Be It Resolved

I am at a bit of a crossroads in my life. Being unemployed has really affected me in a way I did not expect. I'm also having issues with my car that are really upseting me. My dad is pressuring me to get a new car, but that will mean I need to get collision on my insurance, and rates will obviously go up. I'm not ready for that. I've also always driven a beater so it will be a difficult adjustment.

I'm going to see my aunt tomorrow. She has moved to the rehab wing of her hospital and they are going to push her until she has physically recovered from her injury. If she does well she'll be able to go back to her current retirement home and carry on with her life as usual. I hope she can recover because that is the life I want for her. She's a smart cookie, and needs the intellectual stimulation.

I'd like to start setting some new goals for myself. I have so much free time (obviously), but I'm not being productive enough. I'd like to see myself:
1) Work out for at least 15 minutes every day. Even if it's just going for a walk around my neighbourhood.
2) Complete at least 10 pages from my correspondence course.
3) Read at least 30 pages from any leisure book.
4) Apply to at least 3 jobs a day.
5) Clean at least one area of my house, or complete one cleaning task.

If I don't get my act in gear I'm going to lose my apartment and my independent lifestyle. Moving back home would be crushing but I'm running out of choices. This is actually the longest I have ever stayed in one place. Just two years, but it has grown on me, a lot.

Oh no I didn't

Nikki: I'm going to go fishing for a little bit.
Julie: Are you going to use Master Bait? No wait...what's it called?
Nikki: Power Bait...it's called Power Bait.
Julie: Ummm, right, that stuff.

Get Your Stinking Paws Off Of Me

I went to the movies yesterday with Adam to see the new Planet of the Apes movie. I'm so out of touch, I hadn't even heard of it. I quite liked it. I don't think I've seen the Wahlberg version, but either way this one was good. I said to Adam it was probably even better since it was free. Before I left my last job I got a little thank you card for a really long project being wrapped up and with the card came a movies for 2 + drinks + popcorn coupon. That's pretty decent, because all in that would be $40-$50 and we got it for free.

I've been applying to jobs like mad but not hearing anything back. I need to change something because how this is right now isn't working out for me, not one bit.

I'm going up north with Nik this weekend. I might stop into the hospital to visit my Great Aunt. She's been having some health problems, and then on top of that she took a fall and busted her hip and wrist. Then it's a nice long weekend at the cottage. Hopefully the weather holds up for some nice outdoor enjoyment. I want to finish up the Atwood book I'm into now, and then I also picked up Anthem by Ayn Rand. I think it's supposed to be a prequel to Atlas Shrugged. It's a quick 100 page read, compared to the brutal 1050 page read that was Atlas Shrugged. Maybe next January I'll do the same thing and pick a really long book that would otherwise be slightly too intimidating.

I've been keeping busy. Coffee at Cherry Beach, drinks at Jaks, dinner at Futures. I'm trying my best to keep money outtake to a minimum, but it's tough. Once summer is up, I think I might go into hertmitude until I have an income again. Wahn. I'm also going to focus on the best possible way to go on the cheap for food. I'll just have rice every day. 3 times a day. Yum.

TV is officially gone. I watched tv earlier this week for the first time in months. I can't be too upset about the switch to HD. I could imagine I still have free-to-air and there would be no difference. I am upset that my tv which says "HDTV" on it doesn't have a tuner. But again, I'm not too bothered.

Anyways, toodles.

Fill In This Blank: F--- --U

http://www.torontotaxpayer.ca/Contests/Fill-In-The-Blanks

Tell The Toronto Tax Payers Coalition why you support Tax Cuts, and win a chance to have lunch with Doug Ford of Sun Media journalist Sue-Ann Levy.

My Submission
The only reason I would want to win would be to embarrass Councillor Ford by not showing up.

With a 774 million dollar shortfall for next year's budget how could tax cuts even be up for consideration. Maybe before you start down this road you guys should all get together and count out how many libraries you will need to close to support any more cuts.

I left a good job in Calgary and came back to Toronto because I love this city. And now I am considering leaving again because you are tearing out its heart and soul. Tax cuts might as well translate directly into services cuts, because that is what is going to happen.

