Well that was an interesting weekend
Oct. 4th, 2015 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grimviewCurrently winding down, listening to The Strombo Show. This is the best end for the weekend, trust me. Strombo makes every Sunday good.
So.
Friday.
Because this was a long ass day, play-by-play style needed.
0600: Woke up. Grumbled a lot, but stretched in bed and eventually dragged my ass out of bed. At...
0630: Coffee and breakfast.
0700: Shower.
0730: Walked to campus, set up and listened to music for a bit, picked up the assignment I had to give out for tutorial that day.
0830: Taught class, which amounted to "hand out sheets and stand at front to answer questions as class worked quietly." Mostly, I talked to friends in different timezones on facebook.
1000: Ran down four flights of stairs to class I had to actually take.
1130: Wandered off to do some homework; sort-of happened, sort-of didn't.
1300: hung out with friends while continuing homework.
1400: Finally went and got lunch. It was the most disappointing chicken curry ever. Worst decision.
1500: Went to a friend's informal seminar on his time on Sable Island this summer, which was neat. It got fairly philosophical in the discussion ("How do we define what is likely to persist on an island that is undergoing rapid change?"), but it was good.
1600: Department pub visit! First of the semester. Profs paid for pitchers. Good time had by all. I was the only thesis-based student present, which was weird. I think the course-based masters folks are starting to think everyone else is a ghost.
1730: We walked over to the central library, as a group, for a public talk from a National Geographic anthropological photographer. It was pretty cool. Not... really my field, but it was free, and interesting, so.
1930: The departmental cohort at the public talk walked to a brewpub and we all had... several more beers. I got home at...
2245: Chatted to friends on the internet and then passed out some time around... 0230 Saturday?-ish.
Saturday
... Is not getting the blow-by-blow timeline approach.
Basically, this needs a preface:
A friend from high school, S, of the "we knew each other and got along, but never really hung out or talked much or knew much about each other except that we shared some friends" variety, apparently decided on a whim to move across the country. (For reference, my hometown is about 5475 km away from Halifax. She drove. (To be fair, when I moved out, I drove, too. Beside the point.)) Her reasoning? "It was either get stuck there, or get out of there. So I got out."
She arrived in Halifax on Thursday. Which was the first day of autumn rains in Halifax. Which means, bluntly, a fuckton of rain. We got over 70 mm of rain that day. And that is the day she drove into town. I... may have been rather too amused about this.
Anyway, now that that's out of the way: since I did know her, and she didn't know anyone else in town, I offered to show her around, take her to the Farmer's Market, and generally hang out for a couple of hours on Saturday.
"A couple of hours" was the plan. Met up with her around 1100, went to the farmer's market, showed her the main chunks of downtown and guided her around a bit, and before we knew it, it was 1330 and lunch time. So we stopped in for lunch... and learned that the pub we were in had 1 L steins of beer on for $6.50. (For reference, a 523 mL pint was $6.30.)
So lunch became slightly tipsy. And took an hour and a half, because we were... basically just getting to know each other for more or less the first time.
Then we walked back to her place, then wandered through the city's two main parks (which are, respectively, 1.5 km from her house, and then about 2.5 km from each other), then back to her place. Split up to both our houses to grab dinner for ourselves, then I went to a concert. Note that this is six and a half hours after we met up in the morning.
Concert was Buck 65 with Symphony Nova Scotia. Which... like, I knew he'd done this before (I have the bootleg album from it), but I still didn't quite realise how great this would be in person. Because really, it's an avant-garde rapper known just as much for blues-ragtime-country influenced rap as for electronic and dance-influenced stuff. With a symphony. But it worked really well.
Well, aside from Super Pretty Naughty. But that song exists to be stylistic suck, so. (He literally wrote the music to try and appeal to a friend of his who was only into pop music, and who found his usual music inaccessible. And then he pieced together the verses from writing scraps from his nieces, nephews, and their friends. Who were 3-4 years old at the time. And then he made the chorus all about wanting to go out, party, and get laid. It's fucking strange. Have the music video!) Point is, the concert was great, and the one song that was a "lolwut" moment was intended to be so.
After that, S and I had agreed to go for "a beer."
