Man Songs

In other words, it’s “nan ren ge” in mandarin.. or so I’d lead you to believe with my limited china skills. I’m half assedly practicing a mandarin song for Dustin for when we go karaoke for his going away thing. He’ll be leaving for multi years and won’t be around for when I’m finally conversational in mandarin and can battle him when singing songs, so as his parting gift, i’ll make him look the fool at his own game in a language i can barely mimic.

The song is by Anson Hu and is about a bunch of guys that get off work, but instead of going home, they hole themselves up in a karaoke room and sing all night. The “man songs” they sing, are things that they can’t talk about in any real conversation because they have 2 too many testicles. At least, that’s my take on it from what I can shittily translate.

Moving on, today I braved the storm and went to hang out in Burnaby with some friends I met this year and watch the game (we lost). There was already 2 feet worth of snow on the ground, and my car is basically immobile due to the weather but I went out anyway. This was probably the first sign that it may have not been a good idea to even go, but against common sense, I went. I’m a sucker for a good time.

Getting there took a total of maybe 45 mins, but coming back was an adventure all in its own. I left at 930pm to beat the hockey crowd and it wasn’t a minute too soon, as the skytrain was delayed for 5-10mins at every station. I spent nearly an hour on it when it pretty much stopped indefinitely at Surrey Central where i got out and made an hour and 45min trek from the bad-ish part of town to my neighborhood through snow that was 2 feet deep. The sudden transformation of falling snow, to freezing rain, to straight up rain throughout the walk was hilarious in it’s own right. I felt like the powers that be were telling me I should be doing better things with my time.

This wasn’t a bad experience even though it’s the opposite of what I’m making it sound like. I was in a weird funk at the end of the night and felt like a walk in the crisp air and snow would help, and it did. When I’m left alone with my thoughts, I tend to do a lot of reflecting of the recent past. And recently, I’ve been doing some pretty strange things. Something has changed.

There was sense of camaraderie that’s kind of gone missing. I don’t know how to get it back, and I think it’s out of my hands. Suck. I thought I had it there. I not so secretly hope I’m wrong.

“I don’t know what I’m saying?!” – Maebe Funke