Lappy Dance

My real birthday arrived with significantly less than a bang. However, by the end of the day I would be buzzing like a cuckoo bird! Here’s the scoop.

After going to work for a couple hours (where the main task was supressing my excitement), I cut out at lunch and headed into Surrey where I leapt onto the Skytrain for my journey to the NHL. HEART OF A CANUCK indeed. I’m getting ahead of myself. First, I met with Jen for some pre-game snacks at Pivo Public House.



Jen is one of my oldest friends…on earth. So there’s a lot of history there. And so, she made me this:








LMAO. For the unfamiliar…the first bunch were Brad Renfro (Brenfro), Kevin Bacon (kembkn), and Mike Herrera (no nickname.) The second was Maxim Lapierre (Lappy.) The sad creature in the last photo is Justin Bieber’s head on Ryan Kesler’s body. BOOOOOOOOOO. None of that, please. Of any kind. BEST CARD EVER. I was so embarrassed I couldn’t even hold it up in the restaurant.

Eventually Jen and I bid adieu and I met up with Marty in front of Rogers Arena. I was frothing at the mouth outside the club gate doors the second they started allowing people inside. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT.

Oh ps – in case you didn’t know by now, Marty’s birthday gift was Canuck tickets (my idea.) Row 6, baby. I die!!






Here’s Dale Weise. Who, you ask? Exactly. He’s a sometimes-fourth-liner who likes to bask in the glory of being the first Canuck everyone sees when they walk into the arena.



I waited at the glass with baited breath for the warm-up to start. I was soon surrounded by small children, all in $100 jerseys, discussing how they are going to go about getting a warm-up puck today. These kids are 20 years ahead of me in the hockey department.



Once they started tossing out the pucks, I knew it had to be getting close. The child pool around me began to swell.











At one point, I was on the big screen with Henrik Sedin. It was pretty rad. The children became rangy, hitting the glass and yelling at the top of their lungs to try and get the attention of their favorite player. It was like I was surrounded by a group of misbehaving monkeys. I was a little embarrassed for myself being lumped in with this motley crew. And then Lappy (#40) skated by.


Not perfect lighting, but the man in the foreground is the same one in my birthday card – the one that wasn’t Ryan Kesler’s body.



















Well, wasn’t that fun? Eventually the real game began and I had to mosey my way over to my actual seat. Although I feel like I already got my money’s worth…




Lu, doing what I call his “gorilla pose”.




Scrappy Lappy.


See Marty? They are fist-bumping!









So, in the end, we creamed those stinky Minnesota Wild. Lu notched his first shutout of the year and we scored four goals. Sounds like a dang-near perfect birthday gift to me.





That would be the last (also, first) time I’d see Lappy single…he suddenly felt the need to get engaged three days after this. Wahh, my life.

I’d like to conclude the birthday blogs with this picture of me drinking chai out of the smallest cup on earth during my birthday celebrations with my aunt. I’m old now! Small portions only!

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This Way To The Pool

In December each year, I have a birthday. Crazy, I know. Since it had been a while since my last one, Janelle and I decided to celebrate with a weekend out in the city, booking two nights at the deliciously-retro hotel, The Burrard. Now, my birthday didn’t fall on any of the actual days in the city, but we enjoyed ourselves like it did. It all began on a rainy Friday night.















At the time, we didn’t realize it would be a problem, but our hotel was situated across the street from a hospital…a pretty hospital all covered in Christmas lights!



We decided to take a hike and check out the south side of downtown Vancouver. Have I mentioned how much I love this city?











After a quick Skytrain trip into Richmond to pick up a pair of shoes I ordered from Browns (gotta love the Skytrain with all their massive Canuck posters everywhere), we ended up back in Yaletown for dinner.






The burritos were amazing.

We then hiked our way back up to Robson Street in search of karaoke. Finding none in a respectable price range, we headed to Moxies for a drink. After sampling what tasted like turpentine (thanks for the recommendation, waitress), then its replacement (yeah tropical paradise!), we headed back to the hotel to crash.



After only several ambulance siren awakenings, Saturday morning arrived – and so did our quest for food.




What a cutie.

After sushi, shopping, and Starbucks, we had to head back to the hotel so I could watch the hockey. Boo Hockey Night in Canada. Yay Canucks!






My big purchase of the day. Immediately after this picture was taken, I spilled red wine on it. I suck.

Since the Canucks were playing the Leafs, we, of course, went off to dinner the victors (5-3, suck it Toronto!) Dinner was at Society in Yaletown (notice a theme emerging?) courtesy of our sweet package deal booked with the hotel. Pink chandeliers? Yes please.





After dinner we headed back to the hotel before our final destination of the night, the Roxy. That was…well, Janelle will never set foot in the Roxy again. I probably won’t either. Imagine a warehouse-sized room, badly furnished, with a cover band playing music you’d never want to dance to. And then sprinkle in a large contingent of douche-bag types and some other “rock”-types with beards. Hah! I don’t think I’ve ever wrote such an accurate description. But there you have it. Best conversation of the night:
Janelle: “We are sisters.”
Guy: “But not real sisters, right? Like, friends-who-are-sisters?”
Janelle: “No, like sisters-with-the-same-parents sisters.”

Sunday morning was check-out, and after packing up, we headed to, where else? Yaletown.




Bye, cute little courtyard!

We did a bit of picking through the shops and got our drank on thanks to some little shop handing out champagne. What a great idea!


For Sis.

Upon the recommendation of the cashier at BeautyMark, we ate lunch at PHAT – Home of the Canucks. This is turning into a Canuck-filled weekend. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.







Stuffed full of hot dog and garlic fries, the next logical step was to go for coffee. What?



After a touch more shopping (what? We are pros.), we decided to call it a weekend and say goodbye to Vancouver. Until tomorrow. My actual birthday. I’m making my NHL debut, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

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