Toronto

Toronto was awesome, since I did too much to write it all out I'll use bullets to cover the highlights:
*Hitchhiking, including riding in an awesome chrome truck
*Food not Bombs at an awesome skate house called Soybomb
*Really Really Free Market in Kensington Market
*Scamming public transit
*PWYC vegan brunch
*zombie walk
*realizing everyone is vegan in Toronto (Chibi was happy very about this)
*sleeping on the most comfortable legs ever on the ride share back to MTL
*Staying at Awkward House with awesome people
*Getting a facial
*watching a bad chick flick
*dumpstering and then making apple sauce
*being that rad house guest/traveler kid
*looking dirty in a clean cut city
*impressing school kids by standing at the side of the road with a sign
*getting a stack of zines and punk CDs for free
*just generally hanging out with Chibi
*Talking about anarchist scenes in NY, MTL and TO
*Getting a bike rack for $10
*exploring a new city
*meeting awesome peeps

FnB Saturday

Last Saturday was Food not Bombs, it's been started up again by Igs and Ool at the coop. We served outside nearby, but it wasn't much of a success, we ate most of the food and only two people hung out to eat with us. One was a dude in a red jacket that I didn't talk to much and another was a traveller guy who was from BC. After a while we realized we were just standing in the cold, so we packed up and moved back to the coop to eat and chill and do dishes...
Me and Igs were supposed to go to a show but headaches on her part as well as distance and the lack of a bike which pushed us in the direction of watching movies and staying in, Trainspotting was pretty cool, less gross and disturbing than I expected, Afro Ninja: Destiny, a hilarious kung fu comedy which is based on the infamous youtube clip.

fixin bikes, watching movies and talking life

Yesterday was good times, took a nap and hung out at home, later got a call from Kiwi and we met up to fix up bikes which didn't end up doing much for her). Turns out there's a community bike shop less than two blocks from where I live, which is convenient since Kiwi works in a different part of the same building. Kiwi was messing with her chain and I just gave a tune up to my bike (tightening brakes, cleaning and lubing chain etc...).
We finished up with our bikes and headed to Cinema Politica to watch a movie about an Argentinian community's resistance (and victory!) against Canadian mining interests that would poison their water for miniscule amounts of gold. Smoothest ride ever with functional brakes and air filled tires.
We got back home and made some pasta (yea, I got pasta now) with vegetables and just when we finished eating and had taken out the nut strudel (we being Kiwi, Kunoichi, DJ and myself) guess who walks in? None other than Rainbow!
We sat and ate nut studel and talked about the fucked up things happening in/to the world, kinda depressing, we kinda transitioned afterward to more not sad things and of course Kunoichi told some fun stories.
Waking up early sucks when people sleep over...

Oh also, I'm probably going to Toronto with Chibi via thumb this weekend :)

eggs, punks, feelings

I dumpstered soo many eggs, no really like,probably 90 something of them! All from the supermarket dumpster.
Went to a show last night, it was good times, Igs showed up late and then after her TKJ and Rainbow showed as well it was great. Cerebral Ballzy played, their some band from Brooklyn which was nice. After the show we hung out in the bar that is also part of the venue, some underground probably illegal bar that's awesome to just sit around in.
Talked to Ithaca a bit online, nothing too special just updating each other, I always feel a bit strange/sad after talking to her. Like I want us to be friends, but I don't want to feel shitty at the same time I don't want to abandon the whole thing, iunno...
Stuff is strange for her I think.

roofs and beds

Yesterday I went to class and the to the potato to eat Kiwi met me there and totally threw off TKJ by kissing me in front of him. Igs was there a bit later and we all ate together.
After food me and Kiwi hit the roof, hung out there a bit and avoided detection by someone who we didn't identify, and then parted ways. We met later and returned home (some people I bike crazy), the best part was holding hands while riding without holding the handlebars (well until a car honked at us, then it was just funny).
At home we hung with the cats and Kunoichi and just talked until we moved to my room and watched internets and wasted time and messed around and talked about life and stayed up late, and finally fell asleep.

