space and time

Went to Kingston this weekend on a spur of the moment road trip with Entire Cities. They really need to update their Myspace.

Anyway, post show, sitting on a porch, time and space struck me. As in, I have spent a lot of my life in Kingston. I have walked through the park I was looking at too many times to count. I even have a vague memory of attending a party in the house I stayed on Saturday night. Yet sitting on that porch it was all different.

It's true, I have geographic knowledge of the city and it grants me an ease of mobility I would be without if it was first time visiting. But all the extraneous things - emotion and life...context - are different and that makes the place unique to this visit.

A memory of wandering to the farmers market through the park on a Saturday morning holds a different meaning in my life than this Saturday did; observing the same park at 3 in the morning after driving from Toronto, watching friends play a show, lugging a guitar amp from the bar and having a shared futon to look forward to upstairs.

Different.

The next day we went to a new little grocery store at Barrie and Clergy that specializes in local nummies. The building a dirty convenience store when I inhabited the geography last. Ms. Kelly, who was kind enough to let us hunker at her place the night before, works there, so we all trundled over to carry out chairs, set-up tomato plant displays, and so forth. The place has the same swinging, prison-like solid slab of steel for a door, but inside instead of under-priced pop there were enormous carrots and the best custard doughnuts I have ever eaten.

Space and time, time and space, and enormous carrots.

Halloween

I had a costume. That's an important part of the evening. I was a mountaineer?

I found the sweater at a second-hand store on Bloor. It's for a cyclist, with fun pockets in the back for protein bars and drinks, so originally that's what I was going to be. But then I put on the hat, Fancy suggested a climber and I agreed. Also, the rope is such an easy prop and not one I have to carry all night.

A key consideration on Halloween.

Finally, nice gams.

Went to Comedy Bar, The Boat, then back to Comedy Bar and had a good time. Not a mind-blowingly awesome time, but a good time. The problem is being tired.

If you're tired you're less likely to pop out of the chair, bounce around the room and interact with people. It's one thing to interact with those you know, but it takes more energy to put yourself out there and start talking with new people.

So I guess the problem is being tired and not knowing enough people. Next time I'll be less tired, become the best of friends with EVERYONE then follow that up with an exhausted visit during which I'll reconfirm my newfound friendships by having low energy repartee and banter.

Can't wait.

We switched venues midway through the evening because Annie was due for a Sweatshop Hop shift at The Boat. We arrived, aerobicized and departed pretty quickly but there was still enough time for me to get my crush on. Just for an instant, just the one person and just as I was leaving.

Methinks my strategies around babes need some work.

And that's where not being so tired comes in. Right? Or, at least that's part of it. Sorting out my own muddled state and what exactly I'm looking for couldn't hurt things either.

Ah well. I'm sure I'll figure out what I'm up to soon enough. In the meantime there's lots to keep me busy. Tomorrow I'm off to Kingston for the day to meet with students and tell them how to write better papers.

Write better papers kids! I'll say. And they will giggle. Giggle and fail.

A brief trip

My bus left the coach terminal this morning at 9:30. It arrived in Kingston at 12:30, where I caught a 12:45 bus downtown. I walked to the Queen's campus where I had a brief meeting before saying hello to a few people. I then bought a wrap from the Swedish chip truck (out of beet salad...grrr) and walked up Division Street to catch another Kingston Transit bus that returned me to the bus station. There I caught the 3:15 bus (actually 3:08 for the math kids) back to Toronto that deposited me at the Bay and Dundas terminal at 6:30 or so.

What a day. I ate light, but I think even that was too much for the effort expended.

I was in Kingston to meet a prof. She provided a reference for my BCPV job and subsequently offered me some marking work. This was the first get together and paper pick-up. I'm still not sure how the job is going to work because the prof had to bolt to pick up her son, but I'm hoping she will be able to organize some more funding so I can make the trip to Kingston a few times over the term to meet with students if needed and still actually be making money. $100 per return bus ticket is a bit much, no matter how much of The Count of Monte Cristo I get to read. I'm going to be investigating both cheaper ticketing and craigslist options for future journeys.

Or, screw the students and I'll do everything by surface and email. Nothing says extrapolating on nuanced points of academic argument like email!

Grunt.

On an unadulterated positive note (ie what you are looking for when you read this blog) I got to ride with this guy!

On his bus.

It's a fun colour scheme! What do you want from me?