farewell

today i have to say "until next time" to lee and ilia.

my heart hurts.

sask-vatch

tomorrow, after work, i am venturing down south to look for large furry animals. also known as, i'm going to sasquatch festival.

i have been looking forward to this for over three months. lee and i bought our tickets the second they went on sale and called each other once they were purchased. we've been talking about it at least once a week since.

it's one of those things, though, where i really hope the build up isn't more exciting than the actual event. i don't want it to come too quickly because it will be over all too soon. then what do i have to look forward to?

ilia is coming with us too. though i've known lee for almost three years (has it really been that long?) and only know ilia because he and lee are like, best friends, i've never actually hung out with the two of them together before. shit. as ilia aptly put it "i think mikhailas going to be seeing double by the end of the weekend...".
note to self: don't give them sugar!

ilia wasn't at my house for five minutes, when he ran out on to the patio, stood on the knee high (wobbly as fuck) coffee table, and was in the midst of shouting "what's up vancouver?" when the entire thing collapsed beneath him. i handed him the 'tool kit for dummies' my dad gave me for christmas. we now have a way sturdier table on our patio.

my guests have definitely made home in my previously semi-tidy living room. their belongings are strewn everywhere (kind of looks like my bedroom). i don't really mind though. i came home from work, and the dishes were clean. fair trade off.

what can i say? i love them. i love having them around. and i love their company. i wish they both lived here. although, i almost feel as if i would see even less of them if they lived in vancouver than i do when they live in edmonton.

so, all that being said, i will relish the time i have with the boys and also the time i have in george, washington, basking in the sun at the gorge (it is supposed to be nearly 30 degrees the entire weekend) and listening to some great music. it is something i will probably remember and talk about for a while to come.

i need to buy disposable cameras.

i already have bought a fanny pack.


but for now, the boys are bike riding around the sea wall (maybe they'll burn off some energy...not likely), and i'm going to eat a fudgesicle and pack my bags for the weekend.

Lila the Lazy Lion, A book of poetry by Mikhaila Christine Searle

today while sitting in the attic at my parents house, i found a book of poetry i wrote when i was in grade three for a school project. complete with illustrations.
according to the liner notes,
'in this book of poetry you will find lila the lazy lion, rainbow, you'll find out where rain comes from in the rain, you'll also find, rain, long beach, and many other great poems.'
here's a little taste of what i was made of at the ripe age of 8. you won't be able to get enough.

Lila the lazy lion

lila the lazy lion lounged on the ground.
lila the lazy lion snored without a sound.
lila the lazy lion was used to being served.
lila the lazy lion was happy when she purred.

lila the lazy lion roared when she was mad.
lila the lazy lion cried when she was sad.
lila the lazy lion didn't have any friends.
lila the lazy lion liked to play pretend.

lila the lazy lion ran across the road.
lila the lazy lion slipped on a toad.
lila the lazy lion was thrown right on the ground.
lila the lazy lion moved without a sound.
lila the lazy lion moaned, and groaned, and cried.
that's when lila the lazy lion almost died.
lila the lazy lion fainted after that.
boy lila the lazy lion was a fraidy cat!
lila the lazy lion was taken in a car.
lila the lazy lion didn't know how far.
lila the lazy lion was put into a bed.
lila the lazy lion had to rest her head.
lila the lazy lion was left at the doc's.
lila the lazy lion was not allowed to talk.
lila the lazy lion was sick for a year after that,
lila the lazy lion was no normal cat.
and that's the end of that!

i bought

i bought my mum
i bought my dad
because before i never had
i bought a dog
i bought a cat
i even bought a mexican hat
but
they all rotted and so did my brother
(I bought him too)
so i had to go out and by another
but they all turned out like the others
they rotted after a week or two
(thay started to go mouldy and blue)
so i decided to live on my own again,
and that's the end!

school bus

the bus is a tiger that
swallows you whole
and takes you for a ride
and the man at the front
is a mean guy
and
the bus is people screaming
and pack sacks
riding on children's backs
with leftover food from lunch.

piglets

messy messy
roll in mud always
cute pigs, baby pigs, little pigs,
piglets


if you want any more, you'll have to go out and buy the book. according to the vancouver sun it contains "fabulous poetry". the lybrary journalist says that it's "written with lots of imagination". the coast independant said that i was "written by someone who really knows how to write" and Ms Taggart, the school librarian claimed that it was the "best book of poetry ever written by a student". now that, is a claim to fame.

sometimes i want to write, but don't have anything to write about.

these glasses have no lenses

day to day life is different through frames,
but you can still do the day to day things










like yoga




















or meditation
















read a good book


















or complete a daily crossword
















but these glasses have no lenses


















so we should probably get jobs at american apparel

playlist

today i am listening to these albums:

1. one.be.lo
- S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M.

