thursday march 3

today i realized for the first time that the sign on the ali baba’s at bloor and lansdowne advertises the fact that they have "shawrma," which is either an alternate, little-used english spelling of shawarma, or a typo.

wednesday march 2

today i got to the front of a checkout line at a store and, instead of pausing my music when i took my headphones off, i just let it keep running. i’d never do this with a podcast - it always seems like i’d miss something and it would take me way too long to jump back into the conversation - but in this case, i managed to perfectly time it so that my least favourite song on the album played in nearly its entirety while i went through the checkout. that song was just ending when i left the store, and for whatever reason, this felt much more satisfying than it would have had i paused the album, then just skipped that one song.

tuesday march 1

today i found myself shovelling snow for the first time this winter. by the time i'd gotten around to getting out there and tackling the snow, it had really piled up, making shovelling a difficult and taxing job. still, rather than doing just the bare minimum for my shared house (ie. shovelling the area that would benefit me), i kept pushing myself to do it all, and was out there for upwards of 20-30 minutes. by the time i got inside again, my back was so sore that i had to lay down on my couch for the next 15 minutes to recover.

monday february 29

today i remembered for the first time in a couple weeks that i'm planning on not drinking any alcohol at all in march this year. although i figure i’ll make a decent effort to actually go through with this, the fact that i’d almost entirely forgotten about it makes me think that i may just accidentally have a drink or two at some point, and then remember my resolution after the fact.

sunday february 28

today i went to recycle the cardboard box of frozen meatballs i’d finished yesterday and noticed for the first time that it had an expiry date on it, which read: november 2, 2015. i was relieved that i was seeing this now, rather than before i’d eaten them — they hadn’t made me sick or anything, but if i’d seen the expiry date earlier, i probably would’ve either thrown them out, or would’ve convinced myself they were making me sick, like some sort of placebo effect.

saturday february 27

today i had a dream that i was asked to hold a baby and it was so small that it fit into the palm of my hand, but so slippery that i kept dropping it onto the ground. when it seemed like the baby was fine despite my drops, i said something to the effect of "guess the idea that you can’t drop babies is just a myth!" i can only assume the meaning of this dream is that i should never, ever have kids.

friday february 26

today i planned to meet my girlfriend in transit on the ttc, always a difficult thing to time. knowing where i’d have to be at a specific time, i left my house at exactly the right moment, and was pleased with myself for not running late at all. however, before i got on the subway, i realized i had no cash and had to make a quick stop at the bank on the corner to get some money. for the first time ever though - or at least for the first time when i’ve been there - there was a lineup at the atm at this bank, forcing me to wait for upwards of 3-4 minutes before getting a chance to withdraw any money. when i finally got out of the bank and onto the subway, i thought i was still running pretty close to on time, but only until a couple minutes later, when the subway stopped without explanation for five minutes, another rarity. by the time i finally met up with my girlfriend, i was about 10 minutes later than i anticipated, and my perfectly-timed departure from my house had been rendered useless.

thursday february 25

today i stopped at my favourite local convenience store on my way home to buy a cherry coke and a vanilla float dr. pepper. this place has the best soft drinks. as i was finishing paying, a guy came up behind me in line, but instead of putting his items on the counter next to mine, where there was plenty of room, he stood there waiting for me to get out of the way entirely.

thrown off by his weird patience, i struggled to throw my pops in my bag and put my wallet away quickly, trying to sidestep out of the way in the same motion. my quick shuffling movement caused me to step on one of my shoelaces, untying it. with me out of the way, the guy stepped forward to the counter and said to me, "hey, your shoe’s untied," to which i replied, "I SAW, THANKS!" in a tone that was hopefully cordial but almost certainly revealed my agitation.

wednesday february 24

today i got a call from fido during my work day, encouraging me to take advantage of new deals that included things like buying a land line or getting a second cell phone. although i had no interest in doing any of these things, i was reluctantly talked into letting the guy give his spiel rather than just turning him down right away. my willingness to do so must have made him think i was a real pushover, because after i continued to turn down his offers, he refused to take no for an answer, launching into another spiel and then asking me again if i was interested. this happened multiple times, and nearly pushed me to the point of just hanging up on him before i was finally able to politely end the conversation and escape without committing to anything.

