All of the young men in Stratford look the same. At least they all did on the day Mary and I were there. They're all ever-so-slightly stocky with short, spikey, blondish hair and black plastic glasses. They all sport a navy pea-coat and book bag.
I had forgotten that we kept seeing what we thought was the same dude everywhere we went. As we would turn a corner, the guy we just passed would be ahead. Of course it wasn't the same guy at all, rather Stratford is the village of the damned without the girls. That's all.
More Fanshawe?
At 2:00 am and at minus 200 degrees the only place to get coffee was to walk about half a kilometer down the street to the 24hr Tim Horton's. While the distance seemed rather short it felt as though each step was yet another light-year's distance from the warmth of the sun. The alternative was to drive but if we were going to go ahead and drive someplace, it was usually McDonald's. I remember driving with my friend Ail to the late-night drive through for winter ice-cream. We listened to AFI in her mom's minivan and I kept making fun of her for liking Good Charlotte. Thinking back I'm pretty sure she thought I had some kind of boner for her. I didn't. It seems that my friend-gender ratio is always about 3:1. Three female amigos for every 1 male amigo.
Once I was tricked into giving Ail a ride home. She lived almost an hour away on the other side of London. I have family over there that I did not see or speak with the entire time I lived in London.
I remember once being dragged along with Cynthia who had to go home and used Kat's car to do so. We were baffled that Kat's record collection included an unusual amount of black-metal and industrial tunes. It seemed very much the opposite to her outward appearance on a day to day basis. Speaking of which I also remember once going with Kat on a drive to her house to get something. Probably a tripod. She had a small navy-blue car and worked in Kitchener at a Tim Horton's when she wasn't at school. Years later she moved out west to Burnaby with her boyfriend. He once had a golf-club break off and impale him through the lung. Unfortunately for me, my stories never get that good. Going on quick fun rides seemed to be a highlight of the early millenial years. 2003 was a fine time for driving!
It was during this era of fast cars and loose women that the computer lab was moved outside of the secure and isolated photography zone and down the hallway past the fine arts and music industry arts studios. I remember a lot of us "photogs" were initially skeptical and even contemptuous at the idea of moving the lab away from the darkrooms and studio. This all changed when we realized three things: 1 - it was like 20 feet from the bus stop. 2 - there was mounted television with dvd player. and 3 - you could line up the chairs and then sleep on them like a narrow bed. I took advantage of all three on a regular basis.
I have vivid recollections of watching About a Boy, Donnie Darko, the animated Transformers movie and of course the early seasons of Futurama on dvd. I'm pretty sure I also brought in my copy of Logan's Run, the only dvd I owned at that point. It was a gift from Danny. I no longer own it, I wish I did.
Eventually by the next autumn school year the lab's eMacs would be replaced with our Macbooks. But in the magical winter of second year we still had the warm turquoise glow of the cheap plastic mac-monsters. For some reason we would all chat on MSN despite the fact that everyone was within 10 feet of each other. This was a time before texting and before the iPod too. I would have to drag three large CD cases with me everywhere. I was never without my silver Sony discman. Never.
Because we didn't have to write papers and the fact that we needed to be in the lab in order to work with Photoshop, Our small class was pretty tightly-knit. I think I was lucky to finish up my schooling in a place where I was able to be comfortable with other people. Previous to that time I had only ever spoke if there was an emergency or grading was involved. This was a good time, here is a goat in a sweater.
song of the day:
I love this goat in a sweater
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