thursday girl

there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being surprised it’s already thursday. not a damn thing. there’s also nothing wrong with waking up in a great mood on a surprise thursday. the sunday from hell seems so very far away now, it’s almost like it didn’t happen. yes, this is my segue into telling you about it. do like that? yes, i am very clever.
as i mentioned, i went out saturday night. i didn’t mention that i had to leave the fun earlier than i would have liked in order to go home to go directly to bed because i had to get up at 5:30 am, on a sunday, to make it out to the airport to pick up my dad from his 7:30 flight. first off, i will admit that i must have lost my airport skills. a 7:30 international flight? everyone knows it takes thirty to sixty minutes to clear customs. i really should have planned for an 8am pickup, but that’s something we’ll hear about later.
i showed up at the airport bright and early at 7am (the plan was to get a Starbucks and read while waiting) and headed straight for the arrivals board, at which point i had two freakouts. first, i couldn’t find their flight on the board. that was my fault, i was looking for “Mexico” and not “Cancun” — no one told me that the Mayan Riviera is Cancun! the next freakout occurred when i finally located the flight and saw that it was delayed… for TWO HOURS. ugh. i blinked in astonishment. i turned away from the board. i turned back to make sure i hadn’t read it wrong.
i walked in a small circle for a couple of minutes trying to figure out what to do. i could hang out at the airport, which is usually fun and something i’ve done before, but then i’d be paying some insane amount for parking there so long. i could go find a Denny’s in Richmond to eat some breakfast and read for a couple of hours, but did i want to hang around a Denny’s for two-plus hours on a sunday? the third and most appealing option was to drive back home, picking up some Starbucks on the way, put some laundry in and putz about online. since i had plans that afternoon, and this wrinkle had put a kink in my timing for chores, this seemed the most prudent option.
so, that’s what i did. i drove all the way back to North Vancouver (yay for daddy’s car!), bought a triple venti non-fat latte with sugar-free vanilla & a pumpkin scone, put some laundry in the washer and then chatted with jamie to pass the time. just before i left again for the airport i threw the wash in the dryer, fed it $1.50 and headed out. i got to the airport and parked by 9:25. the flight was due to land at 9:33, i thought i did pretty good. i sat myself down, pulled out my book and started to read. that was until the slacker with the leg-twitch sat next to me and proceeded to shake the seats in such a random and distracting manner i had to get up just to keep me from launching down the row to throttle him.
i actually love airports. i’m a people-watcher, so it makes sense. all those goodbyes and greetings, highs and lows of emotion. it was great. there were so many stories to observe while i stood there waiting (and waiting and waiting) i can’t possibly describe them all. there were so many people exiting the international arrival door, but none of them were my father. for an hour i waited, watching. 10:30 finally rolls around and i see him come out of the door. hooray! (all the while i’m starting to get antsy because i need to be on the noon seabus to meet up with jamie and christopher to go to the vandigiwalk.) we get to the car, load up and head out. then i hear the horror story of his vacation. the second day in Mexico, my dad get pneumonia and spends all but the last day being treated by doctors and shivering with fever and chills.
about half-way back home (11am), dad’s girlfriend decided she wanted to stop for coffee. at this point, i was starting to get twitchy about time. i still had to still drop the gf off, dad off, get my car started after a week of being parked and up to my house, get the laundry out of the dryer, get dressed, load up my gear and get out of the house by 11:45 to make it to the Quay to catch my seabus. needless to say, i wasn’t at all impressed with the extra stop. especially at Starbucks, with the extra-slow line to deal with. by 11:38, i was in my car, trying to rev it back to life. by 11:43, i was at home about to get my laundry out of the dryer… but it was still wet. so, put another $1.50 in and ran upstairs, swearing all the way. somehow, by some miracle, i did manage to get my gear, clean myself up a little, get down to the Quay and onto my twelve o’clock seabus. phew. christopher was standing there at Waterfront station when i disembarked and i think the first thing i said was “i need a hug”.
the rest of the afternoon was fun enough, though. we walked around Vancouver making photos, eating cupcakes and crepes, laughing and such. it was a good day, but i was still out of sorts from the morning, so i felt like a real wet blanket, which just bummed me out more. jamie suggested $5.99 chips’n’fish at the pub after the walk, so we headed back over to North Van where we ran into M&M, ate and talked. i made him go home early so i could get some stuff done around the house, which i still feel slightly bad about. after walking him to the door downstairs, i headed to the laundry room to fetch my clothes. when i walked in there was a note on the dryer saying “OUT OF SERVICE” and inside were all my still-wet clothes. grr. sunday ended with my damp clothes spread around my apartment to air-dry overnight and me just plain grumpy.
you can see why i’m really glad that the day is just a fading memory now, can’t you?