It’s actually Amharic for “Bon voyage”.

Time waits for no one.

Remember when I mentioned that Paige and I don’t have much time to hangout anymore? Paige is leaving for China today. I will be on co-op next term, and when I come back, Paige will be on co-op. Our days were numbered once exam had finished, and I can’t think of another way of describing the situation other than the Chinese phrase “相见恨晚”, which means “with regret that we had met so late”.

I had offered to take her to the airport, as the last chance to hangout with her.

Before we left, we had to grab some food and help her pack. We had chosen Lotus BBQ House for their delicious “麻辣烫”, or “hard-boiled things in spicy broth”, but their broth tasted a little sour, and we were really disappointed. Having packed up, we were on the road, but a thunderstorm came down right as we were leaving, and Paige had a lot of fun trying to photograph the raindrops while I drove. I just wish she can manual focus a bit better, hehe.

The trip seemed short.

Even though I was driving much below the speed limit, I kinda wished the roads would last a little longer. Every kilometer I drove leads closer to her departure, and the only console I find is that at least the internet exists and we can still communicate, lol.

We all make dumb decisions.

Paige wanted to get her hair re-dyed before she left, so while she was doing that, I had a chance to grab some shots on the streets of North York. The person did a terrible job with the dye though, and they kinda screwed up her bangs. She spent the next hour ranting about it, as she had planned to get her photos taken by a friend as soon as she got to Shanghai. In the wake of her misery, I dragged her to a Korean restaurant because I was starving. After we had some food, it was only 11:30pm-ish, and I decided to take her to Lakeshore to show her the Toronto skyline.

This is where you see my Sony A7 II struggling a little bit. ISO-6400 images are so noisy that I don’t think they’re usable in color, and had to process them into black and white. I had also forgot my remote so I couldn’t do longer exposures than 30s. There was also a crazy dude who jumped in the water and I had to drag him out from the lake. Paige was visibly shocked and tired, and I offered to take her to the airport from there, and maybe have her catch a nap.

Thank god for 24-hour Starbucks.

I drafted the outline for this post while letting her rest a bit before the check-in counter opened. Sitting and sipping on coffee, I had no idea what was about to unfold. After I woke her up, we went to check in the luggage she had.

Then it happened: she couldn’t find her wallet.

…
“Is it in my bag?”
“Wait, check the carry-on.”
“Did she leave it in the bathroom?”
“Did it slip out of my bag at Lakeshore when exchanging bags when I went to save the drunk?”
“Is it in the car?”
“Did someone steal it?”
…

A thousand thoughts raced through my head as I tried to picture every possible situation of how she or I could’ve lost it. The last memory I have of the wallet was that she used it at Shoppers, and handed it to me afterwards.

It wasn’t in my bag.
It wasn’t in her carry-on.
It wasn’t in her backpack.
It wasn’t in her pockets.
It wasn’t anywhere.

I was panicking, she was panicking, it was 4:30am, 2 hours before her flight, and she was on the verge of a breakdown. Her eyes darkened, and she was lost as to what to do.

I knew there was only one hope: the car.

I started walking, pacing, running.

She followed.

Terminal 1 was only 20 minutes away from Terminal 3, where I had parked. It involved a quick train-ride and few elevators. While waiting for the elevator, and riding the train, I had tried to think of some solution to the problem. Her wallet had all of her bank cards, and she would have no way of replacing those while in China.

The worst-case scenario is to give her one of my credit-cards, and that’s fine.

I always try to think of the worst case scenario first, once I have a baseline, I can start calming myself and try to think of solutions to problems. This time it was no different.

We were at the car.

Doors, backseat, floors, trunk, nothing.

My heart dropped. Everything slowed. My brain is racking itself trying to figure out where it could be.

“Passenger seat door.”

That was the answer. The wallet was right there.

I snatched it, handed it to Paige, “Idiot!”

Paige had a habit of putting her wallet on the passenger side door, and this time it was no different.

Relief, oh sweet relief.

It was only 5am, and we had plenty of time to get back to the gate for her to finish going through customs. On the way there, I must’ve cracked at least 10 jokes about how clumsy she is, but she was still in shock, and she said the whole thing almost seemed like a bad dream. I’m just glad I found it. She should feel so lucky to have me tag along for this, ha!

Arriving at gate F, I hugged her goodbye, and told her that this last little excursion gave me a bunch of stuff to write about for my blog. She just glared at me.

Walking back, I was starving, tired and sweaty after that endeavor. I know everyone probably has their own healthy pick-me-up, or some smoothie as hangover cure, but for me, nothing revives me more than the disgusting, greasy 7-11 food.

Disgusting, but I needed them to keep me calm and awake for the drive home.

Safe trip Paige, until we get to hangout again, you’re just going to have to settle for my shitty Snapchats.

I’ll miss the other idiot who’s always picking on me.

-Tao