I just got back from three days of working in Vancouver with my husband. This is part of our unjobbing project... I now work only two days a month, and he works 12, only three days a week. Our goal is to not work outside the house at all, but for now we go across to Vancouver from the island and it works great.

We do cleaning, and I saw these amazing multi-million dollar homes that could be in a magazine (and probably were). Some of these were green built homes that obviously were very eco-conscious, including water and energy saving devices and sustainable materials. I learned for the first time that a good water saving toilet still uses 1.6 gallons of water (a gallon!) which makes want to avoid flushing the toilet as much as possible. Sorry family. I can't wait until we get a composting toilet. These houses were massive and elegant. In the same day we were riding the bus and the skytrain downtown and saw all walks of life and all kinds of people. I saw the worst poverty, children begging in the street and people living in tarps on the sidewalk, and hotels that sell by the hour and had young oriental girls standing in front of them. I'm not sure if the middle class really exists any more because poverty really is so extreme. If you have fresh running water in your home, you should count yourself wealthy.

My husband took me out to a nightclub for the first time because (1) we had never been dancing and I love dancing and (2) I've never been to a nightclub and it's important to try new things. We are both not good dancers and we looked ridiculous but it was so much fun. I enjoy watching people, and so I spent lots of time just observing. We were the only ones not drinking and it struck me how the young people of today get their kicks by bombarding all of their senses at once with the maximum they can handle. The music was insanely loud, there were bright laser lights and strobes, movies playing on the wall, the alcohol and a mass of people all squished together. Why do people feel the need to overload their systems now? In the past young people got their kicks from similar things, but at a much lower level.

The highlight of our trip was that we went to the Corteo show of Cirque du Soleil. It wasn't going to be in Vancouver much longer and I've wanted to go ever since I was a kid and wanted to run away and join the circus. Being a lucky homeschooled child, my dad built me a tightrope and they found a unicycle at a garage sale and I took gymnastics and had all kinds of fun that way. But I never did get to run away with the circus (although I'm not saying I never will). I've been to two circuses in my life, Ringling Bros., and Circus Gatti (which can't really be called a circus), and Cirque du Soleil blows them away. You are paying for everything that you ever wished a circus could be when you were a kid, and it's well worth it.