The Internet Is Bigger Than Jesus or John Lennon

Nice, I'm glad you're back at it.

My brother keeps saying Dayne looks like the villain from the new Star Wars (Adam Driver though, the guy is 6.5 with a pretty solid jaw- Dayne still looks like he could blow away with the wrong gust).
My dad was appalled that the kid decided that he was done with the school that was costing his dad more than my entire degree per year- no one seems to be sure how exactly that school works anyway. I guess the thing about university is that you are forced to suspend all other life activities until you are done. Like there was a girl in my class in my undergrad who was doing an honours degree while pregnant and with another kid at home and she was basically losing her mind at all times.

Anyway my big school news is that I got high 90s in all my exams except one, and I've made the Dean's Honour Roll (that doesn't mean $$ tho). I guess at this point I kind of expect that kind of success from myself, and getting a B+ in an elective felt way worse than the honour roll thing could make up for.
Other feelings: it's kind of nice to be on the rag over Christmas, compared to other times. No one cares if all you wanna do is eat chocolate and curl up with a book.
And my dad made a joke about little Mikes running around soon, and I was like haha no thanks Dad. that's why they made birth control. I think I'm still too young for these comments, right?? Like who else has a dad with ovaries as bouncy?

monday fundays

Hey you two, making up for lost times now.

Saw Sabo for the first time in ages, I also did a casual loop around Qualicum with her and Dayne... because thats what qualicum kids do apparently. Dayne has pretty hip hair now, bragging about plans of living eventually in Brazil- but also equally excited about living in a van- he's growing up in a very particular way Ems.

Also, seeing as i'm super close to living in town now, the idea of doing a random walk to have tea in lonesome just dawned on me. Couldn't have done that before.

See you Wednesday for breakfast.

the return of this,

Hey guys... forward thanks to miss ems for telling me to use her e-mail and the pass to get back into this thing.

The last week has been stressed, i've moved and it just feels like things don't stop- i'm also anxious to start holiday baking- but i don't think that will be happening until this coming monday.

That also being said, i started reading "If on a winter's night a traveler" by Calvino- this postmodernist author from Italy and i'm unsure if i like it or could get the entirety of my heart into this. Something keeps distracting me whenever i try making myself through the book- or though a page. Below are the cool pictures I found of him via google.

Pretty Pimping

Hello, it's me.

Took a dog for a walk this morning, that was pretty dope.
Also found this perfect leaf the other day:

There are a lot of tree lined streets in my neighbourhood, and spooky Halloween decorations galore. One house on my street has a fake tombstone that says RIP S. Harper. I didn't really realize how many trees there actually are in this city. It is big and scary and grey downtown, of course, but my area feels pretty cozy right about now.
Have had a slow week, homework wise. Unfortunately this does not mean getting a head start on anything, it means watching movies and catching up on my novel reading. I went for one run, too.
I'm trying to plan a camping trip for the Spring for this side of the strait, but I think if we are going to do it early in the year it might have to be an island adventure. There's a lot of spectacular looking mountain hikes on this side, but unfortunately not a lot of mountain equipment amongst us.
I'm thinking we will probably end up doing the Juan de Fuca, which is A-ok. If so you should come Sarah Chezick. It seems like a pretty good starting-off hike. The weather will be atrocious, of course, but at least we will be able to have some roaring campfires.
Going to the island tomorrow during the day. I am stoked to have a puppy thrown on me at 7 am Sunday morning. Classic Tymeina stunt. Apparently they also have a cat now.

You spent your time as King being mad at everything

Hey! It's me!

(Visit the Yukon and this could be me + you ;) )

How are you girls doing? I have spent the morning cutting pears, drying pears, making apple/pear sauce. Pears were on sale for $6 a bag and I am taking full advantage of that. I just wrote a big long letter to you, Ritch, and placed it in the box that I have been meaning to take to the post office for the past week. But I am going to do it as soon as the sauce is done and I am finished writing this. Pinky promise.

So far Whitehorse living has been awesome, but that is probably because I am unemployed. The wind is starting to shriek and howl in the evening. One of the roommates has escaped back to Panama for the winter. Everyone has been complaining about the late winter and lack of dry climate, but I feel as if the snow will arrive soon enough. I have been watching a lot of videos about non-electrical appliances on YouTube and wondering if it would be a feasible idea to live in a no power/water situation for the winter. People who idealize that type of lifestyle are totally barmy, but it might work for us for a little while.

There are FOUR pumpkins here to carve for Hallowe'en, whoooaah.

Hope you are both well and happy and eating good things and are generally satisfied with your current lot in life.

Um hello

Heeellllo.

Have you two heard Ryan Adams' covers of Taylor Swift songs? Like they are trending hard right now on all the gadgets so get ye to FB if you haven't. But seriously.
I'm sitting in a hot pool of sun (sun means I can do laundry! Hooray for no dryer in a citythatneverstopsraining), working on my cataloguing exercises and listening to ol' Ryan singin' it.

