Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy-Jig

Well! After traipsing about Atlantic Canada over the last two weeks--first to Fredericton, then to my hometown Newfoundland, I can safely say I'm glad to be back in my own domestic space. There are just too many things to tell, so maybe I'll just give you the memorable highlights:

Fredericton

*en route to Fredericton, I was mistaken twice for being a man. Got called "sir" and everything (once by the woman at Tim Horton's and again by the guy working the toll booth on the Cobequid Pass). I must say, I find it quite amusing. Okay, I'm hardly a femme, but I'm not that butch. I think the only bothersome part about it really is the apology that ensues after the error has been realized.
*in Fredericton, the E-bay Queen and I cruised around in his little Miata, top rolled back, playing music and singing at the tops of our lungs. The Wig Box song (from Hedwig and the Angry Inch--have you seen it? If not, you must!) wins the prize as theme song for that particular part of our trip--though it did encounter some stiff competition from Luba ("Everytime I See Your PIcture I Cry" and "No More Words") and from that really awful song by Charlene (80s--the Disco Lassie would understand) called "I've Never Been to Me" (Otherwise known as the opening torchsong to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert).
*the Renaissance Eeyore and I biked along the very beautiful trail that goes along the river in Fredericton and the next went hiking (e-Bay Queen in tow) at Mactaquac--a provincial park just outside the city. Absolutely glorious!
*on the return trip to Halifax, I introduced the Psycholesbian and The Queen of Sheba to the above soundtrack. The Queen declared "I've Never Been to Me" to be a "three-cigarette song." Only a drag queen could really get away with it, clearly.
*the Psycholesbian has rechristened the town of Truro "Canpar": she fell asleep along the way home and awoke only when we stopped in an "unknown location." The Queen and I didn't tell her where we were. The most prominent sign in sight was the Canpar sign. Hereafter shall Truro be known to us as Canpar.

Newfoundland

*most of my trip was spent doing what (Newfoundland) Catholics call "the corporal works of mercy": visiting the sick and suffering. (A now defunct Newfoundland comedy troupe once modeled sketches on this phenomenon--sketches with titles like "Sad Catholics at Christmas" and "The Wake of the Week." Newfoundland Catholics, it seems centre so much of their lives around grief and suffering that it has become a joke--though it does seem that we have a disproportionate number of reasons for the grief and suffering than most!) I spent most of my trip visiting my grandmother, who suffered a stroke almost a year ago now. She now lives is a senior citizens home and is quite unhappy. The visits are usually difficult because she and I have always been quite close and she is desperate to communicate with me, but she cannot because her speech has been quite hampered by the stroke. At the same time, she is quite aware and alert. In a way, her misery is increased by the fact that she is so aware. I also visited my great-aunt several times, who, two weeks ago, underwent a triple by-pass heart surgery. And, finally, while I was home, my first cousin )once removed suffered a stroke. He was only 55 years old. I come from avery small town. There are essentially two main families with my surname. This man was from the other family, but given the size of the town, the families have always been quite close. Last year, when my grandmother had her stroke, this particular cousin insisted that my grandmother should have been given a particular drug, widely used to counteract the effects of a clot stroke (which my grandmother had had. There are two kinds of stroke: clot strokes and bleeding strokes). So when he had his stroke last week (also a clot stroke), he was aware enough to insist that he be given this drug. The drug has a 4.7% chance of actually producing the second kind of stroke: the bleeder (which is much more difficult to contain once it happens and is often fatal). He fell into that 4.7%. He died on July 1, the day after I left to come home to Halifax.
*in the face of all the above, what I am now about to describe may seem rther odd. But there were some other quite lovely and fun moments to the trip as well. One of the highlights was hiking the cliffs along the coast one beautiful Saturday morning. The sun was out, it was warm, and there were icebergs in the bay. And what a stunning view! I could even see the early morning mist burning off at the edges of the craggy coastline. I definitely longed for a camera. One day, I will have a digital camera and will be able to show you all the sights.
*my mother also cooked "da feed": corned beef, greens, all the veggies, and a turkey to boot! And another day, she made me cod tongues, fried in fat back pork. Heart attack on a plate, yes, but it was damn good!
*and I got to hang out with my oldest friend (whom I've known since I was a toddler). We drove to her husband's hometown (an hour and a half drive that seemed to take only 10 minutes) for a big party. The most peculiar thing about that was that Clarenville (the town in question) seems to have instituted an unofficial ban on tonic water. I decided I wanted to drink gin and tonic. But we spent an hour trying to find it! Four grocery stores and two pharmacies later, there was still no tonic water to be found. The labels for it were there though. The strangest thing ever, it was. (that's my Yoda voice)

And throughout all this travel, there has been another quite important ongoing development. E-mail and the telephone have enabled my connection with the woman I met here at the Stupids a month ago (yet to have her own handle in the blog--that will have to change...I'll think about it) to blossom. She is coming back to Halifax in 9 days to stay here for about 10 days! Yay! Only 9 more sleeps. More on this later...

Now: haven't I just run the emotional gamut in the last couple of weeks? And you wonder why I haven't had time to blog.

Posted by Bush Whacker at July 2, 2003 08:03 PM