Ultimate One Day Road Trip-Here's to Maija-Liisa

Wednesday April 15, 2009: A day that will go down in the books as the best, most random, and emotional day that I have had for a long time.

Tuesday night marked my last class of this stressful and emotional semester at school. I was very happy to go to class that night because I knew that the end was here. All there is left are two exams and I'm home free (for a week at least). Before class started Tuesday night, I decided to check my email and facebook.
My giddy-ness was abruptly interrupted as I was reminded via two facebook messages, that it would have been Maija-Liisa's big 20th birthday on Wednesday.

One friend wrote:
"Tommorow would have been Maija-Liisa's 20th birthday. I hope we all take a moment to think about her tommorow, and maybe find a way to celebrate for her. I know her family will be struggling with this and I hope our thoughts can be with them as well."

While Maija-Liisa's sister wrote:
"Try to put things into perspective, and maybe those "big problems" won't seem quite as huge anymore. Try to do at least one thing in her memory. Laugh and smile, because she always did. Make a sarcastic comment, because she was the queen of sarcasm. If you're feeling sad, allow yourself to feel that way, because she never hid how she was feeling. Have a moment or two of immaturity, because although most of the time she was very mature, she certainly had her moments of just being a kid again. Cheer someone up, because she was amazing at that. Basically, just do something in her memory."

Thus, I called my good friend Richard and said "tomorrow, we are going on an adventure. I don't know where we are going or what we are doing, but I have to go on an adventure!"

We agreed to meet up at his place at 9am and that we would drive east and then maybe north until 2pm and see where we end up. At about 2pm we could turn around and go home.

And so began the Ultimate One Day Road Trip!

So for those of you who know me, I have a habit of taking long drives with friends and usually we end up in Hope, BC. This was our first stop on our One Day Road Trip.
P.S. This totem pole is new...They placed it on top of the rotary circle thingy that was on the ground. It's very unfortunate when you know that something small like this has changed in a town that is 119 kilometers away.

I love this spot in Hope! Although the Fraser River is murky brown the view is absolutely amazing. I spent quite a bit of time standing there, reminiscing about the significance of this day for me, before this picture was taken. But Richard soon reminded me that the day was still young, and we had a lot of road to cover before 2pm.
One quick picture together, and off we went!
Before entering the Fraser Canyon, I decided that we would pull over at almost every new town sign that we passed, so long as it was safe to stop of course!

I was very excited to drive the Fraser Canyon! My parents and I always used to take it on our way up to Prince George, but I had never actually driven it by myself or in my car! The Fraser Canyon is a beautiful stretch of highway along the cliffs beside the Fraser River. It winds and twists and turns quite a bit. It's a really fun road to drive!

Next Stop, the historic little town of Yale. We really didn't stop long in Yale at all... mostly just long enough to take some pictures and get back into the car. Yale basically consists of a diner maybe two, some historic churches and museums and has about 200 residents... not much to see!

Nestled in the mountains, the Fraser Canyon also consists of 7 tunnels. This is just one of the tunnels.
I stood there for so long because Richard wanted to take a picture as a vehicle was just coming out of the tunnel (you can't really tell, but he just so happened to catch a police cruiser coming out of the tunnel). It's amazing how loud it is standing beside a tunnel as vehicles are going through it!

I of course preferred not to wait for a car to come out of the tunnel, so I took the picture while a van was going into the tunnel. Richard of course wanted to be standing in the middle of the tunnel, or trying to climb up to the top of it, while I was taking a picture to which I gracefully called him an idiot! Humans don't look to nice when they've been hit by a vehicle (worse if it was by a semi truck) going over 110 kilometers/hour.

Our next stop was Hell! (quite literally!)

Ah yes, the wonderful little tourist trap called Hells Gate! ...and yes, we decided to fall into the trap!

It's really an awesome little place called Hell/Hell's Gate. You first take the airtram down and then there's a little gift shop, restaurant, photographic area, and of course a fudge factory!

"No surprise Hell would have a Fudge Factory!"
-Richard


Going across the Fraser River to get to Hell.

Haha, I saw this and thought it was the cutest thing in the world! The pup pub!

The joys of the 10 second timer on digital cameras! This is Richard and I in the Hell's Gate Air Tram... ok so it's just a cut out but...

...This is an awesomely HUGE wooden chair!


Woot woot! Hell's Gate is sooo cool! I love it there!


