Late start this morning. Managed to finally go to the office at around 1pm, which I haven’t been to in a long time. Started by doing the usual beginning-of-semester desk clean up (although from the looks of it, I didn’t do this last term…). Met my new officemate Tony originally from UOttawa. Slightly awkward first meeting, but I guess it was ok. I tried to (gasp!) do a bit of research, but having not touched this material for three weeks, I have trouble figuring out what’s going on, and what exactly was my supervisor talking about when I took those strange notes…so that’s not going so well. I’ll try again tomorrow. Came home and immediately got inspired to head out to get some groceries. It is mesister’s birthday, and mom urged me to call her, and I did, susprisingly enough, for 10 minutes… Cooked some spinach for dinner, and that was good. And that’s about it.

Random notes…

• With so many others things going on, I almost forgot that I’m still a student, and there are some things that I need to do in that regard…
• Are the wheels of my new chair damaging the vinyl floor? Hmm…
• Is there something really wrong with my stomach? Still got some pain when I eat or when I’m hungry… Usually I get this pain when I have a lack of fruits and veggies in my diet…praying that this will go away soon.
• I’m close to making a decision on the wedding puzzle…and it looks like puzzle is winning so far, but I’m still a bit reluctant to make it a final.
• I was flipping through the Bible and a couple of other books this morning. Accidentally stumbled upon Colossians 1:15-17, which just happens to fit well into the coming Bible study… Then flipping through The Purpose Driven Life, stumbled upon the following and thought, no wonder Francis and I can hardly be restored…
  

  Peacemaking is not avoiding conflict. Running from a problem, pretending it doesn’t exist, or being afraid to talk about it is actually cowardice.

I’m grateful to God for…

• bringing me back to work as a student;
• continuing to provide for the coming Bible study;
• the clean desk at home, which increased my willingness to have devotional time;
• lifting the burden in me so that I don’t worry (as much) about the Bible study; and
• the courage to call mesister and find out what’s happening in her life.

I was quite dismayed at how quickly I fell into temptation again…this is getting to a point where I felt like I’ve returned to my old self, throwing away all the lessons learned in the past few months. Is there any hope for me to recover? Sure there is, but I need help… So that was in the morning. In the afternoon, there was this TA meeting, and I’ve inadvertantly gotten the “Head TA” position… “My condolances,” said Furino…heh. It seems like it’s not too bad to be a head TA, though…for now. Interesting conversation with Samuel in the afternoon where he was (according to server logs) on the internet via wireless connection in UWO (heh…). That’s probably it for the day.

Random notes…

• Early this morning, I looked closely at the image of my face in the mirror, which I rarely do. All I can say is, I look a lot older now… Childish heart with an old man’s look…that’s not good.
• I quite enjoy the new chair, actually. But now it looks more like an electric chair rather than a rocket chair…hmm… Anyway.
• I guess I have to mention the wedding puzzle again. I think I’ll need to make a firm decision fairly soon, but I’m still very much overwhelmed by the choice… I’m not necessarily sad about it, since both are great events to attend. Right now, of all the people I asked, all but one suggests the puzzle option. I prayed about it quite a bit…with no answer so far…or maybe the answer is right in front of my eyes…

I’m grateful to God for…

• giving me a few ideas and directions to go in the coming Bible study;
• the interesting msn chats with Samuel and Eugene;
• stopping me whenever I start to panic again;
• this opportunity to be the head TA in a course; and
• the incredible yet intriguing truth that Jesus is “upholding all things by the word of His power”…

The only plan on the agenda for today was to stay at home and wait for the delivery of the new chair. The chair didn’t come until about 3pm…but first, started the morning with breakfast and (surprisingly) a time of prayer. I definitely needed it. Struggled quite a bit with the coming Bible study, with the topic God is Creator… Slept a bit, woken up by a phone call telling me the chair was here, and that was great. Tried to assemble the chair, which was a partial success initially, but got stuck in the final stages when I couldn’t connect the back piece with the sitting area piece…took a rest, and eventually figured out that I should be putting a metal plate under another metal plate instead of over it…(heh, that was too hard to describe). In any case, I did assemble this thingie and now I have a spiffy new rocket-esque chair! Nice… After that, helped Kai move some stuffs to his place, had dinner, and that was about it for the day. I have to say, there was mysterious joy throughout this day…and I still haven’t made a decision on the wedding puzzle!

