my queen street boyfriend

when i first arrived in toronto for work, in the spring of 2002, i loved to wander queen street, drink coffee & write in my journal [wait...uh... i STILL do that !!!]. as the city became more familiar, and queen west became my 'hood, there came tiny subtleties that made me smile & feel entirely at home. minute overlookable details that seemed placed just for me to notice, if i so chose. like james, the blazer-wearing singing bum who could seamlessly from "hey jude" to "rhinestone cowboy" as he sipped coffee on the starbucks patio. or the wee plaque on the non-descript building that i must have walked past hundreds of times before ever noticing [see attached photo]. and the guy that has come to be dubbed my 'queen street boyfriend.'

some historical journal entries on the subject:

December 9, 2002: "... the two mystery Toronto men who I see all the time on the street (one guy lives in the old lofts on abell, I’m sure, and the other might in fact have once been calgarian ?)…"

Feb 23, 2005: "...as we stepped out onto queen street, the dude I see all the time walks past us. I say to z “hang on a sec” and I turn to susie to explain how I see that guy ALL the time and… z hangs up. my initial reaction is to throw the phone as hard as I can, because I am SO mad I don’t even care. of course, I don’t do this at all, but instead yell FUCK really loud and feel somewhat better. my mystery queen street friend turns & looks back… "

this guy has become an enigma. i see him ONLY on queen street, but at various times of day. he walks on the south side about 95% of the time. i've seen him east of bathurst once or twice, but never west of strachan. his hair used to be cropped short, but he has, in recent months, allowed it to grow slightly unruly. he mostly walks alone but i've seen him once with a girl. his pants are an inch too short and he has really geeky sneakers. he wears a royal blue track jacket most days, even in summer. he is familiar to the point where i fight the urge to say something, only because i know the truth would shatter the imagined world where he is the perfect one for me...

but last night i was drunk. and he was there. and i couldn't let him slip by without at least finding out his name... i approached him on the street and he seemed very self-assured. cocky, even. i should be thankful that he was more flattered than freaked about the situation, but in the end, he was really not that interesting. i discovered he went to UW, which is probably why he seemed familiar from the beginning (not from calgary, but from waterloo as it turns out). we had a drink, talked a bit & then he slipped off into the night...

ahhh... my queen street ex-boyfriend...

[no point, obviously...]