See my baby loves to dance

You still in Victoria Sarah?
If so or next time you go:
-Government House gardens. From here you can walk through the neighbourhood and go to Moss Rock Hill or the Ross Bay Cemetery and the beach if you feel like being outside and around flowers
-Shatterbox coffee. Get a sweet there too (A+)

Feeling like I've undergone some huge life change after that hike. Also only craving huge carb-filled meals. I can't sleep beyond 7 am. I keep touching the parts of my collarbone that have the skin rubbed off by accident

Anyway needless to say the Juan de Fuca trail was pretty challenging as a 3 day ordeal but if someone asked me to do it again tomorrow, I would.

Have recently made friends with a group of frat boys that Sally and I do trivia with. Their not frat boys anymore and now I guess the only indication of a douchy past is their very nice watches. One of them's mother is the deputy director of the Coquitlam Library so that pretty ok.

hanging out, unsure of what i am exactly doing today.

Hey guys, hope your exciting hiking trip goes as planned.

Bad news, my favourite cat- Snickerdoodles is lost in the wilderness. I'm on a computer right now, creating an abstract but eye catching poster to put up around the neighbourhood. Hopefully she's just kicking it, being a little shit head, and making my little heart worry for nothing.

I'm unsure of what my daily steps are going to be, I might just take a really long walk into town or opposite- I'm actually in Victoria- staying cute and forever unsure. Any tips of where to go or what to do, and hopefully it happens in the next hours- text me up girls!

Few days ago, I finally taught myself how to crochet- I've been making buckets of dishtowels ( if you happen to see me before this trends stops, you might be able to get one ;). I think the fact that I started to crochet really created the situation of me chatting with a lady with no name, at the ferry terminal a few days ago- we talked for almost 45 minutes about knitting, crochet and world events- all because i chose to teach myself a relatively small skill. Here's to you lady-who-was-picking-up-her-two-grandchildren-but-the-ferry-was-45-minutes-late.

Take care, and be safe!

Hi LV,

Just got letter, here's a quick run down of the answers to the questions you asked, although you'll see for yourself next week! Plus thanks for the pin I guess I'll have to put it on my lapel.

1. L-I-C-E-N-S-E
2.  No I do not carry around a yoga mat and sip lattes and go to pipeline protests- that sounds more like Victoria folk tbh. I'm still lactose intolerant and broke, so.
3. Jewy is paying me about the same amount of attention, although last night she did wake me up at 1:37 am to be let outside.
4. Reading list= Missoula by John Krakauer, which is frankly freaky and heart breaking. And I finished the Curious Case of Benjamin Button this morning, which was nothing like the movie (like his wife died alone in Italy cause he got bored of her when she was older and he was younger). It's really a short story but they bound and republished this version separately after the movie came out.
5. My practicum was part time during school, at the school library so it was manageable. Made some cool temporary friends and also got a good performance review, although I don't know what I could possibly have done to get a negative one, other than maybe publicly speaking about the things they asked me not to mention to anyone (Don't ask me! I already forget what they are!)

As far as amassing the hike group, basically we had 7 definite yeses after the glory that was Nootka last year, and then a couple people invited their other friends and relatives, and you and Fran finally stepped up.
Please do not count on even one day of sunshine, not sure where you are getting your data. I've heard the last day is the muddiest but maybe that's for the best.

Anyway thanks for the news and the advice and the cool card. See you soon!

Kusawa

Baller, this was us yesterday. Our French friend Pierre, an award winning photojournalist ("The awards are on their way," he says) took it with his fancy-pants camera.

