A Few More Days Left In 2008

December 27, 2008 by

The past 10 days the weather has been nasty, harsh snow storms and bad schedules have put me behind on some of my errands. Not a lot mind you – but just enough to frustrate me. I need ink for my printer, however everywhere is out of stock, I need a 2009 desk calendar but Staples is always close when I am able to get there. Wal Mart had them yesterday but the line up was about 75 people long, and the cashier seemed to not even speak or understand English.

I need tires for my car, but every store is either out of stock, or I can’t get a hold of anyone on the phone so I can’t even find out. Last night I drove around for hours to different stores trying to find these items with no luck.

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Saturdays

December 6, 2008 by

I like Saturdays. I wake up, jog, pray, read the paper (yes, I read the paper), eat a good breakfast. Some Saturdays I do volunteer work, sometimes I work, sometimes I rest. Today I’ll be working until about 5pm then having some recoup time.

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Fruits Taste Good

October 23, 2008 by

I’m just resting today and enjoying some of the fruits of my labour from previous months of incredibly hard work. Anyway, it’s a treat but I’m nowhere near my goals but at least I’m getting ahead.

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Happy

October 12, 2008 by

Happy Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful about, I’m very fortunate and God has blessed my life.

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Relaxing For Once

July 13, 2008 by

Yesterday I did what seemed to be an endless day of errands. Today I’m just taking it mostly easy and resting, catching up on some chores.

I saw some really great movies lately: Rambo 4, Stardust, 27 dresses. And I saw The Heartbreak Kid again, that movie is going to be a classic.

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Helping Sarah Move

July 1, 2008 by

Happy birthday Canada!

Last week I was worried. My cellphone was not on for 5 full days because I hadn’t loaded money on it (it’s prepaid) and I was waiting for Sarah to call me regarding helping her move. Also I had no money for gas and the gas light was on. Saturday afternoon I paid the cell phone and got it turned on, filled the gas tank ($57 LOL) and paid my self-storage fees which were overdue. I was hopeful that I didn’t miss out on an opportunity to help a new friend. I was more upset about missing out on that opportunity than I was about not having money.

I worked till around 1, then I left to do my errands. At 2pm I was at Sarah’s. Paul was there also. I figured it would take about 2 hours. It took 8.

I got there and we started loading things into the car. I figured 2 or 3 trips. It took about 6 trips to Sarah’s, 2 to Paul’s, 1 to Sarah’s dad’s. Moving is always hard work, and I know how hard it is so that’s why I’m helping a near stranger move. It’s important for me to do this.

The first trip we met Sarah’s landlord. We moved in some stuff then went back to load more stuff into my car, which is a compact car but really has a lot of space. We had some good conversations, but an especially good one when we took a break for about 30 minutes while waiting for the new landlord to come back home from running some errands. We talked about some of our favourite hobbies including film making. Sarah and Paul like Anime and I’m not certain what that is.

Actually, before I forgot – I only just met Paul and Sara like 2 weeks ago. Also I found out that Paul used to go to my old church and we were both scammed by the same person and I told him that even though he lost more money than I did, I was screwed over just as much because I was left with a bad reputation.

We went to Paul’s house to deliver a gecko lizard, which I held in my hands. Yes, I Asif held a lizard in my hand. Paul has an awesome bedroom with drums and a computer and a tv with video games. He used to clean out houses and some of the things he’s found from the abandoned ones include ammunition, a sniper scope and a spent rocket, I won’t lie, seeing shotgun shells in his room didn’t bother me but I was a bit taken aback by the rocket even though it was disarmed.

Sarah and I drove to her dad’s house, even though it was a short drive away (and it was now dark) it felt like we were up north in cottage country. We lugged the bed and another (much nicer) desk up a what seemed like endless stairs.

We were all so exhausted!

We drove back, picked up Paul and then I dropped them off at Paul’s house. I drove straight to Lick’s but they were closed as soon as I walked in so I settled for Macdonalds.

I thanked God for giving me such an opportunity to help my new friends and I consider it good will to help someone who would have otherwise struggled really hard to move on their own. I know what that’s like. I really know what’s that like.

Today I’m just back to work as normal, actually it’s a holiday but yeah – I feel better doing at least a few hours of work.

I slept really well last night. Like, really well.

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Light

June 10, 2008 by

Last night there was a lightning storm unlike anything I’ve seen in my life. At one point I saw a flash of lightening so close to me and so incredible I jumped (really) into my car! I was laughing afterwards but wow! I was at the convenience store at Rockhill and Brandongate, a place I’ve been shopping at since we moved to Malton in the 80’s.

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Forgetting Sarah Marshall

April 21, 2008 by

So Friday night I was at the movies, I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall with popcorn and a soda. The movie was hilarious and the theatre was very crowded, I ended up sitting beside a group of friends on one side and a cute girl on a date on the other side.

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Thank You Nice Black Lady

February 26, 2008 by

I forgot to mention that about 2 weeks ago I was walking home from some evening prayers and a young black lady asked me if I could move her car for her. See the snow had piled up all around and there was a nice snow fall happening and she was parked in the last parking spot on the end, near the recycling bins. It’s difficult for anyone to back out and be able to exit from that specific spot when the weather is bad. I was glad to do it and glad she asked me, a complete stranger. She told me that several other people passed by her but she stood there waiting to ask someone she could trust.

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Power Tools Make Things Easier

February 21, 2008 by

I installed a bathroom fan yesterday and I feel great because of that. A bathroom really isn’t a bathroom without a bathroom fan. In fact I’ve been without a good bathroom fan for at least 6 months.

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I Can’t Even Spell Mucondalds

January 16, 2008 by

Last night I fell asleep at 7:30pm and woke up at 10:30pm. I was in a mellow mood so I took a prayer walk around Malton. The McDonald’s isn’t in service right now, it’s undergoing extensive renovations. So is the 241 pizza. I came home around 11:30pm and watched “American Pie” for the first time. Scratch that off my to do list. Then I went to sleep and woke up this morning for work. I’m in this bizarre mood. I’m sure part of it is depression which I’ve been struggling with for the past few months.

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Extra Extra! Giant Black Guy Scared of Malton

December 12, 2007 by

I was walking to the mall last night over that dangerous bridge that takes you to Food Basics and a huge black guy was on the phone talking to his girlfriend and saying “baby you know I gotta be careful, this is Malton”. My goodness, if he has to be scared of Malton, what about the rest of us?

