Don Khuth Chronicles

The new year is upon us. I can’t believe how fast 2006 has gone by. It only seems like last month that I made up a resolution for 2006 and now I’m making another one. My list from last year was quite long and I tried to do what I could to achieve everything on that list. Well, not everything, but I did what I could with what I had.

The end of the year is always a time where we reflect on the past and attempt to make changes for the future. I do a lot of reflecting all year round so it’s nothing new to me. Usually around this time, there’s that tradition of making a list of what you hope to achieve in the new year. Last year, I made a New Year’s Resolution with eight items on it. I think I managed to keep one of the resolutions. Well, maybe a couple more but I didn’t do quite a good job with the other ones.

The one resolution that I did managed to keep was to increase my efforts to get a better job. Although the job that I have now isn’t the best job in the world, it’s better than the previous one. I could do better but right now I’m liking where I’m at. Given enough time, things should get better from here on. So I’m going to try very hard to make sure I achieve more of my goals. Heck, that’s a resolution right there.

Spend more time with family and friends
I think that the relationship you have with your family and friends is a very important one. I’ve spent time with my family but I don’t think it’s enough. My night shift is taking away all that free time. I’m going to try and make use of my waking hours and spend more time with them. Also, due to the night shift, I’m missing out on the get togethers with my friends. This year, I made an effort to visit as much people as I can but it’s hard when everyone is scattered around. When they throw little parties, I can’t attend it because I’m too tired. The night shift takes a lot out of you.

Get fit
I never thought I’d hear myself say this but I think I need to start exercising. The holiday season didn’t put much weight on me because of my fast metabolism but that shouldn’t be a reason not to exercise. I never liked exercising much because I didn’t see the need for it. I always assumed that I was fit but I’m starting to change my definition of fit. I’m 5′11 and weigh 155lbs and according to those numbers, my body mass index (BMI) is 21.6 which is normal for someone in my category. I think I need a little more fat and maybe some extra muscles. Everyone says I look too skinny. I think it’s because I’m so tall. But then again, if I was fat, they’d complain about me being too fat. You can never please anyone. They always find something wrong with you. But I guess I’ll take that as a hint to better myself.

Get rid of debts
I was almost out of debt but the holiday season put it back in it. I can’t remember the last time that I didn’t have a debt of some sort. It was probably before I started college. I don’t remember owning a credit card in high school. I’m hoping that 2007 will be the year where I can get rid of debts and actually use my money for something good rather than paying back credit card companies all the time. I’m going to have to cut up all of my credit and left one for emergencies. I highly doubt those emergencies will come up but you never know. And I have to stop lending money to people. They’re the cause of me being in debt in the first place. Everything that I owe to the credit card companies right now are money that people have borrowed from me. I’ll have to put a stop to the borrowing from now on.

Learn to cook
I’ll let you in on a little secret. I can’t cook at all. I can cook rice but that’s not really considered cooking. I just put the rice into the pot, add water and stick it in the cooker. I push a button and the cooker does its magic. But I do know how to cook eggs four different ways. If I was to live on my own, I would have rice and eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And maybe a little soy sauce for flavour. Since I can cook eggs four different ways, I’ll have somewhat of a variety but that’s not the kind of variety that I had in mind. Plus, I need to stop eating out so much if I want to start saving money. If I get good enough with cooking, I’ll invite you guys to a dinner party. If I don’t get good enough, I’ll still invite but I’ll be serving rice and four different varieties of eggs.

Learn a new language
I’ve always been fascinated with languages no matter which language is spoken. It amazes me how people are able communicate with each other using different language. I could sit there and just listen to people having a conversation and not get bored. Well, I understand English well enough so I’ll easily get bored listening to that conversation but any other language will do. Throughout the years, I’ve been picking up small bits and pieces of different languages. By the time I learn the new language, I’m starting to forget the previous language. I think I should try and focus on one language before moving on to the next. Since I have a lot of Chinese friends, I think I’ll start with that, be it Cantonese or Mandarin. I can pick out words in a song now but not enough to full understand the whole lyrics but it’s more than what I understood before. I’m hoping to improve on what I know and hopefully one day, I’ll be good enough to have a conversation with a Chinaman. 好

I don’t want to make a big list this year. New Year’s resolution should be small so you can be sure that you’ll achieve every goal you put on that list. With a big list, you’ve got a lot to go on but if you find that you’re not achieving any of those goals, it doesn’t help. With a small list, every goal that you achieve will inspire you to go for the next goal.

