Cat burglars

It's been a while, is anyone still out there? I wouldn't blame you for giving up on me. I've almost given up on myself. Between work and trying to get some sleep I'm turning into a big ol' snore. I can't complain though. The store is doing really well, I'm getting some exercise and enjoying my time with Dane. I have been having weird dreams lately though. Like the one where I was in Iceland climbing up a snow covered mountain ridge in search of a school. When I got to the school I went looking for the shop that it housed which carried Nudie jeans because I wanted to see if they were stocked, because I was having so much trouble getting my re-orders. Then the Vikings were after me so I had to hide in a hand carved coffin to escape, except that the coffin was too short so I had to take out the foot pillow so I would fit. Anyway, the good news is that I got into the coffin before the Viking found me and then woke up.

In the photo above you can't really see the Mexican stand off happening between my friend Andie and a woman in a silver tutu.

I went to see Andie's band play some benefit or other that turned out to be not a benefit at all but a show some musicians were putting on to benefit themselves. It's the dawn of a new era where musicians are having "benefits" instead of shows.

The woman in the tutu was Australian which totally explained the whole quirky awkward thing. Apparently we got there too late to see the guy that painted a huge circle with his ass. I kid you not, that's how bored the kids out here are...so bored that they strap contraptions onto their rear ends so that they can jam paintbrushes into their ass holes and twirl around on paper making circles. I wasn't sorry that I missed that. I was however happy to see Andie perform my two favourite songs 'Elvis Stojko' and 'Louis Riel'. Andie's boyfriend Reggie was in Victoria playing a show with his band, and when he returned and heard about the ass hole painting and he decided that he never ever would have the right to complain to Andie about having a bad gig ever again. We've all seen asshole's paint, but never so literally.

On another occasion After a night out Dane and I came home to find a Cat burglar wandering around our house.

We weren't scared though, don't worry. Our neighbour's cat walks along the building ledge and visits. When she made her way out I poked my head out of the window and lo and behold I found Elaine hanging out her window.

Elaine got devil eyes from my flash.

Her cat Jim wasn't too impressed with the kitten and the kitten was really unhappy to find Jim at her next stop. I could hear them hissing at one another. In these photo's you can see our Lark sign...that's how close to work we live.

Eventually adventure kitty burglar went home but continued to stare at me.

This is a photo of the inlet eight blocks north of where we live, it leads to the ocean. It's beautiful at this time of day right before sunset. You can see all of the rickety boats floating around. People live in those boats...which sounds romantic, but it's actually really gross. They throw garbage and empty septic tanks into the water. It's not as gross as lake Ontario, but I wouldn't swim in it. The sad part is that it makes its way out to the ocean, although I guess that whales and dolphin's relieve themselves into the water, so I'm not sure if human waste is much worse.

And here is Isabella our beetle. We have to sell her which is unfortunate since Dane has put a lot of love into it. We've named her after Isabella rosallini, isn't she pretty!? We had her value assessed and found out that she is worth $5,500, but we are willing to part with her for $4000 to someone who would take good care of her. There is a guy that wants to buy her for parts, but we are pretty attached to it/her and would rather see her loved then cannibalized. Anyone want to buy a car?

I know that I promised to talk about this neighbourhood and tell you about all of the eccentrics and characters. I will, don't worry.

View

I've come to realize that having a blog is a lot of work and the only people that can write really interesting blogs are people who write about very specific interests, people who are traveling, WRITERS (!), and people with jobs that allow them to write about the people that they deal with. I fall into none of those categories, but that don't stop me!

Here is the view I see pretty much everyday. It's the window display at the shop...I guess that's obvious. Later I'll give you all a description of what I see outside of the shop. It's been a topic on my mind for some time...but it needs to be addressed diplomaticaly and with care. For now I'll start with the view I have from my perch behind the sales desk.


If the building across the street weren't there I'd get to see the mountains, the only people in this town that get to demolish buildings, signs or other obstructions are politicians....they run the place with red tape and beaurocracy. Communist Russia could have learned a thing or two, you let them smoke pot and then they are too stoned to revolt (complain yes, revolt no)....vodka only makes people belligerent afterlife.

