Year Two: Electric Boogaloo

I have returned! Let the party begin! On Thursday I arrived, with my daddy accompanying me as driver/purchaser/moral support/furniture mover and assembler. We greeted Katherine, Emily, and Nate, all of whom promptly sloped off to the Toronto metropolitan area for, respectively, a weekend at home and a wedding. This was actually kind of good, because:

a) I had some time with Dad. Even if we were very busy, it was nice to have him to myself, just to talk.

b) There was nobody around to bother by heaving furniture about and Polyfilla'ing things at all hours.

For his part, Dad was very tolerant and we did actually manage to have fun, an impressive feat, considering the time frame and our massive to-do list. We have been running about for the past four or five days trying to get my room sorted out and find a coffee table. The coffee table search has made me feel like the Knights of Nih: "Nothing fussy -- just something with a little shelf underneath, so as to create a two-level effect. And not too expensive!" It's been impossible. But, luckily, before Dad's departure to the airport today, we found something we liked in Ikea. So I don't have to order anyone to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with... a herring! Anyway, Dad and I had fun. We bought and assembled a desk (three hours of glee) and various other things, picked up stuff from Greyhound, and squeezed in a couple of meals out and a movie. Red Eye is not recommended, except for the extensive and entertaining post-film "how could this movie be retooled so as not to suck?" debate. We decided that one would have to change, essentially, the entire concept of the movie. Close, Wes Craven, but no cigar.

Last night we went out for dinner with Katherine, who had returned from Toronto. It was a productive dinner because we finally figured out what colour our carpet is: sauteed gazania! Today we went to the Market in the late morning. We succeeded in choosing a rug from a Persian rug store on Sussex Drive (the latest intelligence says that Bailey is quite taken with the rug and spent about ten minutes licking it and making friends. I look forward to the video). Then, after a turbo-powered run through Ikea, it was time for Dad to go to the airport. We had sandwiches and a touching farewell, and I caught the bus back with no disasters. Actually, today has been quite the retail extravaganza, as once I'd seen Dad off, Katherine and I ventured east to an Italian speciality store and a Pier 1, where we bought lentils, vegetable stock, cold cuts, and a chair (I'll leave you to guess which we got at each store, mmkay?). Then we picked up such exciting items as a bathmat, a throw pillow, and a knife block! The chair's bulk forced us to cab it back to the apartment. As my cousin Christopher would say, we have done consumerism. Then we went for coffee with Emily, after she locked herself out of her apartment. The big excitement there is that she's found out about a production of Grease the campus theatre company is putting on. We are soitenly auditioning!

In the evening, I was forced to call my family to ensure that Dad had returned home safely, because nobody called me to tell me this. Silly family! But all is well, and all is well, and all manner of things shall be well.