Random notes…

• Another thing that I found similar between my mom and Leonard…they both call me by the wrong name. Mom often calls me by mesister’s name, or my uncle’s name, and Leonard calls me David…
• As I’m thinking about how hard it is to follow God’s call for me to give up my obsession with violence, I often heard questions that are quite similar to this famous one from the Bible…”Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” I often couldn’t identify this as the start of a temptation, hence I still fail… But God is faithful, and He still forgives me and loves me when I confess my sins.
• I was watching Willingdon’s service online, and the call-to-worship-type verse for the day was Colossians 3:16-17, and I loved this passage…
  

  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

• Boy, I haven’t exercised for the longest time…
• I’m usually very curious as to who would read the stuffs I wrote here, even though I do write this as kind of a journal recording for myself, things to look back on in the future…but I don’t mind people reading it, at the same time I don’t advertise for it, either… Anyway, a little bit of rusted detective work done today yielded a result that has shocked me a bit…if the result is correct, that is. I’m writing this paragraph in vague form for no particular reason…
• New TV season starts today…with lots of news coverage of the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks…which I have trouble watching. In the game show world…Millionaire was ok. Jeopardy went HD and I don’t like it. I had a hard time figuring out who rang in, and the text for the clue had irregular spacing, and there were more inbalances and stuff…then again, I’m kind of picky on these tiny these… I was looking forward to Family Feud, but the nbc channel cancelled it, and I could only watch it briefly on the extremely noisy and snowy omni. The new set looks great, but the host was a little slow in the timing… Anyway, I really shouldn’t be watching TV…
• So about the Bible study this Saturday…this would be the first time that I try to prepare one in a while (about half a year, I think). I was actually quite unsettled about the topic of God is Creator…I just don’t know what to include or which direction to go, and other than the simple stuffs, I don’t understand the deeper things. I was quite worried. But then God reminded me to trust Him, seek Him, and rely on Him, instead of trying to do things on my own. That lifted the burden quite a bit, even though I’m still not entirely ready to let go. This would be a lesson of faith that I will need to learn quickly as I attempt this comeback to serve God in this area.

I’m grateful to God for…

• giving me the patience in waiting for the new chair, and then assembling it successfully;
• reminding me about the lesson of faith in preparing the Bible study;
• bringing me to prayers;
• the opportunity to help out Kai and Sophie again; and
• guiding me in all the thoughts that’s been going on in my mind, and directing them towards Him.

Boy, what a strange and exciting day. I woke up pretty early, around 6:40, despite having a hard day yesterday. Started with yet another disappointment in falling into temptation, and getting angry with myself for being so nonresistant. Two services in the morning proved to be dizzying (physically and spiritually). Glad to see Jackson and Rebecca after the service, and I talked at length with them. Rushed to send mom home, then Kai and Sophie to New City (and got lost in between), then to Ben Thanh (again), this time for a very full lunch before heading to church for myf coworkers meeting. Yup, I went to one of those again…it’s not that bad, I guess, but I was simply tired. Got home, received a surprising voice mail from Samuel telling me that he’s here, and I was tired no more. Well, actually, it’s a mix of tiredness of the day and adrenaline in wanting to see Samuel. Then rushed to get mom and arrived at Jeff’s place where the 5 of us (including Cindy) just chatted for a while. Dinner at a seafood Chinese restaurant in Kitchener, more chatter, and then just like that, I had to say goodbye to Samuel already…sigh… Oh well, there must be a next time, eh?