To be honest I enjoy being able to see over my Empire day in and day out. I sweep these floors, I steam the clothes, I am nice to people. I share this mighty expanding Empire with Dane; he watches over our dominion with great care and sees that it runs smoothly and that our doors stay open. We are having fun, it's fashion and it's silly, but it's less silly then film. In film every little thing becomes life or death and is very serious. In fashion everyone knows that it ain't world peace and that the bottom line is what's life or death.

Working here has changed some of my preconceptions about Vancouver. (Look at me stealing www.trifective.blogspot.com 's number idea)

1) Not ALL people wear track pants everywhere all of the time, in fact a lot of people have really great style.

2)Not everyone smokes pot..I know it surprised me too.

3)People are friendly on a deeper level, not superficially like I first thought.

4)A lot of people do leave their homes and go to events and parties...They aren't all hermits.

There are more but I'm starting to bore myself.

Maybe it's the sunshine that's taken away my melancholy. Whatever it is it's nice to be enjoying Vancouver again.

Story

I've started writing a story and it's been keeping my few spare moments pretty busy. I was thinking of publishing it here, but I'm still feeling insecure about it. It's possible that it's just more self indulgent drivel. So I'll tell you a real life story.

Yesterday there was a car accident on 8th at the corner of Main. I was upstairs at the time that I heard the crash and didn't think much of it because there are accidents out there almost daily. It's the vortex of bad driving on 8th between the ally by the shop and Main. People do some of the most idiotic things I've ever seen and they drive fast......Let alone fast for Vancouver. Seriously, people rarely even hit the speed limit out here (Dane and I got a car recently and I've been re-introduced to Vancouver driving). Finally I decided to look out the window to see what was going on. There were two cars that met nose to nose on our side of the street. It looked like they were both trying to get into the same spot and they hit on maybe a 45 degree angle. One car was a convertible and I could see that there was a guy in there looking stunned and shaking his head. A small crowd had gathered and were talking to him, everyone was on cell phones and Elaine was taking some photo's incase they would need them. I got myself ready to get back to work and headed down stairs. Walking past everyone seemed fine; there was a fire crew throwing dirt on the coolant coming out of the convertible and a fireman was talking to the guy in the car who looked really shaken up. I asked if everyone was o.k. They were so I rounded the corner and got coffees for Dane and I.

On my way back Elaine was helping a girl get her luggage into a cab and the girl was thanking her profusely calling her a lifesaver and an awesome person...all of which is true. After the girl was off and on her way I asked Elaine what the story was. Apparently the girl that got in the cab was leaving Vancouver and going back to Winnipeg forever, she had just broken up with the girl whose car it was and was driving her to the airport. The two had just split after a three year relationship and this was how they had to say good bye.

I was going downtown and Elaine came with me. As we were leaving we walked past the girl with the wrecked car and Elaine asked if she needed anything, she was smoking a cigarette and in tears. We offered her some Valium, she said she couldn't because she's an alcoholic and couldn't take any kind of substances. That felt like the punchline if accidents had punchlines.

Franz Ferdinand, the band not the emperor

This photo is from the Death Cab For Cutie and Franz Ferdinand show I went to on Friday night. My Friend Elaine is a music critic and she was writing a review on the show for the Vancouver Sun...It's like the Toronto Star.....and I got to be her date. Death Cab For Cutie had a really great set, it looked like a sleepy village......Which is quite appropriate. I have a love hate relationship with that band. Some of their songs are really really good and other songs make me wonder if their balls will ever drop.

How pretty is that though?

Franz Ferdinand was really great live. I resisted liking them for at least two years now. I have a problem with people using historical political figures for cool factor. I swear, the next person I see wearing a t-shirt with an image of either Stalin or Mao on it I'll punch. I actually get hot behind my ears and my blood boils when I even think about how many people think it's cool to glorify tyrants that have killed tens of millions of innocent people. I was suspicious that the band Franz Ferdinand was capitalizing on WWI, but then I saw them live and I was like...I want to dance!
So I sat up in the press box (which sounds way more fancy then it was) and bobbed my head to the beat. Another thing I liked about this band is that their pants were skinny and tight! The lead singer wore red sox with black shoes and black pants! In this town men often wear clothes about two sizes too large....sigh...how long will it take us to teach them?

