Before the memories fade away...

They need to be blogged to be enjoyed by all. In truth, I should have done this yesterday since the memories were fresher but I got caught up doing other things. And so one day later, here is the story of Zout/T-Bone crossing 2/3 of Canada on his way to Vancouver.

Day 1
The first few hours before I left were definately quite tough as the emotion of the entire event became a little overwhelming. The hardest two moments were definately saying goodbye to my mother and the last few minutes before jumping in the car as I took one last long walk through the house. I knew it wasn't goodbye but the realization of how long it would be before I would be back hit me. Thankfully, Keeves was there waiting though and eventually I had to come back to the real world and realize that it was time to go.
The weather that day was the worst of the three days as it was rainy and cold. But we braved through it all and we were on our way. The drive to the Sue took approximately eight hours, some of which was spent getting lost. In fact, I'd say we got lost once a day but I digress. The drive was pretty boring as the Shield in Ontario is full of mountains, none of which are very exciting. We still managed to find ways to amuse ourselves though, laughing at the five or six ramps of the Trans Canada that take you to Sudbury as well as names of the funny roads. Some of these included Crooked Lake, Go Home Lake Road and Seldom Seen Road. Early Ontarians wern't very creative in most respects.
We arrived in the Sue at about six, checked into a Comfort Inn, showered and then headed off to dinner. We chose Lone Star because, I've only every known Lone Star waitresses to be awesome ;O). Wasn't the case here though as when we prompted here as to where two travellers would go to enjoy the atmosphere in the Sue, she brought us a NEWSPAPER. What waitress brings their customers a newspaper?!?! It didn't end there though. She told us about a bar named 'Stars' that we could find on 'Gouley' road. We would never find Gouley road on a map though but instead would query whether a street named 'Goulais' was what she was talking about. Either way, not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
We never made it out that night anyways as I'd eaten a Woody burger which is a one pound burger for all those that don't know. As such, I just laid on the bed for about an hour after dinner trying to digest. Following that sleep.

CDs listened to on Day 1:
Angels and Airwaves - We don't need to whisper
Evanescence - The open Door
The Killers - Sam's Town
Collective Soul - Collective Soul
VA - Rock Mix 3
VA - Rock Mix 9
Oasis - Don't Believe the Truth















Day 2
The second day started with continental breakfast, check out and then a trip to Wal Mart. We were originally going to get floss and a toothbrush but instead walked out with $70 of music cds between the two of us. These included:

Me:
Bon Jovi - Slippery when Wet
Bon Jovi - Have a nice Day
John Mayer Trio - Try
Bryan Adams - Anthology

Keeves:
Godsmack - IV
Killers - Hot Fuss (I was going to get this, but he ended up getting it)

After spending money that we didn't need to actually spend, we jumped into the car and started on route to Thunder Bay. About an hour into the trip, the needle on the gas meter dropped quicker than expected and for about 60 km I was driving with the Orange warning light on. I never worried that I'd run out of gas though because in the end 'everything would be fine'. There was more of the shield to see on the way and as such the drive was another lame one. In fact perhaps even lamer since the quantity of funny named lakes and roads dropped considerably.
There was one car that we grew to hate more and more over the course of the drive based on his lack of driving etiquette. One prime example of this is when he road my bumper in an attempt to get me to pass three trucks and a car in front of me. It trues that we were on a passing portion of the highway, but that is usually for one car or at most a truck. I chose not to adhere to his pushing and in the end he decided to try it himself. As far as I can tell, he almost got himself killed as a car came up from the other side. He did make it though much to our dismay.
We arrived in Thunder Bay at approximately sixish. Again we checked into a hotel and headed off to dinner at an AppleBees this time. Our waitress this time around was much better and more conversive. I attributed this to the presence of students likely going to Lakehead. We were told about a bar that students head to on wednesday's called 'Tony and Andy's' on what I thought was Court street. We would later go looking for this bar but would never find it which wasn't such a bad thing as we got to bed earlier. We hypothesized later that the street might have been Gore street based on a map. I'll likely never know though.