Long ass night

The original plan was to go to see Vibesquad at Belmont, but that's not what happened, I just got home from a long ass night*. Started by messing around on youtube with my roomies before heading to my friend's house party as a pre-Vibesquad thing, that was okay for a bit, I was with DJ and NJ (a roomie of mine) when I got there and we met up with Igs and her friend. The party was at Pines' place so I caught up with him. We hung out a bit and talked before leaving to see Vibesquad.
Only to find out that the show was cancelled because they didn't get past immigration. We hopped bars for a while but everything sucked, we ended up dumpstering at pharmaprix and heading back to the apartment, DJ was already there because he thought the night was dead zone. While we thought of things to do he left the house to go home. We looked online for punk shows and good parties but to no avail. We were getting ready to call it a night when we got a call from DJ he walked past the Vibesquad venue on his way home and there was a sign on the door with the location of another party meant to replace the Vibesquad one. We looked up the address realized it was super close and headed out.
While we walked we ran into DJ who was waiting and we hung out with this girl who was being chased by her skateboarder friend. Once we got to the warehouse, the show was $3 which is good considering I expected to pay $5. We walked in and started dancing...
We danced a shit ton, ran into a bunch of people we knew and had a good time. We left a bit after all the music finished and just hung out outside the place for a while until a friend invited us all to chill at this huge loft as a sort of after party, we walked a bit and got to this industrial neighborhood (I tore up my shorts hopping a fence for fun), their loft was in a big old institutional looking building and it was huge.
It was a DIY place in that they had built their own mezzanine, had to use hotplates and shit for their kitchen and basically where living in an office space under some type of business permit they were working on. Met a few cool peeps there, some of whom had seen me around apparently. We all chilled there until like 5ish in the morning then decided to head home, 'cept Igs and her friend we left before them...
Got home, Kunoichi was up, kinda traumatized from seeing something stupid and terrible go down in the street, we stayed up a bit to give some comfort and just hang (while I sewed up my torn shorts).
As soon as she left and NJ left the room, I fell fast asleep...

*I started writing this last night at around 6AM

transfolk and trouble

legal trouble in the past, it's over now and I'm good to go, was a close call though...
Thanksgiving was super awesome, hung with roomies and guests and friends at DJ's house and we ate a ton of foods. A cat came by and hung out, apparently she does that on and off. Later I went to a party at Rainbow's house which is this awesome trans/queer friendly house. Danced it up, dressed genderfuck and generally had a good time hanging out and meeting people. Came home late as shit and when I woke up was told we have two new kittens woop woop!
Also Kiwi came by the other night and we hung out and watched Pickaxe, a documentary about the Cascadia free state and anti-logging actions. She left the next morning but couldn't meet up for parkour because she had to meet people and stuffs. I went to Olympic Stadium with Chibi (she used to live at the house before I moved in) and met up with some activist kids and we did some parkour for a few hours, before heading home for thanksgiving.

misinterpretation

Talking to Ithaca progressed as the day continued, it all seemed good until I got a poem from her, she wrote it herself.
Some context, after explaining the story of everything that happened with me and Ithaca to Barracuda I kinda realized that I had been in an abusive relationship, I didn't want to call it such, because I didn't want to be a survivor, I didn't want to call Ithaca a perpetrator. I guess I knew it but just didn't want to admit it to myself, anyways what happened happened, can't change the past...
Anyways, back to the poem, it was basically Ithaca saying that she was abusive mostly, but a small part explained how she coped with treating me badly; by viewing me badly and the way it was described was way more than I could take. I took it as a personal attack and felt really shitty, I went to Banana (a roomie of mine) and cried and told her about it, and she's the one that made me see that it wasn't written with malicious intent (Ithaca hadn't explained this to me and didn't want to talk about it...) it made less shitty feeling.
I told Ithaca my new interpretation in an email, I hope it's correct and she didn't see me as a disgusting person...

Ghosts of Boyfriends past or something like that...

Today, I dumpstered a ton of couscous and two melons and apple strudel and I cut my hair. However I wanna write about me talking to Ithaca. We spoke a bit online and it was much easier than I expected and kinda a relief at the same time.
Turns out we felt a lot of the same things, we missed each other, we were unhappy because the other seemed happy (clearly we're stalking each other online). She's taking a short vacation to NB with her boss and his wife, seems healthy for her, like the father she never had.
She appreciated that I took care of her and was nice and realizes that she focused on a lot of small annoying things (not gonna deny that I did lots of small annoying things). I wanna keep in touch.
It wasn't as hard as scary as I thought it would be, was scary in the approach but I'm glad at where I am.

