West is Best

So, what did you do last week? Oh really? That’s sweet. My week involved one van, 7 guys, and me. Any girl’s dream right?

Road trips have always been a favorite of mine. That would be because one of my most cherished places to think is in the car. Preferably with the windows rolled down and the music turned up. I am that girl with my hand out the window letting my hand float up and drop down according to the wind. Michael and Robbie call it “hippie hand dancing”… Whatever.

Driving from Calgary to Penticton is one of my favorite 9-hour trips. It’s fantastic because depending on the time of year you venture from majorly crappy to absolutely fantastic in what almost seems like a snap of your fingers. You enter a land where trees are green, water isn’t a skating rink and fruit stands aren’t boarded up.
Highlights you ask? Well…

-Penticton offered us some awesome weather and the chance for me to buy yet another pair of Cochymela’s Rancho Relaxo pants. (They are made with bamboo which means they are the softest thing your hand and bum will ever touch.) The Pen also brought to us a homemade dinner and getting to listen to Jean-Paul De Roover.

-Then, we had the idea of driving to Vancouver directly after the show. At midnight. Michael was driving, I was sitting shotgun. For the sake of keeping Michael awake we started to sing cannons. Isn’t that what everyone does? Hits included: Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Celine Dion and Disney classics.

-Vancouver and a hotel allow us to shower and change and head to UBC for their AMS Block Party. Featuring Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, Hey Ocean!, The Barenaked Ladies and 3000+ drunk university students. All the ingredients for a rain-dancing, beer-drinking, great time. Hey Ocean! Is great. Ashleigh Ball is a total babe, I have a major girl crush. Hey Ocean!’s new CD is going to be stellar. Mark my words.

-Kelowna has a hotel with great beds, a super rad radio station called Q103.1, Free beers and burgers and lovely 20 degree weather. We got a little silly, played Frisbee, went to the beach and rode the Ogopogo. Phil has the best iPod ever and is a fantastic DJ.

That is all. We are now driving east. Sup Saskatchewan? I haven’t seen you in a long time. It’s kinda the way I like it, but you will offer rest stops and bathrooms so we can be amicable.

Peas & Luhv,

Brie

I Told You So

This morning I woke up earlier than I have in almost a year, pressing the snooze alarm at 5:36 a.m. As I sat in the Calgary Int'l Airport at Gate 45, waiting to board my flight to Victoria, British Columbia, I started a new game called "How many Team Canada jerseys can you spot in two minutes?" After my attention span tired of that game I shifted tired weight from one foot to the other and waited in line at Starbucks, (Soy Vanilla Latte. You saved my life) I listened to a lovely woman two people behind me offer a girl on crutches to carry her coffee, a task not easily done when both arms are tied up. The injured woman smiled broadly and said, "that would be awesome. I'll buy you a coffee if you can carry mine!" Made me terribly proud of being Canadian, I mean, where else would this happen?

Sitting down, I took out my iPod and cracked a book. Letting the caffiene and the sweet nutty taste of Soy slowly pull up my falling eyelids. As it would happen most times, my lovely iPod knew just what to play for me as I touched and illuminated the "Shuffle" option on the screen. Slouching back, my ears filled with the sweet sounds of Aidan Knight. Thirty minutes flew by and next thing I knew a snaking line of eager travellers formed in front of the gate.

A quick and painless hour and fourty minutes went by with only sparatic cries from the toddler one row back. I finally got the chance to make a dent in my most recent literary conquest - "He Died With A Felafel In His Hands".

As I landed, my purse across one shoulder, yoga mat on the other, I saw the friendly and loving face of my high school friend and kindred spirit Kat. For those of you who don't know her, she is my grounded, yoga practicing, composting, recycling, biking, smiling, giving, hippy friend. She stood at the arrival doors with a bouquet of 6 freshly cut yellow daffodils from her garden tied together with a blue silk bow. How on earth could I ask for anything more? I was already incredibly excited to be on a plane to somewhere foreign and fantastic. But, to be greeted by a warm, smiling, flower holding friend? Life is too good.

We stepped outside and I took the deepest breath of fresh, humid, rainy air which filled my lungs and seeped into my pores. Everything was green. The grass, the trees, the moss, the buds on the trees. Life was everywhere I looked.

I settled my things into Kat's vacant roomates humble abode and we trekked out to her second class. Earth and Ocean Science. By the time we crossed the street from Kat's house, I was suddenly in Fern Gully. The trees reached the sky and were cloaked in deep green moss, while the ground was wet and cool. Our footsteps; instead of making the rough "click, clack" on pavement made muted "thump, thumps" on the wet earth. After hanging out and learning about Paleolithic stone eras and the arrival of Oxygen on the planet we headed back home for a wicked lunch and an even better music swapping session.

Following tea we headed down to the beach. "To the beach, to the beach. After we climb up this mountain, we will go to the beach." (Jon&Roy, check out 5 or so posts down friends.) Even though the sky was overcast and the rain was drizzling, I couldn't wipe the smile from my face even if I had wanted to.

All my friends told me when I went to Victoria I wouldn't want to come home. Well feel free to say I Told You So whenever.

Tomorrow's adventures?
Breakfast, Yoga, Shopping, Dinner, Pubs, New Friends, Old Friends, Laughs and most of all, Love.

Peas,

Brie