I awoke early in my new city. Before even my friends and their kids did. It was 6:30 and I needed to pee urgently. I eventually found myself sitting on the couch reading one of the local papers. I was reading all of this Coquitlam news with very little context. The sun was shining in and I realized that I sitting waiting for everyone to wake up when I could slap on my running shoes and go for a run in the unusually dry and sunny Vancouver weather.
Yes! I will explore my new city. I will learn her secrets and soon be avoiding traffic snarls like a local.
I snuck out and started running up the hill. I had romanticized this in my head and was feeling pretty smug and happy. A man on an old ten speed bike wearing large earphones came tearing around a corner about 3 feet in front of me. He shouted “Give me your dinosaurs! Not your diplomats! Not your Embassies! Your DINOSAURS!” He was speaking directly to me – he wanted me to receive this message.
I was startled for he bolted out in front of me, because verbalization didn’t make much sense to me, and he wasn’t wearing a helmet or using a bike lane. I spent the rest of the run trying to puzzle this out. But it took the romance away. No more small town.
We had an appointment to look at the coolest loft in Yaletown (“the” place to be in Downtown Vancouver with prices to match). The loft was fantastic in many ways and terrible in others. This lead to the first of many differences between Emile and I today.
After that I had made an appointment to have my eyebrows threaded and my eyelashes tinted. Mother of Pearl! Who invented this? I can have my eyelashes dyed and they look like I am always wearing mascara – but better. And I don’t have to worry it smudging or running or taking it off. What an Invention! I am loving this. Emile and I made up, I was so happy.
Next we went to Emile’s swanky office and he showed me about. We spent 3 hours looking for apartments and getting hungrier and hungrier and more and more solidified in our homelessness. There should be laws for descriptive words on listings. We made a couple of calls, and the joy of my eyelashes faded a bit.
The road dogs were not particularly good, but they filled the need.
Emile needed to fix up his wardrobe, so we made our way to Pacific Centre which was completely packed. I walked into Banana Republic and Emile almost fainted at the price of the first pair of pants I picked up for him. He said “Let’s go to The Bay”. I then took him into Guess and a couple other stores. He kept saying “Let’s go to The Bay”. Yes, bloody well, shut up, I’ll take you to damned Bay. Arggg!
Could we find the suit section in The Bay? Finally with some things to try on, Emile stood with a strange look on his face in the change room. I had long since collapsed to the ground in frustration and confusion. He thought he was having an anxiety attack about all of this change. I immediately remembered how much he is going through and we made up again.
We bought hardly anything at The Bay, and went outside. It turns out though, that it wasn’t an anxiety attack – Emile was just having heartburn from the raw onions on his hot dog. He’s feeling much better after a antacid.
Well, onto Moore’s and a very canny salesman took one look at our bedraggled and weakened selves, and kept the store open for us 1/2 later than closing times. And he earned that commission. Emile was beyond making decisions at that point, and simply kept agreeing with whatever I or the salesman said.
Dinner was quick shared pad thai entrée near Metrotown and then we stopped at my grandpa’s place for a quick visit.
September 15th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: For the first time in my life, I was able to drop in on my grandpa.
The Daily EO 