All Eyes on a Quiet and Sunny Sunday Morning

Yesterday morning was fairly quiet, but with the sort of energy that resides in Centretown when the school year is about to begin and thousands of university and college students, prepared to use their new freedom once again, make their presence known. It certainly punctuates the usually quiet Ottawa summers!

Continuing with the longer focus theme of Friday and Saturday, I kept the 105mm lens on the camera, but with the sun, loaded a roll of Ilford FP4+ and set out to slowly walk around, looking for interesting little scenes.

Alone, I took the opportunity to take a bit more of a meandering route. Kathleen was out with a friend for a walk and visit to the farmers’ market at Lansdowne.

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The students’ move-in week really fills the neighbourhood with activity. U-Hauls slowly ply the streets as their drivers look for a spot to park and unload furniture, cargo doors open loudly, and urgent shouts of “Do you have your end? Pick up that end! Where does this go?” fill the neighbourhood.

Before long, the clatter and loud voices die down and give way for a chorus of can opening, pizza chewing, and the hushed murmur of solving the puzzle of just where to put everything in an apartment that seemed much larger when it was empty.

It’s also the time of year I get impolite stares. The same that most any parent urges their young children from. It seems that for many people arriving in the city – be it for the first time or just for another year – the sight of a transsexual is new and novel. Or the embodiment of something they only know by hateful Facebook meme.

I’m not the only one of course.

Other trans women in the city I’ve spoken with notice the same stares, gawks, and double-takes, and at about this time of year. Occasionally, there are even unkind statements muttered as we pass by.

Usually by the father.

Go figure.

Fortunately, once the excitement has died down, the parents returned home, and the semester begun in earnest, so too does this sort of attention.

It’s a return to normal.