Oh so civil.

Though I feared I may have to stay in Canada due to the fact that I was skipping out on my civil duties in NH, I was thankfully excused from service.

I may just stay anyways.

Beautiful British Columbia*

It has been almost a week now in Vancouver, and so far I have nary a complaint. Sure, not having a job or much responsibility helps. Sure, having a fantastic, cute tour guide and slobbery dog-friend helps too. But I think if I look past these obvious attractions, I still find a city and area I am really quite fond of.

Out on the town Friday evening with Bryan's coworkers, his boss offered us his home on a small island located in Howe Sound, not far from Vancouver for the rest of the weekend. Gambier Island has one general store and a lot of natural beauty. After two ferry rides, Bryan, Moose and I arrived in New Brighton in search of an old Suburban with keys in the ignition and rear brakes that “may or may not work, depending on if Eli fixed them” to bring us to our destination. A vintage Airstream. Th King of RV's.


Ours was decked out in kid-friendly colorfulness. Science magazine pages tiled the floor, crayons were a strew, books crowded over shelves, dishes piled in cabinets and children's drawings adorned the walls. The in-doors was great, but the land was the adventure. Their lot is a virtual child paradise, complete with zip line, fire pit, pond, trampoline, tree swing and of course, thousands of bugs and fairies.


We explored for the area and then set to the task of starting the fire. After a few minutes of a damp start we soon had a blazing inferno** that lasted long into the night. We brought food to cook on the Airstream stove but chose instead to keep the company of the wilderness with a bag of potato chips and marshmallows to roast for dinner and dessert. How infrequent and precious these outdoor moments have become in the last few years! I was blissed out reminiscing about New Zealand and my days of campervan living, and realized again how much I long for a closer relationship to nature. After hours of conversation and contemplation we went to bed and I had one of the best nights sleep that I can recall... cuddled in piles of blankets with a gentle forest buzz in my ears and the smell of fire smoke in my hair.


We woke early the next morning (well, Bryan woke very early and saw the sunrise. I, like I said, was sleeping soundly.) We each walked down to the dock, and saw otters playing in the morning mist. These were beautiful alone-moments in a beautiful place.

We left the island rather early on Sunday. Buying out the entire IKEA Vancouver store on Saturday morning, we had unmade furniture waiting for our skilled assembly. We spent the rest of the day on Sunday working on making this beautiful loft space into a beautiful home space. We now have a couch to relax on! And space to chop on! And a table to eat on, and curtains to peak through and chairs to sit on! We are getting to a very homey, lovely space and I feel very privileged to be a contributor to design process.

Today Bryan flew to Toronto for a meeting of the creative computer minds. I toiled the day away wandering, cooking, eating, reading and taking myself to see the movie Vickie Christina Barcelona**. Tomorrow my dear friend Teresa visits for a few days for further Vancouver adventures.

Now I will retire to a book, some good music, a great dog and glass of wine and the pizza that I just made using a new pizza dough recipe and a completely foreign convection oven.


*BC license plate motto
**Slight exaggeration
** I loved this movie! I really appreciated Vickie and Christina's relationship and their non judgmental friendship. And I really appreciated that Javier Borden is pretty damn sexy.

Vancouver!

Greetings from the West Coast! I'm drinking my coffee and looking out of Bryan's enormous new loft windows at a crane building one of many new apartment buildings going up, a beautiful blue sky, littered rooftops and apartments sporting the beloved red and white maple leafed flags of this neighborly country to the North. Below the street is pretty quiet, but later this evening there will be a healthy mix of bums, business folk, hipsters and dogs walking towards their respective homes. This is day two in Vancouver and so far I like what I see.

The loft is in Gastown, apparently on the line between total sketchiness ("zombietown") and the toursity niceness of Canada Place and Water Street, lined with souvineer shops, Persian rug stores and overpriced restaurants. Within a few blocks we have the excellent shopping and eating area on Granville and numerous sushi stops on Robson. It is jokingly easy to find my way around here, after dealing with the disorganization of Boston streets for so long.

There is already a growing list of restaurants I must experience while I am here. I'm trying to think frugally, but this is a girl who likes to eat good food, and good found seems abundant! Yesterday, Mozilla kindly treated me to lunch at a very chic lunch at Salt Tasting Room, a place I hope to return to more than once. Cheese, bread, dips, wine. This is what I live for!

So far I've met Bryan's funny coworkers and his adorably sweet friend Emilee, the self proclaimed "unofficial welcome wagon". If they are any indication of the kind of people in Vancouver, I think it is safe to say this is a pretty cool place.

Moose is very good company while Bryan is at work and seems to like his new digs and new bone.

Now it is time for some more exploring!

So you want to leave the country?

Sorry, you've got Jury Duty.

Being the everywhere girl that I am, I've never really bothered to change my "permanent" address, to each of the many places I have lived since my high school graduation nearly ten years ago. Credit card bills, loan notices, bank statements... everything I don't want to read anyway, gets sent to a shiny white mail box on a rural street in NH.

I've been getting away with a NH driver's license, NH voter registration, and NH plates when I had my car, which also meant NH insurance. All this taking advantage of the Granite State caught up to me, when yesterday, after I returned from renewing my NH driver's license, I was summoned to jury duty in Barnstable, NH on October 6.

I immediately returned the juror questionnaire along with mandatory excusal letter so as to avoid "serious penalties" and hope that the NH judiciary system will, for a time, buy my lies.

I just hope civic karma does not come back to bite me in the ass.

Paper Delivery

One of the many lovely things about returning to home is the morning paper delivery. It is a treat to be able to wake up, make coffee and read the paper (even if it is mostly bad news) with a dog at my feet.
If ever I am in one place long enough to really call it home, I will have the paper delivered to my door each day.