Seriously though you should not walk around after dark, nowhere is safe in this town after dark. On the bright side I fit right in here and I’m familiar with everything. I know where guns are sold, even grenades. Suppressors are special order. Drugs, protection services, special services like forged paperwork. I’m familiar with Malton. I’ve had some interesting conversations with familiar faces. 10 years ago people would offer me goods and services and instead I’d invite them to church, and some would tell me to get lost and some would say yes. I think there was one night when I saw more than 30 firearms handed over to police at a youth service at church. This generation is different though. Invite one of them to church and they’ll point a firearm at your face and threaten you. It’s not as easy these days.

On a brighter note, there’s still something beautiful about Malton. I grew up here from around the age of 7 or 8 to my 20’s. I like walking down Etude Drive during Autumn, from one end to another. It’s beautiful and peaceful for the most part.

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Everybody Here Is Involved With Drugs, Even The Dogs

October 29, 2007 by

First week in this new place. Not bad. Noisy guard dogs barking, loud children jumping upstairs. I said “thank you Jesus, better a noisy child than noisy crackheads”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in a drug heavy area. Security cameras on everyone’s house and everyone has a security dog. There is lots of crime and lots of drugs where I am. I keep reminding myself that it’s temporary and a step up from where I was. To clarify, I’m currently in the neighborhood that produces drugs for sale, and before I was in the neighborhood that purchases drugs for use. I guess one is better than the other for now. And yes I fully blame the fact that we kicked prayer and God out of the country for this. The fact that Canada has these kinds of issues is mind boggling.

I’ve just started watching this new tv show called “Dexter”. It’s so fantastic, I watched 17 hrs of it over the weekend which isn’t something I’ve ever done before. I’m sleeping on the floor and enjoying it. God bless.

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January and I’m Already Tired

January 23, 2007 by

On Friday my sister came home from school for a few days. I picked her up and then we picked up Mason and Eggbert and went to church. At church we had a fun service with worship and prayer and discussions. After we all came back to my place for a sleepover. Mason fasted from food Wed / Thur / Fri and I fasted Thur / Fri. Eggbert fasted Fri.

We watched a movie and went to bed. I slept in the kitchen and pretended I was in a space ship. The next morning I woke up and did my prayers, I made them all toast, eggs, sausages, pancakes. We then went to A&P and purchased $70 in ingredients, then bake lots of goodies for the church bake sale. I don’t believe in church bake sales, they aren’t a good idea. You spend more money on the products than you bring in. In my opinion, just give the money to church.

After we relaxed and watched some tv, ate roti and curry for dinner that we got from Bramalea City Centre. We showered and I took a nap.

Around 930pm (Yes the day went FAST) we went to watch a movie at the theatre, something I rarely do these days. Sis and Eggbert watched something with Hillary Swank (Freedom Writers) and Mason and I watched The Hitcher which is a horror. Don’t know how girls watch such boring movies. Around 1am we drove them home, and went home.

Sunday I dropped sis off to school in Waterloo and then went off to church. I took the LONG way unfortunately so it took forever.

When I got there we had a nice service, and then we sold our $70 in goodies for like $30. LOL. Church math.

Filed Under: children, Family, fasting, Friends, Fun Tagged With:

$1 Million Cash On My Coffee Table But I Rather Have Jesus

December 16, 2006 by

Overall, I didn’t make a profit this year. One business made money but the other lost, one investment went up and the other went down. When everything is all said and done, I lost money. I won’t know how much until an accountant preps my books but I’m sure it’s at least 5 figures. I worked like a dog. I worked all day. I took only a few days off. I pushed and pushed but it just seems like things didn’t work out. I’m exhausted.

Some of my notable 2006 expenses:
– $4,054 food
– $3,259 travel
– $3,086 banking
– $5,078 phone

Add that all up, multiply by 10 and I gave slightly more than that to outreach, evangelism, missions and new churches this year. Unfortunately I didn’t save anything, and I have a bad feeling about that.

So lets end this on a super happy note.

As I started driving out to Guelph for Dana’s wedding, it dawned on me again how fast life flies by. I met Dana online in 2002. We’ve become the best of online friends since then and met in real life in 2006. We only spent a little bit of time together in person, but hundreds of hours chatting online.

Dana’s dad and mom are pastors and missionaries. They’ve been all over the world saving lives. Their family and friends are missionaries as well. This kind of thing means the world to me. Dana grew up on the mission field and it’s molded who she is today.

The long drive to her city was a bit tiring for me, and I’ve done the drive many times to visit my sister at school. When I got to the church my jaw dropped, partially because from the outside it looked like it was sinking into the ground, partially because it looked like it was 1,000 years old. It was covered in beautiful wood and stone.

I met J for the very first time but I heard about him from Dana a lot. J’s family are also missionaries and J has been all over, especially Indonesia where he tells me his hobbies included swinging from vines in the jungle like Tarzan. I setup my camcorder and camera equipment and recorded the short and beautiful wedding ceremony. After, I gave Dana and J their hugs and went about my life for a few hours while the professional photographer took photos.

The reception was in a beautiful updated community centre. When I got to the reception we did more videotaping, we ate the most delicious foods from all over the world (seems like almost everyone was a missionary so they knew about all the different kinds of foods from all the different cultures). It wasn’t catered, people from all over the world cooked food. I had some delicious basmati rice with red curry. Most of the people there were white but collectively they had done church ministry work everywhere worldwide. The food was beyond amazing. The fact that a white person made curry better than brown people made me think.

I walked around and talked to men and women, children and adults, young and old. Many people were simply on break from a 2 year mission trip. Some were heading back to the airport in a few days to start a new mission trip or continue one. One young man told me he won’t be going into missions. “I’m going into business, someone has to stay here and pay for these missionaries to go do what they do, someone has to provide the money, it doesn’t grow on trees you know.” hahahaha! A man after my own heart. He was currently in business school and everyone in his family were full time missionaries. I had a good conversation with him. I talked to teen girls who weren’t into the latest pop music or celebrities but instead talked endlessly about 3rd world villages being transformed by the salvation message of Jesus. Can we trade some of these teens with our spoiled brat teens?

After the reception was over, I helped pack away the reception hall as is my custom, and to my shock all of the young people helped as well – without being asked. They were picking up and packing the folding tables themselves and doing it more efficiently than me. I was amazed and remembered again that missionaries have a lot to teach us. These kids aren’t concerned with what they can get for Christmas, but what they can give. I work with teens everyday and I’ve been trying and trying to teach them these values.

I said my farewells to everyone after it started getting late and I drove home that night in amazement of God. Even right now as I type this, I’m just floored. All those missionaries, in one room at the same time. If we could get them to stay in one city of Canada for 2 years they would transform the city. It’s one reason I’m happy to go overboard funding missions work.

