today i went to fringe to get my hair cut and was twice asked before i sat down if i wanted my coat hung up. i’ve noticed that this is common practice at fringe, and normally i’d just agree to let them do it, even though it makes me feel like a diva to have someone else hang up my coat when the coat rack is right there, not behind a counter or anything. today, however, i was carrying so much stuff - headphones, gloves, scarf, etc. - that i knew it would take me a minute to get everything organized, and i didn’t want to rush through it, so i politely turned down the two people who asked if they could hang my coat up.
when i was finally ready to do the hanging myself, i realized, after struggling with it a couple times, that the little loop on the back of my coat, which i usually use to hang it up, wasn’t quite big enough to fit over the giant hooks on this particular coat rack. instead, i’d have to just sort of toss my entire coat over one of those hooks.
after having done this, i noticed that my coat was so heavy - weighed down by my scarf and gloves in addition to just being heavy to start with - that it made the entire coat rack shift its weight in a way that made me feel uneasy. i ended up spending the first two minutes of my haircut thinking about how embarrassing it would be if my amateur-ish coat-hanging job made the whole rack tip over, after i’d twice turned down help. i think it ended up being fine though.
1/29/2016
wednesday january 13
today i typed an email address into my gmail search bar to look for an email that was literally the fifth-most-recent one in my inbox. i didn’t even have to scroll down to see it.
tuesday january 12
today i came outside in the evening to find my upstairs housemate shovelling the back walk, using a shovel that he'd taken from right outside my apartment entrance. he explained that he had recently asked our landlord to supply a shovel and some salt for us this winter, and that our landlord had since let him know that they'd left a shovel out back -- he assumed this must be it.
this piece of information, along with the shovel he was holding, left me extremely confused. since i've lived here, there has always been a shovel outside my basement apartment door that i've used to clear the snow off of our walkways in the winter, but the one he was holding didn't look likethat shovel. had our landlord come and replaced that shovel with this new one? had the old shovel disappeared, leading to the landlord needing to provide this new one? was i just misremembering what that shovel looked like?
this last possibility seemed like perhaps the most plausible one, since the shovel my housemate was holding didn't exactly look like a new, state-of-the-art model. however, this explanation didn't account for why our landlord would say that the shovel situation had been fixed, if in fact it remained unchanged.
hopefully it doesn't snow much this winter and the entire issue is rendered moot.
this piece of information, along with the shovel he was holding, left me extremely confused. since i've lived here, there has always been a shovel outside my basement apartment door that i've used to clear the snow off of our walkways in the winter, but the one he was holding didn't look likethat shovel. had our landlord come and replaced that shovel with this new one? had the old shovel disappeared, leading to the landlord needing to provide this new one? was i just misremembering what that shovel looked like?
this last possibility seemed like perhaps the most plausible one, since the shovel my housemate was holding didn't exactly look like a new, state-of-the-art model. however, this explanation didn't account for why our landlord would say that the shovel situation had been fixed, if in fact it remained unchanged.
hopefully it doesn't snow much this winter and the entire issue is rendered moot.
1/26/2016
monday january 11
today i had a conversation with a couple friends, in the wake of david bowie’s passing, about which celebrity’s death i’d be most devastated by if it were to happen, say, tomorrow. after some deliberation, i concluded that my answer was undoubtedly drake.
sunday january 10
today i went out to get groceries on a very windy evening. on my way back from the grocery store, i was standing at the corner of dundas and lansdowne waiting for the light to change when all of the sudden a scarf flew past me, heading toward the road. my first thought was to rightly assume that it came from someone else waiting for the light, but i’d been so caught up in the podcast i was listening to that i wasn’t entirely sure of that, and my second thought was a wild "wait, is that my scarf?!"
no matter whose scarf it was, it needed to be stopped, so i lunged after it, managing to corral it on my second try before it blew into the road. having ascertained by now that i was still wearing my own scarf, i turned around and was met by a middle-aged woman who was laughing and thanking me and saying "i guess i need to tie it up!" yes this is the windiest day in months, you're welcome but please don’t just loosely drape it around you again.
no matter whose scarf it was, it needed to be stopped, so i lunged after it, managing to corral it on my second try before it blew into the road. having ascertained by now that i was still wearing my own scarf, i turned around and was met by a middle-aged woman who was laughing and thanking me and saying "i guess i need to tie it up!" yes this is the windiest day in months, you're welcome but please don’t just loosely drape it around you again.