Doug Ford makes me sick. Sun Media makes me sick. And this is a gross attempt to measure up to the free lunch with Margaret Atwood or Michael Ondaatje. Guess what, the library's lunch offer is way better.

Ten Bucks And A Headstart

I just got back earlier this week from a trip up north. Dom and I started with a long weekend at the cottage, and then headed north from there. Destination: Kenora, ON. I have a friend from Calgary that lives there, and another gf from Calgary was having a small family reunion so I took the opportunity to turn it into a reunion of our own.

Monday we headed towards Wawa, stopping only at the Big Nickel in Sudbury (and for gas and food). We actually brought a small cooler of food to start and save on money. But after the first day our use of pre-bought food dropped. I had a sandwich on day two, but it was pretty nasty. By day three the whole cooler and all of its contents smelled of rotting sandwich meat. We defaulted back to crackers and licorice for on-the-road sustinance. The second night we stayed in Ignace which was no big todo. They had not much to do, and a place with overpriced burgers. Who charges $6 for a burger, and then $4 for fries and coleslaw, and then another $2 for a soda. A place that should be considered a big old boony rip-off is who.

Wednesday morning we headed towards the Manitoba border. I mistakenly thought the border entrance had a big old Manitoba province cut-out, but that was at the MB-SK border. We stopped at the two tourist centres. I asked the Ontario guides if there were any cool falls along the way. They pointed out Kakabeka Falls, but we had already caught a glimpse from the hwy on the way through. They said no, but the answer should have been "I don't know." I found out a day or so ago there was a falls right next to a town we stopped to eat in. http://gowaterfalling.com/waterfalls/aguasabon.shtml Nothing earth shattering, but I would have liked to have seen it. Oh well. Don't know if I'll be up there again any time soon, or ever again.

Kenora was a blast. I went out for dinner with Jenn on Wednesdsay, and then the three girls got together on Thursday night, and Dom came with. We stopped at DQ and then hung out in Jenn's basement for a while. She's staying with a friend in a really nice house. She also gave us a quick driving tour of Kenora, including the "Bermuda Triangle" which turned out to be a small patch of grass maybe 10-12 feet on each side of the triangle. A supposedly very troubled patch of grass.

On the drive back Dom and I stopped again in Wawa and on the way down made a few stops at some pretty lake side parks. Old Woman Bay, and Katherin's Cove were the two stops we made. I had taken notice of Katherine's Cove on the way up and noted the name for a Southern stop. The rock beaches were just gorgeous, and we happened across this neat inukshuk. There were actually two, but this one was just perfectly proportionate, and stunning (in my opinion). Then it was back into the car just in time to miss the start of the rain. And it rained almost all the way back to the cottage. It felt good to do almost nothing on Sunday. I even took a mid-afternoon nap while Dom prepared a delicious pasta sauce from scratch for us.

And that was that. Back to life. And really, it's time to get a job.

Turn And Face The Strange

Where does the time go? First it was week one of unemployment, and then week 2, and then I stopped counting and here we are. I just got back last Friday from a great 5 day Muskoka experience. Adam had 5 friends come up from NY (1 American & 4 Germans) to stay at a cottage on Mary Lake. In the end there were 10 people staying there. We had to keep going into town because we needed at least two 2-4s of beer each day. And of course top ups of liquor for shots in drinking Jenga. We even turned the innocent game of Uno into a drinking game. Good times. And I've connected with some old friends and made some new ones!

I forgot to mention last time that I hit up the Eric Bachmann show with Sim & Spence and two of their friends. It was back at the beginning of July at the Horseshoe. We got there nice and early and got a great front row seat. The crowd was a bit smaller than I anticipated. I thought it would be jam packed sold out, because EB is absolutely phenomenal.

I'm leaving tomorrow for another small journey. Dom and I are going up north to the cottage, and then taking a roadtrip up to Kenora. It's going to be a heck of a drive but it's doable. If we push for Marathon like my last trip maybe we can make a go of it. I think this would be a prime chance to use my new GPS!

Also, I took a snap of an old photo. I thought for a while about which social media medium to use and blogger won.

I've also been working on cleaning up around here. I feel like I've accomplished a lot but when I turn around it's still overwhelming. I sent my great aunt a picture of my place today, but from several months ago. I was inspired by the clear surfaces from that image to get my act in gear. Maybe when I'm done, and back from tripping around, I'll have a little party? That's always a better idea than turns out in practice.

