things happening as of late

Some fun things:
*Seeing Crisis and other NY friends
*Driving down and hanging out in Burlington with Giggles and her roomie.
*Bringing my parents to a freegan (ugh I hate that word, read: dumpster diver) movie night where we saw two movies about dumpstering:
1- The Leftovers
2- Dive
The second was more cool than the first and connected a lot of issues, which I liked
*Going to Food not Bombs and running into the same people as I did, also talking about squatting in Oakland to this cool punk girl.
*Biking across the Manhattan Bridge!
*Hearing loud obnoxious people have loud obnoxious conversations on their cell phones in public places.
*Making stuff for Christmas (a buttflap for my sister, a bag for my mom, for my dad, a drum stick holder?)
*Hanging with family
*Helping out with the free store


Some shitty things include:
-my zipper getting stuck for long periods of time
-going to court
-(kinda) having a cell phone

Talked about my future with my parents a bit, and I'm probably gonna pursue learning permaculture to gain a skill of some sort that will last forever and can be used as work. I'm pretty happy with my craftiness at the moment. I've made a buttflap for my sister and it looks awesome, I'm working on a bag for my mom and I realized I can easily make stuff from trash and people like it. I'll probably make pouches and flaps and stuff and sell 'em on the mountain in the spring or give them to friends or something...
Looking forward to go to dumpster at Trader Joe's at some point before I leave.

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.

Sharing, do it!

Yea, gift economies, also anarchy in action, like mix them together outside of a dry politico-economics texts book:
Sunday, Food not Bombs, gift economy, share food. Hang out afterward for the meeting and discuss stuff that hasn't happened yet. Later that evening, head over to T's house (T is a guy I met at grub, who is an anarchist, ex squatter, dumpster diver etc...) to help set up the free store, yea yo, and there was a meeting in the news and more people want to know more about us. We're becoming somewhat of a big deal (ok maybe not that big of a deal but still though). It's a tent, with a lot of stuff in it here's the catch, it's all free! It's fun stuff, we talked about press, out reach and events and then just hung out. I talked to a guy who's been riding trains for ten years about trains and talked to TFG (T's roomie, among others) about Montreal and just talked and talked to everyone about everything until, oops 2am.
Yea I went home a bit late.
At work I've been printing a bunch of zines all day. I got a shit ton now and might even print a shit ton more to give out to peeps.

talkin trash

Today was pretty alright I must say. I found out a friend wants to open a squat in NYC, probably Brooklyn, so I'll help him with that if I'm around. I went and watered, pulled weeds, added compost in the garden. Read books at home, ate dumpstered stuff.
At 1PM I was at Bluestockings getting interviewed. Interviewed? about what you ask? Initially just dumpstering, but of course it led to discussion about politics (read: anarchism), economics (read: anti-capitalism/gift economies) subculture (read: subculture) and generally just interesting stuff. When it's all done (it's for a book) I'll get a transcript, and I'll probably try to get my hands on the book it's in as well when it's out. I probably have some time before then. Until then though, I'll just uh, work at the Brooklyn free store, enjoy summer BBQs and do Food not Bombs!
Also yesterday went to see a Books through Bars movie screening/benefit. Brought a bunch of food along; some trash some taken from work, was okay. The fun part was dumpstering on the way home, check the picture.

Trash, food and foreigners

Weekend was pretty super awesome as was tonight.
Sunday, woke up around 11ish and read a bit, Bigs was asleep on a mattress we set out for him. After getting up and eating a tiny breakfast we biked over to ABC no Rio for Food not Bombs. We got there a bit late, but hadn't missed out on much, apparently no one brought food so nothing got cooked. However there were cupcake tops so we each had one and then gave out the rest at Tompkins Square Park. There was a show there but the people in the band that was about to play were fuckers, they were badmouthing homeless people and crust punks and generally being lame and obnoxious, needless to say we quickly left. There was a couple (Change and Burn) from Toronto, we talked about the G20 and punk houses and it turns out they know Green Boots, it also turns out I should check out Death Church in Montreal because it's supposed to be awesome. We parted but only after finding out we'd meet each other at Grub later anyway.
Me and Bigs went to Bluestockings because I wanted to put up a flyer about the squat garden (I'd put one up at ABC no Rio as well). We ended up just chilling there for a bit reading. Went home and napped and felt hungry (cup cake tops just aren't gonna you know, cut it).
post nap: left on the bike, stop at chain pharmacy, buy shoelaces, left hand snack food and chapstick :) Arrive at Grub after only minor confusion. Grub is awesome as usual, meet people, eat food, keep talking to Change and Burn (they're down to host me if I'm ever in Toronto), agree to buy them a band shirt and deliver it somehow when I'm in Montreal. One person I talked to I'm gonna see this Saturday, she wants to interview me about dumpstering and freeganism though I don't like the term.
Today I went to work (bleh), my mom got me a digital camera (expect to start seeing pictures on this blog more often now). We stopped in the Lower East Side to try to find a newspaper, according to Burn I'm in a picture at the Star Fucking Hipster show, but we failed at finding it. It's cool though I saw NinjaSonik hanging out in the street! Got home, read a bit, went and dumpstered at Trader Joe's, returned home with ridiculous amounts of food. Ride Bikes, Eat Trash!
(I should finish making/writing my zine)

