, or made fun of myself (and others), or lost money (that seemed to happen a lot).  The second thing, and I mentioned this a couple of posts ago, is that through all the years of writing, I could still hear me speaking.  I mean, I felt like I was the same the whole time.  The more things change, the more they stay the same, as they say.

Am I disappointed that I haven't changed?  Even after all the experiences I've had, all the lessons I've learned, and all the mistakes I've made?  I guess it depends on the nature of the change.  I've found that it's really hard to determine if you should be true to yourself and stay as you are, or if you should change to become a better person.  But what is "better"?  And better for who?

Maybe I HAVE changed, and it's just hard for me to see it because I've become whatever I've changed into.  Maybe this is it, and I'm never going to be anything different.  Maybe I still really don't know who I am, or what I want to be, and I need another ten years to figure it out.

The one thing I do know...is that over the years, I've definitely heard some really great music.

"Once said, words make a world of their own"

The Downside of Caring

It's been a frustrating day.  The worst part of it is that I know how it could all have been avoided.

If only I could care less.

That was the underlying theme of the day.  All of the aggravation and emotion would have been non-existent and I could have gone about my day happy as a clam (assuming that clams are happy) if I didn't care.

But I do care.  I care that if someone came to me with a problem, even if I had absolutely no power to do anything about it, I would try to help anyway.  I care that if I see something wrong, I would try to fix it.  I care that even if someone else made the mistake, I would correct it.

I can't help it.  It's in my nature.  I catch myself doing it all the time.  Sometimes it's crazy how quickly I will drop whatever I'm doing in order to assist someone else.

I guess my parents gave me the right name after all.

"Heaven holds a sense of wonder, and I wanted to believe that I'd get caught up when the rage in me subsides"

Back In The Saddle

Life's full of setbacks.  Everyone knows this.  Me especially.  The important thing is what you can take away from it.  This time around, by some miracle, I feel like I've actually learned something about me.

I can't believe it's taken this long for my instincts to kick in.  For once, I actually saw something coming.  I'm going to take this as a really good sign for the future, that I'm going to be okay.

I was also right about something that I had long suspected about myself.  I just can't be random.  I can't do it.  I need to build a base, do research, overanalyze.  It makes things more difficult, but what else can I do?  At least during this process, I've figured out some things that I should and shouldn't do.  For next time.

This past weekend, my coworker watched as her 11-year-old daughter was thrown head first from a horse that was taking a jump a little too aggressively.  This was her daughter's first show where she was competing in jumping.  Luckily, her daughter was fine.  The more important thing was that she hasn't been turned off of riding.  My coworker told her daughter, "Everyone experiences one big fall.  This was yours."  So true.

"May your past be the sound of your feet upon the ground, carry on"

Old Fears Revisited

In anticipation of a new reader, I started re-reading my old posts from the beginning, as a reminder of the girl I once was.  I guess I haven't changed that much over the years.  I'm still a little sarcastic, a little self-deprecating, a lot introspective.  I found a post that reminded me that it might be easier for me to express myself through the written word rather than a verbal conversation.  So here we go:

I've been told recently that it's not easy to get to know me.  That would normally surprise me, but not in this case.  I have a feeling that past experiences are holding me back.  This is a disappointing revelation, since I thought that I had made some really good progress over the past few years.  I might have also been deluding myself all this time, thinking that I was perfectly okay with being on my own.  Maybe I'm not.  But, as it turns out, the fears are still there.  The fear of allowing someone in and then watching them crush me.  The fear of seeing more than there actually is.  The fear of being blind to the obvious.

So what do I do?

Let's try something new.  I want to be as brave as possible.  I want to leave the past behind and look forward.  I want to be okay with things, whether they work in my favour or not.

New Friend, this is me, with as much truth as I can muster.  I know there's a lot to go through, so no rush.  I hope you'll know me better in the end.  And I hope you're okay with me mentioning you here.

