Blog No. 186
Last weekend was my Birthday. Since I had the weekend off (it’s the slow time at work) I decided to see if my friend (whose birthday is a few days before mine, making him old) was free for me to go and visit. Many moons ago, when we were both in high school, we often had a double birthday bash. It was much easier back then because we lived in the same city, had the same group of friends, and both of us were childless and unmarried. It’s a bit challenging when he has moved to Toronto, has a wife, and is raising his six-month-old child. Challenging, but not impossible.
I’m not the kind of person who has to have some big event on my birthday. Usually I tell people that if I had my way, I would spend half of my birthday in bed and the other half eating pizza and watching movies. I’m not against the occasional outing, but I have little energy for nights out and parties. Still, getting to go to another city, see my friend and his family, meet some new folks (and see some other old friends), have a party, and spend the train trip there and back reading. It was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up. 
And I’m happy to announce, it was just as enjoyable a weekend and I’d hoped. I did miss my local friends, and I forced my family to celebrate by birthday early, but even a late birthday is a good enough reason to hang out with friends. I’ll get to do that this week too!
I’ve been back from my trip for a few days now. I’m still tired (may take a few more weeks to catch up, or I’ll continue to fall behind as always, slipping father into a chasm of fatigue I may never escape) and I’m still hanging on to the fond memories. We had lots of fun, even thought things weren’t as wild as days gone by. I’m not complaining about that though. Drinking less than half as much as we used to was still enough to make me suffer the next day. We’re not kids any more. We did manage to find some of the old wildness. We crashed a Pirate Party (we were invited by an attendee, but not dressed for the part) and danced at a bar until they kicked everyone out at closing. Plus we rocked temporary dinosaur tattoos all day.
Going out was fun, but just hanging out with my friends, playing a card game or chatting, was the best part. It’s going to be a while before I see those people, so getting to see them on my birthday was a great gift. My buddy was a champ for squeezing me in while handling his baby. His wife (my friend too) was equity amazing. Spending quiet time with them was nice. The reading an entire book on the train was nice too. So I had a good birthday, and I’m tired, and going back to work is the worst. Now I get to go back to my regular writing. I’m running out of time to get Pilot finished.
Friday night from 5 – 9 and Saturday day from 9 – 4 I’m going to be back at the Fogolar Flea Market with Christian Laforet and Edmond Gagnon. I’ll be selling No Light Tomorrow (as always until Pilot is out) Christian will have The Space Between Houses, and Ed has a whole bunch of Crime Fiction books (along with a travel book) available, including his new one!
Come out to see us, and to see all the other things people have for sale.
Ben Van Dongen 