Jordan’s Story
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Email: jordan@canada500.org
Hometown: Nelson, BC Occupation: Tile Installation / Musician |
| When I first heard of Dan’s cross Canada trip, it was in hushed tones, hinted at with eyes glinting with mystery and oaths of secrecy. Dan and Ryan would speak of it with assured head-nods and furtive glances, as though afraid to reveal too much. And then Ryan got engaged to my sister, and that was it for that. Zing. No journey across Canada for him. So too bad. I didn’t know what the big deal was, anyway. To be honest, I still don’t really know what their plans were, or how similar they were to the strange and magical unicorn that our trip has become. But I digress.
And so time passed. I got to know Dan a little better. He’s highly unusual, which is something that I value in an aquaintance. I’m told that I too am, well, less than super normal. Basically, I discovered that my and Dan’s respective un-normalnesses combine in ways that are terrifying to anyone who may be, for instance, within hearing range. I found myself wearing rubber elephant trunks and fake facial hair in public. And people were always so interested and happy and wondering why we were being so weird. And it was always a little awkward not to have some kind of answer for them. So, soon enough, I once again found myself playing the part of the outsider peering in on the fringes of this fabled trip, only this time his ill-fated co-conspirator was Mahlon. Dan introduced him to me as “his friend who was dying”, and I didn’t know whether this was true, other than in the, you know, everyone-is-dying kind of way. Only this time, I guess I had somehow proved my economic viability, or skill-set, or whatever, because I was offered a coveted position among them. Actually, I don’t really think it was that coveted. But probably more coveted than you would expect. We started coming up with ideas. They told me theirs. I added some of my own. I was so happy to be a part of something! Wheee! Later, somehow I found myself again in Lethbridge, an alarming situation that has occured rather often of late. I still feel as if I might at any point be shunted off to Lethbridge by some unseen force. Dan and I decided to have a full day of super brainstorming and information gathering. The ideas flew fast and thick. Dan reached deep into the dark recesses of the interweb to pluck relevant informations and place them upon our sticky notes for dissection. I scribbled and scrawled, and sang and spoke, and somehow, by the end of the day, there were the basic outlines of our trip. Once some of the concepts were in place, we realized that the potential was pretty great. Everyone we talked to was enthusiastic, something that still holds true. We couldn’t wait to tell Mahlon! But before we could, Mahlon died. Metaphorically. Anyway, now our plans have slowly coalesced, not unlike terminator forming from the metallic goo, to hunt down our goal, unrelentless. I’m pretty sure that whatever happens will be really interesting, hopefully amusing, and occasionally disturbing. I keep telling myself not to worry. - Jordan |
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