2. MSTRKRFT
- Fist of God

4. Fleet Foxes
- Fleet Foxes

5. Bon Iver
- For Emma, Forever Ago

6. Cat Power
- You are Free

7. Soul Position
- Unlimted EP
- Things Go Better With RJ and AL
- 8 Million Stories: Instrumentals

8. Lucy Pearl
- Lucy Pearl

9. K'Naan
- Troubadour

10. Asher Roth
- Asleep in the Bread Isle

11. K-Os
- Yes!

i feel i'm in for quite the day.

do you remember root beer popsicles?

i do.

i don't know if every elementary school had a sports day, but our's did as with the other elementary schools on the sunshine coast where i grew up. it was one day, the whole day, towards the end of the school year designated to sports. relays and three legged races and such.

our school was divided into teams lead by the grade sevens. each team was named after an animal. i was a cougar. every year. except for the year i was in french emmersion and went to a different school. their teams were colours, and i was red. and, not to brag, and probably having nothing to do with my atheltic abilty, my team always won.

what i remember most about sports days were the popsicles. so many popsicles. popsicles for the winning potato sack race team. popsicles for the winning egg race team. i seem to remember that, at least one year, there was a contest for teams to build their animal (i.e. cougar) out of popsicle sticks.

and the flavour everyone wanted was root beer. there were never enough root beer popsicles to go around. they were like the pepperoni pizza of popsicles. on pizza days, you had to get there extra early if you wanted pepperoni. otherwise you were stuck with ham and pineapple, and sometimes, that just didn't cut it.

it is entirely possible that i am embellishing on this memory. maybe there weren't that many popsicles but as a kid, it seemed like it. when you're young, you do tend to exaggerate these things, like, in my mind, there were mounds of popsicles. MOUNTAINS even. mount everest sized mountains of popsicles. and you had to fight your way to the top of the mountain of popsicles, pick axe in hand, to the lonesome root beer popsicle perched on the top. and that was the prize. one root beer popsicle.

okay. that never happened. but can you imagine if it had? utter mayhem would ensue.

how about 'popsicle pete'? remember him?

i have tried time and time again to find a picture of popsicle pete. there are none (other than the original popsicle pete from the 30's). almost as if he never existed. like maybe my childhood brain made him up along with the mountains of popsicles at sports day. but i didn't make him up. he was real. i've discussed him amongst my peers and we all remember him.



FYI: google 'popsicle pete', and you'll come up with pictures of pete wentz.
not exactly the icy cool dude i remember.















the closest thing i could come to finding a picture of the tres cool 'popsicle pete' of my childhood, with his blue sunglasses and almost too pearly whites, was this one of my friend tara at her sister's wedding. she's not riding a skate board as pete always did, but she's moving so fast that she could be.
lightning speed even.

two and a half years ago, i was living and working in sydney, nova scotia at cape breton university. while on campus one day i went to the convenience store with a hankering for a frozen treat. i went to the frozen confections freezer in the corner to see what it had to offer, and what did i find in the bottom, but a root beer popsicle. i was beside myself. why, i hadn't had one of those since...well..who knows when? probably some hot june day after running 100 metres with an egg on a spoon. not only was it a root beer popsicle, but, the wrapper, had 'popsicle pete' on it. i savored every last bite of it and was taken back to a million hot summer days with mountains of popsicles. it was heavenly.

i was reflecting on my last root beer popsicle recently with some co-workers while at the office and we came up with some other frozen treats that we hadn't seen in a while. push pops for example. and white popsicles. where did our childhood favourites disappear to?

so, my friend amber took it upon herself, and called the popsicle company with our inquiries.

push pops are now only made in california.

white popsicles? nobody knows.

root beer popsicles:

I combined the information given to amber with some wikipedia findings:


according to wikipedia, 'popsicle pete' appeared around 1939, only to mysteriously disappear along with 'popsicle points' in or around 1995. he just skateboarded right out of our lives. just like that. without a trace. as did, unbeknownst to most people (myself included), the root beer popsicle, in 2003.

they discontinued my favourite ice lolly, appearantly due to lack of demand. that, i have a hard time believing.

there was no such explanation for the disappearance of popsicle pete.

