Friends

So many things have been going on since I last posted! Where do I even start?!

The end of the summer came and went, Bruno and I went to Europe for a couple weeks for a big visit to Belgium to meet his family and friends, and then DrupalCon London. DrupalCon went by quickly with Bruno and a few of the other Affinity Bridgers there.

The time in Belgium was wonderful... Bruno's friends and family are absolutely lovely people. Hopefully the first of many visits there. Bruno will be going back in February for a couple weeks, but I'm planning to stay in Vancouver since he's got to deal with a bunch of practicalities from moving and will be working while he's there too. 

Shortly after we got back, Bruno landed a job in Vancouver, yay!!! This also meant that he got approved for a one year work visa, double yay! Hopefully that will help bridge the gap to when we're common law and can try for his permanent residence.

My lovely cousin Colleen came up for a visit in October - it'd been a couple years since I'd seen her last, so we had a lot of bonding to do. It's nice to be a bit closer geographically now, so that we can have little visits! The following weekend was the PNW Drupal Summit in Portland - most of the Affinity crew traveled south for it, as well as Bruno and I. As always, it was a great weekend full of visiting and learning.

Aside from all the travels and conferences, we've had some time to explore the city over the summer and fall... I think Bruno's really getting himself oriented now, and figuring out what his favourite spots are.

Fall is also bringing some calm and I've been getting back into crafting! I sewed an awesome bag, and have been knitting a lot again. 

Finally, I celebrated my 31st birthday about a week ago! I got nifty new mitts from my mom, terrariums from Bruno, and had a nice lunch with friends in Gastown.

All in all, things are good - I've been making more time for myself and feeling much less burnt out. I'm hoping for a winter full of self-care, creativity, and lovely people... want to join me?

So, what have I been up to the last couple months? You know how it goes... Drupal, work, Drupal, work... and then Bruno arriving here to stay for the entire summer!

He arrived just over a month ago and will be here until August when we go visit his family in Belgium and then go to Drupalcon in London. The plan after that is that he'll be coming back to Vancouver again, and then we've got a window of about six weeks to hopefully figure out something more long-term, ie. getting a work visa or extending his visit if that's possible.

It's been a loooong time since I've lived with a boyfriend, but it has been going remarkably well! We'd talked a lot about our living habits before he came back here in April, and I had good feeling about it - and it's proved to be a very easy transition (maybe aside from his being far more of a morning person, but really most people don't need to sleep as much as me, so that's to be expected - plus he's stealth quiet!)

We've managed to have some good getting to know Vancouver time (despite me feeling so-so, up and down) - Drupal meetups, coworking, swimming, farmers markets, and even hosted our first Drupal Hackternoon! My parents were supposed to come out to visit and meet him last week but ended up having to postpone, so hopefully that will be in the cards sometime in the summer. And we had a brief visit with my friend Evan who came to visit from Saskatoon - he and I grew up next door to each other, basically our whole lives until finishing highschool. It was his first trip to Vancouver - he was here for a bachelor's party, and flew out a day early to visit!

Aside from planning a few little trips here and there through the summer, we'll be continuing to get settled into living together and generally enjoying finally being together after so many months of skyping and emailing and two week visits! 

Yesterday, I turned 30.

There have certainly been some struggles getting here, but overall this year has been a pretty fantastic one.

I celebrated this momentous occasion with friends and my parents who flew out from Saskatoon for the weekend to visit. We had some delicious brunch cooked by the amazing chef, Boris (and Scott's much loved cinnamon buns). Later, after everyone dispersed and many of us napped, we went out to see Wintersleep in the evening (opening band Ra Ra Riot was freaking awesome btw). 

My photos from brunch are here. And Rachael has a few up as well.

Much love to my friends, family, fellow Drupallers, and the AB crew for making the day, and my life so full of awesome.

There are big things in store for me this year, I can feel it. (Some of them, you'll be finding out about sooner than later...) ;)

Lovely birthday portrait by the lovely Rachael

So first, a little catch up from before my last posts... back in June, I went to Saskatoon for a weekend to go to the wedding of one of my next door neighbours from where I grew up. The Sulatyski family lived next door to me my entire Saskatoon-life (plus a couple years after I moved to Vancouver), and are like my second family... sometimes I feel like I grew up more Ukrainian than any other culture!

