psyching hawks

we survived.

we got back to cuzco yesterday after hiking thru the andes for 4 days. there are many words that describe the experience, some include... blood, sweat and snot.

i can say in all honesty, that the inca trail was the most difficult task i´ve ever put my body thru. it was very trying, but very rewarding. the first day was the easiest, but was by no means easy. we´d been told by our guide that day 2 was the hardest, and as we lied in our tent on the first night i feared the next day. i lied in the dark seriously asking myself what was i thinking, and what had i done by signing up. i didn´t say anything to jill, i didn´t want to upset her or burden her at all. so i prayed, i talked to God about all my fears and anxiety, and about my inability to meet the challenge ahead of me. i felt calmer after that, and when morning came i felt better. day 2 was just all climbing up, and with the altitude oxygen was scarce, plus there was a danger of getting altitude sickness (nausous, headaches, etc). we walked slowly, took frequent stops, listened to our ipods, and before we knew it we were at our first break. the rest of the day progressed similarly, and we quickly felt that it wasn´t as hard as we´d imagined, because we paced ourselves. i´d had visions of myself lying on the inca trail while weeping and vomitting, so i was quite relieved that i was managing ok. by the end of day two we were in good spirits, and managed the rest of the walk quite well.

how it worked was we basically walked for 2 hours, had a break, walked another 2, had lunch, walked 2, break, walked 2, end of day (tea time, followed by dinner) then in our tents sleeping by 8:30. along the way on days one and three we stopped at various old incan ruins while whats-his-face gave us a talk about the people who once lived there.

we had two guides. julio and whats-his-face. we would also sometimes call whats-his-face "julio´s friend" or "the other guy/guide". the funny thing is that "whats-his-face" was our main guide, while julio was just the sidekick and his role was just follow along at the end to make sure everyone was ok. whats-his-face did everything else, and inspite of our friendship with him, we actually went 4 days without knowing whats-his-faces" actual name. we´d sometimes ask someone, but they wouldn´t know either or we´d just forget because it was too hard to remember. on the 3rd night we lied in bed trying to come up with it, possibilities ranged from javier to jaffer to jhad to gerard, the list goes on. in the middle of the night i rolled over and said to jill... "jill? is his name.... j... jiar?" she said "yes! it is! it´s like giant ear, just without the nt". so that was our memory aid for the last day giant-ear = jiar! he was a really nice guy, funny, and fun. the only awkward part in our guide-guidee relationship was on the first night, while i was alone waiting for jill who was in the outhouse, he and i had a semi-lengthy conversation about whether or not i have a boyfriend, which ended with him telling me "you are a very special girl". hm, a bit of a conflict of interest.

there were 13 people in our group, 5 from norway, 4 from france, 2 from the usa, and jill & me from canada. the norwegians were hard-core hikers, the french didn´t speak much english, and we got to know the 2 from the states the best. they actually got engaged at the top of dead-woman´s pass (the highest point on the trek which is 13,830 ft above sea level), which is interesting because it was so freaking cold and wet up there at the time that it was snowing, but it makes for a neat memory.

during the trek our weather sucked. it rained almost every day, but cleared up a lot on the 3rd day, and was mostly dry on the 4th. that´s strange because it´s the dry season, but whats-his-face said the climate is changing and becoming unpredictable.

after spending 4 days with people who speak broken english our ability to speak our native tongue has disintegrated a little bit. it´s quite entertaining. actually, jill and i don´t lack entertainment, we were the most laughy people in our group and regularly had ourselves in stitches. she´s good company.

oh my goodness, i have so much more to say. but i´ve already extended my time on this computer 2 times, so i should wrap it up. more to come later for sure.

i really like peru. after returning to the city after the trek, jill and i feel quite at home here, we know our way around and have made friends who we saw in the square today. we´ve found a little cafe that we really like, and sat people-watching for a long time this afternoon. we leave for lima tomorrow, i´m both excited and a little sad to be moving on.

