99 years

goodnight sweetheart

2009-10-20T18:24:00.005-04:00

2009-10-13T04:16:00.000-04:00

I didn't forget about you.

2009-08-18T02:07:00.000-04:00

moody fridays in the summer

2009-07-11T01:23:00.005-04:00

The movie Birdman of Alcatraz is such a sad movie because of Burt Lancaster's wide eyed sad expressionless face, and how he gets so angry when the bird won't fly, and he tells it "it's springtime outside, you best go find out who you are," and there are other prisoners who get into the birds too, and the men care about the birds and then he gets canaries and since he is in solitary he has all the time in the world to care for the birds and they just can't understand why the birds can be free but they still come back to his sad dark little window on Alcatraz. Oh and then the first bird he took care of comes back to the window and that's the part where you should think about baseball or candy so you don't cry. Ps. Alcatraz is the coolest name for anything ever and it's extra appropriate for something like a super crazy midcentury island prison.

This movie is black and white, there's a Stella in it, and since it's set in a gloomy old jail, the bars and the shadows from them make all kinds of black and white shadow line calamity. This movie also stopped me from being in a bad mood that I was in from a combination of a long, long day, missing buses everywhere because everything was slow, gross football people in half-orange half-black mullet wigs chugging red bull and doing gross things, snapping at a woman who left her dog in her station wagon caged in the back with the window barely cracked, things like time & money & mysterious itchy spots from handling carpets that won't go away, and when you see people doing other inconsiderate things like saying fuck* around old ladies and little kids who aren't theirs and having to squeeze past a couple that seemed to be making out and each texting other people at the same time in the middle of Shoppers Drug Mart. I guess you just can't let it get you down, other people and their grossness! I secretly enjoy describing it on my blog! Bad mood - over.
Also we had hamburgers outside at work today and that was really nice. Etc.

* this is another rant for another time, but I think, and I'm guilty of this too, that we have have overused this word to the point where it just doesn't have the original oof! punch! it used to have. I remember the first time I heard the phrase "drop the F bomb" I thought it was really funny. I'm going to try to hold back, make my F bombz really count from now on. When I say fuck, I really want it to mean something, you know?

favorite photos from june

2009-07-07T01:40:00.002-04:00

fruit time

2009-06-24T02:53:00.001-04:00

pingpong python-a-thon

2009-06-22T04:42:00.000-04:00

happy father's day, dads/dudes.

2009-06-20T02:36:00.005-04:00

"I had my first experience with a serious heckler, who, sitting at the front table with his wife and another straight-looking couple, stood up and said, 'See if you think this is funny,' and threw a glass of red wine on me. The problem for him was, at this point in the evening, the employees outnumbered the audience. A few seconds later, John McClure and the rough, tough bartender, an Irishman named Mike, appeared like centurions and escorted him out. Eventually, his friends slunk out, too. The expulsion has a downside: The audience was now one third as large and in shock, and remained in stunned silence for the rest of my show. Later, I developed a few defensive lines to use against the unruly: 'Oh, I remember when I had my first beer,' and if that didn't cool them off, I would use a psychological trick. I would lower my voice and continue with my act, talking almost inaudibly. The audience couldn't hear the show, and they would shut the heckler up on their own."

(After his 16th appearance on The Tonight Show:)
"...I started a wild flail, which I must say was pretty funny, when a showbiz miracle occurred. The camera cut away to a dimly lit Johnny, precisely as he whirled up from his chair, doubling over with laughter. Suddenly, subliminally, I was endorsed. At the end of the act, Sammy [Davis Jr.] came over and hugged me. I felt like I hadn't been hugged since I was born."

- From Born Standing Up by Steve Martin.

beach playlist for early june

2009-06-09T02:38:00.002-04:00

dream on - led zeppelin
biscuit - portishead
electrolite - rem
hysteric - yeahyeahyeahs
dirtywhirl - tv on the radio
mambo sun - t.rex
reckoner - radiohead
hey hey what can I do - led zeppelin
with arms outstretched - rilokiley

2009-06-08T02:30:00.002-04:00

3 yrs ago today

2009-06-07T15:25:00.003-04:00

Last night I went with my brother to the planearium and we watched a LASERSHOW while Dark Side of the Moon played real loud. It was exactly what it should have been, at any given point in the last 35 years.

