November 1st has arrived, and with the coming of November is the Royal Winter Fair.  Spouse and I are in the Big Smoke to take in the agricultural and equine fesitivites.  This is my first time staying in the City as a guest for any protracted length of time since I left in 1998.  It feels a little odd.

Tonight, Spouse and I met up with some old friends of mine – co-workers and colleagues when I first began my working life, with my first “real” job.  The evening was filled with reminiscences of all the many things that happened lo those many years ago.  My friend Rhonda perhaps put it best when she said “we thought we were so groovy, but we really weren’t.”  True. 

We weren’t “groovy”.  At least not me;  I was a square peg in a round hole.  Some of the others may have been – they at least have become very successful in their field.  The truth is that we were all struggling to find our way in the working world and trying not to let our various insecurities completely overcome our ability to continue pressing ahead.   I am   gratified by the strength of the bonds we built together in those hectic few years.  The place we worked was a kind of a crucible in many ways, testing the supposed “fortitude” of each of its denizens in a twisted and ultimately unproductive way, and the natual outcome in so many such social situations is one of intense competition and backstabbing.  I am happy to report that none of that happened amongst our little group and we emerged, each of us, with our integrity and friendships intact. 

People often ask me whether I miss living in Toronto.   I always tell them that I do not, but that I miss the people I knew in this city.   Tonight’s get together makes me all the more aware of that fact;  I had some most excellent friends in this city that I do not, as a result of geography, get to see as often as I should anymore.