On a silly note, while at the reception I was also honored to be the only colored person there. Everyone was white except for me. That is until 4 of Dana’s friends from school showed up late who were brown and black. After everything was finished I sat down with them and we all laughed about how cool it is to be a minority sometimes, especially when everyone else is so nice.

You know what, I can’t stop talking or thinking about this. I met over 100 amazing missionaries, yes I counted over 100 and talked to almost every one of them. I walked around the room shaking peoples hands and introducing myself. Dana’s whole family are missionaries for life and so are J’s. People of all ages, all educations, all kinds of skill sets, who have collectively been to almost every country in the world representing Jesus. Countries I’ve never even heard of! It was one of the most amazing experience for me to be in their presence.

Let me explain this better:

I was 17 years old. Summer. It was approaching evening. I had a home office packed with regular customers. The doorbell rang. 2 large black men came inside. They didn’t say a word. Both were carrying a Price Chopper grocery bag in each hand. 4 bags in total. They emptied the bags in front of me, on my fake wood coffee table.

$100 and $50 bills, Canadian, American and Euro currency. I stacked that money into separate piles of $30,000 each. It was so much I had to call my friend Steve to help. Steve was in the other room (my home office) dealing with some of our clients. When he saw the pile of money he was literally speechless. I mean literally. I thought he was going to faint. He stuttered a few words and then started counting. Steve’s been my buddy since grade 3.

We made over 30 piles, and counted almost $1 Million in cash. We sat there, looking at the money like it was a super hot girl. After we finished doing that, we packed the money neatly in a suitcase and rolled it over to the bank. The lady at the bank snapped at me saying “this line is for business only.” When we opened the suitcase a bit to show her, her mouth opened up so big I thought I could fit my head inside. Because of the sum of money some paperwork had to be done to make sure everything was in order, then we deposited the money just like we were depositing a paycheck for $400. Most of the money was then wired to Germany. When I got back home I logged into my dial up internet access, using my Cyrix 686 with 32mb of RAM and sent an email to a German company: “Hi, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Asif Zamir, and I’ve just wired you $XXX,XXX.XX Please send the shipping container(s) to this shipping port and address…”

I should take a moment to mention the following:
– the whole thing was completely legitimate and fully legal
– nothing illegal was going on
– i never have that kind of cash in my home
– the cash wasn’t mine
– the shipping containers were filled with food-commodities going to a developing country to be sold at retail.
– cash was being used because the business owners involved were used to dealing with only cash. Later on they switched to more updated payment methods.
– it only sounds very shady when I talk about it

Needless to say, that was an interesting day for me, a 17 year old boy. But this day, this wedding of my great friend Dana and the reception where I met and talked to and prayed with 100 missionaries, and having some of them pray over me – and hearing about hundreds of thousands of souls being won for Jesus, about communities being changed and lives being completely healed, about the expansion of the faith and hundreds of new church plants doing well – this is truly more amazing to me than all the money in the world.

Filed Under: Family, fasting, Fun, girls, Life, ministry, work Tagged With: , , , ,

Cute Old Lady

July 12, 2006 by

I can’t remember which day it was, but I know it was less than 1 weeks ago. My sister and I were driving towards Dixie road and it was raining heavily. Visibility was low. While making a left turn to go south on Dixie, an elderly lady (I would estimate in her 70’s) was riding her mountain bike, wearing a helmet and waved to us while smiling. It was the cutest thing!

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I love buffets

June 4, 2006 by

I woke up, had a small breakfast, showered and left around 10:30am. Mom, Freddy, sis and I drove to London Ontario and arrived around 12:30 only to find Eggbert was working till 2! How annoying. She told us to be there at 12. Well anyway we drove around a bit doing some sight seeing and hit a huge hail storm. I got it all on video camera.

We went to Mason’s around 2:20pm and sis worked on Eggbert’s hair until 5pm while we all chatted with her family. My hair takes 5 minutes to do, why a girls hair takes so long, I don’t know and I don’t care. We spent the time reminiscing.

Around 5pm we took some photos of Eggbert and then left. From 5-7 we drove home having some good conversations but I know some of us were getting headaches from all the driving.

We went home, I washed my face and then left to pickup Lauren and Jordyn. We brought them home to my mom’s place where we all ate a delicious lasagna dinner while Jordyn had fun running around. She was a bit fussy because it was way past her bed time. I remember when Jordyn was still learning to wiggle around on the ground, here she is walking and running and she knows a few words here and there.

We talked, took photos and video, played with Jordyn and played piano, sang songs. We tried to watch a movie (Derailed, 2005) however Jordyn was too fussy. So Mason and I took Lauren and Jordyn home. We spent some time at Lauren’s which was fun. I thought to myself – it’s been about 2 years since we’ve done this. We used to hang at her place all the time. As life goes on, these kinds of things happen less and less.

Mason and I left, picked up my sis and we went home, and slept. Mason slept over.

June 4:
Church, then lunch at a Chinese buffet. After some more good conversation mom and Freddy left for Lakeshore and Mason and I dropped sis at Joanne’s house. Mason and I drove home, where I showered and had to do a work phone call. Anyway, we started driving around, and we went downtown Toronto to do some sight seeing. Unfortunately everything was closed, and at the the last minute we decided to visit his new college campus. We had just enough time to drive back down Young Street, eat a sausage and then see Mason back on the bus towards London.

It took me a good hour to drive home as usual, but I got to listen to some fantastic songs on the car radio. Some jungle songs I haven’t heard in about 10 years. It brought back good memories.

Filed Under: Family, Friends, Fun, memories Tagged With: , , ,

Mason and Eggbert

May 23, 2006 by

Thursday May 18, it’s been about 10 weeks since I’ve seen Mason and Eggbert, a far cry from when I used to see them every day. Since they’ve moved almost 2 years ago I’ve probably seen them 3 times.

Thursday night I decided to take a nice long walk around Brampton, and I used a calling card to call Mason. Him and Eggbert were taking a walk also and I was on speakerphone enjoying their company. We discussed past adventures, and the possibility that they may move to Oakville for school. We walked for about 1.5 hours together.

Saturday the 20th, I worked until about 5pm. Mason and Eggbert arrived around 2pm downtown Toronto, and hung out with Katie (aka Skatie) while waiting for me. They went to the museum and had a lot of fun. I on the other hand was having an awful day. Nothing was going very well and I really needed some rest. At 5 I cut off from work and then prepped the house, doing chores etc. I then prepped the car. Finally at 8pm I was able to leave for downtown to pick them up. I was so tired, and so frustrated from my bad day that I got lost. Mason and Eggbert had to take a taxi to meet me where I was. I finally got meet this Katie girl after like 4 years. We drove her close to her home so she wouldn’t have to take the subway alone. We got lost as usual but it was still fun, because it was among good friends.

