IIl take my chances

3 months and counting.

really, Im suprised
we've made
it this long!

well...not really
I hold to my original
prediction of 7 months...
though if we could make 9...
or forever...that would be alright too...

I hope that I get to talk to you today...
but if your reading this days from now
and we did not...please dont fret...
its not even a week until I see you!
and I have to say that I expect that it
will be wonderful.

there's a T.S. Eliot quote I love:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

may this be true of us dear...
not just now but through
the remainder of our days.

I love you faith.
Happy 3 months.

thats right...all the tea

Im tired,
which means this will either
be short...
or long and ramble-y

the day was full of interesting
characters...
and a desperate attempt to
find clothes that would make
me look "summery"
(not as easy as you might think)

Dean drove in from Calgary today.
Which was lovely...
and exactly what I needed.
I have alot of people here
whose company I enjoy...
and who think that Im neat.
But really, I miss my friends
my real friends...

Its been months since I've seen
him (he was in Sicily)
and it was wonderful...
just to sit, and talk to him
about G-d, about girls,
(he left his in Sicily)
about the difference between
"loving" someone...
and "being in love" with them.
(Im "in love" with you...apparently)

When hours had passed we sat and looked
through all the photos he had taken.
It was lovely to think as a looked
through his pictures of florence
(which were quite good, even by my standards)
that you could be there right now.
what a beautiful place...
and Im sure the photos capture only a fraction of it.
I'll never like not being with you faith,
but I suppose that if it must be so...
its better that it be in such a heavenly place.

I think that I will go back to Calgary with him
this Monday...I have too many people to speak with...
too many people to see, to be there for only one day.

Dean is trying to get me to come to Japan with him...
(he's there for 1 year starting this september with JET)
you should probably get him to stop ;)

I have to get up early today...
Im touring through my Uncle's building.
so I should jet to bed.

but I have to say that
I hardly missed you at all today...
there was simply no room...
I was much too excited about seeing you
to think of anything else.

we'd wander through it

I wanted to let you know right away
that there was something wrong with
my ticket.

It says that Im leaving on the 23rd...
and it seems to me thats too soon.
I know you'll be tired of me...
but the Tour de France ends in
Paris on the 24th!

hmm...
apparently I make an appearance
in jeremy's book...
and I say some wise type things
(its fiction)

we are watching
war photographer...
that documentry about
James Nachtwey.

I have seen it many times...
its something I just like to sit
down and watch every now and again.
(is that strange)

I find his Photos compelling in the
same way that I think you find Klimt compelling.
I am moved incredibly
by both the perfection of his
composition, and the
symbolism and emotion
he can find in a moment stilled.

Ill make you a deal.
You can hang a giant print of
"The Kiss" on one wall.
If I can hang a Nachtwey print on another.

sigh.
I love that you have such a passion for art,
for music, for everything!

I hope you were capivated today,
by something you can tell me all about soon.

apparently
you had sent an e-mail to rachet telling
her that Renee was the reason your not in Scotland.
both her and kat are quite...annoyed.
Im sure Renee won't mind that you've made her
2 enemies for life ;)

also...
it turns out that rachet is
sojourning to Ghana this october

you are lovely...
and
as these last days
go by without you...
I miss you even more.

love you.

in the picture your right beside me

another day gone.
and thank G-d for it.

it was just work.
but that was good...
real good.

energy drinks were on sale
at the shoppers next door...
that may have had something to
do with it.

I'm fairly good at meeting people.
Good enough that its awkward sometimes...
My delivery driver asked me out to lunch today...
which was odd...
but turned out better than I would have thought
he asked some questions that made me think.

yes...it is 9 days now.
I know that we'll likely get to talk
only once more before Im there.
Can it be on the 9th?
I know that it might not work out,
and that would be alright.
But I would sure like it to.

Gah.


Im so glad your going to Vienna.
I know there is much that you'd like to see there.
I spent some time looking at "The Kiss" tonight...

It will be so nice to have you kiss me
with eyes like you'd never leave
and tell me that all my silly fears were for nothing.

yours were, I assure you.

if you want to be my girl

small pockets of odd culture form everywhere...
groups of people drawn together by common
goals or passion...

one of the oddest ones Ive come across
is the Grounders Crews here in Regina.
I went out to play with them tonight,
with my sisters, the handsome, and some
friends from Calgary.

