This is has been the first time in years that I have been filled with zero Christmas spirit. Maybe it has something to do with being homeless. If Mom hadn’t put up the tree, I wouldn’t have complained. I didn’t miss it like Chad missed it.

I guess it feels like everything is off to a late start this year. The stress of moving, then Mom and Dad being away. You can’t really go ahead and fill someone else’s house with Christmas decorations now can you.

This is also the first year that I have nothing planned for Chad for Christmas. I actually tried to convince him that we should save our money and not get each other Christmas gifts this year. That didn’t really work. I am still stuck on what to get him and that never happens. Time is running out and I am getting stressed!

Gifts as a kid were a big deal, of course, but for some reason, I always felt bad asking for what I really wanted. I was very money conscious as a kid and if I thought something was probably too expensive and my parents probably wouldn’t get it for me anyways, I never asked for it. Hence, the Easy Bake Oven. Just ask my Mom about it. It was something that I wanted for YEARS but never asked for because I thought it was too pricey, and of course, those who don’t ask don’t get. My Mom had no idea I was so obsessed with it and so she never bought it. I blame this on why I am such a terrible baker.

Then there was the time I finally did ask for what I really wanted, the Ken and Barbie wedding set. I was like 99% sure I was going to get it, until I started to unwrap the present and I realized it was knock off Ken and Barbie getting married. It was like the most disappointing thing ever.

These two events pretty much scared me for life. This is why now, when I am asked what I want for my Birthday or Christmas, I am anally specific. Yea, it makes me look like a snob, but that’s too bad. Honestly, I prefer you buy me nothing, but if you really do want to get me something then this is what I want. And really, as far as I see it, being specific about something just makes it easier for the person buying the gift. No thinking required!

We finally finished all our shopping last night. The stress of it all caused me to yell at my phone in the middle of Chapters because Chad was texting me every 30 seconds about this gift for my Mom. I almost punched an innocent bystander. But it was OK, we got it all done. That is, expect for our gifts for each other.

The stress of buying gifts. I just don’t get it. It makes me not want to buy anyone gifts. How about I make you some potatoes instead. I’m really good at that!

Christmas.

We had to postpone Matts birthday dinner because life got in the way, so on Wednesday we met up to have pizza at Nicli. Yes, it was the four time I had been there since they opened. What can I say, they make good pizza.

I got there before Matt did, parked on the side of the street and walked to the restaurant. There was a bit of a line but nothing too bad. I could see empty tables waiting to be cleared so I knew the people in front of me would be seated shortly. I put my name down for 2 and waited quietly in the little foyer.

Moments later an older man with a long grey beard and a large wooden staff opened the door. He looked very worn down and a bit out there.  I was pretty sure this man wasn’t about to sit down and order a pizza, given the neighbourhood Nicli was in, but then again, who was I to judge.

People started to stare at him as soon as he came in and stood in line behind me. Everyone seemed to know that this man wasn’t meant to be here and was waiting to see what would happen.

He inched his way closer to me and started to mumble. I was definitely not feeling the most comfortable in the world.

The guests in front of me were seated so I moved up now standing in the restaurant. More people could see him now and were staring at us, as if I knew the old man with a long beard and wooden staff. I was pretty sure he wasn’t Jesus.

One of the young waiters came towards us smiling at me as if he knew this could get interesting. He told the old man that the manager would be right with him to find him a seat, treating him as if he was a paying customer even though it was very clear he was not. The waiter was carrying two empty wine bottles that were filled with water to one of the tables. The old man mumbled and laughed calling the waiter a drunk. It was kind of adorable.

I began to worry a little though. This man was most likely homeless and seemed to have some mental issues. I was concerned as to how the manager would deal with him. Would he kick him out, knowing that he wasn’t meant to be here? Would there be a scene? Would the man yell and get aggressive? Though I’m sure they have had to deal with homeless people and people with mental issues before, given the fact that they are located on Cordova Street, I was still concerned with how the scene was about to play out.

The manager, who is usually very serious and professional, came up to us in a playful mood. He smiled at me and asked if we were together. At this point everyone who was having dinner in our near vicinity was watching us. I smirked back at him and replied, No. It was like we were all in on the same joke. This man wasn’t supposed to be here, but we were all playing along like he was. The manager turned to the man and asked him how many people were in his party. The old man started to laugh and then mumbled something to him holding up his staff. He then quickly turned around continuing to laugh as he left the restaurant. “Is that all you had to say to me?” the manager said back to him laughing. “I can’t believe you waited that long just to say that to me!”. Everyone laughed in relief that what could have been a very confrontational interaction was instead light and playful.

