the pig of happiness--may his joyful smile remind us how much there is to be happy about.

it's 11:07. shouldn't i go to bed? the answer is yes, the action is no. i have a lot of pictures to post. A LOT. but i'm not doing it today. i just can't.

friday night fatima and i met on tenth under the tracks. we had my birthday dinner at martinis on broadway by main. i had the lamb burger and did not regret it. it came with salad AND fries! of all the generous things for martini to do! speaking of martini's generous ways, fatima had the medeteranian chicken, which came with salad, mashed potatoes, a plethora of skinny new carrots, AND garlic bread. she didn't even touch the garlic bread. but we did have garlic. we had the almost pure garlic with a little chickpea and tahini on the side hummus. the garlic burnt my tongue--that's how strong it was.

we had a good time. i did anyway.

after that we drove to commercial area and just walked around. we walked up and down the streets in the dark and commented on houses and discovered that it WAS indeed lilacs that smelled so sweetly of lilacs. we found some cool places that we wanted to go to. we talked and talked. eventually we sat on the bench in the park in the dark. there were other 'couples' scattered around the park. there was the guy strumming his guitar to his girl, who i saw get up walk over to a tree and pee. there was the young couple thrashing their heads to music and taking swigs from mickeys (do i even really know what a mickey is, what it looks like and if it really is spelled like mickey mouse's mickey?) and closest to us was a couple sitting on the grass smoking. at one point the guy got up and left. when he came back we thought he might have brought a 'peace pipe' as fatima put it. we were after all in commercial area, but no, he brought some incence for mood.

saturday afternoon we met at tenth under the tracks again. this time fatima came in her fake lashes and was rolling her rolly back pack behind her. it was the day of our outdoor photo shoot. our first stop was going to be granville island. i pictured us there having fun, doing a little shopping and a little eating as we took shots. well it didn't quite happen like that.

first of all parking was impossible, even more impossible than it usually is there and we drove around and found nothing for at least half an hour. we found nothing but saw others continually finding spots which had a bad effect on morale, sad to say. just after i said in a low threatening voice "pretty soon this is not going to be our location", we found a spot in a pay parking lot.

that's when i locked my keys in the trunk of my car along with my spare key.

don't even say anything to me about it! i know i have a problem. i know it only too well. while we waited for buster's it started raining. so there we were sitting on the flat wooden bench across from the cement trucks sharing an umbrella waiting for buster's. buster's towing came in the form of mahoud the persian man who first almost unlocked the car next to mine. i stopped him though. he has fatima's number and she has his. he's a buster.

so then we had to lug all our gear through the crowded market to find a yucky bathroom for fatima so she could change into the fucia saree. (she didn't want to wear the saree on the sky train for some strange reason). we were in the bathroom for a long time. we were in the wheel chair bathroom. we had some issues doing the saree right and getting the pleats right and stuff. we were in there so long that i started to get grossed out by all the bathroom smells and sounds. i couldn't wait to get out.

but after that things got progressively better. i thought so anyways. poor fatima was quite cold though. she had her coat on inbetweeen shots but that wasn't much to warm her. she should have worn long johns under the saree. next time we know.

because of all the delay we had no time to shop and no time to eat. i was mean that way. we did stop at a drive thru on the way to our last location which was the industrial area by my place of living. and we were there basically until the last light. it rained. i made fatima do things like jump off of stuff, make heart shapes with her hands, stand in a bunch of weeds on the side of the road, etc. she was super cold the whole time but was very patient with all the shots and i had fun doing them. thanks budorama.

that night was when the angry rash appeared on my chest. i woke up twice in the night from extreme itchiness and at four in the morning went to the bathroom in desperation and smeared toothpaste all over the red spots, which helped enough for me to fall asleep. i didn't go to church the next day. i was going to go to the dr., but never did.

