Summer Social Experimenting

My favorite house in Vancouver. Doesn't it look like a little gnome lives there??

It has been an interesting week of socializing with new dates, old friends.. and very little sleep between all of it. Summer has officially started and tho it doesn't always feel like it here and we're often waiting for the real warmth to kick in, when the leather seats in the car are too hot to sit on with a short skirt or lean against in the tank with the bare back you're wearing, you know you can rest assured this is as good as it's going to get.

Now, the beginning of the week started out a bit on the frightening side of things because I sat for two hours with Boz in front of my tv watching An Inconvenient Truth. Uh.. hi. Scariest thing I've seen.. oh.. EVER. How is no one fixing this? How am I not?! How are we all not freaking the fuck out?! That's what I want to know. I wanted to join every environmental group possible after I watched it, quit my job, sell my car, live in a tee-pee and wear nothing but natural fibers and not brush my teeth.. but then I remembered, I can't actually do that. And I just took my wasteful and selfish excuse of a self and went to work the next day like normal in my very uneconomical and horribly-bad-for-the-ENTIRE-WORLD car. Like oh.. everyone else does.. Sigh.. how are we all not raging alcoholics from the sheer pressure of it all?!

After all that depressing information, I figured some brevity was in order. Staying up late has just happened rather accidentally quite often and I'm going to blame it on Pixie because I'm just trying to keep up with her new schedule of freedom these days. I mean, let's face it.. who wouldn't want the entire summer off just to play? Especially with a friend who's up for just about anything.

We managed to get ourselves together and meet up at this great movie theater, The Central Cinema, which pretty much shows whatever it wants.. and when they'd advertised the weekend of playing Fame, mostly to honor gay pride weekend, we hardly needed the Gays Of Our Lives contingent to be excited to see this together - plus, they all had plans. So on Wednesday, Kat, Paul, Pix and myself hit the 10pm show, laughed at the cheesy parts, pointed out the actors we recognized, sang at the top of our lungs during the movie's theme song and just giggled at the memories (and the horrible fashions). Pixie got to sleep in the next morning and take a luxurious walk whenever she wanted the next afternoon.. and I yawned thru most of my day. Um.. yeah.. I'm not bitter.. I can sleep when I'm dead. This is what I'm telling myself anyway.

Then, yes, there were some lovely dates.. and I'm staying mum about those for the moment. Suffice it to say, I had a good time and there will be more things like that happening. There are a couple of wild cards out there and only time will tell. I'm just enjoying things as they happen and thinking positively.

Finally, the Friday workday was completed and I was on the road north to my Canadian home away from home in Vancouver, BC. Tho my night was rather uneventful because my friend, Shay, and I were both wiped out from our busy weeks, it was good to catch up and see him a little since he left the next day to prepare for his half Iron Man triathlon.. which hi.. ow. I mean.. I couldn't do a quarter Iron Man, let alone a half of one. Do you guys know what this consists of?? Just listening to him wore me out: a mile and a half swim, a 65 mile (SIXTY FIVE PEOPLE) bike ride and then a 22K run (12 something miles).. holy exhaustion Batman. I would be crippled. So let's just say that I was in awe. Plus he's like the funniest person alive. Seriously. What's funnier is the deal we have that if we're not married by 40, we'll marry each other. But we're both hoping that doesn't happen cuz years ago when we dated for oh.. all of three minutes, clearly we weren't a good match.. but if we happen to get desperate enough.. hey.. laughter never sucks. And he could save me if I was ever almost drowning.. and run for help. Bonus!

Saturday, after a quick breakfast with Shayster before he had to leave, I met up with the fabulous Lady Miss Marquise who I haven't seen since last summer. Freshly returned home from her trip to Vietnam, we had giggly conversations about the outrageous people we'd both met and/or finally dispersed of.. the dramas were relayed and witty comebacks admired.. and mostly we just enjoyed being girls together.