2009-06-02T02:05:00.001-04:00

they had short lives and long summers

2009-06-01T04:02:00.002-04:00

"For three years, all through junior high, my social death was grossly overdetermined. I had a large vocabulary, a giddily squeaking voice, horn-rimmed glasses, poor arm strength, too-obvious approval from my teachers, irresistible urges to shout unfunny puns, a near-eidetic acquaintance with JRR Tolkien, a big chemistry lab in my basement, a penchant for intimately insulting any unfamiliar girl unwise enough to speak to me, and so on. But the real cause of death, as I saw it, was my mother's refusal to let me wear jeans to school."

"Birds were what became of dinosaurs. Those mountains of flesh whose petrified bones were on display at the Museum of Natural History had done some brilliant retooling over the ages and could now be found living in the form of orioles in the sycamores across the street. As solutions to the problem of earthly existence, the dinosaurs had been pretty great, but blue-headed vireos and yellow warblers and white-throated sparrows - feather-light, hollow-boned, full of song - were even greater. Birds were like dinosaurs' better selves. They had short lives and long summers. We should all be so lucky to leave behind such heirs."

from The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen.

2009-05-31T22:53:00.000-04:00

2009-05-30T04:34:00.000-04:00

hahaha

2009-05-27T02:12:00.006-04:00

I found this in my drafts folder. I used to do this all the time, string together lines from certain tv shows to make poems, just pieces of dialogue and narration in chunks as I hear them. I think this probably started as one of those things like where you're on the phone talking with someone you normally talk to for a while and once you get off the phone you realize you've carved a word 4 pages deep into a random notepad or filled a slice of paper with people's names and embarassing words.

Overheard TV Poetry: America's Next Top Model
this bitch tryin to try me
no-class bitchwhodon'tcare
a big ol girlfight
cute.
two cups of crazy.
stunning
the lower half
I see - alien
it's cute.
flawless
mushed
length of her legs
bam bam
that bone above her eyebrow
in that bikini
final girls
in the running
its not the end of the road
to that next step
I can't go back to Buffalo.
one more time baby
so much higher
being on billboards
the biggest feat
an industry that starts so young
your ears pop

Barack & Michelle's first date movie.

2009-05-26T23:40:00.001-04:00

Do The Right Thing is 20.
(So is Paul's Boutique.)

when you're where you should be all the time

2009-05-25T16:06:00.004-04:00

Comin at ya live from an internet that won't let me DOWN. It's real! I'm even paying for it now.

Just spent the morning laying on the beach reading, laying this way then that way, drinking up sunshine and a huge fucking mouthful of sand in my last sip of coffee, and listening to clusters of girls talk about the guys who want them and "still want to like fuck other bitches I don't think so!" I am a social anthropologist, not professionally, just occasionally. These overheard moments are Beyond fascinating. I'm not nosy, I don't pry. I just know when to listen.

I think I was born in the wrong decade. Belong to a particular subset of my generation who doesn't quite get the other 98% of us. (And still tans unabashedly, considers 'workout clothes' ridiculous and sloppy if you're not actually working out, and would totally be a ski bunny if only for the cute puffy vests and fireplaces.) I don't get all the "young people" who think that like this playa/pimp/ho game is something non-ridiculous. "So I saw him drive by with this fuckin blonde then he was all shootin me texts about wanting to like be with me? I asked him who he had dinner with and he said Gord so I was like, ok, I kept texting him all dont you want me to sleep over and he was like I want to be with you I want you to meet - like this girl best friend he has? So I keep shooting him all these texts and he won't even admit it, then he uses MY money to take this girl out for dinner then LIE to me about it?!"

You sound like an idiot.

They say good writers have excellent observational skills. I've read Joan Didion and DFW writing about this so I'm inclined to believe it's true. I just have really no way of putting to words what I think of my social anthropological observations other than holy shit people are fucked, ha! And, fine. I'm not a writer by any means, but I have never felt more like writing than I do now.

I feel this pressure, to see everything with new eyes and take it in and remember it all and process it as All New! All Shiny! All Special! People places things situations. Etc. Getting out of your comfort zone can often mean shimmying successfully into another.

It's a fun way to live.

I wrote a thing I never posted a few weeks ago about how on this blog you won't find me writing about people I actually know, situations that have actually arisen, true feelings I've felt about people or emotions that kept me up at night. I don't keep much of a journal anymore, but there's a lot of things that happen that would be left to those types of journals I used to keep and still have that they'll have to burn when I die, but you won't find that business here. You're getting the version of this life that's censored in the way that leaves not even mystery, just a lot of things left unsaid. I just don't like feeling that I've said too much. So when the urge to write strikes me, you get Krista and Chelsea's stupid self-centered beach conversations presented with a chuckle we can all have together and I'm better off for not leaving someone reading this all squeamish that I've vomited out some personal garbage that everyone was better off not knowing about in the first place.