"A beer" turned into splitting two pitchers evenly between us. And talking for another three and a half hours. Some reminiscing, some catching up, some stories and a lot of back and forth sarcasm and smartassery, and the occasional moment of me being grossed out but amused (S is a nurse, okay, she has some disgusting stories from her job - hilarious, but disgusting).
And then I walked her home at 0100 in the morning, dropped her off around 0130 (hence that extra half hour in the 3.5 above), and walked back to my place - getting in around 0200.
So basically 10 hours hanging out with someone I hadn't actually seen in person for more than five seconds since 2009. And actually really getting along.
This was new and weird. (Several people it's been mentioned to have said it's apparently normal-ish to have happen, but it's new to me, so. New and weird it is.)
Oh. All told, S and I walked - together - for about 20-22 km. If you add on the other walking I did on Saturday (to/from her house at 1100 and 1720, to the concert, to meet her after the concert, and back from her place after dropping her off)? I walked ~24-28 km on Saturday. Tending towards 26-28, really. All the walking.
Sunday
I slept in til 8:45, didn't get out of bed until 9:20, spent the morning working on fannish things and scrolling Tumblr, and then wandered off to drop a cheque off at the bank and pick up some comics from my local comic shop. (Because they had a 20% off sale today, so I saved like $12.)
After that, picked up lunch, wandered up to a coffee shop I like, and set up to do a bunch of emailing, administrative crap, and a pass on editing a group assignment for one of my courses. Spent about 3.5 hours at the coffee shop, about 2 of which were actively working.
In my defense, the other hour was writing a letter to a friend in Vancouver, C, to accompany the art print I picked up in Belfast for her. (... In April, but whatever, it's being sent this week. Finally.) So I only "wasted" a half hour there.
Came home, watched Continuum 4x05 (why is a show that went so far out of its way to have an incredibly diverse cast killing everyone off in the last season, seriously? It makes sense in plot and is otherwise highly questionable in every way), turned on Strombo, and... have basically been relaxing and chatting (online) to friends all night.
So. Overall. Good weekend! Busy. But really good.
Still confused how the fuck I spent 10 hours with someone I haven't talked to in 6 years (or, really, ever) and didn't end up completely drained and exhausted from it. It was fun. Which is... like. Unheard of. I can do a few hours with people, usually. Like, five or six, max, before I need to fuck off and recharge. Yet S managed to get me out for ten hours.
It's weird okay.
So.
Friday.
Because this was a long ass day, play-by-play style needed.
0600: Woke up. Grumbled a lot, but stretched in bed and eventually dragged my ass out of bed. At...
0630: Coffee and breakfast.
0700: Shower.
0730: Walked to campus, set up and listened to music for a bit, picked up the assignment I had to give out for tutorial that day.
0830: Taught class, which amounted to "hand out sheets and stand at front to answer questions as class worked quietly." Mostly, I talked to friends in different timezones on facebook.
1000: Ran down four flights of stairs to class I had to actually take.
1130: Wandered off to do some homework; sort-of happened, sort-of didn't.
1300: hung out with friends while continuing homework.
1400: Finally went and got lunch. It was the most disappointing chicken curry ever. Worst decision.
1500: Went to a friend's informal seminar on his time on Sable Island this summer, which was neat. It got fairly philosophical in the discussion ("How do we define what is likely to persist on an island that is undergoing rapid change?"), but it was good.
1600: Department pub visit! First of the semester. Profs paid for pitchers. Good time had by all. I was the only thesis-based student present, which was weird. I think the course-based masters folks are starting to think everyone else is a ghost.
1730: We walked over to the central library, as a group, for a public talk from a National Geographic anthropological photographer. It was pretty cool. Not... really my field, but it was free, and interesting, so.
1930: The departmental cohort at the public talk walked to a brewpub and we all had... several more beers. I got home at...
2245: Chatted to friends on the internet and then passed out some time around... 0230 Saturday?-ish.
Saturday
... Is not getting the blow-by-blow timeline approach.
Basically, this needs a preface:
A friend from high school, S, of the "we knew each other and got along, but never really hung out or talked much or knew much about each other except that we shared some friends" variety, apparently decided on a whim to move across the country. (For reference, my hometown is about 5475 km away from Halifax. She drove. (To be fair, when I moved out, I drove, too. Beside the point.)) Her reasoning? "It was either get stuck there, or get out of there. So I got out."
