first things first: happy earth day! i just read that calgary is the world's cleanest city (according to forbes), and saw that edmonton did not even make the top 25. it kind of makes me feel like how i would feel if a boy i had a crush on made out with my younger sister. it's a little humiliating. a little demoralizing.

anyway. another fantastic day yesterday. i remembered that the strathcona farmers' market was happening, so i invited joel and theresa to meet me there in the afternoon. i walked along saskatchewan drive and met them there around 12:30. the market was adorable, as usual, and i bought some delicious things: raspberry jam from a friendly old man, some strawberry honey, and some spicy thai lemongrass pesto. mmm. we went for milkshakes/coffee at block 1912. i tried to convince theresa to move to edmonton. i vowed to go visit winnipeg again sometime in the next couple of years.

then i went to chapters on whyte and killed time before my coffee date with emma newman at 3. it's ridiculous how many coffee dates i've been on this month. i guess it goes with the territory of coming back home from an exotic adventure. anyway, hanging out with emma was great. i'm pretty sure we would never have been friends if we hadn't played soccer together at king's, but i'm glad we are because she is so bright and crazy and motivated and awesome.

i walked back home and tried to nap but it didn't really work. i made some pasta to go with the lemongrass pesto i bought at the farmers' market. i drove to karen's house and we went to sherwood park to watch marney play a concert with some boys from jenni's band. i talked with karen's cousin, who made me feel very interesting. it was really really nice to just cuddle with karen in a church pew, like old times, and to find out that we are still pretty much on the same page spiritually. i think i needed that.

afterwards, k-rock and i went to the "theresa meinders appreciation club" party at matt and dave's house. oh! first we stopped off at karen's house so i could pick up my car and so we could eat some cookies and juice and peanut butter sandwiches because we were both starving. i saw melisa and mctaggart there, which was super nice. i like those girls. anyway, on the way to matt and dave's i was a little apprehensive because a) i am antisocial and usually hate parties, and b) i am a little bit tired of the inevitable post-university-graduation-conversation that has been popping up more than usual lately (ie. "what have you been up to?" i need to come up with a condensed version, like, "graduated in english, worked on reserve, dated boss, disaster, worked in homeless shelters, got depressed, moved up to the same reserve to work at a museum, moved to south america, came home, crafted. moving back up north for the summer, then going to school in the fall to learn about injuns*." maybe i could get business cards printed up that have my name and contacts on the front and that little sentence on the back. then i could avoid conversation entirely.). anyway, it turned out that i had nothing to worry about. the party turned out to be perhaps the most enjoyable social gathering in a dwelling-place that i have ever attended. everyone there was people that i knew well and liked lots! most of them already knew what i've been up to since king's! here are some particularly enjoyable moments:
-having dave give me a tour of the house, and being told that he has "a whole drawer full of dead things" when i saw a toy snake in his room. he wasn't kidding! he opened the middle drawer under his bed, and we proceeded to spend 15 minutes looking at skulls, snake skins, feathers, and stuffed birds. that boy is so awesome and ridiculous.
-talking with joel and laughing pretty uncontrollably at the fat turtle-lip he iced, acquired when wrestling with his younger brother lewis. he was unusually grumpy and unusually drunk, both of which were simultaneously enjoyable and troubling to me.
-ordering pizza! so simple; so awesome.
-talking with bri, and feeling reassured that if "satan has a hold" on me, at least he "has a hold" on a whole bunch of other king's graduates. also feeling not so bad about doing trashy "experiments" sometimes.
-having close friends who would willingly, nay, FORCEFULLY, eat the remnant cheese i pick off from my pizza. also, making a deal with matt to have pizza fairly regularly at the native studies wing next year, where even more picking-off-and-sharing-of-cheese can take place.

man, i forgot how awesome we all are. hopefully everyone who stayed in edmonton this year will be around next year, and the few stragglers will be convinced to move here soon. i don't know if edmonton can even handle such a high concentration of awesomeness. wing nights! open mic nights! recycling! grammar editing! dance parties! i can hardly wait.


*please don't get offended that i say "injuns," at least not on behalf of indigenous north americans. when i say it, it's meant as a dig at manifest-destiny-esque european ignorance. mmkay?