Interlude Between Months

Adeline and Steve during Painting Day

Ramblings

Ok, maybe I am getting a bit restless. I finally got out of the house, other than simply biking. I drove somewhere, parked, and went into a building. Williams street cafe is my local favourite, but they had unexpectedly closed early. This leads to me walking down king street, all half-kilometre, to the other cafe, Coffee culture. It’s actually a pretty cool place; formerly a bank, they converted it to a massive cafe with bronze, stamped ceiling tiles.

Adeline's Papa putting in the Potlights

I had a pretty bushy, unkempt beard that made me look like a crazy traveller. Keyword: had. I used to trim around parts of the neck and keep it semi-orderly, but once you pass the precipice of mountain man, why bother even trimming it? I think I kept it, trying to maintain the traveller identity while stuck in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. A way to keep the momentum going. I thought that if I wanted to keep the beard for the wedding, I’d have to domesticate it. This would require trimming.

I’m terrible at this sort of thing, particularly because the sheers I have only come in the length I want on a slanted attachment. You know the thing you attach on the end to make sure it’s all a certain length? Usually the entire thing, left to right, is straight, with all the teeth of equal size and length. The one I want to use is not like that, it’s slanted. I’m guessing for the sides of your head? Anyway, I tried using that. Predictably botched results.

Adeline's Broseph Priming

I can be a bit of a shithead with a bunch of inside jokes. Since I messed up my beard, the only logical decisions is to pick the most hilarious facial hair in existence: The moustache. Like, who wears a moustache? who, just one day, looks themselves in the mirror and thinks “you know what this needs? a small line of hair above my lip. That space just below my nose seems a little barren. This will complete the look.” To me, it kind of reminds me of the accessory they give to fathers in cartoons.

 You know how cartoon character’s moms will usually have something to denote their gender, the mom's is usually a purse, maybe a flower hat, maybe a dress. The man's would be the moustache, or old-timey hat. I thought the idea of wearing one of those daddy caps after having a kid would be hilarious. The very same day you start wearing that hat was because you became a father. Something inside flipped a switch. Hat: No becomes  Hat: Very yes. Anyway, I messed up my beard and am left with an even shoddier moustache. I curved it slightly better than I had in the past, so it looks like I might actually want it. I am too lazy to use straight edges. That is, I was, until today. Now, freshly shaven, moustache all-the-more prominent, I parade down King street, telling myself that I’m the shit and everyone wants the ‘stache. Men alternate between swearing under their breath for having shaved that day, and cursing the heavens at the top of their lungs. Women weep for never having the ability to grow such a fine moustache themselves. Delusional? Oh, most definitely. More entertaining afternoon? Absolutely.

First Green Veg Juice

Imagine for a moment that you hate children. Can’t stand the sound of them, and would rather you never came across any prepubescent, uh, “person” again. I’ve decided that persona is the one I will play with if anyone calls me out on having this terrible moustache. It’s even slightly patchy on one side because I absentmindedly pulled some whiskers out while thinking.* Anyway, If someone gives me a hard time about the beard, I'm going to say I went for the most pedophilic image I could muster so that people would instinctively keep their children the hell away from me. I’ll let you know how it goes the next time I see a person.**

While writing this, I got back in touch with English Andy from the Hostel. He made his world tour fairly well, ran out of money and had to cut the USA leg of the trip a bit shorter than he’d hoped. I think he said 2 months shorter. I said that I had been experimenting with other, less conventional ways of making money, and that I might have to go back to work at Tim Hortons again because it’s just a source of income.  “Don’t go backwards,” I said, probably muttered while staring into a pint, “I’ve just got my old job back and feels like I’ve done nothing with my life[…] Like it’s all been a dream." That’s the sort of feeling that I’m trying to fight against with the beard, or not settling back into old ways. Fighting them tooth and nail. Fighting the intangible isn't nearly as satisfying as fighting the physical.

One thing Chatham has in abundant supply

It’s so easy to fight the physical. Maybe that’s the sort of appeal for me of comic books, where the solution to a lot of problems seems to simply be hitting it. Bad guy, boom, solved. Of course they go deeper than that, but it’s hardly ever that easy in real life. Arguably, it’s never that easy if one wants to take the high ground. I think the listless anger in reaction to being directionless seeps back in every now and again. The problem with slow, gradual change, is that it’s almost impossible to detect before it’s too late. Boiling Frogs - for better or worse.

Busting out the ol' Espresso Machine
before an awkward conversation

I think I’m coming close to entering a Golden Zone, again. Like that period when I was working at the Paella place, eating a ton of veg, and working out regularly. Exercise? Check. Food? Check. Reading? Check. Doing semi-meaningful work? Check. Except the repetitive setbacks and subsequent overcoming, it’s all on the up. That may be a powerful tool I took home from Australia: How to hijack my upward spiral and push myself forward from the rut I was falling into. As it’s been said: lose momentum and you’re toast. This paragraph seems out of place, but is fitting to kind of portray the line between purposeful meaning and despair.

Anyway, these are the semi-stir-crazed, built-up ideas that I felt like putting to paper. I took a day off but felt the need to put metaphoric pen to paper to express some of the non-day related ideas. I have a list of things I wanted to write about, but didn’t because I wanted to stay on topic, coherent, and only tie things in that were semi-relevant, all without writing a full-length essay. Yes, this length is me holding back.

P.S. There's another Intro to Mandarin post set to release tomorrow.

Editing Music: Perfect Day by The Constellations

*Doesn’t hurt as much as you’d think

**I'm actually ok with kids, no hate here. Mild annoyance, maybe sometimes.