CDs listened to on Day 2:
Bon Jovi - Slipper When Wet
The Music - Self Titled
VA - Punk goes 90s
The Killers - Hot Fuss
Jet - Shine On
Bryan Adams - Anthology CD1
Dave Matthews Band - Central Park Concert CD1















Day 3
Day three saw us wake up to the usual continental breakfast. I was glad to note that my phone had set itself back an hour indicating that we'd be gaining an hour during the drive to Winnipeg. The drive went okay for the most part during the day. At one point I tried to pass a guy on a stretch of road with a double yellow line. I quickly realized there was a car and pulled back behind the car I was trying to pass. He didn't like this though, I suppose feeling I was being reckless, and turned to show me some profanities. From there he picked up the phone and called the police I assume which was a little over the top in my opinion. None the less, I behaved for the next 40 km or so and didn't even try to pass as an acknowledgement that I should be more careful.
As we drove, the presence of snow became greater and in following the temperature got colder. Because we'd left a little earlier in theory, we ended up delaying lunch until 2/3 of the way through the trip with a stop in Kenora. We were quite hungry by this point and I believe I ate more A and W burgers than any sane man should but I was satisfied in the end though. When we crossed into Manitoba, everything changed drastically. The roads straightened out completely and everything became flat (as oppose to hilly). Keeves immediately noted the increasing presence of deer in the forest and I commented that I would love to see deer (I couldn't turn my head for long since I was driving). When we stopped for gas though, some deer actually came out of the forest and randomly wandered over in our direction before heading off. That was pretty cool to me.
We ended up getting to Winnipeg pretty early since we'd left early. Thus we thought we might actually have more time to enjoy the city this time around. This was not the case though as we ended up getting quite lost for about one and a half hours. This was mostly due to a misunderstanding of where the Comfort Inn was located. The description of what we'd been given was that the hotel was right off the highway. As such we just followed the Trans Canada Hwy into the city. After not finding anything we stopped at a few gas stations none of whom knew where the Comfort Inn was. One lady even gave us wrong directions which got us even more lost. Finally we looked up the number of the Comfort Inn to see if she could direct us from our lost location. It turned out that she'd only been in Winnipeg for a month and had no clue where we were. I did ask if she knew what intersection she was at and after getting that, I was able to navigate my way there. In the end it turns out that the Comfort Inn was location on the Perimeter Hwy which runs around the city.
After eventually getting to the Comfort Inn, we cooled off for a bit and headed out to a Boston Pizza (of which there are many in Winnipeg) for dinner. We ate and once again settled into our server/customer banter. We found out about a club called 'Tijuana Yatch Club' and 'Coyotes' that were suppose to be the places to go. However, once again, after hitting the bed and relaxing, sleep snuck its way up on me and we never ended up making it to a bar. It's a shame in this case as I would have liked to have gone as they sounded pretty cool.

CDs listened to on Day 3
VA - Wreckless Intent
Dave Matthews Band - Central Park Concert CD2
Live - Throwing Copper
John Mayer Trio - Try
Bon Jovi - Crossroads
Bryan Adams - Anthology CD2
Godsmack - IV















Day 4
We took our time in leaving on Day Four as we wanted to hit the shops for a little bit before leaving. In our random car banter, we had decided that we needed winnipeg jets hats if we were to be crossing through Winnipeg. As such we went looking for such hats. Eventually we ended up finding the hats that we wanted but at the last minute, I decided against buying it as the value would be lost once we left winnipeg. I also don't wear hats very much these days so it would have just sat in the closet. Our search for hats did lead us to a future shop though and as before, we bought more music cds. They included:

Me:
Live - Awake (the best of)
Linkin Park - Meteora
Collective Soul - Seven Year Itch
John Mayer - Room for Squares

Keeves:
Neil Diamond - Best of
Beck - Odelay
(And another which I forget)

