Hey There Delilah - I cried too
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Thursday afternoon at work was a rather unpleasant surprise for the Roma family that had just been told the day before that no charges would be laid against the father and the mother for uttering deadly threats. The police officer of the night before had canceled the complaint, but the frightened translator [see three entries earlier] decided to approach another officer and ask that a summons be issued to the family for a court appearance on the 6th of July.
This means I can't go to Ottawa on July 6th, as I will be at the court, translating for the harmless, five-foot-tall mother and her even funnier six-foot, twirly-moustache-wearing husband who looks like he just stepped out of the set of a Bollywood movie...or maybe an italian mafia documentary [this latter one is less convincing of his innocence].
On Friday, just before I headed out to Ottawa, I was almost late to the airport, as my coworker just left the organization we work in, so I applied for her job and got it. It's a great upgrade, as I will be earning 1.5 times more than I earned earlier. I didn't get a chance to learn much about the responsibilities of the new upgrade, but it can't be anything too hard to learn. I imagine it will be a transition step.
Two and a half hours of leafing through Air Canada's travel mag and a reading of "Can You Keep A Secret?" later, I found myself in Ottawa, excited that I was finally seeing Adam. The night before coming to town, I had received an e-mail from him asking if I still wanted to meet him, as I had, as he said, not been in touch as much as I perhaps should have been. This was slightly strange for me, as I had thought that he had been avoiding me...I was already pissed off as it was, as I hadn't really heard from him in a while. So I wrote a one-liner and said that yes, I still want to see him.
Coming down the escalator of the Ottawa airport arrivals was strange. I was looking for Adam in the crowd, hoping to see the familiar face somewhere in the crowds of anxious Ottawans waiting for their friends, husbands, fathers, brothers. As I noticed him in the crowd, it was almost as if I had done something wrong, something unmentionable. Adam looked tired, exhausted even, and not in the least happy. I smiled, but as I did, my smile filled me with regret, unexplainable actions peering out of me. I wasn't in the least surprised that he would act this way, but I was hurt somehow.
I asked immediately if everything was ok, only to be met with a strange response that required further explanations. As we waited for my luggage piece, I looked at him and how much I had missed him. His new haircut, new reading glasses, the evident loss of weight made me think of how much he had changed and with time, so did our interactions. We found his green Aztek Pontiac [I was impressed with the choice of colour for the car] in the giant parking lot. As we drove, he gave me a box of things he had collected for me in the last few months, including a Turkish, Anatolian-style pillow that he had bought after he returned from Montreal, where he and I had been shopping for a winter scarf for me. My choice of colours for the scarf had reminded him of me when he came across the pillow.
In the box, a dictaphone, which he had bought after coming back from Montreal the first time we had met, after finding out my dead iPod had stopped working [so I couldn't do any voice recording for an interview, a requirement for my Sociology course], a book he had told me about, a few buttons in different languages saying "I am loved", some toys, meeting distractions, etc. I was surprised, moved by this caring gesture, unable to say much. The truth was, I was moved by the fact that Adam had taken the time to collect all these small pieces of conversations we'd had, artifacts of our friendship.
We had a long discussion on Friday night. It was mainly my objections to Adam's values, his work ethic, the distance between us that triggered his reactions. We went to Dunn's for a later dinner, where I had a burnt steak and fries. Adam had French toast breakfast. Ottawa was warm at 11 pm.
We went back to the B&B I was staying in and, as we entered the door, were met by Brian [the owner]'s dog Chelsea and, immediately after that, Brian himself, who was curious to meet Adam. He concluded Adam and I were boyfriends and I didn't say much, but rather agreed to go with the story. I didn't feel like clarifying. We went up and spent our last night together.
The next morning, after breakfast, I met up with Denis and his friend Mauricio. We soon thereafter headed to the city two hours away. Mauricio was quiet while we drove, giving off the impression of someone who either 1/is hungover or 2/is antisocial, or 3/doesn't know me well, thus keeps quiet. This only lasted for a couple of hours and the shyness disappeared as the day wore off and as we visited three gay strip bars in an attempt to expose M to as much gayness as possible...
We also went on a bus tour of Montreal. We met up with Bee and said hi to la Patronne which was one of the highlights of the day. We had desserts and nachos, updated each other on the last two months, walked around the block and finally headed back to Ottawa at around 11:30 pm, only to get lost on the highway. Finally, M saved the day and we were on our way to la capitale...I fell asleep in the back on Denis's lap. As we approached my bed & breakfast, I dreaded having to say goodbye...
I came into my room, headed for the bed and put the pillow next to me...the rough, thorny fabric softened shortly after i laid my cheek on it...
The rest of the weekend involved pizza dinnfer outing and chat with Renee and her friend Juanita. I was impressed with Renee's apartment. I was amused by the fact that she likes Asian decor, but not necessarily visiting Asia. I shared the stories of my clients and the stories of misunderstanding and plain silliness with her.
Gina, who was slightly distressed about the food we had at an Asian resto, spent all of Monday with me. We did our traditional Chapters book-shopping and book review stories, had cheesecake brownie and coffee cake at a cute coffee shop we usually meet at, and lastly, we shopped at the Giant Tiger on Monday for something I was told is sold there. We said our goodbyes, but on my way to getting a taxi at the office, I thought about our friendship and how close we had become...I don't remember how we met, but even if I tried, I could never forget her...
