Dates, dates, dates.

I am a little shakey on dates, and I wanted to change up my style of writing for the book. I thought about doing a date format so that it seems like a journal. I didn't like assuming dates for events. I know that I did the things I am writing about, but I don't like assigning abbitary dates to these events. I figure as long as I know the month, then that's ok. I guess on occasion then the date will matter. Instead I added the style to this blog and everytime the day changes or what not I assign a quirky title to the story. I think that attribute is common among bloggers and I think it is a neat feature to put into a book. I assigned one to the last exerpt posted on here, and I also edited it around, because I remembered more stuff about moving in, and I added in more descriptions that I thought were necessary. I probably will be doing editing constantly so keep in mind what is posted here will probably be edited later. So anyways the following exerpt today is from my book, which has now reached around 3000 words, called "To those who dare." Enjoy.

Her name is Tanya. I picked her up on the front of some old mans lawn in Oshawa. $25 bucks. Not that bad of a deal. Until I found out the brakes don't work as well as I thought. Tanya is my bicycle, I wanted to get a bike that I wouldn't care about if it got stolen, something I can use to ride around Peterborough with. It is a woman's speed bike, a Vulcan, painted yellow, it has metal switches that do the gears, and black electrical tape is lined the handle bars. Small white letter stickers spell out TANYA vertically down the part that connects to the seat. Robs bicycle was from the sixties or seventies and it is a womans bike as well, with huge handle bars that sprout up and then curve down, a banana seat, and he spray painted it all gold. It is so low to the ground with small wheels, it is amazing that he can actually ride the thing.

We rode off towards the retail district of town on Lansdowne Street with out bikes. I uncomfortably tried to manage with the speed bike handlebars which brought my hands close together on the bar. The loose steering and barely working brakes gave me a lot trouble. It was a hot September day today, so we were both in just shorts and t-shirts, with our backpacks on. The mall was the first destination and after biking a fair distance we got to the entrance and locked up our rides.

The mall was fairly small, but then again, this was a fairly small city. We stopped in the usual places like the gaming store, sporting goods store, and music store. Our last stop was West 49, which is sort of a retail chain of skater clothes and such. I mentioned to Rob last night that I needed some new shoes, and he told me I should get some skate shoes because they fit my style. I wanted him to come along to make sure I wasn't buying something stupid, because he had more knowledge than me on the stuff. After trying on nearly every shoe I settled on a pair of Globes, they were brown and white, really nice design, and the fit great. I went outside the store and put them on right away and put my old shoes in the box and in my backpack.
“Ok this is how you wear them man, you put the laces underneath the tongue... yeah tie it up like you would normally, but tuck it under.” He told me.
I tried to follow his instructions as best as I could, but he just took the shoes from me and showed me. I slipped them on. Tight! I got up and we looked around some more before heading back on the bikes. Our next destination would be the downtown core.

As we rode back the opposite way along Lansdowne Street we ran out of sidewalk and were riding dangerously close to an edge of fall off on this bare dirty path formed from other cyclists. Street lamps lined along the side of the road so when the path was curved around it became even more dangerous to ride on, and with the cars zooming past you on the side of the road it really made it hard to concentrate on staying on the path. It didn't help with my bikes handling being so bad and no brakes. Dodging one Street lamp nearly made me lose control and fall down. My heart sank as I corrected my steering at the last second. Better ride slower I thought to myself. Rob was having no trouble and he got a laugh at the end of the path after I told him my near death experience.

We continued through some side streets and eventually came to Hunter Street which would lead us right into downtown Peterborough. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. I never really knew the city all that well until my third year and then more so in my fourth year of University. Now that I am in my fifth year I know the city perfectly, where to eat, where to shop, where to take girls on a date, and other lesser important stuff. Like the fastest way to get the hell out.

It looked like they were doing some work on the sidewalks on the street, I ventured over despite the vague warnings of the adjacent pylons and rode my bike on the sidewalk. I looked up ahead and noticed that there was a huge gap between the slaps of concrete. With practically no control on the handlebars and no brakes I freaked out and tried to swerve off. I fell into the gap and then crashed into a pylon that was near a chain-linked fence. I didn't fall off my bike, but I got knocked off my seat and cut up my leg a little bit. One of the construction workers looked over at me with a puzzling look. “Take it easy there buddy.” He said to me. I just laughed and acknowledged his recommendations.

There was a bike lockup spot near the Peterborough Square at the heart of downtown on the corner of Charlotte and George. We locked out bikes together and walked around. It was the “usual round” as we called it. To visit the used gaming stores like Chumleighs, Cottage Toys for clothing, and then Bluestreak to look at vinyl records and CDs. Jimmy Chumleigh, the puppeteer among other things, runs the best used gaming store in town. There are other goods like movies, books, and music as well. He is such an oddball character with his head shaved bald with a huge goatee which is sometimes dyed blue. I always make sure to have a chat with him because he has the best stories, some about being involved in the WWE pro wrestling, and others about fishing. When you talk to him he always asks for your e-mail address to write down on the back of a notebook. I jotted mine down after talking to him for a while. I picked up a PS1 game and then we headed out.

Bluestreak was a small hole in the wall with posters of musicians all around the store. Where there weren't posters, there were CDs. Hundreds. All in little slots along the wall, some so high that it would require a ladder to reach up to grab them. In small bins were the vinyl records. There is a section for new records and everywhere else had used records sorted by artist name. I also like to talk to the shop keep as well. He DJs around town sometimes and he has some of the best records and talent for selecting music. I make sure to find out where he is spinning records. He wasn't around today though.

It is really hot in the day now, the sun is blindingly bright out. So after walking around the downtown busy with people walking everywhere as usual, we went into McDonald's to grab some food to take back home with us.

