I'm ready for the summertime

It's family day in this great province and with the unseasonably lovely weather, the long weekend seemed even better. MC and I decided to wander around the city exploring. We headed near the water and came across this 'beach'. It's no ocean beach, in fact it's not even a lake beach but it was spectacular. 

I long for the summer. I can already picture beach chairs and coolers in the court yard. Is it June yet?

I also caught up with an old University friend that sent me this song. His DJing puts him in tune with some sweet songs and this is currently one of my favs:

Trip to Venice Beach soon, please. 

February, 2012 (Oh, What a Night)

Friday night started in a cab jetting from Trinity Bellwoods to Roncesvalle with AK to take a few photographs for her latest venture. I spent the beginning of the evening enjoying several delicious cocktails at The Westerly—the first, a half tart, half sweet blood orange concoction (the owners suggestion) and the second, a glass of Pim’s Cup (which will forever remind me of JB) and soaking in the New York- like vibe. A few photographs and about 3 hours later, it was back to reality and a walk to the Queen St. streetcar.

I’ve been venturing past my 7 block radius much more as of late. It’s easy to stick in this area. There's lots of shops, great food and work is right there (I can almost see it from where I am sitting). So, after an invitation to the other side of the world (ok, it was to Bier Markt on the Esplanade) it was back to the street car at 10pm. We arrived to find that none of the friends that were supposed to be there actually went. Let the random night commence: new friends, old friends, dance parties and beer (or is it bier?). 3:11am street car home.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day (4am bedtime has never really worked out that well for me.) Saturday night made up for what I didn't do during the day. MC, AK and I headed to Yours Truly for dinner without reservations hoping to snag a few seats at the communal table. We ended up at BQM (an Ossington staple) for burgers instead. We rushed to The Mod Club for 8pm to see our friend CB in the band The Set play. A great show, a very small amount of dancing (the kids these days don’t dance at pop-rock-punk shows anymore, I guess) and one drink later we headed to Crawford on College. Greatest DJ, ever.

I strolled home at midnight, thinking it would be an early night but after a text from AM (who is rarely in the city) I managed to pull my tired self out of my bed and walk over to Bovine Sex Club (note: this is not a typical dancing club nor a place to have sex… that I was witness to anyway) for a drink with AM and his buddy. I have walked by this place everyday since moving to my new place and thought it looked like a shady bar with weird stuff hanging off the outside (it is). We then walked to The Horseshoe, another Queen W. “staple” that looks super shady and that I have never been to. After lots of stories and a random encounter with a band member that recognized AM from Hollywood (sorry, who are you?) we made a last minute trip to the newest Hero Burger (open 24 hours!) and a walked home at 3:30am. Another (great) late night.

This finally brings us to Sunday (this weekend has been splendidly long and hence the Oh What A Night title choice) which included some story editing at Starbucks and another streetcar/ subway combo to make it up to Younge and Eglinton for a Second City comedy class comedy show. It was very funny and I’m completely impressed that they all did so well. I fear mine would like a little like Dee from It's Always Sunny. 

I think I spent all of my money going back and forth on some form of TTC transportation this weekend. Perhaps I should have splurged for a transit pass this month? Tomorrow is Family Day(!) in Ontario and I will be celebrating Monday by sleeping in, eating the banana bread that is currently in the oven, finishing A Good Year, starting The Hunger Games and going on a mini-walking adventure around the (what I imagine will be) closed city. Every weekend I love this city more and more.

Adventure time!

It's all coming together

Get on your dancing shoes...

I came across the Dancing Plague of 1518 tumblr a few days ago and I think it's safe to say that I am obsessed.

My personal favourites from the collection:

I want these for my wall!

Ghost Chairs (What Chairs?)

The joys of having your birthday and Christmas/ the holiday season fall around the same time is that you get 'joint' gifts. I used to hate (hate in the dramatic child-like 'I hatteeee this' kind of way) it. Now I see the benefits!  Cue, my new happybirthdaymerrychristmas chairs:



Wait...what chairs? (If you're thinking that's a dad joke, you're very much correct.)


