Friends and Neighbours

Before we leave Toronto entirely, a few more notes.

EVIDENCE THAT MY MOTHER IS LOSING IT JUST A LITTLE BIT:
In reference to my Louisiana sister in law, who in truth has been behaving a little inappropriately lately. But this is where my mother steps over the line. "And vat is vit dat accent? She's been in de contry longk enough, she dosn't hef to shpeak like dat." Um, Mom, YOU have an accent. "Not like DAT. It's toe-tally different."

ON THE BEAUTIFUL ROOFTOP DECK AT VANESSA'S: there are raccoons. Four of them. The first one I discovered as I was doing yoga - he was about 3 feet from my face in the tree dangling over the deck. I decided to let him have some private time, you know, just in case raccoons moved faster than I recalled and he wanted to give me rabies. I went in, he lumbered away, I came back out again, and while in Upward Dog I noticed a Downward Glance from another one, looking straight down at me. It was hard to concentrate on my meditative stretching while wondering if he was going to land on my face at any time, so I went back in. Now the two of them were out there. Obviously they were together. Whether they were mother and young, or friends, or boyfriend/girlfriend, they clearly had some kind of relationship. I watched them playfully tumbling with each other for a while, then decided I wanted the deck back. I ticked on the glass door, signalling them that hey, I was here, maybe you guys could clear out now. My fears about fast-moving raccoons were immediately quelled. One looked over at me, like, "hey! oh! There's someone there! We'd better get out of here fast.... Okay. Um. Sure, let's go. Okay you go first. Oh wait, no I'm in the way, why don't I go - oh wait, maybe I should turn around first. Can you get down over there? Maybe that's a better way. Hey, this is a nice deck. Oh shit! She's still there. Quick! Off the deck. Um. In a second. Hummm."

My last hour in Toronto I was having a feverish "I've been up all night and am about to spend the next two days in a van" nap, and I heard these horrible chattering screeching noises in my sleep. Half awake, half asleep, I couldn't tell what was happening. I finally figured out it was the raccoons again, this time no less than FOUR of them outside my window. I tried to get back to sleep, but now I was hearing them closer... closer... hey - was that footsteps? Was that a shadow down the hallway? Oh my God are they IN THE HOUSE?!! Of course they weren't, but neither was Sleep anymore. So I got up, grabbed a coffee, and sat with my luggage out on the front step in my invaluable $8 fold out chair prop from Safeway, awaiting a pickup from - The Lady.