This weekend has been fully packed with just so much stuff going on. This past Saturday was my birthday, but really the celebrations started on Thursday.

Oh hell, I smell a long entry coming.
EDIT: Saturday modified, Sunday still to come.
EDIT: Sunday added.

There’s really no other place to start telling the story other than the beginning, so here it goes.

Thursday
For at least two months now, I’ve been aware of an Avril Lavigne concert that was scheduled for early November in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre. I normally wouldn’t have given it much thought, but I was convinced by Jenelle to come along. A group of six of us were going. I absolutely couldn’t have refused either after the fact that she was able to snag front row floor tickets.

I had originally thought it was on the 3rd (Wednesday). I was totally planning on skipping classes that day just to go. I had even informed one or two professors that I was going to be unavailable that day asking whether I could attend a different lecture to get the notes I would have missed. However, after checking the Ticketmaster website I had found out that the concert was on a Thursday. Go figure.

We ended up leaving Waterloo at about 2:30 or so in two vehicles. The weather turned pretty bad on the way there. The rain was strong and much of the incoming Toronto traffic had slowed down to a crawl. We stopped by Yorkdale Shopping Centre to grab something to eat. Man, I felt so out of place just walking through the mall. The people walking by seemed all high-fashion and were looking polished. I walked around feeling like I really should have dressed better. I felt this, despite the fact that I was the best dressed out of all the guys in the group.

That’s right. I said it. Prove me wrong.

Anyway. The car I was in arrived downtown first. We were on the prowl for parking while we passed the ACC, but we were a bit unsuccessful. We tried making a few turns to see if we got close. We eventually got to a street called Blue Jay Way, which just happened to be next to the SkyDome. We figured, “hey, there’s got to be parking there”. And there was. We found parking for $5, which really was an awesome deal. We ended up phoning the other car trying to convince them to park with us for two reasons. First, the price was awesome. Second, the ACC seemed to be right next door to where we were. We stayed on the phone for a good while trying to guide them, but in the end they ended up parking in a lot that was really close to the concert for $20. They told us to meet them at Gate 2. So, we started heading to what we thought was the ACC. As it turned out, the building we assumed was the ACC was just a smaller building with red neon lights. Oops.

We started heading in the other direction and asked people where we should have headed. They pointed us in the right direction and off we went. There were some stairs that we had to go down. I went down first, and as I turned the corner after the first flight of stairs, I stopped dead in my tracks and said, “fuck me”. As it turns out, we were damn far from the ACC. We had to continue walking around the Dome, past the CN Tower, past the Metro Convention Centre, and then past all the scalpers before we got to the ACC. Scalpers are amusing. I wonder though why there aren’t more female scalpers. I’m sure some of them would be able to use sex appeal to make good cash, eh?

When we got to the ACC, we found out that Gate 2 was on the other side of the building. We had to walk around the centre to meet the girls. By the time we got to them, there were a bit miffed. Honestly though, it was a situation that was all about odd circumstances. We really thought we were pretty close. We did make it to the floor, but it was already packed. We certainly could not have made it right to the front row. Although, we did try weaving now and then to get in closer. People are very uptight about you getting ahead of them. Understandably so. People got really irate. Similarly, our group got irate with people trying ot cut in front of us.

The opening band was “Not By Choice”. We really thought the band sucked ass. We were greatly amused that we were watching it, “not by choice”. I wasn’t impressed that even though they knew that the audience was mainly young children, they encouraged people out there to drink beer. That’s pretty dumb if you ask me. There seemed to be a consensus among the floor crowd that they were really “meh”. Of course though, they weren’t what the crowd coming there for.

As soon as Avril got on, the mood of the crowd shifted to this crazy mass of giddy (pre-)teens and exasperated parents. The six of us were looking at each other having a great time bouncing along, and raging along with her on all the right songs. Her 90-minute set passed by rather quickly. I recognized about half of the songs she performed.

This was the first concert I had attended. It really put certain things into perspective. I mean, beforehand, she was just a talking head on the TV with a few hit songs on the radio. She seemed out there and beyond reach. Seeing her at the concert though made me realize that she’s just another person. She has an imperfect voice that sings really well, but hits the occasional off note. That tells me that what she’s doing is genuine. She’s a really petite, small person. She’s really not larger than life.