I think these goals are realistic enough that I’ll be able to achieve them in the new year. I’m headed in the right directions for a couple of them already so it shouldn’t be too hard to get the rest. I hope that 2007 is the year where I’ll actually keep my resolution rather than breaking them.

I hope you guys don’t get too drunk tonight! If you’re going to drunk make sure you’ve got a designated driver with you. I’ll be stuck at work, counting down the New Year at the office. Nice way to start the New year, eh? Happy New Year!

I don’t know what is going on with my circle of friends but lately I’ve been noticing that they don’t do much. Back in high school, we all had dreams of growing up and becoming successful. We had talks about how we were going to be so busy with our families and career that we wouldn’t have time for each other. But taking a look at the situation now, nothing has changed. I use to think that everyone else changes but I stay the same. But the more I look at it, the more I see things stay the same as I start to change.

It was supposed to turn out like this. Right about now, my friends and I should be all settled down. Our lives should be on track and in sync with our dreams. We all had dreams of settling down with the perfect girl and starting a family. By this age, I pictured myself living on my own with a beautiful wife by my side. I even saw myself with a kid because I just adore them.

I dream of living in a big house, a big white house with a big yard. In that dream, I didn’t have an expensive car though. I just wanted a Honda Civic and nothing more. I dreamed of working with a big company and making a lot of money. With that money, I would buy my parents a big house as well. I would get a house with a big garage for my dad so he can keep all his tools and a big yard for my mom to do her gardening in.

These are all things that I dreamed and it was the path that I saw myself towards. This dream for me is slowly turning into reality has I start to move up in my career. I am going from job to job and gaining the experience I need to get the higher paying job. And one day, I’ll be able to get everything that I dreamed of.

But this dream of mine included my friends. We’re all supposed to have cars so we can meet up once a month and just recollect on the past. We were supposed to just go cruising around town and just hang out. But none of that is happening right now.

I have some friends who have graduated from high school but didn’t choose to continue their education. So they are limiting their career options. They can get jobs but these are just mediocre that will get them by. They live from pay cheque to pay cheque with nothing left to spend at the end of the month. This is not the life that they should be living. They should be doing a lot better than that.

Back in the day, instead of furthering their education, the only thing that was on their minds were partying and having fun. I was the black sheep of the group because I was always at home in front of the computer. Even on a Friday night, I would be surfing around on the internet or doing homework. While the rest of my friends were out having the time of their lives, I parked my ass at home. As much as I wanted to go out partying with them, I had other priorities ahead of me.

It was because of my thinking back then that I am where I am today. And at this moment, I don’t see myself as successful as I should be. There are still goals that I need to achieve before my life is complete. Slowly but surely, I’m getting there.

I’m not sure if I can say the same for my friends. To me, it seems like they don’t want to do anything. Most of them have so much free time that they don’t know what to do with it. I wished I had that much time to just do nothing but I don’t. I spend an hour on the road to get to work. I work the night shift for eight hours. I go home and sleep as the sun comes up. Eight hours later, I wake up as the sun goes down. And five hours later, I back on the road to work.

It doesn’t make sense to me that I’m the one who’s getting a lot of things accomplished. I only have five hours a day to get things done meanwhile the rest of my friends have the whole day. That’s a pretty tight schedule to get a lot of things done. If I am able to accomplish so much in so little time, why can’t they do it too?

I think the problem here is the lack of motivation. They continue what they’re doing because it feels right at the time. There’s no one around to tell them that what they’re doing is wrong. Or there’s no one around to push them to do better so they continue doing the same thing everyday. They sit around all day on the computer, playing multiplayer online games and they do this day in and day out. I can’t stay to play those types of games for more than a minute. All you’re doing is going around and clicking! I can see how that might be fun for a few minutes but I can’t see how they can continue doing this everyday for hours.

Most people would choose fun over work any day. I would too if I was given that option but I don’t like to make rash decision. I’ll go out and have fun once I get the work done. If it’s something important that needs to be completed because of an upcoming deadline, there’s a high probability that you’ll find me in front of the computer. I steer clear of computer games because they are too much of a distraction. The computer itself is a distraction because it’s connected to the internet. After years of practice, I can control my temptations and get my work done.

I’m just an average guy who’s capable of doing every day things so why can’t my friends get on the bandwagon and do the same. Everyday, all I hear is complaints after complaints. Rather than wasting their time complaining, they should just do something about it. They can complain all they want but that won’t do them any good.

There’s no time like the present. Carpe diem, people! Carpe diem! There’s no time to just sit around waiting for some kind of revelation to hit you. You need to make use of your days because every second that passes is a second that you won’t get back. It’s a valuable commodity that most of us take for granted. Time waits for no one so you shouldn’t waste it.

Christmas has come and gone all too fast. I was too busy working and running errands to experience the whole Christmas feeling. Plus, we didn’t get any snow this year either so that didn’t put me in the mood. The only thing that helped me remember that it was Christmas were the songs that were being played over the radio.

Unlike most people in this country, I was stuck working the night before Christmas. It was a rather quiet and boring night and there wasn’t much to do either. I tried to see if I could see Santa delivering presents but he must be invisible or something because I couldn’t see it. It’s not like it’s hard to spot a fat man in a red suit with a sack full of toys.

Towards the end of my shift, I received a text message from my brother. He was supposed to set up the exercising machine that we got for my mom but apparently he was too drunk to assemble it. He mentioned earlier that he was going to ask my dad for assistant but he must have forgotten or something. I was already starting to get tired from the night shift so I didn’t think I’d be able to put it together by myself.

During the drive home, the streets and highways were super quiet. I managed to drive all the way home without having to touch the brakes. There was absolutely no traffic anywhere. I put the car onto cruise control and just relaxed. I hadn’t eaten anything the day before so I was thinking of grabbing something before going home but nothing was open. Tim Horton’s is usually open 24/7 but this is the one day of the year that they close. If only my company decided to do the same thing. We operate out of Canada so the international clients should understand that we have holidays. But I guess we can’t afford to close for a day since down time means a loss of profit.

Nonetheless, I had planned on being awake for Christmas morning anyway. I wasn’t expecting to be up assembling a present. I didn’t want to go bed without putting it together because then my mom wouldn’t have a present. My brother thought it was more important to spend time with friends and get drunk rather than putting this together.

I had to stay up an extra two hours to make sure it was fully assembled. The instruction manual was a little hard to follow. This is probably why nobody likes to read it over before putting things together. The diagram looked nothing like the parts and the pictures were really small. I’ve seem better instructions to put together Lego. Why can’t these companies make the instruction as easy to follow as Lego?

After finishing with the assembling, I just went straight to bed. I didn’t plan on sleeping long since there was still the whole gift opening thing to do. But I was so tired that I didn’t wake up until 9:00pm. My friend invited me over for Christmas dinner but it’s a bit too late to attend because I had to head out to work again at 10:00pm. Luckily, there was Christmas dinner at my house. There was turkey, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, the usual holiday feast. I hadn’t eaten for a day so I was starving.

As I ate, I started to open up my presents. Not everyone in my family is into the gift giving idea so I was only expecting something from my two brothers. One brother bought me “Hackers” which is on of my favourite movies of all time.

The movie included a whole ensemble of cast members who are famous now but weren’t that big back then. Angelina Jolie (Acid Burn), Jonny Lee Miller (Zero Cool/Crash Override) and Matthew Lillard (Cereal Killer) and Jesse Bedford (Joey Pardella) to name a few. The movie is about a group of young hackers who try to stop a dangerous computer virus, “The Da Vinci virus” from launching. If the virus launches, it will affect the computer system of oil tankers and cause it to capsize which in turn will pollute the water.

Here’s a little something from the movie. It’s called the “Hacker’s Manifesto” or “The Conscience of a Hacker” and it was written by Loyd Blankenship aka “The Mentor.”

“This is our world now… the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn’t run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore… and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge… and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias… and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it’s for our own good, yet we’re the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.

I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can’t stop us all… after all, we’re all alike.”

I think that it was because of this movie that I am so much into computers now and rollerblading, but I’ll save that for another blog. I wanted to be able to do what the characters did but not to the extent where I would be arrested. Back in high school, I knew so much about computers that people actually thought I could hack but I didn’t. One time, I was banned from the Science computer lab because the teacher thought I was hacking the computer. All I did was change the screen saver.

The other present that I’ve received was a 5 set DVD of “The Da Vinci Files.” It came in a golden tin collector’s can. I’m not sure what it’s about but it looks like it’s regarding Leonardo Da Vinci’s work and everything that leads up to “The Da Vinci Code.” I’m always curious about these kind of things. I’ve never had much interest in history before but something that gets my brain ticking is something I’ve always liked.

Also, I’ve received “Transformers: The Movie” which is the 20th anniversary edition. I’ve seen the movie before but this is a 2 disc set which contains the theatrical wide screen version and the full screen version. Each disc has a bunch of bonus features as well like deleted scenes and other featurettes. This version is supposed to be the remastered version so the picture quality should look a lotter better than the original. I can’t wait to watch it!

After my shift tonight, I’ll get two days off so I’m going to have a lot of time to watch the new DVD. I just hope that I don’t lose this DVD like I’ve lost my other DVD. People just keep borrowing and never returning them. But since these two DVD are gifts, I don’t think I’ll be lending them out to any. You’ll just have to buy your own copy if you want to see it.

This year, I’ll be home for Christmas. Well, I’m usually at home for Christmas every year but this year it’s a bit different. I’m scheduled to work the shift on the night of Christmas Eve. By the time I finish my shift, it will be Christmas Day. I’m hoping to make it home in time for Christmas morning.

I have most of the Christmas present that I bought all wrapped up except for one, the present that I bought for my dad. Before I can wrap it up, I need to activate the phone but I can’t activate the new phone until later tonight in case he needs to use his phone some time tonight. After activation has be made, I need to test to make sure the phone is in working order. I don’t want him to open up the present to find out that the phone isn’t working.

Making sure all of that is done is a bit time consuming but it’s time that I don’t have. I have to be at work by 11:00pm tonight but I can’t bring the phone with me to test out at work because I need it here and placed under the tree by morning. But I can’t put it under the tree until I know for sure it’s working.

As for my mom’s present, I almost didn’t get it. I waited as long as possible to pick it up because I didn’t have any place to hide it. I didn’t know about any pre-ordering options either. When I got to Sears, the customer service was terrible. I had to wait five minutes before the sales rep would stop talking to her coworker and help me. If it wasn’t for this old lady, I would have waited even longer.

No customer should have to wait for help. That’s bad customer service right there. Especially if the customer has the patients to stand around right beside you for five minutes while you talk about your boyfriend with a coworker.

This sales rep didn’t seem like she new what she was talking about. She was chewing gum and playing with her hair the whole time she was talking to me. And when I asked her some questions, she game me the wrong answers. I asked if there was any more of that particular item in stock. She said that she doubted there would be any but she checked the computers anyway.

After five minutes or so, she came back to inform me that their inventory was out. I asked if any other store might have some and she said no. The only place that would have it is the warehouse and in order to get it from the warehouse I would have to place an order. If I placed the order, I wouldn’t get it until the 29th. That wasn’t what I wanted to here since it was this close to Christmas.

Since I didn’t think she was such a good sales rep, I didn’t want to believe her. I headed down to the Sears at the Centre Mall and asked the sales rep there. He was an older gentleman who looked like he knew what he was talking about. According to the sales rep at the Sears in Limeridge, this store shouldn’t have any in stock but according to their computers, they had two in stock. I took it right away.

The girl sales rep said that the item wouldn’t fit in my car. She recommended that I get a van or an SUV. But after looking at the machine, I doubted that she knew what she was talking about their either. The whole machine wasn’t that big so when you take it apart, it should fit inside my car.

When I went to the pick up station to get the item, I asked them if it would fit in my car. The guy that worked there didn’t know but he said he’d go get it and test it out. Sure enough, there was plenty of room in the back of my car. I had to tilt the passenger side seat down to hold the box in place otherwise, the whole thing would be moving around and hitting stuff as I stop for a red light.

With the last present bought, I’m glad that I managed to get everything done on time. I’ve never ran around as much as I did this holiday season. I’m guessing that next year will be just the same. But Christmas isn’t all about the presents. Someone that I’ve recent met doesn’t do the gift exchanging thing. I think that would be a lot better than having to run around getting things for people.

The most important thing about Christmas isn’t in receiving gifts. It’s the fact that you get to spend time with your family. It’s something that you do anyway but it’s feels different around this time of year. A lot of the holidays are about things that we should be doing everyday. I think the only days that should be any special are the days that mark some sort of milestone, like your birthday or an anniversary. The other days seems as if they were over exaggerated by the business world.

Valentine’s Day is a day where you should your special someone how much you love them but you can do that everyday anyway. Halloween is just a day where people get to dress up and go out and have fun. The kids go out and ask for candies while the older crowd goes out and party. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day aren’t needed as well. You should be respecting your elders everyday as well.

Christmas has become too commercialized. Christmas items are set up on the shelves as soon as Halloween is over. Sometimes, Christmas items are already on the shelves before Halloween. Businesses bring in a lot of income around this time of year. They slash prices to attract their customers. They remain open a bit later and overwork their employees. If anything, this should be a slow period for businesses since everyone should be home for the holidays. Christmas is just one day but look at the amount of time it takes to prepare for it.

Christmas is just around the corner and it’s steadily approaching fast. It’s just a week away. All the shopping that I had to do has been done with the exception of one. All the cards that I need to write and has written. The only thing left to do is to wrap up the presents and deliver the cards.

Throughout my life, I wasn’t always this big of a fan of Christmas. I don’t think I did much when I was younger. The obvious reason was that I couldn’t afford it. I know that Christmas isn’t all about the gift exchange but more about doing something nice for your family and friends. My childhood Christmas was much different than it is now.

When my family first arrived in Canada, it was summer. Back in Thailand, it was just as warm so we have no problem adjusting to the new world. It wasn’t until winter came that things changed.

Some would say that people from countries that do not have snow would be surprised to see it for the first time. My reaction to seeing snow falling from the sky for the first time was nothing like they mentioned. My eyes did not widen out of amazement. I saw white stuff falling from the sky but I didn’t care. I had no emotion towards seeing snow. I wasn’t even the least bit curious about it. My parents told me what it was and then I just went back to watching television.

Our first Christmas together is something that I still recall. My dad bought Christmas lights and hung up on the wall of the apartment. The cool thing about the lights was that it would turn on as soon as my dad whistled. I tried to turn it on with my whistling but I didn’t know how so it didn’t work. Then my dad would clap and it would turn on. So I tried it too but I couldn’t clap loud enough. I was amazed! I thought my dad had magic powers.

I searched around the whole apartment for a remote of some sort. Our television had a remote to turn it on so I thought it was something like that. It wasn’t until one day when my dad started whistling in a certain direction. That was the day that I had caught on to what was happening.

I waited until he went to work and start checking behind our couch. I followed the lights to a wall jacket. The light didn’t plug directly into the wall jack but into some device. I blew into it and the lights turned on! I was shocked. I didn’t know what this thing was but I knew that it would turn on the lights every time I made some sort of noise. I tried clapping and that made the lights turn off. Since I was closer it than before, I didn’t have to whistle or clap as loud to make it work. I thought this thing was a cool piece of technology. I didn’t tell my brothers about it though because I wanted to be a magician like my dad. I know now that the little sound activated device is known as The Clapper.

Along with the Christmas lights, my dad got us a Christmas tree as well. It was a small tree that was about no taller than a foot. At the time, we didn’t care how tall it was. All we were excited about was that we actually had one. It had miniature ornaments on it too. The ornaments consisted of presents, candy cane, Santa, some reindeers and a star at the top. The street was placed on top of the television and it shone brightly in the night.

I found out one night that the candy canes were actually real candy canes. I thought they were fake ones but when I went to play with the tree, one of the candy canes fell off. That was when I noticed that the clear plastic wrap was peeling. I don’t know what it was but something told me to lick it. And that’s what I did. It tasted minty and I never had mints before.

Just like the time I found out about the clapper, I didn’t tell anyone about the candy canes. I think by the time Christmas arrived, all the candy canes disappeared from the tree. I think that’s how I got into the habit of taking candy canes off a tree. A few years ago, I did the same thing at my friend’s house. They had the candy canes that came in different colours and flavours. By the time I left their house, half of the candy canes were gone. Mind you, I don’t do that anymore but to be on the safe, you should keep an eye on me if there are candy canes on your tree.

Clap on! *clap clap*
Clap off! *clap clap*
Clap on, clap off! The clapper!

I laugh every time I see this commercial. It’s was a cool concept at the time but the lady at the end just cracks me up. She claps her hands twice and looks like she just passes out.

Serendipity is a fun word to say. Part of the word sounds like it’s something complex while the other part sound as if it’s made up. In a way, this word pretty much sums up life itself. Life is complicated but you make it up as you go along. It’s your life to do what you want. You live to your heart’s content.

Serendipity isn’t a word that you’ll hear in everyday conversation. Actually, I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone use this word while they’ve spoken to me. I’ve mentioned it once to a friend in college but she didn’t know what the word meant. Serendipity is the art of finding something when you’re looking for something else. Penicillin is probably the best example of this happening.

Alexander Fleming found penicillin because he didn’t disinfect his cultures before going on vacation. Upon return, he found that the cultures were contaminated with penicillin molds that killed all the bacteria. And if you don’t know, Penicillin is the thing that doctors give you to fight bacterial infection. It kills bacterias by interfering with their ability to synthesize cell wall. Without cell walls, the bacterias can’t divide and conquer. Yay!

I first learn of the word “serendipity” from a movie with the same title. It was a romantic movie starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale and the movie took place right around this time of year. They met while they were doing a little Christmas shopping. They felt an attraction between each other so they decide to spend the night out on the town, even though they were both in a relationship.

When the evening was winding down, Cusack’s character, Jonathan asked Beckinsale’s character, Sara for her phone number. But she didn’t want to give it to him that easily. She wanted to see if fate will bring them together again.

Throughout the entire movie, Jonathan goes to every book store to try and find Sara’s phone number. Fate attempted to assist them but it wasn’t doing a good job at it. As one is entering the building, the other is just leaving but they don’t see each other. Both of them are currently living their lives but there were a lot of events that took place that reminded them of their night on the town. Towards the end, everything starts to piece itself together.

I’ve had a few times where I’ve run into the same circumstances. The most vivid one that I can recall is the night that I broke up with my girlfriend. It felt as if fate had set up the setting for the night. It was a dark and cloudy night with the moon still visible. The weather channel showed that it was going to rain that night too. Even morning dramatic effect to the night.

I remember that it started to rain lightly as we were walking to the dock by the waterfront. We would have ran but she was wearing a long shirt that didn’t leave much room for running. We found a bench to sit on under a shed that kept us dry.

As we were sitting there, I sensed that something wasn’t right. I told her that my friend invited me to her place in Ottawa. Usually, your girlfriend would be suspicious of something like this but she wasn’t. She encouraged me to go out there and visit my friend. That was when I asked her where our relationship was going.

We broke up ten minutes later. We walked back to her car but I declined the offer for a ride home. It just didn’t feel right. I didn’t live that far from the harbour front anyway.

As soon as she drove off, it started to pour. I looked up into the sky and asked “Why?” It could have rained any other day of the week but it had to rain tonight. This only mad me more depressed. I had to walk home ten minutes in the rain. I was drenched and I didn’t feel like going home so I got into my car, grabbed a coffee and head up to the mountain brow.

Along the way, I kept getting phone calls from a friend that was looking for, my now ex-girlfriend. I haven’t seen her since she drove off. I suggested that they call her cell phone but my friend informed me that she wasn’t picking up. I didn’t have a clue where she was at the time. The only thing I wanted to do was head up to the mountain brow and just sit there staring out into the city.

When I arrived at the mountain brow, the place appeared to be somewhat empty. There were a few cars parked there but there were a lot of spaces in between. The right hand side was less crowded so I went that way and parked beside a van. I got out of my car and went to sit down on the stone wall in front of my car. I tried to call my ex-girlfriend to see if I was able to get a hold of her. Still, she didn’t pick up. I stayed seated for a bit but later decided to walk down towards the edge.

My phone started ringing but I didn’t feel like answering it. When I checked the display, it was her. I asked her where she was and she replied that she was at the mountain brow. That’s odd because that’s where I was right at that moment. I asked her where on the mountain brow was she and she replied that she was sitting her in van. That’s when it clicked. I had pull up beside a van but I didn’t notice anyone inside. It was dark so I wouldn’t have seen her anyway. She probably couldn’t see me either.

Fate does stuff like this to you. Even if you’re a non-believer, sometimes you have to accept the fact that things happen for a reason. Sometimes it’s for the best that they happen. There are just things that are beyond our control and we can’t do anything to change it. I still blame myself for not trying harder to hold on to her. It feels as if the relationship went downhill because I didn’t do anything to keep it alive. But after all was said and done, I think I did all that I could with what I had.

The existent of serendipitous events makes me wonder if there is some high power at work. I am not one to believe in such beings but there are the odd times when I make an exception. I do not know everything that occurs during one’s life and I have yet to discover what it has to offer. But when fate drops a few hints here and take, you need to figure out what it’s trying to tell you.