Love, Hate, and Lethargy
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 6:40AM In case I didn't mention it, last week I packed up the fam and took them on holiday to Vancouver. I used to live there, and I love it. I love the mountains, I love the ocean, and I love the vibe of a city full of community-minded hippies. I love that independent retailers thrive, that there are always a ton of amazing (and free) community events, that you can get a decent job with a tattoo on your face. That I don't have to argue with people over whether feeding my kid organic milk is going to lower the chances that he'll be hitting puberty at the age of nine.
(And that organic milk is actually readily available, and not by appointment-only in some sketchy alley in the bowels of the city.)
But I also hate Vancouver. I hate the expense, the ridiculous commutes, the obscene crowds. Sometimes I even hate the hippies, or at least their lack of deoderant. And I hate the rain.
The rain, the rain, omigodthefuckingRAIN. It rains there, incessantly, oppressively, from October to March. I spent two winters there, and if I hadn't been a drunken 20-year-old theatre student in love with the world, I probably would have stabbed myself in the eye with a number 8 Phillips screwdriver. It rains, it keeps raining, and rains some more, and you're chilled to the bone and damp, constantly, because nobody who lives there actually uses an umbrella. It's like some great unspoken community effort to NOT use umbrellas. Possibly to lessen the loss of eyeballs, I don't know, but as a result you live your life as a drowned terrier for 6 months out of the year. Or be the social pariah with the umbrella. Your choice.
I have to remind myself of all this every time I visit Vancouver, because unsurprisingly, I always visit in the SUMMER. And it's pretty and sunny and all the hippies are feelin' the love, and I think, "Oh! I love Vancouver. I miss Vancouver. WE SHOULD MOVE TO VANCOUVER".
We're not, in fact, going to move to Vancouver, because I made myself promise (the LAST time I moved back) that I ever got that urge again, I'd spend a couple of weeks there during January to disabuse myself of the notion. So there's that.
But my workplace greeting on Monday really made me notice the stark contrast between the happy, positive, go-with-the-flow type of people that we were hanging with in Vancouver, and the fucking cesspool of negativity that I wade through every day. To keep myself sane there, I'm obligated to be relentlessly cheerful. One might even say obnoxiously cheerful.
I probably don't need to tell you that this is not, in fact, a state that comes naturally to me. I'm not a fucking cheerleader, I'm the bitter girl making sarcastic comments in the back of the classroom, thank you very much. I like it, I'm comfortable with it, and I'm good at it. But I'm a firm believer in "fake it til you make it", and in my current work environment, I need to do that to offset the whiners/complainers/bitchies/bullies.
Something needs to change, clearly. Location, job, number of children, my underwear more than twice a week, SOMETHING.
But then, there's lethargy.
I'd write more about that, but I can't be bothered.
Reader Comments (23)
I live not far from Vancouver (relatively speaking) so we get the rain too. I've never owned an umbrella and subsequently have spent a good portion of my life wet. Here's the truth: you NEVER get used to it. Every February my wife puts me under 24 hour observation afraid that I'm going to off myself or at the very least catch a flight to Arizona on a one way ticket.
But when the sun shines? Awesome
Sounds like work sucks then.
I do love Vancouver (I'm from Washington so we used to go there lots). It's so pretty. And rain eh, you mean it's not natural to rain 213 days of the year??
Vancouver sounds like Austin, but they don't get the rain. Just lots and lots of heat... damn heat.
Everybody's got their weather. It always amazes me that people here in Ohio complain about the freezing winters, and then turn around and complain about the heat in summer. As though it was different last year, or the year before.
At least you've been honest with yourself about Vancouver. It does sound like fun, though.
