Things that interest me

Evidently, as it is 12.30am, I am not running tomorrow. I'd rather blog late into the night. Plus? A little dehydrated from Friday's night's wine tasting so it's probably a smarter bet to get a good night's sleep, rehydrate myself and run on my own later on in the day.
Woke up around 7am today and it was snowing. Went back to bed for another five hours. What? Got up around noon, started puttering around and I swear, like ten minutes later my phone rings and it's Michael and he says, "I just woke up!". He's all excited because he went to bed at 10 on Friday night and slept until noon. He's been working some ridiculous hours lately, so I'm glad he had a FOURTEEN HOUR sleep. I sent him an MLS listing for a really cool heritage house in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia a few days ago. The house was listed for $165,000 or something ridiculous and I figure that, between what I could get for my condo, plus my savings and his, we could come close to retiring there. Maybe supplement our income by working a few days a week stocking shelves or something. He's like, "You wouldn't do it, you wouldn't change your life to that extent". Try me.
Anyways, he comes over because my car battery's dead and, because he was the last person to use the thing, it's kind of something that he should help me with. So we call North Shore Taxi and I swear, by the time I we took the elevator down to the lobby, the cab was already there and he gave me a jump. The dispatch guy said that the fee was $17. This surly, East Bloc guy probably uttered fifteen words to Michael and I as he hooked up the jumper cables, and then he charges me $15. I gave him twenty because I liked his gruff manner and because he was trying to give me a break. For some reason guys always want to help me out when I have car problems. I am not complaining. Remember the UBC incident when my car alarm wouldn't stop going off and all the people that helped me that day? Why? Anyways, it slays me to see some guy old enough to be my dad having to drive people around for a living, having to show up at my apartment building to help me jump my car because I don't have jumper cables and I don't know anyone nearby that has a car that would come over and give me a boost. And then to give me a break on the price. I dunno. He was so surly. I'm sure he has a daughter that tries to hug him when she sees him and he claps her on the back a couple of times and wills her to let him go because he can't stand public displays of affection, but he socks away all the money he makes from driving a cab so he can pay off the mortgage on his house so that when he dies he can leave it to her in the free and clear to give her a leg up in life, even though he thinks her husband is an idiot. This is what I think.
Then, because the car was running and we had to drive it to charge the battery, we drove to Deep Cove. So we messed around there for a bit, had a doughnut and it was the weirdest thing. We get our treats and our coffees and we sit down and then this little girl who's like six or eight (I can not ever judge the age of kids) comes in with her dad who is looking a bit gruff in his work boots and his plaid jacket and he says to this bespectled little girl whose hair was a bit rumpled from having slept on it and not washed it that morning, he says, "So do you want a hot chocolate?" and she says, the precocious little shit, "Yes. And I'd like you to wash your hands. And I need to wash my hands" and it killed me. And then they make her hot chocolate and cover it in whip cream and serve it to her in this Bugs Bunny mug and I can tell that her dad is having a riot with her because he teaches her to "cheers" her drink to his and he's sort of revelling in the time that he's spending with her and she's a toss up between a pain in the ass and old beyond her years and while all this is going on there's a guy with a dog outside and this poor dog, it was first tied up while his owner went in to order lunch, and while he's forlornly sitting there, smelling all the sultry smells that are being emitted from this particular establishment, he's peering in, trying to see his fearless owner. And then this guy with his tiny toddler daugter comes out and she pets the dog and the dog sort of looks at her like, "that's nice, but where's the food", and then she goes over and - I swear to god, this kid is like two years old max - and kisses the dog. Just, this little, perfect kid going over and kissing some strange dog. I don't know. It totally made my day. And then the dog's owner comes out and this dog, man, his tail is thumping on the ground something fierce and he's just so goddamn ecstatic to see his owner and I turn to Michael and I say, "It's so simple for dogs. You don't have to do much to make them happy. If you feed them treats and take them for walks they're over the moon," and he agrees. And then this older couple with a dog of their own come over and feed this dog treats and the dog is happy and the kid having her hot chocolate with her dad who is just so smitten with her and I'm sitting there, randomly because I had to drive there to charge my battery and I've been given this brief insight, this glimpse into these people's lives and I don't know. I guess it's absolutely corny to say it, but there was just so much goodness and happiness happening. And I wasn't doing anything. I just sat there and watched it and enjoyed it and laughed. It was crazy.
Come home. Watch some more "Curb". Michael laughed so hard he almost cried. Then we walked down to Tantra, the restaurant where every waitress is exploding out of her top and has big hair and lots of makeup, and we had dinner as we looked out over the water to the downtown skyline and then we walked back up, rented "Stardust" (which was great) and then he left, asking when would be a good time to hook up on Sunday.
So, yeah. We had a funny conversation at dinner about wealthy people, and how there was some study that was done that showed that, say, the level of upset that a wealthy person might experience when she is unable to obtain a particular cocktail dress is on par with the anxiety that another woman might experience when she doesn't have enough money to pay her grocery bill. How to sum up? I don't know. I guess it really turned my crank to see this little toddler all dressed in pink with this cute little hat with earflaps go nuts over this dog, who was going nuts when his owner returned, while this guy was so sincerely happy to be having a hot chocolate with his daughter. I was surprised by the amount of happiness that I derived from the whole thing. I think, too, that innately that is our nature. I think that's an accurate snapshot of mankind. That's who we are.
A little girl loves a dog, a guy loves his daughter and I... well, I really loved that frickin' doughnut.