Hospitable Neighbours

I live next to a hospital now. I live next to the emergency room of a hospital. Sometimes there are sirens to be heard, but not as often as I thought there would be and they are easier to ignore than you'd expect. Today the main noise emanating from the streets is men yelling 'HEY!'. The unpacking is done and the monotony of being jobless and poor is beginning to set in. It's sort of like being on a crappy vacation where there's nothing to do. Nonetheless, things are quite nice here and I'm happy to be sitting on my couch, looking out through my dirty windows at the imposing main tower of Vancouver General Hospital. It's a good place to be.

friend's fucked-up faces

Oh Victoria, why do you suddenly got to be so sweet to me? An evening of viewing paintings of punched and pummelled faces and I'm slapped upside the head by good times, good friends and some very good puns. I'm feeling somewhere between bitter and sweet.

Dr. Roboto

We're just a couple of robot doctors. I check your oil while you check my heart.

what we need

There was a vote and for the sake of national unity us west coasters voted for a few weeks of unseasonable cold and snow. Never mind that most areas of this Great White Land consider a high of -2C to be quite fair for the first day of Winter, out here we call it cold in the strongest sense of the word. We here are all anguishing in the harsh depths of a 'wet cold'. Our non-native palm trees are suffering. I read in the newspaper that this year has the making to be the first coast-to-coast 'White Christmas' since 1971, and because it was in the newspaper that must be significant. With all of the ill will, hate, and hurt coming from our nation's capital recently, we needed this nationwide 'White Christmas' to bring us together. I only hope that come January, when all of our west coast snow is gone and we've gone back to complaining about how cold and gloomy the rain is, the rest of the nation will think of us and remember our sacrifice.

so long, cook

It seems that my days as a Cook Street Village outskirter are coming to a close. The neighbourhood granted us really nice final weekend of dwellership, with its get-togethering at our place and potluckery down the street. There is still next weekend, though I presume that it will be dominated by packing and cleaning. For December we will be alternating between living in the shadow of Mount Dougy (at Shauna's parent's house), on the sunny beaches of Mexico, hunting for 'partments in Vancouver and (for me) 'chilling' in the snow-speckled city of Saskatoon. I have given notice at work and I welcome my forthcoming unemployment. It will be a well deserved respite. The promise of change is invigorating me and that heathy pinkish-hue is returning to my skin (and to my old blood-thumper {heart! [a metaphor!!]}). Things are good.

knowing me knowing you

I was challenged to an "Abba throwdown".

"Oh no! Chloroform!"

For this year's Hallowe'en I dressed up as the the young, globetrotting reporter with the name so nice you say it twice.

I was attempting to emulate the pose on the comic that I'm holding, but that is not readily apparent due to the glare of the flash. Also, this photo was taken at the end of the day and unfortunately my hair has begun to fall back to its natural state.

As well, in the spirit of this adventurous reporter, I will be heading to sunny Mexico this December with my constant companion, the ever-drunk-on-whiskey Captain McGinnis, in order to report on some sort of drug smuggling scheme or something. Don't expect to see my reporting in any newspaper or periodical though. That's not how young Tintin works, so neither do I!