Ceci n'est pas une Blog

Tales of Shelters and Other Things

I blame that prissy-sounding title on the fact that the main theme from Return of the King just came on my iTunes. Not my fault! (But who am I kidding...I'm still in love with Howard Shore's soundtrack to this day.) Once you're done reading this post, the title should at least make sense.

Part One: Rondeau
Last weekend my crew went camping at Rondeau, which is, I guess, an hour or so outside of London. I drove down with Paul and Alex, and we met up with Jeremy, Pete, Beth and boyfriend Andrew in London for a bite to eat and a trip to the LCBO. We arrived at our campsite around dusk, just a hop and a skip away from Lake Erie's shoreline. For some reason we decided it would be a good idea to cram 5 of us who were not accompanied by significant others into Peter's 4-person tent. Fun times. Sara and her new boyfriend Ryan showed up later on in the evening. The next day we spent a lot of time at the beach and got significantly cooked while fooling around in the water and building sandcastles, (read: sand empires). We also took a lot of fantabulous pictures that day. I'll post a couple of my favourites here, but if you've got any brains you should definitely check out Peter's whole set, because some of them are really nice! Each and every one of those has been carefully retouched in Photoshop with Pete's skilled hand, but I actually took several of the original shots with his camera. Man, I love what that thing is capable of! Also, make sure you view the pictures in their full-sized glory because it's just not the same otherwise.




Aren't these gorgeous?! These are probably my favourite two of the whole set, and not just because I took them. It's pictures like these that send me into starvation mode for a quality camera of my own so I can take shots like this all the time.

So anyway, later on that afternoon Katelin showed up, (legitimately late due to a piano exam) and joined us for a scrumptious dinner of spider-dogs around the campfire. She also became the sixth member of our 4-man tent party. Tip for sleeping in overcrowded tents: Never get suckered into The Edge. That is, unless you want to be awake all night.

Sunday was overcast, and we spent the morning slowly cleaning up our site and then driving the packed cars over to the lake to soak up that last bit of beachy-goodness. After a last lunch together we went our separate ways, Alex and I in Jer's standard transmission car of Awesome. (You guessed it, I've been inspired to learn how to drive stick, even if I'll have no occasion to do so.)

Part Two: Pad
The very next day, Monday, my dad and I drove up to Guelph to start looking for an apartment for me. Unfortunately, all the places that you could actually call apartments were way out of our budget. Out of our league. Like the kids from The Sandlot versus Barry Bonds. Not cool.

But the good news is, after a few hours of pouring over the listings, making several phone calls, snooping around in people's basements and my dad trying to set me up with the ridiculously pretty grad-student secretary at the Off-Campus housing office, I actually found a place. Yeah that's right! I have a place to move to in Guelph next month, woo!

My home for the next 8 months is an upstairs apartment-type-thing in a semi-detached home in a small survey called Wilsonview. This little nook is just around the corner from Edinburgh plaza and Stone Road Mall. Suh-weet! Everything I need is a short walk away, including the grocery store and Rogers video. (I like Blockbuster better on principle, but meh, can't have everything.) The bus stop is about 80 meters from my doorstep, and about 3 or 4 stops from campus. Solid.

The place itself is nice. My new landlords...erm, lord and lady? Haven't decided what I'll call them. "Land dudes" will suffice for now. My new land dudes are a retired couple named Doug and Mary Tonner. They seem especially nice, and are great about keeping a clean house. They have one small dog that will be leaving with them anyway when they go on vacation. "Vacation?" you say, eyebrows raised in sincere interest, "you didn't mention this before!" I know, I've been saving it. Doug and Mary travel a lot. They're planning to be in Florida for a good part of the time I'm living there. So, aside from occasional, (probably bi-weekly) check-ins from their grown son and daughter also living in Guelph, I am going to have this whole place basically to myself. I have access to their kitchen, which is neither ruled by angry felines nor located in a cold dungeon overrun with small children and clashing bright hues. Thank God! I didn't bother to look at the laundry room, but I have no expectation that it'll turn out to be a swamp that smells like a graveyard of soggy sleeping bags. Also, shouldn't forget to mention that I have a bathroom (again, so far shiny and hairless) to myself regardless of whether the owners are present or not. Wonderful! Last fall I promised I'd take pictures of my place and never got around to it. This time around, please, hold me to it. (Because I know you all care so much.)

Part Three: Whatev
The rest of the week wasn't that eventful, although in between working I did get up to some things that I'll talk about in another post. And speaking of work, I've arranged to keep my post at Sears - but, alas, it's going to involve coming home every weekend. That's actually a pretty huge "alas". Doesn't quite do the dilemma justice. I mean, I like my job a lot, but I'm trying to detach myself here. Well, we'll see what happens over the course of the year, won't we?

Last night Pete and Paul and I attended a charity fundraising event at Quarters, McMaster University's bar that is both pit and patio, to hear some live music performed by doctors, professors, and even Spectator journalist Jeff Mahoney. Most importantly was Katelin's performances with her dad and brother, which was the real reason we were there. It was a good night though, we had fun.

Tune in next time for more awesome stuff about my life! Hint: It involves RAM. Don't miss it.

Labels: aside, photography

posted by Dave @ 10:44 AM