Off to the Races

I started writing this post at 10:00 in the morning on Thursday May 8th. By the time 11:00 am rolled around, I had written the following:

"The day of my departure from Ottawa has arrived. At the moment I'm sitting in Artissimo Café waiting for Adorit (the best fair trade, eco-friendly boutique in Ottawa) to open so that I can get in to my soon-to-be-former apartment above the store. I've passed off residence of the place to my good friends Alain and Emily which means that I'm left sans keys. Which wouldn't be an issue except that all of my luggage is in there. And my plane to New Brunswick leaves in just over 3 hours.

I've missed a plane to NB before. The result was that I had to take the greyhound all the way from Ottawa to Fredericton. In a car, that's about a 9-hour drive for most people (or 11 for me - I'm a geriatric). But the greyhound I took did the milk run. A full 16 hours taking the scenic route the lesser-known areas of South-Eastern Québec, passing through the type of villages locals lovingly refer to as "St. Buttfuck-de-Nowhere".  All of this to say that I'm fairly determined to be well ahead of time for this flight back home. My bags are packed, I just gotta get to them (and maybe take a quick shower, being semi-nomadic for the past week has been a direct-route ticket to stank city). After that, je vais caller le taxi, give a big hug to Emma (the owner of Adorit and my very good friend), give Java (the store's poodle-y mascot) a good ear scritch and then be on my way."

Which brings us to my Thursday afternoon. 4:19 pm. At this point, I should have been on a plane, just about to get into Montréal. Instead, I was sitting at Gate 23 at the Ottawa airport. You’re probably thinking “but Mickie, you said your flight was at 2:00, and you just made a big fuss about how you were super prepared and definitely weren't going to miss it this time.” Yeah. Well.

Sometimes, even if you pack your bags a week and a half in advance, things don’t go exactly according to plan. Or at least, not to your plan. Granted, part of the problem was my own difficulty in understanding how time works. I waited till the last minute to get a prescription filled and that delayed me by a half-hour. But even still, I should have been able to make it to the airport before the cut-off point to get on the plane. My bags and I were in a cab, the cabbie was on the ball, we were making some serious tracks and then... I was thwarted by them gosh-darn protesters. Caught up in my own preoccupations, I had completely forgotten about the pro-life rally that was planned for that afternoon. Turns out that the route they had chosen for their Grand Parade of Indoctrination cut right through my path to the airport. If I was unsympathetic to that particular cause before, now that it made me miss my flight home, I would go so far as to say that I am moderately disgruntled by it.

Never fear though. The whole previous paragraph was written strictly to make a mountain out of a molehill. It was no trouble whatsoever to change my flight and I ended up getting into Saint John only about 4 hours later than expected. And, to be honest, I like hanging out in airports. Once you’re through security, there’s nothing you can really accomplish before getting on the plane, so it’s sort of like a forced vacation. You get to poke around the duty-free shop, grab a bev and a bagel at Timmy Tim Ho Ho’s and read a trashy magazine or five. And you get to watch planes take off, which is cool and, I’m fairly certain, attributable only to sorcery. 

Alright, enough of my bellyachin'. Now, back to very good friends! I want to use this space to send some good feelings to a few more Ottawa people who weren't included in my Parliament love-sesh in the previous post. 

Let's start with the whole Adorit family - You have been the most incredible semi-roomates! In the words of Emma, you are all "Amazing!" :p

And Java - Bark, bark, woof, snifffffff

Emma and Ed, I'm so sad that I won't be able to be at your wedding, but seeing the preparations going into it, I know it's going to represent you guys and your relationship perfectly. Cheerful, loving, free-spirited, adventurous and exactly you. I expect to see lots of pictures from it!

To the staff at the Tea Party and Rasam – even though the crew that I started working with has more or less all gone our separate ways, we shared some lovely, exhausting and delicious times and it was really cool to go from being a customer to your teammate. I will never forget the glory that is scratch-made Butter Chicken Poutine (a.k.a. Butt Chick Pooters).

Since I was a transfer to UOttawa, I didn't get really too involved in campus life (been there, done that at MUN) so I didn't collect too many school friends. But I did have one prof who was a shining star, who became my friend and who was definitely the best prof in all of my  (long) university career - Annik, me han gustado mucho tus clases, pero más importante, eres una amiga buenísima (y bellísima). Suerte! You have prepared me to annoy people not only in English and French, but in the local tongue when I'm in Madrid - for that I thank you!

I want to thank everyone who came out to the going-away party at Lunenburg – what a great turnout! It was a blast and it meant so much to me to see you all there! I’d also like to thank those who couldn’t make it to the bar, but who were there in spirit and/or hologram. If I was kind of quiet at the end of the night, it was partially because I was getting a teeny tiny bit emotional about having to leave all of you and partially because I’ve been putting so much energy into getting myself to yesterday night that when I finally relaxed to enjoy it, my brain chose to respond by sloooowwwinnngg doooowwwwnnnn. But I digress. My friends, you all showed me that Ottawa has become my home, not just a place where I’ve happened to live. I love that beautiful city, but it wouldn’t have meant a quarter as much to me if I hadn’t had all of you there to share it with me.

Finally, Simon. You already know a lot of what I have to say to you – you’re thoughtful, you’re insightful, you’re brilliant, I have some serious respect you and also you've got a hot bod. Thank you for showing me how to be myself around you. Thank you for liking me the way I am.

Meow.

One week left.