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Photo by Gail Harvey, no reproduction without permission
County Mouse Turns City Mouse Listening to: Heroes and Friends: Melissa Etheridge
I finally sucked it up and went back to Toronto after about eight months. The occasion: a concert featuring two really important people in my world who sing like angels and rock like no boy ever could.
Waiting for the train back was surreal. I've only ever picked people up on that platform, or headed for Ottawa for a mini-vacation. This was different. I was going back "home" although Toronto has lost its "hometown" feel for me so easily I wonder. I like to keep an open mind when/as possible so I just climbed on and wondered what awaited me.
I've forgotten how to work a revolving door. I'm officially terrified of escalators and crosswalks where people don't tip their ball-cap to let you walk on by. My cell phone actually worked, which was alarming in itself. The restaurant where I had agreed to meet a friend was so packed we had no hope of getting in. We went to Beaver instead and it was wonderful, and baby-friendly, or as baby-friendly as anyplace in TO can be. The food was great and our waiter made me smile with his patience. After a summer of running a cafe, I sorta know that smile...
In a strange way I saw all these places go by as I walked for over an hour and rode the streetcar [I at least knew it was $2.75 to become a sardine] and wondered about my lack of attachment to it even as I understood how it informed my soul, my writing and my personal life for 20 years. And yet, driving over the bridge from Belleville back into the County, I exeperienced that rush of peace and release that means you are home. My day has been busy and my night too and I did not "hate" my brief time in Toronto. I can see why everyone who has only ever visited TO thinks we all wear black 24-7 and try to kill each other en route to Starbucks, but I also encountered so many smiles and nice people, I wondered if maybe something in me has changed, too. My last 5 years in the city were exhausting and now I can see how one *might* return time to time for the culture and the smells and the noise. I left my ipod off and tried to enjoy the banging and shouting and then laughed: given the choice in contrasts, I'll take Manhattan anytime.
But I also have to fess up: hanging with a one year old, you're allowed to nap, and I did, thus refuting much of the city's bang-bang glamour in favour of rest, even there, something I never enjoyed before.
I'm a County Mouse who likes to wear black sometimes, that's all:)
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