LAST BOOK I READ
To Kill A Mockingbird (so loved it too)
LAST BOOK I PURCHASED (on same day)
1. Walt Disney: An American Original
2. Breakfast At Tiffany
LAST MOVIE I SAW
Sherlock Holmes (loved)
LAST MOVIES I BOUGHT (on same day)
1. The Happiest Millionaire (Disney)
2. Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates (Disney)
3. Johnny Tremaine (Disney)
4. Million Dollar Duck (Disney)
LAST DINNER I HAD
Half a large pizza with sundried tomatoes, goat cheese and mushroom (shared with DR’s dad)
LAST CD I PURCHASED
Pet Shop Boys – Christmas
LAST PODCAST I LISTENED TOO
WDW Radio Podcast – Best of Disney in 2009
LAST MAGAZINE I READ
Entertainment Weekly – Best of the Decade
LAST TIME SOMEONE GOT ON MY NERVES
The girl at the movies with Turret Syndrome that kept “hooting” during Sherlock Holmes
LAST DRUNK I SAW
On the street, on our walk back home from the movies
LAST PHONE CALL
My mom
LAST TV SHOW I WATCHED
CSI – previously recorded on the PVR – episode that aired on Dec 24
LAST EMAIL I RECEIVED (that wasn’t junk mail)
My brother-in-law, replying to a Thank You email I had sent after our trip to Vermont
LAST TIME SOMEONE CALLED ME A FAG
On Dec 31st, at work. Some silly angry man lashed at me, he was taken out of the building by 2 police officers and the Lead of my department demanding what he had done that was so wrong.
On Christmas Eve, DR and I surprised my family by arriving a good 12 hours earlier than we had planned on originally. When I found out I was able to take the 24th off, we jumped in the rented car right after work on Wednesday night and made our way to Montreal, took a room in a motel on the south shore and early the morning after, we drove the extra 2 hours to Williston, Vermont and checked in my sister’s house for 4 great nights…
So what are 7 adults to do with all this extra time and a full bar??? Mix some shooters of course and start the celebration way too early:
After a delicious Bloody Ceasar, we started with a couple of Tequila shots, then took the shooter recipe book and tried some Great White Sharks (or course), Melon Balls, Boiler Makers, Sangritas, Snake Bites and then I killed the party by requesting a Hot Damn, which consisted of Whiskey, Vodka, Rum and Orange Juice… yeah, it was that bad and that strong.
For as long as I can remember, I have loved mannequins in store windows or displays. They can be fun or hip or downright ugly, but they always seem to tell a story about the store or the person who dressed them while maintaining the latest of fashions. Lately, Old Navy adds have really hit the jack pot for me, their mannequins are cool and they are funny… love that ad series. See for yourself:
Meanwhile, on our last visit to Vermont, while shopping for deals on the day after Christmas, I spotted these two hotties at the entrance of a store, I quickly pulled my camera out of my coat pocket and snapped away:
Out of nowhere, this shrilling voice started:
Shrilling Lady: Excuse me sir, can I help yoooooooouuuuuu? Me: I’m just taking pictures of these guys Shrilling Lady: Well, you can’t. These are copyrighted! Me: Yeah, like they’re already not copies of the Old Navy ones… Shrilling Lady: Oh no, these are a little bit more upscale… And don’t try this at Victoria’s Secrets, they’ll call the police. Me: Like I have any interest in Victoria’s Secrets…
That’s when my diplomatic sis came to the rescue and explained that I was just having fun and took the Shriller off my back… I’m sure she was more worried about the camera snapping away at “their more upscale clientele” while trying on “their more upscale clothes”… I can see it could be an issue but that was definitely far from my mind…
The thing is that 2 years prior, in the same mall, I had a similar incident while take pictures of the ugliest mannequins I had ever seen to date where a store clerk came to tell me I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in the store due to all the trademarks and copyrighted material:
I mean, they were wearing Hannah Montana rags, so I guess, I gave her the benefit of the doubt and put my camera away.
But the absolute best was when I was still living in Montreal and for kicks we’d end up at this outdated store on the main shopping street downtown and spent at least 30 minutes looking at the 15 or so mannequins in the window, all of them with dusty wigs, some of them falling to the side, broken fingers, broken feet, face peeling due to too much exposure to the sun, one even had a hole in the forehead… We went often as they kept changing the clothes with every season but the “girls” themselves remained unkempt and unattractive. Most of the time it was just my boyfriend and I laughing and giggling at the sights, but one time we took a group of friends and went before a night out at the boy bars. We laughed and made loud comments and laughed some more and pointed until all of a sudden, to our hugest of surprises, the owner for the store came outside and told us to “get the fuck away” from his store, this was a place of business not a hideaway for school kids… He was as scary as his “hotties” in the windows… and at that moment, the whole place just made sense.
I must try to go look up that store next time I’m in Montreal
At work yesterday, while serving an anxious customer:
Me: “There you go. Anything else?” Customer: “Oh yes, just a copy of this and I swear it’s the last thing and then I’ll be out of your hair” Coworker: “That’s a funny thing to say to someone who shaves his head?”
