WE ARE JUST HERE FOR A WHILE...

Having just recently celebrated his second year as a visitor to planet Earth, E enters a vaguely familiar, well lit food place. Above him is a small plasma screen (sadly, he will grow up not knowing that televisions were ever large and clunky), flashing pictures of overly delectable desserts that can be had at East Side Mario's. Of course, E's attention is drawn to this and he

a. quickly forgets that he is in a foreign place with foreign people, thus no longer requiring his wall of shyness
b. is now determined that he is hungry for nothing else except for ice cream!

There is a stranger sitting in the seat in front of him, someone he has not seen before, someone with a monosyllabic name. The bigger people speak throughout the meal and E gets frustrated that

a. they're not paying attention to him
b. the bigger people keep speaking gibberish that he doesn't understand.

E makes a mental note that he must stop thinking in bolded, bulleted lists as he devours the ice cream.










It's easy to take friends for granted. It's easy to think that they will always be around, a phone call or MSN message away. For me, my circle of friends first gathered together in the common rooms of various dormitories at Queen's University. Then it was in the dining room/living room/Saturday night singing room/make shift blue angel competition area of our respective houses off campus. Then, we all grew up, acquired adopted housemates, found a mortgage, and were soon gathering in our own houses. Not much has changed: it still involves a lot of eating (albeit not 4 BK Whoppers at a time), laughing our butts off (albeit Stephen Chow and Homer Simpson seem to be missing from the mix) and still, someone is gaming. Yup, imagine a room full of 30+ year olds playing tennis on the Wii! It doesn't really matter where the venue is anymore; it's more about the gathering. And nothing is as special as having this same group crowd into a small hotel room, order some pizza and pop, tune in to the Raptor game and play some poker!

Tim is down to his final chips. He's gotta make his move soon. He is dealt an Ace and a seven. It's risky but this might be the last Ace he'll see.

"All in." J, sees Tim's bet as mere chump change, decides to humor him and calls. He's got a Queen and a nine. Tim has the lead in probability right now.

Tim says a half hearted prayer once the cards are revealed: "Please, please, no Queens, no nines."

Flop: six, nine, nine

Tim: "crap". He has a better chance now of having a bird fly in through the window and smack him upside the head than winning this hand.

Turn: nine

To add insult to injury, J just landed a 4 of a kind.








Really, even if THAT didn't happen, that night will be forever etched in my mind. If you asked those same guys when they were snot-nosed froshies, they would've never said that one day, they would find themselves in that hotel room. Yet, even as they were leaving, there was this sense of connection. Never minding the fact that this night just ended, we WOULD pick up where we left off the next time we met. We've accepted the fact that we've changed, or more like, life has changed and we've become willing participants. But our friendships, thankfully, were never frozen in time. We all decided to go along for the ride.

Speaking of travel, where to go next?