Swinging in the Autumn Air

I was restless after being cooped up in my bed since my surgery. But finally! Finally today I was able to go outside without experiencing pain from the light. I went to the school near my house and hopped on the swings for a good half hour. It was exhilarating, and the feeling I had - resulting from the crisp autumn air, the sun warming my back, the leaves swirling in the wind, Beach House's dreamy music playing in my ipod, the rush of swinging as high as my legs could pump me - I just felt truly happy. There I was, grinning like an idiot, on the swings by myself, and I didn't care. I couldn't stop smiling because of the enthusiasm I had for life at that moment. I smiled at the trees, at the sky, at the gardener using his leaf blower. I feel as if there were so many exciting things ahead for me in life. Having perfect vision is just a part of it.

CD Collection

For three days pretty much all I did was lie in bed, listen to music, put eyedrops in my eyes, eat, shower, and sleep. I went through all these cds...yes all thirty of them. By Sunday I was so sick of lying in bed that I got up, found my sister's old Ace of Base cd, and danced in my room to some good old 90's dance music. Did you know they even have a bhangra version of All That She Wants in their cd?

There was some good stuff in there that I hadn't listened to in years. I bought the majority of these cds when I was in late high school/university, and I found that I really liked my 80s emo. For example I was listening to the Smiths' Meat is Murder... yeah that song had Morrissey singing about how killing calves is murder, complete with cows mooing in the background. I rediscovered my love of Jeff Buckley (he is a genius!) and how catchy Weezer's blue album is.

Showers

I'm not allowed to get my eyes wet. When I shower, I wear not only these swim goggles, but also my big pair of sunglasses on top of them. I pretty much can't see anything with both of these on, especially since my goggles fog up from the steam...

BUT at least I finally got to use my swim goggles! YEAH I've only used them the one time that I bought them. I find them to be very practical now!

Laser Eye Surgery

I got PRK done on my eyes with Dr Lin at Pacific Laser Eye Centre. I did NO research at all before booking this appointment; after all, I knew at least five people who had done it with him and they all raved about how he is the best laser eye surgeon in Vancouver, so I decided to just go ahead and do it with him. (Later on I found out that there were other places I could have done it at for $2000 less... but I guess money is dispensable whereas my eyes aren't).

There are two kinds of laser eye surgery available: PRK and Lasik. Lasik is the one where they cut a flap open in your eye - it has a much faster recovery rate, but it's less safe long term because there is always the chance of the flap coming back open. Dr Lin recommended PRK for me since I am young and active. In PRK, they shave off part of your cornea. Recovery takes longer, but I had the vacation time anyway.

So I was in the surgery room, and looking at the green light...but Dr Lin kept yelling at me! "Hey girl, why aren't you looking at the green light? Focus on the light! What's wrong with you, why aren't you looking? You're supposed to be a simple case, but you're making it complicated! Just look at that green light!"  "I'm trying," I answered. "But everytime I barked at you, you would look at the green light! That means you're just not focusing," he replied. Needless to say, that one eye took a pretty long time. Not to mention there was the smell of my burning corneas... good thing people had warned about that beforehand!

Overall it wasn't as bad as I expected. Plus I got to wear these big dorky sunglasses!

Foo Fighters @ Rogers Arena

The Foo Fighters from a suite at Rogers Arena! I'm not used to not being on the floor at concerts and I felt a big disconnect at the beginning especially since the suite is quite far from the stage (it's in between the lower and upper bowl) but the Foo Fighters were so good that by the end of the night I didn't mind at all. The suite itself was cool - we got a separate entrance/exit, our own bathroom, and kitchen area. Not too shabby. I didn't know a lot of their songs in the beginning (they played songs from their new album and I only know the singles they have on the radio) but by the end of the 3 hour long show I was recognizing most of their songs. I think next time I would probably even pay to go to see them again! I'm glad my friend decided to take me to this show :)

On the Couch

Went over to Anna's new place for dinner. Here we are sitting on her "couch", a.k.a. the white blanket. (It's even expandable.)

The Head and the Heart @ Commodore

One of the most feel good concerts I've been to in awhile. When we arrived, there was already a sizable crowd of tall people in front of the stage, but we managed to squeeze our way onto the second row, behind a group of shorties (yay!).  One of the best parts of the night was when the two opening bands came out to do Lost in My Mind along with The Head and the Heart, with the whole crowd singing along. It was a sold out show at the Commodore, and I can definitely see why.

This was supposed to conclude my string of concerts for the month, but my friend just invited me to come with her to the Foo Fighters show next week since she got free tickets from work. YES!

Granville Island

I've been going to Granville Island a lot recently (today I went after a quick lunch at Meat & Bread - the guy working there was about to introduce himself when he recognized me and said, "Oh you've been here before!" I swear I don't go there that often though...)

I looked at some yacht prices and I was sorry to see that they were all over my budget. I just can't afford a 10 million dollar yacht. What a disappointment.

Those were the days...

I was doing a little reminiscing on what was probably the best month of my life - being abroad with my best friends with no cares in the world (it really is the best way to take your mind off the upcoming results of a licensing exam!). All I had to decide was, should I eat pizza or pasta for this meal? Should we have wine or water with our food? Should we all wear our white dresses today? How much sunblock should I apply? Those were the days...

