the journey home (to edmonton) started friday night after work in a freshly pressed black suit and light-blue shirt and DKNY tie that would serve as the wardrobe for a whirlwind two-night adventure (no luggage, just a light carry-on) in my home town to celebrate the marriage of my friend aly to her fiancé, adam. edmonton was almost exactly as i left it, except maybe a little larger and more expensive. one of the most humiliating indicators of edmonton's lack of international sense is the misspelled french welcome at the arrivals area. every time i see it, i cringe with secret shame.

my mother was well - my father was in germany for the weekend to celebrate the birthday of his sister/my aunt. it was my first trip back in over a year. the last time i went home, i was emotionally distraught and miserable, so it was much much better to enjoy my brief time in town, rather than being obsessed with something else. as i said, edmonton was very much the way i remembered it, especially since i imagined that it would have changed so very much over the past year with the ongoing oil boom. my favourite flower/art shop was still there, and my friend joe was still there, hanging around the downtown coffee shops, as we had for seemingly forever. i randomly bumped into a few acquaintances saturday morning who remembered me and chatted with me, and those little meetings did unspeakably wonderful things for my soul. i think that in the end, all things need roots and connectedness. even i.

the wedding was held on the third floor, open air amphitheatre of the citadel theatre. it was attended by 100 - 150 of adam and aly's friends, and if you look closely (click on the photo), you will observe the most beautiful woman on the planet, who grew up in airdrie of all places! it was my special honour and privilege to chat with her (and her boyfriend) at the reception dinner. the ceremony was lovely, and i was lucky enough to find ONE person who i knew in aly's vast circle of friends to sit with and converse.

the reception, as i've already mentioned, was full of unexpected delights, but i left early to let the kids have their fun and to visit a friend of my mother's who was eager to meet with me. i failed to meet up with my party animal friends, so there was an unfortunate lack of saturday night fever for me in oiltown.

i did manage to drive around the city a few times before my sunday afternoon departure to try and discover what had changed around town. i drove to my old neighbourhood where i grew up to see my old home and the places that i would go to think; i drove to my old high school and whyte avenue where i would become the person i am today; i went to the west end and all around the downtown to see where i had come from – the whole odyssey  took about three hours. i was happy though to spend a good deal of time with my old friend wally and his family... i'd ignored him for far too long.

but then i went to the arlington. it had always (in my lifetime) been something of a dive, but it had undeniable character and spirit - due in no small part to its age and the resonance of all the lives and drama that had passed through it. it burned down a couple of years ago, but it still remains in the core of downtown, gutted on the inside but shining and proud on the outside. i thought about how that was a little how i felt at this point of my life. so much of my joyful, passionate, romantic moments have exploded and immolated in the heat of the moment, but there still remains a facade of potential on the outside while the reality of the interior is far more dangerous and precarious.   but that’s another blog entry.

my trip to edmonton could have been a simple trip home to visit some friends and family, but instead, it was very much an existential shift for me. i've always felt that i was someone from edmonton merely travelling around the world until i came back to my home. this was the first time i'd ever felt that i was someone from somewhere else travelling to edmonton as an outsider. both realities suit me just fine.

- g

i’m making a new resolution to make my blog entries a little more concise.  i’ve recently encountered long expositions that were really laborious and i don’t want to fall into the same trap.  we’ll see how it goes.

this weekend was fairly mad.  i took in nuit blanche this year, which is a festival that originated in paris, and has grown in popularity throughout europe and has spread to toronto last year.  i missed it last year, so i resolved not to miss it two years in a row.  it’s an all-night festival running from 7pm saturday evening to 7am sunday morning in arts districts to promote interest in local arts and galleries, and more than anything else, it’s a great opportunity to enjoy your home city and share in a truly social event in a safe and exciting environment.  there were many exciting public exhibits and the entire event was free thanks to corporate sponsorship by the scotiabank.  my favourite exhibit was a space that had a projection on its exterior windows that made it look like the entire interior of the building was being filled with water.  chairs and tables were slowly floated to the ceiling, and the effect was incredibly convincing (from across the street), until later on in the presentation, gigantic lobsters and goldfish were seen swimming into the scene turning a fabulous trompe l’oeil into a ridiculously enjoyable aquarium screen saver.  i had to end the evening early (1am) though because…

sunday, i did my first run in toronto, a 5km run for the cibc run for the cure.  this summer has been so busy that i haven’t had much time (or willpower?) to keep up my training, so i was pretty worried about how i would hold up for the duration of the run.  so i was all nerves and excitement when i arrived an hour early for the race.  i hadn’t picked up my race kit or registration or t-shirt, so i had all that to do before i could hang out with my running mates.  in fact, i wrapped all the administrative stuff with only 5 minutes until race start.  i then had to wend my way through about 25,000 other participants to the starting line.  at 10am, the race started, but everyone was creeping along the track, and i finally realized that i had lodged myself in with the walking group – so i had to push and shove my way past strollers, dogs, elderly people and people in motorized chairs until i got out into the back of the running pack.  i double-timed it as much as i could through the runners, and finally managed to catch up to some of my running mates.  but by then it was the last kilometer, and i had to pour it on (because that’s what you’re supposed to do).  the clock said that i came in at 32:31, but i’m pretty sure that if i had been where i was supposed to be, my time would have improved by at least six minutes, so i feel pretty pleased.

