wednesday january 7

today i was sitting on the bus, listening to the guy and girl behind me arguing about whether the act of loving someone was a conscious choice or not. finally, in a frustrated attempt to prove her point, the girl asked him: "so, could i just choose to fall in love with that man there??" since they were sitting right behind me, and i was sitting next to a girl, i was dying to know if i was the "man" she was gesturing at, and was tempted to turn around and say something like "can if you wanna!!" i didn't turn around.

tuesday january 6

today i went to the nearby cibc bank machine to withdraw some money. after inserting my bank card, the machine prompted me to select my language. i clicked the button marked 'english' and waited. nothing happened. i pressed it again, harder this time. still nothing. after trying one last time with no results, i reluctantly pressed the 'francais' button across from it. the machine beeped approval and continued on to the next step. for the rest of the transaction, i was fairly worried that my lack of french knowledge would result in my doing something disastrous with my money, but the process turned out to be surprisingly simple, despite my having to select a couple options i would've preferred not to, to avoid having to use the machine's one broken button.

monday january 5

today i opened up and began using a new tube of toothpaste. upon opening it, i realized what i had not realized when buying it: that it was significantly bigger than my usual tubes. its large size made me feel as if it was toothpaste for a giant, and that i needed to be at least a foot or two taller for it to be in proper proportion to me.

sunday january 4

today i was told by my mother that i looked "half-rocked" in a photograph taken of me on new year's eve.

saturday january 3

today i was home alone for the second straight day. though i knew that one roommate was in new york for the weekend, i only had a vague idea, a hypotheseis really, about where the other one was. the boredom, sickness, and solitude finally got to me in one paranoid moment in the evening, when i became convinced that this second roommate had actually passed out and died in her room; i was sure that i just hadn't noticed, having not even knocked on her door at all to see if she was in there, that i'd lived in the house for over 24 hours with this dead body as if nothing was wrong, and that i'd be forced to live with my inaction and guilt forever. i immediately went to her room and confirmed that it was empty and that i was, in fact, crazy, but it was a pretty terrifying 20 seconds.

friday january 2

today i was, regrettably, forced to dip back into the "another thing i did on these days" well early, as my actual day consisted entirely of lounging around, feeling sick and sorry for myself.

sunday december 28
today i wore, for the first time, my new pair of jeans that i'd received for christmas. the jeans i'd asked for were the exact same style, size, and brand as my already existing favourite pair, meaning that even though it was my first time wearing them, it felt entirely familiar. it was wonderful.

tuesday december 30
today i went to my local lcbo to buy some drinks. i brought a previously-used lcbo bag with me, remembering an incident in which the grumpy female cashier there had looked unimpressed when i said i needed a new bag. this time around, she was the only cashier working, so i was excited about the prospect of impressing her with my preparation and turning that frown upside down. after barely acknowledging my bag, however, she lectured me to "watch the bottom" of it, to make sure nothing fell out. one of these days, i'll get her approval.

wednesday december 31
today i had a nightmare in which i suddenly realized that my last 10 or so 'one thing i did today' entries began with something besides "today i" and that i had to go back and edit them all before anyone noticed.

thursday january 1

today i showered about an hour after waking up, then promptly changed back into pajamas, knowing there that was no chance i'd leave the house for the rest of the day. the usual new year's day.

wednesday december 31

today i was asked to lend a friend a certain t-shirt that i owned, and was offered his underwear as collateral. although his effort to take off this underwear while standing and still wearing pants was admittedly impressive, it didn't make the prospect of accepting the deal any more appealing.

tuesday december 30

today i was sitting in our living room at around 12:30 am, watching television with my roommate, when she received and text message and loudly gasped: "ryan gosling is at [nearby bar] sweaty betty's!!" within ten minutes, she had transformed from unkempt and uninterested in leaving the house to heading out the door. this left me alone to watch muchmoremusic's your fave videos of the 1990s feature, which i subsequently lost interest in around the time they were showing george michael's "freedom."

monday december 29

today i took the greyhound bus back to toronto from london. a girl sat down in the seat beside me just before the bus pulled out of the london terminal. as the bus was pulling away, i heard her say, hesitantly, "luke?" and experienced a feeling of horror. if one of my best friends were to sit beside me on the bus, fine, but someone who knows me so little that she has to question whether it's actually me?? that's gonna make for an awkward two hours. i began to turn towards her, then realized a split-second later that she was still talking, not to me, but into her cell phone, apparently to someone who shared my name.

