So now what?

Now we wait.

Everything was sent off on Monday to London, hopefully there aren't any problems or delays as well, I'm cutting it close enough as it is! In my optimism I'm guessing it gets back to me on Monday and then I can get onto booking a flight out to meet Sibod in Seattle. That also means I have to pack and clean up my room which is nothing to look forward to, can't really imagine living out of my backpack again but alas! The time has come, even if it isn't as planned. So the rough plan is that I meet Si in Seattle at the end of next week and then the both of us hop on a 2 day ferry up to Juneau! And then I have no idea. Then we wander around AK until it's Sibod's home time on the 15th. After that, I'm not entirely sure! I'll probably visit Portland OR and then stay with Joey until March and hopefully by then I'll decide where I should stay for the rest of my trip.

Here's an update of what's happened since I got back to TO.
So I got back last Tuesday. I was a bit worried getting to the border and sorting out my working holiday permit replacement but it was totally NP except of course it cost $30 to replace, $30 I didn't have... whoops. Thankfully the bus driver popped in to check up on me and lent me some money so that we could get moving again, on the condition that K (who fortunately said she would pick me up since she would be up after her radio show anyway) would have the cash ready and waiting at the terminal. Of course I'd call her! Of course I realise that the NZ sim I was using that had money on it... doesn't pick up the Canadian signal and of course my rogers sim had no money but lots of signal! So we get back to TO and embarrassingly I tell him I couldn't call but she would be here asap which leaves me standing out in a flurry of snow searching for her car while he waits in the office with my ETD. About 15 mins later and I spot her, whew. So I run up and I'm thinking I'll get the $15 I gave him in CAD and USD back in exchange but no, they decide they want to get some profit and keep my $11 USD which did include a $1 COIN which I was going to treasure forever...oh well.
So the first thing on the agenda after getting back was to get a new debit card because access to money is always a bonus. I go to the bank and the teller says "oh you lost it in NY?" "uh.. yeah... (did I mention that?)" "oh, here's a number for you apparently someone found your wallet and wants to arrange to pick it up" WTF. So some dude had everything all along? A bit fucking late now Missy. So here she asks if I still want a card or if I want to call this dude and I'm like, uh, I need money now, I've been stranded and I need money to get everything sorted out, so hooray for a new debit card, except that they make it a savings account which is fine until they want to charge me $5 for an email transfer instead of the $1.50 so now I have to go back tomorrow and change it. Karen also seems to think I should go to the main office and complain about the message not being relayed to me and get an apology or compensation which I guess I could do but I can't be bothered. I get home and call this number the teller gave me and it turns out that I hadn't left my purse in the cab but it had fallen off my arm just outside the party and this guy had picked it up and tried to find me by comparing the picture etc and decided to leave a message with the bank in the hopes they would contact me. I was half relieved but mostly irritated that they didn't hand it into the embassy or the police because I was calling the police all weekend to see if it had been handed in. At least I suppose it wasn't in dodgy hands and at least I suppose I don't have to apply for a new driver's license and also I was sad about losing my Real Groovy card but it's ok now. BUT IT'S SOOOOOOOOOO DUMB that someone had everything THE WHOLE TIME and my bank had a name and number THE WHOLE TIME I was stressed out and stranded in NY. So the guy who found it was from out of town with his sister, so she has it with her in Connecticut, my passport is in Connecticut. She is sending it to my address here asap, which was about a week ago so hopefully that arrives here soon.
I was able to meet up with Elysse before she left for Egypt which was good. We went to the Madison bar which apparently is a pretty popular student dive and is huge. We got there pretty late so only the lower basement bar was serving which had a million tvs going. We left pretty late so I got home and crashed afterwards. I tried to organise seeing Helen so she could witness my passport stuff but she wasn't free until Thursday so I basically slept all of Weds.
Thursday I went out and stopped by Niche to see Andrea and Frank, unfortunately Vanessa was there too. I said hey to her but basically ignored her the whole time because well, why waste my time? Clearly she was mad about that because WHO DARES (wins) to ignore her, because she decided to tell Andrea to tell me to get out of the kitchen (I was talking to Frank in there) because I no longer work there in which Andrea is like "it's Lian you loser." probably not those words exactly but basically. I mean, the nerve! She is such a lameoid. I mentioned it and the events of last month to Gail via email, not that it matters anymore, but nobody likes her. I've invited most people to my dinner this Friday, hopefully it gets back to her and the point that she's not invited. I was hoping to run into a couple of regulars and ask them along too but oh well, imagine if one of them mentioned it! Oh, I finally managed to finish the gymnast outfit for Andrew so I called him to come over and grab it, I also caught up with one of the older regulars, a really nice older woman, she's so adorable.
Afterwards I wandered down to get my passport photo taken and down to Helen's school for her to witness things but she didn't have her passport number on her, d'oh! So I would have to wait until the next day for that. I should have just written the number in and sent it on Friday but didn't, I waited for Pete's birthday dinner at The Red Room on Spadina/College which was fun but in hindsight I wasted a day/weekend to hand everything in, not that I wouldn't have gone to the dinner anyway.

