In Transit

When I first went to university, I had never taken public transit or a cab by myself. For the first two years the only cabs I took were to the airport for school holidays. My first trip to Vancouver, I had no idea how use transit. I purchased a three-zone pass on a one-zone trip and didn’t know how to open the back doors. I was very lucky that day as I had helpful passengers and bus drivers to ensure that I actually got where I wanted to go quickly. It’s funny given how often I use transit now.

How do you fare?

It seems as though the degree of availability of an object is in direct opposite to the degree of your desire or need. Take taxis. When you embark on your journey, first there will be no taxis. Then they are already engaged or at least running with their light off. Then the taxis are arriving in the opposite direction you are traveling, making them impossible to hail. Finally, you are so close to your destination that it is a wash whether the balance of your trip time is worth the ire of the taxi driver at a $5 fare. Hopeless.

Dearest frenemy

It's funny how there are people whose interests are so different that you might think they'd have nothing in common. That they'd never be friends. Karlos and I are pretty well opposites in our interests but our sarcasm brings us together.


Our sarcasm, and the continual joy of threatening each other with impending doom. I love talking with Karlos because we are honest and there's no bullshit. We laugh all the time and if anyone were to listen to our conversation they would think we were the biggest assholes. But they've never known the joys of improvised Goulet poetry or her patience in listening to yet another of my "plans".



To you Karlos -- I'll be watching you in your sleep. Suckah.

Mr. Postman

For instance, I posted the delivery scans of three parcels that were sent to me. Two were sent from Kuwait and one from the US; two were delivered to my apartment and one to my office. What I’ve always found perplexing is why a parcel can be delivered to Canada but then get sent back to the US for further handling before returning to Canada. Watching my parcels bounce around the mid-west for a few days is frustrating but not so infuriating as seeing something enter Canada only to leave again! I really wonder how our mail gets the runaround.

confusion and the postal system

UPS – a mystery
RICHMOND, BC, CA 11/02/2010 12:28 DELIVERED
RICHMOND, BC, CA 10/02/2010 13:07 IMPORT SCAN
10/02/2010 12:17 ARRIVAL SCAN
SEATTLE, WA, US 10/02/2010 11:27 DEPARTURE SCAN
10/02/2010 6:45 ARRIVAL SCAN
RICHMOND, BC, CA 10/02/2010 5:15 RECEIVER'S CUSTOMS BROKER HAS BEEN ASSIGNED. THE SHIPMENT IS NOW RELEASED TO MOVE IN TRANSIT
SEATTLE, WA, US 10/02/2010 5:00 ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS
LOUISVILLE, KY, US 10/02/2010 4:22 DEPARTURE SCAN
COLUMBUS, OH, US 09/02/2010 10:31 DEPARTURE SCAN
09/02/2010 6:26 ARRIVAL SCAN
NEW STANTON, PA, US 09/02/2010 2:19 DEPARTURE SCAN
NEW STANTON, PA, US 08/02/2010 23:00 ARRIVAL SCAN
PITTSBURGH, PA, US 08/02/2010 21:00 DEPARTURE SCAN
08/02/2010 20:40 ORIGIN SCAN
US 05/02/2010 9:18 BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

DHL – part the second
2010-02-11 Shipment Delivered DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-11 06:21 With Courier DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-11 04:15 Arrived at DHL facility DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-10 13:45 Not Home DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-10 08:10 With Courier DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-10 04:10 Arrived at DHL facility DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-09 12:16 Not Home DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-09 10:44 With Courier DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-09 09:42 Arrived at DHL facility DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-09 09:37 Depart Facility VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-09 09:28 Arrived at DHL Facility VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-09 08:27 Transport Delay CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-09 06:08 Depart Facility CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-09 04:33 Depart Facility SEATTLE WA USA
2010-02-09 02:13 Arrived at DHL Facility CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-07 23:20 Arrived at DHL Facility BAHRAIN, BH

