Vancouver calling

I just got a call from UBC law school. They're digging through the slush pile of wait-listers, and my name came up. I've got a spot. School starts next Tuesday. I give my answer tomorrow.

That means, in the next 6 days, I would drop everything. And move to Vancouver.
Well, more like pack it up, stash it, and fly with a couple of bags of stuff to Vancouver.

Apparently it's totally okay with my boss if I go. He won't stand in the way of "my career". It's nice to feel valued.

So many reasons to go. So many reasons not to stay.

But I can't really go. Money, for one thing. I would have to pay $4500 next Wednesday. Starting school with no home, no computer, no money. Starting school. Starting LAW school. I had decided I didn't even want to go. Now this.

That it's taking me by surprise is a bad sign. I could have easily predicted that the bargain-basement-admissions last week of August would have produced such an offer. Never considered it, never prepared for it. It wasn't on my mind. It wasn't in my heart.

Why do I even feel tempted? Is it like going to Morocco just because you can? Is this a frivolous means to fulfill a desire to... have a track in life?

It's so funny. Last night I did a bridge run with Janius. A beautiful free-falling run where we cross the Jacques-Cartier Bridge to the islands in the middle of the St.Lawrence, and then go back across the bridge. It's not that hardcore -- it's not even 6k. But there's always a sense of purging and re-birth I feel on that route (especially when it involves running through big public fountains).

So last night I was standing on Ile-Ste-Helene, looking back at the city, watching the brilliant sunset reflected off the girders of the bridge, like slick shiny bronze. It was beautiful, it was magnificent. I felt so small. It felt like a moment. Was it a sign? I know it's time to move on from Montreal, and here is my clarion call. Do I heed it?

Go read this now

This is so consistently funny, it's beyond. Read it. now.

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com

I'm putting the link in my right-hand column.

Travel notes

On Earth
Northernmost point I've been to: Oulu, Finland, 2004 (65.01'N, 28.28'E)
Southernmost point: Antigua, Guatemala, 2002 (14.56'N, 97.73'W)
Westernmost point: Eureka, California, 1989 (40.80'N, 124.16'W)
Easternmost point: St.Petersburg, Russia, 2004 (59.55'N, 30.25'E)

In Canada
Northernmost: Edmonton, Alberta, 1989 (53.34'N, 113.28'W)
Easternmost: St. John's, Newfoundland, 2005 (47.34'N, 52.41'W)
Southernmost: Windsor, Ontario, 1989 (42.23'N, 83.05'W)
Westernmost: Nanaimo, B.C. 2005 (49.11'N, 123.58'W)

Hmm, seems like I'm in the middle of another record-setting year.

Most remote place I've been: Omoa, Honduras, 2002 (15.47'N, 88.03'W)
Most remote place I've lived: Caratunk, Maine, 2003 (45.23'N, 69.99'W) pop.83+me

Where i live now: Montreal, Quebec (45.30'N, 73.35'W)

Where I will be in the next week:
Marseilles, France (43.18'N, 5.22'E)
Prague, Czech Republic (50.05'N, 14.25'E)
Zurich, Switzerland (47.22'N, 8.32'E)

pearl warren

Did I mention that my office is in the fur district? Every so often you get close encounters of the furred kind. okay, that was awful. sorry, i couldn't resist.

Today, coming back from lunch, the elevator stops at third and on steps a man carrying a rabbit colony worth of fur. It was all pink. Shockingly pink. I hope it was fake.

mysterious strangers from ze past

So I got back last night from a very nice 3-day weekend at my parents' cottage. I ran, swam, played tennis, ate, did a lot of hammock duty -- did everything except sing songs around a campfire.

Yesterday afternoon in Toronto, before catching the train to Montreal, my friend James met me for an ice cream cone outside city hall. You know, the soft serve kind with chocolate dip. mmm. So we sat in the last warm rays of summer and caught up, which was great. James was one of my best friends in high school, and now he's one of my only friends from high school.

James now goes to UCLA, where he started a PoliSci doctorate last fall. You know who else goes to UCLA, for a doctorate in PoliSci? My ex-boyfriend, David. Well, ex-lover really, but who says those things? Our intermittent flings culminated in a backpacking trip across Central America, two weeks into which the relationship spectacularly imploded. Is it too Freudian to say that we travelled as brother and sister for the rest of the trip? He's a great guy, and he's French, but it just wasn't.

So James updated me on what David has been up to, not all that much, but it was actually more than I wanted to know. Which is funny. Because that's when you know you're really over someone - when you care but don't really care about what their current life is like.

Moreover, when James set off for UCLA, I told him about David and told him that under no circumstances could he mention the connection through me. I guess that was then, because yesterday, I realized I really don't care. I hope those two become friends and um, make academic brain children together.

