This is another one of those blog updates where I’m typing furiously in a netcafe, trying to beat the clock so I don’t get charged extra money. Please excuse inevitable typos.

The trip to Vanouver got off to a rocky start, to say the least. Early Tuesday morning at the Fort Lauderdale airport, things were looking good. No one was behind the counter for our airline, and travelers were lined up out the door. I popped out and asked the Skycap if he could help me – he told me I’d have to wait, but we had plenty of time so it was okay.

A few minutes later, he came back into the airport, found me, and pulled me out of the (still not moving because it was 10 minutes past “opening time” and no airline employees had bothered yet to show up) line. Checked our bags, gave us boarding passes, and we were on our way, moseying past the poor people STILL standing in the line to nowhere.

Then, the plane happened. The squeamish may want to skip the next paragraph. It contains graphic vomit.

I had some mild stomach cramps that morning, but nothing unusual. However, I think when combined with general trip anxiety and plane motion and my usual flight plan of eating very little but drinking loads of fluids, the uneasiness turned to disaster. I puked on a plane for the first time in my life. Oh, and I didn’t just puke and that was that. I vomited into the barf bag so much that the bag broke and the contents spilled all over the sweater and jacket being held in my lap. I then locked myself in the plane’s bathroom and continued to be sick, even during turbulance so bad the pilot made the “Get the fuck back into your seats” announcement. And there were two hours left in the flight. I never want to feel that bad, ever again. It was the worst. I could feel that the color had drained from my face. Matt said I literally looked like a zombie. The only upside was that because it was mostly liquid, I didn’t make much noise or stink up the plane. You’re welcome, other passengers.

We landed in Seattle, drove through downtown, then made the (very, very pretty) drive up to Vancouver. A lot of that reminded us of Pennsylvania – rocksides, pine trees, etc. Except… you could peek the Pacific here and there. That was pretty rad.

Once we checked into our Vancouver hotel, the first order of business was obviously a laundromat. This turned out to be surprisingly fun, since the guy who runs it is a sweetheart, hilarious and friendly.

After we got back and showered the plane off of us, Matt and I had dinner at Locus, which was pretty terrific. Good beer, good food, and we got a table right by the window so we spent a good part of our meal people-watching. I got some chocolate hazelnut mousse cake to go, and by that time it was after midnight on our internal clocks, so we dragged our jetlagged selves back to the room where I ate cake in bed and we fell asleep.

I slept like a rock and woke up at 7:21 a.m. We got dressed and headed over to Slickety Jim’s Chat N’ Chew, with its yummy menu and framed fish and coffee so strong it put hair on my chest. Matt and I did a little walking around (I picked up Douglas Coupland’s City of Glass) before it was time to split up. He met his colleagues at a Chinese place in Richmond while I went back to the room to figure out my game plan.

I ended up taking some sort of Crazy Jamie Extreme Walking Tour of downtown. I walked across a bridge into South Granville, then backtracked to Granville Island where I walked around for a LONG time, checking out all the harbors and seawalks and tiny parks and little pockets of amazingness. Then I took an Aquabus to Science World. I didn’t go in, but walked from there to Quebec Street (passing a skate park which sadly had no skaters), which took me right into Chinatown.

There, I had a happy accident when I stumbled across the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden Park. It was on my list to check out eventually, since it seems like everyone mentions it (along with Stanley Park) when they’re talking Vancouver highlights, but it wasn’t a priority this time. I didn’t pay for tickets to the inner garden, but had a great time walking around and exploring the outside park. Loved it.

After an east-then-west exploration of Chinatown and all the cute shops and crazy markets, I headed into Gastown. At this point, I realized I was very close to Canada Place, where Matt and I had visited that morning, so I started heading back into downtown. I also realized I was starving, so I ducked into a Vietnamese noodle shop for pho and spring rolls.

I’m still full from that.

I can’t decide what to do now. Head backwards into Gastown and explore Water Street heading east, or continue down Seymour Street, try to find a park or a pub for people-watching and more City of Glass-reading? I sort of wish Matt would call and update – that might help me make a decision.

I do know I’m going to sleep like a baby again tonight.

We have no specific dinner plans – I’ll probably cave and try the place near our hotel touting itself as “The Best Burger In Vancouver,” since I can tell that’s what Matt really wants to do. Afterwards, we’re doing the touristy night view from the observation tower, and if we have the energy, hitting a pub.

I do know that we’re mostly likely going to Elbow Room for breakfast tomorrow, because Matt wants to seem them bring me the Unicef box when I don’t clean my plate.

And then tomorrow is all about Stanley Park, which is what everyone keeps recommending. We’ll probably spend most of the day there. I’d love to find a lunch place by the water.

Tomorrow evening, we head back into Seattle, where we’re having dinner and spending the night with one of Matt’s good friends. We fly back early Saturday morning.

This trip is intended to help us make a lot of decisions. Matt’s getting the information he needs about the career opportunity right now, while I’m trying to get to know the town, to see if I could picture us living here. I won’t lie – it wasn’t the love-at-first-sight affair everyone told me it would be. Maybe it was talked up too much, maybe it was the vomit, but at the end of the first night, my opinion was basically, “It’s cold, it’s rainy, and it reminds me a little too much of Ohio.”

