Today I bought a year's membership to the gym at the Grande Prairie Regional College. That means I'm back in Grande Prairie as a resident. I'm not home. I'm away from home. I'm not even near the water.
I'm not gonna be playing Soccer in the men's league back home this summer, I won't be playing Ball Hockey with the boys at the CLB Armoury dans la Route de Harvey or going to the Gym at the Aqua Arena and playing squash. No more Tuesdays at O'Reilly's for open mike night. No more Fish and Chip's at the Duke and no more Pints with the boys either. No more auditions for Republic of Doyle or background work here and there. All the fucking things that I enjoyed about my life, and all the possibilities I thought of when that show came to town are now in my past. Not my present.
Is this going to be my life for a while? 15 12 hours shifts in a row followed by 6 days off? 6 days off to do whatever I want - but can't really because I have no where in this God forsaken town to pursue my interests. I could go look for Dinosaur bones like I had always planned when I came out this way, but the rock picks that I bought are back home in Newfoundland a mere 3 feet away from my soccer cleats and guards and my hockey gloves and dress shoes and all the other things that I have left behind.
I left it behind because I would be back to it, back to my life, back to what it is that I am and I do, but now I can't be that person anymore because I have to live up here and work up here and be away from friends and family UP HERE!
However I do plan on playing soccer this summer UP HERE. I guess I'm gonna have to make the best of it and try to attain some semblance of a normal life - UP HERE
But what if I tear a ligament playing soccer and can't work for a month? What will I do then? Will I have to stop doing the things I enjoy and become an old man, put on weight and talk about the days when I used to play sports or I used to have a life and the way things were when I was HOME?
