GOING TO CWSC!!!!! PUMPEDDDD!!!! BOOOYYAHHHHHHHHHH!!

haha.

Wowwwwww...has it been like 4 months since my last post? haha how time slips away.

Anywaysss...what can i say to sum up the last 4 months?

How about "Life I love you! Feelin Groovy!"..as Simon and Garfunkel so musically put it.

Yeah, so I'm still addicted to my guitar...working on a band, found this cool guy who can work the fretboard pretty good..not bad to jam with.

Oh yeah! And I work at A&W too. What a sweet job! Seee, they have these two rules: 1, there always has to be hamburgers cooked and ready for customers so that they get fast service; 2, any non-fresh hamburgers (in this case, older than 8 min) have to be chucked....ha ha ha....guess who's been eating a lot of hamburgers that are 8.1 minutes old?  They tell me I'm not allowed to eat the old burgers, but the way I see it, if I don't eat them, then the crows will. Stupid crows..there are people starving in the world....besides, rules are made to be broken, right? Right? helloooo...let me hear you say yesssss!! 

Other than work and school....I go to the gym a lot now. Trying to get buffed, you know - attract the ladies...haha but seriously I have gained about 30 lbs since I started working out...hmmm...maybe thats the A&W burgers...I like to think its the weights!

And what else has Ben been up to lately? Party a lot too, I guess. I pretty much do everything...except sleep. My friends tell me, "Ben, we know people who are always at the gym, and we know people that are always at work, and we know people who party hearty...but you are the only one who does all three."  Mom and Dad constantly tell me I need more sleep...but they are the worst nighthawks you can imagine...plus, I remember what Thomas Edison said in his 70's when doctors told him to get some rest: "There will be plenty of time for sleep at 100."

Ahhhh....you guys should have seen me last night...sketchiest bit of driving I did in a longgg time. See, two of my buddies Ryan and Trevor, as well as I, were going to pick up this girl Jasmine. This girl lives on a dirt road, and you can come at her house from 2 directions...we decided to come at it from the rough direction. So we just start down the road when Jasmine calls us on Ryan's cell: "Hey, guys, don't come from the highway side...it's solid ice..my horse couldn't even walk there." So we were all set to be sensible and turn around, but no, no, Jasmine just haddd to say, "Even Dad says you'll never make it."

Ryan, Trevor, and I look at each other and say, "Now that....is a challenge!!"

haha so we kept going...and everything went fine until we came to...the hillll! This might be hard for my American friends to picture, so I shall describe it in detail. Imagine a hockey rink, or better yet, just the ice. Now imagine that the whole rink was tilted to a 60 degree angle. Yeahhh, that was this road. haha. I put the brakes on, and...nothing! we kept going. That would have been no big deal except on one side on the road there is a huge canyon ( with no fence between it and the road)...and of course..we were going sideways, towards the abyss.

The car stopped halfway down the hill, right on the edge of the cliff. We did not know what to do! Everytime we even wiggled, the car slid a little closer to the edge. Trevor said to me, "Let me drive, man, I've done tons of crazy **** like this." So, since he is about 4 years older than me ( and has a couple of times out-running the cops for credentials) I thought this was a good idea. He was in the back seat, so he opened the door and stepped out---and went sliding down the road 20 feet! Haha. He finally made it back up to the car, so I put it in park and tried to step out. However, everytime I tried to get out, the car kept sliding! So Ryan, from the front passenger seat, stuck his leg over and stepped on the brake while we switched seats.

Once Trevor had the wheel, he handled it like a pro. There was a couple of times when I actually thought we were done for. But somehow, when one wheel seemed over the edge, the others would pull it just back onto road. But Trevor handled it masterfully, and we all said a few naughty words at various points.

Yeah, so we made it down. Then we had a good laugh. When we got to Jasmine's she asked, "How was the road, you crazy people?"

We looked at each other: "Pfft! A little ice. No big deal." lol

Ahh yeahh...life in Nova Scotia. Jay man, I'm sure you've had a few sketchy drives in Quebec haha. Miss seeing you. Keep on rockin in the Free World.

I am actually getting tired. It is, after all, closing in on 2:30 in the morning....hahha.

