By Lucy

Time to pack up and ship out.

I almost regretted heading out. I was kinda getting used to being here. But this is a two-fer; not only was I saving money, but I was netting myself an easy good review, which would be helpful in the future. Getting that first housesit can be tricky.

Headed down for breakfast. When the two German girls came down, I went up to pack in peace. All the windows were wide open again… I won’t miss that!

Went down to the lobby and checked out, got my five bucks back. Checked how I’d get to the station Yolanda was picking me up at.

Like the first day, I decided to Uber to the station, and felt guilty about it.

“What kind of standards do you set for yourself?” Paul asked.

“You ask that like you don’t already know.” You’ve got two feet and a heartbeat. It’s only a short walk.

I ended up ordering one of those “shared” Ubers. I’m in no rush, I’ll take the cheaper option.

It took him about half an hour to drop me off at the station, picking up one other lady along the way.

The only thing I hate about Vancouver’s transit is the ‘fare zone’ system. When I was riding the TTC all the time, it was 3$, go anywhere within 90 minutes (I know it’s more now). I squinted at the map and the machine for purchasing a ticket started bitching that I was taking too long, so I panicked and hit zone 2.

It was only once I was on the train that I realized I wanted zone 3. Oops. See, this is confusing, why does it exist?

The train ride is nice. Skytrain is definitely better than the subway. I’m surprised by all the apartment buildings going up. Is Vancouver really growing?

When I got off the train, I trailed behind someone using the handicap gates, miming tapping my pass. Not like the cops are going to chase me down for a dollar. I’m not even sure what would happen… would the gate refuse to open if I tapped the wrong zone?

I got there a solid 20 minutes before I was supposed to. Oh well. Waited outside – very few of the train stations have a proper indoor waiting area, which is frustrating in a city where the weather is usually moist.

Met Yolanda’s husband. I feel like I’ve met him before… maybe last year? He talks a lot. I nodded along as he drove us to the coffee shop.

The coffee shop is a small one attached to a hospice. Just a small group of older ladies, keeping social. They were all business ladies with more accolades to their names than their husbands, so a good crowd for me! Yolanda, at 60 or something close to that, is the youngest one there, usually.

We talked for about for an hour. The daily special was a taco salad, which was blandly inoffensive. Yolanda paid for mine, which was very kind of her. One of the other ladies brought some leftover Christmas chocolate to share. Yolanda introduced me to everyone as “circumnavigating the globe”, which everyone approved of and congratulated me on. One lady called me over to sit with her and discuss my plans.

Everyone thought I was sort of bold for going to Taiwan, with all of China’s saber-rattling. Admittedly, there’s a non-zero chance of China invading while we are there, but attacking the big Rotary conference is probably a pretty stupid thing for them to do. Lots of rich white people to bring the might of the Western world to bear. And I’m not a good target for a hostage; there’s no money to ransom me for.

Also, turns out Yolanda is going to be in the Philippines at the end of March. I have half a thought of joining her there, but I also don’t want to intrude on her vacation.

Eventually we headed out. Yolanda gave me a ride to the house sit, as it was around the corner from the cafe.

Once I got to the house, I was lost… now what? I called the current house sitter, Iana. I doubted I was to head to the front door.

“Go around the left side.”

It was a basement suite with the entrance in the backyard, and a small yard at that. There was a living room with a TV and a fireplace, a nice sized kitchen with an island, and a bedroom.

I barely had time to set my bags down when Iana insisted we go on a walk to learn Bailey’s route.

So, this location is about 1/3 the way up a mountain. There’s a nearby walking trail that goes up and down the mountain. About 2/3 of the way up is an off-leash dog park. Walk up, throw the ball around, walk back. Takes about 40 minutes, plus ball throwing time.

I’m uncomfortable right away. Iana walks Bailey off-leash, but Bailey isn’t super well behaved. I’ve seen worse dogs, but she usually takes 2 or 3 commands before she responds. She’s also mildly aggressive towards other dogs, although not people or kids, thank goodness. Iana tries to bait Bailey into pooping in the bushes so she doesn’t have to pick it up, as well.

