I just went to the wedding of a friend of mine that I've known since kindergarten. I've been to many weddings before, but there's something oddly different about a friend's wedding, with many friends from high school present. Some of them I hadn't seen in quite a long time, and it was interesting to note how many could be having their own weddings in the foreseeable future. What's going on here? I'm just trying to finish school without breaking down, and the rest of my friends are turning into adults. Did I miss something?

Wow, that was the largest glass of beer I've ever drank. It was nearly the size of a pitcher. Then I went and had another... There are only a few select brands of beer that I will drink, and Hoegaarden is one of them. Just make sure your hands are big enough to hold the glass.

I got introduced to the new pub in the area, and it seems pretty nice, although not particularly unique. Any bar where the nice waitress wears a low-cut shirt and leans over to clean up drink spills is a good place in my books. Unfortunately, I won't be able to become a regular like the rest of my friends until next spring. Bloody school. I'm starting to get the same school-tiredness syndrome that I got in high school: After four years you just get tired of schoolwork, and want to be done with it; you simply can't wait for that fifth year to just pass you by and get itself over with.

One thing I would like is a "regular" place. A bar/cafe/restaurant to which I would go on a regular basis, where the waitstaff knows me by name, I know the menu by heart, and I get served right away because the waitress will come over to say hello, and I'll already know what to get. Unfortunately, moving back and forth from city to city doesn't quite let you do that very effectively. If I was in Montreal, that place would be Santropol, but I'll have to find something close to home. Of course, I don't know where my home will be for more than several months at a time, so it will be a while before I plant myself in a certain area on a semi-permanent basis.

Yesterday, I made the long haul back to the 'loo to start my final year of school. I moved into my new room and met my new roommates: 7 3rd-year business majors at Wilfred Laurier University. I'm the oddball in the house, being the only University of Waterloo student.

The day was a lesson in culture. UW and WLU may only be about 2km apart, but the difference in lifestyle is tremendous. One of my roommates was celebrating her birthday, so lots of people showed up to the house. The first difference I noted right away was that everyone was attractive. Everyone. That simply does not happen at UW. The next difference I noted was the unrestricted party-mood. I definitely knew something was different when a couple of the girls decided to take pictures of their new psychadelic underwear. These differences are amplified as I type this right now, on the UW campus, as two guys are sitting behind me discussing prime numbers. Oh, dear.

So, there I was, sitting around with a bunch of people I didn't know with a style to which I was entirely unaccustomed. We went to Loose Change Louie's - not a bar of which I am particularly fond, but it seemed better than I had remembered it. It's still a meat rack, though, and overcrowded. Just so you know, if two people are grinding in front of you, and a large person is trying to pass behind you on a crowded dance floor, it causes an uncomfortable situation.

On the way back home, I had an interesting encounter. I just left the bar, and passed by a group of people on their way inside. One of them was a girl that looked at me as I walked by. I turned and glanced back. At that point, she turned around as well and glanced back at me. It was then that I realised that I probably knew this person, but I couldn't quite remember her. I looked back to check again, and she did the exact same thing. "That's weird," I thoguht. "I must know her." I turned again to find that for the third time, we both looked back at each other simultaneously.

It's a very strange feeling to know that someone else is thinking the exact same thing you are: "I'm sure I know that person, but I can't put my finger on it!"

About halfway home, I realised that she was the ex-girlfriend of a friend of mine from high school, and that she lived next to another friend's ex-girlfriend in residence in first year. But, for the life of me, I still can't remember her name.

(A lot of time passes)

Barbara! Her name was Barbara! That's it!

Dear God.

Everyone by now has heard of the terrible terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. It is incredibly sickening that any human being could participate in such evil destruction. Thousands upon thousands of innocent civillian lives have been lost in this horrendous attack from an as-yet unknown organisation.

I've read much of catastrophes of the past and always counted my blessings that we live in better times, in safer places. That security has been lost today, and I feel terrible shame upon the human race.

God save the poor souls victimised today.

Despite the general sour mood of the past week, a lot of fun stuff has still happened. I had my first trip to the Turret (Laurier's main bar) for "Cheap Date Night" (not exactly the best of names, but that's Laurier for you). There have been a few nights of lounging on the lawn, several late night inline skating trips, and my Gin Soaks story is nearly complete. Oh, and we now have a house puzzle. One of my roommates bought a 2500 piece puzzle for 99 cents at Value Village, and our dinner table is now unavailable for use until it's finished. We've managed to get about a third of it complete, but there's a lot of foliage to piece together.

Internet gets installed in the house on Tuesday, so hopefully I'll get back into the regular swing of things on the site when that gets set up.

Since returning to campus, I resumed my hobby of ice skating several times a week. It's a very pleasant activity, it provides a decent amount of exercise, and it gives me quiet time to let thoughts run rampant through my head.

