Sock Oracle

Sometimes I let my socks choose themselves.

I keep my socks in a cardboard box on a shelf near the top of my closet, and in order to get at them, I have to pull the box down, tilting it to avoid the frame of the closet door. Inevitably, the box tips far enough that at least one pair of socks tumbled down at me. Rather than work against this, I just wear whatever pair of socks chooses me!

For all of November

November came and went, and I wasn't too keen on blogging. Just had other things to do! But here's what I was doing when I wasn't blogging:

The 99th Greay Cup Championship

Grey Cup Party! Here's Lion Man!

Some people weren't keen on the choice of Half-Time show

Pretty sure these guys were at every game.

 Mike and I didn't have tickets, but the "Street Fest" was literally only one block away so I went to go and check out all the fans (dressed in all the orange I owned, of course!)

I also attended tea with a few friends. Apparently  this afternoon of tea and discourse also included a bottle of Whisky...

leftover cheesecake from his 25th Birthday Party, mug of tea, and a glass of whisky.

 My family also came for a visit! Mom came with me to the huge Circlecraft Craft Fair, and I treated her to tea at the Fairmont (since usually I have to go alone!)

Tea at the Castle - Refined, as usual

 I also got a haircut! Actually, all I did was go back to the salon to have my bangs trimmed. I love them, a lot! Funniest, though, is that there's a few people convinved that I had my hair coloured when they were trying to figure out "what did you do to your hair? It looks different" It's the same colour - I was there!

And that's pretty much all of November! Part of November was spent choosing what I'd do with my 2012 vacation days, and so Mike and I are planning a wintry trip in February to Quebec City for Carnivale! Bring it, Bonhomme!

Día de los Muertos!

Today is the Day of the Dead!

Of course, it's celebreated more widely in Mexico but I love the colours and the art and the flowers! This year, I even carved my jack-o-lantern in the "Day of the Dead" style!

Pumpkins by Me, Cam, and Mike (L to R)

Better lighting on my day of the dead pumpkin! Boo!

Happy Hallowe'en!

 This Hallowe'en was a doozy! Unfortunately, I had to be at work on Saturday night whilst everyone else was partying it up, but I made up for it with a trip to The Waldorf Hotel. It was a pretty sweet party, and since it was Monday, all the music was oh so very retro! (Mondays, their theme is "Ice Cream Social"). The Waldorf had 4 rooms for dancing in (the Tiki Bar, the Day of the Dead room, the Dark room...and another one), plus the "Haunted Hotel Rooms," and a midway outdoors, complete with drop of doom, and "Erotic Holographic Theatre" - though I'll add that Mike wasn't too please with the EHR because it wasn't a "real" holograph....

So we danced the night away!

In case you didn't catch the reference, I went out dressed as Lady Gaga from her video "Born This Way" Happy Hallowe'en!

Watch the whole video if you like, or skip to 4:10 for where she appears in her skullface costume. The model she's with doesn't have makeup on...it's all a tattoo!

Ma Costume! Suit was easy, but the makeup took 1.5 hrs!

Close-up. A Surprising number of people recognized who I was...though I suspect none of them were straight. Plus, I was approached by a man in a beard and robe who called "Hey, Gaga! Jesus is  the new black!"

LMFAO, Ryan Gosling (from Drive), King Triton, and Inigo Montoya

King Triton goes all out at Hallowe'en. I would have been freezing!

Taxi!

Oh, the places I go!

When I woke up this morning, my friend texted me and asked what my plans were for today. "Sleeping. Also, fending off an impending cold. Cleaning, and maybe meeting a friend for coffee. Tough day."

I sure didn't expect how it turned out! I didn't sleep in much - I wanted to make sure I looked decent (read: wearing pants) when the gentleman from the developmental disabilities came to pick up our gently used items for donation. Then, I didn't meet my friend for coffee - we went for lunch at the Banana Leaf instead and he introduced me to his new GF. While dining on delicious malaysian cuisine, he got a message requesting he come back to work to move some things around. Generally, I would find this kind of detour not very fun, except this was my pilot friend from way back, and his task was to taxi an airplane around at YVR.

Now, we didn't have to go far, but I did have to wear something of a visitor's badge and I did get to sit in the cockpit of the airplane while we rolled around!

I knew today would be a great day to wear my aviator sunglasses!

I had my friend drop me off at Granville Island where I picked up my hallowe'en pumpkin, and I'm getting ready to head to ballroom dance class tonight!

What a day!

Paradise

The new Coldplay album is out today, and I celebrated by stealing their music. So to make up for it, I'm going to share their video for the song "Paradise." I love this elephant. I especially like his bicycle, and the idea of an elephant hiding under and airplane seat and sneaking peanuts!

Banana Rama!

My gorgeous neighbour Nad ate a banana and Mike tried to kiss him. I have a big crush on him. He is soooo huge.

Tonight, Tonight

Tonight (or rather, it was this afternoon) I went to see the vancouevr Symphony Orchestra's production of West Side Story. Originally I wasn't terribly interested because I thought it being an Opera performance it wouldn't have any of the real theatrical elements that make WSS so wonderful (the dancing, for instance). Once I learned that it would be a full-scale production, I was totally on board. Plus, I lucked out, and I managed to snag the most perfect seat - exactly in the middle, about 5 rows back. Perfect. I could see 'em sweat!

At first, I wasn't sure about the show. I'd seen it before at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and it was thrilling, so this show had a lot to live up to. Personally, I found some of the dancing a bit heavy, and the lovely lady who played Maria sang beautifully, but was a little too operatic for my taste and it didn't seem to balance well with Tony's tone.

