Just one more week to go. The first wave of deadlines have come and gone, and the second is just upon us. I’m quite pleased with myself for having completed those projects and managing to sneak in a few hours of sleep here and there.

Yesterday, it was my turn at collecting cans around campus to fundraise. It was probably the nastiest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. It was wet, and sticky, and it smelled like garbage. My partners in crime, Jojo and Mondo were a big help. And I really have to give props to Jo for her relentless bare-handed tactics, and her suck-it-up attitude. It would’ve taken Mondo and I the whole night to maneuver all the cans with our paper towel-padded hands. In the end we collected 4 huge garbage bags full of beverage containers, and our grad fund is $18.50 richer.

At least now I know I’ll never make it on the streets by collecting cans. I guess there’s always prostitution.

Afterwards, we had dinner and did what we do best: hang out at Jo’s, watch a sad movie, and eat popcorn. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

Days until deadline are dwindling down, and I really should be sleeping right now, but I feel like I haven’t done anything I wanted to do all day, except maybe for my totally unnecessary Glee break in between my 25 page essay writing marathon.

I think that Finn Hudson is a pretty cute boy. And while I’ve been feeling guilty about being a pedo and wanting to do bad things to this supposed 16 year-old, I find out he’s 27! He’s older than me! (And that’s hard to come by these days.)

To be honest, Glee is like this really drawn out and cliched after-school special. Everyone has their own voice-overs. Story-line is predictable. And Mr. Schue’s attempt at dancing is horrendous. I really don’t know why I keep watching it.

Oh right.

Driving home from school today at 5:30pm, it was cold, and rainy, and the sky was dark. It made me think of better days, when you could go for a stroll in your shorts after dinner.

I miss those days.

I miss shorts, and tank tops, and sunglasses, and flip flops.

I miss not having to think about projects.

It is at this critical time in the 4th and final year of my educational career that I’ve decided to pick up my blog again. Life has been incredibly insane, incredibly busy. I’m constantly in a state of medium to high stress. But after a 3 hour nostalgia-fest over sushi with my best pals in the program, we were just astonished at how time had flew by. And pretty soon, the one thing that brought us together, and defined so much of our friendship, will be no more.

I want to archive this feeling somewhere, somehow. And this blog will have to do. Mixed in with excitement and wonder is a tiny, but unmistakable, fear and sadness. For the past 3.5 years, I know who I am; what my role is. My life is school. But in 5 months, I will have to figure everything out once again.

And I guess that’s just how life is. You get comfortable, and it’s time to move on.

I want to make a point of savouring and making the most out of this last little stretch of my 4-year program.

And in 5 months, or 5 years, I can look back and decide it was all worth it.

My good friend put in perspective for me that I am now a quarter of a century old. Pretty soon I’ll have to start lying about my age. I’ve never been crazy about my own birthday. Other people’s birthdays, I can be happy about.

When I was younger, it was about how many people would show up to my birthday dinner, and how many presents I would receive. (After-all, how was I supposed to know I mattered without receiving materialistic goods wrapped in a bow?) Now it is more of a nagging reminder of how I’m supposed to be better than I was a year ago today. And how many personal achievements I have bagged for myself in the last 365 days.

In my opinion, I’ve done alright.

My parents still love me despite my impossible behaviour. My cousin is still adamant about calling me every year. And my friends still make time for me on a school night.

And that makes me feel pretty darn special.

The first week of the last year of my schooling career has come and gone. The workload seems impossibly heavy combined with fundraising for the grad show. I’m already overwhelmed and a little bit scared. But as is with anything that scares me is I avoid it as much as I can until I absolutely cannot avoid it any longer. And then I plunge into it.

And I guess this is as good a time as any.

Like so many years before, I promised myself to be more assertive this year. Except this time, I will be.

Babies for Sale

The Jo and I have been siamese twins for the past 2 weeks trying to construct as many agendas as we can. It’s been tedious work, but at the end of the morning, I couldn’t have asked for a better teammate. It helps that we like each other.

This is probably one of the most extensive and real design projects that I’ve ever done. It was nothing short of a miracle for us to be able to make just about every design decision together.

If Joann and I had a baby, this is what it would look like:

Our babies are 20 bucks a pop. Beatrice not included. Buy them! And do what you will with them. We don’t judge.

Today I got a phone call, and the caller ID showed a very curious number. I picked up and it was my good pal Mildew calling me from Paris, where he’s doing his fashion design internship.

