"There's always one person that does that," laughed Brittany to me. But it wasn't the whole mooing thing that made me laugh. Several things made me laugh, in fact. But the mooing wasn't one of them. In that particular situation what made me laugh was that here were hundreds of us waiting in this line (each boat apparently holds 600 people and they looked to be leaving every 10-15 minutes, you do the math), but anyways, here we were. On a Monday afternoon in August. Clearly none of us were at work. It was a beautiful day out. Really, we could not have ordered better conditions for a visit to Niagara Falls yet with the exception of Britt, myself, and the mooing stranger, every single person being herded through the gates was covered in a complete look of misery. I didn't know waiting in line to ride a boat through one of the most beautiful places in the world was such a terrible way to start the week. Apparently, it was the worst.
Then, the mooing paired with the apparent NEED to be the first person through the gate just so that you could get on the same boat and end up in the same place as everyone else really made me laugh. Because this whole need to be first weaving your way through crowds of people seems to be the theme of life in Ontario, maybe even life in general.
Ride the subway - heaven forbid you've never ridden the subway before and may need to pause and ask a question or purchase tokens. If you haven't planned your day 12 moves in advance to the point where the token guy is already handing you your tokens before you even have to open your mouth to tell him how many you need, you might as well get out. Seriously just leave, because you're a real inconvenience to the rest of the planet.
Driving on the highway? Any highway in Ontario? You better be prepared to speed. I'm not talking the usual 10-15 kms over the speed limit that most of us Manitobans are used to. At some points I am going 20 km over the speed limit and STILL majority of drivers are whipping past me. And even as I write this I feel like some of you that don't know me may think I am actually a 65 year old woman complaining about those crazy young drivers on the road. But in all honesty, what is the big rush?! Majority of people that had passed me at some point or another had to stop or we'd run into the same construction and all get to the same place in more or less the same amount of time. The only difference is I didn't have to constantly be keeping an eye out for a cop pulling me over to give me a speeding ticket. I got to enjoy the scenery. I didn't have one eye on the odometer, one eye on the clock rushing to get to my next destination only to be early, bored, or have to kill time.
Whether being herded through a subway station to keep up with the crowd, herded down the highway forced to keep up with the pace of traffic, or herded through the narrow gate one painful inch at a time it didn't seem to be my choice when I was going to arrive at my destination, the only choice I had was what my destination would be. I urge people to take your time, take a step back, SMILE at a complete stranger because to my mooing friend in line at Maid Of The Mist I'll never forget you. I believe my exact words were: "Wow, I want to be on the same boat as THAT guy because he seems to be the only one here that doesn't absolutely hate their life." Slow down people!
It's not all bad though, honestly. On Friday night Lauren and I (yes two Laurens I am not referring to myself in the third person) went to Metro in a busy mall in Toronto right around dinner time and the place was completely packed. For all my Safeway friends, think of your worst day or your worst line up - that's their every day. But here was Lauren and myself standing in line to buy a couple bottles of juice (okay, it was mix) and a salad for dinner. Then to my surprise the man waiting in line in front of us that had nearly a full cart of groceries looked at us, looked back to his order of turnips and bok choy, then graciously offered for us to go before him. I declined and said it was no big deal we weren't in a rush but he absolutely insisted. Little things like this man not being in a rush solidified my hope for the hustle and bustle of the Ontario way of life. For that, thank you.
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