Free Stuff

So, on Sunday I got a bit of a surprise when I ventured out to the cheap Broadway produce stores in search of fresh veggies with which to cook up a bunch of delicious meals for the week. Broadway was closed to traffic as, apparently, it was Greek Day. And there were lots of vendors in the street. If this Greek Day is any indication, I'm pretty sure that Greece is a country full of nothing but restaurants, as pretty much every vendor there was selling food. And there were TONNES of people out, despite the fact that it was on and off raining the whole time. Weaving my way around the slow moving crowds on my quest for produce¹, I spied a non-food booth. And at this booth you could apply for a Vancity Enviro VISA⁴. And, as it so happens, I was in the market for a Vancity Enviro VISA. I recently switched from the bank I'd been at for years (I've only kept my student loan accounts there) to Vancity, as I really do feel that I'm more of a credit union kind of girl. And I'd been meaning to apply for one of their Enviro VISAs (5% of the profits go to environmental projects), but what with all the optometrist visits/dentist visits⁵/softball games/climbing of mountains⁶/etc., I hadn't quite gotten around to it. So I talked to the woman at the booth and she was like, "fill out this application form and I'll give you a bunch of free stuff." And you know how I feel about free stuff! As hard as I try to avoid my pack rat tendencies, I can't turn down freebies. So, for signing up for a VISA that I was planning to sign up for anyway, I got:

• a baseball cap - it's plain black with the words "Vancity Enviro VISA" in small red letters on the side (very subtle)... and I needed a new baseball hat!
  
• a ruler with a calculator in it - who couldn't use one of those?
  
• a water bottle - you can never have enough water bottles, imho
  
• a free pen - I don't believe in buying pens... people are always giving them away for free to advertise something or another, so buying pens seems crazy to me.
  
• another, even cooler free pen - this one is made from biodegradable plastic and biodegradable ink and when you are done with the pen you plant it in the ground and IT GROWS INTO A TREE 'cuz there is a seed inside!!⁷

So, that's my story about the free stuff.

In other news, I'm still sick. I was coughing and sneezing all freakin' day at work. I'm pretty sure that I must have the plague. Or possibly Ebola. Or possibly plague-infested Ebola viruses.

¹OK, I admit it. Produce and shoes. I bought a pair of "pewter" ²coloured flats³ at the Shoe Warehouse. Adorable!

²Not "silver", but "pewter". 'cuz there is *such* a difference!

³That's right, I said "flats." I was able to overcome my love of 27 inch heels and buy a pair of flats. For variety.

⁴I have *no idea* what Vancity has to do with Greek Day.

⁵oh ya, in case you were wondering, it turns out, as Dave so wisely predicted, I do not have oral cancer. In case you were worried.

⁶Crap. It just occurred to me that I never blogged about my recent trip up the Grouse Grind. Here I am writing about applying for a freaking VISA card (*yawn*) and neglecting to mention that I climbed a mountain that is 1.5X the height of the CN Tower. D'oh! Anyhoo, I climbed Grouse Mountain on Friday! Pictures to follow, hopefully... unless I forget to blog it again. I swear, I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached!

⁷sure, I'm a renter and will be for the forseeable future and so have place to plant a tree. But no matter! Minor details! I love my tree pen!