saturday november 29

today i went out for dinner with cousins who i see very infrequently. the biggest revelation of the meal came when i heard one cousin, who lives within walking distance of me, mention that he hosts a weekly poker night. while my ears perked up at this news, i quickly realized that the participants in this night were the types with real jobs and real bank accounts and, despite my extensive experience playing $1 online tournaments, i'd probably be a little out of my league; financially, at least. i didn't pursue the subject.

friday november 28

today i was standing by the door to our second-floor patio, awaiting the arrival of a friend and surveying the street below. just as i was about to admire the quiet, picturesque (or at least as picturesque as a city street can be) scene, i noticed a homeless man unrolling a sleeping bag and hunkering down for the night on the steps of the church across the road. his preparation process involved taking off his jacket and using it as a pillow. this technique made me consider whether this would be the best course of action in cold weather, or whether it'd be smarter to just keep the jacket on and go pillowless.

thursday november 27

today i had my worst fantasy football dork moment of the season, when i watched the majority of the tennessee titans' 47-10 blowout of the detroit lions (which wasn't as close as it sounds) in the hopes that my fantasy kicker, rob bironas, would make a bunch of field goals. the good news is that he did.

wednesday november 26

today i noticed for the first time that my blog had a follower. while i'm not entirely sure what 'following' entails in this instance, it just sounds flattering, and looks pretty exciting whenever i go to my dashboard and see the big image there.

tuesday november 25

today i had a dream that i was standing beside my grandmother when she fell and broke her hip. i tried to catch her and break her fall but didn't move quickly enough. i don't want to talk about it.

monday november 24

today i got on the greyhound bus that would take me from london back to toronto and took off my coat and made myself comfortable. immediately after my coat was off, i realized that the heat had not yet been turned on in the bus (a replacement for one with mechanical issues), or had at least not nearly circulated through the bus yet. i could still see my breath, and had to breathe into my hands to warm them up, but i refused to put my jacket back on because i didn't want to admit, to no one, that i hadn't been fully prepared for the bus climate and made a mistake.

sunday november 23

today i introduced a new feature to one thing i did today, called 'another thing i did on these days.' that's a working title, i just made it up 10 seconds ago.

saturday november 15:
today i took a 'candy green apple' shot at the bar that was so delicious that i immediately wished out loud that i could have a whole glass of it. to drink. with, like, my dinner or something.

monday november 17:
today i was having a conversation with someone, when they used the phrase "study date." a few days ago, another friend used the phrase "reading party." in both instances, i felt like i was hearing oxymorons.

tuesday november 18:
today i watched the mighty ducks for the first time since i was a child and was shocked at just how villainous the opposing team in the 'big game' sequence was. after the coach told one player to intentionally injure the ducks' star, he did so, and a dismayed (and morally sound) teammate came up to him and asked "what did you do??" the offending child responded, with a menacing sneer: "my job!" this 10 year old came off as a scarier villain than jigsaw in every saw movie combined.

wednesday november 19
today i chuckled a little too hard while watching stylista on the cw, when one contestant's issues with being overweight were referred to as the "elephant in the room."

friday november 21
today i was standing outside rainbow cinemas, looking at the posters there in an attempt to decide what, if anything, i wanted to see. all of the sudden, a group of giggling girls ran up to the twilight poster, armed with a camera. one girl posed in front of the girl pictured in the poster (pretending, i guess, that it was actually her that got to frolic around with that hunky vampire), while her friend took her photo. i had to look away from the wall of posters to hide my patronizing laughter.

friday november 21
today i realized how unaware of the day of the week i constantly am, if i don't stop to think about it. in london, someone asked me what the snow situation in toronto was like, and i replied, trying to indicate how little snow there was: "oh we didn't even have any stay on the ground until...... saturday." what i really meant to say was "wednesday," which would have been far more recent and noteworthy (in contrast to london's snowfall) than a day that was nearly a week ago.