We talked about friends, relationships, school, and work. We talked about fears, insecurities, and inappropriate dreams. And we laughed. I was genuinely eager to share with him what has been happening in my life just as he was with me.

I miss how easy it is to be honest and frank with him.

It feels good to know that while we are in different places in the world, and experiencing different experiences in life, we haven’t grown apart very much, if at all.

He was still the timid, chubby 7th grader with a bunch of neurosis.

And I was still the timid, chubby 7th grader with a bunch of neurosis, who never quite realized he was all of those things.

I’m proud of his achievements of late, and I look forward to the day we live in the same city again.

School is starting again in 2 weeks, and the first deadline of the year is looming over us in the form of me and Joann’s little agenda fundraising project.

Joann and I are hoping to have some agendas done by the first week of school. It seemed like a daunting task, but it looks like we might just be able to meet the deadline.

For the last 2 months Jo and I have been working tirelessly on the agenda. It’s been quite tedious as a lot of the agenda consists of placing the dates. I just hope to any god that’ll listen that we haven’t made any mistakes.

This project has gone from being a humble spiral bound planner to a fabric hard-covered, 5 signature, coptic bound agenda with a colour-coordinated ribbon. And it has been no more than just an ambitious concept up until a few days ago when we finally chose a fabric pattern and started wrapping our cardboard covers. Today we made further progress when we printing out our first mock-up.

It was a good feeling when we had that first copy in our hands. Finally, our hard work has come to some tangible form of fruition.

I can’t wait to get started on the sewing!

Pillows and I had our 4 year thing last week. It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole 4 years since I first met him. I remember that day like it was.. well 4 years ago. But I have good memory.

We had agreed to meet at the Tinseltown entrance across from Wild Rice, the restaurant that we were going to have dinner in. I was running late, and thought I’d call to let him know. His answering machine picked up. He had given me his home number. And that was the first time I heard his voice.

We talked about movies over a mediocre Asian fusion dinner.

After dinner, we went to Tinseltown to watch The Aristocrats. It was one of the worst docu-movies I’ve ever watched.

The date ended pretty abruptly when the movie was over. I offered to drive him home, but he declined.

And that was my very ordinary first date.

We never did go to that corn maze or go sailing for our supposed “more exciting second date.” Thinking back, we never tried very hard. We never had to.

It was time for my annual camping trip with Pillows, otherwise known as a couple of days with no proper shampoo and shower.

I like the idea of camping, how you’re sleeping in the middle of a bunch of really tall trees, and you’re supposed to survive with very little luxury. And I’ve always enjoyed going camping with Pillows because I get to say that I went camping, but really I just eat, take naps, and strategically plan my bathroom breaks before dark.

The destination of our 2009 outdoor adventure was the Cowichan River Cabin.

My first instinct when I stepped inside the cabin was to reach for the light switch, because it was extremely dark even during daytime. And then I remembered: no electricity, no running water.

Having traveled for 5 hours to get to the place, we were exhausted. I wanted to just plop down and pass out for a couple hours, but the futons didn’t exactly look inviting. We inflated our air mattresses and slept on top of them in our sleeping bags instead.

To be honest, one of the very first thoughts that flashed through my mind was “how am I gonna get through the next 4 days in this very dark and slightly damp cabin?”

I would like to have been able to say that by the end I got used to the rustic charms, but the truth is it made me appreciate flush toilets and wireless internet that much more.

I am by no means an outdoorsy kinda guy, but once a year I like to pretend. And I think for a city boy like me, I do a pretty good job of roughing it.

I took baths and washed my hair in the river. No conditioner.

I cooked toast on a barbecue.

I peed in places other than a toilet.

I consider myself to be pretty self-sufficient, but I had never had to depend on Pillows more than I have on this trip.

He operated the propane lamps.

He cooked food.

He chopped wood for the fire.

He carried water from the river.

I would’ve probably cried if he left me alone in the cabin. But lucky for me, he didn’t.

Nature Hikes

We went on hikes along the river. And going on hikes with Pillows is sometimes stressful for me because he tends to like to stray from trails. Several times I wanted to turn back because I seriously feared for my life. But I pushed on because Pillows would’ve just left me there and I didn’t want to get eaten by a cougar.

And I also wouldn’t have seen this.

It was quite amazing to walk on the jagged rocks along the river and come across strong rapids and then lagoon-like spots. And being so close to these natural wonders made me feel small, and happy.