"I am afraid of the unknown, and I am not too thrilled about the known either..."

    My great uncle Amit and my aunt Sylvie have been staying at our house for about two weeks with one more week to go.  Usually, older people never really take interest in me, but my uncle is a really super-friendly guy with cool old man stories!  I have had to take him around town a few times, and he likes to tell me about his life and the things he has done and seen and whatnot.  Some of the stuff is really really cool though.  He's 70 and was born in India but had lived in Colchester, England for most of his life I think.  He is LOADED.  He was some kind of high-up business guy in his younger days, one of those jobs with the free BMWs and golf memberships and such.  And he never had any kids of his own.  So yeah, money is no obstacle to this guy.  He sounds like he was a fun guy when he was my age too.  He went to concerts like Elton John, the Beejees, and the Beatles.  He says that everyone in London used to wear ties where ever they went before the Beatles came along and changed everything.  Apparently music was, and still is, a huge part of his life.  Which is cool because I really feel the same way.  If my house caught fire the first thing I would grab would be my CD rack.  No joke.  If I had pets, they would be a close second place.  Maybe third, since I am quite partial to my movie collection... Anyways though, when we were passing Roxy's Nightclub and I said that I went there sometimes, my uncle brought up the point that he met my aunt at a bar.  He then went on to talk about destiny and how you never know where you will meet that one girl.  It was very whimsical.  I took heed though because I figure you don't get to be that age by being stupid about life.  Learn from your elders, that's my motto.  Or maybe it would be, if I started having a motto. 
    Today was fun though, I FINALLY presented my finished paper that I have been working on all summer for my research job.  I really stopped understanding what I was doing about a month ago but whatever, they seemed to like it.  If it gets published I'm pretty much set for university.  How many 2nd year students have a published paper?  I really don't know but it can't be that many.  I don't know how I want to spend my next few days before school starts up again...  I think I want to go fishing.  I got a taste for it last Tuesday when we drove down to Grand Marais to see what we could catch.  We caught nothing, but it was still a fun trip with the hiking and driving and fighting and eating and whatnot.  The highlight of the trip was the hyena we saw on the side of the road.  I kid you not, it was a freakin hyena.  The border guard warned us that there was some sort of unidentified animal walking around, and we def saw it.  I'm seriously scared that it followed me home.  But yeah, it's been an interesting week!

Upon getting my wisdom teeth pulled out this morning, I have come to several conclusions about society:

1)    Every household should have a store of laughing gas.  Laughing gas can humorously defuse even the most volitile situations.
2)    Tylenol 3s should be grounded up and added to the city water supply.  Doing this would cause everyone to become friendlier and more open with one other, which would no doubt solve all the ailments of society.
3)     The man who invented Jello should immediaetly replace Jesus Christ as our lord and savior.

I will probably add more to this list as time goes on and more of these drug-induced ideas come to me.

I may have to say that this was the best day. Even though I wanted to take it easy following my bar night in Toronto, this night turned out to be just as intense. It started off simply enough: I went over to my cousin Pria's amazing house on the lake some where close to Scarborough. I played around with my cousins for a bit then we all went to this festival downtown where there were all these kid's rides and grease-food and things like that. It was basically a mini CLE. It was alright though because my little cousins had a blast while myself and their dad watched the Italy-France game on this big outdoor bigscreen. 
    After I said my sad goodbyes my sister dropped me off in Hamilton to stay with my Aunt May.  I had so much fun at that house when I was a kid because my five cousins Shaun, Mel, Dev, and the twins Sur and Raj, were a lot of fun to be around.  They are all 30+ now (and ALL teachers) so most of them are moved out and married now with their own kids, but I still got to see them all anyway.  Raj still lives there though and since this was my first visit to Hamilton being legal drinking age, he found that it was his duty to take me out to some of his old haunts from when he was my age.  We started out at this cool outdoor bar by the lake (I can't even remember the lake, it was one of the big ones though!) that resembled something that should be in Cuba.  There was the main bar but then around the dance floor was a bunch of different booths selling their own products.  Budweiser girl was amazing.  After making back our cover-charge in free samples, Raj decided that we were driving to Niagra to gamble.  Casino Niagra was pumpin for a Sunday night which apparently is no surprise at all since people don't care what day of the week they go bankrupt.  I played the best I ever had at Black Jack and doubled my $30 in 4 hands!!  It's not as good as it sounds, the dealer busted every time.  HA!  Raj was strict that I walk away if I ever double my money, but I was stupid and stayed in for another 20 minutes or so.  It all worked out though because I made $75 profit.  You don't even want to know what I spent my money on.  Do you really want to know?? Fiiiine.  Strippers.  We capped off the night at the Sundown strip bar, just 5 minutes away from the casino.  I'm not going to say I was all noble and didn't want to go.  Sure, it wasn't my idea...  But I offered little to no resistance to the thought.  I am on VACATION!  Anyways, Niagra blonde French strippers rule.  And private shows are the only way to do it.  Some how, they seem less sleazy.  We got back to my aunt's house at about 3:30 and slept until our 10:30 tee-off time the next morning.  I love Hamilton.

