.: figments & fragments :.

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12/25/2004
"YYZ - NWR - YYZ"

Too many things happened these past two weeks, so it's kinda hard to sum up in a few words how it really was, which is why my reply to everyone's questions about my trip to NJ is "decent".

I could've lived without the drama. I can always live without the drama. But that's just not what life's about.

Dire thoughts aside, I had fun.

Long post ahead; grab some coffee, a snack. Maybe close your browser? That's right, get outta here :P

Last day of class was neat; there were no seminars, so we adjourned an hour early and headed to Olde Stone for dinner and drinks. I was late 'cause I had stuff to do, but most of the class was there, and we talked and chilled a bit before I caught the last bus out of Peterborough to Toronto (and, in the process, forgot a whole bunch of stuff). Marianne and Shahnon were at the station to meet me, and we were up till past 3 just catching up. We made plans to meet up again after I got back from Jersey, as Shahnon was leaving on the 7th for home for good.

The line at Customs was ridiculous; I queued for a good 45 minutes, only to have some non-English-speaking jerk steal my pen as I was filling in some forms that were handed out at the last minute. I would've kicked his stupid non-English-speaking ass if there weren't so many bloody armed Customs officers hanging around. Lost sight of the bugger, so I had to kiss that pen goodbye, hrmph. If that wasn't enough, my flight was delayed by over an hour because of aforementioned line at Customs. It wasn't a good afternoon.

We started packing that night, and as usual, it was more like moving house than anything else! Slept in and watched lots of TV with Audrey 'til Alice and George got home from work. It started to rain as we loaded up the truck, but the weather let up a little as we reached the camp site. We set up camp surprisingly fast, and managed to find a couple of huge logs nearby for our fire. Right after dinner it started to rain, so everyone hid in the tent for a couple of hours. We came out and did some barbequing when it was down to a drizzle, and basically just enjoyed the night as best as we could.

I was up at 6 the next morning to cook breakfast for everyone, and caught sight of some wild deer wandering about. We drove to Pennsylvania that morning, as Alice wanted to get some kinda tent from Coleman's. We pitched it before going for a 2 1/2 hour hike with George. Probably the best part of the hike was the fact that we crossed the Appalachian Trail and trekked around a lake that we swam in a couple of years ago. We even did a bit of rock climbing, and Audrey and I took loads of pictures. The sky was amazing that afternoon. I'd put some pictures up, but first I need to get a converter to charge the battery before I can upload the shots. The rocks shown on the Pennsylvania trail were pretty similar to the ones we climbed.

On the way back from the hike, George showed us an old abandoned copper mine. We went inside, and I have to admit, I was scared, 'cause there was nothing but absolute blackness, and a chill that just crawls up your spine. It didn't help that George told us there'd be bats in there :P Yeah, we took pictures anyway, lol. The joke of the afternoon was that I stumbled along this pitch black mine, and I couldn't understand why the hell I couldn't see anything, despite Audrey and George's torches. It was until Audrey asked me if I had my sunglasses on that I realized why everything was darker than it should be *smacks forehead* Pure genius, hehe. Even so, we got out alive and well, if a little wet from the damp cave. We washed up in a river that ran right by the mine's entrance before heading back to the camp site.

George and Alice went canoeing when we got back. Audrey and I opted out because we were tired, and she had to pick them up further downriver anyway.

In Alice's words, "...the best part about camping is playing with fire". I concur, heh. We made a huge bonfire that night, grabbed our sleeping bags and lay under the stars. The stereo was blasting (don't ask), there was a blazing fire and for a while, everyone just shut up and absorbed the night.

I slept in till 8 the next day, and after breakfast, we started cleaning and packing. We had a lot of crap with us, so it was a good three hours before we were on our way home. Back at the house, it was more packing and cleaning, argh! Audrey washed the truck while Alice and I cooked.

The rest of the trip consisted of TV, shopping and reading. In total, I bought an Esprit tote and handbag, a Calvin Klein denim jacket and tee, and two more tee shirts from Roxy and Nike, which set me back less than 90USD, heh. There was a DKNY bag I wanted, but it was 40 bucks, so I abstained. It's actually bloody cheap, but I was on a tight budget, so... bleh.

I never got to check out NYC for a variety of reasons, but we did go there for dinner the night before I left. I never got to meet up with Pearly either, due to my absentmindedness and lack of an internet connection, blah. However, George's cousin Juan was in town, and he's hilarious. He invited Audrey and I down to Atlanta for Christmas, yay. Pipe dream, but still.

Soon enough, it was back to the airport, back to Canada. No duty-free booze, because that stupid duty free shop in Newark was closed. I hate Newark Airport--their duty free shop is always closed! It's as if they don't want me to spend my money there or something, bastards >:(

Upon touching down in TO, I found out that Shahnon managed to get a seat on the flight leaving that night, and I was a little mad, but mostly sad. He'd told me earlier that he wasn't leaving til the 7th, so it was kinda unexpected. He's graduated, and is leaving Canada for good. I miss him; we don't meet up all that often, but we have excellent memories, and for our last dinner together in Canada, Marianne, Shahnon and I headed back to House of Gourmet on Spadina. It was the very first restaurant we ate at together, and it seemed fitting that it should be our last.

We had some time to kill before sending him to the airport, so we played Twister and Scrabble, lol. There were no tears shed, just hugs exchanged. Marianne's friends gave us a lift back, and we played Tarot cards that night.

The next afternoon was spent wandering along Kensington Market after a fantastic meal at a little Japanese restaurant whose name now escapes me, and we saw the classic 'cat stuck up on a tree' melodrama unfolding before us. There were loads of people watching, and finally someone had the smarts to call the fire department. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the happy ending, though I'm hoping that someone managed to get that damn cat down in the end. Seems that it was stuck up there for two days.

Stupid cat.

Marianne and I also caught a live jazz performance slightly further down the street, followed by a bunch of weirdos lounging on a couch in the middle of the street, heh. I managed to capture a 1 1/2 minute video of the jazz performance as well as some photos. I enjoyed their performance so much, I'm thinking of heading down to Toronto again this weekend to see them.

Anyway, we picked up some fresh fruit and vegetables before I had to catch my bus back to the Patch. Theatre class started today, and I don't know what to make of it as of yet.

Among other news, Switchfoot will be performing in London, On. and Ottawa, On., and I have no money to go see 'em. Boo-fucking-hoo.

So there you have it. If you stuck by this story right 'til the end, you have more patience that I ever imagined possible. I told you it would be a long entry :P

.: figments & fragments :.

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