A perfect summer night, in March.

I'm a true believer that the best days are the ones that happen completely by accident. 


Today was one of those days.


After a planned afternoon of entertaining my friend and her adorable 3 month old in my apartment, I rushed off to a hair appointment, and thus started a perfect night out.


First, let me set the scene: It's March, in Nova Scotia, but by some amazing yet slightly horrifying twist of global warming it's a gorgeous 22 degrees. Everyone on the streets downtown are sharing a communal fantastic summer attitude. Shades on, sleeves up, summer shoes, iced coffees in tow. Needless to say, amazing weather after a miserable winter. 
Everybody is Happy.


I settle into the chair and chatter away while my winter shag is transformed into a blunt-banged hipster do. The conversation drifts effortlessly from Vietnam Tourism, Indian food, horoscopes, ghosts, parallel dimensions, time travel and Coronation Street.


Best. Stranger. Conversation. Ever


I pay and stop by Dalhousie's Sexton Campus and meet my old friend T who's in the process of building a robot with friends for a competition. I sit on the floor and watch two grown men sweat bullets and fret as they trouble shoot a robot designed to lift and move eight wooden playing blocks to spell a word: Profound. It succeeds in less than three minutes, and there is much rejoicing.


I manage to drag T off for a bite at the local south end BBQ joint Boneheads. We proceed to devour two plates of pulled pork and mac and cheese, chased with glass bottle ginger beer and coke. We close the place out and then leave for a wonderful spontaneous walk through the south end.


Highlights of the night included:

• Moseying up streets and (mostly me) chattering about houses and architecture.
• Ducking down an alley and showing T a secret part of the city he'd always biked by but never really saw.
• Spotting this house:

Hello Jetsons!

• Sitting on a bench at the corner of Spring Garden Road and watching people strut by in their hipster spring-wear lovelies.
• Wandering over to the Library front steps and catching buskers swallowing fire and spinning devil sticks.

We finished off the night sitting on the church steps at Pizza Corner and listened to a heavy metal band practice through an open apartment window. As we sit and goof off while watching more packs of people manoeuvring in the cool summer night, we see the band emerge from the apartment, lugging gear. They look like a proper stereotype: Long grisly hair up in bandanas, scruffy facial hair, sleeveless tee shirts, spider web tattoos... And thats when we saw them load all their gear into the back --- of a brand new Silver Dodge Caliber...

I guess even the metal heads need reliability and storage in a midsize car.

Over all, this spontaneous date was just what T and I both needed. Sometimes it's not what you do, it's who you do it with, and then sometimes it's both. 

As I waited for the last bus to take me home to Dartmouth I thought about all the great days that stand out in my memory: Spontaneous picnics, beach walks on days that had no business being beach days, conversations on verandas that last into the wee hours, road trips to nowhere, surprise guests and swing sets.

On nights like tonight, with the air smelling of dusty summer, and my heart all warm and fuzzy I feel content. Content and optimistic. 

They say everybody associates certain smells with deep feelings, and I've always associated that warm scent of summer dust and new grass growth with hope.

And tonight reeked of it.