C'mon ladies let's get in formation.

Holy shit Beyonce.

I was blessed enough to get tickets to the Formation World Tour that hit the Rogers Centre last night. This is because I'm blessed enough to have my friend AlieMalie who figured out the pre-sale code and bought two tickets to the Toronto show and two tickets to a Chicago show for herself.

Then I was blessed enough to bring my friend Justin, who loves loves loves Beyonce and it was super great to make a person's dream come true by saying "Hey do you wanna be my +1 for BEYONCE?"

If you are a long-time friend of this blog, you'll know that I've always identified myself as an indie rock chick.  My diehard musical snobbery of my teens/twenties has dwindled.  I'm kind of happy that now I'll listen to pretty much everything.  I love Katy Perry, P!nk, Kesha, and Drake (especially Drake).  Heck, like the rest of the world I enjoy the new Bieber songs.  (Everyone does, right?)  So yes, I'm a bit of a pop fan now and I'm thankful I've loosened up on the snobbery.  This is more fun.

However, Beyonce transcends pop music.  I knew her singles with Destiny's Child and from her solo albums, but it wasn't until 2013's eponymous Beyonce album that I really got into.  Long story short, I was bummed about something, my dear friend AlieMalie said "you should listen to the song Flawless, it's a feminist masterpiece" and boom, life changed.  Then, the Queen goes out and makes the Lemonade album/video which is an artistic masterpiece.  Best rock song of the year? On Lemonade. Best country song of the year?  On Lemonade.   Best gospel vocals of the year? On Lemonade.  I know that I'd adore this album at my height of music snobbery because I could always appreciate great art.

When it comes to shows, for much of my life, I would mainly only see bands that would have to set up their equipment themselves with the odd musical festival thrown in.  Most of the bands I follow have graduated from shitty basement bars and back rooms to comfy theatres like the Danforth Music Hall or Massey Hall.  In the case of Metric, they can even support stadium tours.  However, it's always great when I can catch a show at Lee's Palace or the Horseshoe Tavern.

I went to my real first pop concert last year.  It was a 90s throwback of Nelly/TLC/NKOTB and was hella fun.  Then I saw Mariah frickin Carey in Las Vegas which was a total spectacle.  But last night's show?  Oh my goodness.  That was something.

The show mixed visuals with amazing dance numbers, vocals, and spectacle.  I don't want to spoil anything, but for the last set of songs, part of the stage TURNED INTO A POOL, and Bey and her dancers danced in the water and it was transcendent.

The Queen is also genuine and charming and her message of powerful feminism, empowerment, and owning your life and sexuality as a women is so fucking necessary.  Not to mention her celebration of woman of colour.  I loved that her drummer, guitar player, and dancers were all black women and like Lemonade, the show was a celebration of black women who have so fewer opportunities.  I love Lemonade but I know it wasn't made for me.

Everything Beyonce is amazing.  Bow down.  When is the next world tour?

Do not punch Jose Bautista in the face, you loser.

I was super excited to follow tonight's Raptors game.  I was pretty confident that they would win game seven (and they did, decisively) and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the first time in franchise history.

But I got distracted by the brawls in Arlington Texas and didn't pay much attention to the excellent basketball news.

Those Texas Rangers can't get over a well-deserved flip of a bat.

Look, he hit the HOME RUN of his career.  The home run of the past 22 years of franchise baseball. It was Jose Bautista's first time in the playoffs, and he flipped the bat when he won the series.  Big deal.  You would have too.

Response: wait until his last at-bat of the two re-match series of the 2016 regular series.  Bean him in the ribs with a 98 mph fastball.  Then, when he illegally slides into second base, punch him in the face when he's not expecting it, because people in baseball don't punch.  But that's okay; it's deserved because he flipped a bat.

***

On top of all of the sports emotions, I had a really great conversation with a good friend who I hadn't spoken to in six months.  The six month hiatus wasn't necessarily purposeful, but it was as a result of changes in life, and more changes.  It's a really weird situation that I can't get into here, but fuck. When the news that you know was coming, and had already accepted, arrives it still throws you for a loop.

