Laura and I are becoming quickly and surprisingly proficient in ASL, which is fantastic. Pat Dumoulin, it turns out, can fingerspell incredibly quickly. Once I saw him do it on Friday, I realized I had seem him do this before long ago but figured he was making jibberish signs. Not so.
Yesterday, on my lunch break, I learned a handful of dirty words which have since served me greatly.
I have been very productive at work, doing non-work related things, such as the logo for Dear Burger, and motifs for Slutniks. I also did some work on the PARTICLE logo, but more importantly got a solid image in my mind for it. It's great having all this free time at work.
I've had so much free time lately that one of the supervisors, Joe Sohmer, took myself, Kyle Bourgeois, and another temp out to work on a course about succeeding in interviews, to be given to some of the permanent staff, for when they are eventually let go. Once I found out what I was doing, I kinda wanted to go back to taking calls and playing poker. I will likely grab the course outline, though, as it is full of useful information, aimed at highly motivated yuppies though it may be.
Pat, Pat's girlfriend Lindsay, Dayna Lowe, and Rhonda came down from Ottawa for the weekend, for photography, urban exploration, and lots of drinking. On Friday night, after work, I made it over to Alex and Rhys', where everyone was, including the above mentioned as well as Laura, Carolina, and Evan. We played the boardgame Bang! and made and learned rude signs.
On our way home Carolina and I agreed to have breakfast at Blanche Neige when we got there, so Laura, Rhonda, and Dayna went home and Carolina and I went for 1 am breakfast. Instead of homefries and an orange slice we got regular fries and tomato and lettuce. We both appreciated this change. It was very satisfying.
Today we woke up very early. I showered while the girls went out for breakfast. Then we left for Metro station Place-Saint-Henri where we were to meet everyone else for 10:30. We arrived first and texted everyone to hurry them up. Pat and Lindsay arrived next, soon followed by Carolina. We set off toward the abandoned building that was the goal of this expedition. The way there found us going through what seemed like a quaint hipster village (which, on the way back, is precisely what it turned out to be). When we got to the building, located along the Lachine canal beside the St. Ambroise brewery, we wandered around it and found an entrance through a piece of the fence which was obviously sheered open and repaired dozens of times.
The building, though rather small in ground area, was monumental. It was covered almost entirely from top to bottom in graffiti. Looking up at the top of it and the clouds moving quickly behind it was a surreal feeling, very cinematic. There was a tree growing on a platform a good twenty metres up. Higher still was a very rickety shack built on the top of it which looked like a hermit's shanty atop a cliff. There was a section of the building which was brick covered in metal covered in graffiti. The metal was in fact a complex lattice of patch jobs attempting to keep vandals out where the brick had crumbled.
After exhausting the exterior view of the building we walked down the canal the slightest bit more where we stopped at the St. Ambroise terrace and partook in apricot beer and chorizo sausage. This was certainly a lovely way to start off a work day.
Alex and Rhys joined us at this point and we soon headed back toward the metro, to go to Chinatown. On the way there I was stung by a wasp, the first time I've been stung by any bee-like insect since grade three or four. We spent little time in Chinatown then headed South West. I left the group when we got to McGill avenue and headed North toward work. I was thinking a hotdog from Chien-Chaud Victoire would have been perfect, and got all the way inside, behind a guy picking up an order, when the guy at the grill said they were closed. That was very disappointing.
I then got off work an hour and a half early, happened to run into Alex, Rhys, and Evan on the way home, and we all came home to the party. As well as those who had spent the day with us, Jacob Sheehy, Emily Cloutier, David Newell, and Emily Paris were all in attendance. Soon after I arrived we all moved to the newly discovered roof patio. Soon after that Jenn texted me and asked if I could help her unload stuff at her new apartment.
I went over to help, as it's only three blocks away. My parents were there with her. Jenn's downstairs neighbours have an adorable, absurdly curious, naively friendly, free-roaming teenaged cat. At one point while my mom was walking, the cat got up level with her, looked at her legs and dove between them as my mom was taking a step, getting crushed briefly in my mom's stride. Jenn has a nice place.
I came back to the party and had a bit of alcohol, but nowhere near the amount I had the night before.
Pat, Lindsay, Dayna, and Rhonda are all staying here tonight and leaving tomorrow around 9:30 which is so very early.