one thing i did today: 2006-2011

today i decided to retire one thing i did today for good. i'm sorry, you guys. i thought i'd come back fresh and ready to go after my hiatus, but all the break did was reinforce that i'm just not as interested as i once was in keeping this thing going.

thank you to everyone that read and/or commented over the last five years. if it weren't for you guys, i undoubtedly would've called a day a lot earlier than i did. knowing that people (including plenty who don't even know me!) were consistently reading and enjoying the site was really awesome, and i don't feel good at all about quitting on you here.

BUT know that the fact i'm retiring the blog doesn't mean i'm retiring from the observational humour game in general. you can follow me on twitter at @jlukeadams or (for extremely infrequent sports observations) @Adams_Luke. plus, there's that "random one thing i did today" button on the right sidebar that lets you revisit one of my 1700+ entries at random. so that's some consolation... right? are we cool?

thanks again everyone. stay positive.

monday october 10

today i took an earlier post-holiday bus than usual from london to toronto, arriving back in the city around 1:00 pm. an hour later, i walked out of my house and was met by an overwhelming smell of gas, along with fire trucks and police cars parked in the middle of the street. apparently there'd been a big gas leak two houses down. the fire department apparently got it under control, which was good because let me tell you, i would've been pretty annoyed if i'd come back to toronto early only to be right next door to some sort of explosion.

sunday october 9

today i was bantering with my parents, describing a big mistake i'd just made. inexplicably, i summed up the conversation by declaring that it had been a "big boner" on my part. there was a long pause before my mom said, "i thought that word meant something else" and i awkwardly explained that i was referring to its "traditional" meaning.

saturday october 8

today i went to my friend's dad's place to watch the first game of the alcs with the two of them. he lived in an apartment building, one that required me to buzz up to be let in. this process always make me a little anxious. what if i key in the wrong buzzer number? what if the exchange over the little microphone doesn't go smoothly? what if the buzzer number is different than the apartment number? in this case, my anxiety was totally warranted -- when i buzzed up, a voice answered, "[muffled] headquarters." thinking i'd somehow inadvertently buzzed "building headquarters" or the front lobby or something, i stumbled over my name before the door was unlocked. it wasn't until later that i found out it was my friend's dad, having jokingly identified his apartment as "detroit tigers headquarters."

friday october 7

today i turned down my coworkers' lunch invitation. five of them were checking out a chinese place down the street, and while i initially declined because i was feeling sick, by the time noon rolled around, i wasn't feeling too bad. at that point, i only continued to decline the invite because i'd become attached the idea of getting a solid 45 minutes of reading done over lunch.

thursday october 6

today i suffered through a cold at work, popping buckley's cold and sinus pills intermittently and wishing i could've taken a sick day. unfortunately, i used a sick day just a week and a half ago on a morning when i woke up after having only slept for three hours, and didn't want to use another one again so soon.

wednesday october 5

today i had a friend share a story with me about the time she suffered a concussion at a strip club after getting kicked in the head by a stripper. we've known each other for five years and this somehow had never come up before. i have no idea why. it's probably the best thing she's ever told me.

tuesday october 4

today i had a lucille bluth moment ("how much could a banana cost? ten dollars?") when, like a nerd, i went to a bookstore to buy clash of kings. having not actually bought a new book in maybe years, i was pleasantly surprised to see that it only cost $9.99. that's like a cent per page, you guys!

monday october 3

today i went to puck 'n wings with a couple coworkers. one of the two only comes out occasionally for lunch, and after the leggy, attractive server took our order, he commented, "whoa, never seen HER here before." i helpfully told him that she only works mondays, then immediately realized that when she'd walked away from our table, she'd only gone about three feet behind me, and was standing there entering our orders into the computer. the only hope i have that she doesn't think a creep is that maybe, way up there, she couldn't hear me. seriously, she's like 7'8". her legs just don't end.

sunday october 2

today i was walking home from a friend's house after watching breaking bad. as i walked along the sidewalk, i noticed a big black dog trotting along ahead of me. i was moving faster than he was, so i overtook him within 30 seconds or so, and then watched nervously as he trailed at my heels for about the next 20 feet, before taking off across the street. what are you supposed to do when you see a dog wandering the streets on his own? corral him and go door-to-door in search of his owner? pretend you don't see him? assume he knows what he's doing? ask him "hey where are your parents big guy"? the encounter made me feel anxious and guilty the rest of the way home.

saturday october 1

today i had a lengthy internal debate about whether or not to go to a friend's birthday bonfire. while a trip to the beer store took me practically across the street from the dufferin grove party, i felt very strongly that i didn't want my clothes and bedroom to smell like smoke for the next three days. eventually, i decided to go, then attempted to avoid the side effects by standing as far away from the fire as i could without seeming weird about it. two hours later, i left very cold and, of course, smelling very much like smoke.