Leaving is my butter-cream

I am at work for the last time. "Lasts" are so strange. I felt like hugging the cafeteria employees and expressing my sincere gratitude for their cheerful smiles of recognition that came with "Coffee? $1.88" each morning. Now they'll be left wondering what happened to the unusually tall blonde girl who always asked for soya milk...

Last night I went to the "Light and Sound Show" on Parliament Hill. They project images and lights onto the Parliament buildings, accompanied by a bilingual soundtrack consisting of quotes by famous Canadians and music of questionable ethnic origin. This bizarre phenomenon occurs twice an evening. Naturally, we stayed for both shows, standing to sing and applaud at the end of each - using geography, technological achievements, and multicultural children to evoke sentiments of national pride works every time. It was quite possibly the highlight of my summer. Not only do our government buildings serve as the backdrop for an evening tourist attraction, they are also housed on the same land as a cat sanctuary.

I have not started packing, which isn't surprising. It won't take long to put my fifteen scarves, three piles of cardigans, four hippos and a string of Christmas lights into the Civic (I hope). Getting ready to leave places makes me feel scattered - like rainbow-sprinkles in a bowl jumping around with static electricity. Finally leaving is like mashing a frosted cupcake into the bowl - the sprinkles get stuck in the icing, a few fall off or stick to your lip, but for the most part the butter-cream contains the chaos. Final departure is my butter-cream (I am going to start using cupcake analogies more often).

Here is the beginning of my to do list:
- Burn 20+ hours of music onto CDs in themed playlists including "Why the '90s were awesome," "Hairy men who wear plaid," and "Boy bands were a phenomenon that actually existed...huh."
- Take photographs of the asbestos-filled-oddly-scented-labrynth-safety-hazard that is Apartment 11.
- Monkey around on the rusty fire escapes one last time.
- Place all belongings into 2 large backpacks.
- Place enough toques for 4 days into smaller backpack. Include bottled water, cortisone cream, and Canadian whiskey (for emergencies - Canada is cold).
- Finish the blueberry crisp in the freezer (after defrosting without an oven or a microwave...).
- Wade into the Ottawa River to film roommate spinning fire-fans.
- Purchase peanut butter and apples for the road.
- Sing and dance to the road-trip gods for no rain and lots of moose.

Final thoughts:
- You can camp on Crown land for up to 21 days for FREE if you are a Canadian citizen.
- We're driving as far North as you can drive...pushing our Southern-Canadian limits.
- Notre pays est beau, and the Pacific Ocean is calling.

We're "tweeting" our updates, so you can stay abreast of our progress and moose sightings:
http://twitter.com/perogie_pirates

Ottawa, thank you, until later...in Ojibway:
Odawa, migwetch, baampii.