Seeing this side of her gives me an appreciation of her. I don’t know. I think I may just get her new CD. I didn’t see it at the souvenir stands at the ACC. Too bad. They could’ve made a few more $$$. I ended up getting home at 2:30 am, which was harsh because I had an early start the next morning.

Friday
I woke up at 5:30 am to finish working on a prelab report due later that day. I had to get to the computer labs at 8:30 in the morning. I wanted to get some work done before friends from Toronto were arriving. They were visitng me because Saturday was my birthday. They were brought sleeping bags and were planning on staying in my residence living room. Never would I have imagined that people I knew would go to the trouble of coming over *for me*. It’s really wild. Anyway, I did get a bit done, but soon enough I had to leave my lab group behind to meet my friends. I arrived at the station at 11:30 and found that they had just arrived. Yuki, Raien, Jon…thanks a million for being here for me. We had lunch at Sweet Dreams teashop. I had spicy ramen soup with fishballs and a red bean bubble tea. The noodles in the soup reminded my of Mr. Noodles packaged stuff, which really isn’t all that great. The red bean bubble tea tasted powdery and watered down. I blame the new guy behind the counter.

I had to go to class, so I left a friend of mine to take the girls to the arcade. Jon went with me to my classes just to sit in and experience what it was like to go through my hell. As it happened, I received two of my 4 core midterm tests that day.

No, I did not pass them. I really did a shitty job on them. I hate it, but it’s no different from any other term. Oh, but despite receiving poor grades I was still feeling alright. I decided not to let the midterms ruin my fun. After class Jon and I met the girls at the arcade. We killed a bit of time there. I ended up playing DDR with another friend, Colina. She chose Standard mode while I stuck to my so-very-average light mode. I did relatively well, making me think that I should start playing in Standard mode. I will fail many many times, but I am determined to work my way up there. Of course, this will have to wait until I get home. I don’t plan on bringing my PS2 here to Waterloo…not unless I plan on failing the term.

Hell no.

I also decided to play some ParaPara Paradise. I know it’s a bit of a girly game…but it’s fun waving your arms about trying to hit those damn sensors to the beat. Too bad they don’t have a N. American version of it. I guess ParaPara just isn’t a North American phenomenon. Meh. Whatever. As long as it’s still in the arcade, I’m happy.

Ah, so afterwards we went to Mongolian Grill to get stuffed. Stephen tagged along. *shrug* The grll was packed. It was a busy night. Despite that, the waitress gave us really good service and was constantly smiling at me. She was nice enough to give refills on drinks even before someone asked. For a drink I ordered a pint of Moosehead and she was knowledgeable enough to warn that it might not be on tap. Luckily for me, they still had it. Oh, we stayed for a good while there filling ourselves with stirfry and making our clothes smell very meaty. We all left very content.

Oh, but the night didn’t end there. We went to the local karaoke bar. We were originally just planning on getting a room for the 7 of us that were there. Unfortunately, all the rooms were taken so we were stuck in the lounge area where there were other people we didn’t know. At first I pretty shy and didn’t want to sing, but seriously, there were a lot worse singers in the lounge–and they weren’t shy to sing. I eventually broke the silence after a few beers and started to sing along on one song. I didn’t have the microphone at the time but I was singing along anyway. So, the person with the mike passed it to me and I just carried on. I think the song was “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys. I was shocked at myself. I got good compliments too about having a good voice. That’s really an ego boost. I think I ended up singing a part in a Britney Spears song too. I just don’t remember what it was. I know I sang “Summer Nights” from Grease with Colina. That was just damn silly. I was imitating the voices of the guys singing to Travolta, “Tell me more, tell me more, tell me more”. Especially for a song like this, you really have to just lose it. It’s not a matter of losing self-respect–it’s a matter of just losing your inhibitions to do something fun. I found it fun. I was a little bit disappointed though at the lack of songs I wanted to sing. I didn’t see any Linkin Park. There was no Evanescnece either. There was some Alanis on there, but I didn’t want to sing lyrics like, “it’s meeting the man of my dreams/and meeting his beautiful wife”. Overall, I think I want to do karaoke again. One time or another I plan on singing “My Immortal” because I think I can kill that song.