I'm amazed about people complaining and whining at work these days, though. I've had to say, "At least you have a job. Shut your pie hole." more than once this week. Keep your chin up.
i love me some sarcastic bitch-yness myself;)
the boyfriend and i went to nelson, bc last summer and i LOVED it.
but i can imagine all the hippy's starting to wear on your happy and the incessant rain causing you to invest way too much money in rubber boots.
also, i don't have to be too cheery at work. i thought i was putting up a good front but apparently somewhere along the way to my crazy almost mental breakdown last fall the whole "andrea is a bitch" secret came out.
whatever. i say it's part of our charm, keely. people wouldn't come to visit and laugh with me (okay, AT me) if all i talked about was making my kids organic cookies and walks on the beach collecting seashells.
i like you just the way you are.
andy
p.s. especially your boobs.
It's taken 5 years of not living in the Pacific Northwest to get the webbing between my toes to disappear. I couldn't take another winter in Seattle. I would pray for death.
Does Vancouver even SELL umbrellas? That could be the source of the problem right there. Same for deoderant..
My hubby and I visited Vancouver on a float plane from Washington State. I found a gargoyle I loved and would be perfect for our Victorian house. I had been looking for a long while.
Did I mention we arrived by float plane? The gargoyle weighed 50lbs.
Oh, and we were from NJ at the time. He hauled that thing on the float plane, on the regular plane and then put it on the eave of the house for me.
Ain't love grand?
I'd start with the underwear.
Born and bred Vancouverite here and your observation about the lack of umbrellas made me snort. I realized that I don't own one either. Maybe we're just impervious to it?
I moved to Toronto for a year when in my 20's and farking hated it..I missed the rain :-P
Glad you enjoyed our fair city in the summer months..nothing better than that!
you could just stop wearing underwear altogether.
I dealt with 4 years of negativity at the company I used to work for. It gets old quickly and weighs you down. Believe me, I know. Make a change. Do it for yourself! You deserve it!
Vancouver sounds like a great place for (your favorites) the Cullens to be found..... Another reason to say put, yes?
Vacation has a way of making you take a look at your life, it seems.
So the rain is really a dealbreaker? The summer doesn't make up for it?
I think of myself as someone who likes rain. I wonder if I would like that much of it?
I'm glad you're back! Everyone I know who went out to Vancouver never came back. I'd love to visit, but I think I'm more of an Easterner than a Westerner...
You mean the Organic milk that keeps little girls from getting boobs at 5 1/2? Yeah, we drink it too.
Erin (aka Kingsmom)
Run away! Run away! Forced obnoxious cheeriness is baaaaaaaaaaad.
Wicked baaaaaaaaad.
(P.S. I have not been drinking.)
I'm from Seattle, and I've heard of this umbrella thing, of which you speak, but I'm not quite sure what it is - I'll Google it, no worries.
"As a psych major, I'm qualified to go 'hmmm.' (riley)
As your friend, and former work-force slave, I will say that the "I love sunshine and I shit sparkles" mentality is (while obnoxious) a very successful way to get through the day. (read: drink more Starbucks and eat loads of chocolate, then join the BlogapaLOSEa).
PS, I don't know if you should listen to me. If you've seen my new button, you'll know... I'm a cracked pot.
Obnoxious happiness - Yeah, wait till the kid hits his teens, then you'll REALLY need it. 'Cause everything they got is black, very very black. Sigh.
Now, since I moved home from the States I thought I was safe in Canada not buying the organic milk. WTF? What's changed here since I last checked?
So bitter. Yes it rains here. Ocean, hello? And yes, it rains. Substantially. And yes it's the most expensive place to live in Canada... I forgot what my point was.
Hey, we have more Starbucks than Seattle! And it hardly ever snows.
I was feeling that way for a while. Living and working in a cesspool. I decided something had to change.
That is when I got the bright idea to go back for me Master's degree. Sometimes, I hate myself for thinking.
I love Vancouver. I've only been there in summer though. Rain? No thanks. Then again, I can't walk outside without crying in Dallas June - September...I think I'd take the rain over this heat.
PS: You need a new job. :)