Shut us like a portmanteau.

List of autumn-y things that I'm digging right now.

1) The ULTIMATE Pumpkin Chai recipe from David's Tea.  I love this tea when steeped normally with a bit of milk and stevia.   However, making it traditionally on the stove with one part milk, one part water is amazing and it smells so good.

2) The new Los Campesinos! song.  Songs about death are great for the autumn. 

 3) I got some clothing that I ordered online in the mail today!  I've spend many hours browsing the cute clothing on ModCloth.com, but have never bought anything because I am always apprehensive about buying clothing without trying it on, especially things like dresses.  But then, I saw this really cute sweatshirt that sums up two of my biggest loves in one comfy looking shirt and I decided to take the plunge.  I'm going to spend hours curled up on my sofa reading while wearing this sucker.

I decided to try a dress since I'd might as well get the most out of the shipping I was going to pay.  I got the Coach Tour Dress in violet, and it fits really well!  I'm super happy with my first ModCloth purchases!

 

4) Speaking of reading, I've got a pile of spooky fall-type books to get through.  I've been slogging through Kelley Armstrong's "Omens" because it was highly advertised on the subway and looked interesting.  I'm not loving it but will get through it.  Next I have "The Silent Wife" by A.S.A. Harrison to read.  It's advertised as being for people going through "Gone Girl" withdrawal, and since I loved that book, I picked up "The Silent Wife".  After that, I have the new Neil Gaiman.

5) My weekend plans look like fun.  Drinks on West Queen West, and then the Junction Music Fest to see a friend's band play.  That will be followed by more drinks.

Yay autumn!

Blurry Nights

I wish there were more hours in the evening. Once I'm done with work, and then the gym, and then making dinner/lunch for next day/getting my shit together for next day, the evening slips away so quickly as I drink tea and catch up on other stuff. I want more evening hours for reading and watching Netflix and sourcing out new music stuff.

More evening hours please! This school week is going well so far.  My classes are good, and I have so much on the go the days fly by.  I wish I could clone myself because I often need to be in several places at once, like today at lunch when I had a meeting and I had to set up for a lab.

One of my favourite songs of 2013, hands down, is "Blurry Nights" by my perennial crush, Hayden.  He just released a video for it last week (I think), and it's nice eye candy, for sure.  That man ages well. 



The new Matt Good album is streaming in full over at CBC Music.  Loving it so far.  I hope I can find it on vinyl next Tuesday.

I had a really great run last night.  I love cool fall weather for running.  I signed up for the Scotiabank Waterfront 5K race on October 20th.  I'm thinking it will be a great race for me to break my old personal best.  :)

All for now.  Weekend is shaping up to be fun. More on that later.

p.s. Thanks to everyone for well wishes etc when it comes to my mom.  It's much appreciated.  I can't wait 'til she's home though.

Had a good trip home. My mom had her surgery on Friday and is in good spirits after it. I'm not sure how long she'll be in the hospital undergoing rehabilitation, but she's comfortable and out of pain so that's great. I was able to help my dad out around the house, do some grocery shopping and run errands so that was good. He usually does all those things himself, but he doesn't do as well without my mom around. Other than hospital visits and driving around town, I didn't do much this weekend. I was able to combine exercise with some socializing though. My Toronto friend Karen was in town for the Dragonboat festival. I ran to the river to watch her race and say hi, then ran back home. I also went to a yoga class this morning too. I feel good that I took care of myself as well this weekend. Now I sit waiting for the accursed always-delayed 9 pm train. Taking this thing always makes for a rough Monday. The other train is at 8:30 am, so that's why I am always stuck with my nemesis. Yes, I've decided that my nemesis is a train. Happy Monday!

Yesterday evening I was sitting at my dining room table, marking quizzes, drinking tea, and listening to vinyl in the background.  I was in a great mood because I'd had a good workout that evening, and had come home and spent time cleaning my kitchen, and preparing food so I'd have healthy lunches for the week. 

As I sat at the table, working, I thought that, hey, this may not be glamourous but it's a pretty awesome life.  I'm drinking tea out of a mug from one of the many places to which I've traveled.  Yes, I'm doing work, but it's pretty awesome that I make a good wage for doing something that's valuable and not back-breaking.  I'm listening to music.  I have a pleasant cat friend to keep me company.  Life is good.