saturday november 22

today i was at my grandparents' house, talking with them while the vanier cup was muted on television on one side of the room. during one pause in the conversation, my grandma pointed at the tv and said "look at that fatboy." it wasn't even an offensive lineman or anything, just a referee!!

friday november 21

today i was driving along york street when i came to a stop at a red light. i was the first car in the left lane (the pole position, if you will), and a taxi sat beside me in the right lane. as the opposite light turned red, i noticed a pedestrian start to cross the road on the far side of the right, in front of where we would be driving momentarily. this was odd, but i assumed he was just trying to make it to the center island/median, where he'd wait for a break in traffic and then go the rest of the way. our light turned green and the taxi and i began driving ahead, when, suddenly, it appeared to suddenly dawn on the pedestrian that he was walking against the light. rather than take the last two steps to the center of the road, he attempted to run back to where he'd come from. i was paying attention the whole time, and wasn't accelerating very quickly in the snow anyway, so i braked well short of him. the taxi did not. it attempted to slam on its brakes but still clipped his leg and sent him flying to the ground. he immediately jumped to his feet, apparently uninjured, and started to walk away (he looked more embarrassed than anything), while the taxi driver pulled over to the side of the road and ran back to see if he was okay. while i would've liked to see what transpired next, i realized that i probably had to keep driving to avoid holding up all the traffic behind me, and pulled away, being sure to keep an extra-sharp eye out for oblivious pedestrians.

thursday november 20

today i returned home to london for the first time since moving to toronto. when i arrived at my house, the driveway was buried in a heavy snowfall. figuring i should lend a hand now that i was back home, i came out to help my father shovel the driveway. on my very first 'thrust' i thought i felt something tweak in my side, like a pulled muscle. i kept going and helped finish the job, but to this moment, my side is still sore. the first thrust!!

wednesday november 19

today i attempted to place odds on who would win the america's next top model finale (mckey: even, analeigh: 2-1, samantha, 4-1) and elicit bets from my roommates, but got no action. when i flipped to the raptors/heat game during commercial breaks, i briefly considered trying to introduce a parlay situation into the mix, but decided it against it. which is unfortunate, since i totally would've bet on the raptors and mckey at, say, 2-1.

tuesday november 18

today i received a handwritten card from the girl at the 'phone booth' store in westmount mall that i bought my phone from a few weeks back. upon reading it, i spent the next five minutes debating with myself over whether or not this was something they'd always do (as suggested by the somewhat formal nature of the message and the fact that the phone number included was the store's) or if this was an exceptional instance (as suggested by the handwriting, the personal detail at the end of the message, and the fact that, due to rogers problems, this girl had spent about two or three hours total helping me buy my phone). i'm still not entirely sure, though i'm leaning towards the former.

monday november 17

today i met a friend at a nearby bar. i arrived approximately four minutes before she did and, within that brief time span, was so uncomfortable waiting in an unknown place by myself that i sent her two text messages and, with little prompting, assured two bartenders/servers that i was waiting for someone.

sunday november 16

today i was approximately five minutes into a skype conversation with my mother when she announced that barack obama was currently being interviewed on 60 minutes, and asked if i minded if we cut the convo short.

saturday november 15

today i experienced the first drawback of the combination of my third-floor bedroom and my laziness. at the first floor entrance, prepared to go out for dinner, i remembered that it was raining fairly steadily, but didn't feel like trekking up and down two flights of stairs to get an umbrella, and ended up just getting wet instead. worth it.

friday november 14

today i made my first trip to a toronto laundromat and, within one minute of entering the building, was making small talk with the owner. i interpreted this as a good omen for my laundry future there.

thursday november 13

today i had a dream in which i was being stalked by a villain who was sort of a cross between the ones from the texas chain saw massacre and i know what you did last summer, though he wasn't nearly as menacing as either.

wednesday november 12

today i attempted to finally finish unpacking my room, or at least find 'storage' for the things that i didn't want to or need to unpack. about two thirds of the way through this process, i paused to admire the result, expecting to be pleased with the cleanliness and tidiness of my room, but instead was perturbed to find that it just felt a lot emptier. i left the remaining third of the disorganized mess.