Its a childs game, which Im sure you know
the rules of...but almost every night
at this place known as "Grounders Central"
people gather to play.
Tonights game was good.
I hope its alright that your 24 year old boyfriend
likes to play playground games every now and again.

my sisters are odd.
(though they swear that Im odd-er-er)
I offer as proof a quote from our expedition to Costco
this very day.

The were arguing about something,
when suddenly Rachet yells (loudly)

"I should have killed you when
I had the chance...
in the womb!"

are you sure you want to be apart of this family?

When I received your first e-mail today,
I got ahold of this girl that I used to date in Calgary.
She works the UofC paper there, and, I remembered
was doing a research paper last year
on the practice of prostitution
in Europe by foreign women. Anyway, when I told her
about your experience she was horrified.
("It can happen to anyone Jae...don't feel bad")
Her interest now renewed, she is planning to do an article
about it for the first issue of this years paper. She would
be very interested in interviewing you when you get back...
and I told her that we could probably make time when you
got back to Calgary, and that I would try to convince you
that sharing your story could prevent the same thing
happening to others. I really think you should.
Her name is Chelsey, and she'll probably try and get
ahold of you by e-mail this week.

Let me tell you what I didnt like about today...
it was lovely, and I didnt have to work...
and this one thing almost ruined it.
I was driving home in the Echo...
when I saw...stretched out before me....
perfection.
A tall slender man in a large hat and very short
pastel shorts was walking with his tiny dog beside
the largest puddle I had seen in days.

"You have to do it", I thought to myself.
"It's perfect....and that dog looks just like your G-ma's"
(I hate that dog)

I nudged the steering wheel to the left...
and accelerated.
but choked with 5m to go...
re-correcting
and missing the puddle entirely

"I couldnt do it!"

"If Jiminy Cricket was your conscience...
he would puke in his hat", said Kat from the Back.

sigh. next time.

One of the many things I love about you Faith
is that your not dry-clean only. Not that I would...
but I feel like I could ask you to come with me anywhere.
That you could be as happy sleeping on a park bench
as a feather bed...is one of the many reasons Ill try to
keep you forever.

keeping that in mind,
I have booked our hostels in Prague.
You may regret leaving me responsible...
time shall tell.

have a wonderful day babe.

I love you!

get in the plane and fly

he sat down at a table
teeming with various odd folk.

"listen", he said,
"Im not going to lie to you...
right now my girlfriend is
whoring it up on the streets
of Rome so she can buy
bread to eat"

there were some gasps...
some nods of concern...

"so, If you don't mind...
I'm going to try terribly
hard to take your money"

yip...I played poker tonight.

(you may have questions asked
when you get back...I was fairly
convincing...and might have forgotten
to tell some of them I was joking.)

Im fairly good at it...
which means that I should never play.
This is one of your duties as my girlfriend
incidently...to keep the legendary Reichel
gambling problem at bay.
I do well, to be fair...
but inevitably, I have the same problem
that my father and brother have...
I can not entirely convince myself
that odds cannot be charmed like peoples.

enough of that.

your in Rome!
I cant tell you how
much I wish I was
there with you...

even just to be in the Vatican...
to be able to walk through the Sistine Chapel...
I think it would make me cry.
I hope you won't mind going back...
(Rome sits comfortably at #7 on my list.)

oki...I know that your going to ignore this
but Im going to write it anyway...
please, please, let know if you've run out of money.
I know that you are horribly proud
which I both love and hate...
but I know that if lucky
(about 7 years and 3 continents from now)
all of my money will be yours anyway.

alright, Id write more....
but I suspect you'd just skip over it.

Ill leave it up to you to decide about Prague.
There are some practical concerns I know...
its about a 6 hour train trip I think...
(munich ----> prague)
which means it would be quite late when we arrived.
this is fine by me of course.
but I havent been traveling for the last month...
I suspect, that even with someone as handsome as me...
its possible you might have grown abit weary of travel.
I've found some hostels that look interesting...
but none of them seem to be very busy.
I would love to see Prague.
But thats not what this trip is about.
(Besides, I totally get to pick where we go next time)
I'll hold off on booking anything until I hear from you.
I really am alright with anything you'd like to do...
I just want to be there with you.

small chance that Im heading up to Melfort tomorrow...
if so, Ill simply have to drop in on your family
(dont worry...my mother will be with me)

love you.