Round 3, and a final post on here.

Well, this will be the last post I make on here.  I've got a new spot where I'll be posting from now on.  Not that anyone has been reading this one. lol

That new spot will be at doug.fun which I can't believe was an available domain to register.  But that's where you can find me from now on.

So, September 2021 I bought myself a little house, as I mentioned.  Little as in 672 sq ft.  So yes, very small, but perfect for just me.  Then October 2021 was Grandma's 100th birthday! We were able to have an outdoor get together for her, so that people could get together since she wasn't able to have everyone visit at once inside at her home.  November then saw my housewarming, which was a fun night where I'm happy people were able to make it.

The start of 2022 was pretty quiet, but I got it in my mind that I wanted to book a trip to Toronto in late March to watch Canada's final home World Cup qualifier.  At this point they were almost assured to qualify for the first time since 1986.  It looked like they would either qualify that day, or it would have happened on the road prior to that and it would be their first trip home after qualifying.  I said yep, let's do this.

Turns out they could qualify on March 27, 2022 with a win over Jamaica in Toronto.  A resounding 4-0 scoreline sent Canada to the World Cup.  And sent tears down my cheeks. lol  It's when I turned to my friend Chris and said I'm going to go to the World Cup to watch them.

I debated it internally, mentioned it to my parents, and my mom said the one thing that sealed it for me.  Because I had to be chosen from a lottery to attend, if I didn't put my name in I'd always regret it, but if I put my name in and didn't get chosen then at least I'd know I wasn't lucky enough to get drawn and would watch from home.  So, in my name went and I waited for May 31 to find out if I was going to have that opportunity.

Sure enough, I get the e-mail stating that my application was successful!  I will be going to watch Canada play at the FIFA World Cup in person!  So after a period of disbelief, and a period of more tears (lol) I dropped $3600 on plane tickets and $4700 on accommodations.

Unfortunately, just two weeks later my grandma passed away.  I never got the chance to tell her I'd be going.  I know she would have sat in front of the TV watching in the hopes that I might show up on TV for her to see.    The whole thing was heartbreaking, and still hurts even today.  Sure, she was 100, but it was still somewhat of a shock.  Instead of watching for me on TV she watched down over me the entire trip.

So the lead up to that trip was bittersweet.  I continued to grab tickets to matches other than Canada.  Still didn't know where my seats would be, though.  I could be 10 rows up, or I could be sitting in the very last row.  There was no way to know.  Then one day in the app seats were showing up.  At first only for the matches that weren't Canada.  I had a couple decent seats, and one way, waaaay up.  Then... There they were.  Against Belgium?  In the 5th row.  Against Croatia?  Even closer, 3rd row.  And against Morocco?  FRONT ROW!!!!!  That set off some more tears (lol) and I seriously couldn't believe it.

Finally the time arrived where I left, connecting through Montreal and then straight to Doha.  From there, 16 days in the desert, 8 matches in total.  It was just an experience like nothing else I've ever had.  Probably will never feel the same again.  It truly isn't something that I can put into a blog post.  I could talk about it for days and days.

And just like that, I was at home.  Got to join friends to watch the great World Cup Final match at the pub.  Then it was the Holiday season.  Rolling into 2023, work started to go downhill and hasn't really recovered.  Changes going on that seem to be the opposite of what the company espouses as its core values.  I'll admit the whole of 2023 was a bit of a letdown after the highs of my trip to Qatar.

That brings me to now, where I'm headed to Jamaica to watch Canada yet again, on November 17, and will be back to Toronto a few days later to see the return leg.  This could determine whether Canada plays in Copa America next summer, which is a huge deal.  The one time Canada was invited they had to turn down due to issues in South America.  So that's exciting, but doesn't match how great the trip to the Middle East was.

So, this is me signing off from Blogger.  As I mentioned, any future posts will be made at doug.fun along with a bunch of galleries of my trips to bars, beaches, and stadia!