tuesday november 11

today i watched the telecast of the final table of the world series of poker, in which a 22 year old who described himself as "lazy and unproductive" won the first place prize of $9.1 million. as far as inspirational sports stories go, it ranked slightly above the rookie.

monday november 10

today i was in the dairy section of the grocery store when a young woman, wearing a perplexed look on her face, asked me: "do you know which cheese it is that's on sale?" unsure of why she'd choose to ask this question of me, since i hardly looked like a hardcore shopper, with only about five items in my basket, i was about to tell her that i had no idea. suddenly, i remembered that when i'd first picked up my basket, upon entering the store, there'd been a flier sitting in it. i quickly moved my groceries out of the way and fished out the flier, which, to my delight, had a giant picture of cheese on its cover. i casually passed it to her, silently pleased with my ability to drop knowledge on fellow shoppers, and left her to find the discounted cheese (black diamond!).

sunday november 9

today i cited jumanji as one of the scarier movies of my childhood. it later occurred to me that i was already 10 years old when it came out, making me a little embarrassed by the fear.

saturday november 8

today i advertised my girl talk ticket for sale on the facebook event for girl talk's upcoming toronto show. this posting eventually elicited eight responses, leading me to believe that not only could i have instigated a bidding war for the ticket, but that when the next sure-to-sell-out-but-not-in-two-seconds-like-radiohead show comes along, i should just buy up 5-10 tickets and eventually make a sweet profit. if only i had no conscience!!

friday november 7

today i was shopping at wal-mart when a fight broke out between three black women and an older white woman. while i didn't run over in time to see most of it, i heard the phrases "that is RACISM!" and "white trash BITCH!" being thrown about. after the fight was broken up, both parties walked past me, with the black women still talking about racism, followed by the white woman muttering that she hoped someone had called the cops on them.

thursday november 6

today i had a dream in which i carried my macbook (and itunes library) around with me while out walking on the streets, like people used to do with boomboxes. i was blasting "love lockdown," in the dream. i was so groggy when i woke up that i briefly thought this was a great idea.

wednesday november 5

today i was second in line at an lcbo cashier, behind what looked and smelled like a homeless man. he appeared to be buying two beers that came to a total of $4.80. as i stood there waiting my turn, he kept pulling small pieces of change -- nickels, dimes, and occasionally quarters -- out of his pockets, as the cashier kept informing him how short he was of the total ("a dollar," "80 cents," "65 cents," etc.) finally, after getting within 40 cents, the man stopped rifling through his pockets and the cashier glanced back at me and the growing line before mumbling "that's fine" and sending the man on his way with a discount.

tuesday november 4

today i decided, with the weather as nice as it was, that i'd walk to a friend's place a few kilometers away. not wanting to be overly early or late, i first google mapped the route to find out the distance between our houses, then looked up the wikipedia for 'walking' to find out the average walking speed of a human. despite my reseach, and a brief run-in and stop-and-talk with a friend along the way, i arrived 15 minutes early.

monday november 3

today i talked with (or, more accurately: listened to) our extremely anti-pets landlady for a few minutes in our house, while our cat stood a few feet away, with only a single door in between. i took in little of what the landlady said because the entire time i was focused on any sounds that might come from that room, and how i'd explain them.

sunday november 2

today i received a facebook friend request from my grandfather. weirder still is the fact that the 'interested in' section of his profile lists only 'men,' which is either him officially coming out, or a simple comprehension mix-up.

saturday november 1

today i was sitting on the bus at a stop, when i turned around to look out the window and was greeted by a guy dressed in a head-to-toe spider-man costume waving at me from a few feet away.

friday october 31

today i was walking home along bloor street, very early friday morning (or late thursday night, if you prefer), when a car drove by me. its stereo was blasting weezer's "say it ain't so" while its three male passengers pretty much hung out the windows, singing along so loudly that they nearly drowned out the song itself.