Marin Kinda Recycles

I have found an appropriate slogan for Marin County's recycling program. I'm still sitting here in disbelief looking at the brochure on the curbside recycling program.
I CAN'T recycle:

Plastic bags
Plastic containers (yogurt containers)
Plastic Packaging (even those hard plastic containers alfalfa sprouts come in)
Styrofoam
Plastic lids
Coated paper

the list goes on and on...

I can't remember the last time I put a plastic yogurt container in the garbage. Can you?

The International Student

I did have a rather interesting discovery when dealing with the international students department today. I am in fact an international student which they seem to find very humorous there. Once they got over the initial shock that I'm Caucasian and speak English, I found that all of a sudden I didn't require a letter from my bank disclosing my net worth, they also didn't need a deposit on my tuition and I didn't need to have a sponsor sign an affidavit. One adviser (mind you, it was someone from general admissions) actually said I didn't need to do that deposit because that was for 'people coming from China and places like that'. I'm a little taken aback after reading their school policy on racial discrimination. It's nice to not have to jump through those hoops but I feel weird about it. Like getting on the skytrain without paying.

A school for Stacey

After years of diligent procrastination I'm finally at a point of opportunity I cannot ignore. After my publishing program I wanted to continue my education toward a real degree and now I have nothing but time on my hands and I'm in a city full of art and culture.

I'm on my way to tour the school today for a tour and then I'll be setting up a time to bring in my portfolio and course outlines to transfer credits. Unlike Emily Carr and they don't charge fees to transfer credits and they don't have a mandatory foundation year. I'm hoping to transfer into second or at least part way through first year.

Our new home

Marin County looks like Tuscany

On November 3rd our moving truck pulled up to our little house in Fairfax and miraculously all of our worldly goods were unloaded (OK so I still haven't unpacked some boxes but nothing obvious is missing). We have about 1,100 square feet in a 1950s bungalow. All the fixtures are original - some are awesome, others I'm in the process of changing. We have high cedar ceilings, hardwood floors and large windows. We share the lot with a family with two really cute kids in another similar house.

Today I went out to plant flowers and ended up with four little volunteers from the neighbourhood crowded around so I handed them tools and plants and we made piles of mud. It was awesome.

We also went for our first hike today up a trail that is part of Joel's commute to work. It was high up on the top of a hill at sunset, just beautiful. We saw a young buck and a bobcat. The deer here are all over the place but bobcats are much more difficult to see so we were really psyched about that.

"Downtown" Fairfax

It's been so nice to be walking distance from things to do again. Fairfax has lots of cozy high quality places to dine out, a great little movie theatre and places to see live music at night. I'm loving the access to really good local wines at prices almost as low as France.

Joel is making noises about 7.1 surround for the livingroom, things are back to normal. At least in some respects.

Joel leaves for LA after Thanksgiving so I'll likely be spending some time down there as well. He's continuing to work more and more. I think it was 70 hours this week, and no end in sight. But he's happy, stimulated and surrounded by growth so it's all good.

As for me I'm slowly finding my feet under me and getting ready to find some new things to do.