Hello!

It has been a long while. I've been a bad blogger, if I can even call myself that. A lot has changed since my posting. I'm now unemployed. I'm into week two. I have good days, full of productivity, and then I have slack days filled with back to back episodes of shows I have already watched in full. I'm hoping I can take the last few hours of today and turn it into a good day.

I made some chili yesterday, and I think I'll be eating chili for the next week, and that's with having put two ziploc containers full in the freezer. The reason it's ok is because each meal will probably come in at about $2-$3 a plate. It actually felt good to do some bulk cooking, though I was sweating up a storm. It's just batshit crazy hot in here sometimes. I can't even wash the dishes without breaking a sweat, let alone cook a meal. The only time it becomes slightly bearable is when a breeze comes through the front window, and I feel slightly alive again.

I've made a little something of my "time off". Last Thursday I went to the zoo with Jackie and Kyle, which was fan-tas-tic! It was great exercise, and the animals are all so cute. And it was nice to see the elephants before they're shipped away for good. I've been out to see two movies: The Hangover 2, Horrible Bosses. Both were pretty good. I have a coupon I've been trying to use up, and I think Adam and I are going to see Midnight in Paris some night soon. From the sounds of it, and Adam's review from seeing it once already, it is like an adaptation of A Moveable Feast, but told from a different POV. I went for a swim at my parent's house - and I might make a bit more of a habit doing that, because it's such an amazing feeling when it's so hot out.

I've had two major road raging incidents lately. First time I was driving up Church, and I stopped to let someone parallel park. They were taking a bit longer than normal, but lately I've been thinking about how terrible it is to park in traffic, so if I can stop while someone swings in and give them 10 seconds of not worrying about hitting a passer-by I'll do it. This a-hole Canada Post truck behind me starts honking as the parking car is readjusting into my lane. What am I supposed to do?? Drive into the on-coming traffic lane? I could have but I didn't want to so, STFU. When the car finally pulled in I went, and gave the CP drive a queen wave out the window. He sped up and as soon as possible slammed passed me in the right lane yelling out of his open door, as I proudly gave him the finger. He then sped back into my lane, and took a left turn just north of Wellesely almost taking out some crossing pedestrians. When he did that I knew he had some major anger issues. I know I have issues of my own, but waving a finger and almost taking out pedestrians are fairly far spread on the road rage anger spectrum, in my opinion at least. Then yesterday I was dropping Adam off, and as I waited to make my left turn traffic behind me was forced to pile up. Not really my problem. I'm not going to take a left that I feel is unsafe just because someone behind me is inconvenienced for an extra 10 seconds. Finally traffic southbound ended and just as the last car was about to pass me, the cabbie behind me honked. I hadn't even had a chance to turn my wheels and he was bloody honking at me. I went right away, but I also screamed out my window "I'M FUCKING GOING." Hopefully his window was down as well. It's just getting worse and worse to drive these days. While I was still working I was taking the QEW home one night, and the speed of traffic was 90km along the Kipling collectors stretch. This crazy woman comes up behind me and then starts throwing her arms up in the air in frustration. So I threw my arms up in the air in return. And then she signals out "1-0-0" to which I responded with a finger of choosing displayed proudly into the rear view. When the passing lane opened up she finally zipped past me as collectors merged back in with express, and then we all slowed down to 50km. So big clap for the daft cow that rode my ass for no reason, and then saved herself 2 seconds by zooming into a back log of traffic. These people make me want to never drive again. But I'm too lazy for that.

Anyways. Happy thoughts right? I should try to get at least one good thing done today. Peeeeace.

SUN TV - ha!

This is how credible SUN TV is:



A "journalist" taking a moment out to pitch their favourite arthritis medicine. It's like a really bad CNN. And that's a pretty low bar already.

Tip

Here's a hot tip for you - make sure none of your passwords are too embarassing, in case you ever need a friend to log on to an account to check messages for you.

Pun fully intended.

Ugh.

