UPDATED Life Status Toonhead Part 3

SO, FOR STARTERS thank u to everyone who still continue to support me and tune in and read my content (what little there is to read?) and vote on my lists and everything. SORRY I didn't get around to all the holiday greetings and everything--I've been SOOOOO OFF this past year. Haven't we all... :-(

I wanted to touch base with everyone and explain, yes, I know I haven't been on the site very much as of late, in fact the past year or so... I wanted to take this opportunity to update everyone as to the major changes that have been undergoing in my private life since I was last on Listal, and, perhaps--attempt to open up a dialogue for anyone else reading this if they wanna share their OWN post-covid story/experiences, or detail in your own list if I u feel like sharing, we can always link it to this list if y'all so choose. But fare warning, I might not leave this list up for very long for risk of the potential sharing of sensitive info that I really don't want getting out.

I DO plan to get back in touch and do some work on some of my larger item lists here--I was working on a new method for posting my reviews on my 6006 Movies list over the summer but I kinda got sidetracked as u shall soon read. Trust me, plan to add some content to some of my large item lists soon just not sure 'when'???...

SO TO EXPLAIN WHERE I'VE BEEN those of u who have been keeping up with me u no doubt remember me telling you all how I was almost picked up and indoctrinated into a 'cult'. Thankfully I have a very good friend who steered me clear of taking that route and it is actually a very long and complicated story, the full details of wish I'm not exactly at liberty to disclose.

Let's just say this friend was a guardian angel 'with clipped wings' in that he came into my life at EXACTLY the right time in EXACTLY the right way--even if he does have some 'extenuating issues' he needs to get resolved in his own life. I've come to think of this new friend of mine as practically family. Scratch that he IS my 'fam'! Even if our friendship does drive virtually everybody in our lives 'insane'. Nobody understands how or why we became friends or why I still 'continue' to be friends with this person after what happened last winter???...

Whereas I am more the introverted type he is the outgoing and extroverted type. I had a psychic who I go to locally for advice from time to time, and she actually predicted that me and this friend would run in to each other approx. "2 and a half years" in advance. At surface value, our connecting and becoming buddies doesn't really make a lot of sense to the people who know us. I live in a small town with modest small town folk who look on in disbelief whenever I bring my friend around and likewise when my buddy introduces ME to big city types, and similar other 'night creatures', they have nothing but questions concerning what the heck I'M doing there? It's a very 'symbolic' friendship and I have no doubt it was prearranged by the heavens with an express 'purpose'.

Anyway, we bonded over the winter as this guy was staying in the cult leader's house and pending dire circumstances kind of prevented my friend from being able to move out or live anyplace else, he was kind of stuck there. For the most part it was my coming around and continuing to keep him company in a very 'low' point in his life that saw him through the experience. Although we are very different, as we bonded we found that we had a lot in common. I even opened up a few 'secrets' to this guy that I was initially keeping from the cult leader.

My friend started convincing me that this cult leader was holding me back and that I don't even need him to get ahead far in life. He opened my mind up to the possibility that 'despite' my debilitating 'health' issues, mainly concerning my digestion, just when I was beginning to think that it might in actual fact be IMPOSSIBLE for me to travel around the country, my friend convinced me that when he looked upon me he saw a WORLD TRAVELER, and that when all is said and done, he sees me going places. And case in point--

****************************

Before long I saw my friend and this CL fighting, not seeing eye to eye, on a nearly 'night' occurrence. MULTIPLE times there were ample threats to 'evict', some of the confrontations devolved into physical violence. This CL began becoming increasingly paranoid and after a while me and my friend began to get a tad annoyed as well as 'afraid' of this CL. No telling what he's capable of doing in a heightened emotional state of mind.

Somewhere along the way 'plans' were made--as a means of paying me back for all the times I kept my buddy company throughout the winter--and we wanted to see if we could get me out to the big city and experience the 'night life' for the very first time and expose me to a refreshing set of new experiences. The plans were hashed out by my friend and a couple other acquaintances who ended up coming on the trip with us, to get me out to one of the local 'gay districts' to see if I could find me a thin blonde 'sumthin' or other' and in our decision making we could have picked someplace 'close', like within the province on order to get my feet wet. However, the problem was is that my friend planned to have me go live someplace other than my hometown for a couple months. To properly experience my own independence. Now, folks who don't live here may not know this but in Canada, BC is actually THE most 'expensive' province to rent an apartment (or buy a house for that matter) in ALL of the country!?!! What is the CHEAPEST province to find a place you might ask? That just so happens to be back EAST.

We made plans that the 'two' of us--followed by the 'three' of us after one of the acquaintances who was staying with this CL in the house decided he wanted in--followed by the 'four' of us once the OTHER acquaintance (our driver) decided HE wanted in on this as well--we all made plans to rent out a small house, splitting the rent four ways, and 'in theory' my friend was planning to build me a new, separate life over on the East Coast where this house we all were renting could potentially become my 'secondary' place of residence. Who knows, once I make it out there I may end up not wanting to ever leave? ...in a manner of speaking of course.

WELL, things hit a tipping point and in the weeks leading up to the eventual departure it almost became like a race against time as things under this CL's roof were beginning to fall apart and on at least a couple occasions the police were called due to domestic disturbances. Meanwhile I was panicking cuz as a former hermit (with intestinal issues) and having never been away from home without parental or adult supervision a day in my life--this was a huge step for me and the story leading up to how I was able to talk myself into an adventure like this is almost just as detailed and impressive as the actual trip itself.

