WOW, sorry I have been a terrible Blog-ess and have not updated for a few...months?? crap. So much has happened in the past few months, and I think I got caught up in the crazy storm that was spring, (and now summer) So let's recap...
February: My dear friend Rebecca from Jacob's Pillow decides to move to Toronto in the warm, inviting month of February. There is lots of snow and excitement ahead. I discover wearing a tux at the theater everyday is lame compared to the t-shirt and jeans that was our old uniform, and learn every word to the songs from The Secret Garden Musical. Rebecca joins me as an usher at the theatre and we run around with Winter's on the Wing" stuck in our heads 24/7 in our flattering penguin suits.
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| Febrawrrary |
March: I tell my landlord I am moving out March 31, and Rebecca and I begin the search for a new pad. Our wish list includes: laundry on site, running water, cool/funky/artsy 'hood, apartment with character, good light, and, a pool. My search for a design job proves fruitful and I land a job with a tiny design firm doing alcohol promotions and laying out captive insurance(?) magazines. Mid-March we are heading towards homeless and I start having a slight panic attack. Looking out on the homeless horizon, I have also started working my new job full-time during the day, whilst finishing Secret Garden at my other full-time job at night. Add a couple of freelance projects plus packing an entire apartment onto that and I felt free and happy as a bird. Yep. Anywho, we did manage to find the perfect apartment, and, as far as the wish list goes, we got the running water, laundry on site, an awesome neighborhood, a cool house, and a free indoor pool 1 block away. Add onto that some great neighbors below and our own bathrooms. Stellar. However, it is still winter, and cold. I begin to wonder where spring is, though I figure maybe up here in tha north spring comes in April...
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| Moving in! |
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| Our awesome neighbors! |
April: Nope, it's still winter. Sometime mid-month it snows. My body is very confused and I have never longed for warmer temperatures so much in my life. We move into the new place with the great* help of some Russian idiots. Rebecca does most of the work in return for a delicious* cup of Tim Horton's Coffee. In the end our stuff gets transported and as far as I can tell nothing was stolen?
*denotes sarcasm
Also mid-month we begin working Calendar Girls at the theatre. Still in tuxes. A few shows in we all long for The Secret Garden, as at least in that play there was music and authentic Yorkshire accents and a cast that didn't whine every time someone opened a door (not joking). We realize it's going to be a looong run. Luckily at this point I am down to part-time at the theatre, so I only had to watch the show 24 times instead of 48. A week after we move in, we are visited by two friends from the Pillow and Toronto hosts their Spring Thaw, a 3-day contra dance event with, well, lots of contra dancing!
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| Isabelle and Rebecca enjoying Kensington Market on a sunny Saturday |
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| Toronto Spring Thaw Contra! |
A few weeks later Rebecca and I throw a housewarming/birthday party to christen the house and celebrate my making it to 23. Being the awesomely cool people we are, we decided to host a theme party, and the chosen theme for this party was...Dead Celebrities! Rebecca (classy as always) was transformed as Liz Taylor, while I (not quite so class-ily) dressed up as Gary Coleman. Other notable guests included Jesus, Tupac, Aaliyah, and Lindsay Lohan's career. Fun times were had by all.
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self-explanatory |
May: Finally, finally, it begins to warm up - as in, it has stopped snowing. I knew the Canadian winter would be cold, but I thought people were exaggerating when they said winter is 6 months...apparently they weren't. We settle into our new place and I love exploring my neighborhood. We also discover the man who lives next door that our landlord described as "odd" is actually "legit bonkers" (albeit a pretty nice guy). He entertains us by screaming his cats names, screaming at squirrels, screaming at other neighbors, and creating interesting displays of objects in the driveway...
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| Crazy neighbor sock display? |
Crazy neighbor corners me one night and tries to convince me to buy a bike off of him for $20. This wasn't a complete bike at the time, just the frame and some random tires (no, I'm not sure where he gets all the bike parts - but I wasn't going to ask questions...). I was wary at first, but after some nagging I visit the shed where he hoards bike parts and car parts and probably dead bodies, I figure he must have enough stuff in there to actually build this bike. I give in and also decide that $20 isn't a huge risk if he doesn't come through, and he probably really needs this $20 to feed his cats: CLEOPATRAAA, PACKAAAGE, & PEAANUT BUTTERRR.
A few weeks go by and $20 more later, I have a complete, working bike! With a basket! And a bell! And reflectors! I am stoked. With a little push from the roomie who is already hooked on biking, I take to the streets of Toronto on my little lavender 80s-tastic "Bicycle Formerly Known as Prince." I start slowly, going to the store and back, then to the theatre and back, and finally the 5 miles across Queen Street to my other job. I surprise myself and get totally hooked on biking as well.
Then, after six long weeks, Calendar Girls ends much to the staff's relief and we get a break from carting walkers all over the place and humoring old people.
June: Rebecca and I escape for a weekend trip to Montreal to see her beau in his natural environment and for me to take my first tour of the city. After a lovely weekend wandering around a cemetery and eating delicious poutine ("poo-tin" if you insist on being French about it), I fly from Montreal to good ol' Myrtle Beach for a week away with the parents and my good friend Sarah. The weather is perfect and we eat lots of ice cream and the smoked meat I was able to smuggle over from Montreal (sooo goood). After relaxing at the beach I was able to spend a couple of days in Greenville, catching up with my (now pregnant!!) sisters and some good old friends. Though I love Toronto it was really hard to see the people I love so briefly before returning to the hustle and bustle that is real life...
