Carleton Place...

[fajrdrako]

Spent the afternoon in Carleton Place, going to the Book Gallery with Tasia, Peter, John, Grant, Donna, Jim, Andrea, Hildegarde, Christine, and auriaephiala. Spending time with friends in a relaxing way was just what I needed; I felt sad, but still felt all right.

We had supper at The Leather Works, which had possibly the slowest service I have ever experienced, but was in a pretty location - overlooking the Mississippi River opposite the Carleton Place City Hall.

Comments

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you had a good day.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was really lovely. I thank Tasia, who organized it. As excursions go, it was close enough to be easy, but far enough to feel like a change from our usual places.

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you were able to get away and have a nice day. That's just what's needed, I think, at a time like this.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, it seemed to be just the thing. Comforting. Of course, books and friends are a great combination. Then the food, and sitting by the river.... Though I was perplexed at the time because I wasn't sure what river it actually was. (Turned out to be the Mississippi, a little Ottawa Valley river that flows into the Rideau.)

[nina-ds.livejournal.com]

That sounds like the perfect day in the circumstances. Very good thinking from all involved, and I'm glad you had a good day, despite the slow service. It's always better to endure it if you have friends to talk to!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Good icon. I hope you don't mind that I say that for all your CE icons.

It's always better to endure it if you have friends to talk to!

Yes, and we're all fans: it's amazing how much we always have to talk about, and how little of it is about ourselves. It was comforting to be among friends, and to realize how long I've known these people, and how fond of them I am.

[nina-ds.livejournal.com]

It's great to have a circle of friends close to you. I feel it sometimes, living where I live now, I'm a bit isolated. My best friends are across the continent in one direction, across the Atlantic in the other, and up in Halifax to the North. We have e-mail and phone and all, but it's not the same as being able to see people in person.

Re: icon - isn't that a lovely picture? I love how she looks like she feels so safe, if you know what I mean. I love the way he hugs, because even when he's going for comfort for himself, it's melded with a sense of protection (as in this icon).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's great to have a circle of friends close to you.

Yes. I have a very lonely childhood and teen-age years, though I had a few good friends. (Whom I am still in touch with.) It was the discovery of fandom in my twenties that turned my life around: people who shared my tastes and interests and attitudes, and undestood about a love of books and movies and TV shows, and, even more, a love of talking about books and movies and TV shows and the processes involved behind the scenes in creating them.

And many of these people have been friends now for 30 years, which is a frightening thought.

And then I have long-time email friends, and LJ friends, and friends who used to live close in Ottawa but are now scattered from Nova Scotia to British Columbia and all over the globe.

Some of the people I was with yesterday are not all people I'm especially close to, but seeing someone every month (or more or less) over the space of thirty years gives you an amazing bond.

Ahh, those CE icons: there's nothing like 'em.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

The Mississippi? That Mississippi?

Feeling terrifically geographically confused ATM...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Not the Mississippi that's in the States. Nowhere near it and nothing like it. Just a pretty little Ontario river.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Spending time with friends in a relaxing way was just what I needed;

Yeah.

I felt sad, but still felt all right.

...Yeah. Good.

overlooking the Mississippi River opposite the Carleton Place City Hall

Damn. You got your teleportation device back from the fix-it shop!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It was really beautiful in Carleton Place. We would all have appreciated it a little more if we hadn't been so hungry!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Elegance leads to atmosphere. Sounds so lovely. But... did you really overlook the Mississippi River? Wasn't it the Ottawa River, or maybe the Rideau? Just wondering.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

No, it is really the Mississippi River, which flows into the Rideau River, which flows into the Ottawa River.

If this link works (http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&q=Carleton+Place&cr=countryCA&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image) it will show you both the map and a labelled picture of the Mississippi River.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Okay, I believe you! Thought you were lost!

I see March Road -- ah, I know kind of where you were, then. It's pretty out that way.

MIssissippi River in Ontario. Imagine that. I'd thought that word wasn't Huron. Well, then!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't know how the Ontario Mississippi River (or lake) got its name. Maybe someone thought it looked like the American River.