Top 6 Places In British Columbia

This is not a list of the best cities, towns or neighborhoods in British Columbia. Rather, it is a list of the places that are most meaningful for me. In grade 11 I had a weird socials teacher to taught on the "Spirituality of Place". It was completely out of the scope of what was supposed to be taught, but I did like the main point he had about it. Some places - they just do something for you. Here's a list of the top 6 places that just do it for me.

6. The Lower Floor of the Chiliwack-ian Cousins - I grew up on a steady diet of Saved by the Bell and Archie Comics. I always thought that high school would be like that. I also grew up fairly close with some cousins that were significantly older than me. While I was still young enough to believe the delusions of high school that were presented to me in mainstream media, I had two cousins, that I thought were very cool, in high school. So when we went over to their house, it was awesome.

And it was a great house too. Out in Chiliwack - a town that I've always liked because of its peaceable nature. They had a trampoline that I would spend hours on pretending I was Spider-Man. My cousin let me play with his Ninja Turtles actions figures and his original Nintendo. We played a lot of Risk and the Game of Life. He also had a waterbed. Some of my fondest memories were of sitting in that basement, watching movies with both of our families. I always percieved the place as having a peace about it.

5. The Waters of Eternity - There was a crappy old rec centre where my family used to live. We got some sort of membership there that allowed us to go swimming for a dollar on weeknights. My parents would do laps, or some other kind of exercise. I, on the other hand, did what I did best. I got lost in my imagination. I would swim in the deep end, emulating all sorts of heroes. I would think about the people at school, the girls I "loved", the dreams I had, the trials and tribulations. The pool was usually fairly empty, but it wouldn't have mattered. I got lost in the water there. Now if you see me swimming by myself in a pool, you will know I'm just doing what I always did. Water has continually been a refresher for me.

4. The Pinnacle of Pre-Teen Angst - This was enjoyed in one friend's room. There was something about his room that I just liked. Maybe it was all the conversations we had. He also lived in a smaller town, and I loved the coziness of the place. We'd always talk about the girls he liked and at one point, even called one. It didn't go too well, but that was okay.

He'd also read his journal with me, and we'd talk about the lamest of things. But, for some reason, it was so much more awesome than that.

3. Don't Touch The Ground, Or He'll Get You! / The Dueling Ring - I have to link these two, since although it's two locations, it's for the same reason.

Firstly, way beyond the age when we could have gotten away with it, my friends and I played grounders on a playground in our neighborhood. We went for hours. After an afternoon of hockey, we'd enjoy the orange sun setting as we chased and dodged all over this playground. Sometimes we'd go late at night. I often cheated.

The hockey was the other part of it. When our school built some hockey courts for the younger students, we were ecstatic. True, we were probably some of the oldest students in the school, but we came to use these courts regardless. Many, many hours were spent facing off against each other in these.

Saturdays so often were a combination of hockey and grounders, followed by watching the Canucks in the evening. It was through these times that I found myself developing the very close friendships that I have with the same guys to this day. Most other guys were dating girls. It's not that we didn't want to; it just didn't happen. But seeing how happy we were without women in our life, maybe we just didn't have the motivation to do it. I really miss those days. Now, we're all too busy to get together like that. Life is good in a different way now. I'll probably be looking back on this moment in the future.

2. Solitary Splendor - I really miss my dorm room. I've only recently begun to realize how much. I had one of the nicest rooms in the school all to myself. I figured at the time that it was just a situation in which I got lucky. Now I see it was a lot more than that. It was the perfect situation. I will always remember sitting on my couch, listening to music and just thinking. My entire world was contained inside that building, and my room was a place for me to just be me. It gave me a chance to figure out who I am, and where I'm going. I would have to say that it was a big reason why I left the school, strange as it may sound. That will probably take more explaining than I'm wanting to do on this blog. But that room - I will remember it as a definite locale of my coming of age.

1. Canim Lake - I have a friend who is too good to me. He does things like take me to his sweet cabin at Canim Lake. I'll make it up to him some day.

The thing with Canim Lake is not just that there's a ton of fun things to do there. It's not just that I go up with a bunch of friends that make the experience all the more awesome, and it's not just the beautiful location. It's what Canim Lake is in my life. I go up whenever I get a break from routine. It's a physical place I return to time and time again to re-orient myself and really do the thinking I need to. Every year I go up, it's a highlight. I wonder how different I would be if I never went up.

Sorry that this blog entry was a lot cheesier than I wanted it to be.

Next blog: Top 6 Places Outside of British Columbia.

Top 6 Moments Spent in Langley this Week

6) Talking to a certain friend of mine who is on the edge of a relationship. He says he wants to wait for the perfect time to ask her out. I say, "I don't think there is a perfect time, just do it." He replies, "I think we'll make out for awhile and then we'll stop, right in that moment I'll ask if she wants to be my girlfriend."

5) A certain brother of mine with perhaps the greatest quote of the year when talking to a certain other brother. "When your making love to a woman, what do you do with your hands?" PURE GOLD.

