'Once Upon a Time in Canada' Chapter 42.

I’ve had a great birthday! I spent most of the day with my photography meetup group. It took place at Bathurst Bridge. Taking photos of the bridge and its passing vehicles. Taking shots of vehicles, including streetcars, coming and going didn’t take that much energy. Why is that important, you ask? Because I won’t be as tired for my birthday dinner, and I really didn’t want to be. One, or two, things I need for my birthday dinner is energy and a HUGE appetite. The menu for the dinner involves Korean BBQ meat, but the most important meat being Korean pork belly, my absolute favourite. Now I’m famished just thinking about it.

The day consisted of the meetup, but the entire time we were using what we had and/or what we were given. Then there’s the matter of the lighting. The photos we took mostly consisted of natural sunlight considering these were all shot during the day. Too much sunlight? Adjust your shutter speed and keep taking photos until you get the photo(s) you like. Without this kind of experimental mindset in the group, the meetup would be rather boring. And I don’t do boring.

The sunlight pierced the sky, our eyes, and our lenses, that lit our photos with such fiery shine that livened them. By early evening, the time had come to pack up our stuff and call it a day. But that wasn’t the end for me (as we all know of course).

At the dinner, I was cooking my birthday dinner like a man, whilst being surrounded by my friends, Michael and Regis. The all-you-can-eat dinner went by really quickly, which only lasted two hours. When we were done though, we had more than enough to eat, but it would have been nice to have some more meat and time. The real big deal came when we got the bill. It wasn’t that expensive, nor was it that cheap, but that didn’t bother me. The birthday is the best I’ve had in a while, so it would have been if it would for the thought running through my head afterwards if my family were here. Kinda depressing. In fact, it haunted me all night.

The problem is that I’ve always been with my family my whole life, so to be away from them for an extensive period of time got to me. Even with this, I do have to be thankful for the friends I have made here thus far who actually wished me Happy Birthday or showed up to celebrate with me.

Also, see Chapters 41 and 43.