Alert: somethingsentimental.blogspot.com takeover.

Almost four years ago. I ran into a friend who would later be one of the most important people in my life. It was in front of an arcade on Yonge street. I was with my friend Mark, and we suggested that we go, get some booze, and drink it at his place which was close. My friend who I had bumped into had never drank before, go figure. So, at the LCBO, we decided to buy something that would appeal to someone who has never drank, especially hard liquor. What we ended up with was a series of promotional samplers for absolut vodka each with their own flavour. We figured that if one flavour disagreed with her, she could always try the next -- that is until she found a flavour in liquor that she enjoyed.
That afternoon we did drunken arts and crafts, we each drew or made something special for each other. What I had ended up with was a series of origami stars trapped inside a miniature Absolut Kurant bottle with the explicit instructions to open a star when I needed some reassurance or something special. Well, I'm generally a pack rat, sentimentalism is something I carry with me wherever. But if you're reading this blog, I'm sure you understand that I'm working to get over that (it isn't just Ironic that the name of this blog is nothingsentimental). None the less, when I came out here, I came with four pieces of sentimentalism, a pewter box, a wooden box (that my parents bought when they were on their secret wedding/honeymoon in Niagara falls), a framed photograph, and a miniature bottle of Absolut Kurant. Four items that I've carried with me on all my travels since I've received them, I'll always be a sentimentalist.
These items have been most likely forgotten by the gift givers, or in the case of the wooden box which was a found object that was already well forgotten before I had asked for it. But I remember them, the context, the words that were given when the objects were given to me.
The Absolut Kurant bottle though remains the most important, and I don't know whether the reason it still has stars in it is because I've been strong enough to get through all my moments without any outside reassurance, or if the remaining stars are just too big to get out of this tiny bottle.
In any case.
I just used the screwdriver that I use to repair my glasses to fold and pull out one of the remaining stars in the bottle. Not because I'm sad, or need reassurance, but truly at this moment, I miss two people in particular, the two people 4 years ago that sat down and finished off the sampler pack trying to find a suitable alcohol. Mark Hamilton and Annalisa Candido. More than anything in the world, I love you two people, I'm sorry, I have to say it, I couldn't say it enough in the last year, in fact I probably said it in such a way or place that it seemed like more of a formality than anything truly heartfelt. And such was the last year for the three of us. Fucking holy trinity that fell apart.
And I remember sleeping on a banana chair, I remember mattresses wrapped in plastic to scare away the bed bugs, I remember Dovercourt, and I remember two very important years of my life that was wholly dedicated to those two individuals.

fuck,
well.
fuck nothingsentimental for a moment.

The star that I pulled out of the Absolut Kurant bottle was the first one in maybe 2 years. I plan on carrying it for the rest of my life and there is only 3 more remaining. I need to ration them!

The message was (in quotations no less)
"I love you guys"