wednesday september 29

today i went to the final blue jays home game of the season for "farewell cito" night and fulfilled my season-long goal of sitting in the very top row of the 500 level. it was just as awesome as i'd anticipated.

tuesday september 28

today i had plans to meet up with a couple of friends at 3 speed before the kitchen closed, so i could try their food for the first time. as such, i ate a very light early dinner in anticipation of going all-out when we met up at 10:00. unfortunately, after first postponing our meet-up until 10:30, my friends had to cancel, leaving me with no dinner plans and no groceries. i ended up walking to ali baba's and getting a shawarma there for the third time in four days.

monday september 27

today i saw an advertisement for this weight wise expo on the subway. when promoting its celebrity appearances the ad suggested that they were from: the "biggest loser." for my entire subway ride, it bothered me that "the" wasn't included in the quotation marks, since it's clearly part of the show's title.

sunday september 26

today i had a first date during which i drank two pints of beer while she drank a half a bottle. though the disparity was sort of funny on its own, it would have been even funnier if she hadn't moved our meet-up time back a half-hour, to 8:30. if we'd met at 8:00, i may not have had time to eat dinner beforehand, meaning i would've been ordering myself a full meal while she sat and nursed a lone corona.

saturday september 25

today i was about to head out for a quick grocery run when i heard the doorbell ring. i quickly threw on my shoes, grabbed a bag, and headed downstairs, thinking i could answer the door and then just leave without coming back up. at the door was a candidate for ward 18 councillor, kevin beaulieu. after introducing himself and giving me a brief spiel, he said "well, it looks like you're heading out so i'll let you go. i know it's saturday night!!" i had to hide a grin at the way he made it seem like i was heading out to party, since it was about 5:30 pm and i was carrying shopping bags with me.

friday september 24

today i had a couple drinks with friends at ciro's. by about 1:15 am, the bar's patio had cleared out to the point that we were the only ones left on it, which apparently was a signal to the creatures of the night that it was fair game. for the next half-hour or so, we watched in alternating horror and amusement as three raccoons ambled over the fence into the patio area and tried to get at the garbage bins that were positioned between us and the entrance. finally, our server came out to see if we wanted anything for last call and was so terrified at the sight of two raccoons in her path that she got a guy from the kitchen to come out and scare them off with a broom.

thursday september 23

today i had a dream in which i was studying in a library with the characters from the west wing. it marked the second vivid dream involving television characters that i'd had this week, probably a sign that i'm watching too much tv.

wednesday september 22

today i went to the blue jays game to see kyle drabek's career home debut. going on my own, i decided to treat myself by using one of the vouchers for 100-level seats i'd received due to the cancelled phillies series. at the ticket window five minutes before the game started, i asked for a seat "as close to the jays dugout as possible," assuming that my voucher couldn't be used for the BEST seats, and that i'd get something a couple sections away. instead, i ended up getting a seat three rows directly behind the jays dugout, by far the best spot i'd ever had at a baseball game. after each inning, it felt like the jays were all running directly toward me!

tuesday september 21

today i went to the bank to deposit my pay cheque. since the cheque is mailed to me from america, i generally take it up to a teller to have it converted to and deposited in canadian funds. while i'd become accustomed to this routine at my old bank, my recent move west meant that i was visiting a new branch for the first time. i was so thrown off my game by the change that, while making a withdrawal afterward, the cashier asked "how" i wanted the money and i replied "oh, in canadian." "uh, i mean like... twenties, fifties, hundreds...." she said. "ah," i said, embarrassed. "twenties are good."

monday september 20

today i had a dream in which i was playing a game of baseball with actors from it's always sunny in philadelphia. the game was going well until we got into a heated debate about how the rules for "ghost-fielders" should work.

sunday september 19

today i went to price chopper with a friend who was returning some bad eggs. the return process was easy enough; we made our way quickly through the line and she got her money back. after this was done, she announced that she still had a few groceries to buy, so we re-entered the store, she picked up four items, and we got back in line. as we got to the front of the line, she received a text message from her roommate suggesting that they also needed a cheese grater. so, after we paid for the original four items, we left the store, re-entered, found a cheese grater, and got in line AGAIN (with the same cashier we'd had the first time). it was the only time in my life i've ever stood in line at the same grocery store three times within ten minutes.

saturday september 18

today i finally took advantage of a far-too-complex guide to toronto restaurants/venues that i'd created in a spreadsheet last year. it was 3:45 am, and we wanted a pizza. consulting my spreadsheet, i discovered that the pizza place roma was open until 4:00 am. we made the call, and by 4:30 in the morning, were enjoying a delicious thin-crust pizza. thanks roma!

friday september 17

today i had one of those dreams when you're half-asleep and half-awake that seems like it's really happening in your bedroom. in my dream, i saw three mice on my desk, trying to get at a bag of peanuts that i'd left there. i awoke in a panic and immediately threw out the peanuts.

