C'mon, hit me, I can take it!

Well, I've gone on at length and ad nausea about topics of various sorts, but in particular the odd things that I see on a day to day basis (see my many transit and steam room rants). Well, now - before everyone fights back - I'll give everyone the opportunity to chronicle all the weird things that they have seen ME do on a day to day basis.

Now you don't have to list them all, just a few to give our readers all over the world an idea of how the world sees my exploits.

Just leave your 'chronicles' in the comment field for everyone to see & read.

Have fun everybody:)

The Cool AGE:)

Za?

Every so often, one encounters an event that forces that person to say, “Well, this is a new one” (That Seinfeld episode with the girl who is living with the ‘dude’). Well, that such an event happened this morning on the subway ride to work. So I’m sitting there in a seat, a seat that was picked at random where there was enough personal space for me and those surrounding me, when I look across to the other side of subway car in my ritual morning people scan (always looking for material for this blog – fortunately, or unfortunately, sometimes I find it) and there is this guy talking to himself. Nothing wrong with that right, well not yet, otherwise you would’ve clicked to another blog by now. But this guy, old guy, goatee, hood, most likely homeless & smelly, is talking the dirty talk to himself. Well, not really; upon further inspection, he’s talking the dirty talk to a girl, well a lot of girls, well, girls in a skin magazine! Flipping through quickly, he finished it, put it away (the magazine, he’s not that dirty), and pulled out another one, and continued to flip through, did I mention we were on the subway?

So, as I said, every so often, you get one of those “Well, this is a new one” moments. I guess you need to balance them out with the Quality of Life moments that are so required.

Such as the Quality of Life moment I mentioned in my post yesterday about going to Il Posto restaurant for St. Valentine’s Day. Chianti, Merlot, grilled calamari, lobster pasta & rack of lamb, polished off with a yummy chocolate torte & tiramisu cake. What was odd about this place was not the décor, nor the food – pretty standard city menu, but it was the way people interacted with each other. When Mary & I were out on Saturday (see previous post - Valentine's Cinnabon), we were the only one’s laughing and actually enjoying each other’s company while the others were just there as a guise using the dinner as pay off for what would happen later that evening (one paying for dinner, the other enduring the payer's ugly goblin like mug as company). It was quite a show, well, lack there of I guess you could say. Whereas last night everyone was talking to each other, laughing and actually engaging their partner/date. There was this one couple who must’ve been well into their 50’s and they were caressing each other’s hands like they had just started going out last month and are still in the throes of infatuation. It was really great to see.

Odd, maybe this city just brings about the best, the worst, and sometimes, even seldomly, the very “new” in people.

The Cool AGE:)

Valentine's Cinnabons

4:30 am on Saturday morning and the building fire alarm starts going off. Under normal circumstances, this 15-minute break in my sleep wouldn’t have been so bad, it being the weekend I can wake up whenever. But naturally this time a wrench had to be thrown in the works; I had to wake up earlier than usual to go pick up the car I had reserved for Saturday’s outing.

So I get back to sleep, and at 9:15 am, I am awoken by a telemarketer asking if I would like to subscribe to a local paper. You wouldn’t think that a paper with the largest circulation in Canada, as well as Toronto, would be able to lay off calling people this early in the morning.

I get out of bed a ½ hour later as more sleep is not forthcoming, argh.

Go grab the car, pick up Mary & we head for the supermarket to get our fill of shopping since we have a car and can get the heavier and bulkier items that aren’t possible when using transit.

Then back home to put away the shopping and get ready for dinner at The Prince of Wales Inn at the Escabeche Restaurant, in the heart of Niagara on the Lake, a ½ hour from Niagara Falls. It’s a pretty little town with not much around, but what is there is very pretty. We got some fresh fudge there last year and it was soooo good.

The décor was incredible, we were seated next to the window looking out onto the street. Soon we were greeted by the Inn’s sommelier who would have been able to help us if need be to choose an appropriate wine for the evening. We went with a local Chardonnay. The bread boy brought the bread and even described the type of breads that were served. Mary & I chose our meals and continued our Valentine’s Day celebration that began with the opera on Thursday. I can’t remember the exact menu that we had, but it included scallops, goat cheesecake, rabbit & wild boar. Mmmm so good. We skipped dessert, assuming that the local coffee shop, Shaw Café, down the street would still be open. Sadly no, it was closed, so we headed for home in anticipation of what excitement Sunday would bring.

Turns out, Sunday brought Cinnabons and the sun. Those filling cinnamon rolls filled us up enough so we could go do some shopping as I was in desperate need of pants.

And here I am today, waiting for the workday to end so Mary & I can go to Il Posto to celebrate Valentine’s Day proper. We’ve never been there before, so hopefully it’s good. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

The Cool AGE:)

Bohemian Professore

So I get in to work on Tuesday to find an urgent message to contact a former professor of mine during my tenure at York University where I did my undergraduate degree. Turns out, he has taken very ill and would like me to lecture his class for the evening. Woa, so cool, never done this before. All he had to do was fax me the lecture slides and I could read them and expand on them how I liked. The course was Budget and the Federal Government, or something to that avail.

So I get to class, and everyone finds it odd that someone other than their usual is sitting at the front of the class. I explain the situation, my background and answer all their questions about government and getting jobs in the government. And then, on to the wonderful world of government budget systems!

Well, since I was just reading the slides, it was pretty easy to breeze through, and give some insight when necessary. Unfortunately, I was not able to come full circle on some ideas or relate many of the principles to everyone’s daily life (a great way to teach I think), although, I did get to quote the Simpson’s so that was awesome.

