I want a duck named Steve
Alright, let's start with Friday.
Friday was quite enjoyable. As always somebody made a remark about Mikhael, as they always do whenever he doesn't show up; this time it was Sterling who asked me if my hands were cold, because my boyfriend wasn't there to warm them up. We took the boats down, then sat around and talked until everybody came back from playing Capture the Flag. Mia and I helped Alexis get her earring out with the aid of two pairs of pliers:
See that look of intense concentration on my face.
The Whitesailors storm-rigged, then ate lunch. Max gave Michael and I a slurpee to share, which was nice of him, and when we were on the dock and the sailors were rigging, we sat in the shade with our backs against the shed and drank it. All afternoon we had a water fight, which I suppose made up for the fact that they were supposed to go for a day sail. There wasn't much wind anyways. The sailors even started pirating each other, splashing each other, capsizing boats, pushing each other into the water and pulling off each other's rudders, which Matt started. The juniors arrived on Lucy and were splashing people.
Everybody de-rigged and carried the boats up, and the instructors left to go camping for the weekend and I went to Erin's apartment and stayed the night. It was so hot there, I don't know how she can stand it all the time.
Saturday morning I got up early for a nice, easy six kilometer run to Old Orchard and back. It was nice and easy because my knee started hurting about a third of the way back. I really should leave my brace in my duffel bag. I had a shower and ate some breakfast, then went over to the Boathouse, as the Learn to Race people were having a mini-regatta over the weekend. We took the boats down, Salma and Red, the boat we borrowed from the rowers for our committee boat, and I "supervised" while everyone storm-rigged. Sterling came later with two new 420's that he towed from North Van, giving us six new boats rigged with old sails and two old boats rigged with new sails, just to make everything even.
Rob assigned teams during the skippers' meeting, four teams of four people, two in each boat. We went out and set up a trapezoid race course. Mia sat in the committee boat all day and started the races, and I got to sit with Rob in the coach boat as he gave advice to the racers. I really learned a lot, some of the tactics, and who on each team was stronger and who was weaker. Rob even wanted to put me in as a sub, but I declined because of my knee. Speaking of subs, everyone had Subway for lunch. There were thirteen races in all, twelve serious and one fun race where every team raced at the same time. The orange team one, which was the one with Alexis and Kim on it, but that was because they had the other Rob on their team, the one who has been on the Olympic sailing team.
Watching sailing races is really interesting because there is a lot of strategy involved. In team races especially, because it doesn't matter if you are first or second or third, but if the other boat on your team is fourth, you are going to lose, so you have to slow down the boats on the other team in order to give your team members a chance to pass another boat.
Eventually we came back to the dock, where it was a hell of a lot hotter than on the water. Everyone de-rigged and we pulled up the boats, washed them and made sure everything was organized and put away. Then we went over to the long picnic table for a barbecue. I left early because I wanted to go home and I wanted to visit Mikhael on my way home. Also Matouche had spilled Dr Pepper all over the shirt that Erin lent me, and energy drink was spilled on my duffel bag, nearly making me cry. Rob and Sterling were very sorry to see me go, apologizing for the fact that they had forgotten about my being a vegetarian. They offered to buy me something from Pajo's, but I declined. I never did get any dinner that night. I bussed to Michaels and spent an hour watching Iron Chef: Beef Battle, then I took the bus home and went to bed almost immediately. I volunteered for a total of ten hours. At home I found two new shirts that my mom had bought for me and, get this, a DISHWASHER. Yes, after nineteen months of washing dishes by hand, I once again have a machine that will do it for me. It made me happy.
This morning I got up nice and early to go to the Maple Ridge Fair. That stuff that I was doing a few days ago that I said I would explain on the weekend? I entered the Maple Ridge Fair. It took a lot of bull-shitting as well. We mis-read the booklet that gave all of the information and didn't know that we had to hand in our entry forms two weeks before handing our entries in. Luckily I am a good liar when I need to be, so I got my ring entered, as well as two entries for Erin. All of that bull-shitting paid off. We showed up today and found this:
I am going to show Imbeau when school starts again. Next year we are going to dive in head first and kick some ass. I want some of those Best In Show rosettes.
After that we went to see Measure for Measure at Bard on the Beach. The plot was quite dark and the costumes weren't that interesting, but I enjoyed it.
We walked to Granville Island and ate dinner. I hadn't been to the Island for over a year, so it was nice to visit again. When I was little I used to spend a lot of time there during the summer because my mom worked for Arts Umbrella. We browsed through art galleries like we always do, and bought fudge, like we always do. We stopped at Opus because Erin needed some stuff, and I bought the coolest journal ever, it's a mini necklace journal, but I bought the example, so it's full of little messages and scribbles. It was my purchase of the week for only two dollars. We didn't want to walk back to the van, so we Aquabussed it back. It was so windy out, I'd say at least nineteen knots.
That's about it. I'm not in a particularly good mood right now, so I'm going to bed.