But after today’s exploring, I’m starting to get the point. It really isn’t like any area I’ve ever seen. It drizzled on me all day today, but I was never cold and the rain makes my hair look fantastic. It’s a major city of more than a half million people, but I walked almost the entire downtown area in just a few hours. It really is fantastic urban planning – incredibly diverse neighborhoods, all linked and totally accessible.

And that’s just the urban parts – everyone says the outdoorsy stuff is really where it’s at, and we haven’t even touched that part yet.

The jury is still out, but I can hardly wait to see all the evidence.

Tomorrow, scud and I are getting our cute little butts onto a plane and flying to Seattle. Next step, we drive across the border to Vancouver to see what the noise is all about.

I think I have already planned the meals itinerary for the trip, so, you know. That’s good.

We’re just grabbing dinner and hitting the sack tomorrow night – I’m sure we’ll be tired from traveling. On Wednesday morning, we’ll grab some breakfast and then do some exploring at Stanley Park before Matt meets with his new colleagues. I am not sure how long that’ll last, so we’re keeping the evening open. But I do know we’re headed back across the border relatively early on Thursday, where we’ll hang out with other friends before spending the night there and then catching our very early flight.

It’s going to be fast, I know. But I’m already burning with anticipation, I’m so curious to see what will possibly be our new home, and find out whether or not we like it.

Vintage Jamie:

I wonder whatever happened to teclo? Diaryland page now locked, so I’m not even sure I could find out if I wanted to. Wow, remember when Diaryland chat was fun? Remember when you could actually use it to talk to cool and interesting people? Does it even still exist? I’m not even going to comment on the food discussion at the bottom. Just another one of those things that snaps into focus as soon as I have the benefit of hindsight.

Is there any greater moment than a girl’s first Fantasy Fest? No, there is not. I wish I could do it all over again.

Man alive, can I ever work a yard sale. Everyone is saying I need some sort of job that relates to this. I convinced people to buy things they weren’t even considering, negotiated my ASS off, and even was able to (politely) say Hell to the No! to this group of people who would flood sections, negotiate and backtalk, and try to basically scam us – they hosed my friend Sarah before they got to me.

Sarah generously hosted yesterday’s yard sale extravaganza at her house. I have spent the past two weeks purging our home like a madwoman. Our house is pretty neat and clean. There’s a place for everything, and we don’t even have any piles of crap or overstuffed cabinets and drawer. But still, darloads of stuff – more than I ever imagined we owned – have gone out to the door to Sarah’s garage over the past couple of weeks.

All in all, I made about $400, but more importantly, a LOT of stuff went away.

We had a box of free stuff in the front, to try to entice people further. It was full of beer coozies, half-used notepads, and all the other junk you can’t put a price on, really. I will admit that after an hour or so of intense selling, I was tossing trash into it whenever I walked by. I think my favorite part of the day was when someone took everything in it – box and all.

The worst part was that the cops took down our signage. We advertised in the paper and on craigslist, as well, but Sarah made some really great signs and I know they were pulling people in – customers even complimented us on them!

We did get the early birds everyone was talking about. Mostly people looking for jewelry – I had a modest display that was a last-minute purge and it turned out to be one of my biggest money-makers. We also got our fair share of gold scammers – have you heard about these people? Gold is going for like, $800 bucks an ounce, so people with rigged weight scales are preying of garage salers, etc., to melt it down.

They were not so fun. After the one who harassed me the most was long gone (Me, joking: “There’s some sterling and semi-precious, but I tend to keep the real stuff for myself”) Creepy Gold Guy: “Why don’t you sell me the real stuff? I’ll wait here if you want to go get it.” Me: “That is not going to happen.”), I finished setting up my jewelry, looked down, and found $25 cash that had to be his – it was none of my friends’. We had no way to reach him, and he didn’t return for it all day long. Sarah and I split it – karma kash.

We did NOT have that last minute rush everyone says you’ll get – extreme bargain hunters looking for extreme bargains before all the leftover garage sale stuff gets packed up and taken to the trash or charity. Still – we went from a garage full of stuff to a ping pong table about 3/4 covered in boxes which Sarah is calling to have picked up by a charity as soon as they can.

All in all, a good day.

Earlier this week, my neighbor Sam called me all excited. “Grab your camera, go outside our apartment complex and check it out – they are filming the new Jim Carrey movie there! I can’t even get home, they have traffic stopped off and I’m going to the supermarket to kill time!”

So like good little paparazzi, I grabbed my camera and Matt, and we took a stroll.

Little did we know that this excursion would turn out to be REALLY BORING.

Oh, it looked exciting, with the cops and the flashing lights and the people talking into little headsets.

But here’s what it actually was. Since 1 o’clock that afternoon, the extras driving early-90s cars lined up alongside the road.

This producer chick would pace back and forth, talk into her radio, and repeatedly yell, “ARE YOU READY?” to the line of drivers.