Random notes…

• After the dinner, I was driving home, and suddenly I felt this strange urge in my throat, as if there’s something that I want to say that just couldn’t come out. It may be a strange juxtaposition of emotions that I was going through. I’ve just said another goodbye to Samuel, longing to see him and talk to him again…I’m facing a Bible study to prepare, first one in a long time…I’m still undecided on the wedding puzzle…I have a lot of research left to do…and I felt so far away from God. It’s as if there’s something God wants to tell me, and I just don’t know how to listen to Him.
• Yes, I’m jumping back into serving God without fully resolving a lot of things. I just felt like I need to do something for God, and time seems to be running out. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not…but most importantly, I’m not sure if my heart is right or not in the sight of the Lord. One notable thing, though, is that temptations seem to come on particularly strong during days that I have these important fellowship meetings to attend…and that’s just…well, I guess kind of expected. Cheap, but expected.
• I get cynical sometimes…like today, I was wondering, was I really worshipping God, or was I merely singing? How about those people on stage? I don’t know.
• Wayne’s email about his new card ranks high up there as one of the funniest emails ever.
• I really like this new table, actually…

I’m grateful to God for…

• the surprise meeting with Samuel, Jackson and Rebecca today;
• the reprieve of getting another week to prepare for supervisor meeting;
• directing a lot of my thoughts towards Him;
• giving me enough energy to last through this draining yet exciting day; and
• the opportunity to serve Him in the area of Bible study again.

I was struggling a lot this morning, thinking over questions about God, my heart, my sins, and almost everything. I couldn’t make sense out of anything. And then my mom came. I was kind of depressed. I briefly mentioned to my mom that I might be able to use a desk in the niche that I have in my room. Forgetting about mom’s character, I was mildly shocked when she wanted to go to Ikea in the afternoon. Oops. First went to Staples, looked around for desks, but instead found a chair that we really liked. Then off to Ikea, where after some looking around, decided on a desk that include shelves, costing around $200 including taxes. Surprisingly, it fits in my car, so that was good. We came back to Waterloo, and at a whim of thought went back to Staples again 5 minutes before it closes for the day (which we didn’t know). Bought the chair, but they didn’t have stock, so it’s going to be shipped here on Monday. Cost of the chair: $340. Yikes. But it is a good chair… Came back home, ate, went out to borrow a toolbox from Li Zhen, came back to assemble this thingie, which was surprisingly easy, actually. It looks nice. Painfully moved stuffs from my original desk to the new desk, and cleaned up things, and now I have a very nice room. In between, there was laundry, and I’m simply exhausted…but it was a good day.

Random notes…

• It just seems that everyone I asked told me to choose puzzle over wedding, but I’m really torned. I understand that ultimately it’s my decision, but I somehow feel that I want to go against the crowd… I guess I just have to wonder which one would be more painful to miss…
• By adding this new desk to the room, I’m eliminating any more possibility of adding anything else to my room. There are advantages and disadvantages to that, of course… Most notably, the heavybag is never coming back. Also, now I have a space to study and read, for both academic and spiritual purposes, and I’m happy about it.
• Yes, there are definitely advanatages in shopping with mom. Most notably, she buys things that I will never imagine myself buying.
• Where is Samuel?
• Finally completed the family trip photo upload. The compressed photos are still in the gallery, but the uncompressed undeleted photos can be downloaded in the shared section. A warning, though, that the total size of all the files is close to 2GB.

I’m grateful to God for…

• another safe trip to Ikea and back;
• this clean room and additional space for studying;
• Kai and Sophie being willing to come to Sunday service;
• showing me this still-rebellious heart that I have; and
• giving me enough energy to last through the day.

