Guess who is simultaneously steering the momentum train and enjoying the ride?!  That guy on the left and also, Me! Yes!  I've finished all my exams as of... NOW.

I have the best friends in the world.  Yes.  And they live by their own rules -- their own inner code of just lawlessness.

Was up way too early again and sleepwalked through the eating of one tasteless white peach for breakfast.  After my exam I replenished my silo for mental fuel with some day-old quinoa and a spinach smoothie with strawberries and cacao.  (And a chocolate brownie cookie for dessert.)

While madly scribbling out answers today and rewriting the rules of logic, I flung my eraser behind me.  I didn't swear outloud, though.  I just sat there for a moment, too nervous to turn around to pick it up lest the supervisor suspect I was trying to cheat by looking at someone else's calculus exam.  (Yes, each of us were writing an exam for a different course, but I'm paranoid like that during exams -- I never look anywhere but at the front of the room or down at my paper.  My back is ready for a massage right about now.)  Anyway, a thoughtful girl noticed my eraser come flying at her so she retrieved it and placed it gently beside me.  I let out an appreciative, "Thanks!" to which she gave an automatic, "You're welcome."  And then we both got automatic zeros.

Kidding.  Hot action time!

Today I did a lot of planning and a lot of coursework, which is code for I sat around and stared at the wall while my books rested undisturbed upon my lap.

Really, I was in productive-mode -- until someone brought the above countdown distraction to my attention... at which point I sat around and thought about action comma the taking of.  [My courses' completion date coincides with Hot Action weekend! Coincidence? -- or the definition of Hot Action? Either way I'm looking forward to it.]

Some of the action witnessed by my windowsill basil plant:

I enjoyed quinoa; a strawberry smoothie with cacao and two bananas; a panini with avocado, strawberry tomatoes, arugula and monterey jack cheese (which had what I imagine to be a dirtysocklike aftertaste. The cheese boasts a 'low content of tyramine, an organic compound thought to be associated with headaches,' so I went for it anyway); a nectarine and I think that's it.

Bike ride from west end to West Van = 11:54pm-12:36am.  42 minutes.  During tonight's windy ride, my thoughts after studying all day: this ride is feeling harder on my legs than usual... hypoxia... cyanosis... alveoli...emphysema... Going through Stanley Park now... it's dark and the moon reminds me of something... I wonder if the zombies that run fast are scarier than the original type... how do they run so fast?  Must be some sort of muscle tetany.. no that doesn't make sense...  Etc. I'm certain that I took an extra two minutes longer thanks to the cumulative 2-second over-the-shoulder checks made throughout the forested portion of the ride.  And on the bridge.  They come when you least expect it.

And good things come, too.

Hempseed hearts were the magical ingredient in my morning and after-softball-game smoothies yesterday.  And magic (Duncan hitting balls out of the park) was almost enough to pull off a win for the Youthco Darlings, the team I adopted for the afternoon.

I'd slept-in slightly (it was technically still morning when I hopped out of bed...), so I had time for just a sip of my smoothie before biking to Stanley Park. What a good Sunday -- sweaty softball action under blue skies with good people and supportive spectators cheering @ Softball Smackdown 2009. The final score for our last game was a 9-8 heartbreaker.  So close!  Good game once we found our rhythm (the games were only 4-innings).  Despite the loss, my mood was buoyed by the familiar baseball feelings of happy times, so I biked home and took advantage of the momentum by channelling my enthusiasm into completing stats assignments. A good day.

Today's menu is pictured above: quinoa, some berries and cashews, spinach smoothie with peach and the usual cacao/cayenne combo and a banana. And potato salad.

The award for Most Sensitive Line of the Night goes to Sonya, for her perceptive if not appropriate, "So, are you going to go home and cry now?"

Thank you.

Also, attempting to adjust my sleep patterns to fit normal people's schedules. Let's see if I'm in bed before 3am tonight! Oh, the suspense! And I'd like to add that my delicious cacao smoothies have nothing to do with this.

I haven't been eating anything lately; my body doesn't function properly in this heat. Okay, I've been eating frozen yogurt and drinking water and had a couple of veggie burgers and steamrollers and fewer smoothies [the one pictured above: spinach, banana, blueberries, strawberries, peach, cacao, water] over the past week. This weather has knocked me out and I haven't been feeling like doing too much other than making attempts at coursework, some other work, evening cycling around the seawall and over Lions Gate, staying up too late at night and not sleeping.

