I woke up this morning, and found my hair rough and my ears cold. I had left the window open last night, and the sun had creeped through filling my room with golden light, as if the chilly breeze was casting the blinds aside, telling me that it was time to get up.

Two eggs, two hashbrowns, and three sausages please.

Thursday, I went over to Pat’s for a long-planned table tennis marathon. Before we started, he cooked us dinner; rib-eye steak grilled on the barbecue, a fresh vegetable stir-fry, and bruschetta as an appetizer. The steak was marinating all day in a garlic and oil sauce, and the bruschetta spread was made using extra virgin olive oil and basil that he grew himself. It’s great to have a friend whose passion is cooking and eating.

We ended up playing for about an hour and a half, because we ended up speaking for so long and I had to work the next day. Every game was close, and every best-out-of-five match went to the fifth game, with a deuce for match point during three of the five matches. He was leading by one the entire time, but I adjusted my timing and took less risks, and ended up winning the final match 12–10.

It was frustrating to be playing in his basement because I’m used to a much bigger area with much better lighting. The ball was hard to keep track of, and I didn’t have the same flooring to maneuver on, so it felt like my legs were glued to the ground. My toes started getting raw and painful about half way through, due to the fact that I usually play with my weight shifted off the heel, but I was able to ignore it, concentrate on playing, and follow through with a narrow win. I realized that the distance I stand away from the table is proportional to the distance of the table to the wall. Unfortunately, this means that my timing is all screwed up depending on the location that I play. I need to work on being consistent in all playing conditions.

Often when I’m at Michele’s Baguette there’s a woman working there, I’d say in her mid-40s, whom I believe is one of the owners. She has these really funky streaks of colour in her hair, and they work really well for her, something which is much less common for people her age. Whenever she happens to be there I want to tell that her hair looks really cool, but I can never seem to find the right time.

Should I tell her as I walk up to the sandwich stand? Should I tell her while she’s putting my sandwich together? I always think to myself that I’ll speak up as I walk away if she ever rings me through (because she usually lets someone else charge me), but the other day when she was the only one working there I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. I didn’t want her to think that I was just flattering her for extra toppings or fresher vegetables. I bet she gets compliments about her hair all the time.

My girlfriend thinks I’m gay!

So there I was, sitting at my desk with my poppyseed bagel with plain cream cheese, starting to get hungry. I decide to get something hot to drink, so I grab my change, and walk to the hot drink dispenser in the kitchen. I grab a pack of choco and put it in the slot of the machine, insert my two quarters, and watch the machine inject brown water into my mug. In my head I have the taste of rich and creamy Second Cup hot chocolate, and this is what I’m expecting as I walk back to my desk before I take a sip. There were little solid bits of brown floating in the liquid, what I assume was just undissolved chocolate powder.

I take a sip. This hot chocolate is so fucking disgusting, that it’s hilarious. It’s not just bland and watery, it goes through levels and layers of bad taste. It starts out like instant hot chocolate from powder mix with a little too much water mixed into it. Then there’s a little hint of ash that fades before the distinct taste of burnt metallic cookware. The finish is all water, with no other taste whatsoever, aside from a hint of something that’s too light to be distinguishable.

And as I keep drinking this, I can’t help but laugh after every sip. It’s the most vile, most putrid, most comic cup of anything I have ever had.