From there we jumped back into the car and were on our way to Regina. This day was to be the shortest day of driving as there was only one city in between which was Brandon. I was glad to have lunch at a Subway in Brandon as my body needed the delicious veggies which are present on a sub. Another unexpected surprise popped up when I was queried about chesse on the sub and offered monteray jack cheese as one of the options. I jumped at that option as I love Monteray Jack cheese on anything. There was a hottie who laughed at my excitement to which I just answered that such things don't happen in ontario and that it was a nice change.
We had no trouble finding the Comfort Inn in regina as it was right off the highway. Since we'd gotten there in good time, I decided to find a gym and hit a workout. During the course of the workout, I could feel the lack of proper eating and dehydration holding me back. It was still good to hit the weights though.
We went to Eastside's for dinner that night and proceeded to flirt with as many of the servers and hostesses that would indulge us. We also gourged ourselves with salad and bread since it was free with the meal. We once again heckled people for a bar to go to but this time we would actually end up going. (We did get lost again looking for it). The bar was called the pump and it turned out to be a pretty upbeat place. The overall whiteness of the atmosphere of Regina was aparent though as there wasn't a single asian, brown or african american person there. The band was also playing some country songs, none of which I knew. We didn't end up staying long though as we needed to be up early to head of to calgary in the morning. A shame too as some of the women in Regina were gorgeous.

CDs listened to on Day 4:
Bon Jovi - Have a Nice Day
Beck - Odelay
Linkin Park - Meteora
Live - Awake
Bon Jovi - Live in St. Louis CD1 and CD2

Day 5
We awoke at our usual time of what we thought was 830 the next morning. My cell phone said it was 730 though and it was then we realized we were in mountain time. Keeves fake yelled at me for getting him up so early and I fake yelled at him for being so lazy.
The drive to Calgary was very much the same as that from Winnipeg to Regina. Mostly flat and mostly boring from the lack of scenery. During our stop in Swift Current, we almost bought more CDs but Keeves was the voice of reason (shockingly enough) saying that we had already bought enough.
The stop in Medicine Hat was kinda lame as my allergies were acting up a little bit. Things got better though on our way to Calgary as the sun came out and made things better. We once again got lost in finding the Comfort Inn due to a terrible map that was in the map we got of Western Canada and highlighted choice hotels (of which Comfort Inn is included). This time, we knew how to proceed with minimizing lost time and managed to reduce the extra time to about thirty minutes.
The plan for Calgary had always been to have one hell of a time once we got there since it was to be our last night on the journey. Things changed though with the overall five day fatigue setting in. Thus we only managed to get to the Chinook Centre to buy belt buckles and have dinner at Hooters (which was across the street). Hooters isn't as entertaining as I thought it would be. The menu selection is also pretty poor.
That night, aside from raving about how cool my belt buckle was, we just watched some UFC fights on Spike TV and hit the sack. Once again, I didn't mind not heading out on the city since the next day of driving would be the longest of the entire trip.

CDs listened to on Day 5:
Collective Soul - Seven Year Itch
Neil Diamond - Greatest Hits
VA - Nostalgia Mix
VA - BBQ Mix
Live - Songs from Black Mountain
VA - Halloween Mix















Day 6
We awoke pretty early that morning to get Keeves onto his bus to Edmonton which was leaving at 830 calgary time. We ate breakfast, packed everything into the car and headed off. We managed to get to the Bus station with about 15 minutes or so to spare which was a decent amount of time and got him a ticket to Edmonton. From there we parted ways which was a little tough since he'd been my wingman for five days straight. We all need to soldier on though.

I took off from the Bus station ready for my last day on the road. I immediately noticed the difference of driving by yourself versus driving with a wingman. It's amazing what your body and instincts become habituated to.
The drive itself was realy nice as there were lots of rocky mountains in the first portion and lots of folliage in the latter half when I got into BC. The drive itself was less straight forward, especially in the portion between lake louise and Revelstoke. When it says that one needs to go at 40 and 60 in some regions, you realy need to adhere to that. Things got much better though after passing through Kamloops and the drive was more straight forward.
After about 11H of driving and 1018.1 Km of distance, which saw me get lost in mini pockets three times, I arrived at my destination of Vancouver. I think I was braindead when I got here as I don't remember much of what happend that night. The drive certainly does take a lot out of you. Giles and I went out for dinner to celebrate and after that I crashed hard in going to bed.