On the same day Jose Bautista was punched in the face.  How poetic.

So I grabbed one of those craft beers I was saving in the fridge and threw on a record and I think it's OK now.

But, geez, emotions in baseball, emotions in life, it's a lot sometimes.

Blogging.

I'm going to get back into it, I swear.

Just lately have been so busy with work, social life, baseball etc that I don't have a lot of time.  And when I do, I just can't get into a writing zone.  Hopefully it will come back to me.  I miss it.

Currently.

Jays are disappointing. Ugh.

I love love love Beyoncé's Lemonade and can't wait until the Formation tour comes to town.

Sadly, I've had a lot of friends lose loved ones in the past couple weeks.  :(

That's about it these days.

If you need me, I'll be under a pile of lab reports.

It's report card season!  Aka one of my four least favourite times of the year.

When the report card deadline nears, my procrastination skills skyrocket. I had three good chunks of downtime this weekend that I could have used to tackle the 13 sets of lab reports that I've let pile up during the first half of this semester, but instead I used them for sleeping, watching baseball, going to the gym, going for a walk, getting myself a better internet plan, getting into meaningless arguments about sports I don't follow, and reading an entire detective novel in one sitting.

This evening, the time for procrastination was over, so I spent over an hour shooting the shit with friends at work.  I got a ride home most of the way home with one of them, and then walked a few blocks home in the beautiful weather.

I passed by my local pub and noticed the Raptors game was on.  I really wanted to watch because I have a vested interest in the game.  Remember how I mentioned meaningless arguments about sports I don't follow?  One of my baseball friends called the Raptors garbage in our Jays WhatsApp chat, and I got mad about it and the resolution was that if they make it into round 2 of the playoffs, he pies himself in the face on video, and if they don't, I pie myself in the face on video.

I decided to grab a beer and a burger, and claim a table for marking.  I got three sets done!  And the Raptors won. Now I'm only three Raptors wins away from not getting pied, and 9 sets of marking away from getting caught up.  Woo-hoo!

I was saying Boo-tista.

It was Opening Weekend here in Toronto, so you know that my weekend revolved around baseball.

Friday was the Home Opener; my third in a row, and the fifth in a row that the Jays lost.  As far as HOs go, it was pretty fun despite the loss.  The game started with a ceremony where Josh Donaldson received his American League MVP award, and then he went on to hit a grand slam.  After the slam, the game was great for awhile.  I felt relaxed and confident.  The Jays were 5 runs ahead.  Just the kind of game I like.  Well then the awful Red Sox got their own grand slam (hit by a less valuable player) and then they actually went ahead to win the game.  Oh well, I had moments of fun at least and I got a blue rally towel and a 2016 schedule magnet, so B+ HO overall.

I watched the game from home on Saturday and quite enjoyed the beginning of it when Joey Bats hit two home runs in a row.  But then stupid Boston blah blah blah and I got disgusted and turned it off.

I had tickets again for Sunday's game.  The giveaway was a souvenir 2015 AL East Champions pennant that I wanted.  I got to the game early with some of my friends and had a really great day at the ball park.  The Jays finally won.  Marco Estrada pitched a gem of a game and Donaldson brought the rain again.

One of the main reasons why baseball is so fun is that I really love my baseball crew.  My good pal Mathew, my friend Vic and I are on our third season of flex passes.  This year my friend Vern bought in too and sits with us.  Mathew always gets a spare pass, so there's a rotating bunch of people who are the fifth of the group.  My friend Elisa and a friend of hers also got flex passes, and it looks like they chose many of the same games as we did.  So far, they've always been sitting on section over and one row up so we can wave to each other.

I also love our random baseball in-jokes.  Last season, Mathew was griping at Jose Bautista saying "what has that guy done for us lately?" to which I replied "He hit two home runs yesterday!!!" And Mathew replied "Well what has he done today?" Now whenever Bautista does something amazing (like the bat flip in game 5 of the ALDS), I heckle Mathew with a "what has he done lately?"

