Some things are Irreplaceable!

You know, spending this much time in Vancouver really makes you aware of some important life lessons.

Like:

The lady on the skytrain who's sitting in the 'disabled' seat. Sure, she may not SEEM disabled just by first glance, but when she looks up at you with her blackened eyes and tells your mother to "F*** off, B****," it sure makes you appreciate good health. It was entertaining sad to watch her verbally attack my mother who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and, as the crack-addict explained, the "wrong gender". She really likes men, and wasn't upset in the least that my father stood close to her. Because he wasn't female. Waking up with a cold that morning sure seemed like NOTHING compared to what it would have been like to wake up being her!!

Another, valuable life-lesson--

Volunteering at the Olympics is, to quote my father, "like eating chocolate". It's really great for a while, but there HONESTLY is something called 'olympic'd out'. Yesterday, all of us worked double-shifts at the hockey games... equalling over 16 hours on our feet. It is tiring work, and we are talking for the entire day to people, so my voice gets tired, my back get's tired, and my feet hurt like a mother! It is a totally different experience to watch the 'behind the scenes' at the olympics, but totally fun too, as we get to meet lots of important and interesting people. Yesterday was filled with NHL hockey players, Wayne Gretzky's father Walter, and parents of Olympians.

The biggest lesson in life that I've become VERY aware of:

Vancouver and Mo-town are VERY different. And we're not talking size, or Mormon percentage of residents. We're not talking terrain and weather and vegitation. We're not even really referring to culture or diversity of nations.
Monday night, Will and I decided to be tourists, as we had the evening off of working. So we drove to the local mall and took the public transit train, The SKYTRAIN. You're not supposed to park in the mall and then board the train, but it's really the only place to park. We were considerate of the shoppers, and parked far away from the entrance so as not to take prime parking spots, and also so as not to raise awareness that our car was parked there while we were OBVIOUSLY not shopping.
Arriving back to the mall at 10:30 at night, we started to walk to where I parked my van.

Hrm. Maybe I forgot where I parked it.
....

...
nope. I remember parking it here. OH POOP-- they've totally towed us. So I called my brother-in-law to come and get us, and then we called the towing company. Guess what? They haven't picked up ANY vehicles from that mall!!!

????
It was then determined that our van was stolen.

After talking to security guards who said they're not ticketing or towing ANYONE throughout the Olympics, and calling the police, we realized just what this meant.

There, in that van, were two iPods. There was my wallet-- complete with ID for me and my children. There was hundreds in plain-ol' cash. There was a cell phone. There was thousands of dollars of stuff we were using, including equpitment for Will's work (he was going to be drywalling and painting while he was here at my sister's house). There were shoes--- GLORIOUS shoes! Oh the shoes!! :(

A full tank of gas. A brand new oil change. A fully-loaded Van with new tires..

this van was awesome. And I don't think that whomever stole it is going to disagree for a long time-- not with all that stuff in it! When I said I wanted to GIVE MORE and be more charitable, this isn't what I had in mind! That day, Charity sucked! ;P

:(

Life lessons sometimes really suck. But let this be YOUR lesson-- for reals, do not leave ANYTHING in your vehicle. DO NOT park far away. :( Oh yah, and don't do drugs. That poor, addicted lady's skin on the train was reallllly wrinkled and green. And green like that is NOT this season's colour!

Xie Xie, Mr. Chow Mein!!

So, yesterday was Valentine's Day. And I spent it with Will, doing WONDERFUL things! :) And after we rolled out of bed, it was a good day too! LOL. *kidding CC!* (here at CC's house, I sleep in a room beside my parents...with thin walls! :) )

Actually, yesterday, it was also Chinese New Year's. Year of the...some animal. Oh, the Tiger. Year of the Tiger. grrr.

In fact, I celebrated Chinese New Year AND Valentine's Day AND A birthday for my niece, Tiny.