1/25/2016
saturday january 9
today i had a dream that before i went to see star wars episode vii: the force awakens, someone spoiled a major plot point for me, telling me that a specific character died in the movie. i’d done a great job avoiding spoilers in real life to this point, so i had a bit of a chuckle when i woke up at the fact that my subconscious felt the need to fill that hole with a fake spoiler. i wasn’t chuckling so hard a few hours later though, when i finally saw the force awakens and the spoiler from my dream turned out to be extremely accurate.
friday january 8
today i was at a house party for my girlfriend's best friend's birthday when i felt my phone vibrate three times in the span of about a minute. while i was loathe to be the person at the party who pulls out his phone and becomes engrossed by it, i could tell, based on the feel and the duration of the vibrations, that these weren’t text messages or facebook messages, making me wonder what was going on.
succumbing to my curiosity, i pulled out my phone and discovered that i’d received notifications from three different websites about the blue jays’ trade of ben revere for drew storen. considering i was trying to socialize with people rather than stare at my phone, this was the worst possible outcome, since i immediately wanted to text all my jays-loving friends about the trade and get on twitter to see every possible reaction.
in an inspired effort to be a good party guest while simultaneously reading up on the trade, i managed to find the other person at the party who i knew would get wrapped up in the news, informed her of the deal, and then spent the next few minutes occasionally (distractedly) talking to her about it as we both scrolled through our phones for the latest updates.
succumbing to my curiosity, i pulled out my phone and discovered that i’d received notifications from three different websites about the blue jays’ trade of ben revere for drew storen. considering i was trying to socialize with people rather than stare at my phone, this was the worst possible outcome, since i immediately wanted to text all my jays-loving friends about the trade and get on twitter to see every possible reaction.
in an inspired effort to be a good party guest while simultaneously reading up on the trade, i managed to find the other person at the party who i knew would get wrapped up in the news, informed her of the deal, and then spent the next few minutes occasionally (distractedly) talking to her about it as we both scrolled through our phones for the latest updates.
1/22/2016
thursday january 7
today i saw this tweet pop up on my timeline and misread "ossington’s newest salon" as "ossington’s newest saloon," which raised a handful of questions - where are ossington’s other saloons? why doesn’t this photo look like the type of place that would have swinging doors at the entrance? etc. - before i realized my mistake.
— blogTO (@blogTO) January 7, 2016
wednesday january 6
today i received my annual season ticket holders gift from the blue jays. part of the package sent by the team was a set of commemorative tickets for 2015's alds and alcs playoff games at the dome. my first thought when i saw these was, "oh, good idea to placate all those people who complained about only having paper tickets and how paper tickets don’t make very good souvenirs." but after taking a closer look at them, i realized that these tickets - while they looked and felt nice - didn’t include:
not all of these things were necessary, and i don’t really even care (i'll probably throw them out!), but would dates and seat numbers have been so hard? seems like a pretty easy fix.
anyway, the package also featured a personalized blue jays 2015 al east champs banner, which was way more dope than the tickets, so whatever.
- the dates of any games
- any seat numbers
- the price
- what game of the series each ticket was for (one was identified as alds home game 3 rather than alds game 5, for instance)
- nearly anything else that would make them seem like real tickets
not all of these things were necessary, and i don’t really even care (i'll probably throw them out!), but would dates and seat numbers have been so hard? seems like a pretty easy fix.
anyway, the package also featured a personalized blue jays 2015 al east champs banner, which was way more dope than the tickets, so whatever.
tuesday january 5
today i went to the shawarma place around the corner from my girlfriend’s apartment for the first time. although i referred to it as "king shawarma" before going there, it’s actually called shawarma’s king, a name i find more confusing.
despite the fact that i was the only person in the restaurant for the duration of my time there, and the guy behind the counter appeared to be giving me his full attention, he still seemed to forget things i had just told him. he had to double-check what exactly i wanted in my shawarma, and then after i asked for it "to go," he handed me the shawarma on its own and nearly let me walk outside before calling after me, "oh, did you want a bag for that?" hardly the behaviour of a shawarma king.
despite the fact that i was the only person in the restaurant for the duration of my time there, and the guy behind the counter appeared to be giving me his full attention, he still seemed to forget things i had just told him. he had to double-check what exactly i wanted in my shawarma, and then after i asked for it "to go," he handed me the shawarma on its own and nearly let me walk outside before calling after me, "oh, did you want a bag for that?" hardly the behaviour of a shawarma king.
1/20/2016
monday january 4
today i began to play nba 2k16's "my career" mode, in which you follow - and control - an up-and-coming basketball player on and off the court as he advances through high school, college, and the nba. having apparently been written and directed by spike lee, this story was extensive, featuring my character and his family growing up in harlem.
while this was all quite entertaining, i was a bit taken out of the narrative during every family scene, since my character was one i’d previously created in an effort to emulate my likeness, using the palest skin tone possible for realism — in spike lee's story, however, my family members - including, most ludicrously, my twin sister - were all black.
while this was all quite entertaining, i was a bit taken out of the narrative during every family scene, since my character was one i’d previously created in an effort to emulate my likeness, using the palest skin tone possible for realism — in spike lee's story, however, my family members - including, most ludicrously, my twin sister - were all black.
sunday january 3
today i went to the grocery store and, despite yesterday’s concerns, bought several groceries i’d never bought before, with the intent of using them in recipes that i’ve never tried before. i was so excited about all the new, healthy meals that i was going to be making and eating soon that i decided to treat myself to a foot-long meatball sub on my way home.