So.

The weather has been nothing shy of spectacular lately... I've been thinking how in BC, the big fat-bottom mountains keep you constantly, literally, looking up. Positive. I haven't felt this healthy in years. Not just because I've dropped 15 lbs from walking a lot and eating better since I've been here (helloooo calf muscles, nice to see you again, what've you been up to since we graduated highschool?) but because I feel more.. mentally.. ok. For lack of a better term or comparative observation. My clothes are baggy and cinched where my belt is and I look like a little kid playing dressup for it, but I don't mind. (I just bit down on a piece of sand.) I'm more.. confident and I'm just happy. Here. You couldn't drag me away from this place with (Mick Jagger from 35 years ago riding) wild horses. I've only been here 3 months, (and it seems like being here is all I ever blog about, whatever) but now that it's finally sunken in that I live in Vancouver, now I'm going to work on the realization that I live in BC. Seeing the rest of what's out there. Soon, the West Coast. Eventually, the Pacific NW in general. These geographical chunks that are all shiny and special. It's all new. Vancouver itself is a comparitively brand new city. People who live here are proud of here. They learn about it and its short history. Some people I know tell me things about BC. I realized "up north" no longer means Sudbury or Thunder Bay. People who grew up where I grew up can't wait to leave when they're a certain age, and maybe go back once they're a certain age. But people here love where they live. They're proud. It's definitely rubbing off on me. I'm not used to this. I don't have any ill will toward the place I grew up, it made me who I am, luckily I didn't get sucked in by feeling like I had to stay anywhere. My parents, when we were small, and for as long as I can remember, had a world map above the kitchen table. One day my mom was talking about it and she said they did it so we would know that there's a whole other world out there. It worked. And my brother and I always got really good marks in Geography.

fell from the roof on east two nine

2009-05-10T01:39:00.002-04:00

The Basketball Diaries is
a super movie and I recognize
at least 3 actors from Sopranos in it.

3 Other NYC Movies I like:
- Raging Bull
- Summer of Sam
- Do the Right Thing

I remember singing the song
"those were people who died! died!"
as a little one!

8 May: Happy Anniversary M&D.
Here's to 33 more and owning and
operating a successful
cat hostel
enterprise.
Thankyou for among other things,
providing an excellent
childhood soundtrack.

9 May: I don't need to
watch
the hockey game
to know what's going on.
I just have to
open a window.

10 May: and Happy Mother's Day
to my favorite lady.
It's tulip season here too!
I miss how we had the best conversations
in the car.

3 Vague Things That Creeped Me Out
About Twin Peaks.
- That time his hair turned white and
he sang.
- That time the guy was
all the way across the room
then he crawled
over the couch.
- The girl on the bridge.
Fuuuuc.k.

My Top Favorite Thing
A Bus Driver Said (this week):
"Well folks -
we made it!

shagcarpet recordplayer headphones

2009-05-05T01:11:00.005-04:00

I hope that wherever and whoever you are, you have a cozy place to listen to Stairway to Heaven when it rains.

i'm gonna turn it up side down

2009-05-04T00:57:00.003-04:00

sleep in phonecall oj coffee sunshine twinpeaks allday read the internet do the dishes almost all the dishes clean the kitchen more of the best scrambled eggs english muffins blueberry jam green tea with pomegranate. couch.
and this week. this week was work and taking photos of vintage tvs and multi milkshake mixers and old german enlarger lenses and the electrohome apollo in solid gold and fun and goodbyes and happysad and good times polarbear friends jumping in the pacific at night beer and beer and more beer and busted in a stairwell and seeing weird celebrities on the street sushi northvan payin a dollar to get into the art gallery a bunch of artists talking about the Smiths the skytrain to the seabus to the bus up the mountain an hour and a half finding a crackpipe* during a cubevan joyride over the lgb a simultaneous viewing of road rage/canuck glee and a welcome to the 'hood and the new Monopoly game is like the new world order and moving furniture selling furniture getting furniture rearranging furniture and the logistics of a studio apartment and the generosity of others and care trunks and actually having a bed actually having a couch actually having a tv so therefore casino pacino pesci sharonstone(d) sleep... sleeeeep.
so today was lazy. and awesome. and eerie!

