Life and Times of AlieMalie

This week I will:

• log crazy hours in the photo lab making up for two missed classes
• go to the Stars concert even though it’s on a work night
• enjoy my new, awesome Lush products
• write more
• work
• enjoy my strings kids
• take things as they come
• be happy
• enjoy this coming weekend in Austin

This week I will not:

• try to over analyze everything
• feel guilty about going to a concert on a work night
• micromanage
• think too much about this coming weekend in Austin

In other news, Michigan was a bunch of fun. I’d never been on a roadtrip with another person before, but all seemed to work out for the most part. There was a small hiccup towards the end, but meh, what’s life if not a bit dramatic? I should’ve known that it was going to be a bit of an odd trip 45 minutes into it when we pulled into a rest stop and I found a bunch of Kuwaiti coins. Strange, eh? And let’s not forget about the requisite interrogation at the border – more on that later. Toronto was just outright fantabulous. Meeting cool new people and engaging in prank phone calls to someone clear across the continent has never been more fun.

No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth, am en transit yet again and am too caught up in seeing the trees turn colour – my first time ever. Y’all have a great week.

What an eventful day Friday was. I so should’ve used the morning’s event as my post, but I was too high on the adoration of 3rd graders that I couldn’t think of anything else. So, without further ado, I present to you what I saw at 7AM that morning.

So, on the mornings that I have to be up at school earlier than normal, I run past the grocery store to pick up a muffin and orange juice since I can’t be bothered to do much else than throw on some clothes at home and drag my butt to the car. And since I’m trying to wean myself off of massive amounts of caffeine – again – and it’s nearly a 1/4 of the price of a cup of coffee – isn’t that just horrible? – I do this about twice a week. Anyway, Friday was starting off rather uneventfully aside from the fact that I was about 7 minutes ahead of schedule which allowed me to be a little more relaxed than I normally am when frantically trying to make it to work on time. So I’m standing there, muffin in hand, lusting after my super! duper! extra! ultra! pulpy orange juice which’ll still never compare to the fresh squeezed stuff I had in Morocco this summer. Did I tell y’all about that? Because really, it’s just an orgasm for your tongue. The sweet, succulent taste of fresh squeezed Moroccan orange juice is enough to make one rip their clothes off and go streaking through the square shrieking with the pleasure the taste is affording your taste buds. Really. And remember, this was Morocco, home of 13 year old boys trapped in the bodies of 30 year old men.

Back to the grocery store. Sorry, my taste buds got a little carried away with their memories there. I’m standing there, waiting to check out when the damn computer that is the register dies and the cashier is forced to reboot the damn thing. But remember, I’m running ahead of schedule for once – and on a Friday to boot, I should’ve known it was going to be a stellar day – so I sit back and take it in stride. I was quite impressed that my head didn’t explode with impatience right then and there, if I do say so myself. And I even managed a smile at the cashier, the same one that says, “Have a blessed day!” in a saccharine voice everytime you see her which makes me want to scream; but anyway, I remained calm.

As we’re waiting, this disheveled 30-something woman stumbles in through the exit doors drunk as a skunk with total bed head and dressed in a camel coloured trench coat tied in a way which made you wonder whether there was something underneath it. Did I mention she was also carrying what looked to be her shower tote for the gym? Yea, that too. She was having a bit of trouble locating a cart so she asked the boy bagging groceries where she could get one. He very kindly offered to run back outside to retrieve one and she hemmed and hawed about how she could get her own, but he insisted so she called out after him, “Meet me in the liquor aisle!”

Lovely.

When she finally tottered back over to the register, we were treated to the manager of the store, whom I’m not quite sure was awake herself, informing the woman that since she was obviously intoxicated, the store could not sell her any more alcohol.

At 7AM Friday morning. I guess some people just start off their weekends a little earlier than most.

Ms Malie, are you married?

[chuckling under my breath] No.

- pause -

Why are you asking?

Oh, well I was just wondering because you’re so pretty.

What’s not to love? They’re amazing little creatures who just want to adore their teachers and then? At the end of the day? They line up and give you a hug as they file out the door. Talk about a good start to the weekend.

And in other news, Congratulations to Al Gore and the UN Panel for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Now endorse a candidate, might I recommend John Edwards, and get on with it. As for those of you wondering whether or not this is a direct rebuke of the current administration? I’ll give you three options for an answer: A. Yes. B. Duh. C. Do you live under a rock?