On the hottest day of the summer (31-35 Celsius? 36?), I was lucky to have a friend with an idea -- Goran had sights set on swimming in a deep pool of non-fecal coliformed, numbingly chilly Lynn Valley creek water. I was busy staring at coursework at the time, but opted to drop it like it was hot (outside), and go for a swim too. Such a follower. And the place was pa-acked. So many people. We found a good watering hole and eventually I sat in it.

This is the paraphrased summary of the afternoon:

Goran: "Come in the water! You're wearing a bathingsuit. Take off your shirt. No one is going to look at you and your funny tan lines." [This part lasted five-sixths of the total conversation.]

Me: "Fine; I'll set my shirt carefully on this dry rock so I can conveniently throw on some clothes without walking a mile (four steps to my bag) half-naked. I hope no one steps on my shirt, or there will be hell to pay."

Goran: "It'll be fine. And get over yourself."

*Sitting in the water for 20 minutes; people walk by; shirt remains undisturbed.*

Three little kids splash their way over to play with sticks by the cascading falls area and I hold my breath. They throw the sticks around and almost fall off the rocks into fast-moving water; I am poised to be a hero. But nothing terrible happens; yay. Shirt remains untouched and kids seem to have the hang of the rock thing, so I smile and relax again. Until I hear Goran gasp. Then I look over my shoulder and a little kid, maybe 6 years old, bless her dear heart, is... dipping my shirt into the [expletive] water.

The thought of this ridiculousness makes me laugh so hard that I startle her. As I move towards her with my hand raised (to receive the shirt, not to slap), she offers an explanation: "OH, I was just cleaning it..." I give her an unconvinced, "Uh huh," like the one I hear from people when I tell them I'm gay.

And then for dinner I eat a veggie burger and a chocolate frozen yogurt.

Hot and Humid

(This photo is from yesterday. Yesterday was fun.)

Today (like every day) was all about me. I spent time with myself doing coursework and going for short walks (400-metre heats) before passing out on my bed for long naps. I didn't feel like eating during the day so I did laundry instead, drank a sugary banana-strawberry-cacao concoction midday and choked down 3 Capers chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies with cashew pieces for dinner.

While resting on the hill with a notebook and my ipod at English Bay this evening, a kind yet progressively familiar older tourist guy named Rick decided that I was showing all the signals for being open to long-talky-about-nothing-in-particular time. So he gave me a long chat spanning naturopathic medicine, energy meridians, the Vernon softball tournament, invasive plants, travel and the Brothers Gibb. I was polite, as I like to listen to tourists with whom I have nothing in common (...except for the items listed above) and learn about perspectives completely different from mine -- but I enjoy it for five minutes, tops. And from a healthy distance away, unless they're my type and this is a fantasy sequence of our first magical meeting or something. Anyway, he inched closer and closer and closer until an hour later he was brave enough to give me a hug and tell me that I reminded him of a German Mennonite. Thanks? I said thanks. He called me Martha.

I maintain that I do enjoy people and I'd rather be friendly than suspicious. Or friendly, then suspicious; I hear that the ones that emerge into this life with the greatest idealistic notions are the same ones that appear the most cynical later. (*Shout-outs to Goran and Lori. And Michelle.*)

;-)

Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me

Smoothies and sunsets today. Made my usual spinach smoothie for brunch and then biked the long, didn't-stop-to-ask-for-directions way through Stanley Park's many trails to Third Beach for an afternoon of hotness. I ate some local blueberries, Californian strawberries, My-Gardenian snap peas and Michelle's peach streusel-filled strudel (I kept calling it schnitzel; sounds cooler) for beach snacking.

Later, a veggie burger with all the toppings plus mushrooms & cheese, from Fat Burger... It tasted good at the time. I was in pain later though, haha. Really. My first time being in that much pain after eating a veggie burger -- exciting! Another heartburning moment happened while I was ordering the thing; I'd dropped my mastercard (and noticed, but didn't feel like bending over while talking to the cashier at that moment) and immediately a woman came over and politely told me that I'd dropped my card. I love people. I thanked her with an over-enthusiastic hug and some tongue; maybe next time she'll mind her own business. No, I just said 'thank-you' and hugged her with my eyes while feeling appreciative and appropriate. Another first!