* Whoa, that's two in as many weeks...

the same coast at the same time

2009-04-29T01:26:00.008-04:00

issI took pictures of televisions for most of the afternoon at work today.
It's not as easy as it sounds because of your own damn reflection. And because some of the tvs are as big as I am and the result of me trying to move them would be both a comedy and a tragedy.
I've been in Vancouver for 2 months and I just saw a drive-thru for coffee for the first time today.
Then I saw the grandma from Everyone Loves Raymond standing outside of a hotel looking angry. (She has terrible posture!)
Tomorrow I'll say goodbye and so long to my two homies who are moving back east.
They gave me a treasure trunk full of lovin' care and some beautiful furniture. And a tv. And so much more and creamed corn.
I've been fuckin spoiled out here. Now I have my own copy of Edward Scissorhands.
I hate goodbyes, I'm bad at them. But I love when people make their own little adventures.
We've shown each other we can always say see you later.

Two interesting things about looking down at the ground

2009-04-24T00:40:00.005-04:00

(Or, Two things I saw on the ground in front of me, before 9am today.)

1. At the busstop: A coupon for a free latte from a yummy latte place. Snap!
2. On the sidewalk: A crack pipe that fell out of some guy's pocket ahead of me while he was rummaging for something else.

The moral of the story is always make sure your valuables are in a safe place?
One man's trash is another man's treasure? Shortie keep your head up? Or whatever!

2009-04-22T01:35:00.004-04:00

On Monday* after he waited for the bus to get noisy to drown out the sound of him popping open a tall can, the homeless man told me about the free marijuana! At the library! Downtown, today, he said! It was to be "an old fashioned smoke-in!" Free marijuana! All you have to do is just go downtown and breathe and then get some buddies and go pick up all the roach buds! Hah!

That was also the day I got to watch Wheel of Fortune then Jeopardy! in the middle of the afternoon (say what?) then finish the NY Times crossword puzzle on the roof.

*aka 420 aka get out your Cat in the Hat hat from the carnival and alien bong, its 1998-day!**

**I kid. As we discussed, 4/20 is also Hitler's birthday and the anniversary of Columbine, and some things such as public potsmoking and stinky hippies are more lighthearted than others.

2009-04-20T05:02:00.001-04:00

Awesoooome.

2009-04-16T03:34:00.004-04:00

41-2.
Look! Vancouver made a statue commemorating the Year of the Profile Pic.
Personally I think the one angel should be showing a little more of a "kissy," "pouty" "tart" look, and the other angel should stop being so damn emo omg lol.

minimalism and drones, but in a very pop way

2009-04-16T02:27:00.003-04:00

This is one of the most entertaining wikipedia articles I've read in awhile. Also entertaining: stuff like this. I had a great day from the sun in the west blasting into my window at 725am to right now with the yellow hoodie and the balcony and the surprisingly warm night, 00:00am. 3/4 of an enchilada in the fridge, leftover. Table for three. Not being charged for most of the booze. A proper meal with you two. No rain. Beer and chocolate covered strawberries after work. Sitting around the prop yard in the lawn chairs. Good, good, really good people. Being left to my own devices. Taking pictures of knickknacks all day. Classifying them. Most knickknacks are made of plastic resin, I call it "dollarstore." I alloneword more often than is common in this language and I don't see blue how you see blue, I guarantee it. One very alert snail is a great description, actually. "For a good time, email..." is hilarious. Coffee is close. And ready. Mornings at the busstop on fourth, setting my coffee down on the newspaper box with the lid off to let the steam out, with fat sun crawlin all the way up the street. Good. Morning.

2009-04-09T03:13:00.003-04:00

The other day, the seabus was overloaded. There are normally two seabuses (the otter and the beaver, to be exact) and one was out of commission, and me and T saw a bunch of Important People in Suits boarding the downed seabus for some sort of Important Persons Meeting on the Downed Seabus. There were lineups and half-hour waits and bigtime people around so we went on the bus to get back across the Lion's Gate Bridge which took forever. But this one guy made it all fun and better. He kept exclaiming how he couldn't believe the seabus lines! In thirty years, he had never seen anything like it! (Which was hilarious because he couldn't have been more than 28 or so.) So he gets on the phone and calls his friends and tells them about the seabus (in thirty years! never seen anything like it!) and he called his other friend to ask him if he wanted to enjoy the beautiful Sunday evening by joining him in some bocce ball.
Guy: "...Hey so you want to get together for some bocce? I'm on the bus goin over the Lions Gate Bridge - dude - its unreal. In thirty years. Never seen anything like that lineup at the seabus.. wow... We're on the bus now. It's takin forever buddy! Never seen anything like it."
(The bus is absolutely sardine-can packed, trudging along in the late afternoon lazy patches of sunshine on the edge of Stanley Park and for the most part, the back of the bus is silent except for this conversation.)
Guy: "So anyways, bocce? Tonight? Sounds good man. I just have to rip back up home and get.. my balls. I just... have to go home. And grab my balls."
Me, Trav, a few other folks: (Imploded laughter).
Person on the phone: (assuming they said something like) "Everyone on the bus heard you say that, didn't they."
Guy: "Well. Yeah. That was the point."

