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.