"Just because it burns doesn't mean you're gonna die, you gotta get up and try and try and try"

He's A Debt-Free Hobo

Doesn't that sound like a ridiculous country song?  The thing about country music (of which, admittedly, I'm not a fan) is that it's supposed to be based on something real.  In my case, it's pretty accurate.

Suddenly and out of nowhere, I've become acquainted with a hobo.  Well, he's actually a really good friend of mine who, through a series of unfortunate events, has no fixed address and carries all of his belongings in two bags.  At the same time, through the same series of events, he came into a sum of money that essentially makes him debt-free.  So what does he do?  He elevates himself from a local hobo to a full-fledged transient.  As of today, he'll be riding the rails from one end of the country to the other for the next two months, with periodic stops across the border.

I'm still trying to process the situation.  I've known him to be a nomad for some time now.  Going to school in Montreal, randomly moving to Vancouver, periodically traipsing around the globe.  He had settled fairly well back in town for a long time.  But things happen, as they tend to do.

The reassuring thought is that he actually has a plan in the works that will hopefully kick in after the two months are up.  He's planning on going back to school.  Again.  The choices are in New England or England.  A good choice, either way.  I thought he was going to be a serial entrepreneur.  I guess he's going to be a professional student instead.

"I've been walkin' these streets so long, singin' the same old song"

I Think He's Trying To Tell Me Something

Snow.  Glorious snow.  We haven't had this much snow in the city in years.  Amazing to see, terrible to drive through.  Of course, I was a lazy git and didn't get the snow tires.  But no matter, after years of driving Bullitt with all-season radials I've mastered the art of sliding sideways.  Of course, Bullitt was a bit bigger than Rudy...

I guided Rudy out onto the main road and into the chaos.  You would think that they would plow a major artery by 8:00 am, but alas, not the case.  It wasn't as bad as a couple of weeks ago, when the road was sheer ice and I nearly slid into the middle of an intersection.  But it was still slippery.  To the point where I had everything pointed forwards but still managed some lateral movement.  It was in those moments that I noticed a yellow flashing light on my dash.  My little car comes equipped with electronic stability control, which I guess is a good thing.  But each time I started to slide, this is what would flash rapidly in front of me:

ESC

For a second, it really looked like my car was telling me to "ESCAPE!"  And I kind of had this instinctual urge to tuck and roll.  But I stuck it out and we made it to work eventually.

My office closed early in the afternoon to allow everyone the chance to get home in one piece.  I decided to try and make it to my parents' house.  The experience included rolling past jackknifed tractor trailers and creating my own lane on the highway, but all of that was compounded by the unavoidable ice build-up on my wiper blades, making the windshield a smeared mess.  I had to keep peering between lines of water and ice.  I was really worried at one point because I had some serious visibility issues, but I was almost at my exit.  I was going to pull over onto a side street and chip it off.  But wouldn't you know it, the moment I got off the highway, the ice fell off the wipers all at once, and I could see again.  If only that had happened fifteen minutes sooner.

"Slow down, nothing's gonna disappear, if you give yourself some room to move to the music you hear"

Abandon Ship

My parents have been going on cruises a lot in their golden years.  They have never once planned to go themselves, they just continue to be invited by different groups of friends and relatives.  At this point, they've probably circled the globe by boat.  They've even been to Antarctica.

2011 was a busy year, cruise-wise.  Two weeks after my parents came back from a European cruise, they left for a China cruise.  My brothers were left to watch the house and fend for themselves.  A few days later, my brother called me and said there was a message from the daughter of our next-door neighbour.  She was calling to tell us that her mother had died.  I've known her parents my entire life.  She died the day after my parents left.

One of my brothers and I went to the visitation to represent our family.  A lot of our other neighbours were there.  I'm sorry to say that over the years, I didn't really talk to them very much.  But it was nice to see them, and that they had noticed my car on occasion.  We stayed for a while, talked to the son and daughter (both of whom had moved out of the neighbourhood long before I was born), conveyed our condolences to her husband (who looked really thin and frail, nothing like the round jolly man I had known all my life), and then quietly left.

