Not all those who wander are lost

I'm going to dedicate this post to a person of utterly no significance to me. Why? I guess because sometimes, it's nice to acknowledge the people in your life who were nothing but a passing moment, a blip in the short timeline that is your history on this Earth.

I knew him as Fed-Ex when I first met him. I got acquainted with him and his friends Farmer and Caper when I was in Florence, Italy nearly four years ago. He was somewhat of a legend due to the trials and tribulations he had to face to get his ass out of Canada in the first place. It was a miracle he managed to make it to Florence in the time that he did. We were all Canadians staying at a hostel in the city's suburbs - a typical Renaissance type building with wide staircases and white statues. Us Canadians naturally migrate towards one another when we're overseas, mostly for the sake of exchanging Canadianisms, reminiscing about Tim Hortons/hockey and getting wasted while doing so. Most of my time in Florence was spent admiring architecture and art during the day and getting piss drunk at night. I briefly remember a game of hide-and-go-seek in the dark and a conversation over wine about suicidal animals.

Anyway, today is Fed-Ex's birthday. I haven't seen him in four years and I probably will never see him again for the duration of my life, but him and his friends were probably one of the better wine buddies I've had. They were the first Canadians I met while backpacking through Europe, and let's be honest, you never really forget your first Canadians.

So here's to you, Fed-Ex. The likelihood of you reading this and recognizing the person as yourself are slimmer than me becoming pope someday, but I wish you the safest of travels in the future. I hope that none of those adventures involve you getting deported/lost/trapped in airports. Although, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if they did. Lao Tzu would certainly have approved of it.

Happy birthday from this fellow travelling Canadian.