Early Morning

tommorow's going to be an early day... well, just 1/2 a hour...
I'm getting trained on running ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) testing at work... It should be cool, if not just a tad scary, since it's the essentially the most important step at my job... it's exciting, I guess.

Life has been pretty crazy as of the last month. Not really partyhardy kinda crazy... but just so many things going on. I'll try to recap parts of it in a somewhat organized fashion...

-1- Grad
First was graduation, which was a good time. God, that seems like a forever and a half ago. My family came over from Vancouver, which was really nice just to be able to spend time with them. My dear parents also got me like the camera beyond my dreams... the nikon d70s... a beautiful beautiful digital slr... so it's been my little baby that has been taking up some, well a whole bunch of my time these days...
but I remember not really feeling much excitement, until I was pretty much seated at the ceremony, and started watching the speakers give their speech and students walking up to the stage, beaming smiles as they knelt before the chancellor, this funny old man, whose function at the university is unknown, besides sitting there lookin cool, and speaking in a deep gruff voice (wow, run-on sentence). It was funny, because you could clearly see where my family was, from the 5 cameras shared between the six fam peeps that showed up. *snapsnapsnapsnapsnap* My dad (camera fiend), my sister (camera fiend 2 with my new camera), my mommy (proud new camera owner), my cousin carolyn (casual picture taker), my aunt (proud new camera owner 2), and my grandpa (cameraless).
As I listened to Terry Gillespie (professor emeritus) give a speech complete with lord of the rings, and poop references, I decided that it would be my goal to get the chancellor to do the peace sign for the camera.

I succeeded, as you can see in the picture. It was sweet, partly because he was saying to me "is this appropriate?" as he did it, and partly cuz he has this really cool look on his face, eyes closed in a zen-like fashion.
After the ceremony, I was repeated mobbed by my family for pictures, with each member of the family wanting a picture of me, and every other member wanting a picture of it... After doing that outside with family, I went inside to the gym, and repeated the procedure with my friends. Plans were then made to meet at the Albion Hotel, a funny old bar in guelph, and good times were had. There, I discovered a fun new way to take pictures with friends, if you don't mind not having the most flattering photo, or showing a bit of crotch . But honestly, a really fun time... just make sure no skirts are being worn... that's real trouble. If so inclined, you can see the day's pics here
I spend the rest of that weekend with my family, just chilling out, and spending a nice father's day in toronto.
That sunday evening, Katie came back to Guelph from Erie to pick me up to whisk me away for a week in North Carolina.

-2- North Carolina

T'was a friggin long drive down to the Outer Banks, NC, although I had the very special Katie for company. She let me drive most of the way down in Ezra, her white dodge stratus. The resulting excessive fast food was the main detracting aspect of the drive down, as was the numb buttocks experienced by all.
North Carolina is a beautiful place. Not quite what I expected... I think I expected it to be more... wild, and less strip-mall action down much of the main road. I spent most of the mornings that week, waking up to a goodbye kiss as Katie left for work, sleeping in late, and wandering the beaches while the sun didn't scorch, and retreating to the air-conditioned goodness of Katie's beachside bungalow. It was seriously a stone's throw from the ocean.
I wandered the area a little bit, visiting Jockey's Ridge, the sand dune where I was supposed to work, at the hang gliding school. Seeing the instructors, I shook my fist (in spirit), and wished that it was me instead, that was floating down the sand dune, landing like a butterfly at the end of the flight. I do admit I wished I had fought harder to get a job here, but there's no use crying over spilt milk, right??
Other highlights included:
-howling with wolves, amidst a light sheen of fireflies in a nature reserve, and hearing the eerie moan of wolves, from miles away, above the cacaphony of bullfrogs and insects
-walking along the beach by night, the wind blustering, and the waves crashing on the sand. We walked and looked for little ghost crabs that scurried away from us, and watched as the crimson moon rose. Then we sat on the sand, and talked, inspired by the ocean. Honestly, the ocean is kind of scary at night, unknown, dark and loud
-Visiting Katie's work at the aquarium, watching her dive in the giant saltwater tank, and getting a behind the scenes tour
-walking along the beach in the afternoon, watching her as she fluttered across the sand, finding all sorts of precious things that my poor eyes would never notice, and picking up garbage as we walked down the beach. oh, we've such enviro scis, haha.
-Spending the morning snuggled in bed on her day off, just enjoying the feeling of warm skin and sunlight.