dad drove me to the ferry that evening. i missed the ferry but it wasn't his fault it was mine for getting to his house too late. i just missed it too, which made it worse. what made it better was that i was going to victoria and those ferries are every hour. what made it worse was that i had my back pack, my purse, my tripod, my pot light, and my umbrella. and because i jumped out of the car and just grabbed everything in a big hurry and i was trying to get my wallet out of my purse and arrange everything better, i dropped my umbrella and then i picked it up and then a couple of minutes later i dropped my light and the light bulb shattered. it was very quiet and all the others in the line who also just missed the ferry just looked at me. the guy in front of me slowly turned around and looked. "oops." i said and did not move to pick it up as i was still trying to fix the umbrella which had become unwrapped. he bent down to pick it up and as he did so, i for some reason said "sorry." "it's ok." he said and picked up the broken glass and put it in the metal basin of the light and handed it back to me. so there i was standing there holding it sideways in front of me filled with broken glass wondering what i was going to do with it, when a guy in front of the first guy who had been watching said "there's a garbage over there." "oh is there?" i said stupidly and started moving blindly in the direction he pointed. a french family group parted and there was the garbage can. someone held oped the mouth of the garbage for me. "i don't think it's going to fit." i said not looking at anyone but looking at the garbage can. "here let's do this." said a french accented man as he lifted the lid right off and i said "thanks" and dumped in the glass, went back to my spot and everything went back to normal.

once settled in a spot in the waiting area at berth 5, i set about making my gear more manageable. my purse was stuffed into my back pack, as was the umbrella but of course it stuck out the top quite a bit. the tripod was strapped onto the back pack so that just left the camera case, and the light to carry, and that was a lot better let me tell you. meanwhile i vicously itched.

on the ferry i did my scripture reading for half an hour, my morning pages for half an hour, and read in the artist's way for half an hour and in this way the ferry ride went by very quickly and enjoyably. there was a double rainbow too, which really lifted my spirits. i ran out in the middle of my morning pages to take some shots of it.

amy and and andreas were waiting for me in andreas's mom's little white car. when they opened the trunk there was a lot of dirt and a plant. " i don't know... " mumbled andreas appologetically. "it looks like my mom is growing a plant in her trunk." which i found amusing. i placed my light back there and everything else came with me in the back seat.

andreas took a very scenic, very pretty, very lovely and very windy route. we went to the market that is not on yates for some cheese cake. amy and adreas treated me. i picked a skor caramel pecan one (am i making up the pecan part amy?), amy the peanut butter chocolate and andreas the cherry, which he was hoping we wouldn't like, but which amy assured him, a number of times that she did like cherry. the pieces were SO big!

when we finally got to amy and andreas' i discovered that their room is in a big blue heritage house with a kind of grape trim surrounded by a stone wall. amy pointed out the front patio which was for them only. their room has a high ceiling and long high windows. it's one room with a tiny little kitchen. the tiny little kitchen has the beloved gas stove and a wall of window on one side and a fridge full of stinky but yummy cheeses. a tiny closet space of the room was made into the world's tiniest bathroom with a tiny shower and a tiny toilet and a tiny sink. on top of the bathroom is the loft bed with a ladder that i was afraid would splinter under my weight. "you're bed's on top of the bathroom." i said. this fact facinated me the whole time i was there. "how do you go poo in that bathroom?" i wondered. i mean it's right in the main room! "oh it happens." assured amy.

andreas was gone bringing kenna's car back and amy enthusiastically removed multiple cheeses from the fridge and freezer and lit the pilot light in the oven. we were to have dumpster pizza. we played 3-3-4-4 with a beautiful deck of cards. i won multiple times but just when i was feeling smug about it amy started to win too. little nerd. meanwhile andreas got back and judiciously put some of amy's exuberant cheeses back. he also got the pizzas ready. he added some cheese to the cheese already on the pizza, the favourite of which was goat cheese. we loved the pizza. really hit the spot. amy and andreas were also eating expensive yellow blue cheese with crackers but although i would like to be a sophisticated blue cheese eater, i just couldn't like it, so after one small taste i abstained.