Another favourite in-joke is that somehow along the way, inspired by our love of baseball and the Simpsons, we sometimes say "I was saying Boo-tista" when the crowd is booing.  Now Bootista is our nickname for Joey Bats and my phone recognizes the word Boostista before Bautista.

Anyway, the point of this is that I'm glad baseball games are back for the excitement, and for the laughs.  But not for the losses, hey there Blue Jays, let's minimize those.

It's baseball season!!!

Right now I'm watching the Jays' third game of the season.  They won the first two, and currently the score is 2 - 1 in their favour.  There are 162 games in a season, so there is a long way to go and tougher teams to face (we are playing Tampa Bay) but hey, I like this season so far!

Watching baseball on TV soothes me so much.  (Even though it works me up sometimes.) There's nothing better than making it a day at work, and then a tough workout at the gym, and coming home to a Jays game.

I hope to become more productive during my baseball watching.  I could be marking or doing some crafts but right now I'm just happy watching the game and messaging my baseball pals.  At least I got in a small blog post, right?  Now back to this at bat.

Vacation buzz fading... fading...

Day 2 of back to reality is in the books.  Man, I didn't want to come home so hard.  Who knew that I have natural skills in the area of luxury tropical vacationing???

Yesterday while sitting at my desk planning lessons and reaching into my lunch bag for lunch (i.e. random foodstuffs I had at home) all I could think was how much I missed having a lunch buffet, and man, would a lunchtime beer be grand.

Okay, I'll stop whining and summarize with the fact that my vacation was fun, relaxing, fun, fun, and more relaxing.  I loved it.  Man, I'm lucky to be able to do such things.

Oh, and on the Boris/Helga front, we saw them many more times over the course of the week.  They were even on our flight home.  Everything we saw them, Helga was wearing her perma-frown and Boris was on his phone.  They clearly do not have my level of vacationing skills.

Tales from the Tropics.

I woke up on Monday to pouring rain.  For some odd reason I was wide awake at 7:30 am, so I made a pot of coffee and drank it on my balcony while watching the rain and listening to the sounds of assorted tropical creatures.

My vacation buddy Nadine messaged me from next door sounding quite dejected about the rain.  However, I could see blue sky peeking out from behind the clouds.  I took a picture and sent it to hee with the message "it's going to clear up".

I was right, and the day ended with me looking like a sunburned lobster.  (My beach skills are awful.)

***

Yesterday we went for lunch at the snack bar near the privat beach.  It was busy, but we scored a table.  As we started to dig in, an older couple (whom we have now named Helga and Boris... I'm sure they had names of their own but we didn't care to ask) asked if they could join us as there were no free tables left.

Being that we are polite Canadians, we said yes.  Turned out they were Canadians too.  After the waiter asked Helga if she'd like a drink, she commented to us "why do they always assume that you want a drink here?? Don't they know that you can be healthy like us and just drink water?" Nadine and I exchanged glances.  I guess Helga didn't get the memo that people were on vacation and might want to let loose a little.

We chatted with them, and as they told us about some resort they once stayed at which was better than this one, they begrudgingly accepted that this resort was okay, but then started harping on the fact that the wifi connection is a little slow and spotty.

Boris started going on about how he purchased a $10-a-day travel plan so that he could make his important business calls on vacation.  Helga mentioned "I'm a teacher and not having reliable internet here is difficult for me.  I sometimes get ideas for lessons and want to work on them right away."

I kept my mouth shut and Nadine looked at me.  There was an unspoken agreement that we would not bring up that we are the kinds of teachers who go on vacation during March Break and do not think about our lesson plans.

Luckily at that point we were done eating and excused ourselves and headed to the beach.  However from our encounter with Helga and Boris we have a fun running vacation joke where every so often one of us will exclaim "I have an idea for a lesson plan but I don't have access to the Internet, what do I do?" To which the other person will reply "how will I make my important business calls?"