There’s a park above the dog park that Iana says is Bailey’s favourite, but I’m definitely not letting the dog off the leash right next to a dog park. That seems like the height of entitlement.

I try to chat with Iana a bit. I’m confused as to why she is house-sitting when she lives in Vancouver; the vague answer she gives me is that where her apartment is, is noisy.

And then she grabbed her bags and was gone.

Time to sit for a spell.

Coquitlam… Kwikwetlam, in Coast Salish. Means “the red fish up the river”, because it’s where the sockeye salmon used to swim up the river to spawn.

This place is interesting. I feel kind of rude judging people I’ve never really met, but it’s hard not to. There’s multiple bottles of supplements in every room, most of them “fat burners”, which is depressing. It’s a small “in-law” suite under the main house, and almost everything in this place is white and sterile. Weird dichotomy of both Paderno and Betty Crocker kitchen gear. I couldn’t find regular granular sugar, only “coconut” sugar.

But then, this was the neighbourhood for it. The domain of bottle blonde pixie-cut Karens, drinking their soy matcha no-whip lattes as they clutched their pearls at PTA meetings. The last place I want to be, but the price is right.

I wasn’t expecting to actually stay in their bed; I had some mental image of there being a spare room. The wall is covered in sticky notes that seem very conspiracy theory/ sovereign citizen. The sheets are clearly the “guest” sheets, which is fine by me. A room to myself is a room to myself.

I can hear the Skytrain even inside the apartment.

There’s no actual chairs to sit in. Sitting on the couch all the time isn’t great, but the bar stools at the island are not comfortable either.

Well! I have to go grocery shopping, and I don’t fancy having to tackle that hill more often than necessary. Even walking down the 45 degree incline hurts my shins.

Some frozen fruit, some good tea – splurging on Twinings. All told, still only 70 bucks to keep me fed for the week.

The walk back up the hill nearly kills me. I keep stopping every ten meters for a break! A man working in his yard stops to watch and laugh. “What, did you miss the bus?”

“There’s a bus?”

“Oh yeah, most of the locals just ride it up and then walk down to wherever they are going.”

Noted.

I managed to make it back to the apartment and sign in to Zoom without being late. I absolutely had to be on time today; Shelley was my guest speaker.

El presidente annoyed me. Emily was late for the meeting, and we can’t start without our secretary, so we waited ten minutes. Shelley was allotted 20 minutes to speak, so she talked until half past. Later on, Cindy complained she had talked for half an hour. Um, no she didn’t. She talked for twenty minutes and we started late.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Sharon knows Shelley well; they both volunteer on the board for the art gallery. Shelley went the extra mile and looked through our website, and talked about our projects. I thought the talk went very well; Lee-Ann was clearly inspired. She also asked Shelley if she could email her; she thinks I’m just not following up on her little project, but the allotment committee hasn’t met since I’ve been invited to join it. I hope someone tells her that!

We also had a prospective member join us, who mentioned she was there because of my trivia nights! Hah, eat that, haters!

The meeting went until after 7. It was dark and cold out. Well, Bailey has been walked twice today, she’ll just have to do her business in the backyard. Fed her and gave her her pills, fortunately they are chewable, so I don’t have to wrestle them down her throat.

I made myself some instant noodles and couldn’t find a garbage can. That’s concerning.

Bedtime was another learning curve. Bailey obviously has separation anxiety, or something. She immediately jumped on the bed with me. Sometimes I’m ok with the dog sleeping on the bed, but she tried to curl up on my chest like a cat. Ok, you’re sleeping on the floor!

I slept decently. Bailey’s first feed is at 7, but I’m usually up around then anyway. In this instance, listening to the pitter patter of little feet on the ceiling above me.

Now to learn where everything is in this kitchen.

I stumbled my way through breakfast. I was definitely feeling the hill.

Waited an hour, then took Bailey for a walk. I’m trying to avoid peak dog walking times, since I have the luxury of that. Walk around 9, after everyone else has gone to work, and around 3, before they get home.

