ateolf | canadian o

the trip was pretty swell...Mary Beth and i left last saturday afternoon and got to Rochester late at night...let's see, sunday...i don't think we did much...on monday we went to House of Guitars and they have this horribly unorganized music store as well, but i picked up the new two disc deluxe edition of Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation...we also went swimming in Lake Ontario...it was my first time in a great lake...Mary Beth and i went to this public beach but it was crowded and the swimming area was roped off and it was lame so she guided us to this private residential beach elsewhere...and it was much better...i got to swim out farther than my feet could touch the bottom...unfortunately the lake's pretty dirty...i think i caught a cold in it...but wherever i caught the cold, i did catch a cold...the sore throat started creeping in later that evening and i think today is my first day pretty much over it...yesterday wasn't too bad either...but anyway...

tuesday we drove up to Toronto with her parents...Toronto seems pretty neat...let's see, later that evening Mary Beth, her sister Michelle, her boyfriend Steffan (sic?), and i went out to eat at some sushi place and we ate a ton of sushi...i even had a (small) taste of raw beef...the next day was Michelle's graduation...i'd been thinking i wasn't going to it, 'cuz there were limited tickets, but her aunt and uncle deferred it to me...i was a little worried (hey, i didn't even go to my own graduation) but it wasn't bad or nothin'...afterwards Mary Beth and Michelle and i wandered around for a bit...we ate lunch at some place that was good and i had pierogis...Mary Beth and i were going to get some borscht but the order didn't go through, but don't fret! circumstances later in the day offered a shocking twist to this story of disillusionment! Michelle went to do something and left Mary Beth and i at a used/overstock type bookstore for a while:

The Spider's House by Paul Bowles, A Confederate General from Big Sur/Dreaming of Babylon/The Hawkline Monster by Richard Brautigan (A Confederate General from Big Sur being a book i have on its own and have read, The Hawkline Monster being a book i've read but do not have, and the other i neither have nor have read...), An Unfortunate Woman by Richard Brautigan, Exterminator! by William S. Burroughs, Women as Lovers by Elfriede Jelinek, Palm-of-the-Hand Stories by Yasunari Kawabata, Cannibals and Christians by Norman Mailer, The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken, The Voyeur by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Snow by Orhan Pamuk, and Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

ooh then i got to ride on the subway and the streetcar (which is somewhat silly 'cuz it's built just like a bus...) later the whole present family and a few friends of Michelle's had dinner at this cajun place that was quite good...i had pickled okra for the first time and it was delicious...and their soup of the day was borscht for some reason so our borscht desires were satisfied after all, hoorah! and i had strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert...it totally stomped my ballz...well, the next day it was back to ol' america...going over it seems they'll just let anyone into canada...but coming back is much more of a pain...we didn't have any problems and were only with the customs dude for a minute, but the line is so backed up and takes forever...i'm sure with all that waiting not everyone is so lucky...

back in america, well, not too much else went on thurdsay evening...friday Mary Beth and i went back to the House of Guitar 'cuz i'd seen this neat turkish instrument the other day but it didn't have a price so i thought i'd at least see how much it was...$200, which i probably would have spent for it in memphis but as i would have to ship it as i couldn't take it on the plane that put it over how much i'd be willing to spend...then we went to the record store...i picked up John Coltrane: Live in Japan...4 discs, 6 tracks! i saw it the last time i was there months ago but passed it up 'cuz i guess i was getting other stuff but i got it this time, obviously...then we stopped by one of the used bookstores we'd been at before...the cheaper one...with maybe even the better selection...anyway, in spite of them closing and after the guy said "10 minutes left" i had to rush through the rest just to make it to the end, i got some stuffs:

Women with Men by Richard Ford, Interzone by William S. Burroughs, The Rebel by Albert Camus, American Journals by Albert Camus, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa, The Reivers by William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner, The Eternal Smile by Pär Lagerkvist, Barabbas by Pär Lagerkvist, The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence, All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, Six Records of a Floating Life by Shen Fu, Baltasar and Blimunda by José Saramago, The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain, and Between Time and Timbuktu or Prometheus-5 by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

not too much to report on the trip...we left on saturday afternoon again...we smuggled some more of Mary Beth's books back here in extra suitcases...she had an extra copy of Gödel, Escher, Bach: and Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter which she gave me...i'm sure i'm forgetting some details...like, how we went to big lots to see if i could find flip-flops for the swimming excursion as i didn't want sand in my shoes and there for $2 some cheap, uncomfortable Homer Simpson ones! (are flip-flops ever comfortable?) well, um...if i think of more trip details i'll share them later...

Dustin picked us up from the airport...he's moving...he has a new place...that's kind of a bummer...i mean, i was expecting it, but still...if anyone knows anyone looking for a place to live let me know...i talked to my mom and there was some weird news about my grandmother trying to drive herself to the emergency room and running into her next door neighbor's house, smashing in the wall, but she didn't receive much damage and continued to the hospital...a little complicated, but i don't think she was hurt in the accident...she's out of the hospital now, anyway...but it's pretty worrying that that happened...i don't guess there's too much else to say...go back to work tomorrow after a nice week away...ah well...