Around 11pm we got Katie home, and then we got home around 11:30. We then went to my mom’s to borrow her cooler and then to blockbuster and rented Chicken Little. We then went to A and P to get some food. We watched that while chatting, and my sis came home and we watched some more while chatting. It wasn’t much of a movie, more for children. We all went to bed around 2:30am.

Sunday 21st, We all woke up around 9am, relaxed a bit, went to Denny’s for breakfast, ate some good food till around 10:30, showered and prepped till about 12:30, went to A&P to get picnic supplies in the rain. We were finally on the road at 2pm. LOL. We had a fun drive through Toronto and then through Peterborough where Mason took over the driving. We shared fun stories and took photos and videos. Along the Trans Canada Highway we stopped at an old gas station. I mean super old. Using the bathroom was scary because it was so dirty.

We got into Bancroft around 5:15pm and stopped right at the Chinese restaurant I went to in 1999 when I was a young Christian. As soon as I saw it, dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of sweet, pleasant memories flooded my brain and my body, reminding me about a time when I was young and full of energy and my life was so darn simple compared to today. If I did get that $5 million last year and God asked me to trade it to go back to 99, I would.

C and her sister met us there and we all followed her to her house where we looked at a really nice lake and a graveyard. The lake was on one side, and the graveyard on the other. We took time to enjoy both the lake, and then the graveyard, reading the tombstones. We then ate some good food. We played a great game where you had to pick out instructions from a bowl and do the funny thing instructed. I had to sing a song, and hop up and down while patting my head. We all had to either do something funny or say something funny. C’s sister is hilarious! She said when her brothers make her mad she just sits on their head! Afterward we left to do some sightseeing, and Mason did a terrible thing by sitting to close to a waterfall. We were worried he could get swept up.

Anyway, we left there, came back and had a nice campfire roasting marshmallows and hot dogs. This might have been the high light of the trip. It was good, and I got some great footage on the camcorder of us all around the campfire chatting and having fun.

At 9:30 we decided to head home. We thanked everyone for the good time and gave C hugs. Her mom asked us to please sleep over the night but we couldn’t, we had to go :(

We then left with Mason driving again. It was dark, and about 45 minutes into the drive we almost hit a doe. We slowed down and shooed it off the road with the car. This was important because there were other cars on the road also and we didn’t want it or anyone getting hurt.

The drive was fun, we had some good laughs and good conversations, a few arguments. My sister and I can’t talk about politics AT ALL or it WILL start a fight, even if we are in agreement. Anyway, we kept driving, and we got lost as usual. We pulled home around 1:30am and watched some TV, and went to sleep.

Monday morning at 9:30 we let sis sleep in (we later learned she didn’t want us to) and we left for downtown Toronto. We got lost and ended up in Scarborough but quickly found our way to the station. We ate some hotdogs and McDonald’s.

At the bus station a little girl, around 8 years old was alone with all her bags. Here dad had left her in the bus line alone to get a hot dog. She was noticeably upset so I helped her take her bags to the bus and kept her company while her dad was away. Mason and Eggbert were on their way home and then after the little girl’s dad came back and they left on their trip.

I drove home and just relaxed for the rest of the day. I realized how important it is for me to have these relaxing times. And I need to do them more often and not feel guilty that I’m relaxing. It’s because I can rest and relax that I can do so much when I’m doing so much, you know?

Filed Under: Friends, Fun Tagged With: , ,

More Missions

April 13, 2006 by

Dana wrote this and is allowing me to use it.
Saturday’s adventure at the missions convention was the greatest! :) B and Jon accompanied me to Toronto to take in as many of the workshops as we could. While there we unexpectedly ran into some friends!!

Asif and I had been planning for a while to meet up, but somehow we ended up not connecting before I hit the road on Saturday. So, imagine my surprise when I see Asif appearing just ten feet in front of me in one of the isles in this huge exhibition hall packed full of thousands of people!! How awesome was that?! Well, Beck and Jon ran into a couple surprise friends and family of their own in this same exhibition hall (including our uncle, a pastor in the Toronto area), so as they chatted with some of those folks, Asif and I took off to look through the gazillions of mission organizations and information booths crammed throughout the hall. As an aside, I was absolutely famished at the time, but when I heard that a tuna sandwich cost $7.75 I decided to starve instead. As Asif later commented, if I wanted to pay that much for a sandwich I could have gone to the movie theatre instead.
I was glad to see so many health and development organizations represented here, Habitat for Humanity Toronto, International China Concern, Living Water Canada, Mercy Ships (Canada), and many more.

Cambridge friends: We ran into a number of church friends from Cambridge as well. Among them was Alan whose heart is incredibly dedicated to overseas missions – he’s truly an inspiration!! We also ran into H, a social work student from church who I actually just met for the first time at MissionFest! We hit it off really well, so I look forward to chatting with her some more in the near future. :)

Half the fun of these events are always these surprise meetings with likeminded friends and family. So seeing familiar faces really gave the day a community atmosphere – I loved every minute of it!

Filed Under: Friends, Fun, ministry Tagged With: , ,

Toronto Auto Show 2006

April 6, 2006 by

This is from Dana regarding the Toronto Auto show of 2006 which I finally went to. I typically plan these things month’s in advanced and then cancel at the last minute, but this time I just upped and left.

The Toronto Auto Show, as you’ve probably already heard, was a blast. (Dana wrote most of this part but I’ve taken out some names because I didn’t ask if I could use them).

I was joined by my cousins, and our friend Jay from church. Our party of five left town around 4pm so we knew we’d be arriving in Toronto during rush hour, but our spirits weren’t dampened at all. The five of us took Becky’s beautiful new Civic for its first road trip, and what better way to celebrate than by taking it to a car show!

I was really looking forward to meeting my friend, Asif, for the first time. Asif and I have known each other for three and a half years but only in a virtual context, since we originally met online. We’ve been there for each other chatting through the good times and supporting each other through the roughest times as well. Until the car show, however, we had never met in person so naturally this was going to be huge!! :)

We had also planned to meet Niagara P at the show. The poor guy, he took the GoTrain into town and walked several blocks in the wrong direction due to some misinformation from a T.O. local. He arrived at the SkyDome irked and somewhat tired. So shortly after meeting up with P at the Suzuki section (I specifically requested Suzuki as a meeting place – gotta start off right!!) he accompanied Beck, J, Ja, and Jay to the nearby Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) north building to find some reasonably priced food, while I returned to Suzuki to meet Asif.

