My New Loves

I have three new loves actually and two are in this photo - well sort of - the bag from Matt and Nat - a vegan bag and from a Canadian company nonetheless - who just happen to have choose salvation as part of their mission statement - I absolutely love their bags but the price is out of my limit to purchase any at this time. This one - the Autobahn was on sale from their winter collection.

The second love is Leaha's Starbucks cup which I'm holding - actually it's not her's that I love but it's the same, if that makes sense - I bought the new version of the same cup - which is poppy red. The real way to usher spring into Vancouver - with a new spring Starbucks cup - saving the world from paper cups, plastic lids and the "Way I See It's."

The third love of mine - is Yael Naim - her song New Soul was on Much More Music a few weeks back and it caught my ear - I really enjoy it - but what I love more actually is her cover of Toxic and her voice - it's un-polished - there isn't that canned standard Americanized pop-star nature to it. Check them out. The blog about my legs is coming - once I can get Leaha to come home and take a picture of my beautiful scars.

Bittersweet Blush

Leaha called and left me an urgent message on my voicemail - I returned it expecting to hear about Tim or even McSmiley - though I haven't heard anything of him as of late... no instead I heard something that has restored my faith in me - in the belief that it will be one of these days in a Starbucks that my life will change...

K* our barista boy - the one we placed an I SAW YOU in the Georgia Straight, and have for the last 6 months flirted on and off with - and for the last 3 have not ordered my favorite drink for the fear that I would be found out and never able to enter that Starbucks again. We've talked about school (he just finished a degree in English/Humanities), life and the fact that my tea was never in. Well it's funny how things always come together at the end. Leaha told me a little while back that K* was leaving for a store on Robson (there are 4 the last time I checked) to be a manager - I was sad. But not as sad as I was when Leaha called. K* was working this morning, and so the story goes - K put the whole vegan roommate to Leaha thing together and tells her I'm really cute. Well gosh darn it - Mr. Strict Vegetarian with gorgeous man hair, piercings and an awesome repertoire of literary knowledge thinks I'm really cute. *Blush* Now I'm not one to freely accept compliments for various reasons, one it leads to a revolving cycle of seeking approval but you know what I'll make an exception - I needed that - a little girlie boost to the end of my first full week - dealing with geriatric patients and all the fun of commuting in the snow.

Who knows maybe I'll go in there tomorrow and order my Grande soy vanilla Americano Misto just for the heck of it...?

Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/miskan/18742153/

My days are numbered...

Due to my love of an awesome roommate, I will not be going to Starbucks after this Thursday. No, I will not have given up caffeine, I will however for the sake of her pride (she works there now), my shame and the awesome man hair of our beloved Barista boy be forced to find other caffeine refill locations. Why? Well, Leaha decided since I'm prone to blush in the presence of this boy to post an I Saw You on my behalf in this week's Georgia Straight - out on Thursday - I had no part in it, nor do I know what she typed, she can verify this. Those of you unfamiliar with the I Saw You's they're the answer to Craigslist's missed connections, an "I think you're cute, but I didn't get your number" type of service...useful for times when it isn't feasible and or when you just don't have the nerve. Now this is all said in light of the previous comments, I am in no way looking for anything with Mr. Gorgeous Man Hair... he's got a Mohawk(!) and would have been more than happy with blushing when he says Hi to me because I'm a regular. A regular no more, no more late night studying unless that is I burn my white toque and never order a soy vanilla Americano Misto again - hmmm always a possibility, heard their Green Tea Latte's are good.

While I'd love to blame Leaha because this is all so silly and nothing should ever come between me and my Starbucks, NOTHING, it provides an experiment if you will into the greater issue of social navigation beyond your immediate friend group and also a perfect lesson in why we shouldn't judge on appearance... it's tough there is an aesthetic that has an appeal to me - and it does involve awesome man hair (dreads and mohawks included), tattoos and or as seen at 10th - any kind of Not for Profit/Activist type clothing - worked for Amnesty, Greenpeace etc works for me? Then again, who knows maybe that's just a phase, and that's why I'm still single, since I really need to find me someone so 100% vanilla to marry....

So what do you think? Are you the kind of person who would start a conversation with a stranger? Or would you use a format like I Saw You or just not even bother? For the limited male audience - what's your take on the whole thing?

The World vs. The Outside

I've been slowly progressing through Dorothy Day's biography, I'm determined to survive the dryness for the sake of the tidbits she poses. The issue as of late - as I sort through all my stuff and seriously contemplate the future direction of my life - how simply can I live? Simple living in all it's aspects - the food I eat - where it's from etc to what I buy - in that do I really need it? Will those new jeans really land me a pick up line let alone a date - and really is life based on that? I know I don't want to raise children in western society - I remember feeling scorned on non-uniform days or at social events - I worked for everything I had, or needed starting with my first job. I didn't have money to spend it on frivolous expenses like Gucci bags or MuiMui dresses, and I sure didn't get a new car on my 16th birthday or an all expenses trip to the Hilton in Maui for my graduation. I know that's the expectation of any private school kid. So I don't send my kids to private school - only public - considering my experiences with that too I'm apprehensive. But that's far beyond the scope of the here and now. Adulthood is still very much the same - acquisition of stuff - your ring, the wedding, the house and yes even the two kids and the dog or cat. How do you define the lines - where is acceptable and extravagant?

So why other than Dorothy have I been thinking like this? Well a myriad of factors one undercutting it all is the hype over the 10 year anniversary of Diana's death. In case some of you have forgotten another woman died that year, Mother Teresa. There was a distinct binary then and even more so now - one woman worshiped by the world, and another scorned because she chose to worship that which cannot be converted into commercial success. She devoted her life to offering hope to orphans and a peaceful exit to those who had labored.

There is this quote from The Irresistible Revolution that really struck me for two reasons - one I watched my great aunt die a very painful, though thankfully that part was only about two weeks from non-smoker's lung cancer - where she labored to breathe, in the end suffocating and two because of the Gerontology course I took on Death and Dying and the truths revealed.

"Those dying people were some of the most vibrant people I had ever met. There is a morgue in the home for the dying. As you walk into it, a sign on the wall reads, "I'm on my way to heaven." And when you turn around to walk out, another says, "Thanks for helping me get there." (Claiborne 79)

In the end I truly can do so much more with so little, but I can't see it through the Starbucks, Ikea catalogues and everything else. Wonder what it will all look like when I can leave it behind.

Flickr photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/58565630@N00/