The morning started with a surprise fire alarm, which of course must have been a false alarm. I don’t remember much of what I did in the morning, but I certainly remember what happened in the afternoon. I spent the entire afternoon and evening with Kai and Sophie! First time I saw them in months, so that was nice. They wanted to buy tables and chairs…first we tried Staples, but that didn’t work. The idea of Ikea (heh…it rhymes) came up, and we went back to Kai’s place to search for its location on the internet, which was not working…after that was fixed, we headed off to Burlington. They took a long long LONG time to decide on their choice of tables and chairs…heh. It’s just so funny to see their discussions. Ikea really is an interesting place…even I wanted to buy some table and chair from there, only that I’m not so willing to shell out that much money. Kai and Sophie went for the lower-end version, but still cost a lot… Came back to Waterloo, spent some time in Conestoga, which included me at the end running across a closed mall to get my car from one end of the mall to the other end…heh. Finished with a dinner at “Every house happy” and moving stuffs into Kai’s place. We were all very exhausted, that’s for sure. At least I didn’t stay home and do nothing, that’s the good thing.

Random notes…

• I took my mPod with me during the fire alarm, making it the first time the pod has gone outdoors. I was singing along with the worship songs playing in the pod…I hope I didn’t sing too loud…heh.
• It was a pretty hot day, actually. Not as hot as some of the heat wave days this past summer, but still pretty hot…29 degrees registered on my car. Good thing the thunderstorm cooled things down qutie a bit.
• Still no decision on the wedding vs puzzle thingie. Sigh…I really want to make a decision soon… Still need wisdom from God to make it…
• Boy, Kai and Sophie could eat…a lot.
• The topics that myf will go with this semester are occupying my mind a bit. When I raised the suggestion of studying God’s characters, I really didn’t know that they would actually be in favour of it and go for it, simply because I thought it would be quite difficult to prepare for. But now I keep encountering things that could be shared through this series of Bible studies… Today I read about God’s omnipresence. God is everywhere. It’s not right for me to ask for God to come to me, He’s already here! Instead, I need to realize His presence everywhere, all the time. It’s going to take some time for the adjustment…

I’m grateful to God for…

• the spectacular display of a thunderstorm this evening;
• the joy in seeing and connecting with Kai and Sophie again;
• the opportunity to help out and spend time with Kai and Sophie;
• His protection in all the travels and getting lost today; and
• being with me everywhere I go, all the time.

It was a terrible day. I was in this strange unexplainable bad mood leftover from yesterday, and it got worse today. I wasn’t careful, so despite successfully fighting temptations off early in the day, I eventually gave in in the afternoon, making me feel even worse. As if things couldn’t get any worse, it does. My mom came and started to bug me over and over and over…I simply didn’t say a word. I just couldn’t explain myself, and I desperately needed time alone right then. In the evening, went to the mccf meeting, and that sort of lifted my spirits a bit, seeing good friends again. I guess part of what I needed was people to meet and talk to…other than my mom.

Random notes…

• My new roommate has not appeared yet (strangely enough), but apparently we have a name for him now… Scott Harrison is the name, which I got from picking up the mail. Based on a little research on the uw website, he’s a history person…so he looks to be the other end of the spectrum from me, academic-wise…heh. Should be interesting…I hope.
• I have been officially invited to the Canadian team for the WPC. Question is, should I accept it. It’s been bugging me over and over… I was leaning towards attending the wedding, simply because I absolutely adore Jackson and Rebecca. But then almost everyone around me say that I should go to the WPC. So now I’m confused… One more complication: it might be possible that I attend the wedding, then rush to a flight to Bulgaria in the evening, missing the opening ceremony and the excursions. But without the sightseeing tour, a major point of going there would be lost… So…I still don’t know.
• This morning, I tried to recall Psalms 19 and 20, both of which I have memorized in the past few months. And I had trouble recalling many verses…looks like my memory is failing me greatly already.

I’m grateful to God for…

• the joy in seeing some of the mccf people again;
• His love and grace in this tough tough day;
• leading us through the mccf meeting;
• giving me this possibility of going to Bulgaria for WPC, even if it’s causing such a dilemma right now; and
• the brief moment this morning when I experienced His power personally.

