"It takes a second to say goodbye, Say goodbye..."
-Seconds, U2

I wound up my last night in Toronto and my final day at work in style. All that’s left now is one last Zanta sighting. I want to point him out to my mom today.

Last night we holed up at Red Room for dinner and drinks for about 4 hours. I am so grateful that everyone was able to make it to share in the festivities with drinks, dinner and dessert- Lauren, Dan, Alanna, and the roommates Sofia, Sharifa, Joyce and my new subletter Joanna (who looks a bit like Mischa Barton). Avocado sandwiches, Greek Salads and nachos all-around, plus I couldn’t pass up what is quite possibly my last bottle of 50 for a while.

The only downfall was that our waitress was an idiot wouldn’t split any parts of our bill. Somehow I ended up with my phone calculator trying to figure out the math. Me. The one who counts on her fingers and is ignorant of the multiplication tables.

Good conversation all around, which was great because I was thinking, “What do all of these people have in common, other than me?” The answer was not a lot but enough to have some stimulating conversations about episodes of Lost, the irony of Tim Horton being pronounced dead in St. Catharines which is the donut capital of the world, Ron Sexsmith, babies and their strollers, running 10k, how much I hate Pearl Jam and their new CD which was playing, whether Pearl Jam was better than the screeching instrumental track that followed it, Japan, and Joyce’s Innards and Other Variety meats book.

The party broke up after our final beer and G&T’s, and Lauren made the trek over to Walmer Rd with Dan and I to peruse apartments in the area since lots of buildings have openings for 1 bedrooms.

"Push the button and pull the plug"

This morning has been quite fun- my friend and co-worker and I played hooky to travel across town to Bathurst and College to meet up with some former co-workers who now work for Telefilm to a goodbye lunch for me. So it’s another 2.5 hour lunch for me with Dahlia, Caroline, Patricia and Laurie of our previous “Liquored Lunches” when we were all in the same office. The best part is that we got taxi xhits to cover the cab fare over there under the guise that we were "delivering a package."
I was also presented with a lovely card that all of the co-workers had signed and included such phrases as: “Don’t vote for Pedro, vote for Rachel,” “Good luck mastering Japanese trivia,” “Here, take this grilled cheese sandwich with you” with a drawing of a grilled cheese sandwich given my penchant for frozen microwaveable grilled cheeses, and “I’ll try hard to keep up on cool new music” from a friend who I inundate with lists of bands she should listen to (she also got huge bonus points for knowing how Goldfrapp was and actually owning her CD when I saw her at the Coldplay show in Paris). On top of that I got a surprise goodbye party from my department complete with exotic cookies and baked goods.

"And they're doing the atomic bomb, Do they know where the dance comes from"

So that’s all from me for a while, unless I randomly post something from home this weekend. Next time I’ll talk to you al will be from Japan. It hasn’t really sunk in yet that I’m about to hop continents for 5 months. Maybe it’s the lack of packing and the fact that the past two weeks have been crazy with saying goodbye to people, moving, and living on a couch for a week. Eve will have to get good and ready for me- I am a unique roommate (just ask Natalie or The Mexican) and prone to spontaneous dance offs and old fashioned freak outs, insanely random obsessions (Franz Ferdinand right now) that come and go on a regular basis, and my habit of making noises and/or sound effects instead of using my words (anyone who’s spent time with Nat or I knows what it can lead to). I’ll keep my off key, tone-deaf singing out of the shower and save it for the karaoke bar.

"A revolution everyday"

And I shall leave you with a bit of wisdom that I randomly tracked down online. It’s part of an online chat with Gavin Rossdale from Bush from 2000 where he answered three of my questions (and also 2 from my friend at the time):

Rachel West from Thorold, Ontario: Gavin: Do you feel that you get different reactions from the crowd in a small club compared to larger venues, as well as in different parts of the world? Any preferences?

GR: Yeah, you know every single venue creates an atmosphere. You can have the same people, same number, two different venues -- and you've got different shows. I like the places where there really is atmosphere, and it's a challenge when they're really big, and it's a challenge when they're really small. So I just go for it and hope it works.

The rest of the chat with my other questions is here.

So, that's all she wrote. Peace out until I'm in Japan. Word to yo' momma.

"Say goodbye, say goodbye"