I trust most of you had a decent Christmas 2018 and New Years! Here's how the last two weeks have went for me.
The morning of Christmas Eve was a half-shift at Rosser. It was weird arriving at work before sunrise despite the time of morning. Daniel came sometime after me. He started work upstairs in his area and I began in the gymnasium. One of the two gym storage rooms was messy so I put things away as best I could. It's very irresponsible of the gym teacher and I would argue, even the Vice-Principal, who could use cleaning the storage room as a punishment for students and make it easier for me to sweep. I didn't go out of my way sorting through the supplies as I am not their mother. I then swept and mopped the gym floor. For the rest of the shift, I cleaned the stage/music room, and the special needs room. Daniel and I left at 11:30am but before I went home, I stopped off at Womyns' Ware in Vancouver to buy a small butt plug that I couldn't find after my play session last summer with my friend, Tom. After I got home that afternoon, I eventually went onto Best Buy's website to look at the Boxing Week deals that began (if I remember) by 4pm. For hours, I was researching and debating which Blu-Ray player I was going to select for my folks and what new DSLR camera I was going to get as my replacement for the next 5 years. I managed to find a player for under $100 that should be sufficient for my folks, nothing fancy. I then purchased a Canon Rebel EOS T6 as it was on sale. All together, it was $583.90 though my father would later pay me $80 for the Blu-Ray player, which was the right amount. During the night I wrote and sent out my yearly Christmas email to various bear buddies on my contacts list (some pictures I attached to that email are included below). Just over 10 of them bounced back to me as expected. I only got a few replies from it up until this day... which didn't surprise me. Sigh...
Christmas Day was very... low key. It was probably the first year we didn't open gifts from under the tree together. My younger sister got me a cool Legend of Zelda gold cartridge backpack. I have no plans to use it so I'll keep it as a collector's item. My folks got me new socks, undies, and a sweater. I didn't care for the sweater and at this point, I got irritated but a few days later, they gave me $100. I'll hang onto to that money to help buy a future game console. The other gift I got was my older sister and brother-in-law: offering to knock $50 off my next Amazon order. But Christmas felt so hollow this year... perhaps it's a sign that we are getting older and family traditions are no longer worth it. My niece is 12 years old and still does Christmas downstairs with her family. The excitement of watching her as a child opening gifts upstairs here is probably no longer around. Maybe it could be my mother was not in the mood as this is the first Christmas her mother is no longer around. It was exactly a month ago she passed away, too. Before dinner, my younger sister gave me my gift (the back pack mentioned above) and I gave hers: a copy of The Wonderful 101 for Nintendo WiiU -
which I picked up in Madison, a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for Wii, and a $50 Cineplex gift card. We had Christmas dinner after 4pm and it was my mom & dad, my younger sister & my brother-in-law & my niece, and myself. My older sister would eventually come upstairs after we were done. We had the usual: lobster, steak, roasted veggies, corn, garlic bread, fries, etc. The meal was okay but my folks cannot make steak and tend to get cheaper cuts that have fat on one side. While my father did a good job making it medium rare, the fat on one side meant I was stuck with a steak I couldn't fully eat. Looking at the other steaks, I wasn't in the mood to have another. I had a second helping of fries and veggies. After dinner, my older sister opened the present I got for her and her husband: the Mega Man figurine I bought in Madison last month, $60 gift cards for Willow Video, and a copy of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age for PS4. She loved the figurine! My niece later thanked me for the games I got her. I didn't do much more for the rest of Christmas Day either than purchase my own copy of Dragon Quest XI from EB Games online for $56.
On Boxing Day, I went to Chapters on 200th St. and Langley Bypass... only to find it turned into an Indigo (for those outside Canada: Indigo is the main company that owns the big Chapters bookstores, the equivalent of America's Barnes & Noble). I've never been in an Indigo store before and thought it wasn't much different from Chapters. How wrong I was. I walked inside and looked around and... hated it! There is less emphasis on books and more emphasis on being a trendy "well-being" product hawker. I wanted to gag. Just under half the amount of books are gone. What was the point in changing the store with a trendy aesthetic? Yuck! Anyways, I found some interesting video game books but looking on Amazon, they were anywhere from 31-40% off compared to Indigo's 30% off all hardcovers this Boxing Week. I looked at the film and art books but their selection wasn't very good. I bought a box of Christmas cards for next year. Outside, I noticed a Quizno's nearby and since I haven't been to one in over a
couple of months, decided to have my favourite sandwich there. Before going home, I stopped off at VanCity to withdrawal my monthly rent contribution and then went south to Toy Traders. I don't think anything was on sale but spent about half an hour there. I went and stayed home for the rest of the night as I wasn't going to touch the malls. I found Daddy Eric went from visiting his mother in Ohio and texted me from Montreal. It surprised me as I thought he would go home to Texas or to his second home in White Haven, PA for the rest of the holidays. But it turns out he is visiting out friend, Kevin Morrisey until just after New Year's.
Thursday I worked until 2pm, cleaning the Kindergarten portable and a couple of classrooms. After work, I parked my car by Metrotown and transited to downtown to see my friend, Gordon. We cuddled and played for awhile. I fucked him a bit and he fucked me in return but didn't cum this time. No big deal. During our time together he told me some sad news: one of my Daddybears, Bert, had passed away earlier this month! I mailed him a Christmas card and I'm sure it'll either be returned to me or thrown out. I'll talk more about him in my next monthly entry. I spent over 4 hours at Gordon's before I left and stopped off at Little Sister's on Davie (on the way down Davie, I ran into the current President of VML, Daddy Norm - WOOF!). I haven't been to Little Sister's for quite awhile and I spent about 20 minutes looking around. I saw the 2019 Colt Leather calendar but no hot Daddies were on it so I put it back. I don't remember the last time I got myself one of them because obviously, Colt Studios tends to not have much musclebears. But I did find a Tom of Finland calendar plus I picked up a copy of The Complete leatherboy Handbook by boy Vincent L. Andrews. Both were 20% off so $56.26 for it. I found that the gift cards that Daddy Bert gave me years ago, no longer work on their new system *facepalm*. Oh well, I'll consider it a souvenir from him. I went straight home after I was done.
