12:17pm
I'm being a real pain in the ass.
Aaron is probably wondering how he suddenly graduated to the bullshit level that most of my boyfriends get from me.
They told us that there are two big groups coming in and they need to shuffle people around. Consequently, there are no more coed dorm rooms for Aaron and I to share anymore. I told him that I can barely stand the idea of this place with him in the same room and there is little chance that I'd be able to maintain any kind of sanity should we be separated.
I called my mom. Isn't it funny how one's first instinct when something goes wrong in a strange city is to call mom? Well maybe not funny, comforting. Mom tried to convince me that I should be stressing less and having more fun. It is your vacation after all, she said. "Vacation!" said I, "This is not a vacation. I would not come to Toronto for a vacation."
4:00pm
Aaron solved the problem (he has sexcellent problem-solving skills sometimes). We're now sharing a private (!) hostel room with a double bed and I'm paying the difference. It's really a small price to pay for the ease the room has brought to my mental state. It's a tiny room and the stairs go right over it so we have very little ceiling. The walls are the kind of pink that my bedroom was when I was a little girl. It smells in here, but I'm not sure what of exactly. It's as perfect as humanly possible at this point.
Aaron and I spent the day walking again. This time we decided to head over to the YTV office to drop off the stuff they needed. It seemed a simple enough walk, not too far. Unfortunately, Aaron's map-reading skills didn't quite meet the standard set by his problem-solving earlier, and we ended up getting a little off track. A dozen or so retraced blocks and a look at Lake Ontario later, we finally found our destination. From YTV we took a streetcar back down King. We got off somewhere and walked to Queen Street where we got pizza and root beer and Aaron phoned his brother in Michigan from the pay phone across the street from Much Music. After that we stopped into some sort of used/vintage clothing store where Aaron searched (unsuccessfully) for a "good straw hat". Here we ran into Tom the British guy and his son, whom we'd met at the hostel last nite. Tom had been very generous with his cigarettes to Aaron and he called me "love" so we agreed to play some songs for him later tonite.
Aaron's downstairs reading and I'm going to take a nap. Hopefully I'll be able to get a hold of David afterward.
6:50pm
After a short but satisfying nap and a good free dinner (we ate some of the heavy soup that Aaron's mom sent with us and a new friend of his gave us some bread, we couldn't eat soup without bread, he insisted), things are looking much better.
Whilst preparing our dinner we were informed of the reasons why you shouldn't use soup cans after you open them and of all the different kinds of bacteria that are present in our kitchen by Aaron's new friend Damien who speaks in a lovely accent and seems to be some sort of expert on kitchen safety.
Today I realize that you can be any kind of hostel guest that you choose. You could spend your entire stay in your room or outside the hostel, successfully avoiding all contact with your fellow guests. Or you could fully integrate yourself into the open kitchen/tv room/bar atmosphere a la Tom the British guy, Damien the kitchen expert and giver of bread, and Aaron. I'm hoping I will be able to achieve a healthy balance of both.
I just spoke to David on the phone. I wasn't prepared for how his voice would sound. It is indescribably interesting and I hope I'll get to listen to him talk a lot tomorrow. He wants to take us to a jazz club that he frequents. (Aaron was initially worried about having to pay cover on National Buy Nothing Day, but I think he has since decided that "jazz has never been a crime.") We talked for a few minutes about music (my gig, his endless search for fun toys for his bass), Toronto (how much there is to do here), and the public transit routes to Mississauga. He sounds really enthusiastic about getting together and I like the reaction.
Exciting is almost equal to scared tonite. 7:15pm
4:16am
We spent the evening (and most of the nite and morning) in the hostel bar. I realized that I am intensely interested in watching people play pool.
The bed next door is squeaking with such a rhythm as would imply a sexual liaison.
After last call when they turned the music off, Aaron and I got out our guitars and played for the people that were left, Tom, Nicky the bartender and a group of drunk kids with accents. They all seemed thoroughly impressed. Tom played some tunes for us in return. The stories he told about the writing of them were even more interesting than the songs themselves. And he says brilliant British things.
My head is heavy and my belly full of beer. It's time to sleep.
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