an excellent day

Today has been absolutely splendid. It started off in the morning when I discovered that a couple of women from PlentyofFish are at least interested enough in me to bother contacting me. It's damned nice to finally have some real confirmation that there are people out there who care that much. It does wonders to lift away that hopeless sense of getting absolutely nowhere for all my troubles.

Things only got better from there. I went to Erindale University for what turned out to be an alumni festival. We ended up spending the majority of time in the beer tasting event at the new Blind Duck pub. The new pub is certainly a far better facility than the cozy portable I remember so fondly. The bar is topped with stone and the inside is far more spacious. We met some fellow graduates there but nobody we knew from our own time there. Having that happen would be a pretty awesome stroke of luck. Despite that, it was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

The amount of change which has taken place on that campus during the eleven years since I've been on it is such that I don't have any sense of familiarity at all. The pub was where it first hit home for me. However, after an excellent five-dollar dinner, we went for an impromptu wander. Everything sounded different. Space that was once outdoors was now inside. There's a swimming pool right near the entrance to the south building. It's profoundly strange stepping into what I knew as a main building on campus and smelling clorine rather than food or that smell otherwise common to such buildings. I'd need to start from absolute scratch if I ever needed to re-orient myself with the place.

This trip was the first really different thing I've done with friends in quite some time and it felt wonderful. We went afterwards to a Country Style Donut shop where I covered our leisurely after-dinner treets. Both Mark and Wendy had been on separate trips. Those plus my own upcoming adventure south of the border plus life in general gave us plenty to talk about. Tomorrow is looking like another interesting day. There's a social barbecue after church. That should hopefully provide an opportunity to meet some more people. Perhaps, this week, I'll finally begin to make some real progress on at least one short story. I've got to really take advantage of these times when I'm feeling more connected and up-beet. Well, it's inching towards eleven o'clock. I'm going to catch up with email before turning in for the night.