thursday september 16

today i was walking home from a friend's place along bloor when i saw a tiny object dart across the sidewalk in front of me. after taking a second or two to digest what i'd just seen, i realized it must have been a mouse. "weird," i thought. "glad we don't have those in my house!" i arrived home about 15 minutes later, and about ten minutes after that, i was sitting at my desk when i saw a mouse in the hallway dart by my door. ugh.

wednesday september 15

today i was roofied, turning a 20-minute walk home from the bar into a confusing three and a half hour trip during which i was convinced that i was dreaming and would wake up in my bed any minute. after eventually boarding an unknown streetcar at an intersection i didn't recognize, i finally arrived home at 7:00 am.

tuesday september 14

today i went to the drake to see sasha grey do a dj set. while we waited for her to arrive, i met a girl who declared herself sasha's biggest fan, and added that she'd learned how to give a blowjob from watching sasha's films.

monday september 13

today i attended the toronto film festival's gala screening of black swan. the film's star, natalie portman, was present, making it the first and only time i've been sitting 30 feet from an actress while watching her character masturbate on screen.

sunday september 12

today i watched the packers/eagles game in a sports bar with a couple friends. for most of the first half of the game, the feed on the tv closest to us was about 5-10 seconds behind the live feed that was on the rest of the televisions in the bar. since the audio was also synced to the live feed, we'd generally here what was going to happen during a given play, then watch it unfold on our screen a few seconds later. it was weird.

saturday september 11

today i was cleaning up the last of the barbecue supplies on our balcony when i noticed two giant raccoons waddling along the roof two doors down. from now on, i'll probably be a little too cautious when stepping out onto our balcony at night.

friday september 10

today i was on the rogers centre jumbotron for the third time this season. it's become such a common occurrence at this point that i didn't even notice and had to be told after the fact by a friend.

thursday september 9

today i went to do laundry at a new laundromat for the first time. after packing all my clothes into the double-load washing machine, i pulled out some quarters and started to insert them into the coin tray, only to realize that there were just two opening for coins -- the rest were closed off. worrying that i'd picked some sort of out-of-order machine, i glanced around at the other units, but ALL of them had just the two openings. "okay," i said to myself. "maybe you just insert two quarters at a time until you've put in enough." i inserted two quarters and tried to push the tray in, but nothing happened. baffled now, i stood there trying to figure out what the problem was. finally, i noticed a sign indicating that these washing machines accepted loonies, not quarters. this made a lot more sense, considering the cost was $2.

wednesday september 8

today i went to wal-mart intending to buy cutlery for our new house. when we'd brainstormed the things we needed to buy, i was given this lone task, while my roommates had four or five items on their to-do lists. after scouring the kitchenware section in wal-mart up and down at least three times, i gave up, unable to complete even my one chore.

tuesday september 7

today i was grocery shopping at no frills when i heard one employee tell another, "fuck you."

monday september 6

today i attended the blue jays' labour day afternoon game. sitting in front of us was a group of four high school students who spent the game singing along and dancing to the between-inning songs, talking about their school schedules, and complimenting themselves on being "real torontonians" because they'd come to the rogers centre and cn tower.

sunday september 5

today i solved my problem of forgetting which of my keys opened which door to my house by creating an acronym: SOGI (pronounced "soggy"). silver (key) outside (door), gold (key) inside (door). i was pretty pleased with it.

saturday september 4

today i was sitting in my bedroom while our landlords worked on repairing or replacing various household appliances downstairs. at one point, i heard someone coming down my upstairs hallway, and glanced over in time to see a vietnamese woman in her pajamas shuffle past my doorway. the woman was the grandmother of our landlord, and lived downstairs. why she was wandering through the house in her pajamas to take a look at our living room, i have no idea.

friday september 3

today i was on gmail when i noticed that a friend named "missingtreestar" was on gchat. vaguely recognizing the username as someone who was rarely online, i was racking my brain trying to determine who it was, when suddenly, i was receiving a video-chat request from missingtreestar. it turns out it was my best friend.

thursday september 2

today i took my first walk along bloor in my new neighbourhood. after stopping off for a shawarma at bloor and lansdowne, i started the walk home and had my attention drawn to the street. in the middle of the westbound lane, two cyclists had surrounded a car; a guy on a bike stood in front of the car, blocking its path, while a female cyclist stood beside the curb, yelling into the passenger-side window. as i continued to walk past and glance back, the couple showed no signs of moving, to the point where traffic on bloor was backing up significantly, and a passerby on the sidewalk yelled "run 'em over!" to the driver.

wednesday september 1

today i forgot to bring a frozen can of blueberry watermelon fruitopia with me from my old house to my new place, amidst the franticness of moving day. it was quite disappointing -- it was the one frozen food i had that wouldn't have been affected by being out of the freezer (since it needed to be defrosted anyway), and i really would've enjoyed a glass of blueberry watermelon juice tonight.

tuesday august 31

today i dedicated most of the day to packing and preparing for tomorrow's move. for the most part, the packing process went as expected, with few surprises. the most unusual thing i came across while clearing out my room was a girls' hairbrush under my bed.