This might be strange to some people, but one of my favourite things to do in a new city is to spend a day riding around on their public transit system as it gives me a chance to indulge my imagination so that I can day dream about being an actual native, not to mention the introduction it’ll give you to a city. If the thought hits me or I see something interesting, I’ll get off and look around for a bit, but the opportunities presented to people watch are boundless, so it’s no surprise that even before I left Texas I was looking forward to being on the SkyTrain, even though the SkyTrain shows me no love – but still, when leaving Texas, what’s not to look forward to, right? And as soon as I saw the ferry to North Vancouver, I deemed it essential to take, too.

So we started out the foggy morning walking to the ferry terminal near Canada Place and catching the boat to North Van. From there, well, I’d like to say we explored all of North Vancouver and even made it out to Grouse Mountain, but that wasn’t the case. We made it into the market that’s right at the terminal, which while nice, doesn’t come close to the farmer’s market on Granville Island – that place is just phenomenal, I’m getting hungry just thinking of all the sights and smells there – fresh Indian food, sushi, freshly baked bread that makes you want to run home, quit your day job and start your own bakery at home just for the simple pleasure of having that just-baked-bread smell permeate your house. From there, we momentarily debated going out to Grouse Mountain but decided not to, didn’t know the exact bus route, how long it would take and we had a not-to-be-missed evening planned. So we rode on back to downtown, caught the SkyTrain the long way to Burnaby to pick up some all important tickets, grabbed some lunch and then tried to get back on the SkyTrain to downtown. But, again, I got no love from the damn train as absolutely everything was massively delayed. So instead we grabbed a bus to UBC and en route decided to pay a visit to the Japanese Tea Garden on campus.

That was a reallllly long bus ride, let me tell you, I probably could’ve read War and Peace not once but twice on that bus. Being such a large university and being set out of Vancouver like it’s going to be knocked off into the sea, you’d think they’d at least make it convenient to get to campus by having, oh, I don’t know, a SkyTrain line out to school? Especially when there are massive lines of students waiting for buses. But no. Oh well, take what you can get, eh?

The gardens were nice, very peaceful and blahbity blah blah blah. I’m kicking myself now because I was thinking that the gardens at UBC were these gardens but when we got to campus, obviously I was wrong. And I never made it out to the Chinese Gardens even though I was told I needed to go visit them. Chalk up another reason as to why I must return to Vancouver. You see, a part of me will deliberately decide to miss an all important place or event in a city simply so that I can look back and say something like, “Oh snap, I never made it to the Louvre. What’s that you say? The Mona Lisa is there?! Rats! I’ll just have to go back.” And the answer is yes, I did actually manage to miss the Louvre the first time I made it to Paris; I mean, I walked past it and all, took the photo in front of IM Pei’s pyramid so that it looked like I’d been there – image is everything, people – and then kept putzing along without actually ever stepping foot in the museum. And yes, I’ve since made good on my promise and returned. Anyway, I suppose I’m rather masochistic in that regard, knowing exactly what it is that I’d like to see and do and saying, “No, AlieMalie, you must save something for later!” I was always that kid in school who actually saved her dessert for last – I was an odd child. Moving along, sorry for that tangent …

So now for the best part of the day, possibly the entire trip: Wes was nice enough to purchase a pair of tickets to see Matthew Good at the Centre in Vancouver. For me, in the run up to the concerts, I think I was more excited to just go see a concert with Wes since he’s such a music nut and pretty much lives for good live music and awesome artists. Of course I was looking forward to seeing Matthew Good, but to be completely honest I was mostly looking forward to just enjoying seeing someone take immense joy in what it is they love doing – and knowing that I could see something like, oh, one of Wes’s favourite artists in concert with him? Was going to be awesome. But let me tell you, Matthew Good definitely delivers. Its hard for me to see live music that’s not classical because my ears freak out when I hear notes out of tune or rhythms rushed. And then there’s being able to actually understand the words to the songs, I’m a stickler for this because I like to hear what people are trying to say and I enjoy singing along under my breath. I’m especially averse to loud screamer type events where it seems like the point of the concert is to try to deafen the entire audience.

But Matthew Good was none of those things. He is an engaging man who obviously loves bringing his music to his fans. With a nearly two hour acoustic set after factoring in the two awesome encores, I left thinking that I actually enjoyed the live concert more than his actual CD. That’s a first for me. I was quite impressed and enjoyed it immensely. Not only that, but his opening act, Dala, was great too – though I could’ve stood to hear more than five songs from them, but I suppose that’s what CDs are for, eh? So I picked their’s up at HMV and I highly recommend it. There, I’m making a music plug for the very first time here on the ol’ blog. Don’t get too excited.

And yes, there’s more, but you’ll have to wait …

By the way, Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian buddies out there! Y’all rock!