October 2004

October 27, 2004

We're back from the weekend...or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we survived the weekend. Homecoming is a rather strange tradition, and in many ways seems to be an exercise in which the participants are challenged to try and use phrases starting with "Well, in my day..." as many times as possible in a 48 hour time span. In short, it is a highly ritualistic method of making yourself feel old.

That being said, it is also an extremely fun way of making yourself feel old. Kingston itself is an absolutely beautiful town with a fairly concerning ratio of drinking establishments/people, and the fact that the weather was perfect didn't hurt much either. But enough generalities...let's talk about just what homecoming was.

Homecoming is about going from the civilized comforts of your own home to a place where you can be reminded of what your life was once like. This past life may include:
- rotting sofas out on verandas, porches and lawns
- Christmas lights clinging to every available surface
- a general exodus of things normally found inside your home to the outside of the home.

Take, for example, the following photo:

An important part of seeing such a house now is to realize that I once would have found this a very cool place. Now all I can think of is sanding down the porch, putting down some stain and trading the couches for wicker. It's difficult to tell if I'm more of a loser now than I was then, or vice versa.

In the same vein, we should likely say a thing or two about decoration, as it is a defining moment to go 'back to your roots' and see the modes of adornment you once considered tasteful. For our first example, let's imagine that we had a barbeque chained to our front steps (just imagine, I know it's hard); how could we embellish it to enhance its attractiveness? Brick it in? Some potted plants? Or how about putting some witty lettering on the front of it? Perfect!

I think that we can all agree that this is a major improvement over just a plain old barbeque...well done, lads! Maybe it's inspired by Martha Stewart's new, harder-edge 'Jailhouse Line' of decorating ideas.

Now, if I had to think of one thing that we did this weekend, it would have to be the visit to my old house. I should have taken a cue from the older alumni who would only go so far as to look at their old houses from across the street before moving on. This is clearly a practice borne of experience. We went in. We couldn't resist. I can't say that I was happy with what I saw.

One of the current residents lay on the couch in some sort of drug-induced stupour, and was thus unable to voice any objections to us coming in. "Just don't steal anything." he managed to slur. This condition was hardly limiting, as I think I've been more tempted to steal things from someone's compost heap than I was from that house.

It was in this house that a few of us tried to grab a small slice of immortality by doing two things: painting a four-wall mural of a jungle in the living room, and using drywall compound to layer beer caps onto the underside of the stairwell. The mural didn't survive the first set of students who followed us, but I'm confident that our effort with the beercaps will still remain for future generations appreciate.

The question remains, however, as to whether it was ever a good idea to put them up in the first place. Are there any points in the world of home decorating for effort?

October 21, 2004

Tomorrow we go to Kingston...it's homecoming time. How did that happen? Just discussing what we're planning to there is starting to make me feel just a little old, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless. It's looking like it will be a very fun way to see off October and head into November, which is shaping off to be a pretty pivotal month in both Laura and my lives.

But before then...

Ritual.

(for those of you who don't know what Ritual is, it's a proud tradition at Queen's of drinking from noon onwards...)

October 19, 2004

They say that when it rains, it pours, and yesterday was no exception. After weeks of getting not so much as a phone call, yesterday Laura got not one, but two job offers and another lead on top of that that came out of the blue. Pretty sweet. So it looks like Laura will start work on November first, though she still has to sign the papers.

So on November first, we both start work. I've got one year to write my book, and the clock starts ticking in eleven days. Needless to say, we're both pretty excited.

By the way, there were two truly excellent articles in the NY Times Magazine this weekend that are on their website. A really good one on food that might as well be my manifesto is here, and an excellent analysis of the Bush Presidency as being 'Faith based' is here. It explores Kerry's assertion that "You can be absolutely certain and still be wrong." Both are a must-read.

October 16, 2004

Tonight was an interesting departure from the ordinary as we accompanied Ian the the "SuperDanish" festival at the Harbourfront Centre.

So what can I say? It seems that the Danes (always up to something, aren't they?) want to break free from the mold and move beyond their reputation as makers-of-interesting-chairs. Sure, the chairs did make a small cameo this evening, but the show put forward some interesting ideas from some leading Danish designers that they are characterizing as a sort of pragmatic utopianism. I found the show fairly interesting overall, especially as it appealed to my not-yet-extinct idealistic side.