I don’t like what I’m doing these days, which is essentially nothing. I tried running in the morning, but that was too painful and I stopped a quarter of the way. There was this dinner at Ben Thanh for Mama Yen’s birthday. I ate too full, and that led to a bad stomach… I said I wanted to go home instead of her place because I have things to do…but really, I lied, and I just wanted to get away and stay alone for some odd reason. It’s just…bizarre. I guess the bright spot for the day (even for just a few minutes) was receiving Kai’s call…

So about the Jackson Rebecca wedding vs World Puzzle Championship issue… It’s not a dilemma in a sense that I don’t like either events…I am very excited about attending either one. The dilemma comes because I would be really sad in missing either one of the two… I’m not sure at all which one I should choose. Suggestions?

I’m grateful to God for…

• connecting with Kai and Jonathan again;
• letting me see the emptyness of my life…;
• being a God of so many great characters, so overwhelming…so hard to study even a tiny fraction of them;
• finally settling the issue of mom’s living arrangements, and helping her in her bus journeys;
• keep pounding in me the notion that to be good at anything requires training…

Yesterday: Spent the entire morning struggling to do…something. Ended up with a brief devotion which struck me deeply. Jesus told the Pharisees to go and learn the meaning of “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” And I find it hard to understand. Afternoon was spent with Ingrid and Ed who came over for lunch. Most of the time my mom and Ingrid talked, and Ed and I remain silent…which is the nature of things, apparently. Sent mom to Yen’s place in the evening, and I came back to try and write some of the ideas I have for myf down, then sent it out. That was a bit of a relief…strangely enough. Today: The morning was spent uploading family trip photos, which can be found here. Afternoon was kind of wasted, really. It’s a day with relatively little mom-interruption, so that was kind of nice…sort of. Evening was spent with Ingrid, Ed and Laura to discuss myf stuffs, and that was a long but fruitful evening, I believe. And that ends these two days.

Random notes…

• Boy, what a big dilemma…well, it’s not that big, I guess. I’ve just been told that there is a very high possibility that I can go to the World Puzzle Championship in Bulgaria, something that I’ve wanted to go for years and worked hard on puzzle skills to get to. But, it just happens to be on the Thanksgiving weekend, the same weekend as Jackson and Rebecca’s wedding! And I’ve already promised Jackson that I would go… This is tough. I’m not sure what to think, let alone how to decide where to go… Both are kind of once-in-a-lifetime events…yikes.
• So I’m playing with this iPod nano thingie, which I’ve uncreatively named the mPod… Took a while to figure out the shuffle function, but it was good. I’m still a bit old school and want to run the battery dry before charging it, even though they say that’s not necessary…
• I’m jumping back in to this myf coworkers thing, apparently… There’s always that fear that my heart isn’t right. I’m just not sure.
• Jonathan’s in Toronto? Wooo…need to find him…
• I really should just face the reality and call this constant working on puzzles what it is…an addiciton. I just can’t put them down…despite having large number of other things to do… I guess this means that I’m going to the wedding?

I’m grateful to God for…

• making life oddly interesting, in a variety of ways;
• showing me part of the meaning of “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”;
• leading us through the discussion and planning for myf;
• good times of fellowship with Ed and Ingrid; and
• dragging and leading me away from tempting situations today.