It’s interesting to note that there’s a sign in the bar that anyone caught vomiting in the bathroom would be fined. Thing is, the toilet in the mens’ room had remnants of puke on the rim. I’m just glad I didn’t have to sit down on that thing. NASTY!

We ended up getting home at 1:30 in the morning, I think. Everyone was just dead tired. We all pretty much collapsed.

Saturday
Saturday morning/early afternoon I found out that Roy had come over to see Marie on Friday night. I think that was pretty nifty timing if you ask me.

I had to leave early, only becuse I had a Don interview to go to. The interview started at 9 am and lasted for two hours. It wasn’t really a one-on-one thing so much as it was a group interview. All the candidates were split up into 5 groups. Each group moves around from station to station where we were all given scenarios to discuss. That would not have been so bad, but there were people taking notes on how we interacted with other people and what sorts of ideas we were coming up with. It was really hard on the nerves because often I would say something causing the observers to scribble down something on a hidden sheet of paper. Crazy. At one particular station, I just randomly looked up from a sheet of paper I was supposed to look at. I guess it was the movement of one of the supervisors that caught my eye. He was just walking around. I guess we made eye contact…because he winked at me. Hahah. See. More evidence that I have this effect on people. I guess I’m flattered.

I came back to the house at about 11. Most everyone slept in for a while, except for my guests who all seemed to be awake and doing things like reading to pass the time. I joined them for a while. We ended up playing Jenga for an hour or two. We were stifling our squeals to not wake up the people upstairs. Eventually, they did wake up. They placed the responsibility on me to decide whether I wanted to stay in and cook, or go out. I decided that I wanted to go out for dim sum. We found a nearby place, and convened there for a meal. I really thought the place was really cool. Even though I’ve done dim sum before, the novelty to seeing the carts go around to all the tables is still amusing to me. Apparently the novelty hadn’t worn off. Thing is, I really haven’t gone to enough dim sum places to have it wear off. Evidence for this is really shown by my opinion of the food in comparison to the opinions of Raien and Yuk Chen. Despite the fact that the food was a bit dodgy at times, I thought the food was just fine. Dodgy? I say dodgy because Yuki ate a siu mai that was still quite pink on the inside. No, it’s not supposed to be that way. She had already eaten half before noticing. She commented that she was worried to see how her stomach would react. Anyway, back to my original point, I thought that the dim sum was just alright. The two girls though, said that it was really quite horrible. They kept on commenting about how the ones in Toronto are so much better, and that once I had the ones in Toronto I wouldn’t possibly be able to go back to eating the crap at the restaurant. Those are some strong words. They seem intent on educating me once I’m back in the big city. Frankly, I’m looking forward to it. I mean, if I think that where I ate was good, then the places in Toronto must be really awesome.

After eating, we hung out at the house for a little while. I was primed and ready for a good long nap after eating, but I didn’t want to just abandon my guests, right? We eventually decided to go to the Columbia Lake Community Centre to play pool. When we arrived, the pool table was in use. I ended up just playing foosball with Jon. Yuki has complaining about stomach aches from the siu mai and left with Raien. Stephen left as well presumably to let them in the house for her to take her stomach medicine. So Jon and I just played foosball for a while. The table was worn and it showed. Some of the men were missing from the poles. Luckily, both sides were missing just one man. So, Jon and I decided to press forward anyway. I ended up winning all three 10-point matches against him, which really impresses me since I really don’t play foos at all.

We switched to pool as soon as the table became free. We played 9-ball for a while. I find that when I play pool it takes me a long time to get back into the swing of things. There’s a certain point in my suckitude where I suddenly see and can hit all the correct angles. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t hit that point. The girls and Steve arrived back shortly after we switched. Yan Ling, another friend, called Raien and asked whehter we already had dinner plans. I decided that we’d go for Vietnamese food on the basis that it’s tasty, and cheap. Yan Ling would meet us there. Marie, Yvonne, and Fred joined in as well. I decided I wanted a beef rice noodle soup with well done blank brisket, and tendon and tripe. Vietnamese rice noodle soup is awesome. I only went for a large size because I just didn’t want to get stuck eating too much. I also ordered a filtered coffee with condensed milk as a drink. That was great. I’ve heard good things about the coffee/condensed milk combination on TV. It’s pretty nifty.

