Goodbye Vancouver!

Well I am pretty much packed. I cleaned what I could, and weighed my bag a million times (it varies but says I am half a pound within the limit). Tomorrow I have to go to the bank, and take in my license plates to buy my theft insurance and get credited for this month's driving insurance. Hoping to break even...

So this six week visit has come to an end. I feel very strange right now. I just checked in online for my flights... I have a window seat for both! Yay! It will be daytime while I am arriving and departing from London, so I get to see the city again in aerial glory :)

The past few weeks have been good despite the sleeping problems and occasional moodiness. Honestly, I think it has to do with the amount of caffeine and sugar I've consumed while here. I've drank more pop in the past six weeks than the past year!

I've taken my camera(s) out for some photography around town, but haven't really posted much yet. I made a back-dated post about NYC. Here's some more!

East Van on a cloudy day, walking around with Mac and the dog



In summer these streets rock









Kat, James, and giant cat



I knitted this!



Kendra and her cute rabbit



My street



Distant mountain seen from Langley



More Langley



Played with this one, also on my street. You can't really see my mountain too well in this one :(



Sexy leopard car!





at the cemetery I used to go to









If you go over a part of run-down fence behind the cemetery, there is this really nice field with a view of Langley Township. I revisited.











These next ones are from last weekend!

Mike on the bus in Vancouver



Van street art :)



friends @ Body Modification Shop/Art Gallery/Venue



Swa making sexy face



RIP Cobalt



Olympics shut down Granville so now there are more buskers and art installations!



city by day





Granville by night





I don't know if we were allowed but...





I have never seen so many Canada flags

Excitement

Things are in full swing here again, and I am loving it :D

I'm tempted to try and backtrack and do a daily thing, buuuuuut as of now I'm just too lazy :p

I feel a lot better when I am in the city. Seeing friends again is making my days! Also getting back into the massages is feelin' good. I went from nothing to three in one day and man I felt it in my forearms the next day! I liked it though - the muscles were sore but it's been so long since I had that spent-muscle-soreness it was almost nostalgic. I love that my job is a physically active one :)

I had forgotten how giving massage can ground me too. I am able to forget myself and concentrate on the other person... think about "healthy" things. Relax. I remembered how to do it too so that felt relieving. I was wondering how much I'd forget a year, but it seems like I haven't forgotten much at all. It's just the strength mostly I have to recover.

Living in Langley has forced me into my perpetual couchsurfing habit once again. I have crashed at minimum four different houses in the past little while, and I probably will be staying out for another two.

I potentially have news on Monday. I have filled my weekend till way past bursting; making plans with people I haven't seen in at least a year ( <3 ) so Monday should come faster :)

I took some nice photos of Stanley Park today. I am too lazy to do up the photos right now though, so I will put them up later on.

Supposed to go to a Couchsurfing house party tonight, but probably going on my own... so I am trying to decide whether or not to drink! I chose to take a break from drinking on New Years for my poor stomach, and I've been so good. I had one beer at my birthday sushi, two at the Astoria, and one at Doug and Kat's, but that's it. Arg. I won't be driving either.

Decisions decisions.

CAN I DO IT?!?!

NYC in Vancouver

This is from my NYE celebrations. Bryce and I took the skytrain/bus into Vancouver armed with beer and hats. We drank with some punks. One of them had a three stringed guitar and she serenaded us.








got to the show, ran into lovely friends!












BEE SCARF!!





Mouse!!!





wound up at some hipster party somewhere in East Van





Can't go wrong with animal-themed mittens :)



Ended up back at a house. Much better.

Drinking the Whiskey

I had bad news and then more bad news.

First, I realized when I called Delta about my flights that my return flights were no longer in existence. That was very bad news. I was not going to receive compensation for the 200 dollar discrepancy since they were already giving me a full refund and that's all they could do. I am lucky my flight back was also a return package (it was cheaper than a one way for some reason) so I had different flights booked on Feb 9th. Whew.

I was pretty messed up about it though, so I decided to insure my car and get out of Langley. I went to the insurance place and they said I had to pay 600 up front or 510 depending on if I got plates or permit... I wasn't expecting that! Apparently you can't just insure your car for a month (I found a loophole later though).

So now my home freedom was gone as well. I was so eager to get my car out again and see everyone! Hearing this AND finding out I would have to wait an ten extra days for Berlin AND finding out the cat was sick put me in a foul mood :(

I was sitting on the computer talking to Dean moping away, when he suggested I take the bus out East Van! I hadn't done that in AGES. I was driving out while I had my car for the year, so the two-bus-then-Skytrain trip would be nostalgic for sure. I thought about it and decided yes. It was time to go to East Van.

I brought the Whiskey and some Ginger Ale. I made it in good time and got to meet some new kitties! Dean's hair was blue!



They had two cats, so we tried to make the big one Santa




The whiskey looked cute but made it hard to tell how much was gone...



The cats were so friendly :)



Dean lives with a Ninja. An actual ninja. It was fascinating. He told us stories about scaring people in parks while doing ninja training hide-and-seek stuff. It was most excellent! I tried to watch Oh Brother Where Art Thou, one of my favourite movies, but I was too drunk and had to go throw up then I passed out.