But then came Act II. Things got more intense and more exciting! It really was this song (in the video below) that caught me - Gee Officer Krupke.
 

 

I've said it before - theatre makes me feel good - and I mean it. I left the Queen Elizabeth Theatre with such a rush! Of course, then there's the moment when you come crashing down again and you realize that it's over and you have to go back to your 'old' life, but the high was totally worth it.

I think I'm an addict, for real...

Getting to know me!

Since we've come back from the Honeymoon, I've been working on getting to know "me" better, and doing soul-food things! One of those things was going to see Keith Urban in concert (at the very last minute! I bought the tickets at 2pm for an 8pm concert, but the arena's in the neighbourhood, so it was no biggie). Here's what I came away with...

pretty cool tour set

Russell Crowe showed up and played, too!

we lucked out and he played THIS close to us! I could see him sweat!

Keith donned a canucks jersey, too!

 It was a pretty wicked concert. Plus one of the Sedin twins was there, and Russell Crowe made a surprise appearance! I even wore my cowgirl hat..

And then of course, there was my trip to Quesnel to visit Tori! We got into plenty of trouble alone the way, including during our visit to the Dollarama:

Angel L: Oh no! My eye fell out! Angel R: Eww! *barf*

 

 

 Also, we went on the Little People Walk around town. We didn't hit up quite all of the stops, but we had fun with the ones we did meet!

Me and the Boy Scout (#5). Pledging while crossing my fingers, naturally.

Horsing around with the Rodeo Clown (#6)

Riding the BX Cook (#2). I think he enjoyed it, by the looks of things

On my second night in Quesnel, I was determined to help my friend get friendly with her kitchen. Too bad the oven didn't work and we had to take our meal to a friend's home to finish up!

She made her first pie - yay!

Clockwise: Roast chicken, care of Safeway. Stuffing. Steamed beets, garlic mashed potatoes, and the apple pie!

On the last day, Tori was at work, so her sister and I hit up the local museum, where we met up with Mandy, the haunted Doll. After we took this picture, we saw the sign asking that we not take pictures of her. Oops. What I found spookier about her was that at the back of her glass case was a mirror, and I kept catching a glimpse of the mannequin on the other side of the room in it, but since I was moving, it looked like something was moving behind Mandy! ooooo...

Mandy's cool. She's buddies with Montel Williams.

 

 

 Here's some more about Mandy!

We were bored at a cafe later, and cartooned.

The Hallowe'en Preview!

Betcha can't guess who I'm going out for Hallowe'en as!

September - Thailand and Bali

I'm on it...just give me a minute!

August - the Honeymoon bits!

After an insanely just-right wedding, Mike and I jet-setted off on our 5 week Honemoon through South-East Asia. I wrote meticulous journal entries which I don't have with me tonight, but I did bring along some photos and a general remembering!

Through to the end of August we travelled through Vietnam and Laos.

In Vietnam, we learned how to cross the street, swam in the South China Sea at Nha Trang, visited the Mud Baths, entered the Forbidden Purple City, crawled through the Cu Chi tunnels near Ho Chi Minh City, had clothes made in a day in Hoi An (they're still on the slow-boat to Canada, but they make me giddy when I think about 'em!) and took the first of our four night trains. We practiced our haggling skills, and our mental math for conversion (though I quickly resorted to using my human calculator, Mike). We also sweat a helluva lot!

Wearing our new conical hats for a biking tour. Dashing!

heading into the tunnels! They're a bit larger once you get inside...but so effing hot in there!

Mud baths in Nha Trang!

Laos was a much smaller country with few cities. While the capital city - Vientiene - seemed very modern, we also stayed in a town that only just received power lines in the last year! We found it a much more peaceful country, though. Not nearly as bustling and chaotic as Vietnam. The downside, though, was that the roads were shit and I got carsick every time we got on a bus...which was every day.

buddhas abound!

giving ahlms to monks at 6am. Party because I'd been given a bad fortune at a temple, and party because I'd never given ahlms to a monks before. It was sticky rice, and it was hot!

lookout point in Laos. It's not that far down (like, 5ft) I'm somewhere nearby trying not to be sick from the car ride.

August - the Wedding Bits

So, here we are in August! The first two weeks were wedding filled! we wrote cheques and paid visits and put a lot of miles on our rental car. I was so stupendously happy to have so many family members in attendance - I can't even describe it. Even though they'd all returned their rsvp's, I was still shocked at how many of my East Coast family members came. My dad's family has so many members that I'm sure they've been to plenty of weddings, and none of them were way out west! Truly, I felt thankful to have so much love and family around.

me and dad waiting at the back of the church - I was early!

a pretty little ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral

Our First Kiss!

The birdseed was tossed rougher than expected.

kissin' in the street!

aren't we a lovely bidal party?

Lovelier. I even love that Daver's a Jambon.

Kissin' on a hilltop!

just chillin out. whatev's

Hog!

cuttting the cake with the McB sword...

...it's tradition!

more kissing!

Eeeef, I love pie.

Harper Mountain decor. Mostly handmade.

the photo-booth was a hit!

The wedding went exactly as I'd planned. Exactly. I dunno. I don't think I've ever planned something that turned out to be so satisfying. When I reflect, all I can remember is that it was just exactly right. The music I'd only dreamt I couldhave played at the ceremony turned out to be exacty the right timing, the church wasn't nearly as hot as I'd thought it would be, my hairdresser pulled magic out of his hat without so much as a consultation, my bridesmaids were beautiful, the groomsmen were comical, the food was delicious, the dancing was fun, the Pie was divine, and I snagged the man of my dreams! a great day!