The Month of February in Review
So as anyone who’s been part of the modern world in the recent days, you know that a major event has come to a close in Vancouver.
Last night I sat on a couch that wasn’t mine and watched the Canada vs USA hockey game and cheered and ate chicken wings and drank caesars and had a really good time.
The past two weeks have made me realize that I’m in a sort of moral dilemma. I love sports. I grew up playing them, watching them..
I called my Mom when we won the Gold medal.
I nearly cried when Neil Young popped up from under BC Place and sang ‘Long May You Run” - and if anyone was lucky like we (at the house) were, we watched the harvest moon rise into the sky just as he started to play. Poetic.
I, of course, wouldn’t have gotten this great opportunity to witness such a special moment in both Vancouver’s and Canada’s history if I wasn’t actually sick. I got out of work the previous night, while I sat in a car on my way into an art show.
OK - I was actually sick. I still am. I went to buy coffee this morning and couldn’t speak to the barista. I just couldn’t miss the opportunity to have a Saturday evening and Sunday off.
So anyway, my moral dilemma is that the Olympics are totally fucked. Our city is so beautiful and amazing and so many rad things have happened here in the past two weeks - but meanwhile BC has a child poverty rate that is climbing, and people can barely afford to live here in Vancouver. We have the poorest postal code in Canada, and there are more homeless people on the streets - but we can spend a few billion dollars on a waterfront Olympic Village and a bunch of SUVs that are now for sale on Craigslist that no one will buy because SUVs are environmentally unsound (Vancouver being a progressive city and all). It just doesn’t really add up.
That being said, I felt guilty when I was loving every minute of the hockey games and ice skating.
I think in the past month I’ve realized that I have political opinions that aren’t fully realized yet. I went to a protest, but watched the games. I don’t think I’m an actual hypocrite (I might be) but… I actually don’t really care at this point.
The sense of community that the games have brought to Vancouver is enormous. You cannot deny that as anyone who has been here for the festivities. I avoided downtown - crowds that huge aren’t my bag - and found that people were celebrating everywhere. There were street hockey games being played on Main, people waving flags on every block…we drove to Little India and there were tons of East Indian men standing on the street waving huge Canadian flags while blasting bhangra music. HELLO! So rad. Vancouver is a largely multicultural city that often separates us - and it’s funny how it takes a hockey game to really get people to come together. But if that’s what it takes - so be it. Hugging and kissing and screaming and honking for who the hell knows how long.
And now I’m too exhausted to really say much more. I basically drank a lot more over the month of February, met quite a few new people, reconciled with a friend, learned quite a bit about who I am, and worked a lot. Overall, pretty good.
As I said before, I’ve acquired a cold and now I can barely talk. There’s an after-olympic-madness party tonight at one of my co-worker’s house (from the brewery). I want to go, except the problem is I can barely talk.
Hot Toddy Time.