Back to regular(?) everyday(?) mundane(?) real(?) life now… Yesterday: Morning being dragged around in heavy rain and traffic to do shopping. Afternoon fellowship was strange, seeing lots of birds flying (or not), and then the short awkward prayer meeting. Evening dumpling making where I helped by squeezing out water from vegetables using my palms. Today: Two services in the morning again. Sleep in the afternoon. More dumpling making (and eating) in the evening, and then sent my mom back to Yen’s place. I don’t know, I felt kind of sad and angry for most of both days…mostly because my mom was almost always with me, wanting me to do this and do that, taking her to here and there, nothing like the minimal disruption that she promised before she came here. I guess I should also be honest and say that I wouldn’t be doing anything else anyway, but somehow I didn’t want to spend all my time with mom, either… Ah…just two days of experience out of three months…

Random notes…

• How strange is this: There’s this song called “Better is one day,” and I’ve heard it once during a kwcac English service back in 2002, and never heard it again. That is, until last night, when I was flipping through my iTunes music list, saw that I have this track and played it. Strange thing is, we sang this very song this morning at cfc…it just sends some chill to my spine to see such coincidence happening… “Better is one day in Your courts, better is one day in Your house, better is one day in Your courts, than thousands elsewhere.”
• So for this weblog, I have this long-running format of having three totally unrelated paragraphs in each post. Now with the introduction of random notes containing an odd number of totally unrelated items in point form, it’s like having disarray within disarray…heh.
• I feel like a fake again. The prayer meeting, the worship, the sermon messages…I find that my heart wasn’t into them at all… I keep getting sidetracked from focusing on God. It’s like unlearning almost everything learned in the past year, which is kind of disheartening.
• One thing leftover from Thursday’s dinner at Mongolian Grill…I bumped into Clarence and Christina there. That was quite a surprise. Considering that Clarence had been saying repeatedly over the summer that he wanted to go to Mongolian Grill, and that when he actually went there, I was there as well just by coincidence…it’s a bit mind blowing when coincidences like this happens…
• One sentiment which arose on this family trip is that all throughout the trip, I’m constantly focused on taking great photographs of what I’ve seen, trying over and over again to get the right look, right angle, right brightness, right colour and stuff…and rarely succeeds. That’s why it was surprisingly devastating to me when I found out about the grey blob that appears in almost every photographs… What this does is that by focusing on the photographs, I often forget to just take time to enjoy the scenery and appreciate God’s creation. That’s something I do regret. Perhaps one day I’ll go on a long trip without taking a camera…well, that’s kind of impossible, eh?
• I find in me a mild burden to spread the gospel to people like Kai, Li Zhen and Chen Jie, and to help spiritual growth in people like Francis, Aaron and Clarence. But then I looked at myself and said, who am I that I dare to do these things when I myself still have a lot of lingering questions about the reality of the gospel in my life, when I myself have very limited spiritual growth?
• Well, there are good things that’s been happening these days, so I need not be always so negative, eh? For instance, the poor rainy weather this weekend reminds me of how we were blessed by God with the great weather for the family trip. Also, there has been less focus on my addictions, which is great, but still a long way to go. And there are now more dumplings to eat…heh. (And I just realized that I have made this point disarray within disarray within disarray…a 3D-disarray…)

I’m grateful to God for…

• helping me realize that the coincidences are no mere coincidences, they are hints of Him working in my life;
• His abundance of blessings during the family trip;
• healing my back so that it feels much better;
• helping me realize that it is possible to be less dependent on modern technology and live a simpler life; and
• reducing the level of sexual and violent desires in me these days.

Well, really, the trip ended at around 5am…but let’s start from the top. Woke up at 4am, me having only 3 hours of sleep. Scrambled to leave the hotel at around 4:30, where I found out that I’ve lost yet another pencil, the ATS one that I had for years…sigh… Got to the airport at 5, sent dad away on terminal 3, sent mesister away on terminal 1, and that ended the family trip for us. I was too tired to be emotional about this sending away event, unfortunately…usually I would be crying tears (of sadness, not joy) when this happens… Anyway, went straight back to Waterloo afterwards. Logged 136.5 kilometres this time for a grand total of 1558.3 kilometres for the entire trip. Had a heavy duty clean up of my residence amidst clouded consciousness and collapsed on my bed (with a solid wood plank as base now…thanks Alan!). Woke up, went to Yen’s place, Conestoga to get mom’s cell working (didn’t work), bought some stuffs, came back, more sleep, woke up, went to Yen’s place again, came back, and that’s the day.