The thing that annoys me most is the ball throwing. Maybe that’s ‘normal’ for most dogs, but I’m not used to a dog that doesn’t want to give me the ball back and makes me fight for it. Both of my parents dogs were well trained and released the ball for you to throw. And Earl wouldn’t play catch, so it didn’t matter.

I played on the laptop for the rest of the morning. The other annoying thing is that Bailey gets fed three times a day, and one of those times is at noon. Who does this to themselves? It really ties me to the house for the duration of the housesit, especially since I am car-less.

New season of The Pitt. When did that get announced? I thought it would be a year…

Holy crap, it has been a year! Where has the time gone?

I’ve been emailing back and forth with this place to fix the zipper on my luggage. Ekster offered to reimburse me the cost of getting the zipper replaced, plus a 10 percent refund, which I much prefer. I could tell from the minute I received the bag that the zipper was cheap China crap, so getting a new bag was just kicking the problem down the road. Getting a new zipper would future-proof it. Plus, I hate throwing out something just because one thing on it is broken.

So I emptied out my bag and hopped on the train. It was an hour train ride there and an hour back, plus walking time, although at least I had learned to take the bus up the hill!

The owner was amused when I showed up with the bag. He agreed with me about the zipper. He said usually he takes 2 weeks to fix the bags, which would be fine if I weren’t on the move in the meantime. Maybe I can just buy a large shopping bag from Walmart…

“This is a good bag, huh? Waterproof.”

“Oh, yeah. It even fell off my motorcycle and not a scratch for it.” I admitted sheepishly.

“You travel a lot?”

“Yep, off to Thailand after this. Backpacking.”

He smiled. “I tell you what, I’ll have it ready for you Saturday. Normally I do a 6 month warranty, but for you, 5 year warranty. Guaranteed.”

“Oh, thank you so much!”

He charged me 200$ for it, but like I care when it’s getting reimbursed anyway. All gravy to me!

Once I got back from dropping my bag off, I had to quickly feed the dog. I shoveled some food in my face, then dragged her up and down the mountain quickly. I had plans to go for drink with Jake tonight. I probably shouldn’t have, but I’d stacked everything today so I only had to buy the one day pass for transit.

I had probably another 20 minutes that I could have waited, but I didn’t want to. I’d rather sit in the bar with a drink. It was a chilly walk down the hill; the temp had dropped as quickly as the sun, and I could see my breath.

It was about an hour, across two buses, to get to the bar. I ended up getting there even earlier; I was supposed to wait 10 minutes for the next bus, but the previous bus was late and showed up immediately.

Whatever! Got to the bar at 6:20 and ordered myself an appley cocktail. I need the calories.

Jake got there around 7:15, as his bus was late, but I couldn’t imagine that the hour would have been better spent at home. I ordered a pizza and it showed up shortly after he did.

“Hey!” He folded me into a hug.

“Hey, you!” For people who are not long-term readers, I first met Jake the same day I met Jeremy, actually. Jeremy posted in the Discord group that the two of them were going to a bar around the corner from where I was living, and I showed up on a whim. Apparently that impressed both of them.

I’m still not sure if Jake is “my” friend, because we almost never talk when one of us isn’t in town, but we do make an effort to hang out when we are. Every time he’s in Thunder Bay we hang out, and every time I’m in Vancouver we make plans together. It’s never anything more complicated than going for drinks, but it’s something. Maybe that’s all it needs to be. Casual travelling friends.

“So, I dunno if you’ve heard from Jeremy…” I start.

“Oh yeah, I saw him over Christmas. He’s fine.”

“Oh, that’s good.” I sigh and put my head down on the table. “When he went quiet, everyone started bothering me about it! And I have no idea what’s going on!” I sat up, “Not that I am asking you to tell me…”

“No, no, of course, I can’t tell you.”

“Yeah, just as long as he’s fine,” I sigh again, “Everyone keeps suggesting he was jealous I had a new boyfriend.”

Jake bursts out laughing, “No, that is definitely not it! But hey, a new boyfriend! Congrats!”

“Oh, no, it’s over already.” I laugh, reassured that Jeremy’s silence wasn’t my fault. “He went on a bender at the work Christmas party and didn’t text me for 2 days.”

