Stiletto Diaries™

Vancouver – Day 1 & Day 2

Posted on October 21st, 2009 in Are You Gonna Eat That?, Does All Her Own Stunts, Mating And Relating, Photos, Polyamory

Aiden drove me to the airport on Wednesday night so that I could catch my flight out to Vancouver.  I had booked the trip in August, as I didn’t have a chance to see my siblings over the summer holidays, and I’ve missed them a great deal.  It was also a great opportunity to hang out with padme, and meet Master Anakin at long last.

Despite some traffic issues, we made it with time to spare.  He kissed me goodbye, and into the terminal I went to check my bag and get through security.

While I waited at my gate I chatted with Kade from my CrackBerry.  I haven’t seen him since the beginning of July, and we only talk sporadically.  There really isn’t much of a relationship there, I’d barely even call it a friendship.  It feel like it’s over as far as I am concerned, but certain remarks from him make it obvious he doesn’t feel the same way.  V, Aiden, Nia, and probably Jack think it’s time to write him a “Dear John” letter and just let him know this isn’t really working for me, and most likely I will, I just hate this sort of thing.  More on that some other day.

The flight was five hours long, and pretty uneventful.  I had somehow forgotten my iPod and headphones, but fortunately had not failed to pack plenty of books and writing tools.  I also managed to doze a little for the last hour of the flight, which was good, because by the time I landed in Vancouver, it was 2am my time (11pm local).

My sister and one of my brothers met me at the airport and then we caught the skytrain to their part of the city.  It’s kind of a shitty part of town, but their apartment itself is kind of nice.  Or it would be if any of them believed in cleaning.  My other brother was waiting for us at home.  Obviously everyone is going to need names:

Brother 1 – (Second Oldest, after me) will be called Brody

Brother 2 – (Third Oldest) will be called Kaz

Sister – (Youngest) will be called Rory

Brother 2’s Girlfriend – will be called Jena

Jena lives in the apartment as well, with the rest of them, and she’s been dating Kaz for two years, so it was nice to finally meet her.  I love my brother, but I don’t know what she sees in him as she’s my age and he’s like a 12 year old in a 22 year old body.  Anyway, she’s a sweet girl.

We all hung out and talked and eventually the boys went to bed, leaving Rory and I to visit.  In Summer ‘08 I had accidentally told her about the poly when we were out drinking one night, and so she wanted to know how things were going with that.  I had already mentioned “my friend Aiden” several times in conversation during the evening, and she guessed that perhaps we were more than friends.  We stayed up talking until 3am their time, and then she went to bed.  I was sleeping on the couch, right beside a window that is so close to the skytrain track you could almost jump from one to the other.  As it was 5am Ontario time, I knew that Aiden would be getting up for work momentarily and so I logged onto MSN from my phone, sent him a message, and then snuggled down under the blankets.  Eventually he messaged me back and told me to go to sleep.  We chatted briefly before he had to leave, and then I managed to doze off some, before the trains started running again and kept waking me up.  It wasn’t the most awesome first night, LOL.

I slept until 8am Vancouver time, and then woke up and could not get back to sleep.  I poked around the kitchen and managed to make a pot of coffee.  Then I did some reading until the other members of the house began to wake.  Rory had to go to work, as did Jena, but the boys are both currently focusing a lot of time on their music, so they don’t have regular work hours and planned to hang out with me for the day.

They were very pleased with my coffee making skills, and so I showed them how to not brew toxic sludge of the molasses consistency.

Eventually the three of us wandered out into the street in search of breakfast.  We walked a long way up Commercial Drive, to a little place called The Reef where they like to go.  The food was indeed excellent, particularly the Johnny Cakes which are basically balls of deep-fried batter served with a kind of flavored butter.  They would be the most perfect hangover food, especially at .50 cents each, and being the size of a tennis ball.

While we were waiting for our food, they cornered me about poly.  Apparently the walls in that apartment are thinner than I thought, and they had overheard parts of my conversation with Rory the night before.  They were curious, asking many questions about how our arrangement works, and if it makes us happy, and are we sure this isn’t just screwing around?  I was as honest as I could be with them, without being too open about my personal sex life which just isn’t any of their business, LOL.  At the end, they said that as long as I am content with my choices, they support me.  It was one of the best moments I’ve ever had with them, as we didn’t have a very close relationship until quite recently when they started to grow up a little.

