The mildly nomadic life of May Hen…

It’s been over two weeks since I’ve seen my good friend Danielle and I’m very excited about picking her up at the airport tomorrow. We’ve become so accustomed to seeing each other several times a week and so it always feels like something is missing when one of us goes out of town for an extended period of time. We met this past fall in grad school and I knew she lived close by but we didn’t really start hanging out until one night I asked her if she wanted to join me on a walk along the seawall with my dog. After that, it became a habit and I didn’t really know if she was walking with me in the evenings to be polite or if she really enjoyed my company (first date nervousness). After a while, she started asking ME if I wanted to go for a walk and thats when I knew the feeling was mutual (no more first date nervousness, haha). We just hit it off so well and it’s just so nice to have such a good friend close by. We go for nice long evening walks along the seawall or Stanley Park and we both find it so therapeutic to help us unwind at the end of the day. Plus, the dog gets a nice long walk out of it and some good exercise  –  though really — the humans benefit more from it. At the height of it, I’m pretty we were seeing each other 6-days a week from walking to being in class together to bumping into each other on campus!

So where does this story take us? Well, I was going through my camera and found some photos of us at Granville Island last month. One of our last mini-outings together before she left. And it made me happy to look at them again.

I love walking through the markets looking at the beautiful display of fruits and vegetables.

Though really, there are only two stops I make on a regular basis: Seigels Bagels (Kits location still much better) and Lee’s DONUTS!! Donuts are my weakness. I bought a half dozen box for myself. I can’t control myself. If Danielle weren’t there I would have probably bought a dozen.

Those of you who know her will know that she’s recently started eating meat again and it is such a fascination watching her order meat at the butcher. I had to document it of course … Here’s her blog if you’d like to see what she (and sometimes me)  is up to…https://labelsarefortincans.wordpress.com

Last month Rachelle and I went on a road trip to Vancouver Island. She had to go to an engagement party in Port Alberni and then to Duncan to see her family so I tagged along for the ride… and what a ride. We missed the ferry by 2 cars and sat at the terminal for 2 hours waiting for the next one. I realized when neither of us freaked out that we would make good travel companions. I already knew we were from Mexico though, but this re-affirmed it.

After eating my emergency stash of pro-bars in the glove compartment, napping and reading in the car, I asked Rachelle how long of a drive it would be to Port Alberni because we should account for traffic. Being a born-and-raised island girl, she looked at me and snickered: “Silly city girl May, there is no traffic on the island!” And she was right.  We made record time once we crossed the water which I attribute to her excellent car DJing skills, music makes the drive go faster. Loaded up with liquor from the liquor store, we managed to pull into Port Alberni for a pretty awesome party where I met some great new people.

The next morning, we took it slow as we made our way to Duncan. We stopped by Coombs for a late brunch and nursed our ‘mild’ hangovers with coffee. Coombs is known for their green roof complete with goats. Unfortunately it was too early in the season for the goats.

After that, we stopped at Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park in Parksville and went for a nice long walk along the beach. We ended our evening at her parents place in Duncan and had a nice dinner and another walk (we’re romantic walkers) around her neighbourhood after failing to find any beach due to the high tide.

In the morning, we went for a nice hike up Mt. Tzouhalem where we got to take in a spectacular view of the Cowichan Valley.

We then packed up to go home and made one last lunch stop by in Cowichan. There could not have been a more picturesque place to have lunch.

This is the spectacular view on the ferry ride home.

And I leave you with the final quintessential BC Ferry experience: Lining up for White Spot. We’ve all been there and we all know the protocol

This month I had a wonderful series of events and epiphanies about grad school. As a result, I made the commitment to follow my passion and set everything else aside. It’s really re-oriented my outlook in life and I’m scared, excited and thrilled… I have little else to say but I do have an awesomely appropriate Dilbert comic for your viewing pleasure. My passion does not involve carbs by the way…

While I was in Cayman, I woke up every morning while Ryan was in the shower to make him breakfast. It was so early I’d crawl back into bed to sleep before he’d emerge from the bathroom. To his surprise and delight when he came downstairs, a breakfast sandwich would be plated and ready for him before work and I knew it made his day because he had been complaining about the 100′s of cliff bars he’d eat for breakfast other days. These are the notes I had the pleasure of coming down to that week. They made and continue to make my day. I’ve got them tucked into my journal and now I get to look at them and remember that little moment in time for years to come.

Jenny gave Shannon and I the gift of art for Christmas and we finally found a time to get together to get our creative juices flowing. After dinner at Glowbal, Jenny, Shannon, Danielle and I went over to Raw Canvas to paint.

This is Danielle and my blank canvas. We both had an idea of what we wanted to paint. I drew mine out on a piece of paper and then onto the canvas.

You can probably guess what it was. The staff there are super friendly and helpful with your artwork and the environment was positive. You can order wine, cheese, charcuterie and dessert. When we left, a stagette was coming in for the night which was pretty cool.

Vern seemed impressed with my picture. He thought he could have been a live model as he holds that same position for hours on end anyway.

My good friend Mark got married this past weekend. This is us with some of the Mexico group.

I I met mark in Mexico in 2010. We were part of a group of 20 (17 girls and 3 guys) students from SFU on a field school during the 2010 Olympics. I remember meeting Rachelle on the plane ride down to Mexico and sharing a cab with her and Zorn, another student,  into Guadalajara. None of us spoke any Spanish and our driver got lost trying to find our way to the hostel. It was an exciting time. Mark was the social coordinator, photographer and extremely friendly Canadian of the bunch. He was always open to trying new things and open to exploring.

When Rachelle and I arrived to our hostel, we discovered that we were the last two girls to the hostel therefore we were left with the only two beds — the coffins (okay they were trundles) — the pull out drawer underneath the bottom bunk bed. My sack of earplugs and scarf over my face saved me on that trip. Being in the middle of the floor with 8 sets of feet surrounding and on top of my bed didn’t keep me from sleeping like a log. Rachelle’s trundle was in the other room and she took sleeping in those cramped and crappy quarters equally as cooly. It was over the next two weeks that I got to really become good friends with Rachelle and Mark who were some of the most easy going people I had ever met. Both were sincere and could roll with the punches as they came along. I knew we were making memories and friendships but I didn’t know it would be to the extent and wonderfulness (I don’t care if it’s not a word) that I have with them now. The wedding was beautiful and I teared up during the ceremony. Getting to watch Angela come down the aisle and Mark getting to marry the love of his life felt pretty amazing.

This couple is also pretty amazing. I’m sure they’ll have an equally awesome wedding

Here are some photos of the resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach. It’s got a pretty spectacular view of the coast. Wish I could have stayed there longer.

We spent some time walking along the beach during sunset as well. Not much to say except that we’ll be back soon.