A blank page. A new slate. This is my first post since I turned a quarter century minus one. That’s correct folks, as of February 10th, yours truly is officially one year older; one year further from childhood. He is *cue dramatic sound effect* 24.

Saturday rolled around, and we went into town for brunch, as our usual modus operandi dictated. Of course not 5 minutes into the ride, it went from rather sunny to rather pouring. Typical Bermuda, right? We got to Bistro 12 in Hamilton, and made the rather smart decision to eat inside, rather than on their open air patio. We had a hankerin’ for food that wasn’t soggy; can you blame us? However, being that there was 9 of us, we waited for nearly half an hour before enough tables to seat us all freed up.

Breaking our usual ‘wander-around-downtown-and-window-shop’ tradition, my girlfriend Sarah (henceforth affectionally known as: “the ball and chain”) and I decided to head home right after eating. We made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up the ingredients we’d need to cook my birthday- and our one-month-anniversary- dinner: breaded pork tenderloin medallions w/ creamed corn and mashed potatoes. [Editor's Notes: I'm not going to delude myself into thinking this was exactly what Sarah had in mind for "anniversary dinner", but since Valentine's Day is less than a week away, she can suffer. Plus I'm pretty sure she timed this whole "dating" thing to interfere with my birthday anyways. Yeah, Sarah, that's right, I'm on to your little game.]

We made dinner together since I wasn’t going to have her cook her own anniversary dinner all by herself (although she’s such a good person, that she probably would have anyways), and once everything was prepared, we invited the two bozos to join us. Dinner was great, and not just because of the food - it was the first time that we all sat down, ate together, and had what really felt like a “family meal”. We talked and joked — well they made jokes at my expense, but honestly I’m OK with that.

We’ve had dinner at the table together before (albeit only 3 or 4 times since we bought it like 3 months ago), but this was the first time that it actually felt like we were all a family. All 4 of us are ex-pats who, admit it or not, miss our families. Our moms and our dads, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and friends. We’ve taken advantage of globalization and relocated to a country (or continent for some of us) far, far away from home, leaving our support systems behind us. Up until now, we were still feeling each other out, trying to see if these more-or-less random people would be able to pick up the slack when we just don’t have the energy.

After Saturday’s meal, the answer to that question was a resounding: YES!

It was great being able to open up to these people and just talk about anything. Even if we didn’t really penetrate any in-depth subjects, we were all relaxed and we just had a great time. We need to have more of those meals.

After dinner, we got all prettied up and made our way back into town for a night of drunken debauchery. Well not so much “debauchery” as “stumbling”; but you get my point. We went to Legends (the sports bar) and found out that the stupid Flames lost their stupid game to the stupid Sabres. [Editor's Note: Hey Calgary, if that's how you're gonna thank me for leaving, I just might start cheering for the Lightning. How do you like them apples?!?]

After Legends, we walked down the street to the Beach, and had about 30 more drinks. Well, maybe not 30. Closer to 29. I think. We also sang along to the guy who was playing his guitar over the PA system. I don’t know if we were singing the right words, or even if we were singing at all, now that I think about it. Let me rephrase: we also made sounds with our mouths that roughly resembled the sounds coming from the guy who was playing his guitar over the PA system.

We eventually got home, although how, I’m not sure; I remember talking to our waitress about her being from Romania, and then the next thing I knew, it was 4pm Sunday and I was just waking up. That is my definition of “good birthday”.

At any rate, this has been a good year for me. I was given the opportunity to leave a country best known for its freezing temperatures, and to relocate to one where the word “snow” only brings puzzled looks and questions of “When what falls? You mean rain, right?” I became a lot more mature, and have made some really positive steps in all facets of my life.

All I have to say is: I’m harder, better, faster and stronger than I was last year. 2007: I hope you’re ready for me.