I took a break to phone my parents.  I'd phoned them earlier in the day to see what was up, and they hadn't answered, which had worried me because they are always home at the time.  Perhaps one of them had knocked the phone off the hook and hadn't noticed.  Anyway, after waiting a while and attempting again, my dad picked up.  My first thought was that this was not a good sign and I was right.

My mother had fallen earlier in the day and was in a lot of pain after the fall.  She went to the hospital and it turns out that she'd broken her hip.  She was in the hospital awaiting a visit from a specialist and would have to have surgery.  That's pretty much all my dad could tell me.  No idea of what recovery would be like, how long she'd be in there, etc.  Not much info.

I spent the rest of the night feeling really down, and worried, and fearing the worst.  I felt helpless and completely frustrated that there was nothing I could do to control the situation or figure things out or anything.  I wanted to talk to my mom so badly to hear how she was doing, but my parents are technological dinosaurs without cell phones, hence there was no way to reach her.  I hate knowing that she's in the hospital, and she hates hospitals, and is in an immense amount of pain right now.  I'm pretty sure that being a worrywart is a trait that has been passed down from her side of the family, and I'm sure she's worrying about the outcome of this injury too.

I had a hard time getting to sleep.  I thought back at how just a couple of hours ago, I was feeling so great, and then, BLAM, total turnaround.  At one point, I wondered why life would tease me like that, but I guess it's better to get bad news when you're OK as opposed to when you're miserable about something.  At about 1 am, I decided to take something to help me sleep.  This morning I went to school, and pretended like nothing had happened.  When I talk about things, I get emotional, and I didn't want to break down, so it was easier to stay composed and pretend that nothing happened.

During my prep period, my friend who also went to Kenya came to visit me in my office.  I had messaged him the night before because I knew that I'd be going home this weekend, and could not make our second last Kenya meeting on Sunday morning.  He and I were supposed to provide snacks for the meeting, so I'd messaged him the night before to let him know that he'd be in charge of snacks, and I'd throw in some money. 

Last night, he'd been working on figuring out how to make mandazi, which is a Kenyan fried dough treat which we'd had there, for snack.  He had a trial batch and wanted to me try one.  All I can say is that that was definitely the best part of my day.  Eating something that reminded me of a place and time so dear to me, as I was sifting through life's next challenge.

The rest of the day was tolerable.  Work takes my mind off of things.  I got to talk to my dad and my aunt (better with details) tonight and found out more.  My mom's still waiting for surgery, and I'm going to head down there on Friday to see her.  I could go earlier, but they feel that there is no point in that, there's not a lot I could do, and there are my responsibilities here.

Oddly enough, I felt a little bit better this evening.  I appreciated small things, like how my fluffy shower mat feels on my feet, and how good my shower gel smells.  I made an amazing cup of pumkin chai tea, using the traditional way where you simmer milk, water, sugar, and tea on the stove.  My friend Mathew called me and we had a great long phone conversation.  I booked my ticket home using my VIA Preference points, so the trip is free.

I know the next while is going to be tough, but I'll handle it somehow.

I read my stars last night, they told me I might end up in your hands.

It was a good first weekend of the school year. On Friday night, after a killer workout mind you, I met up with some friends to wish arrivederci to a friend who is headed to Italy to teach for a semester. It was great to catch up, eat pizza, drink wine, and eat the biggest slice of tiramisu I ever did see.

I spent about half of Saturday hiding inside from the rain, but then headed out for more gym, and a bunch of errand-running. It was one of those weekend days that's vital to make your week okay: you know, getting all of the laundry, housework, and paperwork that's necessary to get through the next week.

Today I had good sleep-in, and then headed to the AGO for the Ai Weiwei exhibit. The AGO always has some great stuff going on. This exhibit was illuminating and had some really large pieces of sculpture that I wonder how they managed to ship to here from China. Anyway, it was definitely a must-see.

The Toronto International Film Festival is in full swing, and I've managed to avoid it thus far. I've gone plenty of times in other years, but I didn't go last year, and this year looks like a no-go too. One of my pals from work is a heavy-TIFF goer, so maybe I'll see if I can get a ticket to one of the movies he's got on his agenda.

That was the weekend, now onto the week!

Don't you worry kid, we'll be seeing you.

