Frands Back Home

I suppose I've reached the point where I become aware that this is a very one-way conversation. I report on instances in my life where I have thoughts or feels, and you give it a good ol' look-over, say 'neat' and move onto the next activity. But for this post, I'd like to use my efforts to reach out to you and see what's going on in your life. 

A year ago today, I was at a rib festival in Kingston, getting food with people I didn't quite realize would become my good friends for the entire year (guide posted for your information). Through a couple nights of trivia, a few rowdy classes with my section, and a few more rowdy rounds of Dutch Blitz, Kingston become a really nice community (if only for a short time). Yadda yadda, I come to the part where I say that last year I was basically hopping between Kingston and Hamilton, and when in Hamilton I was hopping between there and Turonno. I now realize that the 365 days have been my biggest heap-ful of friend-to-Stuart contact yet. Now I'm kind of on the other side of the planet, and it's hard to keep up with you. I suppose that's not an unfamiliar feeling, a sort of mix of winding down from school and and rolling into all the mentally taxing things of trying starting a new year on the right foot (that is, if you're wearing shoes and pants and if you're planning on leaving the house this week). Now most of us are out of that school thing, graduated, maybe working, maybe at home, and largely struggling to comprehend what our twenties are for. I know a lot of you have changed gears in life. September has a habit of being that time when life reaches down to the gear shift and jiggles the handle, and before you know it you're going a different speed (just as you were getting used to how life was going before).

You know, I'd really like to know how you're doing. To have a proper conversation, sometimes the kind where I would barrage you with questions like "What is your favourite thing" only to immediately forget the answer. The kind of conversation one has over the following...
- A pitcher of Rickard's Red and a pound of suicide wings from a certain pub in Hamilton
- A pitcher of Amsterdam Blonde & a burger from Woody's
- $4 pints at the Lakeview
- A Saturday off in Bruce county
- During a sloppy game of pool at the Griz
- Outdoor dinners at my place in Hamilton just before my mom comes out with dessert and some awful story from my childhood
- Nerve-racking rounds of dutch blitz*
*It should be noted that the friends I have made in Hong Kong (who are mostly native Hong Kong-ers), find Dutch Blitz generally relaxing. I was entirely underwhelmed and unimpressed at their attitude. They say it's "simply a matter of data management and concentration, isn't this supposed to be aggressive?" .... >:[  They still like it, and I still do pretty good against them. However, I've still a few friends who are remarkably skilled I've yet to beat. 

I tried to cover most people by going for groups & stuff, but I know it doesn't do everyone justice so don't get your jimmies rustled if you've done none of those things (but if I haven't blitz'd with you, shame on me). Still, my apologies if I wasn't able to fit you into all of the pictures I possibly could.

Guh. Going through these pictures, the pain that comes with the memories is potent. My insides hurt. This is feeling I knew awaited me in Macau (mind you, the new year has also brought a lot of excellent people along with it). Does anyone else have trouble leaving the fun times of the past behind, knowing that life ahead won't ever return to that fun-filled hectic stage, even though those people & places still exist, just in many far and varying places around the world. Just. JUST GET OVER HERE. I'll feed you Portuguese food and take you to the beach and let you sit on my couch and drink scotch you just have go BE HERE TO DO IT! COME ON!

I hope that we'll all just age really well and grow up to be cool people with neat things going on in our lives. When I say cool people, I mean those I respect and care about, which is you, since you're able to read this. And when I say grow up, I mean we're both in our fifties and our lives have progressed and many things have happened (perhaps I give up teaching at 29 and decide to buy & sell collectible motorcycles online while touring east Asia for only the most precious and nifty classics. You, in the meantime, are close to retiring after a long career in working at a small company that specializes in modernizing people's homes in an energy-expensive mid-21st century. You now live with your family & significant other in a small town where you bring efficient technology to local schools, hospitals and community centers. We both meet up after many decades apart of divergent but equally neat lives, and lo and behold, we still thoroughly enjoy each other's company and enjoy the fact that we have a long established history as cool people who know each other and enjoy sharing the same time space in mutual respect (as we sip beers in a cozy setting of your choice). Before we get to our fifties though, I have some work to do to ensure that this becomes a reality and not just over-ambitious community preservation: 

A) Hosting fantastic taco-fuelled parties at the beginning of every summer in Hamilton.
B) Buying antiquidated cars on kijiji and using them to tour the country visiting as many people as I can dig my claws into during the course of a given summer.
C) Using my abilities as a person in Asia to meet up with you in the most fun Asian country of your choice. You can expect that in the coming years I'll do only my very best to forcefully and benevolently pry my way into your life and 'liven it up' in the best ways I know how.

I know it'll be a little while until I get to see you again, but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking of you. Let's chat soon.