A waste of bits and bandwidth

So I was off on my daily Spanky break Monday in search of a barber. I’ve been going to this Korean salon near my old place and the last cut was brutal. Even for me… $20 includes the tip and I got what I paid for. I told MiHwa that whitey hair is different but did she listen? Maybe if they spoke English or I spoke Korean, things would be different. Anyway, I find this place near the office and buddy says to come back in 30 minutes. “Alrighty. I’ll be back.”

I decide to go back to work for a bit and then I’ll return to get me hair corrected. As I approach the doors to Pacific Center I hear this woman call my name. I look at her and realize that I know the voice and sorta recognize her. My mind draws a blank on the name for a second and then I realize that it’s Jenny, my neighbour from the condo.

“Holy! Jenny! Shouldn’t you be in Switzerland?” Turns out that she was here on vacation and doing some research for a wine show in Beijing she’s working on. It was great to see here again and I wish we had more time to fill in the past four years. I gave her my card and hopefully we’ll have time to get together before she goes home. How odd that we met by chance. I could have stopped for for a coke or hit a red light and missed her.

I say goodbye to Jenny and go to what turns out to be the craziest barber ever. He was like a short, Edward Scissorhands. Totally into what he was doing, hardly speaking and really passionate. The man loves cuttin hair. He was literally jumping around and really animated. Kinda pricey for a barber but almost worth it just to watch him work. Pretty good cut too, if I do say so myself. Spanky was quite taken…

*ring* Him: “You wanna go for lunch?” Me: “Sure”. “Don’t worry, that drink doesn’t make you look gay” *munch, munch, munch* “You look lovely Rachel and nice to see you Nicol” “Yeah, sure, you can see my new iPod” “AAAARRRGGHH!!!” *asshat*

“Thanks, what should I bring? Got it. What do you mean you wanted a round one?” “Good to see you, it’s been a long time. Yes, she seems really nice; good on ya” “Kate, you wanna go for a smoke? Cool.” *Spanky is an asshat! repeat as required* “This was great, thanks for the ride kids”

“Damn it’s hot, should have taken the bus; NO I DON’T HAVE A SMOKE, BUS PASS OR ANY CHANGE!” “Still hot, what the hell? Am I ok? I’m sweating like a pig” “Sweet feathery Moses, is the oven on?! Why is the oven on?” “Say, is that house on fire? That’s a shame… Ooh, esplosions! Neato!” Still hot. “Is my my fly down? Where is my button? Oh, this is just great…”

*holding shorts up* “K, gotta bail, I’m really hot and my shorts keep falling down. Late” “Why don’t you wash yourself freak? Did I miss the last train?” “Shit, you know what that means; the No. 3…” *shudder* *freak* *freak* “No! I didn’t mean to ring the bell! Dammit”

“Why is it so bloody hot in here? It’s almost 3AM and it’s still too damn hot!”

It’s done. Over. Never again. The move is basically complete. Thanks to Biff for coming over and ‘helping’ despite having just gotten in from Oz the night before. Hiring movers is the only way to go as it would seem that I have more money than energy these days.

I was off to Kelowna on Friday for a quick visit and my grad reunion. So I get to Avis and of course they don’t have any economy cars, despite reserving one two weeks ago. Avis: “We have a special on the Chrysler 300!” Me: “I reserved an economy car so I’m not putting gas in that pig. What else do you have?” Apparently they were all out of Miata’s so I got a convertable PT Crusier. In gold.

The reunion was good. Has it really been ten years? Um, yeah, since the last one. Despite my reservations I was glad that I went. We all looked pretty good; no one was all that bald nor all that fat. It’s so crazy to sorta recognize some people that you were so close to back then. “Hey! Dude! *glances at name tag* Good to see you!”

Maybe I’m wrong but some of my ‘closest’ friends seemed a bit dismissive of me. I guess they don’t appreciate me going back to school and getting a tech job where you don’t have time to hang out in peeler bars and generally kill brain cells in your spare time. “You never call me… What happened to you?”

Whatever… perhaps it was by design. The best part was talking to the folks that I went to elementary school with. Some of us met when we were six and did all twelve years together. I wish a few more of those had been there.

After getting back to the relative safety of the West End it was time to make some sense of the mess at the new place. I went back to the old place and finished the cleaning. You should read that as doing all the cleaning I have any intention of doing. Things are falling into place here. I finally got internet too; man, that’s like not having running water. I was going to the office to chat with MiHwa and update iTunes.

So that’s it. I’m never moving again. Well, until MiHwa gets here but that will be the least of my worries.

I’m surrounded by boxes and sick to death of it. In case you didn’t know, moving sucks. I think I’m down to the very bare essentials and I might not have enough boxes. I’m now slinking around the IT department thinking to myself “that’s a nice box…”

I stopped by the new place on Friday to drop off my second rent cheque of the day. The manager is great and was getting ready to repaint the place in the colours that the original tenant had used. He showed me another suite so I could see if I’d rather have the more standard beige. I thought about it and considered how much MiHwa likes green. “No, let’s stick with the green”

Feeling rather happy with myself, I got on Skype when I got home and told MiHwa that the place will be re-painted in green. “This is gonna score me some points!” Me: “Hey MiHwa, they’re repainting the livingroom in green!” Her: “emm… what type of green?”

An awkward pause followed as the realization starts to set in that I had just agreed to live in a green apartment and she isn’t over the moon excited about it. I’m assuming that this is something that I should just get used to…

Mental note #338: whatever you think is correct, do the opposite. The other news is that since I wasn’t moving in on the 1st, the manager decided that this would be a good time to refinish the floors. I can’t wait to get back to hardwood… Old school; none of this laminate crap.

So this is my life right now. Every night I pack a little more. Now I’m running out of things to pack, so I’m trying to clean a little. I’ve arranged for a mover and I’m slowly telling everyone that I have a new address.

That’s a good excuse for not posting right? Right?