I had quite the commute to work this morning. There was a delay at Chester station, so I couldn't change trains at Bloor station to get to work. Instead, I had to go all the way around the loop, and switch to a westbound train at St. George station. What this means is that I had an extra twenty minutes to sit, play Candy Crush Saga (how did I get addicted to that game?), listen to the new Neko Case album, and drink my coffee. Glad I made my coffee stop before I got on the train. Anyway, of course, by the time I got to St. George, the delay was cleared and trains were running regularly again. I made it to work on time, thankfully, but it wasn't even that stressful because this semester my prep period is first thing, so mornings are less hectic. Of course, being that it's the first Friday of the school year, I'm not struggling with a million things to do yet. My classes are actually prepped for the next week, so I'm just chilling a bit. And listening to the amazing new Neko Case album. It's so good it makes me want to cry. I love that woman. I hope she comes back to Toronto soon. I wish I had more coffee. Hmmm, this is something I could take care of right now. Next Friday I'm sure I'll be scrambling yet again. I should enjoy these quiet moments.

Fall Music

I loved that today, being the first day of school, also felt like the first day of fall.  Who wants to wear their summer clothes when they spent their last weekend of summer picking up a few new pieces for fall?  Not me, and I was happy to wear a new dress today.  The best was that since it was rather cool, I could wear a new(ish) jean jacket on the way to/from school.

Anyway, I'm also getting super excited for music that's being released this fall and I'm glad that the weather is co-operating.

Of course, today was the big release of Neko Case's new, and VERY EXCELLENT album "The Worse It Gets, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You" and I picked up the deluxe edition on vinyl today and I'm listening to it now on my little record player and loving it.  It's such an amazing album.  This is my favourite song.



One of my musical guilty pleasures is emo pop-punk sounding music.  I have always had a huge crush on the lead singer of the band Dashboard Confessional, and I was happy to stumble across his new side project, Twin Forks, who is coming out with a new EP on Sept. 17th.  This song is adorable.



On Sept 24th, Matthew Good is coming out with a new album that I'm looking forward to.



And, lastly, my beloved Los Campesinos! are coming out with a new album soon.  They posted this trailer, and I've already pre-ordered the (pink!) LP.



Yay fall!

And it's over.

I always hate this night.  Yes, yes, I know, I just had two months off, so I should quit complaining and griping.  But, it's always nerve-wracking going back.  I know that I'm not going to get a good night's sleep tonight, even though I've been doing this for ten years.  Gah.  Also, what time do I have to leave the house?  I always forget.

The last weekend of summer was pretty sweet.  I hung out with my pals Mathew & Luke on Friday night and we watched Dateline and made fun of Keith Morrison.  This is a hobby of mine and Mathew's, and Luke just joined in because he lives across the street from Mathew.  Keith Morrison is so creepy and Bill Hader's SNL impersonation is spot-on (sad that Hader is gone from SNL this year). 

On Saturday, I ran the Color Me Rad 5K race at Downsview Park.  It was really fun.  You wear a white Tshirt, and then as you run 5K you get pelted with colour bombs of dyed cornstarch and sprayed with liquid colour.  It's pretty fun.  I ran it with a friend who did a beginner's running clinic at the Running Room, and a couple of friends she met at the clinic.  At the end of the race, I found out that her friends were the instructors, and I was able to keep up with them, so woo-hoo to me!  I have no idea of my time for the race because it wasn't timed.  Oh well.

On Sunday, I went to check out Stars play at Nathan Phillips Square.  It was just a one-hour show in the evening in the rain.  It was great.

Today I did some back-to-school fashion shopping at the mall and then read a bit.  I've got my lunch made and now I'm going to go pack my gym bag.  It's crazy that I'm back to the grind tomorrow.

Seriously, last September feels just like yesterday.  How does time go by so quickly?

Gratitude

One thing that I definitely learned in Kenya was to be grateful for all that I have.  When I got home, I came across this article in my Twitter feed about 10 simple, science-based ways to increase happiness.  What's cool is that I practice a lot of these strategies: exercising, sleeping more (well, I try to at least), spending time with loved ones, and helping others.  I've always tried to work on gratitude, which is #10 on the list.  In fact, when I was in Kenya, I wrote in my journal that I'd like to keep a gratitude journal when I get home.

I haven't started that yet, but I have an empty journal kicking around, and I'm going to consider this post as my first entry.  Each day, I'm going to jot down at least three things that I'm grateful for. I had a pretty great day today.  I spent the full day at work.  I lead 40 student leaders in preparing for tomorrow's grade 9 orientation.  I do this every year, and I find it's a great way to ease into the school year.  Instead of just going in and doing mind-numbing paper work, I get to work with a great bunch of kids.  (And then when it's over, I do the mind-numbing paper work.)

