Robot Invasion

I spent some time last night catching up with a friend who has been sailing around the world for three years. Before that, he was train hopping across the country and back. Before that, he spent an entire Ottawa winter living in his orange VW van in a parking lot, instead of paying rent. He made his money carving skateboards and fixing record players. Sometimes he would make moonshine. Once he tried to cook with it, and his frying pan lit on fire.

The whole encounter made me wonder if perhaps I don't adventure enough.

Then I tried to picture myself lying on top of a train, going from town to town with my home on my back. Or working on a small ship with a handful of people, some of whom I would grow to resent as each day passed. I pictured myself being without my own bed for that long, without my family, and without my friends. And, I laughed at the thought of myself, she who hates the cold, living in a van in -30 weather. Yeah right! The moonshine thing? Maybe I could manage that.

But I think I prefer my mildly dangerous jaunts into warm countries. That's adventure enough for now. Machine guns and mystery food.

Also last night, I had the strangest dreams. The first one involved myself, Lesley and Shawna, singing in three-part harmony to a few people. I don't know the song, but it sounded nice... The chorus was simply: "You wonder, you wonder, you wonder." A few more people arrived to listen, and then a few more, until we were in a stadium full of people. We just kept singing, completely unfazed.

The second dream came after I woke up long enough to kiss my Better Half goodbye before he left for the day. When I passed out again, I dreamed the world was being taken over by robots, and a group of us were hiding out in the backyard at my parents' house. I suddenly remembered that my cat was still napping on the front porch, and abandoning my senses, ran out, scooped her up (in full view of a robot, I might add!) and brought her to safety.

The moral of the story? You can count on me to sing in harmony, and to rescue you from a robot invasion. But don't count on me to hop a train, because I might never show up.