***

I have a well-developed silly side.  I don't even need to be drinking for it to come out.  This evening I didn't drink at dinner, and then afterwards we went for a walk on the dark deserted beach.  It ended up with me taunting the ocean, and the ocean getting my shorts wet in return.  (Don't ask... I was kind of re-enacting an episode of the Osbournes... remember that reality TV gem??)

We decided to head up to the lobby bar to get a drink after Nadine assured me since my shorts were dark, no one would notice that they were wet from taunting the ocean.  As we were walking inside, a woman stopped me and asked me if my name was Chrissy.  She thought that she had gone to
elementary school with me.  (For some reason I decided I wanted to be called Christy in grade 5, however most family members still call me Chrissy.)

Turned out we had, and she had seen me on the beach earlier in the day and was trying to place me.  I would not have recognized her, but if there's one thing I've heard, it's that I look exactly the same as I did as a kid.

We had a nice conversation and reminisced about people from back in the day. And it turns out she is a teacher too.  However, thinking about childhood and growing up sometimes leaves one unsettled.  One thing I am glad of, is that I'm still good friends with one person from elementary school, my friend Mel.  It's nice to have someone who's known you through it all.

Oh, but the funniest part was that I had that convo in wet shorts.

Made it to tropical paradise.

It was sunny for our 40 km car ride as well as our choppy 5 min ferry ride to our island resort off the cost of Samana, DR.

There were intermittent showers for the rest of the aft/evening but that was ok. Warm rain is the least of my worries.

The resort is rather luxurious. This will be a different sort of vacation for me. Usually I am go go go on a trip but this one will be relax relax relax.

I am currently tipsy on a lemony-gin drink called a white lady. I feel like a cliche.

More later.

And now it's apparently spring.

The last you heard from me, I was dreading an impending snowstorm.  Well, it wasn't too bad, but I got snowed under by preparations for my school's biennial Multicultural Day.  It was my fourth as an organizer.  Ever thrown a huge party for 500 people?  Not an easy task, but extremely worthwhile.  My grade ten class, who had not experience the day before, had to admit that I was right and that it was indeed a super fun day.

A week after the snowstorm and its spring-like weather.  I cannot remember a year where I have cycled so much between my fall/spring coat and my winter coat.

As nice as this weather is, I'm counting down until my trip to the Domincan Republic.  Sun.  Sand.  Relaxation.  I can't wait.

Spring Training.

I was able to catch a bit of the Blue Jays' first Spring Training game today after school.  I had the game streaming on MLB.TV as I was trying to (unsuccessfully) get some marking done.

It was nice to have baseball on in the background, as I messaged my friend Mathew, who was also watching.  We both found the commentators extremely dull.

It was also kind of weird to watch because it was essentially the Jays' younger players trying out for a spot on the roster.  One dude dropped an easy fly ball and I yelled "CUT HIIM!" which brought me an odd sense of joy.  (Of course, I shouldn't be judging; I probably would drop the easiest of fly balls).

***
I had a nice workout at the gym today.  I used battle ropes for the first time.  It was funny, because I've seen videos of various Blue Jays using these things in their off-season training, and it looks super fun and super easy when then do it, but those fucking ropes are heavy.  I wonder if I'll be able to write on the chalkboard tomorrow.

***
Today I bought baseball tickets.  Jays vs KC in August.  Yes, a game in KC!  ALCS grudge match!  I'm so excited.  I'm meeting up with my pals Alex and Wes for our second Missouri baseball meet-up!  How things have changed in two years.  In the past, when Wes said "let's meet up for a baseball game" I said "sure!" and this year was "I'll only go if the Jays are playing."  Anyway, it all works out and since Alex lives close to KC we can meet up while she's super busy during the US election.

***
There's supposed to be a big snowstorm tonight.  SNOW DAY TOMORROW?  (It won't happen.)

My interests as of late.

