Apparently she’s been starting to slow down over the last year, and now has a few tumours that are effecting her ability to walk. They don’t know if the tumours are cancerous, because they don’t want to go back in and do a biopsy. Or rather, they didn’t take enough the first time around and my parents don’t want to have to put her through the stress of going under again. So she’s on some pain medication, and according to my mom, has her good days and bad.
My visit home can’t come sooner. I miss her scrunched face.
I like to start every trip across the country off with a morning acupuncture appointment where they hook the needles into an electric current. Really wakes you up.
I’m going to try and start every conversation this weekend with “New socks?” just because this picture makes me smile.
Do you have plans for the 2-4 weekend? I’m headed back home, to the parentals, to celebrate 4 different birthdays. Should be fun. Alcohol and Trivial Pursuit will be involved and well, that always ends well with a competitive family, doesn’t?
I partook in Olympic mayhem today. Well, kind of. I had to go downtown to go to the doctors, so I figured I would meet up with a friend from back East who was visiting for the games. I had to cancel plans earlier in the week with them, because I’ve just been in too much pain, sitting and walking for extended periods of time, my body does not like. So seeing as I also can’t really drive at the moment, I took the train all the way downtown.
I was not the only other person who had this idea.
Never in my life have I seen so many people, outside of London, England, waiting in a que to take the train. I said to my friend I can only compare it to that time I was stuck in the tube after an Arsenal game, except this experience lasted a lot longer. It was a bit surreal, and I was glad I had taken extra painkillers with me.
I felt much more relaxed once I was able to get off the train, and head to the oasis of Granville Island market, outside of the hoopla, as it is one of my favourite places. Have you ever had the feeling of missing someone but they’re with you? Whenever I’m at the market, I miss it before I’ve even left. Perhaps it’s the abundant delicious smells, or the fact that if I sit out overlooking the water, I can catch a glimpse of English Bay, and my first flat in Van; spring showers, sunflowers and dark chocolate with raspberries.
I recall evenings spent down by the water talking with Ash, walking over the Burrard Street bridge before there was all this fancy transit and I had to laugh when she called me this afternoon, while I was on the island, and chastised me for not coming to visit her in Yaletown, which is literally just across the water from Granville. So close, but so far, I said. I relented in the end, as tea was promised.
There is something about this view, and an old friend, who will tell you if you have rugelach stuck to your chin that makes my heart warm, and the pain less. I wish they were both closer.
I haven’t been too vocal here about the upcoming Olympic games in Vancouver. Because once I start in on the subject, it gets me so angry, I can’t even see straight.
The first summer I moved to Vancouver is the summer they got the Olympics, now six years later it’s on our doorstep, and I find myself in an interesting place working in the Arts community, not in Vancouver, but in what is still considered the “metro” area. I am so very lucky to even be here, as provincial cuts to my sector were announced just two weeks after I was offered this job. I know for a fact working where I am now, they would have pulled the posting knowing they were going to lose 35% of their income. To a non-profit organization that is huge.
There are many other issues surrounding the games, that the rest of the country seems to just now be waking up too, and how horribly everything has been handled. From now on when people ask my why I’m upset the situation I’m going to refer them to this clip. Please jump to halfway through, 4.45 to be exact.
When he mentions communities outside of Vancouver (where I live and work), I also I can’t help but think of my time spent in Northern BC and seeing first hand the horribly unequal spread of wealth when it comes to anything really, but especially local schools, heritage organizations, etc. There is Vancouver, which gets 92% of any government funding, and then everything else. Do you know how large this province is?
So more than anything, I’m just frustrated. Frustrated that attention is not being paid where it should be. I knew years ago choosing a career path in heritage would be difficult, but it seems to be getting worse.
Still, I’m hopeful. Why?
Well, I sat tonight, as I do every third Thursday of the month, chairing a programing event that we put on for the members of our historical society, but is also open to the public. It’s a lecture series, different speakers every month, usually draws 40 people tops. Tonight, standing room only as close to 100 people crammed into the hall. After I introduced everything, I got to make my way to the back of the room and stand against the wall and listen to a story about local history, which was actually quite fascinating. Reminding me that it is definitely true; towns make the cities, not the other way around. Yet nobody usually ever stops to ask where it all started.