The manager turned to me again laughing. “You sure he wasn’t with you?” “Haha, yes I am sure!”.

He then turned towards the other guests waiting in line taking down their information. He came back to me and said “Don’t think that I was making you wait just because I though you were with that guy. Your table will be ready shortly.” I laughed back at him. “No I didn’t think that at all!”

I was quickly seated and Matt showed up a few minutes later, missing all the entertainment.

The pizza was wonderful, as it always is. As we were leaving the manager came and opened the door for us.

“I hope dinner was good!”

“Yes, it was. Thank you!”

“Say Hi to your Dad for me!”

I looked at him puzzled. Was he being so friendly to me because he thought I was someone else?

“You know, the Wizard!”

“Bahahaha!”

“Do you think he put a good spell on me or a bad spell on me?”

“Oh, he definitely put a good spell on you!”

“Hahah, I think so too! Have a good night!”

“Haha you too!”

Amazing.

I had this feeling that the Canucks weren’t going to win. I don’t know what it was but part of me looked at game 6 as our real chance to win, and when they lost I reacted as if they had already lost the cup. So when Wednesday came I was calm while the rest of the city buzzed.

I didn’t watch the game because I thought, if they actually had a chance at winning then my watching the game would just be bad luck. It’s the mentality I went along with through most of the play offs.

Once the game was over I didn’t pay too much attention to what else was going on in the city. Part of me was terrified that 1994 would happen all over again, but then part of me hoped that we had learned and grown as a city and were much too mature to riot.

Then I checked twitter.

My blood immediately started to boil.

The thing with being overreacting Italian is that not only do you get the benefit of being passionate but you also get the drawback of being a rage machine. I am someone who takes both of those feelings to the extreme.

I don’t think I have ever felt so angry, upset, and helpless at the same time. I couldn’t watch the news because it got me too riled up and yet I couldn’t not watch the news because I was obsessed with finding out what was happening next. There I was, sitting in my Burnaby apartment and all I wanted to do was something, anything to make it stop. I burst into tears I don’t know how many times. My body was filled with emotions like never before. I just couldn’t believe this was happening to my city. My city that only a short year ago threw the greatest party of all time, with out anything like this happening.

It all felt like a horrible, horrible nightmare.

The next morning it was all Alicia, Claudia, and I could talk about. We were all so upset that a group of people could do this to OUR city.

But then we started to see the out pouring of love that was flowing back into the downtown core. People were cleaning up and joining together and it really inspired us to do something.

The Vancouver Police Department, Vancouver Fire Department, and Paramedics all did an amazing job of helping our city during the riots. I remember sitting there watching the VPD, so calm and brave in front of those crowds of rioters as I was going crazy with rage in front of the TV. All I could think about was how I would probably be beating down on all of them if I was a cop, which is probably why I am not a cop and am just an I rate I talian!

After seeing a tweet that Keira-Anne posted about baking cupcakes for all the Men and Women who helped protect our city that night, I got really inspired to actually go and bake cupcakes to show my appreciation. I wanted to turn my negative feelings about the riots into a positive action. So we organized a little group and we baked cupcakes!

Since Keira-Anna has connections with the VFD and Chad has connections with the VPD we decided to split the duties. Today at lunch we headed over to the VPD Headquarters on Cambie to show our appreciation.

Probably the coolest elevator doors I have ever seen!

It was great to see all the other Thank Yous that were on display from people showing their appreciation too. We were obsessed with all the drawings from kids around the city. So adorable!

We were prepare to just drop off our card and goodies at the front desk figuring they would be passed along to the right spot but were surprised to find out that Cst. Houghton and his public affairs team were actually coming down to meet with us!

Alicia got to chat with the lady who runs the VPD Twitter and we all got our photos taken with a Sargent (whos name escapes me) and our cupcakes! (Hopefully I can get a copy of said picture from the VPD!)

They were really appreciative of our gesture and it was great to actually say Thank You in person.

It’s heartbreaking to watch a city you love get destroyed right before your eyes, but it’s comforting to know that in times of trouble there is always someone there to protect it.