The middle kid from the family, Markian, (who's a year older than me, on the right in the photo below) got married to his lovely now-wife Emily. The wedding was out on Emily's family's acreage outside the city. It was beautiful outside for the ceremony, and then right before dinner there was a CRAZY flash storm - pouring rain, wind, lightning... a big gust came up and tried to pick up the big party tent just like in one of those crazy home videos. Everyone jumped up and held down the tent for about a half hour till the storm passed. Lots of excitement, then it calmed down and we had a great evening.

I love, love, love seeing my old neighbourhood crew, I spent so many summers hanging out with these boys (Evan on the left is the youngest brother, and their cousin Chris is in the middle). I also got to see their older step-sister who I hadn't seen in well over a decade, and it was awesome catching up with her (especially because she convinced me to try and make it to Evan's wedding which was just last weekend, even though it was really close to getting back from my big summer trip).

Then, the end of July was completely absorbed with moving into my new place. That's right, no more West End Girl here... I've moved out to East Van and am loving it here. It's quiet, I have a ton of space, and am closer to friends (and really not much further from work). It's been a lot of work getting moved in here while not being home a lot this summer, but it's going to be a great place to be for the next while.

Then, a couple weeks after moving in, I took off for my first trip to Europe! I'll just start by saying it was as great as I could have hoped, and I now feel like a relatively competent overseas traveller.

The first place I went for a week and a half was Copenhagen (photos), where DrupalCon was held. I wanted to go last year to Paris, but then my boss was having a baby at the same time, so I decided to stay and help hold down the fort at work instead. So, this year was my year, and a huge bonus that it was in Copenhagen, which was somewhere I really wanted to go (after studying urban geography for so long).

It was a great city (as full of bikes as you can dream), and I stayed in a gorgeous apartment in the center of town that I rented with Scott, Sam, and Rok. Rok's girlfriend Tamara came for the first weekend as well, which was lovely as it was all of our first time meeting her. I had virtually no jetlag going over (probably largely thanks to splurging for an upgraded ticket on the way over), and had a great time wandering around the first few days.

DrupalCon was awesome as always - I went to the Core Dev Summit (which I'd missed when I went to San Francisco's DrupalCon in the spring, thanks to being sick), and it was one of my favourite parts of the trip. I got some traveler tummy halfway through the week, and missed the last day, but all in all it was absolutely fantastic. (You can read more about my DrupalCon adventure here if you are interested/nerdy.)

And I loved Copenhagen - good food, neat shops, really pretty city. It definitely had its own vibe and style - everyone was so sophisticated, well dressed, and the stereotype did hold true, a lot of tall, nordic, good looking people!

At the end of the trip, Scott, Sam, and I had to say goodbye to Rok, who was going back home, and we hopped on a train to our next destination: Berlin.

Berlin (photos) got off to a rough start when I left my backpack (containing my laptop, digital camera, prescription sunglasses, and medication) on the last leg of the train. Yes, really. I spent the first few days trying to see if I could find my bag, frustratingly trying to talk to the right people in german (thank dog I speak a little bit, as middle aged government service people there sure as heck don't speak much english). Luckily, all of the annoying trips back and forth to the train station, and phone calls of broken german proved worthwhile when on our last full day there I got my bag back! Go-go german lost and found system! 

The only thing missing was my little digital camera (and the photos I'd taken at the conference), as well as my cell phone's USB cable (which I believe the thief mistakenly took, thinking it belonged with the camera). Can you believe they took just that and not my laptop??? Me neither. I was so stoked to have the rest back that I was happy to cut my losses. My only guess is that they opened my laptop and saw it was password protected, and so left it alone... Needless to say, the rest of the photos in this post (and on Flickr) are all cell-phone photography. But I did have my film SLR with me as well, so there will be more to come when I get those developed.

That last day in Berlin was great - I did some shopping in Prenzlauer Berg, a hip area of the city north of the hostel we stayed at. Then after the second trip of the day to the other side of city, when I actually got my bag back, I took the "tourist" city bus line and saw a bunch of stuff, including the Berlinner Dome church, which I went inside. It was totally beautiful.

Aside from cool shopping and sights, I have to say, Berlin had by far the best Ariane-friendly grocery stores! It was amazing, all the grocers I went to were full of gluten-free this and dairy-free that. And omg the soy yogurt in Europe is DELICIOUS. They are doing it wrong over here. What I would give to be able to get that stuff here...

