My back pocket is full of bus transfers

Today I got out of bed after noon. I don't care. Judge me. Deem me lazy. Disparage me.

Eat me.

Michael called and we tried to figure out what to do. My suggestion was a hike. His suggestion was to go check out Surrey's new city centre and I was like "Oh hell yeah, I want to take the sky train to the last vestiges of the earth to check that shit out". And he was like "Great, I'll see you shortly".

It was cool, actually. Even if the interior totally reminded me of a vagina. The highlights of Surrey included (but were not limited to) the sketchy crack addict that was scrabbling around on all fours before running over to a bike rack and peering up an elevator shaft; the Muslim check out clerk at Zellers that expressed outrage that she now had to charge us HST on the 5 cent plastic bag we bought; and the Central City tower and it's concept, which is to welcome and bring together the community. The mayor of Surrey surely has her work cut out for her, but having a mixed use development (shopping, eating, post secondary education, office space) right on a public transit route is a great start.

Back on the sky train and we decided to get off on Commercial Drive to check out what was shaking. Lots of funky shops and restaurants. A bit dodgy, some stores have gone out of business, but a very authentic feel walking past all the coffee shops with patrons speaking every language but English and no doubt discussing soccer.

We walked past a cool joint with some great live jazz playing and we both agreed that we would finish walking the strip and go back. Secretly I thought we wouldn't get in, but one should never doubt the horseshoe. We got one of the last tables in the place and we were fortunate enough to catch two phenomenal jazz bands at the Libra Room which were part of the TD Canada Bank jazz fest. Nice to know my mortgage proceeds are going towards something worthwhile. The space was fantastic, the music was phenomenal and we had the best vegetarian pizza in the history of the world. I think only one pizza came close: when I was a kid my dad bought me (maybe Jay was there too) some eggplant pizza at Flying Wedge in Kits and it was so good. So, so good.

Back on public transit. I randomly suggested we get off one stop before we needed to in order to walk off the mass amounts of food and booze we had ingested. It worked out well because we could hear the thunderous roar of fireworks going off. We stood for a while in an area where we couldn't see anything and then Michael said, "Run over?" and so we ran through the crowds and the streets to where we thought the view would be the best and we caught the finale. It was awesome.

Hopped the sea bus home and halfway across the water some people started singing "O Canada" and so, naturally, I started singing it too. It was awesome.

And I wore my CBC shirt and two people asked me if I worked for CBC and I had to admit that I did not. Such a conversation starter, this shirt with it's retro logo. There are many things I love about Canada, and one of the first and foremost is the CBC.

Such a great day. So totally random and unplanned and totally awesome with people sporting maple leafs on their cheeks and everyone breaking out their Canada gear that they bought when we hosted the Olympics and catching a Tragically Hip cover band as we headed off the North Shore this morning.

I love where I live.

I love my life.