Excessively Reasonable

This past weekend totally did not disappoint.

I think I mentioned in my last post that I was heading up to a friends cottage for the weekend and I was ridiculously excited.  I'm so glad that excitement was justified.  Between the surprise early birthday celebration (which involved some drunken pinata games...totally the best idea ever!) and me and that man I mentioned in my last post making things a little more concrete, the weekend just didn't go on long enough.

So yeah, the new guy (I'm going to call him R).  I don't know what else to say other then I think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread.  I'm having an awesome time getting to know him and I'm totally enjoying myself around him.  Everything we do turns into this little mini adventure and the little kid in me is finally getting this constant attention and it's made me realized how totally neglected it's been over the last few years.  I've spent so much time thinking about the big pictures in my life that I've forgotten how to enjoy each little moment.  So I've totally taken a different approach in my head and it's definately made me more relaxed when it comes to dating again.  Plus it helps that he has no issues SHOWING me how crazy he is about me, and well, it makes me feel pretty damn good about myself.  If there's one major lesson I've learned over the last year is actions totally speak louder then words.

We're going out again tomorrow night and it'll probably be the last time I'm able to see him till June because I'm away which kinda sucks but it'll be nice to keep that pace slow.  I don't want to screw things up by going too fast and then panacking and bailing.  I've done that before and the train wreck is not pretty.  Not only that, but just when I thought He had fallen off the face of the earth for real this time, He sends me a text message this morning asking how I'm doing.  I swear He has some sort of sick twisted radar that can detect when I'm with another guy.  It really drives me crazy and it always brings up those old feelings of betrayal (although not nearly as bad this time as last) that I do NOT want to transfer onto R. 

I'm not going to lie though, as nice as it is to be with someone long term I'm totally enjoying this whole "new" feeling.  Honestly, I feel fantastic!

Wow, I'm not even joking how little time I've spent at home.  I've just managed to make it home in time to sleep every night, but holy have I ever packed a ridiculous amount into my day.

Because I've been dying to post, I'm just going to do a quick one from work.  Here's the rundown of the last couple of weeks:

• My french classes are fantastic.  The teacher is great and I'm really enjoying myself.  It's amazing too what I still remember!
• There were some major changes at work...but I feel they are for the better.  Still was pretty difficult and disappointing at times.
• The group I volunteer with is really turning into this second family I didn't expect to have.  To be honest I'm a little sad that with the summer things will be winding down.  September is going to be pretty exciting!
• There is possibly a man slowly creeping into my life.  Nothing official, so please don't start calling me like crazy (this includes my mother).  When I know what's going on, believe me, everyone will know.  All I know is it's been awesome having someone around to DO STUFF with rather then just sit around and talk about it.  Worst case scenario here, I've made a pretty fantastic friend so I feel like I'm in a win-win situation with this one.
• I will be up north at a friends cottage all weekend which I'm totally excited about.  (So excited that time has stopped moving here at work!)  There's nothing better then going away for a weekend with a group of friend who are fighting over who gets to cook what.  I have no problem washing dishes considering the feast I'm about to consume.  That and we're bringing a blender...and there will be bellini's.  And screwdrivers for breakfast. And Rock Band fed through a projector.  Time PLEASE go faster.
• I am so not looking forward to a course I'm taking the last week of May.  I kind of want to pull out, but with my luck I'd miss out on something awesome next year.  At least this year it's sandwiched between fun.

So yeah, that's the story of my life this May in a nutshell.  I hope I get a chance to post more often for the rest of the month!

At least not as crazy as this:

For everyone who's tried to convince me that I should get a third cat, this video is exactly why not.  I'm not going to lie though, punishment by cuddling is an awesome techinique.  There's nothing more satisfying then interrupting your feline friend in the middle of thier distructive behaviour and give them all kinds of unwanted attention.  It truely pisses them off and I don't have to throw them across the room.  Especially when I find over $50 worth of eyeshadow smashed all over my bathroom floor.

Just for fun, here's a recent pic of my babies:

New York 128

New month, new look for my blog.

May is sort of the month I consider summer to start in.  Considering that I only have one weekend in May (which happens to be the upcoming one) that I'm actually in the city for, I'm very glad there's a lot more daylight after work so I can enjoy the city during the week. 