Somehow or another I was able to successfully embark and off we went not a moment too soon to trek across Canada to the East. There were a few 'rough patches' that occurred on route to the ultimate destination. Some paranoias were hashed out and some egos clashed. Honestly it is one of the most exhilarating yet 'terrifying' experiences of my entire life!!!

Before I continue, I should say this as to advice for people with similar introverted handicaps, or perhaps other debilitating circumstances that keep you locked inside this illusory shell of perceived limitation, what it was like in the weeks leading up to the departure between me and my friend went like this...

Both me and him were given very illuminating advice almost within the same time period as one another but before we had even met, by separate people who were intimately close to us. I was told by a friend that I would never be BRAVE ENOUGH for anything... all the great experiences that this friend has had in her life that shaped her to become the amazing person that she is today--she was TERRIFIED when they were happening to her!! The trick is to TAKE these leaps of faith IN SPITE of the fear... And my friend he was told by someone he was involved with that the more time he spends TALKING about amazing things, the less likely he is to ever actually DO any of them.

Our compromise = we started by making a list, and we wrote down everything that we could think of that we would need to pack on this trip. And we started treating it like as if we were really going. I ended up confessing my plans to my parents and it went over about as smoothly as swallowing a chainsaw. But my family eventually accepted that I was an adult and this was something I was SERIOUSLY contemplating and ultimately they can't stop me.

Then the ante got upped when we pushed the departure date up to just 4 days from now. The decision was made that rather than let the idea dissolve into a 'pipe dream' sometimes it's better just to RIP THE BAND-AID OFF with these things!!!--

So, cutting to the chase--off we went!!!

As for the trip itself... heh heh, I was told by a friend upon my return, this is rather 'typical' for a first time travel experience.

You know how often we get saddled on these travel experiences where virtually everything that CAN go wrong, DOES? Anybody ever experience anything like that?... well this was one of those kinda trips. The kind where NOTHING goes according to plan. And as my friend told me upon my return, those usually make for the absolute BEST travel stories ;-)))

I was also told that often first time travel experiences it's the ones where you 'think' you're having absolutely the WORST time that you get back to home whence you came and end up reflecting on your recent travels having the complete OPPOSITE reaction... almost like you can't wait to go back?! I was told by the same friend that this was an effect of the "Hobbit philosophy", it's like Lord of the Rings he says. The hobbits return back to the Shire discontent in their familiar surroundings. Home is never quite the same again :-( ...

And that's what happened to me, despite the many things that went wrong during the trip, I found upon my eventual return that all I wanted to do, was begin traveling again IMMEDIATELY!?!!

Looking back on it now, despite how claustrophobic things got being a band of four dirty hippies an a dog, in a van, traveling across Canada into the brutally harsh February winter tundra, looking back on it now it is nothing short of breathtaking to remember the sights and 'feels' of getting to experience the other Canadian provinces which I had never been to before. To this day every time I take a walk outside and get a whiff of that cold prairie winds I get nostalgic and get that irresistible 'itch' to get out on the open road again. Any of you know the feeling I'm describing?

Anyway, I won't bore you with the details--some experiences are best left to remain PRIVATE, but I will say this, as much as things when kind of arie toward the end so much so that I ended feeling I can't WAIT to get the f*** out of Quebec I was just tired of all the French, a part of me PERMANENTLY fell in love with the city of Quebec (City). It's a 'gorgeous' and 'historic' place that I HIGHLY recommend that everyone give a try if you haven't been, at least ONCE in your life. However, you might wanna let some 'time' pass first.

That's the thing, is that... when we left, we were all so distracted that none of us were paying attention to this growing 'background' noise that was developing in the news--we first heard of it when the CL mentioned it and it was giving him plenty motivation to become increasingly more paranoid than ever before. There was this killer new 'virus' going around that everyone were speculating could really develop into something serious were it to ever cross international waters...

Yeah... you can kinda figure where THIS is going?

I was ultimately forced to fly home a month ahead of schedule as I ran into some financial issues and this was looking to be my one and only opportunity. My family bought the ticket(s) for me and I had to experience getting on an airplane for the first time, unaccompanied by my parents, unaccompanied by anybody. :-O That was something else? ... Approx. TWO WEEKS after I returned home, my friends forced to stay behind with the plan that they would be right behind me the start of the following month. But TWO WEEKS LATER was when the "1st" lockdown went into effect. And lemme tell u all... Quebec City is like GROUND F***ING ZERO for restriction measures, and covid deaths. It's the absolute WORST in ALL of Canada.

**************************

Right now I've been spending the last few months trying everything I can think of to keep my friends out of Quebec and back to BC. I've been supporting my friend remotely in whatever means I have available to me, but honestly it's getting very exhausting and right now, as I'm writing this, we're almost at the home stretch looking like there's an end in sight that we might have a way for my friend to come back to the West. But just like before it seems like just before the zero hour is when the complications start hitting their HARDEST. I can't go into detail right now but the situation is just so 'fubar' it's gonna take a lot of prayers and a miracle to make sure things go off without a hitch. Wish me luck guyz

*********************************

In closing, deviating from most on the common consensus, I can't honestly be too harsh on 2020, sure the year ended kinda shitty for the grand most of us, but for me--it gave me one of the most enriching and rewarding experiences of my entire life and I am eternally in-debt to last year because of these experiences. Quebec is without doubt one of the highlights if not THE highlight of my entire near four decades on this Earth!!!