Toronto Grammer

I pass a flower shop every morning on the bus and a sign on the window always makes me smile. There is some questionable grammar, but the line breaks amuse me more. On the front of Yen's Flower Shop:

DAILY FRESH CUT

FLOWERS POTTED

PLANTS GIFTS

WE DELIVERY

Normally I would be saddened that a sign company allowed incorrect verb tenses to go uncorrected, but it looks like the list is made by sticking letters on the window, not a sign created as a whole.

The shop also makes me smile because it reminds me of Yen, even though he spells it Yan and that is actually his last name and his real name is Zhe. Still, makes me miss him, now that he lives in Montreal we don't see each other very often.

Bu-Bye BMO

Yesterday I closed down my Bank of Montreal account. Now I am only left with accounts in Tangerine, formerly known as ING Direct. It is strange to be solely relying on direct banking. (From Wiki: A direct bank is a bank without any branch network that offers its services remotely via online banking and telephone banking and may also provides access via ATMs through interbank network alliances, mail and mobile. By eliminating the costs associated with bank branches, direct banks can make significant savings which they may pass on to clients via higher interest rates or lower service charges.) My main, and only, reason for the full switch over is cost. I couldn't justify paying a monthly fee for my account at BMO when I didn't have to with Tangerine. I found out while I was there that I opened my bank account in November of 1995, I was 11 years old. It was sad to leave, but it is important to me to save the monthly charge.

Money Challenge - Jason's Week 5 - Update

JASON'S CHALLENGE 
Time Frame: One week. Monday April 15 to Sunday April 21, 2013
*Loose Change: Gather all the coins lying around the multiple locations of the apartment (desk, bedside table, bookcase, table by the front door, coin jars, etc.) and take them into a free coin counter at a Bank of Montreal.*

UPDATE:

Save Your Tears

Save your tears, it is only the second game; but is this the start of it? I have only been living in Toronto for a few seasons but no matter where I live, I have always loved the Leafs. I can tell you that distance does not dull the pain and I was angry with their poor performance when I lived in Ottawa, and home in Paris (Ontario). The Season Opener in Montreal went well, we won 2 to 1 for those of you who don't follow hockey, but last night, at the Home Opener no less, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost. (Though the last 5 minutes or so were quite exciting but need I remind a professional hockey team that they should play well for the entire game? It is, you know, their job.) Anyway, it is a shortened season, which I guess makes it more like ripping off a band-aid: the hurt will end quickly. Go Leafs Go?

Brain Dead Tonight

There is a lot going on but I am struggling to find anything to write tonight, even though:
- it is election night in the US
- I have an amazing boyfriend that I haven't written about
- there was snow today
- I just got back from a trip to Ottawa and Montreal

Brain dead, uninspired, writer's block. Maybe tomorrow will be a better blog day.

Breathtaking Images

I wanted to pick one or two images from this series to share on Always Standing before providing the link to view them all - but I couldn't pick. I also don't know how to describe this so am going to use the wiki article:

Jon Rafman (born 1981, Quebec, Canada) is a Montreal based contemporary artist perhaps best known for exhibiting found images from Google Street View.

9-Eyes

I stumbled upon this a while ago and have been meaning to post about it. I found it so haunting - beautiful and not beautiful at the same time. The images and idea stuck with me. I looked through them again now and I found it just as powerful. I really appreciate that the artist doesn't add any text. (I also like that he is Canadian.)

In Ottawa

Two and I are on a whirlwind visit to Ottawa. I wanted to do some Christmas shopping here as well as visit as many of my friends and family who live here as possible. I am also hoping to pop to Montreal to see Yen and his new house. I don't know if I can get it all done!

Guest Writer - Planes - Steph

From Stephanie Beach, writer of The Great Abyss
Photos by Stephanie Beach Photography:

Plane, Trains and Automobiles - Part I
3 Flights

I have taken 3 round-trip flights in a plane in my lifetime – All within the last two (ish) years. As I am not the greatest with nausea I thought flying would be a rather unpleasant experience for me, but it was actually pretty good.

I started off with a big one, Ottawa to Montreal to London, England (and back ten days later). It was a 6 and half hour long trip (there, 7+ hours return) and could have been miserable. But it was actually pretty fun. My ears popped pretty quickly when we were ascending and there was little to no turbulence. There were no crying babies that I remember and the seats were really comfy.
The two flights since then have been shorter, but less pleasant. For example, when I flew from Ottawa to Chicago for work, the plane was very small and experienced a great deal of turbulence. It was also packed and my iPod was out of batteries going in both directions.
The most recent flight was from Syracuse, NY to NY, NY to Tampa Bay, FL. The way down was fine, but the way home was a little bumpy and led to me getting a little uncomfortable. But I was fine and it also wasn’t that long (5 hours in total I think).
When it comes right down to it, I lean more towards being a fan of flying than not. Though I can see how people wouldn’t enjoy it – but really, how else are you going to see the world?!

