tuesday september 29

today i was watching 90210 on tv and heard a song from the new dizzee rascal album that i really enjoyed on the show. i wasn't sure whether to be pleased or to be embarrassed for dizzee (and myself).

monday september 28

today i decided i wanted to become the most followed and most popular "luke adams" on twitter. i'm already crushing the deaf luke adams from the amazing race, but there was still one california actor who had a 30-follower lead on me. help me pass him! follow me!

sunday september 27

today i was given a ticket for the sold-out hold steady show at lee's by a friend. i didn't have any money on me at the time, so she said to pay her later. i assumed the ticket would be the same price that i paid when i picked mine up at soundscapes -- $21.50 plus a $1 service charge. however, when i passed the ticket on to someone else and she asked what she owed me, before i could answer concretely, she noticed the ticketmaster price of $27.50 on the ticket. this prompted her to pay me more than i was expecting, in both cash and drink form. i wasn't about to argue.

saturday september 26

today i walked to a house party that was approximately 10 seconds away, three houses up the street. it was raining when we left, meaning that i had to decide whether it was worth bringing an umbrella and staying dry for those 10 seconds. i decided it was worth it.

friday september 25

today i walked down to the lcbo to pick up some beer. upon arriving, i realized that, just as they had last weekend, the store had none of the cardboard beer holders that i enjoy so much. i'd assumed that it was just a one-time thing when it had happened before, but here it was, a week later, and still they hadn't been replenished. having no bag and not wanting to be forced to get a big paper one, i ended up walking out of the store. it was maybe the first time i'd ever gone in an lcbo and not come out with alcohol. it's not really a just-looking place.

thursday september 24

today i did my laundry. while waiting to be able to move it to the washer to the dryer, i popped into the nearby shopper's drug mart and bought a carton of milk, a frozen pizza, and a box of corn flakes. having not expected to make this stop, i hadn't brought my own bag, and the cashier neglected to ask me if i wanted to buy one. not realizing this was happening until after i'd paid and the next person in line was approaching the counter, i took my items in hand and walked down the street back to the laundromat, bagless. feeling sort of ridiculous without having a bag to hide my purchases from the world, i moved my wet clothes to a dryer and then shoved my shopper's items into my laundry bag. during the entire walk home, i was concerned that the milk would leak and that i'd notice two weeks down the road that my clothes smelled weirdly milky.

wednesday september 23

today i was about to go out for the night when i got a phone call from my mother telling me that she'd heard from my grandmother's doctor today that my grandma may only have a few more days left to live. after i spent a few minutes thinking about this, i remembered that, when i'd visited my grandma last week (seeing her for what could be the last time) the last exchange i could remember us having before she fell asleep was my describing how i like to wear some shirts with a couple buttons open to "show some chest hair." she replied "that's gross." i guess there are worse last words to share.

tuesday september 22

today i made a grocery run to the no frills in dufferin mall for the first time since the school year began. over the summer, i'd forgotten how irritating it was to visit the mall right as the nearby school was letting out and pretty much every single student gravitated over to the mall. note to self: try to avoid 3:00 pm grocery runs until next june.

monday september 21

today i was faced with a crucial downside of working evenings, on the night the new fall tv season officially began. while working, i missed out on watching the how i met your mother premiere and an exciting monday night football game that won me a fantasy football matchup.

sunday september 20

today i slept for approximately five hours, in four different places throughout my house -- two couches, a futon, and, finally, my own bed. i felt sort of like goldilocks, except i knew from the start which i'd like best.

saturday september 19

today i helped a couple of friends find a place to park in my neigbourhood while they were in town for the weekend. the confusing payment structure ultimately resulted in us paying $5.75 more than we needed to for the necessary time parked in the lot.

friday september 18

today i got poutine with a friend around midnight, then sat and ate it outside the sammy's souvlaki booth on richmond, near queens. while sitting there for no more than 15 minutes, i witnessed a plethora of richmond row sights that i hadn't seen in ages: a guy giving a drunken girl a piggyback ride, countless people going to and from formal events, and a girl leaning out of a limousine window yelling "WOOOOO!"

