It's been flipping cold here in Toronto, which sucks, since Sunday and Monday were so nice and balmy. The we got this deep freeze Wednesday and ever since then its all gone downhill.
Here's me before I put my coat on (a huge ass orange Columbia winter jacket) to go outside to go to school. Note the scarf, thick sweater, winter hat, and hood. What you cant see is my tank top and t shirt I have on! Ahhh!
Its warming tomorrow, which can only mean one thing. We're getting snow dumped on us.
Awesome.
I went to Lush today to get more bath stuff. Here's, well, the fruits of my labour, I guess.
I love their products. Almost all Vegan, and biodegradable. Love.
My friend Allison and I went on a little Danforth adventure of sorts tonight. We met at The Big Carrot (natural/organic foods store by my house) then traveled down to a new burrito place that opened up across the street from my apartment. It's called The Mexican Burrito. Its no Chipotle, but since I can't find decent Mexican ANYWHERE in Toronto, this place will work. Bonus points for being less than a minutes walk. And they have hot sauce. And the sweet hand written note on my burrito? Gracias. Allison spent most of her youth in Texas so she gets it. No other Canadian does.
It's been so balmy and mild here in Toronto the past few days. We've had two January thaws, it seems, and that makes me quite happy. Winter can just not show up this year; fine with me :)
This was taken tonight at a park by my house. I was doing errands and brought my camera along. In the summer by that park an ice cream truck usually parks and the area is swarming with couples and families and pigeons and musicians. i love it.
Having finished my Victims and Criminal Process paper early this morning, this is what I spent the rest of my day doing. :D
I had so many leftover M&Ms from the holidays, so I made cookies today. I hate, hate, hate baking.
Tonight was my best friend's dad's birthday. For dinner, we all went out to The Sultan's Tent, where there is belly dancing and they seat you in tents and its all intimate and awesome. The food was absolutely to die for, as were the desserts. We all really enjoyed ourselves, and it was great spending time with my "adopted Canadian family".
Happy 60th birthday Chuck! I hope that this year brings you so much happiness and light and love.
I got my absentee ballot in the mail yesterday from the Cook Coounty Electoral office.
I think its pretty easy to guess who I voted for ;) *fangirlswoon*
The damn thing was so confusing though - its like, this picture story of how to vote, then instructions in English and Spanish and some Chinese dialect, and the just of it is to take a writing utensil and draw a line in between a < and a --- next to the name of the candidate you want. So eventually, this becomes an arrow: <-------. A glorified connect the dots, if you will.
However they leave out one minor detail... what kind of writing utensil to use. Pencil, pen, sharpie, marker, etc. In the picture, it looked like a pencil, so that's what I used. But seriously people!
I also was a tard and requested a Democratic ballot, when I totally meant to get a non-partisan one. Oh well. I need to remember for November, I guess. I opened it up and was all WHERE THE GREEN PARTY CANDIDATES? oh yeah.
This was the picture I took for yesterday, but after I came home from school/Maryellen's I couldn't bring myself to post it and wanted to pay tribute to Snowflurrie instead.
This is downtown Toronto, at Yonge and Dundas Square. It's right by my university. They've been reconstructing this area for a few years now and its almost complete. I don't like the urban jungle/Times Square feel they are trying to achieve with it. I'm so sick of Toronto trying to be so hard to be New York City, when in reality, its like Chicago.
Snowflurrie
1992-2008
My mom said this afternoon he tried to hairball, and the tumour had gotten so big that he was struggling to get it up and out. He started to choke. My mom held him and she calmed him down, and spent the next few hours trying to decide whether or not to put him down. She finally called my grandpa, him to the vet. I'm sure he cried out the entire time. His meows were always especially loud because he was deaf.
We always thought he'd live forever because he couldn't hear, and was so chill about everything. Instead he got cancer and had to fucking die.
I can't do two deaths of two good friends in one year. I have Phoenix in my lap right now and every time I look at him I get a fresh wave of tears cuz I know I'll be absolutely inconsolable when he goes.
I'm going to be selfish and say its not fair. Yes, I recognize there's worse things going on in the world, but I don't see why a sweet, deaf, awesome kitty couldn't have lived the long life he was expected to and had to suffocate to death instead.
Phoenix was parading around on my desk. He hates flashes, so I attacked, hoping he'd jump off.
Nope.
The sun poked its head out in Toronto for the first time in about two weeks today. When I opened up my eyes this morning I freaked out when I saw the sun in the reflection of the building across the street from my bedroom, and blue skies. Considering I was quite hungover, it kinda hurt! hahahaha
I snapped this a few minutes later. This is the solarium I have in the back of my house. It's usually cleaner, but its full of boxes and such right now from Christmas and stuff. They will be gone on recycle day this week. This room fits two or three people comfortably and whenever I have parties anyone who smokes gets sent out here. My cat likes to sun himself of the edge during the day.
