wilderness

early June I went on a wonderful camping trip with GK, E and M. I have wanted to go camping for years- growing up in the north camping was pretty usual and we probably went most summers as a family- but when you live in the big city and no one has a car, and big city kids are afraid of the woods, or dirt, or bears you don't get out much.
I have to say, I only realized how completely unprepared I was for this when we started preparing. when you live with your parents of course you have tents and coolers and bug spray! meanwhile I had nothing but the clothes. thanks to the generous support of my brother, my friends brothers, neighbours and friends my gear was pieced together.
we blasted out of town on a friday afternoon and after some last minute food and beer shopping we were on our way east. even though we were still in the lower mainland, it took a few hours to get there. the site we were headed for turned out to be full as we arrived about 9:10pm. this could have been disaster, but there was another site about 30kms up the road.... and we are so glad we went the extra distance! it was like having our own site all to ourselves as I think only 3 or 4 sites were being used out of 48.
E + M cooked up feasts and made morning ceasers to perfection! talking around the camp fire, playing our ipods, playing all-terrain bocce, drinking weird beer, going to bed late, sleeping in, fresh air, good laughs, getting away from it all.
the last night we were sitting around the campfire at about 1am when a huge adult deer wandered into the edge of our camp site! it hung out there just out of sight for a while just listening to us. on the drive home we also encountered a huge bear lumbering down the centre of the dirt road! it was so much fun.

damn birds!

It was a nice Friday morning... I was walking back from the market coffee shop with chai in hand and pastry in the other with 2 coworkers when we got shat on. it appears to be biological from a bird- however it was so bad I thought someone threw up over the edge of the bridge over Granville Island. everywhere. spatter on my pants, globs on my side, shoulder, neck, arms and shit in my hair. also on my pastry, wallet and I assumed in my chai so I had to dump the whole thing. I tried in the office bathroom- but lucky one coworker has a friend who lives near by and we wound up going to her place and I caved and I had to wash my hair. which is also a pain as my hair takes hours to dry and deal with. totally gross.

kagami

years and years ago when I was still in highschool I met this girl at a youth conference and at the end of the week she told me that I reminded her totally of her very good friend- and that the friend was a guy. for me as a 17 year old this was conflicting news. am I a tom boy? do I look like a dude? do I act like a boy?
in the last week I have gone to this new restaurant twice and had the same server both visits. I couldn't really put my finger on it until I left last night. she is the spitting image of one of my ex boyfriends. in looks they have the exact same face, as well I would put money on the same ethnic breakdown. if he had a twin it would be her. she kind of carries herself the same way and has the same mellow and jokey way of talking. I finally get it.

a boat ride to the island

I was over in Victoria on the weekend- I had not been there in a couple of years so it was a nice little get-away. I went over to see my dear friend Ms.F who I have known since kindergarten (which I think is quite the substantial time frame for a friendship of almost 27 years). she is lovely and sweet and listens patiently to my long winded stories. she is also my shopping lucky charm and we often find ourselves on an accidental shopping spree. we also had nice visits with her boyfriend and family and drank a few beers and had many laughs. thanks for the wonderful time! oh yeah, there are Parliament Buildings, beautiful scenery and lots of tourists but we stuck to LOJO.

knit, purl, purl, knit, purl, purl, knit

so I have taken up knitting... again. I know it has recently been the "cool" thing to do, but I was knitting long ago to start. I was taught to knit by my mom when I was a kid, probably around age 9. but despite starting early I was only knitting squares, or rectangles, or long rectangles, and not very well. I started again about 5 years ago... my mom got me started on another long rectangle (scarf) for the boyfriend of the time. lets just say it took me so long that in the process we broke up, got back together a year later, and then broke up again and it was still not done.
currently I have a few coworkers who knit so I got all inspired... for my first project I did a hat- perhaps that sounds ambitious, but suddenly it all kind of made sense! (and the fact that I have all sorts of people knitting around me when I got stuck on the second stitch- which I did)
how come I had only heard of 'knit' and never 'purl'?! I demanded of my mother (yes, there is a difference)

I don't know... but it seems to be working. the picture included is not the first hat, but the third. watch out! I've started early on christmas presents. I have also made a pair of matching slippers. yes, matching! a pair! I have broken the bank already on wool and I seem to be a little ADD about it all and can't resist having 3 things on the go at once.

oh, and how could I forget?

the showgirls. all those feathers and sparkle...and nudity. gotta love them

what happens in vegas...winds up on my blog

just got back from a weekend in las vegas... my first trip there and I went with miss B. its good and crazy and a little- ok a lot overwhelming. we were staying at the mirage on the strip. it was great to experience, and to see and time well spent with miss B. some highlights include:

guest lists and drinks for the ladies. party with a celebrity host. vip treatment. cafe au laits/oles by the pool. wander on the strip. go to venice. go to paris. go to rome. half price martinis. wine bar. old vegas. shrimp cocktails. slots. roulette. losing EVERYTHING. catching up. dressing up. drinking champaign under the stars.

it was a good trip. we did in fact have the same vip treatment as a celeb and have our picture taken by the same photographer- which was all kind of strange (check it out:
http://spyonvegas.com/index.php?query=galleries/recent/view/2448&page=1). we ate lots of nice snacks and appys and drank all the free drinks we wanted. we talked to strangers. we people watched. we explored. we went off the beaten track. don't know that I'll run back there right away, but it was a nice escape for a weekend away. thanks miss B!