Old Friends
Last night, Neil, Ken and I started the evening down at Earl’s on Robson street. They had some good martini specials, and even though I don’t like martinis, I managed to down one before I was forced to switch to beers. After we were slightly drunk, we made our way up to Doolins for another drink, and then I headed over to the Morrisey with Tiffany and her friend Jenn. I had a really great time hanging out with them, and we finished the night with three jumbo things of poutine down at Fritz on Davie.
I woke up rather late in the day, sometime around 1pm or so, had a shower, and then loaded the car to head back to Chilliwack for the semi-annual perogy-fest. My family (my mom’s side at least) is Ukranian, so every holiday is a chance for me to come home and have some real Ukranian food, something that I really don’t get a chance to have in Vancouver. I’m pretty busy these days, so whenever my family hear’s that I’m coming home, they always put in the extra effort to make me happy (I love these guys!). My grandma apparently has been slaving away in front of the stove for days just to make sure that I have perogies tomorrow, and that I can take some home with me when I head back to Vancouver. Dinner tomorrow is around 4pm, and I can already taste the cabbage rolls.
When I got into town at around 3pm today, I went straight to my dad’s house to hang out with him and Cathy for a few hours. I brought them season’s 2 and 3 of 24, so hopefully they’ll have lots to do for a few weeks now. When I left their house, I was intending to head into Sardis to see my sister, brother-in-law and my neice and nephew, but as I was driving down the road, I realized I was near my old friend Cory’s house, and thought that I might pop by. I almost didn’t, since I hadn’t seen him in about 1.5 years (since his wedding), and I wasn’t really sure if he’d be home or not, or if he was, if his son (6 months old now) would be sleeping or not.
Thankfully, I stopped by, and him and his wife were really glad to see me. And this is really the point of this blog entry — good friends never go away. I had only intended to stay for 30 minutes or so, but after a few minutes we went into our old routine, joked about old fun times at UBC, the crazy stories of our youth, and I got to see his son for the first time. Cory convinced me that a trip to the beer store was in order, so we hopped in my car, put some music on, and before we knew it we were walking out of the beer and wine store with 12 beers, soon to be in front of his Tv reliving the old days all night. I had a great time. Cory is one of those people that I know will always be around for me.
Someone once said that you can tell who your real friends are by who shows up when it’s time for you to move. Cory is one of those guys who will always be there to pack a few boxes, even if he has to drive a few hours to get there..
I remember a few years ago when I moved away to Ottawa. My mom threw this really big going away party for me and invited all my friends. One of my friends, Rob, drove 9 hours just to attend this party for a few hours, and then headed back that night. Even some of my old elementary and high school teachers came out that night to wish me well. It’s times like that that make you really appreciate the things you have in life. I have good friends in Vancouver, but sometimes it’s nice to come back to the place I grew up and hang out with some of friends from my youth
About 30 minutes ago, I got to my sisters place and hung out on the couch with her and my brother-in-law. I guess my jokes got a little too loud, because after 10 minutes or so, we all heard the little pitter-patter of feet coming down the stairs, and before I knew it, my sleepy-eyed neice was staring at me wide-eyed and running up to me to give me a big hug – “I missed you uncle Duane.”
It’s good to be back. I’ll post some photos from the perogy-fest a little later tonight.