Wednesday, March 09, 2005
I've been better, thank you.
Yeesh. But I won't be a downer here. Someone told me that they worried about me after reading my blog, because I seem so down. That surprised me! I tend to think of myself as a fairly positive person. Well, I guess it just goes to show that writing can reveal things you didn't know about yourself. I hope this blog isn't sickeningly depressing though!
Last night as I was lying in bed I thought about a time in my life where D. and I did something that took substantial gumption, and how it paid off with totally unexpected and lavish benefits. Wanna hear about it?
When I went to Halifax to do my master's degree D. moved there with me (that took a lot of guts, and was a great adventure for both of us, but that's not the brave move I'm thinking about). Once there, we found that we were in serious financial difficulty because my fellowship money wasn't enough and D. couldn't find a job to save his life. Since we had moved all our possessions 3 times in the last few months, we decided "hey, why don't we hire ourselves out as movers?" This despite the fact that we didn't have a truck, I didn't have a license and only one of us was a strapping young man. But we made up some flyers and stuck them up around campus, basically saying "Need a couple of extra pairs of arms to help move your stuff? Hire us!" And we actually got a call a few days later! A young woman had moved from another city to work in Halifax, where her boyfriend was, and her bad back prevented her from moving any of her own stuff. So we told her exactly what we could offer and she said to come on by on the appointed day. She would hire a truck and D. would drive it, and we would do all the lifting and moving.
The day came, pouring with the kind of sideways rain that only Halifax can offer. D. and I showed up at the woman's place on our bikes and wearing our best raingear. She looked at me and laughed, and said " I knew you were a girl, but I thought you might be a bit bigger!" I rolled up my sleeves and showed her my bulging muscles and said "trust me". We all laughed and got to work.
Well, she and her boyfriend were totally cool, totally nice, and quite taken with this couple of weirdos grunting and sweating on their stairwell. After the move we had pizza and beer and hung around talking, and as we left they asked if they could call us sometime and hang out. Of course we said yes.
This led to the very satisfying adventure of friendship with them and with two of their friends who hired us to move stuff in a redecoration. We were invited to parties, hung out and drank martinis and dissected Blade Runner from an architectural and literary perspective. All four of these new friends are among the coolest people I've ever met. The six of us even went out to a secluded beach in mid-winter for my first (and only) winter picnic, looking out at the ocean from a deserted gazebo, drinking hot chocolate and smoking a joint and talking about deep things, love and sex and religion and life and politics and architecture.
When our school work ratcheted up we spent less time with these two couples, and when we left for Montreal we lost touch completely. But I think of them often, and the vibrancy of my memories of our times together has the tinge of romance. D. and I loved our adventures that year, and of course we've had many since, tho' never with quite the same reckless feeling of "why not?" that we shared then.
Have you ever done something gutsy that led you in wonderful new directions? Do tell!
Yeesh. But I won't be a downer here. Someone told me that they worried about me after reading my blog, because I seem so down. That surprised me! I tend to think of myself as a fairly positive person. Well, I guess it just goes to show that writing can reveal things you didn't know about yourself. I hope this blog isn't sickeningly depressing though!
Last night as I was lying in bed I thought about a time in my life where D. and I did something that took substantial gumption, and how it paid off with totally unexpected and lavish benefits. Wanna hear about it?
When I went to Halifax to do my master's degree D. moved there with me (that took a lot of guts, and was a great adventure for both of us, but that's not the brave move I'm thinking about). Once there, we found that we were in serious financial difficulty because my fellowship money wasn't enough and D. couldn't find a job to save his life. Since we had moved all our possessions 3 times in the last few months, we decided "hey, why don't we hire ourselves out as movers?" This despite the fact that we didn't have a truck, I didn't have a license and only one of us was a strapping young man. But we made up some flyers and stuck them up around campus, basically saying "Need a couple of extra pairs of arms to help move your stuff? Hire us!" And we actually got a call a few days later! A young woman had moved from another city to work in Halifax, where her boyfriend was, and her bad back prevented her from moving any of her own stuff. So we told her exactly what we could offer and she said to come on by on the appointed day. She would hire a truck and D. would drive it, and we would do all the lifting and moving.
The day came, pouring with the kind of sideways rain that only Halifax can offer. D. and I showed up at the woman's place on our bikes and wearing our best raingear. She looked at me and laughed, and said " I knew you were a girl, but I thought you might be a bit bigger!" I rolled up my sleeves and showed her my bulging muscles and said "trust me". We all laughed and got to work.
Well, she and her boyfriend were totally cool, totally nice, and quite taken with this couple of weirdos grunting and sweating on their stairwell. After the move we had pizza and beer and hung around talking, and as we left they asked if they could call us sometime and hang out. Of course we said yes.
This led to the very satisfying adventure of friendship with them and with two of their friends who hired us to move stuff in a redecoration. We were invited to parties, hung out and drank martinis and dissected Blade Runner from an architectural and literary perspective. All four of these new friends are among the coolest people I've ever met. The six of us even went out to a secluded beach in mid-winter for my first (and only) winter picnic, looking out at the ocean from a deserted gazebo, drinking hot chocolate and smoking a joint and talking about deep things, love and sex and religion and life and politics and architecture.
When our school work ratcheted up we spent less time with these two couples, and when we left for Montreal we lost touch completely. But I think of them often, and the vibrancy of my memories of our times together has the tinge of romance. D. and I loved our adventures that year, and of course we've had many since, tho' never with quite the same reckless feeling of "why not?" that we shared then.
Have you ever done something gutsy that led you in wonderful new directions? Do tell!
# posted by becca : 8:16 AM