Today I was grateful for the following:

1) The president and vice-president of student council were the first two students to arrive. They were excited to see me (aww) and gave me big hugs (aww).  I was grateful for the welcome.

2) My friend Nigel was helping me out today.  We also are taking the student leaders to a camp at the end of September.  We did this last year, and we reminisced about how the worst thing that happened during those three days was when we were lounging on a patio, overlooking a beautiful view of fall foliage, and then there was a slight breeze and we felt cold for a few seconds.  We had a huge laugh remembering this, and I'm grateful for laughs with good friends/colleagues.

3) I bought rafiki bracelets for some colleagues at work who supported my trip to Kenya.  I handed out a couple of them today, and my colleagues were thrilled with them.  I am grateful for support, and also to be able to make people happy with small tokens of appreciation.

Last Post (for awhile)

Well, tomorrow's the big day.  At 11:20 pm, I'll be on the redeye to London. 

There will be a 10 hour stopover in London, which means I'll get to quickly visit with the lovely Claire!  I'm so excited to see my dear friend; I haven't seen her since 2011, but she's always there for me when I pull a Liz Lemon or other such insanity.

After the London stopover, there will be another redeye flight to Nairobi.  Then, we will hop on a coach that will take us to our camp in the Maasai Mara.  I think it's about a five hour drive.  We'll be able to stop in the Great Rift Valley (think of the setting of the Lion King) on our way to camp.

There are a lot of things on our itinerary that look super exciting.  A lot of our time will be spent volunteering in the community on construction projects.  (Don't worry, there will be lessons first.) I look forward to working hard.  We will be visiting local schools, health clinics and going on a water walk.  We will be able to experience the journey of a local woman who has to get water for her family.  I think after this, I will appreciate water much more than I do.  We'll get some time to visit a local market.  We'll get to meet Maasai Warriors and learn how to bead with the Maasai Mamas.  And, of course, there will be a safari!

I can't believe that the trip that I've been prepping for over a year is finally here.

I'll take lots of pictures and write in my journal.  I'll definitely post some journal entries and pictures when I get back.   Until then (August 17th), I am off the social media grid.  Take care my friends. Kwaheri!  (That's goodbye in Swahili.)

Four more sleeps 'til I leave for Africa.

Miss Rilo Kitty is settled nicely in her country home.  Who knew that cats have really great memories?  It's been about a year since she's last been at my parents' house but as soon as she got there, it was obvious that her first matter of business was to check out the place to see what had changed (not much).  I bet she probably still remembers her life before I adopted her and she became Miss Rilo Kitty.  I always wonder where she came from.  All I know is that she was picked up on the street somewhere near Long Branch.

Anyway, I had a nice little visit in Stratford.  I napped, ran some errands, watched a couple of pathetic baseball games with my parents (oh, those Jays), saw some old friends that I hadn't seen in years, went for a run around the old high school, and visited with my aunt.  A lot to pack into 48 hours, huh?  Well done me.

I took the train back to the city today.  I love a nice sunny morning train ride through the countryside while I drink a cup of coffee and listened to music.  I made a pretty sweet Matthew Good playlist for the ride.  I haven't listened to him in a long time, and a lot of his music takes me back to happy places in my life.  Anyway, the point of this is that it was a nice journey back home.

Of course, it's not really home without Miss Rilo to welcome me.  Cat-less life is weird.  No one's trying to lie on my keyboard as I write this!

After a relaxed afternoon, it was gym, then errands.  Right now I'm in the process of making myself low maintenance for my trip: I had my shellac manicure stripped off my nails without getting a new one, not even one without polish, and no pedicure either.  I figure construction work in Africa is going to be hard on my hands and feet, so I'll get those fixed when I'm back.

It kind of blows my mind that I'm going to go three weeks with no jewellery, no makeup, and not really worrying about fashion.  It will be good for my soul I think.

My nails are actually really long right now.  Six-plus months of healthy living is doing wonders for me.  I haven't gotten sick once (I used to get a cold about every 2-3 months) and my nails are super strong and don't break.  Anyway, I'm going to go cut them and take the polish off my toes.

And, four more sleeps until I fly out.  It's off to London, then a ten-hour stopover, then off to Nairobi.  So six more sleeps until I'm in Africa.  I. Cannot. Believe. It.

Random summer moments

- It was still pretty hot on Friday, but there was a bit of a breeze out.  Enough that I could enjoy a nice lunch with a friend on a shady patio, instead of heading indoors for A/C.

