Calling all the ladies...

The theme of this entry is, thank heavens for my amazing room mate and Winnipeg loves hip hop.

Being inside my mind right now is like living on both ends of a teeter totter that has been hopped up on copious amounts of speed. The up/ down swings have reached a new and striking momentum, leaving me feeling pretty f-ing tired and not particularly myself. Cycling over the bridge that crosses the Assiniboine river, feeling the cold air coming off the water and glancing down to see the liquid quickly snaking along it's downward path, I can feel elated and certain that coming here was the right decision. Only to flip that decision entirely on it's head an hour later when trying to move between two supposedly 'close' establishments and finding that it requires a half hour of cycling through desolate, suburban style streets with the impending sense that I am indeed lost and there is NO one around to help me... Where are you Winnipeg, when I need you?

I wonder what moving to a new city is like for less emotionally volatile people? For people who care less about how beautiful or urban or interesting a city is and more about what they are actually there to do. Not that I don't care about what I came here for... it's just that I seem to want it all! And all at once too! Why am I such an incredible brat?

In other matters, Winnipeg loves, loves, loves hip hop. Dane, my dear room mate and the person that gets me out the house when I am contemplating booking a ticket home and giving the peg the finger, took me along to a couple things the other night and I learned a little about how people here party. First we went to a graffitti gallery party and then to a bar called the Windsor Hotel where the party relocated after the gallery shut down. In both venues Dane's friends were d.j.ing and the music was exclusively hip hop, good hip hop but admittedly mostly stuff I don't know.

The Windsor Hotel was one of these places where the seedy quality is where the appeal lies and I(perhaps more than most) have a real soft spot for this kind of atmosphere when it comes to night life. The bar was lined with big broad chested dudes drinking out individual mini-pitchers that look as though they contain about 2 pints worth of liquid, in the center there was a spattering of tables all packed with people downing round after round of shots and up at the front a group of fairly liquored girls dancing and having what looked to me like an awesome time. I felt a strong pang of nostalgia for nights of dancing with my girl friends (and sister!). Pangs that were intensified by the fact that I am not sure we have bars or parties or d.j.'s quite like this in Toronto and yet I can remember countless time that we have sat around wishing there was a good hip hop party to go to, like without having to go to a yuppie club. So girls, who want's to come to Winnipeg... I know you do.

xo T.O. xo