i had such a nice weekend - it was almost 5 days long, firstly, and secondly, i laughed so hard it hurt. anyway, i can't divulge too much, partly because of some impending events and surprises for the upcoming wedding of lovely ole' bashley, but part of my weekend consisted of traipsing to lingerie shops all over toronto with the rest of the bridal party....from upscale bra bar in yorkville, to mid-priced la vie en rose, and ta da!!! to the seedy shops along Yonge street...(we were in seductions looking at teddies and nighties, with witherspoon gasping "oh my god!" under her breath at any accidental glance at a vibrator, or k-y....)...

anyway, it seems that my family has been dealing with a lot of crap (literally) while i've been away and in and out of the city...our toilet is a meek, weak thing, and its flushing power is nothing compared to the industrial strength of those black and white and steel toilets you find in, you know, schools and government buildings and public places. those are the toilets you flush and scramble to get out of the stall because the noise is so loud and the downward force so powerful that it's a bit scary to be so close to it. i mean, what if it regurgitated with the same oomph? an ugly, ugly thought. so where was i. we live in a pretty old neighbourhood. the houses were constructed way back when, so there isn't an ounce of particleboard in the walls or floors, everything is aged, and the trees have put down roots so deep and strong that they have the pomposity (or need) or infiltrate the crap canals that lead from our houses to the main city crap canals. more specificially, if you imagine a y-shaped canal, one goes from our house, joins the canal from our neighbour's house, and join to empty into the city crap canal. a little while ago my neighbour had a big toilet problem, and called various people to unplug his canals...and the city eventually came, dug up a lot of front lawn, and it was discovered that his maple tree had put large gnarled roots into his side of the crap canal - so much so that the city people wondered how anything could have gotten through. they fixed this problem, but it required that part of our driveway had to be dug up, and so now, our driveway looks sort of funny, because there is a huge black patch of new asphalt from midway up the drive, through the sidewalk, to the end of our property. it's not even level - the city people explained that asphalt needed to settle, and my dad was fine with that - city people do what they do, really, on their own schedule, and usually that schedule is slow. you wouldn't believe how many people have toilet problems in a given day. anyway, my neighbour is really into beautifying their property. for as long as i can remember they always had professional lawn care (read: pesticides, cancerous), they won't take down a fence that gets on my dad's nerves to this day, because it used to stick out into our drive, making exiting and entering a cautious affair, and these days, for every annual event (christmas, halloween, etc etc) they decorate their house and lawn to the nines, complete with blinking this and that and large huge wreaths. so they put a lot of concern into appearances - while, at my house, now that the family's pretty grown up, we don't care about putting up anything for any occasion - my brother hates christmas wreaths and once every 5 years i get the inclination to cut a jack-o-lantern; we usually put up a christmas tree rather grudgingly the day before christmas, to appease next-day visitors. we're a busy family in general, and we'd rather do other things, i guess. anyway, my neighbour apparently wants to add another little flower bed to the corner of their lawn closest to the ugly patch of asphalt on our driveway. apparently they have been calling the city nearly every day (the city people told us that our neighbours were annoying in that way - imagine, having your address known on an intimate basis to the people that fix the crap canals), and in addition, asked my dad to call them and get them to fix the ugly asphalt. my dad explained to them that the city people explained about the settling requirements of asphalt, and trusted that they knew that they were doing, and would eventually fix it. to that, my neighbour said something to the effect of "if i were you, i would be jumping up and down to get them to fix this", and you know what my dad said to that? he said something to the effect of "hey neighbour, you and i are men. we are born with nothing, and we die with nothing. i wouldn't jump up and down about such a (small) matter as the asphalt on my driveway"...

my dad surprises me like that all the time. i don't know where he gets all his Understanding. sometimes i wonder if he has a book of "cool sayings you can memorize to shut people up" but i highly doubt it. in those words, the way he lives and conducts himself is so evident. he doesn't care about his clothing, as is the natural wont of most koreans, to deck themselves in burberry and polo (although everyone knows they're wearing knock-offs). he doesn't care about his car (koreans seem to have a fascination with beamers). he works non-stop all day, and late into the night. everything he does is to support our family and friends, and he doesn't complain at all. my mom has always told me the story of our family - the only branch out here in this country - how they literally had nothing in the beginning but managed to attain the Immigrant's Dream - getting jobs, even starting a company (my dad's friends thought he was crazy when he didn't buy a convenience store to operate when he came here), buying a home, sending kids to ballet and tens of thousands of dollars worth of piano lessons, horsebackriding camp, gymnastics, skating, swimming, even paris...and this story of ashes to something more than ashes - tugs at strings in my heart more forcefully now than it ever has before. it's my age, i guess. i am ever so grateful.

anyway, it's been a sushi-full, spring roll-full, ice cream-full, coffee-full weekend, each like three times over, and so its probably a good thing that i'll be back in london for two or three days before doing it all over again.

good movie: the way home, amelie.
good song: heart, by stars.