Annual joel post

Here at the Kingfisher, Stacey and I are enjoying a nice side trip from our visit with the families. I head back to work on the first of the January, looking forward to continuing the projects which were left on hold before the break in December. Victoria has been great with daily visits from friends and family.

Christmas holidays

Joel arrived safe and sound on the 22nd and has been able to stay until the 1st which is the first time since he began his new job that a proposed schedule hasn't changed. A much-needed break in the usual chaos.

As most of you know our families live a few minutes apart in Oak Bay so getting to have the maximum number of Christmas dinners and brunches is something we have turned into tradition. The past few years we have also had an annual ReBar cook-off with our CISV Steering Committee Alumni on Boxing day. We spend the day cooking a multi course meal out of the ReBar cookbook and then the evening is spent eating it. So that was the first three days of eating. On the fourth day of eating (the 27th) we had a fantastic freshly caught salmon and prawn feast with Joel's Uncle, Aunt and cousin from Campbell River.

On the fifth day of eating, we took our siblings out for a 7 course meal with wine pairings at Matisse downtown Victoria and finished the night at Vista 18 overlooking the inner harbour.

On the sixth day of eating (yes I know, I'm in elastic waist pants now) Joel's parents took us out to Le Brasserie Ecole. A fab French Bistro tucked into Victoria's Chinatown.

Today we checked into The Kingfisher Spa in Comox for a 24 hour getaway. We've just had massages and now are relaxing in our beachside suite before we do the Pacific Mist Hydropath and and have dinner which might bring us to the seventh day of eating... I love this place.

Rain is wet

Day 4 in Victoria. Have got over my cold now and am ready to start doing things and by that I mean shopping downtown for the myriad of gifts I haven't bought yet. Don't be fooled by my November xmas card inferno. I may have intimidated even the most diehard elves with that stunt but really and truly I am not ready for the big day.

Joel flies in from LA in Saturday - or that's what we are planning for. What actually happens is always a Disney surprise. 

IN OTHER NEWS

I was officially accepted at the Academy of Art University into the BFA in Graphic Design and I was able to transfer some classes from Langara by submitting my portfolio. 

Victoria

The girls and I made it to Victoria without a hitch. We took in all the beaches along the Oregon coast and drove through pissing rain in Seattle while listening to Nirvana unplugged. That just about covers the scenery part. We stayed at a fantastic B&B in Eugene called River Walk and went to a fab restaurant called Marche. Both I'd do again in a heartbeat.

Estrogenfest 2007 - reloaded

Once a year for the past three years my girlfriends, Nancy and Anne-Marie and I have celebrated 'Estrogenfest'. According to tradition we get together (usually at our place) for a week long slumber party. We journal, do art, make food drink wine and celebrate our friendship.

This is the first time we've done a second gathering hence the "reloaded" title. And it's the first time we've done a road trip. The girls flew into San Francisco this week and now we are making our way along the coastal 101 highway to Canada.

We will roll into Vancouver tomorrow night and Victoria the following day.

It was good timing for a visit as I'm all alone back home. Joel has been in LA for three weeks but oddly enough, as soon as I left town the company decided to fly him back to san Francisco for a few days.
I think they are torturing me.

Life goes on

My week in LA is drawing to a close. Joel and I will drive back home to Fairfax for the weekend and then he'll fly back to LA again. 

My girlfriends Nancy and Anne-Marie will arrive in Fairfax next week for a little visit and then the three of us are going to drive up the coast to Vancouver and Victoria (Canada). 

Joel will fly in to Victoria from LA at some point depending on how things go in the next few weeks. I should be seeing him for a week over the holidays. Then I'm staying in Victoria till my classes start in San Francisco at the end of January. 

Joel will probably stay in LA most of the time until March with the work he's doing in the studio in Culver City. Probably flying back for some weekends (we are going to the special hell for people who have enormous carbon footprints).

If you can remember all those details I'll hire you right now.

Disneyland

The Disney family staff party was last night in Disneyland. They closed off the park after 6pm to non Disney employees and from then til close employees and family had shorter lineups and paid less for 'food'. We mostly just walked around and looked at stuff. I went on a few rides with Joel but we mostly just strolled around together. This being the first walk we've taken together in many weeks.

Santa Monica, 3rd Street Promenade

I set out alone today to explore the 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica. It's basically like Robson Street for you Vancouverites only more high end stores and palm trees. Kinda nice to go somewhere walking oriented. 

I'm going to fire up the BBQ and take Joel some dinner soon, same routine different city. 

Marina del Rey, Venice Beach

Joel worked today and I spent a tough day walking up and down Venice Beach. The beach is just a couple of blocks from the apartment complex and is a cultural melting pot of weird and wonderful characters. It's also home to that outdoor gym or "muscle beach" you see in films that are set here as well as this famous basketball court which I believe was in NBA street. 

 Our place here is cheerful and cozy with an outdoor pool, hot tub and garden courtyard.  I think Joel will be pretty comfy for the next while and it's certainly not a bad place to hang out when I visit. 

Just a side note, Virgin airlines is now running cheap flights back and forth from SF to LA. It will make visiting by air more viable though I'd have to calculate that carbon footprint... Gulp.

Quote of the day

Stacey: "Is this for garbage or recycling?"

Ben: "This is LA"

snow

I heard it was snowing today in Vancouver. Work is exciting, lots of new faces starting tomorrow.

LA, the beginning

We just finished the drive from Fairfax to LA today. It took about 11 hours though it was all beautiful. We stopped in Big Sur and Santa Barbara for meals and rolled into the apartment complex where we're staying with enough time to have a bottle of wine with our friends (and also Joel's coworkers) who are now our neighbours. 

We are in Marina del Rey not far from Hollywood and Culver City where the film studio is. 

I'm staying for a week right now and Joel is likely going to be here for three months. This was announced a couple of days ago, it's not a great scenario as we've just barely finished unpacking our place in Fairfax. But this is the life we have, it's chaos, we have two places now and I float somewhere in between.