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beautiful thing #1 - the man of the hour – goncalo rodrigues: thought is often described with hydrological metaphors (depth and shallowness, streams of consciousness, etc) and the unusual depth of goncalo’s intellect is a marvel unto itself. his understanding of technology, and so many things in this world, uncompromisingly demonstrate uncanny depth. i’m disappointed by the fact that i haven’t had more opportunities to work with such a hard-working, hard-playing colleague like him now that he’s leaving for sabbatical. however, the fact that he’s leaving on sabbatical and not leaving for good gives me encouragement that these opportunities might arise in the future. best of luck, G-Rod!
beautiful thing #2 - the camaraderie of imason: our head of delivery arranged for us to have special t-shirts made to send off our colleague in style and unity. so for the entire celebration, we all had our shirts on and became a celebratory force to be reckoned with! we took over brin (which in itself is a lamentable underachievement), we took over the brasserie (somewhat better an achievement, but it would have been ever better if nariman had gotten that waitress’s number)… and from there, i’m not sure. DB and i had other plans for the evening after 10:30…
beautiful thing #3 – jim and han: such a great pair! always fun and always exceptional! they have a great relationship – a very real relationship – full of challenges and joy. they’re both so worthwhile and wonderful, and they somehow manage to make allowances for one another, even though that’s a pretty hard thing to do – especially for couples in their 20’s. i think that jim would have to be one of the best guys that i’ve met in toronto or anywhere else, and i’m proud to call him my friend. han is such a peach, i can hardly believe that she’s real. seeing them together and happy always reminds me that the world is a pretty freaking cool place to be.
beautiful thing #4 – kimi’s hair: (this evening, i gave myself permission to notice all sorts of wonderful things) kimi has the greatest hair – shiny wavy locks that effortlessly spiral in magical rivulets, echoing the alpha-helical shape of the keratin proteins that compose the hairs themselves. she hides the magestic glamour of these mystic shapes on a daily basis by laboriously straightening her hair, for which i regularly chide her. but this evening, tired from the cn tower climb, she didn’t have the energy to mask the radiant waves of ebony light that stream from her crown, and the world was made a little brighter by its presence.
beautiful thing #5 – the men of imason: imason have the hottest developers in canada. i’ve travelled from coast to coast, and worked with all sorts of teams of developers and all kinds of IT teams, and our guys stand second to none of them in terms of capability, but less importantly from a getting-the-job-done point of view, also in charm and style. not one of them exudes the typical “master of the universe” arrogance of a technocrat, or the “better-than-you” attitude so common among high-billing-rate professionals. they’re all comfortable, easy-to-get-along-with, dapper, handsome and imminently likeable. i often wonder how i was ever allowed to join such a fantastic club!
beautiful thing #6 – the bosnian party: at 10:15, DB and i left goncalo’s celebration and headed off to my very first bosnian dance party. it was held at the guvernment on queens quay. generally speaking, i’m not one for cultural gatherings, but this sounded intriguing. and it was not disappointing, everyone there was incredibly beautiful and lively (except for this one arrogant, stocky, muscly little guy, but even he was amusing in his own way). the men were well groomed and stylish, the women were all gorgeous and vital. unfortunately, the statistically improbably aggregation of beautiful women with long black hair and sexy dresses became a sort of personal hell of torture, given my most recent romantic aesthetic. being my first bosnian party, i was content to sit back and observe all of the joy and excitement happening around me.
beautiful thing #7 – trying something new and unexpected: it would have been easier to stay with my homies and to see what the rest of the evening had in store at G-Rod’s – to maybe go out dancing somewhere but not really expand my horizons. it was a great treat to do something spontaneous and different and new again! i met DB’s friend, Vanja ,who runs a fantastic pastry shop not too far from here, and he was very generous and kind. it’s fantastic to meet people like that in toronto, a place where it would be too easy for anyone to take advantage of any new person he or she meets. what a great time!
beautiful thing #8 – random canada’s next supermodel snapshot: now, i didn’t notice this until i got home and reviewed the photos the next day, but look at this young woman. she has perfect features… fantastic eyes, sculpted cheeks and gorgeous lips… and that LOOK – nothing says “get the f*** away from me” like that glare! oi vey. there’s beauty in that simple look to be sure. eep.
beautiful thing #9 – discovering the definition of the term “junk in yo’ trunk”: there was a moment during the party that DB and i simultaneously observed this young lady “dancing” to a more upbeat number. again, i don’t typically get taken in by this or that random body part, but this girl had grace, dynamism and raw energy that could not be denied or ignored. DB was kind enough to pretend to be posing for a photo so that i could get this shot for my blog. it’s the second cheapest thing that i’ve put into it in the past half-year, so i’ve been careful to make sure that it was worth the sacrifice.
we left at 2am and i was fairly wrecked for all of saturday. it was a busy week – lots of extra work, training in mississauga, making a new good friend, joining two meetup social groups, climbing the world’s largest free-standing structure, celebrating the departure of a beloved colleague and being surrounded by hot, undulating bosnians. if this week is any indication, it’s going to be a fantastic summer.
- g
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