Hey, guess who's taking a break from homework to finally update this - wait, what do they call it again? oh yeah - blog? That would be me. Sorry about the extended absence; my free time tends to get sucked up by chores or trying to get as far away from my computer as I possibly can. (Preferably somewhere outside and oceany.)
Anyway, here's a quick rundown and some of what you missed in the past three months (or at least what I can come up with right now):
- My week-long break from school at the beginning of July was nice, if way too rainy. I didn't do much of note (that was the idea), although Shane and I went in for a couple's pedicure at one of the fancy spas on West Fourth (the yuppie part of town). That was a riot, since it's very much not the norm for either of us.
- When my second term of school started, I made a point of sitting in a new seat. That change has been really good, as it's allowed me to get to know more students and feel less isolated. The program has finally been getting into the web design/development in the past couple of weeks, and I have really been enjoying that. (Even JavaScript! Who knew?)
- After spending the first half of the term in the (required) video class for my program, I realized two things. One, I was not going to learn ANYTHING new. Two, I was going to waste WAY too much time on projects for that class. I went out on a limb and asked the program head if I could drop the course, and it turns out I could! Now I am just waiting for my St. Thomas credits to transfer, which hopefully will go through fine.
- For my birthday, Shane and I went out to eat at a new Thai restaurant here called Maenum. Both the food and drinks were amazing, and I can't wait to go back and try more of the delicious curries and cocktails. (Mmm, coconut-flavoured anything.)
- At the end of July, my mom and brother came out here to visit for a long weekend. Shane and I had fun being hosts for the weekend (we don't get to play that role enough!), and we made a point to get out and be active. We biked and hiked around town (the weather was perfect), although probably not enough to burn off all the food we ate over those three days. My family also got to experience a rarity that weekend: a Vancouver thunderstorm! Even better, a Vancouver thunderstorm during the annual Celebration of Light fireworks show. Awesome.
- In related news, Shane and I came home from the final fireworks show of the summer to find six people trapped in our (small) apartment elevator. Our landlord was not around, so we helped keep everybody calm until the elevator repairman could arrive through all the post-fireworks traffic. We managed to crack the door open, pass in ice packs and playing cards, and set-up a fan to blow some air in (did I mention this was happened during a heat wave? it was HOT here). It took about 75 minutes for the guy to get here, but eventually everyone got out.
- My latest obsession is with the bagels from a local bakery here called Siegel's. They are not kidding about having "possibly the best bagels in the world." Seriously. We've been buying a dozen bagels a week, meaning I have pretty much been eating a bagel a day for the past two months. DELICIOUS.
- Shane bought a new laptop recently, and thus my 2005 desktop PC was finally put to rest. Or at least put into our basement storage until we can figure out a place to donate it.
- Last weekend, we went out to BC's equivalent of a state fair: the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition). You may recall we went with Carrie to this event last year, when we saw the Superdogs show for the first time. (Okay, nobody but Carrie probably remembers that.) Well, we went back to the Superdogs show again this year, and it was even more hilarious. One of the performers this year was a tiny, tiny Yorkie named Pocket Rocket. Every time Pocket Rocket came out on stage (to compete in the obstacle course or just run around), the contrast between her and the other, bigger, built-for-agility dogs made me laugh until I cried. I cannot even tell you how much that sight tickled my funny bone. Good times.
That's about it. Now back to my regular homeworking...and counting down the days until my next week-long break (in October, when we will be joining Jon, Shannon, Joe and Carrie in California for a long weekend, yay!)
Mistake #1: Yesterday the mailman put a piece of my mail containing those awful blank checks from the credit card company in someone else’s mailbox.
Mistake #2: The person who received my mail opened it.
Mistake #3: Same person then attempted to throw the checks in the trash container by the bank of mailboxes but they landed on the floor where anyone could pick them up.
Luckily a kind neighbor found them on the floor and decided to turn them in to the association office (which is what the person who received my mail should have done) and the manager left me a message telling me to come pick up my mail. I had to sit through a small, well-meant lecture about the dangers of throwing away blank credit card checks in a public place before I could explain that I hadn’t picked up my mail since Saturday and that someone else must have received and opened my mail. I then ran back upstairs and placed a call to the credit card company in order to warn them of possible fraud (since I don’t know if there was another page of checks included) and to change my account number.
No wonder I had such a bad stomach ache last night.