Then last night, Thursday, Mary & I headed off to see the Canadian Opera Company’s production of La Bohème. Fantastic. Great singers, awesome sets (very intricate), and just a good time overall. All except a grouping of 6 or 8 ladies who thought that everyone has seen this all before and thus talking during the show was accepted. Losers, I guess money can’t buy class. They all had this weird smell too. Their husbands were nowhere in sight, I guess they were with their mistresses. So the guys miss out on wonderful opera, have to pay for the wife’s ticket, and cheat on his wife too while paying for that too. No wonder men have traditionally made more money than women. Look at all the things they have to pay for. They need to earn enough keep 2 women. Man, that’s a complicated lifestyle. But now I’m just releasing my anger on some ladies who had no class, so I guess I should stop my nonsense, I had fun anyway.

The Cool AGE:)

Off we go, into the wild Blue Mountains!!

This past Saturday, I was at Blue Mountain Ski resort with Mary, Simon, Brandi & Luca having a grand ol time skiing. Wow, it's been a while, but well worth getting up at 5:30 a.m. to start skiing around 9:45 a.m.!! Yikes:( Anyways, a good time was had by all. I've still got it, I haven't forgotten how to ski, but I'm still very timid when it comes to going on the higher runs, maybe someday I'll graduate to the bigger slopes.

Either way, I was way overdressed as the snow was melting away quickly in the afternoon as it was such a sunny day and there were so many people there, due to that fact. No pics though, didn't bring the camera:(

Click in tomorrow as I regale you with tales of my first experience lecturing a 3rd year university class!!

The Cool AGE:)

The Good, The Bad, and now The...Odd??

Well, I’ve told you about the good, I’ve told you about the bad, and now, time to tell you about the odd.

Last night, after running into Mary & her friend Josie hanging out in the Eaton’s Centre (Toronto’s big mall), as we were standing around discussing things of great and little importance, out in our peripheral field of view walks in a group of 4. Now this was no ‘fab four’ to say the least. One of them, a girl had a collar on; nothing odd about that, it’s been fashionable for quite some time now. The odd thing is that attached to the collar was a chain leash.

The weirdest part is that Mary & I have seen these characters before. Only the last time, one of the guys was wearing the collar and leash.

So, that’s my story, no judgement today, no article, no philosophying, just reporting on some of the things that I see.

Oh yes, the magic number is still 7.

The Cool AGE:)

Computer trouble??

So there I am on the streetcar. So what that I woke up late, in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter, there are people who are much, much worse off. I still got to work at a very reasonable hour, only 7&1/2 minutes late, gees; I hope I’m not reprimanded.

Anyway, so there I am minding my own business, because as you may know I have much business to mind…what?? And on walk a man and a woman dressed in garb that hasn’t been worn since the paper press was invented. Well, they looked like pilgrims, not sure where they were going, and I’m not sure they were either because at the last stop, the lady lets everyone off ahead of her, and she was standing. For those that have no clue what I’m talking about, this point can be added to my transit etiquette blog.
Rule: If you are standing, you have precedence to proceed ahead of the person who is sitting next to you. Just helps the general flow of things. So instead, she let every one else off first. Well, just an odd start to my morning.

And then it continued.

As I’m waiting for the subway (le tram) there’s this guy who looks like he’s dancing, just bouncing up and down, and grinning as if it’s Christmas morning and he’s getting his personal field toggled. He’s looking down the tunnel, and when the lights from the subway show up on the wall, he looks at me (why me I’ll never know, I guess I just have one of those faces) and he says “Man it’s cold down here” “Oh I know” I reply in a low voice hoping that he understands that I’m not old enough to talk to strangers who are grinning the way he’s grinning, of course, I don’t think I’m old enough to say toggle:)

So then I go get on the subway car at a different door than he is using, but he ends up not being quick enough to find a seat, as neither am I, great more sense of connection, and he continues to grin as he's standing right next to me. He’s grinning at everything; people, advertisements, the litter that’s been thrown on the floor. As he was getting off the subway, he almost seems thankful that the entire experience took place. I hope he was going to go for some ice cream soon, as I thin that would be the only thing that could top that kind of a feeling.

So that was my morning, I just wanted to let you know about it. Or at least have some sort of record that it happened.

The Cool AGE:)

Correlation or Annoyance

I don’t have a cell phone. I don’t need one, don’t want one, when I had one (parents got it for me for Christmas one year) my life did not improve by any means of measurement: life expectancy, Gross Personal Product (just made that one up) etc. So why is it that I see so many people participating in an activity that does not increase their capacity to participate in a capitalistic society.

How often are people calling you that they can’t wait to be called until you return home? How many people do you know? Now how many of these people would you actually want to talk to if they called??

Now I know many of the people reading this blog (that’s presumptuous of me – let me have my illusions) have a cell phone. You are not the people I’m talking about. I’m referring to a small segment of the population (although seems to be growing exponentially) who have more pressing issues to deal with (again presumptuous, this statement is based on my own moral system) than choosing between prepaid or monthly!

I just find that in this Ipod driven society, (and by no means would I think so highly of myself to think that I’m the first person to bring this up) I don’t see many of the “possessions” people have as implements to improve their quality of life. If anything, these possessions promote, or help people forget about how to acknowledge their quality of life.

Hmm, is this blog improving my quality of life? Well if it isn’t (that’s a topic for another day), at least it’s not costing me anything (well I hope it hasn’t cost me my dignity – see In Living Colour episode with Homey the Clown w flour, egg and ice cream incident, ahh good laughs).

The Cool AGE:)