This past weekend, my parents left for an Australian cruise (stopping in Hong Kong on the way there and back to check on my youngest brother).  My middle brother e-mailed me today to tell me that he got a message from the same daughter, saying that our neighbour had passed away, two days after my parents left.  When he saw the name on the call display, he literally said to himself, "Not again..."

After his wife died, it wasn't possible for him to live on his own so his family moved him to a nursing home, and the house was (presumably) rented to other people.  The obituary said that he passed away peacefully in his sleep.  He was 89.  His wife was 85 when she died.  A long life for both of them.  Sadly, she died just before she was about to be a great-grandmother.  At least he was able to see his great-grandson.

It's an eerie coincidence, and it brings the idea of mortality back to the forefront of my mind.  Maybe my parents shouldn't go on cruises anymore.  We're running out of neighbours.

"Oh save me, save me from tomorrow, I don't want to sail on this ship of fools"

Not New

There's been a lot of sad news lately.  The Newtown school massacre, the New Delhi gang-rape-murder, the man pushed in front of the subway in New York.  The irony of having "new" in the name of each city is that they're actually not very new stories at all.

In a story much closer to home, there was a highway hit-and-run on New Year's Day that resulted in the death of a 7-year-old boy.  A minivan was rear-ended by a Hummer, which then drove off to the exit ramp.  The driver then ditched the car and ran off.  In the report that I read, it appeared that the Hummer almost drove right over the van.  The little boy sitting in the rear seat didn't stand a chance.  The back corner of the van had crumpled like an accordion.

I actually drove past the scene of that accident twice yesterday.  The first time was on my way to my uncle's house for dinner.  It was in the opposite lanes so I couldn't really see what was going on.  It amazed me that the highway was still shut down hours later when I was on my way home.  There were no vehicles, but you could still see the debris strewn across the road.

It's a sad reality to face.  This is us.  Human beings.  It's not just a matter of a few bad eggs.  I believe it shows that every single one of us has the potential to do unspeakably terrible things to other people.  Yes, I agree that occasionally there are mental issues involved.  The woman accused of pushing the man in front of the subway in NYC said that she hated Muslims and Hindus ever since 9-11 and she had been beating them up whenever she saw them.  (Hindus?)  She thought pushing the guy in front of the subway would be "cool".  Okay, obviously not a rational person.  But I can't believe that the half-dozen men who gang-raped that girl in India and then inserted an iron rod into her body all had mental problems.  This was something else.  This was something that told them it was perfectly okay to abuse the girl and beat up her boyfriend, then throw them naked off the bus and try to run over her.

Why do people do these things?  I don't know, other than the fact that it's probably somewhere in our nature.  It makes me seriously doubt the future of humanity in general.  I am more convinced than ever that we will eventually wipe ourselves out.  Especially when, for some, the solution to controlling crazy people with guns is to arm everyone else with guns too.

Despite all of this, I still have a tiny sliver of optimism.  I sincerely hope that, in this new year, we can take the first steps that we need to create a real solution.  To any of humanity's problems. Take your pick.

"'Cause though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore"

Beautiful Misery

It's hard for me to imagine that there are people out there who have never seen or heard "Les Misérables".  The musical has been playing somewhere in the world for decades.  It holds a huge place in my history of musical theatre.

The first musical I ever saw was, strangely enough, "Cats", another long-running musical.  My parents took me to see it when I was pretty young, maybe 8 or 9 years old.  Let's just say, I didn't understand all of it, but it got me started.  I went to see it again later as an adult and the people I went with thought it was the craziest thing they'd ever seen.  As much as I'd agree that it has the feel of an acid trip (not that I've ever been on one), I kind of found that I understood it better the second time.

