Steph's Bachelorette Weekend - By The Numbers

Dates - Friday September 14th at 7pm to Sunday September 16th at 2pm
Emails sent between JennD and I the week before - 11
Emails sent between Steph and I the week before - 3
Glasses of champagne served upon arrival at the hotel - 2
Rounds of Cards Against Humanity played w/JennD - 10
Pairs of shoes bought, for myself, at Ardene's - 2
Time on hold w/BMO about cancelled debit card - 12 mins
Teapots on our table at Chateau Laurier's High Tea - 4
Relaxation cycles done at Le Nordic baths - 3
Times we saw someone holding a 'silence' sign at the baths - 4
Won at the casino - 20 cents
(Photo of ErinAH and Steph with the winnings)
Hashbrowns ordered from McDonalds on Sunday morning - 6
Times ErinAH redrew her design at The Mud Oven - 5
Distance traveled by ZipCar Mini - 1026 km

The Wonders Of Make-Up

----- from Facebook

WOTS Was Wonderful

After a very very long day, I am sitting down and reflecting on the last 17 hours. It was an amazing experience to witness first-hand the inner workings of a huge Toronto festival. I was on site starting before the break of dawn until well after sunset. There is great news to report: The Word On The Street went off without a hitch, and thankfully got treated to a beautiful sunny day.

I have been writing reviews for WOTS Blog and I go into the office to visit, hang out, and help Kristen on occasion. However, I was actually hired for the day as Kristen's production assistant. I was given a walkie-talkie, which made my week. The area was divided into zones so our team had 6 other walkie-talkies and our own channel to communicate on - which was good because we (I) had no trouble filling the air time. I also got to drive around in a golf cart for a couple hours which was quite a relief after walking back and for across Queen's Park seven times within the first hour I was on site.

Being a production assistant meant that I was the direct line for the 24 volunteers Kristen had for the Exhibiting team, so that I could screen questions and concerns. This meant that Kristen had to coordinate all the large issues and spent the day trying to work her way around to personally checking on each of the over 250 exhibitors. She did an incredible job. I have watched her work on/with this festival for over a year now and she is obviously very dedicated and very talented. However, today I got to see someone who I feel rose beyond intelligent, elegant, and hard working and became almost superhuman. There are no words for how well she did today. Everyone involved should be very proud, it was a truly magnificent event.

Almost Moved In

My New Chair!

Sitting In Bed - Looking At My New Chair

My parents visited me in Toronto recently and helped me continue to set up my bedroom here. (Yes, I moved in over a year ago.) While they were here I bought a chair to go in my room, I love it. The purple pattern along the back and bottom is actually a scarf that Heather bought for me in England; I will miss wearing it this winter since it looked really good with my wool coat - but I looks great on the chair. You may also notice an awesome bookshelf behind it filled with leather bound books, more on those another time.

Holy Pretentious

One of the coolest gifts I got at Christmas this year was a subscription to Toronto Life Magazine. Every year my brother and I get a magazine of some sort in our stockings. When I was younger it was Teen or Seventeen, then for a while I was getting Cosmopolitan, and then in recent years they gave me Fitness or Women's Health (they may have been trying to give me a hint there). However, this year it was Toronto Life. The December issue featured a cover story, The Secret Life of a Bay Street Hooker, which I had seen in the window of a magazine shop a few days earlier and had been super curious about. An awesome added bonus to the present - my parents got me a year subscription!

I'm really excited to be living in Toronto, but I'm still trying to get a handle on the city. I'm trying to understand the politics, figure out the nightlife, and avoid missing out on cool events. This magazine may help with this, but it also might be presenting a Toronto life that is just way out of my league, a league I don't even know if I'm interested in ever joining. Don't get me wrong, it is an awesome (and well written) addictive read, I love it and can't wait for the next issue. However, it is pretentious as hell. Proof: Just as I talked about yuppies and their love of fresh pasta in a previous post, the magazine has an article listing the top five restaurants in Toronto that make their own pasta on site. I believe the article (entitled Best House-Made Pastas) starts like this; "Factory-made linguine and penne just don't cut it anymore. These days, it's all about making it in-house."

Best quote however is in the Homes or actually Great Spaces section where there is an article on "Toronto's artsiest power couple" and their recent renovation of a beautiful three story Victorian home in The Annex. The article comes complete with many colour photos, on the photos are little black numbers pointing out specific architectural and decorative features, the numbers correspond to lists of little descriptions. After reading this my jaw dropped at the extravagance of it all. (Hey, we all love excess, I just spent New Years in New Orleans for goodness sake, however this is just ridiculous.) "The floors are white oak from Austrian forests harvested by Benedictine monks." Are you fucking kidding me? I actually do hope it is a joke.

I Can Be Cute

Drinks at 18eighteen with Ami. I ordered a Nights In White Satin, a white cranberry martini, since Cosmo said it was the new thing, also it was among the cheaper drinks on the menu. The very very thin waitress messed up my drink and used regular cranberry, so it was red and not white, she gave it to me, free of charge, and made the right one. Slightly tipsy, we headed home, I walked from the bus stop to the house without my shoes, because they were hurting my feet. I think I look a little like a librarian? Oh well, I was having a "Nothing To Wear" & "All of my clothes are either dirty or don't fit" Dressing Crisis, so I'm glad I was able to pull this night together and head out on the town for an hour or so.
"Nothing like two girls on a median."-Me, August 30, 2006

Ladies In Big Hats

I already love my house, my mansion, Le Manoir, and now it is even better. Ami and Ami's Little Brother Wes, who is really tall and buff now so not really "Little", totally cleaned up the yard. I'm talkin' 6 to 8 huge brush bags of stuff, and other bundles of branches. The lawn is all cut and the edges around our stone fence and flagstone walkway are all cleared with the weedwacker. It looks incredible. We have a beautiful yard. It feels like we should be hosting garden parties. Like the ones in the movie My Fair Lady or the book Little Women, with men in suits and women all dressed up holding parasols.