So that's basically it so far. I totally slept through the Inauguration because I've been staying up until about 4am for the past few nights and uh, I couldn't really force myself to get up and dressed to go out, so I pretty much slept through history. Grats to me.

The only things coming up soon will be my hello/goodbye/birthday dinner this Friday which should be good. Hopefully Andrea and I will still go taboozing, maybe I'll make a snowman WHO KNOWS.

Happy birthday to me.

So I turned 22 yesterday, go me!

This is going to be short, in a couple of hours I'll be on a bus back to Toronto. THAT'S RIGHT! You heard me. I'm outta here bitches!

So my birthday was kind of uneventful. Besides the bombardment of facebook messages from friends and family (thanks guys <3) it could have been any other day. I will have something to show for it this year though, it may be a bit late BUT I WILL HAVE DRUNK PICTURES!

Anyway, so I woke up late and decided it was about time to buy a phone charger so I could maybe catch up with Sibod for the night as he had landed in NY the night before. So I wandered off to Chinatown and found myself a charger for $8, sweet. Spent a while wandering around some more wondering what to have for lunch and passing a couple Yum Cha places which has put me in the mood for it. I found myself somewhere else completely at some small mexican place which was pretty cute. Grilled corn and a cuban sandwich?! Yes please. Also a terrible espresso, I should probably know better by now.

Now what to do for the rest of my day? Lets check out the Met! Or not. I make my way over there, probably a bit too late. And oh, I have to check my bag and there's a huge line to do that? Hmm. I decided against that since I would only have just under 2 hours to see the place and I doubt that would have been long enough... maybe next time. So off I go to wander around central park again, this time in the snow! It had snowed most of Saturday so the Sunday afternoon I was strolling through there were families out with their sleds sliding down hills, it was cute and just like the movies. Little kids all bundled up and waddling around like penguins aww!

Afterwards I hung out at a cafe with a tea charging my phone and organising (kind of) something with Sibod. After a lot of phone related problems (credit, battery power) we meet up and head down to Little Italy for dinner. I ordered a mussel and linguini dish which wound up being a huuuuuge plate of about 30 black shelled mussels over linguini... 30?! I had flashbacks from my 19th birthday and the Occidental on Vulcan Lane with that giant pot of mussels... oh boy. I was soooo full. Couldn't even look at the cupcake Sibod bought me until about 4 hours later and then discovered it was too sweet to eat =(

When I got back to the apt a little while afterwards Jon and his friend Richard came back from their night out (fairly drunk) and hung out watching episodes of Chelsea Lately and discussing things like breast feeding and when the "right" time to ween them off it is, and hairdressing career moves. It was more entertaining then it sounds =p

Somehow it became 4am and I sat around not feeling tired and watching Eddie Izzard until 5am when I drifted off to sleep only to wake up to a Fedex guy buzzing the door.

Aaaaand that was my day-ish.

So I should be getting ready to head to the bus stop! I am kind of excited, but I still have about 10 hours on a bus to get through... whew.

Lets see what the next adventure is.

(probably my belated birthday celebration and me breaking some limbs from taboozing)

UP NEXT!

It's funny how tiny things all roll up into one big mess.

Just like katamari.

So I have no idea where to start with this one. Probably with blaming Jim the bartender for telling us about that 1929 party, damn it Jim. Something that starts out so innocently.. this whole ordeal kind of makes me think about how one small decision can change THE WHOLE FUTURE.

Ok, so I should stop doing that and carry on with the story.

