Ben Babcock’s Catalystica Studios — May 17, 2008

I woke up today to Lauren knocking on my door, telling me that her mom wanted me to go see a doctor about my eye. So against my will I acquiesced, although I’ll admit it’s probably for the best anyway. I went to see an optometrist, Dr. Henry, who was very nice. He gave me free samples of eye drops and an ointment and said that if I needed a follow-up visit next week, he wouldn’t charge me for it. So I survived my foray into the American healthcare system. :P

Later that evening, Lauren had some of her friends over for a games night. We played Taboo with Nisha and Jessica—I’ve never played that before, but I really enjoyed it. I got to listen to lots of fun stories from Jessica too. Michelle, whom I met yesterday, arrived about twenty minutes later. She joined us for a second game of Taboo, then we went downstairs to play DDR. Now, I’m exceptionally bad at DDR. I’m not great at much in life, and DDR—or any form of dancing, actually—ranks pretty high on this list. Part of it is a distinct lack of regular practice; if I actually bothered to acquire a proper DDR game and practised regularly, I could probably pick up some reasonable skill. In general though, I just lack rhythm. So when Lauren tried to teach us the electric slide afterward, I got absolutely lost.

Nevertheless, I had a good time. It was probably the most sociable I had to be in a long time, and I’ll be stretching that comfort level more tomorrow, when I go to the birthday/graduation party of one of Lauren’s friends. I’m not entirely sure this much human interaction is good for me. I’m sure that other people can handle it. But it’s like alcohol tolerance. Some people can hold their social interaction better than others. And now I’ve gone off on a tangent and I don’t remember what I was talking about….

Oh yes, now I remember: about the existence of Sasquatch…. I think it’s possible for such a cryptid to have survived for such a long time and gone undetected. Possible, but not probable. We’ve inhabited the New World for about what, 20,000 years now? And in all that time, the best we can come up with are some footprints and the world’s first YouTube video?

Now, if Sasquatch is real and intelligent, I could totally see it intentionally hiding its existence from us, then laughing as we try to figure it out. I could even see it staging the Patterson-Gimlin film for its amusement. It’s probably in some sort of secret Cryptid Society that meets once a week, where it and Elvis and Nessie play poker and share stories of how they toy with the rest of we humans.

The fact that apes rose to sentience on this planet must be some sort of great big cosmic joke … and humanity is the punchline.

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Lauren and I were feeling better today. We went back to her dad’s house, where we waited for her friend Michelle to show up. In the mean time, I started reading Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer. Lauren absolutely loves this series and has been recommending it to me for some time; she’s re-reading Eclipse right now. My friend Laura also shared her experience with it yesterday. Since my non-fiction book is kind of depressing, I decided I should read Twilight while I’m here.

Once Michelle arrived, we left for the North Market, which is an indoor market. The wares are mostly food, with a couple of booths selling cooking utensils and whatnot. We had lunch there; Lauren and Michelle both had Indian food while I tamely bought two slices of pizza. After lunch, we meandered around the Short North area for a little (alternatively substituting the meandering for walking, pacing, sauntering, and what-have-you). It reminded me vaguely of downtown Thunder Bay, if downtown Thunder Bay had wider sidewalks, more traffic, more people, and buildings built on overpasses. We found this neat little store called Loot, which was home to much eclectic merchandise. Lauren bugged Michelle with a black sheep puppet. I bought a cute little Beethoven doll that plays a piece neither Lauren nor I could identify.

We returned to the North Market to buy some pastries for dessert. I got a custard Napoleon, Michelle got a strawberry torte, and Lauren bought an Amadeus torte (very chocolatey) for her dad and an “Omega cake”, which was a cake and buttercream all covered in hardened chocolate, for herself. We saved these pastries for later, so I bought a waffle cone, with a scoop of raspberry sorbet and passionfruit yogurt, to satisfy my immediate craving for sugar. We rendezvoused with Michelle’s mom outside the market—she and Michelle were going to a talk in the area, so it was convenient for them that Michelle had joined us for our expedition. Lauren and I went back home.