1/19/2016
saturday january 2
today i skimmed through a cookbook i’d received for christmas, reading at least a couple dozen recipes that i might be interested in making. although it’s supposed to be a beginner’s cookbook, i gradually realized that literally every recipe i was looking at featured at least one ingredient i’d never bought, or at least one cooking technique i’d never done. often a lot more than one, if i'm being honest.
friday january 1
today i ate nothing but domino’s pizza and parmesan bites. a wonderful start to 2016.
thursday december 31
today i went to bmb karaoke to sing some songs with my friends. about halfway through the night, one of my friends accidentally queued up "hold on, we’re going home" by drake literally 12 times in a row. when it came up, we managed to slowly delete 11 of them one by one to make sure there was only one left, but i had a real good laugh to myself thinking about what anyone outside of our room might have been thinking if they’d just heard us do the same song over and over again for an hour.
1/18/2016
wednesday december 30
today i went to a raptors game with my girlfriend, who didn’t eat dinner beforehand and didn’t have interest in getting arena food. during the game, she decided that, given my love affair with ali baba’s, she wanted to try it for the first time on her way home.
throughout the game - and during the subway ride home - we had a running joke about who would pay for it — ie. "if the raptors win, you pay," "if the yonge subway comes before the university one, you pay," etc. when we finally got out at lansdowne and started walking toward the ali baba’s on the corner, i noticed something on the sidewalk — a $10 bill!
shocked, i grabbed the bill and sort of held it in the air for a second, turning around toward the subway station to see if anyone had dropped it and was coming back for it. when no one came to claim it, i turned back toward lansdowne. my girlfriend, meanwhile, noticing for the first time what i’d picked up, made the decision of who would pay for the food by snatching the money out of my hand and shouting "free ali baba’s!"
throughout the game - and during the subway ride home - we had a running joke about who would pay for it — ie. "if the raptors win, you pay," "if the yonge subway comes before the university one, you pay," etc. when we finally got out at lansdowne and started walking toward the ali baba’s on the corner, i noticed something on the sidewalk — a $10 bill!
shocked, i grabbed the bill and sort of held it in the air for a second, turning around toward the subway station to see if anyone had dropped it and was coming back for it. when no one came to claim it, i turned back toward lansdowne. my girlfriend, meanwhile, noticing for the first time what i’d picked up, made the decision of who would pay for the food by snatching the money out of my hand and shouting "free ali baba’s!"
tuesday december 29
today i planned to run some errands, including stopping at the beer store to buy some drinks for new year’s eve. i’d received a beer store gift card, which i intended to use today. however, i accidentally left my house without it, a fact i noticed about 45 seconds into my walk, forcing me to go back to grab it.
about fifteen minutes later, i bought my beers.
about a minute after that, i realized that i’d paid with cash and had forgotten to use the gift card.
about fifteen minutes later, i bought my beers.
about a minute after that, i realized that i’d paid with cash and had forgotten to use the gift card.
1/16/2016
monday december 28
today i planned to make a quick grocery run in the evening. having not left my house or really even looked out a window all day, i was shocked to find when i stepped outside that there was snow on the ground and in the air. quite a lot of it, in fact. so much so that after i struggled to shovel out my walkway, i took one look at my near-deserted street, wind and snow whipping into my face, and decided i could wait another day to get groceries. didn’t even make it to the sidewalk before turning around and going back inside.
sunday december 27
today i watched old home movies from my childhood at my parents’ place. in one of them, from august 23rd, 1992, i said to the camera, "the blue jays lost today.... but so did baltimore and milwaukee!" there were certainly funnier moments in the clips that we watched, but i think that one was my favourite, since it was a reminder that even at age 7, i was the type of person who’d be watching the mlb scoreboard and standings in august.
1/15/2016
saturday december 26
today i celebrated christmas with my family, eating plenty of food and opening all the gifts we’d exchanged. during our gift-opening session, i picked up one addressed to me from my parents and opened it up. it was a box filled with those little things of stylistically-shredded paper for packing purposes, but when i reached down through that paper to the bottom of the box, there was nothing there.
"keep looking," my mom said, and for about 20 seconds, i frantically tried to sort through all those tiny papers to find the gift. having still not found anything, i looked back to my mom in confusion, at which point she had a realization — this was a box with nothing in it that she’d wrapped for decorative purposes and then mistakenly labeled as one of my gifts. while she was pretty embarrassed about this and felt bad about it, everyone else - including me - agreed that it was a pretty hilarious prank and she really got me good.