What are ya'll up to? School is fine, I had a weird stress breakdown this week because Mike has been here, and I haven't been sleeping well, and I got a B+ on a test that was open book (although the class average was B... half the questions on the test were from the textbook, which is optional= shoot me). So basically I was feeling anxious and grumpy and Mike kept waking up at 5 am and jumping on me like a puppy.
This weekend is looking good so far, though. I'm going to the bday celebrations of someone who can't stop wearing suits. I helped make a short video in his honour, so I'm looking forward to seeing it.

I have to move because I'm getting one of those unappealing trucker's half face tans. 

Sup

I have to work in like 5 so this is probably not the best time to start on this but so what.
I wrote you another letter Laura, but making my way to the post office on a Monday or a Friday before noon is almost impossible around here- only days post office is open, need to buy a stamp.
So Mike is working here at the lodge too now. We live in a trailer down the hill from the main building with our roommate Mike, a fishing guide and the son of the owners, and 20 chickens. Our room smells weird but it may be because the carpet has never ever been vacuumed, or it may be because of racoon piss, as Mike says. But like, what does racoon piss even smell like?
This is definetely a guy place.
We have two new WWOOOFers here now from Chile, replacing one from Amsterdam and two from Germany. That's basically how my summer has been- in cycles of new friends. I'm going to miss thesse two but man, I had nothing in common with the German girl and she was the only one I really could have hung out with in my spare time, since the guys are on a different work schedule. I have never met anyone who was so slow to move and slow to understand what was going on. 19 I guess though, and living life entirely in a different language must be tough.
I will be out of here and back to the big city in a couple weeks, which will be the strangest part of my year, probably. Since I haven't seen a traffic light since my last day off (in July)
I will be in Parksville for a couple days to regroup and get my stuff then off to live in Vancouver with a 30 year old chef with two cats. I guess I will have to adapt to that way of life. It's going to be especially hard to say goodbye to Mike after this month that we're spending together. This really drunk guy the other night was like   "You two seem like you really love each other, it's inspiring"
Kind of nice. We will see what happens.
Gotta go/

Too much party scene, too much Charlie Sheen

Woke up this morning to a continuous storm. After weeks of procrastinating because the weather has been so beautiful, I have missed the chance to waterproof my tent. The raft that is anchored out on the lake for almost exclusive use by an army of ducks has fought its way loose, and there are various pairs of waterfowl paddling around looking lost.

I have a million and a half things to do today and no desire to do any of them. Clean the car. Pack everything I need for the next three months into a duffel bag and a dry sack. Wash piles of clothes. Break into Kory's Clash of Clans account and destroy it utterly. I used to laugh at women who complained about their partner's addiction to cell phone or video games (it could be worse, yes?), but now I get it. 100% on board with these fellow sufferers.

Do you guys ever get this sick feeling that you are forever destined to be poor? I heard this morning that a girl a year younger than me is in her 4th year of medical school (not sure if I believe that. The years don't really add up) and her longtime partner is a trainee helicopter pilot. And you kind of think to yourself, shit. Where the hell are the life skills that I was promised? 

So, yes. We're driving north tomorrow and should be in Whitehorse the evening of the first. I got your letter, Ritch, so I'll write back to you from there. Maybe we will camp at Boya Lake?

Yeah, I think I could handle that.

Hope you are both well and beautiful.

Dean Potter

Stops and Starts

Hey girlies.

It has been so long since anyone has posted on here. This tiny corner of the interwebs has a lost feeling to it.

Let's see. I know that Emma recently embarked on a West Coast adventure with plenty of sand and bears and stinky men. I have seen photos of Sarah surrounded by dogs and music. Here in this neck of the literal woods, the days have been stretching into absurdly long, sunny portions, permeated by the occasional family heartache and visits by people in rowboats and canoes. The bees are searching out early summer dandelions. Chickens were roaming free through the neighbor's backyard until a coyote caught onto a good thing. High school acquaintances have either changed drastically or still manage to function in a time capsule of small-town bitterness. I spend a fair amount of time on sun-soaked mossy trails and guilty stretches on my laptop.
 
Over and out.

PS. This is obviously not my photo. It is of a lady named Annie Stephen and was taken at Aishihik Lake, which is an amazing stretch of country but also could do with a few less fall-offy cliffs.

Still Works

Hey guys.

This thing still works for me...

I just reorganized my sock drawer, happy Monday.

Had a decent weekend, went up to Nanaimo, made beer butt chicken, climbed part of a mountain, drank too much beer while making the chicken, discovered some tasty ice tea, played Carcasonne with Mike's friends. They're nice.