Saturday night, Will and my parents and I decided to go for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant. It was super packed, as we didn't remember that it was New Year's Eve. Upon arriving outside the establishment, with the rain coming down in true Vancouver style, Will saw a piece of paper in the gutter and picked it up. That's just what Will does-- he's always picking up random stuff and somewhat 'treasure hunting' whereever he goes. If he's on a beach, he's picking up shells and coins and anything shiny! He finds cash and jewellery and coins and everything. He's super lucky that way.

So, he picks up this piece of paper, and unfolds it. The brittle paper nearly rips in his hands, as it's soaking wet, but he manages to discover a BLANK CHEQUE!!! Signed, dated, and made out for $100.00!!! Turns out, upon further investigation (aka. Google), that the Tiger is known as a 'lucky' animal... always full of luck and good fortune.

The owner of the cheque is, presumably, Chinese. (last name seems likely Korean or Chinese, but outside the restaurant, we're making an educated guess) So, maybe Mr. ... ( Chinese last name??? Um. Woo? Is Woo Chinese? Well, let's not offend anyone in case it's not, and we'll stick with something SAFE). Maybe Mr. Chow Mein left that cheque there as a 'personal red envelope' for some lucky fellow? Although, do Chinese give red Envelopes at New Years? I know the Japanese do.

Hey man, I'm full white-meat, so this whole Chinese culture thing?? Yah, not so eloquently versed by me. All appologies and olive-branches extended.

I digress.
Maybe Mr. Chow Mein doesn't even know that his forgetful son, Mushu, didn't cash the cheque a LONG time ago when he should have and accidentally dropped it and has been looking for it all day?

Maybe there's no such person as Mr. Chow Mein, and Buddah left that cheque there for good fortune for the person who finds it?

Maybe Mr. Chow Mein is soooo rich, that when Will returns the blank cheque to him, he'll say that it was just a test, and reward Will for his honesty and pay him thousands and millions of dollars and camera crews will pop out of nowhere and Oprah will be there and we'll be featured as one of the only few honest peoples left in the world and I'll totally be discovered as some ingenious writer and we'll get book deals. And we'll adopt little chinese babies and have the most adorable story ever and Branjelina will be sooo Last Year of the Ox!

And, if I go back to my "motto" for 2010, it's CHARITY. So, maybe Will and I need to give the money to some local charity and 'pay it forward'? ORRRRRRR, maybe Will and I ARE the Charity! Maybe it's a donation to our 'update our kitchen' fund?!

And maybe it won't matter anyways, because he's already put a stop-payment on the cheque.
Pfft.
Dang Mr. Chow Mein ruins EVERYONE'S fun!



*before anyone gets their Chang Pao in a tangle, don't worry-- we're not cashing the cheque.

The Games Began

I really should feel worse for not blogging for the past, what, month? But, in all honesty, I really didn't have much to share. I mean, there's only so many posts I can make about living small-town, or about being married to the hottest guy around. I don't particularly feel inclined to tell you my failures as a mother-- which, I could PROBABLY write an entirely DIFFERENT blog on EVERYday! But instead, I just prefer to wait until something noteworthy occours.

Like,
the fact that I am here in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games! :)

Yes, Will and I shipped our four "living-with-us" rugrats to various homes, and drove our way out here, bringing out boxes and bags and enough stuff for two weeks. Lucky for me, I also brought along a wonderful head/sinus cold, which, naturally, has decided that the Olympics is a cool place to be too.

We are volunteers for the hockey at Canada Hockey Place. A great experience in and of itself, just to get a mugshot on a neck tag and feel all official. And heck, we even get free transit with those passes, nevermind that they're not even checking transit passes to begin with! ;)

After a briefing, we got to spend the next two hours before the Women's Hockey game selling 50/50 tickets to people from all over the world. Sometimes we had to explain how 50/50 works, and lots of times we just get to talk with people and laugh at their crazy home-country paraphanelia. Our first game was the 18-0 game (Canada vs. Slovakia).

We now get to be part of most of the men's hockey games, the women's gold-medal game and the men's bronze. We're excited.

I'll TRY to keep updating, at least the exciting stuff. maybe even a photo here or there. :)