"keep looking," my mom said, and for about 20 seconds, i frantically tried to sort through all those tiny papers to find the gift. having still not found anything, i looked back to my mom in confusion, at which point she had a realization — this was a box with nothing in it that she’d wrapped for decorative purposes and then mistakenly labeled as one of my gifts. while she was pretty embarrassed about this and felt bad about it, everyone else - including me - agreed that it was a pretty hilarious prank and she really got me good.
friday december 25
today i went to my girlfriend’s mom’s place to celebrate christmas. my girlfriend’s aunt was also in attendance, and at one point she said something i couldn’t hear that i assumed was meant for me, since i was the only human in the vicinity. "sorry?" i said, to which she replied, "oh, i was talking to the dog. i don’t know you well enough to call you ‘sweetheart’ yet!"
of course, i hadn’t heard her say "sweetheart," but i liked the idea that she believed i had heard that part, despite missing the rest. like i was just sitting there not paying attention until she said "sweetheart" and i perked up and turned around all like, "did someone say my name?"
of course, i hadn’t heard her say "sweetheart," but i liked the idea that she believed i had heard that part, despite missing the rest. like i was just sitting there not paying attention until she said "sweetheart" and i perked up and turned around all like, "did someone say my name?"
thursday december 24
today i was unsure about whether or not my recycling and compost bins were scheduled to be picked up, as is typically the case on thursday nights, so i tried to track down the pickup schedule online. according to the schedule i found, my area’s pickup date is typically friday, but was getting pushed back to saturday this week. this seemed a little odd, but i assumed that, since my garbage and recycling is generally picked up very late on thursday night, that counts as friday morning. in any case, i figured i had an extra day to put everything out to the curb.
several hours later, i was sitting in my apartment and happened to hear what sounded suspiciously like a recycling pickup truck outside. i ran to my window, looked out, and saw that it was picking up the recycling on the other side of the street, which was a relief — apparently the schedule change i’d found online had been wrong, but at least i hadn’t missed the pickup entirely. i put together my recycling and compost for the week, and headed outside with a load of it, only to see that the truck on my side of the street was out there as well, only about five doors down from my house. i quickly threw my stuff in our bins, wheeled them out to the curb, ran back in and picked up the last of my recycling, and got it out to the curb when the truck was just two houses away from mine. a real christmas miracle.
several hours later, i was sitting in my apartment and happened to hear what sounded suspiciously like a recycling pickup truck outside. i ran to my window, looked out, and saw that it was picking up the recycling on the other side of the street, which was a relief — apparently the schedule change i’d found online had been wrong, but at least i hadn’t missed the pickup entirely. i put together my recycling and compost for the week, and headed outside with a load of it, only to see that the truck on my side of the street was out there as well, only about five doors down from my house. i quickly threw my stuff in our bins, wheeled them out to the curb, ran back in and picked up the last of my recycling, and got it out to the curb when the truck was just two houses away from mine. a real christmas miracle.
1/13/2016
wednesday december 23
today i brought christmas presents across town to my girlfriend’s place for our gift exchange. one part of my gift consisted of several similarly-themed items wrapped in tissue and put in a christmas gift bag, and the package as a whole was heavier than i expected. for the entirety of my excursion to her place, as i walked to and from the subway, and switched subway lines at bloor/yonge, i fretted about the possibility of the bottom of the gift bag just giving out, and my gifts spilling everywhere. i even indulged in the nightmare/fantasy a little by imagining the worst spots where it might happen, such as in the middle of major intersections. it felt like a real victory when i finally arrived at her place without incident.
tuesday december 22
today i accidentally cleaned my toilet without noticing that a piece of toilet paper was in the bowl already. the toilet paper broke apart into a ton of smaller shreds and mostly stuck to my toilet brush, putting me in the unpleasant position of having to peel the wet pieces of paper off the brush by hand. real dark times in my bathroom today.
monday december 21
today i wrapped all the christmas gifts i needed to wrap this year. having not had any wrapping supplies up until a few days ago, i’d bought a package of eight gift wrapping sheets at the dollar store, then thought to myself, "hmm, will eight be enough? should probably buy eight more just in case." i also bought three things of scotch tape.
by the time i finished wrapping all my gifts today, i had used three of the 16 sheets of gift wrap, and was about halfway through the first roll of tape. so, should be good to go through 2020 or so.
by the time i finished wrapping all my gifts today, i had used three of the 16 sheets of gift wrap, and was about halfway through the first roll of tape. so, should be good to go through 2020 or so.
sunday december 20
today i placed a pizza delivery order within 10 minutes of getting out of bed in the morning.
