sunday january 25

today i took four cabs in the span of about four hours, which in retrospect feels like a real waste, but to be fair it did seem at the time like i had to get everywhere in a hurry.

saturday january 24

today i wasn't sure exactly when to show up for a haircut appointment -- when i'd scheduled it earlier in the week, my friend/hairdresser had said "noon," but yesterday when i got a confirmation call from the salon, they said "12:15." i figured the latter was probably more likely, but decided to split the difference just to be safe, and showed up at 12:08. then i waited until about 12:30 anyway.

friday january 23

today i updated my résumé for the first time since 2010, and there was at least one job on it - maybe two - that i wouldn't have remembered to name if i were asked to list all the jobs i had in the last 10-12 years. and i haven't had that many jobs.

thursday january 22

today i was lying in bed unable to fall asleep in the middle of the night when i noticed my clock had ticked past 4:00. at this point, i very nearly grabbed my phone and tweeted "call me our lady katy perry because it's 4 am and i'm wide awake." so glad i didn't.

wednesday january 21

today i went to comedy bar for a jfl42 show, having reserved a free spot at the show earlier this week by replying quickly to an email, one of my best talents. the free admission came with a plus-one, but after asking a few friends, i didn't find anyone to come along with me. undeterred, i went alone, and when i picked up my ticket at the box office, the girl working there handed me a second one, which i promptly slid back to her, saying "oh, just the one for me thanks!"

while normally i would've felt bad about taking one of the 80 available spots for the show for my invisible friend, the event was so packed that there was a waiting list for it. this waiting list included the couple in front of me in line, who were shocked to find there were no tickets waiting for them at the box office after they misinterpreted a "no seats left" email, believing they were on the list.

if my extra unused ticket helped them eventually get in, i'm very happy for them, even if i almost had to stifle a laugh when i passed by them a couple minutes later -- they were studying the email on their phone as if still trying to comprehend it, with one of them saying "you'd think it would at least start with 'sorry.'"

tuesday january 20

today i went to see inherent vice, and for the second time in my last three excursions to the theatre, the guy sitting in front of me pulled out his phone several times throughout the film, being a real tommy texter. is this just a thing that happens at the movies now? because it's terrible.

monday january 19

today i asked for 10 ttc tokens at lansdowne station. while i was standing there, waiting for my tokens and change, a guy walked up behind me. in the past, i've felt dumb about standing in the way of people who i thought needed to talk to the ttc attendant, when it turns out they just wanted to get by me to use the change drop-box. so, wanting to avoid that happening again, i sort of moved to the side a little, but he didn't pass, so i figured okay, he's just waiting behind me in line.

still, i didn't want to be standing there forever, so when i got my tokens, i tried to quickly sweep them all into my hand, and predictably ended up dropping three of the 10 onto the floor. i then spent way too long picking those three up, particularly one which i just couldn't get a grip on, and probably spent a good five seconds trying to pry off the ground.

after several embarrassing seconds, i finally rounded up all my tokens and shoved one into the drop-box before entering the station, only to notice that the guy behind me had in fact just been waiting to pay with change all along -- the reason he didn't pass me before was that he was carrying a guitar on his back and there wasn't enough room to squeeze by. a mortifying 30 seconds, all around.

sunday january 18

today i was watching the seahawks/packers game at the contender when a friend who was on her way to ossington stop (next door) dropped in to say hi. not a sports fan, she happened to come in just as jermaine kearse caught the game-winning overtime touchdown for seattle, and witnessed the whole bar losing its mind a little. overwhelmed by the experience, she stuck around for about 90 seconds before heading next door.

when i left the contender, i decided to pop into ossington stop to do a better hello, but when i walked in, she and two friends were in the middle of eating dinner. as it turns out, standing next to a table of people sitting down eating food in a bar/restaurant is arguably just as uncomfortable (maybe more!) than being overwhelmed by sports, meaning i also lasted about 90 seconds before seeing myself out. at least we tried.