So, Tasha and I spend new years eve scouring thrift stores and costume stores for our outfits for the evening (LITTLE DID WE KNOW...ok I'll stop that). We start off in Bedford again at the Salvation Army where I find the majority of my outfit, a purple flapper dress, long green bead necklace and a black sequined purse. Tasha manages to find a pretty awesome brown hat and couple dresses that she would like to try, but with no sight of a dressing room so I ask one of the workers there and it's fine "there are plenty of spaces at the back there, just hide behind something", great. We then head over to the East Village and wander around there, find something to eat and another thrift store with not much luck. We walk down 3rd ave 

(I think) and come across a weird little store with vintage clothes and toys/figurines run by this asian woman with really long fingernails (as in curled around long) dressed in some rainbow coloured baggy shirt and pink stripes running across her face. Yes strange. They only had the one rack of clothes, and again no changing room but we are successful at finding Tasha a brown dress to go with her brown hat, hurrah! Then of course we need feather masks as required on the invite so off we trot to Union Square to one of NY's biggest costume stores. Inside is everything one needs for... anything! Pirates, cowboys, aliens OH MY. We also buy Tasha a car phone charger because her cell is dead only to find out it doesn't work =/

So I'm going to fast forward and say that after that we headed back to where the car was and decided to drive around to Target on Flatbush Ave, picked up some shoes (yes, all out for this thing) and then tried to find our way to Williamsburg where we were staying... A metro map and a mini map in a guide book are not very sufficient for driving directions I'll tell you what. It also doesn't help that most streets in Brooklyn are one way and have street cleaning on certain days so one side you can't park Mon/Thurs and the other Tues/Fri. By the time we find a spot a couple blocks away I am just about ready for a nap. Of course we get back to the apt with all our loot and find out our key doesn't want to work in the front door so there we are jiggling around with this key for I don't know how long until someone hears us from upstairs (I guess) and comes down to let us in, "it jams sometimes because of the cold" which makes sense because the cold did the same to the back gate at work. So by now it's about 7.30 and I decide to take a nap and then get ready to go. In the purse I throw our masks, some lip balm, my whole wallet and wonder about my passport but then decide to throw that in there too. I offer some space in there for Tasha's money and keys but she declines. It hits around 9 and we decide maybe we should head out so up the stairs we go and out the first door TO FIND! To find that the radiator in front of the apt is spewing water everywhere like a fountain, wtf. Maybe we should tell the people upstairs? "yeah, we know it's going, can you leave a note for Charlie to call us when he gets in?" So... they know it's spouting water everywhere but choose to leave it like it is? Ok... So we go back inside and write a note, I'm feeling pretty helpless, I mean, wtf is that water going? Note written we're about to head out again when Tasha rushes downstairs for something ONLY TO FIND! Only to find that there are two leaks in the ceiling, one on the desk where her laptop was sitting for most of the night before she moved it 20 mins earlier to the bed (whew) and another on top of all the old roomie's stuff. Oh dear. So I find a bucket, thankfully a large one, nearby and put it underneath while Tasha takes care of the smaller leak in the room we were occupying. What more can we do? So off we go to edit the note to mention the leaks, lock the first door behind us, then wonder about how we'll get back in through the first door if it's going to be as hard to get in as earlier. So Tasha runs upstairs to talk to one of the guys who lives there (bound to love us by now) and ask when they'll be back etc so that if we can't get in at least someone will be around to let us in again. He agrees to not lock the door and runs back upstairs, but Tasha is not satisfied. Even if the door is unlocked the door handle doesn't turn so we wouldn't be able to get back in anyway... so a couple plasters and a bit of cardboard over the inside of the door (I don't even know what to call that part) later the door is easily pushed open (which leaves me worrying) and we head off to the subway, by this point it's already about 10:30.

Onto the train we go and not without some entertainment. Actually I'm not sure this happened on this night or the night before but I don't think I mentioned it in the last post. It's strange what happens on the subway sometimes, lots of people shouting something or another asking for change. This one occasion about 4 old black guys were all like "happy new year everyone, happy new year" and then started singing jingle bells while holding out a gift bag, they were actually pretty good, but a little scary. Oh and there was this one time, I think Tasha and I were heading back to the car in Brooklyn and there were these 3 kids, two of them "popular" and one of them like one of those kids that wants to fit in etc, it was kinda sad and funny at the same time. The loser kid reminded me of a Ben Lee character in The Rage in Placid Lake. One of the guys was talking on his cellphone (these kids couldn't have been more then 14) while the other loser kid was pretending to talk on his "oh yeah, you can't hang out today, oh ok, ha ha ha, see I have friends too but he can't hang out today" and then the other two were all like, go to the other side of the train "oh yeah, I get it, ha ha ha" and I'm pretty sure he was crying some or at least "pretended". Tasha and I were like wtf and trying not to smirk, I felt so sorry for the dude.