Random notes…

• My mom keeps changing her mind on where she wants to stay, and it’s really embarrassing for me to inform others on her changes…
• Another thing that this trip taught me is that I really don’t need to depend on television, and only need to spend only about an hour or two on the computer…will I follow up on that now that I’m back to regular life? Highly unlikely…
• When I talked to C&O Tony a couple of weeks ago, he talked (or rather joked) about camping as being some kind of cleansing of the soul…I laughed…but now I realize, it’s not so far fetched. There’s this indescribable feeling in this trip that helps connected with God through nature. The lower standard in accessing technology also helped made life much simpler. Anyway, not sure what I’m getting at here.
• I’m kind of annoyed by Laura’s bulldozing style…but what can I do? I’m never sure of anything.
• Still trying to figure out how to use the iPod…I’m really not a music freak, so I don’t know how much use I have for it…
• I think I got sick…sigh…
• The thing with the cell phone is that apparently the cell my mom brought from Taiwan is unable to receive the frequency thingie in Canada…that felt a bit strange, but she has bought the sim card already, so yeah, going to find Ed to see if any of his extra cells work… Of course, once my mom leaves Waterloo, I’m sure she’s going to ask me to use the cell…

I’m grateful to God for…

• getting Alan to put his wood plank in my room, which made quite a difference in my sleep comfort;
• giving me enough energy to drive home early in the morning;
• lots of quality sleep;
• keeping a levelled head in me while performing the awkward task of shopping with mom; and
• the beautiful weather He gave us during the entire trip.

We logged 3 cities and 237.9 kilometres for this essentially-final day of the trip. The itinerary was simple…go to Toronto. But first…a stop at the Huntsville Wal-Mart where dad fulfilles yet another wish in buying new jeans for me…yeah, that’s weird. Anyway, we left Huntsville at around 11 and headed in the direction of Toronto. Made a stop in Barrie for lunch and looking at Lake Simcoe. I should note that as I’m driving towards Barrie, I find myself in more and more traffic, eventually the highway widened to 3 lanes with even more traffic, and I started to get this strange anxiety and depression inside of me. When I got to Barrie, that feeling deepened even more as I hit downtown traffic and circling around and around to find parking. I almost snapped and wanted to quit driving at that point, actually, which is quite a contrast with the enjoyable driving that I’ve done throughout the trip. Looks like I’m more of a countryside person than an urban person… Anyway, back to the trip, we arrived at our hotel, and got some rest while dad went off for business. Went to T&T later on, then Mongolian Grill for a full meal, followed by bubble tea with Andrew and Peter, which was the best experience for the day…heh. The evening was spent with a lot of flowing data, and I slept at around 1am…

Random notes…

• I saw and touched a two-month-old baby at dinner…boy, that was a really touching moment. The skin is so tender. But whenever I see babies, I start to imagine what they have to go through in order to grow up and the kind of world that they are going to face, and that sort of gives me a heartache…
• About Huntsville…we stayed for 3 nights here, but we didn’t do much in this town. It’s sort of a middle-of-everything kind of town, and we used it as this focal point in the journey, branching out to surrounding areas each day. It’s a surprisingly large city, though, with about 30K people (actually, I would say that any city that has a Wal-Mart is a large city…). Surprising for a town that doesn’t seem to have any major industry going for it, except for the tourist industry surrounding the town…
• Part of what made this trip a bit straining for me is the fact that I planned this trip, and if they don’t enjoy it, I feel quite responsible for that… It ended up well, thank God, but there were many moments where I felt that the trip was about to break down and become disappointing. Negativity at work, once again.
• Things I don’t like: heavy highway traffic, downtown traffic with one-way streets, paying for parking.
• During the trip, at the end of each day, I would play this guess-the-kilometres game, where members of my family got to estimate the distance travelled on that day. It was a fun little game, and mostly my mom and dad won…sometimes with really close estimates.

