A Closer Look in Open Diary 2001-2018 (Pre-Prosebox)

Thanks for all the nice comments on my last entry. Yes, the place is great, but I should have taken my camera out with me on my walk yesterday. From afar, the area is gorgeous, but look closer. The remnants of a derelict community still remain. I’m guessing lots of crack and meth deals go on down by the river. I know there are a lot of homeless people living in the vacant buildings (you can tell from the photos, there are a lot of them around) and also under the train trellises and bridge underpasses. There are food containers and broken booze bottles everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. There are blankets and sleeping bags and clothing strewn about. There are campfire pits and cigarette butts and shoes. Are these people running around naked in the bushes or something? I rarely see them. But sometimes I do…

In addition to the treadmill thing, I’ve taken to run-walking along the river to get exercise. It’s far more interesting than the treadmill. There’s a great walkway that leads to a lookout over the river and then steps that go down to a trail along the river banks. It has such potential, like the Katy trail in Dallas, and I can’t believe that hardly anyone goes down there. So it’s normally just me and the crackheads. Which is fine as long as we don’t bug each other. But yesterday I got a little uncomfortable when I came across a woman who was obviously fall-down wasted. She stunk when I fast-walked past. I wasn’t that close, but she reeked of sweat and alcohol and something else I can’t describe. She squealed out in pain as she attempted to sit down across a sun-heated metal drainage pipe. She turned to me and told me that it hurt, and I guess her boyfriend wanted to come up and see who his woman was talking with.

I’d already walked past when her guy came up and saw me, so I don’t know what he looked like. But he screamed after me, “Hey!! Hey sexy!! Turn around and come back here!! I’ve got the biggest dick and the best tongue you’ve ever had!”

And though it was quite tempting to turn around, I could hear the girlfriend tell him to stop it as I fast-walked around a curve into jog into a full-fledged sprint. *shudder*

I saw four more people on yesterday’s run that I can only assume were so fucked up that they couldn’t stand up. And I only saw three other people who were actually using the park for enjoyment such as a walk or a run.

The trail actually runs smack into a casino. One of those dark, smoky, very depressing riverboat casinos where all of the gambling addicts go to blow their entire paychecks. I don’t normally go inside, but I had to pee so badly by the time I’d gotten over there, and I didn’t want to climb through the bushes for fear of running into another creepy wastoid. So I went inside to use the facilities. It was amazing to see how many people were gambling at 3:30 on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I watched for a while from the overhead railing as people sucked down drinks and threw away their chips. But I got cold in the dark, damp air-conditioned cave and wanted to be out in the sunshine to finish my workout anyway.

There are plans to create a very cool environment along the trail. Supposedly they’re going to build restaurants and a creative center (not sure what that means) and hopefully an extension to the trail, but I’m not sure if I’ll be around to enjoy. So I take what I can for now and try to stay out of the way of the creatures living in the underbelly of the city. But I should really think about buying a canister of pepper spray.

In other weekend news, Julie and I went to a jazz festival on Friday night. It woulda been so much fun had I known the proper dress code and worn shoes that were rough-terrain friendly. As it was, we were supposed to be going to a VIP area (Julie and her company did all of the graphics for this shindig), so I just figured, dress decently.

Ended up trudging through a cow pasture in 4 ½ ” wedge heels, jeans, and a sequined halter top, sparkling all the way. Needless to say, we attracted quite a bit of attention, as I nearly broke my ankles with every other step—but OH did I glitter!!!

When we finally got to the tent, all of the other vips were moving to yet another tent, so more teetering until we ended up at the company’s reserved spot. The best part about the evening was that everyone left us pretty early on…with our own keg of beer! That’s right, 2 girls, 1 keg!! Anyone who happened to stumble in our direction was immediately invited in (by us) and ordered to drink a beer to help us drain the damn thing. And I think we actually did, because by the time the party was shutting down the beer guys came to get the tap, and we forced them to sit down and take a break and help us drink the last of the beer. Then we begged them for a ride back to the car on their little golf cart thingie.

And then Julie came over and raved about my place. So then Saturday morning I took all those photos and posted them (previous entry). And then I went for a jog. And ran errands. And didn’t do anything Saturday night except think about calling Parliament, but then I didn’t. So I called Jen, who was in Toronto to attend the MuchMusic Awards on Sunday night (I’m a little jealous, but don’t feel like getting into it right now). And all too soon it was Sunday. And all I did on Sunday was organize and file paperwork, go on a Target run where I ran into some other old nabes from my last apartment, looked at some more treadmills, went to the park and read the newspaper, and went on the above-mentioned walk/jog. I showered and was in my jammies by 7:15, and oh man, did it feel so good to be in my crisp, white, lace-trimmed dotted swiss pajamas. I felt like fluff. Painted my nails and even thought about giving myself a facial, but it seemed like too much work, so instead I fell asleep reading.

Dreamt about crackheads chasing me through a field while wearing 4 ½” wedge heels (me, not the crackheads) with jazz music blaring in the background. Good thing I remembered to lock my door last night.