Since, Bigs and bad parties

Friday: Went to work, worked, lunch break (left handed a meal), worked more, got off work, biked to Bluestockikngs and worked on my zine, it's not done yet but almost. It's gonna be called "Ride Bikes Eat Trash" and will be about whatever I feel at the moment I'm writing it. After writing (and reading) a bit I looked at the time and decided to head north again. You see my plan was to meet Since (yes I was finally able to get into contact with her) after her work and then hang out and do something. Biked up, met her and we decided to go to a free concert in Brooklyn. Taking the train with my bike always makes me feel strange. The concert was good times, the music was awesome rock with a really intense lead singer/guitar and there was an great great violin. The one thing that bugged me was that I couldn't kiss Since, she wasn't down because sitting behind us was a group of people she know and would have felt weird kissing in front of. Affection, I realize how much I like and desire it while Ithaca was in Colorado.
Anyways, after the concert me Since and her mom went to eat in a dinner which led to interesting conversation in which I you know, made sure I didn't talk about stealing, anarchy and digging through trash so I wouldn't alienate everyone but myself (talking about bikes is okay though). Biked home after food and slept after some internet.
Saturday: Wake up, waste time online, go the work on garden; change list online, water plants, make fliers build a composter out of pallets. Returned home and gathered all the zines I posses (not that many) and bike into Williamsburg for a mini zine fest (even saw some anarchist graffiti on the way, which I of course surrounded with my own anarchist stickers). When I first go to the place I was kinda disheartened by how small it was but quickly started interesting conversations with the zinesters, talked about superheros, art, finding stuff, bad boyfriends alla that. I picked up a(n anarcha-)feminist zine and sat down to read it when the girl behind the table yelled to me that it wasn't free, I reassured her that I just wanted to check it out and that I would return it to her. After skimming for a few minutes I brought her the zine and told her I wouldn't rob her because that's fucked up, she let me keep the zine I was touched, a free zine? for me? aww shucks. I checked out the other tables and not much politics going on, mostly artsy things and personal artsy things. I went back to the feminist zine table and traded a copy of "Fighting for our Lives" for the second and third issues of the zine I got for free (it's called Hoax if you're interested). I left the zine fest shortly afterward.
At home I showed my mom the zines, and we ate Mexican food across the street. During the meal I realized I was late to meet up with Bigs and a few other friends, I finished my meal quickly and biked there fast...
Turns out I was the first on there. I waited around and read Hoax. When everyone convened we walked into the park and sat within hearing range of the music and just chilled on a blanket. Afterward it was food time (oh noes, only $10 and I had planned on using that to get in a party later tonight), we were gonna eat at a Chinese restaurant. Luckily for me one of our friends had to go to a neighbors' of hers and watch a dog, we all agreed to order our stuff take out and eat there. At that point I decided fuck it, I'm still not gonna pay for food, on the way to the neighbors we stopped at a supermarket, I bought a plum and left handed a microwave Indian diner.
Speaking of awesome free stuff, on the way to meet our friend's we found spray paint and acrylic paint in someones trash, gonna have to start writing things on walls soon. Ate and hung out at the neighbors house a bit and then Bigs and I left to go to a party. We had a hard time finding it and were lucky when a person from the neighborhood told us the correct address. We climbed up too roofs before finding the "rooftop party" in the basement of a building, but it's okay, because even though it took forever to find, and kinda really sucked once we got inside, we didn't pay cover since we entered through the back :)
Today is gonna be Food not Bombs and Grub community dinner, woop woop.

Cancelled plans and free movies

Today's plan was as follows:
See Since
watch a movie together
cuddle
feel less shitty
Today actually happened as follows:
Call Since about once an hour until approximately 7, at which point I had decided that I'd leave to the Anarchist Black Cross and possibly meet up with Wedge at a party. So roll out on a bike to Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)and hang out there, spent most of the time there learning the basics of their set up and wrapping dictionaries in brown paper to send to prisoners. A guy showed up and told me that the ABC no Rio Food not Bombs was up and running which is good news to me (I'll go next next Sunday, this Sunday is Manhunt, hopefully Crisis will show up). When ABC ended I gave Wedge a call and asked about the party, he said it was dying and that they'd probably go see a movie (shit yo! movies cost money) I told him I'd show up, but that I was broke as fuck.
At the party we just talked and hung I recognized and conversed with a few familiar faces. Then we all got kicked out (time is up) and headed to some bar, hung out there for a while just kicking it (I still don't drink, straight edge since forever yo). After the bar people started heading toward the movie, I wanted to bounce at this point but was told we would see it FO FREE! so I stuck around. On the way to the theatre Since gave a call and apologized for standing me up which I told her was okay because I didn't sit around at home doing nothing anyway. Also on the way there I ran into some friends and one of them told me a cool place to get messenger work so I'll check that out. Got to the theatre, put our bikes inside because we're fancy like that (you know how we do on some VIP shit up in here, lol 'cept not) and walked into the room to watch Inception for free. It was an awesome movie, see it (I'm encouraging you to see it, not necessarily to pay for it). It's kinda a mind fuck throughout especially the ending, watch out.
Afterward just rode home while I was on the phone with my mom, riding mostly with no hands. Made me realize how fast I am, made it home in like ten minutes going slow with no hands, imagine how fast I would've been tearing it up with handle bar usage and no phone pressed to my ear!
Home now, gonna read some "Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing" which just came in the mail today or yesterday, I don't remember and then hit the sack. Also supposed to meet up with Since tomorrow and go to a museum, in the morning I'll probably work on the garden with Virgil if he's down. I'll see...