1/12/2016
saturday december 19
today i was walking west down queen street, when i spotted a friend walking east, toward me, still about five or six seconds away from passing me. quickly recognizing that this was going to be one of those situations where it’s not clear if a stop-and-chat or a walk-by-and-hi was in order, i stared at her until she made eye contact with me a couple seconds later. the timing of her noticing me was so perfect that i was able to do a walk-by-and-hi (with a brief turnaround after we’d passed one another) that included a "how’s it going?" and a "good to see you" in addition to the "hi," and i didn’t even break stride.
friday december 18
today i went to get myself some cereal for breakfast, and was tipping the box to pour it by the time i realized that i had gotten out a plate instead of a bowl. stopped myself just in time. no idea how my brain planned to pour milk onto the plate.
thursday december 17
today i planned to meet my girlfriend on the subway, or at jane subway station, telling her i’d be on the front of the back car. "should i clarify what i mean by that?" i asked myself after sending the message, but i ultimately decided it didn’t need clearing up. a half-hour later, i was waiting at jane station when a subway arrived and my girlfriend got off at the far end of the platform, having been on the front car. yep, should’ve clarified what i meant, my first instinct was right all along.
1/10/2016
wednesday december 16
today i was working at about 2:45pm when there was a knock at my front door. after hurriedly getting dressed, i opened the door and saw my next-door neighbour wayne standing there with an open cardboard box.
"this was addressed to you," he said. "i found it open next to my house, looks like someone got into it."
after thanking him and expressing optimism that everything was still there and it had just been opened mistakenly by someone, i took the box into my house and inspected it. it was an order i’d placed recently with indigo — christmas gifts for my girlfriend and her mom. although the handful of books that i’d ordered seemed to all be there, two candles that were also part of the order were missing.
i went back outside to the front of my house to double-check, but all i found were a couple pieces of the plastic packing material that had been in the box, strewn about on the front lawn. sure enough, as i feared earlier this month, the mailman had simply left a package on the front step and someone had had the audacity to stroll up, open it, and take two candles out of it.
it was such a bizarre thing to happen that i obsessed about it for most of the rest of the day. i had meant to go outside an hour or so earlier to see if the package had arrived, but had gotten caught up in work and forgotten to do it. if i had remembered, would i have walked out on the person going through the box? also, why did they just take the candles, which were only worth about $15 apiece, rather than a couple of the books, which were easily worth $30+ each? more of a pain to carry those books, i guess? i had so many questions and had never wanted so badly to have a security camera trained on the front step of our house. would’ve been some fascinating footage to watch.
"this was addressed to you," he said. "i found it open next to my house, looks like someone got into it."
after thanking him and expressing optimism that everything was still there and it had just been opened mistakenly by someone, i took the box into my house and inspected it. it was an order i’d placed recently with indigo — christmas gifts for my girlfriend and her mom. although the handful of books that i’d ordered seemed to all be there, two candles that were also part of the order were missing.
i went back outside to the front of my house to double-check, but all i found were a couple pieces of the plastic packing material that had been in the box, strewn about on the front lawn. sure enough, as i feared earlier this month, the mailman had simply left a package on the front step and someone had had the audacity to stroll up, open it, and take two candles out of it.
it was such a bizarre thing to happen that i obsessed about it for most of the rest of the day. i had meant to go outside an hour or so earlier to see if the package had arrived, but had gotten caught up in work and forgotten to do it. if i had remembered, would i have walked out on the person going through the box? also, why did they just take the candles, which were only worth about $15 apiece, rather than a couple of the books, which were easily worth $30+ each? more of a pain to carry those books, i guess? i had so many questions and had never wanted so badly to have a security camera trained on the front step of our house. would’ve been some fascinating footage to watch.
tuesday december 15
today i unthinkingly cut my ristorante pizza into six slices instead of my usual four. while this was a mistake, it turned out to be a fortuitous one — not only were the slices easier to handle, but the two pieces also sort of tricked me into thinking that the pizza was bigger than it actually was. gonna do this from now on, i think.
monday december 14
today i took the day off and spent most of the afternoon in various toronto bars having beers with a friend who was back in town from england. on my way home, around 7:30pm, i decided to stop at the dufferin mall to buy a few things i needed — groceries, christmas wrapping supplies, maybe a christmas gift or two, etc.. over the course of my whirlwind mall trip, i ended up stopping at walmart twice, having neglected the first time to buy a couple supplies i needed.
