I watch the sunrise from the window seat of a Greyhound bus and drink lukewarm coffee at the rest stop. Someone else tells my life story in my headphones while the rest of the passengers sleep. We drive into a city of wind tunnels created by skyscrapers, dodgy end first. Slowly the people around me start to stir and out the window the city becomes what I know.
From the 23rd floor you can see everything but still hear the noise of the streets below. You can see Dundas Square. You can see the water. I eat grilled cheese and soup for lunch and my oldest friend does my hair and I feel like I fit. She has never had a life that I couldn’t picture, and so I needed to see this so I could place her in my mind when we’re talking on Skype from different continents.
We have dinner, eat too much and come back to talk about old times and how we hope that bitchy girl from high school got fat. We look through old photos of times when we thought each day was the most important ever and used adverbs as punctuation.
On her computer, a clock is set to GMT and I smile because I have friends who know what time it is where I am, wherever that is.
On the subject of couch surfing in London:
Steph: i like free things…
Heather: me too
Heather: But I don’t really like strangers
Steph: but you might make a new friend?
Steph: fall in love
Heather: hahaha
Steph: marry, have a baby
Steph: and all that for free
Steph: see its not just a couch to sleep on
Steph: its a whole life!
Heather: You’re hilarious.
Heather: Babies aren’t free!
Steph: well the man you could have them with might be
Steph: and you just might meet him couch surfing.
If I had my way, every person I know would have a blog, so I can find out what they’re thinking about at all times. And so I have something important to do while wandering through the internet.
I met Ali the same way I met Fae, online through geeky RPG groups. I’ve known her just as long, though I don’t know her anywhere near as well as I’d like to. That’s why when I clicked on the link to her blog last night, I was so excited to catch up on her life.
What I found both surprised and inspired me. I always knew Ali was brilliant, but her blog surpassed my expectations. It’s a personal blog, but it talks a lot of Ali’s recent self diagnosis with Asperger’s and her thoughts on autism and the autistic community. It’s thoughtful and so damned smart that it made me feel very inferior.
So I thought I’d feature it on my Weblink Wednesday in hopes that you all check it out too!
Alternate Lexicon
Yesterday was Thanksgiving in Canada. All weekend I have been watching my friends Twitters and Facebook statuses detail their journeys home for the holiday, and I couldn’t help but be jealous.
After a couple of weeks of homesickness, I have largely adjusted to being here, but Thanksgiving was a bit too much for me to handle. I was having daydreams of turkey dinners and pumpkin pie and spending a lazy day watching seasons of TV shows with my sister while the smell of dinner wafted through the air.
Luckily, I was prepared. My Canadian friend here, Chandra (who happens to be from the same city as me, though we’d never met each other until we got to Newcastle!), and I decided to have a Canadian Thanksgiving party. It was largely a pot luck, and the guests ranged from Canadian to British, from American to Italian! I made the chickens (you have to special order a turkey, apparently!) and the rest of the food arrived on schedule!
Photo is courtesy of Chandra!
I’ve never been away from home for a holiday. Or at least, I’ve never been away from my family for it. When I was younger we used to go to the US and spend Canadian Thanksgiving with our American friends of the family (who used to live in Canada, thus deserve TWO Thanksgivings). Thanksgiving isn’t a really big deal in Canada like it is in the US, but it’s still a good time to spend with your family and eat way too much food. Also, when I was living in Ottawa, all of my friends from high school would usually venture back from wherever they’d ended up and we’d get to hang out for a day or so at a sort of halfway point to Christmas.
I was really happy to be able to have a dinner across the ocean, and proud of myself for being able to put it together (Ahhh, growing up!) it was also great to get all of my new friends together in my lovely new apartment. But now I’m looking forward to Christmas and getting to go back home again. It still feels like home.
We did get to have pumpkin pie, though! Despite the fact that apparently such an idea doesn’t exist in the UK!
“…And then I didn’t get into the class.”
The Chris can tell a story about anything. She tells hilarious stories about using hummus in the bedroom in the exact same tone as the story about not being able to get into a desired class in high school. And the way she tells it, it really is enthralling. Until you realize that you’ve been listening to a story about high school Shop Class for thirty minutes. But that’s why I love The Chris.
I’m a rather quiet person, often, and because of this I make a habit of surrounding myself with two types of people. Either people who love to talk and are happy to have someone to listen, or people who are comfortable in silence. Chris is the talking type. I adore spending time with her and just listening. I am always thoroughly entertained.
We went to get our hair done today. It’s one of the things we do together, like going out for sushi and eating KFC. Over the last year we’ve gotten quite close, and she was often a staple of at our apartment, even though she didn’t live there. We just fit together, the four of us.
The Chris (who uses the word ‘the’ before most nouns, as emphasis, which earned her that nickname) is the kind of person I quite often wish I was. There isn’t anything she hasn’t thought about, in some way. She always has a theory about something, and it’s always insightful enough for me to do a double take, and quite often to quote to other friends in conversations. Chris isn’t afraid to be herself and always seems to know exactly who that is.
This is only a brief farewell, for The Chris will be following me to England soon enough, though she’ll be living in Brighton.
As my birthday present, Chris wrote me three letters I’m supposed to read at different points this week, on my way to England and when I arrive. She also promised to send me letters constantly, which I hope means that I’ll get to hear all of her exciting (or seemingly so) stories even though I’m not here.
friendship, travel | Hezabelle January 4, 2010 | 
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