2009-04-07T03:57:00.000-04:00

2009-04-07T03:56:00.001-04:00

2009-04-07T03:54:00.001-04:00

earthquake

2009-04-03T21:11:00.004-04:00

"The first time I ever visited a McDonald's restaurant was on a rainy Saturday afternoon, November 6, 1971. It was Bruce Lemke's 10th birthday party, and the McDonald's was at the corner of Pemberton Avenue and Marine Drive in North Vancouver, British Columbia. The reason I can pinpoint this date is that it was also the date and time of the Cannikin nuclear test on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians - a Spartan Missile warhead of between 4 and 5 megatons was detonated at the bottom of a 1.5 mile vertical shaft drilled into this Alaskan island. The press had made an enormous to-do over this blast, as it was to be roughly four times more powerful than any previous underground detonation.
According to fears of the day, the blast was to occur on seismic faults connected to Vancouver, catalyzing chain reactions which in turn would trigger the great granddaddy of all earthquakes. The Park Royal shopping center would break in two and breathe fire; the Cleveland Dam up the Capilano River would shatter, drowning whoever survived in the mall below. The cantilevered L-shaped modern houses with their 'Kitchens of Tomorrow' perched on the slopes overlooking the city would crumble like so much litter - all to be washed away by a tsunami six hours later." - Douglas Coupland, Life After God.

6 weeks

2009-04-03T16:15:00.003-04:00

new city
new province
new coast
new surroundings
new mountains
new neighborhood
new apartment
new people
new coffee
new restaurants
new interests
new bed
new clothes
new commute
new job.

2009-04-03T04:04:00.004-04:00

38

teenage beach dorks, 2009.

2009-04-03T04:00:00.002-04:00

37

I had some stuff to think about so I put up postcards and listened to tvontheradio. It's crooked on the right hand side.

2009-04-03T03:50:00.002-04:00

36

(So I guess this is the only picture I took that day. It's the mats I put up so creepsters can't walk by and see right into my apartment all the time. The mats have been fixed better since I took this (boring) picture, with black pipecleaners - she's crafty alright. But now the curtains are open all the time and I can see from where I'm sitting that chunk of the cityscape with the landmark building with the circle on top and all the little lites on at night.)

I just went on the coolest job interview EVER EVER EVER.

2009-04-01T19:13:00.001-04:00

Maybe I should use twitter. Because that's all I'ma say.

2009-03-30T04:10:00.000-04:00

2009-03-30T04:06:00.000-04:00

2009-03-29T23:55:00.000-04:00

one line, overheard, out of context.

2009-03-29T18:06:00.003-04:00

Last night walking somewhere: "Then he made an ERROR on my SPREADSHEET."

Today at the beach: "Let's make this dream a reality!!"

2009-03-28T17:31:00.001-04:00

2009-03-27T20:54:00.000-04:00

2009-03-27T20:53:00.000-04:00

30

and post no. 250 on this blog.

2009-03-27T20:51:00.000-04:00

29

... blurry, etc.

fashion, for dudes!

2009-03-26T16:29:00.005-04:00

Here is a list of things that dudes shouldn't wear!!
1. White sunglasses.
2. Jeans that are tight on their thighs shuddddder.
3. Purple shoes.
4. Burlap-ish materials.
5. A Point Zero shirt with one stripe across the chest with khaki pants that are tapered with obscenely large cargo pockets. (Why? Cos this is what every dude wore all year in grade nine, that's why.)
6. White pants.
7. An outfit that is more than 30% camo or that contains more than one camo pattern.
8. Long blonde hair with a fedora. (He just walked by and helped me out with my list!)
9. Pants that are obscenely tight on the thighs (see item 2) but still don't actually fit properly around their waist/boxershorts.
10. A red and black plaid shirt or any plaid shirt for that matter that cost more than $12.99.
11. Anything with flames and/or tribal motifs.
12. Pyjama type pants or god forbid those tiger-striped team-colour pyjama pants, in public.
13. Beer logos all over the place.
14. A tank top that has the arm holes stretched out or any variety of shirt that exposes that much pithair.
15. Don't ever ever ever dye your hair, let alone dye it blonde. Barrrf. Let it go grey, let it fall out, just don't fucking dye it. Ever. Please. Thanks.

