Monday mourning (spelling mistake intended), I cleaned out my car for the last time - which wasn't too often since it was just an average car that I never cared about, not like my 1978 green westfalia who had a hippie name and for whom I insisted kristy take photographs of 'us' hugging before I sold her (yes, I know, both hippie and silly)...I digress.
The Terc' (1988 2-door Toyota Tercel - this photo is not my car...) never really made it into too many of my photos. First of all, because it was gray, and second of all, because it looked like a compressed version of a Delorean, minus the doors that spread like wings of course...that would've been cool. (I don't really know cars, but I know Back to the Future). I tried to put some hippie bumperstickers on to give it some life, but even though it was a delight to have a colour spectrum, the stickers seemed to mock me for being hypocritical in my vehicle usage. Luckily that guilt wasn't too overwhelming, and I did manage to clock quite of few km's on it - my daily commutes from Port McNeil to Telegraph Cove while working for DFO, my rainy day commutes to Shaugnessy Golf and Country Club, where I worked as server and took great delight parking next to very expensive cars (don't ask me what type...seriously I don't know cars), and the many trips to Smalltown, BC.
It was a crap car and there were less hugging departure photos, and more arguments with mechanics and calls convincing wreckers to take it, but it was decent car that did me well so I guess it deserves a eulogy. So, cya Terc'. I will remember your trunk that I could open with my finger, and racecar-esc shift stick, but mostly I will miss your home made canvas moon roof.
Single tear.
Monday, January 29
Sunday, January 28
Thingsmyboyfriendsangtome.com
me: eveything in moderation eh?
bj: (with guitar) I'd like to moderately moderate you out of my life.
~~~
this post is in response to a funny site my friend eliana found.
bj: (with guitar) I'd like to moderately moderate you out of my life.
~~~
this post is in response to a funny site my friend eliana found.
Friday, January 26
Wednesday, January 17
Perks
As cool as the job sounds, working as a ski patroller has a few drawbacks - I donÂ’t get paid much, the commute is a pain, especially since the Tercel has decided to pout until I cease my procrastination and pay attention to it, I work a lot of evenings which has led to the slow demise of my social life, and sometimes my office is really freaking cold and wet.
Of course, the perks of the job can be awesome.
Of course, the perks of the job can be awesome.
Last weekend my boss and co-worker taught a fantastic entry level avalanche course for the patrol team. This meant that on Sunday, with the sun shining, we hiked/skinned up into the snowshoe park to play around with snow profiles, compression tests and rutschblock tests - not a bad day. The whole experience was great for someone like myself who wants to get out into the backcountry though to be honest, after barely scraping the surface of avalanche knowledge, hearing the stories about avalanche victims, and listening to my instructors say things like "in these conditions you should be safe, however you never know" there was a small voice in my head wondering "why do I want to do this again?".
But, after the day was done and I took the skins off my skiis to begin my descent home, after taking turns in powder and trees, that small voice was inaudiable - all I could hear was " wheeeeee!!!"
This could be an evolutionary flaw, but it sure is fun.
Sunday, January 7
Thursday, January 4
Jockey James
I forgot to mention this New Years Eve activity. Lindsey, James' sister, let us ride her horses Filet and Mignon as a reward for all the hard work we did on the barn. We didn't exactly ride the horses, more like we got towed by his mom and sister. His sister decided to step it up a notch with and we jogged a little - however this disastorous move caused Filet to want to gallop -so she bucked me off then dragged Linds' by the rope before galloping back to the barn. Don't worry, the only thing hurt was my pride.
This is a photo that James wants to photo shop into a horse track or something. It amuses me way more the way it is now.
This is a photo that James wants to photo shop into a horse track or something. It amuses me way more the way it is now.
Wednesday, January 3
Tour D'Ontario
We flew into Toronto on the 24th and Bill Inkster picked us from the airport.
I should have sensed forshadowing of a crazy week when after several stressful minutes of searching for the car (for james and his dad, not me) we found it parked not in an actual stall, but in the driving lane, a big yellow arrow painted underneath.
First stop - Guelph, where James and I spent christmas eve going through all the elementary school assignments he ever completed and got a "Good job!" on. He was a funny writer even back then, though it perhaps wasn't as intentional. Some sidesplitting highlights included his use of the word dispicable (which he apparently got congratulated on one year, so logically used the word throughout the rest of his elementary writing profession), the constant sport theme, such as james' "life timeline" which underlined the beginning of each sports career he began - hockey age 3, soccer age 4, baseball age 5, hockey age 6 (he stepped it up a league by learning how to skate), and his attention to criticism - one teacher asked him to try adjectives, and so, the next story had an average of 2 adjectives per noun ("Under the tremendous tree there were shiny new clean presents"). Turns out he hasn't changed much since that early age.
