Weekend Update

Friday I went into Vancouver to have lunch with my dad, and then had to pick up my mom’s laptop so I got to see my cats for 1 minute (I miss them!!!!! We are not allowed to have pets here, which is very disappointing. That is the only disadvantage of living here. I cannot wait until we can get a dog or cat – I even have names picked out!!!) After dropping off my mom’s laptop I then headed to Siobhan’s place. Siobhan brought me back some yummy smelling hand cream and a very cute wooden chopping/serving board from Hawaii, and she gave me a framed photo of me and her at her wedding which was really nice. Lisa met up with us a few minutes later, and after seeing Siobhan’s honeymoon photos we headed into Richmond. We went to Michaels so I could get some parts for my Halloween costume, and then we went to Value Village where Lisa found a costume for Andrew and Siobhan found a skirt for her costume.
We had Sushi and then picked up a movie on the way back. We rented Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which was cute.
Tina joined us midway through the movie and then we all chatted for a bit before we all headed home at 10:30pm! We were all pooped. The older I get the earlier I need to go to bed!!!
Saturday night was Clay’s birthday, and Clay and Lisa love hockey so we headed to Seymour’s Pub in North Van to have dinner, some beer and watch the game. The food was actually quite good for pub food; I would go there again. Cougar central though!!! After we left a bunch of hoochies came in – it sort of turns into a ‘nightclub’ later on in the evening.
Hmmm… I think I am going to make some more double chocolate chip cookies – I will post the recipe later…

Migraines

Last Friday, Todd and I were invited to dinner with a friend from BCIT and her husband. We went to their place in Vancouver, where they had cooked a fantastic homemade meal - Chinese dishes that I had never had before.
Before going, we stopped at the local beer and wine store to pick up a bottle of wine. I don't know much about wine so I asked an employee to recoommend a bottle of white wine.
I had a slight headache that day but was trying to ignore it rather than take any ibuprofen.
So we had dinner and I had a glass of wine, which was total crap by the way - I don't think I have ever tasted worse white wine in my life! The girl in the wine store had no idea what she was talking about. We then played an awesome board game called Bohnanza, where you are basically trading different types of beans (cards) e.g. "stink bean" and "red bean" with people with the objective of collecting as many coins as possible. It was so much fun!
But during the game my headache got worse. The sound of Todd shuffling the cards was like someone using a chainsaw 2 inches from my ear. Smells in the room that I normally don't even notice or mind e.g. dog smell, food smell etc. started to make me feel ill, I felt super warm, I started to shake and I felt like throwing up. I had made a cheesecake that I brought over, and I could barely eat two bites! By the end of the night I felt so sick I ended up throwing up. Then we went home. I had to hold my mouth shut the whole way home, and once I got home I was sick again. The next morning I still had a pounding headache which thankfully went away by the afternon. I get migraines once in a while, but ones this bad where I throw up don't happen too often. They are usually triggered by crappy wine or champagne. I felt horrible and embarrassed on top of it all.
The next night was a lot better. We went to Jay and Madeleine's engagement party at Relish Restaurant and Lounge downtown. Their wedding date is next September Labour weekend. My cousin's wedding in Greece is the same weekend. So I will go to the wedding in Greece, and Todd will stay here for Jay and Madeleine's wedding, but will come and join me in Greece right after. We will probably go to Kerkira (Corfu) and possibly Santorini again, or another Greek Island in the Aegean. Then we will go to the Netherlands for a few days before we head home. I am looking forward to it! I love to travel...

Collective Soul

Well I went to see Collective Soul for the first time on Friday night. I have enjoyed their music for several years, and when I found out they were coming to Vancouver in May, I was highly disappointed I was going to miss it! It is one of the bands that I have said I want to see before I die :) (I know that sounds strange but there are tons of things I want to do before I die - hopefully that will be a long time from now, but before I am senile, but I will leave that for another blog posting...). Another band I want to see is Great Big Sea. I believe I saw them at Arts County Fair one year, but I can't quite remember... oh and of course Queen would have been great to see live (but that is obviously not a possibility).
So when I found out Collective Soul was coming back, this time to Abbotsford, I was pretty excited.
Now it took a while to get to Abbotsford, and the venue was not that great (it was at a rec centre), and the Abbotsford crowd was..... well lets just leave it at that... but the band was great to see and they are really good live (I have seen lots of bands that suck live, which is VERY disappointing), plus Ed Rollins is kinda cute :) The opening bands were Kazaa and Boy the Band. One of the bouncers gave me his earplugs (unused, don't worry) which was super nice, except he didn't have any left for himself, and when I found that out I tried to give them back but he wouldn't take them! He told me he had hearing damage anyways??!! Personally I would want to keep what I had left of mine! Yes, I wear earplugs to rock concerts. I have done with and without, and honestly, the music sounds totally fine with earplugs in - you don't get any of the buzzing noise during the concert, and no ringing in the ears the next day.
I will tell a couple of stories about the crowd at the concert. A lot of people were really drunk - we had to wait about 3 hours for the bands to even start playing! I got elbowed in the head a few times, ended up with a burn mark on my shoulder??!! And this crazy drunk cougar in front of me (I was behind her because she was short and therefore easy to see over) kept getting out of control every time Ed (the lead singer) would look in our direction. She would start flailing her arms and body out of control to get his attention, and ended up wacking me a few times while in the process. Very irritating. Her husband/boyfriend or whatever he was kept leaving and coming back with more beer.
Todd and I went to two Thanksgiving dinners - no turkey for me of course. I had a vegetarian meal Sunday night and fish on Monday night. Yep that's about all I have to say about that.
I'm out for now.

They finally came over…

I have been living in North Van now since Todd and I got back from Greece, in early June. My parents came to visit and see where I live for the first time today, 3 months later. What took them so long? Well apparently, “North Vancouver is so far away from Vancouver”, and “Oh God, the only time we cross the Lions Gate Bridge is to go to the ferry”. After some persuading, however, my parents finally made the trek over here.
So what did they think? Well they really liked it. The house had just been built when Todd moved into the suite two years ago, and it was finished well e.g. crown moldings, so it is a pretty nice place.
Of course, they fact that Todd and I stayed up until 2:30am last night cleaning, or rather mostly reorganizing, probably made a difference too. Our place was quite disorganized, and we needed an excuse to do something about it. This was it. It looks a million times better.
My parents showed up and were surprised at how little time it took to get here and how easy the directions were.
My mom brought over my favorite cookies that she had made, and we all sat around, ate a snack-style lunch, and we showed my parents our wedding gifts (they still had not seen them).
My parents wanted coffee to drink. Todd made it – but, you see, Todd likes his coffee very, very strong. My parents on the other hand drink very watered down coffee. I warned Todd, but he made it in the French Press, and the coffee we have was ground for a cone filter….
Todd poured the coffee, it was dark and thick…
Pretty soon, my dad was running back and forth to the bathroom, and both my parents looked very wired, and were talking super fast. It was quite entertaining!
After they left and I was cleaning up, I looked in the bottoms of their coffee mugs – it was a dark thick paste…
Oops…
It was pretty funny though.
I am glad it all went well though and they finally came for a visit.