sunday december 28

today i headed downtown in the evening, to meet a couple friends for drinks before going to call the office. not wanting to bring a bag, i decided to carry my two tallboys -- one in each pocket. though my coat pockets are generously sized, certainly sufficient to make this work, it created a predicament: lacking gloves, my hands were cold enough that it was uncomfortable to walk to the bus without shoving them in my pockets. when i put my hands in my pockets, however, they got even colder, due to the fact that i had to hold them against the previously refrigerated cans that were taking up most of my pocket space.

saturday december 27

today i presented a third installment of "another thing i did on these days."

monday december 15
today i went over to no frills to pick up a few groceries. i was coming out of one aisle and about to enter the next one, when suddenly there was a loud noise that sounded like something large and metallic clattering to the ground near the front of the store. "what the hellll," the employee stocking shelves at the end of the aisle mumbled. i turned towards him, aware that i was the closest customer to him, and wondering if he was talking for my benefit. when i saw that he was making eye contact with me, i chuckled and shook my head in disbelief, as if it to say "seriously!" i turned back to my next aisle, hoping to make a quick getaway, to avoid lingering. unfortunately, two grocery carts, side by side, blocked the way to the aisle, forcing me to wait an extra two or three seconds before sliding through, creating what seemed like an awkward silence with the employee, with me feeling as if i should add something to the 'conversation.'

thursday december 18
today i was doing our sports talk show on chrw for the first time in a couple months. a little rusty, we forgot to turn off the microphones during the commercial break, at which time the host immediately admitted, 'off air,' that he wished he had a better knowledge of the sports we'd just talked about for the last half hour.

thursday december 25
today i listened to my parents and grandparents have a 20-minute conversation about the merits of facebook, which culminated in my grandparents looking through my brother's facebook photos and my grandmother asking who his "fat" friend was.

friday december 26
today i attempted to keep a look of horror off my face when my grandmother suggested across the room at our family's christmas that my parents (in the midst of cooing over my cousin's baby) probably wanted some grandchildren.

friday december 26

today i was walking down the street at about 10:30ish pm in the rain, to catch a bus downtown. when i was still about one minute from making it to the stop where the bus sat, just across the street, it put on its blinker and began to pull away. a second later, however, it stopped! realizing that i was the only person or car in sight, and that the driver must have seen my wet, pathetic figure in his rear view mirror, i broke into a run, nearly wiping out in epic fashion twice on the ice before making it to the bus. upon entering, i was informed by the driver that he had to leave a few minutes early because the sunday/holiday schedule was in effect. i thanked him for stopping for me, and, after sitting down, realized how lucky i'd been -- had i missed this bus, not knowing that that schedule was in effect, i likely would've shrugged and waited for the next one, which never would've come, since the schedule ends early on holidays. a christmas miracle!!

thursday december 25

today i celebrated my 1000th day on last.fm. and also christmas. merry christmas, readers!!

wednesday december 24

today i opened my garage door in preparation to take the car out, and the first sight i saw outdoors was a ups truck zooming past my house, down the road -- in reverse.

tuesday december 23

today i had a dream in which i showed up at a new year's party that had a dress code which required all those present to wear nice shoes; dress shoes. when i looked down at my feet, not only was i not wearing dress shoes, but the shoes i was wearing didn't even match -- a running shoe on one foot and a boot on the other!!

monday december 22

today i went to the mall, intending to finish my christmas shopping, and ended up buying three times as many things for myself as for others.

sunday december 21

today i drove to a friend's house to pick her up. i'd driven to the house dozens of times in the past, knowing exactly which turns to make, and where it was on the street: the second driveway on the left after turning onto the street. this time, however, the first driveway on the left was covered with snow, its house vacant, after being the site of a drug bust earlier in the year. not recognizing the spot where that driveway was, i managed to drive right past my friend's driveway before clumsily pulling back around in the snow, startling a pedestrian who was walking along the road nearby.

saturday december 20

today i watched the second half of the canadian film too cool for christmas with a friend. it wasn't until the movie had finished that i became aware we'd watched it all with the volume turned to a barely audible level, and had entirely filled in the plot based on our running commentary of our perception of what was happening, and based on the brief, one-sentence description in the 'guide' section

friday december 19

today i went out for dinner with my parents, to east side mario's. when the waiter first approached our table, the first thing he asked was whether we'd been to the restaurant before, to which my mother replied "not this location." this prompted the waiter to go into detail about their features and specials and so forth, while i concernedly remembered a time when we had, in fact, been to the restaurant before. for the next few minutes, i felt we ought to set the record straight with the waiter, though it seemed unlikely that he'd be interested.