#248 Friday Night SocializaShawn

Our friends Reg and will came over to the cottage tonight. But to make things a little easier, breezier, we made reservations at a restaurant over in Victoria, this quaint 1900's fishing village, just down the coast from here. 

The restaurant is call Beachcombers and it's on the end of the wharf. Not only are the views breathtaking, day or evening, but their food s spectacular.  Nothing she-she or frou-frou. It's a simple, straightforward with just a handful of options. But they do them all right and EVERYTHING is delicious!

Tonight makes our forth visit this vacation. And that speaks volumes, because while we're not food snobs, if we aren't impressed with an establishment. If we don't think the food is absolutely delicious, we simply wont be back.

We can't wait to go back!

After supper we went back to the cottage and got down and dirty with another game of Cards Against Humanity.  This time round I was the winner!  The game is just so wrong that it's right. And that suits us just fine!

Then we ended up the evening in the living-room, shooting the shit, cracking jokes and just taking it easy! 

Just a great night all round.

Now we just have to wait another 51 weeks for the next time. :-(

#242 Friendly InteracShawn

Good Friends.

Good Food.

Wine.

...and Cards Against Humanity.

Had a wonderful evening with our friends Reg and Will.  Had a great meal and then ended the evening playing Cards Against Humanity.  Never has being Politically Incorrect ever been so much fun!

...it would have been MORE fun had I won the game, but Marcel did and I was only one point behind him, so, it wasn't a total loss... it was more of a Silver Victory. And that's just how I am going to remember it. 

In fact it was such a great evening, we're going to repeat it on Friday night here at the cottage.  Friends, Food, Booze and Inappropriate Humour. 

#240 SocializaShawn

Today was social visit day.

We don't do social visits often. It's not that we're not social, it's just that we prefer to not be around people. :-) Okay, that's not entirely not true, we have friends... we visit them once a year when we're on the Island.  lol 

We had a great visit with our friends Reg and Will. Shootin' the shit. Critiquing such cinematic block busters as "Sharknado", "Fido", Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" and so on... Then on to a discussion about anti-depressants and their side-effects, and then onto comic book stores and customer service. You know, the basics.

It was a good time and on Saturday Night we're going over to their place for dinner and a game of Cards Against Humanity.  Should be a good time... we have very little hope for Humanity so we should be naturals at the game.

#195 Poetic PredicShawn

If you're familiar with the Poem about Counting Cows, you'll know that:

"Three Crows a Letter"  is the third line of the poem.

Well I received a Postcard in the mail today from the friend I recently re-connected with. The postcard was from Finland. The card was on a piece of pre-cut, black balsa wood that when you snapped out the pieces, you could put them together to form 3 crows.

I could NOT have been happier!  Receiving it on HER birthday was a little odd, but then I was already thinking of her today (and had planned on emailing her when I got home tonight - I don't know where she is at the moment... possibly still in Finland, or in Nova Scotia, back in the US or in Spain...  she does tend to travel about!)

Receiving mail in this day and age that is NOT a bill is rare and welcome.  When you can play with it and make crows, well...  simply awesome!

#135 Friendship Re-connecShawn

Well it only took 17 years, give or take a few months, but I finally tracked down a dear old friend today. We both lost track of each other is more like it.  Our last contact was back in the late 90's. We were actually still writing letter! Email?! What was that?!

We both had a tendency to move around, a lot, and I guess over the moves addresses and forwarding failed. And then, the abyss...

I've never stopped thinking of her over these many years.

About 3 weeks ago I found a contact on the internet for her husband (not even sure if they were still married) and hemmed and hawed if I should email him, in no small part because he's a Sheldon Cooper-esque scientist with the US military. I finally decided to send a brief email in the hoped it would not be bounced or filtered and then have my every move tracked... for all I know I could be. hmmmmm

In the end though, it was worth it. I got a response today!  It filled my heart with such joy.

Now to write back and try to catch up on the past couple of years.   CANNOT WAIT!

#011 AppreciaShawn

Say what you want about social media, it makes the world we live in seem a little smaller and brings people from a distance seem closer.

Case in point, the friendships I've made on Facebook. A quarter of all the people on my Friend's List are people I've not met in person. But what's interesting is that these are to a great extent the primary people that I interact with. Some I'd even consider part of my extended family.

Through the years some a closer connection has grown, and the exchange of Christmas Cards, and Christmas and Birthday gifts have evolved. Not that gifts equate to value per se, but does indicate at least to, me an intimacy of connection and relationship.  It really says something when you have closer relationships with these people than some family. But then again, you can pick your friends, not your family, so...

One particular friendship that has developed is with a couple in Atlanta, GA. Aside from Marcel and I, and they being gay, we all share a love and fondness for our pets. All rescued dogs, all Chihuahua or Chihuahua cross. 

As I've said, while it's not expected, there has been an exchange of Christmas gifts between us in the past few years. They are at once one of my most firm defenders (and suppliers) of all things Leopard and of Chihuahua Christmas Ornaments. Sometimes both combined! It is the Chihuahua Christmas Ornaments that I cherish the most because they combine two of favourite things, AND they've helped me be able to add to my collection to ensure I have a new ornament for each year I've had my 3.5 pound furry bundle of joy, Santiago de Montreal. I don't know that they even know this, but on those years I've not been able to locate such an ornament they have sent me one. 

It's such a small and yet significant gesture that is deeply appreciated and cherished. And one that would not have existed save for a little web interface known as Facebook.

So I say thank you to Facebook, and to John and Carl as well.