Meeting him was SO cool!! We hit it off quite naturally…I’ve met a number of internet friends in person over the years, and I must say that meeting Asif felt the most natural. We happily conversed as we made our way through a long tunnel from the SkyDome to the MTCC to meet the others. I found Asif’s perspective on the first half of the evening quite funny, actually. Here it is, posted with his permission – naturally!

In a nutshell: It’s our first meeting and the first chunk was walking through these long tunnels and then this empty concrete tunnel then standing beside a car engine for like 45 minutes. [At which point in the conversation I made a comment that 45 minutes sounded a bit long, to which Asif responded]: Okay maybe it was at least 30 minutes but you should still call it the 45 minute story.

You got it, Asif! ;) He continued: If I had a public blog I would write about how you are much more fantastic in person and super cute!!! My favorite time was when we were walking through those concrete tunnels in the skydome – you know those ramps. I could make a whole movie right there!! I can do a comedy about people who are having adventures while trying to find their friends at the auto show.

Asif was actually referring to what happened when we reached the MTCC and met with Becky, John, Ja and Jay. We were waiting for P in the Ford section, beside that engine Asif was talking about. (I’m embarassed to admit we chose that as a meeting place; sorry to you Ford fans out there…). Anyway, after we’d had enough waiting we decided to go find him. The last we’d heard P was “drooling” in the Mazda section, so when we finally went to get him he was gone. Thank goodness Asif was there, who proposed that we split up to look for him. Asif had never met P before, but thanks to my trusty digital camera I showed him a picture from earlier that evening, and thus began our search through the sizable MTCC building. Finally, just as someone was trying to sell Asif a credit card in the Lamborghini section, Asif found P and promptly called me with the joyous news!

Little did I know our adventure would spark an idea in Asif’s sharp, entrepreneurial mind: Start an adventure game based on the events of that night!! People [will] pay money to re-live our fun adventures at the Auto Show. There will be actors and staged adventures they will have to go through. We would charge them $1000 for a 3 hour evening. Per person. (Asif: Okay okay, the pricing needs work) [We’d include] scavenger hunts [such as] finding Niagara P because he has some kind of clue about something important. Plus at the same time they have to run from possible fake zombies. Michael Douglas did a movie about it and in the movie he pays $1,000,000 for like a one week fantasy vacation [referring to the movie, “The Game”].

Part three: Soon after finding P, Asif left for home and the rest of us continued taking in the show – we checked out all kinds of cars, we laughed, we hung out, we relaxed. Ja drove us home and entertained everyone along the way. He’s a driving instructor, so he had lots of stories to tell! Unfortunately I was so exhausted that I slept for most of the trip home, but I periodically woke up to the group laughing at some joke of his… I was too tired to catch his jokes, but I smiled anyway. It was such an awesome night! – End

Okay back to me (Asif Zamir) Ha ha! What a great time I had. I picked up Freddy around 5:30 and we left for downtown. Parking was difficult to find but we found some in a hotel down the street. Anyway we took the free shuttle to the dome, paid our $20 admission fee’s and headed inside with 0 (zero) wait time. What was hillarious to me was the people who paid $18 on the internet for convenience ended up in an overcrowded slow moving lineup to redeem their tickets. I heard one guy complain that he was waiting in line for over 35 minutes. All to save $2! What’s wrong with these people? I would glady pay triple to bypass a line anyday. Anyway I ended up spending most of the time looking for Dana and then standing by this 750 horsepower Ford engine. I really didn’t get to look at many cars. Doh! It was super fun and I hope to do it again.

Filed Under: Friends, Fun, girls Tagged With: , , ,

God Bless America!

March 6, 2006 by

I woke up in the morning, ate breakfast and headed straight to work. There is always too much to do. In fact I had to switch my “to do” list from small note paper to large note paper.

I did my emails, my phone calls, paperwork, computer work, research and errands (banking, post office etc.) I find that sitting in heavy traffic wastes about 2 hrs a day of my time.

Around 3pm I was finished working. Way behind schedule, though satisfied that I did a good amount of work for the day. Lingering in the back of my head is the thought “I wish I had done even more this week.”

I packed my clothes into my new suitcase which at the time of purchase was super cute, however way to small. I unplugged my water fountain and was on my way.

By 4:30pm I was on the road. Headed down the 401 toward Mason. I made a detour in London to finally meet my 83 year old pen pal of 8 years, Daphne. We’ve been snail mailing regularly since the 90’s and she’s so fun to talk to. We exchanged photos and did a few phone conversations here and there. What does a mid 20’s brown man and a mid 80s white lady have in common? Thanks to Jesus we have tons in common. At her apartment we ate cookies and drank instant coffee while chatting about all sorts of great adventures from her past, and my future plans. Daphne is amazing, she showed me her binders of missions work, with over 7,000 (yes seven thousand) total pages of adventures for God. My binder only has a few hundred pages. Over the years she’s saved all the letters I’ve sent her, and I’ve saved all of hers in my treasure box. She’s lived her entire life for God. Her husband died a few years ago and she no longer drives but she dreams about maybe going to Australia for one last mission trip. I prefer being friends with people like Daphne over people my age who only drink and go clubbing. Older people have a better perspective on life.

Around 7:30pm I left and picked up Mason who lives way out into the country. We were driving off when he asked if I’d like to go say goodbye to his mom and Eggbert.

Around 8pm Mason and I were on the road. He kept asking where we were staying, and along the way we would see “Holiday Inn” everywhere so I told him we would stay at Holiday Inn. I actually did think we were staying there because I thought that’s what I booked online.

Anyway, we got to the USA Michigan border around 9:30pm and they asked us to pull over while they searched our car. I was nervous because we weren’t allowed to be present while they searched our car and I was wondering what would happen if they simply stole our $500 in cash or planted something on us. I obviously watch too many movies about this stuff. It happens to others I’m sure. 95% of the people waiting for their car to be checked were non-white. Just saying.

Anyway, we were on our way about 30 minutes later and the border officials were perfectly nice. We toured through Michigan, and then a long drive through Ohio HWY I-80. Wow! It was fantastic. It was really really good. Nothing better than a long drive in the middle of nowhere, it really clears your mind. Since Mason moved we’ve been mostly chatting online, you’d think that we’d be chatting the whole way but for this long stretch of road there was complete silence as both of our lives are at turning points.