CDs listened to on Day 6:
John Mayer - Room for Squares
Michael Jackson - The Essential Michael Jackson CD1
John Mayer - Continuum
Amanda Marshall - Intermission (The best of)
Michael Jackson - The Essential Michael Jackson CD2
John Mayer - Heavier Things
VA - Power Ballads
James Blunt - Chasing Time and Monkey on my Shoulder
Justin Timerberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds

Closing Comments:

- A long drive has a very philisophical property and everyone needs to do it at some point.
- There were a great number of oversized vehicles in Ontario on the highway which sucked at some points. That's life though.
- The most listened to song on the journey was, not suprisingly, Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi played four times. The second most listened to song, also not suprisingly was Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams played three times.
- Total money spent on gas - $396.17. Total spent on lodging - 554.27. Total distance travelled -4746 Km. Trip across Canada - Priceless (lame I know, but I earned it)
- There was an increased incidence of A and W, Robin's Donuts and Boston Pizza as we got to Calgary. They all but dissapeared here in Vancouver though.
- I stayed at Comfort Inns so much because they had a Choice club which reduced the cost of staying overnight and you get points for free stays.
- Now my mission is to find a place and stop bumming off Giles
- I can't believe I'm actually here now whereas a week ago I was getting ready to leave.
- I do get homesick from time to time but I suppose that's to be expected in completely new surroundings. All part of the adventure in the end.

Current Song: Collective Soul - Satellite (live)
Current Mood: Anxious (to find a place to live)

'And I will shine on, for everyone'

Based on the sheer quantity of events and hijinks that went down this weekend this blog post is shaping up to be a long one and if you're reading this prepare yourself for a bit of reading.

The original plan for this weekend was that I was going to go to Peterborough for the mini course on friday and the Brown and Above course on Saturday. But, fate through me a curveball and stuck me into terrible traffic. One thing I will not miss after I leave is traffic on the 401. I don't think I've ever strung so many curse words together in succession like I did stuck in traffic. After letting the rage out though, I turned the negative of me not being able to make the course in any reasonable time into a positive and decided to go to kingston to get a full session in and see some of the faces that I've come to adore that I would not have seen otherwise.

Thus, I changed course and headed off towards K-town. It was quite the battle to get there in the end as half of the pacific came down from the sky and reduced driving conditions to an almost unbearable level. I endured though and made it safely. Things went up from there as the rain ceased and I made it to the session with a good amount of time. There were many suprised looks to take in including that of Mr. Bus who I would say was very happy to see me based on all the times he told me on saturday.

The session ran quite well as the 'bad cop, worse cop' duo shined like we always do. Teaching with Mr. Bus added a huge element nostalgia to the whole night as it wasn't too long ago we were doing the same as Dark Blues. Amazing how much things can change and still stay so comfortably the same. We also got to bounce Stu-Dan which was fun. Nothing like makikomis on b-day bounces.

There was a b-day celebration for him afterwards which he hosted at his place. After quickly suprising Mosie, who had no idea I was in K-town, we both headed over for some sweet times. There was some guitar hero, an airing of my superb acting skills, ice cream cake and the regular amount of merriment. Originally, I didn't think I'd have a good time as I did since I wanted to leave early and get some proper sleep for the course the next day. But even with the leave early element, things were fun.

I never ended up getting to bed early though as, even though we left at a decent time, Mosie and I stayed up reminiscing about the last six years from day one at university to now. All the fun trips, all the crushes, all the drama, all the parties and everything in between.

I awoke saturday suprisingly well and on time too. I had some cereal, filled the tank at the good ol J and was on the way to Peterbrough. I arrived early and as such just sat in the car listening to tunes. About five minutes before the scheduled start time no one was there so I started to get worried that I had the wrong venue. After a quick call, I found out that everyone was just late.

