I met Ananda in Tofino and we eventually became roomies in what we called the House of Pam. When I moved back to Vancouver, she moved soon after. When Ananda moved to Victoria, I followed suit. We're pretty good friends. The name of my blog is particularly significant to Ananda, because I say it to her often. For example, "let's make tentative plans to watch animal documentaries on Thursday" or "let's make tentative plans to eat chips and dip on Saturday night." It's hard to make firm plans with Ananda because she is a very busy lady, so I make tentative ones.
While I have a penchant for making tentative plans, with Ananda and otherwise, I'm finding my social life in Victoria to be more spontaneous than I'm used to. In Vancouver it felt like social activities had to be excrutiatingly schemed. But here? Here people just stop by your house to see if you want to go for ice cream or for a swim at the lake.
Victoria is a small city, and some people complain about running into people you know at every turn. Although I am a fan of anonymity at times, I think I am more of a small town girl at heart, and Michael is a small town boy. That's why we like Main Street (in Vancouver) so much - it has a small town atmosphere; we were regulars at the diner and we knew the owners of our produce store enough to chat with the chatty guy about odd subjects (he told Michael he would be a good politician, but we all know I'm the politician in the family). But even though Main Street has a bit of the small town quality, it didn't satisfy my craving completely. Like why don't I know the chatty guy's name? Do you know who I'm talking about, Brie? At Everfresh Produce? We lived there for five years and I don't know any names. And even though our friends lived in the neighbourhood, last minute plans were a rare occurance.
I don't know my grocers' names in Victoria either (actually, we just met a guy named Allen who works at the Market on Yates), but it's only a matter of time, friends. And it's only a matter of time before those same grocers will stop in unannouced for a visit.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Tentatively spontaneous
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5 comments:
So you love small towns and you love being spontaneous. Why don't you drop by unannounced to visit little old me in Saskatoon? Can't get more small town or spontaneous than that.
i'm learning new words, so please forgive what i am about to say, imtiaz and erin. i don't mean to gainsay you imtiaz, but i think erin should really move to littoral nunavut where towns are so small they are called hamlets and schedules are so elusive you can't even find a dayplanner in the territory. think about it erin -- you can be asleep at midnight and kayaking an hour later. that's life, that's living. erin: i have a sedulous scheme to build airmiles quickly, so let me know if you are venal and i will make the call.
i forget you live in victoria and every once in a while i get a little reminder that shocks me in a happy way.
i'm very much looking forward to spontaneous and random victoria days with you!
I think I know what you mean Erin. I really love our neighborhood and try my best to support it through buying stuff and visiting the shops. It does have that small town feel in the sense that there is everything on Main Street, but if you venture off it's all houses and apartments and people walking their dogs and saying "hello".
It's funny because when we moved from the Watson St apartment I stopped going to Everfresh for a little while. I don't know why. At any rate, I'm going again and I'm so happy because the owners are so sweet, sincere and chatty! I don't know that guy's name, but I know who you're talking about.
I think no matter where you live, small town or big city, you're bound to run into the same people over and over again but it's just not as quaint when you're in the city. Does that make sense?
I guess neighborhoods have sort of become the small towns of the urban landscape (so profound, ain't I?).
Words are very enticing....
Come back to Vicoria....
I love that you have found such a great space - even better than the last one non?
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