Vancouver, Revisited

A year ago, if you had told me I'd be going to Vancouver in 2010, I would have easily believed you.  If, at that same time, you told me I'd be going to Vancouver TWICE in 2010, I would have laughed at you, and thought of it as wishful thinking.  It wasn't until July that talk about Vancouver in September was brought up, but when there was even the possibility of it, I was in.

See, in April, I came up because a couple of friends were participating in a curling event, and it was a great excuse to visit my friend who lives here, and finally see this great city in the north that I'd heard so much about.  I loved my time here, and told myself that I'd come back the next chance I got.

Little did I know how soon that chance would be.  My aforementioned friends both work in the entertainment industry, and both shows they work on are filmed here in Vancouver.  One of the shows is hitting it's 200th episode, and as such is throwing a party that my friends were going to.  I saw an opportunity to come back to the city, and I took it.  I'm now attending this party, which is an added and awesome bonus to the trip, as is set visits!  I'm rather excited.

I don't care about Hollywood in LA.  In Vancouver, however, I get giddy.  A lot of sci-fi is filmed here, and I love sci-fi.  So yes, I geek out a bit, and I'm okay with that.

The area near my friend's apartment is very, very different late at night than it is during the day.  Walking from the SkyTrain station, suitcase in tow, I passed a guy on a corner on his back, looking to be passed out.  People were around him and debating what to do.  I kept walking, thinking I should come back for a slice of pizza, as he was on the ground in front of a pizza joint.  So, I greeted my friend, dropped off to bed, and went and got a slice of pizza.  The guy was gone, but I'm pretty sure he was the rather belligerently drunk man I passed who wanted to start something with me for no reason other than he was drunk.

Lastly, one of the Smallville cast was on my plane.  I saw Justin Hartley and a woman (who I presumed to be his wife) at the incredibly short LAX security line (walk up, have ID/boarding pass verified, walk to scanner type of short...), and then got a closer look when I passed them a few minutes later and overheard him say the same gate number as mine.  My last trip to Vancouver I was on a plane with a guest star on the show, and then when I went to Scotland I was in the terminal with the showrunner.  That leaves my May trip to Vegas as the only trip in the last four that didn't have someone from Smallville associated with it.  Strange.

The song challenge is over, but I think I'm still going to have a song of the day.  Some days it will just be me stating the song, and others I'll feature it a bit more prominently.  Today's song is "Burning in the Skies" by Linkin Park.  Off their latest album, "A Thousand Suns", it was the song playing on my new iPod nano when I had to turn it off for landing at YVR (Vancouver airport).

NanoNano.