Guest Writer - Top Ten - Steph

From Stephanie Beach, writer of The Great Abyss:

Top Ten

Pretty much anytime I travel I take along a Top Ten Travel book. When Chris and I went to London, England she bought the London Top Ten book. When Dave and I went to Montreal, we purchased the Montreal/Quebec City book, which will later be used for our trip to Quebec City. When I had to go to Chicago for work, I of course got the Chicago book, which was later borrowed by a co-worker when he went a few months later. I also own the Las Vegas book as Dave and I will eventually be going there as well.

They are wonderful purse-sized books that let you know the best things to do in each city. They have maps both in the book itself but also ones you can take out and use during your travels. The listing are wonderful, everything from the sites to see to the places to eat and where to sleep. It takes into consideration all demographics as well as it has family sites, nightlife information and where to go depending on your sexuality. I find them very useful and as they are usually only about $12 a pop, they are well worth the money.

BMO Contest

There is a cool contest being held by the Bank of Montreal for a trip to the Calgary Stampede! I have always wanted to go (and it corresponds perfectly with the time I am already planning to be out there visiting Anne, ERin, and my brother before my big trip.) I have always used BMO, they were awesome in Paris and my only complaint about them in Ottawa is that there aren't enough branches, if you use them too go check out the contest and enter. It is the type that every time you use your debit or credit card then you get put in a draw. (This is how my Dad won a car in the 1980's - I forget what bank it was with though.) Good luck!!

Weekends

I am filling up my weekends fast!!
March 6&7 -- Montreal, Get China tickets with Yen, Visit with Anna & Wes
March 13&14 -- Yen's visit, Erin's party, Maybe snowboarding
March 20&21 -- Maybe visit from Teri.
March 27&28 -- Hair cut, Kristen & Taylor visiting
April 3&4 -- Easter, Maybe going home
April 10&11 -- Newfoundland!!!!

Poetic Thanksgiving

I am leaving tonight for a little trip to Halifax for Thanksgiving weekend. I'm going with Anna and staying at her parents. This is a much needed Anna visit since she now lives in Montreal and it is harder to stay in touch. I was so much easier when she worked full time on campus! I am also going to see Little Brother Mike who is out there training, something to do with scuba diving or blowing things up or both together or something. As everyone knows I miss him terribly and love him so much, can't wait for the visit!! I want to keep the blog going since I really don't like to take long breaks from it. So, I thought I might write you some poems for the holiday! Stay Tuned. Happy Thanksgiving!

Jon Lajoie Lyrics

As mentioned in my post about Montreal, we went to see Jon Lajoie live. It was very good, very funny. Seriously if you haven't seen his stuff look it up on YouTube. The following are my favorite three sections of his songs. There is a bit of swearing and it is a little crude. His songs are sort of like that but also I think I just find those parts the funniest.

From "High As Fuck"
You ever eat a whole bag of crackers that were so old
That they weren't crispy anymore?
Have you ever been high... as fuck?
From "Show Me Your Genitals"
I can't have sex with your personality,
And I can't put my penis in your college degree,
And I can't shove my fist in your childhood dreams,
So why're you sharing all this information with me?
From "Pop Song"
Cause all you gotta say is ohh baby I love you and girl I need you in my world
Cause they'll market this song to young impressionable and insecure teenage girls
Cause all they gotta do is find a sexually attractive man that can sing all the words
And now the token rap verse
That doesnt make any sense but helps to get a small percentage of the urban music market
Hey baby baby
I can tell that you are crazy crazy
Shake that ass girl
My rhymes are gettin lazy lazy
These things im talkin bout have nothin to do with the song baby
It doesnt matter wont you show me that thong baby

Montreal Weekend

I spent this past weekend in Montreal. Jerrica and I went Thursday and were joined by Erin on Friday. It was a great trip
-Hung out with Yen, it is nice to still have a friendship with him even though he has moved away from Ottawa
-The apple juice at breakfast tasted strange, almost like cider
-I was chased by a big bird in the Rainforest section of The Biodome
-Montreal's bus station has way better security than Ottawa's
-There was a bathtub in the hotel room, used it four times in three days
-Jer and I wrote a list of which channels were English on the TV, manly watched the one that played movies most of which were from the '80s
-Slept on the bus ride there, drooled
-Jer got pretty drunk on Thursday night, I got very drunk on Saturday night
-The kitchen in our hotel room only had two forks, was missing a can opener, ended up being really hard to find one that worked
-Jon Lajoie is awesome live, if you haven't heard of him look the name up on YouTube, great stuff
-Jerrica's first try at snowboarding went way better than mine
-Montreal has some crazies and they liked to talk to us
-The hotel made us give them a $100 deposit
-Jer and Erin cooked two awesome dinners and I did the dishes
-We could have watched the penguins at The Biodome forever, we even made up soap opera stories about them
-Jerrica's snowboarding instructor was pretty hot
-Got to see some of Erin's India photo's
-Walked most places, only used the subway on the Saturday
-We couldn't find the Bible in our hotel room
-I did some jumping on my snowboard for the first time in a long time, got some serious inch to inch and a half air
-Didn't make it to Old Montreal
-I am still amazed at Jerrica's ability to cuddle up to hot celebrities
-The DJ at Club Tokyo would only play about 30 seconds of a song before switching it, I knew pretty much everything which was great

Media Photography - #9

Cheeky Monkey
By Christine Sweeton
(Thanks to Steph for her instruction on Photoshop)

In Montreal

I'm spending a long weekend in Montreal. Even though we have internet in our suite-ass hotel room, I'm obviously not really spending alot of time blogging or on the computer. Too much to do, too much to see. I love this city.

