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.