Yeah just thought I may as well post..give a quick update...haha I'll try to post before another third of a year slips away. Love all of you.

Well guys, I think an Xanga post is longgggggggggggggg overdue.

        Yeah, so, I didn't make it to CWSC this year.   I was very, very busy working. I worked on a farm in Ontario 6 days a week, 11 hrs a day! I really missed the conference though. Gotta make it there next summer!!!! Hope you guys had a blast there.

        The farm I workd at grows apples, pears, peaches, cherries, and pumpkins. So I ate ALOT!! The farmer, Don Thompson, is a pretty cool guy. The farm was started by his great- great-......grandfather in 1881 and has been passed down father to son ever since.

       There were these two girls that worked at the farm that Don was always trying to get me into trouble with. For example, the first time I saw them, Don says, "Hey, girls, want to go see a movie tonight? Cuz Ben here is looking for a date but is too shy to ask." And then we were out of the room they were in before I could say anything!

        One day Don says to me, "Ben, you got a girlfriend in Nova Scotia?" And I said, "No." Then he looked right offended and said, "You don't!!! Why not? What's your problem? Have you seen Pirates of the Carribean?" And I said, "Er, um, yes."   "Well, perhaps I should be asking you the same question Jack Sparrow asked Will Turner!" I didn't get it right away, but then it hit me, "You're not a eunich are you?"hahahahaha.

         Hmmm. What else happened to me that's worth telling? Oh, I met this girl named Julie that works at Tim Hortons (for my American friends, that's a coffee shop roughly equivalent to Dunkin Donuts). She was telling me about one time when some old guy came through drive-through in his underwear. ( as Julie put it "tighty whities.") So I said i'd do the same. True to my word I did! One of the families in the church had the youth group over for a sleepover, and the next morning I said, "Oh, I gotta go, er, visit Julie at Tim Hortons. Who will drive me?" A girl named Jenn volunteered, so away we went! It actually must have looked pretty bad to anyone watching. Jenn and I pulled into Tim Hortons and parked the car. Then we switched seats and I stripped to my undies. Then we went through Drive-thru and said hi to Julie. Then we parked and I got dressed again. lol good times.

       A few other interesting things happened, more on them later, but I gotta hit the sack. I'll try to post more often.

Peace

Yeeahhhhuuuuup.

       The tournament went well, by which I mean that no one was sent to the hospital. I refereed and coached, and Mom and Dad ran the head table for the first time in their lives. It was a job that was dropped on them somewhat unexpectedly, and they did very well. Ha! Their skills of improvisation, stress-resistance, endurance, and combat have been honed over the years by dealing with a problem child like myself! [evil laugh] MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

      As usual, my day had a few embarassing moments that kept it interesting. When I started to referee the first match, the corner judge looked at me somewhat sternly and tapped his wrist. I looked at my watch and thought, "Oh, referees must not be allowed to wear watches, probably some dress code thing." So I dutifully took my watch off and put it in my pocket. He started laughing, and then I realized. What he had meant was, "Tell the little girl you are refereeing to take her bracelet off so she doesn't hurt her opponent." Man, I felt stupid. I told her to remove her bracelet, and finished reffing the fight. Afterwards, the man chuckled and said to me, "Ya know, you can put your watch back on anytime you feel like." Some days you just can't win. lol.

Keep on Rockin in the Free World,

Ben

Well, time for a quick post, I guess.

               Physics exam went really well. It wasn't as hard as everyone thought it would be. Still, it took 2.5 hours to write.

               At the school I go to the students use calculators which are capable of running and editing programs. A lot of the people use this feature to cheat on tests, entering notes, formulas, and definitions into their calculators beforehand. The teachers have caught on to this trick and before the exam they erased everyone's calculator memory. One of the guys always cheats this way, and we all assumed that he would be in a real jam with a swiped calculator. However, being an expert at "beating the system", he stayed one step ahead of the teacher. He arrived with TWO calculators, one which he gave to the teacher to be swiped, and another concealed in his back pocket full of notes. I couldn't help but laugh when I heard this. People sure are clever.

              Off to Halifax tomorrow for a judo tournament. I don't think I'll compete, since I'm still a little sick, but I'll referee and coach the little kids anyway.

Keep on Rockin in the Free World,

Ben