#63. Welcome to the Zoo (Tuesday, July 31, 2001)

What was your best day…of living the type of life that you didn’t have, if only for a brief moment?

If you had asked me during my early childhood years who I was most jealous of, I would have said, without hesitation: the kids who have multiple brothers and sisters. There was something about having peers that you could always just be around as one cohesive unit – even outside those designated school hours, and no matter how many stupid things you said or did – that invoked a deep desire on my part.

Of course, getting a new brother when I was seven alleviated things a bit, but given the age gap, that feeling of emptiness never quite disappeared. However, on rare, rare occasions like this one, I would get just a taste of what it was like.

During this week in the summer of 2001, my dad had a business conference in Toronto. And so, my parents took this as an opportunity for us to all stay there for the week, catch a Jays game¹, and spend some time with my childhood best friend David Huang and his family (#91) as well as another childhood friend Brad and his family (one year younger).

Since David and I wanted to hang out as much as possible, he actually joined my parents, my brother, and I in our Comfort Inn room² for the first three nights; before we went to stay at their place for the next two nights. And all of us and Brad’s family all went to big dinners together as well, with the adults doing their talking for hours while the three of us were collaborating to beat Brad’s Pokemon Gold game³. It was like, for those couple of days, I had just gotten two new brothers (in addition to my real one).

That feeling became most apparent on that Tuesday, when my mom took the four of us – me, my brother, David, and Brad – to the Toronto Zoo.

First, on the way there, I was sharing the last of the Starbursts (greatest candy ever) I had brought. David and Brad agreed with me on how awesome they were, and, hearing this, my mom told us (in Chinese): “If you guys like Starburst so much, why don’t we stop at the supermarket on the way there and get some.” Offering to do something like that was actually quite unlike her, which made us picking up those five big packs of both regular and tropical Starbursts (which lasted us the rest of the trip) feel even more special.

And that entire day at the zoo – from navigating the whole place, to chatting between animal exhibits, to the double-order feast we had at Harvey’s (high-quality burger place)⁴ – just had that constant, golden kind of feeling to it. It was like I had formed this mental picture of how everyone around us was seeing us – a mom and four brothers who were happily going about their zoo day just like any normal day – and it was the exact picture I had wished I was in at almost every other point in my childhood.

In which they thrashed the Orioles 10-1 in Felipe Lopez’s debut, and came close to scoring in every inning.
Looking back, that Comfort Inn had some major logistical issues. We ended up being forced to move to a different room (with different bed arrangements we didn’t have a choice on) each night we were staying.
While my three-year-old brother was chasing Brad’s five-year-old sister through the restaurant, and developing some kind of crush on her that went on all the way until their next visit.
Also, on the cover of the map pamphlet, was a photo of a silly-looking giraffe with the words “Welcome to the Zoo” next to it. I somehow got it in my head that those words had to be said with a singing tone; and then, David, Brad, and I spent several hours debating exactly what the intonation of that singing tone was supposed to be.