It doesn't relate to this entry, I just thought it was a while since I posted a picture.
ANYWAYS, last Friday I met with a friend of mine to chat about a documentary he wants to make (he actually does this for a living!). We were on Commercial and we finished around 1 PM. I was meeting some friends way down Broadway, but not until that evening, so I figured I'd go for a good, long walk. Pump up my pedometer a little. I still have a great time exploring this city, I had time to kill. Whatever, I like long walks! I'm not on trial here!
So I'm walking for about 20 minutes when I see a little computer store across the street. Those of you who have been following my enthralling blog (or "enthralblog") know I am currently in the market for a netbook. So I cross the street and go in.
The first thing I see is this guy, Mike. He works from time to time as a contractor at the place where I had been working (before this bout of unemployment. I'll tell you about it sometime). He didn't recognize me without my shirt and tie, but I said "hi" and we chatted for a bit. Okay, not so bad, right? Hi, nice to see you, getting your computer fixed? No, we have no netbooks, we have no netbooks today. So I keep walking.
Keep in mind that this is not my neighbourhood and it's nowhere near where I used to work. Vancouver is a large city, from what I've been told. Therefore, running into someone like that is a bit unusual.
I keep walking for a while and I finally reach my destination for the evening, about four hours early. I figured I would pop into the nearest Starbucks, order something large and sweet, crowbar myself into one of those cushy chairs and play PSP or write some notes for a few hours. There are worse ways to spend your afternoon when you're unemployed.
First things first, however. I go to the washroom, "freshen up" (by expelling urine from my bladder), then as I walk out of the washroom I see something in the cafe that I did not see coming in:
MY FORMER BOSS
Not the one from the job I just had, the one from the job I had prior to that, which I had escaped with the last remaining shreds of my dignity and sanity, balls thoroughly busted. She was having a meeting with the other regional bosses. Her back was to me. I have no idea whether or not she saw me, but I got the hell out of that place. Of all the Starbucks in all the world...
So I go, quivering, to another cafe across the street and attempt to calm myself with an iced chai. This place was bigger, and it had a whole separate section with big comfy chairs. As soon as an opening presented itself, I plopped into one of the seats and settled my ass in for a good afternoon's relax. Of course, I don't think this would be a very interesting post if that was the end of it...
Right smack in the middle of the room was this woman. I hadn't seen her in about, ooo, seven years. We had been in a couple of plays together, but she had become distant and unfriendly for some reason and I wrote her off as a cow. THIS WAS BACK IN EDMONTON, remember.
Chances are, whoever reading this is a more well-adjusted person than I am and is probably not used to the experience of having someone you once knew and spoke to regularly become that person you walk past in the hall without acknowledging or without them acknowledging you. She was one of these people, and she was one of many. One of the main reasons I left Edmonton in the first place was to escape from these burned bridges.
And there she was! I wasn't sure it was her (this woman's hair was much nicer and silkier, as if she'd discovered some new conditioner in the past few years), so I didn't say anything, and she didn't say anything, though I'm sure she recognized me. So I ended up sitting in that coffee shop for several hours, playing my little video games, glancing at her surreptitiously, trying to find some sort of signal that it wasn't really her and I could relax, and the whole reason she wasn't coming over to say "hi" was because we had never met.
I think a lot of people reading this may have some trouble understanding why this was all so unpleasant. I think it's one of those "you have to have an anxiety disorder to understand" types of things.
In any case, it was all I could do to go outside the coffee shop again.
OH, but there is a bright spot to this story. I ended up taking the bus quite late. I arrived at Marine Drive and checked the bus schedule, and saw that my bus (the last bus of the night) was not due for 25 minutes. It was cold as ass and I was underdressed, so I figured I might as well start walking. In 25 minutes, I could at least get halfway home.
I had been walking for about 5 minutes (and was no longer anywhere near a bus stop) when suddenly I saw my bus coming by! 20 minutes early! This was not unusual in my experience with the bus service in this city, but what WAS unusual was the fact that the bus pulled up next to me and ITS DOOR OPENED!!
Long story slightly less long, the driver was actually late, not early (his was the previous bus) and he actually recognized me, despite the fact that it was from behind, I was wearing a hat, it was nighttime and he was in a moving vehicle. He even knew where my stop was. I'm sure if he hadn't picked me up, I would have caught something, or at least been very cold.
If there is some sort of cosmic message here, it has been lost on me.
Damn.
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