In which Riot calms down, settles in, and gears up

My house is a very, very, very fine house.

Well, it's more like a flat than a house. Maybe an apartment, but I'll stick with flat.

I'm living in a brick building with a nice big stoop and a wroght iron spiral staircase in the back. It's beautiful, and it's doomed. The highway, of which my bedroom window provides such an excellent view, is falling to pieces. Because it's such a pathetic piece of shit, it needs to be rebuilt. In order to rebuild THAT highway, they have to build TEMPORARY highway. The temporary highway will run straight through the Quatier des Tanniers.

It's really hard to imagine that this space, which has been SO FULL of so much life and excitement over the past few months, wont even exist this time next year. Instead of being a home to some of the most beautiful, strong, and intelligent women I've ever met, this space will have thousands of cars TEMPORARILY re-routed through it.

It really is something special, to be living with such incredible people. Not that I don't love or respect the people I've lived with in the past, but I feel like my eyes have opened wider and my pre-dispositions have been challenged, possible destroyed.

Last night I watched Danielle, clothed in her pretty red dress and big rubber boots, jump into a dumpster and fish out a kings ransome in spinach.

Today I watched Marina feed the spinach left overs to the tub of worms in the living room. She cooed at them, and apologized for having neglected them over the past month.

I missed the screening, but Wednesday Devo showed her short animated film, "Beer is cheaper than Therapy".

It's only the first weekend of June, but there's already something very different about this summer. I can tell that I'm a different person now, and that I'm stronger than I ever have been.

Since leaving Halifax, two of my past lovers have slept in my room, and I had drinks alone with another.

Not even tempted.

Not only am I totally in love(!), but I feel like I'm past the point of needing physical intimacy in order to feel wanted, welcome, worthy, etc. I feel confident that I can interact with people on a level now in a way that doesn't require attraction (physical or otherwise). I can just be friends. Just hang out. Just walk and laugh and cook and talk and sleep (really sleep) with people. No tension, no assumptions. My legs and my armpits are furry, I haven't put anything on my face other than water in months, my clothes are filthy and I eat out of the garbage. And I'm not afraid, not of what they're thinking at least.

Maybe this time I'll get it right. Maybe now I can be by myself and really thrive. I do find it a little hilarious that in order to finally be succesfully "single", I had to find the right partner.

I miss home a lot. I'm definitely doing that thing where in my mind, time in Halifax is standing still. I imagine that I'll go home and things will be exactly as I left them, but I know deep down that isn't the case. Things are moving on without me, and it will be weird, but I'm still so excited to get back to Halifax and step right into the swing of things.

I have big BIG plans!

In which Riot is a big, bougie hypocrite

we're sitting in quite a chic spot in the most beautiful neighborhood in Montreal. You can tell this place has class because everything is decorated in black & red, and the curtains are velvet.
Here we are, in Montreal to celebrate with friends, learn and teach, and patronize the 10th Anarchist bookfair. He we are, drinking coffee, playing chess, and using a laptop in a high class cafe in a sickeningly gentrified neighborhood.
How many punk points do we lose?
I feel like maybe I should be sleeping in a bush to balance out for this. Sort of like buying carbon credits with your air plane ticket. Maybe I'm over analyzing this?
Laura Bee is writing something beautiful on a napkin. Laurie and Peter are playing a beautiful game of chess, and I am at ease.
Maybe this city isn't so bad?
Maybe I can overlook the fact that in the last week in Halifax I found both a sushi dumpster and an ice cream dumpster?
Maybe I'll be so alone here, but since it will have been my decision I wont spend 3 months resenting my self and my mind. Maybe instead I will embrace and expand my mind, learn to love myself, and develop any sort of latent potential I've got.
Maybe I'll go crazy and bail and go running back to my daddy.
Shall we take bets?

In which Riot takes the first step toward recovery by admitting she procrastinates

Well that didn't quite work out now, did it?
I'm such a Tigger. I always start things with such zeal and then let it all fall to bits.
Maybe I'm just a shitty writer? I mean, of course I'm a shitty writer, and here's your proof. But maybe I'm just not meant to log this shit away? I'm a shitty photographer, too.

My entire universe has shifted in the past few months, and it's not even close to done yet. Maybe that's what life is supposed to be like - constantly getting tugged out from under your feet, and then you've got to scurry to stay on top of it, otherwise you get taken for a ride. Not that I feel completely side-swiped by recent events, some of them have been quite amazing! In fact, I truely feel that despite all the suffering I've felt this winter/spring, I am I happier person and there is very little I would change.

The plan is to take off in 2 weeks. I've given my notice at the best job I've ever had, I'm leaving my first apartment, my loving parents, and now the best damn group of friends I've ever had.

Am I fucking crazy?

Yes. And I plan on getting much crazier this summer. I want to push myself to the limit and actually EXIST in this world and feel alive and like maybe life isn't just a bunch of shit that we put ourselves through because we're too afraid to die.

One of the weirder parts is that I was excited to go off and live a new life in a new city and become a responsible adult and go to school and maybe get a job where I have to appear and behave according to someone else's standards to get a lot of money, but in a flash that's all become such an obviously crap goal! I want to go and make friends and breath air coming out of trees I've never seen before and make music and make art and do everything on my own terms.

And then I want to come back.
No, I have to come back. So many people just itch to get away from their home town so they can go somewhere "better". Maybe the reason that I stuck around here for my entire 21+ years is because there is no "better"! This is "best"! No only is it an amazing place to call home, but it's like an awesomeness magnet, and the most wonderful people in the world are coming and building and sharing and staying and HOW COULD I LEAVE THIS FOREVER?

I feel inspired and encouraged and admired and challenged and eager. And I feel love! Instead of me running away from my neuroses and fear and insecurities, I'm now prepared to go off and adventure and learn, and then bring back everything I'll gather for my friends. Extend the magnet of awesomeness to the far reaches of this country, and then reel it all back in.

Mmm.