“Sounds like you dodged a bullet there.”

“Sounds like it, doesn’t it?” I guess I still don’t believe it.

“Did you get your money worth out of the month?”

“You could say that.” Really, it was the same problem as with Garry. I had nothing to complain about, except that it ended!

Well, and Garry hadn’t made any promises.

“How’s the girlfriend?” I asked. His girlfriend is down in the GTA for school.

“Good. You know, between me going to see her, or her coming back for holidays, we see each other every 3 weeks or so. So it isn’t that bad.”

“And it’s temporary.” She always planned on coming back. More blades across my heart strings.

Just then, Jake’s drink and the pizza arrived, and we tore into it.

We sat there for over 2 hours, although we only had 3 drinks each. It felt really good to just hang out and chat over drinks, and I quickly felt really buzzed.

“Oh, I ran into Elizabeth May on the train!”

“Yeah? That’s cool. She’s popular around here, always gets re-elected in her riding. People love her.”

“She wrote down my email and we were talking about mass timber and renewable construction.” I say, with a squeal of delight.

“Awesome! Hey, maybe you’ll be leader of the Green Party next!”

“Hah, maybe!” I wouldn’t be arguing with that. I’m not even sure it would give me a real shot at being Prime Minister, but that’s not really one of my goals in life. My goal, as it were, would be to turn Thunder Bay into the perfect example of a renewable city; no landfill, no fossil fuels used. And if being leader of the Green Party got me there, or beyond, I’d take it.

“Why does everyone keep complaining about the rain?” I asked. “Doesn’t it rain a lot here?

“Oh, that!” He laughs. “It doesn’t rain here like you and I are used to. Usually when it rains here, it doesn’t rain hard enough to even soak through a sweater. So that’s why… it rains a lot, but it’s just misting.”

Finally we had to leave, cause the bar closes at 10. It was definitely chilly out now! Jake waited with me at the bus stop until the bus picked me up.

I got home around 11. Flopped in bed, head spinning.

I didn’t have that much to drink. 3 drinks was a slow night in Fort Frances!

I guess… It has been a while since I had much to drink. I only had the two shots at New Years, and the baby mimosa on the train. Maybe my tolerance reset already.

If nothing else, this trip will be good for my liver. I don’t plan on drinking much in Asia; I’ve seen too many stories about drinks spiked, or made with methanol, or another fatal substance. I might try to track down a bottle of Crown at some point, and I’ll probably have drinks at conferences, but let’s be honest; I didn’t drink much in New Zealand, either.

Of course, Europe will be a different story, whether it’s staying with Jakob, or my family, or in Italy. Japan also might be different. But that still gets me ’til July, more or less sober.

Got up at 7 to feed the dog, then went back to bed for a bit.

Sun! Oh, to bask in it! We had 6 straight days of sun and it was glorious.

Spent the day flaked out. Booked some of my next steps, like the first week in Bangkok. I don’t want to plan too far in advance, in case something comes up, or I change my mind.

Volunteer and work-for-stay placements are few and far between in Thailand, and most of them want you to pay them for the pleasure of working! Probably for rich American “altruists”. If I’m paying for it, I’d rather just camp out at a hostel and do my own thing.

I watched all three Venom movies. They’re not good, in my opinion, but I’ve never watched them before and I was looking for something to play in the background. My biggest problem is that the pacing is all over the place. And the tone… the third one comes up with a plot point that is supposed to stop them from shifting fully into Venom, except Venom does it constantly for no reason! Just painful to watch.

I’ve been researching Tex Guinan as well. Another of a thin line of women who lived by their own rules, like Mae West. One day, God willing, my name will be said in the same breath as theirs. She ran a speakeasy during prohibition and would laugh in the face of cops who came to arrest her.

Also, my heart rate has fallen below 60 when I’m just sitting on the couch. Kevin is mildly concerned about it.

When I go out to walk Bailey, the kids upstairs are being dropped off by another mom. The kids ran past me without noticing me at all. The other mom tried to say hi to me, but the owner corrected her that I’m just the dog walker. Just ‘the help’.

