Another Alex Day

G.A. and I went to the mall this afternoon. We invited Frankie to come with us. I felt so proud to stroll through the air conditioned shopping mall with my two friends. I'll bet I was the envy of every man there.

Alex inquired about employment at a few shops. I bought a CD, recommended by Linda at My Voice. "40 Days" by The Wailin' Jennys. It's very good! I looked for a book (any book) by Bishop John Spong, but found only one - "The Sins of Scripture" - and it was a hardcover edition. $35. No thanks.

"Just go on the internet," Frankie urged. "Check out the Toronto Public Library. All you need is a library card to open an account. Reserve the book you want, and when it's available, they'll send it to Mimico for you. Save your money."

She's right, I guess. I can borrow the book and read it. Later, if I still want to, I can buy it online from Amazon.ca

Frankie attends a weekly art class so we took her home and G.A. and I came back here for supper. I burned hotdogs and hamburgs on the barbecue. I was busy preparing a Caesar salad and forgot the damn bbq. The hamburgers suffered third degree burns to 100% of their flat little bodies, but we ate them anyway. Alex, bless her heart, didn't complain but instead thanked me for a nice meal.

After supper, she endured the heat upstairs while she searched the internet for jobs. I washed the dishes and tidied up. We chatted for a couple of hours about everything and nothing.

"I'm getting sleepy," she said at last, showing me her straight white teeth and pink tonsils.

"OK then," I said. "Shall I take you home?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "But let's get some ice cream first, OK?"

So we did. Baskin and Robbins Gold Medal Ribbon. Mmmmmm .... Delicious!

Girl Alex is planning a camping trip on Saturday into Algonquin Provincial Park The two million acre park is among the most well known wildlife sanctuaries in Canada and a favourite with campers and canoeists for four generations. Alex is going with some friends. She'll be gone a week or more and she's very excited about it. Lucky girl!

So that's the third day in a row I've spent with G.A. After I dropped her off at home tonight, I pondered my fondness for this young woman. She's just 18. Meagan is 13, but she'll be 18 soon enough. Maybe I'm imagining Alex as Meagan. Or vice versa. The two are not so very different, really. Indeed, when I first met G.A. in a play we did together in 2001, she had just turned 14.

I pray that my little girl can mature even half as much in the next 4 years. More news about Meagan tomorrow, Ms J. But now it's getting late. Night-night.

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