tuesday february 23

today i was looking at the lineup for ottawa bluesfest and noticed that freddie gibbs seemed oddly out of place on a thursday bill that features the monkees, sam hunt, and two artists that go by variations of "the [white-person name] band." the lineup made me recall seeing freddie gibbs at the pitchfork festival years ago, when he put on a great show for one of the whitest rap crowds i’ve ever seen. here i am enjoying it:

monday february 22

today i went out for drinks with a friend to catch up. we later followed up on the hangout by both sending each other memes we’d discussed during the evening.

sunday february 21

today i went to comedy bar after a friend’s show to meet up with her for a birthday drink (her birthday, not mine). the place that i chose to stand was right in front of one of the tvs on the wall, and while i was hardly in a position to keep anyone from seeing the entire screen, i felt like i may have just been tall enough to block a small portion of it. based on where i was standing, this meant blocking the bottom right-hand corner, which was where the score bug was for the raptors’ game on tv.

i could tell - based on eavesdropping - that a few people were watching this game, despite the fact that it was a rerun of a game that had been played earlier in the evening, so i spent most of my time sort of leaning forward, hunching over, making sure that i wasn’t blocking their view of the score. because i was able to do this in a way that wasn’t too uncomfortable or horrible to my back, it seemed like the easier thing to do than simply moving to a different spot in the bar.

saturday february 20

today i bought 10 ttc tokens, used one, and put the other nine in my coat pocket. later in the evening, i went to a party where i threw my coat on a friend’s bed when i arrived, grabbed it at the end of the night, and didn’t notice that six of my ttc tokens had fallen out onto her bed for her to find tomorrow. while this was annoying, i guess the silver lining is that three of them somehow managed to stay in my pocket, allowing me to get home before i even noticed most of them were missing.

friday february 19

today i decided to use spotify to listen to a few bands i hadn’t heard before, rather than listening to my usual music with itunes. because my laptop often runs slowly when i have both programs open, i closed itunes. over the next several hours, until the end of my work day, i instinctively clicked on the itunes button approximately 15 times, whenever i wanted to see the name of a song or start a new album, having forgotten i was using spotify. in retrospect, the constant opening and closing of itunes was probably way worse than if i’d just left it running in the background all day.

thursday february 18

today i bought toothpaste at no frills. i’m not overly particular about what kind of toothpaste i buy, but i usually end up rotating between the same two or three kinds of crest -- the ones that look the "safest" (no weird flavours, nothing that sounds overly complicated like "3d white," whatever that is, etc.).

however, my girlfriend had complained that the kind i’d bought most recently was way worse than the one i’d had previously. having not double-checked the label on my current, almost-empty tube of toothpaste before i went to no frills today, i spent about 90 seconds surveying the toothpaste rack, trying to remember which kinds i’d bought the last two times. after plenty of deliberation, i made my choice and was pretty confident about it, so it was a bit of a bummer to arrive home and discover that i’d ended up with the exact same kind i'd bought last time.

wednesday february 17

today i was scheduled to meet three of my co-workers at 10:00 am at the rogers centre to do some setup and maintenance work for the coming blue jays season. having arrived at 10:05 am, i was briefly concerned about my tardiness, but it turned out i was the first person there — not only that, but i was the only one there until about 10:30, with everyone else arriving so late that i had a moment of panic where i became convinced that i’d shown up on the wrong day. nope, still just the only one of us to actually live in the city and not have to take forever coming in from the outer gta.

tuesday february 16

today i was going to wish a friend in vancouver a happy birthday shortly after i woke up, but when i realized it would still be just 6:00 am on the west coast, i decided to wait until she might actually be awake. a couple hours later, i noticed someone had written a happy birthday message on her facebook timeline. because her birthday date wasn’t actually listed on facebook, i had been hoping to really show off my bona fides as a good friend by sending my birthday message without any prompting, so i was a bit annoyed that it now looked like i was only doing it after being reminded by someone else’s message. should have sent it at 6:00 am after all.

monday february 15

today i came out of my house and was a few seconds away from "merging" onto the sidewalk when i noticed a passerby walking in the same direction that i was about to. if i’d walked to the sidewalk at a normal pace, i would have ended up almost exactly in line with him, so i was faced with a snap decision: rush out to the sidewalk to get out there ahead of him, or take my time and let him get a bit ahead of me, so i wasn’t right on his ass when i started walking. i opted for the latter, making a concerted effort to struggle to get my gloves comfortable while standing in my front walkway before making it out to the sidewalk. of course, i ended up passing him about 60 seconds later, so maybe i should’ve just rushed to get ahead of him from the start.