Saturday I wake up with a sore throat.

Well, if I have to get a cold anytime, might as well be here and now. Good thing I stole some cough drops from the house in Fort Frances.

Fitbit is screaming at me. Working too hard. I do feel too tired to walk the dog, but there isn’t anywhere to take her for a walk that isn’t a hill, and this is the job I agreed to. If I can haul myself up 16 flights of stairs hungover from a bender, I can take the dog on a damn walk.

My dad got my post card. He immediately texted me, “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

Christ, why do I bother? Fine, I won’t! God forbid you just say ‘thank you’ or ‘I miss you’. He also started telling me going overseas is dangerous and asking me about the housesitting gig, which made me chuckle because I never told him I was housesitting. Hello, mother. I feel your cold gaze over my shoulder.

Before the morning walk, I dropped my phone on Bailey’s head. She’s not used to me. For some weird reason, whenever I reach for my phone in my pocket, she lunges into me. Thinking I have treats? She knocked the phone out of my hand and it bonked her on the head. Oh no!

After lunch, I hop back on the train to go pick up my bag. It’s fixed, yay! I forgot my ticket and there was some other guy at the front, but the guy who took the bag from me came out.

“I remember you.” He says, smiling.

I hear that a lot.

On the train back to the ‘burbs.

I resent being in Coquitlam, actually. I almost feel like I’d rather be back at the hostel, even if this is free.

Everything I own is covered in dog hair.

Eventually I realize part of the problem. I have no emotional investment in this dog. On the surface, maybe that sounds like a positive; I won’t miss it when I’m gone. But there’s also no denying that it prevents me from enjoying anything about this. All I can do is resent every bit of my time that the dog requires.

In the afternoons, I don’t even bother trying to take her to the dog park. I don’t trust her not to nip at the other dogs. Which is presumably why her owner takes her to the other park.

Other peoples dogs are a problem, like other peoples kids. Except it’s not the dog’s fault. I feel bad whenever Bailey clearly wants off the leash, but what can I do? I’m not going to tell the bi-law officer “well, the owner said to walk her off the leash” when there’s clearly signs everywhere. I follow the rules.

A few times, I do take her for a walk after 6 instead. Everyone is off the road by then, either cooking dinner or because it’s dark. Bailey’s not a flight risk, so I can walk her off the leash and we won’t encounter a single other dog. And the bi-law guy can’t see.

I crashed at 8PM, TV still playing. I was exhausted.

Sunday, rest day. As much as I can, anyway. I have no reason to go out besides walking the dog, so I shall otherwise stay put. Get some writing done. My sore throat is gone, thank goodness.

Bailey almost killed me during our morning walk. She saw a cat and you’d have thought it was the world was ending. She yanked me forward and I almost ate the pavement. Definitely not pleased.

The owner is getting back at 10PM on Wednesday. She asked me to take Bailey for a short walk after dinner, but I won’t even be able to stay ’til 5. I have to be at Lonsdale Quay for 6, which means heading out at 4:30. I’ll take her for a walk at 3, and feed her dinner at 4, and then I’m out.

Started watching the Great Canadian Baking Show again. I usually wait until each season is finished before watching it, because I’m impatient. Somehow I had 2 seasons on the backlog… must have forgotten for over a year!

I woke up in the night with chest pain. Not intense chest pain, mind you, just enough to prevent me from getting back to sleep. I did work out the other day; was it intercostal pain? Mucus in my chest from my cold? Or was it connected to my bradycardia?

To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if I have first degree heart block. I have such a hard time recruiting a higher heart rate for exercise.

Kevin was concerned and wanted me to go to the hospital, but I couldn’t see a way that ended well. If it is a problem with my heart, that’s the end of my globetrotting. No thanks! And I have no other symptoms; it could just be indigestion. I did set up times to check in with him and gave him my address, so if something bad did happen, he could summon the paramedics for me.

Around noon, I went down for a nap. When I woke up, Bailey hopped on the bed with me and threw her head on my chest like we were cuddling. I snapped a quick clip, then threw it in a reel. I’ve decided I should start posting reels to drive more traffic to my blog. I think I’m getting good at it.