They also want to meet Aiden, and I’ve promised them and Rory that they will get a chance.  Either the next time I go there, or when they come here, whichever comes first.

It’s really pretty amazing to be ‘out’ to my siblings.  They are the only family members that know, and it feels like now that it’s all in the open, I can be more normal with them.  Eventually our parents will be gone, and it will be just the 4 of us, and they actually accept me for who I am.  For the first time ever I don’t feel like I’m going to have to spend the rest of my life hiding.

Brody is convinced that I should write a book (they don’t know about this site, for obvious reasons) and that if I could find a way to make money off of being poly, our parents would accept it.  If there is one thing my parents understand, it’s money, and he thinks that they would have a hard time condemning something that is putting food on the table, even if it’s morally offensive to them.  He’s probably right.  If I became successful and famous, and it was somehow related to this unusual lifestyle we lead, they would be inviting Aiden over for dinner immediately.  Ok maybe not immediately, but it would certainly make them FAR more receptive.

Who knows if that is ever to be (I doubt it, and I’m not banking on it) but I’m not as scared of coming out as I used to be.  Even if my parents disown me, I know my siblings will still have my back, and that means more to me than anything.  I will never be totally cut off from my family.  My kids will never be without extended family to love them.

After breakfast, we all had a coffee on the patio of a nearby JJ Bean.  We shot the shit for a while, and then caught a train into downtown.  We walked around for a while, and then half-way over the bridge to Granville Island.  It was a great view.  I’ve missed seeing the mountains terribly since moving away from Alberta.

It was over-cast and kind of dreary, so I didn’t take a ton of pictures.

For dinner we met up with Rory, her boyfriend, and Jena at The Eatery.  The boys and I nommed through almost $100 worth of sushi, but IT WAS THE BEST SUSHI I’VE EVER TASTED!  The atmosphere was awesome, although it was a bit of a yuppie hangout.  We were probably a little grunge as compared to their usual crowd, but I’d totally go back there any time.  It was delicious.  Sorry for the crappy camera phone pic, but it’s better than nothing, I think.

After we were all full and happy, Rory’s boyfriend drove us back to the apartment and we sat around talking until the wee hours again.

Friday morning was much like Thursday morning.  I was awake first, made coffee, did some reading.  Jena didn’t have to work, but Kaz didn’t feel like eating, so she and Brody and I went out to breakfast together at a little cafe around the corner from their place.  It was decent food for the price.

After breakfast (which, by the way, didn’t occur until 1:20 pm) we mostly just hung around the apartment and bullshitted.  I ventured out on my own for a while to pick up some postcards and souvenirs, and to get some fresh air.  It was raining out so I didn’t really wander too far.

That evening my cousin came over and we all had drinks together.  I hadn’t seen her in over two years.  When Rory got home from work we all got ready and caught the skytrain downtown to go to The Cambie.  The line was long, however.  Rory and my cousin and Jena all decided to just pay the cover charge instead of waiting.  The boys and I were going to stick it out and wait, but after an hour we got annoyed and decided to go look for something else to do.  After checking out a couple of pubs we decided to grab pizza and go back to the apartment and have a beer there.  It was actually really nice, because you can’t really talk in a loud bar like that and I was mostly there to spend time with them.

I feel like my brothers and I bonded for possibly the first time ever.  We weren’t at all close growing up, and then I left home when they were just entering their teens, and never lived with them again.  I sometimes envy the close relationship the three of them have.  Sometimes I feel like I grew up as an only child, just due to our complicated family dynamics (I was the only child of my mom’s first marriage, I don’t have the same ‘dad’ as they do).  They have always been really good pals, and I didn’t really know them as people until the last couple of years.  They were always just ‘the kids’ to me.  If for no other reason, the trip was worth it because I feel like my brothers and I are friends now, which is awesome.

Eventually Rory and her boyfriend and Jena got home from the bar and we all went to bed exhausted.

Day 3&4 will have to wait for another post