Les Miz was introduced to me when I was 12.  We spent the entire school year learning the story, singing it in four-part harmony in choir, and then finally seeing it at the theatre.  To this day, I still remember the words to almost all of the songs, not to mention the two-part harmony for "Castle on a Cloud", which you never hear in the musical because Cosette sings it solo.

When they announced that they were making a huge film version, I can't tell you how excited I was.  This was going to be epic, which means only one thing: you were going to absolutely love it or absolutely hate it.  Today, on opening day, I went to see it with a friend from middle school who experienced Les Miz with me.  When it was over, I found myself in the category of absolutely loving it.

It's a depressing story, to be sure.  But it's not a surprise.  I mean, couldn't you guess that from the title?  And anyway, just because it's a sad story doesn't mean it's not awesome.  Romeo and Juliet, Ghost, Titanic - you know how these stories end before they begin.  But the ending is not the point.

Anyway, back to the film.  I'm surprised to say that I liked Russell Crowe's singing more than Hugh Jackman's.  Anne Hathaway deserves all of the praise she's being given.  And as for Amanda Seyfried, I swear I kept thinking to myself that this girl is not going to be able to hit that note, and then she does.  She's a crazy soprano, but I kind of knew that from "Mamma Mia".  (Actually, my favourite song of hers from that musical was during the credits, when she sings "Thank You for the Music")

I've seen countless different musicals, both on stage (Phantom (we don't need to use the whole title), The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, Wicked, Billy Elliot, Chicago, etc.) and screen (Rent, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, My Fair Lady, to name a few).  Les Miz is still my favourite.

I have two tips for you if you're going to see the film:
1) Don't drink anything (unless you're willing to miss part of the film for a bathroom break)
2) Don't sit too close (everyone gets an extreme close-up)

"When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums..."

A White-ish Christmas

I left my parents' house late last night and then had to stop for gas.  As I was filling up, it was around midnight, and it started to snow.  It was a beautiful, magical kind of feeling.

I woke up this morning and looked outside.  Enough snow had accumulated to cover the grass with a light dusting.  For the first time in a long time, we had a white Christmas.

Okay, a white-ish Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

"Just like the ones I used to know"

We Never Learn

I've spent the day looking at photos from the US eastern seaboard as Hurricane Sandy, or whatever she's called now, slammed into it.  Waist-high water, construction cranes snapping in mid-air, structures being washed out to sea, power outages to thousands if not millions of people, etc.  And of course, what do I think of but "The Day After Tomorrow".  It's one of those movies that I'll watch over and over again, whenever it's on TV.  I'm not saying that I think these events are definitely going to happen.  But the things that Dennis Quaid's character are saying are completely plausible to me.  Despite having no background in meteorology, the physics of it makes sense.

I don't know about you, but to me, the images of New York and New Jersey that are being shown to the world today look incredibly similar to the ones in the movie.  And yet I still hear people saying that they're making too big a deal about it, that the authorities over-reacting.  So, just like in the movie, we probably won't learn until it's too late.

Jules Verne wrote "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "From the Earth to the Moon" almost a hundred years before there were submarines and space shuttles.  It's not inconceivable that someone who wrote a movie screenplay could possibly be seeing into the future.

So now maybe we'll actually need to be on the lookout for the zombie apocalypse.  Or, more likely, killer robots.  My boss is currently at a trade show, looking for equipment that could improve the efficiency of our packaging lines.  That includes robots.  I'm okay with them as long as they're not doing any independent thinking.  For god's sake, did we learn nothing from Arnold??

"It's the end of the world as we know it"

Until the Sun Comes Up...

...over Santa Monica Boulevard.

I'm home from the mini jaunt to the West Coast.  Definitely a much needed break in the action.  The wedding itself was kind of funny.  It's been a really long time since I've been to a straight-up Chinese wedding banquet.  No long speeches, no kissing games (although that didn't stop my mother from clinking on the dishes), no slideshows, nothing.  Just a lot of photo ops with the newlyweds, which in this case included my ridiculous cousin putting on an old school Chinese zombie outfit because he wanted to look as "traditional" as his wife in the red dress.  I could hear the wait staff chuckling to themselves and saying that they've never seen anything like it.

