Canada Trip- A Short Retelling

Well…what a trip. First off, let me apologize to those of you that I didn’t have time to see. I was so happy to see half of you anyways but wish we had longer to catch up. So many people… so little time. I was so jetlagged for the first half of the trip that I felt like I didn’t get a chance to really talk with most of you. I was kind of wandering around in a dream state. We were jetlagged and the baby was jetlagged. So when we would try to sleep, he would wake up and vice versa. Long story short, I didn’t do have the stuff I was planning to do.
Shawnigan Lake was great. We had beautiful weather and I actually beat my dad twice at crib which is next to impossible. I finally got to spend some time with my half sister Heather and her boys. I can’t remember their names. Zack and Little Tony I believe. Anyways, her and I are so much alike it is scary. Up until this trip, I had spent maybe a grand total of 8 hours with her my entire life. But we have so much in common. We even like the same whiskey. Clay flew out to meet us too which was awesome. As you probably saw below, I rewarded his love of family by tossing a snake on him whilst hung over.
We were so happy to have Aidan, Peter the Gay, dadd, James and Jennifer at Draidan’s Welcome to Canada party. Aidan flew out from Alberta on Friday to see us and within minutes had us laughing hysterically as he made inappropriate comments about our children. At one point looking at Sullivan, who was puttering by making his trademark “Mum mum mum mum” noise and saying, “What’s wrong with that freak?!” A couple of minutes later, he pointed out how Drai has a hairy forehead and drools too much. When he opened his luggage we were a little sad to see that he hadn’t packed any costumes or props. An odd thing for him but in true Aidan form, he later busted out a pair of the tightest short shorts a man could fit into and put them on. Then, after very little coaxing, ran over to the neighbor’s house, who he had only met briefly two years ago and danced provocatively outside her window. He then tossed her in the sprinkler when she came out, which wasn’t part of the plan but Darcee is hilarious and just rolled with it. Ahhh life is never boring when there is an Aidan about.
For those of you that didn’t hear… it was a great party. James, Jennifer and I started drinking at about 1 O’Clock and the day whizzed by as more and more relatives and friends showed up. I really adore my relatives. They are all total characters. Some almost cartoon like. About 40 people came and the weather was perfect. Around dusk, things apparently took a turn for the worse. I don’t remember any of it and only have some knowledge of the events due to the stories relayed to me from others and photos. Many of which I took myself but have no memory of doing. As my mom put it, I knew it was going to be trouble when James and you started following me around asking to let the chickens out. ‘Mom. Can we let the chickens out? Can we? How about now? Can we let out the chickens? There are no eagles. Can we let them out?’ You were like a couple of seven year olds.” Then, my mother’s evil neighbors, busted out the Absinthe. Not fake Absinthe. The real McCoy. Czech Republic 70% Worm Wood Absinthe. Chris and I had taken a shot of it the night before and now with about 12 hours of whiskey in me, James, Chris and I started downing more of it. James informed me that I also drank more of his because he couldn’t finish it. 20 minutes and almost half a bottle later, Chris is wearing a silver halter top and a toilet paper cozy on his head. I felt fine and eventually went to bed. I awoke around 5am shaking uncontrollably and vomiting. Long story short, James and I both had one of the worst hangovers of our lives. (Karma for the snake in Clay’s bed?) Mine lasted until about 8 O’clock at night. It sucked because my visit with Peter pretty much consisted of him sitting on the deck with me the next morning watching me tremble as I tried to eat a piece of toast. He would then comment on how nicely tanned my feet were or how I needed to trim my nails. Occasionally, we would see James walk slowly by like a zombie looking for more brains. I don’t know what it was about that Absinthe but literally every muscle in my body was tensed up and felt like someone had beat me with a baseball bat. Peter would just giggle and say, “Poor Danny.” I then left him to go puke up my piece of toast. Needless to say, no more hard alcohol was consumed for the remainder of the trip. Peter gave Drai a Dolce and Gabbana jacket that probably costs more than any jacket I even own. Gotta love the Peter. Poor James then had to drive 3 hours south to Victoria with that hangover. I almost felt sorrier for Jennifer having to drive him. That must have been a quiet trip back but I am SO happy they came.
So anyways, Sunday was a total write off. I did nothing and was then angry at myself for wasting a precious day of my vacation. My initial plan was to go get a new tattoo that day but it wasn’t in the cards. My “Norm 4 Eva” tattoo will just have to wait.
We got to see Nate in Vancouver before we left, too. The flight was long. Almost 13 hours. Draidan did well but got fussy a couple of times. He probably cried for a total of 45 minutes during the trip. Which isn’t too bad for a 5 month old. When we arrived in Taipei at around 3:30 am, we were sad to see that it was too early for the HSR (Bullet Train), so we were stuck waiting in the airport for another 3 hours. I hadn’t slept in almost two days and was exhausted. Luckily, I had bought those “No Jetlag” pills before I left, which helped me recover quickly. I love those things. The HSR back to Tainan was great. I love riding that train. It is so comfortable, quiet and fast. Well, quiet until Draidan decided he was fed up with traveling. It has been almost two days of non-stop transit and or waiting to transit. Luckily, we were almost home.
My back did alright. It is quite sore now though. I am back in physio and he says my progress has regressed a lot. So I am doing way less weight in traction.
I want to get back to the pool this week but it is hard because I am so crazy busy in the mornings and work all night. I will figure it out though.
Anyways, that is a really condensed version of our trip. I can’t sit long enough to give you a huge retelling.
Bye!