Here is a list of things that dudes should wear.
1. Glasses that are timeless and of the shop teacher variety.
2. Anything to make them more DonDraperly.
3. A handkerchief OR newsboy cap. Never both.
4. If you're going to go ahead and wear something 'sports team' don't wear other items of clothing to match the team's logo or colours.
5. T-shirts from concerts they actually attended or bands they actually like.
6. Sandals in summer. Go for it, dudes! (Some girls hate this, I do not see the point in socks past May, for anyone.)
7. A quality, sturdy boot that will kick asses forever until you are an old ass kicking man.
8. Every dude looks good in a black button-down long sleeved shirt OR a black leather motorcycle jacket.
9. Every dude should shave his head at least once in his life, on his own accord.
10. Black hoodies are awesome unless it's obvious that it's the only black hoodie/shirt you own and it's obvious that that's what you wear every single day. That's what the light grey one's for.
11. Nice stark white running shoes that you don't obsess about getting dirty.
12. Toques, plain white tshirts, faded jeans, baseball hats, all acceptable in almost any form but if you wear a fedora you better be ready to back it up by doing something whimsical yet classy and we're not talking about magic tricks or anything that involves being "the life of the party."
13. A smirk that hints of mischief.

2009-03-26T02:45:00.000-04:00

2009-03-26T02:42:00.002-04:00

2009-03-23T03:31:00.001-04:00

2009-03-23T03:26:00.000-04:00

most smartest.

2009-03-21T19:15:00.002-04:00

America's Next Top Model
+
Drop Dead Gorgeous
+
wine
+
Sour Patch Kids
+

= Friday = Awesome.

2009-03-19T01:24:00.002-04:00

24

Look at your sweet face.

Now you have a friend.

2009-03-19T01:19:00.001-04:00

23

And then suddenly the light hit this building like it just took centre stage.

oh that calls to mind a joke

2009-03-18T01:48:00.001-04:00

1. I think, with the economy going haywire/to shit and a new US president and just all what's gone on and how the world feels and how there's so much to be commented-upon, what I miss is Hunter Thompson, David Foster Wallace, George Carlin and Mitch Hedburg's take on things and that is a serious bummer.
2. Since I got rid of facebook, when I ask someone how they are and what's new - I don't already know.
3. Ever notice how a lot of post office drop boxes are near seniors homes and places where there are a lot of old people who still use mail and wait for mail and send birthday cards and hand-addressed envelopes? I think that's nice for them.
4. I noticed now that I don't have a television, even one with three-channels-five-of-which-are-in-french, my attention span is much longer and my focus is much more direct.
5. That said, I miss a panel-style shout-out-your-commentary night of America's Next Top Model just as much as any of y'all so just don't all hate don't juuudge me, you don't even got what it takes. (In other words, I can go watch it and get rowdy at someone else's house.)
6. You can charm the hardest of hardasses if you can manage to charm their dog.
7. A six dollar sandwich is infinitely better than a three dollar one but an eight dollar falafel is usually inferior to a five dollar one.

2009-03-17T03:49:00.000-04:00

2009-03-17T03:48:00.000-04:00

Don't Understand.

2009-03-15T17:30:00.004-04:00

At the cafe right now,
there is a guy
wearing a shirt
that says

"Are your cats old enough to learn about JESUS?"

I just don't get it. I just don't get it.

2009-03-14T21:10:00.001-04:00

2009-03-14T04:48:00.001-04:00

2009-03-14T04:46:00.000-04:00

2009-03-11T02:40:00.000-04:00

17

vancouverdogs

2009-03-11T02:08:00.002-04:00

16

Who doesn't fucking love nachos?

2009-03-10T04:10:00.002-04:00

2009-03-09T03:35:00.004-04:00

14

it was super windy right here. and fog or raining or jesus or something was way over there.

