Runaway Future

So here’s my Buffalo trip story. I’ll post pictures sometime later on MSN Space or something. I have Murf’s pictures already, mine are being developed (note to self, get a digital camera).

We left at like 6. At a truck stop in Sackville, we came across a hand dryer called the X-Lerator. It was basically a motion activated jet engine strapped on the wall. It was an amazing piece of machinery. Back on the road, New Brunswick goes by fast.

Then we hit the border. We have clementines, a definite no no (it’s citrus, which is illegal in the scurvy ridden USA). So we’re asked to go inside while they search the vehicle, drug dog and all. They try to do the whole intimidating thing, not letting us walk around, trying to scare us. The head guy comes back from search the car with a can of soup. Chunky Soup. Chunk Beef Stew. Made in Canada. With Canadian Beef. For Fucks Sake. So then they have the audacity to ask us if we were trying to sneak this can of soup across the border. Yeah, that’s right. Anyway, apparently because they’re nice guys we didn’t get the ‘usual’ $100 fine. Thanks!

So Maine and Mass. are huge and take forever. We pulled over on the Interstate (which according to the sign, isn’t allowed) to take pictures of ourselves in front of the welcome to New York sign. Somewhere around noon, we finally make it to Buffalo. Go to some huge mall and drop off Aretha. Make it to the Hostel and drop off our stuff. Drive out to the football stadium and I buy a hat and toque. Jarrett drops down about 700 bucks on assorted Bills merchandaise. Jeepers

They sell beer in convience stores in the States, so Murf buys a bunch of Canadian (Imported beer!) and we sneak it into the Hostel to drink before the hockey game. The game is only a few blocks from the hostel, but there’s a free train/trolley to it anyway. Get out seats, and despite being way high up, we can see everything perfectly. Instantly become heroes in our section because we drove 18 hours for the hockey game. Sabre and Leaf fans alike, they love us. Leafs win 4-1

There’s a Leaf pep rally in the lobby of the HSBC arena. A lot of yelling Leaf fans, the legend of the Nova Scotians grows and grows. I buy a Buffalo hat and one of the new Ducks hats. We walk back to the Hostel (fuck the trolley, Mr. Rogers). In bed by 12. We sleep. A lot. And then the next day begins. The Hostel isn’t bad. It’s like a dorm, we have bunk beds, but a room for just the four of us. There’s seperate floors for males and females. Kinda wished we could of spent time there longer. Some sort of mutual community feeling going on. Kitchen/Bath/Lounge all provided. Apparently the Buffalo Hostel is one of the best in the world.

Anyway, next day starts and we get breakfast. Head to the football stadium, traffic is insane. We find a parking spot and start drinking the beers. Walk to the stadium, past the tailgate party (which we missed for the most part). Watched two guys do frightening things to a guy dressed up as the Geico gecko. Got to our seats, once again way high up. It’s a beautiful day and super warm. Bills win the game, we are once again legends to most of the folks around us. They stop serving beer at the half, which sucks. Some military guy was going to give me one of his beers, but his girlfriend claimed it instead. There’s fights in the stands and dozens of police milling about. Takes us forever to get out of the area.

We pick up Aretha at the HSBC and head home. A few wrong turns and we’re on our way. We hit snow in Maine, along with a great song called Beer! by Psychosticks and Gays, a great Maine jewelry store (radio advertisement: Gays : hard to find, but worth the effort). Seriously, who makes ads like that? Anyway, the Canadian border police don’t check the car/don’t check ID/anything.

Snow gets worse as we go through New Brunswick. The car in front of us suddenly does a 360 and ends up in the ditch. We stop (the heroes that we are) and push the car out of the ditch. A little ways up the road, the car does it again. Luckily she saves herself and doesn’t land in the ditch. We hightail it out of there and eventually make it home. Damn, Buffalo is a long ways away.

I hung out with Derek and Murf last night for the first time since coming back. Taking a break from them for a while after the trip was a good idea. Now that I have a major roadtrip under my belt, I kinda want to do something again. I was thinking of going to Alberta next spring, but who knows. Cost has a lot to do with any plans. Chris and I jokingly looked at the round-the-world tickets and where we would go. The book I’m reading right now and the next one in my pile are both about roadtrips to some degree. Even the Jack Kerouac journals are along the same lines. The whole idea of escape is appealing. Maybe not escape, just a change of scenary.

…

I joined Facebook because I was invited. I currently have four friends and I haven’t talked to any of them in at least a month. So begins my foray into the social networking phenomena. I already have a hi5 account that I barely pay attention to, so might as well get a Facebook one as well. I just can’t see myself using anything like that to meet people or really anything at all. I guess I don’t really meet new people at all. I don’t think I’m mature enough for the working crowd and I sometimes have a hard time relating to the school crowd due to my different priorities. Stuck in the middle I guess. For me, the use of these sites is to catch up with people I haven’t heard from in a while.

…

I have complained before about my fellow apartment building residents being overly friendly. But I’m starting to understand and accept it more. My building is solely one bedroom apartments and bachelors, which means the whole building is populated, by single people, couples without children and elderly folk. Basically that means there’s a lot of people living on their own here. Which in turn indicates why there’s people talking in the elevator, making conversation in the laundry room, the old guys that hang out in the lobby and yell at traffic. There’s a lot of lonely people here. That’s almost comforting.

…

Everytime I cross the empty lot/parking lot where the hospital used to be on the way home, I have a tendency to look up. It’s one of the only places in Halifax where you can really see the sky. Like all the sky. Except for Gerard Hall, all the buildings are small or far enough away that you just see clouds or stars or whatever. It’s really similar to the Pit/Baseball field in the North End that we used to walk down to get home from college. I would assume the Commons are the same idea. Forget green spaces, big sky areas are where it’s at.
It’s hot in my apartment, like 25 degrees. I don’t even have the heat on. Guess that won’t be a problem over the winter?

I played soccer with the Locals on Friday. I like soccer.