Canadian girl out and aboot

Yesterday I attended the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design grad show. It was excellent, but OMG, so much art! I couldn't even give some of the paintings the attention they deserved because I had reached art saturation point and was exhausted.

Aside from the paintings and photography, there were exhibits on industrial design, short animation and new media films. We didn't see the media films, but did see the animation, some of which was quite good. I liked the industrial and communication design, especially the book design (duh). One person had designed a "choose your own adventure" set in East Vancouver. Another duo had created t-shirts which represented scenes of life in Vancouver. I liked the t-shirts so much that I e-mailed them to see if I could buy one. Some of the industrial design creations were ingenious and if they existed, I would use them. One woman created a set of dishes which was designed to control your portions, while another person created a bed which could fold out into an office. One man created a system called "SLEEP" which was a poncho which could fold into a tent and sleeping mat.

Other highlights included ceramics of insects using Chinese teapots, a great painting of a baked potato which inspired me to have a baked potato for dinner and composites called "Distance" about people in Hong Kong and Vancouver. I wish I'd been feeling a bit better, because the potential of a cold/my allergies was kicking my ass and I was quite tired for most of the day, which decreased my enjoyment.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to be in shock for a while. I haven't even e-mailed the extended family or my non lj enabled friends (Yes, I've phoned the parents already. They are thrilled.) I have told a few people that I've seen but it still seems surreal. I was telling B* that I keep feeling that they're going to call me back and tell me that they've made a mistake and they were thinking of someone else's manuscript. (Even though they clearly asked my name and the name of my manuscript, etc)

I have to revise some things, which I plan to do this week. There have been some changes in the manuscript in the past two years, and some of my files have gotten messed up or corrupted. So I will be living in a pile of paper for the next few days. It's times like this when I really wish I had an office, because the whole process makes sleeping difficult.

***
Okay, on to other things-

1. I went to two dance classes this week, which I've been trying to do ever since I got my new job. I'm noticing the difference because I'm catching on to combinations faster. I notice a big difference in how I feel and how my body feels

2. I couldn't do a bank deposit today because our bank got robbed. Yep.

3. On Friday night, B* took me to see the fabulous Holy Body Tattoo . They're a pretty impressive dance troupe that has achieved a lot of recognition on the world stage. They combine a lot of video and pop cultural elements into their work. This particular piece was called "Our brief eternity", and it had four pieces. The first was about industry and work, the second about agriculture, the third about relationships and the fourth was a frantic piece about life in general. It was very intense and amazing, and the dancers were fantastic. I highly recommend seeing them if you ever get the chance.

4. B* and I went for a summer walk near the beach yesterday, which was heavenly.

5. I have to give a little talk about membership tomorrow at work. Eep.

6. This week we will be looking at "Lost in Translation" in film class. I'm very excited about that.

7. I got to meet Courtney's new man, and eat a lot of garlicky food. Yay garlic! We also played "Outburst" which is a fun party game where you are required to yell things out. Yay games!

Now I need to go make a salad for tomorrow.

I've had a pretty good couple of days. I spent most of Thursday and part of Friday being emotionally frail, but I'm better now. On Friday night, we went skiing up on Grouse Mountain. I'd never been before, and the view is amazing. You can see the stretch of Vancouver and all the suburbs. I haven't been skiing in years, so it was nice to be outside and feel the wind and get some fresh air. I disliked my first run, as I had to concentrate and my boots were killing me. After that, I got used to it, and had fun zipping around. I'm really not a downhill skier though, there's something that's too artificial about it to make it a favourite thing for me. I much prefer cross country; it's cheaper, I like the Zen calm of it and I like that there aren't other people around and I can enjoy it at my own pace. Still, I like downhill enough to do it once in a while and I definitely had fun on Friday.

I was pretty stiff on Saturday, and managed to pull my wrist in a strange way. The pain in my wrist got worse after working at the bookstore, so I've been icing my wrist a lot. I'm sort of scared of wrist injury and carpal tunnel. I had tendinitis once and it hurt like a bitch. (Crosses fingers that everything is okay)

After work yesterday, I watched "Junebug."

( spoilers )

On Saturday, B* and I attended a glorious event- the UBC apple festival. I expected there only to be a few people in attendance. Little did I know that the event would be attended by hundreds of people. As apples are my favourite food, I was in heaven. Attendants could look at apple trees, buy bags of apples and apple trees. We walked through the botanical gardens to the apple tasting booth, only to find out that tickets were sold out! For two dollars, you could attend the taste testing and try 88 different kinds of apples. Not to be deterred, we ate some apple pie and cider,ate some free samples, and tried some apple chips that were delicious and flavourful. Normally I hate dried apples but these were delicious, and not at all like the pieces of dried foam you can buy at Safeway. Kids could get apple balloons, and have apples painted on their faces. I would definitely attend again next year.

On the way to the festival, we passed an interesting movie prop on the UBC grounds. Al Pacino is on campus filming a movie called "88 minutes" and we saw a fake sign advertising "The University of Northwestern Washington." On the way back, I noticed that it was guarded by a security guard. No sign of any movie stars though.
***

Unfortunately, this apple related activity made me lose track of time, and I didn't get to meet up with [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] who was visiting for the weekend. However, she was kind enough to visit me at work, and I took an extra long break so I could chat with her.

I turned 29 on Saturday. It was a nice, relaxed day. I woke up and did a whole lot of nothing, which involved watching 2 episodes of Degrassi Next Generation and one episode of Veronica Mars, and a whole lot of reading.

