Me, Huntsville, the Goo, and the Smrt car. Possibly the last voyage of the Smrt car, come to think of it; I can't believe we've been banging around in that thing for two whole years already. I can't believe wankers still swarm me when I get out of it and ask the same five questions. People: they have been around for years now. Get on the internet or something.
I got up damned early on Wednesday morning and left Toronto before rush hour, figuring that I'd beat the traffic and then have breakfast north of the city, before making my languid way to Huntsville for noon. I was eating at the Island of the Sirens before nine, way ahead of schedule, and then I just cruised Highway 11 and enjoyed the late-October scenery. I tell ya, going down to NC in the spring is fun and all, but one of these days I want to take a road trip north in my own country. Not that there's necessarily anything to see up there, just that I enjoy the process rather a lot.
The Huntsville occasion was a 3-day offsite for my entire department. You should have seen the damn room they had me in: I have never been in such a place in my entire life. I was supposed to be sharing it with another guy but we couldn't make the door between the suites work, so he had his little one-bedroom and I had what was essentially a palace all to myself. Here's the living room with view of the lake:
And if I'd known there was gonna be a 50 square foot back deck, I woulda brought some chiba. Anyways it was a perfect time of year to be up in the wilds, and a pretty good gang of people to be up there with too if I do say so myself. My favourite part was a mass outdoor team-building simulation on Thursday where half of us were blindfolded, and the other half were unable to walk and had to direct the blind folk to gather survival implements. I was blindfolded. And I was a perfect island of Jedi calm in what can only be described as a roiling sea of mismanagement madness! Well not that bad but I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I had someone I completely trusted guiding me, and when things got hairy, I also had the loudest voice in a large group of loud voices and could make my points spectacularly well. So that was cool.
On Friday I got the hell out of there and beat it on down south to the Goo, a trip that was supposed to take 5 hours but actually took 3, which lead to me hanging out at the Book Shelf and reading and blogging and generally yessing. Then it was yet another queer somethingorother at the Grad Lounge, which somehow manages to happen every single time I'm in the Goo. Also, there was Lost and Indian food, and more Lost, and then some Lost and also Lost. But good company, because watching Lost with Bex and Macelod - particularly when, say, Ana Lucia and Libby get shot - is goddamned fun beyond reckoning. And did anyone else notice that the woman Locke home-inspects in "Lockdown" is Sayid's ex-mama jama? Cuz I didn't (but Bex did, much is my shame). Yeahba. I tell ya, I'm sure going to miss the Box when it is finally cast asunder by Paris-going Mennonites and the lure of co-habitable vegans. But this, too, is life.
Funny that I've only ever hung on to other peoples' college cohabitation experiences, first with Jen in Kingston and now with the Box. Gee, do ya think I maybe shoulda gone away to school instead of wussing out with York? But then, I never woulda met Laurier.
Came home, played a drop-dead freezing game of soccer in pouring rain yesterday, Chris is ill with something other than what I was ill with so Jeff channeled himself some goalie action and proved stunningly effective. ("The Power of Chris Compels Me!" was heard often.) And honestly, by the time I got up to go to work this morning, I'd completely forgotten where I was employed. Mmm five day weekend.
