An impromptu jaunt to Vermont

It all began with an innocent comment during a Friday night, very-tired phone conversation.

Me: "I have the whole weekend off."

Abi: "Really? Why don't you come down?" *jokingly*

Me: "..."

Both: "..."

Me: "I could come down on Sunday and spend the day..."


I ended up leaving Saturday evening around five. I raced around like mad packing stuff and doing laundry and feeding the cats and cleaning out litter boxes, while Abi and her roommate/best friend Bryan cleaned their apartment in anticipation of my arrival.

We spoke on the phone a few times before I got there: the first call (from her) to see when I was coming, the second (from me) to announce my departure, and the third (also from me) to tell her I had arrived and was lost somewhere on her street and could she come get me please?

I'm not a very spontaneous person. Most of you know this all too well. So this was a completely strange experience for me: just picking up and heading across the border is very out of character for me, and remarkably nerve-wracking.

I worked myself up into a complete hyper tizzy during the two-hour ride, which went pretty smoothly, with only one hiccup when the on-ramp for the 20 eastbound was blocked due to construction. I found the detour easily, though, and I sailed through customs with my driver's license, even though I had gone to the trouble of finding my birth certificate and everything. Bah.

American customs officials are a very suspicious lot, and they ask the same questions several times, perhaps thinking that I might slip up and say the wrong thing if I was lying. Anyway, it all went by quite quickly, and before I knew it I was in the heart of Burlington, Vermont, which is really extraordinarily picturesque.

Despite sharing a border with Québec, the scenery in Vermont is substantially different from that of Québec: for one, in Northern Vermont they don't appear to have indulged in massive deforestation in order to accommodate vast farmlands. The trees are somewhat taller, and not quite the same green, and grow more densely, as there *was* deforestation there about 150 or so years ago, and all the trees have since grown back to populate the countryside. The hillsides roll similarly (since they more or less belong to the same range of mountains, which makes sense), but there's altogether a different atmosphere, and very different architectural styles.

Vermont houses look a lot like the houses in Prince Edward Island (see Anne of Green Gables if you don't know what I'm talking about), with the occasional smattering of plantation-houses, or rather just the influence thereof. It was thus that I found myself on a lusciously verdant street that was positively burgeoning with lilac trees and bushes and flowers, and rather lost, I must admit.

A quick cell phone call quickly put that right (Ack! Roaming charges!), and before I knew it a small car had pulled up behind me, and there were two people waiting for me inside! :)

I don't know what I expected, but Abi was nothing like anything I had pictured at any given time, and I was pleasantly surprised all the same. She's absolutely marvelous, and warm and caring and giving and funny and creative and... yeah. You get the idea.

Bryan, who was with her and is practically her Siamese twin, was much quieter, and I think having Manic!Phnee descend upon them both was rather a shock. They didn't object to my presence overmuch, however. ;) Bryan made coffee and we drank it and orange juice and talked until about one in the morning about anything that popped into our heads.

I helped Abi make lemon chicken for dinner (I chopped an onion for her: go me!), and completely forgot to eat the rice she had cooked (it was sticky rice, too... *mope*), and I molested their dwarf hamster Neruda.

I think Abi really liked my scarf. I'm all excited now and am probably going to start on some more knitting projects for her. *bounce*

Bryan and Abi live in a pretty damned tiny apartment. In fact, I don't know how they manage not to drive each other insane all the time. There was only one large bed, so Bryan got relegated to the floor, and I apparently kept Abi entertained all night by talking in my sleep, occasionally snoring (which I do when very tired), and by "wriggling a lot." Her words, not mine. ;)

We awoke around 7:30 am and lay in bed until about 8:00, when we all dragged our sorry selves out from under the warm blankets and went about our morning ablutions and then went to Denny's for breakfast. I ate far too much (lumberjack breakfasts are HUGE in the U.S.!!!!), and we joked and laughed and talked some more. We did a lot of talking during this trip. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only time I ever shut up was when I was asleep. ;)

Abi and Bryan had the brilliant idea of going to Barnes & Noble after breakfast, and so we hopped into the car for a jaunt to the bookstore, which could have easily fit both Chapters & Indigo inside handily. I'm in luuuuuuurve. Anyhoot, I bought meself two wonderful books on knitting (one with fantabulous stitch ideas, the other with more basic, practical instructions on problem-solving and approaching patterns in knitting), and we lounged in the super-comfortable chairs they had arranged near the bay windows through which the sun streamed delightfully warmly. Abi fell asleep in one of the chairs, which was amusing (and understandable, as we were all vaguely zombie-like at that point).

We briefly stopped at a pet centre, where we ogled the hamsters and played with the ferrets, and I made a quick run to the camera store next door in order to get film.

The film came in very handy at our next stop, which was Lake Champlain. We sat on the rocks (I took scads of photos), watched the ducks, chatted some more, nearly committed homicide when some asshat teenagers decided it would be fun to throw rocks at the aforementioned ducks, and planned and debated and philosophised for the future.

If all goes well, in a few months' time I might have me some new roommates. *boogies*

After a humongous banana split at Friendly's, it was sadly time to call an end to one of the most wonderful weekends I've had in a long time, and break the speed limit consistently on the way home from Montreal. Note to self: driving while tired makes you press harder on the gas pedal.

I was also mucho impressed by the gas mileage on my car for highway usage: 300 kilometers only used up half the tank! Am I wrong to be impressed by this? Is this normal or sub-par? I mean, 20 litres for 300 km seems pretty good to me. :)

Must go take long shower. Work is early tomorrow, due to the *censored* new automated scheduling process which has made it its mission in life to make me as miserable as possible. Bed for me after that. :)

Oh, my photos will be ready on Tuesday, when I will post them for all to see. :)