What was hilarious was that we stopped at a toll booth for a toll road, which was unexpected. I was worried that it would cost us about $150 in tolls because in Canada we have Highway 407 which is extremely expensive. Mason and I drove on it (407) for about 45 minutes and it cost about $40.00. And today we were to drive on this US toll road for about 3 hours! Well needless to say I was worried. Anyway I asked the lady in the booth approximately how much we might have to pay and she calculated for about a full minute with a calculator. I thought “Oh boy it’s going to be a lot”. Well anyway, she finally told us “It might be up to $2.30”. Oh we laughed and laughed. I think I may have even said out loud “God bless America”.

We stopped at a truck stop to get some food because we wanted to make our road trip official – but it was really nasty in there. We couldn’t stand it so we left, but before I did, I purchased a lotto ticket from a vending machine, which is something we can’t do in Canada (that I know of). I won $2 on a $1 ticket however they wouldn’t let me cash it in because apparently the business hours were closed for cashing in lotto tickets in Ohio.

Anyway about 50km later we were at a familiar sight – McDonald’s. It was great. Vending machines of all sorts, a shoe buffer in the bathroom. We took some fancy Indiana catalogs from a display rack and then ordered our food. The worker took our order with pencil and paper, and then added it up that way. At first we thought we were in real Amish town but later found out the cash registers were down for the day. He looked Amish so I’m not sure what to believe. I also remember the lady in the tollbooth used a hand held calculator and didn’t have a modern register. She used a pen and paper also.

Anyway, as we sat down to eat, Mason showed me the Holiday Inn brochure he picked up and went on and on about how cool it was with the pool and hot tub and Internet and arcade etc.

Anyway we continued our drive and had to take a big detour through some Ohio city because of construction. It was fun but we were really behind schedule.

We pulled into long straight Indiana Amish roads about 2:30am. It was so peaceful and nice. About 3:30am we pulled into the Holiday Inn and the lady there explained that all of her reservations were checked in already. LOL. Anyway I was beginning to worry. We went right across the street to Ramada Inn and finally got some closure – we had a real reservation there! Ha!

At 4am I was in bed trying to sleep, but I couldn’t. Anyway around 6:30am my pal Margaret called, she was in the lobby with donuts (yuck, she didn’t realize that I can’t stand sugar in the morning). Well I told her we had barely slept a wink and we would meet up with her later. I felt extremely bad about this. See she was there because I promised her we would help her with her ministry that hands out coffee and donuts to people in the morning and saying nice things to them. It’s part of a church initiative. I can’t explain how badly I felt for not being able to do it. It wasn’t just the lack of sleep that night, but so far this year I haven’t been getting the sleep I need. I’m over working like crazy. I’ve gone overboard and it’s making me sloppy.

We slept for a few more hours and though still extremely exhausted from the long drive and not-so-good sleep, we woke up, showered and got ready for our day.

I walked through the hallway towards the lobby, and saw Margaret fidgeting with something in her jacket. (A hat she had knitted for me.) We exchanged hugs and talked for a few minutes before heading back to my room to meet Mason. Well, after that Margaret drove us to her house where we got the grand tour, and met with Emily: a friend who works in a factory by day and lives in a beautiful house she commissioned herself. Emily is full of spunk. I learned later on she even does such things as skydiving! Wow! I won’t even jump on a trampoline.

We met Anna, we met Sarah, a black girl who reminded me of Lauren. We then spent a few minutes deciding where to eat lunch while I took pictures of one of the super fat cats they owned.

They decided on a Chinese buffet. At the buffet we ate some really good food, had some good conversations about Indiana, Canada, road trips, street gangs, Jane and Finch and a whole page of other conversations. American people have heard of Jane and Finch which is really sad for Canada. After we ate one of the most sumptuous buffet meals ever in a really nice place, the bill came, and I figured once again that it would be just like Canada – about $45.00 each person. Wrong again, It was $6.00 per person including taxes and drink. I realized that some places in the world simply have a lower cost of living. Obviously if we were in New York City we’d be broke by now. But honestly, God bless America.

We paid and then left for our next destination: The Old Bag Factory. It was closed when we got there. Apparently everything closes early in Goshen during the weekends. So we went to a nearby store that was very interesting. This store had products from all over the world, but paid the creators fair prices for their work. The store was non profit and was run by volunteers.

Anyway after spending a good hour there I was really bored (not to mention exhausted). We went to a Christian coffee house to meet Trea and her baby, Gav. I had a strawberry smoothie while we all chatted, for about an hour or more. It was so nice to meet all of these people especially since I had heard so much about them over the months. Also, a christian coffee house – only in America. This kind of store wouldn’t survive 1 year in the Toronto area, no way. Rights activists would have it shut down for one reason or another.

After all of this we headed over to Blockbuster to pickup some videos. It seems like Blockbuster in Indiana had way more of a selection that Blockbuster here in Canada. I’m not quite sure. Anyway, it took about another hour to get our videos because they had to sign me up with a new membership card because my Canadian card wasn’t valid here. We then went to a large grocery store to get snacks, another errand that took about an hour. I wanted to get some fresh cut fruit however Mason wanted some junk food. Well they had had a huge selection because they had 1 isle dedicated to sugary drinks, another isle dedicated to chips and another isle dedicated to candies. Massive 3lb bags of candies even! Is there a health crisis in America yet? Oh yes and I shouldn’t forget, they have 3ltr bottles of soda here compared to our 2lr bottles! Wow! And you can even purchase real liquor in the grocery store, something you can’t do in Canada that I know of. It’s just right there in the regular isles. Not that we purchased any.

Anyway after our amazement we left and went to the hotel, nobody else was going to be joining us because they all had previous plans. I was too tired to argue about it.

We watched the first movie called 11:14 (2003). An excellent dark comedy with many twists and turns. After we started a zombie movie which really sucked. Half way through that Sarah called us and invited us to Steak and Shake for a snack. I was almost too tired to go but I went anyway. I had a tuna melt, Margaret had cheese fries, Mason had cheese fries also (I think). Anyway we then met Sarah’s ex boyfriend who now does work for Comedy Central. We chatted for about another hour, and then Margaret drove us home. The steak and shake was packed. Groups of friends just eating and chatting. I like to eat and watch tv. Margarets group likes to do this thing where you pay for your meal and you pay for a strangers also, and if possible give them a note that says God loves you. So we did that, it was neat and I promised to do it more often.

My goal was to take about 100 photos during the trip, however as luck had it I took about 20 photos and only 5 came out nice.

Well when Mason and I got to the hotel, we finally had a chance to look around. We toured around to see the gigantic swimming pool, the well stocked arcade, and other amenities including bunny rabbit and bird-in-a-cage. Mason logged onto the hotels internet on his Palm Pilot so we could look up a good map to use for tomorrow’s driving home. He’s so into technology and I’m not really anymore. Not so much these days. Give me a good old paper map, a pad of paper and pen.