She Touched My Chin

Something extremely disturbing happened at work the other day. It should be no surprise based on my subject line. A woman at work touched my chin in an overly creepy fashion, and I felt extremely violated. From the beginning - my job at work was internally and externally posted after I told my manager I didn't want to continue with them after my contract ended. This woman who's working a temp position came up to me and asked if I would go over the job posting with her. I was more than happy to do that, and I thought it was really commendable of her to seek out extra help because she really wanted the job. We sat down once and she was completely unprepared. I kept asking her what her questions were and she had nothing. We had to get back to work so we said we'd sit down again. She asked me to make notes on the job posting, and I said, when we sit down tell me what your questions are and we can review them. A few weeks ago she sees me in the kitchen and says she's ready to sit down again. Then she asks if I will look at her resume and tell her what applies to this job. I said, "No I won't do that." She said, "I don't mind." And I replied with, "I do not want to do that." I'm not her bloody job counsellor. If she wants career guidance she can pay someone for that. Later that day we sit down she says, "I left my questions at home," which I knew was a total crock, she just didn't want to prepare. We went through all of the requirements for the job piece by piece and felt like it was a really good sit down. At the end she quiety says, "I also brought my resume..." to which I replied, "No, I'm not looking at it" and I practically walked out at that point. I'm doing you a favour, take a hint already. Come the following Monday, I'm sitting at my desk minding my own business and she comes by and leans in and touches my chin and says, "I'm going to take you out for a coffee." That's right, she touched my chin. The first time I sat down with this woman was the first time I had met her. I had to ask her what her name was. And now she thinks we're close enough for her to touch me? I don't think so. Everything about that meeting just screamed to me not right for the job. If she gets the job they'll be in for a treat I'm sure.

I had a great Victoria day weekend up north. Nik and I headed up after work on Friday. We stopped south of Argyle for some dinner & breakfast food. On Saturday we picked up the rest and settled in for a nice relaxing 3 day weekend. We watched some movies, and I sat down by the lake while Nikki fished. Finally after the rain on Sunday she finally started catching some. We had delicious breakfast sandwiches in the morning and marinated steak in the evening. We both took turns cooking and cleaning so effortlessly that it felt like such a fair split of responsibilities. That's usually not the case for weekend getaways, so it was nice.

I felt like I was coming down with something yesterday. Today I'm not sure if it's sickness or allergies. Or maybe if I'm lucky both. I totally bailed on Doors Open yesterday, and I bailed on going on last night, and I'm bailing on Doors Open again today. I've had a pretty stressful week, so whatever. All I know is that I must do a grocery shopping today. I have been out of food all week and eating the most bizarre things to sustain myself.

Maybe We Could Make This Work

I just got back from a Mother's Day brunch at the Yacht Club. It was actually nice lunch. We had a political discussion that didn't end in cursing and hair pulling. I didn't do anything at all yesterday so I'm hoping to getting a few things in order tonight. I have a huge load of clean clothes that need floating. There's a bit of a build up of dishes that needs tackling, and I'm hoping to do a bit more reading. I sat up front for about 20 minutes but late afternoon is a tough one with the sun. But damn it's gorgeous out right now. I bet it's great up north too (S&S). I can't wait to go up north myself for the 2-4.

A few weekends ago I met up with Simona and Spencer and Mike at the Charlotte Room for a little party. I finally got to meet some really cool coworkers of Simona's. Plus I've never been to the C-Room before, it's very chill. I of course, had to start the evening on a great note by locking myself out of my place. So instead of going to his party Spence drove up my spare set of keys. Then I just took a ride down with him and transitted back. When he handed me my keys I told him it was his birthday present, and he was welcome.

I also fit a visit in with Nikki in Guelph. I can't remember what we made for dinner, I think it was butter chicken. There's a few things that we usually cycle between and butter chicken is one of them. Nikki also makes a mean pad thai and sheppard's pie. We also tried enchilladas a while ago - they were SO good. Sour cream chicken enchilladas. We subbed out green chilis for green peppers to keep the spice level down but it worked.