I think I drifted off topic there. Anyway, so we reach the end of line E which dropped us off at the world trade centre and we wander out trying to find this street, now as I said earlier, metro maps are terrible things to use for directions. We wander around and by this point it's waaaaay too cold to be anywhere outside so Tasha decides to wave down a cab. We hop in and tell him where to go, get driven around the block and told to walk down one street and we'll hit the road we want, Tasha pays the $5 it costs and we get out and walk down to where this party is. By now it's about 11pm and the line to get into this thing is huge. We wander down the end of the line and ask how fast it's moving but apparently they only just got there as well. I'm thinking it's probably best if we go somewhere else then look down TO DISCOVER! To discover that my purse is no longer swinging on my arm AWW SHIT.

So of course we panic. We start heading back the way we walked, but I'm pretty sure I left it in the back of that cab, Tasha waves down another and asks what we can do, maybe they can radio around or something but all we get is "call 311" so it's off to a payphone. So I call them and they file a report "blah blah blah call this number in the morning see if anything's been picked up, that's about all you can do blah blah blah." Terrific. Also I couldn't feel my hands after that call so we run into the McDonalds across the road to warm up. She buys me a latte and some chicken nuggets (neither of us had eaten since lunch) and we're talking about what I can do when I look at the time and it's 0009, well happy new year. So not only do I lose my passport and my wallet, I also get to be in McDonalds when the clock hits and finish my 10 year streak of boycotting anything by McDs. Greatest start to the year ever. Thank goodness for Chinese new year.

So we decide to head back to the apt and on the train are some drunk kids trying to open a bottle of something without a corkscrew. With some kind of lighter they end up pushing it down into the bottle but not far enough, maybe if they had a pen? So this one chick starts stumbling around asking if any of us had a pen they could use. Hmm. We get off the train and start running back to the apt because it's freeezing, race up the stairs, try the front door AND someone removed our device and now we're locked out. The night just keeps getting better. Luckily though we had moved Tasha's car just around the block so off we run to get out of the cold and she drives it just down the street from the apt so that we can keep an eye on the door in case someone comes back. Annoyingly we can see that the guy in the upstairs apt is home but of course their buzzer is broken so we sit and wait. Thankfully not long afterwards Charlie, Matt's roomie comes home and opens the front door with ease and Tasha runs after him. So there we are with some other guy we don't know and the radiator still spouting water in the hallway and he is freaking out about it. Wait til we tell him about the leaks in the ceiling. Turns out that the basement where the boiler is has flooded as well, yay! So here come the firemen to turn off the boiler and hot water much to our pleasure because of course that means that the house is stone cold and Tasha and I get to sleep in near freezing conditions. I love 2009 already!

Morning comes and Tasha is due to head home, thank goodness she didn't leave her keys and money with me. She lends me $100 and drops me off at the hostel I'm staying at next. From there I have access to phone and internet so I try and figure out my next steps and I call the numbers I've been given for the lost and found precincts the first who was none too helpful. So I basically figure out that I can't do anything until Monday because the 1st and 2nd are considered holidays and the consulate has weekends off, zzz. So I decide not to stress so much about it and get whatever I can ready for Monday. Fast forward and I'm told that I can get an ETD ( emergency travel document) that will get me to TO in no time and from there I can apply for a new passport. If I get everything sent off today then possibly I could get it by Weds. Of course I need to go file a report at the police station etc. So I go to the first precinct and file a report with some angry police woman. I'm not sure if what I was given counts as a copy of the police report so I ask Amy who is my case worker at the consulate and she's not sure either so is waiting for a reply from Jason who is in charge of processing it. A couple delays later I get a reply and am running to find a post office before 5, I get everything sent out to DC but then there's delay in finding a confirmation that Mum paid for the processing fee and I'm still here in NY waiting for it, thinking perhaps it would have taken the same amount of time to just get the passport.

