31: POPCORN

Middle shifts are so hard for me because of the awkward meal times. I had a shawarma wrap during my break at 4 as my 'dinner', then I got home at 9:30 and was so hungry that I gorged on popcorn and made myself sick. Sigh.

30: ANOTHER BON VOYAGE

We had a surprise bon voyage party for Giosy, as she is leaving us next week for Italy. It was held at Kat's condo downtown - it was my first time there and boy was I impressed, both at the place and at her amazing cooking skills. She made us so much good food!!

First we had appies, with my favourite, the baked brie.

She had also set up lovely place settings at the dinner table.

The building has a gorgeous downtown view:

And it even has its own bouldering wall (!!!):

We had THREE desserts: Cupcakes (Rae's contribution), creme brulee, and chocolate espresso pudding.

Why are all my friends moving away? Everyone's living in different cities, countries, and continents now! I miss having everyone in the same city as me. Anyway let's end this off with a poem I wrote.

IN ITALIA

O mio dio Giosy! You are leaving soon

You surely must be over the moon.

Leaving Vancouver and living on your own

In Firenze, in Italia! Where you will hone

Your language skills, your cooking skills,

Your making-eye-contact-with-strange-men skills!

You’ll be such a pro with these Italian men

I bet you’ll have four or five or maybe even ten

Feeding you grapes, and shining your shoes

Wearing aprons and cooking you stews.

They’ll be eating off the palm of your hand

Your Florentine life will be so grand!

I’m jealous of all this pasta and pizza and gelato and more

You’ll be eating so much food your jaws will get sore

While you’re there you have to try a Florentine steak

It’ll be even better than a Dairy Queen ice cream cake

(With extra cookie); My mouth is watering as I write this line

That thick juicy slab of meat, I wish it could be mine…

But don’t eat too much gelato without brushing your teeth after

I know you’re asking, “Why does this even matter?”

Well your teeth will fall off, and then you’ll need dentures,

And you really don’t want that kind of adventure.

Our Eurotrips were the stuff of legend

How I wished they would never end

The travels we’ve done have brought us closer

To a true friendship (you know I’m not a poser)

For the next seven months I will miss you dearly

And I mean this very sincerely

You’re one of my ragazze, my traveling sister

You will never be replaced by any mister!

Your stay in Italy will be so awesome

It’s the time and place for you to blossom.

With confidence you’ll speak Italian that’s perfetto

While drinking espressos, wearing stilettos.

I demand that you keep in touch (hellz yeah I’m bossy)

Ma e’ perche’ ti voglio bene, la mia carina Giosy!

29: FIVE SAILS

I had dinner with my family at Five Sails, located in the Pan Pacific downtown. A 9pm dinner meant a very hungry me!

Risotto appetizer

Beef tenderloin

28: GLOOMY NIGHTS

I had to deal with so many ignorant, angry people today - it was really a McPharmacy day. One customer was so angry at not being able to get a refund that he opened the lid of his vial and threw the pill contents at the pharmacy manager. So much drama!

27: TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS

Interpol is one of my favourite bands, and I had been waiting for them to come back to Vancouver for years. They definitely did not disappoint tonight. What I found odd was the choice of venue, since the Orpheum is suited more for symphonies rather than rock concerts. It was a bit weird sitting in a nice cushy chair instead of being pushed around on the floor! I even ran into one of my pharmacy lab profs from UBC. I shouldn't have been so surprised to see him though, as he was the one who lent me a copy of his Interpol Live cd after he saw me wearing an Interpol t-shirt to class.

26: PIGEONS IN A LINE

I passed this on my way to work and immediately knew this would be my picture of the day. A row of pigeons on top of the glass windows of the Canada line station, reflecting the Bay from across the street.

25: RAINDROPS v2.0

 As I was typing in the name of this entry, blogger told me that day 25 of 2010 was also called raindrops!

24: CHIMES

23: PAGES

  

Light coming through the pages of my project 365 photobook.