View this post on Instagram

It’s been quiet for a bit. I suspect the kids upstairs went away for the weekend. Not complaining!

I applied to the few volunteering positions that caught my eye in Asia. I’ve also been eyeing the Boating Hitchhikers Facebook page. The idea is to travel on a shoestring budget and see the world, not to stay in hostels and see all the expensive touristy stuff.

There was supposed to be northern lights on Monday, so I took Bailey for a walk in the evening. I saw something I couldn’t decide if it was lights or clouds, so I grabbed someone else’s photos of the Aurora as well. Probably too much light pollution, here in the city.

Tuesday I finally got registered for the Soroptimist conference. I’m the club delegate, all official and stuff! I registered for the Rotary conference the week before. Now I booked hotels for both. That’s that sorted.

I asked Victoria if there had been any drunken shenanigans to report. She said none; everyone was just retiring to their rooms in the evening. At first I was suspicious, but then I realized it made sense. She says the work is going well, so they’re almost done, and everyone is tired of being there. I did also observe before that if it wasn’t me and Kyle getting the party going, there was no party, and that extended to my absence as well. Sometimes I wonder if Kyle got everyone going just an excuse/ cover to spend time with me.

I finally said goodbye to Kyle.

See, I still had him as a friend on Facebook. It seemed mostly harmless; he hasn’t posted anything in at least two years anyway. Then I realized it was me holding on still. There’s no reason to keep him on there; all of his old posts are universally available, whereas mine are all set to ‘friends only’. So it’s a litmus test too. Either he was still checking out my posts, and he’ll notice he can’t, or he wasn’t, and it won’t make a difference.

I’m not stupid or naive; if you go back through my posts on this very blog, I never stopped referring to him as untrustworthy, or closed off. I knew there was a good chance this ended badly. And yet, I still can’t shake the feeling…

If I could ask him anything, it would be; why. Did you really think you were ready for a relationship? Or were you stringing me along the whole time?

It doesn’t matter. He’ll reach out, or he won’t.

Delete.

“The women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them. I fear neither pain nor death.”

“What do you fear, my lady?”

“A cage.”

• Eowyn

At 6:20, as promised, Nav picked me up. She’s a sweet Indian lady with a head full of curls and we clicked right away. She’s also on the housesitting app, but as a homeowner, so she was interested in getting my information to have me sit for her. Except she has parrots. Plural.

We were going down to Lafarge Lake to meet a bunch of the other ladies and go for a walk among the lights.

The president of the Western conference (Canada is divided into an Eastern and a Western region) was in attendance, and the first thing she did was take a selfie with me to send to Cheryl (the governor of the Eastern conference).

All introductions made, and then we were off!

I was expecting a relaxing stroll, but it seemed most of the ladies had the gas pedal on. They quickly congregated into their usual groups. I made an effort to try and join a few different conversation, but I ended up spending most of the walk with Nav and another lady who was born in New Zealand.

It took us about half an hour to do the walk (less a lake and more a pond) and then we all hopped in the cars to head to a bar.

As we passed Coquitlam city hall, Nav pointed out something out front. “See that blue thing? It’s supposed to be a tree.”

Hmm. “Really? It looks like a lava lamp.”

“It does.” She smiled. “We call it the Coquitlam Coq.” When I die laughing, she adds, “Spelled c-o-q, of course.”

At the bar, they not only carded me, they made me show them a second piece of ID!

I ended up sitting with Nav at the bar, but I spent most of the time at the bar chatting with Janice. She’s a very forthright and driven woman; she seems to run most of the volunteering efforts in her club, which is the kind of effort I want. I want our club to do more volunteering. They have something called “Bea’s Kloset”, and a monthly event called Warm Place where they cater dinner for women in need and provide them with clothing and toys for their kids. She also works with a rehab program called Talitha Koum. When I expressed interest in knowing more, she handed me her card and told me to email her.

Janice is hilarious… very Mae West. Quotes from the night include; ‘if you haven’t heard any rumors by 9, start some’ and ‘put a good woman under any man and he will move’.