I've been meaning to update more regularly. Every time I see something funny or something funny happens I think I'll write about it but then apathy sets in and I don't. I saw a great senior walking along bloor at 11:00pm one night wearing a balloon hat and holding a balloon animal. I finally beat the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on my phone, TWICE. I almost got t-boned but some asshole on Oakwood. I went to see Peter Bjorn and John at Lee's Palace on Friday. This one-woman-band Bachelorette opened for us. I either loved her songs, or thought they dragged on and didn't make sense. But there were a few that I thought were really great. PB&J was really great. Though for a show with doors at 9pm and one opener seems a bit shit for the show to go until 1am. I think that's just so Lee's can make some beer money. We got there nice and early and grabbed the three stools behind the sound/lighting guys. Perfect seats, great set, great night!

I guess that's all. Summer is upon us - woo!

There's A Bathroom On The Right

It's been an interesting few days. I feel like I'm coming back to a good place. Now I want to spend time with my friends and I don't always want to spend time alone. Last weekend our family and my aunt went to Newmarket to visit our Great Aunt for a special dinner at her retirement home. The next day was the funeral for my Great Great Aunt. It was at St. George-On-The-Hill right by Dundas and Royal York. I often took notice of that church the times I would drive down Dundas, thinking I had never been there before. Turns out my GGA had her 80th birthday party there, but I would only have been about 11 so I don't blame myself for forgetting that one.

I also ended up in Oakville last Saturday. I met Jak at her job and then we went to the Arms. It had been forever since I had seen her last. Hopefully that won't happen again this summer. She told me the best misheard lyric ever. Her friend's girlfriend thought "There's a bad moon on the rise" is "There's a bathroom on the right." It came up because the entertainment was playing some CCR. It oddly did sound like bathroom on the right, of course that would make very little lyrical sense.

I went out to dinner with my family in Roncies last night. I say Roncies because I'm terrified of spelling the neighbourhood in full. I think I'd like living in Roncies, once they get their construction issues worked out of course. We went to the restaurant Gate 403 and had dinner with some live jazz. I'm not a big fan of PWYC jars being passed around. It makes me want to choose a place without live music just to avoid it. It's like choosing between two restaurants and one has one of those annoying washroom attendants. I'll wash my own hands thank you, and I'll tip the band if I feel like it. Driving home from dinner I passed this small church that had so many people attending that a line up of people was spilling onto the roads, and a cop had to direct traffic through the one available lane. He did a terrible job by the way. He told me to come forward and then walked away and someone turned right into the lane I was in and almost hit me. If you're going to direct traffic don't stop half way. My brother just attended a funeral for a work friend's family member and he said the church was filled to the brim. Standing room only, with a large group of people in a separate room with a sound feed, and still people on the streets. So when I passed my own overflowing church I immediately thought, "Who died?" Of course about a minute later it hit me, "That's right, Jesus died."

I just got home from lunch with my dad's family. Some nitwit teenager side swiped my dad's car. We took his information and went to the police station after lunch to find out what the procedure is for reporting etc. If it hasn't happened to you before it's all very new. And hopefully it doesn't happen to someone too many times in their life. Honestly this kid wanted to get out of a stalled left lane and he swung into our lane as we were passing. My dad swerved out of the way but he just kept going and scraped across three side panels. Of course now that we didn't call the cops to the scene my dad might be f-ed for insurance, I'm not sure. Neither of us had been in an accident before.

Tonight is the Sim/Spence/Mike dig and then Sunday I finally get to rest for the day. For now I think I might just take a nap, because I can.

Memo Most Foul

I think I've gotten to a place where I've stopped caring about the obnoxious work environment I have chosen to participate in. I had a discussion with this girl today and she said a few of things that are true. A lot of people live close to the office, and we get a paycheque every two weeks. And those are two big things for everyone. Except for me, I don't live close, and I have to put in way more time to get less pay than everyone else. Sooo...yeah. Today the women in our office walked into the bathroom to find an updated "Bathroom Hygeine" memo. Most of the information was the same from the previous memo, but this time they added something to the effect of: "Don't forget to clean up any blood or fecal matter from the seat." So next time I have a client in the office and they need to use the washroom they are going to get a nice laminated reminder that the women in our office shit on the seat and don't clean it up. I actually heard the incident that prompted this was much worse, but regardless the memo should be distributed and not posted.