The day I had to leave, it started pouring hard, rain that soaked to the bones. I almost missed my flight, having not accounted enough time for checking in... Part of me just wished that I would miss the flight, so that I could somehow spend more time with her, although I knew that I couldn't make her drive that two hour drive to the nearest international airport, the day before her work started.
I got home mostly in one piece, with only a slight luggage fiasco to report, and a nice conversation with the shuttle bus guy.
Pics can be seen here

-3- Canada Day Weekend
The next week was spent getting used to being alone again, and then it was the long weekend. I went to Ottawa, to meet up with some enviro sci friends. It was a good time. Almost got killed by lightning, walking the bridge from Hull to Ottawa during a thunderstorm. Saw some crazy people, in full colour-coordinated canadian glory, and got hit by hot cardboard debris watching as bits of firework fell on us, as it dazzled the city. The two days after that were spent at Christina's cottage in Clarence, right on the Ottawa River. We got to go boating and swimming in the river. I think it was my first real cottaging experience... Definitely a great time. playing horseshoes and croquet, and then talking about everything under the moon, sitting around the fire.
And then, some time after midnight, the nightswimming hour struck, and we doffed our clothes and jumped in. It was such a surreal scene. The stars that night were shining so bright, reflecting off the waves, the only sound being the sound of paddling of limbs. Afterwards, Kev, Aisha, Shannon and I dried off, sat on the boat, played guitar and sang songs as the sky turned from navy to blue to yellow, orange and finally red. We walked back to the cottage to the sounds of singing birds awakening the world. We all felt so special, to have seen that sight of the night sky, and for having spent it with good friends, who managed to come from all over ontario, to come together and connect, even if but for a moment.
I haven't gotten any pictures up from that weekend yet.. I took pictures something fierce like 700 shots or something.

-4- Fast Forward

And now we're up to last weekend, which was as action packed as could be. Thursday was at PaulanLivia's place, and Paul's family had a delicious chicken for us, and we gorged on a meal complete with stuffing, veggies, and potatoes. Yummm...
Then we just sat and talked, and ate some strawberry rhubarb crisp (my 2nd attempt)

Friday, I went to a work party Kathy's, and it was good times, after a hiatus from the party scene at PPV.
Saturday was a short trip to the farmer's market, and then a quick greyhound to toronto with Dear, Steph, Ronnick(sp?) and Amy, to see the Street festival. I think i'm just getting old... I get so tired just walking around town and such. At one point, I just wanted to sit and chill. no need to spend unnecessary money on overpriced food, or transportation, or anything. just enjoying sitting. Not that I didn't enjoy it... We left on a good note... there was this really creepy parade going on, with red giraffes played by men on stilts, with a weird moaning voice and eerie music. As I rounded the corner the greyhound station on bay st., I glanced back at the parade, and the giraffes had encircled this large bed with a person on it. The giraffes were bobbing their heads up and down, with maniacal laughter echoing the streets, and then suddenly, a giraffe lit into flames. Scary? Yes. Strange? Very much so.
Sunday, I went to Angel's Diner, a greasy 50's diner with all sorts of paraphenalia. I went for lunch, with Roxanne, Jen, Livia and Paul. Afterwards we went for a short canoe trip up and down the Speed River. Cheap good fun, I'll say!

So yeah, that's been me this past month. Pretty busy and fun, but I think that really, I just need to chill out, and settle for a while. Organize the bucket of photos in my computer, watch some moovies, ride my bike. There's the feeling of being stretched thin, and I need to bring all of myself together.
The next two months will be intense... A lot of searching... for direction, in this journey of life. It's slowly hitting me that I've been shackled from school, and I can do anything I want. Really I can. And the ideas have been blossoming inside my head, and I really need to do some soul-searching to find what it is that I want to do...
What I need to do right now though, is go to bed. Work is beckoning me to bed. Eep.
Farewell and goodnight.

p.s. I'm switching from Fotolog to a new service that works a bit better, since people are having so much trouble with my pictures. more info soon!

| feeling: contemplative |
| listening: Ben Folds Five - Brick |