Lauren’s gotten me watching Grey’s Anatomy now. I already watch House, which is also set in a hospital, although I mostly watch that because of Hugh Laurie’s humourous acting. Grey’s Anatomy is more like a train wreck in progress—you watch because things are so messed up. I’ve only seen about four or five episodes, but I’ve enjoyed those.

Tomorrow Lauren’s having friends over in the evening to play board games. I’ve organized my Ohio photos on Flickr as a special set, so you can keep tabs on them through that link. Hopefully I’ll finish VSNS Lemon soon so I can work on redesigning my site. One of the things I want to do is pull photos from my Flickr account onto my site, so I can display them as a “gallery” in my site but keep them hosted and organized on Flickr.

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I fully intended to blog every day while I’m in Ohio. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. On Saturday, Lauren and I went to a one-year-old’s birthday party for a family for whom she babysits. The party took a lot out of me (because I’m not a very sociable person), although the children were absolutely adorable. Afterward, we went to see Made of Honor. It was your typical romantic comedy: cute, pretty well done, solid. It’s hard to be original with those. I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling too well by then, and I was far too tired to blog.

On Sunday, we went over to Lauren’s mother’s house for breakfast. We ended up just hanging out there all day, napping in front of the couch, which was fine with me, because I was tired and not feeling very well. I felt bad for coming down to visit Lauren and then getting sick. Ironically, our situations would be reversed two days later.

Monday was fun. Lauren took me to Easton, which is this town centre shopping mall type area. It reminds me of Victoriaville if Victoriaville were still classy and not rundown. There’s a large indoor mall with lots of stores, then many stores in the area outside. I bought some souvenirs at a shop called the Global Gallery, which is a not-for-profit free trade shop. Then we went to a Gameworks arcade. Lauren trounced me a couple of times at DDR. We tied each other at table hockey. Then we played some skeeball. After the arcade, we had lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen, where we split an Italian sweet & spicy sausage pizza. It was yummy. After that, I went to Build-a-Bear and built a teddybear as a souvenir (not saying for whom!). Someone kindly photographed Lauren and I in front of an indoor fountain. Lastly, Lauren and I walked around outdoors before heading back to her car and going back to her dad’s for dinner (yummy fish).

Today I woke up with a fairly irritated eye. Luckily, Lauren’s mom is a nurse and she had some eyedrops that have helped clear it up. It’s still watery, but it isn’t red anymore. Now Lauren isn’t feeling well. The two of us, her brother, and her mom went bowling, and that was enjoyable. The States doesn’t have 5-pin bowling, of course, so it was 10-pin. I hadn’t played in almost a year, so I didn’t do very well. Afterward we went for supper at Bob Evans, then we came home. We didn’t do much today, but it was still tiring. Apparently tomorrow I’m going to the North Market with Lauren and her friend Nisha, who is in town for a respite and wants to catch up with Lauren (and meet me!).

I’ll blog again soon, and even if I don’t, I’ll add some more photos.

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I couldn’t sleep. I was supposed to get up at 4:30, so I should have slept, but I was far too excited. The morning would bring several firsts—first time flying alone, first time flying to another country, first time taking a connecting flight, and of course, first time meeting someone I’ve known only online. I finally managed to get to sleep after around 3:30, but my dad promptly woke me up at 4:30. I rolled out of bed, got ready, packed the last of my stuff, and we were out the door.

Boarding at Thunder Bay was pretty easy. It was early in the morning; everything seemed too bright but not very loud. It was cold outside. I also happened to be the only guy (the only 6’4“ guy) standing around outside in the freezing morning air in a windbreaker, T-shirt, and shorts. I was going to need that gear when I got to Ohio, though.

The flight to Minneapolis was on a small, somewhat cramped aircraft. I was over the right wing, in an aisle seat. I put my iPod on and sat back to read my airplane book: Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire. I don’t know much about that period of history, so I figured this was a good chance to learn.