There's been a lot of buzz around Toronto about Ford cleaning up the graffiti. The Torontoist posted the best randomly spotted photo on their blog. I would buy that if it was a poster. I would also buy this: this. I think he's a fool for focusing on such a moot point. He's clearly waging a war that he's destined to lose. He doesn't recognize the artistic merit in 50% of the graffiti out there. And also, Toronto is never going to be small town clean, get over it.

Two days in a row, woof, I'm tired.

Exqueeze Me, Baking Soda

I've decided that to spite my company for lying on their test results (unconfirmed) I'm going to spend the last 15 minutes of my paid work day to write a blog entry. I worked from home today because I woke up at 5 this morning with a broken poop shute. Yeah, I went there. I decided it wasn't worth the discomfort and public humiliation of going into work so I logged in from home. I do have to go into work tomorrow for two major events so I'm hoping I'm fully recovered by then.

I suppose it's been a while since my last confession. I spent a lot of time at home this past month. And yet, I've accomplished very little. I'm sure my history on netflix would show hours spent watching really stupid shows, that I would insult while watching yet always hit the "Next Episode" button.

My Great Great Aunt passed today. She was 97 and a real trooper. She had this great family bday party last summer. Everyone was there, even one of my cousins that was constantly abroad. She sat down at a table surrounded by presents with a piece of cake in front of her. Her eyes had this strange glossiness to them and I couldn't believe that just a few months prior to that she had her car taken away. It reminds me of when my nana had her license taken away. The driving instructor said she didn't check her mirrors enough to which she replied, "What's the point, I can't even see out of this eye anyways." Classic nana.

My neighbours downstairs are moving out. I can't say I'll miss the wafting of pot smoke, and slamming of doors at all hours. I probably have my own annoying habits, like I drop stuff on the floor a lot, but it's not on purpose. And I walk around practically on tippy toes just so I don't annoy them. Maybe the new people will be friendly. Who knows, I don't really care either way. As long as the new people aren't worse.

I went down to Cherry Beach with Sim and Spence finally. We walked out to the end of the leash free and took a seat while Jas and Banders played with all the other puppies. I think the white poodle was a favourite for, for both of them. This one dog was hilarious as he carried a large rock around in his mouth. A rock that would be about twice the size of an average clenched hand. The owner took the rock away from the dog, and walked down towards the lake. The dog followed with eager anticipation. The rock was lobbed and as it hit the water the dog ran full speed to fetch it. I had almost forgotten about the whole thing when low and behold the dog reappeared on the path with a giant rock on its mouth. I couldn't tell for certain if it was the same one or slightly larger. Across the street in the West lot, they have a movie set for Silent Hill set up. Sim linked me to some BlogTO shots that were super creepy. We were joking about 5am being the only time the set would be open. You don't always get a chance to be on a movie set like this - maybe we should do it.

I also went out for some Real Jamaican food yesterday. I've only been surrounded by Roti for the past 20 months, it's about time. I had the Curry Goat, it was de-lish.

So what's next. I haven't read anything since Atlas Shrugged and I'm feeling lazy about that. The nice weather is nearly upon us, that's good. And, that's about it. Ciao for now.

Hey You, It's Me

Life is a real rollercoaster right now, and I'm in a loop-de-loop not knowing which direction is up. The only good news is that all roller coasters have a beginning and an ending. I'm waiting for that ending to come, hoping it will be soon.

I'm trying to be productive this weekend. I finally finished unpacking my bedroom today. Only took me 19 months. That must be a new record, since I've never lived anywhere this long before. My bedroom is so bare and it echos a lot more. The last part will be to clean up my window ledge filled with junk that I've opted to keep. I found a lot of missing single socks under my bed, so that's good. Once I've put away my folded laundry I might take a picture. By cleaning up the moving boxes I've officially removed my default unfolded laundry dump zone. We'll see what leads to. Tomorrow I'll do a fridge clean and my desk area and this place is going look a lot better than it has for the past while. The fridge shouldn't be too bad, I'm pretty good at dumping stuff before they start to grow cultures.

Work is less than favourable right now. I have so much going on at my desk, and I'm terrified that I will drop something. The good news is that clients act as good reminders when they're expecting something I haven't provided. I guess if projects never went down the shitter they wouldn't need people to manager or coordinate them. All I can say is fingers crossed on successfully resolving my employment dilemma. I did start up the quotes again, and was overjoyed when someone else wrote one on the board instead of me. But I have officially kiboshed the movement. The love is gone.