June was quite a good month to be Shane, as several exciting things happened during that time. First off, we had our yearly company satisfaction survey at work. To encourage as many employees as possible to take it, they distributed a raffle ticket to each employee and had a daily prize drawing. The winner each day got to choose an item from the big box o' prizes. I won on the third day and selected a very nice Port Metro Vancouver jacket. It came down to that or a foot-long Toblerone bar...I think I made the right choice.
On June 12, I ran in the Longest Day 5K, which took place on the UBC (University of British Columbia) campus. After my half-marathon earlier this spring, I decided to take advantage of being in good running shape and attempt to break my PR (Personal Record) in the 5K, which was 22:45. My goal for the race was 22:00, and I ended up running a great race and finishing in 21:24, blowing my previous time out of the water.
I probably won't try for another PR in the 5K, only because running a race that fast is not really fun. You're pushing yourself the entire time and concentrating hard to maintain your speed. There's really no chance to look around and enjoy yourself. Longer races are more up my alley. Still, it felt really good to finish that fast!
Finally, I flew back to Minnesota the last week of June to go on the annual baseball road trip with friends. Details (and pictures) are coming soon in a separate post. Stay tuned!
June was quite a good month to be Shane, as several exciting things happened during that time. First off, we had our yearly company satisfaction survey at work. To encourage as many employees as possible to take it, they distributed a raffle ticket to each employee and had a daily prize drawing. The winner each day got to choose an item from the big box o' prizes. I won on the third day and selected a very nice Port Metro Vancouver jacket. It came down to that or a foot-long Toblerone bar...I think I made the right choice.
On June 12, I ran in the Longest Day 5K, which took place on the UBC (University of British Columbia) campus. After my half-marathon earlier this spring, I decided to take advantage of being in good running shape and attempt to break my PR (Personal Record) in the 5K, which was 22:45. My goal for the race was 22:00, and I ended up running a great race and finishing in 21:24, blowing my previous time out of the water.
I probably won't try for another PR in the 5K, only because running a race that fast is not really fun. You're pushing yourself the entire time and concentrating hard to maintain your speed. There's really no chance to look around and enjoy yourself. Longer races are more up my alley. Still, it felt damn good to finish that fast!
Finally, I flew back to Minnesota the last week of June to go on the annual baseball road trip with friends. Details (and pictures) are coming soon in a separate post. Stay tuned!
Since I spent most of May not blogging, here's a random update to kick off June. (You're welcome.)
- I
bought a bus pass/student ID holder at the dollar store last month to
use in my commuting. It is awesomely: a) originally from Korea (and
came with a subway map of Seoul), b) called a "Multi-Trance Pass"
(pretty sure they meant transit), and c) has a picture of a cartoon dog
wondering, "Are you happy?" on the front. (Answer: yes, but only
because of this pass holder.)
- Shane accompanied
his tennis partner, Etienne, up to the Lynn Headwaters in North
Vancouver recently to get some fresh mountain spring water. They
stopped by the side of the road and simply filled up some jugs from an aquifer there. It was easily the best water I've ever tasted.
- The
herons have been back for awhile now, so we are well within the months
of late-night heron brawling (which sounds not unlike a ten-car
pile-up) and all-night chirping heron babies. Ah, nature.
- Two of my seven classes ended last week, so I can now enjoy five weeks of
no schoolsleeping in on Fridays. Woohoo! I plan to savor this time, as the term after this is supposedly downright horrid.
- The
weather here has been ridiculously beautiful lately. The sun has been
shining, the temps have been warm, the breeze has been cool and the
bikinis have been plentiful.
- With all my recent
school-inspired hoodie-love, Shane decided he wanted to give hoodies
a shot. In the past couple of weeks, he purchased three new stylin'
hoodies, all of which look fabulous on him. Love it!
- Our new favourite joint along Denman Street is the place that moved in to the old Cupcakes location: Qoola.
They sell a fantastic frozen yogurt (among other goodies, including
loose-leaf tea) and the majority of their trash is biodegradeable.
(Compost that!)
- Shane is gearing up for a 5K PR (personal record) on June 12th. He's been training to beat his old record while running a race out at UBC (on a Friday night, strangely). I have been training to steathily sneak myself some of the post-race veggie burgers. Yum.
What was your very first job?