Too much for a single title

Probably the best weekend ever, way too many ridiculous things happened. Spent most of it with Igs. I'll start on Thursday. After eating some food at the Potato with Igs we decided to spend time in the greenhouse and try to check out the roof, her friend from geography was there, we all went up to the top part of the roof, this time a worker wasn't there so we didn't have to sneak away. Free roam to the top of the roof! We found this strange structure that can't seem to serve any purpose other than being a hot tub and steam room. We climbed to the top and hung out in the steam, then we opened a small door on the side and removed our shoes socks and/or pants and got in the water, which was super warm. After a long while we came out and got our stuff back on (we were soaked) and went back inside for a bit only to go back up later with a different friend and hang out in the steam. We went to a group meeting, ate nachos and were very bored. to make up for it we ran into a friend, shoplifted and ate a tub of ice cream and hung out in the back room of Frigo Vert until we all biked home in the rain or went to class.
Friday, waking up was shitty, I always want to sleep more, but totally worth getting up. I packed my towel and swim trunks and biked out to meet Igs at Concordia. We went up to the roof and were very disappointed to discover our secret hot tub was cold and very not steamy. However the fact that we already had come with out stuff for the sole purpose of hanging out in some body of water was enough motivation to try to find some substitute.
We tried to get on to the roof of a nearby building but only ran into locked doors, office buildings are hard to blend into with mohawks, dirty clothes and dreadlocks...
We walked around downtown looking for a hotel with a roof pool that we heard about but instead found an outdoor pool protected by a small fence. We kept in mind the location and went to eat at the potato scheming to return and re-appropriate for our own hedonistic desires, which of course is totally okay since, no one was using the pool anyways.
After a quick (free, vegan) meal I put my swim shorts on under my shorts and we set out to swim. Once there we opened the gate, jumped in the water and had the best swim of our lives, except not because the water was freezing cold and the shower room locked and under construction, while we rushed our towels and began to dry off, a security guard asked us what we were up to, "we're leaving, it's too cold to swim..."
We walked back to Concordia barefoot with only towels to cover us, people smiled.
Rhizome is another coop, not too long ago we had decided to go there, we stopped at my house and the coop and the pharmaprix dumpster before getting there. The dumpster stop of course resulted in our eating some rice before heading to Rhizome. While we were biking toward Rhizome we passed a train yard and rode along side it and felt very inspired, the trains moved so slowly you could walk to keep up with it. The trains were so close we could almost wipe the grime off them.
After getting lost a bit we found Rhizome and hung out there a bit. There was a workshop, and a drunk guy talking about apple picking and a community lighter and a huge library with all kinds of zines and books about politics and diy and all that, we spent a good chunk of time sitting in there talking about becoming radicalized.
Before leaving Rhizome they coopers there gave us these small cards, buy 4 get a 5th coffee/tea/hot chocolate free cards for a certain chain convenience store, with three rows and the first four coffees stamped off, they had stolen a stack of them and probably would drink free hot chocolate forever.
On the way back we stopped and checked out a train yard, and almost got caught writing on on trains. We biked out after that, but got kicked out when we were about to leave anyways. Was a close call since I think my name is on their security file and they gave me warning a while ago.
Back at the coop we planned to attend a punk show and found a free one. However, Ool was going to a party in the West Island and she wanted us to come with her. The distance issue was remedied with a car, and we were assured that we would return in time to see the punk show. On the way to the party we stopped a certain chain convenience store to get beer, me and Igs decided this would a great time to grab a stamp to go along with our little cards. The party itself was okay, we were the dirtiest kids there, so we danced and were soon joined by a lot of others. It wasn't enough, we wanted to flail and be wild and loose and unrestricted by slow music or social norms. We took some cookies on the way out and rocked out in the car all the way back to the coop and then all the way to the punk show.
The band was setting up when we got there and for the first few songs people mostly nodded their heads but after a few we started a mosh and went crazy. We left after they finished playing and people went to the car, Ool, Igs and I decided to walk home which was awesome because we saw/painted a painted van, ate free food from the trash, tabled dived, danced in an awesome bar and danced to buskers music.
Finally got back to the coop. We though we'd go to sleep but me and Igs ended up checking the internet and the next thing we knew we were on the roof hoping to see a sunrise. Of course the weather was cold and the sun was slow so we never saw it break the horizon because we wanted to sleep and all that.
It's Saturday, I told people I'd teach them parkour, I didn't want to get out of bed, not enough sleep, not enough energy. Nothing motivates better than a promise of free scammed hot chocolate however. Igs and I walked to a certain chain convenience store and got two hot chocolates for free, one left handed one scammed, tried to left hand some kinder eggs but they were noticed and I played it off that we didn't want to buy them anymore.
As we walked back to the coop, we passed a restaurant were a ton of people were talking over food that was probably getting cold. Shortly after discussing this situation we were sitting at a nearby table with more leftover food than we were able to eat. Best breakfast ever.
Parkour was good times, I was teaching QKF a friend I met the week before, later in the day Kiwi showed up as well. We trained, walls were run up, hands bled, grass was rolled on etc...
On the bike ride home me and Kiwi talked about what you wanted, and poly and feelings and relationships. Good talk to have, especially if most of it takes place while we ride bikes. Looks like there's room for me to regain my ridiculous amount of self confidence/self-esteem and see someone casually at the same time.
Picked up gear at the coop, went home, wasted time, went back to the coop for their party. It was kinda suck, me and Igs and Bum (who had came to the party) left to TKJ's house but he wasn't there and the party there was kinda lame. We almost snuck into a church party be realized we were ridiculously underdressed and decided against it because we'd stick out like sore thumbs.
We ended up checking out an underground venue where we found out there wasn't any shows happening, however we ended spending hours there listening to music, eating pizza and listening to crazy stories with the owner, who was an old hippie.
Went back to the coop at 2.30 in the morning and milled about a bit before going to sleep.
Nothing too ridiculous today, just free food in the trash and a great appreciations of the sun.