After we rode the airtram back up to civilization (if you could call the little towns dotting the road along the Fraser Canyon civilization) it was back into the car in search for our next stop.

Hahaha, I always laugh when I think of these little towns between Hope and Cache Creek, such as Yale and Boston Bar, because I always think of them in terms of where the Greyhound Bus stops. In Boston Bar the Greyhound bus stops at this little shack-like structure that is probably just big enough for five people to stand in with their baggage!

Of course, because of the lack of population, Richard was hailed the coolest man in Boston Bar... the close second was the third longhaired construction flagger.

Lytton is another winner of a small town. Of course they had to have the biggest town sign though... can we say overcompensation??? I think we can!!!


This is Lytton! Haha, ok so really this isn't all of Lytton, but a major part of it!
At this point in the trip I was really starting to think about Maija-Liisa and how much this road trip actually meant to me. It became more apparent that I started to feel as though driving further north and closer to the tops of the mountains would bring me closer to wherever she is. I started to cry a bit while listening to Steve Earle's song "Waiting on You". The following is just a sampling of the song, at which point I was tearing up...

I can't let go, I wait for you
Till hell goes cold, I'll wait for you
You're all I know and I wait for you

Breathing out, breathing in
Holding out, giving in
Doing with or without waiting on you

Don't show it all, walk on, walk tall
Behind this wall I'm still waiting on you

We thought that my car parked like that made it look sort of like an advertisement picture.

Hehe!!! The Long Horned Sheep of Ashcroft!!! I refused to go any closer as I could see that the sheep were starting to stare me down! Of course Richard wanted to run towards the sheep and see if they would bunt him in the head. As entertaining as that sounds, I again called him an idiot and got back into the car!

Once we got to Ashcroft (sorry no town sign picture, I was driving too fast to stop), it was already a little bit after 2pm but I knew that there were scarce choices for food places and gas stations, so I suggested to Richard that we drive the extra 40 or so kilometers to Cache Creek as our final destination. There is this Diner in Cache Creek called Herbies that makes the best burgers around! Thus, that was our final stop!

After a couple of bites Richard agreed that it was the best burger he had had in a long time... It was so worth the 5-ish hour drive!

By the time we got to Cache Creek it was just about 3pm. We were both super exhausted!

Once we finished our food, we set out for the trip back home. In total, the drive up took around 5-ish hours because we made stops in Hope and Hell's Gate that were both at least half hour stops, and our drive home was only about 3 and a half-ish hours long. We did stop again in Hope to take a well needed break.

Looking back on this day and thinking about the two messages I recieved on facebook the night before, I truely feel that I fulfilled the wishes of my friends by commemorating my friend's birthday in the Ultimate One Day Road Trip. I really feel that this road trip can be significant and almost symbollic of the road that each of us has been driving down since the end of August.

At first we had Hope that we would all survive this long journey of healing ahead of us, that is full of twists and turns and tunnels through which we must pass in order to see the light, but every now and then we stop at Hell's Gate and hurt and yearn for everything to have been a dream. When we realize it is not a dream, we pick ourselves up and rise from the depths of Hell, to continue our journey. Once we have reached as close to whatever or wherever heaven may be we can take a break, perhaps a snack, and we are filled with such warmth as though we are actually in her prescence. This warmth fills us up for the rest of the way home. Speeding past Hell, on our way back to Hope! All while the glorious sun is shining!

I hope eveybody was able to enjoy this beautiful day as much as I did!

RIP Maija-Liisa!

Good on you, Britney Spears!

Alright, so this is probably going to create some tension with my readers and other random people who stumble onto my little corner of the blog-o-sphere but I have to come out and show my support for Britney Spears' latest move!

Let me begin by explaining my relationship (or lack there of) with Britney Spears... I have not listened to any of her music since her debut album. I am not a fan of hers in general. I have sympathy for what she has been through but not for some of the things she has done (this sympathy of course stems from my Psychologist/Human Services Core Value in that I "believe in the dignity and worth of all people"). I tend not to speak of her or follow anything she has done or is doing and I generally roll my eyes to any mention of her name in most conversations.

Having said that, I feel the need to comment on reports all over the media about how she stopped her show in Vancouver for approximately half an hour, after performing only three songs because GM Place had become too smoky.

