After a great weekend, someone Made My Day

I’m still trying to think about what lessons hindsight might allow me to pass on for the meme Une Femme tagged me with the other day. Meanwhile, can I tell you a bit about my busy weekend? After I last posted, I headed up to Robson Street thinking I might stop in at Club Monaco and also take one more look at the dress I resisted (at Banana Republic) last weekend. Instead, at Aritzia, where the spring clothes aren’t in yet and the discounts getting better and better on what’s still left of the winter lines, I found a James Perse, long-sleeved, grey, drapey/boat-necked tunic-length t-shirt, regular just under $200 (who could/would pay that for a t-shirt?!) for $70. Score! Solved my bad packing dilemmaand added something to my wardrobe that will get lots of use. Also found a sueded silk navy dress that feels very me. I love it, pockets and all, and I love the sale price — also $70!! Decided not to worry if it’s too short or too young — this is a style I’ve always loved and I feel good in, my guy really likes me in it, and that’s good enough for me. I wore it to the opera Saturday night with this great necklace made by colleagues of mine who have a jewelry sale every year to raise money for a scholarship fund — this one is made with blue tiger’s eye that you really have to see up close to appreciate.

I could have managed with the shoes I had packed, but then I spotted these in B2, right next to Aritzia, and couldn’t resist — they worked with the dress, but they’re really waiting to step out into springtime, just like me. I’ll show you a close-up later, perhaps, but meanwhile here’s a glimpse — and can you tell I flashed out with metallic hose (there’s metallic leather trim on the shoes as well, silver and gold both). Shopping done, I headed back to the apartment and marked a stack of papers (4th-years, much easier going, and it was a short, summarizing assignment, so pretty straightforward). Then we’d arranged to meet my daughter at Kingyo Izakaya on Denman where, unfortunately, no reservations were available but where they thought they could fit us in if we were there early. Nothing cool about being there when the doors open, I know, but we did get a seat, ordered sake and a few dishes, and waited for Bronwen who got there about 6:15, 45 minutes after us. Much teasing ensued about the effects of aging, the generation gap, etc., although Bronwen had to concede that our uncool early dining snagged us a table in an always-busy restaurant. The food is fabulous here and we had a great visit eating, people-watching (the storm of shouted Japanese as guests enter and leave is part of the fun at an Izakaya), sipping our sake, and catching up on family, friends, and career news. Strolled up Davie, picking up baklava at Stephos which we took back to the apartment to have with tea. Then, although we’d decided dinner with Bronwen precluded seeing Juno –since we’d miss the early show and the late show was just too much of a stretch — we decided to show the girl we weren’t all that old, and headed over the bridge for a 9:50 showing. Folks, it was almost midnight when we got home. Talk about the wild life!

I loved everything about Juno, perhaps especially the animation at the beginning and the soundtrack. Have some minor concerns about the possible conferring of a cool factor on teenage pregnancy but I’m so pleased to see this model of acceptance on screen, at least. And to see an image of a funny, bright, thoughtful, resilient, wise young woman up there — so many of them are, in my experience (and I did raise three young women myself).

This post is already so long, I suspect there’s no one reading anymore (I could have some fun testing out that theory, couldn’t I?! ), but I have to say that The Vancouver Opera production of The Italian Girl in Algiers was so much fun, so very entertaining, absolutely worth every penny you might spend on a ticket — if you possibly can, go! you’ll love it! I watched several young men, dressed up to placate girlfriends or wives, surprised to find themselves laughing at the campy humour. The music is infectious, the set design was amusing — much of it worked like a pop-up book! — and the props were just giddy fun.

And finally, look what Jillian over at Sknitty has awarded me: a “You Make My Day” award. I’m so pleased. Although I can tell people visit my site thanks to my statcounter and, especially, thanks to the comments visitors leave, I sometimes wonder if I’m just blathering away here. Knowing that someone with as polished, thoughtful, and entertaining a blog as Jillian’s enjoys visiting mine really encourages and pleases me. Thanks, Jillian. I’m going to check out all ten of the blogs she’s chosen to give this award to; as well, I’m looking forward to passing this award along to ten blogs that make my day. Choosing will be tough, but I’ll try to get to it this week.