2009-03-09T03:31:00.001-04:00

13

from my window. and I dont have to keep checking to make sure it's still there.

something slow has sparked up in me

2009-03-09T02:02:00.007-04:00

My new apartment is just lovely. The only things it doesn't have are furniture and it's own internet. So I will only be able to do little updates from home whenever those three out of four magical little internet bars appear and let me in on the sly, on the slow.
I am trying to live cheap and discover my new 'hood and figure out where the hell to get some furniture that's approximately 80x cheaper than even the cheapest scratch and dent floor model in this part of town. I am walking a lot, constantly uphill it seems and no that's not some lame emo metaphor, that's literal, there are a lot of fucking inclines here. I like it. I like new muscles. I like keeping busy and not bumping into a person I know every 2.3 seconds. I like the little coffeeshop Em showed me and another one I found myself. I like all the reading I've been doing and the productive things I've done when I'm not reading for hours and walking for hours and saying hello to dogs and talking to people and seeing my home crew.
I'm not bored and indifferent anymore, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

2009-03-06T02:02:00.001-05:00

12

Lion's Gate Bridge. 5:40pm, Thursday.

2009-03-05T02:50:00.000-05:00

11

new st.

2009-03-05T02:42:00.002-05:00

day ten

sun/couch.

2009-03-03T03:16:00.001-05:00

day nine

The Marilyn.

others.

2009-03-02T02:22:00.003-05:00

2009-03-02T01:47:00.001-05:00

day eight

leftover pizza and The Big Chill.

spectacular views

2009-03-02T01:42:00.003-05:00

day seven

up on the roof.

1 year ago today

2009-03-01T21:51:00.001-05:00

I hate that person so much I want to throw a prepackaged tube of saurkraut at them.

2009-03-01T18:16:00.009-05:00

Wow, the whole time me and Emily were drinking wine, watching Nicole Kidman be a lady, making pizza and cupcakes and giggling about NOTHING. Which is the opposite of getting into all kinds of stupid trouble around the city on my first full weekend here. I am proud of us. We are wholesome.

2009-02-28T03:21:00.001-05:00

day seven

trvis made me dinner then we got drnk.

2009-02-26T19:21:00.002-05:00

day six

I went and looked at a darling little apartment in a 101 year old building with a pullout bed and a tiny walk-up bathroom and a huge walkin closet.

2009-02-26T15:27:00.000-05:00

day five

the basics.

happy birthday beautiful!

2009-02-25T21:48:00.003-05:00

happy birthday to my mom. that's her (and me).

cheers to you.

(cheers to dad for taking this picture)

2009-02-24T20:25:00.002-05:00

day four
I miss my cat, especially when I crumple up a piece of paper or foil into a tiny ball...

...and realize there's no reason to throw it across the room.

A photo for each day.

2009-02-24T00:41:00.003-05:00

day one

Travis and Emily picked me up at the airport, greeted me with hugs and giant squeals and a special sign, drove me into a beautiful sunny city, brought me to coffee, provided me with a phone number to write on a raffle ticket, took me shopping, out for sandwiches, to Jake's work for pints, to the door, then back out for more beer and also nachos. The world is a wonderful place.

day two

I woke up to a rainy Vancouver. I shuffled over to Trav's couch and lazy sundayed for about two hours while the rain stopped to get ready for sushi lunch. Then I met Em at her work where I picked out movies and wandered around asking about random flicks that I saw only once on tv in the 90s. We made it home and had winepizzaOscars&documentaries time.

day three

Wake up. Hang with Jake and watch three food shows, all featuring mozza sticks. Shower. Praise the joys of soft water. Eat KD. View apartment and job listings and things like that. Get a new phone number. Have coffee. Go for a walk in the rain. Think about how much better rain is than ice and snow. Say hi to mountains. Buy some mini cupcakes for my host and hostess and a falafel for me. Come to my new home, organize my den, unpack some clothes, drink some coffee and watch Look Who's Talking.

I made it you guys

2009-02-22T16:16:00.001-05:00

2009-02-21T01:53:00.003-05:00

1:54am
1 backpack
1 carryon totebag
1 large suitcase
1 large duffel bag
2 medium boxes
3 large boxes
1 silver trunk.
Everything I own for the time being fits into that.
and it's all ready to go.

Well Jonny baby I really must be goin

2009-02-20T21:42:00.002-05:00

The most wonderful distraction and procrastination site of ever.

a saturday afternoon at an antiqueshop in canning, nova scotia.

2009-02-19T23:24:00.002-05:00

2009-02-19T09:46:00.002-05:00

This morning I woke up and I don't have a job anymore cos I finished it yesterday and at this time in two days, I will be probably at the airport waiting to go live in Vancouver.

Holy fucking fuck.

fifty years ago.

2009-02-16T21:59:00.000-05:00

back in the day it was dangerous.

