to portland or not to portland?

ok...sorta an uneventful day for me....

going a little stir crazy b/c i haven’t danced in a week...eekkk...hopefully i will get lots this weekend.

i’m considering a visit to seattle and portland! i have sunday and monday off...so why not?

as i mentioned before....i’ve been looking at art. i’ve seen some on the internet at this place called compound. actually the story goes back to when g took me to portland in june...we stopped in seattle on the way and saw some painting by ferris plock. i liked his stuff and kicked myself after for not buying any.

so now that i’m in the market... i would like to look a bit more at his work. they are having a show at compound with him and a woman called kelly tunstall. garn was there today on his way south and gave it the thumbs up....
so i thought i should see it in person.

plus i could see some friends and maybe dance and stop by seattle on the way as well......

ok...it sounds like a plan...i might do it. haven't decided..but i'll let you know.

:)

g hits the (snowy) road...

should have been a snow day today....

i went to work today...but man..it was brutal. the snowy conditions made it almost impossible to drive. it took me 2.5 hours to get from down town to my office. oh boy.

anyway...i cut out early.... to meet garn, corie and riel...a friend of garnets...at topanga. it was garn’s last night in town for a bit. he’s going to drive to arizona stopping i’m sure many places...im sure... on the way. he said he will bring me a rock.....i’ve always wanted a rock from arizona!

(the lynch women and their damn rocks eh?......only some people will get that one.)

anyway, i will miss him while he’s gone. gotten kinda attached to his grumpy guy humour and big old hugs.

have a safe trip g.....

:)

insanity and beauty...

this is what it looked like from my window this morn...



among the insanity of the last few days...stupid drivers and rude christamas shoppers.

try to take a moment and wonder at the beauty...

:)

snow day...

i couldn't let today go by without a mention of the snow. some people like it...some people hate it. i like it today, when i'm cosy inside with the fire on....i will probably hate it tomorrow when i'm driving all day with idiot drivers. oh joy....

here's what it looked like outside my window this evening...


:)

i'm one degree of seperation....

away from mick jagger.

and here's the proof....
my niece katharina is the gorgeous one on the right...


katharina rubs shoulders with all kinds of famous types over in london...including the prince himself...william that is. so i guess i'm one degree away from royalty as well.

peter said he had to crop the mick's walker out of the pic...good one pete.

he sent some others pics as well.
here's a good one of mum deep sea fishing.


:)

views from my apartment...

there have been some pretty nice views from my apartment lately....here are some of them.




i'm liking my place right now...garns been helping me fix it up and it's getting there. one thing i need though is art...i need a couple of big pieces. i'm looking for a big ceramic or glass peice for over the fire place and some kind of painting or print...at least one to start.

so if anyone has seen any cool art lately...let me know. i've seen a few cool pieces in the past that i am kicking myself now for not buying. one i saw in seattle with g and one i saw at cafe soma...maybe i will go down there and ask about them....

i wanta try and get my place looking nice by christmas...if i can...or at least by the end of the holiday's. a little christmas present to myself.



:)

my skin hurts....

ok, so i think i may have had an allergic reaction to something today. i have a rash...kinda all over....not sure what it from. i remember having this last year. never figured it out....

oh well.

:)

if life was like a pie from savoury island...

then everyone would be happy and have blueberry filling on their faces!

just finished eating a lovely pie that corie bought and garnet delivered to me....wow. thanks guys...what a good day!

...the last few days have been actually. i think it started tuesday. i remember shopping on robson street. i looked up at the new lights at robson and granville and i thought to myself...holy shit!...is vancouver starting to become a real city? since then i’ve been almost feeling happy about vancouver....whaaattt? happy....not b/c of the lights and the city it's self...
but because of the people.

i have a little saying i tell people when they go on about how i beautiful vancouver is..."it's not the place..it's the people"

i hate vancouverites right?....don’t i?? do i?

hmmmm....i thought i did. but recently i have been meeting some nice ones...really nice ones...and getting to know them better. it is really changing my whole out look i think...for the better.

lucy and leo do a dance demo at the legion tonight...

it was kevin j's birthday tonight and he did a food drive fundraiser...it was a fun night...danced tons. thursdays aren't as busy as saturdays. it's really just the core group of dancers... it's more casual and social.

happy birthday kevin!

:)

day off for jojo

i had today off...which was great. first priority was sleeping in...of course.

later garnet and garbs came by and and did some work on my apartment. i think the cat door is now cat proof...time will tell. they also put up a medicine cabinet for my vitamins and tweaked the banner garn lent me...oh and i don't have a million wires under my side board...were did they go?....everything looks awesome..

i put some cool magnets on the cabnet to jazz it up...

when they were putting it up i thought to myself how lucky i feel to have to great friends to help me with stuff..it makes me feel good. it's weird how we don't say stuff like that when we are thinking it...well...i'm saying them now...thanks guys...

tonight garn, mishi, garbs, corie and i went to eat. tried to go to lollitas first but there was a line up...it the pouring rain! so we went to guu instead...corie ordered for everyone..and it was awesome!

i stole this picture from garnets blog...i wanted to put it up for mum and dad. if you guys look at the that chair to the left of the big guy...do you recognise it?? it’s one of your old chairs recovered!