during my first time checking out at walmart, i ended up at express checkout #14, with a cashier i’ve had before, one who is particularly pushy when it comes to trying to sell you on getting a walmart card. this card is a thing that maybe i should have by now, but which i keep declining out of principle (what principle? who knows). anyway, this guy makes you feel guilty about not taking him up on his offer, and i’m not interested in being guilt-tripped at walmart. so when i returned to the express line the second time, i resolved to let the person in line behind me go first if i ended up getting checkout #14 again. not only would this allow me to avoid the unlikeable cashier, but it would also eliminate the possibility of being a spot where he recognized me from a half-hour earlier and made the argument, "how are you not gonna get this walmart card? you come here twice an hour!"
fortunately, i ended up getting checkout #10 instead.
during my first time checking out at walmart, i ended up at express checkout #14, with a cashier i’ve had before, one who is particularly pushy when it comes to trying to sell you on getting a walmart card. this card is a thing that maybe i should have by now, but which i keep declining out of principle (what principle? who knows). anyway, this guy makes you feel guilty about not taking him up on his offer, and i’m not interested in being guilt-tripped at walmart. so when i returned to the express line the second time, i resolved to let the person in line behind me go first if i ended up getting checkout #14 again. not only would this allow me to avoid the unlikeable cashier, but it would also eliminate the possibility of being a spot where he recognized me from a half-hour earlier and made the argument, "how are you not gonna get this walmart card? you come here twice an hour!"
fortunately, i ended up getting checkout #10 instead.
sunday december 13
today i went to la cubana with a group of friends. after some deliberation, i decided to order the pork belly medianoche. my last experience with pork belly had gone extremely poorly, when i ordered a pork belly dish with plums at whippoorwill, which ended up making me nauseous and unable to finish it. however, i was fairly certain the problem there had been the plums. don’t need hot plums in my life.
when my sandwich arrived today though, i had nearly as hard a time eating it, overwhelmed by the unappealing smell and taste. i’m still not sure if the problem was that the smell strongly reminded me of how little i enjoyed the last dish i ate that included it, or if i just don’t like pork belly, but either way, it was a real disappointment, since there were literally about five other things on the menu i would have liked to try. today will be the last day i ever order pork belly, it’s decided.
when my sandwich arrived today though, i had nearly as hard a time eating it, overwhelmed by the unappealing smell and taste. i’m still not sure if the problem was that the smell strongly reminded me of how little i enjoyed the last dish i ate that included it, or if i just don’t like pork belly, but either way, it was a real disappointment, since there were literally about five other things on the menu i would have liked to try. today will be the last day i ever order pork belly, it’s decided.
1/08/2016
saturday december 12
today i went to roux for dinner and decided to go a little extravagant, ordering the chicken and waffles. when it arrived to our table, i heard the people at the table beside us whispering to each other about it. while some of their comments were fine ("wow it smells good," "we should order a second round of food," etc.), i feel like they should have made a better effort to avoid me hearing them when they made certain other comments ("so many calories though").
friday december 11
today i checked my mail and saw that i’d received something from the blue jays. having been waiting for weeks for them to mail a playoff ticket refund cheque to me, this was pretty exciting, but as i ripped it open, i realized it wasn’t my cheque — it was a season ticket holder reminder package for 2016, encouraging me to renew. so instead of giving me back the money they’d owed me since october, they were asking me to spend more. smh, jays.
thursday december 10
today i noticed that the bag of frozen fruit i had bought and used for a few smoothies so far came with a warning on the back that reads "cherries may contain pits." even though i was already halfway through the bag and hadn’t run into any pits yet, it still made me a little uneasy. wasn’t i warned as a kid that cherry pits are poisonous or something? are pits hard enough that i should worry about them messing with the blades on my blender? why is there even a chance that cherries in a bag of frozen fruit could have pits in them? aren't we all using frozen fruit for smoothies? seems dumb.
1/06/2016
wednesday december 9
today i received a visit from a friend, one who lives in my old apartment and who is in my book club. i had a couple copies of our current book for her and one of our other members, which she was stopping by to pick up. as i handed her the books, she took out a couple of beers from her bag and passed them to me.
"are these erin’s beers?" i said, referring to my old roommate - and our mutual friend - who still lived at my old apartment, and brewed her own beers in bottles that looked like this.
"aaron’s beers?" she said, referring to our mutual friend in the book club who had bought the copies of the books i was currently handing to her. "i guess they should be for him, huh? maybe you guys can each have one."
while my friend was talking, i looked at the beers and realized that they were from bellwoods brewery, where she worked. these clearly weren’t "erin’s beers." because of homonyms though, my friend hadn’t even noticed my mistake, and in fact, i’d probably looked like a really nice guy, offering to give these free beers to someone who deserved them more, when i never would’ve done that otherwise.
"are these erin’s beers?" i said, referring to my old roommate - and our mutual friend - who still lived at my old apartment, and brewed her own beers in bottles that looked like this.