I sat down in the living room to eat my burger. Scott, my other roommate, and Cedric were watching some NFL football on the TV. Scott is a big guy as well like Cedric, and athletic. Really competitive by nature. Things were settling in nicely at our place, we had furniture all arranged and our food and dishes was slowly being sorted and put away in cupboards.

After the game I went back up to my room to relax for the rest of the day and put more of my stuff away in dressers. I really wish I had the new desk right now and was tempted to just go pick one up myself so that I can set up my computer. Rob decided to just buy my old one seeing that he tons of room upstairs. I gave it to him for $50 dollars, even though it cost me a hundred and a half. I just wanted to get rid of it. To be honest I was glad to see it go. I bought it for my fourth year of University and although it was great to have for that year, it was such a pain to transport that I got frustrated with using a small Allen key to put in all the small individual screws. Must be like a hundred of them to put into place. I watched the sun go down in my room on my computer chair, and like last night, hung out in the loft with Rob and whoever else showed up. It would seem like this would be the place we all would collect as a house, usually over the years it would be my room, but since I have the smallest room it wouldn't be the case this year. I welcome the change though.

September.

Right now I am posting quite regularly on 500 Photographs. It has been going great so far, so I hope you all are reading it :D I have been working on putting this blog together in a novel like format and so far it's been coming along. It is really rough to be starting out because the first four months of my blog started out as paragraphs on my MSN Space... and so I am relying mostly on memory and other things like my school notes and such. Well anyways the reason I am posting here is to give a preview of my novel... the following is an exerpt from the first couple pages. Enjoy.

Wallpaper is seen all around when you first step into the house. The floorboards were old, really old, and dirty. Some of them were very loose so I had to watch my footing when walking around in the living room. The old banister leading to the upstairs was a very nicely finished wood with an antique style, but years of students as tenants has left it scratched up with broken supports. This was my new home for the year. My father and roommates helped me carry my stuff to the second floor where I just dumped it on the floor. The room was the smallest, but I didn't mind too much. After I got the essentials moved in like my bed, little Danby bar fridge, L-shaped desk, Dell computer and duffel bags of clothing. I said good-bye to my father who then drove away in his Buick.

I went back to the upstairs and looked at all my furniture laying on the floor, unbuilt and scattered. Rob came from the loft upstairs to find me sitting on my computer chair swirling around. “Hey man, need any help putting stuff together?” He asked. Rob is one of my closest friends since my third year at University. We actually rented out the same basement apartment that housed four people. The other two people, Adam and Kelly, are close friends as well.
“Man, I really don't think this is going to work out. Just look.” I responded.
Rob looked around the bits of furniture and then looked up at me. “Come out to the porch, I'm having a smoke, then we'll figure it out.” Motioning with his head towards the stairs.

The porch outside our front door was one of the sole reasons that we actually agreed to live at such a place. Seems like an old reason to get into renting out a house in such a bad looking area, but we wanted a porch that we can all just sit on all day that overlooked the streets people walked on. The porch was built from old wood as well, very thin boards which are faded and scratched up. Cigarette butts were trapped in between the cracks of the boards. The roof above was rotting, and in fact some of the boards were missing. We sat down on a couple of chairs that our roommate Adam had left outside. One was an old spinning chair with a rip in the seat fabric which I sat on, and the other was a matching four-legged chair. I kicked my feet off the brick of the house to spin myself around until they touched the pillar at the edge of the porch, which I used to kick back to the previous position. Rob took short drags of his cigarette and looked out to the street afterwards while exhaling. On occasion he would get a shiver and his shoulders would tremble a little bit.
“So how do your classes look?” I asked, wanting to know about his schedule, and toughness of selection.
“I honestly man, don't know.” He said with a short laugh. “I haven't really looked to much into that yet.”
Classes started up the following Monday after the weekend. I told him that I would help him out with scheduling and stuff when we get the Internet working.

We stayed out on the porch looking out until the sun was coming down. Must have been out there for five hours or so sitting and talking on the same chairs. When we got back up to my room I still tried to find a reasonable solution to how I was going to live there for the next eight months. I couldn't find anything and neither could Rob. “See, I have the desk out like this, and my bed here, and there's no room for anything else with that closet thing.” I said in frustration.
“Well man, just set up your bed tonight so you have somewhere to sleep.” He said. “Come upstairs afterwards.” He escaped to his room in the loft.
I remained sitting in that computer chair looking around me, suddenly feeling sad and angst about choosing such a small room. I called up my parents on my cell phone to talk to them about it.

“We'll get you another desk next weekend.” My dad said, finally understanding my situation.
“Ok thanks.”
“You'll just have to suffer until then.”
“Yeah I know, just sucks having such a small you know?”
“Alright, you want to speak to mom?”
“Yeah sure.”
I talked to my mom for a bit and then hung up the phone. She made me a couple of sandwiches before I left for school, it was going to be my dinner for tonight because I did not feel like cooking today.

I set up my bed in the late hours, and then after hung out with Rob up in the loft. He had his mattress just laying on the floor and computer on a broken desk. His room was pretty awesome, being the length of nearly the whole house. The floor was a dark brown and like the rest of the house the floorboards were loose in more areas, and even some holes were present leading to who knows where. He had a large brown lazy-boy chair by his window that overlooked the sidewalks and apartment buildings across the street. The window had no screen, so Rob and our other roommate Cedric would sit there by the window to have a cigarette. Cedric was a big guy, about six foot something, two hundred and something pounds, mostly muscle, huge black afro hair and a quiet, laid back demeanor. I sat down on the lazy-boy chair and chatted some more with Rob. Finally when the late hours got the best of us we retired for the night and made plans to do some shopping the next day.