Something scary for Halloween

Here are some of my neighbors.
What kind of people are they?
dun dun dun...

Ambleside Park, Horseshoe Bay, Gastown

Friday night

This is a Margaret's blog inspired poem.

Friday night

1:00am, downtown Vancouver
from a horror movie he has
one eye, the other is
his unbuttoned shirt.
I give him money in hopes not
three streets over to find him
once again
begging his pity show.
Maybe he used my money to involve change
when with about $57 and two credit cards
we leave the club
we make our way, closed
swollen and mutilated shut.
There is a chance that he will spend it
on fixing himself rather than money.
Blood drippped down his neck
himself in violent drug deals, I am just being.
Fill my pockets
to my vehicle.
Homeless man, fresh scrape on the side
of his neck and blood dried down
masking the pain
I return two days later
and shirt once again.
I wonder if this is inconsiderate
as I tell him I don't have.

mom's the word

I would like to say hallelujah for a number of things:

1. mothers. They are great for exploring places (and paying for the parking!) as well as helping you understand your situation, and just caring. Mine has now left me, but that is okay since I think we were able to catch up quite well.

2. the weather. It has not rained for the past few days and has even been sunny and warm today. It has been great for walking around.

3. Picasso. He puts on a good show. I went and saw it today at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The show included mostly his older works, many of them etchings. I had no idea he was such a prolific printmaker, as I associated him primarily with his paintings and sculptures.

4. the strike is over! the teachers voted last night and 78% decided that 18 days without class is long enough and they would accept the proposed changes. This means that I can go back to my practicum and see my clients again which I am quite excited about. I miss them. And now there will be no more extra long weekends...

5. a new practicum opportunity. I was just called by a lady who works at the hospital running a Children's bereavement group. Tomorrow I am going to have to skip morning class to attend an introduction seminar to see how I can best use my art therapy training to participate in their group meetings. It should be interesting.

6. sewing machines. My mother just gave me hers since she bought a new one. So now I can sew all I want! Does anybody want a monk bag? I have also begun sewing wrap- around pants. So, if anyone wants to support a poor, unemployed student living in an expensive city, let me know.

6. my car. I love my car. I just got the oil changed and they inspected it and found a mouse home in the air filter. They replaced that, topped up all the fluids, filled the tires, and now it runs extremely well. Until today I had only seen one other Honda Accord stationwagon. This morning I saw two parked right beside eachother! They were exactly like mine but black with smaller rust spots and intact paint. Not nearly as much character. I was excited to see more beautiful cars, but sad that my car had lost a little of its uniqueness.

I think Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen, might be one of my alltime favorite songs. Jeff Buckley's version is good too. I also saw k.d. lang sing it for Alberta's centennial celebration and that was quite lovely as well.

mother daughter time.

My mother is here and we have been spending quality time walking and admiring various aspects of the city. Granville Island, Stanley Park, theatre production of The Elephant man, church, Horseshoe bay, Ambleside Park, Lonsdale Quay, seabus, Gastown, farmer's market, rummage sale, scrabble... we have done it all. And we still have another half of a day to do what we can.

nice but rain.

I just heard on the news this morning that Vancouver has been ranked as the best city in the Americas to live in. Yes, it is nice, and I won't complain, except for about one thing: Can't they do anything about the rain?

roommate wanted.

Does anyone want to move to Vancouver? I found the perfect place. It is right on the North Shore. It even has its own private rocky beach and access to the nearby private sandy beach! There is a creek running through the backyard which the salmon spawn in and it is nestled in a natural rainforest. It has two bedrooms, another room which could be a little bedroom, room for a huge studio, living room, kitchen with bright blue tile counters, separate little rooms for the toilet and shower...its close to a provincial park with walking trails, Deep Cove (where Ben Affleck lives), the landlord promises to lend out his rowboat and build a natural outdoor hottub...all for the low price of $775 per month! This is outrageously cheap for North Vancouver, especially coastal property!

Disclaimer: this place is in a shipyard, which some might think is "dumpy". I think it has character and provides lots of free parking spaces. The place also needs some painting and definitely new flooring. It has a spider problem, and the landlord hasn't hooked up the washer and dryer yet and there is only one plug in for both of them. It also stinks, especially when the salmon die after they spawn.

I think it has potential to be a little utopia, but that could be the idealist and wannabe handiman in me talking. Somebody either tell me that they need a place and think I'm right, or that I am being totally irrational! Because thinking about this place is taking away from my studies...

North Vancouver (10/13/05)
2BR main. Nr Cates Park, 1100 sf. Perfect for studio. Private. Cat ok. $775 + 1/2 util. 929-3478

who knew?

Did you know that you can cross the border without a passport or birth certificate? I did it yesterday, no problem. All you need to do is smile nicely and they let you in, even if you might look like a bit like a terrorist or drug dealer since you don't comb your hair and pay more than $5 for each item of clothing that you wear... How safe do you feel now, my American friends?