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| Looking over Montreal from Mont Royal |
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| Sarah ma and I on da beach |
When I got back to TO I worked at the theatre for a few days, for a quick run of a comedy troupe called Women Fully Clothed. It was a group of 4 women, one from old SNL, one from Whose Line Is It Anyway, and a couple other grads of Second City. I really liked their sketches and thoroughly enjoyed the show - if you have a chance to see them you should! However, the best part of the show was definitely seeing Martin Short and Eugene Levy! They must have been friends of the cast, and came to the show one night. Luckily I had to monitor the lounge where they met with the cast after the show and got to hang around creepily while they schmoozed. Good times.
Whew...and now, onto July...
July started out with a bang, and so far the rest of the month has flown by in a sea of my travel-ing and hosting travel-ers.
For the first weekend in July, I was determined to go to Ottawa for my first Canada Day experience and luckily everything came together to go on July 1st. I really wanted to get the full Canadian-patriotism-experience (and catch sight of the Prince and Princess, after all...).
I arrived Thursday night and woke up early on Friday the 1st to figure out what was going on in downtown Ottawa. I really had no idea as to where to go or what to do or how the Duke and Duchess would make their way downtown, but armed with a bagel from the famed Kettlemen's bagels and the best iced coffee I have ever had in my life, I followed the sea of red and white until I reached Parliament Hill. It was about 10am at this point, and I moseyed along until I found a stage where I assumed the Noon Show would take place. The crowd to be thinner than I expected, and while I couldn't see the stage behind the people already gathered, I figured I should at least find a screen so I could watch the festivities that way. When I arrived a band was marching around some open grass in front of the Parliament buildings, and I think there was a changing of the guard somewhere in there...
...Anywho soon after I arrived the music stopped and people began folding up their chairs and started pushing against the barrier, and I asked around to see what was going on. Apparently they were getting ready for a mad dash to the main stage. This was very exciting news (though I may have been slightly scared that I would get trampled if people didn't look down to see the little person running in front of them...).
Now, I'm not sure why people wanted to arrive before 7am to stake out the perfect spot in front of the stage, because in the end it was all about how fast you can run/if you are carting kids with you/how much stuff you have/etc. Luckily for me I was by myself with a little bag on my shoulder, so I sprinted for the stage and was able to land a spot right up front with a perfect view (and a good view of the VIP seats on the stage where Kate and William and Stephen Harper and the like would be sitting to watch the show :) :)
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| Duke and Duchess |
Sooeeeh I did watch the show that featured a large variety of Canadian artists, from folk dancers to circus people to a quartet to French rappers etc etc...buuut I probably did spend 90% of the time staring at the Duke and Duchess. As a bonus Prince William gave a speech!
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| Speech! |
After the show I met up with a coworker who is from Ottawa, and tagged along with her to a BBQ outside the city. On the way we grabbed "Beaver Tails", a traditional Ottawa-ian food that is kind of like a funnel cake shaped into a flat oval. I tried the "Killaoe Sunrise" Beaver Tail, basically fried dough covered in cinnamon/sugar/lemon/deliciousness. Highly recommend.
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| mmm Beaver Tail! |
The rest of the afternoon flew by at the BBQ, chatting, drinking, and playing Rock Band until it was time to head back downtown to watch fireworks. The fireworks were lovely and served as a perfect ending to a perfect day. Saturday I ventured downtown again in attempt to see the city sans 500,000 extra people. I wandered around Parliament Hill again where they were striking the Canada Day stages, so the area was still covered with trucks and stage equipment and the like. Later I visited National Gallery of Canada and the Byward Market before catching a bus back to Toronto.
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| downtown Ottawa - soo many people |
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| Light and smoke in the sky... |
In the days that followed I prepped for my parents' arrival the next weekend. They actually came to visit me! Tre exciting. Technically this was not their first trip to Toronto, but after 20+ years they were basically seeing the city again for the first time. They stayed for 3 short days in which we managed to walk the entire city, wine, dine, and a find a giant inflatable beaver.
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| Beaver Fever |
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| Ma and pa enjoying gelato in the Distillery District |
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| Dad & I in Dundas Square |
It was a bit surreal to have them visit, as Toronto seems so far removed from anything really familiar to me. It seems really far away and separate from "home", so it was strange to have the two "worlds" meet if you will. The weekend flew by and I had to say bye to my parents, who I probably won't see again until Chrima. However I didn't have long to be sad, as my sister and her entire team of in-laws (mother, father and two brothers) arrived 4 days later for their first trip to Toronto. Again, it was strange to have bits of South Carolina in Toronto, but it was really good to spend time with my sister and her husband and I think they enjoyed visiting the city. I had a blast with them at the Blue Jays game as they played the Yankees. Highlights of the game included drinking beer, eating hot dogs and seeing Derek Jeter (because I've actually heard of him). Other highlights included seeing three separate people jump the barriers to run across the field and the Jays winning 7-1 (I think?).
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| Ab, John & I after the Jays vs. Yankees game |
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| Out on Lake Ontario |
Sooo, if you're still with me - you WIN! You have defeated Voldemort, become the Lord of the Rings, etc (yes reading my blog is just as epic - what are you talking about?) It only took me like, two weeks to write this, anyway....
So there you have it, and hopefully I will keep you updated on all the exciting* news to come more regularly
Love,
ME
*levels of exciting may vary