- Friday night I went to the Jays game.  My friend Mathew scored free tickets only 21 rows behind home plate.  I haven't seen a game that close in, well, have I ever?  I have memories of sitting in the 100s back when no one was visiting Toronto because of SARS, and you could get $2 Jays tickets.  Other than that, it's been the 500s for quite some time.  The Jays lost, but it was a fun game... lots of homers and strikeouts despite the loss.

- On Saturday I got a warning from an arborist.  No, I wasn't harming any trees, just sitting on a park bench reading a book.  I was listening to music and lost in my book when a man comes up and said "Sorry for interrupting your reading, but you might want to sit somewhere else.  I'm an arborist, and that tree there is very cracked, and with these winds we've been having, it might fall over." 

I thanked him and found another bench, although I'm doubtful that the tree would have fallen over on me.  It was a pretty calm day.  However, I'm going to keep an eye on that tree from now on and see if my friendly neighbourhood arborist was right.


- Today I had a busy fun-filled day with my pal Vern who's up for a short visit.  We went to The Beach and had a nice lunch, then went for a walk along the boardwalk, went to Yogurty's and she drove me to Ikea to buy a new lamp for $16.99.

I walked out of Ikea spending almost $200.  Expensive damned lamp.

The problem was that I fell in love with a pair of purple velvet curtains that I thought would look great in my bedroom and also do a better job blocking out the morning sun than my current curtains, which are old, and were cheap anyway.  I hemmed and hawed and decided that they were worth the splurge because they'd give my room a nice makeover.  In addition, I got two purple velvet throw curtains that match the curtains, and a little vase with three fake purple flowers.  Mini-bedroom makeover!

On top of that, I decided to pick up a couple new pillows, bulbs for the new lamp, and a couple of lint rollers (can never have too many of those). 

And that's why my lamp cost $200.

- After the Ikea trip, we went to the Jays game.  I was back to my usual spot in the 500s.  The 500s don't give you the view that you get in the 100s, but you do get added entertainment.

The game was painful.  The final score was 14 - 5 or so for the Dodgers.  There were three various innings where they gave up 4 runs.  Ugh.

However, for the last couple innings, we were entertained by a drunk dude in our section.  He came over to make friends, and tried to win a debate about baseball with me.  (I won.)  He and his friend then gave my pal Vern some awful sales pitches about loans from their bank.  It was rather hilarious.

Seriously, you always get bonus entertainment in the 500s.  I remember being at a game with someone a few years ago where there was this super drunk dude who called himself "Cliff Robertson" (I think) and was trying to pick up some girl by telling her that he operated a scuba diving lesson place in the suburbs somewhere.  It was pretty hilarious, and I remember trying not to laugh so hard as we eavesdropped.

- Tomorrow I'm catching a ride back to Stratford with Vern.  It's that time finally: Rilo's heading to my parents' place for safe-keeping as I travel.  In exactly a week's time, I will be on a plane to London, and then a plane to Nairobi.

Watermelon

It's hot and I've messed up my sleeping patterns as of late by going to bed really late, and sleeping in 'til 10 am or so.  I call it summer vampirism.  It usually happens every summer.

I just ate a slice of cool watermelon over the sink in my kitchen.  Is there anything better than juicy watermelon when it's super hot, especially when it's chilled?

As I was eating, a memory came back to me of the time I paid $30 for a watermelon.

My first teaching job (ten years ago from this September OMG) was on an isolated community in Northwestern Ontario.  I worked for an internet high school.  Northern Ontario has dozens of these small, remote aboriginal reserves, and they have populations far too small to support secondary schools.  As a result, children have to leave their families to pursue secondary education, and of course, this leads to many challenges.  The internet high school that I worked for was an alternative to students leaving their home communities.  They had a classroom in their community with a teacher, and they took their courses online.  I was responsible for putting some science courses online, and marking work of students in other communities.  During the school day, I helped students in my community complete work in their courses.  (I remember learning a lot about art and communications technology while helping my students.)

I had about seven students in my home community, which was an Oji-Cree community.  At the end of the school year, we were lucky to get a bunch of shiny new computers.  My principal told me that we could take one of the old computers and raffle it off within the community and use the funds to throw a year-end party for my students and other children in the community.  My students and I diligently went around selling tickets and we raised enough money for a good party.  I was pleasantly surprised at how great the support was for our little raffle.