Ugh - detasseling. I also consider it the absolute worst job I've ever had. According to Wikipedia, detasseling is "the act of removing the pollen-producing tassel from a corn (maize) plant and placing it on the ground. Detasseling is done to cross-breed, or hybridize, two different varieties of corn. Fields of corn that will be detasseled are planted with two varieties of corn. By removing the tassels from all plants of one variety, all the grain growing on those plants will be fertilized by the other variety's tassels." Wikipedia makes it sound sooooo easy. What really happens is that farmers intice 14 and 15 year olds to work in their fields for about a month with the promise of making a couple of dollars above minimum wage. Since this is the first job a lot of kids in Iowa are able to get, the idea of making (at that time) $4.50 an hour sounded like winning the lottery. The reality sets in when they tell the kids they have to meet at 4:30 am each morning to wait for the bus that will take them to the designated corn field. The kid will then work for 8-10 hours each day walking up and down cornrows frantically yanking at tassels which are sometimes much taller than what they can reach so they have to grab the cornstalks and bend them down so they can reach the tassels. Because there is a narrow time frame to finish all the detasseling, kids are constantly pushed to work as hard as they can. Kids also don't understand the value of staying properly hydrated so many don't bring enough water for the day or they finish their coolers of water by the break so they won't have anything left by the second half. Talking is discouraged because it takes the kids' attention away from the corn. At the end of the work day the kids are dropped back off at the designated parking lot where their parents pick them up and they spend the rest of the afternoons indoors lying in an exhausted heap by an air conditioning vent.
As an adult I understand the value of hard work. I've worked on a few archaeological projects that really tested my mettle, like the two-day stint I did in Des Moines where I spent one day working in a lot that was frequented by creepy, restless homeless men and spent the second day tearing my way through an unsprayed corn field soaked in water in 98 degree heat with a badly sprained foot. In all honesty, if I was detasseling today I think I would find it a lot easier than I did twenty (yikes!) years ago. I would know to bring plenty of water, wear the appropriate clothing and find an efficient way to get the job done. I'm also taller so I wouldn't struggle so much with reaching the top of the cornstalks. I would probably even find some joy in working outdoors after having a desk job the past nine years. What made detasseling the worst job ever was that I was a fourteen year old girl who had never worked hard a day in my life. I was unused to being outdoors in 85-90 degree weather (with high humidity) for 8-10 hour stretches without the luxury of being at the community swimming pool. I found the long hours of silence difficult and I hated being filthy. One morning the corn was still wet from an overnight rainstorm and the water made the corn leaves so razor sharp that I had a million little cuts covering my hands by the time I went home. The next morning my hands were so swollen I couldn't open my fingers. The worst part was that I was unused to being really bad at something. I somehow lacked the right kind of coordination needed to walked twisted at the waist while ripping out the tassels. I tripped a lot and couldn't quite manage to grab the tassels on the first try. It was humiliating to see that I was usually one of the last kids to finish my rows of corn and it didn't help to know that the other kids were impatiently waiting for me to finish before we could move on to the next block. I had no idea how to improve myself and I had no guidance from the farmers observing us (beyond the occasional "Hurry up! You're slowing us down!") so I wound up resenting everyone and everything while I was in those fields.
By the end of our month stint I was so relieved we were finished that I didn't care I didn't get the pay bonus most of the other kids got and I was content with their decision not to ask me to join them for their next project - spraying soy beans. I took the money I earned and bought myself a nice stereo with dual cassettes and a turntable - this was 1987, after all. I spent the rest of that summer at the pool and riding my bike with my neighborhood friends promising myself I would never, ever enter another corn field. I actually broke this promise when I started work at the Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist but at least I was in the corn doing something I enjoyed. Well, except for that one time I was chased down by a tractor, but that's another story.
I normally don't follow sports of any kind, but it's been impossible to remain oblivious to the current standing of the Canucks (Vancouver's NHL team) in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Signs are posted all around town exclaiming "Go Canucks Go!" (this message even appears on the digital displays of public transit buses), and newspapers proclaim the outcome of each game in big headlines on the front page.
It's crazy how intensely hockey fever is gripping this city. The Canucks jerseys, hoodies, T-shirts, hats and flags are out in FULL FORCE everywhere. I've even had instructors these past couple of weeks condone students checking the score (and in one case, actually watching a game) during our night classes. I guess they know the puck doesn't stop with them (haha).
Sadly, the Canucks are down 3-2 in their 7-game series against the Chicago Blackhawks. As much as I wish them well in Game Six, I'm really just hoping my car doesn't end up on fire if they do get eliminated tomorrow night.
