oh-sweet-pea
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January 06, 2002 - 7:17 p.m.
yesterday dan, pam, randy, kyla and i piled into a rented pontiac and headed across the border into bellingham for a carefree day trip. whooo! it had been a while since i had left the city and boy o boy did it feel good. we had the stereo turned up loud, listening to some new orlean's funk as we drove up to the border crossing. it was a bit tense as the border guard asked many questions and demanded not only our drivers licences but our passports and birth certificates as well. with our beaming smiles and good manners, we crossed into blaine, washington and looked forward to the day ahead.
our first stop was the old town cafe where we loaded ourselves with a yummy breakfast and lots of coffee. we had a lot of shopping to do. value village was next. i had restraint but i came out with a large bag full of good things. what did i score? a pretty pyrex cassserole dish with lid, a big-eyed kid print, a teal coat fall coat, brown cords, brown top, blue button down shirt, a very '70's red, white and blue (of course!) sleeveless top and a light blue old lady cardigan. the bellingham value village is by far the best value village i've ever been to. it has never, ever let me down. hooray!
we then headed to the mall. yikes. i couldn't spend a cent. everything seemed too expensive, especially with the horrid exchange rate. i had hoped to find some shoes, but things didn't work out that way. i did buy a pack of "sqyntz" at target. the candy without a vowel in it's name (unless you count 'y'). the back of the tin describes these "supersourz" as "the original sophisticated sour confection". uh huh.
when the mall lost it's appeal we headed back downtown to 'casa que pasa' for cheap burritos and beer. oh yes! then it was off for a game of american ten pin bowling. man those balls are heavy!! it was much fun. cosmic bowling (day glow pins and dry ice fog) started soon after we started playing and it was good to see tons of local kids at the lanes. bowling will not die!! we also had to have a budwieser in a bowling pin shaped bottle. sadly, i didn't buy one (i'm now kicking myself!) as my stomach was feeling pretty rough and i couldn't even imagine swallowing another pint of beer. oh well.
as every trip southside, the last stop was at a supermarket. ah, the glory of excess! i made away with 2 pints of ben & jerry (chubby hubby and festivus) and the largest bag of potato chips i have ever seen in my life (sweet maui onion flavour).
besides the grossly large bags of chips, this trip to the states was pretty eye-opening -- especially in light of 9/11. american flags were everywhere!! paper flags taped to house and car windows. flags were flying from homes and cars. and almost every store was selling patriotic goods. a feed-bag of cheetos and american flag coasters please. being canadian, it did seem a little strange. even when we were drinking the buds and the tv screen flashed "america at war" our table groaned loudly. perhaps a little too loudly, instantly forgetting where we were.
we drove home singing to scott walker songs with the rain pelting harder as we got closer to home. crossing the border this time was much easier and we agreed that a good time was had by all.
song for the day: on my way, american analogue set