sunday november 29

today i got groceries at the nearby metro. when i'd picked up everything i needed, i headed for an open line. when i approached the line, i noticed that there was a full grocery cart positioned behind the last person lined up. unsure of whether i should stand behind the cart or push my way ahead of it, i hesitated for a minute behind the cart, until its owners (two dudes) came back with a couple more items and took their place in line. this perplexed me. had i been in a rush, or if i were a little more combative in general, i would've had a curb your enthusiasm moment with these guys. i mean, first of all, an unattended grocery cart shouldn't suffice as a line-holder -- if you need to pick up no groceries, you're not ready for the line! take your cart with you! if you do need to just grab one or two more things that you forgot, well, there are two of you there. have one stay with the cart while the other gets the food. the way these guys handled the situation was just ridiculous. however, with nothing on my plate the rest of the day and no desire to get into it in line at the metro, i held my tongue, waited an extra three minutes, and avoided a confrontation.

saturday november 28

today i had brunch at disgraceland with a friend. during the course of the meal, i commented on how attractive our server was, and we joked about which of us she liked better. it was going really well and we were being ideal customers until we got up from the table after eating and started to leave. as we were heading out, i faintly heard the server's voice saying goodbye to us. however, by the time i realized it and turned around to return the comment, she had turned away and was heading to her next table. a disappointing final impression.

friday november 27

today i was talking to a friend of my roommate about music, when it somehow came up that she'd been a reader of the wedge's message board on muchmusic.com back in the day. i had been an avid poster at the same form. through a trip down memory lane, she came to realize that i'd been responsible for helping to sculpt a good chunk of her music tastes when she was younger. i'd never felt more proud of anything in my life.

thursday november 26

today i was so aware of the american thanksgiving holiday (due to the internet and the constant stream of nfl games) that i felt like i should be celebrating it and taking the day off.

wednesday november 25

today i worked two shifts at mlb trade rumors: 9-1 and 6-11. in between, i mostly napped and ate. ultimately, all i did all day was work, sleep, and eat. it was a sobering glimpse at what my life could be like if i actually worked more frequently than i do now.

tuesday november 24

today i went to my first toronto raptors game at the air canada centre. while my seats were in prime territory, five rows behind the basket, two of my other friends were sitting in the third level, approximately two rows from the top of the building. when we spotted them at halftime, i couldn't help but appreciate the moment, since that's generally where my seats are sporting events are.

monday november 23

today i witnessed two shopper's drug mart cashiers get into a tiff while i was the lone person in line. the older woman asked the young guy about the whereabouts of another employee, to which he replied "how should i know!" when she got annoyed at his flippant attitude, he was apologetic, explaining that he just meant he didn't know, and didn't intend to be rude about it.

sunday november 22

today i co-hosted a potluck. we had so many guests and their respective dishes that we ran out of cutlery. this prompted us to remember that my mother had bought us cutlery over a year ago that we'd never opened.

saturday november 21

today i experienced one of the most bizarre predrinks of my life at my house. our guests included a friend of my roommate's that she hadn't seen in five years, a friend i'd hung out with twice since moving to toronto, and two friends-of-friends that none of us had ever met. i made everyone watch BET now for a while.

friday november 20

today i received multiple text messages from my roommate, while she waited to get into the theatre to see new moon on opening night. one text informed me that a security guard had told her to "calm down." the next relayed that she'd witnessed two teenage girls get into a fight after one ignored the other, instead loudly singing a justin bieber song. although i was fairly bored, home on a friday night, i replied that i wouldn't trade places with her in a million years.

thursday november 19

today i had a dream that i was playing a mario-kart-esque video game with my brother. however, our attempt at playing a two-player race was foiled when the game refused to show each of our racers in a split-screen view. i paused the game and scrolled through the camera options, which included about 10 different angles and features, but not one was the simple, default split-screen mode. it was a very frustrating dream video game experience.

wednesday november 18

today i got a few groceries at the nearby metro. while at the checkout, i began putting my items into the bag i'd brought along. after i only got about three things in the bag, the cashier announced my total and i began to rummage through my wallet for the right amount. she volunteered to take over bagging my groceries, and finished packing the bag. after i paid and left, i noticed that she'd reorganized my initial three items entirely, making me question my grocery-bagging abilities, which i'd previously assumed were fairly solid.

tuesday november 17

today i spent a good chunk of my morning in my room being annoyed by the loud buzzing of a fly hovering near my window. finally, around noon, i reached my breaking point and searched out the thing, killing it quickly. the ease with which i was able to finish off the fly made me a little embarrassed that i hadn't done it sooner.

monday november 16

today i struggled through another dodgeball game with a bizarrely sore throwing arm, my hand even reaching the point where two of my fingers felt vaguely numb. after the game, however, an explanation for the disproportionate amount of soreness occurred to me: the arm and the numb fingers were the same ones that had been injured in a previous incident. perhaps they'd just never quite healed properly! although potentially more serious, this explanation made me feel much better than just assuming i have an incredibly weak arm.

sunday november 15

today i was watching the patriots/colts sunday night football game, when bill belichick made a controversial fourth-down decision that ultimately cost the patriots the game. wanting to share my opinion on the move with someone, i experienced one of the few moments where i was bummed out about living with two girls. i ended up coming online and talking about it to my brother, who hadn't even seen the game, and who i hadn't talked to on msn for weeks.