feeling shitty

At first I wasn't going to write this and I felt like writing this in a notebook and starting a journal (reading "Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing" make me wanna start a journal), but I decided fuck it, I mean no one reads this and the people who do I trust (yea I trust you, be flattered). Why do I feel shitty?
I think it's a combination of the following (in no particular order):
Feeling distant from Ithaca
Not being able to see Since because of shitty logistics
Not having the same crew of friends as in Montreal (I need to make some literally rad friends)
Having spent a night in jail and consequently not feeling the shoplifting thing as much and of course the general shittyness of that whole situation in general
Knowing that Ithaca is probably gonna start seeing someone (this I feel is stupid, I mean I gotta walk the walk if I talk the talk, I'm surprised this is even part the shit that's getting to me, I guess it's because the feeling distant is also here that it's getting to me)
Feeling lonely despite efforts to be social
I kinda just want someone to give me a huge hug and kiss and really mean it. I tried to cry but I can't, maybe gender socialization is deeply ingrained in me, maybe I'm just not sad enough to cry, I don't remember the last time I cried, is that healthy?
Hopefully I'll see Since later today and tell her about the shitty night in jail and cuddle in front of a movie and maybe do other things. If I can't contact her at 7 I'm gonna go to the Anarchist Black Cross to hang out there; meet people, make new friends, find people who might be down to garden in the squat garden. I gotta call Virgil and ask if he wants to work on it tomorrow. I should probably look at the bike messenger dude that Cipher's dad told me about.
I'm thinking I'll be less sad if I have work, but at the same time that's pretty shitty, it won't mean stuff is less shitty it just means I won't notice it as much, which is, you know, a great way to make the world a better place, just kinda stop seeing all the problems...
Maybe I got too used to Ithaca being around and making me feel good. In Montreal when I was seeing Pagoda and Ice Cream and Ithaca, I never dealt with stuff like this, I guess it just didn't come up. Iunno, I've always felt that poly was good for me because it kept me balanced, never too worried about any one relationship because I knew that at the end of the day there was always someone I could hold/who could hold me. Not that I don't want to be in any kind of invested relationship, that's not it, I really like what is going on with Ithaca and I, it's been since April that we've been seeing each other which is longer than I've ever been with anyone before and it's nice. There are ups and downs but they seem worth it. I feel as though I'm ranting, but not even sure what about...
I wanna squat a building, open a community center, never pay rent, do food not bombs, and generally spread what I consider to be anarchist alternatives to the shitty capitalist bull that's happening now. I mean it could totally be worse. I guess I'm just discouraged a bit from doing anything illegal because of the arrest, and the finger prints and the photos and the getting busted shoplifting it all took place to close to each other. I shoulda stole the map of Manhattan, I would of totally gotten away with it and it would've kept my theft-confidence up...
I'll see what's up with what...
writing this felt good, if you read this you're awesome I guess...

food, punks and lasers

For school turns out I'm currently in fail standing, which means I need to get special permission to enroll and basically see if I can go back to school in Montreal or not...
Yesterday nothing special hung out with people and that's it. Today went to ABC No Rio for Food Not Bombs but it was locked and we ended up just bringing the unprepared fruits and vegetables to the park and leaving the boxes out. I'm gonna try again next week see if it turns out better or not.
Also went to a punk show in Tompkins Square which was good times. There wasn't much of a circle pit most of the time but it came on and off and was pretty cool. It was conveniently located close to where ctf was going to take place and where we would have served if we actually had cooked for food not bombs...
CTF was lame because it didn't happen instead we played laser tag which isn't nearly as fun, still fun but not as much as I was hoping for. We played and moved and played and ate and played so it was a good time in the end. For food I got some nuts and chocolate from a chain pharmacy (fo free) and someone passed me an extra taco, earlier in the day I found a grapefruit on the floor and I ate that before what was supposed to be CTF started.
Ithaca is supposed to arrive on Wednesday instead of Tuesday :(, it seems like it's taking forever-ish.

