General Error

As predicted there was no payment today. I'm literally worthless in my boss's eyes it appears.

My last evening living in Vancouver was spent sleeping in the back of a rented Ford Edge. I folded the back seats down, put on my headphones and slept for about three hours outside of Alison's house. I ended up getting the remaining hours on her pull-out sofa and then slipped out in the early morning hours leaving behind the army cot I had called my bed once. That Ford Edge was an amazing vehicle. It was rather large and showy but it also had a god damn touch screen and iPod controls on the steering wheel.

My actual final hours spent in the city and not counting the airport was in the Blendz I had grown fond of. It was situated between a London Drugs and the main Lululemon store front and offices. The Lululemon has a large wall of glass that lets you watch the seamstresses at work sewing future camel toes and muffin-top containers. The London Drugs on the other side also had a coffee shop chain called Artisiano I believe. When I was a different person I remember going to the Artisiano across from the Vancouver Art Gallery. I remember it, that doesn't mean it actually happened. The London Drugs at this location was the most expensive of the main three I shopped in. For those of us east of the "Thunder Bay Chain Store Line" London Drugs will probably need some explaining. London Drugs is a massive chain of "pharmacy-esque" stores that are all over the western provinces. The best way to describe a London Drugs to fellow Ontarians would be to imagine that a Shopper's Drug Mart pooped a FutureShop.

The Blendz in the middle was very narrow. I looked up the history of the Blendz Coffeehouse Chain and found out that it is indeed a Vancouver chain. In the 90's they started to open locations in Asia and it began to spread like Chlamydia. The big draw for me, besides the wifi, was the massive Rice Krispy Squares and "Nature Bars". The Nature bars I discussed often last summer and tried to recreate back in autumn with limited success. The Rice Krispy Squares though were the real mother-fuck! They would regularly reach sizes of 5"x5"x3". I would often have them as my breakfast and also dinner. Looking back now they must have been about 800 or 900 calories a pop.

They were also open 24 hours a day. This was great during my final hours because it was 4:00 am-ish when I pushed Alison's house keys back through the mail slot. I remember feeling calm and focused and tried hard to download a movie to watch on the plane. I sat at the back wall between the fixing station and the washrooms. The table faced the front window and was a great way to see both the entire coffeeshop as well as the bus station outside. The excitement is palpable. I stayed in that spot for about an hour and a half. Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world I got up, went to the rented Ford Edge and drove down Cambie to the airport. I remember having the new Wolf Parade on and I was singing the words "I was asleep in a hammock, I was dreaming that I was a web, I was a dreamcatcher hanging in the window of a mini-van, I'd say that I was all alone..."

At one point I accidentally ran a red light. I can only assume I was hitting the line "You will never be born as a scorpion" and just got carried away. I never received a ticket so I guess there was no camera.

At the Airport I discovered that the Ford Edge I had rented the day before was actually $100 dollars more than what I had been told 18 hours earlier. This was where I first decided that when it comes to money I would just accept defeat. Since then I've paid out at least $2000 in various government bills including $500 in ambulance fees that I just paid last Friday. If you're wondering about the ambulance... ask someone else. I don't share that story.

The flight was uneventful. I used to love flying and now it's quite possibly the worst procedure I can endure. I suppose it has to do with the fact that all my frequent flights have been alone, bored and cramped, kind of like sleeping in the back of a rented Ford Edge.

Now to the present.

I've been building out the first of about 5 websites I'd like to have in my updated portfolio for May. Web design is fun in a very frustrating way. The front end visual aspect is easy, almost second nature to me. I understand, html css javascript and PHP but being able to read it and being able to write it are two very different things. The nice part is that this first site for my friend Adam is by far the most intricate. I'm pretty proud of it and I can't wait to show it off. He's a wedding photographer out of London. His stuff is amazing and I know that a sweet custom built site will bring him some bones. Bones are the junk your muscles don't use.

I'm also finishing off my After Effects and Maya training. By the end of spring I will have mastered graphic, print, web, multimedia and 3D design. All of this by the way is to try and get an entry level position while I continue to plan my cafe. I prefer to know everything.

Song of the day is:

Promises by Morning Benders

Oh and Happy Birthday.