Really? Vancouver!

I will remember Game 5 of this series. 

It was one of those games where I sat on the edge of my seat, so keyed up that I actually called my sister and left her a message that "I can't stand it anymore!  Score already!".  And the sheer joy of LaPierre's goal was magical.

Game 7 is just something to forget.  Very sad, considering the magic that brought us so far. 

I have a feeling the hardworking men who make up the Canuck's team are devastated.  Thank you men.  You did us proud.

But the story tonight is what 'fans' are involved with downtown - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/06/15/bc-stanley-cup-fans-post-game-7.html

This is not how I'd like to remember today. 

Here is the view from my balconey:

















If you're out there, be safe, don't hurt anyone and remember... there are cameras everywhere.

How do you get to here?

In a hockey mad city how do you get anything done?  How many projects have been delayed?  How many sick days taken?  I know I've been having trouble getting anything finished.  How many people are walking around in a daze that includes a mirage with a palm tree, a pond and a Stanley Cup (and maybe Don Cherry)? 

Forty years is a long time.  My brother just had his 40th birthday and it made me realize how long I have been a Canucks fan.  He has never not been one.

You see, when I was young, we lived in a small resource town in British Columbia.  The kind of town where there was little grey and most everything was black or white.  Watching hockey, loving hockey, it was what the men and boys did .  And my dad loved hockey.

I cannot remember a time from my childhood when we didn't watch hockey.  If it was on TV, we watched it.  If it was on the radio, we listened to it.  And if it was on both, my dad did both.  And it was the kind of household where you didn't try and have a conversation during the game.  Nope.  Total concentration was required.  Meals had to be served and eaten during period breaks.  In many ways it was a worshiping of a Canadian ritual.

I remember the Canucks first run at the Cup in 1982.  I lived at home then.  The BIG TV was downstairs in the family room.  My dad always sat near the radio and the rest of us took whatever seating we coveted.  We had a green striped sofa made with that nubbley cloth you find in bedspreads from the 80s.  Square armrests, square cushions.  Kind of like the modern look you get now but more comfortable.  That was my favoured seat.  During the playoffs all of us had caught my dad's obsession so we were all down there.  Do you remember the players from then?  Harold Snepts, Richard Brodeur, Darcy Rota, Tiger Williams, Thomas Gradin and Stan Smyl.  I remember the smell of the wood stove (the playoffs must not have been in June then:) and my mother's cooking.  None of us were helping her but she was happy watching all of us doing something so intently together.  I remember the Canucks scoring a goal that they desperately needed (the do everything the hard way is not a new theme for this beloved team) and we screamed so loudly and jumped so high that I fell off the couch quite unceremoniously.  But I was happy.  I didn't understand the game very well and couldn't have quoted you any stats but I did love watching the game and I especially loved being together and happy.

I've been watching the playoffs and especially this round.  Sometimes with friends and family and sometimes alone.  And the other day I was sitting during a period break or maybe a commercial and I reached for the phone to call my Dad.  I wanted to share with him the excruciating excitement and hype of the game and toss in a few players names for good measure.  I didn't dial, of course but that wanting made me realize how much I still miss him. 

He would have loved this. 

He deserved to see his team in the finals, in game 7.

It is amazing that a teenager could come from a small village in India and help mold his three children into the devout Canucks fans they are today.

Wherever you are Dad, I hope you're watching on a 52" screen. 

Go Canucks Go.

They're Coming Home!

The boys are coming home!  They're coming home! 

The team will be here.  They Cup will be here.

Need I say more?

Poor Guys

I love my team and the first period is not going well.

Four goals in ten minutes.

I have faith so I'm going to keep watching but maybe with one eye closed:)

Looking for my Soul

How do you lose your sense of self?  That quiet knowing of who you are, no matter the context.

Does it happen slowly, one thought and feeling at a time?  Or does it require a transformational event?  Something that tilts your world off centre to such a degree that your 'north' is hard to locate?

Since I came home from Vietnam, in 2007, I seem to have lost my soul.  That sense of what makes ME me. 

I came home to go to school, to learn and to reconnect with my community, my family and friends.  I think I might have been lost before I came home but my seeking journey really began when I came home.

I've been wandering in the wilderness, sometimes stumbling upon situations or moments that make sense but eventually wandering again.  The hardest thing is that I don't have a direction.  I don't know what I'm wandering towards.

I realize that into every life some transition comes.  I've read the books and thought about buying the tshirt but none of that knowing makes the process any easier.