Friday was quite enjoyable. As always somebody made a remark about Mikhael, as they always do whenever he doesn't show up; this time it was Sterling who asked me if my hands were cold, because my boyfriend wasn't there to warm them up. We took the boats down, then sat around and talked until everybody came back from playing Capture the Flag. Mia and I helped Alexis get her earring out with the aid of two pairs of pliers:
See that look of intense concentration on my face.
The Whitesailors storm-rigged, then ate lunch. Max gave Michael and I a slurpee to share, which was nice of him, and when we were on the dock and the sailors were rigging, we sat in the shade with our backs against the shed and drank it. All afternoon we had a water fight, which I suppose made up for the fact that they were supposed to go for a day sail. There wasn't much wind anyways. The sailors even started pirating each other, splashing each other, capsizing boats, pushing each other into the water and pulling off each other's rudders, which Matt started. The juniors arrived on Lucy and were splashing people.
Everybody de-rigged and carried the boats up, and the instructors left to go camping for the weekend and I went to Erin's apartment and stayed the night. It was so hot there, I don't know how she can stand it all the time.
Saturday morning I got up early for a nice, easy six kilometer run to Old Orchard and back. It was nice and easy because my knee started hurting about a third of the way back. I really should leave my brace in my duffel bag. I had a shower and ate some breakfast, then went over to the Boathouse, as the Learn to Race people were having a mini-regatta over the weekend. We took the boats down, Salma and Red, the boat we borrowed from the rowers for our committee boat, and I "supervised" while everyone storm-rigged. Sterling came later with two new 420's that he towed from North Van, giving us six new boats rigged with old sails and two old boats rigged with new sails, just to make everything even.
Rob assigned teams during the skippers' meeting, four teams of four people, two in each boat. We went out and set up a trapezoid race course. Mia sat in the committee boat all day and started the races, and I got to sit with Rob in the coach boat as he gave advice to the racers. I really learned a lot, some of the tactics, and who on each team was stronger and who was weaker. Rob even wanted to put me in as a sub, but I declined because of my knee. Speaking of subs, everyone had Subway for lunch. There were thirteen races in all, twelve serious and one fun race where every team raced at the same time. The orange team one, which was the one with Alexis and Kim on it, but that was because they had the other Rob on their team, the one who has been on the Olympic sailing team.
Watching sailing races is really interesting because there is a lot of strategy involved. In team races especially, because it doesn't matter if you are first or second or third, but if the other boat on your team is fourth, you are going to lose, so you have to slow down the boats on the other team in order to give your team members a chance to pass another boat.
Eventually we came back to the dock, where it was a hell of a lot hotter than on the water. Everyone de-rigged and we pulled up the boats, washed them and made sure everything was organized and put away. Then we went over to the long picnic table for a barbecue. I left early because I wanted to go home and I wanted to visit Mikhael on my way home. Also Matouche had spilled Dr Pepper all over the shirt that Erin lent me, and energy drink was spilled on my duffel bag, nearly making me cry. Rob and Sterling were very sorry to see me go, apologizing for the fact that they had forgotten about my being a vegetarian. They offered to buy me something from Pajo's, but I declined. I never did get any dinner that night. I bussed to Michaels and spent an hour watching Iron Chef: Beef Battle, then I took the bus home and went to bed almost immediately. I volunteered for a total of ten hours. At home I found two new shirts that my mom had bought for me and, get this, a DISHWASHER. Yes, after nineteen months of washing dishes by hand, I once again have a machine that will do it for me. It made me happy.
This morning I got up nice and early to go to the Maple Ridge Fair. That stuff that I was doing a few days ago that I said I would explain on the weekend? I entered the Maple Ridge Fair. It took a lot of bull-shitting as well. We mis-read the booklet that gave all of the information and didn't know that we had to hand in our entry forms two weeks before handing our entries in. Luckily I am a good liar when I need to be, so I got my ring entered, as well as two entries for Erin. All of that bull-shitting paid off. We showed up today and found this:
I am going to show Imbeau when school starts again. Next year we are going to dive in head first and kick some ass. I want some of those Best In Show rosettes.
After that we went to see Measure for Measure at Bard on the Beach. The plot was quite dark and the costumes weren't that interesting, but I enjoyed it.
We walked to Granville Island and ate dinner. I hadn't been to the Island for over a year, so it was nice to visit again. When I was little I used to spend a lot of time there during the summer because my mom worked for Arts Umbrella. We browsed through art galleries like we always do, and bought fudge, like we always do. We stopped at Opus because Erin needed some stuff, and I bought the coolest journal ever, it's a mini necklace journal, but I bought the example, so it's full of little messages and scribbles. It was my purchase of the week for only two dollars. We didn't want to walk back to the van, so we Aquabussed it back. It was so windy out, I'd say at least nineteen knots.
That's about it. I'm not in a particularly good mood right now, so I'm going to bed.
Abby wandered off at 9:31 p.m.
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