We ate our ten courses, which didn't fill me up as it normally did.  We toasted the bride and groom when they came to our table (memories of our other cousin's wedding from a couple of years ago), and then that was it, and we all went home by 10 pm.  Quick, easy, and even left us some time to play some Rock Band.

The next day, we had some really good dim sum, and then went to Santa Monica (via a wrong turn through downtown LA).  Walking along the pier, it was a fantastic day.  We went down to the beach, walked barefoot through the sand, and I stood in the Pacific (it was cold). It was all very surreal.  While we were taking in the awesomeness, my cousin's friend was busy looking for geocaches, which I had heard of but never really got into.  I guess it has to do with the fact that I still have an idiot phone.  We actually found a couple, and I thought it was kind of hilarious that they were trying to be nonchalant when they found the geocache and when they were subtly putting it back after writing their names on the log.  If you're not already doing this and you have an interest in treasure hunting, it seems like a really cool past time.  Apparently, there are geocaches on every continent, and on the International Space Station (good luck with that one).

The next day we said goodbye to my cousin, who had to run to work having used up all of his vacation days, and we hung out at my aunt's house until it was time to go to the airport.  Another jaunt through the world was over.  Here's my favourite photo:

"I am still living with your ghost, lonely and dreaming of the west coast"

This Ain't No Disco, It Ain't No Country Club Either...

...This is L.A.

Yet another adventure out in the world.  I know you're asking yourself, so soon?!  Before you get too jealous, this time it's a quick trip out to the west coast for my cousin Clement's wedding.  And so it's a total family affair, with my parents, both of my brothers and other assorted relations.  I'm usually not particular about warm weather places.  As you know, I like the cold.  But in this case, I've been repeating "It's 27 degrees in L.A." to myself all week.

We landed pretty late last night, plus the flight was rough for me.  The fun began today when we went to the county courthouse to witness the civil ceremony.  I'd never attended one before, so it was definitely...different.  Afterwards we went for dim sum with the family and then headed back to my aunt's house.  My brothers and I lounged outside on the patio and mostly fell asleep.  We noticed that instead of squirrels roaming around the yards, it's lizards.

We went out with Clement and his friends for dinner.  Quite by accident, we did something that I had secretly been hoping to do: we went to a congregation of local food trucks.  They gather every Friday night.  Pulling in, it was amusing to see how many people were tailgating.  There were at least a dozen trucks parked in two rows, and while they all looked pretty good, I had instantly made up my mind the second I saw The Lime Truck.  I watch the Food Network almost daily, and not only were they the winners of The Great Food Truck Race, but they were also featured on Eat St.  I had the lamb sandwich with a limeade and shared the carnitas fries with my brothers.  Messy but very delicious.

Day One has been fun so far.  Tomorrow's the big party.

"All I wanna do is have a little fun before I die"

TIFF 2012: Not a Brief Summary

There's no way I can do a daily update of this year's festival.  Because I was in the UK for a couple of weeks, I missed out on about 5 orientation sessions, which meant that I was behind a thousand people in terms of shift sign-ups.  I managed to get shifts that worked with my schedule, but between that and the films I wanted to see, it turned out that I would be downtown every day from the 7th until the 15th.  So, here we go:

Friday September 7
Hurried downtown after work to get in the rush line for Sarah Polley's documentary "Stories We Tell".  Was able to get in but missed a little bit of the beginning.  One word: fabulous.  The most incredible thing about it is that it's a documentary about her own family.  Mostly hilarious and features reenactments by actors who look incredibly similar to the real people they're portraying in a younger state.