After eating, we headed back home. We ended up watching the Cantonese movie on Omni 2. The title was “Life Express”. All I know about the Chinese title is that the first two characters say “birth” and “death”. It’s an appropriate name, I guess. The movie was about this child who has hemophelia. He’s in need of a bone marrow transplant, and the man who turns out ot be a match is a prisoner in Taiwan. There was way too much crying in that movie. Yuk Chen left the movie partway to get a drink of water from the kitchen. Little did I know it was all a ploy.

As I’m staring at the TV, out come Marie and Yuk Chen with this huge cake that was abalze with fire. They managed to stick 23 candles on there. That was just awesome. I was totally not expecting a cake. I’m surprised I was fooled so easily. Heheh. I was feeling so wonderful afterwards. The cake had two layers–one white, and one chocolate. There was raspberry jam between the layers. The whole cake was covered in whipped cream, with chocolate and strawberries on top. It was absolutely wonderful. I cut the whole cake up into 7 pieces. Everyone got this gigantic piece of cake–not everyone finished what they got.

Seriously, I’m still in shock about it.

After the cake, we continued the movie, and watched MadTV afterwards. After that was MXC. I like SpikeTV. I’m looking forward to seeing that new Japanese gameshow they have: Hey! Spring of Trivia. Hopefully they won’t parody this one as well. I like MXC as a parody, but the original Takeshi’s Castle (damn it, it’s not TA-KA-HA-SHI, it’s TA-KE-SHI)would have been cooler.

Sunday
Damn it, I’ve got to finish this entry.

We all woke up and decided to meet Colina for $2.99 breakfast at Johnny Fiasco’s. My guests had already packed and were prepared to go home after eating. The this is, there were seven of us that had to squeeze into one vehicle. After trying a few different configurations, we finally managed to get this to work. Two sat in the front passenger’s seat, while four of us squeezed into the back. There was no bloody way we were going to stick anyone in the trunk, although I have to admit that the thought entertained my mind for a bit. Hell, I was wondering myself what it would be like to ride in the trunk of a car. But anyway.

Breakfast was pretty damn good. I was surprised that I’d never heard of the breakfast special at the place we went to. This is despite being in Waterloo for…how long? 4 years now? Yeesh. There’s still tons of shit I don’t know about this place.

After breakfast I accompanied my friends to the bus station. We were originally going to take the bus down, but we missed the one we needed to take. In fact, we just sort of watched it stop and then drive away. As it turned out the one we were waiting for didn’t run on the weekends. Stupid us. So, we took a cab instead. I was surprised to see that a cab only cost us $10. Not too shabby.

Ah, so…there they went…and it all came to an end.

Later that night I wanted to give thanks for an awesome weekend and headed for church. My phone started beeping as I was walking. It was my aunt from New York just wanting to greet me. I called her back, and as I was continuing to walk I looked up to the night sky and found the most beautiful northern lights. It was the first time I had witnessed that phenomenon. It was as if someone drew these sheer green curtains across the night sky. I just had to stop everything I was doing and look up in awe. It was amazing, and it made me smile. It’s as if it was a magical way to end an incredible weekend.

To my friends and everyone who was around me, I truly appreciate everything that you’ve done for me. This past weekend will remain a fond memory for years to come.

Thank you.

Lastly, I guess I should end this entry like I usually do on my birthday.

Saturday November 6, 2004
If today is your birthday

Your birthday is coming at a very special time. This lunation has brought both a solar and lunar eclipse. That’s powerful, but it’s also confusing. Most important, the planets are auspiciously aligned to bring you copious amounts of luck and the boost to find your ultimate fulfilment. Happy birthday to Ethan Hawke, 34.

Scorpio (Oct. 24 – Nov. 22)

We talk to one another but rarely do we really listen. We interpret signs and signals through the distorted window of our minds. We assume disagreement when there is far more common ground than we realize, so don’t take something that was said to heart. It’s going to be fine.