She arrived in Halifax on Thursday. Which was the first day of autumn rains in Halifax. Which means, bluntly, a fuckton of rain. We got over 70 mm of rain that day. And that is the day she drove into town. I... may have been rather too amused about this.
Anyway, now that that's out of the way: since I did know her, and she didn't know anyone else in town, I offered to show her around, take her to the Farmer's Market, and generally hang out for a couple of hours on Saturday.
"A couple of hours" was the plan. Met up with her around 1100, went to the farmer's market, showed her the main chunks of downtown and guided her around a bit, and before we knew it, it was 1330 and lunch time. So we stopped in for lunch... and learned that the pub we were in had 1 L steins of beer on for $6.50. (For reference, a 523 mL pint was $6.30.)
So lunch became slightly tipsy. And took an hour and a half, because we were... basically just getting to know each other for more or less the first time.
Then we walked back to her place, then wandered through the city's two main parks (which are, respectively, 1.5 km from her house, and then about 2.5 km from each other), then back to her place. Split up to both our houses to grab dinner for ourselves, then I went to a concert. Note that this is six and a half hours after we met up in the morning.
Concert was Buck 65 with Symphony Nova Scotia. Which... like, I knew he'd done this before (I have the bootleg album from it), but I still didn't quite realise how great this would be in person. Because really, it's an avant-garde rapper known just as much for blues-ragtime-country influenced rap as for electronic and dance-influenced stuff. With a symphony. But it worked really well.
Well, aside from Super Pretty Naughty. But that song exists to be stylistic suck, so. (He literally wrote the music to try and appeal to a friend of his who was only into pop music, and who found his usual music inaccessible. And then he pieced together the verses from writing scraps from his nieces, nephews, and their friends. Who were 3-4 years old at the time. And then he made the chorus all about wanting to go out, party, and get laid. It's fucking strange. Have the music video!) Point is, the concert was great, and the one song that was a "lolwut" moment was intended to be so.
After that, S and I had agreed to go for "a beer."
"A beer" turned into splitting two pitchers evenly between us. And talking for another three and a half hours. Some reminiscing, some catching up, some stories and a lot of back and forth sarcasm and smartassery, and the occasional moment of me being grossed out but amused (S is a nurse, okay, she has some disgusting stories from her job - hilarious, but disgusting).
And then I walked her home at 0100 in the morning, dropped her off around 0130 (hence that extra half hour in the 3.5 above), and walked back to my place - getting in around 0200.
So basically 10 hours hanging out with someone I hadn't actually seen in person for more than five seconds since 2009. And actually really getting along.
This was new and weird. (Several people it's been mentioned to have said it's apparently normal-ish to have happen, but it's new to me, so. New and weird it is.)
Oh. All told, S and I walked - together - for about 20-22 km. If you add on the other walking I did on Saturday (to/from her house at 1100 and 1720, to the concert, to meet her after the concert, and back from her place after dropping her off)? I walked ~24-28 km on Saturday. Tending towards 26-28, really. All the walking.
Sunday
I slept in til 8:45, didn't get out of bed until 9:20, spent the morning working on fannish things and scrolling Tumblr, and then wandered off to drop a cheque off at the bank and pick up some comics from my local comic shop. (Because they had a 20% off sale today, so I saved like $12.)
After that, picked up lunch, wandered up to a coffee shop I like, and set up to do a bunch of emailing, administrative crap, and a pass on editing a group assignment for one of my courses. Spent about 3.5 hours at the coffee shop, about 2 of which were actively working.
In my defense, the other hour was writing a letter to a friend in Vancouver, C, to accompany the art print I picked up in Belfast for her. (... In April, but whatever, it's being sent this week. Finally.) So I only "wasted" a half hour there.
Came home, watched Continuum 4x05 (why is a show that went so far out of its way to have an incredibly diverse cast killing everyone off in the last season, seriously? It makes sense in plot and is otherwise highly questionable in every way), turned on Strombo, and... have basically been relaxing and chatting (online) to friends all night.
So. Overall. Good weekend! Busy. But really good.
Still confused how the fuck I spent 10 hours with someone I haven't talked to in 6 years (or, really, ever) and didn't end up completely drained and exhausted from it. It was fun. Which is... like. Unheard of. I can do a few hours with people, usually. Like, five or six, max, before I need to fuck off and recharge. Yet S managed to get me out for ten hours.
It's weird okay.