I'm just so cold . . .

     It's difficult to drift when you feel like you're slowly turning into an ice sculpture. It's perhaps even more difficult to do when every five feet there is an icy puddle the size of a small lake. “weather permitting” is something that will always irritate me so long as I live in this city.

     Flaneur is even more difficult to achieve in frigid temperatures. I find that in the winter I walk with purpose (my head down, looking at the ice on the sidewalk) as fast as I possibly can from destination A to destination B. I know, I know, I know the weather is something people are constantly complaining about, and I'm usually the first person to roll my eyes at yet another complaint. But weather is a big part of this city, of any city really. What is one of the first things people want to know, or think about, when going somewhere? I can tell you it probably isn't the navigability or the people. It's the weather. How many times did I have to describe the weather to people I met traveling in europe? If only I had a nickle etc, etc, etc.

     This city provides us with seemingly endless obstacles, but one that cannot be blamed on poor city planning is the weather.

Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!

The other day I was on the number seven bus going from Whyte Ave to Jasper Place. As the bus was going down 99^th street, away from the avenue I started to feel anxiety. Not enough that I was going to have a panic attack or anything, just a feeling of nervousness at the unfamiliar. I know this sounds drastic, in a lot of ways it is. I have spent a fair bit of time traveling, exploring new cities (sometimes completely alone) and have never really felt as strangely out of place and anxious as I did on this bus trip. I guess what I am trying to say is that one thing that has really surprised me throughout this course is myself. I have never been so aware of the space and place that I inhabit and as a result of this awareness, I’m aware of the space and place within the city that I most definitely do not inhabit. 

I was thinking about my map project today and the ideas I came up were even boring to me. I have very recently (as a result of this course) realized something. I complain constantly about how bored I am with the city: the people, the landscape, the restaurants, everything. Of course I’m bored—that’s what happens when you exhaust all of your options within few blocks.

I guess the real question is “where do I go from here?” I’m a student, I work, I have obligations and commitments. Adventuring and gallivanting around Edmonton hardly seems like a realistic option. I suppose reading week will me the real test. Hopefully I will be able to follow a map that allows me to branch out.

Amateur Night '10

Be prepared: this is a GIANT tangent.

This past Halloween, as part of an inside joke, I planned to go as Katy Perry. I bought a cheap blue wig from Wal-Mart and dug out a tight tank top and a short skirt. The night of, I put on said tank top and skirt and looked in the mirror. What I saw looking back did not appeal to me what-so-ever. I was horrified at the prospect of baring so much pasty-white skin. So I did what any logical person would do when faced with the same situation: I organized a trade. 

Some bargaining and begging later, I was the pope and my partner was donning my Katy Perry finest. We decided that if he was going to do this, he was going to do it right. So we got out the shaving cream and razors, and sat him down on the edge of the bathtub for the Big Shave. I didn't take it all, but I took most of it. By the end we were both exhausted and irate, but that was only the beginning of the journey. I do not exaggerate when I say that it took no less than two hours to complete the transformation.

It was hard work, but well worth it. My partner looks fucking fabulous in a skirt.