i brought you something close to me.

agua

well, jill and i are in peru. all has gone well. were staying at an incredibly beautiful hotel at the moment, and are about to catch a bus to a historical city called pisac. there is much to tell you, BUT i will be brief because jill wants to check her email on this computer when i´m finished, and this keyboard kind of sucks...

so instead i´ll give you a point form update...
- inca kola is this local pop that smells like bubble gum but is bright yellow
- cuzco is BEAUTIFUL, we´re in a valley and are surrounded by amazing mountains on each side
- my backpack weighs 35 lbs, but jill´s weighs 18
- there are stray dogs everywhere. they are really well behaved and just chill in the middle of the plaza de arms. yesterday i petted one, and it became friends with us. it followed us around for the next hour (sometimes embarrassing me by growling a sheep and dashing out onto the road into coming traffic). we walked up a big mountain to some inca ruins called saqsaywaman (pronounced as sexy woman), and saw a massive statue of jesus on the top. it was exhausting because of the shortage of oxygen and we had to stop frequently. our dog would patiently wait for us, and lie down beside us as we sat. when we headed back down the mountain we thought we´d lost her, but oddly enough, 2 or 3 hours later when we left our hotel for dinner, the dog showed up passing by our front door. seeing as we´re nowhere near the sexy woman, we can only assume she followed our scent. she hung out outside the restaurant for us, but we snuck past her as she ate some garbage. she´s a good puppy but had gotten into a fight with another dog and it scared us a little so we wanted to part ways with her. here´s hoping she won´t be out on the street as we leave today.
- on the way up the mountain a man gestured to me with his camera as he spoke in another language. thinking he wanted me to take his photo i said sure! however, the next thing i knew, he was passing the camera to his friend and he´d come and stood beside me and jill as the other man took his photo with us. it was so strange. PLUS, his friend switched spots with him and had his picture taken with us too.¨

we´ve been having a great time, and occassionally we remind ourselves that we´re in south america. CRAZY! wish you could see the view from here.

tomorrow we head out on the trek. i´m a little concerned that the shortage of oxygen will be a problem, but jill thinks we´ll be ok. we´ve been walking a lot, so our bodies are getting used to it.

hope all is well with you!

i have a perfect body, but sometimes i forget.

chapel

i'm all packed and ready to leave for peru. in an hour i'll call for a taxi and head out. i'll sleep in various locations in the next 48 hours, none of which will be a bed. it's ok, i had a nap earlier this evening. i'll spend the next hour trying to tidy up a little and writing up some instructions for my dad as he'll be in each day to feed the kitties.

my backpack is hefty. when i put it on, all i could think is "i'm truly a backpacker now". lifting it is the hardest part, but once it's on, it's fine and comfortable :D

i was thinking on my way to bren's for dinner tonight how strange it is that i'm going to south america. until i made my decision to visit all the continents, it wasn't on my radar. i never had an plans or desires to go there. it's not like there's anything wrong with S.A. but it's the continent i know the least about. i have regular contact (and always have – whether thru people or the media) with europe, asia, africa, australia, but almost never with south america. this makes it almost more exciting to go there, to get better acquainted with this unknown (to me) continent. i have a feeling it will be beautiful and world expanding.

i'm totally thrilled to be going with jill. it worked out so nicely, and i'm so glad she was available and interested in joining me in this adventure. i think we're going to have a lot of fun.

i'll be back on august 3rd, talk to you then!

you're on your way.

opal

oh man, i'm really sick. i have a terrible cold and it's draining me. the knickers was nagging at me this afternoon to buy some coldfx, but it's too expensive. she said "it doesn't matter, when you have a problem just throw money at it". SEE!?!? that's why i hate her advise, it's so contrary to my perspective on life. besides, this is coming from a woman who makes 3 times more than me AND has her husband's pension. thankfully i didn't have time to go to the drug store, so tomorrow i have a legitimate excuse.