Apparently I have a problem minding my own business, people do not seem to appreciate my little gems of wisdom…
All these happened within the last week:
Case 1
I’m walking down the street, there’s a lady driving a SUV, she comes to a stop, she’s on the phone. I cross in front of her and without really paying attention she steps on the gas, sees me last minute and stops. I gave her the look of death and make a motion with my left hand as if I was hanging up a phone… She rolls her window down and right away I say to her: “hang up the phone when you’re driving, it’s illegal” to which she intelligently replies: “Why don’t you mind your own business”. I then tell her that she just made it my business by almost running me over. As I walk away, she chants one more time: “Mind your own business”…
Case 2
I go to the men’s washroom on the first level of the court house, someone is smoking in the stall. I pee, wash my hands and then go: “There’s no smoking in here” to which I get: “Why don’t you mind your own business”. I reply: “Done deal, but it’s a court house, the next person to walk in here might be a cop”
Case 3
Shopping at Eaton Centre, I go into Old Navy and browse through the clothes and the enormous crowd. I get blocked between two alleys, a pod of shoppers behind me and a mother with the biggest baby carriage I’ve ever seen in front of me… I ask the mother/baby/cadillac of carriages to please excuse me so I can continue to move forward. She rolls her eyes and sighs and moves the carriage just enough for someone half my size to go through. I push my way and say: “Oh thanks, it’s not like you’re the only person here today”. To which I get the infamous: “Why don’t you mind your business”. Since I have such a hard time with that apparently this week, I continue: “You’ve made it to hard for me to ignore you, so I guess, that is my business”.
I still think that it would be much easier to mind my business if people stopped including me into their lives. It always feel like an invitation of sorts.
You just can’t help but get into the groove of the Olympic Flame traveling through Canada… This week the flame is in Toronto, it arrived last night through much fanfare and early this morning it departed again to light up our streets…
We tried to wait for it last night at DR’s dad place but some idiots decided that a demonstration a few block ahead of where we were waiting was much needed and got into an altercation with the police, arrests were made and the flame was delayed by quite some time. Our feet were frozen so we left and watched it from the 22nd floor balcony instead… still it was cool as we knew the flame was going to be paraded right in front of our apartment the morning after…
So this morning, after DR’s run, we showered and got dressed and went to get a hot drink at Starbucks and planted ourselves in front of our place to await the flame… I was expecting a truck of some sort, a runner with a lit flame and some police escort… Huh!!! no… This was an event.
First there were 4 police cruisers with their lights on stopping at all intersections in the area to stop the traffic, then this very cute girl came running at us and handed us some really cool Coke cans in the shape of old Coke bottles, then the Coca Cola truck drove by with some hip hop music blaring and a ton of very good looking young adults cheering on it, no ugly people applied for the job I guess. This was followed by Royal Bank Of Canada float, again with some really good looking people cheering and telling us exactly what corner the torch barer was at… Fun. This parade was very loud and definitely announcing a cool event.. and there I was worried that I’d sleep through it…
Finally, the flame was in sight, there was a relay just in front of us and the new runner was on her way… We cheered on Nancy as she went by and with that it was over…
As corny as it seems, the whole thing was uber cool… It really felt like a once in a lifetime thing to do… Not sure if I’ll ever get the chance to see the Olympic flame “live” again… and certainly never on my street.
Unfortunately, I am a really bad photographer at 7am…
Today, I had one goal in mind: To no get upset with anyone at all. That’s a fucking tall order for me knowing my short fuse, but still doable.
So as the day went, I didn’t get upset while reading in the coffee shop and some “very important” man sat next to me, practically yelling on his cell about how he wanted his meeting to go, and how Jas would just have to get the stuff in time or else… and Mike had better start producing, they didn’t hire him to just sit in that office… No, I didn’t get upset that he kept taking me in and out of my novel with his big ego.
I certainly didn’t get upset when this arrogant man came to my window and started telling me that our number-calling system didn’t make any sense and that he had been there 15 minutes and still couldn’t figure it out… I simply replied that I had been working there for almost 3 years and a lot of things still didn’t make sense to me either.
I also didn’t get upset when I called the next guest at my window and he slowly walked while on his cell phone and just stood there finishing his conversation instead of engaging with me. And I didn’t get upset a few seconds later when, instead of waiting for him to finish, I decided to call another person to serve, telling “cell conversation guy” that I’d serve him once he hung up the phone.
And I was still all smiles when this guy came to my window and asked if I minded him eating his sandwich while I served him. I only replied that this wasn’t my house, he was free to do as he wanted. So as I helped him fill out his forms, he chewed and talked at the same time. A little later on, he asked once again if it bothered me, more in a way of taunting me I thought… I said it was just fine with me but that he had better finish it before sitting down with the Justice of the Peace as THEY didn’t like crumbs all over their work stations…
I was cool as a cucumber when this other person had me repeat myself approximately 17 times during our conversation regarding his 3 options with the speeding ticket he was holding… I could hear my co-worker snicker, but me, I wasn’t getting upset at all…
And when the next customer came to my window and said that he would have lost his cool pretty quickly with the “hard of hearing guy” before him, I simply replied that is was all good, that I was paid a really good amount of money per week to deal with this… He asked where he could apply for the job.
For the last week in our neighbourhood it seems like the city and public garbage can receptacles have all disappeared… No notice was given, one morning we left to go to work and they were there, then that afternoon we came back and all of them had vanished…
Not sure if they are being replaced by bigger and better, not sure if they are all given a much needed deep cleaning since they stunk to high heavens after this past summer’ strike… but they are nowhere to be found around here… So what do Torontonians in Cabbagetown do? Yep, you guessed it, they throw their garbage on the sidewalk, or in people’s doorway, or on store window ledges, or simply anywhere they please…
Yesterday, at 8am, on our way out the door to visit DR’s father, I took a broom and swept our doorway of garbage… the store owner next door arrived while I was doing this and said she had done the same thing the morning before, it was full of garbage…
Thank you Cabbagetown residents and visitors. You really didn’t learn anything during the strike, did you?
Well, since my Harry Potter’s preview was yanked out of sight like a bunch of rotting food on a table after some shark goes medieval on his supervisors, here is something new to replace it…