Vancouver rained on me during my bike ride home. Exhilarating. I do love me a good downpour. Californian Lori doesn't appreciate this aspect of my character -- she said, "I think it's weird that you like being in the rain. It disturbs me and I just don't understand it, in the same way that a hardcore Christian might think of gay people as wrong and disturbing. And I don't want to understand." Yep, so I walked to Denman while still wet and purchased a chocolate frozen yogurt (with active bacterial cultures) after videoing the lightning action and orange sky brillance happening over English Bay at sundown.

Currently drinking bags of mizuna and chard in my morning smoothies.

The little West Valley Produce store I frequent for berries (local blueberries), located at Bute and Davie, gave me (what will grow into) a cilantro plant. It's amazing how appreciative I am of their showing appreciation for my millions spent in monthly patronage.

Remember the other day when I went swimming in the surprisingly un-packed Sasamat Lake on the hottest Saturday of the summer, and thought that everyone was staring at us in awe at how far and long we could swim so gracefully out in the middle of the lake? -- I just found out that the lake was actually closed that day due to high levels of fecal coliform.

Yeee-ay.

Yesterday, a good time was had. (That's an example of a sentence in passive voice.) Brought my textbook with me to guard my towel while Goran and I went swimming in Sasamat Lake (we scored the perfect spot on the beach + the beach wasn't as packed as last time), then successfully executed a midnight re-up on salad greens, beans and snowpeas -- all harvested from my community garden plot under cover of darkness and 15-feet tall sunflower plants. I am surprised at how fast everything has flourished in that garden... so many peas and beans and greens ready to eat! On the walk over, I hadn't planned on harvesting anything. I'd intended to just take a peek at the plot, but when we found the plot I couldn't help but stand and admire nature's bounty: handfuls of beans weighing down stems, resting on chard gone to seed; snowpeas hiding in the bolting arugula; oxheart carrots stunted by the shade of a mizuna forest. Ah, the dynamics of a young city. Co-operation gone wrong. But the result that anything survived at all is still admirable, and admiration beats taking action. Especially when the action is to shove as many green beans into our shorts' pockets as possible without arousing the suspicions, or admiration, of people who'd notice. 20 minutes later, we were walking down Davie at midnight with dirty hands, pockets bulging, trailing pieces of peas and chard, hands full of plants gone to seed, stepping in time to the bass beats emanating from nightclubs, not making eye contact with other walkers, trying to keep a straight face in the face of pulling off a ridiculous image. All perfectly normal for the time and place.

This made much more sense to me before I wrote it out.

How to Make a Tasty Filling that Won't Gag Too Many People

Hey. I've been busy with stuff.

I'm cleaning up this blog and keeping only the educational-anecdotal posts -- and, being that there are very few useful posts, I imagined that this would be a quick and easy job to pull off in an hour. And it was, until I realized that I want more than five posts remaining here. So I've started here&now to relay what is useful (as that is the usual point at which I begin things).

I have probably mentioned before that my typical daily Feel Good Menu consists of a morning green smoothie, followed by a salad with avocado and other salad toppings and sprouts, maybe some seeds or cashews as snacks, lots of water, then another smoothie at night or a salad or something vegetarian-like if I eat out with people. Too much fruit does not work for me -- sugar overload. Eating dark leafy greens in salads does work. Other fulfilling activities = getting lots of fresh air and moving my body around every day and learning and giving and enjoying good times with good friends. Also hugs.

Enough of the useful information. Now I share with you today's menu:

Today I made a banana+cacao+blueberry smoothie (not recommended), a spinach-banana-peach-cacao breakfast smoothie, a salad with avocado and sweet cocktail tomatoes, water, a couple of bananas and steamed some chickpeas and quinoa that I'd sprouted for a week. A day of whole foods.

I'm thinking that it is as easy (and requires just as much work) to live a life I love, as it is to exist in a directionless one; so, I might as well put in the fun-effort to know what I want and feel the satisfaction of knowing I'm doing this for a conscious reason and go for that than to put in a scrambled-effort to avoid something I fell into unthinkingly when I realize I don't want that mindlessness later. So profound, and non sequitur-ial. Am I still waiting for someone to tell me that now is the time to start living my life? Hmmm. You might wonder what all this reflection is doing in a food blog. Well, what I eat is an investment in myself, and what I think/do is an investment in who I become. (Plus I suck at cooking, soooo....)