22: A CHILD'S POSE POINT OF VIEW

Yesterday marked the end of my yoga pass with YYoga. I had a great instructor and walked away from my class with incredibly open hips - I can't even begin to describe how good that felt! Classes like these make me think that maybe the price for yoga is worth it, because my body does feel a whole lot better afterwards. However,  because starting a new yoga or gym pass right now is silly due to me going on a 3 week vacation next month, I had resolved to try Bikram yoga this afternoon after climbing in the morning. They are having a deal for beginners ($39 for your first month) and I am determined to make the most out of it before I leave for Japan. This resolve crumbled away when I ended up having a five hour marathon climbing session though, and now I am just too tired to do any more exercise. Maybe tomorrow.

21: FIRST AID

Today, I got paid a work day to update my first aid. I am now trained to do CPR and to use AED's (automated external defibrillators). The best surprise of my day though was the free lunch!

20: GREGORY DEVA 60

Stick holder

Yesterday, I went to MEC and spent half an hour walking around the store with 15 kilos (~30 lbs) inside this Gregory Deva 60 backpack. I felt like I could still hike up a mountain even with this weight on the pack and therefore concluded that I should buy it, especially since it was on sale for $70 off and had won an Editor's Choice Award from Backpacker magazine. And look, it even has a loop to hold my stick (I don't have an ice axe yet), AND a pouch on the hip belt to store my candy for easy access!

Candy holder

19: GRAFFITI

From the MEC parking lot.

18: SKERRY BOOTS

I bought some Tretorn rubber boots from Hills during my lunch break yesterday for 50% off! And I just looked at their website, and these boots are designed for sailing. I am one step closer to realizing my dream of being a sailor!

17: PHO

I'd really like to go to Vietnam one day, because everyone says the food there is wonderful.

16: TICKETS

Lots of concerts to look forward to!

15: TODAY I DIDN'T DROWN

Sporting my new goggles

What a relief! I was anxious about going swimming today, since I can't really swim. And then I was ravenous after three hours of climbing in the morning so I had a big lunch (ROAST LAMB SANDWICH). Just thinking about going swimming after that made me very nervous. But it turned out okay, and my friends didn't let me drown. Now I just need to practice swimming because I need to be ready for when I learn how to sail a boat (my long term aspiration in life).

14: UH OH

Today, I broke the toilet. I came back from Victoria to a toilet that wouldn't flush without me having to open up the tank and pull on the chain by hand. So I went in there and tried to figure out how to fix it, and I ended up snapping off the white plastic thing attaching the chain to the flusher! I'm choked.

13: FEATHERED HAT

12: ROOM SERVICE

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11: COASTAL CELEBRATION

Aboard the ferry to Victoria.

10: PRACTICING MY FLEXIBILITY

I only have two classes left in my yoga pass. Should I renew for one more year, at the steep price of $100/month? I really do enjoy it more than the machines at the gym, but the gym membership is half the price and my company pays for part of it if I go at least twice per week. I have also been sorely lacking in cardio for the past year. That's something yoga can't provide but the gym can. Hmmm.

9: VANIER PARK

A rare sunny day in the city, spent at Vanier Park with fellow photographer, Ciambella Rae. Beautiful days like these make me happy :)

8: MY LEATHERS

7: PENCILS

6: A-OK

You know what's awesome? Finding out that I don't have cancer. Phew!

5: KNIT GLOVES

My aunt sells knit accessories on etsy.com, and she sent me a pair of fingerless gloves which I received today.

By the way, my blog saved me $25 today. Rogers tried to charge $25 to my account and I didn't have any proof to counter their charges and didn't even remember what day I got my new phone, until I remembered that I blogged about it and found the exact date: Oct 29th. Good thing I have a blog!

4: PROJECT TIME

My day off was spent working on a photobook for my 2010 Project 365.  Some people find this task very tiresome, but I derive a lot of pleasure from putting together the pictures into the perfect layouts. I love it! Too bad I only make one book a year.