Home again...

Another great weekend has gone by. Though it took one hell of a lot to get there, I finally made it to Ottawa on Friday morning...at about 1:30.

My friends had called off the search party, thinking I was still stuck in Toronto, so I resigned myself to the fact I would have to get a hotel room for the night. After a few calls, I started to worry, since every hotel I talked to was full. It seems like everyone was either laid over in Ottawa or diverted there because of the storm.

While waiting in line for a cab, I started talking to the woman beside me, and eventually there were 5 of us piling into a van heading for the hotel. It made the ride a lot cheaper, we ended up paying $5 each to get halfway across town. Standing at the desk, the woman who had shared a cab with us started talking to me.

"How would you feel about sharing a room?" she said. She wanted to keep her costs down, and figured it would be easiest to share with someone. I was a little surprised at first, considering that we live in 2007 and are taught to fear everyone who we don't know. But she was friendly, and had her 8-year-old son with her, so I agreed. We ended up in a suite (since all they had left was single-bed rooms, but they gave us the suite at the same rate) and we started talking.

It turned out she was a teacher from north of Winnipeg, Manitoba and was headed for Toronto, only to be diverted to Ottawa. It was funny, since her son's name was also Steve. He actually reminded me a lot of what I might have been like 'back then'. After talking until 3 a.m. it was apparent she wanted the bedroom, so I slid into the pullout couch and instantly fell asleep.

The next morning, we had breakfast together before going out seperate ways. I was amazed at how this total stranger left her son at the table with me, while she went to the washroom and to speak to the front desk. It was refreshing to see that people aren't paranoid, that part of the innocence of human interaction is still alive today. We checked out, I jumped into a cab, and headed for my friends.

Laura was already there, and Ashley (our host for the weekend) had class, so we went to her Social Deviance lecture. It was taught by a very interesting man who called everyone "man" and complimented all rock-related clothing. He was really interesting, and a little more of an engaged speaker than I'm used to.

After that, we hung out with a bunch of people from Ashley's floor, and then got ready to go out. We had dinner at a very disappointing Diner in the Market district. I loved the Market, it literally was full of great-looking resturants and stores. As we walked to dinner, I started to realize that every guy inside the stores looked gay. I shrugged it off, because I thought I was being paranoid and thinking there are gays lurking in every store on the planet.

As it turns out, Brian grew up in Ottawa, and I was indeed in the middle of their gay village.

We saw a play after dinner, and headed back to residence. Once inside, it was just the three of us, myself, Laura and Ashley. Ashley pulled out a joint, and suggested we smoke to put us in a more relaxed mood. So we cracked the window, and puffed away, blowing into the outdoors.

Five minutes after we finished, Rez Security was knocking at her suite door. We sat stalk still, but they entered anyway. They went door to door, finally landing on us.

Apparently someone had called security because they smelled someone smoking, so Ashley did some pretty fast thinking (for her condition) and told them we had just come in from some popular smoking place off-campus, and we were very sorry to smell so bad, and that we'd open a window. The guy looked at us all, didn't say much, and agreed that we should open the window. After he left, we all collapsed of terror. But we must have been believeable because they never came back...

Saturday was late breakfast, then shopping/coffee/walking/etc. We made dinner with homemade pasta sauce (yum!) and again got ready to go out. Ashley had invited a few people, and we all pre-drank in her suite before heading downtown to some bar. One of the guests was Jess, who also came to the play. Jess and I had an amazing evening when I visited last year, which was shocking to me since I never meet girls. She and I had so much in common, and we talked the entire night we met. Nothing ever came of it afterwards, but I looked forward to seeing her again this year.

And as it happened, Saturday night was spent with her and I sitting at the end of our table, totally engrossed in conversation. We talked about art, and school, and future plans...and I felt myself feeling the same way as the last year. We are so compatible in so many ways, plus she's such a one-of-a-kind person. She's got class and style like nobody's business, but isn't showey or flashy. She's just so unique, I wish that things were different (such as geography) because I could see us together. But nothing happened, don't worry, it was all conversation and on the up-and-up.

That night, everyone but me was sick, which was funny but frightening for me...considering I drank as much as everyone else and wasn't hurling my guts out, I don't know if I should be proud or worried. Sunday morning was an early one, since Laura wanted to get back to Toronto by late afternoon. So we said our goodbyes around 10 and headed for the bus station.

I had planned on coming out to Ashley this trip, because I never see her, and she's one of the next logical people to come out to. But I didn't want to on Saturday morning, for fear of throwing her off so badly that it would ruin the rest of the weekend. I was going to be very sneaky and tell her while Laura was showering, so we'd have 10 minutes of privacy. Sunday morning was not an opportune time to say anything, since Ashley was really, really hung over, and I didn't want to blurt out what I was going to with her being so sick.

A funny thing was said, though, which makes me think it's not going to be as big of a surprise as it might have been. Another mutual friend, Michael, texted me on Saturday while we were making dinner, asking if I was going to a concert with him. Naturally, someone asked, "Who's that?". I said I didn't know why he was texting, but that I had a secret, "Michael and I have been secretly seeing each other for 2 years."

Of course, they knew it was a joke, but Laura said in a very suspicious voice, "Well that wouldn't really be a surprise." It was a natural lead-in to tell them both...but I don't think I'm ready for Laura to know yet. She'd be accepting, but I don't know about her initial reaction. Plus, she would have to tell her sister, who in turn would have to tell her boyfriend...and it would get out of hand very quickly.

Overall it was a very fun weekend, spent in good company. But I was really glad to be home last night, and to get to sleep in my own bed instead of on the floor...