And if they talk lots about me, so what because I feel pretty fucking fabulous these days. [Okay, I just went for a run so I'm on a high. but still...]

okay you lurkers, leave a comment. i'm sure everyone can relate to this.

i'm just looking for one divine hammer

[ to the tune of the Breeders ]

shaking hands, jitters in my stomach, can't concentrate... is it the pms, the espresso, or the insanely cheap flights my friend Sarah found me? I just booked tickets for Heathrow-Marseille, Marseille-Prague for under $400. For a near-superpower gift, the ability to find cheap airline tickets ain't a bad one to have.

I fell into a black hole last week. The providential intervention of last weekend at Jeff's cottage brought me out of it. (Janius,Joel & Anya were in attendance.) I fell asleep on the dock, in my hammock, and in a canoe during an early morning paddle. And I relearned a simple truth: sailing Lasers is good for the soul. How can you argue with going sailing 3 times, and dumping 4 times?

Of course, hypothetically speaking, if your First Mate loses his swim trunks on the second dump, it's difficult not to laugh really really hard.

Today is a glorious day. Empanadas for dinner, and the bike shop guy charged me the bare minimum for my bike seat post (no tax!). Sure the seat got stolen last week, but that was bound to happen.

I'm going to my parents' cottage this weekend. Very much looking forward to it, and I'm grateful the edge has been taken off my cottage appetite by this past weekend at Jeff's.

...daddy's got a shotgun... he said he'd never need one...

Erin, if you're reading this from Korea, I miss you already!

the East Coast report

Kermit de frog reporting from St. John's, Newfoundland...
Okay, shag that. [An expression I have heard several times out here]

This afternoon I was witness to an astonishing sight. 989 accordionists played "Mussels in the corner" [which i hope doesn't mean what it sounds like] here at the folk festival in St. John's. The accordion revolution has begun. Read here. And Listen here.

So my ambitions for this visit were: to go medium-core multi-day hiking along the East Coast trail. And to swim in the Atlantic. So far neither of those dreams has been satisfied.

But hey, I was pretty destroyed when i arrived here Weds, drifting in and out of dozy consciousness for a day or so. It's my traditional mid-August dormant virus which awakes to feast upon me once a year. In short I am a young lady who must repose herself.

We've been hanging around St. John's instead, going to see amazing live music by young and old at the Ship (a pub); doing short hikes to Signal Hill and on the opposite shore; watching the amusing spectacles that several invading armies of clowns are staging throughout the weekend. And figuring out where people were hanged. Eating the yummy food to be had, sacking the giftshops for puffin magnets and bathsalts.

And of course, slowly expunging that nagging voice in my brain that reminds me "Yeah -- but wasn't this the land that God gave to Cain?" Clearly Mr. McGuinness has a lot to answer for. Like Quebec, it's a beautiful (though starkly different) with a people and a culture that is self-aware and down to earth and sees no need for external self-promotion. Self-contained and contented, and proud.

It's so sad that over half of this province's native populations cannot reside here because the current economy cannot support them. The province's residents together collected 916 billion dollars in dole last year. I realize this paragraph is written in the passive voice of a liberal. I don't believe this is necessarily the correct way of stating the facts. But this point of view reflects a certain toll evident upon the population.

And oh yes. Puffins. How dorky are they?

the Left Coast report

I've just flown into Vancouver from Seattle.

It's been a brilliant few days. Spent some good good times with all kinds of family, and seeing Luke again was really fun. I ate 4 pounds of fruit in 15 minutes. I've swum in the Pacific twice -- let's hope my courage holds when it comes to the Atlantic. =)

I went kayaking Sunday afternoon in False Creek around Vancouver... it was divine. I saw a sea otter, can you believe it? What the heck was it doing there? Kind of surreptitious, popping its head just above water. And of course, so cute. It's the sort of thing you can only see when you're really on the water, in a kayak. Then I beached my kayak and went swimming (it was hot for vancouver), and i couldn't stop giggling the whole time. =D I am so completely enjoying this vacation.

So far I've spent the right amount of time with the right people, it's all worked out so so well. I'm completely blessed.

My mom's side of the family is so cool, they're so laid back and funny and friendly & generous. Her cousins are the extended family I never had growing up. It's such a gift to discover you have an amazing extended family, full of great people, that you had it all along, and can always draw on it.

I spent 2 days biking & chillaxing around Seattle with my uncle vic. The weather has been unbeatable. We spent hours today just vegging in the grass watching cute daycamp kids run squealing in & out of a magnificent water ballet fountain. And I've got a hole in my hand because i fell off a bike, but that's another stupid story.

okay, so, remind me of all this when i get a trip hangover next week, okay?