Florida... Day 1

If only Steen could put the puck in the empty net...

It's 6am, and south I go

Once again it's time for me to put on my comfy clothes and go gallivanting around the world. This weeks destination is good ol' Sunny Florida.

I'm headed to Buffalo right now in about 15 minutes to catch a flight to New York, connecting then landing in Fort Lauderdale. From there its just sun, fun and lots of sports.

Tonight I am jacked to watch our now Belak-less Leaf's take on Belak and the Panthers. At least I get to see him play! Tomorrow we have the Marlin's vs. the Orioles on deck.

We are following those two games with a wonderful open aired, 300 mile drive to Tampa where we will settle down for the rest of the trip.

Two Jays games and a Leaf game await us there.

I will update from the road.

Peace be with you.

Take a look at my girlfriend...

"Isn't she cute... and she drinks beer!"

The only thing more fun than packing is...

I wish I could have a picture of me packing for leaving tomorrow, but unfortunately I have yet to start. Instead I have a picture taken at about 4am before my Christmas trip. I have to say, I HATE packing with a passion. I've been studying for a "basics of social research" exam since 11am, and in turn have been left with little time to do the other important things. What makes it more fun is the fact that I have an exam at 9:30am until 11:30. Then class from 12:30-2:30, and I have to get to the train station by 3:10. So... instead of packing tomorrow, I get to take a giant suitcase, duffel bag and backpack to class. Awesome!

On the plus side, as of 11:30 tomorrow morning, Reading Week begins. Sure I have one more class... but nothing to worry about there. Sure I have four papers to write at some point between visiting friends, family and my gf... oh, and Florida.... but the best part is I am away from my school and the city of London for a bit!

I cannot wait.

Late night thoughts

I guess I am a pretty lucky guy.

That's pretty much my only thought right now. I've spent the last 45 minutes looking at photos from the past 2 years, and well, I feel pretty lucky. I had a really uncomfortable moment in the summer where I had an adult complain to me how all she has wanted to do was send her son to a Leafs game for the past many years, and how she's never been able to do it. Yet, on the other end of the spectrum, I go to school where kids having BMW's, $2,000 back backs and trips to any place imaginable along with bank balances with more than a couple zero's is almost the norm.

I've always considered myself a very lucky guy. I have a great, loving family. My girlfriend loves me and vice versa. I've never experienced "poverty". Heck, I even owned a first gen iPod ;)

I'm packing right now for my next trip that I am leaving on in one week. I'm headed to Florida to follow the Leaf's and Jay's throughout the sunny state. Two Leaf's games, two Jay's games, and even the Orioles vs. Marlins thrown in for good measure. Add to that the fact these are in multiple cities, and we are traveling around in a convertible, and you have a damn amazing trip.

This started me reflection on the amazing things I've been blessed with the opportunity to do in the past year and two months. Sitting court side at the Raptors (thank you Lauren!). Going to Vegas to celebrate my 21st birthday. Celebrating New Years in Cuba. More concerts than I can even count. Hitting up Detroit to watch my Flames play in the playoffs. Sitting front row to watch Buffalo play Ottawa in the playoffs. A summer full of cottages and Jays games. More concerts. A trip to Phoenix to celebrate Christmas. Vegas to celebrate New Years. Sitting right behind my idol Wayne Gretzky at a Coyotes game. Catching the Leafs play the Red Wings for the first time in 3 years. And now I am headed to Florida in just 7 short days.

This list leaves out all the amazing times I've had with my girlfriend, family and friends doing everything from watching movies to sitting on couches.

Overall, I think I am quite blessed. I am so thankful for everything that people have done for me.

Oh.... and packing sucks!

Family day is a day to reflect

Today was the newest Canadian national holiday; Family Day! Although I didn't spend it with my family, or receive a call from my mom *cough*, I still had a very good day. I spent most of the day talking on the phone to my lovely girlfriend, and the rest with my amazing roommates and neighbors.

The point of this holiday seems to be a time to actually just relax and hang out with family. Well, I did that as best as I could. Overall I was very happy with it.