The magic that builds momentum is in all the small things. All of this inspired by smoothies (and Tony Robbins audiobooks, no doubt).

Ants and other things you don't want to know about

I met a lot of ants today. Let's not discuss what I ate today. I have noticed that since deviating from my raw vegan ways and adding junk-like food to my menu, my body is not playing by the rules of the 28-day cycle I had grown to appreciate in all its predictable glory. Now, I just don't know when nor where. TMI.

Aaaand goodnight.

Ambleside

For dinner tonight: two vegan garden patties and mizuna with an oxheart carrot from my garden -- woohoo. Threw in half of an avocado I'd let brown a little overnight.

For dessert, I made a smoothie ode to a warm summer's day: peach, gala apple and banana with water.

Sat in the grass all afternoon at Ambleside in West Van, the most pleasant place to be on a day like today.  (Other than somewhere else that is also nice and nature-y, with good people.)

Watched the little leaguers play on the diamond, some punks throw a football and catch it almost half the time, older people walk by with lawn chairs and good reads, young families putting on too much sunscreen, soccer players practicing their moves, and lots of other people I'm too lazy to describe according to first impressions.

Return to Scary Night Riding

Today I eschewed most forms of social activity (except for dancing to the radio in the bathroom while eating sunflower seeds) to complete Unit 1 of my stats course.  My plan was a success.  Hallelujah.

Throughout the day's intervals in minutes, I enjoyed my breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner (which are categorical a.k.a nominal variables, to which I assign these values): a spinach smoothie for breakfast, cashews and assorted seeds and a peach for snacks, water and some Thai mixed veggies with yellow coconut sauce for lunch and dinner.  

Tonight I biked to North Van (for the first time since the jumper incident) to get the blood flowing through my legs.  [If I don't engage in physical activity at all during the day, then I often have an abundance of energy-turned-inward that prevents me from sleeping until 4am: I get a distracting, deep, tingling sensation where my femur meets the pelvis -- my leg feels itchy in the bone marrow (feels as though the sensation originates from there...) and there's no way to reach inside my bone to scratch that.  Are you bored yet?  Okay.]

New personal record over the Lions Gate Bridge and back: 11:42pm-12:22am (and I had to wait at intersections this time, plus I stopped on the bridge lookout for a minute.)  Inflated tires roll like a dream.  That was the best workout I've had in months.  Ordinal value of whatever the highest is out of N on the best workout scale.  

(Only 5 units to go.)

And I forgot to mention that yesterday as we were leaving the Lynn Headwaters, I spotted Brendan Brazier going for a solo run in the rain towards the park.  I thought it both funny and interesting that I recognized him immediately -- I've seen him only a few times, on the internet and on promotional materials featured in local health food store windows, as I've walked by with my pizza and beer.  No.  I saw a famous elite vegan triathlete, people!

Summer Solstice Speedo

Today's menu was spartan and nutritionally deficient.  I ate 5 (five) oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, some water, and a handful of roasted cashews just now for dinner.  And that's it!  I have no excuses. 

Also, on my long walk around the seawall I snapped this gem of a group of friends playing volleyball.  I'm curious -- why are they all dressed head to toe, but for the one guy who's in a speedo?  I don't get it.  There's always one guy in a speedo playing volleyball.  Every time.  What's more curious to me, is that it's not even the same guy wearing the speedo each time that I walk by and notice what there is to notice.  Does someone lose a bet?

From Lighthouse Park to Whole Foods Chump

On Saturday, Goran woke me up first thing in the morning with a phone call at 10:45 am. I rolled out of bed, made a smoothie with the last of my spinach, did some studying, read reviews of the Asus 1000HE and jolicloud, salivated, and then we drove to Lighthouse Park for some cloudy day walking on the rocks. We had fun scoping out West Van estates while looking for the right exit to Marine Drive. Other pre-walk activities included blasting such tunes as When in Rome's The Promise while rocking out in the parking lot.  The post-walk tunes featured M.I.A.'s Paper Planes, complete with an interpretive dance performed from a seated position.