:)

return day....

sorta of an odd day....

return day.

mindless work really...sometimes you have to take abuses from the staff...but whatever...i’m not going to apologise or get embarrassed for doing my job.

for some reason there were a bunch of secret service men in pacific centre today...i saw about 8 of them...that was a little frightening ....they are soo obvious too! they dress like no one else would dress... exactly how we would dress them in a film. black trench coat, black pants...and earwig. the black makes the earwig stand out even more....mic in their sleeve. do they want to stand out?

anyway..later i saw a security guard running full tilt too...i was thinking..ok..i gotta get these returns done and outta here... i have no idea what was going on. if anyone heard anything...please let me know...

later on during my tour for returns i was talking on the phone and then all of a sudden i spotted a girl who made me gasp!...oh my god....the person on the other end of the phone wondered what was wrong b/c they heard my gasp.....i had to hang up.

oh man. a girl. the walking dead. i sure the most anorexic woman i have ever seen and i’ve seen and known many. she was probably about 70lbs at most.

she walked passed me....huge amounts of mascara....black smudges under her eyes. like she had cried so much...that one day she just decided to do her make up like that from that day forth. she was wearing a dress....you could see every bone with just a bit of skin stretched over.

i found it so distressing and shocking that i had to go sit down for awhile.

slowly killing herself.....why that way? why not just take a handful of pills and a down it with a bottle of vodka? why starve to death? you hate yourself so much....that even in killing yourself you have to take the long and painful way? punish yourself......

i shed a tear for her....but i know she will die...most likely soon.

can’t someone stop her?

i said a little prayer for her...

:)

i recognise you....

i look into your eyes...searching for something. suddenly i recognise you. a face i’ve seen before...a hundred years ago.

i know that face. i trace it with my fingers....in my mind.

....those lips.

your touch i already know. i know how you taste.



i recognise something in you....what is it?

is it me?

:)

big apple

if anyone is interested...

this is the dance i learned a few weeks back called the big apple. as you can see it's a very silly dance...but lots of fun!

here is franky manning's version as is it was performed in the movie "keep punchin"..i don't know the year...but late 30's i think.

here is the link;
http://www.ocswing.com/bigapple.wmv

:)

r&r and connecting with old friends

i stayed up way too late last night! no two ways about it! but it was oh so much fun. the legion had it’s 3rd anniversary of the swing dancing event we go to. it was an amazing night and i just couldn’t stop dancing. the beers before and after probably didn’t help the way i feel today either.

sometimes i put so much of myself into things that i get kinda worn out. i do it in my dancing too. i think that why i’m such a good dancer...sorry to toot my own horn...but i have always been good at it....that’s one thing i know for sure. i think that’s one of the reasons...i put my all into it. everytime. it takes more energy....but it also makes it more fun. i do that at work as well sometimes...but i’m trying not to...and in my relationships....

how come don’t do that with house work? hehe

anyway. sometimes there ain’t anything left the next day. but that ok...b/c it was worth it!

so basically i haven’t left my house today. which sounds terrable...but i think it’s great!
every now and again it’s a good thing to do! i caught up with some old friends. talked to my lovely friend philipe from paris who lives in montreal....working a million hours a week....doing his residency in orthopaedic surgery. poor bugger doesn’t get to dance at all anymore...i hadn’t talked to him in almost a year. we hung out when he was doing his residency here for a bit. anyway i miss him and it was nice to catch up.

philippe and me at the airport christmas eve last year...or it might have been the eve before christmas eve...

i also sent a bunch of emails saying hi to people and trying to find an email address for cheryl...hopefully linda has one for her. i feel i need to talk to her.

i found this pic of cheyl...she is almost ready to pop with daniel here. i know. you can't even tell...life is so unfair! lol


:)

psychic connection...

there are a hand full of people in my life that i feel psychically connected with. i know no matter what happens they will always be in my life in some way....even if they live thousands of miles away and i never see them or talk to them....i can’t explain it.

anyway....i had an interesting dream last night about one of those people.

i dreamt that i was at robert ashley's agian....the hair salon that i worked at in Toronto. ash was there and so was keath...and cheryl.

cheryl and i were sitting in the middle of the salon on lawn chairs chatting....the weird thing is...she was black, about 80 years old and blind....but somehow i had no doubt it was her. we were chatting i was describing people to her.