The course itself was quite intense and involved heavy throws for four hours. I took an elbow to the head in a throw about a quarter of the way through that slowly turned into a large headache later on and thus I cut out towards the end. Didn't miss too much though as the throws I had to sit down for I had done before at some point. At the end of the course, I was honoured with a (post-dated) katana which came as a huge shock to me. I was very touched by the whole thing.

I wasn't expecting the social to be terribly big as most everyone was beat up. As per usual I was wrong again. Things did start off slow with dinner and some good conversations as I'd guessed but as the first set of bar shots were done, the pace definately started to change. It wasn't soon after that, car bombs made their way an appearance. They also quickly vanished. At one point in the night, High Chief said that the night was in honour of my accomplishments and in going with this I asked if he'd make the day 'T-Bone day'. He shockingly enough just said yes whereas I expected some witty english response. Then later I actually got a hug from him!!! I was quite touched.

As the stone closed, we headed off for a destination that I didn't think I'd ever be back at which was the Trasheteria. Not suprisingly more drinks were consumed and there was even some dancing. One of the individuals started one of those person in a circle does some cool dancing circles during a heavy bass song. When I was called into the circle I threw out some ol school break dancing which was quite fun. Things tapered off there and progressed to the saphire room. I still had the dance vibe when I got there and SexyBack on the stereo just added to that. That being the case, when I went to the bar to get a drink I believe I said, "Can I get some type of minty thing? And could I also dance on your bar?". I was called on it though as the bartender said sure which came as a suprise to me. But there was dancing to be done so I requested 'What goes around' on the FutureSex/LoveSounds CD and went at it. I clearly remember getting up on the bar and Thumper yelling: "T-Bone get down from there, you'll get kicked out" and me resonponding with "No they won't, they let me". During the middle of the song I was amazed to find that people were enjoying the show and random people were taking pictures. Overall an awesome memory for my (possibly) last social in Peterborough.

We had some subway, that I couldn't taste, before heading to bed. As I predicted, I got some wicked spins which took some funny positions to get rid of.

This morning (sunday) we had breakfast at Smitty's and then I was off back home to spend the day with my family. The goodbyes at this point were very hard as I've known most of these individuals for the last half decade. It was a very surreal feeling.

The memories of this past few days are those that I'll cherish for the rest of my life. I've said it before and I will say it again that I've been very blessed to have met such wonderful people and shared such fantastic memories with them. I would not be where I'm at, or headed in this direction if it wasn't for the effort that each person has invested in me. To the following, I thank you dearly:

- Mosie
- Thumper
- My Parents and My sister
- Mr. Bus
- J-Bun
- RA
- McM
- Fish
- Flippy Dan
- Giles

There are also countless others to thank but those names present belong at the top. From the bottom of my heart, Thank You.

So ends one chapter of T-Bone/Zouts life and leads onto the opening of another.

(Cue Jet-Shine On)

I hate blogs too!

...but people have to read something.

Most of items pertaining to the Vancouver move have been sorted out and I am definately looking forward to the venture. Mr. Keeves will be joining me for the majority of this trip which will at bare minimum provide constant entertainment. The trip itself will span six days and go as such:

Tuesday
Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie

Wednesday
Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay

Thursday
Thunder Bay to Winnipeg

Friday
Winnipeg to Regina

Saturday
Regina to Calgary

Sunday
Calgary to Vancouver

Overall the total trip distance is 4482 km which splits up nicely over a six day trip. Originally I was going to make it a five day trip, but it made for stops is smaller and less interesting cities. The other advantage of having a six day trip is that it cuts down on daily driving fatigue and I can enjoy the cities a little bit more.

I am going to try and take pictures along the way and make as many daily posts as I can as a way of chronicaling the experience as well as a way to share it with everyone. Time will tell if I can actually stick to that though.

As most of you who are on my MSN list are aware, my old cell number is now gone as a new Vancouver BC number has taken its place. I must say that once that happend, the reality of this whole big change started to hit me. Its true that it is a big step and most of what will happen is unknown but in the end I think that's going to be the payoff. One day I'll be able to tell people I did something risky and have gained from it.