After the Lighthouse Park walk and salmonberry sampling, we checked out the bustling Whole Foods Market at Park Royal. Goran observed that the purchase of anything at the overpriced Whole Foods carries with it a proportionately high Chump Factor.  Vive la West Van Living!  Being the adventurous souls that we are, we decided we wanted a piece of that. I chose a bowl of self-serve veggie Indian food and a snack pack of tabbouleh and hummus (I spell that word a different way every time). Fittingly, the experience of feeling like a Chump was overrated.  Plus, I live in Vancouver which boasts its own Chump Factor to which I am too well accustomed, so the rush was shortlived. I'd do it again but probably only with friends.

My life is so good.

Crash

Thursday morning began with the largest yield of smoothie yet: banana, spinach, peach, grapefruit, cayenne pepper and water.  I sipped at the deliciousness for an hour, but for half that time it was no longer deliciousness.  Too much smoothie.

The rest of the day: pad thai, mixed veggies in a yellow coconut curry, a peach, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and ginger snaps from Caper's.  

Hey, this is an improvement compared to what I'd eat in my highschool and university days -- I'd fry some sliced potatoes in olive oil with some 'spike' herb mix (no MSG at least), or eat three slices of pepperoni pizza or french fries with ketchup and mayonnaise for lunch.  Washed down with PEPSI all summer.  I had the worst eating habits (unless someone made food for me), so I applaud my efforts now, as sporadic as they seem, to take better care of myself.  Woohoo!  

Also this evening, I had the privilege of another sunny seawall bike/blade with Goran.  That's all I'll say about that.  And that following too closely to the person blading in front of you while passing a line of bicycles (and one wide recumbent) on the narrow part of the wall is never a good idea.

Too Much Sugar.

Check out the fancy formatting I didn't plan very well. This is what happens when I get too little sleep and eat late at night, and thereby increase my insulin production and decrease melatonin secretion.

For breakfast and lunch, I made two of my tastiest smoothies thus far: a banana, handfuls of spinach, a peach, some strawberries, a pinch of cayenne powder and a cup of water.

My two smoothies were delicious, but way too sugary if all that you're (I'm) doing is sitting at a computer all afternoon reading about how imbalances in insulin levels correlate to cellulite formation, fatigue and loss of libido. Excess estrogen does even cooler things!

Anyway, I'm coming down from today's sugar high. Speaking of sugar again, I checked out True Confections for dessert tonight with Mike.  I had the fruit-topped cheesecake, oh yes I did. Didn't touch the whipped cream, though.

Before that, a masala wrap and 3 oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies from Capers, then a seawall walk at sunset. We watched two separate couples pose for stereotypically romantic "long walks on the beach" engagement/wedding-type photos. I don't get the appeal (of weddings and of shoreline photos.  Aren't engagement photos supposed to epitomize the couple and what they value -- as in, show something of what they actually enjoy doing together, often?  Instead, they have their photos taken on a beach they'd never normally stroll through dressed like that, to make promises about love and appreciation they've never kept to themselves as individuals, let alone to another person.  It's all very strange.  I'm assuming and projecting a lot and yeah yeah, I get that it's the symbolism and dreaminess of the ocean that they like or whatever, but! I'm still going for the fun of the parody in the disparity.  Rant over).  And I wonder if this paragraph will still make sense to me tomorrow once I've sobered up, as it were.

Also!  We stopped for a Santa Fe salad at Panago pizza, as it was the only place open at 22:16.

Yes, Trees Have Eyes.

I'm a few days behind on updates. I remain loyal to my morning and evening spinach smoothies. For or after breakfast, I finished off my three remaining oatmeal cookies (purchased from Capers after our seawall tour the previous night) with water, then took a break and walked to the beach for some quiet time in the park, to reflect on my cookies. Alas, the park is no longer my special place; it has become the place where people who may or may not be drunk and/or evangelists feel it is their duty to sit and talk to me about things I do not care to hear. Twice in a week. I would be flattered but I doubt they have any standards beyond "it moves and makes brief, accidental eye contact with the tree to my left". On the plus side, I'm turning into an a--hole. With heart.

Tonight's softball recap: the girl playing thirdbase looked a lot like someone I know. I kept staring at her just to see if it was her. I think this creepy behaviour ultimately helped to unnerve the other team and thus contributed to our win. I had too much nervous energy to settle into the game, though -- usually my commute by bike calms me sufficiently to allow my proper focus and reflex action, but this time I was generously offered a ride to the game. Ohhhhhh excuses. (And thanks for the ride! There's no use in my trying to fix that wording/tone to match the spirit of appreciation in which I meant it.)

