Christmas and Boxing Week 2019
While I hope all of you had a nice Christmas, I also wish you all a Happy New Year! The winter break wasn’t that eventful for me but here are how things went.
On Christmas Eve, I did my half-shift that morning at Rosser. I was completely alone - David was using a vacation day and no staff came in. I did all the extra cleaning in my run and picked up garbage outside within the immediate school area except I had no more time to do the sidewalks. At 11:30am, I drove to meet my friend Steve for lunch at Denny’s on North Road. We spent 4 hours chatting about things in our lives and I gave him his Christmas card with a pic of me in Seattle, smoking a cigar outside The Cuff. After saying goodbye, I got home by 5pm. My new Samsung Galaxy A70 smartphone from Best Buy had arrived but I won’t use it just yet. I then spent the night writing my annual Christmas email and sent it out to numerous bear and leatherbear buds. I included 4 pictures of me that were taken throughout the year.
Christmas Day, I got out of bed after noon and puttered around on my computer. Dinner was after 4pm with just my immediate family and niece. Both my brothers-in-law did not come up for some reason. I later found out my younger sister’s husband caught some virus and had been sick lately, so he stayed downstairs to not pass it onto us. The steaks my folks made were okay, so were the fries, veggies, and garlic bread. I helped washed the dishes while my younger sister hand dried them. Surprisingly, we didn’t do presents together as a family! So, my gifts to my family would have to wait. My folks gave me a nice Christmas card with $50 inside and I gave them their card too. In the card, I thanked them for their help while my arm was broken. I then did some Boxing Week shopping online but didn’t see much of interest. I decided it was time to get an Xbox One X console so I did it through the online Microsoft Store (via Aeroplan’s website so I could get some points added on). The sale price was the same for Amazon Canada and EB Games regardless. It’s a Gears of War 5 console bundle and I added in a play & charge kit for the controller - all totalling $537.93 with taxes and free shipping. As I was shopping for a custom phone case for my new Samsung phone, the internet went down out of nowhere about 2am (it would fix itself sometime later). I then went to bed by about 3am.
For Boxing Day, my mom made minestrone soup for the first time and it was quite good. She may consider it to be the newest addition to the “weekly soup family”. After I ate, I opened my gift from my younger sister’s family, seeing that we weren’t going to do it together. It was nice: a retro video game style blanket. I then left my gift bag downstairs on their computer chair discretely. I got my brother-in-law $70 worth of gift cards for Willow Video, my sister a $50 Amazon gift card, and my niece a copy of NES Remix for WiiU. My niece soon came up and thanked me for the gifts. Not long after, I drove to Burnaby for Daddy David’s (same one who joined me in SF for this year’s Dore) post-Christmas get together. He lives at the condo I worked at the most as an acting-resident manager from 2012-2017. I was the first guest to arrive after 2pm but then others soon came after. Throughout the night we had a few pups, a bunch of VML members, and bear buddies. I spent some time with a couple of cute Daddybears. One of them I recognized, and I’ve seen him before recently: at the Friday night play party at the Pumpjack Pub during VML’s Anniversary weekend. We had some fun and interesting conversations. Daddy David was a great host and had a lot of great snack food on hand. I was one of the last to leave and it was sleeting outside. Kevin called me just after I got into my car and we talked for over 10 minutes on my way home. He got my Christmas package of various candies and card with photos earlier in the day. On the way, I stopped at a Vancity drive-thru to deposit some money plus withdraw my monthly rent contribution. I had a pot of minestrone soup before winding down on my computer and heading to bed after 1am.
Friday at work, I finished off sweeping the last 4 classrooms upstairs, wiped all desks and tables that could be done, and vacuumed all filthy rugs. Earlier in the shift after 10am, I got a reply to my Christmas email from a Leatherdaddy friend of mine -who I’ve been friends with for about 5 years- that he was ending his friendship with me. He gave me two reasons, one of them I understood, the other I kind of understood. It didn’t make much sense as earlier in the year, things seemed normal between us but come summer and up to now… he was more silent toward me. Nothing had changed, one of the issues he felt I didn’t put the effort into while the other I had to deal with an incident that I even wrote about on here but relayed the story to a few friends. I’m guessing they told him, and he felt embarrassed about it. But I understood why it would have him distrust me as it was kind of a private thing. I just really thought it was strange that now he wanted nothing more to do with me. I wish he confronted me on it and said he didn’t feel comfortable with me telling other bears and leatherbears about the “bondage gone wrong” incident. I did not plan to lose a good friend and Leatherdaddy to end this year with but now, I’ll have to live with this guilt for awhile into the new year. It made for a saddened rest of the day. To cheer me up a bit, I vid-chat with Daddy Jeff in Alton that night as he got my Christmas card and we haven’t chatted for awhile. Sometime after the conversation and I had some minestrone soup, I felt quite sick that night. I had a lot of diarrhea and a bad stomach ache. I was glad it was the weekend so I could recover from this.
I spent all day Saturday at home as I still felt bad. My diarrhea didn’t go down that much, but my stomach aches were becoming less frequent and painful. Sometime in the afternoon, I wrote an email reply to my now ex-friend. No ranting and trolling, I tried to be sympathetic and adult about it. I also mentioned that I would soon delete all his contact information and defriend him off any sites were on. I did all that the following Thursday. Anyways, I ended up finishing Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and spent the rest of the day working on the review.
