And with Halloween over I suppose I should've posted this sooner.
My plans to Trick-or-Eat fell through. Some part of me suspected it would. I juggled just-missed-it buses and got to the registration point at UBC a little late, found a bored night watchman who'd said the group left awhile ago - I suspect earlier than the latest posted time for registration. With no one waiting, no one could assign me to my canvasing neighbourhood for charity food collection. I wasn't really surprised, I had limited contact with this organized group and on top of that Mercury was retrograde, so communication+transportation are problematic. *sigh*
Perhaps if I had left my friend's house hours earlier, arrived earlier and milled aimlessly around a campus I don't belong to I'd have been on time. But I didn't, so I wasn't. I don't regret having a nice afternoon just for a potentially nice/productive evening.
Perhaps it was just not meant to be.
Oddly enough I had found a U-pass on the ground at a bus stop only days before. I was sorry for the person who'd lost it, since they'd paid for it and likely needed it for class, but as it expired at month's end it would make my bus travel free, if only for a few days. The space that should've been filled with a name was blank. Coincidence? Or Providence?
Odd when I fluke into good fortune like that, sometimes I swear it's the only thing keeping me alive. I'm consciously aware and thankful for it, constantly. I wondered that day as I kept walking, despite the found bus pass, how time and place are so decisive in our lives. If I hadn't been walking that street on that day and looking down at that moment I would've never found it. What else do I miss looking around or up, while I habitually look down on sidewalks and roads (for found treasure/jewelry/money, as well as not to trip)? What if this was a sign that I should get on the next bus immediately, before a baby grand piano drops on me a few blocks up the road??
And a bus passed me, with corny advertising on the side depicting a lightbulb with angel wings, speaking of their 'afterlife'. Apparently they can be recycled now.
My costume for Halloween was an old standby for a few years now, black angel wings and cheap fuzzy halo. I'd already decided that was optimal for me since I already had it and it's simple and unencumbering for whatever-it-is I'm doing. So what am I doing for Halloween when plans fall through? Stop off at home to consult websites for spontaneous alternative plans, and grumble with a vodka cooler that sorta tasted like cough syrup, 'berry flavour' bleh, which followed me out the door - the cops aren't really going to pester an angel for drinking in public are they?! - as I hurried to the Skytrain station for a sort-of flashmob trainstuffing out to Richmond and back. Why not? I've never done it before and have nothing else to do than get crammed in with strangers in costumes - a few more angels - and I had a U-pass that expires at midnight.
It was hot like a metal concert, just goofy fun. I didn't much feel like the clubby beat or 'dancing' of the afterparty, so I just walked up and down Granville Street and checked out all the clubbers' costumes. Noted were the following; groups of prisoners (both the black+whited striped and orange jumpsuit variety), geishas, zombies of every kind, Bender+Calculon from Futurama, Marvin the Martian, Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man, Pillsbury Doughboy, and... a few more angels. The best group was the troupe of King Arthur and his knights from Monty Python's Holy Grail. The knave carrying the luggage even had speakers on his back playing the musical score, and was clopping coconut shells.
I was hungry but couldn't justify making even a simple dinner at midnight, so I got cheapy pizza on Granville Street. The first time I had cheapy pizza was with my brother when we were in Vancouver *unsupervised!*, I remember being suspicious about the sanitary conditions of the establishment. Ah, if only 32-year-old me could chat with 12-year-old me! Alone in a busy crowd of pizza-eaters quietly minding their own business, I noticed a large tv on the back wall, showing what I gather was an intellectual documentary from History channel. It was on mute and would've made a lot more sense with audio, otherwise it was just stills of famous artwork depicting... angels. They found me even in a seedy pizza joint!
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