Good Vibes
I had a long day today. And a longer drive. Today I got to drive home, through downtown Vancouver, during rush hour. That was awesome.
But even more awesome was the totally scary east side. My route home takes me along Hastings, between Highway 1 and Howe street. Meaning I get to drive past the infamous corner of Hasting and Main. But that part really isn't the worst. It's the beginning of the bad, but I have to say the other streets are worse. If only because the "pedestrians" there, seem to not care anything for traffic signals...or even traffic. They randomly cross the street whenever they feel like it, at their own pace of course. Which adds another whole dimension of stress to the drive home. That and my Mother's warnings about car jackers.
However, today I didn't really care. The one family in North Van that I worked with last were great. There is so much love, support and positive energy in that house. When I left instead of feeling drained like I usually do after a session, I felt energized and refreshed. It was amazing. I'm really looking forward to going back on Monday.
Last night Anna and I went to go see Garden State at the Fifth Ave. It was a beautiful, evocative film. The music was amazing, he used my favourite Shins song, and the cinematography was absolutely gorgeous. That Zach Braff certainly has a great eye. The story really got to me as well. One scene in particular showed such intimacy between two characters, that it made me just long for my boy once again. It was so accurate, which is strange for a movie. Usually movie love forsakes subtlety, but not this film. It stays true to it's characters and as such the love story is remarkably genuine. A lot like Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind. Both were realistic portrayals of love. At least in my opinion. So go see it. I promise you won't regret it. It's funny too. I think I missed some lines because I was laughing to much.
Today we had to move all our equipment from North Delta back to Cirkids proper at the PNE. This meant I got into the PNE for free, which was nice but not great since I was alone and unprepared. I got enough of a look around to know that I don't need to pay to go back... But that's not what I meant to write about. To get to and from work, I take the 135 bus all the way along Hastings from Burrard to Renfrew. I hadn't done it for a few weeks, but I did it today coming home from the PNE. I really love that ride. I find it fascinating how the streetscape changes even though you're going in a straight line. I especially liked it last year when I worked on Sunday mornings. The sun would be shining from the direction I was going (east) and everything looked fresh, if not clean. I saw people getting up out of doorways where they'd spent the night, and hookers walking home from their shifts. And sometimes people lined up outside churches. I remember, as a little kid, being terrified of the downtown eastside. I would cling to my mom as she led me from the car to the Army and Navy, and try not to look at anything. Particularly that butcher shop, which I still don't like... Anyway, bussing through there a couple of times a week made me love it. At least from the safety of the bus. And learning that it was right next to Chinatown, which I love, helped too. Then, when I worked at the Cirque site, I had to wait for the bus at 11:30 at night on Pender at Carrall, which expanded my horizons some more. There was one guy who always had a used-but-still-good bus ticket to trade with me for a new one. And there was another who kept trying to sell me drugs. One morning when I had to be back early, he was still on the same corner. I asked if he'd made it to bed, and he said no, which made me sad. I learned to cross the street AFTER the overpass so as to have a clear line of sight going through it, and in the end, the scariest thing I encountered was the pack of rats that lived under there. Point being, sketchytown is cool and interesting and everyone should go check it out,