my team went for brunch nearby at eggspectations, which is hopelessly close to the apple store in eaton centre.  i’d been itching to go there to “examine” the new iPod Touch, so that i could see how i really didn’t need to get one, and move on with my life.  i went in and played with it for a couple of minutes, gliding the interface around elegantly with the swipe or a pat of a fingertip, and i thought to myself, “yeah, that’s pretty cool…”  i was extremely proud of myself for walking out of the store and convincing (conning) myself that i didn’t need to look at it again.  i walked towards the subway station for about 35 seconds and then headed straight back to the store and bought the maxed-out 16GB version with a heady and delicious mixture of joy and guilt!!  all the way home, it was all i could do to keep from tearing the box open and stroking its glossy surfaces!  but then, once i got home, i discovered that over the course of the afternoon, i had somehow LOST my former iPod, my much beloved iPod nano.  it had been my running partner and iPod of choice for almost two years, and a gift from someone dear, and it bruised me dearly to realize that it was gone.  even the thrill of the new iPod couldn’t assuage my pain at having lost so precious a device.  now it has to be replaced (so that i can continue to use the iPod+nike sport kit) unless you are the person who has found my nano and have looked through the contacts list to see who i am.  please return my nano – there’s a reward in it for you – maybe a new iPod nano.  what do you say?

- g

adventure cost:
pledges raised for breast cancer research: $165.00
brunch at eggspectations: $17.00
iPod Touch (16G) (with tax): $511.86

because paramout pictures own the park, they are able to attach themes and branding from its creative assets to the rides, and for the next ride, that was just fine by me! we went to a new ride dedicated to my favourite leggy, busty, impossible-to-impress, pony-tailed archaeologist/adventurer heroine, lara croft, the tomb raider. in fact, the ride was doubly apt for me, because the car is designed so that you are actually lying flat with your arms out, so that it's pretty much like flying superman-style along the track! even more corkscrews and slingshot turns than top gun (i think) and being the superman nut that i am, i had to do them with my hands free in front of me... it was... a BLAST!

and at this point in my blog, i have to acknowledge the reason why it took me an extra week to write all of this down... perhaps it's something that wally (and everyone else in the world) knew all along. there's a difference between things that you like and things that are pure fun. i like to do things that are meaningful - in the sense of having all kinds of layers and levels of enjoyment - complex webs of interrelationship and all that... going to a theme park and going on a ride is just sheer thrill and simple fun. it doesn't matter what the ride is called, what intellectual property its leveraging, or anything at all. it's pure moment, pure immediacy, pure, unmitigated fun. that purity of moment is something ineffable, and accordingly, is quite the antithesis of something one can blog. but pretentious joker that i am... here i am blogging the unbloggability of a theme park!!! sometimes, i astonish myself with my own ridiculousness.

these next two rides we can describe together. shockwave was like a giant pinwheel with six seats per arm. the ride lifts the pinwheel up and spins it around, tossing the seats upside down and around and around. you would think that this would be nothing but stomach churning, and watching it from the lineup, i marvelled that there weren't streams of vomit shooting out from it at all times. but once you get into it, the whole effect is simply thrilling! i totally wanted to ride that one again.

nightmares, a rather obvious name for the giant centrifuge, was also fun. i'd seen rides like this that spin you around and then wobble around a little bit - but this ride went straight up and down - totally perpendicular - testing everyone's faith in their angular momentum calculations from hgh school physics! while i wasn't tumbled around inside the cage, i think i would have felt a little more secure if it were going just a little bit faster, just to have a little bit more force keeping me at the top of my cage at the top of its spin.

by this point, it was late and dark, and the park was getting ready to close down. but there was one canada's wonderland experience of which i had not yet partaken, and that was the "funnel cakes". funnel cakes are neither funnel-shaped, nor particularly cakey. they are drizzles of dough, deep-fried like a donut. they have the rather unfortunate look of aborted chicken embryos when they are in their raw form (there are times when i wish i didn't have that biological sciences background), but they are then clumped together on a plate with icing sugar, topped with soft-serve ice cream and strawberry filling. i guess it was okay... but it was hardly something i could not have done without.

this was one of my favourite adventures. partly because it was one of the most fun. partly because it was something that i probably would never have chosen to do of my own accord. and mostly because i did it with lovely friends.

- g

adventure cost:
day pass from mac's + some bottled water: $45.38
parking at wonderland: $10.00
1 blt sub from the in-park subway: $9.50
1 lemonade drink from a vending machine: $2.50
1 foot-long hot dog with ketchup only: $6.50
1 funnel cake for the three of us: $11.39
1 iced tea for the drive home: $3.07