I recall, several terms ago, witnessing a very Canadian moment at the rink. A man was trying to teach his toddler-aged son to skate. It was obviously one of his first times on the ice, and he was loving every second of it. That kid had a huge smile on his face as he tried to keep himself upright. His father had a grin just as wide as he held his son up and helped him along. But, the biggest smile of all was that of grandpa, standing on the outside of the rink and looking at them through the glass, watching his son repeat the lessons he most definitely gave some thirty years ago.

Three generations of ice skaters... and the tradition continues...

Finally got internet hooked up at the house. It's good to be back.

The first ball hockey game was today, but unfortunately, that didn't go so well. I had what was likely my worst game ever despite one save that was worthy of TSN's "Highlight of the Night", coughing up a 9-8 loss that should have been an 8-3 win if I had actually played up to standard. Only the first game has gone by, and we're already probably out of the running for a B1 championship.

On the upside, I had a good yummy meal at Mongolian Grill, one of my roommates had an unfortuante incident with some moonshine, and we watched the first half of Dazed and Confused.

I had an awesome weekend.

On Friday, a pair of friends picked me up from Waterloo and drove me back home so we could go see Monty Pyton and the Holy Grail at the Paramount theatre downtown. We got into the spirit of things; we even got empty halves of coconuts for horse-gallopping sound effects.

On Saturday, I got up bright and early to go play paintball. It's expensive, it's painful (I have three large welts from nasty hits - one on the back of my head, one in my side, and one on a knuckle), and I'm not very good at it, but it's quite fun.

After the day's activities, a shower, and a nice nap, we went to the local pub for a hangout evening. I must come home more often simply so I can become a regular like my other friends. A pub feels much more comfortable when the attractive waitstaff know you by name, joke around with you, threaten to poison your food, and yell "Bad regular!" when you misbehave.

Sunday was another early rise as we jetted off to Canada's Wonderland. We rode many roller coasters, and had jolly good fun. At the end of the night, we played Wac-a-mole, and I won a plush chicken.

After Wonderland, I sped off downtown to meet a group of CWD regulars. I got to meet Atlantic Guy, CanAm Steve, Robot Johnny, Kathleen, Bud, Janet, GBG, and the glorious General Claire. I feel so privileged. They are some very entertaining people. The gathering included a waitress that must have been afraid of us, a naming of my new chicken (Chicken Noodle), lots of obscene pictures with said chicken, seven people grabbing my ass, a very cruel subway driver that left despite AG's and Bud's attempts to board the train, and AG and RoJo expressing their love for each other through the doors of a moving subway.

In honour of the CWD gathering, and this enjoyable weekend, Chicken Noodle is now appointed as Spudles' Cup of Noodles official mascot.

After a long period of time with only a few bursts of creative inspiration, I finally finished my Gin Soaks story. The Gin Soaks are a pair of interesting characters developed on the CWD forum. The tale isn't so much of a story with a traditional plot, but more of a character exploration. I'm afraid, though, that if you are unfamiliar with the Gin Soaks, you will not understand most of the innuendo and inside jokes, but you may find it an interesting read nonetheless.

So, I now present to you Bathing In Bombay.

It's been another weekend of Laurier/UW-Math contrasts here in SPUville.

Let's start with Thursday: The Laurier Participation Experience. That night, I went out with my roommates to Wilf's, which is sort of like Laurier's version of the Bombshelter. We hung around there and drank for a while, and then moved on to the Laurier Grad Pub. I must say that for the first time, I liked all the music that was being played at a pub in Waterloo. Kudos to the Grad Pub DJ for playing good music, and avoiding boy bands, techno, and hip hop. 'Twas a really good night.

On to Friday: The UW Participation Experience. It was the start of Engineering Scunt, and late the night before I agreed to participate in the Math team's skit for the opening ceremony. Little did I know, though, that my participation would involve being part of a mock boy band. Imagine singing a math-oriented song to the tune of Wham's "Wake Me Up". Wake me up, before you code code; don't leave me hanging on like a node node; Wake me up, before you code code; I don't want to miss it when you press F9. Very clever, and props to my friend's creativity for coming up with it, but my oh my, was that embarrassing.

Now to Saturday: The Laurier Observation Experience. It's Laurier's homecoming, and my roommates have been drunk, or high, or a combination of the two since the middle of the afternoon. The day started when the homecoming parade passed by our house, waking everybody up. Within a few hours, the lot of them were outside drinking, throwing a frisbee, and chatting away with a genuine biker dude they managed to flag down on the street. Tons of people have been coming in and out of the house, and some of them have been damn hot, too. It's still going on right now, as I type this at quarter to three in the morning. There's a group of various people sitting on the front porch, inventing new styles of bongs, and whooping it up like banshees. I'm not into any of that, but it's certainly an interesting group to observe.

Oh, and I didn't even mention the seashell bra, so there was even more going on yesterday than I mentioned.