Hello Goodbye

Today I got home from class and packed up all my belongings, 4 times, and made 4 separate trips to the nearby Vancouver Island University townhouse residences. I'm unpacked now, in a big empty 4 bedroom townhouse, listening to every single Beatles album in chronological order. I'm making a ground-beef ratatouille over couscous while I write this...the onions are sweating and it's raining outside. This is a mighty large empty house, none of my roommates have moved in yet, the first one will be here on August 26th. I feel very small after spending 2 weeks in a closet.

The circumstances surrounding how I met Mag were pretty amazing and romantic, it makes a decent story. I saw her for the first time walking through the Rideau Centre, we locked eyes and I watched her walk away and spent the next week wondering who she was. Somewhere in that week, Ben Walker encouraged me to check out the SPAO (http://www.spao.ca/) end of the year "Red Wall" event. I'm usually pretty lazy and uninterested in these things but I went with some friends. We walked up to the building and there was Mag sitting on the windowsill, we spent the evening exchanging bashful glances from opposite ends of the room. I proposed buying one of her pieces for $1000 and we both laughed then we both went our separate ways. I hated myself for a few days until a chance encounter with a regular/friend at Caffe Mio where I was working. This friend is the owner and a teacher of/at SPAO. I asked him about the 95lb. girl with the afro. He suggested I make myself welcome at the invitation only potluck at SPAO that Friday. I made a gazpacho, walked in, dropped it on the food-table and walked right up to her, she paniced and walked the other way. I pursued and the rest is pretty easy to figure out.

The circumstances surrounding how Mag left yesterday are kind of interesting too. We spent our last night together, I woke up at 6:30am for school, I came out of the bathroom after washing up and could barely look at her, I ate half of my bowl of cereal and gave up and lay down beside her. We held each other for half an hour and then I walked out the door, but I had to turn around because I'd walked out with no shoes on, that error probably had nothing to do with my lack of sleep. It wasn't a very satisfying goodbye, I wasn't happy with the thought that I'd see her again, I was just regretful that it was so rushed and painful. I went to class and it was horrible but I got off 40 minutes early. Mag's bus left at 2:20 and I was out of class at 1:20. I went to the changeroom and there was a massive horde of students trying to get to their lockers. I stood there for about 15 seconds waiting and then God entered my mind and said "it's a good idea to leave in your uniform (strictly forbidden) and go home NOW" so I stormed out, dressed to a T in my chef's jacket, checkered pants, black scarf, pillbox hat...the works. I began my ascent into a brisk sprint home and halted suddenly as God entered my mind once more and said "you best be checking the bus-stop first". I turned around and there it was, the sun reflecting off the seams of her big black afro. I felt much more satisfied with that goodbye.

Magical Mystery Tour is such a horrible album, what a shame. Like the C in gym-class on an otherwise straight A report-card.