The Quiet City

Sometimes there is nothing I enjoy more than walking around late at night, as the snow falls thickly and there is no sound. I like seeing the city at night, shrouded by white. I like feeling like the only one awake. It kind of makes me nostalgic for a time I never lived, when the country was endlessly quiet and isolated, and you could truly be the only one around. If you've never seen The Snowman, go rent it or buy it or something.. I've watched it since I was very young, and it is the epitome of how I wish to feel on winter nights. It's kind of Christmas to me, if I lived in the English countryside. Nights like tonight, where there is little traffic on my road and even less people to be found. Quiet. Endless.

It's almost December- where has the time flown? School has kept me so busy I have barely had the time to notice the date, and now November is leaving me too. Soon I'll be in the air again, 3 more weeks until the West calls me back. Then it's 3 weeks of busy Calgary life, until the new semester starts and life evolves yet again. I hope for many more nights like this one, perhaps more filled with laughter and wine, crazy nights with those I can't live without, and who knows what else? I think, because last January, February, and March were so enjoyable, I will enjoy this time around too. I could only hope for so much.

An Aside

The other day, while walking to the liquor store, I realized that I am always in a good mood when I am walking to the liquor store.

A Remembrance Day Moment

As I sat in the library preparing an essay, the sound of a trumpet filled the air at precisely 11am. Of course, it's November 11th, and in some provinces people get a holiday to remember the fallen... Although here in Ontario.. we don't. I digress. As everyone in the University library, no matter what they were doing, stood for a moment of silence, I felt an odd combination of emotions- shame, sadness, hilarity. A minute passed, then another, and another, until I couldn't figure out if the man running the show had either fallen asleep or was so deep in thought about the fallen that he forgot to tell us the moment was over and we could sit back down. At any rate, as I stood observing those around me in our collective many moments of silence, I looked to the left and noticed a large hickey on the neck of the girl beside me.

It was a moment to remember. On this Remembrance day, I hope you remember something, too.

The Week That Was

What was that? A mess of days and nights, glasses and bottles, sounds and colours... Unlikely yet completely true. And everyday, it's changed since then, In every way, I've changed since then.. I think I miss the confusion and excitement, but understand that I can not function forever in that state, and, well... essentially, being in that state for too long would turn me into a dry husk, useless and empty.

It's funny how, in hindsight, events build to stack a situation a certain way. It could be within the space of a few years, with chance meetings and sightings and little bits of observational knowledge tucked away for future use. These chance meetings have been preceded by, in fact, years of preparation without any one person realizing it. Random acquaintances leading to random conversations leading to new revelations. These revelations are things I still can't quite decipher in my mind, and indeed, are now making me a little nervous. I fell into something that is now over, at least for the time being, and I'm kind of reeling, wondering what life would've been like if this had happened any earlier, if I had made different decisions, if I had followed a different path.

Instead of living in the week that was, I must now move ahead, although not too far into the future. I should not expect, nor desire, anything more to happen than it already has. That would be dangerous.