Missed out on the food truck scene at Bloor Hot Docs to get to the Elgin to rush for "Ginger and Rosa".  A lot of American actors were used to depict Brits in the 1950s, but it was hard to tell since the accents were spot on.  Elle Fanning was amazing in the film but still has an undeveloped fashion sense.

Saturday September 8
Only one major thing happened during my volunteer shift: had to hold back the hoards of rabid Johnny Depp fans at the premiere of "West of Memphis".  He really needs to get out more.

Sunday September 9
Went to the box office at 7am to see if there were any new tickets released.  Unfortunately, the answer was no.  So I sat in rush line at the Isabel Bader for about 3 hours.  Then karma decided to cut me a break.  The volunteer captain, with whom I had worked a number of shifts in the past, came over and said, "You're in the wrong line".  I slowly worked my way up to a standing position and followed him to the ticket holders line, where he discreetly slipped me a free ticket.  As I left the rush line, one of the girls at the front said out loud, "How long has she been sitting here?"  Yeah, because I'm an idiot.

"Much Ado About Nothing" was my favourite film of the fest.  SO good.  The best part was that Joss Whedon was there, along with most of the cast (plucked from the Buffyverse), for the Q&A session.  Nathan Fillion wasn't there, but I knew that, since a good friend of mine had gotten a job as a driver for TIFF and tipped me off that he was driving him to the airport that morning.  Meanwhile, found out that the whole film was shot at Joss's own house (REALLY nice house!), and was done sometime between the editing sessions for "The Avengers", much to the chagrin of the producers of said film.

This was one Q&A I couldn't leave, and as a result I didn't make it to the Cineplex at Yonge & Dundas in time to rush "The Perks of Being a Wallflower".  I guess I'll have to catch it when it comes out commercially.  However, it gave me time to nap in the backseat of my car (not comfy) before my 8pm shift at the Ryerson.  Caught a glimpse of Saoirse Ronin and Gemma Arterton on the red carpet before their film "Byzantium".

Got home at around 1am.

Monday September 10
Called in sick.  The cold I had been in denial about for the past week was becoming an actual issue.  Also the lack of sleep from the past three days had finally taken its toll.  I was still able to drag my butt out of bed around 11am to do the general household chores that I couldn't have done otherwise if I had stuck to my schedule (dishes, laundry, etc.).

Went to Scotiabank Theatre in the evening to see "London - The Modern Babylon".  Cool archival footage and a great soundtrack, but essentially it could have been called "London - Rioting Through the Decades".  There was pretty much at least one riot every 10 years for the past century.  The funny thing was that every riot looked the same: people throwing rocks, bobbies clubbing people, things on fire or exploding, horses running through the crowds.  And although the reasons were vaguely different, the source was the same.  Civil unrest is civil unrest.

Tuesday September 11
Stood in the rush line at Roy Thomson to see "Great Expectations".  Ended up trading someone a voucher for an orchestra level seat.  All the main stars except for Helena Bonham Carter were there.  Really liked that it was a proper British period piece (none of that Ethan Hawke/Gwyneth Paltrow nonsense), but I swear, South Park has completely ruined this for me.  I kept waiting for the Genesis device.

Wednesday September 12
Took the day off for a day of festing and volunteering.  Saw "Still", which was a cute film about an older couple where the wife was beginning to exhibit Alzheimer's symptoms and the husband decides to build her a new house despite not being able to meet the municipal building codes.  Based on a true story from New Brunswick.

"Three Sisters" was a long (3 hour) documentary about three little girls living in the mountains in China, mostly on their own.  There was no background story, no interviews, no overdubbing.  It was okay at first but watching them eat noodles for 10 minutes started to get to me.  It could have been worse.  The director's first documentary was 10 hours long.

They were showing "The Suicide Shop" during my Ryerson shift, which sounds kind of like a  film I'd want to see: a 3D animated film about a family that owns a shop that sells items you can use to kill yourself, but unfortunately one of their sons is abnormally cheerful, optimistic and life-loving.  Midnight Madness was "The Bay", a Barry Levinson film about parasites.