(re)discovering NYC

I've been up to quite a bit since I got here on Sunday and it hasn't even been a week yet. I have a bike, it broke a few times, I fixed it a few times and now I hope it'll be fine.
I went to the Bluestocking cafe on Monday to hear a talk about the summit that took place in Cochabamba on climate change and I learned a lot and a lot of issues that I knew existed became a lot more interconnected in my mind. A big idea I learned besides interconnectedness of issues is that the cause of probably the majority of problems is capitalism, yea maybe I'm a little bit late, but now I know...
At the Bluestocking I met a guy called Joey that told me a lot about the activism and punk scenes in NYC and what I should look for. From what I can tell and the protest I went to (more on this later) the scene here is docile and composed mostly of people older than myself, (I prefer/am used to a youthful militant scene; see Montreal circa now). We talked about anarchist groups and various issue groups and just politics and stuff in general, it was good to hit it off quickly after getting back into the city. Even found out about a free punk show going down Sunday, so I'm excited about that.
After leaving the Bluestocking I called Crisis since I knew he was in the area and we met up, he was riding long boards with his friend from out of town. We crossed the Williamsburg and got lost in Queens trying to get to downtown Brooklyn to dumpster, which was pretty lame but in the end I brought home some fruit from a dumpster that I ran into by chance. Crisis became pretty punk since the last time I saw him, long boards and mohawks.
I hung out with the old park slope crew a bit and it made me realize how much I've changed, M:tG and video games don't interest me nearly as much as they used to, I wanna do activist stuff and sneak around and mosh at shows and dumpster and share with my friends. I went to go see Cipher and he's doing okay, still playing WoW, lol. We talked about our summer plans and he isn't too sure about hitching and would prefer a car :-/. We've all experienced deterioration in our ninja skills since neither of us (or Crisis either I suspect) have been keeping nearly as sharp a vigil on our skills as we used to.
Yesterday I went to a protest against Pacific Rim wanting to mine (read: poison drinking water) in El Salvador, not being able to (because no one wants to drink cyanide) and suing the government because of that (I mean it's only reasonable to go after people who don't let you poison them, right?). I was disappointed when I first arrived and didn't even join the protest, I sat and watched as about ten protesters handed out pamphlets to passersby and spoke close to their table and held up a sign, FROM BEHIND A POLICE FENCE! In Montreal protests are so large that they could never be contained within fencing and I'm sure if police attempted to conflict would erupt. Maybe I've been spoiled by the Montreal scene, I hope I haven't been. As I as sitting to the side watching I saw a friend from high school and we talked about travelling and bikes for a bit then he left and I went to help with the protest, no point not helping, there was a little bit of street theatre towards the end but it was very cheesy and cliche, in the end before leaving I traded contact info with this photographer so I'll write him an email soon asking what's up and how did the photos come out (can I have the ones with me in them?). Joey from Bluestocking told me I should be organizing shit instead of joining it since I'm used to wilder things and I'm starting to think he's right, so far the things I've seen and heard about activism seem too tame in my view. I'll see what I feel after Sunday, and when I know more about my summer, I'm supposed to work for the month of June, I wanna travel to the west coast and squat beach houses with TKJ, Rainbow, Australia, Domin, and Rainbow's friend, they wanna hitch from Toronto after the G20 which I also wish I wasn't missing. Just found out I can't register for classes in winter and fall until I get "special permission" because I didn't do well in school :-/ so that may play a part in something as well.
The plan for Sunday is to do food not bombs at ABC no Rio and then head to a free punk show at Tompkins Square park afterward (ABC no Rio serves there anyway so I'll probably be able to go straight there after serving). It'll help me get a feel of the food not bombs and maybe find people who are down for something more invigorating than what's happening already...
We'll see what happens, either way I got some posters that I've passed to my mom to photocopy at her work, I'll wheat paste them around when she brings them back. I ordered Expect Resistance from Crimethinc last night and I'm excited for it to come and all the posters and zines and stickers that'll come with it :D. I'm also happy and curious to see what happens when Ithaca gets here, but I'll probably have to add more padding to the bed since I almost sleep on the floor and she'll probably want it softer.

Back home

I'm back home in NYC!!! I'm really excited to be home and see my family. I came home a day early and surprised my parents and sister, they were all really happy. I got a bike! My dad and I went to a bike shop and the owner is cool with my dad and gave me a free bike because my dad is gonna fix up his drum set, I put my mom's rack on the back and set up a crate and threw some duct tape on the seat, it's a master piece lol.
I think I got the whole me feeling weird in Homer thing figured out. Ithaca's house is full of tension (between her and her siblings and parents) and we had an interesting discussion last night about how she was raised and raising kids and family environments and her situation at home and it cleared up a lot for me and helped me learn a lot about both myself and Ithaca. Being in that stressful environment with all the tension between everyone and seeing Ithaca being treated like shit and giving everyone shit and just the general conflict that was common place combined with the boredom of being not in a metropolis got to me the last few days and I kinda shut down socially, being a lot quieter and reserved and generally being in a neutral state between happy and sad, it wasn't super shitty or uncomfortable but I'd rather be happy all the time like normal...
All's well that ends well and I'm well now, I hope that Ithaca doesn't stay negative after leaving her home and arriving because if that's the case I don't think I'll want to keep what we have going honestly. We'll see what happens when she's here.
I've been looking at things happening in NYC soon and I've found a lot of cool stuff to show up to; there's a protest soon, a lot of anarchist groups I wanna check out, THREE food not bombs, a environmental activist bike co-op and an activist cafe/bookstore among other things.

