Vancouver

I'm in Canada!  I came North yesterday to attend a blogger convention hosted by my friend Suzanne. I met Suzanne in New York a few months ago; she has an exceptional blog and is a sweet person.

From what I've seen so far, Vancouver is a hip place with lots of fun boutiques and cool restaurants. The city is surrounded by water so everything feels like waterfront property. And there are mountains! You can see mountains from any spot in the city. Toto, we're not in New York any more.

I arrived a day early to spent solo-time with my friend Jodi. Jodi also has a blog and I've always wanted to meet her. Aren't there bloggers whom you wish you knew in real life? Jodi's one of those. She's a marathon athlete who competes in incredible events like running 50 miles, then swimming 100 miles, then bicycling 500 miles. She and her boyfriend are always training or competing and they look as fit as Olympians.

Jodi grew up in rural Canada with two brothers and she enjoys outdoor life. As a little girl, she split logs and hauled heavy loads. In fact, it's been only recently that Jodi started exploring her feminine side. That may be why we hit it off -- we connect with that experience. As strong and confident as Jodi was in normal life, she felt uneasy and insecure when first wearing feminine clothes. That's why she started her blog: to learn and improve. Her ability to dress well got better quickly and she now impresses you in either mode. There's certainly a parallel between Jodi's experience with femininity and mine -- we both explored it in adulthood.

Today, before the convention starts, Jodi promised to take me on a hike through the beautiful parts of Vancouver. I'm looking forward to it -- but apprehensive that a "hike" might mean something different to Jodi (a marathon athlete) than me (a aging New Yorker). At some point when my sneakers start to melt, my legs get wobbly and we pass Mile 42 of our journey, I might cry uncle. I'll try not to whine because I can be unexpectedly macho when it comes to stuff like this, but I'll surely collapse in a puddle before Jodi breaks a sweat. Oh, well... at least we'll have a good chat.  :-)