What a day!

What a day!  What a day!

Where do I even begin!

So last night, on the 23rd, we had a mini-Halifax Project ‘07 (and ‘08) reunion, where I got the chance to see my one and only Brazilian friend again.

There’s something about them Brazilians.  Be it their futebol, their music, their samba……they’re just that bit sexier.

Anyways.

The dinner was at Cambie and King Edward, and if you know Cambie you’d know that anywhere on that fricking road is a big bloody mess.  So I decided that I would just park my car in some office building parking lot across from the restaurant, where it was nice and warm and underground.  And after the dinner was over, I went back to the parking lot.

Closed.

It was closed.  Gates and everything.

I had no access to the car.

We are talking about the 2-week old Rabbit here.

Locked up in this evil stranger’s nest.

Sickening.

So I cried myself home on the bus.  It was good that at least I had Johnson accompanying me.

I then decided that I would go back to the parking lot first thing the next morning, on the day of Christmas Eve, to see if I can pick up the car before anyone tows it away or anything.

So I went to bed around midnight, got up at 5AM, and took the 5:36AM B-Line, made a transfer, and got there around 6:30AM.

Still locked up.  I waited in the cold until 7AM: no luck.

So I thought bleh, I had to work at 8AM in downtown, so I just bused down. It was snowing and snowing and snowing.  I was getting more and more worried.

A coworker was telling us how it took her 2 hours just to get from Surrey to downtown, because the Skytrain she was on was stuck for an hour.

Nasty, nasty weather.  The transit here is simply not prepared for such conditions.  We are noobs, really.

So the boss at work let us off half an hour early (how nice of him), so I rushed to the B-Line station, only to see the Chinese bus driver (albeit a white-washed one) yell at this Chinese couple who took forever to put money into the box on the bus.

Man, I felt so guilty. It’s like we think we have every right to treat our own race in the worst manner.  I can’t picture him yelling at, say, a white couple like that.

Anyways, turns out the driver was also a real wimp!  When we got to Granville and 5th, he just stopped along the side of the road and said we were going to sit there for hours to wait for the snow-removal/salt trucks to arrive to clear the hilly roads for us……while at the same time we watched all the other buses drive by us, giving their best shot at conquering the hills.

People started complaining, and talking amongst each other.  The bus driver started getting all riled up and shouting back at some of the more vocal passengers.  It was like a scene taken from some movie like Speed.  It was really a big gong show.  It felt a bit like it was Armageddon or something, the way some people were reacting.  What a bloody mess eh!

So a good load of us got off, ran onto another B-Line, which turned out to have a woman bus driver who was courageous as heck and really entertaining.  She kept updating us via the mic and the whole bus cheered when she successfully conquered the steepest hill on Granville and 16th.  What a day.

This Filipino lady behind me kept shouting “Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord!”.  It was a nice touch.

Turns out at the bus stop on King Edward, one of the people waiting was actually the relief bus driver for the next 25.  He started telling us all about the horrible stories he had gathered about the crazies in the crazy weather.  The people he almost hit, the routes that were the most difficult, the millions of buses that got stuck, etc., etc.

It’s strange, ain’t it.  The messiness of this whole thing really brings people together!  Or maybe it’s the Christmas spirit.  But I can’t say I have ever seen so many strangers gather to converse with each other; not here in Vancouver.

So, long story short: by 3:30PM I finally got to the parking lot that I had lost my car in, about 20 hours after I had left him there.  All alone by himself on Christmas Eve.

I ran off the bus, and ran into the parking lot.

I still can’t get the image out of my head: the way the Rabbit smiled at me the very moment I saw him right there safely in the same spot I had left him, totally unscathed.

I gave him a big hug, comforted him, told him everything was alright.

And he helped me to connect with him on a level I had never been to: I just realized how much easier it is to sense the clutch when I just leave my heel on the floor.  Somehow that had never occurred to me before.  How stupid.

So that’s that.  A long arse day that started from 5AM and didn’t end until I got home around 5PM, when I still had to shovel snow with my cousin in order to open up a path for the car to get into my garage.

Anyhow, Merry Christmas to you all!  It was a great day.

I love Vancouver: the people, the food, the places, and even the sucky, sucky public transit.

Man, does it suck.

Advent, Advent

I was a tad worried that this will be one of those really really lonely Christmases (like last year’s), but as things turn out I am having a great time.

At work there was the Christmas party, and there is Secret Santa coming up.  We are also each signing up to bring in some of our very own baked goodies for next week as well. Great.

At church there’s also a white elephant gift exchange coming up, I hope anyway.  Last year I managed to find a gem – got a great book for one of the teens, entitled “How Animals Have Sex”.  Thought it was quite educational and a great laugh.  Now I gotta find something as good. I just hope I will receive a good gift as well.

And then I am also going to spend a bit of time helping out at the C4C Winter Con this year, which should be good as I’ll likely get to hangout more with the staff (an unheard of priviledge for the regular C4C student, at least at UBC).

Now I just have to pick some semi-Christmasy tunes for Sunday service this week and my joy will be complete.

I’m hoping to revisit the 4 Gospels and finish them just before Christmas.  Midway through Matthew right now, reading it in the CEV translation, it’s certainly quite different.

Last but not least, I have been trying hard to connect with the new car spiritually, as I believe firmly that once that step is established I will be able to shift it up to 6th gear.  They say the car only has 5 gears but I think the 6th one is hidden only for those who can call on the car’s name, the same way Jesus called on Lazarus’ name when He resurrected him.

I am a bit surprised I don’t feel THAT dirty though.  ‘Cause most times when I get treated nicely (i.e. being bought a new car) I feel very unworthy and guilty and dirty.  But I feel okay thus far.