north van eats with h

February 04, 2023

north van eats with h

let it be known that whereas yesterday (the whole week really) i was in a fog of fatigue and tethered to a concrete block of emotions at the bottom of the deepest sea of sad, today i am free. thank you body for all you do, but we don't have to repeat that one. why don't we stock up on serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin for the future? instead of food storage, practice neurotransmitter storage. think about it. i predict a general conference talk. i'm in tune.

i feel....strong. and feeling strong feels good. let it last. i met with heather today. heather requested a north van meet-up and i was into it, so i pulled up to her house at 20 to 11 and she trundled out to the car after going back inside for another layer. in contrast i was my usual bare-arms-yellow-tshirt-jacket-in-the-back-seat kind of self. a friendship of contrasts.

we went to a bakery in edgemont, a neighbourhood in north van, called bjorn bar. in swedish that means bear naked. well bar could mean many things but i think bear naked is perfect. anyway, it was packed in there. there were many mouth-watering bakery items on display. laura, you are here for hot chocolate, and it comes with a treat, i kept telling myself. but when we got to the giant chocolate chip marshmallow cookie sandwiches, we gave in and bought one to share. h said it was worth getting itchy over. h gets itchy from sugars.

there was nowhere to sit so the baristas asking us if this was here or to go made me snort inwardly but say with a smile "there's no choice is there?" they'd nod and say, ya it was busy and we got on with our lives. so we were standing waiting in the limited space there was to stand and wait, and a lady commented on my yellow tshirt, which besides being a cheerful colour, has the cheerful message 'it's a good day to be happy'. i scowled at her and shoved her. if i said that to sarah, she'd believe me. haha. no, i gave her a cheerful comment back. after a while heather and i simultaneously came to the conclusion that the barista was making the WRONG hot chocolate. luckily the barista came to that knowledge not long after. we watched the realization wash over her. so she started again. and when she was almost done one of the pineapple meringues fell on the floor. she kicked it. we felt her. we agreed we would have done the same. when she gave us the hot chocolates her face was misery. we felt sorry for her. i guess she didn't notice my shirt.

we both got the 'day drinking' hot chocolate which featured pineapple and coconut flavours in a white hot chocolate topped with a pina colada meringue cookie. it was yum. we drank them in the car and looked at each other. "on to the next place!" heather said, and we laughed because yep.

the next place was lunch at burgoo. burgoo is a comfort food restaurant and we like to get the 'afterschool special' which features and grilled sandwich of your choice and a soup of your choice. i got the dos diablos which is a gooey cheese and chorizo number, paired with a crab bisque. heather got the chicken, onion jam, brie, etc with a mushroom truffle soup. her soup was really good. our waiter was super attentive and had a really deep voice. there was something kevin bacon-esque about him. i can't say how many times he topped up my water from the water bottle on our table after i had only taken a gulp or two. he brought us extra napkins unbidden because he knew how gooey the sandwiches could be. kevin bacon II was great at his job. when he asked us about dessert we told him we had a giant marshmallow filled cookie to eat and he told us that he doesn't allow himself to have cookies at his house because he cannot be trusted with a cookie. and yet kevin is so trust worthy with our needs.

we all need a kevin bacon II type as a server sometimes. thanks kevin for being ours today.

we decided to go walk around the pier. it wasn't raining and that's all the encouragement we needed. took some pics, looked at the view. i told heather my desire to sit was greater than my desire for a dry bum but she found us dryish spots on a bench anyway. there are lover's locks all along the quay fence. a trend that keeps trending. we chatted with two seagulls and felt morally superior to the people who owned the huge, sleek, yacht with it's own helicopter, completely bundled in white fabric on the back. we all know that it's righteous to be poor and h and i have that kind of righteousness nailed.

we split our cookie and ate it as it the skies started to spit little flecks of wet on us. then we walked back.

on the way home i made a mistake i haven't made in many a year. somehow i was headed east towards the alex fraser instead of west into richmond. gah. after the detour i did some grocery shopping. first at langley fruit and veggie where i totally forgot the potatoes and shrimp dumplings in the lower basket, and then on to save on. uneventful except to say as the day went on i was enjoying the coolness so much. feeling vigorous i was driving with my windows down at this point.

came home and made greek lemon chicken soup. it's supposed to be bright yellow, but i used a purple carrot and so might was pinkish. but super lemony and delish! we ate it with parmesan garlic bread.

we always play games after supper. to keep dad awake and entertained until the final worker of the day comes, but lately he's been so doped up and sleepy that he falls asleep mid play. like laying his hard down, or dealing a hand. we feel like we are torturing him.

and now i've made pizza dough for tomorrow and i'm sleepy. but before i go i'll mention that i've been thinking of what it means to have honest intent when i pray. and about acting in faith--just doing what i know is right and having faith it will work out. seems simple, but i realized i don't always do that so well.