a sense of drama

i can't take credit for this one, for i stole it from weather.ca

two years on the west coast and one of my two home-sickness points has been my longing for a badass thunderstorm. (the other home-sickness point, if you are so curious, is missing my childhood pet christopher the cat, who is still spending his late teens at my parent's house, no doubt spread eagle in front of the fake fireplace). in the naivete of my youth i thought thunderstorms were a joy everyone, everywhere experiences. alas, no. i only recall one inkling of a storm while i lived in vienna, nothing but fog and bus fumes in london, one hell of a typhoon in hangzhou (or as i like to think of it, the wettest tornado ever), and my time spent in peru was during their dry winter season.

two years in vancouver and nothing more potent than some wind and rain. boring, lame.

[also of note, some bank throws a fireworks contest in the latter half of july here in vancouver's english bay -- three competing countries vying for the big win. last year the countries represented were canada, usa and china, the program schedule is wednesday, saturday, wednesday, and a big finale on the last saturday. last year the finale fell on my birthday eve and i attended a fantastic party. i don't know who the judges are, but canada won the main honor, china won the peoples' choice (huh DUH) and america's production was some kind of sentimental fairy-ballet bs, which is counter-intuitive considering america is the country known for a penchant to blow shit up, right?]

anyways, saturday night was the second night in the series, so people are generally abuzz with 'and where are you going to watch the fireworks?' i mean, considering the bus system here is barely adequate to shuttle us broke-ass chumps around town day to day, all of a sudden everyone wants to ride the bus to avoid parking and traffic. so really, it's a big old clusterfuck. while the fireworks finale last year ended around 10:30pm i didn't make it to the bus stop until 1am, but the bus was still a zoo -- drunk middle aged gay guys grabbing each other's asses and all. (watching drunk people try to pick each other up on the bus is irritating, especially when everyone's crammed in there within an inch of our lives -- but then again if that sole ass grab was all it took to get some, uh, ass, then i am actually kind of impressed -- maybe i should try resurrecting the goose? or not.)

back to my point, which was that instead of fighting the masses for a seat to last saturday's show, i went to my friends' place. we were all minding out business, watching russell peter's red, white and brown (highly recommendable) when the lightning started. my friends live in a high rise in ubc's village (this means the very western edge of vancouver, where you can overlook the georgia straight and keep an eye on the mountains on vancouver island) and we got one hell of a lightning and thunderstorm show. 

word on the street the next day was nothing but 'that storm was better than any fireworks show.' well, my point exactly. this is one of my tiny issues with west coast living: it's easy, not interesting. i got the hell out of minnesota in part thanks to the toll the interesting weather there takes on daily life, year in, year out.

but i have to admit, i kind of like the drama. and that's when i got to thinking -- crazy awesome storms happen when hot and cold fronts meet. you need a clash to get action sometimes, you know? get some of that romans vs christians, union vs confederate, cats vs dogs kinda sparring going on. that's what i'm talking about: 

dear bc,

could you please spice things up with a little drama now and again? thanks.

love,

mary

maybe i finally nailed down what bothers me about vancouver from time to time; the on-going sameness. you can't brew a good storm when the weather hardly changes. you don't get good drama when everyone's sitting in a big circle holding hands and singing kumbaya, which just happens to be the definition of vancouver, british columbia, canada.

i keed, i keed.

then again, the thunderstorm brought in a big wave of balmy weather, so all the locals are whining about the heat. 'ohmigaw you guys, i'm sweating outside and i'm not even rollerblading!' i just tell the locals that at home, 'in the prairies, we just say it's hot as a crotch.'  

also, i brought a 2L jug of hard apple cider to my friends' place, and they insisted i take the remains home. so i stood at the bus stop downing the last of it, and i took this picture because i thought it was pretty. drunk, clearly.