Various thoughts on the last week

Oh what an amazing holiday this has been for me. Previously, the last time I had more than four days off in a row was more than seven years ago. So needless to say, this was needed and a long time coming. I have this oh so intense feeling of, "back to reality now". This it would seem is the case because how much of this trip has been like living a dream.

Had I had any, and I mean ANY idea about what was to happen I would've greatly modified the itinerary. Unfortunately us mortals can't exercise that sort of foresight, so it had to be what it was.

A little recap:

I left Vancouver a week ago today flying to Toronto to see my ex and now good friend S. That evening was spent seeing her new place and some friends of hers I had met when we were a couple three years ago. We had dinner in downtown at a cool little diner which had a real rockabilly/punk thing about it. A throw back to the late 70's or even fifties if you will. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it, though I think it was something like "The Rockabilly Princess". Upon getting home I set up my air mattress I'd be sleeping on and went to try to get a good night sleep. What a waste of time that turned out to be.....

The mattress lost it's air/had a leak and Lola S's cute little kitty started her aerobic routine round about midnight. I very quickly got the thought into my head that I just didn't see getting any sleep. This being the case, why not just hop in the rental car now and drive throughout the night to get to Chicago early. Perfect. So by 1.00 I was on the road heading west.

After crossing the border and getting a slight grilling, driving through a snow storm and being detour through what was a very sad part of Chicago's south end, I arrived in downtown at about 9.45 am.

I exchanged some communique with my at the time (oh how this did change), internet friend R. We determined that I'd have the day to do my own thing and would be picking her up from work around mid afternoon. As is often the case with me being in new cities, I spent much of the morning walking around the city. Not the easiest thing in the world when you're over 24 hours with no sleep, but it was okay. I then hopped in the car and spent a couple hours driving around. Mostly checking out the Lake View area. VERY COOL HOOD!

You can then pick up the story in my previous post "R&J". No sense in writing what's already been written.

What I can do and am most happy to, is get into what I'm feeling.

Clearly my life turned a corner last week. Once in my past I turned a corner which was similar to this. Unfortunately it didn't end the way I had hoped, as there was much pain and saddness. In this situation, I'm going to try to exercise a level of objectivity I didn't before. That's not to say I'm going to deny any of my feelings, I won't. For six days I've been on a natural high one probably only feels very few times in ones life at best. The thing of it is that this sort of thing requires a much different approach. I say this because previously I just let myself react naturally to what was before me. This resulted in my judgments being clouded, in other words thinking with my heart and not my mind. When I was with R in person and any communication we've had since we met everything was coming from my heart. There's absolutely no doubt about that.

I try to think about how I would feel and could I predict how things would be different if R was Vancouver girl I met. Sad thing is I can't imagine how I would feel any different. We had such a to remember. I just think I'd be as eager to see her and talk to her again as I would now. It's just in this case it has to be much more spread out. Oddly it entirely possible I'll see her on every day off I take.......which is not a testament to how much we'll see each other, but how much I work.

This woman turned me on in ways I haven't been for years and years. She is perhaps the sexiest most beautiful woman I've ever been with. This is due to her natural beauty but also who she is. When we got to know each other that first day, it was incredible how many interests and values we shared. Her and I are animal lovers to the extreme. We both have these crazy conversations with our animals that include that baby voice which I would shudder to hear myself doing. Truly. Message to who ever may read this and know me in person. NEVER EVER, I mean NEVER, record me the way I talk to my boys. You'll see a grown man curl up into a ball with embarrassment . We both have this thing for hobbyist photography. Though her technical and hardware ability exceed me. Mind you I have a much different style which doesn't require me to know too much about how that clicky box works. One day, maybe soon, I'll post my favourite pictures in this new blog. Don't get too excited, there's only ten or so. We are both lovers of music, perhaps I've spent more time with that as a past time. But it doesn't diminish her love for what is a wonderful song. We also share a wicked sense of humour. I'm sure we could spend hours and hours just being silly and killing each other with laughter. *sidebar, this may be my single most important quality in a partner next to honesty*. Okay, there's this thing. It's a thing I look for when I'm dating some one. Perhaps this is something I've never talked or written about. It has to do with the state of one's home. Cleanliness and tidiness if you will. When I first enter a woman's home who I am interested in, I take very close not of how clean and tidy it is. TWO VERY DIFFERENT THINGS. I've been in many peoples homes who have the appearance of clean but are only tidy, and vs. versa. I am, and always have been clean and not too tidy. Though I do often organize my home. R's place also seemed that way. The apartment was clearly clean, though not terribly tidy. One of the things I like about a how like this is that it shows a persons character. She wasn't afraid to leave anything out and therefore I was able to learn a lot of her. The reason I take such a close not of this is because of how HUGE it is in the future. None of us are perfect, we all have our shortcomings. Home cleanliness and tidiness is something which could probably be as big as money on the list of things couple fight about. Starting with an even slate in that are is so beneficial.

We are very different in the way of careers. She is the academic with college degrees under her belt. I am the self employed construction contractor who only spent a year in post secondary out of high school. And she has two cats and I have two dogs. Something possibly complicated, but not without potential solution down the road.


Wow what a digression from a blog entry about my trip.

I went back to Toronto the morning of Wednesday and then on Thursday we went to the Niagra on the Lake wine region on the south side of Lake Ontario. We did about 4 wineries, of which 2 I enjoyed. It really seems that the BC wine industry has matured and exceeded it's easter counterpart. In the evening we went to her parents place and had dinner and the local english style pub for curry night. The next morning I was off to Winnipeg which can be read in my previous post.

All in all a wonderful trip and a tuesday night/wednesday morning for the history books.