Food not bombs and planning to leave

I've been sleeping at the coop for the last few days, it's pretty chill, just hanging with Ithaca and TKJ and Australia. Before yesterday me and Ithaca and a friend of ours dumpstered and prepared a meal at the native friendship center. On the way after dumpstering me and Ithaca stopped at the anarchist bookstore to ask for hitching advice and to see if I could trade pastries for some patches, the girl behind the counter wouldn't trade me but she gave me a patch for free so I gave her food for free (which is the same thing in the end).
At the friendship center (a place where Ice Cream went a lot apparently), we cooked up a stir fry and a fruit salad. While we ate we all socialized and our friend got hit on awkwardly by this guy...
We started a movie but left a bit in because we felt like heading and our friend had to go meet some friends. Ended up at the coop and hung there. That night Ithaca pour an awesome bath with oils and mint and stuff to get me healthy and we sat in the dark with candles. it was pretty great.
We have a concrete plan to leave and get to NY now. We're going to hitch to Ithaca's home town which is of course near Ithaca and stay there a bit and work some. Afterward we're gonna hitch to Brooklyn and she'll stay for a bit. We're not sure yet but we may come up to Montreal again and attend an event about living locally that she helped plan, but it's iffy and depends on some outside factors. Either way I'm excited for the trip.

Green Boots and Snot

It's annoying that I've been coughing for the last few weeks, I guess it's a testament to my immune system's strength that I haven't got any other symptoms of illness besides coughing. In the past few days I tried to take time off to recovery but I just got worse (that's what happens when you acknowledge your illness)...
Kunoichi has a friend over from Calgary, I'll call her Green Boots and she seems pretty down for like sleeping at Jimbo's, dumpstering, sewing shit up and generally being cool. She came to food not bombs today and was impressed apparently ours is better than the one in Calgary.
The cabaret was alright, well actually I can't honestly tell you I left during the second act which I thought was boring and I also just wanted to be home. Ithaca is gone for the weekend which also affects my decision to not sleep at the coop. I've been seeing her so often lately, but I only realized this weekend when she's gone...
I'm sleeping at home tonight and sleeping in tomorrow, I may or may not go to tam tams. Either way I wanna recover and get rid of this cold.
Plans to see Pagoda on Wednesday and plans to do a mission with Pines and Lil Jon soon, maybe on Thursday night.

