Forum!!

Today I took the Metro into the downtown area. I got off at the Atwater station and after leaving the ‘station area’ I was really overwhelmed, (I’ll get to that). Well first off all there was the panhandler that saw my Montreal Canadiens purse and said “I love Montreal, take me home with you” or something along those line, I didn’t even give him the time of day and just kept walking. There isn’t too many panhandlers I only have a couple other that stand out to me, the first day I was here there was a lady she looked like a witch, her eyes were sunken in with dark make up, she had bad teeth but what I had noticed first was the faux fur coat that had some sort of animal print but also had Mickey Mouse shapes on it. She approached me in French and I gullibly stopped and listened, she wanted money for a coffee and I almost considered it, but untimely said I didn’t have any and went on my way. Afterwards I thought to myself, why didn’t I just pretend I didn’t understand French. The other one that stands out was then I was wandering around downtown. I was approaching an intersection and there was a young couple washing windows, squeegee kids. I was already prepared to say I didn’t have change, incase they asked, the guy did approach me and said something along the lines of “wash your window for change” but before I actually realized what he said I said I didn’t have any. He just kinda laughed and continued on his way.

So back to the overwhelmed part, once I left the station area I was right in the middle of a mall. I knew I had to get out of the mall but I wasn’t sure how and I also had to try to remember how to find my way back so that I could find my way home. I went up a floor or two and found some doors, I exited the mall and there in front of my was the Forum. Now I’m sure I look like a wide-eyed child most of the time, even when I try to conceal it. Needless to say I was aw-struck by the building and that was just the outside! I found the doors and went inside. At first I wasn’t too blown away. But then at the centre of it all was Centre Ice, I’m not sure if it’s where center ice was when it was the rink, but it was pretty cool too see. Then there is a section of seats, as I approached the seats (you bet I was going to sit down and take it all in) there was a couple in the front row as I got there the woman asked if I had a pen. So I fished one out of my purse, the man started talking to me, so I ended up sitting behind them. He started talking about the games he had seen here and then she also started talking about ones she had seen here. I could smell the liquor on him and she too was drunk. He talked about seeing the Stanley Cup won here and seeing Wayne Gretzky with the Oilers beat the Canadiens. A couple of times they were both turned around telling me a story and I had a hard time keeping them straight. It definitely made for an interesting visit, I don’t think it would have been the same if I just sat there by myself. After the couple left I sat there for a while before wandering though the building. Maybe it’s just me but it seemed odd and ironic to have a Future Shop in this building that hold so much history. The movie theater doesn’t seem soo odd to me. After looking around Future Shop I purchased my ticket and went to see My week with Marilyn. I can honestly say it was the first theater I was in that was 3 levels. Lucky for me, my movie was playing on the third level. After the move I headed back to the mall, wandered around, it was after work hours so it was packed! I got a couple of things at Zellers and I swear I stood in line for 15 mins or more and there were several (I’d say 6 or more) registers opened. Then after wandering around some more I eventually found my way back to the Metro and got home no problem.

No plans for the weekend, probably just stay in.

~believe.