"aaron’s beers?" she said, referring to our mutual friend in the book club who had bought the copies of the books i was currently handing to her. "i guess they should be for him, huh? maybe you guys can each have one."
while my friend was talking, i looked at the beers and realized that they were from bellwoods brewery, where she worked. these clearly weren’t "erin’s beers." because of homonyms though, my friend hadn’t even noticed my mistake, and in fact, i’d probably looked like a really nice guy, offering to give these free beers to someone who deserved them more, when i never would’ve done that otherwise.
tuesday december 8
today i realized that the huge package of toilet paper (16 double rolls) i’d bought over the weekend was "ultra-soft." really spoiling myself to wrap up 2015, even if it’s by accident.
monday december 7
today i received a call from the canada revenue agency. as soon as the woman on the other end of the line identified herself as a cra employee, i remembered that i’d received a piece of mail from them several weeks ago that required a response — i’d skimmed it at the time and then completely forgotten about it.
immediately after i remembered this, my demeanour on the phone changed, and i started acting like i was a kid who had been called into the principal’s office. when she asked me if i’d received the aforementioned letter, i said "no," spinning a yarn about how my mail delivery had been unreliable for a few weeks. this was actually true, but i was so unconvincing in my delivery that there’s no way she could’ve believed me.
of course, from her perspective, she didn’t really care whether or not i’d seen the letter — she was just calling because there was one small detail that needed clearing up, and now they were trying to get it settled the phone rather than my relying on me to mail them back. i wasn’t in trouble at all, and when i shakily answered the one question that needed to be answered, she announced "okay, that’s it!" and i let out a burst of nervous, relieved laughter. she must have thought i’d never used a phone or spoken to anyone in a position of authority before.
immediately after i remembered this, my demeanour on the phone changed, and i started acting like i was a kid who had been called into the principal’s office. when she asked me if i’d received the aforementioned letter, i said "no," spinning a yarn about how my mail delivery had been unreliable for a few weeks. this was actually true, but i was so unconvincing in my delivery that there’s no way she could’ve believed me.
of course, from her perspective, she didn’t really care whether or not i’d seen the letter — she was just calling because there was one small detail that needed clearing up, and now they were trying to get it settled the phone rather than my relying on me to mail them back. i wasn’t in trouble at all, and when i shakily answered the one question that needed to be answered, she announced "okay, that’s it!" and i let out a burst of nervous, relieved laughter. she must have thought i’d never used a phone or spoken to anyone in a position of authority before.
1/05/2016
sunday december 6
today i was waiting for the westbound streetcar at dundas and ossington after trivia at the ossington. as the streetcar approached and i prepared to board it, a woman who had just come off the ossington bus approached me and the other person waiting at the stop, and asked, "are either of you using tokens?" i glanced at the other guy, who had headphones on, and when i saw he was ignoring her, i turned back to her and said yes, i was using a token, at which point she handed me a ttc day pass. "wow, thanks!" i called after her, feeling good about the fact that i could now avoid using that token.
it was such a nice gesture that i really felt like i should pay it forward by giving it to someone at lansdowne when i got off the streetcar, but i didn’t really see any candidates there, so i took it home and threw it out instead. i think the role i played in making her feel good about paying it forward was satisfying enough.
it was such a nice gesture that i really felt like i should pay it forward by giving it to someone at lansdowne when i got off the streetcar, but i didn’t really see any candidates there, so i took it home and threw it out instead. i think the role i played in making her feel good about paying it forward was satisfying enough.
saturday december 5
today i was walking up dufferin street when i was stopped by an old man asking for money. after i turned him down and we started heading in opposite directions, he gestured to my blue jays hat and remarked, "the jays are gonna be good next year, even without david price!" having been exposed to so many negative opinions on the jays in recent weeks, based on the team's offseason moves, i was so appreciative of the optimism that i regretted not having been more willing to give him some money. at that point though, it seemed like it was too late to go back and admit that, oh, yes, i actually do have change, just because he’s a blue jays fan.
friday december 4
today i placed an order with indigo.ca, arranging to have three christmas gifts that i ordered from the site wrapped and shipped to my parents’ place in belleville. an hour later, i received a phone call from indigo, and while i was initially worried that something was wrong with my order, it turns out the indigo rep just wanted to confirm that i actually intended to have the package sent to belleville. presumably this was just a fraud-prevention measure, but i enjoyed her somewhat incredulous tone, which made it sound like she was just asking, "belleville, of all places?!"