Time Makes You Bolder

I promised myself when I finished Atlas Shrugged I would do an update....ta-daaa. After I got into the storyline I really enjoyed the book. It's a strange parallel to government and big business today. I think at some point the ending became a foregone conclusion, but up until that point it was delicious literary butter. I picked that book up on January 1, so it took me over 2 month to finish. Not reading non-stop obviously, but with a certain effort. And now I've finished just in time for the movie to come out! The movie is just Part I, so technically I would have been ready some time in January, but never-the-less I'm tickled pink at the timing. If Adam hadn't suggested a long book read it probably never would have left my shelf. And now I know that I can accomplish anything! (Anything book related). Next up is Barney's Version, and I will abstain from seeing the movie until I'm done.

I had a pretty low key month. I got out a few times. I'm still updating my Toronto Adventures to show new places I've been to. This time around I added WAYLA Bar, Liberty Bistro, and Artist Project. The last two were from a weekend outing with my mother and her best friend. She treated me to lunch at the Bistro and then had picked up some tickets for this great art event. There were ~100 artists on display, each with their own booth to present a collection of their work. I picked up a few cards to check them out later. My mom has promised my brother and I both an original piece of artwork (within a certain budget). My brother already has his piece, but I've rarely started my own search. The only framed artwork I have up on my walls are from posters I picked up at various "Poster Sales" at Sid Smith. And of course my Grandma's old ink paintings from Bali. I can't believe my mom was going to sell them.

Tonight I'm going down to see the last showing of the play Adam's producing. I've been to the Berkley Theatre several times thanks to Adam, but also once for a singing performance put on by my mom's friend's kid. I can't remember the specifics, but it was good. I'm also finally getting my laptop back. It was a last minute loan-out that lasted a week. I will be happy to re-retire this hunk of junk and reenter the world of streaming video.

Also, I don't know how many more fights about what's snow and what's sleet I can take. I also don't know how much more of that place I can take. All I can do is be strong.

Newsflash...

...I now have a beard.

The Real McCoy

I just got back from renewing my plate sticker. I like to live dangerously when it comes to traffic citations. I think technically the plate is only valid until the first of the month, but I like to pretend it's valid up until the birthday of the owner. I also replaced my ownership which was two addresses and one owner ago. The lady was like, "Where's the other part, the part that says you own the car?" I was like, "If it's not what I've given you I don't think I have it." $10 is the price you pay for being an idiot, which I am ok with. I extended for two years, just incase Ford rolls back the licensing fee cut.

Yesterday was a bit of a shit show. I picked up Adam and we did some shopping for him at Winners. Then instead of coming home we went down to Cherry Beach, first stopping at the Church&Front Timmies so I could get a drink. As I'm walking out of the Tims I witness a cab backing into my car and hitting my bumper. I checked for damage and didn't see any, but I was still plenty pissed. I didn't even know what to do. I asked for his number and he said something like, "I'm a taxi driver." Ok buddy, that's well established, but if I find a crack I want to be able to find you. So I just took his taxi information down and was done. It's not the end of the world, but it's still not a nice thing to see happen. Adam mentioned that if I wasn't there I never would have known, which helped me calmed down.

Nik and I hit up Niagara this weekend past. Drove in Saturday morning and stayed the night. After we checked in we taxied down to Clifton hill and took a walk down to the falls. I snapped a neat shot on my phone camera of the American Falls, they have this oddly beautiful ice formation that sits in front of the falling water. I'm not sure if that's how it is every year, but it was neat. After the Falls we went to the Hershey and Coke store. Then we took a stroll through the midway but we weren't feeling it so we moved on. Gift store, Sugar Mountain, and finally a tour through the wax museum of criminals. We walked home after that and ordered a gluten free pizza and had some drinks. A bit later we taxied down to Fallsview and blew about $30 each. I emailed Fallsview to complain about their faulty slot machines. They flipped Nik's bet to maximum (10 credits vs 1 credit) on more than one occassion, and they flipped my credit bet from 25c to 50c, and then later flipped my bet to maximum as well. We wouldn't be sore losers if we lost the money fair and square. And odds are we would have lost it anyways. So I await a response from Fallsview. And if I'm lucky a gift cert. But I'm not counting on that.

