Back in the Lower Mainland

One of my favorite parts of Back To The Future I is when he wakes up and Huey Lewis and The News comes on his radio alarm clock. I might be remembering this wrong though, because the internet says that the song “time bomb town” is what plays on his radio. Anyways, *AWESOME SEGUE* I’m Back!

Photo credit: fanpop

Sidenote: I don’t really like how Community Channel has started saying “awesome segue”, because they were awesome segues! (Mine was not an awesome segue, I just wanted to share how much I like the movie) Her’s could have gone seamlessly if she hadn’t drawn attention to it! I’m also not the biggest fan of her newest sign-off, but who am I to be criticizing that youtube superstar?! She’s wonderful, and I’m just change-averse.

Sunrise in Vancouver from the Delta, facing south

This post is an update of everything I’ve done today- a regular day in the Lower Mainland. Usually when I’m here my blogging drops off because I don’t feel that there is anything remarkable about my everyday life, but recently my Auntie Tamar said that she wouldn’t mind reading about life just across the Georgia Straight, so here it is! This post is dedicated to Tamar.

Today we did facilitites in Burnaby, which was difficult because we missed the spacious parking lots and empty streets we found in small towns. Here autobody shops barely have room for customer parking, let alone recycling ambassador vehicles! After work we went to the storage facility to pick up the mammoth-sized mascot costume. I will be wearing it tomorrow as part of the Chinatown Festival’s Mascot Race. It looks like i’ll have to run this one. I’ll write a blog post for the BCUOMA blog about it and link it to mine tomorrow after the event.

Anyways, tonight has been special because I have been indulging in the internet and all the things I never have time for when school starts. Tonight I’ve had fun paying attention to fashion and music for the first time in months! I’ve never much listened to the radio outside of a car, but tonight I’ve been listining to 102.7 The Peak for hours!

I think that radio would be something I’d like to try out. Participating in SFU’s radio station is one of my goals while I’m a student there. In my dreams I’d love to have a late-night radio slot where I just play whatever I like for the few people tuning in at this hour – like I am right now! As the night gets later I’d play all sorts of slow and sleepy tunes. Like this one from Best Coast:

Today I’ve been compiling this playlist of songs that capture popular music I like this summer:

Want even more fun? Want to stalk my interests? Use that link to find other playlists I’ve created like “dancing” to listen to songs I can’t sit still to!

Susan has a slightly different taste in music, and travling the province with her has been a joy. There are so many songs on her playlists i’ve never heard before, and it’s wonderful to get a taste of something new. If I had to pick 3 songs that get played regularly off her phone, they would be (in no particular order):

1. Hoodie Allen – 18 Cool

2. Ingrid Michalson – Boys Chase Girls

3. Stolen Dance – Milky Chance

Tonight I’ve also been using pintrest more than I ever have, and re-igniting my passion for the works of art that get expressed through the fashion website Lookbook.nu

This artist Nancy Zhang likes to post pictures of herself in outfits alongside paintings of herself in those outfits. I think the reason I enjoy her posts so much is because when you put together a special outfit, you have an image in our mind, the inspairation behind it all. Through her paintings we are able to experience the moment she creates in these outfits as she imagined, and sense the unique personalities behind each one. Click on her name above for the full experience, they are truly amazing.

Photo Credit: http://lookbook.nu/user/32985-Nancy-Z/looks

Trail, Osoyoos and Keremeos

Catching up: I looked back on my photos and I barely took any while we were in Grand Forks, Castlegar, Trail, Slocan, or Creston. Then before we knew it we were at the last stop of our trip: Osoyoos and Keremeos!

We went to this beautiful park in Trail. It was on the lake. Just to the left of this photo, across the river is a HUGE industrial plant- smokestacks and all! You couldn’t see it from the beach though. The water here was very cold.

Osoyoos was beautiful, and thankfully we got to spend the Saturday between working and an event there. I got some reading, painting, and fruit-eating in. Unfortunately no swimming because the swim area only got 2 1/2 feet deep! There was also a thunderstorm that afternoon.

Here is the thunderstorm about to happen. I was phoning Beccy and Antonia at this point.

I also ate alone in a fancy restaurant for the first time. I wore a nice dress I’d bought that day, and even had the waiter photograph me. I looked crazy in the photo, so I won’t show it to you here.

Nelson

Catching up with short blurbs about the places I visited on the way back to the lower mainland, notably Nelson, Grand Forks, Creston, and Osoyoos/Keremeos. Sorry I got pre-occupied on the return stretch and took an unannounced hiatus. If you’re still with us here at theresemah.wordpress.com, welcome 🙂

Nelson was a blast! I cannot believe no one has told me about how unique and funky this place is before! (Or maybe mentions of Nelson went over my head because I hadn’t been there yet). At any rate I was blown away by how.. colourful it was! Got some good painting done here and in Fernie. If you have facebook, I have posted all of my paintings there.

We were fortunate enough to land on Nelson for a weekend. This place kind of reminded me of Fernie, but with less emphasis on the outdoors, more hippie/hipster-ness, and with a larger cultural core.

While we were in town we got to experience a large summer market (busiest I’ve ever been to), which had wonderful vendors and crafts. Everything was beautiful and valued by the attendees – and the vendors knew this, so everything was pretty expensive. I came across a beautiful light blue wool scarf/blanket – so soft! But it was $40 😦 so I don’t own it. I did indulge a little bit though, and bought henna and a beautiful dress for Adriane while I was here. This dress I got for Adriane is nice in the way it tied up in the back and around the front. When I got it home I realized that the design is wonderfully simplistic- basically 2 triangles sewn together! I’m going to have to figure out how to mass produce these in my basement when I get home.

Nelson is really artsy-fartsy, and houses a population of those that are young and young-at-heart. I saw some seriously fashionable people there, of all ages, willing to take fashion risks. I was talking to an ex-local who said that deep down, Nelson is just a front, and that there are lots of people “putting on an act”, shamelessly copying the art of others, and generally being posers. I didn’t get this impression, but maybe if you lived there longer this would be how you would start to see the town too. Anyways, it’s an interesting place.