Around 11pm I eased into bed while watching “Unique Whips”. Unique Whips is about an auto customization company in New York called Unique Autosports. They do all kinds of car customizations. I try to watch that show every time it’s on now.

Sunday morning: We woke up around 8am. Still with a sleep deficit but at least it’s not that big anymore. We ate some toast in the breakfast room then I showered (by the way, awesome hotel for the price, unbeatable). Mason and I packed our things, tidied up the hotel room, and checked out.

We warmed up my gorgeous 1998 Mercury and it sputtered for a while, made me a bit nervous (it was cold out) and then as it warmed up it started to sound beautiful (for a car that is). You know the car didn’t give an ounce of trouble the whole trip, I was so glad. With my luck we should have gotten 5 flat tires. Margaret pulled up about 9:35am and we followed her on a 30 minute drive into the city for church. We pulled up to a large building and as we were walking in, I gave Margaret a Canadian loonie and toonie. For 15 months she didn’t believe that those were the real names so I was finally able to prove it to her.

It’s funny how something can be very real to one person and complete nonsense to someone else.

While coming into the church we were greeted with handshakes, coffee, donuts, a bulletin (which I might still have). Apparently visitors even receive a welcome package with a music cd. I was very impressed. Talk about VIP welcome. The worship was really good. One of the songs I couldn’t get out of my head went like this:

The highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation’s revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
You are amazing God

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
Incomparable, unchangeable
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same
You are amazing God
You are amazing God
The song is called Indescribable by Christ Tomlin

Now came time for communion. They got out a big cup filled with juice and a giant stick of bread. I’ve done communion hundreds of times but this was different. I leaned over to Margaret and asked “are we all going to drink out of that cup?”. She laughed and explained that everyone breaks off a piece of bread and then dips it into the cup. I was relieved. Margaret later told me she saw the look of fear on my face when I was asking her about it.

The pastor gave a fantastic sermon from the heart. I was impressed that nobody in this church of about 500 adults wore a suit. Mason was the fanciest dressed haha! The pastor talked about real Christianity vs. people who just say they are a Christian / Catholic. After the service we took a tour of the church while wishing it was my own home church. Mason said that he wants to move to Indiana just to go to church there. I agreed. A good church will do that. It makes people sell their homes and move. I wonder how many people moved because Jesus lived in a certain place. I bet a lot. The bible says that people came from all over the world just to meet King Solomon. How much more would they want to hear from the Lord Himself.

After church we all drove to Blimpies which was like a Subway Restaurant, (Mason now doing all of the driving). We met Jimmy and ate some subs. I had the tuna again. I know, I need to try new things. We listened to Mariah Carrey on the Blimpie stereo system. Afterward we went to Emily’s to finally see her custom made house I’ve been hearing about for the past 15 months. I got the grand tour and I was extra impressed. She had about an acre of property backing right onto the forest, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, hardwood and plush carpeting. Beautifully furnished with old woods. A modern home with old world charm. The backyard view was amazing. What impressed me the most was that this young American girl was such a go getter. She wasn’t concerned with finding a man, she just worked hard, built up her own house, her own land, her own furnishings. She follows God and nobody bosses her around.

Every road trip has to come to an end. I was sad because it was 1pm and time to leave if we were to stay on schedule. I took some more photographs, gave Margaret a hug, and then we left. Mason had an easy time driving through I-80, then I-69, a different route than which we came with. The fact that it took me 15 months to do this trip concerns me. During the drive home, I was sad, to tell you the truth. I wished my friends lived closer to me. Even Mason lives about 2 hours away now days. Worst than this, years before my friends and I would just drop everything on a whim to hang out, that’s not the case today. So many responsibilities, so much to do, so many conflicting schedules. Everyone has to check their calendar. Emergencies come up, some friends have children, others have cancer.

We got to the Canadian border around 6pm, however there was a massive traffic jam there so we didn’t pass through till about 7pm. Frustrating to just wait in traffic!

We stopped for gas and got some donuts / coffee which I figured I would need. I was fairly quiet along the ride home except for going on and on to Mason about how excellent the trip was. Our long drive there was awesome, meeting excellent people who I had been hearing about and the simple fun we had.

I dropped off Mason to his house around 8:30pm and left right away. Eggbert had really wanted me to stay for dinner, she tried and tried to convince me but I was too tired and I had work the next day.

On the way home I was mostly silent except for my praises to God. It was a special weekend for me. A much needed mini vacation and some spiritual therapy. I kept singing the verses of the new song I learned;

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God

I picked up some fast food and pulled into my house around 10:30pm. Exhausted but so refreshed spiritually.

Filed Under: Friends, Fun, girls, ministry, travel Tagged With: , ,

Albion Mall

February 28, 2006 by

Albion Mall is one of my favorite malls for one reason: super cheap clothes. My mom complained that I have no problem signing over all my money to church or missions work but when it comes to my own wardrobe, I’m trying to spend less than $10 on an outfit. She’s right. And Albion Mall is where I like to get my wardrobe. Mostly track suits.

Albion Mall also has best tuna on bagel for $4.50. Sis and I went to a south Mississauga heritage site to see a beautiful house that’s over 100 years old. It has soaring 12ft ceilings and plenty of original items from the house including bathroom supplies. I wonder how it would be like to live in Canada back then. The products in the medicine cabinet are neat and not much different from what we have today; the labels are full of hype. The basement has an old washing machine contraption where you put your clothes in and squeeze, which is amazing because even though it’s 100 years old, it’s still more advanced than what the rest of the world has today. In Guyana we use a washboard to this day haha.

The beds were angled so your head would be higher than your feet and the tour guide told us that back then, doctors said this was better for your health. I might try it.

Filed Under: Family, Fun, travel Tagged With: , , ,

Daydreaming in Art Class

October 31, 2005 by

When I was 16 years old I sat in the office of this newish company listening to one of the founders going on and on about what he was going to do. He used to call me up and ask me for business tips. I would give him the best tips I could think of. I had nobody to call and ask for help. I was on my own from day one. This is why it’s so important to use a business consultant. Today I saw in the news that his company generates sales of over $350 Million. I don’t know if he makes a profit from that, but if he kept to his plan, he could be earning upwards of $35 Million after taxes every year. Wow. I went to his brand new building which is along hwy 401 going towards Toronto, it’s almost unbelievable to me. He’s only leasing it but still, I remember his old office with stained up drywall and old carpet and now this gorgeous little glass building. Again when I was 16 years old there was another company in Markham that used to boast to me about how they made $500 Million in annual sales at the time. I told them that they were so mean to people that they probably won’t last. This month I found out they went bankrupt and lost their beautiful building.

