I was staying with my grandfather in his little apartment while my grandmother was at the hospital down the street. She had a stroke and couldn't speak - and his whole life now revolved around spending time sitting beside her every day. I lived in Calgary at the time but my dad thought it was important for me to spend some time with him. I remember one night after dinner we were watching TV and he told me that he really wanted to watch the Chinese news on Channel 4. It hadn't started yet and he drifted off to sleep in his chair. I turned the channel and saw 'Seinfeld'. I thought it was really funny so I continued to watch it, even though I know my grandfather really wanted to watch the news. When he woke up we switched the channel and the news had already ended - he missed it. He missed it because I purposely didn't wake him up. I wish he were still alive today so we could watch the news together. I've always felt guilty about this.

My first kiss was at Michelle Smith's house party in grade six. She never really had any friends but she was always the one who hosted the big party twice a year so somehow the 'cool' kids who never talked to her in school inevitably showed up with their bathing suit and a bag of chips each time an invitation came out. We played spin the bottle in her kitchen. I was hanging out in the back because I didn't really want to participate. I didn't even know what had happened (or maybe I was trying to pretend I didn't know) when Neil Hamade got up and gave me a one second kiss on the cheek. I know that doesn't qualify as a real first kiss but that's about as close as I got for a very, very, VERY long time. So it counts for me.