tonight my family gathered to celebrate joelle's 6th birthday. it was fun. we ended up having this lengthy conversation about michael jackson where i found out that he wore a wig because of that fire that burned off all his hair in the 80s, and we discussed the possibility that he was castrated before he hit puberty – which would explain why his voice never changed and why he didn't father his own children. my mom's housemate doesn't believe he's dead. she thinks he's just in hiding. conspircy theories are weird. i remember watching a documentary on the lunar landing hoax, it almost had me convinced for a while. sometimes i get annoyed by people who are so skeptical of everything. sometimes things really are what they seem.

anyways, afterwards i brought joelle and caleb to my house to see my kitties and we played at the park across the street from my house. they're both very sweet. i liked having them in the car with me, caleb was quite the little talker, which was nice because he's sometimes really hard to get a word out of.

i'm really pooped. so i'm going to get into bed now.

when i go south again,
he'll be waiting at your door.

geocache

when i shake out my kitchen rug from my balcony i feel like a western european woman. in those moments, i perform a task shared by these women for generations. it's fabulous. it makes me shake that rag rug much longer than necessary because i want to extend the experience.

i was struck with a cold last night at the screening room. i feel really yucky, and almost feverish. the movie was great by the way. i'd forgotten that i'd heard an interview on the cbc with rachel weisz about it. it was fun and kind of novel.

you know what i find odd? every august i suddenly feel really motivated to work out and shed some pounds. i finally get restless in my body and want to do something about it. i do that until january when i get really bored of workingout and am finally satisfied with my weight. so i drop motivation. by spring i've quit the Y and coast (putting weight back on) until august. i kind of wish this cycle was altered a tiny bit, so i gained weight in the winter when it would be prudent to have some extra pounds, and lost weight in the spring. oh well. all i know is that i'm hitting the gym when i get back from south america. and that 4 day hike will serve me well too.

i love being sneaky with you. that i'm willing to take a roll of masking tape to peru because of you. that you will seek it and then find it.

find the man you want,
he's got all you need and more.

plot

i'm sneaking out to see the brothers bloom at the screening room. i've been waiting for it to come to town and this is my only chance. so i tried to work hard and get lots accomplished so i could go. i was very productive, and yet have still run out of time to type up the minutes :S

this week is going faster than i expected.

when the right time comes,
i'll be what you've grown to hate.

carpet

this morning my alarm clock didn't go off, and i finally clued in at 7:00 that something was wrong (tipped off by feeling so rested). apparently i set it for 6:10 pm instead of 6:10 am. that is EXACTLY why i've decided to take the 2 am bus to the airport on friday night instead of getting up early to catch the 6:30 am bus. because far too often i sleep thru my alarm, or set it incorrectly, or hit the snooze button too many times. it'll be ok. i'll take a nap after work, sleep on the bus, then sleep at the airport (i've done that before, so i know exactly where to plant myself).

this evening was my last yoga class until september. yogi master dennis is taking august off. i'll miss it. i secretly fantasize about doing yoga at machu picchu. i like the idea of doing "sun salutations" in the sacred valley while facing east.

i love book stores. i love browsing, and i love buying books. it's like finding a special stone on the beach. sometimes i wish i could buy a whole bunch at once, but that would be pointless and take away my opportunities for multiple visits to the book store. i love walking around surrounded by books. it's like a sea of potential. each book containing a tale true or not. it's so beautiful and so promising. books almost have an energy to them, or at least provoke excitement. oh how i love them. i want to read them all. i would love to design a book jacket some day. that would be wonderful.

you can stay if you want to,
but you can't sleep in my bed.

swing

today i did two things for the very first time.

1) i left the water running in the kitchen when i went into my bedroom, forgot about it, then the water overflowed all over the floor.