From Mike: Go Ahead, Nuke Those Carrots (Globe and Mail)

From Goran: The Power of Paying Attention

Sunglasses

A grapefruit-spinach-banana-mango-cayenne smoothie for breakfast, followed by a steamroller #11. The girl working at Steamrollers asked me if I was really going to plant my shirt. My shirt reads, "When I've finished with this t-shirt I'm going to plant it." I scoffed and said, "No way; it's merino wool," but I could tell that she didn't hear what I said. I wonder what she thought I said. I hope it was something better than what I actually said.

Later: I sat in the park and read a book in the sunshine with the pigeons; ate a banana; Goran called -- he was in the neighbourhood so we went for a bike/blade around the Stanley Park seawall. Despite the congestion on the seawall as per usual, and despite the oblivious best efforts of the masses of ipod-wearing bladers and walkers, I didn't run anyone over this time. Nor last time. Knock on wood for next time.

After the seawall rush hour, we walked down the quiet west end streets of colourful flowering gardens and tree blossom scents to the Robson Street Caper's for a masala wrap (cous cous, lentils, tomatoes, onion, almonds, raisins, etc.). We also made a stop at Safeway to try out the self-serve checkout. Somewhere along the way, likely while bouncing a racquetball off of anything solid along our path, Goran misplaced/dropped his favourite feels-like-a-part-of-him sunglasses. (A detachable part of himself, apparently.) We spent the rest of the evening retracing our steps but found nothing. Well we found electrical tape and some batteries. By the end of this mini odyssey, Goran had lost not only his sunglasses but also the hope that he'd find his sunglasses. This was a case of the journey sucking as much as the result because the whole time that we were looking he wouldn't stop talking about how upset he was with himself that he'd lost his best, never made again, unique in all existence, sunglasses.

Learn from this, children.

Moral: If you find sunglasses that answer to the name of Sweet Companions, give them to Goran. Thank-you and goodnight.
=)

Mad World

Hello, blog. Apologies for the neglect. I've been active, drinking my morning smoothies (with spinach), and enjoying the seawall and social time.

Yesterday I made myself get up somewhat early so I could accompany Lori on a bus ride to Richmond to see a surgeon about a knee. I had fun seeing her again! Lori emanates a loving-kindness that is fun to bask in. If she reads this she might think I'm being facetious. I'm not. She told me I roll my eyes too much.

Lots happened yesterday! Mysteriously (or not), I ran into a friend I had seen only once in the past five years. Well, she nearly ran me over, haha.

Here's the scene: I was walking through the alley behind my building, with my headphones on and eyes to the ground. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, but I was not in a pleasant mood. Long story. To sum it up, I was upset with myself for cancelling an afternoon interview (I eventually went and was glad I did). Anyway. During the time that I was upset with myself, I was enjoying the strength of my anger and resolved to make some changes and go straight for what I want. So, that's what I was thinking about as I walked back from the recycling bin where I'd thrown my certified organic strawberry containers. I vaguely noticed a car drive by me but I didn't look up because frankly I didn't care about anything but my inner resolve. I heard the car stop a few feet behind me. That's not too weird, I guess. And go in reverse. Hmmm. 'Please don't ask me for directions, please don't ask me for directions.' It was driving in reverse beside me... I still didn't look up. Finally the car came to a dramatic halt forming a V formation in front of me to block my path (against a parked truck). Impressive skills. I wondered just how badly this person wanted directions. I bent over, peeked into the passenger window, saw an attractive (yes that's the first thing I thought) woman trying to remove her sunglasses from her eyes. I thought, 'Why is she looking at me like that? She must think she knows me. Hmmmmm. She looks familiar, maybe someone on the L Word who remembers that time I accidentally walked onto the set 2 summers ago. Wow, maybe I'm famous already...'

She took off her sunglasses. It took me a second to register what was happening. "Gosia?! Holy sh*t -- I never see you!" I actually spoke aloud what I was thinking. She said she'd thought it was me. She wondered why I was walking through a back alley. I told her I live in that building [pointed to the one with the dumpster and bed mattress leaning against it] and added that it looks nicer from the front. I forgot to ask her what she was doing driving through a back alley.

I have photos of food but my camera card is stubborn.

Softball practice and BBQ tomorrow! I'll bring fruit or something.