I cleared customs in Minneapolis just after getting off the plane; that was much easier than I expected. Seems a Canadian passport does help! Minneapolis’ airport is huge compared to Thunder Bay. Mindbogglingly, leg-burningly huge. It has so many more gates … I had to cross an entire terminal (just one of the many buildings in the facility) to get to my departure gate, and my legs were sore by the time I got there (I was worried I would miss my flight). I didn’t miss it, of course, and boarded with plenty of time to spare. The plane was larger, although I found the seats even more cramped. I got a window seat this time, which was neat, because I could actually see out the window. I find the entire concept of flying a fascinating example of technology manipulating our understanding of physics—we are defying gravity. It’s amazing!

We landed in Columbus on time. I’m not sure if it’s because I hadn’t slept, or it was only noon and I felt like it should be later because I hadn’t slept, but it felt like the flying had aged me. I was tired. As soon as I was off the airplane, I started looking for Lauren, but I couldn’t see her. She had promised me a very ostentatious sign, so I kept an eye out for that. With no sign of her, I went to claim my checked luggage. Once I had that, I proceeded to get thoroughly lost in the terminal. Eventually I gave up, found a pay phone, and phoned Lauren (first time I’d ever done that). She was apparently at the luggage claim carousel where I had been minutes earlier. :P I returned to the carousel, and there I was confronted with the first physical sight of a person with whom I’ve formed a strong emotional connection over the past two years.

For anyone who has never done something like this, it’s hard to describe the sensation. Prior to going on this trip, many of my friend expressed reservations about whether I would really enjoy meeting Lauren in person—they hoped it wouldn’t be ”awkward.“ While I understand the source of those reservations, I never shared them—I couldn’t, not after chatting with Lauren on AIM and via webcam for so long now. I was more worried about the logistics of my flights than that I wouldn’t enjoy my stay with her. Still, seeing her holding that sign and then hugging me for the first time was when it finally sank in that I had gone to another country to meet someone I’d known only online. Even though I knew we emotionally synced, it was still a surprise to confront her in person—but not awkward. It was a particular flavour of strange and wonderful all mixed into a single package.

We proceeded to get lost trying to find where Lauren had parked (as if I knew). I snapped a photo of Lauren, one of her in her car, and some part of the airport from the parking lot while waiting for her to get her car started. Finally, we were on our way, and I was seeing a foreign city.

Like Minneapolis, Columbus strikes me as so different from Thunder Bay. It’s not alien, but it is grander—larger than life. It’s like Toronto in the sense that Columbus has absorbed surrounding cities, transforming them into suburbs. And I do mean suburbs—winding roads between perfectly kempt lawns of vibrant green grass. And every house looks so similar. Oh, and all the mailboxes are in a gang.

Lauren took me to her house, where we had some lunch and she serenaded me with her talented piano playing. We played some games of chess, I met her dad and brother, and we just sort of hung around the house. Toward the evening we went out on an expedition to find Lauren some matting paper, while I needed to get a phone card. In the course of this expedition we ended up in the nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter. For my Thunder Bay friends, let me take the time to explain the difference in magnitude. Visualize our Wal-Mart, if you will. Our Wal-Mart is a puny pomegranate seed compared to this behemoth. It has thirty-eight tills. It’s … huge.

Oh, and I will take this moment to also interject that I had forgotten Americans lack milk bags. I opened the fridge only to be confronted by this gallon jug of milk. Talk about culture shock.

After some ravioli for supper and the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica, I sat down to write this. I’m going to try to blog as much as possible, both to let my friends know how my vacation is going and to preserve these memories for myself. Those not following the Facebook album can see the photos I take as I upload them to my Flickr photostream.

So after my first day in Columbus, I’m still under the influence of that ”whoa, this is so crazy" feeling I got when I landed. And it is crazy, and wonderful, and I’m having a great time. I love having Lauren as a friend, because we always manage to introduce new and exciting dimensions to our friendship, yet it still feels comfortable. Relationships that endure and flourish through change are some of life’s most precious commodities.

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Did I promise there would be more blogging? Silly me.

My friend Vivike came over today, and among the various things we discussed during our Frisbee tossing expedition was the “deal of the century.” The purchase of Alaska from Russia was perhaps the deal of the nineteenth century. But that was, like, so 151 years ago. It remains to be seen what the deal of the twenty-first century will be. But what, do you think, was the deal of the twentieth century?

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