Sunday, January 30, 2011

Hey, you.

Yes, you, you dumbass. Don't try to pretend you don't know who I'm talking to. I know you're reading this, so you may as well give up. Do I have your attention now? Good.

I miss you.

This probably won't come as a shock to you, but I miss you. I think about you all the time. I shoveled the sidewalk yesterday and it reminded me of that time when we brushed the slush off your lawn. I remember the time we rode the bus down town and you counted out your pennies to make up $1.75. I would have sworn that the bus driver was going to boot us off, but you smiled your dimpled smile and we made it with out hitch hiking down 99.

You bastard.

The worst part is that I'm becoming one of those girls. I check my email obsessively, I sit next to the phone and jump when it rings. I've even started going on facbook every day and you know how much I hate that.

And so, after 25 days with nothing more than a 'Hey, what's up, I heard it's cold', I am taking a stand. I am mad at you for making it so easy for me to be a clingy person. Actually, I'm mad for a lot of reasons. But I won't get into that because even though there is no 140 character limit, I'm a novelist, I don't do short stories and you do not want to get me started.

I thought we had something special. I know that I'm not the first girl to say that to a boy, but there it is. I though we had something special, but I guess I was wrong. I may be just a notch in your bed post, but you're just  post on my blog.

And, you know, it's not like I'm expecting sonnets. I know better than to wait for Captain Wentworth-esque declarations of devotion from a teenager. All I want is some kind of sign that you think of me when I'm 936 km away.

But wait -

Some people will say that I'm freaking out over nothing. And I do recognize that novels have ruined me, but I still have my common sense to pull me through. Or maybe I just can't recognize a lost cause when I see it. Whatever.

Regardless, I'm going to give this another go. But you are on crack if you think I'm bridging this gap between us. No, you're that one who is gonna take seven steps here.

And even though you shouldn't need incentive - I'm yours.

Don't screw this up, George.

Monday, January 17, 2011

It's cold in Calgary

I know, I know - this is common knowledge. But even if you know it in your head, it is a completely different thing to experience it. Let me delve a little deeper into this subject...

Picture a stereotypical Canadian winter. In my mind, I see a female newscaster, leaning on an expensive looking desk, a bank of TV's as her background. Her face is a mixture of severity and sympathy as she reports the news of the day.

'Another cold snap in Canada this week. Temperatures plummet to -35 send residents into hiding, unwilling to brave the snow blowing winds except for the most dire of circumstances.' The screen then jump cuts to a cityscape, where pedestrians are unrecognizable, even to their loved ones, as they are wrapped head to toe in varying degrees of protection against the freezing winds. These people are hunched forward, trying to wrap into themselves in hopes of avoiding the cold, holding their collars tight around their scarf covered faces as they hustle from one overheated safe haven to the next.

This is Calgary.

It is so bitterly cold that waiting for the bus is like standing outside, dripping wet, buck naked - in Antarctica. Getting on the bus is blissful, but ultimately awful, because the times comes (too soon even for your fingers to regain feeling in the tips) when you have to leave and rejoin the other penguins.

It would be awesome if we could be more like penguins, you know what I mean? How they huddle together, lending each other their body heat as they take turns shuffling around the outsides so that some of them can warm for a little while?

Calgarians don't do that.

On the upside, all the buildings overcompensate by upping their heat to an above average temperature, so it all evens out in the end.

Only, not really.

This is my first impression of my new home. It sounds unfavourable, but I actually quite like it. I haven't seen a lot of the city, but what I have seen, I like. Except the roads, don't get me started on the roads.

This is my first blog from my shared Katima-Computer. My roomies are playing some kind of zombie apocalypse game in the back ground. It's interesting background noise. Anyway, I will blog as often as I find the time... once a week or so. Maybe, if I'm lucky. But I will try to keep you informed of my goings on.

Please don't forget about me as I shiver to death in the Prairies.

With all my frozen love, I bid you farewell.