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Hwan and Reg After Maui I was back in Toronto by Thursday morning before the end of the year, the dim dark morning, returning to a cat-less apartment. My memories of sunny beaches and bright skies were not enough to shield me from the horrors, the disappointment of returning to work. Is this really what I'm doing, I wondered. Friday night I went out drinking with Reg and some of his friends, who wanted to watch some UFC. The pints led to more pints, and by the end I found myself shooting pool and singing karaoke. So I guess 2011 still had a few kicks left in it. New Year's eve I did it all over again at Olga's place, with her friends. The Sunday following I went to my parent's house, way up in the northern reaches of Richmond Hill for belated birthday stuff (my father's); food, TV, with some gift exchange. Mimi is well That first week of January I took in a couple documentaries, Waking the Green Tiger  and Slaughter Nick for President . The former is abo...

I returned a couple days before New Year's day, deprived of sleep but still basking in the memories of Maui. What follows are my notes while there, and my observations that have since emerged, so please excuse the switching of tense. Day one: Denver was an easy enough flight, and the one to LAX was just as uneventful -- had a sandwich and juice in the terminal, briefly tempted by the greasy wares of McDonald's. It's funny that the place always brings Doris to mind, due to the disgust it invoked in her. I am glad to be offline, without the distraction, to really be unavailable to the cares of the daily grind and the holidays. It was a combination of work, life and Christmas that drove me out here, an escape from choices. I'd forgotten how maddeningly loud it is inside the plane, a constantly surging white noise, clouding my attempts at concentration and knocking me into dozing. There's a 5 hour time difference between Hawaii and Toronto -- I wonder how I w...