I’m grateful to God for…

• such a wonderful trip, taking care of us every step of the way;
• the good times in meeting with Peter and Andrew;
• calming me down numerous times today when I start to become impatient, whether it’s with the traffic or with the family;
• the unique things that I could only experience because I’m in this particular family; and
• being in control of everything, large and small, visible and invisible.

We logged 4 cities and 228.3 kilometres this day. We had an early start to the day, waking up between 7 and 8, mostly because dad wanted to golf at a nearby course early in the morning. He went for a pre-golf “inspection” and found out that there’s no golfing until later in the day…oh well, we woke up anyway, so I decided to go to High Falls near Bracebridge. Good thing I checked online for directions before I went, for otherwise I would have never found it…and it was a really nice waterfall, the largest in the Muskoka region, I’ve heard. It’s not large, really…actually, it’s pretty small…but the setting is just beautiful and we can actually get close enough to the falls to touch the water. That was nice. Moving on, the only thing planned for this day was the 30,000 island cruise at 1pm, which is in Parry Sound. We headed that way, and “bumped” into a golf course on the way there… At the “Sound,” we had a nice little pre-cruise lunch near the boat launch, and then we were off to the 3-hour cruise. The cruise itself is ok, I guess. It follows a bit of the Algonquin pattern from the previous day, where I was kind of disappointed in the beginning, but was amazed by the sights that we encountered later on. It’s very relaxing, so relaxing that my mom and mesister slept for a lot of the 3 hours…heh. I really don’t know how to describe what I saw, I guess I can only refer to pictures when I post them later… After the cruise, we head back to the golf course that we passed by on the way to play golf and fulfill one of dad’s wishes… The course is called The Diamond “In The Ruff” (whatever that means). After some confusion and stuff, we ended up having me and my dad playing while my mom and mesister caddying… It’s my first time playing golf on a real golf course, and I haven’t held a club in about 4 years, and have I mentioned that I hate golf? In any case, we did 9 holes, and I didn’t do too bad, scoring 80 on this par 34 course. Dad got 59. All done in exactly 2 hours, which was the suggested pace of play, apparently… We wanted to have dinner at the clubhouse afterwards, but that didn’t work, so they suggested another place nearby called Jimmy Hatz, and we went there. It wasn’t really good, though…except for the smoked meat sandwich I ordered, which was great. After dinner, we headed to the hotel in the dark (first time we did this in the entire trip), and got lost for a bit, but recovered, and finally I collapsed in the hotel room…and that ends the day.

Random notes…

• This is the day when “lower” gas prices made the headline news…and we gassed up at 94.9 at Parry Sound, not too bad.
• A really bad joke: It’s a 3-hour cruise for the 30,000 islands, so basically 10K islands per hour… Not a joke: It’s also $30 per person, so 10 bucks per hour…
• It was a pretty cold day to start and end with, actually…I didn’t bring my jacket along, but I wish I had.
• I do realize during this trip that so much can be done in a day…so there is basically no excuse for wasting time like I did before the trip, eh?
• There are talks on having an annual family trip already…sounds like yet another blank cheque that dad is writing, but who knows… The planned destination for next year is Newfoundland. But first, my mom wants another trip to the Muskoka region at the end of September to see the fall colours…I’m not sure I have enough energy to do another such trip…
• My dad snores…quite loudly, in fact. Woke me up the day before in the middle of the night…
• Apparently my dad connects with me the most when playing golf…but really, I still don’t like golf…

I’m grateful to God for…

• making golf tolerable for me for just this day…;
• creating the beautiful 30K Islands, and not having to deal with seasickness on the cruise;
• the rare time of family gathering and good interactions and conversations;
• helping us find our way back to the hotel in the dark; and
• the perspective in me in believing that all the beautiful things we’ve seen are created by Him, which I’m sure made a big difference in how I see things.