My friend asked me the other day if I was going to move into Van soon. I smiled and said no, I like my view from here; the fringe.
Well, I’m headed back to Ontario for the first week of July.
I made the decision this weekend, and my week is already full. Mainly with doctors appointments, which is the reason for the trip. I’ve kind of touched on my health woes here, but not really. Things are just getting to the point where if its not addressed now, its going to be a much bigger issue. So this is me being proactive! Also, I’d like to see my medicine cabinet clear out.
I knew when I took that nose dive off my Gran’s steps over the holidays it would not be a good health year.
Seeing as our “universal health care” is not the same in every province, I have to head back home to reactivate my Ontario health card (OHIP). Don’t even get me started on the BC Care Card. I know I shouldn’t complain, because we do have (limited) coverage, but its being killed by bureaucracy (what isn’t, I guess). I just think we should be able to move freely within the country and still be covered. No?
Anyway, I am looking forward to taking a break, sitting under the bridge and I predict by Day 5 I’ll be cowering in the shade, having forgotten what humidity feels like. Its been two years…this should be fun.
What are you looking forward to enjoying this summer?
Oh, and on random sidenote: If you’re ever going to get into a TV series that has been on the air for five years…don’t. Go back and watch the previous episodes and then start watching the current ones.
Speaking of JJ Abrams…check out the keyboard solo on this…
Sometimes they leave me, but usually its the former.
Its the curse of the nomad, and it keeps getting harder. You’d think it would get easier. Although I guess that wouldn’t make it a curse. Right.
Even now, having moved here just two months ago, I’m contemplating my next move. Building my career. No one ever warns you its going to be so painstakingly hard. They don’t put that in the brochures. Not even in the fine print. There are times like tonight when I wish I had picked the easier route. Gone to the city everyone else did and made my life there. Been closer to my family and friends….my dog. Yet I know that’s not me. I know.
Still, it makes for a lonely life sometimes. Everyone I love spread across the globe. Technology makes it easier, mind you.
As I left the airport tonight, having dropped off The Boy (this goodbye easier than the last) I was pondering the recent goodbyes I’ve had and the one that sticks out in my mind the most is when I left Newcastle.
It was a gorgeous August evening. I had gone out for a drink at my favourite pub with a good friend. I was trying to commit everything to memory that night. The sound my boots made on the cobblestones, the smell of the fry truck at Monument, the Batman graffiti under the bridge, even the sound of the sirens. Afterward we stood on the stoop of my flat, trying hard to hold back tears and well, that just wasn’t working. The floodgates opened and I’ll never forget the feeling of my heart breaking. When you hear the words ‘heart break’ your mind kind of automatically goes to thinking about something romantical, but no, there are many breaks without romantics involved, and this was one of them. It was a combination of saying goodbye to a friend, but also to the city I had grown to love so dearly. Yes, I left my heart in the North. After I waved my friend, I went back inside to get my bags. My phone lit up with a text – “I’ll miss you most of all.”
In this day an age, texts, emails, etc are in such abundance we take them granted and sometimes they loose meaning because of this. That one, I will never forget though, as silly as it might sound. It’s like a letter, I’d slip in my top drawer. A reminder, in case I forget…
i dare you to listen to one of these songs and not tap your foot just a wee bit.
listening to k-os is home to me…
so is walking down princess street in kingston past asha
watching the leaves rustle in the sunshine
standing in the middle of a roundabout on claremont road waiting for the cars to slow
rounding the bend in stanley park past the mermaid statue
sitting under the bridge tasting vinegar on my lips
i have no home at the moment, just places and people that remind me of that imaginary feeling of home.
this is okay because you make home wherever you are. new friends, new jokes, new stories. you put up posters with thumbtacks, align your bookshelves with memories new and old, no matter if dwelling for months, a year, or a the definite future. i’d rather make my mark for the short term when flail completely in the in between space. plus, i find once you’ve filled the silence of a room with handclaps and laughter…its yours, forever.
