Holy Crap Holy Crap San Francisco!

San Francisco has welcomed me with open arms. It is more than I could have anticipated, although certainly I had great expectations to begin with. To my luck, my first couch surfing experience just happened to be at the couch surfing headquarters, consisting of two communally occupied attached apartments with 16 people living, working, and loving together. They are all well travelled and talented lovely people and it has been a blessing to take part in their community. (I'll be doing a video tour of this house tomorrow)

The first night I arrived, I was fortunate enough to instantly be thrown in to a good-bye party for one of their members Mandy, who was moving to their other headquarters in Istanbul. She was a lovely girl, wearing a moustache most of the evening and having the best time someone could have while saying goodbye to her loved ones for 4 months (while she was packing, I managed to score a blue cashmere sweater off her that she was leaving behind...h'amazing!)

Anyways, at this party I happened to make friends quite quickly with a girl named Yoshi, who has just moved to San Francisco on a whim from Los Angeles, and through her couch surfing friend landed a room in an artist activist collective down the street called Million Fishes,

to which I promptly invited myself over for dinner the next evening.

This winery-turned artist living/work space was one of the most inspiring, beautiful places of inspiration and community I've ever seen, (besides the Couch surfing house just down the street). 16 people of all different artistic backgrounds, singers, painters, designers, actors, dj's, you name it, all existing under one roof, all with their own studio spaces, and to top it all off, their very own personal storefront gallery to host shows and events, and possibly soon enough a cafe space.

I spent the evening teaching everyone my favourite game, broken telephone pictionary, and we followed it up with brownies and beer and Brazil. It was magical. You can see Yoshi and Damon, aka baby cobra, giving me the grand tour in three parts below (the place is so big I had to do it in three parts!) I would love lovve to recreate this amazing community back here in Toronto.

A few things I noted that made this group successful:

--Nearly everyone had full time, pretty well paying jobs that helped keep things running.

--They had a schedule of chores and responsibilities within the house that seemed to me for the most part they kept to pretty strictly.

--The house was big enough to accommodate that amount of people, with several communal spaces and lots of individual work spaces to help balance out private and communal time quite well.

--Nearly all the bedrooms have raised beds, to make more space for desk space and personal space.

Overall it was one of the most inspiring places I've ever had the privilege to experience, and I hope one day the DCC or the About Face Collective can match its ambition.

(You can see some photos from a Million Fishes on my Facebook, I've found the process of uploading photos onto blogspot too long and tedious to endure for every posting)

3 days in Vancouver

My how time passes! A girl really needs to be intentional in order to keep up with these blogs!

I left Ashley, Jenna and friends on Saturday night, where I arrived in Vancouver, greeted by my gracious aunt and uncle, who whisked me away to their lovely centrally-located apartment, conveniently around the corner from a house my friends Nniamh and Doug were hanging out at.

After I fixed my plane hair and plane face, I met up with them around 10:30, which, with the time difference, felt like 12:30 to me (for those of you who know me, you know that this means I had to overcome my old-lady nature to deal with this late-night party-going option).

The three of us left that apartment pretty quickly and headed over to the east si

de where the real party began. I

n a quiet, suburban-style, middle class neighbourhood, one house on the street was alive with sound, people, music and youthful shinanigans. I don't know how to describe the feel of this party. At times it was like a Bah Mitzva, Klezmer dance music blaring, clapping and circle dancing, dark haired bearded boys taking each others shirts off and dancing and laughing and shouting, people playing brass instruments and accordions in the kitchen, people banging their wine bottles on tables along to the music. It was truly magical. (See photos and videos below. )

One of my favourite moments of the evening was seeing Nniamh in the bathroom, helping a girl who had cut her nose open somehow and was bleeding profusely. Once the wound had been bandaged, Nniamh decided everyone else in the bathroom had to also wear a bandage over the bridge of their nose as well, as an act of solidarity. It was a touching gesture, and one of the many reasons that I love Nniamh.

The next day, Nniamh, Doug and I managed to borrow a car from their friend Max and we took a road trip on the sea to sky highway up to Squamish, a small, quaint town off the highway an hour north of Vancouver. I've discovered quite quickly that Vancouverites love their sea scapes. Big time. Nniamh bought wolf silhouette earings, which I highly approved of, though whales were a close second.

That night (being last night) I had dinner with my aunt and uncle. My uncle took me to a famous market, nearly overtaking a tiny island. It was like every food shop in Kensington market all put together under one roof. When my aunt suggested we pick up some pasta, I had no idea my pasta options at the market would include pear goat cheese ravioli, which clearly I consumed later with delight.

Now I sit in a cafe on Commercial Drive, the Queen street-esque equivalent of Vancouver, eating a cinnamon bun and noting how about 40% of the population of B.C uses longboards as their main mode of transportation. I'm down with that.