thursday september 17

today i hung out with a friend for a couple hours and then ended up taking the same ltc bus home with them, since we live in the same neighbourhood. before we got on the bus, i expressed some concern about a potential goodbye hug, which would be really awkward on a bus. we agreed to do it before getting on the bus, but ended up forgetting when we arrived right on time and had to run to catch it. this resulted in one of the five most awkward hugs of my life (even though i knew it was coming), standing up on a moving bus and leaning over the seat to complete the hug, all the while trying to keep my balance.

wednesday september 16

today i took the greyhound bus home to london. while waiting in line in toronto to board the bus, i was chatted up by an elderly woman whose ability to talk incessantly inspired me to want to check the time every 30 seconds to see how much longer i'd be stuck with her. after discussing my t-shirt, foreign languages, and how many inuit words there were for "snow," we were finally ushered onto the bus. upon boarding, i immediately made a beeline for the back seats, a spot i normally avoid (just to play it safe), terrified that she'd want to keep talking, but rightly assuming that she'd sit near the front. at one point later in the ride, she walked from her seat at the front of the bus to the bathroom at the back and talked to four people along the way. i pretended to be asleep.

tuesday september 15

today i did my first shift for mlb trade rumors, which involved sitting at home and working on my computer. excited about this work-at-home idea, i decided to go outside and spend some of the shift sitting on our balcony, just because i could. after about a 20 minutes of this though, i realized that not having a mouse was severely slowing down my progress and that it was much chillier outside than i thought; i quickly moved back inside.

monday september 14

today i went to the victory cafe to meet someone for a drink. unsure of whether we'd meet outside the bar, inside the bar, or maybe on the patio, i decided in advance to show up early (or at least on time) and wait outside, just to avoid any confusion. when i arrived, however, i noticed during my quick peek inside that the monday night football game had just gotten underway; i decided to buy a beer, sit at the bar, and watch what i could of the game before she arrived. it was much more fun than waiting outside.

sunday september 13

today i went to the ryerson theatre to see the loved ones, as part of the toronto film festival. prior to the screening, i had to pick up my tickets from the box office. having ordered them on a credit card that i didn't yet have in my possession (it had been mailed to my parents' house to replace my recently expired visa), i had written down the necessary information, just in case. though i went in not expecting to have any problems, my lack of the credit card itself in addition to my uncertainty about which address i used in my order (my own or the one where the card had been sent) led to a humiliating process which included the guy at the ticket window wondering aloud if my mom had bought the tickets for me.

saturday september 12

today i met a girl who told me she wanted to change her name to "blithe," explaining its pronunciation by referring to it as "bliss with a lisp." i told her that, if it were me, i wouldn't want people feeling like they were talking with a lisp whenever they said my name, but it didn't seem to dissuade her at all.

friday september 11

today i had a dream that i was playing one of those carnival-type games that requires you to toss a ball and knock over milk bottles. instead of milk bottles, however, the objects i was aiming at were beer bottles. and instead of a giant stuffed animal, my prize for knocking over the bottles was the bottles themselves. this seemed somewhat counterproductive, considering that each time i knocked one over, they smashed to the ground, spilling all the beer.

thursday september 10

today i called our landlord to arrange a plumber to come by our house after the toilet broke. the landlord vaguely told me that the plumber would be by sometime "by the evening" (it was noonish) and indicated that she might come with him. since we've had a fugitive cat in our supposed no-pets apartment for a year, i had to hide any sign of him, just in case she did happen to stop in. when the doorbell rang a couple hours later, i grabbed digby and ran upstairs with him, throwing him into an empty bedroom, much to his consternation. i ran back downstairs and answered the door, only to find the plumber by himself. he then proceeded to spend approximately 90 seconds in the house, rendering most of my efforts fairly unnecessary.

wednesday september 9

today i was sending someone a link via facebook message when, as per usual, a captcha word verification box popped up. the two words i was required to type in read: "aa boners." what?

tuesday september 8

today i got a job working at mlb trade rumors.