Christmas Day was spent with his family. Just like any typical canadian family, the morning was spent working on the barn, leftover chile was enjoyed at lunch with 5 dogs and 2 grandparents, one French cousin and a sleepy Italian boyfriend, the afternoon was a combination of beer spilling and lawn mower riding, chirstmas dinner turkey was delicious and laid next to a delicious display of potatoes, stuffing and jello shots, and the evening was spent opening gifts and playing pool.
Boxing Day I was up early and driving to Toronto to drop off Cousin Sylvia and Dopey (Jordano). I then journeyed down the 401 to Stirling, Ontario where I spent the day visiting my dad's parents, Dorothy and Clary and their long time friend Hilda, who were visiting my (Aunt) Nancy, (Uncle) Terry and (dog cousin) Tyler. Stirling is a beautiful place and I wished I could of stayed longer. I'll save you the details, but it's nice to see my family still remains crazy, in both good and bad ways.
The 27th I was on the move again, this time my destination was Stouffville, home to the other side of the family, and a whole new avenue of craziness. I took the backroads to get there and crossed some beautiful Canadian Shield scenery, a good backdrop for my thoughts. However, the combo of backroads and having to literally rip my body from my grandmothers grasp, caused me to be arrive 1/2 hour later than planned, wchich caused my other grandmother to nearly start a mass search for my body. After that drama, tea and conversation went well - which is good becuase I now hear through the geneological grapevine that we had a falling out during my last visit, 3 years agao, because i was too opinionated. Apparently naive as well, since this news was brought to my attention at at 12:02am Jan. 1, 2007. Ah, it's going to be a good year...I digress. It was great to see my aunts/uncles and cousins too and it's nice to know that my 21/20 year old cousins have more direction in life than I do. Then again, I had more direction back then as well.
The 28th I headed back to Guelph (and nearly had a breakdown as I got lost on the 4-0-get-me-the-hell-out-this-city highways...one wrong turn was all it took for me to spend 15 minutes exploring every major city center hghway in Toronto) to begin the journey with James and Lindsey, our destinatio the infamous...Owen Sound.
A brief tour of the town and a quick walk down memory lane later, we were at the liquor store collecting our supplies for the evening...24 beer, a big bottle of Fireball, and our gag gifts - a flask of JD and Labatt Maximum Ice (7% alcohol, 1.18 L). Then over to the Boot n' Blade, a local diner that used to be quaint and made of hockey sticks but has since been upgraded to a more modern, less interesting decor, to meet Dawn, Fred, Cheryl, Tim, Owen and Natalie. A great ab workout, as Tim recollected, with James ' help the stunts that he and James pulled. Less like "Remember the time we went 4x4ing" and more like "Remember the time you ran away after spitting crackers in a voters face, leaving me to deal with it?". Hahaha...
The night was spent outside of Owen Sound, at a house party near Charles Lake on the famous Niagra Escarpement. Both James and I exceeded our expectations and drank most of the beer we brought, shared the fireball with everyone (like I needed those two shots), and ironically got each others gag gift - the Maximum Ice was donated to any brave, willing particpants - not surprising, it caused nothing but trouble - The JD was tucked away thankfully for another night.
Many laughs and documented nonsense from James' boys, Kalle, Dean, Jee Hoon, and Mike.
The next day we dragged our bodies back to the car for some countryside touring before we picked up Lindsey and headed back to Guelph for more barn labour. An uneventful hazy day.
The 30th was spent shopping in a Guelph mall with James, where many items were crossed off of his purchasing list and I was reminded I can't handle much time in malls no matter the township. More barn work and then out for greek food to celebrate Lu's birthday. Aside: When you have leftovers, do you ask the server to package it up, or do you ask for a container and do it for yourself? Hypothetical question of course...
New Years Eve - more barn work, more beer and more pool. One last visit with James' Grandma and Poppy and we were in a van headed back to the airport for one of my more frusteratingly slow airport experiences. 11:54pm we arrived at my parents house in Vancouver in time to count down the last seconds with my sister and her friends and then directly to the well earned bed for some solid zzz's.
Not exactly a relaxing week, but definatley entertaining. I'm glad I broke the bank for the trip.
I should have sensed forshadowing of a crazy week when after several stressful minutes of searching for the car (for james and his dad, not me) we found it parked not in an actual stall, but in the driving lane, a big yellow arrow painted underneath.