saturday january 17

today i went to the bank to deposit my most recent pay cheque and had the same teller who had, two months ago to this day, recognized what i wanted to do before i even said it. assuming the same thing would happen today, i started to say "just want to deposit this..." before she jumped in with "into your american account?" i chuckled and said "yeah. thought you might finish my sentence there," to which she laughed and replied, "as soon as i see the cheque, i just know!" this caught me pretty off guard, since i'd assumed she'd been recognizing me and not my cheques. while i know in my heart that still must be true (like, maybe she recognizes me and then knows to look for the cheques), her comment left me quietly devastated and it was a real struggle to maintain my loose, genial vibe for the rest of the transaction.

friday january 16

today i really realized and acknowledged for the first time that i like salad more than i like french fries, particularly in the context of a restaurant side order. in the past i'd explained away my salad orders by saying things like "need to get something that feels healthy so i feel less guilty about this burger!" or whatever. but if i'm being really honest with myself, i haven't truly preferred fries in a long time. society tells us that fries are amazing but i'm finally comfortable saying that i think they're pretty overrated, you guys.

thursday january 15

today i ordered food from mother india and left a lengthy comment in the just-eat.ca comments field with instructions for the delivery guy. basically, the stairs to my door are so icy and dangerous-looking that i'm reluctant to subject other people to them, so i suggested in the comments box that, if he preferred, rather than coming to the back door, the guy could phone me from out front and i'd come out to get the food. i felt pretty bad about forcing the delivery guy into what i'd consider a real sophie's choice (risking bodily harm vs. having to talk on the phone), and when he eventually knocked on my door, the first thing i said to him was "sorry about the stairs." i gotta invest in some salt.

wednesday january 14

today i arrived at a first date about 40 minutes early so i could order and eat food before she got there. i didn't arrive quite early enough though -- i'd finished my burger by the time she showed up, but i was still working on the fries. still, good first impression when i offered her some, i think.

tuesday january 13

today i walked over to my laundromat to do laundry. i'd been putting it off for several days now, and it was to the point where i needed to do it, despite how cold it was out. however, when i arrived at the laundromat, shortly after 7:00 pm, the place was closed. i knew from past experience that it was supposed to be open until 9:00 pm, so it didn't really make any sense that it was closed, and it left me so disoriented that i walked by home and sat in my coat with my bags of laundry on the floor for 5-10 minutes trying to figure out what to do.

my laundry was so heavy and it was so cold out that i really had no desire to go to a new laundromat, where i'd have to walk an extra 4-5 minutes and figure out new machines. but i'd need to either do laundry or go out and buy new clothes before tomorrow evening, since i had plans and had no interest in wearing the same pair of socks for a third straight day.

ultimately, i decided to leave work early tomorrow in order to have time to go back to my laundromat during an hour when it will presumably be open. three hours of vacation time spent on making sure i have time to do my laundry, this is my life now.

monday january 12

today i ate my first meal of the day at 1:30 pm, nearly 24 hours after i'd finished my last meal. while maybe this wasn't the healthiest of eating schedules, it made me feel great about the fact that i'd really gotten the most of my all-you-can-eat brunch experience yesterday.

sunday january 11

today i googled "all you can eat time limit" to try to find out if there was some sort of general unwritten rule on how long you're allowed to stay at an all-you-can-eat buffet, and found the following enlightening lectures on yahoo! answers:

saturday january 10

today i was in line at the beer store behind a middle-aged guy who was buying about five or six beers.  after getting his change, he handed a five-dollar bill back to the beer store employee, asking if he could break it down into smaller change. then, as the guy handed him that smaller change, he gestured to his beer and said "and a bag for these." now, i'd already heard him ask for that bag earlier in the transaction, but it was probably at least 30 seconds ago by this point, and it seemed fair to mention it again, just in case the guy had forgotten. but the beer store employee did not agree with that assessment, snapping back "yeah, i know. i've only got two hands here, buddy," prompting the customer to apologize. the exchange prompted me to go through my transaction as if i were ordering from the soup nazi, careful to not make any special requests or say anything out of line.

friday january 9

today i finally got to sleep after being awake until about 4:00 am. although i slept well after that, things didn't end well -- i was having a dream about sleeping in until 1:00 pm and talking about how amazing and rare it was when my alarm went off and woke me up at 8:20 am. couldn't ask for a much worse start to my friday.

thursday january 8

today i moved some bowls, plates, and various dishware around in my cupboard to places where it made much more sense to store them, given how much i use each of them. i basically haven't left my house all week.