Friday was my last vacation day of 2018. At 11:30am I met Ron, a local bootbottom, for coffee at Coastal Coffee and Tea. We chatted for over an hour and then parted. It was a rainy day but I decided to go to Willowbrook Mall and browse around. At Toys R' Us I bought a WWE action figure of Big Show and a copy of Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition for Xbox One (which I may attempt getting the console later this year). As both were on sale, it was $32.39. I walked the entire mall to see if there was a Calendar Club kiosk or store but couldn't find any. I checked EB Games but didn't find much of interest. My final store was Hallmark and I bought a box of cards for $12.60. I went home and put my purchases away. I did nothing all day Saturday, too.
As I promised him beforehand, I went and visited Daddy Barry in Abbotsford on Sunday night. This would be my second visit to him after his move back here from Prince George. I mainly wore my harness, chaps, and rubber wader boots while he and I played. It was a nice time but I didn't stay too long because I had to buy gas down in Blaine and get to bed for my early morning shift. After I got home, I dropped off my gear and put the gas containers into my car. Very strangely, and I don't know why... my memory on getting to the US border was a little hazy. But it was worse on the way back home after the Canadian border. I didn't get lost or anything but for whatever reason, it was like I kind of forgot where I was supposed to do turns unless I recognized where I was. Don't know why my mind wasn't on the ball that night. Probably my earlier trip to Abbotsford changed my mindset as I always do my gas trips while I've been home for a long while.
I returned to Rosser for the last half-day shift on Monday morning. I finished cleaning the office and art supply storage room in my run. I helped vacuum some lockers upstairs where at least one of them had old mice poop in it for some random reason (there wasn't any food scraps or anything). I went to Lougheed Mall after my shift and walked around. I noticed the food court area was closed off and there seemed to be a new one being made on the 2nd floor on the opposite side of the mall. I checked EB Games, Walmart, London Drugs, etc. but I didn't buy anything. There was a Japanese nick-nack store that was kind of like a dollar store. It was a nice idea, but I wished they sold more cooler Japanese products like video game and anime merchandise, udon noodles, etc. I went home afterwards, enjoying a little of the overcast weather on the way. After I got home, my parents ordered Pizza Hut as a New Year's Eve dinner - mainly for me as I usually don't have the small stuff they have out that day. They went to bed their usual time and as far as I know, none of my siblings went out for the night. At midnight, I could hear people around the neighbourhood celebrating at midnight. Hello 2019.
I stayed home on New Year's Day all day and even managed to play a little bit of Super Mario Galaxy for Wii. Wednesday and Thursday were strictly full work shifts. I managed to fully finish off all the classrooms in my second floor run and Danny, my co-worker, did the rooms in my main floor run! That was nice of him! Lots of dusting, wiping down surfaces, sweeping, and mopping. We did no floor scrubbing though I'm sure it'll happen come spring break.
On Friday, we had to be at Burnaby Central for a conference. This was strange as previous ones I've been to were always in the spring, from my memory. Anyways, it was good to see people again and find out from the co-workers who were hired with me and got permanent positions
with me earlier in the year on how their year went. We had presentations from representatives of cleaning machinery companies because lately, there have been new things we've been slowly getting (for example: I got a new backpack vacuum for the Kindergarten portable at Montecito). We were shown how to use the new products and how to care for them. I fell asleep (again!) during the presentation. Thankfully, it was less embarrassing
than last time. After a break, the rest of the conference was on booking absences, time-off; bullying and harassment, etc. I almost fell asleep again. By 1pm we were done and while there was a potluck left, it was optional to stay for. I arrived at Montecito, only to find a couple of maintenance guys were there already (um, okay...). I did a major clean in my washrooms, spot cleaned all walls on the second floor hallway, and swept and mopped those floors. For almost the final hour, I relaxed and spent time on the computer. My lower back was sore since the previous day and again today as I did a lot of bending and lifting desks. The two weeks were now over and in that limited time we had -especially me-, our work turned out decent. Before home, I drove to Kerr's in Vancouver to pick up Wayne's tag only to find... it was closed about half an hour before their closing time! WTF??? No note, no reason... no one was in. It was a bad move on my part as getting home on Hwy 91 through rush hour traffic added more time and gas wasted in my commute. When I got home, my Canon Rebel EOS T6 arrived (my folks picked it up) and I tried it out later. It's definitely a lot more basic than my Nikon camera, but it seems to be okay. I'll try it out next weekend in Seattle and see how it does.
It was a pretty boring Christmas and New Years this time. I wish I could have met more bear buddies as I had lots of time off but half were not available. I dunno, I felt I wasn't taken seriously and guess I wasn't considered "good company" compared to what other plans they wanted to do instead. It was nice to play with a couple of my Daddybears though.
I haven't done it for a few of years, but here is my new sneak peak games list I hope to do for 2019:
PSone: Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete
PS3: Beyond Two Souls, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection
Xbox 360: Gears of War: Judgment
Wii: Kirby's Dream Collection
DS: Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded
I'll try to get through C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters so I can continue through the Signature Classics. Seasons 2 and 3 of Star Trek: Voyager should be done this year and reviewed.
Here's to a productive 2019!
- Steve "Cub" M.