A ridiculous amount of stuff

...that's what happened since the last time I posted on here...
Last Friday, I went out dancing with TKJ, Australia, Rainbow, and a friend from the coop. Ice Cream and Ithaca were going to come but they took a toke from Kusa when he smoked and Ithaca got super high and probably wouldn't be able to ride her bike so she stayed and Ice Cream told us they would meet us there later (pshh yea right).
We got the show (it was a hip hop/dubstep/dancehall show) and just danced until the place closed. TKJ got wasted and couldn't bike home so Rainbow and Australia walked him home, apparently that was a funny story. I got home to find Ice Cream and Ithaca sleeping on the bed, I slipped in and went to bed after a quick conversation about the night.
I woke up with Ice Cream already gone, she left us a note and we go up and got ready, eating a bit and searching the house for Ithaca's bike lock key. When all was in order we headed to the coop and hit up a store for food that couldn't be sold. By the time we finished Ice Cream had arrived at the coop and we were ready to go to her house pick up some last minute stuffs and then roll out. Some of the coopers were doing a fundraiser party so we helped them carry some things up the stairs, before we finished a bunch of kids arrived with Katimavik, ready to do food not bombs. No one else was around for food not bombs so we called TKJ and stayed with them until TKJ, Australia and Rainbow arrived. After that we fixed up a bikes a tiny bit and grabbed some water at Ice Creams and rode out.
We headed south until we hit the bridge and we crossed that, the weather was great and riding across the bridge gave us a nice view of the city (and some trains). We got to the island where la Ronde is and we climbed a bit of scaffolding until security told us to get down. Afterward we threw our bike over a few fences and rode for an hour or two then decided to set up camp when we hit the end of the road/a big fence.
We rode back a bit to find a nice spot and then locked up bikes. I started a small fire in my hobo stove and Ice Cream and Ithaca set up the tent when it started to get dark since we were camping on private property. The hobo stove was pretty shitty in terms of getting really hot with the wood I was putting in it since it didn't really turn to coal just ash, but we managed to cook some potatoes and eggplant that we dumpstered earlier. Ithaca and Ice Cream also brought some food so we ate dinner and just as we finished it began to drizzle. We got into the tent and rolled out the sleeping bags. It was a really tight fit, three people in a two person tent but we managed. I read aloud a bit, we played some talking games and hit the hay super early (probably around 8 or 9)...
Woke up and biked back to Ice Cream's after a small fruit breakfast. Once there we cooked up everything we didn't eat and had a nice brunch. I was tired from all the biking at that point so I rolled back to the coop a bit and started to head home afterward, but I decided to pass in from of TKJ's place for fun. Of course I ended up stopping in when I saw a bunch of bikes locked out front. Turns out Australia, TKJ, Rainbow were there along with a guy from the coop. They had dumpstered pasta and made tomato sauce and jam but it wouldn't be ready for a while. I was tired as shit but I hadn't had pasta in a really long time so I stuck around. We went to tam tams and I napped there on my sleeping bag and then we went back and ate the pasta and all that. I hung at TKJ's place until about 9 napping on and off. I left after that because I had to attend Pagoda's birthday.
I went home, checked the address and rode out on my bike. She was celebrating at Casa del Popolo which is a chill cafe/bar/venue where cool girls throw their birthday parties. Spent time talking to random people and just hanging out and eating delicious cake (you see Pagoda works at a bakery so she gets a free awesome birthday cake on her birthday, FO FREE!). People started leaving and I got to hang out with Pagoda one on one a bit which was nice. Later she recognized a guy she saw on the bus once back home and we went and talked to him and his crew, turns out they were a punk band that had just played at the venue next door. I talked to one of the guys about ABC No Rio and New York in general because he had played a show there a while ago. Was an interesting evening, nothing too crazy, but I was tired from the long weekend anyways. At the end of the night I kissed Pagoda good night, said peace to the punk band and got to take the rest of the cake home.
Monday morning; cake for breakfast, best breakfast ever. Went to my last class this semester and then headed off to the People's Potato. Ithaca was there along with Rainbow and Australia. We ate and headed to TKJ's place. Me and Rainbow stopped at the sporting goods place to receipt scam the bike lock she bought from there last week. It went down pretty smoothly. At TKJ place we sewed stuff up and ate dumpstered food. I don't remember the rest of the day, cept hanging out in a playground a bit. At night though we hung at the coop and on the way there we dumpstered and I finally glued up the new lock on the compactor (it's still there by the way, they haven't done anything about it...).
Not too sure what happened during the week nothing spectacular or particularly memorable, just hanging with Ithaca at the coop (apparently people have been complaining that we we're loud when we have sex, that we leave the door open and that we have sex in the shower too much, none of which is true, but I'll explain that later). Kunoichi got hurt a while ago but she's doing alright, I've been dropping food off on and off for the last few days which results in cool food being made by either me or Kunoichi and her roomies. Sleeping at her place and the coop.
On Friday I went swimming with Ice Cream and Ithaca. Ice Cream practiced her lifeguarding stuff on us and we played around in the pool. After hanging in our sex's saunas we met up upstairs and headed to the coop. The bike ride back to the coop resulted in us arriving soaked in rain. The only solution of course was to strip down and shower up, which we did. Ice Cream Left the shower before Ithaca and I did and didn't lock the door, the door mind you can only be locked from the inside and can't really close unless it's locked. A cooper stuck her head in and saw me and Ithaca showering (and doing just that and not much else) and complained about it later (hence my above comment about sex complaints, none of which are true). We were gonna stay in and sleep but instead a girl from the coop convinced us to go dancing. The first club we went to had a really Euro feel but we didn't like the music so we went to another place and danced until it closed then went back to the coop. We were pretty tired and ready to head to bed when a few (three) coopers came back from what I can only assume was a crazy night (involving a metal show and a strip club and some drugs). At first we weren't sure what they did but they told us a bit. They had come in with a friend, apparently he had brought some crack and was going to take it upstairs, when another cooper found out he headed up. We were all chilling on the couches downstairs and didn't really think twice about it, except discussing that crack was a shitty drug and it would fuck you up and all that. A bit later the guy comes back downstairs with a 40 in one hand and a hammer in another, he said "the guy upstairs" scared him. He was super paranoid and kept asking us where the front door was even after we told him. He got more and more antsy and started to open bedroom doors to find a way out and freaked out a sleeping cooper. The cooper who went upstairs when he found out about the crack came down and took charge, he told us all to get to one side of the room and for the crack guy to leave, he eventually did but not before we had a few scares with the hammer. Crack sucks...
Next day hung out with Ithaca a lot and we went to a show at Katacombs in the night. Ice Cream was supposed to meet us but never showed. The show had the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble (an anarchist marching band), Micro Armee (a French hip hop group with b-boys, rappers, singers and beatboxers) and a samba collective whose name I forgot. We didn't stay 'til the end because we got tired, we went home cooked up some stir fry and then hit the sack. The next day we dumpstered a ton on breakfast and lunch and made lots of foods. After breakfast we watched two movies about sex and sex culture. Stayed home a bit then headed over to Kunoichi's for ice cream and pie, ended up sleeping over, Guts was there and he slept over as well.
Next day, lots of cooking and hanging out. Australia called and they were all at TKJ's house, I went over to hang since she's leaving on a bike trip, and we went to play tag and grounders at a playground across the street, good times but I realized I'm not as stealthy and fast as I used to be...
Exam tomorrow off to pretend that I'm studying.