There a bit of writing by Marianne Williamson called Return to Love which reminds me of this. (Yes, this is from Coach Carter, but she still wrote it)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

"It's real! It's damn real!!"

Well after all the hoop jumping and rigamarol (as my parents would say), it all said and done with and a job offer has been formally been made my way and for all intensive purposes, I am on my way to Vancouver. It's very surreal that this has finally arrived because its been all talk for one and a half years and yet here it is at last.

Now the final details are still being ironed out but some of the more important and relevant details are:

- I plan on leaving Tuesday on the 17th sometime early in the morning. This allows me to spend the weekend at both the course, come home for a little bit and then be on my way.

- The job starts on the 30th of October. This allows me about a week to get familiar with Vancouver and spend time finding a place provided I arrive on the 22nd.

In the mean time there is quite a bit to sort out with insurance and licensing and moving companies and packing and other incurrent expenses. Oh yes, there's also thanksgiving.

My parents arn't to thrilled with the idea but I'd associate that with the close minded west indian mentality that plots out your future from birth as school, job, marriage, children, death. Since, I'm not following this, naturally I must be wrong. Hopefully though, they'll grow to understand.

I'd like to thank all of the people who have always been supporting me along the way keeping me positive. I'd also like to personally thank 'the man who will always have a place to sleep on my couch' for convincing me to take some decisive action which ended up spiraling into the offer being made. Without his sound advice, I'd likely still be waiting.

Closing comments:
- How much can you hate someone such that you purposefully lead them on thinking you've left a good reference all the while sabotaging their attempts. And you call me me low.
- It's realy a mix of excitement and fear of moving so far and doing something so completely off the wall. I'm sure that's where the payoff will be though.

Current Song: Alanis Morissette - Surrendering
Current Mood: Well... Fear and Excitement! Whoo!

Head in the clouds

One of the good points about being home is that I always get a good nights sleep and a result of this has been an increased frequency of dreams. Most recently, the more memorable dreams have centered around many crushes in my life. The nature of the activities has varied but most just leave me with a 'what happend to this person' sensation in the morning. That is until last night.

I remember starting the dream just idleing about with another lady who I've known for quite some time. There was nothing extra ordinary about the atmosphere other than the fact that it seemed as though it was a moment where I was saying goodbye (most likely in anticipation of vancouver). As the idle conversation continued, I mumbled what I can only paraphrase as something along the lines of "I'd like just one thing before I go" and then I leaned over to kiss said party. The initial reaction was a lean back and a look of shock and then a slight returning gaze of "Well I guess you are leaving" and meeting me for the kiss.

It was soft lasting a few seconds and when it ended, things had been so spontaneously pationate that it seemed as if the only thing to do from there was meet again for another kiss. At that point it all just stopped as I fell out of the dream state and into normal sleep state. I remembered it clear as day though when I awoke and didn't just stop to think 'what happend to such person' but more so that I just wanted to see, hold and embrace them at that very moment.

Strange what our deepest desires hold within...

Closing comments:
- Still no word from Vancouver. I might throw an e-mail out later in the week.
- Prison Break had me on the edge of my seat once again. Just fine Television.
- The season premiere of lost is on tommorrow which I am quite eager to watch.
- Currently on my MP3 player, I have the following songs:
Mercy Drive - Burn in my light
Breaking Benjamin - Diary of Jane
Dashboard Confessional - Rooftops and Invitations
Storm Large - Ladylike
Fort Minor ft. Styles of Beyond - Remember the Name
Nelly Furtado - Maneater
Robert Tepper - No Easy Way Out (Rocky IV soundtrack)
Our Lady Peace - Innocent (live)
Eminem - Sing for the Moment
Seether ft. Amy Lee - Broken
- I've just downloaded the first two episodes of Jericho which is getting good reviews online and am looking forward to watching them

And a small blast from the not so long ago past: