Don Khuth Chronicles

This year marks the year of the pig which is associated with fertility and virility. You are considered to be very fortunate if you have babies during this year. Those kids will grow up to be happy and honest. So maybe that’s why China has such a high population. It’s like every twelve years, every husband and wife gets together and make babies. What better way to stay warm in the winter eh?

Happy Chinese New Year to all my Chinese friends and to all my Vietnamese friends too since they celebrate it on the same day. I’m sorry but I don’t have any red envelopes for everyone. I can’t afford to give money to all of your because I am poor. Well, I can give you red envelopes but just don’t expect any money inside of it.

Here is your fortune of the day:
He who laughs last is laughing at you.

What exactly is a “gaydar” you might ask. Well, up until a few days ago, I’ve never even heard of the word. It goes to show how creative some people are when it comes to mixing up words together to form a new one. I laugh every time I hear this word now. It’s a temporary humour that will go away with time.

I was up at Limeridge the other day, shopping and hanging out at Bubble Tease. I was waiting around for Jenn to close up shop when I saw this girl walk into the shoe store next door. She had a very nice body and was strutting around like she knew it. She was swearing some very tight clothing too. As she walked into the store she walked by a group of guys. Like most guys, we all tend to stare and focus our eyes on certain parts of the female body. This girl was turning heads everywhere she went.

Shortly after entering the store, she came back out and met with another girl. This girl seemed like the total opposite. She was a bit shorter and was wearing jeans and a leather jacket. Her hair was dyed pink and only the top part of her head had hair on it. The read of her head was shaved.

When I saw the two of them together, my gaydar was triggered. A gaydar, if you haven’t figured it out by now, is a gay radar. It’s an ability to determine whether another person is gay or not. Of course, there are more direct and accurate ways of finding out the truth but it’s no fun going that route.

Jenn: What are you staring at?
Me: Lesbians.
Jenn: Where?
Me: Right next door.
Jenn: I want to see.
Me: It’s too late now. They’ve gone into the store.
Jenn: How do you know they’re lesbians?
Me: I can detect this kind of stuff.
Jenn: So you’ve got a gaydar?
Me: Ha ha ha! I’ve never heard of that before but yes.

As we were talking, the lesbians come out of the store and walked pass Bubble Tease. I made eye contact with Jenn and signaled to her that the lesbians are walking right behind me.

Jenn: Stop staring! They’re not lesbians.
Me: Yeah, they are!
Jenn: No. They’re not even holding hands.
Me: Well, they are now. Ha ha ha!

I can’t say that the gaydar works 100% of the time. It could be pure luck that I’m guessing that they’re lesbians and turn out to be right. It’s not like it’s hard to detect. Most of them are open about it but not a lot are willing to come out to admit it yet.

It’s the 21st century and this whole gay thing is pretty much the norm. I’m not sure why anyone has anything against gay people. They’re just regular people who happen to like members of the same gender. I don’t see what wrong with that. I’m not even sure exactly why being gay is illegal in some places. If people wants to be gay, let them be gay. If that’s what makes them happy, so be it. Who are we to interfere in their lives. It’s not like it’s lethal or anything.

Don’t ask me how I found this video on YouTube, I just did. I didn’t do a search on gay people. I just saw it on a page and the title was funny. “What What (In the Butt)” Ha ha ha!

Lately, I’ve been having a bit of a hard time remembering things. I’m not sure what it is exactly whether I’ve got a lot on my mind or whether I’m stressed out a lot but I’ve been having some trouble remembering past events. Sometimes I have trouble recalling things that happened earlier in the day. I have to second guess myself as to whether it actually happened or if I’m just imagining it.

Sometimes, I don’t even remember my own face. It’s a very scary feeling when you don’t even recognize yourself in the mirror. I’m too young to be going senile but the symptoms that I’m experiencing might be some sort of minor acute Alzheimer’s disease. There have been times when I’m getting up to go do something, only to forget what it was that I had planned on doing.

It is rare that I would forget a face, especially a pretty one. If I’ve met someone in the past, I’m sure to remember for a while. I might forget their names but I’m sure to remember their faces. That memory might not be vivid enough to create a clear picture but I should be able to create vague image. I like to put people’s face with their surroundings so I know when and where I’ve met them. A while ago, someone added me to their friend’s list on Facebook but I had no idea how she knows me. Obviously she remembers me from high school but I can’t seem to remember her. My friend said that I know her but I don’t think I do.

I think that people remember things that stand out above the rest. Milestone events are things to remember because they usually only happen once. That is what makes it so unique. Something that doesn’t happen very often has a special place in your memory where it is kept and can be retrieved whenever you want it.

Last week, I went to Cassis and bough a present for my friend’s birthday. I purchased a shirt and a vest ensemble and I made sure to get the correct size. If it’s one thing that’s hard to buy for girls, it’s clothing. If you get the wrong size, they can take offense depending on how insecure they are about their weight. If the size is one size too large, they will think that you think they’re fat. If it’s one size too small, they’ll think that you think they’re too skinny. You have to get the correct size to avoid any altercations.

When I purchased the shirt and vest, I made sure that I bought her an extra small. It’s been years since I last saw her but I doubted that she would be any bigger than the last time. When she received the gift, she told me that I had bought her an extra large. I made sure that both shirt and vest were extra small so I was positive that I had the correct size.

She mailed the shirt back to me and I check it out. Looking at the tag on the shirt, I saw that it was indeed an extra large. I have no idea how I didn’t see that. I bought it on Friday, which is usually the day that I don’t sleep so I might have saw the “X” in the “XL” and assume it was “XS” when it wasn’t.

I brought the shirt back to Cassis and asked to have it exchanged. Unfortunately they were out of extra small for that shirt in that colour so I settled for the white shirt instead. The girl at the counter was a little puzzled with the size different so we struck up a little conversation while her coworker checked the back for an extra small.

Girl: You wanted to exchange the XL for an XS?
Me: Yes, please.
Girl: That’s a fairly big jump in size. How did you manage that?
Me: I don’t know actually. I bought this last week and I think I was half asleep when I picked it out. I was pretty sure that I took the XS.
Girl: So you were kind enough to come back and exchange for her?
Me: Yes. Well, she’s out in Ottawa and the closest Cassis they have there is in Kingston which is about an hour away. She doesn’t have time to make an exchange so I told her to send it back to me and I’ll exchange it.
Coworker: You know what? It is an extra small.
Girl: Really?
Me: What? But the tag said extra large
Coworker: Look at this. (She points at the price tag)
Girl: I’ll go check the other shirt on the table to see if the others are labeled wrong too.
Me: See, I knew I had picked the right one.
Girl: Nope, it was just that one that was labeled incorrectly.
Me: Just my luck eh?

I’ve never purchased an item before where the price tag and the shirt tag said two different sizes. The girl has never run into this issue as well so an event like this is something both of us will remember because it doesn’t happen too often.

When I went into that store yesterday, the same girl was working. I recognize her because I remember her from the event (and the fact that she was very attractive). She recognized me because of the day I can in to exchange the shirt. It seemed like that was the most exciting thing that happened at the store. As I was browsing the store, I could hear her whisper to her coworker about what had happened. Even though I wasn’t wearing the same clothing and had a hat on, she was still able to remember me. Not a lot of strangers will recognize me when I change clothes.

Not everyone has a good memory though. I know a few people who are old and can’t remember that they’ve told me the same story about fifty times already. I don’t want to be rude and tell them that I’ve already heard that joke so I let them tell me the story and pretend like it’s the first time I’ve heard it. Even I do that sometimes too but my friends aren’t as kind as I am and they tell me that I’ve already told them.

The weather has sudden gone crazy. It snowed about 50cm last night. Hamilton is covered with nothing but white stuff. Driving conditions are horrible. Sidewalks are practically non-existent. And most part of the city has decided to shutdown for the day. Unfortunately, I still had to work.

Last night, I almost didn’t make it to work because I was sort of snowed in. At the time, the snow was has high as the base of the car. My door was scraping the snow when I opened it. If my car was white, it would have completely disappeared from view. It took me a good five minutes to remove all the snow that was on my car. A small amount of ice managed to form as well. My defroster isn’t working that well so I had to make sure all of the ice was scraped off before I started drive.

Since the snow was so high, I had a bit of trouble getting out of my street and onto the main road. The city streets weren’t plowed yet and I didn’t see any snow plows in sight. There weren’t too many cars on the road either. Since there was a snow storm warning in effect, I thought it would be wise to leave for work early.

I left home around 9:30pm just in case traffic would be backed up. The streets of Hamilton looked pretty clear but I doubt the highway was going to be the same. I assumed that the highway would be cleared since there are always people driving on it. But when I got onto the 403 westbound, it was all covered as well. I had no idea which lane I was driving in. I know that I drove over the bumpy side marker a few times. You know those things on each side of the road that causes your car to shake rapidly and make those loud rumbling noses?

Most drivers were safe about driving in this condition. A three lane high way was turned into two lanes. Everyone was following the car in front of them and for safety reasons, we all decided to keep the center lane cleared, with the exception of a few assholes who are in a rush and decided to use the center lane to pass everyone.

Somewhere down the road, the fast lane started to clear up as if someone had plowed it. I slowly switched over to that lane because it was a lot safer than the current lane that I was in. I don’t quite understand why the other drivers didn’t follow suit. Traffic was moving fairly quickly in this lane too. For some reason, they preferred to swerve around in a lane that they can’t even see.

When I arrived in Mississauga, the conditions weren’t as bad as Hamilton. Mississauga’s city workers are usually out salting the street way before the first snow fall anyway. But tonight, driving conditions in the city was just as bad as Hamilton but there wasn’t as much snow. I assume that by the time morning arrives, the condition would have worsened.

To my surprised, it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t snow as much over night as I had expected. The drive out of Mississauga wasn’t too bad either. But still, the streets weren’t being plowed yet. I guess the city officials planned on this snow day.

Business resumed as usually. On the drive out of town, I saw that there were a few snow plows shoveling snow out of the parking lot of Square One. I don’t know what good that will do since the roads are completely covered in snow. I doubt a lot of people will be able to use those parking lots since they can’t get there in the first place.

Once I got onto the highway, pretty much everything came to a crawl. Drivers were actually using their common sense to realize that they should be driving very slowly. From Mississauga up until Oakville, I barely went as fast as 50km/h. My foot was starting to get tired from having to step on the gas and then the brakes every so often. I wanted to put the car into cruise control and keep it at 20km/h but unfortunately, cruise control doesn’t operate at such low speeds.

Somewhere down the road, I managed to get ahead of everyone. That’s the advantage of driving on the lane that appears to be somewhat plowed. Even though there was plenty of room on the road, this truck thought it was a good idea to driver very close to me. This particular part of the high way had four lanes. He could have easily driven on the lanes closest to the left but he wanted to drive right beside me. My rear windows was frosted so I couldn’t see exactly what was coming up from behind me.

It took me about an hour to drive home. On a good day, I would only take me half the time but under the circumstances it took twice as long. Even getting into Hamilton turned to be a little difficult. Since there weren’t too many cars entering the city, the on-ramp remained covered in snow.

The city streets didn’t look any better. By the time I got into Hamilton, it was close to 8:30am. Snow plow trucks should be out shoveling the streets followed by salt trucks by now but there weren’t any to be seen. I guess that calls for a snow day.

Some of the businesses around town decided to open, especially florist since it was Valentine’s Day. There are probably a lot of guys running around looking to buy flowers but I doubt there would be much left. They’ll be lucky if they can get a couple of roses today.

Most schools got the day off today. Mohawk College and McMaster University had their doors closed until noon. I don’t know why they don’t just close for the whole day. Hamilton Public Libraries were also closed. My friend called me as soon as I got home, asking for a ride to work. He works at the library and although it’s closed, he still had to go in. Apparently, he didn’t think it would be snowing this bad so he slept in. I don’t know how he didn’t see this storm coming.

I didn’t want to have to head back out onto the road because I was already tired from having to shovel a parking spot for my car. I tried to drive over the snow bank and just get my car into the spot but the snow was too high. I ended up shoveling for half an hour before I made enough room to get in. Since I was parked there, that meant my brother was blocked in. Behind his car was a snow bank that was as high as his car. With my car in front of him and the snow bank behind him, there was no way he was going to get out. Luckily he only works down the street so he can walk.

Walking from my car to the front door turned out to be hard too. I ran out of breath just walking in two feet of snow. Usually my dad would bring our his snow blower and clear the snow for the whole neighbourhood but unfortunately, he had to get to work. Every year, my dad and my next door neighbour would bust out their gas powered snow blowers and clear the snow from each side. It saved the rest of the neighbours from having to break their backs with shoveling. In December, the snow blowers didn’t get used much because we didn’t get this much snow back then. But now, with 50cm of snow, it all takes it about five to ten minutes and everything was cleared.

Here you can see the aftermath of last night’s snow storm. That seat of this bench is about knee high and it’s totally covered. Even the shovel was covered in snow before I grabbed it to shovel myself a parking spot. In the bucket is salt but not much help that’s going to be with this much snow.

I was surprised that my mailbox didn’t get completely covered in snow. I haven’t written my name in the snow for a while so I wrote it on my mailbox. Now the courier will know that this is my house and maybe he’ll stop stealing my Maxim issues. I feel sorry for them because they have to work. As their motto goes, “through rain or shine, or sleet or snow” they’ll get your mailed delivered to you.

Check out the amount of snow on my dad’s van. I don’t know how it landed like that to form this slope. It makes me want to get on top of the roof and jump into it. But I don’t think that’s it’s such a good idea because it’s fresh powdered snow so I’ll just end up landing on the roof of the van and breaking something. Or even worse, it’s probably slippery underneath all that snow. I’ll probably hit the roof of the van and then slide down and land on the ground. It might sound like it’s a fun thing to do when you think about it but I think I’ll pass.

My second relationship was something that I wanted to start earlier in my life. I knew this girl since we were little and I had feelings for her. But due to some conflicting circumstances, I had to hold back on my heart. As the years went by, my feelings for her came and went. And it would continue to come and go until I finally asked her out. It took a while for me to realize that she was the girl that my heart was longing all this time.

The reason why I confessed to her was because I getting hints from some strange and unseen force. Whether it was fate, I don’t know. But something was pushing me and hinting to me that I should do something about my feelings for her before it’s too late. I don’t know if it was just coincidence or not but there were a few songs that were released and it was describing what I was going through. The songs were “Why” by 98 Degrees and “Just a Friend” by Mario.

There were a few other songs as well, at least enough to make a whole music CD but these two songs were the ones that had the most impact on my decision. For two months, I contemplated as to whether I should sit back and do nothing or act upon my feelings. If I sat back and did nothing, I would regret not knowing how the relationship could have turned out. If I did something and her feelings weren’t the same, our friendship would get a little awkward. I had to figure out a way to see if she was the least bit interested in me.

It was Valentine’s Day 2002, the perfect day to make a good impression and let her know that I was interested in her. I bought her some flowers, chocolate and a teddy bear. The teddy bear was made in a way that you can fill its tummy with chocolates, which is what I did. I knew that she loved Ferrero Raffaello. That’s a white chocolate covered in coconut confetti. They sold them in packages of threes so I bought enough to fill up the teddy’s tummy to make him look fat. The teddy bear’s paws were sewn together so I stuck the roses in between its arms.

The next step was to figure out a way to present it to her. She had to attend classes on Valentine’s Day so I came up with an idea to leave the gift in her car. As luck would have it, she asked me to run some errands for her because she had classes to attend. I ran her errands for her quickly and made a copy of her car key. That was pretty sneak and probably illegal in some way. I called her up and asked her for a ride to my friend’s place. He lived close to McMaster University so it was a good excuse.

The following day, she came by my house and picked me up. I didn’t want her to drop me off at my friend’s place because I needed to know where she parked her car. I didn’t want to spend hours look for her car in the parking lot. At the time, she was driving a green Dodge Neon and so did a few dozen of other McMaster students. When we got into the parking lot, we had to take the bus to campus. When the bus arrived at my stop, I got off because I had to make it look like I was going to my friend’s house and not back to the parking lot.

I quickly caught the next bus that was heading back to the parking lot and place the gift in the car. I placed the teddy bear in the passenger seat and a card on the steering wheel. I asked her out to dinner in the card. I made a music CD as well and I stuck that into her CD player. I rigged it so that the song would start playing as soon as she started up the car. I made sure everything was in place, locked the doors and walked to my friend’s house.

When I was at my friend’s house, I received a phone call from her. She had found the gift and was surprised by it because she had no idea how it was done. Then she asked me something that got my heart pumping. “When are you coming home?” It may not seem like much but at the time, these five words gave me a warm feeling. If she had asked, “When are you GOING home?” it would have been a different story. But saying, “What are you COMING home?” made it sound like we were already a couple and she was waiting for me. Nonetheless, I was walking home with a big smile on my face.

When I arrived at my house, I found that she had left something for me. I wasn’t accustomed to getting flowers so this put an even bigger smile on my face. I gave her a call and thanked her for the gift. I asked if she had read the card and if she was free to have dinner. She did and was. We went to dinner at a Thai restaurant with a few of our friends. The other couple were already together but we weren’t yet. I guess this was like our first date.

Our next date was on her birthday. And that was the day that I asked her to be my girlfriend. At first, I asked her the wrong question. I didn’t know there was a right question to ask but I guess she wanted me to be more specific. Initially, I asked her if I was good enough to be her boyfriend. To that question, I didn’t quite get an answer. “Would you be my girlfriend?” was the correct question that I should have asked the first time. But I didn’t ask you that until later that night. I got a little confused when she told me that I had asked her the wrong question the first time. Once I was confused, I had no idea what to do next. I got a little nervous because I was expecting one answer but got something totally different. It wasn’t until the walk home that I figured out what I should have asked. Silly me.

Our relationship started up pretty good but it eventually started heading downhill due to school. The reason why I didn’t want to start any relationship back in my high school days was because of school. But during college, I assumed that I would be better at managing my time and juggling school and a girlfriend. As it turned out, I was able to but she wasn’t.

Seeing that we weren’t spending enough time together, I tried to do what I could to see her more often. I spent a lot of time at her house because she wasn’t able to make it to mine. Her parents were traditional and I guess they didn’t approve of her spend time at my house. But they seem to be fine with the fact that I’m spending time with her in her room. Plus she had a lot of studying to do so I didn’t want to ask her to come over. I had a lot of studying to do as well but I gave up most of it so I could see her. Every time I was over at her house, I would just be watching television in her room. I didn’t do any studying whatsoever.

Eventually I had to confront her and ask her where our relationship was going. She was rather quiet at the time but knowing her, I sensed that there was something on her mind that she wanted to say. She was somewhat secretive and didn’t feel like sharing everything that she was thinking. I told her that she can tell me anything and we’d work it out. That’s the whole point to a relationship, was to work together to make things work. When she didn’t give me an answer, I was afraid for our relationship.

We decided to call it quits that summer. I was hoping that we would be able to work things out but apparently there wasn’t enough spark to keep the fire alive. That was the summer that I started drinking. Even though we weren’t dating for that long, I had high hopes for us. Once we broke up, I just stopped caring about things. I wanted to drink my misery away and just forget about everything. But that didn’t work because I didn’t drink enough.

At the time, she was the perfect girlfriend. She was probably everything that any guy could ask for. She was smart, funny, kind, one of the prettiest Cambodian girls in town and she can cook. Well, she sort of could cook. The last spring rolls I tried were a bit salty. Actually, I think most of her spring rolls were a tad salty but the other stuff she cooked was good. The way to most guys’ heart is through their stomach. You don’t find too many girls out there who can cook these days.

I thought myself to be the luckiest guy to have a girlfriend like her. But then I became the unluckiest guy for having lost her. I’m not sure if I did enough to keep the relationship going but eventually I gave up. A relationship is a one way street that a couple goes down. Any obstacles that are heading their way, they need to work together to avoid it. If one of the couples want to go left while the other wants to go right, they’re both veering off course and in the wrong direction.

The obstacle in this relationship was time. I wanted to spend as much of it as I could with her but she didn’t have any to spare. School took up the majority of her time and whatever time she had left she spent it with her family. That part I understood because both of those things were important in her life. I guess at the time, a relationship wasn’t that big of a deal.

As mentioned in the previous post, communication is a key to a long lasting relationship. But spending time together is also a key. If you’re not willing to make time for your significant other, how are you going to bond with each other? You need to be able to managed your time wisely so you can spend time with each other in order to get to know each other better. I understood that in my relationship but my girlfriend at the time didn’t. It didn’t have to be a lot of time either. A few minutes here and a few minutes there was good enough. Eventually all of the little times that you’ve spent together will add up. Remember that it’s the little things that count. If you can sit down and talk with your significant other for at least ten minutes, then you will do well in the long run.

Valentine’s Day is a day for couples. Much like other holidays, it too has become too commercialized. The big businesses are all capitalizing on this holiday but that’s what businesses do. What better way to show your significant other that you truly care about them than to buy them something very expensive. Some people get carried away with Valentine’s Day but majority of us tone it down a little. If you’re single, you have nothing to worry about. If you’re in a relationship, the pressure is on.

I’ve been in a couple of relationships in the past but none of them worked out. I guess that’s kind of obvious since I’m currently single. One relationship failed because of distance and lack of communication while the other one failed due to lack of time. It’s obvious that a lack of anything in a relationship will put it in dark waters. I am no expert when it comes to relationship but I’ve learned my lesson. I didn’t plan on failing in either relationship but I didn’t know enough to keep them alive.

My first relationship was with a girl out in Ottawa. Our parents knew each other since they were back home in Cambodia. Her family came over to visit in the late 80′s. She was the cutest little girl ever and a little goofy as well. At the time she had straight black hair that went down to her shoulders. I took a liking to her right away.

Year goes by and we lost touch. Being little kids we had no idea how to keep in touch. But in the early 90′s my family went to Ottawa because my dad’s band was playing at a party for Cambodian’s New Year. After not having seen her for years, we finally met up and the spark re-ignited. I was in Ottawa for the weekend but I guess that was enough time to get things started.

At the party, I promised her that I would dance with her before the night was over. But unfortunately, that never happened. I don’t quite remember why it didn’t happened. During the car ride home she didn’t say a single word to me so I assumed that she was mad. I wanted to make up for it but I didn’t know how. My family and I were scheduled to leave the following afternoon. By the time I woke up the next morning, her brother told me that she had gone to work. Bad timing caused us not to say our goodbyes before we parted.

Before leaving, I quickly ran to the mall and bought half a dozen roses. I wrote a note saying that I was sorry that I didn’t save her a dance. I left the roses on her pillow with the note stuck inside. I think that, with my kind gesture of sincerity, I captured her heart.

She came to Hamilton to visit a few months later. We didn’t do much because I didn’t have a car so I wasn’t able to take her around town. When I did manage to get the car, we just ended up visiting family and friends in town. It wasn’t very exciting for a tourist to come to another town only to visit people’s houses but I really didn’t have anything planned.

On her first day in Hamilton, I took her down to the harbour front. I spend majority of my summer there because I rollerblade a lot. It kind of sucked that she had to walk there while I was on rollerblade. I felt bad about that but I guess she didn’t mind it too much. It was only a ten minute walk from my house.

We sat at a bench by the beach area and watched the sunset. I was an idiot and made the mistake of sitting too far away. The bench that we were sitting at was one of those picnic benches. I had to get my feet over the seat and I didn’t want to hit her in the process so I gave her some space. But when I went to sit down, I forgot to move closer to her. She told me that she felt very distance from me that day. I don’t know what stopped her from coming closer to me though. Sometimes I can be forgetful and I don’t realize that I should be doing things.

The following night, I took her to the movies. I thought it would be a nice way for us to spend some time alone. As we got into the mall, we ran into some friends from school. They had just gotten back from the Canada’s Wonderland year end trip. The movie wasn’t schedule to start for another thirty minutes so we sat down and hung out with my friends for a bit.

I didn’t realize it at the time but I forgot to introduce her to everyone. I think we were too busy talking that it never crossed my mind. This whole time everyone was talking to each other, she had no idea who she was talking to. All my friends knew that she was my girlfriend but they never got her name.

The week that she was in town went by like nothing and the next thing I knew, it was time for her to leave. I gave her my number so we could stay in touch. Once in a while she would call and then the next time I would call. Long distance charges were pretty expensive for a high schooler to be paying for. I didn’t mind the phone calls because it was nice to hear her voice since I wasn’t going to be seeing her often.

But somewhere down the road, things started to pick up and the phone calls started to slow down. Right after school, I would head to work and I would call her when I was done. I had about twenty minutes to kill because I had to wait for the bus. During those twenty minutes I give her a call. Sometimes I could get her and sometimes I would get the answering machine. Then college started for me and I had even less time. We decided to end the relationship because it didn’t seem like it was going to work out.

Even though we broke up, we’re still good friends and I still keep in touch with her every now and then. We were born a week apart so it’s hard not to remember her birthday. Every time we talk over the phone she always ask when I’ll be visiting her again. I barely have time to see my own friends let alone drive 600km to see her. But when time permits, I plan on visiting her one day.

I think communication plays a major role in a relationship. When things don’t work for you, you have to be able to talk it over. Couples get into heat arguments because one of them doesn’t want to listen. Not a lot of people are willing to listen when they argue. They just want to voice their opinion and forget what the other person wants to say. But you have to remember that communicating means that you’re listening half of the time and talking the other half. If you can’t do that, you’re going to run into a lot of problems down the road.

When I’m at Tim Horton’s and see an elderly couple, I see them talking a lot. Being a young person myself I have yet to understand what is left for them to talk about. They look as if they’re in their late 60′s and I wonder, haven’t they talked about everything already? But being young, my attention span isn’t as good as theirs. I get bored easily with the same topic. The elderly couple has probably been through a lot together. Whether it’s good or bad, I’m sure that they’ve managed to talk it out. So when you’re looking for someone, make sure it’s someone whom you can talk to.

Most people’s faces have a symmetrical aspect to them. Symmetry is a good thing and it makes things look normal. Just about every part of the human body is proportioned to another. If you’ve ever seen the “Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo da Vinci, you would know.

If something is symmetrical, it is considered to be beautiful or so it said somewhere. If you were to take a picture of your face, divide it down the middle, copy one side, flip it over to the other side and it makes you look the same, then you’re beautiful. If you don’t look the same then you’re not so beautiful but it’s not to say you’re ugly either. Some people are picky when it comes to stuff like this. Unless you’re a computer or have an eye for symmetry, you probably wouldn’t notice the difference.

My face isn’t 100% symmetrical but I’m still a handsome devil. For starters, my left eye is more opened than my right eye. The reason for that was because I walked into a fence when I was younger. And no, I didn’t see it.

Back in Elementary School I was playing a game of Borden Ball during the morning recess. Borden Ball is similar to American/Canadian Football but the person who has the ball is the quarterback. Basically, you continuously pass the ball to your teammates until you score a touchdown. Once you’ve been passed the ball, you’re allowed to take three steps. After that, you have to get rid of the ball.

When my team received the ball, they passed it to each other and we made our way down the field. Our playground wasn’t that big of an area so it wasn’t long before we got into the end zone. I was in the end zone and no one was covering me so my teammate passed me the ball. I caught the ball and turned around to take my three steps only I wasn’t aware that the fence was directly behind me. I turned and slammed my head right into the fence.

The fence must have been about four foot high and I was just a few inches shorter. I don’t know what part of the fence I hit but I scraped the top part of my eye against it and I was bleeding for a bit. I went to the school nurse and they patched me up quickly. I was fine to continue to attend classes. I just couldn’t see with my right eye.

When I temporarily took off the bandage, I saw that my eye was all sort of shades of blue, purple and black. When adults came over to my house and saw that I was injured, they asked my parents what had happened. My parents told them that I was beat up by a fence which was some what true. I was pretty clumsy when I was younger. I got injured a lot because of sports but they were mostly minor injuries.

My eye stayed closed for about a couple of days. I’m not sure if the little mishap affected my vision in anyway. I didn’t start wearing eye glasses until the middle of my high school years so I don’t think it was a big impact. My vision isn’t that poor though. I am not required to wear glasses while I’m driving but during some weather conditions, I find that they are helpful.

Sometimes, faces that are within ten meters of me are a bit blurry. I tend to take a few seconds before the face registers as a recognizable face. There have been times when I didn’t notice the person until they called out my name. If it wasn’t for that, I would have kept on walking. I don’t mean to be rude or anything, it’s just that I wasn’t paying attention.

The optometrist recommended that I wear my glasses often in order to prevent my eye sight from getting worse. I’ve had an eye exam done twice and comparing the two times, they’ve gotten slightly worse. My distance vision for oculus dexter (right eye) worsen from -0.25 to -0.75 and for oculus sinister (left eye) worsen from -0.25 to -0.50. If my memory serves me right, then the numbers are something like that.

I remember the optometrist mentioning that I would have a little trouble judging distances and it’s true. I have trouble parallel parking because every time I back up, I think I’m going to hit the car behind me. If I get out to check how much space I have, I can see that there’s plenty.

Lately, I haven’t been wearing my prescription eye glasses because I’ve misplaced them somewhere. I’ve tried to retrace my steps to see if I can remember where I might have put them down but I’m not having any luck. I found the case for it though but it was empty. I have an old pair of glasses but it’s with my previous prescription so it’s slightly weaker.

There is a chance that the little run in with the fence is causing my vision to slowly deteriorate but I can still see. I guess the good thing about hitting that fence is that I can close one eye at a time. Not a lot of people can do that because it takes a lot to control the individual muscles on your face. Majority of the muscles in your face works in sync with the opposite side of your face. If you were to smile naturally, your lips should make a symmetrical curve. Since I’ve learned to control my eye, I am able to even it out when I take pictures. But sometimes I forget about it and I look like I’m half asleep.