For our party, I had to fax in a grocery order to the grocery store in the nearest town.  They would pack our groceries in cardboard boxes, and then there was a small airline that would fly our food to us.  (This is how I ordered my groceries too when I lived there.)  Of course, you had to pay the airline a certain fee per pound of cargo.

I asked my students what they wanted to order.  They basically had free range.  If they wanted it, I'd order it for them.  (In fact, I don't think I really cared if the order went over what we raised.  I was cool with paying the difference out of my pocket.)

I was expecting their first requests to be junk food: pop, chips, hotdogs, ice cream and such.  But the very first request was for a watermelon.

"A watermelon, huh?  You guys are healthy!  Nice," was most likely my response to this request. 

When the bill for the food arrived, I understood why, when given the choice of any sort of food to order, my students requested a watermelon.  The price of a whole watermelon from a northern grocery store was about $12, and I know that I calculated the shipping of the thing to be about $18, more than the melon itself. 

After finding the cost of buying and shipping a large melon that's 91% water, I then understood why watermelon was the huge splurge for the party.  Watermelon was certainly not an every day food in this community.

I remember that watermelon being eaten up incredibly fast at that party.

And I can't help but remember this whenever I eat watermelon.

You know I think about you, let me know you think about me too.

This evening I went to a few of my favourite Toronto spots:

1) The Bloor Cinema to see the documentary "20 Feet From Stardom".  I love docs.  I love our city's documentary cinema.  It's a beautiful space and was packed tonight.



2) A Markham Street patio for beer on a humid summer evening.  Yes, it was a little bit sweaty, but I love being outside.

3) Browsed records at Sonic Boom.  Restrained myself from buying any vinyl.  I still have the new Two Hours Traffic record that I got a couple weeks ago and have not listened to yet.

Now I'm listening to Whitehorse and reading on my sofa.

Also, I think this Neko Case cover of Harry Nilsson's "Don't Forget Me" is great for a hot summer night.  Or any night, really. 

I could've been your girl, and you could have been my four-leaf clover.

Somehow week three of summer vacay has crept up upon me.  I have to say that I'm feeling super relaxed these days... I walk around in a zen-like state of relaxation.  It's a good place.

I've spent these last few days spending lots of time with various friends.  Some good dinners out, some good dinners in, a bit of shopping, a cardio martial arts class, and lots of good conversation.

In my time on my own, I've been binge-watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix (verdict = love) and reading the book that the series is based upon. 

Really, there's not a whole lot more going on.  I should be devoting more time to organizing my apartment and going to yoga classes.  I guess I'm not totally relaxed if I'm still criticizing my use of time, huh?

I have a few more things to complete on my Kenyan to-do list: mainly get some Kenyan shillings, some US dollars to pay for my visa, and purchase some steel-toed workboots, coveralls, and work gloves to wear while doing construction projects there.  Oh, and more sunblock (can't have too much of that, I figure) and assorted other items.

I was thinking of booking a haircut before my trip, but I am going to leave my hair at its current length for the trip.  I can sort of tie it back at this point.  I feel I'm going to be wearing my hat a lot of the time over there.  I will resume my pampering schedule (hair, nails, etc.) once I return.

I can't believe in two weeks today, I'll be arriving in Nairobi.  Getting there is seriously going to take two days.  We flight out on an overnight flight on July 29th, have a 10-hour layover in London, and then it's another 8-hour overnight flight to Nairobi.  I feel like the journey there will be half of the battle.  Anyone else survived a flight to Africa? I guess I've done Australia, but this seems more arduous.    I know few people who've actually been to Africa.  It'd be cool to get travel trips from someone.  Even though I have a detailed packing list, I feel like I'll forget something important.

All this thinking; that's summer life.  Hope you are all well, and surviving any heat wave you may be facing.  We are in the midst of one.

Quiz Show Audition

In May, I found out that I passed the online test for a popular quiz show on TV.  I'd taken the online test in November upon my parents' prompting (well, insistence, really), and then completely forgotten that I'd even done so until I got the email.

(I'm not going to post the name of the show, just in case someone googles ___________ auditions or whatever.  No spoilers for them!)

Today was my audition.  I was a little bit nervous and pessimistic about it last night, I'll admit.  I'm naturally introverted and last night the thought of having to talk to strangers was very unappealing and I was also afraid that the online test was a fluke and that I'd know nothing today, or be faced with all sorts of questions on American history, geography, and opera, all of which are my worst categories, and end up looking really dumb in front of others.

