And then there were two...

Well, my apartment is always a little bit vacant, with just T and I to occupy a 3 /12 (in Ontariospeak, that means a "one bedroom")... but now it seems emptier than ever, because it just spent the last three days stuffed full of rowdy, romping Ontarians (four of them, to be exact) and I felt like I was completely in my element. Everyone making drinks, making food, making conversation, making music (not in a dirty way), and, for about 4% of the time, making ZZZ's. Jen & Mark were here for the weekend, it being our annual Winterlympic time (though we forfeited skiing due to the threat of broken bones and the reality of broken budgets), and then to our mix we added my dear old Woodward roommate Dawson, who was travelling through town with his/my friend Elodie, both in need of a place to crash. So we all squeezed in here for two days/nights! Now I am extremely exhausted, barely able to see the keys... and I owe a bunch of emails.... and somehow I woke up one morning this weekend and realized that I had JOINED FACEBOOK the night before, in a moment of weak judgement and strong skills of persuasion from Jen. If you don't know what facebook is, GOOD! STAY AWAY!!! people always warned me it would take over my life, and people are right. I suddenly have a burning urge to "check my wall," and until this weekend I didn't even know what that meant. Plus, I've only been on for about three days, and already I'm behind on facebook goings-on.

Anyway - thought I would post some pics, so that all y'all who are faithful blog checkers won't be disappointed too often.

Here is the menage-a-quatre that I hosted this weekend (thank goodness I upgraded from a single bed this year):

Good times, good times... a pleasure to see Daws again, and to get to know Elodie, and, of course, to do the "Jen & Mark" thing, which is one of my all-time favourite things to do in the whole world:



We spent some time all together just chilling in my apartment with the T-man, who officially has a crush on Jen (and would hate to know that I was announcing it to the world, but luckily he can't read yet). The minute Jen sat down, Tycho shyly but coyly crawled up beside her, and she remained his prefer lap throughout the weekend. What a ladies' man! Observe:

And, even though there were ten of us spending Saturday night together on the town, we managed to get an unreserved table at L'Academie (vrrrry delicious montreal spot) after waiting only about 1/2hr out in the Montreal cold!

And, of course, this morning was the "Mark In Montreal Breakfast Special": poutine from Steamies.
It was so sad to see them all go... Jen & Mark back to T-dot, Dawson & Elodie on to the second half of their road trip to Boston. Still, I am in dire need of some serious rest, so I suppose it's for the best that there will only be one of me sleeping in my bed tonight.... well, one of me and a cat.... and thus ends Reading Week 2007, which actually involved a surprising amount of reading from Monday to Friday... and a surprising amount of shenanigans on both weekends!
Last weekend, of course, was "Quebec City With The Girls," generously and graciously hosted by Claudine's wonderful mom and dad, who cooked delicious things for us, including crepes for breakfast, expertly flipped in the air for our pleasure:


We did and saw EVERYTHING... including giant plastic Bonhommes....


Sugar on snow.... (apparently I am seriously lacking in the "how to roll a good syrup popsicle" department):


We even went tobogganing, right in the middle of the city! You can see Chateau Frontenac in the distance, from the top of the hill.... all four of us squished onto a toboggan, which, let me tell you, would be a great way to break the ice if you were ever out on a hot but uncomfortable date and happened to pass by a giant ice track like this one. I mean, people have to straddle other people... legs and arms are going everywhere... there's no room for shyness. Plus, you get the thrill of rocketing down among throngs of tourists aboard a wooden sled! I'm amazed that I had never done it before....

You must pick your sled very carefully, with attention paid to aerodynamic qualities and the wetness of the cushion thingy that you will be forced to sit on...

Next, climb the mountain!

Observe: beautiful view of Chateau Frontenac (which will happily distract you from what you are about to attempt).

To celebrate our survival of the Great Toboggan Ride, we followed Clau to a fabulous bar, where many drinks and jokes were consumed at a feverish pace...

.... and there may or may not have been 3am poutine involved....

Oh look! There's my wallet on the tray! Poor old wallet... it has been sadly lost... along with all of my ID cards. I will spare you the tearful story and say only that I am a newfound master of "keeping my cool," and also that I am now in the possession of a brand new wallet, which the wonderful Jen fashioned for me out of duct tape and plastic container lids. I may still be without any form of identity at all, but two things make me happy:

(1) new duct tape wallet, made by Jen

(2) the fact that I have never once been ID'd in montreal! let's hope that trend continues while I replace everything....

Also, I HAVE GOOOOOOOOD NEWS and if you've made it all the way through this blog entry, this is your reward! Even though it's more of a reward for me... but here it is: I may be enough of a dope to loose my wallet (I am convinced it was stolen, and not lost, because you may not believe this but I have been quite good at not leaving it places over the past few months)... well, the good news is that despite being a dope who loses things, I am also enough of a writer that I AM GETTING A CHAPBOOK PUBLISHED WHOOOOO!!!

I submitted a story to a contest, it won, and now Delirium Press is turning it into a chapbook! The launch is in April, and the BEST PART OF ALL is that Steven Heighton is also having a chapbook launched at the same time by Delirium, and he is one of MY FAVOURITE CANADIAN AUTHOR EVERRRRR. He wrote The Shadow Boxer, which is possibly the most emotionally potent and personal book that I've ever read. I read it towards the end of my teenage years, and that book gave me that little nudge out of one era and into another, just what I needed. I can't believe I'm going to meet Steven Heighton, eat with him, give a reading with him! Every time I remember, a balloon full of confetti explodes in my stomach.

In other great young-artist news, my darling, dearest friend Mark (of Rouen - Edmonton - Vancouver fame, not of Jen & Mark fame) is now starring in a short film put together by his acting school and directed by some awesome director (I forget which one - from Smallville maybe?) ... and you can watch the trailer! He is the one who looks like this:


And the trailer looks like this:

And that is all from my world right now.... but only because I have to sleep or I might be in terrible shape! Bon nuit!