After Berlin, we had a final day of train rides - we didn't know ahead, but the last train was a crazy fast train! (Pardon Scott's head blocking the photo...) It did make me a bit nauseous compared to the normal trains, but we went up to 327km/hr!!!! SO FAST. SO COOL!!! Walking down the aisle when we'd go down any small hills, it felt like I was about to levitate. Glad I got to ride one afterall.

And our final destination was Paris (photos) for the last couple days before heading home. I think I have some more photos from there on my phone (can't download em without my cable, but S & S have a card reader when they get back from visiting Scott's brother out in New Brunswick), and on the film, but nothing too stellar other than photos from the plant shops near Notre Dame (which I kind of botched finding) for now. 

Paris is a huge city! The weather was fantastic there, and I had a great time wandering around while S & S were out sightseeing. Highlights were a private opera concert at night at the Louvre, delicious chocolate, talking to the owner of this great jazz/classical music shop, shopping, and eating at La Ferme (this delicious and really pleasant veg-friendly cafe I found my last day there).

The day of travel home and resulting jetlag was probably the worst part, so I can't complain. All in all, a fantastic and victorious first overseas trip, and bonus getting some quality time with some of my favourite friends and Drupallers from all over the world.

Finally, a couple weeks after getting back (and surviving a terrible but short-lived stomach flu), it was time for one last adventure out to Edmonton for Evan (youngest brother from next door) and Jaime's wedding. I am so, so, so glad that I went in the end. Sure, I was pretty wiped out, but dammit I love those guys, and it was so nice getting to spend some more time with them. Everyone stayed in the hotel there, so we saw a lot of each other, and didn't have to go running all over town (sidenote: parts of Edmonton seem pretty cool, I almost want to go back to explore). Can't believe my little brother-from-another-mother is a married man now, we're all grown up!

I also got to see his big sis, Elana, for the first time since she became a momma herself (right around when Markian's wedding was), she's a superstar, what can I say!

(And this last photo, I just thought was cool enough to post, taken the night before the wedding while we were hanging out watching the Riders game.)

This weekend, I finally get to myself, to rest and catch up some more on finishing my move-in. Next weekend is the last hurrah in the string of events that I've been working my way through, finally the much anticipated PNW Drupal Summit (which I've been helping a tiny bit with organizing). There's people coming from all over the PNW (Pacific Northwest) and further afield, and I've got three of my favourite Drupal gals coming to stay at the house for the weekend, so it should be a blast. (Oh, and also I'm co-presenting a session as part of my plan to conquer my fear of public speaking...eek!)

After that, no plans till Christmas, which makes me extremely happy! There will be lots of Drupalling, Crafternoons, regaining of social life, and other enjoyment, that is for certain. Life has been better lately, and I have a feeling more good things are on their way in the next little while... ;)

Last week I took a week off work for a little vacation. I spent the first weekend largely hanging out in East Van checking out Boris and Rachael's new place, catching up with Angie and Marci who just moved to the coast, and walking around on the Drive a bit during Italian Days. 

I hadn't made any terribly concrete plans about what I was going to do for the rest of the week, but had been feeling very deprived of road trips lately. I'm not a huge fan of driving distances by myself, so I settled on hopping on the train down to Seattle for a few days. It'd been about 12 years since I'd last taken the train (on the east coast), so I didn't completely know what to expect.

It was great! Aside from the errant screaming child, which I mostly blocked out with my headphones, I have to say it was one of the nicest modes of transport I've taken in ages. It was about 4 hours, and the scenery especially between Bellingham and Mt. Vernon where you go right along the water, was gorgeous. It was really relaxing, and I just brought my dinner, some reading, some knitting, and my laptop, and settled in. Bonus, it made me less motion sick than driving, flying, or ferries, so I arrived feeling good rather than tired and nauseous. Will definitely repeat. Some of the early evening scenery:

On Wednesday, I had lunch with some of my favourite people (Jennifer, Jared, Greg, and Katherine of the Seattle Drupallers) at a great little vegetarian restaurant that Jared recommended called Plum Bistro.

I spent a bunch of time Wednesday and Thursday meandering the Capitol Hill area, and then just relaxing. Thursday night, my lovely friend Amye drove up from Portland and joined me in Seattle for the night. Then Friday, we drove back up to Vancouver. 