Update I guess

Turns out being cold in -15 weather is normal if you're wearing a tank top and a sleeveless, so I'm comforted knowing that. Stuff with Ice Cream is good, we've talked a bit and we've agreed to be something along the lines of "friends with benefits" or "fuck buddies", which is fine with me, and works for her since she isn't into "pda" (public display of affection). Going to a show with Pagoda Wednesday after hanging with my old theatre class, looking forward to that. There's some talk about replacing a highly visible roof flag with another one, that's probably gonna involve Pines and Lil Jon. Didn't really need to sabotage a lock that was on a dumpster, when we got there with the glue the lock was already gone :D Dumpstered with Australia and TKJ brought back some nuts, chocolate, chips etc, just junk food from the pharmacy dumpster, which is new and shiny and unlocked on the sides, so no more night runs squeezing underneath the lid. Life is good. Been hanging with Ithaca a lot lately she's pretty chill and seems like she's usually down for adventures, she lives at the coop and is big into Food not Bombs.

Ethics and Food

Today I ran into Ice Cream, Australia, Thief and Bum at the People's Potato. I took the opportunity to tell Ice Cream I'd probably be seeing someone else at the same time I was seeing her, she seemed alright with it *wipes sweat off brow* she wants to have good communication which I totally agree with.
Food Not Bombs is gonna be busy all week, we're cooking up veggie pate and making sandwiches and all kindsa stuff for a conference this coming weekend about mining and the environment. I was there until around 11.30 at night with TKJ, Australia, Ice Cream and some other peeps. Got some free tofu and also dumpstered some meat (hot dogs and BACON) and a bunch of yogurt (some of which I dropped at Kunoichi's place) on the way home.
I wanna see Pagoda, tell her that I'm seeing someone else at the same time, I don't feel it's wrong seeing more than one person at once, but I don't feel comfortable keep the people I'm seeing in the dark about each other. Pagoda lives in an awesome neighborhood, which apparently has a bunch of punks and has some history of squatting and a nice hop out spot, so I wanna hang out with her there a big and see what's up.
Weather has been ugly but a bunch of us want to return to Jimbo's (our awesome roof squat) and watch a movie, but we'll have to wait until weather permits.

The Bonfire

I like hot weather.
Saturday was the first day of spring.
A while back I was talking to someone and I told them I'd make a fire on the first day of spring, that's just what I did. I even told people to come and enjoy it with me around 8ish.
V and Australia showed up first, I was dead tired when they arrived. Australia was supposed to bring wood but didn't, which made the night more fun in the long term. We napped for literally like 5 minutes then went outside and started the fire with cardboard and paper until I could add big wood that I had left over from the thanks giving fire. we sat around a bit, V went to go grab some marshmallows at a store and I dumpstered wood from across the street (through out the night I would dumpster wood to keep the fire up usually with Dreads). People started to trickle in as time went by, you have to walk down an alleyway to get to where the fire pit is so I left a note on the door (the alleyway is also where the back door to a club and a restaurant are). Everyone was here: Guts, Dread and his girlfriend and their Belgian friend, V, Australia and a friend of hers, Kunoichi and her whole house (four other girls), TKJ and three pals of his from outta town, Ice Cream, and a girl from the neighborhood that I don't hang out with too much.
We all hung around and I brought out the snacks: mini cookies, some pastries, a bag pretzels, candy canes and of course a bucket of frosting to top off whatever you're eating.
Everyone brought some awesomeness to the the fire that night. Some of the more visible awesome took place as follows;
Kunoichi fire span with her hula hoop to acoustic music from one of her roomies on the guitar, it was impressive.
Dreads juggled flaming pins despite being a bit tipsy, his ending was awesome, he vanished into the dark by swinging the flames out.
Three people brought guitars and those rotated between Kunoichi's house, TKJ's crew, Guts and Dreads and his girlfriend, needless to say vocals were switched off and combined through out as well.
V tap danced on some dumpstered wood but I missed it because I was showing someone where the bathroom was, but I heard it was good.
We all hung around the fire talking, Ice Cream tried to gain back some of the time I slept on her shoulder by doing the same time me, but I moved a lot, while talking and gesturing and tending to the fire :-/ At around midnight I get a text asking for the address but it was sent at around 10 so I feel bad and answer without knowing who it is, a bit later my neighbor arrives with a friend and they chill with us.
The night moseyed on and some people peeled off and some people got drunker from passing around tallboys and 40s. Two of TKJ's friends, the two girls were pretty drunk and they started drumming on the back door of a club next door to see if they could get in, we were all still around the fire when we see a bouncer stick his head out the door after they bang hard for a bit and he tells them something then slams the door. They tell us they wanna go clubbing and run out the alley to who knows where.
We keep the fire going, chilling and talking and laughing and making music, when the two girls come back, I thought they danced in the club so I give them high fives for being drunk and awesome and not caring. Turns out coat check is $5 and cover is another $5 so they dropped off their coats and headed off, I wanted to go with as did TKJ and the third friend, I made sure people were watching the fire (Australia and Ice Cream). We walked around the block to a club, and watched as the bouncer turned TKJ's friends down despite their lack of coats. "we're too poor and ugly to get in",
Nah, "fuck that club!"
"yea fuck it!"
We all went back to the fire in a good mood. Wood had just run out when my neighbor Kouka-mono came out and chilled for a bit, he had a dead chair made of wood that he brought out to burn. Ice Cream was tired and wanted to crash the living room, but there weren't any covers so I told her take the bed I'll be up later and stayed out a bit longer with Kouka-mono because people were trickling out slowly until it was just us. Tired from a ridiculous week and an awesome night I decided it was time to bounce and hit the hay. Kouka-mono brought a bucket of water and poured the flames out. A huge cloud of steam appeared and we left quickly so we wouldn't be around if it caught people's attention.
Inside I felt the excitement of the night fade but it didn't disappear altogether. I undressed, got into pajamas and joined Ice Cream in bed. She was freezing so we unzipped the sleeping bag and used it as a second blanket, then lay down and talked and cuddled. I really felt like kissing Ice Cream at one point but she beat me to it; as I was about to turn her head turned around and planted one on my lips! I was really happy with that and we kissed and cuddled until we fell asleep...