Thursday September 13
Got to my box office shift but won the draw to go home right away.  Best shift ever.

Friday September 14
Last Ryerson shift.  Held the green room door open for Jared Leto, who currently looks like a hillbilly.  Did the link up at the back door afterwards, where he came out and intelligently asked the waiting fans to vote for his film "Artifact" for the People's Choice award.  Maybe that's why it won.

For "The ABCs of Death", the programmer wanted volunteers to come out on stage during the introduction to "creatively represent" the directors who didn't make it to the screening (out of the 26 directors, I think maybe 12 showed up).  I stayed outside and held the fort.

Saturday September 15
Made my way downtown in the early morn to see "Middle of Nowhere".  A good film about how a wife copes with her husband in prison.  Rushed to see "Clandestine Childhood", a film recommended by another volunteer.  Really great Argentinian film about a boy whose parents were resistance fighters in the '70s and how he had to adopt a different name and hide his background from the other kids at school.

Last volunteer shift at the box office was another shortened stint.  Awesome.

That was it for me.  The next day was my friend's wedding, so I skipped out on the last day of screenings.  A non-stop, tiring fest this time, but as always full of close encounters and some good films.

"We don't even have to try, it's always a good time"

We're Number Three! We're Number Three!

It's been exhausting these past two weeks, hasn't it?  Getting excited, then not getting excited, then feeling the heart drop.  Today's been the worst of them all, watching the 4 x 100 men's relay team being disqualified after thinking they'd won the bronze.  Unreal.

So we ended up with a bucketful of bronze medals, a few silvers, and one gold.  The thing is, if you've noticed, more often than not, we find ourselves in fourth or fifth.  Badminton, synchronized swimming (twice!), cycling, trampoline, shot put, decathlon, equestrian, swimming, wrestling...we were so close in all of these sports.

I find it funny that we have this inherent need to add all kinds of statistics to validate our success.  For example, I just heard the announcer say that this is the highest total number of medals that a country has ever earned in the Summer Olympics where only one gold was achieved.  Woo hoo.

Well, my heart goes out to all those who came close.  See you in four.

"Nobody's a picture perfect, but we're worth it"

Farewell To London

Alcohol of the (Yester)Day: Fuller's Chiswick Bitters and Fuller's Organic Honeydew
(BTW: Did I say Carlsberg last time?  I meant Carling.  Wow, I think I should be cut off now)

Yesterday, two things happened for the first time: 1) we got to an event on time, and 2) there was no controversy during our session.  We heard about the fixing scandal at the other badminton match and, upon viewing the YouTube footage, I gotta say that if you're going to do something silly like fix a match, the least you could do is make it a little more subtle.  Deliberately serving into the net is a bit of a giveaway.

Our session was intense and really confusing at times.  There were 6 matches (two women's singles, two men's singles, and two mixed doubles) but they play 3 matches at the same time.  So we're trying to pay attention but of course it's another really fast paced game and there's always something happening.  I ended up paying more attention to the court in front of me and tried to watch the other two when something interesting was happening, like when someone was about to win the set or the match.  Some of the rallies were incredible.  And, once again, the Danish mixed doubles team had a raucous cheering section, but the Chinese fans gave them a run for their money.  I don't know how the athletes can possibly concentrate through it.

So now I'm back at home.  On the train to Gatwick this morning it was sad to say goodbye to the city and everything.  I have to admit that the feeling this time is a little different from last time.  Mostly because it really isn't over yet.  There's still a lot of Olympics to go.  And now I can actually watch the Canadian events.  The BBC focuses on Team GB, naturally, so finding coverage with Canadians was a bit difficult.  Still, I miss it already.

Cheers London.  Until we meet again.

"Woke up in London yesterday, found myself in the city near Piccadilly, don't really know how I got here, I got some pictures on my phone"