1/9/2024

Angela’s footprints at Ashlu Falls, Summer 2023.

We’re getting ready for what’s (likely) going to be the coldest week this Winter will present to us here in Vancouver and Squamish. I don’t talk much on the internet about how when I work in film, I spend most weeknights sleeping in my van somewhere hidden in the city. I caught myself for a brief moment thinking how this week is going to be a challenge, the forecast for Thursday night hitting a low of -11 around Vancouver (colder at home in Squamish). Then I remembered how I’m considering the challenge of sleeping in a locked, secure vehicle, swaddled in clean, fresh clothes, a mountain of blankets to keep me warm. Is it cold? Sure, but I’m also literally making an internet post from a computer tethered to a phone sitting in my van right now.

Keeping my own challenges in perspective is difficult sometimes. Many of my goals and dreams don’t often line up with reality, but so many of them do. Q-Tip in A Tribe Called Quests’ Mr Incognito summed it up perfectly: Ride, Crib, Mutt, Wife. I’m trying be grateful for those things and while it’s cold this week sleeping in my relatively unfinished camper van, there’s so many folks who don’t have the privilege of making choices that keep them safe and out of the elements.