Sore Legs

Well the parkour on Friday was more intense than I thought it would be, my legs were sore the entire weekend, but that's partly due to the fact that I didn't give them any time to rest the whole time.
After parkour I went to Kunoichi's place to swing dance with the whole crew but there were tired so we watched a movie hung out and fell asleep, except I couldn't sleep so I slipped out, hopped onto the bike and headed to the burned up pharmacy to see what the deal was. I was happy to see that the dumpster was now much improved, without a lid and a lock getting in and digging around was that much easier, I left with a basket full of food and went back to Kunoichi's to sleep.
Wake, hang out a bit, go home, go to TKJ's place and from there we head out to Food Not Bombs.
It was a good time there, we dumpstered a ton of produce and cooked it all up; vegetable stir fry, spicy potatoes and fruit salad. I meet ran into a friend there (Australia) and met a cool girl there too. We served at Berri UQAM and then went back to the Co-op. There we hung a bit and then all split to go our own ways.
Pines was throwing a house party for St Patrick's day but it was meh so I rolled out early. I went to Australia's place. TKJ, Dreads, Guts, the girl from Food Not Bombs, Dreads' girlfriend and of course Australia, the best part was they were all on the balcony in the box fort that they had built earlier from dumpstered cardboard. We all slept outside that night under the cardboard and it was good. The rain and hail didn't get to us except a tiny bit on Dreads. Guts was also pretty sore from training and he went inside to sleep, a wise choice.
We followed up the good night with a fun day at Concordia eating free food from the People's Potato and listening to panel presentations on various social, political, economic and psychological issues. I was very tired at this point and me and the girl from FnB slept on each other's shoulders for a portion of the talks, which is too bad for two reasons:
They seemed interesting
I twitch and jerk when I sleep while trying to remain awake, even when that means hitting people with my head.
Afterwards we hit a few dumpsters on the way to Australia's house were we took down the fort, made smoothies and just hung til dinner which was also partly dumpstered, it's cool being with a crew that's down to hit dumpsters left and right for fun and practicality.
TKJ had left his bike helm at Australia's place so we brought it back to his house and kicked it there a bit before checking the pharmacy dumpster and splitting off home.
Of course, all transportation was achieved via bicycle so my legs never got a chance to recover from the parkour all the way and are still sore...
Will probably be at a protest against police brutality tomorrow with Australia, Dreads, TKJ and the girl from FnB (we'll call her Ice Cream).

Food Not Bombs and other free stuffs

Today I went to Food Not Bombs for the first time. It was good times, I went with one of Kunoichi's roomies and when I got there I also ran into my friend TKJ (Dreads' and Gut's new roomie). It was an interesting experience; I cooked stir fry with this French girl and then took my bike downtown and met everyone to give out food. After we gave out food, I was told there was a party at the coop that night, so I took my bike back and waited for everyone there(it's faster than the subway most times).
The party was decent and TKJ stayed there so we chilled a lot, the music got good before we left so some dancing did go down (including a pretty cool bboy). However the best things were happening after we started to leave.
TKJ was a bit drunk and wanted McDonalds, I agreed after a bit of convincing since he was treating because I usually don't eat there. We got in line and started to wait when we spotted two drunk girls and this guy making a huuuuuge mess with their food, TKJ saw the opportunity and we took their seats as soon as they left. After sifting through some empty containers we found 4 nuggets, a full coke, part of a sandwich and a ton of fries, that with the sandwiches we ordered made the whole thing awesome. Before heading out TKJ filled the empty coke cup with ketchup and got a lid.
As we were walking home we noticed a bike leaning against a telephone pole unlocked! The chain was dead but the rest of it was nice so we walked it to TKJ's place where Dreads could probably fix it up in no time.
I continued past their place and decided to check a few dumpsters on the way home with the phone flashlight. All of them came up dry except the locked pharmacy dumpster, after squeezing in with my jacket on I was able to rescue:
10 Cans of Coke
2 Bars of White Chocolate
1 Bag of Brownie Mix
4 Chocolate Pudding
4 Strawberry Applesauce
1 Carton of Chai Tea Latte
I got home and Ting was just about to go out and get Coke so I got there just in time, I put everything away, ate a bit and headed to bed.