I just pulled all my camping gear out to sort through. I haven't looked at my gaiters since Cape Scott (except when Danielle mentioned my weird water wings in the closet). I have no doubt that they will fill the bath tub with mud when I get around to rinsing them.

Feeling exceptionally low energy last week and this one so far. Should get out running.

You Are Beautiful in Chinese

Hi,

I don't see why you don't go and get the ingredients to make the cheese swirl thing.
I was just at the grocery store buying materials to make a cake for Mike tomorrow, since he'll be back from Revy on Tuesday. Apparently it's his sister's husband's birthday today (he is also named Mike) and his birthday the day after. Bit weird.

Yesterday was very nice actually. Spent most of the day at Open Space working on archiving the declined proposals, took the whole time to double check the list and make sure everything was in order. Feels good to get it done, plus I had free pizza for lunch because there was a board meeting going on. Then I basically walked around window shopping, got some coffee, went into Munroes. It was gorgeous out yesterday and really busy downtown. I ran into a ton of people I know, including John from Unicef, who was heading to Touch- kind of funny. Met up with Marketa and Danielle eventually at Herman's Jazz Club to see Marketa's friend Kim sing. Really nice and relaxing to catch up with those girls and listen to some nice music. Kim's a gospel singer so her voice was great. And of course the night ended at BBJ's, which is weirdly clean these days, I only saw one bra in there. We sat with some guys from Edmonton who showed us a gamed with beer and peanuts. It was a pleasant day overall I think.

My internet has been stupidly slow/ non-functional the past couple weeks. So its a miracle if this makes it up but everything else that could be improved in my life is on hold for awhile, including internet correspondence with friends I guess.

cheesy borek

here's dedicated to you Rolla.

Hey bums, how was the day today? On my end, it's been pretty good. The sun was in full power, guess who walked to work WITHOUT A JACKET. I met with our friend Tyson for breakfast. It felt funny having him as my morning hangout, (I felt i was stealing this supposed time from Demeina!) but regardless, it was great seeing the guys face. We ate at Gary's and stuffed our faces with bennys. I hope one day they add a bit more natural light to that restaurant. It's so dark and .... maybe cozy is the right word, but it felt odd as a breakfast pick. 

I continued on and then went to work. That also wasn't bad. This old, old old man, who use to be a pilot of sorts, and whose been blessed to travel to 30 something countries, came up and tried to impress me with his spanish, dutch and chinese. He called me beautiful in Chinese actually. It was cute, but awkward- since his wife was in the back of the store just minding her own business. But regardless man, you made me smile.

Now it's the evening, and I have abosolutely nothing to do. Ty-man invited me over, but I'm hoping if I don't go over he might be cute with his doe. Maybe call her, do something at least. That and I really don't feel like walking for a few hours for beers. 

Hope you guys are healthy and happy.  

Emma's Culture Update

One of those nights where you're sleepy by 5 so dinner is dry toast in bed and my room-mates are napping anyway so sue me.
I made it to Friday, am killing it at knitting with the wrong size needles, thank you.
Got the latest McSweeneys in the mail today, I think this is my last one from the subscription so the debate is whether to break down and renew. I think it takes me so long to read the issue, though, that it doesn't necessarily make sense to get them all. I'll invest in the gems maybe.
Also been tearing through this book about travelling the Trans-Siberian (always my dream, even after that movie came out). This is the fastest I've ever read any non-fiction book and it honestly might just have been because A Confederacy of Dunces was dragging me through the dirt. I think I am just the wrong age/ nationality for that business.
I am listening to a band that I saw open for the Deep Dark Woods. They were a bit mumble- y so I had one of them write the name in my notebook (shout out to Pabst for dat courage) and anyway he was awkward and apologetic and kinda cute but the dude standing next to us was like "Why not just buy some merch?!" which ruined the whole thing. I could have invited him outside to ess a jay with my delinquent high school friends but he escaped.
My hair is way too long right now, probably a disgrace. I keep pulling really long strands out of my shirt.
But of course my dearest darling keeps doing things like turning to me in the woods with sparkling eyes to say that my hair looks really good with the greens of the forest. Swoon.
Too bad he skipped Friday Night With Emma to meditate with his Nanaimo friends and sit in his friend's car. (Really good car stereo?) I can't complain seeing as I barely make it up there to see him, I've been volunteering my Saturdays away...
And I've been listening to that Gilmore Guys podcast, holy hell. It's just two guys talking about the show but it's hilarious. Plus they get their friends to sit in and it seems like all the girls they invite just hate the show. Although I should stop talking about it maybe, no one else seems as interested. "It's just really funny" doesn't sell or something.

The above is a pic of me entering a cave. Please note that the cave was about 5 meters deep and infested with cave crickets, which are terrifying. Please also note that I am so tanned. Wow. I just found that on Brett's old computer, which is now my computer.