Sinister: Hot and crusty

[Lucas Dambergs]

hi, i'm lucas.  long time reader, first time poster.  i usually use capital 
letters in my emails (as well as lowercase ones) but i think messages 
written entirely in lowercase are kind of endearing, so i thought i'd give 
it a shot on my first outing, in a rather obvious attempt to curry your 
collective favour.  it's hard, actually.  i keep typing capitals by mistake.

i've never written before becuase i've never really felt the itch to share 
my life with the world (though i do enjoy reading about your lives very 
much), but today was just such a wonderful day i decided that i had to 
relive it by writing it down.  so now you'll get to live through it too.

my day started by getting up extra early so i could head down to the art 
college and register for the intro photo class.  i just finished my degree 
at dalhousie university (in halifax, nova scotia, where i live), and i 
decided that after four and a half years of computer science i really needed 
to do something totally different: photography!  also, most of my friends go 
to the art college, so i already know my way around pretty well.  today was 
the first day of registration for non-degree students, and i was sure there 
would be a line, so i got there extra early.  i would have been there even 
earlier, but a major snowstorm happened to be going on, which made halifax's 
normally unreliable public transit system completely unpredictable, and 
very, very slow.  still, i managed to get into my class!  i was number 
eighteen, and there was a twenty person limit, so i just made it in.  i'm so 
excited!  i actually went to the first class last week, even though i wasn't 
yet registered, and it was really fun.  totally unlike all the classes i had 
a dal.  let me tell you about dalhousie's computer science department.  it's 
completely stereotypical, just like a bad movie.  the classes tend to be 99% 
nerds, and not fun, entertaining nerds.  they're bad, annoying nerds.  and 
there are almost no girls.  the average dal class has 50%-60% female 
students.  computer science classes are lucky to get 10%.  so, when i 
arrived at my photo class last week to find not only fun, interesting 
people, but actual, real, live girls, i was very happy.

but back to my day.  the middle part was fairly uneventful, though certainly 
not bad.  now that i've finished my degree i'm working at two computer help 
desk-type jobs at dal, and they were both pretty dead today, due to the 
ongoing storm.  as i left the second job, headed for home, i ran into the 
girl who works at the front desk, who told me that a tall, pretty girl with 
curly hair and colourful clothes had stopped by that morning looking for me. 
  she also said that this girl intended to return tomorrow, so hopefully 
i'll get to find out who it was (though i already have a pretty good idea).  
mysteries are fun.  so are girls.  and mysterious girls are great.

when i got home i received three very nice phone calls.  the first was from 
a new friend, who is moving away next week.  we've only just started to get 
to know each other, but we've already become pretty good friends.  she 
seemed a little worried that we'd lose touch when she moved, so i reassurred 
her that i definitely want to stay her friend, even if our friendship can 
only continue through the phone and email.  anyway, we mostly just talk to 
each other, so it really doesn't matter what cities we happen to be in when 
we do that.  in fact, i'm looking forward to writing her long letters.  
she's a very smart and thoughtful girl.  she also told me two other things.  
1: apparently there have been rumors going around that we're dating!  we 
both found that pretty funny, especially considering her imminent departure. 
  it would suck to fall in love with someone who was moving away in a week.  
2: she told me that really enjoys talking to me, and that i'm a good 
listener.  she said that she thinks i'm a good friend.  that made me feel 
very good.

the second phone call was from another friend who i hadn't talked to in a 
long time.  so we talked for about and hour and caught up with each others 
lives.

the third phone call was from another friend of mine, who said that he and 
his roommates were going to take advantage of the enormous snowfall by going 
sledding on citadel hill, and that i should come along.  so i did.

when the four of us got to the hill (at around 10:30pm) we found that thirty 
or fourty other people had had the same idea.  it was like a big sledding 
party.  i recognised many of the others (halifax is a small place), and 
everyone was incredibly friendly.  we were all cheering each other on when 
someone had a good run down the hill, and there was much swapping of 
vehicles.  we had come equipped with four crazy carpets (thin, malleable 
rectangles of plastic with handles, for those of you from warmer climes), 
and a two-person toboggan.  we took a couple of turns with the toboggan 
before letting others use it.  then we got to play with our crazy carpets, 
as well as various other sleds discs, snowboards, and whatever else people 
had brought out, while the toboggan did the rounds.  i think practically 
everyone got a chance to use it at least once.  the atmosphere on the hill 
was really fun, friendly, and inviting.  everyone was having fun, and we all 
wanted to share the fun with everyone else.

after about an hour people started to leave, so my friend and i decided to 
take one last tandem ride down the hill on the toboggan, him in front, me in 
back.  the snow was now packed very well, which allowed us to reach speeds 
unattainable in any of our previous runs.  just as we were reaching the 
bottom of the slope, whooping and hollering with excitement, my feet got 
themselves caught on a lump on the ground.  according to one of our friends 
who was observing from nearby, it looked like i had activated some sort of 
ejection seat.  i very quickly launched from a reclined sitting position to 
a fully erect standing position, hovering about a foot over where the 
toboggan had passed just moments ago, and then continued my foreward 
rotation, landing face first in the snow, with my arms outstretched in front 
of me, as if i were reaching for the now quite distant sled.  i laid there 
for quite a while.  after that, my right leg felt kind of twitchy and 
painful, so i decided to call it a night and retired to a nearby friend's 
house, who had also been sledding, and who had been thoughtful enough to 
prepare hot chocolate, wine, and pasta for those returning from the hill.  
it was very nice to change into my warm, dry clothes, which i had brought 
with me, and sit and chat while consuming yummy, hot foods.

what a fun night.  and not a capital letter to be found.


lucas dambergs
llat at hotmail.com
halifax, nova scotia, canada
"against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."
                 -friedrich schiller, 1759-1805
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