monday september 7

today i was faced with the prospect of what to do on a holiday monday. having been out of school for a couple weeks now, and not yet working every day, each day had had a holiday feel lately anyway. an actual holiday meant nothing different, except that most places would be closed. not able to think of anything to do, i decided to have a nap, and slept off and on for two hours in the afternoon while the cne air show happened outside my open window.

sunday september 6

today i was listening to the javelin album jamz n jemz in my room, while talking to my roommate. after we'd been talking for a few minutes, the song "std fury" came on, a jarring change from the rest of the record. we attempted to keep the conversation going, but kept feeling compelled to stay silent and listen to the lyrics of the song, which eventually got weird enough to chase her from my room.

saturday september 5

today i went to the lcbo in the evening, in preparation for a party we were hosting later in the night. a female busker was standing outside, playing guitar and singing. at one point, when a potential lcbo customer attempted to enter through the exit door, she helpfully injected the line "other door, sir" into the middle of her lyrics without breaking a stride.

friday september 4

today i set my alarm for 6:50 am in order to wake up in time for toronto international film festival tickets to go on sale at 7:00. i then proceeded to spend until about 7:40 attempting to navigate through its too-busy website or call its always-busy phone lines and order tickets. finally, i just went back to bed, periodically waking up and trying again for the next couple hours. eventually, i got through at about 10:00 AM, only to find that the film i most wanted to see was now sold out.

thursday september 3

today i was browsing dvds at hmv when i noticed that a two-disc special edition of space jam was on sale for only $8. having a soft spot for the michael jordan/looney tunes mashup, my favourite movie when i was 11, i briefly considered buying it, but couldn't pull the trigger. after leaving the store though, i kicked myself for not even looking to see what sort of special features could possibly be on two discs of space jam. i thought about it the entire walk home.

wednesday september 2

today i arrived at squirly's to meet a friend for a couple drinks. i arrived about 20 minutes before he did, and spent that time sitting at a table near the bar by myself. although i didn't mind this, the bartender seemed to be dying of embarrassment for me. she came over every five minutes or so, asking me if i wanted anything, or if i'd checked the back patio to see if my friend might be there. finally, i accepted her third offer of a drink, if only to alleviate some of her pity.

tuesday september 1

today i saw the following advertisement when i was browsing the internet:



the fictional 'chat' between zack and jo materialized in front of my eyes over the course of about 15 seconds. however, when i first glanced at the ad, i was convinced that jo's first line read: "have u always been a moron?" for about five seconds, i was confused as to why the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints was using this invented internet troll to advertise themselves.

monday august 31

today i presented another installment of "another thing i did on these days."

friday august 14
today i went to campus, completed an assignment, came home, took my laundry to the laundromat, and washed and dried it. when i returned home from the laundromat, one of my roommates was just waking up. it made me feel more productive than i had in months.

thursday august 20
today i had my last class, ever.

tuesday august 25
today i passed by boom, a brunch/lunch restaurant on college. a large banner was hung outside the building, welcoming the 2009 "miss teen canada contestants." this led to my spending the next couple minutes of my walk along college wondering how old exactly these "teen" competitors would be and debating whether or not it would be creepy to walk past boom slowly on my way back to see if any of them were in there right now.

thursday august 27
today i felt my phone vibrate and realized i was getting a phone call. i looked at the call display, which read: "insta tax corp." groaning, i assumed i was being called by some sort of telemarketer and debated letting it just go to voice mail. not wanting to deal with having to listen to a voice message though, i picked it up and half-heartedly said "hello?" the female voice on the other end mumbled something i couldn't hear, prompting me to repeat my "hello?" in a more aggravated way and debate hanging up. "hey, just a sec," the voice said again, and i suddenly realized that it wasn't a telemarketer but an actual friend, putting me in a much better mood.

sunday august 30
today i watched as my roommates, surely influenced by my incessant recent talk about thai food, placed an order from the exact same restaurant that i had the previous two days. when the delivery guy came, he asked if he'd been to our house the day before, finally calling us out for being stuck in a rut.