1) Baseball - Mathew and I have signed up for another Pitch Talks (an event were we pay money to watch people drink beer and talk about baseball) in April.  This one features the Jays' new President (also a man not loved by Toronto) Mark Shapiro, and the loveable Jays' commentator Buck Martinez.

2) Beyonce - obviously

3) Drake - I kind of crush on Drake, especially in his singing songs.  I have come to accept the everyday sexism in Hotline Bling by thinking of Drake as totally knowing he's a pathetic dude in the song and he knows that we are all cheering for the girl.  So it's really not sexist, but a satirical eff you to the patriarchy (or that's what it is in my brain).

4) Cross Stitch - I've been planning too many lessons to make progress though.  BOO!

5) Boxing - I still like hitting stuff as long as it's inanimate and doesn't hit back.

Conversations with my father.

My dad's not a phone guy.  I talk to my mother almost every day, but every so often my dad puts in a request for a conversation (when he's in the mood/still awake/not watching Jeopardy... well I'm not foolish enough to call them during Jeopardy!)

Tonight I put in my phone call at about 7-ish (before Jeopardy) and after talking to my mom a bit, she asked if I wanted to talk with my dad.  It's usually a good time, so why not?

Here's how my dad answers the phone:

"Sylvester's residence."

We watched a lot of Loonie Tunes when I was a kid, and my dad likes to think that he's Sylvester, and I'm his "thon" and that I should go catch the little mice, and he'll catch the big ones. (Cue the baby kangaroo).

This is actually an improvement over some of his other phone greetings.  As a teenager, I would race to the phone whenever it rang, terrified that a friend would hear my dad answer the phone with a greeting such as "Buckingham Palace" or "1400 Pennsylvania Avenue" or "Committee for Public Safety; Robespierre speaking".  (I'm not making these up.)

Anyway, my dad and I first had a good baseball chat.  Note: my dad is a bit on the deaf side from: a) genetics (lucky me); b) years of listening to records loudly on headphones; and c) that time he owned a pig barn (pigs squeal rather loudly).

I commented on how the Jays' pitcher, Aaron Sanchez, has bulked up quite a bit during the off-season.  My Dad asked "who?" and I repeated "SANCHEZ!" and he replied "What? Seinfeld?"

Yes Dad, Jerry Seinfeld has bulked up quite a bit during the offseason.  He's ready to cheer on those Mets!  I started laughing so hard.

Finally, after spelling out S-A-N-C-H-E-Z, we were on the same page and pondered if this bulk up might mean he's trying to shift over to a starting pitcher.

Our conversation shifted to Jeopardy! and the recent news they are no longer accepting Canadian applicants (there goes my dream; at least I auditioned once, right?).

"THAT'S A BLOODY OUTRAGE!!!" was my Dad's response to this topic.  My Dad is a rather laid-back guy.  Hearing him worked up about something is actually quite amusing.

Anyway, he surmised that this could mean war, and that we should sent only our strongest nerds over to correct this.  Or, to just have a Canadian version of Jeopardy! as well as a Canada-only hockey league.

And, the biggest surprise of this long phone conversation with my Dad is that it actually bled into sacred Jeopardy time and he even missed out on a category on Stephen King, which I'm sure he could have run as he's read pretty much everything by Stephen King.

Need to Catch Up

This weekend I have not a lot planned and I'm super happy about it.

I need to catch up on housework, laundry, a little bit (but not too much) schoolwork, podcasts, reading, and exercising.  Okay, wow, now that sounds like a lot.

Oh and I need to catch up on blogs.  It's been an age since I left a comment on anyone's blog.

The next two weeks at school are going to be insane because there's an event coming up.  I need to enjoy this weekend of respite, but get some stuff done too.

Another year older.

Oh man, so I've made another revolution around the Sun!  Can you believe it??

Some years I want to hide away on my birthday and do nothing.  I feel like I'm older, nothing has changed, and it's no cause for celebration.  I can get mopey.