Sunday, I was feeling better than before, so it was a good opportunity to do some Boxing Week shopping. I first went to Indigo and bought a copy of Dragon Quest Illustration 30th Anniversary for $34.53. There were no good boxes of Christmas cards left, though. I stopped off at Vancity nearby to take out some money. I then went to Best Buy but bought nothing. Going south, I stopped into Toy Traders and got a Batman: The Animated Series figure of Bane for $39.15. I finished off by going to Willowbrook Mall and bought a box of Christmas cards at Coles bookstore for $6.71. Carlton Cards were sold out of all boxes and even then, their sale price on Christmas products is not as good as before (50% versus 70%). After some walking around, I went home. My older sister left me my Christmas gift of an Amazon gift card as she was visiting upstairs, which I thanked her for. I did my gas trip to Blaine later that night and went to bed after 1pm.
On Monday, I finished the top floor of my run and was now working in the 4 rooms on the bottom floor. My co-worker Dean left after 2pm due to some pain in his tooth that he experienced since the previous night. Soon after he left, I called my friend Jim in North Delta to see if he wanted a visit, but he didn’t respond. After my shift, I drove to Surrey Place Mall in the rain to do some final, non-online shopping. I went to Best Buy and picked up South Park: The Fractured but Whole for Xbox One plus Collection of Mana and Super Mario Odyssey for the Nintendo Switch (which I plan to get someday) for $73.15. I used an old $50 Best Buy gift card my older brother and sister-in-law gave me in (I think) 2007. They didn’t have anymore copies of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for Switch and Soulcalibur VI for Xbox One as they were also discounted. I then walked around the mall and checked out a used game’s store, but nothing caught my eye. This Carlton Cards had no more boxes of Christmas cards either. I got a pomegranate and mixed berry drink from Booster Juice before continuing on. I finished by going to Wal-Mart and managed to find a box of cards and the last copy of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition for Xbox One. Both totalled $36.34. It was still raining outside and I kind of forgot where I was parked while I was protecting my purchase from the rain. After finding and quickly getting into my car, I drove along Fraser Street to get back home. I then did some more work on my Kirby's Dream Collection review.
New Year’s Eve was a half-shift. I finished wiping down all tables and the computer lab on the bottom floor of my run. I spent the rest of the shift auto-scrubbing the gym floor. I wasn't feeling all that great as I was recovering from a minor sore throat and now had a runny nose. Oh yes, and constant cough too. Before leaving, I got an automatic phone call from Fed Ex that my Xbox One X console from Microsoft was ready for pick up at their centre in Surrey. I drove there to pick it up, finding their location very bizarre I should say. I haven’t opened the box just yet, as I’ll be concentrating on other systems a bit more. It took awhile, but my Kirby's Dream Collection review was up so I could relax just before the new year could begin. I went onto Best Buy Canada’s website and ordered Zelda: BOTW and Soulcalibur VI for $86.22. The power went out for several seconds that night but thankfully, it didn’t do much. 2020 rolled in and before I went to bed, I wanted to order a game from EB Games, but their Boxing Week sale ended after midnight, so the deal wasn’t there anymore. Damn. I went to bed by 3am.
My childhood friend Marc called me and wished me a Happy New Year. After some conversation, he called my folks and had a conversation with them too. I purchased some games from the PS Store as many of them were on sale, all for $40.46: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, Castlevania Anniversary Collection, Contra Anniversary Collection, and The Disney Afternoon Collection. While they were downloading onto my console, mom made turkey dinner and we had a New Year’s feast with my whole younger sister’s family. My brother-in-law and I talked about Star Wars and complained about the sequel trilogy and Disney’s handling of the franchise. I spent the rest of the day in my room, constantly coughing and playing Ys Book I & II on my Nintendo Wii. I also uploaded a couple of pictures from 2019 on Recon that night and got some nice responses. I went to bed about 1am.
Thursday at work, I finished mopping the 4 rooms and spent the rest of the day cleaning the windows, starting upstairs. I found out from the foreman that there will not be a meeting at Burnaby Central the next day since a lot of custodians were taking their vacation time. It might happen in February during a Pro-D day and/or during spring break in March. I got at least 75% of the windows done that day. I got two belated-Christmas cards waiting for me at home: one from Daddy Murph in Washington and the other from Michael & Donovan in Wisconsin. My Best Buy order (Zelda: BOTW and SC VI) also arrived. I spent the rest of the day playing Ys and beat it after 11pm.
I finished off the windows on Friday and helped Dean replace the vast majority of air filters throughout the school. For the last third of the shift, I relaxed given I probably worked too hard this entire winter break. But at least most things have been cleaned and emptied out. At home, Shaw Cable was in earlier and we now have a new router and the cable box has been upgraded. I updated my Blackberry smartphone and video game consoles to the new router and then proceeded to get my folks’ PC to pick up the new router too. I then uploaded my review of Ys Book I & II and puttered around for the rest of the night. I played some Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening on my Nintendo 2DS too.
That's how my two weeks went. If I wasn’t so sick, this Christmas and New Year’s would have been a little more eventful for me. I regret not getting to meet a couple more local bear buds and give out their belated Christmas cards and photos. Guess I'll have to try and make up for it this winter.
My list of potential games to play in 2020:
PS3: Batman: Arkham Origins, Soul Calibur V
PS4: Strider (2014)
PSP: Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Xbox 360: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
Wii: Metroid: Other M
DS: The World Ends with You
I should be able to get through C.S. Lewis’ Miracles and continue on in The Signature Classics. Star Trek: Voyager should finally be done and reviewed sometime this year, and I’ll be starting a new retro anime series to work on very soon too.
Here's to a productive 2020!
- Steve