It is rare for me to regret.  After Dad passed away one of the lessons I chose to take to heart was that there are few do-overs in this life.  Live your life in such a way that tomorrow takes care of itself.  I try to make sure those I love know I love them and I try to embody the golden rule.  Hard to go wrong with that as a guiding philosophy.  And even though I don't believe the world owes me anything, I do live with the belief that the world is fair (in the long run).  All of this has resulted in an amazing life (if I do say so myself;).  And yet these past few years I feel like I am lost.

Maybe I need to find god(dess) or experiment with drugs and find my personal nirvana?  I could go and work overseas again.  Or could it be moving to a small town and living off the grid would satisfy this longing?  Selling everything I own and using the money to travel the world, volunteering and helping also appeals.  All of these (and others) have meandered through my mind.  But that is the problem... they've meandered but none of them are exactly right.  I keep remembering that no matter what I do next, I take myself with me.  So I can be soul-lost here or in another place.  At least here I am loved.

I don't know what I'm going to do but I wanted to share.  This brown girl's adventures aren't always external.

Fantastic Appliance Odyessy

I need to share this story.  Mostly because I'm pretty happy with myself and also to share how you can do renovations on the cheap (or mostly cheap:).

So, as I've mentioned, once or twice, I am a total CL junkie.  I regularly check to see what has been posted, I post most unwanted items in my home and I shop with other CL people when I need something.

I realized I needed appliances.  When we moved into this condo (my brother and I) the appliances were original to the building.  Which meant they were installed in the early 1990s.  Now, appliances are meant to last but in 2011 they were going into the third decade of their lives and I was getting worried.  It is never a good sign if you find yourself listening to the sound your fridge makes instead of the CD or to repeatedly visit your washing machine as it cycles through its paces to ensure there are no leaks or spontaneous combustion.

So, when I realized I needed appliances I decided to buy them on CL.  Not knowing anything about appliances I turned to Google and Consumer Reports and all other sorts of reports to see what indicated value in the land of appliances.  Whenever I found a reasonable item on CL I'd research it but good items go fast and there was the matter of the transporting said appliance.  They just didn't fit into my hatchback:)

Finally, I located a fridge (LG, second fridge of previous owners, clean, no funky smells and still had some of the blue film that appliances are shipped with - how used could it be?). 

A lovely Russian woman was selling it and she told me about her arrival in BC, English lessons, a new grandchild and an incredibly busy partner.  I told her about school, family and my history in her community.  I gave her a deposit and told her I was arranging transport.

Then I found a dishwasher (Kenmore, they were switching over to stainless steel, it looked clean, there was no way to try it out but the seller seemed honest).  I gave her a deposit and the same story about transport.

The stove was far away so I asked the owner about it by phone and he said he'd keep it for me.  It had been in an inlaw suite but hadn't been used.  It looked really clean.  He said I sounded honest and he knew I'd come to pick it up.














The washing machine was the last one.  The seller was selling a very ancient dryer (more than mine) and the washing machine.  He was willing to sell it separately.  It is a Maytag, clean inside and out, no funky smells and they were selling because they updated to frontloaders.  Deposit paid, now just to arrange transport.

Ah yes, the dryer.  I went and looked at one but wasn't sure it would work.  A few days later the guy asked if I would just come take the dryer.  He just wanted to get rid of it.

Now, how to pick up four appliances that are in three different municipalities?!!

The movers were great!  Met them in Richmond, paid the lady and picked up the fridge.  Next to south-east Vancouver to pick up the washing machine.  The dishwasher was not too far away in Vancouver and the last pick up was in North Vancouver.  Amazingly enough we made all the pickups in less than two hours.  It took longer to get the fridge up into my home (a bit too wide and the movers didn't know how to remove the door).

Here comes the complicated social justice math.  Is it better to buy used appliances and then drive to three different municipalities to pick them up (adding carbon into the atmosphere) or is it better to buy new appliances and have them delivered in one go?  My new appliances are more energy efficient than my older ones but maybe really new ones would be more so?  It is enough to make my head hurt:)

Thankfully Hydro came and took my fridge away, I gave my stove and hood fan to someone putting together a rental suite, I sold my washing machine and dishwasher to some folks who wanted an appliance that worked and didn't have problems (Note:  my washing machine didn't have problems, it just scared me:).  None of them when into the garbage!

With all the renovations going on, not all of the appliances were tested until last week.  Everything works.  The fridge makes its own odd noises and the dishwasher is noisier than the one I sold, the stove works perfectly, although its bottom drawer is smaller than my last one and the washing machine is a bit of a mystery (no owner's manual) but it washes clothes:)  And the dryer didn't work in my space so it's on CL for someone who needs a great dryer for a low price (hey, I've got to pay for the movers:).

Thanks for listening to my story.  It isn't earth shattering but it makes me smile.  If you got to here, maybe it made you smile too.