Yes, it was quite exciting. I went across with my lovely almost lifetime friend, Kristin, since her roommate works at a coffeeshop across the border in Lynden, Washington. Here's a picture of them. Kristin is the dark haired one; her roommate, Chrystal, is the blonde.

Lynden is another fake Dutch towns. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a Tulip festival, as I saw all the other makings of Orange City right there. It was exciting to be back in the States again! Maybe I have become more American than I thought. However, it was a disappointment that I forgot my lackluster American dollars and was also surprised to see that gas prices are double what they were when I left! wow... As good as it was, I returned to the homeland two and a half hours later.

Today I went to an Apple Festival on the campus of U.B.C. and sampled about 40 different types of apples, all grown locally. Ambrosia was probably favorite variety, followed by Honeycrisp. There were about 15 others that I really enjoyed as well, but have since forgotten the names of. It was enjoyable other than the inevitabe rain, which put a definite damper on the day (no pun intended.) Who knew there were apple festivals?

This picture was taken in the coffee shop following the apple festival.

For not having any plans whatsoever for this weekend it has been quite eventful.

schedulelessness

I have a bit of time right now since my housemates ended up sleeping in rather than going to a yoga class with me.
Actually, I have quite a lot of time right now since the schools are on strike. Today is the day which I do my art therapy pracicum at an elementary school, but since the teachers are acting illegaly I have nowhere to be today.
Okay, I have a tonne of time. I have nowhere that I need to be until Tuesday, since that is my first day of class every week. Class Tuesday and Thursday. Actually, personal art therapy and discussions about client's artwork on Tuesday, class on Thursday. Practicum Wednesday and Friday. Its a fairly ideal schedule. Maybe someday I will occupy some of this free time with a job, but nothing has worked out yet. For now I enjoy getting more sleep and spending time daydreaming and discovering. As my mother helped me realize, though, what will I be doing if i am not making money? Spending money. So maybe I should try harder to find something.

Wow, nowhere to be until Tuesday! No plans whatsoever for four days...how exciting.

Anybody have any suggestions as to things that I could do? The forecast is for rain the entire weekend, so I guess I can schedule in my new rain ritual: drinking a pot of tea (preferably licorice spice), lighting a couple of candles, and reading.

leftover pumkin pie

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving. Yes, it is strange that it is today. I am used to celebrating at the end of November since I have been an American the past four years. I am used to Thanksgiving being a much-needed break from homework, a chance to retreat in the comfort of a relative's home in rural Minnesota, a huge feast with first strangers and then relatives, the prelude to Christmas... Today will be quite a contrast since I am in Vancouver now, have already had two Thanksgiving dinners, and do not feel much like being ambitious since it is rainy today.



This picture is what you get when you use the self-timer setting on your camera without first looking through the lense and carefully planning the picture out. I accidentally pressed the shutter button so my camera started counting down before I could object... It was chaos, hence the expression on my face. Regardless of the poor composition, it gives you an idea of who my Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night was spent with (and the walls of the apartment.) These were only half the folk, however. They are four of the girls in my 15 girl class, the roommate of one of the girls, an Austrailian, and a guy from downstairs a few floors. Diana's boyfriend is also missing since he was setting up the other camera and heroicly tipped my camera to the side so we even ended up in the picture. A little while after this picture was taken the rest of the group showed up: two Peruvians, a Russian, Mexican, and someone from somewhere else. It was quite an international crew, and even those of us who were national (?) were from outside of the province. Aaah, culture. Today I am thankful for culture(s). And the opportunity to live in such a diverse place.

Yesterday I ate my second Thanksgiving dinner with Margaret, her adopted grand/host parents and all of their adoptees and "orphaned" folk whom they could round up. It was also quite an eclectic group with a range of ages from 80ish to four and a half. We feasted and then played with Lego with the child. I'm thankful for Lego and other games, and children who make you realize the value in play.

I am thankful for all the regular things as well, I just thought I would be selective with a few of my thanks.

Today I think I will eat more leftover pumpkin pie. mmmmm.

A couple of nights ago I went blog-hopping. I started off at Margaret's, then clicked on all of her links, then on most of the links attached to those links. I felt like I was in touch with the greater community, with people that I still wanted to know and see. It was at this moment which I decided that I wanted to have my own blog site, to at least create the illusion of closeness. Yes, the internet is wonderful, since through it we can still maintain conversations and show eachother things even though we are on opposite sides of the planet...

On Thursday the lecturer for my Readings class at Vancouver Art Therapy Institute ended off with this poem. It was exactly what I needed at that moment.

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

--Mary Oliver

Touching, isn't it? Its the kind of poem which makes you want to sigh and put your arm around whoever is next to you... Anyways, I don't want to establish my blog site as being fluffy, so I will stop here.

But first I shall enclose a couple of pictures taken this morning. Margaret and I went to Lonsdale Quay, a marketplace on the North Shore. We looked around, she bought a vest, we admired the view of the coastline and then took a couple of pictures.