The one with the university and family tragedy.

The weekend was spent in Winnipeg. It began with a restless Thursday night – I just couldn’t sleep, and I ended up watching The Simple Life 2 until I could get tired enough to sleep – but by that time, I only got an hour of sleep. When you’re so wired for an early trip out of town – any trip – you tend to lose sleep. Which was fine… I got us all the way to Grand Rapids before I relinquished control to Dad, who drove us to Ashern. I managed to get only an hour and a few minutes of sleep, but it was enough to keep me up for the remainder of the day. I got us into the city, whereupon everybody decided on going to Chinatown to eat. I took a shortcut to get us there faster, and we all ate a hefty amount of food. After that, it was off to the hotel (a crappy hotel no thanks to Dad’s sense of cheapness), where we checked in and brought in all our luggage and Esmond’s belongings. We then high-tailed it to FutureShop to get a laser printer and digital voice recorder for Esmond. The next stop was Wal-Mart in St. Vital, where we picked up tons of other residence stuff, like a 20″ LCD TV, mattress covers, a storage bin, PlayStation 2 AV cables, a surge protector bar, stationary, a desk lamp, an alarm clock, and clothes hangers. We priced out a mini-fridge as well, but since my car had limited space, we decided to pick it up the next day after dropping Esmond off. I had raging stomach aches all day, no doubt from all the traveling, lack of sleep, and weird eating schedule, so I found myself hitting bathrooms as much as possible. That night, I felt much better, and we went to a Chinese restaurant across from our hotel, where Margaret, Mark, and Markus agreed to meet us. There’s nothing quite like eating food that wasn’t prepared by your parents. I loved it, in other words.

After retiring for the night, we got up early and went for breakfast at Pancake House. After that, we went back to the hotel, loaded as much of Esmond’s things into the car as possible, and went to the campus grounds, where we dropped off Esmond and his things at his place of residence, the University College building. Dad and I left Mom and Esmond to go get the remainder of his stuff and pick up the mini-fridge. We also picked up some other odds and ends, like medicine and some tupperware. I found a nice case for my Nintendo DS that matched the color, and it was cheap, so I got it. We picked up the rest of his things from the hotel and headed back to UC. I was able to shoot some video while I organized his desk and setup his new printer, TV, fridge, and desk lamp, but it wasn’t much. Once we were finished, it was already a bit past lunch time, but we were still full from our hefty breakfast, so we decided to grab something light. I suggested 7 Eleven’s taquitos for Esmond and I, and Gelati’s for the parents, but they were actually hungry, so we decided to hit Wendy’s first. Mom and Dad got to try out the new promo Spicy Chicken (Country Western? Something like that), but I wasn’t worried about missing it – we’d hit it again on the way out of town. I got us to Corydon pretty quick (I love shortcuts), and we went to the Sev first, got some taquitos and slurpees, and then to G.G. Gelati’s to get a frozen treat for Mom (Dad opted out – what a killjoy). We decided to go visit some old family friends and then hit Polo Park and St. James, but Esmond wanted to meet with his friends back at uni, so we dropped him off first before heading out. After a brief visit (after an hour of driving!!), we went to Polo Park, where I had originally made plans for us to watch a movie – A Scanner Darkly was playing – but Dad kept opting out and even suggested dropping him off at the hotel, which was a huge no-no because it was too far away. Once again, Dad killed our fun trip. Note to self – never ever take the old man on vacation. We ended up cancelling the movie and heading out early for sushi (which Dad protested to again, but since I was driving, I put my foot down – literally), and Mom called to see if Esmond wanted to come along, but because he took too long in deciding, I’d already hit the turnoff to Academy and I took it. By that time, Esmond decided to come along. Unfortunately, since uni and Corydon are quite the distance from each other, I didn’t want to make the trek back. So, Red Lobster it was.

Here’s where things became suck. We went to Red Lobster, where we got a pager and a 20 minute wait. Esmond pulled a Eugene and decided to call his friend to come pick him up, since he didn’t want seafood or something. We actually got into the restaurant by 15 minutes, but Esmond was being too stubborn and didn’t want to cancel with his friend, even though he didn’t know where he was going. We ended up ordering while Esmond was still waiting outside for his friend. Luckily, Esmond left before our food arrived. Kids… (gods, you know you’re getting old when you say that.) After dinner, we ran out of plans since the movie was bunk and Dad was being stupid, so Mom (or Dad) suggested visiting another family friend (somebody living closer, thank you). That visit was insanely long. We headed back to the hotel, where we retired early and watched some Food TV until Eugene called to say he was in town. He showed up at the hotel, and I followed him to Wendy’s so he could pick up food, but I needed to get away from Dad, really.

The next morning, Eugene had already left to the airport (and was most likely in Montreal by then), and we got up and ate a small breakfast at the crappy restaurant downstairs. Mom was boohoo-ing about not being able to eat at Pancake House again, and I sympathize. Almost every single crap part of this trip is because of the old man. Never leave any decisions up to a man with no hobbies or sense of fun. I’m serious!

We had to head out this afternoon, so we checked out of the shit hotel (good riddance!) and went to Chinatown, where we grabbed tons of groceries. I also got a chance to try out some Pocari Sweat. Interesting.

Another swing at Polo Park, where I grabbed two hoodies I had my eye on the other day at Randy River, and then it was off to Wendy’s, where we ate cow and chicken with a side of chili before hitting the long road home. If you can call it home. I’ve been depressed ever since I’ve been back, even more depressed than Marvin, the paranoid android. It took me this long just to post about the trip, or post about anything at all.

Not much is noteworthy, but I’ll sum it up as best as I can.

Work – Nexi was given an extension until November 30th. The company carried out its restructuring plan and laid off 120 people while merging two offices. Thank goodness I was wasn’t either of them. Hey, merging offices can be bad too – you have to adjust to a new daily routine and downgrade to a smaller cubicle.

Leisure – I’ve been watching lots of hentai and pr0n. Hey, it’s not something I was able to watch when Esmond was living here at home, so I’m just taking advantage of it. DARLING was funny (HYPER ERECTION MODE!). Akiba-kei Kanojo was just plain fun (this is something that doesn’t even happen in erogames!). However, I highly recommend Pirates (link is NSFW). You’ll laugh, you’ll laugh some more, and you may even… well, you know. It’s even available as an edited R-rated version for those who don’t want the pr0n, but that’s just sacrilege!

Life – Made plans with Candace to hang out this weekend, but that fell through because of the next event.

Death – Uncle Yoong (Dad’s younger brother) passed away on Friday night (Saturday morning in Malaysian time). He was admitted to the hospital the day before and was diagnosed with failed kidneys. My Dad already knew what was going to happen. The slap-in-the-face about it was that the hospital, when administering painkillers, didn’t sterilize the needle properly and gave the poor guy Hepatitis (B or C, I can’t remember). I really didn’t know this uncle too well, the last time I saw him was in 1987 – he bought Eugene and I blue slurpees at Sev in Malaysia – and I haven’t seen him since. He’s led a rather… colorful life, so I’m sure he had stories. Just not enough time to tell them to us. Anyway, because of this, I’m under house arrest for up to a month and I can’t wear red or any other bright colors (white excepted). Chinese customs and stuff. I don’t really know much about how these customs came about, but all I know is that it’s a form of respect for the deceased. I had to cancel my plans with Candace and James H. Candace was very understanding, of course, but James H? The selfish oaf showed no respect at all and even challenged the validity of our customs.

I’m still not too sure who the bigger fool was – James H for being an unforgivable ass, or my Dad, for opening the restaurant while going to work as usual.

以上。。。であります。