Happy Holidays

Well, after about a month, I've finally returned home (my "real" home) after a whirlwind of a time down in Texas.  It feels really good to come home.  It only took me half a day before my seeds of doubt were planted in my subconscious as to whether the last month actually occurred or not.  Did I really move down to Texas or was that just a very long dream?  Everything looks normal and "same old" here in Richmond Hill...what's the date?  Then I look around my room at my empty desk, re-organized and nearly empty closet and remember that most of my stuff is indeed a 3-4-day drive southwest from here.  Luckily I flew back this time...the first of many 1-layover trips I'll be making, since there are not direct flights between Lubbock and Toronto.  This time, I flew with American Airlines involving a 1-hour flight to Dallas and then a 3-hour flight to Toronto.  The layover isn't too bad.  Dallas' airport isn't that monsterously huge and it gives me time to have some nice BBQ'd food...they even have a nice pub there - maybe next time I'll plan for a longer layover!  One thing I noticed at the airport is that although they sell cheap liquor there, there is pretty much NO wine there...kind of disappointing because I wanted to bring some cheap wine back this time when I came back.  Weird indeed.

Anyway, it's great to be able to see some friends while back - even already got to invite some over for poker the other day!  And for the first time, I had 2 tables going!  My kind of entertainment!  I also had the chance to have a family dinner and it was nice being able to see relatives since I'm not really sure when the next time will be before I can return to Canada.  With them, I tried this game called Monopoly: The Card Game - an abbreviated version of Monopoly that involves collecting properties and trying to make others pay you and preventing other players from collecting properties.  The game ends when someone collects 3 sets of properties (i.e. Boardwalk and Park Place) either by chance or by stealing/trading (via action cards as opposed to free trading) from/with other players.  The game is fairly quick and is probably over in about 20 minutes.  I think it could be a bit longer, but it's a great short game that can keep you entertained for hours.  Sure, a game like Puerto Rico or Settlers of Catan may require a bit more planning and strategy, but they both have their good points.  For one, the quickness of the game may prevent some from getting confused by having to think and asking "When does the FUN begin?" out of boredom, in reference to games like Puerto Rico.

While I'm not as lucky to get to go to Las Vegas for New Year's Eve like some (again), I hope to have a great time spent with good friends, one of whom will soon be giving birth to triplets!  I can't even imagine what a process that must be like!  My admiration goes out to both the mother-to-be, who has to deal with all this, and the father-to-be, who must deal with the mother-to-be in these last weeks...

I don't even really want to think about having to return to Texas...cause then the work really begins.  My supervisor is a really nice lady and took the lab out to lunch.  To my relief, I think so far I'm meeting or exceeding her expectations as to my being competent in the lab, but I'm not so sure I'm meeting my own expectations because I feel so sluggish doing things around the lab...sure, I'm doing things that I haven't really done before and in a setting where I don't know where things are kept and how the standard way of doing things are, but I really do hope I (continue to) keep my end of the bargain and keep that learning curve from appearing to be too steep! 

A few more days of relaxation for now...then it's back to Texas.  And when I get back, I'll have to start trying to explore the city.  It's so spread out and things are so hidden to me because I may not know of certain places (say restaurants or bars/pubs) that it almost seems easy to just lock myself in my apartment and just watch episodes of Fringe that a couple of my cousins were generous enough to give me for Christmas, but alas, I shall try to get out and explore a bit more in Janurary...and I guess I won't have the excuse of not wanting to shovel my car out of the parking lot or it being too cold, cause apparently it's still about 17-degrees Celcius there around now.  I'm sure this will be a main topic of my blogs in the immediate future...how I'm "finding" Lubbock to be...so make sure you check up on me every now and then!

Thanks to all the friends and family that are making my holidays so enjoyable.  I will surely miss being in Richmond Hill.  And so with these last several days here, I shall watch as much Leafs and Team Canada in the World Junior Hockey Championships as I can...Canada vs. Sweden on New Year's Eve at 4pm for top spot in their group and a bye to the semi-finals.  I'll have returned to Texas before the finals, which I'm glad will be streamed on tsn.ca because I doubt they'll broadcast it on TV there (unless maybe it's the final gold medal game and the US is playing, in which case I hope Canada can take revenge and get the gold).

Happy holidays and cheers.