It's been over a year, perhaps even close to two , since I had more than two people at my place. For the longest time, I felt closed off and felt it difficult to accept people into my own personal space.
Until tonight, and we ended up having a lovely evening at night playing board games and catching up. It's been so long, too long.
Earlier in the evening, a dinnner was organised by a friend who wanted to take a mutual friend's mum to dinner. This auntie has always been kind to me and every so often calls me up to ask me to drop by her place becasue she's got soup or cooked food for me. Taking her out to dinner is something we try to do on every holiday occassion.
It was a sumptuous feast, and in the end close to ten people sat around a round dinner table at a Chinese restaurant downtown. We ate and chatted, smiled and exchanged polite conversation. More often I, together with another friend, would be talking to auntie or trying to translate so she doesn't feel left out.
At the end of the, together with a smaller and more closely knit group, I headed back home. I found the joy of hosting again, the joy of making sure everyone's glass/cup (stomach!) is filled. Joy of trying to give everyone a place where we can bond and share plesant company and be merry. It is a special feeling that it is at my own home. And in many ways, my sweet little cat made the gathering even more lively with her curoiousity and endless exhibition of cuteness.
Hours went by, and before we knew it, it was past one. For most of the day, the home of a friend and his daughter has been plagued with a blackout, one that the electricity company kept on saying will be fixed. Four hours turned into eight, turned into twelve, and as of this moment, is going into the eighteenth hour.
I told my friend to just stay, as I have two spare rooms. He wanted to go back, as he felt like he was intruding. But we tried to tell him how dangerous it is to go back to a home that is unheated.
Five years I have been in Canada, and never have I experienced temperatures as frigid as what we ha've been experiencing. Tonight , it was -26C, but with the wind chill, of deels like -38C. Last night, it felt like -42C. It is simply freezing. Freezing to the extent you don't want to do anything, and I've been struggling to keep awake because the body really feels like its hibernating (being depressed is not helping either...).
These temperatures are extreme, especially so early on in winter. But elsewhere in Canada, its even worse, for in Winnipeg apparently they experienced temperatures colder than the surface of Mars... This is not human....
Eventually my friend and his daughter stayed, and I quickly made their beds and made sure everyone could get ready for some sleep before I lay down.
I provably slept an hour or so before I woke up and could not sleep any longer I lay awake twisting and turning. Next to my was the ex, fast asleep and slightly snoring. In the room across the hallway was the friend who was definitely knocked out. His snore was like a storm or a factory machine hard at work.
I twisted and turned, and felt hemmed in by two people snoring. How could they sleep so soundly (literally...) whereas I'm so easily woken and disturbed by noise? Ironic that I, the one who normally lives here, is the one who cannot sleep while the others Im sheltering for the night are soundly sleeping.
An hour or so and it is morning.... Time for them to wake up. Time for me to sleep!
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