I need to slow down...been doing too much lately. I was reading this book at Chapters today, something about patience, and in it was this little tidbit about what Taoists call wu wei, or doing nothing to find inner peace or something like that. Now I don't believe in new age stuff, but I do value my "me" time these days more than ever, because I don't get the chance to do have them much anymore, and I'm getting tired fast.
On Thursday, rushed downtown to pickup the car from the repair shop, tried to squeeze in a haircut between picking it up and going to physio...didn't make it. So settled on getting to physio 5 minutes early and surprising the entire clinic by my sudden punctuality. Finished physio, did a quick workout, then rushed to the orientation planning meeting which I ended up being half an hour late for. Got to CCF after, had a very unpleasant incident (really tested my ability of being the bigger man and letting things go), and went to dinner at Kowloon. Finally, after consulting with Dan, just decided to just screw everything and shave my head bald instead of getting a proper haircut after dinner - it'd be easier to maintain (no gel! no washing the gel out! no putting on gel in the morning!), and cheaper too, since he'd be doing it for me. Got my head shaved, and then proceeded to chase after his pet hamster who decided to squeeze out of its cage and play hide-and-go-seek. We never did find it. Maybe it was from all the torture that we did to it....heh.
Friday, lunch with mom and grandpa, doctor's appointment, a whole bunch of odds-and-ends errands, and rush down to have dinner with Renee at YYZ for Summerlicious. Somehow even though the restaurant was at Adelaide & Peter, I parked at Adelaide & University and very stupidly proceeded to walk in the opposite direction towards Yonge. Anyway, finally got there, had a really nice dinner, starting with potato & pea soup with pear, avocado, and proscuitto garnish, an absolutely mouth-watering pan-seared salmon that was just prepared perfectly - cooked on the outside and slightly pink on the inside - with shrimp and corn risotto cake (mmm...), and for dessert, ice cream with a banana-strudel type concoction. The service was excellent, the ambience really funky (albeit not very warm, comforting style one) and the jazz playing in the background was the cherry on top. I'm not nearly the restaurant connoisseur/critic that Renee and Cindy are, but I'd give it probably 4 out of 5 stars, though it's so much easier to go when a dinner for two costs $80 instead of the usual $200. At $200, there better be a damn good reason for me to go. =)
Afterwards, we walked along the Harbourfront, only to discover that Harbourfront Centre was having a Blues festival, part of their summer lineup of events. They had a lot of interesting booths up with people hawking their unique wares, and a huge stage where Dawn Tyler Watson & Corey Diabo were performing - they were pretty good.
It was especially nice for me because I haven't taken the time to just take a walk with someone in a long, long time...and to have great weather and a perfect summer breeze make it so much nicer. If anything, this was the one evening where I felt like it wasn't chaotic....up until the moment we decided to go watch T3. (sorry Jo...hey just remember...powerpuff girls!) Now I wasn't really enthused about watching it, because it's been so long since T2 that the anticipation for it for me just wasn't there. We weren't sure if we were willing to pay Friday night prices for the movie. Renee and I didn't get the chance to see anything else since it was a) pretty late already and b) Bruce Almighty, which we wanted to see, was only playing in the north theatres. But we were both pleasantly surprised, it was a pretty good movie. She kept gushing about how good ol' Arnie Schwarz looks even though he's like a gadzillion years old. =)
Saturday, worked extensively on my site and did a bit of studying before Denise convinced me to go to the exhibition game between Sanctuary & Recon. I can't believe Recon actually lost to the old fogies. Maybe that's proof of how badly they need this injured superstar out on the field =) It drives me nuts to see them out there, there's nothing more I'd love to do than to go all-out with a bat and a glove, but alas, I'm reduced to running practice drills and some coaching. They had practice after which I stayed for to help James get back into the swing of things since he's come back, then went to Parkway to cheer on the Junior team, Salvation. Ken Foo vs. Peter Foo - who couldn't resist that matchup? But in the end, the older Foo's team won.
Was driving up Leslie to Finch on our way to dinner at Chiu Chow Koon afterwards when Vida pulled up beside me at a traffic light.
Me: "Wanna race up to Finch?"
Vida: "What?"
Me: "Wanna..."
....before I could finish that sentence, she was already zooming off in her Previa. Jon just sat in the passenger seat laughing at me. I was like, "What the...grrr....she's all mine....." and proceeded to floor my Mercedes. Took me a good 5 seconds that seemed like forever before I finally caught up to her, and by then she had already cut me off trying to block my lane, so I switched over and proceeded to blow her away at 140kph, like I should've been doing in the first place....because hey - it's a freakin' Merc against a minivan! She couldn't go any faster, she was prolly going at about 110 clicks when she topped out and her pedal was already all the way down....still, gotta give a lot of respect to her driving abilities. Was VERY, very, surprised that not only was she willing to race, but she actually had me a little worried with her headstart. Most girls wouldn't even dare share the road with me if I intended to go 80 over the limit. =)
All the girls insisted on dessert at Liu's 1 afterwards, where they proceeded to convince me to deviate from my Mango Tapioca and instead try the Mango Shaved Ice. Big mistake. Not only did I end up with brain freeze, but it wasn't even all THAT good even though Rani kept insisting that, having tried both, the shaved ice was better than the tapioca.
Today (geez, this is a friggin' long post), went to church, then went to Chapters to do some reading while killing time between service and lunch with Chris Ko and his family. Chris is the nicest guy ever, he's pretty much my godbro....I remember when he used to come out from boarding school during the weekends that Eric and I would fight over whose house he'd end up staying at....and cuz my parents are his guardians, I usually won. =) I also remember he's the reason why I don't like horror movies - he made me watch Ghostbusters with him, completely unprepared for a movie with ghosts. =(
After lunch, went to the Recon game, only to watch in horror as the defence completely fell apart in the early going and put the team in a hole they just couldn't recover from. Injuries certainly didn't help. But the team showed its toughness by playing through the pain. Speaking of pain, my newly shaven head got sunburnt. At least I don't look like a monk anymore....
Denise and Jamie twisted my arm and made me go Karaoke with them and Gabe, Jas, Brian and Tammy...even though my throat was a little sore and I was really in no mood to go. But after a while, I got into it, but with being tired and the sore throat, I sounded like a cow. =) Can't argue with the price tho, $8.50 for 3.5 hours.
Came home, had dinner, watched Wild Wild West and Independence Day (what's up with all the Will Smith movies tonight) and now here I am blogging for the past 40 minutes. That's the update for the past 4 days.
Song of the Moment: DJ Encore's I See Right Through You.
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