some girls wander by mistake.

today felt all-encompassing, and so so so good. the morning began with pancakes (of course!), thin and crepe-like, topped with nutella and sugar. the sun was out all morning, which was incredible (in general, i am beyond pleased with the timing of this mild mild late fall weather--so much sun, moderate highs, little rain; i expected far worse arriving mid-november so many miles north of portland). i took a boatload of pictures, including ones with my ol' 35mm reliable (i'm excited to have actual pictures to develop when i return) as well as digital. we walked around georgia street, took the long-way around coal harbor and into stanley park. i would guestimate we walked for about 4 hours--i'm not sure how much ground we covered, but during these 4 hours we saw mountains (finally!), coast, beach, the seawall, black squirrels (wow! adorable!), geese, swans, trails galore, a stunning bridge (less gothic than st. johns but very similar), the seven sisters, and lost lagoon. i collected these luminescent shells with violet interiors, and hope to make them into some kind of jewelry when i return.

we were starving by the time we emerged from the bowels of stanley park, so james and i headed back into downtown. we stumbled upon fantastic sushi, picked up a few grocery items, then hit up the H&M. i embarrassingly bought more things i (didn't) need, but spent under $75 doing so (2 skirts; 1 ridiculous beret-esque hat in plum; shirt). i keep debating whether or not to return to pick up this purple coat...2 more days to decide.

after dropping off H&M bags at the hostel and snacking a little more, we headed up & over to porphyre's place for tea, bunny-loving, and film-watching (nightwatch, which was terrific). on our way back we tried a different pizza place (like any good addict, i can't say no)--this one (megabite pizza) was actually pretty amazing. i take it back, vancouver.

now i'm back in the ol' hostel lounge again--there are fratboys-in-training playing pool (badly), a table full of brits talking about zappa's kids (and, god, now tara reid). i'm getting ready for bed. i need to shower. tomorrow i've got hours of freelance work to do (which is a beautiful thing--i can pay for all my H&M frivolty), whilst james loses himself in record shopping. fair trade.

good night/good morning.

the new car is beautiful. i'm still deciding on her name. "pandora" was my first pick--the one i had almost completely settled on--but a weird feeling of prophecy or ominious foreshadowing kept making me second guess myself. i'm still favoring it; i'm still undecided.

also, i still haven't gotten paid for any of the freelancing work. i just created a "week 7" folder on my desktop, which means i've/we've been writing for 7 weeks without seeing a cent of it. approximately 10-16 pages a week, depending. my bank account is hurting right now, so i could use the money asap.

we spent this evening with dan, andrea, radley, and maxie. love them all.

all else is alright. mareeuh wants me to go to nyc. i'm irritated with the red-tipped hair. uninterested in writing about jefferson davis and stephen arnold douglas, which puts me behind yet another day. not sleeping nearly enough. should we summon another hurricane-scare, just to get the time off?