1/04/2016
thursday december 3
today i was scheduled to work at 3:00pm and saw in the morning that the playstation 4 i’d ordered from amazon last week was scheduled to arrive sometime today. since i assumed this delivery was the sort i’d have to sign for, this presented some issues — when i work from 3 to 11 instead of 9 to 5, i generally run a couple errands before my shift begins. but today i was too scared to leave my house in case the delivery came while i was out and then got taken to a pick-up location when i wasn't around to sign.
by 2:00pm, with no knock on my door yet, i decided to make a quick run to the corner store to pick up a couple things i needed. when i walked around to the front of my house though, i saw a big amazon package sitting on my front step, having presumably been left there by the mailman at some point within the last hour or two, despite the fact that i’d specifically said "basement / back door" on the package, which was worth in excess of $400+. while i was excited to see that my ps4 had arrived, and relieved that it seemed untouched, i was still a bit miffed that it just had been left there — i mean, it would’ve been out in the open for hours if i had a real 9-5 job at some sort of office and didn’t get home until 5:30 or whatever.
by 2:00pm, with no knock on my door yet, i decided to make a quick run to the corner store to pick up a couple things i needed. when i walked around to the front of my house though, i saw a big amazon package sitting on my front step, having presumably been left there by the mailman at some point within the last hour or two, despite the fact that i’d specifically said "basement / back door" on the package, which was worth in excess of $400+. while i was excited to see that my ps4 had arrived, and relieved that it seemed untouched, i was still a bit miffed that it just had been left there — i mean, it would’ve been out in the open for hours if i had a real 9-5 job at some sort of office and didn’t get home until 5:30 or whatever.
wednesday december 2
today i went to the toronto christmas market in the distillery district with a few friends. at one point, my girlfriend and i decided we wanted to ride the ferris wheel and broke away from the rest of our group to do so. there was no line, and we got on the ride pretty quickly, but it then took about another 15 minutes for our ride to actually get started — the ride operator was replaced by a new one, and riders in other cars slowly got off and on until the ferris wheel was finally filled up with new riders. by the time we eventually did our rotations and got off, it ended up being so much later that the chimney stax booth we’d wanted to hit up before the end of the night had closed.
tuesday december 1
today i returned to opera bob’s to pick up the pair of gloves i’d left behind yesterday. in the 20 or so hours since i had the phone conversation regarding what i hoped were my gloves, i hadn’t come up with any better theories about how the bartender could’ve known me as jonathan, which is technically my name but not the one i go by. i was half-expecting the gloves i picked up not to be mine, or assuming that i’d somehow misheard something in our conversation (maybe he said his name was jonathan, for some unknown reason?)
when i asked tonight’s bartender about the gloves though, hesitantly identifying myself as jonathan instead of luke, he was able to quickly find them in a cupboard behind the bar with a big "JONATHAN" label on them. so, ultimately, i have no explanation for how this all played out, except that last night’s bartender either:
when i asked tonight’s bartender about the gloves though, hesitantly identifying myself as jonathan instead of luke, he was able to quickly find them in a cupboard behind the bar with a big "JONATHAN" label on them. so, ultimately, i have no explanation for how this all played out, except that last night’s bartender either:
- thought i was someone else
- thought he knew my name and somehow coincidentally/magically got it sort of right.
1/02/2016
monday november 30
today i went to opera bob’s with a friend to meet up with a larger group for a couple drinks. when i left the bar at the end of the night, i’d taken the streetcar all the way to my stop by the time i noticed that i no longer had my gloves with me. as i walked home from the streetcar stop, i decided to call the bar, figuring that my best chance at getting my gloves back was to call right away and make sure they were found by the bartender who had just seen me 20 minutes earlier.
sure enough, the bartender that had been serving me picked up the phone, and when i asked about the gloves, he had already found them. when i said i wouldn’t be able to return to the bar tonight to pick them up, he said he’d store them behind the bar and label them with my name. "jonathan, right?" he asked. this caught me a little off guard, but my first name is indeed jonathan, so after hesitating for a split-second, i said yes and we hung up.
in the moment, i’d been thinking that i’d used my credit card with my first name on it, and he’d just remembered that, but after hanging up, i quickly recalled that i had paid with cash. it didn’t make any sense that he’d know me as jonathan, and now i was worried that someone else named jonathan had left his gloves behind and i’d be handed those gloves when i return tomorrow.
TO BE CONTINUED.
sure enough, the bartender that had been serving me picked up the phone, and when i asked about the gloves, he had already found them. when i said i wouldn’t be able to return to the bar tonight to pick them up, he said he’d store them behind the bar and label them with my name. "jonathan, right?" he asked. this caught me a little off guard, but my first name is indeed jonathan, so after hesitating for a split-second, i said yes and we hung up.
in the moment, i’d been thinking that i’d used my credit card with my first name on it, and he’d just remembered that, but after hanging up, i quickly recalled that i had paid with cash. it didn’t make any sense that he’d know me as jonathan, and now i was worried that someone else named jonathan had left his gloves behind and i’d be handed those gloves when i return tomorrow.
TO BE CONTINUED.
sunday november 29
today i received good afternoon wishes from facebook. it made me very uncomfortable.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