So it's now Friday the 9th. I've been staying at Joey's mum's friends apt in the west village for a week and I'm hoping that my ETD turns up today. I haven't done too much besides sorting all this mess out but I have been wandering around a bit. The other day I went to Chinatown and Little Italy and visited the buddhist temple there with a giant gold statued buddha which was pretty neat. I've also walked around Greenwich village and along Bleecker Street scouring record stores for K again to no avail, although one guy recognised the name which was a good sign, I was beginning to think she'd made them up! Wandering up Bleecker St I came across this little bakery that had a huge line up waiting outside to get in, Magnolia's? I take a peek inside and nothing looks at all worth the wait but I find out later that it's a huge tourist attraction because it was featured in Sex and the City, hooray? I've also watched way too much TV lately. It's strange how NY is everywhere in TV and films, well, perhaps not strange really, but Jon, the friend I'm staying with, was saying that it's always Manhattan that gets destroyed in disaster films, and it's true. I don't remember where else I've been. I went to Coney Island yesterday, mostly because I remember it being mentioned in a DCFC song. It took forever to get there, mostly because it was at the end of the line in Brooklyn. It's basically a carnival area with freakshows and rides etc and in summer they have things on the beach. When I arrived though it was all closed down for the winter and the whole place was desolate. The beach was a proper beach though! I walked around a bit and took some creepy photos and then left because, well, it was kind of scary. I still have yet to go to the Met. Apparently I should try and make it so perhaps today.

Ok so that's all of NY that I can recall... Hopefully I have some better news coming later.

xo.

New York, before it all went horribly wrong.

So this is an account of my first few days in NYC written before the happenings of a fairly ridiculous and unfortunate new years eve, written that same morning. Notice how I mention the snow not boding well for the rest of the night? SIGNS LIAN, SIGNS.

And on the 4th day, it snowed.

So I've been in NYC since Sunday the 28th, since arriving the weather has been pretty warm (by comparison to Toronto standards) highs between 8 and 13 and lows between maybe 0 to 2 or 3 and sunny! The day before the turn of the year though and I wake up to snow. WTF. This does not bode well on nye celebrations, at least though, it's not raining, although some others prefer rain to snow, I'd rather get slightly colder than slightly wet. Although a low of -10 is dumb.

So what's happened so far? And why am I writing about it while I'm still there? The former coming in a min, the latter, well, I guess I have a free moment to update, and what better than while it's still fresh in my mind? (I know, preposterous)

So after leaving Toronto late on a Megabus (a double decker!) and being delayed at customs in Buffalo (close to 2 hours!) I finally make it to NYC 11 hours later. Thankfully I had a row of seats to myself and could kind of get some sleep on the way there. Anywho, the first day there I spent wandering around 42nd st which was near my hostel, so basically:

Times Square, which was less of a square that I thought it was going to be. It wasn't all that exciting to be completely honest. I went into the info centre which had up on display the new years ball from 2007/2008 and every half hour would do a count down with the lights going etc, apparently this year is a WHOLE NEW EXCITING BALL that will be revealed tonight =O What was also neat was they had a wishing wall where people would write their resolutions or wishes etc on bits of paper that would be collected up and used as confetti on the night, sweet. Other than that the so called square was less exciting and more flashy than expected.

Grand Central Station, which was a pretty neat structure, loved the archways and stairwells, they also had every half hour some kaleidoscope show where they would do pretty lights etc on the inside walls for 8 mins, some really nice patterns, yay lights?

Rockerfeller Centre, which spanned like 4 blocks I think, there were some pretty neat designs/carvings scattered around on various buildings. I went and saw the tree there with the trumpeting angels, tried to get some good photos but there were "pictures with the tree" staff wandering around trying to sell the space to tourists for $40 a photo or something rediculous, so I may have some random strangers in there. It was way crowded that Sunday, mainly because they were opening the skating rink just below the tree, I'm pretty sure it's the only one in the city besides the one in Central Park.

Then I wandered around to Union Square, and on recommendation went to Wholefoods for lunch. It was basically a supermarket, but all organic etc and has this amazing salad bar. They were so busy that they had like 30 checkouts or something silly, and they had a weird/smart system for it where there were 2 groups of 5 lines, each line had a colour. Basically you would chose the shortest line and each line of colour on the screen would light up whichever cashier was free and so on. Weird. It's also funny that I told Tasha (the girl I'm spending new years with here from Chicago) that I was told to go to Wholefoods as a must do while I was here as she has it also in Chicago and never really thought of it as a destination, although it is pretty good. So I ate lunch in the park, wandered around the stalls there then made my way up to Strand Bookstore to browse a million used/new books. They basically had every book on everything you ever want, which was troublesome because I really had no idea what I was looking for. But it was fun nonetheless.

