Letters to Vancouver

FROM THE DESK OF G. MANGO

Dearest Vancouver,

Give me a break already. What have I ever done to you? Except for that time in 2002 when I said Toronto was way better than you, and that your mountains were kinda lame. But I was young and foolish, and that was before we were well-acquainted with each other. And I have apologized countless times for it. I know for a fact that you still have that cute little apology card I made for you stuck to the front of your fridge with a magnet that says "Go West, young mango."

So let's just call it even, and you can let me know at least some kind of stable success while I live in your borders. Or else I might have to move to Calgary. And you don't want that to happen, now do you?

Sincerely,

G. Mango

More of the Change

Here's a little taste of what I've been doing with my life.

• Left the soulless temp job where I got detention for being late.

• Temporarily relieved myself of my little white car, Snowball, in protest of the ridiculous, ever-increasing cost of the juice to make her go.
  

• Sublet* my loverly apartment to a relative stranger.

• Moved to a small island of the coast of BC to get paid to play on a tire swing, tell stories, and go to the skate park with Mama Bear's two little girls for a couple hours a day.

• Wondered how I overlooked the fact that this small island has no internet access, shops, roads, or other coloured folk when I agreed to take the job.

• Cut my losses, and called it a cross-cultural learning-experience.
  

• Flew to Toronto for one of my weeks off, supposedly to surprise my sister for her birthday, but mostly for the plentiful internet access and coloured folk.
  

And you?

~ g.mango loves watching two-year olds on skateboards.

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* What is the past tense of sublet? Sublot? Sublight?