I'm feeling pretty optimistic about the summer.  Even more so then I felt at New Years.  I'm not sure why, but I really think good things are going to happen to me.  Hell, good things are, but I think there's going to be even more.  I'm almost half way through the year and I think the biggest difference between this year so far and last is quantity of laughter.  I'm definitely laughing more, and not just a chuckle here or there.  We're talking about tears streaming down my face kind of funny.  The kind of funny that'll creep up on you out of nowhere and you burst out laughing at akward times and can't explain why you're laughing because it's so out of context.

I am enjoying my life.  Isn't it terrible that the first time I said that out loud I felt guilty?  Not anymore!  I feel damn good and it's nice not to feel like it's a temporary thing either.  Things are good and they're going to stay good. 

I can feel it.

For the last few months I've been going through this phase of what do I REALLY want to do with my life.  You know, if you took every last influence out of the equation, what would you really want to do in your lifetime?  I know there's that book out there that already lists 101 things to do before you die, but quite frankly, half the things on that list don't move me at all (like getting arrested) and I'd like to finish my list WAY before I die.

So far I have 74 things over the past 2 days.  It's really hard to distinguish between those things that would be pretty cool to try to those things I would really regret not doing over my lifetime.  Some of these things are pretty silly, but I'm dead serious when I say I need to do them all.  I know some of these are also kind of vague, I'm working on making them a little more specific so it'll be easier to tell whether I've achieved it or not.  I'm going to list what I have so far, please let me know if I'm missing something that you think I'd really want to do.

1. Horseback ride bareback (no saddle)
2. Get my G license
3. Get my M license
4. Get my pilots license
5. Be proficient at speaking French
6. Go skydiving
7. Visit Ankor Wat
8. Bike to Niagara from Toronto
9. Eat 90% locally
10. Have a bodyfat percentage of 21%
11. Go tubing (as in being dragged behind a boat in an inner tube)
12. Run a band tattoo for the GTA
13. Get promoted to Lieutenant
14. Become a director at work
15. Be on a competitive dragon boat racing team
16. Go scuba diving in Australia (great barrier reef)
17. Go caving in Jamaica
18. See all 10 Canadian provinces
19. See all 3 Canadian territories
20. Buy a float plane
21. Buy a waterfront cottage
22. Own a condo with a view
23. Swim with dolphins
24. Visit every continent
25. Be comfortable as a musician
26. Ride the top 10 rollercoasters
27. Go up in a hot air balloon
28. Fly in a fighter jet
29. Stay in the best suite in a 5-star hotel
30. Experience weightlessness
31. Get a martini named after me
32. See a tiger in the wild
33. Fly first class
34. Read the all-time greatest books
35. Watch the all-time greatest movies
36. Get a rib tattoo
37. Build my own house/buy my perfect dream house
38. Go skinny dipping
39. Conquor my fear of spiders
40. Get married
41. Have children
42. Go on an 'all around the world' cruise
43. Hike to the top of the big mountain in Gros Morne national park
44. Sing in a band
45. Learn latin dancing
46. See all the modern wonders of the world
47. Wear contacts
48. Become debt free
49. Minimize the contents of my apartment to zen-like proportions
50. Learn how to dive
51. Paint a picture good enough to hang on the wall
52. Sing in an open mic night with an original composition
53. Be able to do 5 one-armed pushups on each hand
54. Go to an all day spa retreat
55. Finish scrapbooking the BFVB
56. Scrapbook all major travels
57. Grow & eat my own vegetables
58. Participate in a food fight
59. Dance like a fool and not care who's looking
60. Got flowers sent to me at work
61. Go parasailing
62. Visit a Miq'mak reserve
63. See an opera at the Sydney opera house
64. Go on an African safari
65. Hike/bike all of Toronto's discovery trails
66. Visit Oma's family tomb (once we find it that is...)
67. Make a music video
68. Ride in a police cruiser or on a fire truck
69. Participate in the Great Tomato Fight in eastern Spain
70. Take a makeup artist class
71. Learn how to style my own hair
72. Learn some mad bartending skills
73. Learn how to meditate
74. Make my own sushi from scratch

Thankfully the TTC went back to work before Monday morning.  As miserable as it was to depend on everyone to drive me around so I could be everywhere I promised to be, there was one good thing.

Yesterday my parents dropped me off at home after I spent the afternoon at their place.  Apparently when I come over and the weather is nice, it gives the whole family an excuse to go out for ice cream.  Not that I'm complaining, but shortly after I was dropped off, I just needed to get out of my apartment and work some of that ice cream off.  Too much means no sleep for me.  Since the TTC was JUST getting back onto the roads, I really couldn't go anywhere too far downtown so I decided to go for a short walk around the neighbourhood.