4) Playing hockey and realizing I'm not a young man anymore, after not playing hockey for more than a year I realized I don't have the goal scoring touch that I used to. Even though I never really had one. After coming off the ice my buddy says, "Guess it's time to hit the bike after the game." Proably for about a year I'll need to hit that bike.

3) Coming back from Quadra on Sunday and finally being alone. Sitting down on the couch I thought to myself, "Damn it," and made myself a Mr.Donkers.

2) Seeing the new Bond movie. Daniel Craig can pretty much have me anytime he wants like all of the Bond Girls. I just hope that I don't get killed by thugs filling me with oil.

1) Being at a ridicolous lounge where there were a bunch of cougars and older guys. There were 7 or 8 of us sitting there listening to A.D.D, an AC/DC cover band that was alright. However the funniest moment is when my buddy was convinced his drink was stolen. I was ready to fight. However we saw the drink later on that night, when it came flying past my buddies head and almost hitting him. I was also ready to fight him when we decided the stolen drink was the one thrown against the window.

Oh, Langley what will happen in a couple of weeks, hopefully more good stories.

Honorable Mention goes to the Summit Ball hockey fight and Neal "The Real Deal" scoring 7 goals and winning the game by himself.

Top 6 Songs Im Listening to After a Breakup

So the lady and I parted ways on the weekend and here are the 6 songs I will proably listen to, some serious, some not so much. #4-6 funny, #1-3 Serious

6) Don't Call Me Baby- Kreesha Turner
5) King of Wishful Thinking- Go West
4) Total Eclipse of the Heart- Bonnie Tyler (Hopefully around a table with a bunch of guys)
3) The Lovers are Losing- Keane (My new theme song for a bit)
2) Orange Sky- Alexi Murdoch
1) One- U2

Hey Hey Hey, Walking Away Now, Walking Away Now, Baby
Listen to #6 and you'll get it.

Top 6 Things I've Realized Not To Do Or Say To Girls or Girlfriends

As a pre cursor to this I want people to know that a (*) denotes I said or did this to a girlfriend so I won't look like a huge jerk even though this post may seem like I am.

6)(*) Give into a girls demand so easily. For example when riding in a car and a girl asking me I won't date her and a week later I'm dating her means clearly I caved. Perhaps the biggest lesson from this episode in my life was the fact that I shouldn't date a crazy girl, they are bad news.But great for stories later on.

5) Tell a girl to her face that I dont trust her. This requires a back story but i won't tell it on this blog. If your desperate for the story i can tell you in real life. Pretty much I told a lot of my life to this girl which in itself proably isn't the greatest idea unless there is serious potential for a relationship. Needless to say it didn't end up well the day i told her that cause she kept asking if I was angry at her. i sorta was and I told her straight up i couldn't trust her cause she told people stuff. The other thing i remeber about that day is that I bought Coldplay's X&Y album which was decent.

4)(*) Since this happened very recently and is the inspiration of this post it is not rent a depressing movie while hanging out with a girl (especially girlfriend). So on the weekend my GF was here and after some dinner at a friends house we decided to rent a movie. For those of you who have seen the movie trainspotting you will agree it is one of the most depressing movies of all time. However, the soundtrack is kick ass so thats why i wanted to rent it so bad. Being the rad girl she is she agreed to watch it and I'm pretty sure we were both stunned with depression. Any movie with a scene involving a dead baby isn't a good date movie.

3) Believe everything that a girl says who likes you. this isn't so much saying but more doing. If a girl is digging your style but your not feeling the same way there will be many things she says to convince you that she is over that and it's done. this has actually occured a couple of times and needless to say it gets a little tiring/embarassing when it happens more than once. I'm not sure if it makes me angry at them for lying or at me for being a complete clown and believing them more than once. I felt like an undecided voter and the party's wer trying to woo me with the talk of cutting taxes and saying anything to get my vote, or affection.

2) Telling a Girl you like her best friend. This should be a no brainer for most guys. I should have realized this but as made clear in the earlier ost I was a naive boy to the world. This has happened on more than 1 occasion and disastorous consequences followed. Mostly because those girls also liked me and when you tell someone you like your best friend, not them, it wont go over very well. it can create things such as akward situations, needless tension, forced confessions, and other almost seemingly movie worthy events. However if I can take out a positive event, I gave friends and proably strangers a lot of entertainment at my expense, but i guess I deserved it.

1) Never Ever give a Girl hope when there is none. I also learned this the hard way when a letter was given to me. This letter contained the details of someone's feelings for me who i unfortunately didnt feel the same. She left the room as this note was being read by me and in the back of my head a voice was saying 2 things. EFF ME and, she's not in the room, you can maybe slip out the door and she won't know. i know, pretty classless but i stayed and perhaps made the biggest mistake a young man trying to find a place in this world can say. "I dont want a relationship right now, maybe someday down the line." If we were playing the sub par game show family feud. Louis Anderson would say, Survey says: Mark's an Idiot." That phrase brought on more crap and also provided me with possible other posts mentioned earlier. All I can say is that was amateur hour on my part.

I hope the young kids can learn something from this post, clearly it took me awhle to get things right.