Afterwards I just headed back to the hostel and magically it turned into the next day.

Day 2!

Day two finds me making my way to Hostelling International to see what time check in is, and if I can leave my bag there while I go out exploring. Turns out that check in is not until 4pm, and sure I can leave my bag there, "just remember to put your bag inside BEFORE you put in your $5"... wait, what? $5 for a locker? Wow. Nevermind then, I'll be back later.

So I spend most of Monday with both my bags on looking homeless (a pretty kind of homeless carying an expensive camera under my coat) wandering around Central Park before making my way to Brooklyn. Central Park during the winter is not so pretty, though I did get some nice photos over the resevoir. I navigate my way over to Bedford ave in Brooklyn, both bags in tow, in aims of browsing record stores and finding some mysterious band from the 80s for Karen called The Normil Hawaiians. With 3 in the vicinity, all with a pretty good reccommendation, no luck! Although I did buy a compilation cd with all sorts of good people on there. Bedford is a pretty cool ave, apparently pretty hip, didn't get much of a chance to browse around, but little did I know I would be back later... dun dun dun.

So anywho, the rest of the plan was to make my way over to the Brooklyn Bridge and walk over it, so 3 different trains and transfers later I was there! It was pretty busy and windy, but neat. After that I decide to skip Wall St as planned because it was getting late and headed straight for the Staten Island Ferry instead to catch the Statue of Liberty in the beautiful orange of dusk. Aww.

So it's about 6:30 by the time I reach the mainland again and I decide that that was a good time to go ahead and check in to HI. Basically hung out there waiting for Tasha to show up, although poor her, left late because her friend got called into court that morning (he's a lawyer) and they didn't leave til about 11:30am, which meant she got in at about 3am, which also included them getting lost trying to find some other place and finding parking in Brooklyn and then finding her way up to the Upper West Side... whew.

Tuesday!

Tuesday Tasha and I make our way back to Brooklyn to put our stuff in her car and most of the day was spent panicing about this guy we were staying with not calling us back about it, and also wandering around Brooklyn and the downtown area, and trying to find Williamsburg thinking it was walkable when really it wasn't. Nothing really mentionable happened most of the day, we went to lunch/breakfast at Perch on 5th Ave, walked around, took the subway random places, until we ended up again on 5th Ave at Bar Ries which we decided to stop at and wait until we heard from Matt, our host for the next couple of days. The bartender there was pretty cool, Tasha and I were sitting there with our drinks at the bar and our map out trying to decide on plans for the following day and what ever were we going to do for new years? When suddenly! Or perhaps more with ease our bartender asked where we were going, so we explained about our perdicament and ta-da! He was going to a 1929 new years party, with a passcode and masks and everything and if we wanted to go he would fwd an email on to us (sweet!) so afterwards we preceded to talk about random things like how we met if we were from Chicago and Toronto/NZ and about NZ and Montreal and Chicago and Music and also if we wanted to share any of his Chinese food that he ordered just after we arrived. After a couple of drinks and a phone call from Matt later (whew) we find out that he's not back until 10:30 so Bedford is a good place to hang out while we waited. By then it was about 8:30/9 and we hadn't eaten yet so it was goodbye and thanks to the bartender (after we fixed his fridge door that had fallen in from being sat on by him) and off to Bedford for dinner. A whole meal and a half later, and also a coffee we get a call with directions to Matt's house, hooray!
Did I mention how terrible those directions were? I think we spent about an hour traversing the area of Williamsburg, unable to get a hold of Matt for proper directions, and trying to decipher what information we had been given. After a really long while I get a reply as to the address of the place and by that time we had found a dairy not even close to where we were meant to be and borrowed a phone which of course left us no point in trying to call him. Luckily though we were just in time to exit the dairy before 3 police cars show up outside and walk in after us... whew.
So finally we make it, Matt with a look of confusement as to what took us so long to get there and us with a shrug of shoulders as we had previously discussed not to bring up his giant amount of fail... since of course he was doing us a favour, and of course neither of us knew him that well, Tasha only through working with his mother. So all settled in and ready for a fun day tomorrow.

Aww.

I was so tempted to edit some of that and add in things like LITTLE DID WE KNOW THAT WOULD BE OUR DOWNFALL... and things like BUT OF COURSE THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN...
But I'll leave that as is.

Chapter two next!