Had a drink and a slice of cheesecake. Watching these baking shows makes me crave something sweet.

“Oh, what are you doing with your cold weather gear?”

I laughed, “What cold weather gear? This is all I have.”

“Oh my, you’re lucky it’s so warm this year!”

“Is it? I thought it doesn’t really snow here.”

“Oh yeah, we get a bit.” Nav gestured to the mountains. “But usually there’s two or three times the amount of snow on the mountain.”

Nav gave me a ride home afterwards.

Wednesday, time to pack up and hit the road again.

I’ve decided to start sugaring again. Part of the reason I gave it up is because Thunder Bay is too small for a good bowl. Now I’m travelling, no harm in laying out a hook and see what I catch. One of the rules of sugaring is, don’t do it for income, but if I can pick up a date here or there for pocket money, it’s all gravy to me. Lots of bored business men looking to pick up a PYT on holiday.

I also ordered myself some business cards. Networking is the name of the game now.

Tidied up the house. Sweep, clean the dishes or throw them in the dishwasher, wipe down the flat surfaces. Strip the sheets off the bed, at her request. Repack my bags. I never did find a garbage can, but I did find garbage bags, so threw out everything I wasn’t taking with me.

I meant to head out as close to 5 as I could, but I changed my mind. I walked Bailey at 3 and fed her at 4, then headed out. Just the sheer amount of transfers it’ll take to get where I am going today; going to North Van for another meeting.

I ran into another Rotarian; his license plate cover said he was a Rotary member, so I stopped and asked him. Turns out he’s the Treasurer of his club! He invited me to visit his club, but I won’t have time.

Then I was on the bus and away.

Not gonna lie, I was glad to be heading back downtown. I hate the suburbs, even if it was free.

I met up with a couple of Soroptimists at Lonsdale. One of them owns a flower shop there; she must be made of money. She was bringing a bouquet of splash roses to the meeting to give away.

The meeting was fine. Not a lot of time for socializing, unfortunately, but I caught up with Sharon and Katrina (Yolanda has left for Ireland).

The guest speaker was… problematic. Her name is Cathy Peters. She was supposed to be speaking about child sex trafficking, but her presentation was light on facts and actionable insights and heavy on “my book is a best seller and you should buy it”. She talked a lot about the accolades she had supposed received, but complained the BC government won’t listen to her, and she asked us for volunteers to help her with a book signing. I’m sorry, shouldn’t you have a secretary or two? Help from the publishing house? You are sketchy AF, ma’am. She also stated a few facts that are outright false, like that Canada is second for sex tourism, next to Thailand.

It also amused me to listen to all these affluent white ladies clutching their pearls about “urban crime” and “stealing our kids”, while they were sitting in the room with someone who was abused as a kid and is still technically engaged in sex work. Some people argue that sugaring isn’t sex work and frankly I don’t really care what you call it, but I think it’s more honest not to argue that it isn’t. Really, I was just glad no one asked me about sexting these days, because I didn’t want to contribute to a conversation that was just false from the start. When Sharon wanted a group photo with the speaker, I declined. I don’t want to be seen near her. If you want good information on sex work, watch the Last Week Tonight episode about it.

My stomach was also growling. I’d left without eating dinner, and it took over 2 hours to get here. Our meetings usually have a fair bit of food, but they just had nibbles, and we didn’t get back in the car until 10. By the time I took the Seabus back to downtown and gotten back to the hostel, it was getting close to 11.

The guy doing check-in at the hostel not only recognized me, he was thrilled to have me back. We chatted a bit about the house sit, and he changed my booking so I had a room to myself for the night. He also gave me a second towel ‘because you have long hair’.

I think he means thick hair. My hair is getting out of control. I’ll need a haircut soon. I’m really changing. I’m still losing weight, and despite shrinking my pants a week ago, they’re loose on me again.

I also noticed I have some greys. Which is fine, I’m not going to start freaking out that I look old or something. I just wasn’t expecting it. My dad didn’t start going grey until his fifties.

Made myself some instant noodles to quell the rumblings, and tucked myself into bed.