2) i preached.

i'd been feeling a little bit nervous, but i had a lot of people giving me encouragement, so by the time i arrived at next this morning i was fairly calm and ready. unfortunately, when tim pulled up my powerpoint presentation all my photos were missing. that is very odd, because i work with powerpoint at work all the time, and i've never had that problem before. the thing about that was, that as a graphic designer, THAT'S what's gonna get me flustered – i'm very perfectionistic about design stuff. i managed to scramble and find almost all of them. it turned out to be both good and bad – i was too preoccupied to get nervous, but also too preoccupied to chat with the people who had come to next specifically to see me. the butlers came, melissa, and both my parents. anyways, i'm very grateful that as i presented my sermon i felt really comfortable, i wasn't nervous at all. and i remembered to say everything i wanted, fairly articulately too :) i was pleased with how it went, and honestly found the whole experience positive. i really learned a lot. i THINK they'll eventually post it online, if they can get it working. i'll let you know when it's available in case you're listening.

afterwards melissa came with me to sunday lunch. when we first arrived my mom told me that she'd been weepy in the car on her drive home. i asked her why, and she started crying again. she said it was because i'd done so well with my sermon, and that she was so proud of me. she said that i'm everything she'd always hoped i'd be and she was just so thankful. that was very nice, and it made me cry a little bit too because i can't think of a better compliment coming from her.

when i got home, i laid on the couch for a while, just curled up with a smile on my face. i felt content and satisfied. it felt good to have that done, and i was pleased with how it turned out (didn't stumble, repeat myself unnecessarily, didn't forget anything). after that, i started packing for peru – onto my next adventure. things are going ok. i'm pretty good at cramming stuff in. as of right now i don't think my backpack is even half full yet. i found it odd and surprising that at mid-july i was digging in my closet for a pair of mitts and a toque to take on vacation with me. i can't believe it's less than a week now. exciting!

to claim the victory jesus won.

lookout

i sat on my balcony in the pouring rain. i was curled up in my camper chair, away from the wet. the sound on the awning above me was heavenly. the rain was heavy as lightening struck directly north of me, followed by it's corresponding thunder. it was beautiful. the whole time the sun shone strongly and boldly to my left. very beautiful.

in one week from now jill and i will be in miami getting ready to board a plane to south america. that makes me smile.

my mom and i went to the buskers this afternoon. i found that odd seeing as one of my two mom-related buskers memories is her saying she hates the buskers, and that she feels like it's evil. my other memory involves me dropping my ice cream cone on the ground. apparently her feeling about the buskers has changed, and as far as i'm concerned, this more tempered opinion of the buskers is more appropriate. anyways, there was one act where this guy had to catch this other guy while he fell head first towards the pavement before he hit ground. it was impressive, but what really struck me is that they made two attempts at it. the first time the altered it so he landed on his feet, the second time he fell head first as planned and the other guy caught him. i was quite amazed to see that the catcher was indeed truly afraid. which is legitimate – his friend would've been paralyzed or possibly killed. i like getting glimpses of people's humanity.

only God knows i'm trying my best,
but i'm just so tired of this loneliness.

stethoscope

they are all out there. and i'm right here.

i walked up princess street on my own. surrounded by the influx of suburbanites. i'm certain many of them only venture downtown during the buskers. i find it annoying. i sat in saigon delights eating dinner, trying to read by book, with a large loud middle-class family behind me. it was not as enjoyable as i had hoped/expected. sometimes living alone makes me extremely sensitized to volume, and kind of overwhelmed by unruly children.

on this beautiful summer evening i sat at my computer working on my powerpoint slides for my sermon on sunday. they turned out really nicely actually. when i was done, i tried to run thru my sermon again, only to get bored and tired halfway thru. i'll try again tomorrow. i worry that i'll be repetitive and that my segways will be weak. i find talking much harder than writing. i can articulate myself much better in writing.

there seems to be a missing element. something is missing. i don't know what it is. i don't think something is lost so much as it's simply absent.

is anyone interested in going raspberry picking and/or to see the new harry potter movie with me this coming week? i want to do both those things before my vacation. i'm even thinking about going to see hp on friday night before i take the bus to the airport at 2 am. lemme know.