we discovered that we had sister cell phones! andreas tried to make it a competition but we sisters knew better.

we watched to kill a mocking bird. well amy and i watched it. andreas fell asleep and after a while crawled into bed with all his clothes on.

i had a dream that i snored suprisinly and shockingly very loudling in the high ceilinged room. or was it a dream? i slept with penguin ball.

next morning came too soon. we got up sevenish to do our photo shoot before andreas had to go to work. this was fun. i had a lot of fun shooting amy and andreas. i thank their interesting house for inspiring me and getting me warmed up. actually victoria was full of inspiration for me all through the day. it's fun to go somewhere new. andreas was funny the way he was embarrassed of having his photo taken in front of a bus of people going by. i also made them do heart hands. it's my new thing apparently. they were good sports about everything, laying on their stomachs in the dirt hollow, hugging telephone poles, racing their bikes... like i said it was fun and an hour and a bit was over way too fast.

after andreas left amy and i came back and ate cheese cake for breakfast. then amy wrote out our day in her notebook. we left the house in a hurry though because the guy who was going to sell amy a road bike called suddenly and we had to book it down town. this is when amy forgot the notebook at home. gasp! no matter she had the notebook in her mind. this is also when we met soft shoe. soft shoe was a guy walking in our same diretion. we felt his shoes matched my purse and we felt that he should carry my purse--that it would make his shoes pop. we followed soft shoe for quite a ways. when soft shoe would start to cross the road, even though the light hadn't changed--so would we.

the man from port alberni with the bike was nice. andreas met us there in front of chapters and amy took the pink bike for a spin. she liked it, they bought it and we walke the bike to andreas' work to leave it there so we didn't have to take it with us all day or go back home to drop it off. on the way to andreas' bike shop we saw many a shop we wanted to stop and look in. as this was penciled in, it was an acceptable activity and we said to each other that we we would go in on the way back.

first stop was the new yarn shop. we oohed and awwed over the colours and textures and feels. i found out that they also did weaving workshops there and that's when we decided that in the summer we would do a weaving class together. we were sold by the scarf that the ownder did over the weekend. we were sold indeed. it's only 65 dollars! anyone else who wants to come do weaving in the summer is welcome. it's going to be fun!

we also looked in the tea shop and smelled all the wonderful smells to be had in a tea shop. well ok, not ALL. and we stopped for a honey bun but they were out so we got a bbq pork bun. we must of done other things as well but i don't know what they were.

then it was time for the imax! we saw extreme. it's good. amy had already seen it but wanted to see it again, which was fine by me. we enjoyed it but both felt sleepy at the end and were inordinately cold after coming out of the warm theatre into the cold.

we went to beacon hill park and had a mini photo shoot. it was impromptu. we could hardly move before a new inspiration would come upon us. this is where we did the amy jumping pictures which i love. might be my favourites of the whole day.

we looked for baby ducks and saw none. we shareda butterscotch sundae at the place there in the park where we tried to go the last time i visited the twins in victoria but it was closed. it was good. we sat outside under the heaters, which amy said andreas would not approve of. we talked a lot. how we are, how we're percieved, how different people and situations change things, etc etc. then we walked back through town and stopped in some shops and walked home. my feet were sooo sore. we had been walking the whole day and i had very flimsy shoes on. back at the ranch we settled in to watch being there with peter sellers while eating cheese and crackers. my favourite was the cheese that starts with a 'w' and had cranberries in it. YUM. andreas came home with amy's new bike (there's four bike's in their place now) and then we found out i needed to take the bus, so we had to rush and get ready and get down to the bus stop, which we did. i wanted to shoot them with their little red honda and do a couple's jumping shot, but oh well. that's next time i guess.

i had a really great time and they were wonderful hosts. and i left my artist's way there :(