First stop - Guelph, where James and I spent christmas eve going through all the elementary school assignments he ever completed and got a "Good job!" on. He was a funny writer even back then, though it perhaps wasn't as intentional. Some sidesplitting highlights included his use of the word dispicable (which he apparently got congratulated on one year, so logically used the word throughout the rest of his elementary writing profession), the constant sport theme, such as james' "life timeline" which underlined the beginning of each sports career he began - hockey age 3, soccer age 4, baseball age 5, hockey age 6 (he stepped it up a league by learning how to skate), and his attention to criticism - one teacher asked him to try adjectives, and so, the next story had an average of 2 adjectives per noun ("Under the tremendous tree there were shiny new clean presents"). Turns out he hasn't changed much since that early age.
Christmas Day was spent with his family. Just like any typical canadian family, the morning was spent working on the barn, leftover chile was enjoyed at lunch with 5 dogs and 2 grandparents, one French cousin and a sleepy Italian boyfriend, the afternoon was a combination of beer spilling and lawn mower riding, chirstmas dinner turkey was delicious and laid next to a delicious display of potatoes, stuffing and jello shots, and the evening was spent opening gifts and playing pool.
Boxing Day I was up early and driving to Toronto to drop off Cousin Sylvia and Dopey (Jordano). I then journeyed down the 401 to Stirling, Ontario where I spent the day visiting my dad's parents, Dorothy and Clary and their long time friend Hilda, who were visiting my (Aunt) Nancy, (Uncle) Terry and (dog cousin) Tyler. Stirling is a beautiful place and I wished I could of stayed longer. I'll save you the details, but it's nice to see my family still remains crazy, in both good and bad ways.
The 27th I was on the move again, this time my destination was Stouffville, home to the other side of the family, and a whole new avenue of craziness. I took the backroads to get there and crossed some beautiful Canadian Shield scenery, a good backdrop for my thoughts. However, the combo of backroads and having to literally rip my body from my grandmothers grasp, caused me to be arrive 1/2 hour later than planned, wchich caused my other grandmother to nearly start a mass search for my body. After that drama, tea and conversation went well - which is good becuase I now hear through the geneological grapevine that we had a falling out during my last visit, 3 years agao, because i was too opinionated. Apparently naive as well, since this news was brought to my attention at at 12:02am Jan. 1, 2007. Ah, it's going to be a good year...I digress. It was great to see my aunts/uncles and cousins too and it's nice to know that my 21/20 year old cousins have more direction in life than I do. Then again, I had more direction back then as well.
The 28th I headed back to Guelph (and nearly had a breakdown as I got lost on the 4-0-get-me-the-hell-out-this-city highways...one wrong turn was all it took for me to spend 15 minutes exploring every major city center hghway in Toronto) to begin the journey with James and Lindsey, our destinatio the infamous...Owen Sound.
A brief tour of the town and a quick walk down memory lane later, we were at the liquor store collecting our supplies for the evening...24 beer, a big bottle of Fireball, and our gag gifts - a flask of JD and Labatt Maximum Ice (7% alcohol, 1.18 L). Then over to the Boot n' Blade, a local diner that used to be quaint and made of hockey sticks but has since been upgraded to a more modern, less interesting decor, to meet Dawn, Fred, Cheryl, Tim, Owen and Natalie. A great ab workout, as Tim recollected, with James ' help the stunts that he and James pulled. Less like "Remember the time we went 4x4ing" and more like "Remember the time you ran away after spitting crackers in a voters face, leaving me to deal with it?". Hahaha...
The night was spent outside of Owen Sound, at a house party near Charles Lake on the famous Niagra Escarpement. Both James and I exceeded our expectations and drank most of the beer we brought, shared the fireball with everyone (like I needed those two shots), and ironically got each others gag gift - the Maximum Ice was donated to any brave, willing particpants - not surprising, it caused nothing but trouble - The JD was tucked away thankfully for another night.
Many laughs and documented nonsense from James' boys, Kalle, Dean, Jee Hoon, and Mike.
The next day we dragged our bodies back to the car for some countryside touring before we picked up Lindsey and headed back to Guelph for more barn labour. An uneventful hazy day.
The 30th was spent shopping in a Guelph mall with James, where many items were crossed off of his purchasing list and I was reminded I can't handle much time in malls no matter the township. More barn work and then out for greek food to celebrate Lu's birthday. Aside: When you have leftovers, do you ask the server to package it up, or do you ask for a container and do it for yourself? Hypothetical question of course...
New Years Eve - more barn work, more beer and more pool. One last visit with James' Grandma and Poppy and we were in a van headed back to the airport for one of my more frusteratingly slow airport experiences. 11:54pm we arrived at my parents house in Vancouver in time to count down the last seconds with my sister and her friends and then directly to the well earned bed for some solid zzz's.
Not exactly a relaxing week, but definatley entertaining. I'm glad I broke the bank for the trip.
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