Amidst a onslaught of academic deadlines, I still managed to see a few good friends over the weekend. 

It all started Friday when I went back to high school.

My good friend Trish and I met up for some dinner at Alice Fazooli’s. It had been a long time since we’d seen each other and it was great to be able to catch up and laugh and “shoot the proverbial shit”. I love her because she’s honest with me, so honest it hurts. We all need someone like that in our lives. 

To my surprise, I was almost able to finish an entire pasta dish full of scallops, shrimp and oysters. I left the roasted red peppers and spinach (sad face) because it was taking forever to chew everything else, and as a tribute to my laziness I realize now that with my braces, sometimes the sheer amount of work it takes to eat something and then try and suck, lick, and pry the crap from your teeth is just not worth it. So afterwards we got Baskin Robbins. 

My friend Olivia is teaching back at our old high school. This year they put on a comedy entitled Not Now, Darling, which was actually really funny. I am constantly surprised at their choice of productions (Wit, August: Osage County as well as Laramie Project the year before), and the talent that they have at this school! High School productions are tricky things: they can go in so many directions but when they’re good, they’re good. And it’s always a delight to hear the entire crowd cheer when their friends debut on stage. But it’s not like I’m jealous that my year never got to do shows like Wit, August: Osage County, and The Laramie Project. Not. Jealous. At. All. 

I feel old. 

And I miss theatre. 

Moooooving on to Saturday night. 

I met up with a new friend of mine named Tyler to go and check out Sucker Punch, which I actually really enjoyed. It had a lot of mixed messages and at times it was completely sexist and totally playing to the sexual fantasies of men, but at other times it was almost heroic in it’s tiny sparkles of feminist ideas, reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If anything, it’s a mimic of the Buffy motif with an Anime-like story line, with a whole lot of miniskirts. 

Afterwards we sat around in my car and talked for three hours because let’s face it, there’s not much to do in Newmarket. 

I’m excited for this summer. Regardless of my metal-mouth, I am stoked to go back to the gym and become more active like I used to be in high school. I want to get back into volleyball and tennis, start riding my bike more often and even take up jogging again. I need to lose my winter weight, and it’s sort of great with these braces cause I’m not as much of a pig now that I can’t chew SHIT. 

Thankfully, when I was speaking to my friend Jason Friday afternoon he told me how thin my voice sounded already. It made me so happy.

I’m also going to stretch out this last bit of freedom before I am forced to become a Big Boy and to Big Boy things like work, so that I can focus on myself and my creative projects. 

And that’s what you missed on Em(brace).