Mason visited this month, I met him at a mall and we watched The Corps Bride. I’ve become concerned about my prostate health. Art classes are going well. The class is small, but a lot of fun. It’s like a mini vacation for me. My teacher is a full time artist, he earns his income from art. When I was a child, my teachers thought I would earn my income from my paintings. So did I. But those dreams were dashed, and probably for the best. Although my teacher says his cheapest painting is $1,000. Hmmm.

I sit in art class and I daydream about everything. Which is the same as in high school, I daydreamed during art class then to. My childhood, my current life, my future. Important people in my life, possible wives. My art teacher in high school was super awesome, she liked to listen to the Cranberries on cassette tape and she let me have my own personal tape player so I was always in my own world. My friend Steve lent me some of his music, a style of music called Jungle, and then Nirvana. Another girl gave me an REM tape to borrow. My friend Tony gave me his old radio that had AM, FM and shortwave. This whole month has been about me daydreaming the “what if’s” of life.

Filed Under: Friends, Fun, memories, school, work Tagged With: , ,

N-Large

May 29, 2005 by

In the 90’s I applied for student loans and then decided not to take them, I’ve been paying my college as I go, which means I do it much slower, but debt free. The ultimate goal is to earn a PhD or Doctorate. I don’t think I’m the PhD type but Ill go as far as I can. I should have done my entire life this way.

Growing up, we would use our possessions as gently as possible, and when we outgrew them, we would send them to Guyana. Sometimes I’d get irritated because it seemed like the better stuff would go to Guyana and I’d be stuck with crap. In grade 9 I wore clothes from Goodwill. I remember my $4 pair of jeans with someones name written on the inside tag. “Johnathan.” it said.

Shoes were the most annoying. My shoes were the cheapest shoes you could find. They would always be falling apart and I would repair them as best as possible. I would really wear my shoes out though. In grade 9, for about a full semester the entire bottom of my shoes had simply wore out so my socks and feet were actually touching the ground. It was embarrassing but so much other stuff was going on in life that I just went with it. When you’re defeated, you’re defeated and that’s how I spent most of my young life. I put my feet in plastic bags before I put them in my shoes, and that helped a lot. That’s not actually the worst. At Yorkview Public School there was a rule that you had to wear boots during certain weather conditions and change into clean dry shoes when you got to school. If you didn’t do this, you would have to walk around in your socks all day. Yorkview was a fantastic school. The teachers were overall very kind and we had a neat french immersion program which ensured that I got top grades in french my whole life. But this one rule was nuts. Of course I didn’t have a pair of shoes to change into, so I would always be in my socks, walking down the wet and cold hallways. People would ask why I was so forgetful to bring my “extra pair of shoes.” which I thought was simply a white people luxury at the time, and I would tell them to go to my house and ask my parents and get their head busted open in the process, instead of mine.

Now in terms of glasses, I used to have perfect vision. Then in grade 5 my vision started to slip. I couldn’t see the chalkboard even from the front row, but we couldn’t afford eye glasses. Well, maybe we could – when I told my parents / guardians that I needed glasses, they responded “no, you’re just bad.” Stupid monkey people.

Grade 6, grade 7, grade 8 my teachers would say “if anyone wants to come up to the front to copy off the board you can do that.” I wasn’t the only one, there were several people who really needed glasses. I got my first pair of glasses in December of grade 9 – the end of first semester, and I only got them because my french teacher told me not to return to his class unless I had glasses. The jackass made a mockery out of me in front of everyone, in front of all of my poor friends who couldn’t afford glasses. He was pretty much the most hated teacher in all of high school, everyone hated the guy. During class he would ask me to go get him paper towels from the bathroom, because his armpits were sweaty and he would need to soak up the sweat during class. Bloody french people, I thought to myself. I still think that actually.

I returned the next semester in his class with glasses, the cheapest pair we could find. Unfortunately 1 or 2 of my classmates couldn’t afford it and didn’t return to his class. Some of them didn’t even return to school.

This month I got myself new shoes, and new eye glasses, the kinds I wanted. And I gave a bunch of new clothes, shoes and new prescription eye glasses to people who really need them, who will make good use of them. It’s a nice feeling to take a car load of people to the mall, male and female, young and old and tell them “everyone get what you need and get something you want.”

One boy, age 14 put his brand new glasses on and told me that it feels so good to see properly and that he felt like crying.

I know the feeling.

Filed Under: children, fasting, Fun, Life, ministry, school Tagged With: , ,

Whiskey business is risky business

July 27, 2004 by

My first drink was beer, I was probably 6 years old. My guardians were having one of their wild parties where the police would usually be called and there was booze everywhere, so I had some beer. I was surrounded by drinkers from day 1. There’s a photo of me having my first drink, sitting in my red kiddy underwear smiling, holding a beer bottle. In front of me is a coffee table with several empties. That photo is usually on my fridge for me to laugh at every day.

Then in grade 8 I went over to my friend Steve’s house after school and I tried a sip of whiskey. In high school once or twice some girls spiked my soda with hard liquor. That’s basically it. That’s the drinking that I’ve done up to this point in a nutshell. Hardly anything.

Today I purchased one of those mini bottles of whiskey for $4, a single shot serving. I don’t know why, I was just at the mall and saw it and thought “maybe I can use it for cooking.” Except instead of cooking with it, I drank it. I’m in my mid twenties now so I figure that’s not so bad. I honestly consider this to be my second real drink.

My cell phone bill this month was like $850.

Mason and I walked over to the east side of Malton to pickup some furniture and an area rug, to take it over to M’s, who does not live in the east end. On the way to deliver it people would stop and chat with us, there would be little detours, and a piece fell and broke when we finally we got there. The area rug was the toughest because it would sag in the middle. We were so tired we didn’t even care. We didn’t drive this stuff over, it wouldn’t fit in a car so we carried it all over. After I took pictures from her high balcony of Malton. If you get rid of the bad people in this town, it’s actually a super beautiful town. But I guess you can say that about anywhere. To add insult to injury, M’s mom didn’t want the carpet, which was the biggest and heaviest item to bring over hahahahahah.

A few years back in 1999 or 2000 M’s mom was walking down Etude Drive in broad daylight and a black young adult beat her up and robbed her, she had $5. He probably used the money to buy drugs. Well I don’t know but I doubt he used it to buy books.

I’m enjoying the rainy weather a lot. Listening to music on my cd player, which was super cool when I bought it in 1997 but starting to age.

Filed Under: Family, Friends, Fun, work Tagged With: ,
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