Now, I'm a proud Vancouverite (alright so I don't actually live in Vancouver but close enough) and I am well aware of the ventilation in GM Place and Vancouver's love affair with cigarettes and pot in general (hell I live in the small town that is apparently known for smoking and growing weed more than anything else). I am also well aware that it is generally customary to "hot box" GM Place during rock concerts, I mean back in grade 10 I went to see Ozzy Osbourne who of course condones the smoking of BC Pot (our greatest export apparently) during his concerts (that turned out to be some night. I didn't even smoke but I can assure you by the end of his concert I was flying high!).

However, the difference between an Ozzy Osbourne concert (or any other heavy metal/rock concert for that matter) and a Britney Spears concert, other than the fact that one plays better music than the other, is the fact that Britney Spears, whether she is lip syncing or actually singing, is taking in a lot more oxygen (or recirculated air) when she is "dancing" (note the quotation marks) than Ozzy is while he is singing/jumping up and down like a frog.
Alright, so that may not be true but COMMON PEOPLE! SMOKING WEED AT A BRITNEY SPEARS CONCERT??? That's like smoking weed at a Kenny G concert or the Opera!!! WHO GETS HIGH WHILE LISTENING TO BRITNEY SPEARS????

Wow! That was an unexpected rant! My point is, as "performers" Britney Spears and her dancers need to have some sort of clean air in order to perform well. You cannot sing (or lip sync) and dance (or whatever it is she calls dancing) while taking in polluted air. I don't care if she smokes while she's off stage. I don't care if she tokes while she's off stage. When you are performing on stage you need to breath in a lot more air than when you are simply walking around or sitting on the couch.

I agree with what she did! I think she has the right and the duty to protect herself, if not her dancers, by stoping what she is doing and waiting for the air to clear. I don't care how much money you paid to see her girate and lip sync! It's a lot better to pay a bunch of money to see her stop the show and wait until the air is clear than it is to pay a lot of money, watch her perform three songs and then see her, or her other crew members, collapse on stage and have the rest of the show cancelled all because some idiots decided to toke up (again, at a Britney Spears concert?!?)

Additionally, I think that GM Place needs to do a better job of enforcing the No-Smoking bylaw! Personally, I don't really care too too much about me and second hand smoke only because I know I have options and I can move if I want, but if we are to have a no-smoking bylaw then shouldn't that bylaw be enforced everywhere. If smokers are allowed to hot box GM Place then why can't they hot box the office that they work in? That doesn't seem fair now does it? Not to mention the fact that they will enforce the no-smoking right outside the building doors but once you get into the arena it's all systems go! That doesn't make sense... "No smoking outside while other people are waiting in line to get in. I know they have the option to move a bit and get some real oxygen but there's no smoking allowed." but once you get inside the building "Haha, non-smokers have no choice but to breath in this smoky air... feel free to light up!".

Let me just make sure one thing is clear, I am not a smoker. I have never tried smoking, and I probably never will. However, if you want to kill your body much faster then by all means go for it. I would prefer that you do not do it while I am around, but I too have the option to step aside and find some fresh air. I shouldn't have to, but (especially considering my size) it's a lot better than getting into a fight with a smoker! Just don't blow your smoke in my face and we'll be fine!

One last thought, on a general note, we really have to stop thinking of only ourselves and maybe start thinking about other people around us. If we can achieve this, perhaps we can acheive world domination!

How to Eat a Burger at 100 Kilometers an Hour

Normally I don't condone doing anything other than driving when it comes to driving. No talking on cell phones, no texting. I rarely even condone eating anything other than simple finger food such as fries or chips, and drinking (non-alcoholic of course), but today for myself was a bit of an exception.

I was having a very strong craving for a burger while I was on my way to my class this evening. When I crave burgers, it has to be a burger from Triple O's or White Spot. Mmmm... I love the Triple O sauce, which I am convinced is some sort of mixture of mayo, ketchup, and perhaps some sort of cheese sauce... perhaps it's better to not know! Anyways, so I pull into the local Triple O's Drive Thru and put in my order.

The first portion of my meal, that being the fries, went well as I was driving my way to school... but the burger part was quite difficult. Firstly, for those of you who know me will know just how small my hands are. Thus due to my hands being ridiculously small I have a very hard time holding a burger with one hand. Basically, until I had eaten enough of the burger to be able to hold it in one hand, I had to wait until I was stopped at a red light in order to take a bite.

