<< Insert this 
In here>>
Well, I guess I’m on my first ‘official’ business trip…If you don’t count the intern stretch in Austin as one big-ass business trip (everything IS bigger in TX), or my comp’ed experience at Canada Music Week - whilst interning at Heritage – a mini-business trip (everything IS smaller in the TO music scene); I was staying at the Beau’s that time so it didn’t feel too official without unfamiliar accommodations…all these intern-hyphen jobs, no wonder my nan thinks that I work in a hospital.
The only thing that I can compare this to is presenting a paper at a conference in TO after moving to Ottawa. Staying in a hotel, having weird Lost in Translation feelings (Bob: What do you do?, Charlotte: I’m not sure yet, actually) about being alone in the city, it felt nice to be a tourist in my now-hometown…This feels like being a tourist in my old-hometown…But I can’t dis the amazing homey digs of staying in a B&B. It is nothing like the Flirting with Disaster cauchemaur that I was anxious over (Agent Paul: Without spontaneity, the world of B&B’s is fairly meaningless.).
Lindsay is plagued with the same social/economic/lifestyle/crime issues that Parry Sound is (not) dealing with. Major drug use, high teen pregnancy rates, dropouts, little manufacturing jobs for said dropouts, difficulty recruiting workers to fill much-need health services jobs, etc, etc, etc. The basic rural vs. urban stuff.
Anyway, I made it safe & sound to Lindsay via Greyhound to Peterborough & a kind soul staffer picking me up (“I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers…”). To say that I am leery of staying in/near P-town is a huge understatement. When I was there earlier in the month for a campaigning day trip, the brutal low-self-esteem-resentment-filled-unhappy-traveling-uncomfortable-silences-do-not-resuscitate-bad-relationship-vibes wafted overhead.
That being said, there were some good times had – a McGarrigle Sisters concert where a Courtney Love-Hole joke flew over the entire audience’s heads…a Big Sugar gig with a ‘Brick House’ encore (that I mentioned to Gordie when I ran into him in ATX…he still has the same beautiful beadwork-ed guitar straps & amazing set of guitars), Moon Dance records staff acting more like the NPR ‘Car Guys’ than the snooty Soundscapes youngins. I learned the true meaning of ‘speak now or forever hold your piece’ back in the day. I’m sure that it hasn’t made life for subsequent partners or friends easier, but I am much more prone to call people on b.s.-lies-contradictions since the P-dot-weekending days.
Besides that, not much has changed, though. I still feel very much like the girl I was when I was in undergrad. Obsessing over music, escaping into good CanLit fiction, closing my eyes unselfconsciously at shows for just a couple of minutes & maybe even crying here & there, & still enjoying bus rides for the helplessness & free time to doze.
peace
meegs
p.s. - This back-blog is brought to you by good’ol fashioned dumb luck. Someone in their area is floating an airport-able signal out there. you never know unless you try kids!
Post a Comment