Happy Canada Day
July 2, 2011
When I was 14, I went on my first official date on Canada day with my first boyfriend Kevin. He was actually the older brother of a girl I went to school with the year before, but I’d never met him because he was in high school. We met through my friend Sarah, who hung out with the “druggies” and weird unpopular people, when he was selling her a pipe behind the school. I’m not sure why he was selling it because he didn’t smoke. Anyway, I remember my first thought was that he looked like Kurt Cobain. He had long messy blonde hair to his shoulders and some kind of attempted facial hair. He was 16.
One day toward the end of the school year, he caught me walking home and introduced himself. I can’t remember what he said but we were basically inseparable for the next year and a half after that. He lived a few blocks away from me and we had a habit of sneaking out after our parents went to bed (more sneaking on my part, his didn’t pay much attention) and walking around through the alleys that led from his house to mine. Completely innocent stuff. The night before Canada day he came to my window and asked me to go out with him. I thought it was all very romantic.
So Canada day was our first day as boyfriend and girlfriend. He took me down this path into the bushes that ended in a small clearing overlooking the river where I guess people had bush parties, I was very naive and never went to things like that. The second I stepped into the clearing a firework shot straight by me and into the trees. We didn’t stay very long. All I remember is standing around awkwardly while he ran into the bushes to put out some small fires and then leaving. We sat on a dugout in the baseball field to watch the real fireworks for a while but they were blocked by the trees, so we decided to walk closer to the river to get a better view.
Of course by the time we got to the bottom of the hill they were over, so we just ended up turning around and walking back. My feet and legs were sore so he piggybacked me all the way up the hill, which was really long and steep. We also always met halfway between our houses at this clearing between our alleys, so he took me back there and said goodbye. I was leaving for the summer in the morning and wouldn’t see him again for 2 months.
The relationship went south pretty fast and I only stayed with him for as long as I did because he threatened suicide frequently, but it’s still one of my fond “young love” memories. I’m really only saying love for lack of a better word, because I certainly never was in love with him.
This Canada day has been extremely boring. I went grocery shopping and ate a piece of free cake at the bank, that’s pretty much the extent of my celebration.
On a completely unrelated note I really need new blogs to follow. If you have a blog or know of any good ones, send me the link !