The audition was in a downtown hotel's meeting room.  The people outside really did look like quiz show contestants, and I had to do my best from bursting out laughing.  It just was really funny.  No one was saying ANYTHING until the dude beside me made a joke about it and we struck up a conversation.  He also turned out to be a teacher.  This was his second time auditioning for this show; he'd actually flown to NYC the other time.

We then were called into the meeting room and sat at tables.  The first order of business was a welcome video hosted by the host of the quiz show.  Then we tried out some questions as a group to warm-up.  Turned out there were lots of lawyers in the group.  There was also an engineer sitting in front of me who'd also auditioned before in Toronto, and thought I looked familiar from it, but nope, first time for me.  There were also some people from as far away as New Brunswick, Montreal, and Winnipeg.  (Lucky me with a 20 minute subway ride.)

We also found out that 100 000 people did the online test, and only 2 500 made the audition stage.  That's a nice intellectual confidence boost for me!  Of those who auditioned, only 400 will make the show.  Basically I'm now in the contestant pool for 18 months, and if I don't hear anything, it's back to the online test for me. 

Anyway, but the audition was super fun.  First we wrote a 50 question test (like the online test) and I think I did pretty well.  There were lots of questions that I knew for sure, and only a few that I did not know at all.  After that, we were called up in groups of 3 to play a mock version of the game.  I felt I was pretty competitive.  I managed to buzz in first on a good number of questions and get them right.

After each game, the contestant hopefuls had personality interviews.  I felt that mine went well.  I told stories about lighting my hand on fire at school, and playing quiz games with my students in class.  Also, the interviewer said to me "By the way, you have really really pretty hands."  This is actually something I've heard before, so I joked "Well, if this quiz show thing doesn't work out for me, maybe I should be a hand model."

So yes, that was the audition.  And, we got a souvenir pen, and earbuds in a little pouch.  It was totally a really fun experience.  That's how you can truly tell you're with a group of fellow nerds: you all say "Wow! That was fun!" when you write a test.  I'm going to totally try to audition again in 18 months, because let's face it, I have approximately a 16% chance of making it.  (I did the math of course.)

Now that I've used my brain a bit this summer, I can go back to letting it mush-ify with bad reality TV.  :)

I hate the rain. (Part 2)

I believe the rain at Sunday's Turf show killed my trusty iPhone 3GS.  I started having problems with it on Sunday night, and then it worked properly again early Monday morning, but by about 10 am, the screen was really dim (it wasn't the settings).  I could at least still get calls and texts but it was hard to read.  Anyway, it was probably the best time ever for me to break my phone as it was 3.5 years old and I was ready for a new one.  I was going to hold out until Apple released the next iPhone (most likely so I could get the iPhone 5 for cheaper), but here I am with a new iPhone5 with a nice bright screen and oh-boy is it fast with a much much better camera.

Back to hating the rain. Hey - that song is playing on my record player right now.  I love Neko forever.

So, how did I spend rainmageddon?  (All extreme weather event are required to be suffixed in -mageddon, right?)

Well, rainmageddon started off as a humid, yet sunny day.  I woke up and decided to run on the treadmill on the gym to pre-work off the feast I'd be having later in the day.  After my run, Becca T came over to visit Ms. Rilo and listen to some records, and then we headed off to High Tea at the very nice Windsor Arms hotel.  We had to wear our sunglasses on the way there as it was so sunny.

Near the end of high tea, we noticed that it was really dark out, and right before we were going to leave, it started really coming down.  There was no way we were going out there, so we decided to hang out in the Windsor Arms' bar and have some Prosecco.  Good call on our part.  We were able to keep up with the havoc that rainmageddon was wreaking on Toronto on the bar TV.  (I tried to check Twitter on my busted phone and joked "There's either flooding or flooring in Toronto right now... it's really hard to read on this thing.")

Becca had organized a drinks night at a pub at 7 pm, so we had to brave it.  Luckily, by the time we left at about 6:30 pm, it was raining at a reasonable rate.  We walked to Bloor subway stations, where it was utterly chaotic.  Various portions of the subway were closed down.  However, Bloor to Lawrence was open, which was really fortunate for us, since that encompassed where we were, where the pub was, and where both of us had to go home.

We were lucky ducks for sure.  I have a friend who lives in Etobicoke who was still without power this morning.  I was only inconvenienced by having to hang out in a really nice hotel bar with a nice glass of sparkling wine.

I hate the rain.