Tuesday night reminded me that I need to keep away from St.John's...I had to translate for someone who ended up at emergency...I spent 11 pm to 6 am at the hospital, went home for a short nap and got up at 10 for work...wonderful
This means I can't go to Ottawa on July 6th, as I will be at the court, translating for the harmless, five-foot-tall mother and her even funnier six-foot, twirly-moustache-wearing husband who looks like he just stepped out of the set of a Bollywood movie...or maybe an italian mafia documentary [this latter one is less convincing of his innocence].
On Friday, just before I headed out to Ottawa, I was almost late to the airport, as my coworker just left the organization we work in, so I applied for her job and got it. It's a great upgrade, as I will be earning 1.5 times more than I earned earlier. I didn't get a chance to learn much about the responsibilities of the new upgrade, but it can't be anything too hard to learn. I imagine it will be a transition step.
Two and a half hours of leafing through Air Canada's travel mag and a reading of "Can You Keep A Secret?" later, I found myself in Ottawa, excited that I was finally seeing Adam. The night before coming to town, I had received an e-mail from him asking if I still wanted to meet him, as I had, as he said, not been in touch as much as I perhaps should have been. This was slightly strange for me, as I had thought that he had been avoiding me...I was already pissed off as it was, as I hadn't really heard from him in a while. So I wrote a one-liner and said that yes, I still want to see him.
Coming down the escalator of the Ottawa airport arrivals was strange. I was looking for Adam in the crowd, hoping to see the familiar face somewhere in the crowds of anxious Ottawans waiting for their friends, husbands, fathers, brothers. As I noticed him in the crowd, it was almost as if I had done something wrong, something unmentionable. Adam looked tired, exhausted even, and not in the least happy. I smiled, but as I did, my smile filled me with regret, unexplainable actions peering out of me. I wasn't in the least surprised that he would act this way, but I was hurt somehow.
I asked immediately if everything was ok, only to be met with a strange response that required further explanations. As we waited for my luggage piece, I looked at him and how much I had missed him. His new haircut, new reading glasses, the evident loss of weight made me think of how much he had changed and with time, so did our interactions. We found his green Aztek Pontiac [I was impressed with the choice of colour for the car] in the giant parking lot. As we drove, he gave me a box of things he had collected for me in the last few months, including a Turkish, Anatolian-style pillow that he had bought after he returned from Montreal, where he and I had been shopping for a winter scarf for me. My choice of colours for the scarf had reminded him of me when he came across the pillow.
In the box, a dictaphone, which he had bought after coming back from Montreal the first time we had met, after finding out my dead iPod had stopped working [so I couldn't do any voice recording for an interview, a requirement for my Sociology course], a book he had told me about, a few buttons in different languages saying "I am loved", some toys, meeting distractions, etc. I was surprised, moved by this caring gesture, unable to say much. The truth was, I was moved by the fact that Adam had taken the time to collect all these small pieces of conversations we'd had, artifacts of our friendship.
We had a long discussion on Friday night. It was mainly my objections to Adam's values, his work ethic, the distance between us that triggered his reactions. We went to Dunn's for a later dinner, where I had a burnt steak and fries. Adam had French toast breakfast. Ottawa was warm at 11 pm.
We went back to the B&B I was staying in and, as we entered the door, were met by Brian [the owner]'s dog Chelsea and, immediately after that, Brian himself, who was curious to meet Adam. He concluded Adam and I were boyfriends and I didn't say much, but rather agreed to go with the story. I didn't feel like clarifying. We went up and spent our last night together.
The next morning, after breakfast, I met up with Denis and his friend Mauricio. We soon thereafter headed to the city two hours away. Mauricio was quiet while we drove, giving off the impression of someone who either 1/is hungover or 2/is antisocial, or 3/doesn't know me well, thus keeps quiet. This only lasted for a couple of hours and the shyness disappeared as the day wore off and as we visited three gay strip bars in an attempt to expose M to as much gayness as possible...
We also went on a bus tour of Montreal. We met up with Bee and said hi to la Patronne which was one of the highlights of the day. We had desserts and nachos, updated each other on the last two months, walked around the block and finally headed back to Ottawa at around 11:30 pm, only to get lost on the highway. Finally, M saved the day and we were on our way to la capitale...I fell asleep in the back on Denis's lap. As we approached my bed & breakfast, I dreaded having to say goodbye...
I came into my room, headed for the bed and put the pillow next to me...the rough, thorny fabric softened shortly after i laid my cheek on it...
The rest of the weekend involved pizza dinnfer outing and chat with Renee and her friend Juanita. I was impressed with Renee's apartment. I was amused by the fact that she likes Asian decor, but not necessarily visiting Asia. I shared the stories of my clients and the stories of misunderstanding and plain silliness with her.
Gina, who was slightly distressed about the food we had at an Asian resto, spent all of Monday with me. We did our traditional Chapters book-shopping and book review stories, had cheesecake brownie and coffee cake at a cute coffee shop we usually meet at, and lastly, we shopped at the Giant Tiger on Monday for something I was told is sold there. We said our goodbyes, but on my way to getting a taxi at the office, I thought about our friendship and how close we had become...I don't remember how we met, but even if I tried, I could never forget her...
Tuesday night reminded me that I need to keep away from St.John's...I had to translate for someone who ended up at emergency...I spent 11 pm to 6 am at the hospital, went home for a short nap and got up at 10 for work...wonderful
