on champagne and crazies.

happy 2008! that means my twentieth year. holy ancients, batman!

i had a fantabulous new year's week... not necessarily including night/morning of. not that it didn't have it's good points too, but looking back, the bar might be leaning slightly badways.

i spent the week at sun peaks, skiing and drinking and commiting heinous sins. not to mention spending all those dimes i've worked so hard to attain. might have spent someone else's dimes too, but i just don't remember.

people are so crazy. so very very crazy. on the eve of 2008, there was a party in the lodge. live music. nice bar. shortage of chairs, crowded dance floor. tons of foreign countriers. one in particular, an austrian. traditional garb, even. he floated over to our group when he heard a german/swiss-german conversation, as my travelling buddies are native to that language, to europe even. and then it was 12. complimentary champagne and kisses. and here is herr lederhosen, with a secret... "follow me." he had smuggled in two bottles of the finest champagne, "from frawnce!" pushing the first towards me, he urged, "you are very beautiful... you must open it!" as it was not mine, i thought it not overly proper to do so, and respectfully declined. he insisted. i declined once more. he insisted again. and so on, and so forth. long story short, i popped the cork and poured away. it was a very exhilerating experience (it was my first time). we clinked glasses, and that was that. literally. you see, i have a weakness called champagne. i'll stop there.

and then there was skiing. amazing views. wind blowing through everything. steep hills. gently rolling inclines. lifts carrying us above the trees. lifts dumping us all over each other and the strangers unfortunate enough to climb on with us. we met people from all over the world -australia, france, austria, england, south africa, coquitlam. cool cool time.

the friday after new year's my boyfriend and i spent in kamloops, a.k.a. "the big cereal." we spent hours in bookstores and music stores, and i was very content. the cereal's lower east side, however, is full of crazies. i didn't know that, as my father is a store nazi, and only ever took us to the mall when we went on daytrips. i thought, hey, we have freedom today, let's go downtown. so we did, and i discovered the reason that my father is a store nazi. literally, as soon as we get out of the car, we meet one of them. the crazies, i mean. we're just walking down the street, having a conversation, behind "her," when she turns around and jumps right in. uninvited. not so bad, you're thinking. i know. but then, eyes bulging, she starts telling us her life story, then ends with "now i live over there. i'm just walking downtown, you know, taking a walk. don't know where i'm going. you know where you're going? need directions anywhere?" i'm thinking, run away. the innocent on my right isn't. "we're looking for the library!" he says. "oh!" she says, "that's where i'm going! i'll take you!" what a strange woman. so we round the corner, and she turns right to go up a ramp, apparently with a door at the end. "come on!" she says. i tell her i want to check out a bookstore across the street, and it is all over. we hide out in the bookstore for about an hour, then head over to the ramp she has taken. we turn the corner to the door, then i reach for the doorknob. but there is no doorknob. there is no window. there is nothing. nothing else up the ramp, either. it is a down ramp, and an out door. not an in door. an out door. with no way to get in. no way to get in. i'm telling you, crazies. we go to the art gallery, which is in the same building, passing the door to the library. mr subtlety over here sees her in the library, and without thinking, pulls me away from the opening like a bomb is about to go off. "the crazy lady's in there!" i think maybe he's one too.