Amye spoke at WordCamp on Saturday, while I went and poked around the farmers market (oh, how I missed it over the winter!), and then we had dinner with Boris and Rachael out at the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company. Their gluten-free crust ended up having yeast in it, so I didn't try it this time (maybe on a day my stomach is feeling hardy), but had their antipasto plate, which was delicious - I wish there had been more of the smoked ham and salami as they were very tasty.

Sunday morning I bid farewell to my roomie and got ready to get back to business! Sticking with a slower pace, and not trying to "do it all" made it actually quite a relaxing week, despite my usual stomach antics and packing a fair amount of visiting into it. All in all, a great little refreshing vacation!

What's that? Oh yes, that is the smell of sweet, sweet VICTORY!!! 

And just like that it's over. It's a small miracle that I actually made it to San Francisco for DrupalCon SF.  As I mentioned before, I caught the flu just over a week and a half before I was supposed to leave for the conference, and was SOOOOO sick. I got a fever, then the worst cough I think I've had since I was a kid.  My mom saved my ass and came out and stayed with me for a week, I hardly left my bed the entire time. She went back to Saskatoon about three days before I was supposed to leave for SF, but I was still pretty sick, and was about 5 days into a week of having lost my voice. Making the con did NOT look promising.

I had to get Ben (thank you again!) to help me change my plane ticket via a crazy Skype conference call (because I couldn't speak), and pushed it to Sunday, hoping that might give me enough time to recoup some energy. Going down Sunday meant missing my day and a half of tourist time, the Core Dev Summit, and the pre-con sprint day. But there was no way I was going anywhere Thursday, so I just had to come to grips with the situation.

Friday I still felt like crap. Saturday, I felt only marginally less crappy, but went out for a walk to test my stamina for possible airport-going the next day. The walk went okay, so I packed. I still wasn't at all sure going to bed Saturday whether I would feel well enough in the morning to go, but Sunday I woke up, didn't feel too terrible, and decided to go for it.

I went to the airport, and found Olly and Ben, who were on the same flight, and off we went!

The house I'd rented (photo c/o SteveK) for a big group of us was FANTASTIC. It was one level of one of those huge old SF houses, up near Alamo Square, and coincidentally the level above us had another group of DrupalCon-goers, including the lovely Katherine (ksenzee). It was a nice bonus sitting on the stoop having a chat the first night there. Over the course of the week, 9 PNW folks stayed at the house off and on, and it was lovely having such a nice home to settle into.

The place worked out great - big kitchen, lots of space, nice neighbourhood - and was conducive to lots of hang out time with everyone. I'm so glad that everyone who managed to stay with us did, as it was great getting some quality time in with some of my favourite geeks who I never get to see enough of. (This is half of the crew at the end of the week - for sure the funniest photo, tho Andy's kinda blocked, click through to see a few more.)

I managed to actually make it to about 3-5hrs of conference each day, which I think is pretty great, all things considered, but generally was way more low key than previous DrupalCons and crashed late afternoon, having to come back to the house for a nap. I didn't get out at all in the evenings to the code lounge, or any of the socials, but had a good time chilling out at the house, and made it to all the keynotes, a few BOF's (birds of a feather sessions, ie. smaller sessions for various niche topics), and a bit of the final Docs sprint. The Drupalchix BOF had an amazing turn out (we counted over a hundred attendees!), and it was great to meet a bunch more of the people I had yet to meet in person.

And of course, what really makes DrupalCon so important to me is getting to reconnect and spent a little quality time with all the awesome friends I've made who are scattered all over the globe (though sadly a few of them were victim of the ash situation over Europe and didn't make it). From the the PNW crew to friends from out East, to others from Europe who I only really see once a year, I can't even explain how much I love you people. You bring me a world of happy, and I feel so incredibly lucky to have found myself part of such a wonderful community and now also call many of you friends.

I arrived home today feeling much better than when I left, and realistically no more worn out than I've been at the end of previous DrupalCons! I still have a bit of residual sick, and certainly have a bit more recouperating to do, but things went as well as I could have possibly  hoped. I am sooooooooo glad I made it.

I want to say a special thank-you to everyone who sent me good vibes, cheered me on, gave me lots of hugs, and had my back making this trip under less than ideal circumstances. All of your offers to help me out if things didn't go well, bring me groceries when I was tired, and generally keep tabs on how I was doing, were what gave me enough peace of mind to take a bit of a risk and travel when I was still in a bit of a sketchy state.

Till next time...