None of these photo's are that good, but it's all I got.

Dane lent Elaine his lap top so that she wouldn't have to rush home to write the review in time for her deadline, which incidentally was before the end of the show. So when we finally got it up and running we found out that the press box doesn't have an internet connection so she couldn't e-mail her review in. Half way through the Franz Ferdinand set she managed to make it to the promotions office to use their connection and I waited until the end of the show. The lights came on and the place cleared out and no Elaine. So I made my way out to where the plebs had to watch the show and found how to get backstage to the office. I walked passed tight pants who was talking to Nardwar....o.k, someone explain that guy to me! What is up with that?

I found the office but no Elaine. It seems we missed one another. I didn't have my cell phone on me and eventually we managed to find one another and she was feeling like this:

Apparently her review wasn't very good because the internet connection was failing and we don't have a writing program on that computer....just some kind of note pad thing that didn't want to work for her.

This is Elaine after seeing the photo of herself looking all deflated.

These are some amphibians made out of bread that I saw in a bakery window on the way home....surprise here's a sourdough turtle!

Just talking

Here is an outside shot of soma. I took these photo's a few days ago while the sun was still out and the cherry blossoms still in bloom. The sun is now playing hide and go seek (though the air is warmer regardless of lack of sun) and the blossoms are moving out while green leaves move in. That is how you can tell that summer is on the way in Vancouver.

What's weird about Main Street is that it's basically a six lane major road, so it almost feels like a Toronto Suburb. When we first moved here I had a hard time understanding that it was an interesting neighbourhood because everything is so spread out and the great things about this area were not obvious at first sight. I do miss the more narrow streets of Toronto lined with shops, restaurants and bars.....I miss the plethora of urban delights sandwiched together.

This is Monsoon, it's right beside soma and I worked there for about a year. It's a really great little Malaysian fussian restaurant. The food is sooooo good. While I worked there I learned something about the difference in grammar used between Toronto and Vancouver. Someone from Toronto would say Monsoon's when refering to the restaurant; ie: We're going to Monsoon's tonight, while someone from Vancouver would call it just Monsoon; ie We're going to Monsoon tonight. Robin, which is it? Elaine? You two both have excelent command of the English Language, what do you two think?

This is the huge sign that sticks out of the building that glows bright at night. Vancouver has a lot of really big bright signs, many of them are neon, it's kind of weird in a David Lynch kind of way. At night in the rain you wouldn't be surprised if a sweet blond wanting to be an actress was waltzing with a midget on a black and white tiled peice of sidewalk while a stumbeling, lost and confused brunette asked you for a ride out of town because she inexplicably feared for her life.....and the blond and the midget would have something to do with it... I think I just rolled three Lynch films into one!

Lately I've been reading a lot of my friend Claudia's blog, I have quite a bit to catch up on because I didn't even know that she had one untill recently. It's all about nutrition, health and alternative thought on the subject, especially Ayurvedic thought. I've been going to yoga pretty regularly and haven't noticed any wieght loss (working at Monsoon made me kind of chunky...seriously, no more super skinny size 4 or even 6 Veronika), but what I have noticed is that my body is feeling so much better and things are shifting in a good way...... if you know what I mean. Claudia has gone to a lot of trouble compiling information about the food industry and health, bless her soul, she is the Joan of Arc of health! Check it out www.franlife.blogspot.com. One of these days I'll figure out how to put links to my favourite blogs and websites up on my blog....what a dumb word blog is.

I think what I'm realizing is that youth really is fleeting and as attractive as it is, age and wisdom are far more powerful and exciting, but what good are widom and power if you can't reach your toes or tie your shoelaces without having to sit! There is a lot of preventable disease that runs in my family so I decided to make myself healthy and bendy; on the road to becoming gumby I discovered that my body image, my mind in general was not in touch with my body. The disconnect was pretty severe, and with Claudia's advice and my friends here that let me drag them to hot yoga so that I feel motivated (thanks Polly, Niki and Elaine!) I am feeling like I can dodge diabetes, thyroid malfunctions as well as those stiff movements that make people look old. Good news is that I only cried in class that one time. I'm back to being the old sarcastic 'chakra my ass' me that I've always been. I think that Dane is scared that I'm going to get those awful white people dreads and start wearing patchoulie..... or start wearing lulu lemon outfits everywhere with a little dog in a purse. I'm more scared that I'm always going to have some version of black hair with bangs and that my strong desire for Issey Miyaki scents and nudie jeans will bankrupt me!