Fun moments from the past four days:

1) Joel Plaskett playing an amazing set at TurfTO on Thursday night.  I think I'd forgotten how much I love him.

2) Dancing to She & Him.  I loved seeing them live.  They were adorable.

3) Post show beers with my pal Eric.  We had some much-needed catch-up time.

4) Toronto bargain shopping with my friend Heather, who was visiting from London. 

5) SEEING BECCA T!  She's in town! We had sushi, and she joined my group of friends to see Tegan and Sara and Fun. at Downsview Park.

6) Tegan and Sara played an amazing set.

7) Fun. were well, fun.  The best was that they had fireworks going on during their encore.

8) Two mimosa brunch this morning at the Drake Cafe.

9) Seeing Whitehorse play at TurfTO today.  They are a great live band.

10) Watching Neko Case in the pouring rain with my friend Karen.  I don't think I've seen Neko since maybe 2009, and man, she is THE awesome.  It was pouring and it go so muddy.  She played the song Fever, which has the line "I hate the rain" which was kind of perfect, because we were on at least our third downpour of the day.  But still, watching Neko in the rain and mud was a rather special moment and I'll never forget it.  She played a killer set and I cannot wait for her new album.

11) Belle & Sebastian closing out TurfTO.  I was rather unfamiliar with most of their music, but it was a lovely set nonetheless.

Tomorrow I have high tea and drinks with Becca T.  So excited. 

I wanted to control it but love I couldn't hold it.

SUMMER FOREVER!

Seriously, the past week has been great!  I've finished two excellent books (both Canlit too), listened to a lot of vinyl, got some good workouts in, got my nails done, etc., etc.  I love this pace of life.

I also got my shots for Africa (yellow fever, typhoid, Hep A) and my prescriptions for anti-malarials.

Tonight is the first of three concerts in four days.  It's The Barr Brothers, The Joel Plaskett Emergency, Camera Obscura and She & Him for TURF (Toronto Urban Roots Festival).

I am excited for all the bands, but I am most excited to hear this song.  For me, it's one of those songs that I can really relate to.  It's a little bit of a heartbreaking song, but because the melody and vocals and strings are so lovely, who cares?  Also, the video is set in European cities like Paris and Barcelona, and we all know how I feel about those places.

I've gotten back to the road where I started.

Summer's here!  And here's how it started for me.

Rainy Friday.  Our year-end staff social on a massive neighbourhood patio was moved into the school.  It was still fun.  Afterward, I carried on to the Bier Markt with some friends where I indulged in Belgian and Kenyan (!) beer.

Early Saturday morning.  Met up with my pal Mathew and a couple of his friends for a cross border shopping extravaganza in Buffalo New York.  We had to get back to Toronto by 8 or 9, so it was a whirlwind.  I ended up pretty much buying a whole new summer wardrobe: lots of shorts and light Ts that I hope will be appropriate for Kenya.  Lots of fun bright colours too.

We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.  I've never been there before.  Since we were in a rush we had to get our cheesecake to take home.

Crossing back home was rather funny.  My friend Mathew always gets a bit clammy when being questioned by customs agents.  When the lady asked us where we'd been, he froze and then said "The Buffalo" to which she replied "What did you do in THE Buffalo?"  From now on, it's always going to be The Buffalo to me.

I was home by 9 pm and had the problem of the cheesecake on my hands.  My diet's been a little off track during the month of June because of the sheer amount of parties going on.  I've been cheating far too often.  Anyway, I know that my trainer always tells me that a good time to eat carbs is after a workout, so I threw on my running clothes and ran over 7 km to earn my delicious cheesecake.

Sunday was a day of rest.  I finished reading a book, and listened to She & Him Vol 3 on vinyl. 

Today I went with my pal Mathew to the Jays' game.  Being that it was Canada Day, there were free read Jays hats for the first 20 000 fans, and the game sold out, so we went early.  Good thing too, because the dude beside us was about 15 mins later than we were, and got no hat.  It was a great game: the Jays gave the Tigers a nice drubbing (to steal a word from the CBC).  The final score was 8 to 3.

After the game, I came home, had a nap, then watched TV for the evening (rare for me).  I watched shows on either end of the intellectual spectrum: Jeopardy! and The Bachelorette.

Long weekend is over, and tomorrow starts my time off officially. This week is busy.  I have training, exercise dates with friends, shots to get for Kenya, three concerts, and I need to get my apartment into some semblance of order.  Good thing I got a bit of rest this weekend.