After a mope-tastic birthday last year, I said NO MORE and had a great day, nay, WEEKEND this year.  Four dinners, some cross-stitching, beers, laughs, bad movies, treat-yo-self, Blue Jays themed attire and more to ring in another year of me.

I feel ready for my next revolution and I have wonderful people traveling with me.

Great Day!!!

1) Someone (an adult) annoyed me at work.  Went to the gym and mentioned to my trainer.  He said "why don't we try boxing?"  I did and it was so much fun!  Most fun I've had working out.  Ever.

2) My dear friend Alex scored me tickets for Beyonce!!!! So excited.

What to write about?

I used to be able to blog more easily that I can now.  Here I'm sitting at the end of a pretty dull weekend and I can't think of a thing to really write about.  Ugh.  I'll do it later.

Woo-hoo!

It's a new semester and I'm really happy that my classroom is free during my prep period.  It means that I can spread out/set-up in here without bothering anyone and relax.  (I have prep period first, and I'm ready to go, hence I'm blogging.)

I had a pretty chill weekend.  I watched Straight Outta Compton which was OK.  It was revisionist history, from everything I've read about N.W.A., but I still found it interesting overall.  I tend to really enjoy music biopics.  It takes me back to the music appreciation course I took for fun in university.  (Fun and credit, mind you.)

I went to the Raptors game on Saturday night and it turned out to be one of those exceptional evenings that you could not predict its awesomeness.  My friend Elaine and I bought these tickets waaaaay back in the summer, and I tell you, we couldn't have chosen a better night!

My first small happy moment was ordering a Coke Zero (although I've mostly given that carcinogenic brew up) in a Raptors souvenir cup.  I have one of these cups from my first ever Raptors game, and I use it all of the time, so I figured it was time for an upgrade.  The first snack booth was out of them and only had Leafs cups left, but after hunting around we found one.  Woo-hoo!

We had nosebleed seats which I'm accustomed to from my Jays games, but basketball is definitely more pricey.  Anyhow, I was checking out who was sitting courtside, and from up where I was sitting one dude (shaved head, beard, work boots) looked like Drake and I said to my friend Elaine "hey!  I think that Drake's here!" and she said no, it wasn't Drake.  Then I texted my friend Elisa, who was also at the game but had better seats, and she made fun of me for thinking Drake was there.

About 30 minutes later, they put Drake up on the scoreboard and I had fun gloating!

During half-time, my friend Elisa texted me.  A co-worker of hers has seasons tickets down in the 100s, and the seasons tickets holders who sit behind her weren't there.  Since Elisa already had good seats, she texted me to see if I wanted a free upgrade.  Woo-hoo!  My Drake-watching (oh and basketball-watching) was so much better from down there.

The Raptors ended up winning against the Detroit Pistons 111 - 107 which was amazing because it was their record-breaking 11th win in a row.  I will point out, because I have to, that the 2015 Jays had TWO 11-game win streaks, but anyway.  Yah.  (I miss baseball.)  And, because the Raptors scored more than 100 points, we could all use our tickets to get free pizza at Pizza Pizza the next day.

Souvenir cup, Drake sighting, amazing seat upgrade, 11th win in a row, and free pizza!  That's a pretty good Saturday night!  I can only hope that Drake had as much fun as I did.

p.s. The Woo-Hoo! title of this post expresses mainly my joy that my classroom is free right now.

Weekend, exam week, etc.

I headed to Stratford for a chill weekend.  It was a friend's baby shower, so I figured why not go, but I only made it a mini-trip (left on Saturday morning and came back Sunday night).  I didn't do a whole lot when I was there, other than go shopping for a present, and then go to the actual shower.

We are now finished first semester, and it's exam week.  I am chugging through the marking.  I now have six sets of term work left to deal with and two sets of final exams.  I'm feeling like that is getting under control, but then there is the fact I have to get ready for another semester.

Tonight I get a break when I go to Pitch Talks.  Woo-hoo!

Also, it's really dreary today.  Man, I could use sunshine.

That is all.