I'm about 400 pages away from finishing Atlas Shrugged. I told Adam that I'm not sure if part of my love for this book is cognitive dissonance. Why else would I read a 1069 page book if I wasn't enjoying it? All joking aside it's a great book. And I fear I may feel a small void in my life when I'm done.

Looking forward to drinks tonight with S&S.

Annnnd, done.

Nights of Make-Believe, Days I Don't Believe

No matter how many improvements my landlord makes I still feel like there is an ever growing list of annoyances at this place. My showerhead still screeches like 1000 dying rodents every time I take a shower. If I'm lucky it will stop half way and I will be able to shower in peace. But that's usually not the case. He waits about 5 days after a snow fall to shovel, and by then the next fall is just around the corner. On occassion he will not take the trash or recycling to the curb and either I will have to take the bin out or it will not go out at all. The tenants downstairs seem like lazy bums when it comes to split responsibilities. Granted it should only be split between one, but step up, please. And now the big winner is the dying smoke alarm battery that has been beeping every 30 seconds for the past 2 DAYS. I don't even know what to do. My landlord is out of town so we have to put up with it until he returns tomorrow or the battery finally dies. We'll see how much longer I can maintain my sanity with this going.

I had some great Indian food for lunch with a coworker. There's a great veggie Indian place just south of Matheson and Mavis called Doaba. Mmmm, the food is amazing and so cheap. I actually found myself smiling today at work. I feel so much more like I used to. And that's something I haven't felt in well over a month. That being said my general attitude has not changed, they have made their bed.

Dawn had a great bday at Insomnia on Tuesday. I picked up Adam and Jess and headed down at about 8pm. Most of her friends were from work, which made me jealous. I wish I had more close friends at work. Anyways, she has some really great friends. I had a really great talk with this one girl about Canada and US in terms of politics, and geography and travel, and human rights. It was really fantastic.

I finally passed the halfway point in Atlas Shrugged. I'm starting to think that this might be one of the most important and socially relevant books I've ever read. It was personally a bit slow in the beginning but Rand has just picked it up and taken the book in some really interesting directions. She of course is a little kooky with some pretty harsh views. Objectivism is a bit of a tough pill to swallow sometimes, but it makes you think.

The dying battery is starting to double beep, perhaps this is progress? Just die already.

Do You Have Any Of Those Way Small Harmonicas?

It's been a while again. I used to be better at this. PS to last time, the french toast was AMAZING. I tried it last Sunday by myself at my place and I could not come even close to how good Adam's toast was. I just need to work on my mastery of the culinary arts. Maybe it made a difference that I had to use water in my egg mix instead of milk. And not because I'm stinking poor, but my milk had just expired. And I don't mess with expiry dates.

It's been a pretty stressful two weeks. My attitude at work started to change as the days went on and my contract offer was not arriving. Eventually, early last week, I gave up. I took my defiant and rebellious "Julie's Contract Ends" off the shared wall calendar and I started to clean out my desk. I'm not sure anything that happened or will have happened after that point will make me want to stay. I have 4 days to decide.

I started writing quotes again. The mood struck me to start again so I thought why not. I'm still writing them down to keep a small log of what has gone up.

I had a pretty great weekend this weekend past. Friday night was drinks night with some friends from work. We hit up Sneaky Dees and followed that with Andy Pool Hall and Free Times Cafe! I've added Andy Pool Hall as my first 2011 Toronto Adventure. I really enjoyed being able to look back on my 2010 list to see what new things I had been up to. Then on Saturday a dinner in Oakville turned into an impromptu overnight at a cottage in Midland. Jackie's boyfriend's friend was having a birthday gathering and Jak invited me up with her. Back to back nights of not being D.D. is a pretty special treat for me. We got almost lost in Moonstone in search for a gas station. PS - Moonstone doesn't have a gas station. Sunday night I almost cracked a beer out of habit.

I must exit to complete a quick grocery shopping. I shall try to update more frequently. And for myself, I'm going to try to stop being so depressed and depressing, and then maybe I'll have more to write about.

XO