P.S: For some reason I can't get spell check to work without losing everything I've just written, so now you'll all know how badly I spell, forgive me I swear I'm smart in other ways.

Afternoon

I took this photo today at about 3pm on my way to get another coffee. It's taken at the corner of 8th looking up Main. You can see that it's snowing on the mountains.

They are the pride and joy of this town, if you say anything negative about Vancouver to someone who luughvs (say it like you're constipated) they will most likely shoot back that the mountains are beautiful...like they built them or something. There is this breed of person here who will guard Vancouver with all their wit against anything negative ever said about their hometown. Being the rational person that I am I think that there are both good and bad qualities to all cities, and so whenever I come across someone who luughvs Vancouver I keep quiet. They are fierce, dangerous and you will never have a rational conversation with them. They foam at the mouth and their eyes get kind of crazy...like they're morphing into some kind of monster, The worst part is that you can't spot them, they come at you from nowhere. Seriously, you can be having a great conversation and then say something honest without censoring yourself and the next thing you know you've woken the beast.

Something else I find funny about this place are the passion for politics. It's a passive aggressive city in many ways, like the way that people walk at you down the sidewalk or crossing the street like a twisted game of redrover. They don't believe in staying to the right to maintain a flow, or saying 'excuse me' when you need to pass someone dawdling. If you do say those dirty words either you get ignored or thrown a nasty look...how dare you need to walk faster then the person ahead of you! What you're supposed to do is walk really close to the person in front of you (seriously, step on their heels) so that they feel like if they don't move you're going to push them. This is one of the aspects of this city that drive me mental and I could write a novel about it, so I'll stop here. Despite the passive aggressive nature of the city there is a passion for two things, politics and realestate, both of which I'll get into another time.

This is photo that I took of the store at about 3:30pm today. Within half an hour it went from stormy to sunshine. To survive Vancouver you need a t-shirt, a sweater, a scarf, an umbrella and sunscreen...wait ten minutes and the weather will change. It's really beautiful and it evokes a melancholy that is pleasant and introverted. That could be the root of the passive aggressive nature of Vancouver. Sometimes I find myself getting my nickers in a knot when someone isn't able to read my mind....ask Dane.

On another note, we just sold two suites to a lesbian couple that are getting married next month. They were so cute that we gave them a break on the price. They got a powder blue suit and a cream one with a powder blue shirt. They said they'd give us a photo from their wedding, when I get it I'll post it so you can all see how great they looked. That's a part of my job that I love, sometimes someone will come in and find exactly what they are looking for and they'll be so happy about it that I get happy.

Morning

I took this photo yesterday on my way home from the grocery store. Sometimes the light glows blue and it makes your skin look porcelain, this was one of those moments. It's the most magic of all magic hours any where I've ever been. Even though people were around it felt very still and quiet. The light (when there is light) in Vancouver is one of my favourite things about the city. The sunsets are multicoloured and brilliant. There are also about a hundred different kinds of rain, I know in Toronto you only have rain, drizzle or full on thunder storms. Yesterday was rainy in that damp, cold sticky way it gets sometimes, after the rain the light poured out in an even blue glow all over the buildings and the streets...and my skin.

These are cheery blossoms that hang over the sidewalk along side the Lee building at Main and Broadway. They are another amazing part of Vancouver. They grow everywhere and for about two weeks the city looks as though it's a fairy tale land. In Japan the cherry blossom festival means that you have to sit under the trees as they snow petals onto you while you drink sake and sing karaoke. Robin told me about that, she didn't sound too keen on it though.

This morning Dane and I had coffee at soma, this is a photo of our coffees and Dane's hand. Soma is the kind of place that's too cool for school. The space is quite beautiful, hardwood floors, white walls with sometimes good...... but usually bad art, and high ceilings. The people who work there are nice and the coffee is usually good, but sometimes some of the customers...Well...Love the band hate the fans. Dane and I like to have coffee there fairly regularly so I'll have more photo's of soma in the future.