Down Together

So for us, this was the return of the king.

I left my house early yesterday morning with sleep in my eyes, worry in my brain and hope in my heart. I rolled down the snow-lined QEW towards Toronto with Bright Eyes on the stereo and the heater cranked, eating a donut from Tim Horton’s and singing when I knew the words. After a nice conversation with Kendall Hall’s mom and a brief detour to the Royal Ontario Museum to allow Kristine Kozicki the chance to drop off her sister’s apartment key, the three of us were on our way.

I’m not much of a driver. I can manage the “not hitting people” part and the whole “steering” thing, but when it comes to finding my way from Point A to point B, I generally end up somewhere in Dimension X with Krang and those crazy neutrino kids with the flying car. So when I proposed to drive Kendall, Kristine and myself to York University, it was with a ton of worry that I’d end up somewhere in Northern Quebec with nothing but a silver mini-van and two angry girls who are both deceptively strong. But we were all desperate to see our pal and my former roommate John William Blakeley who sadly departed the University of King’s College last year to chase love across three provinces.

So did we make it? Therein lies the SUSPENSE.

First, there’s the sole picture of the exciting PHILOSOPHY PARTY Josh, Kendall, Kristine and I went to a couple of weeks back. We didn’t know anybody and sat alone in another room while everyone else played cards. It was very philisophical. Sort of a comment on God and the universe and the inherent loneliness of man. Or something. We each had a beer.

Second, here is a picture of Radical Bay don and the future Mr. Kozicki (Or is that Mr. Hall?) Steve Fabian, whose birthday party made everyone so very happy. All the dons were there and we all had exams so it was kind of a short-lived thing, but we learned about the good Mr. Fabian’s days as a badass customs officer so I think it was worth it.

Thirdly, it dawns on me that everyone is at home now and thus probably won’t have the bandwidth to view these pictures because everyone seems to be on dial-up so I should probably just stop this update now! I mean, really, we saw Steve Fabian and a philosophy party, what else is there after THAT?

Oh, right.

York University exists in the part of Toronto I like to refer to as “The Middle of NOWHERE” and the whole campus is typified by this giant sculpture which looks way too much like a swastika. We arrived with a flourish, parking seemingly at random and greeting John William Blakeley with hugs, some of which resulted in serious injury (Hope your knee feels better, Kristine!). After conversation and food, we set out to pretend we were at class because what else does one do at an institution such as York?

The radiant (but still FRIEND-STEALING) Jess had departed a while earlier, but that still didn’t stop us from hanging out in her room.

When you look at this picture, you may see what appears to be a crotch. But what you’re actually seeing is November of last year, gloriously brought back to life through a rising tide of nostalgia and the burning desire for when we were great. It’s glorious. The memory, I mean. Not the crotch. Well, maybe the crotch. Don’t judge me.

It was then time for a dance party, and dance dance dance we did. The stirring notes of “Down Together” by The Refreshments followed by our favourite “Mr. Jones” by Counting Crows led to us getting a noise complaint from the guy next door, but collectively we regret nothing. Because to regret the funk is to deny the funk and for us, the funk must always be.

Hey, check it out, it’s John’s friend Ali and what’s that object you can sort of see on the left? Why, it’s a matress but wait, why would someone have a matress at the top of a stairwell?

Oh no, this isn’t good at all! Who would have thought riding a vinyl matress down the stairs would result in INJURY? Only a true psychic could have seen this ending in disaster.

Fortunately, after just a little grimacing, John William made it to his feet and flashed the thumbs up. And vowed never to perform such a reckless act again — until he got back up the stairs, and did it again, this time with much less injury and much more happiness! Not wanting to be left out, our new friend Janet took a ride as well, resulting in one of the best facial expressions I’ve seen captured on film.

After all that near-injury, our next event HAD to involve All Day Breakfast and so we set out, with JW, Ali and Janet in pajamas for added enjoyment! Our first obstacle was having no idea where to find a 24-hour Breakfast place, so I ended up driving all the way to the Golden Griddle at Yonge and Eglington, which is quite a trek, but by this point I was the best damn driver in Ontario so it went very smoothly. The restaurant was a little drafty, but I don’t think John William felt it at all.

The waitress was overworked, but nice, snapping a nice group picture of us, and getting us some good food, to boot.

I’m going to let you go through the rest of the pictures yourself, as it’s getting late, and I have a busy schedule to keep. I could go on for paragraphs, as the night continued. We arrived at York at around noon on Monday, December 15 and left at around 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, December 16, and as Kendall, Kristine and I got into that silver mini-van again, as dead tired as well are, we still didn’t want to have to go.

The last picture in this set is just black. Though it wasn’t on purpose, I think it’s appropriate. It was a great time, a great day and a great experience, and when it was over, and John drove to that airport again to once more take him out of our lives for far too many months, it was sad.

But at least there were a lot of hugs.

View these until you can’t take anymore

Matt