Police would stop traffic.

And then… the line of cars led by a red truck driven by a JIM CARREY BODY DOUBLE… would… DRIVE AROUND IN A CIRCLE, OVER AND OVER!

I’m getting starstruck all over again, just thinking about it.

In other exciting news, there’s the eggplant. The eggplant has taunted me ever since I’ve been getting the organic veggies share. I like eggplants in theory, but couldn’t seem to cook them in a way I actually wanted to eat. I like the taste of eggplant parmesan, but for whatever reason, that is one of very few dishes in the universe guaranteed to rip my stomach to shreds. I tried Alton Brown’s eggplant steaks. Despite a marinade that smelled so delicious I wanted to drink it, this dish was awful. I could barely eat two bites.

I’m surprised I didn’t figure out the solution sooner. Like so many things in my life, the answer was contained in one of the best Valentine’s Day gifts I’ve ever received.

My grill.

I prepared the eggplants based loosely on this recipe, brushing the slices with a combination of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, parmesan and a little chopped fresh garlic.

I grilled them on one side, then flipped them and topped them with sliced roma tomatoes and feta cheese. AND THE SHADOW OF MY HEAD, because I am awesome photographer.

(By the way, this portion of my blog is dedicated to my buddy Meatpaws.) I wanted to take a photo of the mini-stacks on the grill, but our grill is so dirty I was too ashamed. I’ll show you the finished product, though.

So good. I only did three, though, just in case I hated them. So what am I doing with the last three slices?

Eating greek pizza on a pita bread crust every day of my damn life. Yum.

Vintage Jamie:

Corporate crap, leading to the culture of poverty that followed me from my college days to my radio days. I am unemployed and doing better than I was then. It’s because of a boy, though. I might as well be honest about it. Go Team Awesome!

And, pre-Fantasy Fest silliness. Nothing really to comment on there, and I’m sure you are sighing with relief – this is the longest thing I’ve written in a while.

I completely forgot my Fair Pay post. Damn it. Is it too late? Should I add it now anyway? Ugh.

Yesterday, Matt tried to lovingly brush some hair off of my forehead and accidentally stuck his thumb into my eye.

For some reason, that makes me feel better about my failure.

BEFORE

AFTER

Click on thumbnails to see larger, more detailed photos, obviously.

What did we do?

1. Upgraded furniture quality. Both our old and new stuff were craigslist.org finds, but the new stuff is much nicer and more comfortable, not to mention an amazing deal. Which is why we have the coffee and side tables. They are arguably too large for our space, but a sofa, a love seat, a coffee table and a side table, all that high-end in such great condition, for $400? I couldn’t pass that up. Of course, I negotiated the price down from the original ask considerably. (Matt: “You can just smell people’s desperation, can’t you?” Me: “I really can. Not sure if that’s good or bad.”)

2. Rearranged. I tried to fight this, because now our (to me) overly large TV set is visible from the front door. But we had a short wall, a long wall, and a sliding-door-covered wall, with larger furniture and not many options. I caved, and I’m pretty happy with it – I believe I selected shelving that allows the TV to blend in pretty well, and not stand out as too strong a focal point. And even if it is, we traded off for far more comfortable furniture with a pretty cozy conversation pit, that gets used in that way by us and our guests all the time.

3. Downsized. Previously, I had a much larger shelving unit and it was pretty full of our stuff. I cut my book collection in half, his DVD collection is about 60% sold off to SecondSpin.com, and I took a good hard look at the decorative pieces remaining, purging the things I don’t really love, or which are too old/worn to keep any longer. A file cabinet in our office was also purged, leaving me space to file away papers that had previously been stored in the old unit. His DVDs were previously housed in the black trunk that was formerly our coffee table – moving most of our media into flat storage boxes that are tucked beneath the new coffee table freed up that trunk space for other miscellaneous necessities – including his collection of car care stuff which was bizarrely stored in the living room unit, previously.

I could probably pare down the book collection more, but honestly? I think we need the weight near the bottom (that red storage box is full of the heaviest books) to keep the shevling unit stable.

Overall, we’re really, really happy with the change, and enjoying the snot out of our new living room.

P.S. Tomorrow I’m blogging for Fair Pay on Equal Pay Day. You should, too!

Matt’s parents were here this past weekend. They are terrific people, and we all had a great time.

I have too many projects. Am feeling very scattered and am finding it impossible to focus. I do not like when I get like this – I tend to freeze up for a while before I’m able to break things down and conquer.

Am continuing to purge house in anticipation of move. This is the one project I’m doing regularly, because it is so damn satisfying to see things we don’t need walk out the door.

Vintage Jamie:
I try my hand at the online journal trend of writing dialogue for a cat. Thank blog that shit didn’t stick.

Fighting with Neal, the naked lady game. Recently rediscovered that game at a pub up the road, after finding out my rugby BFF is also a fan.

Life by numbers. That was actually pretty fun to read. I still remember that bull-riding event. And as madly in love as I am with Matt, there is a little part of me that wishes he likes wine – it was always fun to share the wine hobby with a boy.