Daily Archives: July 4, 2007

do you like to party

Posted in everyday kimli by

I am either a) paranoid, b) guilty of watching too much crime TV, c) mentally processing the attempted boy-ho pickup I just saw, or d) all of the above.

It’s a quiet night out, and sound travels pretty well. I heard voices, so I looked out my window and saw a guy in a car in the middle of the street calling over a young guy to ask for directions. No big deal, right?

I stood and watched for a while, and in that time the guy in the car:

  • asked if the guy knew where a certain address was
  • had the guy look at the numbers of the buildings they were standing between
  • asked if he was out partying tonight
  • introduced himself as Jimbo
  • said he lived downtown
  • asked if the young man had a cell phone
  • offered up his own cell phone number
  • asked the young man to call him anytime, like on Friday, he’s free after 5pm
  • shook his hand
  • made some other intelligible comment that garnered an awkward laugh from the young man
  • eventually drove away

The entire thing was really fucking creepy. Jimbo was a large round white man dressed in light colours, driving a beat-up older sports car. The young man in question was from the reserve, tall and lanky and probably around 20. Jimbo spoke in a silky, smarmy voice. I bet he had disturbingly soft hands.

Scary. Seriously, who drives around at 11:30 pm in neighbourhoods they are not familiar with, then strikes up a random conversation with some random guy and asks if he likes to party? CREEPY SEX OFFENDERS, THAT’S WHO. The whole “so, you out partying?” and the “give me a call sometime, we’ll party” and the repeated “I live downtown”, not to mention that he was looking for an address that did not exist (he didn’t want my building, or the building next door, which leaves the crackenhaus at the end of the block or Reserve Land – plus he drove away right after the convo, not stopping to see if the address he was “looking” for matched the last place on the block) – on any TV drama, that would equal BAD NEWS.

I’m going to go hide from the scary men looking to pick up slender young studs for partying in front of my apartment building now.

my, what a large peanut you have

Posted in everyday kimli, vroom vroom by

I saw a three-storey tall Mr. Peanut on my way to work today. I know I didn’t get enough sleep last night, but I am pretty sure I was not hallucinating – there, in a field, was an enormous Mr. Peanut. Cane, monocle, top hat – the works. He was large and jolly and completely out of place, even for North Vancouver. If I liked peanuts, I’m sure I would be craving some now – but really, I’m just curious as to why the giant Mr. Peanut was there in the first place and .. um .. if anyone else besides me saw it.

It is way, way too nice out to work. I am staring out the window longingly because it is gorgeous outside and also to avoid staring at the floor, where I saw a spider earlier. I’ve already done a dance of fear and have rolled up my pant legs so nothing can crawl up there and bite me, but I still fear. I bet if I was riding Oscar, nothing could bite me because we are like the WIND.

I’m very glad to see that the Lure of the Scooter has not changed even though I am riding a more “hardcore” bike. Oscar, while saturated in awesome, isn’t as cute and approachable as Sally is so I worried that I would see a decline in the number of people who stop to ask me questions about scooter riding and scooters in general. But no! The nicer the weather, the more people want to know all about it and I am more than glad to wax poetry about the wonders of scooter riding. The questions are generally the same – can you go on highways, how much does it cost, how fast can you go – and my answers haven’t changed: I answer for the 50cc scooter they assume it is. While I technically CAN go on highways, I will not and don’t want potential scooter riders to think they can on a regular bike, so I say no. In fact, the real reason I upgraded to a more powerful scooter was so I can keep up with traffic safely on the Lions Gate Bridge – that’s it. No speed demon here; I am quite content to ride on the side of caution rather than trying to get to that red light three seconds before the person next to me.

Lastly, there are the celebrations:

Happy birthday, Ali! We love you and owe you a visit!
Happy birthday, Lisa! We will hook up and go for a scooter ride soon!
Happy 4th of July, Americans! I like your Mexican restaurants!