My Night in the Snow.

As I sit here listening to Anthony Hamilton's new album (so good by the way), I thought I should write about my Saturday night.  It was a Saturday night like no other.  After leaving Jen's place around 10:30/10:40-ish, I began my drive home through the increasingly worsening conditions.  

To my peril I chose to take the road most travelled by and that my friends made all the difference.  I decided the best route to travel was Broadway to Granville and then Granville to Richmond via the Arthur Lang Bridge.  My logic was that although Granville would be busier than other routes, the sheer number of cars on the road would hopefully keep the snow from building up on the road and thus ensure a smoother ride home.  I was wrong.  Unfortunately the number of people who do not understand how to drive in treacherous conditions was unusually high on Granville and as a result I got stuck behind a number of cars at the worst possible places.  Eventually I had to concede to the snow and abandon my attempt to traverse the snowy hills of Vancouver.  At this point I pulled my car into a side street (West 29th to be exact), zipped up my vest, affixed my wool cap to my head, retrieved my gloves from the trunk, and began my long journey through the snow on foot.  Destination, East 7th & Fraser.

The first part of my journey on foot was actually enjoyable.  With music as my ally I jogged through the snow in an attempt to keep my core temperature up.  When not jogging, I found myself strutting through the snow to songs like Make my Day by Common and Cee-Lo.  I am sure that I gave the people in their cars a good laugh.  Anyways, upon reaching Broadway, I decided the best course of action was to either catch a cab or take a bus.  Thus I paid a visit to the Mac's on Hemlock to get some cash. 

After obtaining some cash, I enquired to man about the parked buses sitting on Broadway only to find out they were parked at least an hour earlier and we're not moving any time soon.   This led to a very boisterous rant about the poor state of public transportation in Vancouver and eventually a conversation with a very interesting man from Texas and young lady from England.  Eventually we decided to prudent thing to do was to head up Broadway to Fir and hail a cab, since we were all traveling in the same direction.  This turned out to be a fruitless endeavor and after spending 20 minutes on hold with Blacktop Cabs, we decided the best thing to do was to walk.

Now partially because my shoes were very slippery, but mostly because I did not feel like walking up the street in a pseudo Monkies arm in arm format, as the charmant english girl suggested, I allowed my new found companions to move on without me.  Upon reaching the Mac's on Hemlock once more I decided to sit down and think about my options.  I considered offering a stranger in an SUV money to drive me to my destination... but none came by.  Then I thought about waiting out the snow in Tim Hortons on Fir, but that would be far too boring.  Finally I reverted to my original plan of walking the rest of the way back to Jen's.  Onwards to 7th and Fraser then!

As I resumed my journey I noticed a girl in front of my dialing and re-dialing her phone, over and over again.  I quickly understood that she was attempting to reach a cab company; I quickly decided to crush her resilient spirit and causally recounted my failed attempt to get through to anyone for the past hour or so.  We resolved to walk on, together, through the snow and cold, hoping against hope to see a cab with its lights on.  And so we walked and along the way I learned quite a bit about my new companion.  She is a student, studying languages and literature, though with no expectations of working in that field upon graduation; she is a poet, not unlike myself and extremely interested in what the people in the world have to say; she is a traveller, spending the majority of her life growing up all over BC and Alberta; but most importantly, she is funny and kind and willing to spend her journey talking to a total stranger, in the hope that together we can make our journey that much more bearable.

Before we knew it, we had walked all the way to Main and Broadway.  And then we saw it, the most beautiful sight in the world; the angelic yellow glow from the top of an unoccupied cab.  We were able to wave him down and after a quick dusting off were in the back of a cab headed in the direction of our exclusive directions.  Upon reaching Fraser and Broadway, I said goodbye to my new friend and disembarked on the rest of my journey to 7th.  Albeit, somewhat diminished as I realized the cold night air had killed one of my headphones during my tumultuous journey.

West 29th and Granville to East 7th and Fraser... what an epic journey.