I've had a great week. It's not that anything out of the ordinary has happened, it's just been, well, pretty good. With the exception of an encounter with a co-worker that was less than pleasant, all has been well.

I managed to go out for someone's birthday on Thursday night and hear some music, which was really nice. I haven't gone to hear a band, or musician play in months and months. I knew one of the performers and she was excellent, really moving and fun. Her name is Karyn Ellis and she's pretty darn good, so check her out. Following her performance was group called Amanda Mabro and the Cabaret Band (I think). They were a tight little swing band fronted by Amanda Mabro and she's incredible. Pipes out of this world. Rick came out for some of the fun, but due to pressures at his work, he had to leave early in order to get some sleep.

The evening prior, Wednesday, was spent at Rick's and he cooked a yummy dinner and we watched television. I know, how exciting is that? Anyway, we were both dead tired (see a pattern?) and rather than pass out on his couch I decided to head home for a good night's sleep. It's a good thing I did, too, or I'd have missed the awesome "street theatre" at Queen and Carlaw. This is a sketchy corner at best, and truly divey and sometimes scary at worst. I've had a lot of experience with it, in that Rick's the third guy I've dated who lived right there.

Let me set the scene. One plump art student type guy with portfolio and parchment case under his arm, another fellow of undetermined ethnic background, a little shorter than me with dark eyes and long dark hair, and a deaf-mute. The deaf-mute (is there a more PC term for this?) was dressed in a sporty wind-breaker, nice cream-coloured, very clean, pressed slacks, and expensive looking brown woven leather shoes. He also had tattoos on the back of his hands between thumb and forefinger, plus a very expensive looking watch. If it weren't for his wild gesticulating and howling at passing cars, he looked as if he would fit in very nicely on the set of The Sopranos.

A patrol car came cruising up Carlaw, as the police tend to do, slowly checking out everyone at the corner, stopping when it came abreast of the ranting fellow. The got out, a female officer and a male, and they started to ask him some questions. This was the point when I realised he was deaf, previous to this I had assumed he was a crazy, drunk man, of which there are many in the neighbourhood. Through rudimentary sign language on the part of the female officer and more of the man's wild gesticulating, he got his point across that he lives in a house "over that way" and he was waiting for the bus to take him.

At this point, the bus arrived and we all filed on. The police chatted with the driver for a minute and parted company when the driver accepted the deaf guy on without a ticket. As soon as the bus starts to move, the guy starts ranting again, hands forming big shapes in the air. I'm paying loose attention, mostly seeing him as comical and basically harmless, but I can't figure out what he's saying. The guy from the bus stop, the one of undetermined ethnic origins, turns around in the seat in front of me, grinning, and says, "Wow, that guy's great." I agree and he adds, "Do you know what he's saying?" When I said I didn't, he began to decipher the hand gestures for me. I don't know how he was able to figure it out, but once he started to explain, it became obvious that he was right.

It went something like this: I live in a big house and have lots of money and it's really funny to me that I am riding the bus with you poor people because I fly all over the world. We started to hypothesise about what kind of a house he really lived in and whether or not it was true or whether this guy was really out of it. It was impossible to tell since he was clearly a bit of a head-case, but also dressed pretty darn well. He got off the bus at Danforth and headed off down the street so we'll never know for sure, but it was awfully amusing to watch his antics.

In other news, my dear friend Tanya is getting married. Whee ! More about that at another time. Also, Willi has been extra adorable with me, following me around and talking to me constantly, while Tobe spends a lot of her time sleeping in the sink.