On the way home from this swanky soiree celebrating the clever designs of the Danes, Laura and I were presented with a somewhat stark reminder of the things that elegant engineering can't dispel so easily; sketchy people. As we strolled along a darkened street discussing the finer points of the Danish coastline, we came across an idling car in which a man was doing his very best to strangle a stuggling woman, who for her part was writhing and screaming, trying desperately to escape. And there we were, back to ugly reality. My first reaction (as always) was to rush and help, as the woman managed to get the door partially open before the man tightened his grip again, but something in the situation was too dodgy even for me.

It shocks and saddens me how many times in my relatively short life I have come across men viciously beating women in public, and I have stepped in every single time and almost paid dearly for it on more than one occasion. But tonight the situation was beyond what I thought was safe. Gun? Knife? Or just an unarmed psychopath? It was the first time I was happy to have a cell phone, that's for sure. A quick and probably futile call to 911 and as the car peeled away I stood wondering; just what is the right thing to do in that situation? Everyone who takes Sociology hears about the bystander syndrome, and the famous example of a woman being killed while no less than 50 people looked on. Where is the woman I saw tonight now?

But then there's the ugly flipside. On one particular occasion in Kingston where I intervened and almost got a gang beating in return, the woman actually ended up - when push came to shove - siding with the man who had just been punching her.

It's the kind of thing that you can turn over in your head a million different ways, but there are only two things that I know for sure: 1) I would have been crazy to stick my head into that car, and 2) I'll never know what happened to that woman.

The moral of the story? Reality sucks...and I'm moving to Denmark.

October 13, 2004

Thanksgiving has passed...though I'm still giving thanks for all of the leftovers. I am currently on a strict all-turkey diet, as Laura and I attempt to plough through the heaps that remain after the weekend. Yum.

On Monday Laura, Ian and I went for a four hour bike cruise through the Don Valley and took in all of the autumn colours, which are really starting to show throughout the city. I had no idea that the city had such an extensive network of bike trails throughout!

October 9, 2004

It's Thanksgiving! I think this has got to be one of my favourite times of year; that magical time when you eat your face off in celebration of a good harvest. That, to me, is the ultimate excuse for a holiday.

I started the cooking marathon yesterday, spending the better part of the day baking two tourtieres, two pumpkin pies and making cream of cauliflower soup while Laura made some fresh cranberry sauce. Yum. It's funny though, after cooking all day we actually forgot to have lunch.

I do have one thing to give thanks for on this day, and that is the kindness of strangers. As I was walking home yesterday, laden down with more groceries than I could handle and trying my best not to drop my turkey, I was helped out by a passer-by who felt that what I needed most at that point was to be punched. I mean, sure, I can see it; maybe someone with a turkey and some pumpkins would like that kind of thing. It's conceivable, I guess. So as I walked along, a lady of fairly questionable personal hygiene teetered out of the bank (I know how she feels!) and set her sights on the poor, unsuspecting turkey-bearer who happened to be in front of her. Sadly, that was me. She veered toward me starting growling and hauled off and punched me in the chest as hard as she could.

Now this sort of thing raises certain questions of protocol. What, really, is the appropriate response to that sort of thing? Clearly clubbing some unwashed lady with a large piece of poultry is not a socially accepted response, nor could I think of anything sufficiently witty to say to make light of such an awkward situation, amusing and titilating my fellow pedestrians. So I did what I would say is the more "Japanese" thing to do; I pretended that what had happened was the most natural thing in the world ("Well of course she just punched me! It's Friday!") and walked on without so much as a glance back in her direction.

I still thought it was pretty weird, though.

October 4, 2004

Alright, so an absolutely abominable amount of time has passed by with me putting up little or nothing on my website...not so good. As things start to settle down a little here, though, it looks like I'll be able to get back into things a little bit.

Moving back to Toronto and settling in has been a hectic process, but it has surprised both Laura and I with just how right it feels. The city has felt like home since the moment we got an address, and I feel more at home every day...it probably doesn't hurt that our apartment is sandwiched between a liquor store, an Italian butcher and a Buddhist temple...all my interests piled into one city block!

So where do we stand right now? Laura and I are in the midst of rediscovering our passion for all things culinary, and the reintroduction to the wide-world of food has been more than welcome. Laura's out pounding the pavement for work - which is not so fun - while I am getting down to doing writing, which I will be taking on full time.

Part of that effort will entail a redesign of this website, which will necessarily be converting from a sort of travel journal to some new, as yet undecided product...we'll see. Whatever it is, it will likely involve recipes (which I promised Rand I would do 2 years ago), essays, a continued blog of some kind and some short stories.