need is always pending on how much you can get.

snap

i love that commercial where the guy calls in "tired" to work. i seriously wish being tired was a legitimate reason to miss a day. i would've made that call this morning. i was nauseous i was so tired. it seems to me that my internal clock has more than 24 hours. i wonder how long my days would be if i could sleep for as long as i want, work for as long as i want, and have as much free time as i want.

i should go. i'd be doing myself a massive favour if i was in bed on time.

i need to connect.

the only pain is to feel nothing at all.

heebeegeebees

eliane got fired yesterday. i've never met her before, but she does my job for another division just outside of montreal. my counterpart. when the knickers told me she seemed like she was trying to calm me or stop me from worrying frantically that i'd be next. as i've told you before, i don't really care. but she seems to assume my job is my everything, and the reality is SHE'S probably more alarmed by this than i am. i'm the last internal design in the communications department. as much as i don't think getting fired is the worst thing in the world, i feel badly for eliane. there's a lot of speculation left behind, and no dignity in it for her. she worked for the company for 20 years. there's no loyality in business. yet another reason not to sell your soul to your job.

i'm seriously starting to get vacation fever. my mind is slowly making an exodus and i'm not able to concentrate at work. i'm too buzzed and ready to go. only 10 more days! i'm looking forward to seeing jill, i want to give her a hi-ten. is that what they're called? hi-ten? like, two hi-fives at once.

i like that i'm slowly becoming a lending library. i'm tempted to buy a notebook to record who has what. i don't want to lose track of my book collection. apparently that would make for 6 notebooks that i have on the go. i had no idea i had so many different notebooks, but apparently i do. bren just made me one out of an old record album. it's very cool.

i'm somewhat particle to liking people who like me (by 'people' i really do mean 'people', not boys – although boys do count as people). i kind of hate that about myself, even though it's probably really natural. i mostly don't like how i don't like people who don't like me. i wish i could be more loving than that.

take my love in real small doses.

lasso

guess what mayelin and i did tonight?!?!?!

we went to treasure chest bingo! i'd never played bingo before (at least not at a fancy bingo hall), so it was quite exciting. similarly to my experience at the casino, i was fascinated by the people. there were some serious bingo players there – most had 5 to 8 dabbers on the go at once, some even had homemade carrier cases for said dabbers. it was amazing. unlike at the casino, it's quite hard to win. the other bingo players are fast, some of them had 3 sheets of 3 on the go at one time. but besides that, the chances to win are much slimmer than on the slots. it took me some time to get into the swing of things. we got a six-game pad, and there are 3 rounds on each pad. plus, we got the lightening round pad that contained 4 sheets with 3 rounds. not bad for 9 bux! i would totally go to a bingo hall on a first date. it would be hilarious. it's the kind of environment where that allows for conversation between games, and yet is still an amusing activity.

i like the city name "brussels" because it ends in an s. i like it because it's plural. are there any other cities that end in s's? i hope so, but i can't think of any.

i've started counting how many times in one day i see that word. so far today it's been six times. 6 TIMES! i'm being haunted!!! i liked it better when that word carried no significance, when it was simply a word.

sometimes you tell me what i already know.

i love the smell of skunk.

you're ever welcome with me any time you like.

trajectory

last night i woke up during the really bad thunderstorm. it was probably the worst thunderstorm i've ever heard. i laid there listening to the clashes of thunder. it was actually quite beautiful. i could hear the wind gusting, and what sounded like hail on my balcony. so i got up to look out the window. when i went back into my bedroom and got back into bed, a wave of aloneness hit me. i feel most alone in the night while in my single bed and i remember that no one thinks of me. sometimes in the darkness, when i'm all by myself, i feel like a little girl again and wonder how it is that i'm even allowed to live alone. how did i get to be a grown-up with a place of her own with no one to tuck me in at night. it's a surreal feeling. it's probably just the nighttime, the nighttime is surreal.