"if you are in a store and you find a root beer popsicle, you should call and report them because popsicles only have a shelf life of two years..." the popsicle man proclaimed to amber (maybe it was 'pete' himself?).

i sat and lamented my loss for a few minutes until my mind started doing math subconciously:

i was in nova scotia in 2006.

they discontinued popsicles in 2003.

that means the last root beer popsicle i consumed was at least 3 years old. one year past expiry.

BUT

my root beer popsicle, as previously mentioned, also had the ever cool, and slightly pretentious, 'popsicle pete' on the wrapper, along with 'popsicle points' on the stick.

'popsicle pete' went into hiding in 1995.

2003
- 1995
-------
8

EIGHT YEARS?
THAT'S FIVE YEARS PAST EXPIRY!

SOMEBODY CALL THE HEALTH INSPECTOR!!

no, but really? an eight year old root beer popsicle? i'm almost proud of that. it was probably the last root beer popsicle in north america. or the world even. they don't have root beer in europe. they have sasparilla. and i doubt they freeze it.

the popsicle man (lets just call him 'pete') also told amber that if there was enough of a demand for a certain discontinued product (root beer popsicles...for example) in a certain area, then they could be persuaded to reintroduce them to the public but in that area only.

vancouver could have its own popsicle.

how cool would that be?

literally.

so what if we started a petition?

or a facebook group?

"if this group reaches 1,000,000 members, they will bring back the root beer popsicle"
a worthy cause i think.

so who's with me?

lets bring back a little peice of our childhood? and also a nice way to cool off on a summer's day?

and while we're at it...how about the original teenage mutant ninja turtles?

bull in a china shop

my boss is here from calgary for three days. last night she took me out to dinner. one of my very few fine dining experiences.

we went to 'nu' a restaurant overlooking false creek. it was nice. i had mussels and shrimp in chipotle, truffle, cream sauce. it was delicious.

after dinner while eating my blood orange, passion fruit and black currant sorbets, i was distracted by the cute chef in the restaurant's open plan kitchen when candice said something. as i turned to see what she was refering to, my elbow knocked my water glass, which i had artfully placed in arms way. i grabbed at the glass, now wet from the spilled water, to prevent it from going any further, but it, in turn, slipped out of my hand and got thrown up against and smashed into the window.

the restaurant went quiet.

the whole kitchen stopped and stared.

there was glass everywhere, including, but not limited to, huge shards discovered in my chair, which, if having been sat on would definatley resulted in a trip to the e.r.

what a scene.

"well," said the waitress who was standing next to me when it happened "if you wanted to get his attention i think you just acheived it!"

you can dress me up...

if you can walk, you can dance

this morning i walked to work. in fact, every morning for the past week and a half, i have walked to work. every afternoon, for that matter, i have also walked home.

it's refreshing, grounding, and it helps to clear my mind. a form of meditation for lack of a better word.

sometimes i listen to my ipod. sometimes (on the trip home) i call numbers i've been neglecting to dial and listen to the person on the other end blab about trials and errors. sometimes i just listen to my thoughts. it's an amazing way to start the day, and just as fabulous a way to end it.

it motivates me to get out of bed earlier and ensures i'm awake and in a good mood by the time i reach the office.

the cherry blossoms are out this time of year and strathcona makes for beautiful scenery. i walk along the bike route which is, conveniently, on my street and is mostly residential so there is very little, if any, traffic and so it makes the 4.3 km walk peaceful. it's a breeze. i walk quickly and swiftly and before you know it, i've turned the google maps proclaimed 53 minute walk into a half hour stroll.

i've decided to conduct an experiment this month and not buy a bus pass. i'm going to try and walk to and from work every day in may. if it's raining, i'll wear my boots and carry a back pack. if it's sunny, i'll bring my flip fops. i'll be prepared for whatever mother nature might throw my way.

the only downer along the route which i have chosen is walking over the viaduct. it's a harsh snap back to the reality that i'm in the city and on my way to work. a bit of a brutal way to end my journey but the way i feel for the rest of the day makes it all worth it.