A Toast To Old Friends
A Toast To Old Friends.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a message on Facebook from an old friend. It turns out he was going to be coming to Dallas near the end of this month. And he wanted to know how far away San Antonio was from Dallas. The only answer I could possibly give was, “not far enough that I couldn’t try and find a way to get up there.”
You see, I met Ed during one of what I’d have to say was one of the most interesting times of my life. I was barely 19 years old, and I had left the nest to move about 9 hours away from home to live in a town that I was born in, but only lived there for a month. I knew virtually nobody. I left with few belongings and a promise of a job at a local movie theatre that my aunt was going to get me.
During my time in Timmins I met Ed. Ed was the brother of one of my friends from work and we begame friends really easily. My Timmins years were my lean years, and it was a pretty big struggle, but it was friends like Ed and the gang from work that made it a lot easier to get through.
Anyway, it’s been 15 years almost since I left Timmins and Ed and I parted ways. It was not until about 10 years ago that that we had a chance to get together through some bullshit luck and this crazy thing called the internet which was still kinda new. In ’99 there was no Facebook or any of the other social networking sites so I lost track of so many people, and locating them again was damn near impossible. He was working in Ottawa and was going to be in Toronto for a short while. So we had a chance to get together along with his sister to have some drinks and catch up. That was the last time the three of us were in the same room. We lost touch again until I was already living Stateside.
So now Ed is coming to Dallas and I’m really looking forward to seeing him again. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to go back to Canada so the fact that a part of the past that I miss is coming here is so awesome. It’s a definite pick me up, to say the least and a nice relief to some serious homesickness.
I’m going to head up to Dallas on an overnight train, getting into Dallas sometime in the morning. Paulina, who can’t get away from work will be coming up to join us sometime Friday night. I can’t wait for her to meet Ed. She’s not met any of my friends from any part of my life further back than my college days. Ed will be busy with work stuff and I’ll meet up with him for what I imagine will be a shitload of beer and catching up on the last 10 years.
I’m very excited about this trip for several reasons. Obviously having the chance to visit with one of my oldest friends a guy that became like a brother to me in those days is tops of that list. One thing I’m looking forward to is that I’ll be traveling by train. I fell in love with train travel during the days when Paulina and I were dating and it was the most cost effective way to visit each other. Now for the most part I’ll be sleeping the entire trip, but that’s fine. I miss train travel and look forward to heading out on the rails again.
One of the other things I’m looking forward to is coming to a city I’ve never been in before, and having about 6 hours to just wander around and get into some adventures. I LOVE being in a strange city and just exploring. I plan on spending the day looking around and experiencing the city. I have a few places I wasn’t to check out, but other than that I’m just going to wing it. See, I can’t check into my hotel until 4pm, so I can’t be a pussy like a lot of people I know and just curl up in a hotel room and not see any of the city. I NEVER do that. I’ve got things to see and places to visit. People that don’t take advantage of new surroundings are lame.
When I’m in a strange city I have two rules that Paulina and I have developed. One is no chain restaurants! At least no chain restaurants that are in the city we live in. We want to sample local eateries. The other rule is NO MALLS! If we can go to the same stores in our city, why the fuck would we go to a whole new city and check out the same stores? LAME! It would be like going to Toronto and going to the Eaton Centre and totally bypassing Queen St. West.
If I want to shop, I’ll go to the local artsy district and see what funky shops are there.
I also look forward to Paulina’s eventual arrival. It’s been quite some time since we’ve had a weekend to get away from San Antonio and explore new surroundings. There’s a couple places that I want to explore while I’m here that I will only do once she’s with me.
It’s too bad that Paulina can’t take the train with me though. However, all that means is that one of these days we’ll have to take a train to some city together at another time. If not Dallas, some other place.
I’m really looking forward to this trip and I’m sure I’ll have lots to write about once I get back. Maybe even while I’m there, since Paulina and I have dueling netbooks! Photo uploads and Facebook updates galore! .