sometimes i wonder why i live alone. yes, housemates can sometimes be annoying, but even my cats – who are kind of like housemates – annoy me sometimes, like REALLY annoy me. having to learn to live with annoyance is part of life, part of relationships.

i wriggled appreciatively.

wizard

i finally got to go strawberry picking!!

beck and i went up to her cottage this weekend, and managed to make it to a strawberry place up near ardoch that was open. the strawberries were small, and sparse, but we managed to get almost a whole basket.

this afternoon i took my canoe chair and sat in the grass across the street from my house. the sun was warm and my chair was cozy. i sat writing my sermon for an hour and a half. it was a beautiful afternoon and i so enjoyed sitting in the grass.

err... yes... i'm preaching next sunday :S it's my first sermon ever. my initial reaction when asked was "no way", but then i thought "it's something i've never done before, so maybe i should try it". so i agreed. i've actually quite enjoyed thinking about the topic, hashing it out in my brain. i'm the kind of person who needs something to challenge my mind or else i get worked up about trivial matters. i didn't really plan to write it all out, but i ended up finding that the easiest way to sort out my thoughts. i wanted to organize it so that it went from A to B to C to D, instead of leaving it scattered like a game of pick-up sticks. i feel ok about it. i do hope it goes well.

i read a great line in my book this week (i'm reading 'the fifth business' by robertson davies)....
"i was afraid and i didn't know what i feared, which is the worst kind of fear". man, i love words. i love lyrics. i know when a song or book is well written when i wish i'd written it.

i should get into bed but i've just started putting together a photo album on facebook :S

i can't help but wonder what's gone wrong.

robo-boogie

i'd like to join a book club.
does anyone know of one in ktown that i'd be able to join?
i don't know how people join book clubs, but i think it would be fun and good.
i like books.
i like talking.
i like talking about books.
i like talking about books with people.
i like talking with people.
i like people.

the book of right-on's right-on,
it was right-on.

bixi

i love love love montreal.
and i love david too. so i consider myself quite lucky to have enjoyed the pleasure of two of my favourite things at once.

i drove straight from work, traffic was quite good until i was almost at david's place – then i got stuck for quite a while. on the way there i tried to go fast, but not too fast that i'd get a ticket. as i drove i tried to come up with the most creative excuse to give a cop if i was presented with an opportunity. i figured no matter what i say it won't make a difference, so i might as well give him something of a story ("one time, this girl told me...."). so far i haven't come up with anything....

david lives in a great neighbourhood (he's just there for a couple more weeks, it was a 2 month sojourn), and as i drove there i noticed how livable montreal is. no major congested traffic, lots of trees, houses not apartments, everything close by. if i have to leave kingston someday, i'm hoping i'll end up in montreal. if i move to either toronto or ottawa i would be seriously disappointed, because they don't hold a candle to montreal.

he took me out to o.noir for dinner. it's a restaurant where the staff are all blind (which is great because blind people struggle to find gainful employment) and the patrons eat in the dark. how it works is when you arrive you are given a locker for your belongings, you order from the menu, then your waiter comes to get you. we lined up like a row of elephants, waiter first, david second with his left hand on the waiters left shoulder, then me last with my left hand on david's left shoulder (and my right hand in david's right hand – it's a little nerve wracking). the server was very kind and helpful, actually i'd even go so far as to say "supportive". everytime he came to our table he asked how we were doing, and i'm pretty sure it was to make sure we were not having panic attacks. the room was COMPLETELY BLACK. i've NEVER seen such darkness before. it was AMAZING! almost immediately i noticed that david's watch had a slight glow and i asked him to put it in his pocket because my eyes were fixated on it because it was the ONLY thing i could see. we hunched over the table, trying to get our barrings. our first course was an avocado salad that we shared, and eventually ate with our fingers. our second course was steak, potatoes and asparagus (everything came precut). as we ate we talked and laughed in regular david+lesley fashion, but there was something about the dark that reminded me of pillowtalk or a sleepover – when people are unguarded. after a while i just sat with my eyes closed because there was just no point to having them open, the sensation was the same just without the "effort" of keeping my eyes open. we had dessert too. the thing i liked about the darkness was that i only ate until i was full and not until my plate was empty. after going back into the light it took some time for our eyes to adjust, and i felt a little dizzy. it was really fun.

