Maybe a little discouraged

Thank goodness summer is back! People are back on the beach, but unfortunately they don't seem that interested in lemonade. It was a pretty slow day yesterday, there weren't that many people at the beach and I only made about $30. I was feeling pretty paranoid about not having a permit, so I called the GVRD in the morning to find out what's what. She told me that it is too late to get a permit for this year because it takes 3-4 weeks of processing. But she broke down the cost for me: $100 for the vendors permit that is good for 3 years, $25 for a different permit that has to be renewed each year, $200 "performance" deposit that you get back as long as you don't get any tickets (read: follow the rules) or lose your ID and whatever it costs to get the food safe certificate. At least I know for "next time." So yesterday, when I went down, I didn't bring my trailer down, thinking that it's a little conspicuous. I knew it was going to be a slow day so I hadn't brought that much lemonade and only two bags of ice, so I managed to carry everything down in one trip. And of course, a nice young man asked if he could help. Soon after I got there, I ran into chip guy, Dan, and he said the GVRD were on strike. I had thought of that and checked online (the City of Vancouver employees are striking right now) and couldn't find anything that said they were, so I was surprised that he said that. I totally got my hopes up and asked how he knew...he didn't really KNOW per say, but had been told by one of the officers that she was pretty sure there was a "vacation" coming up. I felt bad hoping that the strike would last all summer, but it was all for naught because they aren't striking. However, they did not come to the beach yesterday and that was nice. The only weird thing that happened is that I think an old guy took some pictures of me. He had told me that I have a beautiful body earlier while he was buying lemonade, and then later when I went back to my stuff, he returned the cup and sat down on a log nearby. At some point I looked over and I saw that he had a camera, kind of hiding in his pants that he had pulled out of his bag. I said "are you taking pictures of me?" And he said, "no, no, I'd like to, but I didn't." I'm pretty sure he did, and I'm pretty sure that if I had made a scene about it, someone would have come and made him erase the pictures if not destroy his camera. I guess I didn't really feel the need to make a scene about it. But it still creeped me out.
This morning, after the mandatory episode of Heroes (it has me in it's grip!), I picked up another case of lemons. I didn't juice them all, just a gallon, but it looks like it will be my best case yet. I carried my stuff down again today, but I had to do two trips. I guess I could have asked someone to help me, but I didn't really mind the extra trip...it just made me stronger! I dug a nice hole to put the jug in, to try to keep it cool. Besides getting pretty dirty, I think it works pretty well. Maybe next time I'll bring a trowel. But then something happened to me...I just felt really paranoid and unsure. The cops were down there but they hadn't hassled me before...I don't know, maybe it's just the knowledge that I'm not completely legit (even though I don't agree with why I'm not), in fact I'm not legit at all. So I spent a lot of time chatting and suntanning. I've now had two people tell me that they are world famous but no one here knows about them (James E. Boyd is an artist that is apparently quite famous in Europe and a guy, whose name I'm forgetting, says he's a famous comic book artist/writer: Fog City Comics from the '70s). Norman, the pizza guy, told me that I don't really have to worry about the GVRD guys, that as long as you don't sell right in front of them you'll be ok. Maybe it was the "build a case against you" idea that has me all in a tizzy. It was a lovely day at the beach but I couldn't seem to shake the jittery feeling. I only made $37, which is really only $10/hr.
It was nice to talk to so many people, I got a lot of new names today. There is this one young guy who is there most every day, always by himself, who spends a lot of time practicing some sort of martial art. He walked by me when I was packing up and introduced himself. James. I gave him some free lemonade since I was going home anyways.
At the top of the stairs one of the beer sellers was going to resupply and asked me how business was. I told him it was slow and he said that Wreck is really a beer drinking beach, but that people need something besides beer, too. He was encouraging. I think the regulars are starting to like me...except for this one old, leathery man who scoffs at me, even when we passed each other on the stairs.
Oh, and a lady came up to me today asking if I knew of any good clubs or strippers in Vancouver. I'm not really into the scene, I said. So she asked about massages. I told her to look in the Georgia Straight (local weekly).
And, one of the local ladies is looking, and I'm assuming it was for someone else, for someone, a pretty young woman, who likes to spend time at the beach, eat BBQ meat and drink beer. She thought it was me, but I told her I wasn't willing to become single. So, if you meet that description, and you're looking to meet someone, let me know, I can hook you up.