when i awoke i realised i haven’t seen cherly in so long and she’s such a great friend. i miss her and wonder what and how she is doing. she really is one of the most beautiful woman i have ever meet...inside and out.

we had some crazy times in toronto together. i remember when we use to go out together cherly use to tell guys...”we won’t talk to you unless you buy us drinks” it was so funny b/c she didn’t even drink really...she just wanted to line them up...see how many she could get!

she also always seemed to know the right thing to say at the right time....even at the hardest of times. actually i should say ESPECIALLY at the hardest of times. she seems to know when it's important to be there.....i think that's what my dream was about.

i think it was cherly giving me advice.

i should dig some old pics of us up tomorrow...post them

i miss you cheryl..i think a trip to scotland is in order...get me a big burly man in a kilt! ...now that sounds like a mighty fine idea!

:)

who stole all my clothes?

or some bizarre reason...i don’t seem to have any winter clothes! how does this happen? sure i was a couple of pounds lighter last year...my pre-tapanga weight!...but i should have something. i had clothes on this body last winter...i’m sure of it! just don’t remember what they were.

right now i’m doing the vancouver custom of just putting a sweater or jacket over my summer clothes...a habit i thought i hated. now here i am...doing it! it’s like socks and sandals ...shorts and long johns..a vancouver on set favourite!

ok...well..i’m suppose to meet a friend for a drink...i’ve changed three...or four times and i still hate what i’m wearing...i’m such a girl!

i better go shopping! hey, isn’t that what i do for a living all week? oh well

:)

a little too much...

sometimes work takes way too much out of me. i was suppose to dance tonight....but instead came home, ate soup, had a beer and vegged. i probably needed the dancing for the exercise and stress relief.......
but it just seemed too much tonight. i will go saturday for sure.

:)

wrap the rain please...i’ve had enough!

i knew we would pay for all that good weather we had earlier in the fall....damn. some vancouverites claim they like the rain. i personally think they are either idiots, liars or pot heads...or perhaps all three...well it is vancouver!

...yeah...i’m still on my i hate vancouver kick...just in case you are wondering ...hehe


the rain made my day way harder today...and i’m exhausted. fighting wind and rain on robson with an arm full of bags just isn’t my idea of fun.
oh and the driving....it was dangerous out there, for sure. i saw a really bad accident on the way to work. i would be surprised if both parties survived.

one positive thing though...thank god i don’t work on set anymore! i pitty those poor buggers...just trying to make a living. i don’t miss that at all!!

:)

today....

...while at lunch a guy knocked over my lemonata ...."oh" then he begrudgingly said "i guess i'll get you another"...."i guess!" i said....then he sat down. didn't even attempt getting me another...didn't apologize...Nothing! What a dick!

the waiter noticed what had happened and brought me a new one...free of charge. which was nice of him.

but really...It's people like you mister....that make me what to move as far away from vancouver as i possibly can...maybe even further...

:)

giving it another go....

i’m having trouble writing my blog tonight. i’ve deleted it a few times already.....i’m going to give it a go.

hmmm..that sounds familiar.....

giving it another go....

how many times can i do that?

i have hope. i do. maybe i shouldn’t. maybe with every bad thing that happens in this life.....maybe at some point i should just say “fuck it”??

....for some reason i haven’t. i’m i stupid?? don’t learn from life's hard lessons? i don’t know. it can be so frustrating sometimes.

how many times can i really keep this hope alive...it does get weaker i think.
a tiny little flame......waiting to see if the next strong wind blows it out or gives it oxygen and make it burn bright again.....

:)

beers, mojitos and paper umbrellas

so i was roger last night in town...he’s had a pretty rainy visit....he says it’s best b/c if it wasn’t rainy he would be too sad to leave....well.....i’m going to be sad regardless ...rain or no rain.

we had a nice night. started off at steam works for beers and food with gosia and rebecca.

roger had a bit of a crush on the waitress..so i took a picture for him

then those guys ditched us. we didn’t know where to go and gosia said they make great drinks at lolita's and it was on her way home...so she dropped us off.

we were rockin out in the car on the way to lolita's....


when we got there...mishi, garbs, pam and toby were there finishing their night...i knew they were going there but thought they would be long gone. so that was awesome they were still there. i got to met pam and toby.....finally. after hearing so much about them and putting my feet up so many times on the coffee table they built for g. weird i meet them now. that probably says a lot.

anyway...they are a nice couple...i hope i meet them again. we had drinks with those guys and then they were on their way. roger and i stayed for a bit longer...until some really loud guys with too much testosterone and booze in them showed up...and we decided to call it a night.

roger and garbs....twins seperated at birth?


i felt a little sad afterwards.....gosia will take roger to the airport tomorrow....i won’t see him. we made plans to meet in the spring...either in london or berlin. i’ve never been to berlin and would love to meet there.

so until then roger.....

what a great friend you are.

more pics to come....

:)