grand arrival

I am in Pangnirtung! I donít know quite what to say... it has been an adventure just getting here. Thank you to everyone at home for helping me get on the road. First thing: kudos to Melissa for letting me stay at her place, helping me in dozens of ways (even getting up before 5am to help me load my car!); kudos to Kate, Shannon and Heather for conducting me to the airport in famous style, and helping me to the check-in counter with what can only be described as a small mountain of stuff. Imagine 8 big pieces of luggage plus two large dogs in two large dog kennels plus a guitar and a carry-on. I met my new housemate at the airport, and heís very nice. We havenít worked out the dog situation yet. Nor have we figured out what to do about the impending, incorrect and inevitable assumption that we are ëtogetherí. Everything will be fine until his girlfriend, or one of my friends comes to visit. Then, all hell will break loose.

So let me tell you a bit about my trip in. After checking in, getting about a third of my bags rifled through by security, I proceeded to go through security myself. A happy little aside, the airline charged me for my excess baggage, but they forgot to make me pay for the dogs. Oops! Too bad for them. Anyway, as I go through security, the usual checking-of-carry-on occurs. As usual, they want to look at my computer. No biggie. But then, they start going through the rest of my bag, which is not usual. And then I realize why ñ I forgot to remove my handy Swiss Army knife, a pair of scissors, a little Listerine breathspray, and two tubes of embarrassing feminine cream from my bag. I was so embarrassed. Especially when he held up my little tube of Monistat and asked me if I needed it. As in: Do you currently have a yeast infection? But that was minor embarrassment to realizing that I had basically tried to carry a knife onboard a plane. As if I would ever do that!!

Happily, I had time to take my bad-girl items down to the lost and found and mail them to myself. Otherwise I would have had to give up yet another Swiss Army knife. And Iíve been doing so well with this one... Iíve had it at least two years, and I still have the tweezers and toothpick that came with it.

I had time to quickly duck into the bathroom before boarding, and my face was blotchy and scarlet. I think I was so embarrassed that I actually stained my face red.

So the rest of the trip went fine. Nalu and Fiona were both quiet when we arrived and seem to have totally recovered from the trip. They recovered in this way: they broke their leash, ran away from me and spent about an hour and a half roaming the town, looking for stuff to eat. As usual, I found them soaking wet, dirty, grinning from ear to ear like theyíd found the Hope diamond and stinking like they rolled on every dead fish on the beach. Usually by the time I track them down, I am also soaking wet and dirty, but not grinning form ear to ear. Usually because Iíve had visions of them getting tangled up and attacked by town dogs and Iíve been picturing finding their limp, shredded bodies.

roomie and I had walked down to the Northern to get some food. We didnít end up having to stay in the hotel after all, since someone from housing was available to let us into the house. It was upon our return from the store, which is about as far from our house as you can get, and at the bottom of an incredible hill. I will have amazing legs and bum when I am finished a year here! Anyway we finished the trudge home, and got to the house, and the dogs were gone. They took the whole leash with them, just snapped the carabiner than I attached them to the steps with. Remind me to get a stronger biner next time. So there were two goofy huskies running about town, tied together, eating garbage and taunting the local dogs that were tied up. Great first impression, beck.

Anyway, as I said, all is well. All my baggage arrived fine, nothing broken, not even the guitar that they made me check even though it was just in a gig-bag, not a hard case. And thanks to searching for my dogs in the drizzle and rain, I know what the town is like a bit. Itís quite beautiful, nestled in a bunch of mountains. I think I will look forward to climbing one of them once I have slept. I am more tired right now than I ever remember being, except that one fateful night when I moved home from the north. I was a basketcase then. Now I am only exhausted, not bankrupt.