Dave: It's the 4th of January, and I'm chatting with Chris, and I think I had a delightful Christmas-somewhat uneventful, although being with my family, a family that I adore, is not uneventful at all. I quite enjoyed that, and the small break from work was nice as well, although I did miss my students and the people I work with. Chris, how was your Christmas vacation, and anything eventful happen with you?
Chris: My Christmas vacation went well. Nothing too crazy or nothing too out of the ordinary. Most of the stuff that went on was similar to my everyday life. Uneventful, although on New Year's I did go to my friend's party and had a few drinks. Yeah, other than that, it was quite quiet.
Dave: How do you party? Like, when I was younger, parties for me would be parents would be going out for the evening, and they wouldn't be home until-or they were going on a trip to California and they wouldn't be back for two weeks, so we would all go to that person's house and party, party, party, party, party. You know, people would be up in the bedrooms making out, people would be swimming in the pools, on the balcony drinking, having parties like that. But this party that you had was done in a very interesting way. You guys actually rented an area, is that right? Explain how that happened, and how many people showed up, and what it was like.
Chris: Well, actually, my friend's dad built and owns a bar called Jester's near Pacific Center in downtown Vancouver, in the heart of Vancouver, and a few older friends of mine rented out the bar, Jester's, and decided to hold a New Year's party for everybody there. About sixty percent of the tickets were for girls, and forty percent was for guys, so the ratio was pretty good-six to four, and tickets cost about $40. They rented out the place-there was good music, a lot of music to dance to, a lot of people were heavily drinking and dancing the night away, and just enjoying themselves. I think that's the main part of the party, is that everybody enjoys themselves, and this party went without a hitch, so everything went well. Dave: One follow-up question: Why the hell was I not invited to this party? Six to four, my gosh? Why was I not invited, Christopher, my friend, my dear friend?
Chris: Well, David, you never asked. You said you were busy with the family. Next time I will keep that in mind and I will-you will be coming to all the parties with all the women. Don't give me that ugly look. Dave: No, I forgive you. That's right, I didn't realize-I didn't think I'd be invited, but I'd certainly like to join there. I watched Regis Philbin on Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve and fell asleep before it actually turned twelve. Yeah, I was reading a book about Oscar Wilde, great biography. One of my Christmas presents. So I got some pretty cool stuff for Christmas. Socks galore.
Chris: Socks are always good.
Dave: Socks are always great. What did you get, and anything interesting you received from Santa Claus?
Chris: Well, actually, I had quite an interesting Christmas-present opening. Actually, a couple years ago, my father and I weren't getting along quite well, and one Christmas, there was one present for myself under the Christmas tree. I opened it, and it was a joystick for a computer that my dad won at a golf tournament. I was kind of disappointed at this present, because it was for a computer that I didn't have, so I had a joystick and no computer. Then this year came along. The first present I opened was a printer, and again I was kind of upset and disappointed at my dad. I was like, "Why are you getting me a printer when I don't even have a computer?" And then so I kind of shrugged it off, opened the next present, and it was a cord to connect the printer to the computer. And yet again, I was even more upset and enraged at these phony presents that I got, and eventually my dad handed me the last present, and I got a laptop. So I was quite pleased with that-or actually I was thrilled at the fact that they got me a laptop. I'd been asking for years, and for years they've been giving me stuff for computers, but never the computer itself, so I actually had a pretty good Christmas.