It definitely felt good taking a negative and turning it into a positive!

Adventure time!

So the one super exciting adventure that we had during this trip was a boat ride out to swim with sea turtles! I was so pumped to do it. Not only do I love snorkelling but turtles are my favourite and I was going to have the opportunity to swim with them!

What I didn’t quite think about was the circumstances surrounding this adventure. I knew we were driving to a marina, I knew we were going snorkelling, but my brain didn’t get quite as far as thinking “well, we’ll probably be taking a boat out into the ocean so I should be aware of the fact that I get motion sickness”.

We took a speed boat out into the open ocean and drove about 20 minutes north towards Cancun. Chad and I sat at the front of the boat with Dennis and Paula. It was a crazy fun adventure. My first real experience on a boat on the ocean (minus any time of Ferry).

Once we got to the reef we dropped the anchor, suited up, and found these guys…

Amazing.

It was so neat to see the turtles up close and personal. The guide that was swimming with us was feeding them fish. There were 3 turtles and a bunch of different fish swimming all around us.

Unfortunately after the feeding frenzy one of the turtles was still hungry and mistook Zia Paulas shoulder for a nice tasty fish. She screamed like a crazy person and started flailing about and we all started to laugh not knowing exactly what was going on in all the chaos. It was a pretty painful bite but he didn’t break the skin. It ended up looking like a big hickey on her back shoulder. She said the turtle probably smelled her fear. It made for quite a funny story the rest of the time.

After the turtle attack, Zia Paula got out of the water and hung out on the boat while Cindy, Chris, Chad and I followed our guide along the coral reef. Assuming this was our only stop for the day we took our time and swam about.

Once we were done we swam back to the boat. While trying to get in both Chad and I swallowed some sea water (Chad worse then I) which is the grossest thing ever. Talk about salt over load. It totally set off our stomachs would would prove to be very bad for me in a matter of minutes.

Once on board we found out there were actually 2 more stops on our journey before heading home. Only problem was Salt Water Tummy + Super Choppy Waves =

Gross Face Sea Sickness

One part of me was holding on for dear life, another part of me was trying NOT to get more burnt then I already was from the sun, and yet another part was trying not to hurl over the side of the boat.

Though the boat ride was exactly the same on the way out as it was on the way in, the presence of salt water in my stomach put me in a very bad place.

When we finally got to the second stop I was doing everything I could not to puke. My stomach was in full force sea sickness mode. What was even worse was that the second coral reef was in a super wavy section of the ocean. I knew I wouldn’t survive long. Thankfully a group decision was made to skip crazy rough stop 2 and move on to nicely calm stop 3.

Ahhh…much better.

However, with in 5 minutes of dropping the anchor my breakfast followed suit and made its way into the Gulf of Mexico. Ick. The only good thing about that? No one was in the boat to see me and I instantly road the Post-Puke-Euphoric-Wave into a much better mood.

Zia Paula and I donned our snorkel gear and swam around a bit checking out the fishies while the boys waded in the water relaxing and chatting. Everything was so beautiful.

Standing in the water was much better for the tummy then sitting in the boat because at least you got your sea legs back, but after swimming around all I wanted to do was sit. Not even 5 minutes back in the boat and I knew I wasn’t going to make it.  I didn’t know what to do.

All of a sudden that ever so wonderful puking sensation returned and I knew my only option was to get out of the boat, swim to the edge of the reef and just do my thing. Only problem was it some how partially went up my nose and I started coughing and hacking like a crazy person which got everyone attention. Good one Danielle.

Chad quickly swam over and brought me some bottled water and I slowly started to regain my composure. I needed out of there quick. The wind and the water were making me shiver uncontrollably and sitting in the warm boat was making me sick. I was a total disaster.

Thankfully soon after my meltdown we were back in the boat heading to dry land.

I wasn’t much better once I got there, but I knew some fresh water, a little bit of something sweet for energy, and a quick nap on a comfy bed would probably straighten me out. I made some friends with a couple of lonely planters and the local bathroom but once my stomach was empty I was golden. All I needed was to lay down.

It was a great adventure despite a little Sea Turtle bite and some Gulf of Mexico barf. Definitely something I would do again (because I still think I’m invincible) but maybe next time I won’t swallow sea water and I’ll pick a calmer day to head out to sea!