holiday & b-day recap

so while my parents visited my lil sister in hawaii for thanksgiving... me the worker (not the favorite), that can't use any vacation leave till at least april but not really until the legislation session is over here in oregon, luckily had some visitors from the slc.

tanya and spencer graced my presence sunday before thanksgiving and let me be that family-less person during the holidays that bums food off people they don't know. it worked out great. i had fun and ate great.

my pre-birthday dinner dessert was waiting for me to grant my golden wish... unfortunately all was lost when as i looked at my candle after closing my eyes to say my wish in my head i was heartbroken when spencer stole my birthday wish.

the worst part of all of it was he did NOT feel guilt for stealing my wish (who does this?)also he reiterated that he would do it again in a heartbeat to see the look on my face again. my face of disappointment? disgust? disheartened? i had to edit my reaction for sensitive viewers.

the adventurous part of the weekend was my first trip to canadia. i've always wanted to know what the big deal is with the maple leaf so i got a taste of vancouver b.c. this was pre-border crossing. the canooks had no issues in letting us in but the 3 hour wait to get back in the us was well ridiculous. let's just say there needs to be a policy change and don't you worry i'll be sending a letter... i've crossed the mexican border numerous times and have never had such issues. are we scared of canada because all their people have health care or something? honestly.

anyways vancouver was urban and had a good feel. it's chill with a taste of being foreign. the population was diverse and when you hear french it's just melodic. also give me a crepe with nutella and you completely sell me. we had fun walking around which included meeting jesus modern dance peeps in the streets and going to an art museum that had a big feminist exhibit that made the both of us feel like squares. it was a little too out there for me most of the time. some stuff was great. don't get me wrong... but other art was so distasteful and was degrading to me as a woman to have to say my gender should be respected for what it was trying to portray.

good news of my birthday is that i won in scratch lottery... then spencer won too (both our first time ever winning...this is another reason to love canada)

vancouver is not complete without going to stanley park. rain didn't stop us from appreciating the totem poles and we didn't seem like lazy americans because we actually got out of our car. edward abbey would be so proud. kind of....

spencer was yet another victim of having to play my game of recreating a face from the totem pole. i've done this with petroglyphs to works of art. lucky for me i always pick the calm looking faces and give my friends the embarrassing ones to do. convenient eh?

excellent time. wouldn't you say?

p.s. be ready to see this a lot of this symbol in the next few years. they're hosting the olympics yet.