Young the Giant @ The Vogue

I didn't like how a request for a photo pass was sent to Young the Giant, but there was no response. Usually they will say yes or no..but for these guys there was just no answer at all. Argh so frustrating! Anyway I had bought myself a ticket anyway, so it was all good. Watching them perform My Body live was worth the 26 bucks. It's such a good concert song to jump along to!

The Drums @ Venue

The lady behind me at coat check said it best : "If I danced like the lead singer on a dance floor, people would think I was a freak. But because he's a lead singer in a band then it's cool."

These guys are kind of a Joy Division/The Smiths meets the Beach Boys surfer pop...Their music sounds happy, and one day I was singing along to my favourite song (the catchy Best Friend), when I realized the lyrics went like this:

You're my best friend, but then you died
When you were 23 and I was 25
You're my best friend, but then you died
And how will I survive?

And everyday, I waited for you
And everyday, on the top of your car
And everyday, I waited for you
And everyday, on the hood of your car

I had a dream of you,
You were drifting away
You were sad
You always would drift away
And I know you're going to be okay
Because I can see it in your eyes
And I know I wanna survive

...Depressing lyrics, huh?

Hello?

Not my photo, but I love this.

Cut Copy @ Vogue Theatre

What a brilliant show by Cut Copy. Definitely one of my favourites of the year - they were so engaging and FUN. I loved the singer's dance moves and how the guitarist would smile and wink whenever he made eye contact.

There was lots of stage diving and crowd surfing - one guy climbed onto the stage and narrowly escaped being caught by security by doing a stage dive...unfortunately it was right onto the floor! There was no one there to catch him. Poor guy. I can't wait for Cut Copy to return to Vancouver!

I wish I had my SLR with me - imagine how much better these photos would be!

I met a guy named Joey before the show and I loved our conversation because he probably thought I was a cashier or a stock girl.

Joey: Where do you work?
Me: (insert large pharmacy chain here)
Joey: Do you go to school too?
Me: Nope I just work.
Joey: What do you want to do with your life? Is there anything you aspire to be?
Me (chuckling in my head): Not really. Actually I think I am at the height of my career right now.
Joey: Oh...well it's good not to aim too high.
Me: Yeah you're right. I don't think I want to do anything else.
Joey: That's ok. Don't have high expectations of yourself! This way it'll make you feel better.
Me: Can you think of anything else I can do?
Joey: Well, what exactly do you do at (large pharmacy chain)?
Me: I'm a pharmacist.
Joey: Oh! That's actually pretty good...

Food + Updates

Pics of food from Banana Leaf during my 9 course meal with Giosy a few weeks ago...yum!

My life has been so busy lately so I haven't had much time to update my blog. I've been going to tons of concerts, which is great but incredibly tiring. Tonight I am going to my fifth show in ten days, then I have two more shows next week. I have definitely been lacking sleep!

It looks like I am finally going to get a permanent store sometime in the near future. It's not where I envisioned myself working permanently, but after much thought I realized that my chances of getting a good store in the Vancouver area is pretty slim. This one is a good store with great staff (everyone is young - most are in their 20s and 30s), nice clientele (not a lot of addicts or people on welfare - everyone has $$$$), no language barriers, not as frustrating as many stores in the lower mainland. The only thing about the store that made me consider turning it down is the amount of gas I would have to use - it's almost 40km each way (although it's only a half hour drive)! I'm still floating for now, but once they need more people there then it looks like I am next in line for a position there.

I've abandoned my project 365 for the year. I just couldn't keep up and I had lost the motivation.

And...I'm getting laser eye surgery in 3 weeks!

Girls @ Biltmore

I had never really heard of Girls before, but I ended up going to this concert anyway (this time as a paying ticket holder!). I'm glad I did - it was such an intense show. It was sold out and the place was packed. We managed to get the best spots in my opinion - sitting on the black boxes on the sides of the stage. It was crazy because there ended up being a mosh pit, and I didn't even think it was possible to mosh to their songs! Everyone was falling all over onto the stage and some girls even ended up just kneeling on the stage right in front of the band for the full show (one even decided to plug her iphone into the outlet in front of the guitarist...then held up her phone about 3 inches away from his face to take pictures of him).

The chief photog had the photo duties for tonight and he came right before the show started at 11:30, so I don't know how he managed to get photos. I didn't envy him because it must have been hard getting through the crowd. As my concert buddy Peter said, he might as well just have given me his camera because I had a great view! (I wish I brought my SLR - I forgot how bad my point and shoot is).

Pains of Being Pure at Heart @ Biltmore

Bad lighting! I talked to the band afterwards and they told me that they weren't given any options on what kind of lighting to use and that if I had told them beforehand, they would have requested better lighting. It was an interesting night. Phoebe is friends with the band since she translated for them in the summer at a music festival in Japan. She even got a shout out during the show. And I somehow ended up driving the guitarist and bassist around after the show...it was pretty random.

Grouplove @ Electric Owl