My Long Weekend...by Fancy C. Poitras

It's been a rigorous week of soul searching. After last weekend's revelations I had to get to know myself all over again, and try to pull my life together. I'm happy to say that I've made my peace with my Las Vegas activities, but only because I've chosen the path of ignorance: I happily ignore that fact.

In other news, this past weekend was August Long Weekend (known in BC as BC Day...how niftily original), and it was a busy one.

FRIDAY

work was slow and torturous, as I cut and framed pictures. Curious, really. I also spent time sending out resumes. You see, I lucked out and tripped my way onto this website, http://www.charityvillage.com which was just about the most exciting thing I've found online since I moved to BC. It's a website devoted to Charities and NPOs/NGOs, with incredible links and tips for people in the field, and most importantly to me right now, it lists up-to-date job postings with organizations in the field. I got a little ambitious and applied on a couple of jobs that may be out of my league in terms of job history, but are perfectly in tune with my education and volunteer histories, with some very notable groups.

After work, I finagled Rod into driving out to Langley for Olive Garden, cause DAMN, I needed me some cheese ravioli...still do, but whatever. We drove through Surrey, and that's an experience I don't need to repeat again. It took too long, and it was dreadfully suburban. I shudder when I try to imagine my life in a cookiecutter house in a manicured neighbourhood. I curl up in a ball and cry. But I digress. We had a nice supper, spent the night enjoying the squeak-toy shoes a little Chinese baby wore as he toddled around the restaurant charming everyone with his fabulous shoes and even more fabulous little Chinese silk suit and matching hat (with a prince's lock attached even). It made me want one...of those pairs of shoes. Let's not get crazy here.

SATURDAY

It was up and 'atter early, as I decided we were going to venture out on a hot, hot day to the downtown core for the Powell Street Festival. Yes, you have to walk through sketchyville to get there, but it something unique to do, and I love, love, love seeing Taiko Drum performances. This one was by an all-female group, so it less acrobatic, but still fantastic, and I'm glad to have seen it.

We limped our way back to the skytrain to go home, but got sidetracked by a clearance sample sale in Gastown where I picked up a pair of silver Adidas ballet-slipper style shoes. We got home and promptly turned around and drove around to get McDonald's, Tim Horton's and Harvey's (it was a big junkfood weekend).

After a few hours rest, we were up again and heading out for the last night of the Celebration of Light Fireworks spectacle. It was Mexico's turn, and it was alright, had it's moments of brilliance, but I won't lie, I've seen better. It just relied too heavily of 3 or 4 colours. But hey, I've seen worse...anyone who saw Edmonton's Canada Day '04 debacle knows what I'm talking about.

SUNDAY

Now Sunday's the Big Day here, as it was PRIDE PARADE DAY! Yippee!! We got a decent spot at Davie on Denman, and for 2 1/2 hours, we took in the highs and lows of the LGTB community and it's supporters.

I felt sorry for the three guys taking part in the Conservative Party of Canada float (which was two guys carrying a banner, and a convertible), while The Liberal Party and the New Democrats came with a large flock. Okay, that's a lie. I didn't feel sorry for them. In truth, I could only think, "How fucking hypocritical are you going to be to get a vote?" Sure, there are gay Conservatives and gay supporters, and that's great; but this is the party that wants to repeal hard-fought-and-won equal rights for Same-sex Marriage, and you've got the audacity to turn up at a fucking parade where the whole point is to take pride in living a lifestyle that the Conservative Party would rather you kept in a closet? Two words: Get real.

It was a bright, happy, fun-filled event, lots of music and nudity :)

After it was over, we went down to Costco for a quick look around, and I have to say, the Edmonton stores are infinitely better then the one on Boundary Ave here. This one was much smaller and carried far less of the stock we're accustomed to. We'll have to see if the one over by Burnaby Lake fares batter. It was a fairly non-descript night after that. Just trying to cool down after the last two days in the sun.

MONDAY

Another lazy start to the day. We had planned to go out to Hell's Gate up at Abbottsford, but changed our minds in favour of the shorter trip up to Whistler, for a sort of scouting mission. One thing I know I'm excited about for this winter is that we're not that far from one of the world's greatest Winter Playgrounds. I'm not an outdoors-type of kid, because growing up in the North, you didn't GO outside in the winter and so I'm accustomed to toasty warm indoors, but something tells me that the less extreme weather could induce me to get back out on the slopes (but not the ice...damn, skates kill my ankles).

The drive up was lovely, filled with spectacular scenery on the road from Horseshoe Bay to Squamish. The drive from Squamish to Whistler was nice too, but I've seen more spectacular mountain vistas. I was impressed with Whistler's set up, so perfectly planned to meet the needs of anyone, and more than a little mindful of the number of injuries I saw. In the span of an hour, I noted 5 individuals with various broken or otherwise injuries limbs...that's how you know you're living in a region that is so thrivingly vital and enthusiastically sporting.

We stayed for about an hour and a half, ate, wandered the Village centre, and then turned around and drove home, where we stuffed our faces with Subway and watched E.T. The Extraterrestrial. It always makes me profoundly sad at the beginning when his ship flees without him and his little glowing chest cavity dies away in heart-wrenching abandonment. Anyone who doesn't feel even a little bit sorry for him at that point is BROKEN.

So that was my weekend in a nutshell...now I need a break from my break. Dead tired. Too busy being tired from all the excitement to stop and ponder the state of affairs in the world, let alone the state of my bathroom.