The end of an era

About a week ago i received news that my old roommate Ty was cancelling the phone number of our house in edmonton. It was a rotating student household which he kept alive long after kylie tempted me away with promises of nightly suppers, clean laundry and lifelong happiness. The original housemates have since spread across the globe. Although Ty is still in edmonton, Aaron is currently biking across asia and Josh is coordinating public health for babies in Niger.

After almost 5 years you wouldnt think that this dissolution would affect me much, but consider the consequences... i now have to go in and apply for a new safeway club card. Up until this point I'm sure safeway assumed they were tracking the spending habits of a small all male long distance commuter commune or something.

Most treasured among my mementos from this free wheeling college kid lifestyle was a couch/loveseat that my mom found at a garage sale. It was one of the most comfortable couchs ever graced by my discerning derriere. A pillar of certainty in a world rife with changing ideas, identities and idioms. It was passed out on, made out on, spilled on, sprawled on and occasionally jumped on. When kylie and i lived in edmonton it was again included in our living room collection, but when we came out to chilliwack kylie relegated it to the basement where it served duty as a studying couch and place to sit while playing with niko (not to mention a springboard for quick 180s).

Now i believe I have set the stage for you to understand my reaction when i came home from work one day to find this morbid scene layed out at my feet.



It took a few days for me to muster the energy and time to load this old friend onto our trusty volvo drive it to the dump. As you can see, niko took the opportunity to destroy the cushions he missed the first time around.



We ran a couple errands on our way. the volvo sticks out in chilliwack anyways, but we were generating a lot of stares and laughing. a couple people even took our picture with their cellphones.



It was a sad day when i heaved this wooden embodiement of my carefree youth into a pit full of assorted detritus. I still have our kitchen table and coffeetable to console myself with but its difficult to nap on them. Ty has suggested a 10713 reunion this summer and if i can make it i will toast the memory of this couch multiple multiple times.

Goodbye comfy couch, goodbye 10713, goodbye carefree youth... in 3 months I will officially be a responsible adult, or at least get paid like one.

marc

ps- a quick addition of 4 countries I would like to visit (the rest of kylie's stuff is pretty accurate):
1. turkey
2. nepal
3. israel
4. cambodia