2001-08-01 - 11:02 a.m.

I fly to Texas, stay a week with my mom, get to see her ordained as a minister (Go Mom!) then I head out with Ryan on the 10th of August for Los Angeles --!! Route 66 baby!!! And then I'll get to see Larissa and Jim's brand spanking new apartment in Hollywood -- and then Larissa and I are driving north up the coast - I'm going to get to see San Francisco (my future home) for the first time! And we're going to get to see sea lions at the sea lion caves in Oregon! I'm all butterflies

I'm just too excited . . . Nothing excites me more than a road trip, nothing I love more than being on the road-- and this time it will be MY car!!!

So I haven't been writing in my diary lately -- I've been rushing around getting ready for the trip, making reservations, packing etc, and writing as much as I can on my "novel" because I know once I'm on the road I won't have time to write . . .

I feel really good about my novel. I'm up to, like, 35 pages! But of course I think the whole thing is getting sappier and crappier all the time -- its really becoming more of a memoir than a novel. But I can't let that discourage me -- I keep repeating to myself "Just keep writing, Honey, you can edit later" So we'll see . . .

But as much as I love to travel, I have to say I do love my Vancouver. I had the most wonderful evening downtown last weekend -- We were celebrating my sister's birthday (Happy Birthday Teresa!) and for dinner we went downtown to a resteraunt that serves native food. The whole place was so groovy, the tabels were sunk into the floor and we ate salmon and caribou grilled over a stove with alderwood and served with saskatoon-berry sauce- It was a lovely family celebration and it really reminded me of Russell (my not-eskimo friend), and I missed him and realized how unique life is here in this city -- and then the climax to our evening came . . .

Every year Vancouver hosts and international fireworks competition that is called a Symphony of Lights -- A gigantic ocean-tanker anchors in the bay and sets off fireworks from there so they can be seen from most of the beaches of the city -- Then there are 4 nights of fireworks (3 individual competitions and one Finale) which are attended by 100,000 people each night!!! So there we were, watching a FIREWORKS display put on by South Africa that lasted 35 minutes, ON THE BEACH with ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND people, all of whom were having a fantastic time but totally behaved (like good little Canadians) and I realized how lucky I am to live in a city like this.

And the fireworks -- they were so MAGNIFICENT and MAGICAL -- I found myself grinning all goofy-like from ear to ear out of sheer happiness! I don't think I've grinned like that since I was 10 years old -- it felt GOOD.

And then afterwards the crowd of people filtered up the streets and took them over -- Thousands were walking down the middle of the streets feeling all warm and fuzzy and there were no police, everybody was just having a good time putting good vibes into the night air and laughing -- And I walked up the street too, in the middle of them all, smoking a cigarette and thinking "I can dig it"