I had a mellow party at my house and was given some really nice gifts by friends. B* provided the cake and surprised me with a cake from Anna's Cake House . Anna's has a special service where you can send them a jpeg of a photo and they can put it on your cake. It's entirely edible. So B* sent them the cover of Tintin's Le Lotus Bleu (Blue Lotus) and it graced the top of the cake. It looked so cool that I actually squealed when I saw it. I did take a picture, but it's on my regular camera, so it'll be a while before I can show it.

[Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] surprised my roommate and I by bringing a friend whom we hadn't seen for two years. Sara was another former intern of CCA's who ended up being in Uganda for almost two years. Neither Kristi nor I had seen her since the orientation so it was a lovely surprise.

My parents also sent me a nice parcel full of presents, and phoned me. Unfortunately, I had to work on Sunday, and was dragging my ass around at work. That sucked.

I didn't get to attend a lot of pride events due to work. However, B* and I wandered down to the Dyke festival in the park on Saturday morning. On the way there, we bought a sandwich (me) and some baked goods (him.) The best comment we heard on the way to the park was second hand. Apparently a random man yelled, "Hey, that's my wife!" as the lovely lesbian ladies were marching by.

While at the park, B* offered me a bite of his baked good.

Me- What's that?
Him-It's a creamhorm. It's kind of a big stick filled with cream.
Me- Are you sure that's appropriate to eat at this event?

The rest of my weekend was spent working. On Sunday, I went to a bbq at my friend's Arthur, which was quite fun. Arthur's mom and several friends taught us how to play mah jong, since I've been wanting to learn how to play. It's a very complicated and strategic game. She told us all not to tell our parents that she'd taught us how to gamble.

Right now I'm eating a Thai noodle pasta salad, which I just made. It's absolutely wonderful.

I should also mention that we had a uniformed guard standing in front of the crates of Harry Potter. I think you can see that in the photos. We were not allowed to see the books until midnight.


On Saturday, I went to play quiz bowl with B* and a bunch of his friends. I was pretty exhausted, but managed to do okay, even though I cut out for a while to go home and have a nap. I've also been having a weird allergic reaction/skin rash around my eyes. They've been all puffy, red and swollen for the past few days, and they itch as well.

On Sunday, I got together with Hanson, Joanne, my friend Laura and some of her friends to go watch the Buffy musical at the cinematheque. It was actually a birthday party for [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] whose birthday wish was to fill the cinematheque with people to sing along to the musical. I don't actually know [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com], but she sent out the invite on livejournal, and I was happy to attend, give my donation and help her fulfill her dream. It was her 38th birthday party and she was there with her partner [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] who is a science fiction writer. (I learned this all later from browsing the Internets.) Actually, I found out who [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] was at the event and went up and introduced myself and wished her Happy birthday and thanked her for having us. She gave me a huge hug.

It was a lot of fun. We watched "Hush", and were encouraged to yell and give comments out, so lots of snark ensued. I remembered how much I love "Buffy". It's been a while since I watched it and I forgot how good it is and how clever the writing is. After a warm up from the Vancouver lesbian and gay choir director, we watched the subtitled "Once More with Feeling". I did actually sing, but then my throat got really sore. I blame it on allergies. Then I went to work, where I bought THE BOOK, but I haven't even started reading it yet.

Friday- Did very little. Couched, read and watched movies. Attended bbq with B* and quiz bowl people.

Saturday- Got up early to go to the aquarium with some of B*'s friends who were visiting from Toronto. They have a son who is just about two and who loves fish. We took him to the aquarium where he got to say "fish" about 2 billion times. We had a wonderful time at the aquarium and saw sea lions fighting over pieces of ice. After this, we went for sushi, which in retrospect was quite wrong. After this, I went to work. [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] stopped in for a visit.

Sunday- I worked all day, then met up with [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] who is in town for the weekend. It was great to see her and meet her good friend Anne. We went for dinner with her friend Anne and spent a lot of time discussing Star Wars. Then we went to Anne's house and [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] gave me a pictorial history of the Oscars from the beginning to 1985. It's a really neat book. After that, I went home and collasped from sheer tiredness.

All in all, a great weekend.

I'm being having a great couple of days, despite the fact that I've been working a lot. On Saturday, I went to see Lucinda Williams in Stanley Park. My friend and concert buddy Arthur got there early, and managed to scout the location and score a nearby seat. We were outside the main area, so we were watching through a fence, but it was still pretty close. Jason Collett was the opening act. He was pretty good, but I was too excited for Lucinda to pay him much attention. When Lucinda came on, we stood up, only to be told to sit down by the people behind us as we were blocking their view. So the audience sat for the first long set. Everyone was enjoying the show and Lucinda was great, but it was the quietest crowd I've ever been in. People were whispering in between applauding her songs. It was surreal. I think Lucinda thought it was a bit weird as well.

After seeing her live, I like her more. She's a great live performer and the sound was perfect. She also has an amazing voice that sounds better in person, which, in my ever so humble opinion, is rare. She looks incredibly good for a 50 year old as well. She's super skinny.

After a while, people started complaining that they couldn't dance. Lucinda didn't like that, so she told us we could all stand up and dance. Arthur and one of his friends and I managed to get into the secured area, where we were about 20 feet from the stage. It was awesome! Lucinda played a lot of her old stuff, mixed with some great new songs which she is test driving. All in all, a fantastic show!!