That "short" walk turned into a 3 hour tour of forest hill and casa loma.  I had a bit on my mind concerning my love life and I wanted to transcribe a song so walking and listening to my iPod is the best way to multitask in this situation I think.  Obviously there was a lot of work to be done!

Anyway, I finished up my walk with my usual view behind casa loma, but instead of taking my usual route home I decided to switch things up a bit.  I ended up smack in the middle of George Brown which surprised me because I had NO IDEA I was that close to a college.  Seriously, I could throw a stone from my balcony and hit the school.  I know it's called the casa loma campus, but I didn't think it was physically NEXT to casa loma.  C'mon...that would make sense.

So here I am right next to a college...the gears in the my head start to turn and I remember all the things I said I wanted to learn.  10 minutes later I'm back home googling up the question I had in my head and sure enough they teach that class at that campus.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially registered to start learning French next Wednesday.  I think it's time to start scratching a few more things off my To-Do list.

I have been through a lot of strikes in my lifetime.  Mostly through the teachers union while I was in high school and it sucked.  Then there was the previous 2 TTC strikes.

Now I've usually been pretty supportive of the TTC.  It's my only real long distance form of transportation in the city and I rely on it to maintain my independence.  It's a terribly underfunded system that is full of men and women who really keep this city moving.  For the last 2 1/2 years my work involves me dealing with 300+ people from the general public every day.  Since I started that job I loved the TTC even more because I truly began to appreciate how difficult it can be sometimes to deal with randoms all day.

As of midnight last night, dear TTC union leaders, you totally broke my heart and lost my undying support.  I was completely stranded at Bloor and Spadina SURPRISED and in awe at the carnage you left behind.  Fortunately I was with a friend who decided not to drink that much and brought his car.  Gees, I'm sure there wasn't a cab to be found.  Especially those who were in the clubs till closing and had no idea what was going on outside.  Dear TTC union leaders, do you realize how many people I'm sure decided that the only way to get home last night was to drive home drunk?  Yeah, I swear, if there were any accidents due to drunk driving last night, that blood should be on your hands.  The excuse of protecting the safety of your transit workers I'm sure could have been bumped back till at least 4am.  Nobody would have known the difference...we didn't even see the midnight strike coming!

Anyway, getting to what the strike is all about.  Here is what was posted on the TTC website as to what was turned down:

Term:                 three years, expiring March 31, 2011
Wages:                April 1, 2008 - 3%; April 1, 2009 - 3%;
                      April 1, 2010 - 3%
Vision Care:         $300 every 2 years; plus $50 for exams
Dental Care:          major restorative, including implants up to $2,500
Orthodontic:          up to $4,000 (50% TTC coverage)
Physio & Chiro:       $1,000 max ($35 per visit)
Long-term Disability: $2,550 max, per month

OK first of all...I don't even get vision care AT ALL.  And physio and chiro?  Yeah...I'm looking at $250 max.  So you're telling me that not only do I still have to pay for my own medical expenses when it runs out WAY before yours does, but I'll also be paying a hell of a lot more for my metropass (because this obviously means a fare hike eventually) in order to fund your fantasyland coverage.  Nice.

The real clincher is obviously the maintenance workers and their fear of thier work being contracted out so there will be less need for them.  Here's the TTC's response:

The TTC's new buses, much like new automobiles, come with warranties. There has been discussion in the media that the TTC was attempting to contract out repairs to buses under warranty in an attempt to reduce jobs at the TTC. That is not true. The facts are this: the manufacturer is responsible for certain repairs to buses that are under warranty. TTC employees currently do a substantial amount of warranty work that is charged back to the bus manufacturer.

My thing is, I get that you're trying to demand job security.  I really do get it.  The thing is, job security is a myth in this day and age.  There's no such thing.  That's something my father's generation talked about but the world is moving too fast and things change.  That's just the way it is.  Working in HR, I'm sure 20 years ago showing stability on your resume meant that you were with a company for 20+ years.  Now if you've been there for over 2 years that's pretty amazing.  This topic seems to be the hottest issue and it makes me so angry.  The way I interpret this at least, is the union is asking the city or Toronto (aka taxpayers) to take the brunt of the cost to buy them job security meanwhile the very taxpayers themselves don't have that luxury and never will.  If I'm going to put my money somewhere to guarentee job security, then I want that money to go to my own livelihood. 

