New Ink

I've been taking school really seriously.

A couple weeks ago I went to Tofino with my friend Asher. In addition to me buying a super cool t-shirt, we went to the ocean. We both ran in but I couldn't take the cold and ran back out 10 seconds later, Asher stayed in, crazy son of a bitch. After that I ate a baguette and some baba ghanoush, then we went to a different, prettier beach and kind of went our separate ways for a few minutes, staring at the sun burning the piles of dusty old leaves in our minds. It was an amazing day, the weather was our friend.

School has been off and on as usual. I got called out by one of my chefs this week, he told me my focus was slipping and that I was disappointing him. He was right, my mind has been focused on one particular thing lately which fortunately is now resolved and done with. His words reawakened me and I think I'll be able to ride that for a little while until inspiration fails again. On Friday the senior students in our program graduated, our 2nd semester begins on Monday which means that I am now a senior...which is actually completely insignificant, save for the fact that there's a new intake of students which is gonna be fun. Initiation season. It's gonna be really hard showing up next week and not seeing half of the people I've worked closely with for the last 5 months.

I'm staying in Nanaimo this summer, there isn't a lot for me in Ottawa. No Magy, friends have all left or are leaving. I actually can't imagine ever living in Ottawa again.

I started applying for jobs this week just so I'd have something to do in my off time and to help me focus on cooking. The town's a little dry right now, a lot of businesses are going under, no one's hiring, but I'll find something. The local independent skateshop just went under, a real a bummer.

Last weekend I went to Vancouver for 2 days and a night to visit Alex Dow who just moved there with his girlfriend. It was amazing, I won't go into the lurid details for censorship sake but there was consumption a-plenty in the most healthy and happiest kind of way. I went with my friend Kassie, it was smiles and sunshine practically the whole time, the weather turned a little the day we left but it was still nice. Alex's girlfriend is amazing, she had me laughing the whole time. I also made a 2am rendezvous with Katie Swinwood, the poor girl stayed up waiting for me to get my drunk-ass over there, then when she came outside to let me in she locked us both out of her apartment. We got in and it was great to see her even if only for 15 minutes. She's truly in a world of her own, I've always liked her 'cause from the moment I met her I sensed the old-soul sensibility that I cherish in myself emanating from her. That's a rare and lovable characteristic. Completely real, probably the realest person I've ever known.

Today I woke up very early, after coming home very late and very drunk. I walked downtown and had an amazing breakfast then went to the pier to listen to Neil Young and clear my head, I decided I would get tattooed. So I came home and woke up Asher who was passed out on my living-room floor (he showed up pounding on the door at 3:30am after I accidentally abandoned him at the club, I'm the worst friend ever). We got in his honky-tonk old truck, put on our shades and some CCR and made our way to the parlour. Welcome to the family tattoo #3, already tinkering with some ideas for #4.













It's exactly what I had in mind, I'm very very pleased with it.

In 27 days I'll be in Mexico, and in 29 days I'll be back in Nanaimo. How bizarre.

Home Sweet Bitter Cold Home

Yesterday morning a campus security-guard told me that Nanaimo set the national record for snowfall so far this year. Winter just has it out for me, last year it was Ottawa's dramatic, amazingly long winter, and now it's Nanaimo.

So I should write about Christmas break. My trip home was hilariously horrible. I threw out my back, ran out of money, slept on 3 of the most uncomfortable benches I've ever sat in, spent a total of about 15 hours in layover, missed 3 Greyhound buses, went into near delirium taking muscle-relaxants, ate A&W, yelled at a potentially "slow" Greyhound attendant, lost my luggage, found my luggage...total trip time was 27 hours from walking out my front-door and into my mom's car at the Greyhound terminal in Ottawa.














That's the Kinach Christmas Eve kiddie-table. The only person I'm actually related to in that photo is the wino at the bottom right, lil' sister Sproule. Clockwise from her is her boyfriend Greg, some really cool dude beside him, Alex beside him, Adam (my cousin-in-law) beside his girlfriend Alex, Ally, Adam's brother Sean beside his girlfriend Ally and back to my sibling in sin.

The next morning I made breakfast for Mom and the gang, classical hollandaise over eggs-benedict.

I also spent some time in Perth getting up to no good with the Sproule side of me which was really nice.

On New Years Eve I went to a friend's house and got tipsied and then stumbled onto the Greyhound around 12:15AM to head to Toronto, the trip back was really smooth but still long. When I got to the Horseshoe Bay ferry-terminal in Vancouver I called my Dad and while I was talking to him I saw some blurry-faced stranger smiling at me, her face was blurry 'cause I'd been awake for about 20 hours and couldn't focus on the nose between my eyes. Turns out it was my friend Jill from campus, we shared a cab into town with her boyfriend and some Indian lady, I think I got the raw end of the deal, they pitched me $14 between the 3 of them but as the last person off I payed the tab and it was $30 with tip. The driver was using GPS to find our respective places but I think he was giving us the round-about. Jill's boyfriend was giving him lip, he told the driver to throw his GPS out the window.

This is really boring, I felt obligated to write about my trip but I don't really wanna relive it.

I grew my beard back, coming in pretty nice...just in time for my cowboy costume for this Friday's "Cops and Robbers Party".

Oh also, I got a cellphone yesterday, my number is 250-797-2006.



One love.