Memoirs of a Summer...

That teeny bit of sunshine last week got me way too excited for summer!

I mean, come on, it’s only February... but too bad, sun fires up my soul.

So, rather than being depressed about the rain rain rain... here’s looking forward to patio time!

6 Best Patios to look forward to: (In my humble opinion...)

-          Lunchtime at Joe Fortes

-          Rooftop at the Hotel Georgia

-          Happy Hour at the Kingston

-          Bridges - (with my Dad, in the heart of summertime)

-          Brown’s on 4^th – because it’s low-key and close

-          Havana’s on the Drive for a long, loungy, afternoon date

I’m hoping to make it a top 10 list –

What are your suggestions for must-see patios to visit?

Unbearable Darkness.

I saw the sun yesterday!

In Vancouver, that’s a big deal…

The winter months have been upon us and for Vancouver that means rain, rain… and only brief moments of… no wait, more rain.

But yesterday, there was sunshine.  Glorious sunshine! It was all I could do from taking the ‘other’ bus home, the looooong bus, the one that stops at the beach.  Ahhhhhh.  But sunshine makes me lazy, so I took the good bus, got home, popped a pinot grigio and sat on the balcony- for twenty minutes.

Brrrrr.

Now, I’m from Saskatoon, a cool breeze should be nothing.  I even went to University in Edmonton for christsakes.  I walked 8 blocks to the U of A for four years, in minus 30 degree weather…. Uphill. Both ways.

But now, for better or for worse, I am truly a Vancouverite, with a heart that yearns for a day in the sun.  So when it happened, I braved the freezing +2 degree temperature and sat on my tiny Vancouver balcony, wrapped in 3 pashminas, and savoured my chilled Red Rooster Pinot Grigio…. As if it were August.  And even then, there might be rain.

What keeps you ‘light’ when the dark winter months settle in… is it a new wine, a fun restaurant...or just the inspiration of a brief glimpse of sunlight?

Birthday Wonderland

2013.  Hmmmm.

I didn’t really plan this far- Mayans or no Mayans, I had visions of my life only up to the ripe old age of 32.  Ask anyone.

Because of that, my b’day snuck up on me this year and before I knew it, the world didn’t end, Christmas and New Years had passed, January was gone, and through the bubbles of pink champagne, I suddenly realized I was 33.  Weird age indeed.

I feel… strange.  Not necessarily old, certainly not that young (as my 25-year-old brother will attest to), but almost a little like Alice, just before she got distracted.  Waiting… for what’s about to happen...

I woke up slowly the day after my birthday, with a bit of a headache and my pockets full of life’s little charms, wondering what this new year would bring. Suddenly, I felt a need to re-establish who I am, redefine what I think I want, and reconsider which white rabbit I will choose to follow now.

I’ve been looking for direction every which way… in my spirit and in my heart, in the moments of silence that have begun to speak to me again… in the company I keep, in sips of wine, and in the words of my friends…

At my birthday party, one friend advised me that 33 was my ‘Jesus Year’ and handed me a bottle of smooth, Okanagan red called The Passion. 

Oh Christ.

Delicious wine, thoughtful (?) concept, (but being that she’s a staunch atheist, I’m really not quite sure how to take that.) 

Another gorgeous soul, who has come to know my spirit, gave me a stack of birthday books to help me find my way- everything from ‘The Art of Possibility’ to ‘The Celestine Prophecy’, ‘A Little Book of Aloha’ and the ‘Sayings of Buddha’… (I’m hoping this will lead me to the possibility of the prophecy of doing yoga on a beach in Hawaii.)

I looked around and saw faces I wanted to see and I thought of the ones I wished could be there.  I ate my cupcakes and I laughed myself silly, and I felt blessed and incredulous at surviving the roller-coaster that is my life thus far.

I examined my scars and pondered which ones have truly healed and which ones keep ripping open and I dreamed of the sunshine that I know is still in me. 

There are ways I will always be, like impatient and silly and overly hopeful.  There are things I still love, like presents and champagne and Frank Sinatra, and there are other ways and things that I am willing to put on the shelf for awhile.     

Last night, (over a couple of bottles of catching up with one of my longest friends), I was told that the French call your 33^rd year, ‘L’année des Miracles’… I like that one.  The year of miracles. (This is where ‘overly hopeful’ comes in handy.)

So, call it what you will… my year of passion, miracles, scar tissue 

and white rabbits… 

Here’s to living as if the world was supposed to end, but instead, we get to start all over. 

And of course, pink champagne.