You're playing with public funds and there's not a lot of it.  I think the unions have the city by the balls because we're so dependant on the system, but by throwing a tantrum like they did last night, they are alienating their VERY loyal customers that have supported them through this.  The whole you treat me like crap so I'm going to treat you like crap excuse for walking out immediately was a terrible idea and I'm already thinking of other ways to get around the city on a more permanent basis.  The unions want more, but realistically there's no more to give.  I choose "the better way" because for me it's cheaper.  But if this continues, and the fares keep getting hiked, then another cheaper mode of transportation will imerge and I can promise you that I will be the first to jump ship.  Especially if I factor in the money I will save if I choose not to live next to a subway station.

*** On a side note...although it's obviously I'm very bitter about this I do NOT agree with harassing the transit workers.  I can only imagine how badly they're dreading their first day back to work. I feel pretty bad for them.  Looks like this situation is lose lose for everyone.

I've had time to process everything and although I still feel like I'm at a wall when it comes to what I'm going to be doing with my life musically, I definately feel like my life still has some direction.  A lot of really good things happened over the last month that I should probably take as a major hint that Toronto is still the place I should be calling home.

I just did 4 days of some SERIOUS fundraising and am dead tired, so here's a quick update on my life over the last week or so:

• I got a raise at work which is such a relief since this whole independant woman in the city thing can really be expensive.
• I rescheduled my that sushi dinner with Him and unless the restaurant doesn't get back to us about our reservation times, we'll be going out tomorrow.  I really need to talk to Him in person since I'm concidering him for the percussion instructor position within my band.
• Rock band is by far the best video game ever created.
• I've realized that there are so many people in my life that I always see and hang out with but still really don't know.  I think it's time to change that.
• It's amazing how awesome you feel when all your hard work is actually recognized.
• I am VERY relieved that there won't be a TTC strike tomorrow.
• I hope all this nice weather and sunshine keeps up all the way till the fall.  I haven't felt this great in months!'

So I got an e-mail from Cirque yesterday.

Looks like I don't have enough "recent experience" so they will not be seeing me for an audition.

I need time to digest this.  I'm obviously disappointed, but need to mull over what direction to take now.

It's 8:13 on a Saturday morning and I've already been out of bed for 2 hours.  Either I've found the secret to adding time into your life or I'm really crazy.

So I ventured off to the St. Lawrence Farmer's Market this morning.  It opens at 5am but the first subway doesn't run till 6:15 so I used that as an excuse to sleep in a bit.  The thing about farmer's markets is that put on display what they have and sell till they run out.  So if you want the good stuff, you need to get there early!  Being there for 7am though was pretty good timing since it looked like some of the booths were just finishing getting all set up. 

I think I could get used to this and totally justifying getting up that early on a Saturday morning.  Plus, now that I've had breakfast, I'm totally going back to bed.  Gees, too bad all grocery shopping was that much fun.  You know what though?  It's amazing what happens when you take away the shopping carts and the too-tall eisles...people actually TALK to each other!  You know what else is amazing?  There were no million year long lineup's to get to the cash!  Avoiding that alone is worth getting up before the sun.

I have no idea what I'm doing yet so I decided to just get one of everything.  My goal through all of this is to quit this whole meal planning thing I'm on and just buy what my body tells me I need.  Then I go home and "throw" it together.  No pre-planned recipe, just some creativity.  So far so good.  I just had the most incredable omelet of my entire life.  The flavours are SO MUCH BETTER but what I can't get over is how damn good the sheep's milk feta I got.  Seriously, I don't think I can eat another restaurant greek salad without thinking about how bland the feta is.  Not only that, but there's some pretty cool vegetables out there.  One of the ladies at a vegetable booth let me sample the difference between white and orange carrots.  I didn't even know there were white carrots, but man am I glad I found out!  White carrots are definately a winner.  Next week I'm totally going to try the golden beets, didn't know those existed either.  Gees, and the Loblaws near my place actually has the balls to call themselves a "market"...HA! 

So now I have bags full of root vegetables (since that's pretty much what's in season right now), some tasty apples and pears, free range eggs and a bottle of sheep's milk.  I'm allowing myself to finish off what I have in stock in my kitchen since all that food shouldn't go to waste either, so I still have plenty of "old" options, but as time goes by, things should get more and more interesting!