wednesday january 7

today i received my monthly email from rogers letting me know my bill was online. except it was the first time i'd gotten the email in two months, so i had not only two months' worth of internet/cable bills, but also an extra charge for not paying last month's bill on time. after combing back through my gmail inbox and concluding that i was right and last month's email never arrived, i was ready to complain to rogers about it. but then i saw that the extra charge amounted to something like $1.30, and suddenly became a lot less interested in the grievance.

tuesday january 6

today i planned to go to the movies to see nightcrawler at 9:50. before that, i took so much time to do a bunch of random chores that it was suddenly 9:30 before i knew it, and i realized that i'd have no chance of making it to the theatre on time. while these were legitimate things i had to get done, i also recognized that i probably took so long to do them intentionally, since the "feels like -27" forecast had me shook and i didn't actually want to go outside.

monday january 5

today i noticed that the entrance to the walkway along the side of my building (the one i use to get to the basement door to my apartment) had the words "don't enter" written in pink chalk on the ground. this was curious. i already knew from my reliable next-door neighbour wayne (who lives on the other side) that the landlords of this place had previously been against the idea of me - or whoever lived in my apartment - using the walkway at all, since they felt like it was theirs. but they haven't said anything to me in five months. would they passive-aggressively be making this stance now? or had there been other people using that walkway unnecessarily? no matter how many times i rolled the idea around in my head, i kept coming back to only one conclusion that made sense: my neighbours aren't fond of all the food-delivery guys i tell to come down the walkway to my door.

sunday january 4

today i was walking home from a particularly gluttonous brunch when i heard a mom across the street tell her young son, "when we get home, you're going straight upstairs to lie down and rest!" the tone of her voice suggested that this wasn't necessarily a disciplinary measure, but was at least something he might not be into. my first thought though was that it sounded like a pretty incredible plan.

saturday january 3

today i heard someone shovelling snow off the walkway outside really late at night. like, 1:30-in-the-morning late. while normally i'd appreciate this kind of dedication and hustle, it seemed like a real waste of time on this person's part, since it's supposed to be above freezing all day tomorrow and all the snow probably will be gone in 12 hours anyway. that was, at least, my reasoning for not having done any shovelling all day.

friday january 2

today i posted a photo to my instagram for the second time in a seven-day span and thought to myself "wow this is a bit much, i really need to dial it back."

thursday january 1

today i was taking the subway east, a little before 1:00 am, when i saw the guy sitting across from me start to vomit into his hands. although i'm pretty sure i was the first one to see it, my reaction and the noises he was making quickly made it apparent to everyone in the vicinity what was going on, and as he struggled not to do it again, people around were gasping in horror and saying things like, "oh, gross!" fortunately(?) for him, we happened to have just come to a stop, so before the doors closed and we started moving again, he stumbled out of the car and plopped down on the floor against the subway station wall, to the cheers of everyone in our car.

wednesday december 31

today i was walking to the subway when i passed by a car with two dogs in it. one of the two seemed to getting pretty anxious, moving around frantically and getting a little worked up as we walked by, but the other one seemed pretty pleased with himself to be pretending to drive the car -- for a second i even thought he had his seatbelt on.

(credit: @markeroon)

tuesday december 30

today i was watching the raptors game at duffy's and was treated to a 90s alt-rock playlist that not only made me rediscover this song, but also was just so good in general that i was almost disappointed when they turned it off in favour of the game's sound for overtime.

monday december 29

today i went to the contender on a night when two servers called in sick, leaving the lone bartender to every table in the place by himself. although the bar wasn’t packed, it was moderately busy, so i was pretty impressed that the service was still better than probably 50% of the bars i go to.

sunday december 28

today i saw a group of women treat a regular stop light as if it were a crosswalk. they approached the intersection, pressed the button meant to speed up a light change, then one of them extended her arm to signal they were crossing and they all walked to the other side of the street, even though the light was still red.

saturday december 27

today i had a dream in which i had a conversation about the john butler trio. this was bizarre on a number of levels -- mainly because i haven’t listened to this band in well over a decade, and haven’t thought about them in roughly that long either. in fact, i woke up in the middle of the night so shocked that they’d been involved in one of my dreams that my subconscious made them pop up in another one later on in the night.