More from my shower. I have a windowsill in the actual shower stall, which makes for much prettiness when its actually sunny out. If you can't tell, I love Lush and Philosophy products.
Fun in the shower. With the water off, of course.
This morning on my way to school I decided to see what it would look like if I used the over exposed setting on my camera and combined it with a night shot setting. The result was making the street car (which was stopped) look like it was moving. Yay. This is the street car I take every morning on my way to school, since I hate the subway, especially having to change subways at Yonge and Bloor. I take the Broadview street car, get a lovely, uncrowded view of Toronto on my way in, and it drops me off steps from the social work building. Goal. Most street cars are red. This one was advertising the musical Dirty Dancing, which is playing in Toronto right now. I love in your face advertisements. You should see the iPod cars.
Today was spent doing groceries and cooking a lot. I made adzuki bean stew for my lunchtime adzuki wraps (with avacados and mixed greens and sunflower seed dressing - homemade), spinach walnut pesto as a sauce for some pasta I'll make later on this week, and tonight, I'll be making a miso noodle soup.
Yum :)
Out of all the shots I took today, when I came home from class at 5 pm I found Phoenix sleeping in my kitchen sink, so I snapped one of him. You can see some of my makeup brushes oh the side; I wash them once a week to keep them clean and bacteria free, haha.
My little baby boo :)
The Naked Ape fundraiser/my teacher's birthday was tonight at the Toronto Botanical Gardens. The fundraiser was for the David Suzuki Foundation, and Suzuki himself was a keynote speaker. Tara McLean, Chris Murphy and a whole host of other people performed. It was so incredibly awesome and inspiring and I got to see a lot of my yoga sangha. I was filled with a lot of joy and peace and happiness by the time we left - or maybe it was the wine ;)
This is my best friend Josh, who went with me as my arm candy. He enjoyed himself immensely, and that of course, made me really happy too.
Life is awesome, what can I say?
This is a picture of part of the wall/window of the solarium in the back of my apartment, in what I like to call the "chill out room". Its pretty small and fits two people not so comfortably (one chair, so one person gets the papsan and one person will be on the floor, or on the deck thingie). My cat loves it in there. During the day its awesome and the light filters through the concord grape vines we have growing outside of it. I was in there this evening taking pics of the stuff in there and trying to figure out what I liked. I liked and uploaded three for today, but this one wins out. Simplest of them all, and I dunno. It just has a look to it I like.
Tonight my friend AJ came over for a girls night of movies and wine and sushi. Phoenix kept us company and cuddled with her all night long.
My view from the 6th floor of the Centre for Studies in Community Health on this dreary, windy, rainy day in Toronto. Can you spot Homer Simpson?
This is to proclaim to the world I sold a lot of my makeup today. Spring cleaning came a littl early this year :)
So classes began again today. Good stuff. This semester proves to be promising.
I snapped this picture on my way home from class, since I was getting sick of taking pics in my apartment. This proves I actually do get out of the house once in awhile, eh? :P This was taken in my friend Kendra's car. Kendra is an amazing woman I have had the privilege of knowing and calling a close friend since 2004. She told me what the boxing glove meant (more than fists pumping, thats for sure) but that was a few hours ago and my senile mind has forgotten, lol. She was driving me home from class; we took a family violence class this semester together. We were in the Staples parking lot, cuz she needed to get school supplies, hahaha. Very good times, always.
Sooo tired. Bedtime!
I wrote out my weekly grocery list today. I love love love how this picture turned out. Click on it and you can get the bigger, more cool looking versions.
Free dinner to who tells me what word I spelled wrong, hahahahaha.
Because what else is there to do when you're sick? Snuggle, blow your nose, and act like a zombie while doped up on Sudafed.
Blargh.
Today was a day spent grocery shopping, doing laundry, and catching up with people. I spent most of the afternoon in my kitchen, making daal and tabouleh. I love soup during the winter, and during these months I try to keep my house bright and cheery so as not to let the cold get to me. The vase and flowers came from Ikea. They sit in a little window on the wall separating the kitchen to my living room. I love this fixture. I also love my kitchen, and spend lots of my days cooking in there :)
Here is Phoenix gearing up for his first plane ride, which took place at 6 am this morning on my way en route back to Toronto.
Poor kitty was soooo drugged. Yet still would not. shut. up.
Oh well, everyone loved him. I had never felt so proud :)
Lets see if this sticks or not.
Packing always sucked. That is what today has consisted of. And listening to copious amounts of music from the soundtrack to The Namesake.