I think the thing that I did the most was reflect on how lucky I am to have an amazing family that loves and supports me. Also to have a family that has allowed me to experience so much makes me very happy. Where would I be today without them?

Secondly I realized how lucky I am to have such an amazing girlfriend. She supports me, and although we have fought and had troubles, at the end of the day we get each other through our days. It's going to be one year this Friday since we first met. I am so happy that she came into my life that one night at the bar. I'm also happy that she is still here with me. I love every minute I get to spend with her or spend talking to her.

Finally, I love my roommates (and neighbors). Again, we've all gone through the drama and shit, but at the end of the day, we have given each other the strength to get through 4 years of university.

These are the three levels of my family that I am most thankful for today on this random new holiday.

Sunday Ramblings

I haven't started a blog post without any real point in quite a while. Today has been a similar experience. My entire day feels like it hasn't had any real point to it. Although I know about all the things I need to get done and want to get done, there still seems to be this void in doing it.

I've been thinking long and hard as of late about jobs, school, graduation and what I want to achieve. It seems to be causing a great deal of stress. I am excited though to announce that in two months to the day, I will be done school and become a graduate of the University of Western Ontario. Go me!

That wasn't mentioned in the instruction manual

So this afternoon I decided to pick up my guitar which I have been avoiding for about a month. Now, as anyone who plays knows, after that long in the case it will not be tuned as good as it should be. So I grabbed my Godin Exit-22, and my Fender ST-1 Stage Tuner and prepare to tune. Sure enough, the batteries die. Luckily I have an Energizer Max 9V D battery still in the package. I switch the batteries, turn it on to tune the guitar and nothing happens. Hmm. Maybe the tuner is dead; it is an older tuner.

I go to look for another D battery, or at least a wall adapter to try plugging it in. With no luck I returned to my room unable to play guitar today. After entering the room I notice that it smells terrible. Like burning plastic. I have several candles lit around my room so I blow them out. I realize the smell is getting worse. Sure enough, I pick up my tuner and smoke is coming out of the on/off switch hole, and the output socket.

I turn the tuner off and the smoke keeps coming. Take the battery out? More smoke. So I went to the last resort... douse it in water. This stopped the smoke, but my room still smells like burnt plastic.

Now, I've had this tuner for many years (about 7-8 I believe), but I only use it once in a while. If I had left my room for an extended period, or gone to buy new batteries, it could have caught fire and who knows what would have happened. I love my Fender guitars and my amps, but I cannot believe that my tuner would suddenly decide to do this.

I am not sure what to do though. I am e-mailing and calling Fender Customer Relations, and otherwise figure I am going to be stuck buying a new tuner... not a good time to be a poor university student eh?

How to plan a road-trip

So, myself and my father have decided to embark on a road trip in just under two weeks. Originally we considered the idea of going to Phoenix to visit my grandpa, but then decided because of time constraints we should do something else.

Now the question was... "what can we do for 4-5 days, somewhere warm?"

What we have ended up with can simply be called the "Ultimate Guys Road Trip".

On the 27th we take off and fly to sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We pick up our Ford Mustang Convertible and drive to the Bankatlantic Center. After watching the Leafs play the Panthers we will have to check out the down town.

Thursday morning will start off at the Beach and then work our way back to Fort Lauderdale to watch some MLB spring training. Today's game will be the Florida Marlins taking on the Baltimore Orioles.

After this game we hit the open road to drive 270 miles to Tampa Bay with our top down.

Friday will be a busy day. At 1:05pm we will attend the Blue Jays taking on the Detroit Tigers in Dunedin. That evening we will watch as the Leaf's take on the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Finally on Saturday we will watch the Blue Jays take on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. This marks the end of our road trip, but not before we crash every bar we can find in the Tampa Bay area!

We fly off Sunday afternoon to return to a cold, snowy Toronto.

Why?

I've been awake for hours now questioning the very meaning of life. This past week my relationship fell apart on me. Something so amazing, so genuine, so pure was destroyed in a mere week. Now after a weekend of festivities, Monday morning arrives. Now I'm stuck with the cold hard truth that I am alone.

That is why I have no had any updates this past week.