There was a small emergency panic break when my card was declined in one store and then the ATM afterwards before I called the bank and found out that, hi.. a fraud alert had been placed on my card.... ???!! They were concerned by the gas I'd purchased that morning when it came back to them listed as Toronto Something Or Other. I told them I was in Canada and tho not in Toronto, the gas company is probably based there. Seeing that they'd been an eensy bit over-zealous, the alert was removed and in seconds, actually, I was back to breathing normally and happily over-spending as usual.

This of course brings on a new responsibility when you travel, right? Of course you update your family and friends regarding your whereabouts and hell, Loren and I always send our itineraries to each other so someone knows exactly where we are and when we'll be there and back and on what flights - just in case. But now you need to add to that list of priority notifications.. your bank?! I mean, I sincerely appreciate their astounding due diligence.. but hi.. it was just gas! Not like gas for a jet plane touring internationally or anything. There were no stops at jewelry stores or outlandish shopping sprees. $30 worth of gas. That's the red flag?! I'm just saying.. maybe someone ought to look at that process there, you know.. um.. it's a thought.

Once that misunderstanding was resolved, we carried on with our day. I dropped off Jules so she could disco-nap before our evening out later and then headed back to Shay's in North Van by wrong way of West Van, which caused me to get lost, which was totally awesome.. and by awesome I mean, completely irritating cuz we all know how expensive gas is in the states, but in Canada, it's about one gold bar per liter and I have no frickin idea how much that really is cuz hi! Metrics! What the f?

Almost worse than that, I discovered something new about North Vancouverites: they don't have to get anywhere. You know how I can tell? Well, the tell-tale sign is driving NO miles an hour. Seriously. And it's not just one guy. No, honestly, it's everyone. You know why I know that too? Because I was the only speed racer to be found ANYWHERE. True story - 40km. You know what that is in miles per hour people? NOTHING. Like there are NO miles being driven at ANY hour in my opinion. 40km is like 20 mph, which is practically the opposite of moving at all! You might as well say, 'Honey, let's go to dinner,' and then STAY HOME if you're going to drive that slow because you AREN'T MOVING at 40km. No, I'm telling you, you aren't.

Despite that fact, eventually I was picking up friends Ali, Jules and Courtney, for fun-having at the Solstice party thrown by some other friends of mine I hadn't seen in at least two years. There were hugs for everyone and drinks and a little dancing and more drinks.. and some chatty chat caused by too many drinks of some new and sexy maple syrup-infused whisky that changed my whole view about whisky people! It's called Sortiledge and you can't find it in the states apparently cuz this site is the only one that ships from Canada to the US and how sad was I when I read 'Temporarily Out Of Stock'?! SO sad, that's how!! But if y'all are somewhere else.. ohmygod - go get some NOW! A-mazing!

Lady Miss Marquise never likes her picture taken.. and she allowed 2 that night! Such a shiny treasure she is. Don't mind my hair.. it wasn't cooperating..

One of the loves of my life - Ali - and his western look for the night.

And another picture of fantastic girls.. Lady Miss Marquise and Courtney.

And since there was some mixing of alcohols and much staying up late, there was also some being hung over as well and a so-not-charming searing headache that I had to power thru til I crossed state-side and arrived home. I'd said goodbye to my lovely Canuck cohorts, brunched (or tried to considering my churning tummy) at The Reef, and did a bit of shopping around the boutiques of East Van enjoying the gorgeous day - when Mother Nature got crabby, the clouds rolled in and WHAM! Torrential downpour. The rain came and went in varying degrees of sprinkle to something that maybe resembled driving underneath Niagara Falls and it just kept following me south with flashes of lightening and booming thunder.

But there'll hopefully be none of that this week because we are now officially into T-minus 48 hours and Ammogirl arrives! Oh I fear the city of Seattle and surrounding areas will not know what to do with the likes of all my favorite blogger girls in one room. The energy will hardly be able to be contained! I promise to share pictures as soon as we have them. Now I hope y'all have yourselves a debaucherous week as I plan on having! Mwah!