Wednesday, May 10, 2006

to thine own smell be true

Yesterday was a stinker of a day to be on the bus. The legend of the stinky East Van bus experience grew into reality yesterday. In the morning on skybus on the way to work people were farting up a storm. From the Stadium stop all the way to granville (about 25.4 seconds) I pretty much held my breath. They were morning, just got up farts. Like the guy standing in front of me had got up, grabbed a quick coffee and ran onto the skybus. Yech. I guess that's what I get for going into work a little earlier - it won't happen again.

Then last night coming back from yet another dissapointment of an apartment viewing someone was releasing their own special perfume on the #99. The smell was a mix of stinky feet, wet leather, and Abbotsford all rolled into one bundle. I'm usually pretty tolerant of smells because I can be a smelly bugger myself - but not yesterday. I had to hoist open the window and sort of tilt my head towards the rushing air. I wonder if it looked obvious?

I couldn't figure out if it was the two UBC environmental studies-looking students with dirty hands, old hiking boots and gardening implements sticking out of their MEC bags. Or if it was the nuvo-hippie with her cherry-red bob, dirty flip flops and bloody heels (which I can also relate to, being a disaster in almost anything with a 1.5" heel). Unfortunately the smell was with me for the ENTIRE ride from Sasamat to Commercial drive. I would've probably pulled a David Blaine if I had tried to hold my breath that long.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

bursting at the seams

I feel like I'm bursting at the seams. Mega change lately. Getting a new home. Got a new car. Quitting an old job. I can't wait for the summer because I'll be working less and living more. I'm so positively chuffed with the world right now. This morning I had to wait for 5 skytrains to pass until I could hop on. It didn't bother me a bit because I walked to the intersection of hell in the sun and felt all nostalgic for my neighborhood. Oh well. C'est ca. I feel like an overstuffed pillow of glee. Busting at the hem with stupid grins. I know - cheesy. If you knew my family, especially my dad's side plus my mom, you'd know that I come from a long line of cornballs. So humour me.


Things I can't get enough of lately:

  1. Working on the patio at the MG
  2. My boy's new abode and his lack of gorilla room mate
  3. Arcade fire (so 2004 I know, but so good, best quebecois export since Trudeau himself)
  4. My fox
  5. Zach Braff (I'm going to rent Chicken Little for godsakes just cause he's in it)
  6. The thought of spending my birthday in Merritt with my high school girlfriends
  7. Taking the #9 - its going to be a thing of the past very very soon.
  8. The peacefulness, actions and folklore of babies - Molly, twins Ben (even when you're pukey) and Clara, plus my coworker's nameless baby boy who was born hours after going to a Haisla ceremonial event.
  9. Cherry blossoms
  10. My friends - even when I miss their birthdays and never communicate with them except for knitting emails and funny forwards and reading their blogs or on dizzying breakfast/ dinner/ art gallery dates.
  11. Tony Bennett - yes they old coot's coming to town and I'm saving my pennies to go see him.
  12. A Change of Tongue by Antjie Krog - her prose is poetry. Reading her soliloquies on the transformation in South Africa is like eating whipped butter on my grandma's fresh bread. It's a week overdue from the library and I can't seem to return it.
  13. The fact that my soon-to-be-former colleagues are being extra super sweet and helpful and supportive of the fact that I'm leaving them for nothing at all except what my heart says.
  14. The fact that I'm regressing into slightly obsessive fandom of my youth. I heard NKOTB today and almost lost it.
  15. The sun - did I mention I'm solar powered?