On a break, from working at Sun Peaks to going treeplanting in Williams Lake, 4 days in the paradise of Nelson.
Only, of course, the weather was no paradise.
So, time spent hopping from cafe to restaurant to cafe to restaurant to bookstore to bars...
We pick her up a copy of Elizabeth Smart's "By the Stairs of Grand Central Station I sat down and Wept", The Epic of Gilgamesh, "Don Quixote", Cervantes, there are many many more, Heroditus, Lolita, Pale Fire, Spekes, The Conquest of New Spain, I make my recommendations but we can't find them all, recommend podcasts, to audit university lectures, download, masterclasses, free, listen to when in the bush, keep the mind going.
I realize the lack of touchstones, her years abroad didn't broaden her education in any sort of direction I'd recognize. In conversation, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", Albatross, she doesn't get it, she's unable to recognize a Monet, Klimt, Klee, Mondrian, Cezanne, Degas, in short she's never learned what is what, there is still time, university and all, we go up to the hotsprings, soak, and then that is that and she is off on the summer's adventures.
I'm stuck spooning her snowboard until I can get to the locker...
She chastises me about not having the hospitality to offer her a sofa, and I'm starting to feel it, this homeless schtick is getting old, has been old for a while already...