    My second day in the south was one surprise after another.  I ended up sleeping in and skipping out on the plans my sister and I made to hit the gym together earlier that morning.  She didn't even attempt to wake me up though, so I cannot be held to blame.  After a late lunch we made the ninety minute drive to Scarborough to visit my aunt Mary and uncle Tom.  They have 2 kids (my cousins) named Kev and Pria, and Pria has three daughters of her own.  The first problem was that I was only ever aware of the first daughter.  I had no idea that she had had two more kids.  I really have no excuse for that, but it's just hard to keep up with all my cousins and second cousins and third cousins etc etc.  But it was a lot of fun visiting their house and playing with all the kids because they are all ridiculously cute since their ages are 8, 3, and 1 1/2. 
    After catching up a lil bit, I headed with my sister to Toronto with her best friend for dinner and then maybe to hit some clubs.  We went to little Italy because we figured that was where a lot of people were going because of the World Cup.  A subway and a streetcar ride later, it turned out to be true.  The streets were packed with people (not ALL Italian) and all the restaraunts stayed open late to accomodate them.  We went to the Bar Italia and ate outside on the patio watching all the people go by.  I had the Rigattoni.  I had had a few drinks at this point so I was feeling pretty good when we found this cool lil underground bar that resembled Seattle Coffee House, except with booze.  It was really mellow with a DJ workin the turn-tables and another guy with dreds on the bongos. 
    What I started getting nervous about was the dresscode that a lot of the good bars had.  I was walking around in sandles and shorts all day and most of the best clubs have a strict yet stupid policy that guys aren't allowed wearing sandles.  Apparently it was just a scare though because to cap off the night we went to this awesome club called The Drake that Vin Diesel once rented out for his birthday or something like that.  It was really pumpin and trendy too, but how could I really go nuts if my older sister was right there watching me the whole time??  You just can't.  No joke- one of her friends kept asking me to dance but after a poisoness look from my sis, I decided that she was too old for me and too hammered.  We split the crazy cab-cost and got back to my aunt's house at around 3:30.  Solid night for suuuure.  But I've been writing this entry and watching Late Night with Conan for the last hour or so, and my battery on my laptop is about to die. Soooo byes!!!  Lots more to talk about.

    Blog!  Finally, something to blog about.  The London adventure day 1:  I've never had a more uneventful plane ride.  At the very least I usually have another wary traveller next to me to talk to, but I didn't even have that on either of my flights!!  Sure, there are advantages to having an entire row to yourself, but I would have much rather have had a conversation with some interesting person.  The flights were still good though.  I started reading a book called The Five People You Meet in Heaven.  It's about this old man that dies and goes through the rituals of the afterlife that everyone must goe through before going to heaven: he meets the 5 people who have shaped his life and made him who is was when he died.  Some of the 5 people he has met, like his old army captain, and others he has never met or spoken to but they still have had a dramatic impact on his life.  It's crazy,  but right good. 
       My sister didn't even recognize me when she drove up to the airport, probably because I totally shaved off all my hair (on my head).  I like the look and it is much cooler for the hot summer, but I discovered my skull has a distinctive divet, probably from some forgotten childhood trauma.  Oh well.  I arrived at about 1 then went to this really awesome Italian grocery store to buy stuff for lunch.  My sister isn't really into ordering out.  Then we spent the rest of the day at this HUGE international festival in the park with a stage and all these food stations from about 100 different countries.  We met up with my cousin Ravi and explored all the different lil shops for hours.  I bought a Gyro and a wristband that says Guyana on it.  Then we went to this super-busy icecream place called the Marble Slab that is apparently legendary for their icecream.  They have every topping you could ever want like Score or Snickers or Gummi Bears and all these kinds of fruit...  The line was out the door but anyone who comes down to London has to make the time to see this place.  Ridiculus.  All I wanted was a strawberry milkshake though.  Tomorrow is even more packed: first we're going to my Aunt Mary's house in Scarborough for a visit then bookin it over to Toronto to see some of my sister's friends.  The highlight of the trip may be the huge annual Italian festival in Toronto.  It goes on every year and is usually so big that they close down most of Young street.  But THIS year, Italy is in the World Cup Finals the same day as the festival (pure coincidence).  Does anyone else see a full-blown riot coming on???  Sunday I'm getting dropped off in Hamilton to stay with my aunt May for a few days while my sister has to work.  I think my cousin Raj is taking me golfing and then I get to babysit all my lil second cousins for the rest of the day.  Tooo much family.  Should be good though!!!