Saturday, May 27, 2017
I'm on vacation in Toronto, a place I've always wanted to visit. I'd heard it's like a clean New York. I've never been to New York,but this place is both massive and clean. Tomorrow I'm going to visit Degrassi Street, a place I've been fascinated with for fifteen years. I've seen all the episodes of the show and know more about it than a 36 year old man should. I had always thought that the show was pandering to demographics because there's always a token gay person or some ethnic person who doesn't really make an impact, but, after a couple days here, this place is extremely diverse. The neighborhood my airbnb is in I'm pretending is Hazel's neighborhood. My place is just off of Marlee Ave, which is a couple blocks from Reggae St. The main street between the two is littered with dispensaries and Jamaican curry shops, so I'm going to say she would be from here. I find myself going through different parts of town trying to figure out which character lives where. I'd still flip my shit if I ran into Spike, who I've read still lives here, or even Caitlin. The impetus behind this trip was to see Sigur Ros who made me cry the first time I heard their song in the Steve Zissou movie where they see the tiger shark for the first time. I'm hoping it's an intense emotional show.
Probably the weirdest thing I've gotten out of this vacation so far is wondering what life would have been like had I been born and lived here. I mean, I've used public transit almost exclusively to get around apart from walking and everything is different. No one acts "street" here, everyone is polite and I'm not sure if that's a systemic thing where they're not automatically considered criminals by police or if it's because everyone is taught to respect everyone else as a person here. I don't know,but I don't get the feeling here that everyone I walk past is afraid of me, which is weird and refreshing. I fall in love every time I ride the subway because there's always a woman sitting reading reading a book as the stations go by, almost completely oblivious to each stop while I'm looking up each time to count how many before I have to get off. If I lived here, in a place with a legit healthcare system and public transit that actually isn't a joke, I get the feeling that I'd be in a different place entirely.Housing here seems ridiculously prohibitive, though, and gentrification rampant as things expand, but I may well be in a better place to afford that in a different life. Maybe it's not worth considering "What if?" because there's no way I could wind up with Ellie because she is, in fact, a fictional character.
said Tommy T. at 9:17 PM - #
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Probably the weirdest thing I've gotten out of this vacation so far is wondering what life would have been like had I been born and lived here. I mean, I've used public transit almost exclusively to get around apart from walking and everything is different. No one acts "street" here, everyone is polite and I'm not sure if that's a systemic thing where they're not automatically considered criminals by police or if it's because everyone is taught to respect everyone else as a person here. I don't know,but I don't get the feeling here that everyone I walk past is afraid of me, which is weird and refreshing. I fall in love every time I ride the subway because there's always a woman sitting reading reading a book as the stations go by, almost completely oblivious to each stop while I'm looking up each time to count how many before I have to get off. If I lived here, in a place with a legit healthcare system and public transit that actually isn't a joke, I get the feeling that I'd be in a different place entirely.Housing here seems ridiculously prohibitive, though, and gentrification rampant as things expand, but I may well be in a better place to afford that in a different life. Maybe it's not worth considering "What if?" because there's no way I could wind up with Ellie because she is, in fact, a fictional character.
said Tommy T. at 9:17 PM - #
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