⁄Nada Alic (FWBA)

Up next in our guest blog series is Nada Alic, founder of the ever amazing Friends With Both Arms blog, and a truly wonderfully talented person. In her posts, she will be sharing her experiences as she settles into and reacquaints herself with Toronto – a city that she has spent quite a bit of time away from. Indulge in her first submission below accompanied by yet another great mix of songs that she feels close to right now.

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I’m writing from Brooklyn where I will spend the week, on a stranger’s bed, with that memory foam that reminds me that my life at home in Toronto is much simpler. I’m thinking about my plants at home, mostly, and if anyone has watered them. I’m also thinking about my boyfriend (and my best friend) who is somewhere in Minneapolis playing songs and worrying about me. But mostly, I know he’s proud of me and I think that gives me courage to walk around Brooklyn like I have any fucking clue where I’m going (geographically, and professionally), and manage to find my way.

I’ve been traveling often enough to never get quite comfortable in Toronto. This Spring is the first with a fixed address in Parkdale and a bike locked up out front (I hope). Toronto has been easing me in, with a mild, forgiving winter, after so many skipped while sinking my toes into the San Diego beaches that were once my backyard. There’s a familiarity to everything here.
When I return to Toronto next week I will call my best friend and tell him everything I saw, ate and drank and was afraid of in the world. I will retreat to my bedroom and watch documentaries and eat soup and rest. I will tell him stories that might make him sad, because he wasn’t there with me, but I will tell him – yes you were.

Here’s a collection of songs that encapsulate this season of my life back in Toronto as a postcard to the one friend I wish was there.

Sibylle Baier – Tonight
Faces on Film – Waiting for GA
The First Time I Ran Away – M Ward
Am I That Lonely Tonight – Justin Townes Earle
Easy to Be Around – Diane Cluck
Baby Where You Are – Ted Lucas
Candy – Lower Dens
Moni Mon Amie – Julia Holter
Ukelele – Lands and People
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Download the above collection of songs HERE