A couple of weeks ago, I got a message on Facebook from an old friend. It turns out he was going to be coming to Dallas near the end of this month. And he wanted to know how far away San Antonio was from Dallas. The only answer I could possibly give was, “not far enough that I couldn’t try and find a way to get up there.”
You see, I met Ed during one of what I’d have to say was one of the most interesting times of my life. I was barely 19 years old, and I had left the nest to move about 9 hours away from home to live in a town that I was born in, but only lived there for a month. I knew virtually nobody. I left with few belongings and a promise of a job at a local movie theatre that my aunt was going to get me.
During my time in Timmins I met Ed. Ed was the brother of one of my friends from work and we begame friends really easily. My Timmins years were my lean years, and it was a pretty big struggle, but it was friends like Ed and the gang from work that made it a lot easier to get through.
Anyway, it’s been 15 years almost since I left Timmins and Ed and I parted ways. It was not until about 10 years ago that that we had a chance to get together through some bullshit luck and this crazy thing called the internet which was still kinda new. In ’99 there was no Facebook or any of the other social networking sites so I lost track of so many people, and locating them again was damn near impossible. He was working in Ottawa and was going to be in Toronto for a short while. So we had a chance to get together along with his sister to have some drinks and catch up. That was the last time the three of us were in the same room. We lost touch again until I was already living Stateside.
So now Ed is coming to Dallas and I’m really looking forward to seeing him again. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to go back to Canada so the fact that a part of the past that I miss is coming here is so awesome. It’s a definite pick me up, to say the least and a nice relief to some serious homesickness.
I’m going to head up to Dallas on an overnight train, getting into Dallas sometime in the morning. Paulina, who can’t get away from work will be coming up to join us sometime Friday night. I can’t wait for her to meet Ed. She’s not met any of my friends from any part of my life further back than my college days. Ed will be busy with work stuff and I’ll meet up with him for what I imagine will be a shitload of beer and catching up on the last 10 years.
I’m very excited about this trip for several reasons. Obviously having the chance to visit with one of my oldest friends a guy that became like a brother to me in those days is tops of that list. One thing I’m looking forward to is that I’ll be traveling by train. I fell in love with train travel during the days when Paulina and I were dating and it was the most cost effective way to visit each other. Now for the most part I’ll be sleeping the entire trip, but that’s fine. I miss train travel and look forward to heading out on the rails again.
One of the other things I’m looking forward to is coming to a city I’ve never been in before, and having about 6 hours to just wander around and get into some adventures. I LOVE being in a strange city and just exploring. I plan on spending the day looking around and experiencing the city. I have a few places I wasn’t to check out, but other than that I’m just going to wing it. See, I can’t check into my hotel until 4pm, so I can’t be a pussy like a lot of people I know and just curl up in a hotel room and not see any of the city. I NEVER do that. I’ve got things to see and places to visit. People that don’t take advantage of new surroundings are lame.
When I’m in a strange city I have two rules that Paulina and I have developed. One is no chain restaurants! At least no chain restaurants that are in the city we live in. We want to sample local eateries. The other rule is NO MALLS! If we can go to the same stores in our city, why the fuck would we go to a whole new city and check out the same stores? LAME! It would be like going to Toronto and going to the Eaton Centre and totally bypassing Queen St. West.
If I want to shop, I’ll go to the local artsy district and see what funky shops are there.
I also look forward to Paulina’s eventual arrival. It’s been quite some time since we’ve had a weekend to get away from San Antonio and explore new surroundings. There’s a couple places that I want to explore while I’m here that I will only do once she’s with me.
It’s too bad that Paulina can’t take the train with me though. However, all that means is that one of these days we’ll have to take a train to some city together at another time. If not Dallas, some other place.
I’m really looking forward to this trip and I’m sure I’ll have lots to write about once I get back. Maybe even while I’m there, since Paulina and I have dueling netbooks! Photo uploads and Facebook updates galore! .