We had a pretty lovely weekend out here in the woods. A cabin-warming party was thrown, and a fire was lit under the gigantic tripod built next to the house. Everyone contributed something sweet, and we all peered intently at the sky and tried to figure out if we could see faint northern lights or just moonlight (it was the moon). Small puppies were brought over and passed around until they fell asleep. Several people stayed the night, including a soft-voiced man from Hungary who would only remain in the cabin if we could assure him that we wouldn't steal his kidneys for resale ("Or any organs, really.") In the morning Kory, two journalists, myself and C-Dawg all trotted up the hill to visit a canyon where, I kid you not, we suddenly heard a chorus of yowling and yipping from the next valley over. I might have thought we had imagined it, but it was picked up by the sled dogs in the valley, who began to sing back. Creepy creepy. Things basically ended with bacon and eggs and a discussion about how the journalists, both being from 'established' (ie. rich) families in Montreal, were the black sheep due to their terrible life choices of not becoming lawyers, doctors etc. It feels as if middle-class North American  kids who grow up wealthy are so traumatized by the lack of happiness in their parent's lives that they strike out to do something that leaves them poor but content, and their kids are seized by a burning desire to be successful and attain all of the wealth that their parents never had. And so the cycle continues.

In other news, if that smug blond poster child wins the Iditarod again this year, I will scream and rip out my hair.

     

Pineapple Princess, I Love You

Glad to see we're all back and together, finally.

I'm in Nanaimo, writing a stupid business report on leadership (in academics)

Everyone is impressed with the girth of the pineapple that I picked up while walking home in a daze of post-buzz. Went for pints after a student (me!) organized tour at the Archives, got more cut than expected, walked 10 km home. Thought I ought to stop in and find some eats at the IGA, store was half empty due to closing down this month. Only thing that looked appealing was this prize pineapple. Yesterday, when running out the door to catch a ferry, room-mate goes "make sure you bring that pineapple!" (clearly less impressed), and so here it is, sitting on the counter next to some other less impressive specimen.

 I dunno why I put myself through this torture each time but now I have to Get Inspired and write FIFTEEN pages of suck-uppy drivel, due Monday.
Bye girls

Once you start listening for the backbeat to this song in other tunes, you will find it everywhere

I have an interview with MacBride Mining Museum on Wednesday, and Brent Sass is leading the Iditarod. All is right with the world. Was reluctant to jump on the fandom train, but this guy. Really. Dropping one-liners that would be ludicrously cheesy coming from anyone else (ex. "PAIN IS JUST AN OPTION!"), but somehow you really feel that he believes them. Plus, his dad is just about the biggest sweetheart in the world.
Mushing is one of the few sports in the world where you can freely rub shoulders with the biggest superstars in the game (although, of course, they will attack you if you try to rub shoulders with their dogs). Where your friend can get drunkenly hit on by a certain 1000-mile race champion (not naming any names) who then manages to pack all 13 of his sled dogs into the scuzziest bar in town. And everyone just keeps sipping at their pints the whole while.

In the Mood to Strut

All this milk talk definitely has me craving pancakes. Preferably banana. With cinnamon. I was looking through my hiking cookbooks today for delicious Juan de Fuca recipes. Found a few, but they are mostly of the "dehydrate this for seventeen hours" variety.

The Big Dog, The Big Man and I all had a little adventure out to Kusawa Lake today. I wish I had a photo to show you, but my camera charger has gone awol. ***king incredible mountains out that way. This badly-behaved Airedale terrier ignored the frantic calls of his owners and bounded over to greet Chaos with far too much enthusiasm. Being an old, strong-willed husky, Chaos promptly tried to eat him, leading to ever louder cries from across the lake. This guy finally yelled over that if I just let my dog off leash, everything would be fine. I didn't capitulate as witnessing a bloodbath would have definitely ruined the day. The dogs above are from the YQ Carmacks checkpoint. Hordes of small schoolchildren descended on the checkpoint and were shunted into the care of an enthusiastic veterinarian from New York.

There have been an incredible amount of elk hanging out on the bluffs behind our cabin for the past few days. Yesterday at dinnertime I watched four of them bound wildly in a straight line across the cliffs, like something in a repetitive cartoon. When I turn on the generator, all twenty-something of them turn to stare down into the valley simultaneously.

Still don't have a job, and it's leading to increased guilt and anxiety on the daily. But at least I spend a lot of time outside.