Monday, February 17, 2025

The month of love.

Well, I guess for the US, more like extreme hatred. Seriously, the shitshow from the south of us is a daily nightmare. The constant threats of tariffs, annexation, and general incompetence. And one third of the US voted that idiot in. Another third didn't care enough. Zzz.

Okay, anyhoo, we had early Chinese New Year celebrations last month. My cousin Chloe was going to Italy to see her boyfriend, and her flight was clashing with the actual date of CNY, so the family decided to celebrate earlier. The waifu and I offered my now famous roast pork (siuyuk), and she would cook the Buddha's delight (luo han zhai). We spent quite a bit of time looking for nice snake-themed red packets and for some reason most stores didn't have them. Seriously. It was like a snake boycott or something. We always saw every zodiac animal in their year, and of course tons for the dragon last year, but none for the snake! And it's my year! We managed to find some eventually, and took some time considering if we wanted cutesy snakes or fancy, sophisticated ones. We took the fancy ones, lol.

I had a diversity training session at the church before the CNY dinner, so I was preoccupied and had to rush home right after the session. The training session was generally decent. I feel like there was a lot said that we all already knew, but I suppose it was also good to discuss it, and have some specific things brought up that affected people, with regards to communication, welcome, cultures and all. Mostly the church board and a few notable church members attended. I think discussion would've been fruitful, but things started late and several people needed to head off by 4pm, including me.

I had to rush back and help the waifu; my roast pork was already prepared the night before and just needed to be set in the air fryer before we went over to my grandma's. The dinner was generally nice. Everyone brought their own food, and our dishes were praised significantly by the rest of the family, which was nice. We gambled a bit with Texas Hold'em and eventually had to head off since it was Sunday and most of us needed to work or go to school.

For Valentine's, I arranged the dinner at Tapagria, a fancy Spanish restaurant, and I intentionally picked the 15th, since it was a Saturday, and we wouldn't need to rush after work, nor deal with the majority of people celebrating on the 14th itself. Well, I also forgot that it was the day of a big snowstorm, so... lol. I drove us through heavy snow and I had to trudge through snow to walk to the restaurant. We picked a seafood paella, but upon seeing some very appetizing pork belly, we added that too. Good choice from the waifu, because it was absolutely delicious.

We also watched Peabo Bryson, the male singer of the studio versions of "A Whole New World" and "Beauty and the Beast". Onion saw the ads for it, and decided we needed to watch it immediately, buying tickets on the spot. We figured that Niagara Falls was a bit far, and we probably wouldn't make it back early after the show, so we booked a hotel room for the night. We grabbed dinner at the Flying Saucer Restaurant and went over. It was amusing to see the crowd. It was basically 90% old, white people and Filipinos. There were some Blacks, and like, 4 Chinese, 2 of which were the waifu and I. Lmao. And 4 of us just so happened to sit in a row. Hilarious! Regardless, it was a treat watching him perform with his musicians. All fantastically professional and very tight. You could tell there was a lot of chemistry with them. In between his songs, Peabo would have a very casual chat with the audience, sharing funny stories about his life and career. Him "falling in love" with all the female singers he's worked with, offering Celine Dion's parents his seat at the Grammy's, and her funny reaction to that, plus him having a child with his newest lover. Plus he shared relationship advice to all the guys. Told us all if we argue with our partner, to just shut up! Haha! Anyway, like I was saying, the performance was great. Peabo, despite being over 70 years old had an amazing, powerful voice. Onion and I had listened to his music on YouTube and while he didn't sound identical to his tracks, he still managed to have crazy good renditions and adaptations of his songs. Honestly, good call from the waifu to watch him. 

At one point, he was singing a cover of Bill Withers' "Lovely Day", and he proceeded to walk among the audience, interacting with the crowd, shaking hands, fist bumping and pointing at individuals. Now, the waifu and I sat right at the very edge of the front facing seats. Basically to my left, it was the side-facing seats already (this was the Avalon Theatre at Fallsview Casino). So we definitely would not be able to shake his hands if he walked past us. But he did walk past us, and as he continued singing the chorus of Lovely Day, which was basically repeating "Lovely day" over and over, he pointed directly at me, and sang "Love your hair, love your hair" before switching back to the song. LOL. Hell yeah! I didn't want to hold my phone up and record as I just wanted to enjoy and take in the moment, but damn, in hindsight I should have! I didn't know what to do when a famous celebrity praised my hair, so I flashed the devil horns at him and he smiled with approval before continuing to walk to another section. Bragging rights! Towards the end of the show he offered roses, and tons of ladies rushed to the front to collect theirs. Onion didn't go, but she said next time, she'd be first in line. She cried at some parts, finally able to hear her childhood. Peabo ended with a cover of "Ain't Nobody", and his musicians did a great job performing and ending the show with it.

We explored the casino a bit, but it was crazy crowded and the line up to exchange chips and tokens was ridiculously long, so we didn't even try any games. Got back to an ice-covered car, went back to the hotel, took a good shower and slept very happily. The next day we went to Niagara Falls, and the closer we got to Horsehoe Falls, the wetter it got. The waifu decided to bail while I proceeded. Half the American Falls were frozen, and the entire lake was frozen too. I was bloody hell soaked by the time I reached Horseshoe Falls. I quickly took some pictures and went to a shop to find the waifu, who was shocked upon seeing me. She told me to look in a mirror and my hair was basically frosted. White specks and spikes of ice. If you didn't know, you'd think I got sprayed with a fine mist. It was all ice, lol.