Sunday, April 09, 2006

the horse is hoarse

i am sick. my throat is sore, i have a terribly snotty nose, my voice is hoarse. its pretty awesome. and this is because when i feel sick i feel less bad about not doing school work. whereas most other people would probably be upset and stressed out, i had no problems enjoying a whole day of sleeping yesterday. seriously. i was in bed by eight. and i didn't wake up till eleven this morning.

a few ottawa friends were down for a visit this weekend. i love love love having visitors. its just a nice break from a routine. and i find that as i get older, guests are more understanding that, as a guest, even as a good friend, the person that they are visiting still has a life. for instance, yesterday, john, theresa, and heather wanted to walk around. i wanted to die. and the three of them, kind hearted souls that they are, mercifully left me to moan and groan in peace, with jarrod. when i was younger, it would have been expected, come anything, that i would have spent every second of every day with them. and probably would have been expected to be endlessly entertaining. it was nice to wake up and have them sitting in the living room.

it was nice to joke around with john. honestly, i am not sure if ever in my whole life, i have ever laughed as much as when living in beligum and could watch, any time i wanted, the incredible exuberant antics of mike, john, geoff, bill, oli, and drew. seriously. if i had five bucks for every time i felt like i was going to pee my pants, i'd have, like a nine thousand bucks. this weekend, theresa was mentionning that she worked on a ranch for a few summers and somehow that got us to the subject of how horses travel. Theresa mentionned that they did, of course, i mean, how else would there be equestrian sports in the olympics? or big world cup races? or movies like hidalgo? we all agreed that horse travel was common. and then john said, "wow, i mean, if flying on airplanes is difficult for me, it must be absolute hell on the horses." I looked at him. and then said, "well, john, its not like they are flying coach." at which point we looked at each other and burst out laughing, not being able to get the idea of a horse sitting in coach out of my head, you know, sitting up right, snorting, hooves clacking, but acting like a human being. "um, stewardess? i don't think i can lower my tray for supper...whinney." you know, reading the paper, getting up to go to the bathroom, etc. i am thinking glasses, some kind of vest, and a newspaper..."these seats are hell on my back!"

i do miss ottawa and so i think this might be especially why i enjoy having people from there visit me. its just a little tiny glimpse of that old town and that seems to satisfy me. i can't have ottawa all the time, but i can have it one weekend every couple of months. why does undergrad seem so long ago? i am not sure i will ever get over not having the people who were in my life every day for four years not being in my life every day...it seems like one of those things, like selling the family home in Bowmanville, that if you (I) think (thought) about too long or too hard, you will just cry and cry and be sad and sad. but if you don't think about it, if you just glaze over it, you can deal with it and carry on and be happy. so i try not to think about it and i try to enjoy the moments that i do get with those people: over email, on the phone, or sometimes, wonderfully, in person. and sometimes, when i am in bowmanville, i drive by the old house and i remember it. and although it makes me sad, it always makes me happy too. the times that house housed (i loooove puns!) will always be there. not in the house, but in me. and dang it, i might even be a better person because of the pain of losing, than the ease of keeping.

they are leaving this afternoon, and seeing as how i am working today, i gave them the run of the place for their last few hours. john told me that they would probably rob the place on the way out.. i said that was fine, but hoped they would make off with the things that were noticeably out of place, thereby making my room look cleaner for when i arrive home tonight. i hope they managed to have a good time. john and theresa both seem to be that neat kind of person that has fun wherever they are, and, more than that, improves the fun that other people are having.

now, for the record, i blame this cold on the term end library party. the reason i do this is that when i arrived at Bedford Academy, prepared to gorge myself on free food, i was healthy. and when i left at one thirty that morning, i was stuffed up and grumpy. mom thought it might be allergies, but i am pretty sure my genetically superior DNA is free from any such ailment. i am twenty four and i have never-ever-not- even-for-a-second had allergies before. and damn it, i am not starting now.

one thing that i am starting now is my school work. this week became noticeably less stressful when my book history paper was pushed back a week, but now that i have wasted all the days that i would have spent writing that, it is time for me to start research methods. and by start research methods, i mean catch up on two episodes of veronica mars and eat mini wheats. once again, if you ever doubted, please note that i have my priorities in line.

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