2009-02-16T15:45:00.003-05:00

2009-02-15T23:22:00.005-05:00

There's been lots of scary things about airplanes happening lately but we don't need to focus on those, here is something more gentle and whimsical about airplane rides.
I like short little flights that seem to be closer to the ground than usual. Then you can see things like the snowmobile tracks on frozen lakes and fields that I saw when I played junior jetset for the weekend to Nova Scotia a couple weekends ago.

scene two.

2009-02-15T19:56:00.003-05:00

My aunt comes upstairs where I'm standing in the kitchen, at my goingaway party.
Auntie E: "You should really put a sign next to a pitcher of juice if there's alcohol in it!"
Me: (looking toward the pineapple & rum) "Yeah.. the bottle's right beside it. That's pineapple and rum."
Auntie E: "The last time I've had alcohol before today? Was at my wedding. Thirty-five years ago."
Me: !! (silence)
"...Cheers?"

Approximately three hours later:
Auntie E: "So the last time I had a drink was on my wedding night. It's hot in here!"
My dad bugs his eyes out really wide, "She'sonanLSDtrip!, she'sonanLSDtrip!..."
(Me and my mom giggle super hard.)
Auntie E: "Before tonight I only had one drink. On the day of my wedding. I had a whisky sour. And it never occured to me that I wasn't allowed to drink it. I figured since I was married that I was allowed, but I guess that doesn't matter. Even if you're married, you have to be old enough to drink alcohol."

love me two times, I'm goin away

2009-02-15T15:02:00.004-05:00

My mom and dad are throwing me a goingaway party right now and I'm already into the rum n pineapple from a pitcher with limes and it would be hilarious if everyone who I'm waiting to show up right now would show up and be all, "GO AWAY!"
We made salads and we're having lasagna and sausage and beer wine rumnpineapple etc. And pie. Carrot cake just showed up, as did the Rice in the Green Bowl which today is the Rice in the Blue Bowl.
Last night was my last Saturday night in town. In six days I will live in Vancouver.
Sayin' goodbye is hard. I've been sayin' goodbye to all my favorite people at work and my favorite people in town. One customer gave me a guardian angel pin. More than a few customers gave me their email addresses. My bosses are taking me out. I gave away approximately 50% of the stuff I owned this time last month. I renewed my passport in case of a quick dip into the usa and got a new drivers license and health card, only to have to get new ones soon. I've been living at my parents house for three weeks. I went to Nova Scotia for the weekend. So I guess this is it, huh? Aunts and uncles are milling about, time to have a little party.

happy fuckin' valentimes.

2009-02-14T20:36:00.001-05:00

bitches!

I deleted facebook. And I liked it.

2009-02-08T23:19:00.005-05:00

It started to feel like this club that I didn't want to be in anymore.
So I dropped out.
I'm going back to having an email address and a personality.
After I did it, I felt this odd sense of freedom.
I took the little "fb" button off of my bookmarks toolbar.
I wrote a friend an email where I used Proper Capitalizations and Grammar.
It wasn't some tacky, pre-made action at someone's image, it was my thoughts in my words.
I'm oldschool, I'll probably go back to writin letters and makin mixtapes and sendin it all in the mail.
After I deleted facebook, I also felt like I'd been handed back this giant platterful of Free Time.
So that is all.

I am twenty-eight

2009-01-30T02:07:00.000-05:00

take a moment,

2009-01-26T22:02:00.002-05:00

Sour Times, Portishead.

Here's Roads while we're at it. Enjoy yourself. It's cold outside.

2009-01-25T20:39:00.002-05:00

I love when I have dreams involving such things as ALL MY FRIENDS and a GAME SHOW on a TRAIN!

and,

2009-01-24T20:22:00.005-05:00

Deciding what to store for awhile at my parents house (who doesn't want two twin bookcases of wonderful books?) and what to bring to vancouver is like looking at all my stuff and choosing a Best Of. Tonight's Hoegaarden, Van Morrison-fueled cleaning organizing packing frenzy determines the kind of stuff I'm going to pull out of some boxes in another province a couple of months from now and that's pretty fantastic. And there's the other set of boxes that despite my purging attempts, I can't get rid of, that I will likely open in a couple of years and be like heyy -- aww -- this.

triple lucky

2009-01-24T00:41:00.003-05:00

I got three in one!

Previous fortunecookie luck:

Dec. 07

Jan. 08

I wholeheartedly disagree.
Sept. 06

I wholeheartedly agree.
Mar. 06

Travis's. Oct. 08

2009-01-22T00:03:00.000-05:00

April, 2008

2009-01-21T23:16:00.002-05:00

I have had six addresses in my lifetime.