don't deconstruct

it's 7 59 am (i think my blog might think it's on the west coast?) on friday; this is the time i look forward to all week.

i seem to be a regular at places run by introverts, so my conversations with people who are not students are limited (we smile a lot and they know how i take my coffee, though). students are difficult because they want to talk about school and that stresses the part of me that's always thinking about writing my thesis. there are days that go by where i don't speak to anyone until one of my roommates comes home at 8. and that doesn't mean that i wasn't out all day too. winter in montreal is hard; it's so cold, a lot of peoples mouths are covered by scarves.

on fridays i work in the computer room at a women's day shelter called chez doris. and it's my favourite time of the week. i have the best conversations and feel like i'm doing something at least minorly useful. either no one comes in and i sit at a desk for three hours and read, and have to do that because i have to stay there for three hours and why not read. or people come in. and usually it's the same people. and some of them come in at that time because they know i'll be there; i have skill-sharing arrangements with two women in particular. i need to work on my french in a serious way - marie-claude is trying to sort out the internet (she was really curious about this facebook business last week) and hala needs to learn powerpoint to do a presentation for the preschool she works at. and i know how to work the internet AND microsoft office, and they both prefer to speak en francais, and so we help each other! and it feels so good to interact with people who don't know all my stories, don't expect certain moods from me. i really really enjoy it. i look forward to it all week. when 12 00 comes, i never want to leave. the people who run this place are incredible - they provide such an incredible service and the staff and all the women who come in are so kind and appreciative to one another.

hala has a ph.d and has been trying to get official immigrant status for eleven years. mc is from france and didn't know what "caps lock" meant two weeks ago. emily has a lot of love needing to be spread outside of her 5 closest friends.

also. i'm heading to nova scotia this evening. 44 hours on the train, 4 days in a small town, 2 in the maritimes' biggest. i can't wait to see the ocean.