On: subways.

Last year I didn’t have occasion to go downtown very often so riding the subway was a real treat. The experience was terrible and beautiful; equal parts isolation-melancholia and underground beauty. This year I commute to school and enjoy my subway rides without the sadness – I read, I watch the tracks behind me, and lately I draw.

I’ve been having strange emotions for the last month and that’s what this comic is about. Sometimes I’m haunted by a sense of guilt for something I can’t remember, or maybe didn’t happen at all. Being around people sometimes/used to make me deeply uncomfortable, but I’m getting over it. Cracking the hermit shell takes time, rooting out squirrlish tendencies takes time. If you read this please tell me; was the emotion of the comic clear? Vague but accessible? Did it have an effect? Was it effective?

Today I am hangovered, as T-rex would say. I will eat kimchi noodles and then wander about. Delight! Reading week has begun!

On: so let me have a piece of that Sweet Potatoe Pie.

Numbers shuffle. I don’t usually do New Year’s resolutions so instead I’m doing a 25th year resolution. It’s convenient being born on December 30th; you can pretend that the western world revolves around your birth. I resolve; to live more simply, deliberately and lovingly. This means; spend less money, read, write and draw more, watch online tv less, wake up earlier, smoke less, think more, and spend more time with friends. Because I love them, and I’m too much of a hermit, I can feel my world becoming more internal all the time and soon I’ll go squirrely and agoraphobic if I don’t watch myself. The rest should be easy – especially the money. Going shopping now disgusts me. I can’t stay in stores. All those people…uhg…spending money….even grocery shopping gives me pain now.
Enough complaining. I want to go draining! This is rambly because I slept funny and I’m not awake in my brain yet.
And eat a dandelion. I would like to do that.

On: 3 HUND

Oh life! You wacky substanceless wonder! You've tossed me again, like a salad, like other things that and tossed. Frisbees? I dunno man, I don't do a lot of sports.

So some guy (mommy, whats a landlord?) evicted the residents of the Wizards Tower, so no more Kensington life for me. I had planned to know every cranny, every nook, then get to know the crannys again, but t'aint gon be so. Where have I gone too you ask? Tis a glorious lang. A land where no man wears a shirt. A land where all tattoos are prison tattoos. High unemployment, slow pace, canals, cracked streets...no it's not Detroit. It's called Welland and it's AWESOME here. Buildings sit empty on Main Street, some look abandoned, some disused, and some just look derelict though they are still running. Empty factories, empty houses; it’s a playground!

It's kindof like home, actually, but the people are more "white trash-blue collar" where I'm used to "redneck and bible thumping". Either way it actually feels comfortable to be an alien again!

Ahhhh...rent free, a near zero chance of finding work (though I'm sure I'll start trying soon) and a town to explore. Thanks life! Wishes do come true!

Also: heading out to OM next week.
Also: been paintin.
Also: Wheeeee!

To your right you will see clouds over Kensington, ye olde tower (the blue/white window was mine) and...uhhh...me.

On: HOT TUB HONEY MOON

1) Exposed piping in the Deathpit (my cherished sub-urban home) 2) The stove in the Racoon house (more on it to follow) taken by my darling father 3) HOT TUB HONEY MOON, the text on a sign for an (I assume) sleezy motel a half an hours walk from my room.

On: nuit blanche.

On Saturday night I was surprised by the chance to see an old friend and attend Nuit Blanche. I knew about Nuit, but I had somehow failed to know that it was happening, like, now. I arrived and there was a blizzard. A flurry. A veritable shit storm of people. Small town me was going mad. The roads were closed; I walked right up the middle of Queen. After a little confusion finding each other Neil and I had a lovely time catching up, listening to Kraftwerk and drinking Waterloo dark. It made me smell very bad the next day. It is a good thing that I am so accustomed to smelling terrible.

On: City lights.

On: apres show.

In: Kensington Market, Toronto.

On: appartment hunting.

Nox, Scrumpy and I toured appartments in search of something to suit us all. My favorite was on the seventh floor with a balcony and floods of sunlight. I took these in a lovely neighborhood where we may-but more likely may not-live in the future.

The sun is shining again, spring seems to be upon us.
"The children rejoice" as I used to say.