Open Mike LIVE Live live…
Mike plays weatherman, using the home theater setup to time-travel while "live," exploring some of the places where yens come from.
Good evening, Facebook, and happy Friday to you all! I'm Mike George, coming at you live from my **embarrassingly messy apartment** right here in Montreal, Quebec. That's up north in the great nation of Canada. I'm just kind of chilling out on a Friday night.
Last week involved quite a bit of traveling; I was in Tucson, Arizona, for work at the Seott Transmission Conference. It was a really fun event, but frankly, it was exhausting. You’re constantly socializing with clients and business partners—the typical work travel deal—but at least I got a little bit of a tease of slightly warmer weather, which is always nice. Here in Montreal right now, it is a compelling temperature: about minus 15 degrees Celsius, which I believe is around zero degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s around this time of year, December, that I should be seeing y’all. I’m going to have the pleasure of being down in Naples, Florida, to see my dear Aunt Gail this coming Christmas. That trip is certainly overdue, as I didn't get a chance to see her last year. The holidays are nice because spending time with loved ones can be very soul-nourishing, and I am guilty of not being very good at that sometimes. We just have to be there for each other. I also need to figure out when to come down to Ohio so I can cruise through Pittsburgh and Columbus, see the Ohio Valley, get my soul rejuvenated a little bit, and grab some good Chinese food.
Anyways, feel free to leave some comments and let me know what you guys are up to. Sometimes us gals just have to have a Friday night alone at home with a bottle of wine, maybe even a joint or two on the porch or inside the apartment—wink!
Aside from holiday plans, I've been playing the game *Fallout 76*. I’m a big RPG fan, but this one involves massively online multiplayer elements. I’m just so used to doing RPGs solo, being in my own little closed space where I can create my own fantasy world. When they introduce other people, I have to be social again. I have to admit that takes away a little bit of the element of disconnecting from the world into a good video game; it’s almost like reading a good book.
Let’s scroll through Facebook tonight. Oh my god, this is getting circular—I’m seeing my own Facebook live! If I try to play the video through the projector, we have this weird eight-second delay, so for you time travelers keeping track of your flux capacitor on your time machine, you just got to keep that eight-second cycle in mind.
Speaking of Facebook land, sometimes you lose your native geography skills when you leave a place for a while. When a commenter named Britney mentioned she was joining from Wilmington, Ohio, I decided to pull it up on Google Maps.
We’re sort of looking at the Great Lakes of North America, which happens to be perhaps the largest body of fresh water in the world. Ohio is down here, and Montreal is up here. Wilmington is right on U.S. Route 22 in the southwest part of Ohio. It's funny because **Route 22 also goes through Stubenville, Ohio, my hometown**, meaning that route connects two places we hold very dear.
Wilmington is a super cute town. It has a little county courthouse—that's where they send you if you go to jail and do drugs and everything, but at least the courthouse you're processed through is real cute. Apparently, they even shot some of *The Avengers* there.
Now, if you follow Route 22 east, you’ll eventually get across Ohio. You don't want to go toward Kentucky; that's a state I only have skirted through, and I have to admit, I just don't trust Kentucky. But if you go the right way, you’ll reach Stubenville, Ohio, where I grew up.
In downtown Stubenville, you can see remnants of what I might consider skyscrapers, like the buildings that are 12 stories. I have to mention Hunan's, which is one of my favorite restaurants to visit. And there's the China Garden—I grew up knowing it as China Gourmet. It is now a sesame grill and offers habachi and Chinese food, which is interesting that places have started incorporating Chinese and Japanese flavors together.
Anyways, I think I’m tired; I just sort of ranted for a bit, and I just wanted to fill you guys in on my life. Happy holidays to you all! I’m going to try to do more Facebook live posts to beckon the holidays with good cheer and banter, which is necessary when we’re reflecting and carrying on with our loved ones. Thank you for watching and participating. Take care, all, and enjoy what will hopefully be some good snowy weather in the next few months!
