Kensington Fire

M and Z have left. I miss them already!

Talking to Z about our roomiehood in Toronto reminded me of the gigantic fire that burned down the house/garage directly next to our apartment. Marlowe was over, and we were eating dinner and watching Lost or something on TV. I was just popping into my room to look for something during the commercial break when I saw something orange moving outside of my window.

The house next to us was up in flames. We went around to the emergency exit to take a look (stupid), and we couldn't even step outside because it was so hot. While Zane and I ran around panicking and trying to grab things, Marlowe calmly called 911 (who was already at the site, we realized when we went outside) and pulled the fire alarm in the apartment. We grabbed our stuff, knocked on everyone's doors, and left the building. There was a great hubbub outside with three or four fire trucks and a bunch of spectators. The street behind us, where the building was burning, was too narrow for the trucks to get to, so it took them till late in the evening to put out the fire. We stayed over at Marlowe's house for the night because our apartment was kind of smokey. Fortunately, our apartment was completely unaffected and the smokiness was all gone by the next day.

Anyway, a few days later we found out that the building was a grow-op, and indeed, there were a ton of planters discarded on the property.

Also, I drew myself with a backpack on, but in fact, I'd only taken my purse. Because I'm an idiot. I don't even think I took my passport with me . . . this is how well I cope with emergency situations.

Anywho. Found a CTV article on the Kensington fire. It's weird to think that this is already three years ago!

Thor

Sitting in the living room with Zane drinking cold tea and reading webcomics. Mehrdad is napping. 

The glass boys have gone home at last, and peace and quiet has been restored. One of them vaguely reminds me of a tall, burly hamster with sleeve tattoos and a baseball cap. I've never seen a tall, burly hamster with sleeve tattoos and a baseball cap, but if I saw one, it would look like him. The other one has pretty twinkly eyes and earrings.

Zane is laughing at me. Her stomach is making noises.

So yes. Here is Thor. Thor was Moses's older roommate. He apparently had some memory issues or something and hence I introduced myself to him about four times over the course of the year. He was always very nice, though, and you could hear him shuffling in the hallways. 

"He was really hunchy as well." -Zane.

He was.

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Gloomy, dark, rainy Tuesday. 

Part 5

The uncle and aunt are here. I'd kinda forgotten what it's like having family aside from my parents. It's interesting.

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So yes. This one is about our other Kensington neighbor, Oliver, who lived down the hall from us. He was a pretty normal university-student-type guy, but we'd never formally introduced ourselves. One day he came by out of the blue and asked Zane if she wanted to watch TV with him. Uh. (Although I have to say Zane was much more polite in rejecting his offer than in the comic.)

Later on the in the year, I met his roommate who told me they had maggots or bugs or something in his apartment. He was also convinced that Moses was trying to hit on his girlfriend. It was a weird apartment building.

Traumatized

Part 4

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So yes. Eventually, avoiding Moses became an important part of my everyday life (and it wasn't easy either, since he always stood right next to the main entrance smoking weed). Whenever there was a knock at the door, I'd run into my room and my brave roomie Zane would go see who it was. And because I'm a wimp, I resort to hiding and avoiding people instead of telling them directly that I don't want to see them . . . so yes. The same kind of pickle that I'm in with my language exchange partner, except he doesn't live next door, so all I have to do is ignore his SMS. Phew.

Creepy Neighbors: The Feedback

Part 3

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Just realized that I'd gotten the numbers wrong. Oops.

Creepy Neighbors Part 1

After I got home from school, I spent about three hours in the afternoon working on my monster mugs. I will post photos once they're fired!

So yes. I'll start posting the Creepy Neighbors series now that I've stocked up a few strips. They're based on the neighbors we had back when I lived in Toronto and particularly centered on the creepiest of them all, Moses. Moses was a hairy guy in his 40s who lived directly next door to us. We weren't ever exactly sure what he did, but he claimed that he was working in music, "doing his own thing." It sounded pretty questionable, but we didn't want to ask about it. When he wasn't playing guitar, he would usually be found by the entrance of our building smoking weed. He was harmless and generally polite, but unfortunately, you can be perfectly polite and still be very creepy. So yes. At first, I tried to avoid being caught in an awkward one-on-one situation with him as much as possible, but unfortunately, I was eventually forced to be formally introduced to him at the laundromat.

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To be continued.