NHL Coalition

I really like the idea of a Liberal-NDP coalition in government. I have been following it on the news (CBC's website actually, along with the daily bus paper The Metro.) What I really love though is satire. The following was sent to me in an office forward and I think it is hilarious!! (Go Leafs!)

Canada was stunned Monday when it was announced that The Stanley Cup will be awarded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, possibly as early as December 6th. The cup will be stripped from the 2008 playoff champions the Detroit Red Wings and be awarded to the Leafs, who didn't even make the playoffs. How is this possible, Canadians ask? Well, the Leafs have formed a coalition with eastern conference semifinalists the Montreal Canadians, and conference quarter finalists the Ottawa Senators, now outnumbering the Red Wings. According to current Leaf coach Ron Wilson "the Red Wings have lost the confidence of the league and should hand the cup over immediately to our coalition". The new head coach of the coalition team has begun his PR campaign (with photo ops) to bring Canadians on side. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is cutting short a European trip to try to resolve the unprecedented hockey crisis that could force a second playoff series, or see an opposing team coalition take the cup.

Old School

I took the train home from Toronto last night. It took forever because it made alot of stops, way more than on the way down last weekend. At the start of the trip they welcomed us to Train648 to Ottawa and Train45 to Montreal, I didn't think anything of it at the time. Then at Brockville they announced that they would be turning off the power for a bit to disconnect the trains since half of the train was going up to Ottawa and the other part was carrying on to Montreal. I know they used to do this alot in the olden days, think pioneers and stem equines, but I had never experienced it on VIA before. It makes tons of sense, lower your environmental footprint, save costs and use just one equine to get most of the way then split off. I feel connected to the past and future.

The Rideau Club

I go to a number of trade shows for work. They tend to all be very similar. This week Tourism Montreal decided to put a new spin on the whole trade show networking concept. They ran an evening event at The Rideau Club downtown. Event coordinators and their guests showed up and giving the name of their favourite charity on the back of their business cards, spent the time eating, drinking, and mingling with hotels and other events related businesses from Montreal. Throughout the evening the different companies representatives handed fake money over to the guests, at a designated time all the money was collected and counted. The corporations then donated that amount to charity. They drew from the business cards and the winner got a weekend trip to Montreal and the money went towards their chosen charity. Besides being a strange style of trade show, the draw of visiting The Rideau Club was very interesting. Tons of tasty fancy appetisers and an open bar made the night even more enjoyable. Anne came with me, as I had no idea when to expect from the event and even less of an idea about The Rideau Club, which is an exclusive club with a strict dress code. It has what must be the best view in the entire city, situated on the 15th floor in one of the office buildings downtown, right above the parliament buildings, looking over them to the Ottawa River. The Rideau Club started in 1865 and was an initiative of Sir John A. Macdonald, who was their first president. They have a fine dining restaurant, private library, piano bar, lounge, even a private elevator, which has only two buttons, Ground and 15. I thought that I might see it and start to dream of the point in my career where I would be a member at such an establishment, but I didn't. I was rather put off, and still don't really understand what the point of it is. It is too elitist, which I sometimes enjoy but in this case seems pointless and overly pretentious.

I Can See!!

I went out Friday night with Ami, her boyfriend, her boyfriend's friend, and Wendy. Ami's childhood friend who now lives in Montreal. Of course, we girls wanted to look pretty so we got all dressed up. Contacts in, heels on, hair down and curly, make-up, the whole nine yards. I love to sip martini's and feel fabulous. We had a great time. The next morning I had to wake up fairly early to bike to a leg waxing appointment. In a clumpy mascara, chapped lipped, messy hair moment that can only happen early Saturday mornings when you are hung over, I biked a couple of blocks. Half way there I reached up to brush at my eye and realised something was wrong. I touched my face again and realised I wasn't wearing my glasses. I started to panic, as I need them and didn't have time to go back for them. Then I started to get scared, as I was biking on the road, my bike started to swerve widely and I wondered how I had gotten as far as I did without them. Then I looked up at a distant front yard and realised I could see fine. Nothing was blurry. Shocked at how great my sight was, I thought for a good two blocks that I was cured, or that eye doctors had been so very wrong about my needing of glasses. Happy, thrilled actually, I couldn't believe my luck. Then it hit me, I had never done it before, but in my drunken haze the night before, I had fallen asleep with my contacts still in.