Secondly, unlike snack wraps or donairs where the food is nicely wrapped in an envelope-type tissue paper that you can simply shimmie down in order to keep the food wrapped while not eating the paper, burgers are round and most often not wrapped in a pouch-like wrapper, so you have to fold the paper around and underneath the burger so that you do not end up with a whole load of condiments and lettuce falling in your lap. Again, doing this while driving 100 km/hr with tiny nible hands is very hard to do.

Lastly, you know how at the end of the burger you sometimes end up with a little bit of bun, a larger portion of burger, and more condiments on your plate then burger in your hand? Well put that inside a not-so-well folded pouch-like tissue paper... Imagine me driving on the highway with this little bit of bun, a larger portion of burger, swimming in Triple O Sauce, wrapped in a large amount of tissue paper. I debated eating this last bit of my burger, but when it came down to it I knew that if I were to simply dig in I would have Triple O Sauce all over my face.
All in all, the burger was well worth the trouble.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of burgers, I heard about this super large burger that you can get at a West Michigan Whitecaps minor baseball game.It has five beef patties, five pieces of cheese, nearly a cup of chili, lots of salsa and fritos (corn chips) on an 8-inch sesame-seed bun. It's calorie count is 4800 calories. To put that into daily caloric restrictions, my calorie intake per day should be between 1200 and 1250 (in order to maintain my weight). Thats approximately 4 days worth of calories, almost an entire work week's worth (say that aloud five times fast... bet you can't) of calories.

I dunno about the rest of you, but this makes me want to vomit. Who would be able to eat that in an entire sitting? I don't even want to know. Apparently if you can eat this $20 dollar burger in one setting, you can get a free special T-shirt. I'm not sure I can speak for everyone else, but for $20 I can-and would prefer to- buy a new T-shirt (special or not) without having to engage in massive gluttony.

Science World Funtastico!!!

March 18, 2009 is the day Jackie and I took a trip to Science World!!! The Lego exhibition was on and we were very very excited!
Although because it was in the middle of spring break we had to fight crowds like crazy! It was overwhelmingly busy that we decided to first duck into the small theater to see what was going on there. That's where we found this guy...

Then we decided to get the learning adventure started! Here's Jackie trying to listen in on somebody's personal conversations... actually you could barely hear what you were supposed to hear from those tubes because there were so many people!!!

Ever since I was a child I have had a specific fascination with water, waterfalls, and water toys so naturally I gravitated towards this wonderful contraption!
Although I love water and I love this water thing... My favorite part about the above picture is this guy...

I dunno if you can tell... but if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you will see that my camera apparently did not get rid of the red eye and so this scientist dude looks even more like a MAD SCIENTIST!!!

I constantly had to babysit Jackie as she always wanted to play with the other kids... hehe


So, Jackie and I found this area with these building sticks and whatnot and the plaque on the box of stick things said "can you build a figure taller than yourself?" Naturally Jackie and I stepped up to the challenge, but as you can see above, our first attempt did not go so well...

However we made it happen on our second attempt!!!
Side Note: Notice how the bottom section is fairly uniform and could possibly look structurally sound and the top part is well... not so much. Yeah! Guess who did the top part... That's right, yours truly (i.e. me!). I decided to take on a more creative and unique approach to it!
Further Note: as was reinforced throughout this exercise, neither of us are engineering students! Moreover, this emphasized my role as an arts student!

Well, nothing lasts forever unfortunately!

Tap dancing on a large piano is a lot more fun (and safer) than in your kitchen in your socks!

Notice the number of children around me compared to when Jackie was on this thing... Perhaps I looked too "adult" with my boots and whatnot!



So we finally got to the Lego section, and I realized that it was going to be more of a museum type thing with little sculptures of Lego stuff... it was interesting, but not enough to keep this ADD mind from wandering. Anywho, I did manage to take a photo of this Lego sculpture of the YVR Skytrain station.

Oh, and of course the large Lego Race car! I took it too seriously and put on my racing face...

Meanwhile Jackie just decided to smile away!

Science World from above!

Taking a well needed breather on our way up to the Omnimax.

Waiting for Van Gogh: Brush of Genius (our Omnimax experience for the day) to start.

I hate mind bending puzzles!!!

However Jackie seems to excel in them!

This is my new favorite Lizard!

Jackie trying to be a T-Rex

Jackie and I in the Beaver Dam!

Yes it was a great day of learning and building and playing with other people's little children. We both agreed that building that "thing" to make it as tall as ourselves was easily the highlight of the day! It's too bad somebody rushed to make it look more entertaining rather than focusing on structure! :P