happy birthday to me

That is to say, it was my birthday a couple weeks ago, and now I enter the muck, the deep muck, of middle age. Forty is my number, friends, and I shake my head whenever I am reminded of it. Which is daily, hourly, far too frequently. Who'd have thought 40 year old Hwan would be this? Not me, least of all me.

It was nice to see people give their regards, a gesture not lost on me. Especially those kind few who made the effort to go out of their way to pick something out. I like to think I'm not materialistic in nature but these items I covet, a physical link between giver and receiver.

How else was my January? I helped MJ move out of my place into a new apartment, which took up a couple weekends of back-breaking work and remains a strain on our relationship. I do find myself getting increasingly tired -- I shall sigh myself into the next world, this one too much of a bore. Thinking about it now kills me all the more.

I saw The Pixies at Massey Hall! My first show of theirs, though I've been a fan since high school. Even without Kim Deal they were a joy to behold. I had a middle-balcony seat, giving a removed yet close-up experience. They mixed old and new, and the people danced to the old, nodded along to the new. The opening band, whose awful name I cannot now recall, were themselves forgettable.

MJ and I went dog-sledding this past weekend. Windrift Kennels, the same place I'd went a couple years ago, and we had a blast! The weather did seem colder, so I must make a note here to bundle more carefully next time -- my feet felt like stumps by the end of it. We went with friends, some of whom were a bit underwhelmed. I personally didn't really have any complaints, other than I wished the weather allowed for more photography.

The weather! Egads it is so dreadfully cold out. I picked up a cough at some point, one of those nagging keeps-you-up-at-night coughs, waking up with an alarming amount of phlegm in my lungs. I am disheartened to think that this is the climate we have to look forward to, that people have resigned themselves to this environmental misery.

Well, I have Hearthstone to keep me warm. I have been a playing a LOT of the game. So much so, I've decided to start recording my games, which, if you care to do so, can be viewed here: Laz Befriends. I honestly don't suggest you do so, unless you're actually interested in witnessing me stumble through learning how to play the game. The audio for the first few episodes is off as well, so you may want to skip them. Anyway, I'm going to try to make this a "thing" I do, at least until I get sick of it.

Until next time...

Comments

Post a Comment

Hotness

Enter Whitby

So yes, the move happened, and like all moves was a haze of mind-numbing packing, desperate rushing, meals on the run. We hired help to pack and move, which really, is the only option, but the experience remained a heavy energy drain. MJ and Sora stayed at the apartment while I got the cats accustomed to their new home. I'd anticipated that the larger space would ease their stress, and it has measurably, but not as as completely as I'd hoped -- they remain aloof at best to each other. How's Whitby, you ask? While my bitter disappointment of moving out of Toronto has lost the worst of its sting, the wound is reopened whenever I go outside, whether to walk the missing sidewalks, or ride the infrequent buses, or drive the inscrutably clogged roads. We're located on the edge of the downtown, such as it is, which simply highlights the slapdash zoning and lack of any kind of urban planning. The library is really nice though . We are mostly settled: The boxes are gone, the fur
Read more

Peterborough

Image
Back in September we took a family trip to Peterborough -- a sort of holiday for Sora and I and a regular work day for MJ. I guess I must be getting old because I found the 2+ hour drive draining, a real slog. The Prius is a pretty comfortable ride but my body complains from sitting that way for so long. Arriving in Peterborough, my first time, felt both familiar and strange. I could see how the freshly resurfaced downtown attempted to hide some dusty history, bringing to mind the downtowns of Kitchener and Guelph, which I guess makes sense as this is another university town: The same 60s low-rise downtown, pockmarked with signs of poverty, the same pre-war homes, many chopped into multi-unit rentals, the same bafflingly congested roads that compete with inadequate public transit. Our hotel was located just outside the downtown and served well enough. Sora found the experience exhilarating, excited by the new bed, a new room with just mama and papa. We ordered some Greek takeout, very
Read more

Yo

So yeah, I continue to float and bob along with the tides of 2023. The initial shocks and surprises of owning and maintaining a house have mostly dimmed themselves into the background, a hum that periodically bumps into shape, sometimes scary, sometimes less so. I am hopeful for a more relaxed December. Sora is growing so fast, it’s really true what they say. I do miss her being a little peanut but I’m routinely amazed by her development. And as she gets bigger I find watching over her a lot less draining, a lot more interactive. I’ve started watching a lot of chess and thinking about chess. I’m still quite terrible, laughably terrible. I am curious to know if I can get Sora into it. I played and loved Lies of P, definitely my favourite game this year. Diablo 4 was disappointing and Starfield was just so tedious and dead. I am currently really into Sekiro, a game I’d always wanted to try. I do wonder how many more years I can play these flicky-reaction games. Speaking of years, my eyes
Read more