Scene: I passed an asian girl on the street having a very loud argument on her cell phone, (part of which went "I'm drunk right now and you're screaming at me", which was unsettling because it was two in the afternoon). Then, 20 seconds later, I pass a pizzaria with a young asian man screaming into his cell phone "who do you think I am!? Who do you think I am!?" which I can only assume was the other side of the drunk girl conversation.

Enjoy the photos, I'm tired of writing!

What a life!

Nothing says Canada like kitties.

These wood carvings smelled tremendous! There were sawdust bins everywhere and freshly cut wood and it was simply delightful.

So many bears, so little...wall space?

The sea to sky highway.

Below you will find Doug's opinion of bikers as we make our way across the bridge to the highway.

More photos to come!

Three days in the Peg

So, I'm here, in Winnipeg, legwarmers at the ready. Then I step outside Ashley's house every morning, bracing myself for the cold that will invade my lungs and damage the skin cells neath my eyes and I realize: hey, it's frigging warm out here!

Well, "warm" being a relative term, of course, but warmER than Toronto! That's right! My days have been spent talking with Ashley and Jenna about how we all don't know what we're doing with our lives, being overwhelmed with possibility, being underwhelmed with reality (and also underwhelmed with "The Imaginarium of Dr Parnasus"...geeze, what the heck happened to the killer intro narrative about "stories sustaining all of life" and all that jazz...and sexing up what was supposed to be a barely 16 year old girl made me feel dirty), and being stressed out about maybe not finding a farm to stay on for the month of February fast approaching.

Now my fears are set aside and I will soon be living either on an animal sanctuary or

an urban farm in L.A, so all is well. Let me share some photos already!

So, we weren't quite sure who this fellow was when we met him at the music store the other day, but he's somewhere between a teletubbie and that purple Griffith thing from our Mc Donald childhood, before they decided generic purple blobs weren't good food role models for kids. (sidenote, I HATE FORMATTING PICTURES IN BLOGSPOT! I'VE GIVEN UP!)

About 50% of the store was covered with polaroids like this.

I just liked this particular section because it said "Babe City". I'd like to know where that is and whether they have an organic farm there.

Next comes a visit to a local artisan and clothing store,

where someone out there understands, as I do, that early

childhood, before they learn to read or really talk, is prime

blackmail time. Anna wasn't sure if this was funny or not, butI had no doubts.

And who can forget this wonder of wonders jungle lamp I found in the never-ending antiqu

shop around the corner. Not just for kids, I hope.

After always complaining about uninspiring and nonsensical graffiti that I see around the city of Toronto, it was nice to see this mythical realism style really tell it like it is. Though I can't help but wonder whether "Jamo" was paid by the city to do this as a public service announcement or whether he was ironically trying to "stick it to the man" by throwing his words (the man's) back in his face...

Louis Riel and his never-ending speech to an audience of none.

The awesome claw foot bathtub that I got to have a soak in today while reading Will Self's "Psycho Geography" that Margeaux gave me that I am making dilligent notes in to send to her.

And Finally, Ashley and I on our way home from Jen's on a beautiful spring-ish night.

The Largest Antique Store Ever. Ever!

Hello all! I've arrived in Winnipeg and since my arrival, time has seemed to slow down significantly, to the point where yesterday I could have been quite happy to hit the hay at 9pm, but you tube music videos of new bands care of Ashley Karen Cole helped me through (I've now got "Twilight Hotel" securing within my knowledge base now).

On our first epic journey into the bowels of Winnipeg, Ashley took us casually to "an antique shop" around the corner from her house yesterday afternoon. But I soon discovered her lie, for this was not simply "an antique shop", no no...this was, by far, the largest and most extensive antique shop I've ever seen in my life. It is apparently owned by six different people who all collaborated their own individual collections into this one space.

I have made a video to share, though my narrative is somewhat lacking due to being slightly shy in front of the strangers in all of the various rooms, but you'll get the picture.

I can't go on, I'll go on.

Here it is, a new trip, a new blog, an old woman, a new travel towel.

I am weary and cynical. It is time to leave.

What I anticipate will happen on this trip:

My hair will grow longer.

I will need to trim my finger and toe nails.

I will feel lost and alone.

I will feel at home and alive.

I will stand next to a tree wider than my house.

I will wake up stiff.

I will abandon my winter boots.

I will put my hands in the earth with intention.

I will play with dogs. I will want to own one (even more).

I will miss you because no one else I meet will be quite like you.

I will miss you because someone I meet will be just like you.

I hope you will join me on my journey. It is not because mine is more interesting than yours, it is just that you are not writing about yours right now. If you are, tell me, and I will follow you too.

Love Natalie