I have been coveting these chairs for ages. They are in all the shops along Queen W (right outside my door) but I hadn't had a chance to take my happybirthdaymerrychristmas money to the store. Last weekend, I went for it. I paid, and carried them myself down Queen St. W. Surely I should have asked if they did home delivery but I was too excited to wait.

I have never spent so much time in my 'kitchen area' (this is funny because my apartment is about the size of a child's shoebox). I love them. A lot. And, look at this:

If they're good enough for Blair Waldorf, they're good enough for this 'dorff!

Rainy Tuesday; Sick in Bed

I had all intentions of posting much more in January, yet with my lack of personal internet and the WLAN (my 'borrowed' building internet) cutting out at a exponential rate as of late, I just didn't. So mark my words: January 17th is the start of real blogging... yet again!

Let me catch you up on a few things I've missed since posting pre-New Years:

'90s dance party! I forgot how different the parts of this city can be. A few friends from undergrad decided to venture out and check out a bar that all of us had heard of, yet none of us had been: Clintons. I'm fairly convinced we will, at some point, end of on their facebook page as they took a picture of us and said "this won't end up on the internet"... hmm... I'm pretty sure that's what they all say! Ultra awesome night that ended with burritos. Can't beat that! 

The true realization that I love this city. I spent one day last weekend exploring more North of where I live with MC (my former roommate from Uni). I've been here a few months and haven't even stepped foot that way, so I figured a long walkabout was in order. It's not New York or London, but it's pretty amazing. 

Nerd stuff: I started taking a fabric dying class. I've always had this strange attraction to textile, so when I was flipping through a course catalogue and saw it was available I jumped right on it. I've been to one class and so far it's pretty neat. I want to learn how to dye over already dyed fabrics. It's pretty exciting (it's not just me right?)! I initially was looking for an art class, but the one that peaked my interest was abstract painting and the class had a waiting list longer than the amount of people in the actual class, so that didn't really pan out for me. Next term! This sort of makes me wish I had saved up and went to Parsons like I had once dreamed. Le sigh. One day! 

The Raptors! I was working a bit later than usual on Friday night and ended up scoring 4 tickets to the Raptors game... in the exclusive/ executive/ whatever the fancy section is called. Hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, beer... oh my! 

I'm watching National Geographic Inside The Milky Way, now. It's blowing my mind. I'm still in bed, feeling mediocre at best.

Come on vitamins... do your thing!  

The season of gifting (and other stories)

I've been haphazardly posting these last few months. Pinky swear they will be coming much more frequently (pending my 'borrowed' internet doesn't cut out) in the next little while. 

Even though I mentioned I was finally settled, turns out I'm still missing a few key things like a way to change my front hall closet light... and maybe some light bulbs and tongs that don't melt when you put them in hot oil (oops). Other than that, I'm basically set. It feels so good!

This past weekend I was out looking for 2 important gifts (for my little sisters)-- you'd think they'd be easy to buy for, but they are not. I've come up with a few great ideas, but I still haven't purchased them. Last minute shopper, indeed. But I did stop into the Gap and managed to score these sweet boots:

Sincere apologies for the horrific BB quality of these photos lately (the boots shot included), my camera is out of batteries and I haven't re-charged them yet. But I digress-- these were on the 40% off sale, and were already on sale, so I ended up with beautiful boots for very little. Happy Birthday to me!

Cleaning supplies and vitamins aside, I only bought myself one other gift-- a birthdaynewsyears dress! This crazy, tight, black with mesh dress... with fringe. Unreal.

It's like Morticia Addams meets a Pterodactyl and I love it. So. Much. Fringe. Oh, and a crown. Because I'm a true believer that it doesn't matter how old you are, you can always wear a crown on your birthday.

So this is the week-- the final week before I really really need to buy those presents. Online shopping for gifts commences in ...5...4...3...2...1

 Why am I so late minute this year? Just me?