Over the holidays I went back to visit my friends and family in Canada. When I got off the plane, the first thing I noticed was snow…a lot of it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m normally a fan of some casual snow. But I prefer it when the city you’re in is actually used to having it! While questioning what the snow meant and internally giving myself a hard time for not packing more suitable items, I looked up to see my sister. She of course erupted into a joyous scream and ran to give me a hug. Ah sisters… I’d missed her so much. The next day I caught up with my dad and called my friends who live in the city to make plans to see them. My father unfortunately caught a cold so the mixture of his German accent and cold voice made him speak with a Corman accent.

Anyway, I have these shoes right? They’re old school Nike kicks that a sneaker obsessed friend gave to me about two years ago. Well I love these sneakers and have not taken them off since. Anyone who knows me will associate me with smelling my ugly old shoes and I don’t care. The problem with these shoes is they have a hole at the bottom that I did not know about. The snow would creep in through the worn down soles of my dear Nike kicks… and SOAK MY FEET. It was horrible. It was the winter vacation of wet feet.

When not getting soaked, there is a place called the Cactus Club in Vancouver. They never had one in the burbs when I was growing up, but they recently put one in. And it’s the hot ticket in town. I’m not normally a fan of chain restaurants but man they have the best stuff! They have these yam fries and garlic mayo that I love. Canadians are all crazy about the no trans-fats thing but yet love mayo with their fries. I go through about three sides of mayo and even in Canada I get a ton of stares. I would maybe say something to defend my appetite but I’m too busy in the bliss that is yam fries.

As the holiday went on the snow kept coming. I knew I had this concert that me and David Archuleta are doing so I practiced my songs a lot and I’m sure drove my family to madness in the process. I saw a few faces I’d forgotten and some souls I hadn’t connected with. The funny thing about going home now, is it makes you wonder where home is. Is it where you’re from or is it where you live? All I know is I miss those people like crazy. I even sometimes miss suburbia while I’m there. But that feeling goes away after about five minutes.

You know, it’s funny how you strive for the dream and as you achieve it you realize that even the dream has sacrifices. I want to be traveling, shooting great movies and rocking out but I’ll always have those days where I miss my hommies from back home. When I wish that they could be having this amazing journey too. But thank God I have people to miss. And the truth is, if I still lived at home, I’d spend days cursing the bus I’d been waiting for while standing in the rain, feeling the urge to perform.

2008 was an incredible year. I’ve never had so much fun shooting a film or played such a sweetly tailored character before this year. Grateful and excited: my last words for 2008. Those and “Man I missed these yam fries!”.