saturday november 14

today i celebrated the three-year anniversary of one thing i did today.

friday november 13

today i had my first real-life sighting of a degrassi actor/character (marco), when i walked by him in kensington. although i didn't notice at first and had to be told by a friend that it had happened, i still felt that it was a crucial event for my becoming a true torontonian.

thursday november 12

today i went to shopper's drug mart to buy a few items i needed. my total was $28.27. i pulled out a $20 bill and two $5 bills, and then went to grab 27 cents of change from my wallet. unfortunately, after i pulled out a quarter and a penny, i couldn't find a second penny. this unexpected hiccup threw me for a loop and nearly resulted in the cashier giving me 99 cents worth of change, until i threw a nickel on the counter and took my penny back. still, the exchange left me so flustered that i forgot to pile my items into my bag until she'd given me my receipt. when i finally finished bagging all of them, i tried to make up for my slowness at the counter by walking briskly out of the store, but ended up knocking something off the shelf as i attempted to squeeze past another customer. all in all, it was an embarrassing sequence of events triggered by my only having one penny in my wallet.

wednesday november 11

today i slept off and on all night, ultimately not feeling well rested at all when i got up in the morning. the reason: my (dodgeball) throwing arm was so sore from this week's game that the pain kept waking me up.

tuesday november 10

today i went out for dinner to a pub on yonge, near davenport. upon leaving, i was immediately greeted with a lineup that stretched down the block, outside the mtv building. i later learned that this lineup must've been for mtv's aftershow for the hills. while i'd seen this show in passing before, i'd previously just assumed that it took place in some sort of alternate universe rather than anywhere in my own city.

monday november 9

today i went to the bank to deposit my most recent pay cheque. since the cheque comes from america, i prefer to deposit it with a teller, rather than in the machine, so they can tell me the total amount (after the currency conversion) on the spot. however, i'm not a big fan of withdrawing money from a teller, since i find they often work slower than i could if i was using the ATM's buttons myself. so, after she made my deposit and asked if i needed to make any other transactions, i said "no thanks!" and walked 20 feet to the bank machine.

this turned out to be a poor decision. in what i can only assume was an act of karma, the bank machine spit out my five $20 bills and then maintained a death grip on them. i tried to pull the $100 out like i normally would, but the money was stuck in the machine. not wanting to rip the bills, i struggled for approximately a minute with them, wiggling the bills back and forth individually in an attempt to free them from the ATM's jaws. finally, i managed to pull them all out, but not without slightly ripping each $20 down the middle. in future visits to the bank, i intend to never again turn down a human to interact with a machine.

sunday november 8

today i realized that i'd been accidentally using someone else's internet network for the last three days, even though ours is now working perfectly fine.

saturday november 7

today i followed text updates of a poker tournament for four hours and then listened to a radio broadcast of it for three more hours.

friday november 6

today i stopped at a variety store with a couple friends on our way to a house party. while the purpose of our stop was so one of them could buy a drink, i happened to notice all the bags of chips along one well, and suggested we buy some. we agreed to buy a big bag of all-dressed, but to selfishly eat them all ourselves, rather than making them available to the entire party. when we arrived, however, this was harder than we anticipated. although i kept the bag in my hand from when they were opened until they were finished, plenty of other hands kept reaching in and grabbing chips. i just didn't have the heart to pull them away and yell "no, they're all for us!"

thursday november 5

today i attempted to give a friend a tutorial on the basics of twitter. although it had its bumps in the road, including a tweet that had to be attempted multiple times, i felt like it was ultimately successful. when she was retweeted, and earned a new follower or two, i felt awfully proud, as if i were an actual teacher who saw his student accomplishing things.

wednesday november 4

today i watched jeopardy with my roommates. at one point, i ran the table in a category called "number patterns," answering each question in about 0.8 seconds, displaying math skills that my roommates never knew i had. it was a pretty proud moment for me, even considering the fact that it was the teen version of the show.

tuesday november 3

today i was watching veronica mars on dvd with a friend, when we decided to take a break to pick up a pizza. we brought it back with us, and while we watched the next episode, we sat on the same couch, making it easier to share the pizza and dipping sauce. when we finished eating, i gently suggested that she could move to the other couch, masking my desire to stretch out as a concern for her viewing angle. apparently, however, my intentions were too transparent, and she decided to sit in the same spot until the episode ended, just to annoy me.

monday november 2

today i intended to wake up to keep an eye out for the filming of this movie, which was set to occur outside my house. however, not only did i not make it out to attempt some celebrity spotting, but i ended up sleeping through all of the filming and only leaving my house after it was over.

sunday november 1

today i had a dream in which i could throw a dodgeball with an insane, unpredictable spin on it. when i woke up, faced with an upcoming dodgeball game and much fewer skills than in my dream, i was a little bummed out.

saturday october 31

today i went to the dufferin mall and twice past setups where old people (perhaps veterans) were accepting donations for remembrance day poppies. both times, i had my hands full of groceries, making me feel slightly less guilty about avoiding eye contact and walking past as quickly as possible.