afterwards we headed down to the jazz festival that just opened that day, because stevie wonder was giving a free concert in the street. it seemed really appropriate having just eaten at o.noir, it was easier to imagine how stevie experiences the world. we called it our "blind date" :D

it started to rain so we went back to his house where we sat talking for a couple hours, he's living with some mcgill students, but they were no were to be seen. around 1:30 or 2 we headed out to get a cup of tea from his neighbourhood second cup then we walked thru "the plateau" to his favourite park. the streets were full of people. it was fun. we eventually went to bed at around 3:30.

the next morning we got up around 11:30, and headed down to old port for "breakfast". we went to this really awesome restaurant (i don't remember what it's called) that's outside in an old gutted building. it was beautiful, and the food was so tastey.

here's a picture of my gorgeous friend david in the anonymous restaurant.

we hung out the rest of the day in old port. there was a lot going on down there, which surprised me because i didn't expect montrealers to be into canada day. there were a ton of events and people, which was cool because i enjoy a crowd. d and i like people watching, so it suited us nicely. there were parachuters, michael jackson dancing lessons, etc. i was feeling like a bit of an exhibitionist so i suggested we go on a horse+buggy ride. it was fun, except our guide talked a LOT and kept trying to pick up women as we rode around. before heading up to the village we walked up the clock-tower (which was apparently built to rival london's big ben, which we thought was a very shabby attempt, because compared to big ben it was kind of lame – although there was a nice breeze at the top and i liked the graffiti).

on the buggy...
(notice my skull+cross bones shirt??)

we headed up to the village to get a drink at starbucks. i didn't go there last time, i felt i should go with someone who belonged or else i'd feel like a spy or like i was gawking at them having gone there as a tourist. we got root beers, and after we sat down found it was too hot so decided to walk up the street a little. as we stroled i commented to david that our root beers totally looked like regular beers, and sure enough about 10 minutes later i was approached by a cop and had to explain to him i was not drinking in public. we sat down for a good ten minutes, and when i was ready to go i reached for my bag to discover it was GONE! my head was spinning. where had i left it?!?!? who had pinched it!?!?! i tried to not freak-out and comforted myself with the fact that i'd left my car keys at david's place, so at the very least i could get home. david ran back to starbucks and THANKFULLY(!) it was still there. PHEW!!!

the village was an interesting place. full of lots of different kinds of people, and most definitely had more men than women. there was an art installation that included laundry hanging from wires, it was really cool, it went down the street for as far as the eye could see. while we headed back to the nearest metro station, i crossed paths with michel (!) my coworker who i hungout with while i was there last year. i'm a huge fan of michel, so it was very cool to bump into him. i'd told him i was going to be there, so he wasn't that surprised to see me. it's still funny that in ALL of montreal i bumped into him, BUT it WAS the village so that does increase the likeliness, it's kind of his neck of the woods.


anyways, it was a really fun 24 hours. i didn't clock-watch at all, i was just enjoying myself so much that i decided i'd leave when i was ready. if i got home late i got home late. i actually did leave at a decent time (7:30), and david made me a sandwich for the road (he's so great), but unfortunately, on my way out of the city i got stuck in bad traffic again. i eventually noticed that it was just my lane that was going SUPER slow, the two closest to me were going slow but not crawling. every other directions were moving nicely, so i knew that wasn't typical for montreal. it turned out we were delayed because of a really big puddle. kind of annoying, but if i knew the city better i probably could have avoided sitting there for 45 minutes :S

well... this was a super long entry. but everything mentioned was important to me for one reason or another.

could this be true?
it all comes down to you.

blind date

i had an indescribably good time in montreal.