June 14th: Chillin with Austin/ Cindy and Aiden

Two (and now three) of our best friends in the world. It was interesting when we were at dinner and I released something with Cindy. If it wasn't for Cindy, I think that my friendship with Austin would have gone the way of many other friendships in the past. When you have "best-friends" in your lives, so much of that "status" is shaped by who are you at that point in your life and the shared interests/ dreams/ circle of friends/ life values that you share at the time.

Austin has always been one of my great friends. In junior high, we were close but not extremely close. He had his 7B to 9B buddies from elementary, and Ben-Nikhil and I were three peas in a pod. But in high school, Austin and I became really close friends and "hair bros" (though now I'm the balding one and he's the graying one). From productions to pick up girl strategies to phone calls to girl problems and way too much drama that was 90210-esque to ski trips (good and bad but always bonding experiences) it felt like Austin-Ben-Thomas-and me were always up to something. Though we had separate personal interests, we were a core four that hung out a lot and shared that same over-analyzing fear of the future outlook on life that defines high school. In university, we were still close whether it was Austin and Geneva battling to be the first to Cameron study hall (good grief, you guys were geeks), Austin torching teams in flag football (3TD reception game with a girl going man-to-man defense on him... what the hell were they thinking?), or hanging out at gateway lanes, he was a big cornerstone as a friend we could both rely on.

When I moved to Toronto and we were both there, it was hard to meet up. He was studying for dent, and I was trying to get my career on track. Our schedules never synced up, but we'd find time to attend a raptors game or two.

I remember our first discussion about Cindy. He said that he had met this incredible girl, and that he had (as always) a full proof plan to meet her as her last name was Cho and as every class the room was organized alphabetically, he was guarenteed face time with her. :)

I'm so glad that he found Cindy. She's so much like another sister that Geneva and I never had. It's funny, but in a way we're as close to Cindy as we are to Austin. I know that personally Cindy and I share that same faith and loyalty to our families first and foremost, and that we both really try to go out of our way to keep in touch with important people to us. Without Cindy, who knows how close Austin may or may not be now. Living time zones away, it's tough to keep in touch with people.

I'm glad that we're all at a similar point in our lives now where we all have a lot in common. I really hope that the kids can grow up to be great friends as well. You guys need to come out here at some point again to visit (we'll pass on Brandy's this time).

Love you guys.

Syd, enjoy the pics of:
- You shopping Vaughan Mills with mommy (where you HAD to walk beside the stroller) and daddy (when you had to carry your own shopping bags)
- An afternoon at the park with Austin, Cindy and Aiden.
- You love the circular slide... and so did Austin :)
- Aiden still hasn't warmed up to me and mommy, we'll need to visit more often. He really loves his mom and dad though.
- You borrowing Aiden's sunglasses and you and Uncle Austin hammed it up for the camera (posers).

:)