My Lovely Lady Lump

Can you believe this won me $2,500??

Datura sent me a much needed supportive and sympathetic e-mail. She probably got the heaviest of my turmoil over all of this - not just the party, but school and everything, and it's just been a very stressful three months. A lot has happened in both of our lives, but look at us! Still emotionally and psychologically intact (kinda), physically healthy, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for the next great adventure despite the fear and anxiety, and despite all odds and obstacles we're charging towards the future throwing away the past as we careen down this topsy turvy winding highway towards a bloodred sun.

Mmm... melodrama. Feels like home.

Anyhoo... Insecurities aside, this is the most financially rewarding Christmas ever! I mean Chinese New Year is always lucrative, but THIS! I know you're all adults and some of you can shit $2,500 on a nightly basis, but for a little college student like me, I feel like I've won the jackpot.

I called my mom first, and she very sternly reminded me not to waste all this on candy and clothes (or drugs in my experience), and I - for once - think she's absolutely right. I'm buying a piano. An electric piano with weighted keys and glorious built-in speakers so that I may drown myself in Tschaikovsky and Mozart and Tim Burton. One of my goals in life is to write one great song. That's not asking a lot, and I've got lots of time to do it.

But I don't intend on spending more than $1,500, so I've been treating all my friends! I thought I wouldn't be able to buy anyone Christmas presents this year, and anyway, I don't see my friends often enough to be able to buy them anything good, plus many of my friends are still in school so they're not going to be buying me anything, so I've basically been treating those around me. On Saturday, I took a slightly hung-over Datura to Mel's Montreal Bistro on Bloor St. for an especially decadent breakfast complete with fruit cups, sides of fried beans, freshly squeezed orange juice, coffeeeeeeeeeeeee, smoked salmon, and Montreal smoked meat.

After we dropped Datura off in Newmarket, Ryan and I drove up to Beeton to visit our friends Wes and Amanda who bought a 100 year old farm house up there where they live with their cat Cosmo and their Staffordshire Terrier Cross (pitbull) Burnham. We had dinner at The Muddy Waters: Home for Wayward Girls - the only bar in Beeton - a known motorcycle gang hang-out and the source of much fun and merriment for the locals young and old.

A band called Haight-Ashbury was playing coincidentally who used to play at shows with Wes back when he was in high school. Now Haight plays for an older more sophisticated crowd at The Muddy Waters where the wings are only 35 cents each and the washrooms are cleaner than most restaurants downtown. A groovey lady with shaved head showed off her awesome dance moves (they REALLY were awesome) on the dance floor, and they were later joined by two white-haired ladies who did a little bit of swing dancing to everyone's delight.

Sitting there with beers all around, eating chicken wings and red hot chilli poppers, listening to an amazing cover band do a rock-out version of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds made me feel so much better. I treated everyone to dinner that night paying with a crisp $100 (very special, I never have those in my pocket!) and we wished Wes and Amanda a very merry Christmas because they are two very special and wonderful friends.

On the ride home, I just couldn't stop thinking about the party. All the things that could have been done better had I known about them. That's experience I guess. Slowly, the regrets are fading, and especially after seeing all the wonderful pictures, it really does look like everyone had a great time. There were fun parts - bits of flirting here and there, kissing my darling on stage in front of everyone, hugging David VP like a big ole grandpa on his way out the door... maybe it really doesn't take a lot to get people to have fun. Especially if they are people that you know who care about you and believe in you.