DHL – part the first
2010-02-10 12:20 Shipment Delivered DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-10 11:09 With Courier DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-10 10:58 Arrived at DHL facility DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-10 10:57 Clearance processing complete VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-10 10:57 Arrived at DHL Facility VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-10 10:56 Depart Facility VANCOUVER, CA
2010-02-10 08:25 Transport Delay CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-10 06:42 Depart Facility CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-10 06:33 Transport Delay CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-10 04:39 Depart Facility SEATTLE WA USA
2010-02-09 03:59 Clearance processing complete CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-09 03:07 Into Customs CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-09 02:53 Arrived at DHL Facility CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-09 02:53 Into Customs CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-09 02:53 Clearance Delay. CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-09 01:48 Arrived at DHL Facility CINCINNATI OH USA
2010-02-08 22:03 Depart Facility EAST MIDLANDS, GB
2010-02-08 22:01 Transit EAST MIDLANDS, GB
2010-02-08 11:54 Depart Facility LONDON-HEATHROW, GB
2010-02-08 07:36 Security Inspection LONDON-HEATHROW, GB
2010-02-07 23:23 Arrived at DHL Facility BAHRAIN, BH

November catch-up

Before my introduction to the “drabble”, or the project you see here, I was very keen on the idea of linked vignettes. “The Joy Luck Club” can be read as a series of linked vignettes. I like the idea because I don’t think that I have a novel in me to write – but I think that I could write a couple of related vignettes. I also like the idea of a theme being carried over the series, or where one idea is carried over between segments. Or even a concrete portion of the past segment represented in the new one.

A lot goes into being a soccer mom: carpooling, knowing where the fields are, cheering, scheduling and bringing the half time and post game snacks. As a child it’s easy to take these behind the scenes actions for granted but I know that at half time I always looked forward to oranges and after the game there would be Capri Sun juices and a granola bar. A few years ago I joined a women’s soccer team and it took me awhile to realize what was missing: half time orange slices! Refreshing and energizing, the whole team enjoyed this childhood snack.

Vancouver is a city that experiences a great deal of rain throughout the year. Considering this fact, it is not unreasonable to expect that the Vancouver Parks Board would build fields with good drainage and placement. This is not the case however, and often the fields are deemed unplayable and soccer games get cancelled. When I was a child playing soccer, games were rarely cancelled because of the weather and we played on the playing fields. Hell, we played a game in the snow – white lines are hard to see in the snow! Two games have been cancelled thus far.

The weather outside was frightful and I was outside in it. A typical Vancouver downpour: sheeting rain downward and sideways if the wind is right. My walk home took me through the dog park at Nelson and Thurlow, a nicely redesigned park with a walkway that I often frequent on my way to and from work. This particular evening I cast my gaze up and saw water droplets like stars caught underneath my umbrella. They were the size of the droplets that bejewel a spider’s web in the morning – delicate and beguiling, I didn’t notice the downpour quite so much.

Growing up as I did in Truckee, clear skies without much (any) ambient light was the norm for me. I could always see the stars shining brightly – though my constellation recognition was limited to Orion and the Big Dipper. Or maybe it was the Little Dipper? Still, I have always been able to spy Orion in the night sky. When I moved to Oregon, I took an astronomy class that took field trips for star viewing. When I moved to British Columbia, I had to range farther afield to escape the city’s artificial light. Seven stars, three points of reference.

The first time I made the drive from Truckee to Vancouver my mom came with me to help me get settled. My car, a Toyota Corolla All-trac, was filled from top to bottom – including bike and ski racks on the roof. We had just enough room for the two of us in the front and a small snack cooler under my mom’s feet. It was a masterful piece of packing on our part. We crossed state lines and international borders and as we drove along the hedge-lined mansions of Southwest Marine Drive, I felt like a small town girl. Goll-lee.

My first two years in Vancouver, I existed largely in the University bubble – I lived in residence for a year and a half of that time. It was easy not to leave campus, or only to venture out a few blocks to pick up groceries at the nearby Safeway. I dreaded driving downtown because I always got lost on the one-way streets, the traffic was fast and bus drivers scared me. For part of this time I even lived off-campus, renting a room from an older woman, but I didn’t explore much of the neighborhood. The city still overwhelmed me.